Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Friday, December 18, 2009

So, we finally got a GPS; something I have sort of avoided for a while. For those who know my wife and I, this may seem a bit odd but to be honest, I was the one dragging my feet. We've seen friends' GPS systems and have appreciated and admired them for some time but I just never quite wanted one myself. Let me see if I can explain.

I think that for many guys there's a sort of "yes/no" think going on with GPS. It's not just a simple tool sort of thing that a guy gets as soon as he can afford it and he thinks that the technology is robust and mature enough to be reliable most of the time. As least it wasn't for me.

Growing up out West, I sort of learned a certain level of independence and self-reliance. This was heavily reinforced by my time as a Boy Scout. Given that I have a well-developed sense of direction and an seemingly innate ability to navigate around I was one of those guys who rarely asked for directions and rarely needed to. It isn't a stubbornness kind of thing but more one born of years of learning to find my own way combined with the genetics of generations of those who got to places before there were maps and a cultural environment that emphasized being prepared and being able to make it on what you had.

The second factor in all of this is a guy's general love of all things "map". If you ask a guy what one of the coolest things ever invented is, I would argue that if he put some real thought into it (something most guys wont really do because there are more important things to do like seeing who won last night's Colts/Jags game on Sportscenter), he'd say that maps are right up there with the wheel and the remote control; way above sliced bread and the disposable razor. Most guys can spend hours looking at maps. For me, the best issues of National Geographic were the ones that came with maps. I would study them for hours. When I got old enough to have a car and independent enough to use it to explore, I began collecting maps of everything with roads just to have the maps and to imagine where I might go. The GPS does away with the need for my precious maps because it is map of sorts. This is both a positive and a negative.

The final factor is that almost all guys love technology and the GPS is some of the coolest technology around and it is map technology. Even "retro-grouches" love technology. They may poo-poo modern tools and technology but that's really because they love the technology they have. They've fallen in love with the shapes and forms and functions of the technology they use and they believe that setting it side for something newer, shinier and more carbon fiber is akin to marital infidelity. That's the ting with maps. They're technology to be sure but they're technology that has romance. They're pictures of roads unseen and untraveled. They are the technology of adventure and the unknown horizon. The question was whether a GPS technology would destroy that romance.

So it was a attraction/repulsion thing for me (and for a lot of other guys I expect). The map/technology factor is a huge draw to get a GPS but there's the sense that with the GPS I'd be giving up some of the independence I've relied upon for so long. Can one really be a trailblazer and pioneer when following the directions of a small box stuck to the windshield of one's car? Can one grow to rely too heavily on a piece of technology that someone else controls? These sorts of questions have tormented me for a couple of years as we've debated getting one. I love my DeLorme maps and I've used them to find my way around so many places. And yet...they're just not as detailed as I'd like, especially in the cities. While I can pour over them and dream and plan, they aren't as interactive as I'd like. I find myself on Google Earth and Google maps more and more as I seek better tools to plan my adventures.

So, my sense of independence and pioneering have been at war with my love of gadgets with the maps thing sort of weighing in on both sides. Finally my wife (who doesn't have the "finding her own path" hang up that I and many men do) prevailed upon me to get a GPS navigation system. Like many men, I rationalized it by sort of thinking that it was for her and maybe there'd be some cool stuff for me in it too. Truth be told, however, there was a big part of me that wanted it.

To be honest, I find it pretty darn cool. I don't use it a whole lot but when I do the whole map/distance/time of arrival thing is just amazing. When we go to Salt Lake, I think we'll take it and let it sort of guide us around to cool things to see. It should be quite interesting since I have always navigated that particular city by a combination of feel and the counterintuitive street numbering system. I wonder if once my Dad sees ours in use if we'll end up having to get him one or if he'll appreciate it but decide that his old school cowboy instincts are a better way to travel.

Thanks for Reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Saturday, December 12, 2009

I was planning to meet the team for a four hour training ride this morning but the seemingly never ending rain has quashed that idea. So before I climb on the rollers and trainer, I thought I'd write a few thoughts on President Obama's reception of the Nobel Peace Prize. For those who are polarized on both sides of the issue, you probably want to stop reading now (of course, by writing this I virtually guarantee that you won't) as I expect that I'll support neither position and likely say things that you'll both agree with and disagree with. This means everyone will be mad at me for something I've said and I'll catch grief from both ends. Such is life in the middle.

I was tempted to write about this when the Prize was first announced but both the firestorm of controversy and my usual desire to see how things play out convinced me to wait a bit before committing my thoughts to paper (on in this case, electronic media). As I've given the award some thought I've come to a few conclusions.

First, the Prize was awarded by a group not connected to President Obama. I was a bit dismayed by some of the conservative reaction that seemed to blame the President for receiving the Prize. Unless he somehow manipulated the Nobel committee from afar, I think he was just as surprised as anyone to learn that he had been awarded the honor. Was that award a bit premature? Perhaps (though I'll speak to that in just a bit), but that's not the President's fault. I think he acknowledged in his acceptance speech that he has much to do to "earn" the award.

The Nobel committee has always been a bit odd with this prize. Unlike the other five Nobel prizes which award accomplishments in their respective fields, the Peace prize has historically been awarded for reasons that are often times more nebulous. The two previous American Presidents to win the award, T. Roosevelt and Wilson, were men whose approach to peace were complex. T. Roosevelt, who won the prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese war, also advocated a muscular American military presence both before and during his administration. Wilson, who ran on the promise of keeping the United States out of World War I (but was eventually swayed by public opinion generated in part by the work and speeches of one Theodore Roosevelt), put together the idea of the League of Nations and tried to create a just peace following the war but failed in the later and had the former rejected by his own people. The Nobel Peace prize is, at times, awarded for what a person has done but it it is also frequently awarded for the hope of what a person will do or for the symbol the person becomes or represents. In this are probably lessons on the nature of peace itself.

It is in these last two senses that I think the committee acted in awarding President Obama the prize. The hope is that the President will take a different approach in his diplomacy that the previous administration. In a way, I see the giving of the prize as one final European rejection of the Bush Administration's policy of American unilateralism. In this sentiment, I think the committee has been petty. Bush and his advisors are gone. We all understand that the governments and intelligentsia of Europe didn't like him. There was no need for a final "don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out" type of statement. Yet the hope in Europe is that the new administration will take a different approach; one that is more inclusive, less impulsive and less confrontational. Interestingly enough, the presentation ceremony cane just days after the President's announcement to increase the number of troops in the conflict in Afghanistan.

The second point that I think can be made is that while I do believe that the Prize was given to President Obama in the hope of the new approach he may be taking, I also believe that it was given in the recognition of the fact that he stands as a symbol of how quickly change can take place and how rapidly justice can come about through the actions of those committed to peace. Here I believe that the Peace prize was, in a way, a second prize awarded to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That America has elected a black president only two generations after Dr. King marched and spoke out against the institutionalized policies of racial inequity is a powerful symbol to all of those who wonder if things might ever change for the better. The awarding of the Peace prize to President Obama sends a powerful message to all those who fight injustice and violence in the world that while progress in the moment may seem very slow, the transformation they are seeking to bring about may occur in ways they would never have imagined possible. Dr. King's dream was that children of all colors could play together in peace. I wonder if he would have imagined that within forty years of his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial there would be enough political will in America to elect a black man as its leader.

Another interesting thing is the reaction here at home to Obama's acceptance speech. A number of conservative politicians from Newt Gingrich to Sarah Palin (and I use the word politician liberally in regards to Mrs. Palin) have praised the President's remarks. In them he puts forward the ideas of both American exceptionalism and the need for America to act vigorously in using military force to ensure peace and stability in the world. There are two comments I would make here. First, many conservatives are saying that Obama is saying the same thing as President Bush did and, as such, his remarks are a confirmation of his policies. I would disagree with this. Saying that America has a role in insuring world peace through the use of military force is not the same as saying that America has the lead role and that the rest of the world can go to hell if it doesn't agree with how we choose to assert that role. Secondly, I profoundly disagree with President Obama's statement that violence can be used to create good. I believe that violence and force are often necessary to restrain evil and will need to be used to stop others from inflicting injustice on those who are weaker. I believe that force and violence, in doing this, can be used to create a space wherein good can take place or structures can be created that will lead to better circumstances. But violence and force will not create good. Good can only be created through the positive action and agency of those committed to human dignity and justice.

The final comments I would make regarding this topic stem from an editorial cartoon that Mike Luckovich drew for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In it he showed Obama emerging from the barrel of tank's gun to receive the medal awarded with the Peace prize. The tank was labeled Afghanistan as a pointed reference to Obama's increase in troop levels signaling a renewed commitment to the war effort there. The President has received some heat from democrats and liberals who claim that they voted for him on the promise they believe he made to get us out of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I remember consistently hearing candidate Obama say that Afghanistan was the real conflict that we needed to be involved in and that the Iraqi war was a mistake mainly because it distracted the country from that effort. While one may argue that continuing either conflict is in error, it seems rather foolish to elect a candidate who promised to focus more resources into a conflict and then criticize him for doing that very thing.

So those are my thoughts this morning before I move into the dreadfully boring activity of spinning my wheels and going nowhere. If my comments have offended, please forgive me. If they have stimulated you to think about something, even if that something is a response to disagree with me, fantastic; but don't spend too much thought on the ramblings of a man who will spend the next three or so hours in a gerbil like activity in hopes of winning a bit of colored fabric a bit later in the year. This activity is likely evidence that I am not of sound mind (even thought I hope the activity will make me "of sounder body"). I hope your day is a bit less dreary than mine.

Thanks for Reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Not too many people read my posts here too often due to most of them having facebook and seeing my notes there but I thought I'd write something for both sites.

Finals week is upon us here at the College and the students are in their usual scramble to get things done, study like mad and pass all of their classes. While I don't teach freshmen any more, my colleagues who do tell me it's been a rough semester. Our 18% enrollment increase hasn't been a completely good thing. It has meant that we've avoided layoffs and more serious cutbacks (due to increases in tuition revenue) but it seems pretty clear than many of the students in this surge are woefully unprepared for college and unwilling to exert any substantial effort to learn. I'll probably write more here in a few days on the topic but it's been a big issue for us here as I expect it has been for many of the access institutions in the state.

I'm back into the training swing of things. I've already got six weeks of work in the legs. It's hard to lose the fitness but I know I'll build to a higher peak next year. What makes it even harder is this is the first year I've really had good season over season power data (last year my PowerTap died until almost February). Seeing where I was at at the end of the season with an FTP of 310 and seeing where I'm at now with an FTP of 275-280 is pretty hard to take. I have to adjust my riding zone which has taken some doing. The focus this early season has been working on my short term power. I'm already way ahead of where I was last April and I did some short VO2Max intervals earlier this week that were really surprising in terms of how high they were. The longer term power will come around and the shorter interval numbers are very encouraging. The hardest thing has been the weather. It looks like we're on track for one of the wettest winters in recent memory here in Georgia so it means a lot of indoor time on the trainer. It's been hard to stay motivated to do long efforts at lower wattages but I need to get the miles in.

I just finished Brain McLaren's book, "Finding Our Way Again" which discusses the renewal of using ancient practices of spiritual disciplines in the life of the Christian. The book was very much of an overview so there wasn't as much specific discussion as I would have liked but I really liked his discussion of the intertwined ideas of katharsis, fotosis and theosis. I'm pretty familiar with the idea of theosis and katharsis is something I've looked at under other names but the inclusion of the practice of fotosis was new to me as was the practice of integrating them together. I'm very intrigued by the thought of intentionally including all three into my life in this integrated way and will likely build my Lenten fast and practice around such themes (strange to be thinking about Lent during Advent but I like to plan ahead sometimes). I may also work to create a series of events and activities for our GCF community to participate in together from this.

Finally, I've been giving a lot of thought to things in the sports world of late. I'll write a bit more about that soon but I'm disappointed in all of the local negative reaction to Tim Tebow's emotionalism in the SEC title game.

So with that I'll sin off for now.

Thanks for Reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |