Category: Editorial

The Marion Jones case today gets me thinking about steroids.

For some reason, steroids are illegal.  They say that steroids can cause irreparable harm in children when improperly used.  I’m sure this is true, but even the Partnership for a Drug-Free America concludes that “long-term, high-dose effects of steroid use are largely unknown”.   Although I’m no doctor, Barry Bonds and Marion Jones seem just fine.  Why are these athletes able to successfully use steroids when they are allegedly so bad for us?

The difference is that professional athletes like Bonds and Jones can afford doctors to help administer the drugs properly, albeit illegally.  Steroids are dangerous not just because of the drug, but because we make it illegal to get professional help using them.

If we just let people use steroids, would these drugs really be dangerous?  Probably – drugs are drugs.  But, getting medical help would definitely reduce injuries and spot unwanted side effects early.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again.  If HGH were legal and cheap, I’d be using it myself.  We’re so afraid of the word “steroids”, we don’t even look to see if there are benefits.  There is no doubt there are huge HGH scams running rampant right now.  Wouldn’t the best way to quell the scams be to simply make HGH legal?  False advertising and snake oil salesmen would be out of business overnight.

You’d think that I’d be able to put two and two together and realize that a blog is a long term liability with little likelihood of making my life or career better.  And it lasts forever.  I can delete the website, but records of my misguided thoughts are indelibly written on the face of the Internet.  Why do I do this?

I write this today because I frequently get questions from colleagues about my blog posts.  If I say something too positive about Google or too negative about Microsoft, they say, “you just are anti-Microsoft now that you joined Google”.  And, if I say something negative about Google, they say, “are you planning on leaving or something?”  Why would what I write on this blog lead anyone to such a conclusion?

I guess to some, loyalty to their colleagues and employer would include always speaking positively about them.  I guess there is some truth to that.  But, does loyalty and dedication mean that you can’t publicly criticize?  Maybe I’m just a jerk!

Unfortunately for me, when I write, I always write to be persuasive.  After all, if you aren’t trying to make a point, what is the point?  But, I have the tendency to be so absolute in my specific argument that readers often want to apply my position on a specific to topic to more general topics.  This is a fallacy of the reader, and not a fallacy of the writer.

Nonetheless, regardless of who is misinterpreting the facts, I am the one with the reputation from this blog.  It doesn’t matter if I love working at Google, because when a reader who may be a VP at Google reads an individual negative post, they might think I am not a team player; my position in that single article was very specific.

So, to all you would-be bloggers out there – don’t start.  Unless you’re really trying to build something, blogging is a liability you cannot ditch.  It may seem like a place to write interesting things, but those things will come back to haunt you.  As for me, well, I guess I’m in it now.  This post marks my 400th blog entry.  It’s too hard for me to delete!

Lastly, let me set the record straight.  Regardless of what I say in my blog posts, I think Microsoft and Google are both great companies.  While I am worried that Microsoft is on the verge of dying due to its inability to migrate from the Windows albatross; and while I am worried that Microsoft will resort to leveraging its monopoly to ruthlessly crush Google; the fact is that nothing in life is nearly so dramatic or black and white.  It’s just the way I write.

Oh – but I really do think all lawyers are evil.  That’s not just being persuasive, that’s a fact.

A few months ago we ordered some furniture from Costco.  The furniture was 4 bedroom pieces, which cost $1500.  It was backordered, so it took more than  two months to arrive.  It finally arrived, in two shipments.  The first shipment was 250lbs, the second was 347lbs.   Pictured here is a portion of the packaging materials from the second shipment.  In all, there was twice as much as is seen here.

The furniture is great; well crafted, well packed, and requires very little construction.  We’re very happy with it.

What surprised me, though, is that this furniture was built in Thailand.

So, lets get this straight.  It’s cheaper to build furniture in Thailand, pack it, and ship it (with a shipping weight of over 500lbs across 5 boxes), than it is to build it here in the United States.  Wow. I tried pricing how much it would cost me to ship 500lbs of anything to Thailand.  That’s about 250kg, and as far as I can tell, it would be at least $2000 to ship.  Of course, I’m not Costco, so my shipping rates aren’t as good 🙂 

I knew that labor was cheap there.  But this really shows how much cheaper it is.  More than 500lbs cheaper.  I wonder who made more profit – Costco or the company in Thailand?  I’m betting it was Costco.

I had the unexpected pleasure to install carpet from both Home Depot and Empire Carpet in the same week.  Here is a summary of the experience.

Home Depot

Home Depot’s carpet installed first.  The measurements were done electronically, sent to a measuring company and a computer laid out the carpet to leave the fewest remnants.  Home Depot often runs “$99 installation” specials, so the installation cost was fairly small.  The carpet cost ~$4.22/sqft, and I upgraded the pad to the 8lb pad for a few cents per sqft.  Overall cost was about $4.80/sqft with the upgraded pad and installed.  The carpet we installed was a plush carpet.  It was slightly more expensive than average, but we wanted it to be soft.  The result is gorgeous – a very soft, thick carpet that looks great.  It’s an off-white color, and looks beautiful.

We had to wait 3 weeks for the carpet to arrive, as Home Depot ships it from Georgia.  The installers were great, and did a very nice job.

Empire Carpet

Empire’s sales model is to come to your house and use a full-service salesman.  They are very nice, pleasant, and don’t pressure you much.  The salesman measures manually on a piece of scratch paper, and somehow those measurements get back to the installers.  Despite the lack of technology, they got the right amount of carpet.

After measuring, they do try to gouge you on the price, so you have to be careful and it is a requirement to negotiate.  Taking the list price would be silly.  In our case, we were trying to pick the closest match carpet to the Home Depot carpet listed above.  We found the one which was closest in terms of texture, softness, and color.  We knew it was a slightly different color, but it was hard to tell from the small samples how close the texture would be once installed.  Initially, he offered a price of $3870 for the carpet.  I suggested $2000, and we settled at $2600.  This worked out to a price of $4.44/sqft.  I don’t know if I negotiated well or not – I wasn’t trying very hard.  He said all the usual salesman things, but you just have to be persistent.  I’m pretty sure that I could have had the carpet for $2000.

Empire can install the next day because they use local warehouses.  In our case, they installed 2 days later.  The installation was very good, although I didn’t think that their edge cutting was as good as the Home Depot installer (there was about 1/8″ gap which I didn’t think should be there on one wall).

In terms of quality, Empire’s carpet is not as good as the Home Depot carpet we picked out.  It is noticeably thinner, doesn’t feel as good or as soft, and doesn’t look quite as nice.  Don’t get me wrong, it looks good, just not quite as good when side-by-side to the Home Depot Carpet.

Conclusion

Home Depot is easier, cheaper, and has slightly better quality carpet.   But with Home Depot they take longer to get the carpet installed.   In our case, Home Depot also made a big mistake with the carpet which is why we had to have Empire finish the job.  If I had more time and could do it again, I would probably go with Home Depot.

About 12 years ago, I bought my first house.  It was a fixer-upper of sorts, and I did all the fixing myself from paint to hardwood floors to new doors and adding a closet or two.  Nothing terribly major.  To do the work, I was at Home Depot a lot.  And I do mean ‘a lot’ – as I was on a first-name basis with several of the employees there 🙂  It was a great store, and I liked it a lot.

With my recent home purchase, I’m back at Home Depot a lot.  About 3-4 times a week.  It’s still a good store.  It’s bigger.  It’s got more choices.  But, I find I don’t like it as much.  There are three things that aren’t as good as they used to be at the big HD.

Self Checkout
Am I the only one that loathes self-checkout?  At Home Depot, they basically don’t have anything else anymore.  They have one line for the folks getting lumber (which is usually very long), and they have 4 self-checkout counters.  These things are slow and I hate them.  As you wait in line you can see the confusion and frustration that others have too.  Is this really a good way to go? 

Long Lines
You’d think with all the checkout people freed up due to self-checkout, there would be more help available in the store.  But there isn’t.  It’s still hard to find anyone to help, and when you do, there is usually a line.  I was excited the other day when an employee actually approached me!  My excitement faded quickly when I learned she only wanted to offer me a 10% discount if I signed up for a Home Depot credit card. 

Too Big
I actually do find the store to be too big now. It seems the stuff I want is always at one side of the store, the checkout is at the other, and my car is parked back at the original side.  The store is larger than a football field; it’s just massive.  If they didn’t have such good product choice, I’d probably complain about that – but instead I’m complaining about this. Can’t win!

I’ve recently learned about Lowe’s – and I’m planning to try it (I know, I’m behind the times, it seems).  It’s farther from my house, but looks promising.

We’ve learned recently of “honor killings” that take place in some cultures.  It seems terrible – a defenseless woman is killed. CNN and other American news agencies report these as tragedies that we must somehow correct.  I am not outraged by the incident.  I am outraged by the gross arrogance of Americans to think that we know what is best for other cultures.  I know nothing of their culture.  I know nothing of why they might do this.  I can’t imagine a good reason for why anyone would do this – but they do it.  Maybe they are crazy.  Or maybe they are religious freaks.  Certainly, by western standards they are.  But – it is their lives – it is their culture – and that is what they do.

In classrooms here we teach “you must learn to accept other cultures”, but yet, we don’t do it!  We want to accept the tolerable parts of other cultures, but not accept the brutal parts.  Well, we can’t have it both ways.  Either we are tolerant and accepting, or we are not.  We cannot pick and choose when to accept.

How arrogant are we Americans to think that these people want to be saved by us anyway?  If they want to be saved, they must save themselves.  We are running around the world pimping Democracy in pretty much the same way that crusaders did.  We think our beliefs are better, and more fair.  Maybe they are, and maybe they are not, but who are we to decide?  Is pushing our politics really any different than pushing our religion?  I don’t think so.  We think its better, but its the people that decide, not us!  Culture and politics is something you must want for yourself; it cannot be given.

I’ll forever condemn my chances of a political career now by saying – let the Honor Killings continue.  There is nothing wrong with them unless the Iraqis decide there is something wrong with them.