Monthly Archives: August 2024

Price hikes

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Everywhere I turn I’m surprised by the price of things. Groceries, restaurants, parking, shoes, alcohol, no matter what I’m looking to buy, prices seem significantly higher than just a couple years ago. It’s not subtle, it’s very noticeable.

I wonder if the percentage of people living below the poverty line has increased? How are lower-middle class families doing? How many houses have been sold due to interest rates being too high? How many people are commuting from farther away from work than they hoped because rentals in cities are too high?

How are people making minimum wage making ends meet? How many kids in their 20’s and even 30’s are living at home with their parents? How many are renting with no hope of coming up with a deposit to buy a house?

Prices don’t seem to go down either, even when the economy and interest rates lower, prices stay hiked up… they don’t increase as fast, but they also don’t lower. New lows are set and we are forced to settle with the new hikes as the new normal.

It doesn’t seem sustainable.

Workout buddy

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I work out at home. Getting up and just having to go to my basement with no commute time to and from the gym is great. There is minimal resistance, I have no excuse, and I I’ve averaged working out more than 6 days a week over this year. If I had to travel to a gym, I wouldn’t keep that average up.

That said, it’s awesome to do a workout with a buddy. There are added motivations to really push when: you have someone next to you working hard; you know that they will spot you if you are struggling; and, admittedly it’s just easier to push yourself when you’ve got an audience.

I am doing a week long trail at my buddy’s gym and went for a workout this morning. We did a chest workout. It was fast, and yet it was more comprehensive than what I do at home, and I worked harder than I usually do at home. Realizing this is making me rethink my workout schedule. I don’t want to pay monthly fees for a gym I rarely use, I also don’t want to disrupt my morning routine or wake up even earlier to add 30 minutes commute time to my routine.

Not sure I can get the best of both worlds, but for at least a couple more times in the next week, I hope I get to work out with a buddy!

The right to disconnect

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I’ve already shared my vampire rule for email:

“After 6 PM staff only get emails from me if the email is invited in. In other words, if they have asked me a question and want an answer, then a response has been invited. But if that invitation for a response isn’t there, I delay email delivery until the next morning.

So like a vampire at the front door, I can’t enter (with email) if I have something to share that is not initiated (and therefore invited in) by my staff. New topics are set to be delivered early the next morning.”

Yesterday a parent wanted me to contact one of my online teachers, who is on her last week of summer holidays, to get her son started in a course. I said no. I told the parent that I would send a scheduled message to the teacher the first day back (and I did), but that I was not interrupting my teacher’s holidays.

The Australia government just protected employees “right to disconnect”. According to a CNN report, “As of Monday, people won’t have to answer out of hours calls, texts, or emails.”

Laws are one way to ensure it, but I don’t think we need laws to be thoughtful and respectful about work/life boundaries. I think we can choose thoughtfulness over convenience, and be respectful of people’s time and attention. Like I mentioned to the parent (who was very understanding), if I interrupt a teacher’s holiday for this, there is no specific line I can draw to respect the teacher’s rights to a holiday.

We can all probably draw better boundaries between work and the rest of our lives, but what’s more important is that no matter where we draw our own lines does not allow us to choose for others too. Regardless of where our lines are, we need to be respectful of other people’s rights to unplug and disconnect from work when they are away from work.

Our significance

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Brian Cox is a brilliant scientist. I love this quote:

“There is only one interesting question in philosophy: What does it mean to live a finite, fragile life in an infinite eternal universe?“

@evancarmichael

The most interesting question in philosophy #briancox #philosophy #space #physics #existence #astronomy #foodforthought

♬ Experience (Cover Ludovico Einaudi) – 北昼

On the grand scale of the universe our planet is insignificant. But being the only species on the only planet that can grasp what the universe is… for millions of light years in any direction… makes us perhaps the most significant thing in our part of the universe.

Is something beautiful if no conscious being is around to observe it? Does anything matter if there is no appreciation of significance? Does the universe beyond this third closest rock from our sun understand laughter, love, or happiness? Beyond the life on earth, where is there any meaning? Where is there any significance to the existence of the universe?

I’m sure in a universe with trillions stars there is, has been, and will be other intelligent life ‘out there’. But we are very likely the most intelligent form of life circling around one of the 400 billion stars in our galaxy.

We create the meaning for our galaxy and for the entire universe. We embody an understanding and appreciation for life, time, and existence. It’s compelling to think that our existence on an insignificant planet in an insignificant galaxy in an insignificant part of the universe might be the most significant existence in that same universe.

“What does it mean to live a finite, fragile life in an infinite eternal universe?“

It means whatever meaning we give it… it’s as significant as we make it. Let’s appreciate that and not take it for granted. Life is beautiful, special, and so fleeting that every moment should be sacred.

Positively Subversive Leadership

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A colleague in my district was recently complaining that when she went to her staff to see what their needs were, they said they needed new desks. These are an equipment update that:

  1. Will require a fair percentage of the school’s expendable budget.
  2. Won’t help the school progress or move forward with their practice.

As such, my colleague was disappointed that this is what she’d be spending so much of her budget on.

I suggested that she only purchase tables for two students and not individual desks. This meets the need of replacing old desks but invites, if not almost forces, a different way of running a classroom. Students must be in pairs or fours, the tables fold to get out of the way, and they are usually on wheels which invites them being moved regularly.

Instead of randomly replacing desks in different classrooms, she could put all the new desks in one classroom, and distribute the still good desks in that room to where they are needed. Who gets the new double desks? The teacher that wants to have them. If there is more than one, she can have discussions about how the teachers will use them to help her decide.

Transitioning to 2-student tables provides so many opportunities for collaboration, and a teacher excited about using them will change their practice even if they already grouped students together often. This takes a school need and turns it into an opportunity. If someone else is asking for those same tables and the budget isn’t there for them, that invites a conversation about how single desks can be used together to achieve the same goals.

It’s not fun having to use a lot of your budget to replace old items, but this can provide a chance to upgrade in a way that invites a different approach. This is a way to take an expense and turn it into an opportunity.

Scope and sequence

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As a principal of two very different schools, I juggle a lot of timelines and deadlines that are different for each school. My ‘regular’ school isn’t so regular, being very small and having year-long courses unlike the rest of the district high schools that have 2 semesters. My online school has thousands of part-time students, and 3 different funding periods compared to just one for all the other schools in the district. For that school, I have over 30 teachers in the 8 other high schools that have to meet different funding criteria for me compared to what they have to do for courses they teach in the high school… Everywhere I turn, I have timelines, expectations, and differentiated learning opportunities that are not the same in other schools.

As I approach retirement in the next few years, I realize that my position would be somewhat overwhelming to come into. This is true mostly around understanding the timing of everything needed to be done. The reality is that there are many people I know that could step into my job and do great things… but they would also feel like the first year was only about managing all the pieces and not about actually leading.

So, I’m starting the year with a focus on scope and sequence. It’s time for me to track all the timelines that for me are on autopilot, and I just get done. I’m going to lay out a year long plan for items and procedures that I normally just do, with a specific focus on the things that are not part of the usual processes that happen in other schools.

I enjoy the environments I’ve worked in with these two schools. There is a lot of opportunity for out-of-the-box thinking. With that comes some diverse needs and skills that really fit outside of ‘normal’. A detailed scope and sequence will help make the transition into this role much smoother than it would be without one.

Sunday VO2 Max

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I started doing Max VO2 training almost every Sunday a few months ago. I say ‘almost’ because my vacations this summer included a few misses, but as I head into the school year this will become the norm. However I’m struggling a bit with motivation right now because the Norwegian 4X4 Protocol I’ve been doing is really hard.

I always feel great having finished it, but dang it’s just not fun to start. 4-minutes at about 85-95% heart rate max, followed by 3-minutes recovery, four times. The total protocol is 28 minutes, but I can’t just get on a treadmill and go at 85-95% without getting winded and having to stop or slow down, so I add a 4-minute warmup which puts this workout at 32 minutes.

You might wonder, if it sucks so much why do it? Why do I bother? Because increasing Max VO2, (your maximum oxygen intake during exercise), is one of the absolute best things you can do to increase healthspan and lifespan.

See this Tweet by Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

Here is her podcast on The Longevity & Brain Benefits of Vigorous Exercise | Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

Writing this is my last bit of procrastination before getting on the treadmill… I’ve got to figure out a habit routine that makes getting this workout started easier!

– –

PS. I’m keenly aware that I’ve written about this a couple times already (here and here), but it’s what’s on my mind and it’s something I hope I can inspire others to do!

Snoring issue

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Tonight I’m trying a mouth guard to help prevent me from snoring. I used to only snore on my back, and so to stop snoring I simply rolled onto my side. This was not a big issue since I normally sleep on my side. But that all changed in this last year. Now even on my side I snore.

I’ve gone to the doctor to look at my deviated septum, caused from breaking my nose more than once. However two different specialists told me that while cosmetically I would see an improvement from surgery, surgery would not fix my snoring problem. Snoring is often related to weight, but that’s not my issue either. And moderate sleep apnoea has suggested that a CPAP therapy might work, but I want to try a mouth guard before having to hook myself up to a machine every night for the rest of my life.

But if this doesn’t work a CPAP machine is next on my list. It’s either that or separate bedrooms from my poor wife who is a light sleeper and is constantly being woken by my annoying snoring… and I don’t like this as an option. So wish me luck with the mouth guard. I hope it adjusts the structure of my mouth during sleep enough that snoring is no longer a constant concern for me or my wife.

A (creepy) digital friend

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What is Friend? Watch this reveal trailer.

No matter how I look at it, this feels creepy and dystopian. Even when I think of positive things, like perhaps helping someone with special needs, or emotional support for someone with anorexia, the idea of this all-seeing AI friend seems off putting.

Even this advertising doesn’t resonate well with me. In the scene with the guys playing video games, the boy wants to check in with his digital friend rather than pay attention to his friends in the room. And in the final scene with the girl and boy on the roof, I thought at first the girl was candidly trying to take a photo of the boy, but then realized she was just fighting the urge to converse with the AI friend. Either of those scenarios feels like she has replaced a phone distraction with a more present and more engaging distraction… from life.

There are a lot of new artificial intelligence tools that are on their way, and I’m excited about the possibilities, but this one has a high creep factor that doesn’t seem to me like it’s adding the value I think it intends to.

26 Years

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The first member of my family to find out that I’d found someone special was my mom. It was early 1996, and I had only been dating Ann for a short time. I was talking to my mom on the phone and I don’t remember the full conversation but I remember telling her, “I think I found the person I’m going to marry… she just doesn’t know it yet.” Fast forward just a couple months and we were living together.

The next person to find out was my little sister. She was visiting us, and we were all in Nelson visiting Ann’s parents. I had already put a ring on hold at a jewelry store in Vancouver but I hadn’t sized it. I rented a canoe for a couple hours and was paddling with my sister when I told her I planned to propose, then I put her to task. My sister wore rings on almost every finger and I asked her to figure out which of her rings fit Ann’s ring finger.

My sister pulled this off without Ann realizing what she was doing. Then I had to sneak away to a jewelry store in downtown Nelson to get the ring sized, then I got on a pay phone and called the jewelry store in Vancouver to give them the size so they could start making the ring. That was in July, just over 27 years ago. On August 26, 1997 I surprised Ann with a proposal in Ucluelet, BC. That’s a story for another time, as is the story of the circumstances that led me to meet Ann… for now I’ll just say that I feel fortunate to have met such an amazing woman, and I feel blessed that she said ‘Yes’ when I proposed.

Today marks our 26th wedding anniversary. Including the time we spent together before marriage, we are at the point where we have known each other for half of our lives. We’ve raised two amazing kids, and we share a wonderful life with family and friends. I feel so blessed to have found someone so wonderful to spend my life with.

I look forward to more adventures together, and hope that the next 26+ years can bring us more joy and happiness. ❤️