Back to Pilates

It was back to Pilates yesterday. After almost three months off, I'm starting what I believe is my sixth year now. It was very fortuitous when Dorval held a demo night where you could try snippets of a whole bunch of fitness classes. When I learned that Pilates is particularly effective for your core, neck, back etc. I was sold - even though I'd never really heard of it before. It's worked too. My neck and shoulder area aren't perfect yet, but they're infinitely better than they used to be. 

You do go at your own pace and adapt to your own physical challenges, but that doesn't mean it's always easy. In fact, even though I thought I'd kept in pretty good shape over the summer, I found yesterday's class plenty hard enough. Our teacher did say she was going to take it easy on us, that it was more of an assessment class, but personally I don't think she took it that easy!

The assessment idea was good though; I used it to assess myself too. Surprisingly, considering that I don't do anything in particular for it, my abs are definitely my strongest point. I think they always have been; even way back in school when we did the Canada Fitness Tests I was able to ace the gold level in sit-ups almost effortlessly. My back and bottom are decent. My neck and shoulders and arms are my weak spots. And also surprisingly, my legs are mediocre. They're not very flexible and don't even seem especially strong, or at least they tire easily during exercises. Considering how much walking I do, that's a disappointment. Or possibly it's because I do so much walking - by the time I got to class yesterday I had already walked the dogs three times. Maybe it's no wonder they're a little tired! 

Anyway, strengths and weaknesses aside, overall I think it's a very good activity to keep up with. It's sort of tempting to give up on formal exercising, but if I want to stay strong and healthy I think it's very important to keep going - probably even more so as I age. I should probably be adding vigorous aerobic exercise too, actually. Walking the doggies doesn't really require all that much exertion. And if I want my body to keep going strong, I need to keep it tuned up. 

Another Apple non-"Event"

(9:30 AM) This afternoon there will be an Apple “Event” ... and so I am preparing to be disappointed and disillusioned yet again. Of late Apple has been a disappointment, and I really don't see any indications that the product unveilings this time around will be so spectacular. 

It's expected there will be two iterations of the iPhone: the faster 5S, possibly with a fingerprint sensor for security and an improved camera, and the cheaper 5C with who knows what specs. There may be an updated Apple TV. The newest operating system, iOS 7, should be just about ready for release too but again I don't expect great things. As of the latest beta, the iPad version in particular is still riddled with issues. I really dislike the new “flat” look as well; I much prefer good old-fashioned skeumorphism. 

No new iPads are expected before October, and there's little mention of any updated iPods either. That's the one thing I actually would be interested in. If they were to release a 128 GB iPod Touch with an 8 MP camera I might seriously consider it. Otherwise I'm tending towards a discount Samsung Galaxy S3 for my mobile needs. I suspect the iPod Touch could be completely ignored this year; it's in kind of a weird position - particularly with a cheaper iPhone arriving - and definitely overpriced in my opinion. Anyway, I'll update my post later with all the “news” and my probably very subdued reaction. 

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(2:00 PM) Well ... meh. That's about all I can say, having caught the highlights of the so-called “event” this afternoon. Yes iOS 7 will be released next week, but we didn't learn anything radical about it, and only the early adopters (who I won't be among) will be able to tell if all the kinks and bugs have really been worked out. 

And yes there are two new iPhones. The so-called budget model is the 5C; the one with all the latest bells and whistles is the 5S. But really the off-contract price differential between the two is only $100, and your cheapest option is still a pretty hefty $549. I don't really call that a budget buy. 

However if somebody were to generously offer me the 5S for free I'd happily take it. I don't particularly care about the fingerprint sensor, although I'm sure it's good from a security standpoint, but I do like the sound of the improved camera and the sample shots did look pretty impressive. 

The one other announcement of interest is that the iWorks suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto and iMovie) will now be free ... to purchasers of new devices. (And apparently this includes the iPod Touch 5, which sort of suggests to me not to get my hopes up for an iPod Touch 6 any time soon.) That's disappointing. I'm sure a lot of people would happily have taken Apple up on that opportunity but, as seems to be Apple’s trend of late, owners of older devices seem to be pretty much shafted. Not exactly the way to win loyal users I'd say. 

So now I wait for the next non-event, most likely sometime in October, to be most likely underwhelmed yet again. Too bad Apple, but I expect better from you. 

Time Flies

Hard to believe, but in just over two days from now my “little” cousin Olivia will be a married woman. At two days old, she was the tiniest baby I'd ever held. And I looked forward immensely to all her childhood visits (with the possible exception of the endless games of Payday!) Now suddenly she's thirty; in another year she'll be a full-fledged child/adolescent psychiatrist ... and in two days, a wife. I don't expect it will be all that long before she's a mother as well. 

Time is such a funny thing. It can seem to take forever - especially when you're a kid, but then you'll go “whoa ... that was a long time ago” and it will suddenly seem incredibly short. I still don't think I've really fully grasped the concept. I try to savour every moment as much as I can, but I also continue to procrastinate on things as if I had all the time in the world. 

Once when I was around eleven or so I puzzled my mom by telling her that it was really as if everybody was exactly the same age, had lived exactly the same amount of time, because “yesterday” or “the past” was pretty much just like one day (albeit with different amounts of memories, I suppose). It's kind of analogous to those cliches that talk about the present moment being all that anybody really has. I don't know that I ever fully will “get” time or accomplish anywhere near all I could or should, but I'll keep plodding along and try to make my peace with it as best I can. 

As for Saturday's wedding, I know I'll find it a lovely yet bittersweet event. Of course I wish Olivia every happiness: she's a truly wonderful person and she and Stelios definitely deserve it. But I'll be a bit sad too that my time for a brilliant career, a spectacular wedding, and little babies is pretty much over - before I even appreciated that it had arrived.  

Technology in Education - More Personal than Ever

I heard a very interesting radio show on NPR Monday night (American Radio Works: “One Child at a Time: Custom Learning in the Digital Age”), all about the increasing role of technology in education. While there are still caveats and concerns, at least some of the results do look very promising. 

Done properly, technology can offer a variation on private tutoring or the one-room schoolhouse. Students can advance at their own pace, no matter how slow or how rapid, and lessons really can be tailor-made for each student, providing just the right amount of challenge without becoming frustrating. Skilled teachers will always have a guiding role to play, but really more as facilitators or enhancers than as direct instructors. 

In fact one school in the Midwest, Carpe Diem, has only five teachers for the entire student body (currently 90 students in grades 6 through 12, with a short-term goal of 300 ... but still only five teachers). Students spend much of the day working on individualised instruction with their own computers, but do meet several times a day for classes where they will discuss what they learned and do some group projects. They go over their educational objectives and progress regularly with their teacher guides, but make a lot of choices themselves, deciding, for example, when they feel ready to take a unit test (which they need to score at least 80% on to ensure there are no overlooked “holes” in their learning). 

There are downsides, of course. At Carpe Diem, with so few teachers (and students), curriculum options are limited. There are no art or music classes, although there is a music appreciation course. The cost of technology, of course, is a huge factor also - particularly for cash-strapped schools. And I'm not convinced - at least not yet - that the wisest way to go is reducing teachers, making classes larger and giving every student a tablet or laptop in exchange. There are so many different variables, so many different needs. Some ADD students are just too distractible and simply can't handle the stimulation and temptations of technology. 

Still, preliminary results of student progress using technology do look good. Test scores are up; dropout rates are down. What you can't have yet are long term studies to determine if knowledge and learning gains last and if skills eventually transfer well to the post-school world of work. We certainly don't want to end up with a generation incapable of focussing for more than a few minutes or producing the higher order thoughts that typically require in-depth study and lengthy periods of quiet introspection. So, while I do believe that technology can definitely enhance traditional learning; whether or not it should virtually replace it is definitely still up for debate. 

* Show transcript available at: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/personalized-learning/

On Safari at Carrefour Laval

I went to Carrefour Laval today for the very first time. And I must say it was quite a heady, almost overwhelming experience. It was by far the biggest, most glamorous mall I have ever been in. It makes Fairview seem minuscule in comparison. Walking through it was almost like walking down outdoor streets. Many of the stores have facades like real buildings. There was even a good-sized garden! 

Now a confession: I don't actually like malls ... or shopping for that matter. A little browsing goes a very long way for me. So the thought of spending any longer than necessary in one does not fill me with glee. I already find Fairview too big, too sophisticated, and avoid going there whenever possible. All those fancy stores filled with so much I don't need or want. Horrible!

I didn't go today by choice either; I had to drop off my camera at the Sony store for repairs. But it was a sort of adventure, an anthropological survey, if you will. To be fair, it was a beautifully kept mall, absolutely immaculate and with ample, comfortable seating throughout. It was interesting to see how crowded it was - and on a lovely afternoon when it would have been so much nicer to be outdoors. Most people definitely looked as if they'd been buying too. It was a pretty upscale crowd, but there was some cultural diversity. More of the rampant tattoos that have gone so mainstream of late. Plenty of devices of all sorts in the hands of preschoolers on up. Lots of snacking and nibbling. And, by the looks of it, a lot of pretty happy people. 

I'm glad there are people like them who keep the economy running (if it were up to me there wouldn't be much of an economy at all - although the banks would be well-stocked). But I was happiest when we were leaving. We didn't even see all of it; in fact probably not much more than a quarter of it. Other than Sony, we popped into a few shoe stores for Dan and that was it. There were a couple of big names I'd heard of like “Crate and Barrel” and “Williams-Sonoma”, but I just couldn't bring myself to bother going in. Maybe if it had been cold and rainy I could have treated it like a museum and gone browsing through the stores’ “exhibits”, and even enjoyed it a little. But today I was more than happy to get out. Being back home on my front porch swing with an ice cream cone was by far a better way to spend a late summer afternoon.