Hey! Watch me advertise.
Antsy for some fresh tunes? Check out Amazon's stash of free mp3 [aka digital/downloadable] albums. The free library covers the whole spectrum of genres, from well-known artists to "what are these noises?", with a fair dose of non-Western-culture stuff. Some "albums" are merely single-song samplers, but oh well. I downloaded everything available a few days ago (DMC internet is speedy, even if I have to go to the lounge downstairs to use it), and it turned out to be 120 albums/675 songs... Do the math to figure out the ratio of whole albums to single-songers. It looks like they rotate stuff in and out often [frequently!], so it appears to be wise to check for new'uns every few days.
To get this goodness onto your computer, just make your selections and download away; Amazon makes you install their "MP3 Downloader" tool first (and only once per computer), but it's small, easy, and a truly convenient download manager. The songs are hi-qual mp3 files without DRM, so you can play them on any computer or music player that supports the mp3 format. BTW, that's essentially any device ever made - they're so commonly called "mp3 players", after all, as the format is beyond ubiquity.
I like having hi-qual, real, physical copies of music I like, so I could never depend on a digital download store for tunes - iTunes, Amazon MP3, or otherwise. However, repositories such as Amazon's free music are pivotal to supporting musicians; if I listen to stuff and actually like a band, I will...ohmy...buy albums from them! Scary how that works, I know. That's some of the purpose of the radio, too. What a strange world, people listening to music and buying what they like.
Also BTW FYI JIC, I did pick a few albums since I was trolling for recos from you:
Charles Mingus - Mingus Plays Piano (thanks, j/a)
Aphex Twin - Ventolin [EP]
Ming + FS - Human Condition
The Postal Service - Give Up
KMFDM - Krieg
Beck - Modern Guilt
I suppose I have some listening to do. How terrible! Rock yourselves out.
Technical notes: the files from the Amazon digital coffers are MP3 format, encoded in the neighborhood of 256kbps VBR, though a few tracks are done at a constant [CBR] 256kbps. That's not quite CD-quality, but it's easily good enough for all but the snobbiest of audiophiles. Amazon's download manager is compatible with Windows (probably XP and newer) and "sufficiently recent" versions (meaning I don't know which ones) of Mac OS X. I didn't check it out, but I'm assuming Linux users are hung out to dry. Feel free to leave a comment if you can confirm/deny *nix compatibility with Amazon's downloader tool. To ballpark average file size, consider that my downloading spree ended up as follows: 675 songs; 2d 1h 34min 43sec (2:01:34:43) total time; 4.95GB total space consumed. I'll leave the dimensional analysis up to you...
09 February 2010
06 February 2010
miles tone
Let's split up some posts!
As you've seen in various pictures, the old rehab locale houses a largeish track - four wide lanes, and circa 100m per lap - so last week I went back to push circles and record some mile times. Score 26:30 with the wheels on low assist; 17:00 on high. You are correct, that's not really even up to walking speed! I usually wimpily don't go that far without at least a tiny break, but it wasn't too bad rolling nonstop. The hardest part revolved [oh yes, pun intended] around remembering what lap I was on; a 100m track yields about 16 laps for one mile, which is about 15.8 laps beyond my attention span... I should write a lap-counter-and-music-controller app so I can focus on singing along with real lyrics instead of my current lap number ("Hard Day's Night" loses its appeal when it becomes "14 14 14 14").
It should be noted that these mile times were measured doing counterclockwise laps ("run fast, turn left!", according to Mr. Genta's classic track meet pep talk), and clockwise travel would likely have been slightly faster since I'm a lefty. It's a matter of linear and rotational speed/distance/work/[kinematics] that I can explain neither elegantly nor entertainingly... Ask Mr. Genta for some assistance there. Or, jarmstro.
Anyway, those are at least baselines for tracking progress. Dig it.
As you've seen in various pictures, the old rehab locale houses a largeish track - four wide lanes, and circa 100m per lap - so last week I went back to push circles and record some mile times. Score 26:30 with the wheels on low assist; 17:00 on high. You are correct, that's not really even up to walking speed! I usually wimpily don't go that far without at least a tiny break, but it wasn't too bad rolling nonstop. The hardest part revolved [oh yes, pun intended] around remembering what lap I was on; a 100m track yields about 16 laps for one mile, which is about 15.8 laps beyond my attention span... I should write a lap-counter-and-music-controller app so I can focus on singing along with real lyrics instead of my current lap number ("Hard Day's Night" loses its appeal when it becomes "14 14 14 14").
It should be noted that these mile times were measured doing counterclockwise laps ("run fast, turn left!", according to Mr. Genta's classic track meet pep talk), and clockwise travel would likely have been slightly faster since I'm a lefty. It's a matter of linear and rotational speed/distance/work/[kinematics] that I can explain neither elegantly nor entertainingly... Ask Mr. Genta for some assistance there. Or, jarmstro.
Anyway, those are at least baselines for tracking progress. Dig it.
23 January 2010
with a silent s
Hello all! One mini-pile of humdrum, coming right up.
Pseudotherapy has been good, I guess? Nothing overly exciting - same old legzapbike+armMotomed over the lunch hour, with a few sprinkles of other self-directed exercise here and there. With any luck, I'll be back to [eu-]therapy in a short while. Until then, I'm trying to maintain an intricate balance between working hard and being phenomenally lazy. Pretty rough, I know.
Elsewhere, approximately nada - wasting hours to tidy up the music collection, as my library obeys the laws of thermodynamics (the second one mostly, though I suppose it can't reach absolute zero either)...
It's time for some new albums, methinks. Any recommendations? Fire away.
Pseudotherapy has been good, I guess? Nothing overly exciting - same old legzapbike+armMotomed over the lunch hour, with a few sprinkles of other self-directed exercise here and there. With any luck, I'll be back to [eu-]therapy in a short while. Until then, I'm trying to maintain an intricate balance between working hard and being phenomenally lazy. Pretty rough, I know.
Elsewhere, approximately nada - wasting hours to tidy up the music collection, as my library obeys the laws of thermodynamics (the second one mostly, though I suppose it can't reach absolute zero either)...
It's time for some new albums, methinks. Any recommendations? Fire away.
07 January 2010
10
Ahoy! Should be PDFing paperwork; rocking some Soul Slinger, watching the snow, blogificating instead. Oh well.
As you may have gathered, I'm back in The 3-1-3 after spending a week or two in Carlinville. It was nice to be thoroughly lazy with the kitties for a bit, but it's xlnt to be back here working out again as well. A+ to the finished accessible shower at home, though - plus extra credit for constant water temperature! That's a one-up on the hydrothermal sine wave here, for sure. Anyway, posh.
Pseudo-PT is going well. I've been sticking to the leg e-stim bike and the arm bike part of the Motomed, and it's a qual workout. Like being in cville, it's nice to be relatively slacking for a short period of time, but my muscles have had copious rest time, so I'm antsy to get back to full-blast therapy.
What else? Not so sure it's wise to disclose fully one of my most drastic changes - suffice it to say that a fair load of space has been reclaimed in our suite, and Simon the cville cat got to keep one of his favorite nap spots. Mwa ha ha ha! A new page has been turned.
I suppose I should get some real work done, eh? Beware, further rambling might lead to an oh-so-riveting explanation/lecture on disk defragmentation, because I'm that exciting... Let's stay away from that sector. Har har har, nerds.
Rocket!
As you may have gathered, I'm back in The 3-1-3 after spending a week or two in Carlinville. It was nice to be thoroughly lazy with the kitties for a bit, but it's xlnt to be back here working out again as well. A+ to the finished accessible shower at home, though - plus extra credit for constant water temperature! That's a one-up on the hydrothermal sine wave here, for sure. Anyway, posh.
Pseudo-PT is going well. I've been sticking to the leg e-stim bike and the arm bike part of the Motomed, and it's a qual workout. Like being in cville, it's nice to be relatively slacking for a short period of time, but my muscles have had copious rest time, so I'm antsy to get back to full-blast therapy.
What else? Not so sure it's wise to disclose fully one of my most drastic changes - suffice it to say that a fair load of space has been reclaimed in our suite, and Simon the cville cat got to keep one of his favorite nap spots. Mwa ha ha ha! A new page has been turned.
I suppose I should get some real work done, eh? Beware, further rambling might lead to an oh-so-riveting explanation/lecture on disk defragmentation, because I'm that exciting... Let's stay away from that sector. Har har har, nerds.
Rocket!
24 December 2009
I repeat
Five years gone.
I may have accomplished quite a fair amount throughout the duration, but I still hate it.
Not a surprise, of course; just a reminder...
I may have accomplished quite a fair amount throughout the duration, but I still hate it.
Not a surprise, of course; just a reminder...
15 December 2009
d'hiver
Hey all! Apparently promising more frequent updates guarantees less frequent updates... I guess I've been a bit busy lately? Excuses, excuses. Let's rock.
Snow!
My new method of therapeutic activity is, umm, acceptable... I took a week or so off after Thanksgiving, partially because I hadn't had a break since July, and partially because I felt pretty much horrendous. Last week I kicked things off, though, going in on Tues and Wed to do e-stim bike, weights, and the Motomed (active/passive arm/leg bike that doesn't implement electrical muscle stimulation). I planned on heading over on Fri as well, but both Thurs and Fri were so amazingly cold - 15 deg F, 40 mph wind? no thanks! - and I was sore from Motomedding, so I stayed in the suite and did stretches and weights and such instead. Ha, as if it's that warm in the suite...
Otherwise, hmm, what's up? Wiped and reinstalled Windows on a virus-laden lapster over the past week or so - how exciting! Piece of cake, though, as I've gone through the process literally hundreds of times. It's tedious that there are about 1048576 "Microsoft Updates" (security fixes) to be downloaded for XP by now; XP is great as far as Windows versions go, but it's undeniably rather vintage. The most dangerous part is to become the resident "computer guy", as such introduces the risk of being expected to fix everything for everyone all the time. Gotta keep nerdliness on the d-l.
Oh well, blah geek blah blah. Not much else going on. I'll be headed to So-IL for about 2wk during "the holidays" and enjoying the kitty overload... It'll be quick though, as I need to be here exercising, biking, etc. One minor dose of celebration: I think I'll have all of my holiday-related shopping done without going to a single brick 'n' mortar store! Mwa ha ha ha. I can't stand crowd behavior, particularly at this time of year... Why do people think I'm going to run over their children in a manual chair? Are your little ones' brains slower than my push speed? Am I more dangerous than the average distracted cart pusher? Ugh.
Trying hard to avoid a massive gripefest. I should go before I become even more grouchy. My apologies for the whine, but sometimes it needs to come out. Such holiday cheer!
Let me know if you'll be in the cville area soon and interested in scheduling a rendezvous! Catch you again soon... Rocket like Goddard.
Snow!
My new method of therapeutic activity is, umm, acceptable... I took a week or so off after Thanksgiving, partially because I hadn't had a break since July, and partially because I felt pretty much horrendous. Last week I kicked things off, though, going in on Tues and Wed to do e-stim bike, weights, and the Motomed (active/passive arm/leg bike that doesn't implement electrical muscle stimulation). I planned on heading over on Fri as well, but both Thurs and Fri were so amazingly cold - 15 deg F, 40 mph wind? no thanks! - and I was sore from Motomedding, so I stayed in the suite and did stretches and weights and such instead. Ha, as if it's that warm in the suite...
Otherwise, hmm, what's up? Wiped and reinstalled Windows on a virus-laden lapster over the past week or so - how exciting! Piece of cake, though, as I've gone through the process literally hundreds of times. It's tedious that there are about 1048576 "Microsoft Updates" (security fixes) to be downloaded for XP by now; XP is great as far as Windows versions go, but it's undeniably rather vintage. The most dangerous part is to become the resident "computer guy", as such introduces the risk of being expected to fix everything for everyone all the time. Gotta keep nerdliness on the d-l.
Oh well, blah geek blah blah. Not much else going on. I'll be headed to So-IL for about 2wk during "the holidays" and enjoying the kitty overload... It'll be quick though, as I need to be here exercising, biking, etc. One minor dose of celebration: I think I'll have all of my holiday-related shopping done without going to a single brick 'n' mortar store! Mwa ha ha ha. I can't stand crowd behavior, particularly at this time of year... Why do people think I'm going to run over their children in a manual chair? Are your little ones' brains slower than my push speed? Am I more dangerous than the average distracted cart pusher? Ugh.
Trying hard to avoid a massive gripefest. I should go before I become even more grouchy. My apologies for the whine, but sometimes it needs to come out. Such holiday cheer!
Let me know if you'll be in the cville area soon and interested in scheduling a rendezvous! Catch you again soon... Rocket like Goddard.
16 November 2009
not just monotics
Que tal, pals! Slowster McBloggypants, at your service. So much, yet so little, to cover! My grammar is awful. Let's rock.
Therapy has been, of course, grand. Err, mostly? The Wave [vibration thing] has been in and out of commission - mostly out - so I've not used that in a while. I haven't been on the Redcord [suspension magic] for a bit either, but just because we're working on other stuff au lieu. Bummer; the Redcord in particular is an amazing workout. Instead it's been the usual list of short and long sit maneuvers, stacks and stacks of weights, and a vast array of rolling and other prone/supine mat work. Zappy bike time is always queued up for the last part of the session, bien sûr. I've probably forgotten a heap of other stuff, but hey, it's been a while... oops.
On that note, for myriad reasons, I'm taking a bit of a break from hardcore PT! I'm overall not pleased with myself about the whole deal, but it seems "oh well" is my only available input option. I haven't really even had a break since early July (which involved enough car time that said week barely counts), so it's time to take a few breaths and de-fizzle. Ergo, for a bit I'm cutting back from real PT to, umm, essentially a glorified gym membership? I'll be doing weights, the fancy non-power-assist arm bike, and whatever else is available at the first floor Brasza workout area, as well as sneaking in Motomed and leg e-stim bike time upstairs when they're free over lunch and such. Unfortunately, I'll have to give up the other neato CSCIR equipment - Wave, Redcord, etc. - and almost all mat work while I'm on break. That is, I won't have dedicated trainers/therapists at my disposal, so I'm limited to whatever my daytime assistant and I can accomplish on our own. Again, I'm pretty bummed - it wasn't my idea, and I will inevitably regress no matter how hard I work - but I'm trying to convince myself that it'll be nice to be "liberated" for a bit. My last day of real PT for now will be 25 Nov. Anyway, I'm tired of talking about it, so there you go; methinks you get the idea.
BTW, other than some time in Cville for "the holidays" in December, I intend to stay in Detroit despite the PT break! I have at least one xlnt reason to keep living here, but it wouldn't make any sense to pack up and move out for such a brief period, only to move right back in. Puis, just an FYI. Any other applicable acronyms?
I imagine you might be info-saturated by now, so I'll save some irrelevantales for later. Feel free to reco subjects to cover once the barrel of free-time monkeys has arrived... Otherwise, beware of approaching mundaneity!
Check out the hook while the DJ revolves it.
Therapy has been, of course, grand. Err, mostly? The Wave [vibration thing] has been in and out of commission - mostly out - so I've not used that in a while. I haven't been on the Redcord [suspension magic] for a bit either, but just because we're working on other stuff au lieu. Bummer; the Redcord in particular is an amazing workout. Instead it's been the usual list of short and long sit maneuvers, stacks and stacks of weights, and a vast array of rolling and other prone/supine mat work. Zappy bike time is always queued up for the last part of the session, bien sûr. I've probably forgotten a heap of other stuff, but hey, it's been a while... oops.
On that note, for myriad reasons, I'm taking a bit of a break from hardcore PT! I'm overall not pleased with myself about the whole deal, but it seems "oh well" is my only available input option. I haven't really even had a break since early July (which involved enough car time that said week barely counts), so it's time to take a few breaths and de-fizzle. Ergo, for a bit I'm cutting back from real PT to, umm, essentially a glorified gym membership? I'll be doing weights, the fancy non-power-assist arm bike, and whatever else is available at the first floor Brasza workout area, as well as sneaking in Motomed and leg e-stim bike time upstairs when they're free over lunch and such. Unfortunately, I'll have to give up the other neato CSCIR equipment - Wave, Redcord, etc. - and almost all mat work while I'm on break. That is, I won't have dedicated trainers/therapists at my disposal, so I'm limited to whatever my daytime assistant and I can accomplish on our own. Again, I'm pretty bummed - it wasn't my idea, and I will inevitably regress no matter how hard I work - but I'm trying to convince myself that it'll be nice to be "liberated" for a bit. My last day of real PT for now will be 25 Nov. Anyway, I'm tired of talking about it, so there you go; methinks you get the idea.
BTW, other than some time in Cville for "the holidays" in December, I intend to stay in Detroit despite the PT break! I have at least one xlnt reason to keep living here, but it wouldn't make any sense to pack up and move out for such a brief period, only to move right back in. Puis, just an FYI. Any other applicable acronyms?
I imagine you might be info-saturated by now, so I'll save some irrelevantales for later. Feel free to reco subjects to cover once the barrel of free-time monkeys has arrived... Otherwise, beware of approaching mundaneity!
Check out the hook while the DJ revolves it.
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