Weekend Trip to Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

As we get to the solstice, the days up here in New England are incredibly short. The sun doesn't rise until well after 7 am and it has set by perhaps 4:15. Is it any wonder that a majority of people around here have some kind of Vitamin D deficiency? My friends and I decided to push back our winter blahs with a quick trip down to Puerto Rico, where the warm sun, palm trees (and a reasonable amount of rum) restored our spirits.

At the moment, Puerto Rico is a US territory (though they've recently voted to pursue becoming a state), which means that it's incredibly easy to travel there if you're from the US - English and Spanish are both official languages, they use the US dollar and no passport is required. The high season for tourism there runs from late November to around April, and during that time several cruise ships are based out of San Juan, with a number of additional ships stopping there each week. For a moderate sized island (the smallest of the islands in the Greater Antilles), there is quite a lot to do, but since we ladies only had 2 days or so, we decided to stay in Old San Juan.

Why choose Old San Juan instead of a beach resort? Primarily because it offers the most variety in the smallest area on the island. You can get to the beach easily (and cheaply, $0.50 each way by bus), but if you aren't in a beach sort of mood, you can go to a variety of historic monuments, or museums, or art galleries, or take some retail therapy in the shops which range from tourist traps to nice boutiques.

We stayed at the Sheraton Old San Juan. This property is on the waterfront, just across the street from several of the cruise ship piers. The location of the hotel is unbeatable, as you are easy walking distance to restaurants, bars and many historic buildings and museums. Or, if your foot is broken and you're not up to that much walking, mere steps away from the (totally free) tourist tram, which stops by both of the forts and numerous other sites around old San Juan. On the down side, we were staying on a consolidator rate. Some hotels don't count that against you, but this Sheraton put us in just about the worst rooms imaginable - right over their function room where loud music kept us up two nights out of three. By loud music, I don't mean I faintly heard the bass line, I mean I could clearly hear Psy chanting "Heeeeeeyyyyyyy, sexy lady" while I brushed my teeth and the bass was so loud it was rattling the lid on the ice bucket. Major thumbs down also to the disinterested and unhelpful staff, but, location, location, location, right?

Some highlights of our trip were the fortresses, San Cristobal and El Morro, as well as the old city center. We first went to San Cristobal, which was built to defend the land approach to San Juan and is all about defense in depth. Its fun, it's historic, it's wonderfully located, with great views of San Juan and El Morro. Oh, and in December they allow local craftspeople to sell their wares in the main parade ground of the fortress.

We sat out an afternoon rain shower and then went out to dinner at Raices. We had heard that this place, while touristy, was fun and had great food, which was entirely correct. It does cater to tourists, it is a theme restaurant, and there is a floor show. The food was very tasty, but the real standouts were the drinks. A lot of tropical rum-based drinks are made with mixers and are so overly sweet that you lose any sort of distinctive flavor in the drink - these drinks were clearly freshly mixed and quite tasty.

The next day, we went to El Morro. This fortress guards the entrance to the harbor and, when protected from land attack by San Cristobal, was nearly impregnable. It has six levels, each defended by multiple cannons, plus a dry moat. There is a smaller fort across the harbor entry, which helped create a crossfire to destroy hostile ships. It's not at all as intimidating as the main fortresses, but anyone who wanted to seize it either had to brave the crossfire to attack by sea, or traverse the leper colony on the land approach. Probably a hard sell for any commander.

Post fortress, we toured the Bacardi Rum distillery and strolled through the old city downtown. We got to see (and managed not to stumble over) the old blue cobblestone streets, saw the old cathedral and did a little shopping. There is a beautiful old convent, among other more colorful things, that has been turned into a beautiful boutique hotel that is well worth a visit even if only to gawk at the lobby. Once we finished wandering around, we went out to dinner at Punto de Vista. Unlike Raices, this place has a definite hole-in-the wall vibe, and the food is authentic and tasty. The mojitos are a little weak, but inexpensive and plentiful. I developed quite a taste for mofongo on this trip. I was a little concerned at first, as plantains are in the same family as bananas, which occasionally disagree with me, but no issues. We also had fried plantains, which I loved.

On the way back, I was interested to learn that, although Puerto Rico is in almost all respects a domestic destination, people flying back to the mainland are allowed to shop duty free. Hooray for tax free rum! I will also say that the Miami airport has significantly improved, at least aesthetically, since the last time I flew through. The Admirals Club at the upper D gates is huge, and has multiple showers. San Juan is only a short flight away, but for longer trips, say from Peru if I can convince the girls to go to Maccu Picchu next year, they could come in handy.

Oh, and while we were prepared to greet the end of the world in warm style, it appears that unlike some internet prophets, the Maya actually understood how wheels work and instead of the world ending on the 21st December, we instead started a new Long Count. Score: Maya 1, Doomsday Prophets 0.

Terrible Movies: A New Holiday Tradition

This past weekend, some friends and I participated in a new, but beloved, holiday tradition of ours - Terrible Movie Night! Now, before the Christmas police get all up in arms, I call this a holiday tradition because we also get together for Terrible Movie Night on Columbus Day, the 4th of July and Superbowl Sunday. I guess it's maybe stretching things to call that last a holiday, but it happens to fall at approximately the right time of year for a quarterly (ish) event. Also, most of the movies we watch are actually only terrible if the audience is made up primarily of scientists and engineers. Indeed, many are entertaining and with great special effects... and absolutely dreadful science.

Exhibit A of entertaining but scientifically disastrous is the movie 2012. You know it's really just an excuse to smash and destroy things digitally when they haul out mutant neutrinos (now with special microwave properties!) to explain the end of the world. When you throw in an audience that included an atmospheric physicist, an astronomer, a geologist and assorted engineers, it's like MST3K, only live, and nerdier.

The second movie of the night was the honestly, truly dreadful Star Wars Holiday Special. This is easily the most horrible thing lurking in the back of the Star Wars franchise closet. How bad is it? Well, it originally aired in 1978 and has never, to my knowledge, re-aired since. It is not available on DVD, VHS, or indeed any other sanctioned media. Finding a copy took months and a trip to a very sketchy back alley in Boston. It was worth it, though, because this turkey is really, really, incredibly terrible. Some of the gang were convinced that, had it gone on any longer, their eyes may actually have started bleeding. As a warning to those tempted to go out and find a copy of their own - this is not a "so bad its good" kind of movie. It is pure, unadulterated badness.

One of the reasons we limit Terrible Movie Night to two features is so that we can also throw in a pot luck dinner. This time around, I seized the opportunity to do some baking. I love baking, and I love eating baked things, but when you live alone, it's just a caloric nightmare to make a batch of cookies, cupcakes or whatever just for you. It's an easy thing, though, to put aside a small baggie of goodies (one cupcake, and 2 of each kind of cookie) for personal enjoyment. Leftovers went to the office today, spreading the joy, etc.

After a day of recovery, we are still willing to proceed on to our next movie night. We're trying to decide what is highest on our must see (and ridicule) list - perhaps the inanely classic "The Core"? Or maybe one of the lesser known titles in the immortal Attack of the Killer Tomatoes cannon (say, the delightfully surreal Killer Tomatoes Eat France)? Who knows where our journeys into the underbelly of cinema will take us next, particularly given our current list of nominations runs to some 3 powerpoint slides (yes, we are THAT geeky). So far, The Star Wars Holiday Special is the undisputed leader in the "worst movie ever made" contest. No prize but bragging rights for the winner.

In other news, the year is winding down and it is almost time for another fabulous December tradition - the Girl's Weekend. Of course, most of the girls are married and two now have children, which makes the weekend that much more of a treasured event - a few last days of sanity before the full bore holiday madness descends. We're heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico this year. I haven't actually used Living Social for a hotel before, but Lil found a great deal for us, so here's hoping it goes well.

Spam is not free speech

The internet is very possibly the greatest technology invented in the 20th century (yes, including manned flight), but as it has evolved into the worlds largest shopping mall / school yard there have been some undesirable additions. Spam isn't the worst of these, but it is symptomatic of the worst: the commercialization of EVERY aspect of people's lives.

The worst kind of spam, IMO, is spam text messages because, bluntly, I should not have to pay for someone's stupid insurance advertisement. Or a political one. Which brings me to ccAdvertising, which not only is trying to get spam filters declared illegal (as an infringement of their free speech rights, because they apparently can't read), but had the nerve to declare "it is proper that recipients bear some cost of unsolicited political speech sent to their cell phones". Yes, America, it has come down to this - some people are so sleazy, they actually said this in a public document. It can be seen (and for a short while commented on) via the FCC. 

Now, it happens that I actively hate advertising. It's emotionally manipulative, it's crass, it's shallow, and it's annoying. Obviously, I'm not one of those people who watches the Super Bowl to see the commercials. I can accept, though, that many people are weird enough to confuse their personal identity with what brands they use. I cannot accept, however, being harassed on my cell phone (or, indeed, on my landline) by advertisers. I pay for these services, so I should be able to control who uses them - pretty basic principal. If I pay for a car and someone drives off in it without my permission, it's theft. I see use of my phone lines without permission in precisely the same way. 

Which brings me to the whole "violation of a company's constitutional rights" thing. Newsflash, the first amendment doesn't guarantee absolute freedom of speech - it prohibits Congress (the federal government) from restricting individual rights. Specifically, it says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". It doesn't say that advertising under the guise of speech can be forced on people against their will by a private company. Nor does it say that a private individual cannot refuse to listen to your speech (which is, in essence, what spam filters and the Do Not Call list do). I can only hope that there is enough sanity left in this country that this odious, vile, thieving excuse for a company is soundly slapped down.

Also, companies like Amazon (and, yes, Google) need to think about how they profile people. For example, 8 years ago now, some friends and I were pulling together some gifts for a friend that included some of her favorite books - romance novels. I am not a fan of the bodice ripper genre. Never was. And ever since, Amazon insists on recommending these dreadful books for me. I've gone in and told their algorithm that these stupid books were gifts, told it I wasn't interested in any of its selections, etc. yet these things are apparently ineradicable. So, I've started tagging all of Amazon's steamy-novel-filled adverts as spam. I love to read, and am a very regular Amazon customer, but they would get a lot more business if they gave me recommendations that there was a snowballs chance in hell that I might actually, well, enjoy.

There is NO Shortage of Engineers

Another week, another near hysterical article about how there is a desperate shortage of engineers. I hate those articles. Really, truly loath them. If you look at the numbers, and engineers are supposed to be numbers people, we are now producing a greater number, and a higher percentage of engineers since the post-Sputnik years of the 1960s. So why, exactly, do companies keep hysterically shrieking to the pols about the coming engineer shortage/apocalypse? Well, it is 2012...

Seriously, though, the answer is simple - they don't want to pay for decent salaries. Now, I realize that the more money spent on engineer salaries, the less money available for executive bonuses, but I also realize exactly how much money my employer stands to earn from my most recent patent. They're not hurting for cash, and the ROI for my salary is probably on the order of 600:1. I easily pay for myself, hell, I easily pay for my self at 10 times the cost. I got a handsome paper certificate and informed that due to the "financial climate" they have eliminated bonuses for things like coming up with patentable algorithms that they can turn around and market for millions and millions of dollars.

Assuming I don't stay in design engineering, that will make me the 94th of 94 of my college classmates to earn an engineering degree and then go do something else with it. Maybe I'm a slow learner, although I do get to (legally) blow things up with some regularity, so there are perks. Honestly, the company is not doing me a favor by asking me to spend 7 weeks away from family and friends to babysit a $300 million experiment. Rather the opposite, really, since, while Idaho is lovely (really, no sarcasm, it is) in the summer, it's not exactly my favorite place to go in the winter. My favorite place in winter is somewhere like, oh, Puerto Rico or Hawaii. I don't really "do" freezing cold with snow up to my nostrils voluntarily.

At least they've given up on that whole "kids don't like engineering because it doesn't seem cool" piece of nonsense because, honestly, there was never a shortage of tax accountants or insurance adjustors or logistics officers and those jobs (while challenging and interesting to do) don't sound cool to a 10 year old either.

Do I regret majoring in engineering, no. But if I graduated knowing what I know now, would I ever have gone to work in my industry? Not a chance. So, next time you see some old man on TV bellowing about the shortage of engineers and how we're falling behind and the world is ending, remember this: Google, which is a major tech company with all different sorts of engineers working for them on a galaxy of products, has no problem hiring qualified people. Why? Because it makes itself an attractive place to work. If other employers did the same, they too would find that terrible shortage evaporate. After all, in the absence of other factors, a young person smart and disciplined enough to earn a degree in engineering is smart and disciplined enough to know that "work here for low pay and mediocre benefits" just isn't a very attractive sales pitch.

On the plus side, the next time I'm scheduled to go to Idaho, it will be summer and my foot should be healed. I'll definitely have to go hiking!