nothing lasts forever
Just remembered this home video from a year ago in which my boys confuse me with Paul Newman.
not so anonymous, really
Transportation planner, father, adventure racer, connector. Unrelenting realist.
someone get me charles atlas
So much for my Navy SEAL training plan. The run and the swim were cake, but I was only able to do half the upper body and core reps specified for the first week. No sense continuing until I can do the minimum. Will have to work on that first for a month or two.
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place conversation
My wife and I had that conversation again a few nights ago. I guess we have it every six months. "I'm happy where we're living, but..."
I live in a great small town with nice neighbors and an understated progressive vibe - but it's surrounded my miles and miles of highways and suburbs. Every so often I need reassurance that somehow, sometime, we are going to end up living close to great natural places. Places for running, walking, looking at newts, getting caught in the rain, pina coladas. Um. Anyway. Places where going for a walk in the woods requires crossing the street, not advance planning and an hour drive.
These things are important to both of us, but it's really coming home to me now that I have my boys. What kind of place do I want them to grow up in? The trails and mountains I grew to love in my teens and twenties - how much richer could their experience be if they started out there? It's enough to be in a great walkable town. And yet... most of the people who've done something great outdoors, in sport or otherwise, have grown up with it right in their backyard. I read that same story all the time in articles and blogs about athletes and explorers.
Of course there are a host of drawbacks to moving to a more rural place. Driving long distances to work. More reds than blues for neighbors. Depressed local economies. Potential isolation. Places that are good for an adult may not be good for a teen figuring out who they are.
Nothing is going to get us to leave our town for a long while. We're invested here. It'll have to be enough to mix beach vacations with mountain lake vacations. In a few years, who knows? - maybe we'll be able to afford a cabin in the mountains a few hours away.
I live in a great small town with nice neighbors and an understated progressive vibe - but it's surrounded my miles and miles of highways and suburbs. Every so often I need reassurance that somehow, sometime, we are going to end up living close to great natural places. Places for running, walking, looking at newts, getting caught in the rain, pina coladas. Um. Anyway. Places where going for a walk in the woods requires crossing the street, not advance planning and an hour drive.
These things are important to both of us, but it's really coming home to me now that I have my boys. What kind of place do I want them to grow up in? The trails and mountains I grew to love in my teens and twenties - how much richer could their experience be if they started out there? It's enough to be in a great walkable town. And yet... most of the people who've done something great outdoors, in sport or otherwise, have grown up with it right in their backyard. I read that same story all the time in articles and blogs about athletes and explorers.
Of course there are a host of drawbacks to moving to a more rural place. Driving long distances to work. More reds than blues for neighbors. Depressed local economies. Potential isolation. Places that are good for an adult may not be good for a teen figuring out who they are.
Nothing is going to get us to leave our town for a long while. We're invested here. It'll have to be enough to mix beach vacations with mountain lake vacations. In a few years, who knows? - maybe we'll be able to afford a cabin in the mountains a few hours away.
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week 0 - day 2
Went to the gym again today, repeating the workout from last time. Even though I had three days rest, my abs were still sore and it was a struggle to get through the situps. That's why I'm starting early, rather than just jumping right into it next week, the first "official" week.
Obviously I will also have to add running and swimming then. I'll have to map out running courses that start from the pool, so I can do the workout all together at night - gym, run, swim.
3x 20 situps, 10 pushups, 4 pullups; 5 dips
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dead red
My partner and I have officially cancelled our red hook project. He has a huge project at work and my boys have been sick, so that's that. I was pretty certain we were going to cancel it, but I didn't think it would happen until the weekend, and I was feeling guilty for not spending every night on it this week. I knew there was slim chance we could get that amount of work done in such a short period of time.
I don't feel too bad about it. I suppose I would feel worse if we were closer to finishing. I think it was a major step for me to even commit to doing something professional outside of work and family life, and despite my part-time obsession with the personal productivity world I have a lot to learn about getting things done when I'm working on my own, like defining my work in one hour chunks and avoiding internet distraction. Also, I really think I need a new internet routine - not that I have a defined routine now, just a set of mostly bad behaviors. If I thought about the amount of time I waste on the internet right now... So maybe that's something I'll post about here.
My partner wants to finish the major tasks over the next couple months to see how we work together and to build our portfolios, and I'm game. But I'm really glad to take the pressure off, especially since I have so little to show for it. I'm mentally ready to move on (or back) to other things.
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week 0 - day 1
I was inspired to get away from my desk this afternoon so I went over to the gym, reopened now that school is in session, for a self assessment of my upper body fitness and to start preparing for the work to come. I'm concerned that even the beginner reps specified in the warning order could injure something in the first week if I start from zero. I've done that before. I'm waiting until Sept. 29 to start the plan. The gym by my house is open until 11 with a pool open to 10, so no excuses there.
3x 20 situps, 10 pushups, 4 pullups; 5 dips
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not helpful
This is the rear door to my building. The accessible door is usually inaccessible, i.e. the motor or lock is broken. They put up a helpful sign. ADA compliance at it's finest.
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topocat
Just noticed that both Guy Kawasaki and iJustine are using Posterous now. Don't know if that means I'm really cool or I should flee.
I thought my Red Hook after hours project was DOA when my partner moved and I went Seattle, but we decided to give it a go for another week and see how much we get done. The deadline is in two weeks, and it's only a design comp so no big deal if we don't finish. We're paying THEM for the privilege of staying up late working on network plans, street cross sections and mapping.
I've come back to the idea of doing military-style training to get back in shape. Now, I despise violence, but some small part of my child-self still thinks "oh, cool - Navy SEALS! Commandos! Snake Eyes! So I found that the SEALS have a 9-week recommended training plan to prepare potential recruits for BUD/S. Some running and swimming, with lots and lots of push ups, sit ups, and pull ups. Runs top out at 6 miles and the swims at 75 minutes, which is nothing, but I could probably barely do four pull ups right now. I'm planning on starting this in the beginning of October, and will hopefully end it with a stronger upper body and core and better posture. I'm recruiting an old friend to join me long distance.
My cat Tigger loves crawling under paper, which makes me think I have a real, 3-D topo map in my living room.
I thought my Red Hook after hours project was DOA when my partner moved and I went Seattle, but we decided to give it a go for another week and see how much we get done. The deadline is in two weeks, and it's only a design comp so no big deal if we don't finish. We're paying THEM for the privilege of staying up late working on network plans, street cross sections and mapping.
I've come back to the idea of doing military-style training to get back in shape. Now, I despise violence, but some small part of my child-self still thinks "oh, cool - Navy SEALS! Commandos! Snake Eyes! So I found that the SEALS have a 9-week recommended training plan to prepare potential recruits for BUD/S. Some running and swimming, with lots and lots of push ups, sit ups, and pull ups. Runs top out at 6 miles and the swims at 75 minutes, which is nothing, but I could probably barely do four pull ups right now. I'm planning on starting this in the beginning of October, and will hopefully end it with a stronger upper body and core and better posture. I'm recruiting an old friend to join me long distance.
My cat Tigger loves crawling under paper, which makes me think I have a real, 3-D topo map in my living room.
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colliders
Yesterday's successful activation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN made me kind of sad. My father was one of the hundreds of engineers working on the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas, the US equivalent of the LHC that was under construction when it was cancelled by congress in 1993. I was in high school at the time, and had a t-shirt with the SSC logo. It's interesting to think that we could have been conducting these experiments in the US five years ago if it hadn't been cancelled.
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