thoughts.on.code

So, my wife and I are planning to run a 5k (thats 3.1 miles for the metrically challenged) on July 16th (her birthday) for the Angel Guardians non-profit. She has been working out with a trainer since March, at our local 24 Hour Fitness, and is doing really well. Especially since she absolutely hates running. I am very proud of her.

Anyway, the last time we ran together we went for the whole 5k, with both of us needing to take walking rests during the time. It took me about 34 minutes and it took her about 42. On Tuesday she ran with her trainer and actually ran the whole distance… all 3.1 miles! And beat my time. I was very impressed and proud of her, but a little put off as well, as we have “just a little” competitiveness between us.

So, this morning I got up early and went for a run around our neighborhood. It is quite a challenge as the hills in our ‘hood suck bigtime. I have driven around a couple of times in my car to get ideas of the distances for different paths, and this morning decided to modify one of my paths (on the fly) to hopefully make a 1 mile circuit into a ~1.5 mile circuit and just do two laps… unfortunately I did not add enough, and only wound up running 2.5 miles (shrug). The cool thing is that I ran the entire way, including twice up the really big nasty hill, which I need to post a picture of.

To me, running is a lot of fun. I treat it as an opportunity to push myself. I am always saying “Ok, you’ve made it here, now lets see if you can make it to that mailbox”. It is amazing what breaking up a long run like that into little peices can do for you. It is kinda like software: if you break it into managable peices, the whole becomes easier. The trick of course with software is to break into logical, managable peices. Not much logic is required on the running. I am really impressed with how far I went… I obviously need to go further next time, but I know that I can… and that rocks.

In my quest to simplify, I have started to rummage through all my crap, and put it up for sale on Amazon’s Marketplace. I have been selling old books on Amazon for about a year and a half now, and really enjoy its ease of use, even though the commisions that Amazon takes out seem a little high. The point is to get rid of the stuff, not make a living off of it, so I can look past that.

On Monday I shipped my cd + manual for Counter Strike, which I would give you a link for, but since Steam still sucks, the website is all screwed up. Here is the best I can do. Basically Counter-Strike (CS) is a round based shoot-em-up between two sides: the terrorists and the anti-terrorists. The one with the most people standing, or who completes their objective first wins the round. Rounds are typically short (3-5 minutes) which was one of the biggest problems for me… I could very easily tell myself “just one more round”. This game was an addiction for me, and as such it was kinda strange to see it leaving my life for good.

While preparing to ship this game, I reflected back on how much time I wasted playing that game. The best estimate I can come up with is about 1000 hours. About half a years work. This is over an approximately 4 year period, but still, that is a ton of time to put into a game. Especially for a game where violence is how you win. There were many nights where I would be going to bed at 4AM just to get up again at 7 to go to work. I haven’t played a video game in about a year now and am very happy about that. Now I need to get back down to the basement and sell all the rest of my crap.

Last night I read the book Rational Simplicity : Setting Course to a Simpler Life, by Tim Covell. It caught my eye at the library, because it was small (about 90 pages) and the title was exactly what I was looking for.

Overall the book was pretty good. The book was more focused on financial aspects of living simpply than I had expected, and it hit on some things I was not expecting, but pleasently surprised by. I really liked some of the ideas, such as getting rid of TV, as it provides little value - he asks if you can remember the plot of the episode this week last year of your favorite show - and is mainly a tool for the advertising agencies to snuggle up next to you and pick your pockets.

However, of all the things in the book, probably the most important was his discussion of looking at money as time, literally “Time is money”. He recommends - strongly urges - you to figure out your real wage per hour (basically your income minus all of the expenses to earn that income), and then everytime you want to buy something, divide the price of the item(s) by your real wage. So if your real wage is $10/hr and you want to buy a $2000 LCD TV, get ready to work an extra 200 hours in your life, just for the TV. This tells you how much time you will have to work, be away from your family, and - if you do not do what you love for a living - focus on something other than what you love.

I do not agree with all of the book, and there are places where I would have really liked to have seen references to articles and studies the author mentions, but overall, the sentiment is in the right place, and it conveys its message effectively. I enjoyed it.

I used to really like this quote:

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

It said to me, “Hey, wake up! Its your fault! Get it together and change!” I realized during lunch the other day that this can be taken as a negative quote, and that for the longest time I have been treating it as such. What once helped me to be aware of my faults is now just a negative drain on me. Now its “Hey, its your fault! hahahaha!”.

I think the problem is with the word sorrow. Knowing that you are the cause of your adversities should be liberating. Knowing that means that you can be in control. So, my updated Sophocles quote is:

The greatest liberation is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
- Hans Hoffman