I've certainly grossed anyone out who doesn't care, but maybe that was the point... A brief visit to the gym on Saturday netted me a quick round of weights and a 1-mile run, broken into half by a diaper change while my son was at the gym daycare.
I had to stop in time to shower up and grab the kids before the Kids Klub closed at noon. Holly stayed home and recuperated from her back procedure. Taking the kids was supposed to let her relax a bit, but I sent her to do the impossible -- install Word 97 on her Mom's computer...
That ended up with me rolling through to find that her copy of Word came from the Home Essentials disk that came with her old computer. She needed to write a letter, and apparently OpenOffice.org Writer wasn't familiar enough. That's kind of funny, because I don't even think Word 97 would be any more familiar to me than anything else at this point.
I spent a lot of time installing Windows 7 on some machines, and spare parts that I arranged into "frankenboxes". good times... good times... for some reason, I find that rearranging of old parts that are too slow to do anything other than, well, get rearranged. soothing. Seriously, who would have guessed Windows 7 would install on a AMD Athlon XP 1600+ with 512 MB of RAM? Adding the Geforce FX5200 AGP card just to get Aero is kind of silly, but I did it.
I also got the two 250 GB drives installed in a spare, ugly box, with the 2.30 Celeron, and called it good. 120 days until the Windows Home Server Trial is over, but I'm thinking I'll commit. Streaming movies from it to Xbox 360s is working very well.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Zune-Zune
I picked up a 30 GB Microsoft Zune from Circuit City with some store credit I had from a return. It was on clearance, and I've had one before. Other than tying me down to Microsoft (which isn't much of an issue, really) I'm pretty happy with it.
Today, I ordered an arm band, a screen protector, and a rubberized case for it. I had some gift credit on Amazon.com, which I had forgotten about. It was a pleasant surprise, seeing as I had been waiting for pay day to get it, and found that I would get to spend $25 less than I thought. I still think $30 for an armband is a rip-off, it's just elastic and plastic, but it does make that run a bit more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, it doesn't make my legs hurt any less. Man, that first mile run was killer. It hurts when I walk. I guess if I keep doing it, it won't hurt anymore, getting all that lactic acid out and whatnot. If I can sustain mile-plus runs on a regular basis, then I'll just move it up to 30 minutes, and that'll be good. I'm still working on the playlist though. My computer kind of fell over and it isn't working, so I haven't had a chance to sync up and make new playlists yet.
If my computer is broken, it is either the Motherboard, or the CPUs. I saw an upgraded version of my motherboard at like a 60% discount, so I'll probably go with that, and hope the CPUs work, if they don't, then I'll just upgrade the CPUs, LOL. I guess I'm going to have to shake that money tree a little harder.
Today, I ordered an arm band, a screen protector, and a rubberized case for it. I had some gift credit on Amazon.com, which I had forgotten about. It was a pleasant surprise, seeing as I had been waiting for pay day to get it, and found that I would get to spend $25 less than I thought. I still think $30 for an armband is a rip-off, it's just elastic and plastic, but it does make that run a bit more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, it doesn't make my legs hurt any less. Man, that first mile run was killer. It hurts when I walk. I guess if I keep doing it, it won't hurt anymore, getting all that lactic acid out and whatnot. If I can sustain mile-plus runs on a regular basis, then I'll just move it up to 30 minutes, and that'll be good. I'm still working on the playlist though. My computer kind of fell over and it isn't working, so I haven't had a chance to sync up and make new playlists yet.
If my computer is broken, it is either the Motherboard, or the CPUs. I saw an upgraded version of my motherboard at like a 60% discount, so I'll probably go with that, and hope the CPUs work, if they don't, then I'll just upgrade the CPUs, LOL. I guess I'm going to have to shake that money tree a little harder.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Ode to Jiffy
Any of you out there like Jiffy corn meal stuff? Man, it's bad for me, but it tastes awesome. My kids like it too. I had mentioned wanting some during Thanksgiving, and my Mom-in-law saw me swoon so hard she bought me a multi-pack box and put it in my Christmas stocking. After my kids rejected leftovers last night, I pulled out a box and made some "pancakes". Then I got some of this frikkin' molases stuff from Alabama that my brother-in-law brought. I had to heat it up to get it out of the bottle. Good thing I'm not generous with the syrup... I could have gone comatose...
So, obviously, to make up for these my misdoings last night, I had to hit the gym extra hard this morning. 1.5 miles... 18 minutes... no walking. Amy Peters' tip about "shagging" or whatever seems to have done me good. That, or I just didn't want to look weak infront of the two ladies on either side of me. My legs really hurt, but I think I could have gone longer. I'll wait for a weight skipping day to try and do a 30-minute run, or maybe a Saturday.
Our sitter is terrified of mice, and she came in through the garage this morning... I'm proud of her. I didn't see our friend this morning, but I took a tip from our sitter, who heard it from someone, that you should actually tie the bait to the trap, so the mouse can't just take the food without getting killed. I wonder how that little beastie didn't freeze to death. It has warmed up though, so I definitely need to get him killed and gone. Maybe I can just leave a box of Jiffy out for him, and he'll carry that out and leave... The traps I used with peanut butter didn't work too well, I think I set them too tight, afraid to snap my fingers. This morning, I didn't find any string, but I twistie-tied some bologna to the traps and set them hopefully, I come home to a dead mouse, or whatever that thing is. Yuck.
I did manage to wake up early and get a Windows Home Server set up. I had a 2.30 GHz Celeron Pentium 4 chip with 512 MB of RAM and 80 and 20 GB hard drives. I named it "SERVER". That installation took "hours". I didn't really believe it would, but it said it might. Good thing I had something else to work on... my workstation is dead. It's been flakey for the past few months, but it won't boot-up now. I need to confirm that most of the parts are working, but I think the motherboard is dead. I suppose it could be one of the chips, or both of them, but there's no real way to tell except doing the "remove and shuffle" game, and I didn't have time for that, so I made a "new" machine with the P4 2.8 GHz HT chip and installed the Windows 7 Beta, which prompted me for Activation, almost made me curse Microsoft and whip out a Linux CD. But, I've committed to trying WHS, might as well have some machine running Windows so that I can use the Connector software...
I had the machine "built" already, but I hadn't put in a video card. I used the onboard-video, and put in two tuner cards that I had pulled from the "Media Center" box. I had a bit of trouble, and had one of those "I wish i had just stuck with using Macs" moments. The tuner cards were detected, but couldn't be installed, according to the device manager. Windows Media Center didn't like the onboard graphics that I was unwilling to allocate 64 MB of video for, and the Xbox 360 wasn't doing a good job as a WMC "frontend". Jeez, all this stuff worked before when I tested it briefly in a different configuration, of course.
I got everything up and running. In this case, it meant putting the two tuner cards back in the media center, and adding a "real" video card, and pulled the two 250 GB drives out of my workstation to copy my videos, music, and pictures and various downloads to my temporary workstation. I started copying the Videos to the Home Server shared "Videos" folder, and set the WHS sharing so that the Xbox 360 could stream. I had to leave the copy running, because it was time to go, but I did start "Ratatouille" on the Xbox 360, streaming from the home server, before we left.
That is the power of Jiffy. Wake up early, make computer stuff happen, go to the gym, hit your goals, and then blog about it. Awesome.
So, obviously, to make up for these my misdoings last night, I had to hit the gym extra hard this morning. 1.5 miles... 18 minutes... no walking. Amy Peters' tip about "shagging" or whatever seems to have done me good. That, or I just didn't want to look weak infront of the two ladies on either side of me. My legs really hurt, but I think I could have gone longer. I'll wait for a weight skipping day to try and do a 30-minute run, or maybe a Saturday.
Our sitter is terrified of mice, and she came in through the garage this morning... I'm proud of her. I didn't see our friend this morning, but I took a tip from our sitter, who heard it from someone, that you should actually tie the bait to the trap, so the mouse can't just take the food without getting killed. I wonder how that little beastie didn't freeze to death. It has warmed up though, so I definitely need to get him killed and gone. Maybe I can just leave a box of Jiffy out for him, and he'll carry that out and leave... The traps I used with peanut butter didn't work too well, I think I set them too tight, afraid to snap my fingers. This morning, I didn't find any string, but I twistie-tied some bologna to the traps and set them hopefully, I come home to a dead mouse, or whatever that thing is. Yuck.
I did manage to wake up early and get a Windows Home Server set up. I had a 2.30 GHz Celeron Pentium 4 chip with 512 MB of RAM and 80 and 20 GB hard drives. I named it "SERVER". That installation took "hours". I didn't really believe it would, but it said it might. Good thing I had something else to work on... my workstation is dead. It's been flakey for the past few months, but it won't boot-up now. I need to confirm that most of the parts are working, but I think the motherboard is dead. I suppose it could be one of the chips, or both of them, but there's no real way to tell except doing the "remove and shuffle" game, and I didn't have time for that, so I made a "new" machine with the P4 2.8 GHz HT chip and installed the Windows 7 Beta, which prompted me for Activation, almost made me curse Microsoft and whip out a Linux CD. But, I've committed to trying WHS, might as well have some machine running Windows so that I can use the Connector software...
I had the machine "built" already, but I hadn't put in a video card. I used the onboard-video, and put in two tuner cards that I had pulled from the "Media Center" box. I had a bit of trouble, and had one of those "I wish i had just stuck with using Macs" moments. The tuner cards were detected, but couldn't be installed, according to the device manager. Windows Media Center didn't like the onboard graphics that I was unwilling to allocate 64 MB of video for, and the Xbox 360 wasn't doing a good job as a WMC "frontend". Jeez, all this stuff worked before when I tested it briefly in a different configuration, of course.
I got everything up and running. In this case, it meant putting the two tuner cards back in the media center, and adding a "real" video card, and pulled the two 250 GB drives out of my workstation to copy my videos, music, and pictures and various downloads to my temporary workstation. I started copying the Videos to the Home Server shared "Videos" folder, and set the WHS sharing so that the Xbox 360 could stream. I had to leave the copy running, because it was time to go, but I did start "Ratatouille" on the Xbox 360, streaming from the home server, before we left.
That is the power of Jiffy. Wake up early, make computer stuff happen, go to the gym, hit your goals, and then blog about it. Awesome.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I skipped the gym this morning.
I didn't go to the gym this morning. Normally that means I skip a lot of other things, and go straight to work. This morning, I took the trash out, and attempted to do some light cleaning and organization in the garage before I headed out to work. I did, however, get to show Holly our new pet mouse, who has evaded capture so far. I just went straight to work after that.
The gym is now a 5 to 6 day a week thing for Holly and I. I haven't asked her how her checkup appointment with her bariatric surgeon went, but she was concerned with being a couple of pounds away from her personal goal. Sometimes I wonder if I should push her harder at the dinner table, or at the gym, but she's doing well. She takes some indulgences, sometimes out of convenience, sometimes out of guilty pleasure, but she looks great. For me, skipping the gym was more about time management. I've got a few things I need to get done outside of work, and getting to work earlier makes those possible.
Namely, our garage/rodent problem. The garage is a total sty. It isn't "nasty" but it is cluttered. Mostly, this is due to having stuff with no home. I have some cabinets on the wall, and they aren't completely full, but I need more cabinets, but that's an expenditure that keeps getting put off. We've got some free-standing shelving but I've been saving some of it for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who probably need more help in their garage than we do. I think their time is up though. I've got lots of projects around the house that are half-done or unstarted, and I'm going to pick one this week and get it done. With the kids, that's hard, because they still require (and request) constant supervision. I might be able to get home today early enough to ask our sitter to hang out for a while while I try to orangize a few things, but that almost always ends up with my kids screaming and generally throwing a tantrum until I decide I'm tired of hearing it and come in (so I can listen to them scream until their mother gets home).
So, back to the gym. I've set some personal goals regarding gym activities. My main overall goal is weight loss. I'm supporting Holly in her gym membership requirement for her surgery, and that's all well and good. However, for me, I just need to be able to go a whole day without feeling like I got my butt kicked. In general, I'm trying to build muscle, so that I can burn fat while I sit around all day... because I'm lazy. So, I'm hitting the weights pretty hard, rotating muscle groups and trying to rest and not do weights once or twice a week. In addition, I'm doing cardio work *after* weights. I'm supposed to get 30 minutes in, but more often than not, I run out of time in the mornings I end up doing 15 or 20 minutes, and then running to the shower, so I can get to work in time.
I'm usually not late, but I try to get in by 7:30, so I can leave at 4:00, so I can get home, so that the sitter doesn't have to work a 12 hour day. I could come in later, and put more time into the workout, but I'm sure the real reason I don't just push to 30 minutes, is that I just can't do it. I love using the treadmill, as opposed to other cardio stuff, because I feel like I'm doing something, I'm barely coordinated enough for some of the stuff. Stair climbing is awful, and riding the bike just seems too easy.
However, if anyone remembers in high-school, where we had to run a mile. I couldn't ever run the whole thing. I hated that, and I think I just want to prove to myself that I'm not that fat, weak, kid anymore. There was actually one teacher who would run behind the class, and trip the kids who lagged behind. Sigh... So, I've set a goal of being able to run for a mile. The whole mile. No walking. That won't take 30 minutes, and I can go a whole mile now walking some of it. After that, I'll just try to sustain the run up to 30 minutes. For me, that's a goal I can live with, and work toward, and build from.
The mp3 player helps, but I really need to pick a few songs that I can consistently listen to and keep me moving. I'm open to suggestions. Generally, I just need something loud enough to block out the music that gets played in the Gym, fast enough to run in time to, and doesn't make me think to much. I'll probably blog about the songs I end up choosing, and I'll give credit for suggestions as well. For those who wonder, I'm currently using a 30 GB Zune. I need an arm-band/case for it, and I saw one on Amazone, but it's like 30 bucks... I guess I'll have to hold it in my hand until I can find a few bills on the ground or something. I'm certain that I should move to something flash-based, but I'm just not feeling like switching around right now. We'll see.
With the weights, I have the numbers memorized on the machines that I use, and I don't do free weights yet. My goal really should be to write down and chart my weights, and then improve them and also increase the number of sets. I'm doing 3 sets of 8 on most stuff, an then a set to exhaustion. I'd like to increase that to 4 sets by mid-year and 5 by the end of the year. I'll tackle weight increases as I can, and try to set a better goal once I start charting. I've considered bringing a pad and paper around, but I really think I'd rather use my Windows Mobile phone, and just get an application for it, and use it for music too... but the media player on it kind of sucks... and bluetooth stereo is cool, but I get drop-outs somewhat frequently. I might have to ask this other guy that uses bluetooth headsets what he does. His wife is a social worker, and we chatted briefly about having wives "in that line of work".
Speaking of chatting at the gym, and keeping motivated, and wrapping up blog posts. Here's a funny. We (my wife and I) have code names for people at the gym. It's fun, and keeps us at least interested enough to pay attention while we're there. There's Thelma and Louise, SuperGirl (Kara), Marky-Mark, Greg Brady, Barney Fife (The sherriff), and a host of others. That's my tip for those of you who can't find a reason other than the fact that you just need to exercise to be there. Come up with nick-names for the "regulars". It's almost harmless, and somewhat entertaining.
The gym is now a 5 to 6 day a week thing for Holly and I. I haven't asked her how her checkup appointment with her bariatric surgeon went, but she was concerned with being a couple of pounds away from her personal goal. Sometimes I wonder if I should push her harder at the dinner table, or at the gym, but she's doing well. She takes some indulgences, sometimes out of convenience, sometimes out of guilty pleasure, but she looks great. For me, skipping the gym was more about time management. I've got a few things I need to get done outside of work, and getting to work earlier makes those possible.
Namely, our garage/rodent problem. The garage is a total sty. It isn't "nasty" but it is cluttered. Mostly, this is due to having stuff with no home. I have some cabinets on the wall, and they aren't completely full, but I need more cabinets, but that's an expenditure that keeps getting put off. We've got some free-standing shelving but I've been saving some of it for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who probably need more help in their garage than we do. I think their time is up though. I've got lots of projects around the house that are half-done or unstarted, and I'm going to pick one this week and get it done. With the kids, that's hard, because they still require (and request) constant supervision. I might be able to get home today early enough to ask our sitter to hang out for a while while I try to orangize a few things, but that almost always ends up with my kids screaming and generally throwing a tantrum until I decide I'm tired of hearing it and come in (so I can listen to them scream until their mother gets home).
So, back to the gym. I've set some personal goals regarding gym activities. My main overall goal is weight loss. I'm supporting Holly in her gym membership requirement for her surgery, and that's all well and good. However, for me, I just need to be able to go a whole day without feeling like I got my butt kicked. In general, I'm trying to build muscle, so that I can burn fat while I sit around all day... because I'm lazy. So, I'm hitting the weights pretty hard, rotating muscle groups and trying to rest and not do weights once or twice a week. In addition, I'm doing cardio work *after* weights. I'm supposed to get 30 minutes in, but more often than not, I run out of time in the mornings I end up doing 15 or 20 minutes, and then running to the shower, so I can get to work in time.
I'm usually not late, but I try to get in by 7:30, so I can leave at 4:00, so I can get home, so that the sitter doesn't have to work a 12 hour day. I could come in later, and put more time into the workout, but I'm sure the real reason I don't just push to 30 minutes, is that I just can't do it. I love using the treadmill, as opposed to other cardio stuff, because I feel like I'm doing something, I'm barely coordinated enough for some of the stuff. Stair climbing is awful, and riding the bike just seems too easy.
However, if anyone remembers in high-school, where we had to run a mile. I couldn't ever run the whole thing. I hated that, and I think I just want to prove to myself that I'm not that fat, weak, kid anymore. There was actually one teacher who would run behind the class, and trip the kids who lagged behind. Sigh... So, I've set a goal of being able to run for a mile. The whole mile. No walking. That won't take 30 minutes, and I can go a whole mile now walking some of it. After that, I'll just try to sustain the run up to 30 minutes. For me, that's a goal I can live with, and work toward, and build from.
The mp3 player helps, but I really need to pick a few songs that I can consistently listen to and keep me moving. I'm open to suggestions. Generally, I just need something loud enough to block out the music that gets played in the Gym, fast enough to run in time to, and doesn't make me think to much. I'll probably blog about the songs I end up choosing, and I'll give credit for suggestions as well. For those who wonder, I'm currently using a 30 GB Zune. I need an arm-band/case for it, and I saw one on Amazone, but it's like 30 bucks... I guess I'll have to hold it in my hand until I can find a few bills on the ground or something. I'm certain that I should move to something flash-based, but I'm just not feeling like switching around right now. We'll see.
With the weights, I have the numbers memorized on the machines that I use, and I don't do free weights yet. My goal really should be to write down and chart my weights, and then improve them and also increase the number of sets. I'm doing 3 sets of 8 on most stuff, an then a set to exhaustion. I'd like to increase that to 4 sets by mid-year and 5 by the end of the year. I'll tackle weight increases as I can, and try to set a better goal once I start charting. I've considered bringing a pad and paper around, but I really think I'd rather use my Windows Mobile phone, and just get an application for it, and use it for music too... but the media player on it kind of sucks... and bluetooth stereo is cool, but I get drop-outs somewhat frequently. I might have to ask this other guy that uses bluetooth headsets what he does. His wife is a social worker, and we chatted briefly about having wives "in that line of work".
Speaking of chatting at the gym, and keeping motivated, and wrapping up blog posts. Here's a funny. We (my wife and I) have code names for people at the gym. It's fun, and keeps us at least interested enough to pay attention while we're there. There's Thelma and Louise, SuperGirl (Kara), Marky-Mark, Greg Brady, Barney Fife (The sherriff), and a host of others. That's my tip for those of you who can't find a reason other than the fact that you just need to exercise to be there. Come up with nick-names for the "regulars". It's almost harmless, and somewhat entertaining.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Blogging, Now with more content!
Okey dokey. I'm going to start blogging again, and I will try my best to make it a daily thing. Not because my Aunt Staci heckles me about posting nerdy stuff, or that my friends and family want to see how my kids are doing, or because I think my life has a void that can only be filled by giving away a piece of myself.
I really just need to write down what's going on in my life. The fact that it is public keeps me somewhat honest. Are you not entertained? If not, wait for it...
I really just need to write down what's going on in my life. The fact that it is public keeps me somewhat honest. Are you not entertained? If not, wait for it...
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