Well, it’s another new year … and a new decade.
What’s been notable about this year and decade for you?
There have been a number of significant things for me …
New Year — New Decade
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Category Archives: Life
Working Out
Those if you who follow me on Twitter will know that I’ve started going to the health club in a pretty regular basis now.
I try to work out at least 3 times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and once on the weekend (usually Sunday morning, while Ginny is at church).
So far I’ve been doing quite well and have stuck with it. I’ve seen noticeable improvement in my cardio health, and the last time I had my blood tested my glucose level was down markedly. Ginny has also commented on my general appearance. I’ve lost 10 pounds and my jeans are a bit looser.
My routine us to do 30 minutes on the elliptical machine in cardio mode (targeting 139), then 20-30 minutes of strength training in the other machines.
On my reading list: Arguments For Evolution
Here’s a few books that are getting added to my reading list. Hopefully they will be available at the library, but I think a few of them I’m going to plunk down some cash for.
I’m always amazed how many people, who are otherwise very intelligent, are willing to completely ignore hard facts and scientific evidence in favor of myth, superstition, and hearsay.
Thanks to Pharyngula for the list.
Continue reading
Convenience Checks Redux
In recent months the credit card companies (Chase & Discover, mostly) have ramped up their efforts to get me to use “Convenience Checks”. Almost every statement includes a batch of them.
I’ve never liked the fact that they send them … first, and foremost, because I never use them. Secondly, I consider them a serious security risk. If someone rifles through my mailbox (which has no security) and grabs my statement, they could easily cash the checks. Yes, I know I probably wouldn’t be liable for the amount … but it would be a major pain to figure out what was going on.
I finally got around to calling both Chase and Discover to request that my account be flagged so I never get Convenience Checks again.
In both cases, the customer service person I talked to understood my concerns … and updated my account appropriately. I was warned that there might be one ore two more mailings sent out, as the convenience checks are setup in advance … but I can deal with that.
Hmmm … now that I think about it a bit … that doesn’t really make sense … at least in the case of Discover … because the checks are attached to my statement, which is clearly custom printed on demand at the end of my billing cycle.
Oh well, as long as they don’t send me more than 1 or 2 more batches, I’ll be happy.
WBEZ Traffic made me laugh
I was listening to WBEZ this morning and the traffic report came on … The reporter indicated that a particular road was very icy, but the city was sending out a salt truck to “make it better”.
Immediately the Beatles song “Hey Jude” popped into my head with slightly altered lyrics …
“… take a salt truck … and make it better …”
OK, yeah, I am easily amused.
End of Vacation
Well, it’s been a fairly busy two weeks …
- Work on the floor is (more or less) progressing. I got the final rank of boards cut and installed. We still need to touch of the paint, install the base molding, quarter round, and carpet threshold.
- Tuesday we went to village hall and cast our votes for Obama in the early voting program. Just want to get it out of the way.
- Wednesday we headed down state to visit my niece Melissia … it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. We went for a walk in the Stephen Forbes state park and saw “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”. The state park was nice and pretty empty. About the time we left the park, it started raining. Perfect timing. Did a bit of shopping and then saw the moving (which was enjoyed by all in the theater … all 3 of us).
- Saturday both Ginny and I had checkups at the doctor … everything is in working order.
- Started an email exchange with a woman who wants me to GIVE her a domain I own … because she’s running a business with the name. When I indicated that I would sell it to her, she got all bent out of shape. I wasn’t asking multiple thousands of dollars for it … I only asked $600. Last email from her indicated she would probably sue me for trademark infringement (she doesn’t currently have a trademark on the name, but she did indicate that she filed for one). I’ll keep an eye on the name on the US Trademark Office’s website and, if it becomes registered to her, I’ll take down my placeholder site.
- Today I want to try and get the floor finished … at least the painting done and base molding & quarter round up. The threshold might take a bit of time.
And, tomorrow, it’s back to work.
Well, mostly back to work … I really didn’t leave. Like a glutton for punishment, I checked email periodically and had to address a few issues. Nothing major though. Hopefull, when I get back, the I18N project will be done and we can get on to real development again.
Adam Savage on Science Education and Creationism
I found this Popular Mechanics pod cast while stumbling around today. It features Adam Savage, of Mythbusters fame (one of my favorite TV shows), discussing science education and his annoyance with the whole Evolution vs. Creationism debate:
What I do see as a huge issue is a very anti-science vibe. Like I said, the newspapers talking about evolution versus creationism is very much an attack on science as a type of religion—believing that the scientific method is some type of religious belief. And it’s not!
That kind of attack absolutely is damaging science exploration across the whole country. I do think that’s a significant problem. And until we can get our head out of the sand and realize that science isn’t about truth—it’s why this debate about the “theory of evolution” bugs the hell out of me. What scientists mean by theory is very different than what people think.
People want science to give them these ultimate truths. When of course it’s never going to do that.
No scientist will ever even tell you that he’ll guarantee the sun will come up tomorrow because that’s not a scientific statement. He can say it’ll come up because the evidence supports it and he can say he’s 99.99999% sure that it’s going to come up, but something could always happen.
And that willingness to have your mind changed – which is basically what that is – that willingness to change, to see something different based on the evidence, that’s deeply scientific, and it’s deeply creative, and I don’t think enough people realize how creative science is as a field.
What can I say? I agree with Adam 100%.
It sucks to be sick
It really sucks to be suck … especially on a holiday.
Yesterday I stayed home from work because I wasn’t feeling good. At one point during the day I had a fever of 100.1.
Today I’m feeling better, but not 100%.
Originally, Ginny and I were planning on going to my folks house for the 4th of July, but I don’t want to risk getting anyone else sick.
So today I’m just going to relax and take it easy. Maybe try to get together with my folks on Sunday.
Higgins Road
For those of you who live and/or work in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, you probably have noticed how bad Higgins Road is between Golf and Route 53. The potholes are absolutely horrendous.
The potholes were created after this last winter … and there doesn’t appear to have been any effort to repair them yet.
I contacted someone at the village of Schaumburg, and was told me that Higgins Road is owned and maintained by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Highways.
I agree with your assessment of Higgins Road and can assure you that we have previously contacted them many times regarding this issue. I think that it will help for them to hear from as many people as possible, to get this road repaired.
My car has been in the shop at least twice now for suspension and alignment issues (recently getting a new set of tires) … I’m fairly confident that the condition of Higgins Road either caused, or contributed, to the damage.
I encourage everyone to contact IDOT and ask them to get the potholes repaired as soon as possible.
Update 5/30/08:
I sent email to my state senator, Michael Noland, and representative, Fred Crespo, asking that they look into the mater. No response yet. I was quite surprised when I found that the state does not seem to provide email services for state senators and representatives.
iPhone
We bit the bullet … we got iPhones. Our Verizon cell phone contract has been up for quite a while and they’ve been bugging us to re-up for a new two year contract … but I haven’t been super happy with the service and phones, so we started thinking about what other provider and phone’s would be a suitable substitute.
My co-worker Jerome has the iPhone and is very happy to show it off. Even on the first release I have to admit, it was pretty cool. The interface was nice, the features were nice, and the sound quality wasn’t bad at all.
The only things I really didn’t like at the get go was the fact that you were tied to AT&T and the battery wasn’t replaceable.
After mulling our alternatives, we decided to go for it. Both Ginny and I got the 8gb model. We were originally thinking about the 16gb model, but the Apple store didn’t have any in stock and we figured, since we only used a fraction of our 4gb iPods, it wasn’t that big a deal.
A few observations …
- It doesn’t like the fact that I use self signed certs on my mail server. I’ll probably have to bite the bullet and get a proper cert.
- I haven’t found any ability to select which folders I show in my IMAP mail account. Wish I could, as I really only care about a handful on an ongoing basis.
- One feature that’s missing, and was almost a deal breaker, was the lack of voice command dialing. On my old moto phone I could just tell it “Call James Rich Mobile” and it would call James Rich’s cell phone (in my address book). Nice for talking while driving.
- As one would expect from an Apple product, the user interface is slick. The screen is a bit over sensitive though. I suspect it’s just something to get used to.
- The pseudo GPS functionality is very cool … I really want to figure out how they do it, because it was able to figure out where was I better than my GPS can.
- Porting of both the phone numbers on my Verizon account was smooth and fast. It only took 30 minutes to complete. I’m going to verify that Verizon cancels my account just in case.
One annoyance, unrelated to the iPhone itself, was the fact that it seems kind of hard to find accessories at stores that don’t actually sell the iPhone. Woodfield mall, and the Apple store, were both very crowded … and both Ginny and I were in a hurry to escape (yeah, so we could play with the new toys) … so we skipped getting protective skins for the new phones. We stopped at Best Buy on the way home, but they only had 2 or 3 skins & cases for the iPhone. I’ll probably stop at Frys on my way home tomorrow to pick something up.
I’m kind of interested to see what the SDK is all about … I’ve got some ideas for apps that could be fun.