Somewhere around the summer of 2010, I started following on Twitter, an Alex Payne, ex of Twitter, then of Simple Bank (now Simple).

Simple is a project to be a kinder, gentler alternative to banks. Once they got established, they’d invite people to join, so in September of 2010, I got on their waiting list. I followed their development. In the meantime, I moved to New York City and, while I kept my University of Michigan Credit Union account, I needed a local bank and ATM network, so I got a plain old checking account at Chase, the only reason being to have access to local ATMs (the Credit Union network called SWIRL leaves much to be desired). I don’t like Chase. I don’t like any big bank, and I’m sure you understand it’s not without reason. I’ve been hit with their absurd fees; they failed to deliver an online rent payment (as well as others), much to my embarrassment with my landlord; and, moreover, after resending the money, I had to argue to have the stop payment fee of the first payment waived even though it was their fault! There is more.

Now my goal is to move more and more into using Simple, and soon drop Chase completely. I thought I’d start blogging about my experience with Simple.

Here is the link to all posts about my experience with my Move to Simple.

Somewhere around 15 years ago, I started noticing a trend. If the word “meme” had been in as ubiquitous use as it is now, I’d have noticed a meme. I mentioned it to people, but it seemed to register with no one. I kept a little list of examples I’d run into. Over the years, they got more and more numerous. Now of course my list is not on paper (it’s actually an Evernote note). Being a fallen linguist, I would speak of it thusly and ask people this question:

“Have you ever noticed how many movie titles there are of the form … gerund of a transitive verb of Germanic (as opposed to Latinate) origin plus a person or place name?” People answered, “no,” which really meant, “Are you crazy?”  Thinking I could bring them into my world by means of power of persuasion in sheer numbers, I’d mention just a few of the well-known examples: Eating Raoul, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Feeling Minnesota, Waking Ned Devine, Being John Malkovitch, Finding Nemo, Chasing Amy, Boxing Helena, Saving Private Ryan, ….

Non-linguists would acknowledge that maybe there was something there, but, then the conversation would to other things, usually less linguistically interesting. Linguists were only slightly, and I mean slightly, more interested. But there’s no arguing the meme is there and the pattern/process is, to use a linguistic term, realtively productive.

There are variations to be sure, not always precisely gerund + person/place name. Sometimes it’s more a turn of phrase: Trading Places, Being There, Turning Paige, Changing Lanes, …. Still, the main pattern is there (remember, transitive verb, no preposition, preferably with a Germanic root; though one can imagine a few Latinate verbs that would work) and a certain rhythm is there.

Here is the list in its current state and a graph showing the number of examples from the list occurring in each year since 1979. We may have peaked in 2009, but maybe not. If you want to pitch a movie in Hollywood, I urge you to consider the pattern; brainstorm a little: Using Gerund, Writing Title, Pitching Concept, Pitching John Woo, Selling Meemo, Bowling Bowling Green, Thinking Clare-ly, Taking Pains, Wheeling West Virginia, …. Why, the possibilities are mindless.

P.S. Thanks to Louise for the suggestion to blog this, and to Haley for the post title.

Dedicated to the creators of the need for an #OccupyWallStreet.

For most of my life, I’ve lived with self-doubt about my capabilities and how to use them. I’ve been timid and held myself back in life because of it. I always thought that, at the very least, I should try to do the right thing. Of course everyone says one should do the right thing. This was my thinking…

If I were to lie to someone to persuade them to make a decision I knew was against their own interest, someone would find out and I’d be called out or punished.

If I were to steal someone’s money, by virtue of my lies, or simply through various forms of veiled or unveiled extortion, someone would catch me and I’d have to pay the price, financial or societal.

If I were to found a corporation to protect myself from liability, then go even further to grow it into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise which flaunted its wealth, wealth taken directly or indirectly from people’s pockets and created by funding wars and raping the earth, I might not only feel some small guilt, but more importantly, I figured, there would either be some power, governmental, social, legal, that would come down on my corporation and me. And if I were to drive that corporation into the ground through overreaching greed and short-term decisions with devastating long-term consequences, not only to those I’d already bilked but also to others who had had no relationship with my work, perhaps even bringing down international economies with it, I’d be allowed to fail so that I might learn my lesson and the world might learn its lesson.

But let’s forget the externally motivated ethics. The real question is: “What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t get caught?”

Now, I’ve watched how the world treats people and corporations like that; I’ve finally read the self-help book of reality, I’ve come to realize that my timidity was only hurting me. I had to let go, come out of my shell, be a bigger me as it were, dream the Dream, and make it happen. I couldn’t let self-defeating concepts like conscience hold me back anymore, could I?. I know now that even fear of consequences has been a terrible barrier to my actions and achievements and self-actualization. I know now that there are no consequences. I’ve broken free and learned the real lesson about how to fly:

Lie like nobody’s listening. Steal like nobody’s watching. Grow like you’re too big to fail.

3 days ago, I walk in to the storefront at 139 5th Ave. (Manhattan) to buy a headset for a friend’s phone. No one pays attention to me. I eventually flag someone down. He goes off and retrieves three headsets (Why are they not on display?) for me to choose from that should fit the model phone. I choose one. $20. The register won’t open, and the printer doesn’t want to print the receipt. 30 minutes later, I leave the store. I take it home. It does not fit.

I go back yesterday. There is someone behind the counter exasperated because the printer is printing out reams of paper. Someone complains that they were told that it had been fixed. Clearly, they have hardware issues at the store.

I tell the somber person greeting me of my wasted effort and time and the fact that the headset I was sold didn’t even fit. He is not moved. No apology, no words. He goes off and comes back with a headset that should fit the phone. He asks me for another $10. I wonder out loud if that $10 would pay for the 1/2 hour of my life wasted, and the extra effort to come into the store again to fix their mistake. He is not moved, offers no sympathy, and in fact says, “That doesn’t change the price of this headset.” The correct response would have been, “I’m very sorry, sir. Let me see if there is any way we can fix this situation.” … then talk to a manager … even if the final response would be … “I’m very sorry. I tried, but there is nothing we can do. I’m afraid the price is what it is.”

Even an attempt at rising the absolute lowest level of customer service would have been appreciated. Clearly, Verizon doesn’t care enough to hire good retail people or support them with working hardware.

And to top it off, the second headset I took home doesn’t work either.

Complete and utter #customerservicefail

New York City is just one surprise after another.

A couple of days ago the reverse osmosis system I’d installed two months ago in our apartment stopped delivering water. Since the manual said there should be no maintenance for 6 months, I called the manufacturer’s help line. The woman on the phone had me swap the pre- and post-filters, which confirmed that the pre-filter was clogged.

Why would that be? She said, “Do you have a water softener?” “No, this is New York City,” I said. “If the hardness is 10 or more, it could be a problem.” I felt a bit of indignation, having adopted the New York City Water is Great attitude, despite my admittedly short residency. “No, this is New York City,” I said. (I even looked it up later, the hardness is about 1. So there.) The reason for the clogging remained a mystery. I figured we’d just have to cough up $40 or so every two months instead of every six months, to have our water the way we wanted it.

The next day, however, I thought that perhaps I could convince the manufacturer to give us a free replacement filter since it hadn’t behave as claimed. I called again and this time talked to a man on the phone who wasn’t going to give me any freebies, conjecturing that it could be due to … something about New York City water having some kind of … he kept hedging because he didn’t seem to be completely certain, he’d only heard about it … some kind of … creature, microscopic, perhaps a crustacean. I wasn’t sure I was getting the picture. I wasn’t sure the guy wasn’t crazy. New York City water doesn’t come from the ocean, it comes from upstate, naturally filtered and all that, at least I thought so. He continued, saying that he’d heard that there was even some group, a religious group, in New York that wouldn’t drink the water because of it.

Okay, I thought, this is too much. Whether this guy is crazy or whether he’s speaking the truth and the truth is crazy, I have a clogged filter and I’m not getting any satisfaction about a replacement. We finished the call.

This of course is what the Internet was invented for, so I started digging around the web. The official New York City water reports and several articles touting the quality of NYC water I found mentioned nothing about microscopic crustaceans in the water that New Yorkers love to brag about. Perhaps the guy was crazy. The mystery remained. But not for long. Further digging. One article mentioned “copepods”. Then another. Then another.

The Wikipedia entry on copepods says that these nearly micropscopic crustaceans live in fresh water too, and sometimes are intentionally added to water supplies to control mosquito larvae, for example, in Viet Nam (in New York, however, they occur naturally since its water is not filtered). It also says that some tropical countries, there is a correlation between copepods in untreated water and cholera (evidently not in New York). It also describes their discovery in 2004 in the New York City water supply and how, since they are not considered kosher, many observant Jews in New York filter decide to filter their water. Also see this and this.

The guy was not crazy. Copepods will continue to clog my RO system. And next time you hear someone make the usual claim that New York City water is the best, you can agree, and say that, even though they might prefer theirs straight up, you’d like your next serving done up Kung Pao.

I just found a couple of old letters, written as letters to the editor of the magazine Zymurgy. Here they are, representing a heady time in my life and a heady time in the early micro-brewing industry. Read them both, first the 10/8/1995 letter and then the 5/20/1996 letter:

——

October 8, 1995

Letters to the Editor
Zymurgy Magazine
American Homebrewers Association
P.O. Box 1679
Boulder, CO 80306-1679

Dear Editor:

I would like to thank you for publishing, and Bill Holmes for writing, the article appearing in the Zymurgy Special 1995 issue (The Great Grain Issue). I am writing to follow up on the article about Dave West’s and my own techniques for full grain mashing. At the time I brewed my Bohemian Pilsner, I was brewing 5-gallon batches. By the time the article was written, I was brewing 10- to 15-gallon batches using the Pico-Brewing System that Dave West and Mike O’Brian produce.

Of late, I continue to brew with only grain, but have graduated to brewing in larger quantities. The article mentions that I was considering investing in a pH meter for better brew monitoring. I am happy to report that my new employer has supplied me with a pH meter for use in brewing. In fact, the pH meter comes complete with a 15-barrel brewing system along with two 15-barrel fermenters, one 30-barrel fermenter, six 15-barrel serving tanks and all concomitant equipment. My recipes now call for something on the order of 1000 lbs of grain per batch.

I would like to thank you once again for the article and would like to let your readers know that seven years of serious, full-grain, scientifically oriented homebrewing can, in fact, lead to an exciting new career.

Sincerely,

Alan Pagliere
Head Brewer
Blue Coyote Brewing Company
Lansing, Michigan

—–

Letters to the Editor
Zymurgy Magazine
American Homebrewers Association
P.O. Box 1679
Boulder, CO 80306-1679

Dear Editor:

This letter is a follow up to one I wrote back in October of 1995, (appearing in the Summer, 1996 issue of Zymurgy) in which I revealed the fact that I had “graduated” from homebrewing to professional brewing. Reading it was bittersweet now that I have left the world of professional brewing, after a mere eight months.

Why, an envious homebrewer might ask, did I leave so soon after entering that world? There are several reasons, but I know that one of the highest on the list had to do with the realization that I am  unable to ride out the sad trend in brewing I have become aware of.

There are many wonderful micros and brewpubs in the US that are truly dedicated to maintaining the history, tradition, and quality of beer. However, there are some that are merely cash production facilities. The people who put together these “projects” have no love of beer, rather they simply have and love money. Just five to seven years ago, many of those who started up micros and brewpubs were brewers. These days, they are entrepreneurs. They, in turn, hire a brewer like they hire a waiter, someone whose expertise can be overridden by the dollar when it benefits the beer ignorant entrepreneur.

I am sad to say that that is what happened to me. I blame myself for being naive enough early on to ignore the signs. I enjoyed brewing very much, but eventually the compromises to the integrity of the beer and to my own were so great that I had to leave. I could say that I was just unlucky and that it was only my specific circumstances that have soured my outlook on the fate of the so-called “craft-brewing” industry. However, I believe, from what I have seen of late of the kinds of people rushing into the industry, that the next five years will see a lot of brewpubs that care much more about money than about beer and the people who support its craft.

Clearly, there will be a shakeout and we can only hope that those interested in quality will be the ones to survive. That happy day will be a few years in the future and, at the point in life I find myself now, I can not afford to wait. I have returned to my previous career. I suggest that new, younger, brewers may be able to stick it out, assuming they do not fall into the trap (set by business people not merely ignorant of beer but, worse, with no interest in acquiring knowledge or appreciation of it) of beer for money’s sake above everything else.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you once again for printing my previous letter, written with all the enthusiasm of a homebrewer who had the opportunity to go professional. I would also like to urge all those who are or long to be in the same position, first, to be careful of who it is you might work for, and second, whether brewing professionally or not, to hold on to your brewing integrity. Brew to the standard of quality, educate everyone you can, stick with the old traditions at the very same time you are creating new ones. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Alan Pagliere
ex-Head Brewer

So, the first few days were spent unpacking boxes, getting at least the kitchen together first, dealing with the animals and their reaction to the new home. Put some plants in the ground in the garden so that they’d survive their transport. Esther was back home, finishing things up at the house and running a zillion errands.

The apartment is fantastic. Garden and parlor floors. Short walk to Fort Greene Park.

Esther arrived Wednesday and we jumped into more unpacking. We have made a ritual of waking up early enough to get Molly (formerly known as The Road Dog) to the park for a reasonable run during the off-leash time before 9 am. I leave from the park to grab the Q to Manhattan for my day at work. A short walk, two stops on the express and I’m near my office.

Take out from the Black Iris (lots of great stuff just a few blocks from the apartment) with Ira the second night I was in the place.My brother Miguel came to visit one night, a few visits from Patrick,

We had wanted to be in New York for the Halloween festivities. We figured we’d hit the big parade in Manhattan, but all our neighbors (who by the way are great), told us that the neighborhood had its own very good activities. We decided to hang in the hood. Two short blocks away from our apartment, Clinton Ave. was cut off so that a group of residents, theater-types it seems, could put on their annual performance. Outside a mansion-like building, large stage, sounds system, music, performers, lights, crazy, big production. Block party.

A half block in another direction, another block cut off so that another group of folks could put on their crazy event. A slightly lower key production, but with lights, music, and much more over the top props. A great time had by all.

So a couple of weeks pass. November 6, I’d had planned for a while to go see Laura Cantrell, singer songwriter, at the First Saturdays program at the Brooklyn Museum (0.9 miles from our apartment). With Esther and friend in from Nashville visiting, we hit it. Great show. Laura was great, her music was great, and her musicians were great.

We keep thinking that everything in the world must be happening just blocks from our apartment. The most obvious evidence of this was the next day, when after taking Molly to the park, as we were walking back to the apartment, we noticed all the streets south of DeKalb were cut off by the police. A quick inquiry and we learned that the route of the New York Marathon was along Lafayette, just a block away. We walked one block from our house and arrived in time to see the a few wheel chair entrants followed by the front-running, world-class women runners. Not long after that came the front pack of the men. We couldn’t help ourselves and we wound up staying for a very long time, to watch what is really the most inspiring group of runners, the everyday folks who decide to run the marathon and do it. I know from experience the magnitude of the effort, the unflinching mental concentration it requires to combat the physical and emotional up and down of the months-long preparation and final ordeal. And that is being played over and over, tens of thousands of times, once with each person who passes by.

Work has been busy, but when I have a chance, I leave my office on Fifth and 22nd and explore a bit.

Esther is looking for a studio to rent for her art work. I’ve made a few contacts but need to pursue further musical outlets for a pedal steel guitarist in New York City.

Everything is great. Everything is right here, close by. It seems to all be a block from our apartment. I exaggerate: It’s all within two blocks of our apartment.

Oh, and of course, though we are in November, the sun is still quite visible.

So, after months of preparation and and multiple freakouts (would we ever find a place to live that was good enough, or find tenants in Ann Arbor that were good enough), after pretty much the most stressful 5 months of my life, it’s done and it’s great. I keep thinking there at least one downside to this move will come up.

It ain’t happening.

Last May there came via email an internal posting for a job a “data analyst” within JSTOR. I looked at it because it was based in New York. Esther and I have been talking for years about moving from Ann Arbor because. I looked at the job description and though the project was a bit mundane, I thought, “I can do that job.”

So, I inquired and applied. I cannot tell you how large the inertia was to take the job. A very small part of it was that it was in NY and wasn’t going to pay more than my Ann Arbor job. Then, when you get to a certain age, you start to be held back by the … it’s comfortable where I am … mindset. But wait, are we supposed to wait another 10 years before we feel more able to pick up and move like that, have this adventure? Yeah, right.

So, after much agonizing over the decision, much, I somehow, literally at the last second, managed to utter “yes” rather than “no.” I expected relief at having jumped off the cliff, having the decision made. But no. Then began the agonizing over what we’d gotten ourselves into, the craziness of trying to move by Sept 1: doing all the work in the house that we’d put off for years. Trying to get rid of a large percentage of our possessions and decide what to take to an apartment that would be much smaller than the house. Then trying to find a place to live in Brooklyn (took three trips to Brooklyn to hunt), and then rent the house in Ann Arbor.

Everyone we told about this idea was supportive, some perhaps envious of the adventure. In many ways, I still can’t believe that we decided to do it, and in no way do I understand how we survived the months of prep and the move.

So, why? Though there is missing long-time friends and activities in Ann Arbor, there are renewed connections to some family in the NY area. But really, we both just needed a kick in the head, and we knew it. Out of every routine, more creative outlets, more opportunities for exciting things to do.

We got ‘em now.

The truck and the separate, hired guns for unloading were scheduled to arrive Monday at 9 am. It was now Sunday and, after the fiasco and near disaster of the Ann Arbor piano loading, we decided to use Real Piano Movers to unload it here.

I find out about Ilya from Esther’s email at about 1 pm Sunday. I call. Ilya will check if his mover Alexey can do it. I hear nothing till about 5 pm. I call Ilya. Alexey is on the road but will call in by 6. While hanging in Fort Greene Park with our friend Patrick and Molly the Road Dog watching the pick up soccer, Alexey calls me. His accent is heavy but it is more important that he understand me than vice versa. I remember practically nothing from my Russian major days at Rutgers, but I break the ice with my recitation of the first few lines from the famous poem by Pushkin, Я вас любил. He is less impressed than most Russians I pull this trick on.

I describe the move needed. Steinway spinnet, dimensions, down the truck ramp, up one step to the patio, down two to the garden floor apartment, 90 degree turn, down the hall and around through the kitchen. No problem, he says. What time? I say between 10 and 10:30 Monday morning when I expect the piano to be unearthed from the rubble that is the back two thirds of the truck’s contents. He can do it.

All the stars and heavenly ducks align: the truck arrives at 8:40 am, the movers (the most excellent Atlas Movers, Inc. of Brooklyn, New York) arrive at 9 am. Unloading begins. Alexey and his even more body-builder-like and younger partner-in-heft arrive at 10:05. They wait patiently with bulky arms folded and equipment ready until the specialty muscle is needed. At about 10:30, a path is cut through the chaos and access to the piano is achieved. The Russians set to work.

Some people look at the violence of American football and see the athleticism, some can even easily tease out the balletic flight of a long receiver’s leap and turn. And so it was with Alexey and his tovarishch. With nothing more than a piano sled, a small 4-wheel dolly, and four biceps each the size of Montana, they steer the piano through the course described above. You know there is a lot of mass being turned, lifted, set up on end and back again as much and as many times as needed, but somehow you only sense a small fraction of said mass, so skilled and deft are they.

The work takes a mere 10 minutes and the piano is now about 6 feet from its final position. To get it off the sled and up against the wall, each man takes one end and they simply lift the thing.

Whenever in life, any literal or metaphorical clean-and-jerk places itself as an obstacle in one’s path, or put another way, in the great Land War of Life, take it from me, you want these guys on your side.

And to tie up the bow on the package nicely, Ilya called later in the day to make sure that we schedule a tuning with him.

Alan

The Boston.com Big Picture blog has a subset of the photographs by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Remarkable.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

Funny how a familiar technology in an unusual context can produce such an odd impression.

It’s a very strange and rather hard to explain feeling that comes from breaking the unconscious linking, born of experience, of “past” to “black and white”. My first unconsidered impression on seeing these photos, this color out of context, is that the photographs are … somehow staged, which is absurd, of course. Then the consideration begins….

Since I was a kid, I’ve often wondered what exactly “real life” looked like in 1942 for example when my dad came to the US for the first time (and took photos that I’ve seen), or in the 1910s (from which I’ve seen photos of my grandparents). What did people in the late 1800s experience when they walked around. Or for that matter, in the year 200?

I can tell myself that, yes, what everyone saw and experienced was just like what I see now but with the different trappings of time and location. Reality is reality, always has been, and it’s all in color. No different from now in any great way. But even after that intentional, intellectual exercise, there remains the sense that it must have been different; after all, it existed in black and white, didn’t it? People back then mush have experienced some kind of fog or fuzziness between themselves and their world, since that is what I see now of that time….

These photos here shoot those impressions all to hell and so I’m left with some sort of cognitive dissonance, a difficulty in accepting that the past I’ve always thought existed as different is actually similar to my present. I haven’t quite yet accepted that, but I’m beginning to see the people in these photographs as people I share a reality with.

Me veo sonriendo
en los juegos de palabras
en los primeros momentos de nuestro amor
en la cara de mi hijo.

Me veo muriendo
en los recuerdos de mi abuelo
en el hígado de me papá
en los ojos en el espejo
en la cara de mi hijo.

Helados Scannapieco is the place for ice cream if you are in Buenos Aires. Forget the Freddo and Filippo chains, forget all the trendy, cute heladerías. Just go to Helados Scannapieco at Avenida Córdoba 4826. It’s been there since 1938, just 17 short years after my aunt was born. Perhaps she remembers it opening. In any case, we won’t hold its youth against it.

It has the ambiance and it has the ice cream. You can try the five different types of Dulce de Leche, but really, as far as I’m concerned it’s all about the Chocolate Amargo.

My brother just sent me a link to, and I just read: “Chaos in Fourteen Lines”: Reformations and Deformations of the Sonnet by Annie Finch

For the most part I like the article. I knew about the Italian and Shakespearian sonnet forms, and about the volta and the quatrains and the couplet and so on. I didn’t know too much about sonnet forms apart from those two.

Mostly the example sonnets are enjoyable, but I do think Ms. Finch goes a bit far. I definitely believe that sonnets have a certain something and that that something is big. Just that she’s a bit overzealous in finding connections to other even bigger things….

One example: Ms. Finch is not good at arithmetic. That is to say, she starts talking about the Golden Mean (I think she means the Golden Ratio, see Wikipedia’s entry on the Golden Ratio), the ratio seen in nature, implying that there is something numerological and vast and universal and almost spiritual about the form of the sonnet with its 6 and 8 division, but wait, the last couplet is sometimes separated out so the numbers are … 6:8:12. (Okay, so the Shakespearian form of 4,4,4,2 version doesn’t fit this cosmological connection she’s discovered, but hey). But okay, we’ll overlook all that. The only real problem is that the numbers she uses 6:8:12 to show the ratio, to prove her argument don’t hold true in any way. If you use 12, the ratio is wrong and even if she had used 14, perhaps the number she should have used (6+8), it still isn’t right.

The proportion is:

(a+b)/a = a/b

(8+6)/8 does not equal 8/6

On a different note, at one point she says, “Paul Oppenheimer makes a convincing argument that because the sonnet allowed room to struggle with oneself, it marks not only the beginning of modern poetry, but the beginning of the modern idea of our ‘self’ as having a complex internal life.” Whoa. I guess I should do some research and read Oppenheimer, because I gotta figure that people way before sonnets were written in English, way before there was English, there were people thinking that we had a “complex internal life.” Didn’t people like Plato and Lao Tzu imagine a “complex internal life”? They were probably too busy doing math.

So, I may be way off on that last bit, that it’s only in the modern era that we are special enough to think ourselves to be internally complex, but I’m pretty sure about the arithmetic part.

I need to first read some Paul Oppenheimer and see if he can support his view of ancient thought and fuzzy math. And then perhaps I need to write a sonnet that does some fancy math that proves an impossibility, something like the lyrics to “I’m my own grandpa”, and have it published in the Contemporary Poetry Review.

I travel to Buenos Aires just about every year to visit family and to take in one of the more interesting cities in the world. I try to go in February and March to escape the bleak Michigan winter and store up some BTUs in the dead of a Buenos Aires summer.

I usually like to take 3 weeks vacation to make it worth the long trip. This year, my supervisor at JSTOR was kind enough to offer a hybrid approach. Since there was definitely some pressure to get some projects done, I would be here longer, just under 5 weeks, but would telecommute for part of the time. I’m doing my best to make it work, and it seems to be working.

I brought my wireless hub with me to hook up to the apartment’s cable modem. I get on the work VPN and, other than the occasional slowness when hitting some resources, I might as well be in the office. Social interaction? Email, wikis, instant messaging with and without video, Skype, version control on code. All these, but for Skype we use in the office anyway. Some people not in my department didn’t even know I was 5500 miles away.

BTW, have started following @telesaur and @phunkpathic on Twitter.

Some interesting stats about telecommuting:

http://undress4success.com/research/telecommuting-statistics/

Click here to get the full PDF complete with photos and diagrams and charts . But here’s the first page of the content to get you started:

February 12, 2009

Michael Nearing, P.E.
City of Ann Arbor – Project Management Unit
100 N. Fifth Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Re:     Stadium Blvd. over State St. Bridge Condition

Dear Mr. Nearing:

On February 10, 2009 I met with the City’s maintenance crew and you at the East Stadium Boulevard Bridge over South State Street.  You had expressed concerns over the condition of the 5th beam in from the southern side of the bridge.  This beam has been under close observation since January of 2008 when a large chunk of concrete broke loose, exposing/breaking 7 prestressing strands.  Your specific concern at this time was that you felt the beam was sagging lower than the adjacent beams.  Once we were able to get up close and use a tape measurer with a straight edge we were able to see that the beam has indeed deflected 7/8” more than the adjacent beams.

On October 22, 2008 NCI completed a bridge safety inspection of this structure.  As part of this inspection we brought in a manlift to get close access to the bottom of the beams.  Special attention was given to beam #5 due to the large chunk of missing concrete and damaged prestressing strands.  At that time we did not observe any deflection of this beam relative to the adjacent beams.  Thus, I am of the opinion that this is a relatively recent development.

The 7/8” of additional deflection found on this beam is a significant problem which will require precautionary measures to be taken.  Excessive deflection is one of the primary warnings of impending beam failure.  Of additional concern is how fast this deflection has developed.  If traffic continues to drive over this beam I would expect the deflection to continue to grow, eventually leading to beam failure.  Therefore, my recommendation to you is that traffic be removed from over top of this beam.  This can be accomplished by reducing Stadium Boulevard to 2 lanes over the bridge, and shifting these lanes to the north side of the road.  I’ve attached a sketch showing how this can be accomplished.

The Load Factor Rating (LFR) Method utilizes live load distribution factors from the AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges.  According to Section 3.23.4.2, “In calculating bending moments in multi-beam precast concrete bridges, conventional or pre-stressed, no longitudinal distribution of wheel load shall be assumed.”  AASHTO is telling us that a live load placed directly above a box beam will be carried by that beam alone, without assistance from the adjacent beams.  Therefore in theory, by removing the traffic loads from directly above Beam #5 we should be able to keep the condition from getting worse.  In reality though, I believe that  Beam #5 will still see some load (albeit a significantly reduced load) from traffic over other  beams.  In recognition of the differences between theory and reality I would recommend that  your maintenance crews continue to measure the relative deflection of Beam #5 as often as  possible to ensure that the condition doesn’t get any worse.  If the beam continues to sag or  deteriorate please let me know and we can discuss further safety measures.

If I can be of any other assistance, or if you have any additional questions please let me know.

Sincerely,

NORTHWEST CONSULTANTS, INC.

Jonathan Drummond, P.E.
Bridge Project Manager

cc:  File

Saw the Fischbein exhibit at the Palais de Glace in Buenos Aires. The exhibit was big enough to fill the entire first floor of the Palais de Glace. See http://www.palaisdeglace.org/exposiciones/2009/01/flischbein/fischbein.html
The 3 pieces on that web page are about 3×4 feet. There were much smaller boxes and much bigger. Probably about 50 pieces in all, perhaps more. Most built around little plastic babies (1 1/2″ long) woven, glued, wired into/onto all sorts of things.

It took me quite a while to get into it. Eventually, it was humorous and interesting. As the blurb on that page says, he says, “Mi ideal no es componer, sino generar texturas”. It’s not about composition, it’s about texture. But it’s texture at a bigger level: color, rhythm, space and juxtoposition are part of the “texture”. So, why isn’t it composition? Maybe it is too.

Here is a February 26, 2008 memo from Michael G. Nearing, P.E., Senior Project Manager, Project Management Unit to Homayoon Pirooz, P.E., Manager, Project Management Unit about the condition of the E. Stadium Boulevard over S. State Street in Ann Arbor. Read it, appreciate the dates and the content.

MEMORANDUM

DATE:    February 26, 2008

TO:        Homayoon Pirooz, P.E.
Manager, Project Management Unit

FROM:    Michael G. Nearing, P.E.
Senior Project Manager, Project Management Unit

RE:        2006-2007 Bridge Inspection Program
Reduced Weight Postings for E. Stadium Boulevard over S. State Street
File No. 2006-014.17 (mgn)

We are writing to inform you of the recent investigation and analysis that was performed on the E. Stadium Boulevard Bridge over S. State Street.  We are also reporting on the condition of the bridge and providing information regarding possible short- and long-term solutions for the E. Stadium Boulevard Bridge over S. State Street and the E. Stadium Boulevard Bridge over the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks.

Attached, please find a Traffic Control Order (TCO) that recommends a reduction in allowable gross vehicle weights for the E. Stadium Boulevard Bridge over S. State Street in accordance with the limits contained in this memorandum.

Background

On December 29, 2007, our Field Operations forces were called out to the E. Stadium Boulevard Bridge over S. State Street as medium-sized pieces of concrete were falling off of the bottom of one of the box beams that support the roadway.  These pieces of concrete were large enough to damage passing vehicles, if they were to strike them.  Our Field Operations and Safety Services personnel closed one lane of traffic at a time and removed the remaining loose concrete from the underside of the box beam.  No injuries due to the falling concrete were reported.

As a result of the concrete removal, we reviewed the structure again and were concerned about the condition of one of the box beams.  In early January 2008, a meeting was held on-site between Project Management Unit, our bridge inspection consultant, and bridge design personnel to review the condition of the bridge and (1) determine what possible courses of action could be taken to help prevent further damage to the bridge and (2) identify possible repair strategies.

We directed our consultants to re-analyze the bridge structure given the section loss that had just occurred.  As you may recall, effective January 1, 2008 we lowered the weight limits due to section loss that was discovered during the biennial inspection that was performed in late October 2007.  Based upon the new analysis that was performed in January 2008, it is recommended that we reduce the weight limits on this structure again.
Condition of the bridge

The existing bridge is composed of 16 pre-stressed concrete box beams that are laid side-by-side.  They are “tied” together with steel post-tensioning rods that connect pairs of beams together.  The beams are overlaid with an asphalt wearing surface.  There is a concrete sidewalk that has been cast on top of the two northernmost beams.  The bridge does not provide sufficient vertical or horizontal clearances and is considered structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.

One of the box beams has developed a severe longitudinal crack.  This is the beam that our field personnel had to hand-chip to remove the spalled concrete in late December 2007.  There are other beams that are developing longitudinal cracks, as well.  Other beams have several broken pre-stressing strands and the abutments that support the beams are in poor condition.  Note that the pre-stressing strands are the primary elements of the bridge beams that provide structural strength.  Based on these deficiencies, the bridge, viewed as a whole, is considered to be in poor condition.  The beam that is severely cracked is considered to be in serious condition.

Upon review of the “as-built” drawings of the structure, we believe that it is not possible to repair the severely cracked beam in any manner that can restore its structural integrity.  This is due to the location of the beam itself, and the location and configuration of the post-tensioning rods that tie the box beams together.  The severely cracked beam is the fifth beam in from the south side of the structure.  Due to the manner in which the bridge was constructed, it is not possible to replace only this beam. In order to repair the beam, we would have to cut the post tensioning rods on each side of the beam.  We would not be able to access the needed areas of the beams to re-install the post-tensioning rods, however, effectively leaving the beams to function individually.  This would be unacceptable.  There is also one other beam that contains small cracks that currently are not as severe as the beam described above, but we believe that it is likely that it, too, will crack in a similar manner.  AS A RESULT, WE BELIEVE IT WOULD BE NECESSARY TO REPLACE AT LEAST FIVE BEAMS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE BRIDGE, AND POSSIBLY AS MANY AS EIGHT.

Exacerbating the problem is the condition of the remaining beams.  We believe that it is likely that the tops of these beams have begun to spall.  It is apparent to us that salt-laden water has seeped between the asphalt layer covering the beams and the beams themselves.  Water routinely leaks around the beams and runs down the abutment walls.  Over time, this moisture and salt will cause the concrete to disintegrate.  Given the length of time this has been occurring, we have reason to believe that it is possible that the tops of the beams are damaged to the point that they may not be able to be repaired, if we were to attempt it.

We also believe that any attempt at performing a repair itself would be expensive.  We do not have detailed costs at this time, but we estimate that it would cost at least $250,000 to attempt to replace the five to eight south side bridge beams.  Also, it would take at least one month to perform the needed construction.

At your request, we could prepare a more thorough and detailed estimate of the repair costs and other possible options that could be implemented should funding for the replacement of the structure not be available in the foreseeable future.  This evaluation would cost approximately $15,000 to retain the services of a structural engineer to analyze and review various options.  We also recommend that about $10,000 be budgeted for our Field Services personnel to assist in the performance forensic investigations on the bridge in order to better determine the extent of deterioration of the existing bridge beams and abutments.

We do not believe that it is possible to repair the bridge over S. State Street cost effectively, however.  This is due to the extensive deterioration of the existing beams, abutments, and asphalt-wearing surface.  As mentioned previously, the bridge is considered structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.  These deficiencies cannot be easily remedied.  We will, of course, continue to monitor the condition of the bridge. Should it become necessary, we are prepared to repair the structure in order to allow the bridge to remain in service.

Proposed Short-term Action

In order to help minimize damage to this structure and prolong its life span to the greatest extent possible, we are recommending that the weight limits be lowered.  We have prepared the following table that compares the existing and proposed weight limits for the three classes of trucks that can use the structure:

Design
Vehicle        Existing
Posted Load
(since January 1, 2008)    Proposed
Posted Load    Reduction in
Load carrying capacity
Single Unit Truck        31 tons    19 tons    39%
Two-Unit Truck        39 tons    24 tons    39%
Three-Unit Truck        44 tons    26 tons    41%

The proposed Traffic Control Order (TCO) recommends a reduction in gross vehicle weight for the three types of trucks that can travel on Michigan roadways without special permits.  They are one, two, and three-unit trucks.  A single-unit truck is any truck without a trailer.  A single-unit truck can be any number of common vehicles.  Some examples of this would be a school or AATA bus, moving van, or in the worst case, a fully loaded concrete truck.  A two-unit truck can be most easily described as a semi-truck with one trailer.  Note, a pick-up truck or car pulling an “ordinary” trailer (such as the trailers that lawn maintenance companies would use) would not be considered a two-unit vehicle. Finally, a three-unit truck can be most easily thought of as a semi-truck pulling two trailers.  An example of this would be the large sand or gravel hauling trucks that bring materials to construction sites.

The recommended gross vehicle weight reductions are significant.  Also, the overall condition of the bridge has declined measurably over the course of the last calendar year.  We expect that the condition of the structure will continue to decline as the structure is nearing the end of its useful life.  Based on the rate of deterioration that we have observed over the course of the last few years, we believe that the structure has approximately three to five years in which it will be able to carry trucks.  We also expect that additional weight limit restrictions will be necessary in the future.

Proposed Long-term Actions

As you may recall, we have begun a project to perform the preliminary design of the replacement for this structure, as well as the E. Stadium Boulevard Bridge over the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks.  The bridge over the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks is located about 300 feet to the west of the bridge over S. State Street.  We believe it makes sense to consider replacing both bridges at the same time, although it is also possible to replace the two bridge structures at different times.

We have not able to move forward on the preliminary design of the bridge over S. State Street or the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks because we are waiting for the 4th Ward City Council members to nominate and confirm a Citizens Advisory Committee to assist us with the public engagement process.  It has been our experience with projects of this nature that it is important to consider and review all aspects of the proposed design with the citizens in order to make sure the project that we deliver meets community expectations.  This process will also help us to avoid conflicts later in the design process as we will have already confirmed the design approach and aesthetics of the project with the public and City Council.  Finally, this preliminary design process will allow us to better estimate the cost of the project based on a more complete picture of all project elements.

We have estimated that it will take about 2 to 3 years to prepare for bridge replacement including the public engagement and internal project review process; the preliminary and final design of the bridges and needed approach work; and the development of a funding plan for the project.  We have prepared a tentative schedule for this project such that its construction could be started shortly after the University of Michigan’s Football Stadium Renovations are completed.  We are also planning and coordinating this project so that it is compatible with the planned improvements along W. Stadium Boulevard.  Attached, please find a drawing that we have prepared that locates all of these planned improvements and their anticipated starting and completion dates.  Also attached, please find the tentative project schedule that details the required tasks and estimated durations of the required activities to complete the project’s design.

Summary

Fortunately, the reduction in weights that we are proposing does not yet affect most of the everyday users of this structure.  However, we believe that when it is again necessary to reduce the posted weight limits, both AATA and the Ann Arbor Public Schools will be impacted by this change.

The proposed change will impact the trucking and construction operations that use this corridor as they, most probably, will not be able to route trucks through this portion of the E. Stadium Boulevard corridor between S. Industrial Highway and S. Main Street.  These types of trucks will have to find an alternative route around this portion of E. Stadium Boulevard.

We are also working with the Communications Office to prepare a press release notifying the appropriate agencies of the proposed change.

attachments

HP:MGN:mgn (e stadium weight reduction memo 080225.doc)

Ding  dong, the Bush is gone, the Wicked Bush, and Cheney too. Ding dong, the Evil Ones are gone!

One of the main reasons I bought an iPhone was because I figured I’d be able (eventually) to listen to my favorite Buenos Aires-based radio stations, or any others for that matter. Still surprised Apple has restricted the iPhone’s Safari by not providing access to video, Flash, certain kinds of audio, etc. In any case, …

the first iPhone app I’ve actually purchased: WunderRadio. Via radiotime.com, they stream a large number of web-based radio stations. I get my local Michigan Radio and now I can listen to La2x4, New Orleans’ WWOZ, and any number of radio stations around the world.

Occasional breaks in the stream due mostly to moving out of range of a WiFi and switching to 3G, but hey, I get to listen to a porteño brand of castellano whenever I want.