Travels and Destinations

Destinations:

Monterey (8/21/09 - 8/23/09)

End of Summer State of Things

I have been LAZY this whole summer. Lagging on physical activities, reading, writing of any sort, and working on various projects. I don't even remember what is on my list anymore. I have all but abandoned all the so call projects on here. I need to hit a sort of master reset here. There really is not that many projects that I can work on. Blogs, website, exercise, weight loss, take photos, reading, running, crafts, travels, food stuff... that's about it. I'm glad I used this to get a bunch of things done since March this year. It was very helpful in organizing my thoughts. But I think it's time for me to move on from this particular format and try to focus on the main items (as listed) done. The problem with the project list is that I inevitably bite off more then I can chew. At which point I get discouraged and abandon all of it.

I have a new job. More responsibility and less time to do other things. I really need to make time for a couple of things. Exercise and working on my website. Going to the gym is the matter of not being lazy. I'm even trying to make time in the late afternoon right after work for it. In fact I leave work earlier just to be sure I get the machines I want. It's a good thing. I have been exercising a bit more then earlier in the year. I just need to keep going at it.

Having written out some of what I want my website to look and feel helps a lot. I need to come back once in a while to clarify how I want things to be. I think I have a solid idea of how I want the content of the blog to come out. I have not been a great fan of tags but I would imagine it be useful when it counts.

So my mission for now is to reboot and refocus. Tomorrow is a new week and everything starts anew.

Monterey 8/21-8/23

Weekend trip down to Monterey Bay.

Friday 8/21
- morning - leave for Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Pacific Garden Mall
- lunch @ Santa Cruz
- travel to Seaside
- check-in to hotel
- afternoon - Monterey Fisherman's Wharf area
Camera West

Saturday 8/22
- morning - Monterey Bay Aquarium
- lunch - Cannery Row

- late afternoon - 17 mile drive
- dinner @ Carmel by the Sea or Monterey or Seaside

Sunday 8/23
- late morning - checkout
- brunch @ Seaside? lunch @ Santa Cruz?

Ideas and Future Reference

Blog Monterey

Monterey
Parker-Lusseau Bakery

The Crown and Anchor Pub and Restaurant

Seaside
Phat-Burger
Baldemiros Taco Shop
Noodle Bar Restaurant
The Alternative Cafe
City Diner

Fishwife Seafood Restaurant

Cannery Row

Bistro Moulin

Ambrosia India Cafe

Vivolo's Chowder House
Trailside Cafe

Santa Cruz

Zachary's

*list

Carmel

Carmel Belle

Little Napoli Bistro Italiano

Mundaka

Carmel Tagine

time to evaluate

I have all but abandoned the projects on here. I still update my weight and stuff, but I don't exercise. I never get anything done off the lists and I don't add items. It looks like this month is another loss. How long does it take to take 30 days of dinner? Apparently more then 3 months. Great isn't it? I think it's time for me to reevaluate some of the items on the list. It might not be really feasible to do some of it.

I think I'm doing ok with some of the on-going projects. The ones that are left pending are mostly related to my website. I'm not too concerned about it. One of the great thing about these projects is that it help me figure out what I'm really interested in and what sort of content I want to put in my website. It has been really helpful. Maybe at this point I have hit my upper limits.

Books, photography, travel, food, exercise, crafts. These are the different main sections to my site. There will be some crossovers, especially between photography, travel, and food. I think I can start writing my requirements document base on that.

I need to buck up and finish my 30 day dinner project. It's getting a bit ridiculous at this point. It's been four and a half month at this point. It doesn't matter how boring the subject is, I need to finish it. And remember to do it.

I started a wish list simply because I have stuff I want and ran out of ideas of what to do. I guess saving money for those stuff so I can use them for more projects would count at part of projects? At least this is a good place to centralize my ideas.

I need more ideas!!!

Wish List

Things I want to get. Is it a project? Yeah, saving money is what.

- Prime lens for camera
- Timer remote for camera
- Bike (no idea what kind)
- 10 year web hosting plan ($714)
- yearly domain registration ($9.95)
- flickr pro account per year ($24.95)
- MacBook Pro 13", Aperture 2, iLife '09, Final Cut Express 4.0, 500GB WD Passport ($1644.01)
- BBEdit $125

End of June State of Things

Ha. Yet another month of doing nothing at all. I went ahead and worked on the book cover blog and many of the tags. That's about it. I'm starting to run out of steam on a lot of my work. I need to try harder. I want to work on more of the on going stuff and be able to blog more about it.

I need to keep running. I got some new shoes and it worked pretty well. I just need to get some motivation.

Photo project - Book Cover

I have a crazy amount of books. Recently, thanks to my significant other, I have been very picky about how my books look. Simple idea to add to my photo queue. Take a picture of each cover, put them up on the daily queue. I think that's a great idea.

http://macchiatodaily.tumblr.com/tagged/Book%20Cover

Update movie, music, tv show, books on living social

I have been sorting my books and listing them on reading social. I feel like I should do the same with my music and other media collections. First I will need to sort everything before I start my lists. From the looks of things it will be a while before I get to it.

End of May State of Things

Ok, this month was pretty much one step forward, two steps back. It took me 13 weeks to get back to the same weight as I was before. I don't think I crossed out anything nor added anything to my list. Maybe I'm getting bored of the items, or I'm just not here enough.

I skipped on exercise for about two weeks. Of course that didn't help. I can't go more then 3 or 4 days without hopping on the treadmill. If this week was any indication, it takes me about 3 days to get back into comfortable workout shape. Although I haven't lost any weight according to my charts, I feel like I'm getting a bit tighter around my sides. What I'm guessing is I'm actually gaining muscle weight. I hope. I have been drinking a ton of water in the last few days as well. I feel more hydrated despite the frequent bathroom trips. In general, I feel more in tune with my body. I'm more aware of what my inputs are. I can feel where my limits are when it comes to working out. I know how to tune my workouts so I can sustain for a longer period of time. That is very important when it comes to training for a long distance run.

This past month I have been more concentrated on on-going items instead of one time projects. I have been reading a ton, worked on my blogs, and calibrated my run. I'm fairly happy with my reading progress. I finished three good size books in the past month. I don't remember the last time I was so dedicated to literature. I'm getting better at picking books that are readable and entertaining thanks to my significant other. I will probably do a better job in the next month. On a side note, I have taken up writing again. I don't want to put that as a project, but it's something I want to keep up.

I've been working on my blogs. The photo blog is of course on going. I haven't added anything more on the queue for a while, I have enough to last me a few months. In the mean time I am still taking interesting photographs to be added in the future. I morphed my daily blog into something to post random finds. There is always the daily pictures of me, dinners, friends, and random observations. I recently added links and reblogs. I think that's a good idea. It's just random things I find amusing on a daily basis that I don't mind sharing. With who I don't know, but it's there. I started working on the tags on my daily blog. I need to go back and put more on the queued items and the items I already posted. It's a great idea, but I wish I started doing it earlier. I thought of a few more different concentrations I should create. I still need to create a food blog and a travel blog. Initially I thought about putting the two together because they go hand in hand in many cases. But the more I thought about it, they should be separated. Travel would be different place I have been and what to go, plus photos and reports. It can be anywhere just outside of my house. Small scale to large scale travel. I want to separate into regions to specific places and locals to visit. It's a great way for me to plan my travels. As for the food blog it will be about things I cook, recipes, restaurant review, and things I want to try. I thought about a long time ago to make a database for recipes. It's just too cumbersome. It somehow makes more sense to just plug everything into a blog and tag it. One of these days I need to consolidate everything onto my website. I know things are all over the place right now, but it makes sense to me. It gives me a lot more clarity on what I want overall on my website contents wise. It also clarifies the things I am actually interested in.

Although not part of any project, I have been doing pretty well financially. I made my own budgeting system, and apparently I have been working with a zero sum budget. Every penny has to go somewhere, and most of it goes into savings. My spending habits are significantly different from a few years ago. I don't feel comfortable making random purchases. Although a few of my recent purchases have been rather large, they are somewhat thought out and within my budget. It's another lifestyle change.

The overall project is really me, and I'm working on it.

May

I know I haven't made much progress on the projects this month. I mainly focused on running and reading, both of which are on going things. I just don't feel the motivation to start new things or come up with new things to do. I did a whole bunch of organizational little tasks in the last couple of months. Inevitably the things I have left are the larger projects. Maybe I should start on one or two of them.

I have been trying to run more often. My goal is to be able to run about five days per week for at least 5k (3.11 mi). It would be better if I can use one of those days as a long run. Last week I managed to run a 10k. I feel like I have been building some muscle. My heart rate is lower, and I have to work a bit harder to sweat. I feel my lung capacity is higher. I just want my stomach to go away.

I've been good on reading. I try to read more then one book per month. Which will put me way ahead of my quota. I doubt I will get to 52 this year, but I will try. I have been influenced to make my bookshelf pretty. It's time I get rid of some of the books I will never read.

End of April State of Things

Not as many things were done this month. It might seem so by number, but certainly not by substance. I even skipped a whole week of working out. This month have not been very productive to say the least. I did manage to finish a couple of books, which was good. I did leave a few lapses. This seem to be an on-going theme so far. I'm also running out of project ideas.

One of my main problems is I have a few things on the initial list I have not even contemplated on starting. I simply don't feel like it. I kept finding little things to do and count them as projects. I know it's not enough, but I don't know if I can get myself to focus enough to actually attempt the bigger items.

Maybe spring will bring me a better outlook on things.

Install BluRay drive and gyro mouse

I got these from the last woot off. It's about time to put them in. I need to get some blu-ray discs to test it out as well. When I get the chance. No hurry.

Queue up Very Important People Photo Project

I have a bunch of photos that I think is good. I'm running out of pictures of myself to queue up anyway. It's a good time to work on this new batch.

Photo tags revisited

I realize I don't have enough tags on each of my photo on the main blog as I was putting up 150+ photos on there the other day. I need to go back over all the photos I have already posted then go to the ones on the queue to correct it.

** updated 7/18/09 **
Tags for macchiato daily is done. I need to go back to macchiato to go to go over the tags. Eventually.

Photo project - Random

Various observations from my phone. Taken and sent directly from my phone. Things that are interesting, but not artsy enough to make the main blog.

http://macchiatodaily.tumblr.com/tagged/Random

Photo project - Self Portrait

Various photos that are taken of me in the past posted from the daily queue. Everything not taken and posted directly from my phone.

http://macchiatodaily.tumblr.com/tagged/Self Portrait

Make list of places I want to go

Places to go, things to do. Cities and attractions. Places for travel! Yay!

Build compost heap

We have a lot of organic trash. Food scraps and clippings. I could not think of a better thing to do then to make a compost heap. I've been reading up on it. I know I can get my hands on a lot of green material, but brown would be a bit of a problem. We managed to dry out some weeds and such last week. I think that can serve as our brown. I need to find some way to dry out grass clippings without them blowing away. That can serve as our brown. I also need to build a bit of a corral so it does not look like a pile of trash. At this point I am also thinking about burying what we have so far because of the lack of brown material. Decisions decisions.

Workout Log

4/17/2009 (F) - Plan 1.0
Monday: Yoga (AM), 5k+ (PM)
Tuesday: Spin (AM), free weights/push ups or 5k+ (PM)
Wednesday: Yoga (AM), 5k+ (PM)
Thursday: Spin (AM), free weights/push ups or 5k+ (PM)
Friday: 5k+ (AM)
Saturday: 10k+ (AM) + push ups
Sunday: Rest!

Pushups adopted from http://hundredpushups.com/index.html

4/20/2009 (M) - 5.05 km
4/21/2009 (T) - 5.23 km + push ups week 1 day 1 (2-3-2-2-3+2)

4/25/2009 (Sa) - 10.06 km

5/4/2009 (M) - 4.23 mi
5/5/2009 (T) - 2.01 mi
5/6/2009 (W) - 3.29 mi

5/8/2009 (F) - 6.29 mi
5/11/2009 (M) - 2.26 mi
5/12/2009 (T) - 3.11 mi
5/13/2009 (W) - 3.11 mi

** 9/13/09 - on hiatus - will track cardio minutes on weight tracker **

lazy week

This week has been admittedly been the laziest week I have had in a while. I slept in, refused to go to the gym, and did not work out in the evening. My quads were very sore for a few days after my 5k outdoor run last Sunday morning. I took that as an excuse to recover. I'm at the point where I want to regroup what I am doing and refocus my efforts.

I lost a little tiny bit of weight this week. It's so small it should not count. But the good thing is I did not gain any weight. I have been eating well the past week. Despite the lack of physical activity I did not balloon. That is good. I cut out carbohydrates at dinner. Not strictly, but I don't reach for the rice and pasta.

I have a whole workout plan already written up. The main thing is I need to build my workout over time and not over-work my body. Not a good idea to injure myself over time. I finally found out the problem with my knees. It turns out my quads are not strong enough to hold it together. I rested a whole week to let my quads completely recover. My goal is to work until it is sore but not hurting. I should be able to do longer and harder workouts soon following my own advise. It is so hard to scale back on the amount of work I put on myself when I follow the no-pain no-gain mantra. In reality, my body is not strong enough to take the beating I have been putting on myself. I need patience.

Long distance running

I've decided to train for another half-marathon and other things to come. Marathoning for Mortals is easily one of the best books I have read in regards to training. I walk/run a half marathon almost two years ago and it was an interesting experience. I just hope on and did it on race day with little training. It was hard. I was not prepared. My body way not happy about it. But on the mental level, I was quite happy I finished it.

I find that when I have some sort of goal, I am more motivated to do the things required to achieve it. I think because I wanted to lose weight, having a goal to run long distance is a good way to achieve it. But according to all the things I have read, it takes a lot of discipline. If I'm not careful with my intake, I might end up heavier.

In the past month or so, I changed my eating habits. I have been eating a lot more vegetables and cut out a large part of my carbohydrate intake. I eat a good size breakfast and eat mostly greens and little starch at dinner. Lunch is usually anchored with a salad. Those are good fuel for working out.

I have set a goal of running a half-marathon on October 4th. I might have to modify it to a run/walk, or conversely set a time goal. I have a rough training/cross-training schedule. I will do each thing as I feel able. As an example, my quadriceps have not been happy with me since my 5k on Sunday morning. I skipped a couple of workouts that will aggravate it. It might be a lazy excuse, but I really feel I need the rest. Resting is mandatory, overworking is counter-productive.

Monday: Yoga (AM), 5k+ (PM)
Tuesday: Spin (AM), free weights or 5k+ (PM)
Wednesday: Yoga (AM), 5k+ (PM)
Thursday: Spin (AM), free weights or 5k+ (PM)
Friday: 5k+ (AM)
Saturday: 10k+ (AM)
Sunday: Rest!

This workout schedule is designed to build up my endurance. It is horrible right now. I can barely last 4 miles. Considering I want to run 13.1 miles, I need to not burn myself out at such a slow pace. Stronger muscles, less weight, and lower heart rate is what I am shooting for. Eventually I will add some distance to my workouts and demand a faster time. At that point I will be able to adopt training strategies from the book for the desired distance.

Scan old photos

We have a ton of old photos. I want to scan and archive them. I have an old flat-bed scanner in good working order. I had been thinking about upgrading to a higher resolution one, but it is not essential. I just need to pick up and do it.

Finish Watchmen

I usually don't put any time constraint on a book. But I do need to finish this one and return it ASAP.

Layouts revisited

I need to work on macchiato ink and macchiato crafts. They need to have nicer layouts and have full features for each:

1) pick theme (completed)
2) profile picture (completed)
3) write blurb
4) add notes
5) add comments
6) add tags

http://macchiatoink.tumblr.com/
http://macchiatocrafts.tumblr.com/

Canvas photo collage

I want to make some art piece with my photos that can be hung on the wall. A photo collage on canvas sounds like a great idea. I might paint the canvas first, depending on how I feel. A ton of photos, and maybe some ribbons and such to decorate.

**update 4/5/2009**
Canvas painted. It looks more like it's own work of art then anything else. Trying to figure out if I really want to put pictures on top of it or make it into a ribbon board to slip pictures in it. I already have wire frame a picture holder in a bout the same size.

**update 4/8/2009**
Still have another canvas. Got more acrylic paint yesterday. Looking at a black and green sort of background. That should be more suited for putting photos on it. Another idea. Put pictures on it, and paint the borders onto the painting. Colored background, paste picture, paint to blend.

**update 4/24/2009**
Going to paint the second canvas darker. Green and black. Will need to start picking out pictures to print and paste on the two canvas. Might have to wait until after sorting scrap book material. Many of the items will fit on canvas to make into three dimensional piece.

**update 4/28/2009**
I am much happier with the second painting. I will leave this as a living project. Print and stick pictures on it as I go. Complete!

End of March State of Things

I didn't get many items completed. That is expected because it was only half a month and I had to set up some of the on going projects as well. I personally think that is pretty impressive. I need to figure out a few more things to do considering it is a new month already. I prefer to have at least 10 things on the list to tackle.

Some of the on-going items have been working out very well. It seems I am making progress with my weight. I lost about a pound so far without very intensive or consistent exercising. I am certainly working on that. This week I started going to the gym at 6 in the morning for yoga and spin. It helps with my over all energy level. I'm happy about that. I only ran once this week. I need to make it so I can run a few more times every week. I am training for a half-marathon after all. I am currently reading a book about training for regular people, it has been helpful.

My photo blog is now in the category of awesomeness. I just hope it will get a larger following in the near future. I am lagging behind on a few photo projects on macchiato daily. I just really need to remember to work on them.

I'm fairly happy with what I have been able to accomplish so far.

List all of current books on Reading Social

I recently cleaned up my bookshelf and left the ones that I will most likely read. The next logical step is to list them on Reading Social and Library Thing.

**update 4/5/2009**
Listed everything I want to list from my bookshelf on Reading Social so people can look and compare with my library. Decided not to put more on Library Thing for the time being. I want to reserve that as for the books I have already read and can rate and review. I'll list on there as I finish each book.

Upload all current photos, organize, and queue up on tumblr

I am so behind. I took a bunch of photos yesterday that are post-worthy as well. Need to find some time this weekend to work on it.

Focused catch-up to on-going project.

**updated 4/25/2009**
Holy hell that took me a while. I have to remember there is a daily limit to how many photos I can upload on the site. I'm guessing it is about 70. Even with that it took me three days to queue up all the ones I wanted to for the time being.

Reorganize all CD and Rip all audio CD in higher quality

I don't have all of my CDs in digital format, and I'm sure some of them are not of the highest quality. By doing so I can also move some of my files from one hard drive to another to utilize the larger storage space.

1) Alphabetize
2) Rip

Food blog

I love food. I cook food. I dine out. I like to write down my recipes and take tons of pictures. I think it would only make sense to make a dedicated blog for food.

Backup computers to external drives

Simple as that. Mainly for my laptop. I need to format the portable external drive and run acronis on it. I should probably do that with my desktop again as well just to add to it. I should probably do a DVD backup addition for my mp3 as well.

** updated 7/18/09 **
Laptop is backed up to external portable drive. Need to backup desktop again. It's too big. I moved my iTunes directory to the 1T drive for expansion and anticipation for my re-rip project. I'm using a free software in place of acronis, which takes up too much resource.

30 Day Photo Project 1 - Dinner

I haven't decided on the subject matter. Simply take a picture per day relating to the subject for 30 days. It could be of a theme or of a single subject.

**Updated 3/30/2009**
Self-explanatory. What I eat for dinner for 30 days.

**Updated 4/24/2009**
I either forget to take a picture or the food is not very appealing nor identifiable. This will take longer then I thought.

52 Q

52 Questions Challenge

A variation on the 52 cards project. I have yet to look at it, and it is only in the 10th week. I need to finish the 52 cards before I start looking in to this project. As opposed to a theme, there is a question to answer every week. I think that might be easier to do. We shall see.

52 cards project

52 cards challenge

I found this nifty little project a couple of years ago and started it. Never finished it. I need to find the ones I already made and post them on the new paper crafts page. Then I need to go back to the challenge and finish the cards.

http://macchiatocrafts.tumblr.com/tagged/Deck of Me

Make page for hand written entries

For a while I had the habit of free writing on a stack of notebook paper. I scanned all of them and posted them as manual blog pages. I need a showcase for them, and a space to expand on it.

1) Upload archive to flickr and make own folder
2) Make page and post chronologically

**update 4/3/2009**
http://macchiatoink.tumblr.com/
Another one of those things that I don't know if I will continue on, but it still warrants its own section. I need to work on the layouts and stuff.

Make page for paper craft

A showcase page for craftiness.

It started out as a paper craft type of thing. I have a couple of my pages scanned and I can put them up with some sort of commentary. I also thought of the various artsy thing I am also doing, such as crochet. That will probably become a separate thing to itself. Maybe. For now, I need a section just for paper crafts.

**update 4/3/2009**
http://macchiatocrafts.tumblr.com/
It's a little half-assed but it will have to do for now. I have a few things posted on there from prior adventures. I need to work on the layout and put more stuff on it as my projects comes along. I need to find a good layout for it. Put comments, notes, and tags.

Download photos and images from Picasa and transfer to flickr

I realize I have a bunch of photos I uploaded on Picasa through just uploading it on the site or posting on blogger. I think it's time to transfer said photos and images on to flickr.

1) Download and install flickr upload tool
2) Download photos and images from picasa
3) Upload to flickr
4) Organize into appropriate sets

**update 4/3/09**
It wasn't too hard once I got around to it. It was just time consuming with the downloads and uploads. I already have the organization scheme figured out on a previous project, so that part was no problem.

Power management for my entertainment center

My UPS is dead. My cables are everywhere. I don't think adding more items onto the current setup is a good idea. I also need to split one power strip out just for my external hard drives so I can turn all of them on and off at the same time.

1) Recycle old UPS
2) Pick up new UPS
3) Plug CPU and printer etc directly into UPS
4) Plus all external HD into power strip connected to USP for ability to turn on and off

**update 4/3/2009**
It was just the matter of getting to the store to pick up the material. It is so much easier to access the cables now. I have it organized according to plan. I love how I can turn off all four of my external hard drives with just one switch. I don't have to hear it spin up in the middle of the night and waste energy anymore. The new UPS has a panel that shows how much energy is being output. I love it when it goes to zero. Makes me feel good about myself.

Organizing and cleaning loft

I have so much stuff. Grand plans for the loft. I need to sort through all the stuff I have in boxes. Things to put out should be out. Things to put away should be packed away for good.

1) Sort through items
2) Furnishing
3) Put things into place

**update 4/3/09**
It took a good amount of effort to put everything away. We tossed a good amount of stuff and repacked some for the garage. The space is now empty. All the books are on the built in cabinet at the moment, but will be put back on the rebuilt bookshelf the next time I am up at the house. There are also many boxes tucked into the "Harry Potter" room. I can't wait to go through those.

Postcrossing and making postcards

postcrossing
Wonderful service I have yet to participate in. The only hitch is I don't want to go around looking for postcards. I got some blank postcard size cards. I plan on using some of my art supplies to make unique cards and send them out.

Reading Project

I managed to read 18 books for 2009 off my goal of 12 books. Let's do better this year by trying to read 24 books. Two per month, totally manageable. Check out my library.

2010
1) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1/24/2010)

2) Grave Peril - Jim Butcher (3/21/2010)

3) Summer Knight - Jim Butcher (4/14/2010)

4) The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon (6/2010)

5) Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris (7/18/2010)

6) Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris (7/23/2010)

7) Club Dead - Charlaine Harris (7/25/2010)

8) Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris (7/26/2010)

9) Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris (7/28/2010)

10) Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris (7/30/2010)

11) All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris (7/31/2010)

12) From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris (8/1/2010)

13) A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris (8/1/2010)

14) Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris (8/2/2010)

********************
I've been meaning to read a whole lot more. I have a ton of books and I keep adding to my collection. I don't think I can do a book per week. I've been thinking about doing a book per month. I'm suppose to read 12 books a year. Let's try that.

Check out my library.

2009
1) Pontoon - Garrison Keillor (1/2009)
2) Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne (1/2009)
3) The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (3/22/2009)
4) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F. Scott Fitzgerald (3/23/2009)
5) Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (4/5/2009)
6) Marathoning for Mortals - John Bingham (4/12/2009)
7) Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen (4/20/2009)
8) Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman (5/10/2009)
9) The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl (5/25/2009)
10) Dubliners - James Joyce (5/26/2009)
11) Barrel Fever - Davis Sedaris (6/8/2009)
12) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne (8/28/2009)

13) Dracula - Bram Stoker (10/14/2009)

14) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (10/25/09)

15) New Moon - Stephenie Meyer (11/12/09)
16) Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (11/25/09)
17) Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer (12/27/09)
18) Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer (12/31/09)

Clearing my podcasts

I subscribe to no less then 10 podcast. Many of them has years of archive. I need to burn through them and catch up to the new stuff. Currently I've been listening to them when I'm at work and when I'm running. It's coming along.

This is an on-going project.

Weight In

I weight myself daily, but only one time per week counts. Friday morning.

Week 0 (3/6/09) - 0 cal - 189lb
Week 1 (3/13/09) - 1883 cal - 187.8lb
Week 2 (3/20/09) - 1809 cal - 188.6lb
Week 3 (3/27/09) - 588 cal - 188.6lb
Week 4 (4/3/09) - 344 cal + spin x 2 + yoga x 2- 187.6lb
Week 5 (4/10/09) - 606 cal + spin x 1 - 187.6lb
Week 6 (4/17/09) - 449 cal + yoga x 1 - 187.4lb
Week 7 (4/24/09) - 1298 cal - 186.8lb
Week 8 (5/1/09) - 888 cal - 186.4lb
Week 9 (5/8/09) - 1354 cal - 188lb
Week 10 (5/15/09) - 2101 cal - 188.2lb
Week 11 (5/22/09) - 0 cal - 188 lb
Week 12 (5/29/09) - 0 cal - 190.2 lb
Week 13 (6/5/09) - 1609 cal - 189 lb
Week 14 (6/12/09) - 0 cal - 189 lb
Week 15 (6/19/09) - 0 cal - 189 lb
Week 16 (6/26/09) - 0 cal - 188.6 lb

Week 17 (7/3/09) - 0 cal - 189.2 lb

Week 18 (7/10/09) - 0 cal - 191.8 lb

Week 19 (7/17/09) - 0 cal - 190.2 lb

Week 20 (7/24/09) - 0 cal - 191.6 lb

Week 21 (7/31/09) - 0 cal - 191.6 lb

Week 22 (8/7/09) - 0 cal - 192.4 lb

** Reset 9/13/09 - minutes of exercise and weight Monday mornings **
Week 0 (9/14/09) - 0 min - 198lb
Week 1 (9/21/09) - 195 min - 198.2lb

Week 2 (9/28/09) - 130 min - 196.8 lb

Week 3 (10/5/09) - 183 min - 195.6 lb
Week 4 (10/12/09) - 80 min - 196 lb

Week 5 (10/19/09) - 130 min - 196.8 lb

Week 6 (10/26/09) - 150 min - 197 lb

Week 7 (11/2/09) - 30 min - 195.8 lb

Week 8 (11/9/09) - 150 min - 195.8 lb

Week 9 (11/16/09) - 0 min - 193.8 lb

Goal weight 135lb for 24.7 BMI

Get your own graph at skinnyr

The Website

Macchiato Mind. A showcase of sorts.

I've been talking about this for years. It will be the thing to tie all my projects and interests together. Hopefully. I already own the domain, I need to give it form and content. The content is being created all the time, I just need to build the website to put them in.

Various items and steps I need:
1) Requirements document - what is it suppose to do?
** 7/18/09 - sections

** 7/21/09 - drill down and links **
Sections:
- Home - about, news, feeds from other section, blog, web amusement (feed: macchiatomind.blogspot.com + historical blogs http://patrishie.livejournal.com/ http://patrishie.xanga.com/, macchiatodaily.tumblr.com, macchiatoprojects.blogspot.com, twitter) - probably will break down into smaller sections and have feed into main page. Will have to see after pooling all content together. **updated 9/13/09**
- Photography - my photos, gear, techniques (feed: macchiatotogo.tumblr.com, flickr)
- Food - recipe, restaurants, reviews
- Travel - places I've been, places I want to go (drill down - continent, country, city, neighborhood, attraction/place, feature and related items)
- Literature - books I want to read, books I have read, reviews, discoveries, analysis, writing (projects?) (feed: macchiatoink.tumblr.com)
- Fitness - long distance running, weight management, nutrition
- Art - crochet, paper craft, painting, arts (review?) (feed: macchiatocrafts.tumblr.com)

- Media - music, movies, tv, etc.
- Links and References (own consolidated page with reference from each section?)
****
**9/13/09**
Reclaimed all the old blogs on blogger and was able to log into xanga and livejournal for the first couple of blogs I made. Best thing to do is to pool them all together into one single blog and archive for continuity. That will take some work because I don't think xanga and livejournal exports easily. There will be a lot of cut and paste. Good thing is you can set the date and time in blogger. Still have not decided if I want to keep using blogger as my blog content management. It might not be a terrible idea since it's easy to import and export. At the same time I do want to fully own my contents and not just post it to google.

Having a single RSS feed from blogger and tumblr is not a bad idea for just the strictly blog part on the convenience standpoint. That as a whole can be a news feed. Seperate pages for just blogger and just tumblr feed. Publication on other parts of site will feed into news feed. Side bar RSS for twitter.

May have to work on facebook integration later - send updates to facebook to trigger visits. Will need to add visit counter and tracker.
****

2) User Interface design - how is it suppose to look like?
** 7/18/09 **
Uniform frame with same section selection. Different content feeds within frame. Display same sidebar contents for every page. Bold and easy to navigate. Simple, contrasting colors. Easy on eye.
****

** 7/21/09 **

Smaller section links on side for expansion. Those links follow top level section. Home icon -top level section - second level section - article. Date posted, tags, page statistics(?)

****

3) Technical design document - how is it suppose to work?
** 7/18/09**
Modular. Can take feeds from different content systems(?). Take feed from blogger, tumblr, and flickr. Most likely using PHP. Support content search and searchable tags (external tags too?).
****

** 7/21/09 **

Use PHP/Apache/MySQL. Ajax in the future? May have to import content from various sources and centralize. Can post out from centralized content to other sites - namely tumblr, facebook, blogger, twitter.

****
**9/13/09**
Look into how to get a good search into just the contents. I would imagine it to be easier if I keep all the blog contents on blogger. How about tagging? Need to centralize all blogs into one single one. All blogger pages, xanga, and livejournal. Will need to cut and past the two latter. All the blogger pages can be export and import into one.
****

4) Implementation
** 7/18/09**
Costs:
- 10 year web hosting plan ($714)
- yearly domain registration ($9.95)
- flickr pro account per year ($24.95)
****

** 7/20/09**

Gear:

- 13 inch mac book pro + accessories + software - iLife, Apature, ? (<$3000?)

- backup drive (<$150?)

****

** 7/21/09 **

MacBook Pro 13", Aperture 2, iLife '09, Final Cut Express 4.0, 500GB WD Passport - about $1644.01

BBEdit $125

Trying to keep it simple.

****

This is an on-going project.

Sort scrap book material

First step in getting back into paper craft. Sort the random stuff I have and figure out what I can use.

I say scrap book loosely. For all the years I have accumulated material and tools, I have made a total of 2 layouts. I have made several paper craft projects as well. I have boxes and pouches of stuff I have saved over the years that can serve as focus of various layouts. Problem being they are in boxes and pouches.

The idea is to sort these items into usable for layouts or craft projects. Categories to be determined.

Photo Project - Daily Me

macchiato daily
Picture of myself each day and post. See the difference over time.

I don't even remember how this came about. Inspired by a friend of a friend's project I think. Mine is not quite as creative. I quickly ran out of places to take pictures of myself. A majority of them will be from the office I think. The whole weight loss thing came about and I think this will serve as my visual progress. It's easy to upload pictures from my phone. I can definitely do it daily. If in case I forget to do it, an archive photo will be posted just for variety. I suspect there will be less head shots as my weight goes down. A set in flickr has been made for easy access and quick comparison.

1) Take a photo of myself with my phone daily.
2) Send to tumblr. Upload to flickr for archive.
3) Queue up photos taken with other cameras.

This is an on-going project.

Crochet

An old habit. Maybe I can make something of it.

I have a ton of yarn I have acquired over the years. I like using contrasting colors and make huge throws and bedspread with large alternating stripes. The original idea was to make these for Christmas presents. Of course I never get around to finish them in time for that purpose.

An idea came to mind when I saw a post on freecycle for leftover yarn and some listings in Etsy regarding bedspread made from recycled material. The idea is to use recycled yarn to make cool stripy bedspread and try to sell them on Etsy. But first, I need to clear out all the yarn I already have.

1) Use up all my current yarn for intended projects.
2) Go to freecycle to ask for leftover yarn.
3) Use those to crochet bedspreads.
4) Sell on Etsy.

Step 1 in progress.

Photo blog

macchiato to go
One photo published per day.

I am such a copycat. I have to credit this to Trevor. He was the one who showed me Tumblr and started his own photo blog. I thought I could do it too. Seeing I have a ton of photos and decent cameras.

1) Select photos from flickr favorites. Preferably my own photographs. Give credit to exceptions.
2) Post to tumblr queue. Space postings to once per day.
3) Mix up materials. Adjacent postings should be from different day, location, and subject matter.
Optional: advertise and see number of followers grow.

This is an on-going project.

Photo organization

Putting my thousands of photos into appropriate folders and tags.

The idea is old, and it became more dire as my collection grew. That is what happens when I try to figure out how to use my fancy cameras. It became more of a problem once I decided I should do a photo blog. It is really the easiest way for me to pull photos I like into the blog's queue.

1) Upload photo to flickr.
2) Place in category appropriate folders.
3) Choose standout photos to put in favorites folders.
4) Tag photos as appropriate.
5) Sort photos chronologically after posting to blog.

Initial Progress - I have already placed all my current photos into appropriate folders. I haven't started tagging them. The obvious ones would be to tag the favorites as "favorite" so they will show up correctly on my facebook page.

This is an on-going project.

Exercise and weight loss

Burn more then I take in. Simple as that.

Something to track my progress.

Get your own graph at skinnyr

My reasoning - as seen on macchiato mind

*****
I woke up this morning thinking about how much I need to work out and such. I'm done with the whole progressive distance from 1 mile thing. It doesn't work. I need to start at 5k at the very least. Then when I was browsing consumerist this morning I found this: http://www.344pounds.com/. It's the most inspirational blog I have ever seen. This guy was at 344 pounds and already lost 32 pounds in 6 weeks.

There are a few things I need to keep in mind. For every 3500 calories burned, it's a pound. I think it's time I start guesstimating my calorie intake. That goes hand in hand with my exercise plan. I'm thinking perhaps I should change my meter on the iPod from distance to calories. That might work a lot better. I can gradually increase the workout level/distance. Maybe I should put back together the whole DDR setup again. When I get a bit lighter that is.

One main part of how his plan works is his eating habits. He said you can eat whatever you want, just limit the amount of intake. I have been saying that for a very long time. While I was reading that part I overheard somebody talking about changing her diet etc. How many times have I said it doesn't work? It doesn't. Anyone who does it will just start binging again. Drink lots of water. I just had 10 oz of water while writing this. I can do this all day long.

I find the only way I can motivate myself is to quantify all of this into numbers.

Let's do a little bit of math. I'm at 189 right now, I rounded up for once. I want to be at about 120 eventually. We're looking at about 70 pounds. Let's say I eat about 2000 calories every day, more give then take. I used an online calculator and it estimates I use about 2000 calories per day. Which make sense because I've been maintaining my weight at that point. From that I estimate my intake to be about 350 more then what I should have to maintain weight because I have been gaining about a 10th of a pound a day. So it looks like my calorie intake is about 2350 with the basal rate at about 2000. For every mile I run it's about 120 calories. Which means I need to run at least 3 miles to keep my current weight. If I want to lose a pound a day I need to run 29 miles plus that 3 miles to maintain what I had before. 32 Miles. That's more then a marathon. Obviously I need to scale down. I can most likely manage 5 miles per day at the current intensity. Obviously more calories will be burn at a higher intensity, but I would like to keep it at 120 just to lower expectations. I can probably do 5 days a week at 5 miles. That is 3000 calories burned. I need to burn 2450 to maintain my weight. That is and extra 550 burnt. Which translates to .15 pounds lost per week. At that rate it will take me 9 years to get to 120 pounds.

Let's say I want to lose half a pound a week. That is 1750 calories plus the 2450 for maintain. So that's 4200 per week. 35 miles. 7 miles for each of 5 workout day. That is doable. I can lose another half a pound if I stick to 2000 calories per day. That changed my outlook to 2 years 9 months to get to about 120 pounds. If I watch the things I eat I can cut that down to 1 year 6 months.

840 calories per workout day. I would like to round that up to 850. I can do that in a couple of different forms of exercise. Running is preferred. The elliptical and stationary bike also works. At the moment I don't want to commit to any sort of class. I can split up my workouts as well. As long as I get that 850 per day.

I feel so inspired.
*****

This is an on-going project.

The Master List

Come up with 10 project ideas to start per month. Each listing comes with conception date. See how many will come to fruition.

On going projects - 11 of 16 in progress
3/13/2009 - Exercise and weight loss
3/13/2009 - Photo organization
3/13/2009 - Photo blog
3/13/2009 - Photo project - Daily Me
3/13/2009 - Clearing my podcasts
3/13/2009 - Reading Project
3/13/2009 - (step 1 of 4 in progress) Crochet
4/14/2009 - Long distance running
4/24/2009 - Photo project - Self Portrait
4/24/2009 - Photo project - Random
4/24/2009 - Photo project - Very Important People
6/5/2009 - Photo project - Book Cover
3/13/2009 - The Website
3/13/2009 - (pending) Postcrossing and making postcards
3/15/2009 - (pending) Food blog
4/17/2009 - (pending) Make list of places I want to go- Travel blog

March 2009 - 5 completed
3/13/2009 - (completed 3/15/2009) Organizing and cleaning loft
3/13/2009 - (completed 3/16/2009) Download photos and images from Picasa and transfer to flickr
3/13/2009 - (completed 3/28/2009) Power management for my entertainment center
3/13/2009 - (completed 3/30/2009) Make page for paper craft
3/13/2009 - (completed 3/30/2009) Make page for hand written entries
End of March State of Things

April 2009 - 7 completed
4/3/2009 - (completed 4/5/2009) List all of current books on Reading Social
4/3/2009 - (completed 4/5/2009) Finish Watchmen
4/2/2009 - (completed 4/25/2009) Upload all current photos, organize, and queue up on tumblr
4/17/2009 - (completed 4/18/2009) Build compost heap
4/24/2009 - (completed 4/26/2009) Install BluRay drive and gyro mouse
4/3/2009 - (completed 4/26/2009) Canvas photo collage
4/24/2009 - (completed 4/29/2009) Queue up Very Important People Photo Project

May 2009 - 0 of 10 completed

June 2009 - 0 of 10 completed

July 2009 - 0 of 10 completed

August 2009 - 0 of 10 completed
3/13/2009 - (in progress) 52 cards project
3/13/2009 - (in progress) 30 Day Photo Project 1 - Dinner
4/3/2009 - (in progress) Layouts revisited
3/23/2009 - (in progress) Reorganize all CD and Rip all audio CD in higher quality
4/24/2009 - (in progress) Photo tags revisited
3/13/2009 - (in progress) Backup computers to external drives
3/13/2009 - (pending) Sort scrap book material
3/13/2009 - (pending) 52Q project
4/9/2009 - (pending) Scan old photos
5/5/2009 - (pending) Update movie, music, tv show, books on living social
More to come...

** 9/13/09 - On hiatus - Will focus mainly on exercise, weight, website, reading in that order **