How’s that for a title? It’ll pretty much sum my day up when it’s all over.
For whatever reason, I’ve been super tired lately. Despite getting a fairly normal amount of sleep during the week, I’ve hit the last few weekends completely exhausted. Yesterday, for example, I spent a few hours sleeping on the couch by the fire. Upon waking up in the early evening, I watched a few movies, and then went straight to bed, sleeping in until around 10am (after the time change). It definitely feels great, but I really don’t know why I’m so tired lately.
Friday afternoon I went out to see Matt ...
To be perfectly honest, I’m kind of tired of hearing about the swine flu. Lots of people continue to talk about it on Twitter, and lots of people continue to fear monger on TV. I’ve had quite a few people suggest I should get the vaccine, and I’ve politely told everyone my reasons for why I’m not getting one.
Unfortunately in this day and age, the ease of producing content essentially ensures that the internet is filled with as much garbage as it is good. So when it comes to doing any kind of research, it takes considerable effort to try and wade through the muck in order to find the facts. ...
A lot of the nutrition researchers continue to argue that the body needs to obey the laws of thermodynamics, that is energy in minus energy out has to equal weight gained or weight lost. Using that definition, the way to lose weight is to create a negative caloric balance (by cutting food or increasing energy expenditure) such that the weight disappears.
That viewpoint neglects the fact that the body is not a closed system, and the internal cellular metabolism depends on many aspects, one of which is thought to be the macronutrient composition of the food that goes in. For example, protein is ...
Wow, it’s only Tuesday, and already we’ve had quite the week so far at BraveNewCode. Yesterday we pulled the curtain back on a brand new Vision Critical site. Vision Critical was recently announced as the fastest growing company in British Columbia, and it was a lot of fun working with that team.
Today Dale and I woke up and starting seeing some press about the new mobile versions on WordPress.com. WordPress.com is the free, hosted version of the WordPress platform, and currently has around 5 million blogs or so on it I believe. As of today, the iPhone plugin for WordPress that Dale and I ...
I went to the store last night to pick up a new razor for my face. Unfortunately, I have rather coarse facial hair, so the typically blade for me lasts 3 or 4 shaves, and then I have to toss it out. Given that a razor and a set of four blades costs around $12 – $14, that means I’m paying at least $1 a shave, which kind of sucks.
I went in last night originally to buy a set of new blades for my Mach whatever razor. Unfortunately, since blades are big money I guess, they keep those under lock and key, which means you basically have to flag down someone and get them to open it. I wasn’t really ...
I need an acoustic amp for my Takamine electric acoustic guitar. I really have no idea what the brand names are, or what a good amp to get is. I don’t need much for it. I would probably prefer it had a clean channel too so I could pump a mic into it.
Any recommendations? ...
Sometime in the near future I have to take my car in and get the tires replaced on it. Without a doubt, the tires on it currently (the ones that came on it when I bought it brand new) are pretty much the worst tires I’ve ever had. The handling in rain is pretty bad, and totally horrible in the snow. In fact, I nearly bought the farm a few times in Vancouver when it snowed. One time I was coming up to my place (which was at the bottom of a slight hill) and couldn’t stop, so I ended up sliding down to the end of the cul-de-sac. Had a car been there, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself ...
You see it all the time these days. I guess it’s because everyone is so specialized in their particular fields that they often don’t have the knowledge or ability to make connections to other fields. When I read medical research, I often find it strange that a paper that focuses on endocrinology doesn’t make an obvious comparison to another field, for example, nutrition.
Some of the implications of the compartmentalization of science are so obvious that it seems strange that making the mental connections is so hard to do. For example, there’s still so much ongoing nutritional research ...
For those people that know me, I’m pretty serious about nachos. I’m the only person I know with a complete lack of a sweet tooth. Chocolate, pies, cakes, candy, gummy bears, sugar — you could starve me for a week and put that stuff in front of me and I wouldn’t crave it at all. But put a plate of gooey, cheesy nachos in front of me and that’s a different story.
I’ve slowly honed my nacho-making ability over the years to the point where I’m pretty much a nacho snob now. When I was down in Portland I went out of my way to find some nachos, only to be served a batch where the cheese ...
I don’t do it very often, mainly because my fingers are not iPhone friendly, but i have the wordpress iPhone app which allows me to blog from anywhere pretty much. So here I am in bed, working my iPhone.
Today was a long day, and tomorrow will likely be as well. Good news is there’s a light shining at the end of the tunnel (hopefully it’s not a fuse).
Not sure what I’ll do this weekend. I’d like to hit the gym a few times if possible. Other than that, probably catch up on errands and maybe catch a movie in the theatre – haven’t done that in a while.
That’s me on the iPhone, signing ...
Yesterday I had an appointment with my old orthodontist to get a little retainer removed from the inside of my bottom teeth. It seems so long ago now, but I once had pretty messed up teeth. Back when I was about 13 I had my first visit with the ortho, and they started to plan the torture regimen for the next few years. First, because my teeth were so crowded, they extracted four permanent teeth from my mouth. That still didn’t provide enough room, so they cemented this little device to the roof of my mouth that reminds me of “The Rack”. Basically every night I’d stick a little key in it ...
A while ago I was approached by a Vancouver public relations company and asked if I wanted to be a guest of the Delta Grand Okanagan hotel in Kelowna for a weekend. The offer came right at a period of time where I was feeling a bit burnt out, so I gladly accepted and started packing my bags.
The route from Chilliwack to Kelowna involves taking a highway through the mountains. Depending on the weather conditions, often you’ll find snowy conditions near the summit. Just in case I encountered those types of conditions I packed my chains for the car and also left early in the afternoon so I’d ...
I’ve been reading a lot of food/cooking related books lately. No real reason, just haven’t had too much else around to read. I actually stumbled across an 1,100 page culinary manual on the internet a while ago, and have slowly been absorbing it. In addition, I’ve been passively thumbing through various cookbooks I have around the house looking for dishes to try making over the next few months.
Last night I made myself a little roasted chicken for thanksgiving and watched a few movies by the fire. After the chicken was done, I decided to make my first chicken stock, thinking I would start ...
Some of us have them, some don’t. As for me, I’ve been chewing my nails pretty much my whole life. I really don’t know how it started to be honest, but once it did, my fingers have never really been the same.
I tried that polish you put on them that tastes bad, but that didn’t even come close to stopping me. Basically you just get used to the foul taste and chew anyways. The thing is, most of the time it’s not even conscious, it’s just one of those things I end up doing while driving or sitting on the couch.
There are lots of famous nail biters, so I know I’m not alone. Elijah Wood ...
Having lived in Vancouver for over ten years of my life, it’s safe to say I’ve been exposed to a pretty wide gamut of sushi. I’m told that Vancouver sushi is pretty much the second best in the world, the first being obviously Japan and Tokyo. While I’ve never had it, San Francisco sushi is supposed to be pretty tasty as well, although many of my friends who have had both prefer Vancouver sushi.
I spent ten days in Tokyo back in 2006, and was treated to some of the best tempura I’ve ever had in my life. Eating out in Tokyo is a pretty cool experience, mainly because dinners are long and ...
A few hours ago I spread my legs out on the couch hoping that my headache would go away if I rested for a few minutes. I just woke up, and realized that I had actually fallen asleep for around two hours, which I guess means I was pretty beat.
As I mentioned before, I’m heading out of town for the weekend. I’ve been treated to a complementary weekend in Kelowna thanks to the Grand Delta Okanagan hotel. It’s a great hotel situated right on the lake, and the Delta is putting me up in one of their nicer suites for the weekend.
Tomorrow night I’m being treated to a really nice dinner in their ...
Years ago I found the website SpaceWeather.com, and since then have made a yearly pilgrimage to the site in the fall and winter months. Having seen the aurora borealis probably about 7 or 8 times in my life already, it’s something I try to see whenever I get the chance, sort of like hooking up with an old friend after a long absence.
The first few times I saw it I was up in the Yukon Territory for a summer. Obviously up there it’s pretty easy to see (that is, when it’s not daylight for 24 hours a day, as it very nearly was for my first few months up there). I actually remember coming out ...
About three years ago, I walked onto a Mazda lot in Abbotsford and bought a new car. I only had about half of it in cash, so I was forced to finance the rest. During the application process, the guy looking at my credit said it had been quite a while since he saw someone with credit as good as mine.
Last night I decided (since I’m looking at maybe buying a house in the new year) to get a copy of my credit report and make sure everything was in order. There are two places you can get one online, the first being EquiFax, and the second being TransUnion. Neither service is free, and are about $20 ...
