Day 117 - Portland, OR - I Voted

Today I voted in the Democratic primary as well as the Multnomah county local elections.  It felt really good to vote.  One of my takeaways from the process was that it is really just too hard.  Not only was it complex to figure out how to register, but the process of voting by mail is just too complicated.  Now, I know, many of you will scoff.  Yes, in theory, if you know what you're doing, it's not a big deal.  But I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a friend years ago about check cashing places and how hard it was for many people to conceive of going into a bank and opening a checking account.  I can easily see how somebody like a working mother who is busy and stressed would not have the bandwidth to deal with the election process.  Which is a shame because I want to hear from everyone; that's what makes democracy strong.  I think it should be incredibly easy to vote.  It should be easier *not* to vote.  You should be able to vote anywhere and anyway you want.  Everyone should get automatically registered and there should be smartphone apps for voting.  Yes, I am aware that there are privacy and fraud issues.  But this is a smart country.  Let's figure it out. 

Day 116 - Portland, OR - A Plea for Help

But not for me.  I promised I would not turn this blog into a giant series of requests for donations, and I believe I've stuck by that promise.  But I'd like to take one more opportunity, with only a month to go before my ride, to ask anyone who feels able to donate to Multiple Sclerosis on behalf of my ride, and all the people who can't ride.  I've encountered two people in my personal life recently who both have the syndrome, and it's been really illuminating.  It's not something only for kids and old people; it actually affects those of all ages but especially can be hard for those of us still in the prime of life.  And, encouragingly, I've seen a lot of promising things recently about treatment options, including a cool new one where they do some outpatient brain surgery that has a 73% chance of removing all symptoms, forever.  But these treatments, and researching and approving these treatments, are not cheap.  I know not everyone is in a position to donate, but if you are and can, please do, at http://tinyurl.com/Adam Bikes.  And thank you!

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/268055.php

Day 115 - Stevenson, WA - Dog Mountain

Today I took a hike up Dog Mountain.  It's considered a classic Gorge-area training hike and a way to measure your performance so I wanted to set a baseline and just see how I could do.  I went pretty much flat-out, at least 90%.  I probably could have shaved a minute or two here and there; I stopped to chat with a few folks and take a couple of pictures, especially up near the summit where the flowers were just amazing and I couldn't resist.  But I think 2:20 is a pretty good time.  It was fun seeing so many people out on the trail; one cool thing about the Portland area is nobody seem to have a day job.  :)  And, of course, there were a lot of dogs (although the name doesn't actually come from that; it's actually a bit of a sad name, google it if you want to know more). 

Day 114 - Portland, OR - Jamie's visit

My friend Jamie has been here visiting for the last 2 days and will be here through tomorrow morning, which is why I haven't updated the blog much.  I'll have more meaningful things to say later perhaps, but I just wanted to leave a placeholder about her visit.  She's been really great about taking pictures and posting them so I'll only have a few here.  It's been great to see her (obviously!) and fun to play tourist and to see the city through her eyes.  The weather has been really mixed but we've had enough good weather to get outdoors and see the Gorge and even all the way down to Bend.  When you see things through other people's eyes it can really change how you see things but for me the biggest thing has when reconfirming my new commitment to the outdoors and to fitness..  I just love both those aspects of this place and even if for no other reason that will always be a huge part of my Portland experience.

Day 111 - Portland, OR - Prince

Well, we seem to be on a roll for celebrities passing away.  Prince was only 57.  He had much more to give.
I've written about this before, like when Bowie passed, but it's worth repeating.  Other than the natural grief anyone would experience at the passing of someone like Prince, what always strikes me in this moments is a lesson I learned from, of all places, Kung Fu Panda.  Which is this: be the best possible you, you can be.  Prince was not the best artist (whatever that means).  He was not the best man.  What he was, was the best possible Prince.  He was the best at being Prince that anyone could be.  He was kind, he was compassionate, he worked hard, but most importantly he was always, unfailingly, Prince.  He did not try to be Michael Jackson.  He did not run for Congress.  He didn't advertise for Geico.  He just rocked faces, dressed like a crazy person, and partied like it was 1999.  Nobody would ever confuse Prince for somebody else.  When you heard his music, you knew it was Prince.  There was just something indefinably Prince-y about the guy.  And all my favorite celebrities are like that.  Chuck Klosterman.  John Linnell.  Edward Snowden.  These are people who are unique.  Most of them work hard at being their unique self.  They make sacrifices.  They turn down opportunities others of us might jump at, just because it's not who they are.  They take less, work harder.  And yet all of them are, in the end, successful, not in spite of their uniqueness but because of it.  That is what I find inspiring.  Yesterday I was speaking with a friend about a business idea she has.  She said that it was a good product because it filled an unfilled need.  I agreed with her, but I pushed her a bit: Given that this should exist and someone should make it, what, I asked, makes *you* the best person to deliver this product?  How is this a unique expression of who you are?  She has business talent and a drive to teach yoga; that's a pretty unique combination.  So I agreed with her that this is what she needs to do.  The universe, if you will, needs her to do this, as a unique expression of her her-ness.  As another example, most of the people who will read this could not imagine riding their bicycle across the United States.  I can't imagine *not* doing so.  That doesn't make me better than anyone else.  It just makes me better at being me.  Which is all any of us can do.  

Day 109 - Portland OR - Cement Sidewalks

This probably seems like a silly thing to complain about to some of you (#firstworldproblems), but I'd like to spend today talking about cement sidewalks.  As someone who lives in cities and likes to run, they are the scourge of my existence.  From the moment I started running, back in Austin, I noticed that when I ran a significant distance on cement, everything hurt, but when I ran on pavement and/or dirt or trails, it did not.  And this is not a small difference; a few miles on cement is enough to make my calves tight, my knees twinge, and my hips ache.  I've run 5 marathons, and if I stick to pavement or dirt or grass, I can go 15-20 miles easy before I have any significant pain.  And yet, almost every single sidewalk I've ever met has been made from concrete: good old cheap, white concrete.  And if you think I'm making this problem up, here's a couple of links for you: Runner's World, Run Addicts.  And there are many more.  Concrete is bad for the joints.  And, if it's bad when you're running, it just stands to reason it's bad even while you're walking.  Much less bad, of course, because it's less impact and less distance - but still.  Why do we intentionally make our side"walks" out of something that hurts to walk on?  I don't know, but I'm guessing it's a combination of history, cost, and ease of maintenance.  Asphalt can't be that expensive, though, I mean we make all our roads out of it.  And history is not a good reason.  So...ease of maintenance?  I guess?  Anybody know?

For those of us that run, the options are few.  Personally, I choose to run in the road.  But there are certainly downsides to that plan; it's dangerous, drivers hate you, and sometimes you just can't do it because there isn't room.  I also believe it's against the law.  But I do it anyway; I feel like I have no choice.  (Just remember; if you're driving and see someone running in the road, it may not be because they're an asshole.  They may just value their knees).  Of course, if you're lucky enough to live near trails - like the one I used to live next to in Golden Gate Park - that's a great option.  But most of us don't have that choice.

So, the road it is!

Day 108 - Portland, OR - Money

I'm sitting here in a Portland vegan bar having just finished a bowl of tofu and broccoli with peanut sauce, which seems like as good a place as any to pen my treatise on money.  Now, I am not likely to become a marxist (although I did go on a date with a polyamorous communist while here).  But money is an interesting aspect that keeps winding its way through my life lately.  Take my bowl of broccoli and tofu.  When you add on my diet coke and the tip I left (20%), it cost me $14.  Now, if I was working at my computer programming job, that would probably take me about 20-25 minutes to earn (after taxes).  But if I become a fitness instructor, I'm guessing that will cost me more like an hour.
Today a friend of mine contacted me about an app idea she has. She doesn't know how to start.  I do.  I can help her.  But if I charge my "market rate", there's no way she could afford my services.  I won't do that, of course.  I'll charge what I think is fair, and what she can pay, if we get to that point.
A few weeks ago I wrote a check for my rent for my last month.  It was $1600.  To live in Portland.  For a month.  When people put stickers on their cars that say "Californians go home", this is what they mean.  As a programmer, I could afford that. 
Last week I met a bartender at one of my favorite spots who I was telling about my plan to get out of the rat race.  He heartily approved; he was opening his own recording studio, and working as a waiter just to make ends meet and fill in the gaps.
Money is not necessarily the problem.  To mangle a saying and paraphrase somebody famous (I forget who), money is the worst possible solution to the problem that money solves, except for all the other solutions.  Nobody has yet come up with a better way to figure this out.  We need people to do things for us.  No man is an island, etc., etc.  But if we do things for other people for free, than we don't have any way to indicate that value to anybody other than the person we did that thing for.  Barter sounds nice, but if I'm a programmer, well, not everybody needs things programmed.  In fact, most people really don't.  So...that won't work.  Thus: money.
But the thing is, like most solutions, money then looks around for nails for its proverbial hammer.  We try to solve other problems with money.  Like being happy, or well adjusted.  Instead of just a stand in for societal work value, it becomes a proxy for education, or good looks, or suitability as a mate, or success, or whatever.  In fact it's none of those things.  It's a very narrow solution to a very narrow problem; how to remember that something of value happened so that we can time-shift or location-shift it somewhere/sometime else.  That's it.  Money has no value over and above our need to have somebody do something for us or to acquire something we need.  Money that sits in a bank someplace is literally of no value unless and until we spend it on something we actually need.  Putting money in a bank and then not using it is a little like making a to-do list but then not doing any of the things.  The list is of no value.  It's what we cross off the list that counts.
It's taken me 39 years to understand this.  In some ways I feel like life is beginning over again solely based on that understanding. 

Day 107 - Stevenson, WA - BCEP Rock Weekend

This weekend was my BCEP Rock weekend.  Not rock concerts, outdoor rock climbing skills.  We went out to a place called Horsethief Butte.  It was beautiful.  Just picturesque.  The kind of weekend that you live for.  I don't think I'll ever forget climbing around the little bowls and valleys inside that magical place.  Part of what made it so amazing was the weather, which was just perfect.  The kind of weather that makes even animals cluster around and just sigh in deep relief, like that scene in Bambi.  Gentle breezes rustling your hair, clean, cool air with a slightly desert tinge, and perfect beginner rock cliffs.  On the way back we stopped at Hamilton island and went through a compass and map navigation course, and again, it was just perfect. There's a few things that will stick with me: 

- Sitting around the campfire while Frank made peach cobbler and Tommy played guitar, and we were all just drunk out of our minds. 

- Cresting over the top of a fixed line with only a prussik to save me from instant death, palms sweating like crazy

- Tommy incessantly saying "AF".  I can't publish what that means, but I can't stop saying it now​

- This feeling of deep inner peace on the drive back into town, a kind of feeling that all is right with the world​

- Stabbing through knee high grass while Frank followed behind, yelling at me not to twist an ankle​

- Tommy eating Erica's leftover breakfast at the diner attached to the Shell station​

- The crazy happy look on Melinda's face basically all weekend​

- Erica and Melinda telling me that I should load up porn on the VR headset I brought​

- Tyler telling me that Adams wasn't awesome enough for me to climb after riding my bike across the country​

And on and on.​  The perfect weekend, honestly.

Day 105 - Portland, OR - Samsung Gear VR

Today I picked up a used Gear VR.  Some of you may not know what this is.  It's one of the new set of VR kits, and it's the most consumer accessible one (read: cheapest).  All you need is a Samsung phone and this headset accessory.  I was expecting it to be kind of cool.  But it was way cooler than that.  Some of you may know that I started in VR 15 years ago when I was in graduate school, back when VR was clunky and stupid.  It is no longer clunky and stupid.  Here are some big reasons why I think Gear VR is a game changer:
   1) It's cheap.  Relatively speaking, of course.  But if you already have a Samsung phone, the Gear VR accessory is only $100.  And I picked up the Gear and the phone for under $500 total.  That's way cheaper than any useful VR has ever been before.
   2) It's easy.  It's not intimidating at all.  There's no cables or anything.  You just put your phone in the headset and then strap it on your head.  Set up was just downloading an app.  I was using the thing inside of 15 minutes.  Your mom could do it.
   3) It really works.  There's a threshold for this sort of thing, where it crosses over into "it just works".  Is it perfect?  No.  But it passes the smell test.  You feel like you're really there.  Some people complain about nausea, but I never had that issue.  The software was flawless.  There was no weird flickering and it never lost tracking.  It just worked.
   4) Largely because of those first 3, there's actual content.  I downloaded this free thing where I was walking around Nepal and it was just really really cool.  I could feel like I was really there in a way that watching a documentary just doesn't quite give you.

It would be really cool if you could actually walk around, of course (you can't).  And pick up stuff (can't do that either).  But man.  We're finally getting there!  Our kids will just think this stuff is normal.  It's coming, folks.  It's coming.  Actually, it's kind of already there.

Day 104 - Portland, OR - Middle-Ring

Yesterday, a friend of mine (thanks, Kelli!) sent me this article in the New York Times: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/opinion/how-to-fix-politics.html.  The article is well-written and I recommend that you read it.  It's a topic that I've thought about a lot and noticed myself as an element of modern life, and this author does a good job of putting a name to it.  In the old days, people had a few really good friends, and then they divided their time among a number of acquaintances and other groups, what the author calls "middle-ring organizations".  Maybe you were a member of a few clubs, or a weekend volleyball team, or your kid's PTA group.  Few people had tons of loose acquaintances unless you worked in something like sales or travelled a lot.  There was no Facebook.  Nowadays, we know a lot more people.  We have a lot more connections.  But we don't have any more time or brain capacity, so those connections have to come at the expense of something.  Some of us lose some of our ability to make really close connections.  Some of us sacrifice those medium connections; we don't participate in alumni groups or sports teams.  We don't join professional organizations.  In the article, the author talks about the effect this has on politics, which is essentially to polarize it.  People connect with politics either at a very surface level (the outer ring) or at a very intense level, by making it part of their ego identification.  They rarely have a healthy, mid-level amount of contact with politics.  I'm familiar with this phenomenon, because I've always enjoyed medium-ring organizations, and I've watched them kind of wither and die in favor of Facebook groups.  Who needs to meet with like-minded folks in person when you can meet them online?  What's true of dating is true of other things; we either connect at a very surface level, or very intensely, but hardly ever in-between. 

I can't claim to have an answer for this.  Even if one tries to live a life that bucks this trend, you face an issue: to keep organizations moving you need the support of a community.  It's all well and good to commit to "medium-ring" activities, but unless those around you do as well, it will die on the vine. 

Which doesn't mean it isn't worth it to try. 

Day 103 - Portland, OR - Climbing Resume

One of the cool/interesting things about Mazamas and their mountaineering activities is that the process of signing up for climbs is very formal; it involves filling out physical paper forms and sending in a "climbing resume", which is essentially like a job application.  I was working on mine today and updating it to send to a friend, so I thought I would post it here, both for posterity and in case it interests anyone what I've been up to and how I describe myself in mountaineering circles!

Day 102 - Portland, OR - Restorative Yoga

This morning I had the opportunity to teach a restorative yoga class, and I thought I would share what I taught.  It was an appropriate time considering my body is still recovering from my attempted climb of Middle Sister.  Restorative yoga is a great thing to do at home; a yoga studio has a lot of advantages, but some of these you can replicate at home if you work at it.  Make sure to keep distractions away, set the temperature to something you find comfortable, and make sure to have plenty of props handy.  Most of these poses could be done quickly, but that's (of course) not the point; the goal is to let them soak in.  Our muscles have a mechanism for autonomic inhibition; in plain English, that means that when we put them in the right places and leave them alone for a while, they will do the right thing on their own.  So, without further ado, in a 50 minute class, here's what we did:

Start with a brief meditation, cross-legged, to set the scene
Supta Badda Konasana - seated pose with feet together, lying on bolsters
Side lying twist - hip next to the bolster, turn the upper body and lay across the bolster
     Once each side
Viparita Karani - legs up the wall
Supported bridge
Supine - lying face down with the face supported in a cradle, like on a massage table
Savasana

As you can see, this is not a lot to "accomplish", but again, that's kind of the point.  I call this a "spinal 360" because you get to most of the major spinal positions.

Day 100 - Middle Sister, OR

Today, I made an attempt on Middle Sister, in the Three Sisters Wilderness.  It was a gorgeous, warm day and the climbing was great, but I had to turn around 800 vertical feet from the summit, but it was still an awesome, and exhausting day.  I was cramping because of the postholing in the soft snow, and I also was worried about avalanches.  Another thing that concerned me was there was a team of three experienced climbers on the mountain and they advised me that snow was too soft and they were, themselves, turning around and skiing down.  Right after I turned around there was actually a small rock fall right behind me - never a good omen.*  But it was a really great day.  (Another weird omen was passing their bags all in a pile a few minutes later.  I have to assume they left them behind to ski down and then climb back up but it was just eerie seeing them sitting there without their owners).

I think any day where you learn something new is a good day.  And today, I learned how to fail to climb a mountain.  Now, you may scoff, but I think that learning to fail to do things is a really valuable skill.  Especially when those things are dangerous, and even more so when you're the kind of person - like me - that doesn't like to fail or quit things.  Some things, of course, need to be quit, and gracefully, and intelligently.  And today, at 1:30 PM, at 9,275 feet above Sea Level on the slopes of Middle Sister, I passed that particular test.

It's worth noting that I had not yet actually gone out to climb a mountain and failed to do so.  I was 4 for 4 so far.  This isn't because I'm really good at mountain climbing; at best it's because I'm a bit lucky, surrounded by talented people, and incredibly stubborn.  When I climbed Mt. Thielsen, I made several naive mistakes that, had the situation been different, could've gotten me hurt, and I got away with all of them.  Which is a fun story, but dumb.

When I was at COCC, my professor was also the professor for the Psychology of Risk class, which I'm still hoping to take some day, and I learned a lot of interesting things from him.  In Rescue training, like for WAFA, you learn that a lot of really terrible situations arise because of compounding mistakes; the "rule of 3", for example, which says that 3 really minor mistakes that all end up layered back-to-back can easily be enough to get somebody seriously
hurt.  Like, say, you're leaving the house to get in your car and drive, but you forget your glasses; but you're running late to meet friends, so you decide you'll just drive anyway.  Then, at dinner with your friends, you have one more drink than you really intended to.  You also stay an hour too late, which means it's dark by the time you leave and you have bad night vision when you don't have your glasses on.  Wham; car accident.  None of those three
things might have been enough to make a mess, but put together they certainly could be.

The point is that learning to cut your losses instead of compounding mistakes is important.  When I was sitting up on that mountain, at 1:30, I had one major problem and a couple of minor ones.  The major problem was this: I'd read the weather reports, but because I'm not experienced enough, and because I'm not intimately familiar with the area around the Sisters I didn't know how to interpret them.  Most importantly, I missed the danger of postholing.
Postholing is a phenomenon where warm weather creates slushy snow, sometimes with a layer of ice on top.  When you step on that snow, you go deep into a hole.  4 times today one of my legs went in all the way up to my waist, and going up to my thigh was a regular occurrence.  The answer to this problem is either pick a different time or, sometimes, to bring snowshoes.  But I didn't bring snowshoes; they're big and unwieldy and I didn't think I'd need them.
So I postholed**.  Postholing can be dangerous in and of itself, but the real consequence is that it's exhausting; you have to keep pulling yourself out of holes and every step is extra work.  But I'm stubborn, so I plowed on.  But by the time I got to 9,275 feet, my body was done.  Specifically, I was getting bad cramps in my hamstrings and adductors.  Now, if you wait, the cramps pass, but they come right back, and always at the worst time.  Plus, I was slow,
and while I had intended to hit the summit by 1:00, it was 1:30 and I was still 800 vertical feet away.

Another thing you read a lot about is "summit fever".  Otherwise intelligent people do dumb things when the summit looks so close, and you've invested so much time and energy.  This doesn't just happen in mountaineering, of course; most people hate "sunk costs" and all of us have thrown good money after bad. When things look like they're just around the corner we lose our ability to think clearly.  In mountaineering, summit fever can kill.  And I wanted to
touch that peak today.  But at the end of the day, I limped into my car completely spent and exhausted and cramping.  If I had tried for that extra 800 feet, I either could have had an accident right there, or - possibly worse - I could have just become over-exhausted on the way down.  Two years ago, an experienced mountaineer died on Middle Sister for what's largely thought to be that reason.

I did some things well and others poorly today.  I've got to get a handle on the frostbite problem in my feet.  I have poor blood flow to the extremities, and my feet just get really cold.  Even though it was quite warm on the mountain, snow got in my boots and my feet took a beating.  I had to MacGyver two pairs of wet wool socks with a black plastic bag in-between, which worked, but was a little silly.  One thing I am doing a much better job on is rationing
food and water; I had plenty of both which was good.  And I practiced a little bit of self-arrest lower down on the mountain; I'm getting much better at that.  I also give myself a gold star for navigation; I'm getting the hang of it.

*If you've never heard the sound of layers of snow compacting on top of each other next to you, it's distinctly disconcerting.

**One of the things that annoys me about myself is that one of my instructors actually warned me about postholing and I totally ignored her.  My bad.

Three Sisters is badly burned in many places. 

Gorgeous approach  

A beautiful day

Cold feet need dry socks!! 

Bags without owners creep me out

Day 99 - Portland, OR - Exercising Indoors vs Outdoors

CNN posted an interesting article the other day, which I'll link below.  They basically tested running and cycling indoors vs outdoors, to see which was "better", where better is defined as burning more calories, getting injured less, etc.  The results were interesting because they line up with my intuition.  I've always disliked running on treadmills; it's boring, and I feel like I get a lot more sore.  From yoga I know the dangers of repetitive motions; every step on a treadmill is the same, and it "burns out" certain muscle groups.  Conversely, I've always enjoyed riding outdoors but I feel like I don't get very good exercise that way.  Indoors, in a spin class for example, I sweat like a pig, but outdoors I often can't keep a consistent cadence because of real-world things like stop lights.  Of course, riding outdoors is amazing and fun and I do it because it's very rewarding, but in terms of sheer exercise, I feel like I need to go at least 50% harder outdoors, which is exactly what this article found.  It's a really interesting article, and I highly recommend reading it if you're interested in the topic.  One concrete takeaway for me is that I don't commute by bicycle for exercise as much as I used to.  I feel like it's a better use of my time to drive, and then hit up a spin class.  Of course there's other excellent reasons to ride a bike, like reducing pollution.  But for places far away, it's just a better use of my time to drive.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/07/health/treadmills-bikes-indoors-versus-outdoors/index.html

Day 98 - Portland, OR - An App in a Day

It's fair to say that, in anticipation of heading out of town soon, I'm getting a little bit stir crazy.  But before I lose my mind, I decided to try an experiment; I wanted to see if I could make a full-featured iOS app in one solid day of work.  And, long story short, mission accomplished.  I woke up early this morning and got crackin', and after about 9 hours of solid work, I finally hit submit on the App Store.  All I started with this morning was the idea for the app, which is a (in my humble opinion) cool little word puzzle challenge.  Hopefully they'll approve it soon (it sometimes takes as much as 2 weeks though), and when they do, I'll post it here and urge you guys to try it out.  I think it's going to need a little bit of play balancing to tweak the difficulty and such, but it turned out really good, and it's pretty awesome from a visual and design standpoint, so I'm pleased.  It includes sounds, some animations, an icon, splash screens, Game Center integration to track high scores, all the bells and whistles.  It's a simple app, to be sure: no networking, no multiplayer, no save games.  It's an experiment to see if I can make something fun in a single day, though, and the answer is clearly "yes"!

I don't think I'm going to make this a common thing, but I am interested in seeing if I could pull this off once every couple of months or so, maybe 4 or 5 times a year, just taking a day and powering through a single app.

Day 97 - Scappoose, OR - 40.3 miles

Today I did a training ride.  40 miles may seem like a lot but it was really flat.  The ride was mostly just to test out some of my equipment and my setup.  I'm taking a lot of the same things I took 2 years ago, but some of them were stolen in the meantime and needed to be replaced, and a few things will be different than last time.  So today I put it all together, dug out my eTrex 10, and recorded my GPS track, like I will over the summer.  I can report, by the way, that there is really not much interesting about Scappoose, OR except that it is exactly 20 miles from Portland and a nice place to turn around.  (Sorry, Scappoosians).  It was also a chance to get some sun and work on a bit of a base tan - with 2 months in the heat of the Midwestern sun, I better get ready!  The ride went really well, no complications to report - which is how I like it!

Day 96 - Portland, OR - NY Times Crossword App

Another app that I want to highlight; it's one that's free, and I use every day, and it represents one of the things that I think can be great about apps.  It's the NY Times' crossword puzzle app.  Now, their app gives you access to their full crosswords if you pay for that, but what I love using it for - which is completely free - is their "mini" crossword puzzle of the day.  I often solve it in under a minute, but it's a great way to kickstart my brain in the morning.  It's a little miniature dose of fun, like one of those Andes' mints they put on your pillow at a hotel.  A little miniature and predictable delight.  Check it out; it's available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, just search for the NY Times Crossword.  And, of course, if you're a crossword person you might even be interested in the full crossword. 

Day 93 - Portland, OR - Lifting Chart

One of the things that I am trying to reintegrate into my workout routine is some light-duty weightlifting.  When I was at COCC (community college), one of the classes I took was a weightlifting class.  I didn't like the instructor, but I liked the technique of keeping a weightlifting "chart" of sorts.  That's basic stuff to people who lift, but for me, who's always kind of hated lifting, it was a game-changer just to keep track of how I was progressing.  I've fallen of the wagon, though, but by posting here, I'm committing to getting back on track.  It's not rocket science: you just list down the left side of a piece of paper the exercises you'll do each time, and then under the column for each day you write down what you did.  Here's what I'm currently doing for my routine:

Push-Ups
Bicep Curls
Seated Leg Curl
Leg Press
Chest Press
Pec Fly
Chin Up
Rear Deltoid
Sit Ups
Plank

I don't necessarily do them in that order; it depends on which pieces of equipment are free and how I feel.  I do try to do all of them each time.  Some people do "leg day", "arm day", etc., but I'm not enough of a weightlifter to need that (at least not yet).  This is more of a complement to my cardio, which is my focus.  When I'm focused, I can get this done in 15-20 minutes, but usually it's closer to half an hour by the time I end up waiting for machines, drinking water, changing, and generally wasting time.  Each of them I do 3 times for 10 reps, except for Push-Ups and SitUps where I try to do 10% more than the previous time or until exhaustion (same with Plank, I guess, but for time instead of reps).  And I can't do anywhere near 30 chin ups so I use a machine that provides an assist.

Day 92 - Portland, OR - Escape Room

For my birthday, I invited a couple of friends to do an Escape Room with me.  I'd never done one, but I've always been interested in puzzles, scavenger hunts, teambuilding, all that kind of thing, so I knew it would be right in my wheel house.  And I was right!  We did the "Arcade" themed one from Portland Escape Rooms, and it was really fun!  Huge thanks to Tommy, Kelli and Vivien for helping me almost escape.  We were on the very last puzzle when time ran out; I think we were 3 or 4 minutes from getting out alive.  I loved the experience and would love to do it again; hell, I'd love to run one of my own!  The "Escape the Room" phenomenon is one of the best modern trends around and I hope it continues.  More pictures and information to follow; they took a group shot of us and hopefully it will be up soon and I'll share it when it is!

Day 91 - Portland, OR - Windows Phone 10

Yesterday I did something a bit cray cray; I bought a Windows Phone.  Now, before you go thinking I've lost my mind, I bought it just to write code on.  I want to broaden my skills, so to speak.  But I should mention a few things about this phone: first of all, it's a really nice phone.  It has a solid feel to it, and it's quite peppy, and very usable.  I haven't used the phone part, admittedly, (because I didn't want to activate it) but then, who uses a phone as a phone these days anyway?  The hardware is slick.  It's obvious that it's the descendant of the Nokia machine; say what you will but they build quality phones.  User replacable battery, for example.

Of course they don't call it Windows Phone 10.  It's just Windows 10.  Which is cool, because I think Microsoft is genuinely onto something here.  The major reason I haven't invested in an iPad Pro is because it doesn't run OS X.  It runs iOS, which is cool and all, but doesn't run the stuff I want to run, most notably XCode.  Merging all the Windows platforms - what they call UWP (Universal Windows Platform) is clearly the right answer.  

And another thing worth mentioning about this phone - the Microsoft Lumia 640 - is that it costs 30 dollars.  30.  Without contract or anything.  At Best Buy.  It's a very nice, solidly mid-range phone, that I could recommend to anyone (from a hardware standpoint), for roughly 15 times less than the cost of a comparable iPhone.

This is not to say anyone will buy one.  They won't.  At least, not this time around.  But if Microsoft can keep pushing out $30 phones and merge Windows with their phone OS, and if I could run Visual Studio on my $30 phone (which, by the way, can already connect to a keyboard, mouse and monitor), then I honestly think they could be on to something.