Summer Is Back

Several times this week people have said the equivalent of "so that was the summer", when in fact I lost count of the summery sunny mornings we've had this year. The sun is streaming through the window now. We are all subject to the weather and we don't want a drought situation so we need rain, and usually we get it at night which is fairly sensible. I think that the weather has only stopped me walking once, and that was in Pockley and I still got 2.5K steps in which is about half a kilometer, and it didn't affect my Million Step Challenge , it was just another sub 11K day.

It looks like I am sort of on track for the #August50 , but I still have to do two posts a day for most of August, but it is doable, but I am going to walk in today so expect to keep my steps up.

I really to appreciate the colours of nature on a day like this, often unfeasibly enhanced by the camera on my Sony Xperia XA, not always in a good way sometimes looking back it's like I'd been in the middle of Ben Wheatley's "A Field In England". If you know the film you will know why I said that, if you don't know the film film , watch it and find out. Incidentally it was released on all formats simultaneously, the TV broadbast being on Film4.

So I'm going with "Summer Means Fun" which I thought was by The Beach Boys, then remembered it was by The Fantastic Baggys, but someone said it the original was by Jan & Dean, but I found this excellent version by Bruce and Terry which I had never heard before, because, as far as I'm concerned, summer is still alive and kicking. Well that wasn't a grammatically correct sentence was it , but what the hell. Have a brilliant day and enjoy the sunshine!

Confirmation and Awestruck By James Holt - Deaf Rock and Roller

I was just thinking why is it easier for me to walk and hit targets. Many years ago you maybe had the mechanical, not very accurate pedometers, or you could ride a bike that had an odometer, but as I've said I can't do anything regimented, although some of the stuff I do at work requires a hell of a lot of precision , determination , accuracy and it is almost regimented, the sort of thing that i usually rebel against. The thing is, because I am controlling it, I can change it when I see a better way. I am just introducing some things that I haven't seen done before, and only discovered because I wondered if it could be done, tried it and found it could be done... but I digress as usual.

I think one of the reasons I do find it easier to do my walking is the hand held computers we call oor mobile phones can record and confirm what we are doing and where we are up to with it. Ten years ago you couldn't really do that, twenty years ago it was mechanical and not very accurate.

So I know how far I've gone, how far I have to go and I can check any time I want to or need to. I have had issues with software but Pacer seeems to be doing the business, although today my phone turned itself off, unbeknown to me so I lost a big chunk of recording my walks. Technology always finds another way to screw you over. ALthough I am no longer on the Million Step Challenge I intend to hit 340K a month so I still need to keep and eye on how far I am walking.

I have made an appointment with my Doctor and it will be great to get some positive feedmack on my weight loss and insulin reduction. My doctor is incredibly supportive and a great example of NHS brilliance, I'll tell you who she is if you ask me face to face.

I'm going to give you two songs, the amazing James Holt , a deaf rock and roller, his "Whatever Happened To John" reminding me of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", He is a revelation, a musician , a producer , plays all his own stuff, every instrument, and an inspiration to everybody. Listen and enjoy.

Prime Time

Reading "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" by Jordan Ellenberg  and there are some complex concepts in there and we're talking prime numbers (or should that be Prime Numbers) and he make a stange but true point n and n+2 are more likely to be a pair of prime numbers than n and n+1.  Now given that after 1, 2 and 3 only odd numbers can be prime, it seems a strange point to make. 29 and 31 are prime but 30 isnt, 31 and 33 are not both prime but I think 131 and 133 are. It also talks about the apparent randomness of prime number distribution, which obviously cannot be random because the nature of numbers is set in stone ... sort of.

Below is one of my favourite TED talks on very large prime numbers by Australian DJ Adam Spencer. This talk held no interest for me, or so I though but it is a brilliant way to spend twenty minutes and you learn a lot as well.


So it's 7AM and we need a numerical song to go with it and what about The Jam's "Away From The Numbers" , my nay is spent dealing with numbers but there are times when maybe a rest would do me good

Here Comes The Night

Tonight it's cold and wet, the days are getting shorter and we'll soon be waking up in the dark as wll, looking out from our windows at work into the blackness, then looking at the clock and seeing that it's only three o'clock.

The think is , is this is the world we live in, days fluctuate like an giant elastic band getting longer and shorter depending what part of the year that we are in. Rain is good because it waters gardens and plants. Dark is good because it makes us appreciate the light, it the way that cold makes us appreciate the warmth.

I can't recall the weather being so bad that I wished for something else, for quite a long time. Tonight even though it was slightly raining , I put on my waterproof hat and walked for half an hour clocking up 3K steps. Tomorrow will be interesting to see how long Pacer keeps recording my steps as I expect. Will it clok 5K steps for me to get to work, I'm sure you can't wait to find out.

Anyway, the night is here so I'll leave you with "Here Comes The Night" by Them, sleep well my friends.

The Trouble With Shooting Ghosts of American Astronauts

A ridiculously rubbish play on words, in my last post I said that Google Fit didn't seem to be tracking steps, but was it my Sony Xperia, or the operating system or the software. Today I installed something called Pacer and it seems to be recording the steps OK so it looks like it's Google Fit.

It is a small trial when something is not working and you don't know which part of the chain is the problem , and it may be one part or more than one. Remeber when a bulb went in Christmas lights and trying to track which was this problem one. Though it does feel good when you sort it out.

Tonight I went out for an extra walk to hit my 11K, and I've done nearly 12K so that's cool.

Anyway as I type this "Ghosts of American Astronauts" by The Mekons is playing, just a lovely surreal song whihc I will leave you with. My blood sugar is down to 4.4 so I need to sort out something to eat.

Enjoy your evening my friends.

Failures

This was going to be my second post yesterday for #August50, but I didn't get round to it so that's one failure to start off with , although I am writing it now. This morning I was thinking that the milk was lasting a hell of a long time, then I poured it in to the tea (I'm not a milk in first person which still seems very odd to me), the milk was finally past it's sell by date, another failure!! But !!! If I had written this last night I couldn't have written about the sour milk.

When I worked at EE someone said to me they felt under pressure because we were always expected to deal with emergencies (like Summer, Valentine's Day and Christmas, that was a running joke about marketting), but I said that mobile phones were now a 24/7 thing and you always expected to be able to make a call or use your phone. I said imagine you came home and hit the light switch and nothing happened you'd be straight on the phone (assuming it was working!!) to the power company because you expect power and water 24/7. Phones have become a utility, and need to be always available and we make sure that they are.

Yesterday I walked to work and Google Fit recorded 3.5K steps , normally it's 4.5K to 5K (the highest as been 6.6K via Cowgate and Westgate Road), so I was disappointed , and continually during the day it's been down on what I expected. Fenham Library to home was recorded as 100 steps when I know it's 5-600, so that was another failure, but is it the Sony phone hardware , the Android Operating System of the Google Fit App, or even the EE network. For me it's a failure but I will deal with that.

There's a few other things like moving the Song of The Salesman site, trying to set up the Joomla database connection. It makes some suggestions but doesn't tell you what information you have to give it, and the help and talk boards all say the same thing "you must have put the wrong information in". Well guessing doesn't really help in this situation.

All these are failures but they are challenges to be addressed and I will will deal with the ones I can, and I do like a challenge though not as keen attempting the apparently impossible which is a situation I often find myself in.

And in an amazing piece of synchronicity Chris Hawkins on 6Music has just put on "Needle In A Haystack" by The Velvelettes which seems fairly appropriate given the subject. Have a great Tuesday everybody.

Ideas

I love showering but always find drying myself a bind and was thinking what a great idea a full body air drier would be. No wet towels , afterwards, no picking up wet towels to dry yourself with if you are not first in and just the feeling of warm air on your body would almost be like a mediterranean holiday. I love warm water on my body and warm air would be just as good.

The thing is many years ago what would be the next step, Yellow Pages? Your local libriary? If you asked friends they may think you are some kind of deviant... warm air on your naked body.... you pervert sir ... how dare you. But we use hair driers (or is it dryers?) , we use hand driers , and I do like the Dyson Airblade, and we also have fans to keep us cool when the weather is hot , so all the bits are there.

However thanks to Berners-Lee and Arpanet we have the Internet, the worlds biggest reference library and if you search Google for "full body drier" this is what you get. There are a lot out there. You can get this fairly snazzy one by Valiryo on Amazon, though at £900 to replace my shower towels I am still tempted. I don't know of any friends who have one.

So I had a great idea but found that someone had got there first, though if someone were to offer me a free one I would take it straight away.

Anyway , although it's Monday it looks like a gorgeous day so I will probably be walking into work and no doubt looking for things to video and photograph. Also this post is keeping up the #August50 and if I do another one tonight then I should be starting to get towards the 50 that I am aiming for.

So the song has to be Polly Jean Harvey's "Dry" ... one of those songs that is not on the artists album of the same name like Led Zeppelin's "Houses of The Holy" , what else could it be ... have a great Monday everybody...