Tag Archives: John

November 6, 2011 · 12:58 pm

Pictures: El Camino Real 31st Convention

The 31st annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real was held this weekend in Salinas, California. Bishop Mary Gray-Reeeves and the convention were honored to host two guest Bishops, the Right Reverend Sadock Makaya (Diocese of Western Tanganyika) and the Rt. Rev. Michael Perham (Diocese of Gloucester) and their delegations. My husband John and Rev. Stephenie Cooper ran the electronics and I participated as part of the delegation from St. Andrew’s (Saratoga). We prayed, celebrated, sang, ate and drank, laughed at the picture of Bishop Barbie, and passed resolutions on strategic planning, use of scents in church, and started a study on poverty and unequal wealth.

I just updated Bishop Mary’s Wikipedia entry to include information about the successful companion diocese relationship started in 2008:

At the 2008 meeting of the Lambeth Conferences of the Anglican Communion, Bishops Mary Gray-Reeves of El Camino Real , Michael Perham of Gloucester , and Gerard Mpango of Western Tanganyika formed a Partnership of their Dioceses. This successful Companion Diocese ^[5] relationship has resulted in an annual round of visits between the bishops and delegations to each other’s home countries and the 2011 book The Hospitality of God^[6] by Mary Gray-Reeves and Michael Perham. On 30 June 2010, the three Bishops wrote a joint letter ^[7] to Rowan Williams , the Archbishop of Canterbury about what they were learning. In 2010, Bishop Sadock Makaya succeeded Bishop Gerard Mpango in the partnership.

3 bishops at El Camino Real convention 2011

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Tagged as Episcopal church, Geeks, John, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Wikipedia

October 9, 2011 · 12:12 am

Beautiful but unusable web design

My delightful and generous husband gave me a fancy coffee maker for my birthday. I like drinking a morning Italian caffè latte (a double espresso with non-fat milk) and don’t always have time to stop on my way to work to have one made. John thoughtfully researched and selected a Nespresso coffee maker. Each morning, we have been working through the sample coffees that came with the new machine. The Nespresso coffee does not have the excellent complex flavors of a Peet’s fresh cup but it is very good – at least as good as Starbuck’s. The machine is well designed, very quick, and relatively easy to use – although we are still trying to minimize the milk foam.

The problem arose when we used enough coffee capsules to want to place a reorder. This lead me to the web page and my current frustration. I believe that I have a candidate for the 15-year-old Web Pages That Suck competition. (If you want to know more about this, check out the books Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design (1998) and Son of Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design (2002) by Vincent Flanders.)

The Nespresso website is pretty, maybe even beautiful, but it is almost unusably indirect and pretentious. There are so many complex dead end web pages to get lost in that trying to place a simple product reorder is maddeningly frustrating. I currently have one half registered online account that is in conflict with my phone-in account – all of which has taken me two unreasonably long phone calls to set up. I really just wanted to order more coffee online, not have a phone conversation with customer service about whether the coloring of the Roma capsule was brown or maybe a greyish-black when compared with the Ristretto, the Cosi, or the Indriya. I have worked with too many excellent usability engineers to be faked out by this design-over-substance. I am not quite ready to go back to ground coffee and filter papers, but I am close!

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September 24, 2011 · 3:33 pm

Geeky Shopping in China

My husband John has been working in Xian and Shenzhen, China, this month, returning home at last next Wednesday. I have written before about John and his blinky lights – model railroad signal indicators – and open source boards. While in Shenzhen, he went shopping several times in the technical parts district, including a visit to the company that makes his boards.

A friend said that John had so many LEDs flashing in his room that at night it was easy to see which was John’s window at the Hasee Paradise Hotel near the Huawei campus. John’s new geek ware was heavy: he had to pay for 10 kilos extra weight flying back from Shenzhen to Xian.

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Tagged as China, Geeks, Huawei, John

September 11, 2011 · 6:50 pm

John in China

My husband John is on a month-long business trip to China for Huawei, visiting his staff in Xian and ShenZhen. We bought a Panasonic LX5 Lumix camera for his trip. We both like my Canon Powershot S95 but were looking for a camera that managed closeups and color better. It has been interesting seeing China through his lens, both the grand and the small. I look forward to his posting the latest pictures to our joint Flickr account.

When John and I traveled to Beijing and Xian together in 2005, we often ate dishes that we wanted to order again here at home in California. Since we do not speak Chinese, we could only describe the ingredients to a good cook and hope for the best. For this trip, John is taking pictures of his favorite dishes.

We talk by phone or Skype every day.

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August 29, 2011 · 12:31 pm

Back Road Not Taken

My husband and I recently drove out of Camp Blue at the Lair of the Golden Bear near Pinecrest Lake to go down the mountain to the Twain Harte Market for supplies. We decided to take a back road returning to camp, instead the usual highway 108 through the Stanislaus National Forest. John and I ended up on a wild and scenic and delightful drive down “Lyons Lake Road” and a series of other more-or-less-maintained fire roads. We ended up backtracking 12 miles after the “road” abruptly headed into a steep uphill gully filled with big stones (we did not have four wheel drive or a winch on the front of our Mercedes SUV).

At one point, we were faced with the classic dilemma of poet Robert Frost:

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost, 1920

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	     

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	      

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	   

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

We saw some amazing pink-brown lava aggregate boulders in the alpine meadows the road wandered through at 5,000 feet above sea level:

Also many deer, rabbit, raccoon and other animal tracks in the dust of the road:

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August 26, 2011 · 5:20 pm

Making Pots at Camp

I have written about how proud I am of my son Paul’s pots. This is to show you two of mine:

Last week, we went for our annual stay at U.C. Berkeley’s Lair of the Golden Bear family camp. In addition to swimming, singing, and long walks, my family enjoys making ceramics together in the Camp Blue Art Grove. Jessica and Paul and I all made pots while Matt and John kept us company. Paul coached us on our technique using the potter’s wheel. Working with clay under the trees is lovely. We watched the squirrels steal paper towels from the trash to line their winter nests. Seeing a ground squirrel dashing off into the bushes with a wad of wet brown paper in its mouth is funny.

My brother Pete was in a tent nearby with his family. Jessica and Matt were awarded a Camp Blue loving cup (usually given for sports participation) to honor their being newlyweds at camp.

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Tagged as Jessica, John, Lair of the Bear, marriage, Matthew, Paul, University of California

July 31, 2011 · 1:35 pm

Ladies’ Wedding Tea

My daughter Jessica is getting married next week. We are mostly ready for the big event (125 guests). Yesterday, she and I went back to the tailor’s for another sash fitting, bought her two party dresses, and went to the florist. John and Paul went to the grocery store and the bakery. Sinead (the Maid of Honor) and Jessica baked cookies when we got back.

Last night, we held the Ladies’ Tea for the senior women in Jessica’s life to celebrate. The gentlemen of the family were invited to go elsewhere. The younger ladies are getting together for a bachelorette party next week. All of the guests brought their favorite treats. We had cakes and cucumber sandwiches and rosemary bread and cornbread (with honey) and tarts and biscotti and lavender ice tea and hot teas and wine. The table decorations were the wishes tree, wedding favors, and love poems with ribbons to be given out at next week’s big event. My favorite was the almond cake with marzipan frosting in the shape of a gift box with a big bow (from Flower Flour bakery and florist here in Willow Glen, San Jose CA).

Tonight, the families of the Bride and Groom meeting for dinner and board games at our house – to check in and make final plans. We usually play Settlers or Hearts.