Sunday, June 3, 2012
Squirrel (v)
The verb "to squirrel" - to lose focus of something and pay attention to something more interesting. As in the dog on "Up", talking about something, and "squirrel!"
Infinigrudge
Okay, I'm going to list all the new words that we come up with. This one just happened a few minutes ago....
Building a playset - delayed
So my wife likes to build stuff, and next on the list is building a playset. We were supposed to start yesterday - we have all the wood delivered and bought most of the parts.
Yesterday we had a fun run in the morning (the 10yo thought she won, but at the last minute we realized she was registered for the 5K and not the fun run, so she won the "5K" in 12 minutes, but really ended up being around 8th in her division). I mowed the lawn - didn't take 2 hours like last time, and spent about 1.5 hours removing obstructions from the sprinklers (yes, I should have done that 2 months ago). I had to whip out our new chainsaw for a bit of it, and while I was at it I took out a lilac.
So we were tired and lazy and didn't do the playset yesterday.
But we did see "The Avengers"! About time.
Yesterday we had a fun run in the morning (the 10yo thought she won, but at the last minute we realized she was registered for the 5K and not the fun run, so she won the "5K" in 12 minutes, but really ended up being around 8th in her division). I mowed the lawn - didn't take 2 hours like last time, and spent about 1.5 hours removing obstructions from the sprinklers (yes, I should have done that 2 months ago). I had to whip out our new chainsaw for a bit of it, and while I was at it I took out a lilac.
So we were tired and lazy and didn't do the playset yesterday.
But we did see "The Avengers"! About time.
Divergent and Insurgent
"Divergent" turned out being a pretty good book. My wife and I read it together driving 4 hours and back with the kids to see the eclipse (which was pretty cool). Too bad we didn't try using the camera with the solar glasses...
The sequel is "Insurgent" and we've read a bit of it, but it's been a few days, since I guess we get tired of reading aloud.
I'm also supposed to be reading "Son of Neptune", but I haven't wanted to start, perhaps because that was the book I brought to surgery and didn't read it there either. I am a bit into the 3rd book in the Kane Chronicles ("The Slithering Serpent"? The <something> serpent?)
The sequel is "Insurgent" and we've read a bit of it, but it's been a few days, since I guess we get tired of reading aloud.
I'm also supposed to be reading "Son of Neptune", but I haven't wanted to start, perhaps because that was the book I brought to surgery and didn't read it there either. I am a bit into the 3rd book in the Kane Chronicles ("The Slithering Serpent"? The <something> serpent?)
Week's running record
I ran a 5K at work in 28:39 about 2 weeks ago. That means that I've lost 4 minutes since surgery. It's weird - every other physical activity I'm back up to where I was before (even pullups). Oh well - we'll get it back.
My wife, our 10yo, and I were supposed to run another 5K the weekend after the work one, but the 10yo got queasy and we left.
This week, I did 3 runs:
The treadmills 20 minute hill workout (I walked about 2 minutes of it)
a 2 mile easy run in the middle of the week
5 miles yesterday, at 6mph. I walked 30s in the middle.
My wife, our 10yo, and I were supposed to run another 5K the weekend after the work one, but the 10yo got queasy and we left.
This week, I did 3 runs:
The treadmills 20 minute hill workout (I walked about 2 minutes of it)
a 2 mile easy run in the middle of the week
5 miles yesterday, at 6mph. I walked 30s in the middle.
Zombie Dice
So, we bought a game called Zombie Dice. It's a quick dice game made by the same people that made Munchkin. Sweet game.
Our 2yo is now "brains? brains? zommie?"
(Edit: originally called it Zombie Brains, whereas it actually is Zombie Dice)
Our 2yo is now "brains? brains? zommie?"
(Edit: originally called it Zombie Brains, whereas it actually is Zombie Dice)
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Doctor's orders: no spears for the kids
Had lots of follow-ups this week.
Monday: MRI
It's official:
MRIs are boring.
Tuesday: Urologist. Said everything is going reasonably, and I no longer have to manually empty unless I need to (which happens about once in 3 days these days).
Today: Neurosurgeon. Said MRI looks clean, and everything is okay, and he's happy.
I mentioned that it hurts when kids sit on my back. Response: "As it should". I'm concerned about injury to the spinal area with force to the area where I'm missing bones, and he said that there's still enough bone to protect the area against most incoming objects. "Unless you get speared in the back, it's probably fine".
Gotta send back the spears we bought for Christmas.
(Not serious about that last sentence, in case you think I'm demented.)
Monday: MRI
It's official:
MRIs are boring.
Tuesday: Urologist. Said everything is going reasonably, and I no longer have to manually empty unless I need to (which happens about once in 3 days these days).
Today: Neurosurgeon. Said MRI looks clean, and everything is okay, and he's happy.
I mentioned that it hurts when kids sit on my back. Response: "As it should". I'm concerned about injury to the spinal area with force to the area where I'm missing bones, and he said that there's still enough bone to protect the area against most incoming objects. "Unless you get speared in the back, it's probably fine".
Gotta send back the spears we bought for Christmas.
(Not serious about that last sentence, in case you think I'm demented.)
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Mozart's Sonata
My wife challenged me to learn a new piano song this year. I normally like to choose songs that are way beyond my level, like the 3rd movement of "Moonlight Sonata", so this time I chose one that I might be able to finish in less than 5 years: Mozart's Sonata in C. I'm making good progress on.
I snapped a vid of me 2 weeks ago on it, and will do one again soon, (on a camera that has a few megapixels but not a lot of quality), and will post them once I figure out how to edit video, so that I don't bore people to death with long segments of uselessness.
I also tried to play the Sonata on the clarinet. That didn't work out so well at all.
I snapped a vid of me 2 weeks ago on it, and will do one again soon, (on a camera that has a few megapixels but not a lot of quality), and will post them once I figure out how to edit video, so that I don't bore people to death with long segments of uselessness.
I also tried to play the Sonata on the clarinet. That didn't work out so well at all.
Book review
So, my wife and I just started reading this book called "Divergent". So far it's about a teenage girl who makes a Hogwarts-sorting-hat-style choice against her family and the results. We haven't hit the central conflict yet.
Recently I also read the first 2 Beyonders books (my wife bought me the sequel thinking I had read the first, so I figured I'd better read them). They were pretty good. Then my sister told me she thought they were kind of slow, and then I kind of agreed.
Before that, I read the "Ghost of Tatooine", a Star Wars novel taking place after "Jedi" and before the Timothy Zahn trilogy. I only sort of like reading books like this, because sometimes they're just filler novels and don't advance the story. I really enjoyed the Timothy Zahn trilogy a long time ago. I imagine if I had read some other Star Wars trilogy I might have enjoyed that and then in the future had no interest to read the Timothy Zahn one. Does that make any sense?
That being said, it was a pretty good book.
Perhaps I'm at the point where I've (finally) read enough books that I'm now recognizing "Hey, this sounds a lot like 'Book X', and I really don't want to get into that again".
Recently I also read the first 2 Beyonders books (my wife bought me the sequel thinking I had read the first, so I figured I'd better read them). They were pretty good. Then my sister told me she thought they were kind of slow, and then I kind of agreed.
Before that, I read the "Ghost of Tatooine", a Star Wars novel taking place after "Jedi" and before the Timothy Zahn trilogy. I only sort of like reading books like this, because sometimes they're just filler novels and don't advance the story. I really enjoyed the Timothy Zahn trilogy a long time ago. I imagine if I had read some other Star Wars trilogy I might have enjoyed that and then in the future had no interest to read the Timothy Zahn one. Does that make any sense?
That being said, it was a pretty good book.
Perhaps I'm at the point where I've (finally) read enough books that I'm now recognizing "Hey, this sounds a lot like 'Book X', and I really don't want to get into that again".
Gas pumps want zip code
So, when you pay at the pump, a lot of them ask you for your zip code. At first, I thought this was so they could find high population clumps of customers and build one closer to them. But then I learned (possible rumor mongering) that this was a security feature.
What?
Clearly nobody who steals somebody's credit card could know what their zip code is...
What?
Clearly nobody who steals somebody's credit card could know what their zip code is...
3 runs this week
So I have a race next week, the one I sponsor twice a week at work. I'm still a bit slower than before the surgery. (I can do most everything else I used to could (sorry, I had to say it that way), such as pullups, pushups, situps. I guess I can't reach the first knuckle past my toes either...)
Tuesday I wanted to see if I could do it at a 7mph average. I couldn't - I made it 1.5 miles.
Saturday, I wanted to see if I could do it at 9 min/mile. I made it 2 miles, but I ran out of time and had to go to...
... the finish line to watch my daughter finish a "Girls on the Run" race. She's been running for about 2 months, and this was her first 5K.
(I tried to get her into running a few years ago, but she was (and probably still is) more into short sprints).
They finished sometime between 45 and 55. The timer at the finish line had shut off for some reason.
Later in the afternoon, I decided that part of why I'm still slow(er) is that I haven't done anything to strengthen my legs (since muscle strength contributes to oxygen consumption rate or something like that). So I did a hill session on the treadmill, doing each incline level between 2 and 10, running at 5mph at each one and walking at 3mph between each one at the same level. I did 2,3,4,5,9 at 2 minutes and 6,7,8,10 at 1 minute.
Going up the stairs was hard after that.
Tuesday I wanted to see if I could do it at a 7mph average. I couldn't - I made it 1.5 miles.
Saturday, I wanted to see if I could do it at 9 min/mile. I made it 2 miles, but I ran out of time and had to go to...
... the finish line to watch my daughter finish a "Girls on the Run" race. She's been running for about 2 months, and this was her first 5K.
(I tried to get her into running a few years ago, but she was (and probably still is) more into short sprints).
They finished sometime between 45 and 55. The timer at the finish line had shut off for some reason.
Later in the afternoon, I decided that part of why I'm still slow(er) is that I haven't done anything to strengthen my legs (since muscle strength contributes to oxygen consumption rate or something like that). So I did a hill session on the treadmill, doing each incline level between 2 and 10, running at 5mph at each one and walking at 3mph between each one at the same level. I did 2,3,4,5,9 at 2 minutes and 6,7,8,10 at 1 minute.
Going up the stairs was hard after that.
SWTOR cancellation
Oh, I forgot to mention that I cancelled my Star Wars subscription. I didn't have enough time, my computer is too sucky to play it, and I found that the same thing that was true of WoW was true of it - you just wander around, push 113244231 until something dies, and repeat.
This time I pushed through till about level 28, whereas with WoW I made it to 73.
This time I pushed through till about level 28, whereas with WoW I made it to 73.
LAN party with Diablo 3
So, some friends of mine bought Diablo 3, and one of them invited me to a Diablo 3 LAN party. I didn't want to buy it (yet), so we postulated that I could play with them for a bit with a guest pass. So we and a few other friends tried to find me one for a few days (most of them bought the digital version), until a friend at work had a friend who didn't need one and I borrowed his.
So we're all excited, show up to the LAN party, and then after a few minutes we realize that guest players can only play with other guest players (or random strangers). Cheap. So I spent 4 hours and went as far as I could on the guest mode by myself (with the other guys from the LAN party).
All in all, it's a pretty fun game. The story seemed a lot like the original Diablo I played in 1997 - you had to fight the Skeleton King, and then the Butcher. The story presented itself a little more clearly and the UI was nicer.
However, after the 4 hours, I think that was good enough - I've had my feel and I don't really feel the need to keep going.
So we're all excited, show up to the LAN party, and then after a few minutes we realize that guest players can only play with other guest players (or random strangers). Cheap. So I spent 4 hours and went as far as I could on the guest mode by myself (with the other guys from the LAN party).
All in all, it's a pretty fun game. The story seemed a lot like the original Diablo I played in 1997 - you had to fight the Skeleton King, and then the Butcher. The story presented itself a little more clearly and the UI was nicer.
However, after the 4 hours, I think that was good enough - I've had my feel and I don't really feel the need to keep going.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Runs of the week
I tried some speed work this week.
Tuesday I wanted to run a 7 minute mile, made it halfway and then did 2 more half miles somewhere around 7 or 7.5.
Saturday I wanted to run a 24:45 5K (7.5 mph), did a half mile (see a pattern?), and then 8 mph for .5 miles, .3 miles, and .25 miles.
Tuesday I wanted to run a 7 minute mile, made it halfway and then did 2 more half miles somewhere around 7 or 7.5.
Saturday I wanted to run a 24:45 5K (7.5 mph), did a half mile (see a pattern?), and then 8 mph for .5 miles, .3 miles, and .25 miles.
Voiding status
So I posted earlier that my graph is like this:
Except that the period of the wave seems to get larger over time. Right now, I'm on the upswing where last week was down. I accidentally went of the drugs (Can't remember if I said that), and it seems to be okay. I manually empty about once a day when I'm at the peak, or twice in a valley, and in those cases it's about half a cup.
Except that the period of the wave seems to get larger over time. Right now, I'm on the upswing where last week was down. I accidentally went of the drugs (Can't remember if I said that), and it seems to be okay. I manually empty about once a day when I'm at the peak, or twice in a valley, and in those cases it's about half a cup.
Work pranks
So, I was working with somebody in his officemate, and his officemate (we, on average, have 2 to each office) had left his shoes on the floor. So, I decide it would be funny to just hide them for a minute, and put them in a box in the office.
The next morning, I run into him in the break room, and he says, "Thanks for hiding my shoes; it took me 15 minutes to find them and I missed my kid's soccer game."
I was like "oops".
Then he was like "just kidding".
Whew!
The next morning, I run into him in the break room, and he says, "Thanks for hiding my shoes; it took me 15 minutes to find them and I missed my kid's soccer game."
I was like "oops".
Then he was like "just kidding".
Whew!
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Hooray for mouse pointers!
So, I run Fedora 15 Linux with Gnome 3 at work. I'd rather run
windows, because I think its desktop environment actually works (I
respect your differing opinion in this regard - I think Linux is a
better server environment), but the environments we develop server apps
that run on Linux, so we develop on Linux.
Anyway, about 1/3 of the time, after unlocking my screen, the mouse pointer disappears. The mouse still works; you just can't see the pointer.
The funny part is that sometimes it takes me about 20 minutes to notice - I can run my command line and editor without it, but Email with Lotus Notes is difficult without a mouse. At least it implements mouseovers in decent places, so I can get close to my desired click and go trial and error from there.
Surfing the web is also hard - it took me about 3 minutes to click the 30 pixel "sign your timecard" button.
But then, on the next lock and unlock, it comes back, and there is much rejoicing.
Anyway, about 1/3 of the time, after unlocking my screen, the mouse pointer disappears. The mouse still works; you just can't see the pointer.
The funny part is that sometimes it takes me about 20 minutes to notice - I can run my command line and editor without it, but Email with Lotus Notes is difficult without a mouse. At least it implements mouseovers in decent places, so I can get close to my desired click and go trial and error from there.
Surfing the web is also hard - it took me about 3 minutes to click the 30 pixel "sign your timecard" button.
But then, on the next lock and unlock, it comes back, and there is much rejoicing.
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