James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
when does days-w/o-a-drink become I don't drink anymore ?

or do you think casual drinking could come back?
how about celebratory drinking? would be nice to have a glass of champagne at a wedding, or big birthday.?.?.
but then, if one wants to just avoid/stop alc, just pick the alternative.

or is 1 too many, and 10 not enough? (um, yeah, i know someone like that :rolleyes:)
 
Last edited:

rlb

Well-Known Member
Skipping ahead, but I see a San Fran trip in the future, so I wanted to plug some good breakfast places we've been to (most on multiple visits):

Pork Store Cafe In the middle of the wanna be hippie district, if you can stand that they have a deliciously greasy pile of breakfast foods called eggs in a tasty nest. We go for this any time we're in SF (ok, been there 3 times). I notice there's another place by the same name in The Mission, not sure if it's related.

Sweet Maple has some slightly more sophisticated menu options and they are delicious. Been here on multiple trips as well.

Brenda's French Soul Food This was the first place we ate breakfast on our first SF trip. Still on EST we were up and out early enough to be the first in the door, which paid off because a line quickly formed outside. I don't remember the specifics of the food, other than a creole style to the menu. The coffee was quite delicious and served in a huge mug, that I remember for sure. It was a good meal, but it may be more of a "first trip nostalgia" kind of thing that makes this place stick in my mind. That said, I'd return on a future trip.

Not sure why but SF is dear place to the Mrs. and me. We haven't been there in a few years but hope to go back within the next 12 months. Enjoy, and post plenty of pics!
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Skipping ahead, but I see a San Fran trip in the future, so I wanted to plug some good breakfast places we've been to (most on multiple visits):

Pork Store Cafe In the middle of the wanna be hippie district, if you can stand that they have a deliciously greasy pile of breakfast foods called eggs in a tasty nest. We go for this any time we're in SF (ok, been there 3 times). I notice there's another place by the same name in The Mission, not sure if it's related.

Sweet Maple has some slightly more sophisticated menu options and they are delicious. Been here on multiple trips as well.

Brenda's French Soul Food This was the first place we ate breakfast on our first SF trip. Still on EST we were up and out early enough to be the first in the door, which paid off because a line quickly formed outside. I don't remember the specifics of the food, other than a creole style to the menu. The coffee was quite delicious and served in a huge mug, that I remember for sure. It was a good meal, but it may be more of a "first trip nostalgia" kind of thing that makes this place stick in my mind. That said, I'd return on a future trip.

Not sure why but SF is dear place to the Mrs. and me. We haven't been there in a few years but hope to go back within the next 12 months. Enjoy, and post plenty of pics!

Slanted Door
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Drinking

On drinking, I don't really see the point anymore. Is it a thing to measure? I think the answer can be both yes and no. This brings me back to my post college days when I may have inhaled a thing or 2 in my time. At one point I stopped doing it, just because life wasn't really like that anymore. But I remember there was a long time where I would say that yes, I still did it even though I hadn't done it a very long time. After 5 years I guess I just started saying I don't get high anymore. That streak must be 20 years now, funny enough.

On that note, why is it a "thing" to measure. There is 1 thing that has become abundantly clear since I have stopped drinking and it is that food & alcohol are pretty much the center of every social area you can visit. When we were in Austin my boss and I went to walk around some neighborhood where there were supposed to be shops, plus a place we could grab some dinner. The place was pretty much nothing other than food and drink. There was also a Macy's. But for all I know you could eat & drink in there too. So on that note, I do think there is value is keeping that number going because the world is obsessed with alcohol. I never realized how much this is the case until I stopped caring where to get it.

But to your point. I don't see any value anymore in having a drink. I have come to the realization that nothing is really made better for me by adding alcohol. At one point you could argue that the work trips would be better with it. But I almost always skip out on the food orgy/beer fest-type things and either go to a coffee shop or get some form of exercise in. So to that end, I have found that I just enjoy everything more without adding alcohol. Given my tendency to overdo pretty much everything, it makes some sense to just leave it be.

Having said that, there's no way I can sit here and say I'll never have a drink again. I have no idea. But I'm not going to actively plan on it.

Other-Half-Brewing-Brooklyn.jpg

Bike Riding

After I dropped Julia off at Chinese school today I drove home and went for a road ride. The weather zealots said it was going to fire-and-brimstone at 1:45 but I went out anyway and somehow managed to avoid every drop that fell. Either that or it never rained. I went into the Watchung Reservation, then to Summit, then into the Swamp, and home. I have to say that today I felt 1 level of a better biker than I have previous to today. I've mentioned feeling good on the Zwiffer this week but when the proverbial...wait, no hold on. When the ACTUAL rubber hits the road, this is when you see if you are making gains or aren't.

Today I felt the old me trying to emerge from these tired bones. I was able to drive myself up/over/through everything today and keep a decent pace. The low-tempo motor was going and I felt like I haven't felt in some time. The idea was to just "go for a ride" but I kept it at a decent pace and was able to push & recover very well today. I'm feeling pretty good right now. Again, totally looking forward to this summer biking season.

Han Solo

Went to see the Solo movie and I will say there are some pretty good things in here. D liked it a lot. I thought it was good but I don't know if I would say you should rush out to see it right now. It's a good fit in the prequel series of Star Wars movies and it focuses on a favorite character in the original trilogy. You get 3 very elements here which I will use the Spoiler tag properly for, for once. None of these actually spoil the movie. But I will hide them anyway.

1. How he gets his name
2. The way he gets the ship
3. The Kessel run in 12 parsecs line is played out

Interesting thing here. Harrison Ford was 34 when the first Star Wars movie was released. The guy playing the "young" Solo is 28.

If you're a Star Wars fan you'll see it. Nothing I write will sway you either way. The one thing I do think is that the new character Qi'ra was sort of left hanging, which begs for another episode in this line of movies. Aaaaaaaand then I went and Googled it, and a theory I had about the last Star Wars movie has just fallen into place with the Internet speculation on this one. Ok, that cements it all together for me.

On a tangent, the trailers for the movies coming out were really atrocious. The one exception was this, which looks excellent. I totally want to see this:



Chicago

Just gonna say that these 3 pictures came from texts that @2Julianas sent me today telling me she was enjoying my food & coffee recommendations. These made me happy:

IMG_6413.JPG

IMG_6414.JPG

IMG_6415.JPG

I'm going back next Sunday. I may have to hit it up again after I land.

Soiled Wig

After dinner I made myself a cup of tea. Went into the living room, sat down, and just as I was about to drink it was met with this nonsense. Such a tragedy.

IMG_6412.JPG
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
It's nothing like that anymore.
They painted the building black.

On Star Wars- I lost touch a little while ago. Once stuff started being released out of sequence, I kinda gave up.
I need to figure the proper order and just start from scratch.

Someone put together the list of all Marvel tv series and movies in chronological order. I will take a week's vacation to do that.

Sorry about your fly there.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Interesting.
The illegal part of Drugs make stopping an easy choice. Not that stopping is easy for some.

Zero drinks is easier than only 1 imho.

Do you keep ice cream in the house?
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
In some cases decisions are best being absolutely binary. Hell yes or hell no! For those who are in the non moderate camp with me.

That was my conclusion when I decided to stop drinking 767 days ago (that’s not a hard number but close).


Reefer- hell yes
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@Carson - just to confirm, Simon takes his daily allergy medicine with the bottom-of-cereal-bowl milk. In fact, this is the only way I have seen him take it. I tried to give him a pill with just a cup of milk and he couldn't do it. Funny, he's the only 1 of the 3 to drink the cereal milk. The older 2 put it in the sink. It's usually all I can do to not drink up all the cereal milk every day. It's like dumping half a Yoohoo down the drain each morning.

Forgot to mention, from last night. The guy they cast as young Lando was on-point. Solo was good, but Lando was perfect.

@fidodie - yes of course. That's a silly question.

San Francisco - Noted. Will address later. Post is too long right now. Want to avoid this:

been-alone-2.jpg

Zwift Sunday

So this morning D & Zac were off to the NICA race and I was here with Julia & Simon. Simon had a play date lined up with a friend, so at some point my morning would go from 2 to 3 kids. After they left I hopped on the Zwift and decided to grind out as much elevation as I could. In my head I was thinking that the Alpe climb is 2500 feet. I was hoping to get 5000 vertical feet on the day. Up, down, then up again. They've added some bells and whistles to the climb but really the best point of interest is a windmill that I noticed on the road there.

I went up, and at the top it was around 3700 feet, so I went all the way down, and then back up to 5000 total and called it a day. I would take a picture of the elevation profile but I'm lazy and anyway, it kinda looks like this but upside down:

Vv

I was going to say something about there being a thin line between dedication and stupidity, but I may have crossed over that line with today's ride so I'll just let that go.

Anyway, as I was coming down the hill I got off the bike and let it roll on its own (the advantages of e-biking) and changed my clothes entirely because I was so soaked that I needed to change. The past few weeksI have been sweating profusely. I know it's been humid but man, I am just pouring on days like today. This is with 2 fans blowing at me. And I'll just leave this here:

Screen Shot 2018-06-03 at 11.00.07 AM.png

Make with that what you will.

The Coming Week

Mon: Nassau with @Dominique & @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST & @you if you get your lazy ass off the couch
Tue: Stewart TM run with @1sh0t1b33r and maybe @Santapez
Wed: Delaware & White Clay (maybe, and maybe solo or TBD)
Thu: Podcast with @seanrunnette
Fri: Dinner with @Dominique & the Kubicks
Sat: Stewart pre-ride(s)with a bunch of you guys (@Dominique @seanrunnette @2Julianas and who else?)
Sun: Ride in the morning then fly to Chicago, all by myself

Finding a Better Work Approach

Edit: After writing this out I realize that this is my dumping of thoughts into words which I am going to propose to my boss later tonight or tomorrow morning. Like I said, this has been on my mind all week and I have been trying to find a way to make this work. I'll leave it here for the 5 of you who will read it. It's boring, I get it.

I have been thinking about this a bunch since Tuesday and I have come up with the following realization. I am working on too many projects. Here is how it essentially looks:

1. Minnesota
2. Delaware
3. St. Louis
4. Duke
5. Seattle
6. Texas
7. Training 2 new consultants plus 1 guy we picked up from the new parent company
8. The daily higher-level management things I get drawn into, including things from my boss, the PS people, the PM lead, the Support leads, and the Sales guys.

Anyone can look at this and see what the problem is. How can you possibly keep 6 work projects afloat plus the 2 non-project items? In my years of consulting I have generally found that 3 is the most you can reasonably maintain at once. I think the above list is partially an approach problem. I am going to propose the following as a new approach to this:

1. Bug fixes for the live orgs (Minnesota, St. Louis, Texas)
2. Train the 3 guys on the Delaware implementation
3. Train the same 3 guys on the Duke implementation
4. Continue to support Seattle as a Solution Architect
5. The non-work things. I have no choice

This is still 1 more than I would like, plus the #5 which is what it is. But #4 is minimal (for now). The problem with the bug fixes is that I tend to put myself directly in contact with the client, which is a bad idea. It drains my day, and it subverts support which needs to be the first line of defense. They need to be able to handle the easy ones. We obviously cannot scale with me maintaining contact with every org that I work with. It's just that...there's nobody else to pick it up.

The reason I am going through this exercise is that, while it is true that I am seeing some bad writing on the wall, it doesn't mean I should give up trying to make it work. To that end, I'll try to do what I can to make the job enjoyable with the new parameters. Having said that, I'm going to make sure I get the most out of this coming summer beyond work. Since I have no idea if this will work out or not, I'm going to enjoy myself the best I can. If I need to start a new contract in October, I may have a less flexible work schedule to start things out.

Anyway, sorry for the word vomit. I'm working this out on-the-fly. Wish me luck.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
ice cream:
i asked, because of the zeal for dessert which appears in your mtb-food-blog (is there a portmanteau for that?)

beer lasts longer than ice cream in my world. i try to leave some for the kid, but he is weak also, so his is usually gone.
ben-&-jerry's phish food. speaking of excess...




Work:

Present the solution, not the problem. Lead, don't ask for leadership.
do or donut. (which doesn't pertain to anything except you are going it alone.....)

1528078152875.png


Side note - my kid has a very hard time with imagery and allusion - he is extremely literal, (my sarcasm hits a wall, and flows into the drain)
I ax'd him about the name Hans Solo. He is around 12-13 years old at the time. "It's his name..." you can see where this goes.
 
Last edited:

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Today....

  1. ...I told my boss of my new work plan. He said it's still to much and I should cut out time on the defects because I get pulled in too many directions as it is.
  2. ...my boss met with the PS people and we gave them until the end of the year then they lose me.
  3. ...I found out the St. Louis director is excited that I’m going out in 2 weeks. This scares me as she is the personification of the Kool Aid Monster.
  4. ...OH YEAH!
  5. ...I went to the post office to renew Julia’s passport and it was really easy as could be.
  6. ...we decided to ride Nassau and it turned out to be the wrong decision as it needs 2 more days.
  7. ...I found those new trails at the end of the Columbia Trail parking lot. They’re ok
  8. ...Julia asked me if she could dress up as Elvis for our wedding.
  9. ...I created a Northeast Lift Access Google Map for @MissJR as a prototype for the next wiki iteration and she liked it.
  10. ...I suggested we rope in @fidodie but made sure we keep him on a tight leash lest he design the space shuttle.
  11. ...I looked at the KT house pics and realized we have an amazing view for the week.
  12. ...I booked my trip to St. Louis
  13. ...I am tight on time so I’m doing this dotted list format.
  14. ...I opened the second bag of espresso from Harrisonburg and it’s far better than the first bag I got.
  15. ...I now realize that today has become tomorrow. Or is it actually yesterday?

1FE9D2A6-DC05-4F94-8BE7-BEF7ABD158BE.jpeg
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
  • ...I found out the St. Louis director is excited that I’m going out in 2 weeks. This scares me as she is the personification of the Kool Aid Monster.

  • ...OH YEAH!
We have a building administrator who has a proclivity for walking dramatically into teacher's classrooms while they're in mid-lesson, usually destroying any sort of instructional flow that may be occurring. We call him the Kool Aid Guy.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Today....

  1. ...I told my boss of my new work plan. He said it's still to much and I should cut out time on the defects because I get pulled in too many directions as it is.
  2. ...my boss met with the PS people and we gave them until the end of the year then they lose me.
  3. ...I found out the St. Louis director is excited that I’m going out in 2 weeks. This scares me as she is the personification of the Kool Aid Monster.
  4. ...OH YEAH!
  5. ...I went to the post office to renew Julia’s passport and it was really easy as could be.
  6. ...we decided to ride Nassau and it turned out to be the wrong decision as it needs 2 more days.
  7. ...I found those new trails at the end of the Columbia Trail parking lot. They’re ok
  8. ...Julia asked me if she could dress up as Elvis for our wedding.
  9. ...I created a Northeast Lift Access Google Map for @MissJR as a prototype for the next wiki iteration and she liked it.
  10. ...I suggested we rope in @fidodie but made sure we keep him on a tight leash lest he design the space shuttle.
  11. ...I looked at the KT house pics and realized we have an amazing view for the week.
  12. ...I booked my trip to St. Louis
  13. ...I am tight on time so I’m doing this dotted list format.
  14. ...I opened the second bag of espresso from Harrisonburg and it’s far better than the first bag I got.
  15. ...I now realize that today has become tomorrow. Or is it actually yesterday?

View attachment 70041
Did you break it to her that is a Saturday Night Fever emoji?
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Firmed up the Chicago trip today. Pretty much going right to his house on Sunday then we'll all go check out the new coffee roaster that opened up this year, then maybe get some Szechuan food for dinner. The cafe is a roaster that has, until now, been roasting beans exclusively for Michelin restaurants. So the bar is kinda high on this one. Then on Monday I think we're going to work from his house - me, him, plus 2 other guys. This is at my strong urging because I don't want to go into the office where the PM Who Shall Not Be Named and the Needy Support Guy are. We have a very focused agenda for Monday & Tuesday, so I am pushing hard to minimize the interruptions. Staying out of the office is exactly that. Monday night we'll probably all go out to dinner somewhere good, then Tuesday we'll repeat and I fly out at 6:00. No biking on this one. Also, my former recruiting contact wanted to get dinner while I was out there but I won't have time. Also, won't be looking up Scotty this trip. Oh well. Dessert will be eaten as well, I am sure.

Zwift is adding a new world. Holy shit, why do I get so excited about this? Now I actually want to go to Innsbruck, Austria. I am a dork.

Got the chainsaw running this afternoon then loaded up everything for the Stewart run today. Drove up at 3:30 and got there just before 5:00. Met @1sh0t1b33r and @Santapez and we did a lap. Before we started I put the fork up to about 100 PSI and as soon as I detached the shock pump, it pissed it all out. So I did a lap with the guys like this:

5ae13404-40e5-4dc2-a38b-7b458369e28f-jpeg.70076

Then I went to the car and got the chainsaw, and rode the bike like that, with a chainsaw on my back. In the end I think we're looking good:

34560527_10215674623354597_5868391370472816640_n.jpg

Felt like ass today. Climbing the hills was such a chore but my HR refused to go much higher than 140. I think the allergies are crushing me this week, all of the sudden. This oak pollen-sperm is all over the place right now which may be the culprit. Hopefully this clears out in the next week and I can get back to normal. I wake up every morning feeling like I have a hangover. Plus I'm not sleeping super-well right now. As I lay here in bed my body has that light springtime numbness to it. Great.

I think we are mostly good for the race course, though we need to trim up Bear as the grass is pretty high.

Tomorrow I am off to Delaware and plan to bolt at 2:00 from the facility and hit up White Clay for a few hours. D is covering the circus tomorrow to allow me to ride my bike like an irresponsible child. I'll return the favor the following day as she plans to go to the final NICA practice with Zac. I am not in love with the idea of driving to Delaware at all, let alone at 6:00am. But it's always good to have someone on-site for these things and I need to teach them how to use our Purchasing module which is being installed this round. That's always a fun time. Imagine trying to teach your cat how to use the microwave. It’s like that.

I have been to White Clay enough now that I just wing it when I go. I don't know it well enough, so I screw it up every time. But in time, I hope I will figure it out and know it well enough to hit all the trails in the right direction. Having said that, every time I go I end up at an intersection and think, "Well now how the F did I get here?" I'm taking the good bike, because really it's the better of the bikes but I also hate that other bike right now. I want to throw it in a lake.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
A) So you're going to Chicago to WFH at someone else's home? Seems legit.
2) great job on the course. Thank you for your service.
D) I got valve stems and a tool. I'll bring them if I see you this weekend.
Friends don't let friends ride fjorked.
 
Top Bottom