Month: January 2012

And this is why I always get AppleCare

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Family iMac has two problems:

1. SuperDrive (DVD drive), you put in a disc, any disc, and it spins up then down, then up then down, lather rinse repeat for a minute, then kicks the disc out. Tried a bunch of low-hanging troubleshooting fruit. Looks like the hardware failed.

2. There’s a spot on the LCD that looks like a wrinkle. It’s certainly not a software issue. When I took it into the Apple Store just now, the guy said he’s seen this before. There’s a power supply right at that point behind the LCD… heat.

The work order? For parts and labor, $615 ($400 of that is the LCD screen).

Cost to me?

$0

But only because I forked over the money for AppleCare when I bought the thing. I don’t recall how much it cost me at the time, but right now AppleCare for an iMac is $169.

I say I came out alright here.

I always get AppleCare. Well, I didn’t used to. Way way way back in the day, Apple’s quality assurance on their hardware was high. If something was going to fail, it’d fail within the base warranty and after that the machine would last until normal moving parts might wear out (e.g. hard drives are always eventually going to fail). But then over the past decade or so, quality has slipped. Many of the Apple hardware products I’ve purchased and worked with have had at least one issue in some regard, and I’ve always been thankful for AppleCare because not only was it covered but the repair was always far more expensive than the AppleCare was.

I generally avoid extended warranties, but never skim on AppleCare. Read into that as you will.

And now… let’s see how well Oldest deals with computer withdrawal while the machine is off being repaired. 🙂

2012-01-11 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 5, Squat 2

/ hsoi

Had a good mental breakthough today.

“Week 2”

  • “3 reps” – Squat (working max: 250T#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x100
    • 1x5x125
    • 1x3x150
    • 1x3x175 (work)
    • 1x3x205
    • 1x7x230 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Leg Press
    • 5 x 10 x 275
  • Asst. #2 – Leg Curls
    • 5 x 10 x 75
  • GPP – Elliptical
    • Tabata style (20 sec. 100-110 spm, 10 sec. 150-160 spm)
    • incline “10”, resistance “12”
    • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
    • 1 Tabata set
    • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)
  • DeFranco Agile 8

Today was cool. In fact, I didn’t realize I set a new PR until I got home.

Squats are a big deal to me — a big mental problem to me. Not going to rehash it, it’s documented in other logs, but just know I have a big mental hurdle with squatting. Today’s work weight was 230. That’s a significant number for me because it’s the number where I’ve kinda stalled at for a while; not a true stall, but if you look over my log history it’s kinda loomed over me for far too long and I’ve hovered in this area for various reasons for far too long. So the number kinda has some intimidation factor for me. But then, there’s acknowledgement that this isn’t the most weight to move this cycle: this is just week 2! This is just a weight along the road now, not the weight at the end of the road. That’s something kinda cool, and motivating.

After the 205 set, I felt “gee, this is heavy… how many can I do with 230??” but I put that quickly out of my head. Just do what I do. If it’s only 1 rep, then it is. I just kept my head clear after that set and before my last set, think nothing, just be clear. As I belted up, just reminded myself of a few cues like to keep my chest up, to drive with my feet (heels) not like I’m trying to push the weight up but like I’m trying to push the floor and the whole Earth down. And just do. In a way, taking cues from my deadlifting.

When I got to rep 5, I knew I was nearing the end. Rep 6 felt like my usual “ok, time to stop”. But I said to myself that I’m going to press on. If I make it, I do; if I dump the bar, then I dump it. So what? I pressed on and the 7th rep came with some work but not a struggle. Was good, and I felt that I pushed myself a little harder mentally today. I needed that in this context. And then I saw that compared to last cycle well… last cycle my week 3 was 1x6x230. Today I did 1x7x230. So there’s a PR for ya. And frankly, it’s a little more meaningful to me because it was more a mental win than a physical one.

Next week’s squat PR should be good. 🙂 I’ll be doing 240 and I know I’ll be fine.

Leg pressing. Finding a better foot position on the platform. 275 was no problem, but I am going to hold here for a bit. You know how on the machine there’s a “upper” position for the sled, then there are stops at the bottom so the sled won’t come crashing down and flatten you? I touched those lower stops a few times today and said to myself “there, that’s the range of motion I want”. So I worked to get to almost touching — don’t want to touch, that loses tension, but I want to get just a gnat’s hair away from the lower stops. That’s the range of motion I want. So I’m going to stick at 275 for now so I can ensure I’m getting that range consistently… I was generally there, but I didn’t feel consistent enough today. So stick at 275, improve range consistency, then certainly next cycle I’ll jump to 315. Another side-effect here is that I’m moving significantly larger weights and there’s a bit of a mental boost… not the ego rub, but more that sort of mental prep and feel of it. Kinda like doing board presses, where it can help you get the feel of heavier weights, get you mentally and your CNS and such prepped for that feeling? I reckon that’ll be good to help me.

Curls. They are curls. Felt uber strong with it tho, like 75 really isn’t giving me enough. I reckon with the change in workload that I probably could jump to 85, and probably will next cycle.

Elliptical continues to be good. I like the settings, and actually bumped up my “strides per minute” today over Monday, just slightly (about 10 spm in both slow and fast). That felt a lot more comfortable and natural in terms of my slow speed, and I had to ensure I kept cranking on fast to keep that rate up. I like. One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m using my arms on the machine’s support structure to hold myself up. This has the consequence of relieving a bit of the weight/resistance. I will work to minimize this, so that my hand holds are only there to help with balance, no “resting” or any such thing (this mostly is happening the last rep or two, and certainly during the cooldown). So this groove should stay, work to fix the “arm resting”, and just keep chugging here. And yes, my right knee is happier.

I didn’t do a full Agile 8, but I did foam roll the heck out of everything today. The more I do it, the more it feels good.

Can’t wait for the coming week. PR week!! 🙂

AT&T Debacle – follow-up

/ hsoi

So my AT&T problems.

There’s more.

A few days ago I got a call on my mobile. I knew the number was AT&T’s, but I was in the middle of something so I let it go to voice mail. I was in no rush to listen to their message because honestly, I am tired of the whole fiasco and wish to move on. I have other things in life that need to suck up my energy.

Finally listened to it last night.

It was “a message from the office of the President (of AT&T)”. They’re going to issue a $35 adjustment on my account.

Plus this morning I see on Twitter that @ATTCustomerCare tweeted me again to check in on things.

So I’ll say this.

There’s obviously some problems in AT&T’s handling of things. Things are not smooth, there’s communication failure, there’s problems in how their repair system works that, if you think it through, shouldn’t be there and could be handled much better in terms of serving the customer. I shouldn’t have had the poor experience and time-wasting that I went through. I shouldn’t have gotten the constant deluge of mixed and conflicting messages from AT&T representatives. But I did.

That said, most every person I’ve dealt with has come across as sincere and willing to help, understanding of my frustration. When I’ve dealt with a person, they’ve wanted to work to solve the problem that they could within their power and authority to do. So there are organizational matters that AT&T will hopefully address, but personnel issues seem to be alright.

Am I going to switch away from AT&T? I’ve had other fish to fry the past few weeks. I’m still not sure about switching because options like VoIP really aren’t any better. However, I’m going to do the math on everything and see what works out. It’ll just have to wait to bubble back up my priority ladder. It’s really a matter of money at this point.

On reloads, make sure you have one first

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I was reading this article over at the USCCA website. The article itself is fine but secondary to the one thing that stood out to me. This picture and its caption:

It’s a picture of legendary instructor Ken Hackathorn performing a reload. The picture could come across contrary to the caption, but the picture is but a moment in time. The caption is really what you need to pay attention to:

Note he has the fresh magazine before he dumps the one in the gun.

This is so critical when reloading, at least in the context I care most about: self-defense.

First, you do carry a reload, right? If you do not, you should. In part it’s there because you may need more ammo. But it’s also there because the magazine is a fairly good point of failure in a semi-automatic handgun, and what are you going to do if that magazine fails in the middle of a fight for your life? Having a reload can help you remedy the situation and stay in the fight.

Second, there are many ways to reload a gun, but there’s really only one that matters in a gunfight: the speed reload. That is, you press the magazine release button on the gun, let the magazine drop out of the gun onto the ground (it doesn’t matter if it’s full, partially full, or empty), and insert a new magazine and keep going. This is the fastest way to get the gun back into action, and every moment matters. While looking for something else the other day, I came across an old article by Todd Louis Green about the “Tactical Reload” and his reasons against it.  There is a place for all the styles of reloading, but that’s another discussion for another time.

Now, in doing this reloading, order of execution is important. All too often people realize they need to reload and the first thing they do is hit the magazine release button. Sometime after that, they go for their spare magazine. Can you see a possible problem here? What if you don’t have the spare magazine? It could have fallen out. You may have already reloaded (yes, in the heat of the fight you won’t be able to keep track of all things). Chances are good that the magazine you dropped from the gun was a partially full magazine. So now you have a magazine on the ground, no magazine in your hand, and if you’re lucky, one shot left in the gun. Not good.

Because you may have a partially loaded gun when you choose to reload, don’t empty that gun until you KNOW you can reload it. For those wondering why you’d reload a gun that’s (partially) loaded, if there was a lull I’d like to get my gun topped off. I won’t know how many rounds I fired and thus have left. I don’t know if there might be a second fight (yes it can and does happen). Having a full tank serves me better. I can speed reload, minimize my downtime, and then once there’s enough time I can bend down and recover the partial magazine (if needed).

So when it’s time to reload, FIRST go for the magazine, confirm it’s there, THEN you can drop the existing magazine and continue with the reload. There’s really no time lost in doing things in this order. Or even if there is any time lost, you’ll lose a lot more time off your life if you ever find yourself standing around with a gun you just unloaded in the middle of the fight. The fractions of a second “saved” aren’t worth it.

2012-01-09 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 5, Bench Press 2

/ hsoi

Things are getting dialed in.

“Week 2”

  • “3 reps” – Bench Press (working max: 215#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x85
    • 1x5x110
    • 1x3x130
    • 1x3x150 (work)
    • 1x3x175
    • 1x7x195
  • Asst. #1 – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10 x 125
  • Asst. #2 – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows
    • 5 x 10 x 55
  • GPP – Elliptical
    • Tabata style (20 sec. fast (140-150 strides per minute), 10 sec. slow (90-100 strides per minute)
    • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
    • 1 Tabata set
    • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)

Today’s bench press was good. Last time I stumbled upon what felt like a “sweet spot” in terms of where to plant my feet so I can maximize full-body tension and pressing through my feet. I focused on that today and while I don’t think I have the spot nailed, it was fairly good and I was fairly solid throughout all pressing sets. It will still need refinement.

One cool thing from today? Many times I will look at the work I have to do, then look at the work I’ve done. Because I want to ensure progress, I’ll then figure what I at least have to do in order to feel like I made progress. For instance, today’s big weight was 195, so how many reps did I do before with 195? or if I hadn’t moved 195 recently, what did I do that was in the ballpark? Last cycle I did 190 for 7, so a little math says that 195×6 would be about the same. But sometimes I get too caught up in the numbers and it’s not healthy. Today, just due to lack of time, I never looked at how much work I needed to do today. I thought about it for a moment while at the gym, but then opted to not care because it doesn’t. Just move the weight and move whatever I end up moving. I pushed out 7 reps, which is actually a little bit better than before. A little stronger, a little better, and didn’t have to think or worry about it. Good thing. 🙂

I have opted to drop the reverse ez bar curls for my forearm work. I get enough on deadlift day and some on press day, so frankly I don’t need to bother here. Just dropping it entirely.

Didn’t Agile 8. Had to get moving. I’ll probably regret not at least foam rolling.

On the elliptical. I put the incline at “10” and upped the resistance to “12”. Pace was in the 90’s strides per minute for “slow” and in the 140’s for “fast”. I felt like I wanted to do slightly faster, like 95-105 slow and 150’s for fast, but I figured to just slowly up it, keep things in range, see how it does. I might increase it a bit, but for now today’s run was actually good. I felt worked, heart rate was pumping, legs were tired. I tell you, the hardest part is doing the 2 minutes of cooldown…. just feels like it takes forever. But this rate feels alright, and what with squats on Wednesday I’ll stick with this and see how my legs feel afterwards. I think I’m closing in on a groove, and will just slowly up the difficulty as my body adapts.

Free pepper spray for women

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

In the wake of some murders here in Austin, one man has been handing out free pepper spray to women in the area.

James Shaw sells self defense products on his website ResistAttack.org. On Sunday, he and his wife ventured to Waterloo Records in Downtown Austin, the former workplace of Barrera, and handed out free canisters of pepper spray.

It’s something that he’s done for months now. The idea to arm young women first sparked in Shaw’s mind when his 17-year-old daughter first started making college visits.

“We’re just trying to spread the mission as far as we can,” Shaw said. “We want to try to give every woman in America pepper spray.”

Since August 1, he says he’s handed out more than 800 free canisters of pepper spray. This week, he’s been hitting the streets in Central Austin, making sure everyone in the Heritage Neighborhood, where Barrera lived and was killed, has protection.

“It is generally a safe town but when things like this happen people really start to focus, ‘Should I be walking on my own at dark?’,” Shaw said. “People really need to be walking together and staying with their friends.”

Very cool. Go check out his website, ResistAttack.org.

There’s a lot more to self-defense than just carrying pepper spray, but it’s a good start. If a woman realizes she needs to carry it, if she carries it all the time, maybe that also means she’s got some awareness that the world isn’t 100% safe. The world is generally good, generally good people, generally safe, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch — and such statistics are of little comfort when you are the anomaly. So yes, if it gets people thinking more about their personal protection, if it gets people to change their habits like not walking alone, being mindful of the dark, of not putting yourself into potentially dangerous situations in the first place, but then if you wind up in it to be able to do something about it… all this is a good step in the right direction.

 

Hot Shots

/ hsoi

A new show on NBC Sports Outdoors called Hot Shots.

There’s a lot of shooting sports and gun-related TV shows, and a lot of it I just don’t care for. I like shooting, I don’t care about drama, especially “reality” drama. But this “Hot Shots” show seemed, from the advertisements, to be fairly drama-free. The impression I received was it was going to follow some of the top names in shooting sports as they do their thing. Any drama is just what comes up in life, perhaps with narration and bed music to add some drama, but no “reality” drama. Thus, the show seemed like it might be worth watching. And hey… Jerry Miculek? Any chance to see him shoot I’ll take.

So I watched the premiere episode. I enjoyed it. Sure there was drama, but it was “life drama” not “reality drama”.

I did find it interesting there wasn’t much background biography given on the guys. A little bit, but I wondered if you didn’t already know who these guys were, would the casual viewer really know who they were watching? As well, not a lot of explanation of things. For instance, this episode had a lot about the Steel Challenge, and they didn’t talk much about it to help those that didn’t know understand just what it was.

But as I think about it, I think it’s a fine balance being struck. It needs to cater to viewers that know what’s going on as well as those that do not. As someone who has some idea what’s going on, I appreciate they didn’t waste a lot of time explaining things. But they did explain enough, I think, to at least provide context. I’d like to see if future episodes add to the exposition and explanation to help viewers put it all into perspective.

Lots of shooting, not a lot of filler, but what non-shooting stuff there was cool towards showing all that these guys have to do… behind the scenes, if you will.

I enjoyed it. Good entertainment. I’ll watch again.

Every Day Carry for kids

/ hsoi / 31 Comments

My kids are all old enough to start carrying some things on their person on a regular basis.

I searched around for topics of “every day carry” (EDC) for kids. There’s not a lot out there. So time to brainstorm.

Updated: I’ve received a lot of traffic due to Unc posting this (thanx!). Due to the feedback received, I wanted to update this post from the feedback. Updates will be marked accordingly.

Some criteria.

It can’t be much. Kids forget things. Kids lose things. Plus, kids are small(er). Thus, they cannot haul around as much weight, nor do they have enough pocket real estate. It needs to fit into pockets, because the boys don’t like wearing belts and the girl’s fashion sense either leads to no belts or non-functional-but-decorative belts. Yes yes, change clothing to suit the lifestyle, but let’s first get them more into the lifestyle.

Small. Light. Essential. Quality stuff, but not too expensive to replace because again, kids will forget/lose things. We must accept they are working to build good habits, and in doing so will fail at times. I don’t want the failure to be too costly to recover from.

And note, this is purely stuff to carry on-person. If we started talking about backpacks (e.g. for school), you can start to carry a lot more such as a small first aid kit, a little food, a water purifier, maybe a space blanket. I’m not going there, tho perhaps Daughter could with her purse. Nor is this about full on “bug-out” types of gear. I’m trying to keep this limited to on-person carry: pockets, and perhaps belt. Every day stuff, every day needs. Focused scope.

So with that in mind, here’s what I can think of:

  • Keychain/ring.
    • I’d say to keep this simple, just a split-ring with keys on it. Less space wasted that way, especially if functional stuff gets hung off it. Of course, things like the housekey go on it.
  • Small flashlight.
  • Small knife or multitool.
    • I’d say a multitool, Leatherman. Micra as a baseline. But I’d entertain a Squirt PS4 or one of the Style (Style, Style CS, Style PS) models if that better suited a particular child.
      • Updated: I settled on the Micra. After reviewing all styles with the Kiddos, we all agreed that the Micra would fit their “every day” needs best. YMMV.
    • I don’t really want a pure knife, because it’s not as versatile as having a multitool. And while some of the kiddos have traditional swiss-army-style pocket knives, I don’t like those since the blades typically don’t lock.
    • Note: my kids are homeschooled and so the (home)school policy is you will be proficient with tools, including knives, and yes the School Board and Principal expect you to have on on your person at all times. 🙂 If your child attends school where knives aren’t permitted, well… I found this thing, the “Quirky Switch” that allows you to make a “custom multitool”, however, reviews aren’t that great (no personal experience). I see Leatherman made a “no knife” Fuse (made. Retired on their website, but apparently you can buy it online tho I reckon on a dwindling basis). But I bet no matter what, “zero tolerance” policies will probably get any sort of useful tool taken away by school admins. YMMV.
  • Little bit of cash, like a $20.
    • This is not money to spend, it’s money in case of emergency.
  • Cloth handkerchief.
    • Youngest is prone to nosebleeds during the dry winter, so this grew out of a need for him to have a means to contend with it. But I could see all manner of usefulness for all the children to carry one.
  • Mobile phone.
    • My kids don’t have mobile phones because of lack of need. But certainly this is a useful tool to have. I could consider getting them something like a small GoPhone or other pre-paid phone to get them used to carrying a phone AND to self-impose a limit on what they can do with it. Emergencies-only.
    • Updated: There’s always the argument to have an old, unused, no-plan, but charged phone, since 911 is required to work from any mobile phone. There’s truth in that and it’s better than nothing (tho many old phones are kinda bulky). But consider that all calls a child may need to make may not be to solely 911.
  • Updated: lighter or other fire starter.
    • This was suggested by numerous people, and of course, the ability to carry a fire-starter varies from person to person. If your kids go to public schools, I’m sure there will be zero tolerance for such items. If my kids do this, I’m not sure what would be best tho: lighter, matches, magnesium fire starter? Have to think about this one in terms of what’s right for OUR needs.
  • Updated: timepiece.
    • Wrist watch. Keychain watch/clock. It could even be the mobile phone. Whatever works for you, but some way to tell time.
  • Updated: Paracord bracelet.
    • And knowledge of knots and lashings.
    • This is certainly a useful idea. The difficulty may be in getting the kids to wear it. Either boys may not want a bracelet, or the girl will want something more fashionable. 🙂
  • Updated: compass
    • Knowledge of how you find your way, if you get lost, is certainly useful. Use a compass. Read a map.
    • A counter to this may be modern smartphones, with their GPS functionality.
  • Updated identification
    • Some means for the child to identify themselves and things about themselves, such as perhaps medical conditions.
    • Could also be a means for someone to contact YOU about the child. When my kids were younger, we’d go to SeaWorld and I’d slip my business card into their sock/shoe so if we did get separated they would know to give that card to an adult so I could be contacted.
  • Updated: a weapon?
    • Stun gun? Pepper Spray? Other things? This is an area I’m not going to touch, not in this context. There are too many legal issues, public school issues, and kid-specific issues here that I’m just not going to go there. I’m not saying kids should be defenseless and at the mercy of criminals and predators, but this is one area you’ll have to investigate on your own.

That’s what I came up with.

Of course I know, this is gear discussion. They need to know how to use the gear. How to handle emergency situations. All those good things. Fret not, that’s all here. I am purely interested right now in a “gear for kids” discussion.

What would you add? Remove? Change?

Updated: As you can see, a lot of useful stuff was added.

Realize, this is not a definitive list nor Bible on what to do. You have to do what is right for you and your situation. As well, all of these things? That’s a lot. Can your 8 year old really haul around all those things? Can they remember them all? Not lose them all? Maybe, maybe not; every child is different. You have to pick and choose what’s right for YOU and YOUR child and YOUR situation. This list is mainly here to have some information and discussion on the matter.

Domain transfers in progress

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Hopefully I clicked all the right buttons and links… but it seems that my domain transfers are in progress. All should be approved, accepted, and now it’s just the wait period for the actual transfer to occur.

Hopefully all will go smoothly and without hiccups or service interruptions.