Ad Free Blog

It's always nice to see I'm not the only one who sees advertising as seriously messed up.

Fitting Pieces Together

To make it so I can do squats and push ups every day, I now have an alternating pattern going on my sets:

Day A: current reps of Squats + 1/2  current reps of push ups
Day B: 1/2 reps of squats + current reps of push ups
Then repeat.

I plan to keep this going 5 days a week and then rest on the weekend.  The theory behind greasing the groove is that you are getting a lot of practice in, which trains the nervous system to be more efficient in doing a specific motion and/or lift.  So, I should stay in practice.  If I'm not doing that, then I am going through a hyper-trophy protocol, and doing a bad job of even that.

This also fits together quite nicely, because I can do this every hour.  So I can work my time-boxing this way: I can do creative (ie sit on my butt) work for 25 minutes, then do something physical (like cleaning something, or a garden chore) then do 25 more minutes of creative/butt work, and do my grease the groove discipline.

I get in the exercise and chores I need to do and feel refreshed for creative work.

Now . . . No Lunch

My progression to eating minimalism continues . . .

I wrote about how I moved from a small lunch to just oil. Well now, I don't even take the oil at noon. Just like the last step in my progression, this one happened because of my forgetfulness -- I just neglected to eat lunch one day and noticed I was neither hungry, nor did I feel a headache.

So the next day I sat out to not eat lunch, but I made the mistake of drinking tea at lunch.  I now know to not drink tea on an empty stomach because the tannic acid can hurt.  But after that misstep, I have been able to go a week not eating lunch, and now have a daily 19-20 hour fast.  My dinner can now be up to 1,200 calories, and this allows me to eat like a fairly normal person for that meal.

I have no idea if this would work for someone else, but I don't feel hungry this way, and in fact feel less cranky (until about 3:30).  I am losing weight and do not have to pack anything for lunch.  Heck, I should unplug my fridge at school.  

Procrastination Chronicles #7: Programming Via Poker

On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.

I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination.  My technique is to start small, really small.

==================

I really have been negligent toward developing my programming skills.  And to be honest, it's emotional.  Programming, once you get past the basics, gives me a panic of feeling overwhelmed.  I can solve problems via code, I can "think like a computer," but the pure range of 3rd party software and documentations gets me.  Especially the documentations.  Nothing makes you feel stupid quicker than trying to code with something that has bad documentation.

It's not really the amount of 3rd party stuff that is the problem, it is the suspicion that you are always using the wrong stuff.  That you're some obsolete idiot.  Not helping things, is the fact that there are certainly flame wars where people are more than happy to confirm these thoughts.  This has lead me to a paralysis where I can't work on anything.  And that is not going to help me get any closer to making a piece of software that 10,000 people use.

The answer is still the same to all other places where I procrastinate: start small, and keep working every day toward small things. Also, I should just make it fun.

During the summer, I was playing a lot of poker.  Though, I like backgammon better, it is safe to say that any game with randomness is an interest of mine.  So, projects with poker are the kinds of projects I can code with easily and then make things that I could gain some enjoyment out of.  I can work on graphics and displays.  I can make algorithms to analyze hands.  I can do projects like closed Chinese Poker and give myself some fake opponent to play more low-ball poker with.

Doing poker-related projects gives me a real purpose when I am coding and that is far more motivated than anything that reeks of meaningless exercise.

Now that I am done with debate tournaments for a bit, I can start on these poker projects.  A few think slices at a time, and probably by the time tournament season rolls around, I can at least have a new toy or two for my own enjoyment, and possibly some further skills (or a series of projects that I could use to gain skills in other programming languages) that help me toward my big 10,000 people goal.

Nackgammon November

I did not do "no shave November," but I did try out "Nackgammon November" where the matches I played on against GNU backgammon were the variant called Nackgammon.  

The problem with declaring "Nackgammon November" was that I was only able to play in a flurry for a week, and then I got locked into debate tournament mode.  Thus, I declare that December will also be a time of Nackgammon.  I find that the variant makes it so that the big mistakes I make are more interesting,  The mistakes exercise different themes than those that come up in a normal game, and thus I think when I return to playing regular backgammon I'll have a better "feel" for some of those positions.

Another step in the future might to be use the idea of a World-Class player who guys by "Stick, "   where the the opening positions change radically.  

Stick writes of his variant (Stick-gammon?), "play this at home for a while yourself and then when you return to regular backgammon the game will seem so much easier. It's like growing up playing snooker and then coming to the US and playing bar pool. (or even regular pool to a degree)"

So the current, tentative plan: my play budget will go to Nackgammon for Decemember, and then in January and February, I'll play regular backgammon, and at some point in the future, I'll try out Stick's variant.

The Moore Hat Trick

The last three weeks my life has been speech and debate tournaments.  The result: three straight sweepstakes wins, something that hasn't happened in over half a decade for Norman North.

We won the contests at the 3 high schools in Moore: Westmoore, Southmoore, and Moore High School.

It's fun to have a profession where I get to collect some trophies from time to time.

Backgammon Video with Good Commentary

This will be good to go back and study.

I think summer and winter are good times to study backgammon because both extremes of weather make me somewhat shut in.

But beautiful days . . . I am sure my mental (let alone spiritual) health is best served heeding their call, and going out.

Still, I forsee some long, cold nights with a warm, almost scalding hot, liquid and the study of some backgammon positions.

First, Use a Timer to Get More out of Your Time

We all know that there are many things we can invest our time in to make life better in the long run.  That's not the problem!

The real problem is that you can be so jammed up that you don't have the time to work on those things.  You have to get past the short run to get to the long-run.  Here are three techniques to look into that using a timer (or timers) to make it so you can get more out of your time:

• (10+2)*5  This one is a good one to use as a "starter" system, or if you have severe ADD. 
• Nested Time Boxing I like this when I am overloaded with tiny things to do. Those pesky "mosquito tasks."  I get out a sheet of paper and turn it into a game
• The Pomodoro Technique In my opinion, the best way to do creative work that has a deadline.  

If someone was just overloaded (which is what people are by default in the modern world), my first piece of advice would be to follow one of these links, and use one of these systems to get some stuff done.  They'll get more done in the same time devoted to work. . . and perhaps just as importantly, they'll work in some fun into their work as well, which can help to stay motivated.

The next step is to NOT, I repeat do NOT add any more of the same type of the work.  Do the same work you've been doing in less time and then use the extra time to invest in exercise, planning, learning other productivity tricks, or other useful skills.

So this is step one for making your life better: pick a timer technique to deal with the problem of not having the time to learn how to save time. 

After that, who knows what is the limit?

200 Air Squats in a Day

I was able to work in 8 sets of 25 squats, each set spaced over an hour apart.

So today turned out to be the first day of 200 squats.  I'm now sore enough as to take tomorrow off.  I plan to try sets of 30 or 40 Thursday, but life may certainly get in the way again. 

Still, I am on my way. 

Air Squat Progress

For a little over a month I have been working toward my 200 squats goal using greasing the groove.  I must admit I have been negligent from time to time; I think I have even missed an entire week at one point (maybe more?)

Still, I am up to reps of 20, and even have played with a few reps of 40 yesterday.  

When I started a month ago, doing even 5 squats left my knees feeling creaky, and I was worried I would never be able to reach the squat goal.  I have no doubt that on Monday, I can comfortably get in 200 reps for the day (probably 8 sets of 25 reps).  On Tuesday, if everything feels fine, I'll probably 10 in the morning to warm up, followed by 5 more sets (spaced at least an hour apart) of 50, for a daily total 260.  

After that I'll keep playing around with escalating the amount of reps in a set until I can do 200 in a row.  I'm pretty sure it will be the next bucket list item I can cross off.

Balancing Health with a Busy Month

So far, I have organized my diet and workout changes by month.

In July, I used the slow carb diet.  I began lifting weights on my cheat day to build muscle mass in the hope of increasing my metabolism.  I lost 10 pounds this way.

In August, I experimented with Alternate Day Calorie Restriction for about two weeks.  I coupled this with a Sunday free-day where I lifted weights and spiked up my calories. Two weeks in, I then decided I didn't like that, so I switched to just eating 1,200 calories a 6 days a week, but continued to have a free-day where I lifted weights.

In September I took a month off my weight lifting program, which is Escalating Density Training, and instead worked on strength training, using Greasing the Groove.  The first weekend, I messed up my diet, but other than that I stuck to 1,200 calories a day 6-days a week, with Sunday being a little bit looser.

In October, I was back to some lifting, but I didn't see much in terms of gains.  I have two theories on this: 1.) I might have already cashed in my "beginner gains" or 2.) I would have to increase the calories I eat a whole lot more, or overfeed on more days, to support further hypertrophy.  Since I'm still trying to lose fat, either of these theories are enough for me to ease off the throttle on my Sunday workouts and not over-feed on Monday.

This November is going to a crazy month for me.  I have 3 debate tournaments that go back-to-back-to-back.  A debate tournament is a 72 hour work-week for me:  I am running practices for my kids every day, and then the tournaments themselves are a fantastic 20 hour test of mental endurance.

This is a potentially stressful time and it might call for yummy junk food to get me through these times.

We'll see how much the damage ends up being.