I really like science-fictiony media that is all about computers. Even though it may be far fetched or not totally accurate, it still gets me pumped up to “Hack the Gibson”. Lately, I’ve been trying to venture into the strictly science fiction realm (Battlestar Galactica, Firefly) but haven’t yet been able to get sucked in as much as with the nerdier selections you’ll find below.

Books:

• The Blue Nowhere – Jeffery Deaver
• Digital Fortress – Dan Brown
• Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
• The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency – Dr. Herbert H. Thompson

Music:

• Eiffel 65 – Especially their Europop album
• Joy Electric – It makes me happy
• Ronald Jenkees – I love his geekiness: “Hello Youtubes!”

Movies:

• Antitrust – Cheesy, but I like the open source part of this movie.
• Hackers – I love the styling. The fact that he spray paints his keyboard is awesome.
• Pirates of Silicone Valley – Great film about the history of Gates and Jobs

I’m doing a little experiment when I’m out running on the Olentangy trail. Last summer, I tried to say “hi”, “good morning”, “how’s it going” or some sort of verbal greeting to each person I saw (could be 20-30ppl on a longer run). Yesterday morning when I was out, I decided to change things up a little and wave to most people instead. In addition I issued an audible “good morning” to a select few of these people. What I’ve noticed is that people tend to respond much better to a wave and a smile. I think it may be less intimidating to return a non-verbal greeting to a complete stranger.

What do you think? In general, are people more willing to respond to a friendly wave and a smile than to a “hello”, or does it all depend on the person and what context you are meeting in? I’m going to continue my experiment over the next few months and hopefully expand it to other venues than just the running trail.

I’m going to rant a little bit about conversations had with white people (taking a page from the http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com blog). OK, so maybe this has nothing to do with race and maybe it happens among other circles, but I just happen to hang out with white people more, so that is the experience I am speaking from. Why is it that we like to tell people about the newest technology or the latest news angle or opinion that we have read or heard on the radio (claiming it as our own) and then smirk when the person we are talking to looks clueless or has not been introduced to the same idea/theory/news bit? I am certainly guilty of this (although more conscious of it lately, I don’t know if has yet changed much the way I talk about these things) and I definitely hear it and see it all around me.

My brief, non-thought-out answer to this question is that it makes people feel good to be superior (in their eyes) to others because they have some piece of knowledge that the other person may not have. Feeling superior to others makes you feel good about yourself which in turn leads to thinking that if you like yourself, other people must like you too. The irony of all this is that the people you are talking to actually feel better about themselves when they can identify and be made to feel special or that someone is interested in what they have to say. This may not feel good to you, but people will like you better.

OK, the last paragraph had a lot of “you’s” in it, but by “you”, I really mean “me”. Like saying “I have this friend that has this problem…”. You know what I mean. What now? Same conclusion I think I always come to. Listen more. Talk less. Easier said than done.

So, today I started Hal Higdon’s training course to get ready for the Columbus marathon. This year, I’ll be running 6 days a week instead of 5, but I’m really excited about doing it. I don’t really think that I’ll make it, but I want to try for a Boston qualifying time. Hey, you’ve got to have goals right? I was a little disappointed in my time that I got for the running portion of the triathlon yesterday (see the results for “Team Zeidner” here: http://premierraces.com/results08/wendysrelays.txt), but I realized that when I don’t have a training schedule to stick to, I have a much harder time actually getting out and doing the running because I think to myself…eh…I don’t really need to run today. Anyway, this training schedule that I’ll be following is made to help you work some on your speed which is really all kind of new to me.

Why run you ask? Well, I ask myself that too some days. Besides the obvious exercise benefits, running also releases some kind of endorphins that make you feel like you could accomplish just about anything in the world. Of course that wears off eventually and is sometimes replaced by sore legs or stomach (if you don’t drink enough water), but it is fun while it lasts. Plus, you feel like you’ve accomplished something just by running.

I will try to keep some sort of regular updates coming for the training period (if not here, then on http://twitter.com/stevezeidner). Here they are for today (it was an easy day):

Distance: 3.18 miles
Total Time: 24.20
Pace: 7:39 /mi
Avg Speed: 7.8mph

One thing that Leigh and I have done occasionally is to go to a coffee shop, bring our laptop, plug in 2 pairs of earphones and watch a movie. There is something that is added to the experience when you are out in public watching a movie in a setting like that. The dichotomy (is this the right word? one of you English majors can help me out) of the “public space” and “private viewing of the movie” is somehow broken or melded together in a weird way. If you haven’t tried this before, I would highly recommend it.

So, I usually listen to podcasts when I go running (or if I’m outside mowing the grass, or driving, or…well, I listen to them quite a bit). I’ve noticed that I can remember exactly where I was when I heard something that really interested me. For instance, I was mowing the front yard with the push mower last summer when I heard an interesting dialogue on teaching styles. I was crossing under 161 on the Olentangy trail as I was about halfway through my training for the Columbus marathon when I first heard the description of the flavors in a Belgian beer. I was turning onto our street on my way home from work recently when I heard a good discussion on online media vs. traditional television or radio media.

These may simply be scattered thoughts, but I just find it interesting how much place or space affects what you take in and what you remember. To use a cliche example…if you ask anyone in America where they were when they first heard about the towers being hit on Sep 11, 2001, they will be able to give you an answer immediately. Another example that I found in my reading this morning was that Jesus told the apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. Do you have any examples from your life of the effect of place on your memory or experience? If the place you are in when you experience something is this important, then who knows…maybe this is a good enough reason for us to re-decorate the church.

P.S. I apologize if this post kind of jumps around from thought to thought. I blame the coffee.

A few thoughts…

There is too much information online to keep up with. I’ve been trying to cache the Intertubes in my head for a while now, and it’s just not working. I mean, even in the relatively small communities of blogs, podcasts, twitter and facebook, there is a lot to keep up with. I did hear something interesting about twitter from a podcast…and I paraphrase…it is much more liberating to not try and catch everything. You should just get what you get and realize that the rest is OK to miss.

I heard a good thought tonight in RL. We keep trying to cram more and more things into our lives. Why not try to simplify what we are already doing. In my mind, this means cut out the bottom 10%…those things that you are find with doing, but you are mostly just doing because you have been doing them forever (wow…there was a lot of doo in that last sentence). This also means focusing more time on the things that are in the upper range (pick your own %) of what you think is important and maybe cut back a little on the rest. So, if it were as simple as a formula, this would be it: 0 * lower 10% + .5 * middle 70% + 3.25 * upper %20.

Last thought for the day. Sleep. Is 8 hours really necessary, or could you train yourself to function well (maybe not optimally, but well enough) on less (say 3-4)? Think about what you could do with an extra 4 or 5 hours in the day. OK, so one more thought…are you able to listen to a book on tape (or CD or MP3) and read a book and retain enough from both to make it worthwhile, or is that just for the 1337?