Over this weekend I went to The Blue Door at the Delano Hotel in Miami Beach.  It’s run by restaurateur Claude Troisgros.  A fusion of Brazilian, French, Japanese and other cuisines and as this month is some food festival thing, you can order a 3 course prix fixe at many restaurants for $35 per person.  It’s a good opportunity to try-out some of the best that Miami has to offer.

Truth be told, the best that Miami has to offer is, in my experience so far, only mediocre, and, truth be told, the dishes we had at The Blue Door should be added to that list of mediocrity.  I’m quite sure that Mr. Troigros is quite the exceptional chef, however, when you throw in chef’s trained with poor taste that prepare the dishes, as per my experience eating at local culinary institutes would lead me to surmise, the results can be rather mediocre.

For a $35 prix fixe the portions were very large .  The amount I consumed over the 3 courses must have been equal to the amount of cuisine I dined on at Mugaritz in the Basque-country of Spain.  Granted, the price that I paid for that meal was about 12 times as much, and if you account for airfare and the like… in the end, though, it was worth it.

I’ve commented on it several times in the past but today, in my Inbox, was a letter from Porter Stansberry of Stansberry Research on the ignorance spewing from the morons on Capitol Hill. I’ll leave my comments out on this but from anyone whom has read my blog should know how I feel.

“Let me begin with Hillary Clinton. God bless her. Has there ever been a more unfortunate woman in history? She wasn’t qualified to pick a spouse, let alone run the foreign affairs of the United States. And now this… Let history record that economics has never entered her mind. Hillary was comparing the United States to Brazil recently when she said: “Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what – it’s growing like crazy.”

She was implying that if we raised tax rates on the rich, our economy would improve. And just to remind the audience exactly what she meant, she began her talk by pointing out a theme that’s growing in popularity in Washington these days: “The rich aren’t paying their fair share,” she said. Never mind the fact that the “rich” pay for the vast majority of government and roughly 50% of American citizens pay no federal income tax at all.

What Hillary either didn’t know or didn’t care to mention was the highest income tax rate in Brazil is 27.5% – even lower than the Reagan-era rates her husband jacked up. Compared to the 43% rates “the rich” will be paying this January, Brazil seems like a tax haven for wealthy Americans.

It’s hard to believe Hillary could be so woefully ignorant of the real lesson the Brazilian economy demonstrates: Lower rates of tax generate far more revenue (as a % of GDP) than do steeply progressive rates like we have in the United States. The reason is utterly simple and intuitive to every person who has ever had a real job: Nobody likes to give half his paycheck to the government.

As any economist (liberal or conservative) would tell you, steeply progressive taxes result in lower economic growth, higher unemployment, and vastly more tax avoidance. When will the Democratic party cease its attempts to capitalize on class demagoguery and adopt sensible economic policies?

Washington D.C. is the Daytona 500 of uselessness, ignorance, and vaingloriousness. I never imagined someone could overtake Hillary on the race to the bottom. But I seriously underestimated the mind-blowing ignorance of Nancy Pelosi…

On July 1, Pelosi proclaimed in a weekly press briefing that the best way to stimulate the economy was to extend unemployment benefits – beyond the two-year limit. “It injects demand into the economy… It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”

Silence. There’s nothing but stunned silence. And the growing realization that these people (our leaders) have no idea what they’re doing…

Pelosi is the daughter of a congressman. She went to college in Washington D.C., interning for senators. She married out of college and raised five children. Then, in 1987, she won a special election in California’s Eighth District, where only 15% of the voters are registered Republicans. It is probably the “safest” Democratic seat in Congress.

In short, Pelosi has spent her entire life in government – sitting in a guaranteed seat. She has never run a business, held a regular job, or employed anyone in her entire life. I’m sure she believes what she said – that the government should simply support everyone and doing so is the quickest way to improve the economy. It is all she knows. As she said: “It’s impossible to think of a situation where we would have a country that would say we’re not going to have unemployment benefits.”

Actually, Nancy… until 1935, there was no federal role whatsoever in unemployment benefits. Such arrangements were organized voluntarily by trade associations and unions – and were self-funded. It didn’t occur to Americans that they ought to be responsible for someone else’s unemployment insurance until Franklin Delano Roosevelt showed how the newly expanded electorate had changed politics in America forever. Campaigning with the explicit promise to rob your neighbors was good politics. And it has been ever since.

The irony is, such policies have now become so mainstream that politicians like Pelosi don’t even remember where they came from… or their party’s role in creating them. Nor do the politicians yet understand that believing in these ideas – that everyone can live at the expense of their neighbors – will lead to a catastrophic financial collapse, a situation that’s well underway right now.

Regards,

Porter Stansberry“

I’m currently reading the book The First Tycoon – The Epic Life Of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles. Recalling some of the first few chapters, I find it interesting that competition was so fierce when Mr. Vanderbuilt was first developing his ferry business in New York that they even took fare down to the point where it was free so that they could take customers from competition.

As a business, they had to develop the fastest ships with the best lodging and food to become the mode of transportation of choice. Now, though, almost ALL forms of transportation have degraded to the point of being commodity businesses. No real manner in which to differentiate your product from that of your competitor.

Two weeks have come and gone with my transforming a document that this company has in Word format and translating it to a Web-App. I’ve finished the first two pages, which were the hard part, and, from what I have seen so far, the remainder of the documents should be relatively easy. I’ve begun work on two documents and have gotten part, about half, way through the first document. It’s much smoother sailing once I had the first one done as I am using my former document’s design as a template, kind of.

The only problem that I have is that they are being written for viewing on the iPad and I don’t have an emulator for it which, if I’m not mistaken, one of the other programmers has. Sadly, the other programmer that has the emulator is out of town.

Did I mention this is frustrating?

I’m laying out a paper form as a web-app and after two days of trying to accomplish this using tables and failing miserably once it started becoming more complex I’ve considered moving to CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, and have begun work on it. Sadly, though, using CSS to perform the layout is quite a bit more frustrating than I had thought it would be. I have used CSS on several occasions in the past; however, this is appearing to be much, much more complex than the rather simple layouts that I have done in the past.

Yesterday, after work, on the same street as my company’s office is, there’s a sushi restaurant called “Kenji” and there’s the picture of a round ninja with a sword.  Although they didn’t have the Chinese characters up, I’m presuming that, based off the name and the picture, that it would be 剣人, meaning “Sword Person”.

My sister believes she might know the owner of that restaurant as, if she is whom she thinks she is, she was a former employee of the restaurant my sister is employed at. Returning to the subject, I stopped by and, although the rice was a bit dry, the wasabi tasted like powdered wasabi (which it was and 99.9 times out of 100 in the U.S., it is)  it was pretty fresh fish and the hot tea, 抹茶, matcha,was pretty good for powdered tea.  Then again, after drinking bad coffee at work, anything of a different flavor might be considered good.  Having the best coffee I’ve ever had and in, of all places, in Utah has changed how I view coffee. The coffee shop I’m talking about is Jack Mormon Coffee Co.. It has spoiled me.  They purchase their beans from around the world and what they roast that day they serve… the flavor, complexity and depth of each roast is something to be experienced.

Timing-wise, I do believe it’s possible that the owner of this restaurant was the one that worked along side my sister, as from what my sister said about her coworker departing a few months ago and the restaurant’s sushi-chef mentioned they just had recently opened.

Talking about tea makes me want to go drink a cup.  Most likely a cup of  ほうじ茶、houji-cha, or green tea that’s been roasted over hot charcoal.  This eliminates a good amount of the caffeine and also changes the flavor significantly.

I was hired by a company called IDS, Integrated Document Solutions, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  They are a company that develops custom IT solutions for healthcare companies.  I start working for them tomorrow.

It should be the type of fast-paced environment that suits me well.  I was informed that I was accepted out of the applicants while in Bend, Oregon on, I believe it was, Monday, June 21st and asked if I could attend my first day on Wednesday, June 23rd.  Sadly, I was out competing for a spot on the U.S. Paralympic Cycling’s Worlds Team and informed them I wouldn’t be able to make it.  Working and attending Nationals would be one heck of a commute if I did (and probably wouldn’t have been possible).  Truthfully, if I had the gift of foresight, staying home would have been more fruitful as I failed, miserably, might I add, at qualifying.

I say miserably, although, I did get 4th in my division which to most wouldn’t be something that one considers horrid.  I needed a top 3 spot to qualify for a spot on the U.S. Elite Team.  Qualifying as an Elite Athlete is the biggest hurdle one needs to overcome to provide ones self with the opportunity to compete alongside my team-members .  I have next year, I suppose, and can hope to get invited to the camps that are going to be held in Chula Vista, California and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

I can’t really fathom why I did so poorly.  I though I rode strong and hard.  On the climb I passed all the hand cyclists that had begun before me, the H1 and H2 classification, except 2 men before the half way point.  Those that were descending while I was still ascending are most assuredly the individuals that got 2nd and 3rd place.  First place went to a tricycle that isn’t in the same classification as me.  I started before him so I really have no point of reference to judge his performance…

Two words: Abject Failure…

The first day has come and gone with many of the names that have won in previous years have won.  The least surprising of which, in my opinion, would have to be the Tandem of Dave Swanson and Clark Rachfal, they are a strong team and these results, along with the gap between the next Tandem to finish was quite large.

The elevation change has not been too hard on me.  I’m hoping to medal and qualify for the Worlds team… regardless, off to dinner for me.

Not only is today the 235th anniversary of the Battle Of Bunker Hill in the war for American Independence, it is also my little sister’s 22nd birthday. Happy Birthday to her.

I’ve had a very tough time finding lodging in Bend, Oregon. This year U.S. Paralympics isn’t going to be reserving a big chunk of lodging with the Hilton family of hotels as it appears the field of cyclists is getting much larger. No matter, though, as I’ve found lodging with another Para cyclist’s friend. The friend and the friend’s husband are both employed by Specialized, the bicycle and bicycle gear manufacturer, were former pro-level mountain bike racers, and are now involved in bicycle racing advocacy for Specialized.

What’s even more convenient is that their house is located a few blocks from where the race is going to be held. The ride from their house to the race start line will be a good warmup and, as Bend, Oregon is populated with many a bicycle shop, even if I do forget something at home, patronizing one of the local shops to acquire what I need should be an easy task. Well, something common, if something happens to my bike, for example, there’s no replacing it.

I train on my Velocity Aerohead rims and plan to race on my Zipp 404 (2009 Model) tubular rims. The weight differential between the 404s and the Aeroheads is significant. To give a more clear understanding of the weight differential, all 3 of my 404s weigh as little as one of my Velocity Aerohead rims. Quite the difference come race day.