I found myself at a bonfire last month explaining to one of my best friends, Ted, that I live my life according to the currency of experience. I admitted I don’t do much motivated by money. I live my life in a way that enriches my wealth of experience. In this post, I explain why and uncover evidence as to why this perception of life has unexpected benefits.
Essentially time perception researchers agree. There are two ways to perceive that you are living a longer life.
Live a very boring life. Act like you are stranded on an international air flight with nothing to do.
Live a very novel life. Try new things all the time and go to new places.
I will allow you to guess which I use:
In this photo, I am wearing a coat I do not own. It is a product for sale by Costco. My children are taking pictures of me from their perch in the shopping cart. The man in the green sweater is judging us and I am not aware and now that I am aware I do not care. In the end, I did purchase this coat because it is so slick and novel.
I listened to this Radiolab episode while I was mowing the lawn. Then I listened to it again during my son’s swimming lesson at the YMCA. Ever since listening to this episode, I don’t go and just watch my son at his swimming lesson. I bring my daughter too and we all get into the pool during the lesson and we all swim. I mean I am a member at the YMCA, so I should have done this before. We don’t mess around with the other classes and the teachers seem to like it.
To be honest, I saw a friend doing the same thing, but something snapped when I heard this, or it clicked, and then I started talking about what I was seeing more frequently and taking action.
A Novel Experience of My Own
Long story short I was jealous that the creators at Radiolab had this lengthy experiment on stretching time via novelty. So, when my buddy said they were going to a Speakeasy I broke my traditional rhythm of saying, “Oh, sounds like fun, but I’m a dad now and I have to mow my lawn and be a boring old person…” and instead I went! Check out the video to see how it went:
You don’t need to travel the globe or even spend money to find Novelty. My son was given a balloon at school during the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. He used some markers to make his balloon look just like his favorite Pokemon. He did so well that when I picked him up from school I assumed it was a store-bought balloon design. Creating art is free, it is pure catharsis and is the highest form of worship.
Creating art is pure novelty.
A picture of Vincent with his Peekachu balloon he made by hand.
Wonder is all around you. You simply need to pause, take a deep breath and observe. While on one of the bike rides my family took together for a biking challenge I covered on this blog my daughter looked up at me and asked:
“Does God make the song?… God made the song because God is special. God died and then God came back and now God is a ghost.”
In this video, I highlight the progression from using my computer’s built-in web camera and microphone to using suggestions from connections at TechSmith (Andy Owen and Matthew Pierce) to using my iPhone 12 mini as a camera via the free version of Camo Studio.
V2 of this video.
Camo Studio is Great
I am impressed that I can use Camo Studio by downloading respective apps on my Windows PC and Mac iPhone 12 mini. The free version is limited but really does more than I expected. The only limitation I see is that I can only record in 720p and not 1080p resolution. While working on this post to make sure my thumbnail was the right ratio I received information from TechSmith and there was Andy Owen again. So, thank you two times Andy Owen!
He looks surprised that he is being so helpful. Don’t be surprised Andy Owen, you are always helpful, and so are you Matt Pierce, you guys rock.)
Honestly, it might’ve just been another message for you, another part of your day, but it meant the world to me. It helped me move forward.
Microphone Improvements
I also updated my process by using the Microphone I obtained when I purchased the Comica CVM-VM10-K. In the video, I call this microphone a powered condenser microphone, but I don’t think it actually is. The microphone is simple a High-quality cardioid microphone. I am questioning if this really improved the sound quality of what My phone already has, but at least the mic is pointed at my face!
More on Mics
The MXL-990 condenser microphones
I also owe a big thank you to my friends, Caleb Willitz, who is a well-known audio recorder in the Chicago area. He has given me a measurable amounts of advice on how to build a better sound booth. Also, my very good friend Ted Schaefer has confirmed much of Caleb‘s advice, and then also recommended a pair of infamous condenser mics, that are known for high-quality at a reasonable cost.
I have purchased 2 phantom-powered condenser microphones but do not have my Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 compact audio studio hub, so more to come on my sound clarity! Not to mention my lighting, which I do mention in this video. Special thanks to my friends at Articulate for the free light, I won’t stop using it, but plan to add more lights.
Music
Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni (CC)
John_Kensy_Music – Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music
I want to share that I have lived a full life. I have sucked the sweet marrow out of life and lived life to the fullest. I should have died multiple times but I did not die, and for that I am thankful. I love that I am alive.
Thanksgiving
This is a big holiday in the United States. It had never been my favorite. The staples are glutinous action and binging American football. Oh, and we pretend that we did not euthanize the native Americans. These are not things I hold close to my heart. Give me Halloween and Christmas all day long, but I can leave Thanksgiving at the dinner table.
When the Puritans and the first white people landed in the American nation we had basically no plan. I say “we” here because I am German/Hungarian and therefore caucasian, but I do not adhere to any of the Puritan doctrines. (Idealistic Christian beliefs that included spreading hate and fear of those who who ar not white and heterosexual.)
The first white people in the Americas were lost and afraid. They probably ate corn and some deer with the Native Americans in a desperate attempt to stay alive. This has evolved into a gluttonous feast around pumpkin pie, sugared cranberry, and Turkey. I mean, Turkey is a superfood so I am totally on board with that part, regardless of the historical inaccuracy.
In fact, we had such a poor plan that the first white British colony resorted to cannibalism just to survive. and then there is the fact that we wiped most of the Native Americans off the face of the earth. Not no real reason to celebrate in my book. In spite of all of this, I am still happy and I am still grateful.
If you disagree you should listen to this masterpiece by Avery Trufelman
Thankfulness is a buzzword. Let’s just call it what it is. At this point, it is a painful offshoot of the frenzy of consumism by the most successful capitalist society of all time. But the US needs to watch out because China is closing in on us for such a prize.
That is not what I mean in this post. I am talking about being grateful for the benefits of gratitude. Now there is plenty of research on how this act of being thankful decreases the stress hormone cortisol, and I am an avid listener of the 10% Happier Podcast, but I am going to fall back on Headspace in my content curation here because Headspace is the BOMB.com. If you are not using Headspace then where have you been!? You need to get on that, BOSS!
What is one thing you are thankful for today!? Be mindful of being thankful for what is good. The delight will overwhelm you and the fact that we have systematically disenfranchised the women and people of colour in this world will start to matter less. Or at least, they will not overwhelm you with guilt as they tend to do for me on this dreadful holiday of denial of history.
Move Forward
I got dark here. I got a bit too real for some. If this is too real you need to grow a pair (testicles or ovaries, however, you identify.) If you live a life of privilege you need to own that shit and live up to it. You need to capitalize on that shit so that you can empower those who have been disenfranchised by the very systems that empower you.
“When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect towards others.”
Pink Barbie logo on the big TV screen with neon colorful background on wall. Dark room in home with TV screen playing Barbie trailer or movie. Realistic vector illustration. NY, NY-USA – July 9 2023 – Adobe Stock
Accessibility
The Barbie movie is accessible to all viewers. It is both a Hollywood eye-candy musical and a deep tragic world art film at the same time. It lives in both worlds simultaneously. In the same way, good training is accessible to all learners and offers differentiated content for both advanced and novice learners.
Accessibility is a bit of a buzzword in the Training and Development industry right now, but it is something we should have been talking about from the beginning and it is not something that will go away. Humans are all very unique and a one-size-fits-all was never the right choice and moving away from that approach has countless benefits.
The real way to do Accessibility is before design or development starts. Accessibility is not only adding a PDF transcript to be available with a video, it is about designing learning content to be easily consumed by a variety of learners right from the beginning. If you develop content that works for the visually and hearing impaired using simple language that we all can understand then it benefits us all. The content is easier to understand and we have more than one way to get the information into our psyche. Not only does this decrease concerns around Cognitive Load and Cognitive Overload but also offers the benefits of content repetition by consuming the content in multiple modalities.
Change is Difficult
Classic Barbie (Margot Robbie) slowly develops as a character and realizes her worldview is a facade. She is terrified and must learn that it is OK to feel not OK. The movie does not go out of its way to make Barbie look great. At the end of the day what we get is an honest portrayal of not only how children view the Barbie world but also how that can cause problems as we mature and enter the real world. Learning is hard. In fact, learning can hurt. It is not fun to admit you don’t know something. It is uncomfortable to change but in the end, it is usually best.
Buenos Aires, Argentina; 08-03-2023: Barbie the movie. Thematic horizontal background of a woman’s hands holding a cell phone that represents the success and fury for the Barbie movie. -Adobe Stock
Think back to a time when you failed at something. Think about a time when you didn’t make the grade. When you thought you had it all figured out and then when you stepped up you didn’t know what to do next. Maybe it was with a stranger on a bus where you missed the beat and offended them. Maybe it was with your significant other. Maybe it was with your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. Maybe it was at work. Maybe it was something you tried to patch up with your children and failed. We have all been there, and if you haven’t been there then you are telling yourself lies.
“To err is human; to forgive, divine,” is the famous phrase from An Essay on Criticism BY ALEXANDER POPE. We all make mistakes babe, It’s OK. Forgive yourself and find a way to move onto a better path. This is how we take a step closer to clarity, to actually understanding the universe.
Own the Fail, Gain Credibility
The Barbie movie has a high E.Q. (Emotional Quotient.) The film is transparent as well as aware of its own brand. (Not unlike The LEGO Movie (2014).) These new “META” or self-aware type of brand-based movies embrace the failures of their past.
Tambov, Russian Federation – February 24, 2019 Lego Hard Hat Emmet and Lucy minifigures against Apocalypseburg background. The Lego Movie 2. – Adobe Stock
The pregnant Midge, Allan the “non-Ken”, the absolute pain of stepping on a LEGO block with bare feet; the potential sexist views of past products are not swept under the rug and ignored, they are discussed and explored. The fact that Barbie has not cured sexism and defeated the patriarchy is a core theme of the film. In the same way, we build credibility with our learners by owning our mistakes. Talking about misinformation we have provided our class in the name of clearly communicating the truth.
I trained people at a call center for a few years. I would train night classes of 30 to 40 people at a time for 3-week training cohorts plus a week of hands-on application. That is 120 hours of class time per class for a month. I was training people on the credit industry and how to use a proprietary data entry platform that was designed and developed by our employer.
Laws change, banks change their terms, and computer programs get updated. I had to live in a constant state of acceptance if I wanted my learners to trust me. I had to say things like, “Oh, thank you for clarifying that.” and “That is not how that worked last month.” Stay in the flow, and keep things real, people like that. If you are rigid in your knowledge and do not accept change easily people will learn that you recall things incorrectly because you can not update your perspective.
Cali, Colombia – June 6, 2023: “Barbie” movie on TV screen behind a bowl of popcorn and a remote control. – Adobe Stock
This is all about modeling our instruction as a mirror against reality. When Barbie (and in fact Mattel) own their mistakes transparently, they are creating a platform that transcends where we were, where we are, and generates a vision or maybe even inspires us to dream of where we could be… A world of true equity.
Am I Kenough to Change You?
Improvement Dave dressed as Ken while his daughter watches him pretend he can wail on guitar. – Dave’s iPhone Mini
The fact that the movie was banned in Kuwait and Lebanon for promoting feminism shows that we have some room to grow as a species.
South Korea ranks last in gender equality among OECD countries. Even the president himself, Yoon Suk Yeol, defined feminism as a movement “that wants to criminalize men”.
Just some ideas, they might not be Kenough to change your worldview if you disagree.
Back in September of 2023, I took a lot of videos about all the fun I was having on a work trip. It took me a while to get to a point where I wanted to work through that video footage and share it. In fact, I grew a beard for no shave in November and have since shaved it off for my wife’s birthday. So here we are a whole beard later.
Are work trips always fun, well, not really, especially if you have to travel all the time for work. I have done that and after a few months, it gets old. However, there is a secret weapon that I plan to explore further and it threatens to be a theme for me moving forward. That concept is the one of Novelty. Specifically how novelty can increase your lifespan, or at least your perception of your lifespan, which to be fair is the same thing… more on that later, but for now, let’s talk about how amazing this short work trip was. I flew out to Savanna with a layover in Nashville on Southwest Airlines on a Wednesday morning. That night we had dinner with the whole team and on Thursday we had our big meeting. I could have flown home on Thursday but I snuck in a bit more novelty by hanging around Thursday night and flying home Friday morning.
I do not want to downplay the Pirate Nature of this work trip. So look out for the pirate themes… Not sure how ya could miss it ya SWAB! offen’ ya goes ta swab Vee starbird bow. Make Haste! A.I. review shared that I jump around aimlessly from topic to topic here and do not have a point. How else should a good Pirate behave?
AdobeStock_467304940
Savannah Was Great
So, off to a good start on this business trip. We were in a fun town. It’s not easy to have such a novel experience when you are stuck in the belly button of Newark. Luckily the video below starts at the Savannah airport and quickly progresses a restaurant called The Pirate’s House – ARGGHHH.
Travel for Work or Pleasure?
…
Yes.
Well, why can’t it be both? With a bit of intentional effort, it usually can.
Although the reason for this trip was to capture feedback from our talented SMEs on the EPEC training content provided by NAED, the footage I captured had very little to do with that process. This is in part because I simply didn’t think to capture that video of us working, but also because we were discussing learning content that is developed for sale by the National Association of Electrical Distributors, so I didn’t feel comfortable doing so.
In hindsight (Which is normally in 20/20 they say) I should have captured more video of us actually working on the training project itself. It is not exactly exciting, (unless you are a learning nerd like I am or an electrical products nerd like our SMEs,) but it is nice to see how passionate our reviewers are about being factual and transparent in presenting the landscape of the electrical distribution market. Moving forward I think our Marketing team would enjoy having that sort of content on hand, so I might make an effort to start capturing it.
What We Did While Not Working
Now I have only been on two of these trips, but from what I gather we normally find time outside of working hours to just walk around. This time we were tipped off by one of our talented SMEs that there was a Prohibition Museum within walking distance of our hotel. So we definitely hit that up, and that is definitely represented in the video above. My leader, Kitty, found a fantastic restaurant to dine at called The Pirate’s House – ARGGHHH. (I would like to point out that this “ARGGHHH” was not added by me but by the top Google result for the restaurant’s home page. So, yeah, that says a lot about how cool this restaurant is.
What Does Adjacent Really Mean?
Also, while wandering around we ended up in the Adjacent hotel lobby …or the Hotel lobby that was adjacent to ours. Actually, I am not sure if it was adjacent or what would even make it adjacent, but I do like the word adjacent a lot. It makes me sound smart-ified. That Marriot Hotel Lobby which was adjacent to our Boutique hotel lobby was filled with Geode Gemstones. I will say, that I did read some of the words found on signs in this location. This was done to make me look more smart-fied in front of my Boss, Kitty, pictured right. While doing this reading of words, I learned that most of these GEODES are the largest samples of such crystals in all of the globe. That is laden with novelty!
Picture of Improvement Dave (David Kolmer) and Kitty Lasinski, (Dave’s boss) in front of the largest of this type of Geode known to the human species in all of the known meta-verses.
Geodes are really cool and fun to look at. I definately did NOT touch them. … well, not all of them, I mean.
Improvment Dave
Geodes for Days!
So, when I exported these images from iCloud to my PC laptop running Windows, they exported as HEIC files. Normally they do not do that and I am still not sure why they did that this time. I have seen HEIC file format when I export original files from the Mac “Photos” app to my Mac computer, but I have never seen that working on my PC.
At any rate, when I loaded Mac format images into ADOBE Premiere RUSH to create the video they all imported inverted (or upside-down for the uninitiated.) Maybe, I was holding my phone upside-down when I took this mess of selfies and my phone auto-rotated them? I normally only see this file suffix for images I have edited…
Color me Confused!
…and in awe of this ginormous silver Dinosaur skeleton!
So, I say all this to explain, that there is a group of photos I opened as a batch in my Microsoft image viewer and attempted to export as a batch but the batch export didn’t work. I still had to export them one at a time to convert them to PNG files, but at least they were not inverted like in ADOBE for PC.
Now, I could have probably used the HEIC files on my V-log here, because WordPress and the internet are both awesome! …but let me tell you I have had more problems working with these HEIC files than I can share here. I can’t submit them on government web pages, and they never work on the apps for my kid’s school, and that is being done on my iPhone that created them. So, I tend to go out of the way to avoid using the HEIC file format. Yes, Apple, I said it, your format stinks! It smells of wet lettuce. I am sure it is great for all these groundbreaking early-adaptor reasons that I don’t know about. Like some layered spectral benefit that will most likely never benefit me. Mostly they just make me wish I didn’t have an iPhone, and that says A LOT, because I love my iPhone, but I am a simple man.
For example, this is the largest GEODE of this chemical format in the world and it looks like a certain part of the male human anatomy which I will leave unsaid and unwritten at this juncture! Heh! it doesn’t even fit in the shot!
So, either way, many of the exports that I opened as a batch had the tint all messed up, but those are actually kind of cool! so I will post those now to add a dramatic effect to how cool these GEODES were! …I guess the tip was broken off. Oh Well! It’s still the biggest! Does size matter? Not when you are the biggest!
Kind of reminds me of something. It’s on the tip of my lip…
There was a gigantic skull in the floor! (Grammarly wants me to say “on” the Floor. No, Grammarly, NO, bad A.I., it was IN the floor, under glass, lying on a bed of sand… and some rocks and shells and such.)
Crazy Dino-Fish Skull IN the frakin’ FLOOR
So, of course, I laid my body down parallel to the floor for to photograph mine-self. Hello!? I am Dave, have you ever met me!?
Remember the featured image of this VLOG post!? Well, it even got caught up in the Multi-dimensionally powered MAC/PC image tint fuede!
Who is in this photo!? Wouldn’t you like to know! Do you really think they want to be associated with this disaster!?
Break down the Tiled Gallery Mosaic with Curved edges SELECTOR!
So, in conclusion, traveling with the National Association of Electrical Distributors of the United States of America is an Electrifying experience.
I want to start by thanking my inspiration for choosing the word Consistency as my word for 2023. I got the idea of choosing the word from the great instructional designer Stephanie Gerald, who I guess is now passing the bar to be a lawyer so soon-to-be great ID and lawyer! I have the amazing Betty Dannewitz to thank for the idea of using the word Consistency from her amazing episode on creating a brand with the expressive Tim Slade, who clearly stated the need to be consistent in your brand on the If You Ask Betty Podcast. Credit where credit is due!
In this Vlog post, I explain why I chose to create my own logo and argue why creating things for myself works for me and aligns with my brand. I backpedal to September 25th, 2023 which was the height of my 50 Pushups a Day Challenge for St. Jude’s Research Hospital. It was about that time that I completed the design of my logo and you can see it was first used on Day 26 of that same challenge where I also praised the use of our subconscious mind.
In this video, I have three reasons why I argue creating your own logo is the best choice. (If you are at all inclined and have the resources to do so.)
Creative Control
The first benefit of designing your own logo is that you are in control of what it is and what it becomes.
You are in control of the whole process from design to export.
You made the product, it is now a part of you. You are connected with it.
You know it’s strengths you know it’s weaknesses.
In the video, I explain you have to turn off the editor and invite the muse into the room to create something. Then invite the editor back into the room to resume editorial functions. I drew this concept from the book: “Art and Fear” by David Bayles, and Ted Orland.
This book is fantastic and I can not recommend it enough. I might talk about his book with people I know and people I meet on the street or in airports, more than any other book. I guess you could say at this point, “This is my book.”
Financial Benefit
I saved money. I didn’t spend any money, I only spent time.
Money saved = Money earned.
I paid myself to create this logo, by not paying someone else to do it.
As promised here is the Freakonomics Episode: “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Money (But Were Afraid to Ask)” with a super-smart economist about spending less on trash bags. (Well, the trash bag part might not be in there, I might have made the trash bag analogy up, or it was from another expert on Freakonomics.) However, this episode still supports my point that spending less is good and is the same as making more money. (They also talk about how to invest money too, so that’s always good!)
It would have cost me $5 to $100 per hour to get a logo.
Did it take me an hour? No, it took 5 hours!
Do you want to see it? I recorded the whole thing! Some of the music I was listening to bled into the recording so it is not viewable in all locations. Sorry! (I am sure a VPN would help if you need to see it.)
5-hour video of my creating my own logo. (Well, 4 hours 1 minute and 37 seconds s, but it took over 5 hours and my video capture function continued to crash after 30 minutes of recording because of my RAM.)
Now, I’d like to point out again here that I am not a graphic designer (as you might have gleaned from that 5-hour video.) It might not have taken a professional graphic designer 5 hours to come up with a similar product. The value lost in that time is offset by my third point.
Moment of Learning
I gained new skills, and I had a fun time doing it! I worked in Adobe Illustrator to create this logo. (Well, first I got lost in Adobe Photoshop, applied all the filters, and got to a spot that was kind of OK.) Then I went into Adobe Illustrator.
I am not very experienced in Illustrator, but I want to be!… with Adobe’s job aids, I was able to work through the flow at my own pace and build some confidence in designing in Illustrator.
In this way, I was building skills that I can use as an instructional designer or even a graphic designer if I ever choose to do that to myself…
“Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not.
It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.
The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.”
You might not be aware but for October, I continued my consistency challenge. I paid homage to the great Chinese philosopher Lau Tzu by consistently NOT posting on my blog for a whole month.
Sometimes the best action is to not take action and I must say, a break was nice, after a month of posting every day for my pushup challenge and posting as frequently as I could for a biking challenge.
Some pumpkins I carved with my kids. and some pictures of them moving in a slow shutter speed shot to look like “Ghosts.” Fun stuff as we prepare for Halloween!
What’s Next for Me!?
I will say that I have not shaved for the end of October and I will continue that for no shave in November. So I will be consistently NOT shaving the hair off my face for November. I want to share my inspiration. (Please read my response to this initial FaceBook post.
So you can see below that I have gotten a bit of a head start. My social media is not flattering. I am very transparent about how amazing my life is not. Here I have tagged myself #iswalking. I walk a lot and it is my most frequent tag on Facebook:
Here I am at the checkout at the local “Schnucks- the friendliest stores in town” They are inexpensive and their produce is sometimes OK. I am back on not drinking alcohol, so this is a very special #iswalking selfie.
I think I should be consistent in this #iswalking. I did not do that when I started, but I think I might. Well, I should, just to be consistent.
That Will Not Be All
So, as you might have guessed, October was the month of consistently not doing. I will continue to not do something in November by not shaving, but I will continue to start writing again. I am thinking about how I did 16 days of learning to design in 3D and then I completed the training modules and worked on an art piece, had trouble exporting to other Adobe applications, and then just stopped. Well, I was feeling tapped out. I was feeling very vulnerable for not knowing how to export and I didn’t want to force any creative ideas. However, now I have some ideas I would like to pursue in that space so I plan to return to that 30-day challenge and even though it is not 30 days back to back I can at least still follow through and be consistent in completing the challenge.
Cycling through the woods is relaxing and enjoyable
The Cycling Oddysey Continues
So even though this was on October 10th, and my Cycling More Consistently in September Oddesy is over, I still recorded some video footage. In this episode, I make a recording while riding and then nearly flip my bike into a hole in the ground. I comment on how I need to get a better setup if I want to keep recording rides.
Then I turn onto the street, drive down a hill flip my bike and bust open my lip. I was holding the camera with my right hand so the sun would be on my face, and my left hand was on the bike and controlling only the front brakes. I noticed I was going a bit too fast down a hill and so I squeezed the brakes on my new bike. I have disc brakes now, not the old caliper brakes with the pads. These disc brakes are way, more responsive, and I knew that, but I wasn’t aware I was just slamming the front brake.
At any rate, this was a good lesson to learn. I need to focus on my safety and I am glad I only busted open my lip out in an open space and didn’t break a bone somewhere in the woods.
There is a biking school that has been marketing to me on Facebook and the advertisements are good. I have looked into attending classes but I can’t justify spending money on learning this when I am a learning and development professional. I plan to locate some good learning content on YouTube and double-check my LMS at work. As a long-term goal, I plan to volunteer at NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association). This program offers me an opportunity to become a coach in training in a local team of student learners, then when I graduate I can lead a pack of cyclist students and perhaps include my kids in the team if they are game.
Check out the video to see me bust open my lip and make video footage in a state of shock! LOL!
Getting There
This was easy. The bootlegger’s trail is a quick 5-minute ride from my house. Easily the second-ranked off-road trail in the Saint Louis area and is right next to my house. That’s lucky!
Where Was I?
The Bootlegger’s Run is a 4.7-mile trail through the woods of the upper level of Creve Coeur Park. All Trails has a lot of comments that it is not the best trail for hiking because there are a lot of Mountain Bikers. When I ran there the bikes didn’t bother me but I guess I am a walker and a rider.
One thing I have liked about these solo rides is they give my subconscious mind time to speak up. I have gotten several ideas while on these rides. Many of them are about the Blog or my day job as an Instructional Designer. One that popped up during this ride is especially interesting. It pulls on my background as an actor and an English as a Second Language teacher. I did a lot of theater in high school and received my BA in Theater Arts. While getting that degree I also studied Japanese using a curriculum called Japanese, the Spoken Language (Authors: Eleanor Jorden, Mari Noda) developed by the US government for spies and the like. It was a great language learning platform because it systematically used simple dialogues to reinforce crucial grammatical structures. You relearned how to think and build thoughts according to the Japanese grammar system. (*I used this concept a lot when I worked in Thailand for 7 lucky years teaching English as a Second language ESL.)
In this JSL curriculum, the learner looks a small clumps of very useful conversations and memorizes them one line at a time. These are backed up with well-written explanations of the grammar being introduced. Then you listen to recordings of native speakers saying these lines. After that you work in class and the teacher sets up given circumstances that support the same language (notice the teacher term I used there?) Once the scene is set the students take turns acting out the dialogue with the teacher. The benefit is you get to hear the dialogue multiple times in class and you get to participate. My basic conversational Japanese is not bad to this day, if I had pursued it I would have been set up for success. Instead, I decided to start over and learn Thai from scratch while living and working in Thailand.
So, my idea would work at this point in the curriculum. I came up with the concept to call “Play Right”. At this point in the language learning the students would take the simple sentences that we learned in class and each week, create a video of them speaking the dialogue with themselves or other students in a real setting. Throughout the class, the students could build a video scene of their achievements. This could even become an online resume of sorts the showcase their language skills. Very useful in a country like Thailand where tourism is a large part of the national income. With English being the universal language, That is one of the most useful languages to support tourists.
Another thought that I had that brought more of the theater into the idea was using simple plays as the dialogue. Like a fun play by David Ives. This part may maybe more of a useless pipe dream, but I think it could open the door to more creative results. The Tourist application would be more useful for a resume, but using actual plays would be more valuable for artistic or aesthetic reasons, which is what I am more interested in.
Music
Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni (CC)
Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)
So even though this was on October 1st, I will consider this the final ride of my Cycling More Consistently in September Odyssey. We drove over an hour and a half total for a 1-hour ride along the Katy Trail just North of New Haven, MO.
That being said, this might be the last official tour of the challenge but I have already recorded the next installment of Improvement Dave cycling. It is in the woods, it is mountain biking and there will be blood (literally). So, yeah, I am not going to stop cycling or making cycling videos anytime soon.
Video Evidence of the Ride
This Video Highlights the Content Below
Getting Thereis Half the Fun
Google Maps recommends a route that is just over an hour.
We took the scenic route for 41 minutes.
My daughter threw up right around Balducci’s winery, which was one of our favorite wineries and pizza spots until it was bought by a large conglomerate and they ruined it. Sorry, not going to pay top dollar for frozen pizza. Now the only thing useful at Balducci’s is the dumpster.
We stopped at Quick Trip to get coffee and slushies. (The slushy and the crazy backwood roads are probably what caused my daughter to “blow chunks”.) …at any rate, I was so very excited to see that the bill was exactly $5.55 after tax. I explained to my family that 5 is my lucky number.
Why is #5 My Lucky Number
In the United States (and most of the West) 7 is lucky. In China, Thailand, and most of the East 9 is lucky. So I figure I can like any number I damn well, please.
The number of men is “5”. (6 being the number of the Satan, and GOD is 7 in traditional Judeo-Christian thought.)
The number I swam for as captain on the J.V. water polo team in high school, was “5”.
Our numerical system is based on repeating 10s so “5” is the center, to me this represents the “middle path” or the “straight and narrow”.
I spent 7 lucky years in Thailand and saying #5 in the Thai language is “Ha”. So “555” is synonymous with laughter or happiness.
I don’t really have a 5th reason, but I want a list of 5 reasons for why I like “5”. So, I imagine being 5 years old probably is one of the best ages to be. Self-aware, but you still have that “Child’s Mind.”
Where Were We?
Well, on my Google Maps, I dropped a pin long ago and named it “Riverside Jamz“. More specifically, we were north of New Haven, MO, due west of St. Louis, MO. Just south of a little town called Pinckney, MO. If you have never heard of Pinckney, that’s because it is in the middle of nowhere. Neither Google nor Wikipedia have a single picture or even a population count. Google Maps does not go through Pinckney and the best picture I could find online was this. (below)
Setting Up
When we arrived I started by getting all the bikes set up.
There was only one picnic table in the shade and the table top was not level. I didn’t get a good picture of the table before I started to level it with the pile of limestone rocks nearby, but trust me it was not useable. I then leveled out the benches as well. We threw a quilt over the table and had a nice lunch of spring rolls, salad, and melon.
While we ate a few families drove by the road on little buggies, and then a family drove up in a truck pulling a pontoon boat. This made the trip feel like a short vacation away from our normal routine.
The Ride
After we ate we packed up our picnic stuff and got on the bikes. For a 41-minute drive one way we did a nice 1 hour ride on our bikes. So, that was a lot of driving for a 1-hour bike ride, but we just really liked this spot because of the old bridge right on the river. We have stopped at this little spot on the side of the road 3 or 4 times now.
The only issue we had on the ride was that a chain fell off the gear so we had a fun time working on getting that put back on as a team.
We found it one time while driving home from my uncle’s farm out in Osage County, MO. This is also known as the middle of nowhere, MO.
It was another perfect day. Living life to the fullest, sucking the sweet marrow out of life, and making great memories.
Music
Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni (CC) Polo & Pan – Feel Good (CC) John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music (CC) To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco Free Music Archive (CC)
This was the final day of the cycling more often in the September challenge. Getting out and riding around the park right next to our house was sublime.
Video Evidence of the Ride
Enjoy the Little Things
This challenge has taught me that the process is more important than the destination. I never really rode to any specific place while riding as much as I could in September. Spending more time with my family, getting some exercise, and seeing places I never would have seen otherwise. These were the benefits of cycling more frequently in September. Being grateful for the simple pleasures in life and recognizing them as the moments that make up our life, is the secret to happiness.
Some Pictures of the Ride
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Music
John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music
Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni
Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)
Improvement Dave 