float knowledge return wisdom;

18, Stay a while, and listen.

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:25:00 +0000

Today's first attempt at one of these ended up being a blog post about exercise. I got sidetracked. For the second day in a row.

So anyway, today I wrote a blog post, linked above. I also did some housework, although not as much as usual, because my right shoulder has a crazypainful spasm. I blame Deckard Cain.

I googled a recipe for paleo meatballs, to try and make some snack-sized meatballs I can freeze. I would normally not bother with my shoulder the way it is, but the meat was defrosted a couple of days ago, and I'd feel guilty about throwing it out.

Oh, and I made myself breakfast. Mushrooms, rosti, lean ham and two duck's eggs. Duck eggs taste ... not quite the same as hen's eggs. I think I'll scramble them with garlic or something next, as they were just a little peculiar for my tastes just fried. I will admit, though, they looked gorgeous. Om nom nom. Overall, as far as my dietary requirements go, it was a pretty good breakfast. 470 calories, 15g carbohydrate, 27g fat, and 42g protein. Maybe a little high on the fat side, but certainly okay otherwise. It probably seems a little high in calorie count, until you take into account that I don't snack, probably won't eat again until 4pm, and then it'll be something fairly light, leaving me about the same calories for dinner. Today I'll probably go over on fat, under on carbohydrate, and hit my protein goal. A detailed analysis of my food requirements will probably get a post of its own, sometime, but not right now. In any case, I'm satisfied that I tried something new today.

So, the shoulder spasm has put paid to plans for a workout this evening, which is somewhat annoying, but these things happen. On the bright side, it means I'll get dinner at around 8pm instead of around 10pm, which is a definite plus.

Still to do: clean out the fridge of perishables in preparation for next week's trip to Seattle, since it's bin day tomorrow.

.... and hit level 20 in Diablo 3.

DOMS (not the fun kind)

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:06:00 +0000

This was going to be an achievements post, but then I got into rant mode. It happens. Twice in two days, actually. Enjoy.

Woke up tired and sore today. Annoying, but oh well.

I'm researching branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) to help mitigate the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) I get from working out. For some reason, I have both prolonged and intense DOMS. Most people, as it happens, get this for about 12 to 36 hours post workout, that is, starting 12 hours after a workout and going until 36 hours after the workout. So basically just the next day. For me, it seems I get it for around 12 to 60 hours post workout. This, amongst other things, makes for a really awkward work/rest cycle.

To put it more concretely, say I work out on Monday evening. Normal recovery would then allow me to work out on Wednesday morning. Personally, I'm still sore, and I certainly will still be sore this evening. I'll be okay probably tomorrow morning (Thursday). This leads to a cycle of something like this: Mon (eve), Thurs (morn), Sat (eve), Tues (morn), Thurs (eve), Sun (morn), Tues (eve), Fri (morn), Mon (eve) ...

Frankly, that's not going to work for me. There is the other option, of course, of doing only 2 workouts a week - but with a fixed group session on Friday evenings, that means I get only one chance a week to work on my fitness goals. I mean, exercise is exercise, and that's good, but I have goals.

There have been a few studies done on the effect of BCAAs on DOMS. It seems to be effective in some degree in reducing both the duration and the intensity of DOMS. As I understand it, the BCAAs act to reduce muscle damage during a workout, and also promote muscle repair post workout. It does mean swallowing a bunch of pills before and after, but well, I can deal with that.

Intensity of pain wise, my DOMS is also fairly severe. Usually, DOMS is related to the amount of effort you put in - it's basically caused by muscle damage and repair. Generally, your muscles will inform you during the workout how much damage they're undergoing, and from there it's generally easy to work out how sore you're going to feel afterwards. For some reason, I don't really get those signals. I can do a workout where I go nowhere near my maximum effort, feel nothing but nicely warm and loosened up afterwards, and the next day I'll be stiff and sore. If I actually go all out, the next day I'm lucky to be able to shuffle around, and sitting down and standing up become exercises in pain tolerance. And I'll be like that for the next four days. I wrote about this a while back here.

For mitigating my pain and recovery, the current things I'm doing are protein before and after; electrolyte solution during and after; no caffeine the same day or following day; calcium supplementation after; and low rep sets with heavy weights. Each of these things have helped a bit, dropping caffeine the most.

BCAAs are the only thing that aren't yet part of my regime, so here's hoping they help too.

17, someone set us up the bomb

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:21:00 +0000

Many things occurred.

Housework, as usual. I spend a lot of my time dong this. Well, half an hour to two hours a day, concentrated before breakfast.

I was having a relaxing day, cruising along, installing diablo 3, looking at cabin luggage online since one of ours is dying. That kind of thing. Then, most of the way through a particular quest, my mouse stops working properly.

I have a razer naga epic, which I got in November last year. It now has a really weird failure mode - it works as a pointer, but not as a clicker or keypad. Or, well, it does sometimes - about every 50ith keypress or so. This is while it's wired, by the way. I've written an email to the manufacturer, and hopefully I can either get it replaced under warranty or some form of diagnosis leading to a fix. This, however, ruined my day. I mean seriously, even if you're a fairly chipper person, having your favourite toy busted is going to make you a wee bit cranky.

Instead of ranting and raving about it, I gave myself a free pass to not cook beef and ale stew with dumplings for dinner as I was planning, and get the dearly beloved to cook our colcannon bastardasation instead. I know that comfort food is considered a bad thing, but honestly? A good meal makes me high. Most people I know who comfort-eat don't get euphoria from it. I do. A really good meal that matches exactly what I want to eat makes me high for hours.

Also, I read about two thirds of "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge. Awesome book, you should go read it. Science fiction, involving really alien aliens. Won a Hugo award.

Mood restored, I tried to play Diablo 3 using my dearly beloved's mouse, but I couldn't get past that first mini game - you know, the one where it says 'Retrieving Hero List'. It's really hard.

Then I stayed up waaaaay too late playing Portal 2, until my brain stopped working, then I found I could log into Diablo 3, and well. Stayed up later.

This morning, I'm a bit tired, but oh well. These things, they happen.

16, move every zig

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:46:00 +0000

Today's been a productive day.

Housework! Laundry, dishwasher, a quick tidyup.

Wrote a blog post, State Change, about how I've been going the last couple of weeks. I really appreciate the messages of support, empathy and encouragement I've been getting. Thanks guys, you're all incredibly awesome.
Talked to my mother on Skype for an hour.
Had some lemons that were getting to their use-by date, so I juiced them and froze the juice for use in home-made electrolyte replacement drinks (so much cheaper and probably better for me than Gatorade).
Ordered the groceries for the week.
Ate in a timely manner before going to the gym. Hopefully this means I won't hurt too much tomorrow. Fried eggs with lean ham and rosti. Mmmmm. Om nom nom.
Went to the gym, and worked out. I think I can safely say I've achieved one, possibly both of my 6-week strength goals. For pushups, the goal was 12 minimum extension knee pushups as a single set max. Today, I did 10 full extension knee pushups on my second set. For one-arm rows, the goal was to do a 7x10kg set. Today I did a 4x35kg, on my fourth set, which is nearly double the weight per hand of my goal. My third set, which wasn't quite good form, was 4x40kg. I think I can fairly say that I've probably overachieved. I'm going to do a formal retest on Wednesday to see how my progress is going. And then set some new goals - again for a 6 week period.
Had a wonderful hot bath.
Finished reading "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson at the end of my bath. Excellent timing, that. And now, to bed!

State change

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:50:00 +0000

This morning, I've reflected on the changes that have occurred in the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago, I was depressed. I cried or felt like crying all day every day. I didn't leave the house, because it was too hard. I didn't write, or cook, or take photographs, read new books, or do anything much. I hadn't called my family in weeks. I hadn't had a marginally acceptable night's sleep either, due mostly to insomnia caused by the depression.

What changed?

Nothing.

I have a history of depression and anxiety. Quite a long one, really. Caused at various times by various things. This one was mostly culture shock compounded by hypersomnia, and adjustment to a lifelong illness.

This episode was, in some ways, the worst I've had for nearly a decade, and it was very self reinforcing. It was a feedback cycle - I didn't do things, felt I should, felt worse, so I didn't do things. That's a pretty strong cycle, and the generated feelings did leave me pretty much comatose or zombielike, and in any case were rather effective at preventing me from doing anything much.

But the cycle was clear. That, in the past, has frequently not been the case. To get out of this all I had to do was break the cycle. Amongst other things, this would return me to my normal sleep patterns, which would also tend to enable me to do my normal activities.

I used anger. Not the whiny, useless, energy-draining spinlock frustration I'd been engaging in, but full-blown raging anger at the universe. I said a giant "FUCK THIS!" to myself.

That's really all it took for me to start the process of getting rid of the backlog of tasks and associated guilt. I was too angry to be guilty, and I was energised by that reckless anger.

Of course, the anger wore off. But by then I'd accomplished enough and set up enough frameworks to keep accomplishing things that it didn't matter. I was free from the black cloud for the first time in nearly a year.

The somewhat daily posts are part of this framework. That's where I tell myself that I am doing things; I can do things; I have done things - things which matter to me. Doing a load of laundry or restacking the dishwasher doesn't sound like much, until you realise that those chores are things I've been unable to do regularly for the better part of the last 3 years. Mundane in the grand scheme, yes, but a vital part of helping me feel like I'm an able person.

Another element is addressing my physical fitness, and setting up support frameworks to ease the personal load on my mind. I know that my lack of fitness is limiting my physical energy greatly, so becoming more fit is a really cracking good idea. I find it easier to keep appointments than to just make myself go to the gym. And I find it easier to achieve goals if I set small, measurable goals, and if I have encouragement from peers and friends. Rejoining the Nerd Fitness community is a part of that.

Creativity is also rather important to me. To a limit, the more creative activities I do, the more I can do - similar to physical fitness, I suppose. On the other hand, having deadlines (such as the daily deadlines imposed by the 365 project I attempted) doesn't work for me at all, mostly because of my physical limitations. I therefore set myself this goal: for six weeks, I will write at least one blog post a week that wasn't the daily update. The weekly post could be a ramble, a photography post, a cooking post, a book review, or whatever seemed good at the time. I'd say, judging by my archives, that this goal is doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's giving me sufficient motivation to write, photograph, and cook, without loading me with stress. So instead of a single post a week, I'm doing significantly more than that - and not only that, I'm creating elsewhere.

A broad theme I've been thinking along, which is implied by all the ways I've addressed my situation, is self-acceptance. Learning to work within my limitations. Before, those limits distressed me greatly, which shrunk the limits hugely. The goals I've set have a great deal of flexibility built in, even though they are highly specific and time-driven. Some days I'm not going to be able to do much more than lie on the couch and read. Some days I will be able to take photographs for six hours. I can't predict when in advance which day will be which, but I can take advantage of the good ones, and not stress about the bad ones.

This has the effect of greatly expanding my limits. I have fewer bad days when I'm generally positive about the direction of my life.

I have a very long way to go in certain areas to get back to something resembling what I once was, yet I have significantly more confidence in my ability to get there eventually.

It's looking up.

15, for great justice

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:03:00 +0000

Okay, so the 'for great justice' part is utterly random. On to the dailyish installment!

Finished uploading all my Kew Gardens photos. All 441 of them.
Put my picks of the pics into a blog post. I was restrained, there's only about 70 photos in there.
Redid my website design very slightly so that photos are nicer in photo posts. Especially when there are many of them. Totally coincidence I did this today. Really.
Took a photo of my street.
Wrote a post about my lens dilemma, which included looking up a lot of prices and reviews and thinking and all that fun stuff.
Then it was midday, and I relaxed. Seriously, I've done a lot yesterday, today, and this past week in general. So ... relaxation. Including a long hot bath and Portal 2.
Pondered my photography future, tweeted about it. May actually blog about it soon.
Read more of "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. Man, I hate new series. So long before the next book!
Got my laundry done.
Had a good nights' sleep.

My First Lens Upgrade Project

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:20:00 +0000

I've had my Canon 450D for about a year now, and my lens array almost as long. At present, my kit contains:

EF 50mm f/1.8 II aka 'nifty fifty'. The only lens I'm happy with.
EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. This lens is okay, but annoys me sometimes.
EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II USM. This lens is increasingly really annoying.

Also, I've got some big events coming up (trips to Seattle and Florence, also the Olympic fencing), and I really don't want to miss out on those shots of a lifetime.

Considerations are that I would like to stick with the Canon system - yes, the grips etc are too big, but no current full frame cameras are meant for children-size hands anyhow. I'd like to upgrade in future to something like the Canon 5D mk III. Not this year, probably not next year ... but sometime. This, however, means that I need to primarily consider EF mount lenses, rather than the cheaper EF-S mount, unless I feel like replacing glass when I upgrade.

So why am I finding my current kit irritating and limiting?

Well, between tiny hands, not so awesome muscles, and various other things, there's quite a lot of shake when I try and take pictures at 100+mm, or in low light conditions. This means I seriously need to consider image stabilisation in my lenses. I lose a lot of otherwise awesome shots because I simply can't hold the camera still enough. Yes, a tripod would help with this. I do need a monopod or full size tripod one day. At this point, however, I think a new lens or two is probably cheaper and more flexible, although I am researching tripods on the side, as it were.

The upshot is I've been reading a lot of bewildering information about various lenses available for my camera. And it truly is bewildering - between poor site design, ambiguous google results, and my profound lack of knowledge, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed.

Most advice articles say something like "when upgrading, consider what you use lenses for" with the goal of pinning down which focal range you use most. Looking at my photos, I tend to take pictures of very small things and things very far away. I would like a macro lens, but that would be in addition to the current range of things I can do. Talking to another member of the London Photography Meetup Group on our Kew Gardens walk, he said "Well, you're kind of between a rock and a hard place then, aren't you?" which I believe is an accurate summation of my dilemma.

I use pretty much everything in my current range from 18mm through to 200mm, and keep wanting more at both ends. Oh, and smaller f-stop numbers. And a pony while I'm at it.

Ponies aside, I can't afford L lenses (Canon's pro lens range), so I'm going to have to compromise somewhere.

I've been using dpreview to read up on lenses, suggested to me by ... someone. It's got a nice interface for presenting only the lenses I'm interested in.

Thinking about my current issues (and budget limitations) I think it's more important for me to upgrade the telephoto lens than the zoom lens. I walk around with the zoom lens more, and take more shots with it ... but that's partially because my success rate is significantly higher. With this in mind, I've narrowed down on a few candidate lenses. Prices are from a google search, amazon.co.uk price included as a baseline retail price.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. This is one chunky lens. Someone had one at the Kew Gardens walk, and let me play with it a bit. It's really quite nice to use, and I think the extra range would be something I'd very quickly become addicted to. However, it is large. And heavy. £300 or so, £420 from amazon.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM. Those two extra letters mean that it's a lot lighter, smaller, and more expensive. Also reviews seem to indicate it sucks. £840 and up, £1103 from amazon.

Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD. This lens gets good reviews, and has lots of technical acronyms in the name. From what I can tell, it's basically equivalent to the Canon, perhaps with better build quality. On the other hand, I haven't heard of this brand before, not that I'm overly educated in the field. £225 and up, £319.27 from amazon.

Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG OS. No reviews on my chosen review site, but a bit further afield gets me a couple of articles. It seems to be an okay lens, nothing special, but annoying if you want to use polarised filters. Affordable at £176, and £286 from amazon.

Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM. Again, very good reviews, and lots of fancy letters. The major problem with this lens is the gap in range it leaves me, as explained below. But ... that f value is really, really, really shiny. And HUGE. And horrifically expensive. £1441, £1991 on amazon. Although there seems to be another model at £999 ish. Still too expensive.

All these lenses have something in common: they leave me without the zoom range from 55mm to 70mm (or 120mm in the case of the expensive Sigma). 55-70mm isn't too large a gap, and isn't a range I use much anyway. On the other hand, 55-120mm is quite a large gap, which covers quite a lot of range I do use. It's a wishlist lens anyway.

I know I need to get myself to a brick-and-mortar and play around with the various lenses to see what I can do with them, and whether I actually like the way they go. Still, it looks as though I'll be shelling out around £200-350, depending on which lens I go for and from whom I purchase. Of course, these are also all new lens prices; I've yet to investigate secondhand prices, which is of course the next step. Along with finding reputable sellers in the UK. Then again, I'm really tempted by having a lens with a warranty. Also, I probably need to get a UV filter and hood for whatever it is I get.

Is there anything I haven't considered? Have I missed a really good candidate? Got tips for where to buy (and try) any of these in London?

Kew Gardens - EPIC photography post

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:32:00 +0000

I belong to the London Photographic Meetup Group, and they organised an outing to Kew Gardens today. It was bright and sunny pretty much all day - lovely weather for shooting.

I spent 6 hours there, for a total of 500 photos (some of which sucked and were deleted). The full gallery is here. I used all my lenses, a lot. I didn't use my tripod. Also, thank you crumpler for making super-awesome-comfy neck straps. And super-awesome bags. I got many complements.

Since I took so many photos, I'm only going to put the small versions of the better ones here, with a little commentary. Click go to larger versions. The full gallery is here. As always, feedback, critique and criticism is welcome.

Starting off near Temperate House, some ducks investigated us:

And then a peacock!

He eventually ran away, and we moved on to the Japanese Garden.

And then we found some Art. By a bloke called David Nash - apparently he goes around finding dead trees, then carves and chars them into artwork.

Then we strolled up to the Bluebell Wood, where I found pretty flowers and shadows to play with.

And then there were bees!

And then I found the monochrome setting on my camera again, and also some nice branches against the sky.

And then more bees! ... with forgetting that my camera was set to monochrome.

At this point, we went for a restorative cup of tea. It was 1pm, and the meetup had started at 10am, so it was definitely time. After tea was had, we trooped off to Temperate House, where I found flowers.

Of course, being a very old glasshouse (one of the oldest in the world, I was told) there was some interesting architecture.

It was 5pm, my phone was flat, I'd lost all the people I'd started with ... so I went home. It was a great day out, and I only saw a fraction of the gardens. I'm planning on a repeat visit very soon, once my feet forgive me.

Overall, I'm pleased with the quality of my photography, especially considering how long it's been since I've done a proper photo walk.

Should my blog grow up?

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sat, 12 May 2012 22:26:00 +0000

I realise I have fairly small readership as blogs go. This doesn't really bother me, but I don't know. Should I try to increase my audience? Is there really a point to doing so? Obviously, if I went down that path I'd probably have to have more consistent thematic input, and possibly even improve my writing somewhat. I'd have to actually do something resembling graphic design for it, and maybe commit to writing a 'real' post once or twice a week, about things that people find interesting. I'd have to standardise my tagging system somewhat, and possibly my titling system as well.

As for focus - well, currently I write the occasional ramble, book reviews now and again, sometimes I post about food that I've made, show off a few photographs, and I have the semi-daily achievements updates. That last I'd probably have to turn into actual writing instead of dot points, perhaps. The rest ... well, I suppose they're all there, but a less awkward format for the cooking and photographic stuff might be a good idea. Focus seems to be all over the place at present, and aside from starting a new blog with single-focus content, I'm not sure how to unify it - or even if it would be a good idea, or possible.

Sounds like an awful lot of work to me. It is something to consider doing. Not as the basis for a living, I don't think I could take the stress. More as a project to see If I Can.

Maybe. Thoughts? I'm thinking about it.

14, in which I drink too much

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sat, 12 May 2012 22:13:00 +0000

On the bright side, social life, right? Also, I'm making these things more high level now that I'm doing more stuff.

Did much research on camera lenses.
Had a date with the dearly beloved at Vagabond, and had delicious wine.
Went out to the wee hours for a hens' night.
The following morning, got out of bed and spent the day at Kew Gardens, whereupon I took many, many, many photographs.
Processed those photographs, including making a shortlist of the ones I liked a lot.
Started a blog post for all the photographs that were awesome.
Got about halfway through Brandon Sanderson's "The Way of Kings", book one of the Stormlight Archives.
Started uploading all the photos. ALLLLLLL the photos.
Went to bed at a sensible time for a change.

13, with links to many photographs!

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sat, 12 May 2012 20:11:00 +0000

So, I've thought maybe I should put a photo with each of these, to make them less boring. Not that they are necessarily boring, but as an exercise in anything other than propping up my self-esteem, they lack interest. To me, anyhow. If you've got a different opinion, feel free to share it :P

Also I want to get back into daily (or semi-daily) photography. Well, at least, more frequent photography. Not sure I want to attempt a 365 project again - it might be more stress than it's worth at the present.

Here's a picture for you, taken on my way to the physio.

So, anyway, on with the things I've managed to do:

Went to physio, got told I'm inspirational and I'm doing all the right things. Yay!
Processed and uploaded LOTS AND LOTS OF PHOTOS. Many, even. Some from stargazing near Ballarat, the trip to Edinburgh in December, some trains in Tiaro, some chicken soup, and the alchemy exhibition in the Science Museum. And some flowers.
Talked to my brother on skype for a couple of hours, which was awesome.
Started researching new lenses for my upcoming travel. I am teh confused. Is it possible to replace my 18-50mm and my 55-200mm lenses with a single lens? With image stabilisation? I'd like to do that if possible - that and my nifty fifty and a macro lens would cover everything I currently want, I think. Recommendations for an extremely amateur photographer who photographs flowers, architecture, and art but not people? Canon platform, btw. Actually, I'm going to make a post on this. Stay tuned.
Researched what I'm doing to do on my Florence trip. Looking at seeing the Uffizi Gallery, Argenti Museum, the Accademia, and a couple of walking tours of various districts. I'm there Sunday through Sunday, first week of July. Oh, and we're coming up through Pisa. :D
Definitely keeping up the exercise - managed to get 40min walk on Thursday. I think I'm going to go back to High Street Kensington to do a photo shoot of a church there, on a day when it isn't raining quite so much.

This took ages to publish because I was waiting for my photos to upload. Soooo many photos. I should really keep up with them better - then again, that's exactly what I'm doing! Props to me.

Achievements 12 - catch up

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

I missed a few days, because I was feeling down. A summary:

I caught a Red Bus for the first time EVER!
Got myself some Vibram Fivefingers
Caught a red bus for the second time
Blogged about it
did housework, cleaning, etc.
Made chicken soup to a new recipe
Filled out my food diary consistently
Figured out how to hit my minimum daily calories instead of going into massive deficits
Did my mobility workouts
Did most of my other workouts
Took photographs
Published my photographs (some of them, anyhow)
Went on a geek date with the dearly beloved to the Science Museum
Went to weekly gym seminar thingo - got weighed in, apparently I've successfully misplaced about a kilo.
Tried runescape

Rightio, up to present day. Today, I:

Unstacked/restacked dishwasher
Tidied the place up - Wednesday is cleaner day.
Washed my hair.
Filled out my food diary, I've been good with this.
Signed up for spotify, so I have music to listen to while working out.
Researched adult beginner gymnastics in London. I still need to do a lot of strength and flexibility work before I can actually go ahead with gymnastics-specific skills and training, but knowing where to go when I reach that point is a good thing.
Did two mobility workouts, on shoulder flexibility. Man, do I have a long way to go. Still, it's a heck of a lot better than about 6 weeks ago, when I couldn't even get my shoulder into a neutral position at all.
Took advantage of my hair being washed and out to take a couple of photographs.
Did a quick blog post about said photographs.
Made lunch. And breakfast.
Defrosted meat for lunch well before midday (it takes ages to defrost here - 2+ days in the fridge, 5+hrs on the bench).
Went to the gym and KICKED ASS (will post about that in a bit)
Made dinner - baked veges with bangers on top! Easy 1 pot meal.

Photo day - letting it all hang out

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:52:00 +0000

I washed my hair today, and let it dry without bothering to style it much. It's gotten quite long, so I snapped a couple of shots. In related news, I learnt how to use the delay function on my camera. Here's a decent one.

Also, self-portraiture is tricky.

As always, click through to the full gallery; and feedback is welcome, since I am a wee bit clueless.

Achievements 11

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:08:00 +0000

Another day in Elsietown, where I:

Put my laundry on.
Changed the filter in my water filter jug.
Finished reading A Game of Thrones yesterday, started on A Clash of Kings.
Soaked the arms and filters of the dishwasher. I do this around the start of every month, to keep ahead of the limescale and crud buildup. Also if I don't do it, I start getting dirty dishes back instead of clean ones.
Had an awesome cup of tea (oolong).
Talked to MIL over email, yay!
Talked to Mum over skype :)
Had a very spicy breakfast at 11am.
Scrubbed dishwasher bits, and run a cleaning cycle with dishwasher limescale and grease remover.
Hung out my laundry.
Run a washing machine cleaning/hygiene cycle with limescale remover and antibacterial stuff for the rinse wash. This is another monthly thing, although I often put vinegar or the antibac stuff through on a sheets or towels wash, just to keep any potential nasties down.
Sent off email to make appointment to try on some Vibram Fivefingers.

My First Footgloves

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:04:00 +0000

My recent enthusiasm for moving my backside and getting fit has resulted in a truth becoming obvious: I need to replace my sneakers. After a few minutes on the treadmill it becomes clear that while they once supported my arches, they no longer do so, and besides, I've worn holes in the heels.

It seems that recently, barefoot or minimalist shoe have become fashionable in certain circles of the fitness world. Experiments on my own have led me to believe that for my particular foot and body geometry it's probably a good idea to at least thoroughly explore this alternative. So, yesterday I hopped on a tube and then a tube and then my first ever London bus and then I walked to buy myself my very first pair of Vibram FiveFingers.

So why exactly have I gone from one extreme to the other? It's pretty obvious that's exactly what's happened. I have gone from sneakers that are rigid, have huge amounts of cushioning, correction, and support - to what are basically, thin gloves with a tough layer.

Let's start with my biggest problem - pronation. My ankles fall in. Both of them. Quite significantly. So that's a major problem my shoes need to correct for. Here's a picture of my feet side by side (my left foot is on a book to adjust for the difference in height).

Oddly, it seems that in terms of correction ... the fivefingers are better, or at the very least, equivalent. Despite not having anything there to do the correction with. That's a wee bit weird - until you consider the shape of the thing. I have crazy narrow feet. An AA fitting, I've been told. Most women's sports shoes come in a C fitting - even finding ones that are a B fitting is challenging. My old sneakers are about a B fitting, so even though the shoe itself has all this wonderful reinforcement - my ankle has heaps of room to move because the shoe is simply far too wide. On the other hand, the fivefingers are adjustable to even my narrow feet - even people with narrower feet than mine would easily be able to adjust them to fit.

This moves on to arch support. Surely the sneakers come out better? Well, maybe when they were new. Now, because my ankle isn't kept true, over the time I've been using them the arch support in the foot has been stomped sufficiently flat that I can't rely on the shoes to put my weight where it ought to be (on the outside of my foot) and instead it goes straight down the inside unless I'm paying very strict attention. Again the fivefingers come out well ahead here, because there's nothing to stomp flat. It's already mostly flat. Not only that, my foot's neutral position in the shoe channels my weight to the outer edge of my foot.

My last major problem is impact while running - or any movement, really. Surely the sneakers will come out ahead here. Impact changes depending on which part of the foot strikes the surface first. I experimented with this in my sneakers a bit. It turns out that heel striking jars me all the way up to my jaw. I feel it, and it is uncomfortable to start, rising to painful. Toe striking is much more comfortable. The problem is - to toe strike in my sneakers I have to really think about every single footfall. That's not so much of a problem when I'm walking along at 6kph. When I'm running at 9kph or sprinting at 11kph, on the other hand, it gets significantly more challenging. Doing some tests while trying the fivefingers on, I naturally toe strike at anything much above an amble. I can heel strike if I really want to. I don't want to usually.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The first time I put on a pair of fivefingers, it took me a good half hour to get them on. These are not time friendly to try on (today, it took me a good 30secs - or about the same time as normal shoes and socks). Finding a stockist who actually has a full range (or close to) so you can find one that actually suits your foot is quite challenging - there seems to be rather larger demand than supply at present. And not every style will suit every foot - I chose Komodo Sports, because of the styles I tried on, they suited my foot best. None of the LS shoes fit correctly - of course, they're made more for people with a high instep and wider foot, so that's not a surprise. I'm not at all happy with the colour, but well, they'll do as a sneaker replacement. Until I get my second pair.

The other downside is that if you're used to your shoes supporting your feet, it'll take you 4-6 weeks to adjust fully to the fivefingers, so their website says. I expect it to take somewhat less time for me, since whilst I haven't been doing much in the way of running barefoot, I have gone for bare or socked feet most of the time the last couple of years. The adjustment is mostly learning to use muscles in your feet that have atrophied. They'll also change the way you stand and walk, which will affect your hips, back and neck - positively in the long term, but as with any such adjustment, it may not be comfortable to begin with.

If your feet are too distorted by wearing years of punishing shoes they also may take a very long time to get used to, since they force the foot into a more natural shape - toes separated, no heel elevation, emphasis on the pad of the foot. They also have a very distinct prejudice against having second and third toes longer than a big toe, although roughly equal length is accommodated.

Lastly, these are not for everyone. It does take a certain level of self confidence to wear them in public - less so now that they are becoming more common, but they are distinctive. Colours are limited - I'd prefer a plain black, personally, but the best I can do with this model (when I find a stockist who has them) is black, grey, and gold. They feel like going barefoot - even I, the intrepid I-don't-care-what-other-people-think-of-my-clothes person, felt somewhat undressed wearing them in public. And I need to find a pair of socks. Knee high ones. Because my ankles and lower legs get cold. Yes, I am a wuss. We all know this.

Personally, I think I'm sold on them.

Achievements 10

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Once more into the breech ...

Caught up on twitter and email around 8am
Filled in yesterday's food diary. Note to self: eat more. About double.
Talked to my mum on skype, yay!
Cleaned up kitchen lots.
Emptied bins.
Had breakfast in the AM.
Tidied the house.
Ordered some electrolyte powder and protein powder, since things like powerade are expensive, and I need more easy-to-consume protein in my diet.
Read up on chicken soup recipes. I feel like chicken soup for dinner tomorrow, and we have some chicken-with-bones in that needs using.
Also read up on savoy cabbage recipes. Seems I can do my usual bacon, onion and garlic trick - that'll go nicely with some rib eye steak and maybe some mashed spud, I reckon.
Joined up on MyFitnessPal, since MyNetDiary decided to start charging extra for services I'd already paid for.
Went to the gym, and did a lot of strength work.
Had a nomnom awesome meal of rib eye steak, savoy cabbage&leek, mashed spud, and shaved lean ham for dinner, putting me pretty close to my nutrition targets for today.
Another long, hot bath to offset the strength work and hopefully make me less sore tomorrow.
MobiltyWOD - forward hip flexor stretch. I modified it, since the example given stretched my quads rather than my hips.

'Night all.

Achievements 9

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:43:00 +0000

So, I picked myself up, and:

Signed up for Project Euler (here)
Read up on the theory that Jon Snow was not fathered by Eddard Stark, and discovered that my theory is not unique. Not saying anything more because you know, spoilers are bad.
In related news, got up to 60% of the way through Game of Thrones.
Introduced the dearly beloved to Oolong tea. He likes it.
Unstacked and restacked dishwasher.
Put the weekly vege box and the groceries away.
Looked at supplements online - mostly electrolytes, because ye gods, finding low/nosugar electrolyte drinks in the shops is hard.
Made an Egg Monster, took photos, and blogged about it.
And did a spreadsheet for the nutritional info.
Cleaned up after cooking.
Processed all the (100ish) photos I took today, uploaded them.
Finished Egg Monster Blog post by putting photos in. You should go look at it. It's awesome. And the spreadsheet, too.
Had a long hot bath.

That's all for today, folks.

Cookbook: Egg Monster Adventure!

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:49:00 +0000

Part of cleaning up my diet is severely limiting the amount of prepackaged foods I eat. This includes breakfast. I'm pretty slow to get going in the morning, so having something I can just reheat is awesome and required. Thus, courtesy of the awesome folks over at Nerdfitness, I have the thing known as Egg Monster. It's basically a frittata of sorts. But on to the recipe! And the Adventure!

Ingredients.
18 eggs
200g Pancetta
500g (lean) Beef Mince
170g carrots
140g portabello mushrooms
120g broccoli
200g flat beans
70g asparagus
A Leek.
130g mayonnaise
3g coconut oil
Herbs
Garlic
Pepper
Salt.

Makes 16 servings.
Rough nutritional info per serve: Energy 220kcal, Protein 18.3g, Carbohydrate 3.3g, Fat 19.5g.

~~Adventure!~~ Recipe.
1. Turn the oven to 170C, and brown the mince in a frypan.
2. While the mince is doing its thing, chop the veges.
3. Set the mince aside, and sauté/steam/grill the veges and garlic, and cook the fat off the pancetta (separately). Drain the extra fat off, and put the pancetta on a couple layers of paper towelling to drain a bit more. When the veges are done, mix the meat and veges together.
4. Beat eggs, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, herbs together.
5. Grease a REALLY BIG pan with the coconut oil.
6. Put everything in the pan.
7. Put in oven for an hour.

The Adventure!
... That's not quite how it really happened. Here's the real (5 hour) story:

Arranged veges nicely, and took several photographs. Turned the oven on to 200C.

Tried to start chopping asparagus, found it was past a useful condition, and got the other bunch out of the fridge. Found flat beans in the process, and decided to add them too. Figured that since I now had different veg, I should take more pictures.

Took even more pictures.

Chopped carrots, leek and mushroom and ... took pictures.

Meanwhile, I cooked the pancetta. And took pictures.

Then I sautéed the carrot, leek and mushrooms and garlic and chopped the greens. And took pictures.

I steamed the greens in the microwave, and put the egg yolks and whites in separate bowls. And took pictures.

You may notice there are only 12 yolks. We'll get to that in a minute. I remembered that this thing was supposed to have mince in it, and put the mince on to brown. Well, actually I spent about half an hour breaking it up with a wooden spoon, then turned the heat on. And took pictures.

Beat the egg whites until slightly foofy, and beat the egg yolks with the mayonnaise, herbs, salt and pepper. Took more pictures.

I mixed my pancetta and mince together in the pan, then thought it would be a jolly good idea to actually have the veges and mince mixed all together. So I put them in a bowl and took pictures.

I greased up my glass roasting pan, and put the mince/vege mixture in. And took pictures.

And then remembered the greens. They went on top. Pretty, don't you think?

I remembered that this was going to rise. So I found my REALLY HUGE metal roasting pan, greased that up, and transferred the meat and veg to it. Oh well, so much for artistry.

I poured the egg mix over and ... oops. Not enough, eh?

So I quickly beat up another half dozen eggs, and added that. And took pictures.

Looks like enough, went to double-check the temperature the oven was supposed to be at ... oops. Mine's too high. Not to worry, I'll turn it down, open the door for a minute, and it'll be Just Fine(TM).Half an hour through cooking, turning the pan around, because my oven is like that.

Aaaaand ... RAWR! EGG MONSTER! Owait, not cooked all the way through yet, back into the oven with you.

During this adventure, I was also weighing everything and writing all the nutritional info down. A lot of maths, really. And then there were numbers. Actually, a whole spreadsheet. See? Numbers. Also, flowers.

Breakfast at 5pm, yay! Om nom nom.

Next time: Less mayo (so less fat), maybe more eggs. And different veges. Maybe less veges. Sooo many greens. And a capsicum. Okay, going now. The End.

Random Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:35:00 +0000

While waiting for some chinese takeaway to arrive, I took a couple of photographs.

The tulips the dearly beloved got me recently, with a broken power supply in the background.

The planned money for the delivery. Turns out the bloke didn't have a fiver, so I got to keep all the change. Yay. Ish.

Achievements 8 - Triumph despite adversity

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:29:00 +0000

Today I have an interview for a job! eek.

Read an article about how Women Need Makeup. Did not rant. Much.
Did my mobilityWOD. One minute at a time. Holding a full squat is hard, yo.
Used google hangouts (for the first time) to talk to some very dear people on the other side of the world
Double-checked and finalised tomorrow's grocery deliveries.
Polished my boots.
Got to interview on time.
Instead of wallowing in despair, talked about it to people online and felt better.
Went to gym seminar despite feeling horribly drained.
Did a workout. Beat last week's run time.

I still feel utterly awful. Emotionally, today was a Bad Day. BUT I got everything done I set out to do IN SPITE OF THE SAD so in that sense, today was an EXCELLENT DAY where I WON THE EVERYTHING.

Achievements 7

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:48:00 +0000

More doing stuff! Including some things I forgot to include in earlier posts.

Signed up for a 12 week 'Lose and Shape Up' program at my gym. This is a theory and a group training session a week; the training seems to be mostly bodyweight suspension exercises, which fits nicely in with my endpoint fitness goals.
Signed up for a 6 week amazingly nerdy challenge at Nerdfitness.
Got 10hrs sleep.
Had a cup of oolong tea. I think it's nice, but ... not as nice as jasmine pearls. Since I can't have much caffeine, I'm going to go back to my jasmine as soon as this packet is finished.
Figured out an outfit for interview tomorrow. May post a photograph for review later.
Read all the website from my prospective employer.
Finished reading "Diaspora" by Greg Egan.
Got up to Ch 11 of "Agile Web Development with Rails".
Nerded some more about my Ardvino design.
Got a fair way through Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Got clothes out for tomorrow.
Packed gym bag for tomorrow night.
Packed handbag for tomorrow day.

Achievements 6

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 08:19:00 +0000

Stacked and ran dishwasher
Prodded the dearly beloved into doing his laundry
Packed books for return to amazon
Was democratic (voted in Queensland elections)
Watched a few episodes from Mobility Workout of the Day, because I am horribly inflexible at the moment, and I know that's causing a lot of my ongoing pain issues. Fixing pain is a good idea.
Took some photos on the way to the pub, whatever. And posted them.
Thought really hard about the Ardvino project. Did some mockup sketches on paper. Thought about sensors, power, data, and UX for supporting webapp.
Got to bed early (8.30pm).

Random Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:20:00 +0000

I've been taking some photos more or less at random of late, so I'll post them here.
I might do a 'proper' post at a later date, or I might not. Without further ado:

Achievements 5

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Wrote and posted a review of the coconut yoghurt I bought yesterday
Took my washing in
Made breakfast (mmm mashed spud)
Rejected a job application request from a recruiter
Asked a different recruiter for more details for another job
Read "Distress" by Greg Egan
Read up to Ch 7 of "Agile Web Development with Rails", 4th ed, by Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hasson et al. And did all the exercises
Bought next month's phone credit, and fixed the auto-top up
Made and ate lunch
Went to the gym and worked out. A lot. Ow.
Went out after the gym to a mate's changing-jobs party, and did not drink anything except some fancy-pants nutrient water type stuff with extra electrolytes

And now bed. zzzz.

Food Review: CoYo Coconut Yoghurt Mixed Berry

noreply@blogger.com (Elspeth Thorne) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:26:00 +0000

I'm comparing this to the Greek Yoghurt Company mixed berry yoghurt, because that's what I fondly miss, and also what this product seems to most resemble.

Nutritional info: Soy, dairy, gluten and lactose free, no added sugar.
Per 100g: Energy 155kcal; Protein 1.4g; Fat total 15.2g, saturated 11.8g; Carbohydrate 4.9g, sugars 0.8g. Ingredients: Coconut milk (97%), tapioca starch, Xylitol, blueberries, blackberries (min 10%), selected probiotic cultures.

http://www.coyo.co.uk

Starting with nutrition - well, its a lot lower in sugar than greek yoghurt, and also rather lower in protein, I think. Fat is significantly higher. Still, a tub comes in at about 375kcal, which isn't too bad for a full meal (as opposed to a snack). Off the bat, opening it up it smells right - that sharp/sour tang of the cultures you'd expect. Mixing it around, it's very solid/thick, much more so than natural greek yoghurt. On to the taste analysis: it's definitely made from coconut. Oh, yes. But it isn't sweet, or really all that sour. People who like their natural/greek yoghurt sour will call it bland, and people who like it sweet probably won't find it sweet enough. Personally? I like it. Could do with a few more berries, maybe a drizzle of honey, though. The mouthfeel doesn't quite have the same creaminess/fattiness that I remember from greek yoghurt. Overall? A good product, one that I'll buy again, but probably not every week.