Author: Scott (Page 35 of 80)

That Rude Smart Phone Thing

March 2, 2012 / Scott / 1 Comment

The topic of discussion on a local radio talk show this morning was “things people do that are unbelievably rude”. The general consensus was that the most rude behavior in our culture is paying attention to your phone when others are trying to engage you in conversation. This behavior is also known as “I-Don’t-Know-Who-This-Text-Is-From-But-It-Has To-Be-More-Interesting-Than-What-You-Are-Saying-Itis”

We’ve all done it. Some more than others. Some are aware we’ve done it and have tried to correct it. I’m proposing a nation-wide movement to address it.

I’m going to be trying out a couple of behavior modification initiatives on people I come into contact with. To be fair, there aren’t that many, but I’m interested to see what happens.

If I’m in a fixed location like a living room and am having a discussion with someone, I’m going to stop what I’m saying mid-sentence until they look back up from their phone, then continue on until they look back down again. I can only assume they are completely bored with whatever I’m talking about, so this is sort of a spiteful way to get back at them for ignoring me by making it drag out even longer.

If I happen to run into someone coming in/out of the grocery store or something and we stop to talk, I’m going to walk away the instant they start paying attention to their device. I’ll just assume the conversation is over and we’re done.

Turnabout is fair play. Do the same thing to me if I’m paying more attention to a device than I am to you. Feel free to add a throat clearing sound in there too.

I won’t think you’re being rude, but I may be embarrassed at my own behavior.

I’m reading– February 3rd through February 29th

February 29, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

How to make hard-to-obtain Sudafed from readily available street meth. – I’m on week 3 of a cough/cold. Haven’t resorted to medication yet, but at least this gives me options.

U.S. water bills to triple – Don’t worry…someone will declare it a right since it’s necessarily for life. That will magically make it “free”.

Skateboard Swing – Building this in 3, 2, 1…

Acer Iconia Tab A500ICS updates coming in April – This article complains that the update isn’t coming soon enough. I’m teaching my kids to be happy with what you have. Not everyone is getting ICS.

HTC: Updates to Ice Cream Sandwich in March – This will make March creep by. Maybe I should take out a 30 day loan to speed up time?

Contador loses Tour de France title – Finally someone else will get the chance to be crowned the best dirty cyclist in the game.

Masters athletes keep their muscle with age – “The authors also note that it’s these aspects of aging that tend to increase health care costs, so if each individual continues to develop their muscles as they age, the exercise could channel those unspent billions back into the economy.”

Does this mean taxpayers should be subsidizing my training?

Circle of Death Workout

February 24, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

This is a dang good ‘un. Also known as “The Vicious Cycle”, I learned this one back in the late 90s from a sadistic South African rugby coach. For any former teammates who are reading this, let me apologize in advance for the nightmares you’ll have tonight. I know you’ve done your best to repress any memory of being put through this.

The only equipment you need is a place to do pull-ups and a little bit of space. Think of your pull-up station as the backstop of a baseball diamond. That’s where you start. The rest of the stations are arranged just like the bases on the baseball diamond. Home plate = push-ups, First base = sit-ups, Second base = burpees, Third base = jackknives*. Here’s a diagram if you’re confused. I like to arrange the distance between the “bases” at about the distance between bases on a t-ball field. You can make them further apart if you want…that distance isn’t the key to this workout.

Start by doing a single pull-up. Then you run the bases, stopping at each one to do one repetition of the exercise at that station (1 push-up, 1 sit-up, 1 burpee, 1 jackknife). Then it’s back to the pull-up station for the second round. This time, you do two reps of everything. The next lap is 3 reps, and so on. Starting with one rep and ending with six reps is a good way to start. I did it that way yesterday at the halfway point of a four mile run, and it absolutely destroyed my pace and heart rate on the 2nd half of the run. As my fitness improves, I work my way up to ten laps/reps.

And that’s when things start to get really interesting.

Once you can comfortably do the ten lap incarnation of this exercise, try doing it in reverse instead…starting with ten reps and working your way down to one. It sounds like it would take the same effort level to do go in reverse, but it’s actually much harder for a couple of reasons. First of all, unless you are a pull-up machine, the quality of your pull-ups will probably tend to decrease the more reps you have to do. There’s no shame in using a spotter or “self-spotting” by flailing your legs to get pull-ups in, but if you have to do 10 pull-ups on your first set instead of your last, you’ll probably do those 10 better. And at the end, it’s easy to do 3 good pull-ups, so you’ll make the extra effort.

Secondly, you’ll probably find that the sit-ups and jackknives almost feel like a rest in this workout since they give you the opportunity to lie down on the ground. The only problem is, you have to get up off the ground. Starting with ten reps and working your way down to one means that at the end of the workout, when you want to rest the most, you get less and less rest. As soon as you get on the ground to do 3 sit ups, you have to pick yourself back up and run to do burpees.

I consider this a “toughness” workout as much as it is a fitness workout. There really isn’t much of a reprieve at any point of this workout. It’s one that makes you feel like you can’t wait to get to the next thing, only to detest where you are as soon as you get there. You’ll have to hunker down mentally to push to the end.

Then finish it up with a 2-3 mile run and see if you can ever regain control of your heart rate.

* If you aren’t familiar with jackknives, you lie flat on your back with your arms stretched out above your head, then you simultaneously raise your hands and feet, basically folding yourself in half, and (attempt to) touch your toes.

What I’d Do To Make Triathlon Participation Explode

February 8, 2012 / Scott / 2 Comments

There aren’t that many high profile professional triathletes, and I don’t think there necessarily need to be. But I have a few ideas that could really make amateur triathlon participation grow by leaps and bounds. I think what is needed is the introduction of a team concept, and maybe some rule tweaking.

I think triathlon clubs membership would grow tremendously if there was a really compelling reason to belong to a club. I mean, I like to train alone because I have to race alone. So outside of some seminars here and there, what does a tri club really have to offer me? Training programs? I can find those for free or buy them online. I think I can get more for my money by joining a masters swim group and take a coaching beat down there a couple of times a weak.

But if the idea of triathlon “Club” was changed to triathlon “Team”, things would be different.

What if every race had a Team division, and it awarded points not just for the top 3 overall times a team turned in, but within age groups. For example, a race could award 10 points to the team with the top overall men and women finishers, 8 points for second, and 6 points for third. But beyond that, why not award 5, 3, and 1 points respectively for the top three age-groupers in each division? This would push clubs/teams to invest into the performance of members on race day.

It would also encourage clubs to go out and pursue age groupers and keep them in top shape to earn points for the Club throughout the season.

Everybody wins

Age groupers could really benefit from this type of setup. By paying to be a member of a club, they’d actually get something very tangible in return for their money. First of all, they get to be on a team. Not every age grouper is going to race every weekend, so there’d be chances for multiple folks to represent their club within a division over the course of a season. Secondly, the age groupers could gain a lot of tips from the “Overall” members of their club–that means training and racing tips along with what will most likely be a higher level of passion and intensity that will be contagious.

What about the “Overall” team members? Well, aren’t most of those types doing stuff like coaching and personal training on the side? The top level members of a club could actually be paid by the other club members’ dues to coach and pass along their knowledge. Worst case–they can use the club as a way to introduce themselves to potential clients. Even if there was no money involved, I can imagine some people would be happy to be one of the top dogs in a club for nothing more than a complete or partial reimbursement of race fees by the club if they place in the overall division.

Pros win too. First of all, they’d be in high demand by the more elite teams. Imagine a team made up of a few guys with some real jack…they just want to win. So the pro would not only get money from their sponsors, but also by team members and sponsors to wear their jersey.

Rule Changes

How cool would it be if you were able to draft teammates in a race? Safety seems to be the biggest and most logical reason drafting isn’t allowed, but if it were limited to teammates, that wouldn’t matter as much. I mean, you are going to be much more careful to not cause a problem for a teammate, right? And penalties for drafting non-teammates could actually be increased at the same time to further encourage safety.

This may be a long shot to happen, and I realize that.

Series Instead of Single Races

There are some race series already out there, and they make up their own sort of mini-seasons. But what if there were State-level organizations that awarded championships? Clubs could simply pay yearly dues to participate. It wouldn’t even matter that there were multiple races in a state on a single weekend. Points available at each race could simply be determined by the number of finishers at each race. A small club could strategically rack up points on a big tri weekend by sending key age-groupers to multiple smaller races.

This isn’t all that different from what WTC does for rankings and qualifications, so why can’t it be done on a bigger scale? And why can’t it be across organizations?

Image Credit

Pop For Sight Words Game Option

February 7, 2012 / Scott / 1 Comment

One of the best literacy gifts Pea got for Christmas this year was the Pop For Sight Words game. It’s a pretty simple toy–a popcorn box filled with sight words printed onto little cardboard pieces of popcorn. There are also some instructions included on how to play the “official” game, but we haven’t played it that way yet. Instead, we’ve made up a bunch of different games we can play with the pieces of popcorn.

[amzn_product_inline asin=’B0032EKAJ2′]

Pea’s favorite way of playing right now pits her against us. She picks a word and tries to read it (preferably by sight, but we’ll let her try to sound it out). If she can read it within three seconds, she gets to keep it in her stack. If she can’t we get the piece. One important action to take here is to not just read the word and put it in your own stack. Make sure you show your child the word as you say it. Remember, we’re working on sight words here, so it really drives it home for them to see the word and hear it at the same time. The good thing about the words included with the kit is that many of them are really hard to sound out (“when”, “where”, etc.), so it really emphasizes sight word learning.

We play until we have 10 words in our pile–these are words that she could not read. Then we give her an opportunity to “steal”. We show her every word in our stack, and if she can read it she gets to steal it to her pile. Another option would be to wait until we’ve gone through all the words and give her only one chance to steal, and we may change to that option later. But by having a “steal” round every 10 words it gives her a chance to see and hear the words she’s having trouble with several times throughout the game.

At the end of the game, she gets to count all of the words in her pile (not a bad math activity either), and we keep a running score of how many words she’s able to read. We’ve seen some really good improvement, and we’ve noticed that the more often we play the game the more quickly her score rises. Repetition!

Note: the packaging makes this game very convenient and fun for the kids, but there’s no reason to purchase it necessarily. You could make your own sight word cards yourself. We’ll probably end up doing this ourselves in order to expand the number of words involved.

February 7, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

I skipped this morning’s swim, and I’m not even going to think about making it up. It’s a recovery week anyway, and I definitely needed the rest. If I have to choose between making a swim and making a run, I’ll choose the run every time. I’m considering even waiting until late tonight to do that, just to soak up more rest.

February 6, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

I thought you were supposed to get better when you practiced something? I hadn’t spent any time in the pool for a good stretch up until a few weeks ago, so I wasn’t too tough on myself for swimming like a fish out of water. But it’s been 3 weeks…I should be getting better by now. My technique is so jacked up I don’t even know where to start to fix it. I just know that it’s bad all over.

Think I may be headed for a masters class or a swim clinic next month. This is supposed to be the easy leg of the race, and I want to keep it that way.

February 6, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

From Jack Chambless:

With the exception of Geitner, who is alot like Hamilton in his contempt for us commonfolk, the other three….well just look at the names slowly and compare the person from 1776 to the person sitting in the same office in 2012.

ZING!

The Future Will Be Made of Glass

February 3, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

The ubiquitous multi-touch edge-to-edge displays and pv-celled roofs are cool, but I think my favorite thing about the future is that all adults will be attractive and all children well-behaved.

HT Mashable

Aren’t You Supposed To Be Hungry In College?

February 2, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

College students on food stamps.

“I did not even know that I was applicable for food stamps until someone told me about the site and to apply to see if I would get it.”

Added Smith, “Since then, I have saved a ton of money.”

I remember being a cash-strapped and hungry college student. My solution was to get a job at the school cafeteria. Minimum wage at a crappy job, but it was an easy job to get since no one else wanted it, and you got to eat when you worked. There were lots of days when the only two meals I ate were immediately before and immediately following my shift. I never even considered there may be a ~~better~~ different way.

Featured Team Members: AnyBody Fitness

February 1, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

I have some big fitness goals for the next year, and meeting big goals of any kind means having a great team supporting you. This is probably going to end up reading like some sort of paid post, but it isn’t. It’s just some recognition of what my friends Sean and Jay at AnyBody Fitness have been doing to help me reach my goals. I try to help these guys out with computer/technical stuff when they need it to show my appreciation, but I also wanted to publicly thank them for their help.

One of the toughest things about training for long distance races is the amount of training time that’s involved, especially on the bike. Running in the dark is no problem, but I don’t feel especially safe riding the bike in the daylight, much less at night. So two big challenges for me are finding daylight hours to train when it isn’t brutally hot outside and maintaining my bike with all of those miles (I’m not a great bike mechanic). My solution was to change over to a spin bike for most of my training. Sean and Jay worked with me to pick out a bike with all the features I needed and none of the ones I didn’t. Another plus of a spin bike is that other people (aka The Missus) have it at their disposal. That’s something I could not achieve with a trainer.

I couldn’t be happier with the bike. It allows me to train indoors (out of the sun), at any time of the day, and safely (no cars). I can also watch Ken Burns documentaries or Coach Troy’s Spinervals videos the whole time I’m riding. And last week when I called and asked if there were specific SPD pedals I needed for the bike they were able to get me a set with SPD on one side and toe clips on the other in just a couple of days.

These guys are pros at fitting out large facilities with commercial grade equipment, but they also sell the same equipment to the public. This makes them a really good choice for people who are looking to outfit a home gym. They also buy and sell used equipment, so if you’re local to Knoxville or Nashville and looking for a good deal on a treadmill or bike that has been checked out by a professional before you buy they are a great place to start. No yard-sale-grade stuff here.

Do yourself a favor and check these guys out…they will treat you right!

Link Dump From Stuff I’ve Been Reading

January 31, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

Denso (and others) Plea Guilty To Price Fixing – Coming soon, “Shame on Denso” signs in front of Alcoa Highway Wal-Mart.

Has the Higher-Ed Revolution Begun? – I’ll take advantage of the CS courses, but I’d really love to see a business school offer this type of program. We may have to wait all the way until next year for something like that.

What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind? – In summary (I think), they need to be taught responsibility and experience in addition to facts.

A future President

It’s time for us to get to work. To get busy. My advisors and cabinet members are going to sit down to find ways to help get out of your way. To encourage you.

Re-elect this guy. If we ever elect him.

Whatever happened to: Rucking?

The key advantage of ‘traditional’ rucking was that it produced quick ball. It also occupied forwards who might otherwise loiter in midfield clogging up the pitch.

The game started changing in this regard as my career was ending, and I remember that feeling (we’ve all had it) just KNOWING that the boots were coming after doing something on the edge of the law in a tackle in order to steal or secure the ball for my team.

And then…nothing would happen. Occasionally someone would curse your actions, but they wouldn’t dream of chucking boot and letting you know that was not acceptable.

I do know of at least one referee who was more than happy to have the game become more about him than the players on the field and welcomed the changes in rucking.

10 Things You Can Do to Raise a Reader – On of the most important things you can do as a parent.

Sweden Plans A New Superhighway For Cyclists – Not going to pretend I wouldn’t like to see this here. Privately funded of course.

Federal government debt site – But it doesn’t track the federal government’s massive debt. Instead, it gives them information on decreasing their own debt. Isn’t that rich?!

So Why Read Anymore? – Damn. Just…damn.

Somehow we must convince this new wired generation that speaking and writing well are not just the DSL lines of modern civilization, but also the keys to self-mastery, a sort of code that one takes on — in addition to others, moral and legal — to uphold standards of culture itself, to keep the work and ideas alive of our long gone betters for one more generation — as if to say, “I did my part according to my time and station.”Nothing more, nothing less.

The Future of Personalized Medicine – Can’t wait for this to be widely available. Can I get a GPS add on?

QUnit – jQuery JavaScript Library – Free, and a time saver down the road.

Spotify Free Unlimited Music Streaming Ends After Six Month Promotion – Sadness. Extreme sadness.

Newt or Mitt? So Many Missed Opportunities

January 30, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

There are a few things they could have done to help themselves gain votes with Floridians:

Campaigning here in August instead of January. Florida in January is a no-brainer. Who really wants it?
Participating in a spelling bee with only Spanish words.
Having a first name that isn’t a four-letter word.
Having a first name that sounds like a name instead of an inanimate object.
~~Lobbying~~ consulting with the National Hurricane Center to have the next devastating storm named after the other.
Attending a Marlins afternoon game. That would have almost doubled attendance.
Make a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives like the one below. It never gets old.

Florida Political Cage Match

January 23, 2012 / Scott / 0 Comments

If Mitt Romney had been thinking ahead, he could have put an ace in his pocket that he may just need. In rasslin’ terms, this would have been the proverbial foreign object or loaded boot. It may even be sneaky enough to be called an eye gouge.

Think about it–the guy’s been running for President pretty much continuously for the last 4 years. How shrewd would it have been to donate loads and loads of money to charities and err on the side of over-paying taxes for all of those years? Then, when his wealth/success became an issue and he was asked to release his tax information, he could reluctantly agree to release four years’ worth at just the right moment, showing just how generous and over-taxed he is.

And the obvious question to opponents would be, “how much have you given to charity and paid in taxes over the last four years?”

He’s spending money like mad anyway, and it doesn’t seem to be working. He probably could have donated his way out of his image as a one-percenter at a discount.

Image Credit

Gettin’ After It!