February 2020 – The Spoke And Word™

February 23, 2020 Jhciacb

Daily Nonsense Cap And Trade…

A big part of my riding is to offset the time I spend connected to the electronic world. Scrolling through social media, watching television, and streaming videos is what I refer to as my ’daily nonsense’. Nonsense, inasmuch as it does nothing to promote a better world and even less to create a better life for me personally. Electronic entertainment is among the cheapest and easiest forms of amusement — it’s the ultimate act of taking without giving.

I first understood the idea of offsetting my inactivity when I was 14. My brother, four years older, had left for college and my father found me in front of the television increasingly. Until that point, having an older brother often kept me active and away from the TV. My brother and I shot baskets together, built snow caves, rode bikes, and we regularly walked along a foot trail near our house where we just talked about life. We ice-skated, swam, and played a lot of pickup football. With my brother gone to college, my activity partner was gone. After my brother left for college, my father noticed me watching television much more.

Dad did what he could to discourage my TV habit, but he also traveled a great deal and my mom was less concerned. By that point, I even had a television in my bedroom and I kept it going most of the time. One evening my father entered my room and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse…

He explained that he was going to monitor my television habits and require me to spend an equal amount of time reading or engaged in outdoor activities. I could watch as much television as I wanted, he explained, but for every hour of TV, I had do some combination of something physical or read books.

Guess what I clung to most…?

Although he tried to emphasize the reading part of the deal, at that point it was clear that I was reading challenged, so he was content to let me play outside or ride my bike in equal portion to the television I watched. He even tracked my activity with a tablet of graph paper and a grease pencil on a clipboard he attached to his office door. This only lasted or a few months, but it was long enough that it became a habit. By the time my brother returned for the summer after his first year of college, I was probably spending more time on my bike or shooting baskets than in front of the television.

What can I say…? Habits learned through adolescence tend to stick, or at least have the potential to be reawakened later in life.

There’s a lot of talk these days about net-zero carbon emissions. In the business world, companies like Delta Airlines are taking massive steps to offset their carbon footprint in hopes of achieving net-zero carbon status by a certain date. Cap and trade is a hot topic in the business world and among world governments. Step lightly with our carbon footprints, they say, and fill them in as soon and as completely as possible.

One could make an argument that I’m a digital media whore. I spend time daily writing for this blog, my Spoke And Word Page on Facebook, a fair amount of time scrolling through other peoples’ nonsense, and at night I watch a lot of YouTube videos on philosophy, religion, music, and cycling. I call this my ‘nonsense footprint’. It may not be as damaging to the world as a carbon footprint, but then again it might.

So I do my best, each day, to offset my nonsense footprint. I do what I did when I was a kid — I spend a lot of time outside, in equal portion to the time I spend with my nonsense. Of course I ride my bike, but I also walk twice daily, I spend time tending my gardens, and in-between clients sessions, I sit on my patio and stare at the trees and at the sky with my hands and mind free of nonsense. Although I use an audio format, I also listen to books daily for at least one hour, usually when I’m gardening or in the weight-room.

I think this is a good way to be. Though I enjoy streaming videos, scrolling through other peoples’ nonsense, and watching Dan Rather interview musicians on AXS TV, I make sure that I detach from it all, offsetting my nonsense footprint.

This is what I think about when I ride… Jhciacb

This Week By The Numbers…

Bikes Ridden: 7
194 miles
8,900’ climbing
14.9 mph avg
11,000 calories
13 hours 01 minute seat time

Whether you ride a bike or not, thank you for taking the time to ride along with me today. If you haven’t already, please scroll up and subscribe. If you like what you read, give it a like and a share. If not, just keep scrollin’. Oh, and there’s this from Steve Earle. Enjoy…

February 16, 2020February 16, 2020 Jhciacb

The Faster And The Furiouser…

Another fun week of riding. I hit the 200 mile ballpark yet again. If I can maintain a minimum of 180 miles per week through June 14, 2020, then I will have a 10,000 mile year, beginning June 15, 2019. Though it’s not a calendar year, if I keep this pace, I will have ridden 10,000 miles in 365 days — a club I never thought I’d be a part of.

The first thing I do when I get off my bike is to click off my riding app to confirm my the time and distance. The app I use is Map My Ride. The instant I close the app though, I’m met with the faster and the furiouser — all the notifications I missed while I was detached from the world.

Between text messages, emails, and social media notifications, I might have 20-30 notifications to prioritize. As I walk through the door, take off my helmet, and lean my bike against the cedar chest in my living room, I attempt to triage the chaos of the moment.

My dog stares at me with the eyes of an 8th grade girlfriend as I walk right past him. He broadcasts a sense of…

“I won’t be ignored, Roy…“ in his best Glenn Close.

The cat sees me, jumps on the dining room table, which is reserved just for her, and prepares for me to feed her. I walk past her also. She meows and nudges her plate a single time with her left paw. Her eyes follow me as I head to my bathroom to change out of my sweaty gear.

My mother disrupts my path and asks me how my ride was. It’s her way of reminding me that she needs to eat too — every bit as much as the cat and dog.

Eventually, I make my way to the bathroom, change out of my sweaty clothes and into the dirty clothes I was wearing before my ride. I run a brush through my hair and put it back in a ponytail.

Through it all, I’m staring at the phone in my right hand trying to prioritize the messages and notifications I received while I was riding. I typically ignore the messages that matter most — those from my family. Sad, but true.

I put my phone down long enough to feed the cat, the dog, and my mom, in the order of whoever is making the most noise. This is typically the cat, though if mom is hungry, she’s capable of making some noise too. For his part, the dog is usually silent. Throughout the feeding process, I attempt replying to messages and notifications as I’m able.

Some of the messages that show up when I ride are work related — appointment confirmations, schedule changes, as well as eating and workout questions from clients. Work related messages take top priority. I might also get messages from family members, but unless they are noted as urgent, as mentioned, I generally reply to them later.

The social media notifications are the wildcard. There might be 15-20 of them popping up so quickly that they feel like grenades being lobbed in a war zone. Though I’m still focussed on feeding the animals and the old person, if a message warrants an immediate response, I’ll do my best to reply. If not, dismiss.

Once everyone is fed, the important messages have been returned, and if I don’t have a client waiting for me, I’ll take a minute and dictate a few bullet-points about my thoughts while riding. These highlights are put into a digital hopper, to be used in an essay to come, maybe. I have to do it though, or they’ll disappear from my mind immediately, never to be considered again.

Eventually, the chaos of my return eases. Everyone’s fed, important messages are returned, and I can catch my breath, if only for a while. Tomorrow, I’ll do it all again, just after I roll my bike through my front — the portal to the faster and the furiouser.

This is what I think about when I ride… Jhciacb

This Week By The Numbers…

Bikes Ridden: 6
198 miles
9,800’ climbing
15.0 mph avg
11,100 calories
13 hours 12 minutes seat time

February 9, 2020February 9, 2020 Jhciacb

Still Feeling Out The Wormhole…

Like many, after a more than a decade, I still wonder how social media, Facebook in particular, should fit into my life. I still wonder whether it should be a part of my life at all. And in my quietest moments, I’m often concerned about the influence social media has had on my personality.

In 2006 my life and business were on autopilot. My days were evenly divided between working, exercising, and reading books on religion and philosophy. I didn’t even own a television and I wouldn’t have changed anything. Well into my 40s, for the first time in years, I felt like I was in a good place.

Around that time, I started a fitness blog, partially to bring credibility to my business, but also to speak out about an industry that had become so perverted that I no longer recognized it. One day a friend, a tech-industry insider, suggested that the up and coming social media platform, Facebook, would be a great vehicle to share my writing. She felt Facebook would become, in a short amount of time, the most used form of mass-communication the world had ever seen.

At the time, my internet use was limited to my fitness blog and email only. There was no Netflix streaming, YouTube was in its infancy, and my time on keyboard each day could be measured in minutes, not hours.

Subtly though, over a period of just a couple of years, I began spending more more time on my computer. At that time, I still used a desktop PC — this was 2007 or so. Checking my email, Facebook, and responding to comments on my blog usually took place at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day. If time and circumstance allowed, I might check these media in the middle of the day, but not often.

In 2008, I bought my first laptop. With Wi-Fi being more established in restaurants, coffee houses, and other public places, I began taking my computer with me just about everywhere, mostly so I could write if I was so inspired, and if had the time. I also checked email and Facebook messages more frequently.

In 2013, I got my first smartphone, an iPhone 3. That’s when the quantity of wormholes, and the gravity inside them increased. The camera on my iPhone was better than the point-and-shoot camera I took with me on my hikes. I developed an affinity for smartphone photography. As better apps and filters were being developed to support my photo habit, more platforms manifest to share those pictures, such as Hipstamatic and later Instagram. I began a seamless progression onto the social media road that I still walk today.

Facebook though, was a superior outlet because I could share both my writing as well as my photographs. Facebook was growing fast though and changing form from week to week. The increasing network of warmholes and tunnels were so easily drawn into, that at least a part of my psyche began to reside there, even when I was away from my phone or computer.

Viscerally, I was becoming aware of the negative impact this could have on my time, but I was also becoming concerned about any impact it might have on my personality. I regularly questioned whether this increase of screen time was healthy, though I never answered those questions. This might be analogous to someone enjoying a glass of wine with dinner each evening, but on the inside, knowing the 2nd and 3rd glasses were not as easily justified.

My pattern has been pretty consistent for the last 4 or 5 years — I take a lot of pictures, I write, and I share. Seems harmless, and a good creative outlet, yes…?

“If you’re going to the prom, you best be prepared to dance with them who brung ya…” Bum Phillips

The world has changed a great deal in the last 13 or 14 years since Facebook and other social media platforms took off. What has changed the most, is the profound impact social media has had on journalism, institutions, as well the unscrupulous companies pitching their wares while simultaneously mining for personal data. It’s a web of agenda and manipulation the likes of which the world has never seen — one I willingly step into every day.

What began as a platform for social interconnectivity, not only gave everyone a vehicle for their own voice, but each vehicle came with its own road. Within a few years, people and institutions were speeding, changing lanes without looking, changing roads without looking, doing countless U-turns, and constantly changing directions — and there were few rules and even less enforcement. Using social media became a lot like driving in Athens — one is best served to have diligence, patience, a good eye for deception, and a backup plan.

What makes any technology worthwhile is when it’s used for its highest purpose and with the best of intentions. I have no problem saying that most people and most agencies don’t do this with Facebook and other social media platforms. People and institutions, for the most part, behave like children on an unsupervised playground.

I can say with honesty that Facebook and other platforms have enhanced my life in ways I would have never imagined back in 2006. Many aspects of my life have improved due to the connections I’ve made and the information that’s been shared among and between those connections. I’m grateful all of this happened in my lifetime.

Facebook is a generic term to me. It’s not a company, it’s an idea that would have happened anyway, and by any other name. Social media was going to happen no matter what. Facebook just got in line first. Facebook may be broken up by the government in time. It may sell itself into pieces — of its own accord. It may even go into bankrupt someday and come out with a completely different structure. It might even dissolve entirely, if pressed by a competitor which can offer more, although that’s not likely (see Microsoft).

If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, a vacuum would be formed so quickly, it would be replaced within weeks, or sooner. It isn’t Facebook the company which has changed the world so much. It’s been the ability to communicate so quickly and with so many people — social media is about the efficiency of being human. How we continue to use this technology is up to us, but it’s not going anywhere. I still plan to use it for purposes of good, how about you…?

This is what I think about when I ride… Jhciacb

This Week By The Numbers…

Bikes Ridden: 7
199 miles
8,900′ climbing
15.0 mph avg
1,1,200 calories

February 2, 2020February 2, 2020 Jhciacb

The Spirit Of 114…

Just after a picture was taken, the one below with the lifeguard stand masking the sun setting into the pacific, I stepped into the Harbor Gift Shop to purchase a vegan cookie. It’s the 400-calorie treat I enjoy at the halfway point of my 30-mile ride from Bonsall to the coast and back.

Though I usually pay with a debit card, I had some change making noise in the bottom of my riding pack the other day so I decided to use it for the cookie — and to eliminate the annoying jingle coming from my pack. With my right hand, I pulled out the last $.25 needed for the $4.75 purchase. It was a bicentennial quarter.

The first bicentennial quarter I saw was in 1976. I was 14. I have a fuzzy memory of doing some quick math to determine whether I might live to someday hold and even spend a tricentennial quarter. By quick math, all I needed to do was add 100 to my age of 14, but I probably used a pen and paper.

That was the first time I seriously entertained the idea of living past the age of 100. Only months before, a woman from Okinawa who had been the oldest known person in the world (111, I believe), had passed away. Although it was unlikely, knowing that somebody made it to 111, led me to believe I might someday hold and spend a tricentennial quarter.

By age 14, I was already strength training daily and running several times a week. I was also paying better attention to the foods I put in my body than any of my social contemporaries. I became somewhat obsessed with the idea of living to be 100-years old, though the tricentennial thing — making it to 114, I knew was unlikely.

I’m now just passed the halfway point of making it 114 — of holding and spending a tricentennial quarter.

When I held that first bicentennial quarter in 1976, the microwave oven and pocket calculator had only been around for a couple of years. The electric typewriter had been around for a few years, but manual typewriters were much more common. Gas was $.54 per gallon, and Bruce Jenner was still a man and about to become an Olympic and cultural icon as the world’s greatest athlete. TaB was the best selling diet soda.

The world has changed much since 1976. Gas is nearly $4 per gallon. The phone I’m dictating this blog into (and not typing) also contains a pocket calculator. Bruce Jenner is now Caitlyn Marie Jenner, and Diet Coke, sadly, has replaced TaB.

Despite my daily fitness regimen, including the cycling that drives this page, I doubt I’ll live to be 114 years old. I’m not sure I want to — early 70s seems like a good stopping point. We’ll see.

There’s two relevantquestions though, that I have to ask myself, should I succeed and live to be 114 years old…

– In 2076, will we still be minting coins…?
– In 2076, will there still be a United States of America to celebrate its 300th birthday…?

At this point, I’m not sure I’d bet $.25 on either of those.

This is what I think about when I ride… Jhciacb

This Week By The Numbers…

Bikes Ridden: 6
178 miles
7,900′ climbing
15.3 mph avg
10,500 calories
11 hours 36 minutes seat time