Don't stop dating

There are plenty of sources for dating advice. The magazines that are grace the check out aisle at the grocery store preach various methods of getting that dream guy/girl, or fixing a problem in your relationship. For some reason, a few of my friends come to me seeking advice. Being a friend, I don't tell them to pick up the most recent edition of Cosmo, but rather tell them to calm down and try to fix whatever issue is going on. Advice varies case to case, and I have really no idea why my friends ask me for advice. I have never had much success in the dating realm, so most of my advice consists of listening, telling my friend to calm down, and then working through some compromise.

Every Cosmo cover offers 100+ tips to improve... well so I chose this cover instead. 

Now, some of the advice you may read is "Try something new in the bedroom!" or "Explore this part of the city!" or "Try these new date ideas!"The only one that seems like a good idea that I have seen is the "Never stop dating".

This is advice from a florist shop. Definitely been there in my life...

Why do I think this is a good idea? Because the beginning part of dating is the most fun part. Figuring out who the person is, what things you share in common, trying new things, going to new places, etc. This is not a post on dating, however, but staying motivated in training.

While I have not had success in dating, I have had some success in training, and staying motivated with it. My coach, Martin Spierings, has kept things pretty entertaining, but eventually, it gets dull. So how to fix that? Start dating again. So below is a list of tips that start out as a list that you could find in a grocery check out rag, but is meant to help you get started training or push through a rough patch in your training.

This is what my log typically looks like for a week. Lots of boring without some spice. I don't think that dating comes with logs. That would make my life way easier. 

These are in no particular order.

1) Get out. Can't find something to do? Then check out the local gym/pool/track. There are bound to be other people there. Go talk to them. See if you can find a group to latch on to. The more the merrier. They will help keep you committed to whatever plan you have. And you will meet new people.

2) Go some place new. Tired of going to the same restaurant or renting movies from Blockbuster? (Do people still go to Blockbuster anymore? I recently rented movies from a nearby place that I used to go to as a kid. I forgot how fun it was). But in terms of training-try a new trail, bike path. If you are a swimmer, go to a lake/open water place. A change of scenery will do a body good.

3) Take a personal day. Need some alone time? We all do. A day off, or days off, can help you recover from a particularly strenuous string of workouts. The track/gym/road is not going anywhere, and the time off can be an opportunity to refocus your goals. Use the day to do things that have been pushed back on your to do list. Catch up on those episodes of Game of Thrones (assuming you haven't already read everyone's facebook statuses that give everything away).

4) Get cleaned up. One of the perks of dating is getting all put together to go out somewhere nice. Do that for your workout gear. Take extra time to clean up your bike, or to wash your workout equipment. Take care of the equipment that takes care of you in a workout. That includes your body. After a workout, take an extra long shower. Scrub with that fuzzy thing that has a fancy name. Soak up the heat.

This is called a loofah, which is apparently also spelled loofah. Convenient. Use it.

5) Make a playlist. Remember the first time you made your sweetheart a playlist on iTunes and then burned it on to a cd? Every song had some significance. And then after you burned it on to a cd, you wrote on it in sharpie for the track names and artists? Those were the days. For your workout, do the same. So that when your legs start telling you can't do it anymore, you have that track that will push you through whatever workout you are struggling with. Then you can take Jens Voigt's advice:

We can't all be like Jens, but we can all tell our body to shut up and push through whatever perceived threshold we have reached. And if for you it takes the latest Rihanna/David Guetta song to do it, then so be it. I personally go for something along these lines:

You generally don't want to be around me when I am doing intervals and this is going.

6) Try something new. Tired of hitting the saddle for hours, or pounding the pavement, or pumping iron? Then go to a yoga class. Or try a session of crossfit. Or maybe something crazy like aerobic dance. If you like it, incorporate it into your routine. 

There are times I should take my own advice. Some day, I will find someone looking for this:

Favorite pair of underwear

You know the feeling when you put them on. There is a reason why they are your favorite pair of underwear. Despite most of your undergarments being the same, and made of the same material, one of them is special. And you hold on to that pair until you can't legitimately wear them anymore.

Note-not a picture of me, but Hanes Comfort soft waistband boxers are the most comfortable things I have ever worn.

It the same with a swimmer and a pair of goggles. Sure, goggles look the same. And are made of the same parts-plastic, rubber, etc. But only one pair has been on your face for hours upon hours, with just the right amount of tension to keep the water out, and just enough so that you don't end up with a headache from them being too tight. All of the individual variables have been perfected. The nose piece is just wide enough, water never gets in; the goggles are an extension of your face. At a certain point, you don't even think about it. Just like your favorite pair of underwear, they do the job perfectly.

Eventually, that relationship ends. The destructive oxidative powers of the chlorine in the pool eats away at the rubber strap. Usually, the swimmer can see it coming. The goggles get progressively looser, the rubber gets eaten away, and eventually, the band goes SNAP.

What remains of my goggles. Fortunately, they cost at most $3/pair, so not a huge loss, but terrible timing.

Usually, it's not a snap, because the elasticity of the rubber is all gone. It is more of an weak twang. It also usually happens at the worst time-when the goggles are being put on in preparation for practice or a race. The strap is being stretched to fit over your head, and then the world falls apart. The band goes weakly. There is little fight left. This is not like a pair of underwear, where you can justify wearing them for longer, maybe just the elastic band from the underwear is a little loose...the functionality of the goggles is gone.

Very few words can explain the emotions going through the head of the swimmer holding the pieces of what was one of three things to go through all of the pain of training (goggles, suit, body). First is panic, as this traumatic event usually happens right before getting in the water. The "oh sh** oh sh** I am about to step up to the blocks and I have no goggles where is someone with a pair I can borrow right now". The second is despair. Now what am I going to do with the goggles? Where can I get another pair? Then comes BLINDING RAGE as you realize that there is no immediate remedy to your problem. The time you spent getting your goggles to be just perfect was now wasted. You will suffer with leaky goggles for a few workouts, discomfort in the short term as you borrow someone else's goggles or make a quick repair to the broken ones, but it will never be the same. The relationship is over.

All of those emotions went through my head this weekend when I raced at the 1-mile open water National Championships at Lake Del Valle in Livermore, California. I had signed up for the race to get some practice open water swimming for triathlons, and I went out there with some of the members of the Temescal Master's swim team that I do some workouts with. Just after the pre race meeting, about 5 minutes before my race was to start, I was making my way down to the water to get in a quick workout. My cap was on, and I was putting on my goggles, when they fell apart in my hands. I pulled my hands down to see the destruction: The white rubber bands that had held small pieces of plastic against my eyes, protecting them from dihydrogen monoxide were no longer functional.

Phase 1: Panic

A Google image search for "panic" comes up with this-a panicked zombie. The internet is a weird place...

This was minutes before my race. I turned around and went back to my bag to pull out the second pair that I had brought with me, but the second pair were not tinted. I contemplated pulling the strap out of the clear goggles to put in my now lifeless goggles, but realized that time was short, and the strap on my second pair was not 100%.

Phase 2: Despair
Now what? The second pair would not allow me to see the buoys, it was too bright outside. My teammates looked at me, and offered their goggles, but that would be no good. I needed my tinted ones. I contemplated doing the race without goggles. But then I remembered that I had a $5 in my wallet, and there was a swim shop that was selling goods...maybe they had straps?

Phase 3: Blinding rage...

If someone had a scouter, my power level would have been well over NIIINNNEEE THOUSANNND. I apologize to all of you for making this reference. If you don't understand, go here:

I grabbed the five bucks out of my wallet, ran over to the shop, and said "I have five bucks, I need goggle straps, my race starts in 5 minutes, please help". The two employees looked at my dilated pupils, handed me some straps and took my money. I took it and ran. Straps in, goggles on, too tight, but there wasn't time to adjust.

The race: I got in the water (which was a warm 76 degrees), and paddled around for a bit to test the out the new goggle straps I had purchased. They were inflexible and tight, but not letting water in, so they would suffice. I warmed up quickly, as they were starting to call the swimmers over to the in water start line. A lot of the swimmers were clumped on the right hand side of the line, behind one of the race favorites, so I made my way to the left.

As the final minutes ticked before the race started, a woman asked me to confirm the course. This is pretty standard behavior out of most athletes-pre race jitters causes us to want to talk about something. The race, the course, the weather. It's like an awkward first date, except instead of the possibility of the date going poorly and never seeing the other person again, you know that you are going to be in pain from exertion. I told her the course, and a minute later, the race took off.

I fell into a steady rhythm, and as expected, there was a clump streaming to my right. The girl that I had been talking to took off, so I slipped in on her feet. We started sliding over to the other group, as she apparently was not keen on doing all the work.

After about 200 yards, we were in the main group. The leaders started to get away, and I was stuck in the middle. I didn't stress about it, and just allowed the others to do the work, figuring that I could slip through at a turn buoy.

Wrong. One of the major differences between swimming and other distance sports is that once a gap develops, it is very difficult to pull it back. In running or cycling, you can put down a minute or two effort, and generate a sizable gap, or make up a gap. It will hurt, but it's possible. Not so in swimming. A two minute effort might get you 5-15 second gap. By the time I had the space to make a move back to the leaders, they were long gone.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I kept rhythm for most of it, and hit the beach in 10th place overall. I had wanted to finish higher, but it just means I have more work to do in the water.

Props to my training partner, Liz (who blogs here about being gluten free), who was the 5th overall female.

Double thumbs up as we were both second in our age groups.

Why aren't we rioting already?

Now, contrary to the title, I am not suggesting that the public riots against the government. It is destructive, and rarely solves the issue that it was set out to.

Approximately a year and a half ago, Occupy Wall Street started. Protests and riots spontaneously arose in cities around the United States and the world. The protests were destructive and harmful, with businesses and municipalities losing huge amounts of money. They also generated a lot of amusing videos of people being asked why they were protesting.

Supposedly, the protests were against... something. I think it was income inequality, or the governmental plan to bail out corporations, or the influence of business in politics. Maybe. And the protests went on for a few weeks, and after a while, everybody went home. Nothing really changed, except for the fact that the protests cost cities millions of dollars in extra pay for police and fire (example here), and untold millions in actual damages to businesses, not counting lost business.

Now we have concrete reasons to protest against the actions of our government, but no one is actually doing anything about it.

What are those reasons?
1) Targeting of groups by the Internal Revenue Service. Remember when President Obama said this?

Apparently, it is not a joke. Various groups were targeted by the IRS when they applied for tax exempt status, when other groups were not. If you want a complete line-up of articles on the subject, go here.

Is this reason not enough to protest? Most people fear the IRS. They can bring down ruin upon anyone. Being audited is terrifying. You are responsible for proving your innocence. Now, you have the IRS actively targeting certain groups, asking for everything from facebook posts, books they read, donor lists, and board meeting minutes.

2) The hacking of reporters' computers and phone lines.
Reporters who were writing articles about touchy subjects had their phones and computers hacked.

While the phone lines were not tapped, traces were performed on the phone lines for the Associated Press so that the Justice Department could track who was being called. Article here.

James Rosen, a reporter for Fox News (say whatever you want about Fox News), is being threatened as a co-conspirator for leaking information about North Korea's nuclear program. Article here. His phone lines were again traced secretly.

Sharyl Atkinson, a reporter for CBS, had her personal and work computers hacked during the times that she was reporting on the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. If you don't know what happened in Benghazi, a US Ambassador and several other Americans died. Here is the wiki page. Here is the article about how Ms. Atkinson had her computer hacked.

3) The collecting of phone data from millions of Americans.
The National Security Agency, starting under the Bush Administration, has been collecting data on the phone activity of millions of Americans. Article here.

While the government has said that they weren't listening, there are many who think otherwise.

4) The secret collection of data from major internet sources.

The NSA, through a program called PRISM, has been collecting data from companies such as Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. This program was exposed by a former contractor for the NSA named Edward Snowden. Here is an article.

Why isn't the public doing something? We have every reason to do something drastic. Hell, just for the tax reason we would have enough cause to do something.

In addition to the abuse of the tax system, we have the infringement of the free press, and the secret collection of private data by the government. 

Other countries that are currently protesting: Turkey, which started out as a protest over a planned business development that would have destroyed a park, which has now turned into a larger protest against a repressive government. Brazil, which is protesting everything from high bus fees, the cost of preparing for the World Cup, and corruption. Bulgaria, where they are protesting the appointment of a security official by their socialist government. Now, I acknowledge that these are huge simplifications of what is going on in these particular countries, but at least they are doing something.

So why aren't we doing something? In my opinion,  it is because so far, most people haven't been affected as an individual. The collection of private data won't change your browsing habits, or how you use your phone, especially when you don't know it is going on. The tracing of the phone lines of the Associated Press and the hacking of reporter's computers won't impact the public as long as some reporting is going on. The information that gets put out by the press might be different, but who will know if the reporters that are doing the hard reporting are silenced? The harassment of various groups by the IRS affects only a small group of people.

But these are all violations of our individual rights protected by the constitution. You would think that our President, who was a constitutional law professor, would know that. Infringement upon the press? First Amendment. Collection of private data? Violation of the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches.  A violation against one individual should be a violation against all of us.

Three words

Three words can mean a lot. Howevever, an addition of other words can change the meaning of everything.

Example: I love you. One of the most important, consequential, difficult things to say. Add more words? I sort of love you. Changes everything. (In fact, the words "sort of" changes the meaning of everything-like "you're going to live...sort of")

This is taken from Demetri Martin:

He is adding words for comedic effect.

I feel like a lot of modern pop music is adding words to that particular phrase "I love you". Take for example this song:

Now, disregard the fact that Jason Derulo feels the need to exhale and inhale all over the mic as he sings. The song lyrics at the beginning seem to paint a picture of him falling in love-doing the little things together. Then the lyrics get progressively worse. 

But the part that really gets me is this line: "We'll be lovers fo sho". I understand the need to make lyrics rhyme, and keeping with the rhythm of a song, but I am putting my foot down. I usually like crappy pop music. However, I can not imagine a situation where I would say to the hypothetical woman that I am love with "we are lovers fo sho". And if I did, and the woman didn't immediately leave me, that should set off red flags.

So many memories

When I was in middle school, I would go over to a friend's house, and we would play Nintendo 64. If we weren't playing golden eye (which is one of the best first person shooters or all time), we were probably playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater. I don't have that much knowledge of video game soundtracks, but the music on that game was awesome. This song brought back a lot of memories:

If you want to relive the whole soundtrack, you can find a playlist here. Tons of ska and punk music to take you back to the days when N64 was the best console around.