I had a routine physical a couple of weeks ago to see how I’m doing. Given my weight loss, age, and the fact that I hadn’t had one in several years, I figured it was time. I checked out pretty well in the office, and last week had bloodwork done. I just got the results. I’m within the “reference range” for a man my age on everything except my Calcium levels, which are 8.5 (in a reference range of 8.6-10.5mg/dl).
My doctor wrote a note on the results saying “These are great, Peter. Good work.”
On that note, anyone else up for joining me on the hundred pushups challenge?
Fair Point Update Du Jour
Today, we are working with Fair Point on yet another outage. This time it’s a T1 line from Brandon to Middlebury, Vermont. After the standard “It’s customer
equipment” line (which we now believe is a standard response), and a full day of down time, Fair Point finally dispatched a technician…. to the wrong end of the T1. I realized this only when he was asking about “the other T1 line” in the router. When I said “there’s only one line” I realized he was looking at the Brandon router, not the Middlebury one.
Here’s how I imagine their troubleshooting process looks:
Hundred Pushups: Week 2, Day 1
Ouch. Week two started today, with sets of 14, 14, 10, 10, and 15 pushups. The last one was a killer, and for the first time, my shoulder hurt right from the get-go, but I did them. I grunted and groaned, but I did ’em! Hah! Take that, old self!
More Love for Fair Point
Today I decided that, since we never use it, it was time to ditch our toll-free phone number. Why should I continue to pay $30/mo for something we never use? So I called Fair Point and after re-reading the account number twice was able to get the account canceled “on one end.” However, I was told I needed to call another number to finish up the cancelation.
First question: why do I have to call two numbers?
So I called the second number and, when it asked what number I was calling about I keyed it in. Of course, there was no record of the 800# in their system.
After being on hold for 16:55 minutes, and repeated “Thank you for holding. Someone will be right with you,” messages, I finally got through to someone. I was very careful not to give out my main phone number, for fear of them disconnecting that instead.
Conclusion: Fair Point is overworked/whelmed by the northern New England Verizon acquisition.
Social Engineering Win, Hotel Security FAIL
This weekend I checked out of the hotel I stayed at in Boston. Thinking I wasn’t going back to my room, I left my keys and other miscellaneous (non-personally-identifiable) paperwork in the room. Among said paperwork were a few complimentary drink coupons, which I realized I could use for coffee at breakfast. Continue reading “Social Engineering Win, Hotel Security FAIL”
100 Pushups Week 1 Complete, 200 Situps FAIL
Given my serious lower back pain (like, don’t expect to get into or out of a car without going “Ow! What the hell!?”), I’ve temporarily given up on the idea of doing 200 situps in the next six weeks. Fortunately, however, I can do pushups without the slightest bit of pain in the affected area, so I carried on with Week 1, Day 3 yesterday, banging out sets of 11, 15, 9, 9, and 14.5 pushups. Yes, 14.5. I kinda collapsed halfway up the last one.
Tomorrow I start Week 2!
The Journeys of Socrates
This week I finished reading Dan Millman’s The Journeys of Socrates: An Adventure
No Pushups Today
I seriously screwed up my lower back, presumably last night while doing my situps/crunches. I’m not sure how I did it, but combining that plus a full day Aikido seminar and I’m calling it a night. I’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow and try to get back onto the pushups wagon.
200 Situps, Day 1
I was a bit concerned that maybe I had cheated in my 200 situps initial test because I wasn’t sure that I’d held the situp for 1-2 seconds, as I didn’t read that part of the website until after doing them. So today I started on Day 1, doing sets of 15, 18, 10, 10, and finally 23 situps. Phew! My abs feel weak, but now I don’t feel quite so guilty about those french fries I had at dinner.
Tomorrow is a day-long Aikido seminar here in Boston, so pushup performance may suffer as a result. Stay tuned to find out!
100 Pushups, Day 2. 200 Situps, Day 1
Yesterday was day 2 of my Hundred Pushups Challenge. I did my sets of 10, 12, 8, 8, and 11 pushups, although I later found I should have done at least 12 on the last set. Oops. To compensate, I did another dozen in the evening, hoping that this is okay.
Have you taken the challenge yet? If so, let me know by either commenting here on my blog or messaging me on Twitter.
Later today, I start Day 1 of the 200 Situps Challenge.