On snowboarding: Preventative measures work better if you buy them before you need them

On the ski lift today:

Me:  The fall wasn't bad. I had knee pads.
Woman: You have knee pads?
Me: Yeah.  I also have a tailbone pad and body armor -- that's wrist, elbow, shoulder, back, and chest pads -- and a helmet.
Woman: Wow... you must have been in a terrible accident.
Me:  (laughs)  No.  I want to avoid being in a terrible accident.  That's why I bought all that stuff.  
Woman:  Oh.  That makes sense.



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People don't get it.  You can do more cool things in your life if you lower the cost of failure.  I was able to learn to snowboard faster because I was less afraid to fall and because the falls I did take bruised me up less, allowing me to spend more time on the slopes and less time sitting around feeling achey.  

This is one of those useful general purpose life lessons.  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is true, but many kids are likely to ignore it because it sounds burdensome.  However, if it's reframed as "You can do more fun things if you also take care of these precautions", it's more positive and gets the point across better.  

Iaido using Kinect camera

A friend of mine saw my Kinect videos and contacted me about filming him doing Iaido.  

Iaido is a highly stylized Japanese martial art in which practitioners fight imaginary opponents in a scripted battle, playing each of the positions in the battle one at a time.  A lot of importance is paid to the position and timing of the movements, ensuring that they align with one another.  Basically, the Kinect software I wrote was perfect for assessing how well he did.  The filming conditions were not so good and I didn't have much time, so this is more like a proof of concept. Hopefully I'll get something better when he's next in town.