Workout at Home

weight loss exercise class

Today, I started working out again.  I thought I would blog a bit about the program I’m doing.  Last time, I did the biggest looser on my xbox.  The only problem with that was keeping it up while I travelled.  Even though I really enjoy really enjoyed riding my bike back when I did, I couldn’t spend more than 5 minutes on a stationary bike (it is just way different…I can’t explain but it has to do with the lack of things going by me on the stationary bike).  I never did get into running.  So, I turned to the internet.

Last night, I found workoutlabs‘ free programs:

     Ultimate At-Home No Equipment Workout (local mirror)
     Bodyweight At-Home (local mirror)

Let me just say that I felt way way out of shape when I started.  Even though I’ve been walking to work the past year, I’m way out of shape.  I’m a far cry from when I got on my bike, and decided to make an extra loop just to pound out a metric century.

Anyway, after the first day’s workout, I feel good.  Even though it was tough and I had to take several breaks.  That should get better as I get into it.

Image from nina hale via flickr

Working Out — Again

Workout space

According to my blog, the last time I worked out was Feb 19…2013.  Since then, I’ve sort of watched what I’ve eaten.  I’ve gone off/on eating well, and my weight has mostly stayed around the 110kg mark.

I started again today, and I plan to continue through the summer.  Like before, I plan to keep blogging about my stats.

FatSecret Journal for today.
Weight:  114kg (I expect that will be down to 110 by the end of the week)
Waist: n/a (I couldn’t find my tape measure this morning)

Image from nicole lee via flickr

Crimea, Ukraine, Russia, Kosovo and Serbia

Kosovo Flag (Official Flag) 17.02.2008

Firstly, I’m not making a political point here.  Don’t read one into this.  Don’t assume anything.  I generally don’t understand the differences.

In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally–without approval from Belgrade–voted to become independent.  The vote was held, the Serbs boycotted, and the province declared their independence.  Very much like this Crimea thing.

Crimea voted to leave the Ukraine in 2014.  Kiev didn’t approve, the vote wasn’t legal according to the law there; however, they voted to leave and join with Russia.

What’s the difference?  The only thing I can see is that the “west” didn’t like the Serbs so they sided with Kosovo at that time.  Now, the “west” doesn’t like Russia so they are siding against them here.  Can someone help me out?

Image from kosovo future maker via flickr

MH 370 — Pilot Experience

Future airline pilot

Yesterday, the media was full of stories like:

     Co Pilot was flying 777 for first time without a trainer
     Flight MH370: Co-pilot flying without ‘check’ pilot at time
     MH370 co-pilot new to Boeing 777
     Malaysian co-pilot was on first 777 flight without minder

One time, I was watching a news report about flooding–this was back when I was in 4th grade or so–and made a comment about how goofy the reporter was being.  My dad replied with something like:  the reporter doesn’t know which end of a boat goes forward.  I think these news stories are that same type of situation.

I know what the news media is trying to say.  They are trying to say something like:  the first officer (aka co-pilot) had limited experience…could that play a role.  But, they really end up showing they know nothing.  Here’s why….everyone has a “first time” with “no check-pilot” in the cockpit.  And that first time usually happens fairly quickly.  But that doesn’t make it unsafe.

As I understand it, when you move to a new piece of equipment (a new airplane), you spend loads of time in class having to memorize procedures, how the airplane works, wiring diagrams, speeds, and about ten thousand other things.  Then, you spend about a billion hours in a simulator proving you know all this stuff.  You then spend more time in the simulator going over procedures and practicing the mundane details of flying the airplane.  THEN, you spend your next five flights or so flying with a check-pilot to make sure you know your stuff.  At any point in this, a failure washes you out of the program.  If the check-pilot doesn’t like the way you do something…that could wash you out.  You can’t remember which bus has some obscure circuit on it…you wash out.  Can’t remember the checklist on what to do when aliens take the plane…you wash out.  My point is, MUCH is expected of people when they are training (I remember my dad studying and studying and studying more when it came time for his training).

But I hear it now:  why does their first time “behind the stick” have to be with passengers?  Can’t we do something different?

Even if there were such things as “trainer airliners” where people could actually fly the airplane without passengers, there would still come a time when people would have their “first time” “alone” “with passengers.”  I think the lack of serious accidents shows how successful the training regimes really are.  Now is not the time to have a knee-jerk reaction and go off the deep end.

I’ll say it again:  trying to blame this on pilot error now…with no details…is just dumb.

[Update 2014-03-25 08:17:21] Rush brought this up on his program yesterday (I was listening on the way to work).  Here’s a link to a transcript where he talks about this on his website.  Scroll near the bottom of the story

Image from peter thoeny via flickr

Weird Stats

20140322_FlickrStats

Have a look at this graph of our flickr stats.  See that huge spike?  I wish there were a good way to figure out what it was.  When I look at the referrer list, it just says “flickr.”  Did someone scrape our images?  Was someone just looking?  Who knows.  

Peanut Butter Pop Tarts

20130703-pb-pop-tarts-boxes-thumb-514x368-337412

Some time in the past three years, Pop Tarts (Kellogs?) introduced peanut butter flavor pop tarts.  When Cyndi was in the states a few weeks ago, she brought some back for me to try.  

First, I wish they had frosting.  Pop Tarts without frosting automatically get points off, in my book.

Second, the filling was nice and peanut buttery.  Many things that advertise peanut butter do it with a half-hearted effort

Third, I with the filling were less sweet.  It tasted like peanut butter mixed with about 1/2 too much powdered sugar.

Overall, it was good; however, I’d like to see the filling less sweet and add some frosting.

I found the image I used on Serious Eats.  The main poptart site wouldn’t let me save an image.

Idea

"blog"

Here’s an idea that I think could compete with Facebook, Twitter, and Google +.  In some ways, it is based off the old <shoot, I can’t remember what it was called.  It was a blog search, social network thing.  When you posted a new article, this thing was told about it by your blog then people could search it>.

Why not offer a service where:

  1. Everyone has their own blog.  They can host it wherever they want:  their own server, blogspot, etc….
  2. This service gets a notification whenever a new entry is posted.
  3. This service let’s people “friend” or “follow” other people.
  4. Whenever a new entry is posted, it shows up in your “feed” or on your “wall” with a link to the original
  5. Comments are left on the blog itself

What problem would this solve?  Quite simply:  ownership.  Who owns the information you post to Facebook, Twitter, or Google +?  Oh, you think it is yours?  Nope…they own it.  And, since someone else runs it, you don’t know if the government has ever issued a court order to get your data.

Image from inju via flickr