Featured

Yesterday I was pleased to learn that my mad little velo-world was featured in an article called "Bicycle Glamour: Everyday Cycling vs. Competitive Sport" on deepglamour.net. This was most unexpected - first, because Deep Glamour is not a bicycle-related publication, but even more so because I am familiar with the author's writing.

Deep Glamour is a weblog run by Virginia Postrel, who is a contributing editor of the Atlantic Monthly and the author of several books including The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. I like Ms. Postrel's work very much, and so you can imagine how nice it was to discover that she wrote about my website. To my further delight, the article mentioning Lovely Bicycle was not only interesting in itself, but quoted me properly and did not distort the meaning of my words. I've had bad experiences with journalists in my non-bicycle life, and frankly I expect the worst when anything is written about me in publications - so Hurray for journalistic integrity!
Deep Glamour is a cultural commentary blog that "explores the magic of glamour in its many manifestations" - something I suspect many of my readers might find appealing. I appreciate Ms. Postrel's writing about bicycles in the way they deserve to be written about - in the context of glamour and romance.

SNOW... and more flood damage photos

In the newspapers, NPS officials predict road openings as late as Christmas, but cautiously hope it will happen sooner. At this time, it's difficult to tell just how long it will take to get things ready. Another complication is the ongoing Paradise construction project. The contractors had planned to work continuously this Fall and this isn't helping. In the meantime, I'm cheering for the road, electric and water treatment crews who are hustling to get things reopened.

It snowed in Longmire Friday night. It was only a few inches, but enough to ignite those enthusiastic dreams of pristine mountaineering and great backcountry runs. Paradise measured 18 inches of new snow Saturday and 21 more today, Sunday! The National Weather Service is calling for another storm, which has already started off colder.

Here are a few extra images that I didn't weave into the blog earlier. To the left is the only road into the Kautz Helibase. This one may not be so easy to repair, because some of the creeks have changed their course and now flow down road corridors.

The main image above is of Longmire from the air. You can note that the river's flow has decreased, that there are a number of recently uprooted large trees and new log jams, and that the river came very close to taking out the Emergency Operations Center.

As for creeks that change their courses, the main one of concern so far is Kautz Creek. It jumped its main channel about a mile above the road, and now runs through the forest as seen in this aerial photo. Note the dry creek bed where it once flowed. You can also see the younger forest as compared to the older growth.

Winding Road

When you see a sign like this don't take it lightly. Narrow winding roads in the Jemez Mountains mean that the roads can be so narrow that two cars can't pass each other.

Feesten

In English meaning feasts, parties or just plain get-togethers with booze. Ah, we are indeed back to that time of the year when the holiday season calls us to party! That means non-stop attendance of gatherings since Friday last week, at least for me. Before I realized, the weekend flew out the window so quick. Monday came and I found myself sitting, and brooding a bit in the conference room during our early Monday meeting at work wondering why I was there when I thought yesterday was still Friday, lol. These days, I am coming home late and sleeping in the next day only to wake up for the next party. UGHHHH. I am not a party beast so this is really taking a toll on my selfish ‘me’ times.



I have here a few fotos of the boat ride during our Christmas party at work, after that we had a comedian, and a magician who took me as his greenhorn subject, entertain us at a restaurant near Leidseplein. Below are also some fotos of my dinner last night with a very good friend Herr Philippe whom I haven’t seen for a while. He brought me to this really nice place in Amsterdam, in Haarlemmerstraat, home to quite a number of gourmet shops and alternative restaurants.




Fotos are blurred... because I really need to buy a new camera. The boat was also moving faster here so it wasn't very easy to take fotos on the dock. The second foto is the 'Romantic (Draw)Bridge' near Carre Theater and Amstel Hotel. Amsterdam is always lovely on a boat cruise... by day and by night. I've done both, a couple of times already.





Here is a very tired me during the Christmas Party at work - didn't really have many fotos of myself though and in this one I look like I had too much wine (looking sleepy as usual). The middle foto is the popular cuisine street, Harlemmerstraat in Amsterdam... and me obviously, taken last night Monday by Herr Philippe. Below is a pretty row of typical Dutch 'trapgevel' houses or buildings in Renaissance style in the Haarlemmerbuurt area (north west of Amsterdam Centrum). To the left of these buildings is Haarlemmerstraat already.



Here is a very cool way of viewing the real street in moving pictures (click here): Haarlemmerstraat - drag the cursor (sleep mij) below the foto slowly, and to view the rest of the shops on the street click on the building numbers just right below the cursor, i.e. 2-32, 46-96, etcetera and drag again the moving cursor or let it move on its own.



Dutchman and I also went to a party in Friesland and we came home the next day at past two in the morning. Obviously we overslept and we had to rush our running very late brunch and drive straight to IJsselstein for another party, a birthday gathering of the family for my niece.

This coming weekend will be lots of work, general cleaning at home and tidying my walk-in closet, which is one of our spare bedrooms and home to my burgeoning collection of clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. Loads of clean clothes piled on top of each other on the carpet floor and like my neglected little orphans, they have been desperately crying and reaching out to me to be hanged and folded in the closet, for weeks! So lots of chores to be done before Christmas and I am so not looking forward to it. Plus, the Dutchman wants to hang the TV on the living room wall which will involve drilling and of course me assisting him.

After all these, off we go to Germany for the Christmas Markets!

I must say that I am more excited about the latter. The former, I badly need help, I really don't mind forking out you know.

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Eagle

This is the sculpture of the bald eagle.

RootsTech :: Day One

The day began with the Keynote Address by Jay Verkler (with a little assistance from a few other people). It was rather mind-boggling listening to his vision for the future of genealogy research – if only it were possible to live to 2060 to see if his vision becomes reality! Wow. Mr. Verkler has recently stepped down as President and CEO of FamilySearch. In that capacity he helped guide and transform FamilySearch into a leading genealogy-tech company that is bringing online so many wonderful digital documents.





Along with many of the other 4,000+ attendees, I went into the Exhibit Hall after the keynote address The hall was absolutely packed! I found Thomas MacEntee handing out the geneablogger beads and picked up mine.





Michele Goodrum and I were chatting away like old friends when a “crew” came up and asked if they could interview one of us. I said sure, and then literally pushed Michelle in front of me as I stepped aside!





Luckily, Michele didn't hold that against me and graciously allowed Bart Brenner to take our photo.





And, here is Bart...

The first session I attended was Mining Newspaper Archives. It was a little disappointing as it was mostly about the process of getting the newspapers digitized and online. They also only discussed two of the sites available for newspaper research.



After lunch with Michele, it was off to the RootsTech Genealogy Idol presentation. Each of the contestants did a great job and congratulations go to Marian Pierre-Louis for winning the most votes and becoming the first Genealogy Idol.





I must say, I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and style of Elyse Doerflinger. She is going to make a wonderful teacher.



Evernote was the topic of the next session I attended. I had heard of Evernote but had never taken the time to learn anything about it. I think it definitely has possibilities for research purposes.



As with Evernote, I knew almost nothing about tablet computers so was hoping that Jill Ball could tell me all about them in her “Galaxy Girls” presentation. Jill discussed some of the benefits of the Samsung Galaxy tablets as well as their limitations. Then went on to talk a little bit about some of the apps and widgets that are not specifically genealogy apps but can be useful in doing research.



All in all, it was a good day – attending interesting sessions and seeing “old friends” once again!

Gratitude

Gratitude is a beautiful thing. I've been full of thoughts of gratitude all month long. Today I realized what a strange thing it can be though. We did a Skype chat with one of our Reach the World classrooms. And I left with such overwhelming gratitude for the opportunity, I had to blog while I am still full of the emotions that it filled me with.



Picture it. Here we are sitting in sunny and warm Florida...hanging out in our lounge chairs next to the palm trees. Living a leisurely and good life. On the other end is a fourth grade classroom. In Harlem. Living...well, I don't know how, because I've never been to Harlem. But I'm guessing it is not so warm and maybe not so lazy of a pace.



That's not the point though. Because it's not like we were sitting around feeling sorry for them because we are in Florida and they are in Harlem. We've traveled enough to know that every place is interesting and has it's pros and cons. So it's not pity moving us to be here. In fact, we were not really sitting around feeling anything but excited to do this. We want to give this classroom full of wonderful little people whatever it is they might ask of us during the chat. Stories, information, maybe just a chance to talk to someone living somewhere else.

On the other hand, we are not so naive that we aren't aware that they may in fact lead a harder in some ways life than we currently are. We realize just being in school might be a daily challenge. Getting good grades and having great attendance might be something that presses heavily on them and is a giant victory when they do succeed in reaching those goals. We trust like most children, they are warriors in their own ways.

But none of this is on our minds at this moment. Mostly I am just filled with excitement that I get to do this chat with them. And I'm wondering how Austin will do with it all. The point is, I am completely self absorbed really. Just full of myself wondering what I can give and hoping it is enough and so grateful to have the opportunity.

The point is, I'm not thinking at all about what this might mean to them.



Then the beauties and cuties file in and we see them on the webcam. They are awesome. Bright and shining faces and all. Nervous grins so we are waving at them to ease them (and ourselves). The teacher says how excited they've been to meet us. That they showed up on Monday waiting to chat. (We had to cancel and reschedule due to our travel plans) And then she says...they dressed up so they'd look their best for you. I look and see that they are in fact dressed up. In their Sunday best. To meet us.



At which point I lost it. I mean, started crying right on the spot. Had to step away from the webcam to pull myself together. These amazing people were so excited to meet *us* that they dressed up to look their best for it??? Seriously??? Oh, my. I didn't quite know what to do with that except stop and revel in the wonder of it.

These lovelies were extending such a precious gift of gratitude to us. Wow. It's a rare moment in life when you realize equally mutual gratitude is happening right at that very moment. I mean I've been on one side or the other many times and it's a good thing to be on either side. But to have both of you be so filled with gratitude and sharing it in this communal way. It's a deeply spiritual thing. It changes you. It is something words can't quite capture.



I was just showing up to do a chat on our travels. I had no idea such a beautiful gift would be given to me. Incredible! What a wonderful, and oh so fitting way to head into Thanksgiving.



Thank you, Ms. Johnson's class. I can't wait to meet you in person. It is a given I will cry even harder then.

What does a Size 4 Avi look Like?

I'm climbing in Canada and the Cascadesagain this winterso paying attention is a priority. (just like it isevery winter)



This from a past co-worker and one timeclimbing partner and now the Manager, Public Avalanche Warning Service. Canadian Avalanche Centre, Karl Klassen.



more here:

http://acmg.ca/mcr/default.asp





What does a Size 4 Look Like? March 18, - byKarl Klassen



I've posted some photos in the Avalanches - image gallery under the library tab that are illustrative of what a big slide looks like and the associated destructive potential. They show before and after a size 4 avalanche passed through a slide path in the central Selkirk Mountains just a few days ago. Local records indicate the last time something went this big here was 1972.



Data this morning suggests avalanche activity is slowing down and the weather forecast indicates we'll see bluer skies and sunnier conditions in the next couple of days, but this is not the time to assume avalanche conditions have improved. Better weather and sun may actually make things worse today and tomorrow and it certainly affects people's mood and decision making.



In my experience, the current snowpack and avalanche cycle typically goes into a low-probability/high-consequence cycle right about now. The likelihood of triggering goes down; that is the problem layers are less sensitive to triggers so it takes a bigger trigger (for example a cornice fall or small avalanche from above or a sled with rider) to start a slide. And/or or the number of places where you will trigger an avalanche with lighter loads (such as a skier) is reduced. As a result, we see fewer avalanches in general, but the ones that do occur, either from natural or human triggers, tend to be big. If you get mixed up with something like what's shown in the photos above, you will likely not survive.



It will take a while yet before we can determine if the existing snowpack conditions will stabilize or if the current avalanche cycle will turn into a long-term low-probability/high-consequence scenario.



In the meantime, past experience and research indicates sunny blue-sky days lead to people under-estimating lingering avalanche hazard and they tend to make more aggressive decisions and terrain choices on nice days than on stormy ones. This is absolutely the wrong thing to do right now. The next few days will test your resolve and discipline but it's essential that you not let good weather and pristine slopes change your approach to the mountains. My (and all the other professionals I talk to) spidey senses are tingling and I'm going to be working hard to keep my fun-meter in check and keep the smart-meter in control over the next few days.






before





after

Old fotos of Hong Kong

Over the weekend during a family party, we talked about Hong Kong, being one of the easiest cities to travel to for a whirlwind weekend getaway—the airport is conveniently linked with the metro (MTR) to the city and within minutes you are in downtown Kowloon amidst all the shops and restaurants while Hong Kong Island is just another metro stop or a few minutes ferry ride away. And I just realized that I have not really featured Hong Kong in my blog, and that is why I am posting this now to make up for the lack.







At the Victoria Peak in Hong Kong Island looking over Central District, taken with a pre-digital camera, roll of film developed and printed, scanned and then uploaded =)



I’d really love to visit this bustling city again. Would love to saunter on the busy streets, smell smoked peking ducks hanging from each restaurant’s window and watch the cooks shout at each other in shrilly Cantonese, try one of those Hongkong style tea with milk—an inheritance from the old British colonial days, shop, shop and shop (for culinary stuff!), then trek to Victoria Peak for the panoramic sunset.



Cantonese, they say is the hardest of all Chinese languages, and this is Hong Kong’s main language of instruction. The only achievement I have from my Chinese summer lessons in the 70’s is I am able to count in Fookien (struggling a bit though) and count in Mandarin as well, but just up to 10, haha. My sister though is way better, she may not be that fluent in speaking but she can understand Mandarin and write as well.



Dutchman was in Hongkong a few months back but he didn’t bring back new fotos with him so please bear with these very old pre-digital days fotos that managed to survive many laptop tragedies and migrations, taken some 8 years ago.



































I think it is time to visit Hongkong again.