Axoplasm / Blog / 2015

dec

We all gotta help each other out

2015-12-28

On my ride to work this morning, while passing through the highly sketchy intersection at SW Miles & Barbur, I noticed a car stalled —...

Two people I met this week while riding my bike

2015-12-18

After dropping my kids off at school this morning I was riding back through outer SE Portland and a woman riding slooowly the opposite direction...

Kindergartner in bright orange rain gear standing next to an adult size bicycle with a tagalong bike. Misty/rainy. Taken at Council Crest Park

Turtles and Dolphins

2015-12-03

For about three years now I’ve given the winter-weather bike commuting advice to be a dolphin, not a turtle. TL;DR: dress for warmth and ease...

nov

My kids are so badass

2015-11-19

It should have been pure misery on our ride to school today. 40°F and the kind of fine misty rain that penetrates every zipper and...

Middle aged man in Team Oregon skinsuit, shouldering a cyclocross bike, climbing almost as if on a ladder up a very steep runup through blackberries. Taken at Edgefield resort, Troutdale Oregon

Race Report: Pedalers at the Poor Farm

2015-11-07

I could’ve won the race Saturday. Well not Saturday Saturday but Saturday in an alternate universe where I had about 10% better bike handling skills....

oct

Cyclocross racing bike on a car roof rack; rainy/misty weather; hills of Columbia Gorge in the background

Race Report: Cross Crusade #3 (Cascade Locks)

2015-10-19

What was remarkable about yesterday’s race was its unremarkableness. I staged in the middle and finished in the middle. Given my track record in Cat...

Race Report: GPRM #5, Heiser Farms

2015-10-03

(Writing this report about two weeks too late.) Weather golden, cool windy and dry after a rain. Ground tacky, not dusty, not muddy. Fast The...

sep

Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #2, 9/23/2015

2015-09-24

I can only assume three other guys had minor mechanicals. Because I was DFL. I don’t just mean I was DFL in my category. I...

Closeup of three animal squirty bath toys and a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap, on the ledge of a bathtub

Artifacts from the last seven years

2015-09-14

Duplos Ergo carriers rear-facing car seats booties onesies diapers wooden trains sippy cups changing pads nap time lullabies toddler music class in the church basement...

Man in cyclocross skinsuit jumping a barrier with a bicycle at a race

Race Report: David Douglas #1 (GPRM #1), 2015-9-5

2015-09-08

I misread the start list on Athletepath for this race and for two days thought I finished 31 of 35. Which TBH felt about right....

aug

Chalk outline of a dog’s body on pavement, intersected with a fog line. Gives the appearance that the fog line has run over the dog

Laziness and fear

2015-08-31

This one is for Portland friends: With a few caveats, if you live inside ~60th & work in PDX city core, & you drive to...

23-year-old white man, slightly drunk seated on a bench with a large duffel bag at his feet. Taken late at night, with a flash. He is looking at a train ticket

Twenty years ago today I was on a train bound for Eugene

2015-08-11

I moved to Oregon for grad school the weekend after Jerry Garcia died. I was with my brother at a head shop in Lincoln, Nebraska,...

Closeup of a Lego Friends minidoll in a laboratory, holding a beaker, standing next to a small robot

I lied my way into this career♥

2015-08-06

I reckon the statute of limitations is probably up on this lie.

jul

Low perspective of tall prairie grass and a barbed-wire fence, silhouetted against a hazy humid Nebraska sunset

Eulogy for my father, Vernon Lee Souders, 1936 – 2014♥

2015-07-04

Delivered at the Merna Community Cemetery, July 2nd, 2015 Dad was not a Churchy man and while he liked to discuss religion, he didn’t often...

jun

Plastic toy lawnmower and a reel or “push” mower, side by side

Tools matter

2015-06-07

Banging my head since Thursday against a UX job I’ve been working on in OmniGraffle (my go-to design tool for the last six or eight...

may

Olive Rootbeer and Dingo Dizmal on tall bikes, holding hands, shot from behind. Photo by @__P__J

#NoMoreGhostBikes

2015-05-29

Photo: @PJ (Twitter) I went on a memorial (and protest) ride this afternoon for Mark Angeles, a recent Reed grad and by-all-accounts Swell Guy who...

If you handed a driver a loaded gun…

2015-05-29

This morning on my my commute I saw: a dude eating yogurt out of a cup with a spoon and turning the wheel with his...

View up the Willamette River toward downtown Portland on a summer morning. To the left/west the sky is clear and sunny; to the right/east the sky is cloudy and foggy. This weather is neatly divided by the river itself

River effect

2015-05-28

A common Portland summer weather pattern is a dense layer of low clouds (but not usually fog as in California’s marine effect) forming late in...

LED information board in the Hong Kong subway, 2007. Text on the display reads “General failure writing drive c”

Good Enough

2015-05-11

New iPhone battery + hard reset = PRACTICALLY NEW iPHONE. ca 2005 computers (laptops+desktops) became Good Enough and the only reason I buy a new...

Highly-motioned smeared photo of sunlight shining through the leaves of a forest. In the upper center of the frame the faint outline of an owl’s wings

Grooves♥

2015-05-01

Over the last four years I wore a literal groove into the gravel behind the bleachers at the Lewis and Clark baseball diamond.

apr

Nunivak Island; Internet; Research; Humans

2015-04-09

I got an email today from the granddaughter of a famous Nunivak Islander who was an important information source for my graduate research. (Unfortunately I...

Recurring Characters from our school commute

2015-04-02

Male Pedestrian Traffic Control Worker, At Sellwood Bridge Female Pedestrian Traffic Control Worker, At Sellwood Bridge Elderly Man With Strong Chinese Accent Who Once Stopped...