The site has been updated from the old HTML tables-within-tables layout to an XHTML and CSS standards-compliant website. Although not much has changed appearance-wise, under the hood it is completely different. Nobody uses the old style of website design as it is inferior on many levels, so it was something I've been wanting to learn and implement for a long time now- I just finally got around to it. Internet Explorer has been the dominant web browser for a long time and as such they did not feel the need to comply with web standards, although IE8 is supposed to be standards compliant. The CSS books are chock-full of exceptions and hacks to accommodate Internet Explorer. All the other browsers, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Konquerer, are all standards compliant. Thus, I decided not to implement the IE hacks and request that all viewers of this website use IE8 or one of the other browsers. This requirement is mostly a pet peeve of mine, in that I don't like Internet Explorer. Don't use it! =)

The radio stations have been playing Thriller, Billie Jean, and Beat It all weekend. I've been listening to Capital FM at home and at work since ARM doesn't allow any personal files to be stored on work computers - it's either streaming or an iPod. Oddly, I never knew MJ sang Smooth Criminal, I always associated it with Alien Antfarm. 80's pop culture isn't really my strong point. Farah Fawcett and Ed McMahon also died this week. I had to look up Farah Fawcett on Wikipedia. What a tragic story. Anyway, I guess Michael's life was quite tragic also. Ever since that Martin Bashir interview I just thought of him as a mental case. But I'll do my best to forget about that and just remember how talented he was. This weekend's playbacks of all his songs reminded me of that.

First off, Opera announced Opera Unite last week which basically adds web service capabilities into their browser allowing a user to share documents, pictures, and music on your computer simply by selecting which folder to share. This is great for sharing a lot of hi-res pictures with friends without having to compress the pics or use a website like megaupload. Also, since it's a web server, you can host your own website instead of going through godaddy or other service provider. Of course, as it is a web server, when your computer is off or not connected to the internet, nobody can access your files/webpage. However, it's pretty sweet. Opera isn't a well known browser, but I hope it takes off.

A couple of Google competitors debuted websites. Wolfram|Alpha showed off their new search engine they are calling an "answer engine". Their video presentation is very impressive, however, I was a bit disappointed when I actually started using the site. The media hyped it as a competitor to Google but really it is a niche market and not a competitor at all. Nonetheless, it's worth checking out. On the other hand, Bing, a "decision engine", is more of a direct competitor to Google. Unlike Wolfram|Alpha, I was impressed with Bing. A funny story, during development, Microsoft was contemplating putting the Microsoft logo on the site and through surveys and trials found that it was a deterrent on user's first impressions when opening the site. As such, only the name "Microsoft" and not the logo appear on the site. The image and video previews on Bing are great, along with the textual description preview of the site which is available without actually going to the site. I really like their homepage image- it maintains the 'simple' philosophy that Google has, yet with a little more up-to-date feel. Like Wolfram|Alpha, and most new websites/features, Bing has a video presentation as well. It actually has more than one.

Regarding the qualifiers for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, Costa Rica is ranked #1 in the North American group, followed by USA and Honduras. Mexico, whom many thought would be ranked #1 is hanging in at #4 and Trinidad and Tobago is in last place at #6. The top three are guaranteed to go to South Africa; the fourth place team must defeat the fifth placed team from South America to make it to South Africa. Thus, with 5 more games to go for each team, anybody can make it, even Trinidad. I'm rooting for the USA and Costa Rica and Trinidad! The next games are not until August.

Finally, for reading amusement, I bring you 27b/6. I enjoyed the Pets in the Building email conversation along with the Overdue Account exchange. On a more serious note, this article on health care is worth a read. Hope this provides some good reading material for at-desk lunches.

I'm not quite sure what spurred Aramco into convincing the Saudi government into allowing a reunion for westerners (it's almost impossible to obtain a visa to enter Saudi Arabia for tourist purposes only), but they allowed it and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many former Aramcons to visit. I knew Celeste and Shannon, both from my grade, who traveled there and Celeste documented her whole trip; of which I'm very grateful as it allowed me to get a glimpse of what it might have been like if I, myself, had made the return visit. I'll give a brief overview but feel free to read the whole blog for a full perspective (warning: it may be very boring for those not familiar with the area). The culture clash is still a big problem there. More western companies have moved in such as Starbucks, Forever21, Ikea, Olive Garden, etc., but many stores have separated male-female sections and/or separated family-singles sections. The enforcement of western women covering their body and head seems to have gotten stricter and harassing western women seems to have gotten worse. The women on the trip were consistently told that it's "easier" if you wear an abaya, not to make eye contact with Saudi men, and not to speak unless spoken to. When we lived there it wasn't this bad.

Since I'm giving the highlights it probably sounds worse than it is but some other sad things to note: The maze gardens that I used to play at in the Hills School are gone. The high dive at the 3rd Street pool has been removed. All the snackbars have been remodeled and serve different food; they look nothing like I remember. Camp seemed deserted, quiet, not many people out and about, and there are very few westerners left (Saudis now make up 75% of the population). Overall, it has changed so much that hardly anything looked familiar. An occasional thing here and there but it's just not the same. Celeste posted a bunch of pictures and as I was going through them, nothing clicked; the pictures looked completely foreign; however, it could also be due to my bad memory =). Jet fighters still fly overhead on their training runs, the golf course, although they've added more grass, is still mostly sand, and the desert is still the desert - it hasn't changed much. However, the place that we remember as kids no longer exists.

Sad news hit the family last Friday (Apr 24) when my Grandpa passed away. Last time I saw him was in 2004 when our family took a trip up to the NE. My Grandpa was born in 1914 and died at the age of 94, which is amazing! He was in good health all the way to the end and he died within a couple of days. I have a few odd memories of him. When we saw him last, Carrie's kids were with us, and I distinctly remember him cursing just about every other sentence. It took us aback at first, as we just aren't used to it, especially from somebody my Grandpa's age, but he was not trying to be offensive and it simply just flowed out like any other word; to him it was just part of talking. It made the conversation rather entertaining in a way. I remember that he liked burnt cookies and ordering liver at restaurants. Also, when we asked about our Mom's childhood he seemed resistant to talk about it for some reason. Perhaps it was just my imagination. From what I knew about him, he was definitely a character and had some great stories growing up during the Depression and being a WWII veteran. However, since we always lived so far away from him, I never really knew my Grandpa well, but I am saddened by his passing.

A lot of things around here are prefixed with "Oly", shortening of Olympia, therefore it's pronounced with a long 'O'. Even at work, our code modules are prefixed with "Oly". Anyway, things in Olympia are great. Today was especially nice as it was about 72 degrees and blue skies, essentially a perfect day. Everyone was outside enjoying the weather. I could see Mt. Rainier looking out east and the Olympic Mountains in the NW; usually there are too many clouds so you can't see them. I bought an apartment with a 6-month lease to give me enough time to scout out the area and buy a house. I'm in a great location: I walk to work, I can go down the hill to Capitol Lake (the lake in front of the capitol building ... duh) as part of my running route, there is a Barnes and Noble, grocery store, and mall, all within 5 minutes of driving, not to mention downtown Olympia and Interstate 5. My running route is pleasant, with few cars, and lots of trees and water, yet, I'm close enough to the businesses and roads that everything is convenient. Just about a perfect balance. Now if I could just find a house in the same location that's reasonable. I've looked at a few houses and they're more expensive than in Floria, so I don't know if I'm just looking in the wrong areas or if housing prices just haven't fallen here like they have elsewhere. I'm hesitant to plunk down $375k for a 3-bedroom.

I went shopping this weekend - filling in the apartment with various kitchen and housing items that I never owned or threw away when I moved. I stopped by the Dollar Store to check it out as I've heard they are becoming quite popular. I've never been a big fan of these types of stores, and my venture in the Olympia dollar store didn't do anything to change my mind. In fact, the store was a bit frightening and I think I'm now scarred for life. I don't know why, but the items just seem too cheap, and I dare never buy something that I would actually eat or use to eat. How do they make this stuff so cheap?? It's disturbing. As for grocery shopping, Safeway dominates, but I prefer a store called Top Foods. Food prices here are outrageously expensive, which is probably why Costco is so popular in these parts. I always thought oranges should be dirt cheap in Florida but they weren't, so I had no expectations that apples would be cheap here, but I was wrong. The small apples you can buy for 25 cents each, and they are often on sale for 10 cents each. It sounds like something my Dad would say: "back when I was a kid we used to buy apples for a dime" or something like that. Other than these two grocery stores, there's no other competition, but I did read online that they're planning on opening a Trader Joe's in Olympia this summer. Sweet.

I've been to Seattle but haven't headed out to the national parks yet; I plan to do that next weekend. However, I have been looking at the wildlife around Olympia. I have a little pond in my backyard with all the common wildlife: mallards, wood ducks, steller's jays, rock doves, american robins, eastern gray squirrels, and on occasion I've seen a rabbit but I'm not sure which kind. Down at capitol lake I've seen buffleheads and canadian geese along with several birds also common in Florida: double-crested cormorants, great blue heron, and american coots. Anyway, it's kinda fun checking out the different wildlife around here.

I just wanted to give a brief summary of things here in OlyWa. I'm enjoying the change in weather and change of environment. I really like this city. Work is going well. Things are good.

Just wanted to summarize an interesting article in the Atlantic Monthly regarding our current financial crisis.

This article was written by Simon Johnson, PhD of economics from MIT, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, and expert on economic crisis prevention and mitigation, specifically with emerging market countries. He begins the article by describing his typical clientele, officials from emerging market countries of eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Typically, these countries are in dire economic conditions for the same reason - the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks, building massive business empires on a mountain of debt. When credit conditions become tighter, a nasty downward econmic spiral ensues with the government giving assistance to their old friends, the well-connected, oligarchs who had previously brought much wealth to the country. However, as conditions get worse the government's need to squeeze someone falls first on the ordinary working folk, only until riots grow too large. It is not long after this that the country's minister of finance will be at the IMF in need of a loan. This is the typical scenario encountered by the IMF and the economic solution is relatively simple, it's the politics that becomes the obstacle. The IMF's job then involves sorting through the politics of the emerging market country, making sure that those well-connected oligarchs that are incompetent are released from power. Some of the elite must take a hit. History has shown these situations to be strikingly similar and, fortunately, the outcome is also similar: the IMF program leads to economic stabilization and eventual growth for the emerging market country.

The similarities of these economic crises in emerging markets are disturbingly similar to what is happening in the United States: credit tightening, global investors no longer lending, close ties between the financial business and the government, financial businesses making riskier and riskier gambles with the knowledge the government (their "friends") would help out if a gamble did not succeed, and the financial companies wielding their power to prevent the sort of banking reforms that are necessary to resolve the problem.

The things that led to this crisis have been developing for the past 25 years: presidential administrations have been deregulating the industry (including regulations that were passed as a result of the Great Depression), riskier investments have been allowed, the connections between Wall Street and Washington have been strengthened, and the SEC becoming more and more invisible in its enforcement. These developments have led to unprecedented power within the finance sector. The finance sector, which historically accounts for less than 15% of U.S. Business profits reached 41% this decade. The average pay per worker in the financial sector, which historically averages around 100% as it should, reached 181% in 2007. As for some examples of the NY/DC connections: Robert Rubin was co-chair of Goldman Sachs, Treasury secretary under Clinton, and later chairman of Citigroup's executive committee. Hank Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs later became Treasury Secretary under George Bush, and of course instituted the $700 billion bailout and saved AIG from bankruptcy with $85 billion. The possibility of a conflict of interest seems almost assured. Paulson maintains close friendships with higher-ups of the bailout beneficiaries, personally received $200 million in tax-deferred benefits from Goldman Sachs, is proposing to use the $700 billion bailout fund in ways originally not intended, and has unprecedented power over the economic and financial life of the United States as the Paulson Plan states "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." The ties between the financial elite and the government is redolent of corruption similar to the emerging market economies commonly reviewed by the IMF.

The challenges the United States faces are familiar territory to the people at the IMF. If you hid the name of the country and just showed them the data, there is no doubt what old IMF hands would say: nationalize troubled banks and break them up as necessary. This solution is a proven solution for emerging market economies. The root cause of the banking problems is hiding of losses. These banks do not want to reveal the magnitude of their losses as it would render them insolvent. Instead, they ask for handouts that aren't enough to make them healthy but are just enough to keep them upright a little longer. The banks then tend to make even riskier gambles in the hopes of striking it big, exacerbating the problem further. Thus, the government must force the banks to acknowledge the scale of their problems, and essentially the only way to do this is to nationalize the bank, of which the US government itself has insisted to multiple emerging-market economies in the past. The goal isn't to have permanent state ownership of the bank, but instead have immediate recognition of the financial problems, replace failed management, clean up the balance sheets, and then sell the banks back to the private sector.

As mentioned before, the economic solution is usually the easy solution; the political solution is more difficult. Thus, the second problem the U.S. faces is the power of the oligarchy. This solution is not simply about changing the oligarchy but breaking up the big banks in order to limit power. In September, Lehman Brothers was allowed to go into bankruptcy (the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history) but Citigroup and Bank of America are much bigger compared to Lehman and have been called "too big to fail". Anything that is too big to fail is too big to exist. Any one company that can bring down the entire economy should be broken up into smaller pieces.

Up until now we've compared the U.S. financial crisis to those of emerging-market economies. But the U.S. is not an emerging market economy. When emerging market countries run out of money, they literally run out of money, as they are dependent on foreign currency and these foreign countries have stopped lending. Rich beyond measure and with the ability to pay other countries in its own currency, the U.S. simply has to print more money, a consequence which would allow the economy to stumble upon for years with high inflation without ever resolving the root cause problem, and therefore never fully recovering. This scenario is not an option for emerging-market economies. Another scenario has a bleaker outcome. As the global economy worsens and our government is unable to muster the courage to take action against the banking system and breaking of the old elite, the inter-connectedness of the global economy pushes the U.S. economy further into a nosedive, which in turn causes the global economy to worsen, resulting in a vicious cycle and ultimately into another Great Depression, whose magnitude could be equal to or greater in extent due to the inter-connectedness of today's world economies.