Category: life

I will not post here as much anymore because my focus has changed…

In 2023 I’ll be focusing myself on other subjects than fitness and reading. However, for the sake of the bots that “read” this site, I’ll post about science.

Playlist for 12/5/22

Been listening to these guys since high school, on and off. Consistently excellent!

In other news, I’m still working out, just in a calorie deficit so my energy feels lower. I can leg press 190 pounds now, and am getting comfortable with single leg RDLs. I’m losing visible weight, which is nice, and still rock climbing. My technique in rock climbing has improved and I can really feel a flow when I go up an easy route.

Dyamxion House

I’m always thinking about my next house. Ideally, I’d have enough money to build one that is efficient and robust, but still spacious enough for me to avoid claustrophobia. One idea I came across is Buckminster Fuller’s Dyamxion House.

Bucky designed a home that was heated and cooled by natural means, that made its own power, was earthquake and storm-proof, and made of permanent, engineered materials that required no periodic painting, reroofing, or other maintenance. You could easily change the floor plan as required – squeezing the bedrooms to make the living room bigger for a party, for instance.

Downdraft ventilation drew dust to the baseboards and through filters, greatly reducing the need to vacuum and dust. O-Volving Shelves required no bending; rotating closets brought the clothes to you. The Dymaxion House was to be leased, or priced like an automobile, to be paid off in five years. 

Buckminster Fuller Institute, Dyamxion House

I don’t need a rotating closet, though, as I’m totally fine with walking into my closet (as long as it’s a reasonable space). What would be cool is to start off with manual controls for various needs that can be adapted later on. A design that’s open to design. However, I’m not sure about the cost of this right now. It may be too prohibitive.

While I was at the planetarium

I don’t know what makes me notice things. Every day some little detail catches my eye and I have to go exploring. So I went to the planetarium last month because the telescopes were open to the public to view Jupiter and Saturn. I’ve never seen any planets through a telescope, because I didn’t know anyone with a great telescope, so all the telescopes I’ve peered through have been $5 second-hand ones that didn’t work or weren’t operated correctly. I have seen a solar eclipse though. My high school let everyone outside, mid-day, to see the solar eclipse in the 90s. Anyway. The planetarium had two telescopes, and they were a lot more than $5. They were with the wait, and not only that, a giant falling star shot directly between the two planets (they looked like stars in the sky) while we (about 100 people) waited for our turns. Everyone went “Oooo” like a Gary Larsen cartoon. What brings people together: planets and meteors.

Afterwards, in the parking lot, I caught a glimpse of these weird, weird things on the parking lot ground. They looked like baseball-sized brains. If you stepped on them, they squished in a splotchy, uncomfortable way. One post to Reddit (although I could have just Googled but what the hell) later, I found out it’s the fruit of the Osage orange tree.

Biologists believe that the large fruits evolved to be eaten and dispersed by the large herbivores, such as mastodons, which lived on our continent only 20,000–30,000 years ago.

Missouri Department of Conservation

Although I’m not in Missouri.

Fart Squirrel

Over the summer my mom found that some animal dug holes/tunnels under our house. Eventually someone spied said animal and identified it as a hedgehog or woodchuck (big, brown, furry angry looking creature). Then my sister brought a trap over to the house and we ended up catching 3 small ones, 2 of which my brother-in-law took 30 miles away to be let go. The 3rd one died before he was able to come get it. Then all was quiet, until the morning of 9/9/22.

While my mom stood there in shock, I yelled that it was a SKUNK and that if it sprayed on her, she’d be bathing in tomato juice for a week. (Is that how you get rid of skunk smell?) When we told my sister, she just about died laughing… And sent her husband to just let it go. I hope it’s a smart example of its species and doesn’t get caught again. If not, there’s an increasing possibility that someone in my family will get a blast of one of nature’s special perfumes.

Photo dump

We had some visitors once…
When you’re stuck and can’t find a good foothold
Too bad they don’t let you climb to the crow’s nest
Life rule: when in doubt, always choose chocolate!
The modern girls’ playroom.
Harvard: where people play chess at night for fun!
This is what happens when you let basil grow and grow and grow and grow…
10-year-old learning to crochet
Trash panda visiting my neighbor’s hot mess of a deck renovation

Smoothie

I’ve been drinking a smoothie every afternoon. Before that I’d only have 2 meals a day, one in the morning (a giant breakfast) and I wouldn’t be hungry again until dinner (a smaller meal). Then I started to really workout and as a result, I got hungry. A smoothie fit perfectly into the afternoon.

  • 1 banana
  • 1/2 cup fresh berries or other fruit of choice
  • High protein yogurt (I mix half of the high protein yogurt from Aldi’s and half of the local grocery brand)
  • 1 scoop Ascent vanilla whey protein powder or your favorite protein powder (best tasting protein to me)
  • 1 scoop Naked Creatine
  • 1 cup (approx.) your choice of milk or juice

I love berries so I’m always making a banana-berry mix. The banana is not only for flavor but it helps thicken the smoothie a little. Sometimes, when I have fresh mangoes around, I’ll use a mango/peach fruit blend with mango/peach yogurt. The flavor options are endless!