zen thoughts: no more capitalization in 50 years

As we have witnessed, I have a knack for predicting future trends. This time I will extend myself beyond the world of triathlon and tell you why we will no longer capitalize many words in our written language in 50 years or fewer.

I noticed a pattern several years ago while using chat clients at work. I used to burn calories in the sitting position at an office that didn't monitor Internet usage, so I chatted with several other friends via Yahoo messenger quite a bit. If you haven't noticed, chat language is short and exhibits quite a bit of disdain for proper grammar. While email still resembles a proper letter, chat is so instantaneous and back-and-forth, many proprieties are simply given up. People who converse quite a bit via chat will even develop their own words, phrases, and symbols that may mean nothing to anybody else. I think the speed of chat is a breeding ground for incredibly fast evolutions of language on their own tangents. You might not know that "ping!" means "Hello!" to me, but my chat friends sure do.

Around this time arrives phones with full-blown email clients on board. I started out with a Sidekick and eventually graduated to an HTC Wizard. What's nice about some of the writing applications on these is that they capitalize the first word of every new sentence for you. People are now using these phone email clients quite a bit and the self-capitalizing feature is quite nice.

I switch jobs and start working at an office where outside chat clients are frowned upon, but we still have an internal chat package, so I'm still using it to get work done. I'm now also used to not having to capitalize because of my phone's software. Little by little, I accidentally keep letting capitalization slide. I start letting it slide in chat, forum posts, short emails to friends, on and on. This has been going on for years and no one has mentioned it to me. No one seems to care and it makes no change to the context of the conversation!

I'm sitting in a technical writing class a few weeks ago and the instructor is telling us all the things that used to be wrong that are now OK. Splitting infinitives, beginning a sentence with "and"; the list is numerous. It is quite amusing to see peoples' worlds completely wrecked to find out they've been spelling or using a word the wrong way their whole lives, by the way. More importantly, the teacher focuses on what's changed, but never on what might change. I raise my hand and suggest that capitalization could be gone in 50 years. I'm laughed off, but I manage to point out that the things that have changed now would be scoffed at 50 years ago.

i'd like to demonstrate my point in the rest of this posting. you see, no sentence begins without a space and punctuation before it or without the start of a new paragraph. the beginning of every sentence is obvious because of punctuation or spacing. much like that study that showed that you can jumble up words as long as you keep the first and last letters the same, the brain can easily determine that this is the end of a sentence. the combination of chat clients and self-capitalizing software has created the perfect storm for many of us to realize that capitalizing the first letter of a new sentence is actually, well, pointless.

the tech writing instructor showed us many examples of how you can do certain things in informal writing and not in formal, which i'm sure this will follow. you can write like this to a friend, but don't do it on a job applicaton. and what will happen with proper names, such as joe or bob? hard to tell right now. another interesting fact is that the blog software i'm using right now has several templates that have fonts with no capitalization, so it's not just me thinking this. it's almost like it's a signature of the writtings of the tech-savvy. it doesn't look as nice as proper capitalization, but it sure isn't necessary. with our ever-quickening society, whatever's not necessary will be tossed in half a century.

have you been writing without capitalization? does it bother you when other people do it? can you think of an example where it doesn't work? i can't.

Snow Fix

I know that many of you are sick of the snow you've been getting all winter, but that's not the stuff we're used to getting down here in Texas. Imagine my suprise as I was out on a fixie bike ride in full-Spring-bloom when the temperature dropped and giant snowflakes started falling from the sky.

I invite you to join me on this audio journey on the narrow backroads of East Texas pine forest as I cover a bunch of interesting triathlon and life topics. I play voicemails, harass Jetpack, discuss how the new BMC is holding up, what it's really like to be a sponsored triathlete, and I even rodeo some stray cows back into a pasture while riding my bike, all while riding in a surprise snowstorm.

Read the full show notes below and keep on tri-ing!

Training at the farm, far away from distractions.
Riding the fixie, it starts snowing. Alot!
Had to do some ranch hand work with Kai and Poppa.
Too dangerous to ride the BMC.
Coach Mike wants me to not ride the fixie too much.
T-shirt contest! Call 512-CRY-DELI with your best triathlon slogan and win a free triathlon shirt!
Shirts are from www.tri3life.com. Check out Katrine's Tri3life booth at the St. Anthony's triathlon in St. Petersburg.
How to hill climb on a fixie.
Voice mails from Jetpack and one of his goons.
Tried to call jetpack's hotline back.
Rambonie calls me while running backwards.
Tri-Rob calls from Oregon about jumping off a paddlewheeler to swim across a river.
Scott B. calls from NYC wanting to know about the BMC.
I detail how the BMC is functioning, from bow to stern.
What it's like to be on team raceAthlete and/or to be sponsored in general.
Moonpie sent me What It Takes. Holy Crap!
Good coaching is what makes the biggest difference in triathlon.
Emily and i went to sailing camp. Got beat up real nice.
Does anybody really like Kraftwerk?
I call the Jetpack hotline and talk trash to my competitor.
Wolfgang Spaatz wants you tri-geeks to join him in Second Life.
I give Hornet Juice my big "Thumb's Up!"
Why you should listen to the Intransitduo Podcast.
How women approach triathlon vs. men.
Cara is riding a fixie! Does it make her a Chixie?
The "Eat food for what it has" diet.
I round up some cows that escaped from the pasture at the farm.

Music to Accupuncture by

My beautiful triathlete wife, Emily, has been going to see an accupuncturist to cure some of her running aches and pains so I sat down with her and got her to tell us what it's really like. And yes, it works!

We did this on the weekend of our 9th wedding anniversary, so we also went out on the town to Northgate Music Festival and I have songs by two independent bands that said they'd love to be played on this show. Big thanks to Deus Machina and Ivison! We also had Kai do the Simply Stu Triathlon. Is he the youngest triathlete ever?
Of course, we have lots of voicemails and other items mixed in the show. Listen in and check out the show notes below.

• I reply to Jetpack's smear campaign.


• "Revenge" by Spoon.


• Kai does the Simply Stu Triathlon by swimming in the tub, biking around the living room, and running in the backyard.


• Voicemail from Moonpie, Cav, and Cav's lady.


• Voicemail from Buford, a Texas sheriff, with advice on how we should ride our bikes.


• Jayme from Ivison intros his band's song "We're not alone."


• Emily tells us about her accupuncture adventures as we sit in the 5th floor of the historic La Salle hotel.


• "Syzygy" by Deus Machina

Tri-Palooza (We’re not gonna take it!)

Join the most important triathlon bloggers in the Greater South Central East Texas region as we assult the locals with our incredible tri-geek skills while we tear up the countryside between Houston and Austin. The Ultimate Triathlon Glitteratti Trifecta took the shape of myself, Trigreyhound, and Triboomer hitting the roads and pool for a great weekend of crazy training adventures. Listen in as we attempt brick runs, ride 125 miles (57 on a fixed gear bike), swim in a 50 meter saline pool, and pound beers at Freebirds. Not only that, but we melt down a car, I drink concoctions of Asian wasp spit, and one of us gets a warning by the cops. How about that for Tri-Boys Gone Wild?!

It was very cool to hang out with such great athletes and to team up and overcome obstacles thrown our way. No matter what happened, we had fun. The womenfolk were left behind as we became manly-men, and maybe you will too after listening to the show!

Click here to listen and check out the links and show notes below!

• Talking with triboomer on the bike as we ride behind greyhound near Montgomery TX on Greyhound's favorite loop.


• Friday night - Boomer went to bed at 8:30 after some Shiner Bocks.


• I was scared awake at night by Twisted Sister's "We're not gonna take it!"


• I interview two girls helping out on the course and their minature pony friend "Buppy".


• Buppy likes banana peels.

• Photo of a menu from a redneck gas station.

• We're hanging out at TGI Fridays.


• Boomer dropped us like a bad habit. Gave Greyhound "The Look".


• We're stuck in traffic as the Boomermobile blows up.


• I talk about using Hornet Juice for energy.


• I got my first real iPod and bought an orange iPod shuffle. Autofill and shufflemode.


• Dan from Davis CA calls in about Catra Corbet


• We swim at the 50 meter saline pool at the Woodlands aquatic center


• Driving in the fog from Houston to College Station, bitching about the iPod Shuffle, playing Twisted Sister, drinking Nuun, needing a second water bottle cage on the BMC.

• Riding in the Brazos River bottomlands, Greyhound gets a flat and yelled at by a cop.


• Witness 3 brilliant triathletes try to put C02 into a tire.


• I take you with me as I hit the pool for a 3,000 yd workout.


• I bought an orange long sleeve underarmour heat gear shirt.


• Use Aveeno sunscreen.


• My Hornet Juice review.


• I list out all the gross triathlete clothes in my car.


• Saddlebags are uncool. Throw all your stuff in a waterbottle instead. Blame Tim if it doesn't work.


• Alex told me to use Noxema for Chamois cream. It works!

• Gladorca almost wrecked his bike after being hypnotized by the PowerTap.


• Thanks to Bas for the Twisted Sister clips


• Find out what the "Girlfriend Button" and "Unprotected Sleep" mean.


• The iPod Shuffle is the ultimate workout MP3 player since we drop our pants a lot.


• Check out the Urban Dharma Podcast. It is very, very cool.


• I played swim golf again and here's my best score - 30 strokes + 37 seconds = 67. Can you beat that?

By the way, check out these amazing flower photos from a cool lady I met. Follow this link to go to her Flickr page and make sure to drop her a comment that I sent you!

Health Nuts in Houston

Here's a big "Welcome back!" to our resident Health Guru Christine Lynch. She's a Holistic Health Counselor from NYC and drops in again for a nice chat about caffeine, recipies, yoga, and much more. It's always great to have her on the phone and we're in talks to record a cooking show where she directs Emily and I how to cook one of her meals!

Her interview hits your ears after I take you riding with me on the enclosed cycling loop at Memorial Park in Houston, TX. I'm aboard the fixed-gear Kuwahara and talk about training in Houston for a week while living out of my car. Traffic jams, Endless Pools, shirt-challenged heart rate monitor users... no stone is left unturned. Listen in and make sure to check out the show notes below!

• Voicemail from Tom in NYC.


• Riding my fixie in Memorial Park.


• Three people asked me about my bike!


• I saw another BMC!


• I swam for almost two hours in an Endless Pool this week and it was AWESOME.


• Did I get shafted on my half marathon time?


• Definition of "Aping"


• Attacked by a giant crawfish.


• Check out Lyn's photos on Flickr.


• Sissy-men are afraid to wear hr monitor and no shirt. They think they look like bras.


• New max HR on the run - 182! Shoes almost flew off my feet.


• Christie starts the interview talking about yoga and getting buff.


• What happens when you Google "How to lose weight".


• How not to look like a deflated balloon.


• Triathletes need more protein, but how much is too much?


• Everyone needs to figure out their own balance of carbs and protein.


• Get yourself one of those 4 ingredient recipie books


• I tried zinfendel instead of beer and my body really liked it!


• Quimoa recepies - awesome endurance food!Christine explains in detail how carbs and protein work for you during and after workouts.


• Eat 2 grams of carbs for each pound of body weight, double that for while working out.


• .5 to .75 grams of protein per pound of body weight, 1 to 1 ratio during working out.


• Sympoms of too much protein.


• How to burn fat by breathing differently.


• Is carb loading the way to go or not? I have one theory on how to do it.


• Is the sorbitol in Nuun harmful? Nope.


• I explain how much sodium you need and what's in gatorade.


• How to use Nuun and Coconut water.


• I tell Christine how to do a brick runs.


• How do you ride bikes in Central Park?


• My friend is training to be a firefighter and I told him how to train for the running test.


• Christine loves to hear from you and Zentri is bringing her international customers. Woot!


• We talk about the psychology of triathletes.


• Christine posts some recipies.


• Find Christine here - christinelynch.hcc@gmail.com / liveandeatbetter.com / holistic guru.