blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

Duh! Everyone who has at least been to the USA once, knows that what they sell as Swiss cheese is everything else then Swiss cheese. But this weekend, when I went grocery shopping I discovered something else.
So far I always assumed that Swiss cheese brands like Gruyère would be imported from Switzerland. How silly of me to assume that. The Target next door just opened a fresh product section which I really enjoy! It is not big and the selection is limited, but at least it is an easy way to get some fresh products. Like vegetables, fruits, sandwiches, and milk products.
So while I was looking through all the new things they have, I discovered some cheese called Gruyère. But already the looks of it told me that it is not real Gruyère. When inspecting the back of the package. I learned that this cheese was made in the USA and has nothing to do with Gruyère what so ever. In my opinion this is just a marketing trick which I lucky didn’t fall for
I’m amazed that they are allowed to do that…

But this won’t hold me back to enjoy the expanded selection of my closest “grocery” store!

A few weeks ago Amy and I went to a wedding in Indianapolis. Besides the wedding we also enjoyed exploring the city.
Here are four things which you shouldn’t miss in Indianapolis:

Monument Circle
In the middle of the city is the monument circle. And as the name says there is a monument which you can climb. If you take the stairs it is free and if you are lazy and take the elevator you have to pay for the experience. It shall remain a secret how we got up there

WWII museum
We walked passed the Memorial Fountain and the Veterans Memorial Plaza, when we discovered the second world war museum. The entry is free and the exhibition is very impressive and interesting. Unfortunately, we had only about an hour to look at all the things until a wedding reception was held at this location. But this place is definitely worth a visit.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
If Nascar fan or not… This place is definitely worth a visit. The 2.5 miles look is huge and impressive even without cars on it. A ride as a co-rider on the track in a Nascar would cost $135 which we thought wasn’t worth the experience. But the museum for $5 was definitely worth it. Many winner-cars from the INDY500 races can be looked at. It is also funny to see and read about the history the first car needed over 6 hours to finish the race where as today the cars finish the race under 3 hours even though there are some limitations for the cars, since the race got too fast. They obviously love their cars and the track, which you can also see on the web page. (History section)

Weber Grill
A restaurant which cooks on a Weber grill. Obviously, we had to test how good it was… Amy and I both approve it! My favorite part was the pretzel rolls (Laugenbrot) which was offered as a free appetizer. I love this bread and couldn’t believe that they have it here in the states!

Of course there is plenty more to see in Indianapolis, but we had only very little time. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Ps: Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to inspect the Hooters in Indianapolis…

Today, I run the Hartford half marathon. My goal was to qualify for a spot in the NYC half marathon. The requirement for that is a time under 1:23:00. This would also mean that I would improve my personal best time from 2005, which is 1:23:26. I tried to improve my best time three times already and failed every time. Well today was attempt #4.

Unfortunately, I didn’t qualify for NYC half marathon and also missed my personal best time by 4 seconds. This was because it was too windy, too hilly, I was sick 2 weeks ago, and I had to run alone. Excuses, excuses… what it boils down to is that I should have trained harder and run faster

Well better luck next try…

Result page with finisher video and pictures. Enter my BIB: 7313

A while a go George Fairbanks asked me to write a quote for his book: “Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach”.
I already read a statement paper about the idea for the book and reviewed a chapter of the book. I really liked the concept he had and was glad that he asked me. Which I believe is important when you write a quote. I wouldn’t want to write a recommendation for something I can’t support.

George then sent me the draft of the book. Since, I knew I had to write a quote I made notes about what I liked and what I could include in the quote. I hoped this would make it easier to write the recommendation. But when I started with the writing I had so many comments at the beginning that I didn’t know where to start. I then looked at many other quotes for technical book to get an idea what to write. But I was honestly disappointed most quotes are not book specific and could just be copy pasted to most tech book. so I decided to write something more specific which should help the reader in the buy decision.
Here is the end result:

“In many companies risk management is only a list of how projects could fail. Instead, this book shows you how to drive your architecture design based on risks. The book gives you a risk driven approach, and discusses good architectural practices, models, styles and techniques to create the architecture.”

You can see other quotes for this book here. Compared to some other quotes my quote doesn’t sound as exiciting as others. I know, that this would be the time to make a strong statement and maybe even exaggerate a little as this is common in the US culture. But, I also feel that I have to be true to myself. Another thing which I realized is that my recommendation is rather short compared to others and therefore doesn’t include much content. Maybe, reading some other book quotes gave me the wrong impression of the length. These might have been some of the reason, why my quote didn’t make it on the cover. Even though it would have been nice to make it on the cover, I am aware that the decision who will get on there is purely from a sales perspective. I am still grateful for this opportunity. I certainly learned a few things for my next book quote. If I ever get an opportunity again

The book has been published and can be purchased on Amazon.

I really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to all software engineers who have to deal with project risk and design.

Please feel free to tell me what you think of my quote. I’m open for input!

In the last post I wrote about the experience of my Olympic distance triathlon. But I didn’t mention my analysis of it. Yes, I know this could be boring and no one cares how I could have saved a few more seconds. But I like to talk a little about the analysis and especially the attitude of an athlete in this post.
When I crossed the finish line, I was happy and I knew that I gave my best. But then a few minutes later when I had the receipt with the detailed split in my hands I immediately started thinking I could have done it faster… I was thinking in which part I could have saved a few more seconds and maybe even finished under 2h 15min. Why is that?

Before I started this race I had a goal. I wanted to be faster than my last Triathlon in Stamford (2:21:08). I also set an aspiration for 2h 15min. So finishing with 2:17:45 is perfectly within this range, and that I didn’t hit the 2:15 shouldn’t be a big deal since it was a stretch goal. But as an athlete that doesn’t matter. As soon as you achieved one goal, you think you can do it faster the next time. I guess this is just the eternal drive to get better…

Then I look at this race from the other perspective. I wanted to improve the time from Stamford. But what I didn’t consider were the differences in the races. First off, the swim leg was shorter due to the low tide. Which saved me several minutes (let us say 3min) and then the transition are which were smaller and closer to the exit. Comparing the time of the professionals Stamford was another 3min faster. Admittedly, the Stamford Triathlon had a hillier bike course which is hard to factor in, but looking at the pros again, it seems that they were about 3min faster (also considering that the field in Washington DC was better). So the major factors seem to make the Stamford course 3 min faster.
This leads to the conclusion that I improved my time not “only” by ~4min, but rather by ~7min. And there is still the excuse of the wet roads

After this though process I was much happier with my time from this Sunday. This seems weird, since I just should be happy with my time in the first place. After all I gave my best…

Any other athletes out there, who go through the same process?

EDIT: Some pictures from the event!

I hope many of you are waiting with great anticipating for my triathlon report!
Well, here he is:
The weather forecast wasn’t great and so was the actual weather. It was already raining when I got up at 5am in the morning. But, since I knew from military that I’m pretty much water proof and that is all in your head it didn’t bother me much. Not so many other athletes, “only” 5000 from about 7000 bothered to show up
After my morning routine and a long wait for the shuttle bus I arrived at the transition area. Within a few minutes I was soaked and shivering because of the cold temperatures. So the first thing I did was putting on my wetsuit which made the early rainy morning hours much nicer. The transition area was on natural ground and wasn’t ready to swallow all the water so I was super happy to have a plastic box for my gear. Since my neighbors bathing towel was underneath the water surface.

For whatever reasons the organizers delayed the start by 25min. At the same time they also promised sunny and warm weather which should arrive shortly. Guess what! That didn’t happen =)
The next big challenge for me was finding a restroom… even though they had massive amounts of “Porta Potty” I had to wait 20min till I was able to re leave myself. This was exactly 3min before I had to line up. Amy who hasn’t seem me for the last hour was already nervous where I would be and if I would make it on time. But I did. Since I consider myself not a strong swimmer I decided to start from the back of the 12th wave and try my best at drafting. I figured at the end it would be less hectic and I could focus on my swimming. Well I was proven wrong. The water was very crowded, since there was a wave every 4 min. There were swimmer everywhere; it was almost a fight zone. Giving and receiving hands/arms/elbows was a common thing for the whole 1500m. Somehow I manage to come through the water without a knockout and a satisfying time of 28min 46sec. The run to the transition area was rather long and is always an interesting experience in a dizzy state after the swim. I managed to find my bike and make may way to the exit. There was Amy who screamed some encouraging words and off I went.
The bike ride went really smooth. It is a flat course with only a few turns which was good for the rainy weather. Here again, I noticed that I was in wave 12 I had to overtake many people and was screaming “passing” all the time. Apparently it is really hard for bike riders to follow the right side of the road. To my surprise, I also saw many mountain bikes with suspension on the course. After only 1:04:53 I was back where I started.
After a stabling my bike and putting my running gear on. I was on my favorite part of the race. Amy once more had some encouraging words for me.

I run past the Washington Monument and was enjoying the scenery. That is also the reason I missed the first mile marker. The only indication of how fast I was going was the amount of people I was passing on the run. They even cheered me on with things like “Wow, you’re fast” or “Keep it strong”. I passed mile 2 with 13min, so I knew that I wasn’t slacking of too much. But since most people were running considerable slower, I had a hard time to keep my pace. Until at mile 4 another guy passed me. This was a blessing… I had finally something to focus on. I only lost about 100m on him on the next 2 miles. Which resulted in a run split of 39:01.

Thanks to jetBlue I received a print out of my race splits a few minutes after I passed the finish line. What an awesome service! It even included my correct division place (I was in the last wave of my age group).

Here you can see an animation of the race. Its easy to observe how much catch up I did in the bike and run leg

Other facts about this weekend:
600 miles (965km) car ride
12h of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (BBC Audio book)

EDIT:
Some pictures and videos from the race photographer: asiorders

Tomorrow, I will be competing in the National Triathlon in Washington DC. I already arrived here yesterday Friday to get settled in and have time for the race preparation. Amy and I had also some time to explore the city. We were on the top of the Washington memorial and visited the American History Museum.

The race seems to be organized very well, and everything is going smooth. The best part of the day, was the organized bike ride from the Hotel to the transition zone. Two Police car with blue light and sirens escorted us (several hundred athletes). I felt like a celebrity, while we passed the white house and the World War II memorial. After the bike ride, I did a test swim in the Potomac. They say this is one of the dirtiest rivers in the US, and that might very well be. I was barely able to see my hand in the water during the swim stroke. Unfortunately, I bumped my knee into the ramp to get out of the water. So it is a little swollen and I am hoping that everything will be fine till tomorrow since I will be racing anyway

Apparently, there are 7000 athletes competing in 44 waves
I am in wave #12 and will be starting 7:44am (EST)!

Check back in a few days to read how I did…

This weekend I attended the Electric Zoo Festival on Randall’s Island in NYC. Even though no one wanted to join me, I decided to go anyway. And I am glad I did. It was well worth it and I even met some friends from UBS there.

The Festival was bigger than I expected. There were several 1000 if not even over ten thousand people. But luckily the event was well organized and I didn’t even have to wait at the entrance.

The crowd at the party was really interesting. Especially, the dressings of some of them were hilarious. One would expect people wearing going out, beach, hippy clothes. Since it was an electronic dance festival I also expected all the neon and furry rave wear. But I didn’t expect people dressing up in action heroes costumes like superman, iron man, boba fett and some of them were totally weird by wearing a ski dress or a frog costume. Well… I enjoyed it

The one big negative part of this event was the dust. Since, it was really hot and dry. The dancing on the ground resulted in a lot of dust which was picked up. This is a picture of my foot after the event.

There were many people with scarf’s around there faces which seemed funny to me. But soon, I realized that it was not only style but even more so protection from the dust. A few hours later my through was itching and my nose felt funny… so I wished I had one myself

Yes, it was electronic music so I enjoyed myself. But I have to say that it seemed fairly monotonous with a heavy focus on Electro/House. I would have wished to have a little more diversity in the 4 music tents. The best set I listened to was from Sander van Doorn! “Thanks! You made my day”

All in all it was a wonderful event!
Note to myself:
“Maybe next time I shouldn’t run 14miles beforehand :-)”

What a weekend! Amy was visiting me for several days and we had a great time together.
Let me just tell you the details for Saturday.

After a long jog (2 hours) to the Greenwhich beach we were ready for some more relaxing activities and headed into the city. As you might know the thing to do in the city is to go watch a musical. So we spontaneously decided to check out the ticket booth at time square if we could get tickets for an interesting afternoon show. To our surprise they still had tickets for Marry Poppins available which was on the top of our musical list.

Since we had some time left until the musical started we decided to visit the Guggenheim museum (Thanks @ UBS for the free entry). Most people know about me that I am not a very artsy guy, but I appreciate good craftsmanship which you certainly will find in most museums. That said, I was only enjoying a small part of the exhibition. Besides some wonderful art pieces, the Guggenheim was also showing many provoking pieces of art where I had a hard time to find the artistic value.

Then it was time for the musical. We really enjoyed the musical and got reminded of many memories we had from the movie. But I have to say I remembered the overall story a little different. It seems like I/we have to go back and watch the movie again.
We really enjoyed all the little “magic” things they did on stage. Overall, we liked the musical and would recommend it to everyone who knows and likes Mary Poppins.

After that we walked through the city to the Frying Pan. This is a bar on several barges at Pier 66 in NYC and is the place to be. We were lucky to get a table on the top deck on the very front, where we enjoyed a beer to close our excursion to the city.

After such a wonderful day, we knew there was only one word to describe this blog entry:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Pictures from this weekend

I just came back from the Beach Boys concert. Or better said what is left of them
During summer they have a concert series right outside my apartment building. It’s called Alive@Five. Since this was the last concert for this year, I figured I have to attend… After waiting for 20 minutes at the entry and paying $10.- I was allowed in to a really crowded festival area.
I had a fun time listening to the Beach Boys, since they have so many well known hits. In general the atmosphere was quite good, and I might have to go to more concerts next year.