Reviews

Today’s blog will be a review, first my new Pedometer, or as they like to call them these days, a “Personal Activity Monitor”, the one I got is the “fitbit one”. The thing is tiny, and has only one button. Most stuff (including tracking info into spreadsheets automatically) is done through a wireless dongle, and is PC and Mac compatible, as well as various i-thingy’s. I have had it for almost a week, and am impressed, mostly because it is suitable to tuck on the waistband of our uniforms, so I can measure the most active time of my day-class. (Women are typically shown wearing it tucked into a bra). Downsides: it still measures frost heaves in our roads as steps, and one I’m not sure is good or bad, the rapid up and down of pushups and other exercises is counted as stair climbing. This is not technically accurate, but it does capture the higher energy level involved. So far I recommend it, $99 from Amazon.ca    

The other review is the new book by John Michael Greer, the ArchDruid that writes the weekly ArchDruid report blog. The book is called “Not the future we ordered” Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress. Now, as someone who has been following the peak oil scene for years, I enjoyed this book as it attempts to explain the psychology behind the different reactions to news of peak oil and its ramifications. The interesting thing for me is that part of my motivation to study Kung Fu is peak oil. Kung Fu was developed long before conventional oil arrived on the scene, and will most likely be around once oil is once again a precious rare commodity, not to be squandered on Sunday drives and disposable anything’s.  Many things that your average couch potato slash cubical dweller will consider unthinkable are already a normal part of a Kung Fu artist’s life, things like “Hard Physical Work”, and human powered weapons. So if you are starting to suspect that the latest plastic gizmo isn’t the be all/end all in the quest for eternal progress, maybe you might be ready to learn about peak oil as well.

The final thought, the irony of a review of latest gizmo and a book about the incipient demise of the world of latest gizmos is not lost on me. Remember, Peak Oil is not the Apocalypse, it is recognizing that any resource on a finite planet has got to be finite as well, and it is more about appropriate use of those resources as they slowly decline in affordability and availability than preparing for the doomsday of modern civilization. I choose to prepare for what I see is as obvious  as the changing of the seasons, but do indulge myself in small ways as I go along.  

Dennis Donohue