05.09.08
Posted in My Life at 10:43 am by Kelly
Porter Valley started a contest about 8 weeks ago called “The Spring Shape Up” - so I entered. Plan is to pick a target number of day to work out (I picked 3, but actually go in 6 times a week minimum) and a goal - either to lose weight or bodyfat %. I am of the opinion that everyone would be trying to lose bodyfat, buty whatever. I picked bodyfat, and measured at 19% for starters. Not bad considering I was 33.5% about 2 years ago.
My own goal was to lose 2% over that 8 weeks. 2% doesn’t sound like much, but it is when you are my age, and already working out pretty hard. So I ramped it up. More cardio, more intense, full body weightlifting.
Results: 2.5% bodyfat lost (down to 16.5%), 3 pounds GAINED on the scale from 215 to 218. What this means is that I lost about 8.5 pounds of fat, and gained 3 pounds of muscle. Not too bad. Next stop is 13% - where most people agree you can really start to see your abs. David and Josh are on track for the same.
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04.18.08
Posted in My Life at 9:40 am by Kelly
That’s right. Having gone from Ubuntu to Vista (because I need to test my killer construction management software in IE), I have decided it is time to truly upgrade for speed and stability.
Hello Windows XP!
That’s right. I’ll say it, and I’ll say it loud: VISTA SUCKS. It is a bloated, slow, buggy, unstable, over-complicated piece of CRAP that illustrates how bad a product can get when a company loses site of its mission.
My niece Kristin, who is doing some web design work for me, brough her Toshiba Satellite over last night to do some work, and I was ASTOUNDED at how slow it was running Vista. This is a dual-core machine with only 512MB of RAM, but still - how powerful is a machine supposed to be. I finally told her that she should put XP on it, and went ahead and spent last night doing it. The thing SCREAMS. Now there is the downside of the lost functionality by downgrading - features like…wait…no. Never mind. There is NO downside. Vista does not do ONE thing better than XP.
I still like Windows Server for many things (stiffs.com runs on it, for example), but none of my software is using it - it’s all CentOS 5. The beginning of the end for Microsoft? Perhaps.
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04.06.08
Posted in My Life at 7:40 pm by Kelly
This was awesome. Me and David playing golf at Porter Valley Country Club at NIGHT. Light up balls, glow sticks on the pins, glow sticks on the tees, and booze and food every few holes. Shot a 69 in a four-man scramble, which isn’t great - but not bad considering half the holes were in total darkness.
An absolute blast. Going to do that one every year.
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03.17.08
Posted in My Life at 10:44 pm by Kelly
Developed at UCLA - a lollipop that prevents tooth decay.
As Josh would say - crazier than a fish with titties.
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Posted in Family, My Life, Sydney at 10:23 pm by Kelly
For more years than I care to remember, I have been a drinking MACHINE on St. Pats. I worked at Brennan’s Pub for years running the turtle races, and as a result I would drink there - often from 6am until 2am the next day - every single year. This year I ended up with other, much better plans.
I helped my daughter with a school project. On the downside, I didn’t get to spend several hundred dollars, drive home drunk, and wake up with a hangover that would kill a small village. On the upside, Sydney is well prepared for her presentation tomorrow (she had to act out a commercial promoting the book “Ella Enchanted”), and I’ll be able to put in a full day on my awesome construction software tomorrow.
Good call, methinks.
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03.02.08
Posted in My Life at 11:37 pm by Kelly
Yes. I went to church today. Seems odd, given that I am indeed an atheist, and a studied one at that. But I also have a daughter, and my ex-wife likes to take her to her church. So I went. And here are my thoughts:
- Yes, there were good lessons to take away. The theme was “compassion”. But then again, what did we expect? That the theme would be “Stabbing is cool”?
- The sense of community is definitely there. But I’m not at all sure why it needs to revolve around a book and some magical guy.
- It does occur to me that there is no place in my life that I am sort of pushed to reflect on these important issues. An atheist gathering or “church” would do it - but I can’t find one in LA.
- I can see no downside at all to my daughter going, as it will give her an open mind about all things - no matter how absurd they seem, or how many people are involved.
So I’m obviously still an atheist.
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02.14.08
Posted in My Life at 11:23 pm by Kelly
Those are the 3 things in my life lately.
Cancun for the Liu festivities - insane fun. Sad to see them move to Hong Kong. Bartended every night. Lay on the beach all day. Gorgeous wedding. Ultra-fun reception.
Math test for Sydney. Know she will do well because she studied hard, insisting that I create difficult sample tests for her. She’s just the best thing ever. She gives me strength. I’d suggest everyone have one, but you may not get a smart, gorgeous, funny one. You CERTAINLY will not get one as good as mine.
Kicking ASS on software. Spending all my time trying to become a Linux/PHP/MySQL/Networking/Security expert. Sakha is just unreal - SO fast, SO solid, SO smart. Complete opposite of the NIMRODS I was trying to train before.
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01.31.08
Posted in My Life at 5:47 pm by Kelly
So with this recent neck/arm/shoulder/numbness excitement, I decided to go to a chiropractor and see if they might be able to help. Buddy of mine is one, is very intelligent, well studied, etc. Went to see him. He told me that it was a muscle spasm - definitely not a subluxation - and that we need to do an adjustment (back, neck, elbow), some shock treatment, and the apply moist heat - ABSOLUTELY NO ICE - to relax it and make it go away. Next day it was worse. He told me to come back. Performed the same procedures on me. Went home to heat. Worse the next day.
Decided I would try another chiropractor I knew. This guy is a bodybuilder, and seems to really understand how things work. He x-rayed my spine. Showed me things on the x-ray (might as well been an x-ray of a brontosaurus - no idea what I was looking at), - told me that it was a subluxation, not a muscle spasm. Did an adjustment (exactly the same as before - back, neck, elbow), and told me to go home and ice it - ABSOLUTELY NO HEAT. Guess what? Yep - worse the next day - in fact, now I was getting numbness in my arm.
II went to my regular doctor and told him the deal. Got me the MRI, turns out it is a bulging disc. Needs rest, possibly rehab. An answer. Thank you.
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01.29.08
Posted in My Life at 1:50 pm by Kelly
Had to get an MRI for my arm last night - had pain for 3.5 weeks now, and it’s just not getting better. All I think about is OW MY ARM HURTS, ARM, ARM, ARM, ARM, ARM. I tried to soak it in alcohol this weekend for Jon’s bachelor party, but that didn’t work. OK - it did for a while, but now it hurts again.
I’ve had MRIs before on my rotator cuff, so no big deal, right? Not right. The guy asks if I’m claustrophobic, and I say no. He says the last two were - it was a big mess. No problem here, I say. I’m a big brave boy.
Get in the thing, all is cool. Then is seems to get smaller. And harder to breathe. He asks if I’m OK. I say I don’t know. He takes me out. I relax a bit. Back in I go. Immediate panic. What the fuck? This has NEVER been the case before. I ask what we can do - he says “We can give you drugs.” Excellent answer. Fork them over, I say. He says no, you have to get a prescription from your doctor. Jeez. Call my doctor, who phones in a prescription for 2mg of Ativan to the pharmacy in the building. I go get my one pill (for $6, thank you very much), eat it down, and wait for it to take hold.
Needless to say, it worked great. They could have put me in a coffin and nailed it shut, and I wouldn’t have cared. Did the shoulder and the neck in about 40 minutes. We’ll see what the deal is. Then I’ll research getting over claustrophobia. With my luck it will be something you have to have implanted. Into your ARM.
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01.21.08
Posted in My Life, Work at 3:25 pm by Kelly
Man - so much learning lately. In no particular order:
- Photoshop - something I should have learned years ago, and now I know why I didn’t - it’s really complicated. All I really want to do is design some simple web elements, cut up pictures, etc. I am NO artist - which means that 98% of the functionality in there is lost on me.
- PHP - I knew enough to be dangerous, but now that the vast majority of my application is going to be written in it, I need to be an expert. Very cool, fast, easy.
- mySQL - again, I was good, but need to be an expert now. We’re going to move some things there, and I’m likely going to write all of our internal apps there as well.
- Linux - more servers over here running that on the back end, so again - expertise is required.
- ColdFusion - wrote in it years ago, but now needed to help my buddy Zach with his site.
- Corporate law - I know - this is what lawyers are for, but I’m trying to make the best decisions possible, and it is complicated as hell. Think it’s all worked out now.
- Firewalls - stupid script kiddies trying to hack my various sites. They’ll fail of course, but only because I keep a watchful eye. And hardware.
- Cardio - recent neck and arm pain has forced me to the über boring world of lots of cardio. The ONLy way I’m going to stay healthy is to find things to amuse me. Intervals are at least challenging, and you seem to need to do them for less time to get the desired effects. Seems to me that nothing really beats moving heavy weights around.
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