Last weekend I rode my fourth STP, a 200 mile bike ride from Seattle to Portland. This year I was accompaniedied by some very good friends, including my wife Megan. We awoke at 3:45AM and successfully departed Seattle at exactly 4:45 with 8 of our 11 riders. Two of them caught up with us at Seward Park where we met Gary and began the trip south. Our pace was very easy, civilized in fact, and we stayed somewhat together for the next 5 miles but then broke into groups by speed, which is typical. At the Kent REI stop we all grouped back together then headed out for the 75 mile sprint to Centralia. It was crazy. Steve, Richy, Sven, Rene, Gary and myself were at the head of a squirrelly line of riders for most of it. When we got to highway 507 they put us on a multi-use trail that’s about 7 feet wide and has huge yellow metal posts at every intersection. Needless to say we were terrified but at least happy we were in front. Speed were 20-25mph the entire way. They should definitely get us off that path, someone is going to get killed. Regardless, it was totally fun in the way that dumb people like to do scary things. At one point a bee flew into my bike helmet and start buzzing around trying to get out. Since I was pulling I could only do one thing - take off my helmet while riding. I’ve never done that. It’s pretty easy but wow did it scare the guy behind me.
The last 20 miles into Centralia were incredible. Our fast group was still at the head of a line but now we were helping two other riders and they were FAST. Too fast actually, pulling at 24-25mph. Stupidly I followed and did my part at 21-23 when it was my turn. Feeling burned in Centralia I ate two sandwiches, pounded water and left, all in 15-20 minutes. Thankfully my legs didn’t bonk. I was all alone for about 5 miles until Ritchy caught me. We decided to just enjoy the rest of the ride, to take it at a leisurely pace and see what happened. Somehow we got into an incredible zone and were left all alone for that last 100 miles, stopping for only 25 minutes to get water. My ride was top-notch up until mile 160 where, after pulling up Highway 30 for 8 miles at 19.5mph in the direct sun without a break I heat bonked. It took all Ritchy’s encouragement and a lot of ice water to keep me moving to Portland. In all honestly, I thought I would pass out on the seat and crash, but somehow I made it, mostly thanks to Ritchy pulling me so much.
It was my hardest STP ever, mentally, and best physically. It was also my best overall time, finishing at 4:55PM for a totaly of 12:10. A short while later Steve and Mike came in followed later by Megan, Sven and Gary. A little bit later Kelly and Rene showed up. A great team, great efforts and great times. Megan just rocked it, never bonking and holding a rock steady pace the whole way. She’s incredible, so solid. I’m so proud of her (even though she did say a 200 mile bike ride is easier than a marathon).
Statistics
2008 - 12:10 Total, 10:48 Bike, 18.6MPH
2007 - 12:30 Total, 10:30 Bike, 19.6MPH
Not bad, pretty steady in fact. The one thing I learned this year is that less breaks is actually easier on you as your legs don’t cool down and you stay fresher. Believer it or not, it was true.
Today Bill Gates steps down from his role at Microsoft and I believe I owe him a huge thanks for all he’s done - for the software industry, for his community and now what’s he’s doing for the world at large. I grew up not far from Microsoft and remember when its offices were next to the BurgerMaster. In High School I dreamed of working there but after college I wound up at a small startup called Visio instead. Visio rode the coat tails of Microsoft’s revolution as they pushed for a PC in every home and on every desk. We had incredible success due in part to both our product and team but also to the massive growth that Microsoft was causing in the industry. I remember sitting around with other devs around 1995, we were talking about how important Microsoft was to the current industry expansion and about the role Gates/Microsoft played in it. Someone speculated that Microsoft, so dependent upon Gates, would crumble if he ever left. We all agreed until someone, Mike Frederick methinks, reminded us that all things do come to an end and that, though we couldn’t see that far in the future, he would one day step down. 13 years later and that day is here. The industry looks completely different now but hearing about his departure is making me wax nostalgic about where we came from. I’m proud to have been part of that history and thank Bill for helping make it happen. Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Microsoft helped fuel the revolution that keeps on moving. I hope that he has even more success in his philanthropic pursuits.
I have a friend named Sven. The best way to describe him is too smart for his own good. He’s a complete genius when it comes to torturing people with Rick Rolls. Just when I thought he couldn’t go any farther he pulls off his greatest stunt ever - the Rick Roll Remix using our best friends as actors. I will let his work speak for itself.
I just had a great experience with the online Apple store’s customer service. Last week I purchased an Airport Express to extend my home network. In addition I bought a mini-DVI cable. All of this is uninteresting. What is is that today when the box arrived I found my Airport Express but not, to my surprise, a mini-DIV cable yet instead an iSkin Revo iPhone case. Dialing up Apple support I key in only one button to get a real person who, to my surprise, not only sends out the missing cable for delivery in two days but tells me I can keep the $40 case that they mistakenly sent. No need for me to send anything back. She was fast, courteous, apologetic and kept me on the phone only long enough to fix the matter. Impressive - and now my iPhone is enjoying its new home - thanks Apple!
Moving to San Francisco 18 months ago I found myself asking people what they called the fog. Most people simply responded with “why do you have to call it something?” I have to call it something because I like nick-names. Yeah, me and George W., we both like giving nick names. Names like Tobbie, Chav, Poopers, Nyahh, Betz, Yaaaaay, M, Snoops, Skittles, et al. If you know me and if I love you then you’ve got a nick name. So what about this fog?
After a night walking around the Mission in the fog my wife and I finally figured out a name. Fred. Fred the Fog. I’m wondering if I couldn’t turn that into a children’s book somehow. There would be chapters like “Tourist Popsicle”, “Summer Sweaters” and “60F Here, 90F There”. They must sell more sweaters at Fisherman’s Wharf than they do at all the Bay Area Banana Republics combined because of Fred. Fred - the engine of summer commerce.
Right, enough of that, just know that if you come here in the summer bring a fleece and be ready for Fred.
Last February I decided to write a game. Around that same time I was also introduced to Processing. To great things that work great together. If you are a software developer and are not familiar with Processing then I think you should be. It’s a wonderful Java based environment in which you can sketch out graphical ideas very quickly. It lets you worry less about how well structured your code is and instead you quickly formulate your ideas and see them on screen. The number of interesting Processing applications is growing daily and some are very impressive. It was the perfect platform for my game. Well I should be honest - it’s not “my game” it’s a knock off of one by Atari. You see I haven’t written a video game since high school so I wanted to start with something easy and familiar, hence I chose Asteroids.
It only took me about 24 hours of work to get a good version of the game running. It took an extra 15 hours to try and polish out the rough edges. Honestly I could probably use another 24 hours to polish but at this point I feel happy with the game and feel like releasing it and moving on to my next game. Supposedly there is a bug that causes the ship to lock up though I have not experienced it. If you do please let me know and try in detail what was happening at the time of the lockup. Enjoy!
Controls:
Space - Fire
Left - Rotate Left
Right - Rotate Right
Up - Forward Thrust
Ctrl - Hyperspace
If you are a fan of exotic and terrifying ceramics then this is a show you don’t want to miss. Go see the latest work by artist Carol Gouthro at Pacini Lubel Gallery this coming May. The attached flyer below should tell you everything you need to know. I’m a huge fan of her work which is fearless and terrifying given all the sharp and pointy teeth she tends to add to her pieces.
this is my first paragraph dictated with MacSpeech Dictate. I purchased MacSpeech iListen last year with the idea that it would help alleviate some wrist strain I’ve been experiencing. Having been a software developer all of my life I have deftly put some strain on them. And we promised a lot, I listen by MacSpeech never really worked for me. However when it was announced in January that they would be licensing Dragon’s NaturallySpeaking, I knew I had to upgrade. What a great decision that was.Having only completed the one short training session that is required, I’ve been e-mailing, instant messaging and now blogging with almost perfect accuracy. The difference between these programs is startling. I never, ever, in my life would have recommended I listen to anyone. MacSpeech Dictate, on the other hand, I can recommend after only 10 minutes of use. Wouldn’t you? Everything you are reading here was dictated within 30 minutes of installing the program.All right, this is too much fun, I have to get back to work.
Old friends are the best. Two great friends of ours, Sven and Destiny, came down from Seattle to spend the weekend with us in San Francisco. We greeted them at our Mission apartment with hugs, champagne, cheese and crackers. After touring all 900 square feet that our place has to offer we jumped in a cab and headed downtown to Myth. The restaurant is beautiful and I’d go back if only to show off the decor. We thought the food very good but not remarkable. Both Sven and I had the duck which was undercooked and had to be re-fired. Our waiter was hilarious - he honestly didn’t even care that we were there. After Myth we walked around to Tosca for the House coffees and Spanish coffees. I love this place. The service is great and the atmosphere thick with history. I’m not from Frisco but I can tell this place is haunted by history. Great spot, we chatted for another hour before heading home and finishing up the night back at our place sipping Sake and chatting even more. It’s wonderful to sit around and catch up for so long, we could have talked for days.
I woke up early at 7:30 and made us all coffee and tea. Megan and Destiny went for a run so Sven and I jumped on our bikes and rode up to the top of Bernal Heights. What a great view and what a great street. We rode down into the Mission and roused John and Emily for breakfast but couldn’t find Toby. Back home we cleaned up before heading to The Liberties for a traditional Irish brunch. Toby finally showed up despite his laundry duties. It’s good food, it’s heavy food, beware. It has an excellent Bloody Mary so long as you like horseradish. On our way back to the apartment we got hit up by Girl Scouts and I couldn’t say no to Thin Mints and Samosas. One block later half the mints are gone and John is tearing into the Samosas. He loves sugar.
Back at the house we clean up and head to the Legion of Honor to see Annie Leibovitz latest exhibitionAnnie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005. I can’t say if I’ve ever seen such a personal collection of photos. It was humbling and inspiring. Outside we found the weather had turned stormy so we drove down to Ocean Beach and took some pictures. It was chilly so we retreated to a restaurant down the way and watched both the kite boarders and the seagulls play in the wind while enjoying tea and white wine. Saturday night was upon us so we headed home to freshen up, nap and to get ready for Greg Veen’s birthday party.
Dinner was at Millenium, a place I’d recommend for their Manhattan’s but not so much for their food. It was good but I just wasn’t blown away. Still, the company made the night and it was great to see Mr. Veen and his lovely Sig along with all our other people. Afterwards we got a great treat, a night at Bourbon and Branch. Our wonderful Sig, the girlfriend of Mr. Veen, reserved the entire upstairs for us where we had a birds-eye view of the entire place. It’s a wonderful hide out and the cocktails are marvelous. Everyone had something different and no one said anything other than ’stellar’ for each. I will return.
The next morning Destiny and I snuck out for a quick walk in the Mission. We got ourselves some coffee at Ritual then picked up fresh bagels at Whole Foods Valencia. Back home Megan and Sven were still asleep. A quickRick Roll later they were both in the kitchen and dancing with us we prepared the bagels and salmon. Toby showed up to share the fritata he made that morning and then we were all off on an urban hike. First we visited the Seward Street Slides which I think are the coolest slides ever. After many races against Madison, the vicious 8 year old slide champion, we headed up the street to walk Kite Hill Park. Such great views of the city. We made our way back to Delores park where we laid out some blankets, drank cider and had snacks while waiting for that sad moment when Sven and Destiny would have to head back to our apartment and then off to the airport. A moment that came too soon.
Last weekend I had the great honor and pleasure of hosting yet another Photagonist photo contest. The topic was ’solitude’. People had 3 weeks to produce their work which was printed, hung and voted on in both San Francisco and Seattle. The results speak for themselves. I’ve put the top 3 finishers below but you can view all entries either at my Flickr page or a Lightroom HTML slideshow.
One Track Mind by Chris Marshall Tuesday Night BART by Troy Sandal (me!) Solitude by Dave Gerton
