Bring on the Autumn

You can feel and taste the encroaching fall, and I’m ready for it. I can’t stand the summer heat, especially in the city. There are too many people and buildings and busses around to make summer pleasant in the city. Everyone does what they can to take a break and leave the city in the summer. You need to, just for your own sanity. This week has been nice and not too hot, almost spring-like in its temperature. Tomorrow it is supposed to be back in the 90s, the city summer we all know and dislike.

                I make a point to try to go for a short walk every afternoon on my lunch break. I take too long to walk through the parks, gawk behind my sunglasses at the scantily-clad tourist women babbling in their European languages, enjoy the view of the harbor, or just walk through the park for the satisfaction of walking through the park when I’m supposed to be behind a desk. Too often I take the same path though. It becomes too routine when you take the same path every day. I need to switch things up, maybe go by the water more and look out at the harbor and enjoy the breeze.

            Sunsets are better this time of year. There’s a brilliant blue-maroon hue to the twilight that doesn’t appear the same in the other seasons. It is those transitional times that are the most brilliant, the most poetic. The blue night that gives way to the dawn and the pre-sun dawn are the most beautiful times to be awake, even if you’re bleary-eyed and tired.

            Once we get through tomorrow, I’m hoping we can say goodbye to 90-degree weather for the rest of the year. There’s usually at least one bad Indian summer (or is that Native American Summer, is that also racist too?) in September, one last lash of the cruel sun before the comfort of a cool autumn. 

A Glitch in Time

At my job as a financial writer, our company decided to upgrade our email system, and they started a shit storm that saw some people, including high-ranking editors who supervise multiple publications, go days without any email access whatsoever.

Only a few days later, Knight Capital sunk themselves when a software malfunction caused them to buy shitloads of stocks they didn’t mean to. Their CEO asked the SEC for a “do-over” as if they were playing a game of tag. His request was promptly denied. They managed to survive only by agreeing to sell themselves only a few days later.

Knight Capital went hat in hand to beg for its life because of a software glitch. Although it is not as large as the major banks and lacks the same widespread name recognition, Knight was not some rinky-dink firm. It is a major trader and underwriter and if they can have a software glitch put them in jeopardy of losing their entire business, how much at risk are the rest of us? How quickly could we lose the money in our bank accounts as a result of such a glitch?

The Facebook IPO, the most highly anticipated IPO in years, fell victim to software glitches that will end up costing NASDAQ millions of dollars. This after repeated tests and run-throughs that were supposed to guarantee trading go smoothly.

In this advanced age of computers, the technology proficient sometimes can’t get any more specific than “glitch.” We are dependent on the world of Internet Technology to help us survive in the modern world. But in the IT field; even the experts don’t know what’s going on.

Also, cyber warfare is going to heat up soon. As exposed by the New York Times, the U.S., and Israel launched a cyber attack on Iranian computers using the Stuxnet virus. In a kick-ass, classy touch, the virus has apparently caused Iranian government computers to play the AC-DC song “Thunderstruck” (I would have gone for “Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap,” but that’s a personal bias). The Chinese and the Russians have hacked away at many of our systems and every once in a while a virus comes through that knackers scores of computers.

As we become more enamored with technology and dependent on it for our daily lives, we become diminished in capacities we used to take for granted. I used to be able to remember a woman’s phone number quite easily and dial it with lightning speed from any phone. Now I’ve been in a relationship with a woman for two years and I can’t remember her phone number to save my life (she can’t remember mine either).

It’s almost enough to make you become a Luddite and start making plans to retreat into the woods and learn to live off the land like the people who built this country, the pioneers who had only their own scrappy wits to survive. Teddy Roosevelt never had to languish in phone queue hell only to be told by a disembodied voice from India that he had to delete his cookies. Doc Holiday never had to download an app to do his work, he just started blasting.

The pioneers who conquered the West had many things to fear, and there were many things they couldn’t control. They didn’t have any say over the weather or how hostile the Indian tribes would be. But those were more tangible things you could light a fire or take up a musket against. Many us today depend on technology and if things go wrong our salvation won’t be our own tools or the sweat of our own brow but the whims and competence of a technical support agent on the other side of the globe. Technology is a wonderful thing, but it has helped neuter us as a people.

Technology is one of several things turning us into mush, but we can’t retreat from it. That would be the cowards’ way out. Luddites who purposely refuse technology are not to be applauded; they are stubborn people who think they are too important to make themselves useful and expect the world to conform to their whims. That’s weak.

And technology makes many more adventures and conquests possible. At the same time the Knight debacle was unfolding, another space probe landed on Mars. The probe’s photos were not very exciting to look at and seemed to only confirm that indeed Mars is a desolate place that has deserts even more boring than ours on Earth. But, every mission to Mars is an achievement in exploration in itself and we can pat technology on the back for that.

We need to embrace technology, but as the Knight episode demonstrates, we're a long way from using it well. So let’s please get a handle on it before it manhandles us. 

All Hail Dashing Warriors

This past Saturday I participated in a Warrior Dash, a competitive obstacle course race held in various places throughout the country. ‘Raced’ or ‘Competed’ wouldn’t be the right word, since I had little chance of winning and couldn’t care less what my time was.

The steep uphill climb had lots of warriors but very little dashing. Much of the little level ground was taken up by either obstacles or large muddy puddles where the water went up to one’s waist. Obstacles included scaling walls, crawling under barbed wire and jumping over fire. Most of us just trudged along in the mud, trying not to fall down. I fell down more times than I can count. But, I made it over, under and across every single obstacle, which was my goal.

There are a number of these events of varying difficulty that are gaining in popularity. The Warrior Dash is perhaps the easiest of them all, designed more for people who would rather drink beer in the sun than prepare for any warfare. They encourage people to run the course in costumes and give out soft imitation Viking helmets to all participants. A man dressed as Richard Simmons won for best costume; I didn’t see who won for best beard as I was too busy trying in vain to wash mud from my clothing in the Warrior Wash sprinkler-like shower.

The Tough Mudder is increasingly popular, it has teams of competitors run a longer race and compete in more difficult obstacles and physical challenges. Toughest of them all may be the Spartan Race.

I believe the reason these events are becoming more popular is that people are thirsting for adventure and challenge, and because we want desperately to prove to ourselves that we're not one of the neutered marshmallows we see all around us.

Many of us spend our days behind a desk or counter, hoping to get just a little taste of the life of a warrior, conscious of the fact that the life of a real warrior means sleeping in a ditch and praying you don’t get killed.

We’ll take our little taste of the warrior’s life, though I suspect that some of us are doing this because we want to toughen up for potentially tough and violent days ahead. That people are paying for the privilege of being put to the test is a sign of hope that some of us are trying to claw our way out of the hole we've found ourselves in as a people.

One of the signs posted along the Warrior Dash course was: ‘To Make Up For The Other 364 Days.’ See you there next year. 

(Photo taken without permission from Tru Stories from the 222nd Floor)