Mar 2009
Starting a new exercise program
Mar 30 2009 09:52 PM Filed in: Personal
For the most part, my exercise is always aerobic.
I’ve been trying to shed some pounds and keep them
off. While this has been working out nicely, all
though I have let it slip a little over winter and
gained back 5 lbs; I’ve decided to try to add some
strength training to my routine. I’ve happened upon
two exercise programs that I thought I would give a
try.
The first is called ‘100 Push Ups’, and, as you can probably guess from the name, the goal of the program is for you to be able to do 100 push ups. You don’t start off doing 100 push ups. If you follow the program, you should be able to do 100 push ups by the end. The program is a six week program, divided into 3 days a week. Before you start doing any training you first have to test yourself. In testing yourself, you do as many proper push ups as possible, before your arms give out. When I tried this I performed 25. I used to be able to do a lot more than that, would do at least 50 a day in JROTC back in high school when I would do something to get in trouble. I’m still pretty happy I was able to pull off 25 though.
The test helps you chart out the coarse of the training program. You print out the grids for each week, which are provided on the web site, for free. You look up the number of push ups you performed in the test, and this shows you how many push ups you do for each day of training. I just started the first day of training, figured it’s best to do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For my level, on the first day, I did 10 push ups, 12 push ups, 7 push ups, 7 push ups, and 10 push ups, with 60 second breaks between each set. Man, my arms were like jelly at the end, but I was able to do it, for a total of 46 push ups. I’m sure I will feel this tomorrow.
Come Wednesday, I will be doing 10, 12, 8, 8 and 12, for a total of 50; and by the end of the week it will be 57. I figure I can stick with this for 6 weeks. I’ll be interested to see if I can do 100 push ups easily come the end.
I’m also looking into the ‘200 Sit Up’ program, which should help with the stomach. I need to get a mat to work out on, all I have around here are hard wood floors.
The first is called ‘100 Push Ups’, and, as you can probably guess from the name, the goal of the program is for you to be able to do 100 push ups. You don’t start off doing 100 push ups. If you follow the program, you should be able to do 100 push ups by the end. The program is a six week program, divided into 3 days a week. Before you start doing any training you first have to test yourself. In testing yourself, you do as many proper push ups as possible, before your arms give out. When I tried this I performed 25. I used to be able to do a lot more than that, would do at least 50 a day in JROTC back in high school when I would do something to get in trouble. I’m still pretty happy I was able to pull off 25 though.
The test helps you chart out the coarse of the training program. You print out the grids for each week, which are provided on the web site, for free. You look up the number of push ups you performed in the test, and this shows you how many push ups you do for each day of training. I just started the first day of training, figured it’s best to do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For my level, on the first day, I did 10 push ups, 12 push ups, 7 push ups, 7 push ups, and 10 push ups, with 60 second breaks between each set. Man, my arms were like jelly at the end, but I was able to do it, for a total of 46 push ups. I’m sure I will feel this tomorrow.
Come Wednesday, I will be doing 10, 12, 8, 8 and 12, for a total of 50; and by the end of the week it will be 57. I figure I can stick with this for 6 weeks. I’ll be interested to see if I can do 100 push ups easily come the end.
I’m also looking into the ‘200 Sit Up’ program, which should help with the stomach. I need to get a mat to work out on, all I have around here are hard wood floors.
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Putting Lego Star Wars to Rest
Mar 30 2009 09:46 PM Filed in: Personal
| Video Games
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was one of the
first Lego video games, but it’s the last one I got
around to playing.
The other two Lego video games I’ve played, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman, I ended I playing until I reached 100%. I’m not doing so with Lego Star Wars. I am currently sitting at a little over 80%, and that’s good enough for me. I’ve gone through all of the levels in free play, and I have all of the Red Bricks, True Jedi’s, and Mini Kits. What I have left to do are all of the time trials, and I’m really not interested in doing that. I’ve already been through all of the levels a couple times each, no need to do it again in under a certain amount of time. While I usually try to get 100% on a game, I’m happy retiring this one early. It’s a fun game, very well executed, and I enjoyed playing it.
The other two Lego video games I’ve played, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman, I ended I playing until I reached 100%. I’m not doing so with Lego Star Wars. I am currently sitting at a little over 80%, and that’s good enough for me. I’ve gone through all of the levels in free play, and I have all of the Red Bricks, True Jedi’s, and Mini Kits. What I have left to do are all of the time trials, and I’m really not interested in doing that. I’ve already been through all of the levels a couple times each, no need to do it again in under a certain amount of time. While I usually try to get 100% on a game, I’m happy retiring this one early. It’s a fun game, very well executed, and I enjoyed playing it.
Triggerfish Twist
I would list Christopher Moore as my favorite writer,
his imagination and humor are the best; but, Tim
Dorsey may have just taken over that spot. I’ll be
able to tell when I finish a couple more of his
books.
I just finished reading “Triggerfish Twist”.
This book never slows down. The characters, and there are a lot of them, are some of the best written characters I’ve seen in a book. The book takes place in Tampa, FL, a town that had just been named the third best town in America to live. This happened by mistake, when the company in charge of making up the list of best towns transcribed the crime rate incorrectly, causing the town to jump from the lower three hundreds the year before, to third this year. A family, the Davenports, move to Tampa as part of a job relocation. While the neighborhood they move into looks nice, they soon find it’s definitely not. I enjoy humorous books, and this one is funnier than any other I have ever read. The situations and characters that Tim Dorsey can dream up are amazing. I found this author through a recommendation when I purchased the last Christopher Moore book. I can definitely see how people that like Christopher Moore like Tim Dorsey. I purchased a couple of his books, so I will be able to see if he’s as consistently funny as Christopher Moore.
I just finished reading “Triggerfish Twist”.
This book never slows down. The characters, and there are a lot of them, are some of the best written characters I’ve seen in a book. The book takes place in Tampa, FL, a town that had just been named the third best town in America to live. This happened by mistake, when the company in charge of making up the list of best towns transcribed the crime rate incorrectly, causing the town to jump from the lower three hundreds the year before, to third this year. A family, the Davenports, move to Tampa as part of a job relocation. While the neighborhood they move into looks nice, they soon find it’s definitely not. I enjoy humorous books, and this one is funnier than any other I have ever read. The situations and characters that Tim Dorsey can dream up are amazing. I found this author through a recommendation when I purchased the last Christopher Moore book. I can definitely see how people that like Christopher Moore like Tim Dorsey. I purchased a couple of his books, so I will be able to see if he’s as consistently funny as Christopher Moore.
Getting Distinct Objects Using LINQ
Mar 26 2009 08:10 PM Filed in: .NET
If you try to get distinct objects using LINQ you
have two choices. You can use the overload to
Distinct, which takes an IComparer<> that you
write, where you override Equals() and GetHashCode()
or you can do a grouping and select the first object
of each group. For example, at my work I work with a
lot of Title objects. If I have some duplicates in my
list I can’t just use Distinct(), because it will
think every object is different, it doesn’t know how
to determine what’s equal and what isn’t. Instead I
would want to compare the Title Ids to check if they
are different. You can do that like so
var distinctTitles = (from t in TitleList select
t.Title).GroupBy(x => x.TitleId).Select(g =>
g.First());
Why does Vista take up so much disk space?
Mar 25 2009 06:08 PM Filed in: Microsoft
I had wiped out my Boot Camp partition on my MacBook
because I found I was never booting into it.
Silverlight 3 was released in beta last week, and I
wanted a machine on which to play around with it, so
I set up a partition again. I gave my Vista Boot Camp
partition 32 GB of space. After a fresh install of
Vista was complete it reported that I have 14 GB
left. Why on earth would an OS take up over 15 GB of
space? I realize disk space is cheap these days, but
isn’t that a little ridiculous? It’s not like it
comes with all sorts of pre-installed software. I can
see how Vista wouldn’t work well with NetBooks. Paige
got a Dell Mini netbook, and it has a 32 GB SSD drive
in it. It would suck if over half of her hard drive
was taken up right from the beginning just by the OS
install.
MacHeist III is a go
The MacHeist III bundle
officially launched last night. This year’s
bundle has some nice software in it. The total
value for all of the software in the bundle is
$627, and you can get it all for $39. I
participated in all of the missions before the
launch of the bundle, so I had already earned
$402 worth of additional free applications, plus
I earned $6 off the bundle, so I got a little
over $1000 worth of software for $33; not bad.
This bundle includes LittleSnapper, which is a
great screen capture tool. This application
alone would cost you $39, so it pays for itself
in this bundle. It also includes World of Goo,
which I play on the Wii. You should check it
out, there’s software in there for everyone.
Music I'm Currently Listening To
Here’s some of the current music I am listening to.
Riverboat Gamblers: Underneath the Owl
I discovered this group a few years back while listening to punkradiocast and have been hooked ever since that day. This newest album of theirs was released this past February, and I purchased it on iTunes over the weekend. This is a great album. Riverboat Gamblers are from Texas, and apparently put on a great show. They were the opening act for a concert Paige and I went to a while back, but we were fashionably late and missed them, so I’ve yet to see them play live. This is just great rock music.
HorrorPops: Kiss Kiss Kill Kill
While I mainly listen to punk rock, I have always enjoyed rockabilly and psychobilly music. HorrorPops fall into the latter category. This is their third album, release early last year, and is just as great as the first two. The lead singer and upright bassist, Patricia Day, is beautiful and has a great voice. HorrorPops kind of walk the line between The Cramps and The Misfits. Great music.
Devil Doll: Queen of Pain and The Return of Eve
I came upon Devil Doll as a recommendation from Amazon when I purchased the HorrorPops album. I listened to a couple of the samples, and I ended up purchasing both albums and wasn’t sorry with the purchase. I don’t really know how to describe the music; it’s a mix of rockabilly, punk and swing. Colleen has an amazing voice, and apparently is also a very accomplished musician.
Classic: The Bouncing Souls: How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I have ever Bouncing Souls album, but this is my favorite. True Believer is a great song.
Riverboat Gamblers: Underneath the Owl
I discovered this group a few years back while listening to punkradiocast and have been hooked ever since that day. This newest album of theirs was released this past February, and I purchased it on iTunes over the weekend. This is a great album. Riverboat Gamblers are from Texas, and apparently put on a great show. They were the opening act for a concert Paige and I went to a while back, but we were fashionably late and missed them, so I’ve yet to see them play live. This is just great rock music.
HorrorPops: Kiss Kiss Kill Kill
While I mainly listen to punk rock, I have always enjoyed rockabilly and psychobilly music. HorrorPops fall into the latter category. This is their third album, release early last year, and is just as great as the first two. The lead singer and upright bassist, Patricia Day, is beautiful and has a great voice. HorrorPops kind of walk the line between The Cramps and The Misfits. Great music.
Devil Doll: Queen of Pain and The Return of Eve
I came upon Devil Doll as a recommendation from Amazon when I purchased the HorrorPops album. I listened to a couple of the samples, and I ended up purchasing both albums and wasn’t sorry with the purchase. I don’t really know how to describe the music; it’s a mix of rockabilly, punk and swing. Colleen has an amazing voice, and apparently is also a very accomplished musician.
Classic: The Bouncing Souls: How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I have ever Bouncing Souls album, but this is my favorite. True Believer is a great song.
Fool
I just finished reading the new Christopher Moore
book, “Fool”.
Christopher Moore is my favorite author, and I think Fool ranks up there as one of his best books since “Lamb”. Although it was a little of a slow start, this new take on King Lear ended up being an offbeat, easy to read, delight. Even if you’ve never read any of the other books by Christopher Moore, I recommend picking this up.
Christopher Moore is my favorite author, and I think Fool ranks up there as one of his best books since “Lamb”. Although it was a little of a slow start, this new take on King Lear ended up being an offbeat, easy to read, delight. Even if you’ve never read any of the other books by Christopher Moore, I recommend picking this up.
Oz
I bought my first Gregory Maguire book a few years
ago. It was ‘Wicked’. This was before it was made
into a broadway play. I’d never heard of the author,
I just saw a book that said it was the story about
the Wicked Witch of the West and thought it looked
interesting. I bought the book and ended up really
liking it. I thought it was very creative to take a
story and tell it from the point of view of one of
the other characters. It had a great back story, you
actually saw that the Wicked Witch was a nice person
when she was younger, an activist, and a good friend.
After that I read a couple other books by him:
‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’, ‘Mirror, Mirror’
and ‘Lost’. I just finished reading the two other
books in the Wicked series.
Son of a Witch
This is the story about Liir. It is thought that Liir is the son of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, but even he is not totally sure of that. This story follows him leaving the Witch’s castle after Dorothy kills her, and his adventures there after. While not as good as Wicked, it’s still a good story, and very well written.
A Lion Among Men
As you can probably tell from the title, this story revolves around the Cowardly Lion. It starts when the lion is young, and follows through the time he is with Dorothy, and up through the time where he is searching for Liir, because Liir is thought to have the spell book the Wicked Witch used. This story is great, I almost like it as much as the original. The ending is great, and ties up a couple loose ends from the second book.
I recommend reading all three books if you enjoy fiction and are a fan of the Wizard of Oz. Gregory Maguire is a great writer, he paints a great picture of Oz, he’s very imaginative and is a joy to read. I also recommend his other books, all of them have been great so far.
Son of a Witch
This is the story about Liir. It is thought that Liir is the son of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, but even he is not totally sure of that. This story follows him leaving the Witch’s castle after Dorothy kills her, and his adventures there after. While not as good as Wicked, it’s still a good story, and very well written.
A Lion Among Men
As you can probably tell from the title, this story revolves around the Cowardly Lion. It starts when the lion is young, and follows through the time he is with Dorothy, and up through the time where he is searching for Liir, because Liir is thought to have the spell book the Wicked Witch used. This story is great, I almost like it as much as the original. The ending is great, and ties up a couple loose ends from the second book.
I recommend reading all three books if you enjoy fiction and are a fan of the Wizard of Oz. Gregory Maguire is a great writer, he paints a great picture of Oz, he’s very imaginative and is a joy to read. I also recommend his other books, all of them have been great so far.
Key West
Mar 08 2009 05:24 PM Filed in: Personal
Paige and I took a nice, quick, little vacation a few
weeks back. We went to Key West, FL. We left on a
Thursday and came back on a Sunday, thinking this
would be the perfect amount of time to do all the
exploring we needed to do. Looking back; we wish we
would have had a couple more days. We had a
spectacular time. You can view the photos here.