Gaaaaah! FedEx Ground sucks. My downpipe isn't arriving today as it was supposed to, so I don't get to install it on Sunday like I had hoped. Grrrrrrrr.

I'm suitably pissed. I want my freakin' weekend right now.

Welp, looks like it's going to be a fun weekend.

Friday, after we get the system boxed up and ready to ship, I'm headed down to Boston to pick up Sabrina... stop off at Sean's place to work on some spark plugs, meet some hedgehogs, and generally have a fun night. Saturday, we'll head back into town for Paul van Dyk at Avalon. Sunday, I'm putting in my new downpipe, and I'll probably put the straight pipe back on for the axle-back. Monday, we'll head back into the city, and I'm going to help her move into her new place. Hopefully crash out down there on Monday night, take Tuesday off from work, and drive back and take a deep breath.

Busy times, busy times. I'm crazy excited, though.

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New toys on the way for the WRX... some header wrap from Summit Racing, and a Bosal catless twin-dump downpipe. Hooray! More power is good.

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Katsumi (JP) has actually updated his site, after a nine-month hiatus! Wooo! I'm going to see if I can convince him to come out to Elements at Phoenix Landing tonight. Wee!

Well, as predicted, I had an awesome weekend. I saw Felix da Housecat at Avalon with Sabrina on Friday night, and had a blast. Felix put down a hell of a set, including staples like Silver Screen Shower Scene, but also put down some new bootlegs... one involving Devo's classic Whip It, and another one of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit with the vocals from Fischerspooner's Emerge. Quite the set.

Saturday was spent enjoying seafood and a visit to the beach, and Sunday was over an hour of karting at F1 Boston, both outdoors and indoors with the guys from NESIC.

So, yesterday and today are spent trying to finish up our big deliverable for work. My official deadline for software development is the close of business tomorrow (Wednesday), and it looks like I'm actually going to hit it.

Well, back to work for me. Just a quick update.

In the vein of reality being stranger than fiction, there's a new George W. Bush doll, decked out in full naval flight garb. I thought that commercialization and globalization had gone terribly far, but this just takes the cake. A company in Hong Kong is manufacturing the doll, selling it in the US, just in time for a re-election campaign. I'm usually not one for conspiracy theories, but what exactly are the motivations behind something like this?

I worked on the look of the page a little bit more. Like it? Good.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, son?"

"What does regret mean?"

"Well son, the funny thing about regret is, that it's better to regret something you have done, than to regret something you haven't done... and by the way, if you see your mom this weekend, you can be sure and tell her...

SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN"

    - from "Orbital - Satan"

Time to get seriously cracking on some code. It's going to be a long week from here on out. Weeee...

Musical selection: Orbital (entire US release LP catalog, including 1, 2, Sniv, In Sides, Middle of Nowhere)
Beverage selection: Dunkin' Donuts Decaf, cream and Splenda
Lighting: Soft, white, indirect.

And here goes...

Updated the page a little bit, cleaned it up... I think I'm going to break apart my links section.

Well, that monitor ended up being hosed last week too. It fried after an hour hooked up to my machine. I should just get them to order me another flat LCD panel. Heheh.

The family's doing well... mom is fighting with her rheumatoid arthritis because of the crazy wet weather we've been having all month. My brother is doing well, considering everything that's going on, and dad's doing well too. The story is way too long to get into here, but I'm glad to see that my immediate family has the support of everyone around them, whether family, friend, or neighbor.

My weekend is already shaping up to be a busy one. Friday night, I'll be out at Felix da Housecat at Avalon. Saturday looks like it's going to consist of finding some sort of shoreline and associated cuisine with Sabrina. Finally, Sunday will be a short outdoor endurance karting event in East Bridgewater, MA. I'm psyched, but I'm going to be exhausted by Monday.

In other news, the Washington Post had an interesting article this morning about a new "risk syndrome" that they're finding in overweight teens. I don't think that high triglycerides, low HDL levels, abdominal fat, or hypertension represent anything new to the public as a risk factor for heart disease. This is the first time, though, that I've seen high blood sugar referred to as an indicator of heart disease risk.

After low-carbing for a few weeks, I've come to notice features like this in articles. Here's the thing that disturbs me the most:

The number of overweight children tripled between 1970 and 2000, reaching 15 percent of those ages 6 to 19. Being overweight increases the risk for a host of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The number of children developing Type 2 or "adult onset" diabetes has already begun to rise.

If you pay attention to the dates, you'll notice that this massive increase in juvenile (and adult) obesity occurred entirely AFTER the government began to reccomend a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet as a "heart healthy" lifestyle. It's no small wonder that this country is in a metabolic crisis. Our bodies are not capable of operating properly with such high carbohydrate levels floating around. The presence of refined foods that use high-carbohydrate, low-nutrition components (white flour, high fructose corn syrup, nearly any other refined sugar, starches, pastas) permits the human metabolism to get lazy. The fuel is too dense, and our bodies get fat as a result of all of the excess.

Unfortunately, when someone like Dr. Atkins or any other low-carbohydrate evangelist gets up to point things like this out, the nutrition community flips a collective gasket and attacks. These are the nutritionists who stand to lose money, clients, and notoriety as the public realizes that the current "accepted" thinking in human nutrition is fundamentally flawed.

Well, I'm off my soapbox, at least until later today.

My secondary monitor is back from Dell... weee. Time to hook it back up. Hopefully this time, my funky graphics mode calls don't thrash the guns like last time.

Then BBC Radio1, Essential Selection. Ahh, I love Friday afternoons.

Probably one of the coolest things I've seen recently... okay, two of the coolest things I've seen recently, both from the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at MIT. One of them is a "robotic" water strider, and the other is a robotic snail. The water strider is wind-up mechanical, but really, and truly novel.

Fluids are truly underrated... it's great to see roboticists fiddling around with this stuff instead of all following Rodney Brooks like blind disciples. Don't get me wrong, I think Brooks has some cool ideas, but I think he's singlehandedly responsible for killing any momentum towards true, generalized artificial intelligence at one of the foremost institutions in the nation. So sad.

I still have this nasty cold, so I get to spend another day around my apartment, stressing about all the stuff I need to get done at the office. Blah. I can't afford to be sick tomorrow, so I'm going to be hydrating and resting as much as possible today.

I'll be headed down to see my mother in RI this weekend... she's been having a tough time of it recently, with lots of stupid stuff happening around the house. I think I'll head down there and take her out to lunch, and try and put a smile back on her face.

Sweet new picture of the CPD Racing service area from this weekend... I'm the blurred out guy working at the rear end of the car. You can identify me by my very worn-out New Balance sneakers. =)

Ugh... I have some seriously nasty cold this morning. I'm all stuffed up, sore throat, etc. I feel like crawling in a hole sleeping for four days. Blah.

Well, for those of you who have seen me for the past week or so, you know that I've started in on a new diet. After seeing Sean lose so much weight on Atkins, I decided last Thursday to start in on Induction.

Now, since I'm pretty familiar with the physiology behind the core Atkins principles, I'm tailoring the process to my own metabolic requirements. I'm severely limiting carbohydrates, and monitoring my carbohydrate concentrations to prevent glycogen accumulation and to maintain a low-grade ketosis. I'm not living the letter of the Atkins Induction plan (particularly with regard to nuts, cheeses, and such), but I'm still staying below the 20g daily digestible carbohydrate limit.

In the interests of sharing with other friends who are starting and/or maintaining a weight loss program, I'm putting my data online for all to see. One might usually think of such personal information as being embarassing, but I don't really care. I'm gathering data in the same general vein as Hacker's Diet from John Walker. This uses a 10-day moving average trend line and daily weigh-in to help me visualize and manage my progress. As a scientific viz geek, it's the most sensible approach for me.

Anyways, my overall progress so far has resulted in losing a full 10lbs in 12 days. Pretty cool, if you ask me. You can see my full chart and associated numbers here.

I returned yesterday from the general area of Rumford, Maine, where I was participating in the Maine Forest ProRally. John and I worked as service crew for the Havir/Putnam CPD Racing open-class Prodrive-prepared car. It was a great experience to work with John Parker (crew chief) and Matt Zawada, as well as with Doug and Scott. We learned a lot about what to do (and what not to do) when running service crew for an event, and car, like this one. I'll have shots of the service area eventually, but for now, here's a shot of the car on special stage 1.