Finding stuff to do in Nebraska

Why You Should Quit Complaining, and Take Action!

2009-07-18T11:59:00.001-07:00

I have been reading the blog of one Justin Bozonier recently, titled “Social Skydiving with Justin: 30 days of engaging in genuine conversation with strangers. Dear god no.” I think this idea is awesome. He admits the idea isn’t novel, and I’ve heard of the term before – but it takes quite a bit of courage for an introvert to make this leap. He has succeeded!

I have gone from cool-kid in elementary school,

to super-introvert in high-school,

to crazy-kid in college,

to… well I’m not even sure what I would call myself at this point. One thing I do know, is that I’ve grown a lot by taking the leap to Nebraska.

Something that has resonated with me, and the main point of this post, is that your wellbeing has so much to do with your own attitude, that it’s foolish to look at external factors (especially ones you can’t control) before evaluating yourself.

People don’t take risks or go outside of their “comfort zone” because they think the potential for “failure” is too great.

I would like to split introverts into two groups here: willing and unwilling. The willing introverts are fine, as I do believe some people are truly happy being that way. However, many people would like to be extroverted, but just can’t bring themselves to socialize.

Unwilling Introverts have a Skewed Perception of Failure

What is failure? It means you didn’t achieve the goal you set out to accomplish. Now most people don’t consciously set goals before every social interaction, so lets take a common example of introvert failure and try to walk through the thought process.

An introvert, we’ll just call Morton, is in a bar and sees an attractive woman. He immediately wants to talk to her, but, while adjusting his nerdy glasses, thinks “I can never get a girl that beautiful”. He sighs as he takes another sip from the straw in his Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Aww :(

So, probably without realizing it, he just set a goal of “I will talk to this woman and succeed in taking her home or getting her number”. What is he thinking?! If he really has been an introvert for years, there is a fairly slim chance that he is going to be able to accomplish this goal. He knows this, so he doesn’t make the attempt.

The problem is not him or her, or the fact that he doesn’t think he can date her. The problem is his goal. He should have set a goal something like this: “I will succeed in talking to her and learn something about myself”. That’s not so hard, is it?

Practice Is the Easiest Way to Success

If you can set goals that are nearly impossible to fail at (with social interaction at least), you are much more likely to at least try. If you are out there, actively trying to accomplish your goals on a regular basis, you can’t help but get better tat it. The more you practice, the higher the chances of you actually getting that cute girl in the bar.

Set your attitude such that your “failures” are really successes – hey at least you learned something! Think of life as a big sandbox full of toys to experiment with.

So take action! Do something you have been afraid to do!

Vibram Five Fingers Shoes

2009-06-30T21:42:00.001-07:00

So I bought some of those Vibram “five fingers” shoes a couple days ago. They’re awesome!

I ran probably 4 miles on Sunday to break them in. Wow that was quite the calf workout! As I type this (Tuesday night), my calves are still killing me.

The main reason this happens is because the Vibram shoes have very little padding. The biggest difference is in the heel. Most running shoes have quite a large amount of padding on the heel so that when you run “heel-to-toe”, your energy gets partially restored by the springiness of the heel.

The Vibrams have very little padding on the heel (basically just the rubber for the sole), so you can’t be pounding hard on that part of your foot. You need to start running more on the balls of your feet, much like you would do if you were barefoot.

Obviously, however, if you’ve been running with regular shoes for months and then all of a sudden start running on the balls of your feet, your calves are going to be holding up much more weight than they are used to.

I did, however, find that running in the grass, or on uneven terrain is much more fun in these shoes. Running on pavement is almost boring when you have all that extra dexterity and balance in your shoe! I also plan on wearing these for our weekly Ultimate Frisbee session on Monday, as my current shoes tend to roll sideways when I try and change direction too fast.

If all other uses fail, I can always just become a ninja and fight crime at night.

Overall, I’m very happy with my purchase, and although my ex-girlfriend’s reaction to them was, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen those before, they’re ugly”, I still love them. What does she know, anyway?

If you plan on buying a pair, I would suggest looking up a store from their website first. They have specific sizes for men down to the quarter-inch, so you might want to have a pro size you. I’m a 45 (but when I measured myself, I thought I was a 44, so could have been a disaster if I ordered online).

I bet these shoes would be awesome for the hike up Pike’s Peak!

Pike’s Peak

2009-06-26T22:09:00.001-07:00

So I was wondering about this weekend. I was considering going home for the first time since I came here (January). I am sure my parents would love to see me, and I have an awesome cousin still in the area. So I looked it up, and it’s approximately 8 1/2 hours! Not to mention about $80 in gas round trip.

That’s not too crazy, I thought. But what else can I do with my time? What is 8.5 hours in the other direction? Colorado!

Colorado seems like a pretty cool state. And I always wanted to visit the mountains. I’m sure you can guess what famous mountain I discovered that is in the 8.5 hour range (if not, then you are too dense for my blog. Please escort yourself out the side entrance.)

Well actually, its more like 9.5 hours away, but I think that’s a small price to pay to visit some awesome mountains! Pike’s peak is right next to Colorado Springs, CO. Their official site is pretty lame, but useful.

Of course Wikipedia’s entry of Pike’s Peak is better, and they even have a link to the Pikes Peak Marathon. Oh man that sounds tough!

“the race is considered to be much more difficult than standard 26.2-mile (42-km) marathons. This is attested to by the best times for the round trip being typically just under 4 hours (versus the regular "flat land" marathon times of just over 2 hours). Although the average grade of the slope is 11%, some sections are much steeper because the central portion of the race is actually relatively flat.”

(several images blatantly stolen from http://www.stevegarufi.com/pikespeaksummit.htm)

I don’t think I could handle a race up a mountain, but I could sure hike that! The marathon is both up and down Barr Trail, meaning it’s only 12.6 miles to the summit. I would love to pull a Survivorman up a mountain like this. Supposedly the temperature difference from the bottom to top of mountain is 40 degrees!

Barr Camp is a neat site, talking about the camp halfway up the mountain, and a little about the trail itself.

Anyway, something like this sounds awesome. Maybe I will blog about it later if I can make the plans coincide with the 1-week vacation I get this year!

What to do?

2009-06-26T21:00:00.001-07:00

So, maybe a little about myself first. My name is David Ackerman – I graduated from Michigan State University in December 2008 and am now working at Union Pacific as a Software Developer. It’s awesome. However, there is one little thing about working at Union Pacific. It’s in Nebraska!

Yeah, I know. Gasp! Who would move from Michigan to Nebraska?? Well, turns out it’s not so bad, but I still find myself trying to figure out what to do here. I have been here for a few months now, but it takes a while to figure out what you’re going to do with your life after college. For me, anyway.

I thought I would just use this blog to share my ideas and adventures. I love to do physical activities, and have gotten into the groove of working out and running during the workweek. Ultimate Frisbee on Mondays, and long runs (hopefully anywhere between 10 and 20 miles) on Sundays. I hope to fill this space with ideas for awesome trips, maybe reviews of workout/running equipment, and stuff I’m doing in Nebraska.

If you are interested, I would suggest subscribing to my RSS. Not because I am going to pay attention to the number of subscribers (I’d be happy with zero), but because you aren’t going to want to worry about checking up on this site all the time. It would be a huge pain. And if you have me in your reader, then you can easily just delete me if I talk about too much uninteresting crap!

So anyway, fun times to come! And if you happen to live in the Omaha area, let me know what you do around here (other than shuck corn)!