Jefflog

It’s been over a month since my laser eye surgery, so I figured I’d post a status update.

It took upwards of a week before I could see my monitor clearly. Today, I don’t have many troubles, although my eyes have a tendency to get dry and I need to apply eye drops, typically 3-4 times a day.

My long-distance eyesight is not quite as good, though. I don’t really notice it for the most part, but it’s definitely not as good as when I had my eyeglasses. It can take up to 3 months to stabilize, though, so it may improve in another two months. It is also possible that I may need to go in for a followup surgery later. This was included in my base price (which, for the curious, ran about $3000).

Would I do it again? I don’t know yet…ask me in another two months.

I went out to mow my lawn for the first time this spring, and heard a strange rattling sound coming from the mower. After turning the mower over (after unplugging it first — it’s electric) and not seeing anything in particular, I started mowing anyway. Before I had finished with the backyard, the mower died on me.

So instead, I dusted off the old reel mower, sharpened and adjusted the rusty blades, oiled it up, and used it for the first time in two years.

The verdict? It’s still quite a workout, although not as bad as I remembered it. My memory will probably become more acute once the temperature hits 85 degrees.

As for the electric mower, I’ll just wait for my dad to visit and ask him to look at it. He’s good at fixing things.

Our country has a problem.

We have 11 million people in this country who have entered illegally. That’s about 3% of the population. In states like California, the proportion is much higher.

Congress has tried to tackle the issue by making it a felony to be in this country without going through the official channels, and provide a means for those who have been here for a long time a means to gain citizenship. But, considering the “success” U.S. Customs officials have had in deporting illegal aliens so far, how will it change things to suddenly declare it a felony?

In the book The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, Hernando de Soto explains that in many third-world countries, residents conduct business through less-than-legal (he calls them “extralegal”) means. They don’t have the proper licenses for their business, they don’t pay taxes, they don’t have title to their property.

Do they do it because they want to avoid paying taxes? Actually, no. They do it because there is no practical means of going through legal channels. In many countries, the notion of “property rights” that you and I take for granted is unknown. If someone tries to come into my house and claim that my property is theirs, I have the legal documents and the force of the law to prove otherwise. In other countries, this is not the case; even if you wanted title to the land, you can’t get it. There’s no legal system in place for it.

In addition, obtaining the necessary permits in these countries can take years and years, not to mention multiple bribes. It’s simply not worth the extraordinary effort of “going legal”.

However, once you open up those channels (and the author gives Peru as an example), people flock towards the legal approach. They don’t mind applying for permits and paying taxes, because it means that the legal system will be there to protect them.

We are seeing the exact thing happen with immigration in this country. Poor Mexicans and Latin Americans have no legal means to enter this country; the number of available applications is small, and in any event they are given to people who have money and education. Yet, the opportunity in America remains much greater than what is available in their home country, even when working for less than minimum wage through covert channels. They do what any other rational person would do: when it can’t be done legally, it must be done illegally.

I think the solution is to start accepting applications in droves. Embrace the concept of Hispanamerica (it’s going to happen eventually anyway). Make it possible to go through legal channels, and no one will attempt to do so illegally.

There is a parallel in history. In the 19th and early 20th century, America accepted millions of immigrants, mostly from European nations. These immigrants were largely poor, uneducated, and despised by the Americans who were already here. That mass influx of people may have been difficult at first, but without them America would not be where it is today.

Maggie has learned “the magic word” in recent weeks, knowing that if she asks “please?”, she’s more likely to get something than without it. Only she can’t quite say “please?”, it’s more like “peas?”. She often combines this with a cute bob of the head that melts your heart and almost makes you want to give her ice cream for dinner instead of broccoli. Of course, the magic word doesn’t work in that situation, but it will work if she asks me to pick her up even though I’m really tired.

Speaking of broccoli, Maggie loves the stuff. Most kids hate it, but she’s been known to pick it over chicken nuggets. And you know she’s half-Chinese when, asked what she wants to eat, her first response is usually “tofu!”, followed by “rice!”.

For the first time in nearly five years, I’ve had to set my clock one hour ahead. The news that Indiana has decided to adopt Daytime Saving Time (not Daylight Savings Time) has been widespread in the media this year. Among other things, it means I don’t have to adjust between a two-hour time difference with my home office in California half the year, and a three-hour time difference the other half.

Even so, I don’t particularly like DST. I don’t like having to adjust my schedule, even if it is only twice a year and only for an hour. It’s confusing when you have to program time controls for a computer (although it’s even more confusing when one location does recognize DST and the other doesn’t.) Plus, the original impetus for implementing DST, for energy conservation during WWII, no longer applies. Sure, it’s true that more daylight during the waking hours means using less electricity for lighting, it also means using more electricity for air conditioners. Isn’t it time the entire country switched off of DST?