Northern Exposure

I have started my new job, and have been at it for three weeks now. I am thrilled with how things are going; it has been quite the ride!  Amy and I have been apart for this stretch as she finished out her contract in Klamath.   I have been putting in some solid hours at work and doing my best to get up to speed on all there is to know about my new field.  I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to expand my knowledge.  So much fun, but it has been exhausting too!

Tomorrow I will be moving all of our stuff out of a storage unit and into the house Amy and I are renting.  It is a really cool, old house located redonkulously close to work (seven minute walk (like old guy walking, not jazzersize powerwalk or anything)).  I cannot wait to live so close to work.  I am going to enjoy the proximity and visiting Amy and the dogs at lunch.

The PDX area is incredibly fun.  I am learning how to get around quickly – well at least around Vancouver.  I have only been lost in downtown Portland once since I have been here… not bad when you consider I have gone down there a grand total of one time.  Three things from back home that are not true up here:

1. Back home, when you drive on train tracks, it is a bad thing and something to be remedied as quickly as possible.  In downtown Portland, it is apparently normal.
2. Back home, when you see a sign that points to a Freeway, that means that you can get to the freeway and go either direction on it.  Not so in downtown PDX.  These signs apparently arbitrarily point towards a single on-ramp that, depending on your magic 8-ball, will take you one direction.  In my case, I went South when I wanted to go North.  I got off the freeway ASAP and made a highly legal (unlikely) u-turn.
3. Back home, there are basically two types of lanes: those going one way and those going the other.  Here they have bike lanes, carpool lanes, train lanes, lanes you can sometimes park in, etc..  They are so specific on lane type that I am continuously looking for the ‘93 single-cab GMC lane.

Other than coming up to speed on these must-knows, it has been a great experience.  There is an absolute ton to do up here.  I have had meals on the river several times, enjoyed a number of fine beverages, and met some great people.  My coworkers are great!  I am very thankful for this.

Amy and I attended the company Christmas party this last weekend.  It took place at the Heathman Lodge here in Vancouver.  The food was top notch and it was nice to meet more people from the company; and for Amy to be able to put some faces to names.  A good time was had by all!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Rip City and the Couve

So I have been hiding some news here on the blog, news that has now become public (flattering myself). I have accepted an engineering position at a different company up in Vancouver, Washington! Amy and I are really excited for this new adventure and moving to a new city, especially one so close to the always fun Portland. This company is involved in alternative energy, something I have always wanted to be a part of. I feel that it is a good fit for me, and look forward to starting there!

Amy and I are starting the moving process, which is as much fun as walking through gravel barefooted. Our excitement for the move is motivating us , but it is still not easy to make the move happen. We will be renting our house in Klamath. If anyone knows of someone needing to rent a house, let us know!

As for the move to Portland, there are many things we are looking forward to: concerts, sports, bicycling, beer (300 microbrews in Portland, more than any city in the world), and of course the awesome food. Having said that, we will really miss all of our good friends and our family here in southern Oregon. Please come visit us!

I know I keep writing about sports on my blog, but this truly is my favorite sports season. I am extremely displeased that the Wal-Mart of baseball has won another World Series. This will surely increase the cloud of smug that hangs over New York sports. Forget baseball until next year when the Giants face off against the Red Sox in the World Series. I know it is about as likely as Madonna joining the NRA, but wouldn’t it be awesome? Who would I be pulling for? Who knows, but I will probably look like someone with multiple personalities watching the game. Simultaneously cheering for Matt Cain and Jason Bay (this is not healthy).

Maybe it is good that I haven’t updated in a while. I have saved myself from making a prediction that has since been proven impossible. For the sake of limited disclosure, that prediction might have had something to do with a certain Oregon school having a shot at a certain national championship. Loud noises!

I attended the USC v Oregon game on Halloween. What a game! Autzen was so loud we all left without a voice and with ringing ears. The ducks broke the Trojans’ defense (insert condom joke), leaving no doubt who had the better team. I admit that, had Oregon been a publicly traded stock, I would have bought many shares. Then came Stanford… Oregon was heavily favored to win that match, but someone forgot to tell the Cardinal. Oregon lost the shootout and any hopes at a national championship. To quote an ESPN writer: “there are still some mathematical possibilities for U of O to go to the BCS title game, but I can’t figure them out, I didn’t go to Stanford.” He said something like that.

Even worse: losing to a school with a tree for a mascot. Ouch! Those evergreen needles are sharp and a nuisance to rake!

This brings up something that I think all west-coasties can agree on: The PAC-10 is tough. Every year we do this to ourselves. Someone is on top of the world after a huge conference win, only to be torn down the next week by one of the other conference teams. Your team is never safe in this conference. Now if we could just get the BCS respect we deserve and get people to stop thinking of us as “USC and everyone else”.

I also just wanted to say thank you to everyone who serves or has served in America’s armed forces. Your courage and dedication are a huge part of what makes me say I am proud to be from the United States. I know that a thank you from someone who cannot understand the sacrifice involved might appear incomplete, but know that even though I cannot fully comprehend the scale of sacrifice I do fully appreciate all the things you have done and continue to do for the U.S. God bless.

Itzbinawile

It has been way too long since my last post. My only excuse is that I have been suffering a paralyzing fear induced by the prospect of a Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series. Thanks to the Phillies for putting an end to my worries. I have never been a fan of the Red-hat Philadelphians but they are an endlessly better alternative to the Dodgers. The cause for my distaste for both the Yanks and the Dodgers is easily ascertained when you look at my favorite teams:

NL: San Francisco Giants
AL: Boston Red Sox

The Giants had a great season all things considered, especially when viewed alongside last years dismal performance. The Red Sox season ended in disappointment, but I am ultimately pleased with their success considering they were more injury prone than the Ducks’ quarterbacks. Enough baseball for now, go Phillies!

Cutting the Cable Update: The experiment can be considered a success so far, as we are happily rolling along without TV. Four years ago I would have cut internet before cable, and now I cannot imagine cutting internet. It has left me wondering; what did we do before the internet? Newspapers? Magazines? Their news is so yesterday or last month. Also, you can now watch TV on the internet, including sports, by using streaming sites like Justin.tv. Maybe this crazy World Wide Web thing has potential.

We made a trip last weekend to visit Ryan and Amy (yes, my good friend also married an Amy) up in Oregon City. It was nice to catch up with Ryan and Amy. It had been something like 2 years (minimum). It was a great trip and another reminder of what a nice city we have at the top of our state: Portland. We rode into town on MAX and walked through Pearl District, grabbed a beer at Life of Riley’s, and some good noodles at a restaurant with a name that has slipped my mind. Portland really needs a professional baseball team to usurp San Francisco as my favorite west coast city, but it is getting close.

Amy and I are still crazy busy. Hopefully I can get some time to update my blog more often! Later…

Summer Wedding Finale

My little sister got married this past Sunday, September 13th. The wedding was at the Running Y Ranch and Resort, so all of us guys went golfing the day before. This Arnold Palmer designed course is pretty spectacular. Highlight: I drained a long put, best drunk estimates put it somewhere between 30 and 100 feet. Lowlight: My 12 yard drive on #2.

As for the wedding, it went off hitchless. The Running Y Ranch was an excellent venue, offering impressive views and a really cool pavilion for the reception. The food was quite good, and the ice cold Bud Light from the keg went down with no hint of protest. I officiated the ceremony, a first for me. I was pretty nervous going in, but I think it went well. I am really happy for my sister and Sean, it was a great day. Laci looked great. Sean, welcome to the family.

It was nice as always to get the family together!

It has been way too long since my last post. I am sure some of you were starting to think I was more inconsistent than U of O football. Things have been a little out of control lately, with long work days for both Amy and me.

Cutting the Cable Update: So far, I have not missed TV, with one glaring exception: Sports! I didn’t realize how much I would miss baseball and football, especially as we near October, the climax (chuckle) of my sports season. Seriously, it doesn’t get better than October. The chill entering the air is synonymous with college and professional gridiron battles and the greatest sporting event on Earth, the World Series. Having said that, a lack of television has not been problematic for us. In fact, it has made me get back into reading, something I enjoy immensely. Also, we don’t sit and eat mindlessly in front of the tube, time we have replaced with talking and reading the newspaper (yes, it turns out they still print newspapers (at least for the time being)). Our Netflix service is great and we watch a ton of movies now On Demand through the Xbox 360. If anyone would like to have a free one month trial of Netflix, I can email you a free month coupon. Just let me know…

I have finally started up an Inventor User Group at work, a group that covers topics specific to the software we use here. I taught the first session yesterday and it went well. This is something I have taken on extra and I believe that it will help our group get better and really learn from each other. We will see how it progresses from here, but I think it is off to a good start.

I conclude this post with a pleasant memory: BYU 14, Oklahoma 13. Sweet…

Good Embed

Tomorrow is our three year anniversary! Pretty wild to think that it has already been three years since that great day/party. It seams that after three years people have stopped asking that weird question “how’s married life?” But to answer the unasked question, life is good and wife is good.

We have not been up to much lately; we finally took a weekend to do very little. I had forgotten how nice that could be. Amy and I went for a bike ride on Sunday morning. 16 miles and some change. We took the bike path to Olene, got on Crystal Springs and came back on Hill Road and Reeder Road. It is a great, relaxing ride with little traffic, aside from a very brief stint on HWY 140. There were only two car-backs the whole way. This ride is very scenic, and I will be exploring this area a lot more on the bicycle. The weather right now is perfect for riding, so hopefully I can get some more saddle time. The ride is below in Figure 1.


Figure 1 - 08/23/09 Bike Ride

I have been attempting to read The Fountainhead for about a month now, but only lately have I really made any progress. I am sitting around the halfway point now and I am finally hooked. I would be really interested in discussing this book with someone who has read it who is not in a technical profession. Ayn Rand really delves into the psyche of a technical type. Her characters are ruthless and can seam cold, but there is something heroic about them. I don’t know where this book is heading presently, but I am anxious to discover. I know she was a radical and I do not agree with all of her ideals, but this lady was clearly highly intelligent.

I will be attending a Pearl Jam concert on September 26! Pearl Jam has been my favorite band for a long time and I am finally going to see Eddie perform his melodic mumble in person. These guys have made so much good music. I know they will play a killer set list, and they are pretty reliable about finishing their shows with the epic Yellow Ledbetter. I really hope they play Rearview Mirror and Corduroy. Figure 2 is my public calendar. I will keep it up to date with any major events.


Figure 2 - My Public Calender

As you can see, I am clearly addicted to embedding things in my blog. As for those of you who think the title of this post is supposed to mean something inappropriate when spoken aloud, I think your opinion is ear elephant.

Buying Pearl Jam tickets and going to a fantasy football draft. Scholars maintain that it doesnt get better than this.

Software Blues and Fantasy News

Sometimes I really don’t like deploying software. It has been my experience that software tends toward the dishonest. As an example let’s examine status bars. They used to fill up gradually, allowing the users excitement to build until finally, when the bar was full, the task/install was complete! Now, the bar fills countless times, only to start over again. I get the feeling it is Microsoft’s attempt to please a society that needs constant stimulation and enjoys an empty bar cycling to full at an obnoxious rate of 30 times a minute. Sorry for that rant, but when you delve into software to the extent I have been, it starts to change your concept of reality. I need a break from this sort of thing before I move into my parents’ basement, lose all remnants of a sun tan and eat cheetoes while having web debates with people about the superiority of .net to VB.

Thankfully, I have been doing more than just software deployments. Amy and I (mostly Amy truthfully) finished painting the bedroom and the bathroom. It is amazing to me what a real difference paint can make. I should have known though because as we say in machine design, paint covers a multitude of errors.

Life and work have been more eclectic than a Beck song lately. At work my duties have been ranging from developing new CAD standards to some pretty intense product modeling. Product design is something I rarely get into as most of my functions here are as a machine designer. This project has been given “priority one” status, so I have been given resources (people and software) to get the job done. Also, I have been given freedom to set up the project and file structure how I see fit, which has resulted in a system that is easy to administer, manage releases, and manage resources. I really have enjoyed it; it is a new and unique experience. I don’t mean to ramble on about my job, but I have been putting in a lot of hours lately and I also wanted to clear things up for people who thought I was a train driver.

It is fantasy football season! I hopped on this bandwagon last year and I am hooked. Our league includes work buddies and some randoms. It has some top-notch smack talk, and my skills on the digital gridiron are legendary (in my head).

Amy and I have turned off our cable TV. This bold move is in response to the ever-increasing amount of programming available on the internet and the quality of Netflix service as well as the rising price of cable TV. Netflix on demand is great and, working through the Xbox, provides an easy way to view programming including TV shows, movies, and specials on your TV. Also, the Media Center extender allows us to view torrents on our TV through our Xbox. This hooks your computers media library to your living room, so it also includes all of our music, pictures, and home videos. So far, the only thing I miss is Sports Center in the morning, but I can roll with the free podcasts. I just have to be better at downloading them. Also, I am going to consider mlb.tv next year. This is all sort of an experiment, so I will be posting updates under the heading “Cut the Cable”.

Listening to: My iPod on random. There is just nothing like going from Queens of the Stone Age to Queen. It is a bit of a change of pace going from Homme’s growl to Mercury’s howl. When I haven’t been on random, I have been revisiting Stadium Arcadium by RHCP. This two disc set has some serious grooves, jams, and some of the only songs I have ever heard by Anthony that are not in some way making reference to his self-proclaimed bedroom prowess. Check it out, Stadium Arcadium that is. You can’t have my iPod. Sorry.

Gadgets: For an early anniversary present, Amy got me the Bose in-ear headphones. These things are BA. I don’t know how much of a true Audiophile I am, but I listen to my headphones an average of 6 hrs a day and my ears never get tired of these ergonomic headphones. They are keepers, and so is the purchaser.

Thanks for the comments everyone! If you comment in the box titled “Lambastings”, be sure to sign your name or something that would ID you to me (unless you want to do it all covert-like), because anyone can comment there and unless you are a follower your name appears as Unknown. Unless someone following named Unknown has been commenting, then I apologize and acknowledge the legitimacy of the name.

Coming up: I am attending more nuptials this weekend, this time at a winery in Gold Hill known as Del Rio. This winery is really beautiful and has some delicious varietals. I am not going to drink any F’ing Merlot though (see Sideways, I am not just going off here)! Most of the time I just drink wine at a wedding, but I applaud this couple for going right to the source and cutting out the middle man. I am as stoked as that guy in Undone (The Sweater Song). It will be a great time. Our friends are more fun than ping pong.

Misnomer: "Common" Sense

News from the future: The human genome has been completely mapped. It has been found that the “Common Sense” gene is recessive and occurs in an average of 1 in 612 specimens. It is even less common in some samples, including politicians, upper management, and Michael Bay films.

I played in a company softball tournament this last weekend. It was a really nice morning and aside from the guy taking it so seriously he must have thought there was a Cubs scout in the crowd, there were some really cool people playing. Calling Mr. Serious a “Tool” is an insult to all tools (apologies to Alex Rodriguez). Amy ended up playing on our team to make nine. She did a really good job standing in and all said and done, our team did pretty good. We played for the IS (Information Systems) department. Next year, everyone better look out for the Fighting Nerds! Talk about a one-two punch, these guys can remote troubleshoot your PC while hosing folks at the dish for underestimating their mouse-arm strength.

The Yankees have a 2.5 game lead this morning over my Red Sox in the American League East and the Giants are 6.0 games back in the National League West. Both my teams are atop the wild card race in their leagues, but I want two pennants! Seriously, would anyone miss the Yankees and the Dodgers? Rooting for either of these teams is like rooting for Wal-Mart. Does anyone think the sandbox they built in New York is part of a Steinbrenner plot to get more pinstripes in the record books?

I have not been able to get on the bike much lately. Amy and I have been keeping really busy with guests visiting, me working long hours, and Amy getting the painting bug. We have painted the master bedroom and are now on to the master bath. It looks great and I might post some pics later.

Listening to: I am way late to the game on this one, but for those of you who haven’t checked out Pandora internet radio, it is awesome and I am hooked. I have the app for my iPod Touch and it provides excellent functionality, custom stations, and decent sound. I have already discovered several new bands that I will be checking into.

Important lesson learned: This has sort of been the summer of me competing/participating in athletic events without any training or conditioning. This is problematic, as once again to start a work week off I walked like a knee replacement surgery patient two hours post op. You might ask “How is it possible that you are sore from playing slow-pitch softball for half a day? I mean John Kruk used to play 162 games a year and he has the same athletic build as an orange.” I have no good answer for you. I guess the lesson learned is that I need to get into shape!

Coming up: This weekend I am traveling to Bend for a concert at the Domino Room. Grant and I are going to see Rehab. It should be a great time, and Bend doesn't disappoint this time of year. I might just have to float the Dechutes!

Wedding Time

This past weekend saw Amy and I head over the hill to Medford again for another wedding (We apparently lack the ability to stay home for a weekend or pass any length of time greater than two weeks without attending nuptials). This one was for one of Amy’s lifelong friends and I must say that it was a really nice time with people, food, and adult beverages that set a lofty standard for such an event. The weather for the wedding day (Saturday) was really nice if you are a reptile or if you are water desiring to enter the gas phase, but as a Klamath Basin person I was basically “Melting like a toasted cheeser” (thanks, Hambino). The wedding was in a nicely air conditioned church, and it did cool off significantly for the reception which was held at Cedar Links Golf Course. The course was a great venue, and the delicious Kona pale cut the edge off the heat. They actually had enough of the pale on tap to get me to dance to a few fast songs, something I generally avoid for the sake of ladies with high blood pressure or a history of heart problems. Actually I dance like a hearing impaired river dancer with a smaller comprehension of what to do with my hands than Ricky Bobby in front of a microphone. Despite my archaic artistic interpretation of dance, Amy and I really had a solid time.

I only have one complaint and that is the DJ never played “Look at You Girl” (Chris LeDoux). All my Jr. High dance memories had to remain non-relived (maybe I should be thanking him really). He partially made up for it by playing “Tougher than the Rest” (LeDoux). I am really not a country music fan these days. I think the way Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban play non-rural-often-beachy-soft-rock-self-indulgent-garbage (NROBSRSIG) would cause Johnny Cash or Buck Owens to roll over in their graves. I think LeDoux was country music’s last real hope of returning to a day when simple, non-preachy, modest songs hit home for real country people in small towns or even big cities. It always seemed like he was just singing about himself and his life, similar to what Johnny Cash could do even though their music is worlds different. Chris Ledoux will definitely be missed. Wow can I ever digress? While I’m on the subject of music…

For those of you wanting to try some mellow and simple tunes that will make you want to quit your job and buy a ukulele, check out Little Joy. These guys meld old styles with new method to create a cool sound. The Strokes’ influence is subtle but definitely there. The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti (cool name) is a founding member and the band's drummer. This is Canadian whiskey music, no chaser required. For those wanting something with a little more bite that might require some cheep beer to chase, I recommend getting something from The Black Keys. These guys really know how to grind out some tasty bluesy rock. Finally, for those looking for something a little further out there, I have been revisiting “The Moon and Antarctica” by Modest Mouse. Something about these songs takes you to a cold, foreign place (Aptly titled, then).

Now I will get back to the real world, outside of my media ramblings. On the morning before the wedding I went on the ride shown below in Figure 1. It was a nice and easy ride, one of those where you rack up some saddle time without killing the legs. Basically, I look at it as one of the best ways to actually wake up instead of just getting out of bed. Note that the ride is not exactly right but an approximation as the bike path does not show up in Map my Ride.



Figure 1 - My ride from 07/27/09

Note 1: Spell check will let you turn anything into a compound word with a hyphen, even if the combination makes no sense. Example: foot-snorkel. Usage: I was at the pool today, when I realized I had forgotten my foot-snorkel. Seriously, MS Word spelling and grammar is cool with this.

Listening to: Little Joy, The Black Keys, Flight of the Conchords, Foo Fighters “The Colour and the Shape”, Melefluent

Watching: Almost no TV

Important lesson learned: Do not pass out in a lawn chair at 2:00am (best estimate) as you will likely not wake up until 4:00am at which point you will be quite cold and have a sore neck.

Coming up: This next weekend has a company softball game as well as me staying home for a weekend finally!

Parting Question: How does blogging make you feel? (Ex: self-important, powerful, lame, awesome, like a talentless hack, like someone contributing to the demise of printed word, etc.)

Cycle Oregon Weekend

Cycling while out of shape and drinking the fermented juice of the grape.

This past weekend the wife and I made the trip up north to Monmouth Oregon for the Cycle Oregon Weekend. Despite a sore posterior and a serious case of JLS (Jelly Leg Syndrome for the non-medicals) at the end of day two, the weekend ride was a great time. The maps below show the day one route north and the day two route south. The Willamette Valley was beautiful as usual and the roads in Polk County are top notch. A little training probably would have been a good idea, as the end of day one made me rethink the last three months of ice cream and Xbox. Who knew the hills outside of Dallas could be a veritable Everest to a 220lb office jobber? I mean, I am an engineer who works with graphical representations of data on a daily basis, and I must say that the hills highlighted by a red box in Figure 1 qualify as false elevation propaganda. Sure, the old lady on the recumbent who blew by me doing 4 disagrees, but what does she know?


Figure 1 - Day one ride north of Monmouth


Figure 2 - Day two ride south of Monmouth

Highlight: After coming back to camp on day one and doing my best impression of a saddle soar frontiersmen walking around the campus of Western Oregon University, a group of us decided to taste some of the offerings of the wineries we had drooled our way by on the bikes earlier. We went to Firesteed Cellars, Cherry Hill Winery, and a place I somehow forget that had a German sounding name I think (thank you, Pinot Noir). All of these places had some excellent Pinot Noirs, but probably the most unique tasting was the Firesteed chardonnay.

Lowlight: Work on Monday made me develop an intense hate for my office chair, which through no fault of its own could not cure my ailing rear. We are starting to get along better now, but next year I am DEFINITELY going to train.

Coming up: The engineering firm I work for uses Autodesk Inventor CAD software. I will be posting some helpful information for Inventor Users in the future on this blog. I will also review the media I consume; including books, TV, movies, and albums. These reviews do not reflect the opinions of my parent company or my parents.

Reading: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain), The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

Watching: Californication, East Bound and Down, Weeds, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia