Afternoon Eddy

It began with a song that popped into my mind, without warning and without precursor. A song from my childhood, sitting in the living room in front of the record player. A fun song to be sure, and a bonus because it had my name:


From there it went to a handful of other Jim Croce songs, and then following the trail YouTube laid out before me like Reese's Pieces, I fell into old favorites by Crosby, Stills and Nash, America, Seals and Croft, and the Eagles. I even hit The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel (I like the cannon-shot sounds at the end).

I have a soft spot for songs of that era that tell stories, as I may have mentioned on previous posts on John Denver and Tom T. Hall. I was tempted to indulge in a certain Cat Stevens song, but as I have an idea for a future post involving that song and the memory of an old blue Mustang, I stayed clear of the silver spoon and the man in the moon.

I'm not sure anything productive came out of this afternoon's eddy, and I suppose that's okay. It may even be the point. But it is advisable to keep moving, so life won't pass me by.

A Change of Pace

I am not a runner. I've never enjoyed pounding the pavement, or the strain it puts on my knock-knees. I'll gladly run bases on a ball field, but running for the sake of running? Not my favorite thing to do. I have run on occasion though. There was the time one of my college roommates convinced me to go run with him at the university track. There was a whole summer right after graduating college, where I ran about a mile every other day or so to get in shape for a month-long mission trip to Brazil. And then there was an event almost 4 years ago, down at Disney, called the Race for the Taste. In an attempt to spur interest in my then almost 10-yr old son in running as a physical activity, we trained for a couple of months to run a simple 3K fun run at Epcot. That was in 2009.

Today, I hit the track for the first time since that 3K race.

I am still not a runner. Back in late January, I realized to my chagrin that a change of pace was required. One random morning, I stood on the scale and discovered that I was as heavy as I had ever been in my life. Call it a mid-life revelation or whatever you want, but I realized that at my age, if I didn't start to get control of this thing, I never would. I don't know if it is really true that it is harder to get in shape and stay that way once you hit your 40s, but true or not, I resolved that something had to change. And in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about all the races my brother-in-law and sister-in-law have run, the bib numbers they wear, the pictures of runners, walkers and woggers at the finish line. But I had some work to do first before I could even think about running.

The first step was to get my eating habits under control. Taking a tip from my wife, I started tracking my food using MyFitnessPal.com. Counting calories in this fashion allowed me to see what I was eating, and to make better choices about what I ate. Like cutting way down on sodas. Giving up my twice-a-week Taco Bell habit. Going grilled instead of fried. And it seems to have worked so far, for the weight has come off. Since the beginning of February, I'm down 27 pounds. This is important, because getting this weight off makes the next phase of this current fitness kick a little easier. I also decided to take advantage of some modern technology, and got a Fitbit. The idea here was to simply track my steps. I started parking farther from the door at work or wherever I happened to be, just to burn that little bit more. The Fitbit tracks my steps and syncs to MyFitnessPal. Being confronted with the data daily has had a remarkable impact on my eating discipline. I go over my calorie goals every now and then, to be sure, but far less often than before I tracked it. And I feel better. In fact, I haven't had a serious migraine in 5 months. Hmm.

My strategy has been simple. Phase 1 - change my eating habits and get some weight off in preparation for Phase 2. Phase 2 - get in shape. Just because I weigh less doesn't mean I'm in shape. Phase 2 will involve moderate weight training (Bowflex dumbells and a bench), and yes, running. The stamina has to come from somewhere, and because I have a desk job, I need something active that keeps me in motion. I could buy a bike, I suppose, and maybe someday I will. For now, running seems the most straightforward option. Getting in shape is the goal, moreso than arriving at any particular weight. I can live with being above my so-called ideal weight if I am "in shape." But I need a marker, something to shoot for, if I'm going to be successful in Phase 2.

I'm not a runner, but that fact notwithstanding, my goal is to be well prepared to do a 5K race by early fall. To help myself train, I bought a Garmin Forerunner 10, a GPS watch that tracks my run and allows me to see the results online. To make it more fun, the Garmin also syncs to my Fitbit account and thus to MyFitnessPal. I'm hoping that being able to easily capture and see the data will help in my discipline the same way counting calories has.

So this morning, I hit the track. My objective: two miles using a run/walk approach at 1 minute intervals. It was early, about 64 degrees and a bit muggy, and I had the track to myself for most of the run. I managed 2.09 miles in 28 minutes, using the run/walk method. This was bookended by additional .25 mile warm-up and cool down laps (walking).

When I got home, I uploaded the data from the Garmin got some really interesting data.

This is actually pretty neat stuff. And what's better, I actually feel okay, post-run. I had a protein bar prior to the run, and a small bottle of Gatorade G2 to replenish electrolytes after the run.

I'm not entirely sure when the next run will be. But I imagine it will need to be soon. In the meantime, I'll be happy with today's effort. But I still attest that I am not a runner. At least, not yet.

42

The answer of course.


Now, what was the actual question?

Terms and Conditions

And the berries just keep blooming on the weed. A month ago, we were all talking anew about Benghazi, the IRS, the DOJ and the Associated Press, and the EPA. Now we have all of those plus the NSA and the State Department (again). Probably the only thing that surprises me at this point is the fact that these are being both investigated and reported. It is enough that I'm looking for a peaceful place on the internet to get away from all these stories, because even as a political junkie, it's getting harder to ignore the fact that the social compact between citizen and Government is taking some severe blows to the head. If there is such a safe haven, let me know so that I can buy some virtual real estate there.

Let's throw out some obvious truisms: "He who controls the information, controls the world." "Knowledge is power." Where does this information come from? It comes from us. We provide it willingly every time we sign our name to a form, click the box to accept "Terms and Conditions" from whatever service requires our registration, or otherwise entrust our personal information, numbers, emails, and SSNs to anyone who asks. It is an incredible act of trust to turn over our information in the hopes that the recipient of that information (corporate or government) will keep it private and use it only for the explicitly stated purpose for which it was required. But we do it, because we like our social media, we like our smart technologies, we like being able to see the doctor, have insurance, drive a car, go fishing, run a business, and be employed. To receive the requisite privileges, we are required to pay with our money and our personal information. We are by definition complicit, because we agree to these terms.

Are we due certain protections? I'd like to think so. But the fact that abuses occur like that of the IRS and possibly the NSA should surprise no one. And sadly, it is not at all clear that these abuses are technically illegal, although it may feel like they should be. The truth is that this oh-so-glorious Information Age has accelerated the evolution of the modern Surveillance State. Our information is no longer our own, and quite frankly, once you turn it over you can never get it back. You will never be able to elect a single politician who will champion, much less succeed, in rolling back the Surveillance State. The siren song of data is too alluring, too powerful, too deafening to be silenced. The citizen can at best minimize their exposure, but even this offers little protection.

I don't know how all of this is going to play out. There will be Congressional hearings, a season of wailing and gnashing, and quite possibly a major breakdown somewhere within the homeland and foreign security apparatus. But after a time, we'll all go back to our Facebook, our Twitter, our smartphones and our digital lives. Maybe we'll be a little wiser, or maybe not.

Why? Because we've already accepted the terms and conditions. The modern age is shiny. And we do like our shiny things. Unfortunately, so does he:

Been a Little Busy

Sorry for the infrequent posting here lately - lots of distractions are occupying my time these days, not the least of which is the effort to get the house completely finished so that we can once and for all sign our name and initials a thousand times on a set of mortgage papers. Things at work have also been a bit draining. In the end, while things are going okay, there simply hasn't been enough left in the tank for writing the past couple of months.

I hope to get to the point where I can stop, take a deep breath, and capture my thoughts. How soon I can get back into a rhythm, I'm not sure. But I'll get there. I thank you for your patience.

I'm attending the annual meeting of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church this week. During tonight's opening worship, we sang a hymn based on "O Waly Waly", an old, old folk song I wrote about here. Such a lovely, haunting tune, and now as I lay me down to sleep, its sweet melancholy strains are repeating in my mind over and over and over again. I suppose there are worse ways to fall asleep.

Peace to you all. I'll be back at this in a few days.