Californication

Went today for a rain ride with my Monster. I wanted to check how well my gear holds up in bad weather; I rode for about an hour, three quarters of which it was pouring down pretty hard. Took 84 (Woodside Road) up Skyline, then headed north and came down Kings Mountain road; the latter was rather intimidating (ok, it got me pretty scared at some point): wet shiny road surface, all kinds of leaves and crap on the road, visibility issues due to my fogged and raindrop covered windshield, the occasional cage coming up… I went slow and got back safely. Gear status (after inspection at home):
-boots wet, socks wet
-Tour Master Cortech jacket dry on the inside (of liner) – water went through some of the outer pockets and wetted some of the stuff inside (wallet…); never felt cold in the jacket (air temperature was not that low to be fair – 12 degrees C or so)
-Tour Master Cortech overpants partly dry on the inside, partly wet: interestingly, on the crotch, and on the lower part of the legs. My jeans underneath were wet on those spots as well (even my underwear)
-leather (summer) gloves soaked – didn’t use my winter gloves as it didn’t feel that cold
Conclusion: I could probably use a rain suit/cover, and definitely some waterproof boots!

Vanmorgen een behoorlijke route op de Monster gedaan: over Page Mill, Skyline gevolgd tot 17 en Los Gatos (er was al veel kerstboom-verkeer), koffie break in de Los Gatos Roastery, dan doorheen de San Jose suburbia richting oosten, tot Mount Hamilton road – een fantastische motherfucker van een bultige kronkelweg, met talloze haarspelden (zie pic) en helaas ook veel gravel en zand in de bochten, die naar het James Lick Observatorium leidt; de weg is een geweldige uitdaging en het juiste ritme te pakken krijgen geeft een kick – een prachtig gevoel van lichtheid als je het juist doet (als je dat niet doet, eerder een gevoel van hulpeloosheid). Ben tot de volgende vaststellingen gekomen :

The laws of blind curves

1) Every blind curve is decreasing-radius (tightening)
2) In every blind curve there will be either
-sand or gravel in the center of the lane, invisible when entering the curve
-some big ass SUV coming in the other direction who is mistaking your lane for his
-squirels, raccoons or deer crossing the road

3) In rare cases, law 2) may not hold; usually, then a cop with radar is hidden in the bushes to check on exit speed

Het is vandaag Thanksgiving Day. Voor de onwetenden onder mijn landgenoten zal ik kort trachten uit te leggen wat dit zoal inhoudt. Thanksgiving betekent: twee dagen vrij (vandaag en morgen) en aangezien Thanksgiving altijd op een donderdag valt, een lang weekend (zeer lang, naar Amerikaanse normen). Het betekent ook dat de natie vandaag massaal gevulde kalkoen gaat koken en verslinden. Traditioneel wordt de dag doorgebracht met vrienden en familie – er wordt dan ook heel wat op en af gevlogen, gezien de typische diaspora die een gemiddelde familie kent; het aanbieden/delen van de kalkoenmaaltijd staat symbool voor het uiten van dankbaarheid, genegenheid en appreciatie (voor die vrienden en familie). Interessant is dat dit zowat de enige dag van het jaar is waarop zowat alle restaurants gesloten zijn (omdat iedereen ligt te koken, natuurlijk) – ook alle winkels zijn dicht, waardoor veel van de straten in de ‘downtowns’ geheel verlaten zijn – voeg daarbij het traditioneel druilerige grijze laat-november weer en de sfeer is redelijk ‘eerie’ (spookachtig). Vorig jaar deze tijd was ik in Peru, nu echter heb ik Thanksgiving op aangepaste wijze doorgebracht, thuis bij M. met enkele vrienden – mijn bijdrage aan de maaltijd betrof het dessert, mijn onvolprezen broodpudding-con-ijskreem.

Na winst van Anderlecht thuis tegen Lyon – schitterend gespeeld overigens – en gelijkspel van Club Brugge in Celta de Vigo, hebben beiden nog een redelijke kans zich te plaatsen voor de volgende ronde van de Champions League. Dit kan mij alvast meer boeien dan de American football games die hier de plak zwaaien – vorige weekend nog de klassieker (the Big Game) Stanford – Berkeley die mij voornamelijk zal bijblijven omwille van de verkeersoverlast die telkens in heel Palo Alto veroorzaakt wordt…

Ventura County considers eliminating SUV’s from its fleet (San Jose Mercury News article).
Many other California state agencies could follow – from the article:
“Similar legislation was signed last month by then-Gov. Gray Davis. The law, which will take effect in January 2005, requires state agencies requesting an SUV or 4-wheel-drive vehicle to justify a critical need for it.”
This is a nice effort, but it won’t change much as long as the freeways remain populated with gas-guzzling behemoths driven by

cellphone chattering 16year old schoolgirls (who should get the bloody phones implanted in their ears)
-Safeway shopping Los Altos housewifes (who believe driving a vehicle isn’t much different from driving a shopping cart around)
testosterone gushing ‘Iown-these-lanes’ style SUV-pricks (who probably need to make up for their small member size)

As you may have noticed, I don’t particularly like SUV’s – they’re not safer than regular cars, not for the drivers themselves and definitely not for the others out there, they block everyone’s view on the road, they consume ridiculous amounts of gasoline (granted, that does keep some happy – the Bush and Fahd families of this world for instance), and in addition to all that they’re usually butt-ugly! I almost vomited the first time I laid eyes on the pompous SUV creations by Porsche (!) and BMW.
There is acceptable (and enjoyable) SUV use though – in the snow, mountains, Tahoe, or the desert.

Ik riskeer hier een aantal kostbare geheimen prijs te geven door mijn favoriete dessert recepten op het web te zwieren, maar door ze op deze wijze te archiveren kan ik ze zelf makkelijker terugvinden (en moet ik niet nadenken in welke folder ik ze alweer genoteerd heb). Ze zijn overigens doorgaans opgesteld in een warrig mengsel van Vlaams en Engels, dus ik zal waarschijnlijk de enige zijn die er echt iets aan heeft. Waarover gaat het hier? Drie uitermate succesvolle – al zeg ik het zelf – beproefde recepten: chocolade mousse (geinspireerd door de overheerlijke ‘Scharffenberger pot-de-creme’ van cafe Absinthe in San Francisco), broodpudding met ijskreem en aardbeiensaus (geinspireerd door een geimproviseerde dessert combinatie tijdens een buffet diner in een van de hotel casino’s in South Lake Tahoe vorig skiseizoen), en creme brulee (ongetwijfeld het plezierigst om maken – brengt de pyromaan in eenieder naar buiten).

Recent events inspired me to give fellow bikers the following advice:

-Do Not Ride With Worn Out Tires

Last week, I did the Kennedy trail ride in Los Gatos with the mtbsh crew. I started with a rather worn out front tire; had replaced the rear tire – which was equally worn out – earlier on, but for reasons not entirely clear I decided to procrastinate replacing the front one. During the climb I got a flat on the front (which is pretty suspicious, as one usually never gets a flat on the way up); changed the tube, but while inflating it, the replacement tube literally exploded – and left a spectacular crater in the dirt; turns out it had been pinched by a puncture in the tire (which also caused the initial flat). So I fixed it by patching the tube and using leaves and additional patches to cover the puncture on the inside of the tire. Finished the ride but not without suffering serious anxiety during the downhill section – as the latter consisted of Dog Meat and Overgrown, not exactly the most tire-friendly places to dwell upon.

-Attempting Jumps Without Protective Gear May Carry Health Risks

Yesterday I went on a quick afternoon ride in Arastradero Park, which is a nice little park, closeby Palo Alto, with some entertaining but rather mellow singletrack and fire roads. There is one spot however, a small ‘bowl’, containing a number of man-made bumps and jumps (made by bmx or ‘freeride’ kids?). It’s a good place to practice one’s skills in the air – the bumps are ranging from tiny to big-ass. An often overlooked part of doing jumps however is getting the landing right, and yours truly failed miserably on this aspect while tackling a medium-sized bump. Considerable road rash on my right thigh and elbow has been the consequence. I did wear long pants and a long-sleeved jersey, so that saved me from worse; however, my elbow pads were sitting idle in the trunk of my car – and I probably would have just smiled about the incident if only I had worn them. Now, I had to take this as an opportunity to test out some high tech anti road rash medical gear.

So what is happening? We have to get used to hearing ‘Governor Schwarzenegger’; I lost my wallet in Stanford yesterday; my friend Laurent crashed his brand new Honda CBR 600 before my eyes and broke his collarbone – his injury fortunately doesn’t seem too bad (fracture is clean, he has to wear a sling for 10 days, his gear protected him well otherwise) – a serious reality check though and after towing the bike sunday night and waiting in the hospital we had some time to contemplate the consequences of our actions – balancing the benefits of riding (which, I like to believe, is an activity that brings me into a higher state of consciousness ;]) versus the risks – however, this particular incident can be party attributed (in my opinion) to peer pressure and the presence of an audience, and partly to the fact that vital parts of the bike such as the tires and brakes were brand new, hence not very traction-friendly – the morale of all this being ‘don’t show off on a new bike!’
But, there is also good news:
Arnie recalled the car-tax-tripling measure, which means e.g. the $170 registration fee for my Ducati turns into a $56 invoice – amazing how easy it sometimes is to please people – the bill goes to future generations of Californians (probably in the form of bonds) – not really solving anything but it might not be the worst thing to do now.
I have my wallet back, including all its contents – thanks to a nice cop in Stanford and the friendly lady of lost&found – as a complete idiot, I didn’t even notice the disappearance – ignorance is bliss – until the lady actually called me at work (she found my number on my business card).
And, most prominently: Hombre Vos has become father of a healthy son – mucho congratulations!

The Guardian did a poll on the world’s best movie directors. And it seems that the best one (at least in my book) did indeed win…

Yesterday there was this rather spectacular pink moon rise. Tried to capture it with this picture…

Just like the late and great Boudewijn Buch, I’m a sucker for small and obscure islands, and today it was announced that the state of Hawaii regains control over a small tiny islet off the coast of Maui, called Kahoolawe – yes it even has its own website. The island was ‘occupied’ by the US Navy since Pearl Harbor and was used for target practice – it has been bombarded by thousands of bombs and bullets and used to be littered by schrapnel and shells, until Bush the elder decided to have it cleaned up in the early nineties. This took a decade and now the islet finally belongs again to the Aloha state. The interesting thing is that it seems to have been the biggest clean-up operation ever by the Pentagon – every day of the clean-up, 300 workers were on the island (the job is actually still not entirely done) – speak of stimulating local employment! Buch would have loved the surreal view of hundreds of people digging up stuff on this bald rock in the Pacific. Full story in the Washington Post.

Zoals het een goede Hombre betaamt ben ik gisteravond in San Francisco naar een Flamenco voorstelling gaan kijken, ‘Mujeres’, gebracht door een gezelschap geheten Yaelisa & Caminos Flamencos. Het was aanvankelijk nogal indrukwekkend, het virtuoze gitaarspel met gesyncopeerde en staccato uithalen, de gracieuze choreografie en de talrijke ole!’s. Toch was het naar het eind ietsje teveel van het goede – wat meer variatie zou deugd gedaan hebben (of, een kortere show). Niettemin een prima gelegenheid om eens de arty urbanite uit te hangen.
Ook Spaans, en hoe langer ik naar hem luister, hoe briljanter: componist Manuel de Falla. Heb vorig jaar met M een Falla concert in de SF Symphony bijgewoond, dat mij lang bijgebleven is vanwege de koortsige dynamiek, onconventionele arrangementen en wilde passie die spreekt uit de muziek. Neem bijvoorbeeld ‘El amor brujo’, een woest meesterwerk dat een must dient te zijn voor eeniedere Hombre!

Yesterday I attended one of those very rare talks where I actually wished the talk continued after it had finished. In our thursday PARC forum, Stanford professor (double E) Thomas Lee gave an excellent (pre-)historical overview of how this place became what we know it’s today. He pointed out that the combination of young, nerdy inventor/engineers and venture capital isn’t a recent (post-HP and Fairchild) thing but essentially was in place already in the early 1900’s. Idem for the nonconformist west coast culture of doing things and business.
From the abstract:

“Most technology histories of this region mark ‘time zero’ as the birth of Hewlett-Packard on 1 January 1939. Then Shockley arrives in 1955. Three years later, the IC gets invented, and the history of Silicon Valley unfolds in earnest. Stanford and Berkeley are somehow involved in Important Ways, orchards disappear, spinoffs beget spinoffs, and boom and bust cycles of ever-increasing amplitude appear as constant companions.
What’s less well known are the many other important tech milestones that precede “time zero” of the standard story: – First ship-to-shore wireless communications in the U.S. (from the Cliff House in San Francisco, in 1899); – First regularly scheduled radio broadcasts (by Stanford dropout “Doc” Herrold), from San Jose; – First ground-to-aircraft radio, demonstrated at the Tanforan racetrack in San Bruno; – First VC-funded electronics startup (Federal Telegraph, founded by Stanford graduate Cyril Elwell, with funding from Stanford president David Starr Jordan and others; it counted among its employees future “Father of Silicon Valley” Fred Terman, and first Stanford EE PhD and future Berkeley EE dept. chair Leonard Fuller); – Discovery of electronic amplification by Lee de Forest at Federal Telegraph in Palo Alto; – First megawatt-level continuous wave transmitters (using arc technology, by Federal Telegraph); – First demonstration of electronic television, by Philo Farnsworth at his San Francisco lab on Green Street.
The talk will begin with a quiz (“Who really invented radio?”) to prime the pump, and end with a light-speed overview of developments after Farnsworth, up to the founding of Fairchild.”

He argued that the California gold rush of 1849 and subsequent years most likely is responsible for the failure-tolerant culture of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley (or, ‘Arc Alley’ in the pre-silicon days, as Lee dubbed it) – after all, when panning for gold, failure is the norm, success the unexpected strike of luck. The boom and bust cycles (of increasing amplitude) are also nothing new. One can argue about some of his points but I particularly appreciated the fact that Lee turned out to be a great and entertaining speaker, providing shitloads of good anecdotes, offering exactly the relief I needed after a boring day of droning in the lab – work keeps me pretty busy these days, hence my slacking in updating this blog.

This year was Jurgen’s ‘nuit de gloire’. His costume, ‘The Puzzle’, lit up by heaps of electroluminescent wire, was – I have to admit – a blasting success (just like my plasma sphere costume last year). My Inca outfit with fiber-optic decoration wasn’t too bad after all, given the creative block I experienced this year. The evening didn’t start too promising though, with rain storms hitting us on I-280 on our way to San Francisco. Not in the city however, so there was no need for costume disintegration concerns. As usual, the crowd in the Castro was a blend of wild and weird-looking urbanites and gawking tourists – the novelty is wearing off a bit for me (I fondly remember how impressed I was my first time here), though there were still lots of cool looking and acting people: some impressions.