Well I was checking some of my usual blogs, and one jumped out at my eye. Oh God, The Chicken! is a polyphaser who is doing a 100 push up program he found online. Now I am not in great physical shape, and I know it. I think I might try this program out too. Tonight I think I'll do my initial test to see how out of shape I am. Hopefully this will become a good habit of doing some pushups everyday. Back in university a friend claimed that if you could do one thing, every day for a month, it would become a habit. I wont be doing pushups every day for a month, this plan is 3 times weekly, but hopefully that logic will still put me on a schedule where I continue maintaining my fitness. I'll post my push up counts and results here so you can all publicly humiliate me.
I might do a bit of research and see if there is a similar plan for sit ups. Good easy exercises I don't have to buy anything to do, that will hopefully improve my physical well being.
Or an even better idea. I'll allot 30 minutes every morning (showing up a touch later to work than I do now) before my shower to exercise. I'll do this pushup plan 3 times a week, and actually get back into Yoga for the other 4 days. Yeah. That sounds like a good plan. Maybe I'll actually do it outside too on nice mornings, and do my Sun Salutations to the rising sun.
How fast can I make the neighbours think I'm crazy? Although I guess none of my neighbours will be up at that time in the morning... I think I will start tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
iPhone
So I think I'm getting an iPhone today? I'm pretty excited. I have an appointment at 1:30 where I think they are going to get me all set up. It'll be nice to actually have a cell phone and move into the 20th century. I'm a little concerned that I'm going to get all sorts of calls I don't want now though. My privacy is going to be invaded, in a big big way.
So I expect to have a flicker account soon, to post all the random gps tagged photos I'll be taking. I'm excited to see if I can write blog entries from it without too much hassle, as that will help me maintain this blog. It'll be a big change.
I've been having weird dreams in my naps lately. I think a big part of it is the heat. I sleep in my car to get away from the office, and to get a bit of fresh air. I do leave my windows open for a breeze, and have window blocks and such to try to reduce the heat in my car, but it very often is a couple degrees over room temperature, especially in the afternoon. I still usually sleep fine, I Just wake up a touch sweaty, and have weird dreams.
Case in point: Yesterday, during my afternoon nap, I dreamt that I woke up, and walked upstairs back to work and sat down at my desk to get back to work, then I realized, in my dream, that I was dreaming, and woke up. In my car. So I had to get up, and go upstairs to work. It was the worst part of waking up, twice. My brain likes to torture me like that apparently.
I was going through my traffic numbers the other day, as I am inclined to every now and then. I have been getting a fair bit of traffic lately from a source I hadn't noticed before. http://jorel314.wordpress.com/contact/adventures-in-polyphasic-sleeping/ He's got a pretty decent collection of bloggers and other decent information. He's been doing a pretty decent job of keeping it up to date as well. I recommend it as a good starting point to gather resources if you are thinking about trying polyphasic sleep. PureDoxyk's book would be the other great resource I highly recommend. According to him, I'm the second longest sleeper he's found, second to only PureDoxyk. So I think that means I can say I'm the longest Canadian Polyphasic sleeper. That's kinda cool, in my books anyway.
Still waiting to hear from Ryan my photographer friend with the Edmonton Journal who did the video on me last year. He mentioned at my Canada Day Party that he wanted to do a follow up, but hasn't given me any details yet. Maybe it's because he has this whole wedding thing to worry about. I'll let you all know if / when the follow up goes live.
That's abou tit for today. In the future I'll be trying to seperate my posts more. There's a feed (Jorel's) which I might start contributing to, but I don't want to bother all the other polyphaser's with my useless drivel I Often post. So all sleep related posts will become their own seperate post. We'll see if I can actually get in that habit...
So I expect to have a flicker account soon, to post all the random gps tagged photos I'll be taking. I'm excited to see if I can write blog entries from it without too much hassle, as that will help me maintain this blog. It'll be a big change.
I've been having weird dreams in my naps lately. I think a big part of it is the heat. I sleep in my car to get away from the office, and to get a bit of fresh air. I do leave my windows open for a breeze, and have window blocks and such to try to reduce the heat in my car, but it very often is a couple degrees over room temperature, especially in the afternoon. I still usually sleep fine, I Just wake up a touch sweaty, and have weird dreams.
Case in point: Yesterday, during my afternoon nap, I dreamt that I woke up, and walked upstairs back to work and sat down at my desk to get back to work, then I realized, in my dream, that I was dreaming, and woke up. In my car. So I had to get up, and go upstairs to work. It was the worst part of waking up, twice. My brain likes to torture me like that apparently.
I was going through my traffic numbers the other day, as I am inclined to every now and then. I have been getting a fair bit of traffic lately from a source I hadn't noticed before. http://jorel314.wordpress.com/contact/adventures-in-polyphasic-sleeping/ He's got a pretty decent collection of bloggers and other decent information. He's been doing a pretty decent job of keeping it up to date as well. I recommend it as a good starting point to gather resources if you are thinking about trying polyphasic sleep. PureDoxyk's book would be the other great resource I highly recommend. According to him, I'm the second longest sleeper he's found, second to only PureDoxyk. So I think that means I can say I'm the longest Canadian Polyphasic sleeper. That's kinda cool, in my books anyway.
Still waiting to hear from Ryan my photographer friend with the Edmonton Journal who did the video on me last year. He mentioned at my Canada Day Party that he wanted to do a follow up, but hasn't given me any details yet. Maybe it's because he has this whole wedding thing to worry about. I'll let you all know if / when the follow up goes live.
That's abou tit for today. In the future I'll be trying to seperate my posts more. There's a feed (Jorel's) which I might start contributing to, but I don't want to bother all the other polyphaser's with my useless drivel I Often post. So all sleep related posts will become their own seperate post. We'll see if I can actually get in that habit...
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
WTF?
So I saw this article yesterday. The first thing that came to my mind was a song from the Jerry Springer Opera. I can't quote it here, as it involves a couple swears.
So I read the first 3 bullets, Electronic boarding pass, that's convenient. Personal info? they have all that anyway on my passport, so I can live with that. Position tracking of myself and luggage? If it reduces lost luggage, they can likely get most of that info from my boarding and such, well that's nice.
Oh Wait. Taser? Shocking me and making me immobile. Wait. I don't like that. Or do I?
No. I don't.
Here is an article where they talk about Dog Collars that shock being cruelty to animals. Now, I've tried those dog collars out (long story) and the shock it administers is not very big. For a big dog, that likely surprises it and nothing more. That was considered cruelty to animals. Now let's take the same technology, up the shocking aspect to the point where it will immobilize a person, bingo! That's not inhumane, or cruel or anything!
If this comes into law, in the states, I am not flying there anymore. Hopefully I can get some cross ocean flights out of Canadian territory. I refuse to fly while being treated lower than a dog. I am shocked this is even being considered. Have humans in the United States lost all claims to any sort of rights?
Sorry for the op-ed, political piece. I just saw that article, and was PISSED off. If anything remote close to this starts it's way into Canadian Legislation, I'll update you all, and find resources to fight it.
So I read the first 3 bullets, Electronic boarding pass, that's convenient. Personal info? they have all that anyway on my passport, so I can live with that. Position tracking of myself and luggage? If it reduces lost luggage, they can likely get most of that info from my boarding and such, well that's nice.
Oh Wait. Taser? Shocking me and making me immobile. Wait. I don't like that. Or do I?
No. I don't.
Here is an article where they talk about Dog Collars that shock being cruelty to animals. Now, I've tried those dog collars out (long story) and the shock it administers is not very big. For a big dog, that likely surprises it and nothing more. That was considered cruelty to animals. Now let's take the same technology, up the shocking aspect to the point where it will immobilize a person, bingo! That's not inhumane, or cruel or anything!
If this comes into law, in the states, I am not flying there anymore. Hopefully I can get some cross ocean flights out of Canadian territory. I refuse to fly while being treated lower than a dog. I am shocked this is even being considered. Have humans in the United States lost all claims to any sort of rights?
Sorry for the op-ed, political piece. I just saw that article, and was PISSED off. If anything remote close to this starts it's way into Canadian Legislation, I'll update you all, and find resources to fight it.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Survived
I'm alive!
I survived Jazz Festival. My schedule is just now starting to slow down a bit. A little anyway. I still haven't cashed any cheques from it, but they are all in my wallet. I should be able to hit the bank tomorrow. I ended up only attending two shows this year, as I just couldn't find time for more. I caught Ivana Santilli after my Broadway opening gig, and watching Kellylee Evans. I also caught Dave Brubeck. Both were pretty awesome shows. I preferred Ivana with a full band though, like last time I saw her, and not this keyboard based trio. Dave Brubeck was weird because the band was so old, but just rocking. He could barely walk, and talked extremely slowly, but then he just played like a madman. So very good.
My sleeping is pretty much back on schedule now. Only took me a day or two to get back to normal. I'm still hitting the snooze in the mornings a bit, so I'm getting closer to 3.5 or 4 hours in my core. Hopefully this weekend I'll correct that. I think I need to update my TODO list, of things to keep my extra time busy. I've not been productive with my time at all lately. One of the catches is just a lack of a good place to keep the list, that's always accessible to me. That problem will very likely go away in about a week.
I'm intending to pick up a 3g iPhone. I figure it's about time I move into the Cell world. Although the cell aspect is extra to me. More important is the calendar, and being able to check my email. It'll also be a convenient way to keep an extra copy of my nap mp3's, and a fun toy. It will likely end up being an expensive toy though. I'll write up some sort of boring review for it once I have had it for a bit. I'm reasonably excited.
Ryan Jackson, my friend photojournalist who did that piece on my a year ago, was discussing doing a follow up with me sometime soonish. I thought that was a pretty good idea, but I need to get some big things accomplished soon then to make it seem better. Hopefully the parts for the Bass I'm building arrive soon, and I can work on that. I think I'm going to re-edge the garden sometime in the next week or two as well. Those are likely some not too shabby accomplishments. We'll see.
But I should get to work, I have a bunch of things I really need to accomplish in the next month, before my very long and super awesome holiday.
I survived Jazz Festival. My schedule is just now starting to slow down a bit. A little anyway. I still haven't cashed any cheques from it, but they are all in my wallet. I should be able to hit the bank tomorrow. I ended up only attending two shows this year, as I just couldn't find time for more. I caught Ivana Santilli after my Broadway opening gig, and watching Kellylee Evans. I also caught Dave Brubeck. Both were pretty awesome shows. I preferred Ivana with a full band though, like last time I saw her, and not this keyboard based trio. Dave Brubeck was weird because the band was so old, but just rocking. He could barely walk, and talked extremely slowly, but then he just played like a madman. So very good.
My sleeping is pretty much back on schedule now. Only took me a day or two to get back to normal. I'm still hitting the snooze in the mornings a bit, so I'm getting closer to 3.5 or 4 hours in my core. Hopefully this weekend I'll correct that. I think I need to update my TODO list, of things to keep my extra time busy. I've not been productive with my time at all lately. One of the catches is just a lack of a good place to keep the list, that's always accessible to me. That problem will very likely go away in about a week.
I'm intending to pick up a 3g iPhone. I figure it's about time I move into the Cell world. Although the cell aspect is extra to me. More important is the calendar, and being able to check my email. It'll also be a convenient way to keep an extra copy of my nap mp3's, and a fun toy. It will likely end up being an expensive toy though. I'll write up some sort of boring review for it once I have had it for a bit. I'm reasonably excited.
Ryan Jackson, my friend photojournalist who did that piece on my a year ago, was discussing doing a follow up with me sometime soonish. I thought that was a pretty good idea, but I need to get some big things accomplished soon then to make it seem better. Hopefully the parts for the Bass I'm building arrive soon, and I can work on that. I think I'm going to re-edge the garden sometime in the next week or two as well. Those are likely some not too shabby accomplishments. We'll see.
But I should get to work, I have a bunch of things I really need to accomplish in the next month, before my very long and super awesome holiday.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Jazz festival
It's been awhile since I have had a chance to make a post. Writing for this blog is just not as high a priority as other aspects of my life. Sorry!
Big news items since my last post.
I have changed all my fall travel plans. I now work Friday August 15th, then I'm attending a wedding, which will be super fun. After the wedding weekend, I'm catching a ride to Edmonton with one of the folks heading into town for the wedding. Then I think I'll spend a day in Edmonton, maybe two. I need to be in Vancouver by Tuesday the 19th though, as I have tickets to Radiohead that night, which will be awesome. Then I hope to hit Victoria for the weekend to visit some friends up there. I have to be back in Vancouver for Thursday the 28th, as I am attending Beck that night. Then I'll catch an early morning shuttle to Seattle from Vancouver, to get to the Penny-Arcade Expo. Then it's September long, and I think I booked off the Sept 2nd too, as a recovery / cushion day. The end result. 18 days off in a row. I hear that's awesome. I am pretty excited.
It's Jazz Festival time! Which means I'm busy. Today is my day off, no gigs tonight. So I'm hoping to get a bunch of yard work done and housework to prep for the Canada Day party we're planning for this weekend. I'll have to get a hold of Visions too and check the status of my projector. We NEED it for Canada day... I think I'm going to pick up Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Version some time this week, and start getting some DLC for it. Then we'll have like 200 songs in Rock Band for people to jam on, and if we get ambitious, we can set up some singing competitions. Should be fun.
But I have to get to work, I have to find and fix this bug asap apparently. I'll try to post another update closer to the end of the week.
Heads-up: I'm playing at the Free Stage by the Bess on Tuesday night, 7pm. You should come out.
Big news items since my last post.
I have changed all my fall travel plans. I now work Friday August 15th, then I'm attending a wedding, which will be super fun. After the wedding weekend, I'm catching a ride to Edmonton with one of the folks heading into town for the wedding. Then I think I'll spend a day in Edmonton, maybe two. I need to be in Vancouver by Tuesday the 19th though, as I have tickets to Radiohead that night, which will be awesome. Then I hope to hit Victoria for the weekend to visit some friends up there. I have to be back in Vancouver for Thursday the 28th, as I am attending Beck that night. Then I'll catch an early morning shuttle to Seattle from Vancouver, to get to the Penny-Arcade Expo. Then it's September long, and I think I booked off the Sept 2nd too, as a recovery / cushion day. The end result. 18 days off in a row. I hear that's awesome. I am pretty excited.
It's Jazz Festival time! Which means I'm busy. Today is my day off, no gigs tonight. So I'm hoping to get a bunch of yard work done and housework to prep for the Canada Day party we're planning for this weekend. I'll have to get a hold of Visions too and check the status of my projector. We NEED it for Canada day... I think I'm going to pick up Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Version some time this week, and start getting some DLC for it. Then we'll have like 200 songs in Rock Band for people to jam on, and if we get ambitious, we can set up some singing competitions. Should be fun.
But I have to get to work, I have to find and fix this bug asap apparently. I'll try to post another update closer to the end of the week.
Heads-up: I'm playing at the Free Stage by the Bess on Tuesday night, 7pm. You should come out.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Return
So I'm back.
I gave a brief explanation of my hotel room. It was pretty nice. Good wide screen, plasma tv. Good stuff.
Conference was pretty interesting, at times. There was a couple panels on Federal Rules that were boring, as I'm Canadian and the US federal initiatives are useless to me. A panel or two turned into essentially ads for a company as well, which was a bit of a downer, but the conference organizers are aware of that, and are trying to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Trip back to Saskatoon sucked though. I got to Ohare around 3 hours before my flight, due to when the conference ended, and shuttle times and such. Not that big a deal. Then my flight got delayed by 30 minutes. No big deal, I had a 2 hour layover in Calgary, so I wasn't to worried about time. Just meant I had an extra 30 min to kill at the airport. Then it got delayed another 30 minutes. And another 30 minutes. All said and done, my flight was delayed 3 hours. Looks like I won't be making my transfer.
Sure enough, I get to Calgary (around midnight), and there is NO ONE around. My plane is gone, I run around trying to find someone from Air Canada or United Air to help me. I finally, after about 30 minutes of hunting catch a Air Canada rep, who lets me know I'm already booked on a flight in the morning, and gives me a phone number for some company that will help me find a hotel room in Calgary. I call the number. No hotel rooms, but try again in 15 minutes and we'll try to find something. So I start calling some hotels while I'm waiting 15 minutes. Now I need a shuttle or a cab or something too, and since it's already 1ish, I want something close, and preferably cheap. I can't find anything. The company that specializes in finding hotel rooms can't find anything. Awesome.
So 2 rolls around, I'm tired, as that's when I usually have my core. I'm still at the stupid airport. I say screw it. It'll just sleep here. Bundle all my bags up as a pillow, and find a decent bench to crash on.
I don't have an alarm clock or anything, but I figure I'll be ok. When I don't have a clock, from experience, I get up around 7 at the latest. But I wasn't comfortable. It was an airport bench, so I toss and turn a fair bit before falling asleep. No idea when, but it was late. Well, I must have been tired, as I woke up, and the airport seemed busy, and lo and behold, it was 7. My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40. I was on the wrong side of security. I at least had my boarding pass from Air Canada the night before. But I hadn't checked any luggage. So I look at my bags, and figure, I can get away with taking it as carry on... I hope. And rush to Security. Security was actually really fast, faster than Saskatoon security going to Chicago. So I get to my gate in about 15 minutes, they aren't even boarding. Sweet. I start jamming my bags into that carry one check metal basket thing to see if I can get away with it. I barely can. I cheer quietly inside.
I didn't get to do any of the touristy things I was intending to in Chicago. The day of the White Sox game I was thinking about attending was rainy, and I didn't want to sit in the rain to watch baseball. It also didn't help that at the end of everyday at the conference there was a sponsored cocktail hour or two. That meant I wasn't ready to leave the hotel until 7-8ish, and usually reasonably intoxicated from the free drinks. SO I watched the game 5 in the playoffs at the hotel bar, and spent a fair bit of time there. Wasn't too bad. There was a couple cute bartenders I had some good chats with. Enjoyable.
I gave a brief explanation of my hotel room. It was pretty nice. Good wide screen, plasma tv. Good stuff.
Conference was pretty interesting, at times. There was a couple panels on Federal Rules that were boring, as I'm Canadian and the US federal initiatives are useless to me. A panel or two turned into essentially ads for a company as well, which was a bit of a downer, but the conference organizers are aware of that, and are trying to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Trip back to Saskatoon sucked though. I got to Ohare around 3 hours before my flight, due to when the conference ended, and shuttle times and such. Not that big a deal. Then my flight got delayed by 30 minutes. No big deal, I had a 2 hour layover in Calgary, so I wasn't to worried about time. Just meant I had an extra 30 min to kill at the airport. Then it got delayed another 30 minutes. And another 30 minutes. All said and done, my flight was delayed 3 hours. Looks like I won't be making my transfer.
Sure enough, I get to Calgary (around midnight), and there is NO ONE around. My plane is gone, I run around trying to find someone from Air Canada or United Air to help me. I finally, after about 30 minutes of hunting catch a Air Canada rep, who lets me know I'm already booked on a flight in the morning, and gives me a phone number for some company that will help me find a hotel room in Calgary. I call the number. No hotel rooms, but try again in 15 minutes and we'll try to find something. So I start calling some hotels while I'm waiting 15 minutes. Now I need a shuttle or a cab or something too, and since it's already 1ish, I want something close, and preferably cheap. I can't find anything. The company that specializes in finding hotel rooms can't find anything. Awesome.
So 2 rolls around, I'm tired, as that's when I usually have my core. I'm still at the stupid airport. I say screw it. It'll just sleep here. Bundle all my bags up as a pillow, and find a decent bench to crash on.
I don't have an alarm clock or anything, but I figure I'll be ok. When I don't have a clock, from experience, I get up around 7 at the latest. But I wasn't comfortable. It was an airport bench, so I toss and turn a fair bit before falling asleep. No idea when, but it was late. Well, I must have been tired, as I woke up, and the airport seemed busy, and lo and behold, it was 7. My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40. I was on the wrong side of security. I at least had my boarding pass from Air Canada the night before. But I hadn't checked any luggage. So I look at my bags, and figure, I can get away with taking it as carry on... I hope. And rush to Security. Security was actually really fast, faster than Saskatoon security going to Chicago. So I get to my gate in about 15 minutes, they aren't even boarding. Sweet. I start jamming my bags into that carry one check metal basket thing to see if I can get away with it. I barely can. I cheer quietly inside.
I didn't get to do any of the touristy things I was intending to in Chicago. The day of the White Sox game I was thinking about attending was rainy, and I didn't want to sit in the rain to watch baseball. It also didn't help that at the end of everyday at the conference there was a sponsored cocktail hour or two. That meant I wasn't ready to leave the hotel until 7-8ish, and usually reasonably intoxicated from the free drinks. SO I watched the game 5 in the playoffs at the hotel bar, and spent a fair bit of time there. Wasn't too bad. There was a couple cute bartenders I had some good chats with. Enjoyable.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Chicago
So I'm in Chicago.
I found out of Friday I was going. There is a electronics and trucking conference thing here that one of my co-workers was signed up to attend. However, that co-worker forgot to pick up his passport and was unable to leave the country. Thus I was sent in his place. I had never been to Chicago, so I thought it would be fun.
Had a long day of flying. Had a 3 hour layover in Edmonton. 4 hours in the air, and some very long lines to wait in. Saskatoon was even busy, and took almost 30 minutes to get through security. I didn't think that was possible.
The hotel I'm staying at is pretty nice. I have a corner room, which is a bit of an odd shape, but my windows overlook a golf course. It looks like a pretty nice course. Looks nice and expensive enough that it's not worth me playing it, as I will lose too many balls.
Due to a mix up though, I've already spent a lot more money than I was expecting. Everything was supposed to be left on a work credit card, and it seems like it wasn't. Now I know a little better how it was all set up in the first place, so hopefully I can get it all cleared up today.
But I should go, breakfast starts right away, and I want to hit the front desk first.
I found out of Friday I was going. There is a electronics and trucking conference thing here that one of my co-workers was signed up to attend. However, that co-worker forgot to pick up his passport and was unable to leave the country. Thus I was sent in his place. I had never been to Chicago, so I thought it would be fun.
Had a long day of flying. Had a 3 hour layover in Edmonton. 4 hours in the air, and some very long lines to wait in. Saskatoon was even busy, and took almost 30 minutes to get through security. I didn't think that was possible.
The hotel I'm staying at is pretty nice. I have a corner room, which is a bit of an odd shape, but my windows overlook a golf course. It looks like a pretty nice course. Looks nice and expensive enough that it's not worth me playing it, as I will lose too many balls.
Due to a mix up though, I've already spent a lot more money than I was expecting. Everything was supposed to be left on a work credit card, and it seems like it wasn't. Now I know a little better how it was all set up in the first place, so hopefully I can get it all cleared up today.
But I should go, breakfast starts right away, and I want to hit the front desk first.
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