One Down .. Millions To Go

Well I did the Million Step Challenge, though you have to take my word for it that I did it, because I did it solo, and as most of the time I was listening to music that's probably a good thing. Going forward I had set my target of 340K a month so I will always be on a rolling three month million. The thing is as it's still a week til August starts I thought maybe I could have a "day off" yesterday , so what did I do , walked into work, walked around town and walked most of the way back.

I don't usually walk back home because part of it is up hill and I am basically a very lazy person and it's a lot easier to get a bus that walk up the hill, but I did get a bus for the last half mile. I checked Google Fit on leaving the bus, because last time it recorded 25 steps from the bus stop to home. It read 10888 steps , 1 hour 54 minutes walking. I counted 140 steps, got in the house and checked again. 10886 Steps , 1 hour 52 minutes walking. I put the phone down checked it twenty minutes later, and the readings were the same. So either I have discovered time travel or Google Fit is a bit rubbish at times. This has happened several times during my Million Step Challenge so I have probably overshot it by some way.

The thing is, this is really helping control my diabetes , so really this has never got to stop. It's like diets, there is no short term solution it has to be a life style change. That sounds far too deep doesn't it, but I like where it has taken me.

It is a grey day, and after this I will maybe catch the bus , or walk to work. Yesterday one of the songs that came on the player was the excellent "Krafty" by New Order, so that's what you get today. Have a great Tuesday everybody.

One Million

This weekend I thought that I might complete my Million Step Challenge a week early, I had 35K steps to do that's about 15 miles over two days. Yesterday I hit over 17K, so today was just about redoing the steps, although I don't like doing the same thing over, but by mid day I had done 7K so thought I would just finish it tomorrow. Then I thought maybe I could walk a bit further this afternoon, and it started raining. So I picked up an umbrella , and although the rain was coming down there was little wind so I generally kept dry.

 I thought I'd include Doctor Evil's "One Million Dollar" ranson demand as I still find it funny and the numbers are related.

While walking I did listen to stuff I had loaded on the phone and still love After The Fire an eighties Christian Rock band who didn't include religion in their songs that was followed by Age of Chance then back to some XTC and Tom Waits.

Although I have another week to complete the millions steps the fact that I could possibly do it today was a major temptation, and of course I gave in. The million steps translates to between 400 and 500 miles but I won't include the Procaimers song but I'll set my sights lower with Big Country's "Fields of Fire (400 Miles)".

If you want to find out about the official 1 Million Step Challenge , check here

An End Is In Sight

It seems a very long time since I woke up and thought "Bloody hell, It's Twelve O' Clock (Noon)". I am not sure why this is , but it probably stems from when I started back doing 10K steps a day. Weekends are usually days when you can do more, although more steps take more time. I am now 35K steps away from hitting the target of my Million Step Challenge. I was wondering how I would continue exercising after the target had been hit, and was worried I would maybe fall back into becoming more sedentary and therefore lose the benefits that I have gained from doing the walking. We all need goals, if we don't have them then we vegetate and ossify. So I have simply decided to aim for 34K steps a month which should ensure that in any three month meriod I should walk a million steps.

Life is affected by continual change and the need to deal with those changes , which is why so many people railed against Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor Who. This is the thirteenth regeneration of the Doctor, and every one has caused people to complain that the new Doctor is not The Old Doctor (here's a list and as long ago as 1989 Dawn French , Joanna Lumley and Frances De La Tour were in the running) , though the worst complaints are sexist and misogynistic. The term Doctor is not gender specific, and in the last series Peter Capaldi was guarding a rogue female timelord , they swapped bodies and several times talked about their past and whether they were male or female. Further back there ws the River Song / Amy Pond thread , so you can't say that you were'nt prepared for this by plot developments.

Continuing through "Electric Eden" (40 pages to go so another ending nearing) I also came across more things I was unaware of. Until Kate Bush hit Number One with "Wuthering Heights" in 1978 no woman had topped the singles chart in the UK with a self penned song, so thirty years that took. Then, talking about the video to one of the songs from my favourite album of hers "Hounds of Love" , it was conceived in connivance with Terry Gilliam (my favourite director, incidentally Kate performed the theme song to my favourite Gilliam film "Brazil" which I've included at the end of this post) and featured Donald Sutherland who had been angling to work with Kate, that was "Cloudbusting" often mis spelt as "Cloudbursting". The story behind the song is absorbing to and can be read here.

This is the thing, reading can tell you new things and remingd you of things you have forgotten.

I know it's grey but today I am looking forward to seeing my friend Julie with Fiona and possibly doing an unfeasible amount of steps, or maybe I will just get the bus.

Have a great Saturday my friends.

Fire

On Wednesday I ditched the iPad and got a Kindle Fire. Basically the iPad was an excellent device but tried to tie you into Apple and some non Apple apps didn't behave the way I wanted including YouTube and TED. I originally bought it because someone showed me GarageBand, but while that was great to play with, and I managed to record a couple of things, it forced into such things as defining the length of your song before you recorded it, and it took me six months to export my first MP3 after having recording the song. I think it was a space issue and on someone's advice I deleted a load of apps and it finally exported.

I recorded a couple more but, for me it was awkward. So eventually Garageband became something I dabbled with every now and then, and all I was really doing was keeping it charged and updating IOS.

So I got the Kindle Fire and it doesn't like Google apps so can't really use the Google Play Store or Google Docs or NOW TV (which uses some Google Framework). There are ways of circumventing this but I like life easy. I've not yet connected it to Social Media, but have installed TED and managed to print via Bluetooth to my Canon Pixma Printer. It was the first photograph I took with the device , which only has a 2 MP camera, but it was late at night and I wasn't sure what I was doing when taking the picture, but I took it and printed. That's one thing I never did with the iPad (although I never tried).

I've downloaded a Music Studio, which gets good reviews, but will check that out in the coming weeks.

I then played some YouTube stuff using my Bluetooth soundbar for sound and that was good.

Then the biggest plus' which in my opinion has mad the purchase worthwhile already , was the installation of BubbleUPnP which connected to my DNLA Server meaning that my whole digital music collection is available to me. I am now seriously thinking of giving away big chunks of my CD collection.

So far, so happy.

It's Friday, so we need a "fire" related song and the ones that spring to mind are Arthur Brown, Bruce Springsteen and The Pointer Sisters but as usual I'm going a little further afield with Nick Cave's take on "Fire Down Below" from Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinsky's pirate song project "Rogues Gallery".

The iPad is Gone

It's grey and rainy and I am have hust been watching Ripper Street and Taboo, lots of grim , 19th Century violence and machinations.

Yesterday morning I had a dream , I think I was in Edinburgh, in some Polish shop but I had to go back to get a codec for a video but the only way out was via a hardboard catflap blocked by a China man on a trolley but I had to go out via side door into somewhere I had never been before , lots of high dark streets, then the alarm went off. I know this makes no sense but it was a dream and I can still remember some of it, so that's why I've written it down here. Some psychiatrist will probable get some insight into my psyche from that, or maybe not .. who knows.

Anyway for the last year I have probably used my iPad to charge up and update IOS and that's about it. I'd originally got it to play with Garageband and basically I just doodled with Garageband. I find my TASCAM portastudio and Audacity far easier to produce music with so I ditched the iPad and bought a Kindle Fire 8. All I've done with it so far is charge it up, but I  hope I will get more use out of it than I did the iPad. I just tried to install the Google Play Store but that wasn't successful and Alexa has talked to me.

I only have sixty thousand steeps to no to hit my million steps in three months in the Million Step Challenge, and after that I pledge to do 340K each month. It's a good way of keeping fit without the boring drudgery (as I see it) of gym membership,

Anyway I thought I would tell you about my dream and how I am no longer infected by Apple but we shall see how the Kindle performs. So a suitable record would be on of the Osmonds goodies, where they try to take on the Jackson 5 leaving you with "One Bad Apple".

Sleep well my friends.

Monday Sun

Despite the fact it's Monday it looks an absolutely gorgeous day. This is a definite walk to work day. The benefits of walking are evident in my general improvement in health, although it means I have less time for TED talks and other stuff. I tend to spend maybe two hours a day walking which should result in around 12K steps but vary between 8K and 15K, so sometimes I must walk more slowly and some days more quickly. I'm writing this as I'm getting dressed (which you really wouldn't want to see).

I am toying with disposing of my CD collection. A big chunk is in boxes , and while I love playing albums on CD and vinyl, if something is boxed up , it's not available to play. I have it all digitally stored (I think), so it would be a good idea to get some more space by getting rid of some boxes. But in those boxes there are CDs I wouldn't want to lose so it's not a simple task, but I am formulating a plan.

I'm in a similar mode with books and DVDs , I seldom watch DVDs though recently got around to watching the excellent "Looking for Eric" by the brilliant Ken Loach and featuring Eric Cantona, and yesterday I listened to a "Best of R Dean Taylor" , if I remember rightly the first white artist on Tamla Motown, though I may be wrong there, but was surprised at how many songs I knew on there outside of the big hits such as "Two of Us" and "Ain't It A Sad Thing" (which are possibly covers).

So I've chosen "There's A Ghost In My House" for you to enjoy, and I will soon be on my way to work. Enjoy your day my friends.

Please Smile

Today walking into town I saw a guy with a very fierce expression on his face . I smiled and said "Nice Day" but got no reaction. He then started cleaning his car. I then got on a bus and there was a guy looking miserable holding a scratch card. It may have been a winner but probably not, but he didn't look happy. I hope it was a winner and I hope he ended the day smiling.

Smiling releases endorphins and makes you feel better, and makes you better able to do whatever you want to do.

I've passed 900K on my Million Step Challenge but today has been an absolute trial. Firstly my phone seems to be losing and not recording steps. One example is first thing this morning that I took Fiona's phone upstairs for her and that registered 92 steps, mine registered 5 steps , and that's what it was on before I picked Fiona's phone up. Yesterday it registered 25 steps from bus stop to home , when it should have been 200 steps. I went for fish and chips on Friday , that's well over 2K steps , my phone decided I'd done 1K. So this is a little demoralising.

Then I've started feeling drained like all the strength is leaking from my arms and legs. If I can keep going for 20 minutes then I can overcome it, but it's like walking through treacle for 20 minutes. I won't let this combination of negativity stop me from completing the Million Steps by the end of July but it does feel like I'm pushing against something, but it won't stop me.

So an appropriate song would be Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" , I know it's Sunday and tomorrow  is Monday, but it's another week, another challenge. Push on my friends , push on.