Training

Today was another yardwork day at 8 AM, this time, a heavy workhorse application of my weedwacker for my backyard followed by my motor. I never ran those Atlas batteries or my own dry. I took a different approach: I made it a workout. I punched my Garmin 935 to kick off a 1:09 cardio workout.

While my skin started off at 84℉, it finished off at 93℉. My heart rate average was 101 bpm, though toward the end was a mountain that summitted to 147. As I plan a weekly training agenda, non-traditional training ought to be a part of that! Too often, we think a silly pair of nylon shorts in front of a mirror surrounded by folks mindlessly spinning their hamster wheels is a workout. No, it's totally Rocky 4 montage! And yes, this combination of every Rocky training scene has gotta be up there for one of the top videos on YouTube for me.

It makes me want to get out and train RIGHT now even if the Sun has already colored my skin. It's why I signed up for a year of UFC Fight Pass.

Small Victory Conditions

The other day I made a point to Bring Back Small Victory Win Conditions. Thus, I want to create thresholds that when crossed, open up my playbook:

• @199 lbs - Black Pepper & Cayenne
• @189 lbs - Lousiana Hot Sauce & Vinegar
• @179 lbs - All the Seasonings & Flavored Water
• @169 lbs - Limited Heavy Whipping Cream (oopsie cake) & Cheeses
• @159 lbs - Store-bought Beef Jerky

Database

I do so much with data, but its always in a spreadsheet or something more flatfile like Gnucash. I want to change that. I want to wield my late 90s skills of Microsoft Access.

Cue Collective Soul's self-entitled release from 1995, something I heard a TON in my buddy's turquoise metallic Toyota Paseo.

I working on building my own relational database with LibeOffice Base. My IT core strength was never in database, yes, I've done plenty of stuff with DB and their integration thereof—running a self-hosted World of Warcraft server on my LAN immediately comes to mind—but I just never slogged through MySQL.

So, the LibreOffice is a step forward. Perhaps down the road, I'll run a DB server thing for my LAN like I did for WordPress dev sites or even post it online if I want to dabble into security, too. Quite honestly, however, my usage is really for an audience of one. This ol' laptop I hammer upon is all I need.

So what am I thinking? In the past, I have used a lot of the functionality of Garmin—the GarminDB project looks curious. But, there are a lot of unused data fields on Garmin's site that I know I'll never use (why do they push golf so hard). Plus, there are things that are just not encapsulated by a fitness watch like tracking dumbbell weights over time, specific TKD forms or whatever.

So why not make a database? I would love a fitness database, to include both food entries and specific training regimen. Then have it spit out pie graphs, line charts, trendlines...well, all the things!

And again, I've been wanting to replace my use of GNUCash for years. I love the program and have been using it for over 13 years, but its audience is really a small business. I just run my monthly budget like a manager does over his department.

I just think it would be cool. And the sort of thing I'd have to backup!

Google

I'm drawing closer to integrating Google more in my life. I find my phone more useful with it being associated with an address. The Aurora project is helpful regarding downloading apps off of Google's Play Store without an account, but I take a quarterstaff to my phone's legs when I deGoogle it. It cannot even run a local search.

And my plans for 2025 is to run things cheaper, shave off pennies of my life. I paid just under $40 for a year's worth of email service. Set aside the costs of domain renewal and privacy, I paid for the 1st half of this year is something like $3.50—pretty sure I can swing that. Then again, there's value in migrating over CloudFlare Pages for its management tools.

As much as I like my schema of creating an email address for each of my Internet logins, it may be best to simplify things. I'm disinterested in vanity alone.