S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 32

Bicycle Riding

Schwinn 10-speedWhen I was a kid, I loved riding my bicycles. I had three growing up. My first was a little red one. The handle broke when I was riding it once. My father welded it back together (or had someone where he worked do it). It still broke at least one more time. I remember the handle breaking and knowing there was little I could do then to prevent a crash, I just waited for it.

Then I had a blue Schwinn Stingray. I rode that bike all over Idaho Falls, Idaho. I was taking swimming lessons in the summer and the pool was on the other side of town. Idaho Falls wasn't a very big city then, but it was big enough. I had to cross the busiest street in town: Boulevard (yes, the street name was "Boulevard"). Frankly, I'm amazed my mother let me do it. But it was a different time. These day a parent wouldn't hesitate to drive their kids to swim lessons.

In sixth grade I got a yellow Schwinn 10-speed. I tended to only use two gears: fifth for speeding up and tenth for "cruising." I must have had strong legs. I'd laugh at people using first gear. Admittedly, where I lived at the time (Blackfoot, Idaho) was pretty flat.

I would try to keep up with cars. This was downtown Blackfoot with stoplights and stop signs. I would pick a car and try to keep up with it. It would beat me to the stop sign but I'd often catch up while it waited to go.

Riding my bike was so fun. When I got to high school, I walked to class because, at a few blocks away, it was "too close" to bother riding. Then I got my driver's license and I hardly rode bikes again.

I remember once I was riding my 10-speed and I wanted to do a U-turn. The street was busy and I did't want to wait, so I turned hard left. I turned so hard the tires skipped a bit and I knew if the tires lost traction and the bike came out from under me, I'd probably get ran over. But I survive (obviously).

Did you have a bike as a kid? Did you love it? Let me know in the comments below.

Driver Assist

I currently own two cars. One is a 2018 Volkswagen GTI that my wife drives. The other, that I drive most often, is a 2014 Audi. I ordered that car custom from the factory and the only two options I got were the paint (that car manufactures charge for paint drives me nuts) and ventilated, massaging seats. It had the usual panoply of safety nannies (traction control, stability control, ABS). The only other driver's assist is has is blind spot monitoring, which I absolutely love and has saved me a couple of times. The only problem is, I've come to rely on it. Instead of checking my blind spot, I look to see if the car has detected anything there. I shouldn't do that.

One time I was driving in the Seattle area and depending on the blind spot monitoring. Suddenly I realized that somehow it got turned off. I felt lucky I hadn't hit anyone.

I'm not a big fan of most other diver assist functions. I'm especially not a fan of automatic braking which I think could easily cause an accident. I am a big fan of traction control, stability control, and ABS braking. But that's as far as it goes.

But someday I'll probably need to buy a new car. And more driver assists will be standard and not optional. One I think I would like is traffic jam assist which Audi might bring to the U.S. That system, as I understand it, works under certain speeds (like 35 mph) and uses radar to follow the car in front of you and brake when necessary. This would make driving in a traffic jam so much easier.

I'm not sure what will come in the future. I am not looking forward to autonomous cars because I like to drive. But as we move toward autonomous cars, manufactures are looking for ways to make driving easier. GM has "Supercruise" in its Cadillac line. That allows you to let the car pretty much drive itself on interstate highways. Not sure how it handles traffic.

And I think in the future, I'm going to have to learn how to turn off intrusive driver assist systems.

What do you think of driver assist systems? Are you looking forward to autonomous cars? Let me know in the comments below.

Korean Names

Korean Writing (Hungul) for South KoreaA while back I watched Parasite , the Korean film that won the best picture Oscar. And it reminded me of something I don't understand, at least not since I studied the Korean language in the military. And that is when certain names in Korean are anglicized, we add letters and sounds to them.

In their anglicized form, the three most common (by far) Korean surnames are Kim, Park, and Lee.

Now "Kim" we don't mess with. But Park and Lee are not how they are pronounced in Korean.

Park is actually "Pak" with a short "a." Sort of like a Bostonian saying "Park." The middle vowel sound is like "ahhh." So why, when it is anglicized, do we add an "r" and pronounce it "Park"? Is "Pak" too hard for English speakers to say? I doubt it.

In my novel Hammer of Thor , my hero meets (and falls in love with) a Korean woman named Pak Me-young. Not understanding that Koreans (and most Asian cultures) put the family or surname first, he thinks her first name is Pak. Which he changes to "Peg" because he can't understand why a beautiful woman would be named "Pak." Yeah, he's an idiot. Part of his character arc.

The other name that is changed when anglicized is "Lee" which is also sometimes anglicized as Ree or Rhee. It is actually pronounced in Korean as "Ee." That is just a long "e" sound. Not Lee. Or Rhee. Or Ree. But why? Can't English speakers say "Ee"?

I was watching a M*A*S*H rerun a while back, and they called someone "Mr. Pak." I was impressed. It's one of the few times I've heard that name pronounced correctly in popular culture by Americans.

If you have any idea why this is done, let me know in the comments below. If you have an opinion on this, let me know in the comments below.

And the Korean Hangul writing above is pronounced "Hankook." It means "Korea."

Lock Down

The Saturday before Easter was my "half way" point of being locked down. That is, if the lock down isn't extended. I last left the house March 20th (except in the car which I didn't leave) and the lock down in Washington State is supposed to end May 4th (although the governor is making noises it may go longer).

If I catch COVID-19, I will likely die due to my preexisting conditions (lung disease and heart disease). So I'm being careful. My one worry is my youngest son, who works delivering pizzas and is considered essential. I'm hoping he doesn't catch the disease and bring it home to me.

For Easter dinner, my oldest son and his family Skyped in. They were planning on coming up for Easter, but those plans were killed by the virus. I would like to hold my grandson soon. But that's going to have to wait for this stupid disease to play itself out. Then maybe my wife and I will travel down there to see them.

I'm not sure when they will let us out and life get back to normal. Maybe when there's a vaccine? And when will there be a vaccine?

But I'm locked down until at least May 4th. Good thing I enjoy being inside, being an introvert. But even for me, it's getting to be a long time without leaving the house.

How are you handling the lock down? Or are you essential and have to work? And how is that going? Let me know in the comments below.

Cultural What?

One of my novelsI came across this article on Facebook. It was written in the UK Guardian about an American writer, Jeanine Cummins.

The article is about how Cummins, a white author, has written a book called American Dirt about...Hispanic illegal immigrants. Ms. Cummins goal in writing her novel was to make Americans to stop seeing migrants as a "faceless brown mass" and to bear witness to the "tragedy of our making on our southern border" according to the article. So I suspect Ms. Cummins is not exactly a Trump supporter.

But, she has been attacked from the left. She has been accused of "cultural appropriation" because her characters are Mexicans and she isn't. As the Guardian puts it:

[W]riters and artists [are] being called out for having stepped beyond their permitted cultural boundaries to explore themes about people who are not 'fundamentally 'like' us" (Emphasis added)

"Beyond their permitted cultural boundaries," they say. What is a white person's (or a black person's or a brown person's or a yellow person's) "permitted cultural boundaries." As a heterosexual white guy can I only write about straight men of pallor?

One of my first novels, Rock Killer , has a black female main character. Is that beyond my "permitted cultural boundaries?" There's also a Korean-American main character. Is that not "permitted"?

This is important to me because in three of my published novels (The Treasure of Space series) the hero is brown. But, then again, so is most everyone in his world. He is surprised when he comes across a white girl (the one on the cover). The novel is set 3,000 years in the future. There is nothing about him that is related to modern day brown/black people.

It's also important to me because, beyond all else in politics, I believe in liberty.

Now if you're white (or purple or whatever) and writing racist stuff about people of a different color/culture, that's not "cultural appropriation," that's being an asshole.

But it's equally being an asshole (and racist) to tell an artist they can't do something because of their race and/or gender and/or sexual orientation. You might as well say blond people can't write books about brunette people. Or gay writers can't write straight characters. It's ridiculous.

She's Gone

Me with the car shortly after I bought it.I did it. I sold my 2007 Corvette Z06. Did it over the weekend. The guy paid in cash so I was nervous until we got all that money into the bank.

I had that car for almost exactly thirteen years. I bought it in April of 2007 and sold it in late March of 2020.

I loved that car but due to my health issues, I couldn't drive it enough to justify the cost of owning and insuring it. It was a blast to drive. I drove it on a racetrack when it was new and got up to 155 mph (if I took turn 10 perfectly, other wise I would get up to between 145 and 150).

Once, on a back road, I managed to get it to 165. That was scary fast. The car had a top speed of 198 according to Chevrolet. It's speedometer went to 200.

It had 505 stock horsepower. And you never floored the gas unless you had a lot of straight road ahead of you. A lot. It cornered really well. It came with Goodyear run-flat tires but they only lasted
Me with it the day I sold itabout 5,000 miles. Later I put on Michelin tires and it cornered even better and they lasted 15,000 miles, about. The Goodyears also leaked air badly. The Michelins didn't.

The first time I had to put on new tires, I had to go to Seattle because that was the only place in the whole state that could and would do run flat tires. Now there's a place a few miles from my house that does it.

But I loved driving this car. It was low and hard to get in and out of. But once you were in it, that didn't matter. It had a manual transmission and I loved to row the gearbox. Now I don't own any cars with a manual transmission. At one point, I owned three. Make that four (forgot about my son's car).

One of my favorite things to do was take it on a back road around here that is curvy and go as fast as I dared. It was so fun. And with my radar detector, I didn't worry....much.

Or just go to the interstate and go down the on ramp and up the off ramp as fast as I could. I'd go up a curvy off ramp at over 65 mph. It was a blast.

But now she's gone. The new owner promised to take care of her. I hope so. He had a 67 Corvette that he showed me a picture of. It looked oxidized.

And my wife is happy because she can now park her car in the garage. But I'll still miss my 'Vette.

How Fast?

Washington State Speed Limit SignAs an engineer, I was trained to think in SI units.

Is that Greek to you? Well, actually, it's French.

A "unit" is actually a unit of measure. Like a foot or a mile. "SI" is an abbreviation for the French term "Système Internationale" or "International System."

The basic SI units are the second (time), meter (length), ampere (electrical current), kelvin (temperature), candela (luminous intensity), mole (amount of a substance), and, kilogram (mass).

All other units are derived from these six. For example, speed (or velocity; and they are different) is measured in meters per second.

And there's the problem. When I see a speed limit sign without units, such as the one pictured here, I automatically think in SI units. So that should be 70 meters per second. Because that's how I was taught.

Now, my speedometer, for some strange reason, is calibrated in miles per hour. So I have to convert meters per second to miles per hour. And after some simple math (dividing, multiplying, making sure I keep my units straight), I find that 70 meters per second is around 156 miles per hour.

So is that the speed limit? Most cars can't go that fast (mine can). Would a cop buy that argument? Probably not.

Why Do We Care?

I was watching football back in January, rooting for the Seattle Seahawks to beat the San Francisco 49ers to get into the Super Bowl.

And I started wondering, why do we care? Why do we care if the local sports teams or the sports teams from your Alma mater win?

Yes, I'm a rabid fan of University of Washington Huskies football. But why? I went to college there (a lot). But still, why? I have a friend who went to college there are doesn't care at all about how the football team (or any team) does.

I've been to a few games at Husky Stadium. And 70,000 people screaming for the same outcome does something to your brain. It makes you want your team to win. Really makes you want them to win. Politicians and celebrities understand this. I've been to political rallies and a hundred or so people standing up and cheering for the same thing has the exact effect of going to a football game does. Maybe not just as intense. But it does make your (political) team want to win. A politician or celebrity who can get the crowd rocking, will be much more successful.

Or, I've been to two concerts by a Heart cover band called Heart By Heart. Before the concerts, I liked Heart. But after the concerts, I really like Heart. Maybe a couple of hundred people cheering the same songs had the same effect as the football game and the political rally.

How does it affect our lives if our team wins? Or how does it affect our lives if our team loses? Basically it doesn't. But when they win, it's fun. I remember how fun the 2016 season was for the Huskies, especially beating the Oregon Ducks by a score of 70-21. That was one time that then-coach Chris Petersen did not pull his starters when the score was in the 40s. Probably because he knew that the Washington fans wanted to spank the Nike Ducks.

I'm sort of a fair-weather fan of the Seahawks. If they are doing well, I'll watch them (as they did this year). But if they aren't doing well, I ignore them. I have been to two Seahawks games. But that was back in the AFC days when they weren't very good.

So why do we care? I don't know. Other than it's fun when your team wins.

Do you know why we care? Or at least have a theory? Let me know in the comments below.

COVID-19 and Me

At first when this virus was announced to the world, I wasn't very worried. Even though if I catch it, I'll be in serious trouble. I have lung disease (COPD) and heart disease (pulmonary hypertension caused by the COPD) and diabetes. I said on Facebook that I was slightly more worried about it than I was about a meteor hitting my house.

Then the government shut down schools and yesterday in Washington State, they shut down bars, restaurants, recreational facilities, and entertainment facilities (e.g., movie theaters).

Now I'm taking the threat a little more seriously. I'm debating a lot about self-isolation. I did continue to go to Starbucks but as of today, my local Starbucks has gone to drive-through or "grab and go" only. So I didn't stay long.

I check my temperature about three times a day. It's always been fine. But I've heard by that time you have a fever, it's too late. But there is a lot of false and misleading information out there.

I think I'll avoid going out in public, now. It's a good thing I can do my freelance work mostly through email and by phone. And, of course, my fiction writing is all done at home.

Unfortunately, this virus has been an economic nightmare. The stock market is down and businesses that are shut down are going to lose money. Some may not survive. And people need jobs to pay their bills. It's going to be tough for a while. But I'm hoping in four to six weeks it'll all be over. And by fall this will be an unpleasant memory.

How are you reacting to the coronavirus? Staying home or going on with your life?

Being a Grandfather

Not my GrandsonI'm a grandfather. I have been since September 2019. So my grandson is almost six months old now.

Being a grandparent is so interesting. It's like being a parent, but so much better. I first met my grandson when he was five hours old. The next day I thought, "He'll never be only five hours old again." So I miss anytime I don't get to be with him. And his parents live about a five-hour drive away. For that reason, I don't get to see him as often as I'd like.

He has, like me, red hair and blue eyes. I love that.

I cherish holding my grandson and feeding him. Or just holding him. Problem is getting him away from his grandmother! She loves babies in the first place. Having a grandson is for her the sine qua non of life.

I miss my grandson every day. Luckily his mother (my daughter-in-law) is good about sending pictures and videos almost every day. And my wife wants to go see him about once a month.

But I still can't believe how having a grandchild changes your life. You can't quite understand it until you're a grandparent.

Are you a grandparent? Let me know in the comments below about your adorable grandchildren.