The Last Days on Mars (2013) - A brief movie review

This movie moved at a brisk pace. I might watch it again on TV someday. I may not. But it did lead me to put together some thoughts on how a future Mars research outpost may look like in terms of human personnel and equipment. So here is the list:

Mars Research Outpost 1

Individual Service Term Length: 1 year
Maximum Individual Service Terms: unlimited, non-consecutive years, subject to career performance approval & annual medical certification.

Total Human Personnel: 105

Team	Team Total	Comment
Research	32	Including astrophysicists, biologists, chemists, geologists, meteorologists and interns; also 8 science equipment maintenance technicians.
Medical	12	Including 3 physicians, 3 nurses, 3 first responders, 1 psychiatrist; also 2 medical equipment technicians.
Security	20	Military police personnel including heli-rover crew, in-house medical team & mechanics.
Facility Maintenance	16	Including fuel station operators, machinists, plumbers, riggers, electricians, HVAC technicians, computer guys and rover mechanics.
Galley, Hospitality & Supply	15
Program Administration, HR & Legal	10
Outpost Counsel		Outpost Counsel is made up of the heads of each team (6 total) and chaired by the Program Administrator.

Work Shift Model (excluding security): One 10 hour or two 6 hour shifts; overlap allowed at discretion of head of department.

Total Transport Equipment: 48

Transport Equipment	Total	Comment
Manned 6-Wheeled Rovers	10	Capable of seating 7 each including crew and one airlock.
Manned 6-Wheeled Rovers (Military)	4	Capable of seating 5 each including crew, airlock and equipment.
Manned Tri-Wheeled, Mini-Rovers	20	Capable of seating 2 each; 3 dedicated to Medical team; 4 dedicated to Facility maintenance team; 3 dedicated to Security team; 6 dedicated to Research team; 4 in reserve
Rescue Heli-Rover Aircraft	1	Crew 4 (includes 2 first responders from in-house medical team who are also trained hoist operators); Passengers 4 (if two seated; otherwise 3 laid up); Aircraft operated by security team.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles	2	Operated by Research team.
Unmanned Rovers	6	Operated by Research team.
Forklifts	5	For hauling supply and heavy equipment around.

Fuel Sources

Nuclear
Solar

Facility Layout

MRO-1

Three brief book reviews

I read these books during a particularly difficult time in my life early this year. And they have left an impact on me.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

A woman giving birth by herself in the bandit-ridden, medieval forests of England. The building of a huge cathedral with not so modern technologies. The long search of her lover through Europe by a young woman carrying her newborn and on foot most of the time. A builder who walks around England with his impoverished family looking for work. The gang rape of a princess. There is love, hate, jealousy, bullying and pillage. There is betrayal...over and over again. I have heard of Ken Follett's bestseller but never bothered picking it up. With a new found convenience of the Kindle app on my iPad, I had this book in front of me after just a single click. I couldn't put it down. Amidst my everyday duties, I finished reading it over a period of two weeks. Over the past years, I have read some really droll novels. Now my standards are back up to their old levels.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

This is a thin book. But the human beings at the heart of it were probably thinner. Surprisingly, despite the obvious heavy-handedness of the subject and the various cruel experiences described, the overall tone of the book remains light and carries with it a noticeable feeling of positivism and hope. It made me wonder how light I had made of opportunities that have come my way and how I could, going forward, seek out purpose and face it with a twinkle in my eye.

Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger

I read this book last December and already my life has taken a significant turn for the better. I have become a results-oriented person who now consistently thinks through what he wants to achieve, sets goals and works hard at finishing what he started. Equally importantly, I have become good at putting things behind me and moving quickly and decisively forward. I know a lot of people don't like Schwarzenegger and, certainly, I saw a lot of reviewers on Amazon viewing the book in a dispassionate way. However, to a lot of people, including yours truly, Arnold has been a source of inspiration if only to reinforce the thought that you can be a much better person with a more fulfilling life regardless of what might be happening or not happening in your life at that point. As a kid, I grew up in a country of cinematic superstars but none of them impressed me in the slightest way. And the everyday people who surrounded me were simple folks: hard-working, honest, unpretentious but completely uninteresting, unoriginal and content with their traditions and rituals. Into this mix, a teenager's mind found western novels by Louis L'amour, the sultry beauty that is the countryside of Tamilnadu and, of course, Hollywood movies. To put it more bluntly, this book is about a guy who lived in a closet in a gym in Germany while earning a living as a trainer there and attempting to pursue his dreams of becoming the world's best bodybuilder and coming to America to make use of the enormous opportunities here. Almost every few pages, I was picking up a thought process or observation by Arnold that I had more or less observed in my own life. There were yet other such observations by him that, to me, were big takeaways from the book and immediately applicable in fixing several long suffering habits of my own personality.

How to get bigger forearms

I woke up to a Saturday morning that was in stark contrast to last Saturday morning. I couldn't find that sparrow from last week either. So I settled for breakfast at Ferrara's, where I noticed more than a few patrons glancing at my forearms. A train of complex thought led to this quick post (it would have been a slower post with my old keyboard).

It is not a forearm training article. There's plenty of those online. This is just solid, generic weight training advice for the fellow who is just getting (back) into training. And don't forget to inspect the graphic at the end of this post.

The lifting program

Objective: Improve cardiovascular capacity, posture, burn chow better, increase or introduce mobility, stimulate the lymph system, put a healthy sheen on your skin and strengthen the whole body. We are going to accomplish all that by starting off with one really tough exercise and then doing a handful of relatively easier ones. Let's not worry about nutrition at this point. I am assuming you are not wallowing in sody pop during day time and beer at night. I do recommend a single quality protein shake every day as this will aid in building muscle and thereby greatly reduce soreness after a workout. Also, and here is a fantastic supplement, drum rollllll....fish oil. Gobs and gobs of it. You have to want it badly. A single suspicious looking pill, as the doctor recommended, won't cut it.

Warm-up

If you have made a brisk 5 minute walk to the gym, don't spend too much time on the warm-up. You will be doing warm up sets with each exercise and that is sufficient at this level. I know there are some camps that advocate training with cold muscles, their argument being that if a lion were to jump you on the corner of Boylston and Exeter, you wouldn't have time to stretch before fighting for your life. Well, in several decades on this planet, I have encountered a few mice but nary a lion. So...ignore those idiots, take your time and work things in. Once warmed up, you can stress your body hard with the weight training that follows.

But do a few of those joint-loosening type exercises though. You know, neck rolls and such...if they are not too much of a bother. One other exercise I strongly recommend at this point is the back-extension. Adjust the bench so that you are not hyper-extending your knees. The first time I hyper-extended my knee on this exercise, that knee was stiff for three days. If I had put a hand out, I could have made some easy money. Anyway, do a couple of easy sets on this exercise, just enough to introduce a little warmth into the lower back and hips. Visualize engaging everything from the ankles to the neck and you eventually will engage them. If the exercise is uncomfortable, do bird dogs instead. Again visualize using your whole body to do the exercise. You need to get your glutes and vertebral column warm and ready before the weight lifting part.

Stretching

Again, don't spend half your day here. You are not a cheerleader intent on sucking her own toes. But don't go the other extreme and not do any stretching either. If you remember some stretching moves from bygone days, work them in. If any feel uncomfortable, don't do 'em. As your mobility improves with weight training (and it will, if you stick to it), you can gradually work those back in. And don't overstretch. Just take your limbs and whatnot through whatever range of movement is available in the area, hold the stretch for a few seconds, release the stretch slowly and move on to the next one. Stay aware of what you are doing.

The workout

Your first exercise will be the squat. If you can't squat, try any of the following variations: trap bar dead lift, step-ups, squats on hack machine or just do free squats (no barbell on back). If you want to go climb stairs, that's fine too. But a movement where you flex both at the knees and hips while on your feet is essential. By itself, the squat can help you reach your objective. So if you get a call from the state house requesting your immediate presence to resolve an issue regarding a political candidate and an intern, you can leave the gym knowing that you had already put a good workout in.

Do six sets on the squat. The first set is a warm-up set designed to introduce a little warmth in all the right areas. The second set is also a warm-up set but you push the reps a little harder here. The third and fourth sets are warm-up sets intended to help you find that groove. If you are like me, your knees should start feeling nice and smooth at this point. Put a little bit more weight on the bar for the next two sets. Do enough reps until you start to breathe hard and then stop. As your cardiovascular system strengthens, you can start playing around with set/rep schemes more. But just keep your head on until you get to know your body better.

You will eventually work up to eight sets on the squat over a three month period, the length of this program.

After the squat, do four sets of each of the following exercises. Consider the first two sets as warm-up sets and use the same weight on them. Increase weight on the third set and stick to that same weight for the fourth set as well. Your goal here is not to set strength records but do obtain full, quality range of motion in the muscle group you are exercising, awaken your ticker and get that blood moving.

Leg curl
DB bench press on incline bench
Seated cable row
Standing DB shoulder press
Neutral-grip lat pull down
DB shrug
DB curl

Finish of with two more sets of Back-extensions or bird dogs.

You will not be doing any direct work for the triceps, forearms, calves and abs...for the time being. This is a three day a week program (example: M-W-F or Tu-Th-Sat). Rest time between each set is enough time to catch your breath. Don't dilly dally between sets or play with your smartphone. Listen to what your body is telling you. You can subtly observe the hot chick doing Hindu push-ups if that will keep up your interest level on your own health and well-being. But don't stare. Good luck!

To the little girl who broke my heart

What a beautiful Saturday morning! It was around 9.50 AM and I was sitting by the greenway just across from Salem street as usual with my latte and chocolate croissant from the Boston Bean coffee company. I would have to go back to my place in 30 minutes to pick up my laundry...and then think of something else to do for the day. Little did I know that a change will happen in my life in about an hour. I engaged a sparrow for about 10 minutes during which time the little fella consumed a good chunk of my croissant.

A little less than an hour later, I was sauntering along the harborwalk toward the waterfront. I got to the dog park and the area was packed as everyone was out under the sun. What other "birds" were in store for me this day! By the dog park, a rather slim young woman almost slammed into me.

Hmm, must be European. Too young for me though.

"Excuse me", I said and started to walk past her.

A tiny voice spoke in my ear.

"Excuse me", I turned and looked at her...must need directions.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"I need 15 dollars to get on a bus to Springfield, VT. I am only 15 years old and have no money. Can you help?"

She looked healthy.

"How did you end up here?"

"I came to see my aunt in South Boston and..."

I barely heard the rest of what she said.

"Sorry I can't help you"

I kept walking toward the waterfront. Why do people always ask me for money?! The hell if I will let myself be ripped off by some kid. A few seconds later, my walk slowed as a slew of thoughts started in my head. What if she was telling the truth? 20 bucks is nothing for me. Usually the homeless people who sidle up to me...well, I know for sure who they are and have no issue pushing a buck over. But that girl? Come to think of it, there was a certain dignity in how she asked for help. Maybe her aunt couldn't help her and, with no one to turn to, she is going back home. What's in store for her back "home"? What did she say that she came to see her aunt for? Don't women leave these little towns and try to make a better life elsewhere? I remembered those other women (older, of course) who had said something along the lines of "Please don't go" after those brief moments when I engaged them in conversation on day trips through...Goshen...Lancaster...Orleans down in the Cape. They had wanted me to pay them attention, just a little attention...and I had been too self-absorbed to comply.

I felt overwhelmed. I am not supposed to feel this way with all these years of experience behind me.

Fuck. Come on, man, you are supposed to know your own mind by now.

I stopped right by where the MBTA commuter boats leave, stared at the ground for a bit and turned. People were milling around for their harbor boat trips. I only had a few dollars on me. Maybe I can get some cash from that ATM next to the Starbucks and find her.

Find her?! I came back to the dog park and looked around. How the hell am I going to find her in this mess? It seemed half the women barely wore anything while the others all wore a gray t-shirt just like her. The day looked bleak.

I started to walk looking for her. I stopped by Joe's to ask the hostess.

"Excuse me, did you see a young woman in a gray t-shirt walk past?"

"Sorry, there's a lot of women who walk by", came the response. Weirdo.

Dejected, I started walking home. I stopped at the ATM to withdraw a few twenties. No, this is not right. I must find her and help her.

Let me go back and scan the area next to Tia's.

Faneuil Hall.

For the first time in my life, I wished I were taller. I jumped onto a bench and gazed between the buildings. People were staring at my suppressed anger. The hell with them!

Maybe somebody else helped her. No, no, you are going to see this through. Find her! She may not have eaten all day. Now I was really concerned. I remembered the low voice. She might have been hungry too when she spoke to me. I hope I won't find her passed out somewhere. That was some of my darker memories growing up in India...people passed out by the roadside. But American women were stronger, right? And now I am supposed to be an American. Am I?

Downtown crossing.

My t-shirt was soaked from all the scurrying around. Okay, maybe somebody did help her. In that case, she might be off to South Station to catch that bus.

Ok. South Station next.

What if she sees me and freaks out? Maybe I will leave three twenty dollar bills near her. Then I will give her a smile and just walk away. Yes, that's what I will do. I will have to do it in such a way that some enterprising cop doesn't spot me and book us both for "abnormal" behavior. I don't want to make more trouble for her. And if she didn't take the money, fine. Let somebody else have it. I don't want it.

She wasn't in South Station. I went out to a couple of buses and jumped up and around. No, no buses to VT.

Maybe she was really an older woman posing as a young girl.

No, don't make an assumption like that. She really needed your help and you didn't help her.

I stood on the pavement with my mood at an all time low and all my pride squeezed out of me. Unsure of what to do, I slowly walked back to my place. It seemed like a forever walk. And my eyes were scanning for her...always scanning...

Close to home, I couldn't bear to go indoors. Maybe I could spot her if she walked past me. I sat down at a doorstep on Commercial street. After an eternity, I walked across the road to the baseball field, sat down on a stone bench and buried my face in my hands.

Luna

Yes, I am most certainly interested, my dear sir.

Aloof...as only a high quality female can be.

Spying on me again, is he? What's up with this guy?*

*I took this shot by pointing the camera into an empty paper towel cardboard tube.

A brief food review

An unseasonably cold day in April. Perfectly normal in New England, of course. After a business trip earlier in the day to bereft Lowell, I came back to town with a sudden hankering for sushi and a stiff drink. So I went out to Billy Tse across the waterfront.

Spicy tuna maki

Ginger martini

Kung pao chicken with a side order of white rice.

It would have been nice to taste a bit more ginger in the martini. The kung pao chicken was perfect. It wasn't greasy and there was just the right amount of sauce in it to mix with the white rice. And the rice was "sticky" enough for my chopsticks. I wolfed down the sushi before I even laid eyes on it.

Nothing ground breaking here. I was hungry, the food delicious and it got its just desserts!

My 250th post

My lips are quivering, my heart beating fast and my fingers unnaturally tense as I write this. I finally deactivated my Facebook account. It feels sooo good. I never understood why I even got on there in the first place. Sure, it's a great tool to help keep in touch with friends. But most of my friends are hooked up and largely unavailable. And I don't make new friends easily. The couple of friends that are still around are neither ambitious nor energetic. Nothing wrong with that, of course. They are good people but their priorities are not aligning at all with my own increasingly restless nature. I will be there if they need me but its high time I went incognito.

Snow shoeing, flight training and hiking are those activities that I have been enjoying with some regularity in the past couple of years. The lifting will continue. But I have enjoyed them all alone. No one cares or need to care about my thoughts on the way a particular tree leans on a trail, a particular pond looks from an aircraft or the way my pulse quickens when I spot a fine pair of calves on a sultry brunette walking toward me on Salem street. It should, however, be fun to find out the old-fashioned way as to what is going on (or has gone on) in the lives of a friend when I someday meet with him and talk about things in person. A man has to have a purpose. I will find mine soon. Good hunting, my friends!

Four brief product reviews

In the last couple of years, I have refrained from buying anything unless I really needed it. I noticed a lot of my friends had developed this habit much earlier on in their lives. Well, it took me a bit longer. Anyway, I brought four products in December 2012 because I needed them and here are their reviews.

Sennheiser RS120

Wireless speakers are not exactly news. But with 2013 the year of the "clutter free", the regular speakers that I had connected to my laptop were displaced by these Sennheiser speakers. It didn't exactly make it clutter free as I still had to connect the base unit to the laptop and, of course, the power plug to the surge protector. But the wireless headset is simply amazing. Previously if I watched a movie later in the evening, I would have to keep the sound really low. And occasionally put up with the couple upstairs having "fun". Not anymore. Plus I can now listen to music while moving about the place. The reception is clear even in the remotest part of the house. One of my best investments in recent years.

Blondo Men's Mickey 2 Boots

This winter there were some cold days. Or so they said. I never felt it though. There was one really big snowstorm but I went out confidently. No lacing up. No worrying about slipping. No worrying about cold feet. Nothing. I just wear my usual cotton socks or whatever socks and slip these boots on and no one the wiser. They are cozy. They don't make my feet sweat (because I wear light and not wool socks). They are slim enough to not interfere with my pants. Also the toe area is flexible enough that I can move around lightly on my feet, jumping over puddles and landing softly, etc.

Lasko space heater

The little fella in action...killing a New England draft.

I left my old space heater many years ago in a previous apartment because the new freckle-faced kid who was replacing me needed it. Compact with a low-medium whisper, this Lasko space heater heats up a small room quickly. I can't believe that only last Fall I was considering getting one of those electric fireplaces. Not only would that have severely lessened floor space in my small living room but it would also have cost me roughly $800 more. I like  electric fireplaces but they can wait for a bigger space. The little Lasko space heater has allowed me to keep gas heating down during day time. I have been using it every day this winter for a few hours each day. I noticed that the monthly electricity bill has gone up by only a few dollars, while the gas bill has dropped about 15%. Note that I live in a small apartment where you can see such changes. But the real impact is in the ability to quickly heat up cold spaces after coming into my apartment after a few hours of being outside or after waking up in the morning while waiting for the gas heating to catch up.

Fabulous product 4

This product shall remain nameless. Some things should remain private :)

How I learnt to swim

Coming next Friday: The anatomy of a chase.

The Indian Experience

This background is necessary since, unlike here in the US where kids grow up swimming and take being in the water for granted, it wasn't exactly a sporting culture that I grew up in. If you have always had a fear of water, you should read this background.

The only bodies of water I saw during my childhood in Madurai, India were local waterholes that were more ponds than lakes and completely covered by green algae. Only buffaloes and little kids, there to watch over the buffaloes, with no thought for hygiene could be found cooling off in them. And there were always flies and mosquitoes buzzing about when it wasn't too hot. Us middle class kids stayed away. Sure, there were puddles of water and temporary little streams -- is there a fully working drainage system in India? -- by the roadside left behind by one of those tropical thunderstorms that came out of nowhere but I couldn't learn to swim in them. You would like to see that, would you now?

Scratch. Scratch. Not my photo.

One time a bunch of my friends bicycled out to the countryside slightly north west of the city almost a third of the way toward Alanganallur to just hang out and experience nature. After lunching from the little food we had brought with us in the stringy shade of a vineyard (okra?), we discovered a little canal that was used to irrigate the crops in the surrounding area. The water flowed slowly and came up to shin height and we cooled off and had great fun. We returned a couple more times for that experience.

The road to Alanganallur? Well, it looks close enough. Not my photo.

The only swimming pool was in the chamber of commerce's property across from the Gandhi Museum and, every time I bicycled past that place, I would stand up on the bike's pedals with scant regard for traffic and gaze with star-studded eyes over the compound wall at the pool until it disappeared from view. Nobody seemed to use that pool. Thankfully, that particular road never had heavy traffic either.

I have had four brushes with ocean swimming in India. The first was when my family bought a piece of land near the ocean in the Thondi area. A couple of employees who worked at a restaurant my Dad owned and who were from the Thondi area had recommended that purchase. The continental shelf extends quite a bit on the Coromandel coast and the waters especially around Thondi were very calm. As a result, it was an area that seemed to have a lot of tiny fishing hamlets. Easier to launch and dock small sail boats. And great for someone with zero swimming skills. I remember waddling around in the ocean with waters up to knee height for hours on end over several trips I took to the area, sometimes with family and sometimes with my Dad's employees' families who lived in a small, peaceful village nearby. The best part was always the bullock cart ride from their village to the always uninhabited beaches and back under moonlight on country roads.

Mahabalipuram, I think. Thondi was mostly villages and palm trees. Not my photo.

My second time in the ocean was during a high school class trip to Kerala. I don't much remember the details as our full attention was always on our female classmates, who refused to be lured into waters any deeper than ankle height. Sigh.

About a year before I came to the US, some of my friends took a little trip during summer holidays to Chennai, where we stayed in the house of a relative of one of my buddies. When you are in Chennai, you gravitate to the Marina beach sooner or later. This was my third brush with ocean swimming. The waves came in huge rolls and you could see adventurous kids being lifted and brought into shore. It was an exciting afternoon for a ride. As usual, most of the Indian people just waded in ankle or knee deep while remaining fully clothed. I went in with much gusto, was promptly lifted up by a wave and after several moments of sheer terror when my feet were completely off the floor, I somehow found myself back on the beach. I wouldn't go into the ocean again until years later in the United States.

During my second visit to India, seven or so years after I had emigrated to the US, most of our family from all over the country gathered in Madurai for the wedding of a cousin of mine. Some of us men decided to visit Rameshwaram before the wedding. One of my Uncles couldn't understand why I wouldn't go in the ocean there. He kept trying to push me to go in. Man didn't know when to give up. Finally, I relented, dipped a big toe in, did a 180 and sprinted back up the beach toward the temple area. I would sit there on a bench under the hot sun just content watching life move by on a busy historic street until the boys returned from the beach. My fourth brush with the ocean had been just that...a brush.

Ok, so that was some background material there, huh?! It was a good visit in time for me, actually. Anyway, after that third brush, I had developed a huge fear of water.

The American experience

After several embarrassing attempts at swimming at the pool during my college days at UMASS, Boston, I gave up. Shortly after, I paid a kid I found on Craigslist to teach me to swim in a suburban apartment complex pool in Stoughton. A couple of classes got us nowhere. It was spring and the water was cold. And I wouldn't put my head under water. Plus there was a good looking brunette around my age who hung around the pool in shorts and t-shirts and we kept catching each other's eye. Caretaker, maybe. But she was distracting and I was very self-conscious. Next up was a visit a few years later -- and just before that second trip to India I mentioned above -- to Stowe, Vermont with a bunch of friends during spring. We stayed at a motel-resort with a heated outdoor pool. Here I learned to swim with the guidance of a friend and had worked up the courage to swim up to the deep water mark on a single breath and always with my head above water when our trip ended and we had to return to Boston. As a matter of fact, I was up in that area for a couple of days just this week but I couldn't get a room in that resort (ski season).

Morrisville-Stowe State Airport in Northern Vermont. Not my photo.

My fourth attempt at learning to swim happened sometime in the late 2000s. Again, my friend, who was Indian by the way, agreed to coach me at the pool at the Marriott in Quincy. The Marriott then allowed non-guests access to its pool through a membership program. Anyway, I finally learnt to swim. Here is how it went down:

The first thing you need is the right attitude. Fear of failure will hold you back. By this time, I was sick of myself from chickening out and I was driven to succeed. I had had similar troubles with learning to snowboard and I eventually mastered that after a couple of seasons of trying. I took the attitude that I had developed on the slopes and simply transferred it to the pool. To put this in cold-blooded terms, I saw my body as a vehicle that needed to go from point A to point B. And I asked myself a question: What do I need to do to get there? Then I applied. Just applied. There were other visualizations that helped. I imagined all those beautiful women and all those beach boys having fun in the water while I sat bereft on the shore watching them. Alone. I didn't want to be on the outside anymore. I thought of Dara Torres' comeback. Next thing I knew I had my head under the water during my first session at the pool.

Then I came out of the water deliberately slowly. It started of as one single breast stroke. Then I landed on my feet and took several breaths. One more stroke. Stand on my feet. Repeat. Now I was a third of the way into the lane. I decided to turn back. One more stroke. Stand on my feet. Repeat. The temptation was there to do multiple strokes. And I am quite sure some of you would have done just that especially if you didn't have fear of water. Well, kudos to you. But I decided I wasn't going to give in to pressure because a bunch of kids and their mothers were (may be) watching me. I had a plan. I was going to apply it. I was fucking applying it. Don't ruin it now.

All this time, my friend diligently swam with me and continued encouraging me. Then the next session, I did the same thing. But I would stay under water a little more and get used to that world enveloping my senses. I would revel in it. I would move my eyes left and right while keeping my head still like Charlie Chaplin would. I was toying with destiny. Or so, I told myself. In his book HMS Ulysses, Alistair MacLean describes the travails of British sailors in WWII whose Destroyer gets torpedoed in the cold waters of the northern Atlantic and they find themselves in the water in a burning oil slick...oil from their own ship. Eventually, the skipper of another British ship in the convoy decides to relieve those burning men of their suffering and orders his crew to run over them. He couldn't stop to rescue them as then his own vessel would be a sitting duck. And the men in the water understand and are grateful as the hull bears down on them. I kept that scene in mind during every session. This was a 4 feet deep pool I was in, for crying out aloud! I think it was six weeks later, at the rate of around two to three sessions a week, that I swam end to end and while breathing properly. I remember that moment, after that first full lap, when I put my head against the wall of the pool, away from it all, and just stood there with my arms hanging limply by my side. Yet another piece of sh*t I had had to figure out by myself. Felt good though. My friend and I went to get a drink at the hotel bar after. I drove back into Boston and he went south to Weymouth.

6' 0". Gulp. Not my photo.

The biggest issue I had was with breathing. Up until my first successful lap, I was actually doing full laps for a couple of sessions but always on a single breath. I was just afraid to breathe normally. So I analyzed the issue and decided to apply a different tack. I went back to what I did in my first session: One stroke. Stand up. Repeat. Except as I stood up slowly, I would exhale just before my head broke the surface. The idea was to get used to how it felt to be exhaling under water. Then it happened. I did two strokes in succession and I breathed! It happened this way. As I stood up after the first stroke, I exhaled, my head broke the surface, I inhaled and deliberately let my legs fold underneath me. After that, it was easy. My words can only be so fluid. You have to try it to experience that.

Lessons learned

1. It doesn't matter what you eat as a solid meal before swimming but by the time you get to the pool, your stomach should be empty. I would much rather go in a little hungry than with a little food still in my stomach. You need mental clarity to stay focused and food in the stomach means blood is where it shouldn't be. After many years swimming, I find that this is the tip that makes the biggest difference in the quality of my swim sessions.
2. The first stroke you likely will get good at is the breast stroke. Fight the temptation to learn all the strokes right away. Get good at doing laps with your first stroke style. Then try to learn the others.
3. You might have to go through two or three masks before you find the right one. Anticipate this happening. When you are prepared, you won't get frustrated with your learning experience.
4. Spend minimal time at Sports Authority or reading about perfecting swim technique from the champions. Instead try to hit the pool as often as you can. While you should get your swim gear right, don't fret about it too much or about what the pros are doing. Otherwise, you might never learn to swim.
5. If your gym has a hot tub or steam room, use it after the swim. Somehow, a hot tub is much sweeter after a hard swim. It will be your reward for your dedication. But don't spend time looking for a gym with a pool and a hot tub. Just find one with a pool and start paddling.
6. See if you can rope in someone -- a friend, colleague, family member -- to swim with you. My friend made it clear that I could take advantage of his time at the pool. You will then be forced to show up at the pool because you know that someone else would be waiting for you.
7. Finally, bring attitude to your sessions. Put all other aspects of your life -- career, girlfriend, car problems, etc. --- aside and get into swim mode even before you get to the locker room. Like me, think of one or two people or events that can motivate you to conquer fear and concentrate on analysis and application. I would start doing this visualization as soon as I parked my car and shut off the engine. And it greatly helped reset my mind for the swim session ahead.

In conclusion

I have always been confident sunbathing at the beaches in New England ever since I arrived in these here parts. But that was largely because I had worked hard to build a fantastic physique. However, I rarely went in the water. But trust me: when you learn to swim, it opens up another entirely new world to you. You become much less self-conscious about appearing in a swimsuit. There is a certain confidence that will start projecting in your bearing. And this confidence will allow you to assimilate with people that you might normally have found standoffish. You and they suddenly become more approachable to each other. I am not going to elaborate on this. But once you learn to swim, you will realize right away what I am talking about here.

Big winter storm of 2012/2013

In New England, people get nervous. When a big storm is predicted, everybody rushes to the nearest shopping place to stock up on supplies. I suspect this may be the case elsewhere in the world as well. Having neither kith nor kin to worry about, I take more of a hunter's approach without the gatherer part. The big winter storm began on a Friday afternoon and blew itself over later in the day the following day. So the first thing I did late Friday afternoon was amble down to the Waterfront cafe for my usual:

Steak tips medium rare.

My street just after the storm ended Saturday afternoon. My last meal was almost 24 hours ago at this point. I had slept and read for the most part. I was ravenous. Maybe I will stock up next time.

The snow was so deep that a few minutes of trudging had my calves pumped. It's tricky trying to figure out the best places to cross a street. As you are crossing, a vehicle may be sliding down the already narrow streets of the North End and you have to make a quick decision: Continue crossing and get to the other side before the vehicle gets to you? Backtrack to where you where before you started crossing? Just freeze (no pun intended) and hope the vehicle will stall? So you quickly rush over to the other side of the street and even jump over a mound only to see the vehicle turn into a side street before it gets to where you were. It's like playing Pac-Man or Dig Dug. It will probably take me a couple of days to figure out and avoid the really tricky parts while getting to my usual destinations.

Some of the sidewalk had already been cleared. Pity. That's the lady from the earlier picture. As she skied past me, I said, "Nice shoes". She smiled.

My chiropractor. Guess I had to make an adjustment to my schedule, huh?

My brother sent me this photo. I would have removed the netting, of course.

I shopped at the Golden Goose and later made french-style chicken in red wine. It was delicious!

Anatomy of a scene

This is a version of events that ended in a three day camping/hiking trip outside Yuma in the Kofa national wildlife refuge area a few years ago in October. The starry skies I eventually gazed at for hours at night were...well..out of this world.

Technically, I was stuck in a ravine. The engine had overheated and I found myself pulled over, a rare occurrence that must be in an age of liquid cooling. But it was a rental and this was the southwest. In a way, I was happy for the break. I got out of the car and stretched. Something creaked. I figured I was getting old. I took a deep breath of the tepid desert air and squinted up at the sky. The sun looked like it was painfully making its way through another day. I stood still and cocked an ear. The silence of the desert was deafening. Everything was ancient around here. Brrr.

Not my photo.

It was an unremarkable road, the one I was stranded on. I hadn't seen traffic in a good hour. Dark grayish, the road stretched bare before disappearing around hills a short distance off to either side of where I was standing. As the invisible tendrils of a slight breeze worked its way over me, I consulted a map and realized that I was in the middle of a stretch of road shaped like a lazy lightning bolt. I pondered that for a moment. Was a lighting bolt ever lazy?

It was a clear day. I looked back the way I had come, over and beyond the first hill in the entrance to that ravine, and thought I could barely make out the Sierre Madre hanging in the distance as a single hazy, purple blotch. But the Sierre Madre were in far off Mexico and well beyond Yuma. Maybe it was just some strange effect particular to the desert. I pursed my lips and looked around furtively. No, there were no skeletons, human or animal, lying about.

The hills, for it would be too generous to call them mountains, in my ravine -- my ravine, was it? -- loomed up on either side of the road. They appeared barren and devoid of life. The hillsides glinted here and there. Were those a result of nature's eroding effect on rock, perhaps shale? Was one of those glints an old arrowhead? Or maybe a bullet from the civil war a 150 years ago? There were a few stunted trees sprinkled near the top of the hills. Gnarled and leafless, they looked like they might have been humans strung up on poles to culminate in a soundless and grotesque death. A few of those trees had the odd bird circling over them. The birds seemed motionless in the air. Were they buzzards? I looked around nervously. Time to get movin'.

I got in the car and turned the ignition. The engine started on the first try. Thanking my lucky stars -- and it would be a few more hours before those came out -- I gingerly eased the car out of the narrow shoulder, onto the road and out of serene no man's land.

Four brief movie reviews

Since I happen to have quite a bit of time on my hands these days, I have gotten back to an old habit of going to the movies. Matinees mostly.

Trouble with the Curve

Clint Eastwood's movies are always absorbing and this one isn't any different. I thought that the father-daughter relationship story line might prove to be a bit on the heavy side. There are a couple of heavy moments but the overall tone of the movie is light and breezy. Both Eastwood and Amy Adams are experienced actors and these roles do not stretch their talent. The baseball recruiting process stays on the sidelines. There is an obligatory love interest for the daughter which does not detract from the father-daughter relationship either. The rest of the casting is solid if unremarkable. I don't remember the background music. Remember what happens every time A League of their Own or The Sandlot is shown on cable? You usually watch it. Trouble with the Curve looks to be one of those movies.

Premium Rush

The extent of my city bicycle riding is relegated to those few times when I used to hang out with some bicycle people. I have sorry memories of lagging far behind the other riders. Of course, I was riding a hybrid while they were using cruisers. These days I keep my riding to park trails well outside Boston. Premium Rush is about bicycle messengers in the Big Apple. A baddie cop really wants a packet that is to be delivered by one of the bicycle riders (Note: this isn't giving away anything. We sense that that cop is a bad apple right from the first scene when he is shown). So a chase begins with the cop driving a car and our hero messenger on a bicycle through the busy streets of NYC. The foot chase in the first Bourne movie was exciting. But this one is filmed better. No handheld cam type shooting, for instance. That makes for a much better viewing experience. The other characters are obligatory. This movie is about the baddie cop and the goodie messenger. The baddie cop, who I thought was pretty good (in his performance), also provides some good humor. The director's sense of visual style is very appealing. I don't remember the background music. I might probably watch this one now and then on cable.

Zero Dark Thirty

If you liked Syriana, you will like this one really well. Same totally absorbing tone. Not as much background music. And equally as long. And unlike Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which starts very slow, this movie starts briskly and maintains an even pacing through to the end with several adrenaline rushes thrown in here and there. I was out with a date last night who raved about Django Unchained. I told her not to drink any fluids if she decided to watch Zero Dark Thirty. She needed to stay in her seat for this ride. As for the plot, we know Usama Bin Laden will be killed toward the end. So the movie is all about the buildup to that well known end. Most of the casting is really good. I thought the navy seals would come across as cocky and gung-ho. But they are shown as nervous and calm types who wait around and then eventually execute their orders in a workmanlike way. The lead actress playing the CIA analyst was steady with her performance. Will I watch this one again? Probably. But the three hour running time means I likely won't watch it as often as I would have liked to.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (IMAX 3D)

While my friends complained the movie was long, I had made a point of not drinking any fluids during the last hour before the movie started and this might have been my saving grace. It struck me as well-made and absorbing enough. The opening scene with its very partial showing of the dragon is tantalizing and amazing and made more so by the IMAX 3D viewing. But...too many monsters throughout the movie. They are really laying it thick on the CGI these days, aren't they? The goblin battle came across as a bit tacky and there were way too many goblins. I certainly hope the 2nd and 3rd movies use some superior editing before being unleashed on the audience. To me, the highlights of the movie were the opening scene, the conference between Gandalf, Galadriel (Cate Blanchett...yum), Saruman and the other dude Elrond, the encounter between Bilbao and Gollum as well as the encounter with the cave trolls. And they all speak English, huh? The acting is steady and I don't foresee any Oscars here. The background music and the wonderful portrayal of the scenic shire take you back to the first Lord of the Rings movie in 2001.