Since august 28th, I've ridden approximately 220 miles on my bike. It's not a lot by some people standards, and it extremely far by others. I've ridden that far for Three reason. 1. My family, I want to be around for a long time for them, and they need me, so I need to get my weight down and my heart health so I can do that. 2. Training, I've been training for a big ride coming up this weekend. My Beautiful Wife has been very very supportive. She's said I could do it from the begining even when I had my doubts. 3. I love to ride, I don't know how to explain it other than that. I've tried several times but I've always come short of being about to express it. So instead I thought I'd show you of all things a commerical. As dumb and as silly and as wussy as it sounds I almost always get teared up when I see it. Often times this is the music that is playing in my head when I ride.

As a web developer load times are always a very important thing. There is nothing worse than someone saying, "hey the site is slow" and give you no more information than that. So today I was tired of trying to stopwatch a pageload because it is still a psuedo subjective measurement. So after a quick google search I found fasterfox. A great extension that has a pageload timer built-in and it displays right in the status bar at the right corner. Check It Out

Its coming up on a year since I've started on the "lifestyle" change. I can't say that I kept to it perfectly. In fact from about February from July or so, I had slipped. I wasn't really bad, but I wasn't being really good either. I had let the stress of work and the biggest project we had ever done. So grapes gave way to M&Ms. Well as the sugar intake went higher, the flushing side affect of Advicor got bad. Well I have had enough of it. So I've started back on my routine of exercise and health food. I don't want to say diet because it has a very temporary connotations to it. I really do want it to be a life style change. So I’ve been studying. I came across this great article in men’s health about the top ten new things you can do to keep your heart health. Check it Out

So as I mentioned I am working at exercising more and eating healthy. However I have asthma, allergy based and exercise-induced asthma. So it was kind of a catch 22, I needed to exercise to get healthy, but if I exercise I have an asthma attack. Well that doesn't sound like much fun does it. Well, I started slowly. Lifting weights, with just some dumbells and work up from there. Men's Health again has a good article on how to exercise when you have exercise-induced asthma.

Its dark when I leave the house and walk to the train this morning. I leave the house at 6am this morning to catch the train to get me to work before 8:00am. This isn't so much for productivity reasons as it is for political ones. Ah, office politics. If we could live in that utopia of where being a productive knowledgable worker, allows you to work the times you are most comfortable and productive.  But I don't think anyone really gets that. Its the worker bee's pipedream. So I'm on the early train. It leaves the station and it is still dark outside. The train car is quiet with the exception of the air conditioning. Most people are either asleep or snoozing.  No snorers this morning so its fairly quiet. I rarely sleep on the train. In fact I rarely sleep in any moving vehicle, I've always loved seeing the road go by. In this quiet sleepiness that is the train car, I'm reading and every once in a while looking out the window. We get about half way to Union station and as I look out the window I see the sun starting to rise. However heavy clouds are infront of the sun so it shines through them with beautiful purples and reds and oranges. In my brain the phrase instantly flashes:

"Red Sky by Morning, Sailor take Warning, Red Sky by Night Sailor's Delight"

Riding in the upper deck of the train car, I'm about ten feet above the tracks, and as we cross the San Gabriel River the train is 20 feet above the road, we have a perfectly unobstructed view of the whole valley. The whole sky is ablaze. I think, "I wish I had my camera" knowing that even if I did, taking a low light shot from a moving train just won't come out like I see it. Red Sky by Morning, Sailor take Warning Red Sky by Night Sailor's Delight.

Don't run too quickly.... I thought this was just too fun, had to share.

I know that the photoblog has been slipping a little bit. The fact that I only posted on picture in September is proof of that. However I wanted to let you know it is back on track, there while be a new photo everyday for the next two weeks. So please check it out and don't be afraid to leave a comment or two.

  When you're a kid you know who your enemies are. It's the kid in your class you don't get along with class and any one deemed a "bad guy". However as you get older, who your enemies are gets a little blurry, but there is one guy I know for sure is my enemy. The Ice Cream Man! Oh yes, don't be fooled by his innocent looking brightly colored, cartoon wrapped wares, he is evil, pure evil. Like McDonald's he markets to children. Here's what happened, once someone bought the Little Boy an ice cream from The Ice Cream Man, or Dr. Evil as he is referred to around here, we've also suggested that his parents were never married. Anyhow like feeding a stray animal it only takes once for it to become a habit. Now when we here "pop goes the weasel" the whole house goes to defcon 5, because the Little Boy hits the door at about 300 mph. It's amazing and sad how Little Boy reacts to that song. Its like pavlov's dog meets a crack addict. The crazed look in his eye, the way he runs so fast his feet can't say underneath him. It so scary to see. You don't dare stand in his way, getting hit by a 70lbs blur in the stomach at 300 mph will land you in the hospital. So if it isn't bad enough that Dr. Evil sales sugar from a van he has recently started selling toys as well. Does he have no soul!