Author: Daniel

Daniel https://turnings.phrasewise.com/ In the 4th grade Daniel was asked to step in into the hall because he was coaching fellow students on a similarity assignment he provided the class. Since then, Daniel’s passion for helping people has propelled him to be a creative developer of software and systems, and a team coach who excels at successfully delivering business value. Daniel founded QuietlyHelping in 2009 in order to have a direct hand in helping families with the struggles of debilitating disease. QuietlyHelping is an organization of compassion and empathy that brings ease, comfort, smiles, laughter, healing, and love to people battling cancer and other diseases. Spare time activities include cycling, occasional work as a musician, woodworking, photography, and reading books he never got around to in school. Unsurprisingly, Daniel is able to cook minute rice in just under thirty seconds.
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A bad day, some great beer (Dogfish Head)

So it’s been kinda rough (it’s all relative, but ya know.) Work has been a challenge, it’s still rainy on the weekends, and Lisa has been going through some health stuff… and some great folks have passed away recently.

A couple guys were let go at work. And it’s never easy, and they were good guys. To clear the air we arranged our team room more to our liking. It helped clear the air, set a new spirit, brought some of the lightness that comes with cleaning and clutter removal. But it wasn’t quite enough.

We got a chance to work with someone new on some of our stuff this week. Matt has been really cool to work with, we’ve got the start of some excellent improvements. Living as he does way closer to Philly than I, he was able to procure some excellent beer which is hard to get up here.

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Some friends had long ago recommended Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales, but it was not easy to get the varieties around here, and I had only tried one. But it lent enormous promise to this undertaking.

Matt understands the awesome power of beer, and in true braveheart, knight of the realm, heck or high water fashion, dragged six packs and four packs of Raison D’Etre, Indian Brown Ale, Pano Santo Marron and 90 Minute Imperial IPA (all from Dogfish Head) up from down there to us here in the Big City. Considering it’s like a 3 hour train ride and haul across town… it was much appreciated.

We made some room in a little known fridge for six bottles and got to work. At the end of the day, with one last meeting to go, we broke out the varieties for some tasting to go with the meeting. Now anyone who has cracked a cold one when a group has been working hard and fighting the good fight knows the positive impact a good beer can have… this wasn’t a loud, chugging keg thing… it was a tasting, an exploration, a gentile experiment in the possibilities and hard work of others… a small bit of sensory payback for a hard working team enjoying the work of other hard working folks (beer this good cannot be easy to make!)

And the Dogfish Head did not disappoint. Mark had this to say about the Palo Santo Marron “I love the caramel flavor! One of the best brown ales I’ve ever had.” Evan said “If I had to assign a number between 1-10 the Raison D’Etre would get an 11” (and I’d agree, I loved it! Lively and filled with flavor, beautifully balanced, with a rich earthy color).

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of “Hi, c’mon on in, the meeting will be over in a few minutes, grab a glass and have a taste (pause for pouring, sniffing, tasting… ah and then…) “You guys sure know how to live!”. Which is is exactly why the effort was made to procure Dogfish Head. The team deserved to feel that level of care and appreciation. Done.

Dogfish Head… simply amazing. (If you’re reading along here, make the effort to try some.) It’s a shame they don’t sell sampling packs…

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We’ll be doing this every two weeks, suggestions about highest quality craft beers are welcome…

Strength is forever. Fight like Susan.

Don’t Say She Lost:

Susan died tonight (August 5) at 7:25pm. It was a hard, long day, and Susan fought right to the end, for much longer than anyone would have thought she could.

Susan’s part in the battle is over, but she didn’t lose. She led the charge. She showed the rest of us how to fight: with determination, focus, creativity, and outrageous endurance.

Now it’s up to the rest of us to Fight Like Susan.

[Susan, my old boss and friend Steve, my father-in-law, my friends, are the reason I got involved. Each story is heart breaking and painful, and uplifting and joyful too. Please give. It means something. It helps people. It helps find cures. Help them, help yourself. Strength is forever. Fight Like Susan.]
Source: Fat Cyclist

Journalism BS

“Those direct, near-instantaneous dispatches are far less reliable than old-fashioned journalism.” And upon this I call BS. I have found that any reportage where I’ve been to the event, seen and heard and experienced for myself, has been incorrect at some level of detail. Every single one. Why? Because of editing. Because if you’re collecting interviews and making notes you are not experiencing the event. Because certain interests are promoted (newsworthiness, sponsorship, patronage etc.)

I don’t disagree that the wildfire repetition of unconfirmed information is the road to accuracy either. But this core assumption that the news orgs are more reliable than a series of first hand accounts is just crap.

Also in this article is whining from Steve Frothingham:

It’s one-sided,” said VeloNews.com editor Steve Frothingham in explaining the policy. “It’s us just sitting there taking what he’s giving. We can’t just not ask follow-up questions, we can’t ask any questions.

Have you heard the inane, worthless, follow up questions most reporters ask? I’m not saying that it’s easy in the scrum that is most press events to come up with scintillating and to the point questions, but considering that and the usual lack of answer (stay on message, stay on message) it’s hardly problematic.

What all this whining is really about is disintermediation. And that’s a problem not so easily fixed if your in the news business.

And from the past… “Jorn Barger, the NewsPage Network, and the Emergence of the Weblog Community”

I received an email from Rudolf Ammann about a conference paper that included a reference to an old website of mine then five years into its existence. What a fun time period! (The paper was presented at Hypertext 2009, 30 June 2009, Torino, Italy)

I’m cited as a source that the “NewsPage Network” wasn’t yet “blog rolling” to use a term that couldn’t possibly have existed at that moment. I can’t say I thought of folks who used that software as a network, although I see why one could.

Several years into his news page project, Daniel Berlinger for his part had yet to put up any sort of links to kindred sites.[30] Thus, the sites that Gulker identified as a network shared a publishing tool and a publishing model but no sense of cohesion amongst each other.

(The actual citation is “Berlinger, Daniel (2000-06-06). “News from the Digital Prairie”. Circumtech. Retrieved on 2009-06-30.”)

I think that’s a fair statement.

But at roughly the same time there’s another site of mine that has pointers to a network of folks, although in a redesign not long after, they’re gone again.

And I think looking back (with all the problems and corrections and misremembering of this sort of thing) that I was writing many sites that were constantly being organized and reorganized with different themes and ideas. The Archipelago site was a eat your own dog food site for my weblog editor (named, appropriately, Archipelago). Then as FAQs rolled in and development continued the site was redesigned with new focus and features. The header image for example changed with the seasons, and eventually was automated to do so. Other sites were more about longer form writing, rather than linking to news of the day. But anyway…

Nicely done.

And a toast to all the folks who quietly brought the idea of writing on the web to life, one little bit at a time.

Feels like summer

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It was a glorious day to take Noah swimming. Lisa headed off to her parents place, leaving me time to ride and take care of some chores. After that we were going to prepare for the week, and watch the Tour.

I set off with Jenni, headed for my local loop with its climbs, swoopy descents, and dappled sunlight. Hold that thought.

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We ran into John and Mike out for their own lovely spin. The weather was truly spectacular. Ok. Back to Dappling.

The dappled sunlight will kill you on a decent. It hides all sorts of road issues… such as abyss like pot holes. I saw the monster at the last second, cleverly hiding in the shadows next to a bright patch of sunlight, but I failed to completely hop the crevasse. I ejected my 3034_1.jpgsuper bright stealth Planet Bike tail light when my rear wheel hit the front lip, but there was no point in stopping as it shattered in the roadway. The entire light didn’t fly off the mount as is so often the case, no, no. Here the light split itself wide open leaving the back in the mount. And while I didn’t know it at that moment, I untrued my back wheel with the same hit. Ow.

We decided to take the longer way around, which included hopping off one’s bike to cross a bridge that is closed to car traffic and headed for route 17 (not a particularly pleasant road to ride on because of the speed of the car traffic. We managed however to stay out of trouble, even during the nasty transition where cars exit left to continue on into NJ, and we hold out lane to get back to stay in NY.

We stopped for some drinks, and as we got into the quieter sections I heard the dreaded rhythmic rubbing sound. Next chance I got I hopped off my bike, spun the rear wheel, grimaced when I saw the deflection of the the untrue wheel, opened the rear brakes and pushed them off center. I hopped back on and continued.

This is where Jenni tells the story of her bonk. I don’t tell other people’s bonk stories, because, well, each of those folks has crawled along with me and my bonks, with nary a complaint or mention ever. That said, I’ve never seem Jenni bonk like she did yesterday. Not even close.

After I got home and cleaned up I realized I had one more chore to add to the list since I now had to get my rear wheel trued (and frankly inspected) on top of the other stuff. The key chore however was gassing up the Grill tank and buying the parts I needed to rebuild it. Somewhat organized, I made my way, got the parts I needed, my wheel and heart were true again and while batting the last of the yellow jackets out of my way rebuilt the grill in time to pile some “snausages” on there (Snausages being my borrowed term for the all veggie tofu “sausages” we’ve been eating as an occasional treat).

Very soon after Lisa and sleeping Noah returned from their day of splashing and fun. Noah woke up briefly, demanded a movie (since no one could manage to get the DVD player at his grandparents to work) and promptly fell back to sleep. Lisa and I enjoyed a quiet meal, and preparations for the week ensued. We fell asleep watching a fairly boring bit of Tour. Noah was up by 4:30am, ready to start his day. Me? Not so much. Allez!

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Finally, a sunny day

It was finally sunny, and I got out for a nice loop. 1300 ft. of climbing, 32 miles and change.

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As a bonus I found a way to ride the significant hill into Harriman that leaves me on my bike. You see, I’ve been beating myself against a wall of hill that is insidious in its elevation. It starts at a 10 percent grade, but quickly eases to 8 or 9% and then again for a span to 7 or 8. But it’s just a setup. Just when you think all is well it rises back to 9% and stays there for a while, and then if that hasn’t gotten ya, rises back to 10 and then, once again, just when you think you’re good — it finishes with a section at 13%. Ow.

There’s a road that joins just before the 13% grade but that road stair steps its way to that point. Plenty of time to catch one’s breath, etc.church_jenni_hoop.jpgOn the far side of the hill I took a side road (the benefits of having a GPS with me) and found this sign, which had been nicely modified.

A great day for a ride.

Worn out gear (5.10 Camp Fours are the new hotness!)

5.10campfours.jpg Now that summer has arrived, despite the wet weather, I decided to go through the gear and chuck or giveaway the worn footwear and replace that which needed replacing.

Many of you will recognize the dislike of removing well broken in gear… stuff I’ve been happy with for years. At the same time, the companies move on and you sometimes can’t replace stuff. However, sometimes, stuff works out.

I’ve been wearing Five Ten shoes for a long time. It started way back when I was hiking and climbing. Their slippers were a standard amongst the crowd, and I very quickly fell in love with their Guide Tennies (the down to the toe lace adjustment, super sticky stealth rubber, and supportively stiff soles) and have worn them ever since (about 4 pairs worth at this point).

Naturally, looking to replace some light hikers I’ve had for a while, I turned to them and found their Camp Four model a mid ankle style that I like for hiking (not too high, not too low), a sole stiff where it needs to be, a nice fitting heel cup, and the down to the toe lacing. Some were suggesting a half size larger, but I found my regular size was best.

It’s been a few days and I can assure you they’re as good as one would hope. They’re light, comfortable, have the right balance of cushion to stiffness. They’d make an excellent hiker even with a heavyish pack (although I’m from the “go light” school myself (Tuckerize that pack!)).

Anyway, If you’ve never tried Five Ten, give them a whirl, they have a nice range, are a family owned business, and produce some of the stickiest rubber for hiking and climbing. (The pair of Teva sandals that I use for river running has 5.10 stealth rubber on the bottoms… they are so much better than everything else I’ve tried on slick wet rocks.)

More gear stuff (which everyone seems to ask me about) as I have time.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with Five Ten other than that of happy customer.

It’s so not gonna be flat…

climb_toward.png Yesterday’s ride never had a hope of being flat. And it’s time for me to get hilly. I need some fitness and the hills are one way to do it.

Lately, there’s been a fairly consistent crowd for the Sunday morning rides, but they are clearly more fit than I. Little wonder considering the dearth of riding for me this year… but it does represent a challenge I’m up for. Anyway, a few weeks ago I had an abortive ride caused mostly by my being over-medicated in the blood pressure dept. following a significant change in diet. After 500ft of climbing I had to call it quits with my heart racing in my chest. No pain, but completely toast. I basically turned around after 5 miles, rolled back down the hill as far as I could, stopped to let my heart slow, and continuing. When I reached the bottom, after sitting still for fifteen minutes, I finally caught my breath and slowed my heart. Then, I rode some more, because while I was cooked, there was no pain, so I felt safe. The next day, with my Doctors consent I dropped the BP medication and haven’t looked back. The next ride had the leeway that comes along with only riding with one other person, but began to suggest that things were getting better.

Of course, there was a two week layoff from riding again (I simply can’t get my schedule together this year, yet. Maybe my boss can help me out…) so once again I had no idea how I was going to feel on a ride that I knew would have some steep climbing.

I started poorly as I left any hints of cash at home. I also forgot that the Park where we were starting starts collecting parking fees at 8. I was there two minutes after. Sigh. So I used an old trick that allows me to park free of cost, but does cause me to ride a short steep at the end of my ride in order to get to my car.

So I roll out for a warmup loop, carefully timed so that I’m at the starting point nicely warmed up when I realize that I’m not wearing my sunglasses. It’s not really a problem, but the glasses I had on are not nearly as protective, so I hustled up a bit and climbed back to the car, exchanged glasses and rolled back to the parking lot.

The climbing started shortly after we left. First good sign, I wasn’t completely off the back. Second good sign, I was close enough to stay with the group for about 15 miles before I finally hit a patch of climbing that separated me from the pack. Finally, there was one other person who was in roughly the same boat (while climbing) although better than I still, but close enough that we formed a gruppeto and made our way back. We were sorely tempted to bail and have my wife deliver us back to the start since we were very close to my house at the time, but I was determined not to bail. That’s a bad habit to get into.

In the end, we had a great ride back, and another frien we met in the parking lot was kind enough to toss my bike in his van and drive me up the last incline. I was cooked, but in a far better way. And while I climbed slowly, I never redlined or got to the point where I needed to stop. Good stuff. Now to continue to build on my dropping weight and increasing fitness.

It’s gonna be flat

[You’re all stats weenies! 24.33 miles, 693 feet of climbing.]

These are words that cannot be trusted. Ever. Jenni, seen here, is notoriously untrustworthy when it comes the words above. I’ve learned not to trust those words, they are simply never the case.0531091025a.jpg

That said, I figured at least there would be no hills that look like walls as many Rockland county hills can. The rest I was up for…

Now Jenni did have a plan to make us climb a significant bit of hill… but I knew I wasn’t ready for that today and I had a time limit as well (more on that later).

We started at Bear Mountain State park. I got there early to spin a bit and warm up. It was cool when I started (50F) so I had knee warmers, a thin rain cape, and a hat under my helmet. Jenni of course, could not pass up a chance to poke fun, even as she screamed in pain on the first shady downhill, which no doubt froze various body parts that, well, probably should never freeze. It was easy enough to shed the jacket and hat, and eventually knee warmers as the day warmed. And the peasants rejoiced!

I digress however.

We rode across the Bear Mountain bridge which you can see here:0531090955.jpg

Turning north, we headed up 9D toward Cold Spring. As you can see the scenery is quite lovely as you ride along the Hudson Highlands. You pass a bunch of historical markers including the spot where the “First Chain” was stretched across the Hudson to prevent the British ships from making their way up the river.

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There’s one nice spot where you’ve descended to the river and you are essentially at the bottom and that’s where we turned around. Jenni was captivated by the outcropping, dreaming dreams of climbing the face. I was wondering whether I could a hitch ride back up the hills via a passing van or something.

Actually, they weren’t bad at all, not steep, not long, and quite pleasant over all. Plus since I dropped my BP med the other day (courtesy of my new diet and old Doc) I felt far better than recently when my blood pressure was 80 something over 50 for a brief period.

I’m finally getting some consistent miles under my wheels, and with the recent drop in weight I’m beginning to feel good. I haven’t crossed that threshold this year, ya know, the one where I feel like a cyclist, but the riding has been improving steadily, some fitness should follow now that a health impediment has been removed.

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As for the aforementioned time limit, Gerry Laybourne was kind enough to invite the old dev team from Oxygen to her home to catch up and once again enjoy each others company. So after the ride this morning I hustled home, we finished packing some food, and headed into the City to Central Park. Noah got a kick out of the horses and Pedicabs, and as excited as he was to visit the City and see everyone, he fell asleep in his stroller giving Lisa and I a few minutes to sit in the shade and enjoy each others company. Then we had a chance to catch up with everyone for a few hours. It was quite beautiful. Such a lovely group of people.