This section lists all blog posts, regardless of topic.
No run for me
May 26, 2007
On May 12th, two weekends ago, I went out for a jog in the evening after playing a round of golf. My intention was to run north from Woodstock along Highway 59 towards Tavistock. As I got going, it felt as though my left shoe was on a bit funny; perhaps it was loose. So I stopped and re-tied the laces and proceeded onward. As I ran along Vansitart Ave, out of the city, my left foot continued to feel a bit strange, and before long it was achy. Wanting to get my weekly long run in, and not wanting to turn back, I continued on. It wasn't stopping me, but it didn't feel right either.
Some comic relief: I learned a lesson about the challenges of running out in the country. If you've gotta go, and you don't want to get intimate with nature, your options are limited! Thank goodness for the little gas station in Huntingford!
My run ended after about an hour. I made it 9.4 km by the time Hannah picked me up. From there we drove back to Waterloo, and when I got out of the car, it hurt to even stand on my left foot. It has taken about 12 days to get to the point where I can walk at a normal pace without any discomfort, and can only jog about 1 km before I start to feel my foot. At this point, it just wouldn't be smart to push it and do the half marathon. I'd have to limit myself to > 2:30:00, and even then, I'd risk hurting myself. The best case scenario is that I'd be back to limping around for another week or two.
So no run for me.
:(
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FacebookMay 9, 2007
What an intriguing website. To tell you the truth, I haven't signed up for it. I guess my website is already like a facebook, just not plugged in to other people's sites. I've heard a lot of interesting things: "It's a stalker's paradise", "It's addicting", "I wish I hadn't gotten sucked into it", "Some people are obsessed with getting as many friend's on their facebook as possible, even if they don't know the person".
I really like the idea in general: Being able to see what people from high school, university, church, etc, are up to even if you haven't had the chance to see them recently. But being able to snoop on conversations seems a bit much. Too bad you can't take a peak without signing up. But I guess that's how it grows: People are sucked in and then...
Update: June 16: Well, I've done it. I've signed up. Eek.
Intelligent carsMay 9, 2007
I read an interesting post on Slashot today about "Intelligent" cars and how they can save as much fuel as hybrid cars. The idea is that if your car is fed traffic information, it can do a good job predicting when it should go into neutral and coast, thereby saving fuel.
This is something I realized last year after I learned to drive a manual transmission: If the light up ahead had gone red, then there's no sense driving up to the light and stopping with your breaks. Instead, you can save gas by going into neutral and gliding to the red light. Or if you're driving at 60 km/h on a long downhill stretch, you can go into neutral and maintain 50-60 km/h until you reach the bottom of the hill, at which point you put the car back into gear.
Obviously there are limitations to these strategies: If there is a car behind you, you're not going to want to slow all the way down to 50 km/h before putting the car back into gear or you're apt to make your tail man more than a little impatient. And you also don't want to wear your breaks out by always having your car out of gear when you need to stop. (The engine helps break the car, reducing wear and tear on your breaks)
Another practice that I've heard some people talk about is actually turning your car off if you know you're going to be stopped at a red light (or anywhere for that matter) for more than 15 seconds.
Anyway, I look forward to the day when our cars are able to communicate with the traffic systems around them so that they know when the lights ahead are going to turn red, etc, and can save time and fuel by acting appropriately. This would be a fascinating project to work on.
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