Cars

I have watched the movie "Cars" more than anyone else on the planet except my son.  I've always assumed that the real life equivalents of the Cars were as follows:

The King - Richard Petty (the movie writers didn't even ask us to think here)

Chick Hicks - Dale Earnhardt (hardest match because Earnhardt was popular while Chick was not)

Lightning McQueen - Jeff Gordon  (another easy match, especially since they both ran off their pit crews)

So, are these correct?  One possible alternative would be Doc = Petty, King=Earnhardt, Chick = Gordon, McQueen=Jimmy Johnson.  There are a number of problems with this alternative so I think it is unlikely (the biggest problem is that Gordon was successful early in his career while Chick was successful late).

Quick Reviews

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell's first two books were both excellent, but this book is even better -- his best wook yet and probably the best non-fiction book of 2008 (although Hot, Flat, and Crowded is in the debate, among others).  The book gets a little slow in the middle, but, overall, it is just fascinating.  I think everyone should read this book.  Grade: A

Syriana

How did this movie get nominated for an academy award?  It was terrible --- slow, confusing, and completely without closure.  I know the movie was trying to communicate a certain unpleasant message about oil and the world we live in, but, really, you couldn't communicate that message more coheriently than that?

Book Review: The Appeal by John Grisham

This books sucks. It is terrible. No one should ever be subjected to this book. All existing copies should be gathered together, thrown into a big pile, and burned.

I am a fan of many John Grisham books. They're usually a little fluffy but very enjoyable. I would even describe a few as great. The Appeal, however, may be the worst book I've ever read. I realize that John Grisham intentionally wrote this book in a way that he hoped would cause us to think more critically about the election of judges, but, come on, I do not need to read this crap to learn a lesson. Will I ever read another Grisham book...well, we'll have to see how long the memory of this garbage lasts.

Michael Crichton

For the first 17 years or so of my life, I did not really enjoy reading. It felt more like work than pleasure. Then, for reasons that I will never remember, I received a copy of Red Sun Rising by Michael Crichton. I literally read the book in a single 12 hour period, stopping only to sleep for a little while. It was an amazing book that combined action, advanced technology, a "world renowned expert", and, um, sex. I then proceeded to devour half a dozen other books by M.C. with the best being Sphere. After getting my fill of M.C. I moved on to other, similar authors, such as Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Robin Cook, and John Case (I only need to look in the 'C' section of the library to find all my favorites early on!). M.C. played an important role in the development of my current love of reading, and for that, I owe him my respect and gratitude. RIP Mr. Crichton.

Book Review: Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

Just an amazing and inspiring book about energy, climate, and the world we live in. I hope everyone can read it some day, and I wish it was half as long, but, overall, it's great. My favorite quote:

"This is not about the whales anymore. It's about us. And what we do about the challenges of energy and climate, conservation and preservation, will tell our kids who we really are."

Lava Lake

I'm going to try to document and archive some of my biking experiences....roughly chronologically.

I got my first mountain bike late in high school. I'll never forget the bike because it was a fluorescent green RD Coyote 3. I thought the bike was so light, but by today's standards, it was a tank. Any way, I had this new mountain bike and I wanted to ride it in the mountains. I was discussing my thoughts on possible rides at work (I was a "grocery bagger" at the time) with the new-guy, Travis, and he mentioned that he had gone mountain biking a few times. I convinced him that Lava Lake would be a great destination because it was only 3 miles and I remembered the trail as being relatively smooth. He agreed, and a few days later we were unloading our bikes from the trunks of our cars at the trail head.

Now, over the years, I've learned a few important rules for planning a first time ride:
(1) either talk with someone that has personally ridden the trail or read about the trail in a book,
(2) if (1) is impossible, hike the trail first,
(3) if 1 and 2 are both impossible, be prepared to not ride at all.
(4) make sure biking is legal on the trail.
Of course, Travis and I pretty much broke all these rules. We failed to notice that part of the trail was in a wilderness area, where mountain biking is not allowed. I failed to remember that the trail is extremely rocky with large stones embedded in dirt and sticking out everywhere along the trail. For the first few miles, we basically just pushed our bikes or rode 5 feet before hitting a rock.

You would think that after just a few hundred feet of this misery, that we would call it a day. Of course, we were way to stubborn and stupid for that. We basically slugged along much further than any reasonable person would slug, and we finally made the wise decision to stash our bikes and simple hike that last little bit. The view from the lake was spectacular, but the ride back to the car was unbelievably abbusive. It took 3 solid weeks for my prostate to forgive me for that ride. It took me 5 years before I was ready to try moutain biking again.

An interesting side story is the guy I went riding with, Travis. Travis was a little younger than I, probably 15-16 at the time of this ride, and never really became friends. In fact, I think that this ride may have been the only thing we ever did together outside of work. Travis appeared to me to be one of the most 'normal' people in world. He had normal blond hair, normal blue eyes, normal height and weight; he never said much, but he always had a smile on his face. Any way, a year or two later I learned that he was incredibly mysogonistic and a heavy drug user. The moral of the story, as always, is to not judge a book by its cover.

goodbye...

...to one of the smartest authors I ever read. DFW could write amazingly well about an incredibly wide range of topics. I still cannot believe that such a talented writer could understand such complex mathematics (see Everything and More). Just amazingly sad....

Heroes and Cool People

No, this post isn’t about the (popular?) television series called “Heroes”, it is just a dynamic list of cool people. N.B. the list is in no particular order.

• Doug Coombs - a fellow Montana State alum, amazing extreme skier, king of the Ridge at Bridger Bowl, RIP
• Steve Jobs
• Grandpa Joe Danhof - character, character, character
• Tim Bray
• Del Elliot
• Phillip Yancey
• Charlie Peskin
• Tony Campolo
• Miguel de Icaza
  

I’ll add more later.

Book Review: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan

Simply, this is probably the most interesting book I have read. I would rank it as one of the five best non-fiction books I have ever read, and I think it should be required reading for anyone that eats. The book loosely examines the “natural” history of four different meals — McNuggets, a meal from Whole Foods, a meal from a local farm, and one from hunting and gathering. However, the focus of the book is questions like, “Where does our food come from?”, “How is it processed?”, “What are the implications of food produced in this manner?”, and “What are the relative merits of the various production methods?” Obviously, these are incredibly complex questions, and Pollan does not give simple answers (or any answers in some cases). He does, however, give us information to begin answering these questions.

Book Review: “Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science” by Atul Gawande

This is Atul Gawande first book, it was a National Book Award Finalist, and I heard about it while reading a glowing review of his second book, “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance”. The bulk of the book is various stories from Atul’s residency, and a few stories are from other surgeons. I love reading about medicine and surgery so I really enjoyed this book. Atul is a very good storyteller, and the experiences that he and his fellow doctors have had is really interesting. At its heart, this is a book about what doctors know, what they don’t know, and how they have acquired the knowledge/skills that they have. He raises interesting points on the training of doctors (i.e., training is essential, but some patients die as a result), the limits of what doctors can do (e.g., treating pain), the difficulty of making a diagnosis with limited/imperfect information. To top it all off, the book is the perfect length (250 pages). Final Grade: B+

My SOMA QuarterIronMan Experience

I participated in my first (ever) triathlon on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. The race started at 6:30am, so I had to get up at 5:00am. Here’s what I learned and experienced.

SWIM: To train for the swim (1km), I’ve been swimming roughly 1.1km twice a week for the past few months. I’ve trained as far as 1.5km and a few weeks ago I went for an open water swim in Lake Pleasant (sunny, 84 degree water). About a week before the triathlon I reserved a wet suit rental for the race. The wet suit was definitely a very good idea because the water was very cold for someone living in Arizona at 69-70 degrees. When the race started, I went through one of the most horrible experiences of my life. Specifically, I couldn’t, physically, put my face in the water, I was panicking, and hyperventilating. It was horrible. I felt I was prepared, but I was completely unprepared for the combination of wet suit, cold water, swim cap, and darkness. You see, I had never practiced under race-like conditions. My one open water swim was in warm water on a sunny day without a wet suit. I think my body was just in shock for the start of the race. I started swimming inefficiently with my head above water, but after 100m or so I thought I would have to abandon. Well, I back floated a little to help calm myself down (interestingly, my speed didn’t drop off much), continued to alternate between swimming with my head above water and back floating, and finally about 300m into the race I was able to swim with my face in the water for short periods. The short periods got longer as the race went along, but I would still have to reorient myself every 10-20 strokes. I ran into a fair number of other swimmers, but nothing too serious. If I ever do a triathlon again, I will practice swimming in cold water, in the dark, wearing a wet suit at least 3 or 4 times before the actual race. I was strong enough for the swim, but I lacked the ability to swim under those conditions. In the end, I pulled out of the water after 28 minutes (I had hoped for 20 minutes) very frustrated and in 418th place (out of 600).

BIKE: To prepare for the bike, I would bike to work and back (22 miles round trip) twice a week, and occasionally ride 40 miles on the weekend. The bike part in the race was simply amazing! I loved it! I had some pent up frustration from the swim, but the bike ride was really nice. I was able to pass over a hundred people, which was a big moral booster after the swim, and I felt really good. While I’d never ridden the exact course before, I’d ridden almost all the roads at various times in the past, and I felt really comfortable with the route. The course ended up being a little longer than I expected. Originally, the distance was listed as 28.5 miles, then I got a email saying it was shortened to 23 miles. However, my odometer read 30 miles and the official race results list the distance as 29.2 miles. I averaged 20.6 mph on my odometer (20.3 mph in the official results), which I am happy with considering I was trying to save some energy for the run. One additional item of interest: you are not allowed to draft in triathlons, and I was very careful to maintain distance between myself and the other bikes for the first lap. However, during the second lap the course was packed with bikers from the half-ironman on their first lap and drafting was unavoidable at times.

RUN: First of all, I don’t like running. It just seems so inefficient compared to biking. I had been training for about 3 weeks running approximately 4 miles twice a week. I only extended my training beyond 4 miles twice — a 6 miles run and an 8 mile run, and the race was 6.5 miles. To make matters worse, it was getting really hot by the time I started my run (mid to upper 80’s). I guess the run went well for the most part, and I’m pretty happy that I was able to average 8:48 per mile. I wish there had been one more aid station around the 3.5 to 4.0 mile mark because I skipped the station at 2.5 miles, but that was just a lesson learned (don’t skip aid stations when it is hot).

FINAL THOUGHTS: I broke 3 hrs (just barely) so I’m happy. I would definitely do another triathlon if it involved a swimming pool (instead of a lake) or a relay so that I would only have to do the bike leg. The Red Rock Company that put on the race did an excellent job. There were plenty of police and volunteers to make everything organized, easy to follow, and safe. I finished in 197th place (out of nearly 600) and the final results can be found here.

Quick Football Book Reviews

I read two football books around the time of the Superbowl. Here are my thoughts.

(1) Education of a Coach - David Halberstam

This is a biography of Bill Belichick written by one of the best writers of the 20th century. Basically, Belichick has an amazing level of dedication to becoming the smartest football coach on the planet. It is a focused, unwavering, and complete dedication (as opposed to the “I really like my job” level). I enjoyed the book, but it raised serious issues for me while watching the Superbowl. Basically, the Patriots never adjusted to the pressure of the Giants pass-rush in the Superbowl. How is it possible that the smartest football coach ever was unable to make this adjustment until the end of the 4th quarter??? I need answers. Here’s my guess: Belichick focused his efforts on the defensive side of the ball, and he left his high octane offense to the offensive coordinator (after all, the Patriots scored over 35 points the last time they played the Giants). If this is correct, it is time to find a new offensive coordinator.

(2) Blind Side - by Michael Lewis

This book is, in general, about the increasing importance of the left tackle (e.g., the left tackle is now the 2nd or 3rd highest paid position on the football team). The first chapter focuses on Lawrence Taylor breaking Joe Thiesman’s leg after getting past the back-up left tackle, and this is probably the most interesting chapter in the book. Most of the remainder of the book is a biography of Michael Oher, who start life in extreme poverty in West Memphis, but later was taken in by a wealthy family and he is now one of the top left tackle prospects in the country (and playing for Ole Miss). Over all, a very interesting book.

Quick Book Reviews

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely: Prof. Ariely studies Behavioral Economics (or something like that) at MIT. Basically, this means that he conducts experiments to better understand how we make economic desicions. For example, why do we order one meal and not another? Why do we find “Buy one, get one free” sales so appealing? In this book, he describes dozens of experiments that are designed to answer questions like this. I was continually impressed with Prof. Ariely’s skill at design simple, novel experiments to answer questions that I thought were unanswerable. I found this book incredibly interesting and highly recommend it to any interested in human behavior.

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: “The Black Swan” is an allegory for highly unlikely and unexpected events. NNT argues that we fail to appreciate the impact of Black Swans on the world and our lives. For example, El Mariachi was a Black Swan for both the early audience and Robert Rodriguez (he may claim to not be surprised by the movie earning $10’s of millions, but if you asked him to predict the profit while filming the movie, I am sure it would not have 7 digits let alone 8 ). The basic theme of the book was very interesting, and I enjoyed the book for the most part. The author is very cynical, which I like, but I also felt his ego coming through, which was less appealing. Overall, a good book, but I wish the editor had trimmed it a little.

Review: Amazon Kindle

After waiting over a month for it to arrive, the Amazon Kindle finally arrived at my door. The Kindle is one of a number of ebook readers one the market. If you are unfamiliar with the Kindle, let me summarize its two main features. The display on the Kindle is e-ink (as apposed to an LCD display on laptops). Basically, e-ink is a few million spheres that are white on one side and black on the other. The spheres are rotated to generate the display. The result is amazingly high contrast similar to that of paper, and it gets easier to read the more light you have. The second feature of the Kindle is that it connects to the outside world via a cell phone signal, which Amazon.com pays. This means that to download new books, newspapers, or blogs, you just push a button or two instead of hooking it up to your computer. This is SO convenient. For example, I accidentally deleted the book I was reading a couple days again, and I was able to re-download the book (for free) in a minute or two. Amazon stores my library now instead of numerous space hogging book shelves.

In short, I think the Kindle is the most innovative piece of technology released in years. It is much more innovative that the iPhone, which is basically a cell phone that can surf the web and store a few hundred songs. How is that innovative? My ‘el cheapo’ RAZR has been able to do that for years. The Kindle on the other will have a huge impact. When my daughter goes to college, she’ll take a Kindle and download textbooks instead of carry 100+ lbs of textbooks around. We’ll save square footage on our next house because we won’t have to store hundreds of books (after all, 1 sq ft in a house costs hundreds of dollars). Seriously, the impact of the Kindle could be huge. Excuse me now, I have to figure out how to purchase Amazon.com stock.

Book Review: “A Thousand Spendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini

The Amazon.com readers rated this the best fiction book of 2007. The Amazon.com editors rated this the best fiction book of 2007. I’ll go a step further and say that this is the best fiction book I’ve read in nearly 10 years. (I think it was about 10 years ago that I read Lord of the Rings trilogy). Just an amazing book.