Calorie Burn

I had a long weekend in Florida when I came back from home in PA and I had very little I needed to get finished. Most of my projects had been completed or shelved neatly for a nebulous later, so I decided I would take the time to try out a few different activities. I went jump roping, jogging, biking, heavy Aikido session, and tennis. Between those four activities, spread out over four days, I managed to burn approximately 7000 calories just in exersize. The chart I use is at shapefit.com - the largest list I've seen and very similar to other estimates for burning calories that I've seen.

Try picking an exercise you think you would/want to do and find out how long it would take to burn 7K calories. You might be surprised!

I have a few goals in mind for this exercising, and they are listed in order of current imporance.

• Snorkeling - A healthy heart and aerobic system can increase the amount of time a person can hold his breath.
• Better shape for outdoor activities
• I plan on biking to Orlando in a month or two to try out Couch Surfing before I depend on it in other countries.
• When I go hiking (hopefully for a long period; that would be fun) I want to be in shape before I go hiking - not afterwards.
• Lose weight - an obvious advantage with exercise
• Get really good at jump roping. I have a long way to go - I've jump roped for over 7 hours total since I bought my jump rope and I just now figured out how to cross my rope when jumping.
  
• Look incredibly handsome... but there isn't much more to improve so I put this goal low on the list. :-)

Back Again!

This long hiatus was due to my being on vacation, and having no incentive to spend time blogging when I could spend time doing other useful help around the house. The craft show I went home for was a good one. We sold out of our really good sellers in the first day, and the next day people kept coming back to pick up the "pole we saw yesterday"! If you are going to buy a pole, why don't you buy it the day you see it? Some ladies had a good excuse... they changed their mind, but other ladies decided to wait a day. Hmmm. I bet that saves a lot on spur-of-the-moment buying. Maybe they are onto something.

While visiting home ( at my parents house, not the craft show ), I managed to get a lot of weed-eating accomplished. Weed-eating isn't too tough, but it takes time, and it is hard on the back, so my mom and dad save the job for us "young and spry" children to do. :-) On the last day I was there, I got about half way done with a bank but had to clean up before the job was finished; so Dad takes the weed-eater and says he'll finish the job. In the time it took to take a quick bath and get dressed, MY dad had already finished the rest of the job. It was a section of the bank I wasn't looking forward to because of the steepness and the amount of long grass on that particular side of the bank that gets tangled up in the weed-eater - yet my dad did it in under 20 minutes! Just before I entered the shower, I looked out a window to see how the weed-eating was going, and I saw, halfway up this 15 foot tall bank, Dad with his right leg outstretched for grip, his left knee digging into the ground (it is a very steep bank... 80 degree slope I would guess) whacking away... quite the feat for those who know how difficult it is. :-) Go dad!

But what about my mom you say? We had a very nice visit... there isn't much better I can say that would portray the joy of visiting. I caught up on all the news happening in the family, and my mom got a list of plans and ideas for the future from me. 20 minute phone calls don't cover all the fun nitty gritty issues that families have to deal with, but long drives and working together gives enough time for a wonderful visit. I would come back and do a "working vacation" in a moment. I would say more of what we discussed and did, but once I start, I would couldn't stop for 2o or 30 pages. :-) Lots of fun stuff, maybe to come.

Margaret is doing well it seems. I think all that lifting and stacking she does so wholeheartedly is ruining our wrestling sessions. I try to demonstrate a simple Aikido move for her, and what does she do! She refuses to cooperate! If I try to twist her hand, she is supposed to lose her grip and fall down. What happens? I tried to twist, and Margaret's hand didn't budge. There I am, in a chokelock, trying to show how effective Aikido is, and it fails miserably, and I just keep gasping for air and pulling while Margaret just keeps holding my neck. :-) Oh well, we had a good wrestling session. Maybe when I see Jesse next, I can get him to cooperate. :-)

I didn't get to visit with Katie and Ryan as long as I did the others. Mom, Dad, and Margaret I see at home while working, but I only got to see the other three members of the family after getting off the plane and before heading home again. It wasn't nearly long enough. I'm hoping Thanksgiving or Christmas will have a better visit. Christina is as lovely as aways and walking short distances which was very exciting. She wasn't quite sure if she was willing to trust this stranger (me) to hold her though. I'll just have to visit more often! Ryan's foot is still holding up his job, and the doctor won't release him to go back. I think he is seeing the specialist again today to get the go-ahead for working.


The last thing I wanted to mention today was the friends I saw and some plans that are solidifying as something I definitely want to do. I managed to visit some with Ben, Dan, Mark, Stacy, and another Mark. Ben came down for a whole day, and we spend most of the day lounging about, waiting for people to get off work. Ben also offered to room with me if I moved to Ohio. A very tempting offer. Very tempting. As for plans - after work I want to spend a month/a few months/a year traveling. I've very recently started heavy duty exercising to get into shape for hiking/walking/biking and checking out programs that let you stay nights at houses across the world. I'll get more into that tomorrow. No time for spell checking. It's off to bed!

Less than a week to go

I'm going to be seeing most of my family in just under a week. I found out that my boss won't be coming in to work until the day after I get back... so... there was only one conclusion I could reach: I just changed my ticket to stay an extra day at home. Home sweet home.

Yo-Yo

Just a fun post for yo-yos. He is the current world freestyle champion and this is his performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXFTdBqi7jg&mode=related&search=

Snorkelling Pictures

I finally managed to bring my camera to a snorkeling dive. Unfortunately, the first 3 or 4 pictures I took at the springs didn't print. Not all is lost, because the spring was extremely cloudy, even when I first got there - at that point only three scuba divers and I were in the pool. I don't know why it was so bad, but after seeing how the more or less well lit pictures turned out, I'm sure the pictures I took while 40 feet down were almost solid black. Next time, when I'm pretty deep where it is clearer, I'll use the flash and see how that works. Even when the sun was shining directly overhead, I could only see two or three feet farther down at sixty. Oh well.

Here are four of the better pictures I got of the fish as I swam along. Keep in mind that there were only a foot in front of the camera, and I still got the aim off. Live and learn. I saw some bigger fish this time, but I couldn't get withing 2 feet of them.


And here are four obligatory pictures of ME! I didn't want to waste the filem, so I took a few pictures of me, the equipment, the car, a parking lot.

Plans Plans Plans

Not much of one. I'm planning to go snorkeling tomorrow again. This time I will be taking my underwater camera, so hopefully I'll be able to share the view from sixty feet down... hopefully I can go lower though now that I feel a bit more comfortable diving. Going that deep also depends on the scuba divers around. So far I don't cut things close enough to be too concerned about problems, but as my mom says, "Accidents happen." If there are scuba divers around that would notice me passed out and sinking, it gives a person an extra bit of confidence for dangerous and insane stunts!

In other personal news: jump roping is fun! Especially now that I've gotten used to it and have the skill to do more than ten at a time (go ahead and laugh. You try it!). At a very slow rate, I've been able to jump rope more than 20 minutes at a time. I was going to opt for running, but apparently jump roping isn't as hard on the joints as running. That makes a certain amount of sense I guess... jump rope jumping may be constant ups and downs, but it is always on the balls of my feet. While running, I'm landing on my heal at every step.

Training-wise, I am being a little more careful about the 'how' of my training. I started looking into exercise routines to improve my heart health, but mostly just news on what I can do to lower my heart rate (for longer snorkel dives!) I put my current resting heart rate is 54. Oddly enough, I only get that rate while working. While sitting in my room, upstairs, outside, or in the car, my resting hear rate is 60. It's like clockwork. I can do push-ups and curls in the morning, take a shower, go to work and sit in my chair, wait ten minutes, and I only count 54. Just before I go to lunch? Still 54. Walk upstairs, sit a half hour and read, and my heart rate is at 60. It just doesn't make sense.

Someone is Happy!

1st Timothy

There is a lot of information and insight available in the tiniest pieces of the Bible. While I was jumping rope today, I was trying to memorize a verse of 1st Timothy. Since I'm just starting, I am still on verses one and two. In those two verses are an incredible amount of information, and I wanted to share my thoughts on those two verses.

vs 1. Paul. The first thing he says is that he is an apostle by command. It wasn't his choice, he was going his own way, when boom! Jesus Christ stepped in and blinded him and told him what he wanted done. I find that reassuring. In all of our weakness and failures and sin, God can still step in and redeem us and put us back on the right path.

vs 2. Paul says an odd thing to Timothy, and it's something that I'm going to look into further tomorrow: "grace, mercy, and peace." What didn't occur to me until about minute 30 of jumping (at that point, the brain starts loosing focus and going onto tangents) was Paul's repetition. I always considered grace and mercy to be identical. If someone is merciful, he is showing grace. Likewise if someone is showing grace, he is being merciful. I can't see the difference between the two concepts - yet Paul, in wishing three good things upon Timothy repeats himself with "grace" and "mercy". Such basic concepts, and yet my understanding about the simplest?/greatest of God's gifts is lacking.

vs 1 and 2: In order, Paul refers to God as God our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Hope, God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. In those four phrases is a great layout of who God is. For Christians, He is a savior, a hope and our lord - but he is everyone's father. Everything and everyone around us had our source in God. Those that follow Him have even more though: they can count look to god as a savior, a hope, and a lord. I find that a very comforting thought.

Parents and Philosophy

My parents are at a craft show right now, unloading, unwrapping, painting, organizing, and tarping their work, just to name a few of the things they need to do before Saturday comes around. I think this is the first year that Mom and Dad have done all the setup by themselves. They've usually had me or one of the other kids to help out with the work. I hope everything goes well for them - four days of setup may sound like a lot, but the time flies while setting up.

I'm readying a book right now "Voyage From Yesteryear". It's a pretty good book portraying how the author sees a near-perfect human world operating. There are problems that come in from the outside, but by the end of the book, you see that the "Chironians" (residents of the planet Chiron) had everything well in had, and there wasn't even much worry about the final outcome from the Chironian side. I would like to quote from the book, a line I think is pretty accurate describing man and his capabilities.

I said the mind was an infinite resource, but only if you don't squander it. Don't you think that makes an interesting paradox?

My lunch break is almost over, so I need to get prepared for work again. I hope everyone has a good weekend. I'm planning to go snorkelling again this Saturday. Remember I said I had some friends down here, just not my own age? Well, it looks like there is an outside possibility one of those friends would go snorkeling next weekend/July 4th - around that time. Time will tell. Now I must go exercise my brain cell through work.

The Unplanned Life

I've been down in Florida for five months (almost). I can't say that is has been anything special, but there are a few things that I've learned/grown used to.

• I've gotten used to washing my own clothes on a regular basis. I don't go home weekends any more, so I can't give my mom the joy of doing something for her kids. :-)
• Sandals have become a new love in my life. I had to wear them after I had my surgery, and I found I really like wearing sandals. Getting used to the sandals was a three day process, but after breaking them in, I wear sandals all the time now.
• Excess weight keeps stalking my every move. If only I could give up Taco Johns. It is still a work in progress.
• Gave up cable TV. TV just sucks up all the free time in an evening, and I enjoy working on my hobbies far more than sitting in front of a TV - so I gave TV up. I still watch movies though.
  
• Web sites are tougher than I thought. I tried designing one for my sister, but I just couldn't keep slogging through it. I tried designing one for myself - that didn't even get off the ground. I assumed it would be like programming, but I can't keep up website design like I do programming. Maybe I just need to get better at HTML and CSS.
• Programming is enjoyable. I've found that I really do enjoy the challenge of programming. I especially enjoy moving from topic to programming topic - I don't master any of them, but I do learn enough to be satisfied before I move on. Example: My IO language kick earlier moved into some OpenGL push which is moving into a vector graphics format interest (all done within the framework of the cool IO language). Why are there no general purpose vector graphic formats available?
• I found that I enjoyed scuba diving and snorkelling. I'm planning to go snorkelling again this weekend if anyone wants to join me.
• Without constant extemp pressure, I don't keep up on current events nearly as well as I should.
• It is definitely lonely without someone to accompany me on weekends or evenings. I have made a few friends, but none my age with my interests, so the friendships are more a "I'll say hi and ask what's going on, then leave". After mulling it over this weekend, I'm going to go swing dancing to meet people my age. At least conversation won't center around what work is like... and hopefully conversation won't center around sports either.
  

Snorkeling or Snorkelling

I went snorkeling ( spelling can also be snorkelling ) at Blue Springs this weekend and found it to be a blast! When I was doing my training dives, I did some snorkelling then, but with the wetsuit, I could barely go 15 feet. Without the wetsuit, it was quite easy to dive down deep. In fact, I go lower than I did scuba diving. 60 feet down to be exact. Getting down that far though didn't give any time to look around though, so usually I tried to hang out about 50 feet. There were some rock ledges that I could hold onto so I didn't start floating up. There really isn't much to see at that depth other than the rock formations the spring carves.

If I ever go snorkeling with a scuba diving buddy, I want to try a cave that is thirty feet down. I don't know how long it is, but it took the scuba instructors about 3o seconds to do it with scuba equipment. At only thirty feet down, I figure a 30 second jaunt through the cave is definitely doable, but I would want someone to be able to rescue me if I didn't come out!

For those of you who thing snorkeling might be fun - some warnings.

1. Don't hyperventilate to hold your breath longer and stay under. Hyperventilating fools your body into thinking there is more oxygen than there really is. When you reach the point that 11 percent of the air in your lungs is oxygen, your body realizes that it got out of sync with your brain, so it knocks you out so you don't keep trying to do crazy stuff like hold your breath too long: unfortunately for you, you're underwater at that point, and the body's technique fails. This usually happens about 15 feet, because divers tend to cut the dive close, and 15 feet is where your brain and body happen to catch up.
2. Don't accept air from a scuba diver. The air at 60 feet down is under 3 atmospheres. If you hold your breath at all coming up, your lung can be damaged from expanding air. While scuba diving, we're told not to hold our air at all, because even while we're floating, waves on the surface can be changing our effective pressure. Even 4 foot differences is enough for small damage. It takes years for that much to be a problem, but snorkelers can cover 15 coming up within a second. (The rate you rise continues to increase as you float towards the surface)
3. For the same reason as number two, don't use air pockets you find underwater. The cave I want to dive through has an air pocket. If desperate, I would use it, but then again, I already know what to do if I'm rising to the surface with compressed air in my lungs (blow small bubbles out constantly.) This year, a kid had a problem because he used that air pocket at blue springs and didn't know what scuba divers know.

There are some advantages that you get while snorkeling, that you don't get above the surface. When you put your face under the surface, a few survival features your body has kicks into gear

1. Bradycardia - a 20 percent drop in heart rate occurs while under water - nice!
2. Vasoconstriction - your blood vessels start supplying the vital parts of your body by constricting the vessels in your arms and legs. If you're in and emergency and in cold water a long time, this can save your life (at the cost of your appendiges possibly.) While snorkeling, it just means your oxygen consumption drops.
3. Splenic contraction - One function of your spleen is to hold oxygenated red blood cells in reserve until needed. Diving underwater triggers this mechanism and boom! You have even more oxygen saturated blood cells than you did before! Apparently in seals, the spleen has been seen to contract to 16% of it's original size. I have no idea how much contraction occurs in humans
4. Blood shift - occurs because of the pressure drop. blood plasma fills up the vessels in the lungs to reduce volume. This keeps your lungs from collapsing in on itself at depths greater than 30 feet. Doesn't help you stay under longer, but it does mean you can have a fun experience if you go beneath 30 feet!
   

That is all folks! Hope it was an informative lesson on snorkeling. If you have any questions, just ask in comments. I'm sure Wikipedia also has something very informative and better arranged than my lists.

Fun fact: Umberto Peliazari's heart rate drops to 8 beats a minute while diving.

IO Language - Open GL

I've been experimenting with the OpenGL addon for IO and my result is below.
There is no actual code behind this to enter text or anything. This was just a test program to see if I could get IO's implementation of OpenGL running. I don't know the problem was before, but the last version of IO I had was a bit buggy when importing addons. Last week I downloaded a new version, and everything in OpenGL was working wonderfully.








Here is my IO code for those who are interested.

Planned Parenthood Problems

I've never been a fan of Planned Parenthood. Their whole philosophy is against what I believe as a Christian. Their "birth control" options include emergency contraceptives and abortion, both of which happen after conception. They go so far as to say that "Today, abortion is legal nationwide and is one of the safest of all available medical procedures.

This is hardly a newly acquired dislike of Planned Parenthood, but yesterday I came across some more information on Planned Parenthood that was chilling - the operators on the phone were willingly ignoring rape and doing all they could not to know about it and telling the person on the phone to not tell anyone about it. This wasn't just one or two instances; apparently over 800 operators country wide were found to ignore statutory rape AFTER they knew about it (and told the reporter how to not get their boyfriend in trouble) . The setup was a 13 year old girl getting pregnant with a 22 year old boyfriend.

Widespread corruption and dismissal of laws by Planned Parenthood. Never a good situation, especially in an organization dealing with human life.

Hate Crimes

I've been following/catching up on news lately and there were a few issues that I thought I would share with readers.

The first issue is that of hate crimes. I've always had a strong dislike for hate crime laws because of the principle involved: the government mandates different punishments based solely on what you are thinking. I don't have a problem with differing punishments for the same crime... maybe I should elucidate a few of my philosophies and beliefs first.

beliefs:
1) Sin deserves punishment.
2) Mercy is quality man can show

Personal idea (as far as I can tell it is based on the Bible)
1) The mortal punishment for sin is based on actual action.
2) The punishment for an action may be based on the belief
behind an action, but we're only given physical actions to
judge.
3) Government has never been shown or told to be merciful
4) Man should be merciful (and wise, don't forget that part)

Conclusion ( short at this point, since I spent so long on the first part ):
1) Government should mandate punishment based only on physical action
2) Government can mandate a range of punishment so that the implementors of the law (men such as judges and juries) are able to show mercy.
3) Governments role is not to differentiate punishment for the same actions through the thought, which is the definition of what hate crime laws do.

A general overview of the issue
Overview according to HSLDA
The text of the law at issue - HR 1592 RFS
The definition of a hate crime the above law uses - H.R. 3355

Whew - OK. its getting late now, I'll post the next issue tomorrow. Let me know if I made some huge flubs or if my conclusions or basis don't flow together well

Family Visit Plans

Another big program done for my boss. It still needs to be tested, but I managed to finish it in four days - and that includes a new feature my boss wanted added - user defined pictures displayed on the dialogs. That took a full day. The good thing about it is that features that I would have said were impossible without a big program are now able to be found and implemented by me! Six months back, I had tried the same project of adding pictures and spent three or four days on it before my boss told me to move onto something more productive. Six months later? One day to find, implement, and test!

I know most of you aren't interested in my slowly advancing programming skills, so I'll move onto something a bit more family oriented.... MY SISTER IS COMING DOWN!!!! She is planning to visit sometime in August, and M seems set to come down. It's going to be cool! I guess she just can't get enough teasing from mom and dad - it's up to the master to properly tease and poke her! (Maybe not poke... she's can catch up to me and poke me back. Must be all that lifting at work... or I'm out of shape? Or both! )

I just hope that she has enough fun and see enough sites and enjoys my sophisticated and calm company enough that she is glad she came down. It's a bit nerve racking thinking that she would come all this way to visit and not have fun. :-(

But! Margaret is Margaret and she will do what she wants, and I hope you have fun! I'll see you in August!

And as official notice - Blue Springs this weekend. I am going to try snorkeling, and if my sister likes it enough, maybe she'll want to try it at a spring or the ocean.


A picture of me preparing to scuba dive, I wasn't quite ready for a picture, or I would have shown off my sculpted body a bit better. ;0)

Zoom

I watched "Zoom: Academy for Superheroes" tonight, and I have to say, I'm putting it up there just above "Shark Boy and Lava Girl." In case of mistake, I did want to mention that "Shark Boy..." was high on my enjoyment radar. What I found impressive about "Zoom" was the fact that the producers didn't skimp on special effects when needed. I don't remember seeing any wimpy special effects during the whole thing.

And for a final update on the car... perfect! It has been a full week since I repaired the brakes and wheel cylinder and I don't see any leaks at this point. Whoo hoo!

Workwise, I've spent about sixteen hours working on a big inventory program, and I'll guess another few days before finishing. For a big master program, a week. That portends good things for smaller programs!

Car Repair - Part Two

'Tis done! I had to disassemble the brakes a few more times during the test phase of the tires - but I think I fixed all of my brake fluid leaks. It is extremely nice to be able to pull up to a stop light and push on the breaks and not have to keep pushing the brakes over and over to push more break fluid into the lines. It does make me pay a lot more attention to the small sounds the car makes... "Is that small knocking sound every time the wheel goes around from changes I've made these last two days or was it there before and I never noticed it?"

I have a new life's ambition - daredevil gymnastics

When I saw the Chinese gymnastics at the boat races a month or two back, I saw some of the kids practicing, and they did some moves just as neat as these, but nothing quite as risky. My favorite move I saw a few months back was seeing the boy lay on the ground on his back with his elbows on the ground and his hands up, and the girl do a hand stand on his hands. At this point, the boy would roll over and over, keeping the girl on his hands. At this point, I can't remember exactly how he managed to do that while on his stomach? I don't even have a video of it. I'll bring a camera next year though!

Car Repair - Part One

Today I took the first big steps of becomeing self-sufficient: I tried to repair my car. Specifically, my back brakes were leaking, so I'm replacing the back wheel cylinders and brake pads. Starting about eleven, and going until 7:30, I managed to do one back wheel. In the process, I stripped screw and broke a break line. The last two, I'm not going to count against my car repair ability, since my overseer was 99% certain the last car repair place I took my car to did it to make it harder for me ( long story, maybe I'll elucidate one day ).

lessons learned from this experience?
1) Estimations on time are always short
2) You can't repair a car and keep your hands clean
3) Even the cleaning materials get your hands dirty
4) Thank my boss over and over for having me get a car repair manual first
5) A car repair manual for a complicated job like this is VERY useful
6) Not having all the tools makes car repair extremely hard
7) I now know how my back braking system works
8) I have a car repair manual for other fixes ( such as air conditioning fan )
9) I still have a long way to go tomorrow for the other side's repair
10) I feel confident that I could repair something if I needed to do so

Debit, Credits, and Calculator Troubles

The debits and credits aren't so much trouble, but setting up the file access protocol for my program is a bear. I think a solid day would be a big step forward - unfortunately I don't have day.

For work, I've spend the last 12 hours programming a calculator. It's a lot harder than it looks. Most of the time was just trying to figure out how things were supposed to work together. Simple you say? Only a calculator you say? Let me share but one of the problems I had. I STARTED with a simple order of operation, on 3 separate calculators, along with their results. I posted my final version at the bottom.

# - is any number you enter - I tend to use nine because it is the easiest for me to reach.
() - between the parenthesis is the result of the buttons pressed. Try it out on your calculator. See what format you get into. My second boss was also following along on a second calculator and had a different format than listed, but I didn't bother to catalog it, since my boss had already decided on a general format by then.

Casio Calculator
#= (#)
#/= (1/#)
#*= (#*#)
#+= (#)
#-= (#-#)

Window Calculator
#= (#)
#/= (#/#)
#*= (#*#)
#+= (#+#)
#-= (#-#)

Adv Calculator - our old software's calculator
#= (0)
#/= (#/0)(Divide by zero error)
#*= (#*0)
#+= (#+0)
#-= (#-0)

The calculator format my boss chose and I programmed
#= (#)
#/= (#)
#*= (#)
#+= (#)
#-= (#)

Such simple operations vary so much. The more involved such as a double equals, square root, percentage, varied drastically. The "%" especially was loco - though the button looked the same on different calculators, they didn't even do close to the same operations.

Keeping is Lazy

I'm staying lazy involuntarily. I had a hang nail and went to a podiatrist to get it removed, thus I now have to stay away from strenuous activities that involve toes. Fortunately, by carefully ignoring doctor's orders, I managed to bike six miles yesterday... and walked three today. I did make one small concession to the doctor and wore sandles for both activities. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my trip to blue springs this weekend and skip pain class. This coming weekend, I really want to go to SeaWorld, so I'm going to move my trip to Blue Springs back two weeks. I can't wait to try out my underwater camera in clear water - my earlier pictures were too dark.

In other exciting news: I now know the difference between a credit and a debit without a doubt. Very useful - especially since my job is programming accounting software!