A Hessian by any other name

(Image from Washington Crossing Historic Park)

I still remember the dim view that my American history texts took of the use of Hessian "mercenaries" by the Brits during the Revolutionary War. Xe, formerly Blackwater, is now being investigated *again* for murder, arms smuggling and other crimes. I really hope Erik Prince fries for all the evil he's done. He's drained the U.S. military of talent by paying soldiers money to work for him as mercenaries and he's used our tax dollars to spread death and fear overseas.

I really wanted to like it

I got a great deal on a Ex Officio Air Strip Lite shirt at REI on Sunday. Quick dry fabric. Nice texture. Great venting. Old school explorer sachet. Only one problem; the shirt is designed for average or stocky built men. I am not. Not stocky. Not average build. I'm a stick. Sadly, the shirt drapes on me like Old Glory on a flagpole in still air. And if there's a breeze, well, then it billows out like a muumuu.

Sigh.

In the name of "balance"

This guy just nails it!

If you watch ONLY ONE discussion about health care reform...

Then watch this one. The gentleman interviewed was an executive in the industry for over a decade (? I gotta double check this because I can't remember right now). Really interesting stuff.

Balanced Lunch

3 guys, 9 hours, 26 miles

Dan and Jason and I hiked the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park from Germantown Road to the Portland Zoo. We rolled along pretty well until the very last part of the hike. At about 3 miles from the end of the trail we all slowed down just a wee bit. Overall, it was a good training hike for the Wonderland Trail. We got through the mental barrier of doing 25 miles in a day even if we had virtually no elevation gain.

Don't know why Brian thought this was a good idea

How far we've come....

From Poor Man's Heli (Jeremy Jones' blog)

Holy Crap + Way Cool

= Bear.

As in, I saw one today from less than 20 yards away. (Please note the invisible and numerous exclamation points on the end of that sentence.)

I did a quick overnight backpack trip this weekend. (I'll try to post maps and a trip report later). And I'm rolling along this morning on the Eagle Creek trail. It's not the touristy and well travelled part of the trail though. This is the section of trail used to connect to the Pacific Crest Trail or to go to Wahtum Lake the hard way.

So this section of trail gets a little less traffic than the part with all the pretty waterfalls. It's pretty bushy. Almost overgrown. Very pretty and a little wild. As I was about to see.

I'm rolling along (like I said) at a good pace and come around this bend on the trail. Not 50 feet away something cracks some branches in the underbrush. I look over and see black fur cavorting around. I think "Someone brought their dog out pretty far." And I start to lift my eyes to scan for the owner.

My eyes never get up the the trail. I'm already whispering "oh shit" as my eyes swing back and confirm that I'm looking at a bear.

That doesn't know I'm there.

I turn around and walk five paces back up the trail before I remember that you never run or retreat from black bears. So I spin around again and lift up my trekking poles (to make me look bigger) and I say "Hello bear!"

He musta been pretty startled. It took him (or her) about 15 seconds to cross the drainage and go up and over the lip on the other side. He might still be running, he took off so fast.

So. I'm glad I remebered the right approach for an encounter with a black bear. I'm glad outdoor magazines publish those articles about once a year.

But mostly I'm glad that a black bear's initial response to surprise is to run away.

Oh, and it's really freakin' cool that I saw a real live wild bear today.

Reason 864 to love Portland

I can get up early on July 4th.
Drive out to Mt Hood.
Hike for an hour and 45 minutes with my snowboard.
Strap into my snowboard.
Ride down a groomed slope for 20 minutes.
Unstrap from my snowboard.
Hop in the car and go to a cabin by the river and swill beer all afternoon.

All before lunch.
Yeah.

Great finish to July 4

Dev sitting in front of the Sandy River at Erica and Jefferson's
family cabin. Awesome.

What a way to start the 4th

This was a huge book for me in my teens

Amazing how much of what Gibson described actually worked out....

Neuromancer turns 25: What it got right, what it got wrong

Nursery set up

Look at the awesome job that Dev and Erica did on the nursery. And it
only took a day!!!

Can this guy slog 6600 feet on one day?

Why yes, yes he can.

It's almost the weekend

From the club

To the Caddy

To the Holiday Inn,

From the dusk to the dawn,

We gonna do it again.

"Last Call" by Outkast

TGID

Thank God it's donuts!!!!

Happy Anniversary Dev!

Three great years.
Feels like forever. -grin-

Too funny...

No attribution, but it's awesome....

Picture links are broken

Google's Picasa service had a hiccup last week. For security reasons, Google change the web addresses for all the Picasa albums of it's users. I haven't decided if I'm gonna fix it yet.

Apologies to anyone who wants to see the pictures.

Talk about too much money

Looks who's docked outside downtown Portland.

Healthcare CEOs and Recission

Seriously!?

 

 

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

 

 

Healthcare CEOs and Recission

via Daring Fireball by John Gruber on 6/17/09

U.S. health insurance executives are simply evil bastards:

The sister of an Illinois man who died of lymphoma said his policy was rescinded for the failure to report a possible aneurysm and gallstones that his physician noted in his chart but did not discuss with him. […] Late in the hearing, [Bart] Stupak, the committee chairman, put the executives on the spot. Stupak asked each of them whether he would at least commit his company to immediately stop rescissions except where they could show "intentional fraud".

The answer from all three executives: "No."

In other words, even if you pay your premiums for years, if you ever fall seriously ill, they will do their best to find a way to cancel your insurance.

 ★ 

 

 

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• Subscribe to Daring Fireball using Google Reader
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Spoiled Rotten

'Nuff said...

Kris and Todd's MC club

Dev with Duncan and Maverick

Hanging out with Kris and Todd in Ocomonowoc.

In Chicago

Just landed safe and sound at O'Hare. On our way to see Dev's mom and Jason as we head over to meet Kris and Todd. Love being on vacation.

Update: scratch the part about being at O'Hare. We landed at Midway. Little bit of a difference.

Pure Awesome in Volcano form

Climbed Mt St Helens yesterday.
The view was awesome.
The crater was spectacular.
The weather was half awesome.
Get the skinny at the link above.

Big blow coming in

Took about 30 minutes to go from clear skies to this.

Oh man, do I want to do this!

Riding the Spine in the Peruvian Andes from Jacob Thompson on Vimeo.

This is what happens...

when it's a little bit wet at camp at 9500 foot above sea level.

In Shasta City....

And on our way.

More pictures of the little girl...

I'm officially in trouble now

Guess I need to learn how to pick out dresses 'cuz Dev and I are having a little girl.

Eek.

Dev practicing

Pictures from Hunchback Mountain hike

Pictures can be seen here.

One more way that "common sense" can be wrong

From The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog on why promoting helmet use aggressively and portraying cycling primarily as a sport may be counterproductive:

"Helmets and things like that do give this impression that cycling is inherently dangerous, and this whole urban warrior image is not very helpful," he said. "But of course, a lot of the aggression is also about having to compete for space and priority with cars."

From an article in the Guardian.

Books are lactose intolerant

Can I cry over spilt milk now?

Fun videos for the unbeliever

Via Richard Dawkin's website:

potholer54bdebunks the great flood

If I had read this in High School...

I'd have a whole different career. Excellent essay on Wired about being a scientist:

To be a scientist is to commit to a life of confusion punctuated by rare moments of clarity. When I leave the office at night, the confusion comes with me. Ruminating over these equations, seeking patterns, looking for hidden relationships, trying to make contact with measured data—it's all uncertainty and possibility engaged in an endless chaotic dance. Every so often the blur resolves, but the respite is short-lived; the next puzzle demands focus. This, really, is the joy of being a scientist. Established truths are comforting, but it is the mysteries that make the soul ache and render a life of exploration worth living.

Another nail, another flat

Got a flat this morning on the way to work. Still got here on time; I flatted in the Rose Quarter with 30 minutes to get to the office. Made it in plenty of time.

Fun last Sunday!

Ah, spring in Oregon

After a few days of nice partly sunny weather, April turned back into April here. Dev and I went to the gym last night, where they had to modify the workout due to weather. Originally the workout included two laps around the building.

The rain started in the middle of the warm up. And not your normal Oregon steady drizzle to steady rain type rain. No. Buckets of rain came down. It reminded me of Texas thunderstorms type rain. Cars floated by the gym because the water got so high so fast type rain. So we had to row 500 meters instead of the originally planned laps.

I would have preferred the run.

Tires are expensive

Crazy expensive. But then this is the first full set of four new tires I've ever had to buy for a car. So I guess, on balance, that going 36 years without having to buy a full set of tires is a definite win.

That's it.

Donut Apocalypse

This what's left after the first round finished. Sugar crash here I
come!

Why the process is important

J.J. Abrams is able to elucidate something that is central to the way I've always played video games (or read books or watched tv shows). Excellent essay in Wired here.

Great day in Austin

My niece at the Austin waterfront

I need to review my German

My niece

Truth on the Whiteboard

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Just thought I'd say so. Though he doesn't read this. So my mom will have to tell him.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to me!

To those who can't be with me on this most awesome of days, I miss you. I raise a toast to all my friends and family. I would not have the incredibly sweet life I now enjoy without each and every one of you. I have a beautiful wife who has enough patience to put up with me and to be pregnant at the same time. I have two brothers who helped shape my early years and make me appreciate my own space and sharing what I have. I have the whole cast of characters that makes up the motley crew that are my friends. Some of you improved me. Some of you corrupted me. Some of you were just there at the right (or wrong) time. I have my parents who launched me into this life and gave me the tools to fight back the forces that try to make it worse.

Thanks to you all. Without you guys, I would not be quite so awesome.
[grin]

Cheers!

That's right....

It's trivia night at Leisure Public House!

I'm gonna start with Sunday

No, this footage was not me skiing. I snowboard, remember? I just thought it was a pretty sick set of footage.

Sunday was epic. Skibowl got 13 inches of fresh snow overnight. Aaron and I headed up late in the day and got on the lift around 1 pm. By 2:30 pm we were riding black diamond runs in the upper bowl. We weren't riding them well or with style, but we were riding them. Aaron had never been on a black diamond before. And he did great. We both made it down our first no-fall black diamond run. And to top everything off, we managed to grab some untracked powder in the lower ski area along the lift line. Truly an awesome day.

And I was so tired that after we got to the run-out below the lodge, I laid down for 45 seconds and thought to myself "I could take a nap right here." My legs shook for 15 minutes while we rehydrated with a beer and talked about the day. It was, without a doubt, the best day of this season.

Just a taste...

....of the fun I had this weekend. [big grin]

Happy birthday Erica!

Proving once again why I read his stuff

Insightful post from Gruber on Daring Fireball.

Oh so true....

"Twouble with Twitter" sous-titré
by LePostfr

Wore out

I always hate when a pair of shoes dies. They always seem to have so
much life left. But they don't.

I'd consider resoling, but these are cheapo trail runners. And the interior upholstery is going too. Which means the shoes will start shredding socks. And good socks are very expensive. So it makes me sad because the shoes just *seem* to have so much life and utility left.

Shoe recycling, here I come.

First look

There he/she is, Dev and my kiddo. 12 weeks. If you look real close, you can see the resemblance to Dev. [grin]

So I ordered my Psychology text last night...

Thought I was ahead of the curve getting it ordered more than a week early.

Not so much as it turns out. The projected arrival date is the first day of class. With no expedited ship option. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Sunday breakfast

Yum!

Great video to start a Saturday morning

Ummm.....Wow.....

Are Somali Pirates really bad men?

Or are they men fed up with a bad situation?

You Are Being Lied to About Pirates
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

The 13 year old kid was pretty good...

But the bus driver rocked the house!!!!

Also amazing

A-mazing

So wrong it's right

Those of you who have read the comic will love this...

New surf film coming out

Well how about that....

A happy J and Alex

Yay Skibowl!

Free lift ticket!

For buying 1 bottle of vitamin water! So fun!

Free lift ticket?!

We're about to find out!

Anticipation

Conditions at Timberline Lodge

Split decision

Went to Skibowl with John and Caitlin yesterday. It was warmish and mostly dry until our last hour. They both had new snowboards to try out for the day. I left my board at home since I planned to take a ski lesson; something that John teased me about for several minutes in the car.

Then he asked Caitlin to hand him the donuts. And the bag was open and pointed downwards.

The donuts fell into John's lap.

I didn't stop laughing for 5 minutes. Recriminations flew. Ultimately John knew that he will always be known as the dude with donut crotch syndrome. He managed to rebag the donuts and drive us safely to Skibowl.

I took a ski lesson and got some great tips and refinements from my instructor Dan. I skiied until about 3 and then called it good. This proved a wise decision because the rain that had threatened us all day and pelted us for about an hour really started coming down after we bagged it for the day.

The only bad part about liking skiing is that I have to buy new hardware. Sigh.

Current hero

Richard Dawkins.

Smile a little

People in this town riding their bicycles need to smile a little bit more. I'm not talking about the homeless guys. And I'm not talking about the athletes in their superhero outfits. I'm talking about the folks riding to work or out for chores in normal clothes. I mean a little smile when someone smiles and waves should be the natural reaction. Instead, I get scowls and frowns. And it's not even raining!

Why be on the bike if it's no fun? It's certainly more fun than driving! Or walking! Or riding the bus (though riding the bus can be pretty fun).

So smile a little Portland!

Best Music Video Ever

Goodbye Jamie!

We're gonna miss ya!

New toy pic 2

New toy

No wonder I couldn't pull it out by hand

This is the nail I picked up on my tire this morning!

Monday commute buzzkill

WTF!?

Surprises on Mt Hood

Snowboarding was good today. We got 11 runs today at Skibowl. That far exceeds our best day. And Dev and I had 2 friends with us. One of them is apparently a natural snowboarder. I'll tell more when I'm less tired and I've posted some pictures.