Love

The greatest impediment to love
is not hate or indifference, but fear.
Where there is fear, love cannot enter.
One must act fearlessly to love.

~PMW

Omron HJ-303 Pocket Pedometer Review

After a recent move, I can’t find my fancy Garmin GPS training device…  It measured heart rate, could help you with training goals, gave you graphs of where you went, etc.  All the bells and whistles.  So, this review won’t compare this pedometer to something that elaborate.

It’s been several months without any luck in finding my Garmin, so I got this Omron to tide me over.  It’s hard to describe, but being able to see my progress, in steps, simply motivates me a lot more than just timing myself.  With only a timer, it’s easy to walk to slowly and worse simply not feel as motivated to reach the coveted 10,000 steps per day.

This pedometer measures steps, distance, time elapsed, calories burned, 7-day data memory, total steps and it has a nice feature of showing you how many of your steps actually add up to real exercise.  The formula for deciding this is based on 100 paces / minute and a stride length of 28 inches or 2.5 mph.  This pedometer also has a clock, but no timer or stopwatch functions.  Neither does it have a back light.  It has the basics and seems to do very well on those basics.  Specifically, it’s a “tri-axis” pedometer, so it can detect walking just about no matter how you attach it to yourself.  You can even put it in your pocket or around your neck.  It comes with a cord and plastic clasp that can attach the device to a shirt, pants, etc.  It also has a holder clip that the device slides into.  It can be attached to your pants, purse or whatever like a pager or wireless phone would.  It has a battery saving mode that activates 5 minutes after not pressing any buttons. When it come time to change the batteries, you can use the included tiny screwdriver for the task.  The booklet states that the battery should last about 6 months when used 2 hours a day, approximately 10,000 steps.  This pedometer can keep 7 days of data in memory and keeps a running total of all steps/miles walked.  This can be handy on trips.  It can keep up to one million steps in memory!

The physical dimensions are 3″ wide x 1 3/8″ high, 1/2″ deep.  It weighs about 1 oz with battery.  The battery type it uses is the common CR2032.

This pedometer has all the basics honed to a ‘T’.  Its style and color (black) lend it easily to either men or women.

List price is about $45 on Amazon, but can be found for about $30 as of this writing.

If you want the basics and need accuracy and flexibility, then I can gladly recommend the Omron HJ-303 pedometer.

Looking For a Job?

Everyone seems to be looking for a job!  Everyone is looking for one of these things so they eat, have a place to sleep, pay their various bills.  But not long ago humans didn’t need “jobs.”  Every wonder what a job really is?  There’s nothing to be ashamed of for having one, but have you ever wondered?  At one time, man was mostly answerable to himself and a small group.  With civilization, much of that is nothing more than a ‘pipe dream.’

Every now and then you read, see or hear about people living this sort of “in the middle” life between society and total ‘caveman’ freedom.  They may have already had money saved, family property, or get lucky and find someone to let them sort of live on their land.  What a concept, to live.  Why are we not free to simply live?  Ponder that…

Cubicle Blues

We weren’t meant to live in a cubicle!  Ever think about how much time moderns spend in “boxes”?  Houses, offices, cubicles, restaurants, etc…  How much time do most spend outside?  We must breathe fresh air, see the sun, feel the wind and let our feet touch the earth.  Let us not forget our long heritage as humans on this earth…

Delusion

Today while walking, the Tibetan prayer flags were reflected in my car’s front window.  From a distance, it looked like something was in my car…  It was a relaxed walk, so my mind was calm.  It reminded me of a dog I used to have that would get up on the bed, see her reflection in our mirror and start barking and growling at her reflection.

How often we incorrectly perceive our world, and react to it quite seriously.  In Buddhism, this is often called ignorance or delusion.  When we are caught by our thoughts, suffering ensues.  The idea in Zen is to release these notions.  Buddhism does not teach nihilism, that nothing is real or matters, but that there is a reality, it’s just not as we perceive it.

How often do you think you react to mistaken notions?  This is not something to feel particularly guilty about, because it is a mistake.  When we see the world and ourselves more clearly, better actions are taken.  Most of the morality that could be taught, many already know.  We simply cannot act appropriately when our perceptions and notions are off.

Decide today to consider what notions or views you may have that are mistaken and work your way out of them.  See if you can clarify reality on those things for yourself.