Holidazzle

Well, the holidays can really make it difficult to keep resolutions. Luckily I'm not on a diet. Anyway, the push-ups and blogging restart tonight. No news, other than I'm happy that Tech is headed to the ACC Championship. My dream is for VT to crush Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, but there's still some football to be played.

Nothing...

...to say.

Wallpaper: Spring

I promised some wallpaper earlier, so here's the first image (currently my work desktop):

(click for full-size 1.6 MB image)

This image was taken during the cherry blossom festival in Washington, D.C., last spring. I think it nicely shows off the quality of my new digital camera, a Casio Exilim EX-Z55. It's very tiny but has a large screen and can capture 5-megapixel images (bigger than the one above). I'm very happy with it.

I've been trying to capture some fall images, but I'm not satisfied with the results so far.

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi!

What's better than Tech beating UVa 52-14? For Miami to lose on the same day. ACC Championship, here we come!

Some Good Articles

Everyone should read the interview with Bill Tierney at FrontPage magazine, which is an excellent summary of the twelve wasted years between the Gulf War (a.k.a., "please play nice, Saddam") and Operation Iraqi Freedom (a.k.a., "this time we mean it!"). What a contrast between the on-the-ground reality described by Tierney and the bitter self-delusion being spouted by that jackass Jimmy Carter. I see FrontPage has a follow-up article on Carter, but I don't think I can stomach it right now.

I donated blood today, so I think I'll have to skip the push-ups tonight.

Busy

I had a club meeting tonight, so I'm still catching up on things at home. (Already did my push-ups.) Tomorrow I'll post some nature images that should make good desktop wallpaper.

Catblogging

Steffi says, "Hi!"

Success!

5 + 22 + 13 + 10 = 50

I've learned three things from today. First, warming up definitely helps. I was still sore from yesterday and the first 5 push-ups were tough, but after waiting about five minutes I was able to crank out 22 without too much trouble.

Second, I shouldn't wait too long between sets. Yesterday I waited about four hours before trying the final ten, and they were killers (done in two sets of five). Today probably waited about half an hour and then did 13, and they weren't too bad, and then the final 10 weren't bad at all. I probably could have done a few more in the last set.

Finally, doing 50 push-ups a day is not an unrealistic goal. I was worried I wouldn't be able to recover fast enough, and eventually my arms would be hanging limp and I would have to take a day or two off. (That could still turn out to be true.) However, with proper pacing, I think I can fit 50 push-ups in a single day in the short term, and of course over the long term I should be getting stronger so that it's less of a strain.

Now, time for a snack.

Push-ups

The first 40 push-ups yesterday were pretty easy, but the last 10 were really tough. I haven't tried yet tonight, and I'm dreading it.

Since this is my eleventh post, I'm finally going to start pushing some of the old February posts off the front page. I'll have to come up with a new picture for tomorrow.

More Goals

My list of goals is growing:

1. Post to this blog at least once a day.
2. Walk to the mailbox to check my mail (rather than quickly stopping the car there as I drive by).
3. Do at least 50 push-ups every day.

The last two are an attempt to get started into physical fitness again, and all three are designed to develop some good habits. Once I establish a routine of coming home after work, walking to the mailbox, changing clothes, doing push-ups, checking email, doing more push-ups, posting to the blog, fixing dinner, etc., then I won't have to think about these things or motivate myself to do them.

Push-ups are my weak point, so I'm starting with them. Once I meet my goal of 50 push-ups without stopping, I'll add in some burpees, pull-ups, jumping rope, or whatever. I've noticed something interesting: I can always do more push-ups in my second set than in my first. Today I did 18 and then 22, with a 10-15 minute break in between to check email. I think I'll try a warm-up set of about 5 tomorrow, and then see how many I can do.

Another interesting finding is that push-ups, especially "Hindu" push-ups that involve a lot of wrist movement, seem to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. Occasionally if I've been putting in a lot of computer time, my wrists will start to get sore, but if I start doing daily Hindu push-ups, the pain will disappear after a couple days. After a while I also notice that I have to loosen my watch band a notch, so they are definitely strengthening my wrists. I was lazy over the summer and my watch is now pretty loose on my wrist, so I'm starting up again. I'm sticking with normal push-ups this time, though.

Figuring It Out

I'm still trying to figure out the Blogger interface. It seems that the archive links in the right column are broken, and I still can't post images from Picasa. I'm probably missing a configuration setting somewhere.

Anyway, I've started to work on getting the rest of the stuff on my home page updated. I touched the Computers page for the first time in three years or so, and added a page on my new HTPC, Lalitha, that I mentioned on Monday. Here's a permalink to that post.

EDIT: Figured it out! Archive links now work.

Music

(Hey, a novel concept: breaking a single rambling post into multiple posts based on "topic.")

I really need to start a music section on my home page. I've had a list of "essential albums" in my head for a while, and I really need to write them down. Also, now that I have broadband, I can finally take advantage of (ahem) file sharing technology, mainly to keep up with Japanese artists I like. Recently I've been listening to lots of Paris Match, which is great cheery background music, especially when browsing the depressing content of political blogs. Currently playing is the latest EGO WRAPPIN' album, which I actually bought for $35 at the Kinokuniya in NYC after downloading the MP3s. Everything this band has released is fantastic, including their music videos. Now they just need to tour the US.

Absent-Minded

OK, so I forgot to post yesterday; maybe I'll sneak in an extra post today to make up for it. I also forgot this was a bye week for Va Tech, and we don't play UVa until next Saturday.

Thursday night I saw the DOOM movie; not bad, but way too much time spent searching for monsters rather than killing them. If the game moved that slowly, I wouldn't have wasted so much time in college playing it. Still, Karl Urban and the Rock we're both good action heros, the ending had a good amount of fighting and explosions, and the chick was pretty hot. That's about all you need from a movie like this. ;-)

Danger! Danger!

Last weekend I picked up the new Danger Doom CD, and it's everything I hoped it would be. For those who don't know, it's MF Doom and Danger Mouse teaming up to rhyme about and sample Adult Swim shows like everyone's favorite, Aqua Team Hunger Force. The only downside is that, like most of Doom's recent projects, it's fairly short.

Why Am I Here?

Why am I making daily posts to a blog nobody reads, especially when my posts are relatively content-free? Because I set a goal, and I plan to keep it. The idea is to get into the habit of posting, and focus on the actual content later. And that's all for today.

Election Day

I voted today. Pretty uninspiring choices all around, but at least there was more than one choice on the ballot.

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently finished the Baroque Cycle books. I got them last Christmas, but put off reading them until now because I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything else done once I started (which was true). I really like Stephenson's recent "expansion" from SF into historical fiction. These books were sort of a geek's guide to the late 17th century, but I'd have to read some actual history to know how much was entirely fictional. The books made me realize how little I know (or remember) about history, expecially outside the USA. On a local note, it's interesting how many Virginia counties are named after British kings, including William of Orange. Anyway, I can't wait to see what Neal Stephenson writes next.

Goals

I'm setting a goal to post to this blog at least once a day, and that no post will contain whining or excuses (which is what my old .plan file usually contained).

I recently built a Media Center PC, so I'll post the specs on the computer page sometime. I've been using it mainly as a digital recorder, and I currently have over 60 hours of programming to watch: mostly Hitchcock and other classic movies from TCM, but also various Adult Swim shows and programs like Mail Call that I always forget to watch.

Besides making up for my forgetfulness, there are two other big benefits. First, I'm able to easily catch two shows that air at the same time. For example, I recorded The Ultimate Fighter 2 finale while watching Virginia Tech be destroyed by Miami live on Saturday, and then I watched the finale--skipping the long between-fight sequences and commercials--and immediately deleted it. Not having to search for a 3-hour tape, or even leave the couch, is a great convenience.

Second, I can take full advantage of timeshifting by recording late-night Adult Swim shows, or movies that only air during the day, and watch them in the evening or on the weekend. Especially for Adult Swim and its constantly shifting schedule, it's great to just say "record series" and not have to worry about finding the right times and making sure the VCR is set up. Of course, the other benefit to a Media Center PC is no monthly fees like TiVo.

The only trouble so far is that I haven't been able to get a satisfactory HD image on my TV using the component input, so I'm still using S-Video. I just need to devote some time to tweaking the setup.

In other news, I recently finished Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books, so if I don't have anything to post about tomorrow I'll talk about that.