The Safe

One of the curious features of the house I bought last year was a really old looking locked safe in the garage (made by the Hermann Safe Company in San Francisco). The previous owner had the combination somewhere, but had never opened it. After closing on the house, I attempted to get the combination from the previous owner. Maybe he misplaced it or maybe he was reluctant to give it to me, kicking himself for having not opened it, but it took me about a year of bugging him to finally get the combination. We opened the safe with high expectations, kind of like Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's Vault, but of course there was nothing of value in it.




So what we are left with, is a very curious San Francisco artifact! The safe itself is very interesting, perhaps 3' tall and very heavy. The painting on the outside appears to have been done by hand. The inside has some cabinetry built in, and what looks like a carpet on the floor of the safe (which is now deteriorating over time). The house was built in 1941, and from the light research I did on the Hermann Safe Co., the safe was probably made in the 1920's or 1930's.

I hope to find out more about it in time (no plans to get rid of it). Although, if anyone has an indication on it's worth or how rare it may be - I'd be interested in learning. In the meantime, I did find out that the Hermann Safe Company is no longer in business; having sold out to a company named "The SafeMart" - and they supposedly no longer make safes. There is a listing for the "Hermann Associates Inc. The Safe Mart" in San Francisco I'd like to look into further.

I also found this photo of Carl Haas, vice president of the Hermann Safe Company, standing with John R. Hermann senior and junior from 1952 - as well as Hermann Safe Company workers delivering a vault to the American Trust Company in 1958.


Here's a photo of a beautiful safe door from the Old Mint on 5th & Mission Streets. I love how they took the time back in those days to decorate things by hand.

Trailside Networking

A few days ago, my buddy Chris Simpson called me and asked if I would be interested in helping start up a group he had been thinking of. The basic premise of the group is to get out from behind the computer, and get outside for a hike!

Like me, Chris has recently found himself looking for new work. There is a lot of pressure involved. It may seem dreamy, like we have a lot of time to do whatever we want on our hands, but fact is there is constant pressure to do everything you can to find new work. This means spending many hours a day in front of the computer reading job posts, sending out resumes/cover letters, connecting with people, etc. It takes up a lot of time. Chris found he was walking a lot less than he should be (I knew I was, he proved it by wearing a pedometer).

So, Trailside Networking was born. There have got to be hundreds/thousands of people like us given the poor economy, plugging away daily looking for new work. We'd like to meet some of you, use our gift of free time to get outside and go for a hike, and talk about what we've been up to in our job searches. The first hike is in Marin but I can see future hikes in SF or the East Bay perhaps. I can even see the idea of this spreading to other areas.

Join us for the next hike. Even if you are working, you may be able to join us at lunch or at an upcoming weekend trip.

http://trailsidenetworking.com
@TrailsideNet
Trailside Networkring on Facebook

UPDATE 6/14/09:
Photos from our inaugural hike! Looking forward to a bigger turn out on our 2nd hike downtown along the SF waterfront.

Muprhy-Goode Job Applicant - @cgiven

Ok it is done. I submitted my application and video for the Murphy-Goode Winery's, A Really Goode Job. I saw the opportunity first on either sfgate or Twitter, the day they had the kickoff event in downtown SF. I thought about it half wittingly, but really became inspired when I saw some of the boring videos that were being submitted! There are definitely a lot of requirements for a mere 60 second video, but the one requirement I thought people were missing the most was, "It should be entertaining". "Put up, or shut up", I thought to myself. So, here it is:

Some interesting facts about my video:

• I wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this video. Other than valuable feedback from friends and family on draft videos I created, I did everything myself. (see feedback credits below)
  
• The equipment I used to shoot was a Canon Powershot SD770IS Digital Elph and a stand (pictured below with my niece). I used iMovie software on a Mac to cut the video.
  

• The idea for this came to me in a dream. I dreamt I made a video of me downing a full, huge glass of wine as quick as I could while spilling it all over my shirt.
  
• I actually tried to down a huge glass of wine as part of the video, but I could not do it fast enough. (I used water instead of wine to time myself)
  
• To not waste wine, I replaced the wine in some shots with watered down apple juice that I painstakingly compared in appearance to Murphy-Goode's Fume (which I drank later).
• I needed another wine bottle as a prop, and noticed unknowingly and conveniently; an empty bottle of Murphy-Goode Fume in my sister-in-law's recycling (she lives downstairs from me). Score!!!
  
• My cat Lucy is usually a royal pain, always begging for food or attention. However, she slept the whole day I shot the indoor scenes. I had to wake her up for her cameo appearance. She wasn't happy.
• The vineyard shots were at Ksyrahsyrah Vineyards in Napa,CA (with permission from the owners - special thanks to The Osgoods)
  
• I had to shoot the vineyard shots on 2 different days, b/c the shots I took on the first days were sub-par in draft feedback from friends. After some tips, I went back for a 2nd day of shooting and battled sun and wind. I took over 50 takes for several hours for about 15 seconds of video.
• I found out later that the vineyards were sprayed the night before. No wonder I felt light-headed afterwards.
• The indoor shots were all done in my flat in San Francisco.
• The music is "Grateful Dawg" by David Grisman & Jerry Garcia (purchased legally from iTunes specifically for this video, b/c I could not find the CD I thought I had of it.). The song also came to me in my sleep.

There was definitely a lot of project management involved. Before even picking up the camera, I wrote a detailed script with each scene getting a specific amount of time so I would properly plan for exactly 60 seconds. I even timed myself saying a bunch of different lines to see how long it would take me to say them. The planning definitely paid off, as it makes shooting much easier when I had an idea of what to shoot and the time constraint for the particular scene I was shooting.

After I made my first cut, I put it up on my own website and invited a select group of friends and family to view it and give me feedback. The final cut did not change much in context from the original, but it definitely got fine tuned. This was one of the most important phases. Not only did it give me validation in what I was doing, but some corrections and creative ideas came out of it. I am definitely a big advocate of not working in a bubble for just this reason. Special thanks to @craisin, @brentium, Julia, Suzanne, Noel, Dad, Aunt Janet, Alice, Cathy, Rupert, & David for all your feedback.

Ok now it's time to talk some smack! Some people submitted some really, really bad and boring videos. So, for all of you people who didn't even try, here is The Murphy-Goode Job Applicants Video Fail Guide, featuring a list of trends and observations I noticed in other people's videos that drove me nuts:

• Hand held cameras (this isn't the Blair Witch Project) - FAIL!
• Noticeably reading from a script (you can't memorize a little or wing it?) - FAIL!
• Drinking wine on camera and giving a cheesy expression of satisfaction afterwards (the most boring 10 seconds your audience ever watched) - FAIL!
• Talking about how much you love wine (uhh, DUH!) - FAIL!
• Using less than 60 seconds (Really? You couldn't fill up 60 seconds?) - FAIL!
• Not including a *video* of yourself in your video (they didn't ask for a Powerpoint presentation) - FAIL!
• Saying something cheesy and inspirational, like you are reading it off of the back of a wine bottle (Even wine makers laugh at some of the things that get put on the back label) - FAIL!
  
• Putting credits with links at the end of your video (Did you also give them these links in your application? I bet you did. You just wasted 10 seconds of video on something no one will read) - FAIL!
  
• Not being entertaining, at all - FAIL!

That's all folks. I really enjoyed this as a project, and I really REALLY hope to make it into the next round. The video competition is starting to heat up as compared to the first few weeks, as I'm seeing much more creative content submitted. If at the minimum with this experience, I learned a lot about making a video and how to better operate my camera. Now I want to start taking more video than photographs! May need a bigger hard drive, as my materials for this 60 second video alone were close to 1GB!

Update 5/22/09:
Go on over to Andrea at Andy's Goode Life Blog, who was kind enough to feature a guest posting from me about my video! Thanks Andrea!

Ads or No Ads on our Website?

A little dilemma here. At clubgwagen.com, a website in which I am helping update and revive with some friends, there is no income. It is a free online community website, and we want to keep it free for people to use. However, there is a lot of time put into it and we must pay some expenses such as web hosting and domain registration. How do we earn an income on this website without having to charge it's users a service fee?

The obvious solution is advertising, but we are torn. Web advertising, in our opinion, cheapens the website and does not yield very much. Users have become accustomed to ignoring advertising, and rarely do they click on ads. Also, the payment for # of page impressions alone is often very low - much lower than clicks.

We are trying Google Ads (Adsense) on only the Classified pages on a trial basis to see how it goes. Our users will probably be more tolerant of ads here, because the content itself is advertising and we allow free browsing and free posting of Gwagen related ads. So far, after a few weeks, we have only yielded a few dollars even though we get hundreds of visitors a day from all around the world. Like many other free websites out there, we are looking for alternatives to web advertising to generate income.

I would like to hear about any success stories with Adsense (or similar services). I imagine that you must have many websites, each with many visitors, in order for it to be viable.

Consulting Keeps Me Going

Something that has really helped keep me going during this downturn in the economy is independent consulting. Since my day job dried up in January, I've been spending more time consulting. It has handed me a wide variety of projects and introduced me to many new people. While consulting probably won't ever replace the security and benefit of working a day job, I thought I'd take a moment to list some of the projects I have been working on as an independent consultant since my last day job freed me up.

1. Peas Of Mind (peasofmind.com): Jill and Kelly continue to think of creative ways to market their products. Aside from the monthly Recipe updates and occasional Press updates I post to their website - some of the more exciting things I've gotten to do for them include creating a custom CMS, a Widget, adding a Podcast, and linking them to Facebook. We are already working on some new social networking enhancements that I am excited about. They certainly keep it fresh! (A note about their products; my nieces and nephews love Puffets - and frankly, I do too. I ate a whole box of Carrot Risotto Puffets over the course of a few days. Add a Puffet to a little arugula salad and you've got a gourmet vegetarian lunch!)

2. Pacific Shaving Company (pacificshaving.com): Stan at PSC throws me more technical curve balls than most. We've created data forms that gather information into a database, added new products (The Nickstick), and most recently changed web hosts - but we handled it so seamlessly and professionally that downtime was minimal. I don't think the website users even noticed. I also learned a valuable lesson with Stan about only taking on the "right" projects - that not every project is right. While it is easy to want to say yes to everything and to please the client, sometimes as a solo consultant you have to know your limitations and seek help early on. Stan was a great guy about this, while I learned the hard way. (A note about their products; shaving oil works just as well, if not better, than shaving cream ! I especially like it because the small bottle of oil goes a long way and is small enough to be TSA approved at airport security.)

3. The Green Zebra (thegreenzebra.org): Anne and Sheryl have a great idea and a mindset dedicated to improving awareness of the environment. They are on their 3rd annual coupon book and they seem to be growing, as I am dealing with new staff members all the time. They are probably one of my most challenging clients as their website is very graphic but we've been able to do amazing things with PHP, MySQL, and Salesforce. (A note about their product: Their annual coupon book is not only informative and fun to read, it easily pays for itself in coupon savings. I've been able to get discounts at restaurants, carpet cleaning, yoga, & groceries - just to name a few.)

4. *anonymous*: In probably one of the more interesting projects I've worked on, I helped a website owner deal with hacking...yes, HACKING...on his website. Someone was using SQL Injection via PHP to access the back end databases of this website and delete content, change content, and otherwise cause havoc. I needed to perform a security audit of his website which included changing all of his host and FTP passwords to something more secure, adding server side password protection to his Admin UI, and adding code to prevent SQL injection to all database facing web forms. That, along with creative and tactful communication with the hacker solved the problem. (Note: I decided not to link to this website to protect his identity and prevent him from being targeted again. He gets plenty of hits so he doesn't necessarily need my link.).

5. Dr.David Smith: I'll preface talking about Dr.Dave (founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic) by noting that he is my father-in-law. However, he has a small army of projects that he is working on at all times. I am helping build out PlazaHouse.org (not ready yet as of this post), have built FreeCC.org for a 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love event in 2007, and most recently cataloged, organized, and copied dozens of DVD's about drug addiction or the 60's for future use, as well as documented (with images and video) construction on several building he has an interest in that are undergoing renovation. Dr.Dave is hoping to one day build a 60's culture museum on Haight Street and I look forward to helping him fulfill that dream.

6. Adam's 100% (mangosteens.com): Adam is the guy who introduced me, and probably many others, to the mangosteen. I had never even heard of one until he and I were introduced. We are continually trying to find ways to present an increasing amount of information on his website in a clear and concise manner. The product continues to make its way into more and more store locations, all of which get listed on the website. (A note about their product: A small glass of Mangosteen juice a day is very good for you. I add a small amount to smoothies and other drinks. A single bottle is big and a little expensive but it goes a long, long way)

There are several others I could mention, but these have been the most interesting consulting projects - and all of them are great products (or people) that I recommend. It definitely helps to work on a website for a product you can get behind - and the people behind them are all innovators. It's inspirational to work with them, and they are helping to keep me going during these tough times on many levels.

Project 2 - go on solo motorcycle trip

As the old proverb says "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" - although most of us probably remember it from The Shining. Well, it's true for me too (minus the insanity part). I realize that with this unique time in my life, I should probably do some things that are otherwise difficult to do with a full time job - or at least some things I've been putting off.


I've taken other long motorcycle trips, but never solo. This was going to be challenging on several fronts: What to pack?, where am I going?, which route to take?, what weather would I have to deal with? I chose Sequoia National Park as my destination.

There is quite a bit of management involved in planning a motorcycle trip, especially one where you plan to sleep outside. You have a very limited amount of space in which to pack so everything you bring must serve a purpose. Overpacking and underpacking are both serious problems in this case. I spent a few days prior to the trip mulling over what gear to bring.

Turns out I did a fantastic job packing. I used just about everything I brought, except -thankfully- for things like the First Aid Kit. A real space saver on a motorcycle is to forgo the luxury of a tent, and use a bivy sack. Sleep gear will take up the most space out of everything.

After riding through Sequoia, I heard from other travelers that the pass through Yosemite was clear - so made a change in my route so I would go through Yosemite before ending up in the western Sierra foothills. What a fantastic decision. Not only was I blessed with spectacular weather, but riding through Yosemite on a motorbike (during off season) was an unbeatable experience.

I spent a night with some friends in West Point, CA - and then the next day made my way back home to SF. It was raining, and I was prepared to drive in the rain - however, I was NOT prepared for the major storm I encountered in Stockton. The sky was black and it opened up with wind, rain, hail, and lightening while I was on I-5. Could not have been worse timing. The wind was pushing me out of my lane and the hail was pelting me. I slowed to about 45 MPH which made it even more dangerous as cars continued to pass me at > 60 MPH. The ironic thing is that if I looked west, I saw sunshine. I was literally a 1 minute drive away from being safe - I just needed to get west. I made it to I-205 and got west and out of danger, only minutes before I was going to pull over. It was perhaps the most harrowing experience I have ever had on a motorbike, and one in which I definitely earned a merit badge!

Here are some random thoughts I had during the trip. Being alone for a few days on a motorbike definitely gives you time to think. I wrote a lot of it down. I've got pictures posted from the trip that you can see by clicking HERE. Also, see video posted at the bottom from Kings Canyon.

• Riding from water into sand will make you slip.
• Touring on a motorcycle makes gasoline a constant priority (small tank reserve)
• Sleeping in a bivy is more challenging than a tent but on a night when the stars are out, it's way worth the hassle.
• Self registration in National Parks: YES, they will check.
• Plan your cooking so all you really have to do is boil water.
• Earplugs on the freeway might be a good idea; not for engine noise but for wind noise.
• Use everything you bring; or don't bring it.
• Leave your campsite in better condition than when you found it.
• Having a bug fly into your helmet can be catastrophic!
• Building a campfire is more art than science.
• I question the wisdom of wearing headphones for music while riding, ut it can save your sanity on the long stretches of nothing.
• Camping in the snow is not as bad as it sounds.
• I hate tree sap on my hands.
• Sometimes the most unexpected part of your trip turns out to be the best of the day.
• There are few Americans in our National Parks.
• Driving in the city is definitely more dangerous than driving on the freeway.
• Chevron = favorite gas station. The gas is quality and they always have a decent bathroom.

Project 1 - retain website loyalty

I began working with some friends on a website called clubgwagen.com. My friend Mike has owned this Mercedes G-Wagen enthusiast website for over 10 years, and it gets an impressive amount of traffic from all around the world. The problem is that it has fallen into code-disrepair, and he would like to monetize it - as currently it is a free website community. This is a problem that a lot of websites have today (ie: Twitter?). How do you monetize a website that has become popular BECAUSE it is free?

We have thought of some obvious solutions, like charging users for enhanced services or other subscription fees - but decided that could potentially erode our single greatest asset - our user traffic! Rather than penny pinch the people who use the website, we are working to improve the services and experience that bring them here in the first place. We want to KEEP them here and ATTRACT more people. From there, you have a captive audience from which to launch your monetization strategy. (We have a plan, but I prefer to keep that quiet right now as we have competitors.)

My role in this is to enhance the classifieds pages (and to fix bugs wherever we find them). The classifieds are one of the biggest draws to clubgwagen.com. Some of these vehicles are hard to find and hard to sell, so clubgwagen.com provides a central location for both buyers and sellers. It is FREE to review and FREE to post. It is wildly popular, as a result.

The classifieds in place now are very manual for the web administrator. A form is filled out by the user, an email is sent to the web administrator with the details, and the information is transferred manually by the web admin from email to html and then uploaded to the site. Boooor-ing!!!!, tedious, and not very timely.

I created a new frontend/middleware/backend system using HTML, PHP & MYSQL that stores new classified ad requests into a Database. From there, there is a backend Administration user interface (UI) application that will allow an administrator to approve a new ad or not. Upon approval, the ad will appear on the website. I'm enhancing the Administration system so that all classifieds can be managed through a web browser so that no technical skill is required by the web admin to manage the content. Even if the web admin does have technical skill, it will be a time saver to use the UI as opposed to having to login to backend components.

There will be 3 separate classified applications, each with Admin site support: Vehicles, Parts, and Wanted. I'm very excited to get this off the ground and see it in action. At current, we are testing it and making adjustments but it is almost ready (it even allows uploading of images, which I am proud that I managed to code myself :-) ). Also, the data in the database looks so clean and organized - I could cry with joy!

This project has kept me sharp in many areas that I will need in my future job: project management, product management, requirement gathering, requirements documentation, estimation, development, quality assurance, and release management. It has been the perfect project to keep my skills sharp, and something I look forward to discussing with a prospective employer when asked "What have you been doing since you were laid off?".

Job Search | Plan B

Well the economy must *really* be bad. I am still without work after nearly 7 weeks. Any illusion that (because of my experience and education) I was somehow immune to this downturn and would find a job quickly has faded. Granted, I am still looking for a job that I deserve - one that I am suited for - for the right compensation. I have not yet resorted to looking for something that I am over qualified (and under compensated) for.

During my first 5 weeks of unemployment I kept myself busy networking, looking for work the traditional way, and participating in LOC (see previous posts) as a sponsor liaison. LOC was a great success, but now it has moved on to other cities. Looking for jobs the traditional way and networking has turned into a part time job instead of a full time job, because eventually you get to the point where you are ahead of the curve and don't have to spend everyday on it.

What now? MORE PROJECTS, that's what! I am finding new things to get involved with that will help keep my skills sharp and ready for the next opportunity. Some of the projects are work related, but others are personal endeavors that I've always wanted to do but have not had the chance. These are the things I plan to blog about, as I move from Plan A to Plan B.