21 Dec
2010
21 Dec
'10
11:23 a.m.
While one can distinguish between sports and athletics and exercise,
let's keep in mind Alan Turing's interest in running (e.g.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Miscellaneous/Turing/
Running.html).
Yes, he is the exception, a great mind who did do exercise...
I get lots of exercise through running and cycling, and have done so
I am reminded of Winston Churchill's statement : 'I get all the exercise
I need acting as a pall bearer for my friends who run and do exercise' :-)
consistently for the past 30+ years (while I have in
the distant past
participated in competition and 'organised' events, they are not really
my thing). So I'm of the mind that both body and brain cells work best
when they get some exercise; and as Turing suggests, physical exercise
I am sure this is a personal thing becuase I am of the opposite opinion.
I am the sort of person who can run 100m in 10 minutes, and who thinks
the best thing to do with a bicycle is to multiply it by 5*10^-7 [1]. A
quick look at the picture of me on the recent HPCC conference page
(linked from http://www.hpcc.org/ [2]) will, I think indicate that I am
not the wort of person to go running...
But if it works for tyou, I am not going to comment further...
[1] Do I really have to explain that on _this_ list?
[2] Actually on-topic. The picture shows me surrounded by bits of an
HP9836CU computer. It's not too clear from the photo, but I am holding
the brightness control assmebly, at the time I was explainign how I'd
dosmantled the pot to de-seize and then made a brass collar to fit the
knob so it souldn't slip again (and yes, I did mill a flat on the spindle).
can help keep the brain sane. Getting some exercise
after sitting on
one's ass staring at a monitor for hours on end, or hunched over a
workbench of hardware, while working on a 'brain' problem - can be very
beneficial to the brain and solving those problems.
I find soloving some other problem works for me. If I am stuck on sorting
out an electrronic fault, I will go and do some metal turning to fix
another part of the machine (or another machine), or something like that.
So while we're dissing the pointlessness of
physical games, how about
the pointlessness of computer games .. (or is that likely to start a
flame war here)?
Well, FWIW...
I have no interest at all in arcade/action games, what we used to call
'blast the b*st*rds' I playued Doom once on a friend's machine about 15
years ago, I didn't enjoy it much.
I do like some text adventures, becuase I like solving puzzles (just
about all puzzles). But I've not played one for years. Probably still a
waste of time, though. But then isn't fixing classic computers really a
waste of time? Or for that matter isn't that lmost the defintion of a hobby?
No, the only computer 'game' I enjoy is called 'programming' :-)
-tony