More Than Four

If you have ever read “Watership Down” by Richard Adams then this blog will make more sense.  For those of you who have not read the book (or have not read the book recently) let me give you a little background.

The book is about rabbits and it spends a lot of time up front explaining a few things about rabbits and how they think.  On page 2 of the book there is an explanation of how rabbits count…

Rabbits can count up to four.  Any number above four is “hrair” – “a lot,” or “a thousand.”

This was not a very important issue for the rabbits in the book as they seldom needed to indicate a specific number of anything (above four that is).  One of the main character’s name is “Fiver” and this might seen strange but it turns out that is just his nickname (his real name is “Hrairoo” which translates to “Little Thousand").  OK, so with that background in mind, on with the blog.

I think all of us have our own “hrair”, a number that is so big that it is hard for us to grasp.  Anything above that number is really the same as that number.  When we are young the number is small and it changes as we grow older.  For my daughter (who is 10) I imagine that number is something like 1,000.  My son (who will turn 14 in 6 weeks) has a higher number that is probably like 10,000.  I am not certain what my number is but if I had to guess it would be 100,000.  I think (especially when it comes to money) that any number over 100,000 has the same “meaning” as any other number over 100,000.  Oh, I can grasp the concept of millions and billions and trillions (I did major in math in college after all) but really, if I am being honest, I have no idea how to describe (using words, not numbers) the difference between a million and a trillion.  So, anything over 100,000 is just “hrair” to me.  When CNN reports on some company losing $2 billion, that has no more meaning than if they lost $200,000.  To me, it is just “a lot” of money (or hrair).

Each of our minds have this built in limitation where we cannot grasp things beyond a certain point.  it is not limited to numbers.  This same concept came up the other day in a song.

Recently I bought the soundtrack to the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  I remember really liking the song, “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow” from watching the movie and I found the CD on the clearance rack donning a $1 price tag. There was also a 20% off, storewide sale going on so buying this was almost a no brainer.  I say “almost” since it was a little scratched up but I took a chance and spent the $0.80 (it ripped to mp3 format just fine in case you were wondering).  There are 18 tracks on the CD (including 3 versions of “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow”) and I do remember a few from when I watched the movie years ago.  One song I did not recognize is called “Big Rock Candy Mountain”.

The song is about a hobo who is telling his fellow hobos about a paradise located on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.  He goes on and on describing this perfect place.  I am not sure if I am allowed to post lyrics without consent of the author but here it goes…

One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fires were burning,
Down the track came a hobo hiking,
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There's a land that's fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again,
As soon as you are in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
No axes, saws nor picks,
I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day,
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

If you took the time to read through all the lyrics then you might have chuckled a bit (I know I did).  But I think beyond the intended humor is a theme.  This hobo, when describing his perfect world, still kept a hobo theme.  He thought about the best day as a hobo and then imagined that living that way every day was as good as it gets.  So finding a boxcar to travel in was his perfect way to travel, not being able to afford a ticket (or maybe a car).  Finding a barn full of hay to sleep on was perfect, not having a house in which to sleep.  Finding a lake full of stew was the perfect meal and jails that you could break out of easily was perfect compared to finer foods or not having to steal (or whatever it was that would have caused him to be thrown in jail).  They would even kill the “jerk” who invented work.

When it came to knowing what the good life was, the highest “number” he could think of was a good day for a hobo.  Anything beyond that was “hrair” to him.  I wonder if I am that way with things in my life as well.  Will I be limited in life to what I can imagine or dream?  Am I my own worst enemy when it comes to happiness, success, etc, in that I stop at the edge of my limited imagination and go no further?

This reminds me of another song.  One of my favorite groups was The Waiting and their song “Staring At A Bird” is the one I am thinking of here.  I will not give you the entire lyrics but basically the singer muses as he stares at a bird in a tree.  He first thinks the bird wishes that it were him.  He then thinks that perhaps it is he who should wish to be the bird (given that the bird seems not to worry too much about food or a place to live, things that wear down the singer).  In the end the chorus says…

But I'm pinned down in my bed again
I don't think I could fly (I wouldn't try)
If I was a bird I would be content
To peck along the ground
'Cause I'm pinned down again...

I have always related to the line where he admits that even if he somehow were a bird, he would likely be content to peck along the ground and never even attempt to fly.  This is how he sees his life (“stuck” in his bed due to laziness / “pecking along the ground”) compared to what it could / should be (living life more fully / flying).

I am not sure what the main point of this blog is really.  Maybe I am telling myself that I need to dream bigger, stretch myself further, and stop being content with what I think can make me happy and reach out and do more, be more and live more.

More to come I am sure.

Jon

Random Photos–2012-05-28

It is once again time to clear out the micro SD card in ye olde cell phone and see if I can remember why I took these photos.

This was taken outside at my work place.  I sometimes go outside during my lunch to get some sun and fresh air.  They have these trees growing out of the brick pathways near some benches where I sometimes sit.  This one evidently need to be cut down and to keep people from falling into the hole near the tree they placed these orange cones.  I don’t know why but this struck me as odd.  This was not the only one.  I have no idea what they will do now.

We have never had a normal dog.  Ask anyone in our family.  Our standard poodle, McKinney (pictured here) is no exception.  This is her normal way of laying down.  Her elbow (?) sticks out in this funny way.  She looks like she is just hanging out and relaxing.  She also has a sitting position that is as vertical as any dog I have ever seen.  You need only give her a little push and she would fall over backwards.

I got a call on Saturday from my daughter to come see a wild, wild west play.  She told me that it was only a nickel so I dug into the change jar and rode my bike 1 block to her friend’s house where I was treated to a wonderful (well, for the money) play.  Kudos to them for staying in character even though it was very warm (especially with the costumes on over their normal clothes).  I did not quite get the plot but I think here the mother is telling the kids what has happened to their father (spoiler alert, it was the wild, wild west so it was not good news).

This portable little business showed up recently within biking distance of our house.  It features shaved ice (snow cones) with 64 possible flavors.  That is except today (Memorial Day) when the poor kid working the window had to apologize for being out of a lot of the flavorings.  The whole place looks like an old pirate ship and if not for the very loud generator that provides power you would almost believe it.  The daughter was disappointed that 1) the worker was not dressed like a pirate and 2) he did not even try to speak like a pirate.  She settled for blue raspberry and I settled for (my 3rd choice) peach daiquiri.  At only $2 each this might be a regular destination on our bikes throughout the summer.

Well the phone is now empty and ready for more random pictures.

Jon

An Odd Combination

My normal work schedule has me working from home on Mondays and Fridays with Tuesday through Thursdays being spent in the office.  My manager and one teammate work at the same location as well as others in my organization including several other managers so it is good to not be out of sight to avoid being out of mind.  I have a spreadsheet (of course) that has calculated the cost of driving to work versus staying at home.  That same spreadsheet also has cheaper options based on how soon I enter or exit the toll road between home and work (or if I avoid them altogether and add time to my commute).  It is a delicate balance but it is always good to have some solid numbers as a basis for a decision.  Is 5 or 10 minutes more time at home (and not on the road) worth the extra $1 or $2 per day that the toll road will cost me?  Perhaps I should work from home on Wednesdays as well since the main cost of going into the office is the gas and not the tolls anyway.  It is a question I ask myself every week (and almost every day the days I drive to work).  I am getting old enough that I think about my time left on this earth and how I want to spend it.  I imagine my old age will be a constant tortuous math problem the sort that I am going through now only for every single thing I do.  God help my wife when I get there.

One thing to put on the pro side of the argument of going into the office is the 6th floor arcade.  Yes, my workplace has an arcade complete with the following combo machines (all set to free play)…

• Pac Man / Ms Pac Man / Galaga
• Donkey Kong / Donkey Kong Jr / Mario Bros
• Defender / Defender 2
• Joust / Robotron 2084
• Centipede / Millipede / Missile Command / Bowling

There is also a nice foosball table and a Wii hooked up to a big, flat screen TV.  There is a pinball machine as well but it is not set to fee play.

I spend a large portion of my lunch hour up there whenever my schedule allows.  I tend to spend my time on the Donkey Kong machine trying to save the princess.  I remember only being able to get so far when I played this game as a kid and I still cannot get past that level (the 5th rivet board).  There is another player in the building who evidently can get past that level based on the high score on the machine (I am about 30k points shy of it).  I used to have the high score on the Pac Man machine and spent time at home on my MAME machine perfecting my patterns but Pac Man is a bit tedious and takes too long compared to the time that I have to spend there.

Since the arcade is on the 6th floor and I work on the first floor I take the escalators.  I could take an elevator (or even the stairs) but walking while on the escalators provides me with enough exercise that my guilt is subsided (compared to taking the elevator).  Sometimes my progress is impeded by people who are content to stand and ride the escalator.  On a side not, several years ago I wrote a blog about a suggested improvement to the buildings escalators.

Since the new year I have been drinking more water (and less every thing else [save for coffee']).  I even bought a water bottle (with my company’s logo on it no less) so I could keep it at work.  I usually bring this water bottle with me when I make the trek up the escalators on my way to attempt to save the princess.  There is time between levels to take a quick drink.  I try to fill it up before I go into the arcade and since there are areas on each floor to get water (or coffee) sometimes I just fill up on the 6th floor.  This past week however I had to wait in line on the 6th floor.

In front of me was a lady getting ice.  The machine that spits out ice is the same machine that also spits out water so I waited (impatiently).  Once she had filled her very large cup up with ice she moved ever so slightly to the right to the coffee machine.  It is actually a coffee maker but it does also have a place to dispense hot water for tea.  Despite the ice machine having perfectly good water (albeit not that cold) and despite the fact that she was just there and despite the fact that the water from the coffee machine was boiling hot, she proceeded to fill her cup up to the top with hot water.  The ice almost all melted as she was doing this and the result had to be be water about the same temperature as she would have received had she done what I was going to do, namely get water from the ice maker.  I had a princess to save so I did not ask her why she mixed this odd combination although I did think about the waste of energy in freezing one set of water only to mix it with water that had been heated.

I was telling this to my wife today and the only plausible explanation she came up with was that perhaps the woman felt that the hot water was somehow more pure (the heat purifying it somehow).  Following this logic, the ice that came from the machine where I get water would not be that pure / clean.  I tried to ask Señor Google but the only things that returned were physics problems about entropy (if you have x ml of liquid at temperature y and z ml of liquid at temperature w then what is the resulting temperature) so I do not think there is any logic to this odd combination.  There is always the possibility that she was messing with me and I was part of some sort of experiment (what would people’s reaction be if I mixed ice with hot water).  There is also the possibility that she is insane.  I think I will just fill my water bottle up on a different floor just to be safe.

Jon

Couch To 5k–Week 6

This week the rubber meets the road and (as you will see later in this blog) I was not quite up to the task.  Each day (as in all the previous weeks) begins with a brisk 5 minute warm-up.  Here is a summary of the balance of the days instructions…

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)	Jog 2 1/4 miles (or 22 minutes) with no walking.

This is a ramped up version of week 5.  I summed up the total time and then added enough walking time at the end so that I was jogging / walking for 31 minutes total.

Day 1 with its 16 minutes of jogging was not too bad.  Day 2 was not all that bad but the final 3 or 4 minutes of the 2nd jogging session was really pushing me to my body’s limits.  Day 3 was where I failed (again).  If you remember last week’s Day 3 was only 20 minutes and I pooped out at 18 minutes (and 10 seconds).  I had the slight advantage of having 2 days rest (I did Day 3 on Saturday) but this week Day 3 was done on the normal Friday with only 2 days rest since Day 2.  As a result (and this is my excuse) I was only able to run for 16 1/2 minutes.

I am not sure where to go from here.  Weeks 7, 8 & 9 simply repeat the Week 6 Day 3 instructions that involve no walking whatsoever.  If I am only able to do 16 or 18 minutes then Week 7’s 25 minutes is way out of my league.  I have 2 days to figure it out.  I will have to let you know what I decided in next week’s blog entry.

Jon

Couch To 5k–Week 5

Week 5 changes things up a bit in that the instructions are different for each of the 3 days.  Each day (as in all the previous weeks) begins with a brisk 5 minute warm-up.  Here is a summary of the balance of the days instructions…

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes) Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)	Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes) Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes) Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)	Jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.

I summed up the total time and then added enough walking time at the end so that I was jogging / walking for 29 minutes total.

Last week I was running a total of 16 minutes so Day 1 was not too hard really.  I was not any more or less wore out than last week.  Day 2 was a little harder in that I was running for my longest distance (3/4 miles) twice.  Still though, I completed it without too much trouble.  Then there was Day 3.

The instructions seemed simple enough, jog for 20 minutes.  Ever since Week 1 Day 1 I have been thinking about Week 5 Day 3.  I had admitted to you before that I have not run more than 1 mile straight in my life and now I have to run 2 miles!  Normally I do my training on Monday / Wednesday / Friday but the wife and I got home late on Thursday night from a Stryper concert so I postponed Day 3 until Saturday.

I will admit to you now that I did not make it for 20 minutes.  I only made a little over 18 minutes but I have plenty of excuses (some of which I almost believe).

• All of the instructions assume a pace of 3 mph when walking and 6 mph when jogging.  I have long legs and I did not start out as a true couch potato so it is entirely possible (maybe even likely) that I did jog 2 miles even though I only jogged for 18 minutes (and 10 seconds).
• My walking / jogging path has me crossing only one intersection and at the time where I stopped jogging I was at that intersection.  At the other side of the intersection was a man with 2 small girls.  The man was posting a sign for a garage sale and I did not think that I could (in my tired state) contain the Doberman if the girls would freak out upon seeing her.  I had the option of NOT crossing the intersection but that would mean taking a hard left turn that Nina was not used to doing.  Since we have stuck to the same path now for 5 weeks so she is getting to be a like a walking horse who knows the trail.  Since she trots on my left side, this would mean me turning into her and in my tired state this sounded like an injury waiting to happen.
• I could have swore I was almost at 20 minutes based on my music.  Like past weeks, I made myself a 29 minute mp3 file with the jog / walk parts marked by interruptions in the music.  Since Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 were not the same instructions (like in previous weeks) I got messed up in my tracking of time based on where I was at in the mp3 file.  So basically I phyched myself out and thought I was closer to being done than I actually was.  This made the first 2 excuses above seem more reasonable since I thought I was only seconds away from finishing anyway.

Anyway, I forgave myself quickly and (though I thought about repeating Week 5 next week) I will move on to Week 6 on Monday.  Day 3 of Week 6 has me running for 22 minutes so I will see how far I can get then.

Jon

Couch To 5k–Week 4

he instructions on the Couch-To-5K page for week 4 are as follows…

Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then:

Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

They do not allow for any walking period after the last run which makes no sense to me so I added a 2 1/2 minute walk to the end.  This makes the total time 29 minutes (2.25 total miles).  This is a great deal more running than I did in week 3 (1.6 miles compared to 0.9) and the durations are longer along with the walking periods between them shortening.

Day 1 was a killer, especially the last 5 minute run.  When I finished that I felt my face becoming very flush.  When I arrived back home and took off my shirt I was quite surprised at the amount of sweat I had produced.  But, I got through it.  Days 2 and 3 were easier.

I woke up Friday morning with a sore left knee.  Every once in a while this happens and I do not know why.  I think I may just sleep wrong.  Whatever the cause I do not think it was due to running.  Something becomes inflamed and even sore to the touch on the outside bottom part of my knee (always the left one).  Due to this I postponed day 3 until Saturday.  This only gives me one day of rest before week 5 begins with its increased difficulty.

Nina (my Doberman co-trainee) was happy to see our driveway on day 1.  After drinking until her water bowl was dry she simply collapsed on the hardwood floor and did not move for a while.  Like me though, she did better on days 2 and 3.

Looking forward to next week, by Friday I will be running for 20 straight minutes.  Even now I cannot see myself doing that but we will have to wait and see.

Jon

Random Photos–2012-05-05

It is that time again to clear out the micro SD card on the cell phone and try to remember the reason I decided to take the pictures in the first place.

Last month there was a workshop for a project that I am assigned to at work.  There were 8 of us (give or take) holed up in a meeting room for the better part of 3 days.  At a moment of either clarity or frustration I suggested that we solve everything by simply asking our end users to choose between fast, cheap or correct (since we could not provide all 3 and were struggling even to provide any 2 of the 3).  Someone scribbled it on a white board and I snapped this photo.  I still think this is a good idea but I was in the minority.

During that same workshop we took an evening to have a team dinner.  We went to a very nice restaurant close by and this is what I ordered.  The thing on the right was actually (almost) raw fish.  I did not know that when I ordered it but not wanting to seem unprofessional and unknowledgeable I ate most of it.  I have had sushi before and I find that raw fish has almost no flavor and I do not much care for the texture.  The steak (left) and rice (middle) was very good (as was the wine that we ordered).

A few nights after the team dinner we had one of the workshop attendees over for dinner.  He is a long time friend and this is what the wife made for desert that night.  This is a completely homemade strawberry short cake.  Even the whipped cream was really whipped by the wife.  It was great.

When my mother was here in mid February she gave me a large bag of Easter M&M’s.  Since I was in the middle of outsourcing my body I did not open them up while she was here with us.  I decided that I would open up the bag when I got within 10 lbs. of my weight goal.  The kids were very excited as (presumably) I would share the candy once it was open.  Each week (I only weighed myself once a week) the kids would ask if we could open the bag yet.  This gave me a team to root me on in my weight battle (even if they had selfish motives).  Once the bag was open I followed my normal M&M distribution plan.  This involves separating them by color and then having a rock, paper, scissors contest to determine who got to pick their color first.  The person who finishes last gets the remaining 2 colors (which is usually more M&M’s than the winner gets).  I ended up coming in 3rd place in the tournament which unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) gave me the lease amount of candy.

There is an entirely logical reason why I am wearing a pink mask.  The wife recently participated in a race called the Warrior Dash.  She and several of her friends entered this obstacle course / race together and decided to make up team outfits.  This entailed t-shirts, a leather belt / skirt of sorts, leather head bands and face paint.  On the day of the race we all went to one of the entrant’s house and they finished up their outfits and donned their face paint.  I had some time to kill so I took one of the cut off sleeves of the t-shirts and cut eyeholes and wore it around the house.  This gave the son an idea and he quickly worked with the scraps to create his own outfit of sorts.

Here is the mud pit near the finish line of the Warrior Dash.  After running through the entire course, you jump over some fire (just to the left of the mud pit) and then you army crawl (there is barbed wire forcing you down) through mud.  The kids and I had over an hour to kill (the wife finished around 700th place overall for her age / gender grouping) and we hung out around the finish line and watched everyone get muddy.

Well the micro SD card is cleared out once again.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Jon

Couch To 5k–Week 3

The instructions on the Couch-To-5K page for week 3 are as follows…

Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Once again I am troubled by the math / logic.  The above makes sense IF you jog at the same speed that you walk.  You can see that they assume you travel 200 yards (maybe 1/9 of a mile) in 90 seconds (about 4.5 miles per hour) whether you are walking or jogging.  While I have no proof, I am pretty sure my jogging speed is faster than my walking speed.  Because of this assumption I just go with the time measurement (90 seconds) rather than the distance measurement (90 seconds) when following the instructions.

Ignoring my anal-retentive issues with the instructions, Monday was a killer.  Turns our running for 3 minutes is more difficult that I was guessing, especially the 2nd repetition.  By the time Friday arrived though I was doing OK.  Winded but not dying (like on Monday).  This week had a total of 9 minutes jogging compared to only 6 minutes for weeks 1 and 2.  Next week’s plan has me running for 16 minutes and that does not sound like any fun at all.

Nina (my Doberman) even was a bit winded so I wonder if she will be OK as the weeks continue.  By the end of week 5 (only 13 days away) I will be running for 20 straight minutes.  She gives me a look each morning though (after she knows my coffee cup is empty) that says “Let’s go buddy!”  Part of me thinks that I might be able to train her to keep other runners away in an actual 5k (the only way I would ever finish in front of the pack).

Jon