more American every day

Yesterday I learned that in the US, pineapples are not “tinned” – they are “canned.”  I feel more assimilated every day.

Unfortunately, canned pineapples have lost most of what’s healthy about them:  the compound bromelain.  On the bright side, frozen pineapples, such as those I use to sweeten my green smoothies, do retain their full complement of bromelain.

Come over, and I’ll make a green smoothie for you.  Pineapples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, kiwi, mangos, chia, home-made-yogurt, a date, maybe,  and a whole lot of greens … mmm good (for you)!

Borderline day

No no no – it’s been a great day!  Progressed on the job front, ate good food over good conversation, saw friends, bought greens for my smoothie.  But I can’t recall when the weather last changed so often from sunny to cold and overcast and back.  Driving around town, my hand seemed to hover over the dashboard, switching between AC and heat every few minutes.

Such a labile temperament, I’m told, defines the “Borderline Personality Disorder.”  In human beings, that is, not the weather gods.

To learn more, I borrowed a book on BPD:  Stop Walking on Eggshells. Hope it includes some good stories.  I live for anecdotes.

I’m reading a book called What I Wish I Knew [sic] When I Was 20. Worse yet, I’m enjoying it – getting some good insights.

What is the point of grammar anyway?  Looking at my last post, and then this one, I realize I’m coming across as quite a fuddy duddy, like the nun who rapped you over the knuckles when you broke some rule of conduct.

Are there no standards any more?!  There, just broke one of my own standards – to avoid the verb “to be” in reference to a non-existent standard.  I suppose I should feel better.  Feel closer to the hoi polloi.

Programming, or mathematics, needs to be precise down to the last semi-colon or equal sign.  Well, unless you work for Microsoft.  I realize that natural language, and more generally, human interactions, are less precise.  And allow for more subtlety of expression.  But … is there no longer “right” and “wrong”?!  (My last writing instructor disliked my use of ellipses – said they were a lazy substitution for a thought that would better be expressed in words on the page.  Gotta be better about that.)

What’s in a name?

My chiropractor is a genius, or a miracle-worker.  His methods of diagnosis defy scientific explanation:  ”lift [my] arm against pressure.  Now look up and left, and lift it again.”  Different result!  And that’s just a mild example – far from the most outrageous.

The guy can relieve severe back pain in a single visit – he’s done it for me, and for others I know.  It’s not just mumbo-jumbo – he understands something - more than the highly overpaid MDs I try to avoid seeing.

But you know why I have a hard time with the field of medicine we’re discussing?  Well, Dr. Moreno is a “chiropractor.”  So, does he practice “chiropraction”?  ”Chiropathy”?  No!  They called it “chiropractic”!  ChiropractIC?!   That’s not a noun, that’s an adjective.  A discipline of medicine should be a noun!  Look it up, people!

I cringe every time I see that horrible word.  It’s worse than Jinky, or <censored>.  What a terrible shame.

Please, the next time you have a world-changing invention, give some thought to the branding.  Better yet, call me.

writing for myself

No more writing class.  The job search is heating up, and I have way too many interesting tasks on my to do list.  After a great first few sessions, the energy level in class dropped off - even the instructor seemed to lose interest in us. Fine, I’ll let him return to his poetry.

I prefer blogging, frankly – prefer an exploration of ideas that doesn’t need to devolve to the relentless self-flagellation of “memoir.”  And some day I’d like to write for The Onion, or Shouts and Murmurs, but I don’t believe that’s a style of writing Stanford would deign to teach.

In other good news, I’ve finally got around to starting my behavioral economics blog, and will link to it as soon as I have a respectable number of posts, as well as Google Analytics up and running.

Most of all, I think I like to write for myself.  To answer another criticism, yeah, I guess I am happy with “pretty.”

over the speed limit

Today I unexpectedly ran 12.5 miles, bringing my total for the week to almost 56, my highest ever.  10-milers are beginning to seem commonplace – now to run them just a bit faster.

The marathon is four weeks from today, and my goal is to finish in three hours and twenty minutes (3:20), to qualify to run in next year’s Boston Marathon.  I’ve been trying to figure out how that might happen.

A common rule of thumb is to predict marathon time by doubling one’s half marathon time and adding ten minutes.  I finished my latest (and only) half in 1:39:51 – call it 1:40.  So, (1:40 * 2) plus ten minutes equals 3:30.  Hmmm, did I do that right?  Yeah.

So that leaves me with an apparent deficit of ten minutes to close.  Let’s do some accounting.  Caveat:  this will not be double-entry bookkeeping.  We will be looking at one side of the ledger only.  And I’m fine with that.

A ten minute deficit, is that right?  Well, actually, we’re given 59 seconds slack, so my effective qualifying time is 3:20:59, or 3:21 for short.  Deficit down to 9 minutes.

The attentive reader will recall that I ran my half marathon with a very bad cold.   At 100%, I would have done better.  How much better?  Let’s say 3 minutes, or 1:37.  That’s partly a made up number, partly my original pre-race and pre-cold estimate, and it’s a bit slower than the finishing time of my friend Mark, who passed me at Mile 10.  Doubling the 3 minute savings here helps us by 6 minutes on the full marathon, leaving a deficit of just 3 minutes.

I’ll be running the marathon with a pace group, which will prevent me from making the classic going-out-too-fast mistake.  That’s worth at least 1 minute.  (Very possibly more.)  Deficit down to 2.

About that pace group:  the psychological benefit of a pace setter, especially for the last 10 miles, has got to be worth at least 1 minute.  (Possibly  more.)  Deficit down to 1 minute.

By race day, I’ll have had 9 additional post-half marathon training weeks, including 5 weeks of 50+ miles.  That’s worth 2 minutes.  (Probably more.)  Whoa – we’re looking at 3:19!

Alexander Technique lessons are beginning to sink in, and I can feel my posture improving by the week.  That will help stave off late race fatigue.  1 more minute.  3:18!

Last but not least, the flexibility and strength I’m gaining from my P90X and (soon) Hip Helpers workouts have got to be worth another minute.  3:17!

Looks like this race is going to be easier than I’d expected.

Ain’t math great?!

good to see you … again?

This evening I went to an old friend’s birthday party.  It was a good show – excellent, actually.  Food, dancing, company – all super.

During the course of the evening, I was warmly greeted by name by several total strangers, ranging from an attractive young woman to a large man or three.

They weren’t strangers, of course – we’d met.  Only they seemed to remember me quite well, and I recalled them not at all.  (Given context, I usually remember people and conversations – just not faces.)

This sort of thing happens to me often.  To be more precise, I find out about it often – for all I know, countless other times the other person may have left an unacknowledged encounter silently, and puzzled or offended.

When you have fifth (or was it tenth?) percentile powers of observation, leaving the house can be a scary experience.  So as not to offend familiar strangers, I’m working on my deer in the headlights look; I think I’ve softened it to the “first time visitor to Japanese supermarket” stare, and am working to get to “child unsure which letter is ‘b’ and which ‘d’” gaze.

I’m looking forward to the day computer technology solves this problem.  For now, I think I’ll start a petition to legislate name tags.

doing is …

I’m repeatedly amazed how much I learn by doing.  The act of writing, for instance, produces ideas that are just as surprising and new to me as they might be to an outside reader.  It’s a strong argument in favor of action; I  need to overcome my past bias in favor of contemplation and preparation, which you can do till the cows come home without getting much accomplished.

Doing is learning from myself, and even beyond that lies the benefit of others adding their thoughts and momentum to a train once I’ve set it in motion.

All of which is to say:  whether it’s a job search or a new company, I should stop reading books about how to do it, and make something happen, however rough-hewn.  ”Perfection is the enemy of the good,” and good would be good enough.

This has been a self-inspirational blog post.

onward

Thanks to some diligent sleuthing by a fan, my chief detractor has been thoroughly and conclusively debunked, and my faith in my writing is renewed.  Thanks, fan!

Now to do something with this blog, which not only means committing to write more regularly – when have we heard that before? – but may also mean splitting it up into two or more blogs.  Apparently, to attract readership beyond one’s immediate friends, one needs to write on a theme.  When I have my MBA hat on, the advice to focus is exactly what I most often give business owners, yet it is so difficult to apply to myself.  Like the others, I think I can do it all.

A blog, perhaps, devoted to running?  The marathon is coming up.  My feet are pink and tender after running 14 miles today, though a 21-miler on the same course last week caused no such problems.  Interesting.

One on behavioral economics and marketing, which will require some application of my left brain, and should be “employer-friendly.”

And the remainder, for my friends, and the free exploration of ideas.

more turmeric

I just spotted a repetition in my blog.  I knew it was inevitable, but I’d hoped it wouldn’t be quite this soon.  I increasingly find myself unable to identify music – more precisely, to name bands whose albums I own and really enjoy!  I’m going to have to up my intake of turmeric, which is said to stave off mental decline.  Hope it’s not too late.  So if my teeth, hands and shirt seem yellow, it’s for a good cause.