Shackleton's Wisdom

January 2, 1909, Shackleton said: "I cannot think of failure yet. I must look at the matter sensibly and consider the lives of those who are with me...man can only do his best..."

Two days later he wrote: "The end is in sight. We can only go for three more days at the most, for we are weakening rapidly".

Which will you listen to?

Shackleton's Exercise

Matthew had $2 to spend. He wanted to buy jelly beans and licorice sticks. He paid $1.50 for 5 jelly beans and 20 licorice sticks. For the same amount he could have bought 10 jelly beans and 10 licorice sticks. How much did each item cost?

Shackleton's Exercise

What two words, formed from different arrangements of the same five letters, can be used to complete the sentence below?

The archaeologist searched through the last _________ of earth and realized it was not the _________ city she was looking for.

Who's in?

Shane, it's good to hear that you are still current with Shackleton's. I visited with Jeromy last night and he wasn't even aware that Shackletons was in existence.

Who is participating currently?

Also, the statement below has had all its vowels removed. Replace them and find the statement.

N P P L D Y K P S T H D C T R W Y

Sick

Ive been sick and its making me so sore.. so I skipped yesterday.. I think I will do them tonight and make up the slack on fri.. im just sick..

micah I cant see the picture for that puzzle..

shane

Figure it out

A statement is coiled in the grid below. To spell it out, start with one letter and move to an adjacent letter in any direction. (Hint: Start with an “H.”)

the good news

well tonight is pay off night.. Im going hottubbing with some young ladies.

-shane

Brain Challenge

Charlie went out to buy some tools. He spent half of the original amount plus $10 for a drill, half of what was left plus $4 for a sander, then half of what was left plus $2, leaving him with $6. How much did he start with?

(see comment for answer)

Incentive

No, it's not an incentive to win, but an incentive to visit this blog.
I will randomly post items of interest from my delightful new page-a-day calanders.

Enjoy the first couple!

Interesting:
In 1998, Cairo lawyer Mustafa Raslan filed a $1 billion lawsuit against President Clinton in Damanhur, Egypt, alleging that Clinton’s sexual antics made it more difficult for him to raise his own children with good moral standards. “I don’t know what to tell [them],” he said.

Fact:
Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for three hours. Recycling reduces the amount of raw materials and energy used during glass production. Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 15-watt energy-efficient lightbulb for 24 hours, and there’s a saving of raw materials too—sand, limestone, and soda ash.

Shackleton's Exercise Rules

Official Rules for Shackleton’s Exercise

The contest consists of performing a minimum of 50 push-ups and 25 crunches (or sit-ups) a day, every day of the year except Sundays (which shall remain optional). The push-ups and crunches/sit-ups must be performed in good-faith effort and should be performed following the guidelines on the e-how website located at: http://www.ehow.com/how_3190_proper-push-.html and http://www.ehow.com/how_3191_abdominal-crunch.html
The push-ups may be performed with knuckles rather than palm-down.
Additional push-up variants are allowed to achieve specific muscle definition (see e-how tips located on above website).

The contest begins on January 2, 2006 (or on the day that you first read this and begin the exercises, but in no event shall begin later than January 15) and shall end on December 31, 2006.

For the purposes of this competition, a "day" is the time from when you arise in the morning to the time you retire at night. It is not limited to a 24 hour period and accordingly does not terminate at 12 midnight. You may perform your exercises past 12 midnight for the preceding calendar day with no penalty.

If you miss a day, you may make up that missed day on the following day by performing double the exercises (100 push-ups and 50 crunches/sit-ups). You may not miss more than two consecutive days (resulting in 150 push-ups and 75 sit-ups on the third day).

You may not miss more than four days in a given calendar month.

If you miss more than two consecutive days or more than four days in a month, you forfeit the competition subject only to waiver by the majority of participants.

Winners of the contest will consist of those participants who fully complete the above requirements.

There shall be no limit to the number of winners.

The prize for the winners shall be determined by the participants but in no event shall be less than what a reasonable and prudent person would consider a cool prize.


Optional Amendments:
Increase the daily crunch/sit-up requirement to 50

Require each participant to contribute something to the winners prize(s)

Have a trip be the prize (snow trip, camping, etc.)

Strongly encourage attendance at Big Sur camping trip this summer (Date TBD)

The Basics

Micah here.

I am glad that this is up and running. I dind't hear back from anyone but Non-Stop (Dingo) so I had altered the concept in my mind to a personal resolution. It remains such, but I'm glad that it can be something bigger than myself.

Shane, and everyone else: Start now (or when you read this)and don't worry about getting a late start. This will be going on for 365 days - so no one will care that you missed the first few.

Here are some thoughts as to the structure of the competition.

I have no idea what the prize should be for this type of contest. Beyond endurance, it comes down to memory. For this reason, I don't want people to miss a day and feel like they should stop. I think we should have some grace days for when you truly just forget.

But at the same time, one must be accountable so that they don't have an excuse to consciously miss a day.

In my next post I will include my proposed rules.

Be thinking about Prizes and the optional amendments

an issue of the start date.

well I got the blogger invitation to start on the 4th of the year and promptly started my push up and situps (last night). I have missed the first 3 days.. so maybe I can go 4 days longer then the runner up to win.. thats my plan.. how does that sound.. micah? approval to proceed? (and win)