US navy seals fitness test

During the weekend the girls informed us that we were going to do the US navy seals fitness test.

We'd done the US marines physical fitness test because Magnus Midtbø did it.

And followers that we are, when Magnus did the navy seals test, we thought "why not?"

The first event, unsurprisingly, is swimming.  According to Magnus it's 500 yards (457m) breaststroke with head up out of the water (or side stroke).

The thing is, I'm not a swimmer; I can barely swim.  This means head up breaststroke is kinda my style, because I can't do much else.  But 450 metres?  I'd never done that before, so my aim was simply slow and steady to try to complete the distance.

But Mulan and Miya are great swimmers.  The hardest thing for them is having to keep their heads up -- it's painful on the neck and harder to glide.  And Mama's not too bad, either.

Anyway, on Sunday the four of us biked to the Takapuna swimming pool.

The pool is 33.3 metres long, and so we decided to do 14 lengths (466.2m, or 509.8 yards) -- close enough is good enough.

According to Magnus, a competitive swim is 8 minutes, while the minimum is 12:30 min.  Magnus did it in 10:30 min and his girlfriend did it in 15:43 min.

Mulan and Miya went first, with Mama and me next.  Our results were:

Mulan: 11:53 min
Mama: 15:11 min
Me: 17:48 min
Miya: 18:00 min

So, Mulan passed, but the rest of us failed.  (But at least my wife beat Magnus' girlfriend!!!)

After the swim we're supposed to also do:

• sit ups in 2 min (min 50; competitive 80-100)
• push ups in 2 min (min 50; competitive 80-100)
• pull ups, with no time limit
• 1.5 mile (2.4 km) run (min 10:30 min; competitive 9-10 min)

But we decided to get our money's worth at the pool, and tire ourselves out with more swimming.  We'll do the other events another day.

To kill a mockingbird

We're still continuing to watch movies.

Last night we finished watching the 1962 movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, which was based on Harper Lee's 1960 book of the same name.

It's one of those must-see classics which I'd previously never got around to watching.  Mulan said it was much better than she was expecting!  I've also never got around to reading the book; I've now requested it from the library for Mulan and me.

Back when I was at university, one of my lecturers, Tim Dare, had recently written an article called Lawyers, Ethics, and to Kill a Mockingbird.  While I hadn't read the book, I thought what Tim wrote made sense and it stuck with me.

Last night, after finishing watching the movie, I re-read Tim's article.  The idea that Atticus Finch is a tragic figure makes sense to me.  Tim writes:

Atticus’s story too is tragic. Regarding the rule of law as tremendously important, he presents his arguments in its favor to the jury with passion and all of his professional ability, recognizing that the life of an innocent man rests upon his success. But he fails, and Tom dies. When a decision over Boo is required, Atticus is struck by the similarities between the cases. Both Tom and Boo are mockingbirds: innocents who it would be sinful to harm. ... When Boo kills Bob Ewell, Atticus, cast as protector of both men, must decide whether he will allow another outsider to face the same threat. Confronted with the possibility of another tragedy, Atticus’s faith in the rule of law, and perhaps his courage as well, fail him. He cannot bear the possibility that he will be party to the death of another mockingbird. 

In the end, Atticus abandons the principles that determined his selfunderstanding, secured his unique and valuable position in Maycomb, and received his passionate defense. That is the stuff of tragedy: a principled man has come to doubt the adequacy of principles by which he understands himself and abandons those principles. Whether or not it is wicked to try people in the secret courts of men’s hearts now depends upon which men’s hearts. ... Tragically though understandably, he is not prepared to risk a vulnerable person effectively in his care, having so recently seen how his legal system mistreated another similarly placed outsider.

... Cast as a tragic figure, Atticus yields a very different message than that which he conveys as a wise figure. We are not meant to admire what he does but to be struck by the gravity of his loss. Viewed as a tragic figure, his message is one about the value of the principles he has abandoned, not one about the desirability of regarding them as disposable, trivial, or burdensome.

I'm also persuaded by Tim's main point regarding legal ethics.  I highly recommend the article.

UPDATE 14/8/2020: I finished reading the book yesterday (Mulan sped through it a couple of weeks ago).  I highly recommend the book, and it is even better than the movie.  I agree with Tim's interpretation above; in the book it is clearer to see than in the movie, and there are several hints along the way suggesting Atticus' tragic fall.

US marines physical fitness test

Today we got inspired by Magnus Midtbø.

Magnus is a Norwegian rock climber and YouTuber who we enjoy watching.  In his latest video he and a couple of friends tried out the US marines physical fitness test.

Well, if Magnus can do it, so can we!

So, this morning Mulan and I did the test at the gym, instead of doing our usual weights training session.

We needed to do:

1. pull ups (in 1 min),
2. crunches (in 2 min), and
3. 3 mile (ie 4.83km) run.

Mulan and I haven't specifically trained for any of this.  And I think it's been decades since I last ran 5km (I think the most I've done in recent years is 1500m).  But surely it can't be that difficult to join the marines?!

Here are our results:

Me:
13 pull ups
81 crunches
30:00 min exactly for the 3 mile run

Mulan:
5 pull ups
55 crunches (she did 61 yesterday)
29:30 min for the 3 mile run

Once we got home we did the research, to find out what sort of results we should be getting.  Here's the rules.

You get points for your results, depending on your age.  The points tables are: pull ups, crunches, run.

👴I'm 44, so I'm in the 41-45 years category.  My points were:

Pull ups: 72 points
Crunches: 64 points
Run: 0 points -- haha, FAIL!!  I had to get under 29:20 min to get any points.  With a bit of training, and a bit of planning, I'll get there.

TOTAL: 136 points

🐎Mulan's 13, and the closest age category for her is 17-20 years.  Her points were:

Pull ups: 87 points
Crunches: 46 points (or 53 yesterday)
Run: 48 points

TOTAL: 181 points

This afternoon, Miya and Mama went to the gym to do the same thing.

🏇🐕Miya's 9, so she had to do the 17-20 years category, too.  Her results and points were:

6 pull ups: 93 points
66 crunches: 59 points
33:10 min for the 3 mile run: 0 points

TOTAL: 152 points

👵In a few months Mama will graduate to the oldest age category, but in the meantime her results and points were:

0 pull ups: 0 points
35 crunches: 0 points
Did not complete the run: 0 points

TOTAL: 0 points

We might try this again in a week or two, and see if we can improve.

Athletics Interprovincials

We heard a few days ago that the athletics interprovincial competition is on!

It was supposed to be over Easter, but was postponed because of Covid-19.  The latest is that it'll be held over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of October, at Massey Park in Papakura.

As I wrote before, Mulan is in the Auckland team, doing long jump, discus, shot put and 400m.

And as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we're getting back into the training.  Our training programme is always fun and flexible, and in term 3 we'll have a couple of additions:

Firstly, it's likely that the team will re-start Sunday morning training sessions soon.

Secondly, Mulan is re-starting gymnastics classes.  Yesterday afternoon Mulan did an assessment test at North Harbour Gymnastics, and they decided that the Level 2 Extension class would suit her.  So, we booked her in for the two-hour gymnastics class on Friday evenings.

100ish movies for tween girls

Mulan loves stories, and she learns well through storytelling.

Mostly this is via books, and Mulan is a huge reader (just like her dad).

Up until about a year or so ago we really hadn't bothered too much with either TV or movies.  We don't have a TV, and it's rare that something at the movies jumps out at us as worth seeing.  Anything we want to watch we usually just see on the computer via YouTube or whatever.

But last year we started noticing movies that would suit Mulan.  Last July, when we were in China, Mulan watched her first ever movie in a movie theatre (Spirited Away).  We've since watched a couple more movies in the theatre back here in New Zealand.

Several months ago we got into a new routine of Mulan and me watching a movie together in the evening at home while eating dinner.  Typically we would watch a movie over two or three evenings.  (Miya and Mama would eat dinner together in another room.)

(Yeah, some people might opine that dinnertime should be a time when the family gathers together at the dining table to relax and spend quality time together.  But for us homeschooling families who spend most of the day together sometimes it's nice to get away from each other!)

During the movie we often chat together about what's going on -- laughing at the silly stuff, challenging the nonsense, and discussing the ideas.  Alongside the fun and family closeness, this is also a serious part of Mulan's schooling.  I try to make sure that at some point we talk about the important issues that the movie raises.

With some of the more child-friendly movies Miya joins us too (and occasionally Mama), but typically it's just Mulan and me.  The aim is to challenge Mulan, and with many movies Miya is not yet ready.

A few weeks ago the girls independently decided to write up all the movies they'd watched (or at least as many as they remember!).  They created a spreadsheet, including the movie details, who watched it, when, and their opinions on it.

Today, their list reached 100.  The spreadsheet's a bit too detailed to copy here in full, so I'll just include the approximate date we watched the movie and its name (a few are actually TV series, but that's okay):

30/06/2020	Whale Rider
25/06/2020	Anne of Green Gables
23/06/2020	Anne with an E - part 1
20/06/2020	Oliver Twist
16/06/2020	i am sam
11/06/2020	The Chorus
10/06/2020	A Beautiful Mind
8/06/2020	K-Pax
6/06/2020	Mr Nobody
4/06/2020	Good morning Vietnam
3/06/2020	Awakenings
1/06/2020	Terminator II
30/05/2020	Terminator I
May 2020	Minority Report
May 2020	What's Eating Gilbert Grape
May 2020	Blade Runner
May 2020	Leon the Professional
May 2020	The Man from Earth
May 2020	2001 A Space Odyssey
May 2020	The Usual Suspects
May 2020	Captain Fantastic
May 2020	Dark City
May 2020	Predestination
May 2020	Wadjda
May 2020	Romeo + Juliet
May 2020	Emma
May 2020	The Rise of Skywalker
May 2020	The Last Jedi
May 2020	The Force Awakens
April 2020	The Revenge of the Sith
April 2020	The Attack of the Clones
April 2020	The Farewell
April 2020	The Phantom Menace
March 2020	The Return of the Jedi
March 2020	The Empire Strikes back
March 2020	A New Hope
March 2020	The Tripods TV series
March 2020	Ender's Game
24/03/2020	Inception
March 2020	Being There
22/03/2020	Memento
15/03/2020	The Truman Show
March 2020	Groundhog Day
March 2020	The Sixth Sense
March 2020	Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
March 2020	Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them
March 2020	Amadeus
March 2020	Good Will Hunting
March 2020	The Lion King remake
March 2020	The Lion King
Feb 2020	The Sound of Music
2020	Matrix Revolutions
2020	Matrix Reloaded
2020	The Matrix
2020	Stand by me
Jan 2020	Adams Family
Jan 2020	Frozen 2
2019	Gattaca
2019	The Goonies
2019	The Wizard of Oz
2019	Forrest Gump
Dec 2019	Jojo Rabbit
Dec 2019	Wall-e
2019	Children of Dune TV series
2019	Dune
2019	Edward Scissorhands
2019	The Dead Poets Society
Nov 2019	Yuli-The Carlos Acosta Story
Sept 2019	The Return of the King
Sept 2019	The Two Towers
Sept 2019	The Fellowship of the Ring
July 2019	Spirited Away
2019	The Silver Chair TV series
2019	The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
2019	Prince Caspian
2019	The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
2019	Soul Music
2019	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2
2019	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2019	Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
2019	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2019	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2019	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2018	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2018	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
2018	The Princess Bride
2018	Pride and Prejudice
2018	Back to the Future III
2018	Back to the Future II
2018	Back to the Future I
2017	E.T
2017	The Eagle Huntress
2017	Billy Elliot
2017	Kiki's Delivery Service
2017	My Neighbour Totoro
2017	Heidi
2017	The Little Princess
2017	Charlotte's Web
2016	The Little Mermaid
2014	Frozen