WE GOT HIM!!

WE GOT HIM!!!!!

We tried some tuna bait outside and attracted another cat but I went out to look one more time and saw him creeping into the crawlspace of the house nextdoor. He didn't come home but we found him.

Here we come 2008!

2007 (good riddens)

This year (as Matt will attest) has been one littered with misfortune for my household. Perhaps this was the valley to compliment the 2006 peak that not only saw us get married but also purchase and move into our first house. It all began with us trying to get out our apartment (lease) and struggling to secure a commitment from one Ms. Broward, failing, and then wrestling have the rental company for the last of our dignity, which for anyone keeping track is apparently worth a couple thousand dollars to us. Some of that money we tried to make back by participating in Yellow Fever vaccine studies but that also turned to misadventure.

On a brighter note, we did make some progress on the house and had a lot of visitors. All of our parents and siblings stopped by at one point or another during the year and some college buddies came out in September. Chad arrives tomorrow to cap off the year and to start 2008 off on the right foot. Also, I have to say that I did not fall terribly ill at any point in the year, though it was riddled with injury. I think the passing-out mentioned above was the first incident, but June was really where I kicked it up a notch. Who could forget my bloody-attic-insulation mess that resulted in an afternoon visit from an ambulance. While I did start wearing my helmet I still managed to hurt myself just a week later in a spill that took me over the handle bars of my bike. I went to the doctor the next day to hear that I had fractured my radius. They sent me to a sports doctor who said it was not broken (enough) for a cast and it would heal on its own. Finally, we had a car accident but luckily no one was hurt, save the Civic.

We both managed to take fruitful trips to Central and South America for our work and even managed to take part of a trip together. Everything went very well except that Lauren had her purse stolen while we were in the airport waiting to come home. Passport and ID were luckily on her person.

With a year that seems to have thrown so much at us it is nice to still be standing and until today we were doing better than that (practically dancing). Today, though, was one of those days that seems to avalanche on you; a series of failures like eraser strokes working on the optimism you've worked so ward to sketch out for yourself. I won't get into the steps in the progression, but a certain shortcoming is proving detrimental to the recovery of our spirits. This morning Lauren noticed that our cat had not been around all night (a rarity, especially following our 9 day absence). We are still looking but are fairly certain he slipped out last night and we left him out there. It rained all day (Gov. Purdue's prayers are being answered, I guess) and we haven't seen him, or any trace of him, yet. If he shows up soon, it'll save 2007 for me, if he's gone, then I can surely say that I am glad 2007 will be as well.

On My Block

Sometimes I think there could be an entire blog about my neighborhood, if only seen through the right lens. It's at those same times I hope I am carrying a camera. It might be there and gone or something static and I'll have a chance to go back and snap a shot. Last week presented one such opportunity and I took full advantage.

This shot was taken at the church on the corner two blocks from my house. It's about that time of year when everyone goes through the chore of cleaning up the leaves in the yard (it took em awhile but they finally fell off). Most people use the heavy-duty brown paper bags which you can buy at the hardware store. The city comes around once every other week and picks up the yard waste. The church decided to take a different approach. Maybe they didn't want to spend money on the bags from the hardware store but the bags they ultimately chose seem like they would be even harder to get your hands on. What's more, they chose bags that no one would pick up without thinking twice.
I'm happy to report that the bags were picked up, though I am not by whom or when.

Walk it Out

School is now over but I thought I would give you a taste of one last assignment. It was about measuring walkability on street segments. All of the segments were around homes of students in the class and two students rated each segment. The segments were initially rated using Walkscore.com but it is mostly based on crow-fly proximity to businesses so it doesn't say anything about walkability (for example how pleasurable it is to walk on the segment). The only real outcome we could obtain from the assessment tool that we used was a rating of the other pedestrians on the segment. We turned it into a presence/absence indicator and found that the number of land uses on a segment as well as a higher rating of the segment's sidewalk quality and interesting sights all increased the odds of observing pedestrians on a segment. It was a first look at some rough data but the results are not too unbelievable. We even controlled for median income, auto ownership, age of the neighborhood and density.

But why look at that? Is walking to the store or a bus stop really physical activity? I have a hard time convincing myself of that sometimes. Regardless educating people about what IS physical activity and how they can fit it in their lives is something that is talked about a lot in the field. I found this graphic (originally published in the New York times Magazine with an article about France's jogging President) to be very interesting. I think it is getting at the point that information about a behavior like physical activity can affect an individuals' behaviors. There was not much more than this graphic and it didn't fit with the article exactly but judging by the metrics and the jogging part of the piece I think that's what they're talking about. If I find more I will let you know but take a look it's really interesting. One thing I wonder about is why is the 'informed' group skinnier than the control at time 1?

Tox II

In an effort to increase public health awareness around anthrax as well as show off some of my classmates' work, I've offered this space to Micah (a classmate). Here she is with a guest post.

So as Jason said, we had an assignment for our Toxicology class to make a video about a toxic exposure of some kind. My group (me and my main peep, Kim) chose to do the 2001 USPS Anthrax attacks. While the assignment was more synapse-stimulating than a paper or an exam, we spent significantly more time on the creation of this video. Coming up with the idea for the creative genius you see before you took a good day or so, and the "hours" of footage (aka, 2 minutes of good film and about 80 of us laughing) took another good chunk of time. iMovie is a horrible creation unless you have vargo there for inspirational words and to show you how to do anything cool, and the walk to the video lab at school seemed farther and farther away every time we went. All in all, it was fun to complain about during the ordeal, but we didn't kill each other and who knows who might see this thing on this widely-read public domain. Anybody hiring?

Straight Diesel

In this string of updates about the projects I am working on I would like to present the latest; the Railyard Risk Assessment. This project focuses on a hazard, quantification of possible exposures, use of dose-response information to determine risk, and a summary that expands on uncertainties and tries to give an idea of what it all means. This, apparently, is risk assessment.

Thanks to Ben's extracurricular work, we landed a nice project right here in Atlanta. We decided to look at residences being built right next to two large rail yards on Atlanta's west side.
We modeled the emissions coming from the yard's activities (using a Cali yard as a proxy) and then used a model from EPA to obtain the resultant concentrations of diesel particulate matter at the new homes. The actual risk is still being determined but the results could prove to be very interesting. Below is a movie shot from one of the lots.
The most perfect irony of this is that these new homes are Earth Craft, a green building certification that puts the word "healthy" in the first sentence of its self-description. This is one example of how marketing and narrowly focused, under-developed certifications are capitalizing on 'green' (also read healthy) trends without necessarily furthering the whole objective.

GA Clean Diesel
interested in buying one these homes?
More photos of the yard here

Grad School

Sometimes my own understanding of where I am in life and who I am can seem really off. I think I'm in one place and acting a certain way and then I catch a glimpse of myself from another angle and I see of myself in a completely different light.

Grad school can be like that. Everyone is idealistic and determined and at the same time sick of it and fed up. And even though we're in our 20s sometimes we act really childish but we still feel like we're qualified to handle really big problems. If you're in the middle of it you may not even notice what you're doing. Plus we hardly have time to reflect on our work (if we get it back). Sometimes you get to put your work in front of people and then it becomes a good lens or perhaps a mirror in which to see yourself.

In my efforts to work on the really big problems that grad school presents (assignments) this is the latest creation of which I was a part. It's a mock newscast about a toxic exposure, in this case tetrodotoxin. Enjoy.

Road Trip

This Thanksgiving, in an effort to save some cash on expensive plane tickets and dog boarding, we decided to rent a car and drive to New England. My love for a good road trip has never dimmed and so of course I was up for it. We even convinced Susan, Lauren's sister, to fly down here from New York and drive back up there with us. It was all Susan's idea, and honestly with the exception of me and few other people, no one could understand why she would want to do this. My philosophy was, the more the merrier, and I was glad that she had suggested it. Plus we never get to see her and so even if our time together was crammed in a Dodge Caliber with dog in tow it was time well spent. I'm not sure if she felt that way at the end of the trip but it's the thought that counts.

We left Atlanta early Tuesday morning and set off for Lambetville, NJ to stay with Lauren's dad in his apartment there. We made decent time and the back seat (with the dog) of the Dodge turned out to be a real hit, everyone fell asleep when seated there. We arrived in Lamberville around 8:30, 14.5 short hours after we left Atlanta.

Lambertville is a hip little town situated right on the Delaware across from New Hope, Pennsylvania. Lauren and I made it out for a walk along the river in the morning before leaving. From there we headed to Hampton, CT to stay on the farm with Lauren's mom and Mack. Here we spent our Thanksgiving before heading out on Friday to Newport to spend time with family there. By Saturday our short trip had come to end and it was time to pack up the car and hit the road once again. We were not sure where we were going to stop or stay on Saturday night but we set off just the same. We pondered going to DC to stay with friends and head down 95 but changed our minds somewhere in Virginia. Then we started thinking about finding a dog-friendly hotel in Charlotte but again changed our minds.

Ultimately we trudged through and beat the Sunday traffic by arriving at our house in the middle of the night on Saturday. By the end of it we had added 2,318 miles to the Caliber and see three generations of two sides of Lauren's family. We'd also eaten more than our fair share and paid our first visit to Lauren's dad's new house. In the process we managed to save over $1000 compared to flying and boarding the dog. Now we're trying to decide whether or not to do it again (to Michigan) in December.

Seeing Like a (noun)

The end of my semester is here and I am semi-swamped with little pieces of things to get done. I also find myself running constantly to another meeting. I was telling someone earlier today (while looking for a bright spot) that I like this time of the year as I get to cross so many things off my to do list. Of course getting them done and handing in quality work are not equivalent. Regardless I haven't found too many of my peers eager to share in my optimism.

As I have been away for the blog for a bit I thought I could at least share with you some of my work. For a Anthropological Perspectives on Global Health assignment I read a book and wrote a reaction paper. Here is a summary of the book, I'll spare you the reaction so as you can have your own. If it sparks your interest, follow the link at the bottom to buy it, or find me and you can borrow.

The cover of Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott features a z-shaped double bend in an empty road with little else around it except for meticulously manicured fields. The jog in the road is a systematic blip in an otherwise uniform grid of roads that have been laid out to define six-square-mile townships in North Dakota. The roads follow lines of longitude and are forced to dogleg every twenty-four miles in order to keep with the decreasing distance between longitudinal lines as they continue north. Initially, the photo seems an unimportant adornment on an otherwise detailed work of analysis, however once you have read the text this choice of photo becomes much clearer.

In the text, Scott points out the methods which states have used to simplify, control, standardize, manage, and manipulate complex and diverse systems; first in nature and eventually in social environments. Scott begins with the example of a managed forest in which specific characteristics of the forest (perhaps specific to a type of tree), for example growth rate/yield, are recorded, monitored, and managed so that over time the forest is changed to take on those characteristics that its managers have favored. He views this as an oversimplification of the complex system that is the forest and points out some of the flaws and vulnerabilities it exposes.

Having exhibited control of the ‘wild’ natural forest the management of inhabited land followed. Scott argues that similar simplifications and standardizations, most influentially with the cadastral maps, were a necessary part of modern statehood and important in colonization. Maps were developed so that the state could quickly survey lands for the enumeration and location of population, wealth, and resources allowing those in charge to act strategically to influence ownership and to ultimately impose their own values. The influence was increased though the use of standardized systems of measurement, languages and surnames. More importantly, Scott shows that as officials of these modern states assessed life as a series of categorizations they were removed, to some degree, from the society they governed.

Scott carries his analysis from the formation of modern states to larger social and philosophical movement of High Modernism. Here he explains some of the more extreme authoritarian views on using the new science of the day to manage people as well as place. In High Modernism, an understanding of administrative ordering of nature and society is assumed to be an entitlement to such duties. Proponents of such radicalism proposed a comprehensive rational engineering of all aspects of social life in order to improve the human condition. It is typified by a top-down structure, the rejection of the past as a model upon which to build and is influenced by the military mobilization of World War I. The technocratic nature of High Modernism brings with it an incredible hubris. This is amplified in the circumstance of colonization where visionaries of the day were less constrained to carry out grand schemes and the chasm of cultural knowledge was even greater. Here Scott points out the failures of High Modernist agriculture and ‘villagization’ in Africa.

Seeing Like a State

For the Birds

In this age of the internet, most of us are constantly turning to the internet for answers. In that search you are likely to come across multiple sites that provide access to the same type of information, and so the question becomes which one gives me the most accurate information and which are the easiest to use. The latter is a question of particular interest to me. New tools are always being developed to help the user work with the interface to find what their looking for and do so with efficiency.

This is most obvious in looking at the banners and sidebars that act like tables of contents for websites. One of the most useless tools that websites employ must be the sitemap. An example of web design navigation success are breadcrumbs that help you see where you've come from or the departments under which the information you are viewing fall.
Alternatively some webpages are designed specifically for getting people to the information they want when they have relatively little to go on. Our recent car search (which ended at a 2003 Jetta) had us trying out a few such web tools that allow you to customize your search by style, number of doors, power accessories, etc. All of these options are fairly familiar to all of us. Not many people have trouble telling you how many doors are on a car. However, in other situations these defining characteristics are not so clear.

We found ourselves in one such situation recently when while playing bocce ball in the back yard we saw an odd bird hopping around back there. Now, imagine going to a site like the used car site and entering wing style. That's when we came across whatbird.com. This site had a very helpful multistage selection search feature that helped us to finally identify our newest wildlife as the American Woodcock. You can choose from a number of options including call type and there are examples and pictures to help you make your selections. When Matt and I came in from the game I could only describe the bird as a chipmunk with wings. As you could imagine my description was not too helpful in identifying the bird, but thanks to the ingenuity of the tool we succeeded. It turned what felt like ignorance into knowledge.

If you have a web tool that you love please share it.

American Woodcock

Year One

Tuesday probably passed without you even noticing, but it was a day of serious memorial. Though I’ve slowed in recent weeks (decreased my vargocity) I am proud to announce that we’ve made it through an entire year of blogging here at Vargocity. To celebrate, I urge you to go back to some of the first posts and (re)read them.

In the past year I got 93 posts up and hope to do more in the coming year. There are always new things happening around me and plenty of good material. You, the reader are an important part of my motivation and the site's continuation. Thank you for your attention and I hope you will keep coming back for more.

Happy Halloween Home Improvement

This is part three of a continuing series of posts to document what some of the work we've been doing around our house. If you've been keeping up with the blog you've seen that we've been exploring options to fix some of the heating and cooling fluctuations. you'll recall that I had to call 911 after I had an accident in the attic.

Lauren took over the insulating duties and we finished patching up the attic insulation. We also checked our recessed lighting to make sure they were rated and could be covered by insulation. She even scheduled a visit from an HVAC specialist to come and check everything out. We later canceled it and decided to move forward with some free advice from the HVAC guy gained over the phone instead of paying him to come over here and tell us the same thing.

The advice was to install an attic fan to clear the attic of all the hot air that was just sitting up there. Both sides of the house already had vents installed for passive ventilation and so we began to research gable fans. We decided to go with a solar panel-powered gable fan. We've found that this is more expensive than a regular gable fan, but our hope is that it will not only save us the energy of running the fan but also save much more by using the AC less. Coincidentally it has not been dreadfully hot since we put it in, so it seemed like it was working like a charm. However, my fear is that it may stop running in the late afternoon and allow the house to heat up in the evening. It operates on a thermostat in the attic and the solar panel is not connected to a battery to store any of the energy (think of your solar-powered calculators that would shut down when you cover the panel with you hand). We'll see how it goes.

Given the current drought and our plans to try and create a garden in the backyard next year, we decided to invest in a rain barrel for the house. It's equipped with a spigot, and such incremental investments are key to motivating me to research and maintain the focus required to make the garden happen. At the moment the barrel is simply sitting out under the open sky. Not bad for collecting rainwater but if it rains 1/8" you get 1/8". Now we need to hook it up to the refurbished gutters so that 1/4" of rain turns into 55 gallons of water. As with anything you see on here, your suggestions are welcomed. One down side to the whole thing, no rain so far.

So, as always there is much going on and much left to do. Tonight we host a Halloween campfire (ghost story session) in our back yard and hopefully get some trick-or-treaters from the neighborhood. We may even try to throw together a trip down the block to Sylvester Cemetery, or as it will be called tonight, The Old Graveyard.


Past Home Improvement Posts

Where Accidents = Crashes

The first gas-powered automobile was built in 1885 and just 11 years later the first fatal traffic accident occurred in London (during a demonstration drive). Today the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 traffic accidents will be the world's 3rd leading cause of disability and death.

In professional speak no one uses the term accident to refer to traffic incidents. Instead the word crash is used to talk about something that is called an accident by everyone else. Well Saturday night we had a crash. To no fault of our own (I don't like this phrase) we found ourselves in the unenviable position of explaining our situation to a police officer responding to a 911 call. It's weird how in almost all of my traffic experiences (both tickets and accidents, I mean crashes) I can remember the music that was playing. In high-school I rear-ended someone on the way home from work in Milford listening to the recently release Bone Thugs Art of War double disk. Once I got a ticket for speeding on Telegraph while rocking out to Madonna.

Saturday, we stumbled upon one of the new Kanye tracks as we left Atlantic Station and traveled east on 16th (blue) to get back on to 85S and head home. Then all of a sudden I think I heard Lauren say something and I looked up and to my left to see headlights "coming right for us." The driver was traveling noticeably fast and quite obviously outside the intended route as he crossed over the median and into the side of our car (red). Both of us were thrown to our right and our car quickly came to a stop. I hopped out quickly after looking back to see where the car had gone. I thought for sure that this guy was drunk out of his mind and about to make a run for it. I wanted to get the plate number and was already on with 911 when I got out.

Both Lauren and I were ok, and the guy did stop his car and remained at the scene. He was completely sober and driving a newish Nissan (Sentra maybe?). He was pretty upset about the whole thing, not with us, of course but was pissed off at his own poor judgment. I've been there before and it is not fun. Once the cops showed up we pushed our car to the side of the road and waited for what is casually called (by everyone who does not own your car) a 'wrecker'.

Now we're waiting to see what the insurance company decides to do with the car and in the meantime driving around in a 2008 Dodge Nitro (Hummer lite). Sty tuned to find out more. We're both doing fine.

Blog Like a Pro

Last week I mentioned an episode of This American Life that discussed a phenomenon known as the flow, but the real theme of the episode was meeting the pros. It included stories about average people who get to talk with, observe and maybe learn from the pros. For example a casual poker player who gets to sit down with a pro from the World Series. My own story is not nearly as interesting but I saw this headline and it seemed like a good segway.

"Learn to Bike Like a Pro"

I should mention that I'm in the process of helping to plan a bike to school day for Emory, specifically the school of public health. So when this ad popped up in the campus paper it caught my attention and my criticism. The first thing it does is romanticize the bike messenger. I don't wanna get started on hipsters (as I write in my BLOG! [so cool]) but while bike messengers may actually be pros it is not the goal that most of the class' participants will hope to achieve. Notwithstanding the overdone wardrobe (cog patterned shirt) and 'extreme' styling (frosted tips) of this biker, messengers tend to ride in some of the most intimidating conditions, and tend to do so dangerously. The current trend is to ride a fixed gear bike; the same they use at the velodrome. This is a bike that does not have a flywheel like your old ten speed and so the pedals move with the wheel (forward and back). It only offers you a single gear but more importantly the only way to stop is to slow the pedals by resisting the momentum you created in the first place. In other words they have no brakes. A precarious situation for those who ride (fast) in the intersection laden traditional grid patterns of most urban centers. Most importantly, these guys lacks a helmet. The graphic artist tried to hide this blurring the photo at the top but it had the added effect of making it look like he's going really fast. So bike fast, without brakes or helmets like the pros.

But it turns out that it's not just the pros, they start em young too. Stunningly this example comes from a book entitled Urban Sprawl and Public Health. It co-authors include both the current and former head of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health. Somehow the kids on the cover made it onto the book without helmets. It may be because they live on those icons of the suburbs, the cul de sac. The streets gained such popularity with American families because of their low and slow traffic volumes, which allowed children to play in the street without great risk of automobile collision. Now they're being rethought since one of the reasons they have so little traffic is because they go nowhere. I should say here that all of my crashes have only involved me and the cement, never any other cars.

Vargo lives and bikes (fast, but with brakes) in Atlanta. He didn't always but now he never rides without the helmet. He also listens to his iPod while biking.

Urban Sprawl & Public Health

Parking Lots for People

I have not been a full time student at Georiga Tech since Spring of 2006 but I go back for a class here or there, to work on my thesis at the Center for GIS, and to play soccer. Like so many college campuses it is constantly the site of large demolition and construction projects. However, the largess of a university along with the prime real estate and the tenure of their stay can sometimes produce pleasantly surprising results. One project know as the Georgia Tech Eco Commons continuously came up in my planning classes. The idea was to uncover a creek (now covered by a parking deck, roads, and a common lawn) that originally ran through campus and reinstate the riparian habitat linearly through campus, partially to help with stormwater. This might be far off into the future but other such projects have moved along swiftly.

The most apparent example for me has been the conversion of the parking lots that previously served the College of Architecture and another building. About a year ago I noticed that all the asphalt had been pulled up and dirt was being smoothed. It turned out that they were preparing the space for sod and not for a repaving. I was surprised that the parking lots could even be closed let alone discontinued. Of course it wasn't that people were just going to start other ways to get to school and give up their cars, that would be too good. See, since I was there on a daily basis one of the new, large, and extremely fancy buildings has been finished and the parking for the College of Architecture and the other building have been moved into the underground parking deck below this new structure.

Nonetheless this is an impressive display of taking action to reverse previous development and reclaim space from the auto and return it to the people. Sure there are still fences up while they finish things up but I can't wait to walk by on the first great spring day and see classes out there having discussions.



Georgia Tech's Capital Planning & Space Management
Eco Commons Draft Plan

The Flow

One of the first things I ever made for Lauren was a model of a bacteriophage. I took a large bolt for the tail and then soldered together legs and the head (I think it's an icosahedron). I didn't know much about public health but knew she had a biology background and this structure was the one thing I remembered from biology. I spent a few hours in my parents basement assembling it amidst some questioning and odd glances. She says she still has it packed away in some boxes at her mom's.

Later I dabbled in furniture, and again made Lauren a piece as a gift. I remember spending hours here and there over the course of weeks on these pieces. Searching for the right fabric, talking to people about how to do things, which tools to use; muddling my way through, but enjoying it the whole time. Compare this feeling top the one I get while doing an obligated task, cutting the grass for example. My mind wanders to what I can do next or dwells on a distaste for the task I am faced with. This Monday as I was cutting the grass and listening to This American Life on my iPod, I was delighted to hear someone talk about this state where time seems to stand still as you focus on your craft.

It turns out that there is a psychological term for this; the flow. It was termed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It's a state that I can definitely recall entering but have not tried to formalize in my head. It's satisfying to hear the scientific recognition of something that is so enjoyable. The radio story poses the question of whether this feeling is lost once the task you enjoy so much becomes your job. I highly suggest you give it a listen. The link is at the end of this post and it's the third act of the show.

I'll leave you with the product of the last time I think Lauren stepped into the flow.
The Flow
This American Life: Meet the Pros

Kimsey Creek, Rabun Gap, Tilt and Steripen

I'm having trouble writing, if at all eloquently, about my experiences lately but I thought I'd briefly describe this weekend.

This weekend was a whirlwind trip up to northern Georgia that included gourmet camping food, hours of puzzle work and introductions to many new friends (including one magic pen). Without classes on Fridays and a classless Monday and Tuesday thanks to fall break, I took off midday for Rabun Gap and Sam's cabin in the woods. It was a pleasant surprise to head north to a cabin and for once end up in a home. It includes all the amenities of the rentals and is rather spacious but is more welcoming and has much more personality than cookie cutter rentals. The walls are decorated with art from around the world and are not the generic 'mountain' motif that I've come to expect from north Georgia cabins. It was also nice to spend some time working on a jigsaw puzzle (an memorable family habit of mine).

We stayed up late and started to pack and plan for our hike and camp the next day. Everyone played a part in making it a great camping trip. Hats off to Rupesh for finding the spot and the route. Eight of us set off to Standing Indian Campground in North Carolina and started on a 6 mile hike into our site somewhere on the Appalachian Trail and atop a mountain. Marcus prepared a lot of food, including a delicious salmon risotto and a wonderful herbed egg biscuit with brie. Rishi carried a two liter of ginger ale all the way to the top. Sam got us all together and managed macaroni and cheese without milk or butter. Nick and Audrey somehow strapped a tent onto a pack and remembered chlorine tablets.

Julia impressed me the most when she revealed her magic water sterilizing pen and produced clean water for us all. The product is called Steripen and it produces UV light that kills bacteria and other organisms in water that you can collect from streams. Lauren says it's a SkyMall type of thing, but I would very seriously consider purchasing this. We're in the middle of a drought here and water wasn't flowing as it normally does which gave Rupe's pump a few problems but Steripen produced liter after liter of clean water without trouble. It worked for her in Ethiopia and it worked again in North Carolina.

In any event, our loop was completed by another six mile hike back to the parking lot. Where an ice cold Tilt awaited us. It was a beautiful weekend. Good times, good weather, the leaves starting to turn, and good people. Mali even made it along for her second ever camping trip and managed to scare the crap out of several outsiders as well as several members of our group. Enjoy the photos and next time, Lauren, you have to come along.



Steripen
where we went
Tilt

Water

I did not originally want to post about this, even though Lauren passed it along with the message "put it on your blog." However, in class today while discussing the affect of society/culture on the idea of 'necessities' the statement was made that even if we (public health do-gooders ie. World Health Organization) wanted to put a (one) glass of clean water in front of every person on earth, we couldn't do it. Not even for one day, let along daily. We're not in a position to ready it, prep it, distribute it; we're not even closer than some others. So who is the closest to being able to perform such a task? Probably, Coca-Cola, makers of what one professor (the same who made this point) refers to as a candy bar in a bottle.

Interesting, but it says nothing about what I didn't want to show on here...

Today it came to my attention that Stone Mountain (a nearby rock formation/outdoor park/laser show venue/Confederate Mount Rushmore) is going to be offering a snow-covered winter wonderland to Atlanta locals, complete with real snow. So, during the worst drought on record in Georgia, a snow-making machine will use 38 gallons of water a minute from the local piped water supply. They've decided to use the municipal water instead of water from the park's lake, to ensure snow of blinding white purity. Also, it makes very little (thermal) sense to put such an event in November. Perhaps they expect less rain and a better turn out with slightly warmer weather than in February, but I shake when I try to justify it.

In Vietnam, I attended something similar that was part of a large park. It was housed in a warehouse and it was complete with ice sculptures. They provided coats for people upon entry and gave people an opportunity to throw their first (and probably only) snowball ever. You would exit into the balmy 90 degree heat with the feeling that what you had just experienced was a bit less fun than all the effort was worth.

This morning, after reading an article about the Stone Mountain situation in the local paper I found out that Coca-Cola is putting it on. It appeared that they had already begun snow production and that the exhibit was not meant to open until November. That seems like a lot of water. However, the article was updated at 3:00 today after the park and Coke agreed to halt the snow production and the attraction due to significant criticism.

It seems the most twisted of ironies that a company that would employ such disregard for environmental circumstances for a promotional stunt employs the same poster-endangered species as the climate change activists.

The Article
Stone Mountain

Thursday
The Follow-up Article

Lee C. Bollinger

Though he is only a professor and the president of a university, I am proud to have attended under his tenure and always enjoy hearing what he has to say.
PART I



PART II

Toxicology

After spending some time with the new feature of Blogger, Blogger Play, I realized that there are a number of artists out there who post their work (sometimes daily) for others to see and respond to. Blogger Play is basically a slideshow which scrolls through photos recently posted to blogger blogs. Having recently been motivated (read bored) to use some the art supplies that lie dormant in our spare room, I thought I would share with you my latest work. It came to being last Friday and is a combination of oils and pastels on canvas panel (12"*16"). It is for sale, you name the price, and is titled "Toxicology" in honor of the opportunity cost of undertaking such a work.

Blogger Play

Libraries

Though the libraries don't really move they do pop up around the city in new locations. This is another great idea that has been promulgated in Bogotá: that of the (not sure what to call it) book stand. In an effort to promote literacy and reading among citizens the city has designed and operates mobile libraries. I only passed a couple of these but they were intriguing. This one was at the National University, not a place I would expect you need another library or would be looking to improve literacy. I knew that they had invested a lot of money and architectural knowledge in new library buildings. Penalosa, especially, sees these as public/shared space where people can come together and equity is improved.

They've also combined the library with the park, once again emphasizing this focus on public space and combining it with their literacy objectives. The sign reads "A stop for books, for parks." The yellow panels open up when an attendant is there and there are books in there. It all works through the city library system so if you have a card issued at the main library you can get books from any of the stands, Gratis! (Free!). Also, not sure if you can return them anywhere or if you have to bring them back to the same stand. Colombian commenters, help me out here.

I like this idea and everytime I think about libraries I say to myself (aloud) "that's so cool, you can just go there and get books for free, what a great idea." But then I never go and get books. I look at material on the internet, download articles, or buy a magazine. That's not even mentioning all the reading for school I have and never get to. So.... would this idea work here in the US, not to increase literacy but just to get people to pick up books more, which I guess is 'increasing literacy'?

Tayrona

I have been away for awhile; packing up life in Colombia, returning to the US, celebrating my one year anniversary of being married, attending another wedding, starting school - a number of things have happened.

Lauren made it out to Bogotá on August 23 and we headed the next day to Santa Marta on the coast. It was a vacation for both of us and a throw back to our trip a year before when we visited a national park on the coast (of Maine). It was a bit of a hike to get there. We took a taxi to the city center, asked a few questions of the park service office, and then trekked through a massive urban market, including their meat (non-refrigerated) section. Along the way we picked up a hammock which served us well. Once you reach the far end of the market (corner of 11CL. & 11CR.) you can find a bus that you take for an hour to the park entrance and then you can board another vehicle, for a ten minute ride into the park. From there you can walk to the beaches and find somewhere to stay. We choose Arrecifes and walked to various other spots around the park from there over the next few days.

The place where we stayed was relaxed and quiet but the currents made the immediate waters dangerous. We hiked to other, more remote beaches daily. There we enjoyed pristine beaches without interference of crowds, nosey vendors, or nearby urban noise. We even carted around our new hammock and set it up when we found the chance.

One day we hiked to some ruins in the jungle of the park. The path consisted of huge boulders and notched logs and there were several points where a slip would have landed one of us in a crevice too deep to spend more time thinking about. The weather turned once we arrived at the village and we took refuge under the roof of the few indigenous people who are there during the days. The rain continued to fall until the a river had formed blocking the way we had come in. A National Park employee also showed up to check some books and offered to show us (and another couple) out along a safer route.


We concluded the trip at the condo of a friend located just outside of Santa Marta, on a beach called Bello Horizonte. Thanks to Jorge and Andrea for making that happen.

Cultural Exchange

Obviously time abroad is going to be a learning experience and hopefully not just for me but for the people I come into contact with and maybe, just maybe, for both the countries as a whole. That is why I have been compiling this list of the things that Bogotá (Colombia) and Atlanta, or any other city, (US) can learn from each other. These are the things that exist in one place, lack in the other and in some cases represent business opportunities for adventurous parties in either place.

1. I mentioned before that have been playing soccer here at a place called Futbol Cinco, an old building converted to accommodate two floors of mini indoor soccer fields. This type of sports arena scaled-down to fit indoors is the perfect compliment to the LA Fitnesses that are packed every night. Sure, the YMCA is open and the local Rec Center but putting it in a sexy glass building and making people pay for it is what could make this sort of thing cool.

2. I do not usually like to write about food but there are, of course, some differences between Colombian cuisine and typical American fare. But, to be honest, the most obvious difference are foods. Maybe it’s because it touches so many of the senses or because you encounter it everyday. In these culinary differences are a few gems from one which could easily find a home among the staples of the other. Ironically, the first thing that I think Colombia could contribute is the crepe. I had always associated the crepe with fruit, sweet, breakfast, dessert, but that does not have to be the case. One of the most prominent chain of restaurants here is called Crepes & Waffles. They serve all types of crepes that serve as lunch and dinner plates, including a hindu chicken curry crepe.

Regardless of whether or not this is the way crepes are everywhere, the fact stands that these type of places are hard to come by in Atlanta and much of the US. Why? The food is good, it’s fast, you can make it healthier with tons of vegetables and probably add a whole grain crepe. Look for it coming soon.

3. I think this goes without saying but I am going to say it. One of the best (and possibly worst) parts of traveling to a place like this is the street food. It’s cheap, impulsive and sometimes delicious (sometimes it can make you sick). Of course, in the US people are walking down the street too much and that makes street food difficult. But you can’t even find this type of thing at Piedmont Park on a crowded day. Outside (and inside) of the parks here there are mobile ice cream vendors and people grilling. I guess we probably have rules about selling, but rules don’t always have to outlaw something they could just define the acceptable characteristics of the action to fit into society. Anyway, here they have this amazing corn that they grill and sell. The kernels are huge and come right off the cob. Every time you eat it, you end up with this perfectly picked cob at the end.

4. Let me continue this food rant by saying American burritos should be everywhere. It’s almost like a crepe, except it’s the biggest crepe ever and you can eat it with your hands. In San Francisco, the Mission burrito is a tourist attraction. In part because of tradition but I can’t help but think that it’s also due to some other factors beyond the taste. The complexity on the inside is perfectly contrasted by the simplicity outside.

5. The next things that these countries can learn from each other is about bicycles. Granted, the US could learn a lot about bikes from any number of countries but the way that Colombia has laid down cycling infrastructure sets an example that a lot of other places could follow. As Penalosa likes to say, they’ve created things for which where were not words. The Ciclovia has been going on for nearly 30 years and is only mildly impressive until you realize that it happens once a week, more if there are holidays. During this event streets (at least in one direction) are closed (some completely) from 7AM through 2PM. This brings out joggers and skaters, but especially, cyclists to cruise the city free of traffic, and the regular (extreme) pollution. They can sail up and down the city’s main thoroughfares and go all the way from north to south, east to west.

Even when Ciclovia is not going on, people can take the ciclorutas and cross the autopistas with the help of ciclopuentes. These dedicated bike lanes line the sidewalks and medians of some of the busiest avenues for cars. This is probably less than pleasant during rush hour, but I took a bit of the network from a friend’s house last week, via rollerblade. We covered about 50 blocks in about an hour and a half, stopping to chill out in a park along the way and waiting for traffic at some busy intersections. All in all it was a very enjoyable journey. It was a great way to see some of this investment by the city and also to get a feel for what its use is like. It seemed to me that it was much like a highway for bikes and skaters. It was a bit late at night but people were not out for leisurely riding. It had the feel of a commute, and indeed our trip was utilitarian. But as they line the main roads I realized that these ciclorutas must function much like the main roads themselves during the week, and in that way they really do make the bicycle more legitimate as a mode of transportation for real trips.

All that said, there is one thing that Bogotá Bikers can learn, though not necessarily from Americans or Atlantans. They need lights. Nobody has them and they desperately need them. In a local bike shop I saw less then 5 total on the shelves and it was not because they were top sellers. 2 of the lights were heavy duty with huge batteries for mountain biking I assume. However, bikers here do often wear a reflective vest, but drivers sometimes don’t use lights.

6. Bus Rapid Transit. I’m talking right at Atlanta and MARTA here. Use the buses you already have (which are too large) and put them on isolated routes that operate like trains, but with greater frequency then the trains you already have. Buy smaller buses, like El Rey on Buford highway, to operate your feeder lines. In fact Buford highway could be a great place to start. Get a median in there, with stations, some pedestrian bridges. It would look like Cr. 30/Autopista Norte here. It could work, look into it.

Bus Rapid Transit
Crepes y Waffles
Photo Exposition on Bogotá's Bikeways
Mission Burrito

Lost

Today I had the unfortunate experience of reliving a childhood horror as an adult. I got lost. Of course we’ve all been lost at some point, even in our adults lives: trying to find the way to a remote location on some mountain roads, or renting a car on a business trip. It’s also often a good way to see a new place, just go get a little lost and walk around. Usually this does not cause too much panic and is easily resolved. Even a wrong turn to what seems like a bad part of town is pretty easy to get out of. Now we’re mobile and well connected. We carry cell phones that memorize numbers for us, gps that tells us where to go. Seldom do we feel that ‘lost’ feeling.

My memories of being lost take me directly to K-Mart. I’m not even sure if it ever really happened or if it was at K-Mart but I imagine having to go to someone that works there or a desk and ask them to page my mother. And I am probably crying. After that I am never really sure how I am received. For some reason, half of my fear of being lost is trying to explain how it all happened to the people who are (possibly) looking for you. Luckily, everything usually turns out ok but I can’t help but think that I did something wrong. What I realized today is that this is especially true as an adult.

Perhaps it’s because I should be able to take care of myself, resolve situations on my own, that I felt so foolish when it happened today. For the last two days I have been visiting parks all over the city to take photos for my work here. I have a taxi driver who drives from place to place, but is not completely familiar with where we’re going. Today I set off into a large park and asked him to meet me in-between two other parks three blocks away. I became disoriented as I walked around the park taking photos. One edge of the park twisted to the match contours of a river, the other filled some empty space in-between blocks.

I choose the meeting spot because it would be easy to recognize as the two parks were directly across the street from each other. As I left the big park and headed a couple blocks to what I thought was west I encountered some trouble finding my destination. Here I began to realize what was going to happen should I fail to find the parks. Soon, I was lost trying to figure out how to use the names of the parks I was heading for and the one number I knew to find my driver. I found several parks but not the two I was looking for as I walked back and forth between where I expected the parks and where I last saw someone I knew; stopping along the way to try and call the number. After three attempts I was able to get someone and get another number for my boss, who hired the driver. After more walking, contemplating my location and the whereabouts of my driver and pondering curiously what was being done by others involved, I eventually reached my boss on the phone. My plan was to ask her for the driver’s number but she had already talked to him, called my roommate, was driving around looking for me and (may have) called the police. Finally I met the driver back where he had dropped me off.

Walking around and searching for what may have been two hours, I never felt scared or even lost. The whole time I knew where I was in relation to where I started, I knew I could get home if it got dark, I just didn’t know where the parks were or how to call off the manhunt. The most anxious part of the experience was being found. I braced myself for a good yelling at. It never really came, but for a moment I sensed that the driver wanted to lay into me. I’m sure he (Pedro) was glad to find me and felt some relief but also I think it’s easy for people to react with anger after they’ve spent so much energy worrying about someone and everything turns out ok. Especially for something sa stupid as this. Certainly, I feel horrible for making everyone worry and panic a bit. And this is the worst part of getting lost. I’ve tried to apologize for troubling everyone but still I feel really guilty and completely incompetent. This is the part that K-Mart and today have and that a stroll around a new place doesn’t. You’re lost to others. My apologies again. If I could do it all over again (Tuesday), I’d have Perdo wait where he let me out.

Pet Peeve

I am unable to completely form the reasons why but one thing in particular has recently been getting on my nerves to such a level that I felt I must get it off my chest. It's people brushing their teeth at work. It may be that I just want some privacy with this one particular bathroom here at the University. My sense of entitlement may also be heightened due to the fact that this particular bathroom comes with a key so that access is limited to faculty and gringos (apparently). Equally perplexing is my inability to remove myself from situations. Why can I not just turn around and leave the bathroom when I see the tube of toothpaste sitting next to the sink? Well, you know what they say.

I'm sure, though, that the people doing the teeth-brushing are thinking the same thing perhaps to an even greater degree of frustration, however, I doubt any of them have gone so far as to publish their displeasure on the world wide web. But who wants someone intruding on their oral hygiene regimen to do their own dirty business. Their own pride and expectations for privacy, as professors (a position of some distinction), must be even more sensitive to the interference of a 'younger' extranjero who may or may not be struggling with the gastronomic variations he's being exposed to. All this while engaging in the intimate act of brushing ones teeth.

I can grasp the reasons for bringing the toothbrush to work and getting that done in the middle of the day. That it is such a completely innocent and respectable action is the reason I do not completely understand my disposition to the practice. So, I am thinking that sometime this week I am going to flip my own script and brush my teeth at work. I will let you know how it goes.

Forbes Article on Such Etiquette

UniAndes

I have been working and walking around this University now for over a month but this week something happened. The students returned from their summer vacations and began classes. But that is not really why I began this post in the first place, the idea for this began the first day I spent on the grounds. My roommate Adriana gave me a tour and took me for coffee at a little stand outside of an old church, the church (it turns out) is actually the architecture library and is renovated in an impressive fashion.

The University is not that old, maybe about 60. However, it is unique as it is independent of both the church and the state. They attracted impressive faculty who I assume win grants and money for studies, but I can’t help but think that the obviously wealthy student body doesn’t hurt. The president’s son studies chemical engineering here and you can notice his presence by the heightening of the already tight security. Everyone working or studying on campus has an id, which they use to pass through turnstile gates for entry. Also the perimeter is patrolled by private security including large dogs. In any case it’s a beautiful and interesting place to work and study.

Overall the design and location of the University is impressive. It sits at the foot of the mountains (or hills depending on your perspective, but coming from Atlanta they’re mountains) which border the city to the East. This creates a series different levels to the buildings and an uncountable number of steps as the campus climbs up the side of Mont Serrate. This produces a number of incredible views of the city and has also preserved a number of trees from the high Andean forest. The gym and track where I run sits almost alone another 300m up the mountain and reclaimed from a landfill. At first the layout can be a bit confusing but once you know the shortcuts the solitude of the buildings from one another is refreshing.

This week also marked the opening of another impressive, though not restored, building. This building is going to house their renowned engineering department. Though it’s style and location are a far cry from the creativity and historical preservation of the architecture library, it is an impressive building. I especially like the outdoor seating on the different terraces (shown in the picture). It’s not that the current engineering building is anything to scoff at, I walk through it everyday and am always impressed with the skylights above which bathe the halls and staircases (and also an area of grey rocks directly behind the urinals of the men’s bathroom that looks like a Japanese garden). I also enjoy the subtle wood touches on the work here. Popularly hailed for its use in steering wheels and interior detailing of cars, wood also makes wonderful doors and bridges.
Complete Set of Photos
University of Andes

Shout Outs

Recently, I’ve been re-turned-on to the Lupe Fiasco Food & Liquor album. If you know that album, you probably know the last track, Outro. It’s a 12 minute shout out to all those who made him what he is, got him to where he is, influenced him in some way. And he is not alone, artists have used their albums, both tracks and booklets, as opportunities to say thank you (and &$!# you) to many people. People also call in to radio stations all the time just to say their friends names on the air. Oscar acceptance speeches get cut short because people want say too many thank you. But it’s not just people; you only need to listen to about three rap songs before you get to a song that rattles off US cities, or area codes, or airport abbreviations to let you know the places they’re sending their love. It got me thinking what would my shout out be.

I wanna use nicknames, be as esoteric as a can be, I want a dope beat, I wanna shout old street names and I wanna make people feel special when they hear their city or name. Though I know I have enough people to thank, places to verbally visit, and influences to cite that I should be able to lay down a track but I always have trouble picturing it coming out some fluidly. I was about to start to write a blurb of thanks but where to begin. Can you start it without slighting someone? Does the order matter? Chronological? Alphabetical? What if you forget someone? But the people who should be included in any list of mine would not want me to hide behind fears such as these.

The Original JV’s for making it all possible. L-boogie for expanding the possibilities. Those leading way; Holland’s finest, the hen of the Roost, Garlic Grandad and my Kifli Queen. Jennie Jr. Branch 2, preach! Uncs in Decatuville. My pitcrew leader, Steve. Konczer, Suzy-Q and all the K-zee-zees. Cedar Point to Vegas. Folks lounging in SB, Chad and Damann. St. Francis, Gema, Mario, Madrid Mafia. Imperial-izeri, Matt ‘Twin Falls’ Gillis. Amy, Pat, Lisa, Critical Mass, Byron, ATL pot hole crew. Bru, the Rud, Open Air Transmissions, Jon Whitaker, The Middle Men, Hog Operation Melsesse and the STA drumline, Denny & Randy cruisin with two brakes. J-hedge, J-Free, J-Feez, Jim Skura and Jerry D, the early J-dilla. Smells Like Karma Police and Killer Potatoes. CSG and all the OSC, Asad, Student Government, NHS, Rotary Club Decatur players, IceHouse, BGhs, John, Shannon, Bodhito. Papa Boner, tha Bhoplaya, Edgar. Ponce Place, hold it down. Migrizzle, Baby-D, Chernoff, LPS, Jeff-O, K-weezy, Omar Sharif, Kristof. Tha Wu, Jeff Foucault, Boards of Canada, Orbital, Slide Hampton. Tonkin Bay down to Saigon - Pham Ngu Lao, Bui Vien and Phuong Huang. Much love from tay ba lo, cu teo. St. Pius, and Trenton travelin’. Big ups to TC, Tom Senior and the Maltese Matriarch. Brickstore, JavaMonkey, DSC keep doin’ what you’re doin’. Ajay, my sharona, P-trak, SCOPE Town & Country. Return to get some Kulcher back in the Shelter of Fordline. Vinay, Trish, and Billy Barnes, T-Koons, J-Bud, Mike MacBride, all my EAGLES, Saluto and Dunaway. Rocking lunch with Vanstinkus, K. Wright, Sertage, and Plunkett. Mr. Long. Juan Felipe, Jorge, Caro, Desiy Mazy, Cazu, everyone keeping the BOG wet.
Akzo Nobel, Nelson Miller Parkway to Hong Kong. Dave and Liza. Jesse, Allsion, Martling. La Septima, Casa de Babylon, runnin the Chapinero, Futbol Cinco and Germania. Paul, Leah, Mark. Christmas Pageants. FAMO, Tony, Christina, Daisy, Phuc, Chip Chip, my Tet familia. Uptown Jon, Muna and Rhysito, Garden Groove to Chinatown. Raul and O’Bradiviches, Bluegrass, much love, Woody and Grits. 540 Packard, Michael, Bilskar, Carp, Gill, Mikey, Davis in the Annex, Freeman the honorary, and the guy that lived with Davis. Olga Lucia, FES Luis Fernando, UniAndes, Mike & Tom, CQGRD, CDC, GTMCRP, RSPH, GH, GEH, EOH. Biggie & Pac, much love to both coasts. Paul & Hil, the most engaging duo. The Spindlers, Howard – Mr. Belvedere. Carps of the Bay. Pac Heights. Woodlawn. Back up north for fond memories yet to happen. Duke V, do your thing. Van An, Hang. Quan mot represent, di choi. G-raffe, Bon-Scott, tanrthanU, Li-dizzy, Cherokee Triangle, Bardstown Rd. Cahoots, burritos as big as your head, cafes on the world, and TARC.

Once you start going, it’s easier than you think. You can even get carried away. I made sure that I put the most important people first. There’s not really anyway to say enough about them so I made sure that I made some conscience decision to put them first. Then I went through places and phases of my life and then shuffled the whole order. Than you start to think about who you’re leaving out and more come to mind, but you can’t keep going like that forever. If you feel left out I apologize. Give me a comment and I will amend it. Anyway, I encourage you to take this chance to make your own shout out. Feel free to use the comment space to send your love out to whomever is deserving.

Smoke Signals

I've discussed Google Maps on here before and I realize that if I wanted to I could probably put a post up everyday about some new Google Map API, but I think someone else is already doing such things. Google also has it's own blog to share new techy updates. Usually it's over my head with things like Linux, and servers and such, but I wanted to share with you this little piece I found on there today. Maybe this will add a new twist to the next birthday greeting you decide to send to someone. Click on the map to see the real thing.

Google Maps News Straight from the source
Google Maps Mania

Cometas

Something has happened here, the weather has changed, I'm really busy at work, and addicted to desserts.

First the weather, sometime in the last week, almost on cue with the arrival of August, the skies became more blue and the sun came out a bit more. Everyone told me that August is the Month of the Kite here, in part because of the winds that come and blow the clouds away. So far it's true. This weekend I'm heading to Villa de Leyva (not far from Bogotá) for some hiking, camping, and relaxation. This small town is also the host of Colombia's most famous annual kite festival. Though it is not this weekend, I am sure the place will not disappoint.

Part of the reason I am excited about this trip is that it will last until Tuesday. There is another holiday here and everyone has Tuesday off, so some people (like me) are making it a 4 day weekend. It's great except when I turn to my calendar and I have little time remaining here. My project is picking up and starting to roll. Part of it involves sitting down with some of the City's decision makers with regard to parks, and so that I must get down before I leave, other GIS and DB management, statistical stuff can be done from Atlanta.

Finally, I hinted at it earlier but I am getting used to the sweets and desserts that are a staple of the Colombian diet. Is this a good thing? It's a delicious thing. Aside from desserts the most amazing thing about the cuisine is the array of fruits that exist here. It doesn't help that I am bad with foods in the first place. I don't know the names of a lot of fruits and vegetables in English, but I believe that the fruits here don't have names, as far as I know, in the US and that is making it hard to remember what I've tried. Maybe I've had tomarillo, ochuva, lulu, guanabana, lucuma, and maracuyá but I am not entirely sure. I will try harder to remember exactly what I am eating and drinking. If it's a fruit in the produce section, it's a juice in the restaurant.

Of course, this was written on a rainy morning and I just had a donut.

Villa de Leyva
Festival de las Cometas
Photos from the trip

Media Maraton

I would not have believed it, had I not seen it with my own eyes. It’s amazing how experiencing something, even in the second person, can completely change your ideas of what’s possible. When I was visiting Machu Picchu a few years back I had this feeling, where wonder and confusion collide and even in your imagination you find it difficult to recreate. Someone told me we’re so far removed from the possibilities of man power, en masse, that we can’t really picture how stones were moved up there without machinery. In a weekend a few firsts I was happy to experience that feeling a few more times.

On Thursday night I finally managed to find my way into a futbol game, but perhaps not as you’d imagine. We played at a place called Futbol Cinco and there were ironically four fields. They were located in a former warehouse in a well-to-do neighborhood. Two fields on each of two floors with parking on the ground floor. The group I was a part of paid for an hour on the field and has it reserved every Thursday at 9. I think this is an idea waiting to happen in the US. Where, in Atlanta, could we find a location ripe for such a proposition? You need a structurally sound building and a crowd looking for places to play (places there are lit, dry and warm well into the night after work). Hmmm, maybe somewhere on Buford Highway, but I could also see something like this occupying the second and third floors of some space in Atlantic Station, make it all sleek with lots of walls of glass so people outside can watch and the fields can be used for anything, indoor football or futbol, field hockey, etc. B. Leary, call me.

On Saturday I went for a tour of a few parts of the city with a friend from the university. We started from my place in the south and headed north on Transmilenio. This is Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) modeled after a similar system in Curitiba, Brazil. If you’re in a traffic-choked US city or in a planning program you’ve probably heard the term thrown around. I had heard much talk of it in Atlanta, but this was my first time aboard for a ride. It works like a subway with buses running on dedicated routes. In Bogotá you enter the system at stations and pay a flat fare to go anywhere the system will take you. I have to see that it is very clean, efficient and pleasant. Also, it’s far cheaper than putting in subway infrastructure.

For lunch on Saturday we went to a Bogotá landmark, everyone knows it, and everyone knows it a little bit differently. It is actually just outside Bogotá in Chia and it’s called Andres Carne de Res. There is little I can do to describe it, expect to tell you that it was enormous, loud, delicious, exciting and I could have spent another 3 hours there. Jorge, who took me, told me that all told the restaurant employs an estimated 1,000 people; that includes cooks, waiters, parking attendants, actors, musicians, admin, etc. I went for lunch and every account I’ve heard since labels it a completely different brand of fun after dark, but I would say it’s a great time whenever you go.

I finished Saturday with a Futbol game in the city. Bogotá has two teams, Santa Fe and Millonarios and Jorge is a huge Santa Fe fan. Unfortunately, the home team lost to the defending league champ from Medellin, Nacional. But I did hear a lot of bad words and got to experience my second South American live game. The first was in Buenos Aires two years ago. In both case I did not have a camera. In Argentina I thought better to leave it in the hostel not knowing where I might get tickets and this time I was advised that it might get confiscated because it contained batteries that could be thrown.

All of this was a the day before my first running event, the Bogota half marathon (and 10K). It also happened to be a day after I re-ruined my left ankle playing basketball. When I got home from my day out on Saturday I removed the soccer sock that I had tied around it for compressions and it looked like, well, like this. I took what little ice I could scrounge up and started RICE again. I had felt good most of the day but when I saw this I had second thoughts about running on it. For two days I slept with it raised, actually with both of my feet raised, as I sleep in a tapered sleeping bag. On Sunday it had evened out but was still a bit big, still without pain. So I went for it.

My goal was to finish in under an hour and it took me a grad total of 57:30. I felt good about it. At first it was slow going as the streets were packed with people and there was little room to make any moves, but that actually made the trip go by faster. Also, the first 5K wound through tight streets and there was no way to see how far you had to go when you looked ahead. Toward the finish at Parque Simon Bolivar, the buildings disappeared and you were offered a clear view of thousands filling the street for the next kilometer in front of you. Around 40,000 people participated in this one, now I can start thinking about the full 21K next year.

By the end of the weekend I had to completely alter my understanding of so many things. Maybe we could play soccer at Atlantic Station or build a subway with a bus. I still couldn’t understand who would throw batteries at a sports event (Ohio State Fans). Maybe I could even run a marathon, or at least a half; IronMan is still a long lost Inca capital for me.

Bogotá Media Maraton
Marathon Pics
Andres Carne de Res
Santa Fe Futbol
Transmilenio