…::: NJ Brideau :::…

Happy Birthday America

The 4th of July just might be my favorite national holiday.  (side note – how many national holiday’s can you name?).  Its usually associated with nice warm sunny weather, good food and drinks with friends, and a few days off work.  This year it might be a little different – lots of work to do in lab and around the house (I know it never ends), and to top it off it hasn’t stopped raining for more than an hour or two here since May.  We’ll manage to get some quality BBQ time in there somewhere I’m sure.  Of course, thanks to all those that serve our country and Happy 4th of July to everyone.

The power of Nike + worked for me (and it can work for you too)

What is “Nike +”?  In short, it is a simple adapter and sensor that you use in combination with your iPod when running.  The longer answer is much more interesting.  I believe it is a revolution for the casual runner, comparable to what the iPod was for portable music players.  Ok that might be a stretch, but bear with me for a few minutes.

Actually rather than try to write this up, I’ll ask you to take a minute or two to read a well written article over at Wired:

The Nike Experiment: How the Shoe Giant Unleashed the Power of Personal Metrics

It no secret that I have been drinking the Apple Kool-Aid for about 5 years now, but I still agree with many of the points raised in that article.  Yes there are many devices designed to do what the Nike+ system does, and much more – but the people that use those tools are probably in the minority.  What is so powerful about this system is its simplicity and ability to be brought to the masses.  How do I know?  I’ve had the Nike + sensor since they were first introduced, about 3 years ago.

Unfortunately, all my extra curricular activities have taken a chunk out of my daily schedule and I haven’t been to the gym in over a year.  Is it my fault for not making it a priority?  Probably.  Working on the house was a physical challenge at times, but in a year’s time I’ve lost 10 pounds of muscle and all my wind – I want them back.  That is why both Chelsea and I made the commitment yesterday to start running again.  And we are going to use Nike + to set and accomplish goals.  Would it be as easy to set our own goals?  yes, but it wouldn’t involve technology and that takes some of the fun out of it.

Its really easy.  We go running with my ipod and sensor, then the next time I sync to my computer my ipod automatically communicates all the data to a Nike server.  While online I can track all kinds of stuff, including setting goals.  For example, the image above shows what our run last night looked like (though I need to recaibrate my sensor).  You can even see where the sensor popped out of my shoe.

Well anyway, we hope to use the power of personal metrics to get back into shape.  Beginning with our first goal:

I’m trying to figure out if I can get this as a wordpress widget, so you can see how we have met our goals in the sidebar on the right. Wish us luck.

simple logistics

Are simple logistics costing you the American taxpayer money?  Very likely.  And I’m sure for plenty of reasons other than the one I am going to try and impress upon you right now.

Now take for example you are trying to travel from point A to point B, they are 2.3 miles apart.  Here they are on a map:

Hypothetically, lets say you wanted to mail a letter from your house “A” to your friends house “B”.  Now, I have no idea how the post office works, but lets assume all the letters get collected for the day and are taken to a local post office for sorting.  Basically, you go from your house A, to the post office C, to your friends house B.  Still doesn’t seem that bad right?

So why on earth does a letter sent from A to B go through a postal sorting center D, 90+ miles away? [not drawn to scale]

I kid you not.  Letters going from A to B travel more than 90 miles there and back.  How do I know?  We have been receiving lots of little envelopes in the mail recently, and our friends in house (A) sent theirs to our place (B), and it was stamped as going through (D).  Even though there is a post office (C) ONE MILE from our house.

If anyone knows why the post office works this way, or how they go about sorting and distributing mail please let me know in the comments below.  Isn’t there the technology to electronically sort mail that should stay in town?  Do they really need to pay all that money for fuel to transport letters 180+ miles when they really only needed to go <10?  Is this the reason the price of stamps goes up every two months?  seems like a simple logistics problem to me.

Oxford visit: culture

This post isn’t meant to get into the major culture differences between the U.S. and England, but rather to point out some of the funny little things I noticed.  Oxford of course is a very old university, and with that comes many traditions.  This definitely includes the “college” system.  There are something like 39 colleges within the University at Oxford.  And not in the figurative sense, like the “college of agriculture and life sciences” is here.  They are standalone entities usually complete with a number of dormatories, dining hall, church, bar etc.  For my visit I stayed at Keble college.  Not one of the oldest, but one of the largest, and my building was recently renovated.  Anyway I snapped some pictures of the happenings at the colleges.

The first is the formal attire worn by the students.  Luckily I was there during exam week, otherwise I may not have noticed.  What you are looking at above are the required outfits for taking exams.  The students dress in black suits, complete with a white bow tie, and then additionally have a robe that drapes over the back.  There are also flowers on their lapel – different colored flowers for the different stages of exams.  I also learned that the students dress like this at their super fancy formal dinners.

The above picture is of the quad at Keble college.  In addition to having perfectly mowed grass, it very often had a bunch of students playing on it.  Here a couple of lads are having a go at croquet.

This was taken looking off the Magdalen bridge.  I’m not sure what these are called other than Punts, but they are use for the activity known as “punting”.  Also not sure why its called that.  From what I gather, people get into these boats and can either go with the “self-drive” or “chauffered” version.  These I’m sure everyone has seen, you push them along the river with a large stick.  I’m actually excited to try this with Chelsea sometime.

In addition to soccer and cricket, I also saw a number of students playing the above game.  I have no idea if its an official game, or if the students were just bored and made due with what they had, but I watched for a bit.  From what I could tell, they stand in two lines and toss the soccerballs into the basket, much like shooting dueling free throws.  Except when they miss the initial shot they just scoop it up and try to toss it in again as fast as they can from anywhere.  No defense.  Anyone have a better idea what this game may be?

Oxford visit: history

I’ve just spent the last week in Oxford England on a search for postdoctoral positions.  I had a busy week, took a day to acclimate to the time change and then 4 interviews in 4 days.  In my travels I managed to stop and take a picture now and again to appreciate where I was.  I’ll have a couple posts here documenting my observations, right now I’m writing from the bus between Oxford and the airport.

One of the first things I noticed is the history of the place.  I really appreciated the fact that some of those buildings and streets have been there a VERY long time.  For example check out this tower:

Which according to the sign, is the oldest building in Oxford – over 1000 years old!  That is four times as old as our COUNTRY.  Pretty cool, although I didn’t get the chance to walk up to the top and check out the view.

Here is picture outside the “oldest pub in Oxford” the Turf Tavern.  You probably can’t read the words on the sign, but it wasn’t always called the Turf.  I had a nice pint of cellar temp ale and fish and chips with mushy peas.  Not a bad introduction to pub food.

Blackwell is a bookstore that has been here since 1879.  It now spans 5 floors and has what they proclaim as the largest room dedicated to the sale of books in Europe.  Too bad I didn’t get to enter the rare books area, I bet they have some good ones.

Another pub that I managed to have some food and a beer in (and yes, British food again, I went with the steak and ale pie this time).  According to my pocket guide of Oxford, this is the most famous and one of the oldest pubs.  It was the home of a group of writers called “the inklings” that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Pretty neat to think about the history of the ideas in this place.

More to come later when a I get more time and a more reliable internet connection.