Telecommunicable

So the past few days I've been a little ill.  It's nothing major, but I feel it best to stay away from exercise.  As such, my new found collaboration with a rugby team up the road (coaching kids) was interrupted on Sunday.  I tried contacting the coach several times, but despite a phoneback from him (which I missed by a fraction) I was unable to relay my sickness.  What makes it more frustrating is that he's left messages for me, that I can't access because my phone is indecipherable.  Endeavour to make contact, I suppose.

I also haven't been to the gym for a week, which is unlike me. In this time I've been toying with the idea of running to the gym, as I feel general fitness is my current weakness.  The route covers a lot of road, and has a number of stops (for traffic lights etc) so it would suit my generally desired type of fitness (I always have an eye focused on rugby).

There are two problems I can foresee with this:  It takes twenty minutes by bike, when I'm burning.  By burning I mean I spend the entire time, trying to overtake cars.  I'm all over the road, swinging left and right trying to get there in as little time as possible.  When I do arrive, I generally do half an hour of upper body work before I start on the legs, because they're pretty jellified upon arrival.  Ultimately, this means a 45-50 minute run to the gym, a workout, then another 50 minute run back.  I despise running, in all shapes and forms - it's torture.  To spend the equivalent of an entire rugby match just running around; with nothing to tackle and no try line seems ludicrous.  On the flip side, there can surely be fewer things better for fitness than that.

The other problem is one of shoes.  I have a viable pair of shoes to run in right now, but they won't last a year of running like that.  At least, they won't offer any kind of protection for a year.  My knees are aching now, and I've not even tried running there yet.

I predict this cold will have flown by Friday, at which point I will attempt running to the gym.  Luckily, the two week hiatus will result in me losing at least a kilo, (as was the trend when I first arrived) so it will be slightly easier to haul myself along.  I don't know what other people experience when they go for a run, but I just feel like I'm trying to push a walrus along sandpaper that's glued to the floor.  It's like pushing an immovable weight, on a floor with an infinitely high friction coefficient.  I feel the same when I play rugby, especially when I don't have the ball or I'm not about to tackle someone - the difference is the disappearance of this burden when the time comes to act.  I guess that's the amazing effect of adrenaline.

#Edit

I'm watching a group of kids warming up to participate in P.E.  I can't remember ever warming up for P.E, except in the rare case that we actually had to do some exercise (this was rare, in the compulsory portion of my education).  What I notice, is that they completely disregard conventional Western wisdom (contradictory?) with regards to correct warmup procedure.  We're all taught not to 'bounce,' that is to say, fling a body part to the point at which it is fully extended/stretched and quickly tense that muscle to pull it back to the starting position.  This view hasn't reached Asia yet, apparently, and while fine for these kids (they're not really trying and don't care enough to injure themselves) I wonder if this is one of the reasons for relatively poor performances among Japanese athletes.  I've seen rugby teams here do the same thing, and I cringe.  I watch people in the gym do the same thing, and cringe.

Watching the chinese warm-up on the track prior to their events during the Olympics, I noticed they employed a more 'Western style,' approach to warmups.  Perhaps it is more indicative of a lack of interest in improvement, then, than one of the myriad outright causes.

#Edit 2:  So Japanese people use e-mail with their phones, not SMS.  SMS is outdated enough that you can't send one, unless the recipient is on the same network as you.  Imagine that in England, with the 50 different networks available.

Basketball, and the Art of Not Falling Over

Basketball is quite good fun; if you're with friends, are playing non-competitively and don't mind being terrible at something.

It's kind of like bowling, in that you can practice one specific action one hundred times, and only hit it perfectly five times; all the while thinking, 'hold on a second, I did it exactly like this last time, why didn't I get it right?'  It's extremely frustrating, and when you only get a basket once every ten minutes you question why you're playing in the first place.

The reason, in case you're wondering, why I play in the first place, is fitness. It's exceptionally challenging, especially when everyone else is so much better than you are.  Everyone else runs half as much as you, (and incidentally - pockets twice as many points) while somehow making you run in circles.  I'm not really sure how it works, but the upshot is that an hour of basketball leaves you high and dry, wrung out etc.

It's definitely good for general all-round fitness, and when we finally get to play some american football, I'm going to be ready.  For what?  I'm not sure yet, but I'll be ready nonetheless.

Running and the Post...

Please read to the bottom for a funny story I saw.

As has been typical lately, I went for a run.  Two things differed from the established norms on this occasion however, as I took a camera, and it there was snow in the air, and on the ground.

If you've ever run for more than twenty seconds on snow, you'll know it shares a similar feel to another unstable substance; that being sand.  Unless you've never run on sand, in which case you might like to know that it feels similar to snow.

So because of the inordinate quantities we've been having, I decided to capture a few more images.

I took these while running along, so forgive the camera shake.

Even after a solid pace I was cold, leading me to suspect that my thermal shirt, t-shirt, thermal undies, swimming shorts, bank robber woolly hat AND my fleece were insufficient for this weather.

Had I not left for Japan, and were I still those many kilograms heavier, I feel a pair of briefs would have sufficed.  Now that my bones are a mere skin-depth from the elements, the cold holds a much greater fear for me.

As you will have no doubt spotted, my camera thinks that snow makes the world blue.  While it does depress everyone on the news, it takes it somewhat more literally.

Hopefully the next photograph will dispel the myth that I live underwater.

This one does manage to take us away from the seabed, but it does give the impression that the (n)th apocalypse is coming.

Again, taken on the move, I should probably stand still and take one at a later date.

At the time of writing this, it's -5 degrees outside though, so as you can imagine, even during the day with the ample sunlight (evidenced by this picture) present in England, standing still for more than ten seconds is hazardous for ones' health.

I had to include one with a little motion blur involved to show you the tremendous speeds I was travelling at this stage.

The lateral blur is indicative of a shaking hand, possibly moving from right to left in order to increase the feeling of speed...

But of course, that cannot be confirmed.

This is the long and lonely road I tread to the stomping ground of fitness that is a disused green belt, surrounding this here town.

It functions as a... as a... as something.

It also has plentiful pull-up, dip and sit-up facilities (if one uses his/her imagination!) to increase the overall efficiency of a workout.

It is however, and I'm not making this up, (in a 'the fish I caught was thiiiiiiiiiiis big kind of way) ruddy steep.  You run down all the way there.  Great workout.  Even better for the mind, as you must overcome this fact on the way back.  Food for the body, mind and soul then, this running malarky.

I don't know whether this one is in focus.

I don't care.

It has lots of snow, and the wrong colour sky.  It wasn't this colour.  No filters were applied, apart from the rose coloured kind fostered by love.

Of course I'm in no such state, I can only surmise therefore, that my camera has had a funny turn.  If it were a horse, it would be dog food or glue by now, but such is the way of electronics that they cannot be put out of their misery quite so easily as a shotgun to the face.

Yes.  Horses have faces too.  Think of that, the next time you try to glue something to another thing.

And when I happened upon the about-turn area, I also came across a few giant snow people men.

It's quite interesting to see the level of craftsmanship involved.

Nary a detail was missed, and it's great to see the artisans of snowcraft are thriving throughout the town.

It's also funny to imagine the (statistically speaking, rather likely to be) fat kids trying to lift a mere fraction of their own bodyweight in snow above their heads.

This is actually taken at an approximation of the correct angle.

The wicked Michael Jackson style Gangster Lean, as it shall now be known, looks set to end this mans' life  prematurely.

I shall find out, dear reader, if this snowman survived, when I go for my next run.

This family lacks the individual quality of the solo Gangster member, but does hold something of the wonderment that is christmas.

Well, to anyone who thinks that the biggest box will have the best presents, this picture is christmassy.

You need a sense of scale to appreciate how much effort went into these bad boys.

(Children avert your eyes)

I understand that this photo is awful.  I also understand that, side-on, I look something akin to a kipper on the ocean floor.

I wasn't even pretending to be short when eyeballing this guy, he really is that well made.

Kudos to whomever chose to dedicate their time to such an endeavour!

One more of the family and its' terminally ill falling son.

Hopefully he'll find his legs someday.

The footprints of an unidentified creature.  Any trackers out there who want the chance to hunt the famed yeti, here it is.

Or it's a rabbit.

Rabbits aren't as good for hunting based tourism though right.

----------------------------------------------------

We switch gears now as I received an early present from Japan.

What could be inside this bag?

If the person just off-camera would stop asking, they might live through the night.

Anyway.

Inside this case was...

This bear porch.  (As written on the customs declaration)

It's a bag, presumably a pouch of some kind.

I simply must ask this question.  If you're a mid-level learner of a language, why would you know the word 'pouch' sufficiently to recall it?  Spelling aside, I estimate a forty year lagtime between now, and me knowing the equivalent word in any language.

Exceptional, if somewhat redundant, knowledge is on display here.

Inside the pouch was a small keyring adornment that plays the '1-up' tune from Mario.  Random?  For you this may well be the case.  For me and those involved however, it is only slightly less random.  Crazy, but simultaneously, crazy-awesome.

Best christmas card ever!

Sorry, but no amount of tinsel, or annoying shimmering flakey stuff can make up for the ten thousand mile trip this card took.

Fine wines age, christmas cards that voyage assume a similar air of importance!  Cards cannot be accused of being pompous however, which is nice.

Many pictures today!



And here is the funny story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8424836.stm

This is the reason why the world laughs at America.  Those who are there now, seriously, be careful.  Once people become deathly afraid of snow, you have to ask yourself whether the money present in America is worth your life.  Seriously.

The Things we Find Ourselves Doing...

I've finally got round to starting an exercise routine again.

Having worked so hard for the years I was at university to give myself an edge over the competition, the rest period of Japan is probably a welcome one; from the point of view of my body.  I found myself aching in places that my grandad complained about, and waking up every day to a creaking array of joints, and unintentional, barely audible groans.  I'm pretty sure it was the rugby causing this, so hopefully going to the gym again won't bring these symptoms back.

I've begun running around again, with the eventual aim of getting back to the gym.  It's amazing what losing fifteen kilograms of weight can do for your long distance running performance though, as I now feel able to run more than fifty metres without passing out!  And this is with many months of no training, so I should be substantially more unfit than before.

As a side-note; I've found a tucked away park that appears to have only one entrance and one exit, and it located far enough away from civilization that I'm sure it never gets used.  I'm not sure what the point of it is, but I find it a convenient halfway point on my run.

In other news, I'm committing some ideas for a new attraction in the Top Events GB repetoire to disc; in the form of a labor intensive, mind bending 3D diagram of how I believe the site should progress.  It's an extremely interesting process, but one that demands an attention to detail that's difficult to summon up.  Using Googles' own mapping software, named SketchUp, and utilising google maps to lend some realism to my ideas; I'm slowly forming a viable idea.  It does take an awfully long time however, and the 3D design aspects are proving far from intuitive.  The idea is that this software becomes accessible to everyone, by approaching the 'problem' of 3D content creation from a different angle.  This approach falls down somewhat when you realise that this type of program has been around for decades, in the form of video game design; and their mapmakers, while more complicated, are far easier to use.  Oxymoronic (sic) maybe, but true nonetheless.

I can't show you what I'm designing currently; but I can show you what I was tinkering with last night - that is before I realised you can't scale down irregular curves properly.  Well done sketchup, well done.







In an unrelated note; here are some more pictures I've received from the other side of the world.

I may have already uploaded this one, but I like it; so it's staying.

So many of these little animations...

My own personal favourite of the animations.  This one says, 'thank you.'



ありがとうまどーちゃん！（いぎりすはすごくさむいです！）（がんばってね！）
ありがとうふみえ！（あなたわちょーかわいいー！）
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ありがとうたかこねさん！あなたの歌うこと はすごい！
ありがとうぱるぱーちゃんと００７さん！
ありがとうゆかりーさん！
ありがとうみな！