Burton Speaks

So I got over my regular fear of commitment today long enough to ditch Verizon Wireless and sign up with AT&T and get a 32GB White iPhone 3GS.


This is something I've been wanting for literally two years now. Ever since the release of the iPhone, my "oooh, something shiny!" reflex has been twitching and, with the release of the 3GS (combined with the expiration of my Verizon contract much earlier this year) I determined that I was finally going to take the plunge.

This was not something undertaken lightly, however. I spent months researching network coverage, phone specifications, alternatives, and generally weighing the pros and cons of the whole thing. I'm not dissatisfied with Verizon's network; I seem to get reasonable coverage all the places I should be able to. I am, however, intensely dissatisfied with the price I have to pay to use the aforementioned network, the miserable selection of phones available through Verizon, the unreasonable amount of "restricted features" on those phones, the feeling of having been nicked-and-dimed by Verizon for the past 6+ years of being a customer, and the generally arrogance with which I, as a customer, feel that I'm treated.

And yet, many years ago, prior to being a Verizon customer, I was an AT&T customer. And, when I left, I swore that my life would be better off never having to deal with them again. By and large, I was. I can only console myself with the knowledge that it's really Cingular rebranding themselves. Right?

What drove this decision the most was phone functionality. I had an LG enV that I'd bought in January of 2007. I liked the phone; at the time is was quite advanced. I was constantly frustrated by Verizon's Mobile Web (being hideously expensive and mostly useless). The idea of having email at my fingertips was enticing, especially since - as phones usage goes - I make relatively few phone calls. So, with the determination that I was going to get a smartphone next, I pondered various options from Blackberry and weighed their benefits against my iPhone-is-shiny-and-plays-well-with-my-Macs instinct. The iPhone, as you've read, won quite handily.

So after a few hours of ownership I'm quite satisfied. Web browsing is fast, maps and email are quick to load, I have already downloaded several custom applications that make this almost as useful as a laptop, it syncs with my MobileMe, and the phone is generally slick. I'm happy with it!

My dad relayed to me a piece of wisdom imparted to him by a friend: "The final lesson our parents teach us is how to die."

I'm currently in Reston, VA visiting my grandmother as she undergoes treatment for cancer. What started as breast cancer (apparently the tumor formed just after her last mammogram) is now Stage IV cancer, meaning it's spread throughout most of her body.

She's been undergoing both radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and when I decided to come out here again she'd been hospitalized. I'm happy to say that - at this point - she's home and bustling around like I would expect, but that's the current news. She resumes chemotherapy soon (she stopped because it was killing her faster than cancer) and only after that treatment is over will we have a clear idea of what the future holds; our best guess now is "6 months to 16 years".

So my dad is here helping his mother and sister prepare the financials and paperwork so that - should things take a turn for the worse - the necessary forms will still be able to be filled out and such. Affairs, as they say, are being put in order. I'm here, well... for comedic relief, if nothing else. I am, of course, helping in any way possible, but more I'm just happy to have this time with my relatives.

Several months ago I wrote about the time with my other grandmother (on my mother's side) and her ongoing battle with Alzheimer's disease. It's very sad to see that generation of my family move to the final stage of life; it's not something I really know how to deal with as death hasn't yet been something that dramatically touched my life.

Well, now that I'm officially a Portlander, I figured it was time for me to buy a bicycle. So I walked over to the local bike shop, Weir's Cyclery, and purchased myself a shiny, new bike: a Specialized Sirrus.


Of course, once I bought a bike I then needed a few accessories: a helmet, a little bike computer, a water bottle holder, a rack, a portable bike pump, and - having spent all this money on a bike - a lock. I'm not even done, but I'm more than out of money so I had to stop. Still, I'm happy with what I've got thus far.

If we were to jump back in time 10 years, we would find me owning a very nice bicycle. I don't remember the brand, but it was fairly solidly built, properly sized (XL), and was of the "hybrid" style; mountain-bike ergonomics, road-bike tires. I don't mountain bike, so I don't need the knobby tires working against me. The bike I had back then was amazing; it had what I needed it to have to carry me around the city. Since I lived in Eugene at the time, I could go almost anywhere. Of course, since I lived in Eugene at the time, my bicycle was stolen.

Back in the present, I wanted a bicycle with roughly those same properties, and you can see what I ended up with. Today was the inaugural ride of this fine bicycle, since I just got it from the store on Wednesday (they had to special order the size.) I took a nice ride around Portland; 19-ish miles in all. Not a great distance, per se, but I'm finding that bicycling is working muscles I don't normally otherwise use. I'm okay with that.

I'm looking forward to discovering more of Portland on a bicycle over the coming months!

I'm re-reading a book that, many years ago, became a favorite of mine. On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors is John Z. De Lorean's account of his years at GM, the problems the corporation faced, and his eventual decision to leave the company. When I first read the book GM was still the largest carmaker in the world but had certainly lost the luster it once had (and perhaps hadn't even held in my lifetime.) Now, of course, GM is widely expected to file for bankruptcy this coming Monday and yesterday the stock price closed at a record low of $.75/share. How the once-mighty have fallen is complicated only in surmising the breadth and tenure of failure in the company.


The book was written at the end of the 1970s and the tone of the book is largely set as "GM is undeniably the largest, most powerful company in the world, but..." Were it not for this, the book could have been written today as an expose in the the current corporate problems. Perhaps the most telling paragraph in the book is this (emphasis is mine):

"When we should have been planning switches to smaller, more fuel-efficient, lighter cars in the late 1960s in response to the growing demand in the marketplace, GM management refused because "we make more money on big cars." It mattered not that customers wanted the smaller cars or that a national balance-of-payments deficit was being built in large part because of the burgeoning sales of foreign cars in the American market."

That this was written and published in 1979 - thirty years ago! - and that GM's most recent problems were fueled by their reliance on the sales of large trucks and SUVs when gas prices shot through the roof and sales of these vehicles plummeted is a message that nothing was ever fixed. In fact, interestingly, Rick Wagoner, the recently departed CEO of GM, was first employed by GM only a few years after the writing of the book. Were lessons ever learned?

One more passage strikes me as almost prophetic:

"Perhaps most frustrating was the realization that there was (and is) no vehicle for change. For the most part, a top executive by the time he works his way through the system is a carbon copy of his predecessors. If the men in place cannot do the job, there is no reason to believe that their handpicked successors can. There never was, in my days with General Motors, an attempt by management to analyze previous corporate decisions to see if they were right for the company, and to use this information in perfecting the management process of the future."

I'm consistently amazed that so much of the book, were you to eliminate the names and dates, could have been written last year. The decisions haven't changed, the players haven't changed, but the market has changed. How I - and I'm sure so many others - wish that the current state of affairs could have been avoided, but apparently this ball has been rolling for over three decades.

I don't know what the future holds. At this point, no one does. But I do know that it will take more than just new leadership to revive and reinvigorate General Motors. Is it worth it? I think it is.

Dear City of Portland,

Stop.

Please stop.

The madness must end.

When I grew up, I lived near the intersection of Union & Portland Blvd. You will, of course, note that neither of these streets exist, having been renamed to MLK and Rosa Parks Way respectively. I also went to Beaver games at the Civic Stadium and watched a musical or two at the Civic Auditorium (now called PGE Park and the Keller Auditorium).

You know what's nice about 39th Avenue? People can safely bet that it's somewhere near between 38th and 40th. Pretty easy to remember. Someone from out of town, driving up Burnside, might be able to figure it out. (Maybe Burnside's not a great example, the street names are a little wonky in there, but you get the point.) Nobody's going to have a clue where Cesar Chavez Boulevard is.

I understand that things change. But let's have change through growth, not through the arbitrary renaming of places. Commemorate people all you want, but please don't make life difficult for everyone for no good reason.

This isn't the first time I've spoken up against renaming streets, and I'm sure it won't be the last time. Still, please stop the madness. I beg of you.

Respectfully yours,

Burton Simmons

Those who know me will know that I love to walk. More often than not they'll hear me say, "oh, we can just walk there" or suggest destinations that are designed to be within walking distance. Many may not know, however, why this is.

It turns out that I have a strong self-sufficiency streak that runs in me, combined - perhaps - wish a slight lack of faith "in the system". In inclement weather, for instance, when roads are closed and Tri-Met shuts down (or at least fails to visit anywhere in SW Portland and beyond). I hate feeling helpless, so I need to know that I can walk anywhere I need to truly go.

With that in mind, today's walk - on a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon - was designed to be a one-way trip. While last week's walk-that-was-longer-than-I-planned-on was about 9.5 miles round-trip, I wanted to head downtown and planned on taking public transportation back.

I started out walking past the University of Portland along Willamette Blvd, overlooking Swan Island. I found it interested that I could clearly see the Fremont Bridge, but could just barely make out the Steel Bridge beyond it.


After following Willamette Blvd basically to where it ends, I cut over on Skidmore to MLK because I wanted to pick something up at the Nike store there. A quick stop, then I continued down MLK until I got to the Oregon Convention Center. I hopped down the the Eastbank Esplanade and walked down to the Hawthorne Bridge.


Since part of my whole plan for this trip was to stop at Saturday Market and get my favorite spring roll, I crossed over the Willamette and started walking back north in Waterfront Park. I didn't expect the Rose Festival to be going in full swing! Lots of people were around; it was fun to walk among them.

After eating my spring roll in the shadow of the Burnside Bridge, I walked over to REI on NW 14th and Johnson. I looked around at cycling accessories for a bit (I had hoped to have a bicycle by the weekend but that didn't happen), then figured it was time to head home.

At this point, my feet were killing me. I was developing a super-sized blister right next to the ball of my right foot, and every step was a reminder that it was there and getting worse. Rather than walking home - something I was tempted to do because I wasn't that tired - I realized that I should call it a day and take public transportation. The nearest yellow line MAX stop, however, was either way south at Pioneer Square or across the river near the Rose Garden. I decided to take Lovejoy to the Broadway Bridge, cross that, but then turn north and catch MAX at N Mississipi & Interstate. This, over course, means that I started and ended my 13+ mile trip in North Portland!


So, in all, I managed to walk through parts of North, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest Portland. Not a bad day... next time I'll just have to find better walking shoes!

So I owe an apology to Comcast. Despite the fact that your rates are high, your speeds never approach half of that advertised, and you have stupid bandwidth caps, I respect the fact that you've started monitoring Twitter for complaints and actually responding. It's pretty awesome to vent publicly and having someone seem like they care. Good job.