Matching Requirements

Christmas preps 3 years ago ... :-)

"We are looking for the ideal candidate to complete our ideal development team, composed of multi-talented OSS wizards in a LAMP environment."

I'm reading this and wondering. Why do people like to use big words? Why do we look for ideal people, ideal solutions and ideal things all the time ? Do we ever call this world ideal? Do we ever think of our planet as ideal ? Well, define ideal...
I see "ideal" as something immutable and inflexible. Does it leave room to grow, to learn, to evolve? Why is "good" not good anymore? Very good? Did we abuse the word until we had to look for alternatives? What will happen as soon as "ideal" will lose its strength ?

I think that in an "ideal" world we'd be more open and more tolerant. There wouldn't be just the ideal item in the ideal list. But the well placed item in a useful list.

I have this vision of myself walking around disguised as a Christmas tree. Except that the Christmas tree decorations are keywords and acronyms dangling off my body. I'm advertising my skills.
Not being a multi-talented wizard, not being ideal in any respects and being happy with my non-ideal state, what's left? Luckily, I don't feel like spending my life in a keyword environment.

My Personal Enemy

I have a big enemy. For many years I've been fighting it and, I hope, that I'll never stop doing that. Every single time I compromised with it, surrendering, making peace, I paid dearly.

Wondering by now what or who this is ? It's comfort, the mother of laziness, the kind of comfort that paralyzes your will and imagination and stops progress. The comfort that lures you into a false state of security, gnawing at your strengths, swallowing your initiatives and dimming your awareness.

The comfort of a relationship can make you forget about giving and stimulating. The comfort of a job can make you ignore and forget how volatile a job is. The comfort of things working smoothly can make you forget about the fuel and mechanism behind them. This comfort can become a personal ivory tower, a place where you hide away ignoring facts and reality and taking things for granted.

I am not a masochist, as some like to think, but I do prefer discomfort for what it stimulates and brings. The need for action, the desire to do something about it, the search for solutions and ideas.

Tofino Times

Maybe sometimes, once in a while, we need to let the waves seduce us.

Which are you drinking? The water or the wave?

I have read John Fowles' "Magus" many years ago. Despite enjoying it a lot, the only clear memory and idea that stayed with me has been this question.

Is it the wave or the water? Is it the content, or the shape ? The essence or the appearance that we feed on?

It is, far too often, the appearance... And our society has specialized in re-inventing appearances, re-designing the wrapping around the candy, in the hope of making it more appealing to the consumer.

We are riding waves; we are creating waves; we get carried away by waves.

Yet we depend on water and it is also in water that we drown.

The question has stayed with me, perhaps, also because it relates to something that has always bugged me.

When interacting with people, gender-awareness seems to be taking over. We see the woman or man first, before we see the "neutral" individual behind.

The Ride to Conquer Cancer

26 years ago today my dad passed away. Last Saturday I was riding my orange bike to Seattle on the first Ride to Conquer Cancer in British Columbia. And somehow I felt closer to him than I ever had. He was never proud of me, the hyper kid fighting for independence and freedom from as soon as I was able to walk and talk. But here and now, on my bike and on the way to Seattle, I first felt he was proud of what I was doing.

A heartfelt thank you to all of you who have supported my ride in so many ways.

There will be another ride next year. Pepe has already signed up.

Random Thoughts

I am reading a most delightful book. It is a travel memoir of a remarkable woman. Dervla Murphy. To avid travellers and travel book readers her name is familiar. I only discovered her recently. The stories, the humor and especially the genuine, fresh impressions of people and places have set my imagination on fire. Afghanistan - will I ever see that land? Probably not, definitely not the land that she experienced and fell in love with. And it's not just her, but other people as well. I'll write down just one name: Steve McCurry. Look no further than National Geographic.



The other day I was riding Baby Oryx on a route I did approximately 2 years ago with Spiros while "preparing" for the Tour d'Afrique. To Spiros' amusement back then I felt like biking in Africa. I was traversing the savannah; looking around I saw places and images of remote beauty. Interestingly enough now, when I could pull up images from my memory rather than imagination, I was riding through this flat wind-swept area which in no way resembled any place in Africa. The green, the wind, the road, the ditches, the trees and birds, everything was different. How marvellous imagination works. How amazing the travels it allows to anywhere and everywhere instantaneously.



The inevitable, yet unexpected, has happened: I got a job. For a couple of days I was depressed. It was not about the change in rhythm going to happen, but the knowledge that I'd have to give up many trips in the mountains. For now I had to cancel two. Well, such is life. You can't have it all at the same time. That makes for variation :-)

The job is a new challenge - that makes it exciting. Will my brain be up to it ?

Fundraising I Am

Veggie and I have just finished a photoshooting session. Boy, I hate standing still!
But given the result and with the hopes of being more convincing in our fundraising efforts it was alright.
We need to go touring and tell people what we're doing and why. Can you also spread the word ?

If you make a donation you get a tax receipt for it. Supporting our participation has no benefit for us other than the exercise we're getting and the opportunity we're grabbing to meet other like-minded people. There's supposed to be over a 1000 participants already. Hmmm, I wonder, will there be a like-minded Pepa somewhere there, too ?


Support our Ride to Conquer Cancer