Out and About

Third Reich by the Numbers

2010-01-04T22:25:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a few "games" of Third Reich lately. Here are my stats:

Number of turns played: 7.5
Number of first turns played: 3
Number of games that lasted past 1940: 1
Number of times the US has entered the war: 0

I get the feeling that this is far from unusual.

Marathon Redux

2009-10-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should write something to remember this.

I ran the 2009 Portland Marathon with Ryan and Scott.

I got a time of 5:45:53, my worst time yet.

The only firm conclusion I can reasonably come to is that my poor performance is due to a catastrophic lack of training and conditioning. Given the training regimen I have undertaken in other, recent, endurance events, I think this will be my last marathon until I demonstrate a significantly greater willingness to train at an appropriate level.

Speakers I have seen recently

2009-10-09T00:13:00.000-07:00

29 Sep 2009: Mark Anderson

One of the curious things I noticed about Anderson is that he had a really, really long introduction with lots and lots of accomplishments he claimed. Right off the bat, this left me with a bad taste in my mouth; I tend to believe that people who rely on credentials don't have a lot to offer - perhaps a failing of mine.

He believed in some but not all progressive causes, specifically, yes to global warming and national health care; no to peak oil. He made the case that a lot of what might be called cultural collapse is due to a lack of national health care.

The format may have limited him, but Anderson didn't offer much proof for many of the assertions he made (Australia is a hot country, China is hot but more risky than most think, Boeing is completely screwed, etc.). There was a projector running, but Anderson didn't really use slides - a few graphs sprinkled into the talk would have significantly boosted his credibility in my eyes.

Anderson gave a short talk about the state of the US economy - a good chunk of which followed predictable progressive narratives. The places he departed seemed less intelligible to me.

01 Oct 2009: Michael J Sandel

The intro to the talk was mostly fluff bragging - Sandel has a TV show, etc.

The actual talk was quite good. There was a very brief introduction to some basic concepts from Aristotle to prime the audience and then we dove into contemporary politics.

After a slow start, people were practically champing at the bit to offer their opinions of current events. Sandel did a very nice job of continually tying each event back to larger philosophical questions, demonstrating that behind almost every substantive question there are larger questions lurking in the background.

One particularly interesting part of the talk was when Sandel brought up gay marriage. He asked for volunteers to oppose recognizing gay marriage from an admittedly thin group of people who raised their hands in opposition. Every single person who "opposed" gay marriage didn't actually oppose it, they generally just opposed the state being involved in the institution of marriage at all. Nevertheless, every person who stood up to oppose gay marriage prefaced their comment with something to the effect of "I know I'm setting myself up to be a target".

I got to ask a question of Sandel - lightly paraphrasing, I asked him, "In all cases I know of marriage originates from within a deontological ethical framework. Why do you feel confident using consequentialist techniques to analyze it?" Sandel basically punted on my question, perhaps rightly, instead saying that the best way to do philosophy is to constantly connect it to real world concerns instead of starting in abstractions and moving towards the real world gradually.

Although I think he handled the question well as a speaker, and perhaps even appropriately, I certainly felt a bit of disappointment; I consider this question to be one of the most important and fundamental questions that society faces today.

08 Oct 2009: Richard Dawkins

There was an extremely excessively long introduction, which had nothing much to do with Dawkins himself, but basically pimped all of the various organizations affiliated with the event - probably 6 or 7 in total. It took somewhere on the order of 20 minutes to get through the whole thing, which was pretty silly.

The actual talk consisted largely of Dawkins reading extensively from his new book the Greatest Show on Earth and then answering questions.

Dawkins starts out reading part of the introduction of the book which claims that the book isn't an attack on religion but merely an attempt to conclusively prove evolution. In his next breath, he manages to put that notion to rest, citing various statistics about creationists. To my eyes, it would have made his book more professional and less combative if he has left those bits out and focused on the proof, but he has been in the fight long enough it is sometime difficult to give up comfortable enemies.

Dawkins fielded questions pretty well. He seemed relatively realistic about the possibility of convincing various sorts of religious people (although, to my mind, not realistic enough). Towards the end he was asked to give an elevator pitch to convince someone of evolution. I don't think he seemed to understand the concept.

By far the most interesting part of the talk was the very end. Someone asked the question, "Do you celebrate Christmas, and if not, what do you do?"

Dawkins' answer seemed quite normal and sensible - he said he is a "Cultural Christian" (after noting the curiosity that atheist Jews call themselves Jews and atheist Christians call themselves atheists), and that while he wouldn't particularly go out of his way to celebrate Christmas, that he does indeed celebrate and that it is a pleasant thing to do with friends and family. Lastly, he made a comment to the effect that he is glad that he lives in a society that is culturally Christian and that it is much better than the alternative, particularly compared to some places that are being invaded like France - clearly implying Islam.

Walking through the crowd on the way home there was quite a bit of chatter about that last bit - if he doesn't watch himself, Dawkins will end up like James Watson.

Interestingly enough, in his talk, Dawkins mentions that the US in the 18th century was significantly less progressive than it is today. I'm surprised he hasn't extrapolated forward. For his sake, I hope Dawkins isn't depending on his eminence to save him.

Marathon Training

2009-09-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

I just discovered that I can speed walk an 8 minute time.

I've revised my goals: I just want to do a marathon in under 4 hours. A 4 hour marathon would require 9 minute, 9.5 second miles the entire way. I might actually be able to do that if I speed walk the first 21 miles and run the rest. I'm going to try things out tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Glen Gould

2009-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
Kerouac

Pacific Crest Trail

2009-09-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

I recently hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail with my Dad. We went from Steven's Pass to Snoqualimie Pass in 6 days, although in retrospect, we could have made it in 5 days with some effort.

Generally we did around 14 miles per day. The views got progressively better as the trip went on.

The main thing I remember from the first day was the very beginning of the hike - looking at the ski lifts at Steven's Pass.

On the third day, we took a multi-mile wrong turn, which provided a nice view of Mt. Ranier a long with a good dose of regret. We also camped by a river; I managed to convince my Dad that washing off in the river was a good idea, using a shirt as a wash cloth. It felt great to me, but the shirt never dried; a sock would have been a much better idea.

The fourth day was the beginning of the really great views. I remember coming over a crest and looking out onto a dead forest of dead trees (there had been a fire that had recently ravaged the hillside). Just then, the wind howled through the trees, moaning a bit. Deeply eerie.

It was around this time I started making up bits of free verse.

"Knees: the windows to the legs stream once hot mascera; rubbed on hands, the Forrest Lord's stigmata."

"They say experience makes wisdom: a shock of white running through a punk's green. But Orion had no Eve: forever dumb, he spray paints himself red and green, his age seeping over his brothers."

Probably some more that I've (thankfully) forgotten.

The fifth day was amazing. The first half of the day was spent climbing to the top of a ridge via a plateau. The rest of the day was spent walking along a trail set into the side of a mountain range (a bit down from the actual crest). It was all at once intimidating and inspiring to be able to see where we would stop for the night.

This was probably also some of the worst hiking conditions we encountered. Huge stretches of the trail were over massive rock slides composed of rocks the whose average volume of 4 fists with a reasonably high standard deviation. This sort of terrain is the least stable I've ever walked on for extended periods of time; it is extremely unstable and forces one to move slowly or be at high risk of injury (I rolled various ankles 7 times this day). There were also many sections of the trail that were extremely dangerous: where the trail narrowed significantly for short sections adjacent to a long, steep drop. When the trail material is so unstable in the first place, such conditions warrant extreme caution.

Midway though the afternoon, clouds drifted over the trail. At first it was really neat to watch clouds come over a ridge line - part of which managed to maintain integrity and drifted onward, and part of which sunk down the mountain as mist. The awesome factor quickly dissipated as the entire trail was enshrouded in clouds. We ended up camping and waking up in clouds.

The final day was had some nice features like Kendall's Katwalk, but the best part of the day was the fact that the trails were composed of dirt. I flew down the mountain, past a stump the Forrest Service was rigging with dynamite, and hit the parking lot by 1300.

A few general observations:

As my dad correctly pointed out the name "Pacific Crest Trail" is a bit of a misnomer. Only on one day could we really have said to have walked along a crest. We would regularly ascend and descend 2k-3k feet in a day. Over rough terrain this is extremely strenuous work and, although we were able to maintain a pace of over 2 mph for significant periods of time, this speed is clearly not a reliable baseline.

Camping at low elevations is almost uniformly miserable. It generally ended up being both hot and humid. Washingtonians are lucky here: there are tons and tons and tons and tons ... of high altitude alpine lakes. Alpine lakes are awesome.

There are a significant number of nature hippies in Washington, and most of them are, right at this moment, on the PCT. I have a reasonably substantial beard, but I was consistently put to shame by 85-90% of the people on the trail. It was almost disturbing how much most of the hikers resembled each other.

Trail crews are freakin' awesome and should be given every reasonable support. I've built a bit of trail so I know how strenuous it can be. Those guys have to hike in their tools before they can even start. And most of them are volunteers. Y'all are awesome.

A few things I learned:

1. Weight is evil. The best way to reduce weight is to not bring stuff you're not going to use. I probably spent 1/2 the trip thinking about the stuff in my pack I knew by halfway though the first day I wasn't going to use the entire trip.

2. Make sure your pack is properly adjusted. I probably sped up by a factor of 2 by properly adjusting my pack. The basic principle is that you want your pack to exert as little force on you as possible. This means making sure the pack is strapped as tightly to you as possible minimizing unnecessary pack movement, making sure your load is distributed as close to you as possible minimizing load torque, and making sure as much of the load is on your hip instead of your shoulders, minimizing fatigue.

In practice some of these goals are contradictory (at least for my system). In order to minimize pack wiggle, I had to tighten the shoulder straps, reducing the load bearing directly on my hips. I generally found that as the day went on, I tended to loosen my shoulder straps, trading a bit looser pack for one that hung more directly on the hips.

3. Walking sticks are awesome. Before this trip, I was very anti-walking stick. I saw them as mostly showy and of little practical use. Over the course of the trip, I started to use my (one) walking stick very hard - so much so I had to trade off hands due to wrist/hand fatigue.

Walking sticks seem to excel in three main areas. The first is climbing. Instead of pushing up with a single leg, I can push up with leg and an arm. When wearing a 50 pound pack, this makes a significant difference.

The second area is going downhill. The use of a walking stick to "pre-step" means that legs have significantly less shock to deal with, allowing for longer and quicker steps over rough terrain.

The third area is stability. When crossing difficult terrain like streams or eroded sections of mountain trail, a stick can serve as an anchor, helping to prevent an accident. Additionally, walking sticks help to minimize the damage done by accidents. After I started using a walking stick, I continued to roll my ankle occasionally, but the effects seemed less severe. Instead of being forced to the ground, I was able to quickly shift my weight to a combination of a leg and an arm.

There are a few downsides to walking sticks that have to be weighed carefully, though. First, while they are generally quite light weight, they do add something to the total count. Second, they can sometimes get stuck, particularly when trying to navigate particularly rocky terrain. I almost tripped a few times due to my stick.

All in all, walking sticks seem to provide significantly more utility than they cost.

4. Salt is super-important. I started feeling quick sick on the fourth day and eventually ate some salt and felt better within a few hours. I was regularly drinking a gallon per day and sweating probably 90% of that out. While food generally includes some measure of salt, I would highly recommend people bring salt with them as a supplement.

5. As I get older, I tend to appreciate the benefits of high(er) quality equipment. There were several items I could have replaced with higher quality items that would lead to a siginificantly improved experience. I am not quite there yet, but I am slowly moving towards the buy-good-tools-that-last camp instead of the buy-the-cheapest-thing-that-works camp.

Update:
Apparently we gained a total of 12850 feet and lost a total of 13910 feet over roughly 70 miles - an average grade of 7.24%.

Below is a chart of the elevation profile.

Endurance Running

2009-09-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Feyd-Rautha advanced in the silent arena, put a toe under the gladiator and
rolled him onto his back to give the galleries a clear view of the face when the
poison began its twisting, wrenching work on the muscles. But the gladiator came
over with his own knife, protruding from his breast.
In spite of frustration, there was for Feyd-Rautha a measure of admiration
for the effort this slave had managed in overcoming the paralysis to do this
thing to himself. With the admiration came the realization that here was truly a
thing to fear.
That which makes a man superhuman is terrifying.
-- Dune, Frank Herbert

I had a conversation with Josh a while back, and again with Ryan about running. Neither of them particularly likes running, particularly of the endurance variety.

I think I've finally come to understand why I love endurance sports and long distance running in particular.

One of the great joys in life is the triumph over adversity. I find that the more primal the adversity, the greater the victory. There can be no adversity more primal than pain. The struggle is, at a fundamental level, one between the mind and the body.

In one way, running is an unwindable battle; one can always do better. It is a bottomless pit: pour all of your dedication and desire into it and it yawns the wider. The clock is an implacable taskmaster, neither frowning nor smiling but always sighing with regret and disapointment.

And yet, the clock's remorselessness is matched in even measure by its fairness. Running is not like a boxing or wrestling match where an opponent's mistake can spell victory, or where one's best may simply not be good enough. The fundamental impossibility of victory removes a distraction - the runner is free to focus on the deeper, more primitive and personal battle.

The victory of the mind over the body: there can be none sweeter.

Fanboy in training

2009-08-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

I finally got my Mac Mini set up. All I have to say is, typing on a FPS ZBoard is teh sux0r.

Marathon Training

2009-08-16T19:50:00.001-07:00

2x GreenLake Loop: not timed.

Too late, I discovered a nice cache of running tips at the Furman Institute of Running
& Scientific Training

Marathon Training

2009-08-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

GreenLake loop: 21 minutes. 6 x 200 meter sprint.

Looks like I've hit a plateau. I suppose I'd better crank up the distance anyhow, although I'll probably try to focus on sprints even more now.

Speech

2009-08-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

I did the first speech in the Storytelling manual. The directions where to pick a folktale and re-tell it without notes, with emphasis on conveying imagery, emotions, etc.

I cheated and picked The Wolves in the Walls, one of my all time favorite stories.

This speech was a bit challenging, because I had to edit down the story to the point where it could be told in about 7 minutes (I prefer to be on the low end of my allotted time limit).

I ended up cutting two days from the story (the first day, and the first day in the garden) as well as the brother and mother, which worked out reasonably well.

This was one of the first times I really had the speech down well enough that I could play with things like vocal variety and gestures in an interactive manner. The feedback I got (mostly relating to gestures, lack of eye contact and the potential for better use of space) indicate that there is still a lot of room for relatively easy improvement.

One of these days I'll get my act together and at least take (video would be awesome) myself, so I can share my speeches in their ah-and-umm laden glory.

Marathon Training

2009-08-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

GreenLake loop: 21 minutes. 6 x 200 meter sprints.

If I can get below 21 minutes (hopefully next time), I'll probably up the distance to twice around.

I definitely know from experience that there is a significant qualitative difference from running shorter distances (< 10 miles) and running longer distances (> 15 miles). I hope 2 20 mile runs should be enough to prepare me sufficiently.

Marathon Training

2009-08-09T18:03:00.001-07:00

I biked down to Green Lake this time. 23 Minutes around. I also did 2 200 Meter (approx) sprints, but didn't have a stop watch to time myself. I try not to kid myself that I'll make it down to 18, but I can always hope.

Marathon Training

2009-08-07T18:10:00.001-07:00

I'm participating in the Portland Marathon on October 4th.

I'm probably a bit late on the training program, but at least it's better than the last time I did one (4 days).

Around Greenlake: 27 Minutes.

My goal is to get this down to 21 Minutes.

Notes on yesterday's conversation

2009-06-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

I had a great conversation between a bunch of friends that ended up in politics. Here are some retrospective thoughts (probably only of interest to people in the conversation).

1. I probably overstated the case for risk homeostasis. From what I can tell, people do compensate with riskier behavior, but the compensation is probably not 100%.

2. I looked but I couldn't find the source for the contention that pessimistic people are generally more correct in their beliefs, but optimistic people are generally happier and more successful.

3. Market prices are not a particularly way to measure value. As Scott recently pointed out there are reasonably significant problems with this. Some specific critiques: the surplus created (the difference between the seller's minimum price and the buyer's maximum price) is not measured, non-monetary exchanges are not measured,

4. There is no reason I can see to believe that human life is inherent (as opposed to instrumentally) valuable. This is not to say that people should not behave as if human life is inherently valuable - I am, after all, a firm deontologist.

5. If you believe that a large component of any conflict is that the aggressor believes he has a chance at winning, the marginal benefit of military spending will follow the following curve:

It will start out very low, until it hits a small band (being the amount of equipment, etc. necessary for victory) where it is very high, and then it will return to being very low to infinity. That the marginal utility of military spending is low in the upper segment of the graph is not a good argument that the US should lower its spending to the point where the marginal utility of spending is high - particularly if you value human life inherently.

6. If the management of any company adds value, it is Toyota. They even have a management system named after them, which is so good that a sizable chunk of US companies are trying to ape them.

7. For the record, it is Technology, Entertainment, Design. I lose. Again.

8. The only articles I could find on Toyota and the UAW are from late 2007, but as of then, both Honda and Toyota were not unionized (and were strongly and successfully resisting unionization).

Update: One last thing, while it is true that the marginal dollar of income to a rich person doesn't result in a dollar's worth of good to society (side note: keeping money in bank accounts is good for society - see the current "liquidity crisis" and an under-rated skill - see lottery winners), the alternative is not that they will magically be put to use for the good of society - instead, a pyramid of bureaucrats will have to figure out what to do with it.

The choice most clearly spelled out is this: should resources be distributed according to the wishes of the strong, the smart or the productive?

Marksmanship

2009-05-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

I think I've finally figured out why my aim is consistently high.

I recently came across a great post at pistol-training.com that explains everything.

Specifically, my aiming style is type #3, "drive the dot". The sights for guns I tend to shoot are probably type #2.

Toastmasters Update

2009-05-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

There was a somewhat sizable snafu that I had the misfortune of encountering at the toastmasters club I frequent. I have been going for about a year now, and I have completed 11 speeches as of today. Unbeknownst to me, the previous treasurer had just kept my dues in the club treasury and didn't send them off to Toastmasters International - meaning that I wasn't a member in good standing. Potentially, none of my speeches would "count". It looks like the paperwork is finally wending its way though the system and I'll have my Competent Communicator award.

I've already started in on the Entertaining Speaker manual, with limited success. Pain means progress, though.

I keep on meaning to post my speeches (they are usually quite rough). I actually have a microphone, etc. I just keep on forgetting. I have another speeching coming up this Thursday, so baring a lapse in memory, I should be able to put something interesting up here.

Epic Win, Take 2

2009-05-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

10 rounds, 9 meters away.

Sure, I used a 2-handed grip. Also, this was the best target out of the lot I shot yesterday. Additionally, it doesn't use anything that pretends to be a regulation target. Still, I flatter myself to think that I could be mistaken for a bullseye competitor in dim light.

In other news, I got to drive Ryan's standard-transmission car home from the range. I couldn't really tell you which was the highlight of the night.

SIFF time

2009-05-07T21:21:00.001-07:00

Films that I am interested in:

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Bluebeard
Bronson
The Desert Within
I Know You Know
Il Divo
The Karamazovs
Katyn

Kindle DX: one step from paradise

2009-05-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip: Kyle Mulka

The Kindle DX has everything I want from an ebook reader. PDF support, high resolution - 1200 x 824, plenty (4GB) of storage space, light weight, thin, e-ink for low power draw.

The only drawback that I can see is the price, almost $500. For a second I was regretting my earlier purchase of a Sony Reader, but I have to guess that it'll be several years before I'll end up picking up a Kindle DX.

I guess this means that I'll have to keep a bunch of those textbooks around after all.

RSS - better ways to manage

2009-05-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

I've always had issues with RSS - specifically spending too much time reading it. I've finally come up with a way that works reasonably well. I just categorize most feeds under "read", "skim" and "headlines" which seems to eliminate my guilt about skimming or just reading the headlines of particular articles. Between that and making sure that all the feeds I read pass the "is it better than reading a book" test, I've managed to purge quite a lot of bulk.

Amazing Accents

2009-04-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Working with Bobby on Arabic has really focused me on how to say words. Arabic is no where near as difficult as tonal languages such as Chinese, but it definitely is a bit of a stretch for a native English speaker.

Anyhow, there is someone who is fabulously talented and has made a few videos on Youtube, coming at the problem from the other end: Amy Walker. Without further ado:

21 Accents

How to learn accents Part 1-2

How to learn accents Part 1-2

Goals: February, March and April

2009-03-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

February goal: 1+ 5 min+ conversation with a stranger each day.

Achieved: 15 conversations from 15 Jan - 29 Feb. I could have done better. Still, a good improvement.

March goal: Double push up count.

Achieved: Epic Fail. I didn't even end up doing anything this month.

April: Get to 3 sets of 8 pull ups.

I watched the Watchmen

2009-03-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to write my thoughts yet, but I think that it's interesting that Watchmen is a rich and complex movie that tries to get at the heart of the ethics and social policy - complex enough that it seems to be a modern Rorshach test. Most people that I've talked to, myself included, seem to project their own ideas of morality on the movie.

March Resolution

2009-03-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

For my March resolution, I'm going to be using the program at One Hundred Push Ups. I hear good things about it.

I was initially able to do 15 perfect form knuckle push ups.