lines
Just realized that adventure racing teaches a fundamental disrespect for lines. Boundaries, property lines, roads, trails, fences. The only lines I respect are contour lines and shorelines.
not so anonymous, really
Transportation planner, father, adventure racer, connector. Unrelenting realist.
punk parenting
The kids are getting more and more rebellious as they approach three. There's been a lot more of "I'm going to count to three before I make you come here/drop that/get up off your brother." Tonight I told Henry that soon I'm going to start counting to four, only like the Ramones.
I don't think he got it.
I don't think he got it.
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the fourth job
I've been thinking about physical fitness and training. Thinking, not doing. Thinking about why I'm not doing. Last night I read yet another article on old-school gym training, a profile of Mark Twight's gym in Outside Magazine (article not yet available online). This one at least mentioned that people go to his gym to gain strength, speed and agility to actually DO something, but a majority of these types of articles don't. It's like we've rediscovered the how but lost the why.
I think you could easily argue:
1. There really is no reason for white collar office drones to pursue a high level of physical fitness for it's own sake. The benefits are less than the opportunity cost of, say, working, sleeping or socializing with family or friends. All you need is a minimum of activity to maintain healthy body function - muscle tone, weight, and skeletal function.
2. Physical fitness is easy. All it takes is work and dedication. With advice, time, and effort, anyone can do it.
3. Physical fitness it hard. It requires hard work performed continuously. No one stays in shape by training for one month a year, you have to train weekly to maintain it. The higher your standard, the higher the ongoing maintenance load.
4. It's either a lifestyle or a job. If it's not a habitual part of your life, then it's a job.
What are the benefits of strength and endurance to someone who sits in an office chair all day? The social and, ahem, reproductive opportunity benefits of physical attractiveness, and the health benefits that could be acheived with brisk walks and a few push-ups.
Looking at it this way, all those out of shape people are making a rational social and economic decision. Especially if you agree with Sir Ken Robinson in his 2006 TED talk that we've structured our educational system to ignore the body and focus only on the intellect (although he makes a passionate argument to change that). Even though I know there are intrinsic psychological benefits to fitness training, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to restart.
Because I know I can do it. All it takes is work. There is challenge, but no real risk of failure. You can always work harder.
Because I know it's temporary. As soon as I stop, it starts going away.
Who would want to sign up for a job like that?
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I blame Merlin Mann
Just when you thought the "XX Blah Blah" naming trend couldn't go any higher.
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biltons FTW
This has already made the rounds of the interwebs, but for what it's worth here are the winning iPhone cupcakes by Danielle and Nick Bilton (no relation to me) from Ignite NYC last month. There really aren't that many Biltons in the US (more in Quebec and, I assume, many in England) and I happened to be in the audience when they won, so it was a bit surreal to see my last name up on a screen. Danielle is a baker extraordinaire and Nick is, from what I can tell, just a really smart guy. I would have introduced myself but they left while I was looking for another aquaintance and generally feeling out of place in a crowd of tech people who all seemed to know each other and to have something to say.
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http://daniellebilton.com/?p=47
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probably not for the family blog
H is speaking to a black man picking up his daughters at daycare.
"Are you her daddy? Are you a *brown* daddy?"
He laughed and said yes.
H going commando before bath.
"I burped in my pants."
H watching our plumbers Robert and Keith install our new dual-flush toilet.
"Oh, that's Robert and *this* man [puts finger under nose like a mustache]."
And this is all yesterday. It's like living in that Bill Cosby show.
"Are you her daddy? Are you a *brown* daddy?"
He laughed and said yes.
H going commando before bath.
"I burped in my pants."
H watching our plumbers Robert and Keith install our new dual-flush toilet.
"Oh, that's Robert and *this* man [puts finger under nose like a mustache]."
And this is all yesterday. It's like living in that Bill Cosby show.
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fewer words were never spoken
I don't feel like writing, plus it's late, and I'm tired from dealing with the bureaucratic bullshit that comes with getting a professional license I don't need and taking care of car insurance after I smoothly backed out my driveway into a neighbor's parked car. Although I love my car insurance company. Plus catching a skunk this morning and dealing with children that may or may not be sick. Yesterday I took my may or may not be sick children to a county demonstration farm that's tucked into one corner of a large park that I now realize contains a sizable piece of my soul. The draft horses where the highlight, but we also saw some stinky pigs. My children are afraid of everything right now, including a. large horses that go neigh, b. small barking dogs, and c. free-roaming chickens. But they also think everything is wonderful. From far away.
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some uphill
I looked up one of my former running clubs from Portland and found this elevation profile of the Thursday night run I regularly attended. Most of the time we didn't run all the way up to Council Crest, but regardless the profile is fun because it resembles Mount Hood, which we could see from the hills on the way up.
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the power of ebay
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