Homeowners Meeting and I Hate Thieves

Mandy and I actually went to a local homeowners association meeting last night.

There was a CAP METRO guy there that was really boring and he spoke for a good 45 minutes. Given the chance he would have spoken for another hour. He was trying to sell the train, sell the bus system, justify what CAP Metro did with their budget, and tell us CAP METRO’s plan for the future. I wanted to freak out from boredom but there was no escape route except to walk out right in front of him which in a polite society is really tough to do.

After he was done a local officer spoke for a little while and was extremely interesting. He spoke about how they caught some of the people robbing our neighborhood by finding 10 known criminals and basically stalked them till someone did something and they did. He told us how he just made detective after trying for like 15 years. He told us how this one crew broke into a house with an alarm and took all the flat screen tvs and left all the small electronics. One tv was on a stand and one was mounted six feet up and they took them carefully without ripping any cables out of the walls. He said they weren’t the normal gang banging kids.

He also told us how GPS’s are the number one thing that’s stolen. The lady that sat in front of me has a daughter that had her car windows busted to get a GPS. I guess for some naive reason I thought people didn’t steal GPS’s anymore because they were kind of cheap now. Guess I thought wrong because I had mine stolen as well when I didn’t lock my door.

One lady said she hopes crime goes down because the recession is getting better. I wonder if that’s actually related or if theiving scum could care less what the status of the economy is.

Sandals and Dry Feet

Last summer I wore sandals to work almost every single day. By the time winter came, my feet were incredibly dry. I had to start buffing them with a buffing stone. To this day, I’m still feeling the effects of last summer drying of the feet. I’m only wearing sandals to outdoor activities now. No more sandals at work.

IPhone IPad and Flash

It only recently occurred to me why the IPhone and the IPad doesn’t support flash which is basically on any fancy web site. Hell, even the stupid logo on my blog is flash. I used to think it was because it was too difficult to implement flash on these devices but that’s not the reason at all.

I believe Flash started out as just a tool to do animation on websites. Now it can do an infinite amount of things. It can pretty much do almost anything a full blown application can do. If you play any Facebook games that are written in flash, it’s actually pretty amazing.

Apple knows this and doesn’t want any games or application to be introduced to their devices without going through their app store. If they supported Flash then I could just go to a website on these devices and do any number of things that Apple doesn’t approve of and won’t make money off of.

This seems to go against everything the Internet stands for. It’s actually pretty crazy that we follow all of these rules but we do to use their products.

Does Fat Chef Mean Good Chef or the Opposite?

I would never want to be trained at the gym by a fat trainer. A fat coach I can handle because they usually mange the trainers and deal more with strategy. I don’t like a fat trainer because either their methods don’t work, or they’re unrealistic and they can’t handle their own designed workouts.

How about a fat chef? Does that mean their food is so good they can’t stop eating it? Does it mean that they use really bad ingredients that wreck havoc on your body?

Both of those things are probably true. The food network has a ton of tv chefs. They range from skinny like Giada pictured below

To the less skinny Paula Deen.

and to the pudgy Guy Fieri

Giada is unusually skinny for efch. On her show she cooks mainly Italian dishes but she also cooks a lot of light things like fish and salads. She also cooks a lot of pasta so I’m not sure how she can stay so skinny if she eats her own food. Maybe she doesn’t eat a lot. Paula Deen cooks a lot of southern cooking and Guy cooks a lot of burgers and really  heavy foods. I think they can’t help but be a little overweight if they eat their own food at all.

I kind of prefer to go with cooks that aren’t so heavy because their receipes sort of reflect it.

Lactose Intolerance and Pooping

Simon told me this story once that he used to have poop every morning at school. It took him a while to figure out that the milk he was drinking in the morning had a lot to do with this.

I don’t think I am truly lactose intolerant. I used to think I was. A friend of mine, who is truly lactose intolerant, can’t have any diary product at all because it makes him nauseous and sick. He can’t even eat a piece of cheese. Me, I eat cheese all the time.

I will though get a little gassy from some dairy products like straight milk. This week, I noticed I was getting a little bit of the water butt in the morning. I thought maybe it was from a night of drinking or something. Turns out, it’s from this low carb ice cream bar I was eating. We have two kinds at home. One that is very milky and one that has a chocolate shell that tastes less milky. The very milky ones have been getting me kind of gassy. I’m gassy right now.

Mystery solved. I will be going back to the one with the chocolate shell.

I Would Rather Eat A Bucket of Fried Chicken Than A Double Down Sandwich

Chances are everyone has heard of the Double Down sandwich from KFC. It’s bacon, special sauce, and cheese surround by two pieces of the colonel’s fried chicken.

The bread is supposed to be like a bun. It’s technically only five hundred and something calories but it has a ton of salt and fat.

Personally, I love KFC chicken and would rather just eat a bucket of chicken rather than this thing they call a sandwich. It’s not like I ever took home chicken and put cheese and bacon on it. Although I must admit I’ve put jelly and ketchup on it before. But not at the same time.

Since I’m watching supposed to be watching my blood pressure and cholesterol, I guess I’ll pass on both for now.

Mandy’s New Bowling Coach

Clara Guerrero. Former title holder.

Riding a Bike Takes Forever to Get Your Heart Rate Up

I bought a new “entry level” bike this weekend. I really wanted to only spend like $200 bucks but the cheapest thing they have at a bike shop is about $400! When I got that reality check from Sun and Ski Sports I left and went to Academy instead which I assumed would have plenty of bikes in my price range. There was a Schwinn for about $200 but it had a 21 inch frame which was way too tall of a bike for me. It was kind of embarrassing sitting on that thing in front of the salesman and asking if there was anything smaller and he tells me no. The weird part is all the men’s and women’s adult bikes had a 21 inch frame which was way too tall for me! Aren’t there any men under 6 feet tall!?

So I left Academy and went to a different bike shop and the cheapest thing there was $359. They had frames of all sizes and I ended up getting a 15′ frame. The last bike I had was a mountain bike and I hated that thing. The tires were super thick and I could always hear them vibrating against the pavement.

I just want to ride on concrete streets. I can’t imagine why I would want to ride on some dusty trail and crack my head open. That’s so 90s.

So I end up getting this bike to ride around the neighborhood. I’ve tried running before recently in my neighborhood and can’t really run for more than 20 minutes. That’s a mixture of running and walking and I get out of breath fairly quickly.

With a bike, unless I’m going up hill, I can ride for an hour or more. It really doesn’t take much energy at all to ride on flat streets. It was taking so long for me to get my breath going that I ended up forcing my self to go up this big hill twice. That’s just kind of what takes to get your heart rate up on a good bike.

Nevertheless, it’s a hell of a lot easier to get myself to do cardio when it’s a bicycle rather than jogging.

More Boring Bowling Stuff

I think this is why my swing is off sometimes. I’m going to have my team mates tape me tonight to see if this is part of my problem with aim.

The point of this video is that your aim will be off if you back swing in towards your back out or outwards away from your body. It needs to be in a straight line.

I Need to Bowl Like a Girl

I’m still struggling to improve with my new bowling form. Last weekend on television, they had some women bowling. Women bowlers, similar to women basketball players, usually have better fundamentals because they have less strength or speed to do certain things. Sometimes guys overcome fundamentals by just powering through. One woman in particular, Stephanie Nation, is really skinny and bowls really smoothly and consistently. She makes it look effortless. Right now I just want simple stroker form and perhaps I should try to emulate her.

Watch the follow through and the smoothness. This Feldman girl is a big strong chick. She really cranks the ball. I have never seen a women throw like that.

Smile! You’ve Been Caught on My Web Cam

I left my car door open the other day and someone stole my crappy GPS that pronounces street names like a strange foreigner.

The house across the street got robbed several months ago. After that incident we updated our security system but that doesn’t protect anything that goes on outside of my house.

Sometimes I just sit at work and wonder if someone is robbing my house. To remedy this, I installed a web camera that constantly takes pictures that I can view from the internet.

This kind of helps me with that feeling of not knowing what’s happening at my house. I figure maybe I can see the car that attempts to rob my house and I can call the cops or something. My security system should be a good deterrent but this could me identify possible crooks. I actually wanted a better camera that I can install outside but I had no idea how I’m supposed to wire something through brick.

Here’s my camera catching the trashman getting my trash.

Would I Actually Learn How To Swim and Then Swim In Deep Waters

I read in the paper just a couple of days ago that a college student named Peter Cho died at Hamilton Pool in Austin. He was swimming in about 22 feet of water. It was a very sad story. He was swimming with his brother who realized that he was getting weak in the cold, deep water so he called out for some help. After he got some help he realized that his brother was no longer swimming behind him. He drowned.

Clearly these brothers were confident swimmers to be swimming in such a deep water hole. One of the brothers realized he was struggling and called for help, the other brother couldn’t be helped in time. I can’t swim as everyone knows and I always thought the first thing you learned was to float on your back to survive. Clearly this is not a guaranteed tool to save your life. My mom took a couple of swimming lessons and that’s all she learned. I kind of think unless you’re already kind of swimming, you can’t be drowning and then all of the sudden revert to your float on the back technique.

This summer, I was really really thinking about taking some swimming lessons at the local Y. I actually can’t wrap my head around learning how to swim and swimming in deep waters. I almost feel like I’ll fail at learning how to swim or if I do somehow seem to learn how to swim at the Y I would never ever actually just jump in the lake and swim around. It seems like science fiction to me at 35.

Confident swimmers sometimes drown. I knew someone personally that drowned who I was told was a great swimmer. People aren’t drowning left and right but it’s not that uncommon. You should have seen Peter Cho’s dad. It was ridiculously sad. Cho’s girlfriend was in the group with them. Cho had already been accepted to medical school. It was the first death at the pool since 2001.

Hope this story doesn’t deter me…

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/brother-recalls-swim-that-led-to-ut-students-527390.html

I Just Realized The Ipad Is Ingenious

My initial reaction to the IPAD was that it’s silly. Since it’s as expensive as a midrange laptop, why wouldn’t you just have a laptop? You can only install App Store things on the IPAD much like you can on the IPhone. It doesn’t support flash. You can get 3g for it but you would have to pay a separate monthly fee. Some positive things about it is it doesn’t require a boot up time like a laptop, it has a long battery life, it can use WiFi, and it’s light.

I didn’t realize it was ingenious until Howard Stern asked, “Can I play chess on it?” No, he actually can’t because you can’t install non app store apps on it and because it doesn’t support flash games or java games. I’m actually not sure about java games but I’m guessing you can’t. They told him he probably can’t play chess games on it so then he says, “Well then I don’t want it.”

The ingenious part is, if the Ipad does gain popularity, that chess web site that he plays chess on will probably just make an app for it that he could use with the IPad. If it’s not for free, Apple will take a %20 fee because you have to have it approved on the app store. If it’s free great but in the end, if you want to come to the party, you will have to play by Apple’s rules and then they will call the shots.

Developers comment all the time about how unfair Apple’s approval process is and yet they bow down to it because they have to. Look at me, I hear people are making money developing IPhone apps. I look into it and I find out you have to have a Mac. So I go buy a Mac. I look into it some more and I find out I can’t test on my personal IPhone so I go out and purchase an Ipod touch. I then find out that I have to pay a fee to get a developer’s license. I go and pay for that. I find out that I have to learn Objective C to program, so I kind of learn that. They zombied me and I didn’t even know it until I was too far in!

The bottom line is, whatever the IPad can’t do now, it will.

I poo pooed it calling it just a big IPhone which it is but don’t you sometimes think there are certain things I can’t do on the IPhone because it’s too small? For example, I asked Mandy if she would use a medical software on her Iphone. Well she wouldn’t because it’s too hard to type and you would have to scroll around on too many screens. On the IPhone, I think it’s a completely different game. That’s the land rush. Create an App on the IPad that you wouldn’t be able to use well on the Iphone and create it now while it’s early.

I Don’t Like Talking Trash in A Game Situation

I was watching bowling the other day and this one player hit a “Brooklyn” strike which is basically a lucky strike. He raised his hands in the air after he did it. One of the announcers said the other bowler, Chris Barnes who is one of the best bowlers in the world, wouldn’t like that and was probably irritated. He kind of jokingly said if you get one of these lucky strikes you should put your head down and act embarrassed or something and definitely not cheer. In an interview during the match, they asked Chris Barnes about some shoe problems he was having. While talking about his shoe issue he crowbared in something like, my shoe problems weren’t so bad that I would go Brooklyn on a strike. This interview could be heard by the entire place including his opponent. Well his opponent DeAngelo was completely set off by it. DeAngelo got a strike on his next ball and yelled, “That’s not Brooklyn!” Barnes also threw a strike but now said nothing. DeAngelo went up and got another strike and yelled, “That’s not Brooklyn either! Deal with that!” and then proceeded to point at Barnes. Barnes needed to strike out to put put pressure on DeAngelo but got a spare instead.

I don’t really like talking trash in those situations unless I’m way way up. To talk trash and then to get owned like that can just be devastating in a competitive sense. When I used to play online poker, sometimes I would chime up with some trash when someone made a comment about me. What would usually happen after that is that I would kind of be worried about taking any chances because I was afraid I would bust out and get a stream of shit talk coming my way. Clearly those are the risks but they don’t seem worth it since it would affect my game negatively.

Now in a dominating position I’d say talk trash all you want.

Are You Sure Carbs Aren’t The Enemy?

Yahoo just published this article about the myths about dieting. One of them was:

Myth #1: Carbs are the Enemy

Experts suggest that carbohydrates play a star role in keep you energized and your organs functioning properly. The carb bad rap should rest squarely on the shoulders of “white carbs” like white bread, white rice, and sugar. These refined carbs, dietitians suggest, are more likely to pack on the pounds. Stick with whole grains like whole wheat pasta and brown rice for a healthier diet.

So I’ve lost almost 12 lbs by going on a low carb diet. I think Mandy lost about that much. I think Mandy’s mom lost about 60 or 70 pounds. They were reading this news item on Howard Stern and Stern said he didn’t believe in low carbs. He said he just believes in portion control which is why he stays so thin. Stern may be thin but he doesn’t have a body anybody wants. I have other friends who tried an all vegetable diet but with carbs and haven’t lost much of any weight.

It’s not that I don’t eat any carbs at all. I get carbs incidentally while I try to avoid it. For example I try to eat fruits on the low carb count like watermelon, but it still has some carbs. I believe my almond snack has some carbs. Even the gum I chew has a little bit of carbs. I don’t sit around and eat just bacon all day. By the end of the day I might have eaten 20-50 grams of carbs. Who knows. But I no longer get a massive injection of carbs from eating tortillas, sandwiches, pasta, and rice all the time.

The problem I have with Yahoo saying it is a complete myth is I guarantee you that I  wouldn’t have lost a pound if all I did was switch to whole grains, wheat, and brown rice. It may be healther than white carbs but just switching to wheat and brown won’t cause your body to lose weight. I was eating white rice and sandwiches on wheat bread almost every day. Is Yahoo saying that if I had switched to brown rice I would have lost 12 lbs. It’s just not true.

I exercise about the same now as before I went on my diet. I don’t eat less volume, I just eat less carbs. Eating less in general is just hard. I don’t feel hungry like a restrictive calorie diet would make me feel.

It sucks because I love Italian food but even before I went on a low carb diet, I knew eating things like a plate full of spaghetti or chicken fettucini with bread sticks was bad for me and I would eat that every once in a while.

I don’t low carb it like people did in the 90’s when they would promote all you can eat bacon and steak. I just lose the carby sides and starchy main dishes.

It’s easy to forget carbs when you can eat something like this I made:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/sea-bass-alla-fiorentina-recipe/index.html

Whataburger Jujitsu

This guy could have really beat up the fat guy after he took him down but he tried to submit him instead. Not the greatest form but it wins the fight.

Bowling Progress

So last week I bowled 5 days in a row! On Thursday I bowled 7 games. On Friday I bowled 10 games! This is in one session! On Saturday I bowled 3 games and Sunday I bowled about 4 games.

On Monday, league night, I did pretty decent. In game 1, I started with a spare and 4 strikes in a row but then I opened the next 5 frames. I mainly missed these 5 frames because I couldn’t convert the 6-10 spare. I just haven’t been working on it with my new style and I’ve never been good at that side of the lane.

In game 2 I ended up getting a 205 after getting three Brooklyn strikes in the 10 frame. Pretty good. I’m getting good speed on the ball but was having trouble keeping the ball on the right side of the lane.

In game 3 I actually tried to move my line to my old way and did way worse. I thought I needed to do that because the lanes were getting burned up. When I moved back to my straight line I started doing better again. I ended up getting a 151 in game 3. Our team won all 3 games and therefore 7 points. Mandy had a great outing averaging a 150+ in 3 games. We still might have a chance to get a playoff spot this season after going down 0-7 last week.

Ward is taking a lesson on Sunday. I think these lessons have really helped Mandy and I.

I still have plenty of problems with this new style but I think the Monday outing was promising. I started powdering my left foot with “easy slide” powder and it helped the slide my coach keeps trying to pound in my head. He actually has a slide cover for his left foot and his right foot has a lot of grip. When I try to slide before with my shoes without the powder I would stick and it would keep me from wanting to do it. It really does help…

Self Check Out

I just got a cup of coffee, self serve, and checked out, self checkout. It was fantastic. I wish everything retail didn’t involve any human interaction just like this. Hell, I wish I could just stick my head in a machine and get a haircut but I would probably be too afraid that the machine would malfunction and stab me in the brain.

I got a haircut last week and told them to cut the back and sides with a 1 guard and then just take like a quarter inch off the top. For some reason she made me get a shampoo, which is very unusual, and which I don’t like because it makes my hair stick straight up. I always go to the haircutter with dirty hair so I don’t know why she made me do this. It wasn’t like I had fresh, crusty gel on it or something. So I get the shampoo and since I have blunt Asian hair I’m all poofed out like a poodle. She cuts the back and sides just fine but then goes crazy buzzing cutting the top. I usually get a nice scissor cut for the top of my head but now since my hair is acting so crazy, she just buzzes it like I’m a hedge.

So I end up with a flat top looking hair cut. She basically cut about 2 inches off my coif even though I asked for about 1/4 inch cut. Maybe she thought I only wanted a 1/4 inch left of hair. Maybe she heard one guard on the side and just assumed I meant flat top.

Either way I wish there was just a machine where I could have just typed in my requirements. I guess the Flobee was based on that concept but I don’t want my hair cut just one length.

What The Dog Whisperer Has Taught Me

After watching many many episodes of the dog whisperer, I’ll look around at other dog owners in the world and realize that I a lot of them don’t understand anything about dogs. I myself understood very little before Cesar taught me key things about the dog world.

The other day, I had some friends remark that these two dogs were just “playing.” They were not. The dogs were growling and emitted high pitch barks and jumped on each other and bit at each other. Dogs don’t play like this. Dogs play by hanging out in packs, smelling each other’s butts, and just being calm and balanced around each other.

I remember when I was a kid I had a little miniature poodle named Baby. It was the family dog. The dog was kind of a nervous but an affectionate dog.

One time my family had to take care of one of those flat faced dogs. I forget the name of their kind. It was named Gizmo because it looked like a Gremlin before it transforms.

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Bowling Progress

So as you readers know, I took a bowling lesson last week. I didn’t really do very well during the actual bowling lesson at all. I couldn’t put together all the adjustments Melvin was giving me.

Some of the adjustments he told me to do was keep my foot pointed straight (apparently I always end up pointing it the right), quit throwing across my body, bend over to get a bigger back swing, keep my left arm out for balance, bend my knees, and push off and slide instead of stepping with my left foot. Every time I would fix one thing I would forget the 5 other things he would tell me to do. I figured I just need to go off by myself and get some reps in.

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