new start

After a two year leave to get MBAs in Finance, Accounting and Operations I'm starting to write again; for pleasure not homework. I'm going to make a bit of a change though. Since I've accepted a challenge to read 20 classics in 2011 this is where I'm posting my chapter summaries and book reviews.

voting as action

while taking a vacation in los angeles i got to thinking about voting. my family is very vocal on the subject on both my side and darcie's side. we express our opinions freely and try to convince everyone around why they should feel the same way and vote accordingly. while i was listening to a debate between my father and brother it struck me that they both ultimately agreed as to the end result but not on the "how to" get there. what they were both doing was expressing their opinion on that matter of procedure, a subject on which neither was qualified to opine. once i got to that point it also struck me that what they were also doing was expressing an opinion, giving voice to their thought, shouting out as it were. i'm no different i do it as well.

i thought about this for a while. is voting meant to be a vehicle of expression? are the elections an opportunity to take to our own private soapboxes and shout out to the government our praises, hopes and woes? no, i think not. voting may have an element of communication but voting communicates like a sucker punch or a hug, it's too quick and leaves the recipient wondering "what the hell just happened?".

voting is not significant communication. voting taken as communication seems to have at least four problems:

- voting lacks depth
- voting is anonymous
- voting is one directional
- voting is unalterable

lets take them one at a time, when i say that voting lacks depths what i mean is that it's binary. it's either a "yes, you did a good job, do more of that" or "that sucked, you should be fired if not taken out and shot this minute". you can see how this can make our elected officials nervous if not neurotic. it only has two states (binary); yes/great/good or bad/your fired/take that man out and hang him from the nearest lamp post.

voting by consensus is anonymous. it doesn't have to be that way but it is. i always put my name on ballots. if folks don't like the way i vote they can come talk to me about it. they may get punched or thanked, it's a toss up. i believe that we should take ownership of our actions and that it's cowardly to hide behind anonymous voting. in any case it's difficult for government to figure out who's trying to say what with a vote. couple that to the whole binary thing and things can get confusing quickly, especially in a close election. take a 40/60% vote. who said yes and who no. was the vote split male/female, rich/poor, old/young, urban/rural, ethnic/non-ethnic, business/labor. hell, it's anyone's guess.

when communicating by vote the message only goes in one direction from you to them. they don't have a chance to explain. little clue here, we're not always right or see everything there is no see. government doesn't have a chance to explain circumstances that may have been overlooked by everyone except those on the the scene. with two way communication government may be able to say "i know you don't like this but have you thought about x" or "yes, i realize that you really like this but are you aware that it's costing a gazillion dollars?". information like that may change my mind about how i act in the future (and by act i mean vote).

that brings me to the last point. you can't take back a vote. bet some of us would have loved to have done that -- think the congressional vote on the iraq war or the 2004 presidential elections. yeah, we all step in it more than we'd like to admit, with a vote it's done and done. lucky for some of us it's also anonymous. "who me, i never voted for that jerk/inane prop/stupid resolution" sound familiar?

so, if voting is not communication what is it? it's action. first i told darcie that i thought she was special then i kissed her. see how that works. first i told the jerk in my platoon that he was pissing me off then i knocked the wind out of him. see, there it is again. communicating is the talking, action is the kiss/punch.

i think we should think of interaction with government as a two step process, first communicate the act. first we tell our officials they are doing well by writing or phoning them then we grant them another term or fire their sorry asses. we praise/warn then reward/punish. there are no mixed messages, no interpreting of results, no spin doctors, we just tell them. these days we need to tell them often and in a loud voice "YOU ARE DOING A TERRIBLE JOB, WE ARE GOING TO CAN YOU THE FIRST CHANCE WE GET. IF WE CAN AT ALL SWING IT WE'LL MAKE SURE WE PUT YOU IN JAIL AS WELL FOR A HELL OF A LONG TIME".

ok so what does all this have to do with cycling? for me it's like voting, it's action. i have no problem telling folks what i think, talking the talk as it were. cycling is walking the walk. i believe in self-sufficiency, frugality, health, custodianship and setting an example; that's cycling all over.

hell

i had a conversation over lunch with a woman who works in the same building i do. she told me that she'd seen me carrying my bike onto the elevator and was wondering how long was my commute. i told her it was 20 km, a blank expression followed. i restated it in miles (ugh), "a little under 13 miles" i said. her jaw dropped and she rolled her eyes. for the record 20 km is not that far for a bike. it only take me an hour to get here at a nice pace.

the next thing she said floored me. she asked, "did you loose your license? it must be hell! i don't like my commute but it's got to be better than pushing your bike all that way, sweating and all, just to get to work and work all day." . i think what got me was the "it must me hell!" comment. i thought about it. is it really hell and if so what particular level? as a former catholic i know all about the different levels of hell and who gets transferred where and for which particular trangression. so, i'll leave it up to you?

so i give you for your viewing pleasure, scenes from hell, remember you saw it here first! first here is the map. this should give you a good idea of the route. but pics, what y'all need is to actually see it. we'll start from work because after all we all just want to get home, right? check out my pics.

weighty things

i was thinking today about obsession with weight. here's how it all started, i've been looking for a head-lamp to use when we return to mountain standard time. i looked through a few paper catalogs, online catalogs and i posted the question to a sig (special interest group). the question i posted was rather simple, "does anyone have any experience they would like to share, my limiting criteria are illumination and price", that's it. no where did i mention weight, after all how much could a light with it's associated batteries weigh, right? not so much, after a bit of jostling about what constitutes decent illumination on an unlit back-street the topic of weight came up. folks were quibbling about ounces (not that i can tell an ounce from a pound being a metric kid). on any given day my weight fluxes by as much as 5 kg depending on what i had for breakfast, if i'm hydrated or what i'm wearing/carrying. the funny thing was that i started to get caught up in the weight question.

thing is see, i'm a fairly practical guy. i really, really (no, really) dislike kludge. i prefer the simple/elegant to the fussy and convoluted. i'm about 90% substance with a passing nod to style (8%) and tradition (2%). yes, my clothes match, most of the time at least and i do enjoy art. i just don't see the point of shaving off every possible ounce of weight. there comes a point of diminishing returns. a point where equipment becomes flimsy or overly specialized. a decade and a half ago i was in the army, cavalry scouts. because of the types of missions we did we humped much gear. i found it strange that no matter how heavy the piece of equipment it got lighter the more you carried it. ok, ok; seemed to get lighter, i do remember physics 101. at one point i was able to handle an m60 machine gun and it's ammo belt like it was made of balsa wood, the thing weighs 10 kg (that's 23 lbs for you imperialists) sans the ammo.

what i'm getting at in a very round about way is that the human body is an incredible and resilient mechanism. the more you ask of it the more it delivers. my grandfather would put in a full day at the ranch come home play with the grandkids and stay up playing cards with folks at 82. i'm not going to coddle my bod, take care of it yes but not coddle. i'll keep riding my mountain bike to work, fat tires and all. i'll carry what i please. i think if i just ask politely my body will deliver. as for those lycra clad, hyper light riding, fast as hell (i'll give them that), cyclist; they can just pass me by. i'll wave them on their merry way and hope they don't hit a stiff breeze abeam.

encounters

two encounters in one day while biking, one fairly common the other not so much. the first, while at a stop light a distracted driver bumped, that's really all it was a bump, my bike, enough though to knock me into the curb and onto the lawn. the driver was very contrite, though with cigarette still in hand. not very interesting. happens all the time.

the second, much more interesting, was with a goose. on my way home i usually cut through a park to avoid a busy intersection, w 46th ave and lowell blvd. rocky mountain lake park is a very nice urban park with, as the name suggest, a lake. while riding through the park this afternoon a nice family was walking around the lake tossing bread crumbs to the geese. as i passed one the children decided it would be fun to run at the geese, the geese spooked and took flight. they took flight right into my path. all i saw was brown, black and white as one of the larger birds flew right into my chest with a very lound thump.



how does one carry a live goose on a bike that doesn't want to be carried? i have no idea, with wings flapping, feet kicking and bill pecking i rode over a tree root and onto a fairly soft patch of grass. when i looked up from the ground my first thought was "holly shit, i killed a goose!". well , i didn't, the goose staggered a bit, gave me a dirty look and took flight again. it seems i didn't so much kill a goose as really piss one off. i was no worse for the wear other than a few ruffled feathers, a skinned knee and an arm soiled with, you guessed it, bird shit! oh, but i did get a great story out of it.

support

i bike to work, that's a given but i do so with the support and encouragement of others. to be sure getting from there to here would difficult without their support. first and foremost is darcie, my mate. she has always encouraged me to keep going and been accepting of change in my work schedule. it does take me a bit longer to get to work and home, all said 1hr more per day. that works out to 240 hrs (10 days) away from my family per year. i do believe though that she thinks of it as 'workout' time. in the trade she gets a healthier better tempered me. i have to agree.

i'm incredibly lucky in having found and had the good sense to stay with darcie. she's intelligent, beautiful, thoughtful and the best friend i could have ever imagined. i've already won the lottery.

the second person i must acknowledge is scott, the senior manager at our branch. he allows us to bring out bikes into the office and has been supportive of my efforts. i could park my bike elsewhere but inconvenient it would be. i believe that he also understands that the office is getting something in the trade in the way of fewer sick days, a better mood and clearer mind.

start

i started biking to work this spring for a few reasons not the least of which being the cost of fuel. i've been cycling for as long as i can remember even competed in a variety of races but for one reason or another never made the jump to bike commuting. so here i am, with a great ride every day in one of the most scenic cities in the united states. i'm feeling great, getting in better shape every day, saving a ton on gas and enjoying my ride into work. if that were not enough i've got time to think. that's where this blog comes in. you see it's not really for you out there, it's for me. if you find it enjoyable that's great if not then don't read -- i do hope you stay though, there's a bit of exhibitionist in all of us.
now, about the blog, i really do mean it to be a journal for me to write down my ramblings. a journal i don't mind anyone else reading. so there. one last thing, my commute is from arvada, colorado into downtown denver, about 20 km one way (yes i'm metric, deal with it, so's the rest of the planet).