So this week I decided to try the Beach Body Fat Burning Express (FBE) Diet and Exercise routine and failed miserably.
FBE is pretty simple, it’s a low calorie no carb diet plan that you follow for six days while you complete the FBE Aerobics routine. The aerobics were tough, a lot of lower body and core work, with squats, lunges, and yoga. It was tough but doable.
The failure came on the part of the diet. I was consuming practically 0 carbs and only about 800 to 900 calories a day. I stuck to this for two days and then my body said “I’ve had enough” and crapped out on me. I suppose I broke the first rule of Exercise Club, I talked about Exercise Club. Oh wait, I mean I didn’t talk to my physician before starting the diet. I think I just went too low on the food. I was worn out and sick physically and didn’t work out for two days and missed a day of work. I was broken mentally, I was being told by my body I needed to eat and at first I tried making good decisions, a piece of chicken, some string cheese, but then all hell broke loose. I was physically and mentally exhausted and didn’t want to get out of bed so I ordered food and gorged. I ate burgers, pizza, and wings and washed it all down with 72 oz of cola. That’s over half a gallon of soda. I had failed and it was an Epic Fail.
This was only mid-week so I made some decisions. I was disgusted with myself for failing so dramatically, but instead of turning around and going to more food for comfort, I looked at what had happened and decided to go back to the diet I had been following previously.
Unfortunately the rest of the week didn’t go well either. My daughter ended up with the flu. This provided some long nights and skipped workouts. Once my daughter was able to stomach some food again, no one really felt like cooking so it also resulted in a trip to a fast food establishment. Truth be told, I didn’t pick the best of meal options then either.
So here I am, getting back on task and still moving towards my goal. I haven’t had a cigarette for 2 weeks now. I stop consuming caffeine by 7 pm. I consume about 1200 calories on a good (sticking to the diet) day without feeling hungry. My energy is up, my sleep is good. I naturally wake up at about 5:30 am every day. My life is getting better and I’m getting healthier.
The weigh-in and Fitness test. I only lost .2 lbs this week, which is kind of depressing but it doesn’t mean I’ll quit, it just means I need to refocus. Overall I’ve still lost over 10 lbs and that isn’t depressing so I have to look at the big picture. My fat % dropped by 2% and my waist dropped 2 inches. Both of my arms grew by an in which isn’t bad either.
Now for the fitness test, I still couldn’t do a pull-up and I did about half a pushup. I was able to do 10 In & Outs, which could have been more but my knees where hurting, and I increased my curls by 4, which also could have been higher but I gave in at 11 instead of going to muscle failure. I gained 2 inches on my leap and 3 seconds on my wall squat, so slight improvement in almost all areas. The major differences I found where in my Heart Rate test, I had a lower heart rate after 1 min of Jumping Jacks than I did last time but it didn’t cool off as fast as before. The main difference is I pushed myself a lot harder for this test, I’m surprised how difficult 1 min of jumping jacks had been last month.
1/2/12 Weigh-in
Weight – 350.2 Lbs
Fat % - 44.4
Measurement Inches
Chest - 53
Waist - 54
Right Arm - 16.5
Left Arm - 16
Hips – 52.5
Right Thigh - 31
Left Thigh - 31
Fitness Test Resting Heart Rate 62 bpm
Pullups 0
Pushups 0
In & Outs 4
Curls 7/Arm 30 lbs
Vertical Leap 12"
Toe Touch -9.5"
Wall Squat 33 sec
Heart Rate Max 144 bpm
1 min 100 bpm
2 min 80 bpm
3 min 76 bpm
4 min 72 bpm
1/29/12 Weigh-in
Weight – 339.6 Lbs
Fat % - 42.2
Measurement Inches
Chest - 53
Waist - 52
Right Arm - 17.5
Left Arm - 17
Hips - 52
Right Thigh - 31
Left Thigh - 31
Fitness Test Resting Heart Rate 64 bpm
Pullups 0
Pushups 0
In & Outs 10
Curls 11/Arm 30 lbs
Vertical Leap 14"
Toe Touch -9.5"
Wall Squat 36 sec
Heart Rate Max 138 bpm
1 min 112 bpm
2 min 100 bpm
3 min 98 bpm
4 min 92 bpm
After some suggestions from friends, I've decided to start posting an "audio blog" about my story, "The Guardian Legend" (or :"Legend of the Guardian", or various derivatives). It's still under development, as I try to refine my writing style.
I started recording the first chapter. After some irritations of dealing with Audacity (my audio recording software), I found out some things about it. First, while the heart of the story is undoubtedly good (at least that's what others have said after reading), it's... well, lacking. As soon as I start reading it out loud, I find it lacking something. The words jumble together, and it sorta feels... like a "B" movie.
But not a BAD "B" movie, but one that has potential. Like it's lacking good special effects... instead of seeing an awe-inspiring helm of a next-generation spaceship, you see a really tiny corner of it, where a great actor is using something that vaguely looks like one of the computer panels from NASA, back when they launched Apollo 13.
Anyway, I have to figure some way of writing my story so it's entertaining. The underlying actions are interesting, the idea of what's happening is good... but the way it's written is just... well, it's bad. I can tell that some of the writing is a few decades old. Yuck.
So how do I write it? Somehow, I've gotta find a writing style that matches how I tell stories. As I remember it, people reading the story weren't as thrilled as the people that I told the story. Because I really get into it when I'm telling the story, but somehow that just gets lost in the written part... ugh.
Anyway, this entry is just an appetizer. I'm working on the audio blog, but there's a bit of work left to do. Stay tuned!
I've got a lot of code-stuff I'm working on. It seems like Darkman is going to start helping, at some point (instead of just continuously asking why I'm not using X or Y), which will be good... but I need goals.
The major goal at this point is getting CS-Project version 2.0 off the ground. Version 1 is okay, though it's very stale, not very web-two-point-oh-ish, and generally kinda clunky. And the last version, v1.1.5, was released in the middle part of '08, which is quickly becoming more like four years ago. FOUR YEARS.
Okay, so the big goal is to have a new release of CS-Project. There are a lot of libraries that have been built to help out, but I need something short-term to get me off & running. So, here goes:
Dynamic SQL creation (building the entire statement dynamically) with proper parameter cleansing
cs-content/cs_globalFunctions has this in the form of string_from_array()
not SQL-specific
cleaning gets weird, usually too invasive
special statements don't work ("field >= 100", "field LIKE '%thing%'")
USES
building dynamic SQL
handling complex joins & such
BECAUSE I HATE DUPLICATING CODE!!!
proper authentication tokens
cs-webapplibs/cs_authToken does this
hashing might be too weak
needs documentation
USES
"lost password" requests
API keys
URL or path-based permissions
cs-webapplibs/cs_genericPermission does this
not tested very well
read/write/execute settings not stored nicely (should use a bitmask instead of lots of columns with true/false values)
needs an interface
USES
setting who can access a given page
things like a CMS could use it...
Web-based Content Management
cs-cms (the whole library) will eventually do this
based on cs-blogger
needs a good WYSIWYG editor
needs database schema & stuff
based on how CS-Content works
USES
CrazedSanity.com could use it (and BuzzKill.org, and CS-Project.com, and...)
CS-Project could use it for project-based "info" pages
Okay, there's a good list. Now I'm off to figure out how to accomplish that.
Due to the laws of physics and for the good of the space-time continuum, I am only allowed to remember small, usually disconnected fragments at any one given time.
CrazedSanity has had a much-needed update, and we're now at version 5.3.3... after a few problems. I doubt much of anybody would have seen the problem.
After making some visual changes, I also changed some configuration things. In the process, I screwed up some connection information for the database, so the live site was trying to connect to a non-existent machine (my test machine). So I did a couple of things to help avoid it in the future.
Oh, and I also pointed the live site to a test database. So some out-dated blogs and data were displayed. Not a big deal, fixed it within an hour or two.
On the GOOD side, I've updated the main page to also show the most recent 5 entries for each person's blog. I noticed a while ago that I'd missed some entries because I was only looking on the main page & apparently missed a day from Prophet, so when he updated the next day, I only saw the most recent.
I'm working on other changes as well. Some other changes as well, such as:
retrieving HTML chunks from CS to load on your website
hits tracker changes
Ajax!
and more
Stay tuned! If you're really interested, send me an email or comment on this post.
This is the "most current" page for Slaughterstock. I'll try to keep it updated every year, so you should be able to just bookmark this page to keep current.
NOTICE: The location AND DATE for Slaughterstock HAS CHANGED due to flooding, see the "Location" and "Date" sections.
Slaughterstock 2011 is Coming...
-- [DATE] --
The date is now officially Saturday, July 30th. I believe you may show up the day before, though I'm not completely certain, as I am no longer in charge of the location (see the "Location" section
-- [RULES] --
No drugs.
We're not responsible for your accidents.
No minors (miners are still okay).
No fighting.
BYOB (ABSFM) -- Bring Your Own Beer (And Bring Some For Me)
Don't drink and drive.
If it's not yours, don't mess with it.
Clean up after yourself.
Have a good time.
I reserve the right to kick out anybody without any reason whatsoever. I reserve the right to do whatever I want whenever I want for whatever reason I want. If you're a designated driver, let me know and I'll try to provide some pop or whatever--provided I'm not already intoxicated. ;)
I will not be allowing people into my house by default, though I may make exceptions on an as-needed basis. If you gotta go to the bathroom, find a tree or something and bring TP... I might rent a port-o-potty if there's enough in attendance, but it hasn't really been a problem in the past... but there isn't really a hard-and-fast rule about it, so talk to me first.
Don't make a mess. I'll have a garbage receptacle nearby, and the fire works for most things, but glass and aluminum don't burn and are a pain to cleanup. We're all there to have a good time, so don't do stuff that will make it unpleasant for me or anyone else afterward.
-- [LOCATION] --
The location has been changed temporarily to Finley, ND. Contact me (SlaughterSt0ck - at - CrazedSanity - dot - com) about it; if you know Prophet, you can talk to him as well.
-- [MUSIC] --
BANDS: I haven't invited any. I don't forsee myself inviting any to play. If you're in a band and you want to play, bring your own stuff (power shouldn't be a problem, but you should bring a generator if you have one, 'cuz that's a lot of extension cables). There won't be a stage unless someone brings one. Loud stuff stops at 10pm so neighbors can sleep. I gots no monies, so any band that is thinking of or actually decides to play is doing so for free--and if you invite crazy, disruptive, or otherwise unsavory folk, I reserve the right to kick 'em to the curb (if we had one).
MUSIC: I've got plenty available in MP3, so I'll probably just plug a stereo into my laptop and let Amarok amaze everyone with it's totally awesome randomization capabilities (hrmm... I wonder how long it will take to build a database of 45,000 songs).
-- [BURNINATION] --
There will be a bonfire as usual, weather permitting. In the event that weather isn't permitting... well, I don't know. The soon-to-be-traditional Failure Burning (burning something that's failed you or something that symbolizes failure) is a go, weather permitting again.
antifoidulus writes "I'm about to get my masters in Computer Science and start out (again) in the 'real world.' I already have a job lined up, but there is one thing that is really nagging me. Since my academic work has focused almost solely on computer science and not software engineering per se, I'm really still a 'hacker,' meaning I take a problem, sketch together a rough solution using the appropriate CS algorithms, and then code something up (using a lot of prints to debug). I do some basic testing and then go with it. Obviously, something like that works quite well in the academic environment, but not in the 'real world.' Even at my previous job, which was sort of a jack-of-all-trades (sysadmin, security, support, and programming), the testing procedures were not particularly rigorous, and as a result I don't think I'm really mature as an 'engineer.' So my question to the community is: how do you make the transition from hacker (in the positive sense) to a real engineer. Obviously the 'Mythical Man Month' is on the reading list, but would you recommend anything else? How do you get out of the 'hacker' mindset?"
malraid writes "The White House has issued a statement in which they refuse to comment on the petition to investigate Chris Dodd for bribery from the MPAA to pass legislation. The reason given: 'because it requests a specific law enforcement action.'"
MojoKid writes "When AMD announced the high-end Radeon HD 7970, a lower cost Radeon HD 7950 based on the same GPU was planned to arrive a few weeks later. The GPU, which is based on AMD's new architecture dubbed Graphics Core Next, is manufactured using TSMC's 28nm process and features a whopping 4.31 billion transistors. In its full configuration, found on the Radeon HD 7970, the Tahiti GPU sports 2,048 stream processors with 128 texture units and 32 ROPs. On the Radeon HD 7950, however, a few segments of the GPU have been disabled, resulting in a total of 1,792 active stream processors, with 112 texture units and 32 ROPs. The Radeon HD 7950 is also clocked somewhat lower at 800MHz, although AMD has claimed the cards are highly overclockable. Performance-wise, though the card isn't AMD's fastest, pricing is more palatable and the new card actually beats NVIDIA's high-end GeForce GTX 580 by just a hair."
Mozilla has released version 10 of its Firefox browser as part of its accelerated six-week build cycle, and has also included a pack of developer tools aimed at simplifying life for website operators.…
Global warming 'among humanity's most pressing concerns'
A call to acknowledge concerns over global warming (aka climate change aka climate disruption aka pseudoscientific fraud) has come from a most unlikely source: Saudi Arabia's oil minister.…
sciencehabit writes "In a new study, neuroscientists connected a network of electrodes to the hearing centers of 15 patients' brains and recorded the brain activity while they listened to words like 'jazz' or 'Waldo.' They saw that each word generated its own unique pattern in the brain. So they developed two different computer programs that could reconstruct the words a patient heard just by analyzing his or her brain activity. Reconstructions from the better of the two programs were good enough that the researchers could accurately decipher the mystery word 80% to 90% percent of the time. Because there's evidence that the words we hear and the words we recall or imagine trigger similar brain processes, the study suggests scientists may one day be able to tune in to the words you're thinking."
alphadogg writes "Many IT departments are struggling with Apple's 'take it or leave it' attitude, based on discussions last week at MacIT, which is Macworld|iWorld's companion conference for IT professionals. Much of the questioning following technical presentations wasn't about Apple technology or products. It was about the complexities and confusions of trying to sort out for the enterprise Apple's practices. Those practices include the use of Apple IDs and iTunes accounts, which are designed for individual Mac or iPad or iPhone users, and programs like Apple's Volume Purchase Program, which, according to Apple 'makes it simple to find, buy, and distribute the apps your business needs' and to buy custom, third-party B2B apps."
Just 'a bit of fun', responds beleaguered BlackBerry biz
RIM's latest marketing stunt has succeeded in attracting a high degree of attention – but not necessarily of the type that the struggling company may have intended.…
New submitter jpwilliams writes "Gizmag reports that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have tested a 10-inch bullet that can be fired from a smooth-bore rifle to hit a laser-marked target one mile away. The bullet 'includes an optical sensor in the nose to detect a laser beam on a target. The sensor sends information to guidance and control electronics that use an algorithm in an eight-bit central processing unit to command electromagnetic actuators. These actuators steer tiny fins that guide the bullet to the target.' Interestingly, accuracy improves with targets that are further away, because 'the bullet's motions settle the longer it is in flight.'"
Neil Young, who a few years back famously described Apple as the “Fisher-Price” of sound quality, is giving his “I hate digital music” can another kick, claiming that even the late Steve Jobs listened to vinyl rather than his own company’s inventions.…
jfruh writes "Mandriva, a venerable Linux distro, is on the verge of shutting down. One of its main problems is that it never grew into more than just an OS vendor. The big players in the commercial Linux space — Red Hat, SuSE, Canonical — all built Linux into their larger computing visions. Is there any room in the marketplace for just a straight-up Linux distro anymore?"
The latest data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) probe has found a curious disparity in the distribution of some of the key elements of our solar system, notably why there is so much oxygen in it.…
Posted by Natalie Apostolou on 2012-01-31 16:30:09
Footprint to pass half-a-million square kilometers
Telstra is tipping infrastructure investment equivalent to $AU106 million into the state of Western Australia as part of an extension to regional mobile phone coverage.…
Lanxon writes "An in-depth feature in Wired explores the reason science may be failing us. Quoting: 'For too long, we've pretended that the old problem of causality can be cured by our shiny new knowledge. If only we devote more resources to research or dissect the system at a more fundamental level or search for ever more subtle correlations, we can discover how it all works. But a cause is not a fact, and it never will be; the things we can see will always be bracketed by what we cannot. And this is why, even when we know everything about everything, we'll still be telling stories about why it happened. It's mystery all the way down.'"
MrSeb writes "Since Slashdot first covered lovotics back in July 2011, its creator — Hooman Samani — has been busy working on a couple of new applications for his fledgling scientific sphere of human-robot love: Kissenger and Mini-Surrogate. Kissenger is a robot with highly-sensitive and motor-actuated lips, which you can use to transmit a kiss to another Kissenger robot (held by a friend or loved one) over the internet. Mini-Surrogate is basically a real-world avatar that adds a physical element to video conferencing. Both are primarily for human-human use, but it's easy to imagine a Kissenger hooked up to an AI or video game. Likewise, the next Elder Scrolls game could come with a Mini-Surrogate, so that you can communicate with your in-game wife while you're knee-deep in fireballed orc."
thrill12 writes "The Dutch Supreme Court ruled on January 31st that the taking away of possessions in the game Runescape from a 13-year-old boy was in fact theft because the possessions could be seen as actual goods. The highest court explained this not by arguing it was software that was copied, but by stating that the game data were real goods acquired through 'effort and time investment,' and 'the principal had the actual and exclusive dominion of the goods' — up until the moment the other guy took them away, that is."
Posted by Natalie Apostolou on 2012-01-31 15:34:43
Quick slice better than a slow death
Woolworths has rung the death knell for bricks-and-mortar electronics retailing in Australia, as it announced that it is divesting its iconic Dick Smith electronics chain.…
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