Ok ok I know everyone is not as geeky as me but in little net lingo and txt short speak <3 represents a heart. Just like a smiley flip it 90 degrees counter clockwise and OH WOW ITS A HEART! Its almost like one of those hidden 3d pictures but not. SO ne way its been about two weeks since I signed up for the Ironman and although I have been thinking about it non-stop I have put off posting anything about it. SO what am I doing? How am I preparing? Well my training plan is tentatively going to be like this:
phase 1: conditioning
phase 2: base, endurance
phase 3: power, speed, endurance
SO I thought I would take some time to talk about Phase 1 since thats where I am right now. Ive decided that if I really want to hit my time goal (somewhere in the 12 hour range) that I need to drop some weight. The marathon was a very good test of this. Had I been at my now target weight I think I could have gone a lot faster. However the marathon taught me this and then circumstances made this idea even harder. Ya see after the marathon I took like two weeks off (which was dumb) and then I got sick. Real sick. that scratched another 1.5 weeks. SO I went close to a month without doing practically anything. Plus with the house still torn up (its almost all back together fyi!!!!) I was eating Fast Food almost daily - YUCK! SO long story short I put on 10lbs after the marathon and was sitting at 150 which is just awefull since my target weight is 130!!! SO after two weeks of some great workouts in the Fat Burning zone - thanks <3 rate monitor I have dropped down to 145. Only 15 more to go! My goal is to be 130 by jan 1st. If that happens then I can start base. If not then I have to keep kicking it into overdrive until Im there or I might decide to go 125 not sure. I just have to see how im looking and feeling and what my body fat is at. I really need to go sub 10% I need to be more like a marathoner. long lean muscle little to no fat.
SO thats my current goal. Wish me luck!
Cheers!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Dancing with the Devil -- My two weeks with Vista RC1
Background:
Ok so I would not call myself a windows guy or a mac guy or a linux guy. Why??? Because I have to use all of these OS's throughout my day and I see strengths and weaknesses in all of them. I do however favor and feel most comfortable in a windows environment simply b/c that is where I spend most of my computing time.
The Challenge:
Install Vista RC1 (MS's long awaited new OS) on my laptop and take it for a spin
SO I have a laptop. I love this little piece of hardware. Its an Averatec and its amazing. What do I love so much about it. Its tiny! SO the basic specs are Intel Centrino proc at 1.2ghz 512mb ram and 80 gig hard drive. SO its not a screamer but its no slouch either.
The install:
RC1 took a surprisingly long time to install. Close to 2.5 hours. This really made me cringe and remember the old days of installing win 98. while the install was not difficult like win 98 could be it just took forever. However this could be attributed to the close to 2.5 gig install dvd that I created. How does that compare to XP you might ask? XP is a scrawny 500 mb install. SO with Vista your getting 4x's more Microsoft!!!!!
The experience:
With vista freshly installed I was really quite excited. I am considered a windows guy by my mac friends and have taken quite a bit of heat with the fact that xp has had no successor in well, far too long a time. SO I booted my little chiyo chan up and waited, and waited, and waited some more. I couldn't believe how long it took to boot but I guess that goes along with an os install that takes 2.5 gigs of space. OK so now its up. Now were cooking gravy without the lumps! At first glance Vista does look very nice. Very polished and shiny. However I'm not one for pretty looks or cute animations. I'm a user who prefers performance and features over well, eye candy. I started to navigate around and found some interesting features that I have to say I liked. In the control panel area Vista includes a ton of really good apps to show you whats going on with your pc and to help diagnose any issues. I really did like these and saw one that I found interesting. I forget the name of it but it basically assesses your system and gives it a vista experience score. It checks several things like processor, RAM, Video card, and what not and takes the lowest of these and thats your score. My laptop scored a 1. This is the first big indicator for me that Vista is not only going to be a pain (more later) but its going to force your hand into getting new hardware. However my laptop is less than a year old and flys! with xp. SO my first thought was whats the point of this score? Is it merely there to mock me? However bill thought I might ask this question and put a handy little link under the score that says "what does this score mean" I clicked on the link and was horrified by the answer. It basically came down to this. Microsoft will start scoring software based on minimum specs and will use this to "help" the average consumer choose software for their system. Example. I want to buy Halo 3 for vista. Hmm it says it requires a Vista experience score of 9.5 and my computer only has a 4. I guess I cant buy it. I see the flip side on a tech support line going something like this. " SO your running outlook in vista and you cant send messages. Whats your vista experience score. 3. hmm theres your problem outlook requires a 4 clickkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. SO yeah that makes me cringe again.
SO Ive done a lot of bashing but what did I like? Oh wait theres more bashing!
Ram. Simply put Vista is a RAM hog. This was one of the first things I checked as I feel xp is horrible at managing memory and allowing processes to go into a zombie state and just leave chunks of memory in use that should be free. I had high hopes for vista and memory management. What did I find. Vista freaking took it all! I think the OS required around 250-300 mg of ram to run and then vista cached the rest of it. Thats right vista took it all. All my memory to hold onto and do with as it pleased. I really did not like that and it did not inspire warm fuzzies.
Ok so really what did I like. Well vista comes standard with IE7!! now you can have a browser that supports a cool new feature called tabs!!!! Oh and it also comes with Win Media 11 the better more stable less wonky version of win media. Some other features I liked were explorer has been improved and has some automated features that makes navigating a bit easier or and quite possibly the biggest surprise to me was that they have not only held onto the command prompt (which I was wondering if they would ditch it) but they actually improved it! I couldn't believe it but it now has tab auto completion on commands and directory trees!
The final Verdict:
I'm super duper not impressed.
Explanation:
For being the next version of windows I feel that its minimum specs are a bit too bloated. I dont think I have ever had a video card that would qualify for vistas minimum and I see this only driving the price of the average consumer pc up. I cant imagine what it would take to get a good score in vista but It seems to me it would be a high end gaming rig and those are usually in the 3-4 thousand dollar range. This is not an OS for the people, its an OS for the elite. I guess MS logic is that since they only come out with a new version every what 5 years that they need to make sure it doesn't have hardware to support it for a few years and that when hardware is finally coming out thats affordable and that runs the OS well they can release their new version and screw everyone all over again. Ok Ok I know I have not really even touched on what I thought of running it on a day to day basis. I would like to make a note that I ran the vista upgrade advisor and my laptop passed. Like I said its not blazing but its no slouch either. SO vista gave me the OK to install. Boot ups were a nightmare and reminded me of 98 with 5 min+ boot up times. Shutdowns were the same way and I just cant understand why it takes so long to kill processes and shut a computer down. Granted I realize if had a better score say a 5 or 6 these could be dramatically better.
I do have 2 major gripes.
1.) Windows defender. I found no way to turn this off (realize I didnt spend that much time with it) Windows defender is the ultimate in protect your computer from anything even windows programs. It was about as ridiculous as this. start - programs - games - solitaire DEFENDER comes to the rescue informing you that solitaire is an executable and could damage your machine. Did I really intend to open this potentially malicious software! Seriously it pops up whenever you try to do anything and it got old real fast.
2.) my second gripe and what led to the downfall of vista on my little chiyo chan (I'm re-installing xp as I type this) was that it kept crashing. Anytime I would open an app it would die within 4 seconds of it opening. My laptop became completely unusable. Thats right the OS remained stable (whatever) but I could not open any apps. RUBBISH!
Final Thoughts:
Get excited kids because windows vista is coming and it finally includes lots of great software and features that you have loved in other competitors software and operating systems for the past 5 years!
Cheers!
Ok so I would not call myself a windows guy or a mac guy or a linux guy. Why??? Because I have to use all of these OS's throughout my day and I see strengths and weaknesses in all of them. I do however favor and feel most comfortable in a windows environment simply b/c that is where I spend most of my computing time.
The Challenge:
Install Vista RC1 (MS's long awaited new OS) on my laptop and take it for a spin
SO I have a laptop. I love this little piece of hardware. Its an Averatec and its amazing. What do I love so much about it. Its tiny! SO the basic specs are Intel Centrino proc at 1.2ghz 512mb ram and 80 gig hard drive. SO its not a screamer but its no slouch either.
The install:
RC1 took a surprisingly long time to install. Close to 2.5 hours. This really made me cringe and remember the old days of installing win 98. while the install was not difficult like win 98 could be it just took forever. However this could be attributed to the close to 2.5 gig install dvd that I created. How does that compare to XP you might ask? XP is a scrawny 500 mb install. SO with Vista your getting 4x's more Microsoft!!!!!
The experience:
With vista freshly installed I was really quite excited. I am considered a windows guy by my mac friends and have taken quite a bit of heat with the fact that xp has had no successor in well, far too long a time. SO I booted my little chiyo chan up and waited, and waited, and waited some more. I couldn't believe how long it took to boot but I guess that goes along with an os install that takes 2.5 gigs of space. OK so now its up. Now were cooking gravy without the lumps! At first glance Vista does look very nice. Very polished and shiny. However I'm not one for pretty looks or cute animations. I'm a user who prefers performance and features over well, eye candy. I started to navigate around and found some interesting features that I have to say I liked. In the control panel area Vista includes a ton of really good apps to show you whats going on with your pc and to help diagnose any issues. I really did like these and saw one that I found interesting. I forget the name of it but it basically assesses your system and gives it a vista experience score. It checks several things like processor, RAM, Video card, and what not and takes the lowest of these and thats your score. My laptop scored a 1. This is the first big indicator for me that Vista is not only going to be a pain (more later) but its going to force your hand into getting new hardware. However my laptop is less than a year old and flys! with xp. SO my first thought was whats the point of this score? Is it merely there to mock me? However bill thought I might ask this question and put a handy little link under the score that says "what does this score mean" I clicked on the link and was horrified by the answer. It basically came down to this. Microsoft will start scoring software based on minimum specs and will use this to "help" the average consumer choose software for their system. Example. I want to buy Halo 3 for vista. Hmm it says it requires a Vista experience score of 9.5 and my computer only has a 4. I guess I cant buy it. I see the flip side on a tech support line going something like this. " SO your running outlook in vista and you cant send messages. Whats your vista experience score. 3. hmm theres your problem outlook requires a 4 clickkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. SO yeah that makes me cringe again.
SO Ive done a lot of bashing but what did I like? Oh wait theres more bashing!
Ram. Simply put Vista is a RAM hog. This was one of the first things I checked as I feel xp is horrible at managing memory and allowing processes to go into a zombie state and just leave chunks of memory in use that should be free. I had high hopes for vista and memory management. What did I find. Vista freaking took it all! I think the OS required around 250-300 mg of ram to run and then vista cached the rest of it. Thats right vista took it all. All my memory to hold onto and do with as it pleased. I really did not like that and it did not inspire warm fuzzies.
Ok so really what did I like. Well vista comes standard with IE7!! now you can have a browser that supports a cool new feature called tabs!!!! Oh and it also comes with Win Media 11 the better more stable less wonky version of win media. Some other features I liked were explorer has been improved and has some automated features that makes navigating a bit easier or and quite possibly the biggest surprise to me was that they have not only held onto the command prompt (which I was wondering if they would ditch it) but they actually improved it! I couldn't believe it but it now has tab auto completion on commands and directory trees!
The final Verdict:
I'm super duper not impressed.
Explanation:
For being the next version of windows I feel that its minimum specs are a bit too bloated. I dont think I have ever had a video card that would qualify for vistas minimum and I see this only driving the price of the average consumer pc up. I cant imagine what it would take to get a good score in vista but It seems to me it would be a high end gaming rig and those are usually in the 3-4 thousand dollar range. This is not an OS for the people, its an OS for the elite. I guess MS logic is that since they only come out with a new version every what 5 years that they need to make sure it doesn't have hardware to support it for a few years and that when hardware is finally coming out thats affordable and that runs the OS well they can release their new version and screw everyone all over again. Ok Ok I know I have not really even touched on what I thought of running it on a day to day basis. I would like to make a note that I ran the vista upgrade advisor and my laptop passed. Like I said its not blazing but its no slouch either. SO vista gave me the OK to install. Boot ups were a nightmare and reminded me of 98 with 5 min+ boot up times. Shutdowns were the same way and I just cant understand why it takes so long to kill processes and shut a computer down. Granted I realize if had a better score say a 5 or 6 these could be dramatically better.
I do have 2 major gripes.
1.) Windows defender. I found no way to turn this off (realize I didnt spend that much time with it) Windows defender is the ultimate in protect your computer from anything even windows programs. It was about as ridiculous as this. start - programs - games - solitaire DEFENDER comes to the rescue informing you that solitaire is an executable and could damage your machine. Did I really intend to open this potentially malicious software! Seriously it pops up whenever you try to do anything and it got old real fast.
2.) my second gripe and what led to the downfall of vista on my little chiyo chan (I'm re-installing xp as I type this) was that it kept crashing. Anytime I would open an app it would die within 4 seconds of it opening. My laptop became completely unusable. Thats right the OS remained stable (whatever) but I could not open any apps. RUBBISH!
Final Thoughts:
Get excited kids because windows vista is coming and it finally includes lots of great software and features that you have loved in other competitors software and operating systems for the past 5 years!
Cheers!
Monday, November 06, 2006
It's ON!
Well I did it. I took the plunge. I joined roughly 2000 other athletes in signing up for what is going to be the most difficult and challenging race of my life. I was really worried that I would not get a spot. Registration fills in a matter of hours and many people try and dont make it. Registration started at noon and at 12:05 I was at a computer trying to get a spot. I only had about 3 screens on the web to fill out but it took me close to 25 min just to sign up. The lag was that bad b/c the site was being hammered that hard. Yesterday I was flying pretty high. Today I think im a little more grounded. Im thinking through the next year and the full weight of what signing up for an ironman means. Its funny Lisa had a dream last night where I finished an Ironman and WOW does she have high expectations. In her dream I didnt win my age group but I might as well have for where she had me. SO she asks me as Im leaving for work "SO how long do you think it will take you?" I calmly replied 12-15 hours is what im hoping for. Lets just think about that. 12-15 hours. Thats a long time to be doing anything! SO like I said I have a lot to consider and plan for but I think its going to be good. I already have some ideas and am working on some ways to help finance this whole "experiance" If they come through it will be the difference between taking a road trip in a caddy vs a yugo so I'm very hopefull they come through. But I guess I just want to say one more thing and thats a big Thank you to Lisa. She knows this is a big commitment on my part and that its going to mean time away from her and Kaiya but she also knows how much this means to me and how much I need to do this (thats another post entirely) and shes being really supportive of me. SO thanks so much sweetie. I love you so much and thanks for supporting me in this. Your the best!Cheers!
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