Complete Fulfillment

I recently needed to get a tent that could fit more than me. I have moved from my backpacking tent that fit me and some gear to something that could fit my wife and 2 kids. I wanted something that would fit everyone overly comfortably because we have another kid on the way and if you want to car camp go a size bigger than what you think - it is worth it.

I ended up settling on the Sierra Designs Bedouin Annex 4+2 I got from REI. I have bought Sierra Designs before and have never been disappointed in the quality or design. This tent is about $450 and my wife kept asking why not just by the Coleman at Costco for $120. I buy things with the thought that they are going to be around for a long time to come. Those tents would not hold up in the long run and I would not want to be in much rain in one. If you have ever done any camping in wet weather you know the value of a good rain fly and sealant.As I was looking to buy this there were a lot of pictures on manufactures sites but it was hard to get a true feel for what the tent was like. Because of that I thought I would post some of my pictures here. The tent has two sections. We put a queen blow up bed in each section. The front section was a little harder to do that but we made it work. The back there was plenty of room and a nice walkway. The ceiling was about 6ft which was perfect everyone involved.

It was extremely easy to put up. I have put up some tents where it was hard to know if you were doing it right but this was very straight forward. Lots of pockets on the inside which is great for any sort of extended trip.

Great tent that I would highly recommend to anyone - great job Sierra Designs.

If you say Africa there are many thoughts that come to people: AIDS, abuse, poverty, beauty, history and probably many others. If someone said Africa to me my thoughts would go to what I know – or think I know. My church supports a group in Kenya. We send a group there each year and do work on houses, churches, etc. We see pictures of cute appreciative kids and a lifestyle I can’t truly fathom. My other thoughts of Africa are the stories of massive AIDS on the continent and movies like Blood Diamonds. When I watched that movie I was sure that some of those things happen but there was also a good amount of Hollywood to the drama. I know there is war and abuse. I know that the United States gives a ton of support to the continent and we are pushing human rights issues but I am also not naive enough to think that we are not doing thing under the tables to get what we want.

All that said I recently read a very disturbing article in regards to China’s interactions with many of countries in Africa. This was special report in Fast Company magazine, China in Africa. The article profiles X countries and how China’s involvement in each country pillaging the countries to get the raw materials they need to fuel their economic growth. While the US is trying to improve the social conditions in the country and set a standard that we think should be upheld in Africa, the Chinese are doing just the opposite. They are investing billions of dollars on the continent to secure long term rights to resources. In return they are building soccer stadiums, government buildings, and infrastructure. These things keep the people in power happy and build the things they need to take what they need. The brutal facts are that there are war and extreme poverty conditions that need to change for life to improve for the people in that part of the world. This was a very eye opening article for me and something that all people should read so that they understand the reality Africa is inevitably going to get worse. If the future powers of the world are based on their access to the resources they need the US is going to be in trouble if they expect Africa to be a major source of that.

Mozambique, Zambia, Congo and Equatorial Guinea are the countries that are profiled in the article and only one point on each. The article is amazing and should read in its entirety.

A few of my favorite quotes from the article:

"Let China sleep for when it awakes, she will shake the world." - Napoleon

"The Chinese are building thins in exchange for mining rights, timber rights, fishing rights, and these are absolutely bad deals. We've lost an asset, and in exchange we got a ministry building, which is just an opportunity cost for China."
- Jim LaFleur

"China is like an elephant riding a bicycle. If it slows down, it could fall off, and the earth might quake." - bureaucrats in Beijing

It is amazing sometimes what will drive traffic on a blog. I originally put my post about this play structure up so that my dad could show pictures of what we did to friends back home. To my surprise this gets about 20 hits a day on the blog. So I thought I would give a few more tips and tricks to the assembly.

Tip #1

If you don’t have an air compressor and a impact wrench get one. If you have to rent one or just break down and buy one it is worth it. There are a lot of bolts that will make your arm fall off if you do it the old fashion way. We bought a small Porter Cable one with the wrench for about $200.

Tip #2

Have two people. This would be tough to get started by yourself. It is not impossible – I put tried putting some of the initial pieces together without my Dad and it sucked. It was very inefficient and hard. Once you get the basic framework up you can do a lot of it alone but two people is way more efficient.

Tip #3

Have 2 electric drills with at least 2 batteries. We used multiple drills. My trustworthy Black and Decker that I have had forever started smoking by the end. It was only 14v and was getting a workout. I used a neighbor’s Dewalt 18v drill and it was a champ. When my Black and Decker finally bites the dust that is what will be replacing it. Make sure you have at least 2 batteries for each drill. Having two drills lets both people be productive. Most of the holes are predrilled which is great. That made assembly easy. There are a zillion screws to this thing - easy but a lot.

Tip #4

Don’t stress out about anchoring it. When you get this whole thing together it is very solid. You should put it on as level of ground as you can but we had it on a slight slope and it was ok. We had to put some cement 1” blocks under the swing set side to level it but it is very steady and has been getting lots of play. When you are done it comes with a bunch of 18” rebarb with some big washers welded on the side. You pound that into the ground and drive some lag bolts into the structure and it really won’t move.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask - I will be happy to answer them if I know.

A friend of mine in Portland has a little record label that just released this album.  It got over to the folks at iTunes and now it is the free single of the week.  Everyone should check this out it is a great album.  You can download the entire album on iTunes now.   It is getting great reviews.  I purchased a copy today and concur it is some great stuff.

For anyone that has followed this blog regularly or by chance will notice that my postings have been sporadic at best. Last Friday was my last deliverable for my MBA program I am completing, which I have been doing along with work and two little kids. So needless to say I have not had much free time. I found a pattern last summer when we had a few months off after the first year. I spent the first month catching up on all the reading I had not done for 9 months - along with other things like family, movies and blogs. I am now going through all of the magazines that I need to catch up on. I am reading about 40 blogs a day, eWeek, Infoweek, CFO, Fast Company and Inc. The biggest backlog is with Fast Company and Inc. As I work through those they usually will drive some interesting thoughts. If you don't read these you should start. They are run by the same company and get joint marketed - so you can usually get a great deal on the subscription for both. Anyways... more thoughts to come on the readings.

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One of the blogs that I read is Jason Graham-Nye over at g-Diapers. I met Jason when he came to speak in an MBA class I was in. Jason and I have yet to connect but we have many items in common and one is an affinity for gadgets. Jason has a new Flip video camera he just picked up. This is something I need to have not necessarily for me but my wife will love this and use it to death. She currently takes video of our kids on the old digital camera but it has really poor quality. We have a nice hard drive video camera but she won't use it because it is to hard.(?) The Flip is amazing because it is inexpensive, small, and very easy to use. The video quality seems good - especially considering you will probably watch it on your computer and not a hi def tv. You can see an example on Jason's blog and another over on Gizmodo. The one on Gizmodo is the new Mino which is smaller and has a rechargable battery. I'm not sure what model Jason got but it is probably the Ultra because the Mino just came out last week. The only bad thing it seems about the Mino is that the batter takes forever to charge. This will be a purchase in the near future.