Saturday, 12 May 2012

Should my blog grow up?

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

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!

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.

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Achievements 12 - catch up

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

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.




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Also, self-portraiture is tricky.

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

Saturday, 5 May 2012

Achievements 11

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

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.


Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Achievements 10

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.

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Achievements 9

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!

 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.

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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.

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Took even more pictures.
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Chopped carrots, leek and mushroom and ... took pictures.

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Meanwhile, I cooked the pancetta. And took pictures.

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Then I sautéed the carrot, leek and mushrooms and garlic and chopped the greens. And took pictures.
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I steamed the greens in the microwave, and put the egg yolks and whites in separate bowls. And took pictures.

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Breakfast at 5pm, yay! Om nom nom.

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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.


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