Posts on WT8P's Notes to Self

Leaving Wordpress

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 07:29:25 +0000

2002-2026

I started blogging in 2002 as an outlet. As with other early-Internet technologies, the initial entrants were generally cool people doing the same. It was a lot of fun having cross-blog conversations with fine folks like Kiri, Debbie, Window Manager, and (John (and several other former bloggers).

For me, blogging peaked around 2009, when the big social media players started taking root – Twitter (which was akin to shouting in a room) and Facebook. The real shock came when Google Reader was killed. (I tried dabbling with Newsblur and Reeder.) Now there was no reason to visit my site when you could go to Twitter/Facebook/etc.

Experiences with AI Tools

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 01:29:25 +0000

After resisting it for a long time, I decided to plunge into using agentic AI tools to help me with various tasks. Here is a synopsis of where we are at in late March, 2026:

Task: Update python code written 7 years ago to current libraries

**Description:**one of my initial jobs at work was to write automation that would mash up data from various financial sources, do some baseline analysis, and produce a report, with charts alerting the recipient to specific market conditions. Although this has been running for seven years, there is some maintenance when sources change location or presentation of data. Recently, there has been interest in making its reporting available to an outside audience. As a result, I’ve had some interest in ensuring the code base is modernized.

Prague Planning Retrospective

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:21:00 +0000

Where to start…

Unlike Iceland, where I’d be (at the time) moving around the island, I’d planned to stay in Prague. I initially started with the Lonely Planet Pocket Prague for trying to plan days of things to do. However, since I was going to be geocaching-focused, I used the CacheTur.No tool for laying out routes. For example, one sub-trip had me going down to Vysehrad (south), another hitting the Charles Bridge early, before crowds came in.

Twelve Days of QRZ – 2024

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 05:38:43 +0000

This was my third year of the “Twelve Days of QRZ” event that runs from December 1 through the end of February. The object is to have QSLs, that is, confirmation of radio contact, either on QRZ or Logbook of the Web, on twelve separate days. It is pretty easy to get the base award, especially via digital contacts, and I did that 12 days after getting a new antenna launched after the bomb cyclone had knocked it out of the tree. (It took a while to clear out debris so I could do that.)

Bomb Cyclone

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 22:54:33 +0000

The “bomb cyclone” we had in November was a surreal experience. I had to go to a customer meeting that afternoon, and towards the end, kept checking my phone for the wind. The storm itself didn’t make landfall, but its pressure center was so low, it sucked wind from the east. The easterly wind caused more damage because it’s less common and trees hadn’t develop stress wood for that..

Geobituary (GCJQGP) Rebuild

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:03:24 +0000

About 12 years ago, I adopted a Geobituary (GCJQGP), a puzzle cache published in 2004. The puzzle was, unfortunately, ambiguous, and there was no checker. The container (a mini-tombstone) and its location adjacent to a city cemetery were fantastic. When I adopted it, the container was in bad shape from the weather. I sought out to build a new one from scratch.

The original container in 2009.

Not having done this before, I thought it would make sense to frame the tombstone “top” out of wood cut into roughly semicircles. I Filled in the gap with some random wood bits, then screwed it laterally, then through the steel moderate-sized ammo box lid.

Sometimes poop happens

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 21:59:31 +0000

When my daughter was in college, I’d periodically visit to check up and take her on a Target trip to ensure she had all the household comforts needed. Although there was scheduled flight service to the college town, it was generally cheaper and quicker taking the nonstop from Seattle to either Chicago O’Hare or Milwaukee Mitchell, renting a car, and driving the rest of the way to the college town. And being one who likes to wander, I’d also scout out geocaching opportunities. On a particular trip in 2018, shortly after I started a new job and had no accrued vacation time, I flew after work on Friday, arriving to my motel after midnight. I intended to get up at the ass crack Saturday morning, meet her for breakfast, spend time with her (as she was available), then drive back Sunday afternoon to Milwaukee and fly home.

Pomeroy, WA

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 03:25:02 +0000

I’ve been through the town of Pomeroy, WA, a couple of times. The first, in 2010, was during my last Cycle Oregon, which I had to DNF shortly thereafter because I’d acquired Achilles tendonosis. That was extra unfortunate because I was over 40, and it took a long time to heal. However before then I enjoying the undulating landscape of the Palouse, occasionally stopping for geocaches.

Long and climbing road

DC Trip 2024

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 05:24:34 +0000

I made my third trip to Washington, DC, but the first time I’d spent any time for vacation. Some of the things we saw during the trip:

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum is one of the most popular museums for a good reason, and you absolutely must get (free) timed tickets for. Part of it has been under reconstruction for a few years, with some items moved to another facility. However, there’s still a lot to see ranging from the early history of flight to planetary exploration. The photo above is an F1 engine from Apollo 11, recovered by a Bezos expedition and donated to the museum. The immensity is readily apparent, as was the hand assembly. ******* Allow 3-4 hours, Free, timed-tickets essential**. (There’s plenty to see, it just gets overwhelming with crowds.)

Washington DC Metro SmarTrip

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 05:38:26 +0000

I just returned from ten days in Washington DC, where I got around solelyby walking and public transit (bus and train). It was awesomely efficient. One of the more difficult things to suss out priorto visiting was the use of the SmarTrip app. The short summary: you don’t need it if you’re a tourist. Just use the Wallet function.

The app does three things:

Lets you buy a multi-day pass. The pricing was extremely confusing with multiple agencies and “unlimited.” I’m sure this would make more sense to a local, but it was simpler and cheaper to just buy the fares we used.

Costco Sameday

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 21:58:31 +0000

Between returning from vacation and being completely swamped with work, I’d been in need of a Costco run. I was considering doing a Costco SameDay order (aka “InstaCart”), but in the penultimate stage of the cart, the $3 “priority fee” annoyed me enough to hesitate. I was distracted the rest of the day with work phone calls. By the next morning, I realized I needed gas anyway, so I just went when they opened and avoided the crowds.

Iceland Parks on the Air Notes

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 00:08:28 +0000

Before I forget, I wanted to jot down some notes about the Parks on the Air exercises I just did in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Final statistics: Iceland: 11 parks activated (9 the first time anyone had), 382 QSOs, 277 confirmed (as of writing) for 41 countries. For the Faroe Islands, 172 QSOs, 121 confirmed, 37 countries. I also found my 10,000th geocache.

Pre-trip preparation

Paperwork. The ARRL is a starting point for US hams operating internationally, but their site is primarily a collection of links to documents you’re supposed to pore through and understand. The material can be exceptionally boring (T/R 61-01 zzzzzzz). The Iceland club had a nice summary, only lacking a specific link to the permit needed. (The permit was free, and quickly obtained.) There was a club for Faroe Islands, but it and the Danish authority were challenging to browse with Google Translate. I was unable to find anything specific, and hoped it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Equipment optimizationthrough Trial POTA activations*.*This was also an opportunity to work out kinks with my laptop, re-familiarized myself with the KX3, tried different antenna options, and set up a flow for logging.
Identify potential POTA sites.
Logging is complicated. I had a TF/WT8P from last year, and added OY/WT8P, which was “announced” and led to conversations with DX Daily (who publishes information about DX operations) and a ham who offered to manage sending paper QSL cards.

Logging Amateur Radio Contacts Accurately Is Complicated

Tue, 28 May 2024 22:54:45 +0000

In the seven years since my first radio contacts, I now have a process for logging amateur radio contacts. However, it wasn’t until I started working remotely more that I appreciated how **logging amateur radio contacts accurately is complicated.**This inaccurate logging was the cause of much frustration during the final throes of my completing the ARRL Triple Play where, for example, the Parks on the Air person I worked “in Michigan” would log their home state (not Michigan). I now understand why.

The Aurora

Sat, 11 May 2024 15:36:40 +0000

Three things lined up today, providing an exciting evening of aurora watching.

Tickling of the ionosphere – with the peaking of the 11-year solar cycle, it’s been ramping up. But this week, K-index of 9 and blobs-o’-sun heading our way.

Geomagnetic Storm!

Darkness– normally these are seen in Winter because nights are longer. But there’s also an issue with light pollution. The state map is pretty much “anywhere there’s people.”

QCX+ 5W CW transceiver kit

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 18:07:03 +0000

During one of my CW classes, a couple of my students were waxing on about the fun they had in assembling a QRP Labs QCX+ radio kit. They invited me to participate in the fun. Although I’ve done small kits in the past, this was much more ambitious. I was leery what paltry soldering skills I had were long since vanished. But, eventually, FOMO prevailed and I purchased a kit online.

Chicken Bun Cha Bowl

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 03:35:40 +0000

This recipe for Vietnamese-inspired Chicken Bun Cha bowls with fried shallots on top is based on a class I took at my local PCC in April 2023. It takes just under two hours from when I started until when we ate. When I redid this last night (2024-03-11), I made some of the sauces the night before, employed the food processor more, and things flowed smoother. Any extra meat or sauce can be used in Bahn Mi.

Prague Trip – Part 2

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 01:24:50 +0000

Belatedly following up with Part 1, my remaining time Prague had a day-trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park, Bastei Bridge, and a lot of geocaching throughout the city. (Prague geocachers bring their A-game. I went home finding 132 caches in Iceland, 71 in Czechia and 5 in Germany.) To blow through my remaining CZK, I made a trip to a grocery store and bought enough candy and beer that I needed a second suitcase.

2023 Wrapped

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 01:04:32 +0000

Geocaching just sent a nice “wrap” of my 2023 activity (which I don’t remember them doing last year) that was fun to reflect on. It also became obvious how much of my activity has changed.

Using Project-GC, this is my monthly activity over the last eight years:

Quick observations:

There’s a pretty huge shift from pre-covid (right half) to post-covid (left-half), as I have been unable to get out with friends.
From 2018 through part of 2019, I was trying to do a geocaching “streak,” whereby I’d go out every day and find a cache. It gets brutal as I’d be finding all the caches I’d otherwise ignore just to appease some arbitrary metric.
Each year has had a spike of activity around travel taken.
My activity has been declining, which I think is a sign of clearing out nearby things to find. After all, I’m in Year 16 of geocaching.

Iceland: Check! I did a geo-trail around the Reykjanes peninsula, also a lot of wandering around Reykjavik.

Prague Trip – Part 1

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 01:37:56 +0000

After my time in Iceland, I spent a few days to see Prague, which is renowned for its history and the excellent geocaching community. It did not disappoint.

Day 1

Summary:_ ****Fly from Keflavik, arriving early afternoon. Check into the apartment rental. If time permitted, exchange currency, then wander to the meeting point for the Taste of Prague food tour. Sleep._ The American version of airports.

The night before, I dropped off my rental car and walked to the airport hotel two blocks from Keflavik International. Thinking the US airport experience was the norm, specifically, a lot of time-wasted because of security theater, I planned to be up and out the door by 4:30 a.m. to do all the security hoops for my 7 a.m. flight.

Iceland Planning Retrospective

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 21:09:51 +0000

Where to start…

(extensively updated 2023-10-26)

I initially asked a couple of geocaching friends what they did, and it was evident their visits were stopovers onto somewhere else. It is possible do visit many sites from day-trips while staying in Reykjavik. However, this was my travel destination. While doing a couple of day trips from Reykjavik is fine, the traveling back and forth eats up a lot of valuable vacationing.

Scenes from Day 10 Iceland: All good things…

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 20:45:30 +0000

… must come to an end. For my last day, I had an early reservation at the Sky Lagoon, which is an Oceanside geothermal lagoon closer into town. I just could not get myself interested in the Blue Lagoon on this visit. Although I brought my swimsuit, I ended up renting one so I wouldn’t have to deal with a wet garment in my suitcase.

Sky Lagoon’s “The Ritual” is eloquently explained on their website, but I would summarize as alternating between hotter and colder forms of water. Towards the end, you rub oily salt on your body, then walk into a steam furnace until you absolutely cannot take it anymore, grope for the exit, and take a normal shower. The transitions, especially hot to cold, are surprisingly invigorating.

Scenes from Day 9 of Iceland Trip

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:20:48 +0000

Today, my last night in Reykjavik, I spent the morning geocaching around Petrin, checking out the ruins of Oskjuhlid Hill, a WW2 relic. The walk from downtown was a lot longer than I had planned for, but it was basically Seattle weather, and nice to be outdoors: Stairs to ???

WW2 structure

Bunker

On the way back, I was enjoying checking out the local street murals. The cat-stronaut is one of my favorites, but there are several solid works. My favorite

Scenes from Day 8 of Iceland Trip (CW, NSFW)

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:22:10 +0000

There’s some definitely extremely NSFW content here involving an uncharacteristically large number of dick pics. At least twenty. Oops, sorry for the Dick pic, source: Wikipedia.

To avoid the naughty bits appearing at the top of someone’s internet feed, I’m going to complain first.

After last night’s Food and Drink Walk, I ran back to the hotel to dispose of some beer I no longer needed and change into extra warm clothes for another tour that would take us out to see the Northern Lights. It was serendipitous that I’d scheduled this specific day because we were between storms and it was going to be cold and clear, with no interference from the moon, and a Kp index of 4. Although we were successful at seeing aurora, I would not recommend doing this in a tour group.

Scenes from Days 7 of Iceland Trip

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 09:59:57 +0000

Day 7 was largely heading back to Reykjavik, picking up geocaches along the way, and doing a food and drink walk tour to become familiar with the town (and eat something different than skyr and granola).

Urriðafoss was the first stop, and barely registers a paragraph in my tourist guide, but was a nice quick stop. Its name means “waterfall of the salmon,” and it’s located in the river þjórsá. According to the local description, its flow is the highest volume of water in Iceland at 360 cubic meters per second, with a drop of 6 meters. For comparison, Dettifoss, which is supposed to be the second most powerful waterfall in Europe, has a flow of “only” 193 cubic meters per second. The waterfall can freeze in the winter, which must be a spectacle to behold. Urriðafoss

Scenes from Day 6 of Iceland Trip

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 20:30:31 +0000

For today, I had booked a (small) tour through the hostel. The Midgard Surprise is what it sounds like, the guide picks a route based on weather, road conditions, expertise, and whim. Today’s was to Gígjökull, Þórsmörk then a couple of waterfalls.

According to Discover Iceland, Gígjökull is a 7.5 km long crater glacier and one of the outlets from the glacier volcano Eyjafjallajökull, famous its eruption in 2010 that wrought havoc with air traffic as well as being difficult for non-Icelanders to pronounce. (I’m told that it sounds like “Hey I forgot the yogurt” if spoken very quickly.) Eyjafjallajökull

Scenes from Day 5 of Iceland Trip

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:20:36 +0000

What a difference two days makes. After visiting Gullfoss and Gljúfurárfoss on Monday, in the heavy rain and wind, I rolled into parking for Skógafoss, stopped maybe 10 minutes, then noped out of there for different, equally blustery options. Because of the orange weather alert and closed roads, yesterday’s highlight was … clean laundry.

Thus, this morning’s cold, clear and calm was extra alluring. I mean, what about this doesn’t just say “go outdoors, now. Okay, you can have breakfast first, but then get outdoors!”?

Not much to show for Day 4

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 19:38:05 +0000

Despite some noisy hostel-mates, last night was my best night’s sleep since I arrived in Iceland. I woke up feeling great, and had no problem getting out and on the road to avoid potential road closures. As of this morning, I still couldn’t find a first-hand source of the potential closures, but took it to be likely given the weather conditions forecast.

I rolled into Hvolsvöllur around 8:30 a.m. and had a “Now, what?” moment. This is not a 24-hour metropolis like New York City (that I still need to write-up). Moreover, the Midgard Base Camp, like most hostels, closes during the day to clean. I passed the time sleeping in the car, walked around the neighborhood photographing random information signs for an art project Meryl is (I think) working on, and shopped in my first Icelandic grocery store. Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

Scenes from a wet Day 3 of Iceland Trip

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:44:35 +0000

In my trip planning document weeks ago, I had a note indicating today’s itinerary was likely going to be the wettest time here. Today, with the added benefit of the weather, that lived up to its promise and then some.

The first stop of the morning was Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall located approximately 20km east of Hvolsvöllur. It is not the largest, most powerful, or voted most likely to become class president, but it is a spectacular site with a near-constant roar. As you might be able to tell from the photo, it kicks up a lot of mist.

Scenes from Day 2 of Iceland Trip

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 19:27:19 +0000

The jet lag last night was rough. I think I had a total of nine hours sleep (which is good) but spread over 13 hours attempted (not good), including some surreal dreams. But I was feeling more human again. I started off the day with a latte and an Icelandic vegetarian breakfast of chia pudding and toast with hummus and chutney. Tastes better than it looks!

Having abstained from coffee for two weeks prior to my trip, the latte had the effect of perking me up quickly. First stop of the Golden Circle was Þingvellir National Park, which became a UNESCO site for the historical significance — the AlIÞing‘s (Icelandic parliament) formation over a millennium ago. It’s as equally interesting geologically, as it’s the intersection of two continental plates. Just say no to crack?

Scenes from day 1 of Iceland trip

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 00:22:52 +0000

After clearing customs, fetching my luggage, finding some coffee and scraping ice off my rental car, I headed over to Garðskagaviti to pick up a geocache near the lighthouse.

The cold helped wake me up from the overnight flight until the coffee could kick in. Next, I drove down the Reykjanes peninsula to the point where you could walk between continental plates.

This is the intersection of the North American and Europe’s continents. Another great opportunity to walk and marvel at geology

Iceland Trip

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 22:58:36 +0000

For ham folks who stumble here, the tl;dr is I’ll try to activate four parks on the air as TF/WT8P. I will be QRP, which means CW or FT8 are preferred modes. Logging should happen pretty quickly because Iceland is well-connected.

I’ve been overthinking my trip to Iceland, but this is what I’ve settled on:

Day 1: Arrive 6:15 am and rent a car. Overnight in Reykjavik. KEF to Blue Lagoon earthcaches, some puzzles, then Reyjkavik

Notes on Field Day 2023

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 20:05:36 +0000

I wrapped up another field day with my friend Paul (W7PEZ) in Eastern Washington. For the two days, I had 204 contacts, broken out roughly as: Yes, I worked SSB. It was kinda Frankfurt United Norway

WT8P is sporting the 6-day salt and pepper look

Paul worked 200 contacts, nearly all CW. Both are personal records. Neither of us were “running,” which would certainly have bumped up the totals, nor did we operate all the time, because most of the fun of Field Day is Everything Else.

Triple Play

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 07:42:42 +0000

In geocaching, there are a lot of “challenges” published, where in addition to signing the log, you have an alternative logging requirement (“ALR”) to perform some feat. These can be as simple as “find 10 mystery caches” or “find a cache for every letter in the alphabet,” or more complicated. In my 15 years, I’ve done a lot of these, and some of my favorites: John Day Fossil Beds, Sheep Rock Unit, Oregon

Quieter fans on the Elecraft K4D

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 04:33:07 +0000

My first HF radio, the Elecraft KX3, was air-cooled and got me spoiled to the relatively quiet operation. The K4D, on the other hand, has two fans. Although the “base” ventilation speed has been lowered, there’s also some whining from the bearings. Most hams can’t hear it, I, unfortunately, can and don’t enjoy the sound.

I’d previously replaced the ones in my VHF/UHF radios, and reasoned there would be a similar process, but I’d been holding off until (a) the warranty expired, (b) I could find a fan that would fit and (c) someone else did it first, because I don’t want to the guy who finds the way to mess this up!

Displaying K4 Spectrum in N1MM

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:25:36 +0000

In mid-December 2022, N1MM (version 1.0.9758) introduced a spectrum display option supporting the Elecraft K4 radio. Below is a walk-through on setting it up.

For this to work, your radio will need to be connected to your local network. You can check this by tapping the Menu option and scrolling to the middle. You should see a valid IP address like in the screenshot above.

If you use a firewall (e.g., Firewalla Gold), you will also need to allow communication between devices on the port 9200.

Birdwatch/Community Notes

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 18:46:19 +0000

In September, I was invited to participate in “Birdwatch,” now known as “Twitter Community Notes.” The concept is a misleading tweet can be annotated with additional information or context by the community. wrong the Internet. If I don" loading="lazy" src="https://wt8p.com/images/duty_calls.png"> Image source: XKCD 386: Duty Calls

For example, consider this headline:

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd holds press conference after agency says it seized enough fentanyl to kill 2.7 million people. WFLA, October 21, 2022

Parks on the Air

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 04:56:26 +0000

In addition to all of the geocaching I planned, I also thought I’d try activating some parks. Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program inspired by the ARRL National Parks on the Air program in 2016 by Sean Kutzko (KX9X) and Norm Fusaro (W3IZ). The idea is simply “everyday is field day,” that is, you take your radio crap to one of thousands of state or national parks, make ten contacts, and thus “activate the park.” Unlike Summits on the Air (SOTA), one can usually drive close enough to a park, which makes it more accessible.

Geocaching in the Northeast

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 21:06:35 +0000

Like a lot of folks, I had to cancel my travel plans in 2020 – this was a March trip to New York City — which left me with a moderate chunk of air travel credit$. I used some of them to visit the oldest geocaches Kansasand Colorado last year, but about by late December of last year, I still had a sizeable amount left and they were expiring. I couldn’t get my family to agree on anything, so I booked a trip to Boston in September. I hadn’t thought too deeply about it until July, when the trip seemed more likely than not to occur.

Aspects of Geocaching I like/dislike at the same time

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 01:40:46 +0000

The cache lifecycle. I like that any cacher can log an appropriate needs maintenance/archive, but I find local cachers are often reluctant to do so. Nearly every time I travel, I find dozens of hides with super obvious issues (e.g., hasn’t been found in a few years, streak of DNFs, CO appears to have left the game). I’ve been logging a lot of NM on caches 3000km away so I don’t waste time on them when I’m there.

Doing my part to clean up Charlottetown, PEI

Learn to Drive Syllabus – Suburbia and Beyond

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 06:51:54 +0000

Part 1: here. Part 2: here.

Suburban practice: 30-45mph streets

Goals: Be able to drive to (and park at) Trader Joe’s then Metropolitan Market and get back home. Continue building good habits, two-way communication with parental unit in right seat Relatively simple drive to there, some complexities coming back.

Scanning and naming things to keep an eye on (e.g., pedestrians looking like they may cross, lights about to change, etc.)
Lane changes.
Left and right turns, signaling.

An example of a multi-lane left turn; there are no lane dots to assist.

Field Day 2022

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 06:01:00 +0000

Paul (W7PEZ) and I worked field day as 2B EWA, that is, we set up with battery-powered equipment, everything self-contained. The national forest site near Cle Elum was fantastic – great view from a ledge, higher elevation (near 4000′) so it was cooler, very quiet, and trees to mount antennas. 100w versus 12w

Paul brought his ICOM 7300 (HF) and a Yaesu 857 (HF + VHF + UHF), but stuck with the ICOM. I used my Elecraft KX3. Neither of us was mentally ready to have our brand new K4s in the field just yet.

Learn to Drive Syllabus: Neighborhood

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 15:43:09 +0000

(A belated followup to Part 1. Part 3 is here.)

Neighborhood Practice: 25mph streets

Goals:

Back out of and pull into our driveway.
Complete point-to-point drives in a gentle environment, build good habits – speed control, scanning, and learning to recognize potential issues.
Two-way communication with parental unit in right seat. For example, when I say stop, you need to stop right away. Otherwise, I’ll suggest things like “let’s pull over ahead” or “right turn at the next traffic light.” I need you to articulate things you see and actions you’re about to take (e.g., “I see a child on a bicycle weaving; a pedestrian is about to enter the crosswalk, so I will plan on yielding.”). If you don’t do that, I will assume you’re unaware of the issue and will point it out with varying degrees of subtlety.

Locations:

Klahanie Blvd – This is a wide road with ample shoulder, traffic calming devices, and pedestrian crosswalks. The speed limit is 25mph and visibility is excellent … once you’re off our street.

Neighborhood beginner level. Source: Google Street View

Zucchini-Carrot waffles

Sun, 29 May 2022 18:55:08 +0000

This can also be made in a waffle maker.

Ingredients:

3 zucchini, grated
2 carrots, peeled and grated
2t salt
3 eggs
1/2C flour
1t baking powder
1/2C feta
1T olive oil
3 chives, chopped (or use 1t dried leeks)
1/2 t dried dill
butter (for frying)
sour cream (optional topping)

Place grated zucchini and carrots into a colander. Salt. Allow it to drain a few minutes. Squeeze into colander to drain off as much water as you can. (You can also put the mixture in a clean towel and twist.) Mix it good.

Colonoscopy II

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 03:43:00 +0000

Because I had a polyp last time, I was due for a followup at 5- instead of 10-years. Today that happened. no polyps, am now on a 10-year follow-up..

Most of what I wrote up in 2017 is identical, so I’ll just note the differences I want to be aware of next time I need to know. Nearing the 2/3rds mark.

Preparation:

I was pretty organized about the process, timing my grocery run to reduce the temptation of having fiber-foods around the house. The GoLytely (mineral salts that make you poop) documents were pretty thorough, but I found it helpful to write specific days in the margin.
An interesting addendum to the instructions provided by the doctor was a note that anyone coming into the procedure high, stoned or drunk would be automatically rescheduled. I assume this has problematic interactions with the sedatives. It is interesting that it occurs frequently enough that they feel it worth mentioning.
I intentionally tapered back on fiber a day earlier than necessary to make the purge phase easier. That worked, but midway, I was having serious fiber cravings. For breakfast and dinner, I stuck to Greek vanilla yogurt and jarred peaches leftover from my pandemic stash. Lunch was Boar’s Head chicken slices and provolone cheese. For dessert, rice pudding.
Next time, I should ask to get the prescription stuff (GoLytley, ondansetron, simethicone) in earlier so I don’t stress out about it.
Ice and Crystal Lite lemonade mix helped the solution go down.
The IV added used a plastic hose, which meant I could bend my arm. I did not realize this until the doctor presented me with consent forms to sign and he mentioned this.
The nasal oxygen cannula was placed underneath my K95 mask, which I kept on all the time.
As per last time, i received 100 mcg of fentanyl(IVP) and 5 mg of versed (also IVP). The clinic notes had a nicely formatted table listing precision down to the second:

This stuff works quickly!

Bullitt Fireplace

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 21:40:30 +0000

The first official CHS hike was the Bullitt Fireplace Loop on Squak Mountain. It’s east of my prior two hikes:

The route is similar to a reverse of this loop: Cougar-Squak corridor to the Fireplace, direct to the microwave towers, then Old Griz to Eastside Traverse and back down. Although this hike was labeled “easy,” the last 0.4 miles up to the fireplace was steep enough that I needed to pause a few times.

Longview Peak and Far Country Lookout Loop

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 02:43:34 +0000

My daughter, who’s home for her last spring break ever, wanted to go on a hike before heading back to school. I’d scoped out a lot of interesting hikes, but several were in weather-affected areas, because I forget 50s here does not equate to “melted snow” east of the pass. We ultimately settled on something closer to home: Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.

Cougar has well-maintained trails and a selection of waterfalls, marshes, and mining artifacts. It’s a really nice area that I forget because it’s so close. For today’s hike, we’d do a 6.5 mile loop from the Sky Country trailhead, covering several lookouts and the waterfalls.

CHS Pacing Hike, Margaret’s Way

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 21:36:51 +0000

To help remotivate myself to get outdoors again and, hopefully, lose some of the “Covid 19”, I’ve signed up for the Conditioning Hiking Series with the Mountaineers. This involves two hikes from April to August, a “graduation” hike of >15 miles in September, and a stewardship project.

Map from GaiaGPS based on my track with the parking lot to trailhead portions removed.

There are two tracks:

CHS 1 — pace of less than 2mph
CHS 2 — Pace of more than 2mph.

Cool. A few questions: how does one calculate pace? Is it total moving average? Moving time over flat terrain? Distance divided by total time with breaks? No one was able to articulate this in a way that I could nod agreeably in understanding. I was leaning towards the faster group, but unsure about my current couch potato-ness.

Furnace Repair ][

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 16:45:00 +0000

To honor the fifth month since putting down a deposit on a new furnace and A/C add-on, our existing furnace started acting up this weekend by sleeping in. (This is how it should behave.) I, of course, did not notice the house was 61F, but my spouse certainly did.

Thanksgiving 2016 with a dead furnace controller. Fun times!

Having more than casual familiarity with the innards from my Thanksgiving 2016 experience, where the control board itself died, I thought I’d do some diagnostics before calling a professional.

Configuring N1MM+ CW for the Elecraft K4

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 16:22:00 +0000

Newer update here.

With my KX3, using N1MM+ to manage CW sending was accomplished via an indirect set of KX3 macros and keyboard sequences. Thus, we had this awfulness:

F1 CQ,{CATA1ASC KY CQ SST * ;}
F2 Exch,{CATA1ASC KY TU {EXCH};}
F3 Tu,{CATA1ASC KY tu * ;}

Bob (N6TV) presented at the Spokane DX Association and mentioned this on slides 52, 62, and 63 of his presentation. There is a lot of good information in his presentation, and you should view it. For my notes to self, the configuration is thus:

Configuring Elecraft K4D for WSJTX / FT8

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:04:42 +0000

After a year, my new Elecraft K4D has arrived. To any new owner, I’d highly recommend grabbing Bob (N6TV’s) general setup checklist. There are also some great presentations on Bob’s QRZ page.

**2022-08-13:**This guide is intentionally detailed to ensure that you have everything you need to be successful. Nearly all of the issues that folks have contacted me about are a result of skipping an important step. The top three items: COM port changed when you plug the USB into a different physical socket (you will need to re-map the devices – blame Windows); audio volume management; IP address versus hostname. While I’m happy to help, please check that you haven’t skipped a step.

Tarryall / Pike’s Peak

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 23:07:00 +0000

The second half of my geocation was in Colorado. With some potentially dicey weather en route (midwest Thunderstorms), my plan was to drive from Mt Sunflower all the way to Tarryall (GC18), the oldest cache in Colorado, then pick up caches (as weather permitted) on the way back to my motel. Departing Mt. Sunflower, KS

This part of Western Kansas/Eastern Colorado feels endless with no official rest stops. I stopped a few times to stretch my legs, grab a quick park-and-grab cache (enough to claim the county), and pee. The night before, I picked up some extra tamales at Los Jarochos food truck in Colby to munch on at an appropriate point. Cell coverage was very limited, I was really glad I had pre-downloaded music and a few (good) audio (meh) books (great). I wish the Netflix app would let one play just the soundtrack to music without having the video screen go. The scene before Lake Urine spontaneously appeared next to my car

GET vs 529: The Final Tally

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 03:50:00 +0000

In 2004, I was pondering saving for my kids’ college tuition, considering my options between Washington’s Guaranteed Education Tuition program and the Missouri MOST 529. At the time, the GET credits were priced with an equivalent of a 2-year front-end load. Based on my relatively late start, I felt it was enough of an issue that I should stick with a 529.

I revisited this in 2010 shortly after the market had its 2008 meltdown. It was too late to really do the GET. Carolyn Adolph, the local NPR affiliate interviewed me. I couldn’t find the transcript, but I think I was feeling kind of dumb for going with a 529 vs the Washington State GET plan.

Arikaree / Mingo

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 03:38:12 +0000

Day 1: Denver Intergalactic Airport to Arikaree (GC31) and Mingo (GC30)

I took the early flight from Seattle to Denver, not checking a bag to hasten my departure from the airport in hopes of grabbing Mingo (GC30) — the oldest active geocache — and Arikaree (GC31), nearly as old. I soon ended up on a very lonely road, headed east to Nebraska.

The first stop was the triple-point intersection of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, a completely arbitrary waypoint that I’d have no other chance to stop at and claim a virtual cache. Unbeknownst, I’d not only left Settlers of Catan running in the foreground, I also hadn’t plugged the charger cable in right. No battery. I plopped the alternate battery in near Texas Trail Canyon. Hey, I’m in Nebraska! (Also, we really fucked the locals over.)

Marathon Support

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 05:39:00 +0000

When the immunization rate in western WA got high enough, the state began opening up a little, leading our first requests to support public events in nearly 18 months. Since June, I’ve worked at (basic first aid, ham radio work) four marathons: three Light at the End of the Tunnel and the Jack and Jill’s Downhill Marathon / half-marathon.

These marathons use the Palouse to Cascades State Park (aka “John Wayne” aka “Iron Horse” Trail) from Hyak to Rattlesnake Lake, joining the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to North Bend. The gentle, downhill route has some great scenery and can potentially lead to a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon.

Screws

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 18:57:00 +0000

[From mid-2008] My dishwasher’s been making a bad grinding noise that, I think, is the remnant of a broken coffee cup sloshing around in the sprayer assembly. I noticed the screws holding this on are the TORX shape. This got me wondering about the type of screws available and what their trade-offs were.

Enjoy!

The flathead (or “slotted”) screw is an old design, but suffers two shortfalls: it’s hard to center and it’s too easy to apply too much torque, causing the screwdriver blade to pop out and destroy the head. Thus, it’s used primarily in wood products assembled by hand.

Using Slack for CW Academy

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 02:58:00 +0000

During the latter part of my Basic class, when students were becoming more engaged, we ran into several problems with the email and text messaging. As an experiment, we used Slack in my intermediate class the most recent term. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In the spirit of trying to give back, I thought it would be helpful relating our experience.

73, Jim WT8P

Email works for some specific situations such as contacting the entire class and sharing detailed information. There were occasions where my missives were too long and detailed. Some email clients (e.g., Outlook) make it difficult to find messages. Email is poor for any real-time event, such as a student who was on the air right now and looking for contacts.

Hot as heck

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 04:02:00 +0000

During the last week of June, there was a crazy forecast. Sometimes the app, using Dark Sky, has an instability problem with far-future dates, but this wasn’t changing:

For context, the normal high this time of year is 79. Low temperatures are typically 50s to low 60s, thus allowing us to use “Seattle Air Conditioning”, a box fan in the window. Typically, we put it in the window when:

Daytime temperatures are above 75 and we anticipate cool evenings, such as the one below.
The outside temperature is within 3 degrees of inside temperature. By the end of the day, the inside gets very humid and drier, albeit warmer air helps improve the comfort.

What to do when the hot surface light on the oven stays on …

Thu, 13 May 2021 05:35:16 +0000

To celebrate the oven’s 10th birthday, the “hot surface” light would come on more often (such as running the oven, but not burner) and stay on up to three hours (!) after the surface has reached room temperature. Each heating element has a thermostat, and this is a symptom of one or more of those going out. Unfortunately, the thermostat is built into the heating element, so the whole thing must be replaced. Fortunately, the four sizes of elements are fairly common and available at fine places like Repair Clinic.

N1MM+ and CWT

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 17:40:14 +0000

There is also a walkthrough of N1MM+ here that I did for my intermediate class earlier this week.

Some definitions

CW– stands for continuous wave, a simple method of communication where a signal is either on or off. It uses Morse Code, consisting of dots, dashes, and spaces. A dot is a tone emitted for one time-unit, a dash is a tone emitted for three-time-units. Spaces between dots and dashes, letters, and words are one, three and seven time-units, respectively.
WPM– words per minute is a gauge of how fast one is communicating. For Morse code, we typically use the word “Paris” (.–. .- .-. .. …) as the standard “unit.” As a comparison, I can write about 15 words per minute, type about 70 wpm.
CWT– is CWOps‘ CW contest held 3x a week, on Wednesdays at 1300Z, 1900Z, +0300Z. It’s a one-hour contest where the average communication speed is well-above 25 wpm.
N1MM+ – this is a popular amateur radio contest logging program.
KX3 – Elecraft’s all-mode transceiver.

Thus, this blog entry covers how to use the N1MM+ software while participating in the weekly CWT contest. N1MM+ can be used for a variety of other events, not exclusively CWT or even Morse Code.

CWA Basic: Sessions 14 – 16

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 02:55:28 +0000

Sending in-class:

Compose two “Dad Jokes” to send. For example: “Two guys stole a calendar. They got six months each.” (Or: “What do you do with an elephant with three balls? Walk him and pitch to the rhino.”)
We’ll practice more sending of longer passages. Revisit the Wikipedia front page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and pick a couple of items from Did you know… or On this Day — there is an extensive “Archive” link that will add variety — and summarize them for sending via CW. We’ll probably only have time for one, but in case we can do another, let’s do.
We’ll do an exercise where you’ll call a classmate on Zoom, ask a simple question, they’ll reply, then onto the next classmate. Suggested subject areas: weather, HF rig, antenna, dinner, car, next vacation destination. The added variety is listening for your call sign and sending a classmate’s. If you are unable to copy, send a ? for resend. An exchange might look like this:

W7PEZ de WT8P what is your rig?My rig is icom ic7300 WS6Y de W7PEZ how big is hexbeam?The hexbeam is 5280 feet. KJ7IZT de WS6Y …

CWA Basic: Sessions 11-13

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 01:57:00 +0000

We’re at the two-thirds/homestretch-ish point in the class. The speed creeps up 1 wpm for each the next few sessions, eventually hitting 13. Remember the overall goals are: having fun, making friends, and picking up a new skill for a lifetime. Absent from these goals is “beating yourself up because you didn’t hit flawless 13wpm on the nanosecond the 13wpm session started.”

Learning CW takes time. The CW Academy classes have a very ambitious pace for learning a new skill. It’s rare that everyone lands on the same point. So, relax, relish how far you’ve come(*), and, please, proceed at your own pace. (*If you’d like some perspective, retry the self-assessment tool – scroll down about halfway: and see how far you’ve progressed.) … but not as much time as it’s going to clean my “office” when the Pandemic is over

CWA Basic: Sessions 8, 9 and 10

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 01:42:00 +0000

For Session 8 sending in class: What are your three most valued (to you) household appliances and/or power tools? (e.g., KitchenAid mixer, coffee grinder, and cordless drill)

This weekend are two additional possible contact events for QSOs:

CQ Magazine World-Wide CW sprint on 160m – The exchange is simply a signal report of 5NN and your state. Based on my hour last night, there were a lot of potential CA and WA contacts. (I could hear a few AZ/UT, but they could not hear me, which is a summary of my experience on 160m.) Look from 1.81 – 1.90 MHz.

CWA Basic: Session 6 and 7

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 05:29:00 +0000

As we all have felt, it’s quite normal to feel self-induced pressure at not maintaining perfection and, God forbid, be tempted to drop out and do it another time. A better way of looking at it is “if you stick around, will you be further along in your CW journey (and knowledge of Scottish inventions)?”

Obviously, the answer is yes (though I’m biased :). And, as a bonus, you get to hang out with a great group of fellow hams, have fun and improve your skills. (Consider how much you’ve progressed in a short time!) I’ve found the sweet spot is to shoot for about 80% of the homework, on average. Sometimes you’ll be rocking it, sometimes it’ll feel not, but overall, you’re making good progress and friends.

CWA Basic: Sessions 4 and 5

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 05:06:35 +0000

Sessions 4 and 5 repeat the prior sessions, but bump up the Farnsworth speed to 5 then 6. It doesn’t look like a lot until you’re trying to listen!

As I mentioned, it’s very common to feel an adrenaline bump when it’s your turn to send. If you mess up, or are feeling flustered, take a deep breath, send eight dits, take another breath, and start the word again (unless it’s like the last letter that would be understandable from context). Add more spacing if you like. Just remember, you’re among friends and it’s all about having fun.

CWA Basic: Sessions 1 – 3

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 06:25:18 +0000

The basic class — which I really wish existed when I took CW Academy – serves as a bridge between beginner and intermediate.

Its focus is on Instant Character Recognition (ICR), the ability to hear letters (initially) and words (later) as one unit without any additional steps. The bulk of the official syllabus — which you should glance through as it is the best of the four — uses the Morse Code Trainer web tool. How the 16 sessions work out

Learning to Drive Syllabus, Parking Lot

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 21:36:49 +0000

I will be teaching my adult children how to drive and found it helpful to cobble together a syllabus of activities. This will be in multiple phases, starting with … a parking lot.

Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.

Parking Lot:

Goals:

Use and feel of steering inputs, mirrors and other controls.
Car gauges and lights.
Learn how the car handles at different slow speeds.
Parking.
Basic turns and navigation around stationary objects.

Locations:

Sammamish Park and Ride

CWA Beginner – Session 16

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 05:18:00 +0000

For our last, unstructured session, we’ll do some more sending and copying using these lists of fruits and vegetables, and animals. As with the exercise we did with the state abbreviations, send a word to the next person, they’ll send the word back, “R” if correct. (If they don’t copy, “?” to resend) They’ll send a word to the next person, and so on.

Welcome, Session 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

I’ve created a brief tutorial on Morse Runner. On the most basic level, this program is used to practice simple exchanges (call sign + serial number). When it calls you, if you don’t get the full call sign, you can either do nothing and wait for it to resend, hit F7 (?) or try a partial and F5. The partial is useful in a “pileup,” that is, if several stations responded but you only got a partial on one, you’d send what you had and the other stations should ignore it. (In practice, and occasionally in the program, that doesn’t always happen.) The default time run-time in Morse Runner is 60 minutes, but I would not run it more than 10 or 15 minutes because it gets tedious.

CWA Beginner – Session 15

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 20:32:00 +0000

This is the ad hoc, unscripted part of the course.

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

Bonus homework: If you can, listen to the K1USN SST on Sunday either on air or via Web SDR, see what you can pick off. If you want to try to make an on-air contact, that would be awesome, too. As a reminder, the exchange information is here.

In class, let’s try a few exercises with state capitals:

(Warmup) Send a two-letter abbreviation to the next person. If they copy, they’ll repeat it back, sender acknowledges with an “R”. Recipient then picks a two-letter abbreviation to send to the next person, and so on. If they don’t copy, send a question mark for al resend. We’ll see if we can do a few quick rounds.

CWA Beginner – Session 14

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 18:44:00 +0000

For the bonus homework: Compose an amateur radio-related haiku, a three-line poem where the lines are 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively. Some examples from a prior class are below. As you practice at home, think of where it would be appropriate to add additional spacing to compensate for the lack of context clues:

No propagationUntil someone calls CQThen the bands open

CWTAt 40 words per minuteIs too fast for me

CWA Beginner – Session 13

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:34:00 +0000

For the bonus homework: The session includes abbreviations and pro signs. I’ve attached two PDF files. qcodes.pdf has a nice half-page of common abbreviations and some Q codes used in nets, fsd218.pdf, from ARRL has pro signs on the fourth page.

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

Unfortunately, I didn’t write down what I actually mentioned during class. On my pre-class notes I had an exercise where send a Q-code or abbreviation of your choice, then a very short phrase summarizing what it means. The intent of this would be to think about how you’d communicate this concisely. Pick four of them. We’ll likely have repeats – that’s okay.

CWA Beginner – Session 12

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 17:40:00 +0000

Prepare to send QSO information about the weather, rig (if you don’t have one, what you would buy with unfettered use of the CW Academy AmEx card), and the year you became a ham. Examples:

WX IS HVY RAIN AND WIND TEMP IS 50RIG IS KX3HAM SINCE 2015

“ES” is often used as an abbreviation for “AND” (and as an alternative to sending as filler while you compose.

Practice sending your own call sign in CW. If you’re feeling adventurous, also practice sending call signs of your classmates.

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

CWA Beginner – Session 11

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 00:56:00 +0000

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 11 is divided into copying segments:

[Your callsign] de k6rbur rst 579 nr sf name rob hw? [Your callsign] de k6rb k [Your callsign] de n3jt ur rst is 5nn qth mclean va ? Mclean va op is jim de n3jt [Your callsign] de w1rm ur rst 569 569 in ct name is pete bk

and sending segments:

k6rb de [Your callsign] ur rst 57n in [your city and ST] name is [your name] btu k6rb de [Your callsign] k n3jt de [Your callsign] ur rst 56n in **[your city + ST]**name is [your name] n3jt de [Your callsign] k w1rm de [Your callsign] ur rst 45n wid QRN in **[your city + ST]**name is [your name] w1rm de [Your callsign] k

CWA Beginner – Session 10

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:27:00 +0000

Session 10 covers Q, X, Z and . The audio file (thank you again, Mateo) is here – 25cpm rate, 7wpm Farnsworth spacing.

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 10 is divided into copying segments:

K, J, 8, 0, X, Q, Z, (five times each)

WL, UR, OK, HW?, QRX, RIG, WX, ANT, PWR, KW, NAME, MEMPHIS, NYC, SF, DALLAS, HOUSTON, NM, NJ, CA, UT, AL, AR, IL , IN, ME, MA, CT, CO, QRM, NE, SD, ND, PA, KY, FL, NC, SC, SDGO, LAX, LA, ON, SK, MB, NT, AB, QC, NB, NS, NR, RST, UK, USA, TOKYO, PARIS, LONDON, HAMBURG, SYDNEY, ZL2TT, VK4OM, JE1TRV, BA1CW, KH6LC, AL2A, AA3B , 8044, 7400, 73, U HV QSB, U HV QRM, NAME?, QTH?, QTH IS NY, QTH IS PARIS, PSE QSY TO 7054

CWA Beginner – Session 9

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 17:17:00 +0000

Session 9 covers ****, 8, J and K, and introduces the first pro-sign, ****. The audio file (thank you again, Mateo) is here – 25cpm rate, 7wpm Farnsworth spacing.

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

**** is the notation for a pro code. It can also be written with a line drawn above it. When sent, it’s the equivalent of the letters B and T, but without spacing between the letters: illustrated

where the yellow box is a space between letters. To my surprise, **** was not listed on Dan’s website, though Dave Casler video briefly says something at the 4:24 mark.

CWA Beginner – Session 8

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 21:15:00 +0000

Session 8, introduces the letters B and V. (Thanks, Mateo, for sending out the Lesson 8 mp3 file that you can listen to on headphones.)

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 8 is divided into copying segments:

B, V, 7, 9, / (five times each)

vote, at, view, wave, pave, save, vow, valve, solve, volt, vault, bad, body, bore, born, barn, barney, brad, bread, bed, better, best, bill, build, built, bolt, bulb, blame, blend, bland, blow, bv2aa, ba1ro, wb2ae, n6rb/4, w2/ve1ar, ve2/w2le, 6146, 5514, name is bob, name is bill, name is ted, name is vinnie, ur rst is 559, ur rst is 459

CWA Beginner – Session 7

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 20:59:00 +0000

Session 7, introduces the letters G and P, the numbers 7 and 9, and the / character. (Thanks, Mateo, for sending out the Lesson 7 mp3 file that you can listen to on headphones.)

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 7 is divided into copying segments:

F, Y, 3, 6, P, G, 7, 9, / (five times each)

page, paper, pepper, glad, glare, large, ledge, george, geo, chas, chase, change, peg, pug, pig, pen, pencil, pipe, pit, gain, garage, guard, gas, gus, chug, yes, yet, yonder, coy, G4AN/3, N1AR/5, W9UCA/9, W3/PY2AA, F6/N6AM, 2N2222, 7423, 14253679, he is a pro, she is near, do not gape, he is at 19 glen street

CWA Beginner – Session 6

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 20:24:00 +0000

Session 6, introduces the letters F and Y. F is the reversed L. Though it sounds distinctly different, some folks have difficulty between the letters the first few times. (Thanks, Mateo, for sending out the Lesson 6 mp3 file that you can listen to on headphones.)

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 6 is divided into copying segments:

m, w, 3, 6, f, y (five times each)

you, toy, foot, tooth, root, cute, noise, larry, roy, ton, teeth, feet, yet, they, say, ray, hay, your, fair, fare, far, fur, furry, hw?, F5IN, YO1AR, HH5H, NO3M, AA3, U S52R, 1512, 3316, is this fair?, yes it is, the fur flies, she is shy, I say no, she says yes

CWA Beginner – Session 5

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:20:00 +0000

Session 5, introduces the letters M and W, the numbers **3 **and 6, and our first punctuation, ?. The question mark has a very distinct and musical sound. It’s also fun to do on a paddle with repeat: hold for two dots, hold two dashes, hold two dots, release. (Thanks, Mateo, for sending out the Lesson 5 mp3 file that you can listen to on headphones.)

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, it’s divided into copying segments: U, C, 2, 5, M, W, 3, 6, ? (five times each)

CWA Beginner – Session 4

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 17:02:00 +0000

Session 4 introduced the letters U and C.

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, it’s divided into copying segments: R, H, D, L, 1, R, U, C (five times each)

chat, chair, chin, chart, ouch, couch, touch, such, teach, reach, sun, son, hold, told, sail, rail, tail, nail, oil, soil, toil, coil, rain, cause, sauce, toss, toll, tall, tell, cell, call, NC5A, NA2T, CU1LL, 10, CO5NO, NU4R, CT1AC, CE1NI, 4241, 1452, in the cell, that hurts, at the hall, hole in 1

CWA Beginner – Session 3

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 16:54:00 +0000

Session 3 introduced the letters D, H, L (my favorite Morse letter), R and the numbers 2 and 5.

In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, it’s divided into copying segments: O, I, S, R, H, D, 1, 2, 5 (five times each)

all, tell, tall, deal, the, their, doll, dell, hall, hill, hole, load, lead, late, later, seal, sell, sole, she, shed, her, hear, DL1AT, HH5H, HS1TD, ND2T, NA4T, 142, 451, 1425, a tall hill, she is here, he is late, 4 sheds, 12 hills

CWA Beginner – Session 2

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 16:08:00 +0000

Note: In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 2 covers the letters **I, O, S **and the numbers 1 and 4. With more letters, we can make more interesting words.

It’s divided into copying segments: T, E, A, N, I, O, S, 1, 4 (five times each)

TON, TIN, TIE, TOE, NO, NOT, NOTE, IT, AT, ONE, NEAT, NET, NIT, TOES, STONE, TEASE, NOISE, ONE NEAT NOTE, NO NOISE, TIE IT, 1 TON STONE

CWA Beginner – Session 1

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 07:06:00 +0000

Note: In the official CWOPS Beginner Book, session 1 covers the letters A, E, N and T. It’s divided into copying segments: T, E, A, N (five times each)

TEA, TEE, EAT, ATE, AT, TAT, TEEN, NEAT, TEN, NET, TAN, EAT AT, TEN, ATE AT, TEN, AT TEE.

And sending segments: TEA, TEN, NET, TEE, EAT AT TEN, AT TEE

Welcome, Session01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

Post class, I send a recap of what we’re doing next time: Next Thursday’s session 2 adds the letters I, O, S and the numbers 1 and 4. I’ve attached a mechanically selected list of words using the letters from both, but anything on the sheet is fine. Hopefully the format makes sense: you take turns sending and we see who can copy. It’s better to send slower and more accurately than fast and make a lot of mistakes. We know our message was received when we see a lot of hands go up **Do people really go through the levels? ** Frequently, yes. There are now four, eight-week classes (16 sessions):

CWA Beginner – Welcome Message

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 10:41:00 +0000

**Note:**I’m advising a Morse Code (CW) beginner course and wanted to capture my notes, questions that have come up, as well as making updates and corrections.

Overview

My primary goal and hopes for the course are to help make it fun and encourage you to make CW friends on the air. The CW Academy beginner course structure is thus:

Sessions 1-10 are learning the alphabet, numbers, and the slant character. These are roughly in order of difficulty:

Replacing a noisy radio fan in my Kenwood TM-V71a (and ICOM 208)

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:48:00 +0000

I have had some interest in experimenting with satellite radio. Typically you transmit on one band, receive on another. This can be done with two radios, but I wanted to keep things simpler and use one. I happened to find someone selling a Kenwood TM-V71a mobile radio for an attractive price. It’s a nice radio, but when I used it indoors, the fan was too loud for me to hear the speaker. The Ubiquitous Cooling Fan

Mystery Valley

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 02:32:00 +0000

Here it is in August, and it feels like the year has been a dumpster-full-of-doo-doo on fire, about to be hit by murder hornets riding an asteroid. So I started looking at my vacation photos from last October and so much awesome scenery in the Southwestern US get solace in the crazy times since. One of my favorite parts was my brief visit to the Navajo Nation.

I drove up from Farmington, NM, a convenient and inexpensive place to stop and spend the night after visiting Mesa Verde National Park. The Four Corners Monument is a small side-trip from the drive to Navajo Nations Park and an opportunity to claim the four virtual caches marking this small, geographical oddity. Minor travel achievement: unlocked!

Resolving RFI in the shack with a lot of #31 mix components

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 01:11:00 +0000

My daughter graduated college and moved back home, necessitating a need for me moving my work area. After I set up my work desk and ham shack in the former dining room. Further completing the experience, I have the antenna running right out the back of the house up into a tree. I recently built a custom screen to fit in between the wood with antenna connections and the rest of the window.

Fun in Utah: Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 03:52:00 +0000

Solo Travel Breakfast of Champions

With the Fiery Furnace trip scheduled, I juggled a few of my days there to maximize my awake time. The itinerary was not hugely different:

  **Day**

  **Overnight**

  **Original Plan**

  **Final Plan**

  Salt Lake City

  1

  Moab, UT

  Potter’s Pond, geocaching

  added hiking in Arches NP

  2

  Moab

  Arches National Park

  Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point; Arches

  3

  Moab

  Fiery Furnace, Canyonlands

  Fiery Furnace; get permit at Mesa Verde

  4

  Farmington

  Mesa Verde

  Mesa Verde, Aztec NM

  5

  Monument Valley

  Sunset tour of Mystery Valley

  added Four Corners

  6

  Torrey

  Dead Horse SP, Canyonlands NP

  Added stop at Natural Bridges

  7

  Salt Lake City

  Geocaching around SLC

  Bryce Canyon

  8

  Home!

  Geocaching around SLC

  Pocatello (Southern ID’s oldest cache)

Logistical note: To save the hassle, and for crowd-avoidance, I pre-purchased annual National Parks ($80, from REI) and Utah State Parks ($75 online) passes, keeping both in the window of the rental Jeep. This let me get in super early, usually before gate was attended. Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky

Fun in Utah: Arches National Park

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 05:36:04 +0000

One of the rare holidays we receive is Columbus Day. (Seriously?) I’d planned to spend a four-day weekend visiting Arches National Park, when I found some vacation “under the couch,” and extended it to a whole ten days, then added destinations onto that.

The plan was to fly to Salt Lake City Friday evening, spend the night, then drive to Moab via a rare (one of four remaining August 2000 hides) geocache, Potter’s Pond. Located in Manti-La Sal National Forest, at about 9,000′, inclement weather is always a possibility. Once the snow accumulates enough, it’s extremely difficult for a tourist like me to access it until the spring thaw, mid- to late-June. I kept my eye on the weather.

Determining the exact file python is using

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 18:57:00 +0000

Python searches a variety of directories for its libraries, something I had largely lived in peace with until I had to modify some legacy code to address a suspected timing bug.

The overall task is to produce a set of charts for a customer. Python loads an Excel workbook, a time-series data set is updated from a third-party source, and a Visual Basic Excel macro iterates through the workbook’s numerous tabs, adjusts to fiscal quarters, and emits several dozen charts. It’s clunky, but what I was given to work with. Until recently, was functioning well-enough.

Morse Runner

Sun, 19 May 2019 03:12:18 +0000

General advice to get started on single call mode in Morse Runner (Ken Tucker, WF6F, Jim Carson, WT8P):

Accuracy is more important than speed.
Wait until the sending station is done transmitting before you respond. If you respond over him, immediately hit the escape key to stop.
Scoring increases as you go along (see below).

If you receive the call correctly, type in the call sign and hit enter. It will fill in the QSO sequence automatically. Listen for an “R,” followed by “599” and, finally, the sequence number. Type that sequence number in, hit enter, and the new one will come almost immediately.

Behind the hiring desk

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Some time ago, I’d been in hiring mode for a business analyst for my team and “had a few thoughts” that I have kept in draft form for some time. As this is now an ex-company/team, I feel okay writing about it, but am somewhat lazy about changing present tense.

How I think the process should have worked:

Hiring manager (me) transforms needs into requirements.
Human Resources (HR) discusses it with me then initiates a search.
HR is the gatekeeper, protecting the interests of the company and doing first-level screening. Potentially-qualified candidates are forwarded to the me for review.
If there’s interest, HR will set up a meeting between the candidate and me.
If the results are positive, an interview may be scheduled with an extended group.
If the results are positive, there is a verbal discussion of terms. If an agreement is reached, a formal offer is generated.
Employee and employer have a productive relationship

How it actually worked:

College Visits 2015/7

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 05:09:38 +0000

The Seattle area is large enough that there are regular college fairs where throngs of potential students and parents wander aisles of a cacophonous hall of the Washington State Convention Center, seeking out schools they’ve possibly heard of and picking up brochures from (usually local) alumni volunteers. While the volunteers are able to answer generic questions, the venue is not conducive to having a meaningful conversation. Rather, these events are useful primarily to kick of the thought process during Junior year that, Z_OMG, it’s time to start thinking about colleges._ Dramatic reenactment of my reaction to “ZOMG it’s time to start thinking about colleges.” (Sculpture by the amazing Kimber Fliegler (artbykimber.com)

Michigan – Part 2

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 04:35:27 +0000

(Notes to self, Continued from part 1.) Whitefish Island Indian Reserve, Sault Saint Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste Marie – I’d originally planned to spend a full day in Sault Ste Marie, but that fell apart when I opted to go to Mackinac Island the second time. Since I had to claim my Ontario geocaching souvenir, I crossed the border to hike on Whitefish Island Indian Reserve and see Soo Locks. Swing Gate

Michigan – part 1

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:39:04 +0000

Happy Lighthouse is Happy

Finding a time that all of the family schedules line up, and is not so last-minute that activities are sold out or excessively expensive, led to an over-accumulation of vacation time at the end of the year. As I’m less a fan of “losing vacation time” than “vacationing in winter,” I’d take a few days off, but we’d invariably sit around the house as everyone equivocated about what they didn’t want to do.

Field Day 2018

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 03:23:08 +0000

There were scant formalized opportunities for field day this year as local clubs either didn’t have a formal program (Redmond) or weren’t actively open (Issaquah), so I joined my friend K7IP in Ocean Shores to mess around with radios and do some geocaching. We operated from the public beach south of town. (4WD very helpful for getting there.)

K7IP (Doug) setting up the kite

For the first morning, we used up a Kite antenna. The kite was tethered to his truck by string, which stands out a little better. The second line is 135′ of #12 magnet wire. We were originally going to feed this to my 9:1 balun, but tightening the screws sheared the wire. We added a long counterpoise and just ran it direct to the radio.

Fire Training Support

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 05:14:02 +0000

Part of my volunteer work for Eastside Fire & Rescue Fire Corps involved helping out with non-suppression activities at the Washington State fire training facility east of Seattle. Activities included everything from setting up tables, carting crates of water around to different stops, running errands, and filling air bottles.

Overlooking the facility

This is a model used to simulate an airplane fire:

Simulator for airplane fires

This section simulates a fuel-based fire (such as a car accident):

A month of QSOs

Sun, 13 Aug 2017 20:41:00 +0000

I’ve finished a month of QSOs and thought it’d be fun to look at the results.

Early (5pm) in the evening, I can hear activity along the east coast, Mexico, and Cuba(!), but I am unable to get through. Not surprisingly, most of my contacts have been between 7pm and 10pm (02 – 05 UTC), when the sun’s dropping and signal propagation is improved.

Contacts by band and time of day.

Colonoscopy

Fri, 16 Jun 2017 06:29:49 +0000

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.

It wasn’t that bad.

(These are notes are mostly for myself for next time.)

Beware of shark

**T – 10+ days: Pick up The Kit. **The kit is a 4L container with GoLytley powder, a flavor packet, and a prescription ondansetron, an anti-nausea drug that I would cherish later. Out of pocket costs for this: $2.31. A nurse called to check that I’d done this, reviewed the information packet, and had arranged for someone to take me home on the day of the event. She proceeded to ask me a bunch of odd questions about pacemakers and other stuff that didn’t apply, then asked if I had any questions. I could hear a sigh when I responded in the affirmative…

Mid-Atlantic Countryside

Sat, 04 Mar 2017 07:03:25 +0000

Well that was an enjoyable week! 88 geocaches in 6 states (DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, WV) with 375 miles of biking (and some Ubering) over 9 days. Highlights were the guided tours of Gettysburg, PA (by a professional guide) and Washington, DC monuments (local, at night).

Pre-trip: This was about as bad shape as I could be in for the ride. In June, shortly after signing up for the ride, I sprained my ankle on a hike. Then in August, I caught some sweet bronchitis for 4 weeks: I was in not-so-great shape for the ride.

Geobiking Philly to DC

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:32:49 +0000

The excitement of visiting colleges with my daughter, her applying to the short list, and waiting on the results has is over and I’m seriously craving a week unplugged from work. I’ll be taking an organized ride in October from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. Since these trips are as much about seeing different things as the Zen of cycling, I’ll also be stopping for geocaches (and other site seeing) along the way. And maybe butterscotch Tastycakes, Cheeseteaks and those legendary tomatoes I’ve heard about.

If you give a Mouse a cookie (Electrolux style)

Sun, 15 Nov 2015 06:13:50 +0000

If you give a mouse a cookie, they’ll get crumbs and chocolate all over their clothes. When they get crumbs and chocolate all over their clothes, the laundry piles up. When the laundry piles up, you will need to use the Electrolux front-loading washing machine.

When you do several years-worth of laundry in the Electrolux front-loading washing machine, you’ll eventually discover it was leaking all over the floor. And you’ll call a repair person. And then another. And another. And another. And another. And another. Four will tell you Electrolux front-loading washing machines are “bad news” and decline to fix them. The fifth will tell you he’s on injury leave (we wish him a speedy recovery), and the sixth will say he will fix it, but the earliest appointment is in two weeks.

50k elevation challenge

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 08:17:26 +0000

After 3 3/4 years, I finally completed the 50k elevation challenge (for geocaching) in October with my friend Jes.

Spoiler alert: Victory!

I logged far more than than 50k of elevation over the period, but the challenge had so many rules that many of my hikes didn’t count. In fact, for a while I had kind of given up even tracking gain. I was tantalizingly close after a huge boost in July from Cycle Canada but resigned to completing the official challenge in 2015. In September, Jes mentioned that she wanted to go to Mailbox Peak, and let me tag along. The elevation gain (>4000′) put us both over the cutoff. On that trip, we schemed on how we might finish it off while not completely incurring the wrath of our respective spouses.

Cycle Canada – Icefields Parkway Part 2

Fri, 19 Sep 2014 02:57:31 +0000

(Continued from part 1.)

Day 5 was a rest day in Jasper. Unlike Day 2, when I really wanted a rest day, I was feeling well enough that I would have preferred continuing. On the other hand, I seriously enjoyed the slow, sit-down meals where I wasn’t swatting mosquitos off my legs. I wandered around town, avoiding the anchovy-loving pizza bears.

Anchovies: pizza topping or bear attractant?

Cycle Canada: Icefields Parkway – Part 1

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 16:21:14 +0000

Lake Louise, AB

Cycle Canada – Icefields Parkway trip summary: 9 days, 582 miles, 26k elevation gain, 95 geocaches and a hundred insect bites.

Back in the darkest weeks of December, while visiting my parents in the Houston area, I was hunkered down on the couch, enjoying an escape (summer) fantasy with a copy of Adventure Cycling’s smörgåsbord of 2014 rides. While I’d love to do the six week ride down the Pacific Coast (or even a snippet, like the Pacific Coast Central), I couldn’t swing the time away.

Ride Idaho 2013

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 05:41:08 +0000

What I think about when I am having a bad day at work…

In the dark world the natives call “January in Seattle,” I was pining for a week-long bike ride as a “carrot” to entice myself to get back to riding. I’ve covered a lot of great spots in Washington, but was looking for something different. That something different – but not too different – was Ride Idaho. For reasons I blame squarely on Ted, I keep mentally thinking of it as Ridaho, and may occasionally lapse into typing it that way, deliberately or otherwise.

Nutrition Course External References

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 06:47:09 +0000

The Cholesterol Nuclear Option. Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/V2dtI

Harvard Health Letter Spreading your way to lower cholesterol?

Week 3: Diabetes

Defining and Diagnosing Diabetes

American Diabetes Association, Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes 2012
MedlinePlus – Diabetes, Diabetes Interactive Tutorial
International Diabetes Federation

Physical Activity and Weight in Diabetes

NIH, Diabetes Prevention Program
CDC – Prevent Diabetes
WHO – The Cost of Diabetes
National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse – What I need to know about Physical Activity and Diabetes

Meal Planning for Diabetes

Mac FizzyCalc

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:20:07 +0000

During the summer of 2011, I had some mythical Spare Time to blow the centimeter-thick layer of dust off my programming skills and port FizzyCalc, a Windows-based geocoordinate conversion utility that I’ve used for solving several puzzles in my obsessive hobby, geocaching, to the Mac. Mac FizzyCalc celebrated its 2500th download in November, a year after it was released. Cupcakes were served.

FizzyCalc is used primarily to precisely project waypoints and convert among the most common geo-coordinate formats. Applied judiciously, it can help you in finding the center of a circle given points on its circumference or the intersection of three circles. (Latitude/longitude is a Cartesian grid superimposed on a spheroid earth. At my latitude, one minute west is far less than the one minute north/south. Thus, my tenth-grade algebra fails.) One of the reasons I wanted to port it is using a Windows virtual machine always takes … a … w-h-i-lllllllllll-e to start because, oh, merde, Adobe Flash has another security update – Reboot to make the changes take effect!

Cholecystectomy – gallbladder removal

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:36:43 +0000

I had my gallbladder out Thursday. I’m gonna cut back on the bacon, maybe, but am feeling better.

Exactly 365 days after my kidney stone, I was again experiencing similar symptoms. I assumed it was one of the tiny calcite terror pre-stones in the inner part of my left kidney. Kidney stones suck, but for subsequent attacks (in my case), they are not reason to seek medical attention. I took the horse-pill (800mg) of ibuprofen and stayed up all night as my body purged both ends of the digestive tract (including the horse-pill, sigh) to relieve pressure. By 5am, the worst symptoms had abated.

Tiger Mountain Blackout: Geopolitical edition

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:57:59 +0000

Booyah!

To add variety to geocaching, “blackouts” challenges are posted whereby one has to find a slice of geocaches in an area. The last one I did was the Bellevue Blackout, which was nicely constrained within the city limits of the town I work. It took me about two years to finish.

Other blackouts have included much wider geographical areas like the Delorme challenge, where you find a cache in every page of the Washington Delorme map book. Since they’re so far away from being attained, I’ve been content to ignore them.

Email patterns

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:35:01 +0000

Despite a concerted effort to keep my inbox tamed, it’s now back above 30 undealt-with emails. While falling behind, I’ve noticed some recurring – and annoying – behavioral patterns. I’m sure the list is incomplete, so feel free to share!

“The two-for” – a person who always — always— sends a second mail with the attachment they forgot to include the first time. I can’t tell if the person is genuinely a flake or if they’re just pining for the return of corporate instant messaging. One wants to post a sign on their monitor: always wait at least 30 minutes after eating receiving the first message before swimming responding.
“I must copy my manager on everything” – the sender wants to ensure their manager knows they’ve made a token effort to be “proactive.” Note the air quotes. (It’s also possible the sender’s manager “wants to be kept in the loop for minutiae” (cough: micromanages) or needs a high message count to justify her Crackberry.) I used to whittle the Cc list down, but have since decided that it’s best to keep the list going.
“I must copy your manager on everything, too.” – If I’m the sole entry on the “To:” list, the sender is implying I won’t respond to their request by overtly creating an audit trail. Their manager is copied, too, as if to say, “See, I warned them to check their blood pressure / Beware of the Ides of March / Soylent Green is people — but they did not listen.” What usually happens is my over-detailed, super-helpful response will usually elicit a walk over for the executive summary.
“The Escalating Cc:” – two people in an email discussion have differing opinions. Instead of, like, actually walking down the hall and having a conversation, they start adding additional people to the discussion. Sometimes this will devolve into the passive aggressive tone. Paraphrasing an exchange that might hypothetically have gone out to an entire department:

“I don’t want to blame anybody, I want to fix the problem.” [three sentences later] “[…] but Bobwas the last one to touch it. I will ask Bobwhen Bob****comes in what Bobdid to cause the system to become hopelessly broken.”

CROC 2012

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:00:03 +0000

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, I had an opportunity to head down to Pendleton for the tenth annual Century Ride of the Centuries (aka “CROC”). This was my seventh visit in eight years — having skipped last year’s — and especially anticipated because the Bar M Ranch was reopened as a camping option. What a kick Pendleton is!

After checking in at Hamley’s, I headed over to the Wildhorse Casino, CROC’s flagship sponsor, where we could set up tents in the field behind the RV park. Setting up my tent the first time each season is always an adventure, but after some creative pole tricks, It Was Done. While basking in my tent setting-up success, I went through the bag o’ information they offered us and decided that I’d forgo Day 1’s Despain Gulch route for the opportunity to head south and see the John Day Fossil Beds “Sheep Rock” unit. JDFB:SRU is really off the beaten track, but this is as close as I was going to get in the foreseeable future.

John Day Fossil Beds

Thu, 03 May 2012 06:27:07 +0000

I was going through yet another hard disk of photos to find an appropriate “timeline” image for Facebook. Had a lot of fond memories of a geology-themed vacation through southern Washington and central Oregon. The first stop was at Mt. St. Helens, home of the ‘sploded volcano from 1981:

Mt. St. Helens - needs a little TLC

Very close by is Ape Caves, a really long, dark lava tube you can go in. We walked the south (easier) segment. I wanted to extend the trip to the north end with my more adventurous, younger daughter. We went about 500′ into the section before coming to a huge pile of rocks we’d need to climb over (and then back) — great stopping point.

Oshkosh (2001)

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:24:52 +0000

After finishing my commercial pilot rating, I was really hankering for owing my own airplane to avoid all of the randomization with renting and, ultimately, _go someplace far. _That destination would be Oskhosh, WI, for EAA’s Air Venture. For various reasons, not limited to prolonged time being unable to use the restroom and wanting to spend more time with the grandparents, my wife and kids flew out commercially to Chicago. This meshed well with my evil plan of not actually flying into the controlled chaos of EAA Oshkosh. Bwuhahaha.

Life to a travel bug: Porcine Aviation: 2009 – 2012

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 06:55:25 +0000

About three years ago, on the way to our summer camping trip to Mt. Rainier, I launched a travel bug:

George is young, enthusiastic, and poor as a student

George’s stated (and optimistic) goal was to visit its eccentric cousin who spends his days in Concourse A of Terminal 3 in Cincinnati’s airport doing street performance art for spare change. The Concourse has had a rough couple of years, being closed in 2010 (because Delta and Northwest merged) before being reopened in 2011 as its sibling, Terminal 2, closed.

Final Approaches

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:35:47 +0000

I did my initial flight training at an uncontrolled airfield outside of the Austin city limits. It was very relaxing to go out after work once a week and fly in a random direction to Palacios, San Angelo, Waco, College Station or wherever I could get to and back in about three hours. There’s a lot of empty space in Texas, and the eastern part is very flat. Clear nights were a great time to fly.

Cheese making class

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:10:00 +0000

For my birthday, I took a cheese making class at PCC, the local organic food chain. While I’m a little frustrated at eco-snobbery vibe, it’s close and the classroom facilities are nice. If it were as fun to shop in as Whole Foods is on an empty stomach, I’d be in a far worse financial situation…

They publish a quarterly-ish catalog of their classes. Lebanese cuisine filled up before I could decide, but cheese making was experimental cooking enough that I thought I’d give it a try.

Ganglioneuroma: Rarest and most benign

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:08:11 +0000

Despite scant information on ganglioneuromas (many just repackaging the NIH blurb in a different style sheet), I wasn’t losing sleep while waiting for the pathology report. However, it was still great to get the official phone call confirming it was, in fact, the most benign of -omas. Because this sort of thing is pretty rare, no fewer than four pathologists were involved in “Dude, check this out.” Hey, I would have done the same.

It’s done

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:22:37 +0000

Finally had surgery for the thing. Here’s a recap of the last few days.

Day before (1/11):

8:30 – last solid food. Though it was slightly tempting to have a celebratory Twinkie, I opted for steel cut oats and bananas. Going without food the rest of the day was a lot easier than I thought it would be as I was permitted “clear liquids” like black tea, Gatorade and all the tap water I wanted.

That’s no moon…

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:26:19 +0000

During last month’s Stone Concert, the CT scan showed two unexpected somethings.

Dramatic reenactment: The noisy TIE fighter? It is the least of your worries.

I went into my primary care physician ask what, if anything, I should do about them. Because I’m generally feeling fine, the gallstone can be ignored. (Update: Until next year.) I will probably have to cut back on the butter fried bacon twinkies smothered in bacon, wrapped between a pair of glazed donuts, sprinkled with Oreo bits, and surrounded by a moat of heavy whipped cream. (I really have never had such a thing, nor would I really want one. I have my bacon-limits.)

Insert your getting stoned joke here

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:02:35 +0000

I’ve gotten into a nice groove where my daughters’ evening dance classes have provided an excellent excuse for me to bike to work. If I leave my car at the park & ride, I’m only 2 blocks away from where I need to pick them up. I get to bike (versus a commute of similar duration), my spouse saves 40 minutes of driving, and the kids get their Nutcracker fix for the season. Everybody wins.

My first iPhone hide

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 05:52:12 +0000

As GPS-enabled phones become more popular, there have been a lot of geocaches placed by people using phones. Many of these will have serious “adjustments” to their posted coordinates because the person placing it just took a single reading, using whatever their phone was reporting and called it good. Usually these adjustments are anywhere from 50-500 feet, but that’s a lot when you consider the cache may be the size of a pinky and located in an area with a lot of hiding places. Like a forest, perhaps!

I’m Here To Put You Back On Schedule

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 05:32:25 +0000

My kids were feeling somewhat left out each time I dropped a Star Wars reference in conversation – something I apparently do a lot. Hoping to shore up this gap in their cultural education, I rented and watched all three(*) movies from Netflix with them. Parenting can be tough!

(*I am, of course, referring to A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I’ve heard rumors that there is another trilogy using the Star Wars name, and it even had Samuel L. Jackson asking “ __‘What’ ain’t no planet I ever heard of. They speak Bocce on What?” But the ones I saw were CGI-frenzies. (There’s also rumor of two sequels to The Matrix. Yeah, riiiiight.))

Disruptive technologies

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 05:33:20 +0000

Supercomputing 2010’s keynote was Clayton Christensen, the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma (and its numerous follow-ons), whose research, studying the demise of companies over time, is utterly fascinating (to me) and I can’t believe I hadn’t read before.

He has studied the demise of companies over time — think Digital Equipment Corporation (cut up into bite-sized chunks in 1998, the rest of which was eaten by Compaq, which was eaten by HP), SGI (a darling when Jurassic Park came out, but ultimately liquidated in 2009, assets bought by Rackable systems), and Sun (bought by Oracle). He’s observed recurring patterns of market disruption. For example, in the case of DEC, their rise was predicated on being cheaper than mainframes. As they gained more experience, the minicomputers became more reliable, but were still in the $100k range. DEC itself was subject to PCs meeting a nascent market need willing to tolerate PCs being utter crap (early-on), but at a far different price point. As PC technology evolved, it became compelling enough that few were buying VAXen.

Cleaning between the glass of an oven door, starring my Frigidaire oven

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:16:33 +0000

The other night, one of my kids managed to spill soup into the vents on the top of the oven door, which then dripped between the two oven door glass panels. Googling around, I discovered this is not uncommon, but there were scant instructions for cleaning between the glass of an oven door. Rather, forum contributors were evenly divided among “buck up and live with it,” “sell the house,” “call a professional to repair it,” and “replace the oven” — roughly my priority of options. Since this was a relatively new kitchen remodel, my better half was antsy to have it fixed. As I’m always up for a challenge, I thought it would be helpful to document the process in case anyone else has a need for cleaning between the glass of their oven’s door

Snap, Crackle and Pop

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

As I’ve aged, evidence of my lost cat-like stealth comes in the form of various snapping, crackling and popping noises I make when I walk. They’re freakish sounds, though I have no pain associated with it. In fact, it actually feels good when I stretch at night.

The most common popping noises people have are associated with knuckle cracking. (… which I don’t do.) Knuckle joints look like the diagram to the right: two bones contact at their cartilage. Cartilage is surrounded by synovial fluid — a soluble lubricant. All of this is surrounded by a joint capsule.

Dolphin Kick

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 01:38:52 +0000

When I first heard someone mention the term dolphin kick, I thought it was a reference to the 1980s Patrick Duffy show, Man from Atlantis. The BBC says the dolphin kick “replaces a standard underwater leg kick with a whipping motion that minimizes water resistance.”1 It’s a little easier to make sense of this if you watch the video. Suffice to say, if it’s done correctly, as has been used by Michael Phelps[3,5], it confers an advantage to the swimmer.

Dates

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:28:23 +0000

I’ve been researching date/time formats for inclusion in a software product, and wanted to share some of the thought processes involved.Use case: an engineer or scientist wants to plot something over some time period. All time periods are possible, so we must provide years down to minutes. For example, a coastal engineer surveyed said he:

“visualizes the results of the global wave prediction models we run. I am typically dealing with long term (20 – 40 year) datasets of hourly to sub-hourly model data.”

Got Milk

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:15:34 +0000

There are a variety of milk-based products available in the store. Just sticking to cow’s milk for the moment, here’s the periodic table of viscous milk products, ordered by decreasing fat content:

Butter – 81% milk fat. A stick of butter (8 tablespoons) has 97.2 grams of fat (880 calories!), which breaks down into 62% saturated and 25% monosaturated. Trivia: West of the Rockies, butter sticks are 3 1/8″ x 1.5″ x 1.5″.4
Heavy Cream – 36 – 40% milk fat.
Whipping Cream – 35% milk fat. It’s used to make whipped cream. Obviously.
Sour Cream – 16 – 21% milk fat. Like buttermilk (see below), except it starts from cream instead of milk. Low-fat sour cream has thickening agents like carageenan or corn starch. (I was surprised at its fat content.)
Light Cream – 18% milk fat, used for pouring into coffee.1
Half and Half – 10% milk fat, also used for pouring into coffee. Its fat content is insufficient for whipping.
Evaporated milk – 6.5% or more. Liquid obtained by the partial removal of water (only) from milk[5]. 1 C condensed milk is equivalent to 1 C evaporated milk plus 1 1/2 C sugar.
Whole Milk – 3.5% milk fat3. After drinking skim for a few weeks, this tastes soooooo creamy.
Yogurt — 3.3% milk fat.
Lowfat Milk – sold as 2%, 1%, 1/2%. Sometimes it’s fortified with skim milk.
Skim Milk – Usually “0%,” but it’s technically less than 1/2 gram per cup. Sometimes protein is added, making it more viscous. ****
Buttermilk – usually non-fat; “traditional” buttermilk is the tart liquid leftover from churning butter. 2 It can also be made by adding 1 tablespoon white vinegar to 1C low-fat milk, letting it stand for ten minutes.

These amounts are squishy, so your mileage may vary. However, to put the fat content into perspective, a cup and a half of whole milk would be equivalent to a tablespoon of butter. (1.5 cups * 240g/cup * 3.5% fat = 12.6 g fat; 1 Tablespoon butter = 15 g * 0.81 fat = 12.2g fat)

Bellevue Blackout

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:28:23 +0000

Bellevue is blacked out. Behold!

The Bellevue Blackout challenge is to find all of the geocaches within the city limits. Unlike the Delorme or Thomas Guide challenges, where one finds a cache in a region defined by each page of the respective road atlas (and does a lot of driving in the process), this one kept me relatively local. Since I traverse that corridor five times a week, I reasoned I could pick up stuff here and there. How hard could it be? 🙂

RFID 101

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:20:57 +0000

I don’t watch much television , but when I do, it’s because my Tivo’s found something cool. Like: last night’s introduction to RFIDs by Dr. Chris Diorio, chairman and CEO of Impinj[5]. His presentation is available online1, so I will just summarize some of the things I learned.

Who wants them? Business! Among the benefits:

For the supplier, RFIDs provide a way to track a product through its complete lifecycle.

Today is a good day to PLOT!

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:42:09 +0000

Mister Peabody, set the Wayback Machine to three years ago, pick a spot during a really long product release cycle. Partly out of boredom, but mostly to mess with development manager at the time, I had asked one of the developers to swap out the splash screen. The product logo was thus modified:

  **Official**

  **Battle-ready!**

Appropriate text was substituted, changing our tagline from “Enjoy the view” to “Today is a good day to PLOT!” Laughs were had, and it was removed before alpha testing several months later.

Get versus 529 redux

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:50:15 +0000

In April of ought six, I pondered two options for saving for my kids’ college: the 529-plan I have and Washingon State’s 529 program, Guaranteed Education Tuition (“GET“). At the time, I concluded my existing 529 would have a better expected return because the expected returns over my relatively short investment horizon (10 years) would not be enough to offset the better expected return, but 20% front-end load of the GET.

Cycle Oregon 2009 – part 2

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:37:09 +0000

Day 4: Lake Selmac, OR to Glendale, OR – With the big hills out of the way, they ratcheted up the distance. But by now, I was feeling pretty good. I got to wondering how much better I’d feel if I did a ride like this at the beginning of the season instead of the end…

Highlights:

The route. This is why you take the roundabout way! By mid-morning, we were following the Rogue River near Galice-Hellgate. During my layover day in Grants Pass, I kayaked just west of here.

Cycle Oregon 2009 – part 1

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:30:35 +0000

This year’s route was:

  Medford, OR to Yreka, CA

  66 miles

  5,450′

  Yreka to Happy Camp

  74 miles

  2,600′

  Happy Camp to Lake Selmac, OR

  54 miles

  5,200′

  Lake Selmac to Glendale

  71 miles

  4,192′

  Glendale to Grants Pass

  77 miles

  3,900′

  Grants Pass loop

  43 miles

  2,900′

  Grants Pass to Medford

  42 miles

  2,900′

Day 1 – Medford, OR to Yreka, CA:

Highlights:

The ascent up the Siskiyous. I have come to enjoy these slow, steady grinds uphill:

2008 in review

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:54:00 +0000

**1Q 2008:**Travel to Reno (NV), Vancouver (BC), Portland (OR).

Rode (most of) SIR 200k March brevet – So close to finishing.

Had my first forty-something physical. Tried volunteering at a local school. Learned that dried spaghetti, when bent enough, will break in at least three places.

2Q 2008: Travel to: Pendleton (OR), Richland (WA)

Rode the Century Ride of the Centuries, camped at Moran State Park (WA).

Made tape art chrysalis for April Fool’s Day. Tossed out all my obsolete media. Had all of my lower fillings replaced with Folger’s Crystals.

Cycle Oregon 2008 – Part 2

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:19:20 +0000

Day 3: Baker City to Halfway – The big epiphany today was that skipping the (now monotonous) breakfast meant I could sleep in. By getting on the road at 7:30, versus 6:30, I didn’t freeze my … um… didn’t need a jacket for the hour it was too cold. Now I just needed a step 3 (“Profit!”).

The ride up to the Oregon Trail interpretive center was marred by the cacophony of aid cars zooming past. Rumor was a rider had been grazed by an RV. (RVs scare me. When I rode the coast a few years ago, I was far more worried about RV owners – often leased vehicles being operated by someone with age-induced sensory loss – than logging trucks. Loggers know what they’re doing.) Ahem. I don’t remember much else about the route other than there was one significant climb whose significant descent led us into the town of Halfway. I was surprised how uncomfortable some people were in going downhill, without braking. The landscape of Halfway was pretty:

Cycle Oregon 2008 – part 1

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:18:57 +0000

Almost time for the product launch! (image by Scott Meyer)

Last year at this time, Cacade’s Ride Around Washington was leaning towards the “Ring of Fire” volcano route. I’ve had good experiences on two of their other events, and was looking forward to riding this year’s. In every other year, the ride has open slots through June, plenty of time to figure out my plans for the summer. This year, it sold out January 3rd, two days after signups opened. Great for Cascade, sucks for Jim.

Geocaching

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:58:00 +0000

Not that I need another hobby, but… I’ve belatedly taken my friend Tracey’s suggestion to try geocaching, essentially a treasure hunt. When I started reading about it last month, I was impressed with how many of these things there are. Check out the map of geocaches within a few miles of home:

So many caches, so little time

The first one I found is known as a multi-cache – the little icon that looks like a sort of yellowish file cabinet drawer opened. With these, you have to find one or more intermediate waypoints to end up at the final, “traditional cache” (the shoebox icon) destination nearby. It’s not the best type of cache to try at first, but in this case I lucked out. What made finding it memorable was how much effort its creater put into the ingenious contraption. Externally, it looked like the ubiquitous bird house found in suburbia. When inspected closely – not that you’d ever have any reason to do so – one might notice the bottom pulled out to reveal the Cache of Geo-Joy.

Price trends

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:59:31 +0000

I don’t drive as much as I used to, but yowza, $54.87 to fill up my gas tank today. For some historical perspective, the Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy who publishes weekly gasoline prices. Here, they attempt to explain gas pricing, best summarized as:

World crude oil prices reached record levels in 2007 due mainly to high worldwide oil demand relative to supply. Other factors contributing to higher crude oil prices include political events and conflicts in some major oil producing regions, as well as other factors such as the declining value of the U.S. dollar (the currency at which crude oil is traded globally).

Time capsule

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:11:41 +0000

Inspired by Spring being officially upon us in the northwest (while the rest of you in North America are having “summer”), I went on another cleaning rampage the weekend before CROC, this time focusing on the garage. For the most part, this involved coming to acceptance that the 17″ piece of baseboard, fractional container of petrified plumber’s putty, sourdough incubation chamber, and various other home improvement remnants Are Not Going To Be Used. Ever. Throwing out all this stuff freed up a lot of space on my “workbench,” formerly known as The Horizontal Surface On Which Crap Is Dumped.

Close, but no cigar

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:24:14 +0000

I felt great when I rolled into Greenwater, the point geographically farthest from the start of Saturday’s 200k brevet. I got my card stamped inside the store, reloaded my water bottles with the unnatural blue sports drink, and chomped away on a slab of vanilla ice cream surrounded by two, chewy chocolate chip cookies. I reckoned the remaining forty, mostly downhill miles would be easily doable within the five hours of time remaining. All the steady winter riding had finally paid off. I’d complete my first ever brevet.

Pasta puzzle

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:21:51 +0000

I’ve been having a lot of fun reading “How to Fossilize Your Hamster“[1], an entertaining and enlightening collection of quirky science questions and experiments one can do to observe the the principles. It’s very conversationally written with abundant humor. For example, in answering the best way to get ketchup out of the bottle, where they detail seven methods to “exploit the thixotropic nature of ketchup,” they begin with:

“WHAT DO I NEED?

Benford’s Law

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:11:48 +0000

I was going through Statistics Hacks and came across Benford’s Law, which states that in naturally occurring numerical data, the distribution of the first, non-zero significant digit follows a logarithmic probability distribution described as:

P(D1 = d) = log10 (1 + 1/d)

In other words, first number is much more likely going to be a 1 than it is a 9. The pretty graph to the right shows the likely occurrence of the first digit. It’s counter-intuitive, as one would assume the digits would be uniformly distributed. However, it’s been observed in a variety of areas like multiples of numbers2, blackbody radiation, physical constants, area of rivers, population and New York Times front pages[9].

Physical

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:43:32 +0000

In anticipation of my physical, and partly to assuage fears that the post-big four-oh one would entail uncomfortable things, I sleuthed around for things on what to expect, thinking. Clearly I’ve been watching too many episodes of House.

The American Academy of Family Physicians1 has six classifications for their recommendations of common “clinical preventive services:”

SR – Strongly recommended: there’s a net gain, it’s cost effective. Vaccines top the list: MMR[4] (despite the anti-vaccination lunacy), tetanus booster, and diptheria/pertussis. Blood pressure is always/easily checked. Since I’m over 35, they want to check lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides). Anticipating this, I fasted prior to the appointment. It’s logistically unfortunate they don’t do the tests and process the results before the doctor visit, because I would like the option of asking what the numbers mean.
R – Recommended: moderate benefit or moderate evidence. There were a lot of these. Rather than sifting through the conditionals (e.g., “for women over 65 years of age”), it was easier to consult the male[2]- or female[2]-specific charts.
NR – No recommendation: there are only four of these in the 15 page list. The only one I’d heard of was screening for chlamydia in pregnant women over 26 years old.
RA – Recommended against. I wasn’t entirely surprised they recommend against taking beta-carotene supplements. However, one that did turn my head was the recommendation against routine screening for testicular cancer[6], especially with the Lance Armstrong awareness campaigns[5].
I – Insufficient evidence to make a recommendation either way. This was one area I was surprised: prostate[7] and skin cancer[8] screening fall into this category.
HB – Healthy behavior that’s desirable, but a physician’s advice and counseling might not effective. For example, physical activity is recognized as beneficial.

Like the physical I had a few years go, this was easy:

Don’t have a cow, man

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:46:16 +0000

Last week, I read a story about 143 million pounds of beef products from California-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company being retroactively recalled to February 1, 2006. Questions that came to mind:

Does beef keep for two years?

I’d always worked from the conventional cooking wisdom that meat could be stored for up to two months in the freezer. The charts 2,7 suggests this is true for ground beef. Steaks and roasts can be kept for 6 – 12 months. Still, that’s a year shy of the retroactive recall date. Only canned beef products have a 2-5 year shelf-life7. Conclusion: most of the beef has already been consumed. Perhaps this is done for shock effect or litigation purposes?

What advice would you give your younger self?

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:25:14 +0000

  [](http://www.basicinstructions.net)

  Scott Meyer’s [Basic Instructions](http://www.basicinstructions.net/)

Elizabeth poses two questions:

What would you tell your younger self?

It was initially tempting to inventory specific sources of pain and failure and undo those. However, the more I thought about it, the more I believe these were learning experiences that helped me later in life. For example, signing a contract with Bally’s was a costly mistake (especially trying to get out of it in 1990), but I’m more acutely aware of ways salespeople may take creative liberties with reality. I have walked away if the person was overtly lying or seemed shady.

Year in Review

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:09:58 +0000

1Q 2007: Traveled to: Reno, Trondheim, San Diego. Ride: RACMOD with John, Claire and David.

Did the polar bear plunge. Blizzard. Turned forty (my “permanent record” didn’t come back to haunt me, though it occasionally taunts me). Finished knitting my scarf. Pleased that Woodstock has joined and is enjoying 43things.

2Q 2007: Traveled to: Pendleton and Portland. Rides: Century Ride of the Centuries, Wenatchee Apple Century

Finally bought a new bike. My KitchenAid broke, was fixed, then was tricked out. Assisted in a science project. Enjoyed an afternoon with Kiri. Met Scout and Jarrett. 3Q 2007: Traveled to: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Atlanta, Tucson and Phoenix. Rides: RAPSODY, Tour de Whidbey

Love is like Nitrogen

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:52:34 +0000

The high-level observations for today:

“Invited” speakers tend to be better than those that are… not invited. I do not have enough data on quality of uninvited talks, but I see an opportunity for a great practical joke.
If the invited speaker isn’t working, you can either wait it out or go to the alternate bloc of presentations. (You do have one, don’t you?) Or, tour the Poster Hall.
Nearly half of today’s presenters were confounded in some way by the remote control. It seems people think “right click” means “forward one slide,” not “select some stupid menu that I’ll need help exiting.“

I woke up from a weird dream that involved being approached by a panhandler of the worst kind:

Blast from the past

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:25:36 +0000

While rummaging through my study looking for an old tax return, I found my second grade report card. My handwriting still “Needs improvement.”

The fourth and fifth grade report cards were more interesting because they were in a Q&A format, no letter grades assigned. Apparently I didn’t like the approach to Spanish instruction taken by the school system, but I did enjoy Faust.

Trick question

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:22:00 +0000

Costco called last night to let me know the tires I ordered were in — not that I expected to wait long for a set of all-weather radials compatible a 2002 Subaru, especially in this neck of the woods. I drove today, anticipating I’d be able to escape work early and have them mounted.

On the way in, I saw a cyclist, his blinkie was barely visible. Issaquah-Pine Lake is a terrible stretch of road to drive on. Biking is even worse because of the disappearing shoulder. I made a deliberate effort to give him sufficient berth. As I eased back into the normal lane position, I saw the cars in front of me were making sudden stops. I did my Fred Flinstone, feeling the pulse of the anti-lock system working its magic. Even with well-worn tires, the car held steady, and I stopped in time.

Traffic patterns

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:55:14 +0000

While I was driving around Tucson, I was struck by how differently the traffic lights sequenced. (Phoenix didn’t seem to have the noticeable differences.) Consider this intersection of Some Boulevard and No Way:

Some Boulevard is the moderately-trafficked arterial going left-right. In this intersection, left turns have to yield to oncoming traffic. The pedestrian crosswalk is better marked. Were it busier, the traffic signal at point

(1) would have a red left turn arrow (indicating no turn is permitted). It might also have a dedicated right-turn lane. Currently, the pedestrian crossing signal at point (3) indicates it is safe for pedestrians to cross No Way.Starting with a green light (1) and active pedestrian signal (3), the traffic sequence here might typically be as follows.

Chillinati

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:33:00 +0000

  [](http://www.flickr.com/photos/carson/770964221/)

Chili and Diet Dr Pepper

I officially ran out of tchotchkes last night at 6:59 p.m., just as the reception was winding down. The featured dinner was … Skyline Chili in meat and vegetable varieties. The chili has the familiar texture and appearance, but has a vague curry aroma. Its non-Scovill spiciness makes it interesting. Verdict: thumbs up.

Other lines featured hand-carved roast beast (for those who eschew Skyline), fruit-kebobs (strawberry, honeydew, canteloupe, honeydew, pineapple), and brie with apricot marmalade. Uncut, the brie looked like a cheesecake. The dude in front of me apportioned himself a ginormous slice only to be disappointed when the inner cheese oozed out onto his plate. His embarrassment benefitted the rest of us. 🙂

Day three in the Queen City

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:25:23 +0000

The keynote this morning was by Michael Wynne, Secretary of the Air Force. His overarching theme was integration of the engine into the systems on and off the aircraft. For example, since the F-86 fighter, the military has included the engine in the airframe design for efficiency. In commercial aerospace, most planes have the engine bolted to a pylon on the wing. Similarly, providing wireless diagnostics in real-time, kind of like the systems launched by NASA, would permit better timing of repairs. Two takeaways:

Day Two in the Queen City

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:20:57 +0000

  [](http://flickr.com/photos/carson/sets/72157600718562712/)

Last night I assembled my bike in anticipation of seeing the greater Cincinnati area up close and personal. The bike made it through TSA’s clutches fine, but I discovered my frame pump was missing. TSA never fully closes the latches, so my theory is it fell out while they were rummaging. Grrr….

The nearest bike shop, Reser Bicycle, didn’t open until noon. Since I didn’t want to waste the entire morning watching the Stephen Segal marathon on TNT, I planned a circle route around the perimeter, intent on minimizing the time in that area. As I set off with a squishy front tire, so began my comedy of errors.

Ice Planet Hoth

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:39:19 +0000

The white noise and vibration during the takeoff phase of an aircraft always puts me to sleep. It was my hope that I’d stay that way for a significant portion of the flight to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, The Machine That Goes Ping does so at 10,000 feet, when it’s arbitrarily okay to operate portable electronic devices. As I started to nod off again, the pilot interrupts with “Today we’ll be flying over the unpopulated part of Canada, but you won’t see anything because it’s dark out” yatta yatta yatta. Then they serve something. And the glowing display of the plane’s position relative to the route will be on the bright ice sheets of soon to be green Greenland. I didn’t sleep at all.

Like snow, but with trees

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:28:25 +0000

Last night’s ride home was a doozy because of the torrential downpour… easily the wettest I’ve been since RSVP 2004. The wind started kicking up around 5:30, knocking out power to the street lights. A tree had fallen across the road a mere 1/4 mile past the entrance to my subdivision.

When I woke up, the yard is covered with a layer of pine needles. The back deck table and umbrella speared the grill. The sand box cover has blown off into the green belt behind us. The house across the street’s animatronic “Rudolph” festive lawn ornament was taken out by several stray branches.

NNWM: unusual ways my character might die

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:30:14 +0000

Drown in a barrel of feral, plastic monkeys
- Unnecessarily provoke a “Code Elmo” alert with the Portage Security Association — they’re much like our TSA, but with better accents and 20% more common sense
- Contract a fatal infection from the paper cut he got while licking the envelope on a strongly-worded letter to the editor
- Pranksters paint his head like a soccer ball and bury him neck deep in a grassy field frequented by Beckham wannabees.
- As a commissioned sales representative for an Armour and Weapons Emporium scandalized by cheap, Saxon knock-offs, discovers the fury of knights returning from failed quests because the Rope of Hercules can be tugged apart by a gradeschool student; the Shield of Invulnerability catches fire when the battery used to power the blinking marketing bling lights overheats; or the Sword of Cutting doesn’t, because its blade is serrated. (First two ideas courtesy of Kiri.)
- While selling “libido enhancement pills” made from dried amphibian parts and graham crackers, he spams the wrong, ill-tempered Wizard with Email ID.
- A freak accident with microwave popcorn
- Didn’t read all eighteen pages of the privacy agreement, consented to being fed to squirrels.
- Went swimming ten minutes after eating Thanksgiving pizza
- Ran with scissors, shoes tied together

What else am I missing?

Inattentional blindness

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 04:29:49 +0000

Today’s keynote speaker, Daniel Simons, talked about inattentional blindness, the inability to perceive features in a visual scene you’re not paying attention to. It’s used in movies. For example, in The Matrix, the scene in which Neo and Morpheus first spar Kung-Fu style, there’s a stunt double for Keanu. Unless you’re looking for a tall Asian guy doing flips, you’ll perceive it as Neo opening a can of whoop-ass.

Simons’ first example was a powerpoint “card trick” where he presents five face cards. A person in the audience secretly picks one. The presenter then shows the next slide and the card’s no longer there – magic! Try it here.

In an especially funny video, he had someone ask a stranger for directions. As the stranger is explaining, confederates carrying a large box go between the two and they swap out the original requester with another person. The new person was 3″ taller, different color/more hair, Brooklyn accent at least an octave lower. In nearly all cases, the stranger kept trying to help.

They did another, similar one where someone lined up for an experiment and filled out a consent form. In the middle of a sentence, the person behind the desk ducked down, as if to pick something, then another person stood up and resumed the conversation. The person was handed back their consent form and asked if they noticed anything. Nearly all did not.

I failed most of the tests given, but surprisingly did okay in this example only because I didn’t hear the original directions (count the number of times the balls were passed around). Instead, I was focused on the quirky way the players were moving around.

The point was that one’s memory is busy storing what it thinks is most the relevant information. In the first switcharoo case, it’s the directions. In the second, it’s filling out the form. Conversely, you’re less likely to pay attention to what you don’t consider relevant, like what the person giving the directions looks like. Interestingly, an issue autistic people have is that they aren’t filtering on relevance, leading to all sorts of social miscues and obsession with tiny details.

Very cool stuff.

Beautiful Baltimore

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:59:36 +0000

  [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/gwynnfalls.jpg)

Ginormous map!

An interesting facet of the conference I’m attending is each subset has a “lightning round” whereby the presenters have one minute to pitch their subject matter. This and the bound copy of the presentations were enough to narrow down the list of things I would be sitting in on for the first few days. On Monday, the mid-day blocks didn’t look very good, but the weather was. So I went biking along Baltimore’s Gwynns Falls trail.

NaNoWriMo: Twisted Tales and Corporate lunacy

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 07:23:23 +0000

I will be participating in — and completing — NaNoWriMo the month after next. This year, I have two themes in mind. With your help, either one could amass enough ideas to blow out 50,000 words.

Fairy tales from different perspectives and venues. For example, suppose the “Three Little Pigs” was related by an eyewitness being interviewed by a television field reporter. The story might initially be reported as “an arson,” but as the news evolves, so does the story. Another example would be setting “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” on a reality-based TV show. I’m thinking in the spirit of PBS’ “Frontier House.” Of course, each character will make an appearance in the “confessional” booth.

Roasting coffee

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 07:30:32 +0000

Last year a coworker was planning to buy a bag of high-quality raw coffee beans from the San Cristobal Coffee Company. Although he drinks impressive quantities of coffee, he didn’t want all 95+ pounds. He offered to let some of us get in on the deal. I ended up with ten pounds’ worth of raw peaberry beans.

(Raw coffee beans look a lot like pistachios)

Score! Acceptance into the Pacific Northwe’t Coffee Cabal would finally be attained!

GET versus MOST – 529 plans

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 05:20:55 +0000

(See my update on this topic.)

We have a 529K college savings program set up for my kids through the State of Missouri program administered by TIAA-CREF, soon-to-be Vanguard. Its investment options are turnkey bundles based on age ranges. In the initial years, the investment selection is aggressive. As college-time nears, the portfolio’s mix shifts from stocks to bonds.

The program’s return has varied. From 2000 through 2003, it did poorly, like everything else I owned. The last two years have been very strong, negating those losses and then some. Overall, I’d estimate its average return has been about 6.5% over the period we’ve had it. While not bad for a retirment portfolio (especially during that time period), it is less than college tuition. I really need a way to invest into “tuition futures.”

The Bicycle Ticket

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:28:31 +0000

There was an interesting discussion on the Cascade Bulletin Board speculating whether a ticket received for a bicycling infraction would cause your auto insurance rates go up? Short answer… no.

A close personal friend with my good looks and rapier-like wit received a citation from motorycle Officer Tomlinson of the City of Bellevue PD last May for a violation falling under the very generic RCW 46.61.755. Said friend, happy that the officer toned it down a bit, was concerned more about the blemish on his respectable Permanent Record than the $58 contribution to the city general fund, called both the DMV and his insurance company.

Fomplicated

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:30:30 +0000

I’m coining a new term, fomplicated, to describe a product that requires deliberate intervention and expertise from a customer beyond what any sane human being would consider reasonable. The word is a contraction of a well-known English expletive rhyming with firetrucking and the word “complicated.”

Although it’s applicable to a variety of things, I’ve been seeing it a lot related to my computer. For example, this morning I had a minor fomplication. While poring through some mailing-list email, I saw that KMTT 103.7FM has an online stream. The Mountain Music Lounge is great stuff, but I don’t get good reception indoors. I had an unsatisfactory experience with a pay-for service that claimed to have the station, but really only played a pre-selected “best of” 20 songs. (Cancelling that service was unnecessarily fomplicated, too.) KMTT’s option would not only serve it live, but would also be free. And it claimed to run on my Linux and Windows machines. Score!

You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!

Sun, 06 Feb 2005 21:58:40 +0000

Last December I was lamenting the industry analyst forecasts were all over the map. One particular analyst, Analyst Bravo, had unbelievabily optimistic numbers. Here’s a better chart depicting the market predictions of four analysts for hard-boiled eggs (HBE), soft-boiled eggs (SBE) and Jewel-encrusted eggs. Everyone acknowledges the hard- and soft-boiled eggs market is declining while deluxe, jewel-encrusted eggs are the future:

You don’t have to be an analyst to see that Analyst Bravo thinks the hard- and soft-boiled egg market is going to remain strong. Last month Analyst Alpha, who only reports on total boiled eggs, adjusted their 2004 and future “forecast” down about 20% from where they were last year. Their estimates are similar to Analysts Charlie and Delta. I’ve also manually corroborated the estimates with the third quarter financial reports. Much like the dry Pancake Mix market, four major players serve 90% of the market. In the next two weeks, I’ll have another set of annual reports to pore through and I don’t expect a miraculous upswing in the market: after trying jewel-encrusted eggs, no one goes back to mere boiled. Switching among boiled egg suppliers is very easy as there’s little practical differentiation. (Sure, some paint letters on the eggs or dye the shells or even use paper cartons. Customers see these features as gravy.)

Magic Quadrant Me, Baby

Sun, 19 Dec 2004 12:06:24 +0000

One motivation for the exercise last week in reviewing 10-Q/Ks was to come up with some forecasts on the marketplace. We also use an array of industry analysts who are ostensibly better connected and do this stuff all day, but the numbers I’ve seen are all over the place. Consider the following chart:

  Dozens of Hard-Boiled Eggs Consumed per Year

(I know this is busy, but I had to take out the PII because I don’t like talking about specifics of my employment. If it helps, assume that I’m just a simple data farmer.)

Tofino and Victoria, British Columbia

Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:41:07 +0000

  [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/issaquahtotofino.jpg)

  Map

During Labour Day week, we took a rare vacation, spending four days in Tofino and two days in Victoria.

Tofino’s on the west coast of Vancouver Island, just north of Pacific Rim National Park, where we’d be making day trips. It’s not very far as the crow flies, but the trip takes all day because of the uncertainties associated with crossing the border, catching the ferry, and riding with small children who need frequent potty and snack breaks. We decided to do the outbound portion in one long day.

Status reports

Fri, 17 Sep 2004 16:30:38 +0000

I had a weird dream last night. In the dream, I made a gazillion dollars because I wrote a program that automatically generated wholly truthful and accurate status reports. (This is especially funny if you ponder the irony of designing software pointing out software ironies.) It was based on MadLibs, rendered in a template like this:

This project is adjective ( doomed; not dead yet, but coughing up blood; dead).

Important Person (VP, CIO, customer) verb phrase (is still withholding information, has been meddling/changing requirements again, won’t make up their mind), marketing verb phrase (hasn’t finished the specification, is too busy playing golf/doing field research, doesn’t have any use cases, gives us specifications relying on 23rd-century Star Trek technology), the developers are excuse (pulling dates from their imaginations, playing Doom III, still trying to work out the answer to the moving Mt. Fuji interview question),

The Hotel Douglas, Victoria BC

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 05:07:49 +0000

  [](http://www.hoteldouglas.com)

We took a vacation last week to Tofino, BC, last week. The Tofino part was great, and I’ll write about that later this week when I scan in some photos.

On the way back, we spent two days in Victoria, BC. The city rocks; however our room at the Hotel Douglas had some unique undocumented bonus features that made it a memorable part of our stay.

Automatic intruder detection — thanks to the highly squeaky floor, everybody in the hotel knew when someone got up in the middle of the night to attend to a vital bodily function.
Designer windows — the bathroom had curtains covering full-length windows right next to the toilet. The windows overlooked the null tubule encircled by other rooms. I’m not sure what the intention was. (I hope Debbie can help speculate.)
Self-spraying floor — another curiosity of the bathroom was the lack of any barrier between the “shower” and the rest of the bathroom. In fact, the shower head was one of those nifty movable wand thingies, affixed to the wall such that it would initially spray outward, usually on dry clothes. I availed myself of washroom down the hall.
Surround sound — there was a lounge downstairs that had nightly concerts beginning around 9pm. As the alcohol flowed, the music became loud enough to prevent me from falling asleep, but not loud enough to discern lyrics. I think I heard at least one Neil Diamond song where the crowd joined in. The main room windows overlooked an open area behind above and behind buildings on the block. One of these buildings was a club emanating weird, rhythmic music interrupted by the occasional shattering glass bottle. The two sound sources were incompatible.
Energy conserving lighting — the central room light, one of those awful office-style recessed, fluorescent fixtures, flickered briefly when turned on. We had to play with the switch for a few minutes before it juiced itself up. Speaking of which…
Child-proof light switches — as in “wired so down was on and up was off.” I had my oldest going for a while when I said “Canada uses the metric system, so electricity works differently.”
Satellite parking — the official parking option was a “parkade” about three blocks away. (Although this was a lot closer than the parking I initially found, the signage implied very bad things would happen to my vehicle if left after closing. Thankfully nothing did.)
The Wonkavator — The elevator had that “built in 1912″ feel to it as it grudgingly carried us to within 1.5” of our floor, each time ending its journey with a defiant lurch. The doors’ sensor had a 92-year-old’s vision as it tried to take out my kids.
Laundry conservation — We spent the day exploring Victoria. When we returned at 5pm, our room was still uncleaned, but the maid cart was in the hallway. When we returned after dinner, the maid cart was gone, but the room was still skanky. They had also neglected to clean the washroom down the hall. The lobby staff shrugged it off, but was able to procure another set of towels. There was no attempt to comp us.

It’s possible we had a confluence of bad experiences, but I cannot recommend The Hotel Douglas.

Liquid bandages

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 06:41:07 +0000

This may seem far-fetched, but I got a paper cut from picking up a cardboard box. The box slipped, and when I grabbed it, my finger brushed against the edge, leaving a large gash in my finger. Okay, maybe not “large,” but it hurt a lot and the cut was big enough that it needed to be covered. However, it was right on the joint such that a conventional bandage would overly restrict movement.

Airplane ownership

Mon, 16 Aug 2004 13:21:27 +0000

For you newly-minted pilots who have asked me, “should I buy an airplane?” I offer a quick rule of thumb, based on my ten years in general aviation, four years of ownership, and MBA: No.

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that formality out of the way, here is some insight into the costs of acquisition and ownership, so you can make the inevitable decision.

You have no doubt heard the fairytale that you should consider ownership if you fly more than 100 hours a year because airplanes are an investment. It’s true that my airplane outperformed 11 of my 12 stocks, but if you look at the numbers closely, you’ll notice that buying postage stamps or stuffing the money into a mattress for those four years would have beaten everything.

RSVP 2004

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 19:00:00 +0000

  Smile or grimace?

Why the hell am I doing this?

I kept asking myself this question throughout most of the first day of Rain-Soaked Venture Pedaling R.S.V.P.. (For a more optimistic take, view Claire Petersky’s summary.)

  [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day1.jpg)

    [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day1.jpg)[**Day 1: 106.9 miles**](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day1.jpg)

Seattle to Bellingham

        [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day2a.jpg)

          [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day2a.jpg)[**Day 2a: 21.8 miles**](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day2a.jpg)

(Bellingham to the border)

              [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day2b.jpg)

                [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day2b.jpg)[**Day 2b: 56.9 miles**](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/rsvp_day2b.jpg)

(Border to Vancouver)

                    [RSVP route map](/bike/rsvp_route_guide_2004.pdf)

                  The forecast for Friday was “92% chance of rain, with a possibility of late afternoon thunderstorms.” The percentage is interesting because it conveys both precision *and*, in this case, accuracy: [The rain rain rain came down down down](http://cubbi.org/disney/lyrics/wtp/raindown).

                  It was initially a misty pitter patter, but picked up around mile 10, turning into a bonafide “rain shower.” I didn’t bring my full set of rain gear because the gear is impractical when the temperatures are above 50°F. At that point, I sweat profusely, negating any benefit. The day started at 59°F, so I just donned my jacket.

                  I also have a set of fenders on my bike to reduce a lot of the water kicked up from my tires. It looks goofy and adds weight, which is why 950 of the other riders don’t have them. Whenever someone passed me, there was a good chance I’d get tagged by the rooster tail kicking up from their rear wheel. They’re getting even wetter, though, as the water eventually arcs up onto their back.

                  At mile 20, my front tire started losing air. With the roads wet from the rain, I had no difficulty seeing where the air was coming out and finding the small metal shard. I pulled over at the first open space to fix the tire. While pumping up the new tube, I broke the stem. A couple of dogs must have heard the F-bomb over the highway noise because they came running over and helped add to the noise level.

                  The dogs weren’t an immediate threat, so I continued working. A few minutes later, the lady who lived there wanted to get out of her driveway. Although I had given her a wide berth, this wasn’t sufficient for her. She wanted me *off*. I explained that I didn’t want to be there, either, and would move as soon as I fixed the flat. She was concerned her dogs would be distracted outside once the gate opened. She stormed off, but not after accusing me of all the things that could possibly go wrong with her dogs running out into a busy highway. I packed up all my stuff and walked my bike over 20 feet onto a craggy gravel area where I could continue fixing my tire. She eventually went her way and the dogs never came out.

                  The total downtime was approximately 23 minutes. I was thoroughly soaked and cold. I coaxed myself to the mini-stop at Lake Stevens, mile 38, by playing “five more miles.” I have to be careful here because the stop *is* community supported, and for that, I’m truly appreciative. However, I find it very lame that Cascade has no mechanical support or sports beverage available. I needed air for my tire, and adjustment of my rear derailleur. It had been skipping since the flat.

                  I stayed just long enough to pee, top off my water bottles, and grab a handful of pretzels. A bunch of people were abandoning the ride. I continued the “three more miles” game through mile 75, near Mount Vernon. The 1 1/2 miles leading to official rest stop had been recently grooved in anticipation of a new coat of blacktop. The rain and lack of delineation made it unbelievably hazardous. I tried riding on the sidewalk, but every 15th patch was ripped out and replaced with gravel. *One more mile.*

                  Mount Vernon was reasonably stocked, as it should be. I saw more people abandon. Riders were huddling under the tent, out of the rain, and it was hard to access the food. I filled both of my bottles and tried to get some mechanical help. The mechanic was immersed in doing some kind of major work to a tandem. I saw no point in prolonging my misery so I borrowed his pump to top off my tire (only half full) and continued on.

                  I think it was around this point that I ran into Randy Martin, who had recognized me from my posts on Cascade’s bulletin board. As strange as it may sound, his friendliness was a morale boost. We met up again briefly in Bow, just before Chuckanut Drive, after which I didn’t catch up with him again.

                  Chuckanut Drive winds along Samish Bay and is easily the prettiest part of the first day. The weather had also improved, and I saw a rare glimpse of the sun. Following this is a climb where there has traditionally been a donation-based lemonade stand. This was the seventh year the mom and daughter had been running the stand. They even had a scrapbook from previous years. I didn’t need lemonade, but stopped anyway and donated a buck.

                  I had finally crossed into Bellingham proper. One of the last minute notes warned of poor markings in Bellingham. Apparently while they were painting the Dan Henrys, the Bellingham police department asked them to stop. Instead of markings, they relied on A-board signs.

                  The tick sheet had been amended to direct riders to the new official terminus of the first day, the Arne Hanna Aquatic Center, where the post-ride festivities would occur. This was a three mile side trip from the Ramada motel, last year’s terminus. As it was only 3pm, the salmon buffet dinner wouldn’t be starting for a while. I went directly to the motel.

                  After checking in and peeling off my clothes, I started running the bath. I cranked up the air conditioning and laid out all my wet stuff in front of the blower. On cue, housekeeping knocked on the door, then started to come in, ignoring the “Do not disturb” sign on the door. I convinced them that I didn’t need a second rollaway bed, but thanks anyway.

                  I soaked in the bathtub for about 30 minutes, noting how generally run down the Ramada looked. All of the fixtures were leaking, caulk was done haphazardly, and there was an intercom speaker underneath the sink. (Huh?)

                  I dressed, then started walking over to the aquatic center. However, after a couple of blocks, I decided that the dining options near the hotel were fine. I punted on the festivities, even missing the post-ride massage.

                  **Day 2**: I wasn’t feeling motivated because the forecast was for rain *again*. I tossed my luggage into the baggage truck and noticed that the mechanic was set up in the parking lot and didn’t have a line. He looked at my derailleur, made some kind of quick hand adjustment, and sprayed oil on the chain. 30 seconds later, it was working again.

                  There was a continental breakfast buffet going on at the aquatic center, but this was in the opposite direction of where we were going. I ate a Clif Bar and made my traditional beeline to the Dutch Mother’s Cafe. The Dutch Mother was surprisingly uncrowded, except for the line to the men’s bathroom. A woman appreciated my comment about how this was like a concert, only the genders were reversed.

                  I made it to the border at 8:30 a.m., half an hour after it opened. There was a large queue of cars and cyclists, but two customs officers worked the cyclists and passing through took less than five minutes.

                  The first several miles around the border reek of funky farm fertilizer. The smell clears out after 5 miles. At mile 10 is a small hill known as “The Wall.” It’s very steep — just over a 10% grade — but it’s also very short. Several riders later asked me where “The Wall” was. The reaction is much like the one on “The Hill” on STP: *That’s it?!?*

                  Following a gradual descent is the Fort Langley, at mile 38.9, the food stop for today. I happened to hit this before a large pack of bikers and got in and out quickly. I noticed my seat had sagged from the water, the one weakness of leather. It fit a little better, but it’s also possible the seat is ruined.

                      Listen to the

                        [Albion Ferry](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/albionferry.mp3)

Corporate Then versus Corporate Now

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 20:02:53 +0000

In June, a New York Times article said there were fewer complaints about cubicles from job seekers. It seems people are now less likely to worry about whether their workspace is equipped with walls, doors and Herman Miller chairs.

Well, Duh. As the market pendulum has swung from seekers to employers, it’s not a stretch to say people are so thankful to even have a job, they’re less concerned with petty luxuries. Today, I’m going to reflect upon the “then” (when George Bush was in office) and “now” (with George Bush in office).

Seattle to Portland (STP) – Part II

Tue, 20 Jul 2004 19:34:56 +0000

(Continued from Part 1, (Map, annotated altitude Profile, Preride Guide)

  Twelve Monkeys beware!

The early morning ride through the university district wasn’t as harrowing as I’ve come to expect. It would have been shorter, too, except when I crossed the Eastgate bridge, my mirror fell off. The distraction was enough that I missed a left turn towards Lake Washington Blvd. I didn’t go too far before clueing in, though.

Seattle to Portland (STP) – part I

Tue, 20 Jul 2004 06:56:53 +0000

I finished the two-day version of STP (Map, annotated altitude Profile, Preride Guide) and lived to tell about it. Woot!

  **Saturday**



  Left Seattle at 4:05 a.m. Arrived in Castle Rock, WA, at 4:30 p.m.

139.8 miles, 2,559′ ascent Average speed 13.0 mph.

  **Sunday**



  Left Castle Rock at 5:15 a.m. Arrived in Portland, OR, at 10:47 a.m.

67.3 miles, 1,339′ ascent Average speed 12.0 mph

  **Overall:**



  **207.1 miles, 3,898′ ascent**

12,166 calories burned*.

Schedule chicken

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 13:33:24 +0000

What is the game of “Chicken?” In the movies, two hooligans with something to prove settle their differences by racing their cars towards each other. The first one to turn away, averting certain collision, is the “chicken” and loses face among his cohorts. The other player, referred to as the “winner,” gets bragging rights and the fickle heroine.

If no one turns — which is a theoretical possibility, but in practice, never happens in the movies (dramatic license and all that) — the game is officially a draw. A rematch is unlikely, but both participants are automatically entered as co-nominees for the Darwin Awards.

Truth in the Workplace

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 14:55:25 +0000

Director Mitch pointed me to an article on the interview twists and turns some HR people will inflict upon candidates. (Further commentary is available on Newmark’s Door and Just Procastinating. Guest blogger Dr Bob makes some general HR rantiness.)

I decided it might be fun to spend next week blogging about some of the bizarre workplace rituals I’ve seen from both sides of the desk. For example, I already have something written on the concept of “Schedule Chicken.” I’ve been hoping to work this in some way. 🙂

A sales parable

Tue, 25 May 2004 08:23:39 +0000

(for maximum humor value, mouse-over the dashed lines.) Long ago, before the mists of the dot com era wafted down upon the masses, I worked at a company that made

bananas. I traveled to a customer site with Tim, the company’s top salesman to observe his crafitness.

After we met with the Zookeeper and Primate Custodian, Tim went through the familiar sales spiel, highlighting the importance of bananas: high in potassium, a good source of energy while cycling, and in fashionable yellow. He was about to segue into the specific differentiators our bananas had, when the Zookeeper (the decision maker) asked the question: “Can your bananas be used to kill someone?“

How airplanes fly

Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:52:55 +0000

About nine years ago I started flying as a way to blow off steam from the stresses of work. As with anything I do, once I got past the initial learning hurdles, I pursued the hobby very aggressively, eventually earning an instrument rating, a commercial certificate (land) and a private pilot certificate in seaplanes. (NB: Flying seaplanes is almost as good as sex.)

In March of 2000, I became a delusional airplane co-owner. Yesterday, I came to my senses and sold my share.

Pummeling the deceased equine: Ted is human

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:47:58 +0000

To trim expenses, I consolidated my web and email providers this week. My web provider has been good to work with, but the virtual dedicated server is much more than I need (and can afford) right now. The email provider’s been somewhat disappointing, but the account had been prepaid through Wednesday.

While I was waiting for the DNS entries to propagate, I noticed someone had sent a trackback ping to the Soy Ginger Mayo recipe on the old site. Twice.

Fun with Skittles

Mon, 23 Feb 2004 06:49:00 +0000

I’m taking a photography class in hopes that I can improve my technique. We have an exhibition in a couple of weeks, and I’m behind on the number of “exhibitable” (ahem) prints. This weekend I rented a fisheye (16mm f2.8) and a macro (105mm f2.8) lens and set out to take a bunch of photos around the greater Seattle area that I will develop later this week.

After obsessively photographing various foodstuffs with the macro lens — there were so many interesting textures — I bought a bag of Skittles for color. My kids instantly recognized the package and, not coincidentally, had a keen interest in volunteering to help me in a fact-finding mission.

Monday morning armchair physicist

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 14:07:14 +0000

There’s a great urban legend that says a penny tossed off the top of the Empire State building will impact with enough force to embed itself in the ground. Or, if it hit someone in the head, it would kill them.

Last week’s Mythbusters (one of my favorite TV shows) busted the myth experimentally. However, I wanted to understand the math and physics a little better.

The theory behind the myth looks straightforward: the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall. An object dropped off the top would take 8.8 seconds to reach the ground, by which time it would be moving at 193 miles an hour:

Ted is not 100% human

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 03:13:57 +0000

The Seattle PI recently wrote about the disappearance of “A day in the life of” blog from someone named “Ted” on my employer’s recruiting site. Among the more interesting revelations was a quote from an unnamed sources that the tone of Ted’s writing was
“not 100% human.” To assist with the investigation, I’ll answer some questions based on my special knowledge …