Joel's Next Five Things

Relocation

2008-10-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

In an effort to consolidate my internet presence (and corresponding time spent maintaining said presence), I'm not going to update this blog anymore. Please check out (and bookmark if you wish) my current blog here.

Church and State?

2008-07-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

petabytes

2008-06-25T19:45:00.001-07:00

source: wired.com 06-25-08

Tense Standoff

2008-06-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

The berkeley tree-sitters are facing more and more challenges lately, as the University of California has decided to forcefully remove the sitters, if possible. I passed by the protest today and stayed for a few minutes to observe. A tense negotiation was going on between the chief of police and a grandmother-looking lady who appeared to be some sort of leader of the tree-sitters. In addition to two rows of fences, the police have now closed the road to car traffic and placed two rows of pedestrian barriers along the street. On the tree side of the barriers are dozens of police officers, and on the other side are 100-150 people. Some are hugging in groups. One is playing a plaintive tune on the clarinet, which others are singing or humming along with. Some people are shouting encouragement to the few remaining people living in the trees. The police chief is not allowing any food or water or supplies into the tree area unless she determines that the sitters are "in distress". It is my understanding that no new supplies have gone in now for almost a week. The sitters evidently had a stockpile of food and water, so it remains to be seen how long they can hold out. The area under the trees is littered with construction equipment, lift trucks, etc, and there are workers there evidently ready to do something at a moments notice.

What would it be like to be a police officer standing behind the wall, sworn to follow the orders you are given? What about a tree-sitter, living up there for the last 19 months, facing the prospect of forceful removal? What about the judge, deciding between preserving old-growth oaks and allowing a new, safer athletic building for the university?

2008-06-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

Stood alone on a mountain top,
Starin out at the great divide
I could go east, I could go west,
It was all up to me to decide
Just then I saw a young hawk flyin
And my soul began to rise
And pretty soon
My heart was singin

Roll, roll me away,
Im gonna roll me away tonight
Gotta keep rollin, gotta keep ridin,
Keep searchin till I find whats right
And as the sunset faded
I spoke to the faintest first starlight
And I said next time
Next time
We'll get it right

Mt. Shasta

2008-06-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I climbed Mt. Shasta along with five others. It was amazing, and more challenging than I remembered from the last time I climbed it in 1999. :)

Islands

2008-04-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling a little restless lately, and I heard that the weather was supposed to be warm and clear here this weekend, so I did some traveling this weekend. As promised, it has been in the 80s (!) here by the bay, which is pretty amazing in itself. The islands, though, speak for themselves:

Angel Island

Farallon Islands

You can bike about 5 paved miles around Angel Island, and there are also a few miles of hiking trails, including a path to the 788-foot summit with 360-degree views. Super cool place to visit.

The Farallon Islands are 25+ miles off the coast of San Francisco, but they eventually appeared after about two hours of chugging against the waves. They are very isolated and rugged, yet home to thousands of birds. There are also some cranes (the human kind) and a few buildings, but I'm really wondering how they get any water out there!

Napa's Awesome!

2008-03-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Route Profile (click to enlarge)

We've had a beautiful stretch of warm weather, so I dug the bike out, cleaned it up, and went on my first ride with a cycling club here in the Bay Area. I had to get up a little earlier than I'm used to on a Sunday morning, but it turned out to be well worth it. There were 18 riders by the time we left on our 36-mile ride through some valleys and foothills around Napa. I loved riding in a group, especially because there were people on the ride who rode around 20 mph, which challenged me to keep up. Also, this area was great to ride because, compared to where we live, there is very little traffic and long stretches of open road with no signals or stop signs. But seriously, Napa in the springtime is really, really beautiful, especially when experienced on a bike.

So why wouldn't I do this every weekend? It does take most of the day to do a club ride, and it's usually a little drive away. But really, there's no good reason not to do this more often!

Spring Cleaning

2008-03-08T21:27:00.000-08:00

A little spring cleaning in the house today (the file cabinet, specifically) reminded me for some reason about the five things idea, so I decided that it was time to revisit my five and make them relevant again. I do want to give a shout out to Adam, who it appears has been down for the count after losing to "the man". Hope to hear from you again, Adam!

1st new thing: Take a woodworking class. We got a flyer today from our county adult education program, and one of the interesting offerings was a class in basic woodworking and cabinetry. This is something both Heather and I are interested in doing, so providing we can get into the class, we're going to take it!

2nd new thing: I went cycling last week with a club for the first time, which was way more fun than taking a long ride by myself. It was a little weird because everybody was at least 20 years older than me, but they were also better riders. I loved having the challenge of trying to keep up with people. Anyway, the new thing will be for me to get out there and take another ride with them.

4th new thing: With the goal of getting more piano playing back in my life, I'm planning to join a community music center and take a chamber music class this spring. I'm thinking that I can meet more people there who may be looking for a piano player, and definitely I would love the opportunity. I just need to finish the application (not really competitive to get into or anything, I just need to sit down and do it, which is why it's on the list!).

Bay Trail

2007-10-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today was the perfect day for a bike ride, so I took a 35 mile trek along the Bay Trail! It was a segment I have done before, but last time I didn't take my camera, so now I have some cool shots from the trail. A map with photos is here, and more photos are here.

Remiss

2007-10-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, judging by my lack of activity on this blog, you might assume that I have not been doing anything towards my next five things recently! You would be right. However, the purpose of this blog, as far as I can tell, is as much to remind myself of the things I want to be doing as it is to share those things with everyone else. With that in mind, I have revised my five things a little bit to better reflect things I am expecting to do in the near future...

~~3. Ride from SF to Santa Cruz~~
3. Ride another segment of the Bay Trail.

~~5. Win A Fantasy Football Game~~
5. Go through our house and eliminate unnecessary stuff.

I hope to be doing these things soon, and therefore posting about them soon!

2007-10-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

A day late, but not too late to do something to stop this madness...

Visit this site to add your voice.

2007-09-26T21:58:00.001-07:00

Winning a game? Done. I cleaned house on Sunday, as shown in the scoreboard above! Now I need to get this winning thing to continue for a few more weeks in a row...

Solidarity

2007-09-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

Today I completed Thing #2 by replacing the rear shocks on our 1991 Toyota Corolla. This gives the car a full new set of shocks, after this previous repair. Wow, what a difference! Before today, whenever we were traveling on the highway on a curve and hit a bump, the back of the car would literally bounce across the roadway. This car required understeer at normal speeds! Anyway, this evening on the highway it drove like a new car, and felt really solid on the road. This is something I'm really glad to have completed!

Now for the next thing...I'm playing fantasy football for the first time this year, and my next thing is going to be to win a game!

Burnout

2007-07-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

There has been some progress made towards my bike ride from SF to Santa Cruz. Details are here...

Clive Staples...

2007-07-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

rules. I just finished "Till We Have Faces", a very, very good read. Here's a quote to whet your appetite, and this is by no means the punch line:

"When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?"

Stack O' Books (and DVD)

2007-07-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

I picked all these up off the hold shelf last weekend. Anybody think I can finish them in the 3 weeks I have to read them? :)

A review will be coming soon for "Till We Have Faces". So far, an excellent read! Thanks, Bradley.

Shelfari

2007-07-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Adam, for the great recommendation for Shelfari, a cool online bookshelf. I was able to export our entire library from Delicious Library on my computer to Shelfari, so it's all up there now. Check out the new sidebar showing books I'm reading and books I want to read! You should all join so we can easily pass great recommendations around. I think with that I've successfully completed Thing #5, so it's time to retire it.

Hmmm, what am I doing next? Actually, this is good timing for some turnover, because I finally set up my keyboard yesterday for the first time since we moved here in late March. So, it's time to do a little piano practice...

My new next thing is to memorize "Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann" by Brahms. (download the score here)

Repair #2

2007-07-07T22:58:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to the previous post, I present this photo:

Exciting, eh? It took me like 3 hours to do the right side, but less than an hour to do the left side. Maybe next month when I do the back springs they'll both be fast.

Also, I haven't posted much lately regarding Thing #5, but I have been both expanding my reading list and reading books off of the list. However, I currently have three books checked out from the library, and I'm trying to get through them before they're due...and I just got e-mails yesterday and today that a total of 5 books I requested are now waiting for me to pick them up. I think my ambition for the hold list is a little stronger than my ability to keep up with the reading. It's good, though...I do best under pressure! :)

Repair

2007-07-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

6 hours, start to finish and including three trips to the parts store, is all it took (for me) to replace the front shocks (Macpherson struts, really) on a '91 Toyota Corolla. Without going into the gory details, let me just say that the car rides and steers 100% better now. I relish the joy of crossing a thing off my list, but I'm at a loss for adding a new thing.

Om

2007-06-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Petra, for the great suggestions for my book list. I started and finished Siddhartha over last weekend. I guess I should change my 5th Thing to "read from" rather than "make" a book list.

Then, during my commute this week, I read The Alchemist, another suggestion. What great books! I used to be a huge believer in destiny, or fate, but I have not even thought about such things for awhile now. I guess the busyness of life, the pursuit of goals, etc. lulled me into a bit of a philosophical (spiritual?) slumber. I'm awake now.

I'm feeling very thankful for this online community, and it's just getting started! I can't wait to see it grow...

Pilot Part 1

2007-06-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

I finally opened up LOST season 1, one of my Christmas gifts last year, and watched the pilot. Or, as it's called, pilot part 1. Very, very interesting. I saw many characters that I haven't seen before, which is sad since I know that they will die or disappear some other way. It really starts out almost looking like a horror show, which is interesting because it has definitely morphed into a completely different kind of show since then. Anyway, thing #1 is started, which makes both myself and the X-mas gift giver happy. :)

Current Readings

2007-06-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

So this is the (sadly short) list of stuff I'm currently reading...

Vegetarianism: A History by Colin Spencer
Philistines At The Hedgerow by Steven Gaines

And this is the list of some books I've read in the past and count among my favorites...

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
A Game Of Thrones (and the other 3 in the series) by George R.R. Martin
On Mexican Time by Tony Cohan
Roads by Larry McMurtry
The World by Jan Morris
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan
The Code Book by Simon Singh
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

As you can see, I like books of all kinds. However, I've read everything on our shelves, and I don't really have good ideas of what else I'd like to read, so I'm asking the 5Things network for its help in compiling a new reading list for myself. Any and all suggestions will be welcomed.

Warmup for #4

2007-06-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of preparation for the bigger bike ride, I took a quick ride to a new destination last Sunday: Grizzly Peak. I've been up there a few times by car, but never on the bike. The summit is 1660', and we live pretty much exactly at sea level, so it's probably one of the biggest climbs I've ever attempted.

I managed the initial 1/2 of the climb pretty well, even stopping to take photos once in awhile. On one photo stop, however, two older gentlemen on bikes passed me up. For some reason (stupidity, I suppose) I really wanted to jump on the bike, catch them, and pass them. So, I did, and for just a minute or two I felt like Lance Armstrong. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't maintain Lance's pace, so within about 5 minutes they rode past a huffing and puffing me. Nice. Anyway, I did reach the summit, and had a really great time overall.

I love the uniqueness of Berkeley: A Thai Temple

The original Sam's Club? :)

Tree spotted at the beginning of the ride

A sneak preview of the view from the summit

Quite the street sign...

The view south towards Hayward

The Bay and Golden Gate

The view north towards Sausalito

Another street sign column, this one on the opposite end of Berkeley

Nice house in Elmwood Park!

Next week I'll try to do another hilly ride around here, and maybe start some planning for the 80-miler. I definitely won't be racing anybody on that one...

#5

2007-06-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

This one is pretty straightforward...any suggestions?

Thing #4

2007-06-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

It may sound crazy, but it's about an 80 mile ride from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, and most of it takes place on highway 1, supposed to have amazing ocean views, etc... I have ridden a couple 50 mile rides, and I think 80 miles isn't out of the question. It's just a matter of finding some time and working out the transportation to make the return trip. Plus, having this on the list allows me to blog about other bike trips in the interim... :)

La Tercera Cosa

2007-06-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

We started a German class back in January, but the class was canceled due to low attendance (there were only 4 of us). Since then, we haven't gotten it together enough to start another class, but we have decided that the next class we join will likely Spanish. I think becoming fluent in a second language would be awesome, even though it may require more work than when I was younger. I hope to be posting about a Spanish class soon!

Seconds

2007-06-11T18:43:00.001-07:00

You might think the addition of Thing #2 turns this list into a mundane to-do list,but you'd be wrong if you did. Working on cars used to be one of my favorite hobbies, but lately we've been living in places that either don't allow car work or don't have space. Our recent move hooked us up with access to a driveway, which means car fixing is back in the realm of possibility. So why the shocks? Well, yes, there is something wrong with the way the car takes 5, 6, or 7 bounces after going over miniscule bumps. But, honestly, I'm excited about getting in there, figuring out what's wrong, and fixing it. So, it's on the list...

1st Things First

2007-06-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

I love LOST, but I joined during the second season a couple years ago, and I still have never watched the first season. All I know about their first days on the island I've learned from flashbacks. So, that's why it's made it onto my list of Things.