Long Beach Navigation

Yesterday Ian and I were down in Long Beach for the day. Maybe we were just both particularly unobservant, but it seemed like the town was designed to be unnecessarily difficult to navigate in a car. A few of the smaller highlights:

• Most parking garages failed to clearly mark their existence from the street. Bicycle parking was, however, clearly marked from the street.
• Of the two parking garages that were clearly marked, one was closed and the other had an automatic ticket dispenser that wasn't working.
• One block past the 200 block was the 400 block. We were, of course, looking for the 300 block.

Now for the grand finale. On our way back, we just needed to get to the 710, then the rest would be easy. We even had a low detail atlas to help us. We saw signs for the 47, which would take us to a street that intersected with the 710. Great, we got on it... or at least we thought we did. Then we passed a sign that said turn here for the 47 North, which was what we wanted. Unfortunately, since we thought we were already on the 47, we missed the turn. We took some exit, planning to turn around. Unfortunately, what looked like it would put us back on whatever we had been on, it put us on some road that led us into a harbor area, with it's own network of roads. There was no place to turn around (legally) and all of the signs had to do with docks. There were no cars, nor signs of life anywhere. As we continued along the road continually had forks, and we tried to choose the ones that seemed like they would lead us back to civilization. They did no such thing.

Eventually we pulled a U-Turn when there was no divider in the road, and decided that was the best way to find our way out. About this time the gas light came on. To recap the situation, we don't really know where we are. We don't know how to get out. There is no one else around who we could possibly ask for help. Now, on top of that, we are low on gas. After some driving we came back to a traffic signal, and there was even a sign to get on the 47. However they didn't specify how to get on the 47 North. No, that would have been too straightforward. Our options were east or west. We picked west. I don't remember why anymore. Once we were on it, I checked the map again and realized that there is both a 47 East/West and a 47 North/South the intersect at a mutual point of termination. Fortunately, the 47 East seemed to intersect the 110, so we felt that we were probably ok. We went over a bridge, then decided we needed to deal with the gas situation, so got off at the next exit. There was no sign of gas anywhere, so we got back on 47. Unfortunately, the exit/entrance were set up differently than we were expecting, so now we were headed back over the bridge on the 47 East. Usually backtracking like this is just annoying. When you're running low on gas, however, it gets a little more exciting. Still, we thought that this route would take us back to the 47 North, and the route we had been planning on from the beginning. Fortunately, we were correct for the first time all night, and this brought us back to a gas station and a known route to the 710. The rest of the trip home went smoothly.

The moral of the story? Long Beach needs better signs and I need a better map of LA.

Home Group Shuffle

The home group I have been in since I moved to Santa Barbara two years ago just dissolved. There were a variety of reasons for it, mostly involving the leadership moving around. Apparently it is actually somewhat encouraged that home groups change things up once every 2-4 years. The reason for this being that it tends to be the primary way of building deep relationships in the Church, therefore if you always stay in the same home group, it greatly limits the number of people you get to know.

In any case, I will be in a different home group starting with this session. Certainly I will miss the people from my previous one, but I am excited to meet some new people too. Prior to this change, I had actually been thinking that it would be nice to get to know more people through a home group setting, but I wasn't ready to leave the one I was in. I think it was good for me to just be forced in the matter, rather than having to pick a time to leave when the rest of the group was still together.

Bike Fixed

I just took the time to look at my bike. It turns out that it was just the shifter cable coming loose. It was a quick and easy fix, although it makes me wonder how it came loose. There was no obvious sign of it having changed, just that it was no longer tight enough to shift gears. This worries me, because I'm afraid that whatever caused the problem the first time, could cause it again. Time will tell.

Life is Like a Game of RoboRally

...Sometimes your gears get stuck.

More specifically, after hitting a bump on my way to work today, the rear shifter on my bicycle is stuck in high gear. Fortunately the bike is otherwise functional, so I had no difficulty in getting home. I haven't decided yet if I'll keep riding it the rest of this week, or wait until it's fixed. I already have a pretty good idea of where to start looking for a solution, so I'm hoping that a little time this weekend can get my bike back in full working order.

Gold Beach

Last week I was on vacation with my family in Gold Beach, OR. For as long as I can remember, my entire mother's side of the family has gotten together there for a week each summer. The previous two summers (2004 & 2005), however, I had missed. Thus making it back this year was a big deal to me.

I had a wonderful time, but I just haven't decided what to write about it, so instead of sharing anything meaningful, I will tell you about something fairly insignificant. Even the little significance it does have is likely to be missed by many of you. It is an even I have been looking for on the road for a while, and although I suspected the existence of it, I wasn't certain if such a thing really ever happened. I can now say, with certainty, that it does. The event in question is... Two log trucks traveling in opposite directions.

Proper Uses of Tupperware

On Monday night, Philip and I had a discussion about when Tupperware should be used. It was my contention that if something comes in packaging that can store the food even after the packaging has been opened, then there is no reason to move the food into Tupperware. Philip's standpoint was that Tupperware is a better container, so it makes sense to move food into Tupperware for storage after opening it. Later that evening I discovered the following item in the fridge:

Amtrak, L-A-T-E, Amtrak

My brother Timothy is currently on his way down to visit me. He's taking a train from Portland to Santa Barbara. The train left Portland about five hours late, and is currently running about nine and a half hours late. Amtrak's website predicts, however, that they will make up over two hours of that time and get in at 1:26am instead of the originally scheduled 6:17pm. At this point, if he arrives before this time tomorrow, I will consider it a success.

Remembering LAUP

This last Saturday I drove down to LA for a LAUP (Los Angeles Urban Project) alumni day. It was a combination of worship, teaching, praying, testimonies, Q&A, and just free time to spend with people. It was very refreshing to spend time talking with so many like minded people. The day was very helpful in rekindling some my passion from that summer.

A year ago I talked to the college pastor at my Church about trying to send a group from our Church down to LAUP. His answer at the time was no for 2006 (because something else was already being planned), but maybe in 2007. I'm going to try to talk to him again soon about planning to send a team next summer. I really hope that we can make it happen. I will certainly plan to write more as I investigate this further.

Exciting Day

Today was the first full day of my business trip. We were busy just about all day, but it was exciting to see our project coming together. We get one more day to work on things tomorrow, and then we're headed back to Santa Barbara.

Headed Out

It looks like I'm finally going to make my first ever business trip in a bit under 2 weeks. Even though the last one didn't pan out, I'm more confident that this one will since they've already purchased my plane tickets and made hotel reservations.

I am excited about this for a couple of reasons. First, the trip involves getting to use some expensive, geeky, toys. Second, my project manager chose to bring me along as a software expert. It's nice to know that he thinks of me as someone good enough with our code that I'm his first choice to have along.