Exercising: a program that worked

Like everybody, I know that physical exercise is good for me.  And like many, I’ve tried jogging (shin splints), the gym (too much time), walking (hard on the knees and not complete enough), Tai Chi (too mild), Yoga (not vigorous enough), and lots of other stuff.

In July though I started  working out with an exercise ball.  I’d tried the ball before, but hadn’t stuck to it.  What was different this time was a program in a book called, “Weights on the Ball Workbook” by Steven Stiefel (Ulysses Press), and I’ve stuck with it.  Here’s why I think I’ve persisted:

• Time: I can do it at home, no travel time
• Equipment: cheap: set of freeweights and an exercise ball.  You only need a couple of weight sets to start.  By Christmas I’ll have 3, 5, 8, 12 and 15 lb weights.
• Variety: there are close to 60 different exercises listed, each with 3 or 4 variants
• Programs: There are 9 different programs, with suggested exercises, schedule, number of reps/sets, etc.
• Presentation: In the program listing for each exercise a pretty little picture of the starting stance serves as an easy reminder.  No flipping to page 78 to figure out what a triceps extension is.  And if you want more detail the page number is listed for each exercise.
• Scope: since most exercises are done balancing on the ball, I’m working a lot more than the targetted muscle group, stabilizers and core muscles aplenty are getting worked.

So for the program I’m doing, I work out 4 times per week (MTThF) for 30-40 minutes.  Add to that a simple aerobic warm-up (fast 10 minute walk).  Each day has a different set of exercises, so I end up  with 25 different exercises per week.  Nice variety.  Other programs repeat exercises more, this one has a long rest period as it works the muscles hard and recovery time is needed.  So I look as scrawny, er wiry, as ever.  But I feel better after working out, and that scrawn is all muscle.

New guide to Peru

A friend of mine, Rick Segreda, along with a colleague has published a new guide to Peru.  If you’re headed down that way, pick it up!

Difficult conversations: turning challenge into opportunity

Attending ProjectWorld/Business Analysis World at Canada Place in Vancouver next week?  Drop by Room 16 at 1:45PM, Tuesday, November 6 to hear Mike Ray and I speak on Difficult Conversations.

Networking opportunities in Victoria and Vancouver

I’ve been having a lot of fun over the past few weeks engaging with the business community at networking events and presentations.  Here’s some of the recurring events that I’ve attended or been brought to my attention on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

Selected Networking Events

Check the website or contact for more information on membership requirements, cost, dates, and locations. 

Event/ Organization	Frequency	Location	Contact	Focus/Comments
BC Human Resources Management Asn (BCHRMA)	Monthly	Victoria	www.bchrma.org	Human Resources.
BCAMA (American Marketing Association, BC Chapter)	Several per month	Vancouver	http://www.bcama.com/	Sales & Marketing.  May have activities in Victoria as well.
BC Technology Industry Association (BC-TIA)	Frequent	Vancouver	http://www.bctia.org/	Business/technology.
Business Network International	Weekly	Victoria	http://www.bni.com/ http://www.bnicanada.ca/	Business. Many chapters in Victoria, required attendance and other criteria.
Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce	Frequent	Victoria	http://www.victoriachamber.ca/	Business.
Green Drinks	Twice monthly	Victoria	http://www.greendrinks.org/	Environmental.
IEEE Joint Communications Chapter	Monthly	Vancouver	http://www.comsoc.org/vancouver/	Technology.
Mid-Island Science Technology and Innovation Council	Irregular	Nanaimo	http://www.mistic.bc.ca/	Business/technology.
OD Café	Every two months	Victoria	Bert.Elliott@gov.bc.ca for info, and to confirm attendance in advance	Organizational Development.
Sales & Marketing Executives Victoria	Monthly	Victoria	http://www.smevictoria.com/	Sales & Marketing.
Sidney Breakfast Club	Monthly	Sidney	Contact Bill Cooke for details and to confirm attendance in advance: cooke@ieee.org	Business/Technology.
University of Victoria Events	Regular	Victoria	http://events.uvic.ca/calendar.php  Use filter to narrow down types of events of interest	Various.
Values-Based Business Network	Regularly	Victoria	http://www.vbnetwork.ca/	Socially-responsible business.
Vancouver Board of Trade	Frequent	Vancouver	http://www.boardoftrade.com	Business.
Vancouver Enterprise Forum	Monthly	Vancouver	http://www.vef.org/	Business/technology.
Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Centre (VIATeC)	Monthly	Victoria	http://www.viatec.ca	Business/technology.

Sustainability

At a meeting of Organizational Development professionals the other day, Michael Keller kindly led us through a process called Freelisting, using the term “Sustainability” as the seed term.   Learning about the process was fascinating, and the session brought up varied issues for people.   I was reminded how strongly I feel that (a) sustainability is an important concept to many people, (b) the anger many people feel towards the damage we are inflicting on our planet is misdirected and (c) how the divergent forces have the potential to lead to a better life for everyone.  

Periodically a large meteor strikes the Earth, the last being the Chicxulub Impact of 65 million years ago.  This impact is estimated to have released two hundred thousand times as much energy as all the nuclear weapons on the earth simultaneously exploding, and air pollution on a scale thousands of times greater than what we are producing.  The majority of the Earth’s species were wiped out.  

And these events pale in comparison to the creation of Earth and its ultimate destruction as the Sun ages and expands.   

So if you believe there is a higher power, or Creator or God, I suspect he/she does not believe we are destroying the Earth; rather it is our playground, our school, our home.  We can no more destroy the earth than we can destroy a thought.  The Earth does not need us as stewards; it will continue with or without us, regardless of what we do.  The most we could do is alter it in ways that are trivial compared to the transformations it has seen in the past and will see in the future.   

The Earth provides a microcosm in which we can learn to manage our resources and maximize our quality of life.  We have the option of making life quite miserable for ourselves, or improving it dramatically.  But it’s not the earth we’re saving against some demonic external force.   It’s not short-sighted politicians, or greedy capitalists or intolerant environmentalists that are these demons.  

If anger comes up when you think about the environment, are you aware of who you are really angry with?  Who are you really saving?   

What are you personally doing to improve the quality of life on this planet that does not blame others, but focuses on personal responsibility and action?    

References 

Carnegie Endownment for International Peace
http://www.ceip.org/files/nonprolif/numbers/default.asp
Total world stockpile of nuclear weapons: 5,000 Megatons  

University of Wisconsin – Stout, Department of Physics.
http://physics.uwstout.edu/geo/asteroid_local.htm
Energy released by meteor that killed the dinosaurs:  5×10²⁴ J (or about the energy equivalent in 80 billion Hiroshima size (12.5 kiloton) bombs   

American Geophysical Union
http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/sharpton.html
More on the Chicxulub Impact  

John C. Lahr Consulting
http://jclahr.com/alaska/aeic/magnitude/energy.txt
Comparison of earthquake energy to nuclear explosion energy.J.C. Lahr, Revised 8/28/00   

Making Decisions

My stepdaughter sometimes comes to me with a question: should she choose this DVD to watch, or this other one?  Should she eat a chocolate chip cookie or ice cream?  Usually what I do is flip a coin after she chooses heads or tails.  When it lands, I ask her how she feels about the result: if she likes it, then go for that; if she doesn’t like how the coin has landed, then I encourage her to do the opposite.  A simple intuitive tool.

A more sophisicated decision-making tool that integrates the logic than many of us (like me) like so much, with intuition, is the Decision Matrix.  It works like this:

• on a squared piece of paper (or a spreadsheet), list the options in columns across the top
• on the rows below, and off to the left, list the different parameters and factors that might affect  your decision
• weight each of these factors with an aribrary relative number
• score each of the parameters for each of the options, then multiple each by the weight
• add the totals

Look at the example below, a new vehicle buying decision.  Factors are colour, price, fuel efficiency, etc. etc., which I’ve weighted.  Four options are considered: Honda, Chev, Smart Car, and motorbike.  I’ve weighted price as 20, colour not nearly as important at 5, etc.  Then for each of these considerations rated each vehicle.  So far this is a purely logical tool, right?  This is where the fun comes in.  After the first time you fill in the numbers, note how you feel about the result.  See where you are increasing weightings or adjust ratings to bias towards a certain choice.  That bias may reflect what you really want.  After this pass for example, I might be tempted to greatly increase the weighting for fuel efficiency.  So the Chev Malibu may not be my final choice.

You can download an Excel spreadsheet to help you with this.  The spreadsheet include a blank work area, the example above, and a pretty graph of the result you can show your mother.  The default print will show your numbers and the graph.

Some cool stuff from Sebby …

Sebby (Sebastien St. Laurent) has taken a break from the ACES for a couple of months to re-group.  His honest post about his personal journey is refreshingly frank.  Thanks, Sebby!

The Secrets

Yes, there’s more than one. 

Recently I’ve reconnected to variations on what some call the Law of Attraction, as espoused in the book and movie, “The Secret” and Lynn Grabhorn’s, “Excuse Me … Your Life is Waiting,” and many other writings in what many would call a New Age philosophy.   In summary the theory is that we attract what we feel and think: if we feel abundant and healthy, we attract abundance and good health; if we feel the world is unjust and we are sick, we will attract unjustice and illness in our lives, and perceive more of it in the world.  Many years ago, I embraced this concept, and although I appreciated its validity in many ways, I found that for many people, including myself, when unexpected events occured, it was too easy to fall into self-blame and potentially subsequent shame.  I suspect there are a lot of jaded ex-New Agers out there.

However I still believe that we have a lot of control over our what happens in our lives.  For “The Secret” to be more effective, I add a couple of bits and pieces. 

1. Forgive yourself.  Balance the Law of Attraction philosophy with the reality that many (if not most) people’s behaviour is influenced by patterns created in childhood.  These patterns served to protect the child from harm, like not speaking up and telling what they felt as they would be shamed or invalidated if they did that.  That child deserves appreciation and respect for finding strategies to protect themselves.  But those patterns rarely serve us as we grow into adulthood.  Some call them shadows, or familiars.  Whatever the label, when the temptation to blame and shame arises because I believe I am not attracting what I deserve, I can instead go to a place of appreciation and gratitude for those old patterns, then let them (and the shame and blame) go.  And as Grabhorn points out, it’s not about being perfect and thinking pure thoughts all the time.  Just turn them positive.  And once in a while it’s quite fine to decide to feel completely miserable/angry/frustrated.  Go through it, then move on.

2. Ask for help in self-understanding.  For some folks it does have value to understand how these behaviour patterns were created, and so some kind of therapeutic work has value.  Ruling this out and focusing just on the Law of Attraction may create internal turmoil that won’t help flow those positive vibes.  For some, in addition to this better self-understanding, many benefit from going through a grief process to let go of the past.

3. Acknowledge the role of Mystery.  Whether to you that be God, a Higher Power, karma, the Tao of Pooh, or whatever, I believe that there is much that we (certainly I) don’t understand about life.  However the more I trust the process, the more I trust that if I think, feel and behave positively (regardless of apparent outcome), the more positive I become, and the more likely that events will flow as I would like.  The reason the Law of Attraction works may be that if I feel good about my myself, and behave and feel that way, people may pick that up just from communication queues (tone of voice, body language) and want to work/be/play with me.  It doesn’t really matter how it works. 

4. In that same line of thought: discard the pieces that don’t work for you.  For example all of the Law of Attraction descriptions I’ve seen explain the theory in terms of “magnetism” and “vibration”, stating that the “law of the universe” is that like attracts like.  Well, it ain’t.  In magnetism, opposites attract.  Electricity flows from positive to negative.  So I just put aside all this explanation as well-meant and unnecessary justification.  Because some of the theory is (to me) contrived mumbo-jumbo doesn’t mean there isn’t validity in the essential message.  If you don’t believe (as I don’t) we are to all ascend in 2012 with the guidance of the Pleiadians, then put that bit aside.

5. Complement this philosophy with more traditional methods in whatever way works for you.  For example, on health issues, I think that rejecting Western medicine for a combination of Eastern medicine and positive feelings is throwing out a lot of really good stuff.   Use the Law of Attraction, see your Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and see your doctor.

EDIT: someone dear to me said that the term, “Law of Attraction” can be a turnoff itself to some.  She calls it “manifesting”.

Support for men on Vancouver Island

Working with the ManKind Project we are often approached by men looking for support, and although we can usually help to some degree, we sometimes refer men and women to other resources.  For men (males 16 or older) in Victoria, Canada, who have experienced emotional, physical or sexual trauma the Men’s Trauma Centre offers Victim Support Services & Group and Individual Counselling.  Clients may have suffered from abuse as a child, be a victim of crime, have been abused in relationship, or experienced some other traumatic event or events.  Support staff have many years of experience in this field.  They can contacted at (250) 381-6367 (general info or counselling) or (250) 381-0493 (Victim Services), or via email.

A little further up the Island, the Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre offers a variety of services for men and women, to:

• provide support and referrals for men 
• promote connections with partners and families
• promote community awareness regarding men and men’s issues
• help men with family court/divorce, seperation, custody and access issues
• support men in learning to communicate and enrich existing relationships.

The Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre, as I posted about earlier, is also starting up the Dad’s Make a Difference program, working with families immediately after the birth of the children to instill connection and responsibility in both partners.  This program is inspired by Gardner Wiseheart’s very successful program at Healthy Families San Angelo, begun about 12 years ago, which is now in many areas. 

For men in the Cowichan Valley, the Cowichan Men’s Resource Centre in Duncan provides a place where men can connect with each other, find assistance in crisis, and access community resources.  They can be reached at (250) 732-1471 or emailed for support or to volunteer.

I support these initiatives because they emphasize personal responsibility, healing, and fostering relationships rather than confrontation and blame.

Dads for Dads

This from Michael Beechey, Program Manager at the Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre: they are seeking men who have traveled the path of parenthood, enjoyed successes and experiences and feel able to mentor and help young and new fathers.  Fatherhood can be a daunting task, can you help one hour a week, must be willing and able to make home visits.  Call for more information, CRC will be required.  Complete training provided to successful candidates.  (250) 716-1551.

Off to an Adventure

I'm off on Thursday to be part of the support staff for the New Warrior Training Adventure this weekend at Shawnigan Lake, here on Vancouver Island. The training is full, with 32 men signed up, and it's humbling to part of these transformative events.
And that means that I won't be seeing my new computer until Monday! They are still waiting on the video card, so I have fun waiting on my return! Meantime, please refrain from landing your floatplanes at Shawnigan Lake… 

Adventures in ComputerLand

Over the last few weeks I researched and ordered a new computer system.  Even though I have a technical background (major in Computer Engineering) there is always a lot to learn every time I buy a new system.  The system is being built and should be ready in a day or two, but in the meantime here's some things I learned (or was reminded of!) this time:

1. Verify that all vendor-recommended components are the right ones.  One vendor recommended Pinnacle Studio Plus 700 for video input and editing.  I questionned that because Pinnacle has a poor support quality/record and he responded (in writing!) that he's been installing Pinnacle products for 10 years and that the support has improved.  I chose another vendor for the system, but I did order the Pinnacle product.  Before it arrived I thought I'd do a little double check and found that the product rated an average of 1/5 stars on Amazon (reviewers stated that they would rate it lower but 1 star was the lowest Amazon would allow) and 1.4/10 on CNET. This in 50-80+ reviews per site.  I dropped by their support site and the support was apalling: users wanting support are ignored or offered virtually useless feedback.  IMO the fact that the company continues to sell the product constitutes something close to fraud, if these reviews are to be believed.  I cancelled my order and replaced it with a Happauge PVR-150 and Adobe Premiere Elements.  I think I'll be much happier with that, and get pseudo-TiVo in the bargain.  (Aside: Avid bought Pinnacle last year, in what seems to be one of the weakest exercises in due diligence imaginable.  I'd love to know the real story here!  I am astounded that Avid has not chosen to respond to the horrendous PR about Pinnacle's products, which says to me either Avid isn't paying attention or they lack integrity.)

2.  Shop around of course.  Price differentials are huge.  I contacted three vendors, and checked prices on Dell.ca.  Compared to the lowest price: Vendor 2 was +$200, Vendor 3 was +$500 and Dell was +$1,000.   This on a sub-$5,000 system.  Trick here is to make darn sure you're comparing apples and apples: same motherboard/video card/case, etc. etc.

3.  Verify all component part numbers in writing by email.  All vendors made silly mistakes in their quotes, such as changing my 7800 GT request to 7800 GS or 7800 GTX.  A single letter off in a spec and their could be trouble, especially when changes are made to the original order.

4. The PC performance curve is flattening.  Performance increases per year are lower than they used to be.  Prices are coming down though.  I benchmarked my ca. 2001 old machine (PCMark05) and it performs at about 25% of a good machine now.

5.  It's fascinating the Microsoft software versions are now so infrequent.  Perhaps I'm buying Office 2003 at the wrong time as the next version is pending, but it's survived 5 years already.  And XP came out in 2001, and Vista looks like 2007.

6. The media convergence is cool, if still in its infancy.  I wanted XP Pro, but XP Media Center edition is very interesting. 

More to come I'm sure once I get the machine, install a bunch of software and network to my old computer.   FS9 of course will be first, then for the first time I can experience V+ as it was intended.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

I was introduced to Science Fiction by a friend when I was 12, and gobbled it up as best I could considering that there were no SciFi sections in the bookstores at that time. Mail-order was our only source. And in one order I snuck in a little “science fact,” a book by George Gamow (who was also the author of one of my University physics books in later years) called “1,2,3 … Infinity”. The descriptions of relativity and assorted physics, explained for the layman, blew me away, and 40 years later I still remember my astonishment and delight as I inhaled its magic.

For Christmas my wife gave me a similar book, but written in 2003, so somewhat more current, “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. Since my university science training was complete in the 70s a lot has been learned about physics, astronomy and geology, so I’m getting a bit of an update. Written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the scientifc updates are interwoven with fascinating historical snippets about the men and women who discovered, researched and theorized.

It’s a must-read for anyone with an interest in science, and shows too that politicians are not alone in their egocentric silly sniping. It’s amazing the lengths that so-called “scientists” will go to to refute theories contrary to their own. Sure, their research funding may be at risk, but it’s hardly scientific to ridicule, shame, sabotage and undermine colleagues with differing opinions. On the other hand, such silly, immature behaviour may goad researchers to dig deeper and seek further.

As an example, at the same time in 1963 that plate tectonics theory was first being proposed by researcher Drummond Matthews and his student Fred Vine, Canadian Lawrence Morely apparently submitted a paper proposing the same theory to the Journal of Geophysical Research. The editor is quoted as replying, “Such speculations make interesting talk at cocktail parties, but it is not the sort of thing that ought to be published under serious scientific aegis.” Apparently by 1980 one in eight geologists still did not believe in the theory.

The book abounds with such anecdotes and stats, and I’m not looking forward to finishing it … it’s much too fun.

Middle School

Last night my wife and daughter and I attended an open-house at the Middle School our daughter will be going to in the fall. It brought back of course memories of my own schooling in the 60s, but with a twist: the environment seemed dramatically more positive and supportive. There were far more activities available for the kids, including on-site afterschool care, and various posters spoke to school guidelines for respectful behaviour or bluntly encouraged the kids to reach out (800-668-6868, Canada only I believe) if they were dealing with sexual or other difficult adolescent issues. Very cool.