This is how it starts...

My cell phone died 2 weeks ago.  Well, it didn't actually die as in stop working but it starting giving me unpleasant surprises such as not turning off and draining the battery in 3 minutes flat from a fully charged state.

  My new phone is okay.  If I paid for the data plan it would tell me where the nearest Thai Restaurant is, give me updates on the Giants versus Twins, and even tell me where I am (in case I didn't know).  I can also make phone calls (which I freely admit I like to do) and text instead of call (not so much).

But there's a lot I don't like about it.  The screen and the buttons are too small for my over 40 eyes and my fat fingers.  It makes me confirm twice that I want to accept an incoming call.  It doesn't have a touch screen like my last phone.  The touch screen didn't work very well but at least I could see the numbers. 

I think I need an iPad to make phone calls.

And playing second base...Vijay Singh

Parks are very big in my town.  All the schools are linked to public parks.  On the weekends you will see  Chinese exercise classes on the hardtops, girls softball and Little League baseball games on the diamonds and soccer on the grass in between. 

There is a new game in town. Alongside the soccer, in between baseball and softball there's a cricket pitch.  Silicon Valley is renowned for innovation.  Our creativity and openness to ideas from around the world  spills over from technology to food (fusion cuisine, anyone?).  It's not surprising that sports would be influenced, too.  Silicon Valley culture is a fusion of the diaspora of our people.

In the not too distant future I can see major league scouts prowling the sidelines of the pitches evaluating talent.  I can hear the announcer at AT&T "playing second base and batting third...Vijay SINGH!" and the crowd roaring appreciation for the local kid from Cupertino who's made it to The Show. 

Breakfast in Silicon Valley

I walk the dogs early in the morning here in SV - around 6 AM.  As we go through our neighborhood I smell breakfast being cooked. It always smells wonderful.

In one part of the neighborhood I smell bacon and french toast wafting through the open kitchen window.  Along another street I can smell rice.  And then around the corner it's curry.  I love curry. 

Coffee and tea can faintly scent the air as we walk by.  Through windows I sometimes glimpse a television or hear music.  I like music best.  It can be spanish, indian or perhaps the chinese rock station is playing. 

The world is getting ready to work in Silicon Valley.  

Newspapers and Coffee

A favorite game of mine is to count the number of newspapers lying  in driveways as I walk the dogs at 6 am.  I include all foreign language as well as the Murky News and the SF Chron.  I used to see driveways with 2 or even 3 newspapers.  Those were the ones who took the Wallstreet Journal and Barron's, too.  No more. 

We still subscribe.  I justify it on two levels.  First, my husband's best friend is still working at the MN and we have to stick together to get him to retirement.  Second, it is a family building tool.  We divide the sections up at the breakfast table and pass them back and forth with comments.  With almost 18-year-olds it's an amazing feat to engage in conversation at all, let alone at breakfast.  We have 3 laptops and a desktop for the 4 house  dwellers but the laptops are not conducive to sharing the sports page and the comics as well as the local section.  So we still have the newspaper divided into 4, sharing over the cereal bowls and coffee cups.  Amazing.  

Almost as amazing as having breakfast together.

We eat dinner together, too. But that's another column.

Read this paragraph

Some time ago I expressed frustration to my son about the energy and brain power that Silicon Valley spends on creating stupid apps for smartphones.

"Imagine," I said "If all that brain power went into solving hunger, poverty, oppression instead." 

Now read the following paragraph.  A Google executive creates a Facebook page to support protesters rallying  against a tyrant.  The government cuts off radio and television access and the protesters begin posting smartphone videos of the uprising to YouTube.  The government shuts down Internet access and the protesters move to using their smartphones to post updates to Twitter. I just counted 5 references to companies or technology grown in Silicon Valley.

I didn't realize there was a secret app included with all those phones.  It's called "Power to the people". 

Tiger Mother's Extreme Parenting impacts Silicon Valley

Amy Chua's book will be a bestseller. I say this even though I haven't read it.

 Her "Tiger Mother" is stirring the pot here in Silicon Valley as the large population of Asian immigrants debate whether she is typical or an aberration reinforcing stereotypes.   But Tiger Mother is also stirring the schools, and the high tech companies that call Silicon Valley home; Google, Apple, Yahoo!, Applied Materials, Intel, AMD, etc.

I already see the implications of extreme parenting every day. Before Tiger Mothers  there were Helicopter Parents.   I have 20-somethings who won't complete tasks without explicit instructions, I have 30-somethings asking me if they are "doing it right" and everyone argues with me during performance reviews. Criticism of any sort is not accepted.

And it's not as if I'm highly critical.  My most common comment is "I  need you to be more of a self starter".  That's hardly a devastating remark.  What I really want to say, but don't is, "You need to figure more stuff out for yourself."

Bottom line: extreme parents aren't doing their kids or the American economy any favors by doing everything for them.