Hello all,
As you may have notice my blog ha changed names and directions. As some of you may know I am currently in training for the Tri Hawks Triathlon in september. As such I will be documenting the training process as it goes. So here we go...
Training start date: June 10 2009 Wt 240 lbs, average weekly exercise to this point 1 hour
We got home from "vacation" and training started!!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
on uniqueness....
Per a friends post on the popularity of names, specifically your name and how unique it is. I was set off pondering this question, "How unique am I in the big picture?" In other words how many people has there been? Ever?
Fortunately I am not the first to think of or attempt to answer this question. The people at PRB, the Population Reference Bureau, have a fairly interesting, if not greatly speculative estimate.
But on the up side, our current life expectancy is around 79 or 80 years. For the better part of history, those first 50 or 60 millenniums it was 10. So we are getting "more" life then before, around 29000 days to kick back and soak it up. Also birth rates were through the roof just to survive so most of your time was spent simply trying to get your children to breeding age.
Another great thing to ponder is the idea that, in the words of Jim Morrison, "There will never be another one like you. There will never be another one who will do the things you do..." 106 billion individual life experiences, however short, different in every conceivable way. And also the same in so many ways. 106 billion people born, cared for, raised, falling in love, makin' babies, who are born, cared for, raised, fall in love... You get the idea.
So I guess all this info just makes me feel better about my individuality. It also takes some of the pressure off. We put a premium on our sense of "originality", or 'individuality". We stress over getting it right being unique. "Uniqueness" it seems, comes with being alive and aware in the first place. And even if you totally flop it don't worry your only .000000000009%, you won't drag down the grade too much!
"I just want to be different like all the other Different Kids, I'm still looking for that store at the mall that "ME".
Later J
Fortunately I am not the first to think of or attempt to answer this question. The people at PRB, the Population Reference Bureau, have a fairly interesting, if not greatly speculative estimate.
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx
Their tally, 106 BILLION people since the dawn of Homo Sapiens Sapiens. 6.8 billion as of now meaning 5.8% of all humans ever are alive right now... So that's a lot of people. Like you are 0.000000000009% of the total human experience of life on earth. How you feeling now BIG MAN?But on the up side, our current life expectancy is around 79 or 80 years. For the better part of history, those first 50 or 60 millenniums it was 10. So we are getting "more" life then before, around 29000 days to kick back and soak it up. Also birth rates were through the roof just to survive so most of your time was spent simply trying to get your children to breeding age.
Another great thing to ponder is the idea that, in the words of Jim Morrison, "There will never be another one like you. There will never be another one who will do the things you do..." 106 billion individual life experiences, however short, different in every conceivable way. And also the same in so many ways. 106 billion people born, cared for, raised, falling in love, makin' babies, who are born, cared for, raised, fall in love... You get the idea.
So I guess all this info just makes me feel better about my individuality. It also takes some of the pressure off. We put a premium on our sense of "originality", or 'individuality". We stress over getting it right being unique. "Uniqueness" it seems, comes with being alive and aware in the first place. And even if you totally flop it don't worry your only .000000000009%, you won't drag down the grade too much!
"I just want to be different like all the other Different Kids, I'm still looking for that store at the mall that "ME".
Later J
Thursday, April 16, 2009
I wish I had a tail...
Yesterday and today at lunch our conversation curiously turned to the prospect of a human tail.
Colleague 1: I'll have to get my tail removed.
Colleague 2: You have a tail?
Colleague 1: Well not a "real" tail
Colleague 3: Well actually we all have a "tail" bone
Myself I've heard of cases where people do in fact have tails.
Colleague 2: Oh yeah, I think I heard that too!
Myself If you had a tail, what kind of tail would you want???
Anyway this is standard fair at our lunch table as we all attempt to shy away from the business of the day. I like to think that my profound ability to BS and my fairly creative mind aid in our discussions taking, while sometimes odd, very interesting detours.
Well to answer my own question, which i did in the course of the conversation,
I would like a long prehensile tail. A South American sail as one colleague pointed out. It would be most use full in making sculpture to have that one extra hand like appendage. However the golden retriever tail is a close second as it is as useful for expressing emotions as the human face and does not require someone to make eye contact to do so. I mean if you see me from behind and your coming up you'll know if you want to interrupt me or steer clear by a simple glance at my posterior appendage.
So there it is,
What kind of tail would you want to have?
JR
Colleague 1: I'll have to get my tail removed.
Colleague 2: You have a tail?
Colleague 1: Well not a "real" tail
Colleague 3: Well actually we all have a "tail" bone
Myself I've heard of cases where people do in fact have tails.
Colleague 2: Oh yeah, I think I heard that too!
Myself If you had a tail, what kind of tail would you want???
Anyway this is standard fair at our lunch table as we all attempt to shy away from the business of the day. I like to think that my profound ability to BS and my fairly creative mind aid in our discussions taking, while sometimes odd, very interesting detours.
Well to answer my own question, which i did in the course of the conversation,
I would like a long prehensile tail. A South American sail as one colleague pointed out. It would be most use full in making sculpture to have that one extra hand like appendage. However the golden retriever tail is a close second as it is as useful for expressing emotions as the human face and does not require someone to make eye contact to do so. I mean if you see me from behind and your coming up you'll know if you want to interrupt me or steer clear by a simple glance at my posterior appendage.
So there it is,
What kind of tail would you want to have?
JR
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
We are the Champions!!!
Well it was a hard one purple T-shirt, but, the Faculty Basketball team pulled out the win in the final round of the tournament tonight! This was the third time we met this team as it was a double elimination tourny. Tonight was it one of us had to win it all, and Brains and wisdom did infact out class youth and vigor! 23 to 11!!! Needless to say the Faculty took no pleasure in the win and certainly did not imply that the students were weak or un worthy of our presense....
Well actually "WE WIN YOU LOOSE< NANNER NANNER!!!"
I love it!
Well actually "WE WIN YOU LOOSE< NANNER NANNER!!!"
I love it!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Homeward bound!
As most of you know My wife left me...For the week and went to spend some much needed time with friends. This left me alone with Addie and my Mom for a week. I must say I missed her very much. I would get 2 or 3 calls a day, but I really don't like to talk on the phone with someone I miss, it just makes it worse. On the upside my Mother took care of Addie and I was able to work in my art studio for a solid week with little distraction and was able to complete a new outdoor sculpture in a little under 2 weeks, a new personal best!
As the week went on I started to realize how much i depended on Chrissy. Not for the cooking(LOL) or her domestic mastery, or for keepng track of all the things i misplace... But for her conversation. As I said I didn't have much to say on the phone, and honestly I like the long chat when you get back together about all the things that happened while you were apart. But I realized she is an integral part of my thinking and doing process, she sits and glazes over and absorbes my mindless rambelings and in doing so helps me figure out what to do, and for this I am eternally grateful.
So at last she is coming home, should be there when I get home from work and that is a very good thing, I think, we'll need to discuss it!
As the week went on I started to realize how much i depended on Chrissy. Not for the cooking(LOL) or her domestic mastery, or for keepng track of all the things i misplace... But for her conversation. As I said I didn't have much to say on the phone, and honestly I like the long chat when you get back together about all the things that happened while you were apart. But I realized she is an integral part of my thinking and doing process, she sits and glazes over and absorbes my mindless rambelings and in doing so helps me figure out what to do, and for this I am eternally grateful.
So at last she is coming home, should be there when I get home from work and that is a very good thing, I think, we'll need to discuss it!
Monday, March 16, 2009
100,000.8
Well its done...
This actually went down as a great birthday! This last week was my schools spring break and it felt like I really had time to take stock and enjoy my birthday week.
It was rocky to start but the fam really helped out by taking the kids out of the equation and giving Chrissy and I some much needed adult time together. The weekend was also boosted by the ever nostalgic return to our old High school(now a middle school) for Chrissy's triumphant return to the floor as a Voyager. I had way more fun than I should have watching her practice in the kitchen all week between naps and feedings. In her glorious fashion she waited until she had just enough time to learn it(only took an hour or so) and I must say, 13 years and 2 kids later she was awesome and you ladies out there should be disgusted!
The trip down memory lane was aided by a trip to a local bar in Vinton where libations and stories flowed easily, a great birthday eve!
Saturday was marked by my daughters greatest gift, sleeping in! cake and presents followed. I finally received my long awaited guitar this year! For those who don't know I have been asking for one for every major gift giving holiday for 6 years and finally it was my time! And it didn't stop there! My wife takes these things very seriously, so I have a guitar, stand, picks, how to DVD and book lessons, an encyclopedia of chords, and the piece De la resistance "The essential J R Cash" song book. How can I fail!
The afternoon saw us out to a movie (boring to some but a rare commodity in our house) The "watchmen" did not disappoint, however anyone looking for a action packed comic book thriller be warned! The psychological intensity of an early montage of the film set to Dylan's Times are a changing almost brought me to tears.
Now on to the main event!!!
Here Ye, Here Ye,
The greatest display of St. Patrick's debauchery this side of Southey is, (imagine drum role) PETERSBURG IA!
It was insane. Starting just afternoon the annual St P's Bike Ride from Dyersville to Petersburg was underway. As we sat in the living room we watched as green clad, tutu wearing, beer drinking, bead toting, crazy hat sporting revelers pedaled past our house to the local community hall and the local bar for a "pit stop" before either sleeping it of in a lawn or perilously trekking back in to D ville. We made it out to the Hall and witnessed a great small town tradition, the ridiculously drunken hillbilly dance party! Needless to say the invites are out for next year, these people definitely follow the work hard play hard mantra!
Til later
J
This actually went down as a great birthday! This last week was my schools spring break and it felt like I really had time to take stock and enjoy my birthday week.
It was rocky to start but the fam really helped out by taking the kids out of the equation and giving Chrissy and I some much needed adult time together. The weekend was also boosted by the ever nostalgic return to our old High school(now a middle school) for Chrissy's triumphant return to the floor as a Voyager. I had way more fun than I should have watching her practice in the kitchen all week between naps and feedings. In her glorious fashion she waited until she had just enough time to learn it(only took an hour or so) and I must say, 13 years and 2 kids later she was awesome and you ladies out there should be disgusted!
The trip down memory lane was aided by a trip to a local bar in Vinton where libations and stories flowed easily, a great birthday eve!
Saturday was marked by my daughters greatest gift, sleeping in! cake and presents followed. I finally received my long awaited guitar this year! For those who don't know I have been asking for one for every major gift giving holiday for 6 years and finally it was my time! And it didn't stop there! My wife takes these things very seriously, so I have a guitar, stand, picks, how to DVD and book lessons, an encyclopedia of chords, and the piece De la resistance "The essential J R Cash" song book. How can I fail!
The afternoon saw us out to a movie (boring to some but a rare commodity in our house) The "watchmen" did not disappoint, however anyone looking for a action packed comic book thriller be warned! The psychological intensity of an early montage of the film set to Dylan's Times are a changing almost brought me to tears.
Now on to the main event!!!
Here Ye, Here Ye,
The greatest display of St. Patrick's debauchery this side of Southey is, (imagine drum role) PETERSBURG IA!
It was insane. Starting just afternoon the annual St P's Bike Ride from Dyersville to Petersburg was underway. As we sat in the living room we watched as green clad, tutu wearing, beer drinking, bead toting, crazy hat sporting revelers pedaled past our house to the local community hall and the local bar for a "pit stop" before either sleeping it of in a lawn or perilously trekking back in to D ville. We made it out to the Hall and witnessed a great small town tradition, the ridiculously drunken hillbilly dance party! Needless to say the invites are out for next year, these people definitely follow the work hard play hard mantra!
Til later
J
Friday, March 6, 2009
3 decades down...
Well as some of you surely know my birthday is fast approaching. 7 more days and the tens place on my odometer will chunk over another digit... To me this is a little like watching the old family car roll 99,999.9 here it comes, the anticipation.... 100,000 miles whoo hoo who'd have thought our old car would roll 100,000 miles. Where have we been driving? Think of all the places we must have went... Work, home, work, 2 to 3 treks to iowa from Massachusettes a year. That 3600 miles treking through Colorado, Wyoming...
All to quickly the reminicing is replaced with...Well crap now our car is officially old, the kelly blue book just dropped like a rock, and that new car smell is definately replaced with that what the hell did we throw under the seat smell???
While my wife lovingly assures me men become more attractive as they age, and the ladies at the grocery store still like to card me for boose(they ask if I wouldn't mind so they look diligent to their bosses) I can't help but notice it takes a few more days to recover from a basketball game than it should...
I'm not really that pesamistic, I know the best is yet to come. All and all I'm doing well. I weigh less now than when I graduated College, I eat healthier, I travel more, I am in better shape.
But I am also in limbo. I'm not a new car with all the cool stuff, and I am not that well maintianed classic either. I'm that 85 Dodge Omni that has been way to taken care of waiting to come back into style.
In the background this birthday is a little bittersweet to me. My father passed away at the ripe old age of 62, which means next year I will be half his age and I can't help but wonder if he thought it was half over on his 31st birthday??? I know I am not at risk or as unhealthy as my father. I have learned a lot from the examples before me but I think when ever a tens spot turns over you have to double it and think. Where will you be then, will you have done as much as you have up till now? Or more. I know for me the goal is to do more, live more, love more.
It's a tall order but who better to fill it!
JR
All to quickly the reminicing is replaced with...Well crap now our car is officially old, the kelly blue book just dropped like a rock, and that new car smell is definately replaced with that what the hell did we throw under the seat smell???
While my wife lovingly assures me men become more attractive as they age, and the ladies at the grocery store still like to card me for boose(they ask if I wouldn't mind so they look diligent to their bosses) I can't help but notice it takes a few more days to recover from a basketball game than it should...
I'm not really that pesamistic, I know the best is yet to come. All and all I'm doing well. I weigh less now than when I graduated College, I eat healthier, I travel more, I am in better shape.
But I am also in limbo. I'm not a new car with all the cool stuff, and I am not that well maintianed classic either. I'm that 85 Dodge Omni that has been way to taken care of waiting to come back into style.
In the background this birthday is a little bittersweet to me. My father passed away at the ripe old age of 62, which means next year I will be half his age and I can't help but wonder if he thought it was half over on his 31st birthday??? I know I am not at risk or as unhealthy as my father. I have learned a lot from the examples before me but I think when ever a tens spot turns over you have to double it and think. Where will you be then, will you have done as much as you have up till now? Or more. I know for me the goal is to do more, live more, love more.
It's a tall order but who better to fill it!
JR
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
