Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Running Log 2009-07-14


Today's run: Running with Grandma tonight! (My mother-in-law.)
Distance - 2.7 miles
Time - 00:37:43

Not much distance tonight, but part of it was running up the hill in Sugar Creek Valley! Not fair!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Running Log 2009-07-13


Today's run: First one with my new shoes.
Distance - 4.69 miles
Time - 01:05:00

A running I will go!


I've decided to take up running as a standard part of my workout routine. I gave it a try several weeks ago... and realized it wasn't so bad. Maybe I was expecting a worse experience considering the 50+ ft elevation change that occurs withing 1/4 mile any direction of our house. There's no where to run from here that isn't a hill. Still, I went out running. Came back. Measured my route on Google Earth.... and realized I'd run 2 miles. Not bad.

Now I'm up to a nearly 4 mile routine (including warm-up / cool down).

Sarahlynn encouraged me to go find the "Marathon for non-Runners" book we had in the basement. We'll see.

At the very least, I've committed to 300 miles over the next year. That is, I bought good running shoes.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mii NOT Fit, yet

We got a new Wii Fit exercise game last night: EA Active

I thought that I'd been getting a good, well rounded exercise routine with the eliptical machine, running, and occasional Wii Fit work out. My 40-minute workout last night blew me away. Way too many squats, squats on tip toe, roller-blading squat/jump.... my thighs are jelly this morning. Now there's some diversity in my workout. Wow!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Aggregate / Summary

One of my wife's pet peeves is when technologists take a word that already has clear meaning in the English language and then twist the definition to mean something not-quite-close-enough in a technical context. Great case-in-point in the world of data warehousing:

What is the difference between an aggregate and a summary?

I did a Google search and came up with a lot of junk floating around what I would consider some not very good answers (albeit from 2002) from some industry analysts. In fact, David Marco goes so far as to say "Summarized and aggregation are the same thing.


In my gut, there's always been a difference between an aggregate and a summary. So, I decided to try to articulate what the difference is. In doing so, my wife's advice of "just look in the dictionary" came in very handy.


Aggregate:
Comes from the Latin word for "to flock together" or "to flock or group."
Just to point out that there's nothing necessarily in that definition about the idea of reducing the specificity of something or the fact that the flock or group is made up of individuals. Rather, the idea is that there is a group of individual things acting together.

Summary:
From the Latin summa, one meaning of which is "total" or "sum," also the "principle or main thing."
Clearly, the idea with this root word is that a level of detail is being removed when the summary of something is presented. Rather than still being individual things, the summary of things is another layer of abstraction that represents the underlying detail.

Not so much the same thing.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

That's Overweight!

It may not seem like something to be proud of, but this past week, my Wii Fit finally started telling me "That's Overweight!" This, rather than, "That's Obese!" It doesn't sound great, but it sure felt great!!

I've still got a ways to go, but (not to brag), I'm down 20+ lbs and 2+ inches on my pants in the past 2 months.

The Wii Fit thinks "normal" for me is something I can't ever imagine achieving, but we'll see where things are in another 2 months, and maybe 2 more after that. At this same rate, I'd be where the Wii Fit thinks I should be, but I expect the rate of weight loss to slow soon... maybe.

On top of "eat less" and "exercise more," I've also bee using this resource as well. It's providing me with some good ways of thinking about food and eating.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Potty Training Again

T-minus 32 hours and counting....

The morning of Sunday, May 31st will be Ada's last morning in diapers. The plan is to train Ada tomorrow afternoon. With luck, we'll be done in 4 hours and into a mode of "dry pants?" checking throughout the day rather than diaper changing.

The technique for us has been: Toilet Training in Less Than a Day

Well worth the $6.99 on Amazon. It's a potty training session based on research done the 1970s with developmentally delayed adults who had never been taught to toilet themselves. The education experts and researches took their research results and turned in around into a training technique for toddlers. It worked very well with Ellie (though we've decided that Ellie needs a refresher session to help her become more independent before she gets into kindergarten this fall!)

Bye bye diapers!