When the crash happened.

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, took a spill on the bike on my evening ride.

Turns out that the beach trail has a couple treachorous potholes that I hadn't accounted for. Whoops.

But, a skinned knee is pretty small in the grand scheme of things, so other than the "Crap. Now I have to ride home.", I escaped with the only minor embarrassment of nodding at passing drivers that saw that my leg was bleeding.



I am not looking forward to having to separate the tape from my leg hair.

Cyclery, Week 10

Yeah, so my forced internet hiatus made this late.

8/21: -
8/22: 8m
8/23: -
8/24: 12.5m
8/25: 12.5m
8/26: -
8/27: 12.5m

Week Total: 45.5m
Overall Total: 554.2m
Miles to go to meet summer goal: -54.2m

For what it's worth, this is the penultimate update. I'm tracking only until labor day.

Boredom #1, arguing with IM bots.

[8:11] confident_woman83
::BUZZ::

[10:46] transiit
piss off.

[10:47] confident_woman83
hey there cutie???

[10:47] transiit
no

[10:47] confident_woman83
who is this again? Sorry I don't recognize the name lol

[10:48] transiit
By my records, you got the ball rolling, so...um....no?

[10:48] confident_woman83
Oh Ok LOL,Nice!how you doin??

[10:48] transiit
I'm brilliant. Best day in months.

[10:48] confident_woman83
I'm actually working right now what are you doing exactly??

[10:49] transiit
It would seem that I'm trying to participate in a conversation.

[10:49] transiit
I could be mistaken.

[10:49] confident_woman83
nice, nothin I work from home just starting doing these cam shows :) It's pretty fun actually lol

[10:49] confident_woman83
I am a little busy right now cant really talk here but I would LOVE if you came to watch and give me some company, and maybe a GOOD rating ??

[10:50] transiit
So you're totally rocking the webcam porn spam angle, then?

[10:50] confident_woman83
nah, I am a vegetarian... no spam for me! haha

[10:50] transiit
I'm talking with a bot, huh?

[10:51] confident_woman83
whats a bot? im 100% all real and natural, from tits to ass!

[10:51] transiit
So how do you feel about the recent political debates regarding health care reform?

[10:52] confident_woman83
well I think i have my free friend's pass lyin here one sec babe.. I mean would you want it??

[10:52] transiit
Do you think a free pass would be interesting in the greater debate?

[10:53] confident_woman83
yes its free

[10:53] transiit
Wow, so I bet that'd totally sway congress, huh?

[10:53] confident_woman83
yup, I do got another pass left!..YAY.. just please don't tell anyone else I can get in trouble. What color panties should I put on for you sexy, i'll let you pick! LOL

[10:54] transiit
Oh crap, don't want to get you in trouble....think you could forward me some cash to keep me silent?

[10:54] confident_woman83
k lol .. You joining me ? ;)

[10:55] transiit
Oh totally, I figure $50 is enough to keep me quiet about you forwarding free passes.

[10:55] confident_woman83
yes its free

[10:56] transiit
Yeah, so when do I get my money? I'd hate to have to turn you in, you know, you seem kinda nice.

[10:56] confident_woman83
Ok, go to (redacted) all the way down to the bottom babe, and you will see "friends of ME", click that and when you get the password page, put in the password:"diva" okay?

[10:57] transiit
Yeah, but when do I get paid?

[10:57] confident_woman83
yup, fill out your info, make sure you put your correct b-day k?

[10:57] transiit
Are you saying I have to wait until my next birthday?

[10:57] confident_woman83
k, if you entered as my friend, it should say 0.00, if so you are good for my free friend's pass dont worry about the autorenew the pass cancels all charges

[10:58] transiit
Yeah, but where's my kickback for not turning you in for bending the rules?

[10:58] confident_woman83
CC is just to verify your age hun,its the sites policy to ensure no minors get access to the site .. i gave u my free friend's pass :)

[10:59] transiit
Right, right. So when do I get my kick-back?

[10:59] confident_woman83
ok let me know when you get in so I can invite you directly to my cam.

[10:59] transiit
Clearly I am dealing with a bot. Let's have some fun.

[11:00] confident_woman83
whats a bot? im 100% all real and natural, from tits to ass!

[11:00] transiit
So how's your medical history? Did the antibiotics clear things up?

[11:00] confident_woman83
k, you in yet babe?? Don't keep me waiting!

[11:02] transiit
On a scale of 1 to 10, would you consider your sores 1 (temporary) or 10 (festering, leaking pus, and now under quarantine from the CDC)?

[11:02] confident_woman83
k

[11:03] transiit
'k' seems like a bit off the chart from 1 to 10.

[11:03] transiit
just sayin'

[11:03] confident_woman83
k when u login click LIVEWEBCAMS and I'm the girl on the top row farthest to the left. There's a chat there so I'll see u there babe ... maybe u tell me what to do ;)

[11:03] confident_woman83
k

[11:03] transiit
Cool, so do you spray pus at the camera?

[11:09] transiit
Seriously, I'm sure somebody finds that pretty hot, watching you bust pustules open on your webcam.

[11:10] confident_woman83
:(

[11:10] transiit
You don't think there's a whole crowd of cam-watchers out there that wouldn't be into that?

[11:10] confident_woman83
if its not working u can always visit me on my other site.. go to (redacted) fill out the form and when you see the secret code box put in adminpass09 and ur set with my trial pass!!

[11:11] transiit
Think about it: *squeeze* *pop* *squeeze* *pop*

[11:11] transiit
Somebody would totally pay for that.

(no further response)


So what did I learn here? Even IM bots aren't happy about poppin' pustules. Who knew?

break time

I feel a break coming on. See you in a week or so intarwebs.

Cyclery, Week 9

Working long hours doesn't make it easy to get out there.

8/14: -
8/15: -
8/16: 8m
8/17: 16m
8/18: 12.5m
8/19: 16m
8/20: -

Week Total: 52.5m
Overall Total: 508.7m
Miles to go to meet summer goal: -8.7m

But I did reach my goal of 500 miles by Labor Day a couple weeks early.

Health

So it's not a big secret that I'm not a big health care advocate (haven't seen a doctor since 1996), but without going too far afield, I feel compelled to say that the current national health care debate has gone pretty ridiculous.

Seriously, I read the bits about "end of life consultations" and to think it means "death panels" or eugenics seems like quite a stretch.

I have employer-provided health insurance. Sure, I never use it, but it's kind of cool to know its there. I don't follow the informal fallacies that if the government finds a way to make a public option, the private insurance industry is doomed. Compete, or don't.

This week's presidential address made enough sense to me that I felt like throwing in my two cents.



I don't have any answers, but I'm kind of thinking that if we're going to say "Hey, we're the best country anywhere", it makes sense to address the problems we've got, and take care of our own.

This country is made of up actual humans. They deserve the best opportunities we can offer.

Milestone 1

So back a few months ago, I found my life changing in unexpected ways, and having a few mental cycles to burn off, I decided that it was time to make some changes.

First up, I've been carrying too much weight around for too long. It'd fluctuate a bit, but nothing significant. Here's a picture of me from 2006 where I weighed about the same as I did in May of this year when I started seriously thinking about it:

(I think my brother likes to use the term "man mound" in reference to that picture)

So I'd start going for walks, and quickly remembered that walking bores the hell out of me. Took a picture of the scale (below) with some loosely-formed goals in mind.

Skip forward a month and I found myself at the DMV renewing my driver's license and filling out the form it dawned on me that the weight basically started accumulating the day I started driving. I used to walk or bike everywhere before that when I needed to get around.

So another week's worth of research and I found a bicycle I was interested in purchasing. High risk of folly there, as I'd not ridden a bike in nearly 15 years, but it seemed like the right time to start getting things in order.

Decided that if I could break the 200lb mark, then I'd get a chance (this) to brag a little. Something to work for.

So, here's the scale on May 18th at 232.6:


And here's this morning (August 13th) at 199.8:


(if you click through to Flickr on those, you can see the "Taken On" dates that were embedded in the EXIF data)

No fancy programs or anything dropping 30+ lbs in just under 3 months. Exercise more with the biking and the walking. Eat more vegetables. Cut in half meat consumption. Doubled coffee intake. Doing a little resistance stuff now.

My goal is to get to 175. I don't know if it's feasible if more muscle replaces fat (muscle being more dense and all), but it's what I'm aiming towards.

As for some of the other things in my life I'd like to change, well, I figure one thing at a time for right now. I'm trying to make permanent changes I can live with rather than jump off Cliff Gung-Ho and then rescind a week later. In due time for some of the other things.

But I'm feeling rather proud of making it to today.

Oh, and I checked: The camera does not add 10lbs.