Glad I was bike commuting!

Since it is Bike to Work Month, I have committed to biking to work 100% during May. This is choice has really paid off so far with vast increases in fitness level (in other words, far less pain on those Seattle hills), gas money savings (I haven't bought ANY since I returned from vacation), and time savings.

Due to some crazy construction on Northbound I-5, I would have been stuck in this for the last three nights, even though I was leaving work after 9pm.

Since I had so much extra time, and it was nice out, I decided to stop on the overpass and take a look at the fantastic view of downtown and Elliot Bay. Seeing the EMP (pics) is one reason I love bike commuting everyday. Sorry, I only took pictures of the traffic. Guess it would have been nicer if I had taken some of the view, since you're probably used to this view!

Lucky to be Poor?

Three weeks of vacation gave me a technology aversion, but after a week of work and "civilization," I am easing back onto the keyboard. Before my excursion from this man-made land of money out into the REAL world, I read this great article by Charles Mudede in the Stranger. He makes an interesting point about our middle class lacking freedom that comes with either being very wealthy or very poor. Excerpt from Young, Poor, Lucky below.

When I turned 20, they sent me to America to obtain a respectable degree... But almost immediately after arriving in the land of milk and honey, I rejected this clear future for no future at all. I came to America for exactly what it is famous for: freedom.

The freedom that comes with riches has its double in another kind of economic freedom: the freedom of owning nothing. Both liberate you from time, obligations, and other people.

What American poverty offers—and this is not the case with African poverty, which is nothing but oppressive—is the possibility that anything might happen: miracles of money, one-night stands, movement to anywhere by any means (back of a truck, back of a bicycle, back of motorbike, back of a bus).