IRL

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At home, at work, online when standing in line. Always checking to see the latest update whenever there is a slight pause in life. Memory and attention continues to fracture, and we keep clicking it away willingly, myself included. 

I first logged into Facebook sometime in 2008 so I guess we are celebrating our aluminum anniversary this year. Can of beer it is. What began as something recommended to help my real estate/mortgage lending connections has now grown to occupy more time than I thought I had at my disposal. 

When I moved to San Diego, I came to really appreciate the online connection with my Washington friends. I would get to see the things great and small that would have certainly been forgotten when we saw each other on my semi-annual visits. More often these days though, the feed is jammed with endless links and stories, and it takes a great deal of sifting through the dirt to find the occasional nugget of gold.

It is time to scale back on all that gets shoved into the feed, but every so often something will pop up that makes me hesitate to clear out all the non-friend things. Because I had "liked" the Big Sur Marathon, and because I check my feed so often, I found out about the last minute chance to get an entry to one of the few races on my bucket list. Still, I doubt these rare finds make up for all extra time scrolling.

When I was down in Utah for the St George Marathon two years ago, the other Sean mentioned he had quit Facebook and was now on Instagram. If I wanted to keep up him and his family (in the somewhat lazy online way), I need to sign up. I hesitated to add another site to scroll through, but he convinced me it was a better place to hang out online.

Instagram is all about the pictures. There are still some sponsored things that show up in your feed to pay the advertising bills, but there isn't an endless set of links that are shared back and forth. It is just pictures, and maybe a quote or thought to go along with it. It isn't totally disconnected with the issues of the day, but the things that appear in my feed are about saving the National Parks, cleaning up the trails, and what effect Instagram (and the endless pursuit of the perfect photo) is having on our wilder areas. These issues are more prevalent in my feed since I follow a lot of hikers. Your experience may vary.

One difference between Instagram and Facebook is that more strangers seem to come in contact with each other on Instagram. While a number of people I follow (or who follow me) are people I know, many more are people I found only online and have never met. Of course there are people I follow on Facebook that I will never meet, but they are most likely to be people in bands I like, speakers and authors I enjoy, etc. The strangers on Instagram are mostly just random people who had a picture that caught my eye, which led me to check out their other work and adventures.

Then I ran into one of the people I follow IRL (in real life).

Izzy and I were on a hike to Rattlesnake Ledge last weekend. It is a popular and busy hike, but it is my default these days since it is reasonably close, has some climbing but is not punishing, and there is a nice view at the end. We were not up early enough to beat the crowds, but at least early enough to get a parking space. I loaded up the backpack (forgetting water for either of us) and headed over to take a few pictures at the lake before starting.

The hike starts at the end of a gated access road that is about a quarter of a mile long. Just as we reached the end of the road and were turning onto the trail head, I ran into one of the hikers I follow on Instagram. She was with a group of four people and they were already finished with their hike (earlier risers). She had stopped to meet a little dog and I stopped as well, it taking a second or two to place how I knew her.  It felt like she understood the slightly confused/recognition look on my face, and we exchanged a smile and a small wave.

It was cool and sort of weird to run into someone you have only seen in pictures. She is not traditionally famous, but with the number of people who follow her she may get recognized semi-regularly. I am not positive I would have recognized her if we passed on the streets, but crossing paths on a trail provided eventual context. If we weren't headed in opposite directions it would have been nice to chat and tell her how much I like her photos, and appreciate that she does not tell anyone where they are taken. Several hikers do this in hopes of not having the places overrun.

The last three days have been filled with meeting up with friends in real life, and with the Thanksgiving week ahead there are more plans to gather, catch up and be present. I plan to dial back the online time, and keep the phone in the pocket more often (unless there is a photo to capture), but scrolling through the online life still brings a surprise now and then.

Brotherhood 2.0

Though I don't have cable, my tv is still on for a number of hours in the evening. Through the magic (science) of apps and the little Roku box, I get to watch a lot of internet content on the big screen. There is of course Netflix and Hulu for movies and shows, but I now spend as much or more time watching YouTube videos. Some of the YouTube content is actually tv (nightly check-ins with Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers) so this is all starting to loop in on itself and the distinctions are sort of meaningless.

Much of the YouTube stuff is from individual creators though. Some people take me along while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (Homemade Wanderlust, Whimsical Woman), while others are random people who had an idea that found an audience for a goofy show (My Drunk Kitchen, for example). That is the brilliance of an open internet and net neutrality. People can get their quirky, funny, brilliant, creative ideas out there without going through network executives or slipping Comcast some money so that people are allowed to find you. Call your congressman/woman.

The one YouTube channel that I enjoy the most is The Vlogbrothers. The channel was originally inspired by two brothers (John and Hank) wanting to get to know each other better. Yes, they grew up in the same household, but there was enough of an age gap that they didn't really grow up "together". They also now lived in different parts of the country, so they didn't see each other all that much.

The channel was created with the challenge to send each other a short video on alternate days on whatever topic crossed their mind. Each video opened with "Good morning Hank/John" and ended with "I'll see you on Tuesday, etc." Through daily contact, they wanted to create a better relationship while stretching their creative legs. The channel was originally titled "Brotherhood 2.0".

The channel is now ten years old. They are down to two videos a week, but they have kept building on this relationship while entertaining us along the way. Their videos are at turns funny, educational, deeply personal and nearly always worth the entire time spent watching them. I have spent many an evening falling down the rabbit hole of the internet as one video led to another.

I have two brothers of my own, one just a year younger and the other nine years my senior. I obviously grew up side by side with my younger brother, but I think he would agree that we did not like each other that much, or probably more accurately, we did not at all understand each other. Once grown and out of the house, we discovered /created a new relationship as adults. We have at times actually chosen to live with each other, and we've found some common ground that escaped us as children.

My older brother and I grew up in different eras under the same roof. Nine years is a chasm at those early ages, and he was more an occasional reluctant baby-sitter than a compatriot. However, that age gap enabled an ability to teach and he definitely sparked an interest in working with my hands, particularly in fixing cars while flipping through a Chilton Auto Repair Manual with greasy thumbs.

Time passes and relationships change. My younger brother has lived at times on the other side of the country or on the other side of the world, and my older brother has been off in marriage and raising two daughters. I am blessed with a family that enjoys time together, but occasional holiday dinners are often not enough to sustain or build strong connections.

At fifty, I seem to be pre-senile so I don't recall whose idea it was, but someone started the habit of the brothers meeting for dinner and drinks every month or so. It has been going on for about a year now, and it has been a great thing. We discuss things great and small, but most importantly just spend time together. It has been wonderful getting to know each of them better, in particular my older brother. He is no longer married, and he is a much happier human being. and I feel like I am just getting to really know him. The nine year gap so massive in youth is barely noticeable now.

We are experiencing our own Brotherhood 2.0, and this is one of the things I am very thankful for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Looking to meet my match

At forty eight, I realized I had never been on a date. Well, not really. I have certainly dated some lovely women in my life, but it dawned on me that I hadn’t been on any real dates with people I was just getting to know. The women I have dated I have known from work or through a mutual friend. I went on what was essentially my first date back in February with someone I had met at a wedding. She was a perfectly lovely person, but after three dates it seemed that there wasn’t enough of a spark to continue.

So now a few months later at forty nine, I have thrown my hat in the online dating pool. It has been a bit of a weird experience so far. Not only am I a novice at dating in general, but the online aspect adds another layer of oddities. Like anyone who has signed up for Facebook, you are actively giving up some of your privacy with any dating site. As someone who has been posting semi-intimate details of his life on a public blog for several years, the initial act of putting my stuff out there on another site was not that big a deal, but there are new layers that I was surprised by.

You start by putting up one or several pictures of yourself. Naturally, you try to put pictures up that are not only flattering, but give some insight of who you are. All the decent photos of me were either from a run, a bike ride, or out in the woods on backpacking trip, so that worked out nicely. After putting up a dozen pictures though, I realized that I didn’t have glasses on in any of the photos. Trying to be as accurate as possible (apparently people lie on these things), I stepped out into my backyard and took a quick selfie.

Below the pictures is a section where you write a few words/paragraphs about yourself and what you are looking for. Sort of the cover letter to your online dating resume. And then you get to the checklists.

Back before I was actually divorced (but the writing was on the wall), I was over at a friend’s house for some gathering. We were all hanging out and chatting when one friend from across the room asked, “so, what are looking for in a woman?” It was one of those record-scratch moments when everyone stops talking and looks at you. Again, still technically married and not having thought about it, I answered off the cuff, “Non-smoker, non-hater.”

The non-smoking thing is obvious. I am allergic to cigarette smoke, but more importantly, I don’t want to kiss an ashtray. The non-hater thing is more about not wanting to be with someone who is always looking for the dark cloud behind that silver lining, going through life thinking the world is out to get them. I don’t need or want a Pollyanna as a partner, but I don’t want to be around someone who is constantly expecting the worst out of everything and everybody. To be clear, this was not a reaction to my soon-to-be ex-wife. She was neither a smoker nor a hater.

Several years down the line, I don’t have much of a better, quick answer to what I am looking for in a partner. There are definitely things I hope for, but the list of non-negotiables still basically sits at non-smoker. But with online dating, you are sort of trying to order up your perfect match.

There are checkboxes for height, body type, hair color, eye color, salary, astrological sign, faith, exercise habits, education, occupation, income level and more. I certainly get it, but the volume of it feels like a tailor made desire in what is more of an off-the-rack world. It is the online shopping mentality with the entire world at your fingertips, and it feels like we should be able to punch up our perfect mate on Amazon.com.

It is both amazing and discouraging at the same time. Through the website, you have possible contact with so many more people than you would ever see in your normal path in life, but the sheer volume makes you think there is always going to be someone more “perfect” for you if you just keep looking.

So you keep clicking on pictures, looking for criteria and reading introductions, looking for something to jump out at you. Back to the privacy thing, on odd thing is that when you look at someone’s profile, they know. On your own login, there is a little list of people who have checked you out. On the one hand, it is kind of interesting to see whose eye you caught, but on the other, you sort of hesitate to click because you are being tracked. You also know if someone has read your email. This is mostly nice, since you can’t fool yourself that the person you are interested in hasn’t seen it yet. Nope, they read it, and they just weren’t interested enough to respond. Move along, no interest here, keep clicking on.

It has only been two weeks, so we are a long way from any final judgment. It is an interesting new adventure, and we will see where the electronic path leads. Now please excuse me, I think someone just sent a wink to me. 

Jar of memories

On New Years, most everyone does their own little mental review of the past year. Hopefully recalling some highlights, but often recalling things that you did or didn't do that you would like to rectify as you move forward to the clean slate of a new year. 

It is pretty easy to recall the big events. New jobs, new houses, new relationships, fun trips and big days on the calendar. The negative events - lost jobs, broken relationships, illness, passings and other losses - seem to leave marks more permanent on our psyche. It easy to let the smaller moments that lie between these major events fade into the background. In more quiet years you are left wondering what you even did with those 365 days you were given. 

I don't remember where I saw it exactly. It was probably a Facebook post, but it definitely had a Pinterest kind of feel. Fill a jar full of slips of paper with notes and memories as you go through the year. Then come the turning of the calendar page, go through the slips of paper and recall the smaller moments that make up a life. The practice not only helps a memory fading with age and electronic distraction, but it also helps bring you into the present to recognize these smaller experiences, to appreciate joy and connection as they happen. Like a similar project of taking a photo a day, it forces you to open your eyes to the world around you, and to see the beauty that often fades into the background. 

I opened up my jar this morning. Like many resolutions, I was pretty active for the first few weeks, but the dedication faded as the months went by, ending in my last entry on March 1st. All but one of the memories was about spending time with friends. Celebrating New Year's Eve at the Keg with friends I had met there twenty years before, and gathering with even more people the following week to mark the closing of the restaurant that brought such wonderful connections. Another slip recalled meeting my brothers for drinks and conversation, a new tradition started and continued through 2015 for which I am very thankful. The last slip was about waking up with Jennifer in my new home The Sanctuary, sitting on the couch, staring out at the lake, cups of coffee and good conversation. 

Strangely absent were those tinier moments. Moments where I saw physical beauty and felt deeper connection with the natural world. Moments where it felt like I saw behind the veil. Tiny moments that brought epiphany or revelation. I know they were there, but they have faded without the anchor of a note or photo to help me bring them forth again. 

I am going to use the memory jar again in 2016. I hope to make the habit stick throughout the year, again for the dual purpose of remembering these experiences at the end of the year, as well as to be more focused in the moment and to recognize these tinier snippets that make up this wonderful life. 

This New Year's Eve was a quiet evening at home, and New Year's Day was not much more memorable in the grand scheme. The past few years I have started off the year with a 5k and dip into Lake Washington. This year I went on a solo run in the afternoon, but spent the morning admiring the lake from the relative warmth of my house over some pancakes and coffee. It was more of an easing into this new year rather than jumping in head first. I did at least take a photo of the beauty recognized in the moment. 

As I was typing this, I saw a reflection in the computer screen of a Blue Jay landing on the railing just outside my window. I turned to see it, but as I moved to get my phone/camera, it took off. No picture of the day. A moment that I would surely forget a year later, if not an hour later if I hadn't been writing here at the time. I don't think it warrants the highlight reel of the memory jar, but a nice moment in time. And I think nature is calling me to get dressed and get outside into the frosty day. 

Getting crafty

I don't consider myself to be a particularly creative person. I am not one of those people who looks at yard as a blank slate, and can picture how I would landscape it. I don't walk into a craft store and imagine all I can do with the bits and pieces in bins. Food in the fridge aren't ingredients unless a recipe is nearby. Rather than being a "vision" guy, I tend to be more on the production side of things. Give me a set of plans, and I am on it.

I do have an occasional corner of my world where I try to stretch my legs. In the past, I made DVDs at the end of each year, and I enjoyed laying out the pictures, movies and music to try to tell a story. When I wrote my novel, there was a front and back cover to design, photos to stretch and twist, and a website to arrange.

These days when I have a project, creative or not, solutions can generally be found online. CreateSpace, Kindle Publishing, and PubIt made it possible to produce the various versions of my novel. I found a great (free) program in GIMP that allowed me to design my book cover myself. YouTube videos have taught me how to fix appliances, re-key door locks, and snake drain lines.

When I started brewing beer, I found lots of creative people willing to share their knowledge and excitement. I have spent (too) many hours surfing websites and message boards looking for every bit of information I could find. Once I get this homebrewing down a little better, I will look to create my own versions of beers, but for now I am sticking to the recipes.

In the meantime, I have been pouring a little creative energy into the stuff surrounding the actual beer. I found plans to make beer crates quite cheaply out of scrap wood. I will use these to store the beer in the crawlspace, away from the summer heat. The guy who drew up the plans also showed how you could antique the wood with a little steel wool and vinegar, and imprint a logo with a color printer and an iron.

Here is how they turned out:

Plain crate

Logo imprint

Antiqued and filled with beer

While I was waiting for the beer to ferment and condition, I created a label for the bottles.

The little QR code on the right will lead you to a webpage with the statistics, recipe, my brewing experience, lots of other beer nerdiness. There is also a link to the website in the sidebar (if you're into that sort of thing).

I opened the first beer last night. Mistakes were definitely made during my first batch, so I was a little worried that the beer would be undrinkable. In the end, it was just okay - not great, not terrible. It was a little flat, and I was little disappointed that the hop character didn't come through. Afterward, I opened up a Red Hook ESB, which is what the recipe was based on, and I realized that my version wasn't as far off as I thought. I guess I remembered Red Hook being better than it was.

So far, I am really enjoying the brewing process, and having a small creative outlet. I already have another batch of beer fermenting, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I know that I love the beer the recipe is based on, so I have higher hopes.

I have also started using the website Pinterest, which is an endless stream of inspiration and creativity - crafts, recipes, re-purposing and re-imagining everyday objects. Kristy has bookmarked lots of cool projects already. Who knew there were so many things you can do with wine bottles, mason jars, and wood shipping pallets?

I am starting to see little glimmers possibility in the bits and pieces, and I now find myself stopping more often at the local fencing company to look through the scrap pile. I just need to keep looking over the shoulder of those creative types until it really takes hold.

Ridiculously photogenic guy

There is a photo that has gone viral and spread around the internet, or a "meme" for those more savvy than I. It is called "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy". It is photo a smiling man named Zeddie Little running in the 2012 Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10k in South Carolina. Not that he needs to be pointed out, but he is the guy in the purple.

It is a little weird what takes off on the internet, but I will admit it is a surprisingly good picture for someone running a race. After the finish of a big event, it is always tempting to look at the photos to relive the experience, but most race photos are not very flattering. Most of us are not pretty when we run.

Assuming you are putting in more than a minimal effort, your face is usually strained and sweaty, and though you are exercising, you seemed to have gained ten pounds since the gun went off. This, and the fact that race photos are ridiculously expensive means that they rarely get purchased anymore.

There are the occasional decent shots when you see the photographer and remember to smile, like this one from Eugene in 2008.

Some aren't pretty, but at least show that you are pushing hard toward the finish line, like this one from the Carlsbad 5000 last month.

But most of the time you are in your own world, slack-jawed, fighting inner demons and monologues like this one from Long Beach last year

According to the story, Mr. Photogenic guy had just seen and waved to a friend, so he had a genuine smile on his face. I have written previously about how friendly faces at the side of the road can give you a boost, even at mile 26, so I am not surprised that this is why he is practically beaming. The better photos I have from races are when I have just seen friends in the midst of the battle.

Like these from the Carlsbad Marathon a couple of months ago

Or this oldy, but goody from the 2006 Marine Corps Marathon

But one of my favorite photos from a run is one from San Diego back in 2007. It was a great event - I was running with six friends, it was only my second marathon finish, and I was running on the day of my 40th birthday. We saw friends at mile 4 and mile 8, but then I wasn't expecting to see anyone until the finish.

Matt and Holly surprised a few of us by cheering us on at mile 21. This is usually the point where the Wall appears, so a friendly face is a God send. Add in the surprise factor, and I was soon smiling when I wanted to be weeping.

Though it is a decent shot of me, what really makes it is the gal just ahead of me. I don't know what prompted her reaction (maybe Holly was dancing a jig or something), but she is not only smiling at mile 21, but letting loose a huge laugh. It makes me smile every time I see it.

Maybe this one will make it around the world as "Ridiculously Happy Marathon Runner".

Sharing a good read with a stranger

“A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.”

~ Henry Miller
The Books In My Life (1969)

I love bookshelves. I love books of course, but I love to see books displayed. Lately I have been searching online for library books or ebooks, so I miss strolling through bookstores and walking past all those possibilities. I enjoy looking over bookshelves in people's homes, looking for new authors and insights. I even love seeing what complete strangers are reading at the coffee shop or bus stop, letting random novels catch my eye out in the wild.

I don't have any shelves these days. Downsizing has forced them into boxes, tucked away from sight. As part of the effort to carry around and maintain less stuff, I only hang onto books that I really enjoyed, and can imagine reading again or loaning out. I used to sell books back to places like Half Price Books or Third Place Books up in Seattle. They never offered much money, but the books went back out into circulation, and I received a little store credit for more books at a discount. I haven't found (or looked) for similar places down here, so the few books I had were starting to pile up. 

I have started using a site called Book Crossing. It is a book sharing, tracking, networking sort of world library. From their website:

Label. Share. Follow. Breathe new life into books instead of letting your old favorites collect dust - pass them along to another reader. Our online archival and tracking system allows members to connect with other readers, journal and review literature and trade and follow their books as lives are changed through “reading and releasing”.

You register each book you would like to "set free" and assign it an identification number. In that way, the book's travels can be traced as it makes its way around the city, state, country and maybe the world. You can buy labels or print up your own to let the next person know about the project. The site was started back in 2001, and it is similar to the way people have been tracking dollar bills at Where's George. But books, like the ideas and stories they contain, were meant to be shared, and their travels are usually much less random than bills changing hands. 

You can exchange books with the nearly one million members on the site, but more often books are set free in the wild - left at a bus stop, coffee shop, doctor's office, or wherever you imagine another reader might pick it up. They ask that you do not leave them where there might be a security concern (airports), or where it would be inconsiderate, like in or outside a bookstore. Along with the tracking label on the inside cover, I have been clipping a note to the front cover letting people know that the book was not forgotten, but that it is looking for a new home. 

I was watching an episode of Charlie and Lola the other day (well, it was on for Annabelle, and I was watching her). The episode was about something that many of us did as kids. They released balloons with notes attached, not knowing where they would land, hoping that someone would find them and send back a note to let them know how far it had travelled. Releasing these books is sort of the same thing, but with the gift of a new read, instead of just a deflated balloon. 

When I released my own balloon in grade school, I never heard back. I have only released four books so far, so it is a little early to tell what the results will be, but I hope to hear back about their travels. 

Sharing guilty pleasures

Facebook.

What leaps to mind? Amazing online resource that keeps you connected, or platform for narcissistic over-sharing of every detail in your life. The answer is different for everyone. There are a few people in my feed that share even the most banal detail of their day, while others I don't "hear" from for months. Some link to endless articles, while others use Facebook primarily for sharing photos. 

I have found myself occasionally defending Facebook. It is a bit of a time suck, but it keeps me in closer contact with distant friends. Things get posted there that aren't big enough events to warrant a phone call or email, but that would probably be mentioned if I was over for dinner. Since those small events sometimes make for the greatest stories, Facebook helps keep me close. No one would have called or emailed about the snow storm in Seattle this week, but I I loved seeing all the photos of their kids playing in the winter wonderland. 

Through Facebook, Twitter and blogs, our society has (voluntarily) shifted its idea of what should be kept private, but Facebook has been getting its tendrils deeper and deeper into our business. Many sites encourage (and some require) that you use a Facebook sign-in to use their site. Suddenly what you read, watch and listen to is in the Facebook database, and may just pop up in your feed.

If someone thinks a article or song is worth sharing, it is easy enough for them to do. But I am increasingly seeing things like "John Smith just read this article on XYZ". It appears that Facebook and the news website are looking over your shoulder with a megaphone in hand. Do I really want Spotify to let everyone know that I chose to listen to Vanilla Ice today?

Which brings me to what I listened to on Friday - I am choosing to share my guilty pleasure. Podcasts have been pushing music off my car stereo for a couple of years now, but the Friday night drive home from work has been reserved for music. No playlists, just whole albums so I can listen to those deeper cuts I haven't heard in forever.

I don't remember why this album popped into my head on Friday, but it was one of the first that I ever bought. I came a little late to music. I can remember some introductory presentation in seventh grade that asked what my favorite band was. I didn't have one. I said the Rolling Stones, and then someone asked if I was going to the concert in a couple of months. I mumbled my way out of the corner, but I felt like a huge nerd. 

Probably the first album I listened to was the one left in the car by my older brother. It was "Love Drive" by the Scorpions. I played it over and over as I drove in my first set of (borrowed) wheels. And music finally grabbed me. A short time later, thanks to BMG records and their "13 albums for a penny" marketing strategy, I finally had some more music. I don't remember all the cassette tapes (showing my age) that came in that first batch, but I know the album I listened to on Friday was one of them. 

The album was "Standing Hampton" by Sammy Hagar. I hadn't listened to it in years, but I knew most every word to all ten songs. The lyrics are stored in that teenage portion of the brain that doesn't ever seem to be overwritten. There are some good ol' rockers including "Only One Way to Rock" and "Heavy Metal" that garnered airplay, as well as "Can't Get Loose" that grabbed at my teenage psyche. The album finishes with a good cover of "Piece of my Heart" that Janis Joplin made famous. 

The album didn't qualify as a guilty pleasure back then, but the fact that I have followed Sammy Hagar through Van Halen, good and bad solo records, and now to Chickenfoot probably does. But Friday night with the volume cranked, I didn't much care who saw me singing along. Whatever music you listened to as a teen still grabs you like nothing else can.

When I got home, I mentioned to Matt a different song that had been stuck in my head for a few days. Soon we were both belting out the chorus to "East Bound and Down" from Smokey and the Bandit. Okay, that was a little embarrassing. I may have over-shared.

Life is a Marathon

The magic of marathon day, support when you need it the most.



Everyone should experience a cheering crowd.

How they get to you

There are widgets and programs that will tell you all sorts of information about your blog or website. How many people visit each day, how much time they spend reading, where they're from, and how on earth they got to my little cul-de-sac of the internet.

I don't obsess or even pay that much attention to the reports, but I will check them out every couple of months out of curiosity. Most of my readership are returning visitors, and not surprisingly they are concentrated in Washington and California. And no I don't know who you are, just vaguely where you are from.

But there are the random folks that pop in because they have typed in some sort of search term into Google and I show up in the results. It might be my comments on the Pearl Izumi ad campaign, my ride reports on the STP or RSVP, or simply following a link to a picture of the University of Washington logo I grabbed from someone else.

But there is a post that consistently ranks above all others in bringing new people to the blog. It is something I wrote more than two years ago, and it doesn't have any buzzwords or pictures that would pop up regularly in a web search. It turns out that all the traffic is coming from a a link on a therapy site.

I figured I would re-post it here, and in the next installment let you know how things have changed in the past two years.

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If you don't observe them, do irritating people disappear?

One of the podcasts I have been listening to intermittently is Zen and the Art of Triathlon. I am several episodes behind, but I caught a good one this week called "Quantum Spinach". One of the pieces was using quantum theory to talk about difficult people. It went something like this...

He started with two ideas from science. First - scientists have observed that matter is actually 99.9999....% empty space. There isn't much of anything in between all the atoms, neutrons, electrons etc. Second - according to quantum physics, observation affects reality.

Then he paired the above observations with dealing with difficult people. He makes the point that difficult people are only difficult to you a small percentage of your time. He gives examples of neighbors who flick cigarette butts out on their sidewalk. The amount of time in his life that he sees the cigarette butts is .0001% of his life. The rest of the time, he isn't experiencing those difficult people.

Of course many folks let these sorts things bother them for a much larger portion of their lives. Back to the observation of matter, you are observing the problem it as if it were 100% solid, when in reality, the real matter only occupies .0001% of the space. The goal of course is to not let such a small thing ruin your day.

To reinforce his point, he relays a story of two monks encountering a beautiful lady at the edge of a stream.  The lady is in a bit of distress and needs to get to the other side of the stream for some reason. So one of the monks picks her up in his arms and carries her to the other side, where he sets her down and receives a quick kiss on the cheek.

The two monks continue walking. It becomes apparent that the second monk is furious, smoke practically coming out of his ears. He can't contain himself and finally has to say something. "How can you have done that? We are supposed to stay away from women, yet you carried this woman across the stream." The first monk says, "you know, I put her down miles ago. You are still carrying her."

That is what you are doing if you let someone continue to irritate you, or you let one thought dominate your mind. You continue to carry something that should have been set down a long time ago. And of course the frustration you carry around, the difficult person probably isn't thinking twice about. Why should you be the person suffering?

Comments?

Nothing angers the internet like terrible spelling. 

Disclosure - I am a terrible speller. If it weren't for the red squiggly line that appears below my misspellings, my posts would be tough(er) to read. But maybe they would be more widely read...

click each to enlarge

I don't remember who spoke at my commencement

The Conan O'Brien commencement speech has been posted in several different places, and I finally sat down to listen to it tonight. It is funny, but poignant as well.

He handled his firing at NBC last year with grace, and I quoted him here when he said,

“I hate cynicism. It’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” 

During the commencement speech he talks about achieving his dream, quickly losing it all, and what he did during the aftermath. The whole thing is worth watching, but some of the high points toward the end are:

There are few things more liberating in this life, than having your worst fear realized...

It is our failure to become our perceived ideal, that ultimately defines us, and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune, and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention...

In 2000, I told graduates to not to be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality...

There is no greater cliche in a commencement address than "follow your dream". Well I am here to tell you, that whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change. And that's OK. Four years ago many of you had specific vision of what your college experience was going to be, and who you were going to become. And I bet today that most of you would admit that your time here was very different from what you imagined... 

But through the good, and especially the bad, the person you are now is someone you could have never conjured in the fall of 2007...

I'd like to end my address by braking a taboo, and quoting myself from 17 months ago. At the end of my final program with NBC, just before signing off, I said "work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen". Today, receiving this honor, and speaking to the Dartmouth class of 2011 from behind a tree trunk, I have never believed that more. Thank you very much and congratulations.

The video is worth your 24 minutes.

Time stops for no man

Once you are out of your 20's, moments begin to happen that make you think, "I am not as hip as I used to be." (Well actually, when you start using the word 'hip', you're pretty much done.) Moments where you recognize that the world has moved on while you weren't looking. Moments like when you look at the Billboard top 10 and think, "I wouldn't buy any of this", which is quickly replaced with, "I don't recognize any of these artists."

I had a moment somewhat like that this weekend. Fortunately, it wasn't one of those brutal moments that slaps you upside your head and says, "you're old!" though.

We were hanging out with some people in their 20's, and they were quoting a YouTube video. I actually knew the video, so I didn't feel all that out of it. But I recognized that where we used to quote Seinfeld episodes and the like, people now quote stuff from the internet. Videos and other memes are what pass for common culture now.

Not that quoting crap on the internet is any worse than quoting crap on tv, it is just different. And a sign that the world is moving on, with or without me.

The cloud is looking a little wispy

The cloud, the cloud, everything will live in the cloud!

This seems to be the latest idea, web 3.0 or whatever designation we are up to. All your files, pictures, data and information can be stored on massive servers sitting in some location with low rent and electricity rates. If you store everything in the cloud, you can access it from everywhere, and worry less if your computer dies suddenly or is stolen. The device is just a portal to get to the cloud. 

Many companies have offered online backup storage for your data, but now even programs are living somewhere on the internet, rather than on your computer. Google and their many online products has even forced Microsoft to create an online version of their flagship Office suite. But like anything else, you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. 

There have been multiple stories about failures of online systems in the past couple of weeks. 

• "Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing service crashed overnight, taking down a bunch of key web sites. Affected sites included Foursquare, Reddit, Cydia, Discovr and Scvngr."

• "Sony confirmed personal data from over 20 million user accounts on its PlayStation network was stolen in a hacker attack last month, but said it aims to revive the network by the end of May."

• "LASTPASS supposedly was a sanctuary from hacking: a security service that allows customers to safely store all their passwords in the cloud. However the small online password security provider has experienced a hell of its own making, to some extent, since it revealed to its client base that its database could have been hacked."

None of these affected me personally, but around the same time, a website I store my workout information on crashed. The last couple of times I tried to upload a workout, I would get a generic error message that "Something went wrong". The simplicity of the error message made me laugh, but the next time I went to the website, it was down, and a otherwise blank page read:

"Buckeye Outdoors has suffered a major outage. A series of electrical storms first knocked out the backup servers that were located at the backup up location. Then the unthinkable happened 4 days later and a second electrical storm caused an extended power outage at the datacenter where the primary Buckeye Outdoors servers are hosted."

"The current situation is pretty grimm and I'm despritly trying to recover the data that has been lost. If I am un able to recover the data I will put the application back online but right now I am holding out hope and I even might send the Hard Disks to a data recovery place."

The site is now back online, but without any of the workout information I had logged for the past two and a half years. This is the site behind the little widget that used to be on the right side of the blog that detailed my mileage for the week, month and year. I am sure only a couple of you ever looked at it, but it was a handy way to keep an eye om my progress. 

If there had to be a crash and lost data, this was the one part of my digital life where I was protected. Ever since I started using my Garmin 310xt GPS watch to track my workouts, it has sent the data to their website as well as to a program that lives on my computer. Pre-Garmin, I recorded everything in a paper training journal, and I had still maintained it, though I now see that it has been about a month since I bothered to write anything down. 

It is still a bummer because I liked certain aspects of the Buckeye Outdoors site. The web is a great place to store massive amounts of data, but I will always be a little paranoid about storing my only copy with a system or company that could suddenly fail. I am glad that my backups had backups this time around. 

One athlete, 30 sports, 30 days, 30 cities

My buddy Ryan forwarded this on to me, very loosely based on my quest for 30 days of exercise last month.

This guy Sam is travelling around the country learning and playing 30 different sports in 30 days. He wakes up each day and unzips the duffel bag to find out what sport he will play that day. A few of them, like swimming, he knows already, but in that episode he had to swim two and a half miles across the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty.

Others like speed skating and boxing, he first takes a quick lesson before being thrown into the ring. There are also some pretty obscure sports like Octopush (underwater hockey) and Sepak Takraw (basically hacky sack volleyball).  The final episode, which I haven't seen yet, has him running a marathon.

It is sponsored by EAS, a manufacturer of sport's nutrition, so there is a short product placement in each episode. But it is interesting to watch this guy tackle all these different challenges on back to back days. Day 3 was rugby, and he dealt with bumps, bruises and back pain for much of the challenge. The episode is below.

You can find all the episodes here.

Internet time wasters - feline edition

In case you need a little distraction at work or anywhere else, I give you the iPet Companion.



You can remotely play with cats at two different Humane Societies, one in Oregon and one in Idaho. The controls allow you to move the camera around the room, as well as manipulate three different remote arms to dangle or drag toys for the cats to play with. For now it only works with Internet Explorer for some reason. Here is the Oregon site.

In typical cat fashion, they stood back in disinterest when I was at the controls.

There's a pill for that

There seems to be a quick-fix pill for nearly every problem these days. "Don't put down that bacon double cheeseburger, just take this pill and you will lose weight!" I assume that most of the American public have become skeptical of these miracle pills by now, but someone is clearly buying them.

I read about another one in the Seattle Times this morning. And they finally found one that made me go look it up - the Wake Up On Time Pill. I have mentioned repeatedly that sleep is an issue for me. Insomnia is frustrating enough, but more demoralizing problem is waking up every day tired. I never wake up thinking, "that was enough sleep". Doesn't matter if I slept seven, eight, nine or ten hours; I wake up tired, often exhausted.

From the article: (emphasis mine)

Wake Up On Time, a pill containing all natural ingredients in a delay-release coating. The pill is designed to boost energy levels and is made up of a blend of B vitamins, amino acids, guarana seed extract and Siberian ginseng...If taken at bedtime, the natural coating allows the ingredients to dissolve over seven to eight hours, and "wake you up when the alarm clock rings," Beggan said.

"It's more than a vitamin, it's time in a bottle because instead of hitting the snooze button over and over again, it allows you to bounce out of bed ready to go," Beggan said. "The product helps you to effortlessly wake right up in the morning feeling alert, happy, and ready for anything your demanding schedule throws at you."

The article continues:

The guarana seed extract is probably what gives the supplement its kick, since it has a high concentration of caffeine, said Louis E. Teichholz, chief and medical director of cardiac services and chief, division of complementary medicine program at Hackensack University Medical Center.

"I can't say whether it works or doesn't work, but if it does, it's probably from the guarana," Teichholz said. "If you're going to use it, I would recommend doing so with caution because the caffeine may cause higher blood pressure in people who already have high blood pressure and it could cause palpitations."

So it is basically a time released cup of coffee along with up to 1,667% of the recommended dose of B vitamins. I went to the site anyway to check it out, and found that they not only sell pills to help you wake up on time, but also:

• Stay Up All Day
• Sleep Tight All Night
• Light'n Up
• Loosen Up (not to be confused with Royal Flush)
• Don't Forget
• MenoPAUSE Chill Pills
• Stress FREE
• Wrinkle Remedy
• Go Away Gray
• As well as the generic Get Healthy

One stop shopping for miracle cures! It think I will stick with coffee. And at $1.50 a dose, I can get a good cup of coffee at Starbucks for less.

Electronic connections

Running should be simple - just a pair of shoes and you can head out the door. But of course most of us make it more complicated. Wicking fabrics, monitored heart rates, entire music collections in your pocket, tracking runs with GPS, posting results online, and endless blog posts about it. When it takes you 20 minutes to get ready to head out the door, you start to wonder what happened.

Does all this technology ruin things? There is the temptation to leave the electronic obsession behind, stop talking about it so much, and just go out and run just for the sheer enjoyment. I plan to leave music behind more often, and stop tracking the details so rigidly when I'm not in training. But even though you don't run for the electronic reasons, they can still expand the experience.

Just this weekend, a girl I follow is running in the Ironman championships in Hawaii, a guy I listen to is running the Chicago Marathon, and 691 people are running together in a world wide event. The Ironman is still something beyond my comprehension, so I have been following that one with particular interest. I'll be getting Twitter updates from her father during the race, and will try to catch the online video as she crosses the finish line. I'm not really there, but the technology makes me feel a little closer somehow.

Another technological twist has been rolled out for my marathon next week. A company will upload my progress to Facebook while I am running. There are mats along the course that record when you cross, both to make sure that people don't cut the course, and for geeks like me to analyze the split times afterwards. There will be updates as I cross the 6, 13, 18 and 24 mile mark, as well as the finish line.

So if we are connected on Facebook, you can track my progress semi-live. If not, I will bore you with the details here afterwards.

Uninspiring Google ad of the day

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A picture is worth...well, your camera

So I saw this story in the paper this morning, The Odyssey: Camera survives ocean trip to Florida.  A teaser:

Paul Shultz was walking along the pier of a Key West marina when he saw what looked like a rotting tomato pounding against the rocks.

The Coast Guard investigator waded ankle-deep into the water to fish out the ocean rubbish: a bright red Nikon camera, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months' worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was almost pristine when he found it May 16.

However, clues to tracking down its owner were few. So Shultz decided to test his investigative skills.

Mr. Shultz used some of the pictures, with the online community's help, to deduce that the camera was likely lost in Aruba, 1,100 miles away. But he still didn't know who owned it. But once he had the location, and he posted some pictures from the camera online, the owner was tracked down. Kind of an interesting, message in a bottle story with some investigative reporting thrown in.

I recently bought a new camera, because the old one was producing pictures like this:

Every few photos would be grainy and whited out. At least with digital cameras, you know this right away and usually have a chance to get the shot again, but not always. With the trip to Lake Powell approaching and other summer fun to document, I decided to replace it.

As always, I wasn't looking to spend too much money, and I am not that great of a photographer that I need lots of bells and whistles. Just something to point and shoot really. The main thing I was looking for was a compact size, something I could easily slip in a pocket. I am not great about setting out to take pictures, but my last camera was so small I could have it on hand when a good shot presented itself.

The other main feature I was looking for was ease of use. When I picked up the Samsung TL105, the menus and buttons were intuitive enough that I could navigate easily right away. Just with the passage of time, the camera is nicer than the one it is replacing. It takes 12 megapixel pictures instead of 6, and the new one shoots HD video as well. At $119, it seemed like a good deal.

After a week in Lake Powell and carrying it along on the marathon, I have to say I am pretty happy with it. I honestly have been using the 8 megapixel setting just to keep the file sizes down, but the pictures have turned out great.

This morning's story about a lost camera reminded me of a story I saw a few weeks back. This guy has a pretty clever way to identify his camera in case it ever gets lost. I may have to do it myself since one disadvantage of being able to stash your camera in a pocket or other small space, is that it tends to get easily misplaced. Or dropped it in the ocean.