Growing up.

I started using a personal trainer when I still worked downtown, in 2007.  Amy got me in shape for two 3 Day Walks for breast cancer through a combination of training sessions and holding me accountable on daily walks that got longer and longer.  In 2009, when I left JPMorgan Chase, my son James suggested I look at the University Family Y, which is right here in the neighborhood, for personal training.  And he was right!  The diversity of staff and members is unmatched in any private gym you'd find. 

For the last couple of years, Ruth Collard has been my personal trainer.  Most Mondays and Fridays you can find us downstairs with the weights and machines early in the morning.  We've had a great run.  She sets up programs for me that mix up work on machines, with balance and core  work.   And I have really enjoyed getting to know her better. She's a CPA, an avid gardener, and a force behind the Freeway Estates Community Orchard Project.

Down 40 pounds from those days in 2007!

I started trying to add a group class at the University Y a month or so before Ruth announced she was retiring at the end of this month.  Since then, I've been more assiduous in trying out various group classes, which are part of my Y membership.  I've tried yoga, zumba and mat pilates.  I've integrated the Pilates into my work calendar, and am looking for 2 other sessions each week.  Ruth is leaving me with explicit instructions on everything we now do together, and I should be able to get to the weight room once a week at the usual early morning time.

There's no doubt that it's easier to get fit when someone is telling you what to do and saying "good job!"  I certainly walked in the early morning more often when I was in training for actual events.   If I can't stay fit on my own, then I'll find another trainer.  But a small part of me sees this as a graduation of sorts, a commitment outside the contract.  Only time will tell.

Happy anniversary to ASA!

 

It hardly seems possible that we launched Annie Searle & Associates LLC (ASA) five years ago today.  I have posted some pictures from the launch on the Advice From A Risk Detective website.  Here I wanted to reflect briefly on how much I owe to a large network of colleagues across the globe, who have complementary interests in risk in general;  in how technology has impacted ethics, policy and law, particularly in the workplace; in privacy as subject matter in and of itself; and in security, both the physical and the information aspects. 

Our world is changing rapidly, and so is ASA's.  Initially, we thought most of our practice would be consulting work with an occasional bit of public speaking. In the past three years in particular, that's shifted somewhat to make room for writing books and articles; and for teaching graduate students at the University of Washington's Information School. 

Next month, we'll have a couple of announcements to make, not the least of which has to do with opening a wider access point for those who wish to write on risk-related topics for what will be Volume III of Reflections on Risk.  As of last February, we have published 48 research notes through these volumes.  Another 13 have since been published on our website since Volume II.  I consider this more than satisfactory progress toward beginning to influence how experts think about real world risk, and what solutions might be proposed to better handle them.

As I said, more announcements next month!

Endless summer!

Early morning light

Summer of the Hydrangeas

Every place beckons the eye

Patriotic pots of flowers

As I read a gardening article by Robin Lane Fox this morning in the Financial Times, called "American Pioneers," that looks at the impact of six US women on landscape design and photography in the early 20th century, I felt extraordinarily lucky to live in Seattle.  We have the Olmsted Brothers to thank for the mature large parks that we enjoy.  Many of us are fortunate enough to have our own spot of garden adjacent to our homes.  I've certainly photographed my own often enough.  It is a source of endless delight to my eyes and hands.

2013 dinner in back garden for Leroy and his graduate seminar

2006, after renovation of the back garden

This is the first morning in several weeks where it has not been 80 degrees or more by noon.  I hope to spend some time this afternoon trimming up things out there.  I think there is no greater sense of accomplishment than to work in your garden.

In memoriam Diana White Adams

2009 birthday, on the deck

2009 birthday:  her son, Perry Adams (rear), Leroy, Hazard Adams, other friends

Always insightful comments on the world and politics

Using her hands to talk, as usual

2009, to the table

Last summer, birthday dinner.  Diana and her oldest son, Charles.

All Diana's birthdays over our 37 year friendship come to mind today....here's what I wrote last September when she died.

"We arrived at the University of Washington in 1977, the same year that Hazard and Diana Adams arrived from the University of California, Irvine.  As colleagues, Hazard and Leroy went on to edit and update several collections of critical theory; and Diana and I became fast friends.   She read more than I ever could, and was deeply knowledgeable on culture, politics, travel, gardening and history. We celebrated our four birthdays with dinners each of those years, including this past July.  She died on September 6th, 2013. 
Her influence and ideas live on in all of us."

I think of Diana regularly, most often when I am using the gifts she gave us; or in my garden, where there are so many additional evidences of our friendship.

Please yourself first

For workaholics, pleasing yourself first is a real challenge.  There's always more work to do, meetings to arrange or articles to write.

I have finally come to realize that not every hour of the workweek needs to be spent in a meeting or pinned to your office chair, no matter how lovely an office you have.

I started small, forcing myself to go out for lunch rather than eat at my desk.  If I don't go out to lunch, then I work in my garden for at least part of that hour.

Then I signed myself up last August for a watercolor class on the premise that painting would exercise some additional parts of my brain.  And because I had never had lessons before.   I knew that whatever I might understand from looking at art most of my life might be of some peripheral use, but that I was in uncharted territory with a steep learning curve.  I was fortunate enough to pick a wonderful teacher, Jan Morris, who is the least directive teacher you can imagine, but who conducts the classes with grace and humor, and helps whenever asked.

Finally, I plan to recognize summer as a time I can loosen up a bit.  I plan to add a couple of other classes at the YMCA to increase my core strength and flexibility.  And I've got three four hour painting workshops booked.

This week, when I travel to New York for meetings and a conference, marks the formal beginning of my summer.  Once I'm back, I'll be full on the new book.

Phoenix wedding

Our grandson Alexander Porter and his lovely bride, Lindsey Walker, are by now in London on a backpacking trip around Europe.  But above, left to right:  Kate Porter, Alex's sister; Reed Porter, our son-in-law; Lindsey; Alex; Sabrina Porter, my stepdaughter; and William Porter, Alex's brother.

They were married on Saturday evening at Villa Siena, the amazing Italianate event space imagined and run by his mother, Sabrina Porter.  The courtyard ceremony was followed by a reception, then dinner, then dancing.  Here are a few more photos we took during the evening.

Leroy suited up at the reception.

Me too!

Leroy caught on the dance floor with Kate, Sabrina and grandson Matthew.

The morning after, Sabrina and Reed hosted a brunch where the couple opened presents.  Here Alex holds up the French knife and steel that we gave them.

The weekend flew by, and we are now ensconced back in Seattle, with this, the last week of classes, while Alex and Lindsey explore Europe before they move to Boston for graduate studies this fall.

The Student

I live with the best of men.  He has always been a student as well as a teacher.  The same is true of my son.  I have come only recently to university teaching, and find it to be quite energizing, ground upon which to engage and perhaps rethink operational risk models and practices.  I take that same love of the practice to clients.

When I took up watercolor last August, I was prepared to be a student again, much as the time when I took up photography and used a darkroom to produce black and white prints of what I saw though the lens.  I suppose I thought that all the art I have looked at in my life would make it easier for me to learn to paint watercolors.  And I did not realize how complex the medium of watercolor is.  Here's Winston Churchill recommending the use of oils, by way of comparison to the difficulty of watercolor:

"I write no word in disparagement of water-colours. But there is really nothing like oils. You have a medium at your disposal which offers real power, if you can only find out how to use it.  Moreover, it is easier to get a certain distance along the road by its means than by water-colour.  First of all, you can correct mistakes more easily. One sweep of the palette-knife 'lifts' the blood and tears of a morning from the canvas and enables a fresh start to be made; indeed the canvas is all the better for past impressions.  Secondly, you can approach your problem from any direction.  You need not build downwards awkwardly from white paper to your darkest dark.  You may strike where you please, beginning if you will with a moderate central arrangement of middle tones, and then hurling in the extremes when the psychological moment comes...."

Nine months in, I have to say that I am still a mere rank amateur.  It's not easy to paint with coherence, though I do love mixing shape and color and water on the paper, then watching it dry so much lighter than I intended.  We have a month left in our current class, then this summer I am going to find a drawing class to better ground myself as a painter.  For those who ever thought that the great painters like Van Gogh or Cezanne were mere abstractionists, here are a few of their drawings:

Cezanne, Three Skulls

Cezanne, drawing/watercolor of his beloved Mont Sainte Victoire

Van Gogh Line Drawing example