Author Archives: billtoner1960

Tim and Jim

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(This was an article I wrote in 2007 if memory serves.  The Tualatin times afforded me the opportunity to write a piece for their Living Section and this article was featured).

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Sometimes a last name isn’t necessary — Elvis, Elton, Jimi, Mick.

Around Tualatin, the phrase “Tim and Jim” is synonymous with local legends Tim Ellis and Jim Walker, who bring their unique style of entertainment to Hayden’s Lakefront Grill Lounge most Friday and Saturday nights.

On the surface, the idea of an acoustic guitar duo in a hotel lounge may not conjure up images of an evening you’ll want to immediately go text your friends about, but Ellis and Walker are anything but your typical lounge lizard act. They have branded their own style of performance.

It would be hard to categorize their eclectic range of material into a single genre. From Irish Folk Ballads to Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin to The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”, they’ve got the bases covered. “Versatility has always been important to us” explains Ellis.

What’s different about Ellis and Walker is the improvisational aspect of the performance. “There is no setlist”, said Ellis. “Everything is very dynamic.”

They are likely to start a marathon medley of songs at 7:30pm and not come up for air until 10pm. As if joined at the hip, they execute seamless song transitions with little more than a head nod or a whisper.

“It’s a balanced attack on chaos”, added Walker. If we’re in a particular rhythm, one of us will think of a song that will either maintain the flow or at least be in a similar key.”

Whatever the formula, it appears to be working. The energy coming from the stage is utterly contagious.

In the greater Portland area journeymen, Ellis and Walker need no introduction. Both have well-established careers in the music business. Ellis has shared the stage with ‘A-List’ performers such as Tom Petty, Robben Ford, and Michael MacDonald. Walker has opened for Little Feat, Karla Bonoff, and Boz Scaggs to name a few.

Considered by his peers to be in that elite class of guitar players, Ellis brings incredible musicianship to the stage and will occasionally take the lead singer role.

Walker is the singer/songwriter of the pair and does most of the lead vocals.

Besides the basic ingredients of impressive musicianship and vocals, Ellis and Walker differentiate themselves from the field with their unique arrangements. When going to see Tim and Jim, expect the unexpected.

Halfway through Loggins and Messina’s “You Need a Man”, they may take a hard left into the signature riff of “Smoke on the Water” which completely catches you off guard, and then return to where they left off on “You Need a Man.” Right about the time you’re saying to the person sitting next to you “Now that was cool”, they do it again, only this time with “Stairway to Heaven.”

It completely disrupts any attempt you were having at a conversation because you feel compelled to pay attention for fear of missing what’s coming next.

Customers appreciate the way Ellis and Walker complement each other. Wayne Wischman, a regular at Haydens who estimates he’s seen Tim and Jim 50 times comments, “The chemistry just works and the sound is great. Jim gets to focus on his strong suit – singing, and Tim gets to let loose with free reign on creative guitar solos.”

Scattered throughout the evening they will perform a smattering of Walker’s originals, which in many cases are just as familiar to the regulars as the cover songs.

Walker’s lyrics are full of imagery. Sometimes dark, at times irreverent, and occasionally humorous, his songs succeed at connecting with a feeling or memory, often bringing back that anti-establishment sentiment from the ’60s.

Explains Walker, “I try to put you in a mood when I write. The imagery is to help my songs be like a cool movie you remember. The irreverence comes from childhood experiences and growing up questioning authority.”

Walker is indifferent to commercial success with his songwriting, though singles like “Empty Emily” and “Feet in my Shoes” are crowd favorites at Hayden’s and have done well by word of mouth and exposure on the Internet.

Ellis stands out as an accomplished guitar player in performance but is perhaps better known around Portland as the guy you go to if you want a top studio musician on your CD. As co-owner of Kung Fu Bakery Recording Studio, he’s well-positioned to tap into his strong suit — recording.

Walker notes, “The best thing about working with Tim in the studio is that he can hear a song once and nail the second guitar part on the first or second take. He has a gift for hear it, play it.”

Ellis frequently records and performs with other well known Portland area musicians such as Craig Carothers, Tom Grant, Mary Kadderly, Michael Allen Harrison, and John Nilsen.

While completely content with what they are doing now, Ellis and Walker confess their dream project would be to get involved with “a cool film with a real budget.” Both grew up in Los Angeles and have connections with the movie industry.

For those who have experienced the cozy confines of Hayden’s, it’s easy to understand why the duo’s popularity creates a bit of a challenge for the staff. The lounge is frequently jam-packed from start to finish on Friday and Saturday evenings.

“Our phones start ringing about Wednesday with calls from customers wondering if Tim and Jim will be performing this weekend”, said General Manager Jeff Munden.

For Walker and Ellis, the appeal is the freedom to be creative in a live setting and the free reign owner Bill Hayden gives them. “It’s very collaborative”, said Ellis.   “We work with Bill, not for him. Our interests run parallel. We understand the goal is to provide a great experience for customers.”

Munden points out, “The advantage of Hayden’s is that it provides top talent in the suburbs in a smoke-free environment with no cover charge.”

For local residents, let’s face it we’re spoiled. The talent to play much bigger venues exists.

“I’ve never liked being under the microscope” admits Walker. “Somehow hanging out with big names separates you from the people you really want to be close to.”

“I just want to get up every morning and be excited about what’s on the schedule for today”, added Ellis.

For now, Tualatin area residents can take advantage of some extraordinary live music close to home, but it does beg the question from a familiar Billy Joel tune:

“… they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar

And say, man, what are you doin’ here?”

God in the classroom

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(Soapbox to the Tualatin Times many moons ago)

A wise man once said, “Be careful about what you wish for, it could come true.” A recent letter to the editor “God needed in school more than a survey” suggests that our kids would be better off if only we could revert to the days when God was ever-present in our classrooms.

Of course, the first question is, which God? God as in the Jewish God of Abraham? God as in the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? God as described by the prophet Joseph Smith? The “Jehovah” I’ve read about in The WatchTower? Allah as experienced by the prophet Mohammed?

In her best selling book, A History of God, respected historian and former Catholic nun Karen Armstrong talks about how man’s idea of God has evolved from a pluralistic form to the modern-day monotheistic God at the time of Abraham and Jacob. Jacob, ever a pragmatist, cut a deal with the God “El”. In exchange for much-needed protection, Jacob agreed to worship El as the one and only God that mattered. Is this the God we’re talking about?

We have a cross-section of all of these belief systems right here in Tualatin. Surely someone who would suggest God be re-instated back into the classroom would want to be inclusive of their neighbor’s belief system.   How do we do this? About the closest I’ve seen to a common denominator is the term Higher Power, but I suspect few would be satisfied with this watered-down description of God.

Since the very definition of God it is a hard question, I’m in favor of using a little class time to explore what each of us means when we say the word, God. In fact, while we’re at it let’s expose our kids to the concepts behind a variety of belief systems so they can make an informed choice.

There would be many benefits to a comparative religion study in public classrooms. Jews, Muslims and Christians might gain an appreciation for each other’s point of view and stop killing each other.

Kids would get the opportunity to do some critical thinking as they form their own belief system. As a parent of 3 kids, above all else, I value giving my kids honest answers to their questions. They’ve come up with some whoppers over the years that are tough for me to deal with because I have more questions than answers myself. If God set up the universe as an experiment, and then gave us free will so he could then reward the faithful, couldn’t he have chosen an experiment that didn’t include so much human suffering?   If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then he has both the knowledge that there will be suffering and the power to prevent it but chooses not to. Why is this? Eve takes a bite of the forbidden fruit and the price imposed by God is a human sacrifice? Sounds like sort of a vindictive God to me. Are you sure this whole thing isn’t just a cruel joke to get me to behave the way you want?

Talking serpents, plural marriage, child sacrifices, Jonah inside the belly of a whale for 3 days and living to tell about it? Virgin births, rising from the dead, purgatory, life beyond the grave, cannibalistic themes like “eat his body, drink his blood”? The salacious story of Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m having a hard time telling the difference between the Old Testament, a Stephen King novel, and Greek mythology.

Should the knowledge of the 1st century be considered the infallible truth of the 21st? Didn’t Nicolas Copernicus teach us anything about questioning the puerile beliefs of our time?

I see it as a dangerous practice to ascribe literal truth to a compendium of writings drafted over many centuries by scores of different authors with vastly different agendas and perspectives. I find it ironic that those who hold that God belongs in the classroom are usually the same people trying to keep Harry Potter out of the school library.

It’s clear a lot of good has occurred in this world due by people who have a strong faith in God. Unfortunately, history also has recorded the atrocities of The Crusades, the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the IRA in Northern Ireland, and Al Qaeda to name a few, all in the name of God.

When kids ask hard questions about God, instead of giving the usual hand wave answers (my favorite eye-roller is “God didn’t want us to be robots so he gave us free will”), sometimes I find the best answer I can come up with is “That’s a great question but a tough question, so I won’t pretend to have the answer for you at this time.”   Being a parent does not somehow make me an authority figure on God. But I do get to decide if my approach will be rationalism, which seeks to reach the heart through the head, or theology, which seeks to reach the head through the heart.

Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us inherited our belief system from our families. We did no study of belief systems followed by the process of making an objective choice. Someone we trusted made that choice, and in many cases, at infancy. Growing up we were allowed to ask a few questions, but as the questions got harder to answer, instead of admitting they don’t really know, the people responsible for our faith development fell back on that age-old tactic that gets ‘em every time: Fear of eternal damnation.

When you’re an impressionable grade-schooler, the idea of eternity in a place like hell is a tough thing to get past. Perhaps this is why many children just adopt the belief system that’s been browbeaten into their psyche and move on.

I admire many people who have a strong faith in God, especially those who walk the talk. But it’s been my observation that those in favor of re-instating God back in public schools are the same ones who would be marching down to the principal’s office if teachers were to engage kids in a conversation about God and find out the teacher’s definition of God doesn’t match theirs precisely. Perhaps this is why public schools avoid the issue altogether. They can’t win no matter what they do.

In any case, spending classroom time on the subject of God is fine by me.

Compassion

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(This was a soapbox to the Tualatin times many moons ago)

Compassion: “Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with a wish to relieve it.” (American Heritage Dictionary).

We often confuse ‘compassion’ with sympathy or pity. Compassion is really sympathy-plus. If we are compassionate, we not only sense and care about someone else’s pain or misfortune, we take action to mitigate or remove it.

When former-President Bill Clinton said “I feel your pain,” he was not being compassionate, because he did little, if anything to lessen the pain.

The current president, George W. Bush, gained substantial mileage on the campaign trail with the oxymoronic expression “compassionate conservative.” The word ‘conservative’ connotes ‘respect for tradition or the traditional order.’ Since the traditional order, the status quo, consigns tens of millions of Americans to poverty, inadequate medical care, lousy nutrition, despair, and few means for self help, compassion could not fit. To relieve or eliminate suffering requires change, the very thing conservatism stands against.

But even conservatism is misapplied here. “W” and his followers do want change; they wish to unravel what’s left of the New Deal and its implicit social contract. They are reactionaries bent on disestablishing Social Security, the minimum wage, government regulation, the capital gains tax – if not all taxes. Meanwhile, there’s not a weapons program they would not fund, a place too sacred for oil exploration, or a police force that’s too small. Their “traditional order” would include: even more prisoners (managed by private corporations, of course), more prayer, more environmental destruction, more school testing, more dead convicts, more counter-terrorism, more enemies, and a single exception to a prohibition on human cloning – more John Ashcrofts.

On a personal level, we the privileged, the ones with a house in The Burbs on a cul-de-sac may think of ourselves as compassionate people but we don’t often show it.   We’re not compassionate, just sympathetic, and then only when it’s convenient. We worry about sprawl, traffic congestion, and the cell tower going in across the street. We address these issues after we’ve washed the SUV, swept out the garage, and spent our working hours reading and writing e-mails. We rarely ponder our existence or question the status quo.

If there is a God and He/She/It has a standard for compassion, then I suspect someday we’ll be asked to reconcile our personal, religious, and political beliefs and make some sense out of it all. To effectively align our beliefs with our actions, we need to work harder at seeing through the smoke screens, especially on the campaign trails. Probably worth thinking about the next time someone tries to convince you he or she is worthy of office because they proudly wear the label “compassionate conservative.”

Trial of the century

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Geraldo did cover, the long murder trial
Marcia had evidence, that stretched for a mile
He showed his true colors, right there on the tube
A cop named Mark Furman, a racist, a boob

They’re trying to frame him, this is an attack
The cops just don’t like him, because he is black
He couldn’t have been there, arthritis was failin’
They even tried using, his pal Kato Kaelin

She proved he’s a liar, a phony, a loser
Dishonest, a failure, an excessive boozer
Disgraceful, a cheater, a harmful drug user
The infamous suspect, a spousal abuser

Nicole’s blood on his things, and more than a trace
Inside his white Bronco, all over the place
With science on her side, what could they say?
How to explain it? ‘Twas his DNA

Surely they had him, no doubt they would win
This man they call O.J., was guilty as sin
In talk shows they said it, in papers they wrote
To all it was clear, that he slit her throat

Some days were real long, some ended in fury
For more than a year, said Ito, “No hurry”
They did all they could, now O.J. should worry
It took them 3 hours, an impatient jury

But this is in L.A., a different type place
It’s not about guilt, it’s all about race
Freedom will come, it is in the cards
If you’ve got deep pockets, and 2000 yards

They read us the verdict, we couldn’t believe
They said it “not guilty,” he got his reprieve
Outrageous conclusion, the jury conceived
The Browns and the Goldmans, they suddenly grieved

To all those who watched, the verdict seemed weird
For families of victims, the nightmare they feared
On national TV, their eyes were all teared
What bothers me most? The thousands that cheered

A nation that cheers, for spousal abuse
In this guy’s opinion, there ain’t no excuse
Whether you call him, “O.J.” or “Juice”
He don’t need no golf club, but does need a noose

Count the vote

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(I wrote this in late 2000 and thought it might make a good addition to this blog)

                       Count the Vote!

Alas with pen and paper near, the yearly anecdote

Pondering the reasons why they wouldn’t count the vote…

 

Eight years of prosperity and peace across the land

Why we’d change the horse mid-stream is hard to understand

Al Gore served his country well, since he was but a lad

“W” sold his baseball team so he could be like dad

 

Both campaigned for Clinton’s job, which one should I pick?

The nation’s leading Patriot or maybe Mr. Thick?

Seniors need prescription drugs and worry ‘bout their health

Cut the tax to help the rich or should we share the wealth?

 

Election Day, the heat is on, the networks cannot stall

It is Al or is it George? Or just too close to call?

Bernie gives the race to Bush, Gore is in a bind

I guess you win, George. I concede. Hold it, never mind!

 

Confusion lurks in West Palm Beach, where voters aren’t so spry

What’s meant for Al went straight to Pat, thanks to butterfly

Machines save time in counting votes, we trust that they’ll be fair

But if the margin of the race is less than that of error?

 

Bush enjoys a narrow lead for Al it looks remote

Jackson marches, Baker whines, Gore says “Count the Vote”

Count the ballots, shine the light, see it’s not so bad

Bush’s biggest worry now – that dreaded hanging chad

 

Chads with dimples, pregnant chads, chads with but a dent

Watch the judges do their best to help discern intent

A month goes by, still no Pres., market takes a dive

All the channels speculate but most of this is jive

 

Sanders Sauls hears the case Richards beats out Boies

Luckily four justices decide to make some noise

Katherine Harris, public servant, loyal to G-Dub

Certified a bogus count, but really, here’s the rub

 

What’s fair is fair the judges say, read this and I quote

“The underlying principle is simply Count the Vote”

The high court rules and complicates a convoluted web

Bush says if you count the vote I’ll tell my brother Jeb

 

The high court rules to stop the count, talk about a crime

Now they say they’d like to count but there just isn’t time

Ironic Bush would call upon the power of the Fed

Contradicts his own state’s laws and all that stuff he said

 

Maybe it was destiny, for Bush to get the win

The jury’s out but time will tell us, if the fix was in

If justice is alive and well there’s one thing that’s for sure

Gore will be the Chief Exec in year 2004

Yes, let’s do compare

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Every once in a while it’s good to compare the performance of one administration versus another.  If memory serves Republicans were shocked, shocked I say at the handling of the Benghazi incident where 4 Americans were killed.  So shocked that they launched 10 investigations over a 3 year period at a cost of $4.6 million dollars.  Note that this was more investigations than what was spent on 9/11.

Recently Nancy Pelosi announced an investigation into the Trump administration’s abject failure to respond to the Coronavirus with the necessary urgency to prevent loss of life in the tens of thousands.  Predictably, Republicans are aghast at the very thought of taking a look under the covers.  Rightfully so, it won’t be pretty.

Trump went from “hoax” to “okay I’ll play the savior” in three weeks’ time after it was apparent the stock market was going to tank no matter what.  It’s all on tape and makes for great commercials during an election year.

In any case, I welcome the comparison.  Bring it.

 

 

Brilliant business idea

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What are we as a country going to need hundreds of thousands of? Caskets.

But not just any caskets. You have to be a market differentiator. My idea is caskets made to order with your favorite cult leader logo on them.

You’d have your choice of one or more logos so you could choose between a standard Fox News logo or perhaps your favorite hosts like Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham.

I hope nobody steals my idea. It could be worth millions.

 

What makes a good mentor?

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Now that I’m entering the 5th decade of my career with technology companies – and with Covid19 providing an assist in freeing up my calendar somewhat – lately it’s been a time of reflection.

I’ve never considered myself to be a standout engineer. I’ve done okay in my career, no complaints, but have never worked anywhere that I was the BMOC technology-wise.  Each place has had some real shining stars and it’s been both a privilege and humbling to get to know them.

But there are different ways to add value to your particular engineering organization. I was reminded of this yesterday as I was mentoring a new start on the deployment process for some frontend code. This is a process I only learned myself a couple of months ago, but now I’m mentoring others on it. That’s often how it works. Not long after you learn something, others in the company start referring to you as the defacto SME.

I made a list of some former senior co-workers who have taken the time to mentor me so that I could try to find common traits that made them good mentors. For what it’s worth, here’s what I came up with. If you’re junior on the scale of things, maybe seek people with some of these traits out. If you’re senior, just know that people with these particular traits have made a real difference in my career.

True SME

First and foremost the person needs to be a true subject matter expert (SME) on whatever it is I’m asking about. They either know the answer or know where to find it. At the end of the day, they’ve been helpful in advancing whatever problem I’ve been tasked with resolving.

The little things

Knowlege and skils are great but it makes a huge difference if they are also personable. This is not always the case with those who are considered top of the heap on the tech stack scale. We have all run into the legendary recluse who has marginal social skills but is yet invaluable to the company because they just know so much. It can be frustrating when people with the most knowledge aren’t equipped to help, but that’s just how it is in tech. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

What is most helpful is the very basics, like getting calls/emails returned. Everyone is busy, but the good mentor will at least respond and communicate that while maybe they are busy right now, they will set expectations on when they can meet with you at a later time in a way that doesn’t make it sound like you’re stressing them out with your questions.

Meet me at my level

No, I don’t mean showing up at my desk. I mean asking ME questions to find out what I already know or don’t know so they know where to start. Some people make assumptions that I already know several things I have yet to learn and start talking over my head from the first sentence. Then we have to back up.  The good mentor wants to know where to start and then bring my understanding along at whatever pace is possible.

A real-world example

I once left a fairly stable career in Aerospace in Everett, WA. in order to move the family back to the city where I grew up, Portland, Oregon. I was still writing software, but it was for a small printer company. The underlying technologies of the companies had nothing in common with each other (Flight Controls v. Printers). This change was harder than I had expected it would be.

When I arrived our team of 10 was tasked with reverse-engineering the Adobe PostScript Level II interpreter so that the parent company (Oce’, Netherlands) could avoid paying royalties to Adobe when they shipped their printers with PostScript capability.

I was new so they had divided up the teams in the backroom and then let me know my assignment. I was very fortunate to get paired with not only an extremely brilliant engineer but also a fantastic mentor.

There were only two of us tasked with writing the rendering engine for the printer. The renderer is really where the rubber meets the road in printing. It’s the lowest level. It’s where all of those high-level commands get turned into dots on a page… but not before the boundaries of the image or text are set, and the image is broken up into hundreds if not thousands of trapezoids to fill with dots.

The very notion of that design was fascinating from the start.  Ah, so that’s how they do it.  Wow, I have no idea where to start. My mentor did though. He was a math major and no stranger to figuring this type of thing out. But best of all he was a FANTASTIC teacher. We may have benefited some from small team dynamics, but he set aside about 3 separate 1-hour whiteboard sessions to explain in detail, the design he had in mind. And he stopped to let me ask questions. He figured out where I was starting from (ground zero) and we went from there. His ability to put the right thoughts and images in my head was off the charts helpful. When I talked he listened.  It was… fabulous.  And I learned it.  And if memory servers I performed pretty well after that and held my own.

The pace of change at work has gotten even more frenetic since the 1990’s when I transitioned to printing.  I just hope people can be made aware of how valuable this level of mentoring can be.