The problem with time travel

I posted this a couple of years ago on myspace and I’m going to migrate it over here.  I was reinspired to repost this since I started watching The Big Bang Theory.  So, the original post begins now:

January 2007

Back to the Future is a great movie.  Probably the greatest time travel movies ever made.  The Time Machine was, well, not Back to the Future.  The BTTF movies really made it interesting, fun and mind-bending occasionally.  The sad truth is that I don’t think it’s possible; particularly in a Delorean.  I’ll explain.

In science there are methods of gathering data, compiling data, analyzing data, running numbers, doing calculations, etc.  All this is done over and over to either prove something will work, won’t work, might work, etc.  Well I thought of a way to prove or disprove time travel!  It’s so simple that someone entrapped in complex mathematics or quantum theories could easily miss it.  It would take years, or, so you might think.

This is how it would work:

Today Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 a worldwide committee has announced their plans to disprove/prove time travel.  A special secure place is to be designated for the event to occur at.  In this case we’ll choose the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.  At the base of this tower will be constructed a solid facility, meaning that it can endure even the mightiest of years worth of punishment from elements.  It will be a simple structure as well, no doors, windows, etc.  More or less it will be a landing pad for the time travelers.  Say what? More on that soon.

Now the documents.  Lots of them.   A whole hell of a lot of them.  A worldwide public relations extravaganza.  Why is this necessary?  Well if you tell 5 people in a super secret location the plan then it’s likely to be forgotten, lost, etc.  If the entire civilized world knows the plan then it’s not likely to get lost, barring a cataclysmic event like an asteroid.  Lets assume that won’t happen.  Now what will this documentation say?  Something like this:

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Mankind, on this day, January 31, 2007 an experiment was put forth that only you can take part in.  Your reading this means that you are of the future if only by days or weeks.  This is a request and nothing more.  The request is to know whether or not time travel is possible in our universe and dimension.  You are commissioned by all governments of the world and the people of this planet to return to the location of [Latitude and Longitude] once you have discovered a safe reliable way to traverse time.  You are to return to said location on July 1, 2007.  If you are unable to reach this location, a map is provided for various locations which can allow us to communicate and bring you to the site.

Showing up to the location, alone, is not nearly enough proof.  Additionally we request you bring a few items with you. [it's at this point you might request a CPU of the future, some drastic advance in medicine, a droid, anything that overwhelmingly exceeds what we're capable of now.  Currency can be faked, IDs can be faked, photos can be faked.  Solid hardcore evidence of an advanced future civilization requires more proof than saying 'we come in peace']

Godspeed you and the future of our race.

-  The World

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Ok so there you have it.  Now what happens on that day when the world is watching?  Will a gigantic time traveling ship materialize?  Will crickets continue to chirp?  Will cheese continue to age?!  Wrong state…

You get my drift.

How can this fail? There are a few ways:

• Man deems it too dangerous to expose our minds to the reality of the future and negates the effort.
• Man DOES invent time travel but instead it goes to an alternate past and we’re left waiting for nothing while an alternate reality does the obligatory “OMG WTF was THAT??” when the future persons appear over Devil’s Tower.
• Man is too incompetent to invent it.
• Man invents it but instead of materializing on earth at this exact time and location, they’re off by a few hundred billion miles and end up in the blackness of space.  Better make that time travel ship air-tight just in case!  Oh and don’t forget to put a reverse gear on it either.

I’m simply trying to entertain here and if nothing else, make you think about it and wonder ‘what if?’  I could be from the future, trapped in the past!  So could you.  Are the UFOs we see, us, from the future or other universes/dimensions?  Ever have something freaky happen that caused an avoidance of something very bad?  Did someone comeback to stop it?  Ever had something go dreadfully wrong?  Did someone come back to cause it?  I am convinced that someone has come back in time to follow me around at red lights and push a button that makes them turn red, non-stop.  Ok, well maybe not all the time, but too frequently…

So enjoy time as it is now and remember to stop and smell the roses.  Life moves quicker than eyes can ever see.  Now, I’m going to go and track down that s.o.b. that keeps turning the lights red for me!

——

Needless to say, on July 1st, 2007 – there was no time traveler appearing at Devils Tower.  Then again, I didn’t wage a worldwide campaign to promote it.  Money is an issue.  Maybe there is a gaping hole in my plan.  Nonetheless, it’s fun to think about.

Plan for fitness

Fitness is a scary word and if it were a four letter word it’d be more fitting.  Fitness, to me, does not mean sporting track pants chugging water every waking hour of the day.  The truth is that most of us don’t want nor can we actually live like that.  It’s like a movie, fiction, fairytale.  Sure some can, like professional athletes.  We’re not professional athletes.  We’re professionals at living our lives.  The key to succeeding is to plan, plan and plan.  This isn’t stressed enough.  Before you do anything, at all, you plan.  Period.

What are your goals?  Short-term, long-term?  You can’t go into a mindset of “after 12 weeks I’m done for good”.  You should have short term goals but you should think long term as well.  In planning and following carefully that plan, you set up good living habits.   These good habits will establish themselves into your life and follow you.

For years upon years there have been too many schemes and scams to get us into shape.  Sadly, an overwhelming majority of them do not work or even make things work.  I had one of those Ab Roller things a few years back.  All of the people in the commercial were ripped or flat bellies using this thing.  Well I fell for it and bought one.  I used it once.  Ok, I used it twice.  Three times would have been way too much!  The point is, we’re easily bought and sold with this idea that getting something nice requires hardly any effort.

Well how do you plan?  You have to know your limits.  You have to know how much time per day/week you can devote towards exercise.  You must plan your diet out and track it.  It’s not as bad as it sounds.  Lets start with exercise.

Exercise

The system I follow is something I picked up from the Body-For-Lifeprogram.  It mixes cardio exercise with strength training.  Now, as I’m typing this, I am currently restarting this program!  I fell off the wagon for a few years and honestly it was my fault.  Now, back on track.  The system I use might not be right for the next person or the next.  I know a couple of people that have added it to their routine.  I suggest researching this program if it sounds up your alley.

The most important thing is to make time for exercise.  I’m serious that you can get a very good workout in a 15-30 minute period depending on what you’re doing.  A key here is to make sure you’re doing your exercise correctly.  I am not a morning person, so I prefer evening workouts.  You might prefer mornings, it’s up to you.  If you want to achieve your goal then you simply must make time.

Between diet and exercise it’s really hard to say which is more important.  They’re both immensely important.  If you eat just right and do zero exercise, you will lose weight probably.  The problem is you might end up losing muscle.  That’s a very bad thing because muscles metabolise fat, they make us strong and in the end make us look and feel better.  If you exercise your face off but eat horridly, you’ll have a fair amount of strength but it’s likely to be hidden under layers of fat.

Diet

Now with my eating, I also fallow the BFL method.  I eat 6 or so small meals a day.  I really try to keep them balanced using the 40/40/20 method.  This means the ratio of calories is 40 protein, 40 carb and 20 fat.  Lets say my calories for the day are 2000.  I’ll have 800 from protein, 800 from carbs and 400 from fat.  You don’t have to be dead on, just in the general area.  This is important to keep you feeling fuller longer and also providing necessary nutrition to power and build your body.

I recommend something like www.fitday.com to help track food intake.

Now, must you track it for the rest of your life?  No!  You do have to teach yourself how to make wise food decisions.  Do not give up if you’ve given in to a bad food decision.  Never resort to the “tomorrow I will start” syndrome.  Start now and start by planning now.  Make sure you are capable of what you plan.  If you want realistic results, then a realistic plan is what you need.  It can take months or even years to reach your fitness goals.  You have to start somewhere and if you’re going to start, then you need to _____!  Correct answer: Plan!

I really hate typing these things up this late.  I feel like I leave things out and jump around a tad.  I am not a doctor or a fitness expert.  I’m an abnormal nerdy guy who wants to take care of himself and family.   This blog is a chronicle of my journeys through fitness and slaying debt.  I like the idea of being able to inspire others through success.

Well, stop reading, start planning!

Plan day

I’ve laid out most of my plan.  I want to do it in 12-week increments or phases.  The goal is to reach a maintenence phase.  See, acheiving a goal is only half of the battle.  Staying at your goal is where a staggering 95% of people go [95% of people who meet their initial goals].  Why?  I guess it’s because old habits are resumed and for a while it doesn’t show.  Then one day you go to zip your pants and what the duece?!  They must have shrunk in the wash…  Yes, those 3 year old jeans, shrunk… in the wash.  Likely story, turns out most of us just inflate in size when we are “done”.

The truth is, we’re never “done”.  One never stops living until they die.  I know that’s profound but life is an ongoing continual thing.  We take the things in life we can’t control and accept them. Then we take the things in life we can control and take them by the horns.  Otherwise, life will control us.  That is something I’ve battled for years.

So I wanted to sort of make myself into an experiment, journal the results and show them in numbers and images.  I want to get all my measurements taken, hopefully tomorrow (i.e. body fat%, height, weight, waist, etc).  I want to get them measured each week of the 12 week Phase I.  I’ll post the results and hopefully be able to show a nifty little chart.  I have some software I’ll track all my stuff with (www.fitday.com).  I’m going to portion meals and water.  I’m going to schedule my exercise.  I’ll see about posting that as well.  The last thing I want to do is hopefully make a video of the day to day images that chronicle the results for each phase.  There was a guy that did it but the site escapes me.  It was really cool to see his transformation.

Again, transformation is but half of the equation.  Getting to your destination and staying there is the other half.

Well, here we go.

Falling Down

Anyone remember this movie?  Pretty normal guy just gets absolutely crapped on to the brink and then he snaps.  The guy trying to stop him is in a similar but worse situation yet retains optimism and hope.  Well I think we all have a little of both characters in us.  Sometimes we want to go and “right” all the wrong doings to us and society.  We want pay back.

Sometimes we don’t have control over things.  Sometimes we bring things on ourselves.  So that leaves only a portion of that original angst to be brought out on what other people have done to you.  Chances are that whoever did something to you was doing their job and their boss got it passed down from their boss.  It gets to the point where whoever makes the decisions isn’t really saying that YOU will fall victim to them, but everyone will (well, most everyone).  So now we’re left with the guy who can’t drive because he pulled out in front of you.  Have you ever pulled out in front of someone and didn’t realize they were going as fast or that you swear they weren’t there?  Yeah now more and more you realize that you’re actually in control of more than you thought.

Where am I going with this?  To echo the previous post, the past 30 days have been hell.  Illness ridden, unhealthy eating habits, etc.  The good news is that we weren’t in control of most of that.  We can’t decide when to be sick and when not to nor can we decide that for our children.  We can choose whether or not to give up or keep pushing onward.

So we keep pushing onward.  We have our plan for success and now we have to make sure the things we can’t control aren’t in the way.  With the latest string of illness hopefully nearing an end we can act on the plan.  Choppy writing here too, my apologies.  I’m at home with the sick child.

[L]

What’s better than being sick?

Having your whole family sick. I’ll take the blame for it. The wife is down with pharyngitis now and my mother in law has it plus a nasty cold. I’m not done yet! Our 4 year old has pink eye oh joy. Well he’s not technically ill, at least not yet. He may still get the cold thing we have going around.

What a great way to ring in the new year!

It’s a setback right off the starting line but here’s the thing: that’s life. We can’t expect a plan to be foolproof. We have to adapt and take on these challenges as they present themselves. We almost ordered pizza last night because of it all but we didn’t. I went ahead and cooked up some veggies for dinner to go with the pot roast we had simmering. It was mighty good.

So for now, we need to get everyone healthy and get the place disinfected.

more later…