testing this

jibjab rocks in so many ways. this is just one of them.
---

---
-nn

bring on the lust

Just when I think it cannot happen again, it does. Stumbling about and BANG it jumps into your eyeballs and insinuates itself against your heart by wrapping its silken fingers around your cerebellum, creating a deep, insatiable yearning.

Stoking the embers of lust you thought you had successfully extinguished.

Damn, I hate that....

-nn

Merry, merry, merry

On the cusp of of Christmas, I sit here wishing whoever is reading this a most merry Christmas, followed by a year full of hope, meaning, and new experiences. It is only with the thought of hope can we expect anything in our lives to improve. It is my wish for each of you to find the hope that dwells within you.

Most peacefully,
-nn

Dedication

I truly admire people who get paid to write for a living. Especially the writers who can grind out the word count on mundane topics. You know this is not what they signed on for when they originally thought of writing for their paycheck. For example, pumping out massive amounts of text that compares the relative quality of different brands of tapioca pudding is much more mundane than exciting, but hey, it pays the rent and other stuff required for your day to day existence. Throw in a couple of kids and hey, you are making sure you can create some excitement regardless of the subject matter. It all gets relegated to the topic of a necessary evil, satisfying the need for compromise in a world where idealism is slowly leeched out of the hearts of the young and imaginative. All in the name of being able to feed and clothe the ones we love.
So when I ran across this series of articles in an automotive tome, I can truly feel for the author and the factors which drove him to it this particular incarnation of creativity whilst paying the bills. Pulling it off without his editor catching on was just a matter of lulling the poor fellow into a false sense of security. I can almost see him thinking, "He would never pull a stunt like this", only to be completely stuffed once it was discovered.
I find the author's motivations and application simply brilliant.
---

---
-nn

Oh that Noam!

Yes, as a critically thinking adult geek, I should have already discovered and read most (if not all) of the panels of this web comic. In my defense, I am also a harried, over worked father of three, so time (precious time) is a commodity I am still quite short on.

Ran across this and immediately fell in love with the dry wit.
---
-nn

Driveby post

not much time. gotta roll.
see this. simply brilliant.
---

---
-nn

Trueknowledge gets slammed with requests

So a while back, I ran across an open invitation for beta testers for a new internet search technology. I immediately applied thinking they were doing nothing but waiting for my application and eagerly awaited a reply. And waited. And waited. Until finally I was notified the response to their open invitation overwhelmed the support team and the beta program was closed. Trueknowledge would be sure to notify me if an opening appeared in the near future, thanks for applying.

First thought to occur to me is "You create an open invitation for the purported breakthrough search technology on the internet and do not expect an overwhelming response?". Isn't just a bit myopic on the planning front?

Color be bugged.

-nn

Oh those wacky brits

Yes, it is sophomoric. But the injection of the British accent saves it from being labeled dumb. If this were done with Americans, we would immediately be labeled elitist (and rightfully so).


-nn

newfound comic

Stumbled on this online comic and was enthralled. Lending its brush to humor AND geek feels like home. Wish there was more, I jammed through the archive in about four minutes. Which only resulted in making me want more.

Great for the kids room

And it doubles as a security system. Especially effective if you happen to be the parent of two attractive girls, hmmm...?

I can envision my drink friends trying to bang out a poorly syncopated version of Claire De Lune then tumbling down to crack their heads open. Not a pretty sight, but damn funny once you check them out of the emergency room.

-nn

It could happen

When I was a child, this is how I thought things were manufactured. Great things came about organically, requiring human intervention to mature into something usable. At some point, on the road to adulthood, the fancies of our dreams are left on the curb. As adults, when we see the exposed fringes of these memories, we run from them, as if they will drag us away from the trappings of our matured selves.

The fact that this happens to be expounding on a motorcycle just makes it extra tasty.

Like it would be a bad thing.


Hurray to Triumph for making my childhood dreams a reality.

-nn

Et tu, Trueknowledge?

Have been waiting for an email response admitting me into the Trueknowledge beta program. The much awaited for technology that will rend the likes of google and the lesser-favored yahoo to the equivalent of so much belly-button lint.
Don't bait me with the promise of testing a new search engine unless you mean to follow through, because I have all my test cases ready to rock:
Obscure quotes attributed to philosophers influencing John Locke?
- Got it.
Controversial interpretations of the Patriot Act?
- Lock it.
Uninteresting bits of data aggregation from multiple sources?
- Rock it!

I feel like a kid on a day before the big test.

-k

Add this to the tech list

Robots will rule the future. Can you count how many automatic systems you interact with every day. Probably not. That is how prevalent they are. Transparent, unobtrusive, and for the most part helpful.
Now how about a house that assembles itself? Would be a major boon to those living in tornado prone states, hm?



-nn

Fighting Terrorism 101 - TER\101

Don't let them be afraid.
Don't let them see you in fear.
Don't allow them to control you.
Don't let them take away your sense of humor.




--- If you don't laugh, the terrorists win. ---

This is where it all begins

Someone is finally working on the right bit of technology. Rather than being inundated with literally hundreds of thousands of mostly meaningless links, TrueKnowledge is working to produce a search engine which will actually answer your questions. I have signed up for a beta account and will let you know what I think of the tech (like you care).

Click To Play

However, a word of warning is called for. Today, it is about a search engine that will understand context and be able to formulate meaning from simple phrases. Tomorrow, it will be SkyNet.

Because I had to

Once you see it, you will also know why.



-nn

happenstance

whatThe
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

We went to the grand canyon (and it really was) recently and, like just about everyone else wound up taking millions of pictures of rocks, trees, and really big ditches. Having finally had some time to review the gaggle of pics, you are always bound to find something unexpected. Our find was the person sitting on the ledge WAY out from the "edge".
Note this was just three days after someone had perished from falling into the canyon.
-nn

I am not normally one who relies on sophomoric humor. The setups are transparent, characters predictable, and every punchline will somehow find its way to bring up sex, the size of your penis, or an attractive girl's virtues.
So I am unable to explain away the following:


Topical, a taste of lesbianism, and an attractive girl in her underwear speaking as an authority. Really, what's not to like? Not much...
-nn

So returns the lust

You just cannot imagine the wellspring of emotion experienced when I ran across this item. I was like a twelve year school girl realizing my middle school crush was going to show up unexpectedly at my door. Yes, it was exactly like that.
This shirt will actively display the signal strength of any wifi spots in range. If I were the designer, I would take it a little further and add a scrolling led displaying the net names and which flavor of 802.11 the detected net is utilizing. New levels of geek love, let me tell you...
---
On another note, the seventy pound mark for my weight loss still evades me like that last dill pickle at the bottom of the jar. After chasing that little mother with a single-minded abandon of a meth addict looking for a score before burning through my current stash, i still can't make that connection. And the current head of steam is starting to finally burn dry. I have been working hard to not pay attention to my waning enthusiasm (hell, it's been three years).
I went on a little bender after missing the mark at last weigh-in and starting looking to hook up with as many carbohydrate laden foods as possible. Good times.

-nn

The fires slow

The advancing flames are being held south of a reservoir, the winds have shifted, and there is more moisture in the air. All adding up to a less critical condition than previously reported. I am at work, after sending the women-folk up north to Disneyland for a much needed break.

The girls are on edge, being unable to attend school and on high-alert for the past two days are understandably tense. I would not be able to get any work done, being constantly concerned of their well-being, we concocted a plan to send them to Disneyland. Now that I am thinking about it, what a dumb plan! They get to go to Disneyland and I get to stay home? What the hell was I thinking?!

An interesting side note, when the girls were faced with filling their tubs with stuff they could take with them, the seven year old wanting to take her new, bright green, floor rug which reminds her of Tinkerbell. The three year old was fitfully trying to cram in every stuffed animal she owns. What kind of statement does it make when we cannot fit more than half her stuffed menagerie into a fifteen gallon tub? While the adults were concerned with computers, electronics, and pictures, the children were focused on the importance of their comfort items.

Lesson to be learned here.

-nn

Fire, fire everywhere

My "problem" of topic location has magically resolved itself. I find myself in the midst of the worst fire recorded in Southern California history. The work site is in an evacuation zone, so reporting is out of the question. Not that I would be able to, as the fire's front is a scant four miles away.
We spent a good part of the night preparing the girls for travel, each getting to pack a massive fifteen gallon tub with whatever they wanted, gassing the vehicles, assembling animal carriers, performing ad hoc backups to the file server (yes, we have a one, don't you?), and general "let-s-get-the-hell-out-of-here" activities. Checked out the flashlights, sorted out some "traveling" tools into a bag, gathered food for humans and animals, made sure the gas wrench was to be found, rounded up the extra electronic chargers, and threw in a power strip for good measure. We consider ourselves pretty self-contained, but like all plans, we will not know until we actually enact the plan.
Hopefully, we will not need to do that. But, as life is so wont to do, it is the unexpected that tests one's mettle.

kack! gag. urgle...

This is me on my inability to post with any regularity. May I be damned into the lowest bowels of Hell (somewhere on the ninth circle). On the other hand, my bowel movements are like clockwork, displaying to the attentive, there are aspects of my life that can be regulated.
---

Excuses:

• just cleared three weeks of back-to-back releases across three platforms
• caught a cold
• went on a five day high-speed vacation through Arizona (with the cold)
  
• intense class requirements for a psych course (two papers for about 4500 words total)

I offer this recently uncovered nugget in exchange for absolution.

I found myself squirming in perfect embarrassment for this poor girl The clothes, the music, the hackneyed dance routine. Who would trick this poor soul into using a b flat trumpet for an impromptu blaster? How could she believe them?
How about the blending of Star Wars, Dance, and Charlie Chaplin? In whose mind (or planet) do these three things find a commonality? No where near mine I hope...

-nn

Posting a little history

Content pulled for publishing on another site.

A site I am getting PAID for.

Woo hoo!

-nn

Code monkey like...

Finally, a band that gets it.

Someone in this band is a true geek. Not only a true geek, but a true, working geek. One who has fully experienced the complete geek lifestyle. This video spoke to on so many levels I screeched like twelve year school girl.

Then again, it could have just been the songwriter and not the band.

But who cares, right?

This AMV features the song Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton as heard G4TV's "code monkeys". using footage from the anime Black Heaven.
It was a finalist at Anime Expo 2007 AMV Contest. At Animazement 2007 it won Best in Show.

I know, I know...

Yet another week without a post. What on earth could I possibly be doing?

Well....

I started a psych class and believe it or not, the professor actually knows his material. Not only that, his assignments require gobs of reading, terror loads of research, and metric tons of analysis.
He even started out this week saying, while not disappointed, he was expecting more in our online discussion and no one has yet to receive maximum available credit. Yikes!

I knew from the start this would be an interesting course, but who thought it would be challenging also (insert sarcasm here)? Does sarcasm work if you have to point it out? I thought not. How about sarcasm about being sarcastic? Isn't that like a double negative making a positive? That would totally work on my planet.

I did however, stumble across this gem while looking up synonyms for the word "bilateral".

Enjoy.

-nn

oh the lust....

There I was, stumbling along after completing registration for yet another online class, and it reared its head. At first I could not believe it, I thought it to be a figment of my imagination. But, no.

It really exists.

And I so want one.

You can get yours here. Just like me...

-nn

Coming to an office near you (you hope): Faceball

Man, do I ever envy those folks at flicker. It appears they have concocted a new corporate office sport. Two players seated ten feet apart try to hit each other in the face with a beachball. Sure, not a lot of redeeming social qualities, but when else would you be able to smash a co-workers face in with a hugely round object.

They could easily turn this into a bloodsport by replacing the squishy beachball with something more menacing. Say a ten pound bowling ball. Or perhaps an Olympiad styled, spike encrusted shot put. This alone would be a sure-fire hit with the World Wrestling Federation crowd, ensuring a long life in the down-home, small-town, southern touring circuit and well-paid repeats of pay-per-view.

They even had time to produce an instructional video and mini documentary (which is the real source of my envy).
Don't take my word for it, jump to faceball.org.

-nn

*** pic from faceball.org. too good not to use.

A treat from Yoda's home

After the extermination of the Jedi and his subsequent failure to defeat Darth Sidious and save the republic, Jedi Master Yoda went into voluntary exile on Dagoba. Here, Yoda lived near a cave strong with the dark side of the Force which balanced out his good side and kept him from detection by the Emperor. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker is visited on the ice planet Hoth by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who tells him to go seek Yoda on Dagoba to be trained as a Jedi. Skywalker flies to Dagoba with R2-D2 in his X-wing after Darth Vader and his stormtroopers overrun the Rebel Alliance base on Hoth. Skywalker leaves Dagoba early to attempt to rescue Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca who he feels are in danger on the planet Bespin. Skywalker also briefly returns to Dagoba in Return of the Jedi, in which he has a final conversation with Yoda, and speaks extensively to Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost about the conflicting stories of Luke's parentage.

And this is Yoda's favorite candy bar...

most wanted

through my many travels of the interweb, there will always be a mass of consumables i will lust for..

this easily makes the list.

the reasons are self-explanatory. at least they should be...

umph...

Okay, okay. I realize it has been almost two weeks since my last post. Returning to school must have taken a little more out of me than I expected. Oh and then there was the additional build cycles at work that required me to work around the clock for seventy-two hours. I think that had more to do anything with lack of posts than anything else.
Let's focus on this work thing. How no earth is it possible for a moderately successful company to become moderately successful (nyet, remain moderately successful) when they cannot regulate work without any certainty? I will not elaborate further, but last week killed whatever spirit I was able to foster.
Clearing that out of my head, the much awaited Balls of Fury released last week. Just in time for a departmental outing. Yes, it was decided (by committee) the department wanted to go see this send up of the kung fu classic, Fists of Fury. Did i mention I was the sole member on the selection committee? It is good to be the king (sometimes). My team is mostly young and quite eager to please, with the most senior in age being even younger in the heart (and the head), so an outing of this type is well aligned with their taste (and mine).

-nn

Six minutes with Senju Kannon

This is the reason I am in love with foreign television.

Adventures in eating for the kids. Two rules.

Content pulled for publication on another site.

Yay!I am published!

-nn

chumby - nuff said

what is a chumby. good question. i am still trying to figure it out.

Ultra-cool tranforming table

In keeping with the Transformer hype since the release of the movie, I stumbled across this beautiful dining room sized table with the uncanny ability to alter itself through a series of well engineered self-contained leaves.
I cannot imagine how much the darn thing weighs, but I imagine it is quite heavy.
I wish there were shots of the undercarraige. I also wish I had the room to have it in my little house. The geek furniture factor runs high on this one. Yes, indeedy.



-nn

Bottled water brilliance

First of all, I (heart) Penn and Teller. They have a way of making you feel foolish but informed at the same time. Secondly, with all the hooplah over bottled water this and must-think-green that, I believe the report they have created is timely.
So here is the truth (albiet informal) about bottled water. Without the unbiased water seller screaming "foul".

go here now

Delivered courtesy of the Geek Army (another common haunt of mine).

-nn

PICT6932

PICT6932
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

The promise of youth. She is only seven, yet I can see her from her eyes her thoughts are much more deliberate and mature. This picture makes me want to be able to make time stand still and fast forward at the same time.

-nn

PICT6958

PICT6958
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

There are certain pictures which evoke a sense of optimism. For me, this is one of those pictures.

-nn

Unusually compelling

All from dominoes?

Awesomely done, this is.

I cannot figure out if it was done with traditional stop-motion or possibly with a software program. I would think it would take longer to write the code than just complete the old-fashioned way.

Either way, RIGHT ON.

-nn

Thriller redux

Who says Micheal Jackson's reign of popularity is dead? Other than a brief appearance in a barely there comedy, what other recent influence has the pop star had to offer a myopic american audience?

Well, there is always this...



Long live the king.

-nn

Another weekless post?

Check that. Meant to say another postless week.

Work is not the challenge I expected it to be (is it ever?). But the prospect of being able to return to school without the external pressure of having to constantly out perform (read:shine) is an attractive one. I have the typical single office setup, monitor facing away from the door, should the need arise to alt-tab away from the paper or assignment I am focused on. All the while, looking so intent on completing the last bits of a work-related report or document.

Do I feel the least bit guilty about using time at my desk for studies? Normally, I would say yes. However, since I have logged considerable hours at my home office performing work, the guilt is almost non-existent. Once I reach a deficit of time spent of home over work, I will not allow myself to feel the pangs.

A small mention about the work out, I am running Tuesday and Thursday to supplement the thrice weekly workouts.

-nn

cannot break the single mindedness

For the past two weeks i sat down with the full intnention of putting something here that does not relate to working out. I would start "blind typing" (a writer's exercise) in order to get the juices flowing and before you knew it a post would be formed. Only thing is, all the posts were about how-to work out, preparing to work out, and the benefits of working out. So I figured a post about NOT writing about working out would be in order. If anything, just to get a friggin' post up.

So here it is. A post about NOT working out.

I finally enrolled in classes to finish up my degree. I literally killed all of my upper division classes before i opted out. When I say opted out, it was with the intent of completing the lower division classes through the CLEP program, which would satisfy the requirement. For uninitiated, a SLEP is a pass or fail test one takes for a fraction of the cost of regular classes. The problem was I never got around to taking the damn classes. I also found it a little intimidating to take a pass fo fail.

Anyway, I am back on the road to completing the BSIT program.

First class is slated to start on the 31st of this month. Wish me luck.

yay.

-nn

being a fan of japanese culture

This made me laugh and laugh. I can't help but think someone out there will take this completely serious. The production values are high which lends credibility to the vid. Which will make it all the more difficult to understand this piece was done tongue in cheek.

Most humorous.

-nn

Goodbye Bally Fitness - Hello LA Fitness

My current club, Bally fitness, announced they are closing my current location. Out of consideration, they were tranferring my membership to another club a scant 4.2 miles away. Unfortunately, this does not work out for me. Since I picked the club for its close proximity to work (I jog over on my lunch break), adding another four plus miles to this distance is pushing well beyond the limits of my endurance and the time I have available.

What to do? Well, there is an LA Fitness across the street, simply add another 300 yards to the warm up run and you are in the door. Thinking back, I should have checked out this club when shopping around. Frankly, the key motivator was that Bally's was closer than LA Fitness. I know, it was only just across the street, but back then I never considered I would be able to run that far. I know different now.

Which brings me to my thought for the day. Would you like an exercise in futility? Try cancelling a gym membership. After having waded through the front line support of the Customer Support phone lines,and been promised call backs from supervisors and been "disconnected" and directed to incorrect voicemail boxes and promised action, I have yet to resolve this issue.

A company can be best judged by its actions by gauging responses made after the initial sale. I would be hard pressed to recommend Bally Fitness based on the performance of its personnel during this seires of communications.

-nn

mistakes of my past

I used to sing when I was younger. I never thought the exercise of steady and deep breathing of my younger years would be my first and earliest training on the benfits of meditative breathing. All I remember was that I loved to sing. Whenever I sang I could connect to feelings and emotions not evident to those around me. I was touching, ever so lightly, so thread that binds us all.

There was a boy. A highly functioning retarded boy named "J", who always has the habit of singing "outside" of the group. A key concept of singing in a group is to strive to sound as one voice. to sing "within" a group is the highest ideal. J always would push his voice above the the rest of the group, and it angered me. I would become upset to the point where I would threaten him with bodily harm.

Now, in the midst of awakening self, I now realize J had something I wanted back then. The Tao was speaking more clearly to him than to me. I was jealous.

-nn

energy leaking out of every pore

I have been working out, just not marking my progress here. As I attempt to write about more than just the work out (let's face it, a singular perspective on anything is boring) I have noticed I have nothing in my head to write about. So rather than bore you with the continual blog about what I do to sweat, I have opted to write nothing at all. At least until something crosses my radar I feel is worthy of putting into words.

Until then, read this:

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.

Savour the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Lovingly liberated from here. I found this aricle to be very wise in the vein of knwoing who we are, what we do, and the how our behavior affects others. Very nicely written also.

-nn

Ode to the "soulless" treadmill

In the past, whenever I heard about or saw someone running on a treadmill, my first thought was "why on earth would anyone want to do that?". They run in one place like an over-sized hamster, going nowhere. They should be outside, where they could at least be exposed to the sun and have a little exposure to nature. What a bland and soulless task to run on an endless twelve feet of belt with nothing to show for it.

Oh what a difference a couple of days make...

There are many benefits to running on a tread, especially for one that is just getting into the running program:
- there are no distractions like cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
- running on a tread allows you to focus on the developing a proper form, which you will not get if you have to stop or slow to accommodate cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
- setting your pace while free-form running is difficult, because you have never had to set the pace before. using the machine to set and keep the pace helps your body set and recognize a proper pace.

In the work out journey, everything has its place. The place for a treadmill is to help you train your body for when you actually begin running "out there".

-nn

Down another 1.6

Yikes! Six days without a post? Unheard of.
While I have been slacking off on posts, the workouts continue. The running has not become routine yet, so I think I will continue for a while. There is something comforting about the rhythm created by my feet. Once I get settled, it feels like I could actually do two miles without stopping. This from a man who has never run more than a half mile in one shot. In my entire life.
So I dropped another 1.6, bringing the total to 63.4 pounds. Yee haw, it looks likes I finally jumped off the plateau of 60 pounds. The challenge, as always, will be keeping it off.

- subject change -

So I took on this super ambitious project of building lofts beds for my girls (seven and three). Having pored over available plans I finally settled on some plans and starting collecting the few woodworking tools I did not already have (a table saw, some clamps, abrasives, general what not). I will not bother listing the huge number of mistakes I made while paring down the pile of lumber into usable bits. I will not bother you with the number of times I made THE SAME mistake nor how costly they were.

I will just submit a list of things I have learned:


- no matter what pictures you find to show the finished product, be prepared design changes that will add significant time to the project.

- it is not enough to measure it twice. make sure you are using the correct measurement to begin with.

- smooth wood, regardless of type, is expensive.

- measure it again.

- square your tools with the same gauge. a sixteenth of an inch on one could be different than another.

- make sure your sixteenth of an inch is accurate.

- add 20% to all your time estimates. this will keep you from having to work all night because the paint booth is only available on Tuesday and Thursday.

- add 15% to all your material estimates (includes consumables: abrasives, glue, et al.). this will save time going to the hardware store.

- power sanders rock.

I am sure there are more things, they just have not occurred to me yet.

- nn

Off the bike, on the treadmill.

Never in a million years did I think I would enjoy running on a treadmill. Too many images of a hamster, I guess. Being of a "large stature" it never occurred to me that I could comfortably run for more than a few minutes. Compared to most people, I do not run vary far or long, but using my personal scale, I am running marathons.

Warm up: 2 min @ 3.8 (fast walk)
Increase: 2 min @ 5.0 (mild jog)
Increase: 2 min @ 5.5
Increase: 2 min @ 5.5 with 1.0 incline
Increase: 2 min @ 5.5 with 2.0 incline
Increase: 2 min @ 5.5 with 3.0 incline
Decrease: 2 min @ 5.5 with 2.0 incline
Decrease: 2 min @ 5.5 with 1.0 incline
Cooldown: 3 min @ 3.8

Total time: 19 min
Calories burned: 220

I will not be performing any 5Ks but I find the minute flying sensation between steps liberating.

Corny, I know.

-nn

perfect plate

perfect plate
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

This is but a small (minuscule, really) sampling of some of the fabulous food I encountered last weekend. I was sure to start with a smallish plate, being careful not to take more than a couple of regular spoonfuls of each item. The strategy seems to have worked, because even after all the gorging, I still lost 0.4 pounds when I weighed in on Wednesday. I was quite pleased.

Starting from the top and proceeding clockwise we have: lomi-lomi salmon, a delicate (and fried) lumpia, lemon spinach, red rice (chamorro style, not spanish), pancit, and dead center, cole-slaw.

The menu fed my soul as well as my stomach.

Survived the Family Reunion

This last weekend was the first family reunion in about twelve years. Seventy people representing all points of the nation converged on a suburb near Phoenix, AZ to catch up, reminisce, and eat foods they have not seen in a decade or more. To the uninitiated, the orgy of food would recall images of pure gluttony. To this small collection of people, it was the opportunity to express the love of childhood and family. To reaffirm a love through the expression of carefully preparing the foods of celebration. To be part of something larger than yourself. Larger than your siblings. To bask in the warm glow felt when everyone working together produces something the tribe will share. Then, to be able to sit back and watch as the smiles appear when they take that first bite. The memories produced at these events sustain me as I wonder when I will see my family next.

Throughout my childhood, events like this were common, occurring almost every week. The faces were mostly the same and while the food was always slightly different, the feelings were always identical. People coming together to share in joy and love.

The elders were all there directing the second generation, the second generation was directing their children in manners, respect, and when to perform heavy lifting. The third generation was left pretty much to play and be held at the elders whim.

I had forgotten now much my family likes to gamble. There was a permanent poker game going the entire time. Not being immune to the call, I set in on a couple of sessions. I came to a halt I found myself dividing my time exclusively between filling a plate and holding cards.

It was this and more. I will not speak to the unbound eating I participated in because I do not want to sully the great memories recalled and made. That will be a post for another day (tomorrow, probably).

-nn

Goal attained: 60 pounds finally!

I am aware it has been an entire week without a post. Work hit me hard and missing my elusive sixty mark last week killed my creative streak. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I finally broke the into the 60-65 pound weight range! I weighed in last thinking I would have just barely made the .6 pounds required to hit sixty. Lo and behold, my weekly total was 2.6 pounds. The sweat and work is paying off and know I am thinking I could actually make my published goal weight of 179 (but don't hold your breath for that one).

I have stepped up the resistance for my fifteen minutes on the bike:
Old settings:
- 3 min @ level 8
- 12 min @ level 10

New settings:
- 2 min @ level 8
- 11 min @ level 10
- 2 min @ level 12

The weights have gotten progressively heavier, favoring more weight and and fewer reps, rather than the multiple dead slow reps I started out with. Talking with trainer M helped more than he knows.

Additionally, I started finishing up with a three minute pilates session which concentrated on my abs. Of which I can for the first time in twenty years.

-nn

min post

it is 2339 on wednesday night. i have been working since 0730.

the build is not ready for testing. i am the only one who can post it.

am fading fast. it is still not ready.

i get paid for doing this............

at times, it makes me ill that it happens this way.

-nn

Want more effective work outs?

Breath like a baby. Seriously.

Take some time and watch a baby breath. For those unable to observe a small child, watching an animal sleep will do in a pinch. It is most evident if they are sleeping. You will notice when a baby inhales, their stomach rises. The baby is breathing from their core (diaphragmatic breathing, if you care for professional speak). The baby is breathing in a most natural state.

Somewhere on the way to adulthood (and the acquisition of an ego), we are taught to be an adult is to be fit. Or at the very least, to give the appearance of being fit. This is when we all start breathing by inflating our chest. Most times, we are not even aware we are doing it. The bad part about it is we cannot effectively fill our lungs with that most precious commodity of oxygen.

Breath like a baby.

-nn

Motivation = NULL

My motivation to accomplish anything at work is positively nil. I have been able to gather a few coherent thoughts into a passable list of items, but executing on them is an ongoing challenge. I think the ISO audit took more out of me than expected. There are dozens of little, niggling tasks that I just do not care to deal with. Of course, all of them are a priority one and need immediate attention. But for the life of me, I cannot get the brain cells focused long enough to do more than just nudge them along. I feel satisfied just to get the most immediate next step started, normally by someone in another department. I am complacent to remain in an interrupt driven mode, rather than pro actively take charge of the list until each one is completed.

I feel quite happy to focus on the minutiae of each task rather than the entirety because there is comfort in getting lost in things familiar. Whereas, if I were to tackle a bunch of unknowns, I would feel without direction. A silly human condition, but there is some comfort to be had in following it.

-nn

Damn, damn, damn

Well, hell. I was reluctant to weigh in last night, and it goes to show you: if you think you gained weight, you most likely did. I went up 0.4 pounds. Not a tragedy, but it appears the mighty 60 pound mark still eludes me. Thinking back over the last week, I am fortunate I did not put on more. Being sick all week and having to work is not the best frame of mind to be in. Normally, when I am sick, I just eat whatever comes into view. You know the "feed a cold..." axiom? I live by that. At least I used to. Whatever. So starts another week of critical consumption.

The workout was fragmented today. The remnants of my cold hindered me, forcing me to go blow my nose three or four times. Trying to breath was interesting. I did manage to push more weight than ever and the slow sets were not as productive as they could have been. Guess my mind was not fully committed to the session.

Picked up a new camera for J. She has been really down since Miss B and family picked up and moved out of town. I am hoping this new toy will help her out of her doldrums. It pains me to think there is a part of her I cannot heal. This is all up to her.

-nn

Recovering

There is so much to catch up on. We had a MAJOR ship date last week and my presence was required at work. In itself, not a big deal, but the kicker was I caught the stupid seasonal cold going around the office. I was jacked up on cold drugs the entire week. This combined with the long hours made the week less than desirable (downright intolerable, to be precise). The good news is we shipped on time, which is a huge accomplishment in the face of all the other activities which were occurring at the same time.
My work outs suffered greatly and I was too zonked out and over booked to make it to the gym or the Weight Watchers meeting. Come to think of it, I missed attending. I never would have thought I would miss sitting in a room lamenting (and celebrating) the woes of weight loss (or is that weight gain?), but one really does not know unless one does without, right?
I felt strong enough to work out this morning, I do not think the good feeling would have lasted until this afternoon, if I had waited. The run over was slower but not painful, so I am taking that as a good sign. I power lifted, working on chest and arms, while throwing in a smattering of heavy abs and core. The sweat was pouring off me. It was much easier than I thought it would be after not doing anything for five days. Another good sign.
Normally, when I am sick, I go so far off program I do not think I will find my way back. This time, I remained aware of the food I was eating and even kept up on drinking my daily water. I actually think it helped me get better faster.
-nn

I am the Pot calling the Kettle black

I do not know exactly when it started happening. The realization of my behavior just occurred, leaving me feeling a little unbalanced. I cannot explain it, I just know I started doing it.

The first time I realized it happened when I was out picking up food for yet another late night stint for work. I was going to a local sandwich shop picking up a totally sensible meal. In the strip mall were other grease-laden alternatives (which are getting easier to ignore, so long as I do not get a whiff of french fries). I noticed a guy getting out of a small car. Being a larger guy I noticed he had to heft himself out of the car and the car showed its relief by raising itself to its proper distance from the ground. This was a big guy. He and the driver were obviously going to eat at the grease shack to enjoy all of its trans fat goodness. Then it happened. I said out loud "Dude, like you need to go in there". For the first part, there was no one in the car with me, so I was talking to myself, so that raises some minor weirdness points. The major point of this stream of consciousness post is: "Who the hell am I to criticize someone else's food choices?".

What the hell was I thinking about? Where in my psyche did a thought like this come from?

-nn

Aftermath

The evaluation went better than I thought it would. I could actually walk (although shakily) without any noticeable pain afterward. I actually received some validation on a few of the routine things I was doing. Like increasing the time and resistance at regular intervals while on the bike. One thing that caught me off guard was having to leg press 300 pounds. I was definitely NOT expecting to push that much weight. I only had to press it five times, but man it felt more like 10 reps.
Gravity was not my friend.
The trainer went all hardcore on my abs, which felt great but there was a time when I thought I my back muscles were going to go on strike and walk out on me. I was sweating like a pig.
I did not do any arms and chest today, which left me oddly disappointed. I cannot explain as to why.
The short story, my reps are too slow. I should be doing faster reps, which will raise my heartbeat and burn more fat. I should be working in at least three sets of lower reps and higher weights.
On another note, I fricking gained weight again and will be sweating out another workout tomorrow in order to catch my elusive goal of 60 pounds of weight loss by tomorrow nights weigh-in.

little K

PICT5597
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

Action girl, ready to rock!
This is little K ready to tackle the climbing rock at the local park. Looks like she could scale just about anything. See that bit of mischief in her eyes? The glimmer is always there, ready to go.

The Evaluation

Have a session with a personal trainer today. Will be trying to get information to help with the work out. Want to hear something funny? I feel I should work out prior to the session to make sure I do well. I am hoping to get a boost. More after.
-nn

Day of rest

I worked out three days straight (Mon, Tues, Wed) in an effort to overcome a MASSIVE and FRIED meal I consumed over the weekend. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED EVERY BITE. But I could not bring myself to accept the weight gain associated with it. So I worked up the gumption to actually get to the gym three times in three days. So how do I feel about it? Tired! For this week, I went down -0.8.
The ISO audit drew to a close yesterday and the verbal report is glowing. There were no significant findings and the auditors were recommending the company for certification. In auditor-speak, this is a seal of approval. So what can we do with it? Personally, I can post this accomplishment as another feather in my resume (never hurts). For the company, it allows us to bids on RFPs (Request For Proposals) internationally much quicker. Where before we would have to produce reams of supporting documents, now all we have to do is check a little box and enter the certification number. In the simplest terms, think of it as a significant paper reduction.

Dumb as a box of rocks

Here is a new tip for those new to the gym. DO NOT chew gum while you work out. Especially if you are working on cardio. My thinking about chewing something would help prevent the onset of cotton mouth with all the heavy breathing going on. Well, let me tell you I got the surprise of my life when I actually inhaled the gum!
I can hear all the comments about being so stupid that I am unable to walk and chew gum. I am really opening myself up for it, so blast away. I will not even mention this happened three times before I decided to that it was a choking hazard and actually stopping.
Today, I added another three minutes on the bike and started doing faster and heavier sets. It was much easier going than I thought it would be. I truly believe the super slow sets aided in setting me up for the heavy stuff. I was not out of breath as I thought I would be.
I scheduled a session with a personal trainer (M) so I can get specific advice about getting around to where I want\need to be. The guy was taken a little aback when I told him I did not a six-pack. I am thinking that would be too much overall maintenance. I am just looking forward to waking and walking without pain and shortness of breath. Perhaps a secondary goal of losing the flab of the weight I have already lost (sixty pounds). I am intimidated of being evaluated by someone else. I got to this point pretty much of my own accord. I guess the fear is in hearing I have been doing something wrong or inefficiently. Where I could have gotten here faster than the two years already spent.
I passed the audit with no noticeable findings (yeah!). This is a really big deal for the company (and me). It will look good on future Hunts and increase professional marketability. Pay raise, anyone?

-nn

The Motel

PICT6036
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

I saw it as we crossed into Texas from New Mexico. Off the lonely stretch of freeway there was a run down motel just screaming "come die here". You could hear the echoes of drunken brawls and one-night stands. There stood a small set of cottages in the death throes of neglect. A final way point at the gates of nowhere.
It was a statement of seediness and disrepair. How many stories were trapped in the walls of these little buildings? They were waiting for decay to collapse the walls, so the stories could escape and be told.

k as i will always see her

PICT6383
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

There are certain images which bypass short term memory and are immediately posted into the long term. This is one of those images. No matter how rapidly times seems to pass by, I will always have this moment reflect on. This memory of her in total bliss. This memory of her completely without pretension, just being a happy kid.

-nn

QAD post

QAD = Quick and Dirty

Have to be speedy. On the midst of an ISO audit. Every one is on pins and needles. Had to work out between 0700 and 0800 in order to be on call through out the day. There are no excuses for not being available.
The work out was expedited and there was not breaks while going between machines. Think I finished in about 45 minutes. Time on the bike had a different twist to it. While there was no appearance of the wall, there was a distinct sense of gravity throughout the session. Like I was wearing ankle weights or something. Had no trouble breathing today, which was a pleasant surprise. Added a set of Horizontal Squats to the routine.

Gotta run.

-nn

Egg of Grayskull

PICT6610
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

By the power of Grayskull!
I have located the mighty egg of power! Behold in its majesty! Cower before the glory that is the mighty egg.
Forgot this gem from one of the many obligatory egg hunts. One question, who eats all the hardboiled eggs the children scurry after? Let's do some math: the parents (or adult other) boil the eggs, set up the mobile coloring stations (so as to limit the mess potential), hide them, and finally get to eat them. Couldn't we just boil them and immediately eat them. From my observations, the kids don't have a glance at the eggs once they are found (unless they happen to be really, really hungry.

Must not focus on breathing

The workout was good today. Well, as good as a workout can be, right. The wall didn't really show itself. There was a hint of it around 6 minutes in on the bike (which comes first, so no surprise there). Still doing 15 minutes on the bike, alternating abs, arms, back, and legs. Dead slow sets with medium weight.
Am able to keep the heart rate in the range of 120 - 140 bpm, whereas before I was all over the map. Getting used to the machines and individual settings seems to help mounting the racks easier. Less brain power for setting up and just focusing on moving the weight. I noticed a little chi breathing just before starting on the set is helpful too.
I worked really hard on my obliques and I think I may have strained my right side just a tad too hard. The walk back to the office was favoring the opposite side. Will know for sure once my day settles down a bit more.
Is it just me? After I workout, I cannot smell anything and I have a loss of fine motor control. Like my nerve endings are dulled or something. Then again, I could just be hungry...

-nn

little m

PICT5575
Originally uploaded by no_niche.

She is watching a puppet show. The whole of her attention is rapt into the scene unfolding before her. She cares nothing of the people and noise around her. If only we could "unlearn" the white noise we pick up on the way to adulthood and live like this. She has us at a disadvantage.

workout was better

Yesterdays workout was much better than last Fridays. I cannot think if I did anything vastly different. Perhaps the work out gods just smiled on my measly presence. I did not hit the "wall" until about the six minute mark and I found it easy to "go somewhere else" until the fifteen minute mark.
I find I have to resist the compulsion to increase the weight stack. My particular circumstances require me to sweat of build muscle, but I feel like I should always be increasing the number of plates I struggle with.
Once I get acclimated to my routine, I will be posting my setups for reference.

On another note, the ISO audit is only five short days away. Everyone in the office is up in arms about documents, approvals, and audit trails. Talk about tense. You would think we were going through an IRS audit en masse. Being punished for not being appropriately considerate with the outcome being a physical punishment. Although I must say I am not overly concerned. Primarily because I am confident my department is the best prepared. I am quizzing them a drill Sargent. And they still seem to like me.

-nn

Workout was the suck

I should have eaten something. At least that is what I keep telling myself. I have meetings through my regular gym session today. Being the thoughtful palnner that I am, I figured I would work out before going into work today. Great idea, poor execution.
I did not put enough into my poor waning stomach and not only did it complain throughout the session, put my concentration was off and there was nothing to fuel the workout. Lackluster until the final 10 minutes, I just could not get into the motions.
Altered the workout just a bit also, perhaps it threw me off rather than the lack of food. Did the regular thing on the bike, then into circuit training with "dead slow" repititions with heavy weight, alternating arms, back, abs, then legs. Seeing it all listed out here makes it appear much more arduous that reality. The final circuit is super fast reps, lighter weight, lots and lots of reps. Sweat pouring off my body. Good thing I keep that little towel with me. Could you imagine getting on a machine after it had been covered with someone else's sweat? Gnarly....

Most important?

The end of suffering or understanding why suffering exists?

You were shot with an arrow. Your life is ebbing away. A doctor appears and is preparing to remove the arrow and begin healing you.
Which would you prefer?

• Would you like the doctor to leave the arrow embedded in your flesh and seek out who shot the arrow (the reason for your suffering)?
• To find and describe the person who shot the arrow (a description of the source of your suffering)?

Or would you rather the good doctor remove the arrow (so the suffering will end)?

Do not concern yourself with the source, depth, or picture of your suffering.

Only concern yourself with ending it.

-nn

littlest kohiko dancer

PICT6529,
originally uploaded by no_niche.

Little J as he shows it is not the size of the dancer so much as the size of the heart. He was definitely one of the highlights of the show. His dancing is so expressive because he is yet unburdened with the trappings of an adult mind. We should all be able to dance with this much feeling, regardless of style. This includes you country dancers out there.

Elatingly discrouaged

I am discouraged. I am elated. This conflict of emotion is courtesy of my last weigh-in. It appears I have gained 1.2 pounds over the past two weeks. That is the discouraging part. On the flip side of that I can lift more, have higher range of motion, and can run further than ever before. Which for me is anything beyond an quarter mile. I did mention that I have not worked out seriously in well over a decade, right?
The clothes that should (not pinching, can tuck in without inhaling), fit better. The clothes that should not fit better (baggier, shapeless), do not. These are good things. Also on the good list: I can breathe much better, I sleep great and wake easier, I do not require as much coffee, I am not tired in the middle of the day, I can tumble (think of martial tumbling, not gymnast) without fear of hurting myself.
Now that I see this list, the 1.2 pounds seems like a fair trade.
-nn

Stepping it up

The original monthly pass I bought to the local gym has expired and they went all out in order to get me to join. Which I did. The final deal? $100 off enrollment (which is another way of saying less profit) and recurring monthly fee of $24/month. Not too bad considering they originally wanted $250 and $40/month. I think if I held out just a little bit longer, I could have done even better, but I guess I let my guard down long enough to open my wallet.
I started working out three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This is not out of the sheer joy of sweating, but I figure the more I use the membership, the less money they will make off of me. I think it is inherently silly businesses make money by selling you services you do not use. It is even sillier people will pay for a service they do not use. I am funny that way.
The first fifteen minutes are reserved for the recumbent bike, and for the first few rounds I was running into a wall of pain as early as five minutes into the session. Now it seems I can hold it off as long as nine minutes but there is not real consistency to that reading yet. I am not considering stepping up the time yet.
I work primarily on abs, back, and gluts, working with smaller weights and high reps. Keeping the the heart rate high so I can shed this damnable weight. Way can't the last twenty come off as easily of the first?
Sweatingly,
-nn

so many ideas, so few words

I read a lot of eastern philosophy. Taoism primarily, with a good mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and a smattering of Zen. In all the readings there are similar thoughts that seem to appear no matter which path you choose.

• The words you are reading are only sign posts to the truth.
• To take any single source of information, and use it as a path to enlightenment will only lead you farther from the peace you seek.
• Keep a novice approach.
  
• Do not strive, just be.

These guidelines deeply affect my writing style. While the point of most writing is the antithesis of these points: Be precise, write in an expert style (with authority), have a definite purpose.

Is it any wonder I have so much trouble?

-nn

everyone hits rock bottom

Even the iconic stars of your childhood.

guy gone bad

There is something about seeing this guy attempting suicide using prescrip pills and then projectile vomiting that adds a warmth to your heart that you never knew existed...

working it out

Today marks the fourth week of my self-inflicted sentence of working out. My brain has settled into the idea of making sure I spend about three hours a week there. My body has stopped protesting (or protesting strongly) to the regular bouts of struggling to get the stack in the air.
I am recovering faster now than I have, as in I no longer suffer from the aches and stiffness associated with my first few visits. Time seems to pass faster than before also.
I am limiting my lifting to smaller loads and more repetitions rather then the short burst of heavy loads. My focus being on sweating more than creating new muscle. So far so good.
While standing in line at Subway, I overheard a girl (woman) talking about her points allowance to her friends. For the uninitiated, "points" talk is a dead give away the person is following the Weight Watchers Flex program. As I am on the same program, I found it interesting to hear thoughts about it somewhere other than just my head. It is good to know I am not the only person going undertaking a change in eating habits.

sitting in the front row

It's the same every time you go to the movies. The make-out kids sit in the back row, the general population sits somewhere in the middle, and all the children sit at the very front. The reasoning behind why these groups sit where they do is an interesting topic.
The make-out kids can't afford a room. You now, if they had a chance they would be playing sweaty gland games with their partner. At least, this is the memory I have sealed in my brain.
The general population gravitates towards the middle because they want to be considered adult, and adults would not be caught in the back row. They have homes to conduct their skin-to-skin relations and sitting up front would be considered juvenile (and they are clearly not that, right?).
The smallest ones want to be be consumed by the movie. They want a picture so big, their little eyeballs cannot be move without more of the story being there. They are there to be part of the film. No matter where they look, it is an all-consuming experience.
This is where you will find me. Oh sure, I get side long glances, like I should be ashamed of even considering being there amongst the under three foot crowd. The reason are clear; when I go to a movie, I want to be able to completely suspend everyday life. I want to be able to wrap myself in the story being told. I want be there, sitting next to the characters as they celebrate, break down, and even die.

-nn

work rant haiku

once again, conflict.
intruding into the peace.
i signed on for this?

---

will i be recalled,
as the father never there?
more time at home, please.

---

working for weekend.
once again it seems to me,
balance eludes me.

-nn

taste of the thread in my head

this is a sample of what is draining the "juice" out of my head.

All applications will undergo a rigorous battery of tests directed to ensure an appropriate functioning application will be delivered to the customer, regardless if the customer is internal or external. Testing will be guided by a series of functional documents, which can vary from SOW, Project Requirements Document (PRD), or Functional Specification.

Time permitting, Quality Assurance (QA) will submit proposed tests in the form of a Master Test Plan for approval by the Project Manager, Lead Developer, and QA Manager in the form of a draft. Shortcomings will be noted and incorporated for final review to the same approving body. The initial version number will be displayed as "0.1". Once all changes have been documented and accepted, the version number of the testplan will reflect approval by changing the version number to “1.0” (per companyName Document Approval process). Follow on changes which detail changes accepted after accepting the completed version will be denoted by changing the version number to “1.1” and so on.

Once the testplan has been accepted the Lead QA engineer will begin crafting individual testcases reflecting the test points outlined in the Master Test Plan.

and so on and so on....

-nn

Unbalanced

Posts have been spotty due to a thing at work called an ISO per-assessment audit. In a nutshell, this is the an inspection of what your company does (or more like, does not) complies with an internationally recognized standard. It is something to comply with when conducting business internationally.

There are several points to comply with for my department alone. Take into account I am also responsible for several additional points crossing disparate departments and it is easy to see why I have a lack of creative juice with which to commit to my blogging.

Do you have any idea how creativity gets crushed when one is forced to create a development acceptance procedure?

You want to talk about fun?

yee-frickin'-haw....

-nn

Parental paradox

Paradox - an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or situation which defies intuition.

Parents wish a better future for their children. This is even more true (can anything be more true) if we, as parents, have had a troubling upbringing. The desire is to allow them to find enlightenment without the bumped and bruises normally associated with growing up. I, for one, hope the road to adulthood will be less troublesome for my little ones. And this is where the paradox occurs.

The issues I experienced while traveling to adulthood, are the same ones that brought me to enlightenment. Without them, I would not be the parent trying to ease the approach for the kids. So my desire to soften their journey (to protect them) may actually prolong their journey rather than deliver them promptly and safely.

So the question is: am I really protecting them?

disappointed or not

I have been losing a significant amount of weight over the last two years. Well, if you consider 22% of your total body weight a significant amount. I like to relate the amount by percentage rather than pounds because I think people (me being one of them) put too much emphasis on the number of pounds than the actual totality of the effort. It seems people's perspective shift when you take the importance off the number of pounds and refer to percentage of body weight.

What do I mean by that?

Consider a two hundred pound person losing ten percent of their body weight. Total weight loss = 20 lb.s . People hear this and only focus on the number. You mention you have lost 10% and the visual in your head is like "Holy smokes! That is a complete tenth of this person!".

Having recently hit a long-lived and unforgiving plateau in my efforts has led me to do what was thought of as folly in the past. I joined a gym. The last thing I wanted was to spend an hour of any time sweating and grunting in the unwelcome company of others who treat the sweatorium
as the equivalent of a social hall and bingo parlor. All prepping for the oncoming weekly work outs by laying out what they will wear on the Sunday prior, arranging their pilates class schedules to make sure they attend the same ones as the rest of their friends.

What was it actually like? Well, first of all, all the major clubs seem to pitch a "free two week pass" type of affair (which I have taken full advantage of) which will leave you exposed to a hard sell from the club "representative". The gentleman who was pitching the offer was not well suited to his work: he did not take time to show me any of the equipment or the facilities (although he pointed and alluded to "amenities" and he did not sound like he knew much about working out. I would find it safe to say he was not interested in any more than being on the receiving end of a "walk-over" contract, which requires zero interaction, only the luck to be standing in the right place at the right time.

I have worked out five times so far and have yet to encounter a clatch of yammering, you-should-try-this-class types, espousing helpful sound bites while you strain to lift some paltry amount of weight three inches into the air. If anything, most everyone keeps very much to themselves unless you happen to be waiting for the same equipment (which has only happened once, so far). It has been so completely uneventful, it would be considered boring. I am compelled to mention that my schedule only allows me to work out between 11am to 12:30pm which seems to be unpopular with the masses, as the place is near empty throughout my entire stay.

I am unsure if I am disappointed or not...

-nn

like a foreign film without subtitles

There are times when I feel like the life I lead is not quite mine. I understand it is mine, but the the totality of understanding of what is happening is just a touch beyond the capability of my understanding. As if I spend more time trying to understand events and purpose than actually living my life.

geek fun

This post is most definitely not for everyone. However, if you have ever considering playing god, messing about with evolution, or creating you very own life form (and let's face it, we all have, haven't we?). Then this is for you.

You can create a "creature" from a set of body styles and feeding characteristics and set it loose in a virtual environment (carnivorous for me please). There appears to be a lot of things that can happen: your creature could encounter another and a life struggle would ensue. Of course, the outcome would depend on the physical traits you have endowed your animal. The system emails you with how your foundling is getting along.

For the next version, I would hope they would add a "follow" camera, allowing one to see one's creation in action. Not all the time, perhaps limited to encounters or feeding (mating?) events.

Will I become reluctant to check my email for fear of receiving the dreaded "You creature has been eaten" email?

You can thank Stumble Upon for this contribution.

-nn

People of potential

I loves me the l'il children.
Invariably there is always a little slice of time in which I can find myself thinking; "Are you sure these are your kids?" Oh, I know what you are thinking, "That guy must hate these kids". Truth be told, I love the potential and promise my children (nay, ALL children) exhibit. Children are a constant reminder to retain an optimistic perspective. They are a renewing source of hope and imagination.
Most adults I know have learned the characteristic of cynicism, which limits not only their potential but vision of possibility. At what point in time of our lives do we decide our "adult" appearance is more important than a broad perspective?

-nn

The selfish commute

Every work day, we are face with the typical routine. We can alter our get-ready routine: something different for breakfast, maybe brush our teeth after the shower, instead of before (dangerous living, that last bit). But once we get out of our house, we are forced into a proud tradition reserved for all of us living in an urban environment. The get-your-butt to work commute.

We are all conditioned to just accept this event as part of working. Sometimes we hear about it from our parents when we are children. It is possibly described as something traumatic; "Don't talk to your father right now, he's had a terrible commute home and a bit out of sorts". Comments like this always led me to believe a horrid commute is one of those horrible-yet-accepted facets of adult life. Like gaining weight or graying (or worse yet, receding) hair.

There are alternatives. There are some people who realize time spent in a vehicle is not a thing to be wasted, but can use the "downtime" to add extra hours of productivity to the day. You notice them all the time, chatting on a cell phone catching up with people in another timezone or applying make-up. Some of the more daring will actually leaf through a book or the daily paper. Finally, there are the high-adventure types who will tap out verses on their fully deployed, precariously balanced laptop in the passenger seat. It is very easy to spot them, as their cars are normally swaying within the confines of the lane they are occupying.

There is yet another set of individuals who seek an even more thoughtful use of the time normally used commuting. Not satisfied with performing feats of time-slicing on four wheels, this group has a completely different approach to making the required commute bearable. This group makes the commute shorter, saves fuel, and has a lower impact on streets and traffic. I speak of the highly misunderstood motorcycle rider.
California is the only state in which a motorcycle rider can "share" lanes. This allows anyone on a motorcycle to use the space between lanes of traffic, so long as the rider is exhibiting "safe & practical" behavior. The law is purposely left open to interpretation should a peace office deem your handling of the bike unsafe. In the seventy-three thousand miles logged on my current bike I have yet to receive a citation for unsafe behavior. Admittedly, I always tone down my speed a shade whenever I spy a patrol cruiser.

How about you? Would you like to get to your destination in about half the time it takes when traveling by car? Could you find a better use for the time saved by shaving off hours (literally) every week?

Sure, there are drawbacks: people who style their hair would need to have those sculpting gels and combs at work (I wear my hair short, so who cares), and id you are one to bring a lunch, you may have to get a backpack or saddlebags to ferry it to work. For me, knowing I can get home (and to work for that matter) on half the time make up for a bits of inconvenience encountered. All the while keeping an eye out for the person tapping out an email instead of paying attention to how well they keep the car in the lane.

Think about it.

Falling in love (again)

There are so many reasons to love the internet. This is just another.

I have a thing for pictures of all kinds. Landscapes, lightscapes, curious animals of every sort. But I find people's faces the most interesting. There is so much to be read from the face; promise, disappointment, potential, love, disappointment, the list is as endless as the variety of human emotion.

Having been around the internet since the boom has allowed me to witness the rise of dozens of photography sites that inspire and capture the spectrum of the humans and their endeavors. This site, with its singular focus on portraits, exceeds my ability to describe its contents.

I have been using the "refresh" feature which serves up a random mix of portraits each time. Maybe for a writing exercise I should write stories about the people I spy in the site?

Damn it, I hate it when I assign myself work....

-nn

my new best friend

There are two of them actually. The first of which led me to the second.

Let's talk about "Stumble Upon". SU installs a clever little tool bar into you browser (most majors are supported). You complete a little profile information and click on the "Stumble!" button and you are presented with a site that may or may not match your preferences. As you are presented with more sites you can narrow the focus of you profile by using the "I Like It!" button (indicated by a thumbs up). Alternatively, you can "vote down" a site by clicking the thumbs down button.
You can also elect to view nothing but sites of a particular category. Clicking the photo button then "stumble" will only present sites with photos on them. This has been the single best presenter of new internet sites I have found. Better then Digg, as the sites and stories appearing on the list are mostly things already in the view of mass media (with a few exceptions).

My newest love is most definitely WeFeelFine. A little heavy on the visuals (a downer for those with slow connections) WFF collects information culled from blogs based on the the words or descriptions following the phrase "I feel..." or "I am feeling...". WFF then sorts it all out into one of six interfaces that allows to further distilling of the text. I found the interface and the implications simply brilliant.

Give it a whirl.

-nn

bling. blang. blong.

Everything was just fine this morning. I was buzzing into work in the "fast" lane. There was a not-too-annoying song in my head and this post was forming up.
I settled into the morning routine, thinking I would outline the post. I logged on, pulled open the window and:

POOF!

Like it never happened.

Now I sit here feeling old and forgetful, frustrated beyond belief.

Sometimes I feel like I am living two completely separate lives and they are both strangers.

-nn

Writing about compassion

I have been trying to pen my thoughts on compassion. Unfortunately, I am without a singular thread. I think scattershot would be the appropriate word, if it is a word at all. Muddle-headed also jumps to mind.
I found this blurb that seems to some it up nicely:

"When you give a shilling to a beggar - do you realize that you are giving it to yourself? When you help a lame dog over a stile - do you realize that you yourself are being helped? When you kick a man when he is down - do you realize that you are kicking yourself? Give him another kick - if you deserve it!"
- Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei

-nn

There comes a time....

... in every young man's mind when all his thoughts turn to spring and all the promise of a young and budding future. Unfortunately for me, that time was a while back. Being on the cusp of 43 (gasp!) hardly makes me a candidate for anything considered youthful. Still, in my heart of hearts, I am a horribly confused mid-twenty guy searching for something.

The something takes on many forms: a reasonable balance of life and work, utter and uncontrollable joy (something we ALL should spend more time seeking out), and finally, a decaf coffee just as tasty as the real thing (I can dream, can't I?).

The search which led me to more youthful activities like working out. Little piece of advice for those still young enough to enjoy the latest pap served on MTV; learn a life of physical activity. Achieve this habit while you are young. It will serve you well.

You can thank me later.

I know you will.

-nn

As much meaning as you want

We have a friend staying with me for a few days. She is living up north and needed a place to stay while taking care of some local business. Her personal issues are so numerous and severe, it pains me to even list them. The toppers are: talking to the now sixteen year old son after a three year absence, philandering first husband, ex-con druggie alcoholic boyfriend that disappears every few days, recovering from a stroke, trying to establish social security benefits due to loss of trade (manicurist) from loss of sensation in right hand (dominant), untreated, bi-polar mother (with whom she lives up north).
So here is where my brain is at: I desperately want to help her out of this incredibly desperate situation. I believe everyone should be given the opportunity to mature and thrive. And quite frankly, I think she has hit the very bottom of where ever she is at. But I find myself questioning my motives. Am I lending aid out of the most generous portion of my heart or just to prop up my own flagging self-worth?

After a good night's sleep, things are much clearer now.

Intentions are invisible. The motives are only those I give them. If I were to casually mention these things to others with the intention of leading them into a conversation regarding what a great guy I am, then my motives are impure. This is simpler than I thought.

As everything turns out to be.

-nn