Our subdivision had its usual crackerjack fireworks display this 4th. Here are a few of my photos.
The second one even looks like a palmetto, the S.C. state tree!
7/8/08
Ka-Boom!
Our subdivision had its usual crackerjack fireworks display this 4th. Here are a few of my photos.
The second one even looks like a palmetto, the S.C. state tree!
My Year Without Eating
Well, I finally finished a long-term project. It took me eight years and three days, but I did it - I went a whole year without eating.
No breakfast, lunch, dinner. No dessert. No snack. Nothing solid for at least 24 hours at a time, and usually 36 hours. Three hundred and sixty-five times. I made Mondays my fasting day, except when on vacation or holiday. My normal routine was to eat nothing between Sunday dinner and Tuesday breakfast. If I felt particularly stressed, I sometimes trimmed it to midnight-to-midnight, going the calendar day without.
I grew up with the admonition, "Clean your plate! Children are starving in Europe!" And eating a meal on a regular schedule got to be, well, a regular habit. And then I would catch the other side of the coin: "You've never known what it's like to go hungry." So when emergencies or other events needing my attention took me out in the plant at lunch (or dinner), my stomach would grumble and complain about the disruption and I found myself distracted from what was causing me to miss the meal.
So, in part this regimen was to silence this inconvenient critic. It could inform me I was hungry all it wanted. After a few months of regular fasting, that became just background noise, easy to ignore.
Another part was a desire to lose some weight. My weight has always been pretty stable, but the middle-age expansion was quietly asserting itself. I'd heard that after age 40, most American adults gain a pound a year, and that was about right in my case. I'd tried to prevent it, but no combination of foreswearing midnight snacks and exercising had yet reversed the trend. But I finished my year of fasting at almost exactly the weight I started. I experienced some downs & ups. I can't recommend this regimen for weight loss for two reasons. First, you find yourself counting 2,000 calories not consumed on Monday, and so Tuesday you have seconds. Hah! You're going nowhere! But the second reason is that even if you control your impulses all week, your body is busy adjusting to the new dietary reality. It learns to be more efficient, and so you end up maintaining the same weight on fewer calories per week. I guess I can only claim the eight pounds I didn't gain over the last eight years! Ah well, that's something.
The gains have been mental. After the first successful trial, I knew I could survive and function even at work. After a few months, I could sit down with the family at Monday dinner and be content with a glass of tea while they ate. When I had done this for over a year, I took stock and asked myself where I was going with this. Surely any benefits that could be ascribed to fasting were already achieved (my doctor told me that if everyone did this, Type 2 diabetes would probably disappear from his practice). I looked down the road and decided to go for a year of fasting. Staring down seven more years of this was a bit daunting; it's not like weekly fasts are fun!
Two years ago I confirmed my plan to finish my 365 days and drop the fasts. The calendar told me I should be finishing up about the time Hunter graduated from high school and Brenda and I became empty nesters. I didn't want to impose on Brenda to eat alone or in front of me, so that seemed like a perfect time to finish up.
But I can't quite give up the habit. For one reason, I'm afraid my more-efficient metabolism might let me balloon if I go back to eating every day. So I'm now on a modified plan: two days a week I give up breakfast and lunch and only have dinner, so I drop four meals over two days.
A short calculation reveals I've gone without food 1.77% of my life. I think that entitles me to say I know now what it's like to go hungry. But it's over. I did it.
It was enough.
No breakfast, lunch, dinner. No dessert. No snack. Nothing solid for at least 24 hours at a time, and usually 36 hours. Three hundred and sixty-five times. I made Mondays my fasting day, except when on vacation or holiday. My normal routine was to eat nothing between Sunday dinner and Tuesday breakfast. If I felt particularly stressed, I sometimes trimmed it to midnight-to-midnight, going the calendar day without.
I grew up with the admonition, "Clean your plate! Children are starving in Europe!" And eating a meal on a regular schedule got to be, well, a regular habit. And then I would catch the other side of the coin: "You've never known what it's like to go hungry." So when emergencies or other events needing my attention took me out in the plant at lunch (or dinner), my stomach would grumble and complain about the disruption and I found myself distracted from what was causing me to miss the meal.
So, in part this regimen was to silence this inconvenient critic. It could inform me I was hungry all it wanted. After a few months of regular fasting, that became just background noise, easy to ignore.
Another part was a desire to lose some weight. My weight has always been pretty stable, but the middle-age expansion was quietly asserting itself. I'd heard that after age 40, most American adults gain a pound a year, and that was about right in my case. I'd tried to prevent it, but no combination of foreswearing midnight snacks and exercising had yet reversed the trend. But I finished my year of fasting at almost exactly the weight I started. I experienced some downs & ups. I can't recommend this regimen for weight loss for two reasons. First, you find yourself counting 2,000 calories not consumed on Monday, and so Tuesday you have seconds. Hah! You're going nowhere! But the second reason is that even if you control your impulses all week, your body is busy adjusting to the new dietary reality. It learns to be more efficient, and so you end up maintaining the same weight on fewer calories per week. I guess I can only claim the eight pounds I didn't gain over the last eight years! Ah well, that's something.
The gains have been mental. After the first successful trial, I knew I could survive and function even at work. After a few months, I could sit down with the family at Monday dinner and be content with a glass of tea while they ate. When I had done this for over a year, I took stock and asked myself where I was going with this. Surely any benefits that could be ascribed to fasting were already achieved (my doctor told me that if everyone did this, Type 2 diabetes would probably disappear from his practice). I looked down the road and decided to go for a year of fasting. Staring down seven more years of this was a bit daunting; it's not like weekly fasts are fun!
Two years ago I confirmed my plan to finish my 365 days and drop the fasts. The calendar told me I should be finishing up about the time Hunter graduated from high school and Brenda and I became empty nesters. I didn't want to impose on Brenda to eat alone or in front of me, so that seemed like a perfect time to finish up.
But I can't quite give up the habit. For one reason, I'm afraid my more-efficient metabolism might let me balloon if I go back to eating every day. So I'm now on a modified plan: two days a week I give up breakfast and lunch and only have dinner, so I drop four meals over two days.
A short calculation reveals I've gone without food 1.77% of my life. I think that entitles me to say I know now what it's like to go hungry. But it's over. I did it.
It was enough.
5/16/08
Close Call
Driving carefully, being alert, not using a cell phone while driving - these are good things, but they only carry you so far. Sometimes the problem is with the other guy (or gal).
Today Brenda & I were beginning our daily walk; we were still on our own block. A teen neighbor backed her car out of the driveway across the street and hit me from behind. I hit the concrete of a driveway, did (I think) two rolls and a near-headstand, and ended up face-down and full-length on the pavement.
I finally found some use for the tumbling classes I took in high school gym all those years ago. At least part of my tumble was under control. And I got up unhurt and able to do our four-mile walk.
It was a close call. And I'm glad it was I who was hit and not Brenda. But the incident points up our vulnerability on the road. Watch out, folks. And pay attention when you drive. Please.
Today Brenda & I were beginning our daily walk; we were still on our own block. A teen neighbor backed her car out of the driveway across the street and hit me from behind. I hit the concrete of a driveway, did (I think) two rolls and a near-headstand, and ended up face-down and full-length on the pavement.
I finally found some use for the tumbling classes I took in high school gym all those years ago. At least part of my tumble was under control. And I got up unhurt and able to do our four-mile walk.
It was a close call. And I'm glad it was I who was hit and not Brenda. But the incident points up our vulnerability on the road. Watch out, folks. And pay attention when you drive. Please.
1/15/08
A Quarter-Million Reads!
Today is a bit of a landmark for me. At this point I have 15 solo-read audiobooks available in the LibriVox catalog (http://librivox.org/newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=204).
Downloads are managed by Archive.com, which has been experiencing difficulties for several months. Their download counters stopped working sometime in November and resumed around the beginning of January, so perhaps 6 weeks of history may be missing... but, today the cumulative count for my fifteen books passed 250,000!
Book #16 (The Master of the World by Jules Verne) is finished and in validation at this moment. For more, see Mark's LibriVox Activity (link at right).
Downloads are managed by Archive.com, which has been experiencing difficulties for several months. Their download counters stopped working sometime in November and resumed around the beginning of January, so perhaps 6 weeks of history may be missing... but, today the cumulative count for my fifteen books passed 250,000!
Book #16 (The Master of the World by Jules Verne) is finished and in validation at this moment. For more, see Mark's LibriVox Activity (link at right).
9/18/07
Taking a Stab With Bryce
You know those cool landscape backgrounds you see in sci-fi art? I'd often heard that they are created in a program called Bryce (perhaps after Bryce Canyon National Park, which has some of the most AMAZING landscapes to be seen in America!), so when I got a free copy of Bryce 5 in an issue of a computer magazine I picked up at B&N, I had to give it a try!The results? Mixed. I immediately determined that the great deal on Bryce (even if it was an expensive specialty mag) came with a drawback - no manual! Now, I am usually one to read half- to three-quarters of a manual before I try to operate an unfamiliar program or game. I am apt to get frustrated when my idea of "intuitive interface" doesn't match the prublisher's, if I am forced to guess how to do things. When I have a manual, I can read the rules; the publisher sets his rules out, and I learn to use them. Without a manual, I rapidly tire of try-this-and-see-what-it-does.
So I have to report that although I obtained images, they didn't come easily, as I fought with the interface to do things I knew the program was capable of, but which I couldn't get guidance on. In the end, my artistic vision lost the tussle, and I settled for
"something."
I'll probably give Bryce another try later. Maybe I'll find some hints somewhere on how to use it. For the point is, as a dabbler and not a pro, I only want to satisfy an occasional impulse - I am not going to go out and buy a shrink-wrapped copy of the latest version. (Which I think is 6. BTW, a quick check on Amazon offers Bryce 5 for $490.)
That's "Under an Alien Sun" at the top, and "Cross-Country Flight" below.
4/30/07
Chaos Maps
Remember flame fractals? (See post: "Point Break") Lately I've been enjoying more fun with mathematics, courtesy of Chaoscope. This program creates a 3-D map of strange attractors. Here are a few of my favorite creations.
(Click for full-size)
"Arch of Sunrise"
"Sail Away"
"Green Heron"
"Escher Puzzle"
(Click for full-size)
"Arch of Sunrise"
"Sail Away"
"Green Heron"
"Escher Puzzle"
4/22/07
Fencing Class
This family has a thing with swords.
Actually, we all like anything shiney and pointy or edgy. Brenda's big on pocket knives (especially ones with lots of utensils), but Mark, Hunter, and McKenzie like the long steel.
We don't get much opportunity to swash-buckle with the swords we own. (Mark used to get plenty of opportunity in the Society for Creative Anachronism... but that's another story.) So when Furman University published a continuing ed brochure with a fencing class, you can bet it pricked up ears around here.
Now, McKenzie took a fencing class at Rice University last year, which she greatly enjoyed. But Hunter had not yet had any formal training, and Mark's was abysmally long ago, so the two signed up together.
Furman's class was conducted by instructors from the Knights of Siena fencing salle. (www.knightsofsiena.com) We started with a great class: 12 adults and 12 kids. (That tailed off to 2 adults and 10 kids eight weeks later.) Mark discovered to his great satisfaction that the class would teach sabre, which was his weapon in college.
(At left, Mark and Hunter, foreground, practice attack/parry drills.)
Further to his satisfaction was the fact that his old fencing uniform still fit! Witness the Amateur Fencers League of America patch on the shoulder - that organization changed its name in 1982 and so hasn't been called that for 25 years! Actually, Mark got his uniform in 1970, so it's a bit older than that! He's not one to throw out anything that still works!
Here is Hunter, getting a good cut in against classmate Mattes.
Hunter was one of the oldest of the "kid" complement of the class. Certainly his reach helped him, but he also showed real quickness and good reactions. He pretty much defeated his opponents...
EXCEPT, when his opponent was Dad!
Despite his 55-year-old knees, Mark lost only one bout - to the instructor, 5-4.
The class is now over. Both Hunt and Mark wish they had a regular venue for fencing, but sadly, it is not that popular a sport.
Actually, we all like anything shiney and pointy or edgy. Brenda's big on pocket knives (especially ones with lots of utensils), but Mark, Hunter, and McKenzie like the long steel.
We don't get much opportunity to swash-buckle with the swords we own. (Mark used to get plenty of opportunity in the Society for Creative Anachronism... but that's another story.) So when Furman University published a continuing ed brochure with a fencing class, you can bet it pricked up ears around here.
Now, McKenzie took a fencing class at Rice University last year, which she greatly enjoyed. But Hunter had not yet had any formal training, and Mark's was abysmally long ago, so the two signed up together.
Furman's class was conducted by instructors from the Knights of Siena fencing salle. (www.knightsofsiena.com) We started with a great class: 12 adults and 12 kids. (That tailed off to 2 adults and 10 kids eight weeks later.) Mark discovered to his great satisfaction that the class would teach sabre, which was his weapon in college.
(At left, Mark and Hunter, foreground, practice attack/parry drills.)Further to his satisfaction was the fact that his old fencing uniform still fit! Witness the Amateur Fencers League of America patch on the shoulder - that organization changed its name in 1982 and so hasn't been called that for 25 years! Actually, Mark got his uniform in 1970, so it's a bit older than that! He's not one to throw out anything that still works!
Here is Hunter, getting a good cut in against classmate Mattes.
Hunter was one of the oldest of the "kid" complement of the class. Certainly his reach helped him, but he also showed real quickness and good reactions. He pretty much defeated his opponents...
EXCEPT, when his opponent was Dad!
Despite his 55-year-old knees, Mark lost only one bout - to the instructor, 5-4.
The class is now over. Both Hunt and Mark wish they had a regular venue for fencing, but sadly, it is not that popular a sport.
3/14/07
New Photoshop User
When Furman University sent out their Continuing Education brochure, this time I was ready! I signed up for a class in improving photos with Photoshop.
My instructor is an old-time photographer, with years in the darkroom, but who went digital about the time Photoshop 2 came out (that's what? Seven versions ago?). His emphasis in the class was correcting poor exposures and perhaps cropping for better impact, but I wanted to learn how to do things you can't do with a camera.
I never was an artist (my career was in chemical engineering) and may never be, but I am enjoying playing with images, So here are a couple of my efforts.
"Daffodils Giving Up Their Essence"
My instructor is an old-time photographer, with years in the darkroom, but who went digital about the time Photoshop 2 came out (that's what? Seven versions ago?). His emphasis in the class was correcting poor exposures and perhaps cropping for better impact, but I wanted to learn how to do things you can't do with a camera.
I never was an artist (my career was in chemical engineering) and may never be, but I am enjoying playing with images, So here are a couple of my efforts.
"Daffodils Giving Up Their Essence"
"Hunter at Panthertown Falls"
(NOT taken in Fall!)
(NOT taken in Fall!)
1/17/07
12/12/06
Journey to the Manger
One activity that rolls around every year at Christmas is the production of "Journey to the Manger" by our church (Simpsonville United Methodist Church, www. sumcweb.org). This is an outdoor, drive-through chronology of the Christmas story, from Isaiah's prophecy to the birth of Jesus. After a series of silent tableaus, cars turn through a set of rustic town gates and encounter Bethlehem in all its noise and clamor, and rumors of the appearances of angels and a very special event taking place. We typically play to 4,000 people in the three evenings of the presentation.
Here are Hunter and Mark in their garb for roles as a rabbi and his student. Brenda joined the kitchen crew, which restored the actors after their stints outdoors in 30-degree weather.
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