I saw an ad for Liberty Mutual last night that made me get all teary… it was their commercial on the theme of Personal Responsibility. It really it was about the Mantra of Pay It Forward. In Short, Pay It Forward is when one person does a nice deed for 3 people and those people do a good deed to 3 people and so on and so forth… the increase is exponential.

after a little research on the whole concept of Pay It forward this is what I found:

Catherine Ryan Hyde, the writer of the book Pay It Forward (2000) has started a foundation based on this. I did not know this and when I have more time I will read more and see if this is one of the charities that I chose to support

The book Pay It Forward was turned into a movie staring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment, Jay Mohr, James Caviezel, Jon Bon Jovi. Which is where i first learned about the concept

There is a country song, a sappy country song only because of the slow twangy feel to it, by Clay Walker titled The Chain of Love. Where a guys helps a rich lady with a flat tire. SHe's on the side of road and scared (I guess AAA couldn't make it) and he helps her out with his cowboy gentlemenness. She wants to give him a $100 but he refuses. She goes to the diner and orders a small meal. She notices the waitress and thinks about her evening. He pays her check with the $100 and leaves unnoticed  and we come to find out at the end of the song that the waitress is the cowboy' wife… In essence, it's the same concept.

Then there is the Liberty Mutual commercial. Now, this doesn't have the rule of 3 that the actual Pay It Forward concept, but we see a string of events that ends up coming back to initial good doer. I couldn't find the video directly, so you will have to go to this website to view it. The video is high quality, so that is nice.

Pay It Forward is how I view my life. I may not follow 100% of the time but I truly feel that the world would be a better place if this was more widespread. After all, do to others, as you would have done to you… hmmm where have I heard that before?
Terry's Rules of Life #6 - Give Something a Little Extra

ENGAGE LIFE

hmmm… another bastardization of a song. This time it was of The Commodores (not to be confused with the university in the middle of Tennessee)

Anyway, my workout today went without a hitch. I changed my workout while walking to the Aquatic Center.  I knew that I could swim 400 meters in about 9 minutes, so I figured that if I swam 800m, there would still be enough time for me to run 2 miles. Since 800 meters is what I need to swim at the Tellico Triathlon, I figured… why not. During the workout, I decided that instead of a plan rest at the halfway point that I would just adjust my goggles and keep going with no rest. I reasoned (uh-oh watch out) that I won't have the luxury of pool water or pool sides to push off from during the race, so I decided to try to simulate as close to race conditions as possible. I know that it will be tough out in the river swimming the 800 meters, so I wanted to get all the swimming that I could in so that I am not flopping around like a one finned fish out there in the water.

I was consistent on my 2 spilts of 400 meters, again faster than my previous 400 meter swimming races. I then got out of the water, went to the chair where I left my shoes&socks put them on and then took off. I wasn't trying to have a super fast transition time. In fact, with Gray doing the bike discipline, I will have about an hour in between my swim and run, so I will have plenty o' time to get ready to run. But I got my shoes on and took off.

During the run, I carried my goggles and the first mile, I know I must have looked silly since I was soaking wet running around with my goggles. It wasn't until the 1/2 mile mark where my breathing felt normal. It felt labored at first, which is normal since I had just swam for 17 minutes… my legs felt good so they kept me moving right along without incident. I had hope to not have to stop at all during my run (again, to simulate race conditions) but I have to cross multiple streets and I wasn't going to play chicken with a car.

I was a little anxious during my run because I knew a 1 mile course, but I did not want to do an out-and-back course. So, I “made” up the last mile of my run and after mapping it, it just happened to turn out (ever so slightly over) to be one mile! Score!

Overall the workout went really well, I was pleased and will do it again. I know that I could even swim 400 and run 3 miles if needed. I'm not thriled about swimming in my running shorts, but don't own a pair of triathlete shorts yet, so I have to settle for that. But honestly, that's not a big concern.

So here are the split times:

I guess that I won't be as fast I would like to be for the race. I will have recovery time, so maybe things won't be too bad. I would love to have a 7:30-7:40 pace for the 4 miles in the race, but would be happy with a sub-8:00 pace. I haven't done a lot of true speedwork, so I know that I can't be upset if I am not too fast.

A little twist to the Bob Marley song…

If there was every a great chance for some superb shots, it was today and I was powerless because I was cameraless.

The kids at the schools have a 4th of July parade down the street in front of my office. They had a Fire Engine (Number 9) and 3 Blue Hawks which are the Knoxville Police Department's Motorcycle Division. There had to be a ove ra 100 kids and adults walking down the street and the fire engine was making a TON of noise. In fact, towards the end, the fire engine was making all kinds of noises which I think the guy in the cab was having a little too much fun.

This was an opportunity to take pictures for the July Photo Contest over on TNChick. I have all the other pictures (except for the BBQ), but I could <i>make</i> that one if needed. Oh well, maybe next time.

Thanks to Roon for posting this on his blog… it'll make you blush and giggle like you are in 3rd grade. I know, I know… you wish you could be on this jury… just for the comedic relief in usually depressing or boring courtroom. BTW, that's a nice pension he could be losing…

I Present: “sh-sh… All Rise” - Yahoo! News

To show empathy, I know this is a serious problem for some men… here are some facts.

I have been meaning to post this, because I know not all of you are runners(and don't listen to the podcast), but you may know someone who may be interested. Or you may be inspired yourself!!!

- END -

Most of you should know that I have a passion (with a little 'p') for photography. If you don't you do now.

In my weapons of mass photography, I have the following weapons:
Canon AV-1 (circa 1982), 35mm SLR, 50mm lens and 70-210mm lens
Pentax 1000 DTL, 35mm SLR, with 50mm lens and 85-200mm lens
Canon S45 (circa 2002), 4MP digital P&S
Minolta Dimage X20, 2MP digital P&S
Unknown Brand Name, 35mm P&S
Canon SD200, 2MP digital P&S

but am ever on the cusp of jumping with both feet for that digital SLR. Unfortuantely, there is some discrepancy between the higher end P&S (Point and Shoot) and the entry level dSLR. That discrepancy runs about $400, or $600 if you want a lens with your dSLR. The good news is that there is a mush between the two. Meaning that the higher end P&S can function in some ways as good or slightly better than the entry level dSLR.

Now, if you want to spend some serious jack… you can go for the second, third and fourth mortgage on your home with the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II - digital camera (body only) (16.7 Megapixels), it's $6800+ just for the body… much less the lenses that go with it.

So, enough prologue for the post. So  decided that I would check out the eBay listing for some other manual SLRs, specificially the Canon FTb. Pete let me borrow this on two different occasions. Once when I was a senior in high school… I should have bought a SLR then! Grrr. The second was in 2003 right before the birth of Eric the Elder. I had wanted to take some quality artistic shots with that camera and was very pleased with it. It's manual all the way around. Anyway, while holding back a tear (because boys don't cry over cameras), I gave the camera back to him. Slowly, I have been returning the manuals as I find them through the house.

I went over to eBay and did a search for Canon FT 35mm and  got 12 hits. The picture of the first item showed a bunch of stuff in there, so I clicked on it and yes, there was a ton of stuff and the current bid was on $11.50!

This auction includes the following items:

• FT camera unit
• Soligor auto zoom 90-230mm lens
• Soligor lens case and lens cap
• Canon 50mm lens
• Lens case for Canon 50mm lens and lens cap
• Manual
• Neck strap
• Hanimex 40mm S Polarizing coated filter
• Hanimex 40mm S wYG coated filter
• Hanimex 40mm S 80A coated filter
• Body cap
• Extra lens cap
• UN lens cleaning set
• LHM T-adapter
• Waltzfilter 48mm S wY2 filter
• Waltzfilter 48mm S wO2 filter
• Body case
• Carrying case

But the shipping was unspecified. Hmmm. This was the first auction that I have seen sponsored by iSold It on eBay. We have one of these stores open up in the Turkey Creek Shopping metroplex and I always thought it was interesting because selling things on eBay isn't that difficult. But why not cater to the lazy, the busy, and those who know not. I wonder what their commission is on their auction… I dunno.

But for $11.50, I was stoked. Thinking maybe $20 would still be a steal with the right shipping (you always have to remember shipping!). So, I clicked the shipping and entered in my address…

Did you know that they charge a $7.00 handling fee. It's $7 for you to go pick it up. $7!!! (and …)

But, the cheapest way for them to ship it is Fedex Home Delivery for the measly sum of $29.76, no… really.

It's still probably a really good deal over all, but I would have to take a shower to cleanse myself if I paid that much on shipping for something like that.

So, I am still considering it… but will probably let it slip through my fingers like the countless iRiver iFP-895s that I have bid on (cheaply) for the past 4 weeks…

Seems that in an act of comraderie with my fellow office mates, I will forego my scheduled 4 mile run today. Instead of trying to establish mile split times to gage my progress, I will be consuming calories in BBQ form. Our Fourth of July picnic is scheduled for today and so in an act of goodwill… I will (sniff sniff) not workout at lunch today.

We all bring in something for the picnic and what did I sign up for? (wink wink) Buns. I actually bought a variety… I have the regular hamburger buns, I have the premium hamburger buns with sesame and the ever healthy Whole Grain wheat rolls (made by the fore-runner of nutritious bread items Wonder)

I think I will try to milk out 3 miles on the treadmill tonight. I am not sure the logisitics of it all, but I can set the pace for 8:45 or so and force myself at an easier pace than normal. I am going to try a new workout tomorrow… i am going to do a brick workout. No, this doesn't invovle rectangular forms of masonery. A Brick workout is used typically in multisport training schedules and is usually two different types of workouts back-to-back. Triathletes will do a swim workout followed immediately by a run or a bike and run, or run and bike, or run and swim, etc.

The idea behind it is that you are simulating race conditions on your body and this gives you a chance to “feel” how your body reacts and a chance to condition your body. So, tomorrow, I wil go to the pool, swim 400 meters (about 9 min) get out, put shoes and socks on and then run 2.5 miles (about 22 min). This will be a trial run to see how this works for me. I will try to lengthen the distances as I becme more accustom to the workout. Possibly even bring my bike in for a bike and run. I just don't have a lot of time to play with and so I want to maximize my workouts.

Given that the race is on July 9th, I probably will be able to do another brick workout on the 3rd. I don't know if I will be able to run on the 4th because of the holiday. I might. and the 5th will be a 1600 meter (1 mile swim) and 6th will be a 5 mile run. 7 and 8 will be Taper Rest days with Race Day on the 9th. Woah… I just planned out my next 10 days or so. Huh, go figure.

It seems that the self-proclaimed King of Komments has had a string of Blogs of Boring. This could be my perception on reading some other hi-quality blogs on the mudane topics of nothingness. I mean, my blog has content. It's telling you what I am doing or rather what I did but I don't feel that I am conveying enough in the post. I want it read like a Harry Potter novel, and if you want to imagine me in wizards' robes… that's cool!

Perhaps, I need to make crazy references… or snazier vocabulary… or maybe just proper grammar and not a bunch of !!! and …

So, let's try this and list my split times today for swimming.

AHEM… okay [taking deep breath]

So today's lunchtime excursion was getting wet and wild and going about 3/4 of a mile propeling myself through a highly viscous substance. The old way would be 'not drowning in the pool'. And not only was the Almighty granting me a great environment of clear, chlorinated water but also a partially cloudy, errr, sunny warm summer day. Don't forget a full workout bag with everything needed to smell fresh and clean.

So I am all suited up, ready to go swim my 27 laps in the pool, I have my yellow swim cap, my blue goggles and a towel. I head down to the pool where access is given to those who have the new party club band around their wrist. They used to have a stamp, that would ink your hand and grant you access to the pool. Then about 2 weeks a go, they changed to the plastic ID bracelets that clubs put on you to brand you as an old fart, I mean over 21. I can't complain… it balances out my MS Society HOPE bracelet on my left hand and this will prevent me from swimming circles in a rectangular pool.

I found a lane in the 5' section… this way, if I wanted to practice my flip turns, I wouldn't end up with a concusion on the pool floor. The hardest thing about swimming laps and swimming 27 of them… is to remember which lap you are on. If you are swimming 27 laps, that is 54 lengths (if I did the math right) and with your mind wandering around you begin to second guess yourself… is this lap 4 or 5? To some extent, if you are swimming consistently, you can make a semi-educated guess by looking at your watch. But you need to know how fast you are swimming at the time… which I sort of knew.

After my first set of 9 laps, I took a minute or two to stretch out my arms and legs. I have a fear of cramps in my calf muscles from having them extended while kicking for some period of time (about 25 minutes). I should do squats… hell, I should do bench press and shoulder workouts to increase my endurance. So off to another 9 laps and I was pleased with my time. I was just a few seconds off from the previous 9 laps… hmmm… cool. It was my plan to goof off for the last 9 laps.

I know what you are thinking… how do you goof off by doing laps. Well, I was planning on practicing my flip turns, adjusting my stroke for sighting bouys and trying to swim the width of the pool completely underwater.  I didn't practice my flip turns, but I did complete a roll turn. It wasn't pretty and I have no words (I tried to find some) to describe the roll. I was able to practice my sighting (which I talked about in the ever rambling) Voicepost, so you have to listen to that to get the skinny. Anyway, my laps 9 laps, were slower but I expect that, but they weren't as slow I was thinking… in fact, they were faster than some of my Trideltathon race times! So… here are my times…

Now, it is time for me to move on to bigger and better posts… I think the menu for tomorrow will be a nice juicy Fartlek Run mixed in with some nice green(ery)ways, perhaps with a view of the river?

Engage Life

Could you pass the U.S. citizenship test? - Being an American - MSNBC.com:

I got a 95% because I was thinking Senate when the question was refering to Congress… Argh!