Maintenance Thursday

[susandennis]

I designate one day a month (the 4th Thursday - no particular reason for this particular day) as technology maintenance day.  I make sure that all my computers have the latest update installed and working and then I reboot and recheck that working thing and then I make sure any batteries that need charging are charging...  computers, camera battery, cordless vac, etc.  Then I make sure everything is connected and working - like my little used eye-fi card which really involved finding the camera - crap I have way too much stuff.

Anyway, it's all done.  Everything is apocalypse ready.  Technology-wise speaking.

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I just signed up to do beta testing for Yabbly.com - I never heard of it.  They don't have an android app but they do, apparently, have desktop and want me to test that.  They are 3 blocks towards town from here.  Fun.

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zimzat is coming for lunch today!  We're going to get sandwiches at a nearby place and bring them back here.  Should be fun.

But, first, there is the pool.  I have class today at noon but I think I'm going to go in earlier and practise what I learned yesterday.  Alvin taught me proper kicking.  I went on You Tube last night to see if I could find video of someone doing it properly and I quickly learned that flutter kicking on You Tube is drama and controversy and not so much fluttering.  Never use straight legs.  Always use straight legs.  Bend you knee.  Don't ever bend your knee.  If someone tells you to do xxx, ignore them.  PEOPLE!!!!  Can't we all get along??!!

Since my plans to join the Olympic team are vague right now and I'm not really looking for speed and what he showed me yesterday really did work my mid section, I think I'm going to stick with it and quit You Tubing about it.

Comments

[zimzat.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if I've told you about the first and only swimming lesson I got many years ago. It was at someone's house in their pool and she was giving my sister and I lessons at the same time. The basic stuff about staying afloat, getting from point A to point B, etc. Nothing fancy or advanced.

The way she described to us how to move our arms was to move them around like a windmill. My sister was following the instructions and doing just fine, moving around quickly, etc. I, on the other hand, was expending about 2-3 times as much effort to get the same movement at a much slower pace. She watched and watched until finally it dawned on her why it wasn't working for me. I was doing exactly like she said: moving my arms in a complete circle way up out of the water, up, and then back down. I was doing a literal windmill. She said most people can't do that with their arms so they do what she expected to happen despite the inaccurate description.

I suspect that the reason for quite a few differences in descriptions of a lot of activities, not just swimming, are made on assumptions like this.

When I was taking College Algebra for the second time a similar thing happened. The teacher would say something like 'By taking part X and Y we get Z [where each was a grouping of symbols], which means...' and I was left thinking "Wait, wait, how did X ... and Y? Where did Z come from? huh?" I had to go home for several weeks and have my brother slowly step me through the math concepts that I was supposed to learn prior to that class (e.g. high school) yet the placement tests didn't account for and wasn't required on the GED test either.

[howeird]

I have Swimming Merit Badge, and am a certified SCUBA diver, so I must know something about that stuff. For most swimming, keep the knees straight. There's a breast stroke which uses a frog kick - knees way bent and then together quickly - and also a side stroke which uses a knee flex, but those are corner cases. Swimming with fins on you can cheat and bend your knees if you get tired (or lazy). But if you are swimming just for fun, do what feels good.

[shutterbug.livejournal.com]

What is Alvin's suggestion for kicking? I'm thinking about starting up my laps again, and I was just curious.

[susandennis]

straight legs moved them from the hips

[shutterbug.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's what I thought, though I know I suck at executing it. Must try harder.