2012-12-08 The Hobbit We tried reading The Hobbit a few months ago but got bogged down by all the words. We put it away for awhile, but this... more
2012-11-20 Lord of the Rings vs. Star Wars Lately Orion is all about Lord of the Rings. As a media-lite household we receive most of our pop culture through the Lego catalog. Lego... more
2012-11-19 Race Report: Kruger’s Crossing, Nov. 17, 2012 For later: season recap, report on my less-than-spectacular DNS yesterday, and thoughts about Cross Crusade. For now: Saturday’s non-series–but–awesome Kruger’s Crossing. This is my third... more
2012-11-07 Now that the election’s over: Politics! Couple thoughts I’ve been sitting on through this election.First: if ever there were an election where I could’ve been persuaded to vote Republican, this was... more
2012-11-05 Race Report: Canby Cross-Word CX Challenge (#2), 11/3/2012 Better late than never. I was hoping for some photos — there were like five people with huge cameras on hand Saturday, and it was... more
2012-11-02 Drive to work Yesterday I drove to work. Actually, before I drove to work I fell down the stairs and hurt my foot. OK, my toe.[1] The toe... more
2012-10-26 Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #6, 10/24/2012 Excluding races where I had a medical, a mechanical or just plain DNF, this was my worst race ever. 40 of 61. It was pouring... more
2012-10-22 Be a dolphin, not a turtle The rains have arrived, time for the ritual BikePortland “what do you wear on your winter commute” thread. We’ll get to my “advice” in a... more
2012-10-22 Race Report: Cross Crusade #3 (PIR Heron Lakes), 10/21/2012 Photo: Amanda Erickson On the one hand: pretty much your standard-issue cyclocross race. Mud and gravel, running and crying. Days of rain = slippery and... more
2012-10-18 Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #4, 10/18/2012 Not much to report. Thom rode SS, I had gears. We staged near the front but I had a sluggish start and lost a lot... more
2012-10-15 Race Report: Cross Crusade #2 (Rainier HS), 10/14/2012 A flawless race. 12th of 160. I did some things right but a lot was just plain handed to me.Did right:Condition. Maintenance, no mechanicals. Competent... more
2012-10-08 Race Report: Cross Crusade #1 (Alpenrose Dairy), 10/7/2012 This was my best worst race ever. With the Cross Crusade patented “Random callup” I was in the last group of 20 called up —... more
2012-10-04 Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #3, 10/3/2012 I am way way waaaay out of my depth in Cat B. DNF.For later: lessons learned, excuses. more
2012-09-30 Race Report: Battle at Barlow, 9/30/2012 I remembered Barlow as one of my favorite races last year, also one of my bloodiest (two bad-ish crashes with lots of bike damage.) My... more
2012-09-27 Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #2, 9/26/2012 Pretty much copy-and-paste repeat of last week’s Blind Date, except:Staged back dozen Didn’t crash, not even a little Missed the bell lap by literally seconds... more
2012-09-23 Race Report: Grand Prix Tina Brubaker #4 (Zaandercross), 9/22/2012 And I thought Het Meer was bad. Zaandercross was twice as bad. Even where the ground wasn’t sand, it was sand. Under the grass: sand.... more
2012-09-20 Race Report: Blind Date at the Dairy #1, 9/19/2012 Overview: Fast, dry, really dusty. I was spitting brown all race. Course mostly like last year with a longer straightaway than I recall, all the... more
2012-09-09 Race Report: Grand Prix Tina Brubaker #2 (Het Meer), 9/9/2012 The theme for today is suffering. Even by the generous standards of cyclocross, Het Meer is about suffering. Long runups through deep beach sand, endos... more
2012-09-01 Race Report: Grand Prix Tina Brubaker #1 (David Douglas Park), 9/1/2012 Briefly: a fantastic race, easily one of my strongest ever. Conditions about like last year: dry and dusty. First ’cross race on the Gunnar, which... more
2012-08-29 Lance My pals Thom and Chris have some thoughts about Lance Armstrong. I started to reply via Facebook but it got unwieldy.I am also of two... more
2012-07-31 Race Report: STMTB #8 (7/31/2012) and series recap I started the last STMTB race of 2012 exhausted, underslept, and with legs completely tapped. I was sure I’d have one of those “in it... more
2012-07-27 Sticks and stones Last night I realized I was wearing my heart rate monitor during yesterday’s little adventure. Interesting to note the fight-or-flight stuff going on here. The... more
2012-07-26 Grasping a hot coal First: I am fine, the bike is fine. Scrapes and bumps for both of us. I get worse than this almost every week racing.Second: this... more
2012-07-03 Cars vs. Phones Serious question: if you were forced to give up either 1) driving a car or 2) using an iphone/android/smartphone/cel phone/whatever…which would you choose?I ask because... more
2012-06-25 Why we race: a manifesto We can’t choose when to win, but we can choose when to quit. Racing is a metaphor. Bicycles are a metaphor. Losing is a metaphor.... more
2012-06-19 Race report: Short Track MTB #3 Not a lot to report. Pre-reg callups meant I staged near the front (second row). Finished 12th of 63. I didn’t crash. I rode very... more
2012-06-15 Mat Barton I learned this morning through the OBRA mailing list that Monday’s injury at the Short Track Mountain Bike race was far worse than the usual... more
2012-06-14 Why I Live Here, Part 326 The arborists who trimmed our Doug Firs measured them at at least 165' apiece. I had guessed 100' and thought that guess a little high.The... more
2012-06-13 Really Fun or Fun for All Riders? I wrote this letter apropos of a discussion on the OBRA mailing list about the kind of scary rate of injury at the PIR Short... more
2012-06-12 Two regrets about bicycles I am a naturally regretful person. I regret almost every decision. Simultaneously I have such gratitude for my life, rich in love if not much... more
2012-06-06 Race Report: Short Track MTB #1 Sorry for the delay. Been busy. Can’t waste time with pronouns.First race of the season. First race for the Gunnar.Conditions tacky and dry. Rain early... more
2012-06-01 It must be summer because everyone’s asking for bike advice Addendum 2016-02-23 Here the truest advice I have on this subject: If a bike shop thinks they are too cool to take your money, they’re... more
2012-05-28 Programming is like an analogy I have a one-liner I like to whip out whenever someone tries to explain what programming is “like.”Programming is like an analogy.(This is a joke... more
2012-05-25 Making web things is like writing term papers Did you go to college? Did you write term papers? Did you like it? When was the last time you wrote a term paper?I liked... more
2012-05-05 Bodhisattva Vow (For Adam “MCA” Yauch) Earlier this week, maybe Wednesday, “Bodhisattva Vow” popped up in my iTunes. I may have listened to it intentionally. Regardless, I hadn’t gone out of... more
2012-05-01 People in cars on the Sylvan Overpass Every day, on the Sylvan overpass, I pass a line of people in cars waiting to turn right off Scholls Ferry onto US-26. About four... more
2012-04-28 Ten years ago, I took a bike ride... …down the Oregon Coast. It took six days. I blogged about it and took pictures. Even at the time I knew I was engaged in... more
2012-04-23 Five minute ride report: de Ronde van Oeste Portlandia I’ve ridden this course 2.5 times in the last month, in addition to my usual summitting Council Crest twice a day. The route is (accurately)... more
2012-04-19 Taxing bikes is like lassoing bumblebees Treehugger just published The Terrible Catch-22 That Happens When Cities Choose BikesThe gist of which is: when more people ride bikes, revenues from the gas... more
2012-04-15 Screens = booze Clay Shirky, in an interview about e-books, says: The reading experience is so much more valuable now than it was ten years ago because it’s... more
2012-04-13 The Gordian Knot of Lifestyle Happiness I just finished reading Tom Vanderbilt’s excellent 4-part series “America’s Pedestrian Problem,” and he knocks it out of the park at the end with this:... more
2012-04-06 “Difficult” and “fun” are non-orthogonal variables So on a recent BikePortland thread I came across these two comments: [my car has] A/C[,] … a stereo and cup holders, and still has... more
2012-04-02 Do you remember life before Starbucks? Do you remember life before Starbucks? I do and I never want to go back.When I lived in North Dakota (1993–94) I sometimes got my... more
2012-03-21 Can You See Mt. Hood from Council Crest? In my idiotic endeavor to climb 100,000 cumulative vertical feet before April 30, I will be summiting Council Crest park twice daily. Every time I... more
2012-03-19 One way or another I will regret this I just joined the Classic Climbing Challenge from Specialized on Strava. Climb 105,312 vertical feet between March 15 and April 30. I’ve already climbed 4156... more
2012-03-09 Why I ride It’s fun. The first thing my wife ever said to me was “do you know any good bike rides?” It saves money. (My family saves... more
2012-03-01 Epithets occasionally hurled at me by people in cars during my commute While I’m on my bike, obviously.Idiot, moron: I suppose this is all relative, isn’t it? It’s true: I don’t remember anything at all from high... more
2012-02-27 The Instructions of Shuruppak Well, I’m off to a strong start on The Stupidest Awesome Idea. I just finished The Instructions of Shuruppak, a collection of pithy wisdom from... more
2012-02-21 The trees are the right height Once when flying into Nebraska (from Oregon) I was sitting behind some high school kids who were (kind of surmising here...) visiting a sibling/friend/cousin attending... more
2012-02-19 The Love Competition I just watched this remarkable short film, The Love Competition. The film puts seven “contestants” in an MRI and asks them to meditate on love,... more
2012-02-03 Wannabe Cyclist Stereotypes, by Bikeyface There are, to generalize, two kinds of people who will describe a cyclist (stereotypically: one in lycra, on a city street,... more
2012-02-01 Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood As a non-profit fundraiser, Komen really gets my dander up. This has nothing to do with their decision to drop support for Planned Parenthood, which... more
2012-01-19 My Commute Today “Ride to Atlantis” by James Gurney I love riding my bike in warm, wet weather like this. Makes you feel good to be alive. Bummer... more
2012-01-18 DeClouding I suck at Resolutions (New Year’s or otherwise). I lack follow-through. So instead of resolving to do, I did. I took my life off the... more
