The trip to Angel's Landing

We climbed up to Angel's Landing in Zion NP today. It's 2 1/2 miles with 1500' of ascent. Quite a hike - a switchback up the cliff base followed by a walk through a slot canyon and a steep climb up Walter's Wiggles to the staging area. (OK, I was having Everest fantasies). The day was gorgeous - cool hiking weather, sunny and not too much wind.
The last half mile is along a rock fin jutting out over the Zion Canyon valley. In several places the trail is no more than a few feet wide and sometimes runs along the side of the cliff, with chains set into the rock for handholds. Two of the five of us decided to skip the last stage. Catherine, Anna and I headed out to the tip.

"White knuckles" doesn't do it full justice. And on the way back, Anna slipped and fell headfirst on one of the cliffside segments. She managed to arrest her slide with inches to go before the edge. I was right behind her and grabbed her leg, as did a guy coming up the other way (who may have been partly responsible for her slip, by refusing to give way on the chain), but she had already stopped by then. So the good news is that I still have a daughter. The bad news is that I'll have that image stuck in my head forever.

Ping, pong, ping

Back & forth & back & forth I go, twixt Berkeley and Southern Cal. Earning a few simoleons working for a money manager behind the Orange Curtain. Not a bad gig - the commute is just over three hours, door-to-door, Monday morning and Thursday evening. Fridays off! Three day weekends every week! Woohoo!

I found* a nice little (very little) cottage 6 blocks from the beach which I have yet to see (beach, not cottage). My colleagues there are the usual quant finance crew of Russians, Chinese and Indians, plus the occasional European and American. The view from the quant dungeon is fabulous - from the 6th floor looking out across the channel to Catalina.

Nice, as long as it lasts... I'm not loving spending so much time away from home, and everyone here pretends to miss me, but they also want me to be working. It makes everyone feel a bit more secure.

* Thanks, Craig Newmark!

Marin Headlands

Perfectly clear, warm, a very slight breeze. An absolutely stunning view of the Golden Gate, bridge and city. It's always fun showing off that view to visiting friends. Quote from a New York City 13-year-old: "That's not such a big bridge."

Networking down the house

When we remodeled in 2005, I had the electrician install CAT5 cabling connecting the downstairs and upstairs to the water heater closet, and also one phone line to the same spot. My idea was to put the wireless router in there, because it's central and higher than where the computer sits. I wanted the electrician to connect everything up (put in jacks) but he said "I'm not a network guy" and left the ends dangling, which is how it sat ever since.

Now, 4 years later, we started having too many wireless connection problems probably because all our neighbors now also have routers, so I decided it was time to finish the job. Task 1 was to terminate the cables. Rather than put in a jack, I decided to just add connectors to the two cables I needed - one ethernet, one phone. I had to open up the jack at the other end of the ethernet line to check which of two possible cable configs the electrician had used. That done, it only took two tries to wire the other end - I did it mirror reversed the first time. Thank you ACE Hardware cheapo crimping tool. You worked just great!

Task 2 was to get the phone line working. We have 2 lines into the house. The electrician had only wired the first one into most of the connections, including the one to the water heater closet, but our DSL is on the second. So, under the house I went to where the junction box connects to the house cabling, armed with wire strippers, headlamp and a walkie-talkie, with Anna at the other end looking at an ohmmeter to tell me when I'd found the right cable. It didn't work because I'd turned the meter off, which Anna cleverly noticed. But with that resolved, we figured out the right cable, and I connected the second line and wired the jack so that would feed into the DSL modem. Thanks again, crimping tool!

All done! A nice strong signal throughout the house now.

Best misspelling of my name ever

To Sony Customer Service, I am now Juan Chtuweete. That's my hispanic / plains-Indian ancestry.

Customer service

Every time I try to get help with a problem that starts with the basic functionality of some website (e.g., a bank, credit card or insurance website) I seem to have to go through several iterations with the people on the other end before they appear to be willing to actually read my question. Their response process looks like it's designed to dispose of questions by sending out boilerplate answers based on keyword recognition - never mind the actual semantics of the question.

My latest example: Now that both kids have bank accounts, I'd like to arrange to automatically transfer their allowances from my account to theirs. We use Bank of America, which has a facility for automatic periodic transfers. But - for some mysterious reason - not to other B of A accounts. You can do automatic periodic transfers to third-party banks, but not to another account at B of A. At least that's how the web site is set up.

Just to be absolutely sure that this was a hard & fast constraint, and not just some perverse safety feature, I asked: "Message text: Is it possible to set up regularly scheduled transfers to
another Bank of America account? The website only allows for one-time immediate transfers. Thank you." The reply: "We understand you are interested in creating a recurring transfer to
another Bank of America account. The Transfer Funds screen allows you to
set up a recurring transfer plan which makes your transfers
automatically at intervals that you choose." followed by the boilerplate instructions on using this screen. No reference to my question about the limitation. So I replied "When I follow these directions I see this message: "Transfers to another Bank of America customer can only be made on a one time immediate
basis." All the other options are disabled. I am asking whether there's a way to set up periodic transfers, since
the web site doesn't allow it." This time the reply was just awesome in its thickheadedness: "Please be informed that transfers to other Bank of America customers can only be made on a one-time, immediate basis. We recommend you to set up recurring transfers." followed by the same boilerplate. Am I hallucinating, or does the second sentence completely ignore the first?

UPDATE - Round 3, more obliviousness: "We apologize for the confusion you may have experienced regarding the transfers. Please be advised that you are able to make recurring transfers to your daughters's account with Bank of America." followed by the same instructions that don't work.

Poker

Is it wrong to play poker for money in a hold'em tournament with your kids? OK, how about this: is it wrong to put your 11 year old daughter all-in with a set of 9s against her pocket kings?