Author Archives: David Truss

Binge watching

My wife and I just started watching ‘The Stand’ on Prime Video. It’s based on Stephen King’s novel. I read this about 20 years ago and remember some but not all of it. It’s a great book with a silly ending. I’m enjoying the series so far, but I have to keep ‘letting go’ of this dumb ending to a brilliantly written book.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I prefer to read a story before watching it, rather than the other way around. I don’t mind when a movie takes liberties and changes the story of the book. However, when I’ve watched a story and the book doesn’t match, even knowing the story came first, the visuals of the movie make the words I read seem wrong.

I don’t watch much television, but during my breaks I like to pick a series and binge. Today we started The Stand. I’m going to enjoy hours of watching, and put up with the crappy ending when it comes.

DIY Self Healing Archery Targets

I made a quick one minute video to show how I stick paper archery targets to a 3/4 inch puzzle mat, so that the target lasts longer and is easier to score on.

I got this tip from Jimi Ellis. In his video he makes a full adventure of the tip, with a visit to the store and some target shooting afterwards. It’s actually an archery practice vlog with the DIY tip thrown in. So I decided, why not make this a one-minute ‘How To’ DIY video… with credit to Jimi of course.

It doesn’t actually save any money, with the cost of mats and spray glue costing more than the extra paper targets would, but these are so, so much nicer to shoot on. When I come across something this good, I want to share it with others.

0.9 Percent

There are well over 5 million people in BC. Yesterday less than 50,000 people were vaccinated. Less than 1 percent. I know things are ramping up, and many good people are doing the best they can to support quick (and fair) distribution of the vaccine. And I know 50,000 vaccinations in a single day is good… But when I see the challenges the US has, and the fact that they have vaccinated as many as they have, it makes me wonder what else we could be doing? And what else should have already happened?

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I don’t want to jump the queue, but I want everyone who wants a vaccine to get it faster than the current rate. It should be possible to make this happen.

Tech patient rather than savvy

I spent hours today trying to figure out some technology that was new to me. Hours.

Google and YouTube didn’t help. I spent unnecessary money buying an app I didn’t need. I asked for help. I finally got far enough that youtube can help me, but I’m done for the day.

I get stuck trying new things and get single-minded about it. I dig, I try, I fail, I try something different, I fail again. People always ask me for tech help and think I’m tech savvy. I’m not. I’m patient, I’m persistent, I’m stubborn, and I want to know how things work. Sometimes it feels like a gift, today it felt more like a curse.

Taking a real break

There’s always more to do.

Always.

But sometimes you just need a break. Or rather, I do.

Spring break is here and I’ve got a two week break. Shortly after I return I’ll have an opportunity to book my vaccine. I’m heading into a break with optimism and hope… and I’m letting go of work for a good part of this time.

I’ll spend time with family, shoot a lot of arrows, workout (hard), binge watch some shows, listen to a fictional book… and do a little bit of nothing without feeling like I’m procrastinating.

There’s always more to do, but now is a time to do things for me.

Geographic knowledge

I was speaking to a sales rep from a course provider of one of our online courses yesterday via Zoom. She lives in the Florida Panhandle. She asked if the lightly paved pavement seen through my window was snow, and was surprised to hear how little snow the Vancouver Lower Mainland gets.

Meanwhile I asked her how close to the Florida Keys she was, because I didn’t know that the Panhandle was on the upper coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In my mind the southern tip was the handle and the northern part of Florida was larger than it is, and represented the pan in this visual metaphor.

There are parts of Central and South America that I can easily rattle of the names of countries, and others that would stump me. Likewise for parts of Europe and Africa. But I’ve seen some funny videos of people clueless about basic geography. Like Americans that think Alaska and Hawaii are south of the continental USA because of composite photos like this:

And this Jimmy Kimmel bit interviewing people on the street:

While I think people should know basic geography, and at least be able to know continents and be able to recognize their own country on a map, I do think that we need to be a little understanding when people don’t know many details about other countries, provinces, states, and cities.

I live in Canada, it snows a lot ‘here’, and it’s ok if people don’t know that it doesn’t snow a lot on the southern coast of BC, where the skiing is great on our mountains. It’s ok that I didn’t know where the Florida Panhandle was until now. But I would hope people know that Africa isn’t a country, and know where Asia is, and know that Alaska doesn’t float south of Arizona.

We used to be able to read maps, we had to in order to drive somewhere that we didn’t know. I can remember driving from Toronto to Arizona without a cell phone, and with paper maps to get me there. But now that’s a forgotten experience, and people don’t get as lost anymore. People no longer need to look at a map and not know where they are on it compared to where they are going. Their map location is always pinned. I wonder if this has affected people’s ability to look at maps and recognize countries? Has geographical knowledge been hindered by tools like Google Maps?

New fitness goal

About 4 years ago I was the heaviest I’ve ever been. I did 3 months of the Ketogenic diet and lost 15lbs. I loved how I felt but I hated how antisocial the diet was. It is a lifestyle that’s hard to keep. I also started intermittent fasting and that did wonders for my mood. I used to get ‘hangry’, angry when I was hungry, but intermittent fasting seemed to change that and evened out my sugar levels and my mood.

I’ve been on a fantastic healthy living journey since I started my sticker chart at the start of 2019, (here’s a post and video after a year on this journey), and I’ve kept this up. But at the start of the school year I dropped a bit too much weight and actually ended up lighter than my university weight, despite working out 5-6 times a week. So I started drinking a protein shake in the morning and worrying less about fasting.

Now, 6 months later, I’ve gained about 5-6 healthy pounds back, but considering how hard I’ve been pushing myself, I should have gained more muscle mass by now. So I’m going to change a few things.

My plan:

1. Eat more and more often.

2. Two protein shakes a day.

3. Add creatine monohydrate and BCAA supplements.

4. Train with a focus on strength and pushing my muscles to fatigue… but also giving different muscle groups more rest between workouts

5. Stretch more and make sure I maintain (and hopefully improve) flexibility.

6. Drink more water.

My goal: Gain 7-10 pounds in the next 6-8 weeks, then reduce my food intake and go back to lighter weights with higher reps, and probably lose 2-4 pounds. I hope plan to end up at least 5 pounds heavier than I am now.

That might seem like a lot of work for 5 pounds, but it will be 5 pounds that I want and that I know that I can keep on. I was the same body weight, give or take just a couple pounds from about age 26 to my mid 40’s, if I got fit or unfit, the weight just shifted but didn’t change. It was only when I approached 50 that the unhealthy weight gain started.

I should mention that I’m also going back to the challenge I had with my brother-in-law. The goal was 60 push-ups and 30 pull-ups. I got to 60 push-ups (barely and not prettily) but I had to stop the pull-ups for a while. I have started back and last night I did 21. I want to hit 30 in the next 6 weeks as well.

So now I have set goals. I’ve made them public, and I’ve started on my path. I’m putting a reminder in my calendar for every Sunday to weigh myself, and a reality check reminder with a link to this post on May 18th. I believe that I’ll achieve my goals as long as I remember my age, and be smart about not pushing my body (and especially my back) too hard. On with the plan!

Social media engagement vs entertainment

For many years social media has been a big part of my life. I’ve used mostly Twitter, but also Facebook and LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent Instagram. I also engage on Snapchat with my family, and I love the creativity of TikTok. But I don’t spend a lot of time on any of these.

Actually, about 3-4 times a week I do go to TikTok and spend a half hour being entertained, but not producing anything, just watching. To me this is more like TV than social media. I don’t watch TV regularly, but I’ll ‘tune in’ to TikTok for 30 minutes, then my phone tells me that I’ve used up all my time. I set the time limit because I found that I could easily switch from 30 minutes of entertainment to an hour plus of wasted time. So, while I engage with TikTok for a few 30 minute stints a week, it’s entertainment rather than engagement. Occasionally I’ll tweet a really clever TikTok.

Beyond that, I really just auto-post my blog to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, then later that day see if anyone has engaged with those posts. I also respond to any engagement people have with me, such as someone tagging me with @datruss on Twitter. So I go in as an observer, and respond if addressed directly. Yes, I might do a bit more while I’m there, but I’m not usually engaged for more than 5-10 minutes.

This is far less than I used to engage. Twitter was my go-to place to share what I was learning and to read links that inspiring educators shared. I used to be fully engaged with Twitter as a learning tool. But now I listen to audiobooks and podcasts or conversations on ClubHouse. I do this mostly when working out or when in transit, or while doing things like grocery shopping. And social media doesn’t engage my attention too much more than that.

Interestingly, I think what I do on social media is still a lot compared to others in my age bracket. I don’t pretend that I’m not using these tools at all, or that they don’t take any of my time… they just take less time than they used to.

I remember a conversation with someone about my time spent on social media, and this person spent no time on any of the tools and was questioning how I found the time? I asked if he watched TV? Was he a sports fan and did he watch sports on TV? Did he watch the news? The answers were yes, yes, and yes, and he easily consumed more television than I consumed social media. I could include my daily writing here on my blog and the math still leaned in the direction of more time spent by him on television than me on social media.

But if I’m honest, minus this blog I’ve been using social media more for entertainment than engagement, consumption rather than production. It has been a slow shift over the past few years. This is an observation not a call to action. I don’t think I’ll be changing this any time soon. That said, producing a daily blog since July 2019 is far more online social sharing than almost anyone I know, so my online engagement is still weighted towards production rather than consumption… And, anyone watching TV for the same amount or more time a week can’t say the same.

There are many ways

I love this Chinese proverb:

There are many ways to the top of a mountain, but the view from the summit is the same.

It reminds me that we are all on our own journey; that we don’t have to follow a single path. It reminds me that some people have to work harder than others, and some have to face hardships that others don’t. But we are all seeking happiness or success.

It makes me think about all the different religions, and how they have similar goals. And it makes me realize that one’s faith is not as important as the path they take to their belief’s version of heaven. I have met faithful people in different religions who walk a virtuous path, and I have similarly met people of different religious beliefs who are less virtuous, less caring, generous, or kind… yet they all claim to be heading towards a similar metaphorical summit.

We all walk our own path. Sometimes we share that path with others. Sometimes we walk alone. Sometimes people are walking together and feel alone. Sometimes when we are alone we still feel like we are not alone, I think this can be achieved by self-confidence or by faith. But faith in what? Faith in a belief system that says, “Only through this faith can you reach the summit”?

There are many faiths that set people on virtuous paths. There are many secular people who choose to be virtuous without faith or organized religion. If each of these different people live a good life, are they not heading to the same or similar summits? Do they not deserve the same view?

How many paths are the ‘right’ path? Can there only be one? I doubt it. People who follow the same path don’t all make it to the summit, but community, and family, and friends can certainly make the journey easier. Yet virtue isn’t just about caring for those like you, with similar beliefs and attitudes. Virtue doesn’t spring from being exclusionary. And virtue doesn’t require faith.

There are many ways to the top of a mountain, but the view from the summit is the same.

I wish tolerance and acceptance of others had a greater role in religion. I wish different faiths could see the value in learning about each other’s path, and that people of different faiths learned to take their journeys alongside each other. This seems to happen more often in spite of faith rather than because of it. Or it happens in response to tragedy, but not in everyday life. Yet everyday life is the journey, is the path. Are we not better off believing that we are all on the same mountain, heading to the same summit? Can we not all share the same view when we get there?

1,000 more arrows

I’ve been struggling to shoot well with my new compound bow, but yesterday I shot the best round since getting it. I’m still off of my personal best, and I am still a little inconsistent, but I was able to more than double the amount of times I was able to score a full 10 points with a shot. And although I didn’t score as well the second round, I was finding the bullseye more in that round.

Now I’ve started to find a flaw in my execution. I seem to have a lot of movement, beyond the desired movement, just after I trigger the release. This is challenging to figure out, but easier to fix than when you just don’t know what you don’t know. At least I’m at a point where I know it’s my error and not just mysteriously wondering what my bow is doing (because I can’t recognize what it is that I’m doing wrong).

Part of my problem is target panic. That’s when you see that your sight is perfectly lined up with the bullseye and you try to rush the shot. For me, it’s a whole body experience, and I sometimes buckle a bit, with my bow hand not holding strong and my hands come slightly closer together. This is an awful movement in archery, and one I have to work on getting rid of. While it doesn’t happen a lot, I don’t know when it’s coming until I’ve already experienced it.

The cams on a compound bow create a ‘wall’ where you hold the shot where there is a let-off of the weight that’s pulling the string. So my 50lb bow, at full extension, has a 75% let-off and I’m only holding 12.5lbs, while a person with a recurve bow would be holding the full 50lbs. My job is to keep my extension and hold the bow ‘hard’ against the wall, but still be relaxed and not be stiff… Yet, also not be so relaxed that I let myself buckle when I see the bullseye lined up.

I know progress will be slow from here, but at least I’m in a good headspace where I can see a path forward. I’m going to make many more bad shots, but the good shots will be more frequent. I’m finally not just floundering and feeling like I’m not improving. Now I just need to keep shooting. 1,000 more arrows, then 1,000 more after that…