Wait wait… don’t tell me

I generally think runners are jerks, and runners who brag are the lowest form of scum.  But I just can’t help myself.  On Friday, I ran 7.76 miles to the highest point in the city of Boston and back.

View 3/9/2012 6:24 AM in a larger map

This is all off the cuff in reaction to yesterday’s coverage of Apple’s iBooks announcement, so take it all with a grain of salt.  I’ve done very little research, and I’m sure other authors will have better reasoned and better written reactions.

Digital Divide

The first and worst consequence of the new iBooks textbook sales model will be a deepening of the digital divide.  Low income students and school districts are already at a disadvantage in preparing for higher education and a high tech economy.  By creating a barrier to entry of $500 per pupil Apple is automatically excluding many school systems from providing this content to their students.  I know my high school would not have been able to afford to provide iPads (had they existed) to all students, and if they had the resources to provide even a few, how could you decide which students get them?

Within schools, especially public schools, this would lead to a stark difference between the privileged kids who can afford the device, and those who cannot.  It will also highlight the difference between rich private schools and public school systems that rely on cash strapped taxpayers.  At what point does the value added by these textbooks become enough of a differentiator to begin to exclude iPad-less students from exclusive colleges?

This enormous cost barrier does not even consider the effect of putting textbook costs on the shoulders of working parents rather than a school system.  Direct marketing to children on a per student per year basis makes a joke of the concept of free public education.

Consolidated Control

Based on their success in transforming the music industry with iTunes, there is a tendency to expect a consumer friendly solution when Apple enters a new business.  However, we should not be complacent as the world’s largest corporation attempts to take over the education industry.  Every time you begin to feel comfortable with this concept, mentally replace the word “Apple” with the word “Exxon/Mobile” and see if you are still comfortable.  Would you be comforatable with Exxon/Mobile controlling access to and content of textbooks around the country?

While Apple is framing the move toward iBooks and iBooks Author as a way to democratize the textbook industry and drive more competition, this only drives competition between authors.  It leads to a dramatic decrease in competition between publishers and platforms, with Apple able to dictate pricing and availability.  We should not allow a single company to seize this much control of our children’s education, especially a company with the rich history of censorship that Apple brings to the table.  Their App Store and current iBooks platform rely on Apple employees to review, curate, and approve all content before it’s available to consumers.  We should be wary of any attempt by the world’s richest corporation to control and censor access to educational materials.

Dilution of Quality

Apple has suggested an initial price point of $15 per textbook.  This belies the actual cost, since the book can’t be passed on to future students, but still represents a dramatic shift in textbook pricing.  Cost pressure on textbook authors or publishers can only result in a lower quality experience for the student.  Like the music industry and fiction publishing industry, the textbook publishers will find that the bulk of the cost for any content does not come in producing and distributing physical media.  This is hidden in the iTunes model by the fact that consumers can finally purchase single tracks rather than entire albums, but the $0.99 price point calculates out to barely a 30% savings over buying CDs at Tower Records.  Similarly, Kindle owners save only about 20% over hardcover books on new release purchases.  Both these price structures point to the inherent value in the ideas represented by content, not the costs of physical media.

iBooks plans to disintermediate the traditional textbook publishers, but that only provides a cost savings of the amount it costs to print and distribute the textbook.  The true value of textbooks isn’t in the volume of dead trees bound together and sent out, it’s in the extensive research that multiple authors and experts devote to putting the best possible body of knowledge forward.  It’s in the pedagogic strategies that determine how to best explain and present complex concepts at an appropriate grade level.  It’s in the skilled editors who meld contributions from multiple authors (and in today’s market, authors from all over the world) into a coherent narrative and cohesive editorial voice.  By disintermediating that system and replacing it with iBooks Author, based on the Garage Band DIY model, Apple is opening the door to a tidal wave to mediocre texts.  Unless, of course, they exercise their censorious habits as mentioned above.

Closed Systems

By writing or laying out a book in iBooks Author and by consuming texts through iBook, you are forfeiting the right to open standards.  The world wide web has been the most transformative technology of our era, and its success is not built on locking people into a closed system, it’s built on the correct assumption that an open standard that is consumable on any device from any manufacturer will be more successful than a system only available from one vendor.  That’s why the web flourished and AOL withered.

A company that was interested in improving education would develop a new open text book format and then develop the best possible creation and consumption tools for that platform.  Other software vendors would be welcome to create competing authoring tools and device manufacturers could choose whether to include a competing consumption tool.  The platform would then sink or swim on its merits in the marketplace.  Apple proves that they are only interested in generating profits for themselves by using their dominance in the tablet market as a cudgel to lock in students to the ultimate closed system.

2011 has been a rough year for me professionally, so as it draws to a close, I decided to spend some time reflecting on how amazing it has been for me personally.  Without further ado, this was my epic year:

January

We started out the year with a semi-surprise weekend getaway to sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We left late Friday night and arrived at 5am on Saturday.  We watched the sun come up from the beach, went to breakfast, then checked into our hotel and slept most of the day away.

Instead of some of our usual touristing, we focused this visit on warmth and food.  Before coming back to the US mainland on Monday, we made sure to eat our favorite pizza (the Puertorriqueño, with ground beef and plantains), watch the sun go down over Condado beach, take a stroll around Old San Juan, and pack an extra suitcase full of Gasolinas, our favorite alcoholic juice pouches.

We were also lucky enough to have a great meal at a famous cafe called Barrachina, and as we were strolling across a bridge, we saw a beautiful ray cruising the waters below.

February

February came and went quietly, with the first round travel for what would turn out to be a crazy year at work.  I visited Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, as well as a quick trip to Nashville.  Also in February, I turned 32, celebrated my birthday at the Nashville airport, and quit smoking with the help of Chantix.

March

The work travel kept on going in March, but I managed to find time to inaugurate the 2011 kayaking season with a quick spin around the Dedham Loop on the Charles.

April

In April, a devilish little cat named Rosie came to live with us.  She has grown a lot since then, but she and Duke became fast friends.  We also made our annual pilgrimage to Waltham’s Sheep Shearing Festival, and we marveled at the fruit trees in bloom.

Through work, I got to take yet another trip to Florida, as well as the first of what would become many trips to Frankfort, KY.  The only work trip that turned out in my favor gave me a chance to explore Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage residence just outside Nashville.

May

Wedding

Probably the biggest news of the year happened on May 7, when Nikki and I got married.  In order to make that happen, we rented a van and drove from Boston to Queens with the bridal party in tow, picked up a bridesmaid in Queens, got lost and drove across midtown, then proceeded to Bloomsburg, PA so we could get married.  The road trip aspect of that weekend is best captured by our friend Mariah’s truly ninja-ish facebook updates.

We had a beautiful outdoor ceremony in an apple orchard.  There was a huge thunderstorm right at the time we planned to walk down the aisle, but a small blue spot went over, and the catering staff scrambled to dry off chairs in time to have the ceremony before the rain started up again.  Our friend Harold officiated, we had music from Michael Franti, and the readings were from 1 Corinthians, Goodridge v Department of Mental Health, and Falling in love is like owning a dog (an epithalamion by Taylor Mali).  To see pictures, go to my Facebook photos.

In the end, the rain cleared up, and we were able to go outside on the Barn’s broad deck for our first dance.  I know it’s hard to believe, but we took some private lessons and actually managed to stumble through a dance!  The bridal party and a couple of family members wrapped up the evening in a rented bowling alley, drinking, dancing, chatting, and even bowling.

After the wedding, it was back to work for one week before jetting off first class for our nearly free luxury honeymoon on Maui and Kauai!

Wailea, Haleakala, and Lahaina

After flying first class to Kahului in seats that folded all the way flat, we checked into the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort and Spa for a couple of days.  The first day was spent eating and sleeping, but the second was jam-packed.  We booked a sunrise bike tour down Haleakala Crater, but unfortunately that meant meeting the bus at 3am.  It was worth it when we watched the sun rise from the roof of the world, then biked twenty miles downhill.

For some crazy reason, we thought it would be a good idea to book a luau on the far side of the island that same night.  After the bike ride, we cleaned ourselves up and drove to Lahaina, in East Maui, and plunked ourselves down at Old Lahaina Luau.  The food was good, and there was a full course of traditional(ish) Hula, but we had to bail out early.  After our early morning and strenuous day, I barely managed to get us back to the hotel alive.

The next morning, instead of rushing out to get an early start on the road to Hana, we took our time and had a leisurely breakfast in Kihei and did some shopping in Pa’ia.

Hana

Once we did get started on the road to Hana, we stopped at just about every attraction along the way.  The road is known around the world as being narrow and winding, and it seemed like it at the time.  How was I to know that the next few days would bring roads to make this one pale in comparison?  We weren’t in any rush, knowing that we would have five days to enjoy Hana once we arrived, possibly more than any other tourist in history.  In Hana, we stayed in a little cottage right across the road from the Venus Pool and took time to explore a lava tube, the old courthouse, and the area around our cottage.

Our first excursion in the Hana area was to Ohe’o Gulch, aka the seven pools.  The road between our cottage and the park got even narrower, which I didn’t believe was possible.  And again, I had no idea that there was worse to come.  In the park, we hiked way up the valley, past waterfalls and through a bamboo forest, until we got to the head of the valley.  There, the trail ends at a waterfall so tall it boggles the mind.  There had been rain earlier in the day, so the rangers were keeping people from swimming in the pools.  We knew we’d have another chance, so we braved the roads again and went back to Hana town to swim on the clothing-optional red sand beach (we opted for clothes).

The next morning, we went on a horseback tour of the Kipahulu Valley.  We rode way up into the mountains above Ohe’o gulch, through pastures, woods, and lots of guava.  Finally, we stopped on a promontory above the valley.  Below us, we could see the bamboo forest we had hiked through the day before, and we were as high as the giant waterfall we stopped at.  At the end of the ride, we discovered that the stable was right next to the little church where Charles Lindbergh is buried.  On the way back to the cottage, we stopped off at the pools, and were able to squeeze in a swim, then we capped off the day with our second lovely dinner from Braddah Hutt’s Island Style BBQ.

The next day was our seventh on Maui, and we ended up driving around the back side of Haleakala from Hana to Ulupalakua.  It was an amazing day that almost can’t be believed.  The road varied from narrow and paved, to gravel and navigable, to a washed out single-car width vertically perched above the surf, to an improved state highway for the last few miles.  For much of the distance, it was as though we had been transported to Wyoming.  There were canyons and big skies, and about 18 miles of unfenced open range.  At one point, we even watched a paniolo on horseback driving cattle up out of a draw.  We took a few brief hikes, which gave us a chance to check out a few Hawaiian artifacts.

Along some cliffs, we found old Hawaiian petroglyphs.  Then on another hike, we saw ancient burial platforms (which modern Hawaiians had unfortunately dumped junk cars on top of).  More modern artifacts included churches and the historic Kaupo Store.  At the end of our journey, we tasted some fine wine at the Ulupalakua Ranch/Tedeschi Winery, then we turned around and headed back, dodging free range beef, tour vans, and double rainbows along the way.  To cap off what had to be the most amazing single day on the island, we stopped for another swim at the pools at Ohe’o then fired up our rental cottage’s Weber Smokey Joe to make a grilled dinner.

On our last full day in Hana, we spent some time exploring Hana Beach park and took another trip to Braddah Hutt’s.  Have I mentioned how awesome Braddah Hutt’s is?  It has to be the best restaurant I’ve ever been to.  Picture a cookout in your neighbor’s backyard: picnic tables under tents, a gas grill, a couple of dogs running around… and awesome meat with homemade sauce. Then we went off to Waianapanapa to check out the black sand beach, which was not my finest hour.  Let’s just say that I can never again speak the words “loop trail” to my wife.  Without checking the map or guidebook, I decided that there was certainly a loop trail over here, and proceded to lead us miles through a lava field in the rain in our flip flops.  There was no loop trail.  We saw some cool Hawaiian ruins, but that was not enough to make up for our misery and Nikki’s possibly broken toe.

By the time we left Hana to start making our way to Kauai, I was an expert at driving the winding local roads.  In fact, other tourists were heeding the homemade signs to let locals pass and pulling to the side of the road when I came zooming up behind.  We spent a little more time shopping through Pa’ia, browsed a local tattoo shop, then flew through Honolulu to Kauai, with views of five of the principal islands and one last spam musubi from Hasegawa’s on the way.

Kauai

Upon arriving in Kauai, we checked into the Kauai Marriott Resort.  Despite having booked a room described as having a partial ocean view, our deck overlooked both the beach and the pool (in which we played every evening after the sun went down).  An impromptu cock fight in the carefully manicured flowerbeds below our window gave us our first hint of Kauai’s massive chicken problem.

Luckily we’re flexible travelers, because the next morning we were on our way to a “trike” (ultralight powered hangglider) tour when the company called to say they would have to cancel due to high winds.  We rescheduled, and in the end they cancelled two more times.  It was only days later that we realized they were being cautious due to a recent fatal crash.  With unexpected time on our hands, we went exploring and found a swinging bridge and art deco theater in Hanapepe, a camouflaged crab at Salt Pond beach, and taro fields along the Hanalei River valley.

We had planned to take a standup paddleboarding lesson another day, but had the time after our trike flight cancelled.  Because of the likelihood of taking an unplanned swim, we left the cameras in the car that afternoon while we took a hastily arranged lesson on the Hanalei river.  In the end, neither of us went in the water, and we successfully navigated a strong headwind up the river almost to the first bridge.  Needless to say, the river was gorgeous, as was Hanalei bay, and we are sorry not to have pictures to prove it.  Also at Hanalei bay, we found a food truck serving Kalua pork tacos.  Bliss.  And of course we saw the usual assortment of rainbows and waterfalls along the way, before finishing the day at a beautiful lagoon where we soaked ourselves in the confluence of salt and fresh water and tiny fish nibbled on my skin (but not Nikki’s).

In the morning, we drove back past Hanalei Bay, further up the coast, to the end of the road.  After fighting every other tourist on the island for parking, we took a hike on the legendary Napali Coast.  The trail was constantly rugged and occasionally terrifying, but the views were unparalleled.  At the end of our hike we decided to explore the reef along the beach at the trailhead.  I’ve never been able to snorkel, because I have claustrophobic panic attacks as soon as I put the snorkel in my mouth.  However, we discovered that I’m perfectly happy to put on a mask and flippers and swim around under water looking at fish.  On the way back down the coast we stopped at a farmers market and bought fruit, at a hardware store to get me my own snorkel mask, and for fun food.  While we were getting the snorkel mask in Princeville, we got burgers at a gas station that uses local Princeville Ranch beef, then on the spur of the moment we got a second meal at a barbecue stand called “Chicken in a Barrel” where they cook chicken in barrels.

Having discovered a love of snorkeling, we got up early to watch the koi at our hotel get fed, then took our snorkel gear to Poipu beach.  Turtles eluded us, but we saw fish of almost every color, and I saw an eel.  We paddled around a couple more beaches before going to the Spouting Horn (a giant blowhole) and watching the sun set over the southern coast.  I think this was also the evening we ate takeout from a saimin restaurant in Lihue where we were the only haoles ordering.

For our last day on Kauai, we planned a drive up Waimea canyon and a hike along one of the highest ridges.  However, we started out our day breakfast in a cafe along the highway, where we ended up sitting out on the patio and befriending a local cat.  Fortified with loco moco and coffee, we headed up Waimea Canyon.  The canyon road was steep and narrow, so my Hana driving practice was useful again, and there were a number of turn outs where we got out and admired the view.  One of the most amazing things I saw was a waterfall over the canyon rim that was so high, the stream dissipated into mist before reaching the river below.

The road ended at the Pihea trailhead, one of the wettest spots on earth.  The trail was both gorgeous and terrifying, offering endless vistas of the Napali coast below as it hugged clifftops and saddles, and frequently required us to climb hand over hand up slick clay faces using roots and carved toeholds to get to the top.  We eventually descended into the rainforest and picked up the Swamp Trail before turning around and climbing back to the car.  And on the way back to the hotel we saw one of the most vivid full arch rainbows of the entire trip kissing the earth between us and the mountains.

Maui briefly, and home again

With the clock rapidly running out on our Hawaiian honeymoon, we flew back to Maui via Honolulu.  This time I paid more attention on the approach to Honolulu, and we spotted both a water park and the USS Arizona memorial, then later saw three islands simultaneously.  Arriving back on Maui, we checked back into the Marriott at Wailea Beach and watched the sun go down from their serenity pool.

On our very last day in Hawaii, I watched the sun rise over Haleakala, then went down to the beach and “snorkeled” along a reef before it got too murky.  We spent the rest of the morning playing on the waterslides at our hotel, then went off to Pa’ia and spent our last few hours at a tattoo shop.  We were first class again on the way out, although with standard seats rather than luxury fold-flat seats.  We connected through LAX, and made a brief stop in Tuscon for a medical emergency before heading home to BOS and getting reacquainted with our cats.  On the way home from the airport (on May 29), there was still a bit of snow remaining from the mountains created by the Dedham DPW over the winter, but spring had truly arrived by…

June

In June, our garden really started taking off.  This year we had onions, green beans, hot peppers, a failed spaghetti squash patch, and some of the biggest carrots I’ve ever seen.  Later in the month, we were lucky enough to get a visit from my Seattle-based uncle Jeff and aunt Deb, which was a great excuse to eat some North End cookin’ and take a stroll through that part of the freedom trail.

I also managed to get my kayak back on the water, taking a quick trip up the always beautiful Rocky Narrows on the Charles and another quick trip up the Neponset from Paul’s Bridge, which put me in good shape for…

July

The month of July kicked off with my traditional Independence Day Paddling Bash with my Dad.  This year, we tackled the Dedham Loop on the Charles, which is quickly becoming my favorite destination, as well as a long stretch of the Sudbury River in Wayland, which was a first for me.

Just a couple of weeks later, I ended up taking a quick trip down to Cranesville to help the family celebrate my uncle Mick Michael’s birthday.  The whole family was there, from my teenage cousins to my 94 year old great uncle.  Strangely, I stayed in my father’s house, even though he was out of town.

Before the month was over, I took another trip down to Nashville and got to go to Miami to cool off during our heatwave in Boston (yes, it was hotter than Miami in July), and Nikki and I decided to cool off together at Watercountry in New Hampshire.  Every year we’re tempted by a yearly membership, and every year we end up grateful that we didn’t get it.  There just aren’t enough weekends in summer.

August

In August, I almost managed to catch my breath.  I walked down the Neponset at Paul’s bridge several nights a week in order to gather enough blackberries to make jam, and our green beans really started to produce.  Looking back at it from December, I miss the long days of August terribly.  Of course there was another trip down to Nashville for work, but the wonderful MEDITECH annual picnic helped make up for it.

September

We hitched a ride with our friends Mariah and Paul out to West Springfield to attend the Eastern States Exhibition (aka the Big E), which is essentially a country fair for all of New England.

It’s good we caught it, because our trip down to Cranesville, WV was not timed to coincide with the Buckwheat Festival.  While we were in WV, Nikki finally got a chance to go fishing with my stepfather, Peter, we shot guns with my dad, and we rode a “mountain coaster.”  We also helped my mother pick apples and make cider, which she later converted to a tasty alcoholic beverage.  That got us in practice to pick bushels of grapes along the Neponset when we got back home.

Nikki and I ran a 5K race in East Boston in mid-September to support Zumix, the organization she works for.  A couple of weeks later we went to their One Night Band event, where we realized that none of the members of the teenage band playing Smells Like Teen Spirit onstage at The Middle East had actually been born when the song was released.

At the end of the month, I spent two weeks in Frankfort, KY.

October

We were visited by both our mothers in October.  My mother came for a few days at the beginning of the month, and Nikki’s mother came at the end.  We went on a cool walking tour of the city with my mom called Boston Underfoot, where we learned about the sewers, T tunnels, big dig, and all the other underground systems in our city.  Nikki’s mom came at the end of the month and helped Nikki play cruel (but hilarious) pranks on our hundreds of trick-or-treaters.

Duke had a fun month.  First, he learned how fun it can be to go off the leash around the Neponset river, then he tried riding in a canoe on the Neponset.  He was a trooper, but it was not an experience any of us are in a hurry to repeat.  The highlight of the month for our snow loving pup was the Halloween snowstorm, which left us with a couple of soggy inches, and is still the only snow we’ve had (knock on wood).

As we have for several years now, we drove out to Stow, MA with some friends (Mariah and Paul again, to be exact) and picked apples for all our fall recipes.  I made applesauce and slow simmered apple butter, and I hope to get a batch of chutney made before the apples go bad.  It’s amazing how long fresh apples last in the fridge.  Before the snow hit, we took in our hot pepper crop and made a batch of jelly, which went on to win second place in a harvest festival/farm themed halloween party.  The peach cider I made with our neighbor’s peaches was ready for drinking in October, and it gave us all a healthy buzz.

Somehow, between all that excitement, I managed to go back to Frankfort two more times.

November

Nikki disappeared to Washington without explanation at the beginning of November, because ZUMIX won the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program award, so she was attending a ceremony at the Whitehouse!

Just when the excitement from that was dying down, Nikki and I flew out to San Francisco to visit our good friend Harold in the East Bay.  We spent five days out there, and we spent some free time on the first day driving around the East Bay, finding and photographing Rancid points of interest.  In exchange, I accompanied her to the Winchester Mystery House (near Campbell in San Jose), which we had stumbled across and where we were happy to make the last tour of the night.

The next day, we torture tested our raingear by touring all of the SF waterfront and Alcatraz in the pouring rain.  We walked from the Embarcadero BART station over to the Ferry Building (where we found some awesome sandwiches, cheese, and salami), then up along the waterfront to pier 33 where we caught the ferry to Alcatraz.  After that, we kept walking up to pier 39 so we could see the sea lions, then to High Street pier and the Cannery, where we gave up and caught public transportation.  Not counting our tour of Alcatraz island, we covered about three miles.  Unfortunately, my camera died halfway through the day, so the record stops abruptly on Alcatraz.

You might think that walking all over the city in the rain would be enough, but no!  Because we’re gluttons for punishment, we took a day trip the next day that included walking the Golden Gate Bridge (well, half of it), hiking and picnicking in Muir Woods, and checking out some redwoods at dusk.

Our last full day in SF, Harold accompanied us on a rollicking tour of Chinatown and a lame ride on the stupid cable cars.  Before our flight home on Monday, we again found ourselves with some time to kill.  This time, we took our suitcases into the city and strolled around the Mission district and the Castro before rushing off to the airport and barely catching our flight.

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house, as I have for at least six years now.  The first year, around 2004, my friend Chris came up to visit and brought his company turkey in the trunk, which we augmented with fixins purchased at 7-11 on Thanksgiving morning.  The event has since evolved to a damn fine meal, this year anchored by a homemade, brined turducken stuffed with sausage cooked in bacon fat, which was accompanied by a cranberry/apple dressing, pumpkin risotto, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and gravy and finished with pumpkin pudding and apple crisp.  As always, my father was in attendance, but this year he was our only dinner guest.

I had a few comp days coming to me after traveling to Frankfort again (and again), so I ended up taking all of thanksgiving week off.  I called it my staycation, and got tons of chores done around the house.  I needed every minute, because in addition to our Thanksgiving celebration, we attended ZUMIX’s thanksgiving potluck, and I let them talk me into roasting an extra turkey and grilling two turkey breasts.  I even found time to go out for one more trip in the old kayak, again at the Dedham Loop on the Charles.

December

With the year drawing to a close and Mayor Menino’s deadline running out, we paid a visit to Occupy Boston to show our support on the evening they were scheduled to be evicted.  However, the mayor is a wily old coot, and he waited until 5am two nights later before dismantling the camp.

I surprised Nikki with a weekend getaway to Coco key, an indoor waterpark in a hotel just north of Boston.  I think she guessed what I had up my sleeve, but it was still fun.  We rode the slides, played with the water cannons, drank tropical drinks, and cranked up the heat in our room.

We just got back from Catawissa, PA, where we were spending Christmas weekend with Nikki’s family, and Nikki is off in NYC visiting her friend Rachel.  This weekend is New Year’s, and we’ll be cooking some pig as a combined mid-winter luau/new years/belated birthday celebration.

Good luck to you and yours in 2012.