A Snippet of Life Here

Jenni really wanted to get back to Ohio for the holidays but it didn't happen. As a second best, i sent her back for Kate N's wedding, meaning she flew out Seattle b/c the tix out of YVR were 700+. i did the drive myself (and this will be the last time i do such a thing). left at 2am, returned at 8.30am. slept til 12.45, worked til 4, took the boys boarding at cypress, came home to work some more. it has been a rager!

Cypress was totally fun. kids each earned $10 for passing "level 3"--5 consecutive pendulum turns (heel side slip). the original challenge was for 5 linked turns--something they tried and then pointed out after falling 2 runs solid that they just don't know how to do this. true 'nuf. so we made it something they could do and it was golden. they loved it and are looking forward to saturday. even daniel, who beat his brother to the prize, pulling off 5 turns the first run down. it was an amazing parenting experience. the entire way back they were talking to me...really talking, asking questions (about smoking and roman gods and the guages on the dash--we had a 10 min discussion on how cars work). sometimes good to have them all to myself (no having to justify the amt of sugar i pumped into them to pull this off)

Hiking at Whistler

We took a trip up the coast to Whistler where the big mountains loom, largely to scope it out for the winter. The plan was to hike the "Ancient Cedars Trail" but we had the damnest time finding it (see Jenni's email about signs in BC). Finally finding the trail, we set out for a small hike. The boys were not very interested at first but (as boys do) found fun along the way. There were lots of small animals along the path, and a small, black squirrel really caught our attention. It was perched atop a dead tree about 25 ft up. Strange to say it, but it was chattering at us, trying to communicate. What it was "saying" is hard to determine but it seemed insistent about a certain, unknowable point. Luke, who (at the age of 7 is not jaded like you or me) has powers to speak with animals, powers we don't understand, stood off the side of the trail with hands to his temples. He focused hard and entered into a state of communion w/ our furry friend. "I think he's telling us there's a bear ahead," Luke said with a straight face. The rest of us, having observed the mind-link, started to double-over w/ laughter.

Last night we saw a heron in the bay coming back from a nice ThanksG dinner at the Sorrells'. Luke wanted to watch it and, in the moment, I asked him if he would please tell the bird that we mean no harm. Luke punched me in the gut. So much for encouraging his Dr. Doolittle gift.

Quotes

An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do.
- Dylan Thomas

Everyone's a scoundrel. Friends are scoundrels you understand.
- Me

(another delayed post...sorry if you've heard this b4, tho i doubt it since i've not been very communicative)

OK, the apartment--we carted all this shit out here (see previous post about haulin 11,000 lbs over the rockies) and now we're selling most of it. It's taken a number of bruised shins and stubbed toes but Jenni now sees that the stuff doesnt work. Our neighbor (former cyclist, chef, sommolier, and now stay at home dad at 33) came by on one of our first nights with a bottle of fine bordeaux and gave us advice ("go UP wherever you can" and "we tried what you're doing with the sofa. we also tried it this way and that. eventually you'll find it only works here (points to back wall). go into any apt here and that's what they've concluded, too.").

i should also write about pamela, another neighbor, who has really helped jenni thru the emo aspects. pam and husband, ari, have been great friends. their son, sam, is 6 and rides bikes and plays pokemon w/ my boys. i'm going out with ari tonight to drink beers downtown at an irish pub called doulan's (i believe). ari is a great conversationalist, dry wit, combined with a musicians flair (MA from USC, is a composer for the film industry) and a businessman's sense of cost/benefit (self-employed). It's my first time out (w/ someone other than jenni or brett) and it should be fun.

also, recently we've had leaks allowing water in the apt (this november is setting a record for rain, but nothing to compare with auckland, i'm told) which is making us consider a move w/in the year but it's hard to beat all the perks. the manager is very good about trying to fix the leaks so we'll hope for the best.

Job
OK, the basics. I've got a new $3500 mac powerbook 17", a 24" additional monitor flatscreen, and a budget for more gadgets. The place has views of the mountains in an historic building, cool people, stocked kitchen, catered meals on thurs + cake (good stuff) on thurs at 3p, flex hours (core hours are 11-3 and when i come at 8.30, no one is here), shared itunes music, lots of freedom. E.g. I left for a 3 hr lunch recently, biked to Stanley Park to meet the fam, went to the acquarium (world class), and biked back.

I'm still trying to get a sense for how to improve the org's PM ability. I'm in "watch and learn" mode and don't want to introduce change too soon (and get thrown out in the process). There are really great PMs here and I don't want them to feel like "the new guy is a know it all." Some shit is definitely done wrong (e.g. projects don't have a charter/scope doc. there's a proposal and then a functional spec...nothing in the middle...no use cases even). No one is counting on me to fix it right away so I'm trying to build relationships and consensus. That, of course, is fun for me b/c building relationships involves drinking beer (something I'm very, very good at).

The Journey

Sorry for the long delay in posting. This has been a crazy season in life. I'll try to crank out a few posts to give you a sense of life over the past 6 wks.

OK, The Journey

This was a harrowing adventure, and I do NOT recommend it for any normal human. Pulling a trailer longer, taller, and heavier than your enormous SUV is not trivial. It is impossible to explain how tiring the process is. In normal driving you don't look at the road all that much. Really, it's true. You look around at the country, you make eye contact with your passengers, you keep a lot of things going at once--music, food, smokes, no worries. This has a tremendous benefit: you stay relatively sane and relaxed. It's a "ride in the country" and the only trouble is staying awake.

But with the trailer it's different not by degree but by kind. This is not "driving." It's hauling. 1st there's the strain on the psyche. Hauling a 12k lb load means you can't look away for even a full second. No shit. Lighting a cig is almost out of the question. 2 hands on the wheel, white knuckles, cold sweat, the whole shebang. Phone calls? Can't take 'em. Fuck with the CD player at your peril. A slight pull on the wheel and you are in the gravel and your load is yanking you all over hell and gone.

Then there's the other drivers (or assholes as they were known throughout our trek). You have to watch the merging traffic b/c idiot car drivers can't figure out whether to pass or slip behind you. Then, OMG, the passing semis blow you out into the birm (from the air damn they push along with them) and then such you back in when you hit the vacuum. Just imagine the fun crossing a very narrow bridge right next to a semi moving past. Yow.

Which brings up the fear of death. I can't even describe the total heart-stopping terror that comes from being a wee bit out of control at 80mph downhill, passing a semi in the mtns. Don't ask me how I got myself in that situation, cuz I'm not sure. You get pinned in and then the grade changes and HANG THE FUCK ON CUZ YOU'RE ON MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE.

So we drove in 2 hour shifts, 15 hrs per day, 4 days straight. (We learned that the last 1.5 hrs could be done with a very big can of Miller Lite between one's legs. We just travelled at a slower speed, sorta like "walking the horse" after a race day.)

Then, at the very end of our journey, we get flagged down by a passing motorist who makes me REALLY NERVOUS cuz I think that the trailer is coming unglued or something. So get out very fast and see the problem: a blown tire. No prob--we have a big jack for the Suburban that works fine. Change the tire, and WAIT, HOLY SHIT!! THE TRUCK IS PULLING OFF W/OUT US!!! No kidding, it was like a Chevy Chase movie. This massive truck and trailer was lurching out into traffic with a ghost driver. And when I say "into traffic" I mean it. This was serious fuckin I-5 traffic. We were looking at a massive catastrophe. Innocents dieing and all that. Luckily Adam figured that I must've left the thing in drive and chased it down. It wouldn't have occurred to me. "There was no way I could have done that" I thought. Oops.

The rest of the trip was pretty easy but I really think that we had PTSD after that whole thing. Both Adam and I had visceral reactions to seeing the trailer or the truck. It made us kinda sick for days.

I hauled it down to a storage place in WA and never wanted to see it again. Just sold it a couple weeks ago and my feelings had changed a bit. There was a wistfullness that had set in, perhaps the kind of feeling a soldier might feel returning to the battlefield some years later.

Do Something! Do Anything!

Here's a simple truth: leaders like to actively manage problems. The problem comes when they don't really know what they're doing. Try to solve a problem you don't understand and you get...more problems.

Since university (where I had the most excellent mechanical engineering professor for heat transfer who ranged into other topics) I have struggled to grasp climatology models. No big deal. That's not my profession. But I've been rather frustrated by the pop discussion about global warming. There is a passionate, well-meaning, increasingly larger group w/in society that are clammoring for a Do Anything! approach.

I was greatly pleased to run into Michael Crichton's presentation Fear, Complexity, & Environmental Management in the 21^st Century which he delivered to the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy. Wonderfully articulate, full of facts, and thankfully on the side of environmental management. (I thought his recent novel put him in the wrong camp. Guess I should have read it...)

via Sacca

Yak Shaving and "Turtles All the Way Down"

I've just been introduced to 2 neologisms that I feel compelled to share. From Wikipedia:

1. Yak Shaving:

Yak shaving is a neologism which describes the act of performing seemingly unrelated and often annoying tasks which stand in the way of an ultimate goal. Often these tasks stack up on each other, where one task becomes impossible due to some obstacle, which leads to another unrelated task, yet another obstacle, and so on.

Read Seth Godin's LOL explanation and example here.


2. Turtles All the Way Down:

“Turtles all the way down” refers to a infinite regression belief about the nature of the universe.

The most widely known version today appears in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which begins with an anecdote about an encounter between a scientist and an old lady:

“A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
“At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.”
“The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?”
“You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down.”

via Darren

History of the Blow Job

"For many a straight man, life's long tragedy is first disclosed in early youth, when he discovers that he cannot perform this simple suction on himself. Cursing god, the boy then falls to the hectic abuse of any viscous surface within reach. One day, he dreams, someone else will be on hand to help take care of this."

--from Christopher Hitchens must-read article here

Spam Stock Tracker

I worked with a guy a couple years back who was made rich by the madness Steve Case created at AOL. My friend was a nice guy, trusting and kind. One day he found a fax in the tray that told him to buy stock in this bridge building company in Iraq or something and, no shit, he dropped a pile of money in it. I know what you're thinking. "OMG! No he didn't!! Well, as PT Barnum would say, 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'" But here's the kicker--HE DOUBLED HIS MONEY. Unbelievable. To the mere mortals in the office (who have to work) the universe was mocking us. I am in no way tempted to follow his "strategy" (I'm known for my "buy high, sell low" strategy) and thought this site was a great case study in the bogus "opportunity" that is spam stock.

http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

Great data, fast read.

Typosquatters (from GMSV)

"It's such an easy process. In two minutes, I can set up a thousand domain names. ... I know quite a few guys making over a million dollars a year from advertising on their domains. It's like a 24-hour money-printing machine."

-- Ron Jackson, publisher of DNJournal.com, testifies to the gold that can be mined from misspelled trademarks