I've decided it's about time I looked into some volunteer organizations I've wanted to get involved with for years.
One of them, Big Sisters, is an organization that pairs up girls (ages seven to 17) from single-parent homes with a woman who will spend time with her as a mentor and a buddy. I've been thinking it would be really fun to hang out with a kid once a week and get more involved in the community. Also, it's the Big Sisters' 50th anniversary in the Lower Mainland this year, so it seems like a good time to finally sign up.
Seems pretty easy to get involved. All you have to do is:
1. Fill out the application online and send it in.
2. Get a criminal record check done at your local police station (usually free for volunteers)
3. Have an interview with a counsellor
4. Attend a training session
Qualifications include:
1. Age 19 or older
2. Resident of Canada
3. Maturity, reliability, and interest in spending three to five hours a week with a young girl for at least a year
Considering the list of cool activities the Big Sisters website lists as suggested things to do together, I think this might be filed under "volunteer position for those who just want to have fun."
I've perused the Big Sisters website and I checked out an info session a couple of years ago, actually. Now it seems I just have to confirm where I'm going to be for the next year and then I can send in my application.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Like no one's watching
Living alone, I have found, has a few distinct advantages over co-habiting.
The most recent one I discovered is the opportunity to turn on my stereo and dance like no one's watching to whatever kind of music I happen to find most exhilarating, whenever I like. Just yesterday I came home from work to bust a move while I was making dinner. Did I dance like Elaine or Karen Kain?
The only one who will ever know is me.
The most recent one I discovered is the opportunity to turn on my stereo and dance like no one's watching to whatever kind of music I happen to find most exhilarating, whenever I like. Just yesterday I came home from work to bust a move while I was making dinner. Did I dance like Elaine or Karen Kain?
The only one who will ever know is me.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Cross Training
Last night after work I went for a good 45 min run along the truck route in Merritt. Very windy, but pretty. My knees held up just fine. But if I'm going to start upping the distances to train for the half, I'm going to need to cross-train so I don't end up crippled in October. I don't want to invest in a gym membership, so I'm looking for alternative ways to cross-train.
Any suggestions?
I think quads are the most important muscle group to strengthen if you want to avoid runner's knee. Something about the knee cap tracking correctly. If anyone knows about exercises that can be done at home I would be more than grateful to hear about them.
Any suggestions?
I think quads are the most important muscle group to strengthen if you want to avoid runner's knee. Something about the knee cap tracking correctly. If anyone knows about exercises that can be done at home I would be more than grateful to hear about them.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
10 km PR - 56:27
Yesterday I ran the Summerfast 10 km at Stanley Park with two friends, and got my best time yet for that distance - 56:27. The course was flat, so it was easier than the one in Abbotsford, but there was only one water station, so that added a challenge. Good run, though. Surprised my knees didn't hurt at all either during or after the race (is it all in my head, anyway?)
Hadn't run for about a week before because my knees were hurting, and was starting to doubt my ability to run a half marathon in the fall. But it's all good now. If I can do 10 km in under an hour, I can do a half marathon, no sweat. Well, some sweat, but no injuries. I've no time goal, just a solid run and a good finish.
Last night I watched Without Limits, the Billy Crudup/Donald Sutherland fick about Steve Prefontaine. Not the best film in the world, but Donald Sutherland has an AMAZINGLY good monologue, and the story is still pretty inspiring.
I'm going to scale back on the number of runs I do every week, and only start upping the distance towards the end of August. I do need to start cross-training asap, however.
Strong quads = no knee pain.
Hadn't run for about a week before because my knees were hurting, and was starting to doubt my ability to run a half marathon in the fall. But it's all good now. If I can do 10 km in under an hour, I can do a half marathon, no sweat. Well, some sweat, but no injuries. I've no time goal, just a solid run and a good finish.
Last night I watched Without Limits, the Billy Crudup/Donald Sutherland fick about Steve Prefontaine. Not the best film in the world, but Donald Sutherland has an AMAZINGLY good monologue, and the story is still pretty inspiring.
I'm going to scale back on the number of runs I do every week, and only start upping the distance towards the end of August. I do need to start cross-training asap, however.
Strong quads = no knee pain.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Half Marathon Plan
On Saturday I started training for a half marathon, which will be on Oct. 10 (10/10/10). Haven't signed up and paid to register yet, because I still don't quite know I'll be able to run that far (21.09 km), but the training schedule seems do-able.
http://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/training/traininghalf.php
Then again, I've only just started training, and I've never run farther than 10 km. Ever. The plan is the 14 week "just in time," which makes me wonder, when SHOULD I have started training??
But running is still fun so far, and, fingers crossed, I've not been injured or really sore at all. I hope to keep it that way.
Some things I've discovered about running in the last few months:
1. It's easier to run with music than without.
2. Some songs are better than others at keeping up the inspiration, and it's not always the ones you'd expect.
3. I should really carry a tape recorder with me when I hit the road because I have grand thoughts while I'm jogging, but forget them as soon as I take off my runners.
4. Running ALWAYS sucks in the beginning and ALWAYS feels incredibly awesome by the end.
I know I'll be able to finish the half if I train right and don't over-do it, but I have to admit I'm worried about injuring my knees or something before I even get to the start line. But if I'm ever going to run a marathon, I guess I have to start with a half. If I can't do that, well, then, at least I'll know.
http://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/training/traininghalf.php
Then again, I've only just started training, and I've never run farther than 10 km. Ever. The plan is the 14 week "just in time," which makes me wonder, when SHOULD I have started training??
But running is still fun so far, and, fingers crossed, I've not been injured or really sore at all. I hope to keep it that way.
Some things I've discovered about running in the last few months:
1. It's easier to run with music than without.
2. Some songs are better than others at keeping up the inspiration, and it's not always the ones you'd expect.
3. I should really carry a tape recorder with me when I hit the road because I have grand thoughts while I'm jogging, but forget them as soon as I take off my runners.
4. Running ALWAYS sucks in the beginning and ALWAYS feels incredibly awesome by the end.
I know I'll be able to finish the half if I train right and don't over-do it, but I have to admit I'm worried about injuring my knees or something before I even get to the start line. But if I'm ever going to run a marathon, I guess I have to start with a half. If I can't do that, well, then, at least I'll know.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Audacious Hope
When Sylvia Ruegger was 15, she watched the 1976 Montreal Olympics on TV and decided right there and then that she would run for Canada in the Games. On a piece of paper, she wrote down, "My goal: to make it to the 1980 Olympics in Russia and win for Canada." She put that piece of paper under a floor board in her farmhouse bedroom and told no one about her aspirations.
She called it audacious hope. To believe that she'd be able to do it.
She started running, on her own, in the early mornings before school. Her mother followed behind her in the car along country roads, with the headlights on so she could see where she was going.
Ruegger didn't make it to the 1980 Games.
But she did make it to the 1984 Olympics in L.A., and represented Canada in the marathon event – the first time women were allowed to compete in the marathon. She didn't win, but she came in eight place.
My mom and I went to hear Ruegger give a talk at the Runner's Den in Port Moody some time ago, where she showed a video clip of her final lap around the stadium. It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen.
She also brought her bib from the race framed behind glass. LA 84. 060. Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad. Ruegger.
Below it was the piece of paper she had found still underneath the floor board in her old room at the farmhouse.
When I run I often think of Sylvia Ruegger, a great Canadian runner. I like her story. I like the way she set a goal, wrote it down, and followed through. I want to be just like her.
I want to run a marathon. Not in the Olympics, and not to win, but just to be able to say that I accomplished my goal.
Audacious hope.
She called it audacious hope. To believe that she'd be able to do it.
She started running, on her own, in the early mornings before school. Her mother followed behind her in the car along country roads, with the headlights on so she could see where she was going.
Ruegger didn't make it to the 1980 Games.
But she did make it to the 1984 Olympics in L.A., and represented Canada in the marathon event – the first time women were allowed to compete in the marathon. She didn't win, but she came in eight place.
My mom and I went to hear Ruegger give a talk at the Runner's Den in Port Moody some time ago, where she showed a video clip of her final lap around the stadium. It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen.
She also brought her bib from the race framed behind glass. LA 84. 060. Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad. Ruegger.
Below it was the piece of paper she had found still underneath the floor board in her old room at the farmhouse.
When I run I often think of Sylvia Ruegger, a great Canadian runner. I like her story. I like the way she set a goal, wrote it down, and followed through. I want to be just like her.
I want to run a marathon. Not in the Olympics, and not to win, but just to be able to say that I accomplished my goal.
Audacious hope.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
#22 - No TV for One Year
It is in the improvident use of our leisure, I suspect, that the greatest wastes of American life occur." - Robert Park, 20th Century sociologist
As of today, I have been sans TV for a whole year. A whole trip around the sun without the boob tube and I'm doing alright. In fact, I really don't miss it at all. For a quick movie fix there's the laptop, and it's just so nice to be able to never have to listen to a single ad. I've even stopped listening to the radio to avoid incessant commercials.
This past year I've read more, gone to bed at a reasonable time, and done other things, like knitting and learning to play tennis, which I never seemed to have time for when there was always "something on."
Without TV, I have more free time.
I think Rhonda Byrne and her followers were wrong -- the "Secret" to happiness is not out there in the universe, to be acquired through the power of blah, blah, blah... It's how we use what's between our ears that makes us truly happy and satisfied with ourselves and our lives.
Enter Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience. I wish I'd found this guy years ago. He's a psychologist at of the U of Chicago who wrote this book on the results of several studies about what makes people happy, or, what he refers to as being "in flow." He suggests that to really enjoy (not just find shallow pleasurable moments in) life, we need to cultivate our ability to get the most out of every experience. If we lose ourselves in an activity (and there are countless options) that both challenge us and make us focus our attention, then we will find ourselves really getting the most out of our minds, bodies and souls.
Of course, not every experience is created equal. The worst of all, of course, is to passively absorb TV.
Here's why:
"Compared to people living only a few generations ago, we have enormously greater opportunities to have a good time, yet there is no indication that we actually enjoy life more than our ancestors did. Opportunities alone, however, are not enough. We also need the skills to make use of them. And we need to know how to control consciousness -- a skill that most people have not learned to cultivate. Surrounded by an astounding panoply of recreational gadgets and leisure choices, most of us go on being bored and vaguely frustrated." (Flow, ch. 4, p. 83)
Csikszentmihalyi believes enjoyment comes through work, not aimless, lackadaisical loafing. To experience real enjoyment, to really ENJOY ourselves, we have to WORK at having a good time. Because to have a good time means to DO something, to engage in something (tennis, reading, chess, debating, playing an instrument, golfing, yoga, drawing, karate, carpentry, etc. etc.) that makes use of our minds and bodies and forces us to concentrate. In doing this, as long as there the right amount of stimulation without frustration or boredom, we will lose ourselves in the moment. And it is in these moments (which we can hopefully make last), that we enjoy life and experience, at least what most would call, happiness.
"Unless a person takes charge of them, both work and free time are likely to be disappointing. Most jobs and many leisure activities -- especially those that involve the passive consumption of mass media -- are not designed to make us happy and strong. Their purpose is to make money for someone else. If we allow them to, they can suck out the marrow of our lives, leaving only feeble husks." (Flow, ch. 7, p. 163)
Happiness comes not from tuning out to simply absorb what we call entertainment, but from actively engaging with the world so that we feel we are truly part of it and can have a real effect on it.
Since TV in no way provides this kind of opportunity, it is quite literally a waste of life.
As Neil Postman says in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985), "The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining..." (Amusing, ch. 6, p. 87)
I guess there's a reason they call it the idiot box.
So here's to Aldous Huxley and his warning about the future of bread and circuses... and to Neil Postman for his tribute to Huxley... and especially to Csikszentmihalyi, for not only tying these others' ideas in nicely with his own theory, but for giving us an alternative to TV. Here's to being in flow.
Posts related to No TV:
(Nov. 5, 2009)
Home Alone
(July 2, 2009)
TV-Free
As of today, I have been sans TV for a whole year. A whole trip around the sun without the boob tube and I'm doing alright. In fact, I really don't miss it at all. For a quick movie fix there's the laptop, and it's just so nice to be able to never have to listen to a single ad. I've even stopped listening to the radio to avoid incessant commercials.
This past year I've read more, gone to bed at a reasonable time, and done other things, like knitting and learning to play tennis, which I never seemed to have time for when there was always "something on."
Without TV, I have more free time.
I think Rhonda Byrne and her followers were wrong -- the "Secret" to happiness is not out there in the universe, to be acquired through the power of blah, blah, blah... It's how we use what's between our ears that makes us truly happy and satisfied with ourselves and our lives.
Enter Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience. I wish I'd found this guy years ago. He's a psychologist at of the U of Chicago who wrote this book on the results of several studies about what makes people happy, or, what he refers to as being "in flow." He suggests that to really enjoy (not just find shallow pleasurable moments in) life, we need to cultivate our ability to get the most out of every experience. If we lose ourselves in an activity (and there are countless options) that both challenge us and make us focus our attention, then we will find ourselves really getting the most out of our minds, bodies and souls.
Of course, not every experience is created equal. The worst of all, of course, is to passively absorb TV.
Here's why:
"Compared to people living only a few generations ago, we have enormously greater opportunities to have a good time, yet there is no indication that we actually enjoy life more than our ancestors did. Opportunities alone, however, are not enough. We also need the skills to make use of them. And we need to know how to control consciousness -- a skill that most people have not learned to cultivate. Surrounded by an astounding panoply of recreational gadgets and leisure choices, most of us go on being bored and vaguely frustrated." (Flow, ch. 4, p. 83)
Csikszentmihalyi believes enjoyment comes through work, not aimless, lackadaisical loafing. To experience real enjoyment, to really ENJOY ourselves, we have to WORK at having a good time. Because to have a good time means to DO something, to engage in something (tennis, reading, chess, debating, playing an instrument, golfing, yoga, drawing, karate, carpentry, etc. etc.) that makes use of our minds and bodies and forces us to concentrate. In doing this, as long as there the right amount of stimulation without frustration or boredom, we will lose ourselves in the moment. And it is in these moments (which we can hopefully make last), that we enjoy life and experience, at least what most would call, happiness.
"Unless a person takes charge of them, both work and free time are likely to be disappointing. Most jobs and many leisure activities -- especially those that involve the passive consumption of mass media -- are not designed to make us happy and strong. Their purpose is to make money for someone else. If we allow them to, they can suck out the marrow of our lives, leaving only feeble husks." (Flow, ch. 7, p. 163)
Happiness comes not from tuning out to simply absorb what we call entertainment, but from actively engaging with the world so that we feel we are truly part of it and can have a real effect on it.
Since TV in no way provides this kind of opportunity, it is quite literally a waste of life.
As Neil Postman says in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985), "The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining..." (Amusing, ch. 6, p. 87)
I guess there's a reason they call it the idiot box.
So here's to Aldous Huxley and his warning about the future of bread and circuses... and to Neil Postman for his tribute to Huxley... and especially to Csikszentmihalyi, for not only tying these others' ideas in nicely with his own theory, but for giving us an alternative to TV. Here's to being in flow.
Posts related to No TV:
(Nov. 5, 2009)
Home Alone
(July 2, 2009)
TV-Free
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