Mark's Blog: Lists Archives

December 10, 2005

Must haves

My Christmas list is short:

Rear mud guard for my bike
Front mud guard for my bike

Depending on the weather, I may not be able to wait for the big day to open the presents.

The rear mud guard's almost a bare necessity when the road is wet. A strategically placed indentation in the rear of my bicycle saddle causes the stream of frigid, gritty water to result in a chill probably more effective than the most drastic of cold showers. Good thing we already had as many children as planned.

Posted by Mark at 06:40 AM | TrackBack

November 18, 2005

Icy ride

This is the first commute in on the train where I saw frost on the cars before leaving. Weak points (re)identified this morning:

Face and neck are not covered
Ankles get chilled as shoe covers ride down and tights ride up
Gloves (supposedly rated to -5 C) inadequate
Tights provide inadequate knee protection

The jacket and hat are great, however, although they both make me look even sillier than usual. Why didn't people double over with laughter when Superman came out dressed in royal blue tights and a flapping red cape?

Posted by Mark at 08:53 AM | TrackBack

August 27, 2005

To upgrade or not to upgrade, part II

Smooth upgrades to:

Firefox 1.0.x
Thunderbird (in general)
MovableType 3.15
Ubuntu 5.0.4
(More of a migration, but all the apps I want worked better here with less effort, except for the Quake III demo.)
Java Desktop System for iWork v. 2 beta
Solaris (in general)

Rough upgrades to:

Word 97
FrameMaker
(Any version. Even changing templates was a nightmare.)
FrameMaker source to SolBook SGML
Changing machines
(Upgrading an entire computer)

I seem to remember rough upgrades longer than smooth upgrades.

Posted by Mark at 09:44 AM

March 14, 2005

Random biking notes

Max. speed today: 67.5 kph (42 mph) downhill north of Goncelin
Avg. speed since installing bike computer: 29.9 kph (18.6 mph)
Flat tires since buying new bike: 1
Calories from sports drink today: 240
Approx. calories burned biking today: 1900
Approx. calories from raclette and confit this weekend: 10000

Posted by Mark at 08:40 PM

March 10, 2005

Lire

1. Combien lisez-vous de livres par an ?

Hmm. 25 ? 50 ? Quand on aime, on ne compte pas.

2. Quel est le dernier livre que vous ayez acheté ?

The Selfish Gene de Richard Dawkins.

3. Quel est le dernier livre que vous ayez lu ?

Justine du Marquis de Sade. Ou presque. Elle est encore au sous-sol avec Roland et Suzanne.

4. Listez 5 livres qui comptent beaucoup pour vous ou que vous avez particulièrement appréciés.

Il y a les 2 que je relis une fois par an minimum et parfois en boucle, Labyrinths (histoires et essaies de Borges traduits en anglais), et VALIS de PKD.

Das Schloss de Kafka, bien que je n'aie jamais vraiment réussi à rentrer dedans.

A People's History of the United States de Zinn, livre que Rob m'a fait lire au bon moment, dans le bon état d'esprit pour comprendre le message.

Le 5e, je ne m'en souviens pas. Sans doute un premier livre oublié qui m'a donné envie de continuer...

5. A qui allez-vous passez le relais (3 blogs) et pourquoi ?

Ludo et Andy pour leurs reponses à la 4. Puis Geoff à cause de cette entrée-ci.

Posted by Mark at 09:29 PM

March 07, 2005

Bedside reading

On my night table right now:

Flaubert's Madame Bovary
Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version
Justine ou Les malheurs de la vertu, from the Marquis de Sade
La relaxation, c'est facile, by Henri Brunel
Sun Tzu's Art of War, translated by Samuel B. Griffith

No running books. I'm having a hard time finishing the first three. The others I've already been through at least once.

Posted by Mark at 08:46 PM | Comments (1)

March 04, 2005

Olfactory increase

Since I took an elbow on the bridge of the nose during a basketball game at Rose-Hulman when I was 19, my sense of smell has been diminished.

Something has been happening this week to heighten my sense of smell. I'm experiencing the following:

Lower tolerance before odors start bothering me
Awful smells near toilets, locker rooms at work
Stronger food flavors with more nuances
Significant differences in odors and odor levels at home and at work
Outside smells I don't usually notice (both man made and natural)
I smell worse than I usually notice

It's not clear whether this means I'm starting to go nuts, or whether I should be opening the better bottles of wine from our cellar. Maybe both.

Posted by Mark at 09:57 PM

March 02, 2005

Social Security

Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Commissioner of the US Social Security Administration, has sent me a letter. In the letter I learn that, "Social Security is a compact between generations," but that, "by 2042 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted."

So if I retire in 2037 at age 67, after having been unemployable since about age 52, there may be some benefits for 5 years. Except that I've been out of the US too long, not paying into Social Security over there.

If I return to the US at some point, I literally cannot count on Social Security for retirement, disability, family and survivor benefits, or medicare, at least not for a few years, during which time I'd probably become ineligible for any benefits I've accrued in France.

Oh, well. If you want to be safe, don't leave the country you're in. (Except when local conditions force you to leave for your own safety.)

Posted by Mark at 09:14 PM

February 27, 2005

Almost 56 min/day

With the mileage mounting to 52 km (32 mi) I got 6:31:05 of aerobic exercise this week, an average of 56 min/day with Friday as day of rest. Over two of those hours were cross training on the bike, however, separate from the 52 km running.

Posted by Mark at 02:39 PM

February 25, 2005

February temperatures

February is the second coldest month around here. January is supposed to be colder. We're having a cold snap, though.

This morning just before 8 AM the thermometer outside Tim's room registered just under -8 C (about 17 F). That's only slightly below the average minimum February temperature in La Porte, Indiana. (Source: WorldClimate.com)

No wonder many people stop running outside there in the dead of winter.

Posted by Mark at 08:10 AM

February 23, 2005

41 bpm, part III

Today I'm not going into the office. This counts as a day off under the réduction du temps de travail agreements, whereby those of us on salary get a day off a month instead of working 35-hour weeks.

Before walking out of the garage, I noticed my heart rate was slower than it usually is when I head out the door to run at work. It was down in the mid-60s rather than the mid-70s. Am I that much more stressed out at work? Do I drink too much coffee? (Sun offers employees free coffee and tea.)

Anyway, I sat down for a moment and sure enough could drop to 41 bpm. I didn't have the patience to try for 40.

Posted by Mark at 01:46 PM

February 21, 2005

Winter ride, part III

While taking my bike out of the car this evening, I noticed the timer registered 3:39:43.

28.6 kph may represent the average over the last 3 2/3 hours of riding, not the 1 1/4 hours today.

The maximum speed was 66.9 kph (41.3 mph), which I must've reached coming down to Montbonnot from St. Ismier. If I really want to set a personal speed record, I should probably ride up to La Chapelle Blanche and down the more or less straight road on the descent towards La Rochette. Not something to try in winter, however.

I met a young guy, maybe 17-18, on the way out to Tencin. He told me he races with a club in Pontcharra. They don't start climbing until later in March. At this time of year you might run into a patch of ice or a layer of snow.

Posted by Mark at 09:00 PM

February 15, 2005

Blog roll

With nary a thought of filtering I've subscribed to the following feeds at Bloglines.com:

That's still an order of magnitude fewer blog subscriptions than the number of mailing lists I'm subscribed to at work not counting external aliases. (Last count: 197.)

Will browser support for RSS feeds turn that around? Maybe we should hope not.

Posted by Mark at 08:17 PM

February 13, 2005

Training times

Except for the first two workouts of marathon training, I've done thorough job tracking exercise times when cross-training, running, or cycling through this first half.

My actuals show more jogging as the distance creeps up.

Posted by Mark at 06:21 PM

January 19, 2005

84, 106

There's a pattern emerging...

I appear to be a slightly weird loser.

Sounds like natural nerd material to me.

Posted by Mark at 09:08 PM

98?

This is ridiculous:

Apparently I score highly as a nerd. There are probably huge numbers of people out there who've never committed any of the periodic table to memory. I swear I do not own a pocket protector. They don't attach well to pocketless t-shirts, and who carries more than one pen at a time these days anyway?

I don't score highly as a geek. Many of the people doing system administration where I work score orders of magnitude higher than I do on these types of quizzes. We're all scrunched up beyond two or even three standard deviations away from the mean. To the left of the mean, I think.

Posted by Mark at 08:57 PM

44 bpm

As I sit at my desk, my pulse drops down into the mid 40s. No chance losing weight browsing the web.

Posted by Mark at 01:36 PM

January 13, 2005

Setup & teardown

Considering the amount of time getting prepared and cleaning up the bike after riding, 1:28:57 wasn't much. I spent perhaps 45 minutes getting ready, taking the bike apart, putting it together, getting dressed, and showering. I also spent 45 minutes removing caked mud, then degreasing, drying, and lubing the chain.

Posted by Mark at 09:33 PM

January 09, 2005

Yardwork

Out of curiosity I wore the heart monitor while doing an hour of work in the yard. My average pulse was 100 bpm, mainly raking and cleaning up.

Posted by Mark at 06:49 PM

January 07, 2005

42 bpm, part III

Once again, 42 bpm resting.

Over about the first half-hour of the day, I averaged 60 bpm. Much of that was sitting down eating breakfast and reading, since I woke up somewhat earlier than necessary.

Posted by Mark at 08:28 AM

January 06, 2005

Hummingbirds

Nathalie tried out the heart rate monitor. While exercising on her bike, she had a heart rate of 131 bpm on average. She also had a heart rate of about 100... before she even got started.

Nik said today a normal rate is about 78 bpm. Mine seems to be about 77-78 bpm when I'm walking around the house after having eaten too much for dinner.

Posted by Mark at 10:09 PM | Comments (2)

January 05, 2005

Heart rate ranges

If my maximum is now around 195 bpm, then the ranges are roughly:

Endurance: 136-156
Soft resistance: 158-172
Hard resistance: 173-187

Source: http://www.courirenfrance.com/

Posted by Mark at 09:38 PM

January 04, 2005

42 bpm, part II

The resting pulse reading this morning was 42 bpm, following the same steps as the other day.

Posted by Mark at 09:28 AM

January 02, 2005

Stretch & strength

Hal Higdon recommends some stretching and light strength training to supplement running. Several sites suggest firming abdominal and back muscles helps you keep form.

Some of that I'll get with cross training during the week. Today I added 400 crunches (200 straight, 200 side to side), 50 rowing, 100 push ups, barbell curls, barbell rowing, barbell overhead pulls, various stretches, leg lifts, and whatever you call the exercise for the back that consists of lying on your stomach lifting the legs and arms.

Posted by Mark at 10:52 AM

42 bpm

This morning at 6:40 am Emma was already awake. She tried to sit on me while I took my pulse. I nevertheless got a reading of 42 bpm.

Posted by Mark at 08:48 AM

January 01, 2005

41 bpm, part II

Didn't measure my heart rate when I woke up this morning. I did however have a look after getting dressed to jog today. It seems possible to slow your pulse by relaxing your body. I got it down to 41 bpm, but could only hold it down to 43.

Having seen the same rate on two different mornings, I guess it may not be a fluke. Perhaps my normal heart rate is lower than I thought. I do feel less ill than other days. All I have now is a runny nose and an occasional sneeze.

Posted by Mark at 11:57 AM

December 31, 2004

41 bpm

My lowest heart rate this morning, measured according to the same process as yesterday morning, registered as 41 beats per minute.

Posted by Mark at 07:34 AM

December 30, 2004

47 bpm

My morning resting heart rate was 47 beats per minute today.

Yesterday I had a hard time taking it in the dark. Today I got up, walked out to the mezzanine, flicked on the lamp, laid down, waited for my heart to slow, and noticed the rate was 47 bpm, same as last night at 9:30 pm. I'd guess it's slightly lower during sleep.

For someone who's supposedly in reasonably good shape, my resting heart rate seems high. Maybe that explains why I'm not laid back.

Posted by Mark at 05:40 PM

December 29, 2004

49 bpm

My morning resting heart rate was 49 beats per minute today.

Posted by Mark at 02:59 PM

December 28, 2004

Mpegs

These are accidents we made while taking pictures with the camcorder:

Courseton, I (2.8 MB)
Courseton, II (3.3 MB)
Courseton, III (5.7 MB)
Diane climbing (0.7 MB)
Diane slide (0.6 MB)
Nose blowing (0.8 MB)
Remodling (0.2 MB)
Skieuse (0.1 MB)
Snow (0.2 MB)

Download a small one first to see if you can read it. I use mplayer on Linux.

Posted by Mark at 06:53 PM

December 25, 2004

Presents

Nathalie bought me Da Vinci Code in French. I know nothing about the book. She says she bought it in French in case she wanted to read it after I do.

I also received a Polar A3 heart monitor. This was not a big surprise, since I wrapped it myself at the store where I bought it. This morning my heart rate was around 50. That was after coffee and with small children competing for my attention, so maybe it's a beat or two lower when I wake up.

Mom and Dana gave me a CatEye Astrale 8 cyclocomputer with a rear wheel sensor for speed and distance, and a left crank sensor for cadence. I mounted it this morning and checked that everything works. Unfortunately it has been raining since 1 pm, so I haven't taken it out on the road.

Michel and Colette gave me a basting tool and special oven mitt, made of synthetic rubber so it cannot get soaked through. The basting tool came with a brush inside for washing it. Will try it out tomorrow if we have enough appetite left to make the roast Nathalie bought.

Dad contributed a big chunk to one of Nathalie's skis, but the heart monitor counts as coming partly from him. I'll be using it tomorrow when I run.

I can also perhaps negotiate a little bit more shopping (very little, with Christmas money from Evelyn). It would be great to get some cool weather cycling clothes if they ever go on sale at Decathlon. I might even be able to ride faster with 2 kg less sweat on my upper body.

Posted by Mark at 04:55 PM | Comments (2)

September 21, 2004

Candidate criteria

In case you're a presidential candidate out there wondering how you can get my vote, voici my top ten list of presidential candidate criteria:

Shall replace property with p2p participatory protocol while in office
Practical, pragmatic, bottom-up, top-down, idealistic, visionary
Discordian
Transcends hierarchy
Female
Lazy, impatient, proudly presumptious
Self-taught, really
Deeply honest
Allergic to prisons
Unwilling to be elected president

Send me your handwritten resume and I'll let you know how you score.

Posted by Mark at 09:25 PM

July 30, 2004

Not a great anything

My brother Matt sent a link to Paul Graham's essay on great hackers, what they have in common, and how to aspire to become one. Paul has inspired me to list a few reasons why I consider myself great at nothing:

Lack of stick-to-it-iveness
Inability to hold large contexts
Absence of flow, or rather, can only flow while unconscious (sleeping)
Stultifyingly slow to react
Excruciatingly dull blogging

Posted by Mark at 08:51 AM

July 07, 2004

Wines from last weekend

Marcel Juge Cornas Cuvee C(oteaux) 2000
Domaine de Amouriers VDP 2003
Domaine de Amouriers VDP Les Hautes Terrasses 2000
Domaine de Amouriers Vacqueyras 2002
Domaine de Durban Muscat de Baumes-de-Venise 2003
Domaine de Durban VDP Blanc 2003
Domaine Alary CDR La Reserve du Vigneron 2002
Domaine Alary CDR La Jean de Verde 2001
Chapoutier Cotes du Rousillon Villages Occultum Lapidem 2002
Chapoutier Cotes du Rousillon Villages Domaine de Bila Haut 2003
Delas Freres Coteaux du Tricastin 2003

Posted by Mark at 09:27 PM

June 22, 2004

Where to run nearby

Semi-marathon de Lyon 26 Sept. 2004

Marathon de Savoie

Semi-marathon de l'Isere (cancelled)

Posted by Mark at 07:12 AM

June 17, 2004

Abundance

Monogamy goes away?
Scarcity: I love you; I cannot love another; We must love exclusively. (If monogamy is natural, why would anyone even think about cheating?)
Money goes away?
Scarcity: I have it; You want it; We cannot both have it; We must trade; To avoid carrying everything we have with us, we need symbolic trading; I know, money...
Property goes away?
Scarcity: We cannot both have it; One of us must have it, exclusively; Let's be fair, though; OK, let's have property and ownership, ruled by explicit contract (law).
Envy goes away?
Scarcity: You have it; I won't it; We cannot both have it; I covet it.
Sharing comes back?
Scarcity in abundance: We cannot both have it; Can we grow, make another one? If not, can we share? If not, do we have to go back to scarcity for this one?
Government goes away?
Scarcity: We must have a system for controlling distribution of critical resources; ...
Work stays, right?
Does religion stay?
What happens to obviously limited resources for which we do not have substitutes?
Why don't any examples come to mind?

Posted by Mark at 08:41 AM

Mark's Blog

Directly from my navel to you.