Clubjuggler

Why people are fat

lovelace — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:58:36 +0000

In case anyone was wondering why people are so fat these days:

Diet Progress

lovelace — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:36:32 +0000

Around about the beginning of February I started trying to lose weight. I’m using the Hacker’s Diet which essentially says that to lose weight you must burn more calories than you take in. To burn more calories, I’ve been exercising, mainly running but also swimming and playing racquetball. So, after a month, here’s my current progress.

Diet Progress 2012/Mar/04

I’m hoping I can continue at this rate for a while since my goal is to lose around 60 pounds. I may have more of a problem right now since at the moment I’m currently under doctor’s orders to do “no exertion” until he can figure out why last Wednesday I had a thunderclap headache that sent me to the emergency room. I’ve got an MRI scheduled this coming Wednesday that will hopefully find out more about that and I’m hopeful that once that is done I will be able to get back to exercising regularly.

Anyway, I will try to post at least monthly updates here on my dieting progress.

NASA’s SLS

lovelace — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:04:34 +0000

So, NASA has come out with their proposal for the new deep space rocket that will finally bring our space capabilities back to where they were in 1969. It’s better than the current situation (which is nothing) and I certainly hope it gets built.

Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

TMBG Covers Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

lovelace — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:30:30 +0000

This is an awesome video of They Might Be Giants covering the song Tubthumping by the band Chumbawamba. (If you don’t see the embedded video, click the link to get to the original location for the video.)

They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba

Paul Simon is the man!

lovelace — Sat, 14 May 2011 01:15:23 +0000

So, apparently last weekend at a Paul Simon concert, a fan named Rayna Ford yelled out a song she wanted Paul to play. Now, there’s nothing unusual about that. Fans at concerts do that all the time. Rayna however, also added that she had learned to play the guitar on the particular song she was requesting. What makes this story awesome, though, is what Paul Simon did then. He actually invited her up on stage, gave her his guitar, and had her play the song! How totally awesome is that? See the video Once she gets over the shock of being invited on stage, then being handed Paul Simon’s guitar, then having him encourage her to play the song, and then realizing that the rest of the band is playing along with her (!) she manages a pretty decent rendition of the song (or so I assume, since I’ve never actually heard the song before). Anyway, that’s got to be one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time. Mad props to Paul Simon for making one fan’s day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXBlY5CImUU

Things Janell & I can’t do right now

lovelace — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 01:47:15 +0000

With Janell’s knee recovering from ACL surgery there’s no way we could do this right now, but next year I’d love to learn how to do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-3vZKoi5HM

Peaceful Schools

lovelace — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:14:32 +0000

My son’s elementary school, Central Park School for Children started a program three years ago called Peaceful Schools that tackles bullying from a holistic perspective. My son’s teacher recently went on ABC 11 to talk about the program:

From a parent perspective, I really like the program. We haven’t had any problems at all with bullying at my son’s school and this program is a big reason for that. Right now it’s only at Central Park School and the Carolina Friends school, but it looks like they are looking to expand the program soon. I, for one, would be all for it.

Telescope Viewing

lovelace — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:59:44 +0000

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Drawing of Orion Nebula

I took my telescope out for a bit this evening and managed to get a good view of the moon, the stars Betelgeuse and Sirius, and M42 (also known as the Orion Nebula). I managed to get a very nice view of the Orion Nebula and I decided to make a sketch of what I saw. This is from a 6 inch f/8 Newtonian reflector with a 12.4mm lens. I could clearly see the Trapezium (the four stars in the center of the nebula). Unfortunately, since this was in my front yard, and because we have a streetlight right next to our house (!), I was only able to see a bit of the nebula (the shaded in area) and all of it greyscale. At some point, I need to get the motor on my equatorial mount working so that I can try my hand a deep space astrophotography.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

lovelace — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:49:45 +0000

In the “Truth is Stranger than Fiction” category comes word yesterday from NASA that thunderstorms produce anti-matter! See the video for a better explanation.

Woodworking projects

lovelace — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 05:13:31 +0000

Apparently, I forgot to post anything about various woodworking projects I did this past year.

First off, I built a bench for our foyer to hold all the various shoes that piled up there:

Then, I built an electric train table for my son:

Finally, I made a couple of end grain cutting boards I gave as gifts (one to a friend on her birthday and another to my mom at Christmas):

A few weeks ago, I also made a set of shelves to fit our VCR that got displaced when we got a new TV recently. I don’t yet have pictures for that but I’ll post some later when I take them.

Now I’m wondering what woodworking project I should tackle next.