Me

Finally, I’m a Texan

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

I bought my first truck.

Wife says this finally makes me a Texan (she’s a native, I’m a transplant). My father-in-law says no, it doesn’t make me a Texan, it makes me a redneck Texan. 🙂

I purchased my now-former car brand new 17 years ago. I credit it lasting so long to the fact I don’t have to drive it as a daily commuter, but it did see enough miles in a year. I wanted to drive it until it couldn’t drive any more. A few years ago the engine starting having problems. I did a few things to help it limp along, but evidently it was on the way out. It’s now at a point where the repairs cost more than I’m willing to spend, so it came time to look for a replacement.

I spent a lot of time (many months, on and off) trying to decide what I needed. Most of my driving is people-hauling, be it me going somewhere or me taking Kiddos somewhere. Thus I wanted something that could comfortably seat everyone and not be horrible on my wallet (MPG). But the way my life is going, all-wheel/4WD drive would be mighty useful. And most of all, some way to haul things that were dirty. For example, after hunting, being able to haul a deer or hog out of a muddy pasture. So all signs were pointing to a truck. Because of the “people hauling” aspect I started to look at smaller trucks, like Toyota Tacoma’s or Nissan Frontier’s (I like the Tacoma styling, but the Frontier seems to have the edge in terms of performance and abilities so I leaned towards it). But in the end, they were just too small. I’m tired of being a big guy stuck in a small car. Plus with the Kiddos growing, smaller solutions no longer work. I tried getting into an extended cab but no go; crew cab was the only option. Plus I figured for the future, a full-sized truck could give me options like renting a travel trailer for a fun weekend getaway.

So truck it is.

It needed to be reliable, able to last a long time (with good maintenance of course), haul people, handle my other life needs (e.g. hunting). I started by looking at new trucks but the cost just turned me off. Sure that Ford EcoBoost engine seems mighty awesome, but the cost of a new Ford F-150 with a crew cab and 4×4? Just way out of my budget. It’s hard for me to justify such an expense, and I refuse to go into debt for this. I hate buying used because  you never can truly know the history and what you’re getting. But I figured if I priced it low enough and did enough research and investigation, I could get something that hopefully would be “good enough” and last “long enough” to at least make all the money factors work out.

In the end I settled on a 2006 Chevy Silverado 1500 Crew Cab, 4×4, 5.3L V8 I found at an independent dealer (and I’ve been looking for some months). foo.c has owned and worked on Chevy’s much of his life and said, based upon the listing, the truck looked like a creampuff and could be alright. I checked the CarFax, I got a pre-purchase inspection through Auto P.I.. The truck didn’t check out perfectly: some cosmetics, a tiny leak in a transmission line, A/C belt should be replaced before summer gets here, battery load test was weak, front left tire was losing air (I believe I found a nail in the tread), and the normal wear and tear on a truck of that age and miles. The “things that mattered” all checked out well, inspector said it looked like the truck had been well-maintained over the years. None of the problems bothered me too much, and I took them into account when making my offer. They accepted. I have no idea who got the better end of the deal, the dealer or myself, but based upon all that I saw, the edmunds.com True Market Value®, and other factors, I do think I got a good deal. Plus, I think I’ve got a vehicle that suits my needs. If not, I chalk it up to being my first truck and I’ll learn from the experience.

I’ve already replaced the battery and windshield wipers. I think I’ll get the front 2 tires replaced later this week (rotate the old rear to the front, put the new on the rear). I’ve got a deal with foo.c and will be heading up to his place one Saturday soon and together we’ll replace all the fluids, filters, plugs and wires, if we can handle the leak and A/C belt then great, and whatever else we can. I picked up both the Haynes and Chilton manuals.

Oh and yes… the kids are  excited about the truck — we had to go to dinner at Sonic the evening I brought it home. 🙂

And the first time I chomped down on the gas, the throttle opened, and tons of gasoline was injected into that engine to hurtle me down the road? I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as I realized I now had my very own Chevy EarthFucker™ 🙂 Now I just need to do like a buddy of mine and get a “Hybrid” badge. Heh heh. 🙂

Gee… now I can’t wait to go hunting.

I think my father-in-law is right. I’ve become a redneck Texan. My mother is shaking her head and sighing. 🙂

Dangers of working from home – and how to fix it

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

A short and sweet article about the “dangers” of working from home and how to fix them. (h/t to… I forget *blush*)

Speaking as someone that’s worked from home for 11+ years, I’ve gained some perspective into the matter. I’d like to add my own input to the author’s 5 points:

1. You don’t feel you are working

The author’s point here is how work life and personal life can blend. True that. To an extent, this is a good thing. You can have a greater flexibility in life, within the constraints the job allows you. For instance, I spent many years working with folks in California, 2 hours behind me. I’m a morning person. These two things together didn’t always allow our schedules to mesh because as I’m winding up my day they’d just be digging into theirs. But I didn’t let THEIR constraints control my life. Instead, I just had to make some accommodations, such as accepting that sometimes I’ll have a meeting that’s very late in the day for me. I also made a point to check my work email in the evenings.

But that said, you really do have to work at keeping work work and personal personal. You cannot let your life become one giant smear of workandpersonallifetogether. It takes discipline and learning to draw lines AND sticking to them. Plus, you have to ensure people at work come to respect those lines. As well, the folks at home also have to respect those lines.

Which brings us to…

2. Your family members won’t understand that you are working

This is simple (but not easy). Draw lines and enforce them. Make sure the lines and rules are clear to everyone, and stick to them. For example, if my door is shut, you don’t come in. If you need me, you knock. Do not expect an answer if I’m in a meeting or perhaps deeply ensconced in a debug session. You must respect it, unless it’s an emergency. Yes, kids will have to be punished if they violate the rules. Spouses too.

But that said, remember that part of the joy of working at home with the family around is that you can be around them. I’ve found that if I’m not truly deeply into something, just flow with the interruptions sometimes. Sometimes the kiddo just wants to show you what they did. It takes 30 seconds of my time (which I probably would have wasted on Facebook or something else), kiddo is happy, I am happy, it’s a win. Don’t shun your family. Just work to manage things. And yes, it will take time, failure, revision, and experimentation to find what works for you.

3. You are slacking off, because your boss is not watching

It’s very easy to slack because you’ll be surrounded by all your favorite things. You have to develop the self-discipline to keep working, because if you don’t, you’re out of a job. Bosses will eventually detect your level of productivity.

Take a little time to blow off steam, break up the day, all that stuff. But you still have to produce. In fact, it’s generally better to work to produce more, because really… you will have fewer distractions than being in the office. You can focus better. You won’t have everyone dropping by your cube. You don’t have a commute. You can be more productive.

And oh, get dressed every day. Just because no one has to look at your or smell you, you should still carry on as if people did. It will affect your psyche.

4. You alienate yourself from work community

This is true. You must work to overcome it. The author goes into the office now and again, but my office is thousands of miles away, so that’s not possible. You must make the extra effort to communicate with folks. IM is good, or maybe set up an IRC channel. Have ways to chat with people. Do pick up the phone now and again, because to hear voices is very warming and personalizing. If you can video chat, even better. Don’t be afraid to start the day with some quick pings to people to just say “hi”. You do have to have some sort of social setup with everyone, else well… you will be overlooked, you will be forgotten, and folks just won’t know much about you. Not always good for the long haul.

5. You work too much

Yup. This goes back to #1. You just have to draw lines and stick to them. Be flexible, but be firm. Don’t check work email in your non-work times. Don’t check messages. Work is work and should be put into that box and kept there. If you do not, everything will smear and work will take over your life. You can’t let it.

It isn’t easy to start working at home. It requires commitment and self-discipline. But I think the benefits are huge, both to myself and to whomever I’m working for. It’s a situation that’s worked well for over a decade for me, and I really can’t see any other way to work.

Working at home isn’t possible for every job. If your job can be done from home, consider it. But as well, know yourself. You just may need the constraints and environment “going to the office” puts on you. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s better to know yourself, know your limits, and know your capabilities.

I take my box home — but always bring it back.

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I understand why they say “don’t take the box home”, but it bugs me.

Let’s back up.

We’ve been doing the CSA veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden for some time now. We love it. In fact, we love it so much we bought a 1-year long subscription; not just because it meant a discount for us, but because it helped them get up-front money to develop their new 146-acre property. We like JBG, we like supporting them. We want to see them grow and succeed.

A few months ago I commented on an inefficiency in the process. The box is delivered to a drop-off point. We pick it up there. We see everyone bringing cloth bags to take their veggies home. I find this inefficient. From box, to bag, to home storage. If I take the box home, it’s just from box to home storage.

It’s not just number of containers. It takes time to move everything around. So now I’m moving more, and spending more time doing it.

Then there’s the bag. Proper thing is of course to use a cloth reusable bag. But then those get dirty, news stories about them being bacteria breeding grounds. So you now have to wash the bag. That’s going to require more time. Also water, detergent, and that’s just going to create more environmental impact, now isn’t it?

So from my perspective, it makes far more sense to just take the box home.

But by the same token, for this to work, I have to bring the box back. And that I do. I missed one week, but I just brought back 2 boxes the next week. We always bring our boxes back.

Why? They’re expensive! They are thick, sturdy, wax-coated boxes. It’s obvious they are not cheap, it’s obvious they reuse them. I read they use them 10 times or so, and I think I read they cost $2/box. That is expensive and that cost will add up over lots of boxes.

Last week or two, a sticker showed up on the boxes demanding we do not take the boxes home but instead use a bag and follow the above inefficient process. My guess? Lots of people take the boxes, then throw the boxes away. This of course will affect JBG’s bottom line.

They could raise prices, of course. If it’s $2/box, just jack up the cost of every box by $2. But that has a greater impact as well, because the manufacture of all those boxes will have a large environmental impact. Really, reusing the boxes until they can’t be reused is the best option.

So from JBG’s perspective, the best thing THEY can do is tell everyone to not take the boxes home. I understand where they’re coming from. They will have to accept some level of loss, but I reckon the level they’re experiencing is greater than they desire.

That said, I still will take my box home. I will always return it. If I fail for some reason, I’ll reimburse them. Scout’s honor — I’m saying so right here in public and you can hold me to it. The worst I’ll have to endure is the condescending looks I get from other people when I come to pick up my box… but that’s another topic for another time (or you can just go watch the South Park “Smug” episode).

To JBG I say: I hope it’s evident I support you guys. I have voted with my wallet and continue to do so. Know that I am doing what I can to not adversely affect your bottom line, because I know in the end it only comes back to hurt me. I don’t care if the other people picking up their boxes give me condescending looks, because they don’t understand nor obviously care to. I’m trying to do what’s most efficient and right for me, for you, for the environment, however you want to look at it. If there’s something I’m overlooking — and I’m sure I am somewhere — please let me know.

2012-01-13 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 5, Press 3

/ hsoi

Not the greatest, but a PR nonetheless.

“Week 3”

  • “5/3/1” – Press (working max: 145#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x60
    • 1x5x75
    • 1x3x90
    • 1x5x110 (work)
    • 1x3x125
    • 1x4x140 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Press
    • 4 x 10 x 70
    • 1 x 11/6/4 x 70 (rest-pause set)
  • Asst. #2 – Supinated Close-grip Pulldowns
    • 4 x 10 x 130
    • 1 x 8/4/3 x WT (rest-pause set)
  • GPP – Elliptical
    • Tabata style (20 sec. 150-ish strides per min., 10 sec. 100-ish strides per min)
    • 2 min. slow (warmup)
    • 1 tabata set
    • 2 min. slow (cooldown)
  • DeFranco Agile 8 – just foam rolling

Today was alright. Not my best, but alright.

My left shoulder still hurts. I woke up at 2:30 AM. Could my lowered calorie intake be in play? My rest times between sets were lower. Could be any number of things. I don’t know. I don’t write this as an excuse, just a record of what was up right now so 6 months from now I can look back and perhaps analyze better.

I wanted to get 5 reps on that PR set, but only got 4 and that 4th saw me leaning back and pushing like hell. Not what I wanted, but it’s still a PR.

One thing I’m wondering about. I’ve noticed with everything that as the weights get heavier, my body is being forced to lift a certain way. For example, if you deadlift an empty bar, you can probably have horrible form and move the bar all over the place. But when you deadlift 300#, the bar is going to have a tendency to do what it wants to do with gravity and other forces of nature instead of you being able to move it all over the place. The heavy weights are forcing a particular way to do things. As I’m pressing these heavier weights, my body is changing how it wants to lift. For instance, with say 95# I can just push it around and no problems. But put that 130+ on there and my body starts to feel it differently. I want to tense up and if I don’t things are harder. I want to push differently in terms of things like the Valsalva maneuver. So perhaps as well, I’m going through a bit of transition now that the weights are actually getting heavier and I just need to roll with it. Since it only happens on the heaviest of weights, I can’t get a lot of “under the bar” time with it, but I need to pay attention and work on it as it comes. We’ll see. Just an observation and thought.

Assistance pressing was fine, but I lowered the rests to maybe 90 seconds at most between sets. I don’t know why, but today I just didn’t want to rest much… get in, press, get out. *shrug* I did NOT do chins between these sets. My left shoulder still isn’t happy and I didn’t feel like making it worse. Even during the pulldowns it wasn’t happy. I worked to keep tension in my shoulder so I wasn’t “pulling it out of socket” at the top of the movement (the “hang”), but that also kept tension in my arms, and so with all this tension it worked me a bit harder and the pulldowns were a little tougher today. No matter. I’d rather not be abusing my shoulder.

Elliptical remains good. Incline of “10”, resistance of “12”, about 100-spm slow and 150-ish fast. Last time I was resting too much on my arms/forearms, today I made an effort not to have so much rest/support. Still had my hands on the little “heart monitor grip” area, a little downward tension, but no resting. I’ll keep at this for a little bit, then jack it up. This is a good spot to start adaptation; it works me.

On the food note… I wonder. I’ve shed a few pounds, been cutting back on caloric intake, all good. But the past couple evenings I’ve been eating a lot of “trail mix” stuff. Nuts, dried fruit, little chocolate-covered things. Not huge, but under normal circumstances I wouldn’t eat it. I wonder if my body was saying “dude, you’re about to do some big lifting, you need some fuel built up”. Dunno. I’m going to be good during the PR week here, but if I need a little, take it. Then once I hit deload week, I’ll scale back again.

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.

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.

on copyrights, SOPA, and education

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Because of SOPA and GoDaddy’s support of it, I’m going to be switching all my domains away from GoDaddy. I’m a little late in joining the throng; been busy, better late than never.

Yeah yeah, GoDaddy claims to have dropped support. I’m not convinced the senior management truly believes SOPA is bad. I can only believe they made the public stance reversal due to all the bad publicity and potential loss of revenue. If they really believed SOPA was bad, why wasn’t that their initial stance? I know people can change their mind and do complete reversals of stance (I’ve been there), but this smells too fishy. Besides, I hate using GoDaddy’s website as they’ve apparently never heard of the KISS principle. I’ve wanted to leave for a while, and SOPA finally broke my inertia.

I’m all for protecting copyright. As someone that’s written software professionally for 15+ years, I understand the importance of copyright, especially in the digital realm. Every time someone steals my software, they’re taking food out of the mouths of my children.

I look at it this way. You want my product/service because it somehow makes your life better. Be it software, be it a movie, be it music, whatever, you like my stuff, consume my stuff, and feel your life is better because of it. Great! That’s why we create these things; trying to make the world a better place, trying to make people’s lives better. Nevertheless, we also need to feed ourselves, put a roof over our heads, put clothing on the backs of our children. With a finite amount of time in a day and energy in my body, I must use those finite resources at my disposal to make money to feed, house, and clothe myself and my children. Given a choice, I’d love to use my time and energy to make the world a better place doing what I do best. If someone can compensate me in exchange, great! If however I cannot make money at it, then I must find something else to do to support my family. If I have to do something else, that means I can no longer create and provide you with that thing that makes your life better. So you see, if you steal from me, eventually I will be forced to do something else. We both lose: I can’t create the thing you like, and you can no longer enjoy the thing I made. If however you compensate me for my work, we both win because I get to create it and you get to consume it. Both our lives are better.

So please, don’t steal. Ultimately your theft hurts both of us — yes, it will come to hurt you too. If instead you make a small sacrifice, maybe don’t buy that Venti White Chocolate Blended Creme Frappuccino today but instead send the $5 my way in exchange for my software you’ve been using well… now both our lives are going to be better in the long run (and you didn’t need those 760 empty calories anyways). You support me, I create for you. It works out for both of us.

I think the solution to this copyright and “digital theft” problem is to eliminate the dinosaurs that want to criminalize their entire potential customer base. I think we need to foster education in consumers about copyright and how things work and need to work so we can labor and they can enjoy the fruits of our labor, both now and for many years to come. Customers need to realize that “free” is not a successful long-term business model, and unless they pay up sooner or later, whatever you like won’t just stop being free… it’ll just stop being. Customers need to realize how supporting those that create the services and goods you enjoy means good things for THEIR lives too (and how not supporting ultimately comes back to hurt them). To pay isn’t trying to rip you off, it’s an understanding that there are costs in the world (gotta host this website somehow, gotta eat), and by helping to do something about those costs we can all benefit. We creators also need to listen to our customers about what they want and strive to strike a balance.

Heavy-handed measures like SOPA may work to address symptoms and make some assholes in Washington feel like they’re “doing something”. But they aren’t striking at the root of the matter, and they’re not really working to solve the problem. In fact, they’re only going to make things worse. I mean, do you really want decisions made by people who think the Internet is a “series of tubes” and take pride in their ignorance of the technology but are getting their pockets lined to shove the legislation through? Does that seem right to you?

2012-01-06 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 5, Deadlift 2

/ hsoi

I didn’t do jack, but what I did do was good.

“Week 2”

  • “3 reps” – Deadlift (working max: 305#)
    • 1x5x125 (warmup)
    • 1x5x155
    • 1x3x185
    • 1x3x215 (work)
    • 1x3x245
    • 1x10x280
  • GPP – Elliptical
    • Tabata style (20 sec. 120-130 strides per minute, 10 sec. 80-ish strides per minute)
    • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
    • 8 “reps” (8 reps is one Tabata set)
    • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)
  • DeFranco Agile 4 – just foam rolling
  • Grip
    • 3x10xT, 2 sec. hold between reps
    • 3x3x#1, 2 sec. hold between; after last set last rep, 10 sec hold

I opted to do a “ain’t doing jack shit” today. Two reasons. First, I have a busy day today and need all the added time I can get. Second, the chins I did on Wednesday? I used a narrow grip. The reason I take a slightly-wider-than-shoulder-width grip on the pulldowns is to be nicer to my shoulder. So why in the world I opted for the narrow grip here I don’t know. But between that, going to a full dead hang and relaxing my shoulder instead of at least keeping the shoulder socket tight, THEN adding in some poor posture and left-arm-resting stuff on my desk on Wednesday? My left shoulder said ‘fuck you’. It feels a LOT better this morning, but I know with the bar positioning on Good Mornings and then hanging for the HipLeg raises well, if I’m healing up I’d rather heal up than aggrevate it more. So I just cut things out today.

As for deadlifts, that went well. I can tell my grip is getting stronger because the holds were just really secure. I even thought about not doing the last set with a mixed grip but opted to keep the mixed grip because I wanted to ensure I got 10 reps and didn’t want to risk having to switch mid-way. Cranking out the 10 reps was hard, but I wasn’t going to accept anything less. My back and hips were dying, the last couple reps I paused for a couple seconds before I pulled again. But I was going to get 10! I got 10. I’m happy. Well on my way to breaking 300#.

On the elliptical today, I experimented a bit more. I set the angle at “10” and found the resistance level goes up to 20! When I cranked it to 20, whoa… you really have to push hard to move things, so that’s cool. I opted to put it on 10 today and see how it went. It was reasonable. I wasn’t huffing and puffing, but my heart rate was up and I was getting a good long work. This felt a lot more natural to me, didn’t have that “floating” feeling. I’m not sure how I’ll change things next time: up the angle, up the resistance. Probably the resistance because according to the little “computer” on the machine, greater angle stresses the glutes more and the thighs less. I want to spread the pain around and have maximum recruitment, so according to the little computer “12” is about the most angle I should go. I could also up the tempo, but I think the tempo is alright… tho don’t hold me to those tempo numbers as I realized I forgot exactly what they were by the time I got home to write this entry. Anyways, I think the elliptical may well work out, I just have to keep working to find the right settings to push me like I want.

I did the grip crushers on the way home. As you can see, I upped the workload. I see little reason to continue working with the “S” gripper, so I might put that in my gun range bag to show to students as a way to work on increasing their grip strength (since it’s not too hard to do but is more than the cheap ones you get at the sporting goods stores). Of course, the grip workout today was a little easier because I didn’t have the extra work that comes from the HipLeg raises. But I do need to get a #2 and eventually work that into the mix. Still, I can tell my grip is getting stronger because of what I did today. Back when I got them in November my left hand couldn’t fully crush #1 and my right could crush #1 if I was fresh. Now here I am today, the grip work from deadlifting, then working 3x10xT, and then still being able to do 3×3’s with the #1? Yeah, getting stronger.