More Trouble With Physics

You would think, when you're still really short, that if you find yourself slipping off your stool while brushing your teeth, grabbing the edge of the sink might save you from a crashing fall.

This is basically true, but it also gives you a fantastic opportunity to swing from the sink edge, scraping your chin on the shelving unit beside the sink, knocking the scab off the scrape you gave yourself falling off a chair just a few days ago, and making the tip of your chin look like hamburger, traumatizing your mother far more than you hurt yourself.

Toys

A few weeks ago, I discovered that the latest generation of iPod Nano not only comes in fantastic colors, but also includes an integrated video camera. I have now joined the ranks of people who can post videos of my cat to YouTube. (I can't post videos of my children, because anytime the Nano makes an appearance, whether or not in use as a recording device, Danger Lad! would like to do the driving.) Also, the nano is a highly satisfactory shade of blue. The important thing about spiffy technology is that it comes in pretty colors.

While I was at it, I went ahead and got the Nike+ gadget, because I've been meaning to get back into running, needing the exercise and the mental health benefits and all, and my Garmin ForeRunner was making me crazy. There's nothing quite like spending the first twenty minutes of your available running time pacing the block and waiting for the brick on your wrist to link to a satellite. Anyway. So I have this gadget, and I really like the fact that it tells me how fast I'm going, and makes it easy for me to track my workouts. I suspect the pedometer is not all that well calibrated, but that's my own fault - I'll find a football field sometime soon and nail that problem down. My issue is that I hate - hate - the Nike+ webpage. There doesn't appear to be a way to sync coaching programs with the iPod, which is a problem, because if I'm going to follow a program and run 2 minutes, walk 3 five times in a row, I am going to need the gadget in my pocket/on my shoe to tell me when to switch over and when I'm done. I'm running to meditate, not to glance at my watch every ten seconds. Also, the workout scheduling options are truly terrible. You can set a goal - say, I want to run twelve times in the next four weeks - but you can't revise it except by deleting that workout schedule and replacing it with a new one. You get to select your running days once, and then each run is either missed or completed, but you can't yank a single run onto a different day. You can't custom create a schedule that takes into account the fact that not all weeks are identical, or that one week you'll be out of town. You can create a little animated alter ego that rides unicycles and has bad hair, but despite the beliefs of Nike's marketing department, this does not keep me motivated.

If anyone knows of an alternate running site that syncs with the Nike+ gadget, I would love to hear about it.

In other news, I am officially entered in the Dorchester Historical Society's Annual Chocolate Cook-Off. It happens one week from today. For $5, or a competing entry of your very own, you can taste whatever it is I decide I'm coming up with.