www.kyid.net

I had dinner with my sister again tonight. We are going to try and make it a weekly thing, since I enjoy having the company over, and she enjoys getting a meal for free.

I talked to her about setting up a blog for her as a subdomain on my site, and she liked the idea, so I will have to do that for her in the next week or so.

For dinner I made “Pistachio Encrusted Chicken”, and a roasted vegetable medley. I added too much olive oil to the vegetables. They didn’t come out terrible,but were definitely more oily than I would have prefered. My sister said she enjoyed them, but agreed they could have used less oil.

All in all, it was a good night.

I have an account for the game World of Warcraft. I haven’t logged on in almost a month. I have been too busy with other things I am doing in real life, but I stumbled across this gem today:

The World of Warcraft virtual world, which now has more than 1.5 million users, has experienced extensive downtime in the past 24 hours following a system upgrade for a content patch.

Here is the quote that really got my attention:

With monthly subscription plans ranging from $12.99 to $14.99, a user base of 1.5 million would generate revenue of at least $19.5 million per month – or $26,198 an hour.

That is some serious coin. I can’t remember exactly, but I think Everquest only closed in on 500,000 subscribers in its heyday. Man I should have bought stock in Blizzard when I had the chance. Oh wait…I never had the chance…

I have been trying to use my Linux-based computer for the last few days almost exclusively. It is different from Windows, but I am finding that I am not missing too much from Windows at the moment. I have wobbled back and forth between using Gnome and KDE as my desktops, and I am back to using Gnome for the moment.

I have found that even though the Ubuntu install goes pretty flawlessly, it does take a willingness to muck around to get things working if you add components after the fact to the system.

I have been trying to get a computer monitoring widget I downloaded to work, and it seems like there is always a library that isn’t installed, or a path to a library the compiler needs doesn’t exist. I am slowly getting the compile closer to working, but the average user of a Windows system would balk at these types of issues for sure if they tried to switch on a whim.

I am even doing all my blog entries that I write from home using Firefox on my Linux box.

The free CDs I ordered from the Ubuntu website for x86 and AMD64 installs arrived yesterday, so I now have two copies of each installation type in case any of my friends want to take the Linux plunge.

Up for breakfast today:

• A big glass of V8
• Cottage cheese

Up for lunch today:

• Leftover roasted veggies with shrimp added

Snacks for today:

• Mozzerella Cheese Stick
• 1 wedge Light Laughing Cow cheese
• Cottage cheese

Supper for today:

• Roasted veggies with sesame seeds, pine nuts, and parm. cheese added
• Pistachio encrusted chicken breast (1/2 breast)

Ok, I have a slacker confession to make. I didn’t do the Pilates ab workout last night. I did however feel guilty enough that I pulled out my exercise mat and did situps for about a minute. It helped asuage the guilt a little bit.

As for today, my knee felt mildly sore, but not as bad as yesterday; so I went for my workout this morning. I made a big change to my intervals today. My walk/run intervals today were:

1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/10, 4/0

That’s right, I ran 10 minutes straight this morning!!! I am so pumped!

Via Instapundit which he got via The New York Times:

Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47’s and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia’s young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said. . . .

Good for them. Glad to see they are standing up against those that would stop progress in their country.

Bill Hobbs has a short interesting opinion piece about the political circus and fallout surrounding the Terri Schiavo decision. I kinda like his first idea:

Here is what I would like to see happen in the aftermath of this sad, tragic, horrible case: I would like to see Congress pass, and the President sign, a law that says if any person who has no living will comes to be in a position where a living will would be helpful, any decision in a squabble or dispute over her care must err on the side of maintaining life, and hearsay evidence such as that offered by Michael Schiavo would not be admissable.

Only a signed, notarized, multiple-witnessed living will giving clear and incontrovertible wishes of the patient could move the decision in a different direction.

His second idea of a law requiring all Americans 18+ years old to have a living will is not one I agree with. Some of the comments related to his piece are pretty good reads as well.

Up for breakfast today:

• A big glass of V8
• Cottage cheese

Up for lunch today:

• Bison Chili

Snacks for today:

• Mozzerella Cheese Stick
• 1 wedge Light Laughing Cow cheese
• Cottage cheese

Supper for today:

• Roasted veggies with shrimp added
• ~40 pistachios

Well, my knee is still bothering me today (left knee – pain is on inside edge of knee from right below, to right above the knee joint). If it doesn’t feel substantially better by tomorrow morning I think I will take the day off of running to give it more time to rest.

Today’s intervals:

1/4, 2/3, 1/4, 2/3, 1/4, 5/0

My appointment with the Wellness Institute for my stress test is coming up on April 5th. After that appointment I will add strength training to my workouts (maybe 2-3 times a week in lieu of running, or in addition to – I haven’t decided yet).

I weighed myself this morning, and the scale said:

222.6 lbs!

So, I have lost another 2 lbs. I am pretty darn happy. If I were to keep going at this rate, I would be down to ~175 lbs by the end of July or August. I know it isn’t reasonable to expect to keep up this weight loss at this rate, but damn it would be nice. If I could drop another 20 lbs before the Manitoba Marathon on Sunday, June 19th I would be very happy. It would certainly make running 5k easier if I am carrying 20lbs less weight.

I am going to do the Pilates ab workout tonight after work since I am running a little behind schedule this morning.

I did my workout this evening after I got home from work. I am feeling a little pain in my left knee, but it isn’t too bad, so I am ignoring it for now.

The intervals I ran today were:

1/4, 2/3, 1/4, 2/3, 1/4, 5/0

I ran a bit slower pace today as well, so my breathing by the fifth interval was still very managable. I must say the place I workout is a lot more noisy in the evenings than in the early mornings!

I didn’t do the Pilates ab workout today. I will be doing it tomorrow morning.