Comments on: Day 18: Join a challenge

By: aquadump

aquadump — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:17:47 +0000

Thanks! This might be the extra push for me to try not riding in a car for the month of May.

By: Dreamer

Dreamer — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:36:20 +0000

Tell us more about the plans for oregon. Can I come too?

By: Retired Syd

Retired Syd — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:26:19 +0000

@Jacob: As you are well aware, I am one of those people for whom such a challenge is a great source of guilt rather than a great source of motivation. Oh well . . .

@Eden: I feel your pain!

By: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:01:01 +0000

@Kris – I have the same issues. I wonder if there’s any basis for a shop that sells things without wrapping. I bet there’s all sorts of regulations against this kind of sensibility though.

@Eden – I think the main reason that so many fizzled on the 100 PU challenge is the way the program is structured. You have to start at a fairly high level of strength not to have the regimented increased in volume outrun you at some point. I think this post describes a better way to get stronger …
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/2008/08/the-two-year-fitness-program.html

By: Eden

Eden — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:49:05 +0000

I’m afraid I’m one of the losers who got all excited about the 100 pushups challenge and quickly fizzled out. Perhaps I should try that again, but try to make it a long-term change and not worry about the weekly nature of the challenge.

By: Kris

Kris — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:44:20 +0000

I share your pet peeve about excessive packaging.

When I was a kid, way back in the 1950′s, one of my favorite things to do was to walk to the local office supply store with my mother. And one of my favorite things to buy was manilla drawing paper. The paper was “packaged” with a simple band of brown craft paper, only few inches high, that was wrapped around the drawing paper.

(I used scrap paper, printed on one side, brought home from the office by my father, for casual drawings. The manilla drawing paper was reserved for special projects.)

And if I needed an eraser (Pink Pearl was my favorite), I could buy one with no packaging whatsoever.

Today it’s almost impossible to buy an unpackaged eraser. And, for that matter, it’s almost impossible to buy a single eraser. Most erasers are packaged with two or three to a pack.

That, of course, is the situation for many other items as well. You can’t buy just one, even if you only need just one.