last good country

On today’s NTSB hearing

I don’t expect any big surprises today, though I do wish I was in town for the hearing. I’m in Stockholm until Sunday, but I’ll be following the developments.

I expect the probable cause to be a failure in the automatic train control system, the specifics being interference introduced by a defect in a wee-z bond. This resulted in the block of track appearing as though it was unoccupied. I’ve heard rumors this may have been caused by replacing a component with a non-recommended part. There was work done on that circuit prior to the crash, and problems had been detected beforehand. The NTSB will also likely comment on the fact that the seriousness of the crash was amplified by the less-crashworthy series 1000 cars. Also, there is still a lack of a backup ATC system, though Metro is working on this.

The only surprises may be with regard to how much Metro knew (or didn’t know) about any circuit problems in the area prior to the crash. I fully expect to hear that some Metro employees were aware, but that the safety culture is such that the problems were not addressed in a timely manner. I expect that a good deal of blame will be placed on management. I think we will have a better understanding of why John Catoe “unexpectedly” resigned earlier this year. While I doubt he was personally to blame, I have no doubt that failed leadership significantly contributed to a work atmosphere that permitted this tragedy to occur. As with most failures of complex systems, there is rarely one simple cause. Rather, it is a combination of failures, across many subsystems that snowball to cause catastrophe.

Organized purging;

Lately I’ve noticed more people discussing simplifying their lives. In some cases this has to do with paring down physical possessions, in others simply re-evaluating priorities and time commitments. I’ve been kicking around the idea of doing something like a big purge for a while, but always get overwhelmed as soon as I start. Today, I saw the phrase “liquidity as luxury” and finally some of this all clicked, and will perhaps inspire me to actually get going.

The last time I really purged anything was in 2008. A few months earlier I had ended a long relationship and while moving I threw out so much stuff. Honestly I can’t remember what most of it was, so I must have done a pretty good job. It’s been over two years now, though, and I realize I still have far too many things. I have things I never use, and the things I do use aren’t organized properly. I’m not looking to be able to be a nomad on demand, but I really do need to get things in order. The big areas are:

Clothing

For some reason I have an entire dresser full of clothes, and I’m pretty sure I never wear most of them. I keep things for too long, especially things that have worn out or been torn, etc. Eventually I want my wardrobe to be made up of the very basics. I want all of my collared shirts to be hanging and I want to cut down on the number of t-shirts I have. This part of the to-do list is rather simple, donate anything that’s still good that I never wear, throw away things that are worn out, and organize what I want to keep. I’ll allow myself one medium-smallish rubbermaid bin for souvenir and band t-shirts. Eventually I want to have a rotation of collared shirts, a few nice pairs of jeans, a few pairs of casual pants, a couple pairs of dress pants and then one or two suits that fits me well. I do own a tuxedo that fits, so that is good to keep.

Workspace

I have a crap desk I bought at Target years ago that has no drawers. Instead I have some plastic thing with three drawers that are all literally full of junk. Full to the point of being unable to really function as drawers. I generally stuff my mail into one drawer, and cables and other things into the others. It’s a mess. No, I don’t really need that old 802.11b access point from college. That sort of thing. I need to just throw most of this away. On my to-acquire list is a nice desk with drawers, but that might have to wait a while. I’ll allow myself one medium-small rubbermaid bin for computer accessories or cables that I may legitimately one day use. All cords must be secured and all things going into this bin must be working and useful. As far as all the other junk I’ve put in there, any important papers can be filed with my other papers, and any mementos and other things will go into yet another bin. I will give myself one small bin to put keepsakes in, but they have to be worthwhile. Everything else goes. All I want remaining in my workspace area are things I use at least once a month. This would mostly be a pen or two, a notepad, my SD card reader, my checkbook, envelopes and stamps. Possibly some tape and blank CD-Rs.

Technology

My primary computer at home is a 17” Intel iMac. It’s an older model, from late 2006. I also have an iPhone 3GS and an iPad. The iPad is pretty much my go-to device at home, unless I am working in Photoshop or writing something of considerable length (I don’t have a Bluetooth keyboard yet). My setup is failing in a few areas, I’m running out of hard disk space on the iMac and the Superdrive is broken. There’s also too much WiFi interference in my apartment building, so I can’t get a reliable connection. Eventually I will need to get a Wireless-N access point, most likely an Airport Extreme. I could get the one with network storage, but I’d rather just buy a USB hard drive. I’ll also need to purchase a USB DVD writer for the iMac. Once I have these items all in place, I can do things like rip DVDs for my iPad. I’ll also eventually get an AV cable to hook the iPad up to my television. Sometime in 2011 I’ll replace the iMac, but for now I’ll have to make this set-up work. I suppose I’ll also need an 802.11N dongle for the iMac since it was the last revision without N support. I know that this section involves purchasing items rather than purging, but it is an effort to make things work better and more efficiently.

My Closets

The bulk of my “stuff” that remains is either in my closets or on my bookshelf. At this point I’m not going to consider purging any books. Instead, I’ll focus on the totes full of junk as well as my collection of jackets/hoodies/etc. I really don’t know how I ended up with so much stuff, but it’s all just falling off hangers, stuffed between boxes, etc. I like having a hoodie for travel, especially when on Amtrak (it gets so cold). Other than that, if the others fit with the t-shirts then I can keep them otherwise I need to donate them. I’ll keep a few jackets but make sure there is space for them. The other stuff, the things I kept last time I purged will need to be re-evaluated and then placed into a proper bin.

What’s the point of all this? Well, for one, to be less cluttered. As my days get busier and busier, I have less time and energy to search for things. I have less patience for things that don’t work how I want. I don’t need to have four of a Thing I never use, and zero of a Thing I need. I’m sick of tripping over piles of my own clothes because I have no room to put them away, even though I still have nothing to wear. This is also good preparation for any sort of eventual move, which will happen at some point. The most frustrating part of moving always seems to be that there’s so much crap you have forgotten about but you end up moving anyways simply because you are stressed due to moving and don’t want to deal with it.

Jumping off a cliff;

It’s been nearly four years since I jumped off a cliff and took a chance on a big adventure. I was fresh out of college, about five months into my first office job. I was working in IT, and I was fairly unhappy. I worked for a great organization, but being in the IT department often means being far removed from the action. The curse of working with technology in a non-technology organization.

I was bored and the economy hadn’t skidded yet. I assumed I would be able to find a new job just as easily as I had found my first one. I had been dabbling in live music photography for a while, and I wanted to pursue that a bit more. I started by getting to know some bands. I focused on sort of mid-level groups that played decent venues. I’d email them or find them on Myspace and offer to shoot their shows when they came to town. I wanted to meet them, and also capture the behind-the-scenes feel of their show. I thought it was incredibly interesting to see how these are just normal people who make a little bit of money recording and touring. It was always such a contrast, to talk to fans who imagined a band to be much ‘bigger’ than they were.

I was listening to an album by a band from Brooklyn called Dirty on Purpose. I liked the music, and ended up shooting their show at the Rock and Roll Hotel, shortly after that venue opened. Before they went on I was talking to them backstage, and they mentioned they were soon about to tour with the Album Leaf. I offhandedly mentioned that I’d never been to the west coast and that touring sounded intriguing. “You should come man, you’d see a lot of the country.”

So I jumped off the cliff. I thought about it for a while, except I had already made up my mind. I quit my job and went on the road for three and a half weeks. The tour started in Montreal and stretched out to Seattle, San Francisco, and back across the country. It was an incredible experience, and I saw first-hand the difficulties that independent artists face. I also saw first-hand just what an amazing and unique experience touring can be. I also got a few decent photographs.

In this case, jumping off the cliff didn’t change my life. It opened a few doors, I ended up doing another brief tour stint in 2007 (this time bigger names, it was an O.A.R. tour). It didn’t change my career path, and in fact I find myself now back in IT, though a bit better off. While I have regrets about other decisions I made over the past five or so years, this is not one of them. The bigger regret would have been not going.

I like to think I’ve learned a few things over the years, but really all I’ve learned is that things never turn out how you expect. When you are afraid of taking that chance, of jumping off the cliff, the fear is usually based on worst-case scenarios that may never come to pass. Our minds fill the unknown with things we do know—all the ways we can fail. That’s some bullshit, though, because in the end if you do fail, it will likely be in a way you haven’t even thought about.  The urge to jump is there because there’s a chance that the unknown will turn out to be amazing. Sometimes that happens, and it changes your life. Other times it turns out to be just another step, another experience that pushes you along until you reach the next overlook.

So, I’m building a new bicycle;

I have a bicycle, it’s a Trek from the ’80s and don’t get me wrong it’s a great bike. There are things I don’t exactly love about it, mostly the drop handlebars and the fact that it has all those gears I don’t use. Mostly, what bothers me is that I didn’t build it.

That said, I don’t know very much about bicycles. I’m in the process of learning, and I figure the best way to learn about all of this is to build something. Thankfully my uncle is a bicycle guru, and I have plenty of friends who are knowledgable on the subject. As a result, I’m telling myself I want to learn how to build a bicycle.

I’m going to be building a singlespeed commuter bike based on a Raleigh Technium frame. When it’s done, it’ll look something like this, but with different handlebars (maybe):

I’m not going to be able to do everything myself, though eventually I will want to know how to do things like true my wheels and all of that. However, I’m probably going to be spending a lot of time over at Rollin’ Cycles on 14th and other various bike shops.

I know that it’s popular to do fixies these days, but I really want to be able to coast. I haven’t decided if I’ll do a flip-flop setup or not, but I don’t really see myself wanting to ride fixed. I live at the top of a moderate hill, and while getting up it isn’t extremely difficult, going down would be a pain in the ass without coasting. I know I could get over that or whatever, but at this point I’m not looking for all of that.

I just want something simple and light that gets me where I want to go.

I’ll likely document most of the project on here, if only for someone else who wants to do the same thing. I’m excited, this should be fun.

Did Vincent Gray just lose the blogosphere?

Today I received an invitation to attend a blogger roundtable with Vincent Gray, the Chairman of the Council of District of Columbia and candidate for Mayor. This would be a good thing, to have some time to hear Gray’s thoughts and get a feeling for his campaign. I appreciate that. The invite also went out to many other notable DC bloggers, and shows that the Gray campaign understands new media, all of that. I’ll note I have not received anything similar from any other candidate.

The problem, however, is that the invitation itself was patronizing and insulting to all of the hard work many of us do. Here’s a snip, written by Ian Koski, Gray’s New Media Director:

Unfortunately I have to make one point about expectations — this isn’t an opportunity for activism. We’ll expect the same level of decorum and professionalism exhibited by full-time journalists so that everyone who has a question gets the opportunity to have it answered.

I’m glad to hear about your expectations, Ian, as if I would expect any less from myself or any of my fellow bloggers. Furthermore, why would you invite someone you didn’t expect this of? This isn’t an 8th grade field trip, where I need to be lectured about how to handle myself in the city. This attitude—that bloggers should be grateful that Vincent Gray is willing to take some time to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl and talk about talking points is completely ridiculous.

Furthermore,

Assuming this one goes well and is productive, we’ll have a few more availabilities exclusive to bloggers before Primary Day. We’ve tentatively planned them for the morning of July 31, the evening of August 16, and then the final one on the morning of September 4.

Goes well and is productive? So, if we surprise you and don’t act like the animals that DC bloggers are known to be, we’ll be able to do it again? I don’t need to spend some time chit-chatting with Vincent Gray to write about the campaign. I don’t need to attend this event to remain a blogger. On the other hand, Gray’s campaign could stand to benefit significantly from having a positive relationship with bloggers.

Surely there are bloggers that are known to be less-than-serious in their writings. However, I have attended many events along with many of the people who were on this invitation. We know how to act. You reached out to us because we are the people you want to communicate with. If you respect us enough to read our articles and contact us, you should respect us enough to not lecture us.