Wheel Journal

Bowl, 5/13 edition.

2010-05-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today I was dead-set on making sure I didn't get dropped, to continue my 'winning streak' at all costs. After all, now that I can look at data from my rides after the fact, I have to make sure that there isn't anything embarrassing in there. Otherwise, it will be there nagging me forever, that I failed at that one thing on that horrible day. My life will be ruined, and my fragile ego will shatter and I will cry.

OK, not really, but as I said earlier, I had been worried that something might have been really wrong with my riding. Now that I've got two victories (a clean completion is a victory in my book) under my belt, its a lot less worrying.

On to today's ride:
I worked a little later than I had planned, and was worried that I would be stuck in traffic and miss the bowl entirely. Luckily, I had my bike and clothes (and shoes this time) in the car, so I headed strait there, and discovered that I had plenty of time. Occasionally, I plan ahead, and sometimes it really pays off. Today was one of those days. I got in one warm up lap, and then we were off.

I heard there were some pros in the pack, and so from the start I hid out in the back, figuring that it would be really fast and probably I would get nervous. It turns out, I was dead wrong. We had a wonderfully mellow first lap - we accelerated up to speed so smoothly and gradually that it was like waking up from a nap. The rest of the ride was pretty typical, and being in the back I spent more time dealing with the squirrely folks than I'd like, but all in all it was good. I even just made it onto the back of the sprint group when they took off, and kept with them up to the line. Hit 28 on the sprint, which I'm pretty happy with. Have a look here:

Thu, 5/13 Rose Bowl Data

Side note: I didn't stop the GPS properly after playing with it yesterday on the drive home, and so I had this huge addition to the ride. I was all peeved, but then realized that the lap counter had incremented when the ride began, and separated the drive from the ride. And once i'd put it on the computer, I could delete the lap 0 and presto! I had my ride data. Now, I just need to figure out how to move laps into new activities...

Tonight at the Rose Bowl

2010-05-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday. The Bowl.

I have to admit that I was really nervous about the bowl ride today, for the following reasons:
1. I have been missing a bowl ride a week for the last 2 (or is it 3?) weeks, due to staying late at work.
2. My performance at the rides i've been making has been less than stellar, and i'm not sure why.
3. I didn't feel good for a lot of the day today at work.

Number two is the scary one. It haunts me.

I wonder: Is missing one out of five rides that big of a deal? Is the heat doing me in? Is it that i haven't been eating enough/right? Sleeping? Water? Stress from running late?

Well, today I am glad to report that my worries are unfounded. I stayed in the main pack for the whole ride without getting dropped!

Here is the data from the ride. The actual ride starts at about 0:17 Minutes and ends at 1:33. I wonder if they'res a way to trim the data...

Next task - Set up the data fields to actually be useful!

Rose Bowl by jeffturney at Garmin Connect - Details

Amgen TOC Stage 8 preview (2 laps) by jeffturney at Garmin Connect - Details

2010-05-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

Pasadena to the Brentwood via Mulholland

2010-04-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

I finally convinced alan to come out and re-do our Mulholland ride from last summer. here is a rough approximation of the route (stolen from last summer, because I'm too lazy to re-map it properly):

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Its a nice ride on a sunday morning, mainly because we get to ride through all the richie-rich neighborhoods without having to worry about being run over by some idiot in a Porsche or Escalade. Last year, the trip back through East LA was killer - we were coming through around noon, and the huge expanses of concrete that define East LA had heated up and turned into tire-melting lava flows. Today, however, the cooler weather meant that the ride stayed pleasant all the way back to Pasadena.

The Lesson of the weekend? Cycling Nirvana is a place where the temp stays between 40 and 80 degrees year round, with big mountains and lots of green. If you know of such a place, tell me, and i'll move there tommorrow.

Saturday: Ojai's Never-Ending Climb

2010-04-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Bob, Gloria, Leslie, Peter and I decided to do a 'century prep' ride to help everyone make sure that they were ready for the Mulholland Century next weekend. The prep ride was simple- ride 40 miles up highway 33 from Ojai, and then turn around and come home. It was a spectacular ride, and as we climbed and got away from the ocean we watched the ecosystem change from coastal, to high mountain, and finally to semi-arid valley. It was the perfect time of year to do the ride; my bike computer registered low 50's near the summit, and mid 60's down in Ojai proper. if it was warmer we'd have burned up in the sun, and in the winter we'd have been fighting snow at elevation.

One thing to note: As we were coming down in the afternoon, the wind shifted, and we had a pretty severe headwind through all but the last 20 miles (when it was so steep that we didn't notice). As always, never forget: A headwind now doesn't guarantee a tailwind later!

Due to some confusion about eating after the ride, Gloria and I rode an extra few miles around Ojai, leading us to end the day with 90 miles and ~8,000 feet of climbing. It was a good ride, I look forward to doing it again, maybe in the fall.

View maps in a larger map

In hindsight, I count 3 bad ideas here.

2010-03-26T07:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a groundbreaking day - I got my first club kit (Pasadena Athletic Association, one of the largest teams in the area), and had an adventurous afternoon riding.

See, I was so excited to get out and show off the new kit (Bad Idea - Murphy's Law) that i jumped on the bike first thing, and ended up at the rose bowl an hour early. I gave Alan a call (because, like me, he works a 7-3 schedule and might be around.) He said I should go do our usual hill ride as a warm up "except for Emerald Isle." He cautioned me to take it easy, and I said OK, and immediately forgot the advice, blowing through the warm up in a half-hour. (Bad Idea)

When the bowl did start, it was back to being the hairy-scary ride that I have nightmares about. I saw two near misses in the first lap, and I was jumpy for the whole rest of the ride - as was the pack. Rules of etiquette and safety seemed to have gone out the window, and I was *sure* there would be a nasty crash. I spent a good bit of the ride in the wind where it was safer, and found myself in no-mans-land between a breakaway and the peloton. (Bad Idea) Twice. That never happened before.

Anyway, back to the point: we did 9? laps, and I fell off at the beginning of the final uphill / start of the sprint. The sprint is the scariest part of the entire ride, and I was thoroughly worn down both from the 'warm up' and from being out in the wind so much. Nobody crashed, to my surprise, and we all headed home in safety.

I blame Murphy and his law for the drop- If I hadn't been wearing a new kit, I wouldn't have done the hills for a warm up, or spent so much time in the wind, and I'd have got through OK. However, I built up a nice little chunk of character today.

Belated: Solvang Century

2010-03-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

This year I did the Solvang Century for the first time. I think it was my first time going to Solvang and it was an absolutely gorgeous area. With beautiful green rolling hills and valleys, it can only be described as a bucolic paradise.

I gather that the movie 'Sideways' was filmed in the area, because all the places that we visited that weekend said something to the effect of "as seen in Sideways." I don't really recall much of the film, but I guess I'll have to watch it again for the scenery!

The day of the century was very windy, with strong winds (20 mph) from the Northwest. Around the time we got to Santa Maria and were thinking that the wind should start working for us, it shifted to coming from due NNE, so we didn't get any meaningful help until the very last let of the ride.

Peter was kind enough to post his garmin track so that I could figure out where we went, and Alan took the photos, so that we had something to remember the ride by.

Tour de Palm Springs

2010-02-14T13:06:00.001-08:00

Saturday we did the Tour de Palm Springs, with a time of 5 hours and 15 minutes.

From the start, the ride heads North, and then Southeast. The second half of the ride restu. Dillon Road was a series of little rollers and then a long, smooth descent where we found ourselves cruising at 27-29 miles an hour, and hitting 40 when we put in some effort. I'd been told that the ride is typically windy, but yesterday it was calm and warm, with a high of 80 degrees.

I was with a group of 7 guys from PAA and the Rose Bowl, and we ended up were working a pretty effective pace line from mile 50 to 70 or so. We ended up collecting a small peloton behind us, and it was a good feeling to hear them thanking and cheering us as we all turned into the 70 mile SAG stop.

Alan's Tuesday Night 'Emerald Isle' Ride

2010-02-04T09:46:00.001-08:00

Emerald Isle. 7/10ths of a mile that averages a 16% grade. This is Alan's baby as I know it, and the fact that he can do this regularly (easily?) leaves no doubt in my mind as to why he can go and do the Simi Valley Ride and keep up with the top amateur racers. I started doing this with him (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery) and finally figured I should share the route.

Here's the ride in a nutshell:

The warm-up and initial climb is from the rose bowl (point A) to the top of Flintridge Sacred Heart (point D) via Inverness (Winding section C). Then we descend to the bottom of Emerald Isle (point E), kill ourselves going to the top (point F) and spin and recover along the ridge (to point G). Then a long descent to Linda Vista (point H), and a climb back up to Lida (point I). From Lida Back to the Bowl/ end of the ride is one long descent.

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Wednesday Night Lebansky Ride

2010-02-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday nights, I've been riding the Lebansky ride with Alan. Its a nice route through Pasadena, San Marino, and La Cañada. The ride is mostly a tempo "conversational" pace, but there are a few sprint sections (near points 'E', 'K', and Lake Ave) and one hard grind (up Linda Vista from point 'F' to the 210).

The ride typically runs from 6:00 sharp to 7:15-7:30. Afterwards, we sometimes go have a beer at a nearby dive bar before separating and heading home.

Here is the route:

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Cyclocross @ Sante Fe Dam

2010-02-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

Saturday I overslept and missed my traditional saturday morning ride. As I nursed my 2nd cup of coffee and tried to figure out what to do, my sister was telling me about where she rides horses: The Santa Fe Dam. She showed me on google maps where she likes to go with her horses, and I blatantly stole her route to do on my bike. You can see the route here.

It was massively fun. It turns out that there is a settling pond that had two-foot-tall grass that you could ride through; its incredible to be riding along with your feet disappearing into the grass and no idea what is in front of you. Another settling pond had been converted into very small motorcross course, complete with jumps and banked turns. The recent rains ensured that the course was slippery and muddy, and so riding the course meant having wheels randomly sliding around in two-inch mud. Naturally, by the time I got home I was caked in mud.

Can't wait to do it again!

Return to the Santa Monicas

2010-01-25T07:25:00.001-08:00

Well, I've been offline a damn long time. What happened? Less riding happened. Being sick happened (I got better!) and laziness happened. Finally, a month ago, that all stopped, and now I can finally have the strength to get out and do fun rides again. Like this one:

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Bonelli Park

2009-09-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

Bonelli park was my first real cyclocross race.

I ended up racing (paranoid and cautiously) in the Mens Cat 4 race, and did pretty well (18/48). I started the race with about 5 at the back of the stage with about 5 other 'newbie' riders - none of us had ridden the course, and none knew what to expect from the pack in a sprint start. The race was 3 laps in a half hour, and it was fun!

I felt so good that I decided to ride in the 45 minute long Mens Cat 3/4 combined race as well. I was less cautious and more tired than I had realized thought in the second race, and paid for it by going down twice in the first lap - It turns out that I was putting out more power than I could control in slippery conditions. Then, on the fourth lap, while drenched in sweat, I went down in the sand pit. I ended the race nearly delirious. It was hard, but good.

And now, for context, two quotes from Calvin and Hobbes:
“Wow, look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if you knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.”

“There’s an inverse relationship between how good something is for you, and how much fun it is.”

Santa Monicas 2: Recovery Version

2009-09-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

Repeated the Santa Monicas today, only with much less climbing and much more flat. After yesterday the Mulholland climb was pretty tough, but otherwise it was a great ride.

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Santa Monicas: Mulholland, Encinal, and Decker

2009-09-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

This was a great ride, but Decker Canyon wiped me out for the rest of the day. As I limped around the house, all I could think of was napping, and I only lasted until 7 or so before crashing for the night.

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Before Work Ride

2009-09-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here's my first serious ride after a two week fire induced hiatus.
It took its toll this morning, but If I keep at it i'm sure I'll do much better!

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Rose Bowl to Brentwood Via Mulholland

2009-07-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday we rode out to brentwood via Mulholland, and back along wilshire through downtown. It was nice, but got a little warm as we headed through east LA towards pasadena.

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Montrose Short, Starting from Descanso

2009-07-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Started from Descanso, and had a fantastic ride. Didn't get dropped, and spent a lot of time near the front.

If you're wondering why the ride isn't a complete circle, the answer is this map only shows the "official" ride. (After you get to the end of the marked route, you can head home whichever way you want, at any old pace that suits you, after as much coffee or food as you have time for.)

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Back in the game

2009-07-04T21:32:00.001-07:00

I've been out of the game at least a month. I started a new job, and did a lot of traveling. That it has taken its toll is an understatement; however, I'm re-committing myself and trying to get back in the game again. For my first run, I did something I've always wanted: make it up to baldy. You can see my route below.

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2009-05-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today I got a late start, and didn't make it to my usual starting spot on the Montrose Ride. To compensate some, I did a 'modified' long route with my good friends Bob and Leslie. It came to a nice and comfy 40 miles. Here's the route:

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Last Weekend: Angeles Crest, Clear Creek to Rt. 39

2009-04-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday,'Queen of the Mountains' Gloria convinced us all to ride up Angeles Crest to the junction with Rt. 39 (now closed. It was a grueling ride, mostly because I hadn't ridden in a long time but decided to push myself to the limit on Saturday. Here's the route we took.

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Griffith Park - Trash Truck Hill and the Observatory

2009-04-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today we did a nice easy ride over to griffith park, exploring the park via trash truck hill and the observatory. It was a beautiful day, so naturally I left my phone at home and couldn't take any pictures.

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2009-03-07T13:57:00.000-08:00

This was the Mardi Gras Tour route. It was a beautiful day, and the whole trip was just gorgeous. One of the guys we were with cramped up about 90 miles in or so (On the way into Port Hueneme, but other than that it was a perfect ride. Here is the route we took.

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Angeles Crest and Seeing the Tour of California

2009-02-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

The tour of california rode from Santa clarita into Pasadena yesterday, so we decided to retrace the route backwards to the King of the Mountains summit, see them and then head home.

Below is the route, and I saw the Pro Teams all zip by at Clear creek Junction (Point C on the map)

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Simi Valley to Santa Barbara

2009-01-31T20:57:00.000-08:00

Today we rode from Simi Valley to Santa Barbara. I showed everybody the effects of knee-induced inactivity coupled with poor eating habits. The ride was beautiful though, and I can't wait to do it again when I'm actually in shape. Here's the route:

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T + 5

2009-01-22T08:24:00.000-08:00

Its been five days since the century. I'd been concerned about knee pain while riding, but starting sunday it hurt when I was walking. Not exactly pleasant. The pain has slowly subsided over the past few days. At first most movement hurt; now I can do everything except jog pain-free.

I hope that I don't continue to do damage to my knees - I'd really like to be able to walk AND ride without pain again soon.

Photo from Stagecoach Century

2009-01-20T07:02:00.001-08:00

2009 Stagecoach Centrury

2009-01-18T19:20:00.003-08:00

Yesterday was my first century!

It was a great ride, with loads and loads of support and great weather to boot. It was nice at 7:30 when we rolled out, and was warm (but not overly hot) when we finished in the early afternoon. we started off at a nice and easy pace, and treating each rest stop along the way like a buffet line. We decided to pick up the pace a little after we hit the halfway point and looked at our watches and saw that we had taken 4 hours to do the first half. On the way back, we pulled harder, turned in a 7 hour total time, of which 5:45 was spent in the saddle time. Here is the route we took:

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Montrose Tempo + GMR

2009-01-10T16:48:00.002-08:00

As next weekend is the Stagecoach Century, we tried for a 90 mile ride to get me mentally ready. The plan was to add GMR (Glendora Mountain Road) onto our usual 60-ish mile saturday route. That was supposed to give us about 80, to which we were going to add a 5 mile detour for lunch at the end.

Unfortunately, around mile 75, my knee decided to give me shooting pain, and I simultaneously discovered that I had a flat. We stopped to fix the flat and rest the knee, only to discover that my tubes didn't have a long enough valve to poke through my new rims. Since gloria couldn't find the whole in the tube, and i was open to the possibility that I didn't screw down the plug enough after filling the tire that morning, we put the original tube back in and tried to continue. That was a mistake. My knee continued to hurt more and more, and the tire went flat again after about 6 miles. At that point we gave up and turned around for home.

Here's our route:

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Exploring Valencia and Rt. 126

2009-01-04T19:23:00.003-08:00

We had planned on doing a 90 mile ride today, but we abbreviated the ride as seen below because of extremely strong winds. On route 126 headed west at the beginning of the ride, we were able to coast along faster than 30 mph because the wind was so strong. We decided that it would be unwise to coast for the first half of the ride and then have to ride strait into the wind the whole way home.

Here's the ride that we did:

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Here is the ride that we intended to do:

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Big Tujunga to Clear Creek

2009-01-02T12:55:00.001-08:00

It was foggy and cold at the start, but once we got into the mountains it turned into a beautiful day.

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Today: Casual ride to Big Tujunga

2009-01-01T12:44:00.001-08:00

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A Beautiful Ride

2008-12-28T19:39:00.002-08:00

This was a beautiful ride. However, rather than going out and back through Simi, next time it might be nice to try to ride back through Fillmore on Rt. 126.

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Altadena to Little Tujunga Canyon

2008-12-26T16:31:00.003-08:00

This ride goes right by the Wildlife Waystation. It was a beautiful ride, with a scenic climb.

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New bike- better photo

2008-12-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

New Bike

2008-12-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of the bike that I just bought.

It's a 2008 Specialized Tarmac "expert" with an ultegra grupo and
Fulcrum "racing" wheels.

The color scheme, which you can't see in this photo, is red, white,
and blue.

Today's Ride: Santa Monica Mountains

2008-12-21T21:01:00.002-08:00

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Bike Shopping

2008-12-17T12:24:00.001-08:00

First, a quick update: Since you last heard from me, I've been pretty much limited to Tuesday/ Thursday Hill rides and Saturday Tempo Rides. Yes, I've missed a couple of rides because I got home late from errands. Yes, I've tried out mountain biking a few times as well, but decided its not for me. Yes, I did retrace the Simi ride a few Sundays ago.

Now, on to todays Topic: I'm shopping around for a newer bicycle. Why buy a new bike? Well, my Nishiki has problems.

First and foremost, the frame is too large for me, and weighs about twice as much as most bikes made in the last 10 years. It is like riding a tank.

Secondly, the important components- drivetrain and brakes- are not as reliable as I want them to be. I've tried to jerry rig a better drivetrain, but I frequently find the bike shifting through gears or stopping between gears. The result is it's not fun trying to get the tank up a hill. For the brakes, they work, but they aren't as responsive as I'd like. Naturally, that is not much fun when going down a hill either.

So, a new bike is in order. Now, what should I get?

A local bike shop is selling an '08 Specialized Tarmac Expert for ~$2400.
A person I met riding is selling a Trek 5500.
Finally, someone I've met once is supposedly selling a bike, but I'm not sure which kind or how much he wants for it.

Either way, I'm hoping to get one soon. Suggestions or opinions are welcome.

Still down with Stomach Bug

2008-11-27T08:03:00.001-08:00

So, I'm still down with the stomach bug/ food poisioning. It is really frustrating, because not only can't I ride, but I can't eat. Well, I can, but not very much or anything that tastes good. Any attempts to fill up or enjoy a meal result in massive stomach pain. On the plus side, I will probably be the only person without an eating disorder to lose weight today.

Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday rides

2008-11-24T13:04:00.002-08:00

So, I rode Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Thursday was the usual hills ride with Gary and Pete. One critical difference is that I borrowed an aluminum/ carbon frame from my friend Gloria. The ride was amazing, because the compact crankset gave me some easy climbing gears, and that combined with a lightweight frame made the hills seem so... cute and little.

Saturday, I was back on my Nishiki, and going to do my typical Saturday 8am tempo ride, but I got a flat on the way to the starting point. It took me 20 minutes to fix, so rationally I should have waited for the 8:30 group, and gone with them. Instead, I decided to solo ride the route and see if I could make up that 20 minutes. So, I stepped on the gas and held onto 21-26 mph and hoped that I'd catch up. I didn't. When I got to the long or short route split and I still hadn't caught the group, I decided to go short and at least ensure that I wasn't the absolute last cyclist to show up at the endpoint. The 8:30 group finally caught me at point N on the map below.

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Sunday's Ride was a disaster. I didn't sleep well saturday night, and was so tired and out of it sunday morning that I forgot to eat breakfast. I was planning to do a 90+ mile mountain ride, again on the borrowed bike. It was foggy and cold at the start of the ride, and I had mis-adjusted the seat and it was killing me. I got as far as the OHV Staging area on 39 before the punishment set in. I'll spare the play-by-play reenactment, but the fun included Vomiting, Diahhrea, Fever, Weakness, and Exhaustion. I left home at 8am, and the sickness hit me at 10. I didn't make it home till 3pm, and then only with an emergency pick-up from my sister. I spent the rest of the day wrapped in a blanket with a bucket close at hand.

Today, I'm feeling weak, but most of the symptoms have subsided. I think that it was either a particularly nasty stomach bug or mild food poisioning from the leftovers that I'd had.

The Importance of Eating before Riding

2008-11-19T10:16:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I did the typical hill ride with John and Gary, with one important difference.

I had forgotten to anything after breakfast that day.

The difference made itself felt immediately as we started going up Lida. I just couldn't hold my usual pace - What was going on? At the top of Lida the flash struck me - I'd forgotten to eat lunch or an afternoon snack before the ride. I was riding on breakfast only.

By the time that I made it up St. Katherine for the first lap, I had decided that I was bonking (using the last bit of energy in my muscles) because I couldn't keep up with Gary and John. Not at all. I had to stay out of the saddle the entire time to keep pace with their standard conversational speed. The second round up I was so tired that I just wanted to get off my bike and nap. Seriously. I kept yawning, and couldn't concentrate at all. The third round yawning gave way to lightheadedness.

Gary and John must have realized that I was in a bad way while cruising over to Figueroa. Was it that I couldn't keep both of my eyes open at the same time that gave me away, or that was too tired to be paranoid and super-slow on the descents? True to form, they kept me going by talking about all the food that I would have at home. If I said I had a bit of spaghetti, pretty soon they had talked it into Fettuccine Alfredo with Garlic bread and a glass of wine. Of course, each item was described in minute and aching detail.

I ground through the Figueroa climbs chasing the visions of Spaghetti dinners, Ice Cream sundaes, and In-N-Out burgers. To be honest, I barely remember the climbs, but the imagery of the food is stamped on my memory in Technicolor. On the final descent down Salvia Canyon back to the parking lot, I realized that I had a Trader Joe's frozen pizza in the freezer.

That was the best frozen pizza of my life.

Two Days Off.

2008-11-19T09:55:00.001-08:00

I have an excuse for taking two days off, I promise! The smoke from the local fires that broke out on Saturday was blowing directly into the San Gabriel Valle area on Sunday, leaving all of Pasadena in a soupy brown fog. I had a headache the whole day, which I thought at first might be a hangover, but soon realized got worse when I went outside. Needless to say, there was no way I was going to do strenuous activity that day.

Monday is typically a rest day for me, and although I felt a little odd about missing Sunday. I decided not to ride for three reasons: I needed to do job searching, I was still pretty sore from Mt. Wilson and GMR, and I was worried about the smoke from the fires catching me mid-ride.

Meet GMR

2008-11-15T15:14:00.004-08:00

So, today was the long ride with lots of climbing. It was easier than last time I tried the route, but I think that Mt. Wilson left my legs a little more drained than they would have otherwise been. The total distance was 79 Miles, and I heard one of the riders with a GPS computer say that we did 3,600 feet of climbing.

All told, there were 7 of us who did the ride. I knew 5 of the people, and one of the new people was apparently a Racer. The new people were super strong, usually out in the front of the group, and occasionally out of sight when the group broke up on the long climbs. However, they seemed like nice enough guys.

Okay, now i'm going to nap for the next few hours and try to convince my legs that I really don't hate them. Oh, and heres the map of the ride. GMR is the O-R section up in the mountains. the rest of the ride is pretty much just the Montrose route, which is my typical Saturday ride.

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Friday's Ride: Mt. Wilson by Moonlight

2008-11-14T23:30:00.002-08:00

Tomorrow I have a very long and hilly ride. I expect ~5000 feet of climbing over the course of 80 miles. Naturally, you don't want to attack a ride like that with stiff and lazy legs, so this evening I went for a warm up ride. Since it was a full moon and a warm night (the low is 60) I decided to take a jaunt up Angeles Crest to get away from the city lights. It was so enjoyable that I kept pushing my destination farther and farther out, until before I knew it I was on top of Mt. Wilson. It was beautiful to have the whole road to myself, bathed in moonlight bright enough that I didn't even need to turn on my headlight. When cars did come by, I could hear them minutes before they got to me, and so I had plenty of time to meander over to the shoulder of the road and set my headlight to 'seizure inducing' so that any car within a mile or two could see me. I took some pictures on my iPhone, but haven't yet downloaded them.

Stay tuned tommorrow for those pictures and the long ride report.

In the meantime here is the route that I took.

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Thursday's Hills

2008-11-14T08:24:00.001-08:00

The ride yesterday was the same as on Tuesday. John didn't make it, so there was no joking to speak of, but we managed to find other things to gossip about.

Yesterday I noticed that I was beginning to memorize the turns on St. Katherine. Before, I was just trudging along, mentally asking myself "Are we there yet?" Yesterday, for the first time, I noticed myself saying "Oh good, only 3 more turns," or "That short steep section is next." Other than that, I notice that I'm acclimating to these hills, and slowly inching up the speed on my descents. I've still got a long ways to go until I catch up to Gary, but its clear that youth has its benefits.

Shopping List: Headlight

2008-11-13T09:27:00.001-08:00

Today I have to see about getting another headlight, and possibly some arm/ leg warmers.

The Hill rides that I wrote about in the last post start at 6 PM (sunset is before 5pm these days) and typically last until 7:30 or 8 PM. Also, big sections of the hills we ride lack streetlights, so lights are important, both to see and be seen by cars.

I had Jerry-rigged an old headlight that had already broken twice, but last Saturday in the beginning of the ride, it fell off and promptly got run over by the entire pack of cyclists. It was no big loss, though, since it was really not designed to help me see anything, only to make me visible to cars.

I've got to replace that light today. While I'm out, I'm going to check the prices on arm and leg warmers.

Warmers are essentially just spandex sleeves that you put on to turn the normal riding shorts into pants, and short-sleeved jerseys into a long-sleeved version. Its a nice convenient alternative to long underwear, but they can be ridiculously expensive - from $10 to $60 a pair. If I can find some on the cheap ($40 all in) I'll consider it. Otherwise, I'll just start wearing long johns under my regular setup.

Tuesday's Hills

2008-11-12T10:58:00.002-08:00

So, I ride the hills near the Rose Bowl with my Cousin Gary and two of his friends on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Below is the route. We did three Laps up St. Katherine (Markers I, G, and H) and three Laps up Figueroa (From K to J). The total ride showed up on my computer as 21 miles or so.

It is fun riding with Gary and John because they're such strong riders that they can talk and joke around while riding these hills. Listening to them be silly is a great way to take my mind off the burning in my legs, and the fact that an 'easy' pace for them is just about all I can manage. They also are a great motivation to push beyond my comfort zone, because if I slow down or try to 'take it easy' they leave me in the dust.

Another interesting thing is that the temperature at the Rose Bowl is much colder than up in the hills. Descending off the hills on the way back to the Rose Bowl is like diving into a cold swimming pool - there are points where the air seems to drop ten or fifteen degrees in just a few feet.

View Larger Map

Update!

2008-11-12T10:22:00.002-08:00

Okay, so I haven't posted here in a long time. Whats new? Well, I finished the internship at Oaktree Capital Management that I loved so much, and have been job searching and relaxing a little bit since.

In an effort to keep this blog alive, I'm going to start posting about my cycling.

I've decided to train for the King of the Mountains Challenge. The challenge is to complete three 100+ mile bike races that each have 12,000+ feet of climbing. I've heard that each of the three are in the Top 10 hardest bike races in the USA. To win the challenge, the races have to be completed in a single racing season.

So, I've been doing a lot about riding to get myself ready. Luckily, I've got lots of support: My cousin Gary is a super-strong cyclist and has introduced me to a lot of his friends, and the local bike clubs do an number of rides at different skill levels.

For the near future, I'll be blogging about my riding. I may be posting links to Google Maps, or maybe just putting up times. For now, here is a chart showing the mileage that I've put in each day so far.

How to tell you've got a good job:

2008-07-15T09:59:00.001-07:00

You realize that your face hurts because you've been sitting at your desk smiling all day. Not one of those fake plastic smiles, but one that you didn't realize you had because youre actually having fun.

Yay, working on a Sunday

2008-07-06T10:30:00.001-07:00

So, I have a deadline Tommorrow AM, which means that i'm in the office today working on stuff to make sure I get it finished. The deliverable doesnt seem to be a Really Big Deal, but it involves using and adding onto a bunch of other peoples spreadsheets. As a new and unknown entity, I'm assuming that people will look at this and use it as a basis for a first impression. In order to meet (exceed?) expectations I need to rock the analysis, which in turn means that I must first figure out What Did They Do, and Why they did it that way? Then, I have to add onto their work. Not so tough, but the 'spinning up' of figuring out the whats and why's from pages of numbers takes a bit of time.

Arrived in LA

2008-06-22T16:33:00.001-07:00

Got into LA from Albuquerque last night. I ended up staying at my
Mom's house in Pasadena, because i was an absolute zombie from the
hours of driving. This morning, I realized that Veronica, a friend
from Colgate, was nearby at Caltech, and so i persuaded my sister to
bike over with me to visit. V suggested that I save on rent by staying
in the dorm with her, and so that's my plan for now. I need to go out
to West LA to visit my grandfather in the hospital, and then I will
likely return to Caltech to unpack.

Exciting!

Leaving Ann Arbor

2008-06-17T06:47:00.001-07:00

I'm leaving ann arbor this morning, but I haven't decided exactly
where I'm going. Part of me wants to stop in with IL, near st. Louis,
but another part of me just wants to press on and not stop. I think
I'll just get started in that general direction, and see how I feel
when I get over in that area.

My toothpaste is a threat to national security!

2008-06-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

Apparently, my toothpaste is a threat to national security. The latest
iteration of the TSA rules forbids more than three ounces of any
liquid or gel in your carry-one, and apparently my toothpaste is (or
should I say 'was') a whopping 4.5 ounces. Its a wonder that I didn't
put my back out carrying that thing!

To be honest, though, I'm a little conflicted about the whole post
9-11 security situation. Sure, I understand the logic behind the rule
-- that my tube of toothpaste, if filled with plastic explosive, could
do some damage.I have three issues with the current rules, though.

First, if my toothpaste is a threat in my carry-on, then it should
also be a threat in my checked luggage. I am fairly confident that
anyone with enough intelligence to fill a tube of toothpaste and seal
it so that it would pass the chemical screening would also have the
intelligence to rig a timer or chemical fuse. Yet, the TSA does not
put size limits on things in checked baggage --presumably, I could
have checked a gallon of shampoo without so much as an eyebrow raised.

Second is the cost-to-benefit ratio of the rule. The aggregate cost of
all the confiscated items certainly reaches into the millions of
dollars, especially when you consider the double replacement cost for
each item. After all, I now have to buy a mini travel toothpaste for
the rest of the trip as well as a new tube for home. There are few
ways to avoid these costs, as the demand for toothpaste is inelastic
and there are no real options for repackaging it.

The third issue is the adaptive nature that terrorism displays. Once a
tactic has been used sucessfully, terrorists will be aware that that
people will attempt to 'patch' the security hole and will look for a
new vulnerability to attack. As a result, the probability further
attacks against a patched security hole approaches zero. Knowing this,
the task then becomes how best to patch the security hole.

Here is where opinion comes into play. In my opinion, the best way to
patch a security hole is through process, rather than bans on certain
kinds or quantities of items. In fairness, this is beginning to be
implemented, but unfortunately not on a large enough scale to save my
toothpaste.

Travel Plans

2008-05-30T12:55:00.002-07:00

Click the picture for a larger (readable) view.

Running!

2008-05-30T06:27:00.001-07:00

My gym membership at BC ran out because I've graduated, which has left me somewhat perplexed about how to best continue to "get in shape." Previously, I had been focusing on building upper body strength through weightlifting, and either biking or swimming on the 'rest days.' However, with no gym membership, the weightlifting portion of the workout is effectively gone.

About 4 days ago, I decided to replace the lifting with running. I have some friends (hi heather!) who like to run marathons, so i decided that i'd better get back into running to be able to keep up with them. Because I haven't run heavily in a long time (read: 8 years) I am taking my time to get back into it, slowly working up from 2.5 mile runs.

Luckily, the weather here in boston is fantastic, easing the transition from my previous running experience in california. I can't imagine what running in winter would be like. Scary, to say the least.

Light patterns

2008-05-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

I don't know what kind of tree this is but I want one!

2008-05-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung!

2008-05-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Shorts and rain

2008-04-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

When I first moved to the east coast, about 75% of my closet was
shorts and short sleeves. Now, 6 years later, I'm down to only 2 pair
of shorts- and both are for exercise purposes only. The past two weeks
have been fantastically warm and beautiful, and so last weekend I
finally bought a pair of shorts to wear outside the gym. Of course,
that brought an abrupt end to the nice weather, and the forecast now
predicts a week of rain. I'll have the last laugh though, because I
will wear these shorts inside if I have to. However, I'm still hoping
that the rain will be short-lived.

Crystal and Carrie

2008-03-17T18:57:00.001-07:00

These are friends of mine from Colgate. they were at Dan and Lindsey's wedding.

Flight Information

2008-03-02T05:04:00.002-08:00

March 02, 2008, Flight 274
From: BOS Departing: 4:50 PM
To: ATL Arriving: 7:35 PM
--- Connecting To ---
Flight 41
From: ATL Departing: 9:30 PM
To: LAX Arriving: 11:40 PM

March 07, 2008, Flight 53
From: LAX Departing: 11:10 PM
To: ATL Arriving: 6:20 AM
--- Connecting To ---
March 08, 2008, Flight 278
From: ATL Departing: 8:00 AM
To: BOS Arriving: 10:33 AM

Sky.

2008-02-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

My desk

2008-02-07T20:12:00.001-08:00

Recipes from Jenn

2008-02-05T09:37:00.001-08:00

I discovered that in addition to (or because of) being a super-smart and deadly ninja, my friend Jenn is a great cook! While hanging out with her, I saw her whip up the following dishes at ninja speed. (I know, you think that ninja speed is too fast for the human eye. I used a high speed camera designed for hummingbirds and cars traveling the speed of light.) Anyway, she kindly forwarded along the recipes for me to butcher attempt to cook on my own. Here they are, for other would-be-ninja-cooks:

Cajun Chicken soup goes as follows:
2 tsp oil
1 green pepper
1 med onion
1 tsp cajun seasoning
14.5 oz diced tomatoes with green chiles
14.5 oz chicken broth
1 c water
15.25 oz whole kernal corn, drained
10 oz (approx) chicken breast (cooked...)
1/4 c heavy cream

1. Heat oil, pepper and onion in a pot for five mins, stir occasionally
2. Add cajun seasoning and cook for another minute
3. Add tomatoes with juice, broth and water and bring to a boil
4. Add corn, chicken and cream and boil

Furthermore...
For a 9-in apple pie:
4 to 5 medium apples of any sort
1/4 c sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt (pinch)
3/4 c brown sugar, packed
3/4 c flour
1/3 c butter, melted
pie crust

1. Chop apples
2. Mix together sugar (white), cinnamon and salt
3. Toss apples in mix and coat thoroughly
4. Move coated apples to the pie dish
5. Mix brown sugar, flour and butter until a crumble forms (forks or knives work best)
6. Cover and lightly pack down apples with crumble
7. Cook at 375 deg F for 40 mins

Another beautiful morning.

2008-02-04T04:06:00.000-08:00

A house on the way home from school

2008-02-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

Quite pretty if you get past the cold.

2008-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

Snowing!

2008-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

I was so excited about the dry cold the past few days, because it has let me ride my bike around without the mess of the mud roostertail. However, its snowing again today, leading me to conclude that my bike is the herald of rain and snow. It seems like every time I want to ride, stuff falls from the sky to inconvenience me. If it wasn't so darn pretty I think that might get annoyed.

Eating out.

2008-01-26T19:21:00.001-08:00

Today I had lunch at Athan's Cafe, a Greek Cafe that combined a minimalist design and delicious but cheap food. I loved the place, and it inspired me to eat out at new places, instead of the usual pizza joints that seem to get a disproportionate amount of my business. To make the process easier, I happened to just wander across MenuPages - A restaurant guide for major US cities with reviews and menus available online. I will definitely be using this to explore new restaurants every time I eat out from now on.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 10

2008-01-26T18:24:00.001-08:00

In this chapter, Lewis describes Christianity as the next step in evolution - that Christians have a new kind of life, passed on through baptism, belief, and Mass, the way physical human life is passed on through sex, pregnancy, and birth. Apparently, this superbiological entity (SBE) is not a metaphor. He states:

"This is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts - That we are His fingers and Muscles, the cells of His body. ... It is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution - a biological or superbiological fact."

I was completely surprised to read this passage. I have to admit, I had always figured that when most people said that they were 'in the body of Christ' or 'had the spirit of Christ in them,' I understood it as they were thinking about Him or copying Him. If it is meant literally, that people believe that they are controlled by Christ the way I control my fingers, then that is a radical proposition.

If taken seriously, it raises some big questions:
1. If such things are possible, then how do we know that Christ is the only one?
2. Could there not me more, made of say, trees, animals, or natural elements?
3. Can these things overlap or recurse, meaning one organism can be part of multiple SBEs, or the individual parts of a SBE themselves be SBEs?
4. Doesn't this legitimize a Gaian perspective, where all life on earth is part of a similar entity as well?
5. Doesn't this blur the line with some forms of pantheism, because God is now present or acting directly in the physical realm?
6. How can there be free will if Christ drives your actions?
7. Does this justify 'religious darwinism,' or injustice to people 'not part of Christ' because they are 'less evolved'?

Mere Christianity, Chapter 9

2008-01-25T09:35:00.001-08:00

In this chapter, Lewis talks about the importance and reasoning behind the death and rebirth of Jesus. He writes:

"What did he come to do? Well, to teach, of course; but as soon as you look into the New Testament or any other Christian writing you will find that they are constantly talking about something different - about His death and His coming to life again. It is obvious that Christians think the chief point of the story lies there. They think the main thing He came to earth to do was to suffer and be killed."

This really makes me uncomfortable. If an all powerful God came to earth "to teach, of course," why wouldn't the most important thing be the instructions he gave? By focusing on his death and rebirth, aren't we ignoring and undermining the stated purpose of his visit? He must have had something that he really wanted us to get right; and I am disturbed that his followers could be so brazen as to contradict him on the fundamental purpose of His visit.

If he came to earth primarily to suffer and be killed, then why would he bother to teach at all? Couldn't he just come down, announce his divinity to the Jews and Romans, work some miracles to prove it, and let them kill him? Surely, that would make a vivid and undeniable impression on the entire Jewish and Roman population. Instead, he spent years teaching, often riling crowds with his instructions and then fleeing to keep from being killed by a mob. Why would he run if being killed was his purpose?

It is a natural response to assert that he didn't allow himself to be killed because he 'wasn't done getting his message across.' There are two problems with this argument.

First, how do you know he had finished getting his message across before he was killed? He did come back and keep teaching, after all. That wouldn't be necessary if he had finished what he wanted to do. On the other hand, if you accept that He might have been killed before he had finished his primary purpose for coming to earth, wouldn't that strongly imply that his death was an accident, and that he returned to finish his real job?

In either case, you fundamentally lose something in this argument. Either his actions are inconsistent with his purpose, or his death was an accident, and not deserving of the attention that it has subsequently received.

Even if Christ's death had served to wash out our sins, or even disable death itself, God didn't seem to think that it was as important as the instructions that he was trying to get across to us. So it deeply concerns me that sincere Christians would put anything as more important than that.

My bed under the window.

2008-01-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Verification of claims

2008-01-24T07:31:00.001-08:00

Given that this is an election year, I get suspicious of
unsubstantiated claims circulated around about reckless abuses of
government programs, especially controversial ones. The other day I
recieved two, and my first thought was "even if this is true where is
the data? Is this a massive problem or an isolated case?show me the
numbers!"

I wish that there was data available so that we could make an unbiased
judgement.

Bitter Reality

2008-01-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

Must still be on Hong Kong time

2008-01-13T21:49:00.001-08:00

Today I couldn't stay awake past 7 PM, and woke up at midnight ready
to start my day. Now, I'm wondering how to best get through this
adjustment period so that I can dig into classes normally; and how to
pass the rest of the night if I can't get back to sleep.

On the way to the market

2008-01-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Just before dawn in Boston

2008-01-13T04:15:00.001-08:00

Home Safe

2008-01-12T20:01:00.001-08:00

I just wanted everyone to know that I'm safely back home in Boston, catching up on my phone messages, email, and planning errands and such that have to be done for the new semester. The flights were long and dull, but I managed to stay awake for most of the 'day' on Boston Time, so I'm hoping that I won't be overly jet lagged next week. Hope you all have enjoyed the emails, and see you around!

Last Day in Hong Kong

2008-01-11T04:02:00.001-08:00

Today was my last day in Hong Kong. In 14 hours I'll be on my way to the airport, and about 21 hours after that I'll be home. I'm pretty excited about that prospect, although it has been nice to avoid all the snow of the season, and I'll be going back to another hectic semester. Here is my returning flight information:

HKG -> SFO = UA 862 (This flight arrives 4 hours and 18 minutes before it leaves. Yay international date line!)
SFO -> BOS = UA 176 (This flight is remarkably unremarkable)

On the job front, I talked with a person from the Bank of China office in Hong Kong today. He basically said that while there is more English spoken, most of the office works in Cantonese and some Mandarin. He also said that for recruitment, they focus on hiring locals or people with prior experience at one of the major bulge-bracket firms. I've heard this time and time again: apparently, the major firms are both the gatekeepers and the major players. I suppose this is a function of their size and the ups and downs of the market. Regardless, it appears that most of the smaller banks have become accustomed to getting experienced people who have been let go during one of the periodic purges from the larger banks. However, I was told that three of the big-name banks are looking to hire in Hong Kong, and the person I spoke to offered to put me in touch with people if he could. All is not lost, but it seems that the big firms really are the best way to break into the industry. Unsurprisingly, they also have the most regimented recruiting process. This begs the question, what is the best thing to do at this point? How do I cut through the procedural red tape and find something? Is it too late to do in the job market this year? These are things that I will be thinking about on my trip home, and undoubtedly wanting to get everybody's opinion on.

Mere Christianity - A Clarification

2008-01-11T03:04:00.001-08:00

It occurred to me that a I wade deeper and deeper into Mere Christianity, it might look like I'm against Christianity itself, that I'm trying to 'disprove' the religion. That's not my purpose, for two reasons: First, I don't want to try to force you to change your beliefs, just as I dislike it when others try to force me to change mine. Second, belief and faith are individual concerns, Let me make this clear - I'm not against Christianity itself. Lots of people are inspired by it and use it to frame their lives and be better people. I'm happy about that.

What am I arguing, then? If I'm arguing anything, I guess I would be arguing for tolerance and open-mindedness when dealing with other peoples religions. I think this is a pretty reasonable thing, and I expect that I would be completely unable to convince those who feel otherwise. Really, my purpose here is to use Lewis as a launch-pad for starting to think about how I see the world. We may not agree, but thats okay; that variation is what keeps life enjoyable.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 8 - Part C

2008-01-09T03:42:00.001-08:00

Lewis explains that one cannot reasonably see Jesus as a great moral teacher if they have a significant understanding of what Jesus said. Jesus claimed to be god himself, from outside the world, and claimed the ability to forgive all grievances despite who was injured. As a result, Lewis says, we must either decide he is a madman for claiming to literally be god, or open ourselves to the possibility that he may actually be god.

I cannot but flatly reject this dichotomy. There are other ways of explaining or understanding Jesus that can be considered which are equally valid or invalid, depending on your assumptions. Rather than only being a madman or god, he may have also have been an artist, a mortal prophet, a demigod, or even a rival god -it all depends on your frame of reference, your paradigm. If you are a pure athiest with no sense of artistry, then you may not be able to see him as anything but madman. If you fully believe in an active, powerful, loving god, then it seems obvious that it was god on earth. If you're interested in inspiring people, then maybe you would see him as a similar kind of person, like a gandhi with an ego. Finally, if you fell elsewhere on the religious map, you might be inclined to call him a prophet, buddha, demigod, or even a rival of God's.

Probably the best example that would resonate with people today would be if we described Jesus as a talented artist. Just as actors play the parts of powerful symbols in our own time to spread messages or alter people's behavior, so perhaps Jesus took the same approach. He seems to have had one key difference, however. For added impact, rather than confining his message to the stage, where it could be dismissed as merely entertainment, he put it in the middle of the society - blurring the lines between method acting and performance art. If he was for social commentary what Borat is for comedy, then naturally people would get polarized views of him: some would see his performances for what they were but would not understand his artistic intent and call him a blasphemer, while others might genuinely believe that his skilled performances and curious-but-coherent logic were real and him a miracle worker.

But he wouldn't die for that art, would he? If he didn't wink and give away the game, we today could almost see it playing out as it did in the bible. And why should he wink, if he's suddenly being treated with a tremendous amount of respect, with people following him about from place to place? Why would he blink when dragged before a bunch of stuffy politicians who 'didn't get him' and weren't going to do anything to him anyway? Why would he blink in front of the Romans who seemed to be impressed with him, and not particularly happy with the angry politicians? Maybe Jesus-the-artist took his act as far as he thought he could, only to discover that the politicians had more power than he'd thought. By then it was too late, though - the crowd had turned on him, and his 'coming out' would only further anger them. So, given the choice between death-by-crowd and death-by-roman, he stuck with his act, and made such an impression on his fellow actors that they continued the game after he died, and thus made a talented artist the Jesus of the Gospels.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 8 - Part B

2008-01-09T03:24:00.001-08:00

The third argument that Lewis makes in chapter 8 is that God's solution to the mess was to do four things: First, to give us a conscience; Second, to give us myths about death and rebirth; Third, to take 'one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was;' and fourth to come down and take a walk among those same people for a time.

On each of these points, I have an alternative viewpoint.

Conscience: I would tend to explain conscience as an intuitive awareness of social norms and the 'little in, lot out' nature of society.

Myths: Myths are ways to assign meaning to the world around us and explain the social norms present in every group of people. Overlap between myths here stems from overlap in what humans don't understand, rather than on some divinely implanted seed. After all, many cultures also share myths about Rip Van Winkle type characters, gnomes, and talking animals. If we death and rebirth as a mythological theme is evidence for Christ, then talking animals, gnomes, and Rip Van Wingle themes each must be divinely implanted as well.

Chosen People: The god that does the hammering in the old testament consistently violates the norms and principles that are espoused by Jesus in the New Testament. Though many fine theologians have tried to reconcile the two, the contradiction remains. For example, the old testament God loved and repeatedly helped David, who committed adultery and then had the husband killed while king. That God approved of mass murder as a response to rape of Dinah. Lewis says that god is interested in justice and good behavior. It appears, however, that he taught the jews that he was interested in 'vengeance,' 'favoritism' at least as much.

The fourth point, about God coming down to earth, is pretty long. I'll put that in a separate post.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 8 - Part A

2008-01-09T03:22:00.001-08:00

In this chapter, Lewis touches makes three noteworthy arguments on the way that god and the universe work. In this post I will focus on the first and second arguments and my perspectives. I will follow up with the third argument in two separate posts, because that argument itself consists of four parts.

Lewis' first argument is that evil is a by-product of free will - That just as parents give children the freedom to clean their room when they'd like, the they also give them the freedom to leave it a mess, god has given us the freedom to live as we like, but that also carries the possibility of us living badly.

This is a short term argument, that ignores learning and the possibility for growth and change. It is precisely because of the learning and growth that a parent gives this responsibility to the children, and the children do learn and grow, and eventually value it enough to teach to their own children. If a devil exists with superior intelligence to that of humans, it wouldn't have got very far with this before observing that its evilness is self-defeating. It seems incoherent to assume that children will eventually grow up and learn to clean their rooms, and yet expecting a superhuman being capable of manipulating human lives and societies to never observe the results.

Lewis' second argument is that the great sin committed by humanity - the original sin - was humans selfishly wanting to 'be like the gods,' pursuing some sort of individual happiness outside of god, and that this has led to all the hurt in human experience. He explains is as though we are putting the wrong fuel in the car of human society, and as a result the car will continually break down.

This directly contradicts his free will argument. If there is no happiness outside of god, then really there is no free will. People will pursue that which they believe will make them happy. If there is really only one way to achieve happiness, then there is really no choice for humans as to how they should behave. What appears to be free choice is merely confusion. The only difference between ourselves and automata is that the automata would know how to find happiness, whereas we would have to rely on trial and error, suffering punishments at God's hands until we figure it out.

Hong Kong, Day 5

2008-01-09T03:20:00.001-08:00

So, I've been waiting for it to happen the whole vacation, and it finally did. I locked myself out. After calling all my leads this morning, I had grand plans of going and exploring around and visiting some sights, and doing the tourist thing before heading back to the frozen wastelands (I have to admit, i've completely forgotten that it is winter vacation... it is so warm here in Hong Kong!) Anyhow, since I was going to be doing the touristy thing, i thought I would travel without my trusty backpack.

Somehow, without said trusty backpack, my whole planning went strait to hell. I didn't grab my phone or anything, just a camera and pad of paper and left. I got as far as the elevator to go downstairs before realizing that I'd forgotten something, and to the bottom of the stairs before realizing that it was my key. oops. I asked the security guards at the front if they had a spare key (you never know...) and they said they didn't, and that I should call the management company. I thought that I had better call Cora, the person who put everything together for my stay, and see what she thought.

So I went to the library to get her phone number (i'd even forgotten my notebook where I'd written down that kind of important stuff) and fired off a quick email to her while i looked it up. By the time i'd dug through my email to find a response (and typed out a few quick notes as well) she had replied - someone would be over to drop the key off in 5 minutes. Great. I ran back to the apartment, and when i came in the guard was smiling and holding the key out for me. Hallelujah. And that was my very exciting day.

I'm trying to set up another appointment with Bank of China in Hong Kong before I leave, but that looks like its about it for my in- person leads over here. Everything else seems to be phone calls and emails, which I can do much easier back in the states.

Hong Kong, Days 3-4

2008-01-07T21:20:00.001-08:00

Since last I wrote, not much has happened. All my nice clothes were in for dry cleaning (I hadn't gotten around to it in shanghai) and so yesterday I didn't feel comfortable going and hunting for jobs in jeans. So, instead I got myself sucked into a novel that took me till midnight to finish.

It was an interesting book, with a Tom Clancy feel and military focus, but located in a post- Iraq Orwellian future, where the Department of Homeland Security is extremely powerful and unaccountable, the economy is failing, and politicians unabashedly help their largest contributors. If you're interested, the author has made the book available for free download, and you can get it here.

Today I'm sending out all the emails and making all the calls that I wasn't comfortable doing yesterday, as my cleaning should be ready in a few hours, in case I need to meet with someone.

Other than that, I'm really looking forward to coming home, I really miss having all my family and friends around.

Fwd: Safe In Hong Kong (again)

2008-01-06T04:19:00.001-08:00

I safely got back to Hong Kong Last night. What's new and newsy, you ask? Well, I delayed my departure from Shanghai for four days to try to get in touch with people from CICC, Bank of China, and CCX who I would not have gotten together with otherwise. I did go in and interview with two people from Bank of China, and swapped emails with the other two. Simply put, the situation on the mainland looks bleak. All the people who I spoke with deal almost exclusively with local or national clients and listings, and work in offices that work exclusively in Chinese - international deals and businesses are handed off to different groups.

This creates a position where the unique asset that I would bring to the table - Comfort in both Chinese and International environments - is simply not in demand at these companies. The gist of the result, then, was that I need to get to the places where this asset is in demand. From the conversations I had, the place that consistently got recommended was Hong Kong. So, it took a while, but I seem to have an answer for work on the mainland - my skills are not in demand yet.

So, that means that the rest of my time here in Hong Kong is critically important. Working here is not only the 'gateway to China' for many international businesses, but it is also the gateway to the rest of he world for Chinese businesses seeking to do deals abroad. Good to know.

Since today is Sunday and I can't really hit the job circuit today, i'm going to do some shopping (I want to buy an ethernet cable, some breakfast foods, and a few other things), get some laundry done, and see about going to the other side of the island for an adventure. We'll see how much if this actually happens, or if it goes the way of dancing in Shanghai.

The Limits of Libertarianism - or - How Small can the Government Get?

2008-01-05T23:54:00.001-08:00

After that post on how the political parties were structured, I got to wondering about what sorts of philosophies would end up in those empty corners. That, in turn, let me to libertarianism and I got to wondering exactly how far someone could realistically take that logic train.

In business school, we have a tremendous amount of faith in the market, and it seems to work pretty darn well for filling people's needs and finding opportunities to improve, allocating resources, and other such things. Also, a bit of thought shows us that in a government controlled welfare society, people probably wouldn't work really hard at the kind of things that fill needs and exploit opportunities, but instead focus on working the system to get all they can out of the state.

Before I go much further, we need to realize that the US government has parts that fit into each category. Yes, we have a massive free market economy, but we also have a huge federal government that distributes a huge amount of money in a non-market-based way. The white elephant in every elections are the pork barrels and pet projects tucked into the budgets and the bureaucratic way many of the legitimate funds are allocated - this is how I imagine the communist ministries must have worked, with the difference being only of scope of items involved.

The libertarian idea of putting everything in the hands of the market and minimizing the government begs the question of what happens if we dare to apply free market principles to things that we've always assumed must be run central government - for example, national defense.

It seems that if we were to 'privatize' national defense, we would end up with each individual paying directly for the amount of defense that they wish to receive - those who fear invasion paying, those who do not fear invasion not paying. Initially, one would expect some fluctuations as people get used to the idea, but eventually we would expect to see an equilibrium develop, where the amount of funding the military receives would directly correlate to the aggregate perceived need by the population. Unpopular wars would quickly die out, as people stopped funding the war, and wars seen as critically important would find themselves well funded.

Lets take the concept one step further from a 'voluntary donation' funding source and introduce the possibility of different military 'companies' competing for those donations. The heads of the each company must now seek to each provide better 'deal' for the citizens, in the form of more defense at a lower cost to get a larger portion of the citizen's 'wallet share.'

Additionally, this would let militaries fragment and specialize and differentiate - for example, there could be an urban warfare army, and a Star Wars missile defense army. As perceived need for different kinds of warfare evolved, so would peoples contributions to different security companies.

Of course, all this rests on a individuals who are able to value their security, and then are willing to voluntarily pay to protect that value.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 7 - Part 2

2008-01-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

In the second part of the chapter, Lewis takes up how bad exists in
the world - either it was a good world gone wrong, or there is an
eternal battle between good and evil that can never be resolved.

Lewis takes great pains in the chapter to show how the eternal battle
between good and evil cannot be right, for evil can never be either a
force or a goal of its own. As Lewis puts it: "The badness consists
in pursuing them by the wrong method, or in the wrong way, or too much."

I agreed with this argument, after running through the following
example: That of a killer. The killer uses 'good' things - strength,
willpower, intelligence, to pursue 'good' ends - pleasure,
excitement, money, or whatever. The evil comes from how he chooses to
use that strength to get that excitement - by killing, rather than
say, taking up an extreme sport, which would also use the same means
to achieve similar goals.

The implications of this logic are significant. If badness does not
come from the ends (pleasure, or excitement) or the means (use of
strength or intelligence), then where does it come from? Does it come
from intention? From action? From the result? Each of these answers
is extremely dangerous.

Many leaders of history's worst regimes had good intentions - they
were trying to 'improve' their nations, and the quicker the timetable
the more cruel and violent they became. If badness comes from
intentions, we must be prepared to call all sorts of scary and
distasteful people good. If badness comes from action, then self-
defense and legal sentences are as bad as the original crimes. If the
result is what defines badness, then whatever has the best result is
the right thing to do, and good luck predicting what the results will
be. It looks like a reasonable assertion that the 'badness' of an
action is not located anywhere within the chain of events that caused
or resulted from the action. So, where does 'badness' come from?

If we return to the economic theory of human interactions, the idea
that people will be good as long as the benefits of being good
outweigh the costs, then we begin to see an alternative definition.
Perhaps a 'bad' action is one that serves to decrease the benefits of
good behavior or increase the costs, thus weakening the motivation
for everyone else to continue to behave well, and thereby threatening
the society.

If we accept this precept, then we can say that, in our society,
breaking the rules of the road and murder are bad for precisely the
same reason - each time somebody breaks the rule, following the rules
gets less attractive for everybody else, until nobody follows the
rules and there is chaos. The only difference would be in the speed
in which the society breaks down.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 7 - Part 1

2008-01-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

Lewis here addresses the complexity and unexpectedness of Christian
doctrines. He explains that they should be complex, that just as the
most obvious and simple thing - he uses the example of a table -
becomes infinitely complex on a close examination, that Christianity
would likewise appear simple from a distance but be infinitely
complex when observed closely. As for the unexpectedness, he argues
that nothing in nature fits what you'd expect, as evidenced by the
unequal size and distribution of the planets and moons in our solar
system. If reality tends to defy expectation and be notoriously
complex, then, we should take the fact that Christianity is also that
way as a positive sign.

Well, I couldn't disagree more. The complexity of atoms and light
particles reflecting off the table is a very simple way of
understanding what it is and what we see - I challenge anyone to come
up with a coherent physics that is simpler. After all, a major part
of what physics concerns itself with is coming up with simple and
elegant explanations for things we see. The fact that it is
unexpected simply means that it defies our assumptions about the way
the world should be.

Now Lewis has got himself in a pickle. At the beginning of the book,
he said that the fact that we have a sense of how should be, but
things are not that way is evidence of god. But here we have a
similar discrepancy between how things are and how they should be,
and this tells us that the 'how things should be' is wrong. Well, if
we can make bad assumptions about astronomy, then why can't we do the
same about human behavior?

Election thoughts

2008-01-03T07:24:00.001-08:00

I ran across this website while surfing the web this evening,
and filled out the survey for kicks. When I got to the end page, I found it surprising how there

were literally no candidates in two whole quadrants of the chart.
This seemed really strange and also very disappointing, because
clearly the full range of possibilities is not being represented here.

If the picture above is at all accurate (and i'll be the first to
admit that it may not be), I, and many other voters like me, am faced
with a dilemma - Do I vote for a president who I disagree with on
social policy, or one that I disagree with on financial policy?
Neither of these seems at all appealing. I'd like to vote for a
candidate that I actually agree with. Where are the libertarian and
statist candidates? Where are the centrists? And even if there was a
candidate, would my vote for them even matter with the 'winner take
all' electoral process?

Mere Christianity - More on the Belief Graph

2008-01-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

Now, if we see the scope of human belief as a 2-dimensional graph,
this opens up a lot of possibilities. Is it possible for adherents of
the same faith to fall in slightly different places on the graph? Are
any points here more or less right than any other?

I think it is clear that different adherents of the same faith could
fall in different places on the graph. An example that comes to mind
might be the the difference between Christians who believe in saints
and those who don't. Those who believe in Saints would see God as
more involved in the world than those who don't recognize any
involvement after Christ's ascension.

Now, does that mean that one group is right, and another is wrong?
For the saints example, I would expect the difference in beliefs to
center around different opinions about the credibility of the saint -
and opinions are not provable at the end of the day. Without proof,
both arguments must be allowed to stand as reasonable.

Now, if we can see how within a religion people can legitimately sit
on different places in the graph based on different opinions, then
why cannot different religions also legitimately sit on the graph as
different opinions or metaphors for the same thing? If we make a
reasonable supposition that different religions could overlap on such
a graph, then wouldn't the difference between the religions
fundamentally be an issue of metaphor choice?

So, I think it seems reasonable to suggest that there is a 'field of
beliefs' that different people can reasonably and legitimately hold,
based on their opinions about how legitimate different manifestations
of divine power appear to them, and the metaphor that they best
choose to articulate those perceptions.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 6*

2008-01-03T05:57:00.000-08:00

*Really, Book 2 chapter 1, but keeping track of all the books seems
too confusing.

Lewis first explains that being christian doesn't mean believing
that everything else is totally wrong - he again reverts to a math
problem, showing that while there are many wrong answers, some are
much nearer to being right than others. I find this an encouragingly
fair- minded argument, given his belief that there is some sort of
universal rule that we will be judged against. Its very easy to say
we have done the problem right, and everybody else is wrong, but much
harder to allow for varying amounts of 'partial credit' among people
who you are at odds with - it means looking for the good in people
who you disagree with, trying to find the silver lining in each
heathen cloud.

Lewis next tries to position Christianity within the broad spectrum
of human beliefs along a variety of fundamental questions. The first
division is 'God or no god,' in which Christianity clearly falls in
the 'Gods' category. The second division is on the nature of the god:
Is it beyond 'good' and 'evil,' or definitely 'good'? Christianity
clearly fits the second category.

I find this a tremendously interesting approach. First, I would want
to flesh out his divisions a bit more: what does the 'no gods' part
of his spectrum look like? Is this true atheism, or would agnosticism
fit here as well? Where would my thoughts on the personified laws of
nature god fit? Can god be categorized in other ways than simply
'good' or 'neutral'? His divisions are convenient, but incomplete,
and seem to me to leave out a lot of the juicier parts of human
imagination and history.

For the god/no god division, to me it seems that rather than a simple
either/or, this needs to be some kind of spectrum. Absolute atheism
on one end, an actively participating single god on the other, and a
middle range that could consist of an inactive, apathetic, or
unreachable god, personified natural phenomena, or a combination of
all of the above.

On the second point, on whether god is 'beyond good or evil' or
'purely good.' This dichotomy only makes sense if you accept that
there is only one god. As soon as you allow for the possibility of
multiple gods, then the question becomes meaningless - you can have
gods that are both ways, and worship either as fits you.

I'd rather recast the rang of human thought as a two dimensional
graph: Power of the God and Involvement with humanity. You can have a
highly powerful god who is not involved in the world, or very weak
gods who are constantly involved, and anything in between. In such a
diagram, Christianity would sit in the High Power/ High involvement
corner, while Buddhism might fall in the High Power, Low Involvement
corner, and Ancestor worship might land be described as Low Power/
High involvement. Near the center, we might find the greek and roman
pantheons, deities that were powerful (but not omnipotent) and that
got involved in human life (usually to mess things up.)

Mere Christianity, Chapter 5

2007-12-26T03:15:00.000-08:00

In this chapter, CS Lewis further describes what sort of a god is
described in the last chapter - a being that directs the universe,
and he believes, has directed us to behave in a certain way.

He cautions us that we are not yet at the Christian God, that instead
this god may not be interested at all in mercy or forgiveness or any
of that stuff. If he did direct us to behave in a certain way that
we call good, he could be as forgiving of mistakes as a
multiplication table. Lewis puts it this way: "God is the only
comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and
the thing we most want to hide from."

He also explains that this sort of a realization is critical for
Christianity to be meaningful- that there is an absolute good that
expects us to be as unfailing as gravity, and that because we don't
live up to that measure we really should face the same sort of
consequences as if we try to defy gravity or the need to breathe.
According to CS Lewis, that is what Christianity is about -
comforting and giving us hope, despite the terrifying fact that by
all rights, we should be dead.

As I've said, I don't accept the argument of an external Law of
Nature, that there is some sort of universal moral code that
everything can be measured against objectively.

Without this, if God were to exist, it would merely be that thing
which directs the laws of physics, physics which we are no more
capable of violating than a stone would be capable of violating
gravity. This god would be like a personification of the order and
power of physics, something akin to the worship of mathematics, or
nuclear energy.

Logically, then, then there are not any consequences that we should
be in fear of; in fact there isn't a lot to indicate that God would
have any interest in us at all. Lewis believes that he has provided
an adequate basis in cosmic fact for a dive into the basic principles
of religion; I anticipate that with such different starting points,
we will have a lot to talk about further on.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 4

2007-12-25T20:28:00.001-08:00

In Chapter 4, CS Lewis brings up two different ways of looking at the
universe, what he calls Materialist and Religious. The materialist,
he says, takes the view that things just happen to exist the way they
are, and that humans arise from chance. The religious view, on the
other hand, sees that the universe is something more than an
incredible amount of chance. Lewis describes it as a mind, and that
description seems as good as any to me.

He then goes on to show that there really is no conflict between
science and religion, because science is limited to asking questions
about how things work, and religion is fundamentally about why those
things that scientists study exist. As a result, one cannot
scientifically prove god, but must extrapolate based on his own
experience.

Lewis' argument goes that since we feel some sort of universal moral
law directing us that comes from beyond the physical realm, then that
implies that there is something directing everything from beyond the
physical realm. This sort of approach seems reasonable, but as I
don't see any moral law coming from beyond the physical realm, his
proof seems to fall a little bit short. Perhaps Lewis need not bother
with the moral element to prove his 'director of the universe' idea.

One trying to prove his argument without morality may observe that
the laws of physics themselves do in fact direct everything, but are
not themselves physical. We call them properties of objects, or
forces that act upon them. But what is are they themselves? What made
them? Are they physical stuff, or just something beyond that effects
physical objects? What about our consciousness? It is what makes each
of us unique, but do we really know what it is?

Perhaps this is what Lewis meant by god - some sort of thing that
directs and moves about all physical things, even ourselves, through
means that we do not understand but can observe the effects of.
Interesting.

The economic approach to the 'greater good of humanity'

2007-12-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

In the last post I suggested that a much more likely approach to the 'greater good of humanity' argument is to take a page from economics, and argue that people will be good as long as the benefits of good behavior outweigh the price of that behavior.

This seems to give rise to a challenge: How would a bad person reach this conclusion? How could anyone know that you will get more out of society by behaving well?

This is an important question, and on the surface seems difficult to answer. Instead, let us try to put ourselves inside the mind of a bad person and see how the logic might go. Let us consider the worst sort of bad person, one who is sociopathic and supremely self-interested person, who believes himself superior to everybody and cares not one whit about right and wrong. Let us pretend that this person truly has no compunction about violating even the most basic social norms if it is in his benefit, but is also smart enough to be able to think in advance about his actions and their results.

He would observe that his crimes, if discovered, would not benefit him in the long run. Even if the threat of revenge or jail were removed, if people were aware of the threat he represented, they would avoid him, thus making it harder to achieve the pleasures or benefits that he seeks. The more the person was known to steal, the more people would hide their valuables when they saw him. The more he was known to kill, the more people would flee when he came near. Thus, if his deeds were known, it would become increasingly difficult to continue to benefit himself at their expense, and he would face ever increasing risk of reprisal.

Thus, purely out of self interest, the person would realize that it is easier to appear to be behaving well, to maintain easy access to the pleasures and benefits of society than to work ever harder at benefiting from badness. Thus, such a person would behave in a way that appears fully honest for their own nefarious ends, even becoming a trusted friend of the intended victims.

However cruel the intention, the as the sociopath groomed this facade he would observe a remarkable fact. The more genuine and honest he appeared, the easier it was for him to get social benefits and pleasures. The more honest the person appeared, the less stealing would be required, as people would be more willing to lend him money; the less murder would be required as his enemies would find themselves punished by more of his friends and admirers; the less rape would be required as more people began to actually pursue his affections.

In short, In short, violation of social norms has an increasing marginal cost and decreasing marginal utility, and following social norms would have a fixed or decreasing marginal cost but increasing marginal utility. As long as the marginal utility increases, any rational self-interested being would seek to remain on the "good side" of the social norms most of the time.

Thus even the most cruel person may be transformed into one who behaves in a good and honest way, as long as the benefits of participation in human society outweigh the costs of good behavior.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 3

2007-12-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

In Chapter 3 CS Lewis continues to try to explain and build up an understanding in our minds of his take on the law of nature. He points out that laws for the physical world are simply descriptive - they simply describe what things do, whereas his law describes what people ought to do. He supposes that because this law exists, there must be something beyond the facts of what people do.

He anticipates that there will be arguments with this point from people who want to keep the natural law within the facts of observable behavior. Such people will say that wrong action is wrong because it inconveniences us; or they will say that what is right isn't decided by what benefits one person, but what benefits humanity. He tries to show fallacies in each of these arguments, concluding that in each case, one is left with the statement that "Men ought to be unselfish."

Now, I'm not going to say that these arguments are right and he is wrong. In my previous post I outlined what I thought was a good description of the law of nature, as it explained why moral confict exists, and describes what people do. His idea is different, and that is all there is to it.

What I do find interesting is his argument against the idea that what right is not simply what benefits humanity. He writes:

"Human beings, after all, have some sense; they see that you cannot have any real safety or happiness except in a society where everyone plays fair, and it is because they see this that they try to behave decently."

Interesting way of putting forth the argument. He gives people more credit that I had expected, believing that people would spontaneously see what life would be like if everyone were good. I have difficulty seeing that image, even when described to me, and I'm a bit skeptical that every average person who behaves decently does so because they see that image.

To me, a much more likely approach to the 'greater good of humanity' argument is to take a page from economics, and argue that people will be good as long as the benefits of good behavior outweigh the price of that behavior. They put a little bit in and get more out, as it were.

Mere Christianity, Chapter 2

2007-12-24T08:00:00.001-08:00

I foolishly just drank a bunch of coffee writing the last post, so I won't be going to sleep anytime soon.

In the second chapter of Mere Christianity, CS Lewis tries to further define the Law of Nature. I thought this was a good summation of his argument in this chapter:

"If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something - some Real Morality- for them to be true about. The reason why your idea of New York can be truer or less true than mine is that New York is a real place, existing quite apart from what either of us thinks."

Clearly, the Law of Nature is some sort of standard which we all must measure up against. This reminds me of the Platonic realism, where each chair is but a reproduction of an ideal chair that exists outside of our physical realm. I cannot speak as to whether this is true or not. What I can argue with is the logical conclusion that it typically seems to reach: That there are a number of moral rules which can be inflexibly applied to all situations, without exception. Judgement can be passed based on people or groups based their ability to meet that criteria. This certainly seems to be Lewis' goal.

Here is my complaint: In life, there are conflicts of interest in morals. What do I do when I want to stick up for a friend, but the friend is behaving poorly? When I want to be honest, but am starving and cannot buy food? When I want to have a safe society, but also give a second chance to a criminal who seems to have reformed? In none of these cases do I see a way to follow the Law of Nature as Lewis has described it: for him, these look like no-win situations where there is no option but to break the law.

I'd rather look for a conception of the Law of Nature that avoids these contradictions and helps describe human behavior as we actually see it.

The only way I can see to explain this is that there are multiple values that people have and want to pursue, each equally good as all the others. For example, I value friendship and good conduct, honesty and life, safety and mercy. In each scenario, I would be very hard pressed to choose between the two options. I may choose one, but could perfectly well understand someone who chose the opposite way. It would be nothing more than a differing of opinion at that point.

An individual's morality, then, could simply be the ranking of those different values, consciously or otherwise. As the individual pursues their values, they would express those values through interactions with other individuals. Which values are encouraged and which are discouraged would be the result of the social dynamics of the group, an 'economy of morals' if you will. As a group becomes a more structured unit like a tribe or state, it would begin to cast its dominant morals into rules and laws, imposing them onto those that may have alternative moralities.

Now, going back to Lewis' argument: The law of nature might be some sort of universal moral feeling and measuring stick as he described it. But, it might also be an observation that there are a number of goods to be had, and which people use to guide their behavior and interaction with others. When conflicts arise, people act based on their opinion of which is the higher good. Personally, I prefer the latter definition.

The latter definition turns out to be an established theory called Value Pluralism by philosopher Isaiah Berlin. You can read some of his stuff here if you want.

Mere Christianity, Introduction and Part 1

2007-12-24T05:55:00.000-08:00

A classmate and friend, Steven Lawrence, bought Mere Christianity to
me, in a half-joking attempt to convert me from my heathen ways. I
brought it along to read on the flights here in Asia, and found it
thought provoking, though I'm afraid not in the way Steven would have
liked.

I found it thought provoking enough that I wanted to make some
comments on it as I read. Rather than taking notes in the margins, I
decided to take notes this way, so that I can revisit and discuss my
thoughts without the inhibitions of bad handwriting and forgotten
volumes. Hope nobody minds.

Chapter 1, the law of human nature

"These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human
beings, all over earth, have this curious idea that they ought to
behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly,
that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of
Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all
clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in." - CS
Lewis (Last paragraph of the chapter)

Let me just start off by saying wow. This opens a whole lot of
possibilities in my mind, things that seem to not make any sense but
that this sort of an argument would seem to imply. Firstly, I think
that it is fascinating that the moral realm can have laws like the
physical realm, but that unlike the physical realm those laws can be
broken. How does this work? I see two possible solutions to this issue.

First, they aren't being broken, we just have the incorrect
viewpoint. This is like saying that gravity appears not to work when
you watch someone throw a rock in the air but turn away before it
begins to fall - for all the viewer knows, gravity appears to have
been broken. The solution, of course, is to take a longer look at the
effects of throwing the rock, and observe that it does indeed fall.
But how do you presume to do this over the course of human lives?
What is the long run effect of some small misdeed, unnoticed and
unpunished? When does the rock fall on their deeds, and give them
their deserved reward? Many times, it does not seem to. To salvage
this argument, one must then invoke some sort of karma or heaven and
hell in the afterlife, essentially arguing that the rock falls, but
it just falls out of sight of the living. That creates a circular
argument: it is a law because its inviolable, but you can't see that
its inviolable unless you accept that it is a law.

Secondly the argument can be made that the moral realm is
fundamentally different from the physical realm. In the physical
realm, things like mathematics and physics and science make sense,
because they have predictive qualities aimed at discovering rules
that seem to bound our observations. If the moral rules are mutable,
then we really have no predictive capability whatsoever, and we
therefore can never hope to understand or master the moral realm any
more than we can master the weather, where the air currents and
weather patterns are also mutable.

Let us concede the point though, and chalk it up to our own
shortsightedness. Let us say that there is a Law of Nature, that it
does exist, is somehow breakable and yet coherent, even predictive.
What other laws might there be? If the physical world has physics,
and the moral world has the laws of nature, then might there also be
laws of spirituality? Might there be laws of consciousness, laws of
intelligence? What would these laws look like? Would they be mutable?

I find myself speculating, imagining a universe where physical laws
were flexible, or where even the creator was rule-bound, or where
perhaps transcendency or infinite intelligence was possible. Yet,
however hard I try, I cannot take these with anywhere near the same
certainty as I can gravity. I cannot genuinely believe that I will
wake up one day able to fly, or read minds, or having reached perfect
intelligence or consciousness . I cannot sincerely imagine that I
will spontaneously become immortal the way I can genuinely believe
that I will wake up one day and gravity will make a rock fall to the
ground. Maybe I just don't have enough faith.

Eating and Drinking while Traveling

2007-12-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

I was going to include this in the previous post, but it turned out to be a long enough aside to warrant its own attention.

Humans are basically the same, and variations within a population are bigger than variations between populations. Travelers Diarrhea and associated nasties seem to be caused by different bacteria entering the digestive tract that the body isn't used to, either from food or drink.

So, based on that information it seems safe to surmise that the food borne bacteria that cause Traveler's Diarrhea should affect locals just about as badly as tourists (though, perhaps not as strongly due to repeated exposure.) As a result, the 'food poisioning' or 'something not agreeing with you' that each of us have experienced at some point at home should be a mild version of the same phenomena that causes travelers diarrhea. As even locals will notice stomachaches and stuff from a bad local restaurant, it stands to reason that anywhere that could cause sickness wouldn't be packed with locals, and that the places that are packed must be pretty safe to eat at.

Places that sell only to a migrating population (places in tourist traps, or restaurants near big hotels) can actually be chancier, because they know they will have a steady inflow of new people regardless of their quality. A good way to tell if they're targeting locals or travelers is by what language their people speak, and if they're priced for travelers or for the local market. Really bad places will get shut down eventually, but tourists traps are full of expensive-but-mediocre places that are just not good for your taste buds, your stomach, or your wallet.

The one thing to be careful of is the water. Many locals 'live with' and eventually adapt to the effects of untreated water if they can't afford the alternatives (treated or bottled water). Like living with lice or worms, it probably won't kill you, but will probably make you uncomfortable for a long period of time.

However, most places where this is a problem have figured out ways around it. Many homes have water purifiers built into the plumbing. Those that don't have plumbing or can't afford to put purifiers in the plumbing have storage tanks available somewhere. I've seen them on rooftops in India, and at the end of the hallway in Chinese dorms.) Some people get so paranoid that they brush their teeth with bottled water. I understand their concern, and my response is only that I've never done this, and never had a problem, even in places where I've known the water was bad, and even gotten sick from not boiling it long enough.

When going out, carry a bottle of water with you, or buy sealed drinks (ie soda or sealed water bottles) from a street vendor. (Places where water is an issue also have people who realize that you can make money from thirsty people.) When eating out, always order hot drinks, and avoid ice. The restaurant will undoubtedly have a kettle of hot water on in the back somewhere for just that purpose, and chances are it has been hot long enough to kill anything in the water. Ice, on the other hand, doesn't kill a thing.

So, a quick recap: To be safe, eat at places where you see lots of locals eating, and bring a bottle of water with you.

Thoughts about travel

2007-12-23T18:56:00.001-08:00

I keep getting emails saying that what I'm doing is somehow impressive. I have to admit that I think the issues that I'm battling with here are no different than if I was flying to, say, Texas or Nebraska or some other city that I'm not familiar with. The issues are always the same, and even in the same order. I guess that in my mind, its sort of an application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

The first questions are always about survival. Where to sleep and leave my stuff, so that I will survive and not be robbed? These are easily filled- hotel rooms, friends couches, any place people are sufficiently comfortable and safe. Food and water is a natural concern, but if local people who are identical to me can eat something, it stands to reason that I can as well. My solution when traveling tends to be to find a place where a lot of locals are eating (safety in numbers) and order whatever the guy in line in front of me gets, or the guy at the table next to me. Sure, I run a slight risk of Traveler's Diarrhea, but that comes from differences in intestinal flora and cannot be avoided, even at home.

Next comes the need for a plan - I think this roughly correlates to a need for stability and safety with Maslow. Plans guide my focus through the day, giving me an outline of things to do, and a way to fill the higher needs (the really fulfilling stuff.) You know that sinking emptiness that people feel when they are alone in a foreign city? I think that comes from not having anything to guide their action. The usual things that people have to focus on (work, family/friends, hobbies) are removed, and I think that the 'not knowing what to do with yourself' that results is the source of that emptiness.

As for the rest of the hierarchy, all that stuff- love, recognition, and self actualization is long term, and can't really be pursued directly except through what we do each day. That's why, when I ran out of stuff to do in Hong Kong, I really started to feel badly. What reason was there to get out of bed?

here in shanghai, though, I'm relatively better. Because I speak the right language here, its much easier to do everything, and because its a city 3x the size of Hong Kong (with other famous historical cities only a few hours away) There is a lot more to do and discover.

Simply put, my goals are as follows:
1. Find a Job (meet with every person involved in Financial services I can find)
2. Improve mastery of the language (go a day without hearing or speaking an English word)
3. Improve knowledge of environment (develop a mental map of the city)
4. Improve cultural embeddedness (understand and accept things that develop from 2 and 3)

The trick for me now is to get these set into some sort of viable routine to fill my day.