Java Can Wait

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13% BF

The weekend:

Friday was a night ride down the towpath, where I ran into Joe & Cindy, and then also Doug & Lori. Pretty amazing when you think about it, though maybe I shouldn't be too surprised. Afterwards J&C, also Brian, met me at Which Brew for dinner. Mellow night, but there was an after-dinner shot of high quality tequila involved... The band there was really good, sort of reggae/ska, tight and really talented playing; Unfortunately the rest of the audience (other than our table) didn't seem very appreciative. Brian bought the CD, and I signed up for their mailing list.

Saturday I went to the gym -- almost was late because I was playing with the computer -- where I rode a stationary bike rather than run, and skipped the pushups because my toe (better in almost all respects) still hurts at the tip, and I skipped everything that involved lying on my back because my head was stuffed and I was worried about vertigo. Why did I bother going? Actually, it was a good workout despite everything; Dawn was super resourceful and came up with a lot of exercises to substitute for my normal ones. I also did the first leg exercise of the year, leg raises for the ol quads.

The afternoon was mostly taken with minor chores, especially getting ready for the Gap Gallop century ride. Later in the day I decided to start messing with Java, so broke out that "Learning Java" book and got ready to install from the accompanying CD, then decided to download the next-to-latest version directly from Sun.

Digression #1: I installed the latest "Java Runtime Environment" last week, which allows for Java plugins to run. The very next day, Sun announced the release of a major new upgrade -- doh!

Digression #2: Sun's Java product nomenclature is very confusing.

Anyway, I got the download going, grabbed the laundry & took it to be dried at the laundromat, and went back down to Which Brew, thought I'd grab some dinner, see this weekend's other reggae band (even better thant the other one). That's where I ran into Theresa, hmmmm...

Sunday was the Gap Gallop, a century road ride around parts of Northampton County, the Slate Belt and the Poconos; it climbs over Blue Mountain at Little Gap, and returns via the Water Gap (hence the name). A perfect Indian summer day, on the very cusp of autumn color (my favorite time of year), and the ride was awesome. I rode with Joe & Cindy (also her dad for a while, but he was with a bunch of his friends who branched off the official ride after near the end), Rob G, and Janna's boyfriend Eric; I also saw a whole bunch of other people I know. All in all it was a great ride, though towards the end I started thinking that maybe working legs wasn't such a good idea on Saturday. Afterward, I went to Jack Creek for dinner with Joe & Cindy, then went home and crashed.

My plan was to take a quick nap, then maybe run through some finger exercises from the Java book, but I ended up sleeping throught to this morning. Maybe tonight I'll get to it.

One More Night

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 7% BF

Whoops! Was going to go to the gym (again) last night, but (again) I sat down "just to check my email" and blew off everything including dinner -- well, I ate half a box of Triskets -- went to bed at 1:00 AM. A little too old to be going into a larval stage... nothing I can really point to as an accomplishment either, just browsing the web and generic fiddling.

Nite Ride: I plugged in the batteries; they should be ready for a ride along the towpath tonight. I may hit the Raubsville Inn afterward to see Duende (they're either there or at Pearly Baker's, gotta check).

Ghost in the Shell

Morning weigh-in: 172.5#, 9% BF

Didn't go to the gym Tuesday or yesterday, didn't do laundry or other chores, instead I got home from work and played with the computer. Last night I sat down, "just for a minute, to check my emails" and didn't get up -- except for a bathroom break / fridge raid about 10:00 -- until after midnight. Among the stuff I did was get my newer version of that gallery maker shell script up and running -- now with a style sheet and unordered lists instead of tables, plus a few more cleanup items, like

link=${photo%[jJ][pP][gG]}html

rather than using something like

link=`echo $photo sed -e "s/[jJ][pP][gG]/html/"`

Really kind of dumb way to do something, when the shell will do it for you...

I also sat down and installed the latest Java runtime library, and installed the mozilla plugin (finally). Don't know what the big deal was, why I had a mental block about it, but it's there now... of course, then I had to mess with java-enabled stuff like yahoo chats, then I had to fool with IRC chat & chatzilla, then at midnight I opened up an O'Reilly book on Java I got a while ago -- now I'm chugging java, trying to stay awake.

Speaking of staying awake: we just had a meeting about another company reorganization (European and North American energy companies will be managed together), plus a bunch of corporate/financial/stock stuff. (Some things were very interesting though, like product and technology-focus strategies for the next few years.) Anyway, lunchtimes over, back to (real) work.

duh

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13% BF

Nothing much to say: cleaned the kitchen (slightly) last night, also laundry/shopping & played more w/ CSS, lists & my galleries. Nothing to write home about... tonight is the gym, then maybe a little more housework.

Busy Beavers, Bees, and Blackfoot

Morning weigh-in (Sunday): 173.5#, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Monday): 175#, 12.5% BF

I stayed in Saturday night, playing with style sheets etc. I'm trying to get away from using tables in my image gallery indexes, instead using unordered lists so they flow to fit the page, but I also want them to look exactly like the tables-based indexes. I think I've got it down, but I was up a little late because of it, which made Sunday morning tough.

Sunday was trail maintenance day at an "undisclosed location." We have an unofficial & quasi-legal OK to be riding/working in the area, but officially we're trespassing -- so shhhhhh! Well, discretion is the better part of valor, so we went up there with two chainsaws & cleared out a bunch of trees downed by the hurricane. We removed the first few trees without any real problems, then came across one next to a yellowjacket nest -- practically on the trail, and very, very angry! Eric & Doug both got stung, though we tried to be careful. I didn't have a problem with the yellowjackets, but I guess I used up all my "careful" on them because I managed to drop a log on my foot. It hurt like hell all day, still hurts and now my big toe is black & blue, but I don't think anything's broken. (I was planning to run tomorrow, think I'll skip it.)

After the trail work, I rode with Doug & Lori up in the same trail system near where we worked. (Eric was up there as well, but we never did find him.) They were on their new tandem, and going kind of slow in the twisty and very technical terrain, and this was fine by me, since I felt tired and my strength/enthusiasm had all drained out the bottom of my foot. Rode pretty good though, was happy with that & had fun.

Sunday evening was back to D&L's house, for a dinner party they put together. Eric & Kris, Brian, and Greg & Judy (just off surgery, first time out of the house in a week); salad, bread & olive oil, pasta w/ sausage & meatballs and Doug's family-recipe sauce; cannoli and other desserts, and beer and wine and great conversation. An awesome evening.

Death By Garlic

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 12.5% BF

Well, this weekend is the Easton Garlic Festival, but at Which Brew the weekend starts on Friday night so I grabbed a plate of roasted elephant garlic: each clove must have been about as big as a full bulb of regular garlic, and the plate held about half a dozen cloves. Unbelievably tasty, but it wreaked havoc on my digestion. I guess now I'm honorary Welsh...

Anyway: rode last night, 3 hours on the (slightly damaged) Lehigh towpath -- most damage wasn't from the river, but from water coming down off the hills and cliffs, heading for the river -- then to WB as noted. The band there, The Insidious Rays, were awesome, by the way. Hung out with Stu & Kathy before they left, and Heath & Hans Kneller (their bikes were on their car, who else could it have been?) and Margarita, plus about a thousand cute college girls it seemed like.

This morning I fooled with computer before hitting the coffee shop, then a run along the Jersey side of the river & a standard gym workout; after that I checked out the festival downtown. Got home, played more with the 'puter, and my mouse crapped out. Cheap plastic part inside snapped, so I bought a new Logitech wireless optical mouse (3-button w/ mouse wheel, thirty bucks -- sweet!), which I'm using right now. Feels kind of weird, like using a template on the old AutoCAD systems at work, but I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quick.

Channeling My Inner Dork

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12.5% BF

Didn't ride/run/lift or do chores/errands last night, instead played with the computer. I don't know why, but I really like playing with bash.

A Little Mercy

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11.5% BF

Heard a cool song yesterday, had to stay in the car to let it finish when I got home from work. I didn't catch the artist/title, but liooked it up and found this:

Whoever watches over all these truckers
Show a little mercy for a weary sinner
And deliver me, Lord deliver me
Deliver me to the next Best Western

Rode last night at Jacobsburg (w/ Doug & Lori on the tandem, Greg M, Greg P, Eric, and Joe & Cindy, as well as seeing Rich B, Lee S on his BMW motorcycle in the parking lot, and Dave J as he was leaving). Lots of damage from the storms & flooding: many bridges out, including small trail bridges (Doug et al fixed a lot of these) and even a few of the big ones. Some trail damage made the trails more technical though, which was fun, a guilty pleasure.

I'm still sick though, and felt like hammered shit after the ride so I went straight home & to bed -- no dinner. Felt a lot better overnight and this morning, thanks to my good friends Actifed, Ibuprofin, Echinacea and Vitamin C. I'm still passing the "neck test"* though, so tonight I'll be heading to the gym, see how I feel there.

*Neck Test: if you're sick and it's below your throat, don't exercise, but if it's above your neck do a warmup, and if you feel up for it you can continue the workout.

Not the Return I Was Expecting

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10% BF

I seem to be getting a cold, which was once a monthly occurrence but has been almost unheard-of for more than a year. Sore throat started last night, sinuses seem clogged, I hope it blows over pretty quick.

Ran yesterday, two miles down past Baker Chemical before working out, then went home, did some stuff, and went to WB for dinner. Interesting conversation with a dude I see there on Tuesdays: kickboxer, worked as an "armed security escort" in the Caribbean, coupla stories...

Tonight is a night ride at Jacobsburg, check out the flood damage & see the ol' Gang.

Finding My Way Back To The Same Old Same Old

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 11% BF

I was going to run this morning -- but I got a haircut yesterday, which means I visited the bookstore in the mall, and that's where I bought some books on MySQL and PHP, thus causing me to stay up a little late reading and playing with the computer... I'll hit the gym tonight (if it's still there after the flooding), do a quick warmup run beforehand.

I have PHP on my computer, but no web server installed; I haven't checked to see if MySQL is around anywhere yet. I'll probably either download the latest Apache or use the handy CD that came with the book, get it all running & start to play sometime in the next week or so. Meantime, I can always use PHP to generate static HTML in various shell scripts, right? (Yes, still messing with my photo galleries script, which I think I'll be finalizing this weekend. I'll probably post version 1.0 in my gopherspace real soon.) Sad to say, freeshell.org doesn't give access to MySQL without special, paid-for privileges & I won't be setting up anything but a private web server at home, so this is all pretty much just wanking. Actually, 2nd order or meta-wanking, since the web page project is already a bit of a wankfest...

There is a bit of an agenda here, however: I think I may have to switch careers sometime in the next year or so, and am looking to get into computers. Web stuff is probably already saturated; my theory is that home-PC tech support will be pretty stable -- you can't outsource the doctor that makes house calls, right? -- but I'll need a bit lot of retraining before that (hardware, software, MSCE, yadda yadda), & I first want to get a feel for the back office of a computerized small business. We'll see.

By the way, here are some photos of the flood damage, emailed to me from a friend (not sure who took or owns the pictures).

Back From Florida

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 13% BF

Well, I'm back; flew in last night & was home by about 10:30. Some highlights: flew down Thursday, met my uncle at the airport and, on the advice of my other uncle, drove directly to the rehearsal dinner, where we were two hours early... went to Universal Studios on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and a brunch at my cousin's new house (sister of cousin who got married) on Sunday before flying back. Plenty of hanging out w/ family in the meantime & betweentime.

The weather was good (but very hot), and there was only a little hurricane damage in the Orlando/Cocoa Beach areas I frequented, so when I got home I was surprised to see as much storm and flodding damage as I did around here: bridges and roads out; the downtowns of Easton and several other river towns spent most of yesterday under water.

More later, including many photos (probably in the yahoo galleries), so stay tuned...

A little bit of catch-up

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 10.5% BF

Rode the towpath last night, OK but a somewhat sluggish pace, I finished with a 1:35 ride time. I didn't feel tired or winded or anything, but my pace never rose -- 15 mph felt normal, the 18 mph pace from a few weeks back felt impossible to sustain. Allergies?

I also updated my website last night. My "photos of Mike" page was really sort of a letter to his fiancee (the online version was there for comments/input from friends & family, and the final version of the original went on a disk for her), so I went in and changed it to a more public document. It was kind of neat, I was logged in to the epix (Solaris?) system, as well as freeshell (*BSD), plus my own computer, also FTP'ing stuff around like some kind of juggler, what a tangled web I was weaving... Later on (after dinner) I started to add comments to some of the newer galleries, but didn't update the site -- bedtime, you know.

Dinner was Which Brew, quiet night there. Figure I'm on vacation this weekend, no food at home and I don't want to buy anything just to let it go bad... Several WDIY types there, talking about Channel 39's attempt to take over the station. I signed the petition (the print version), and the conversation devolved into "cool bands/venues/radio I have experienced" one-upmanship. Interesting!

Went home, messed with 'puter, bed by 12:30.

By the way, stay tuned for more crap, because I now have a gopher site -- does anybody here remember gopher? It's still around, just gone underground. That's what gophers do...

Sudden Change in Plans

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 11.5% BF

So, I'm still going to Florida, but I'm going stag and I won't be visiting the Keys: Theresa can't make it, so there's no point in an extended vacation, and no reason to drive down instead of flying. I have my flight & a rental car booked, must make sure hotel can accommodate me for Thursday night. Oh well.

Lost Weekend

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10.5% BF

The weekend:

Friday night was a slow lap (sluggish, no snap) on the towpath, made slower by a flat, then a late night at WB & also Porters...

Saturday was a quick run followed by the gym, then I checked out the P'burg Crit before stopping by T's and dropping off her "certified non-deathtrap" bike. Dinner w/ "the guys" (Doug, Brian & Eric) at JP McGrady's Pub in Bethlehem, kind of a quiet night even so.

Sunday was a group ride at fell Mountain: Doug, Bob, Joe & Cindy, Eric, Rich and Pete and myself. I was hurting (tired and headachey), but some "it's allergies, take an allergy pill" advice from nurse Cindy pulled me through. Rough ride all around, everyone was tired by the end (only 15 miles, but it took 5 hours to do -- 2:20 ride time actually, still tiwas some tough, technical riding), but we were all glad we did it. We met up with a local near the end, and he showed us a few new trails.

Post ride pig-out at that place in Clark's Summit, then the drive home (slept most of the way), then I tried to FTP some new galleries into my site, ran into problems and gave up, passing out by 10:00. Stay tuned: Moab 2002 shots up "soon"...

Strangely enough, I'm not tired today.

Friday Blogging

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 11.5% BF

Scared myself last night & this morning, thought there was a major (and really stupid) error on a drawing I checked -- designer/drafter draws it, but the checker makes sure it's correct, and is ultimately the one responsible for mistakes, and this job is already in fabrication. I came in this morning & checked, and everything is A-OK. Phew!

Didn't ride last night, kind of rainy out so I played w/ 'puter, & brought T's old bike to Cycle Funattic for a a safety once-over and new tires. Saw Brian there (he's volunteering for the Phillipsburg Criterium tomorrow) and made arrangements to meet for dinner at Which Brew -- he was a no-show, but there was a gen-u-wine hillbilly dude there, espousing his views on moonshine and cigarettes...

It's Up

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 14% BF

So, my website is up and running, check it out here. Next up is figuring out a little more CSS, then maybe some CGI and PHP (one big plus from using the Super Dimension Fortress)... first order of business though, is to revamp the blog, take advantage of new features -- HaloScan choked this morning, so I may switch to using Blogger's comments, and will also enable the "archive individual posts" option, probably this weekend sometime. Tonight if it's nice I'll probably ride with Theresa and her son on the Palmer Bike Path.

My Web Page

I think I have it pretty close to ready, so I'm posting my webpage as we speak, FTP'ing the stuff into freeshell.org; it should take another hour, hour and a half to finish.

My plan is eventually to have a series of pages, with 3 columns of stuff on each page: left side for regular navigation on my site, right side for cool links relevant to that particular page, and the middle for content (text, photos etc). The main breakdowns will be: home, Easton, bikes, photos, this blog, and a contact link. I may disable the contact link if I start getting too much spam. I have the skeleton up, and will be fleshing it out as time goes by. I also plan to add comments to my photos, eventually. Except for this blog though, and the start of some galleries, I am really hurting for content.

Once everythng is in place, I'll link my blog to my homepage as well, but right now I'm not sure of my site name, maybe donxfive.freeshell.org? We'll see -- I just tried SSH'ing into my acount, and the file transfers choked, I may not be allowed to do both at once but I'll try it again, find out how to finish the job.

UPDATE: I'm in my shell account, and the file transfers seem no worse for wear, it must have been a fluke or coincidence before...

Super-Size Me

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10.5% BF

I think I see a disturbing trend here, lots of eating out (damn you, Taco Hell!) --> weight gain this past week. Bit of a post-Allamuchy binge, which is OK but I should put it behind me ASAP.

Rock Rock, It's The End Of The Summer

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 13% BF

Just a quick post, a little info. I've been dabbling in Cascading Style Sheets, a few other things and am now pretty close to putting my web pages up. The key will be the galleries, since I have very little other content right now except for this blog...

Rode today on the Delaware towpath, with Doug and Lori on their new tandem, and with Brian. Lori's still on injured reserve from running-induced shin splints: doc sez no hills, hence the towpath. Pearly Baker's afterward for late lunch or early dinner. I've been playing wth the computer ever since, but must now do some laundry etc. Back to work tomorrow.

A Somewhat Lazy Sunday

Morning weigh-in (Saturday): 175.5 #, 12% BF
Morning weigh-in (Sunday): 177#, 11% BF

Just got up maybe a half hour ago, I'll be doing some housework here today, after breakfast at a coffee shop -- not sure which one yet, there's still two in Easton; once upon a time there was a third, actually my first choice for breakfast, but the oners got divorced and the place closed. (I called it a "triple play" when a Saturday involved visits to all three...) Well anyway, Coffee & Tea Time is gone, and I typically eat a breakfast bialy or something at Coffee Works on Saturday -- I did it yesterday -- so Sunday looks like a trip to the Quadrant except I was there yesterday too, got a cup to go and some ground beans during the afternoon errand-fest. Hmmm... I like Coffee Works better, maybe follow instincts & go there -- if they're open today! Decisions, decisions...

Back to "reality:" rode Friday on the towpath, a pretty hot lap since I realized (at Sand Island, the furthest point) that I forgot my clear lenses. All I had was prescription sunglasses so I had to get home before full darkness hit -- made it. Yesterday I felt it in my legs, but went to the gym and ran four hilly miles before working out; today I really feel it...

Stopped by Weyerbacher yesterday, and hung out with T as she closed up, then we went to Porter's for lunch. We both had chores, and she wanted to grab a quick nap so off we went in opposite directions (that's where my afternoon coffee run came in).

My one planned activity was to look at her old 10-speed bike, see if it could be salvaged: it could, and I cleaned up the drivetrain, tightened a few loose screws, shot a spritz of lube here & there, and put some air in the tires. I was able to ride it around the block a few times, though the rear wheel makes a funny noise and the tires are no longer roadworthy (easy replace). If anything else was wrong, there would have been serious problems, since the components and frame are so old that new stuff wouldn't be compatible; one bad item would mean replacing the bike, and she seems pretty attached to it.

I called her later, but she got a chill in Porter's maybe, or whatever but she had a headache and a sore thoat all of a sudden, and stayed in. I went to dinner, Carmine's in Allentown, with the Pinkertons (who have their tandem put together and rode it yesterday) and the Riglers.

Many household chores await me today, but first: coffee!