The 2012 garden is planted!

I suspect this posting will interest me more than it does most of you; I wanted to document what I planted this afternoon in hopes of remembering it next year and choosing appropriately, based on the success or lack thereof of this year’s garden.

As usual, I planted three EarthBoxes with seedlings purchased today from Summerwinds. We waited longer than usual to plant this year for two reasons – first, because our Master Gardener friends told us to wait, and second, because we wanted to plant after coming home from Europe.

The first EarthBox is on our porch, and it has:

  • Diva Organic Cucumber, claims to be ripe in 58 days (July 8)
  • Slice Max Cucumber, “mid-to-early maturing”
  • Red Bell Pepper, ripens in 60–80 days (July 10–30)
  • Yellow Bell Pepper, ripe when it’s a rich yellow.

In past years, I’ve tried planting three peppers, but no more than two have ever produced, so I decided to see how only planting two works. I completely replaced the soil in this box, since the old soil was two years old.

The second EarthBox is out in the sun, with tomatoes. This year’s choices:

  • Early Girl, ripe in 50–62 days (June 30-July 12)
  • Large Red Cherry, ripe in 70–80 days (July 20–30)

Last year was not a good year for tomatoes – we got a fair number of yellow cherry tomatoes but only a few of the larger ones. I replaced half the soil in this box, since it was fresh last year.

The third EarthBox is also out in the sun, with watermelons. I planted two of the same:

  • Sugar Baby, ripe in 72 days (July 22)

Last year, I planted four melons in the same box; we got a few small melons, but nothing exciting. I replaced half the soil in this box, too, since it was fresh last year.

Posted in Life | Tagged | Leave a comment

Amsterdam Dos and Don’ts

Amsterdam Dos and Don’ts

We recently spent a week in Amsterdam before taking a river cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium; I will eventually post photos from the trip, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some possibly-useful tips for others travelling to Amsterdam and environs.

Money

  • DO tell your credit/debit card companies that you will be using your card in the Netherlands and when you’ll be there.
  • DO get money from ATMs rather than buying it before you leave the US; there are ATMs at the airport and all over town and you’ll get a much better rate.
  • DO expect to find some shops which only accept cards and will not accept cash.
  • DON’T get the Travelex “Cash Passport” Chip and PIN card – the exchange rate is hideous and they demand your Social Security number.
  • DO expect to be able to use your US credit card when you are dealing with people – even though the Dutch all have Chip and PIN cards, every credit card machine I saw in a shop could also accept a US magstripe card. [1]
  • DON’T expect to use your US credit card if you’re dealing with an automated kiosk (such as the ticket machines for the railway)
  • DON’T take the option of paying in US Dollars using your credit card. The rate is probably not as good as your card company will give, and if your card has a surcharge for international transactions, you’ll have to pay that surcharge even if the transaction is in US Dollars.
  • DO carry a few Euros in change with you at all times for small purchases and toilets – many public toilets charge between 20–50 cents for access.

Getting into town from the airport

  • DO take the train unless you’re staying far from the city center.
  • DON’T wait until you’re at the airport to buy your train ticket.
  • DO buy your train ticket in advance from Belgian Rail; print it at home and bring it with you.
  • DO have Euro change in pocket if you need to buy your train ticket at the airport, or go to the ticket window if you need to use currency or a US credit card. The machines ONLY take change or PIN cards.
  • DO buy Second Class tickets for this trip unless you have a lot of luggage or can’t manage four steps up or down stairs.
  • DO know that the trains to Centraal Station leave from Schiphol platforms 1 and 2.
  • DON’T get on a “FYRA” train at Schiphol – it will cost you! You want to get on an “IC” train. The trains are marked on the sides of the cars; both use the same platforms.

Getting around town

  • DO walk if you can – the touristy part of Amsterdam is small, and everything of interest is within a 45-minute walk (mostly less). Take public transport only when you’re in a hurry.
  • DO watch out for bicycles and motorbikes, especially when crossing a bike path (and every street has bike paths). Treat them as you would any other fast-moving dangerous vehicle.
  • DON’T be surprised by motorbikes (or bicycles) on the sidewalk, either, though they are usually going slowly there.
  • DON’T worry about having exact change on trams; the conductor gives change. I don’t know about busses.

iAmsterdam card

  • DO buy the iAmsterdam card.
  • DON’T buy it at the VVV office at Centraal Station – there are long lines. If you must buy it there, use Line 6, not the “full-service” lines.
  • DON’T pre-purchase the card over the Internet, which means picking up the card in person at the VVV office – in that same long line, of course.
  • DO buy it at one of the other locations; if you plan to start with a canal tour, buy it at their counter (you’ll have to go there anyway to get the ticket that’s part of the pass).
  • DO be strategic about the time of day that you activate the pass. It is valid for 24/48/72 hours, not 1/2/3 days. If you activate a 24-hour pass at 11am on Wednesday, you can use it all the rest of that day and then enter a museum before 11am on Thursday and stay there the whole day. This works best for major museums, like the Maritime Museum or the Van Gogh, of course. If you’re really hardcore, you could go to the Maritime Museum at 10am on the last day of your pass and get a ticket, immediately go to another nearby museum and see it, then return to the Maritime Museum because your ticket is good for the entire day.
  • DO realize that the museum pass and the travel pass are completely separate after you buy them; you need not activate them at the same time (or even on the same day).
  • DO realize that the discount offers in the booklet are valid even after your card expires (I think they go to the end of the year); you just need to bring the card and the booklet.
  • DON’T plan to go to the Rijksmuseum or the Anne Frank House on the iAmsterdam card.

Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll

  • DON’T be afraid of walking through the Red Light District (of course, be aware of your surroundings, just as you would anywhere else).
  • DON’T take photos of “red rooms” or the women working in them.
  • DON’T go to a coffeeshop for coffee.

Eating and drinking

  • DO expect the inside of restaurants to be non-smoking (both kinds of smoke).
  • DO expect a lot of [tobacco] smokers just outside of a restaurant.
  • DON’T expect free refills on coffee.
  • DON’T expect free tap water.
  • DO expect service charges to be included in your bill; round up to the next Euro or two if you’re especially pleased. I ran into one restaurant where service was marked as “Not Included” on the bill and tipped about 10% – I have no idea if that was right or not.

Staying connected

  • DON’T use your US cell carrier’s international data plan, even by accident. AT&T’s price is $20/megabyte; other carriers are similarly exorbitant.
  • DO consider using iPhoneTrip.com if you have an unlocked device or are on AT&T. I paid $17/day for unlimited data anywhere in Europe and used about 50 megabytes/day, which would have cost $1000 on AT&T.
  • DO look for “Free Wi-Fi” hotspots; many small restaurants offer free Wi-Fi. One near our hotel gave us the password when we stopped to look at their menu and told us the service was available 24/7. We wound up having breakfast there four times!
  • DO look for free Wi-Fi from free-hotspot.com if you’re near a fast-food chain like McDonalds, Burger King, or Subway.

    Language

  • DON’T expect to need to know much (if any) Dutch. All tourist-oriented businesses are completely English-friendly, and almost everyone in the Netherlands seems to speak and understand English.
  • DO try to sound-out written Dutch if you need to figure out a sign; it looks unlike English, but I found it fairly easy.
  • DO say “Dank U Well” (“thank you”).

  1. I did find one ice cream shop which said it would only take PIN cards or change (no bills) – I don’t know if their machine would have taken a US card or not.

     ↩
Posted in Travel | Leave a comment

I never could get the hang of Tuesdays….

There’s nothing like having the phone ring early in the morning, unless it’s looking at the caller-id and seeing it’s your credit card company. Needless to say, the person on the other end introduced herself as being from the Fraud Protection department.

I probably should have been properly paranoid and called them back, but she had enough information to convince me that she was legitimate (either that or a very good scammer). After we’d established mutual bona fides, she asked me the big question:

“Did you use your card to pay 399 South Korean Won for a website named ‘First Date’?”

Nope. And neither had my son or my wife.

And actually, neither had the thief – they’d tried, but “Verified by Visa” kicked in and they were unable to answer the question it asked, so the charge was declined and activated the fraud prevention system, leading to this morning’s call.

Naturally, this was the card I use for all my automatic payments (so I’m careful not to use it at gas stations or other places where skimmers are likely to live); fortunately, I have downloaded copies of my last few statements handy and can update all my accounts when the new cards arrive. It’ll make a great excuse not to do something more productive.

On a brighter note, the first thing I saw when I logged onto Facebook today was a congratulatory post to Luba Cherbakov (one of my peers in my last group at IBM) on her appointment to IBM Fellow; when I looked at the press release, I found that Ron Fagin, a fellow member of Shir Hadash, had also been appointed as an IBM Fellow. Well-deserved congratulations to both of them! (I wonder if the food at the ceremony was Kosher for Passover.)

Posted in Life | 2 Comments

A break from 24/7

For the last few weeks, I’ve been turning off my iPhone on Shabbat from the time Torah Study starts (about 9:30am) until services end (around noon). Today, I took it a step further, and kept the phone off through lunch, a play at San Jose Rep (God of Carnage, recommended), and even through dinner with Diane at Il Fornaio.

It was amazingly restful.

The phone is back on (I needed the GPS for our evening walk), but I intend to be more mindful in how I use it during the coming week. And it’s worth remembering that airplane mode works on the ground, too.

Posted in Life | 1 Comment

The science is real

I was curious about the poster outside Amy’s lab in tonight’s episode of The Big Bang Theory. Thanks to the magic of HDTV and TiVo, I was able to read the title: “Quantized, spontaneous persisten activity in the entorhinal cortex in vivo”, the name of the lead author: James McFarland, and his institutional affiliation: Departments of Physics and Neuroscience, Brown University. From there, it was a short Google to his dissertation, and then to his page at the University of Maryland, where he is currently a postdoc.

I wonder how his poster got to the show.

Posted in Life | Comments Off

Super Bowl Advertising Works!

I’ve just moved my last domain away from GoDaddy. I’d planned to do it last year after the elephant-shooting controversy, but I’d only gotten as far as setting up the appropriate DNS entries at NameCheap.

Yesterday’s GoDaddy Super Bowl ad reminded me to finish the job, and now all of my domains are at NameCheap.

There were a few ads I liked yesterday; Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” ad caught and held my attention, as did Chevy’s “Twinkies” spot, and I enjoyed Audi’s “Vampires”. Other than that...let's just say that I’m glad the game was close.

Posted in Life | Comments Off

How to lose a donor

It’s 8:55am on Saturday, and the phone rings. Caller-ID shows it to be “800 Service”, but I decide to answer anyway.

The caller introduces herself as a paid caller on behalf of the American Lung Association. I ask her to remove me from their call list, which she agrees to do.

Then I mention that it’s before 9am on a Saturday, which is too early to call someone. Her reply: “we start at 8am”.

Dear American Lung Association: pissing off potential donors is a bad idea. Having your solicitors take a holier-than-thou attitude about the time they call is a terrific way of pissing off those donors. Be assured that your mail will go directly to my recycle bin from now on.

Posted in Life | Comments Off

If it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity

It’s been a strange week for Silicon Valley companies – I hope it’s not something in the water.

Facebook

There was a time when I felt compelled to keep up with my friends’ postings on Facebook. If I was too busy to check the site during the day, I’d make a point of scrolling back as far as it would let me so I’d miss as little as possible.

I remember feeling that way as clearly as I remember yesterday.

But yesterday seems far away; today, Facebook gifted me with their latest design change, and suddenly, I have no desire to catch up. In fact, I have very little desire to go to Facebook at all – the new design is complicated, what with a scrolling ticker in the upper right, an arbitrary division in the main text area between the “Top News” and the “Recent Updates”, and, in general, a lot of visual sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Google+ looks more attractive every day; I just wish they’d let me use it from my primary email address (hosted on Google Apps for Your Domain) instead of forcing me to use my depreciated GMail address.

Netflix

Perhaps Facebook’s new complication was inspired by the Sunday night Netflix announcement. If so, they have more work to do – after all, you can still interact with everything that Facebook offers on one website, while Netflix is going to force their remaining users to deal with Netflix and Quickster.

I didn’t mind the price increase much, but doubling my workload because Reed Hastings has a vision of the future…what do they think they are, an airline?

Posted in Life | 1 Comment

links for 2011-09-14

Posted in bookmarks | Comments Off

Redesign!

The last time I made any significant change to the design of this blog was when I moved it from being a guest on editthispage.com to my own domain. That was in 2005, and at the time, I had to ensure that the blog would be readable by my Mom on her 800x600 screen. So I took a then-new WordPress theme and adapted it to my needs by putting it onto a piece of wood and banging a few nails through it.

My original design constraints became irrelevant more than five years ago, but every time I thought about changing the appearance of the blog, I thought about the mass of CSS and PHP I’d have to deal with and put the project aside for another day. Or year.

This week, though, I started assisting the Webmaster of the Los Gatos Silver Tongued Cats Toastmasters club in moving our site from FreeToastHost to WordPress (a project not yet complete), and he showed me how easy it was to make changes using modern themes and their associated widgets. So I spent this afternoon updating this blog to use the Weaver theme; the hardest part was figuring out how to get my Google AdSense to display where I wanted it (under the title) at the full width of the page (the answer: put the AdSense code in as a snippet instead of using the header widget).

I’m not sure that I’m finished with the redesign, but it certainly seems more modern (and less tiring to read on a widescreen display). Comments are welcome, of course.

Posted in Blogging | Comments Off