Tvindy

Site FAQ

I haven't been at this long enough to have a huge following of hundreds of people stopping by every week. (I probably never will.) So I don't get many questions about this site. Nevertheless, there are a several things I haven't yet explained about myself or this site that probably should be addressed, hence my very own FAQ. (If I were really daring, I'd try my hand at the Proust Questions, but I'm not.)

What is your gender?

I guess that's not very clear from my name or anything I've written thus far. I am male.

How old are you?

I'm much older than I would like to admit. When people first meet me they usually think that I am quite a bit younger than I really am. I am also extremely immature for my age.

What kind of camera do you use to take all those pictures?

I use a Fuji FinePix A303 digital camera with 3.2 megapixels. I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to buy a good low-end, easy-to-use digital camera that takes nice pictures.

What did you study in college?

I majored in French and minored in German. Yet for very complex reasons, my best language is Portuguese. I also know some Spanish and tiny amounts of Danish, Romanian and Latin. So let's just say I studied "languages".

How did you choose the background color for your blog?

A few years ago I was setting up a page with a lot of photos, and I had a little javascript program that let me scroll through a dropdown menu of more than 40 background colors, allowing me to quickly see how the page looked with each one. The one that worked best in terms of not clashing with any of the photos and, in many cases, actually complementing their colors, was the one I use on this site. The HEX code is #800000.

Can you put me on your blogroll?

I put people on my blogroll who have left a comment and have visited my site on more than one occasion. If you are reading this, then you are already halfway there.

What is the focus of your blog?

The focus is not to have a focus. I realized when I created this blog that I would not be happy with a specific focus, so I decided to concentrate instead on covering as wide a set of topics as possible, and I am proud to say that I have posts here for every single default category of Typepad. I suspect that I will eventually become more specialized as I exhaust certain categories and find my strength in others. Already, I seem to be posting a disproportionately high number of entries relating to apes. I have no idea why, though. (I sure hope this doesn't end up morphing into an ape blog.)

So, you live in Muncie, Indiana. Is there anything interesting about that place that you might like to share with us?

Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, is from here and still resides here. David Letterman went to school at the local university (Ball State).

Websites That Have Inspired Me

Today I think it will be fun to reminisce about the handful of personal websites that I have encountered over the years that made a big impression on me. These are the sites which have really taught me by example what good web design and content is all about, and they are what I try to live up to with this site. If you like Tvindy, you'll probably love these.

lileks.com

lileks.com is a very famous site created by James Lileks, newspaper columnist for the Star-Tribune. I often see bloggers reference his Daily Bleat, but there is so much more to it. I first discovered the site when a piece in it entitled "Cooking with 7-Up", dealing with a cookbook of the same name published in the 50s was mentioned on a now-defunct program on TechTV called Internet Tonight. Unfortunately that particular part of the site is no longer up, since it was made into a book. But there is still plenty of content, most of it dealing with oddities from the past, combined with witty commentary. One of Mr. Lileks greatest achievements is including a huge number of photos of his dog Jasper and presenting them in a way that is actually very interesting. Not many people could do that. Also particularly interesting to me (but not necessarily to anyone else) is his presentation of the various currencies of Brazil. I've been to Brazil many times over the course of several years and have had to deal with at least five different currencies there, so it was amusing to read his impressions of the money. But what I really took away from the site was the simplicity of its design. It has no bells and whistles, no pulsating graphics or flash animation, not even a background image. What it does have is lots and lots of content in a simple, easy-to-read format -- black text on a white background combined with easy navigation. Great content alone makes makes this a highly enjoyable site.

#!/usr/bin/girl

This site has been maintained since 1999 by a young woman in Seattle who goes by the name Zannah. Actually, it's part of a much bigger site, but this is the highlight of it. #!/usr/bin/girl is really nothing more than a blog of interesting links to content on the internet, but Zannah has been collecting them for so long that she has come close to indexing just about everything of any interest anywhere on the web. If one were to go through the entire archive, they might well come across links to every cool site they have ever encountered online. Google inexplicably doesn't index her archive anymore, so it is no longer possible to find specific entries using Google's site search feature. (Boo Google!) In the past year or so, she has really slowed down in her posting, but that may well be because there is nothing more for her to find. Nevertheless, she still has an enormous following. Her blog was mentioned on The Screensavers on TechTV, and there was a blurb written about it in Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. In 2001 she received the Bloggie Award for Weblog of the Year. Perhaps even more significant, ThinkGeek.com sells this shirt, which apparently was created in honor of Zannah's site. Many decisions I have made on the structure of my blog were based directly on this site. For example, I don't have external links open new windows; I keep html turned on in the comments; and I cite where I find my links in the same way Zannah does.

catenema.com

Whenever I mention this site to people, they are usually a little put off by the title, and sometimes they even refuse to go there. (Don't worry; I assure you that there are no photos of a cat receiving an enema.) This is really a delightful concept for a website. The author has led a rich life, and is a great storyteller. The site contains short stories from his life accompanied with illustrations that he drew in crayon. I know it sounds lame, but the drawings really do add a lot to the stories. Once again, the simple approach to website design proves to be the best. My favorite stories are Grandma's Been Kidnapped and, of course, I Gave My Cat an Enema. The sad thing about this site is that the stories have not been added to in years, and now for some reason, the author has put it into a blog format, which, in my opinion, really is a step backward and does not work well for the site. This is what the main page used to look like.

Thoughts from Moz

This is the only blog I have ever read in its entirety from beginning to end, so I had to put it on this list; although I doubt that most people will be as interested in it as I was. The site was kept by a Peace Corps worker during the year she spent volunteering in Mozambique. The normal term of service is two years, but her superiors there actually fired her without warning for blogging! That alone makes it interesting. She gives a very detailed account of her experiences there. The purpose of the blog was to keep all of her friends stateside informed of her doings without having to e-mail them each individually. The account is well-written and thorough enough to give anyone a good sense the most significant details of her entire experience during the course of that year. I was further interested in her account for several reasons particular to me. I have friends who have worked in Mozambique, and I myself have spent time there and actually been to many of the places that are mentioned. I also have an interest in development work. Furthermore, I have worked for two NGOs which were not run well, so I am very interested in accounts of the problems encountered in other non-profits. So, once again, it is doubtful that you will find this quite as rivetting as I did.

I would also like to give special mention to two sites which I enjoy very much. They are the blogs of Megan Morrone and Leo Laporte, television personalities from TechTV.

Even More Amusing Links

Everyone is familiar with porn sites that use misleading domain names to trick people into visiting (i.e. whitehouse.com), but here's a site that turns the tables. (from eclecticism)

There's only one site on the internet where you can buy authentic origami boulders. The funniest part is the letters from dumb dumbs.

Wal-Mart, despite being evil, appears not to be into censorship. (from Cynic Route)

Check out this post about giant object postcards. It's loaded with links to great pictures of old tacky postcards.

Apparently the local animal shelter here in Muncie is not run by geniuses. How could they pick up a forty-pound tortoise and conclude that it was a wild animal? [Update: Torty Returns Home]

Also in local news, comedian Tom Green just spent two days in Muncie, and unfortunately due to prior commitments, I had to miss it! (I can't wait to see it on MTV, though.)

Bush shows his true colors.

Butterfly on Sunflower

It's hard to believe this photo was taken in Muncie.

Brazil 1990

Okay, here is yet another of my old college papers. To fully understand this, you need to know a little of the context. The paper was written to fulfill an assignment for Speech class. The instructions were simple. I was to attend a live event featuring a public speaker at any time during the semester and submit a critique of that speaker's presentation. Had I not procrastinated until the last week of the term, this would not have been a problem. My creative solution was to watch an old taped address by the President of Brazil, which I had recorded years earlier but had not watched since viewing it live in Brazil. Admitedly, that was quite a stretch of the parameters of the assignment, and I was amazed that the teacher was willing to accept it. I did get a lot out of it, though. And just as I enjoyed rewatching the taped presidential address, I'm finding that I also enjoy rereading this old paper.

Writing about Place

Jenny from Mulubinba Moments has encouraged me to participate in the Ecotone Wiki, which is a sort of forum for bloggers who write about different aspects of the concept of "place". It's an area that is very interesting to me, but unfortunately, the schedule of topics is fairly narrow, and I'm at a loss as to how I could contribute in a meaningful way to those discussions. (That is not to say that the topics themselves are not meaningful; it's just that I don't feel I have anything to contribute.) So instead, I am writing this post to share some of the aspects of the topic of place that I find most intriguing.

What is sacred?
What is it about a locale that causes it to be viewed by an individual or a community as sacred or spiritually uplifting? What does it mean when people of different cultures independently view a place as such? For example Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the white ruling class in Zimbabwe, arranged to be buried atop one of the Matopo stone hills, because he was so moved by the beauty of the location. And it so happened that the native population had long held that the area was sacred. There is archaeological evidence that this had been so for thousands of years and involved multiple ethnic groups. And why are some places seen as sacred by one group and not another? In Mexico and Central America, Westerners from first-world countries arrive in droves to view the ancient Mayan ruins. Nearly all feel a sense of awe and wonder upon seeing one of the major sites, like Chichen Itza or Tikal. But the locals show not the slightest interest, except in terms of how they can prosper from the tourist trade. I even overheard some of them expressing disdain for all the gringos and their strange affinity for the ruins. Considering that most of them are descendants of the builders of these sites, their reactions are even more puzzling.

Can the feel of a place be created or altered by man?
Clearly the building of an immense sacred structure, such as a cathedral, or a simple landscaping project is capable of creating an environment with a particular feel, but are there more subtle ways of changing this feel, and if so, what are they? The Chinese celebrate their New Year with firecrackers to scare away the evil spirits from the past year. Feng shui uses simple rules of placement to alter the feel of a place and its effects on the mental state of its inhabitants and visitors. I once read that people who own cabins that are used seasonally never quite feel at home until they have lit the first fire in the fireplace. I haven't experienced that myself, but I have found that when camping, the site I choose to spend the night in takes on a homey and familiar feel after I have started a campfire. And that feeling remains even after the fire is out and the remains are dispersed so that no one could even tell that a fire had ever been there. Are there other rituals and customs that exist and are familiar to us, which are used to influence place but that we are not consciously aware of?

Books to Read When Pondering the Future of Humanity

The following post is a modified version of a reading list I posted to Amazon some time ago. I found each of these books to be absolutely fantastic. If you're at all interested in pondering the future of humanity, I would highly recommend reading all of them in the order presented here.

A good starting point is The Age of Missing Information. In the early 1990s, author, Bill McKibbon, had an entire day's cable programming recorded. This included 24 hours of each channel, totalling over 1700 hours of broadcasting. Over the following months, he watched it all. This book contains his reflections on what kinds of information television provides us and what it lacks. He compares what we learn from TV to the kind of information he is exposed to on a day of camping in the woods. And he reflects on the differences in the types and quantity of knowledge available to pretelevision generations as opposed to contemporary people, providing a good reflection on where we are today.

Next read Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan. This book was first published in 1994 but is still very current, because sadly, very little has been done in space since it was written. Sagan is very thorough. He discusses everything that has been achieved thus far in terms of spacetravel and exploration. He speculates about what will be possible in the future and the sorts of technologies that need to be developed. He gives a complete inventory of the solar system, including planets, moons, asteroids, and the Oort Cloud and what they have to offer future space travelers, both in terms of practical uses as well as intriguing unanswered scietific questions. He discusses encountering extraterrestrial life, both intelligent and not as well as travel between the stars in the distant future. There are many interesting tidbits here that you won't find anywhere else.

The third book on this list will absolutely blow your mind. It's The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil. It explores the consequences of Moore's law (the observation that computer processing power doubles every 18 months) for the 21st century. Kurzweil argues that not only will computer power continue to increase exponentially throughout the next 100 years, but the rate of increase itself will probably increase. By 2099 there will be no distinction between human and computer intelligences. The vast majority of humanity will inhabit a completely virtual world in which our mental processes are accelerated a millionfold, and everyone is essentially immortal. I know it sounds like another crackpot book, but check it out anyway; the arguments are quite sound, and Kurzweil is a recognized technologist.

The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility: The Ideas Behind the World's Slowest Computer by Stewart Brand takes a much longer view of the future than Kurzweil. Brand is involved in a project to construct the world's first 10,000 year clock, a timepiece that, with occasional maintenance, will keep time for the next 100 centuries. The rationale is that such a project will influence people to take a much less shortsighted view of the future and consider how actions taken today may impact the distant future. The point is made that the effort required to effect change is usually directly proportional to how far in advance a change is attempted. This is especially relevant to environmental issues.

Now conclude your reading with Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey by Jane Goodall. In her latest autobiographical book, Goodall writes that people are often surprised and even skeptical when she tells them that she is hopeful about the future. This book is her answer to them. She reflects on her life from early childhood to her work in Africa, first with Leaky and then on her own, studying and working with chimpanzees, to her current environmental and educational work. She draws on evidence from her life experiences to argue that despite the frightening and precarious state the world is now in, she believes that humanity will ultimately have a bright future. (Why is it that half my posts turn out to be ape-related?)

Also of note is The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? I haven't read it yet, but based on the fact that it's by David Brin and was well-reviewed on Amazon, it's definitely a contender for this list.

On the web you can check out David Brin's essays about the future and Ray Kurzweil's enormous site dedicated to future technologies.

Happy reading!

Tips on Running a Marathon

Last year I trained for and ran my first marathon. Here are my tips for anyone out there who is thinking of doing the same:

1. The Book -- Get yourself a copy of The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. I followed the program outlined in it, and it works. Assuming you can already run for 30 minutes continuously (no matter how slowly), the book takes you through a 16-week program, in which you run four times a week. It doesn't focus on speed, but it will get you through your first marathon fairly painlessly.
2. Pulse Monitoring -- You should also buy a heartrate monitor. This is the one I used, but you'll probably want one that keeps track of laps. Once you've worked out your target heartrate, you can use the watch to stay in that zone for the majority of your workout (minus warmup and cooldown time). By monitoring and controling your pulse on every jog you can optimize the effectiveness of your training. You can also watch as your times improve over the course of the program. If your pulse is staying at the same rate as on previous runs, but your time is shorter, you have improved.
3. Pain Management -- Most sources tell you to take it easy or stop altogether if you feel any significant pain during training. If I followed that advice to the letter, I would never get any running done. A rule of thumb that works for me (but may or may not work for you, so be careful) is to see how the pain affects my time. If I find myself running a familiar course at or above my usual time, I continue with the program as laid out with no adjustment, even if the pain is intense. On the other hand, any pain, even a very minor one, that causes a significant slowdown is a sure sign of trouble, and I take it very seriously. Usually a couple of days off takes care of it.
4. Caffeine -- Believe it or not, but caffeine, taken at the proper dosage, increases performance. According to The Caffeine Advantage, caffeine increases the body's ability to burn fat, which means that glycogen reserves last longer, and endurance is increased. Or in more practical terms, you can run farther before hitting the wall. The trick is to determine the correct dosage for your particular physiology. If you take too much, you will actually hurt your performance; if you take too little; there will not be much of an effect. You have to experiment to get it right. I recommend using caffeine pills, so you have complete control over the amount. Take the caffeine about a half hour before you start your run. Also, you may want to increase your fluid intake a little to compensate for caffeine's slight diuretic effect.
5. Fluid Intake -- Becoming dehydrated during a run can be unpleasant and, in extreme cases, life-threatening. You should not feel thirst at any time in your workout; use that as a guidline to determine exactly how much water you need before and during your run. Over time, you will learn to guage accurately how much you need. One word of caution, though; it is possible to overdo it. Too much fluid can cause uncontrolable diarrhea and unbalance your electrolyte levels -- two things you really don't want to have happen when you're out jogging.
6. The Wall -- "Hitting the wall" is the term used by marathoners for the point at which glycogen is completely depleted from the body, and there has not yet been sufficient time to switch over to burning just fat. It is a truly hellish time. You feel that you are completely burned out and can barely even stand up. Often this is accompanied by tremendous depression. To get through it, I always remind myself that as I switch over to burning only fat, I am probably losing weight at a greatly accelerated rate. I recommend that you make a point of hitting the wall at least once in your training. It's quite likely that you'll meet it in the actual marathon, so you should be prepared. If you've already experienced it in training, you'll have a better idea what to expect, so it will be less of a psychological hurdle. Also, by going through it once, your body will also be familiar with it and will be able to recover faster the next time it occurs.
7. Avoiding Burnout -- Psychological burnout will probably be the number one obstacle to finishing your training, and you should not wait until it becomes a problem before taking steps to counter it. Fortunately there are a number of things that you can do. First, be sure to always get plenty of sleep. (This has the added benefit of increasing performance as well.) If you can barely hold your eyes open, it's doubtful that you'll even want to attempt a 10-mile run. If lack of sleep is at all a problem for you, then you should make a point of scheduling your priorities around it. For example, if you normally watch letterman before going to bed, just TIVO it, and go to bed early. Also, never decide to skip your run before you take the caffeine. Often that can make all the difference in the world. Try running different routes to vary your routine. This makes the training less boring. And buy a bunch of books on the subject, so you can read about running and marathons in your free time. The more you learn about it, the more interesting it becomes. And if all else fails, try weighing yourself. Marvel at the pounds you have lost, and cringe at the thought that if you quite now, it will all come back in a matter of days.
8. Weight Control -- It's been my experience that for every pound I shed there is a noticable increase in my time, and I have often wondered if most of my performance gain is due to weight loss rather than the cardiovascular benefits of training. Whether or not this is the case, the less excess fat you have, the more efficiently you will run, and if you find yourself a few pounds overweight even after all that running, you may want to consider a bit of dieting. But be careful; if dieting is at all stressful or unpleasant for you, forget about it. Otherwise you'll just be contributing to the possibility of burnout. The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life is a great book. If you follow it to the letter (mainly by reducing your total fat intake to 10% of calories), you'll definitely lose weight "and eliminate virtually all risk of heart disease and cancer". More interesting diet (and life-extending) information can be found at Dr. Roy Walford's website.
9. Avoid Injury -- Running puts a great deal of stress on the joints. Give yourself plenty of time to relax and recover after a long run, and don't do anything else stressful for the rest of the day. Also, be aware that while modern running shoes afford great protection, they also give a false sense of security and sometimes cause people to come down on their feet in unnatural positions, causing injury. Check out the Running Barefoot site for the pro-barefoot arguments.
10. Keeping to the Routine -- Race day is your absolute last chance to screw up, so don't. Keep to your routine. Be sure to get plenty of sleep the night before. I recommend taking a good dose of nyquil and trying for a good 10 hours. Don't let yourself get excited. An adrenaline rush may be good for sprinters, but as a marathoner you'll pay for it later. Don't do anything different from your training. A lot of people buy new shoes for raceday. That's a huge mistake! What if they don't fit right or need to be worn in first? Wear your old cruddy training shoes. They may not be pretty, but they've taken you this far. Don't experiment with some new sport drink or food item or newfangled electronic device. Stick to the tried and true instead. The only thing that I would recommend changing is your pace. Try to keep your heartrate lower than you did in training. This may be seem painfully slow at the beginning. But wait until you hit the 20-mile marker. At that point if you still feel like speeding up, that would be the place for it. Once your finished, don't do any more running for at least a week, even if you feel fine. During this period your risk of injury is nearly 100%.

(Of course the usual disclaimers are in order. I am not a professional athlete or trainer; nor am I a doctor. I am an amateur runner. The tips I've provided above were gathered from my own personal experience and reading. And while I believe that they constitute useful advice for most people, that is merely my own personal, possibly uninformed, opinion. Any strenuous activity can potentially result in death through heart atttack, stroke, aneurysm, or lethal injury. Consultation with your doctor is recommended but does not guarantee your safety.)

Trackback Test

This is just a quick test to see if I've mastered trackback. Hopefully this post will send a TrackBack to this entry at Mulubinba Moments.

More Amusing Links

After I posted Amusing Links last week, Jenny recommended these biblical action figures to go with the George Bush doll. They, in turn, reminded me of these Jesus sports statues, which are truly bizarre. (I especially liked the football one where a small child attempts to tackle Jesus.) However, if one is truly interested in purchasing companions for the Bush doll, their best bet is probably here. There is also a librarian action figure.

On the subject of action figures, Micronauts (one of the greatest toy lines ever) have been rereleased! Unfortunately, they break just as easily as the originals. When I was a small child, mine were nearly always busted within the first 24 hours, and now, as an adult, I have the same problem.

At youaremyfriend.com you can create a customized animation celebrating your friendship to anyone you want. Just insert the name before the domain. For example Fluffy.youaremyfriend.com. If the name contains spaces, just substitute a dot: Santa.Claus.youaremyfriend.com. E-mail a link to your boss or significant other; they will be impressed with your dedication and programming skills.

If you like optical illusions, you have to check this out (from Widdershins). I don't think I've ever seen a more impressive collection! The only problem with looking at them on a computer screen rather than on paper is that when the illusion has to do with creating the appearance of movement, it can be very difficult to convince yourself that you're not looking at flash animation.