www.chrisvonsimson.com

Finally got the domain, and the site to work.
All the news is now at www.chrisvonsimson.com  - enjoy :)

Rural Retail

A vision, from Seth Godin, of a retail experience so wonderful that you might actually pay a dollar just to be in the space for a while.

Yes, it's a rural bookstore/lifestyle concept in Massachusetts, and how lovely it looks...

Here's what the blogger at Publishers Weekly thought of it:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/ShelfTalker_A_Children_s_Bookseller_s_Blog/28758-A_Photo_Tour_of_the_Montague_Bookmill.php

A link to the place itself :)
http://www.montaguebookmill.com/

Alex at 3 months

OK, so it's almost 3 months, and this is written on the eve of his lovely mother's birthday... but anyway...

He's great. Life-changing and life-affirming. He has a ready smile that makes us glow as a family.

He's really good at letting us know what he likes, and what he hates, and there's not much in between.

Every day I see more going on, more love, more happiness, more everything.

Now I'm inspired to do more dad-blogging, or whatever it's called.

Inspired by more great writing by Ta-Nehesi:

http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2010/01/earning_the_hatred_of_your_children.php

Lisa and I are Pregnant!

We are expecting a little boy on about 13th October 2009, which means this post is on about week 22.

Lisa is well, happy that the first Trimester of Tiredness is in the past.

So am I :)

Name, TBD. We are trending traditional, especially with family names (much easier to remember thanks to Geni), and with names that have many derivatives.

We are of course doing the literature review and goodness me there's a lot. Special thanks to Jane and Bob Maruszewski for the super hand-me-down of "Be Prepared"

As you probably saw in the last post we are moving to a bigger place.

We have done some keeping the global economy going too, by buying some furniture for the new place: a lovely comfortable chair for those 2 in the morning wake-up-calls, and a crib.

Our next adventure is Daycare choices and costs. Yikes!

The best bits though have been feeling the bump, and the first kicks, and reconnecting with family and old friends on a new plane, and making new friends too.

OK, back to work for me, but next I'll be posting the usual crazy ultrasound pics, and the sounds of the heartbeat.

Happily yours,

Chris

We're moving to Reston in July

At last a decision. Today we heard our application to rent a new place has been accepted.

It has been quite wearing to spend hours searching the listing, driving around town, viewing places, and making applications. Our "Rental Realtor" has made things much easier for us. Her name is Sharon Sheldon and she works with Long and Foster in McLean.

And now at last it is decided. Reston.

Our new address will get distributed once we sign the lease.

Pictures and a general map are on twitter (and facebook, got them sync'd).

It's a super place, and we really liked viewing it with the owners, who seem very nice and helpful.

I suppose this means Lisa and I will be doing more packing in the evenings to come.

Now, WHY are we moving? That's the next post :)

Inauguration

We saw it on TV at home. It was freezing, and very hard to get anywhere near on the mall.

At least we didn't jouney down there, and end up crammed into a McD watching it on a tiny B&W old tv!

Yay for the USA!

Getting Rid of Cables

Via David Pogue, a new standard called Transfer Jet. Jochen might like this. I certainly would: Cradles and cables are annoying.

Awesome Water Fountain in Japan

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tP5Ays_eUk

Sent from my iPhone

Happy Birthday Jane!

What a super day this was:

Much love from us!

How big is the bailout?

$7.8T and counting. Via Barry Ritholz: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/78-trillion-bailout/

How does that compare to other very large US expenditures? (Via Barry Ritholz again: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/big-bailouts-bigger-bucks/)

Plan	$ Cost (billions)	$ Inflation Adjusted Cost (billions)
Marshall Plan	12.7	115.3
Louisiana Purchase	15	217
Race to the Moon	36.4	237
1980's S&L Crisis	153	256
Korean War	54	454
The New Deal	32	500
Invasion of Iraq	551	597
Vietnam War	111	698
NASA	416.7	851.2
World War II	288	3.6 Trillion

COMBINED TOTAL: $7.52T, or $0.28T less than the bailout so far.

Happy Birthday Kelly Arey!

And enjoy the wine below!

Chris and Lisa

Our NEW favorite white wine

Macon Chaintre.

It is superb. Lately the Picpoul du Pinet was less and less interesting and this Macon is stunningly better. It has become the white wine we look forward to!

Domaine Pascal Berthier, 2007 vintage.

Best bought at Arrow Wine (www.arrowine.com).

We recently had Kelly and Jason, and Djeneba and Mema as charming dinner guests, and it went very well with the salmon and hollandaise sauce.

Enjoy!

Inauguration

Lisa and I are figuring out just how many people we might be able to put up here. It will be nutty.

The work was more than worth it!

So Barack Obama is President-elect.

My spirits lift. I smile at the thought. All the canvassing, and phone banking, and driving people to and from polls was well worth it.

I remember my dejection in 2000 (in the U.K.) and 2004 (in the Flying Scotsman bar in DC with Bala and Jane). Part of my energy and determination to do more was born in those days.

So now, as well as building the nation back up here in America, comes hopefully a rebuilding, or better a re-foundation of healthy alternatives to the elected view.

Maybe best of all is the sense that there might be more talking about politics, more figuring out of what people really think is good policy, more debate, more study, more science, more thinking.

Even though I awoke exhausted I feel energized now, and it's not just the joy of a really good cup of tea.

Happy Birthday Lisa Squire Harnett

Best Wishes from us in McLean :)

Dreaming in black and white

I knew it! I once wrote the line "my mother is as young as her black
and white photo", and the poetry professor at UCL gave me some gentle
ribbing for it: "easy now Seamus Heaney", which I absolutely took as a
compliment. Ah les neiges d'antan.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/electric-dreams.html

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Optimizing a 401k for Cost-efficiency

Optimizing a 401k for Cost-efficiency
I promised I would begin writing short screeds on this topic before the current market turmoil but I strongly think the advice holds true. For me this starts with Jack Bogle. He has his own site. Get his books from the local library and read them. I learned that fund picking for returns is impossible (the selection of funds in a 401(k) is out of one's hands) I decided simply to examine what funds might have the lowest costs. This is easy to do with a free membership at www.morningstar.com. Just type in the name of the fund and find and hit the portfolio button. The cost are typically expressed as a percent deducted every year. Once you know the costs of the funds at your disposal rank them by cost. Expect and hope to see funds from the Vanguard corporation. Choose the one with the lowest cost that has the broadest asset allocation. If more than one has very low costs then it begins to be interesting to think about asset allocation in more detail. Remember this is very long term money, invested for at least 20-30 years. So do not pay any attention to market turbulence.
I'll post this today. If I get questions or comments I'll write in more detail on the questions or try to explain some point in more detail.

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Serious about Shaving

Seriously!

Learning more about this topic makes this part of every day better - even enjoyable. And I promised a new friend based in London that I'd write about this.

What I learned:

Watch the videos

Buy a simple cheap classic double-edged (DE) old fashioned Merkur razor.

Buy some simple cheap blades.

Buy some really nice cream and balm (This is a great gift idea)

Read More if you like.

That's it! Life improves.

Marketing is a Tax you Pay for being Unremarkable

Inspiration.

Thank you Bill Taylor and Robert Stephens.

Happiness with a job well done

Ah the joys of seeing a piece of work come to life in a public place.

Thank you to Jennifer, Nicholas, Jorge, Ashley, and Pam.