New Leaf: Incremental Increase
July 13, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Castle, Fitness
Tags: 300, abs, bmi, fat, gym, happiness here i come, new leaf, the pain
One of my goals is to have abs like the ones painted on the Spartans in the movie 300. Then I can go around half naked on my segway wearing a red Spartan like cape and a bad ass helmet like King Leonidis. Oh yeah.
This last trip to the gym I upped the number of reps as well as adding a new set with more weight.
I did a total of 120 crunches.
4 sets of 20 - 80 lbs
2 sets of 15 - 100 lbs
1 set of 10 - 110 lbs
That last set of 10 at 110 lbs was tough, at first the thing didn’t move when I tried. Thankfully the gym was mostly empty because I’m pretty sure the sound I made was a grunting, growling, swamp-thing type scream as I willed my body to repeatedly lift the weights.
I also added a new machine that works my man boobs. I was feeling pretty weak from the ab cruncher so I only did - 1 set of 15 - 90 lbs
After taking a shower, I was too weak to dry off. So completely wet, I’m now weighing in at 181 lbs making my weight loss to about 24 lbs of fat. Which puts my BMI at 24.5, within the normal weight according to the body mass index calculator. I still have what looks like a deflated bicycle tire around my waist, but I’m getting there.
One Look?! - Magnum
July 12, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Castle, Friends, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
Tags: magnum, one look, zoolander
Twas the night before iXmas
July 11, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Friends, OSX, Puter Stuff, gnash-teeth, iPhone
Tags: 2.0, hacked, IM, iPhone, itunes, jailbreak, jivetalk, remote, social networking
About half an hour ago (current time 12:53 AM), mi amigo David McInnis sent me a link with instructions on how to upgrade the first generation iPhone to iPhone 2.0 software. Of course being on the cutting edge is what we do; so having read his email from my iPhone I quickly powered up the laptop and had at it. Last thing he said before signing off iChat was he hoped his phone rebooted. His Mac may have crashed too, who knows. The iPhone 3G will be going on sale in a few short hours around the U.S. and I know David is going to head down early to grab one. I’m afraid getting up early is out of the question for me, since I tend to not be able to fall asleep until the wee hours, so with any luck he’ll buy an extra one for me.
Earlier today I installed the latest iTunes update. Now after downloading the 2.0 iPhone software and installing it on my iPhone I’m waiting for the 8GB of content to re-sync. This is going to take awhile.
iTunes has the App Store up and running and as mentioned in the above linked article from Wired, there’s already more than 550 apps and of those 135 free ones. I took a quick peek at what’s being offered that’s free and I’m not impressed. Several of the applications have been out for months if you had a hacked iPhone.
- The AIM app doesn’t seem that impressive, regardless I’m not interested in having multiple instant messaging applications. A single multi-protocol application is what I need. So it looks like for the mean time I’m going to keep using JiveTalk (from BeeJive) even though it’s web based.
- Checking out the Social Networking category - nothing off hand that’s lifting my skirt up. A Facebook app? Their iPhone version of the website is pretty good as is. MySpace - not interested. Several Twitter apps, but again the Twitter iPhone page I find sufficient (though I tend to tweet via SMS anyways) assuming they’ve managed to keep their site up.
- Under the Productivity category there looks like one or two (just looking at the names, too lazy to really investigate) that might be worth checking out. Prices are ranging here from 0.99 - 9.99 - one of the apps for 0.99 cents I already have for free - Voice Recorder.
- In the Entertainment section, a free app called Remote sounds nifty. It alledgedly allows you to control iTunes on your computer or on your AppleTV from your phone. That’s worth checking out. The free Movies app also looks promising, I use the iPhone site of Fandango a lot, so I’m expecting similar functionality. Or perhaps a tie in like the Movies Widget on my laptops dashboard which allows me to watch the previews and trailers right there as well as find and purchase tickets via Fandango.
I’m sure future offerings will become more diverse and useful once developers have more time to develop applications. My initial reaction to the apps available is a resounding “meh”. I’ll post more once I’ve had time to check some of the out, but I’m not paying for anything on here unless it makes my Jesus Phone speak in tongues or something.
Update: 1:38am - All my icons are messed up and out of order. I just tried the App Store…app from my iPhone and a couple issues.
- Remote - the app I mentioned previously. There’s no obvious download button. There was the word Free, which I tapped on, but my initial reaction was to search the page for a “download” or “install” link of some kind.
- The App Store asked for my iTunes password, all the letters are rendered as ***** like most people expect. However, the last letter of my password was not rendered as a *.
This Remote app is sweet. Easy setup, can browse my iTunes library on this laptop, control the volume, shuffle songs all the usual features. Very cool. Can’t wait to try it on my AppleTV. (That would mean getting up and I’m too tired for that.)
Prancing Pony Attack
July 9, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
5comments Categories: Castle, Friends, Insider, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
Tags: hackysack, pony, prancing
There’s a handful of people who have witnessed the raw power of the prancing pony attack in real life. (A Jedi like maneuver I’ve been known to do while playing hacky-sack.) And while I always envisioned it more like a baby unicorn coming at you, this is probably more along the lines of what the rest of you actually see.
Daddy Needs New Wheels
June 29, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Picture of the Day, Science
Tags: apple, electric car, tesla
I imagine if Apple ever decided to get into the automotive industry they might design something along these lines, except in Black. It definitely doesn’t have Apples design savvy for the interior of the vehicle and the computer interface. The trunk space is pretty limited even for a two seater, but the outside sure is pretty.
The picture is of the Tesla Roadster from Tesla Motors. A 100% electric car, zero to sixty in 3.9 seconds, a top speed of 125 mph, approximately 256 mpg and yes you can connect your iPod to it.
According to the folks at Crunch Gear, Governor Schwarzenegger will be speaking at a press conference about Tesla’s plans for new 4-5 seater sedans to come out in the next few years.
For a measly $100K or so, you can get one of these.
short notice
June 22, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Friends, Picture of the Day, Science, Squirrels, TimeWaster
Tags: midgets, need not apply, therapists
Shout Out to the Peepguins
June 19, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
3comments Categories: Castle, Friends, Insider, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
Tags: peepguins
Not everyone is pictured here. From left to right I’m thinking Poem, Jed, Karl and Kevin.
New Leaf: The Pain
June 18, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Fitness
Tags: abs, fat, gym, new leaf, the pain
I’ve been hitting the gym about 4 days a week I think. Same routine, I hit the bike then the treadmill. The amount of time varies, but nothing any more exciting than what I’ve already posted about.
Yesterday I decided it was time to try another machine, something to work my abs. All the machines really look like medieval torture devices, but eventually I found one with pictures on it, that looked like it should work the abdominal muscles. Now someone left the machine on like 140lbs of weight. I climbed into this contraption and tried to do a crunch. It was a little much to start out on. I massaged my ego by recalling the phrase “low weight. high reps”.
So I put the unit on 80lbs and did four sets of 20 crunches. Then one set of 10 crunches at 100lbs. I think that was pretty good to start.
Next I moved back to the usual machines, 40 minutes on the bike of eternal uphillness and 10 more minutes on the treadmill.
This morning I was in for a surprise, as I woke up and tried to sit up I felt an unusual and confusing pain. My abs were on fire. Getting dressed this morning proved to be unpleasant. My shoulders and triceps are a little sore as well.
iPhone Scratches
June 17, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
3comments Categories: Castle, gnash-teeth, iPhone
Tags: iPhone, scratched screen
Grrr. I’ve dropped my iPhone many times, broken a few cases too. Yesterday though, I was butter fingers Supremo and it landed face down. There’s now a few little scratches, right in the middle of the screen. It’s so annoying. I think I’m going to give the toothpaste trick a try or maybe take it to a glass shop to see if they can buff it out. Bastards.
The Single Ass Perspective
June 16, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
3comments Categories: Castle, Picture of the Day
Tags: perspective, siamese twins, things that make my ass twitch
