Lent -- No Playing Around

Well, it's Shrove Tuesday today so I have been casting about trying to decide what to give up for Lent this year...

But before I get in to that, perhaps I should give a quick status report from last year's Lent project.

I managed to stick to my goal and clean up every day for 40 days. Most days I did pretty well. Some days I had trouble getting over 30 items. The following day(s) I would try to compensate by picking up extra things so the average was still above 100 items.

Some of the areas I tidied are still looking respectable. Others are in need of cleaning up again. The house still seems pretty cluttered, but I am still working on it.

One of the big reasons that I don't clean up as much as I would like is that I spend way too much time on the computer. It's takes far less energy to sit in front of the keyboard than to wash the kitchen floor. It's far more fun to cause pixelated mayhem than to scrub a toilet. It's much more challenging to play a game of Stack 4x4 against an opponent from half way around the planet than to sort through old mail and dust the entertainment center.

So this year I plan to give up computer games. No more Kingdom of Loathing. No more Civilization III for me. Every time I even think about playing a computer game, I will stop and clean up instead.

Mind you, I will still allow myself to spend time on the computer. After all, who could give up Blogging?

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Editor's note: Apparently I am not alone in my lenten journey. My old web-sparring mate Ron Shank had also vowed to give up e-games. Hey Ron, I thought of it (and posted about it) before you did. ;-)

Mississippi Squirrel Revival

This one goes out to all the Death Racing Squirrels.

Mississippi Squirrel Revival

So even squirrels can be agents of the PBGs.

I hope that this year I will be able to run with RTS, perhaps for the third leg of the Death Race. On the other hand, I am not sure I have enough time to train up for it.

The Red Deer Marathon is rapidly approaching. I have heard that the Vancouver marathon group at the Running Room are already running 19 km. That race is only 3 weeks ahead of mine. I had better get my buns in gear and get seriously training if I want to do any marathons this year.

If that weren't enough, there are schedule conflicts too. My family was planning to go to the Naramata Church Camp near Penticton this summer. The weeks we want are at the same time as the Death Race.

I don't quite know what to do. I hope I don't need a squirrel in my pants to help me get into gear!

How Cliche

On my run the other day I was giving advise to a friend via a well used cliche.

"Those who cut their run short today will be able to run another day"

Ok, so I mangled the cliche a bit to fit it to the situation. I do that a lot.

Later, during our final mile I was thinking about my advise and cliches in general. Cliches are not really carriers of information. They only have value if you have experience their essence. Having heard them is not the same as knowing them.

So if, for instance, I tell you to give your body a rest so that you don't injure yourself, you only really understand my advise if you have ignored that advise and done yourself harm in the process. Sure, you can imagine what it is like to push yourself too hard and get injured. You may have heard others talk about their war wounds. But to really understand, you have to experience the pain. The withdrawl. The slow recovery. The struggle to rebuild yourself to your former fitness level.

So a cliche is a warning to the uninitiated and a reminder to experienced. The former doesn't really get it until they become the latter.