avalantern | blogs http://avalantern.com/blogs/ bloggin' avalopes... en http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2012/02/03/Runkeeper-Street-Team Runkeeper Street Team THE Lowly Peon Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:45:59 -0800 As many of you know, I really love keeping data. Any kind of data. I figure if I track everything, even if I don't know how I can use the data, in the future I'll have it to make the choice. But if I don't track it now, I may regret not having it, and all will be lost.

So, a few years back, I signed up for a free service at Runkeeper.com. With this service you can track your runs, hikes, bike rides, etc. Any kind of physical activity.

Sometime over the summer, wjerome signed up, and joined my "street team", or runkeeper's social aspect. And then a few weeks ago I managed to convince benji to sign up for it too, and he joined my street team. The idea is that we can encourage each other to run farther or more often, and generally be healthier.

And in the last two weeks, thanks to benji, my street team has been booming. Now keri, cremlae, mikem, and benji's mom have all joined! It's a total blast!

So everyone should join. My user name is thelowlypeon.

Yay!

tags: [social] [running] [runkeeper] [health]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2012/02/03/One-of-These-Days One of These Days THE Lowly Peon Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:22:32 -0800 Neil Young is awesome. From what I've read, he was a bit of a creative sphincter* when he was younger, but apparently at some point something changed, and he became this really friendly guy. Of course, I've never met him, but even if you look only to his album art, and listen to his music, you can see the change.

In one of his later albums, the great Harvest Moon, Neil wrote:

One of these days, I'm gonna sit down and write a long letter to all the good friends I've known. And I'm gonna try and thank them all for the good times together, though so apart we've grown. [...] And I've never tried to burn any bridges, though I know I've let some good things go.


Well, recently I had the same feeling. I didn't write any letters, but I wrote some good friends that I've drifted away from and not spoken to in years. It wasn't a life changing experience, but it made me realize, especially after being somewhat nomadic for the last half a decade, that I've been lucky enough to know some really good people.

And that's a really wonderful feeling.

tags: [neilyoung] [friends]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2012/01/21/7-Miles </p><ol> <li class="to-html-ol"> Miles!! </li></ol> <p> THE Lowly Peon Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:06:02 -0800 No, not that movie.

A few weeks ago, I started to fall a bit in love with running, and set a goal of running ten miles without stopping. At that time, I was running five miles, and was pretty proud of it.

I'm still not at ten miles, and that still seems like an ambitious goal, but I'm very proud to say I ran seven miles today without stopping. It was fantastic!

I ran 7.06 miles in 1:01:09, for an average pace of 8:40 per mile (that's 6.92mph). For those curious, I listened to August and Everything After (by Counting Crows), followed by the first half of No Need to Argue (by the Cranberries). And while running, I found a more efficient way to verify a credit card number using the Luhn algorithm in Ruby.

You can see details here: http://runkeeper.com/user/thelowlypeon/activity/67445402

A very successful Chinese New Year's eve!

update

(for those interested, i posted the result of the new luhn process at github and a description here)

tags: [running] [goals] [countingcrows] [cranberries]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/12/16/My-History-with-a-Jawbone-UP My History with a Jawbone UP THE Lowly Peon Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:40:11 -0800 Note: this is not a review of my UP by Jawbone, but simply a (long winded) summary of my history with it them.

I first read about the UP by Jawbone, a super-accurate pedometer that you wear on your wrist, a day or two before it became available. After living in Houston for about eight months, I was intrigued by the idea that an activity tracking gizmo could encourage you, merely by bringing your attention to it, to be more active. I read whatever I could about it, and concluded that the device was pretty incredible, but the software to analyze the data was still in its infancy. As a guy obsessed with tracking data, I was confident that tools to better analyze the data would come around eventually, but the data I didn’t track would be lost forever.

My wife thought it was a bit silly to spend a hundred dollars on a thing that measures essentially what my iPhone already can, but I saw much more to it: the UP can track your sleep activity and quality, it can wake you up when you’re in light sleep by vibrating on your wrist — much gentler than a noisy alarm! — and it can track your activity even when you’re not moving geographically, like on a treadmill or when indoors. So after she approved, I decided to get one.

I bought an UP directly from the Jawbone website, jawbone.com/up, and in anticipation for an upcoming trip to China, for which I was very eager to track my activity for comparison with life in Houston, I paid a bit extra for expedited shipping. Knowing the release date was the following day, I was excited to receive my new gizmo in 72 hours.

After I clicked submit, on the screen appeared an estimated delivery time: 4-6 weeks. I always feel like a sucker paying extra for speedy delivery when it won't even leave their factory for several weeks. And I felt even worse because that meant I wouldn't have the UP for my trip to China. I let it go and continued with my life, knowing one day a box would appear at my door and I'd be excited to open it.

But then my generally inactive lifestyle in Houston made me very curious to compare my daily activity in Houston — where I try so hard to take the stairs instead of the elvator, walk instead of drive, and go running at least five times a week — to that in Hangzhou, where you don't even need to think about being active, because it's a such a wonderful requirement. So I called a few Apple stores and Targets to see if they had any in stock. And while it may not be as difficult as this of http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/e-mail-addresses-it-would-be-really-annoying-to-give-out-over-the-phone">email addresses, trying to explain what an "UP" is over the phone is not easy. And it surely didn't help that no one at any of these stores had any idea what an UP is.

Then Apple released their new iOS app for shopping at Apple stores, and while thinking of random goods to check inventory on, I thought of the UP. And sure enough, the Apple store near my work had one in stock, and in (what I thought was) my size. So I bought it using the new iOS app, and eagerly drove to the mall with my wife, figuring I could just cancel my order with Jawbone, since it wasn't scheduled to ship for a few weeks.

I set up my UP on a bench in the mall and started walking around. The UP tracks data, but doesn't display it — you need to plug it into your iPhone (required) to see your recent activity. So I knew it was best to be patient and wait until a good amount of data was available before impatiently checking it out.

Later that night, I synced, and it was fun to look at! I was amazed how accurately it tracked my activity, and somehow knew the difference between walking and driving on a bumpy road. Then, before bed, I put it into sleep mode, designated by a blue moon LED, excited to see how it thought my sleep was.

This continued for a few days, and it worked very well. I was, and am, continuously amazed how accurate it was, and I even used GPS to compare how far it thought I went with how far I actually did. It considers seven hours of sleep to be a good night's rest, which for me is never enough, and it only suggests 5000 steps per day of activity, which leaves me feeling like a turd. But I mentally changed the scale of requirements and was very happy.

Then I woke up after a night of awful sleep (it's so HOT in Houston!), and checked the logs to see what my UP thought. Strangely, it didn't think I slept at all. In fact, it tracked no data between when I got in bed and when I left it. Patiently, I waited until the next day to see if this was a fluke or a pattern.

And it was not a fluke. It happened every day for over a week. I opened up tickets with Jawbone, spent much time with their (awesome) customer service. And only after a few emails back and forth in my second ticket, they told me how to force reset the device. Following that, I've never had a problem with missing data.

I forgot to mention — while on the first call, I canceled my existing order with Jawbone. Remember, I bought this one from Apple? They said no problem, it should be cancelled in an hour or so. I checked my status and it didn't really say much as to whether it was open or not, but I didn't worry because the scheduled ship date still wasn't for three or four weeks. And then a few hours later, I got a confirmation email: "Your UP has shipped!"

Great. So now I need to either find someone to buy this from me, or I need to swallow the shipping costs and take it to a UPS store and mail it back.

(Note: my UP just vibrated, reminding me that I haven't gotten up in an hour. I'll be right back.)

My second UP arrived while we were in China, and sat there, lonely, until we returned. And then it sat on my kitchen counter for a while longer. The UP has made me more aware of being active, but it still didn't stop me from being too lazy to do some things, like going to UPS to return my second one.

A week or two later, I received an email from the CEO of Jawbone:

We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone's expectations - including our own - so we're taking action: The UP No Questions Asked Guarantee

This means that for whatever reason, or no reason at all, you can receive a full refund for UP. This is true even if you decide to keep your UP band. We are so committed to this product that we're offering you the option of using it for free.


I love my UP, and don't want to return it, but this gave me the opportunity to return my second UP with much less trouble! Hooray! I sent my wife a text message exclaiming how wonderful this company is, tweeted a few times about it, and went about my day happy that there are still good companies in this world.

And then my UP died.

In this hilarious bit of irony, I was ecstatic that I was too lazy to return my second UP, as it simply served as a replacement for the broken one that lost the last six or so hours of my activity data. I returned the broken UP using their no questions guarantee, for which I'll receive a check in the mail soon.

Which brings me to now.

update

my review is here: http://petercompernolle.com/2011/12/17/UP-review

update

well, a few days ago, my second UP died. because two UPs, from different places, times, and probably production times, both died at different times, i figure it may be best to get a refund on that one instead of a replacement. i'm excited for jawbone to release their 2.0 version of this, as i believe it will be really solid. i just can't afford to risk a third UP dying after they end the no questions refund.

so i got a fitbit instead :)

tags: [up] [health] [activity] [gizmo]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/11/13/Health--Gizmos Health & Gizmos THE Lowly Peon Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:46:02 -0800 I love gizmos, and I love feeling healthy. So what better than a gizmo that helps you be healthier?

I recently decided to buy an Up by Jawbone, a gizmo you put on your wrist 24/7 which monitors your activity. I love this idea primarily because:

  1. It will help encourage me to be more active, which I think is the number one reason I don't feel physically as healthy in Houston as I did in China, where I walked maybe two miles and rode a bike 45 minutes on even a lazy day.
  2. I love data. I love storing data, I love analyzing data, I love migrating data, I love massaging data. I love just about everything about data.

There's just one problem about these devices: there's a 4-5 week shipping delay. They were so popular almost immediately that when I went to buy one, two or three days before the official release date, they were already sold out.

Patience, Peon. That'll help your health too!

Fast forward to now, when my impatience is driving me insane. I would love to have one of these before my trip to China this coming week, so I could see how active my life in China really was. I was checking out some of the features the UP can provide, and in doing so I realized that it's not as integrated in other services as its main competitor, FitBit. Notably, I'd love integration with Runkeeper.com, the service I use to track all my exercise progress (since 2009!).

While researching the other things I can't yet integrate UP with, I learned about this WiFi body scale made by Withings. I've never cared much about my weight, and have always consciously opted to not have a scale in my house, fearing that I'd misinterpret weight gain as bad when it could be muscle growth.

But this thing is such a great gizmo:

  1. It monitors your weight, yes, but mostly your body mass index (BMI), body fat, muscle, etc.
  2. It's all done over wifi, so it syncs with the web (and thus the iPhone app, etc).
  3. It's integrated with Runkeeper, so I can monitor how much running activity compares to my BMI
  4. It somehow senses when I'm stepping on it versus when my wife is stepping on it, all automagically!
  5. It's really beautiful

So I went to check it out and see where I can buy one (if I choose to). Sure enough, I could buy it at the Apple Store, which means I get 5% cashback (thank you, Discover Card!). And because of the new features in the iOS Apple Store app, I can even buy it on my phone and pick it up in the store.

I got so excited that this technology exists and is easy (on my bloody phone!!), and I checked the availability of the UP.

And they have one! Up until now I was using the old fashioned method of calling, and I failed to call this one because I gave up after the first three didn't even know what I was talking about.

So I'm canceling my order with Jawbone, and daisy and I are going to pick up my new health gizmos! And we know they're there because we already own them!!

tags: [apple] [data] [up] [health] [gizmos]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/11/05/My-Running-Goal My Running Goal THE Lowly Peon Sat, 05 Nov 2011 07:39:14 -0700 I've been running a bunch lately, and it feels great. In fact, I continuously get notifications from Runkeeper.com that I've beaten my personal record for distance, distance in a week, etc. (See my progress here!)

I've never really enjoyed running. I've always believed, and still do, that my body is a cyclist's body (although a bit tall), not a runner's. I feel exhausted after running in ways that I don't after cycling, and after a good long bike ride by whole body feels satisfied; running leaves my legs feeling a bit sore, as do my biceps, and the rest of me is just out of breath. The reason I ran before was to just get some exercise as efficiently as possible — you can run almost anywhere, so traveling is no excuse, and it only takes 45 minutes or so.

But lately, all of that's changed. It's become extremely meditative. I go running after work three or four days a week, and once on the weekend (the other weekend day is my riding day). And recently I decided to up the ante a bit.

Instead of running between 4 and 4.5 miles, like I have every run since probably 2003, I'm going to increase the distance 10% each week, as benji and kerbbs recommend. I'm already up to 5 miles, and it feels great. Once I convinced myself that I could run for 5 miles, it seems almost easier than when I was only running for 4mi!

I'm very excited about this. My goal is to run 10 miles, without even stopping for a small walk, by next spring. If anyone wants to join in, you're more than welcome!

You can see my progress here: http://runkeeper.com/user/thelowlypeon

tags: [exercise] [running] [goal]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/11/05/UP-by-Jawbone UP by Jawbone THE Lowly Peon Sat, 05 Nov 2011 07:30:15 -0700 I decided to get an UP by Jawbone, a bracelet that tracks your activity in hopes of making you more active and healthier. I'm aware that this is a gimmick, but I'm excited to track my activity. Data!

Jawbone is the company that made those real fancy looking, overpriced bluetooth headsets. I have no idea what compelled them to go from making bluetooth headsets to making health-oriented bracelets, but as soon as I saw a few of the screenshots, I was sold.

The UP claims to:

  • Track you general activity. If you spend all day in front of a computer, the UP will know. And you can make it vibrate every now and then to remind you to move
  • Track your sleeping activity, so you can analyze how your sleep was and for how long
  • Wake you up at the right time in your sleeping cycle (within a half hour before you tell it to wake you up for sure) based on your movement, by simply vibrating the bracelet
  • Track your GPS, using your iPhone's aGPS. As of now, it can't export the GPS tracks, which is a bummer. But maybe soon, the customer service rep told me
  • Track your meals. You take pictures of meals, maybe write the description, and every now and then the app will ask you how you feel. Good? Lousy? Energized? Then it pieces together why you feel good based on your activity and diet
  • There are things called challenges, but I don't see why you need to pay $99 for this. Drink eight glasses of water today? Yeah, I can manage that myself. But some seem fun.

Anyway, I'm excited to try it out. I'll let you know how it goes! It'll be fun to measure how my lifestyle is leading up to my runs, which I already track. In other words, if I have a really crappy run, I can take a look to see if it's because I ate like crap, or if it's because I haven't moved at all the day leading up to it.

tags: [lifestyle] [up] [active] [health]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/10/23/Tipping Tipping THE Lowly Peon Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:02:26 -0700 I worked in the service industry a long time. Sometimes front of the house, sometimes back of the house, sometimes as an expeditor. And in all those years, I worked for tips. Rather, I worked because it was my job (big difference), and earned tips as a result. And in all those years, and in every year since, I've wondered why the hell the system works in such a way that we are obligated to leave money on top of already expensive prices, and the servers rely on people doing so to even earn minimum wage.

Of all the servers I worked with, none thinks about the actual value, they only look at the percent. For example, a party of like twenty at the Broadmoor once tipped something like $250 on a big bill. It worked out to 17%. The front server exclaimed, "what?! only 17%?!"

I've said many times before if I open a restaurant I'll make tipping forbidden. I'll raise the prices a bit, pay my servers fairly, and they'll work because it's their job. The service in China is a million times better, and they never get tips.

And what makes me quite angry is not this absurd tipping rule, but when the lines are a bit hazy. In Houston, for example, an overwhelming majority of restaurants are the kind where you order at the counter and they give you a number, then bring you your food. This is tricky:

  • You need to tip, allegedly based on the quality of their service, before you ever receive any service.
  • You are doing, I'd say, more than half the work, but are still expected to tip the same as if they were actually waiting on you.
  • If you tip what you actually think is fair (I'd say 10%, since they're only doing about half the work), they'll probably piss in your food.

I hate these kind of restaurants. You can level with the people taking your order, who probably make bank sitting behind the counter ringing up orders and somehow getting 20% of the cash coming in. But if you level with them, they're almost required to say "tip whatever you feel is fair," but you know they're thinking of that darn* percent.

And here's a case where it's even worse (if you can believe it).

There's a great hippy vegetarian place near our home. It's easily walkable. They have free delivery, and in our frequent trips there, we never get delivery, but instead enjoy the walk. The last time I went there to get delivery, I had a nice long chat with the girl behind the counter about tipping on takeout orders. She said that about half the people leave nothing, and the other half leave a few dollars, usually the small cash they get as change. I appreciated her honesty and gave her a healthy 30-40% tip.

It's raining a bit today, and I'm wiped out from a long bike ride, so I called to get delivery. Apparently the changed the policy, no more delivery. So I walked over there to pick up our order. It came to about $20. As she handed me that dreaded receipt with the extra lines at the bottom, I said "you know, the last time I was here the girl said tips on takeout aren't necessary," and left her $1. She responded, appalled, "really? Someone who works here said that?" "Yeah," I said, "she said for takeout they don't do anything, so why would you tip." And this girl said in about five different ways that they work for tips. So she guilted me into leaving a tip. I left only $2 and mumbled about how it'll balance out next time. She said, "I mean, we check to make sure your order is right!" and emphasized the "right". And she said my name at the end of each sentence, as if to remind me she won't forget who I am next time.

What a load of bull poop*.

update

New campaign: "just say no."

(thanks, @scottsouders)

tags: [restaurants] [tipping] [serviceindustry] [tips] [bullshitamericancustoms]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/10/09/Naps Naps THE Lowly Peon Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:33:11 -0700 I don't really understand how people can take naps so frequently. Due to a pretty interesting weekend I am running very short on sleep, so daisy and I just took a quick nap. And now, a few minutes after having woken up, I am very very confused.

tags: [naps]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/10/04/Apparently-I-love-Consuming-Media Apparently, I love 'Consuming Media' THE Lowly Peon Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:16:26 -0700 Lately I really have felt that there's not enough time in a day. The weather in Houston has finally dropped below 95f, I've been really into exercising, and it's fall, which means good TV is on.

For those of you who claim that Apple is only good at making devices designed for "media consumption", I say you can shove it up your media consumption! But really, there's just so much good media to consume. Let's take a look at what's been keeping my consumption up:

Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! - A gift from the wonderful benji, I started reading this on the plane returning from Chicago. It's perfect for me: a bunch of unrelated, yet related, short stories, that are fun, smart, and make your think if you want to. It's extremely light, but truly enjoyable. Highly recommended to anyone who appreciates knowledge and science and the way things work. Thanks, benji!

Breaking Bad - I can't really remember when I started watching this show, but I remember it was mid third season. They took a (long!) hiatus for a while, and just started the fourth season. This show is strikingly like drugs the subject matter: it's painful at times, unbelievably satisfying at times, and is really intense. I very much recommend this show, but warn you that it is a bit uncomfortable at times. Almost all of the show makes you worried that someone will die. And if you watch it, you must start from the beginning!

Game of Thrones (link requires flash) - Daisy started watching this on one of her Chinese websites a few months ago and it seemed like fun. I watched an episode and was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The show takes place on a fictional land similar to the UK in the middle ages. Lots going on and lots of drama. (And it's on HBO, so you can bet there's lots of sex.) I waited patiently for HBO to release it to the world, either through DVD or iTunes or whatever, but they didn't, so I grabbed it under fair-use. I'm now about 80% of the way through the first (and only, thus far) season. It's fantastic. Really. Must see.

House - I hate to say it, but I've lost a bit of interest in House. It's gone on too long, like so many other FOX shows, and I get the feeling they all know it. The last season ended so impartially I hadn't even realized it was the finale. This is on my list only because I really do love this show and I want it to end on a good note, which I'm hoping is before too late. I just downloaded the HD version on iTunes and am excited to get started on season 8!

I've been watching a few movies here and there too, but not enough. I never feel like I watch enough movies. I love movies. Even bad ones. Daisy, let's watch more movies.

iPhone 4s - I've been reading so much about this thing that it needs to be on this list. And guess who will be waiting in line (or at the ready on a computer) October 12? This guy right here, thelowlypeon.

tags: [movies] [tv] [books] [media]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/09/26/Bonnne--Clyde Bonnne & Clyde THE Lowly Peon Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:02:10 -0700 Bonnie & Clyde used to be one of my favorite movies. I thought of it as this beautiful untraditional love movie, and, at the time, I was really into untraditional love movies (see Lost in Translation, Leon the Professional, and perhaps a few others).

_SPOILERS_

So I was thrilled when daisy started going through a gangster movie phase and wanted to watch Bonnie & Clyde with me. We had just watched Public Enemies the night before, so I was pretty into the gangster thing to.

We watched it, and I loved it. But I got curious about a few things. Namely, what sort of timeline the movie took place over. The movie makes it feel like it all happened in a week or two, but I knew in reality it must have happened over several years. Sure enough, it happened over more than half a decade, starting in 1930, when Bonnie and Clyde were 19 and 20 (and ending in 1934).

I read a bit more about the couple and learned some really interesting things. For example, Clyde went to prison for not returning a rental car on time. He spent several years in prison, where he was allegedly sexually abused repeatedly for a year. What made Clyde lean more against the straight side of the law wasn't the thrill — the movie portrays him as loving the excitement, but also being nervous — but, according to Wikipedia, because his goal was to raise enough money and gather enough weaponry to "seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time."

I started to wonder if his intimacy problem in the movie was a complete falsehood or if it was some kind of take on the prison related sexual abuse.

Then I started to wonder how much other stuff the movie had kind of fudged.

And then I realized that historical movies like this one are in a difficult position: they need to extract the meaningful parts of a long story and make it a beautiful movie. There's far too much in this story to squeeze into two years, so they're bound to choose some aspects I wouldn't have, and perhaps skip some I would have. Like how they actually lived in the woods most of the time and lived pretty rough lives while on the run — the movie showed them living in abandoned houses, but really didn't seem that bad.

Anyway, I still recommend the movie to anyone who hasn't (or has) seen it. It's a wonderful movie. I'm just a bit sad to say that after learning some of the history of the real Bonnie & Clyde, the movie seems a bit disappointing.

PS It also really bothers me how Bonnie, though beautiful, has a 1960s haircut rather than one that would be more historically accurate.

PPS They were so freaking young!

update

It's really a lot of fun to look through some of the old pictures the gang took before they got caught. Seems like they had a bunch of fun.

tags: [movies] [bonnieclyde] [gangster]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/09/10/Hi-Avalantern Hi Avalantern! THE Lowly Peon Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:50:33 -0700 Hahah I haven't been on this site in a long while. So I thought I'd say hi.

Hi!

Can't wait to see a bunch of you next week!

tags: [hi] [canthissaveavalantern]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/08/31/Originals Originals THE Lowly Peon Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:27:11 -0700 I don't get it. If a typical animation has about 24 frames per second, doesn't that mean an animation that's been around for years should have tons of frames — gels — floating around?

I really want an original Naruto gel, or even a sketch, but I can't find one anywhere. How does one go about finding these things? Do I need to learn Japanese?

tags: [art] [naruto]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/08/25/Area-Fifty-One-Infinite-Loop Area Fifty-One Infinite Loop THE Lowly Peon Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:40:09 -0700 Being in Houston, it's way too hot to run outside, so I've been running on a treadmill for the last several months. I hate it. But it does afford me some time to watch really crappy television.

For the last few weeks, my show of choice was Family Ties, a wholesome, simple plotted tv show that was surprisingly funny, even via closed captions. But lately I've been more into geeky shows, like Discovery or History Channel shows. But the one I watched today on the History Channel was absurd.

It was called Mystery Quest: Area 51 Cover-Up.

The whole show was finding different ways to "catch a glimpse" at Area 51, the top secret military base in the desert. They had guys climbing nearby mountains with a "high-def" camera (1500mm), surveillance companies setting up a few cameras for a solid three days, and interviews with people who actually worked there!!

The show made me realize two things:

  1. The commercials were well targeted to who I'd imagine would watch the show. The only commercials on the show were for travel companies like Orbitz (wanna fly to Area 51?), geeky gadget stuff (wanna spy on Area 51?), and insurance companies (oh my god they're coming to get us!).
  2. The whole Area 51 thing is a lot like Apple. Inside is a lot of well-kept secrets, and people who know about them respect them enough to not talk. And the people who don't know what's on the inside go off of any tiny shred of suggestive evidence and come to grand conclusions. (Huh? Someone saw a case from Japan and actually paid someone to make mockups based on what would fit inside?)

Toward the end of the show, the climax was an interview with a guy who worked there. The interviewer asked him directly: do you know of any top secret reverse engineered alien space craft in Area 51? His answer: well, not that I know of. [Pause] But I suppose it's possible. And then the show repeated over and over again that this guy said it's possible, and then paraphrased him using words like "very likely".

Absurd.

(Note: many of the quotes I may have used were paraphrased as well. I was running. Not like I have a pen nearby. Come on.)

tags: [apple] [paranoia] [area51] [aliens]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/08/20/Heat Heat THE Lowly Peon Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:51:57 -0700 For those of you who may not think Houston is really all that hot, here's a quick anecdote for you.

This morning, daisy and I woke up early ready to start our weekend off right. We had stayed up a bit late eating home made sushi, drinking quite a bit good wine, and watching Japanese animations, so it was a bit of an effort.

We decided to check out the nearby farmers market, a whopping 0.8mi away. We had chosen our route carefully to avoid any streets lacking shade, and it was a rather enjoyable ten or so minute walk.

We bought some home made jam from a cool hippy, some great Indian curries, and suddenly it hit us:

Houston is really hot.

I hadn't noticed, but I was sweating bullets. My shirt had nearly completely soaked through. This all was, without exaggerating, within fifteen to twenty minutes — tops — of leaving our apartment door. We walked home along a sightly less shaded but slightly shorter route home, and I felt like we had just spent all day roofing or something. I was wiped.

Total time spent outside: thirty minutes.

Total quantity of articles of clothing used up: five.

Total amount of energy spent to buy some jam from a hippy and some good curries: 93%.

Houston is really hot, people.

tags: [weather] [houston] [summer] [hot] [farmersmarket]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/08/14/Missing-Colorado-College Missing Colorado College THE Lowly Peon Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:49:38 -0700 It's been over four years since the last of the crew left Colorado College. It seems like way longer, but, although I barely trust my math skills anymore, I'm fairly confident that 2011 - 2007 is 4.

I miss that whole period of my life. I had a great discussion with daisy last night about how things end. Her thesis was basically that it's horrible how all things end, and mine was about how beautiful it is that all things must pass. It still pains me, though, to think that we'll never really have those good times again.

And then, perusing my iTunes library via Home Sharing on her iPad 2, daisy saw a picture of benji in his birthday suit walking across a slackline, and played his slideshow, as posted on his post "Saying Goodbye Sucks" (smaller version here).

And all I can really think to say is:

Holy wow we had some really good time back in those days. And I can't wait to see all of you guys next month.

tags: [fishbowl] [cc]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/07/30/Good-Business Good Business THE Lowly Peon Sat, 30 Jul 2011 08:31:14 -0700 I recently purchase Mac OS X Lion for my Macbook Air. It's a cheap operating system, compared to Microsoft's multi-hundred dollar OS. At a mere $29, upgrading is a no brainer.

I was pretty happy with it on my laptop, and decided to upgrade my server as well. (This turned out to be a mistake. A big one.) With Apple's new Mac App Store, this was supposed to be a free upgrade, since I already bought it for my MacBook Air. But for some reason I was charged $29 twice. And that's not cool.

I tried calling Apple, but it was 11pm when I got my receipt, so they weren't answering phones. They told me to check the website, which required I fill out a form and wait for a response. I'm far too impatient for that. Then I remember that there's a "Report a problem" link next to each line item on iTunes or App Store receipts. I clicked the link, and it took me to a page that said they were already processing the refund. I didn't even need to tell them the problem!

Dear Mac App Store Customer,

We are contacting you with regard to your iTunes Store account, which due to an error was charged for re-downloading Lion. We have identified and refunded the charges to the original payment source. The funds should be available within 3-5 business days.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this situation may have caused you. If you have any questions about your account, go to http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/.

Sincerely,

iTunes Customer Experience


I love you, Apple!

tags: [apple] [appstore] [lion]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/07/02/My-New-Toy My New Toy THE Lowly Peon Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:01:18 -0700 Daisy and I were getting pretty frustrated with our first generation Apple TV. It was a good idea, I think, and executed the way Apple would — very simple, very elegant, and easy to understand. However, it froze all the time, often disconnected with iTunes (its source), and would sometimes take several minutes to respond.

So we decided to get the next generation, for a mere $99 (minus 5% cash back! Thanks Discover!). And boy was it worth it.

I remember when I first read about it, I was bitter that there was such a huge improvement over the one I had only just bought a few weeks before (and for quite a bit more money, too). Because of that, I didn't read too much about it.

It's amazing. So much better. One of the main reasons we got this one is because our TV has been having issues with streaming Netflix*, and the Apple TV does it just right. It's fast, responsive, and displays much more relevant information.

One of my favorite functions is one I never expected to care about that much. You can stream tons of kinds of content from an iOS device. I figured this would be nice at parties to show people a photo or something on a big screen. But I've found it's really just a better way to do anything. Want to listen to some tunes? Start up your iPhone's iPod and play it through the TV. That way, when you leave, you can keep listening. Just came back from a run and don't want to stop the album, or find where you were? Just change the speakers and it starts instantly where you left it. Works for video too. (And YouTube, etc.)

Also nice is that it will display your photos as the screen saver. Before it showed album art, which was fun but got boring. Especially when it disconnected from my iTunes and only showed one or two albums a million times at once.

And it's tiny. And cheap.

Anyway, I'm happy we got it. Well done, Apple.

*It was strange, and both Sony and Netflix couldn't figure it out. Netflix seemed to think that the last episode of Family Guy we had watched was in volume 8, so it always showed us volume 8. The episodes were in a list, and at the bottom of the list was a "see more seasons" button. But the last few episodes aren't available on instant queue yet, so we couldn't get to the bottom of the list. So we were stuck with five episodes and no way to watch any of the seasons we wanted to. Sorry, Sony.

tags: [geek] [apple] [appletv] [hardware] [toy]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/06/26/The-Experiment The Experiment THE Lowly Peon Sun, 26 Jun 2011 07:52:19 -0700 I've felt pretty much perpetually full since I moved to Texas two months ago. Meals are big, snacks are everywhere, and there are so many good alcohols easily accessible. So last week I decided to take control and clean myself out a bit.

I decided that for a week, I'd be a non-alcoholic vegan. No meat (which I haven't eaten in over a decade), fish, dairy, any other animal products, or alcohol.

This decision followed a great weekend in Austin, where we saw Explosions in the Sky with simonite at Austin City Limits. The three of us had some great drinks and way too much food, and the experiment could not have come at a better time.

My thesis, prior to making any changes in my diet, was that the omission of only two products would really be what made me feel better: alcohol and dairy (namely, cheese).

It didn't take long for me to see results. By day two or three, I felt more awake, had absolutely no evidence of a headache, and my stomach felt neither full nor empty, but mostly satisfied.

At the same time, however, I remembered almost exactly why I stopped being vegan in high school: everything has traces of dairy, and constantly planning what you can eat and where is just exhausting. Furthermore, I felt like I was always struggling to find the balance between being an absolute vegan and disregarding the gelatin in the capsule of my daily vitamin, for example. If my goal is to be healthier, I decided, the nitty gritties are not important. (Back in high school, I was absolute. I put nothing in my body unless I knew every ingredient. And that is freaking exhausting.)

(For the sake of full disclosure: my primary goal has always been to be less wasteful, so when our Groupons were about to expire for a movie theater and a free drink, I had a beer and buttered popcorn.)

And in the end, my thesis wasn't far off from the truth. Eating fish, or tiny bits of dairy or gelatin, doesn't have a drastic effect on my health. Cheese makes me feel really full when I'm still hungry. But the strongest conclusion, really, is that alcohol is absolutely horrible for one's health. And I need to drink way less of it.

Note: I didn't really change my intake of caffeine as part of this experiment. Part of this is because I'm so convinced caffeine has a tremendous effect on my well-being, and I wanted a sort of control group to test my diet, and caffeine will be for a different experiment. The other part is because I like caffeine, and I think consuming it in reasonable quantities is okay.

tags: [vegetarianism] [experiment] [diet] [alcohol] [vegan]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/06/05/Cash-or-Credit Cash or Credit THE Lowly Peon Sun, 05 Jun 2011 07:02:09 -0700 One thing I love about being back in America is that I can use my credit card for just about any transaction imaginable. So why is it that yesterday I went from having about $100 cash to zero?

Daisy and I went shopping for some business casual clothes for her wardrobe. We went to this great little boutique — so much more comfortable than shopping in a Chinese mall, by the way — and Daze found some good stuff. At the register, the cashier asked for my name. I asked politely if it was necessary. She said yes, which surprised me. Then she asked for my address. I asked if that was necessary, and to my astonishment, she said yes. I was trying not to be difficult, but we get enough junk mail as it is, and I see no need to share the location of our living quarters with a boutique simply for buying a cute top. Her excuse: "We're a small shop." What? So, I paid cash. Poof, my cash is down to about $40 in annoyingly small bills.

Later in the day, we met with some friends to go to this somewhat bizarre Italian exposition in the Houston expo center. It was pretty fun, mostly because we were in good company. The expo itself was really weird — lots of smelly Italians with either horrendous BO or too much cologne to try to mask their horrendous BO. Catwalk for fashion show, lots of fancy looking cars that to me look like nothing more than gas guzzlers, lots of gelato, etc. And at the end: a whole section dedicated to tasting wines. They were server tastes in this tiny shot glasses, the kind that a doctor would give you a pill or two in. But nearby they were selling wine glasses, and if you had wine glasses, so our friend told us, they pour quite a bit. What the heck, we need some good wine glasses anyway. What's that? Don't accept credit? And poof, down to $20.

We found some excellent stuff at that tasting section. (None of it was wine, though. I can't stand Italian wine, truth be told.) Namely, we found some cheese that was aged in truffle oil. I've been really into truffle-related foods ever since I discovered a black truffle pizza at The Tasting Room down the road from our apartment. This cheese was incredible. So I wanted some. It was a bit of a charade to buy this cheese — need to wait in line at the booth, ask the guy to cut some, he seals it, then you go to the other end of the expo, wait in line, then pay. So we saved all of our purchases for the end. What's that? There's a 5% surcharge for using a credit card? (This recently became an illegal practice in Illinois.)

And poof, there goes the rest of my cash, except for two dollars, three quarters, three nickels, four dimes, four normal pennies and two really weird looking ones that I'd never seen before.

tags: [houston] [money] [texas] [cash] [credit] …

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/06/04/Heights-Fun-Run Heights Fun Run THE Lowly Peon Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:50:39 -0700 A few days ago, daisy surprised me by saying she wanted to go running with me. We went to the gym in our apartment — it's way too hot outside to run after work — and I was very impressed: she ran just over 3 miles in about thirty minutes.

So when my boss' boss' boss sent me a link to a 5k fun run in the heights, a neighborhood just north of us, I jumped at the thought. Daisy said she was interested, and we signed up.

The run was this morning at the crack of dawn, just before it got so hot your glasses may start to melt. It was loaded with people, and, of course, they only had XXXXXL t-shirts left. We went to the starting line after getting our numbers and stuff. I think Daisy was pretty nervous and unsure of what to expect, and I just wanted to get out of the crowd and running.

Before the starter's pistol, a very loud voice on a very loud speaker requested a moment of silence for the troops. And then a young girl's voice came on to lead us in a prayer. Daisy and I were flabbergasted. After the rather long prayer about blessing us on our run, we were told to put our hands on our hears for the national anthem. It was a pretty bizarre pre-race event.

The run was great. I did it in less than 26 minutes, which was my goal. You can see my stats, thanks to the awesome iPhone app itunes, here: http://kineticurl.com/5t2s3t.

I was at the finish line when Daisy came blazing through like she had just gone for a long walk. Her time was excellent, especially considering it was only her third run since high school! Go Daisy!!

tags: [runfunrunhouston] [houstonisweird]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/05/27/Becoming-a-Texan-Part-III Becoming a Texan (Part III) THE Lowly Peon Thu, 26 May 2011 14:48:45 -0700 I remember being bothered all my life that everything was really just a way to prepare for the next step. Why study in high school? So you can study in college. Why study in college? So you get a good job? Why get a good job? Well. No one really answered that.

Anyway, I feel like I'm at the last step of that process, whatever it was, and I feel great. My feeling, day to day, is no longer that of "just a while longer of this and then that!" Instead, it's let's do it today! My job has been great since coming back, very busy and productive and challenging and rewarding. It takes a bit too long for me to get home, which is a drag, but I still have enough time to make dinner or go out to dinner, and feel like I have enough time to do whatever I want.

Daze and I went to the pool yesterday on our roof. It was incredible! And it's right there! And tonight we're going to walk to a nearby sushi place, which is rated the best in Houston. Then tomorrow we're going to a friend's house to eat crawfish, and Saturday my friend Anne is coming to town! And then this weekend we're going camping on the Frio river with a friend and his wife.

I suppose the only thing I'm waiting for the end of is the Houston heat, but I know well that I should get over that...

Yay for being a grown-up!

tags: [rant] [houston] [life]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/05/13/Commute Commute THE Lowly Peon Fri, 13 May 2011 20:45:42 -0700 My friend Peter over at petercompernolle.com put together a short video on his iPhone of his commute to work back in China:

A short video I put together entirely on my iPhone 4, documenting the commute that has made me both frustrated, fascinated, and overjoyed with living in China. This segment is the fifteen minute bike ride to the bus stop, with a stop for breakfast along the way.


Worth a watch.

update

i completely meant to make this a link, not a blog. oops.

tags: [china] [hangzhou] [video] [bike]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/05/12/Clean-Air Clean Air THE Lowly Peon Thu, 12 May 2011 18:06:44 -0700 It's funny — a few years ago, living at almost six thousand feet above sea level, I criticized Houston's air quality during my first visit to what would later become my home. Now, after living in China for the last several years, my feelings are quite different.

I'm sitting on my balcony right now, facing East, after the gods provided us temporary relief from the Texan heat with a heavy downpour of rain. The sun is setting behind my building, lighting up only the tops of buildings, much like the effect of sunset in Colorado on the Eastern side of the great Rockies.

The same rain in Eastern China would have made me feel constrained — the low clouds in China, brought so near above us because of the constant smog, made me feel as if I were in a small space. Here, after such a heavy rain, it seems the sky is endless.

I arrived in China during the overcast winter months, so it took me quite some time to distinguish between pollution and simply bad weather. But eventually, I learned it all too well. And whether it was my attempt to deceive myself or because I had grown accustomed to it, I slowly forgot what clean air is. My trips to the states would feel unrecognizably liberating, in a way I still can't describe or explain. And now, when I think of going back to China, or when I compare one place to the other, all I can think about is the general feeling of the air quality.

It feels good to be back.

(And hurry up, daisy! I miss you!)

tags: [china] [weather] [houston] [pollution] [air]

]]> http://avalantern.com/thelowlypeon/blogs/2011/05/06/Spam-ATT Spam, AT&T THE Lowly Peon Fri, 06 May 2011 07:09:44 -0700 Since moving back to the states and getting a new number, I've been receiving lots of spam calls. My Google Voice number, the one you all know and use, allows for easy filtering of numbers and calls. AT&T does not.

Every single day since I've gotten this phone, I get an automated call for Ashley from 216.647.0870, claiming to be "First National Bank" or something. A quick Google search shows that this number is fraudulent.

So, after a few days, and again just now, I called AT&T to complain. I don't understand how they couldn't help out — they make it extremely simple to block calls to land lines, and every other service provider I've used in my lifetime has been able to block numbers, especially if it's spam.

What did AT&T do? Try to sell me a $4.99/mo package targeted to parents who want to restrict their children's callers. They can't block individual numbers.

This surprises and enrages me. It seems like it would be a law to be able to block spammers. I received tons of spam in China, but I was at least able to call China Unicom, and after an hour or so of being on hold, could block numbers (that weren't from China Unicom themselves, which wound up being the majority of spam I received).

Too bad the iPhone doesn't have some sort of call blocker built in to it. Honestly, with the amount of spam calls I'm getting at this recycled number, I'm tempted to jailbreak my phone to install some kind of blocker.

tags: [evil] [att] [cellphone] [serviceproviders] [spam]

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