Deep thoughts

Or what passes for it, anyways. I was tagged by TriMOEngr to come up with at least 5 deep thoughts. About me, no less. Here goes.

1. This blog started out being an exercise blog. Mostly training notes, and a few race notes. Over time and more than 1050 posts it has expanded to include all sorts of stuff that interest me. Wine. Books. TV or movies. Thoughts about life. Photos or my little movies. The rants seem to be the most popular feature. Essentially I'll write about whatever happens to be interesting me when the time comes. I'm not much fussed about it being interesting to you. Either it will be or it won't be, and I don't have any control over that. I figure if you like it you'll read and you might comment. Or not, though I'd prefer if you did. But then all of you are busy and sometimes I'm very wordy. I can picture someone wanting to get a quick amusing blog hit, opening mine, and being horrified by the wall of text. But then sometimes I keep it short. There are several posts under a half dozen words. Sometimes I'm witty or amusing in a wordy way, but rarely funny. You never know what you'll get with me. I'm versatile like that.

2. One of the things I've talked about every now and then is what good fortune we've had to be alive here and now. And by here I mean the more civilized parts of the world. Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other places. We live in one of the safest societies yet created, that allows us more personal freedom than most people can cope with. We are free to choose our occupations, our friends, where we live, our leisure activities, our marriage partners, and much else. The advances in medicine are such that someone dying at 70 is regarded as being cheated. Our entertainment choices are endless. Anybody that wants it can be educated in almost any subject to whatever level they like. Our society and choices would boggle the minds of anyone alive much more than 100 years ago. And yet too many people claim they are bored. In all seriousness I say that whenever you hear someone saying "I'm bored", you need to treat them like they are saying "I'm really really stupid" and run far away. It is my good fortune that I'm interested in lots of stuff, and have the means and willingness to indulge my curiosity. I'm versatile like that.

3. It's coming up to the end of the year; a time normally given to reviewing the year past, and looking forward to the year coming. 2011 was a really good year for me, all things considered. I worked all but 6 weeks. Considering the last couple years I didn't work as much as I wanted to, it's beginning to balance out. I'm working at least until March, so that's a good thing. I didn't do as much on the exercise front as in 2010, but I could hardly do more. It was good to dial back and work on a more reasonable life balance. I started the year with a painful right knee and having just begun to get treatment. Massage, Active Release Therapy, and Prolotherapy shots had a wonderful result. I guess I should mention all the various exercises and stuff I as doing too. Just recently I've been feeling stronger on the bike than ever before, which feels really good after it sucking so bad last year. The run was good over the summer. I haven't run for a month waiting to see what the issue was with my left foot, and I've been cleared to run again. Cautiously. My swim started the year awesome! I did a great swim camp, and shortly after swam 7 K at once before pooping out. Over the year I didn't swim so much due to scheduling issues, but I'm getting more regular in the pool now. I'm sure it will come back quickly. 2011 is my first full year for being on Facebook. A mixed blessing. I'm in touch with cousins, and friends in a way that is new to me that I like a lot, which is great. I'm also still a bit disturbed by Facebooks cavalier attitude to privacy. I'm careful with what I put on Facebook, and have it locked down pretty tight. If you happen to be wondering why I've never responded to anything to do with any of the the games or other applications, I don't trust them at all. I block all such requests and any info to do with third party applications. Facebook has exposed me to lots of different points of view, new information sources, and all sorts of neat stuff, which I like a lot. I try to contribute my share. I'm versatile like that.

4. It's hard to explain what I do for a living. Business Analysis covers a lot of ground. I'm a bit of a geek, in that I have worked closely with developers and database administrators, but I'm not either. In the software world I do requirements gathering, documenting specifically what the software should or should not do, testing whether it does it or not, software administration, and training users. I have also worked closely with techs and engineers from various fields, but I'm not an engineer, or vessel inspector, or pipeline integrity tech, though given some of my writing and stuff I've edited you could be fooled into thinking so. At several jobs I've been the bridge between those groups of people, since typically they don't speak each other's language. I love playing with data, and finding patterns, but I'm not a database modeler. At the moment I'm working on an SAP implementation project, building forms for requesting Master Data updates, helping people document the processes for doing so in an orderly fashion, and helping administer a Sharepoint site that we think will make that whole process a lot easier. We'll find out in a few days. I never cease to be amazed at how people can mess up what ought to be a simple thing, or find new ways to crash or break software. People are what make my jobs fascinating and frustrating all at the same time. But I don't get too fussed about it. I figure there's lots of ways to make a living and if one way doesn't work out, I'll find another. I'm versatile like that.

5. Even though I think of myself as just a little smarter than the average bear, I remain fully aware of my deficiencies. Music, for example. My former office roomie knew everything about music. I know nothing. I can confidently state that I never ever would have invent the Walkman. (anyone remember those?) Nor would I have invented the iPod. Even had been in a position to invest in them on the ground floor, I wouldn't have. I know this. All the time I see people wandering around with their earphones in. Even when they are swimming, which is a perversion to me. I think it shows a disconnection from society that is troubling. Everybody wants their own soundtrack. But I'm old enough that I remember transistor radios being new. I had silence as a backdrop for what I remember of my early life. I had piano lessons when I was a kid, and didn't like them, even though I'm told I was good at it. So music never really took with me, and I rarely have the earphones in. I still think of the Beatles and Rolling Stones as new music, and most rap is an obnoxious noise. Same with TV. I still remember the day a television showed up in our house. I was in Grade 1 or 2. It was smaller than the monitor I'm looking at now, and it was a fuzzy black and white picture. Aside from the odd bit of Ed Sullivan that caught my attention, I don't remember much of it before Star Trek came on. I've never owned a TV, and it's only very, very recently that I've come to accept that some stories on TV can be really good. But I still don't pay much attention to it. Back then I'd rather go play outside. Right now, I'm writing this with the only background noise being Linda watching The Borgias. Now, in a general sense, I'd rather read, or workout, or drink wine, or visit friends. I'm versatile like that.