The Goodbad Train
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Spike" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:21 am
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This morning's commute
It feels likely that the replacement hormone level from the MGH study is lower than my natural amount. That means my body's more likely to retain fat. Not worried about getting fat, really, but even a few pounds slows one down and makes for ill-fitting clothes. As a tonic to this, I plan to start running to work Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It is true that the study overseers asked me not to "remake my body" during these four months, since they want accurate measurements of change, but running an extra 10 miles a week is hardly a major effort.
Current Music: Paul Simon - "Train in the Distance"
Tags: davis square, harvard square, kendall square, running
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04:31 pm
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A lifetime of memes
No doubt us LJ folks will eventually be checking off "Lists of memes I've participated in!"
Current Mood: holiday-ready
Current Music: TMBG
Tags: experience, life, meme
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10:48 am
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Shot to the knee...and you're to blame
My soccering rarely ends up causing real injury. No doubt heading the ball will give me brain cancer later in life, assuming the Splenda doesn't poison my chakras first. Yesterday, however, produced a wicked charlie horse right on the leg spot where the horse is thinnest. It's not exactly a knee sprain, but it functions like one. The areas swells up, gets weak, and makes self-propulsion a mental exercise. If you see me walking down the street, don't think, "hey, nice pants." Think, "wow, he's moving upright, no dragging knuckles or anything."
Naturally, I blame European professional soccer. I spent a chunk of the last few weeks watching the world's best (outside of South America) hurl themselves around a Nerf-like pitch and bounce off each other with grace. (They do fall down and make a meal of it occasionally...but wait! he's back up and as good as new! Those guys heal so fast!) After all that, I figured DAMN, I CAN DO THAT TOO! At yesterday's game, I decided not to hold off on contact. I'm big and strong, right? I can take it! The first time set me up for the fall, as I shouldered a guy expertly to the ground. (GRAHHH! HULK SMASH!) The second time...whackity to the leg. I hopped around a bit and got back into the game, but this morning is a day for Advil. Darn you Europeans and whatever super-stuff you're made of!
Current Location: work
Current Mood:  working
Tags: europe, injury, soccer
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11:24 am
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Gaming your system
I checked in at Mass General last Wednesday for a checkup, two months into being a lab rat for their endocrine unit. They're studying testosterone levels in men and at what point significant things change. To wit:
- Bone density
- Fat / muscle retention
- Sex drive
The study uses three medications, a slow-dissolve abdominal injection that lasts 30 days and inhibits testosterone production. (Just what every guy wants!) The second one is a daily pill that prevents your body from converting estrogen to testosterone, which it'll normally do when the latter hits really low levels. The third medicine is a post-shower lotion that provides a replacement amount of male hormone and represents the essential part of the study. You'll get one of five different amounts, from placebo to 1.5 times "normal." A monthly check-in tracks changes in height, weight, mental outlook, and sex drive.
MGH's only one subway stop away from work, so that's no obstacle. The real draw for me will be the screenings, which included a full-body CT scan and blood work. Any hormone-based changes will recede after the study ends, so while I briefly pictured myself with 50% more bicep, it really doesn't work that way. (The doctors requested that I "avoid substantially changing my body composition," which I assume means "don't join a power-lifting team, get massive pecs, and screw up our muscle data.")
Keeping the daily pill-plus-lotion routine going is no problem, so the only hiccup is second-guessing what might be happening to your body. ("Am I going to lose my hair?" "Am I getting child-bearing hips?" "Why the sudden fascination with classic Cher tunes?') They say it's possible to get menopause-style hot flashes and ask that you record any that happen. ("Record that it happened?" More like "sweat all over and eat a bunch of ice cream.") Nothing like that so far, so I trust my stuff isn't the placebo version.
The magnificent outcome to all this should be better medicines for men suffering from various hormone deficiencies, including age-related decline. No doubt there are plenty of men interested in treating fragile bones, low libido, and weight-related health issues! Who knows, perhaps I'm helping the "future me" as much as anyone.
Tags: science
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12:02 pm
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Our man on the ground in Venezuela
Baseball, often considered America's pastime, does booming business in plenty of other countries. Venezuela, for example, organized games as early as 1895. See this interesting history site for details.
By the 1950s, the enthusiasm (some would say 'wanton craziness') led to a desire for baseball cards. Some home-brew Venezuelan cards exist from this time frame, though prove elusive to collectors. The makers likely suffered from the wide variety of problems businesses outside the first world have, such as low-grade materials and distribution challenges.
Enter the US-based Topps company, whose own 1950s baseball sets pretty much set the standard for all cards to follow , even to the present day. Starting with 1959, Topps replicated their 'normal' sets for this emerging South American market. Printed locally with cheaper card stock than their US set, the first set is almost indistinguishable from cards available in the American market. (Technically, they have no 'gloss,' a printer's finish that protects the paper and looks shiny when held up to the light.)
Topps followed the inaugural 1959 effort with sets in 1960 and 1962, possibly skipping a year to let the existing stock sell out (or even to wait out some political or economic turmoil). The card pictured, a relatively intact rendition of Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax, is from 1962 and features the now-classic wood paneling and post-war optimism. He looks a bit wistful in this picture, perhaps lamenting years wasted on the bench in Brooklyn, where his top-notch stuff could've helped win more than their single World Series in 1955.
This card, a happy addition to my collection, isn't actually here yet, though the Venezuelan eBay seller tagged it as 'shipped' a few days ago. It apparently takes 3-to-4 weeks to reach the US, probably via mail boat. The mere fact that they can sell local wares on eBay at all says great things about the state of international markets, even if a baseball card seems a banal way to set that milestone.
Current Mood: wistful
Tags: baseball, cards, ebay, venezuela
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02:44 pm
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The Rock Band stage experience
You can thank Gorto or the FSM or whoever that I won't continually post Rock Band stuff. Put away your crude altars today, though, and check out the Rock Band stage experience.
This reminded me of a flaw in the Rock Band night we attend at Orleans in Davis Square. By using a rear-projection screen on the wall, the four players spend the whole song looking away from the 20 or 30 other folks. Everyone just looks at the big screen, with no real chance to perform. It would be top-notch if they turned everyone around and set up a second set of TVs so the audience could focus on the players. Worth looking into, this is, says Yoda.
Tags: music, video games
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02:00 pm
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Pictures from Sunday's 5-mile run
The pro picture-takers at the event got a pretty good shot of me crossing the finish line.
I can probably caption it as "BATHROOM PLZ KTHXBAI"
Tags: running
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07:23 pm
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No longer just a kitteh?
The snout on kitteh the younger, aka Maladroite, filled out in a more pointy fashion lately, or perhaps her jaws broadened. In any event, she's not the tiny, young kitten we used to have! Another month or two and it'll be two adult lady cats in the house. One will just be more likely to walk on your face.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: pining for youth
Current Music: a-ha - "Don't Do Me Any Favours"
Tags: cats
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02:17 pm
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More tales of weekend exercise
With three days of good weather, Memorial Day gave itself over to lots of outdoor time. On Sunday morning, we celebrated a friend's birthday by running the 5-mile version of Boston's Run to Remember with her. It starts (and finishes) at the harbor, right in front of the World Trade Center. The course winds through the financial district, around Government Center, and past the garden side of Boston Common. We enjoyed the morning sunshine throughout and ran better than 9-minute mile pace without difficulty. Search the results for my finish time, safely in the top half of my 30 - 39 age group. (The site promises race photos in the near future.)
In the grand tradition of runners everywhere, we spent the rest of the afternoon eating and enjoying BBQ at a friend's in Bedford. NOM NOM NOM.
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Tags: boston, running, sports
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10:35 am
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To SPF infinity...and beyond
Yesterday, my SO and two other biking friends made the ambitious pedal from Boston proper to Plymouth's waterfront. Weather looked great and traffic would be significantly reduced given the holiday. Google Maps said 45 miles from start to finish, a significant distance for someone who almost never rides a bike, but not ridiculous. We set a 9am departure, did a little cycle maintenance, and put on the SPF 30. Avante!
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Tags: biking, plymouth, sports, weather
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09:35 am
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Small kitchen storage
Recent work in our kitchen both freed up counter space and left us wondering what to do with it. Kudos to a fellow IKEA hacker for this excellent idea. Something that racks-and-stacks spices and other tasty items in a shallow space will do nicely, thanks very much.
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Tags: house, ikea, kitchen
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09:37 am
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Isn't that just the way?
Yesterday, I wrote up the Cambridge Science Festival. Last night, I finagled a bunch of dark chocolate samples from the ThoughtAndMemory.org folks and a free sausage from The Sausage Guy, both from an exhibit room at the MIT Museum.
Now the story gets a little complicated. This morning, I read Seth's Godin excellent blog. Today, he referenced a new site from Dave Pell, the Addictomatic. Make a search and see a portal-esque list of all kinds of results, including hits from Google's blog search. Since the Science Festival is in full swing, I searched on it.
Lo and behold, its Google Blog Search results include my blog, linked as "Spike." If you hover the link, the first sentence of my entry pops up. The particularly astute will notice a problem. The link actually goes to a blogspot entry for pojuhe12.blogspot.com, not my blog. Follow the link and you get redirected, badly constructed, oddly worded eye spam. Gah!
To be fair, several other Addictomatic blog links work as expected. Not sure how mine got sucked up in the marketing maelstrom. You win this time, evil interwebs!
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Last.fm
Tags: business, evil, internet, science
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11:51 am
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Cambridge Science Festival and chocolate
Last night, we dropped in on the Cambridge Science Festival's open trivia competition, a few hours of physics, chemistry, and other brainy questions hosted by NPR's Ira Flatow at the MIT Stata Center. As observers, we totally rocked the first two rounds. Of course, those were the youth rounds. The open competition kicked our ass with questions like "what pair of transitional metals that share almost identical structures are often found together and named after a mythical father-daughter pair?" Natually, that's niobium and tantalum, taken from Greek mythology. Yessir, that's exactly what my BA in Japanese prepared me for.
The whole festival runs through Sunday, May 4, and shows off interesting programs all day long. You can catch lunch with a Nobel Prize winner each day at noon, drop into Club Passim in the afternoon for the science of sound, and check out active MIT Museum exhibits whenever.
Here's one tasty museum activity tonight (5:00 - 8:00pm):- Sustainable Chocolate Research Group
- MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave.
- Join the team at ThoughtAndMemory.org as we learn about and publish reviews of socially responsible aspects of chocolate products! Samples of chocolate will be provided.
- Cost: Free
Hard to beat sustainable chocolate! Mmm. A little later in the evening, the Whitehead Institute in Kendall Square hosts biology-themed short films and supplies refreshments. Apparently, Kendall Square just doesn't want me to leave tonight...
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Various songs from Rock Band
Tags: chocolate, science, trivia
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11:55 am
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In praise of quality writing
OK, I'm not really a writing snob. However, we've all felt the sting of poor writing from our working compatriots, whether in emails, memos, and other communication mediums. Thus I take to heart the Wordsmiths essay from the 37signals web site, a company that engineers simple and effective web applications.
Twice during my current management job, we hired people lacking in English writing skills. One can meet, design, and work out engineering plans, but after managing both, I can verify that programmers need a cogent understanding of writing. It's easy to guess that one's coding structure reflects how they put ideas together.
You better know how to summarize your code in a paragraph (or at least a page). In fact, starting with the writing is something other people can grok before you move on to the technical work. If problems show up in the writing, fix those before you create logical problems for yourself in the objects and functions.
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Current Music: NPR
Tags: 37signals, business, writing
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02:37 pm
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Stuff, stuff, and more stuff
Last year, Paul Graham wrote an essay on stuff with a bit of historical perspective. It makes the good point that we're used to collecting lots of stuff, though it's now hard to imagine really needing even 25% of the physical objects in the average house. We've got an era of plenty with a paucity mentality. (Or at least a paucity marketing mentality.) The key to the essay isn't the obvious, that we crave stuff, but how it dominates our attention even when we're not shopping for it. (My habit, for example, is to check the craigslist "free stuff" list several times a week.)
And nuts, I just bought a new pair of running shoes this morning. I mean, it was a deal!
Current Location: Work
Current Music: House of Pain - "Jump Around"
Tags: shopping, stuff
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02:33 pm
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One more business post
The on-line book Get Real includes a reminder to create a maxim or Big Idea for your software project. The book--and company that wrote it--focuses on small projects, like one to five employees, though it should apply to any size project, even a new version of an existing product.
My own group creates software used by hundreds of thousands, mostly in the corporate world. It's rare to hear an end-goal spoken of, though that might just be at the engineering level. Think I'll walk around and ask a few people what they see as the driving force for our product and see what they come up with...
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Current Music: ACIDplanet podcast
Tags: business, program management, software
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09:52 am
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You're right!
Seth Godin, longtime writer and blogger on marketing and customer relationships recently wrote an interesting entry on acknowledging customer feedback. As a business, it's key not to deny that your customers feel frustrated (with you or the world in general). Even the pickiest or nuttiest feels what they feel. Acknowledging that builds an important customer bridge.
I liked his example of someone not liking the depth of feeling in a book inscription. It made me wonder--when people seem irritated with me in person or virtually, how often do I say "you're right," instead of getting defensive?
Current Location: work
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Keyboard sounds
Tags: blog, introspection, marketing
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07:26 pm
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Name meme
A silly, if entertaining way to craft additional names for yourself. (As some are wont.)
Current Location: home
Current Music: The Weepies - "Not Your Year"
Tags: meme, names
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08:37 am
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TMBG use the power of rock to freeze time!
Transported directly from the cover of my high school class binder, They Might Be Giants played at Somerville Theatre on Friday night, my first live concert at that paragon of "music venues I can walk to." A major advantage is being able to buy tickets in person as soon as they go on sale and with no tacked-on "hairstyling for the company president" fees.
Current Location: work?
Tags: concert, music, they might be giants, tmbg
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11:35 am
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Weekend wrap-up, i.e. Rock Band all around
Played a lot of Rock Band this weekend, no surprise to anyone who's been over recently. There's a certain commitment you make to something that occupies the real estate of a small drum kit, two guitars, and several wires twisting here and there. The good news is that I've got several friends who like to play, both new to instruments and with existing skillz. (I never tried drumming prior to this game and only barely did anything on a guitar.)
It's easy to see this kind of product driving where music will go sooner than later, given its rampant success. The geeks plotted to take distribution away from the mid-level industry types and now they can break down much of the barrier between people who have time to write tunes and the people who just want to enjoy them. Next, it'll be a game that enables you to write commercial jingles--and the circle will be complete.
Oh yeah, we also caught a short film program at the MFA Saturday night, as described in the couples blog, and had dessert at Finale in Harvard Square afterwards, my first time there. YUM YUM! The molten chocolate tasted top-notch alongside some 10, 20, and 30-year port, to sound as snooty as possible. Fortunately, the cost of said confections nicely controls any need to eat there frequently and become dangerously upper-crust.
Tags: dessert, harvard square, mfa, rock band, short films, video games
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