People Behind Websites was brought to my attention recently whilst doing a random surf, and I found the owners description of the site’s purpose to be interesting because they are essentially showcasing the people who exist behind a website, and giving them an opportunity, to do some reputation management in an up front and honest way.

We’ve all heard of about us pages and they are usually short and sweet companion pages to the contact page that give us a little sizzle about a person, without the steak. Well I want the whole damn meat tray!!! This is where PBW comes in by offering a series of interview questions, that when answered will give a detailed insight into the person behind a particular website and what drives and motivates them. The questions should take the average person around 30 minutes to complete.

After speaking with Ayden, the owner of PBW, I found that he was a fellow Sydney-sider (always a good thing) and that his focus with the website was on quality not quantity.

To quote Ayden: “The people that I’m after interviewing are those that are not afraid to show their identity online and that have a good story to tell.”

I really appreciate that he is going this route, and this is probably the main reason I am writing this blog post, because I value sites that are vetting content and bringing quality to the web — the scope for the directory industry is also very good, especially for owners who are struggling to get noticed.

It can be difficult for a directory to demonstrate it’s own activity or commitment to quality, when all one sees is a list of categories. It’s also very difficult to differentiate and stand out from the pack when the designs are all very similar. So PBW provides an opportunity for the owners to step out from behind their resource and tell the community what they stand for; to assist in building a reputation online; and connecting with their audience. I’ll be including links to PBW profiles on the Info Vilesilencer details pages in the near future.

All it takes is 30 minutes to let someone know who the person behind your website really is. What are you waiting for?

I had to farewell a friend today and lay him to rest. Billy, the Himalayan cat, has been a constant companion for just over 13 years now, and it was sad to have to end that friendship today.

As I laid him in his final resting place I remembered the fun times we’ve had, the laughs we’ve shared and the times he’s cheered me up when I’ve felt down.

Billy wasn’t just a cat, he was also a friend, and I will miss him…

I know what you’re thinking… Ummm Dan the drawback/downside of exercising is that it sux. Hey, many would agree with you, but for those of us that actually enjoy exercise and the benefits that it brings, there is another downside… muscle soreness.

After a certain period of excercise (its usually about 8-10 spin classes for me) our muscles need all the built up tension, toxins and acids massaged out of them. Whilst the actual massage itself can be very satisfying when all those knots of tension are released (sometimes it can be excruciating, especially those ITB’s.. ouch) the aftermath is never as pretty.

I’m sitting here now with a whopper of a migraine courtesy of the massage. Yes, we are supposed to drink tonnes of water after a massage, and I always do, but today was one of those stinking hot days when it didn’t matter how quick the water went in the sweat took it out.

So, that’s the downside of exercise. I feel incredibly lousy right now, almost like I’m totally unfit, but I know that tomorrow I should be right as reign.

What’s wrong with this image?

At first glance it might not be obvious that what you are looking at is a pulverized polarizer filter (it’s a Hoya HD 77mm Circular Polariser). Well pulverized is probably a strong word but the alliteration sounds sexy so I used it

So how does this happen?

Well, It was New Years Eve and I was perched on a shelf of rock in the Balls Head reserve, with a great view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, preparing for the end of year fireworks. As the sun went down, I decided to remove the polariser from the front of the lens. As I was turning the threading to unscrew the filter, I heard a “pop” and the polarising front of the filter popped straight off, followed closely by the spring-loaded brass ring, leaving me holding the half unscrewed threading still attached to the lens.

I kind of went into shock. This is an ~$175AUD piece of kit, and seeing it almost crumble in my hands belied belief. When you read the specs of this particular brand and quality of filter (The HOYA HD filters are considered the benchmark for digital photography) it’s even more shocking…

They have hardened optical glass that has 4 times the breaking strength in ANSI standardized testing (ANSI Z80.3 : 2001) where a steel balls of varying size and weight were dropped from a height of 50 inches onto the glass. This means its HIGHLY SCRATCH RESISTANT. It is also water, stain resistant and FINGER PRINT RESISTANT.

That sounds impressive, but then you watch this destruction video, and these filters surpass impressive!

So how did the bloody thing break?

How do I know? I’m totally perplexed… But, I can assure you that I’ll be heading back to the shop tomorrow to get a replacement

NB: Notice how I used both polarizer and polariser in this blog post? Aren’t I darn nice to not be discriminating against my American and English brethren? I’ve given you both a nod, so don’t whinge about the spelling. K?

It’s funny how things can creep up on you. As I was heading into the gym this afternoon I noticed that I’d had 51 check-ins on Foursquare to the Fitness First.

Since all I do there is spin classes, that’s 51 spin classes. Man that’s a lot. But that’s only the number I’ve done since I’ve been foursquarin’. You know, back in the old days of the 3GS I didn’t have foursquare so it’s only since the iPhone 4 that I’ve been checking in. If we extrapolate for that fact we are probably looking at something like 85-100 spin classes. No wonder I’m tired… but at least my legs look good

Anyways it was just a mini achievement I wanted to share with you guys. I won’t be hitting 100 spin-classes anytime soon because I’ll be in another country enjoying their hospitality, and I don’t really think the gym will be high on my agenda hahaha.

For the last few months I guess, I’ve been inundated with midnight ramblings from a house intruder. I know that brush-tail possums in Australia can be big but this is ridiculous. This bloke is the size of a koala! He’s freakin’ huge! I captured this shot as I was walking out the door with a friend to go hit up a local Korean restaurant called Soban (incidentally their food was awesome!).

Unfortunately the porch lighting, and lack of flash meant I had to handhold (with help from the railing) this shot, so the quality isn’t the best. I needed to adjust a few things post processing just to get it to this level of viewability.

So how does this critter keep me awake? He must live in a corner of the roof above my room. At random times between 2am and 4am he suddenly decides it’s time to wake up and have a party. He scratches the roof, he races across the tiles with mates when he’s bored, and the clincher is he tries to climb the tree outside my window (which means I have branches scratching my window). Because the tree is more of a shrub with little branches he struggles to hold his balance so he kinda surfs there. I’ve caught him with a light a couple of times, and he just looks at me stupidly with that “deer in the headlights gaze” as if to say watchoo lookin at willis? or oh it’s just you, I thought it mighta been someone important!. Then a few minutes later he’ll surf off to his next destination.

Here’s hoping he isn’t active tonight, I could use a good night’s rest to encourage the creative juices to start flowing and hopefully get my BloJo back!

So today as I was walking to the gym I realised that I’ve seriously lost my BloJo (BLOgging moJO). I was doing so well, for 9 full days I kept going with the blog challenge then it seems I hit a wall. I dunno what happened, life must’ve gotten in the way.

What I’ve been finding lately is that if I write a to-do list, I end up being seriously overwhelmed by the amount of stuff on that list. It begins to stress me when I’m not making headway.

So I checked out the writers block thread from MJ Taylor though it’s not really writer’s block that I have. I have all the topics I just don’t have the time (such a bad word, because we all have enough time)… I don’t have the creative input AT the time (yeah that sounds better) to accomplish a full blog post that is worthy of someone else reading it. And hey, if it ain’t worth a read then why am I writing it? Am I right or am I right?

So I made a pact with myself to knock out 3 posts tonight, hopefully the quality is up to scratch. I’m kind’ve in a prison of my own making, because the 2 bug bombs I set off a couple of weeks back haven’t destroyed the bugs, so I’ve just set off a mini-chernobyl in the house, 6 hardcore roach bombs, and now I’ve got 2 hours to kill before I can head back inside.

Unfortunately, since the bombs require you to turn off all electrical appliances I hadn’t factored in that I would be without internet (withdrawals happening though I do have the iphone 4 to check facebook every 5 minutes if I need to), or a power supply for the laptop for thouse 2 hours. — Good test of the battery fully charged methinks, it barely lasts more than an hour, might be time to put the new one in!

NB: The laptop battery lasted about 1 hour + 45 minutes from fully charged to putting itself to sleep after going into the “reserved” zone…

20 things to do when you are stuck outside on your balcony with an internet-less laptop for 2 hours whilst a mini-chernobyl rages on inside your home.

1. Write a things to do list. Natch
2. Write the blog posts that you are behind on writing for the blog challenge you’re involved in.
3. Missing the internet already… Try to get onto insecure neighbours connections [fail]
4. Try to get onto secure neighbours connections guessing random WEP passwords. [fail]
5. Go crazy as some seriously awesome picturesque visuals of the moon, clouds and night sky roll past your eyes and you don’t have your camera cos it’s inside, and you can’t go and get it cos you’ll get fumigated along with the other bugs.
6. Realise you have your wirelessly connected [insert smartphone name here] with you
7. Immediately check Facebook on your [insert smartphone name here]… Phew, didn’t miss anything, meltdown/crisis averted.
8. Clean your laptop desktop…
9. (2 minutes later)… give up on cleaning your laptop desktop.
10. Do random searches of your harddrive and see what “pops up”… Hmmmn lots of interesting videos (pity about that rapidly depleting laptop battery).

11. Check your harddrive space… Wow not much left.
12. Consider deleting porn videos to free up harddrive space.
13. Reconsider (12)… harddrive space isn’t that important
14. Wonder what people did without the internet…
15. Remember you have a wirelessly connected [insert smartphone name here]
16. Check Facebook… OMG LOL ROFLMAO, wow nice photo!, Status Update, Random Comment, etc.
17. Try to beat that insanely hard level on Angry birds…
18. Still trying….
19. I’m still trying…
20. I’ve given up…

People have been asking me a lot lately what the fuss and fascination I have with the spin bike is all about… The answer to which invariably leads to another question. What is *the secret* to loving it?

For those that are unaware, spin bikes (or cycles) are simply stationary exercises bikes. The “spin” or “spinning” is just a fancy name they give to the bikes and classes to get more people enthused about what is essentially riding a bike for exercise. A spin class consists of a room full of about 30 people riding these bikes with a lone instructor who shouts both instruction and motivation from their raised platform riding position at the front of the class.

There is no secret to loving the spin cycle. The fact is, that I neither love it nor hate it. It is just something that I do as part of my daily routine (the same as brushing teeth, going to work, having a coffee). I think far too often people make exercise an option in their lives, and it is why they often fail at achieving weight loss and fitness goals. I don’t make exercice an option, I make exercise an obligation. That way, there is no “oh I’ll go tomorrow” and then feel guilty. I just go, no excuses.

Thinking that way, is actually one of the keys to achieving success at losing weight. It takes willpower, and if you have to force yourself or hate what you are doing, then you are destined to fail. You have to accept it as part of your routine, and stick to it religiously in order to gain results. The second you stray from your obligation you are destined to fail. THAT is the secret. If indeed there is one.

So why the spin bike? Quite frankly it’s one of the few pieces of equipment in the gym that comes with an instructor sans cost. An instructor is useful because they can get you moving with a routine, interesting music, and challenging workouts - which can be summed up in one word - motivation. It’s still up to you to choose the resistance setting that will get you the best results, but being in a room filled with like minded individuals all pushing themselves, is like a support net for when you want to give up or go easy on yourself - When you think you can’t you just need to look either side of you to see people who aren’t succumbing to the voice in their heads telling them to stop - that is a powerful motivating factor.

I don’t think I have done a class yet where I have gone easy on myself. There’s been times in many of the classes when I’ve wanted to give up and walk out, and that’s when the music will pick up, or you’ll hear the instructor yelling motivational slogans like “Cmon people CMON!” or “Don’t give up” or “Push! Breathe!” cos they are feeling it too, and you click back into that “I’m doing this, no excuses” mode.

Cycling in these 45 minute classes, if you push yourself, is also one of the best calorie burners. The reason for this is because the classes will isolate your bigger leg muscles like the quads and glutes, which burn the most calories. You can blast anywhere from 700-1200 calories per class, which is a massive amount, especially if you can do 3-4 of these classes per week. The approximate distance of a class is 20-22km.

You’ll notice your fitness levels go through the roof after just a few classes… and your legs? Well they just get dead sexy and turn into weapons of mass attraction. They lose girth, gain muscle and tone, and they become strong, so much so that your centre of gravity becomes powerful and you have extremely good balance and poise.

I personally found that in the first couple of months of doing these classes I lost the 3kg that I was finding it impossible to lose through personal training. And that dear friends, is why I spin!