The Challenge: One Hundred Pushups

On Sunday I accepted a challenge from a friend: To see if we can get to 100 pushups. What is it? Check out the One Hundred Pushups website.
Since I’m in fairly good health and exercise regularly, and just had a physical where my doctor told me I’m in good health, on Sunday evening I tested myself to see how many I could manage. I did 20 pushups in fairly short order. I probably could have done more, as I wasn’t completely dead at the end of the set, but I decided 20 was my limit for that day.?
Given my age and 20 pushups, I am Rank 3 on the test. So I rested yesterday, which is to say, no pushups, although I did practice Aikido at my dojo last night. This morning, I began on week 1. I completed the first day, doing sets of 10, 12, 7, 7, and 10 pushups. Now that my arms feel like jelly, I’m off to the shower.
Do you want to take the challenge? Let me know and we can do it together!

Dell System Analyzer Is a Waste of Time

While looking for hardware upgrades for a client’s server this morning, I decided to run the Dell hardware analyzer via their website to save myself the time of digging up the Dell Service Tag or running a one-line PowerShell command, I watched as the system installed an ActiveX control in the browser (always a pleasent feeling…)? and identified the server as…
a P703w All-in-One Printer
OR
V505 & V505w All-in-One (PRODUCT) RED (tm) Printer.
Uhm. Okay. Right… That was helpful.

GCFW: GIAC Certified Firewall Analyst

As of the time I’m writing this, you can see I am the newest GCFW. From the GIAC website, this means I now

“…have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to design, configure, and monitor routers, firewalls, and perimeter defense systems.?

Combine that with my GSNA
from last year, which states that I

“… have the knowledge, skills and abilities to apply basic risk analysis techniques and to conduct a technical audit of essential information systems”?

and it seems that I really need to get back to work with these skill thingies I’ve accumlated!

I've Hit a New low

Last week, I followed a friend’s example and started celebrating my birthday two days in advance, and really didn’t finish until, oh, about a week after. As a result, I had my highest caloric intake in a single day since I started the Medifast diet last June. See this graph for a visual.

Weight and Calories Graph
Weight and Calories Graph

Observe that I’ve only broken 3,000 calories in a single day twice. Once when I was at the SANS conference in December, and this past weekend, when I consumed far too much of my own Greek Olive and Onion bread (which, by the way, is getting rave reviews all around, even from my 4 year-old godson, who “is not fond of olives and onions”).
The kicker is that I weighed in at 163.8# this morning – an all-time low for me as an adult. I think I’ll go get some beer and pizza now.
I bet you thought this post was about the divorce, didn’t you? Psych!

Are We There Yet?

This weekend, thanks to my friend’s small child, I had a brilliant suggestion for auto makers and after market car whiz-bang installers: Stop installing DVD players in the back seat (which just perpetuate the military industrial entertainment complex) and GPS receivers in the dashboard (which lead to distracted drivers and accidents).
Instead, put the display for the GPS in the back seat. What does this accomplish?

  1. Drivers are no longer visually distracted by GPS maps. Instead, they can ask the kid in the back seat, who will be more than happy to provide navigation functions.
  2. Drivers are no longer distracted by the sound of “are we there yet? Are we there yet,” from the back seat.
  3. Kids learn the value of being helpful, which both pleases the parents and speeds the journey.

Obviously a person driving solo can’t use a GPS display in the back seat, so maybe you need two, but still, skip the DVD player.
Think about it.