Month: May 2007

Fluffy’s next big adventure

Sunday morning while I was out racing, the family was eating breakfast. Fluffy was again in the exercise ball. While they were eating, the baby said “There goes Fluffy.” My wife told her that Fluffy was exercising.

A bit later, our son said that Fluffy was running around. My wife commented again that Fluffy was exercising in his ball. Then our son told her that Fluffy was running around outside of the ball! Somehow the lid came off and Fluffy was loose to roam free.

He was not hard to catch.

Lest you think that Fluffy is a new addition to the family, he is not. We have had 2 hamsters since the end of January, Fluffy and Spot. But up till this weekend, there really has not been anything exciting to say about them. Now they are getting the lime light. At least Fluffy is.

Some day I will have to take a picture of them when we try to put them together. We have our own ring side seats for a cage match.

Active weekend

Yesterday I had my first scrimmage game for my arena football team. We did not have enough equipment to go around, so we ended up playing flag football. That is the type of ball I played in Jr. high and high school. I felt totally comfortable with the rules. We had some modifications though. Where we were able to incorporate arena rules with flag rules we did so.

My team lost by a couple of touchdowns.

Though I am in pretty good shape, the body still hurts and gets sore from hitting the ground. Twenty years ago when I was playing ball all the time, I don’t remember being so sore the next day.

This morning I had a 10K race that I wanted to run. I had planned the race before I knew that I was to have the game yesterday. When I went to bed last night I had decided that my running of the race was dependent on how I felt this morning. I guess I felt alright since I woke up and motivated myself out the door.

I ran the first half in 29:22 and the second half in 30:38. Almost even splits. According to my watch, my time was 1:00:00. Official time was 1:00:05. Since my goal was 1 hour or less, I took my watch time. (BTW, this is the first race that I have run here that was actually the advertised distance.)

I was still sore and stiff through the first kilometer and was still considering turning around early. Somewhere between Km. 1 and 2 I decided to stay in the race.

It was a smaller race. Probably only 150 people. I took 26th for my division (30-39 year olds). I don’t know how many were in my age group. But, there were some people who came in after me.

I got a fairly nice T-Shirt from the race. But it is XL in size. I used to wear XL and don’t want any more shirts that size in my life. So, it will become a grungy football shirt. Why, oh why, do they give out L and XL shirts at races? Don’t they know the majority of people will be average to thin?

After all was said and done this weekend, I was glad I skipped the 8 mile long run I had planned for Saturday morning.

Fluffy’s near death experience

Yesterday our daughter was playing with Fluffy the hamster. She won’t actually touch him, but she does like carrying him around when he is in his exercise ball. She sets him down gently and in general is very gentle with him. Well, with the exception of the time she got excited and started jumping up and down. Poor Fluffy.Fluffy the hamster

Yesterday she brought the ball to my wife and me as we were in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. She kept saying “Fluffy’s OK. Fluffy’s OK.” My wife took the ball with Fluffy from our 3 year old. She looked and said “Fluffy does not look OK. Fluffy looks dead.”

While I quizzed our daughter on the events leading up to Fluffy’s demise, my wife was poking on Fluffy to see if there was any life left in him.

Apparently Fluffy was on the couch in the ball and walked off. Not a long fall, but when you are a pygmy rodent and fall onto a tile floor, I guess it is kinda traumatic.

My wife finally proclaimed that Fluffy was still breathing. She pulled him out of the ball and was just caressing him. He opened his eyes and started moving his head around. But moved nothing else. Finally his front legs. Then a little bit later one of his back legs. He started walking, but dragging the other leg. He never acted stressed but was not walking well.

My wife put him back in his cage and after a while he was walking fine. I guess he got some temporary paralysis.

So yes, “Fluffy’s OK.” For now anyway.

Five Podcast Categories

Here is a list of 5 podcast categories and some of the podcasts that I listen to in them. I could break these up in many different ways, but this is how I choose to do it today. I will not attempt to list all the podcasts to which I listen. Here are a few of my favorites in each category.

Health & Fitness:

Entertainment:

Science & Education:

News & Technology:

Religion:

I hope you find this list useful. If you have any you really enjoy in these categories, please leave a comment and let me know others that I might find interesting.

Ever hear of Vedic Math?

I have always been a lover of math. But, I have never enjoyed memorizing stuff just for the sake of memorization. Therefore, I am not very fast at math. Most who know me and know my fascination with playing with numbers and finding new ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide will probably be surprised to know that I don’t have the times table memorized. I know a few numbers by memory. I just work out the rest.

Recently I have been on a quest to renew my algebra skills. Though I used to be very good with algebra (I am quite skilled with thinking through things logically), I have forgotten many of the rules for how to work with algebraic notation.

ProBlogger is running a contest where people write a blog posting using a “top 5” list. It can be about anything. I was reading some of the entries so far.

One of the ones that caught my eye was about the benefits of “Mental Math.” Interestingly the article had nothing to do with the benefits of it, but did give 6* methods of learning and working out math. The blogger’s list included:

Learning by Heart–rote memorization
The Abacus
The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art–a Chinese method
Trachtenberg Speed System of Mathematics
Kumon Math Method
High Speed Vedic Mathematics

Hmm, makes me wonder. There are 6* methods listed. So does the blog poster’s method work when this is supposed to be a top 5 list? Their favorite is the Vedic system. Interestingly enough, it is a whole blog about that system. So, it seems a little skewed and understandable why they would say disparaging things about the other systems.

Nonetheless, it is the first time I have seen anything about it and I think I will pursue it a bit.

*Update: According to the original poster’s comments, he lumps the abacus and the other Chinese method together as 1 system.