My professional profile is available on LinkedIn.com:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dudcat

I just read an interesting article from Business 2.0 about people out there blogging for a living. Now I just have to figure out what to blog about, and then get a dedicated following of millions, and I'll be rolling in the dough!
;)

Just read on CNN that nationwide SAT scores this year had their biggest drop in 31 years. Various reasons are given, including the fact that the test format changed this year and the price to take the test went up.
Anecdotally it seems like SAT scores have been on this downward trend for decades so I did some searching and found an interesting paper about the SAT test. It made me realize that designing an ideal test is a hard if not impossible task, and that as much as the College Board says otherwise all those SAT coaching programs really can make an impact. Which goes back to the argument whether the test reflects aptitude or demographics - because there definitely is a correlation because family income and the likelihood a student will enroll in a coaching program. I also liked the part where the author mentions that the students of 1926 (the first year the SAT was administered) faired poorly because they felt guessing on a multiple choice test was immoral!

So I just got a Treo 650 and here's my first post from it. If you are into gadgets, you definitely have to get one of these! Google maps on the go is awesome!

Kristal aka Nameless Girlfriend



Brandon "I like Beer" Duncan

So Kristal and I decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner at her place in Santa Cruz. I had wanted to try riding my bike from my place to Santa Cruz, so I figured the hot turkey (in our case, Trader Joe's fish) dinner waiting for me would be incentive to pedal hard.
So I set out from my place around noon and rode across San Jose to Los Gatos and up to the Lexington dam. I was already tired by the time I got to the top, and my journey was just begining. I still had to pedal over the Santa Cruz mountains! Here's a view looking out over the resevoir:

From here I rode around the west side of the resevoir on a single track to Old Santa Cruz highway which parallels Highway 17 for a while. This is where things got really tough. I won't lie, I had to stop quite a few times, but I was pedalling up to a 2000 foot elevation.
Not much up there except trees and lots of curves in the roads, but I did pass an inflatable turkey which seemed to mock me as I pedalled by spinning the cranks as fast as I could, yet only managing a snail's pace:

By the time I made it to the summit 3 hours had already passed and my legs were numb from the pain, and not even a strategically packed Power Bar could bring them back to life. Luckily, the ride down was a breeze. Literally! I coasted for several minutes at a time, getting up to speeds of 40mph. Fast enough to give a "wazzup" to the motorcyclist who came alongside me. I don't want to think what would have happened to me if I hit a rock in the road at that speed!
Around 4pm I limped into Kristal's apartment and proceeded to scarf down everything in site:

Of course now that I've checked that off of my "things to do before I die" list, I was in no hurry to do it again, so I packed my bike into Kristal's car and got a lift back to my place, with a newfound appreciation for powered transportation!

Kristal and I put together a delicious meal the other night from some ingredients we had around. It was a bit of an adventure since we weren't going off any recipe, so we basically mixed a bunch of stuff together and crossed our fingers.
But it turned out great. I call our creation Dijon pork with Couscous salad.
Here's how we made it:

1. Get some Trader Joe's whole wheat couscous and prepare about 1/4 of the box. Put the couscous in the fridge to cool.

2. Defrost two pork loin chops. I got some from Omaha Steaks. These guys are great. You can order over the internet and they ship the stuff on dry ice from Nebraska. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Pierce the pork with a fork a few times, and rub about 5 tablespoons worth of Grey Poupon (or other Dijon mustard) on it. Sprinkle some dried Thyme, salt, and pepper on both sides of the pork.

4. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on a skillet over high heat. Brown each side of the pork (about 2 1/2 minutes on each side). Now, assuming the skillet is ovenproof, throw the whole thing in the oven on the middle rack for about 15 minutes.

5. While the pork is in the oven, take the cold couscous and mix the following ingredients: sliced Kalamata olives, freshly chopped parsley (yes, it's more than just a garnish!), chopped tomatoes, and a generous amount of olive oil.

6. Serve and enjoy!

Here's a picture of the dishes - note the pork hasn't been cooked yet. I made everything in a different order than I describe here, but I realized after the fact there was a more efficient way to do it.

In case you were wondering what my pad really looks like, here's a better view of casa de duncan:

So my nameless girlfriend and I recently decided to move to San Francisco. Call it a personal attachment (because I'm certainly not going to make any money off of it) but I'm going to keep my house in San Jose and rent it out. But before I can do that, I have to make someone actually want to rent it, so that means finishing all of my home improvement projects.
So I took tomorrow off work and I'm heading down to the ol' Home Depot for supplies. The plan is to finish the home office by installing a closet door, bedroom door, and baseboards. We'll see how far I actually get...
So we can track my progress, here's a "before" picture of my abode:

If all goes according to plan, this is what it should look like after I'm done:

You might be wondering why I think the world needs another blog. Well, let me tell you. I decided to start keeping this blog for several reasons:

1. Throughout the day I check out news websites for interesting things going on in the world. The type of stuff you don't usually see in the headlines. When I find something particularly weird, funny, or interesting, I usually IM the link to several people and then waste even more of my day having the exact same IM conversation about said news article. By posting these links in a blog, hopefully they will be seen by a wider audience, and if anyone has anything to say about them they can feel free to comment.

2. I know this has been repeated almost to the point of cliche, but I think blogs are a very interesting advance in the way people communicate electronically and I think it's got lots of potential. Of course any technology is only as good as its content - case in point, VHS versus Betamax. Of course Betamax was the better technology, but once the porno producers embraced VHS, it was all over ;) The point being that I'm going to strive to provide you with the best content I can, and if you think I sound boring/stupid/lazy feel free to let me know!

3. I would like to use this as a forum to test out some ideas I have about a book or two I want to write, and engage some people in topics I find interesting, like economics and social issues.

4. When I'm an old coot I can look back on this and think, "wow, I said some stupid stuff back when I was young!"