In the past, I had spent enormous amounts of time searching for a “perfect” theme, so when I put up my technology blog I decided to use a default WordPress theme and be done with it, however, last month Cody McKibben of ThrillingHeroics.com released his awesome (and free!) custom WordPress theme. Solid State Raam was in terrible need of a facelift, so I installed Cody’s theme and spent a little time tweaking it. The new theme seemed to breathe some motivation into writing for the blog, but there was still something missing: a vision.

Incidentally, the installation of the new theme coincided with another event. After explaining the WHOIS system to my dad one evening, I realized that I have a passion for helping others understand the digital world. The WHOIS system is a rather boring subject, even for a geek like me, but I nevertheless found myself explaining it to my dad with great enthusiasm. When I thought back to the other times where I had explained technology to people, I realized that I’ve always been enthusiastic and excited about it, no matter how boring or simple the subject was to me.

With this new understanding of my passion for helping others understand technology, a more clearly defined vision for my technology blog has emerged: A place to not only document my discoveries but to also help others understand the world of technology with which I am so familiar.

The world is filled with evildoers looking to take advantage of those who know very little about technology: identities are stolen, wallets are emptied, and valueless electronic goods are willingly purchased as a result of pure ignorance. Many people are fully aware of their ignorance to technology and, as a result, using technology creates intense frustration. I have often wondered how much more enjoyable the web would be for people if they knew how they could find anything with Google, or if understanding the simple difference between a web browser and an operating system would help prevent them from becoming victims to identity theft.

If I can help alleviate fear, frustration, and ignorance towards technology by simply providing a resource for people to educate themselves, then I will be helping to make the world a better place.

Everyone’s daily life changes from time to time, but the “period of change” I’m referring to affects more than just my personal life and short-term goals. Many other things are simultaneously changing: new blogs, new business ventures, new exercise routines, and even new writing environments and bank accounts. Some of my short-term goals are being completed (skydiving, scuba diving) and energy is being refocused to remaining goals (speed-reading, learning the piano). At the same time, the goals of existing projects (such as this blog) are are being redefined. I feel as though I’m revving up for all these changes and there’s one giant switch that’s about to flip.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to say that I dislike change or that I wish my “plans” weren’t disrupted. Quite to the contrary, I enjoy life throwing me surprises and reminding me that any plan, no matter how perfect, is destined for change. Expecting a plan not to change is guaranteeing myself disappointment. The only things I try to expect are this very moment, the lessons the past has to teach me, and the unpredictable potential the future holds. I’m constantly attempting to harness the power of the moment to augment the future while simultaneously searching for balance in life.

The Open Water Diver course offered by PADI is an entry-level course designed for people who are not familiar with diving. The course provides you with the basic knowledge of skills, equipment, and theory to safely dive to a depth of about 18 meters (60 ft).

Pre-class homework

After signing up for the course, I was given a packet containing the Open Water Diver Manual, the Recreational Dive Planner (RDP), a diver log book, and various other fliers and informational material. I was told I had to read all five chapters in the book and complete all five knowledge reviews before coming into class.

The book material was interesting and covered a wide range of topics, including scuba equipment and usage, the effects of changing air pressure on the human body, and even things like the ocean tides and types of waves. While the book covered more than I expected and left me feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the information, once I understood the concepts and actually got in the water to use the equipment, everything made perfect sense.

Class – Chapter Quizzes and Final Exam

The first four hours of the class consisted of our instructor, Beth, taking turns asking us to read our answers from the knowledge reviews. She then explained any answers we got wrong and made sure we understood the answers. We then took short 10-15 question quizzes on each chapter as we finished reviewing the knowledge reviews. Once again, Beth explained to us any answers we got wrong. The whole quiz process was very informal.

After reviewing and taking multiple-choice quizzes on all five chapters, we took a final exam (also multiple-choice). The final exam was 50 questions, 25% of which consisted of dive table problems.

The dive tables were probably the most difficult part of the coursework, but once you understand how to use them they’re really quite simple. A separate book that came with the RDP explained how to use the dive tables. (The dive tables basically let you figure out how long you can stay at a particular depth underwater and how much time you need to wait before a second or third dive. The longer you’re underwater, the more nitrogen makes its way into your blood. Eventually the nitrogen becomes dangerous to the human body. The dive tables help you avoid the danger by planning your dives within safe limits.)

Once the final exam was done, Beth had me find a BCD and a wetsuit that fit (BCD stands for Buoyancy Control Device; it’s usually a vest that holds the scuba tank and contains inflatable pockets to control your buoyancy in the water). She then had me put all the gear and two scuba tanks in my truck and gave me directions to the pool.

Pool time – Finally in the water!

When I arrived at the pool, Beth told me it was just me and her; the other student said she wasn’t feeling well (she also didn’t do so well on the final exam; she had trouble with the dive tables). After unloading the gear and changing into my bathing suit, I had to do an 8-lap swim in the pool without touching the sides or the bottom, followed by 10 minutes of treading water on the deep end. These tests are required as part of the course and are done to prove fitness and comfort level in the water. You’re allowed as much rest as you need in between the two tests.

Next came the fun part. I learned how to assemble the scuba gear: attaching the scuba tank to the BCD, attaching the first stage of the regulator to the tank, connecting the BCD inflator hose, and finally turning on the air and checking the Submersible Pressure Gauge (SPG). As required by the course, I had to assemble and disassemble the scuba gear a total of five times before the course was over.

The next four hours consisted of various activities of increasing difficulty. I learned how to flood and then clear my mask underwater; how to breathe using an alternate air source; how to make a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA); how to remove the gear under and above water; different methods of entering the water wearing scuba gear; and various other techniques and exercises.

By the end of the night, I was very comfortable with the scuba gear. The diving manual had given me the impression that the equipment was complicated, but once I had used it and seen the purpose of each piece, the equipment was really easy to understand and use.

Normally the pool work would have been spread out over two days, but because it was just me and the instructor, everything went really fast (four hours vs eleven hours!).

Swimming in Real Water

While the confined water dives (in the pool) are an important part of the course, I also need to complete a total of four open water dives to actually get my Open Water Diver certification. The open water dive locations are chosen by the instructor and can be done on a lake or in the ocean.

Unfortunately, I took this course late in the season and winter is fast approaching. This means I will most likely have to do my open water dives next spring. From what the instructor told me, I will basically be doing the same exercises I did in the pool. Each of the four dives must last a minimum of 20 minutes and will most likely be at a depth of 20-30ft.

A few months ago I realized it was getting late in the year and time was running out, so I visited Northeast Scuba, a local dive shop in Chelmsford, MA, and spoke to the guy behind the counter. He explained the Open Water Diver certification offered by PADI allows a diver to use scuba equipment down to 60 feet and that it’s a very popular entry to all other diving certifications offered by PADI, such as Rescue Diver, Deep Diver, Wreck Diver, and Advanced Open Water Diver.

After signing up for the course, I was required to complete homework before coming into the class. There were five chapters in the Open Water Diver manual, each with a knowledge review at the end. After reading the first chapter and completing the first knowledge review, I procrastinated until a day before the class was scheduled and spent eight hours straight (until three in the morning) reading the remaining chapters and completing all the knowledge reviews (not recommended!).

The Open Water Diver manual contained lots of interesting stuff: everything from scuba equipment, to dangers of pressure underwater, to ocean currents and wave types. It did a great job explaining topics that would’ve otherwise been difficult to understand.

The day before I was scheduled to take the class, I sprained my ankle bad enough that I had to reschedule the class. A few days before the rescheduled class, I got a call saying the instructor had an emergency and that the class had to be rescheduled again.

Finally, this past weekend the stars aligned and I took the class. The class took place in the back room of the dive shop and was very small: only myself and another student (an accountant in her mid to late 40s). The quizzes and final exam were easy, but time consuming.

After the classwork, I loaded up my rented scuba gear and two scuba tanks, went on a one hour lunch, and drove to the pool, which was located in a fitness center in Boxboro, MA, about 20 minutes away. When I arrived, I learned that the other student wasn’t coming (she didn’t feel well and had trouble with the dive tables on the final exam), so it was just me an the instructor.

My first breath underwater was pretty much what I had expected. What I had not expected, however, is what came next. After being under for longer than I could hold my breath, I literally felt as though I had entered a new world! When you’re in scuba gear, everything happens in slow motion underwater. Once you obtain neutral buoyancy there is very little affect from gravity; you’re basically weightless. It’s hard to explain how this affects the way you perceive your environment and I think it’s something you have to experience first-hand to really appreciate.

I had so much fun going through all the different diving exercises and learning about all the scuba gear, including how to assemble and disassemble everything. I practiced things like flooding and clearing my mask underwater, various emergency ascents, finding neutral buoyancy, and various methods of entering the water (one big leap, going in backwards off a boat, entering from the shore).

With all my pool work done, I now just need to do four open water dives (in a lake or ocean) to become a certified Open Water Diver. Since it’s so late in the season, there’s a good chance I’ll have to wait until next spring to complete the four open water dives, but once I’ve got my certification, I’m definitely going to work towards other certifications (like the Advanced Open Water Diver and Rescue Diver).

I’ve long suspected that I would love diving and I can already feel myself itching to go back under. I know the confined dives aren’t quite the same as the open water, but I expect the open water to be even more incredible.

One of my 2009 resolutions was to complete the Accelerated Free Fall (AFF) program which meant my first jump would’ve been solo. However, when I called Skydive New England to schedule the AFF jump, they told me the season was over and I’d have to wait until next spring. My girlfriend Jessica had already committed to jumping tandem and, although it was a little hard to accept the change in plans, I quickly got over it and decided to also jump tandem.

“For once you have tasted flight
you will walk the earth
with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been
and there you long to return.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

It was absolutely incredible. We jumped at 12,000 ft. Everything happened so fast and it’s still hard to believe it really happened. The staff at Skydive New England were awesome. Big Jim, the guy I jumped with, was really fun (he has completed over 6,000 jumps!) and the videographer (I forgot her name) was pretty good at getting me to make faces and talk.

I was surprised that I didn’t feel more fear as I jumped out of the plane but I have a suspicion that jumping solo will be a little different. (With tandem, you’re attached to an experienced skydiver who has had thousands of jumps and who pushes the two of you out of the plane. Going solo however, it’s your own muscles that are pushing your body out of the plane.) I’ve already started saving for the entire AFF program (25 jumps) to get my A license next spring (that will allow me to jump solo anywhere for around $20!).

The photos are awesome (click the photo at the top to see the whole album).

I’ve always felt as though everything around me wasn’t real, as if my entire life was just a big elaborate dream. (If you’ve ever had a dream that you knew was a dream, you know how I feel while awake.) I still feel that way, only now I feel like I’m having a dream inside a dream, where in that dream I’m floating in a bubble not sure where I’m going to float to next.

This feeling of the unknown is not something I’m usually comfortable with, but the more time I spent wondering what I should do about it, the more I realized I was missing out on the moment. I am very happy and grateful for where I am now and wasting the moment seems like a horrible thing to do. As I pondered these new events in my life, a little voice in my head began whispering to me, “just run with it and see where it takes you”.

We’re all living in bubbles. We might have an blurry idea of the direction the wind is blowing us, but we really have no clue how we’re going to end up getting there. Each one of us lives a life that we cannot fully predict. We meet people we didn’t know we’d meet; we do things we didn’t think we’d do; we go places that we previously couldn’t have imagined a reason for going. Our bubble floats and bounces around throughout life, eventually bumping into something that makes our physical existence no more. Pop!

But this doesn’t mean we should give up all control and just blow wherever the wind takes us. We should be mindful of the present and humbled by the unpredictability of life. Our ambitions, dreams, and purpose should guide us along the way but not create roadblocks. Our life shouldn’t be rigid and easily upset by unexpected events. Instead, we should allow our life to flow like water.

Embrace unexpected events in life the same way water embraces an obstacle.

My tutor has me practicing several different areas simultaneously. There are seven separate sections but they can roughly be split up into three areas: exercises on the piano, reading and recognizing notes on paper, and rhythm and ear training. The most difficult part for me has been joining these different areas. I can practice stuff on the piano and then stop and read notes on paper, but connecting the notes on the paper to the keys on the piano just doesn’t seem to happen.

Then today, just as I was finishing a one hour practice session and writing down what I had practiced, I had an idea for how I could work on connecting the various areas as I practiced them: I would start using my little music notation notebook (a Moleskin) for keeping track of not only time but the actual notes that I practiced. Instead of just writing “Practiced the D Major scale: 20 min”, I would actually write out the musical notes for the D Major scale that I played and then make a note of how much time I spent practicing them. Making a habit of writing the notes every time would mean automatically strengthening the connection between the notes and the keys that I’m playing.

When you watch a good musician play an instrument, you can tell the instrument has become an extension of him or herself. It has become as familiar and comfortable to them as their own hands and feet. Once that happens, there is no discomfort limiting their ability to create music; the music can just flow through them. Learning a new instrument (especially a first instrument) is basically like adding a new body part to yourself — a third arm or leg. Becoming intimately familiar and comfortable with such a new body part takes a lot of concentrated practice.

I spent about twenty minutes writing notes and playing them at the same time and wow. Everything feels like it’s starting to connect! It’s almost like I finally figured out how to attach nerves to this new body part, instead of just brainlessly moving things around.

On Labor Day, I hiked Mt. Tecumseh, the lowest of the official 48 four thousand footers in NH. The trail starts just below the Waterville Valley ski area base camp (slightly back down the road on the right side, if you’re facing the base camp). The first two miles of the trail were beautiful and well maintained. In some parts, the forest was so lush it felt tropical. After the first lookout (where the above picture was taken), the trail becomes a lot more unforgiving and you’re basically doing stair climbers on rocks for a mile and a half (my thighs ached for days afterwards).

The summit area was extremely lush and the peak offered a nice view. I took a nap at the summit, snapped some pictures of a beautiful sky, watched a mouse scramble out from underneath a rock looking for scraps, and eventually ended back down.

Instead of going back the same way I came, I took the Sosman Trail over to the top of the ski trails. The panoramic view was indescribably stunning, but unfortunately by this time my camera had run out of battery. (I was, however, able to snap two pictures half way down.) Having an unobstructed view from the top all the way down to the base lodge was incredible and being on such a grassy hillside definitely made me feel like I wasn’t in New England anymore. I switched between jogging, walking, and limping down the ski trails. My feet were in a lot of pain from the previous day’s hike and from all the down-angled terrain, but at the same time I wanted to get down faster so the pain would cease.

Date of Hike
2008/09/07

Hiking Time
Total Time (including breaks): 4 hours
Book Time: 3.5 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 9.6 miles

Total Climb
2,328′

On Labor Day weekend, I hiked Mt. Tripyramid, one of the official 48 four thousand footers in NH. The trail starts out with a relatively easy 3 mile walk along Livermore Rd. I went past the South Peak trail and took the North Peak trail instead. This trail went up the very steep North Slide (which is where the above picture was taken from); the rock face was very bare in some spots, requiring me to find cracks in the rock to hold myself down as I climbed. The panoramic view from the North Slide was awesome. The Waterville Valley ski area and Mt. Tecumseh, the mountain I climbed the following day, was clearly visible. There were times on the North Slide where I had no idea where the trail was (stay to the right on the slide!) but it eventually lead to a very dense forest.

Once inside the forest, the trail almost disappeared. There was a spot where I thought the trail branched off to the right, but after getting confused and exploring it, I determined it lead nowhere. The trail continues straight up and off to the left (the maps don’t show this at all) through very dense bushes (you can’t even see the ground while going through them). There was one spot on a rock in the dense bushes where the view opened up to the South.

There weren’t many views from the North Peak. The trail continued along the ridge through thick forest to Middle and finally South Peak. I took the South Slide back down, which had a lot more loose rock, but felt much safer than the very steep North Slide.

After the South Slide, the trail continued through the forest and eventually lead back to Livermore Rd. From there, I had the long 3 mile walk back to the parking lot.

I used a new app on my iPhone called RunKeeper to track my hike using the built-in GPS. You can see elevation, speed, and the route:

Date of Hike
2009/09/06

Hiking Time
Total Time: 5 hours 42 minutes
Book Time: 7 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 10.5 miles

Total Climb
3,289′

I went camping this past Labor Day weekend and bagged three more of the official 48 four-thousand footers in NH, increasing my current total to seven (I did Mt. Hancock and Mt. Osceola almost exactly two years ago on Labor Day weekend of 2007). I hadn’t planned the trails I would hike and it wasn’t until I started reading the trail book that I decided to start tackling the official list of 48. Two posts with details of the hikes will follow this one over the next two days.

Shortly after arriving at my campsite, I accidentally discovered my point-and-shoot camera (an Olympus 770sw) had a macro-mode that allowed me to take some incredible closeups. As you can see from the various flower pictures, I had fun with it (look for more awesome closeups on my last hike when that gets posted).

My excursion lasted four days and three nights, Saturday afternoon through Tuesday morning. The trip was incredibly relaxing and invigorating, more so than I expected. After my second hike on Monday my feet were very, very sore. I pulled off the road, walked down to the river, took off my shirt and shoes, and walked out into the middle of the river. I found a big flat rock and laid in the sun with my bare feet soaking the cold water. It was awesome.

For several days after I returned, I felt strangely different. Relaxed, yes, but also connected — connected to everything around me and at total peace. It was a deep inner relaxation and peace. Why didn’t I feel that way every time I returned from camping? The last time I remembered feeling like that I had also been gone for three nights, so perhaps that had something to do with it. Or maybe I was able to relax a little more than usual because I had made it clear to everyone that I was really going to be off-the-grid and unavailable. Whatever the case, it was incredible. If three nights can do that much, I can’t help but wonder what six months hiking the Appalachian Trail must do to a person.