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Last Christmas, a good friend of mine surprised me an indoor electric grill. I was surprised in that Why, I never considered getting one of these way, where you're actually not sure what you're going to do with the gift. I like grilling outside and burning stuff, and the idea of doing this in my house didn't seem like quite a good idea because of two problems:
My kitchen doesn't have a good exhaust for high-heat cooking, not that my crap stove can generate the tens of thousands of BTUs I'd need to make a decent stir fry. The exhaust issue is related to the second problem:
My overly-sensitive smoke detectors, which readily go off if I even boil a lot of water. On second thought, the smoke detectors are probably just right, but it's still pretty annoying.
Because of this, I couldn't even conceive of grilling in the house. This course of action had, in the past, produced too much smoke and anxiety to be fun. So the gift, after an initial period of admiration, was left in the box unused and forgotten.
Fast forward a year, and I stumbled upon the grill again while cleaning my office. With the wisdom that advancing age must have bestowed upon me, I could immediately see a new application for the grill, and this was entirely due to the grill being in my office. You see, my office is vented to the outside. It's in the basement next to the storage room, which is also host to the litterbox for my cats. One of the first things I did after I started working down here with the cats was to figure out how to exhaust the fumes from their sandy deposits. Step 1 was to get a Littermaid Automatic Scooping Litterbox. Step 2, after the Littermaid failed to completely contain the smell, was to visit Home Depot to by an electric ventillation fan and an outside vent pipe that would fit in the tiny basement window. With one portable Ground Fault Interruptor outlet for the fan (just in case) and some duct tape to seal the vent pipe to the window, I now constantly vent the nastiness into the Great Outdoors where it belongs. There have been some additional side benefits too: visiting smokers can actually smoke in my office when it's cold out, and the smoke gets sucked outside pretty quickly.
Anyway, I reasoned, what works for cigarette smoke and litterbox odor probably would work for the gently smoking meats and sizzling steaks. So I cleared off the top of my drafting table and set up the grill:
The grill itself, a nice West Bend electric, is about the size of a large scanner, fitting approximately 4 burger patties at once with a flat area off to the side suitable for toasting buns. Unlike my mom's ancient electric skillet from the 70s, the electric grill unit is immersible in water (simplifying cleaning considerably) and has a separate drip pan that fits underneath it. The manual instructs you to fill the drip pan with water, which is a good trick to make cleanup easier (the grease doesn't harden and char). I have tried this in conventional ovens but it tends to create steam at the same time, creating a mushy gray yuckiness on the bottom of the meat. I was pleased to see that this grill didn't seem have that problem when I tested it just now with lightly-salted cross-cut beef short ribs marinated with a touch of low-sodium soy sauce. Overall cooking time was around 15 minutes per batch. While the smoky charcoal taste was lacking, the convenience of working and grilling in the same space was, dare I say, exhilarating. I can see a bit of grease that has escaped, so this isn't the sort of thing I would do every day, but it's just a bit crazy, which is what I needed today :-)
I've been writing way too much heavy stuff about focus lately, so it's time for a quick gear break!
I ordered an Inka Pen from ThinkGeek a few weeks ago, hoping to use it as a replacement for the flat pens I've been using. While I like the flat pens, they are not quite as durable in the pocket, and despite their relative thinness they tend to bulge out of my reporter-style Moleskine notebooks. Wear and tear is also increased because I carry the notebook in my back pocket, which makes the flat pen tend to chew its way out of the pocket. Not good.
Construction
The Inka pens are pretty cool, having been designed for extreme conditions by its inventor, Greg Adelman. From the website:
Lightweight, watertight and built to withstand harsh environments. The pressurized ink cartridge ensures the pen will write wet or dry at any angle, any temperature, and any altitude.
I was a little skeptical about the robustness of the pen, because I could imagine the steel barrel warping or other some similar disaster occurring. This post on Kickstart News, however, offers some heartening detail about the pen's machined outer barrel and carbon-fiber inner body construction.
I've been carrying the Inka around on my keychain for about a week, and I haven't yet noticed any warping or even scratching. We shall see how it holds up over the long term, but two small details give me hope: the end of the steel outer body, which you can see above, is utterly round and smoothly polished, unlike just about every mass-market pen I've ever seen. The pen also screws together without any scratchiness or scraping sensation, again unlike just about any other pen I've owned. This is a precision-made object.
The pen itself is comprised of several unscrewable components. You can use the pen in two ways:
- Pull the pen straight out of the outer body tube. It's held in place with friction from a blue o-ring. The pen is short, but usable.
- Assemble a full-size pen. Unscrew the pen from the key ring cap, then screw the mini pen to the end of the outer barrel. The result is a full-sized pen that feels pretty good in the hand.
The one down side I've found about the Inka pen is that it got me held up at the TSA security line. It didn't help that I was also carrying a stubby plastic pen shaped like a small cigarette and mechanical lead engineering pencil with a very cool double-clutch lead gripping mechanism on top of the usual laptop gear. My laptop bag must have looked like a bomb maker's tool kit. :-)
I finally signed up for a gym membership, having realized that it's actually cheaper than my daily Starbucks habit, and therefore actually quite a good deal by comparison. At an average of $5 a day, the Starbucks habit costs me about $100/month. The gym membership will be costing me about $500 for the first year, minus a $200 yearly health insurance reimbursement, for a grand total of $300/year. After the first year, the cost will be $20/month, with no lock-in. With the health insurance reimbursement, the cost will be a mere $40/year. This is a no-brainer.
For my first year, I opted to sign up for program consisting of 5-7 individual 1-hour sessions with one of the club trainers. After that, there are 30 minute follow up sessions every so often. Although this costs $99, I figured it was expertise worth paying for since I know absolutely nothing about exercise.
OMG WHAT DO I WEAR
I am such a newbie that I didn't even know what to wear. The general consensus is not to be too flashy or too slovenly. This article covered the basics, and after some more digging I settled on the following.
Plain Cotton Dark T-shirt --- I went with basic black microweave wicking (cost: about $7). White t-shirts apparently can stain yellow from deodorant running. Gray t-shirts turn dark from pit sweat...gross! A friend of mine also suggested that I wash the shirt every day so it's fresh. I bought an extra one just in case I forgot.
Plain Cotton shorts --- Not too baggy, but not too revealing. Should end just above the knee, to avoid looking like a dork. Mine are gray with a drawstring. About $7 also.
Plain White Cotton Socks --- Cushioned socks, not going past the ankle. I went with the ankle-length socks from Haynes, 83% Cotton, at $9 for 6 pairs. They seemed to work fine.
Training Shoes --- Cross trainers apparently have the arch support you need for this kind of exercise. I already had a pair of Nike Air cross trainers, about $40, from before. They're white with dark blue trim. They weren't so good for basketball, but they seem to have held up for today's session.
Some other stuff I forgot to get:
Gym Bag --- I carried around my stuff in a plastic shopping bag like a yutz. Never again!
Gym Lock --- I guess they make you bring your own locks for the lockers. Duh.
Towel --- I brought a bath towel. It's way too big. I need to get a smaller one.
Water Bottle --- Not necessary, as it turns out. Just go to the water fountain.
WEEK 1 - ORIENTATION, CARDIOVASCULAR
I had to fill out a health history form to determine if I had any pre-existing medical conditions. The only ones I weren't sure of: blood pressure and cholesterol. The last time I had a full physical they were fine (I was surprised), but it's been a few years so I should really schedule a doctor's appointment.
The trainer asked me some questions about what I wanted to accomplish with my exercise, and I replied as follows:
Learn about Fitness and the Variety of Fitness Activities --- I really don't know that much about physical exercise. The last time I did anything regular was when I was forced to in High School.
Improve strength across the board --- I don't want to have giant muscles, but I want to know my body can perform when it needs to.
Know what exercises might match with training for what sports --- For example, what kind of exercises do rock climbers do? I was just curious.
Lose weight --- I figure that this would come naturally while doing all the other stuff, so I listed it last.
Not be bored --- This is the one that I am most concerned about. Is the gym becomes a chore, or doesn't deliver results that are tangible, then I will lose interest. I don't want this to happen.
The trainer, John, nodded through all these questions, and told me that the first thing to do was to focus on cardiovascular exercise. Minimum: 30 minutes a day of elevated heart rate. So for today, we focused on a variety of machines in the Cardio room. John indicated that we'd start with the hardest machines, and end with the easiest ones. I think the idea was to get the heart rate elevated quickly.
As we walked to the machine area, I asked if I had to stretch. The trainer said it wasn't necessary with these machines and that it was bad to do when you were "cold", but stretching AFTERWARDS was critical. This not-stretching thing in the beginning was new to me, and I'm thinking there must be more to the story. I had always equated "warming up" with "stretching", but maybe this isn't the case.
All the machines had a "quick start" button on them, which allows you to just get the machine moving and measuring your heart rate, calories burned, and so on. They all have programmed modes too to simulate different environments.
Here are the machines I used today:
- Stair Climbing Machine --- This was kind of like an endless staircase, like an escalator, with adjustable resistance. I actually like climbing stairs, so this was kind of fun. Although my leg muscles aren't as strong as they used to be, I used to ride bikes a lot when I was a kid. They were single-speed, short crank bikes, and I lived on a mountain...I had incredibly strong leg muscles, which surprised people because I was kind of a pale geeky-looking kid. It did get the heart rate going quickly, I must say.
At this point, I asked questions about how to monitor one's body for trouble...when was I over exerting myself? What should I pay attention to? John said that I would learn to listen to my body. Feeling the "burn" in the muscles is good, but it's not good if it's in the joints. If I felt dizzy or light headed or short of breath, stop and walk it off by going to the water fountain. Don't just stop everything...keep moving. I felt a little light headed, so I got off the stair climber and got some water.
Stepper Machine --- I think that's what it was caused...I privately thought of it as the "bouncy" machine. You stand in it and lift each leg up in a kind of bouncing motion, like you are a hop-scotching bunny. I actually liked this machine a lot too, but mostly for the silly reasons above.
Elliptical --- This was the freakiest machine of the bunch, with a foot motion somewhere between bicycling and walking. I thought of it as "peddle-shuffling". Apparently it is very good for working the butt, which might explain the number of women using it. I didn't particularly care for the first one I used, though I could just feel the years falling away from my ass (or so I imagined). The second variant of the Elliptical had hand levers attached to it, so as you peddle-shuffle and move your arms at the same time. The motion was sort of like a toddler learning how to cross-country ski. I liked this second variant a lot, because it moved my arms more. I commented to the trainer that I liked this one because of that.
Treadmill --- Realizing I had never used one before by the way I stood on it, the trainer warned me to put my feet to the side of the conveyor belt before hitting the QUICKSTART button (all machines had one). Thus, I narrowly avoided one of those cartoon gym moments, when the noob flies off the treadmill. I wasn't looking forward to the treadmill, because it looked super boring, but it actually sort of grew on me. You have to maintain a fluid rhythm to stay in place. There's also TV to watch. You can kind of move and zone out. Not nearly as bad as I thought. The trainer showed me some alternative standing and holding positions too, suggesting I try taking longer strides if I wanted when I inquired about it. He said 2.5 miles per hour was a good walking speed, though clearly there were people actually running on the treadmill. They looked like gazelles.
Stationary Bike --- Sit on a bike, and peddle. I was bored before I even got on it. I guess when I'm on a bike, I want to go somewhere. I guess it wasn't a bad way to cool down.
Afterwards, the trainer showed me how to stretch out:
Leg Stretches --- sit against the wall on the mat, one left straight out, the other pulled in. Reach toward the stretched out leg until you feel it pulling on the backs of the leg. Hold for 30 seconds. Switch to other leg.
Squatting Stretch --- put the bottom of your feet against each other, pull them in, let the legs flop to the side like you are sitting crossed-legged, and stretch the inner thigh. Hold 30 seconds.
Lower Back Stretch --- Lie on back, relax the upper body and make sure it's contacting the mat. Lift both knees toward you, hugging with arms. Make sure upper body is relaxed. Pull them up, vary the machine a bit. Do this for like 30-40 seconds.
Stretch The Body --- Lying on back, stretch arms up above your head, and get as LONG as you can.
At this point, I was ready for my carton of milk and cupcake, but there were none forthcoming. I even asked about it, but all I got was a laugh in response. Harrumph.
WRAP UP
All in all, I did 40 minutes of cardio, and I got sweaty, and I actually felt really good afterwards. We'll see if this is the case tomorrow...I may be sore. Next week, I have a second session scheduled to go over the weight training machines. Until then, I'm planning on going every day to do about 30-40 minutes of the same thing to see what it's like and try to get addicted to it as a habit.
Before I left, I asked about eating beforehand. The trainer said not to eat too much, no more than 1/4 of a meal. I mentioned that I typically don't eat breakfast, and he said (predictably) that this was the MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY. I asked him why, and he said it was because while we're sleeping, our body metabolism shuts off. The first meal of the day signals it to turn back on again, and start burnin' calories. I also learned that the reason you want to eat a lot of small regular meals is so your body doesn't go into "calorie hoarding" mode. The description reminded me of older people who grew up during a depression or wartime famine; they had been so conditioned not to know when their next meal would be, they would hoard as much as possible. You probably know someone of an older generation who loves going to CostCo and buys tons of laundry detergent, way more than anyone reasonably (in today's age) would need. But you know, it just puts them at ease so they don't bite your head off :-)
So, if you want your body to run efficiently, you need to maintain it at predictable intervals. This covers sleeping times, drinking enough water, and when and what you are eating. The overall principle seems to be surprise your body as little as possible, except perhaps in the case of weight training when you DO want your body to start hoarding muscle.
I'm looking forward to trying this all myself again tomorrow. Overall, not a bad "first day of school" :-)
» The mystery continues in Part 2...
I've been very bad about writing new articles for the blog. Here's an omnibus catch-up post!
SOCIAL
It's possible I'm a little burned out from the large amount of social and business networking I've been doing. I've turned some kind of corner and am now enjoying meeting people. This is due, largely, to having a much better idea of what it is that I'm doing, and how I relate to people personally.
WORK
I also have been doing some interesting work. One that's just getting started is some technical graphics consulting for a Holocaust museum interactive, working with my friends at Inquirium once again. They're a company that specialized in design for education. I may get a chance to work with some sweet real-time graphics technology. I did my first real print piece for a game studio out in Aliso Viejo, nothing fancy, mind you. However, the experience of using InDesign to lay out a book got me interested in
BUSINESS
On the Printable CEO front, I've been working with my buddy Scott to price out some likely printing scenarios for a first run of bew Emergent Task Planner sheets. What I may do is put up a preorder form to just get an idea of who wants how many, and then we'll price out the print run so we cover the cost of printing plus some profit.
I also have a few articles stewing in the back of my mind, and it's related to my new business focus around three key ideas that I've been developing over the past couple of years.
Practice Investigative Design -- I recently realized that I think more like an investigative journalist or detective. I enjoy getting behind surface facts to find out the real truths and motivations. My design process is heavy on questions and background digging, mapping the relationships between individuals and their motivations, and then coming up with a design concept that works with all of them. This is what I love doing.
Apply The Scientific Creative Method -- I'm not a naturally-expressive artist, and in the past used to wonder what was wrong with me. It turns out that I'm just expressive when I'm applying a process based my "scientific creative method". In essence, it's using my analytical brain to design and build things that, ultimately, are judged based on how they make me feel.
Use Storytelling as a Design Tool -- I'm convinced that physical environments shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions far more quickly than abstract ideas. I also am convinced that the vast majority of people understand themselves in context to the world through stories and storytelling. If you combine storytelling techniques with the physical world, you can create very powerful tools for behavioral change. Interacting with physical props, scenes, and characters in day-to-day life is much more compelling than passively reading a book. I am thinking of storytelling and design is a very broad sense, including different ways of presenting stories (film, theater) and of creating the elements that support the presentation (set building, cinematography, sound, prop-making).
These are three approaches that I can get really excited about, and I could write and explain these all day long. Which leads me to the next step: fixing the website so people can find this content, and see what it is I do. I've been looking at Expression Engine, on and off, to figure out how to transition things over.
RELATIONSHIPS
It seems that a number of my conscientious female friends, either on the verge of getting married or crazed by the summer heat, have spontaneously decided that I needed to be pushed in the area of romance before I rot away on the vine. So I've been thinking a lot about what a RELATIONSHIP is, what LOVE is, what I am LOOKING for, who might be looking for ME, and of course where to FIND it. I think I am doing an admirable job of displacing my unease with this process by over-analyzing everything---it's a topic that's closely related to identity, purpose, and fulfillment, which isn't that much of a leap from productivity, right?
Um, right?
It suddenly occurs to me that statements like this may be a factor in why I'm perennially single :-)
BALANCE
I have been actually hitting a pretty good rhythm the past couple weeks as far as work and social life is concerned, but this has been at the expense of blogging and working on the website. Plus, this is the week that I'm going to start a new habit to go to the gym. This week I'll be trying to resolve the whole "blogging versus business versus fitness versus social networking" thing.
So that's what's been going on. I'll try to maintain a regular posting schedule this week.
So it's the second day of a 2-week experiment to wake up every day at 630AM. Despite getting to sleep at 10:30PM and falling asleep right away, I am feeling very groggy. So. Groggy.
Last night's sleep cycle was weird...I woke up a couple times but didn't remember anything until 4AM rolled around, when I became very wide awake. My brain was alert, thinking of things to do, while the rest of my body was saying, "C'mon, go back to sleep!" I tried focusing on my breathing, trying to get into the experience of just letting air in and out of my body. It hadn't occured to me before that maybe meditation was simply about not thinking so darn much. I eventually fell asleep again after about an hour and a half, but when the alarm went off at 630AM it was very difficult to roll out of bed. The morning exercise regimen failed to wake me up, though it did get the blood flowing so I could make it to the coffee shop before 8AM and do the planning for the day.
It's 930AM now, and I have my daily plan set before me. My mind, though, is unfocused and weary, and the reason I'm writing this blog post is to kickstart the mental process. Even now, I'm not quite alert, writing automatically with my head listing about 30 degrees to the right. I need some grogginess solutions!
I decided to see what Steve Pavlina had to say on the subject, as a reader had mentioned his site the other day. His article How to get up right away when your alarm goes off had a crazy-genius suggestion to practice getting up when you're already awake...the idea is to condition yourself to do things when any alarm sounds, and by practicing this getting up becomes easier. I had a related thought recently about reducing my "lag time" between thought and action; Pavlina's approach is very pragmatic and implementable. Bravo!
In the meantime, I'm still feeling groggy, but am slightly more alert, because my curiosity has become activated. I am feeling the urge to do some more investigation of this sleepiness topic. Which itself, I think, is a clue that I'm not actually sleepy, I'm just not that excited about doing the work today. Yesterday was all about starting a new habit, and that was exciting. Today is just day #2, and there's work to be done. Nothing exciting or glamorous about that, so my mind already anticipating being bored and is playing tricks on me. Which I find very irritating.
So...I just need to get past that.
I'm going to go drink a cup of water, do some jumping jacks, and knock off a few of those "boring" tasks. I know that doing these tasks are necessary and interesting once I get them done. For example, by the end of the day I should be more conversant with Flash video and Version 2 components, which would be awesome. However, because I know I can do it, the intellectual challenge isn't there.
I'm reminded of an observation I made Impulsive versus Methodical Action, regarding the drudgery of doing lab work:
Progress is made by keeping your head down and pushing, often without a promise of immediate reward, until it is done.
I have to clarify that "without a promise of immediate reward" actually means "deferred reward". The impulsive side of me enjoys the quest for knowledge as it is happening, so the reward is immediate. The application of that knowledge through process takes time, and the reward is deferred. For people that enjoy the mechanical process side of things, the reward would be immediate. In my case, I have to be aware that my brain is going to try to distract me with more immediately-gratifying things. Like writing a blog post clarifying my thoughts, which in a way is helpful.
SUMMARY: Grogginess == Brain Tricking Me
