The Ride

This past October I made a most excellent adventure that was the first I've ever made of its kind. I am a bit of a forum lurker over at the VFR Forums, and I saw that they were planning on doing a group ride. Now most of the people were folks of real commitment that save vacation days and all that jazz to do things like this. Me I was lazy, so I decided to meet up with them that morning.

Unfortunately that meant that I had to wake up at about 6am and get on the road to meet them for an 8am start in Kerrville. Well, I sure got up that early and my goodness is there a huge difference in temperature between the city and the country. In the city everything felt fine (but cool) at around the mid-50s. However, out in the valleys things got into the 30s. And if you've never ridden a bike in the 30s, first I don't recommend it, and secondly, just imagine that you are stuck in a car with the windows down, no heat and it's freezing outside...that's warmer than a bike in the 30s.

Anyways, I raced as best as I legally could, but found out later that I missed them heading out by no more than 2 minutes. So I decided to go ahead and follow the route as best as I could:


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One thing I have to say about the Hill Country in this region is that it is breathtakingly beautiful. Fertile valleys, rolling hills, old 2-lane roads, lots of trees and vistas everywhere. I first found this area with the wife earlier in the year, and I've already been back 3 times in the last year...just gorgeous!

After playing a little rende-miss with the group, I finally met up with them and had my chance to sign The Flaf. My bike is definitely not one of those you see all the time, but when they came I couldn't help but get excited. What mods did they have? Are there any tricks to our bikes that I don't know about? What is that weird crack on my windshield? All sorts of questions. It was a really nice crowd too because most of the guys that ride my bike are a bit older so there were no crazy antics, talks about the craziest wheelies and stoppies that they mustered around minivans. Nope, just good people (okay, a couple weirdos, but for finding them on the internet I was impressed) on a good bike, riding great roads, in a gorgeous area. Oh, and did I mention that they were good riders. I've never seen people on bikes that were that confident and FAST! Not that we ever pursued supra-legal speeds, because that would be stupid (that's for you dad). They really pushed me to gain a lot of confidence in what my bike could do and to realize that the limiting factor in my relationship with my motorcycle is not the motorcycle...it's me.

Fortunately I was really happy, and practically grinning the whole time.


There's just a certain Zen that I reach on my bike when riding closer to my limits. All you can do is focus on the road, the angles, the lean, the brake balance, bike pitch, contact patches, friction limits, max lean angles, pushing of the handles, keeping enough throttle on so that the rear doesn't break loose, pulling the handle, gassing the engine, squeezing the tank, setting the line for the next turn... So much to think about that when I ride I realize that riding is the ONLY thing I can think about. And it cleanses my soul and leaves me more satisfied than practically anything else.

It was a good day, a long day, a challenging day, and a satisfying day. Although I must admit...I was really sore afterwards too because by the end of it I had been on my bike from 6am to about 8pm, ridden 500 miles, and really attacked it for about 300 miles of that. I simply got back and collapsed on my bed satisfied at having gone, and filled with dreams like this:

Lately

So things have been a bit quiet around here lately, and for that I apologize. Between various trips, both work and pleasure related, and work in general I haven't had much time for anything on the internets. In fact, last week I spent an average of about 13 hours a day at work. And since I work on computers all day, the last thing I want to do is hope back on the internet and type some more.

Let's see, so what's been going on other than business.

Back in June-July the wife and I went on our first big vacation and visited the Seattle and Vancouver areas. I would love to do a big write-up, but the best I can give you at the moment is our pictures from the trip (link). While not all of the pictures are labeled, I did Geo tag them, so you can at least see where they were taken. Quick synopsis before I leave the trip. We went to Seattle, visited our first winery together, then went camping in North Cascades National Park, hiked a really isolated/gorgeous/strenuous trail, visited Vancouver, went kayaking, almost touched a seal, celebrated Canada Day in the Provincial Capital Victoria, went to Olympic National Park, spent the night in a rain forest, drove/hiked to the top of a mountain, went to Seattle, and then came home.

Once I got back, I went pretty much straight to San Diego for a business trip. While I was there one of my students helped me learn how to surf (still not good), and I got to swing up to visit my mom and sister before I left.

Then I had to go to Cali again, this time Santa Ana for a business trip. Got in some more surfing in (traded 3 days surfing for a 12 pack of Coors Light), saw my mom and sister every evening, ot to see my older sister and my new niece, played on the beach with the baby for her first time ever (super cute), and promptly raced back to Austin.

Since then it's mostly been work for me. I have a product that's going to be released soon, so the work schedule has been crazy and the main thing I'm learning is that there's always more to be done and what you thought wouldn't take long always takes too long.

On fun notes though, I managed to save up this summer and got the wife and I a really cool camera! I've been wanting a more professional camera for a long time after getting frustrated with missing great photos because the camera I'm using took too long to take the shot, or it did take the shot, but messed up the lighting or blurred the image. We ended up choosing an Olympus E-510 because it had the best lenses and features for the price point. So far we've had a ton of fun and can finally take the cool shots we missed before. Like water coming down a waterfall, musicians at a concert, action shots of the dog, intentionally out of focus shots, and just better clarity on even the most normal of shots.

Since taking pictures of things and working on finding things to take more pictures of has really been my greatest joy lately I'll leave you with a few of my favorites.

Washington and Vancouver

This was supposed to be a real post, but never really came to fruition.

Feel free to click on the title of the post if you'd like to see pictures from our trip.

A little context. We went to Washington and Vancouver, spent a lot of time hiking and being active, had some great weather, and had a lot of fun. If only this area was so gorgeous year-round we would have already moved.

Here's one of my favorite pics, a composite of images taken from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park

Viewing the Mountains

I just had one of the best work trips I’ve ever had. This week I came to Mountain View, CA and from start to finish it was about as great as one could hope for.

One of the best things about coming to Mountain View from Austin is that it’s a direct flight. After my last business trip where I was traveling between 8am and 2am just to get to my destination, I LOVE the fact that I simply board one plane, sit back (with my new Bose Noise Canceling headphones that the Wife got me for my birthday. Thanks!) and viola I’m there. This place is simply beautiful, from the first moment I stepped outside I was greeted by perfect weather, and beautiful trees.


Fortunately I’ve been to this region before. While last time I was here I spent a good deal of time going to San Francisco or visiting malls…this time I decided I was going to do nothing but soak up the mountains and get some good exercise. And that’s what I really love about this area, the landscape is gorgeous. Mostly it’s just because on the ‘mountains or beaches’ first-date question I circle mountains multiple times, but also these are some really nice ones in that they’re scalable and have tons of wildlife all over them. The first day was a nice little jaunt of only about 2 miles, but totally worth it, especially because I saw the clouds make a rainbow…never seen that before.


The course I was teaching went pretty well too, most of the class was really top notch and nobody fell asleep, so that’s a definite plus.

The next evening I decided to drive and see what I can find. This is point 2 why I love mountains is getting to drive these awesome twisty little roads that make your tires stink and your rotors beg for mercy. I raced up and down the twisties for about an hour before finally finding a great spot to go jogging. Then it was up again into the mountains.


Going into the mountains is always a little scary alone cause there’s big signs at the head of every trail that say, “Never hike alone. Mountain Lion Habitat”. But, I figure I’m a bit on the big side for a mountain lion, so I’ll take my chances. Doesn’t mean I didn’t take my ID though…just in case. So these mountains are so diverse. There’s shrubby plants, redwoods, grass meadows, dry areas, lush areas, etc. This trip was really cool because I found all sorts of critters.

Like baby birds in a mud embankment.


Deers.


Peacocks at the local winery.


And lots of bunnies.


The trail was a lot of fun too but was quite a few miles long. After running all this time in the mountains this week my legs and butt are starting to get pretty sore.

After tooling around on Google Maps I found something the next day that I decided I needed to go to: Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The road out there was fantastically fun (map). Just turn after tight turn after turn. If only I wasn’t driving a Chrysler Sebring (one of the worst handling rentals I’ve ever had: anemic, warped rotors, squishy tires, poor steering feedback) I could have really had a blast! Eh, I had a blast anyways, so it’s all good.

Anyways, I get into this park and it’s just fantastic. The trees soar over your head to where you can never see the tops, the trunks are massive, and the quiet of everything is surreal.


It’s weird, but where the foothills were teeming with life, the forest was eerily silent. Simply the wind in the trees, the slow creaking of the massive trunks and the gurgling of the brooks.

All this beauty really turned me into a tree hugger though.


Then I found a map and looked for the trail I wanted to hike, but I found out it was 11 miles long and it was already about one hour until dark, so that wasn’t going to happen. So then I did a bit more searching and found a trail that was supposed to take 3 hours, and was labeled as being ‘very strenuous’ and having a rigorous ascent. Sounds perfect! So I decided to book it up to the top of the 1200 ft (365 m) climb and it was totally worth it!

I did the whole 2 mile 1200ft ascent in 30 minutes! That’s like walking to the top of the Empire State Building and then running a mile…pretty proud of myself on that one.

The views from the top were breathtaking and the serenity of the moment was peerless. I just sat at the top for about 20 minutes just soaking in the harsh brutality that awaits those who visit the mountains’ peaks. The clouds soar overhead like cars on a freeway, racing with feverish pace and the roar of the wind howls at you like you’ve invaded some wild animal’s territory.


Unfortunately the sun was about to set, and the ever present threat of cougar attacks made me decide to make a quick descent to the safety of numbers. A nice drive home through the now darkened twisties and through Saratoga which was littered with Ferrari's and Porsche's and it was off to bed for me. A little sorer, but better filled with joy on the inside.


The last day of class ended a lot earlier than I thought so I got to go to this great coastal city called Santa Cruz.


While I don’t have a lot of pictures it was absolutely splendid just walking on the beach, watching kids run away from the waves, feeling the cool breeze blow over me, and seeing even more new things.

Like baby sea lions.


And kelp. And surfers. And my favorite (a mini life goal of mine), I got to see a Sea Otter floating on its back in the ocean and trying to bang open an oyster against a rock on its chest. (The next mini life goal is to have a pet fresh water otter!)

After all this running around though I was wiped out but completely satisfied. I can’t really put into words how recharged I feel inside after being directly in the presence of so much beauty, it really just fills me up. I really hope that one day I can move to a place like this and have access to this all on a more regular basis. Now I’m just counting down the days until the wife’s and my vacation to Washington and British Columbia. Can’t wait!

Modern fArt

While in New York I had a great chance to visit one of the premier museums for Modern fArt that exist, the MoMA. One of the frustrating things that I noticed was that the 'artists' never seemed to be able to relate what their masterpiece was about. Perhaps they couldn't recognize it.

Fortunately for you, I've taken a few of these masterpieces and helped you to better appreciate these items of beauty by giving them a name and helping you to understand the emotions and passion behind these brilliant works.

Gymnasium in Flood

Nothing better captures emotions than a flood. Here you can see three balls. One finds itself as an outcast from the others despite them all being the same. You can also see their tension as the rest between the water that lifts them and the air that they need to remain full. Yes, I think we all can relate.

Home Depot: Paint Department

Some of the most beautiful things in the world are those that are around us all the time. What better way to demonstrate that to bring the world of your local paint department to the halls of a museum. A perfect contrast of simple and refined.

Young Artist Wets Their Bed

As a child wakes up in the morning and wets the bed, so has this artist. But to help preserve the complexity and disorder of those moments the artist has replaced the results of micturition with paint.

Freebirds as Leftovers...Microwaved

We've all done it. Brought home a burrito and tried to reheat it. Most people realize that you should take the foil off before microwaving; however the artist chose to let us see the danger that would happen if we did not follow our normal pattern of rules.

Jacked-Up Jousting Jackalope

Yeah, um...there's no explaining this one. I'm thinking they needed some money, had a few sticks and a dead rabbit.

As you can see those that appreciate or create modern art are socially capable individuals that are solidly grounded in reality and help to express the world in a way that's intuitively relevant and comprehendible to all.

Detroit: Squeezing the Jell-O

As part of my new position at work, I get the chance to go travel a lot. Sometimes I get to go to cool places like Silicon Valley or New England, but most of the time I get to go where the company needs me. It actually works out really well most of the time though, because sometimes it gives me a chance to go somewhere that I probably SHOULD go at some point in my life, but that I would have avoided if it were up to my own time and money. One of the cooler parts for me is just getting to see new things. It helps to make sure that your perspective stays properly aligned. It reinforces that most of America is pretty much the same, so you’re not missing out on much by not being in Place B instead of Place A because most of America is the exact same.

This week I got sent packing to the state of Michigan to teach a class on the outskirts of Detroit. Detroit has always been on my list of places that I’ve never wanted to go. The only reason that I can think of that I’ve ever wanted to go there is because I liked Eddie Murray who played for the Detroit Tigers. (That was back in the days when I still liked baseball, before the strike in 1994. Those guys wouldn’t PLAY because they didn’t get more money and my family was getting maybe $10k per year for 7 people. Just seemed a little lame, I wish baseball had picked up a bunch of scab players from the minors and started fresh) I guess that aside kinda leads into the main reason that I’ve never really wanted to go to Detroit, Unions. I just don’t really agree with the whole mentality because I think it’s self-destructive. But I’ll get into that in a moment.

Visiting Detroit was like looking in a shop full of old wedding dresses. They are really pretty, you can tell that somebody spent a lot of time and energy making all of the intricate details. In fact, just looking at them can sweep you back to imagining what it was like for that girl/woman that got married in them. So much potential, but it was so long ago that now these dresses are forgotten and the people that once wore them with such pride are gone. While it may be nice to look at the dresses and imagine what things were like, the truth of the matter is that you’d never wear them. Because one, you’re, you’re a dude and you don’t wear wedding dresses. And two, even if you were a girl, the truth is that the dresses are too old, and too forgotten to be worn.

I guess for a more manly analogy you could pretend it was and old gun or baseball glove. Looks cool, you know at one point it was worn with pride, but you sure don’t want to shoot it or try to catch something with it because it might blow up in your face or fall to pieces. There hopefully that partially redeems the man points lost in the prior paragraph.

The truth of the matter is that Detroit is a really pretty city in some areas. The downtown has a certain amount of class and retro cool that I’ve never seen anywhere else in the US before. However, behind that façade you can quickly see that the area is struggling to stay afloat. There are people randomly walking the street like zombies aimlessly looking for prey. In fact, hardly anybody is on the streets at all that doesn’t look like a piece of human vermin except in a few key areas. The problem with this place is that their industries are collapsing beneath them. I think part of it though can really be attributed right back to the people of the city and a lot can be traced to the unions that are there to protect them.

First off let me say that most of the people that I met up there were really nice. I’ve found people across the world to be incredibly nice, caring and helpful as long as you reciprocate the same back to them (even the shady people that your mom might cringe to think you’d talk to). However, I think there is a large chunk of the people that think they are entitled to their job. But you know what happens when you think you are entitled to something? You don’t appreciate it, you don’t try to develop it, and if you are forced to take care of it the best case scenario is for you to return it in the same shape you received it in. More likely than not, you will return it barely functioning. Basically if you don’t appreciate something you abuse it and then blame it for the abuse that you rendered upon it. The reason that unions exist really are good reasons. There is a certain amount of balance that employees need to make sure that they are not being mistreated by the people that they work for; however, I think as many different things in our world it is more like a pendulum that swings from one extreme to another and in this case I really feel that the pendulum has swung so far in the ‘favor’ of the workers that it is doing them a disfavor. Those that don’t appreciate their jobs are so secure they aren’t motivated. In fact, the security of the position makes sure that they are terrified of losing the security of a job that if they really thought about they don’t want in the first place. So instead of trying to do something they love, or trying to achieve more, or trying to better what they’ve been given they are scared into complete inaction by their desire to be secure. And as with anytime that you aim only to gain security you lose it, exactly like Detroit is losing the security now. The jobs are leaving, the industries are collapsing, those stuck in a position that didn’t challenge them are finding that they have no skills because they were too terrified to do something different.

Security is one of those things that’s like a Jell-O. It’s really great to have. When you have it; however, you are quickly tempted to try to grab onto it tightly to keep is from slipping away. But as with the Jell-O if you squeeze it is simply slips thru your fingers and while you may keep your hand closed unwilling to open it because ‘the Jell-O would slip away’, if you did open it you would find there’s nothing there. In the haste to retain it, it is lost.

I don’t want to become like Detroit. What is my personal Jell-O? Job security? That doesn’t exist in this world. My toys? Eventually they will fail me and break apart. My friendships? If I become too needy they will be driven away. Money? A man obsessed with money can never become happy. So life remains this balance. Enjoy what’s sitting in your hands, be willing to look at it and enjoy it for what it is, but don’t clutch on to it. It’s in the grasping that the things we desire in life slip between our fingers.

Detroit, I hope that you one day learn to make yourself anew. There’s a lot of talent, there’s a lot of hidden beauty within you. But you’ve got to be willing to let go and move forward; otherwise you will lose everything that you are trying so hard to clutch to and there will be nothing left.

Places to Eat

So I'm up in Chicago right now teaching a class for the man, and I decided to look for a place to eat. So I went to Google.com and looked for "restaurants schaumberg il" and got the following useful information:

I don't think anything else really needs to be said.