There’s strength in numbers.

Yesterday, a group of concerned alumni turned their concern into a grassroots movement in support of a RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization. The goal set by these alumni was to raise $500,000 for RAINN, about $1 for each person in the Alumni Association.  Ninety-two percent (92%) of every dollar goes directly to programs to help victims and prevent sexual violence.

Penn Stater’s responded. In less than 24 hours, over $64,000 has been raised.

Donations don’t make up for the mistakes and atrocities committed members of the faculty and staff at Penn State, but they does show that we are not them.

We are Penn State.

We are not defined by the actions or inactions of a few members of the faculty and staff of the university, no matter how ugly the traditional media, the blogosphere, or other outlets may paint us in this time of crisis.

If you are like me, the news that’s come out of University Park over the past week has been disturbing, confusing, and frightening. The news horrifies us because it runs counter to everything we believe in about our school’s traditions and our heroes.

Lets not forget that our heroes can still be honored even if they’ve been dismissed by the Trustees. Whether you believe that Joe Paterno was rightfully or wrongfully dismissed, we all agree that he did more for the students and the university than any other person in the history of our institution. None of us can imagine Penn State without Joe and we will miss him.

I’ve been shocked to see some of the comments in the twittersphere which have called for everything from not sending kids to Penn State, to employers rejecting resumes with Penn State on them. I’m sure some people may in fact choose to take these actions. If so, this will be unfortunate.

Penn State is more than football. Penn State is more than Joe Paterno. And Penn State is damn sure more than the pedophile, Jerry Sandusky.

Penn State has produced some amazing people who have given touched our lives: Mark Parker (CEO of Nike), Rick Santorum (former US Senator), Steve McCurry (National Geographic Photographer) and Richard James (inventor of the Slinky) to name only a few.

Penn State helps mankind. Penn State students raise millions of dollars each year at THON to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund. THON is the largest student run philanthropy in the world!

Fellow Penn Staters, we have many reasons to be proud.  Please don’t give up. Please wear our colors and support our school in these trying times.

We Are Penn State.

I’d planned to get up this morning for the group ride with the peloton. I’ve got to say that when I woke at 6:00 and it was pitch fucking black outside and 39 F to boot, I could only roll over, turn off the alarm set for 6:30, and go back to sleep. It was a pretty simple decision I have to say. Sure, I’d have liked to make the group ride but I’ve been riding solo for months, so whats another day?

In truth, I do kind of wish I’d have gotten up for that ride because it would have been good to sync up with some faces that I’ve not seen in a long time. However, I had a great ride on my own this morning.

I left around 8:45 and while it was only 42 F, at least the sun was up. This was the fourth day in a row of riding and I could feel it in my legs as I started out. Today’s ride wasn’t going to break any land speed records, and it didn’t. I averaged 14 and change and my max speed was in the range of 19 mph. Still, it was a great ride.

There is something magical about riding in the fall. The low angle of the light, the leaves rattling under your tires, the colors on the trees and the crisp air make for a very enjoyable ride.  I rode for about 13 miles before heading home.  Thee little man and I were headed to Kinder Farm Park to meet up with my long time friend and her girls.  I felt like I could have easily gone for another 13 miles today despite the fact that my toes were starting to go numb, and if I’d made that group ride, I probably would have.

I’m still trying to work out how to keep my feet toasty warm.  Today, I wore a thin wool base layer sock, some thick wool socks, my shoes and neoprene covers lined with micro fleece.  If anyone has any recommendations on a change in gear, I’d appreciate hearing them.

Time to revisit rule 5.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time (which only a very few have) you’ll know that I kind of wander from topic to topic.  I’m almost never on message.  I don’t have a lot to say about the industry that I work in.  I don’t have a lot to say about the apocalyptic nature of our relationship to the climate.  I don’t have a lot to say about cycling.

I’ve got a little to say about each of these topics, and many more.

Recently, I noticed a number of my “followers” on twitter abandoned me.  I’m sure it’s because I wasn’t tweeting enough about what they originally followed me for.  Perhaps I pissed someone off with a few to many tweets about politics, the climate, or occupy wall street.

I don’t know.

But I do know this, I’m way more than one-dimensional.  And so are most of the people out there in the Internets.  I wish more people would take the risk of being “off message” once in a while.  They’d been more interesting.

Two years ago, I read One Square Inch of Silence by George Hempton. I wrote a rather critical reaction to the book on this blog. One of Hempton’s arguments is that we no longer hear our footsteps when we walk, and he attributes this to the fact that there is too much ambient noise in our environment. When I read this book, there were many things that resonated, and not being able to hear our footsteps was one of them until recently.

I have dealt with painful shoes for over 20 years. The pain started after college. Over the years, I tried everything from store-bought inserts, to wearing Birkenstocks exclusively, to custom orthotics. Nothing eased the pain. My feet were only comfortable when I was barefoot.

Last year, I started a new job which frequently requires me to dress more professionally than I have in the past. I dug out my leather soled dress shoes and was a bit anxious about wearing them day in and day out. Something, akin to miraculous, happened as I started wearing those shoes. I could hear my foot steps. And more importantly, my feet didn’t hurt.

I began to take inventory of the situation and realized that it was during college that I transitioned from well made leather soled shoes (which I wore as part of the dress code in my Catholic high school) to cheaply made shoes constructed primarily of man-made materials. These shoes weren’t very supportive (despite claims to the contrary) and wore out quickly. Worse, they couldn’t be resoled. They weren’t durable.

We have grown to accept that things will wear out. We expect that items we purchase will have a relatively short useful life and that there is nothing that can be done about it. As I look around my workspace, I am confronted with a number of items that were built with planned obsolescence in mind. My Mac, planned obsolescence. My iPhone, planned obsolescence. My digital camera, planned obsolescence. My clothes, planned obsolescence.

When I was learning to shave, the razor I learned with was a Schick Injector. It was constructed of strong resin and steel. It had a permanent head that held blades which were the only part of the razor that were replaced, through a convenient “injector” mechanism. A pack of blades might have cost $5. Today, I shave with a Gillette Fusion, which sports 5 blades on disposable heads which cost $20 for 4 of them. Planned obsolescence.

We live in a world where scarce resources are becoming scarcer. We cannot afford to simply throw things away because they are no longer useful. Doing so becomes expensive both for the pocket-book and for the planet.

We need to return to durability.

1. A husband and a father
2. A person with a strong work ethic
3. A problem solver
4. A good communicator
5. A writer
6. An environmentalist
7. A technologist
8. An artist
9. A food lover
10. A cyclist

A few more words about each of these.

1. I am married to an amazing woman (Mrs. TKD) and we have an amazing son (Mr. Grey). I have always wanted to be a husband and a dad because I looked up to my father. I am a loving person who cares for people who are important to me and I am going to make the most of my time on earth by teaching my son how to live a true and virtuous life.
2. I grew up admiring my father who was deeply committed to his work. I want to do a good job. I want to have an impact on society. I want to ensure that what I do makes a difference. Working smart is more important that working hard, but that doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means using the right tools and methods to achieve the goal. It means accomplishing the end goal and doing it well, without killing yourself.
3. Solving problems, whether technical or otherwise makes me feel productive. When I solve a problem I feel like I”m giving something to the world making a contribution of some sort. I’m not only good a solving technical problems, but I am also good at working with people.
4. I am a good public speaker. I enjoy lively debate. I value the passing of ideas and information between people. I believe that I am not only good at conveying ideas but also at listening. I may be a good mediator because I have the ability to see different sides of a story and to help people to see things differently. I value the concept of synthesis.
5. I’ve always had a knack for writing. I enjoy writing because it gives me the opportunity to reflect. In addition, writing is an important way to convey information. Information is powerful. Information empowers people. The free exchange of information is the basis of a free and just society. I value the written word as part of a healthy debate.
6. For many years I have had a concern of rate well-being of our earth. This is the only home humanity has. Even though I am a technologist, I understand that there are some things that are out of our grasp like fining a new planet to settle if we destroy this one. I worry about what we are doing to the earth. I want to find a way to make an impact on society by helping to clean up our act. It is important to me that future generations have a safe and healthy world in which to live.
7. I am very interested in technology. I see technology as a tool that we as humans can use to solve problems, share information and make the world a better place. Technology also has a dark side and it is important to be cognizant of that. Technology can do as much harm as it can good.
8. I was voted most artistic in my high school class. I lost my way with my art and I find excuses not to create art all the time. Still at the core, I am someone who creates things food, art, written word, photographs. I enjoy making things that make others smile.
9. I love food. I love eating it. I love cooking it. I love sharing food. Sharing a meal with friends connects us in a way that other activities cannot. There is something about taking time to nourish our bodies that also nourishes our relationships. It is important to take time to eat together.
10. I have always loved bicycles. When I was young my bike was my ticket to freedom. I went everywhere on my bike before I could drive. Now that I’m in the working world, my bike gives me time to relax and disconnect from the whirl of everyday life. It is my primary form of exercise.. I would like for my bike to be more central in my daily transportation but there are many things in my current life that make this infeasible.

What do these all have in common?

A few themes seem to emerge in the list above. I have a strong sense of duty to others. I value information and technology as tools to help us solve problems and form a better society. I have a deep desire to make a difference in the world. I value creativity both in terms of a relaxation mechanism and as a means to problem solving.

What must my work life include in order for me to be truly happy?

I will be happiest if I am working in a capacity that is focused on solving problems and making a difference in the world. Ideally, there should be a great deal of human interaction, including lively debate and open communication. Technology should probably take a back seat in my career, it should be a tool in the toolbox rather than the end goal of my career.

I am not one to spend a lot of time in bed when the sun is shining.  We had beautiful weather, as far as I could tell from my bed, yesterday.  I stayed in bed all day.  All i could drink was seltzer water and a bit of ginger-ale.   Forget about eating.

So, as you might expect, I didn’t get out on the bike yesterday.  So much for 30 days of cycling.  Here’s the thing though, as cool as it sounds to take on a challenge, there are limits.  Life throws curve balls, and “the rules” of a challenge need to bend.  So, while I won’t technically get 30 straight days in, I’m still looking forward to getting back on the bike, maybe not today as I’m still not near my peak, but perhaps tomorrow.

And when I am back on the bike, I’ll ride as often as I can, striving for a ride every day, and I’ll be better for it.

Tuesday’s ride was a 17 mile ride over some rolling hills and the gentle flatness of the B&A trail near my house.  Wednesday was a simple end of the trail and back kind of day, and yesterday was a 21 mile ride over rolling hills and the B&A trail again.  Today, I plan to get out after my last concall for work and hit the trial for a slower recovery ride spin.  That will probably tack on an additional 12-13 miles and put me around 63 or 64 for miles for the work week.

I am probably going to get up and join my local group ride tomorrow which will put another 26 on the odometer, but it is an early ride on a Saturday, so I may have to sleep in on that one.  We’ll see.