There aren't many people in the world that that headline could be written about. But, nice to see Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates joining forces to change the world.

You know, I run into quite a few rich people and very few are giving away 85% of their wealth. I hope other people (Ballmer, Jobs, Ellison to name a few in our industry) follow suit.

I read your book today, an Inconvenient Truth. Great book, I wish everyone would read it, but the ones who really need to read it probably won’t. I guess that’s inconvenient truth #1.

When I was in college I wrote a lot of editorials. Imagine that! Heheh. But — by far — the most unpopular one I wrote was when I advocated raising gas taxes by several dollars to encourage Americans to buy smaller cars and to encourage the car industry to come out with smaller and more fuel efficient cars.

That taught me the depth of the problem. We aren’t willing to face the hard truths.

Hey, Al, even you aren’t willing to propose one of the best answers: nuclear power.

Why? Cause you know that proposing getting rid of the coal trains with nuclear power will immediately get you written off as a wacko. You know where those coal trains are going, don’t you (I took that picture in Livingston, Montana)? There’s a reason why we’re all building data centers in Eastern Washington — there’s low-cost access to coal and hydroelectric power.

While I’m on the environmental kick, our industry has a lot to do.

One thing we could do? Get workers to turn off lights in their offices when they go home. I work a lot of late nights and I try to turn off a few lights. It’s amazing how few people care. And, drive around Silicon Valley some evening and you’ll see that most of us in this industry don’t turn off lights.

Our society is doomed and we aren’t able to come up with real solutions. Oh, buying a hybrid SUV is NOT a solution. I wish we were leaving Patrick a better world, but I don’t see it getting better. It’s gonna get worse — a lot worse.

Wake me up when public pressure turns on our politicians to solve these problems with real solutions. Sigh.

Saturday started quite with a shock. Maryam called. She yelled into the phone "we got it!"

She didn't want me to blog it, she thinks it'll jinx it. But looks like we'll be headed toward Half Moon Bay if all the inspections work out. Got a great house there, albeit a bad commute, a HUGE mortgage, and typically gray skies. It's just down the street from the Ritz Carlton and the beach. We will definitely throw some fun events there.

Anyway, Ed Kaim (a former coworker at Microsoft) came up to me and Patrick while we were looking at books at Borders' books in Redmond. He said goodbye and good luck.

Our dentist said goodbye too.

It put me into a funky mood. Excited at what's coming, but sad for the loss of leaving a great community and great friends.

Yeah, this is my last week as a Microsoft employee and it's making me sad.

Well, that and Maryam just woke me up saying "the cleaners are coming, and we gotta do a ton tomorrow."

Sigh. Week of little blogging ahead.

Update: here's something I haven't heard about California Real Estate in a while: Maryam got it for $35,000 under the asking price! The house was on the market for five weeks. California's real estate market is showing signs of slowing down.

Seattle, on the other hand, is red hot. Our real estate guy, Stan Mackey (great agent and friend, by the way!) says our place in Bothell will sell within the first day or two and will most likely have multiple offers.