Random Thoughts

Meal Plan/Weight Lost Update.

kmennell — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:00:22 +0000

The meal plan is going well, for the most part. I am consciously making decisions to avoid sugars and carbohydrates as I come across them – checking labels to see how many “carbs” an item has and opting for the “diet”, “zero carbs”, “sugar free”, or water alternatives.

In the few weeks I have been on this new diet plan – I have lost 20 lbs (give or take). I can feel the weight loss as I walk up and down the stairs and my knees don’t “pop” as much as they had in the past.

I’m going to keep going. I’m still committed to this.

Project: Coffee Table

kmennell — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:30:16 +0000

Coffee/Living Room/General Use Table for under $50 – More DIY How To Projects

Upgrading my Living Room Ubuntu PC (hardware)

kmennell — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:09:52 +0000

The upgraded PC is running well on Ubutu 10.10. (Alpha Release 3) I was watching Hulu programming on the screen and was surfing the web. I am working on some upgrades:

- I ordered 2-512MiB RAM memory sticks to max out the motherboard’s memory to 1GB (it’s an old VPR Matrix 2020)
- I want to order a new video card since the processor is working hard to kick out video for the large tv. I found a card at newegg.com (EVGA 128-P1-N309-LX GeoForce FX5200 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI Video Card) – the one I had worked at 75MHz and 8MB…this should improve my screen resolution.
- I tried to run a CAT5e cable from the router to the PC, but there’s something wrong with the wiring. So I am running the network connection wirelessly on a 802.11b usb adapter. My upgraded solution is (AZi0 AWD 102N PCI Wireless Adapter) – it utilizes the Draft-n protocol.
- And the power supply is noisy. I replaced it a few years ago but it’s cheap insurance to buy a new one. I’m upgrading (hec HP485D 485w ATX 12v power supply).

The only other thing I may do is attach a portable HD to record/store music or video. I would like to reactivate my Netflix.com account soon so that I can watch movies streamed to the television.

I will write about the upgrades as they occur.

Upgrading my Ubuntu Living Room PC

kmennell — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:34:10 +0000

Since I have a 3-day weekend, I thought about upgrading my PC situation. Of course in my house if I can power it and connect it to a network – I do. Well, I had an old PC that I wiped and installed Ubuntu 7.10 on it a few weeks ago to hook up to my TV. I wanted to use it to stream hulu or youtube to my living room without having to move my laptop or desktop.
Today, I dug through my parts box (any respectable geek has at least one parts box filled with pieces parts from old upgrades or salvaged parts) and found a 70 GB harddrive and a new fan. My old one was really noisy and the HD was only 4300 MB (4.3 GB) which barely held the install.
I put everything together, powered it up and am now installing Ubuntu 10.4.
Once I get it working – I’m going to try for the 10.10 beta (Maverick Meerkat).
Reports in the comment section as they develop.

Mead Update – 1 week in

kmennell — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:47:26 +0000

Mead Update

It’s been 1 week since I made the batch of mead. It was bubbling steadily a few hours after I closed the lid and the first night and morning it was going strong.

Well, after 1 week it is still on a steady stream. The smell coming from the airlock has changed in the past week. The first day it was very sweet from the honey – but when I got home last night there was a definite “wine” smell to it. Which is good. The must is slowly changing into honeywine.

I’m going to let it go for another week or so until I notice a drop in the fermentation and then rack it into a glass carboy. I want to siphon off the liquid from the dead yeast cells at the bottom of the fermenter so I don’t have any off flavors developing.

Laptop Benchmarking – Post upgrade #1

kmennell — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:45:20 +0000

I received in the mail today (2) 200-PIN SODIMM 128Mx64 DDR PC3200 PBF memory sticks to replace what I had installed. Inside the laptop, I had a 256MB 333MHz PC2700s and 512MB 333MHz PC2700s. I ordered through Crucial (www.crucial.com) on Sunday and it arrived today.

I downloaded and installed the Mad Onion-PC Mark2002 software which runs 39 different tests and displays the results.

Results:

CPU Score: 4980

Memory Score: 4224
Total Physical Memory: 1.94GB
Free Physical Memory: 1.50GB

HDD Score: 269
model: WDC WD400UE-OOHCTO
capacity: 37.26GB

Next: HDD upgrade

Laptop Benchmarking – Pre-upgrades

kmennell — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:58:22 +0000

I wanted to see how much my laptop performance increased with the upgrades so I decided to benchmark my laptop before applying the upgrades.

I downloaded and installed the Mad Onion-PC Mark2002 software which runs 39 different tests and displays the results.

Results:

CPU Score: 4919

Memory Score: 4156
Total Physical Memory: 702MB
Free Physical Memory: 98.13MB

HDD Score: 263
model: WDC WD400UE-OOHCTO
capacity: 37.26GB

Next: RAM upgrade

Meal Plan Update.

kmennell — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:17:13 +0000

It’s been a little over two weeks since I started back on a revised meal plan. No sugar, reduced carbs, etc. I’ve been pretty good – staying with proteins and vegetables, every now and then I have a craving for something sweet – but I’ve been staying on the plan.

I’ve lost 12 pounds since starting. While this is a high number for two weeks worth of the plan – in a percentage overall, it’s good but not overly dangerous (I would believe).

I’m going to keep with it – I should experience a leveling off period and at that time I’ll shake things up – whether it be increase physical activity, change the diet, etc.

Updates to continue.

Mead: Exciting Airlock Action!

kmennell — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:55:07 +0000

Just kidding. But this is the mead’s airlock a few hours after I sealed everything up. It’s a nice healthy bubbling as the yeast converts the sugars in the honey into CO2 and alcohol. This is a good thing.

I woke up to the smell of yeast and honey – which threw me off for a few minutes until I remembered that I made a batch the day before.

It’s not too exciting to watch – but very relaxing.

Mead!! Batch #01

kmennell — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:48:57 +0000

Mead batch #01 is in the fermenter.

I ended up getting 12 lbs of honey from Gordon Foods. I thought the bottles would have been bigger, but I guess not.

I put the bottles in hot water to heat them up so the honey could flow easier.

I “bloomed” the yeast by emptying the dry inactive yeast to warm water and watching it get all foamy. (technical term)

I started boiling some water and added the honey to heat it up, skimming the foam off of the top. Everything heated thoroughly and was added to the sanitized fermenter. I added 2 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer, a mixture of yeast hulls and minerals to jumpstart the production of yeast.

Topping the must (honey, water, 1oz sweet orange peel, and yeast) with spring water to bring it up to 6 gallons, I closed and locked the lid on the drum. I added water to the airlock and put it off to the side.

It should be a few hours (hopefully) that I will see some activity on the fermenter. When I used to make beer and wine – it was a short turnaround.

The yeast I chose has a high alcohol tolerance and should die out in the 18-20% alcohol level (36-40 Proof).

And now I wait…