Been a Long Time, Part II!

  Been a Long Time, Part II!

I'm going to echo the first line of my last blog entry - "Yea, it's been a long time."


  Why?  Well, I guess the blogging craze has dropped out, both in general and for me personally.  There's still always been a place for it, of course.  But now it's re-surging I believe.  So here I go jumping back in a little anyway.  

  And I've just gotten out of the habit of blogging anything, and a hell of a lot has changed in my life since the last entry too.  But I'm going to try and post an entry once in a while, I'm thinking I am going to do some reviews of equipment that I have, and things like that.

  Changes

  After B'elanna died we got a Boxer, Archer (the white one).  We had already had one Boxer, Chakotay, and really liked the breed.

  And recently we have a new kitten, Spock.  Spock is from a litter of kittens and mother who showed up at our place and who we coaxed close enough to catch them all.  We then found homes for all of them except one mostly white kitten who we fell in love with and kept - Spock.

  Also, my father sold his property, his whole farm, to the Amish.  Big thing for him, but also for us as they are now our neighbors.  It's hard to imagine living as they do, and it's a big culture-shock for us.

  I'm also a telephone contact for them, though this went from them assuring me that it might be one call a year to a few times a month and then to driving them and their relatives and friends places and picking up people and stuff. 

  So one day I kind of tried to put a stop to that by not necessarily answering the door if I don't see a car in the yard.  

  Yea, okay, maybe rude - but, despite what some of the people in Jefferson County think; they're just human beings like the rest of us and if you let them take advantage of you then they will.  It got excessive.  No offense but, geez, their sect should allow them to buy a phone for emergencies at least...

  The Biggest Changes

  But probably one of the biggest changes is that we also changed our whole lives with a new attitude, less weight, lots of exercise, and much healthier eating!

  I can't tell you how it all started, and neither can my wife.  We just started slowly I think, and we didn't talk about it and plan it or anything.  I can't even tell you which of us started because it started so slowly.  And we tend to work off from each other's ideas and habits (which I believe is what a good partnership of any kind should be like).

  I just know that I had went up well over 200 pounds (I don't exactly know how much - and it also fluctuated daily) and even though I was still quite active during the nice times of the year; I could feel the weight pulling me down.  More and more as time went on.  If I bent over to tie my shoes I could feel the pressure of it pushing the air out of my lungs, and I didn't like how I looked or felt.  I could feel how unhealthy I was.

  And having a family on my mother's side of fairly overweight people with all sorts of health problems, including diabetes and heart problems - well, it makes you think.  makes you think real hard.

  Jenny, my wife, had gotten quite large and has always been overweight her whole life.  I was always pretty thin until the last decade or so.  Growing up on a farm I'd always been thin, scrawny, but fairly strong (at least I thought so).  

  But after gaining weight I was fat in the belly, chest, face, and neck yet I still had thin spindly arms and fairly thin legs, except where they were fat on my thighs somewhat.

  So again; I don't know how we started losing weight and getting healthier, we just did.

  I only remember deciding to give up soda (cola).  I started it slowly, and even started watering down the soda sometimes, or trying to switch to slightly more healthy drinks.  Sometimes I'd drink water instead.  

  Jenny was surprised at this a few times when she noticed that I was doing it, as I had always been a real big soda drinker.  But right around the same time we both started changing how and what we ate, and our exercise and lifestyle, so I can't say that I started it, we just kind of did in parallel.  Like I said - I remember stopping drinking soda but I don't think that's what started both of us; we just did it a little at a time.  That seemed like the best way, instead of a huge change.

  I immediately started losing weight once I completely stopped drinking soda, even without making any other changes.  For me personally this really encouraged me.  It was amazing, the pounds just dropped off.  And while I mentioned above that I have always been a soda drinker - I was never real super crazy like some people are.  Usually one or two sodas a day, that was it.

  But it was crazy how much weight I was losing just stopping that much soda intake.  That tells you something significant right there.

  We both started watching our weight over time and before long we had gotten a treadmill, a Sole F63, and was trying to get more exercise in general.

  We worked up from there with getting a Wii and a number of exercise-related games for it.  The two of us spent many hours, together as well as separately, working and sweating.  We started small and worked up.  The Wii was an integral beginning part to our changes, and though we rarely use it now it was certainly worth it to get that exercise that interactive physical gameplay did for us.

  Later we picked up some exercise DVD's of various kinds and levels, which opened up a whole new world for us.  We got more and more of them, trying them and doing and re-doing our favorites.  We also continued to watch our food intake and slowly started eating healthier food in general.

  An exercise room was the next thing we did, building it ourselves using a portion of our cellar which only was used for some storage.  In the pic below you can't quite see the whole room, a few more things around the edge there, small but works nicely for two people (and two dogs).

  You might find this strange and I really need to get an updated video on Youtube showing it - our dogs have gotten so used to running on the treadmill that I don't have to say a word; as soon as we go into the exercise room Chakotay goes and gets on the treadmill and waits.  If we're using it I have to make him get off it. Otherwise I start it up, he walks on it (as I slowly increase the speed so he's jogging then slow it down at the end) and when I press the STOP button and it stops, he gets off by himself and Archer comes over and gets on and waits - all without me saying one word!

  Anyway, after we got he exercise room finished we moved the treadmill to the exercise from from where we had been using it, got a Bowflex, and I moved my stair-climber and rowing machine down there also, and I made a pull-up bar and a wrist roller.  Over time we also supplied it with a TV, Dolby Surround Sound with radio, DVD player, and a hookup to our antenna system and Dish Network.  I'm working on adding a weight bench attachment to the Bowflex currently, and I got a few pieces of free weights from a local Freecycle site.  Later we bought more free weights, they're a great to supplement the Bowflex weight training.

  P90X was also something else we acquired, and we both dove into that.  It was hard at first, Plyometrics was a killer but amazingly, over time, we both got strong enough to do it all with Jenny just now getting into doing the weight training part of it.  Tony Horton is the greatest - firm, helpful, funny, and an inspiration.  I also do Insanity and lots of Bob Harper's stuff, like this one.

  Insanity IS insane.  It is very very hard and I could only have worked up to it after getting very fit, and then doing P90X over and over and over again many many times.  I'd consider it only for those who are very physically fit and fairly advanced.  But I am proud to say that I can keep up with the twenty-something's on the disc.

  Some of it is still sweat-producing hard, but it's hard as in 'good hard exercise' now.  Not hard as in 'I'm not fit enough to do this!'.

  Also, Jenny's severe sleep apnea completely disappeared once she lost a significant amount of weight!  Gone, completely, no more machine, no more problems.

  I lost over fifty pounds myself, but did I mention - Jenny lost over 225!  I've been and continue to be so proud of her.  You can read her blog about the process here. 

  And I guess it surprised me a bit when I heard family members and friends say how they never thought that she could do it.  I didn't think anything of it, I knew she could.  I knew I could.  There was no question.

  It's one of the things that surprised me, people not thinking she was capable of it.

  Check out her blog if you get the chance - lots of pics, including those from when she had to have the operation to remove the extra skin (yuk - not for the weak stomached).

  And another thing that has surprised and still surprises me is how some people are so sure that all of a sudden we're going to gain it all back!  And backslide.

  Sure, a lot of people who go on diets gain the weight back.

  And of course you're going to gain it back if you watch your food intake, decide you've lost enough and look good, and then start eating the same way again and stopping any exercise!  Of course you're going to gain it back, how could you not think otherwise?!

  You have to make a change in how you eat and exercise, a permanent change, not a temporary one.  That's how you get and stay healthy, and maintain a healthy weight.

  Seems pretty self-evident and common sense to me.

  Another kind of strange reaction to our weight loss is those people who say 'I didn't think you were overweight before'.

  Huh?  It seems kind of obvious, look at the before and after pic above.  My double chin was even getting a double chin!  And the before picture was taken a number of years before I started losing weight so I had gained even more  weight after that pic was taken, whew!  My hat wouldn't even fit my head.

  Are we so used to the 'average' American being so overweight that it doesn't look abnormal any more?  In 2002 a government study showed that the average weight for an average American male is 191 pounds!  What?!  More than half of US men are over 180 pounds according to a newer study.

  I've also had people who said I was too thin, usually said behind my back of course.  

  Wow, this is mind-blowing to me.  My arms and legs are bigger and stronger and more muscular than they ever were in my whole life, I've lost a lot of my belly (still got some stubborn belly to lose) so I've dropped a number of pant sizes, yet I'm obviously not thin.  I feel great, good weight, in great shape.  Again, I have to repeat it - are we so used to the 'average' American being so overweight that it doesn't look abnormal any more and someone who is at a very healthy weight seems too thin?

  Jenny's also had a person, or maybe more, who insisted that she much have had weight-loss surgery to lose that much.  Insisted that it can't be done.  Wow.

  But I've had a few people who acted like I was going to chastise them because of their weight.  To me, being healthy is the important thing.  If you're overweight and unhealthy you should look at your life.  But if you're somewhat overweight and fine with it, and healthy, then who am I to tell you differently about how you should be?

  It does bother me that some of those who are significantly overweight and in the public eye are quick to tell everyone that we should all be happy with who we are.

  Good idea in principle; but when you have an unhealthy amount of weight then it seems like the wrong message to issue a blanket statement to everyone like that.

  Hey, if you're happy with setting yourself up for health problems later (or sometimes sooner) in life then fine, but with the epidemic of obesity and morbid obese people in the US, it doesn't seem like a good thing to be preaching eating whatever you want until you're fat from the rooftops.

  I think I look pretty good in general, if I do say so myself.  And for starting this in my mid-40's and only being at it for a couple years - I think I've done well.  And I've worked hard, damn hard every single day.  

  I might mention here too, one thing that helped me target what I needed to do once I lost the weight and wanted to continue getting even healthier and more athletic, was the social exercise website Fitocracy.  

  I'm at what is medically considered the correct weight range for my stats, and I've put on tons of muscle, am more muscular than I have ever been in my life, more flexible (and it's amazing how being more flexible can affect ALL aspects of your life - don't discount stretching and Yoga just for the flexibility part of it, not to mention other benefits), more able to do all kinds of things I couldn't do before or couldn't do well.  My resting and exercise heart rate has come now significantly.  Good to have a nice heart rate monitor, like the Garmin series of GPS/Heart Rate Monitor watches, especiall if you're going to do the intense cardio exercises like P90X's Plyometrics or the extremely intense ones in Insanity.

  I've also found that my body seems to be damn fine at recovering from injuries, and not getting sick now.  When I was young I got sick often; colds, flu's, etc.  Now I haven't had a cold in possibly two years or at least a year and a half.  Which is the most unusual thing for me.  Sure, I might have an off day, a day when I don't feel strong because maybe my body is fighting off a cold, or is tired.  But you have to know when to take a rest, drink lots of fluids, rest completely or at least cut down on exercises for that day, and maybe put a little recovery/vitamin enhancement in your water (like Propel) - and that's the day for it.  

  I know some people exercise way too much, but one of the secrets of it is to take breaks - at least give the arts of your body that you've exercised hard a break.

  I'm also biking as much as I can now, getting my distances up to a max of 45 miles!  And I've run eight miles max (on my 46th birthday!) but normally run three to six.  No marathon, but pretty good I think.  Considering the average American probably couldn't run a mile I think I'm doing okay.

  Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving morning we're running a 5k Turkey Run that benefits the YMCA, no big thing for either of us anymore.  We've done a number of runs this year and at one of them I even got first place in my age group, and in another Jenny got first place for women overall!  

  I remember when I was a kid in school I could barely make it through running one mile, and I was walking by the end.

  Yet I wish I could have started this whole thing earlier.  Instead of in my middle age.  The nice thing is there's no upper age limit to getting fitter, gaining muscle or flexibility - it just takes a little longer and sometimes you have to ease into it instead of diving in.

  So, enough about me.  

  I hope this has shown that no matter how much you weight and in how badly out of shape you are you can make yourself over, better than you have ever been.  And it doesn't take a lot of money - if you're reading this you have access to the Internet and can find everything you need to get started.


 Other Things

  We finally got a faster Internet here, via a Virgin Mobile's Broadband Mifi.  It works okay, but not the best.  But for those without any other options it's better than dial-up.  I'm using a hacked router using DD-WRT to make a connection to it and distribute the signal, both wireless and wired, throughout the house; thus overcoming the limitations of the router somewhat.

  As you may or may not have noticed I have changed the blog template, logo graphics, and arrangement and added some ads.  Sorry, but times are tough and despite what some people think - reading an ad won't kill ya ;)

  So, watch for upcoming blog entries as I review some of my favorite stuff.




Products mentioned in this blog:



   

Taking a Break While Computing, Filemenu Tools, Air Hogs and R/C, Spyware

So here we go, a new year is almost here. I'm not much for New Year Resolutions, but I could stand to loose a little weight - especially after all the great foods, desserts, and candies I've eaten this Xmas. Wow. But I figure if I only indulge myself a few times a year - well, what's life without that?

The thing is I don't agonize over it, with me it's not a matter of health, I've just got a few extra pounds here and there. I guess what bugs me the most is other people; especially the rude ones. Since when did it become polite or accepted to go up to people you know and tell them they're fat? I'd have to consider that a fundamental character flaw, and usually a sign of the person's own insecurity and whatnot. Sometimes I think people are getting ruder and less polite.

Ah well. You know, when I was young I could drop weight in no time, if I felt I needed to. But, as I'm sure anyone reading this knows, when you get older it's much harder.

Fortunately I have lots of space to walk and hike in, and I find that with some internet, computer, and design problems and mental blocks can be overcome by simply getting outside and doing something else. With me, it's a sure way to get past pretty much anything along those lines.

And I have this problem a lot. I don't think of myself as an 'artitistc' person, so when I sit down to design a webpage or a CMS design or a graphic or logo for someone; I sometimes have a hard time whipping up a completely new idea. And I'm really aware of trying to make sure the websites I do for people aren't similar to each other, or generically alike. It's good for troubleshooting problems too, nothing like a little fresh perspective. And heck, it sure applies to other problems too, not just computer-related.

So I find that getting out and doing something completely is integral to what I do, and with a house this old there's always something to do in the maintenance and repair side, at the very least. Plus, it's always good to get up and exercise a bit once in a while anyway, for the body as well as the eyes and the mind.

There's times when I find that hours have went by and I haven't moved anything but my two hands.

Occasionally I will set my reminder program (Kana Reminder - http://www.kanasolution.com, nice free program that not only pops up reminds but can run programs on schedule, one-time as well as recurring) to remind me to get up and walk around and do other things, take a rest.




Here's a good time-saver and addition to Windows XP, and one that's not memory-resident (okay, so I have a lot of memory and processor power at present - but who wants twenty different programs running ALL the time when you don't need to?).

FileMenu Tools, which can be found on the website - http://www.lopesoft.com/ This program lets you customize the context menu you get when you right-click a file or folder in Eplorer or a file dialog, etc. You can customize (or delete) context items for filetypes, folders, and devices as well as customize your 'Send To' menu.

Kinda handy, but there are a lot of programs that do that; you may be saying. Like Fast Explorer and Shexview.

The difference is this program can also add it's own built-in and pre-made additional right-click context commands for various programs, folders, etc. The things that MS left out.

You can mix and match too, and even create your own context items.

For example - how many times have you wanted to be able to quickly copy a file path, or a filename, or have a quick find and replace right there on your right-click, or a batch filename renamer, or wanted to delete a locked file, or run a program with parameters, or wanted a military-grade file shredder? More options then I can list here.

You can do all this and more with this program, definitely worth checking out if you're a tweaker or a file system power user. And it gets called only when you right-click, so it's not memory resident.

Great program - FileMenu Tools from http://www.lopesoft.com/ Possibly might work on Vista, but I haven't specifically tested it.




I've always been interested in flying, as you know if you have read this blog before.

For Xmas my wife got me one of those Air Hogs r/c helicopters. You know the ones - very small, hard to destroy. They're what you might consider an entry level to larger r/c models or a way for a person to cheaply learn some of the dynamics of flying. Plus they're great fun, and a good toy for kids and adults. You can't really hurt much with them.

There are a lot of principles of flight involved, even if you can only fly it for five minutes before recharging.

Inside, there seem to be a lot of miniaturized electronics that wouldn't have been possible on a commercial scale a short time ago. Basically everything is on a chip in the tiny helicopter, outside of the receiver LED and the battery, and it's all controlled by IR instead of RF, unusual for remote control devices. Another improved technology. Pretty amazing if you consider it.

My niece's boyfriend got one of these last year, an earlier model. He's a very exuberant guy, very intelligent and interested in a great many things. If he didn't live quite such a long distance away we'd probably be great friends.
Anyway, he too is interested in flying. After playing around with the Air Hog for a bit, he bought himself a medium-sized helicopter (see pic above), r/c of course. It's another incredible piece of electronics, with many more of the same principles of flying a helicopter then the tiny r/c Air Hogs.
He's even added a wireless camera to it (see above), and done some aerial footage with it even. Here's a Photobucket.com folder of images and video from both my tiny Air Hog and his larger helo. http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g58/lectrichead/Helos/ (It was very windy so he didn't take his helicopter up very far.)

The technology is so impressive and the ideas behind it that the military even has or is experimenting with a backpack version of this with a terrain-following system.

Just like the space program; smaller and cheaper are the words of the day with unmanned units taking some of the place of humans. The possibilities are endless. Though there is no substitute for a real human, especially in space exploration...

I remember as a kid some of our ideas and schemes for adding cameras and video to flying objects, most specifically model rockets. There was a black and white (later color) nosecone that could be added to most standard-sized rocket tubes.

When I say 'we' - I meant my friend Pete. We've been literally friends since we were tiny kids. And both of us have had the same interests - technology, flying, airplanes, computers, science fiction. And that included attaching crap to something we could fly around, even better if it was a camera!

He has his pilot's license now, and we've went flying a number of times. There's nothing like flying in a small plane, versus a large one. And two dudes who have always been interested in flying, riding around in an airplane - nothing better.

I hope someday to be able to afford flying lessons. I'd have to say it is my first and one true love, over all my other interests. But it's a very expensive hobby, both flying in person as well as r/c.





I always figure the customer's always right.

No, wait - that's not true.

I make sure the customer gets what they want, even if I believe they are wrong. But I do gently let them know if I think they're wrong.

Like recently, a customer had a bad spyware problem. Many times with these hardy and tenacious pieces of spyware it may take a few passes, and the newer ones are getting much much worse.

But the person didn't want to wait or take any more time. Someone; friends, family, neighbor, whomever, suggested wiping the whole computer. The computer had no restore partition, so I was forced to start installing Windows XP from scratch and finding the appropriate drivers. Fortunately, in this case; Dell 's website allowed me to put in a number off the computer and find the specific devices that specific computer has, and download the drivers for it.

Dell's not one of my fav companies, that's for sure, but this sure is a nice feature and made the process much easier. Still, it was time-consuming to set everything back up.

And the worse thing is - without finding the initial problem and fixing it, and making sure it wasn't via a website they used, or a piece of software (that they probably will install again), or coming from another computer on their network - it might be all for nothing and the computer might be re-infected tomorrow

In an electronics class I took the teacher, a Mr. Docteur, a wily highly intelligent dude - always stressed that troubleshooting and finding the problem allows you to not only fix it, but prevent the same problem in the future, as well as learn from it.

Starting over, like re-installing Windows from a re-formatted harddrive, is the last resort in any situation. Especially when people aren't likely to keep backups and there may be another easier resolution to the problem.

Anyway, I've always tried to live by the troubleshooting idea rather then the "start from scratch" and I've found that it's always better to go in the direction, and keep the latter for the last resort. And there are plenty of times when "start from scratch" is the only way to do it.

But, as I said - the customer is always right. At least they think so until they lose something important...




Hope everyone reading this has a safe and happy New Year's. Don't drink and drive.