Ode to EMF

The true virtue of this blog is that I can argue with Paul whenever the mood grabs me, and not have to wait for the next all-nighter Armada session with an OX blocks chaser. Today I welcome EMF attached to my body!

This week, I have embraced Bluetooth after a many years of wondering what the purpose is. I used to play a weekly game of tennis with my brother and get out alot with Jordan, but both these activities are marked declining of late, leaving me with little enforced exercise. This year at my annual, the doctor asked me how much exercise I was doing. (I told him I had a diaspora strategy where I micromanage a large fleet of transports - well it starts large and then Paul prunes...) I gave him a guess, but he looked dubious. Then last week I saw that Samsung had a new range of smart watches that  track your exercise and sleep and upload it onto your Samsung phone. I had read a New Scientist article suggesting that smart watches, while still immature technology, do motivate you to achieve exercise goals. As I had a Samsung phone, I thought to try the Neo 2.

It took a bit of getting used to as I have not worn a watch since Hal Judge suggested I take mine off at Ursies. Further, like a phone, it wants to be charged every few days. And I had to turn on Bluetooth for the phone, which I have always had off on the grounds that something on that I don't use can hurt me.

The instruction manual does say how to control the device, but not how to use it. For example, you need to put exercise goals into it before it will record anything. So I set myself a goal of 10,000 steps per day and 3km walking for exercise.  On the first day, I had done no steps, so I discovered you had to turn the pedometer on. The next day I found my daily commute gave me 4,800 steps, so for my exercise that evening, I only needed another 5,000. Unfortunately, when I started the exercse app before walking the dog, it did not gave me any credit for going to work. It did take my pulse though before I started, which was cute. So three quarters the way through the dog walk, the watch made a noise and flashed up a gold coin for hitting my 10,000 steps. A minute latter, it told me I was 50% through my 3km. Unfortunately, I was less than a klick from home, so I was a disappointed 2.3KM exerciser.

The next day I decided to get that 3Km and headed off the wrong way on the dog walk (the dog thought I was crazy) wandered for a Klick and then headed past the house and did the normal work and got my gold coin for completing 100% of the exercise. To my horror though, 3km is only about 7000 steps, and being Anzac day I did not go to work, so I did not get a gold coin for that.

Today I am better prepared. I went to the train station this morning to buy some bread and milk, so have about 4000 steps in the bank. Tonight we get two gold coins! Then I need to do some reasearch into what is a reasonable workout for a 50 year old. However, I have a sneaky feeling the smart watch is going to convince me take on the Kokoda Track before the the year is out!

Also, I am not nearly as restless in bed as Margo claims - certanly not half the night!

Comments

[Leadermi22]

Once you get past 50, a high percentage of motionless becomes normative.

[Paul]

Cool watch. Does it record EMF levels. How is it powered. Why does it need such regular charging. Does it also tell the time. Does it send the data to the NSA.