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.

ClarkConnect, round 2

So, I fried a router... meh. I built a replacement. I also nabbed a gigabit switch for $20. Unfortunately, the hardware I tried to use for the router failed, and I had to use a "real machine" that only had 10/100 network bits in it.

I got the old hardware back up and running, and I also got some other parts together and ended up building a "home server" with ClarkConnect. Right now, it has two GigE cards (which is ridiculous, I know, since my incoming broadband is less than 10 Mbit) and a 30 GB laptop hard drive. Maybe some day, I'll grab that little chenbro case and 4 terabyte drives that everyone is using for their custom WHS installs.

The machine is running off of the motherboard from a Compaq machine that I got from the Weldy's 1.2 GHz Athlon and two sticks of 256 MB RAM. That combined with the laptop hard drive, and the gigabit nics being PCI probably contributed to the paltry backup speed of around 6.5 Megabytes per second. Oh well, I got my 11 GB of ripped CDs off of my comptuer, and I built a machine that can act as some sort of backup server.

Of course, I'll need to add space, that 30 GB laptop drive is full, because I added the installer for World of Warcraft and some patches to it as well. That'll be another adventure.

Also, I've never gotten the print server working on ClarkConnect. It is one of the few reasons I'm tempted to try out Amahi, just because I know Fedora better than RHEL, and that I know if I plug in my printer in Fedora, it will work. I posted a little help request on the ClarkConnect Forums:

http://www.clarkconnect.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=111094&an=0&page=0#Post111094

I'm guessing I just need to get gutenprint installed, but I don't really know how. Probably something easy like ssh-ing into the box and typing "apt-get install gutenprint". Maybe I should just try that. LOL. I really don't want to have to get out my usb print server. It is just one more thing that I need to plug into the wall.

Ripping CDs in Windows Media Player - Music Brainz?

Hmm... I ripped a *lot* of CDs this week. Windows Media Player did a great job. However, I've got a handful of CDs that didn't have track information available. Some discs simply could not be identified. Some errored out, some ripped but with "unknown" artist/album/track info.

I'm probably going to see if I can give Banshee a chance with Music Brainz on those discs. I doubt I'll re-rip my whole collection, but I suppose that's one step closer to freedom. Does anyone know how MusicBrains actually works?

I found my earpiece in the driveway...

I think I'm going to have to start using Twitter if I keep writing short posts... Isn't there some sort of Facebook/Twitter mashup? Oh, I'd like to use TwitterFox on my PortableApps version of FireFox too. I guess I had better get to it.

As i turns out, the missing rubber piece of my headphones was in the driveway... I found it when I pulled in from work this evening. Yay!

Working out is hard work.

Today, I upped repetitions and weights at the gym. I was doing 8 sets, basically to exhaustion. We do weights *before* cardio and 9 and 10 really hurt. Holly wasn't feeling well today, but she hung tough and we did do cardio on bikes. Not much time today, since we're on our usual late schedule in the AM.

I managed to get some music on my phone and use the bluetooth headsets the past couple of days... It almost makes the workout tolerable. I'll need to make a playlist of the hardest hitting songs I can think of, hoping that will at least drive me work harder.

I haven't really been keeping track of weights or time. I'd like to get a mobile program, but I'm finding that if I can remember the weights that I use on most machines, and I just do cardio until I run out of time before I have to head to work. If anyone has a suggestion for workout tracking, weight-loss, or food intake programs for Windows Moble. (or any other platform, I'm open to switching, or using multiple devices) hit me up.

Windows Media Player as a CD Ripper

Windows Media Player 11 is a great CD ripper. I have a tower with 4 optical drives, and I'm just casually feeding it CDs, with the settings on "rip to mp3 and eject".

Why am I not doing it on Linux, with say, Banshee, and using ogg?

Sigh. My media center and phone are Windows-based. And the minimal configuration necessary is a big help. Banshee did a great job, except when it couldn't find album info. Which would be weird, because I'd end up just opening up Sound Juicer and it would find the album info. But I had a hard time getting them both into the same tagging and directory structure. And then there's the whole "downloading and installing patent-encumbered media formats" thing on Fedora. Some day, I'll just pick up that mp3 player that plays .ogg files and syncs with Banshee, and supports my bluetooth headset that I saw at the computer geeks disount outlet, but won't use because my phone is super-powerful.

Oh, and my CD collection is really dated, LOL. Secular music from the 90's. I spent all my paper-route money on CDs in middle-school / highschool. It has been fun going through it, but sheesh. I should just smash it all with a hammer or something.

T-Mobile Shadow Update

Today, at work, I'm going to work on making my T-Mobile Shadow experience better. In between tasks, and generally filling time as I can, while doing work, of course. So, it is going slow. (I'm starting this post at about 10:00 AM. I've been at it off and on for an hour, inbetween reading training material, reviewing trouble tickets, dodging funny pictures sent to me by my colleagues and such.

For those of you, like my Aunt Staci, who says that I make "boring" posts. This one will probably be boring. Fair warning and all that...

So, music... I've purchased a set of Motorola S9 stereo bluetooth headphones. They're great, and I was going to use them with my Apple PowerBook, but I need Leopard for stereo sound, rather than the simple headset/microphone profile. I'm selling my PowerBook anyway... not specifically for that reason, Mostly because I don't want to pay for the battery upgrade, memory upgrade, and Leopard upgrade, but I digress... The bluetooth headphones work great with the phone, and I'd like to use them when I work out in the mornings before work.

I loaded a few songs from my PowerBook onto the phone, using a memory card that we've bought. They were encoded in AAC (.m4a, like on iTunes/iPod/iPhone) and they worked fine in the Windows Media Player. I haven't ripped all of my CDs, but I wanted to make sure that if for some reason, I go nuts and use Apple as my primary system, that I could use my ripped tracks on the phone. Seems to be fine.

Incidentally, I'm probably going to stick with Windows Media Center and just deal with the OTA subchannel nonsense or maybe go with Media Portal or some other free replacement on our DVR box. It's working very well, and syncing playlists and such seems like it will be great with our phones. Sigh... I've given up freedom for convenience, so I guess I deserve neither. I'll learn my lesson and come crawling later, I'm sure.

I'm also going to try to get my phone updated, and I guess I need to call in to customer service and grab those spare extra capacity batteries that are supposed to be free, but couldn't be sent to customers subscribed for less than thirty days... Sigh.

I'm also going to try to install moBlog, and see if I can try to use my camera phone and post directly to my blog, making some of those life moments more publically available. Maybe then I can justify having this fancy toy, rather than simply saying my wife needs to keep a schedule with her, and I just got one too.

We'll see how it all goes. Good luck to me.

Okay... went to lunch, came back... lunch was just awful, food-wise. My PC is getting re-imaged at 1:30, and I've got training to finish up. moBlog just didn't work right for me. I couldn't get it to work, and I gave up. I do wonder why Wordpress.com has a mobile client for iPhone, and not for Windows Mobile, but there's no real guesswork. Announcing a client on iPhone is bigger news...

I did manage to get the T-Mobile update installed. Avril Lavigne and Dave Matthews Band now emenate from my phone... very nice indeed. There's some better text input stuff too.

I think it is just time to sit down this evening and rip discs on the big box... WMA or MP3?

Ripping with Banshee, part 2 - FreeDB backup?

Okay, lots of the CDs I've tried don't have MusicBrainz entries... fine, I'll try them in SoundJuicer... oh, wait, it is doing some sort of fallback to FreeDB... well, why doesn't Banshee do that?

Oh, and the submission to MusicBrainz in SoundJuicer... that's too hard, I don't understand what to do. I don't really have anything to add, I just want my tags to show up. WTF?

Oh, and BloGTK... eh... it kind of sucks. I need something better.

And what the heck is with SoundJuicer just falling over? It is as if it just gets tired of being second to Banshee and quits in frustration. :(

Ripping it up with Banshee

I had a really good session with Banshee last night. I've been trying to rip CDs for this eventual portable media player I think I'm going to get. However, I've had a hard time coming to terms with a few things.

I have a machine with 4 cores and 4 optical drives, and I want all of them to work at the same time, so I can rip more discs faster.

I don't want to be tied to Windows or OS X. Actually, I don't mind being tied to OSX, but I can't really afford the hardware to rip the CDs efficiently under OS X. I like the iPod Touch. Rearlly, what I want is a player that will play .ogg files so I can be "free".

Just those two restrictions alone have been enough to make the decision hard. What software do I use? What device am I going to get? What format to I rip to? Being a Freedom Fighter is hard... every device uses .mp3, but the files are bigger, and there's the whold patent issue. Ripping to .mp3 on Linux involves "evil sorcery" that's easy enough, but not really what I want to do if I can avoid it. I thought about ripping to AAC/.m4a and using an iPod Touch, and my recent acquisition of a PowerBook makes this very attractive, but then there's the whole vendor lock-in issue.

I think I'm going to settle with Linux, and just try to find an MTP device I can live with, and I probably won't get an iPod just because of cost. Ripping to .mp3 is probably what I'll end up doing, I'd like to use Vorbis/.ogg, but I'm having a hard time finding a device that I really want that does it.

With all that decided, I had previously done some research on software on Linux for ripping CDs. Banshee recently went 1.0 and it's awesome. I put in 4 CDs and if there's information available, it rips the tracks and ejects the disc. If not, it just sits and waits. Unfortunately, it sat and waited on 2 out of the 10 discs I tried last night.

Sound Juicer works splendidly also, and picked up the discs that didn't automatically get track information in Banshee. Some sort of MusicBrainz interface... strange... since Banshee supposedly has MusicBrainz too... I'd just use SoundJuicer, but it wants me to actually select a single optical drive for ripping... no good for me.

I tried a few other apps, but Banshee was so easy and simple, I think I"m going to stick with it. Now I just need to find an media player that I can use with it. The Computer Geeks Discount Outlet had some old iRiver H10 devices for sale... maybe I can snag one of those. The iPod Touch lingers in my mind, but there's some "clones" that might work for me.