Nerds and Nepal, a mini travelogue of two weekend fairs (blog)

Last weekend was "fair weekend" for us. Saturday we visited the Maker Faire in San Mateo for the first time, and Sunday we dragged the boys to the Himalayan Fair in Berkeley. I would love to live in the neighborhood where the Himalayan Fair took place, but I doubt I'll bother going back to Maker Faire.

Maker Faire
I had high hopes for this after looking at the web site and hearing rave reviews from more than one friend. We expected crowds and were prepared for an all-day affair, but frankly I left feeling that it had all the charm of Comdex with all the discomforts of Disneyland. That is to say, it was devilishly crowded, terribly expensive, and frequently felt as much like an extended sales pitch as a demonstration of wicked coolness.

We started the day arriving at the remote parking lot which had nearly nonexistent signage (which led to many people parking in the wrong lot and getting expensive tickets), then waiting in line 45 minutes for the shuttle bus, which took about 20 minutes to get us to the drop-off point, which was a 10 minute walk from the main gate. All this time, for the price of admission, my expectations were building. This many people must mean it was going to be truly awesome.

The Faire had some pretty awesome things. Watching the Coke & Mentos guys do their fountain was fun, but to see the three minutes of action we listened to a 20 minute lecture we could barely hear, along with 400 of our sweatiest friends. The stage was raised so almost everyone could see, but throughout the day it became apparent that if you really wanted to see a demonstration or show, you had to get there 30 minutes early (or more) and wait. With seating nearly nonexistent throughout the grounds, it gets tough not only on an old guy like me but also on teenagers.

I especially liked the life sized Mousetrap game board. Clever and quirky, and as a feat of raw ridiculousness it really raised the bar to epic heights.

I never did see a 3D printer in action, and the robot competition area was fun but chaotic (it seemed to be a VEX-like competition, but it was unclear where the teams came from). We missed but the flying drones exhibit because we got tired of waiting for it to start, and the main exhibit hall was so crowded between the booths that even if you could get close enough to see an exhibitor's stuff you were constantly jostled and pressed by people trying to get through.

Overall, had we planned it better we may have had a better experience, but for $30 a person for a day pass, and then an overpriced lunch and drinks ($3 for a bottle of water!), I don't see any point in going back next year. Or ever, really.

Waiting in line for the shuttle builds skepticism.

STILL waiting in line for the shuttle.

Go Bears! The Cal version of a solar car.

Life sized Mousetrap. Cool.

More Mousetrap. Still cool.

Exterminate! Exterminate!

Himalayan Fair
The next day was a totally different experience. We found parking in Berkeley relatively easily, walked four blocks through a cute little neighborhood to a lovely, well shaded park, to be greeted by festive music, bright colors, and free admission.

Granted, our expectations were lower than for Maker Faire, but the payoff was far greater. The beautiful day was made more beautiful by the colorful strings of prayer flags and the stream running through the park. The food was very good (though we were hoping for Nepali or Tibetan options to go with the Indian), and the people were terribly friendly. It had an air of community to it. Even in the hot, crowded booths it still seemed happy and pleasant.

The entertainment was hit or miss. One group of drumming guys who I think might have been warming up for their dance demonstration, displayed a charming lack of rhythm. And the guy pouring free tea (for a donation with all funds going to a charity) was unclear on whether he was pouring Chai (as we suspected) or Chia (as his sign said).

Gotta love parking on YOLO street.

Shady goodness, photo taken from where we sat and ate our lunch.

Sam found a cool spot to sit while Mom shopped.

Festive colors!

More festive colors!

Music on the Big Stage.

Sam, caught in a not terribly flattering candid moment, examining the posters of the Himalayan range.

Ethan doing a quick sketch while waiting for the momos to arrive.

All in all, I would return to the Himalayan Fair every year but not bother with Maker Faire again. Maybe that's because I would love to relive our wonderful week in Nepal, but I have no desire to pay for a semi-pro version of Comdex.

I have more than 12,000 people NOT on my email list. You could be one of them!

Good thing I make my living in fundraising because I'm really bad at this book promotion thing.

I published Semper over a year ago, and with nearly 12,000 copies in circulation I am only now setting up a real email list. Maybe that's why Forsada (the sequel to Semper) has only 1,900 copies out in its fourth month.

See the entry form over there on the blog's right rail? You can sign up there.

When my list gets to 100 people, I'll give away a signed copy of Forsada to a random subscriber. Already have Forsada? I'll give you a signed copy of my next book if you prefer.

When my list gets to 500 people, I'll give away two more signed copies and a $25 gift card (either Amazon or Starbucks, your choice).

I'll give one additional entry into these drawings to anyone who tweets or posts this to facebook. Two additional entries for a Goodreads or Amazon rating. One more for a text review on Goodreads; one more for a text review on Amazon. If you blog your review, that's two more.

Please sign up. I don't send much email. And I'll never give out anyone's email address. I'll use it to announce new releases, appearances, and contests I have. I won't post blog updates; if you want to follow the blog, there's a feedburner over there as well.

she's a girl, not a woman. fifteen will get you twenty, dude.

Remember way back last week when a man was arrested for having sex with a minor?

A women's water polo team.
I am sad to say I did not
personally take this photo.

The man was a girls' water polo coach at our local high school. I don't know either the girl or the man, but from the rumors shoved down my throat, this seems to have been consensual. (The law, of course, insists that a minor cannot consent, so  the dude is in big trouble for his galactically awful judgment. I don't excuse him. Not one bit.)

But here's the thing. The high school administration, and the local sports community at large, are as guilty as anyone in this.

I'm a writer. I think words matter. The difference between "infant" and "toddler," for example, is huge. An infant isn't mobile, can't pull an unattended knife off a kitchen counter and stick it into an electrical outlet (or into a little brother). Infants are cute when they cry. Toddlers are Terrible, all the time. We all know it without any more information than the words infant and toddler.

What about the difference between "girl" and "woman"? Girls are innocent and naive. They're Laura Ingalls. They fantasize about being Disney princesses swept away by Prince Charming, and they wear fairy wings even when it's not Halloween. Women, however, have a gritty, world-wise toughness. They listen to All Things Considered, count points, and have credit card debt. They understand that romantic comedies are shelved under Fiction.

The article linked above, you may have noticed, referred to the arrested man as a "girls' water polo coach." Our high school, however, consistently refers to our girls' sports as women's teams. When I was growing up, I was on the boys' track team, not the men's track team. Why are we in such a hurry these days to treat our kids like adults? Why can't we let them be kids?

Kinda says all we need to know about that, doesn't it?

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but when the participants are minors, I think they should be called boys and girls, not men and women. The coach was told, over and over, that he was coaching women. The girls were told, over and over, that they were women. What, exactly, did the administration expect to happen?

My #teen #scifi #ebooks just 99c through may 15 (stock up for summer)

Yeah, it's a discounted period. Because you missed the free download period last week, which about 1,000 people did not miss. I don't know where you were, but I can tell you I'm never relying on you to tell me when the train's gonna leave the station.

Easy enough to get my ebooks, just 99 cents through May 15. Why May 15? Why not. Then it's back to the stratospheric price of $2.99. I know, only the one-percenters can afford that. So you'd better act fast. Quantities are limited. (not really, but I've always wanted to say that)

Here's where you can get them:

SEMPER
Buy it for 99c at its Amazon book page
Dane, in line to become Southshaw's thirteenth Semper, knows of the nuclear war that devastated the Earth three hundred years ago. He understands the Book of Truth and has heard his father's sermons every Sunday since he could walk. But as his sixteenth birthday approaches, he's faced with a choice he never expected to have to make: Should he obey his cruel, fundamentalist uncle and twelve generations of Southshaw Truth, and take his rightful place as Semper? Or should he follow his heart, risking exile and death, to seek and unearth the real truth? An exotic huntress, a mythical ghost-man, and a tailor's daughter hold the keys to his answer. And to the survival of Southshaw itself.

FORSADA
Buy it for 99c at its Amazon book page

Lupay isn't afraid of fighting, but what can one girl do against an army? Thousands of Southshawans, whipped into a war frenzy by a fundamentalist demogague, are poised to sweep in and crush her home of Tawtrukk, and Lupay is powerless to stop it. Or is she? Driven into hiding and pursued even into the depths of the mountain, Lupay and her friens do their best to resist. But resistance won't withstand the onslaught forever, and ultimately Lupay must choose: flee into the radioactive barrens of the Desolation, or rise up and fight fire with fire, like the legendary Tawtrukk warrior queen, Forsada.

I'm working on the third and final book in this series, which I hope to publish in the first half of 2014. At this point I'm the lamest of the lame and don't have an email list manager I'm using, so if you want updates on my third book, subscribe to this blog. (I've got a feedburner on the right rail, right over there.)

DO YOU HATE EBOOKS?
Well, you can get print versions of these two books as well. Just click through to the book pages above and you'll find the links to the print books.

youth protection: it's not about gay people

This year, May is known as the month that the Boy Scouts of America will vote on whether to continue their discriminatory anti-gay policy or to soften their bigotry so they don't officially hate gay kids. (They'll still officially hate gay adults.)

Maybe hate is the wrong word. Maybe fear is better.

No, let's go with hate.

BSA surveyed their members to help guide them in this difficult decision. That survey shows that 51% of chartered councils have come out in favor of being as bigoted as possible. "Don't change the policy," they cry.

The reason so many of BSA's members and leaders feel this way is hard to pin down. A lot is made of potential membership deterioration should gays be let in. Then there are the in-depth analyses of changing attitudes, comparing surveys and demographics from three years ago to surveys today. But mostly it seems to stem from the "Judeo-Christian moral principles" of sexuality being reserved for a man and a woman in marriage. Basically, the religious segment within BSA believe that people shouldn't have sex if they're not married (and marriage is one man with one woman, but that's a different blog post).

BSA already acknowledges that since all scouts are minors, any sexual conduct is inappropriate and therefore forbidden. They wrote that down. It's in their FAQ.

But we also already have laws against adults engaging in sexual conduct with minors. It, too, is inappropriate and therefore forbidden. Why, then, do we need to exclude gay men and women from scouting? Does being gay make them worse at tying knots, planning a budget, building a campfire, carrying a backpack, administering first aid? Does being gay make them unable to teach, to coach, to lead? Apparently, many in the BSA organization think so. Fifty-one percent, to be precise.

This week, a local high school water polo coach was arrested for having sex with a teenage girl. Being heterosexual does not make a person trustworthy.

In the US, two out of five first marriages end in divorce. Being heterosexual does not make a person morally upstanding in that "traditional values" sense.

Out of ten randomly selected Boy Scouts child molestation cases, I found six of the ten were married. It's not reasonable to extrapolate that to the entirety of the population, of course. Presumably, these married men were heterosexual. Being married clearly does not make an adult safe in a position of authority over children.

BSA has put in place many good policies to protect children from predators. No one-on-one contact. Two deep leadership at all events. Regular training of all adult leaders. Many reasonable, smart precautions that protect both the child and the trustworthy adult. Not a single one of these policies requires a heterosexual orientation in order to comply. A homosexual person can follow all these rules as easily and as well as I can.

Being homosexual does not make a person dangerous to children. Being heterosexual does not make a person safe with children.

Congressional art contest draws a crowd

Artistic talent skips a generation. My father-in-law was a graphic designer by profession, and pretty good at it. His daughter once drew an owl which looked exactly like a Mr. Coffee. (She was 24 at the time.)

Mr. Coffee

Owl that looks like Mr. Coffee

Then along comes our son, who must have inherited all the talent that skipped our generation. Because he has some mad talent with a pencil. Check out this drawing he submitted to our Congressional representative's art competition recently:

The original is 18 inches by 24 inches, I think. Something like that. It's all in pencil. He wanted to do a drawing that included aircraft from all four military services. I always get this wrong, but I'll try anyway: A Marines Harrier is on top, with an Air Force F-16 on the left and a Navy F-18 on the right, with an Army Cobra helicopter at the bottom.

He entered two contests. One is the Congressional contest where a panel of judges will select the winner from all the entrants, and the winning artwork will hang in Congress along with all the other winners from around the country.

The second contest is our rep's "viewers choice" contest. And the beauty here is YOU CAN VOTE.

HOW YOU CAN VOTE
To vote for Ethan's drawing, go to this page (a facebook page) and "like" the photo. That's it. None of those "this app wants permission to post on your wall" crap. Just a simple "like." Then you can browse through all the other entries, some of which are quite good.

He's pretty talented, no? Sometimes I wish he'd expand his subject matter (he only draws airplanes, focusing on military in particular), but it's art. The artist has to do what the artist is called to do, right?

Backpacking at Henry B. Coe State Park

This past weekend, three dads and six boys from Walnut Creek went backpacking in the Henry W. Coe State Park, just a little southeast of the San Francisco Bay.

We left early Saturday morning and arrived at the park headquarters about 9:30 a.m., just as the beautiful morning was heating up. The campsite we'd originally picked out was already full, so we settled on a bit of a longer hike to a place ominously named Poverty Flat.

The orange line on the map below is our loop. Park headquarters is on the left. The hike in took us up along Fish Trail to the ridge trail, a total of a little over five miles to the campsite. This route has a lot of up and down, but mostly down, so it was a quick five miles even though we stopped for many water breaks since the temperature climbed pretty quickly to over 80 degrees.

The route out was faster and more direct, a ranger access road that was pretty vertical. It's about a 1500 foot ascent from Poverty Flat to the intersection with Manzanita Pt. Rd., and... well, remember that scene from Lord of the Rings where Gollum leads Frodo and Sam up the steps of Mordor? Well, okay, it wasn't quite like that, but 1500 feet vertical climb in about 2 miles is a lot of uphill.

We saw only a tiny corner of the park, which is huge. What we saw was beautiful, but it was already drying out by late April. It was hot and dry; I can't imagine how unbearable it must be in the dead of summer when all the creeks dry up. As it was, Little Coyote Creek was nearly dry although the other fork ran with enough water to refill our bottles and make our dinner. (Yes of course we brought filters.)

I don't know that I care to return to this park. Earlier in the spring might be nice, but away from the creek the heat was oppressive, and near the creek the mosquitoes were aggressive. Still, the ridge trail was beautiful, with a variety of flora and a combination of forest hiking and sweeping vistas. Some of the trails allow bikes, which was not a problem for us. In fact, we saw very few people going either direction, which I was very happy about.

I am told that nearby China Hole is a very neat place to visit, with a swimming hole. I didn't make it that far, so I can't say.

Anyway, without going on and on, here are some of my favorite photos from the trip.

Ready to set off at the trailhead.

Since I was sweep on the hike in, I got a
lot of pictures of people's backs along the trail.

See what I mean? The trail swept across meadows like this
and also wound up and down through wooded canyons.

Very near our campsite. The creek was running swiftly,
just not with a lot of water.

Also very near our campsite.

Disturbingly near our campsite. If this sight doesn't
make you keep your tent zipped tight, I don't know
what will. (It is not a rattler, by the way.)

Mosquito city. Actually, when we arrived there were tens of
thousands of ladybugs flying all over the place.

There was lots of sitting on rocks with our feet in the cool
water, which really wasn't that cool to be honest.

More feet in the water.

Our campsite. Notice my Buddhist prayer flags which I
always hang on my tent. They're actually from Nepal.

Get out here and help make dinner!

Ethan during a water break.

Me.

If driving advice were written by cops like writing advice is written by lit agents

I really should have learned by now. Every day I see a tweet or facebook post about great writing advice, and I click through it. Nine times out of ten, my time would have been better served by viewing funny crap posted by my friends on facebook. The tenth time is that very worst of the worst, "writing advice from literary agents."

I've been reading these blogs and articles for more than a decade. But hope springs eternal, right? Positivity is one of my top five strengths, so I always believe there will be something useful in the next article. Something that will help my writing.

Writing advice from agents, however, tends toward the patently obvious, delivered with the knowing smile of the inside joke. "Don't have the main character die at the end of page one," they'll say, or "Starting with describing the sunrise for sixty-seven pages can sometimes turn me off." Or maybe, "I'm not fond of serial killer rapists with no redeeming characteristics as the hero of a novel. That can be a difficult one to sell."

Honestly, if you need this advice, then maybe you should consider another line of work.

If law enforcement and emergency personnel were to offer driving and safety advice of the same caliber, we might see something like this:

On Driving
"I really think it's best not to drive up the exit ramp at full speed into oncoming traffic." -- officer Chip Chipster

"Try not to fall asleep on the highway. That rarely ends up well." -- ambulance driver A. Sisting

"Some new drivers think they can just speed right through the middle of a hazmat spill. I'm telling you, flaming oil or fresh nuclear waste or raw sewage is really not good for your tires, and it can throw your whole trip off right from the beginning." -- officer Chase N. Ketchum


"When driving in town, it's best to avoid running into trees and other fixed, stationary objects." -- officer Kaman Getme

On Home Safety
"I recommend not hanging your clean laundry over an open flame like your gas stovetop or a hot barbecue." -- fireman Blaze Douser

"I really hate it when people try to dry their wet pets in the microwave. You'd be shocked at how often this happens." -- contractor Bill D. Haus

"I'd recommend not throwing ten thousand thumbtacks on the floor next to your bed before you go to sleep. Really, even five thousand is a bad idea." -- homeowner Ken U. Diggit

"Everyone should put their money in the bank. It's not that great an idea to pile all your cash on the front porch." -- financial advisor Linda Dollar

"I know it's tempting to just have one easy-to-remember password, but really you shouldn't have it be 'password.' That's just asking for trouble." -- information security consultant Ida Hakdit

"Cleaning out the electrical outlets with metal tweezers is not advised." -- electrician Lotta Watts

Why do they do it?
Every time--I mean EVERY TIME--I read an article or see a panel of several literary agents each asked to provide a nugget of advice to writers, the advice is of that quality. What shocks me is how many people share the article over social media as if it were some collection of revolutionary ideas in literature.

I know many of these agents. I've heard them give great presentations, seen them give terrific critiques. They know the business, and they know the craft. Why do they insist on these cheesy, useless puffballs instead of something actually useful?

Roundup of my #workplacegiving and #employee #volunteerism blogs

For some reason, people seem to want to know what I think. (No, not you, of course. I mean people in the business of workplace giving and volunteerism. My Day Job.)

I am fortunate to run the nation's largest workplace giving campaign (fourth year in a row with the top honor) and one of the nation's largest employee volunteer programs (over 1.5 million hours recorded by our employees in 2013). Much of the growth of these programs occurred on my watch, and I'll even take credit for some of it.

This year I've been honored with a few opportunities to tell people what I think about all this, what I've learned. And I think I came up with some good stuff. See for yourself.

Webinar
On April 17, I spoke on a webinar about workplace giving put on by the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society. Although the audio is faint and I sound like a frog, the content is actually really solid, from all three presenters. You can enjoy the recorded webinar and see for yourself. (No idea if it expires at some date.)

Blog Posts
As a member of the advisory council for the Charities @Work conference in both 2012 and 2013, I was asked to write a few blog posts about employee community involvement.

• Workplace Giving, Beyond the Numbers (March 29, 2012)
  Why it's important to go beyond the typical metrics of dollars raised and hours volunteered, and how you can actually measure the impact you're having on your corporate culture.
• Do recognition programs really incentivize employees to give or volunteer? How can we know? (March 7, 2013)
  Don't confuse incentive programs with recognition programs. No one is incentivized by recognition, though recognition is critical to success.
• What does it take to get managers on board to support employee volunteering? (March 21, 2013)
  In a big company, even with top level support and front line enthusiasm, a program can sputter without the buy-in of middle management. How do you get them on board?

And finally, I was credited with a blog post about the success of my programs on the Wells Fargo blog, though really I only edited what a communications guy composed for me. A lot like those quotes in press releases, I guess. (It's really weird being an author and having someone ghost write a blog post for you. On the one hand, I'm mortified that I didn't write it myself; on the other, it's pretty cool to be important enough that Corp Comm writes something with your name on it.)

And a little fun, too
One of the programs I manage, our volunteerism, has a pretty awesome brand. I have brought my Wells Fargo Volunteers water bottle to some pretty cool places. Like these:

Half Dome in Yosemite

Swayambhunath (the Monkey Temple) in Kathmandu

Looking at Machhapuchhre, the "holy mountain" in the Annapurna range in Nepal

Boy Scouts: Going from wrong to still just as wrong

Me when I used
to wear the uniform
of a Scout leader.

On Friday an email from Diversity, Inc hit my inbox with an exciting subject line. Because of my display settings, the ending was cut off, so I saw this:

BREAKING NEWS: Boy Scouts to End Gay Ban for...

Even though I was already a couple minutes late to a lunch meeting, in excitement I opened the email, only to find the rest of the sentence:

... Members, Not Leaders

Essentially, gay boys can participate in Boy Scouts, but gay and lesbian adults cannot. (The Board of BSA still needs to vote on this new change.) This makes no sense. None whatsoever. Go ahead, I dare you to try to make a rational argument that convinces me this makes sense from any perspective. Any perspective at all.

"A step in the right direction?" I guess. But this paragraph in the above linked article gives me pause:

In making its announcement, Boy Scouts spokesperson Deron Smith said the decision would be that “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference.” The choice of language alone indicates the cultural disconnect of the Boy Scouts: The term “preference” is anathema to the LGBT community, since it indicates that being LGBT is a choice, which it is not. Even mainstream media organizations like the Associated Press and the New York Times no longer use the term “preference” in relation to orientation.

I wonder how "equal" a gay boy's membership will be in many troops. Also, it's unclear whether individual troops will have the ability to keep a boy out, simply shunting him over to a different troop.

But yes, a step in the right direction. At least BSA is no longer saying that being gay is inherently morally wrong.

Oh, wait, yes, they are.

Still hiking, camping,
and all that as a dad but
not as an ASM.

By keeping gay and lesbian adults from participating as scout leaders, BSA is perpetuating their paranoid bigotry. The message is that a gay adult is somehow a danger to the boys in the troop. How could a gay father or a lesbian mother be a danger to boys in the troop? Being gay does not make someone a pedophile. Gay people don't try to recruit children into being gay. Being gay does not mean you have a harder time with camping, tying knots, building fires, or any other activity I've been trained to do as an Assistant Scoutmaster.

This compromise makes no logical sense. I don't see how the religious conservatives will be okay with it. And I don't see how anti-discrimination groups will be okay with it. I certainly am not.

From a funding standpoint, BSA must have cleared this with the Mormon and Catholic churches. They can't afford to lose that revenue without gaining corporate donations, and I can't imagine any corporation that currently does not give to Boy Scouts changing their policy based on this.

BSA is still discriminating. They're still wrong.

And I'm still not wearing the uniform.