Gone with the Schwinn across the Mississippi

2010 Schwinn Fastback Comp

:) Just looking at the picture makes me smile. This is my new bike. Got it on a sick deal from a bike shop in downtown (not a local one - it's a chain, but they did have what I was looking for at what I was willing to pay). Mediocre shimano components, but a nice aluminum frame with a carbon fork and seat post, so rides light and smooth with out being too spendy. Great introductory road bike, might start doing some longer rides now that I have 1) a bike that actually fits me 2) a bike that stays in the gear I want it to. Providence bridge pedal perhaps...?


In other updates: the soccer camp at Kateri Park is going along well this summer. The main coach is trying to start up other camps and has left myself and another pair of volunteers pretty much in charge to run the whole thing this summer. So far it has been a success, lots of kids showing up and mostly following/respecting the volunteers to the same level as before. Two of the kids actually are good enough to play for a local club team, but they are without a ride to/from practices - so if you know anyone who loves kids and has a car and is free on monday&wednesday evenings please guilt them into helping us out!

The department of interesting thoughts filed this report early yesterday:

I've nearly finished the first volume of Alexis de Tocqueville's Deomocracy In America, and the sections on the interactions of Americans and the Native Americans really caught my attention. Now this work was publish in 1830, so American settlers hadn't pushed the Native Americans too far; the massacre at Sand Creek was 30+ years off and Wounded Knee not until 1890. Tocqueville draws an interesting comparison between the settlement methods of the Spanish Conquistadors in Central America and the Americans of the United States:

...The conduct of the Americans of the United States towards native races is characterized by a most singular affection for legal formalities... they do not take over their lands without having acquired them through an appropriately drawn-up contract. If by chance an Indian nation is no longer able to live on its territory, they take them by the hand as brothers and lead them away to die far from the land of their forefathers. 

The Spanish, using unparalleled atrocities which bring an indelible shame upon themselves, have not succeeded in exterminating the Indian race, nor even in preventing them from sharing their rights; the Americans of the United States have attained both these results with amazing ease, quietly, legally, and generously, with no spilling of blood, with no violation to the great moral principles in the eyes of the world. Men could not be destroyed with more respect for the laws of humanity.

Previously I had never known that there was a contemporary backlash against the USA for their persistent behavior of making a treaty, then breaking it. Those that make the rules are the only ones who can get away with breaking them, or "restructuring" them.

But the actions of American (not European) settlers and their representative government(s) against Native Americans is well known. But to me this drew an interesting parallel with many of the criticisms leveled against modern governing and appointed bodies, groups like the G20 and G8, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. Treating foreign, less developed (though perhaps not less civilized) nations as inferiors by setting up the rules of trade and aid, then forcing national policies onto the helpless nations who have no choice but to accept whatever conditions are set by the lending body.

The legitimacy of these actions is an enormous and multi-faceted debate in itself, certainly not one I believe I have the answers to. However, I find it curious how the methodology has hardly changed over 200 years. Perhaps now nations are not deprived of their land, but things like naturals resources, oil, minerals, diamonds, forests etc could all replace that.

Tocqueville also has a very timely remark from one of our nations "Founding Fathers," [Glenn Beck probably already knows I typed that phrase] about how the United States ought to treat the native americans:

Washington said in one of his messages to Congress: "We are more enlightened and more powerful than the Indian nations; we are therfore bound in honor to treat them with kindness, and even with generosity."

This noble and moral policy has not been pursued.

One wonders what our foreign policy (past and present) would look life if we truly took this sentiment to heart.

Anybody want a peanut?

Well it finally happened, I moved back into Portland! This time into a new part of town, on the east-side of the river in North Portland. (For you locals, it's roughly at the intersection of N. Alberta and Interstate Ave.) It's pretty close-in to the main part of town, and close to the MAX and several bus lines, so it's very easy for me to get in and out of town. It's also a more residential area of town, so it's quieter and the streets are calm. It's the perfect part of town to get around by bike, which is something I was looking forward to a lot.

About the place: It's a 4 bedroom house, I share the main floor with one person. A couple lives upstairs, and one guy lives in a day-lit basement room. It's not the biggest house on the block, but it is in very good shape and I think the social dynamics with the house-mates are all very good and healthy. There's a good balance of people knowing that they need to take care of there stuff, but it's relaxed enough that people pitch in where the see fit and don't sweat it if someone forgets to set off the dishwasher. I came home yesterday from reading my book (Democracy in America by Alexis de Toqueville) at a coffee shop and my housemates were playing Yahtzee. They invited me to join, then we all went out to Indian food on Hawthorne Blvd.

All in all, it seems like a great place at a good price and I hope to stick around a good while.

In other news, the job hunt is still on. I'm pretty much applying for whatever I find that I am (over)qualified for. In fact I applied for a job at a Lazy Boy store just yesterday, wouldn't mind hearing back from them and working there for a while until the architecture business recovers. Things seem to have bottomed out in the industry, but they haven't made much headway getting back to where they were a couple years ago. Right now I just need a part-time job to pay the bills until I can get back to practicing architecture.

Other things are going to occupy my time though. I'll be volunteering more at my church (Imago Dei Community) now that I don't have to take an hour max/bus ride to get to it. I also am looking to get back involved with Architects Without Borders, and there is still some follow up work to be done with my EMI Project in Kenya.

But even that won't take up all my time... which is really great. I want to get to know the east-side of Portland a lot better, try out the restaurants on Alberta and Mississippi, go to the Last Thursday art walks, watch movies in the park, do some bike riding and perhaps some hiking, and spend some good time reading again.

It's summer time, the best season in Portland. Time to "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life," and put into motion all the grand schemes I made biding my time in Hillsboro.