send to feature

You may have noticed the last couple of posts on my blog are direct takes from other sites. In fact for both of these I took advantage of the new "send to" feature in google reader.

This send to feature is one that I have wanted for a while. The previously available function to "share" is too much of a blunt instrument. There are some posts that I pick up from blogger that are work related and others that are interest/social and still others that are mere curios.

"Send to" provides the ability to choose where I want to distribute the post to. Much better; or at least it would be if it worked properly. Sadly; "send to" works fine for blogger, facebook and even tumblr; I just cannot get it to work for twitter. Gah - so frustrating !

...................

u p d a t e

the reason "send to" doesn't work to twitter appears to be that the twitter dialog causes a pop-up that google chrome (my default browser) automatically blocks. A very discrete (clearly TOO discrete for me) message is shown at the bottom right of the window, clicking this msg allows me to click through.

So a "send to" twitter takes 6 clicks, instead of the 3 clicks required for tumblr, facebook or blogger. Not great but I'm pleased that it does at least work.

Largest cycling park in the UK gets go-ahead in Kent

Largest cycling park in the UK gets go-ahead in Kent: "The A2 Activity Centre at Gravesend will cater for several sports and major on cycling facilities"

A flurry of features for feed readers

A flurry of features for feed readers: "

Since our last big launch, we've been thinking about ways to help our users better share, discover, and consume content in Reader. Today, I'm happy to announce several new features that we hope will further improve the way you use Reader.

Send to...


We've made it easier to share posts you like to Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and more, with our new 'Send to' feature. (Incidentally, Blogger is celebrating its tenth birthday this month, and we're hoping our friends there will like this little birthday present.)

Just head over to the settings page, and enable the services you want to use. If your favorite service isn't listed (and you're feeling extra geeky), you can create your own 'Send to' link with a URL template.

To share an item on one of your sites, simply click the 'Send to' button and choose your service. If you're into keyboard shortcuts, 'shift-t' will do the same.

Feeds from people you follow


When we added following, we tried to make it easier to find and follow people who share similar interests. Now we've gone even further, and made it possible for you to subscribe directly to the blogs, photos, or Twitter updates that anyone you're following has included on their Google profile.

To quickly subscribe to these sites, click the 'From people you follow' tab on the 'Browse for stuff' page.

More control for mark all as read

We know people can be overwhelmed by too many unread items, and sometimes only want to see recent posts. The 'Mark all as read' button now has a menu that lets you choose to only mark items as read if they're older than your specified time frame. A tip of the hat to Nick Bradbury who pioneered this 'panic button' feature.

Finally, a few small tweaks in this release:

• When you expand an item in comment view, you now get the full set of actions, enabling you to share, like, and star items without leaving comment view.


• We added a 'Feeds' start-page option for the iPhone/Android/Pre mobile interface, so you can see a list of your subscriptions when you sign in.


• There is now an option to show notes when embedding your shared items on other pages as clips.

As always, if you have feedback, please head over to our help group, Twitter, or Get Satisfaction.

"

first one done

Goal 060 is to draw up a list of sixty photographs that I could reasonably easily manage to take before the end of the year. This is an intermediate goal that should help me achieve completion of the 365 project.



The list came together quite quickly once I hit upon the simple idea of an alphabetical list to get the first twenty-six and ten more of images showing digits 0 to 9.

This is the list:-

1. apple


2. book


3. car


4. doorway


5. eagle


6. fence


7. game


8. handle


9. inn


10. jetty


11. key


12. light


13. map


14. nail


15. obelisk


16. paper


17. queen


18. rock


19. steps


20. tower


21. umbrella


22. vane


23. web


24. xmas


25. yacht


26. zip


27. number 0


28. number 1


29. number 2


30. number 3


31. number 4


32. number 5


33. number 6


34. number 7


35. number 8


36. number 9


37. acorn


38. conker


39. leaf


40. hands


41. feet


42. selective red


43. selective green


44. selective blue


45. selective yellow


46. star


47. oval


48. circle


49. square


50. triangle


51. hexagon


52. stripes


53. spots


54. flag


55. coat of arms


56. north


57. south


58. east


59. west


60. remembrance poppy

do what you do

Because I am having to re-apply for my job at work in the new re-organised structure, I have been spending some time updating my CV. This has in turn prompted me to talk to a couple of agencies about some outside positions.

I have got this far in life without having any sort of game plan or career direction. I've always tended to drift along picking up opportunities that seem interesting or jumping ship when the companies I have been with have hit the rocks. This probably goes against all professional career advice but it seems to have worked out ok for me so far.

In the medium to long term, I know that I want to get out of salaried employment and either end up becoming fully self employed or on freelance contracts. So it's probably time that I took a more considered approach to my next move.

Each time I have taken the MBTI assessment, I have been rated as an INTJ. Although sometimes I come out as borderline INTP. I'm not sure how much stock should be attributed to the results and conclusions of this assessment but it does at least provide a starting point to consider who I am and what I could do.

From a quick google, I found this list of INTJ traits:

• Able to absorb extremely complex theoretical and complex material
• Driven to create order and structure from theoretical abstractions
• Supreme strategists
• Future-oriented
• See the global, "big picture"
• Strong insights and intuitions, which they trust implicitly
• Value their own opinions over others
• Love difficult theoretical challenges
• Bored when dealing with mundane routine
• Value knowledge and efficiency
• Have no patience with inefficiency and confusion
• Have very high standards for performance, which they apply to themselves most strongly
• Reserved and detached from others
• Calm, collected and analytical
• Extremely logical and rational
• Original and independent
• Natural leaders, but will follow those they can fully support
• Creative, ingenious, innovative, and resourceful
• Work best alone, and prefer to work alone

I would be hard pressed to argue against any of these characteristics if they were applied to me.

And here is a set of INTJ weaknesses:

• May be unaware (and sometimes uncaring) of how they come across to others
• May quickly dismiss input from others without really considering it
• May apply their judgment more often towards others, rather than towards themselves
• With their ability to see an issue from many sides, they may always find others at fault for problems in their own lives
• May look at external ideas and people with the primary purpose of finding fault
• May take pride in their ability to be critical and find fault in people and things
• May have unrealistic and/or unreasonable expectations of others
• May be intolerant of weaknesses in others
• May believe that they're always right
• May be cuttingly derisive and sarcastic towards others
• May have an intense and quick temper
• May hold grudges, and have difficulty forgiving people
• May be wishy-washy and unsure how to act in situations that require quick decision making
• May have difficulty communicating their thoughts and feelings to others
• May see so many tangents everywhere that they can't stay focused on the bottom line or the big picture

Again, I can recognise all of these within myself. Although I have learned various coping strategies to either mitigate or disguise most of these, most of the time.

Some interesting information here but I'll need to see whether or not it can be harnessed to provide any practical use.

back to reality

After 3 weeks off work and 10 days away in Crete, yesterday's return to work came as a bit of a shock to the system. I was so tired by the time that I got home that all thoughts of exercise were shelved in favour of crashing on the sofa.

I didn't feel much better this evening, but I was determined to get some training done. There may not be many more evenings this year when there is enough light to get out on the bike so I really did want to make the most of the good weather.

A route of 12+ miles at an aerage of 17.3 mph may not sound great shakes but it's not far off one of my intermediate fitness goals; which is to manage a 20 mile ride at 18 mph. So it looks like I could be ticking off the first fitness goal in the next few days.

rethymno

The harbour in Rethyymno dates back to the 16th century when the Venetian conquerors of Crete decided to establish a commercial port and town here as an intermediate point between Heraklion and Chania .

podiobooks

Recently I have come across the podiobooks website.

Just before our recent holiday I downloaded four free audio books from the site:

• Amnar The Awakening by Isabel Joely black
• Grey by Jon Armstrong
• Thefty of the Master by Edwin Alexander
• The Mariner's Secret by Mary Tomas Dubois

The website is simple to use and seems to be an excellent vehicle for unpublished authors to get their work out and to start building a reputation and audience.

I will post some reiews of these books in the future

kindling to the fire

After a holiday I always like to look at what we packed and what we actually used and needed. There are some items that are heavy or bulky that can't be avoided: shoes for example, although quite how many pairs of shoes one person requires for a week is a matter of some heated debate in our family. Tennis racquets aren't strictly necessary, but they seem worth while taking. On holiday is only time we seem to get to play tennis and it is one of the few sports activities we can all 4 play together where the children don't (yet) completely humiliate us.

In the past I have always regarded books as absolute essential holiday luggage. Having time to sit and read is part of the indulgence that we are paying for. I do wonder though is it time to switch from paperbacks to an electronic device.

The benefits of e-books are:

• less to pack
• able to choose from a wider selection

Possible disadvantages include:

• once dropped in a swimming pool, all of the reading material is gone
• are the authors and titles that I want to read available?
• is the interface as enjoyable as an actual book
• are the books in UK English or American English?

The Amazon Kindle and Sony Digital Reader seem to be the front-runners at the moment. It will definitely be worth doing some research into these before the next long trip. One of the features I would look for is to have text and audio books on the same device as that would be a real bonus

nanowrimo 2009

Nanowrimo stands for National novel writing month. Although in fact it is more global than national. The challenge takes place each November and the concept is straightforward. can you write a novel of at least 50,000 words starting on Nov 1st and finishing by midnight Nov 30th?

I came across nanowrimo for the first time last October and decided to give it a go. There is a website to gather the community of writers together and there are meet ups in many big towns and cities.

For a long time I had thought I could write novels. I had the ideas for characters and plots; the words seemed to be there in my head. But, predictably, a lack of time and a thousand other feeble excuses prevented me from ever committing to paper.

The construct of the nanowrimo challenge is great. Nobody is there to judge the entries. Everyone who completes the 50,000 words is a "winner" and perhaps most importantly of all (for me) the instruction is DON'T EDIT. the intention being not to start December with a polished masterpiece but have instead a completed first draft.

I will take the nanowrimo challenge again. I'm not sure if it will be this year. I have an idea for a sequel to last year's book and I don't know if I can hold off starting for another two and a half months. I really don't have the time to work on two books concurrently - or is that just another feeble excuse?

black and white fridays

Black and White Fridays is a project within a project in the 365 group. I think this is a habit that I would like to keep going after the end of the year.

With my old film SLR I used to shoot B&W more often than colour. With digital photography, post processing the image from colour to monochrome makes the outcome seem rather artificial; with film B&W images had seemed (to me) more authentic than colour.

The discipline of deliberately composing an image for black and white or

for sepia processing is of course unchanged. There is a more immediate need to be conscious of

light and form. Developing the habit of assessing these structural elements for every shot pays dividends.

I usually work in London on Fridays where there is a lot of scope for B&W work within a short range of the office. So there should be no excuse for not carrying this on.

flotsam and jetsam

"Flotsam and jetsam" is a great phrase. With the satisfying way that it trips of the tongue, it's not surprising that it nearly always appears as a couplet. The two words are so often used together that I often forget that they have separate, specific meanings and that they are only two of seven such descriptors for sea borne debris.

• Derelict is: property abandoned at sea with no hope of recovery by the owner
• Flotsam is: property floating on the water that has been inadvertently lost - often after a shipwreck
• Jetsam is: property that is floating on the water after having been deliberately thrown overboard (jettisoned) - often to lighten the load in an attempt to avoid a shipwreck
• Ligan is: property sunk at sea but attached to a buoy for subsequent retrieval
• Ligsam is: any of Flotsam, Jetsam or Ligan
• Waveson is: property floating on the water that has been inadvertently lost - ONLY after a shipwreck
• Wreck is: property that has been washed ashore that may previously have been Derelict or Flotsam or Jetsam

Aurelio Zen

I have added two goals to my list to:

• Re-read all of the Aurelio Zen series by Michael Dibdin
• Write a film script based on one of the Aurelio Zen novels

There are 11 books in the series from Ratking (1988) to End Games (2007). Unfortunately there will be no more as, sadly, the author died in 2007.

These have for a long time been my favourite series of detective novels. There is a fine balance of plot, character and social commentary (of modern Italy) in each of the stories. The writing is infused with irony and a dark, at times almost bleak, sense of humour. I gave the lead character in my nanowrimo novel a nickname of Zen was a deliberate nod of the head as a thank you for the enjoyment I have gained from the Aurelio Zen books.

Re-reading the series will be a pleasure. I haven't previously read them all in one go as I tended to read them soon after publication which was usually at two yearly intervals.

The books would seem an ideal candidate for re-working into a film format. The strong characters and rich locations would lend themselves readily to the screen. The idea of my re-working one of the novels to a film script is that it will be a learning exercise for myself rather than as any serious attempt to initiate a film project.

lumberjack

Goal 34 on the list is to take down one of the trees in the back garden. Most of the other house-hold chores have been consolidated into a single goal, but I let this one stand because, frankly, it will be a blast. It will be hard, tiring work no doubt but the child in me can't help but be excited at the prospect of hiring a chain saw and a shredder. Boys and their toys !

Normally destroying a healthy tree wouldn't be something I would advocate. However this one is in danger of causing damage to my neighbours property so it would seem best to do the deed before I get a large bill from them. I've already spoken to a friend that lectures in horticulture and they have given me some pointers towards replacement trees that will not grow so big. So at worst I will be replacing one tree with another.

The best time to carry out the work will be in the early Autumn. I am confident about getting the tree down and disposed of; but I suspect that getting the stump and enough of the roots out will be a challenge.

photography project

Once I am done with the 365 project at the end of the year, I am going to need a new challenge that will spur me on to keep getting out there with the camera.

At present I haven't included this in my list of goals. That's because I don't yet know what the challenge will look like. I have come across a number of other photography challenges including:

• 100 portraits of strangers
• Shooting every street in a town or every postcode in a city
• Monthly scavenger hunts

The photo on the top right of this post is from a mini-project that I have included for myself within the 365. I'm taking a shot of that tree once a month for the year from more or less the same vantage point each time. At the end of the year, I'll post them to the blog as a slide show. This has been one of the most interesting (to me anyway) parts of the 365, so I think my new goal should be along similar lines.

One idea that I'm toying with, is to shoot every bridge across the river Medway. I could perhaps tie this into my fitness training by either running or cycling to each location. I think I'll need to get the maps out and see just how big this undertaking could be, before committing to it.

The Medway at Teston

rampant consumerism

Two of the goals from my list are shamelessy consumptive:

• Buy a new car
• Buy a DSLR camera

On the car front, this is long overdue. I really don't want to get into the position of driving an unreliable old crock again. I spent too many years doing that when I was younger. Assuming I don't go mad in the showroom, I have the money put aside to do this. However the thought of spending so much cash in one go at a time when job security is so fragile keeps holding me back.

I know that to move my photography skills forward, I need to upgrade to a DSLR. I will do some research into the options but at the moment the Nikon D5000 looks like a good candidate.

In most aspects of my life I consider myself to be decisive. Even potentially life changing decisions such as career changes and house purchases don't usually faze me. However I do procrastinate when it comes to spending money on possessions.

giving it away

Two of the goals that I have set, may appear to be somewhat negative:

• Finish my 2009 365 project and not start again in 2010
• Bring to a conclusion my involvement in rugby coaching

Both of these activities have brought me a lot of enjoyment but I feel that I need to let them go so that I can devote some time to the other goals.

The 365 project by its very nature takes time out of every single day. Some days finding my shot is easy and fits into the daily routine. Other days, particularly after tough days at work it can be a real chore. 2009 is my 2nd consecutive 365 and the flickr group has been much larger this year and (for me anyway) the group camaraderie and mutual motivation hasn't been as good as last year.

This season coming will be the 7th that I have coached for my son's rugby team. By the end of this season it will be time for me to step aside. As under-16s they will need a lead coach with more experience than I have to offer and I really need to regain that time on Sunday mornings to put into my own training.

When something has brought a lot of pleasure it can be difficult knowing when to let go and it's possible to end up hanging around too long, just going through the motions. So overall I feel positive that both of these goals are for the best.

day one of a thousand and one

If you've been following this blog for the last few days, you'll already know that I have been pulling together a list of goals inspired by one of my contacts who is taking the 101 goals in 1001 days challenge..

The list of goals was completed yesterday. So today 7th August 2009 is day-one. Day-one-thousand-and-one will be 4th May 2012.

I fully reserve the right to amend and revise this list as time goes by. Not because I will want to hide from any failures of achievement. Hopefully any amendments will be to replace some of the less well thought out targets with better challenges.

A small apology: I already have some blog posts drafted that talk about adding or changing some of these goals. I will almost certainly finish and publish these drafts in the next few days so some of the thinking may appear to be out of sequence - sorry.

Anyway here is the list as it stands today, sub-divided into some arbitrary headings:

TRAVEL

1 Develop a realistic plan and budget to cycle in Peru

2 Short break visit to Rome

3 Spend 2 or 3 weeks travelling in America

4 Spend 2 or 3 weeks travelling in New Zealand

5 Short break visit to Venice

6 Short break visit to Corsica

7 Ride one of the big mountains from Le Tour

HEALTH

8 Develop a good overnight sleep pattern

9 Keep an accurate TV diary for a fortnight

10 Attempt to improve breathing with a "powerlung" or similar

FITNESS

11 Get fit enough to reach level 10 in the beep test

12 Get fit enough to run 100M sprint in 12 seconds

13 Get fit enough to run 5K in 22.5 minutes

14 Get fit enough to run 5K in 20 minutes

15 Get fit enough to run 10K in 45 minutes

16 Get fit enough to run 10K in 40 minutes

17 Get fit enough to cycle 20 miles in 1 hour 6 minutes

18 Get fit enough to cycle 20 miles in 1 hour

19 Get fit enough to cycle 40 Miles in 2.25 hours

20 Get fit enough to cycle 40 Miles in 2 hours

SPORT

21 Conclude rugby coaching

22 Complete an adventure race

23 Complete an Etape

24 Cycle a proper mountain trail

25 Travel the length of the Medway by foot, bike and kayak

26 Get one of the spare bikes into good running order

27 Bring my cycling kit up to date

28 Get Pinarello serviced

FINANCIAL

29 Plan university funding for A&E

30 Plan life start funding for A&E

31 Plan pension funding

32 Buy a DSLR camera

33 Decide what type of car I want

34 Buy a new car

ALTRUISM

35 Raise £1000 for charity

36 Organise a charity event

READING

37 Read 10 books by authors I haven't read before

38 Read 10 more books by authors I haven't read before

39 Leave comments on 50 peoples' blogs

40 Join a library

41 Read 2 event management non-fiction books

42 Read 1 book on building web and mobile applications

43 Read 1 book on web site development and 1 on web site design

44 Read 1 book on novel construction

45 Read 2 architecture non-fiction books

46 Join a reading group

47 Re-read all of Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series in order

48 Listen to 12 audio books

WRITING

49 Develop templates for character sheets

50 Develop template for story arcs

51 Edit Zen Looks Down

52 Develop a synopsis for the 2nd Zen novel

53 Write a Zen sequel

54 Send Zen novels to agents

55 Publish a blog entry every day for 60 days

56 Attend a writing course

57 Write a film script from one of the Aurelio Zen series

58 Write answers to the 50 questions - here

59 Win nanowrimo again

PHOTOGRAPHY

60 Make a list of 60 photos to help get to end of year

61 Finish 2009 365 project

62 Photograph every bridge across the Medway

63 Continue Black & White Fridays

64 Continue 1 tree 12 months project

65 Take a photograph to symbolise every completed goal

66 Attend a photography course

67 Get a book printed from one of my photography projects

FAMILY

68 Write a 16th Birthday letter to A

69 Take E to a gig

70 Take A&E to Tower of London or similar

71 London to Brighton bike ride (or similar) with A

72 Get some decent portrait photos taken of A&E

73 Visit M&S in Edinburgh

HOUSEHOLD

74 Generate a Maintenance plan for house

75 Keep maintenance plan up to date and decreasing

76 Take down overgrown tree

77 Complete 6 consecutive Friday night clear-outs

78 Get all of my email in-boxes under control

79 create a good work space environment in the study

CAREER

80 Achieve the Business Continuity qualification

81 Become self-employed

82 Revamp Personal website

83 Build an app to manage goals

84 Build an app to manage events

85 Build a website for somebody other than myself

86 Build a web app to manage circuit training sessions

87 Update work clothing to be more professional

88 Rebuild old laptop with Linux

ACTIVITY

89 Visit British Library

90 Visit Tate Modern or Tate Britain

91 Visit a photography exhibition

92 Go white water rafting

93 Take a hot air balloon ride

94 Go sea kayaking again

95 Barbeque on the beach

96 Go Ape, or High Trees, or Similar

97 Take a tour of Tonbridge castle

98 Visit another castle in Kent

99 Go to a comedy gig

100 Have a weekend mini-break in a UK city

GOALS

101 Develop a new 101 list

Several of the goals could have appeared under more than one of the headings. A few of them, as listed above, have a built-in measure of success. For those where it is not so clear when/if the goal is complete I have a more detailed write-up. As yet I haven't attempted to assign deadlines to any of the goals, this will need to be done over the course of the next few weeks. I will need to take care to spread the load evenly to prevent burn-out, budget-overload or leaving too much to the last minute.

caffeine and gullibility

A recent posting on the Art of Manliness blog prompted me to write this piece. Brewing the perfect cup of coffee is described as something that every man should know how to do and advice is proffered on:

• buying the right beans
• the importance of freshness
• pressing
• brewing

It is an interesting essay but sadly it is all complete twaddle.

I am not a pharmacist or a psychologist. Treat the next two paragraphs as a layman's explanation.

Caffeine is a drug, it is a psychoactive stimulant. The way this drug works on the human brain is to create a sensation of reward. A cup of coffee will not help you "get going in the morning", but if you regularly drink a cup of coffee early in the morning your brain will tell you that you are being rewarded for getting going.

For the reward stimulus to be most effectively recognised, the delivery of the drug must be in the form that you have become accustomed to receiving it. If you regularly drink cheap brand, instant, powdered coffee then the best coffee for you is exactly that. Similarly if you only ever drink freshly pressed expensive bean coffee served with a dash of yak's milk then that is the best delivery of the drug for you to reinforce the reward sensation.

Coffee is an acquired taste and the reaction in the brain from caffeine is an acquired response. there is absolutely no intrinsic value that places one brand of coffee higher than another and the only consequence of an elaborately ritualised preparation of coffee is snobbery.

Surely the very essence of "manliness" is having sufficient self awareness to avoid being so gullible as to mistake an affectation for a life skill.

hops

Hop Pole - Bullen Lane, Hadlow, Kent

reciprocity

When I first joined Twitter, I have to admit, I didn't really get it.

It was simple enough to set up an account and the basic functionality was self-explanatory. However the very basic search function (this was some time ago and has now improved) didn't help me to find anybody I knew, or people in my area, or people with the same interests. After the first couple of days, my account lay dormant for a few months.

Project 366 on flickr prompted me to give Twitter another go. A few of the other people on the project said they were using Twitter and invited others to join in. Even with just a few followers that reciprocated the thing begins to make some sense. Even though most of the tweets are banal, the day to day sharing causes a relationship to build. When I took the nanowrimo challenge last year, my follower base grew quite considerably.

The list of people I now follow have become Twitter contacts, regardless of how I first encountered them. I try to keep the number of people I follow between 100 and 150 as this seems like a reasonable number to provide variety without losing sight of people. Probably this is a far lower number than most active users.

There is quite a lot of debate about whether reciprocal follows are a: good or bad thing; whether they are polite or just playing a numbers game. Personally I think everybody should just use the service the way they want to.

My rule of thumb is:

• If I follow a celebrity or a news service or a business; I do so because I want to hear what they have to say, and I don't expect a follow back
• If I follow someone-else; it is because I want to share with them and build an on-line relationship, so if they don't follow-back within a week or two, I drop them
• If someone follows me; unless they are obviously a spammer or otherwise offensive, I will usually follow back
• Occasionally a "keyword" in one of my tweets will generate a small flurry of automated follows and these I usually just ignore

Hmm "online relationship" sounds a bit creepy but I think you know what I mean: it's about enjoying sharing the daily minutiae and being able to celebrate a piece of good news or console when things aren't so good.

At the moment Twitter is probably the only social software that I have used that actually lives up to the title of "social". I hope it continues to thrive in that way.

Click here if you would like fo follow me on Twitter

updating the list

Over the last few days I have been gradually adding to my goals list. When I posted on this 10 days ago the total count was at 35. Today that has grown to 95.

Some of the goals that have been added seem to be just tasks on the path to achieving some of the earlier goals. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

• On the plus side interim goals should help to keep my motivation high. A tick in the box is always good for morale
• On the down side this could be an indication that I am not being imaginative enough or shirking the more stretching goals.

Other goals that have been added, I am very happy with and probably would not have even thought about but for this exercise. So that's a win straight away. For example making it a stated goal to raise £1000 for charity by a set deadline can only serve to spur me on.

When I started the list I wasn't at all certain that I would reach 101, but as the numbers added up I became more and more driven towards that target. I guess that means I should also limit myself to the 1001 days as well!

Right now, I really need to get the list finished. There are goals that I want to get started on, but I'm holding myself back so that I have as clean a start point as possible. One of the goals is to read 10 fiction books by authors that I haven't tried before and I've got a couple of books lined up waiting.

At the latest then, I want the list to be finished by the end of Thursday this week. So that day 1 can be Friday August 7th.

the atheist's religous conviction

The BBC reports here of a man convicted today for murder (2nd degree reckless homicide) because he allowed his 11 year old daughter to die from a treatable illness (diabetes). Apparently this man, his wife and others chose to pray for a miracle from god rather than seek any medical attention.

This girl died in 2008 in America.

I am an atheist, I am confident there are no gods. Yet I believe that organised religion is a good thing. Christianity, buddhism, islam; in general I am in favour of them all. Communal religious worship can be very beneficial. It brings hope and comfort to the weak, the infirm and the grieving. It provides a time and a place and a sense of purpose that brings people out of isolation and into community.

It is true that very bad things can happen in the name of religion: wars, persecution and discrimination. However generally these atrocities are committed by evil people. People who see the strength of a religion and pervert it to their own ends. In a world without religion, the most evil amongst us would still find ways to generate followers and manipulate them.

However cases like the one today where a father allows his precious daughter to die trouble me. This does not appear to be a case of someone evil nor of someone intent on harm. We can all draw our own conclusions; was this: stupidity, delusion, extreme gullibility, mental instability? The truth is we can't tell from the facts reported and there's a good chance we'll never know. What we do know, is that in the world without religion this tragedy would not have happened.

Does this mean I should change my views? Is religion in fact: a bad thing?

I don't think so. The conclusion I draw is that, in this case, there has been a catastrophic failure of leadership within this religious community.

Religious leaders have huge responsibilities to their communities. Most of their followers can be relied upon: to hear the stories and understand the allegory; to find comfort from the words and not mind the inconsistencies; to be a part of their community without believing in imaginary friends. However there will always be a few in the gathering that fall: hook line and sinker. For these unfortunates: the literal translation will be paramount and the coda will be lost to them. For such people, religion truly is a dangerous narcotic.

These most avid observants will not be hard to identify but they do present a dilemma for the leadership. Do the leaders risk losing their authority by admitting that the literal translation can not be relied upon for real life; or do they leave the ticking time-bombs alone and hope the explosion does not happen on their watch?

new authors

One of the goals from my list is to read 10 novels by authors that I haven't tried before. On the face of it this one should be a soft touch. I tend to race through books at speed. So much so, that it is only my aversion to shopping (even online) that seems to limit how much I read. I usually blow through ten or more books during the summer vacation fortnight* and my London commutes are long enough to read a chapter or two each way.

I do tend though to only buy books by authors that I already know or I rely on the functionality within Amazon that lets me see which books are being bought by other people who have bought from those authors. Nothing wrong with any of that; but it can only be a good thing to try to expand my horizons a little looking for new authors, different genres and a variety of writing styles.

The problem now will be to work out how I am going to identify these new authors.

In other news:

and recorded here because I still haven't decided on the best repository for my training log

I was very pleased with today's run. 38 minutes to run a 4 mile loop on mostly flat roads.

After several runs on rural footpaths it was interesting to feel how much better my rhythm was on a more predictable surface and without gates, stiles and other obstacles.

The time is laughably slow, but I think I was fairly consistent all the way round; and those are what makes it a good baseline. Hopefully when I repeat this run I will be able to show improvement upon improvement. 10K would be a better distance for a baseline run, but my fitness is so low at the moment that I doubt I could run 10K at a consistent pace. I do however know a 10K route that starts and finishes on the roads I used today so really it's all good.

somewhere to somewhere

Yesterday evening, my son and a couple of his friends decided they would like to try the London to Brighton cycle ride next year. They had already looked into it and found that they were allowed to ride but only if accompanied by an adult. So they asked if I would be prepared to ride with them.

What a gift ! Yes of course I'll ride with them. I was really pleased that they wanted me to. It will also be a great motivator as I know they will get ride-fit much quicker than I will. I'll have to work really hard to get my fitness up so that I don't slow them up too badly.

The London to Brighton ride is held each June. Everybody rides in support of the British Heart Foundation which is a really worth while cause. The ride itself is about 85 kilometres; the route varies slightly from one year to the next. There are some moderate climbs along the way going over the North Downs and then the South Downs; but the biggest climb comes just 6 miles from the finish. Ditchling Beacon is a 1 mile ascent with an average gradient that is steeper than 1 in 10 and some of the sections are considerably steeper than that.

My only concern with this ride is the volume of participants. This year there were a staggering 27,000 cyclists on the course. With that many riders it must be a long time after the start line until you can ride at a pace not dictated by others around you. I suspect this will be quite frustrating for the lads.

There are some other big charity rides that take part in this part of the country, e.g. London to Cambridge and the Tonbridge 100 - miler. So it may be worth them looking at the alternatives, but I will definitely leave the choice up to them.

We went for a ride today, just the two of us, and managed to average just under 30 KpH for 25 Kilometres. A long way short of the target distance, but a very promising start.

I'm excited already.

puddle

my favourite 365 image from the last 7 days

reading age

Ordering books for our holiday has been a bit of an eye-opener this year. It seems that my taste in authors is all but identical to that of my 13 year old son. OK so he is very nearly 14 and yes it is holiday readingl. None the less, I can't help but wonder if somehow I am failing to reach my appropriate reading grade.

Books that we are sharing include:

• Simon Kernick - Reckless
• Harlan Coben - Hold Tight
• Terry Pratchett - Nation
• Linwood Barclay- Too close to home

As the kids have gone through school there have been various tests that assess their reading age. Perhaps I need a test to see if I'm suffereing from some form of reverse reading development.

If these books are all too lightweight, what should I be reading instead?

red spokes

One of the goals on my list is to go cycling in Peru. A few minutes research on google threw up some interesting options. Including one company called red spokes.

It appears possible to combine a cycling tour with a hike on the Inca trail to Machu Piccu and include some white water rafting and maybe even fit in some kayaking on Lake Titicaca.

That would hit all of the following goals:

1. cycling in Peru

31. white water rafting

35. mountain biking on a proper mountain trail

36. sea kayaking (not strictly a sea but just as exciting)

Something I hadn't previously considered, is the altitude. I'm going to have to seek some medical advice on any expected complications due to my asthma. Thinking about this has also prompted me to add another goal to try and improve my breathing generally using a respiratory trainer such as powerlung.

training logs

I need to decide how I am going to log my training. It is surprising how quickly I forget even the broadest details of what I've done. Having an accurate record is really useful for staying motivated and for keeping variety in the training.

There's nothing wrong with just using a notebook or a spreadsheet. I already use mapmyrun.com to plan and measure running and cycling routes and they provide logging functionality as well. Unfortunately, I would have to upgrade (pay !) to use the mapmyrun log as they quite cleverly let me enter data for free but only let me look at the last 30 days worth of data unless I'm a premium user.

So far this week, my training has been:

Fri: run 40 mins

Sat: run 30 mins, cycle 40 mins

Sun: run 30 mins, cycle 50 mins

Mon: cycle 1 hour, rugby coaching

Tues: run 25 mins, cycle (with Alex) 35 mins

Weds: run 26 mins, gym circuits 20 mins

It has all been steady pace and on the flat. For the time being I am concentrating on developing good habits and building a fitness base that I can then work to improve from.

I think for the timebeing I will stick to using a spreadsheet in google-docs. At some point as I get fitter I will probably want to buy a heartrate monitor and gps watch to record details more accurately and I presume that will be packaged with some software.

slowly adding up

A few more goals have popped into my head during the day today.

36. Go sea kayaking again. It would be great to do this with the kids.

37.Travel (run, cycle, paddle, sail) the full length of the Medway - Turners Hill to Sheerness. It could be in one continuous journey or it could be broken up over a series of weekends.

38. Barbeque on the beach

39. Publish a blog entry every day for at least 31 days

Still a long way short of the 101 and in truth I'm not too worried if it doesn't reach that target. It's more important that the goals I have are relevant and achievable than that they meet a pre-determined quantity.

flying off the handle

On flickr, as well as belonging to the 365 group, I also try to join in with the weekly themes in the "52.5 weeks of 2009" group. This week's 52.5 theme is "something that it never occurred to you to take a picture of before". As I've taken a photo every day for the last 400ish days there aren't many things that I I haven't turned to in desperation to keep the sequence going. So to meet the remit the shot was going to have to be something incredibly mundane or unexpected.

This was the result:

Is it art?

Well no obviously it isn't. It does however move the 365 project on another day.

When I started this project back on Jan 1st 2008, I never expected that I would be publishing pictures of the toilet handle.

less than one hundred and one

For a while now, I have known that I need to take some action to get myself fit again. I have always found it easier to stick to a training programme when I know that I am aiming towards a challenge. Exercising for it's own sake quickly gets old.

In a similar vein, now that the children are growing up, it is also time to start thinking about using vacation time for some more adventurous travelling and activities.

With these thoughts in mind, I started trying to draw up a list of goals. One of my contacts (from flickr and twitter and now blogger as well ) http://twitter.com/101ofawolf has set themselves a challenge to complete 101 goals in 1001 days. This type of challenge has been something of an Internet meme with various websites and chat forums. Over the last few days I have been trying to draw up a 101 list.

SMART is a handy mnemonic to help avoid pit falls when producing a list of this sort. Is the goal:

• Specific?
• Measurable?
• Aligned to a wider strategy?
• Realistic?
• Time-boxed?

The goals that I first came up with were specific and measurable and they were fairly well aligned to my vision of becoming fitter and of making the most of the precious holiday time. However the costs of a lot of travelling soon mounted up to make the combined list unrealistic. I also found it difficult to set deadlines to each of them. Life round here is way to chaotic to plan far in advance. This first list of goals was about 20 items long.

Some refining of the list saw the travelling thinned down. The fitness goal was split into a number of sub-goals and some additional goals around career and financial planning were added in. However another pit-fall opened up, a surprisingly large number of chores began to appear as goals. Now there is no doubt that I do need to sort out the guttering, lay a new bathroom floor and clear out the shed (and more and more) but these can't really count as being aligned to my greater strategy. I settled for consolidating all of these into a single goal of having a "maintenance plan" for the house.

All of these revisions left me with a list that I feel very positive about. Albeit this is still a long way short of the 101 mark. I have decided to keep the list open until we return from our holiday in Crete. I plan to blog more extensively about several of the items on the list in future posts but for now this is how the goals look:

1. Go cycling in Peru
2. Visit Rome
3. Travel around America
4. Travel around New Zealand
5. Visit Venice
6. Visit Corsica
7. Buy a new car
8. Get fit - beep test level 10
9. Get fit enough to run 10K in 45 minutes
10. Get fit enough to run 10K in under 40 minutes
11. Get fit enough to sprint 100M in 12 seconds
12. Get fit enough to cycle 40 miles in 2.25 hours
13. Get fit enough to cycle 40 miles in under 2 hours
14. Bring to an end my involvement in rugby coaching
15. Finish 2009 365 project
16. Edit my nanowrimo "Zen Looks Down" novel to a finished version
17. Write a Zen sequel
18. Send Zen novels to agents / publishers
19. Organise a charity event
20. Generate a maintenance plan for house
21. Keep the maintenance plan up to date and keep it decreasing
22. Ride one of the classic Tour de France mountains
23. Complete an Etape (Giro or Tour de France)
24. Complete an adventure race
25. Gain the Business Continuity qualification
26. Become self-employed
27. Buy a DSLR camera
28. Organise university funding for the children
29. Organise a "post college" fund for the children
30. Pension funding
31. Go white water rafting
32. Go for a hot air balloon ride
33. Smarten up my personal website
34. Take down the overgrown tree in the garden
35. Do some mountain biking on a "proper" mountain trail

the Giant of Provence

Today's Tour de France stage was a classic. The penultimate stage of the race took on the infamous Mont Ventoux. This mountain, nicknamed the Giant of Provence, is imposing rather than beautiful. It is a relentlessly steep climb of 30 km. The last 6 kilometres are across a barren limestone wasteland. This is the road on which the famous British cyclist Tommy Simpson died from exhaustion in 1967; he literally rode himself into the ground.

I am currently preparing a list of goals for myself (more about this in another post soon) and in my draft version I have "cycle one of the great mountains from the Tour". The obvious contenders are:

• Mont Ventoux
• Alpe d'Huez
• Sestriere

Cycling fans will recognise all of these and be able to vividly recall the great battles that have taken place on their slopes. After watching today's racing I think Mont Ventoux has edged to the top of my list. I will have to do some serious training if I am to get fit enough to tackle any one of these monsters. Hopefully having a challenging goal like this will provide some of the motivation that I need to stick with the training programme.

And speaking of the training programme: I found time today to fit in a run (30 mins) and a ride (45 mins). Although both were slow, I felt strong and able to breathe easily. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the study tidied up so that I have some space to start doing some weight training as well.