A new Olympic event

With the 2012 Summer Olympics in full swing, it's an appropriate time to mention an idea my son, Evan, came up with. It's also appropriate as the swimming events come to an end and the track events ramp up.

We were talking about why there are so many swimming and running events. In swimming, there are 100 meter and 200 meter events for each style of swimming (freestyle, breast stroke, butterfly and backstroke). Then they also have 200 and 400 meter medleys (where the swimmer does all four strokes). Running is similar with variations of distance and styles (straight running, hurdling and walking - although I've always thought it would be interesting to add backwards running as an equivalent to swimming the backstroke). But the running styles seem much different than the swimming styles. You often see swimmers competing in more than one style of swimming but runners rarely compete in multiple running styles (except for the decathlon athletes). But it seems like swimming could use a really different event to liven it up.

So, Evan came up with a new swimming event - Swimming Hurdles. Instead of diving over the hurdles, though, you would swim under the hurdle! I think this is a great idea. The swimmers already swim underwater for short periods at the start and at turns but this would be a real test for them. Like the running hurdlers, they'd have to be especially good at breaking their stroke to dive down and then pick up their stroke again when they came up to the surface. I don't know how many hurdles there should be in the 50 meter pool length but they could start with a hurdle at the midway point. Also, I don't know how deep the hurdle should go. That would take some testing but I think just a foot or two would be enough. But think how exciting it would be if the hurdle was deeper. The swimmers would dive in one order as they came to the hurdle but no one would know who would be in front until they surfaced again. Imagine the excitement when someone who was behind but was especially good at swimming under water would burst into the lead!

I'm not sure who we would submit this idea to and we certainly wouldn't be the ones to test it. No one in our family can swim.

The Rules of Life - Part 4

It has been years since I last wrote about my rules of life. Part of that was that the third of my rules was The Golden Rule. To me, that's the number one rule. So, how can I top that? I can't and I never will. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't add to the list. So, here goes.

Yesterday, it was going to rain hard in the afternoon and I didn't want to chance getting caught in that while riding my scooter so I took our van to work (after clearing it with my wife and kids, of course). As I approached the driveway to our office, I noticed a BMW sports car speeding up behind me. I was glad I was pulling off the road so they could pass me but they didn't. The car pulled right in behind me rushing to get into our company's driveway, too. Well, they were in a rush but I was not going to speed up and drive dangerously just to keep them happy. If they were late for a meeting, it was too late to make up time now. They were just going to have to live with the consequences. As I drove along the driveway, I prepared to turn into the parking area. I always use my turn signals so the impatient BMW could see I'd be getting out of their way and, hopefully, could relax that I'd no longer be holding them back. But as I went to pull into the lot, someone was walking out and I needed to stop as they crossed the road. Well, they headed right across the road Impatient BMW and I were on. So, I had to stop as it took longer for the pedestrian to walk across to the sidewalk. But Impatient BMW wasn't about to just sit there while I "blocked" their way. They started to pass me! We're on a narrow driveway on the edge of a parking lot and they are going to pass me! But the worst of it was that they didn't know why I was stopped. They were going to hit the person walking across the driveway.

Fortunately, Impatient BMW had pretty quick reflexes and stopped just in time. The pedestrian stopped, too, with an alarmed look on their face. I could hear Impatient BMW wave them over while saying, "Go ahead. That's OK." That's OK? You came close to knocking them over. You were in the wrong and you are acting like you're giving them a break! I didn't want to get into an argument with someone I worked with so I let it go. But I've come up with a rule.

Rule of Life #4 - You are not the most important person in the world. Sometimes, you just have to wait.

It's important to not act like anything is allowed if we think we need to get somewhere or do something and someone is in our way. If we want something, we are not allowed to disregard everyone else to get it.

My other rules are here: Rule 1, Rule 2 and Rule 3.

Return of the honeybees?

This isn't a very scientific survey but I seem to see even more honeybees around this summer. One of the places I walk at lunch is a meadow of thistle plants (at least I think they are thistle) and it was loaded with honeybees today. I do know that the insects are honeybees and I'm glad to see them making a comeback. As I've mentioned before in a post titled, "I hope this is a trend", Colony Collapse Disorder has caused many colonies to die out. But I think wild honeybees aren't as affected as much as domesticated bees.

I found even better news as I was researching this post. I ran into this article, "Scientific Breakthrough Halts Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder", appropriately in a newspaper named The Sacramento Bee, about hope that Colony Collapse Disorder may be treatable. A respected scientist in Italy has come up with a formulation for a food that honeybees can eat that protects them from this problem. According to the article, it will soon be available in the United States. Lets hope that this ends the problem.

Ten

I'm posting this on July 29 but I've listed it as July 28 because that is when this took place. July 28 is my daughter Emma's birthday. She is 10 years old this year. She is a wonderful daughter. She loves to help me do things around the house and she is very perceptive. She understands things quickly and learns very quickly. And the morning of her birthday, she challenged me to a game of chess (we play from time to time) and for the first time, she beat me! I wish I would have recorded when my son, Evan, first beat me at chess. I think that was also around the time he was 9 or 10 years old. In the top picture, you not only see Emma getting ready to open her first present but you can see her grandmother enjoying the party, too. As with my son's birthday (see "Sixteen"), my mother-in-law likes coming over to be with the kids. It is a joy to have her. She always has something funny to add to the conversation but is very wise, too. We always learn something from her.

We thought this cake was especially nice. Notice the lettering - the woman who did it put a darker color on the bottom and a lighter color on top. Of course, a cake isn't much good to just look at. It was delicious as well. I'm usually the one who eats the most cake. Not at the party but for the rest of the week. My wife always sends pieces of the cake with me for lunch the rest of the week. It's going to be a good week. Happy birthday, Emma. Not only are you 10 years old but you are a 10.

When worry is good

I was always taught that worry is bad. Especially we, as Christians, are admonished to put all of our worries on the Lord.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7 NLT

As a matter of fact, it is considered a form of unbelief. And doctors warn us that worrying can cause physical problems,too. This article, "How Worrying Affects the Body", at WebMD, lists the bad effects of worry on your body and mind. And who am I to argue with these knowledgeable sources? I'm going to argue that there are places for worry. I say that not only is it impossible to have a worry free life, but that you need to worry (sometimes) and some people need to worry more! Have I turned to the Dark Side? No. When I say that it is OK to worry, I mean it is OK to worry sometimes and

Worry is only useful when you can do something about it.

I agree that it makes no sense to worry about things you cannot change. I agree that excessive worry drains your spirit and shows a lack of faith in God. The worry I am talking about that is useful is when, for instance, an engineer worries that someone may run a motor with no load and the motor could blow itself apart. I think this is good and useful worry. I also think this kind of worry must be done more. Too many times people make shoddy equipment. Stuff gets made that no one worried about. I'm mostly talking about how engineers go about their job but how about the butcher who doesn't worry about keep his knife sharp and how he is cutting and whether he has nicked the intestine leaking bacteria into the meat? What if he doesn't worry about people getting sick from this? When I write a program, I have to worry about the people using it and what they might be thinking. Have I made the instructions clear enough? Does the program work the way people would expect? One of the nice things about writing software for a living is that it is easy to put double checks and back-up plans into effect. It is a lot harder when it takes months to build a ship and you can't redesign it at the last minute.

I sometimes think that my watching The Twilight Zone when I was younger was a great preparation for being an engineer. It opened my mind to all the possibilities (both reasonable and unreasonable) of a situation. What if the book you are translating isn't a way to help mankind but instead is a cookbook? What if you finally get enough time to read and then break your glasses? What if you think you landed on an asteroid only to find you landed back on Earth? You have to worry about the possible uses and abuses of your product while you can still make changes.

It is important to worry about what you are doing and it is important to worry early and often - about the things you can change. And then, when you are done, it is time to stop worrying.

Polyphemus Moth

We have a fellow at work that is a general "make everything work" guy. He does landscaping and plumbing. He organizes and fixes things. He's the go-to guy when something doesn't work around our building. He noticed this moth around for the last few days and he knows how much I like nature and taking photos. So, he told me about it and I got this picture. Its wingspan is about 5 inches (or about 13 cm). This is a Polyphemus Moth.

Barney Google

They are named for Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops in the Greek legend The Odyssey. The moth is named for this Cyclops because of the prominent eye spots on the wings. But it just goes to show that in naming things, some people would rather show that they've read classical literature (or heard about it) rather than give something a name that makes sense. It would be one thing if there was only one large eye-shaped mark on the wings but there are two (and four if you count the two smaller ones on the upper wings). I think it would have made more sense to name this specimen the Barney Google Moth. Barney has two big eyes and he's a famous fictional character, too. But no, that wouldn't go over very well would it? We've go to be a little pretentious about it - like using words like pretentious. Welcome to the club.

More of the "flat" cats

Last month, I wrote a post about our trip to Santa's Village where we took along pictures of our cats to include in pictures around the park. My wife calls them the "flat" cats. Here are a few more of the pictures.

The top picture shows the cats riding with my wife (holding a picture of Henry) and son (holding a picture of Rosie) on a car ride. Of course, in real life, neither cat likes to ride in the car. I've never met a cat who liked to ride in a a car and I often wonder why dogs like riding in the car so much and cats hate it. Our cats cry the whole time we're driving them anywhere and can't wait to get out of the car when we arrive. My son didn't drive the car with Rosie on his lap by the way. We didn't want him to get a ticket! As with all of my pictures, just click on the picture to see a larger version.

The next picture shows the cats at the entrance to Santa's Village. This is a new structure at the park and is one of the first things you see as you enter. We like Santa's Village for many reasons but one of them is that there is always something new. It gives you confidence in a business when you see them improving things when they can. This goes for a lot of things. It's nice to see restaurants adding new items to their menu once in a while and it's nice to see software makers add new features and make their product easier to use. But too many changes and changes for the wrong reasons is not good. Nothing bothers me more than when something I've used for years changes for the worse or is modified for no reason. I used to love using Safeguard soap because it smelled so fresh. Then they changed it to a perfume-like smell and I've never used it since.

The final picture shows our cats in the life-sized manger scene near the chapel. At first we worried that this was sacrilegious but then we thought, "Why is it worse to have cats in the scene than to have a jackass in the manger scene?" Are smelly, nasty camels intrinsically more proper than clean, gentle (most of the time) cats? I don't think so! Plus, don't you think the owners of the stable would have wanted to have cats around to keep rats and mice from getting into the animal's food? Of source they would. We have cats in many of the manger scenes we have around our house.

I hope to have two more "flat" cat pictures to post some day. I've got to get our scanner working again, though, because those pictures (one with Santa and one on a sleigh ride) only exist as prints. Like all the other pictures we took with our "flat" cats, the workers really enjoyed seeing them with us. It also helped us not miss the cats quite so much. It's always good to get home to see them, though.