Blended Living

Had the time to play with WordPress a bit today and decided to try and configure it a bit more the way I’d like.  Changed the sidebar some.  Downloaded a plugin to allow creating photoblogs more easily.  Next to dust off the camera and snap off a few photos.

I’m liking this blogging software alot- and I’m barely scratching the surface.  Making it extendable by user created plugins is a great concept.  If only we as humans could just plugin another module and now dance or draw or code competently.

It has been said that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.  I wonder what that number would be to become competent?  Also, what frameworks allow the most efficient processing of hours of study, play, practice in some field of endeavor?

I’m sure it took the author of that plugin much more than the 20 minutes I took to add it to my install.  Knowledgebases and NLP attempt to speed up the process.  Some gifted people can learn a language very quickly.  In fact surprisingly in a recent survey almost a half of the respondents said they would be open to having a surgical implant if it would enhance their abilities.

I’m not sure I’d like to flex my biceps and get FM radio yet.  Or even have WiFi built in to my skull.  Small laptops and phones are good enough for me.  Keep that RFID chip in the packaging.  I even hesitated putting them in my dog, but the idea of finding a lost pet won in the end.

Getting past this rough patch in the economy – I wonder what new technologies will propel us forward?  The pace of change has sped up such that what our grandparents experienced we will see happen every decade, And that just gets cut by 50%.   So then it will be 7 years then fewer.  It would be great to see energy issues solved, so that we don’t have such economic and ecological crises.  What plugin will affect some young mind and spark that next great idea?

Why is it that there is always a missing cable or adapter in our lives?  The phone’s adapter blew out and I finally got the replacement in the mail.  I took the opportunity to rewire a few others things – like my WiFi – and I have forgotten what a pleasure it was to roam around the home untethered.

It’s not like the pure technology excites me anymore (although it is still somewhat cool) but we so easily grow accustomed to life’s little luxuries.  How many times have we torn the living room apart looking for a remote – just to turn on the TV?  Or where is that cordless phone today?

These minor annoyances so accumulate into such large stresses sometimes.  But chipping away at the tangle of missing and misplaced wires, adapters and other paraphenalia in our lives does make a small yet significant difference.  Such daily improvements and additions create a base on which to create larger and more important changes.

Being in the now can even make doing the dishes more enjoyable.  Which reminds me…

The exuberance from my morning run has faded and I’m at the tail end of a busy weekend with more to-do-list than time left.  I feel like I live in a gigantic puzzle, you know the one where there are 16 slots and 15 pieces of the puzzle and you have to move everything to get two of the correct pieces to be next to each other?  And not just my pack rat self and small apartment either.

Its 16 spots with one empty and I’m standing in it.  I just laughed to myself as I read what I typed and it seems so much more dire than reality.  Lots to do, but worth doing and the results and some fun in the doing will be more than enough reward. 

Back to that morning run: it was gorgeous in Central Park this morning.  Everything was lit up by that warm sun, and I even took the bridle path south.  I normally take the paved road.  It was a bit more scenic and the Lake was partially frozen over.  I saw a motionless turtle that I hope was just lethargic.  The little boy in me wanted to poke him with a stick, but the parent in me resisted just enough.

On the way back, I passed the dinosaur topiary in front of the Museum of Natural History.  It wasn’t bad, even compared to the ones in that documentary I saw recently.  Armed with that knowledge of what it takes to create one, I gave the green dino a bit more respect. I’ll try to bring a camera with me next time.

A couple more tasks and off to bed.  This shortened week might just be what I need.

• Is it really “man created in God’s image”, or god created in Man’s image?
• Is it a fools errand to seek God, or rather to find god in us?
• One person’s dogma, is another’s myth, blind faith is so dangerous
• I’d like to take snippets of song lyrics and make a play – not necessarily a musical
• [this is a stream of consciousness- and my focus is that fleeting]
• entrain, entrain what is my perfect rhythm, my natural melody?
• who to dance with?
• I think that was the market bottom for the year
• it be nice to have a dog again, but the responsibility is daunting
• 40 days left?  Can I hit that goal?  Have to ramp it up.
• if only we took the literal figuratively, and vice versa
• where is the beauty?
• the park in the morning was beautiful
• have to do those morning pages
• fire up the new computer
• move the zune over
• setup the laptop for the morning pages
• subscribe to that drawing site?
•  netflix?
• enough

     The phone call was errant but well timed.  To go back to sleep or not, that is the question.  Suddenly I remembered the new running schedule that I planned on implementing… that is one of the new schedules that I was thinking of implementing.  Still, I was awake and enough so to pull on one of the not-so-new running shirts and tights that I start to grow familiar with.

I stopped asking myself if I look funny in these black tights, somewhat due to repetition mostly due to being thankfully warm during these last few runs.  It was 70 degrees 7 days ago, wasn’t it?  (I might still ask a friend if the tights are …)

Some lessons learned for winter running:

1. I need about 1 layer per 10 degrees F below 50F
2. Lip balm
3. Head and ear cover in the form of a cheap cap from the local 99 cent store.

So I headed out and woke quickly in the 15 degree’d wind-chilled air of a crisp New York morning.  I decided to go into Riverside this time…incorrectly thinking that it would be less windy.  I tried to focus on nasal breathing, to help the air warm and humidify a bit before hitting my lungs like sandpaper.  Also all that jazz about nitric oxide being good for you (another upcoming article).

My face burned from the wind before I got too far.  I pulled the black cap down a bit further and dealt with feeling good that my ears didn’t freeze like the other night.  Thoughts strayed to my late dog Lena – a Samoyed that never truly lived in the moment unless she was out in the park on days like this.  The thick white fur coat and huge smile that she brought everywhere with her still makes me smile every time I think of her and the nickname I gave her.  “Hostess of the park” I used to call her as she would grin and greet almost everyone that happened across her path.

Those reminiscenses got me through the first mile – as I turned by the empty tennis courts.  I looked out over the Hudson and saw the white breakers – if memory served that meant winds in excess of 12-15 miles.  Somewhere in my past there was a NYPL book that outlined little signs of what milage windage caused what.  Light leaves rustling?  2 to 4 miles per hour.   Branches moving? then 5-7 miles, etc.

The wind chill and frostbite table would have prepared me better, as I didn’t know till much later that it was “feels like” 15F.  I did decide to cut the run short as I got winded trying to pass a young coed that raced past me.   She was finishing her run as she circled the Dinosaur playground and exited.  I fed my wounded ego by running past her and back up the hill towards the north.  Thankfully it wasn’t windy in this section.  I could see my breath as I worked my way up the little hill.

A few minutes later I was home and warmly under my most comfortable comforter.  The post run nap was splendid.

I once read that a wealthy person isn’t someone who has everything, but a person that doesn’t need anything else.  How does that apply to time?   What is time freedom or wealth?

Is it in someone that is so here and now, that there is no regret of the past and no want of the future that he or she just purely exists in the now?  If we were singularly spiritual beings that could be nirvana.

We are more however.  Perhaps its the ease at which we can feed our brains, then rest them while we feed our bodies, and then feed our emotional needs, then go around again.  Some rest time for all of them, some fantastic unity when we use all of ourselves.  Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.  Like a symphony with the brass, winds, strings, and percussion in balance.   There are solos, alternating melodies and backup, teamwork that creates more than the pieces.  There is fun and joy and those moments that aren’t.

The Asics running tights and Brooks top were keeping me warm enough, yet not too much with another thin long sleeve TShirt.  It felt a little colder than the first run which was around 50 degrees F.  Its darker much earlier and I’m not used to seeing so many other runners in Central Park this far after sunset.

Past the first hill, I’m breathing really hard, but otherwise feeling great.  I think its about 45F, since I’m not sweating at all and I don’t see my breath.   Down the hill now and things are starting to fall into sync.  Not having run enough the last month, I convince myself to take it easy.

Ahead of me I hear some horses, and they are majestic, with their loud hoof beats and nostril flares of white smoke blowing out in front of them.  Its a couple of New York’s Finest and one of them are trying to get his horse to go into a gallop.

I can’t resist the urge and I run faster.  The trailing rider and her horse reluctantly speed up here and there, just enough to make it interesting for me, as if they know I’m trying to catch up.  I run with them for a quarter mile or so.  The hoof beats are thunderous now – I try to entrain to their beat.  The two horses are not quite in sync and I can’t quite ‘feel’ the rhythm.

Out of breathe as they take the turnoff, I slow down near the south end of The Lake and I am pleased.  To turn back or keep going now?  I decide its not that cold after all and keep going down to Columbus Circle.  As I hit that last hill near Sheep’s Meadow, I see that its 29F – I was totally off about the temperature.  The way back home was more quiet and cold without my 4 legged running partners.

There’s 44 days left in the year, and the weather seems to finally decide that it is winter.  Just yesterday we were blessed with 65 degrees and a last chance to show off those late summer fashions.  I think I saw more miniskirts than ever before during a quick walk thru lower Chelsea.

Overnight, and I was up all night, the cold came in around 4am.  Suddenly my block is filled with fallen leaves while just a few days ago I wondered how long my tree lined street would remain verdant.  Like the markets lately these leaves lingered but when they were to fall, they fell quickly.

I like to observe society and do things just a bit differently.  Instead of New Year’s Resolutions, I am making a couple resolution due by year’s end. 

1. Learn winter running. 
2. Lose those last 10-15 pounds.
3. Arrange my life so that I have those 2-3 hours daily to start and finish what I’m passionate about.

This way you hit the ground running January 1st.

I’m watching my DVR and thinking how it was a time freeing technology at its onset.  Humorously, later on after programming in all my favorite shows and being at the mercy of finite video storage space and near infinite interests, I remarked with a colleague that I am in a race to see all the shows on my DVR before they “fall off the bottom”.  What freed me has enslaved me now.

On this viewing, John Updike is being interviewed by Charlie Rose and the topic of getting better at your craft in later years is being discussed.  This coincides with his ‘Widows of Eastwick’ which is a 30 year sequel to ‘Witches’.  (I wonder would “Witches” the movie be a good candidate for blue Ray viewing?)  The topic of how Clint Eastwood getting better as a director and actor comes up, how he might be the exception.   They mention how conductors get better in age and perhaps its because of all the arm movements that helps them live such long lives.

My mind escapes to wondering if that is purely the physical, or is it perhaps a clear example of blended living (the act of conducting involves the left and right brain, the physical, emotional, and perhaps spiritual).  Then I wonder if the Wii games will foster a new generation of longer lives.  Is there a Wii conductor game with New York, Philadelphia and other great cities’ symphony versions?  What a contrast to Grand Theft Auto pick your city version.  I doubt there is a Musical Conducting for Dummies book.  I think about adding some workouts with music and a lot of arm movements.  I wonder if Yoga is a starting point for a new workout, or best left alone as it is. [Most enduring multicentury  things are fairly mature]

Its fun to allow this SoC (stream of consciousness) to run along, until it becomes senseless gibberish (have I lost you already dear reader ?)  At many other times it is really true original thought.  Looking for the crevices between disparate fields, new combinations of old and current, east and west, modern technology and old world thought.  Some (most?) SoC could go into morning pages.

“Time Shifting” has been a fun read so far, and as it hasn’t seemed to be slow, I’ve spent more time reading 65 pages than most other books.  Ironic for the topic and title.  I guess in alot of my other reading there is so much overlap that I can pretty much scan past whole chapters but not in this one.  More details on this topic to follow.

Have you gotten tired of all this negativity about the global recession yet?  Unfortunately more bad news is likely to follow, as more jobs are lost.  Hope you stay solvent and ride this out.  It is after all a cyclical business the economy. Boom follows bust eventually – just like the seasons. It reminds me of the concept of cyclical time and linear time in “Time Shifting”.  There is growth and rest, not an endless series of higher highs.  Cultures that resist their societies’ tug for linear time thinking are happier.  That will be an essential ingredient to a good blended living recipe.  Otherwise no endless supply of time saving devices like the DVR will answer the rising need.  Its like time inflation.  Are you under time poverty?  Be here now. Be happy.

If you know me well, you know that I will likely be reading several books at once.  In fact if you have had more than a casual conversation with me, I will likely be engaged in several simultaneous conversations.  What’s nice about that (besides the aggravating confusion, and occasional humorous misunderstanding) is that it allows for some original insights.

I’m currently reading “Predictably Irrational”,  “The Forex Trading Course”, “Leading with Kindness”,  “The Little SAS Book”, “The Blended Learning Book”, “Time Shifting”, a couple books on mental discipline, an aikido book, and a couple python programming books.

This current mix brought me back to a moment years ago – exactly about this time of year during the last recession.  I decided to make a living trading stocks.  There is nothing like learning to trade and trying to pay your bills to focus you.  But that was 6 years ago- and another story.

What lesson that came out of that period was how I could be trading or preparing to trade for hours and I mean hours and hours and yet come out even or worse down for my efforts.  Other days i was so in tune with the process, the markets, and the psychology(both mine and other traders) that I could place one trade in the morning and justify my decision of not looking for a “job”.  On those days I might go into the park with a good book and walk or read in the sunlight.  That life went on for a while – what I and another friend later termed “The Year of Sundays”.

I yearned for an existence that balanced my efforts and growth.  To be profitable enough, and not sacrifice myself to the churning markets.  That “market” can and will take the naive or greedy and spit you out.  I didn’t know what to call this calling- but blended living seems a good name now.  To take the pieces of our lives – the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical parts and give each its due each and every day.  The right mix.

I tried to fine tune the process.  A rather enjoyable personal version of my own “Ground Hog’s Day” – except I didn’t want to ever escape.  Wake, get the mundane out of the way, anchor, assess myself, target goals, protect against risks, take a break, compile trading ideas, watch the market and CNBC, listen to Bloomberg radio, zone in on a trade, wait it out, and exit.  Then I’d work out, or take a walk, or do the other daily rituals that prepare our days.  I was done by noon most days.  

It sounds enviable, yet it was very intense.  Early on, I would have to take a nap some days.  I wish I was a runner back then.  The lessons learned from “Run less, run faster” would have paid off handsomely.  I wish “Enhancing Trader Performance” was written earlier.  Still the 40 or so trading, finance, psychology books I read prepared me enough to let me trade for almost 2 years.  My account size is what forced me back into the 9 to 5 employment life.  You can’t make 5 or 6% and spend 8-12% and expect to keep that going for long.

But I’m still looking for the right mix.