Rich's blog

Thailand: Day 6: The River

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:41:00 +0000

Today we wake and have breakfast and then change and head down to the river, just a quarter mile down the road. Paulo has arranged to, or simple on the fly does, hire us a boat for the day. We split the cost with him and all pile in, Lucy and I, Paulo, and a middle aged French couple from our compound, and the driver of course, with our stuff for our picnick later in the day.

We cruise down the river, weaving this way and that as our adept guide dodges unseen obsticles. We pass many interesting sites, villages, farmers, farms of corn and unknown trees, fishermen, children, cows, pigs, and oxen. We weave through the mountains, green, tall, lush, old vegitation rising on both sides of us, all shrouded in smoke.

After several hours, about 3, I see elephants in the river ahead. We have arrived at the elephant compound. Here there are about a dozen elephants with seats strapped to their backs. They take turns being hurded up to a 1 story launch ramp where tourists, almost none of them white, mostly asians of some sort or another, climb on and get ridden up a hill, off somewhere, and then through the shallows of the river a hundered feet back to where they started. This whole thing makes me feel sick... literally.

We get off the boat and cross through the elephants, a humbling and slightly nerve wracking experience, as the elephants expect that anyone within grabbing distance has food to stuff into their trunks. They extend their long noses to us, breathing in deeply, soundling like a quite vaccuum... shooooooooooooooo. It is very odd to me. We move to a covered area with tables, where we can use the bathroom, again a porceline hole in the ground, which has taken me personally quite some time to get used to. We stand around and chat with one another and have a coke.

Everyone gets a bag of bamboo, I think, with some bananas in it, to feed to the elephants. I somehow get handed two, even though neither I nor Lucy actually bought one. I refuse to participate, but Lucy feeds the animals a bag of said food, then must go find a bucket of water to wash the elephant crud off of her. Ha! I eventually stop feeling ill, and decide to take a few photos of the elephants. We wander the stalls briefly, all setup just for the tourists, of course, and then pile back into the boat.

We head back upriver a ways to the national park we passed, and there we disembark and take our things a hundred feet from the river to picnic under the trees. We have nice meal of stick rice, sticky enough to be pulled appart like puddy or something, and dip it in the sauce of some delicious meet stew thing. We also have two kinds of sausage, and a cut meet, all very tasty. We finish with pineapple. We drink beers and chat, and then Lucy takes a brief dip in the river as we get back into the boat. Then several hours more back up the river to Tha Ton.

We all get off the boat, and everyone but Paulo and I wander off. We take the truck back to Paulo's, and I run inside, as I have needed relief since we started the journey. Paulo places a phone call and ten minutes later, only moments after Lucy arrives at the compound, a Thai masseuse (sp?) appears. I get at least an hour massage in my private closed bungalo under the fading light of day in our canopy covered bed. Lucy is currently getting the same treatment and after, we shall run into town and get a meal. A very relaxing day indeed.

Thailand: Day 5: Hot Sun Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:20:00 +0000

I am woken by strange sounds. I hear roosters crowing. I rise in the dark, Lucy still asleep, don my Thai linen garb, and exit the bungalo. The patio is cold on my bare feet, and I put on my slippers, shivering slightly in the cool, but enjoying it and refusing to get more clothing. It is still dark, and lighting a cigarette I momentarily blind myself.

A haze is in the valley from all the fires that are buring. The Thai villagers believe that burning the forest at the end of the dry season provide nutrients to the soil for the rainy season. Not a problem when the tribes are sparse, but there are so many people now doing it, that for a month or so out of the year the sky blotted out by the haze of smoke, ruining what I am sure would be the most spectacular views.

There is a cacophany of roosters across the valley all chantning back and forth, and in the lulls in between I only hear large palm leaves rustling in the breeze. An extoic animal joins the chorus. The stars are visible, but only just as the light from the town coupled with the smoke in the low atmosphere makes the faint light of the stars hard to see. I attempt to capture some long exposure photography, but am interupted by light from the main house upstairs, Paulo's wife is awake and preparing coffee. I leave the porch to go upstairs to use the computer, so that I can chronicle my journey thus far. Off in the distance I hear a large bell toll.

I chat with Paulo about what to do today, and he gives me a game plan for a local scooter excursion to visit local shrines along the ridge, and a loop tour to a cave for some hiking. Lucy and I eat breakfast, and then change for the day. We head out on Paulos scooter, a 125 cc CVT, and I notice that it is very hard to steer. The front tire is a bit low, and we are low on fuel.

We ride into town and grab some water before heading up the mountain. A short ride up the hill and along the ridge takes us past many interesting sites, and finally to a very large golden statue. A very nice Thai women sells Lucy a trinket, and helps her get some incense and matches for an offering to the Buddah. We wander around taking pictures and having fun and then move on. We go back into town for gas and a tire filling and then head back up the mountain to visit the other sites along the road. A giant temple awaits us, looking more Hindu than Buddist. We stop and have some cokes and then enter the temple. A friendly young Thai woman approaches us and informs us that she is a guide and will answer questions we have about the temple. She ends up following us / leading us around the temple, informing us of various interesting facts about the artifacts they have in the temple. They have many, many Buddahs and various other sculptures there. I take many pictures.

When we leave there the heat is starting to get to us. We stop at another enormous golden Buddah only long enough for a couple pictures, and then down the rest of the trail back into Tha Ton. We stop at the same place we ate last night and have a bite of lunch. We chat with a few old ex-pats that are also there for lunch and then head back to the bungalo for a dip in the pool. Turns out that may not have been the best thing to do, given that we were exessively hot, as niether of us felt particularly good upon getting out. I think we may have had some mild heat exhaustion. We just hung out by the pool on our porch and drank some soda and water and chatted.

We decided to head back out in the afternoon and hopped back on the scooter and went looking for the scenic loop. We drove down the road through Tha Ton a little ways and then found the white building marking our right hand turn. Before we could turn though, we had to watch a large brigade of children in school uniforms cruize by on their bycicles. It was very interesting. We made our way slowly up the hills, taking our time and enjoying the view and the fun of it all. There was no one on this back road, so everyone we passed stared at us intently as foreigners are probably not too common there. We came across a small rural village, which we decided to take a quick drive through. It was all thatch homes and a dirt path down the middle. There was a single building at the entrance that was the school, with oil drums welded to various bits of metal for slides and jungle gyms. We passed a pack of children, who smiled and looked at us with amazement. We said hello in Thai, and immediately their faces lit up and their hands came together near their faces in typical Thai prayer greeting style in a reactionary manner as they said hello. We saw pigs and chickens running around and then headed back to the road.

We continued on down the road, enjoying ourselves thoroughly. The further down this road we got the more rural it got. Many people would smile and bob thier heads if I did so first, others would just stare. One many lit up and shouted "Hell-o". And we smiled and said hello in English and Thai back. He was clearly proud of himself, and relished the opportunity to practice his greeting on a white person. We were bouncing around right on the boarder with Burma the entire time, and at one point the road turn at a check point on the boarder, where two boarder guards were in a sand bag hut, one of whom, shirtless, jumped out from behind the sandbags and shouted, "Hell-o". Again we returned the favor, grinning. Some man on the top of the hill just past this point on what appeared to be the Burmese side shouted something at us in Thai and we simply said hello to him too and continued on. Everyone was very friendly.

The clothing and attitude of people changed a little after that and Lucy said that these people may be Burmese refugese. It is true that the Burmese we had seen up to this point typically wore more loud, colorful clothing. This seemed to fit. We found a road marked with a waterfall sign, but seeing that, burried this high in the mountains, the sun would be setting prematurely soon, so we decided to continue on, not knowing how far we were from town still. The drive turned out to be quite far. I did not pay attention to the odometer when we left, but I would say it was easily a 40 mile journey we took. We finally made it back to the main road and turned toward Tha Ton.

We went looking for a river front hotel listed in the guide for dinner. We crossed the river and turned down some small road marked with a river side hotel sign, but not the one we wanted. We just continued to bounce our way down this road, making a wrong turn here or there and eventually turning around and trying again. Eventually we found the hotel we were looking for. It looked very nice from the road, but we were much happier with where we were staying than this commercial resort. We wander around the grounds a bit first, looking at the river and the view of the temple from there, and then took a seat for dinner. We had roasted chicken, and Thai noodles and rice. We drank beer and Thai whiskey, which may be brandy, and laughed and had a great dinner as the sun set and night came up. The fires still burning on the sides of the hills lighting them red. A friendly cat came buy and bothered us for chicken, but all we gave him was attention, so he jumped up on the table, sticking his paw right in Lucy's beer, ruining it, and we sent him away.

We hopped back on the scooter and headed back to our hotel, just up the road. We stopped at the local store and got batteries and water first. We returned to the hotel and chatted with Paulo for a while about our plans for the rest of our vacation, where to go, and what to do for the next few days while we were still here. We decided that tomorrow we would go for a beautiful boat tour of the river. Paulo was already taking a French couple staying here, and said that neither he nor they would mind if we tagged along. Having our plans set, we checked airline prices for planes down south, Lucy sent some email, and we showered and went to bed.

Thailand: Day 4: The Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:52:00 +0000

I wake early, again, and leave Lucy getting ready while I go and return the bike to the shop a few blocks from the hotel. I am there before they open at 7:30 and drop the bike off, get my passport back, and walk back to the hotel.

We enjoy breakfast at the hotel, and chat with the very friendly hotel staff. We check out and catch a Tuk Tuk to the bus station on the north end of town.

We ask around, looking for a "minibus" that will take us to "Tha Ton", although I guess we should have been asking for "Fang", the city just before Tha ton. We finally, after several false starts, bounce our way to the the back of the bus station to a ticket booth where we purchase a ticket for "The white bus there, number 1". "Tha Ton?" "Tha Ton". "Tha Ton?" "Tha Ton". Ok we must be good. We wait for the bus to board, drinking a beer and sitting with the locals.

We get on the bus, and after some confusion where the bus was overly populated, and then half the patrons were removed and replaced by others, we start off. It should be about a 3 and a half hour ride to Fang. I sit in the window seat, my camera in the crux of my arm, snapping pictures and anything that I fancy as we fly by.

After the bus has thinned out, and we are approaching 3.5 hours of trip, we decide to inquire where we are, to see when Fang appraoches and we should disembark. We ask, "Fang?" The locals reply, "Fang? Fang far." Oh shit. We are lost. We somehow got directed to the wrong bus, and now we are in the middle of nowhere. Everyone on the bus has a good laugh at our expense and the journey continues. The last of the patrons are dropped of and we roll into a small dusty lot in front of a small hut, resembling something from a fort outpost in the old west, in a small rural village.

We approach the "bus station", where three small children are seated on a bench, and few adults are near, all on a poarch under an awning protected from the sun. We remove our shoes and enter the poarch. The 3 children all simultaneously clasp their hands in the traditional prayer pose and bow their heads to us. It was an awesome moment. We return the favor. We then proceed to ask where we are on a map. No one is able to show us, definitively. We are really rural. We finally are able to communicate that we want to buy some water, and we are put on another bus to go to Chaing Dow, where we are suppposed to be able catch another bus to Fang, as far as we can tell.

Chaing Dow is about an hour north of Chaing Mai, right where Lucy noticed that "We are leaving the 107", which should have mattered more at the time than it did. Everyone on this bus is made aware of our plight, from the one woman who sort of speaks English and is communicating with us. We stop at a rest area for a bite to eat and beg a phone call off someone's cell. We call Paulo, the proprieter of the hotel we are trying to get to in Tha Ton. We inform him of the situation, and he says, "I was at the bus station in Fang for the alst bus, but no one was there. Good luck finding a way up here now from Chang Dow". We arrive at the bus station in Chang Dow, and inquire from a bus driver there, the only bus driver there, and he tells us that there will be another bus coming in 15 minutes that will take us to Fang. What luck! We catch that bus, and begging another phone call from a local, with the help of several other locals, we tell Paulo that we are on our way!

We arrive in Fang at about 8 pm. We left Chaing Mai at 10:30. 10 hours of bus riding around rural northern Thailand. We went through several military guarded check points on our ride, indicating that we were following the boarder with Burma the entire way. Paulo is there to pick us up at the bus station, which is really just the side of the road in Fang. We tell him that we haven't eaten, and he takes us north to Tha Ton, and to a small stand where we order food. The best meal we have had in country! We are so glad to be found, and fed, we are giddy with delight.

Paulo takes us a few hundred meters further up the road to his hotel. What a hotel. It is a small but lavish resort. Only 4 bungaloes. We have a beautiful room, next to the pool that makes the center of the complex. We have TV, DVD, satelite, stereo, laundry, all complimentary. Lucy and I make it a habit not to use television while on vacation. Sitting on the poarch of our bungalo in the night, I hear strange and exotic creatures, calling "woo wee woo" in a high whisteling voice. This experience is more profound and amazing to me than hearing whales communicating underwater in Hawaii. We crawl into our canopy covered bed, and drift into wonderful and well wanted sleep to the tunes of peaceful Thai music.

Thailand: Day 3: A Three Hour Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:36:00 +0000

We wake and have breakfast at the same place we first went to when we arrived in Chaing Mai, a few blocks from our hotel. The breakfast was not as good as the meal I had gotten when we arrived, but I ate my eggs and a banana wrapped in a pancake.

We start walking to finish our walking tour of the Wats we started yesterday, but come across one of the motorcycle rental places recommended in our book, so we stop and inquire about renting a bike, our goal for the day. We agree to rent a bike and after filling out the paperwork, I inquire what bike we are getting, before signing, because we are planning on doing a loop in the mountains.

She points to a small aqua step through scooter. "125 cc" she says. We pantimime our way into a bigger, 250 cc dirt bike. After stalling the bike a few times, and with much trepidation on the face of the sales lady, we sputter off down the street.

We head off into the mountains, guided by our map. What fun it is to cruize around on a bike! We drive on the wrong side of the road, weaving in and out of trucks and scooters and tuk tuks, out of the city and up the rural highway. We stop at a waterfall sign in a national park and hike for moment, before returning to the bike.

This bike is not really made for two, and I must sit very far up on the seat so that Lucy is not sitting on the metal rack at the back. Both our legs are very cramped and squished towards our chests. My knees are killing me by the end, and we are both rattled badly. We have fun though, weaving through the mountains.

We come back to the city, only to speed through it again, heading out north again to dive into another mountain area headed for a Wat. We weave our way up a mountain again and find the Wat. We climb many, many stairs to a beautiful and spralling Wat. We separate and explore for a while. We are looking for monks that should be chanting at 6 pm. It is now 6:10, no chanting. I am slightly disheatened, and then I hear a bell chime and a monk slams a gong to the right of me. The chanting begins. I sit just outside the temple proper, and listen intently as the monks continue chanting for at least 15 minutes. Somewhere in the middle Lucy approaches and sits just inside the temple door. She was busy getting blessed by a monk apparently. We decide to leave early becuase it will be dark soon, and then proceed to explore the Wat some more, to my discontent. We finally leave and get back on the knee mobile, only to have dark set in immediately. It really was not a big deal though and we enjoy our peaceful return to the city of Chaing Mai.

We leave the hotel to go find the Sunday night bazaar. Wow, that was intense. Throngs and throngs of people, all milling about. Entire streets are dedicated to this bazaar with thousands of stands, stretching in every direction, and thousands more people shuffling by. There is more or less a flow to it all, as everyone walks down the street on the left side, just like they drive. We buy me a pair of linen pants to go with my shirt, both of which I am enjoying right now, and a shirt for a gift, and a set of worry beads.

We return to the hotel and go to bed.

Thailand: Day 2: Heading North

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:16:00 +0000

I wake in the morning at about 6, watching the sunrise, even though that is nothing more than a slight brightening of the overall haze of Bangkok. We go downstairs and have a good breakfast from a small buffet. It contains a small portion of scrambled eggs, and has vegetable fried rice and spicy Thai noodles. There are several locals, all dressed very nicely, for a wedding we sermise. We eat and the hotel calls us a taxi back to the airport.

We run around for a while looking for a place to buy a ticket up north to Chaing Mai, a mountain town. We get distracted momentarily by a man approaching us claiming to get us tickets, but after taking us down and down to some basement level of the airport, where no one else is, and telling us that the ticket counter is closed, we leave to go find where we are "supposed" to be.

We find a ticket counter and stand in line for a half hour or so and then buy tickets to Chaing Mai, about an hour or two later. We hang out at the gate and board. A one hour flight drops us off in Chaing Mai.

We are approached upon leaving the airport for a taxi, which I try to dismiss, as we are told not to take anything from anyone who approaches you. But after standing there looking lost and stupid for a moment the guy persists and we acquies. He says he knows our hotel, the Sri Pat hotel, and will take us there for 120 baht. I ask how far it is, once we are under way, and he says about 20 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes later we are there. Oh well.

The people at this hotel are incredibly nice. We check in and are taken to a very nice and comfortable room. Spacious, well appointed. It has a small balcony with a single chair and a small table. It has an in room safe, which makes me happy. We leave and go to explore.

We start a walking tour of nearby temples, called Wats, and find the first a few blocks from our hotel. We are greated by some Thais near a Tuk Tuk, who gives a bit of a schpeal and let us be on our way. We explore and take pictures and sit prayer style and revear the Buddahs for a while. We are exploring the back side of the grounds and we are approached by a friendly Thai who says that he is a teacher and is visiting family in Chaing Mai. He studies architecture, and converses with us for a while, stating that there are 352 Wats in Chaing Mai, and suggest 2 in particular for their varried architecture, and marks them on our map. I don't know why but Lucy and I always have great luck with people. They always seem to want to talk to us. It's intreguing.

On our way out we hire the Tuk Tuk driver, a very friendly female, who originally offered us a 1 hour tour for 100 baht, but upon inspecting our map marked by our friend, and probably seeing the 60 baht he had written on there, she says she will do it for 60 baht... imagine that. We visit a Chinese style Wat, with monks shuffling around sweeping leaves, and construction going on all over the place. The map makes the city look big and the Wats far apart, but our Tuk Tuk ride was mear moments. We are approached by another local, who says that he works for the state, and talks to us for a while, telling us about the temples etc. Both he and the prior local had suggested this particular government run clothing store, so we had to check it out. After wandering around the Wat taking pictures and revering the Buddah, we go the this store.

A friendly man takes us in and we notice that it is all suits. Very fancy clothing. All custom made. You pick your cloth and they fit it to you and build you whatever style you want. They have books and books of styles and they want something like 2,000 baht for a pair of pants; that's about 60 dollars. Not going to happen. We bow out and leave. We let our Tuk Tuk driver go and we walk the rest of the way. We stop by a bazaar on the way back and do some shopping. I purchase a linen shirt. "First customer of the day", she says. "I make you good deal. Good for you, good for me". I purchase the shirt for 140 baht. We buy a cheap watch for about 300 baht, and a get a cool new hat for 350 baht. We kinda get lost on the way home, but eventually find our way back, and collapse at a restaurant next to the hotel.

We have been at it for almost 8 hours without food, and we are very dehydrated, apparent by our extemely swollen digits. We order some food, which is overpriced and marginal, because it is a more tourist/American centric place, but we don't care. We eat and then stumble back toward the hotel. We stop at a local massage parlor, one of many found everywhere, get much needed feet massages. 150 baht for a 1 hour foot massage. It was divine. I dosed off several times. Relax we return to the hotel and go to bed.

Thailand: Day 1: The Crossing

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:04:00 +0000

Today we fly to Thailand. Our friend Nicole picks us up at 4:30 in the morning and we go to the airport in Sacramento. We check ourselves in and go through security. We get something to eat and board our plane to LAX.

One and a half hours to LAX. A four hour layover. Eleven hours to Tokyo, Japan. A three hour layover. Seven hours to Bangkok. We arrive at eleven PM. This is over 26 hours of travel. This was not all that bad, only because I had my newly purchased PSP. I gamed most of the time. Mostly I played Final Fantasy Tactics, allowing me to be absorbed in that and not in the sitting... and sitting...

We arrive in Bangkok, deplane and go through a short line at customs. We have no checked bags, and head to find a taxi. I had read an article provided to me by my friend Lance, at work, who also went to Thailand on the same day as us. It said that the public taxis were hard to find because they are in competition with the airport "limosine" service. We first went to the airport taxi desk, not knowing any better, but wondering why there wasn't a single other person around. When we got quoted a price of 850 baht for the ride, we declined and chose to explore further. Just past this desk was a long line in front of a sign leading outside the airport labled "Public Taxi". Now we are in business. We get a friendly female driver who takes us to our only booked hotel of the trip, about 25 minutes from the airport. The freeways are empty at midnight, but the surface streets are still somewhat busy. We check in and go to our room.

The room, and the hallway leading to it, are slightly prison-esque. There is tile everything, as I am told by Lucy that carpet doesn't fair well in muggy climates. The room is bare and the pictures on the wall still have the generic target style picture in the frame with the barcode on them. I take a shower and go to bed. I cannot sleep, from the time change, even though I slept only maybe 2 hours the entire flight over. I doze here and there but it was a miserable night.

Personal Automated Transit becomes reality

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:20:00 +0000

I found a slashdot article about personal automated transportation systems becoming reality. This year 2 systems will be created, one in Heathrow airport, London, and the other in the United Arab Emirates.

You should link out the slashdot article and read all about it. The websites have nifty video feeds as well.

These things are already created and working on a real test track.

How exciting!

The science fiction of yesterday is the reality of today.

I always thought that the infrastructure costs would be prohibitive, but I suppose implementing it in high traffic areas such as airports, on a smaller scale first, is a completely achievable goal, and once the benefits are seen and can be measured the backing will be present for construction on a much larger scale.

Just imagine the possibilities...

Rich's 2008 PS3 Video Game Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Game of the Year
Metal Gear Solid 4
Fallout 3
Little Big Planet
Dead Space

Music/Soundtrack
Little Big Planet
Metal Gear Solid 4

Sound
Dead Space
Metal Gear Solid 4

Art
Prince of Persia
Valkyria Chronicles

Graphics
Metal Gear Solid IV
Tomb Raider
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Sports
Madden 09

Adventure/RPG
Fallout 3

Strategy/Tactical Role-Playing
Valkyria Chronicles

Action
Metal Gear Solid 4
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Grand Theft Auto IV
Little Big Planet
Tomb Raider
Mirror's Edge

First Person Shooter
Resistance 2

Third Person Shooter
Dead Space

Innovation
Little Big Planet
Prince of Persia
Mirror's Edge
Valkyria Chronicles

Puzzle
Echochrome
Pixeljunk Eden

p90x The first days

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:55:00 +0000

So the first day I did the fitness pre-test. That took just about everything out of me. They have a minimum suggested for each exercise in order to be fit enough to really do this workout routine. Most exercises I just barley made the minimum.

Wide pull ups: min 3, me 4.75
Push ups: min 10, me 15 (I think, and I am using my perfect push-ups, making it harder than regular push-ups)
Curls: min 10@20, me 15@25
Wall sit: min 60 secs, me 60 secs
Leg extensions (abs): min 20, me 34 (my abs are not that great though)
Heart rate after 2 mins of rigorous exercise: 186 bpm, 1 min: 174 bpm, 2 min: 150 bpm, 3 min: 125 bpm, 4 min: 110 bpm

Day 1: Chest and back
This was primarily pull ups and push ups. After about 35 minutes I was out of gas. 1 hour of these work outs is hard core! I had to skip the last few chapters of this exercise, I just couldn't go on. Once you complete one round of the exercises... then you have to do them all again!

This day finishes up with ab ripper x. This was 15 minutes of non-stop ab exercises. Surprisingly, since I hate ab exercises, I quite liked this routine. It was fun, and most exercises are done for 30 seconds, which as Tony says, "You can do anything for 30 seconds.” I had a hard time with this, but it was fun, and I continued to struggle through as best I could. "Do your best, forget the rest.” Just "Bring it.” That's what I tried to do. This was fun because he goes through so many different exercises to work your abs, it keeps it interesting, as opposed to sitting there crunching until it hurts and then crunching for another 5 minutes after that.

This is why I bought this exercise routine, not for the ab exercises, but because he has done all the work discovering new exercises and varieties to keep it entertaining and interesting while still working the muscles. When I do yoga I only get what is in that yoga routine. When I do my weight lifting routine, I only get what is in that routine. Neither have the variety I get from p90x. That is why I like p90x. It covers all the bases, with a myriad of exercises I would not come up with myself, and if I had, I would not subject myself to voluntarily. My cousin always likes to point out when we get together and talk about p90x that, "All of those programs work, you just have to do them.” That is true, but this does not discount the value of p90x. You can choose any workout routine and if you do it you will get some sort of results, but the results will be based on how much you put into it and also based on what challenges are made available to you from that routine. This is where p90x shines, as the challenge is broad and varied in a way that a single style of exercise such as yoga or weight lifting alone cannot provide.

Day 2: Plyometrics
This is primarily jumping exercises. This is ridiculous! OMG it is so hard. For an hour! I am not a person who sweats a lot, but man did this make me sweat! I haven't been able to walk for 2 days because my thighs hurt so bad. I can't stand up or sit down. And I hardly made it through that day. I did, but everything was half ass for half the time. This workout is amazing. My entire body is pain, from top to bottom... I love it! Good pain. I am so excited.

I did not workout yesterday, because it was Christmas, thankfully, because that was a perfect excuse not to work out yesterday, better than because everything I have hurts. My abs, my chest, my shoulders, my thighs, my calves, it all hurts.

I watched some video diaries of a guy that just finished p90x on thanksgiving, and he said, "Just make it through the first couple weeks.” I now understand why. This is really hard, and it really hurts.

I love it!

That is why I am doing this!

For some, this might be too much for them and they may give up. I just want more. Hurt me more Tony! Let's bring it!

"No pain, no gain.”

"If you ain't feelin' it, you ain't buildin' it.”

"Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

"You have to tear muscle to build muscle."

Tonight: Shoulders and arms. Oh yeah.

p90x

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:52:00 +0000

So I am going to start the p90x workout program today. I ordered the DVDs on discount (turns out they are used, but working condition as far as I can tell) and the door frame pull up bar on discount as well. I already have GNC Pro Performance® Wheybolic Extreme 60™ - Vanilla post-workout protein powder. I already eat pretty healthy. I am just excited to try this out. I'm not trying to be Arnold Swarchenegger, but leaning up and getting ripped wouldn't hurt. :)

I already bought myself the Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells, which are awesome. I created myself a custom weight lifting routine for these. You can work your whole body with a pair of dumbbells. The problem is that all I did was weight lift. Everyone says that you need some cardio in your workout routines as well. I hate cardio. I don't like to run and don't want to bike. I tried jump rope but that is really hard.

I was weight lifting in the garage, but it was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter so I sold my queen size bed in the spare bedroom, bought a full size futon bed, and made the spare bedroom my workout room. I did my weight lifting routine for a month or two, but lost interest and have taken a break for about 2 months now. I am ready to start again.

This time it will be with the p90x workout routine. This will be good because it will combine not only weight lifting but cardio as well. There is kenpo, plyometrics, yoga, abs, and stretching along with the typcial body part workout routines. This is great because it gets the variation in my workout routine that it was lacking when it was simply weight lifting.

I found the plan and calendar on this girls blog, so I now know the routine and have a calendar to track my progress. Should be fun. I also found out how to calculate my various heart rates from wikihow. My resting heart rate on day 1 is about 63. My target heart rate for a 10 second period is from 24-28. I found the p90x pre-test from beachbody and will do this before my workout tonight; everything but the jump test and the stretch test, because I don't care how high I can jump and I already know that I am crazy flexible so it won't impress me if I can improve on that, which is dubious. I am so stoked right now! I can't wait to go home and workout! I will post the results of my pre-test and first day later.

The changes I have seen in others are drastic. I will have to take before and after pictures. This routine is based on the idea of muscle confusion, so by varying what you are asking of your body you maximize promotion of muscle growth. I was trying to figure out how to combine yoga with my weight lifting, but this is even better with the other areas of workout that I know nothing about, like kenpo. Plus it will make me work my abs, which I never do voluntarily. I am really excited for this program to motivate me in the ways I want. I really enjoyed weight lifting, and I hope that his will be even more fun as I get to combine it with other exciting things. And the pull up bar is an awesome addition, which I think this program relys on heavily, because I was always good at and enjoyed doing pull ups. Should help for building back muscles immensely.

Fractals are awesome!

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:43:00 +0000

You can read about fractals, you can visit the page for open source Apophysis or freeware Sterling2. Either will allow you to play with and create your own fractal images. They make great background images.

Game Review: Prince of Persia (PS3)

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:43:00 +0000

I have been a fan of the Prince of Persia series since the playstation trilogy. The new one is very good and doesn't really disappoint. While primarily a platforming game there are certain aspects of the platforming that exceed other similar platforming styles and other aspects of it's platforming that disappoint slightly. Fun, beautiful, fairly expansive world to explore; great dialog and engaging story; enjoyable battle style; highly stylized platforming; all in all a very satisfying game. Read more after the jump...

I am only about a third of the way through the game but have a good feel for the game play at this point.

The game is slightly repetitive, in my opinion, in the fighting as it has been in previous Prince of Persias, while admittedly the fighting is much more entertaining in this one. It is also, sadly, repetitive in the platforming slightly more so than in previous versions.

The forte of the platforming system is at the same time its foible. The platforming mechanics are simple to use and are terribly accurate, unlike the new Tomb Raider in which Lara continually jumps in some apparently random direction given my input, usually to her tragic demise. In Prince of Persia the jumping is spot on, and about the only time where an errant jump occurs is the result of button mashing on my part. While this is wonderful and makes for fluid, graceful, rhythmic jumping sequences, which is what they were out to achieve, it also removes almost any sense of challenge from the sequences, making it an exercise in single button tapping at regular intervals. The window in which a correct button must be pushed is very generous and errant button pushes have rare if any ill effects. So in this case you have given up the frustration experienced in Tomb Raider for an almost complete lack of challenge in the platforming sequences.

This, however, does not preclude the game from being fun and enjoyable. It is quite entertaining and rewarding.

The female protagonist is a newly magically endowed sidekick and she is available via button push to help you cross long gaps while jumping and to spout magic at foes during fight sequences. For the most part she is cool, my only complaint being that while she can follow you and do everything you do she can't climb on vines like you; she must hang on your back for these movements. Lame, albeit hyper-critical.

At many various points throughout the world you are given an admonition to engage in conversation with her. This is completely voluntary but is where a large portion of background on the area you are currently in, the world, and the story in general is divulged. This gets slightly repetitive with the typically query/response format of these exchanges, but is tolerable and informative. I think cut scenes would have allowed for a more fluid presentation eliminating the piece meal presentation challenge.

The fight sequences are boss like battles in lieu of random minion battles. These typically follow a predictable format, but are entertaining and ultimately rewarding, except that when re-visiting a particular section some characters re-appear after having previously been defeated and other characters must be fought multiple times as every time you beat them they simply run away instead of dying like good bad guys.

Not having finished the game yet I admittedly cannot give a complete review, but I can confidently recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the series or this style of game play. Highly recommended.

Game Review: Valkyria Chronicles, Motor Storm, Eternal Sonota

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:19:00 +0000

I have been jones'n for a good RPG/strategy game for a while now. I have had the Valkyria Chronicles demo on my PS3 XMB for a while now, along with several other demos, but have not bothered to play any of them. I have been sick the last few days so I figured I would try them out.

Motor Storm was pretty disappointing. I give it a Lame. The controls were wonky, it didn't feel visceral when turning, it felt very disconnected, very "arcade" style as I call it when there is little realism in a game. Different skins for different vehicles but really the same thing with a different skin. If you are really into this type of game you may find some value here, but as a fan of past Burnouts, Need for Speeds, and Gran Turismos I felt this game had very little to offer. Maybe online gaming would be fun. A good solid Lame.

Eternal Sonata I heard from a friend at work was very good. Playing the demo I was immediately disgusted by japanime of it. The characters cheesy not cool. The voice acting was annoying and cutesy. The names of the attacks were sorry. The graphics were good and as far as true hard core RPG style it appeared to adhere to the blueprint very well. Still, I couldn't get into it. Granted, it's a demo so there was no character development or even a little back story, but when I got into a match that was challenging and I lost I just quit. I had no desire to continue on to through the forest to get to whatever boss or mini boss was there to mark the end of the demo. Again, if you are really into this kind of game there may be some value for you here. I give it a Lame as well.

I am not a hard core RPG fan, but I fell in love with Final Fantasy VII, becoming very attached to the characters (Aeris) and playing the game through multiple times. I played FFVIII to the end but didn't care to beat it. I played some FFIX, if I remember correctly, but didn't care to finish it. I saw a friend playing some FFX and was bored and not interested in pursuing it myself. I played FFXII but again failed to find enough value to continue, and bailed on it relatively early in the game. I blame these failures mostly on story. Not that the stories were bad, I just couldn't get into them, get attached, and become interested. I have high hopes for FFXIII.

As far as RPGs go, I hear great things about Fallout 3 and plan to purchase it sometime in summer. This is because there may be a drought of good new games, gives me a chance to finish the bevy of new games I have right now that I need to complete, the price will come down, and they will patch it to fix a few major bugs and to add trophies. I look forward to this game very much as well.

Now... Valkyria Chronicles. I played the demo for this game and decided upon finishing it that I must have this game. It was very satisfying and brings in a few new elements to this strategy RPG. I purchased the game the next day and spent all day being sick and playing this game. I had a buddy over that is also into strategy games and he was very pleased and impressed with it as well.

It has both real time and turn based elements. You start each turn from a strategic top down map view of the battle field that indicates the positions of all of your units and any enemy units you have line of site on. You choose a unit and are then thrust into a close over the shoulder third person perspective where you have 3d camera control and may move your selected character around the 3d world until you are out of movement points. At any point during your movement phase if you pass within range of an enemy unit you will be fired upon in real time. You may switch to aim mode at any time which freezes the action and allows you to select and study each opponent in view and choose who to attack and where to attack them.

There are several types of characters with strengths and weaknesses. Some have more armor, some can move farther, different weapons like multi-shot rifle, many shot machine gun, single shot sniper rifle, anti tank rpg, some have special abilities like engineers that can disarm mines. Each character has a certain set of personality traits as well, such as some like being around others and will get a defense boost when around team mates or allergies which will decrease accuracy if in pollinated places like grassy areas. This adds a tricky tactical and strategic dynamic to the game. Some characters even like other specific characters better making them better team mates when grouped together. I haven't really gotten a handle on all these details yet but am aware of their existence.

What is most fun is the dynamic way in which game play changes throughout the various phases of turns, 2d strategery, 3d execution in real time, turn based tactics, all great pieces brought together in a very entertaining fashion here.

It reminds very much of Final Fantasy Tactics both in story and feel, as well as musical score; Tactics being one of my all time favorite games.

Each chapter consists of several story elements leading up to and following each battle sequence. The story is entertaining and engaging. The artistic and graphical style is cell shading, which is originally rendered in 3d and then the cell shading technique is applied to give it an anime/comic book style and feel to it. This is done very well here fits very well, making the game entertaining and fun to look at. Some of the story elements play out in cut scene fashion while others are presented in a statement by statement fashion, requiring you to engage to trigger the next statement for the length of the cut scene. Why this latter style is implemented at all is unclear; I personally feel that, since both have spoken parts accompanying the text, there is little need for text by text scenes, except that maybe it saves quite a bit of rendering for those cut scenes... not like storage is a problem on blue ray though.

The environments could be a bit more interactive. For instance there was a rubbled building that looked like I could hide behind a partially standing wall, but I was unable to traverse the varied dirt terrain, instead the game treated this entire structural area as solid surface or wall and I could not approach any further than the boarder of the defined area. Also you can only duck for cover behind sand bags, not rocks or tree stumps or boxes, which is too bad because these elements are everywhere and ducking gives you significant tactical advantages like defensive boosts and critical hit immunity. Short comings are few and far between in my opinion, however.

I give Valkyria Chronicles a solid Great. While not being perfect it is entirely entertaining, beautifully presented, engaging, and satisfying. Down time is not boring or tedious and maintaining your squad simple and rewarding. Note that I am only on chapter 5 and feel that I am still gearing up in this game, meaning that there should be plenty of content still to be had.

weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:07:00 +0000

I went to Monterey this weekend for the first time. I was supposed to go sea kayaking for a friend engagement party but there was a freak lightning storm off the coast that canceled the plan. We went and ate dinner and partied with friends in downtown for the evening and then another couple returned to our room with us and we played cranium. We are dorks but it was good time, especially when you are drunk.

I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the first time as well. I was excited because I have seen a few pictures from others who have gone and they are always impressive. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly but there were entirely too many people there and after a while I got claustrophobic and had to get out of there.

I will post pictures tomorrow. I did get some awesome ones, I think. There were TONS of jellys and I got some good fish and shark shots as well.

Toodles

It's big

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:38:00 +0000

So I got a new plasma television.

It's awesome.

It a Samsung, because my friend at work who knows and owns one as well as the sales guy are both major Samsung fan-boys, it was at the price I wanted, 50" (because the 63" was too large to fit in the room... basically), and plasma.

I love it. I come home and the first thing I do is change clothes and sit down with my TV for a while. It is amazing. Beautiful. All I could say for the first day (which I took a half day, after buying it at lunch, to spend with my new purchase) was "It's gorgeous!" 1080p is amazing. 720p is amazing too, actually.

Click to view large in all it's glory.

I got a PS3 and it was basically wasted money without a high def TV, so... what is a geek to do??? Buy a giant plasma of course! :D

Metal Gear Solid 4 is an awesome game in 1080p, and awesome without 1080p.

The TV is as big as our love seat in the TV room. It's awesome.

Here... bask in it's glory... although the pictures from within my small TV room... of course!... do not do it justice... but you can imagine the bask if you like...

Learning to smoke (BBQ), lesson 1

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:18:00 +0000

So, I made my first attempt at smoking this weekend. there is a distinction between smoking, grilling, and barbecuing. I usually grill. Yesterday I tried smoking and barbecuing.

I bought the offset smoker so I figured now that I have all my thermometers in place it was time to try it for what it was intended. It makes a wonderful grill, lets see how it smokes.

I took a corn can (slightly large than a standard soup can) and cut the top and bottom off and cut it down the seam and made a vent extension out of it. This I put into the bottom of the exhaust vent, let it expand to fit the inner diameter of the vent, and pulled this down to grill level, forcing the smoke and hot air to travel to grill level before exhausting.

I put a drip pan to catch the meat drippings on the charcoal rack on the right hand (cold/exhaust) side of the barrel. I put another pan on the charcoal rack on the left (hot) side of the barrel with the leftover beer in it that I had been marinating the tri-tip in, which I added some water to as well. This is my water pan to evaporate and keep the chamber moist during the cooking process to prevent the meat from drying out.

I started by dumping an overly full lit chimney of charcoal into the firebox. I had the coals on the bottom rack to keep them off the bottom of the firebox so the coals can breathe. The temperature shot up to 275. This was too hot. After a while of waiting for it to die down I decided to remove most of the coals. I ended up with only a half dozen or a dozen coals.

This brought the temperature back down to about 170 so that I could add my meat (1 great big tri-tip steak - marinated for only a few hours (should have been overnight) in beer and Worcestershire and 2 small racks of beef ribs - coated in bbq sauce. I put the ribs furthest from the hot side because the meat was less thick than the tri-tip.

I checked on it every half hour. I started by adding just 2 lumps of coal, but after about an hour my temperature died down too low. After that I started adding 6 coal briquette every half hour. This maintained my temperature at just over 150 (cold side). If I wanted the temperature to climb a bit I would add 8-9 briquette instead of just 6. This would bring the temperature up another 10 degrees or so from where it was previously.

I would also add a handful or two of hickory wood chips. This time I put the chips in a pile instead of spreading them around like I usually do when grilling. I piled the chips directly on the briquette pile but on one side to try to keep them off the hot spot in the middle. This worked great, making the chips smoke but not burst into flames. I had them soaking in water for at least a half hour before adding them, and they would smoke for at least 15-20 minutes.

Every hour or so I would check on the meat. It was indeed cooking slowly, as it had a cooked skin and was coated over but did not look burnt like grilling might induce. I had a meat thermometer as well that I was using later in the process to help determine if the meat was done. Despite my doubts that a chunk of meat would take hours to reach the ambient temperature, it did in fact take many hours for the internal temperature of the meat to equalize. The chart on the meat thermometer said that medium rare was about 145 and medium was about 160. I was shooting for 150.

I put the meat on at about 2:30 Sunday afternoon and was unable to remove it before 9:30 at night. Even then the meat was slightly rare. The tri-tip only read about 135 internally, but it was time to eat.

Both meats came out very moist. The tri-tip came out very, VERY smoky flavored. Too much, in fact. The ribs came out a little too rare. I ended up having to throw the grill rack over the coals in the firebox and throw the ribs in there for a few more minutes just to get them cooked sufficiently.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1) Start earlier - this is accomplished by being prepared the night before, instead of waiting for a last minute shopping trip as I did. This includes PRE-marinating your meat.

2) Start with less coals - about a dozen coals would be a good starting place, at most a half a chimney worth, as the first load needs to bring the chamber up to temp, but it is easier to add coals and bring temp up than to correct an overly hot fire, especially with as leaky as that firebox is, it is difficult to starve the fire of oxygen in order to stifle it.

3) Less smoke - next time I will try something sweeter like apple or cherry chips and I will use a smaller handful instead of two large handfuls. I may try some chunks instead of chips next time as well, hopefully achieving a longer, slower smoking.

4) Rotate - as shown by the undercooked ribs the meat closest to the hot side does indeed cook faster, even if the temperature differential is only 10 or 20 degrees. Rotate meat half way through the process.

5) Water pans are good - my dad said that he was battling drying meat when he was smoking. This may be because he did not have a water pan and/or because he was cooking at a higher temperature.

6) Season - I did not season the meat as I would have done were I grilling. I think the meat lacked some flavor because of this. Next time I will pre season the meat, including the ribs, possibly season some more while smoking, and add bbq sauce toward the end.

7) Thermometers are awesome!

Sadly, my meat came out Sauce Worthy. No, that's not a good thing. What is sauce worthy, you ask? It means that the meat needs sauce, like A1 Steak Sauce. This is a bad thing. Anything you put A1 on becomes chewy A1. It could be dry, burnt, rare, moist, it doesn't matter. The meat simply becomes texture at that point. I personally consider Sauce Worthy meat to be a failure. I try not to get offended when others put sauce on my meat though, to each his own, but a properly grilled piece of meat tastes best in it's own right, and needs no augmentation, and frankly is not bettered by it.

The BBQ ribs only tasted like BBQ on the outside, not the meat, which I am not sure how to solve quite yet, as I don't typically BBQ. I believe that to properly BBQ, meaning, I would guess, to get the BBQ flavor INTO the meat, you must BBQ at a higher temperature than the temperature at which you smoke. These may, therefore, be mutually exclusive tasks.

Grillin'

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:41:00 +0000

Things are slowing down here at work. I have pretty much finished what I have to do at the moment and have finished proofing other peoples docs for the moment so I am back to blogging during the day.

Last night I installed the 2 new thermometers I ordered for my new grill I bought. I purchased a Char Broil Silver Smoker from Home Depot a few weeks ago.

I love it! I have grilled a few times on it so far. The first few were fairly successful. The last time I grilled on it I had installed the stock thermometer, which I had to order separately as it did not come with the grill from Home Depot, which is mounted on the upper portion of the lid. I also had a surface thermometer I ordered separately. I put the surface thermometer over the coals when I dumped them and it read 600 degrees! That was really hot. I let the fire die down a bit and seared my meat and then moved the meat to the other side of the grill, near the vent, and moved the thermometer with the meat. While the roof thermometer was reading about 450 degrees the surface thermometer in the middle of the meat was reading about 300 degrees. That is a fairly large temperature differential.

I was reading this great post on customizing a smoker grill. He recommends adding a few more thermometers. I order two new thermometers and added one to either side of the lid down at grill level so that I can monitor the temperature on the firebox side and on the vent side without having to open the grill. This is not so necessary for grilling, but given the temp diff noted above it couldn't hurt, but will be crucial (I think) for smoking. I mean, I bought a smoker, after all, I suppose I should learn how to use it, not just grill with it. So now I am setup and ready to learn. I think I may give it a shot this weekend. A coworker recently informed me of a butcher in town, not too far from my house, that is supposed to be THE place for meat, so I will have to check that out as well.

This weekend I need to do some work on my scooter, a lot of work actually, and my other goal for the weekend is to make a folding shelving system for my grill. It came with only an eight inch tray in the front which is hardly big enough to put a plate on, much less the large platters I work with when I grill. I will build another tray much like the one it came with and hinge it off the front of the existing tray so that it can fold down for storage. I will also build a side tray that has folding legs so that I can take the tray off and stow it underneath the grill. The reason for all this modularity is because I have just ordered a grill cover so that I can protect my new investment/toy/baby/grill/smoker/project from the elements and keep it looking good and functioning properly for years to come. It will all be a good time.

cruizin tha haight

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:23:00 +0000

I went to this new Asian joint near my house. It was good. Nice to know of a good place to eat in walking distance.

I grilled some wonderful marinated chicken on my new grill on Thursday. It came out wonderful. I have two thermometers now. One mounted on the top of the door and the other is a surface thermometer. The roof thermometer read 450 and the surface thermometer read 300. That's quite the differential over six inches. I just received 2 more thermometers in the mail. I will drill holes and mount them meat level on either side to prepare me for smoking!

I am spending the weekend in SF. Just layin low at a friends house this evening and then tomorrow I am going to a day party in golden gate park.

Peace. And have a good weekend, internets.

(iPhone update)

Backpacking

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:39:00 +0000

So I went backpacking for the first time. I guess that is a technicality, because it is by far not the first time I have been camping or hiking with a backpack on, but it probably is the first time that I have schlep't all my camping stuff with me 5 miles to camp somewhere...

A group of us were supposed to go backpacking this weekend in Yosemite National Park. One bailed, we found a replacement, the weather was looking to snow and be cold, it was my first time, and we didn't think that was the best idea so we switched locals. That caused the replacement to bail. So it was just the three of us. That's coo.

We decided to go about an hour and a half north of here, just outside of Chico. One of us had been there before.

It was cloudy the whole way up there, and it was raining when we got there. After much deliberation we started hiking in... in the rain. After a while it began to pour. Lucy started to hesitate. We nearly turned around. I was fine either way but eventually said, "Haven't we committed ourselves to a cold, wet, miserable night already?"

We continued on.

It was about 5 miles in. It was raining about half the time and the trail was saturated so the mud stuck to the bottoms of our feet led weights... and the trail was slippery and steep and difficult.

We finally got nearer and nearer to the sound of the river we had descending to this entire time.

We pitched camp and started to gather wood for the fire. I must admit the I feel pretty bad about the amount of fuel we used for our fire. It was excessive. I did not particularly choose it be so but I was not going to argue. There was no one there the entire time we were there, except two day hikers that came in the next day on a 1.5 mile trail (where was that?!). If people camp there often like we did, that place would quickly become stripped. I feel pretty bad about that. With a serious, combined effort we were able to get a fire started on the second or third try, having forgotten all paper in the car (we used part of a cardboard cookie container and some receipts, and lots of pine needles), that wasn't bad, but we were getting a little desperate.

We had a great time, the weather cleared up after we setup camp and we were able to hang a clothes line and rotate our clothes dry. It kept us busy.

It clear in the morning and we hung out by the river for a few before packing out. It quickly clouded over lightly, which was a wonderful thing, because it was uphill all the way back to the car and in direct sun that would have killed me. But it was cloudy so the temperature was nice and tolerable the entire hike out.

We had a great time, and went for beers afterward.

Nightshift "probable" cause of cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:13:00 +0000

That's right. They have proven a correlation between the two. Now, "probable" cause only means that the link is plausible. Notice that I said correlation, which simply means there is an identifiable relationship, not necessarily a dependent relationship. One likely component is Melatonin, which is produced by the body at night, in the dark, and is dependent on the bodies biological clock. The study was done on airline attendants and hospital workers (nurses). A larger study is necessary.

Read

Teen dies from ski lift fall at Heavenly

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:11:00 +0000

That about sums it up.

Read

KITT is a Mustang

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:06:00 +0000

There is a remake of Knight Rider coming out. It has just been leaked that the new KITT will be a Shelby Mustang GT500. Now... I'm a Mustang fan~~atic~~, but I think this is really lame.

They are putting the light bar in the hood vents! >:(

WEAK!

Read

So I got laid off today...

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:55:00 +0000

That's a great opener... love that! Oh yeah!

Yeah, seriously! "Budget cuts." I was totally fed up and bored at my job anyway, but it was very abrupt. That bothered me, I mean, who likes to get fired?

My boss called me into her office and the next higher up told me I no longer had a position, to hand over my badge, take my check, get my stuff, and leave immediately. It wasn't put exactly like that, but that is the gist of it.

Now I have the time to dedicate to finding another job I suppose. And time I can put into some of my hobbies since I now have no schedule. I think this will be nice, if (hopefully) only for a short time.

Electronic voting machines hacked... again...

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:10:00 +0000

Didn't read the article. May be false... may not?

Do you trust them?

Read

How we made candied yams for Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Vespa Rich) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:17:00 +0000

preheat oven to 350 degrees

8 big taters precious, skinned, cubed, and lightly boiled (stop just before completely soft or cooked)
add taters to baking dish
lightly sprinkle with all spice and heavily sprinkle with cinnamon
add 2 caps of nilla extract
stir ingredients
heavily sprinkle with brown sugar
chop 1/2 cup stick of butter and distribute evenly among taters
layer with mini mellows (half a bag)
layer with mini mellows again (the other half of the bag)
cook in oven preheated to 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until mellows have melted

Edit:
This went over very well. It tasted great. Everyone loved it. If I were to do it again I would go a little lighter on the butter, nilla, and cinnamon, but not much. Also, the second layer of marshmallows could possibly be added after the dish is removed from the oven, as it was still very hot for quite some time, the mellows continued to melt, resulting a lot of lost mellow coating. Still tasted great and sticky, but I wanted a nice white blanket to cover the yams, so if you added the second layer after it was removed, they would melt just enough to create that great sticky layer I was after, I think. I will try it next time I make this dish.

Happy Holidays!