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On Wednesday night, we decided to get into LA for a night out since it was my last week on the project. First up, we dropped by Dodger Stadium to watch Dodgers v Giants. This time, Giants won 6-4. I only got a little good-natured harrasment for my SF cap.

After the baseball, we went into Hollywood since JD and Ankit hadn’t been there before. After checking out various stars on the ground, we just had to go to Hooters (apparently) because Tony hadn’t been to one.

I almost forgot how bad their food is and how a little T&A is supposed to make it seem worth the price.
More photos here.

Luckily for me, there was a service here in San Francisco. A little early, but great to have the chance to think about Anzac Day with other New Zealanders and Australians.

This is my great grand uncle, Norman Carter. KIA France 1918.

Anzac Day on Wikipedia for my US friends.

I’ve got 4 invitations for Joost. First four replies to this mesage (on blog.ridsel.com or facebook) get ‘em. I’m watching Ministry of Sound TV right now!

When my family got our first microwave oven in the early 1980’s, it came with a handheld detector so we could test if the shielding was working. Perhaps it was an introductory gimmick from the microwave companies to calm consumers’ fears over a new technology. Anyways, you don’t get them with new ovens. Still, it is possible for shielding to fail over time.

An interesting trick I recently heard to test your microwave’s shielding: Put your phone in the microwave and call your phone. In case some slow types have managed to read this: don’t microwave your phone. Anyway, the idea is that if your sheilding is good, your phone won’t ring.

I’m not sure if this is urban legend or what. I know that ovens operate at around 2450 MHz and phones are usually 850/900 to 1800/1900 depending on country and network. So, why would an oven sheild a different frequency?

Can anyone test this for me? I can’t, since my entire house is impervious to my network’s signal so my phone won’t ring whether it’s inside or outside the oven.

Consulting is always just like this. Always. http://www.gettingdrunkinfirstclass.com/

On the principle that horrific = healthy, this must be great for you. http://www.gtskombucha.com/

Makes a radio station based around music that matches (on a variety of dimensions) a song or artist of your choice. http://www.pandora.com/

This past weekend I stayed in LA instead of heading back to SF. The main reason was that I needed to stay for Friday anyway, because I’d signed up to participate in the JA Day organized by the young consultants based out of the LA office. Tony and Ankit stayed back too, so we had a weekend posse.

Junior Achievement (JA) is an organization that seeks to teach children about business and society at a young age. It’s generally content that is in the curriculum anyway, but JA makes lesson kits with lots of prepackaged materials and games and then arranges for business people to come in an deliver them. All in all, the teachers get a break, the kids get an exciting lesson and some role-model exposure, and the volunteers have a great time.

With my team mates, I taught a 2nd Grade class about voting, taxes and specialization of labor (at the community level, and on production lines) and a 3rd grade class about city planning, restaurant marketing, and mathematics in construction. This was mostly done through interactive games etc.

The kids were amazing. I was asking students about what they wanted to be when they grow up, and one 6-7 year old girl said “I want to be a pediatrician“. Generally, they were really friendly and really bonded to you very quickly. They all asked when I was coming back!

An interesting element was the ethnicities of those involved. The Capgemini volunteers matched the make-up of our firm (in CA, anyway) i.e. mostly European/White/Caucasian and Asian (incl. subcontinental) and the kids were 87% African American and 12% Latino. I was worried that we would be less effective role models if they didn’t see us as representative of themselves, but I guess 8yr olds aren’t that deep and it was no problem!

That night, the Capgemini people had some drinks in Hermosa Beach (awesome half priced drinks next to the beach) and later managed to get VIP treatment including free bottle service at a Hollywood club due to one of us knowing someone who works there.

On Saturday, Ankit and I went back to Hermosa to see it in the daytime and then went to Venice Beach. Hermosa is very nice, and very well-to-do. Venice is much more diverse. Interesting sights included the famous outdoor weights (”Muscle Beach”), more henna tattoo and generally hippie-related art and such than you could shake a stick at, and lots of skaters. There’s also an area where graffiti is tolerated and everything in it (except the sand) was tagged… including the palm trees.

On Saturday night, we all went to Pasadena for Eddie’s birthday (he’s another collegue). It was a BBQ-your-own Japanese restaurant, and the food was very good: beef tongue, shrimps, beef, chicken, vegetables. We let the waiter choose the sake, and - of course - he choose the magnums of top shelf stuff even though we were not really appreciating the difference since we were doing sake bombs anyway. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday, we generally chilled out with lunch at Manhattan Beach, some golf, and a quick look around at Santa Monica Pier (not as great as its reputation would suggest) before heading back along PCH to our weekday hotel.

All up, it was an awesome weekend (full photo set) and the summer hasn’t even kicked off yet.

I went to my first ball game today. It’s not cricket, but it’s pretty good! The main thing is sitting in the sun watching some kind of sport. It’s also a very nice setting. It’s a great park, nicely located next to the bay. Apparently there were about 40,000 people there but you could hardly tell. Eden Park in Auckland can be a real trial when it’s full, especially getting in and out.

The trash talk in the crowd was somewhat amusing, although I think cricket crowds tend to be a little more humourous. Mostly, you just call opposition players “bums” when they do something good, or bad.

Bazza Bonds

Sadly, the Giants lost… making it zero from three recently. Chuck promises I’ll see a winning game if I go to six more.

Before yesterday, I’d driven for about 30 minutes in total on the right (wrong) side of the road. That was 5 minutes in a quiet part of Berlin and 25 minutes in Grand Rapids. So, it was time to take a small step to the next level… 1.5 hours on LA freeways at rush hour. Luckily, there were no fatalities.

Today I passed the written part of my Californian license test. One practical test to go… should be OK before my AA international permit expires.

I’m now in my fourth week of my current project. It’s still interesting and I’m still enjoying it. I guess I’d say more, but it pays to be cautious about talking about clients. We’re based close to Malibu. Here are some photos from a team dinner at a sushi place there.

Something that I’m thinking a lot about at the moment is our internal structure at work. I was in Transformation Consulting within a cross-industry geographical BU, but they’ve created a global BU to serve clients in the Finance sector and put me in it. I’m allowed to switch back, but there’s a lot to consider: client coverage across locations/offerings/industries, whether or not to focus on finance or to stay broader but miss finance, which senior people I’d be working with, and all that type of thing. I’m trying to gather information.

Last weekend I went to Baker Beach in San Francisco, and snowboarding at Kirkwood near Tahoe.

In coming weeks, I’ve got a lot of stuff planned: teaching 2nd and 3rd graders for a day (in South Central LA) as part of a Capgemini community actvity, staying in LA for a weekend - I’d like to check out the Griffith Observatory and Santa Monica Pier / Venice Beach, engagement management training in Chicago, Las Vegas with Abby and Lyle, and perhaps a work related trip to Mexcio. Then I have the UK in late May, perhaps associated with some more training in Paris.