generation which?

February 2, 2014 6:41 AM , 2 Comments ,

I was reading an article in Wired magazine the other day about Generation X and how we’ve matured and changed in the last quarter century to become more responsible and settled.

While I don’t necessarily disagree with this assessment, what really caught my eye was a list of famous generation Xer’s, particularly President Obama.

While technically it is true (he was born in 1961 and by the definition of the generation X time frame of 1961 to 1981 he fits), I find it hard to accept that he is part of my generation.  He seems to be more in tune with an older, more analog generation.

Being born in 1970 I am smack dab in the middle of Generation X and I suppose I do carry some of the ideas, faults, and peccadilloes of my generation.  I am more in tune with my fellow X’ers than with my parents and with those born to the later generations. I don’t necessarily agree with all the ideas of this generation but I am aware of them.

But what is it like for those born right at the edge of one generation and another?  How do they identify?  Ideas, concepts, and movements from both generations tug at them constantly.  I always think that it must be something akin to ‘middle child syndrome”, where you don’t really know what role you play in the family.

Sometimes the generational gap isn’t too broad a leap.  The Millennial generation seems to me to be quite similar to the Xer’s in ideas and problems and I don’t imagine that those born between these two generations are too confused.

I don’t think that the same can be said for those born between the baby boomers and generation X.  I imagine that the early sixties was a somewhat confusing time to be born and to start out in life.  Many of the old cultural identities didn’t apply anymore and the new ones had not yet been drafted.  One generation is more idealistic and the other one more self-centered.  What does this make these in betweeners?  Do they rebel against both generations and set their own course?  Are they somehow handicapped in life by not having a firm set of ideas?

Posted in: aging, culture, life in general, pop culture, thought

Unsolicitations

January 31, 2014 6:57 AM , 2 Comments ,

“Hello, this is your last notice.  We have been trying to reach you about lowering your interest rates on your credit cards.  Press 1 to listen how you can lower your interest rates” – Automated telemarketing call

I get about 2 or 3 of these a month.  Some have options to get off the phone list.  Most don’t.  Once they have your number they will usually nag at you for months.  Trying to talk to an operator is usually fruitless as the “operators” are just sales people trying to get new business in the door.  If you’re really unlucky they’re scam artists trying to get your credit information.

I usually hang up on these but sometimes I answer and give the sales rep a memorable call.

Operator:  “Hello, you pressed 1 and indicated you wanted to lower your interes…”

Me:  “Mom, is that you mom?  When are you coming home?”

<click>

 

Operator:  “Hello, you pressed 1 and indicated you wanted to lower your interes…”

Me: “you give credit card now? Please yes?

operator: “sir we are not offering a credit card we are offering to lower your…”

Me: “I want much credit now, very muchly.  yes , thank you”

<click>

 

Operator:  “Hello, you pressed 1 and indicated you wanted to lower your interes…”

Me: “mamej ghuS DeQ wabmey toy’wI”a’ jatlh HInob..”

(which is Klingon and roughly translates to “give me much lower credit terms, speaking slave (I don’t think that Klingons have telemarketers)”.  I will be embarrassed beyond measure if I ever run into a Klingon speaking operator)

<click>

 

Of course it’s not all fun and games.  Last year I had a call for my dad.  They asked for my dad by his full name including middle initial so I knew that it wasn’t anyone that he knew.  I played along and found that they pretended to be a credit monitoring agency and wanted his bank account number, his social security number, and birth date.  I replied as my dad and said “I don’t have those with me but if you will give me your phone number I will call you back.”

Someone in the background realized that I was trying to trace them and yelled at the operator “Get off the phone! get off the phone!”

<click>

 
Posted in: life in general

Shock of contact

January 29, 2014 6:19 AM , 2 Comments ,

“No plan survives contact with the enemy” – Von Moltke

So you’ve laid out all your plans nice and neat and spent hours or maybe even days thinking about plans for the coming year or a project or for a meeting or even just a date.  You have carefully pondered how you will do this and how you will do that and then the big moment comes and suddenly something happens that you didn’t expect and everything goes to hell.

You’re left scrambling trying to figure out how this happened and whether anything of your plan can be salvaged.

Truthfully when I was younger I loved this type of frenzied scrambling.  I always fancied that I was at my best when things were their most dire and only quick thinking could save the day.  But over time you come to realize that this is not the way to carry on with your life, let alone a business.

Planning is important but it has to be realistic planning based not just on your expectations or desires but based upon the realities of the situation.  Many times people look at a situation and see only the things that they want to see.  They don’t take the time to see the situation from another person’s perspective or to consider how their actions (or inactions) may affect everything.

Another thing to consider is that most situations do not tend to be static.  Circumstances change all the time, people come and go from situations, the benefits and risks of a situation can make your plans obsolete.  It’s important therefore to move in a timely fashion.

Your frame of mind is also important.  When a difficulty does arise you not only have to take this difficulty in stride and not fall apart but you have to ponder beforehand what you can do to remedy the situation.  Plan for failure as well as success.

Lastly as Von Moltke observed your plan will probably not stay the same throughout a project.  Therefore make it a simple plan that is open to changes.  Two of the biggest sins that you can commit in planning anything are to be too rigid and inflexible about your plans or to make your plans so complex and so dependent on a variety of factors that they will fall apart at the smallest change.

Be flexible and realistic and you will find that your plans will more often than not will come out right.

Posted in: plans

Stretching your limits

January 27, 2014 6:11 AM , 2 Comments ,
Mohonk Mountain House

Mohonk Mountain House

I began my Tuesday morning at Mohonk mountain house early in the morning.  I had arrived late Monday afternoon and there seemed to be too many things to see and do so I wanted to lose no time.

I wanted to run a lap around the lake but I found that it was less than a mile around and I would need to run five laps to get a decent work out.  I dislike doing laps round the same path.  I prefer long runs with one unique path so instead I opted to make a morning of it and hike all around the property.

I emptied out my leather satchel and put in some things that I thought would be essential.  A couple bottles of water, my Swiss army knife, some twine (can never have enough twine), my cell phone, my room key, a sweater, and my tablet.

As to my tablet, I had recently begun using it for sketching and I had the ridiculous idea of hanging my feet over a tall granite cliff overlooking a majestic scene and doing some sketches of the horizon.  More on that later.

So I started off pretty much just ambling along and exploring whatever struck my fancy.  I saw some “closed” trails signs here and there but considered these to be more suggestions than anything else and proceeded anyways.

Closed trail

Closed trail

After getting lost a few times and “discovering” the employee parking lot.  I just headed off into the woods.  I got far enough into the woods that I could not hear or see anything man-made.  I sat down on a rotten tree stump and just existed.

It was everything I expected and more.

After a few minutes of silence the chipmunks all around me either decided that I had left or that I was no danger to them.  They came out and went about their business.  It was a Tuesday, around mid morning.  Back home I would be swamped with emails and phone calls.  Everyone I knew would be doing the same thing.  Here I was alone, the world didn’t exist.  After a while even the chipmunks went silent.  Leaves drifted down seemingly in slow motion and I could feel the rotation of the Earth under my feet.  It was wonderful.

Feeling a little bit more sane after that I got back on the trail and began climbing.  I found my lofty pinnacle to sketch from.

Eagle's nest

Eagle’s nest

Of course the hotel staff had over a hundred years to explore and “improve” every scenic vista.  So they had installed this little tree house on the cliff edge.  Tour groups were hiking by on a regular basis and were taking and posing for pictures so I would never be able to get anything done.  So that part of my plan went out the window.  I took a few pictures of the horizon and walked on.

Up a ways I found a curious signpost with an arrow pointing down and the caption that read “eagle’s ascent”.  I had read about this in the hotel literature as a sort of rock climb activity.  I hadn’t planned on this at all.  I just wanted a long nature walk that morning but this beckoned to me.  By pure luck I had on some shoes that although they weren’t meant for mountain climbing were well suited for it so I decided “why not?”

As I wasn’t really prepared for this, at first it was a bit of a challenge particularly as I had decided to be an amateur videographer and used my cell phone camera to document it all.  The hotel staff had spray painted arrows as to where to go so it was all fairly straightforward.

I got through that trail fairly quickly and easily but I felt I wanted a better challenge so I climbed back up the mountain and climbed even higher looking for one of the better challenges called the “giant’s path”.  It was as if some giant child had strewn boulder sized legoes all over the side of a mountain.  Just looking at it made gave me pause to think.

I pushed on regardless.  I found that I had to use my fingers, the tips of my shoes, my butt, just anything I could to keep myself from tumbling over the edge.  My entire body got involved into the climbing activity.

I descended down under giant boulders into dark tunnels with barely any hint that there could be an exit on the other end.  Crawling on my belly sometimes and trying not to think of what that slimy thing that my hand had just brushed across really was.

I took a few wrong turns and once jumped a small chasm almost sliding down the slippery rock face.  My shoes barely gripped the rock and held me in place just before I would tumble into perpetual inky darkness.

I began to think to myself when was the last time that I had purposefully exposed myself to this much danger and had to rely only on my body to get myself out of harm’s way?  Years if not decades.  Was this the literal “life flashing before your eyes”?

I pushed the thought out of my mind and pressed on.  Determined to finish this and get out alive.  I squeezed and pulled and finally found the end of the rock climb and could not believe that I had just done that on my own.

I lay down on some nice flat gravel and found myself positively beaming with joy.  I had done that.  Middle aged, out of shape (sort of), me.

If I had done that, what could I not do?

 

 

 

 

Posted in: activities, outdoors, vacations

The new experts

January 25, 2014 7:21 AM , 1 Comment ,

I was part of the last generation to rely exclusively on libraries and books for research.  Back in college I would do reports looking up books and theses on an old computer catalog (or sometimes on paper catalogs) and then hunt them down on the various floors of Evans Library.

Evans became like a second home to me.  if I wasn’t in class or at home that’s where I could usually be found.  Despite the fact that the library staff was constantly replacing books I would always seem to end up looking for that one book that was never where it was supposed to be.  If I found the book I would then be hunched over a copier making copies of the relevant pages and scribbling down bibliographical notes for reports that I would later laboriously type out on an actual typewriter.  After college I didn’t need to do all that much research but the local library was always around if I needed to.

New information sources were becoming available.  Computer disc sets such as Encarta were vying to replace the venerable old Encyclopaedia Britannica as a repository of knowledge.  Truthfully, the couple of times I tried the “free” trials of products like Encarta, I wasn’t impressed.  The articles were usually short little blurbs and never really gave in-depth details or references.  They were very impressive to look at with colorful pictures and even videos but short on hard facts and references.

With the rise of the web a floodgate of information opened up to the general public.  Hypertext linking and search engines simplified the tasks of research.  You could enter some vague terms into a search engine and be transported to a website where people were talking about whatever you wanted.  Sometimes it was a website full of experts, sometimes a website of full of amateurs.  Some educators wrote articles expressing concern about the quality of research that kids did for reports using the internet.

The biggest culprit in educator’s minds was Wikipedia.  Started as an online collaborative effort to provide an online encyclopedia to anyone about anything, Wikipedia allowed any person to come in and enter and edit articles without regard to their qualifications.  This set off a panic in the educational community as they saw what they regarded as amateurs expressing opinions on matters that should be best left to properly qualified and degreed experts.  They urged kids not to eschew the traditional library and return to books as the one and only source of knowledge.

In truth there was some cause for concern in the early days.  Some contributors wrote articles based off pure opinion and conjecture.  Sometimes online vandals would come in and wreck pages just for fun.  Some groups would blank out pages for political or other reasons.

Wikipedia as any organization went through several trial and error periods until it finally began a more comprehensive and meticulous editing process.  Articles are no longer left up to single individuals and roving editors patrol the entries constantly to monitor the quality of the articles.

In addition entries now provide (almost demand) references to source materials be included in the articles for readers to do their own follow-up research.

The error rate has dropped significantly and several studies now show it to be on par with more traditional encyclopedias.

So does this mean the death of the traditional brick and mortar library and the printed word as the repository of expert research?  Possibly, but not for a generation or two.

Books have built up a type of cultural inertia in the minds of the general public.  Until the last few decades it has been a major undertaking to publish books.  The thinking was that if the publishers were willing to invest so many resources into a hardbound book then they must be very confident in the accuracy of the contents.

Nowadays wood pulp and ink are cheap and the major component of book costs is transporting them from the printers to the point of sale and paying the authors.

This perception that books are the only trustworthy source of knowledge is changing and more and more people are turning to online sources of information as dependable fonts of data.  I would hazard to guess that within 100 years that the only books that you could buy would be presentation pieces bound in leather and custom-made to order.

Could this trend to store information online only be dangerous?  Very much so!  I don’t have to touch upon Orwell’s “memory hole” or the great Chinese firewall to point out how information can be erased or restricted from a culture’s collective mind.  I think most people are aware of this.

However we have to be more cognizant of the fact that knowledge is power and that therefore those that can control or steer the distribution of that power are themselves powerful.  We must be ever vigilant that information is not tampered with, manipulated, fettered, or restricted to a privileged few and that it can be accessed by all in its purest and raw form.

At least for now that knowledge has a safe place to rest on the pages of the printed book.

Posted in: books, computers, education, internet, school, technology

Pushing hard

January 23, 2014 7:01 AM , 1 Comment ,

I was going through my standard 6 mile run on a Saturday morning.  It was Fall and the Sun was already up.  I had slept in and I was late.  I turned and entered Hershey park from the Kirkwood road side and headed east to the Wilcrest side.

Crowds of runners and cyclists already.  I usually prefer to run odd hours to avoid this sort of thing but today I would have to put up with it.

At the quarter mile mark.  Among other reasons that I love Hershey park are the quarter-mile markers unobtrusively poking out at the side of the jogging trails.  The trail curved and I look back.  Way back I see a younger runner just starting out.  Probably about 20 years younger, taller, and obviously better suited to running than I am.

An odd thought pops up in my head.  Could I beat him to the Wilcrest side?  He was way back after all.  Why not try it?

At first I barely increase my speed.  I sneak a peek back and see he’s gaining on me steadily.  Half mile to go.  I am still ahead of him somehow.  Could I pull this off?  Suddenly this gains a new sense of urgency.  I “need” to beat him.  It has suddenly become imperative.

Quarter mile to go.  I start speeding up more.  I sneak more peeks.  He seems to have noticed what I’m doing and starts going faster and faster!  It’s suddenly become a real race.  His strides are longer than mine and with each step he gains a little on me.  A song lyric pops up in my mind from the song “The fabled hare” by Maddy Pryor.

Tongues pant, hearts thump
Closer closer, through the fields
Teeth snap, bones crack
Closer closer, at my heels

Nearer, yet and nearer
I can see the hunter’s knife
He is running for his dinner
I am running for my life

I no longer need to look back.  I can feel him right behind him.  I can hear his footsteps.  The final fork in the road just ahead.  One branch going under the Wilcrest bridge and the other branch up to street level.

Pouring in the last dregs of strength into my legs.  I am somewhat surprised to find that actually do have something left.  I can’t say that I pulled away but I did keep him at a distance and I reach Wilcrest.  He continues on under the bridge giving me a friendly wave.

I walk down the road and try to catch my breath and try to ignore my aching feet.

Near home.  A little over a mile left and I’ve recovered.  Jogging steadily there is no need for any special effort.  I can coast all the way home now.  I turn onto Hayes road.  A half mile straight road leading to my subdivision.  About halfway down the road another jogger.  Minding his own business plodding along.

I don’t know what’s gotten into me this morning.

This is too irresistible to me to pass up.  Going from the hunted to the hunter.  I speed up with barely a thought.  Not just to reach but pass this guy up before the turn off.  No anxiety this time.  I know I will catch and pass him up.  I blow past him easily and keep going at full speed all the way home.

I feel energized and pumped.  I generally avoid doing this but sometimes I have to try out my strength and see what I can do.  As long as I don’t turn it into a habit I don’t think it will be a negative.

Posted in: motivation, running

Temporary madness

January 21, 2014 7:33 AM , 1 Comment ,

Another season of college football is over.  All the school paraphernalia goes back into the closet.  Across Texas and the nation people who weren’t on speaking terms get back to work together.  The madness is once again put on hold until late August.

I am not immune to the charms of the school rivalry but I have to admit that the flame of competitiveness has dimmed somewhat over the decades.  I remember a particular game in my freshman year.  We were playing Arkansas at the end of the season and despite the best efforts of the team and the yelling of the fans we came up short on the scoreboard at the end.

We had a hollow feeling inside.  Stunned is an inadequate descriptor.  We could not come to terms with the idea that we could lose and the campus seemed listless for the next few days.

On the other hand after victories the school felt alive.  Even the most studious amongst the school body would be energized by a victory.

After graduation I rarely went back to the campus for games but I still followed the team over the years but little by little I lost that innate excitement and nervous energy that I used to feel during games in college.

I am still thrilled by victories but I now take losses with a longer perspective.  I know that it’s not the end of the world.

So the mania goes back into the closet until the Fall.  I will look forward to it of course but it won’t make or break my year as it used to.

Posted in: football, school

Underneath the skin

January 19, 2014 9:13 AM , 2 Comments ,

I came out of the Alamo drafthouse last night around 9:30 and walked to my car when I heard the familiar whistle of my Gmail account.  Something had come in.  Wireless signals inside the movie house are terrible and this email had just now caught up with me.  To my surprise it was an email from 23andme.com.

My results were in.

Back in late October I had heard about this service that was offering low-cost genetic testing.  After a couple of weeks of vacillating I finally decided to try it.  They sent me a testing kit by mail.  I had to fill up a small tube full of saliva and I mailed it back.  I had begun to give up hope of hearing back from these folks and I certainly didn’t expect it on a Saturday night.  I rushed home and logged in and spent the next 2 hours reviewing the results.

I should add a little background here.  23andme provides several different types of genetic tests.  They can test for inherited diseases, traits, genetic ancestry, probable blood type.  Just all sorts of things that your DNA can reveal about you.  For somewhat debatable reasons the FDA claims that this type of genetic testing of your health risks is “dangerous to the public”. I feel that this has more to do with vested interests in the health industry not wanting people to take charge of their own health but that’s a subject for another blog.

They threatened to drag the company into court if they did not stop providing this service.  As a consequence of this 23andme no longer does health screenings by genetic testing.  They only provide testing for ancestry now.  I bought my testing kit just before the FDA restraining order came into effect so I still get my health screening.

So onto what you guys are looking for, the results.  So obviously we are going into the health risks first. I will say up front that I am not going to post my entire health report online.  Firstly it’s private and I don’t feel like I want to share it all.  Secondly the results do not tell me that I have a certain condition, they only give me the probability that I may develop a condition.  I see it not as a definitive test but as something to be on the lookout for.  Lastly, it’s pretty dull.

The results are not too surprising to me given my family history.  I have a slightly higher risk for heart disease and diabetes.  Nothing new to me.  What was surprising was that I am at a higher risk for celiac disease.  To me this just reinforces my belief that I need to exercise more and watch my diet closer, specially as I become older.

higher risk for Asthma.  I did have some childhood asthma

slightly higher risk for Alopecia.  dodged that bullet.

Two things that worried me were actually lower risks.  Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  Now, you can certainly develop Parkinson’s from environmental factors and the test makes it clear that this does not mean I won’t develop these but it does mean that I am at less of a risk for these.

Lower risk of Melanoma.  I am darker skinned after all but I’m not going to lay out in the sun all day long.

Lower risk of multiple sclerosis.

Lower risk of colorectal cancer.  That doesn’t mean I can go out and party though.  Of course there’s many other results.

Onto traits. One of the more interesting results is something that I have suspected for a while.  My body is less responsive to exercise than the average person.  This means I derive less benefit from the same workout that others are doing.  I need to increase my workout to get the same benefit.

Based on my genetics my muscle response is more similar to a sprinter than a long distance runner.  So while I can do long distance races I would probably do better in the short track events.  So much for my 2016 Olympics marathon aspirations.

Male pattern baldness?  typical odds.  I would have thought higher odds.

Longevity?  Higher than normal odds of living to 100 years.  True, specially in my father’s side.

Freckling. typical

eye color. tends to brown

hair. tends to curlier

food tendency.  more towards sweet foods.  Need to watch that.

Blood type,  A+

Dozens of other traits here.

Moving onto ancestry.

I was somewhat disappointed that I only carry 2.6% neanderthal ancestry.  Actually slightly lower than the average 2.7%

In molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotype that share a common ancestor having the same single nucleotide polymorphism mutation in all haplotypes.

On my mother’s side I come from the B2b sub group, a subset of the B4’5 haplogroup,  This is an older group that originated in Asia about 50,000 years ago and migrated across the Pacific to the west coast of the Americas.

On my father’s side I come from the J2b2* subgroup, a subset of the J2 haplogroup.  This group originated in Anatolia and the Caucasus mountains around 18,000 years ago.

My complete ancestry composition is not ready yet so I don’t have all that ready to review but it’s not that consequential to me.  I’m here already after all.

So what does it all mean?  Mainly that I am a pretty average American suburbanite.  Not specially gifted in any significant way but then again not too burdened either.  I need to keep a close eye on my health and become more regimented in my lifestyle choices but odds are that I will live a fairly full and long life.

Was it a worthwhile exercise?  I think so.  If nothing else it opens up my eyes to what’s going on inside of me and gives me a better handle of what I can do to improve my life.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: family, genetics, health, life in general

Gear

January 17, 2014 6:24 AM , 2 Comments ,

Every six months or so I have to replace my running shoes.  Being a person with low arches sucks.  I not only have to replace my shoes but I need arch support.  So I have to break in not only shoes but arch supports.

The first few days are not pleasant, so I try to use my old shoes for as long as possible before I finally admit that my old pair are totally run down and useless.

Things get worse when the old brand that you have grown accustomed to is either no longer made or has fallen off in quality.

An athlete (and I am in no way claiming that I am one) has a mental state to maintain as well as a physical state.  They have to make sure that everything is right otherwise their performance will suffer when they’re in the middle of a competition.

Similarly I have to feel that the gear I use will work as intended and that it works with the other gear I have.  Now I don’t go as far as some athletes.  The last time I bought new shoes I had to wait because the previous customer wanted his new shoes to match his sunflower yellow running shorts and the staff was going nuts looking for the appropriate shoes in the stock room.

Fashion is the last thing on my mind on the running trails.

So finally I have my new running shoes and I am going through the awkward breaking in period.  Some discomfort, but with every step I feel my feet becoming accustomed and accepting the new shoes.  In a month or two I won’t be able to imagine running in anything else.

Posted in: psychology, running

micro goals

January 15, 2014 6:23 AM , 2 Comments ,

I saw one of my Facebook friends remark that all the new year’s resolution people had cleared out of the gym that he goes to.

Natural I suppose as most of those resolutions are half-hearted at best and only made to fulfill peer expectations.  The new year’s resolution is now looked upon by most as a joke.  Most people see it not as something that they will do but rather as something that they will definitely NOT do.

Part of the problem is that people who make these resolutions have no one to keep them honest.  A person to lean on when you feel like backsliding and who will without goading come by and check on your progress.

The other part of why these resolutions fail is that the expectations are set too high.  Rather than breaking this up into manageable chunks, people choose to tackle it all at once.  Anyone can see that approach is doomed to failure.

Setting smaller micro goals can be an aide to this.  Limiting the problem to something that you can reasonably manage can help your state of mind and get you mentally prepared to tackle everything.

Instead of saying “I will lose 60 pounds by the end of the year” you can say “5 pounds this month, that’s not too bad is it?”  Suddenly the whole task isn’t so daunting.

Further to this, when you do reach a micro goal it can really boost morale and self-esteem making you believe that you can indeed manage the rest.

Posted in: goals, habits, plans