A GPS Watch and refereeing

Toward the end of last year I picked up a new Garmin Forerunner 405 w/ Heart Rate Monitor on eBay.  I wanted to start road cycling again, however found out that my old cycling computer had died.  It had been years since I was able to ride my bike, so I wasn't surprised to find it not working any longer.  I decided to pick up this Garmin watch in order to keep track of where I went, distances, heart rates, calories burned, speed, and even get me home if I took a wrong turn somewhere.  Once I got it though, I noticed it connects directly into Google Earth and that I could zoom down to show exactly where I was riding.  It was so precise that I could actually see if I cut through a parking lot instead of going all the way around the corner.  At that point I realized that this watch could be used for refereeing soccer games, and used really well to keep track of where I was on the field and how far I ran.

Middle of a women's DIII match between #1 Messiah & #8 Johns Hopkins.

This fall, I've started using the Garmin 405 for almost every game that I've refereed (and for the ones I didn't wear it, I estimated what I would have run).  Through 27 games I've refereed this fall, in both the Referee and an Assistant Referee position, I've run 114.46 miles.  That ends up to be approximately 4.25 miles per game that I've refereed so far this fall season.  If I continue that pace for the rest of the season, I'll have run 216.75 miles within the 10 weeks of fall ... or basically running from Baltimore, MD to White Plains, NY.  I never knew that I ran that much throughout games, and this includes games that I'm running through the middle of the field (like in the picture) and games that I'm running on just one sideline the whole time.  When I'm in the middle, I average just about 6 miles for the game.  The highest total so far was 6.57 miles, in this Hopkins v. Messiah game.  When I'm on the sideline I average just about 3 miles for the game.

Plus the Garmin 405 is great because you can set "Advanced Workouts" on the computer.  Basically I set up the timings for entire games, high school games and college games separately since they're different timings, and I'm able to scroll through to the "workout", press "do workout" and I have everything there.  I recently had a high school game that went all the way through 2 overtimes and the score was still tied.  The watch did everything I set it up for and went through the entire game without a problem.

Oh, and in case you're wondering ... I've been able to ride my bike 6 times since I've bought the watch.  I've ridden 138.83 miles in 9 hours 11 minutes 5 seconds, for an average speed of 15.1mph.  So yes, I do actually use the GPS watch for what I bought it for in the first place.

Honesty

Do people really want honesty?  This is something that I struggle with often.

When someone asks me a question ... 1) If I know you well enough, should I tell you exactly what I think?  2)  If I know you well enough, should I tell you what you ultimately want to hear?  3)  If I don't know you that well, should I just lie to you because you won't know the difference anyway?

I feel like there are actually some people in this world that want to know the truth, for better or for worse, because they are actually trying to become better people or learn more about themselves.  The problem, I find, is the tweeners ... the people that tell others they want to hear the truth, but then use that truth to prove that you were wrong, don't know what you're talking about, or just don't believe that's what you just said.

By trait I am pretty shy, actually I'd say reserved.  I'm probably the most perfect combination of my mother and father that you could possibly get.  A chameleon, if you must ... someone that's quite shy, however can hold a conversation with just about anyone, and in the right situation can feel quite comfortable holding that conversation.  I'd like to change.  I'd like to become more out going, as I've gotten older.  I'd like to be able to tell everyone the truth, but that's the problem.  That's where the "more out going" turns into "going back to what I've always known".  Avoiding confrontation is something that I do really well ... I've taken tests to prove that.

It seems to me that people don't want others to be more out going by becoming more truthful ... they want others to become more out going by just doing whatever the group is doing.  Hopefully my observations are skewed or even flat out wrong.  I'm not sure I'd be happy living in a place where I'm trying to always be a chameleon, in the sense that I need to change in order for people to accept me.

What's in a Title?

So, I've started sending this blog out to some friends, mostly for the enjoyment of approval and the fact that I can only read my own thoughts so many times over.  I have gotten a question back though ... "what's the title mean?"

Apparently the title has a completely unintended meaning, and that needs some back story.  For most of my life I've had issues with allergies and polyps within my nose.  I've had surgery to clean it all out, and fix my nose ... however they just come back.  For most of my life, I haven't been able to breathe through my nose or smell much of anything.  Recently, my new doctor, has had me rinsing my nose with a Neti Pot and a water/steroids solution.  It's worked tremendously ... sleeping well, breathing better, not really any issues with allergies right now, and being able to smell things.  Thus, I was asked if "An Awakening of One's Senses" pertained to me being able to smell again (by the way, look below for a pros/cons list of being able to smell again).  A fantastic question, but not what I was really going for.

The real meaning is tied to Australian tribal jewelry.  The above picture is the symbol that I've been thinking of getting as a tattoo for nearly 10 years now.  That's just a picture of the necklace charm and by using Microsoft Paint I've erased the piece that physically goes onto the chain.  If I ever decided to actually have this tattoo put on my body, then I'd get one of my friends to draw it for me.  I'm not sure why I became so enamored with this.  If it's the actual design of the intertwined moon shapes, or if it's the thought that it's tied to an awakening of one's senses.  Something has me continually come back to this one design whenever thinking about getting a tattoo.  Maybe I'm just weird.

So for all those asking, now you know ... and knowing is half the battle.  For a little extra time however here's my Pro/Con list for having my nose opened up again:

Pros:

• Bacon smells amazing
• Sushi
• Easier to run/cycle, being able to breathe through my nose and mouth at the same time
• Easier to sleep
• Food tastes better
• Beer tastes different (some better)

Cons:

• Needed to buy an air freshener for my room because it smelled different
• Some perfume/air fresheners smell weird
• My roommate farting
• Exhaust smells
• Cut grass
• Eat more because it tastes good
• I've started to find some food or beer that tastes different than I remember, not in a good way