All those little thoughts…
Warning: the following contains some level of sarcasm. It is left up to the reader to distinguish between it and the truth.
Phew! Who knew that building a new garden was so much work? We tore out the old garden including the railway ties that framed it and put in brand spankin’ new raised beds. Here are some pictures.
As I mentioned last week, I’m focusing on fitness. In particular, I’m exercising 6 days a week. It’s a lot of days, but it gives me less of an excuse for missing a day. So last week I did it! Now I just need to make it a habit. A full month straight would be a phenomenal achievement, but I’m shooting for 3 months. My routine is based loosely on the Body For Life paradigm. I’m doing 20+ minutes of aerobic exercise on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This will usually be running since I can take the dog and wear her out. Monday and Friday involves upper-body weight lifting and Wednesday is lower-body. It worked out great last week. I meet a coworker at the gym at work on Wed and Fri which adds to the motivation. I feel a lot better when I get out and do something first thing in the morning. It just sets me up for the whole day. Although I have to admit, I could barely walk on Thurs. 
Just after the new year, my friend L told me that she had gotten back into climbing because she was “forming the habits for the rest of her life”. At the time I was sitting at the computer writing a recipe database. I know I did a double take and headed straight to the gym. For several weeks, I focused on working out and yoga. But then something happened as it always does and I got out of the habit. Read the rest of this entry »
In addition to all of the house projects we’ve got planned and in progress and in addition to my other hobbies currently in progress, I decided I had too much spare time and added another one. I’m working on a web-based database for my beer recipes and brewing sessions. This is very similar to my recipes database except that it was written use cakephp and for this one I’ve decided to use Ruby on Rails. That means learning a new language called Ruby and then the new framework Rails in addition to actually writing the darn thing! *sigh* No sense cutting myself any slack. RoR is truly amazing for many reasons, but that discussion will have to wait for another time.
Since it’s getting close to spring/summer, I figured I needed a new theme that wasn’t so wintery. This one doesn’t have any personal pictures yet. Maybe when I find some time…
A few weeks ago, on my birthday, I finally revived one of my hobbies–homebrewing. I can’t really say that it’s an old hobby (okay, I did in the title). This is probably my 5th batch of beer that I’ve ever brewed. But it’s very rewarding! It’s like cooking, only the final product takes a lot longer than even the slowest, lowest bbq and is beer. 
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Wow! I never thought that a subject like leftovers was so charged. And yet after reading Jennifer Derrick’s article over at SavingAdvice.com, I see it ain’t so. The article, titled Financially Secure People Eat Leftovers gives several reasons why it is beneficial to eat leftovers ranging from saving money and time to reducing waste. As someone who grew up eating leftovers, this seemed like one of those “duh!” articles. Apparently some folks (e.g. see the comments on that article) think that eating leftovers is “beneath them” somehow. Eating leftovers is something that is done out of financial need and practiced by poor people. This is very odd to me. Some of my favorite foods (chile, stew, etc.) often are much better the second day. I usually make it ahead of time and always eat it as a “leftover”. In our household, leftovers are the preferred lunch item of the day. mmm… I can’t wait for to have that leftover stroganoff for lunch!
We just got a new macbook pro laptop. I had heard so much about how cool macs were. Many of my friends have made the switch. I’m pretty psyched about it, but I have to admit that I haven’t been so ignorant about how to use a computer for quite some time. *sigh* So this is my first post from the new laptop, but I’ve still got a lot to learn.
It’s not often that I have what I think is a unique and good idea. It’s the combination of the two that gets me. Good idea–pretty easy. Unique idea–also fairly easy. Unique and good? Now that takes a bit of effort. (Although with the advent of google these days, one could somewhat successfully argue that nothing is truly unique anymore. *sigh*) Anyway, here’s an idea that I think has some merit.
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Okay, I can’t find the longer more in-depth article about this issue, so here’s the synopsis. The EPA is blocking California’s attempt to create stricter regulations on tailpipe emissions than the EPA has mandated nationally. The reasoning is that global warming is a global problem that needs a global solution, rather than a few states trying to implement laws.
I understand the argument about global climate change being a global problem and requiring a global solution. However, a global solution usually requires a lot of compromising to reach consensus due to the number of participants involved. Therefore, it seems that if a smaller group were to try for a better solution, then they should be allowed to do so. I find it preposterous that the EPA would be try to restrict a better solution than the one that can be agreed upon globally.
Here’s a short article discussing some of the information.