Caveat: The Union of Countries That Start With the Letter M

UCTSWLM. According to a graph being shared by business blogger Derek Thompson (at the Atlantic), there is some measure of economic"dispersion" – I'm not sure what that term really means in economic terms – according to which the countries in the Eurozone have a higher "dispersion" than a hypothetical Union of Countries That Start With the Letter M. And supposedly, this "dispersion" is a bad thing, if one is considering undertaking a monetary union – e.g. the Eurozone.

Better candidates for monetary union – besides the UCTSWLM – include the Market Economies of Latin America (who is being excluded, there? – Venezuala? Cuba? it doesn't say) and the Asian Tigers, among others.

Well, anyway. I like the idea of a UCTSWLM. We could just call it the M's, for short. Or maybe… Mmmmmmm. Imagine the headline: "Mmmmmmmm economy in crisis again! Will Malawi and Mongolia ever work out their differences?"

Caveat: 169 Kilometers

Starting on the first of May, I started keeping a "daily log" in this blog of how much I'm walking and/or running (aka jogging). Each day on the last entry for that day I put the daily log in square brackets at the bottom of the entry – see below for today's. I'm trying to increase my motivation and consistency. So I'm keeping data, here in this blog, the same way as I keep other sorts of daily banalities. Living the public, transparent lifestyle, out there on the internets.

The results are "just in time": today, I learned I'm borderline hypertensive, because of my blood pressure, which was taken during my drug screening / health checkup that I had to get for the provincial education office (which I'd been [broken link! FIXME] procrastinating on).

I found it depressing – I walked 120 kilometers in the month of May, and jogged another 49, for a total 169. Combine that with the fact that I spend most of my working day on my feet (in the classroom) and that I almost always use the stairs (7 floors at home, 5 floors at work), and I don't think I'm really that sedentary.

And yet… and yet… my weight is frozen with the extra "Yeonggwang 5 kilos" I picked up in 2010, and here I find I have high blood pressure. What's going on? What am I doing wrong? I don't think my diet is that irresponsible, either – I'm semi-vegetarian, I'm mostly avoiding alcohol… Well, just plain arghh.

Here's a graph of my data. You can see how I get lazy each weekend – I knew this, and even accept it – it's part of the routine I'm trying to establish for myself.

Monthlylog_html_295efb67

Here's the data, in summary. Can you tell I used to work as a data analyst?

date walking running total
1 7 1 8
2 4 4 8
3 5 3 8
4 3 0 3
5 4 0 4
6 0 0 0
7 4 4 8
8 5 3 8
9 4 4 8
10 3 0 3
11 5 0 5
12 4 0 4
13 1 0 1
14 4 2 6
15 3 4 7
16 5 3 8
17 3 0 3
18 4 2 6
19 4 0 4
20 0 0 0
21 5 2 7
22 4 4 8
23 3 2 5
24 4 4 8
25 5 0 5
26 6 0 6
27 6 0 6
28 1 0 1
29 4 2 6
30 5 4 9
31 5 1 6
120 49 169

[Daily log: walking, 5 km; running, 1 km]

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