Friday, July 31, 2009


I'm not sure if it bothers you but when you leave a message for somebody, you're always left waiting for that stupid beep before you're able to talk. David Pogue, NY Times Columnist who focuses on tech, has decided enough is enough and that the extra long message forced upon us by the carriers so that they can make more money has to go. Here's a quote by him.

"Suppose you call my cell to leave me a message. First you hear my own voice: "Hi, it's David Pogue. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you" — and THEN you hear a 15-second canned carrier message. ... These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it's 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP. ... Second, we're PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up — bigtime. If Verizon's 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That's your money."

— NYT columnist David Pogue mobilizes a "Take Back the Beep" campaign to press cell-phone carriers to get rid of the superfluous voicemail instructions that play before a caller is allowed to leave a message.

Thursday, July 30, 2009


Below is a question and answer regarding robots and the issue of robots disobeying orders/doing unethical actions... I think I've seen too many movies as I read the answer as Asimov blah blah blah oh my God, the robot is killing my dog. Ok, so maybe I made up that last part of I'm jaded after seeing Will Smith have to take on the whole robot force in iRobot. For now, I'll vacuum my floors, pick up heave objects, and figure out what's logical on my own.

Q: Do you envision robots ever disobeying military orders on the battlefield to "do the right thing?" If so, under what circumstances?

A: Asimov originated the use of ethical restraint in robots many years ago and presented all the quandaries that it can generate. In our prototype ethical governor (and in the design itself) we do provide the robot with the right to refuse an order it deems unethical. It must provide some explanation as to why it has refused such an order. With some reluctance, we have engineered a human override capability into the system, but one which forces the operator to explicitly assume responsibility for any ethical infractions that might result as a consequence of such an override.

— Ronald C. Arkin, director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech, who is working on programming ethical behavior into military robots.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

2009 Triathlon Season

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Nutrition Nutrition Nutrition
Went to a talk about nutrition with a focus on endurance athletes. Some things I took away from it was:
1) That I don't eat enough - Eat within an hour of waking and every 3 to 4 hours, ie. snacks :)
2) I don't eat the right foods. Bacon falls under fat and not proteins :( Spam is also not a good choice.
3) Make sure I take in both carbohydrates and proteins when I eat.
4) Whatever my daily caloric intake should be (ie. 2000), what I eat during exercising doesn't count towards it.
5) I asked about vitamins, pills, etc. that people take daily. Here is what I got from everybody: Multi-vitamin - a basic, generic one
Omega 3 fatty - fish oil or flax seed...
Vitamin e
Glucosamine

There were other good tidbits and I'll update this list as I remember them. Also, please feel free to comment.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Uh oh, calves are totally rock hard

Usually I'm smiling at the end of races but all I could muster up was a grimace as the cramping took over my whole lower half of my body.

Monday, July 20, 2009


2009 Vineman 70.3 Race Report

The Vineman 70.3 race report was tentatively titled, “How it all came together.”

I thought google mapping the directions up to my cabin was a good omen when the distance was listed as 70.3 mile. But that was before I actually started the race, which became “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”


Expectations were set high for my last tri of the season but alas, a sub 5 half IM will have to wait until next year. My swim actually was good (for me) and I really enjoyed the 16 min. return portion of the loop after an agonizing 20 minutes going upstream. It was eerily quiet exiting the water as there were people lining up on both sides but not a soul cheering except my buddy Rahim who was surprised to see me strip my wetsuit off and throw it at him so that I wouldn’t get all my clothes in the swim bag wet.

My bike is something I’ve been working on quite a bit lately and it showed in my 56 mile split of 2:33. Anybody else lose a water bottle within the first couple of minutes? For me it was bye bye Carbo Pro but luckily I had 5 gels taped to my top tube along with a couple of salt pills. I was very happy with my bike but had to stop once b/c I thought I’d flatted but it turned out my back brake was rubbing and I was one of the lucky ones who went through the tree area before the fire dept. closed off the street for a bit. Towards the end of the bike my quads started to tighten up a little but I thought that it would loosen up once I started running.


So off the bike I went and before mile one, both my quads and hamstrings cramped up so much that walking became an issue. I contemplated DNFing but as it was a nice day and I knew that the under 29 females would be on their return trip on the run, I decided to give walking a go with the hopes of jogging as my legs loosened up. I ended up doing this awkward shuffle over the next 12 miles as I popped salt tablets like candy. It was awesome to see so many PacBikes & GGTC athletes and Thank You for the cheering and motivation as you passed me ;)


This race was my hardest tri in 4 years as physically and mentally I was spent. I managed to run through the finisher’s chute due to all the cheers but as soon as I finished I collapsed with cramps from my groin down. It must have been a funny sight as volunteers are trying to move me out of the way while people cheering were yelling at them to spray water on me and massage my legs. I don’t really recall too much of it but after about 10 min. they carried me over to the med tent. So that’s how my 2009 tri season ended. It’s been great and I look forward to challenging myself next year and hopefully breaking the elusive 5 hour mark. I ended up doing the race in 5:26. I’m exhausted and will now focus on a couple running races for the rest of the year. In Oct. I will be doing the Chicago Marathon and in Dec. the NorthFace 50 miler.


Friday, July 10, 2009

Happy Birthday Oma from John hayato Branderhorst on Vimeo.