by Ethan Johnson
August 22, 2008

This article is potentially extremely image intensive, but I am going to compromise and have some inline photos interspersed with hyperlinks to supporting images, okay? Onward.

I have been reading a few cycling blogs lately, and thinking that I should get more serious about bike commuting. Of course, I can hop in the minivan as needed to buy ice cream or other perishable items for speedy transport. But frankly, a trip to the corner bank or the library doesn't involve refrigerated/frozen items, other than my bottle of water. As gas prices rose this year to record levels, I saw more people hauling out the old 10-speed and trying to recapture former glory. It's not that simple when we get older. And, as this article will explain, there are other factors in play that make bike travel a bit daunting. Not impossible, but daunting.

by Ethan Johnson
July 6, 2008

The New York Times went two-for-two this weekend with stories about high US gas prices and what is being done now to cope with them, and what could have been done to minimize their impact. Fair warning: NYT online articles tend to require free registration.

by Ethan Johnson
December 31, 2007

Various thoughts and linked items to close out the year:

by Ethan Johnson
December 23, 2007

Conventional wisdom holds that if one focuses on a particular thing, one will start to see more of that thing. For example, if one decides to buy a new car, and determines which kind, suddenly more of that kind of car are seen in traffic. Or suddenly there is a new aggressive advertising campaign devoted to that vehicle. Conventional wisdom strikes again, as I have been mulling over certain topics in advance of forthcoming articles, and as luck would have it, I'm finding an abundance of supporting material. Case in point:

by Ethan Johnson
December 12, 2007

In its present form, new discoveries aside, the Tao Te Ching sets the tone for the larger body of work in its famed opening lines:

The Way that can be told of is not an Unvarying Way;
The names that can be named are not unvarying names.

The insistence of some that they can divine what the Tao "wants" has completely and utterly missed the point of these opening lines, let alone the remainder of the source material.

by Ethan Johnson
November 26, 2007

Earlier this year, I wrote about Breatharianism:

Breatharian thought (as I am defining it here) is rooted deeply in "keeping up appearances", and is identifiable either through covert activities to create a specific impression, or overt actions that oppose the stated ideal. But this differs from mere hypocrisy in that the hypocrite is loathed because he or she doesn't even bother to act in the manner that he or she claims to be the ideal, such as the finger-wagging moralist who snorts cocaine and enjoys horse porn. Hypocrisy in the business sense would be declaring "keeping jobs safe at home" to be the ideal while outsourcing 99% of the company's operations overseas. Breatharianism in the business sense would be to claim that sole entrepreneurship is the key to success, only to reveal that a virtual army of outsourced labor/resources was pressed into service to keep the business afloat.

Two items have recently entered the national bloodstream that speak to the above. One is a book, and another a movie (based on a book). I will try to keep "spoilers" to a minimum, however if you plan to read Better Off by Eric Brende or see Into the Wild at the movies, you may want to skip this article altogether but couch the above quoted text in the back of your mind somewhere.

by Ethan Johnson
November 17, 2007

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. - Satchel Paige

While I was on my sojourn to Chicagoland, I heard a news report about Georgia's drought problems, which famously culminated in Governor Sonny Perdue hosting a prayer breakfast to pray for rain. One couple interviewed for the piece affirmed that they in fact brought umbrellas and rain gear to the event because they were convinced that the sheer power of prayer (their prayers, to be specific) would compel the skies to darken and years of drought to be erased in an afternoon. Putting the prayer thing aside for a moment, I think these folks need a crash lesson (on paper) as to why that might be as problematic - or worse - as the drought.

by Ethan Johnson
July 30, 2007

Hoo boy. I was on the fence about going to this game, partly because I don't know what to make of this "Superliga" tournament. I'm not really feeling a lot of buzz about it, but on the other hand, I'm told that Pachuca is one of THE best Mexican teams, and I'd be doing myself a gross injustice if I missed out. I decided to break ranks with the support section since this wasn't a real MLS game and try to get better at shooting sports with our hoop-te-too camera. I spent the first half in the support section anyway due to a ticketing error, then the second half on the rough equivalent to the 30-yard line. I took, I shit you not - over 1000 photos. Most were blurry crap, but I came away with 40 usable photos, which will be presented "thumbnail" style to prevent scrolling from hell. You're welcome. Anyway, here's what happened: