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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The Joys Of Life…

The Joys Of Life…: Watching 4 guys in a pace line, with full-on Time Trial gear, going -maybe- 12mph while Chloe and me passed them at 19mph, with Chloe honking her newish Honka Hoota and shouting, “EYE OF THE TIGER BABY… EYE OF THE TIGER!!!”. [Not that long ago I witnessed a similar happening. I was pulling Noah in the trailer, and there were signs and then cops and then hordes of people at the usually quiet park. The signs said “Biathlon” (well, there was a sponsor’s name, but they’ve never done me any favors…). For one split second I wondered who was going to the shooting with images of cyclists jumping off their bikes to take aim at something… and realized that someone was trying their hand at marketing and failing (apparently the name is changing next year to duathlon eliminating my vision and possibly a fatal misunderstanding). Anyway, so the competitors start arriving in all their racing glory, and behold the always enjoyable sight of someone on a “townie” bike (upright, non-aero position) in shorts and t-shirt, passing someone in full tri gear… skinsuit, aero bars, disk wheel… the works. I burst out laughing, but only Noah heard me, and there was no way to explain… It’s not about the bike (or gear).]
Source: Large Fella on a Bike

Dissecting today’s Internet traffic spikes

Dissecting today’s Internet traffic spikes: This, in many ways, is like a tornado. Our ability to predict them sucks. Our responses are crude and they are quite damaging. However, predicting these Internet traffic events isn’t even possible — there are no building weather patterns or early warning signs. Instead we are forced to focus on different techniques for stability and safety. The idea of a DoS, a DDoS or the sometimes similar signature of a sudden popularity spike doesn’t increase my heart rate anymore — it’s just another day on the job. However, I thought I’d share the four guidelines that I believe are key to my sanity in these situations [Good article… from someone who knows. I worked with Theo & Co. back in ’00-’01. They do this stuff all day every day.]
Source: The Scriptures of Jesus

The North County Trailway

north_county_trailway_05_2008.gifA nice sized group of us collected over in Westchester county for a social 40+ mile jaunt up the North County Trailway. A rail to trail conversion project it has a fairly consistent 2% grade while you’re headed north. The ride leader thought to start off with a bucolic scene of a local farm and cows grazing in the fields. Don’t let that wall like double climb worry anyone… it’s short. Naturally, it completely fractured the group.

NCT initial elevation.png

After spending a long time regrouping (almost) we were heading up the trail. I didn’t snapshot the speeds enough to know for sure, but most of the riding was in the 13 – 15 area, and of course, stunting and sprinting, and playing around ensued so there were section cranked up to 28.7 mph while we all goofed around.

I still seem to be bonking after about 18 miles… I’m not sure why. A short rest and some light pedaling is all it takes to revive, but I never noticed it in prior years. Hmmm.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a ride, and much fun was had. Thanks always to my sponsor… my lovely wife, who sprung me loose for the day.

I should also point out that the giant blank area on my back could be displaying *your* message, advertising, or company logo. Feel free to get in touch.

Your Piehole…

Your Piehole…: These days, these foods and the lifestyles they are fostering, are making less & less sense in their impact to [and on] land, water, urban-sprawl, the uglification of what our eyes have to look at while out and about, the air, the atmosphere, and our health [of course physically, but mentally too]… so much so, the only real purpose they are serving is Profit, Laziness and the seemingly unending need for Immediate Gratification.
[While Scott’s last coupla posts have seemed a bit bitter to me, that’s prolly in my head, rather than in the words, so I’ll not say more about it. There are many good things about people on bicycles but those of us who ride for recreation and commutation (multi-modal for me) should not be climbing on any high horses. Start at the basics. Where’d that bike come from? Where’s did the steel, scandium, aluminum, carbon fiber, resin, grease, lube, plastic, rubber, cork, paint etc. come from? Who dug it out of the ground, produced a “finished” product and shipped it to be built into that bike? Who again packaged and shipped that bike? How much energy was consumed in the process? How much environmentally harmful stuff was used and discarded? Are the large bike companies any cleaner environmentally than other manufacturing processes? I don’t know how many miles have to be ridden before you offset the debt of the build, but it has got to be more than just a few. I know that the same thing is true for a car or truck with their even higher starting points. And that therefore your impact is lower to start… but it’s still a long way from zero. And therein lies my point. While riding the heck out of that bike now that it’s built, and caring for it so that it lasts a long time, you make the most of the energy spent. However it remains all too easy to climb on a high horse of falsely virtuous eco-righteness. Don’t. You’ve just chosen less, not none. Feel good about that. Help others to do the same. Conservation is a powerful tool. At the same time be understanding of the needs and culture of others. Realize that a bike may be completely foreign to that person, an alien that they have no understanding of or connection to, and remember that we are not outside looking in, but inside, sharing the ride.]
Source: Large Fella on a Bike

Trailing Noah…

Looks like this: Noah_trailer_lake.jpg

We got out early on Mother’s Day so that Lisa would have some time to herself. True, she was busy prepping for Noah’s final 3rd birthday party later in the day, but us being out of the house changes the tempo. So we went to the Lake and rolled around for a while. Then we stopped at home, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out to the Park (read slides ad swings). We were pretty much out of the house the entire morning getting air and sunshine and running around. A great gift for all of us.

By the time I took this picture, Noah had already squirmed out of half his harness, was occasionally snacking on his Bites and sipping from a water bottle, had two plush bears and a blanket with him. He also requested that his red backpack ride along (filled with enough “Noah supplies” for a really tough day (changes of clothes, diapers, wipes, etc., etc.) All in all I was pulling about 65lbs.

Sometimes the Inside is, Outside…

Sometimes the Inside is, Outside…: What am I capable of… how far can, or will, I go to do Right?  Others times, I feel [right or wrong] like I’m doing this to atone for some stupid, crappy thing I’ve done to someone long forgotten about.  Like an old teacher would tell me when I was teen, “Sometimes you gotta bleed for others… “.

So I go across the street to Skol, buy a bottle of water and a pint of gin, and go back over to the guy in the wheelchair.  In the bag, with the gin & water, I put in some kleenex from my saddle bag, a smallish bag of sunflower seeds and a five dollar bill.  I tuck the whole deal into the guys jacket, after lifting his drooping head off his chest.  His skin feels like dried out leather.  He keeps snoring.

I roll on.

After some more miles, I head back home… and decide to go by that corner again.

He’s still there, still sleeping…

…and the bag has fallen out from underneath his jacket.

The pint of gin is broken on the sidewalk, while the bottle of water must have rolled out and onto the street and has been run over by a car or bus. 

I hope the tissues, seeds and money are still in the bag… [Remarkable. Murphy can be really mean.]
Source: Large Fella on a Bike

Sneaking Ruby Through Google App Engine (and Other Strictly Python Places)

Sneaking Ruby Through Google App Engine (and Other Strictly Python Places): All of these bogus scaling wars and indented code battles are a huge waste of time. Do we still have to be better than each other in 2008? No way, Rufus said, “Be excellent to each other.” [Wow, that would be awesome and awful at the same time. Awesome because less is more, awful because it could easily cause things to stagnate for everyone. But still.]
Source: hackety org

Hey Rails, nice Rack!

Hey Rails, nice Rack!: So i’ve spent this week hacking on Rails, specifically going spelunking in ActionPack and porting Merb’s rack machinery to rails. I figure that merb is a very nice experimentation ground and decided it was time to give some love back to the framework that inspired merb. [Nice stuff. I worked with Engine Yard not too long ago. Recommended.]
Source: Brainspl.at