Month: January 2007

baseline: VO2Max calculations

I realized that I had seriously misread the test requirements for my VO2Max test the other day. So I re-did the test and got a score of 35%, a 9 point improvement — fair, which isn’t good but also isn’t poor. it’s not about getting a result I like by re-taking the test: it’s more about knowing what kind of a hole we’re trying to dig out of. Amazing what following the instructions can do for you.

The question is, how to get the number higher? Just “going for a run” isn’t going to work for me, anymore than a strenuous bike ride: I’m in no shape to do either in a repeatable way. And if I can’t repeat it, there’s no point in doing it at all. So it looks like a simpler regime is called for, with hopes of building up to more strenuous and fun activities in short order. Reading this suggests a couple of fast walks of a good distance — 3- 5 miles — 3 times a week is a good start. Ideally, walking leads to running, if for no other reason than to get the business over with (have I mentioned my love of exercise for its own sake?).

So if that goes as planned, a VO2Max test in a month will be in order and perhaps some improvement — maybe a better degree of “fair.”

links for 2007-01-03

the Power Law

What’s interesting about this — How to Change the World: A Review of My First Year of Blogging — is how Guy claims to have gotten into this to prove that you don’t have to be an A-list blogger to make it into the the top 100. But how is someone as well-known in technology/marketing as he is not an A-lister?

And this isn’t just sour grapes at his Adsense revenue being 100 times mine 😉

Adsense

A number/fact I am jealous of is:

262 posts generated 6,961 comments and 1,937 trackbacks. That’s 25 comments/post and 7 trackbacks/post.

My totals are 4,033 posts and 2,218 comments.

Project much?

Shorter Verbatim Oliver Willis:

The idea that the majority of kids are going to choose to do schoolwork versus screwing around is batty. When I was young I was what you would call studious, nerdy, etc. and I actually liked school. But if I had been given a choice, I would have messed around. That’s what kids do.

You ever get the feeling that some righteous thunderers are not all that self-aware? This on the heels of a gripe about how African kids want books and clothes to go to school while American kids want iPods and sneakers. The contradiction from the beginning to the end of the above short paragraph could give you whiplash. He liked school but given the choice(?), he would have “messed around.”

He needs constant supervision, he thinks he was a representative kid, so all kids need supervision/no kids can be trusted to make good choices. Sounds like a younger Bill Bennett.

so close

I saw this:
Communications From Elsewhere » Blog Archive » Backups, right. I knew I was forgetting something.:

I haven’t tried them, but you might try QTFairUse6 (python script) or myFairTunes (Windows only). They both claim to strip DRM from iTunes 7 music.

But downloading the ostensibly non-Windows version and reading through the threads, this loomed up like an iceberg::

How many times should I repeat myself? 🙁 It works ONLY ON WINDOWS.

links for 2007-01-02

why fairness matters

It’s Been A Good Seven Years; Or Another Reason I’m A Liberal.:

This is a large part of the selfish reason I favor redistributive social programs; I really, really don’t want to deal with desperate people in any capacity. They worsen working conditions for everyone because they feel that they have no choice but to take abuse, and their problems are just depressing and guilt-inducing. I want to live in a society where no one is terrified of destitution for my own comfort, and the comfort for the people I care about, even if they won’t ever have to worry about destitution directly.

Until I had kids of my own, I hadn’t really worked through this idea of fairness and equality. But when you interact with child-care providers, nannies, teachers, and the rest of the cast of characters in your child’s life, it becomes clear how much the kids learn from your interactions with them, in person and in conversations and attitudes unspoken. No one wants to overpay for anything but when you consider what we’re expecting teachers and caregivers to do, how can we overpay? How much is too much for well-educated, properly-socialized little citizens?

Hugh McLeod explains how it all works

Here’s his 31 (!) points to ponder: he goes into much greater depth, but you get a sense of how he thinks. It’s not all iconoclastic nose-thumbing.

gapingvoid: cartoons drawn on the back of business cards: how to be creative:

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.

24. Don‘t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

31. Remain frugal.

I’d add to or amend 24: don’t wait for inspiration, as it will only come while you’re busy (see 3). 20 is a hard one to get: part of the drive to create is often predicated on a talent in or desire to use a medium. I guess the hardest part is knowing when you’ve found what you’re good at but it wasn’t what you thought it was.

new category: the battle of the bulge

Since I was able to resuscitate that old heartrate monitor, I decided today was a good day to see if it worked. The chestband transmitter that I thought was dead works, if you ensure good conductivity by wetting the skin under it. So off to do the walktest, to determine just how lousy of shape I am in.

In a word, poor, as the results were measured. I’m not sure how accurate it is, since I didn’t do a measured distance of 2km/1.24 miles. I just walked hard for 20 minutes. My rate stayed between 116 and 130 with a gradual downward taper as it went on. They rate that as a “normal-brisk” pace.

I think I may re-do the test and see if this gives me a more useful result. It looks like I was pretty close to my distance, so I could do it again with more precision in a week or so. I’m sure I’ll still rate as “poor” to “very poor,” no matter what.

Exploring more of these tests, I confirm that I am two inches short for my weight, as I always suspected.

So the purpose of this new category is to chronicle the successes and failures of an unambitious, unmotivated person as he tries to lose some table muscle and replace it with the real kind. Sure, I could just “go run” or whatever I see everyone else doing but the only that is going to work is something I can enjoy enough to do regularly. Running is not that thing.

Join in, won’t you?