JD

Vienna & Budapest

Joel — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:12:11 +0000

Vienna

Budapest

Melk to Vienna

Joel — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:54:57 +0000

So…last summer we got to take an astonishingly awesome vacation, as discussed here, and here, among other places. It’s taken me a long time to get back to blogging this trip (which we came home from eight months ago), but here’s another stab at getting to the end of it:

Leaving Melk, we entered a land where castles, often in ruins, sit on hilltops

or halfway up a mountainside.

That last one, by the way, reminds me of a “castle” here in the napa valley (Castello di Amorosa) that, while it aspires to offer an authentic castle experience, is missing key elements such as a history measured in centuries, for example. We like to ask our guests to vote: “Classy” or “Trashy” and here’s a photo so you can judge for yourself.

But I digress. One of the coolest things we encountered on the Danube was a large riverboat that crossed the river from side to side without using an engine of any kind. A cable was strung across the river, and the boat, downstream of the cable, could just angle slightly in the direction of the other side and the river current would pull the boat across in just a couple minutes.

After this particular crossing, we entered the Wachau valley, a major wine-producing region of Austria. It was quite spectacular.

After a night in Tulln, our last day of biking took us to Vienna. We got to Vienna in early afternoon, just as a huge thunderstorm was hovering on the edge of town, and the gusty winds propelled us first down this strange island in the Danube populated by strange human-powered-vehicles like this one:

and then as we changed direction to go downtown, the wind turned against us, making it so that we could hardly stand up and walk with our bicycle, let alone ride.

Upon returning our bikes, however, we were immediately sad to face the fact that the rest of our trip would be without them. I can’t recommend bike tours highly enough, at least in this part of the world. It is an unbeatable way to get to know a place, its towns, rural areas, people, food, and beauty. We used Bike Tours Direct, and, in case it wasn’t already obvious, had a very positive experience.

I’ll continue the rest of our trip through Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest, which took place using more conventional modes of transportation, in a future blog, hopefully sooner rather than later.

On Success

Joel — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:46:07 +0000

Sometimes I get sucked in to thinking that success comes quickly, could be reflected in a facebook timeline or described in 140 characters, or is “easy”. But then the other day I happened upon a cyclist on Strava, the excellent ride- and stat-tracking site that I use to track exactly how infrequently I actually get out and ride. Currently I have averaged 0 rides per week in 2012, thanks to integer rounding. Anyway, this rider is a top-tier professional who already won one international tour in 2012, and who also happens to live about 30 miles from me, so we actually ride some of the same roads. He’s using Strava under a pseudonym, but I’m positive that it’s him, not only because he’s the King of the Mountains on nearly every climb within 50 miles, but because this person’s feed showed every stage of the aforementioned international tour on all the right dates. (I’m not going to mention his name on the hope that it will somehow protect his privacy, which means he’ll let normal people like us continue to follow him on Strava.)

So now, having access to his day-to-day training, I’ve been reminded about the truth about success: it doesn’t come unless you do the work. Here’s his last week:

Sunday: 68 miles, 6,595 feet of climbing
Monday: 72 miles, 7,183 feet of climbing
Tuesday: 46 miles, 4,578 feet of climbing
Wednesday: 93 miles, 7,446 feet of climbing
Thursday: 38 miles, 1,370 feet of climbing
Friday: 62 miles, 1,923 feet of climbing
Saturday: 79 miles, 7,711 feet of climbing
Sunday: 122 miles, 9,554 feet of climbing

I’m not sure why the fact that a professional cyclist rides every day surprised me, but I guess I wasn’t really thinking about what his real life would look like. I only see him on TV at various races in exotic locations, and it’s easy to imagine that the team does most of the work, or that the races are the hard work and the rest of the time is for partying, or that his life is somehow easier because he probably has plenty of money in the bank. But really, the truth is, his success would not exist if he didn’t ride every single day, if he didn’t love what he was doing, and (I’m imagining this part) if he didn’t constantly look for ways to keep the work interesting.

The Book Year in Review

Joel — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:20:43 +0000

Thankfully, I did not have a reading list for 2011, because there’s no doubt I would have failed to even come close to completing it. However, I did get through a few books this year, most of which were worth reading, and a few of which could be considered life-changing. They are (with minor spoilers):

Zeitoun (Dave Eggers) – Powerful, gripping story from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that takes a few unexpected turns. Unless you’ve been subjected to indefinite detainment recently, it may leave you in a bit of shock and awe over the issue. An especially relevant read in today’s easily terrorized world. 5 stars.

A Sideways Look At Time (Jay Griffiths) – Interesting, somewhat challenging read, simply because the author doesn’t accept most of the assumptions that underlie modern society. The necessity to constantly be more efficient, the importance of clock-time, and the limiting, controlling unity that results are challenged head-on with diverse examples of other, more relationship-driven cycles and rhythms found in indigenous cultures around the world. No matter whether you end up agreeing or disagreeing, this book will definitely make you think twice about your worldview and your priorities. 4 stars.

Forests (Robert Pogue Harrison) – A heavy read, spanning centuries of history, literature, and poetry, but written by a genius. Explores how forests, and the reality/idea of wilderness has grounded most of our cultural and religious landmarks in western society. 3.5 stars.

Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut) – This is the only Vonnegut I’ve read so far, so of course it is the best. His writing style is lucid and understandable, but the level of tragedy present near the end of WWII in Europe is almost impossible to comprehend. Definitely a must-read. 4 stars.

Roads to Quoz (William Least Heat-Moon) – I love the spirit of adventure that William Least Heat-Moon lives, but in his writing of this book it leads to, well, too much writing. Roads to Quoz is not as clear & focused as the epic, and more famous “Blue Highways”, and it’s a little like hanging out with someone who just keeps telling story after story to avoid dead air. That said, I don’t regret reading the book, and give it a solid 3 stars.

The Circumference of Home (Kurt Hoelting) – Quick read in the style of the adventure-epic, where one man decides to avoid traveling anywhere outside a 100km radius from his home on Whidbey Island, and avoid using fossil fuels to get around inside the . The arbitrariness of the 100km rule goes without saying, but this constraint does push him to some true adventures, including walking dozens of miles along rivers and the Sound between Seattle and Everett, biking all over the place, and kayaking across the Salish Sea to Vancouver Island with a group of Native Americans who have been canoeing across for centuries. Does prove that an independently wealthy person can live an extremely low-carbon lifestyle, but doesn’t exactly offer solutions for the masses. Definitely 4 stars, at least for this native Washingtonian, just for the descriptions of human-powered travel all over the Sound.

The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – This book appears to be pretty popular, but I couldn’t get into it. And once I finally did get into it, I didn’t want to stay in it. Perhaps I’m too idealistic, but the themes of the slow decline of aging, family and business struggles and failures, and relationship missteps aren’t really high on my list of things to read about, given their relative abundance in real life. This book might be just right for some, but it wasn’t for me. 2 stars.

Bicycle Diaries (David Byrne) – This is the kind of book I’d love to write, because the author (David Byrne, of Talking Heads) just shared his experiences traveling the globe and biking in his free time. Along the way you find out which cities have the best bicycle infrastructure (hint: think northern europe), and how to get people to build bike racks for free (hint: offer to take them off the sidewalk in NYC after a year and sell them as artwork). 3.5 stars, or more if you love cycling.

Jesus, Interrupted (Bart D. Ehrman) – I’m going to totally spoil this book by revealing the two main points: 1) people who believe that every word of the Bible was written by God would have a significant crisis of faith if it were discovered that humans wrote the Bible, and 2) humans wrote the Bible. I found the book to be plodding at times, but it is very thorough and heartfelt, and definitely recommended if you spend much time thinking about #’s 1 and 2 above. 3 stars.

The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working (Tony Schwartz) – This book was a lifechanger for me, because I spend an inordinate amount of my time working, and I was struggling to feel that my time was well-spent. It gave me (and many others, no doubt) lots of tools to deal with this struggle, and ways to transform the happiness and fulfillment of a career by recognizing the many pitfalls in the modern workplace and, hopefully, avoiding them. My full review is here, and I give this one 5 stars (maybe less if you don’t work in an office and/or already love your job).

Manly Hero (Adrastus Rood) – My favorite book of the year, and the one I read the fastest. This fantasy is more accessible (and shorter!) than the books of J.R.R. Tolkein or G.R.R. Martin, but is really wide-ranging in its exploration of human ideals through the lens of an adventure quest. And its funny, too, both in plot twists and in wordplay. My Amazon review is here, and I give this must-read 5 stars.

So that was 2011, and I’m hoping to read more in 2012, with a goal of finishing 24 books. I’m always looking for good book suggestions, and you can find me on goodreads here.

On Working

Joel — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:41:13 +0000

Have you ever been stressed out in your job? Ever come home unable to shake a feeling of failure, or uncompleteness? Ever worked late at night on something that didn’t end up being important, or dreaded waking up in the morning and heading in to work? Ever wondered why these feelings keep recurring, even if you move or even change careers?

I tend to feel this way fairly frequently about my job, and I always assumed reasons like these:

1) I’m a perfectionist, so that’s why I’m not “happy” in my job.
2) My boss is ___insert bad/annoying quality here___, so these feelings are their fault.
3) I have so much work to do, I’ll never possibly finish it or catch up.
4) I’m in a high-stress profession, with lots of money at stake, in a big city. This is just how its supposed to be.
5) I don’t make enough money. If I made more money, then I wouldn’t feel this way.

Turns out, pretty much none of those are true, but it took powering through the 20 chapters of this book to figure that out.

It’s difficult to summarize this wide-ranging book, but I can say that, as you might expect, part of the reason for bad feelings about work has to do with you and your attitude, and part of the reason comes from “the system.” There are some really simple things you can do to literally transform your working life into something good for you and good for your line of work also. If you struggle with these things, you simply must read this book.

You Go, Bratislava

Joel — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:38:45 +0000

Earlier this year, we were in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, for a few hours on a rainy afternoon, and while the food was good and the architecture in the central old city was beautiful,

we were a little bit saddened by the conditions outside the old city walls. Crumbling buildings, sidewalks, and roads seemed rampant, and anything metal seemed completely rusted out.

So my heart was strangely warmed by the story this week that Slovakia, a country that is significantly less affluent than probably any place else in Western Europe, temporarily refused to agree to fund its share of the latest round of Greek bailout money from the EU. See here, and here.

Not that I think the Greeks should not be bailed out in some form, but I guess I just pull for the underdog in this situation, and Slovakia definitely appears to fit this role within the EU. Of course, the downside of refusing to agree to the bailout is that the entire Slovakian parliament has now been dissolved. This happened because the ruling party thought a yes vote was so important that they tied their political future to a majority of yes votes. When they didn’t get enough votes, the ruling coalition fell apart and elections were moved up from 2014 to March of 2012.

This sounds extreme, but it seems somewhat exemplary for our landlocked, deadlocked, accomplishment-blocked House and Senate here in the U.S. If a failure to make a decision were tied to an immediate dissolution of Congress, it seems like maybe they would get a lot more decisions made, which I think would be a good thing. (cf Debt Ceiling “Crisis”, etc…)

Pumpkins, Round 4

Joel — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:30:53 +0000

2008 (the beginning)

2009 (+2)

2010 (almost rained out, but not quite)

2011 (round four)

Richard Branson Wins Again

Joel — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:41:16 +0000

From the latest Google newsletter, Think Quarterly, comes this brilliant excerpt from an article about Richard Branson, CEO of, well, many things:

Plenty of billionaires tout humble roots involving lemonade stands and assembly-line factory jobs, but few are as adamant as Branson that all their employees know what it’s like to be part of a small operation up against far bigger competitors. At Virgin Records, he’d even split up employees’ physical workspaces as the company grew in order to maintain an underdog atmosphere.

“As the record company got bigger, when it had more than 100 people in a building, I’d go in and ask to see the deputy managing director, the deputy sales manager, the deputy marketing manager, and I’d say, ‘You’re now the marketing manager, the sales manager, of a new company,’ and we would then find a new building, set up a brand new company, and we kept on replicating this,” Branson explains. “We had about 25 different record companies in 25 different buildings, rather than one massive group of people in one building. It seemed to work, and so as much as possible we continued to try to do that. I think if you’ve got more than 150 people, it’s very difficult for a chief executive to know everybody and for everybody to know each other well.”

I would love to see this happen in my office of 330 – divide everyone up into 3 or 4 teams and make sure everybody knows everybody and stays connected to each other and to the mission.

Melk? Melk!

Joel — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:49:01 +0000

Another day biking the Danube! The main attraction on this day was Melk, a town which is purportedly one of the first places to be referred to as an “Austrian” place, and home of the nearly 1,000-year-old Melk Abbey. My notes in my journal call this place “outlandishly huge and ostentatious”, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Good Again

Joel — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:30:46 +0000

Picking up where my last blog left off in the town of Enns…we left the next morning to this sign:

I love seeing signs in other countries. I think they really reveal something about the way of thinking of a culture. Or maybe the sign designs are just the result of a peer-reviewed study commissioned by a technical committee. Either way, I still like this sign for the simplicity of the red diagonal line.

Our biking distance on this day was 85 km, our longest day, mostly because we decided to backtrack a few miles to visit Mauthausen. Even now, more than two months away from seeing this place, I’m not sure how to express how visiting this concentration camp made me feel. It was a terrible place, and I am still trying to figure out how such a place could ever even come to exist. Oppression, slavery, human trafficking, call it what you will, but the evidence from this camp is incontrovertible that these things are wrong. I don’t have a reasoned philosophical argument behind this; just an experience that left me with a feeling I know to be true.

I couldn’t take very many photos there, but I did get this one, of the memorial to Italian political prisoners who did not survive their time at this camp:

Many different nationalities had memorials at this camp, but only the Italians had somehow come up with portraits of almost every one of their victims. I’ve been to some old-school Italian restaurants where the walls are covered with portraits also…must be a cultural values thing.

Anyway, on to happier topics, like more road signs, this one proving that we were awesome bikers for dragging ourselves up a 14% grade:

Later in the day we were detoured off the river for many miles due a washout on the path, and we came across some huge levy/floodwall construction, including this gate separating a small town from the destruction that the spring Danube can bring:

Just before we reached our destination, a riverfront hotel in Marbach an der Donau, we passed through more of the seemingly endless farmland in Austria. It was a welcome sight to see so much rejuvenation and life.