This Ordinary Life

The advent of digital photography has done something amazing for cupboards across the globe. You remember those boxes of holiday snapshots that just lay there waiting to be put into albums or the hours that you spent vetting, selecting the best ones and then lovingling (painstakingly?) pasting them into albums, don't you?

Well, digital photography has revolutionised that process by moving those boxes from your cupboards onto harddrives and CDs/DVDs. It has also resulted in an explosion in the number of pictures people take. As people no longer have to wait for photos to be develop or, for that matter, pay for them to be developed, they have gone crazy. Why worry about composition or setting up the right shot when you can take ten and then delete the unsuitable ones.

While this may have enabled even the amateur photography to get at least one decent shot out of every ten taken, it has left flashes burnt on innumerable retinas and hard disks jammed with images. It actually may have made people cherish snapshots of special events and holiday moments less, because they are so easy to create and require very little effort.

Well, you could spend money on programes like Adobe's Photo Album and other similar commercial programmes or you could try it with inferior freeware versions to try an make some order out of the jumble mess of phots on your hard drive to give you photo collections a bit more value. However, Google in it's quest for domination of the world of digital and online organisation has come up with a solution that I think almost every digital photographer (from the basic to intermediate) will love.

The programme is called Picasa and can be downloaded free from the internet. It has a simple interface that allows you to organise your pictures into albums (linked to a folder structure on your hard drive). I have about 2000 photos on my hard drive and was able to organise them in an evening. You can give each image a tag that contains details of the images name, date it was taken, location and even a short commentry. The software breathes new life into old photos as your can easily print, run slide shows, burn them to CDs/DVDs and, probably the most powerful feature of the software, interface with either Outlook or an online email system (e.g. Gmail) and send photos directly from the system to your friends. It takes care of the formatting and you just provide the address and message. Mothers around the globe rejoice as now it is easier than ever for you backpacking son/daugter living in London to send home images of their lives.

I have recommended this to a number of friends that have either just moved to digital photography or who have stacks of unsorted photos on their computer. Amazingly, every single one has come back with a positive review of the software and with a new zest for capturing the moment on film.

If you aren't familiar with Google's Picasa yet, I recommend you go out and try it. If you aren't impressed, let me know as I imagine you will be in the minority and your feedback is likely to be invaluable to Google. Let's hope that Google don't mess it up by trying to convince us all to store our images on Google's own servers or to share our albums via the Internet....

Posted by this ordinary life at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, the Ipod and other MP3 players have been with us for a number of years now. These devices have really revolutionised our lives by enabling you to take your music collection on the go.

But it would be interesting to know if most people are using these to tune out or to tune in? What do I mean by this, you may ask. Well, it you think about it people use music to pass the time or to relax. Actually, amongst the most common uses would be to fill dead time, time on the tube (commutting), to block out background noise or just to have background noise when your home alone. But does this dead time need to be filled with "nothing''?

Now don't get me wrong listening to music is great, but I simply thing that people are overlooking the educational capability of the Ipod. There are a wealth of audio books, lectures, language course and news programmes that are available, which enable a person to turn dead time into productive educational time. I actually also find listening to interviews very relaxing and a long audio book is a great companion when on a long run that may take a couple of hours. I ran my first half-marathon listening to Stephen Covey's 7 Habits and suprised myself when the 21kms were behind me. Also the other day on 60 Minutes I learned about how Starbucks came to greatness or the basis for the Colbert Report (one of the greatest comedy shows out at the moment).

Now many free Podcasts are easily available via Apple's Itunes, but you will have to do a bit more hunting to find lectures and language courses. Most of these are also free, but sometimes you may need to invest in buying a few.

Some of my favourites include:

- Podcasts: CBS News 60 Minutes, Buzz Out Loud by Cnet, Newsweek on Air, Winecast (entertaining Minnesota guy talking about wine), The Ricky Gervais Show (comedy), Nobody Likes Onions (comedy), triple j's Hack Daily (Australian radio)

- Language courses: Anything by Pimsleur

- Lectures: Anything by The Teaching Company

The next time you grab your Ipod to kill some time, think about using it expand your mind (love that saying).

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Week 4

Weight: 93 kg
Percentage body fat: 27%
Classification: Obese
Resting heart rate: 45 bpm (Well, at least something is right)
Distance run: 40.3 km
Average Pace: 6:00
Distance cycled: 24.5 km
Distance swum: 0 km
No. of weight trainin sessions: 2
No. of training sessions: 8

Units of alcohol drunk: ca. 20 (This time it was a mate's birthday party

Comment: My left leg is still giving me some trouple, but the Runner's knee is improving. Weight training and icing is doing the trick. Now it appears that I have a light Iliotibial Band Syndrome, which manifests itself as soreness on the outside of my left leg. Let's see what I can to to overcome this. My short distances are really improving with my 10km down to 50 minutes.

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I signed up for the New York Marathon, I decided the best way would be to do it for charity. Not only would this motivate me to ensure that I successfully complete the marathon, but it would also allow me to help a good cause. The charity I chose is the London Sport Forum, a charity that helps ensure that London's 1 million disabled have access to sport. It's a great cause and I am proud to support them.

To make raising the £2500 pounds I have committed to raise, there is a great system available for people raising money for charity called Justgiving. It enables you to collect donations on-line from people all over there world. It makes collecting the money a breeze and, if the person donating is in the UK, it will automatically collect the 28% tax benefit that such donations can get making the donation worth even more.

If you have a charity event and need to raise anything from £100 to £10,000, I recommend you set up a website with Justgiving. It's easy, it's global and it's secure. What a more effective way to reach that distant cousin in Timbuktu, who you reckon is good for a tener?

In case you would like to support me, why not check out the webpage that I have created with Justgiving and show your support. I have set this one up especially for this blog, so don't be put off by the £500 target as it is linked to a second one.

Posted by this ordinary life at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I managed to catch most of this movie on television tonight. It really is a gripping tale of two people discovery of the "real" South America. It reminded me a bit of my time in South America when I worked on a charity project in Argentina; however, their experiences in the mid-50's dwarf my own many-fold.

If you would like to learn a bit more about South America, but without having to experience it first hand, I highly recommend the Motocycle diaries. The scenery is close to how I remember it and the emotional rollercoaster the two main caracters go through really does invoke some of the same feelings I had when travelling around the hardship and poverty.

Particularly moving and effective are the black and white scenes of everyday life that appear like photos.

I give this one two thumbs up, but a word of warning.... this move is not an escape from reality, rather a tour of a continent that has had a reach history marred with struggle.

For more info, please check out the films details on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318462/

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, marathon training means putting plenty of kilometres behind you. If you are like me (a bit unfit and a bit overweight), this can mean quite a strain on your body.

Although, I have run a fair few kilometres in my first 3 weeks of training (over 70), my body is still in short distance and walking mode. This means that I have already developed what the call "Runner Knee". This is a condition where you have pain beneath your knee cap and the knee cracks/creaks when you walk. Also walking down stairs is particularly painful.

I initally thought that I was in serious trouble and had developed an injury that would significantly impact my running. However, I Googled my symptoms and was directed to a website that I find provides very good insight and advice on running. It's called www.coolrunnings.com.

It was here that I discovered that I hadn't really developed an injury, rather than I had developed a condition. This condition is here your hamstrings (back of the thighs) become stronger than your quadreceps (front of the thighs and hold your knee cap in place). This causes pain in the knee and can become a serious injury if corrective action isn't taken.

What corrective action, you may ask? Quite simply you have to do excercises that strengthen the quadreceps. Theses include lunges, leg extentions, leg crunches and squats. I have done a couple of sessions of these and can already feel a significant improvements. Give it a week or two and I will be able to report back how effective this has been.

Training to run any long distance is always going to be tough, but it pays to understand how t effects your body and to recognise where you are injured and where you develop a condition that can be corrected.

Happy running...

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During my trip to Croatia, we experience the full fury of the Croatian traffic court legal system. This was the result of an unfortunate traffic accident that resulted in my friend getting a one year driving ban (only in Croatia mind you) and a 2700 Kuna fine. Let's see if you still think this was just after I explain how it happended....

We had just left the airport and were taking our second turn out of the car hire parking lot. Now in Croatia, they don't believe in T junctions, instead they have Y junctions, which bring with it a number of complications. Firstly, to turn left you have to face almost directly into traffc and then cross the lane of oncoming traffic in the longest way possible, diagonally. Well, couple this with an obstruction requiring one to inch out quite far to see on-coming traffic an you have an accident waiting to happen.

Well, my friend was forced to do exactly this and in that moment of vulnerability was run into by a scooter ridden by a very fat man. Now given the fact that my friend was driving a red VW Polo and was stationary, you would have expected the scooter to have braked or at least swerved. However, this wasn't the case and the rider drove straight into the front fender of the car. The rider then proceeded to heave himself onto the windscreen and crack it before tumbling (in slow motion) to the ground.

Police and ambulance came to survey and address the scene. Blood was taken from the gentleman (we assumed he was drunk) and then after the passage of a far amount of time my friends statement was taken. He was required to be breathalised (came up 0.0) and then to appear before traffic court a few days later. A number of people at the scene corroborated my friends story that there was an obstruction and he was very cautious in his actions. Actually there were a large number of people milling about, surveying the scene and then philosophising about what happended in Croatian. We found this quite unnerving; however, the police officer at the scene was very touchy feely and kept patting my friend on the back as to console him.

During traffic court, none of the corroborating evidence was presented. Also the judge was in a vest and very casual. It appears that the driver of the scooter had neither drivers licence nor was the scooter registered. Not that my friend was told this until after the verdict. Actually, while my friend waited to be seen in court there were a number of other tourists who were also in court for traffic related incidents. A scam perhaps?

All I can say is that if you ever decide to travel to Croatia and rent a car, drive safely as neither the system nor the other drivers are working in your favour.

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Week 3

Weight: 95 kg
Percentage body fat: 28%
Classification: Obese
Resting heart rate: 47 bpm (Still low)
Distance run: 15.7 km
Average Pace: 6:15
Distance cycled: 0 km
Distance swum: 1 km
No. of weight trainin sessions: 2
No. of training sessions: 5

Units of alcohol drunk: ca. 25 (I was on holiday in Croatia, ok?)

Comment: Running in 29 degrees C is very challenging. Impressive considering I was on holiday.

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Week 2

Weight: 95 kg
Percentage body fat: 28%
Classification: Obese
Resting heart rate: 47 bpm (Still low)
Distance run: 30.2 km
Average Pace: 6:00
Distance cycled: 40.5 km
Distance swum: 0 km
No. of weight trainin sessions: 1
No. of training sessions: 9

Units of alcohol drunk: ca. 20 (Still way too much)

Comment: Ramping up the kilometers...

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Each week I will be keeping track of my progress in preparing for the New York Marathon. To see what effect preparing and running a marathon has on someone just around 30 and a bit on the chubby side will be interesting to say the least. I consider it the anti-Supersize Me challenge.

Week 1

Weight: 95 kg
Percentage body fat: 29%
Classification: Obese
Resting heart rate: 45 bpm (This can't be right! But does a Polar HRM lie?)

Distance run: 18.5 km
Average Pace: 6:39
Distance cycled: 0 km
Distance swum: 0 km
No. of weight trainin sessions:
No. of training sessions: 1

Units of alcohol drunk: 20 (Too much and let's see how reducing this improves my training stats)

Comment: To say the least, I do excercise regularly, but last week was more irregular. This week I'll up the sessions and variety of exercise.

Posted by this ordinary life at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, not quite, but over the weekend I did the first of my slow long runs to prepare me for the New York Marathon. It was more like 18.5 km, but for me that is one of the longer distance I have run in my life. This took me 2 hours and 5 minutes and was a 6:39 pace. For reference, to achieve my 4 hour target, I need a 5:45 pace. A bit more practice is needed to say the least...

Where does 18.5 km take you in London? It took me from South Kensington past Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St. Pauls Cathedral, Liverpool Street Station, Russel Square, Edgeware Road to Maida Vale. By marathon training standards it was a middle distance run with a massive 35 km run awaiting me mid-October.

Regarding sore muscles, I have to admit that I am not too bad yet, but I have planned some light running today to prevent my muscles getting too tight. My training schedule has me running 25 - 35 km a week anway, so not much time for being a nancy with sore muscles anyway.

Next weekend, its a 22 km, which is the same route, but ending up back in South Kensington. Let's see if I can't get that pace down to under 6:30.

Posted by this ordinary life at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Living in a big city can be stressful. London lives up to these expectations and in many cases exceeds them. Probably the worst aspect of living in London s travelling around it particularly when on one's way to work. I have a number of ways to get to work, each with their own quirks... Let me share them with you.

- Take the tube: This theoretically should be the easiest way to get to work. Zooming beneath the city going straight under buildings all sounds good in principle, but isn't in practice. The practicality of travelling by tube involve temperature of up to 50 degrees C, dripping sweat, festering body odour and carriages packs fuller than stock cars. Plus the tube actually doesn't zoom, rather it meanders meaning you are prone to delays. I find this way excruciating and it takes about 45 minutes to get to work.

- Take the bus: I won't waste much time on this mode. Essentially it's like the tube with a view of London. The Number 11 bus goes from the Kings Road all the way through to Liverpool Street and straight past most of the major sights of London. It would be great as a tourist, but a waste of time as a commuter as it takes about 90 minutes to get to work.

- Cycle: I have discussed this one in a previous blog, but in a nutshell it is quite an exhilerating mode of transport in London, which mixes sights, sounds and taking your life in your hands. I quire like this mode and it only takes 25 minutes.

- Run: This is one mode that I am becoming increasingly fond of and with the New York Marathon looming it will hopefully get me in shape. I aim to do this about 3 times a week and with a distance of 9km to cover it is quite challenging. I don't imagine that the exhaust fumes are doing me too much good, but anything to lose the gut. I will have to vary my route on a regular basis, but at 50 minutes is almost matches the tube and by far beats the bus.

If you have any interesting ways of getting to work yourself, why not share them?

Posted by this ordinary life at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)