Chuck’s Home World

I’ve been spending a good bit of time this past week exploring the use of WordPress as an Intranet. I’m still exploring, but I was able to convert some of our data from e107 so I have some actual content to play with. I don’t think it will be a very clean conversion if we do go this route, but WordPress does offer a much more matured product and with over 10,000 plug-ins for additional functionality, I’m sure it will fill our needs.

Of course I have been designing a new theme for the intranet site to brand it with out logo and stuff. This has got me thinking of making a unique theme for this site.  I love the theme I have been using for quite some time – the “Mandigo” theme, but I think it may be time for me to work on a custom theme.

I’ve been getting to know a theme called “Thematic” which is really a rather boring looking theme all by itself. But the power comes in with Child themes. A child theme uses another theme as a framework, but you customize it with as little as 1 file (css). You of course can get very creative and have a complicated child theme too.

I may try to work on this a little this weekend, unless I get burned out with it at work today and need the couple of days off of not web programming. We’ll wait and see.

Scary yes, but also eye opening.

I have a rather large purchase coming up and I wanted to review my financial situation. So over this past weekend I put almost everything into a spreadsheet. Took my monthly income and my known monthly recurring stuff and figured out where I stood. I’m doing OK, but I can do a bit better.

I’m looking at either a possible refi (not likely) or a perhaps a 5 year personal loan. A recent payback of 10% and a bonus has allowed me to put away most of what I need to pay for the upcoming large purchase, but I still need a bit more to cover it. It won’t take much more, but I may as well, try to rework the debt I have accumulated so I can pay it off sooner than later.

One of the things that is going to help me out, it scheduling of recurring payments. I’ve done a couple of those, but mostly have been trying to remember to make the payment. I’ve been a little late on a couple and I want to ensure my credit rating isn’t affected. So, I have scheduled some more payments so I don’t forget them.  Most are being pushed from my banks but a couple are being pulled. What I mean by that is the scheduled payment being pushed is triggered from my personal account, where-as the ones being pulled are coming from the people I owe (Dell, Amazon, etc.).  Of course, if I consolidate some of these things, I’ll lower my monthly payments, and no longer have to schedule multiple payments. I’ll just have a single one to deal with.

These images are from my recent trip to meet up with Carol and Chris in Seattle, Washington. I’ve decided to post them as a gallery instead of inserting one by one (I started doing that and it got a bit tedious).

Images may appear out of order until I can get all my descriptions in…

Carol just ‘laxing as we visit on the first day

Chris just ‘laxing as we visit on the first day

Chuck, smiling and taking a photo of himself

Mr. Brown (Cocoa) allowing Chris to hug and play

Chuck at the Drive In Friday night

Big breakfast at The Maltby Cafe

Breakfast – the aftermath

Kangaroo Farm – a rooster!

Kangaroo Farm – a rooster!

Female Peacock?

Chris and Carol, as we wait for our tour

Chris and Carol, as we wait for our tour (posing?)

Really fluffy looking bird – rooster I think

Our tour started with the Lemurs

Lemurs are cute

Carol getting ready to feed the lemurs

Carol feeding the lemurs

This is a tortoise called Sheldon.

‘Roo or Wallaby?

Wallaby and ‘roos

Man, you blink a couple of times and the last couple of weeks have come and gone! Where did that month we call July run off too?

So I have been doing some electronics switcheroos; replaced my DirecTivo with an HR21, cleaned up the stand and hooked everything up to the HDMI switch instead of the component switch. So far everything seems to be working pretty well. I have to manually switch on the projector when I want to use it, but that’s only because the remote wants to turn it on and off at the wrong times. The power button is a toggle – so there isn’t one signal for on and another for off. When I switch between receivers, if it will turn off the projector even if I’m watching it on the TV. When it turns off the projector (which was off already) it turns it on. It’s not a big deal to handle that one piece manually.

Just a couple of more days of work this week before I start my summer vacation. I’ll start preparing for the trip on Tuesday and spend Wednesday making sure everything is in order. I leave early on Thursday (7 AM flight).  I’m really looking forward to it.

I still haven’t made it back to the gym. The last full body workout was on July 3rd. I really need to get back in there, but my should is still bothering me. I’ve been taking the medications the doctor prescribed, but the muscle relaxer is only for nights and weekends. I need a clear head for work. We’ll keep at it and hopefully it will be better soon.

This weekend has been one of those weekends. I have things I need to do, but just haven’t been in the mood to get any of them done. I need to run a few errands, but I don’t really want to leave the house. I want to get caught up on some podcasts and a few shows, but I haven’t been in the mood for that either.  I’ll snap out of it soon, I’m sure.

Diet and Pains

Finally made it back to see Dr. Dua regarding my weight management. I had another body scan and it did show I’ve gained a bit of muscle mass, however not very much and that I’ve gained some fat too. Most of it is in my “trunk” and that’s where I need to start focusing. We’ve switched up the diet and exercise routines a bit to hopefully start dropping more of the fat.  I’ll be doing a full body workout once per week and at least 45 minutes of cardio 4 times per week. I see him in about 6 weeks to see how we’re doing.  I’m going to be heading to Seattle in a few weeks and I want to try and drop as much weight as I can before then.

My right shoulder has been bothering me for a few weeks (about 3 months now) and so I finally worked with Dr. Dua to have that checked out. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer. I’m taking the “Aleve” twice a day and the muscle relaxer only at night. I need my head clear for working during the day.  You’re not suppose to take aspirin when you take the anti-inflammatory so I’ve halted my daily 81mg of aspirin.

I’ve been working on a Summary report for my health status – mostly to make it easier for me and the doctor to review my nutrition and exercising routines. I’m pretty happy with it for now, but I’m sure I can make some improvements. I need to see if I can disconnect the “live” connection to my home server and just publish static pages. That will allow the pages to load much faster than having to read in from several servers. I’ll work on it a bit at a time until I’m finished.

New HDMI Switch

I’ve picked up a new HDMI switch to take over the role of a component cable switch for my living room.  I’m thinking of installing it today, but I’ve had it for a couple of weeks. It will take some time because I need to pull everything apart and hook it all up, and then reprogram the remote control. I need to make sure I have enough HDMI cables too. Before I pull everything apart, I’ll make a plan so can order the cables if I need any.

Earthquake in Maryland

There was a 3.6 earthquake with an epicenter not too far away. My area didn’t really feel anything, but many people at work did feel it. I may have, but I was sleeping at the time it happened and it wasn’t enough to even wake me up. Many people don’t realize that we’re in an area that has many quakes, it’s just that most of them are so small that we don’t feel them.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything directly into this blog. With Facebook and Twitter, I don’t feel I need to elaborate so often. But when I look at my web site, I feel it’s not being kept up to date so I must write a few things in more detail that what’s been posted via the social networks.

Work – We received a new video of the state of the company as of the 11th period in a fiscal year. Things are looking great and we’ll be getting our 10% back along with salaries being returned to pre-10%-cut days. That’s good news all around. We should be getting another video to talk about this in more detail this week but I won’t post any more about it.

This past weekend was pretty restful for me. I didn’t make it to the gym like I should have, but I was having some pains in my right foot that I wanted to be careful. I’m continuing to have pains in my right shoulder, but so far it hasn’t really interfered with my workouts. As of tomorrow it will have been a week since my last workout in the gym. I’ll see how the arm feels. The foot pain has gone so I’ll have no excuse.

I’m supposed to go to Fogo de Chão, a Brazillian Steakhouse in Baltimore tonight. I’m pretty sure I’ll make it, but I’m not sure it will be worth the calories and late night. The reservation is 8PM which is about my bedtime!

This past week and this week we’re meeting with the BIRD team. BIRD stands for Business Integration Research & Development (I think) – it’s the team of German’s that are currently seeing how we do things here in the Americas compared to what is done in Europe. Last week I hung out with the Sales team because I have various applications that need to be able to interface with the SAP, the system the German’s use.  In some cases, it may be possible that there is something in SAP that handles our needs for some applications, but we’re pretty sure there are some of our applications that will not be handled by anything SAP has to offer.  I suspect this is going to be a late night week.

I’m still loving my HTC Incredible, but there are some issues that need to be ironed out. For some reason (unknown to me, but apparently widespread) the phone reboots. I’ve seen it reboot several times in one day, and then it may go for a few days without rebooting.  Posts on various Android forums indicate this is known issue. I’m hoping it will be resolved with an update. So far it hasn’t rebooted during a conversation or anything.

The only other issue I have is that the battery doesn’t last for very long. I know I can get more out of it, if I cut off some services, but I like having the weather updated.  I guess I just need to try and remember to plug it in a night. At least I can charge it almost anywhere I go… got the car charger, and the computer cable. Fortunately it uses the same connector and chargers as my Storm did.

Speaking of the Storm, I hate it. I have to use the one for work sometimes and it’s the worse phone in the world!

Well, I’ve ranted and spent more time writing today than I had planned. I’ve got to go and get ready for work. I’ll try not to wait so long before I post again. You can follow my occasional posts at Twitter and become my friend on Facebook if you’d like.

This is my first post using my HTC Droid Incredible Android phone. Not sure how I like typing on it though. Better by 1000 than my blackberry storm.

This final paragraph was posted as a speech to text function of the android phone.

(The above was posted from the phone, the rest from my computer.)

Overall I’m falling in love with this phone. It’s really fast and there are a ton of cool apps (that I’ll continue to explore and find).  My only problem with it right now is that I have very few bars in my house and it seems to switch between 3G and EVDO.

Visit the HTC Droid Incredible page to find out more details on this spectacular smart phone.

Now onto the other note… I’m off today to visit with my friends Jean and Kenny. It’s been a while and I’m looking forward to seeing them again. Normally I’d go on a Saturday, but because we’re off for the Memorial Day holiday tomorrow, we’re meeting up today.

Many people don’t realize it, but your body burns calories all the time. When you eat, your body must burn calories to get the energy and nutrients from the food you’ve eaten. Eating every three hours or so keeps your body’s furnace going. If you don’t eat and your stomach goes empty, your furnace goes into stand by mode and your burn fewer calories. Depending on your calorie budget, you should eat about 100 – 300 calories between meals… roughly every three hours or so. Make them good calories though, not a couple of doughnuts, but an apple and some nuts (or other healthy snack).

If you’re trying to control your calorie intake, you should not drink your calories. Avoid sodas and sweetened teas and other drinks. Water is your best best, or if you must, use an artificial sweetener such as Splenda. You can have 3 or 4 apples for the same amount of calories (or less) than having a regular 20 oz soda!

Instead of drinking a glass of orange juice, eat an orange. Instead of apple juice, eat an apple. You get so much more out of the fruit than just the juice.

Walk more. It’s easy. Here are some ideas to increase your daily steps.

• Park your car further away when you go shopping. You don’t have to park at the very end of the parking lot, but the more distance between your car and the store’s doors is better!
• Return the cart to the inside of the store instead of the outside. Don’t just drop it off at the closest cart drop.
• Don’t try to make the fewest trips from your car to the house when toting groceries in. Make more trips!
• Take the stairs when you can. If you live on the 20th floor, I understand not taking the stairs, but if you live just one flight up and can handle walking stairs, then do it!
• If you work in an office building like me, try to walk around the place at least once per hour. Drink more water so you have to go to the bathroom more often and go to the bathrooms farthest away.

Do you have any more ideas on how to get more steps in? If you take less than 5,000 steps per day, you’re considered sedentary. Ideally you should be walking at least 10,000 steps per day (though I don’t always make that either).

Getting into a WT Routine is tough. The more I do it, the easier it is, but for now its tough getting back into that every other day routine. Today, my muscles are sore from yesterday’s workout.

I’ve been back to the gym for three visits as of this entry. The first visit was not the best, but I was sore for a few days after. This past Saturday, I started my new “plan” and will be going three times per week as instructed by the doctor. I went yesterday and I’ll go again tomorrow. I like going in on Saturday’s but I guess it really doesn’t matter which days I go in – as long as I get there before many other people do.

I picked up a new software package called “Private Coach 2″ and am slowly getting to know it. It’s not the best interface, but there are a lot of features.  Support has been great with Martin Menzel, but I have a feeling it’s another small company like Radium Technologies (who develop Diet Pro 2005).  As with Diet Pro there is a lack of updates (due to a single developer who is working on many projects) and so its going to be a while (2011) by the time a new version comes out. Private Coach 2′s is built using Java and there are some missing “Windows” features and feelings. I really hope that evolves overtime and gets better.

On the work front, I’m still keeping very busy with more and more work coming my way. Overall it’s still enjoyable, but there are times where I just can’t seem to focus on any one thing. I need to watch out for that and make sure I’m not starting to burn out.  Yesterday I seemed to make several mistakes – the first one was when I fixed something and applied other changes before I meant to – and then had to scramble to run utilities to insert missing data for the new structures. It would have been better had I taken some precautionary steps to prevent it, but it is what it is.

Today was another early morning; Lacie decided that around 1:30 AM was the time to start bothering me. I was able to put her off until about 2:30 AM and then finally gave up. I went to bed too early last night and today I’m going to pay for it. I guess I’ll have to keep the caffeine levels high to make it through the day.

I need to drop my cardio to only 2 times per week and start weight training again. My body fat is 32% and even though I’ve lost a good bit of weight (down to 216 from 280), the amount of muscle has been dropping steady. I lost about 30 pounds of muscle since September (with some amount of error in figuring). But even at 10% error rate that is too much. I need to have at least 150 lbs of muscle/bone instead of the 132 lbs muscle/bone I have as of last week. Gonna start hitting the gym and focusing on muscle mass increases – starting tonight!

Instructions from Dr. Dua are:

• Weight training 3 times per week
• Cardio 2 times per week
  • 1800 calories per day:
  • 200 grams of carbs
  • 150 grams of protein
  • 45 – 50 grams of good fat (omega 3′s)

All the blood work looks good. The cholesterol numbers were up a little, but still only 159 (up from 140 last time). My vitamin D levels are now 40 compared to 22 last time. I want to raise it a bit more (to around 50) but I’m above the 32 minimum that it should be. All the other stuff looks really good too.

Body scan shows that my legs are the leanest of my body with my left leg not quite as lean as my right. That makes a bit of sense because of my back issues affecting my left leg. My left arm is too more fatty than my right, but I am right handed. Of course my trunk is the worse part with the most percentage of fat, but that is expected.  And we didn’t even bother looking at the bone density, which was perfectly fine. I have good strong dense bones!

My head weighs over 12 pounds, based on the body scan.