Life is funny

I knew audacity first as the name of the best freeware audio editing software. Then came Obama and his book The Audacity of Hope. The term has now got faces, as I see friends and colleagues make bold choices and change their lives for the better. They are following their dreams, making them come true.

If I had to point out one characteristic that I respect, it would be trustworthiness. But audacity comes as a close second, because standing up for the things you think are worth it, going against the flow of conformity and being true to your beliefs is rare and admirable.

New year is the time for resolutions. There are many I could make, regarding work or personal development. The only one worth making, however, is the one where I resolve to be who I really am and become more like myself. I think it is audacious, I've seen other people do it and really flourish, and I recommend it to everyone who feels like the life they live isn't the one they wanted it to be.

(we are blessed and rich to have a choice, but I think for that reason we also have a responsibility to make the best possible ones)

Bending the rules and writing a blog for writing's sake

Well, yesterday I said I had a short technical piece in mind and that I'd write it up before going to bed. Didn't happen. So, perhaps writing the blog counts as writing? :) As you see, I'm almost as good in coming up with new rules as they are at Guinness. But, I'm confessing all my sins and short-comings here publicly and hope that at some point the shame will overcome my natural laziness and serve as a boost to keep with the resolution. :)

Anyway, today I ran the same ~7k as yesterday. Yesterday I went for high HR and did a number of sprints along the way. It took just over 35 minutes (including the stairs up to the apartment). Today my legs felt a bit tired, I think I didn't stretch well enough after yesterday's run. Anyway, I had planned a more leisurely run, and so I wanted to keep my HR lower and just go with a slow pace. And my HR was more than 10 BPM lower than yesterday, and this time it took me 43 minutes. So, a drop of about one minute per kilometre in speed, HR well within limits and now, after proper stretching legs feeling energised again. The weather was better, as well, I went out later in the evening and there was a nice, cooling wind.

I'm changing my diet, as well. As a diabetic I've needed to count my carbs and be aware of the differences between fast and slow carbs and have an idea of the GI of different foods. And I've already noticed that it's actually a good idea, both in terms of blood sugar and body weight to try to limit carb intake. And now I've given that a push, too, going for low carb. So lots of salads and greens, fresh fish, meat and full-fat, wholesome, clean stuff. We'll see how it goes, I've been a carb junkie before...

Writing, you ask? Yes, going through data and making lots of notes. Not necessarily the kind of writing I meant originally, but I'll get in a stint of proper stuff before going to sleep today. I promise. Today was a good day otherwise, I managed to do a lot of stuff that had been lying around on my desk. Less clutter on desk, less clutter in mind...

Anyway, I thought I'd follow someone's advice (honestly, I don't remember where I heard this from - sounded stupid at that time) and make it easier to continue writing tomorrow by starting today and then leaving it in the middle of a thought. Easier to remember where to start in the morning... I don't know, that could be silly, and it doesn't take into account that I'd need to sleep as well, and I'm not a good sleeper with half-written thoughts in my head. I'll let you know how it worked out.

I should add pics to these posts, they look boring.

Running and writing is back - with a vengeance

Remember, I read this piece by Haruki Murakami in the New Yorker. He is one of my favourite writers, and also a jazz-aficionado and a long distance runner. He runs every day. He probably writes every day. Don't know how much he jazzes every day, but that's beside the point.

I said I wanted to run and write every day, because that'd help me write my thesis and also get me fit. Then life happened and it was snowing and dark, and there were too many excuses to choose from and way too much work. To my defence, there was reading and skiing, and data analysis and gym, but those things aren't writing and running, not even close.

So, here it is again: resolution to a) run b) write every day. Yes, this one comes with the same kind of a lame-ass set of rules that those Guinness World records. I was so disappointed as a kid when I learned that if someone had made the world record in rope skipping that would be 4 days 3 hours, they were actually allowed to take a 5 minute break every hour, and a longer break twice a day. How misleading is that? How about the record of holding your breath? Anyway, my lame and misleading rule is that there can be one day off per week.

Anyway, here we go. Yesterday's run was a bit longer, 70 minutes. I was aiming for an even pace that would be below one of the thresholds (never remember which one is the anaerobic and which the aerobic one...), but for some reason my HR was somewhat higher than what it felt like. I decided to go by the feeling, and although the average HR was about 165, it felt more like 155 to me. At some point I tried to slow down to get the HR below 159 (my approximate threshold), but that'd require a very slow pace indeed, so I decided to go with the higher rate, and run by the feeling. Yesterday was my day off writing, as I just finished a paper on Friday.

Today I went for a "shorter but sharper" run, about 35 minutes, and this time I was trying to be a bit faster. I kept HR up all the time, pumping it even higher by sprinting all uphills (there weren't many). It's really warm already and I really don't like running when it's hot. Today's temperature was around 20, but with the sun shining and especially when the wind wasn't cooling, it was almost too much for me already. Nordic people, pfft. But, the run was OK, and I hope the writing will be, as well. I have an idea of a short technical section I could write today.

Oh, one more thing about writing. Just like in training (for any sport, really) you have these periods when you build basic stamina, then others when you focus on technique, or really gaining mass or flexibility or speed etc. I'm now thinking of writing in the same way. My basic stamina period (loads of reading) is finished, for example. This week is "mass season", when I try to bulk up and get as much raw text as I can. After that, I'll start organising and pruning. I have the basic outline and structure already set and know pretty much what goes where, but I feel I need one more of these textual surges to accumulate enough material for the book. We'll see.

Tweet tweet..

Just recently I've started using Twitter. It's the "microblog" service where people send 140 character messages to whoever is following your feed, and receive these messages from whoever they are following. Think Facebook status updates with two crucial differences: 1) there's nothing else but these messages (no throwing sheep, no quizzes, no groups to join and no events to maybe attend); 2) following people is asymmetric, so that people don' t need to follow you before you can follow them. So, you shouldn't think of it as yet another Facebook, because Twitter is not so much about keeping in contact with your friends, and it's more about keeping in touch with issues.

Why is it so popular? Well, like any other social networking service, it is fun if your friends are there. Facebook had it's origins in the campuses, where everyone joined FB because everyone else joined, and then after reaching a certain critical mass it exploded and now everyone is there because everyone is there. With Twitter, the original users were the Silicon Valley folks, techies and internet entrepreneurs, and everyone who wanted to associate with that culture of 24/7 mobile online existence. And it's then expanded from there, with the help of celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry, Shaq O'Neal or Britney, and now more and more people are joining it, and it's growing faster and faster, even this side of the Pond.

Another reason for its attractiveness is the 140 character limit. Throughout, technical limitations have encouraged creativity rather than stifled it. Think of smileys for instance, or the original Star Wars films. Stephen Fry is a great example of how 140 characters is plenty if you are a wordsmith. Interestingly, a whole industry has sprouted around Twitter. The site itself is very plain and simple, the user interface isn't great, and at a first glance you just can't see why anyone would bother to use it. But nobody uses Twitter via Twitter. There are a number of applications, desktop or mobile, that focus on improving the user experience by adding flitering, search, grouping, URL-shortening and picture-linking functionalities, or integration with other social networks, emails or calendars. And suddenly this starts to make more sense.

I'm using Nambu to read and send my tweets, and will try the Seesmic desktop next. Also, if I spot something interesting while surfing the webs of inter, I click my bit.ly bookmarklet and save and share the link via Twitter and/or Facebook. There are photo-sharing sites, such as mobypicture that are well integrated with Twitter, so that you can take a snapshot with your cell phone, store it to your onine gallery, caption it and send to your Twitter feed for your followers to see.

So, what's the value of this? It CAN be used productively, it can be useful, and more than just a waste of time / procrastination. But, you have to find the right people to follow. This is where hashtags come in. Often, to improve searchability, people "tag" their tweets, so for instance, while writing about an article they read about brains they add #brain or #neuroscience in the tweet. Not everyone does this, because it consumes your valuable 140 chars, but enough people do, and you can find those people by writing #brain or #neuroscience to the search box. And, you'll see all recent tweets with that hashtag and can then follow the people who sent the most interesting ones.

This is also where retweeting comes in handy. It's customary to forward interesting tweets to your feed, i.e. retweet them. To do this, you add RT @username to the copy-pasted tweet and send it (this is where the applications like Nambu are great, they do these at a click of a button). So, you can find new interesting people by following people who have been RT:d by those you've already following.

Twitter is fast. So many times the fastest way to hear about breaking news is via Twitter. And, as "everyone" has a phone with a Twitter app in their pocket, you can find first hand info about events in twitter.

But Twitter has its dark side, and finding a way to make it useful for your purposes will take some time. There's a lot of "noise", as the system encourages shouting over listening. There are spammers around, and also many "online marketing gurus" out there trying to pitch their services. People who are reporting what they had for breakfast and others who keep on sending the same links to the "hilarious pics" that outdate even the Arpanet. But luckily, after a while you'll find people that are really interesting or useful, and learn to get rid of the noise. And then you can for instance follow the astronaut who tweets from the orbit or "A mum and a wife with a really cool day job..."

Pic: Twitter / Guardian

Facebook fads

After throwing sheep, poking each other and sending champagne or Tiffany jewelery to each other, Facebook users are now by travelling back in time to the age of slam books. Everyone is writing notes, such as "25 things about me", tagging their friends in those notes and spreading these memes around the site faster than influenza.

This is an interesting phenomenon from a couple of perspectives. First, it is a great example of spreading of ideas - how something in a network gets really quickly really big, after it first catches on and gets above a certain threshold. At first there were just a couple of my friends writing these notes, and that 25 questions -one was the first I paid attention to. And now there's practically nothing else in my news feed -- I've completely lost count of how many different "fill in your answers to this note, post it to your profile and tag all your friends" there are.

The other interesting thing is that not so long ago, and of course still, people used the various facebook apps to do these kinds of things. There are numerous applications where you'd fill in questionnaires and then the system automatically compared your answers with those of your friends'. You'd need to add the application first, though, and usually at some stage be exposed to advertising that would make money for FB and perhaps even the providers of these applications. But, not completely unlike the SMS, people have now taken a functionality of the system and adapted it to their needs - no middle men or special applications needed. All you need is the ability to a) post text on your profile, b) tag friends on it and c) get those results posted to the news feed.

So, this slam book phenomenon is an example of spreading of ideas in a network, people adapting technology for their communication and networking needs, and how it all is unpredictable in a familiar, almost predictable way.

Of course, just like global travel has increased the spread of viruses and diseases, this seemingly low threshold of adopting and trying out new stuff in FB has made the system inherently vulnerable for scams and viruses. Malware, like the Koobface worm have been spreading in the system, hackers abusing both the relatively lax vetting process of new applications and the openness of the system and trust of the user base. How does this sound so familiar? Didn't we have exactly these kinds of problems when the internet was new and viruses started to spread?

Scrapheap challenge

You know plans, right? Those things we like to make when we are trying to avoid doing real work. The stuff that when done well, makes the whole project half-way ready, or things that are made so they can be changed later.

Or occasionally, those things that you can just scrap and forget about. There are two ways to look at this. One is that a "project" starts with an idea, then a plan is made (at which point the idea is often lost, at least if planning takes place in a committee), it's then changed a couple of times and it all ends when the plans are scrapped.

There's another angle, however. Everything starts with some old plans being scrapped. Everything starts with learning from old mistakes, and you start your new project with more knowledge than you'd have if you'd managed to convince yourself that you got this brand new idea that needs to be materialised. An old plan crashing and burning often brings down with it old ideas and unrealistic or misguided expectations, and so the collateral damage of the old plan helps to make the new plan more feasible and more likely to succeed.

Ok, enough of this cryptic nonsense. I had to cancel my registration at the Paris Marathon. There was no way I could get in shape in time - I've not been able to do the training I thought I needed, but most importantly it didn't look likely that I'd be able to pick it up the coming month. Moreover, what was supposed to be a healthy balance for work has become an additional stress.

So, the plan is dead, long live the new plan! Marathon is still on, but I'll have to find another date, possibly Finlandia Marathon in the end of the summer, possibly something sooner. This also helps me to diversify training - I've signed up for a gym membership, first time ever. In Cambridge I didn't need to, there were good facilities for Uni members, more so for the boatclub, and even some organised by the college. The university gym was crowded, hot, but at least it was open from early till late. Here things are different. It's amazing to think that we have the only sports science faculty in the country, and for all 14 000 students and 3000 staff there is one gym, not very big, and it's open only from 8 AM to 8 pm. They've opened a "gym" just for staff, which is open 8 AM - 4 pm. And they even specify, that using the gym isn't part of your working hours. So, you have to do extra time in the evening so you can use the staff gym (which is basically a closet in the bomb-proof basement of the admin building, and has about 2 machines) during the day. Smart. Really good thinking - I'm sure the investment will prove to be a good one.

So, I'm going to see what SATS has to offer on Monday. If I like it, I'll sign up and start making new plans based on being a paying member. At least their opening hours are based on what their customers need and not on janitors' working hours or something random.

On other news, plenty of scrapped plans and changes on the way in life in general. My three-year relationship recently ended and now there's the fun of packing things, trying to remember who owns the kettle and who bought the chair and of course the sadness of saying goodbye - to the person, and also everything that goes with a person, being a couple and living together. Sad, but I feel that this plan had to be scrapped so that something new can be given birth at some point in the future.

(Pic: NASA)

See you later, elevator

The elevator at our building broke down today. I was going up and called the elevator. Oddly, it overshot by about six inches, and refused to move again. The doors won't lock, the buttons light up as you press them but nothing happens. The lift's gone on strike.

As it was me who in a way broke the elevator, I thought I should be the one to call maintenance about it. I called the 24h on-call number, but got no answer. Then I tried to call the caretaker's office with even worse results.

It seems that the receptionist there is new and not familiar with the phone system, or the phone system is broken. Anyway, it only rings once or twice, after which the call gets forwarded to emptiness. It's not that they hang up, you just get silence. Except for once, when I actually ended up talking to someone else trying to call the company. It felt like being in the middle of some stupid prank call, where you answer the phone as if you're the one who called. As things were getting weirder at their phone center, I decided to email them instead. And then the 24h on-call lift maintenance guy called me back.

Left-handed skiing

I hate today's weather. It's warm (+3), grey and wet. It's sloshy as snow is melting down and although we already had a good cover of snow and perfect winter weather since Christmas, there are already spots of brown appearing from under the quickly vanishing snow.

I used to say that during the winter, my mood can be reliably predicted from the weather report - I'm happy when it's snowing, and depressed when it's like this, when snow is melting. I've always been a fan of winter sports, or winter activities in general. There's so much fun to be had during winter: skiing, both downhill and cross-country, skating, ice-hockey (or whatever variants of it that you can play safely without needing all that protective gear) building snowcastles and skijumps etc.

I had somewhat lost touch with winter, having spent a number of "winters" in Cambridge, where winter is the time when you need an extra layer of lycra to go rowing, and people play football instead of cricket, which is a summer sport. They close schools and the whole country goes to panic mode when the annual "cold snap" arrives, with temperatures below 0 for two days. The traffic grinds to a screeching halt when the centimetre of snow falls. Not much wintry outdoor fun to be had there.

I've been more into downhill skiing before, but now with the marathon looming in under 3 months time, I tried to do a lot of cross-country skiing during the new year holiday we spent in Lapland. And it felt great, and so I bought a pair of skis as soon as I got home. I got them on Thursday, and went skiing every day after that.

I know I have my work cut out in terms of learning proper technique, although I have some experience, so that it can't be said I have two left feet. The salesperson seemed to think I had two left hands, however, because I noticed that the reason why the ski poles didn't seem to fit that well - I had two left-handed ones (the straps are slightly different). So I went to change them for a new pair, but now unfortunately the snow is escaping.

New year resolution and testing mobile blogging

Happy new year!

New year always brings with it new resolutions and new things. I made
a resolution, as well. I've decided to "write and run" every day, at
least a little bit. This probably means more blogging activity,
although most of the writing effort will be channelled to academic
writing and basically finishing the damn book.

The other new thing is related to this writing resolution. I'm writing
this note on the Nokia 9300i communicator I got from work as one of
the professors upgraded to iPhone. This is my first "smartphone" and
so I've got a lot of catching up to do in terms of finding out what
can be done with these things.
I've now managed to configure this to work in the WLAN at home and at
the office and got the Bluetooth link to work between this and my
laptop. I've found some cool applications, such as gmail, and am now
trying to post by email to my blog.

I'll be reporting how my new mobile life is working out, and whether
this will become a productivity tool. So far it has been a time-eater
and a toy for procrastination. :) But it has only been a day...

Korean drummer takes the show

My favourite bit comes at around the 3 minute mark... :)

Synchronized Debating - both candidates seem to be pro-recycling

So, they have their stump speeches and favourite verses that they keep recycling... Very funny. I have to say, I'm a bit mixed up with these elections, I'm watching the 7th season of West Wing at the same time as these real election news, and not sure whether it's Obama vs. Vinick or Santos vs. McCain or what? :)

Marathon de Paris

I'm not sure if this was a good idea. However, sometimes the act first, ask questions later -strategy is the best one. So I signed up for the Paris marathon. It's in April, so there's plenty of time to get in shape - weather permitting. I think that (in addition to time limitations due to work etc.) the biggest obstacle is that the winter can be a difficult time for running practice. If the winter is good, there's skiing which is as good if not better than running, but if it is just wet and cold (like last year) it will be hard to get all the necessary training done.

Anyway, the idea of running through the centre of Paris, from Champs-Élysées through Jardin des Tuileries, La Louvre, a loop in Bois de Vincennes, then back on the bank of the Seine, by the Eiffel tower, to a final loop in the Bois de Boulogne captured my imagination. With Paris being one of my favourite cities, a city where I've always felt at home, seems like a good place to start running marathons.

Pace

First of all, congratulations to president Ahtisaari for the well-deserved Nobel peace prize. The list of his successes is long and impressive, ranging from Namibia to Kosovo and Aceh. The one aspect of his work that epitomises his qualities as a statesman is the work he has done in building the international infrastructure for crisis management and resolution. In this work he has provided many young people the chance to learn international cooperation at a top level.

Then, from the Italian to the English pace. I'm slow. Way too slow. Lately, everything has taken me ages. To write an email, to decide which article to use as course reading, to formulate the essay question... It's all process writing for me, even a simple note. Writing involves pauses, drafts, redrafts and leaving the work for a while, then coming back with fresh thoughts (ha!). And anything, even when done in a focused fashion takes a lot of time, just like the poster I just finished which took literally all night to put together. Looking at the finished product, I really can't say where all that time went. It's not that special, au contraire.

Every book has its own pace. I think I've written about that before. Thrillers, the Grisham or Clancy -type of affair needs to be read quickly, you get physically pumped up not just from the unrelenting pace of events, but also the speed at which you race through the plot, your mind's eye rushed along on a dolly from fight scene to the car chase. Then others slow down time, and slow down your reading speed as well. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a good example of this genre of books.

At the moment, something slows down my writing all the time. It's like wading in a pool of jelly and is very annoying because I have a lot to do and so work keeps accumulating faster than I clear it from my desk. Hmm. Maybe it's the long distance running, my resting heart rate is now slower than it was a few months ago? Not enough/too much caffeine/sleep/chocolate? Or perhaps it's the autumn, cold weather and growing darkness? Perhaps it's just laziness or lack of focus. I don't know, but it's annoying, as it's not even good and proper procrastination, just everything happening in slow motion.

I need to wake up.

Mesmerising...

Here's how to make a valve or a vacuum tube. Very hypnotic. These valves can be used as electronic amplifiers and do the same thing as transistors nowadays. But way, way cooler.

Fabrication d'une lampe triode
Uploaded by F2FO

Running as social activity

Long distance running is a solitary pursuit. It suits people who are solemn and serious and like to spend a lot of time alone.

I suppose that's the usual view of it, or at any rate the view I used to have about it. It didn't stop me from taking up long distance running, as I pretty much see those as positive things, but I've discovered it's only a part of the picture.

The most obvious manifestations of the social nature of running are the mass marathons. The biggest ones draw tens of thousands of runners, and even the small, local event I took part in the weekend had 2500 participants. Add to this the friends and family members that show up to cheer for the runners and you have a big crowd, and a big event. And in the events, there are the locker room chats and mass warm-ups, the nervous jokes on the starting line and of course the comparisons of experiences afterwards.

Of course, there are now many online forums (fora?) and services for runners that create communities of runners. People share training tips, experiences, race information and just hang out. The proliferation of GPS-trackers and other performance monitors has created a new family of services, where you can keep track of your training online. All the data gathered during your run, your heart rates, speed, course, cadence etc. are logged to an online journal that you can then share with others. And people find others to run with, which is convenient for keeping your motivation up between races.

The feeling of community stretches beyond all boundaries. Running is hugely popular and there are runners everywhere. And when you meet, your shared identity transcends all the differences. This became very clear when I was running in Sapporo, where I otherwise felt very alien, and then came across this other dude who was jogging. There was this quick "hi there" when we passed each other, but there was also this moment of connection that I hadn't felt in days. We both knew what we were going through and was we were about at that moment.

So most importantly, there's the experience of running together, and that's of course amplified when running together with a horde of people. As you push through the kilometres you are inadvertently syncing your pace and even your steps with those running around you. And syncing steps has pretty much the same function as dancing or playing music together. Pushing the boundaries of your endurance together with others is a strongly meaningful experience.

The field of social psychology was in a way started by observations that cyclists would go faster when there was an audience - record times were seldom broken in practice, but often in races. This social facilitation (and it's opposite, social inhibition) was later studied in experimental manner, and the tradition still lives on in much of social psychology (study of social anxiety, groupthink, team dynamics etc.) .

I do enjoy the quiet me-time I get on a long run, though.

Brilliant!

Just a quick note, finished the half marathon in just over 2 hours (haven't checked the exact time but was probably 2:03 - 2:04 or thereabouts. I'm very happy about the time. My initial aim was to go under 2 hours, but considering the last three weeks, this was very good.

The event was very well organised and there was a great atmosphere among the runners and also lots of people cheering along the route. This was my first mass run, but definitely not the last one.

Pizza has never tasted this good! :)

Underprepared

Whenever possible (and unfortunately in the teaching job I do, that's not often the case), I like to follow the modified version of the scouts' motto: Be overprepared.

The half marathon is today, in the afternoon, and I'm feeling very underprepared. My training programme was shattered to pieces about three weeks ago, and so I will start today without any other targets but to complete the distance.

Having to travel to conferences, cross six time zones twice was already a bit difficult, as a jet lag tends to make all activities feel unappealing, except for sleeping. And of course all the hassle that goes with starting a new academic year has taken quite a lot of my energy, and as I've felt a bit ill as well, I've decided to just try to get better rather than force myself to run.

So, although you're supposed to lighten the training before the race, my training has been seriously underweight. Nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to the race.

It's going to be a great social event, and as half marry isn't an extreme distance, I think I'll just go with the flow, enjoy the early autumn by the lake (trees are starting to get their yellow and red colours) and get that first big race under my belt.

Konbanwa

OK, I think it's about time to end the blogging break...

The summer didn't really leave a mark in any way, and now it seems to be gone. A new academic year is just around the corner and an unimpressive summer weather seems to have turned to autumn, at least judging by the amounts of rain.

But enough of the weather, greetings from Sapporo, where I'm on a one week conference trip. It's been great, the standard of the talks and posters is very high. There have been very few disappointments in terms of the content, and in a true Japanese style, the organisation has left nothing to be desired.

Of course the flight over here plus the jetlag that ensued were taking their toll for the first three days or so, but somehow the social and scientific buzz have helped to get through the days. It's always great to meet friends and colleagues, meet new people and hear about their research.

And since we are in Japan, food is of course great. I'm a fan of sushi, to use the generic term, and like other Japanese food as well. And of course, the food not only tastes divine, but looks good as well, is often served in nice surroundings. The way the food is served one mouthful at a time slows down your pace of eating, which is also a good thing.

However, in a conference with 400 guests, dinners are also always a bit of a hassle. You decide to have dinner with someone, and so they ask if person 3 can come as well, as they've already agreed. Ok. So, person 3 then brings their colleagues 4, 5 and 6, as they happened to be there. Once you try to decide where to go and when, 7 comes by and says he knows a place, and that he's going with "someone" and they wouldn't mind us tagging along. Then it turns out, that "someone" was actually diners 8-16.

There are other issues with eating out, though. I only speak about three words of Japanese, or four if you count "thank you" and "thank you very much" as two different words. And since I can't read their writing either, I'm feeling more lost than in a long time. Dictionary doesn't help, as it is impossible to find the word that you don't know. A phrase book is handy, because then you can actually ask the right questions. Not understanding the answer is of course another problem. Also, my phrase book is a pocket version and doesn't come with useful questions such as "although there are 16 of us, we can of course sit in three or four separate tables" or "what is the difference between the 1000 yen and 1500 yen drinks packs that you can include in the menu", or even "excuse me, can you help me find the correct box where I've left my shoes".

But, with sign language, pointing to pictures in menus, making various animal sounds, and with a generous helping of patience from behalf of the waiters we've managed to have great food almost every evening.

But at some point it gets tiring. The conference runs from 8.30 in the morning to 7 in the evening, and after that three hours of light dinner is quite a lot. So, today I decided to switch to antisocial mode. When the program ended (a bit early today, so that people could go and visit sake factories and tearooms and go shopping) I went for a long run. After coming back to the hotel (hoteru in pseudo-Japanese, my 4.5th word), I decided to have a Japanese evening in my room.

That consisted of getting a burger from the Mos Burger next door (they say in the sign that they are Japanese burgers), a Sapporo beer and Häagen Dasz green tea ice cream from the convenience store and watching Japanese major league baseball on TV. Thoroughly Japanese experience, then. Very relaxing, setting me up well for the remaining two days of intensive networking and then the three flights home on Sunday.

One month to go

I just realised that the half marathon is now exactly one month away. Or, in a month's time, I'll be recovering and healing sore feet, hopefully after completing the first running race I take part since the third grade.

Training is going OK. There have been weeks when I haven't been able to do the 4-5 runs I've planned, but as I don't really have any other goals than to finish, that's not too bad.

Well, in a week I'll take off to the training camp in Japan (otherwise known as a conference), while our professors are conspiring to wreck the penultimate training week by planning a trip to Belgium for me.

What this month-or-so of training has shown, running with a specific goal in mind makes it more interesting and increases motivation. Having a training program with different kinds of training sessions (intervals, speed endurance, fartlek, basic endurance) provides the required variability that will keep monotony at bay.

One month to go, so far so good. The route was published today, one and a half laps around the lake, using the new and still partly in-progress scenic route for pedestrians and bikes. The route is very popular, and every evening there's a good number of runners, walkers, nordic walkers, inline skaters, skikkers, cyclists and dog walkers, enjoying the lake and the exercise.

Nerdy but funny

Summer in the office - time to finally do things. And as we know, procrastination expands to fill in most of the empty space.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.