To celebrate the Green Mountain Club’s 100th birthday, I’ll be posting five days of GMC news this week.
The Green Mountain Club was founded 100 years ago this week by a group of men (women quickly joined and attained active roles in both the front- and back-country) who gathered in Burlington, Vermont to sign a charter. They promptly began bushwacking their way along the spine of the Green Mountains.
Right now, my favorite life and career resource is Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd. The subtitle is “A practical course in career design for artists, innovators, and others aspiring to a creative life” and does not short shrift those of us who can’t master watercolors or work up the nerve for live performance art, but who nonetheless identify as creative.
Today is Town Meeting Day in Vermont. It’s a state holiday, so some workers (not all) have the day off to participate in, essentially, an annual meeting of their town. Some items of substance are discussed (budgets, elected officials) but many people describe it as a community-wide social activity.
I’m thinking about two things on this day. The first, that many formerly-elected officials (Al Gore, Evan Bayh) have said that the politic arena isn’t the place to get things done anymore.
Today is President’s Day. I get the day off. I’m not very sure why, except that maybe Presidents are worth celebrating with a short sabbatical. What am I supposed to do today? What is the intention of this holiday? Does anyone really take the day off work and ponder John Quincy Adams?
These questions lead me to more questions of leadership and power. Are President’s worth celebrating? More than spiritual leaders or civil rights leaders or just well-respected community leaders? I have no problem celebrating Grandparent’s Day or Administrative Assistants Day.
So here’s the basis of my civic reflections on President’s Day:
[NOTE: This website analytics post was published in 2010, which was a very, very long time ago in computer years. I’ve left this post live, both for fun and because some of it is still relevant. If you need help with your website or Google Analytics, please feel free to contact me for help or new info.]
Web analytics is becoming a normal and necessary practice, but I think many non-profits and artists are still working with websites that don’t provide them the info they need to grow, flourish, or even function well. So this entry will be an overview of web analytics, as well as a plea to install or become familiar with your website data (instructions on that further below).
Just a quick post here: I completed the Concept2 Holiday Rowing Challenge! I rowed 100,100 meters to be exact. It was not easy, but now it is done.
And I will not return to the gym until Monday!
This Challenge has been great, though. If rowers make it past the 100,000 meter mark, Concept2 will make a donation to the Center for an Agricultural Economy here in Vermont. Mission accomplished.
Challenges like this keep my gym routine fresh, link me to a healthy community and push my capabilities and effort physically. I haven’t seen other gym equipment companies rally their users quite like this, but if they did, I’d be excited to participate.
Photo credit: Garage Gyms
Hopefully, next Friday, I’ll be able to post a blog saying I’ve achieved complete success in this Concept2 Holiday Rowing Challenge. To do so, I’ll have to row a whopping 100,000 meters at my local gym, First in Fitness.
Right now, though, this Challenge is kicking my butt. I’ve increased my speed and decreased the time it takes me to row 5,000 meters, which is my goal for each session. But there was one day this week when my muscles needed a break and then another when all the rowing machines were being used. I have five days left that I can make it to the gym, in which I’ll have to row 5,831 meters each day to achieve the goal. Ugh.