Whew!

Its been a while since I can confidently invite you to come back to my site, it simply hasn’t been fully functional lately. I’ve made a few but significant changes and fixes on this site now. I hope it will encourage to stick around, or even add it to your favorite RSS feed.

I fixed the comments issue. You no longer should get an error when leaving a comment.

I love tags, and with the newer versions of Wordpress, tags are implemented without plugins or hassles so I have been going back to older posts and tagging them. As I go I am also fixing or removing broken links and when applicable responding to comments. I am so bad about that, hopefully that changes now that my site actually works.

RSS feeds are now managed through Feedburner. You can subscribe to either the main site’s RSS feed, or the comments feed. I’m also in the process of picking a new theme for the site. There are so many out there, and a lot of them are good, but I can’t decide. Do you have any suggestions?

If I don’t post back before the holiday break, I wish you a good time with family, friends or whatever you may be doing over your break.

Wait, what?

I had to read the actual title twice because I immediately thought this was a mistake or something, I guess subconsciously I thought something was wrong with it. The real title of the article is “Humans Carry More Bacterial Cells than Human Ones” and It seems to me that there is something odd with it grammatically. But anyway, it got my attention which was good because this article reveals some interesting facts. I also wonder, how can it be, if we have that many more, wouldn’t we see them physically? It turns out, the answer is no because they are much smaller than our own cells.

So here’s some of the highlights.

• There are 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.
• Babies ingest mouthfuls of bacteria during birthing and pick up plenty more from their mother’s skin and milk
• There are estimated to be more than 500 species living at any one time in an adult intestine
• Bacteria produce chemicals that help us harness energy and nutrients from our food
• Intestinal bacteria appear to keep our immune systems healthy

And these got me wondering other stuff about bacteria so here’s other tidbits I found.

• Bacteria grow anywhere on Earth.
• Bacteriology is the study of bacteria, which is itself a branch of microbiology.
• Example of bacteria caused diseases: cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy, tuberculosis.
• Antibiotics fight against bacterial diseases.
• Consumables made with bacteria in the process: cheese, yogurt, beer amongst others.
• Research suggests that spices were used as anti-bacterial ingredients, and that their flavor-enhancing properties are more of a secondary benefit.
• These spices, to name a few and some of the most popular, are considered anti-bacterial; garlic, onion, allspice, hot peppers, ginger etc.
• The same research suggests why food in hot-climates is significantly richer in flavor than food from cold-climates. Think Thai vs Swedish. The connection comes as this: In warmer temperatures, people knew to use more spices to keep their food edible for longer periods of time. While in colder weather, this might not have been such a problem thus the need for spices was significantly less.
• This also suggests that spices were probably not used to “cover up” spoiled food, but to prevent it from becoming spoiled in the first place.
• This research I guess is known part of the antimicrobial hypothesis of the origin of spices.
• The top 30 anti-bacterial spices:
  • Garlic, Onion, Allspice, Oregano, Thyme, Cinnamon,
  • Tarragon, Cumin, Cloves, Lemon grass, Bay leaf
  • Capsicums (peppers), Rosemary, Marjoram, Mustard
  • Caraway, Mint, Sage, Fennel, Coriander, Dill, Nutmeg
  • Basil, Parsley, Cardamom, Pepper, Ginger, Anise seed
  • Celery seed and lemon/lime
• There are good germs and bad germs.

References:

• Bacteria, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria
• December 6, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/1998/03/980305053307.htm

Here’s my latest HDR shot, let me know what you think if you want. I appreciate any feedback I can get. This was taken late at night, and it was pretty much pitch black. It seems that darker scenes are better HDR candidates.

Here comes another bubble.

This is a cool video about the “new” internet. Web 2.0 as some people call it. Its crazy to see the value of some of these companies.  It compares the value of Facebook to Ford. Then it goes through a bunch of new companies that are worth Billions. So is the web2.0 bubble going to burst anytime soon?

Steps…

watch Click

Start today

don’t say “tomorrow”

don’t miss “it”

whatever “it” may be for you

If you are a bit of a techie and like free stuff, you might want to check out Sun’s latest marketing scheme! Basically if you try their latest OS, Solaris 10. And if you register it then they say they’ll send you $50.00 in Restaurant certificates.

Last time I tried a similar $50.00 in certificates for your info or time, it was a success. The chamber of commerce (I think) had a promotion a few months ago that if you registered with them they’d send you fifty dollars for free. I was dubious but after about a week I got my coupons in the mail and lo and behold they were authentic and usable. I ended up not using them because my girlfriend also got a bunch and we used those. The rest had expired by the time we wanted to use them but the pack came with two $20.00 coupons for dinner and one for $10.00 for lunch I believe. They were all valid at a number of good places.

Anyway… I wonder if this is something similar.

update - Doh, forgot to give you the link! (https://communications.sun.com/sunSat/c/slb2_Reg_50_4360.html)

red corner

Originally uploaded by muychingon

I took about 40 photos over a couple hours at the Spectrum. I wasn’t looking for any “special” shot as much as I was trying a lot of different subjects to make good HDR candidates. I thought this dark corner by the fish market would be suitable. It turns out, it is one of the few, if not the only one that I actually like how it turned out.

This weekend was awesome. After the rain the city felt fresh and crisp, like coming out of a shower. Besides my regular dose of work I got some free time to play with some of my new toys. Here’s a “quick” summary. Also, I wanted to share a bunch of sites I’ve found, I think you could find them useful.

Poweriser udpate: I took them out only on Sunday because Saturday I was mostly busy and I was afraid it would rain again rain… So far wet slick sidewalks aren’t so good for me. I’ll have a video of my latest footage compiled soon. Since I just published my other poweriser summary of the day, I don’t have much to add right now, except that I took a lot of video. But I haven’t even looked at it so I don’t know if its any good, stay tuned… Continue Reading “Weekend roundup” »

The previous post shows me in a pair of Powerisers. The video does not make it justice at all. I have been on them for about one and half to two hours total. I love these things. So here are my first thoughts.

These are really cool. Sturdy, firm, lightweight. I thought they would be much heavier. All in all, the positive things about the device far outweigh the few complaints I have. A few details could have been taken care of easily to give it a much much more polished look and feel but it works as is. Mine happen to fit perfectly on me as far as I can tell, so I didn’t have to do any adjustments to them. I was so anxious to get them on that as soon as I arrived home I opened the package, took a few pictures and after scouring for a manual (never found it) I decided to just go for it.

I thought the best spot to sit on and put them on would be a high place where it would be really easy to stand up from. The first thing that came to mind was the washer machine. I made it out to the garage, hopped on the washing machine and began attaching each stilt to my legs. I didn’t even look at the straps or anything prior to when I actually put them on and I must say, it was so easy I didn’t even have to think about it. Rollerblade and snowboard bindings are the most comparable boot strapping systems.

Your foot sits on this hard platform which serves to transfer your force coming down to bend the spring which then snaps back, releases the energy and gives you the boost that makes these things so much fun. There is a knee “cuff” that sits just below your knee cap and it is bolted to the frame, and it wraps around your ancle locking in place with Velcro. I can’t exactly say how but It could use some improvements. maybe a better Velcro design? But that’s about it for the bad stuff.

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I wrote the above section a few weeks ago. I got tied up with work and business issues that have kept me from writing much. But hopefully I can post more regularly.

I’ll try to continue the Poweriser post here. Just keep in mind, I’m talking present tense and I’ve gone out about 6 times now for a couple hours at a time.

~ 0 ~

So where to begin now? All of my cuts, bruises and road rashes are gone or at least healed by now. I think they’ll leave scars for some time if not permanently but they’re really small so no big deal. Oh yeah… I guess I should tell you about the falls. I wish I could tell you that I fell while doing a double back flip, but the reality is that I simply fell. No glorious attempt, no drama, I was simply running and both times I tripped or slipped.

The first time, I was running fine, I think this was my second time out “in public”, I was running at about half of the speed of what I can actually do I would say. Because I was still a little concerned with how I land each step, I found myself constantly looking down. Unfortunately looking down is not something you want to actually do when you are running. I looked up and noticed a big water patch on the concrete; runoff from the lawn sprinklers. It was too late to stop, besides, you can’t simply stop on these things. I had one or two steps to try to slow down but shortly after I realized my predicament, I found my self bracing for impact and closing my eyes to prevent my sunglasses from hitting my eye. Almost simultaneously my head slammed against the sidewalk I was running on. Had I not been wearing a helmet I think I could have fractured my skull. This was about minute number nine on the counter ticking after I opened all my new protective hear. Lucky me! All three items got pretty banged up, wrist guards, elbow pads and the helmet, I certainly got their my money’s worth already. I stayed on the ground for a bit trying to figure out what happened, it was so fast. I was a bit dazed so I chilled there and actually took a picture while I was on the ground. I had to then undo the stilts, walk a little while to find a spot high enough to put them on and went on my way.

The second time was a little more involved, I tried to go down a set of 4 steps, the ones that run for like 20 - 30 feet. You see them in parks and stuff, they’re usually a couple feet wide. You’d think I could have handled those well but nope, that was not the case. I took the first one fine, second one I was building up some air, the third one landed ok but something happened very different from the other one. It wasn’t as instant. I had plenty of time to realize something went wrong and I had tripped my right stilt behind my left and that caused me to spin a little and loose control. As I fell I saw a runner that had just passed me by. She looked straight at me as I was falling; I know this because in the midst of this my self conscious kicked in to pretend “I’m ok” and I actually smiled. She didn’t look back after that. LOL. This time I didn’t stay down for a while because I simply hit the ground with my wrist guard and elbow and slid a couple feet. I wasn’t dazed or anything.

Besides being fun, I’ve lost about 10 pounds since I started using these. The physical benefits of using these things are great so far, there’s a few downsides or dangers I guess as well but these are analogous to the dangers you experience in other sports where external equipment makes you move (whichever way) faster than your body was intended to; eg, roller blading, biking etc.

I noticed that lately my balance while off the Poweriser is really good. I can’t quite explain how but I simply feel much more in control of my body, as weird as that may sound. For a week or so, my legs were sore in places that I’d never been sore before, basically all my stabilizer muscles were getting worked. Because you can’t really stand still, you are constantly working all your muscles on your legs and up to your abdomen and back. All the muscles work almost involuntarily to maintain your balance. Standing in one relatively static spot may seem like a passive activity to an onlooker, but it actually takes a lot of energy to stick around it is deceiving. As soon as I get on them and begin moving around I feel my heart rate rise and start warming up and stuff just by walking.

They are a lot of fun. so far. I’ll post another update on them soon.

Oh, for those of you that wanted to know.

The model I got is the Poweriser 90120 which has a range of 198-266 pounds. My weight usually varies +-5 around 200. Hopefully even if I drop below 180 I can still push them and flex the springs enough to get good air. I think I currently can get about 2.5 - 3 feet on a jump, measuring from the shoe of the Poweriser to the floor, but I’m not sure. Then again, the jumps are only 2-3 feet, not becaue the springs can’t do better, but because I’m still learning how to land a lot of jumps consistently and accurately. I am trying to put a video together to track my progress but it takes time. Also, if you’re interested on buying one, do your research first. There are a lot of imitations and illegal sales of these, be careful for your safety.