This weekend marks the end of the rowing season for the Southwestern Conference in the United States for high school students. As assistant helper coach for the MRA I will be driving up to Sacramento tonight for a weekend of racing.
Over the last couple of weeks I have had the honor of watching the Boys Team over at the Marin Rowing Association come together and hone their skills. 
Since September they have been rowing hard. During the Fall there were long chases and in the winter cold winds and rain. The season tests dedication and through merit, fighting spirit and a little bit of luck the teams have gelled into hardened soldiers.
They take to the Battle lines of Lake Natoma this weekend in a last ditch effort to show the rowing community what they are made of. I am rooting for the MRA and the points trophy.
If they do well than there is a chance that some of the teams will be running off to Lake Harsha in Cincinatti for US Rowing Nationals in mid-June.
Watch results on row2k.
R-E-D-W-O-O-D!
18 hours ago
Its official: Kristian is moving into San Francisco from Marin County.
The last month I have been taking my bearings of San Francisco and re-acclimating myself to the Bay Area.
Its been a great process reconnecting with friends and family members. Its hard to fathom that I have been away in New York City since August 2001. The occasional “break” out here has always been too short lived. But now I feel like I am making amends with California. A gentle accord.
I shall be moving onto the fabled Haight Street (@ Steiner Street). I found my place on Craigslist under the shared apartments section. There were five or six places I initially emailed people about, but this place seemed the best suited to my personality and needs.
My new flat mates are two laidback and clean women, one is a modern dancer and the other is a therapist. I am sure that Kristian Hansen could use some dance lessons and some talk time.
The neighborhood is fantastic. Its at the bottom of the Haight, so I don’t have any crazy hill to climb up at night or descend late at night. There are plenty of new restaurants, cafes and bars within walking distance with more places opening monthly.
Finding a new place is never fun, but I am happy to be putting down my roots in the City by the Bay.
2 days ago
At first I was super gung-ho about displaying all my feeds in tumblr.
Wow, I can show the world everything I am doing (were my original thoughts).
But then it became too much. Every time I twittered I was sending out a “Hansen Report”, but really it was horrible since the title was my twitter and the accompanying text was my twit. Really pathetic.
I think I am going for the less is more mantra now. I’d rather have a real blog posting that makes sense and send that out three times a week than sending out 20 annoying twits per week with little to no substance.
Thats where we are all heading: something in the middle ground between an all inclusive posting and a brevity stricken twitter alert. Instead of 140 characters we need a 400 character limit. A mid-cap twitter company concept that incorporates pictures, sound, video clips and thats optimized for smart blackberries and iphones. That would be a huge success.
Right now there are a bunch of twitter add ons that require you to email your pictures (TwitPic) or workout your tiny url. These are a nuisance and annoying.
We even have TwitterSnooze, made by Andrew Parker in response to how annoying twits can become when your friend go overboard on the twitter concept.
People intuitively want to show how smart, quick or informed they are through their twitters. This is burdensome to a technology circle already super-saturated with information. I liken it to “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. But I would change out “nice” with “substantive”.
Maybe that defies the ‘anything goes’ mantra of twitter, but if it wants to grow or keep being an active participant in how we are using short text messages to interact than something has got to give.
1 week ago
Feel like I am not twittering enough. What a sad twit!
1 week ago
OH “Who ordered the Spring Rolls - There are none left?” - “Oh dear!”
1 week ago