This one is hard to write about

I’m attending training this week in Seattle – it’s offered by a company I greatly respect and the training itself is quite good. However, yesterday, we covered the Milgram experiment in detail (it’s applicable to the class). If you are not familiar with this experiment, you should read the linked page.

I struggled a lot with this part of the training. Years ago, while an undergraduate at KU, I took an honors Intro to Psychology class (the benefits of it being an honors course meant our class size was only about 35 instead of 200, and we had an excellent full professor teaching the class). The class requirements included participating in three psychology research programs or experiments. I guess the grad students were chronically short of willing test subjects. So I signed up for my three studies.

One of them was a rerunning of Milgram’s experiment. I showed up, signed in and the briefing started. As soon as the researcher told me the details, I said I wouldn’t participate. Now that sounds quite easy to do, right? But in fact the pressure brought to bear was fairly intense, plus I am by nature a rules follower and needed to participate in these three projects. My children were in elementary school so my participation needed to fit around my family requirements. This project was one of very few that fit my schedule.

But I didn’t do the experiment. As I recall, I got pretty heated with them in my refusal. Then they told me no shocks would be administered and begged me not to tell anyone else about the project. And I haven’t, not for 20 years, not until yesterday when it was all brought back up.

I’m not sure why this is still so disturbing for me. I didn’t participate, I didn’t (fake) shock anyone yet I’m sitting in my hotel room feeling utterly compelled to write this all down and get it out of my head, and still feeling the horror and absolute certainty that I could not and would not participate no matter what. And I don’t remember at all what the other two projects were.

I don't get it

Unless you live under a rock, then you know that a new royal baby was born yesterday. Depending on your point of view, you're either entertained and/or find this news interesting or you are wondering what the hubbub is about.

Or you may fall into the third camp, the one that disapproves of those who followed this birth. Maybe you even posted something about the poor or the needy (especially the poor, needy babies) around the world as your comment about the royal birth.

But the thing is, being interested in something frivolous like the Prince of Cambridge's birth doesn't mean we now do less for those in need. And I'm not sure why that parallel is drawn. There's no cosmic equation that says if I find this baby interesting, I therefore do nothing and care not at all for other babies who weren't born into such well off families.

So please, if you are one who posts these snarky reminders -- help me understand why you do it. What's the goal?

The return of monorail cat

He's melting into the couch.

Why do you work out?

Kent and I were talking last night, just recapping our day, and I asked him how his workout that morning had been. Fine, he said. Well as fine as a workout can be.

I was curious about that, so I asked him if he enjoyed working out. Long story not so long, no he doesn't. What's more, he never has. He likes the results but dislikes doing the actual workout. I asked him if that were true when he trained and ran in a marathon. Yes, he said. He didn't like training for that either. He did it because he wanted to have run a marathon.

I have to say, if I didn't like working out, I wouldn't do it. I know myself. There are things that would be good for me to do (wash my face before I go to bed, for example) and I don't want to, so I don't. In the same way, while I know foods like spinach and kale are really good for me, those foods will never pass my lips. I do, however, like working out. I like the challenge, I like being able to do more, more effectively and (in the case of running) to do it faster.

What about you? If you work out, why do you do it? Do you enjoy the process itself, or are you more like Kent and only in it for the results? If you're only in it for the results, how do you stay motivated to do something you dislike doing? I'm really curious.

The rest of the story

When I'm driving to work or out for a run, I'll see things or people as I pass by. But I never know why those people or things are there, what happened that they should be there. And I always kind of wonder about that (and then I make up stories about them).

For example, I almost always see a very fit older man, probably in his late 60s but incredibly fit, running east along 103rd Street when I drive to work. I mean he just flies over the hills and I've decided that he's probably an ultra marathon runner.

This morning on my run, I saw bits of broken mirror, then a piece of car chrome (not enough there to tell what it had been), then a side mirror and then a bit of broken off utility pole. OK so someone had an accident but maybe not very bad, and instead of calling it in, the driver just drove off without that side mirror.

Sunday on my run, I saw a crumpled up empty Marlboro pack, the kind with the gold label. I immediately judged the smoker for being a litter bug, and then felt entirely justified less than half a block later when I saw the discarded cigarette butt. Jerk.

Another day on another run, I saw the front face cover from a cell phone. It wasn't from an iPhone, it was pretty clearly from a very inexpensive clam shell model, so then I felt sorry for the person because maybe that was the only cell phone they could afford.

And yard sale/garage sale/estate sale signs. My goodness there are lots of those in KC. How on earth do people end up with so much junk and who on earth buys their crap?

Oh and the real estate signs. There's a really nice house on my running route, sits on a lake and is probably a cool half a million, no wait I was wrong. I just looked it up. It's $1.5 million, has four bedrooms and five bathrooms and is just over 5k square feet. It's been for sale since we moved into our house. This spring I saw a sign for a graduation party in their yard so my story about the sellers is that they're now empty nesters and have no need for this enormous house. No wait, maybe they want to move to some more exotic location. Hmm I can see that I need to develop this story line a little more.

Fit Bit Flex after two weeks

The verdict: I love it.

You might remember that I did a compare & contrast with the Jawbone UP. Here's some updated results:

• I wasn't sure which sync process I would end up liking better, the Fit Bit (which automatically syncs to your computer, and has to be manually synced to the phone app but only certain phones are supported -- mine is) or the Jawbone UP, which syncs to the phone (only certain supported phones) but only by plugging in the jack. Now, just over two weeks later I prefer the Fit Bit sync process.
• Putting the Fit Bit into sleep mode is still slightly hit or miss. I'm not sure if there's something in the way I tap or what but sometimes I have to try a couple of times to get the Fit Bit into the sleep mode. 

Fit Bit also sends you emails when you hit goals (like getting 10k steps in a day) and also a weekly summary of your progress. You can tap the band and the lights blink to indicate how many steps you've gone so far that day. When you do hit your 10k steps, the arm band buzzes and does a cool light display to let you know you did it. I am a little surprised at how motivating it is to get those badges or check the online dashboard for my progress.  I think you can set it to buzz if you haven't moved in a while, although I haven't done that (yet).

Finally, here's a picture I completely forgot to post on the compare & contrast post:

Fit Bit is black and on the left;
Jawbone UP is blue and on the right.

I was fearless then

The first thing I ever sewed was a sleeveless jumper with a zipper in the back and decorative trim down the front. My mother had signed me up for a sewing class, five or six group lessons I believe, and I was 10 years old. The next thing I sewed was a straight dress, again sleeveless – this time with no zipper but it did have a sash at the waist. I was 16 and did it in one night. In fact I was in such a hurry, I used Stitch Witchery for the hem, something I will not use any more.

And from there, things took off and I was pretty much fearless. I made myself tops, and dresses and even a two piece swim suit. I was very proud of that suit because I’d had to add quite a bit of material to the bra portions. I was sort of nervous about that, only because I’d never altered a pattern before but it turned out OK.

I sewed most of my maternity clothes for both pregnancies and made a winter coat, a hat, countless tops, dresses, curtains and pajamas for my sons. But somewhere along the way, I lost my fearless ways. Darts began to intimidate me, I got very nervous about whether or not I could actually make whatever it was I was making. So I drifted over to more crafts-oriented projects – like bags.

But yesterday something changed for me. I bought a blouse pattern that’s pretty fitted (four darts in front, two in back!!). And I made it from fabric I had on hand. I’m pleased to say it fits and I like it, I really like it. (By the way, I think the reason the pattern is called young is because it's cut a little on the shorter side. Since I'm short waisted, that works out well for me.)

So next up, I’m going to sew a dress. The bodice is pretty fitted on this one too, with the princess seams I whined about in 2011. Hopefully I won’t screw it up. Even if I do, at least I’m trying.