December 2004 Archives

There are three tools that I use to gather information from the wonderful world wide web. They are so valuable to me, that I thought I'd share them with you all. These are not the only alternatives out there. This is simply what I find useful and endorse. I'm open to suggestions and feedback.

1) Mozilla Firefox. There are many reasons to use Firefox. The main reason is to protect your computer from the security flaws inherit in Internet Explorer. But the other reasons are what make Firefox fun. Firefox uses "tabbed" browsing, allowing for multiple pages to be opened in the same window. (A lot like how Excel has tabs for sheets in a workbook.) Firefox's code is open source, allowing people all over the world to review and improve on it. The most powerful feature of Firefox is the extensions. Extensions are little programs that enhance the browser. They can "extend" the capabilities of the tabs and downloads as well as provide the weather forecast, check your Gmail, block Flash ads, and more!

2) Bloglines. Do you have a list of websites that you visit regularly, but don't update that often? Or maybe they update quite often and you find that you can't keep up? Bloglines can help you keep track of what's updated and when. Many websites (including RobbyB.com) publish RSS or Atom feeds. These feeds are simple, context-based, that programs like Bloglines read and reconstruct the information and present them within a single page; a process known as syndication. Bloglines allows you to track multiple syndication feeds (I have over 100 in my account) and see what websites have new information and review them. Usually, there's no need to each web site to check if there's something new there. (Some sites only publish a portion of their post, requiring you to visit their site to see the rest.) Beyond the millions of personal blogs, ESPN.com, ABCNews.com, The New York Times, and Yahoo! News all have feeds. Basically, keep your eye out for a little orange button with "RSS" or "XML" on it. Bloglines even has a bookmarklet that allows to check a site for any published feeds. (Also: Bloglines integrates into Firefox quite nicely!)

3) Flickr. Not quite enough can be said about Flickr. I now use it for all of my pictures. There are so many great things about the community there, I'll let the team speak for themselves. If you have, or just recently got, a digital camera, and want to publish your pictures to the web, then this is the tool. There's none better. If you're afraid of letting strangers see your pictures, there's plenty of privacy options available. You can invite your family and friends to join, and then share pictures with only them. You can organize your shots into sets, add them to community groups, and publish them to your blog. (Like I do.) And, to top it all of, there's plenty of RSS/XML feeds that you can subscribe to with Bloglines.

Jumping into the pool where I spent the winters of high school brings back all sorts of memories. The most immediate was how cold they keep the pool. I doubt it was over 75°. There is no need to discuss shrinkage at this point. It was a given. I fought through it and warmed up between talking trash to other alumni and varsity swimmers that I coached when they were six years old.

The 200 free is the second event of the meet and I was in the wall lane of the first heat. (Joy!) I really had no idea what would happen in this race. Most of my mental preparation was for the 500 to come later. I had thought based on my training thus far that 2:20 would be a good goal time. But in all honesty, I knew that I would be faster than that, more like 2:13 or so. On the start my sprint instincts took over and I went out a bit strong with my legs, which would come back to bite me at the end of the race. I ended up splitting 28.66/31.56/32.07/32.48 for a 2:04.77. (1:00.22/1:04.55) Way faster than I expected. It was then I started to think I might've gone too fast to have anything left for the 500.

There's a break in the meet, so I got warm-up and stretch out in the pool before the 500, which was a good thing. The muscles were lactating pretty severely and I hydrated as much as possible. I was in lane 2 for the first heat of the 500 against some pretty serious competition. My sister was counting for me, and double checked how she would convey my pace with the count board. She eventually forgot. Many spectators were amused that I was behind the blocks for the 500. The official (a parent of a best friend) said it was a special Christmas present for him. The goal was to break 6:00; definitely attainable, as I did a 6:06 from a push three days prior. Again the sprint instincts took over for the first 50 and I kicked. Stupid! Not good. With my sister forgetting where to put the counter (left was faster than 6:00 pace, to the right was slower) I really didn't know where I was. The varsity swimmers were gone after the first 50, and were gaining, nearly lapping me. That's not good for my psyche.

The mind is a fickle thing. Throughout the race, I reminded myself to "keep my stroke as long as possible," but that was quickly replaced by "keep your stroke above water." The lactic acid was really kicking in at this point, and I could feel my body begin to falter. I don't know how it looked above water. I finished last in my heat with a 5:47.98.

Overall, a success, but it reveals that I need to stay consistent with my training and keep working to build the stamina necessary for next year's IMoo.

RobbyB.com lost it's connectivity to the web, and only now has it been restored through a new host. There were some unfortunate developments with the last host, and I'm not sure that it will come out for the best. I got most of the files (which you can still peruse), but I have lost access to the back end files of the Movable Type CMS. But, that's not for you to worry about.

I won't be updating anything until I can get the back end things to work out. Until then, you'll just have to deal with what's here. If you notice anything odd, let me know.

Thanks for your patience, and I apologize for the outage.

12.27.04 - 10:41 Update: We're back again. If you're reading this, everything's resolved, and I got the MT back-end up and running. There still may be problems as we get settled, so keep your eyes open.

There's less than a week until the Alumni Meet next Wednesday. I've already declared my desire to swim the 200 & 500 yard freestyle events, something I never would've done in high school. I actually swam the 200 & 500 in the year I swam in New York, mainly because my stroke got longer.

I'm getting excited to swim. I was really excited until I heard that the JMM team is a force to be reckoned with. Even the JV will be crushing my PR in the 500. (5:09) I may lose, and lose big, but there's the personal goals that really matter.

In the 200, the goal is to have a strong finish. I'm not too concerned with my time; under 2:20 is nice. The 500 is what I'm worried about. All along, the magic time is to break 6:00. Today, I swam a 6:07 from a wall with a relatively slow first 100. Based on that, I think the six-minute barrier can be broken, it's a question of how much? We'll just have to wait and see.

My weight's holding at ~183, keeping me at 30 pounds down. (Awesome!) I've been solely swimming the past two weeks, and will ramp everything back up in the new year, plotting out my race and training schedule until Race Day.

I hit the thirty pound mark this morning. Thirty pounds lost. Gone. Hasta la bye-bye. I think it's for real because I didn't work out yesterday, and drank plenty of water to maintain proper hydration levels. I've been on a steady decline all week. It's surprising, really. After about two months on South Beach, I stopped really worrying about carbs, and started eating lots of things. But, I was still conscious of what I was eating. I reintroduced healthy carbs; Whole grain in stead of white breads...diet vs. regular soda...whole grain cereal vs frosted flakes...rum & cokes vs. beer...more water and on and on. All contribute to weight loss and a healthier heart. I didn't expect to continue losing weight, and didn't for the longest time. Like any geek, I've kept a running log of the weight loss. (The green is phase one of South Beach, which lasted three weeks, instead of the standard two.) It shows that I really hit the bottom at about 186, and bounced around there for a while.

But today it really hit me. I've lost thirty pounds. That means I was thirty pounds heavier. Fifteen percent of what I was is no more. I was carrying a small child in my belly. It's no wonder why basketball was so much easier. (OK, it's not easy to play, but it was easy for me to run up and down the court.) It's especially satisfying to see hints of my fabled six- pack returning, as well as some sort of semblance of the grail-like triangle the ladies adore. I can't tell you why I finally started to drop, but let.s hope it keeps going.

A new season is upon the defending MSCR Coast league Basketball champions. I was anxious to see how the new body would work. Previously, I would huff & puff up and down the court, needing a sub every five minutes. Last night, I was able to play the entire time, resting only to let others play. And we played full-court ball for the entire hour and a half.

Who knew that losing the weight equivalent to a small child would make such a difference?

Although I haven't posted a workout update in nearly a month, I have been working out. I've been keeping track of everything in what's getting to be an extensive spreadsheet. I've even been able to fool around with pivot tables charts, an Excel tool that I've never been able to figure out to work successfully. I made a chart for your viewing pleasure (PDF). It shows the percentage of each type of workout I've completed in each week thus far. Note how I've tapered from the bike and increased workouts in the pool over the past few weeks. The Alumni Meet is less than three weeks away, and I need to be as ready as possible.

And things are progressively getting better in the pool. Today, I started off a set of 100s (four lengths) with a 1:08, a time I struggled to make a few weeks ago. By the end, I hit 1:02 on my last two. I was quite pleased. All this after two nights of holiday parties, and the resulting dehydration. As my skin tingled after each swim, I decided that I'm going to try to avoid the alcohol and hit the water hard for these next few weeks until the meet. The winter dryness doesn't help, either.

In case you're in town over the holiday break, the meet is December 22, at 5:30 at JMM.

Today, December 2, my brother Mike would've been 35. He died at 21. In the years since his death, I've learned a lot about him. Stuff I would've learned anyways, because Mike was always teaching me things. He was interested in all kinds of information, and made sure that I was keeping up. He constantly questioned things, driving forward, living in the moment and never looked back. He took it upon himself to test our parents' patience, continuously pushing the envelop of their tolerance. As a result, he left himself out there, on his own. If I knew then what I know now, there's many things I would say to let him know it wasn't for naught and that I'm a better man because of it.

Mike introduced me to U2. The most emotional song on their new album, "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," was written by Bono as his father was losing his battle against cancer. There are a few lines that succinctly summarize what I'd say to Mike if I could:

You don't have to put up a fight
You don't have to always be right
Let me take some of the punches
For you tonight
Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

Happy Birthday Mike. We miss you.