exercise
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Total steps: 2375
Floors climbed: 0
Calories burned: 1652
Elevation gained: 0 feet
Traveled: 0.99 miles
Sedentary minutes: 884
Lightly active minutes: 175
Fairly active minutes: 0
Very active minutes: 0
Yep, I was pretty much completely lazy yesterday. I’m supposed to go work out today, so that will definitely increase the step and activity numbers, but yesterday neither myself nor the friend I go work out with felt good, so no trip to the gym. We’ll see what happens today.

watch
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One of the playlists I maintain on Spotify is one called “Tired of Stupid.” I made it public and am allowing others to collaborate on it, so of course Wil and Denise joined in and have added to its greatness. It’s become quite respectable by this point. I started with twenty or so tracks, and it’s now up to seventy-seven as of this writing.

One of the songs that got added by either Wil or Denise, “Drink!” by Alestorm, is today’s work loop. It’s become one of my favorite songs from the list, and I’m in the process of discovering more from Alestorm.

Here’s the official video. Enjoy.

note
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I’ve been doing what I like to refer to as the “Badd Weight Watcher thing” for a while now, and have just exited a rather long period of not caring. Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s not that I haven’t cared, (I still went to work out semi-regularly, didn’t take every chance I could to binge on the naughty food, and every now and then my goal would cross my mind). I did, however, not exactly make it a point to jump on the scale weekly like I had been doing for a while.

So when I stepped on the scale Friday, expecting the worst, or at least a few extra pounds, I was pleasantly surprised.

I am now only fifteen pounds away from my goal. Fifteen! It’s taken me a long time to get here, but I’m almost to the point of maintaining instead of losing. This, of course, makes me very happy.

I’m no longer a Weight Watchers member. I couldn’t justify paying $40 or more a month just to weigh in every week. And the Weight Watchers data really isn’t easily comparable with normal data, like calorie intake and calorie burn. I have a fitbit, and I have the Aria scale, so once I got the scale, I canceled my membership.

I briefly wondered if I could keep this thing up without the weekly weigh-ins, but I’ve managed, sort of. I definitely don’t regret the decision. I loved my meeting leader, but not enough to pay that extra monetary cost.

I’m looking forward to continuing the countdown, and being able to write the “ground zero” post.

note
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When it comes to spoken conversation, I swear. A lot.

Sometimes, people tell me I use the word “fuck” too much.

Well, next time that happens, I’m backing that shit up with science.

Swearing can be cathartic, which can help us cope with “intolerable periods of inner conflict, repression and readjustment”.
Swearing can also help us deal with physical pain, believe it or not. One study6 tested how long participants could hold their hand in a bucket of icy water. In the first round, participants were allowed to say a neutral word. In the second round, they repeated a swear word instead. The study found that swearing helped:
Swearing increased pain tolerance, increased heart rate and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing. However, swearing did not increase pain tolerance in males with a tendency to catastrophize.

You can read the full article here, complete with all kinds of references, and enough history and linguistics to make any nerd’s little heart skip a beat. It even contains everyone’s favorite video Well, OK, maybe it’s just mine.

But the takeaway is this: Swear early, and swear often, because fucking science.

note
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I tend to be suspicious of covers, mostly because the majority of them aren’t well-done in my opinion. But this one of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.” by Jacob Collier is amazing. I think this may be Tuesday’s work loop. BTW, read that post, there’s a ton of useful info in there. And I think I found a new shiny.

Hat tip for the music discovery: Andre, who also creates some amazing stuff. You should check it out through either Spotify or iTunes.

note

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I’m about to sign off for Yom Kippur. Before I do so, I’d like to wish everyone who is observing a meaningful Day of Atonement and an easy fast. May those who wish to but cannot fast not feel inadequate or left out in any way. And may everyone, regardless of whether or not you observe Yom Kippur, be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a good, sweet, healthy and happy 5776, full of prosperity and every good thing. Finally, I’d like to wish everyone celebrating EID a blessed and meaningful holiday.
Amanda

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I think I may have made a promise to myself at some point that there would be no code on this blog.

Well, promise broken, because I want a place to document my side projects.

My current fascination has been with metadata.

In a nutshell, metadata is the information that gets collected when you do things like take pictures with your phone. It can be information like credit, shutter speed, or location, if you have enabled location services for your camera app on your phone.

Basically, everything you do has metadata attached these days. Photos aren’t the only information with metadata attached. Photos are just the best example I can come up with that’s not too far out there in geek world.

So, I have started playing around with displaying this metadata. What if I could take the information from photos for instants, and use it to plot a location on a map. Then display that map so the people who read this blog could then look at where I am, or where I was when I wrote a particular post at least?

So far, I think I have the location part working. If you look at this post, under the content, you should have the ability to hover over the location and see a street level view.

It’s not perfect, and it’s not exactly the way I want it, so I will continue playing around. And of course, I will document the whole thing here, complete with code examples.

Augusta, Georgia, United States
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This was in my Twitter stream.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and oured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous ‘yes’.

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now,’said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

‘Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents.
Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18.There will always be time to clean the house and fix the
disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.

The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’

The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.’

I have no idea who it’s by, but definitely something to keep in mind when life gets hectic.

note
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Putting a song on repeat has always been a thing for me. It helps me get things done and sometimes I just like to listen to the same song over and over again because it reflects the current mood I’m in, or some present feeling.

My current song is this by Sam Smith:

Now if I can just figure out how to get Spottify to repeat a track on the iPhone.

And it looks like Matt agrees where repeating tracks is concerned. I’m in good company.

BTW, there’s a great podcast Matt was interviewed on recently. I’ve gotten a lot out of just this episode and will be adding it to the podcatcher.

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This week I worked my ass off to ensure that I could have a three-day weekend. Thursday night I got some beer in preparation for my birthday. I haven’t spent the last two days in a drunken stupor, but I have spent some time drinking and spending time on Facetime with Wil and Denise, which I haven’t really done for long periods of time since they moved to Charlotte. And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I will spend some more time celebrating today and tomorrow. Then I will get back to the grindstone on Monday, refreshed and relaxed and able to concentrate better. I’ve slept very well the last two nights, and expect to do so again tonight and Sunday night, and this will definitely help. I hope the trend continues for a while after this weekend.

I plan to spend the rest of today and tomorrow having fun and doing absolutely nothing related to work. I might even play some games. Maybe even the hated Diceworld. 😛

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I weighed in this morning, and learned that I only have twenty-two pounds to go until I reach my goal. Awesome. I won’t reach it by the end of this year, but I don’t have that much further to go, so goal will be a thing by early 2015. This is also awesome.

I’ve gotten back into a workout schedule of sorts, going three times a week for the most part. For right now, since I spent so much time away from the gym, I’m exercising for a half-hour and will gradually lengthen the time starting in January. I don’t want to do it too quickly.

I got myself the Fitbit Aria scale in November. It was a bear to set up but I managed it. So I’m using that scale at home instead of paying Weight Watchers to weigh in every week. I have enough discipline to make sure I exercise and eat reasonably healthy and keep track of my weight, and while Emily, (our favorite Weight Watchers meeting leader) is excellent, her meetings only happen on Saturdays and I wanted to start going to synagogue so a Saturday morning meeting isn’t going to work.

I still need to get myself a mat for the floor so I can exercise at home when I can’t make it to the gym for whatever reason. I like the seven-minute workout. I think it’s great. But concrete is hard. So I think that might be my birthday present to myself for 2015.

Until next time.

note
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Monday is kicking my ass. I’ve spent all morning on the phone with automated phone systems. I hate automated phone systems. I’m technically-minded, which means I probably hate them more than you do.

I keep my landline around just so I can avoid dialing touchtones on my iPhone because dialing fast enough to get the automated system to take your choices and not tell you that you suck at life and make you go through the whole process again seems like a worthwhile proposition. Except it’s probably not. And paying Comcast $40 a month for the privilege is stupid. So i’ll likely be canceling that and just dealing with touchtone hell on my iPhone.

I log into the WordPresses this morning and find there are updates. This is not a complicated process. I deal with this regularly. But after dealing with the phone this morning, I just wanted to cry when I saw that several plugins need updating. Not rational, I know.

I think maybe I should have just taken today off. It’s halfway over, and I don’t have to deal with people except for one more hour, so I think I can sort this and have a better day tomorrow. I spent some time last week reworking my schedule so there’s a designated beginning and end to the work day. This will help. Not that it’ll work all the time, (crises happen), but it’ll work for the most part. I also scheduled in some me time before sleep. Now I need to redo it again, or at least tweak it so there’s time for the faith aspect, which I’ve let go but would like to re-integrate.

I think I’ll watch a movie this evening and have a few beers.

note
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I like movies. I’m planning to watch a lot of them over the long weekend, which I’m taking for the most part because break. I also like it when people write really awesome reviews of popular ones so I can read them without having to go and actualy pay to watch them. Here’s one of Love Actually which is one of those chick flicks that I hate because they’re so annoying. I think I can count on one hand the number of chick flicks I’ve liked. The review’s hilarious. Go read it.

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The Giants won the World Series, so naturally, San Francisco has lost its mind. There are honking horns and screaming drunk people all over the place. Today was also the last day of my WordCamp trip, which I spent at Automattic working on WordPress and meeting a few last minute people, as well as raiding the fridge for one last beer on Matt’s dime. It was good beer too. But the fact that it was free makes it even better.

Sleep will likely be fitful tonight, because of pre-flight jitters plus drunk screaming people, and I need to keep the window open because there’s no air conditioner in this room. There is wireless though, and that’s the important thing. Gotta keep the priorities straight.

I’m sad that both baseball and WordCamp are ending at the same time. WordPress will continue unabated, but I’ll have to wait for baseball until next spring. The weather’s been nice here. It didn’t get hot until today. For the rest of the time, it’s been pleasantly cool. I’ve walked a ton, and I’ll be surprised if I’ve lost no weight. I plan on sleeping for as long as possible as soon as I get home tomorrow evening.

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Today has been very full. I walked from the hotel to the conference center, which was about a thirty-minute walk. Then the talks began. Everything I saw was full of information, and I’m still trying to process it all. Taking notes is pretty much out of the question, because the talks go by so fast. So I’ll take the notes when the talks go up on WPTV. I’ve met lots of cool and interesting people, but I’ve met so many of them that everything’s a blur. There are so many of them that trying to pair voices with names with Twitter profiles is daunting. But don’t worry, you’re still all special snowflakes. 😛

I was featured in Joseph O’Connor’s lightning talk on remote user testing, so I need to recalculate how many minutes I have left in my fifteen minutes of fame. After WordCamp was over for today, I and the accessibility team (well, part of us anyway) went out for dinner, and then I stopped by the afterparty being thrown at Automattic headquarters and drank more beer. I also met more people, including dre Armeda from the dradcast, which is a podcast you should be listening to if you’re in to WordPress, beer, or both.

tomorrow, there’s a blogging track and a contributor track, and I’ll be attending a little of both like I did today with the developer track and the designer track. I’m looking forward to it.