Month: September 2009

One Year Ago: The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage

I’m cheating a bit with this one . . . the actual summary post was finalized on Dec. 16, 2008, but the first post overall was September 18, 2008. Oh, well. My blog, my rules.

This is the front page for our dispatches from our Grand Asia & Australia Voyage on Holland America’s Amsterdam, from September 19-November 23, 2008, with bonus coverage of our pre-cruise visit to Seattle, and our post-cruise detour to Cancun.

Here are the individual posts, collected all in one handy location for your reading pleasure. As we travel, we’ll be adding posts so you can follow our journeys.

WARNING:  BROKEN LINKS!

Part 1, Seattle
Part 2, Seattle and the M/S Amsterdam
Part 3, the North Pacific
Part 4, the North Pacific
Part 5, the North Pacific
Part 6, At sea, and arriving Hakodate, Japan
Part 7, Hakodate, Japan
Part 8, Amori, Japan
Part 9, Miyako, Japan
Part 10, Kobe, Japan
Part 11, Kobe, Japan
Part 12, Shanghai, China
Part 13, Shanghai, China
Part 14, Shanghai, China
Part 15, Shanghai and Hong Kong, China
Part 16, Hong Kong, China
Part 17, Hong Kong, China
Part 18, Hong Kong, China
Part 19, In the South China Sea
Part 20, Da Nang, Vietnam
Part 21, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Part 22, At sea, and Laem Chabang/Pattaya, Thailand
Part 23, Ko Samui, Thailand
Part 24, Ko Samui, Thailand
Part 25, At sea, and Singapore
Part 26, Singapore, and out to sea
Part 27, At sea, and Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia
Part 28, Snorkeling at Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia
Part 29, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia
Part 30, Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia
Part 31, At sea, bound for Perth, Australia
Part 32, Fremantle/Perth, Australia
Part 33, Fremantle/Perth, Australia
Part 34, Fremantle/Perth, Australia
Part 35, Melbourne, Australia
Part 36, At sea bound for Sydney, Australia
Part 37, Sydney, Australia
Part 38, Sydney, Australia
Part 39, Cruising the Coral Sea, and Noumea, New Caledonia
Part 40, Noumea, New Caledonia
Part 41, Noumea, New Caledonia
Part 42, Noumea, New Caledonia
Part 43, Suva, Fiji
Part 44, Apia, Western Samoa
Part 45, At sea bound for Honolulu
Contest photos
Part 46, At sea, crossing the Equator
Part 47, At sea bound for Honolulu
Part 48, At sea bound for Honolulu
Part 49, Honolulu, Hawaii
Part 50, Honolulu, Hawaii
Part 51, Honolulu and Lahaina, Hawaii
Part 52, Lahaina, Hawaii and bound for San Diego
Part 53, At sea, bound for San Diego
Part 54, San Diego, California
Part 55, San Diego, Dallas, and Cancun, Mexico
Part 56, Cancun, Mexico
Part 57, Cancun, Mexico
Part 58, Cancun, Mexico
Part 59, Cancun, Mexico
Part 60, Cancun, Mexico
Part 61, Home, at last!

Friday Night Link Dump: Odd, Strange, and Weird

Store launches underpants for left-handed men[*1]
What’s the best hot dog in New York City?[*2]
Programmer determines how far a person could get from a McDonald’s[*3]
Anti-Cthulhu PSA for young netizens[*4]
Poland okays forcible castration for pedophiles[*5]
Poor math skills may worsen diabetes control[*6]
Great Tits Eat Bats In Times Of Need[*7]
Monkey see, monkey sue? Firm’s name spawns lawsuit[*8]

Is willpower a finite resource?

Do people only have so much willpower to spend?

This Psychology and Heath article, as quoted at Futurepundit[*1] , says maybe so:

“Cognitive tasks, as well as emotional tasks such as regulating your emotions, can deplete your self-regulatory capacity to exercise,” says Kathleen Martin Ginis, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, and lead author of the study.

Martin Ginis and her colleague Steven Bray used a Stroop test to deplete the self-regulatory capacity of volunteers in the study. (A Stroop test consists of words associated with colours but printed in a different colour. For example, “red” is printed in blue ink.) Subjects were asked to say the colour on the screen, trying to resist the temptation to blurt out the printed word instead of the colour itself.

“After we used this cognitive task to deplete participants’ self-regulatory capacity, they didn’t exercise as hard as participants who had not performed the task. The more people “dogged it” after the cognitive task, the more likely they were to skip their exercise sessions over the next 8 weeks. “You only have so much willpower.”

See. THIS is why I don’t want to do things. I’m saving my willpower for the important stuff. Yeah. That’s the ticket.