Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Business

  • Don’t Eat Chocolate from Ivory Coast!

    I can’t believe I forgot to blog about this important story. Last February, Christian Parenti broke a great story about the exploitative nature of the chocolate industry.

    The big cocoa exporters – Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM, Fortune 500), Barry Callebaut and Saf-Cacao – do not own plantations and do not directly employ child workers. Instead, they buy beans from Ivorian middlemen called pisteurs and treton. These middlemen own warehouses and fleets of flatbed trucks that travel deep into the jungle to buy cocoa from the small independent farmers who grow most of the crop. But labor and human rights activists charge that Big Chocolate has an obligation to improve working conditions on the farms where so many children toil. They argue that the exporters and manufacturers bear ultimate responsibility for conditions on the farms because they exert considerable control over world cocoa markets, essentially setting what is called the farm gate price.

    …

    Tulane recently released its first report, and though the tone is polite, the picture isn’t pretty. Researchers found that while industry and governments in West Africa have made initial steps, such as establishing task forces on child labor, conditions on the ground remain bad: Children still work in cocoa production, regularly miss school, perform dangerous tasks and suffer injury and sickness. The report criticized the governments of Ivory Coast and Ghana for lack of transparency. And it said the industry’s certification process "contains no standards."

    In some respects the situation only got worse after Harkin-Engel. From 2002 to 2004, Ivory Coast was gripped by civil war. As militias and renegade soldiers killed and raped their way across the lush interior, income from cocoa exports helped fuel the fighting. Like diamonds and timber, cocoa became a so-called conflict resource. "Blood chocolate" was providing fast cash for armed groups and creating misery for common people. Since 2004, Ivory Coast has settled into an armed peace, with French and UN troops keeping the warring factions apart. But chocolate exporters and manufacturers say the war and its aftermath have hampered their efforts to eradicate child labor.

    The industry’s two main trade groups, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the National Confectioners Association, say tens of millions of dollars have been spent on building a socially responsible cocoa sector across West Africa. But the Tulane report criticizes the industry for not providing specifics to back up those assertions. And on the ground there is little evidence anyone is paying much attention. "What protocol?" asks Ali Lakiss, the director general of Saf-Cacao, the largest cocoa exporter in Ivory Coast, which controls about 20 percent of the trade. "The farmers don’t get the best price. If the cocoa price is good, then kids go to school. No money, and kids work at home."

     

    Democracy Now had a dialogue about chocolate exploitation in Ivory Coast after the  the Fortune article. Parenti adds:

    You can’t hide behind the fact that they’re small family farmers. You completely control—the industry controls the market in Cote d’Ivoire. No one can sell without going through one of the large corporations that are members of the international chocolate organizations. And if you really wanted to improve conditions for farmers, there would be an agreement to raise prices by ten or twenty percent, and what that would mean would be that large firms like Cargill and ADM and those who buy from them, like Hershey and Nestle, would have to pay more money and would make less profits. It’s that simple.

    And they don’t want to do that, because they’re in the business of making money. They’re not in the business of developing Cote d’Ivoire and keeping children out of poverty. That is fundamentally not what they’re about. And it’s very simple, what could happen. They could agree to regulations of their industry that would translate into price controls for farmers, and they don’t want to do that. And so, they will do everything except that, because what they are about is fundamentally making as much money as they possibly can off of the people of Cote d’Ivoire. And if that forces independent farmers to take their children out of school, as happened again and again, and exploit them and work them, so be it.

     

    …

    The fact of the matter is, 40 percent of world cocoa is produced in Cote d’Ivoire. The international cocoa firms control the ports, they control the market there. It would not be hard at all to have higher prices. In fact, until 1991—I mean, until 1999, there was a structure for ensuring minimum prices for farmers, and US firms lobbied hard to eliminate that. And due to a debt crisis, that was eliminated. And since then, prices have gone through the floor.

    Now, whatever the price in London is is one thing. What matters to the farmers in Cote d’Ivoire is what the price is at San Pedro, or, more to the point, what the farm gate price is. And unless you guys make an effort to pay higher prices, that’s not going to happen. And we have to be realistic: they don’t want that to happen. And that’s why—

    … there needs to be some accountability. You can’t just consistently say, oh, we partner with these NGOs, we partner with these NGOs. What NGOs? The only NGO that your one—the International Cocoa Initiative’s single employee in Ivory Coast would send me to was Mesad, an orphanage, where the head of the orphanage said only a handful of children from the cocoa sector had been there. This is hardly an education program for farmers. This is hardly some sort of social welfare program. I mean, there’s nothing that you can point to, but yet you continually just roll out these claims that you’re partnering with this group, you’re partnering with that group. And usually you don’t even mention the groups.

    (Here are links to other Parenti articles).

    In June, 2008, the World Cocoa  Federation released its updated report about labor conditions in Ivory Coast. (The Press release is here . The actual PDF report on Ivory Coast chocolate production  is here. Some conclusions:

    • Cocoa production is the main economic activity in three-quarters (78%) of the villages surveyed
    • 53% of villages have no electricity. Just 15% of households have electricity;
    • there is limited access to potable water; only 40% of villages have access. 8% have no source of potable water;
    • Access to education is limited: 9% of villages do not have a primary school, with the nearest school an average distance of 3 km away. No village has a secondary school, with the nearest located at least 10 km away.
    • Most of the farmers surveyed own small plantations (94%), with the average size of plots varying from one to three hectares. Labour essentially comes from within the family, confirming trends seen in national agriculture surveys conducted in 1974 and 2001. The average number of children per household is six; however, 35% of households have between 6 and 10 children. In these family businesses, children usually play a role.
    • 89% of children work in cocoa production. Fewer than 2% of children who work in cocoa production are not members of the household. This confirms the predominance of family labour in the production of cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire.
    • many children are involved in dangerous work. 53% are involved in carrying heavy loads,  16% are involved in burning. Many children between 6-14 are involved in this kind of work.
    • More than half of heads of households have no formal education (53%). Moreover, 21% have not completed primary school. Barely one-quarter (27%) of men and 7% of women have completed primary education. 63% of children attend school, while 27% had never been to school. 10% have dropped out of school. In a context of relatively low levels of school attendance, more than half of children in school (60%) cannot read while 22% read with difficulty.

    (See also this superficial collection of articles about the issue on Wikipedia).

    Since February, I have pretty much abandoned purchasing anything from Ivory Coast until I see visible results from the Harkin-Engel protocol. The Ivory Coast report prepared by the trade group seems balanced and accurate (let’s thank intrepid reporters like Parenti for being skeptical). Here is a case where the industry is contributing to the problem, but now finds that any kind of certification process is difficult. In the meantime, stores like Whole Foods and even my local HEB offers chocolate from other countries (Guyana, Ghana, etc). I’ve been enjoying Endangered Species chocolate bars (which sell for $2.50 each).

  • How to Buy an Individual Health Insurance Policy in Texas

    Here are some questions you should ask to evaluate an individual health insurance  plan:

    1. Copay: I go to a general doctor, and the bill for the doctor visit (excluding lab work) is  $300. This is my first visit for the year. How much do I have to pay?
    2. Lab work . Is lab work and doctor cost included in the same deductible or are they separated?
    3. Contracted rate vs. actual rate. I go to a general doctor, and he recommends lab work to be done. How can I tell the contracted rate (i.e. the actual amount of this procedure) which the doctor is allowed to bill)? b)If the contracted rate is $500, how does the insurance company figure out what portion of that amount it will cover and the amount I will need to pay?
    4. Prescription Copay: My doctor writes me two prescriptions: a)a generic drug worth $50, and b)a brand name drug costing $200. How much will I need to pay if this is the first prescription in the calendar year?
    5. Prescription Deductible: Is there a separate deductible for prescriptions or are they mixed together?
    6. Coinsurance: I have reached my annual deductible of 5000.  I incurred $6000 of expenses (i.e., office lab work, but not prescriptions).  How much will my health insurance pay of that extra $1000?
    7. Maximum Out-of-Pocket: What is the maximum amount total that I will be expected to pay for one calendar year?
    8. Routine Exams: I want to get a routine physical at my primary physician and it is the only doctor’s visit I have made in the year, what will I need to pay? If a doctor recommends $500 of tests in addition to the cost of the routine office visit (and $500 is the contracted rate for these tests), how much of that amount will be included in the insurer’s coverage of the physical? How much of it will go towards my deductible? Is lab work recommended during the physical reimbursed any differently from lab work recommended during an office visit?
    9. HSA Eligible: Can I use money from my health savings account for this plan? (Read about HSA guidelines here).
    10. Initial exclusions. Suppose a day after the policy begins, I get in a serious illness or become afflicted with a serious illness. Are there any initial restrictions on your company’s obligation to cover me? How long do these restrictions last?
    11. Caps on Chronic Conditions. Suppose I have a chronic condition.  Are there   separate lifetime limits for claims related to  any kinds of chronic conditions?

    More about HSA Eligibility: Ehealthinsurance says a health insurance plan must meet the following criteria to be considered HSA eligible:

    1. The health insurance plan must have an annual deductible of at least $1,100 for individuals and at least $2,200 for families.
    2. The sum of the annual deductible and the other annual out-of-pocket expenses required to be paid under the plan (other than premiums) does not exceed $5,500 for individuals and $11,000 for families.

    The most confusing thing to me is coinsurance. “Coinsurance is the term used by health insurance companies to refer to the amount that you are required to pay for a medical claim, apart from any co-payments or deductible. For example, if your health insurance plan has a 20% coinsurance requirement (and does not have any additional co-payment or deductible requirements), then a $100 medical bill would cost you $20, and the insurance company would pay the remaining $80.” (RJ: That would seem to suggest that coinsurance is bad and the closer to 0%, the better. However, I see that high deductible plans have 0% coinsurance, while small deductible plans have coinsurance minimums (usually 20-30%). What a strange nonintuitive detail!

    Another important thing to keep in mind is which expenses count towards your deductible? In many cases, all lab work and medical tests are to be paid by you until the deductible is finally met. When the doctor participates in a particular network, they sign an agreement to limit the costs of medical tests to the patients (that is called the “contracted rate”). In fact, this agreement is a hidden advantage of health insurance because it helps you avoid paying a higher rate for tests and lab work. The key thing is understanding that most lab work will not be covered by coinsurance, so you will be responsible for all of it until the deductible is met. Also, to be truly cost-conscious, you should go to the insurance provider’s website to find out what “contracted rate” which the doctor has agreed to when they signed up for their provider network.

    Finally, two things are worth mentioning. In 2012, Obamacare expanded its requirements to preventative care which need to be 100% covered by doctors.  That doesn’t mean you will still have to pay for lab work, but it is nothing to sneeze at. Second, on Jan 1, 2014, individual health plans will be forbidden to do underwriting to weed people out and to add special rider to at-risk people. At that date, you are guaranteed to get coverage from wherever you apply for coverage without having to answer a questionnaire (and submit to the prying questions via telephone by a nurse practitioner)

    (more…)

  • Blue Cross Texas: More Lunacies

    Businessman and KPFT radio commentator Leo Gold tells an amazing tale of how Blue Cross Texas rejected his medical coverage (and later found that the Texas health insurance risk pool assigned him to be insured by…the same company!).

    I looked a little deeper at the Pool’s information, and to my surprise I discovered that the fulfillment arm of the Pool – the physician network, treatment management functions, and so forth – was contracted to an outside company, and lo and behold, that company is Blue Cross. The relationship between the Pool and Blue Cross is so intertwined that Blue Cross representatives regularly attend and participate in the Pool’s Board of Directors meetings. I’m not saying there’s anything illegal about this, but let’s consider the ironies: a Republican legislature, inveterately and philosophically opposed to government health care, writes legislation that allows insurance companies to exclude applicants who simply have a therapist, thereby ensuring that there will be a need for a government health insurance pool; and that government health insurance pool, because it does not have the resources to offer all elements of a health plan to its participants must contract with the very entity whose refusal of coverage resulted in the need for the pool in the first place. It’s no wonder that we Americans spend 15% of our GDP on health care, with all the inefficient bureaucracies, public and private, designed to pass people from entity to entity like hot potatoes.

    I had a similarly bad experience with Blue Cross Texas two years ago. When I signed up, I made a similar mistake of being honest. I mentioned to the Blue Cross interviewer that my doctor offhandedly mentioned that I should have a freckle checked by a doctor. Blue Cross Texas turned me down for coverage…all because of a freckle! You see, Blue Cross Texas expected me to (pay to)  visit a dermatologist who would look at my freckle and perhaps remove it. Listen, I’ve had this thing since the time I was a teenager.  If Blue Cross Texas were willing to pay for me to visit a dermatologist, I might have consented, but the real problem is that the system penalizes honest disclosures.  This suggests the need for a system which does not depend on prescreening individuals.

    Gold was using a psychotherapist for various reasons, and now Blue Cross is providing a perverse incentive not to seek alternative help unless sanctioned by Blue Cross itself.  That is an example of how health care privatization is removing choices–by forcing disclosures!

    The question becomes: what restrictions should an individual agree to simply to receive discounts on medical care? Should the individual:

    • agree never to receive alternative care from an agency unless Blue Cross were notified?
    • promise to disclose every kind of visit that he has made to a health provider?
    • agree to disclose every kind of medicine he has ever taken?
    • promise to tell all future providers about any past care he has received?
    • have no choice but to visit health providers who promise to share medical records with the the health insurance provider?

    Obviously Leo Gold is a healthy person and able to afford coverage (and so am I). But what about  people  like Esmin Green or Belinda Bach who couldn’t possibly  afford coverage? A company like Blue Cross Texas would easily and gleefully ignore them while at the same time issuing press release about its latest profitability. This is what we call "the American Way."

  • Perils of Mandatory Arbitration

    I am currently embroiled in a minor dispute about HSBC credit card. They treated me shabbily and then continued to assess fees. And I continue to protest and am willing to bring it to small claims or mandatory arbitration. I am a stubborn SOB when I am in the right.

    Here’s a news-breaking article in Business Week by Robert Berner and Brian Grow about mandatory arbitration. Highlights:

    • National Arbitration Forum is reponsible for the overwhelming majority of cases (Citibank, Discover, Chase), etc.
    • In addition to NAF clauses being included in credit card contracts, they are also included in home contracts and (soon apparently) health insurance forms.
    • here is a fee collection schedule set by the NAF(PDF). It’s both outrageous and hilarious.
    • according to the article, creditors win their cases 99.8% of the time.
    • the reporters found a Power Point used in sales presentations bragging to bank clients a “marked increase in recovery rates over existing collection methods.” Another quote:

      • A current NAF arbitrator speaking on condition of anonymity explains that the presentation reflects the firm’s effort to attract companies, or “claimants,” by pointing out that they can use delays and dismissals to manipulate arbitration cases. “It allows the [creditor] to file an action even if they are not prepared,” the arbitrator says. “There doesn’t have to be much due diligence put into the complaint. If there is no response [from the debtor], you’re golden. If you get a problematic [debtor], then you can request a stay or dismissal.” When some creditors fear an arbitrator isn’t sympathetic, they drop the case and refile it, hoping to get one they like better, the arbitrator says.

      The firm goes out of its way to tell creditors they probably won’t have to tussle with debtors in arbitration. The September, 2007, NAF presentation informs companies that in cases in which an award or order is granted, 93.7% are decided without consumers ever responding. Only 0.3% of consumers ask for a hearing; 6% participate by mail.

    • here’s another article by the same reporters.
    • here’s an mp3 by the same reporters talking about how they prepared the article.
    • see also these interviews with debt/credit experts on 2004 PBS Frontline episode, “The Secret History of the Credit Card”. I recommend Elizabeth Warren’s interview especially.

    I have a feeling that reporting on this credit card dispute will start to be a regular feature on this blog. For the record. I’ve had two other cases in my life where I’ve disputed bank cards/wrongful debt.

    The first was in 2002 when I was out of work and Citibank offered me a debt payment plan, and then withdrew it or changed their terms or I never quite figured it out. I requested numerous times in writing for Citibank to send the original legal agreement and the terms of the repayment plan, which they refused to do. Eventually I gave up, mainly because I was  not in good shape financially but also because I had no way of confirming any statement or interpretation made by a customer rep made over the telephone. I took good notes, but so what? Lesson learned: communicate only in writing.

    The second time was in 2006 when outrageously enough AT&T refused to provide telephone service and Internet service because of a theft of identity issue. I had to pay the criminals’ debt and then “prove” that I was not responsible  in order to receive the refund. AT&T was the only telephone provider in the neighborhood and had the ability to prevent me from having Internet access, so I had to pay, like it or not. Eventually AT&T conceded their error, but only after 6 months of my complaining.

    So I am ready for my next dispute. HSBC essentially sent me a form letter today denying my complaint. (The facts of the case are simple: I paid off a credit card in full in late March and wrote them asking to cancel the account. I received a written confirmation of this from an HSBC rep, but apparently the company has continued to assess fees and fees for the fees and fees for the fees for the fees….)

    For those at HSBC reading this, let the record show that I am still waiting on them to provide a copy of the legal agreement. And I am ready to fight!

  • My Strange Campaign (Tips for Losing Weight)

    Started June 13. Goal is Jan 1, 2009=200.  That’s about a pound to lose every 7 days. I expect to get to 210 without major effort, but under that will be tough going. Google, curse you for archiving this for eternity! For those random surfers, this refers to the weight naked on my bathroom scale at 7 AM in the morning (before eating).  See also the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s guide to controlling your weight). See this BMI calculator and how to measure the waist-to-hip ratio See also my musings about the real cause of weight gain.  Here’s CDC statistics on the percentage of obesity by state and here is a listing of median BMIs by age and gender. Webmd  (a health/nutrition site where MDs review all content)has good articles about exercising to keep lean and dieting the smart way. From an article about Flab Over  40,  “your metabolism tends to decelerate by about 5% for every decade of life past age 40, so that if your resting metabolic rate is, say, 1,200 calories per day at age 40, it will be around 1,140 at age 50. At age 40 to maintain your weight, that is to not gain weight, you’re going to have to eat 100 calories less a day, and that has nothing to do with anything other than the natural course of aging.” From the same article:

    Muscle is far more “metabolically active” than fat, meaning that lean, more muscular people have an easier time burning calories at rest than to people with higher proportions of body fat. “Let’s say I’ve worked out at the gym and I have a new pound on board, or, for that matter, I take an old muscle mass on me that’s untrained and now I train it and preserve that pound. That muscle mass may now burn between 35 to 50 calories extra a day, versus the same pound of fat, which would burn anywhere from 5-10 calories a day.

    Here’s something fun: a description of height-weight ratios with photos from real people! See this diet blog. See also this list of exercise do’s and don’t for losing weight.

    I recommend this book about the psychology of successful weight losers. Thin for Life: 10 Keys to Success by Anne M. Fletcher. Instead of focusing on nutrition, she focuses on lifestyle and motivation (which is the hardest part). This is the best book I’ve found so far.

    I’m not an eat-all-the-bacon-you-want Atkins devotee. But the science piece by Gary Taubes about low carbohydrate diet seemed very convincing. (His piece was attacked by critics, but Taubes responded adequately).  Here’s a one hour video by  Gary Taubes which goes over everything more methodically (highly recommended). Here’s the money quote: “The amount of fat consumed has been steadily climbing, as has consumption of all calories. Individual caloric consumption jumped from 3,300 calories per day in 1970-79 to 3,900 in 1997, an 18 percent increase. Per-person consumption of fat grams increased from 149 to 156, a 4.5 percent increase.”

    See this June 2009 study suggesting that being  slightly overweight (i.e., BMI between 25-29) might confer health advantages over being average or slightly underweight.

    See this August cover story by John Cloud about why exercise may not reduce weight as well as once thought because it can increase appetite. Mike Howard writes a detailed response to the Time article, saying  that

    In the meta-analyses (compilation of studies) regarding exercise and weight loss, exercise typically has a “modest” effect on weight loss. Again, it’s not going to do much in the absence of dietary change. On studies that have a diet only, exercise only, and exercise plus diet groups, the exercise plus diet groups (with scant exception) come out on top when it comes to weight/fat loss. Diet only, almost always beats out exercise only…. One very well conducted 12 week study by Kramer et. al., which included both aerobic, strength training, and a dietary control, showed the following results. Fat mass losses – diet only: 6.7kg, diet/cardio: 7kg, diet/cardio/resistance: 10kg. Most noteworthy – the D+C+R group lost almost no lean tissue whatsoever, whereas the diet only group lost almost 3kg worth of lean tissue.

    Mike Howard writes another response about how to avoid binging after exercise and ranks the importance of various strategies: 1. Diet, 2.Strength training 3. Higher intensity cardio training, 4.  Lower intensity cardio training and 5. NEAT and other day-to-day movement (i.e. walking). Gretchen Reynolds summarizes exercise vs. diet research in April 2010. Although the evidence doesn’t suggest firm conclusions,  the link between exercise and weight maintenance seems a little stronger.

    Lately, I’ve started wearing a pedometer. Here’s some advice about daily walking. From an advice site:

    The recommended number of steps is 6000 for health, 10,000 for weight loss when you count all steps during the day. For weight loss, an uninterrupted walk each day of 4000-6000 steps is recommended.

    I’ve been looking into the concepts of glycemic index and glycemic load as it relates to weight loss. Here’s a list of glycemic loads for most food and a recent analysis suggesting that a low glycemic load diet may only result in weight loss for people with certain insulin patterns. (More about the study).

    Here’s a fascinating study suggesting that exercising before breakfast tends to help with weight reduction:

    “Only the group that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight and showed no signs of insulin resistance. They also burned the fat they were taking in more efficiently. “Our current data,” the study’s authors wrote, “indicate that exercise training in the fasted state is more effective than exercise in the carbohydrate-fed state to stimulate glucose tolerance despite a hypercaloric high-fat diet.”

    Just how exercising before breakfast blunts the deleterious effects of overindulging is not completely understood, although this study points toward several intriguing explanations. For one, as has been known for some time, exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates. When you burn fat, you obviously don’t store it in your muscles. In “our study, only the fasted group demonstrated beneficial metabolic adaptations, which eventually may enhance oxidative fatty acid turnover,” said Peter Hespel, Ph.D., a professor in the Research Center for Exercise and Health at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and senior author of the study.

    At the same time, the fasting group showed increased levels of a muscle protein that “is responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose transport in muscle and thus plays a pivotal role in regulation of insulin sensitivity,” Dr Hespel said.

    In other words, working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.

    Here’s some interesting research about green tea and weight loss: The antioxidant catechin in green tea raises resting metabolism by 4% (that’s about 80 calories per day). Yet another reason to drink that green tea!

    May 2012 Update. Here is a java-based weight loss simulator. It helps you estimate the daily calorie targets and more importantly the targets when trying to maintain the weight. It takes a while to load, but it’s full-featured. Here’s an interview with the mathematician who created this simulator. He states:

    …the conventional wisdom of 3,500 calories less is what it takes to lose a pound of weight is wrong. The body changes as you lose. Interestingly, we also found that the fatter you get, the easier it is to gain weight. An extra 10 calories a day puts more weight onto an obese person than on a thinner one.

    Also, there’s a time constant that’s an important factor in weight loss. That’s because if you reduce your caloric intake, after a while, your body reaches equilibrium. It actually takes about three years for a dieter to reach their new “steady state.” Our model predicts that if you eat 100 calories fewer a day, in three years you will, on average, lose 10 pounds — if you don’t cheat.

    Another finding: Huge variations in your daily food intake will not cause variations in weight, as long as your average food intake over a year is about the same. This is because a person’s body will respond slowly to the food intake.

    June 13, 2008: 220 pounds (100 Kilograms). 29.8 BMI (This was my starting point).

    Jan 1, 2009 goal: 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms); Actual Weight: 202 (See my post about how I tried to meet this goal).

    July 1, 2009 goal: 190 pounds  (86 kilograms); Actual Weight: 202 (91.8 kilograms)

    Jan 1, 2010 goal: 195 pounds (88.4) kilograms. Actual Weight: 210 (95.2 kilograms)

    July 1, 2010 goal: Having a hard ceiling of 205 pounds. (A hard ceiling is a number I will never go over, even during the normal fluctuations of weight. To achieve this, my normal weight would need to be 202-3. Actual Weight: 215.5 (97.7  kilograms)

    Jan 1, 2011 goal. 205 pounds (with a hard ceiling of 210). Actual Weight: 224 (102.1 kg) 30.4 bmi.

    July 1, 2011 goal. 205 pounds (with a hard ceiling of 210). Actual Weight:

    Jan 1, 2013 goal 220 pounds (with a hard ceiling of 212).

    Change in BMI (I’m 6′ 0″”). June 2008: 29.8, January 1, 2009 (target: 27.1; actual= ), July 1 2009 (target: 25.8, actual=)

    • Just a test
    • Oct 29, 2012. 229 (For the record, these last 2 weeks I have been weighing myself with minor increases and decreases, but only got around to posting things now).
    • Oct 11, 2012 229. (For the record, if the number is the same, I will not normally add it here).
    • Oct 6, 2012 230. I will start measuring again regularly. Time to improve that BMI!
    • May 15 2012. I am guessing that I am 220-225. I have not been able to focus on weight and exercise, but now is probably a time to resume this. I won’t weigh myself as conscientiously as before, but frankly this is a good time to begin again.
    • Wed June 29 2011 222. After a weekend of overeating, I have settled on a regular exercise schedule. (finally!)
    • Wed June 22 223. (6100 steps) Started exercising again. Horray!
    • Tue June 21 223. Went off diet over weekend. Watermelon, kind of sick.
    • Fri June 10 222. (8400 steps). Ate grapes, cafeteria lunch.
    • Thur June 9. 220. I calculated that with my new living arrangement, I walk 6400 steps (about 2.8 miles).
    • Wed June 8. 221. I’m actually glad it’s not worse. A lot of things have happened. First, I am working downtown,  with a more regular workschedule. That means taking the bus (and doing a lot more walking!) confronting the temptation of a bottomless candy jar 10 feet away from me, lots of running-around-meals and no time to do formal exercise. My place isn’t even set up for that yet.  I can work down from that, and frankly I’m looking forward to it. I’ve hated being at this weight.
    • Tue Feb 1 218.5. Still unemployed…still losing weight!
    • Wed Jan 19 219.5 The new unemployment diet seems to be working! Life without chocolate seems strange.
    • Fri Dec 23 223
    • Thur Dec 23 222.5
    • Wed Dec 22 223.5
    • Mon Dec 20 225 I’ve stopped eating chocolate. I might resume that once my weight hits a certain target (200? 210? Let’s see how long I can hold out).
    • Thur Dec 16. This has been a period of great stress for me, and weight loss is not something I can concentrate on. I’m focused now on damage control with the hope that I can have a fresh start in 2011.  I won’t be weighing myself for the rest of the year — although I will start doing it regularly in January.
    • Tue Nov 30 227. It could have been worse! (2 thanksgiving dinners this year). Have two gigantic meals on Friday and Saturday, so preparing.
    • Fri Nov 19 226.
    • Thur Nov 18 228. This is very confusing. Aside from peanut butter, my diet hasn’t changed that radically. My exercise has declined to be sure, but not by that much. By the way, the infrequency of measurement does not imply lack of attention to weight. It usually means that my eating or sleeping schedule is erratic and I am not able to give a good/accurate reading.
    • Sat Oct 30 227. This has been a weird 3 weeks, but this is inexcusable.
    • Thur Oct 7 222
    • Mon Oct 4 226.5
    • Sat Oct 2 224
    • Fri Oct 1 222.5
    • Sat Sept 25 224. Not sure what’s going on. (Ate Thai Spice yesterday; sort of an off day).
    • Fri Sept 24 222.5 I expect the first 10 pounds or so will be easier to get off. I have learned how to lose weight and what missteps to avoid.
    • Thur Sept 23 223.
    • Wed Sept 22 223.5
    • Tue Sept 21 224
    • Mon Sept 20 224 I need to explain a lot  of things. I’ve been busy working on a book project that has consumed my time and disrupted my routine. I could not weigh myself in the mornings mainly because I could never come up with a standard time to do it that would be comparable.  (If dinner is delayed and becomes a late night snack, it’s hard to keep track of calories).  After some reflection, I think the causes of my weight gain could be attributable to 1)the schedule-disrupting effect of this work project, 2)the schedule disrupting effect of my dog and 3)eating too much peanut butter.  My diet hasn’t really deteriorated too much; I still eat food of fairly high quality — i just eat more of it…and without really being accountable for the amount.  I spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen, and I graze an awful lot. The good thing about a routine is that you have a sense about how much and how often you should eat.  My dog AJ has gotten me out of doors a lot more, but I end up doing a lot less exercise. The time for AJ collides with the time for exercise in the morning, and I say that as someone who has the luxury of working from home. Perhaps the underlying problem is having an unstructured schedule.  I think it will help to get back into weighing myself every morning.  Finally, the thing about peanut butter is that it’s hard to do portion control for it. (I have a similar problem with chocolate).  I tried to fit peanut butter into my diet in moderate doses, but it’s pretty clear that it won’t work except on rare occasions.
    • Sun July 11 216.  Yesterday found a lot of cheap fruit. Yippee! Talked to a nutritionist about high glycemic loads. Sigh, one more variable to worry about!
    • Fri July 9 216.  Wed I ate a lot of cheese!  Am getting back to working out though.
    • Mon July 6 217.5 Holy moly!
    • Thur July 1 216.  This has been pretty typical.
    • Fri June 11 215. Weighed in a little late in the day.
    • Thur June 10 217.5 I am sorry to report this, but I think that working from home is taking its toll. Not enough activity, too much easy access to food. I bought peanut butter yesterday, and am beginning to conclude that peanut butter + bagel may never be a part of my diet. Shucks!
    • Wed June 9 216. Grapes overdose.
    • Mon June 7 215.5 .Ok, cutting down on the peanut butter!
    • Sun June 6 217.5 surprising, but I’m sure we will be going down for the rest of the week.
    • Sat June 5 217.5 I’m not sure what’s going on. Yes, I ate a bit more than usual (mainly fruits & fresh peanut butter) and even exercised. I expect this to go down quickly but the fact it reached this high is really really scary.
    • Fri Jun 4 215.5
    • Thur June 3 214.5 I knew this would go up a bit, but yesterday was a very good day. I expect trends to go down for the next week.
    • Wed June 2 213. I didn’t deserve this, having slacked off on exercise and diet. However, I am back on track now. Hurrah!
    • Sat May 29 215.5
    • Fri May 28 215.5  Did housesitting at mom’s house for a week. Lots of junk food, no exercise. I’ll be working extra hard to get these off.
    • Fri May 21 212. Interestingly i practically starved myself yesterday (no reason). Before I ate dinner at midnight, I weighed myself (212.5). So after eating a small meal and sleeping 7 hours I am now 212. That’s how much sleeping time burns calories.
    • Thur May 20 213
    • Sun May 16  212.5 I’ll be going up over the next few days, but at last I feel like I’m regaining control over my life.
    • Sat May 15 213.5
    • Fr May 14 214
    • Thur May 13 213. Last week my father died, and so my diet was crazy. I did not work out for almost 2 whole weeks. This week I am getting back to normal. For the rest of the year, my diet will be on a tight leash. If I lose a pound a week, I could get back to 200 in no time. Watch me try.
    • Fri April 30 213.5 I knew a might be a little high (maybe it’s because of my recent splurge in Mexican food and my recent Austin weekend/wiener dog splurge). I’ve identified 2 areas: exceeding the chocolate dosage and pouring too much honey on my oatmeal. Also, on shopping days, I tend to get stuffed on peanut butter. But generally, I  haven’t been eating a lot or big meals. I expect this to go down to 210 in a week, but still this only underscores the collision between perception and reality.
    • Sun April 19 209.5 parents yesterday, shopping. peanut butter, yeah!
    • Sat April 17 209 Over the last few weeks I’m sure my weight has fluctuated, but I’m getting it under control.
    • Fri March 26 210.  This is encouraging news. I haven’t totally improved my diet and lifestyle, but I’m starting to exercise more regularly.
    • Fri Mar 12 211.5 This is hopeful, but I know yesterday I had several big meals. It will bounce back, but I think SXSW will knock a pound or two off me.
    • Wed Mar 10 213 I hope to get under 210 by the end of next week. (I’ll be at sxsw conference)
    • March 1 213.5 I am still not getting onto a normal schedule, but at least I am aware of the enormity of the problem.
    • Thur Feb 25 214.5 I am shocked, but this is a teachable moment. First, in my opinion my diet has not changed all that radically (although occasionally I will eat too much chocolate on one day and eat too much when visiting family). Second, having a dog has disrupted my schedule. It has made it impossible to do the daily exercises although I thought it was being offset by all the dog walks I am taking. Third, my work schedule has been intense lately, and I have disregarded certain things and become a night owl. Fifth, I have actually gone from a 3 meal day to a 2 meal day, so that is why I am surprised at the sudden jump. I can’t really say which is driving my weight up; suffice to say, I will be weighing in a lot more regularly from now on.
    • Thur Feb 4 211.5
    • Wed Jan 20 to Wed Feb 3 I’ve been busy on work deadlines and trying to adjust to living with my new dog. Truthfully, I’ve been ODing on chocolate and my sleep schedule has been upside down; I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
    • Tue Jan 19 210
    • Mon Jan 18 210.5
    • Sat Jun 16 211
    • Tue  Jan 12 211.5. I’m back on schedule. Also, I’ve thoroughly cleaned my living room which gives more room for exercises. I need to mention that the reason I skip days is not that I’ve “played hookey” (although sometimes it’s true). The main reason is that there is something unusual about my eating or waking schedule so that the reading wouldn’t be a fair comparison.
    • Sat Jan 9 213. This is extremely discouraging. I knew there would be a weight increase — just not that much! (I don’t feel enormous!) Last Wednesday was a big festive occasion, but I returned to diet immediately after that. On the bright side, I have done spring cleaning (well, winter cleaning) in my apartment in preparation for my dog. Suddenly the living room is roomier and easier to do daily workouts in. Also, the dog should get me out walking more. (It has been cold all week, and I’ve stayed indoors a lot).
    • Jan 1 2010 ???????? I’m guessing 210. I’ve been unable to weigh myself
    • Fri Dec 18 to Thur Jan 7. Wow, I didn’t weigh myself once!  I’ve had a few unusual and very appetizing few weeks. Lots of parties. Yesterday for example attended Trinity U.’s annual job networking party. Those shrimp with bacon things were divine!
    • Thur Dec 17 208.5 . All right! We’re on a roll! I want to reach 205 by Jan 1!
    • Wed Dec 16 209.5 Settling down to normalcy.
    • Tue Dec 15. 210. This really concerns me. My goal is to hit 205 by New Years.
    • Tue Dec 8 to Mon Dec 14. Took a break. Big party at parents. Weekend of Lost episodes, etc.
    • Mon Dec 7 207.5 This is somewhat low (yesterday I fasted). But it’s notable that I decided to remove beef from my diet.
    • Wed Nov 25 to Sun Dec 6. Thanksgiving + 6 days of the flu. Didn’t weigh myself at all. Ate weird stuff. I wasn’t myself.
    • Tue Nov 24. 211. I knew I had slacked off, but this is surprising. Oh well.
    • Tue Nov 17. 207. Lucky.
    • Fri Nov 13 to Mon Nov 16. 208. Dinner at mom’s house Saturday. General weekend laziness.
    • Thurs Nov 12 208.5. Black-eyed peas plus a ton of oatmeal.
    • Sat Nov 7 to Wed Nov 11. Fluctuates. I think I went down to 207 before rising to 209 again on Wednesday. Curiously, my diet was fairly normal (as was my exercise routine).
    • Fri Nov 6 207.5 Oddly I fell asleep before eating dinner. But I still think the number will be descending anyway.
    • Thur Nov 5 208 Catching up. I’m skipping lunch permanently now.
    • Wed Nov 4 209 inexplicable. Maybe because no exercise?
    • Sun Nov 1-Tue Nov 3. 207. biking 2 hours yesterday.
    • Sat Oct 31. 209.5 This was shocking; o dietary detours.
    • Thur Oct 29 – Fri Oct 30 208.5 Progress is slow but steady.
    • Wed Oct 28 209. Thus begins the descent from the weekend splurge. (I started my contract job yesterday also).
    • Tue Oct 27 209.5. I expect this to plummet over the next few days, but still a  worrisome development.
    • Fri Oct 23 to Mon Oct 26. Weekend party in Dallas. Totally off diet
    • Tue Oct 13 to Thur Oct 22. Fluctuates. Haven’t been good. 207.5
    • Mon Oct 12 207
    • Wed Oct 7 to Sun Oct 11.  207-8 Erratic diet. Quite worrisome. Lots of grapes! steak!
    • Tue Oct 6 207. Lots of exercise today, but ate several tortillas with avocados (which are supposed to be healthy, albeit high in calories).
    • Mon Oct 5 206
    • Sun  Oct 4 207
    • Wed Sept 23 to Sat Oct 3. My diet has not been maintained, especially during my DC trip.  207
    • Tue Sept 22. 206.5
    • Sat Sept 19 to Mon Sept 21. Way off diet (High school reunion!).  Too afraid to weigh myself!
    • Fri Sept 18 206.5
    • Thur Sept 17 207. Frankly I am shocked that the weight hasn’t gone down. I have pretty much reduced calories by at least a third since Sunday.
    • Wed Sept 16 207.5
    • Tue Sept 15 207
    • Mon Sept 14. 206.5 I expect this to go down over the next few days, but I’m still not close to the 200 range anymore.
    • Sun Sept 13. 208. This is shocking. I had strayed from my diet, but not by THAT much. (I was 204 early in the previous week).
    • Tue Sept 1. 203. Frankly I am relieved.
    • Sat Aug 29-Mon Aug 31. 204? Includes my daylong marathon of watching Lost episodes.
    • Fri August 28 205.
    • Mon Aug 10 to Thur Aug 27. 204-5. After one relapse, I’ve been steady at 204-5, unable to get out of that rut. But I’ve started exercising more religiously.
    • Sun Aug 9. Getting caught up. I’ve decided that exercising out of bed is the only way to guarantee I’ll actually do it.
    • Wed Aug 5-8 203-4.  Big meals, general laziness.
    • Tue Aug 4. 202.5 I skipped a meal yesterday (breakfast) with a slightly larger dinner than usual.
    • Thur July 30 to Mon Aug 3. Hi, in the 204-206 range. But on Monday finally I exercised and getting on schedule again!
    • Wed July 29 204.5. Shocking!
    • Mon July 27 203
    • Friday July 24 202.5
    • Thur July 23 202.5
    • Wed July 22. 204. Owww. (This will be going down tomorrow I guarantee).
    • Tue July 21 203.5 Oops.
    • Mon July 20: 203. This was kind of disappointing. Slight overeating at parents; also Sunday OD on cherries.
    • Fri July 17 to Sun July 19: 201.
    • Thur July 16. 201. Job interview today. Early morning workout gave me energy!
    • Wed July 15 201. A welcome surprise. I really cut back on Monday, but Tuesday was back to normal.
    • Tue July 14: 202. Morning workout, bicycle errands.
    • Wed July 8 to Mon July 13. Unknown. Slight overeating on Saturday (family event), lots of grapes. Sunday, no exercise, but by Monday I was caught up.
    • Tue July 7 202. Finally, caught up on housekeeping and exercising and eating.
    • Mon July 6  202.5 I don’t seem to be budging away from this number.
    • Sun July 5. 202.5
    • Sun June 28 to July 4. Jumping  between 203 and 204.
    • SAt June 27 203
    • Wed-Fri June 24-26: 204.5
    • Tue June 23 204  The trend is good, but today I sort of broke my diet. Curse that Wisconsin cheese!
    • Mon June 22 204.5 Ate big shrimp creole dinner. I should be coming down from that.
    • Sun June 21 205. For dinner I ate nothing but brussel sprouts (a day of strict dieting). Oh well.
    • Sat June 20 205
    • Fri Jun 19 204.5
    • Thur 18 205. Yesterday with niece and nephew + exercise. Big Vietnamese dinner at Pho24, lots of blueberries, one scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins
    • Wed June 17 205.5 This is pretty shocking. I think it’s water weight from all the watermelon I’ve been eating.
    • Tue June 16 204.5
    • Mon June 15 205.5 Birthday party at brother’s house, babysitting at mom’s house, no time for exercise = disaster.
    • Sat June 13 202.5
    • Fir Jun 12 201.5 Ok, I don’t feel that I “deserved” 201 so that’s ok.
    • Thur Jun 11 201. Yabba dabba doo! I am excited because yesterday I didn’t workout and didn’t feel hungry for some reason.
    • Wed Jun 10 202.5. Lots of exercising yesterday. Gosh, if only people were out of work all the time, they would have no problem finding time to exercise!
    • Tue June 9 203. Slow but steady progress
    • Mon June 8. 203.5 Ok, it’s official. I’m backsliding! My goal is to get down to 200 by July 1.
    • Tue June 2 to Sun June 7. Fluctuated between 202 and 204.
    • Mon June 1 204. Had buffet at Thai place with Linda. Even though we worked out, one buffet was still enough to ruin things.
    • Sun May 31 203.5 getting better.
    • Sat May 30 204
    • Fri May 29 205 still in recovery mode
    • Thur May 28 206. Yes, I knew this would come.
    • Sun May 17 through Wed May 27. I’ve had several notable slips, especially Tue May 26. In the first week I think I maintained my wait; but I’m very worried about this week. I will know tomorrow!
    • Sat May 16 202.
    • Fri May 15. 202
    • Wed May 13. 204. Definitely a glitch. Watermelon + fried chicken. Eek!
    • Mon May 11 200.5. A miracle. Ate a delicious piece of cheesecake (actually half a piece for both days). It was divine, and I expected to see repercussions. Maybe it will show up tomorrow.
    • Saturday May 9 201.5 Getting to more sane levels. Yesterday was a very light meal day. It’s looking clear that I’m not going to get to 190 by July. However, I’m going to try to get it comfortably into the 190s.
    • Friday May 8 203. Watermelon the culprit?
    • Thur May 7 202.5 Wow,  ODing on watermelon. I’ve always found watermelon to be a weight gainer.
    • Wed May 6 201. Perhaps Tue was a fluke, with all those grapes. Still my body feels flabby. Need to work out more!
    • Tue May 5 203. Wow, depressing. Yesterday my diet slipped (eye of beef at mom’s house), but the other days didn’t seem so bad.  Also, I’ve been eating a LOT of grapes recently. Could that be fattening?
    • Thur April 30 201 KFC yesterday, but so good!
    • Thur April 23 to Wed April 29. between 200 and 201.
    • Wed April 22 200.5 Aftereffects of Sunday. I should be going down.
    • Tue April 21 200.  Getting back into the swing of things. (Oh, also, I skipped a meal yesterday! Need to go shopping too).
    • Mon April 20 201
    • Sat April 18 to Sun April 19. 202 I haven’t had a regular schedule of anything recently.
    • Fri April 17 202
    • Thur April 16 201.
    • Wed April 8 to Wed April 15. fluctuated between 200 and 202
    • Tue April 7 202.5
    • Mon April 6 202.
    • Sun April 5 203 Absolutely shocking. True on Thursday night had a party at Tom’s house, Friday night 2 Vietnamese sandwiches and refreshments at the storytelling event, but egad, can’t I go off diet for a single day! On saturday I ate practically NOTHING!
    • Sat April 4 ?
    • Fri April 3 ?
    • Thur April 2 198.5
    • April 1 199
    • Tue Mar 31 200
    • Mon Mar 30 201
    • Sun Mar 29 203. Wow! Yesterday ate dim sum breakfast and chinese food for dinner. But extreme portion control! no exercise! no oatmeal! fluke but….
    • Sat Mar 27
    • Fri Mar 26 200
    • Thur Mar 26 200
    • Wed Mar 25 202. This is the max.
    • Tue Mar 24  201.5 This has been the week of backsliding
    • Mon Mar 23 199
    • Sun Mar 22 198.5 This takes into account the splurge on Friday.
    • Sat Mar 21 197.5 Honestly I have no idea how I lost this weight.
    • Thur Mar 19 199.5 ate a lot of junk food yesterday. Returning to Houston.
    • Wed Mar 18 199
    • Tue Mar 17 198.5
    • Mon Mar 16 197.5
    • Sun Mar 15 199. 14000 steps at SXSW. Barbecue + soup .
    • Saturday Mar 14 198.0 Eat tacos last night in Austin–ugh!
    • Friday Mar 13 197.5
    • Thur Mar 12 198.5 I really have been exercising and reducing diet. Hoping to get below 198, but oh, well!
    • Wed  Mar 11 198.5 Ate a LOT of brussel sprouts yesterday.
    • Tue Mar 10 198 (I have been cutting back quite a bit).
    • Mon Mar 9 199
    • Sun Mar 8 198.5 (this might be a misreading).
    • Sat Mar 7 199.5
    • Fri Mar 6 200
    • Thur Mar 5 199.5
    • Wed  Mar 4 199.5 Ate very little yesterday.
    • Tue Mar 3 201 My last day at work!
    • Mon Mar 2  202
    • Sun Mar 1 202.5 Whoopsie. Strangely I missed a meal yesterday.
    • Sat Feb 28 202
    • Fri Feb 27 202. Making up for Tuesday’s splurge.
    • Thur Feb 26. 204.5 Truly alarming, went to a nice dinner Tuesday night and then ended up skipping exercises for 2 days. Yikes!
    • Wed Feb 25 ?
    • Tue Feb 24 201.5
    • Mon Feb 23 200 Sorta fasted yesterday.
    • Sun Feb 22 201.5. I sorta OD’ed on carbs yesterday. Today was movie watching night.
    • Sat Feb 21 202.5 Ok, I had an off day yesterday.
    • Fri Feb 20 200. Aha, if I weigh  myself AFTER exercising, I can reap the advantage immediately!).
    • Thur Feb 19 200.5 (catching up on workouts, plus recovery from that awful/terrific chicken night!)
    • Wed Feb 18 didn’t weigh. I had fried chicken last night!
    • Tue Feb 17 202.5
    • Mon Feb 16 203.5 This has got to stop. Aside from not exercising as much as I should, my eating hasn’t changed all that much.
    • Sun Feb 15 202.5 Whoa Nelly!
    • Sat Feb 14 201.5 Not really!
    • Fri Feb 13 201 I bet I will lose a pound over the weekend.
    • Thur Feb 12 201.
    • Wed Feb 11 202 Ate hamburger last night and did not exercise. Slacker!
    • Tue Feb 10  201
    • Mon Feb  9 201
    • Fri Feb 6 203.
    • Fri Jan 31 to Thur Feb 5. I haven’t weighed myself and seem to have gone off diet.
    • Thu Jan 29 201
    • Wed Jan 28 200
    • Tue Jan 27 201
    • Mon Jan 26 201.5
    • Sun Jan 25 200. (See, I told you so! I told you so!) Did a lot of bike riding on Saturday.
    • Sat Jan 24 201.5 (A fluke, I’m pretty sure the next few days will be going down).
    • Fri Jan 23 200.5
    • Wed-Thur Jan 21-22 I think I hovered around 200 or 201
    • Tue Jan 20 200 Day off yesterday.
    • Mon Jan 19 201.5 Biking yesterday really helped!
    • Sun Jan 18 202
    • Sat Jan 17 202.5
    • Fri  Jan 16 202
    • Thur Jan 15 202.5
    • Tue Jan 13. 201.5. I’m mystified. I went off diet last weekend, and even OD’ed on tortilla chips last night.
    • Friday Jan 9-Mon Jan 12. I have forgotten to weigh myself or weighed myself at wrong times. Sorry!
    • Thur Jan 8 Unknown. Attended a dinner party for my college. Great food, a feast. I ate two plates of vegetables before the main course (and no carbs). Kind of curious what effect if any this would have.
    • Wed Jan 7 200.5 Strangely at 5:00 AM, I weighed 200 and at 7:00 I weighed 200.5 (even though I hadn’t eaten anything and just finished exercising).
    • Tue   Jan 6 201. Yesterday overdosed on grapefruit from someone at work. Oh, the excess!
    • Mon Jan 5 201. More wacky readings. 198.5, 200, 201. Maybe it’s time to buy a new scale?
    • Sun 201  My bathroom scale was giving all sorts of wacky readings. Maybe the roaches were playing a practical joke?
    • Sat Jan 3 201 (Ate homemade bratwurst and lovely rosemary bread from Whole Foods. Delicious, but a little much. 1 workout and 1 hour of bike riding didn’t compensate for that. Oh, well.
    • Fri Jan 2 200.5 (Actually I dipped to 200 yesterday, so I sorta made my goal).
    • Thur Jan 1 202. Wow, disappointment, I’ve been watching my diet all week. Perhaps my body wasn’t ready to adjust. (But now I have time to exercise at least).
    • Wed Dec 31 202. This is very wierd, but I expect this is an anomaly. I’ll be down to 200 in no time.
    • Tue Dec 30 201.  2 workouts yesterday, with strict controls on my diet.
    • Mon Dec 29 202.5 I could have lost more weight if I exercised this weekend. But I’m back on track for the next few days as I try to starve myself for Jan 1!
    • Sun Dec 28 203 Instead of exercising, spent the day reading articles about diet by science writer Gary Taubes. Wow, that was strenuous!
    • Sat Dec 27 204.5 I have found a culprit for weight gain: going to parents’ house!
    • Friday Dec 26 206. This week has been crazy.
    • Mon-Tue Dec 22-23. Unfortunately a malfunctioning refrigerator and a day of phone calls have thrown my diet out of whack. ON Monday I was 202.5, but I feel sure that on Wednesday it will be at least 203.
    • Sun Dec 21 204. This is profoundly disturbing. Eating junk. The last two days I’ve been cleaning up house, doing errands.
    • Fri Dec 19 201. This went down, but last night I od’ed on chocolate! Expect it to rise.
    • Thur Dec 18 202 This will go down
    • Wed Dec 17 201.5 Steak last night, but did exercises. I can handle it (I think).
    • Tue Dec 16 202 Took the bus to work, which meant more walking.
    • Mon Dec 15 202.5 Still trying to reach 200 by New Years.
    • Sun Dec 14 203.5
    • Sat Dec 13 203.5
    • Tue  Dec 9-12 204. I overate on 2 consecutive days.
    • Mon Dec 8 202.5 Mondays tend to be good for my weight measurement.
    • Sun Dec 7 203. Fallout from Xmas party.
    • Sat Dec 6 202.5 Say what?
    • Fri Dec 5 201. I’ve been cutting back.
    • Thur Dec 4  I’ve been cutting back.
    • Wed Dec 3 202. Ok, Tuesday night I od’ed on potato chips and worked late. This is a fluke, and I’ll be paying the price in the next few days.
    • Tue Dec 2 203 Finally on the exercise routine
    • Mon Dec 1 203.5. Finally, and I’ve been starving myself.
    • Sun Nov 30 205. Still recovering from the Birthday/Thanksgiving Fiasco.
    • Sat Nov 29 205.5 Well, I’m not surprised at least.
    • Fri Nov 28 204. I knew bad news was a coming.
    • Thur Nov 27 201. Well I was ready to take on the worst.

    (Note, when I first did this list, I started from earliest to latest. I decided to put latest on the top for convenience. Here is the remainder of my journey/struggle/goal).

    • June 13: 220
    • June 14: 221
    • June 15: 219.5
    • Mon June 16: 219.5
    • Tue June 17: 219
    • Wed June 18 219
    • Thur June 19 219.5 (damn that thunderstorm that prevented me from swimming!)
    • Fri June 20. 219 (luck)
    • Sat June 21 218.5 (I totally did not deserve this. Last night I was a slug).
    • Sun June 22 218. (almost forgot to eat dinner; also played midnight tennis!)
    • Mon June 22 219 (sorry, I fudged; forgot to weigh myself; this is a guess)
    • Tue June 23 219.5 (lazy)
    • Wed June 24  218 (day off, exercise day)
    • Thur June 25 217
    • Fri June 26 217
    • Sat June 27 217.5 (stupid #&$#$ cake! even 20 minutes extra swimming didn’t make up for it)
    • Sun June 28 217.5 (still punishing me for Friday’s cake–yes it was delicious).
    • Mon June 30 219 (!) Gaming group’s wife offers homemade brownies fresh out of the oven. How could  I have refused? Delicious though. (I ate only 2).
    • Tue Jul 1 218 (No exercise, but really I did not merit yesterday’s increase. I ate a minimalist Jack in Box hamburger too. Why are restaurant hamburgers always jumbo-sized?)
    • Wed Jul 2 217.5 Totally did not deserve this. Telecommuted yesterday, lots of random bored munching. Vow to walk around more. Do you burn cals when driving?
    • Thur Jul 3 216.5. Atypical but encouraging. Ate 2 small lunches, then for dinner, a plate of broccoli! Cleaned refrigerator. Lots of disgusting produce had to be tossed out.
    • Fri Jul 4 215. Probably a fluke. Ate extra large dinner, but I jumped on trampoline for 20 minutes!
    • Sat Ju 5 216. OD’ed a bit on chocolate and watermelon. PS, there are roaches in my scale!
    • Sun Jul 6. 216.5 More watermelon. Extra water weight. Not worried. Luckily, I swam before the rain fell.
    • Mon Ju 7. 218. Accidentally ate entire chocolate bar. Odd fact: Quakers sold chocolate bars to ward off impure thoughts. (This time I don’t think choco was 100% responsible for the backslide thought).
    • Tue Jul 8 218  Yesterday was no exercise day…but accomplished a lot of writing. A connection? Hmmm.
    • Wed July 9 218. No time to exercise. Arrived late.
    • Thur July 10 217.5 Slow progress. Alas, time to swim finally!
    • Fri July 11 218. KFC dinner. Ok, I slipped. If only more healthy fast food places were around my neighborhood!
    • Sat July 12 219. This backsliding hurts, but I had a semi-emergency to deal with.
    • Sun July 13 217.5 217.5 Rode my bike, carrying about 15 pounds of books in my backpack (from a newly opened bookstore).  That’s a workout!
    • Mon July 14 216.5 Another ride to the library (forgot to return a DVD). Maybe I should forget library books more often.
    • Tue July 15 217. Would have exercised, except I spent 2 hours troubleshooting my OLPC and Vista 64 install. Arrgh!
    • Wed July 16 217.5 . Wow, three bagels yesterday (P. from work brought them). Delicious.  Wow, even 45 minutes of swimming didn’t make up for it.
    • Thur July 17 217.5 Might have been lower if there weren’t dog poop in the swimming pool. Note to self: have backup exercise method.
    • Fri July 18 (a weighing on this day would be invalid, so I am skipping. Rest assured that the official count would probably not be reason for optimism)
    • Sat July 19 218.5. Honestly, yesterday was a bad day for my diet. A one pound gain is not bad, all things considered.
    • Sun Jul 20 215.5 Misleading. I fell asleep before eating dinner! Good way to lose weight is to skip meals. (By the way, I am very hungry).
    • Mon Jul 21 216.5 Cleaned house. I feel optimistic about how the rest of the  week will go.
    • Tue Jul 22 215.5 Finally making progress again. Also resumed my Sue Hitzman exercise vid which is great.
    • Wed Jul 23 215.5 Lately I’ve been liking vegetarian hamburgers… but where is the broccoli I thought I had in my fridge?
    • Thur Jul 24 215. Noticed something interesting. Weight tends to go down when I telecommute — even though I don’t maintain my diet very well on those days.
    • Fri Jul 25 216. I seriously think that backsliding on your diet takes 24-48 hours to show up on the bathroom scale! Wed I slipped, but Thur was pretty good.
    • Sat Ju 26 216.5 Yesterday was major backslide. Free kolaches at work, plus a scanning party (don’t ask!) with all sorts of refreshments. Plus arrived home–exhausted and too late to swim.
    • Sun Jul 27 215. Doesn’t make sense. The last two days my diet has been erratic, can’t explain the decrease. Ate very late. Does it take time for the food to “show up” on scale?
    • Mon Jul 28 215. Funny, my scale gives a different number depending on which part of the floor it is on. The number you see is in fact an average of multiple weighings at several locations.
    • Tue Jul 29 213.5 I fasted  a bit yesterday and did exercise. Expect backsliding, but still encouraging that I could make it to this point. I think I need a week to really arrive there.
    • Wed Jul 30 215. Jump does not worry me; diet still going strong. Friend points out that it’s best to compare today  with other Wed numbers to see trends.
    • Thur Jul 31 215.5 Oh no! Setback! But those Vietnamese sandwiches were delicious!
    • Fri Aug 1 213.5 Exhausted from work deadline last night. Off to Austin to swim at Barton Springs!
    • Sat Aug 2 ? New Braunfels tubing, 5 hours!
    • Sun Aug 3 ?  Barton Springs, swimming 3.5 hrs!
    • Mon Aug 4 212.5 Recuperating from massively entertaining Central Austin aquatic trip.
    • Tue Aug 5 213 Madness at supermarket b/c of “hurricane.” Still recovering.   Maybe some of my “tight” clothes will be wearable again.  Body ached from weekend swimming extravaganza.
    • Wed Aug 6 214 Growing complacent. Yesterday learned that portion control is very hard with home-cooked recipes. I’ll recover.
    • Thur Aug 7 213. Best way to cheat on your daily weighing: weigh yourself later & later each day!
    • Fri Aug 8 212 Method #2 for cheating on daily weighing: skip dinner (honestly I wasn’t hungry).  For breakfast today: yesterday’s basa fish!
    • Sat Aug 9 212 Despite skipping lunch yesterday, still no weight loss!
    • Sun Aug 10 213 Confusing.  Ok, I OD’ed on grapes, but rest of the day was fairly normal (at Barcamp Houston, etc). Today I’ll have to work extra hard!
    • Mon Aug 11 213 Wow, I was a total mothball yesterday. God is smiling. Fun fact: 1 jelly belly has 4 calories.
    • Tue Aug 12 212.5 Wow…this was a 3 cookie day!  Power outage, but still lost .5 pounds. Defies human explanation.
    • Wed Aug 13 212 Working out in the morning has its perks…but really, who has time to do this every day?
    • Thur Aug 14 211 Stayed up late last night ordering my Lumix DMC-TZ5A camera. I wonder: does staying up late reduce weight?
    • Fri Aug 15 210.5 Welcome surprise. I actually had a  large (albeit very healthy) meal last night.  Plus, Randalls had a special on blueberries.
    • Sat Aug 16 211.5 Went off diet. Restaurant for lunch, a tootsie roll, lots of blueberries. Arrgh! At least I swam a lot.
    • Sun Aug 17 213 Another off-diet day. More blueberries! No time for exercise, but time for takeout Chinese food. Arrgh!
    • Mon Aug 18 213.5 I practically fasted yesterday, but Saturday’s pigout is catching up with me.  (Tomorrow should improve). Still, the magnitude of this setback gives pause for thought.
    • Tue Aug 19 213 Expect further improvement tomorrow.
    • Wed Aug 20 212.5 The funny thing is, I had relatively full meals yesterday, but I also exercised and slept very well.
    • Thur Aug 21 210.5 A fluke. Yesterday was nothing special. My metabolism must be extremely confused; maybe it should see a therapist?
    • Fri Aug 22 210.5 Definitely not a fluke. My coworker insists that Diet drinks are the cause of my weight gain. Nah, nah, you’re wrong!
    • Sat Aug 23 211.5 Because eating/workout habits remained identical yesterday, I’m convinced today is just a normal fluctuation. Today will be hard: 3 potential pigout opportunities (PPO).
    • Sun Aug 24 212.5.  I survived 3 potential PPOs yesterday successfully. This weight gain is a normal fluctuation (though still a bummer)
    • Mon Aug 25 211  Purely through being busy, I ate very little yesterday (but also exercised very little). This sounds about right.
    • Tue Aug 26 211 Was up until midnight fixing a friend’s hard drive and ..AOL mailbox. Ugh!
    • Wed Aug 27 212 Last night I was hungrier than unusual, ate a bit more…and guess what, I didn’t care!  Yesterday was relaxing. Today woke up to roaches in my cereal. Arrgh!
    • Thur-Fri Total Disruption. Someone stole my car! I’ve been too busy to even think about dieting or weighing myself.
    • Sat Aug 30 211.5 Today I get a haircut and learn how much long hair adds to your weight.
    • Sun. Absent. Busy.
    • Mon Sept 1 211. I have not been exercising. That half pound might be the result of haircut!
    • Tue Sept 2 208.5 Although I skipped a meal yesterday, I think this measurement or the ones from previous days are clearly in error.  It must be the haircut!
    • Wed Sept 3 207. Decelerating for my trip. If I can keep this (or near this), I’ll be happy).
    • Mon Sept 29. 197.5 (Back in USA). A shocking bit of good news. I expect my metabolism to increase a few pounds when adjusting to US life. But still I can manage it.
    • Tue Sept 30 198.5  Back in USA, catching up with things (finding my stolen car, getting back to work, etc).  I had two big lunches, but you know, that’s ok.
    • Thur Oct 2 198.  I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and still getting caught up.
    • Fri Oct 3 198.5 Most of this weight gain must have been grapes!
    • Sun Oct 5 200.5 This has got to stop! (I think today I will have time to resume my healthier lifestyle).
    • Mon Oct 6 200.5 I’m not really trying. Just catching up on sleep. Expect progress from this point on.
    • Tue Oct 7 202.0 This increase is getting scary, but I’m catching up on stuff.
    • Wed Oct 8 199.5 Not sure what’s going on here, but at least I’ve started working out again.
    • Thur Oct 9 199.5 Wow, it’s amazing how much better you feel on the day(s) after working out!
    • Fri Oct 10 200.5 A bit lazy yesterday. Oh well.
    • Mon Oct 13 201.5 Went off diet over the weekend.
    • Tue Oct 14 202.5 Scary, but not entirely unexpected. I’ll lose it.
    • Wed Oct 15 201.5  Have added a handful of blueberries to my diet (every evening). Frozen blueberries make a  lot of things possible.
    • Thur Oct 16 202. No exercise day. Bahhh!
    • Fri Oct 17 202.5. Lots of free food at work, including those famous Vietnamese sandwiches (of which I had 2). Definitely an off-diet day for me.
    • Sat Oct 18 203. I expected this.
    • Sun Oct 19 202.5 Ate junk food at parents house.
    • Mon Oct 20. 201.
    • Tue Oct 21 202.5
    • Wed Oct 22 204.5 Weekend splurge finally hitting.
    • Thur Oct 23  206.5 Splurged at local Lupe Tortillas. Fajitas to die far! Car flooding. Crazy night!
    • Fri  Oct 24 205. Trying to get my bearings back. Still spooked by how quickly this weight came back.
    • Sat Oct 25 203. Wow, loaded down on Snacks!
    • Sun Oct 26 202.5 This must be opposite day. Didn’t work out yesterday, but played Spore all day with nephew.
    • Mon Oct 27 200. Finally caught up on working out. Very sedentary day, felt like I would be 205 today. Opposite day is continuing….
    • Tue Oct 28 200.5 Falling very behind.
    • Wed Oct 29 200.5. Still falling behind. No time to exercise
    • Thur Oct 30. 203. Pizza day at work. The horrors!
    • Fri Oct 31 201.5. Starting to resume previous habits.
    • Sat Nov 1 202.5 This seems more realistic a measurement, but I think I can get it down now. BTW, last night I went to a social event and ordered brisket;  I swear 80% of the dish was pure fat.
    • Sun Nov 2 201.5
    • Mon Nov 3 201.5
    • Tue Nov 4 202
    • Wed Nov 5 202
    • Thur Nov 6 204 pizza day at work.
    • Friday Nov 7 203.5 trying to recover.
    • Sat Nov 8 204. Mabel’s birthday party yesterday.
    • Sun Nov 9 203.5
    • Mon Nov 10 203.5
    • Tue Nov 11 202. Strangely I seem to lose weight when I am home, whether working from home or on my day off. (When I am busy with social events, I gain weight).
    • Wed Nov 12 202. Might be cheating. Weighing myself a little later than usual.
    • Thur Nov 13 202.5 Oops. Payback from Tuesday. I expect to lose this.
    • Fri Nov 14 201.5
    • Sat Nov 15 203.5 House of Pies, what can I say?
    • Sun Nov 16. 203 MOm’s pepper steak.
    • Mon Nov 17 200.5 (I cannot explain this, although I did eat a lot less on Sunday).
    • Tue Nov 18 201 (I expect this to go down tomorrow).
    • (strangely, almost a week of posts were deleted. I moved from 201 to 203.5
    • Mon Nov 24 202. (Not bad after an out-of-town trip. Might gain tomorrow).
    • Tue No 25 202.
    • Wed Nov 26 201

  • Europe does not have higher oil prices

    From a New York Times article by Steven Weisman  on US currency management:

    President Bush has appealed to oil-producing countries to increase the flow of oil to put a damper on oil prices. He has been repeatedly rebuffed, however, as oil ministers from the Persian Gulf charge that rising oil prices result more from American economic mismanagement than from constricted supplies of oil.

    Many oil experts agree. According to Daniel Yergin, who runs Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the price of oil for Europeans is still roughly what it was last year. What is causing oil prices to surge, he said, is low American interest rates that are being pushed down in hopes of avoiding a recession. While global demand has indeed grown, those low rates have also spurred an investor rush to commodities, especially oil contracts.

    “There’s a new player in the oil market — the Federal Reserve,” Mr. Yergin said. “Not because it wants to push up oil prices, but as a consequence of its lowering interest rates to stimulate the U.S. economy.”

    This is shocking news to me. On the other hand, I’ve noticed increased prices on lots of imports. The natural freefall of prices of high tech gadgets is no longer occurring; even clothes are getting more expensive.  The detail about oil prices raises real questions about whether Bush’s pseudo-rationalization of going to war ever made any macroeconomic sense.

  • Why Clickthrough Rates don’t matter

    The mantra in advertising/monetizing websites is clickthrough rates. Here’s something to punch a hole through that by Starcom media group:

    The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.

    Further preliminary Starcom data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance.

    “While the click can continue to be a relevant metric for direct response advertising campaigns, this study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns,” said Erin Hunter, executive vice president at comScore. “For many campaigns, the branding effect of the ads is what’s really important and generating clicks is more of an ancillary benefit. Ultimately, judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental because it overlooks the importance of branding while simultaneously drawing conclusions from a sub-set of people who may not be representative of the target audience.”

    The only part here which is a little misleading is what “clickthrough” rates refer to. It’s now possible to track clickthroughs for sales, so that will always be a reliable indicator.

  • Freelancing Resources and Reading a book a Week

    40 Methods to Justify/Raise Fees in a Consulting arrangement.

    Freelance Hourly Calculator

    See also 101 Resources for Freelancers (mainly free web applications).

    Steve Pavlina on the benefits of reading:

    But the actual knowledge and the new distinctions you gain from reading are not the main benefit. My experience has shown me that the real benefit comes not from what you read but rather from the habit of reading. When you read a new book every week, you condition your mind to keep taking in new knowledge. Your thinking remains fresh and sharp. Your brain is always churning on new ideas, looking for new distinctions it can make. Every day you pour in more ideas, which your brain must find a way to integrate into your existing knowledge base. Frequent reading fires up your neural activity, even during the periods when you aren’t reading.

    Of course, reading web pages is a kind of reading, but not as intensive as book reading. I just love reading a book before going to bed. Even if it’s for 30 minutes or so, that reading is immensely pleasurable. Last night I read a letter from Paris to Helen in Ovid’s Heroides. Paris is trying to convince Helen to leave Meneleus for Troy. Tomorrow I’ll be reading Helen’s letter in reply. I can’t wait. (Btw, here’s a free online translation of Ovid’s Heroides by Tony Kline). Here’s more about Tony Kline.

  • Anti-Smoking Goes Disney

    Magical Amount by Sunny Side of the Truth.

    I’ve blogged about this Public Service Announcement  video production group before. Here’s some older videos.

    The most interesting thing about these PSAs is that they never appear in time slots I watch–so essentially I never hear about them except  through youtube. I have no  doubt that they are strategically scheduled to maximize impact (Nickolodean, MTV, Disney, etc). But it’s another example of how even the most attentive cultural watchers miss so much outside of their intended demographic.

    To illustrate my point: if you don’t know what webkinz and Heely’s  are, chances are you don’t have a child under 10. If you know these terms, chances are you are absolutely sick of  hearing about them.

    Have you ever heard someone rave about a particular car and you just don’t care about these things? I have never cared about cars (although I enjoy listening to Car Talk once in a while). I am mildly interested in energy-efficient cars, but I am always hearing about cars through sisters, friends, parents, colleagues, etc. Perhaps it has to do with affluence, but whenever car commercials come on TV, I never even notice them. My only hope is that it has semi-decent background music (if I don’t have time to put it on mute). A striking difference between US and (East) European TV is that US television was all about car commercials and European TV was all about consumer products. I wonder: if any Europeans are reading this weblog, do the frequency of TV commercials in your region drive you as crazy as they do to us?  Commercials make it impossible to watch anything on the major networks these days.  Even for people who have satellite or cable, TV watching is still unwatchable.

    In case this is not clear: these anti-smoking campaigns serve a vital purpose. It is not mere entertainment. The consequences of experimenting with cigarettes are far-reaching.

  • Monetizing Blogs and Link Condoms (Part 2)

    A few months ago I threatened to monetize this and other blogs in my empire. Don’t worry; I’ve been procrastinating.  But lately I’ve focused more on it now that David Rothman has been getting on my back.

    But I’ve discovered some excellent resources in the meantime;

    ConversionRater gives good how-to advice about monetizing your website.

    Aaron Wall’s SEO Book blog contains excellent tips on search engine optimization  but also keeps us up-to-date about what’s going on the advertising world as well.  I actually bought his SEO Book last week for $79. There are good things in the book, and I feel good about the purchase, but practically speaking, you could find the same information elsewhere if you read a lot of SEO blogs. See also Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneur’s Journey (he’s from Australia, but on top of money of the monetizing issues).  He has a free ebook on web entrepreneurship.  John Chow has a free ebook about Making Money Online (PDF)

    Vaughn’s one pagers is an odd and useful site that gives great reference information, especially about the Net. Here’s an outstanding article about advertising strategies and another rundown of advertising companies. (I have no idea how current this information is).  John Chow provides a more complete listing and here’s a Wikipedia article on Advertising/Affiliate Networks.

    Some older articles: Advertising space on monetizing strategies; Matt Haughey on how advertising really works.

    Apparently tracking ad clickthroughs is easy now that google provides code for it.

    I’ve also found Daily Blog Tips to be filled with practical information for running  a blog. They have a special category for monetizing (My favorite article is by Skellie on preventing ad-blindness on your blog).

    Finally, I’m leaving the best for last. Here’s an Advertising Engine plugin for WordPress. Who Sees Ads lets you control the duration of an ad campaign and allows you to set filters about what kind of traffic views ads. For example, if you see the demo, you can see that you can exclude ads to regular visitors (and even define what a regular visitor is!)

    Here’s an academic article  by Mike Grehan about the study of network relevancy. A good history of how mathematicians brought the field into existence. Key quote:

    But this is also the creator of a very worrisome problem which affects new web pages with low linkage data, regardless of the quality of those pages. Quality and relevance are sometimes at odds with each other. And the ecology of the web may be suffering because of the way search engines are biased towards a page’s popularity more than its quality. In short, “currently popular” pages are repeatedly being returned at the top of the results at the major search engines.

    So, the “filthy linking rich” get richer and currently popular pages continue to hit the top spots. The law of “preferential attachment” as it is also known, wherein new links on the web are more likely to go to sites that already have many links, proves that the scheme is inherently biased against new and unknown pages.

    When search engines constantly return popular pages at the top of the pile, more web users discover those pages and more web users are likely to link to them. This therefore means that currently unpopular pages (as such) are not returned by search engines (regardless of quality) so they are discovered by very few web users. And this, of course, is unfortunate for both the publishers of web pages and the seekers of their information. (Not to mention web marketers!)

    Finally about link condoms (which I find from seomoz glossary of terms). They are “Any of several methods used to avoid passing link love to another page, or to avoid possible detrimental results of endorsing a bad site by way of an outgoing link, or to discourage link spam in user generated content”.  Basically, that means the “nofollow” attribute for comments initiated by Google and the major weblogs. Intended to reduce the allure of linkspam, it now has the effect of making it impossible to get backlinks unless you pay someone (which suits google fine).

  • Tips for Work Activity

    A work colleague gave a mini-presentation about time management skills. Here are my own guidelines:

    1. Be clear about what your role in the project is and ought to be.
    2. Resist the temptation to turn away from an activity if something more important comes up (It takes time and effort to switch gears and back again; you may lose the good karma you accumulated in the meantime).
    3. Deadlines are mutable. Every deadline has consequences which you need to understand and accept (and you need to make sure the customer understands).
    4. If the stakeholder/customer cuts off a feature/line of investigation/endeavor, stop it immediately! (you have no choice).
    5. Miscommunication is an inevitable part of human interaction. Accept that fact and concentrate on:
      • establishing trust with the stakeholder
      • setting expectations in more than context and method.
    6. If you get stuck on something:
      • do you need to be the one to solve the problem?
      • can you delay solving it while you solicit outside help?
      • can you get away temporarily from it to start over (a good night’s sleep can often help).
      • set a limit on how much wheel spinning you can do on one task. After that, reconsider your options.
    7. It’s often bad to promise a specific result or event (especially if it turns out that the result is not what you would have wanted).
    8. Paul Graham’s method for solving problems: Keep your options open. Choose the alternative that maximizes your options.
    9. Make the effort to explain your internal progress/goals to your bosses/managers.
    10. Too many status reports can lead to micromanagement.
    11. If it’s possible to outsource mental schedules to a piece of SW, it can pay off after a few weeks if adhered to.
    12. Most new work methods are eventually abandoned for one reason or another. Occasionally one will bring enormous benefits.
    13. Trying a new work method (on a personal level at least) involves little risk.
    14. Frequent deliverables increases the amount of negative feedback. This can be bad or good.
    15. Overpromising is a result of a person’s inability to appreciate the complexity of a task.
    16. Keeping long term objectives in the back of one’s mind can be helpful for later brainstorming.
    17. When prioritizing, the project with the most inflexible  deadlines can also be the least important.

  • Late Night TV Observations

    Jay Leno interviewed a presidential candidate (Barack Obama) on the Tonight Show yesterday. I realize it’s not a hard-hitting news show, but in the 20 minute interview, Leno did not ask Obama a single policy question. Not one. As informed as I consider myself about American politics, I admit I really don’t know what Obama stands for. Here are some softball questions Leno could have asked:

    • Tell me a significant policy  you and Hilary Clinton have, and  explain why your position is better.
    • Tell me about a political position you have which might surprise people.
    • Make the case for your candidacy to a voter in the other party.
    • What issues are people on the campaign trail bringing up more often than the rest? What are your feelings about it?
    • Why do you think Americans are unhappy with the current administration? If you were elected president 8 years ago, how could you have prevented this from happening?
    • What do you think is the most important foreign policy issue for your administration? Budget Policy? etc…

    Memo to Charlie Rose: International media tycoons are not interesting guests for your show. They are dull. Political figures might be, but most of the time they are simply towing to the party line. Former political figures can be, but most of the time they are just hawking a book. Artists and intellectuals can be great guests, but the New York media cocoon you inhabit makes it impossible for find one. Reporters generally have been great guests too. But avoid the billionaires. We don’t care.

    Memo #2 to Charlie Rose: Put the guest’s name on the screen once in a while. Stop playing games with us!

    Memo #3 to Charlie Rose: Stop inviting military officials and CIA Agents. They may be good honest people, but unless you are willing to express skepticism towards them, you’re just giving them an opportunity to call for more military spending, which is the last thing our country needs right now. Remember the phrase “self-licking ice cream cone.” Don’t be afraid to use it.

    Observation: has it ever occurred to people that the main reason actors appear on talk shows is to hawk their movie? I can tolerate a bit of this, but there should be a limit of one star per movie on a given week of any talkshow. There are movie projects where they will have two or three actors from the same movie appearing on different nights. Leno, Letterman, they all do that. Again, I don’t mind some promotion, but the shows go overboard.

    Oh, to be a captive audience of the airwaves.

    One guilty pleasure of mine has been watching McGlaughlin Group on PBS every Friday night. The show’s format hasn’t changed much over the decades (although apparently they added a billionaire to the panel–boo!) I still won’t forgive John McLaughlin for dismissing Al Gore as a viable candidate in 2000. He was carping over the style of Gore’s campaign instead of focusing on the substance of it. But generally McLaughlin is good at presenting provocative questions and surveying the panel for reactions. I’ve even developed an immunity from Pat Buchanan’s gut populism and even enjoy it a little. Surprisingly, over the last few months, even the conservative panelists are sickened of Bush’s Iraq policy and Bush in general. I used to think this show was just a shoutfest, but after every show, I come away thinking, I was exposed to a lot of facts and opinions here.

    Speaking of alternative TV, I downloaded the azureus bit torrent client with Vuze, some video downloading manager which lets you download many free vids. Looks pretty nice, and I’m seriously thinking of queuing these vids to watch on my HDTV.

  • Mystery of the Invisible Interest Charges

    I am paying my credit cards online.  The account management websites are especially slick–especially that for Chase bank.  Chase not only has the best website, they also keep policies and terms of service (along with updates!) on an easy-to-find tab. But on all the credit card websites, I have noticed how cleverly they hide the monthly assessment of fees from the main page. It  is often  hard to find interest rates and fee assessments, not to mention late fees. Of course, if they wanted to, these banks could easily put this information on the main account page.   But they don’t. Hmm, I wonder why.

    As one salesman said, buying is the pain. Owning is the pleasure.

    In other news, Citigroup has recently announced major financial difficulties.  The welfare of employees notwithstanding, this does not surprise me. I had the worst customer experience in my life with Citibank a few years ago.

    In other credit card/collection news,  I have a landline which I never use. I only use it to connect to DSL (it’s the AT&T tax, as I call it). I have an answering machine attached to it, and my mother is the only one who calls that number (it’s a long story).  I never use this phone, but I receive three computerized collection agency notices. These collection notices are not for me, but for any of a variety of names whose names I do not recognize.

    At first, I thought that these were simply calls about a person who used that last number. But over time, I’ve to the conclusion that either  1)someone at one point in time gave the same number for multiple identities or 2)companies are using the pretext of delinquent accounts to sell me something. Most of the time, I have to call the company up (and am put on hold!). If I just ignore the message, the computerized system will continue calling me over and over and over.

  • Corporate slippery slopes

    Profound slashdot post:

    The bigger picture is that this is yet another one of those corporate slippery slopes.

    • At one time there was a first broadcaster to watermark their logo on every TV show you watch. Now they all do it.
    • Some intrepid lawyer at a credit card company thought it would be a good idea to include terms for binding arbitration in every customer contract. Now they all do it.
    • Once upon a time you could go to a movie theater without being bombarded by fuggin’ Pepsi ads. Now they all do it.

    The technique is straightforward. A huge company with vast legal resources will create terms of contract that are annoying, but just a little bit less annoying than the transaction cost of replacing that company with another one. They’ve annoyed you, but like a frog being boiled in water, you figure you can live with it. Pretty soon all of the company’s competitors are doing the same thing, and now you have no other recourse, even if you wanted to go through the time, expense, and hassle of switching.

    (This is in response to another restrictive Terms of Service by ATT).  (apologies to James Fallows for the inappropriate frog in boiling water metaphor).

  • $2000 refunds for everybody.

    Brad Templeton has a crazy idea: raise the price of gasoline to $6/gallon, and give everybody a $2000 refund.

    As for me, I fill up with 10 gallons every two weeks. 260 x 6 = $1560 . Sounds like a good deal to me.

    Ancillary Benefits: Penalizing Illegal Immigrants

  • What we could do with more bandwidth?

    Om Malik on what people could do if they have 100 MBps bandwidth speed.  About two years ago I scoffed at a blogger who talked about the need for more bandwidth (in a post about network neutrality). Since that time, I downgraded my net connection from 10Mbps to 1.5, and I have to say, lately it’s been a real pain. Streaming video and audio doesn’t work as well and using bit torrent can be rather painful (although not awful).

    It is alarming to read the reports of how the U.S. is falling behind on average bandwidth penetration (although we shouldn’t dismiss the significance of consumer indifference as a cause of failure to upgrade). Nowadays, DSL is as competitive as dialup, and yet I still know several people who haven’t upgraded.  They have the choice, but they choose to do nothing.

    I’ve read reports about how AT&T and the other bells blew their huge government subsidy to build and deploy fiber optic cable.  This was a tragedy for taxpayers, but it points less to the evil nature of the telcos than the flimsy rationale for offering government subsidies for anything.