This year a couple of interesting things happened while filing my taxes.
Just thought I’d share.
Ok, so back in May I joined the Y and began to work out (for the first time in awhile). It’s also the first time I took working out really seriously, for real.
My plan was to try to build upper-body strength first, then, when I reached a goal or two, to switch gears and focus on cardio health and stamina. Because I was really serious for real this time, I actually studied what to do, made a plan, and set realistic goals. One thing I discovered, that pretty much everyone agrees on, is that to build muscle, you have to gain weight. Therefore, on days that I worked out, I would splurge at the only buffet in the Westside, or eat 40 chicken wings during happy hour at Hooters.
This worked quite well. I reached my first strength goal (to bench press 200 pounds), added three inches to my arms, and overall am much stronger, in about six months, while not being all that consistent. The only problem is, I put on 30 or so pounds in the process.
So now it’s time to lose it. I’m shifting the workouts to more aerobic exercises, of course, but it’s also time to diet. I’ve never been on an official diet before, although I have implemented temporary eating rules here and there. But this time I am counting calories, with the help of a nice cell-phone app.
I have utterly no hope that I’ll be able to stick to counting calories for very long. However, if I stick to counting calories for at least a few weeks or months, I’ll get a good feel for how many calories foods really have (which I don’t have now), and will make wiser decisions from then on.
Here are the rules I have in place for at least a couple months:
Finally, I get a cheat card for Christmas day.
Update: December 26, 2011
Well, it’s the day after Christmas and I am still counting calories faithfully. Am getting a feel for how expensive calorie-wise foods are. Pickles are nearly free, who knew? I had a glorious Christmas Day where I ate a couple small chocolate bars and some cookies, and 3500 total calories. Now back to 2000 a day max for a couple months.
Rule #2, no sides, didn’t last long. I found out that I had a lot of trouble eating enough calories if I didn’t order an additional side, especially when I eat late in the day.
I guess I should mention that I’m noticeably thinner in the waist. I haven’t (and won’t) weigh myself, though.
If the Story of Creation were not the first chapter of the Bible, then there would be no creationism. But, there would be whatever-is-the-first-chapter-of-the-Bible-ism.
LINGUISTICS COMMUNITY: We iz sad because we have no comprehensive theory of langauge.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Hai guys, I have this really cool theory that explains 90% of language structure using simple rules.
LINGUISTICS COMMUNITY: Wow that iz really cool, you are our new God. [Spends next 50 years turning Chomsky’s simple system into a complex, intricate system to account for other 10% of cases]
NOAM CHOMSKY: My work here iz finished. Now I will rage against successful human establishments and support dictators.
During my late teenage years, one of the most annoying and soul-crushing things I had to experience was the CDs my family would play in the cars. It wasn’t that the music was bad, quite the contrary. It was that generally they would leave in the same CD and play it over and over and over again.
There was a short period of time where we ended up going on several relatively long road trips. The CD during all of these road trips was a single Moody Blues album. For maybe 1500 miles total over several trips, nothing but Moody Blues. So now, every time I hear a Moody Blues song, it brings me back to those long monotonous road trips, where I was trapped in a car with no choice but to listen to the Moody Blues non-stop over and over again.
Here’s what sucks about that: the Moody Blues are good. I can tell they are. But I can never enjoy the music, because the sound of it brings me back to those neverending road trips.
So, the moral of the story is, change your goddamn CD every once in a while.
Ever since I started working out (again) I’ve been noticing a lot of workout foods like Power Bars and their kin that I never really noticed before [1].
Power Bars are supposed to be a convenient, and non-perishable, source of protein that one can eat to get a quick protein boost in the system [2]. But there are problems with these bars. First, they’re expensive: a bar with 30 grams of protein might cost three dollars. Second, they taste like crap and usually have to contain quite a bit of sugar just to make them palatable. Finally, they’re just not natural.
I was wondering if there could be a cheaper, healthier, more natural, but just as convenient protein source to use in place of Power Bars. And, after considering it for a while, I realized that there is.
I present to you: Sardines.
Sardines retain most of the benefits of power bars, improve on the problems with power bars, and have their own benefits as well. They’re cheap (a tin of sardines will cost a dollar or less). They’re tasty (just be sure to get them in mustard or some kind of sauce; they’re messy in oil and a litte too bland in water [3]). They’re natural. They’re high in omega-3 fatty acids. A tin of sardines contains 20-25 grams of protein. They’re non-perishable and almost as convenient (obtaining a fork might be a problem in some situations). In other words, sardines are healthy, tasty, cheap muscle food. So next time you’re tempted by a Power Bar, consider sardines instead.
Another possibility you may have thought of is good old tuna. It’s just as convenient and higher in protein than sardines, but I’d recommend eating tuna less often. Tuna has a few drawbacks. First, it’s high in mercury. Sardines are (much) lower on the food chain and so don’t contain as much mercury. I doubt a healthy, non-child-bearing person would get mercury poisoning from a few tins of tuna a week, but it’s still best to eat it in moderation. Second, the canning process for tuna destroys much of the omega-3 fatty acid. High-end canned tuna, and tuna in plastic sleeves might retain those fatty acids, but they’re also more expensive.
Footnotes:
[1] It’s amazing how when you start something, you notice things you never noticed before. For instance, after I read ”Pride and Prejudice” I started noticing all the “sequels” to the story in bookstores, even though I knew the basic story and characters before I read it. Apparently my brain was benevolently sparing me from a sense of vicarious embarrassment on behalf of these authors, but after I read the novel it couldn’t save me any longer.
[2] The theory of muscle building is basically that you need to saturate your metabolic pathways with protein, so that when your body is repairing from a workout, it ends up building more muscle than it otherwise would have by sheer partial pressure. So it’s important to get a lot of protein.
[3] If you want some really good sardines, try fresh or frozen (but not refrozen) sardines. Sardines are great in the can, even if a tad bland, but you’d never guess that they’re some of tastiest fish when grilled or pan-fried.
On Friday, for the first time, I participated in jury service. It was a strange experience. Here is my rambling commentary on it.
In California, when you get a jury summons you have to call in every day for a certain week to see if you have to serve that day. My service was not requested on Monday through Thursday, but on Friday they called me in. (This was irritating because I had off work on Friday.)
I seriously considered not showing up and letting them reschedule me, so I could get a day off work next time I was called. But in the end I decided to go and get it over with. Also, I figured that it was possible I’d be selected for a trial and I’d get to miss some days the following week. (Things are slow-going at work right now; it’d be a good time to serve.)
The courthouse was located in Compton. Yes, the same Compton that has a reputation for being a gang-infested ghetto. I was a little nervous to drive there, and I was surprised that it was quite a nice looking city from the ground (even by LA standards), and there wasn’t even much tagging. (Except for the courthouse itself; even though all the graffiti was painted over when I went, you could see that it had been heavily tagged. That’s probably because it’s a prime target for rebellious youths.)
The Compton Courthouse, surprisingly, had a reputation for being the best place in LA to serve as a juror, since the waiting room is large, clean, and comfortable, and I’d have to agree. I got there and got some work done on my laptop, before being called up to my first jury selection.
Then the strangest thing of all happened: the judge straightaway sent us home, telling us to come back on Monday. This was actually quite a good thing for three reasons. First, we got to go home at 10:30. Second, we don’t have to participate in any other jury selections; if we aren’t selected for this trial we are done. Finally, even if we are selected, it’s going to be a relatively short trial.
And, no matter what happens, I will get at least one day off work.
After being sent away, I took advantage of the location to stop by the Ikea that was in nearby Carson, and got a bunch of needed housewares. So all in all, I’d have to say my first jury experience was pretty good.
Update, July 29:
The trial is over, finally.
I was selected as the alternate juror. The trial only took four days, as the judge said, but it could have been three if the jury didn’t need extra time to deliberate, before the judge declared a hung jury. Driving or taking the train from Santa Monica to Compton every morning (20 miles) got on my nerves: and that was a trip with almost no traffic. People in LA who do that every working day (let alone those who do it in traffic) are nuts.
I won’t share my opinion on the case (apart from agreement that it was close and I can totally understand the hung jury) but it was an interesting trial in that one of the jurors had a son who was a reserve in the NFL, one of the witnesses was a retired NBA player, and incident happened in the soccer stadium.
Recently built a new desktop. Take a look:
Features:
My previous desktop was a bargain HP Compaq (a gift from my family, I would never have bought a Compaq for myself) which performed all right but was made of low-quality parts. The thing finally died a few weeks ago, so I went out and put together this computer out of high quality parts for about $750, and without being forced to buy Windows.
The best part is probably the case. I have never had a computer before where I had so much room to wire stuff around. The second best is the SSD; I have all my programs installed there and the system is flying. It runs Ubuntu 64-bit Server. (Not that I’m running it as a server; I installed the regular desktop kernel and I can use Ubuntu’s superior repositories, but I’m not forced to run GNOME or KDE, or, most thankfully, PulseAudio.)
I am very happy.
As for the old desktop, I threw in an inexpensive, low-end (but again higher quality) motherboard and CPU, and it’s working well again and ready to begin its life as my DVR.
Back Row: Chris Draxinger (cut off), Jeff Cappa, Jeremy Dudczak, Andy Flaherty, Justin Graham, Charles Bellisario, Jason Cappa, Bob Meyers, Sam Geppert, Rick Golem, Carl Banks
Third Row: Daryl Derringer, Justin Pappa, Steve Dapra, Matt Fromm, Chip Mitchell, Zak Zrimzek, Fran Scuillo, Mark Bonaroti, Orlando Bellisario, D. J. Stinelli, Mike Harrity
Second Row: T. J. Skillen, Ron Zanello, Jim Wilson, Ryan Dugan, Ben Erdeljac, Randy Gilbert, Rich Walsh, Jason Anderson, Theo Facaros Front Row: Dan Morgan, Justin Dudczak, Mike Davis, Jason Orbin, Randy Pleasant, Fritz Tamburro, Mike Catullo, Calio Ciora
This is my page dedicated to the 1994 Riverview Raider Football Team. I played on this team my senior year, although my position was “kickoff-team specialist”. We had a great year, winning the Eastern A Conference, finishing the season undefeated, and making it to the WPIAL Championship Game in Three Rivers Stadium. And we did it against a hellish schedule.
| Riverview | 13 | at | Monaca | 6 | |
| Riverview | 31 | Rochester | 6 | ||
| Riverview | 24 | at | Carmichael | 0 | |
| Riverview | 24 | Duquesne | 14 | ||
| Riverview | 22 | at | Springdale | 0 | |
| Riverview | 42 | Serra Catholic | 0 | Homecoming | |
| Riverview | 55 | Wilkinsburg | 0 | ||
| Riverview | 35 | at | Clairton | 13 | |
| Riverview | 19 | Greensburg CC | 15 | ||
| Riverview | 43 | at | Leechburg | 14 | |
| Riverview | 34 | Jefferson Morgan | 28 | WPIAL Quarterfinal | |
| Riverview | 27 | Rochester | 18 | WPIAL Semifinal (at North Allegheny) | |
| Riverview | 0 | Western Beaver | 42 | WPIAL Final (at Three Rivers Stadium) |
I collected signatures from the team as a birthday present for my sister, Alexis. Here they are. (Click for a larger version.)
The Raiders went on to have great seasons the next four years. In 1995, we finished the regular season undefeated again, and made it to the WPIAL semifinals. In 1996, we returned to the WPIAL championship, losing to Farrell by one point. In 1997, we finally won the WPIAL championship with a victory over Fort Cherry.
Many people often say about certain situations, “You can’t imagine what it’s like until you’ve experienced it”. Situation that invoke this claim include raising a child, marriage, work, and war. My first reaction to this claim is, “You people lack imagination”. However I can’t deny there is some truth to it.
I was raised in the suburbs. My mother has spent her whole life retreating further and further from the city, and when I came along she was already in full flight. Consequently, as a child and on into my teenage years, whenever we did something—anything—we piled into a car (later an SUV) and drove there. Even at college this trend continued. For some reason I chose universities out in the middle of nowhere (Penn State and Virginia Tech); the universities themselves were great but the towns left a little to be desired.
As I began my career I chose more urban areas but they were still neighborhoodish. I could walk to many more places than I could ever before, and it was nice. But even then walking distance often meant at least two miles one way, and many places to go still required a drive. (One interesting thing within walking distance one place I lived was a wholesale electronic parts store; many people don’t even have one of those in their state.)
At last I moved to Santa Monica.
I realized, of course, that Santa Monica was a real city with lots of commerce, and was more than just a tourist destination. (In fact, it only feels touristy in the block closest to the ocean; the next few blocks in are more like trendy downtownish; the rest of it is a real city.) So I knew I would be able to walk a lot more often than I ever could. However, what I never could imagine the sheer breadth of the freedom it gave me.
This came to me when I bought a refrigerator soon after moving in. (I had to because my apartment didn’t come with one.) Instinctively I got in the car and headed off to places like Best Buy, Sears, and so on. Even though I was aware that I was in Santa Monica precisely so I didn’t have to drive so much, I couldn’t even imagine buying something like a refrigerator on foot. But after looking at and not buying the fridges at those places, I was walking through town about five blocks from my house and popped into an appliances store, one that was right on the sidewalk, without a four-acre parking lot, and walked out not only with an order for my fridge, but also an appointment with an actual independent plumber to hook up the water line.
This was so different from my childhood experiences buying things like that. My parents would yell at us kids in the middle of a beautiful, sunny day to pile into the car, promising that it wouldn’t take long. We’d drive half an hour on lonely roads to an appliance or hardware store, they’d spend four hours trying to decide what color they wanted, another hour waiting for the supply boys to figure out how to pull it out of inventory and load it into the back of the truck, and then we’d drive home in the dark, with my brothers already asleep.
Now I can pop into a store a few blocks away and buy a refrigerator, and I never could have imagined that.
