The Inspiration Question

I hate "inspirational quotes."

I love insightful and clever quotes, when a phrase can be so cleverly crafted that it carries a weight beyond it's phonetic capacity. Those are great works. The trouble with "inspirational quotes" is the word "inspirational."

Often, designers use that word. Artists, as well. The will talk about what inspired them to do a particular thing, or to make certain choices. More often, though, they will use the word to describe something they find cool. It becomes a description of the way they feel. The trouble with that is inspiration implies action.

Dream big and dare to fail.
-Norman Vaughan

That sounds nice. Dream big. The trouble is, you need action to follow. If you read this and then align your actions to move along this path, then you have been inspired. If you read this, and taped it to the fridge so you could see it every day, you have done crafts. There is a difference (and before anyone gets too clever and says, "but then they would be inspired to create crafts," let me just say that taping someone else's work to the fridge isn't dreaming big or daring to fail). 

The only true American philosophy is Pragmatism. I'm a big fan. It puts and emphasis on results, not intention. Action over thought. It's a good way to be. (Again: let's not take this into an argument about value and fact, or such nonsense- I digress enough without all that.) So let us go full circle. 

Here is a video of a guy who was inspired by the events of his life to push the bounds of what had been done before. Specifically, he took Stand-Up Paddle-boarding (SUP) into the ultra-endurance race arena by completing the MR340 SUP. He was the first. Fortunately, he made a short documentary about it. 

Stand Up Guy

I have to hand it to Shane Perrin. Getting out there and being the first is a tough way to go. But it is an example of what can happen with some action and a bit of will. He had a good team, and they got the job done. Enjoy the video.

Enough Fooling Around

Okay, okay. I know I have to publish something about boats soon, but since I shared this project with you all a while ago, and have been keeping it going, I decided I had to share the completion.

What you saw last time, was close to the last few details getting buttoned up. Gary and I wired everything and put the top back on. Well, the last two pieces were the transom and four wheels. So, I got the Meers-cat, Gary, and myself together to do the final work on it, and the Argo-Dillo is ready for service.






You can see the new aggressive tires are on. Also, this is the first time we have been able to mount an outboard (that is an Evinrude Junior 2 hp that I need to rebuild). The tires make the ride a lot less smooth, but they get excellent grip (as you can see when I tear up the yard). I hope they will make water travel better, but that is what the Evinrude is for.

This signals a couple of really good things, and it may surprise you that they are boat related.

First, getting this done is a milestone. We have had this machine for a while and it is nice to complete a project. There are always going to be little tweaks we will want to make, but the machine is ready. From here we need to put her through her paces and make sure everything will function consistently. Taking gear into the bush without proper testing is a good way to cause problems and I have no intention of going down that path.

Second, (and this is why I was eager to finish this weekend) I no longer have to work on it. That provides free time that I can fill with boats and other things. Time management is not my strong point, and to prevent the failure of last year, I am moving faster and with a clearer purpose. In addition I do things socially, have instituted a fitness program, keep a race schedule, have other projects, and need room for general goofing around. This is one less thing to work on. And there is a springboard effect to success. Completing a goal makes us more motivated to complete other goals.

Tires and transom mounted. Body assembled. Wires run. Engine replaced.

The Evinrude Junior in it's service position.

Gary, Meers, and Bates proudly standing with a completed project.

Iron Man

Not the comic or the subsequent movies or even the race (though that relates), Iron Man as I say it is the other side of my cross training.

In this case, I am into phase three of this project: weight training.

Let me start from the beginning.

It all started with a trip to the cabin. Those annual summer trips where me and the guys fish and goof off in the woods. As a part of that, we are always building stuff. Often what we are working on is related to life at the cabin- paneling, building a dock, fixing boats, etc.- and I try to document what we are up to. I rarely look at the photos after we get back (at least not more than once) but I was showing my coworkers and I saw... me.

I was cutting paneling with a chainsaw, which is one of the most manly and almost stupid things you can do, but what caught my eye was my physique. It looked horrible...I looked horrible. It got me wondering.

How could a guy who ran thirteen races and often cycles more than one hundred  miles a week look like that? I'm strong and capable and athletic, but I look like a guy who plays competitive xbox. What gives?

Well, the answer is not simple. It's not an exercise thing or a diet thing or a training thing: it's all of those things. I might be above average in activity, but I am below average in diet. I trained myself to eat once a day. I drank a six-pack a day. I barely train. And I look like it.

So, I talked to my friend Meers and my friend Teddy and I got some hard but solid info: you have to work for it if you want it. That is the birth of the Iron Man Project.

It's named for the race because if you can compete in an iron man, you are the pinnacle of fitness. It's a two mile swim followed by a hundred mile cycle ride followed by a marathon. It's not easy to do any of those things, let alone in succession. To do it, you would have to train and focus your energy into becoming the most you could become. And that, is my goal.

I take a holistic view of life. I believe that every time someone says, "I have no life," or, "I have a life outside of this place," they are wrong. You have time between when you are born and when you die. That is all. You have a life, and it is measured by every moment between those two events. Look at a headstone in a cemetery, and you will always see two numbers with a dash in the middle. That dash is your life. It doesn't get divided into work and play and sport and hobby. It is complete: whatever you do is your life. I determined I am going to design my life.

A word of caution: this will make many people think you are an asshole.

You see, if I don't like someone, I don't spend time with them. I could. It's not about "could." It is about "will." And I won't. Recently I burned a bridge. I don't regret it though it makes me sad. I will genuinely miss that person, but I would not spend any more time dealing with a problem that she could have fixed on her own. It may seem hard or unfair to do that- to swear someone off over a problem that could be fixed- but I can't spend my time- my life- waiting for someone else to make a decision. It hurts to do so, but I had to ask myself if this is the way I wanted to live. The answer is,"no," so the only option is to go the other way. You can hold on for a long time- years, a lifetime, forever- but when it's just a dream and no action, it's a losing game. As they say, "A vision without a plan is a hallucination."

And so are all things.

My boats are hard to do. But that is no reason to shy away. It is a reason to work harder.

A relationship is work. Why run from it?

To develop the body which will do all I ask and look as I wish, I will have to work.

It's all the same thing: work, dedication, discipline. And I find joy in it.

When we tell our children to believe in themselves and that they should live their dreams, we do them a disservice if we neglect to add the work involved. All we really have is opportunity to work for what we want. As the Preacher says, everything else is, "...vanity and a striving after wind."

Let us proceed.

Race Day in Retrospect

I ran a half marathon yesterday morning. IT was the first of the year and one of many races I will compete in. The weather was great and I put up the worst time since last year. In fact, last year when I ran this race I did better- in a blizzard without training. Why would that be?

Last year I ran over ninety race miles (actual miles during an event, not training), and some days it feels good to run. Some days, it's a struggle. I have gone through ten mile runs feeling light and good, and I have gone through little three mile races where I was a leaden bear. Of course I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what causes this.

It isn't as simple as training. In fact, I have little correlation between training and running. Obviously it is better to train than not, but it has no effect on how I feel on race day. Race day is it's own entity. There are routines and rituals which every racer has- a way of prepping with diet and hydration, but also putting our minds in the right place. But it is also something of a mystery when it comes to how I feel.

Yesterday I was affected by a rash- some allergic reaction to some mystery. It happens some times. All my skin kind of breaks out and it is really uncomfortable since it makes anything except water or air feel like sandpaper. I take Benadryl for it and it relieves the discomfort. But it also puts my mind into a fog. Yesterday I was running in that fog and I couldn't get my mind into the right place. I wanted to think through some personal problems which would have been resolved after two hours of running, but I couldn't get there. It came down to feeling bad. And then frustrated at how slow I was. And then mad because I was frustrated and couldn't fix the problem.

Something to think about.

In celebration

To celebrate my boat model working and the math coming out alright, I decided to celebrate by makeing parts for the argo-dillo. Gary, Meers, and I don't like the current exhaust and think a stack will be much cooler. So, I brought the manifold up to Chicago with me and have fitted a stack muffler to it.

Sarah stopped by to talk over the next phase of her bench project and accused me of living a "charmed life" since I can make the stuff I want. I don't know about charmed, but it is nice to take on projects and be able to complete them.

So here are some images from the past few days.

Initially it is just me making the exhaust parts, but then you can see the argo and some video of Gary. Had a blast working with him this weekend, and it is possible that this whole Argo project could be wrapped up in a week or so.

Of course the Meers-Cat would remind me that we have a half-marathon next weekend, so I guess that is out. It's one thing when your hobbies interfere with work, but when they interfere with each other? No good.

I will have some more boat related posts soon.

As you were.

Damn Math

So, I am doing my research and here is something I came across.
The important part is this:

One thirtieth scale is much too small for meaningful observations. For example there is the weight scaling problem. Use the scale factor cubed...30 x 30 x 30 = 27000..... That is the divisor to use and the weight of the full sized boat is used as the dividend....Example: suppose the full sized boat is to weigh 2700 pounds. 2700/27000= 0.1.....your model will need to displace 0.1 pounds to simulate the 2700 pound boat. That is not a practical weight for the model. Now consider using something on the order of one eighth scale for the model. Scale factor 8 cubed = 512...and your 2700 pound big boat is simulated by 2700/512 = 5.27 pounds. which is a more realistic number. If you are thinking of a small planing boat that might weigh 800 pounds then the scale weight problem is even more serious.....800/27000 = 0.0296 pounds. If you are working in the SI system then kilogram weights work just as well. Make the model bigger. You will get much better results.

Of course they are talking about a larger boat and so on.  But the math should be the same, right?
I displaced enough to hold 8.146 lbs. If I cube that, I get 540.547 lbs. Pretty good. 

If I use the above formula I figure 1/4 scale (so 4 x 4 x 4 = 64) and multiply that by 8.146 to get 521.344 lbs. Also pretty good.

But are they correct? Both numbers are close enough that I wouldn't have a problem, but what if this is not the right path? The overall  All of this could be off.  I know that this boat could easily hold 500 lbs. But will it hold that with the same waterline? I like the way she sits right now: it's elegant and stable, but I want to know what it will do at full size. 

Well, I did the only good thing to do when you need help: I asked for help. The Meers-Cat is confirming that this is 'pretty correct,' by which I mean 'close enough.'

Dave and I are in negotiations for space in his garage. I guess I should start looking for materials...

Testing, 1, 2...

I'm back from Canada, and I am anxious to get back to my boats. I have been working on a method of tests for my models, and today I decided that I should just roll on. I'm not learning anything by thinking about the best way, so I am going ahead with what is as close to the least scientific method of test I could think of: put it in some water and see if she floats.

There is something lovely about the purity of such an idea, but it does lack the precision I am hoping to achieve. Still, we should stay true to the axiom: build as soon as you can. Make it real. In the spirit of that, I went ahead and rearranged my living room so that the ugly eighteen-foot I found in a forest preserve could stretch out. Then I put some plastic sheet in it and added water (it won't actually hold water due to the large holes in the hull).  Turns out that it works.

Here is what I learned:

It's stable with no weight and gets more stable with weight.
The water line I anticipated is probably way too low (which means she can take a lot more than what I have in her).
I will need to be more precise in the weight I add (I used batteries, some gears from Fenrir, a wrench, some spare change, and assorted bits of change).

So tomorrow I will weigh what I put in there and assume my theory of weight to be correct (the cube of the weight I added is pretty close to what I put in- though that does not account for scale and I am struggling with the actual math). Then I will find some precise weights, bring them home, and retest with what I think is the correct weight. If I am right, it will be between seven and eight pounds.

Here are the pictures...

Ghetto.... no other word for it.

Really stable, and the bow and stern are not in the water yet.

Assorted weight I had around the house.

You can make out the water line if you look closely.

All things considered, I am way ahead of where I was in June of last year. I watched the 2009 documentary of the MR340 ("The Next 340 Miles") while testing and I am in the mood for a race.

This morning I brought everything into work so I could weigh it.  Ready for this?
All that crap weighed in at 8.146 lbs. I anticipated it would need to carry 7.93 lbs (which is the cube root of 500 lbs). I am going to do a little more research, but it looks like we might be ready to build a boat.

Year Two

Here we go again.