My Bike Commute

Note: This is a longer version of an article I wrote for the Intranet site at work. “Personal Best” is a wellness program launched by ODS.  One of the employees working on the program asked me to write about being captain of the ODS Team for the BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge. Because I wasn't sure what to write, I staged it in the form of an interview.

Me: You're a captain for The ODS Companies team doing the Bicycle Transportation Alliance's Bike Commute Challenge. How did you get that position?

Me: I was just the first to sign up. There are tons of other more worthy people for a Personal Best profile.  I know people who ride every single day, even in winter. I know of one guy who takes the bus to work and rides over 30 miles to get home.  I know--

Me: Excuse me for interrupting, but aren't you supposed to be talking about your "Personal Best?"

Me: Sorry.

A lazy bit of Johnson Creek

Me: You seem to ride quite a bit in the summer. What's your secret to success?

Me: Honestly, I have three secrets.  First off, I have the right equipment: saddlebags are essential for carrying my lunch and extra clothes, and a quick-drying biking jersey makes it easy to always having a clean shirt for the ride.  At work there are showers and locker, great for freshening up after the early morning wake-up ride.  And finally, I've found the SpringwaterCorridor Trail, which works like a secret passageway for cyclists (and pedestrians), is amazing for getting around the East side of Portland.

The Springwater Corridor trail is also great for seeing wildlife.  From downtown it runs along the Willamette, and then turns and follows the Johnson Creek watershed toward Gresham.  Along the way it passes the Oak’s Bottom Wildlife Refuge.  Here’s a short list of the animals I’ve seen while riding on the trail: deer, mice, feral cats, rats, a skunk, a river mink, eagles, heron, osprey, redwing blackbirds and numerous other birds I didn’t identify.

Me: Have you ever had any accidents?

Me: Decades ago (in the 90's!) I was riding to work during “Bike to Work Day.” At a stop sign I bumped tires with another rider and fell over.  I got back up, shook it off, and rode the rest of the way to work.  It wasn’t until my coffee break that I realized my arms were still hurting.  At lunchtime, when I couldn’t lift my peanut butter & jelly sandwich I decided to take the bus home for the day.  Turned out I had broken both arms -- hairline fractures!  After that incident my supervisor convinced me to buy and wear a helmet, which I've been doing ever since. Luckily, I haven't had any accidents after that.

Springwater Corridor under Sellwood Bridge

Me: Do you ride all year?

Me:  I ride as much as I can. In the summer that's multiple times per week. After Daylight Savings Time ends, I prefer to ride once a month.

Me: So, would you say you're a fair weather biker?

Me: I know my limits, and push them whenever I get too comfortable. If you don't ride at all, then just try the ride once. If you ride once a month, then try riding once a week in the summer. If you ride once a week, try two times a week.  I don't like riding in the rain in the morning, but if it's raining on the way home, well, I know I've got some dry clothes at home.  The little things count. Last July I rode to work enough times that I only had to fill up my gas tank once that month.

Me: What inspires you?

Me: There's a woman I see almost daily taking a morning jog on the Springwater Corridor. She's about 70-something, 5' tall, doesn't have a runner's physique, and she's not going very fast. But she lays one foot down in front of the other, and she keeps on going. I see her out there nearly every day.  She's like the Eveready Bunny.  I figure if she can do that every day, the least I can do is give it the same commitment.

Here's a time-lapse video of my ride

Related articles

• Bike Commuting Tips (fitsugar.com)
• Omafiets! (carefreetraveler.wordpress.com)

Friday Afternoon Chip Smackdown

Why do we eat potato chips? For the crunch? Because they're a transport layer for salt, oil and other spices? Because they're cheap, yet difficult to make at home, so it's a rare-ish treat?  Personally, I've gotten into the bad habit of spicing up the afternoon with a bit of salty and tangy.


So it was, late in the afternoon, stuck debugging a program, I figured it was time to stretch my legs. I wondered down to the lunchroom to see what the chip situation was. Our company recently switched snack vendors, so the options expanded from just the Lay's stable of chips.  Normally I like something jalapeno or habanero, but today I was thinking salt & vinegar.  Maybe it's in anticipation of the Oregon Brewfest next week. There were two kinds available: Dirty Potato Chips in a 2 oz bag for $1.29, and Corazonas in a 1.5oz bag for the same price. 

Tough choice! Normally I'd go for the higher ratio of chips/money, viz the 2 oz bag.  But, in a strange fit of experimentation, I bought both bags for a Friday afternoon chip snackdown.  The results follow.

The Corazonas are lighter, crunchier, with an actual potato taste that reminds me of the fries from fish & Chips plate at The Horse Brass (English pub). That impression is probably helped by the vinegar, which comes across with a malty taste (the ingredients say it's a mix of apple, malt, and white vinegar).

The Dirty Potato Chips, while kettle cooked, actually have a texture closer to Munchos.  They are much greasier than the Corazonas, and at twice the fat (15g vs 9g), I'm not surprised.  The vinegar is also much more in-your-face, with a sharp tang.  According to the label, it's not even vinegar, but a mix of "vinegar powder," citric acid, and malic acid.  I hate to admit it, but I've eaten enough salt & vinegar chips in a sitting that any with malic acid start to hurt my teeth.

Keeping up with the good chip/bad chip roles, the Dirty chips have 80 more calories per bag, with 140 of them from fat.

Meanwhile, the Corazonas practically have a halo on the bag. Not only are they gluten free, but the package says they're infused with plant sterols, which they say lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol. If you eat 0.4 grams of plant sterols twice per day (coincidentally, almost as much as is in a bag of Corazonas potato chips) you'll be on a low cholesterol diet!

Let me conclude before I feel like I'm turning into an info-mercial. Bottom line, I wasn't especially excited by either chip, although I'll probably buy the Corazonas again. They weren't greasy, and the supposed plant sterol benefits are pretty pyschologically compelling.  Also, I appreciated that they used real vinegar and omitted the malic acid.  On the other hand, given a choice between the Dirty chips and the Lay's Salt & Vinegar, I'd probably pick Lay's brand -- the Dirty chips were trying too hard for the price.

Related articles

• Hopped Up On Salt & Vinegar (mypajamadays.com)
• Sweet Potato Chips (mapetitemaisonverte.com)
• A Powerful Weapon for Your Health Arsenal (lewrockwell.com)

Time to Plant the Tomatoes

This morning I was out toiling over the soil as my neighbors walked dogs and strolled to the cafe for a Sunday coffee. Why do I torture myself turning the earth by hand, double-digging the rows, getting far sweatier and dirtier than in any gym workout?  For the answer you'll have to read my 2009 post "How do you like them tomatoes?"

As usual, I used John Jeavons' method of double-digging the ground, then I added some regular compost. I alternate by year between organic chicken manure and garden compost.  Next up, a trip to Portland Nursery to get some tomato starts, a couple cucumber plants, three basils and a variety of hot pepper plants.  Maybe I'll plant a couple squash as well -- although the family gets pretty tired of zucchini early on. 

Remind me to take some photos of the tomato varieties I plant. That way, at the end of the year, when the garden is lush and tangled, I can still figure out whether the hefty tomatoes are Germans or Better Boys.  I'm starting about a week later than normal, but with the late cold spring (it was 34 degrees F on Mt. Hood when we camped at Timothy Lake on Memorial Day weekend) I figure it's not that much of a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, if you've already got your garden planted, or you prefer to read rather than dig, I suggest checking out William Alexander's "The $64 Tomato" (here's my book review).

Also, if you're not int

Related articles

• Garden Math: How Many Tomatoes to Plant? (wired.com)
• How do upside-down tomatoes compare to traditionally grown ones? (abclocal.go.com)
• History of The Tomato (gomestic.com)

Stoicism and the Agile Manifesto

I was recently reading David Mamet’s “On Directing Film” because I’d heard it has a good analysis of how to tell a well-built story.  The book is a synthesis of several lectures he gave at Columbia Film School shortly after directing his second film.  In the section on building a story he makes a reference to the Stoics of ancient Greece, and how they held that craftsmen should maintain a simple and understandable tool set.  Mamet then goes on to say that using simple tools, a complex and aesthetically pleasing story can be built stone-by-stone in a logical way.

When I heard this, it resonated with me not only as someone who likes to watch good films, but also as software developer.  Creating a software system is a complex task, involving hundreds of decisions, not only by a single artist, but from a team, or multiple teams of developers.  In the olden days, project managers used a tool called a Requirements Specification, which attempted to make all these decisions in advance.  Unfortunately, this method of development led to situations equivalent to specifying a jackhammer, where a screwdriver and a wrench might have been more useful.

In 2001, however, a group of independent thinkers about software development wrote “The Agile Manifesto,” which included a list of twelve principles that could be used to optimize software projects.  I admire these principles for several reasons: they focus on simplicity, understanding, and the craft inherent in the process.  Sound familiar?

So, I looked up the Stoics, and discovered that much what we know about these philosophers from nearly 2000 years ago is via the writings of Emperor Marcus Aurelius who lived from 121 to 180 AD, and is considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.  One of his most-quoted statements is often heard in leadership seminars: “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” (1)   In fact, his diary is a wealth of quotes, and the more I read the more I realized he was predicting the principles of the Agile Manifesto! Ok, well, not so much a prediction, but let’s say more of a resonance. I find it amazing that here’s a guy from two millennia in the past, yet the sentiments of working a craft are almost the same as today.

As an exercise, I paired up each of the principles from The Agile Manifesto with a quote or two from Marcus Aurelius.  Except for one principle, the ancient Greek had something to say about each Agile development tenet (more about the missing principle later -- see if you can guess which one).

Agile Manifesto: "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software."
MA Says: Begin - "To begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished." (2)


Agile Manifesto: "Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage."
MA Says: "Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them." (3)


Agile Manifesto: "Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale."
MA Says: "Confine yourself to the present." (4)


Agile Manifesto: "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
MA Says: Each day provides its own gifts." (5)


Agile Manifesto: "Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done."
MA Says: "Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." (6)


Agile Manifesto: "Working software is the primary measure of progress."
MA Says: "Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be." (7)


Agile Manifesto: "Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely."
MA Says: That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. (8)


Agile Manifesto: "Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility."
MA Says: "Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last." (9)
MA Says: "If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it." (10)


Agile Manifesto: "Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential."
MA Says: "How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks." (11)


MA Says: "Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already." (12)


Agile Manifesto: "The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams."
MA Says: "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (13)
MA Says: "The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious." (14)


Agile Manifesto: "At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly."
MA Says: "Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too." (15)

So, which Agile principle failed to have a partner in the quotes of Marcus Aurelius?  It is: “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation”

At first this baffled me, since I figured this Stoic philosopher would have some comment on communication, until I realized the obvious.  Two thousand years ago there were only a few possible ways to communicate, and 99% of the time it was face-to-face conversation.  The ancient Greeks didn’t have email, phones, Skype, or Post-it notes, most of them probably couldn’t even read.  They were forced to use personal communication. 

Ironic, isn’t it, that one of the benefits of modern technology – automated and remote communication – is also one of the greatest drawbacks in developing the same systems? While the ancient Greeks didn’t have to concern themselves with being misunderstood in an email, modern software development, already a complex process building a complex system, increasingly relies on complex communication structures.  In fact, it’s so great a problem that the writers of the Agile Manifesto included it in their list of 12 key principles.  Hopefully, though, people will remember the Stoic philosophy and maintain a simple and understandable tool set, including the ability to communicate in person.

On a final note, Marcus Aurelius had one more quote which I think can be applied equally well to software projects, the Agile mentality, and life in general.  That is: “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” (16)  Sounds like a good philosophy to me.

Related articles

• Kent Beck Revises the Agile Manifesto for startups (java-metrics.com)
• Keep Agile Development Going (devx.com)
• Agile and Highest Business Value (ghennipher.net)

Weighted Words

Here are two word clouds that compare the text of George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech with Barack Obama's speech on the death of Osama bin Laden.

Mission Accomplished - 2003


Death of bin Laden 2011

10 Great Fictional Spies + 1

The Wednesday before Easter is known as Spy Wednesday because on this day Judas made a bargain with the high priest to betray Jesus for 30 silver pieces. I’ve read that in Poland kids throw an effigy of Judas from the top of a church steeple and drag it around town, throwing rocks and sticks at it. At the end of the day, what remains of the effigy is drowned in a nearby stream or pond.

Instead of wasting my time making an effigy, I decided to compile a list of influential spies in fiction.  Without further ado, here is my list.


#10) Lancelot Link.  
In the 1970’s ABC TV show “Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp,” Lance and his colleague Mata Hairy worked for APE (Agency to Prevent Evil) as agents fighting the evil organization CHUMP (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan).  What other secret agent under 3’ tall has saved the planet so many times and also surfs, plays in a rock band, and has pie-throwing fights?









#9) Harriet the Spy.  
Eleven year old Harriet Welsch is the hero of the book by Louise Fitzhugh, and an inspiration to any grade school kid who ever thought of spying, writing, or just exploring the neighborhood.  Harriet wants to grow up to be a spy, and as part of her training she carries a notebook where she documents her insights into her subjects.  Unfortunately, her subjects are her classmates and neighbors, and when she leaves her notebook on the playground the other kids are outraged by the way Harriet describes them.  They gang up on Harriet and form a “Spy Catcher Club” that makes her life a living heck. Luckily she’s got pluck, and soldiers on to a happy ending. Harriet shows she has the attributes to make a great spy: integrity, the ability to observe details, and the skill to convey those details in writing in an interesting way.





#8) The Grey Spy.  
The Spy vs Spy strip by Antonio Prohias has run in Mad Magazine since the early 60’s. The premise is an ongoing battle between the White Spy and the Black spy, with each one occasionally gaining the upper hand for a single episode, but there’s never a clear winner.  Until Prohias introduced the Grey Spy. She not only had the ability to woo Black and White separately, but also the cunning to pit them against each other.  Unlike Black and White, who alternated between victory and defeat with each new strip, whenever the Lady in Grey appeared she was always the winner.  Unfortunately her last appearance was in December, 1965 in MAD Magazine #99.  After that she apparently either retired, or was retired by Black or White.




#7) Joe Turner.  
Five years before Robert Ludlum wrote “The Bourne Identity,” Robert Redford appeared as Joe Turner in “Three Days of the Condor.”  The premise is simple: Turner works in a clandestine office of the CIA reading newspapers and books from around the world and looks for hidden meanings or odd ideas.  Unfortunately he files a report on an oddly translated spy novel which gets the attention of someone who comes and wipes out his entire office. Luckily he was out getting a sandwich at the time, but he loses his appetite when he gets back to work.  Freaked out, he attempts to contact higher-ups for help, but they’re either in on it, or dying in the process.  So Turner uses his knowledge from reading – yes, that’s right, he’s a spy-bookworm – to keep himself safe and unravel the mystery around him.  Any spy who’s into books, that’s a “level up” for me.



#6) James West.  
Conceived at a time when Westerns were losing TV airtime to the spy genre, The Wild Wild West was an inspired mashup.  Imagine, if you will, the US after the Civil War, a time when the west was expanding and outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James ran rampant over the wild spaces in between.  At the same time technology is growing by leaps and bounds with devices like the locomotive, the telegraph and the Gatling gun.  Into this milieu President Ulysses S Grant commissions secret service agents James West and Artemus Gordon to protect the land against all threats.  Artie had the ingenious disguises and pre-Steampunk inventions, but James was good-looking, knew how to fight and handle a gun, and ooh, those tight pants!




#5) Stephen Maturin.  
James Bond may have a license to kill, but Dr. Maturin has a license to kill, perform an autopsy on the body, and deliver the cadaver to a medical school for further study.  Maturin is the close friend of Captain Jack Aubrey in the Maturin-Aubrey series of sailing novels by Patrick O’Brian.  One can get a feel for Dr. Maturin in the 2003 film “Master and Commander,” but to really get the blood racing with excitement I recommend reading into at least the first six or seven books of the series.  Maturin is a man of the times, a naturalist in the style of Darwin and Audubon, a learned doctor, and an occasional opium fiend, he’s also fiercely anti-Napoleon, so much that he’ll fight and kill to protect England from Bonaparte’s tyranny.




#4) Mata Hari.  
When I was a kid I had “The Real Book About Spies,” by Samuel Epstein and Beryl Williams, a tome with an air of secrecy about it, and a section on Mata Hari.  Although the real Mata Hari was executed for spying, Wikipedia says she was probably innocent.  But the fictional Mata Hari is more memorably played by Greta Garbo in the title role, as a dancing girl who seduces German officers in order to steal secret documents for the Allies. This pre-code film oozed scandal and seduction, and had to be censored by Hollywood after the Hays code was adopted. Leaving behind reality, Mata Hari has become over time the world’s greatest female spy.




#3) Maxwell Smart.  
Funnier than Austin Powers, with a soundtrack as snappy as the 007 Theme, and accompanied by the pretty Agent 99, who could resist CONTROL’s Agent 86?  Well, The Chief, for one.  "Get Smart", created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, brought KAOS to its knees on a weekly basis.  I loved his car, a red 1965 Sunbeam Tiger, and often pretended my shoe was a phone, 20 years before cell phones became popular.  Max acted dumb, but anyone who can catch all those KAOS spies and still get Barbara Feldon to hang around him is pretty Smart…Maxwell Smart.





#2) #6 .  
Played by Patrick McGoohan in the mind-blowing British TV series The Prisoner, #6 has the ultimate assignment: to escape society’s restrictions and discover whether his fate is in his hands, or directed by a faceless #1.  When he quits the secret service he’s abducted to an island community known only as The Village.  Week after week the latest #2 submits the prisoner to a series of mental and physical tortures in an attempt to learn why #6 quit his job as a secret agent.  This series not only breaks the bounds of TV, but explores the secret agent in what was a completely new, paranoid role for the time.





#1) James Bond.  
What more can be said about this spy? He’s changed his face many times, yet the women still swoon for him.  Guys like him because he’s got all the coolest gadgets and cars.  In the novels he’s much more finicky, concerned about greasy eggs for breakfast and poor service on the train. But tie him to a chair and torture him for a while and you’ll see what 007 is really made of.  For queen and country, and beyond.







Bonus: Spy Magazine. 
Ok, Spy Magazine actually has nothing to do with spies. But it was funny. Really, really funny. And they were early adopters of photoshopping celebrity heads onto ironic bodies, which is always funny.  Some of the memorable regular features in Spy Magazine were “Logrolling in our Time,” which pointed to authors who reciprocally blurbed each others’ books, “Separated at Birth?”, and elaborate Candid-camera style hoaxes.  In 1992 Spy ran a single serious piece on President George HW Bush’s alleged extramarital affairs. This piece was apparently compiled without any actual spy activities.
 

Related articles

• I detest Enid Blyton and like Agatha Christie. What should I read next? (guardian.co.uk)
• Former spies' verdicts on James Hart Dyke's MI6 paintings (guardian.co.uk)
• Unlock the Teacher, LLC Celebrates "Harriet the Hero" for Black History Month with Harriet Tubman Activity Unit (unlocktheteacher.wordpress.com)

Portland's Best Burgers

The site Extra MSG has a rundown of Portland's best burgers. I acknowledge that lists like these are always subjective, but he seems to have made a huge effort to keep an open mind (and full stomach).
In the course of the survey he ate 72 different types of burgers, sometimes more than once. This required eating up to four burgers a day!

I noticed most of the burgers were laden with cheese and bacon. At that point I wonder why add the beef? I'm making a note to myself to try some mushroom "burgers" with cheese, eggs and bacon.

From the list, I've only had the Foster Burger, but the most distinctive sounding burger was from Biwa.

He writes: "Even if you took one of their thick slabs of chasiu pork with its well-charred ribbons of fat and slapped it between two pieces of bread, it might still be one of the best sandwiches in town. But you add a beef patty and some tart, spicy kimchi mayo, and you have one seriously addictive Japanese-style “ham” burger fit for a sumo in training. Too bad it’s only available late night."

Well, I might just have to make a late-night visit to Biwa.