Sunday, 28 June 2015

oopseee

Time to be a bit creative, even though last month was a bumper month with the bonus and tax rebate, there was also a couple of very big bills that needed paying, and I seem to have gone a bit mad with gadgets and toys...damn you paypal and your delayed payment system which still need paying.

I'm broke, before we even start the month off., might even go into the red in a few days...fortunately I have plenty of food in the freezer, and some spending cash in my wallet, but I've got to tread carefully this month and not waste a single cent on anything I don't need.

Its also about time I sold off some old things like my old projector and other odds and ends lying around...to raise a bit of cash.

With the summer holidays round the corner I can relax a bit, no need to be spending 5euros a day on bad canteen food. (I really really must get into a habit of taking lunch with me)
Its at times like this I really appreciate the mid month tax rebate from the mortgage that provides a bit of extra spending money but its still 2 weeks away, so the freezer, which is full of nice frozen curry, mince and tatties and a few other nice things will be emptied by then.

I will pop out and use the last of my cash to buy some mince and chicken to make a few more 1 pot dishes to freeze, so I won't be starving.

I've been trying to get hold of a bit of freelance work again, last year I had several gigs all lined up but couldn't get them to commit, and Sony's killing of their really nice PSM system has put paid to one especially nice gig that I had in progress.

The Z80 project has now been dragging on far too long too, its time to put in a full time push and finish it... I have let it slide far too much, due to pressures of work, and serious miscalculation of how bloody awkward it is to do anything significant in any kind of timescale.
Its been a very educational process for me as a coder, to step back 20-30 years and realise how hard it all was then, I genuinely had forgotten...yes we did a lot of games then but we had libs and tools to make it easier. We've lost all those.
I dunno if I want to do any more, I think my enthusiasm has been damaged by the constant stop start progress, but perhaps it might be a better idea to write some proper tools for it to make development easier....its a tiny market when all said and done, but an apparently loyal one...so I should consider it if I can churn them out fast enough.







Ahthankyew

Thursday, 25 June 2015

3.13 and still awake, so marking

I have pretty much got all but a couple of awkward things marked now...just in time for another influx of assignments tomorrow...fortunately its not going to be more than a days work.

I'd rather be in bed asleep, but the satisfaction of finally getting on top of my grades is keeping me going...maybe that's the cause of the insomnia?


This academic year has been a busy one for me, not quite sure why, normally I get at least 1 reasonably quite block, but its been 4 blocks of madness, doing 1st and 2nd year beginner programmers as well as some advanced stuff...

We change to a new system next year, with a cumulative marking system, so these long sessions should be a thing of the past... Even if the whole thing goes pear shaped and needs fixing that 1 single feature is something to preserve..

It wont of course, a lot of smart people are planning all these changes, there' will be a few hiccups, but we'll get it sorted, and I can look forward to being more productive as a coder, and enjoying working with projects from my students.


Next year will be a good one, I'm sure of it.


Ahthankyew

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Redemption maybe?

I worked out how to open the fuse cover on the monitor ....it has indeed blown..That may be a good sign, if the fuse blew before anything else, which of course it is designed to do,  it may still be serviceable...
Even better news the fuse box contained a SPARE.....brilliant..

I'll just pop it in, plug it in and....oh no....won't get caught with that again..

I've ordered a cheap step down transformer from ebay, no point buying an expensive one if it turns out that I did fry the inside. Hopefully this will work...and I won't have to go spending another 130 euros on a monitor......


In other news...oh god I'm knackered, 3 days of constant marking, and helping students when in the office, plus a long meeting...and I still have at least 1 days marking to do...then ...more to come....I hate marking. I had a few hours break for band practice, but just done another couple of hours..and off to bed, hopefully the insomnia that has bothered me the last few weels won't get in the way of a good 7 hours..

zzzz


Ahthankyew

Friday, 19 June 2015

How can you be soooo Stupid.

I can't believe what I did yesterday.....it actually started a few weeks ago, when I ordered a small and very portable personal monitor as part of our new audio set up for the band.
I had tried to order it vie Thomann in Germany, my favourite on line supplier of all things music...but they ran out just as I was ordering and the order was refused.grrr

So I scanned around and found another supplier, in the US..but shipped to EU with prices in Euro's...only 12 euros more, so I thought ok....and ordered it.

It arrived yesterday, and indeed it is exactly as ordered, the same as bandmate Richard got (he must have got the last one from Thomann).

It had a US power cable to a 3 pin kettle lead, but no worries have loads of kettle leads with EU plugs...(why didn't the bell ring at this point)

So I get hold of one, plug it in, and the blue light comes on...and immediately goes off....with a pop sound.
Arrhhh,,,,why didn't I check the voltage..this isn't identical to the Thomann one ...IT'S A US ONE...its 110v...

Despite almost every single EU device being dual voltage and auto or sometimes manual switching, US gear is nearly always fixed to 110v... I blew it up feeding it good old EU 220v.


I can't send it back...so grrrrrrrrrr.... It might be fixable, but even if it is I'd need to buy a step down transformer to get it to work...not worth the effort....sooooooo stupid.
I checked the website to see if it stated that it was US voltage, and yes there was a little banner (which I missed somehow) that stated they were all US config....... I somehow missed it.
The moral.....don't be a dickhead...

Ahthankyew

Thursday, 18 June 2015

Free power

I very much doubt it, but according to my monitoring meter, during the day when there is decent sunshine, and I'm just sat watching tv...I'm using no energy... or at least not enough to register.
Making a brew or turning on  the PC (now with triple monitors) does bump up the usage to measurable levels but its pretty clear my panels are paying their way so far.. 4 -5 years from now I'll be loaded ;)


Am almost on my last legs now, crawling to the end of the year, one more marking splurge then I can drown myself in a bottle or 50 and stay unshowered and soiled for 6 weeks holiday...can't wait.

I won't though, not for more than a week at least.  I plan to get some videos made using some new gear I've acquired over the last several months, but not had the time to really get into. I'm especially loving a new ribbon Mic I bought (actually I bought 2, a cheap one and a not so cheap one but still budget) These things actually make me sound quite nice when singing....well... we'll see when I do the recordings.

My last couple of recording efforts as well as our disaster gig in Breda, seriously knocked my confidence for singing...its only the application of toys and effects that is bringing me back into it..I just hope the results are worth posting.

 I also have to get some time to play and learn how to use my Launchpads with Ableton Live. In fact lots of little toys I have bought this year have so far been on the shelf waiting for time to play. I'll have to remedy that.

2 more weeks of "teaching", and 4 of marking....then free....freeeeeee.....freeeeeeee


Ahthankyew

Monday, 8 June 2015

Start counting the cash

Well the pennies at least. My panels are up on the roof and clamped down to their frames, pointing south.

They are quite heavy but I still think I need to weigh them down with some sandbags/concrete... I'll do that in a day or 2.

There's room for a couple more up there but I'll stick to these 2x250w jobs and see how it goes.

I really have no idea if this is going to generate much income but I like the idea that I am cutting some of my power usage and putting a bit back into the grid...if it works. There's no way to actually tell..My meter seems to be showing a slight drop in power usage but sub 100w's if the figures are to be believed, but its so variable its impossible to tell.

I have to have a new meter fitted on Thursday and maybe that will give me some idea of the feedback into the grid..




Ahthankyew

Saturday, 6 June 2015

Why do we post things on blogs an twitter?


I'm very active on Facebook, mainly as a source of amusement, information and occasional rants.....I kinda like Facebook, I probably post too often but its rare that I have full blown blow outs on there...unless very very drunk. or someone is just outright mad or wrong....its the OCD in me that has trouble letting go I think.
I make a point of only including people I actually know on FB, with a few exceptions that relate to work or special interests, its only my actual friends who are on there. The ones who know when I'm being a dick and don't mind telling me.

Here I post blogs as a form of therapy, originally to monitor my moods in case of depression, but more  now just to keep a record of things for friends and family that I am not in regular touch with.. .I look back on many of the posts myself sometimes wincing, sometimes with sadness and often with joy.
I have such a bad memory that many times I read things back and its all new to me again....it maybe a sign of senility....but its still nice to know the last 7 years of so of ups and downs as well as level flying have been noted for the future.

But twitter leaves me cold, I simply do not get it....it seems to  me that the vast majority of tweets, are made by people pontificating,  or boasting about their current activity....  There's an endless race to collect followers by being more and more interesting or more and more controversial, and in someway that number of followers makes you important.
 Its basically just a massive ego wank fest....listen to me..I'm saying something important, re-tweet for the world to get the pleasure of it all too...

I have to use it, some work colleagues release info on it and I have to keep in touch with things...but man....its a pile of wank.
Nothing your average person posts or says is even remotely important to anyone except themselves and those around them...kidding yourself that your truncated utterances have any relevance to the "twitterverse" is just delusional nonsense.... I hope I never get that deluded.

Today I tweeted that I have got my panels ready to mount.... WHY THE FUCK would anyone care??

I suspect I will quickly be removing myself from my 56 followers pretty soon for another prolong period of twitter indifference.



Ahthankyew

Friday, 5 June 2015

Panel delays and new sounds

I cricked my back trying to lift a panel to fit the converters to it...nothing major, but enough to make me think twice about fitting them till its healed. Also the weather until today has been wet and windy, so not ideal roof weather... this weekend though we'll be up
 and plugging it all in.It seems I do need to have my meter changed to get full advantage of the possible rebates and that's being organised now.

Its rather galling that as we approach what is going to be the hottest brightest weekend of the year I still have no panels up...but soon...soon.

In other news, I bought a new mic, I wanted to get hold of a proper tube mic on ebay but my efforts to get one at my kind of budget failed (came very close but got sniped so often) so I opted for something else, a budget ribbon mic, these are old style mics which are not ideal for performance but great in studios....so I'm told....and I wanted to see what they sounded like without breaking the bank, since high end versions can cost many hundreds (as can high end tubes)
I have to say I am mega impressed with this, 60euros , less than the cost of my budget condenser mic but the sound from this thing seems so much softer and rounder.. I've only listened to it through headphones so far but I'll do some recordings soon and maybe get some confidence back into my singing.
It does indeed give a warmer and thicker sound, but for me more importantly I don't need to force my voice or sing loud, it pics up even the quietest vocals in its pickup zone...really sweet.

I do hope when I record something and listen back I don't get as upset as I did last time I tried to do some singing tests....I never claim to be a singer, but I hate when I sing something thinking its nice and listen back to a drowning cat.



Ahthankyew

Friday, 22 May 2015

Still no panels but interesting meter reading

I made a bit of a mistake with the meter, it is designed for measuring the house total input power....so it can't actually isolate the energy from the panels....when they arrive.

But very interestingly, the meter gives a reading of 0.10 kw usage more or less when I am sat watching the telly...that's 100watts...that's bugger all... it goes up to 500-600watts when the cooker and things are on of course but just idle usage is actually pretty low.

If the Panels do indeed produce 250 or so watts (50% of their capacity) that means that during the day I'm earning and in the evening while there is some sun. I'm not burning as much as I thought...of course I will use far more than I make but its very interesting..

Naturally this is all total speculation, I may have the figures totally wrong, but if I see a neg or 0 value on that power usage while I am sat watching telly, I'm gonna be a happy little bunny.

I had to register the panels with the government energy people, not sure if this gets me a tax rebate or what but it does ensure that the power company have to pay me for an excess that goes in, not much chance of that of course but more helpfully if I need to get a new meter they will supply one free. Pretty sure though that my modern meter is up to the job..

So..just waiting for the panels... The frames are bigger than I was expecting, and in fact I honestly have no idea how big the panels, are so the initial idea of mounting on the shed might not work, in which case I 'll put them straight on the roof

Ahthankyew

A flatulence post


there just havn't been enough of them in recent years, I may have most of my flatulence issues under control but this is a 3 way blog....and theres far too much life, no games and no where near enough flatulence


Ahthankyew

Thursday, 21 May 2015

Phew it works.

For about 4 minutes I was pissed off beyond measure when the DL1608 seemed to be faulty, and had a massive latency when using it in band practice...... I was crestfallen that under live conditions it seemed to be no use at all

Fortunately it turned out there was a delay option I had set up.. I dunno exactly what it was meant to do, but removing it produced the perfect result

It was brilliant, less volume from the band, and feeding Britta's voice to a monitor so she could adjust her levels...so so so much better

No ringing ears when done...and everyone playing at controlled levels...

The gadget is a success.

Just need to get an Ipad2 that works to get full use of the software.



Ahthankyew

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

drunk again

Am drunk again...its becoming a regular thing....I know why, I just can't say here

so many sad songs to sing

not sure I can call this depression, just a sense of loss that won't go away.
have to stop now....this isn't helping me

more drink might


Ahthankyew

Monday, 18 May 2015

Saving energy is expensive!!!

The new panels have not arrived yet, and I'm having trouble sourcing a suitable frame for them, but that's small potatoes... But then again is it?  A  4 piece frame is going to cost around  80quid....whaaaaaat...maybe a trip to Hornbach the DIY place , will find a cheaper solution.

I've also made the decision to change all the current low wattage 7-11W bulbs in the house, with even lower wattage 3-5w LED's...yes I know its only a few watts but if you don't make the effort to do it nothing happens....but its an expense. 15 LED corn row bulbs for the overhead lights in the house...nearly 30 quid...
I quite like them though, they are very bright, like old style bulbs with a serious white light...which at 1st seems odd, but you get used to them. I have them in the Bathroom and office and about to swap out the playroom and kitchen spots for 5w LEDS instead of 22w Halogens.
So this fricking solar panel better be operating at full capacity for 9 months of the bleeding year just to pay for the damn bulbs and Aframe it sits on. Switching to lower wattage bulbs will help increase the kWhr return.

Of course the big power use isn't the bulbs, that's a drop in the ocean compared to the power usage of the TV's, Fridge, Freezer, Ovens and heating system...Not to mention the 2 or 3 computers I have on, though only 1 functional at any 1 time. And the Guitar gear is pulling a lot of ampage when its all fired up....dunno how to calculate Amps into watts...there's a formula... .

I just have to be sure to turn things off more..
However, anyone who invests in solar for the savings is rather missing the point, it'll be 5-8 years before I make any kind of profit on it.. Its simply a way to use clean energy and  invest some spare (lol as if I have any spare) cash in something that makes more than it would if it were sat in the bank for that same 5-8 years....

If only I could find a way to turn flatulence into energy....they collect cow methane in some farms in the uk as fuel... maybe I should investigate.

Oh weight...another blip in the diet, and another rise back into 88Kg ..though a much more distinctive amount of shoulder and chest muscle coming in. Also I am sure I can see, slightly hidden under layers of flab, the merest shadow of an ab or 2 coming into view on my ever so slightly flattening stomach, so there is some increasing muscle mass....or at least whats there is toning up..
Exercise regime is increasing to twice a day now, morning and night....push ups, sit ups and planking...increasing slightly every few days....I might walk past the gym again tonight....just to see if they are open


Ahthankyew

Friday, 15 May 2015

BB King is dead at 89

Not unexpected since he was taken ill a few weeks ago and announced he was in home hospice care. The end was close.
I never got to see him live, I had my chances, even here in NL a few years ago at the North Sea Jazz festival, I could have gone...but for some daft reason I put it off.

I wish I hadn't... Its hard to explain to people who don't know me, or who don't play guitar, but this man along with Peter Green inspired me so much when I first started to play guitar 35 years ago. I couldn't do the fast flashy stuff, but those 3 or 4 note licks from King and Green made me sit up and listen and I tried so hard to copy them, but never did.. Even now in my later phase of guitar playing frenzy, that wonderful tone is something I aspire to every time I shake a note.. I get close..but never there.

I shouldn't need to detail his career, or his eccentric naming of all his guitars as Lucille, his genre crossing style, his deep pure blues, his inability to sing and play at the same time, his reaching to white audiences, and his influence of the rock gods of the 60's and after... He was the greatest guitarist ever, who made 2 or 3 notes more meaningful than any shredders 100.. It was all down to tone and vibrato, it gave Lucille a voice no one could quite replicate.

I've never lost that love of hearing his vibrato. When, When Love To Comes town was first on the radio, I immediately recognised BB's playing and wondered what the hell was he doing playing with U2..his sound, his tone, his touch was unmistakable. He renewed his career with that one and became accessible to new generations, kicking off more tours... I still put off seeing him...next time I thought

I'm a fucking idiot for not taking the chances I had to go watch and enjoy... I won't make those kind of mistakes again.

Today though. I am sad, genuinely depressingly sad, that a great great guitar legend, the one who inspired all the others has gone.

I'm going to take my own Lucille down off the wall, give her a dust and play here along with a few BB backing tracks in his honour.

RIP Riley B King. You will most certainly be missed.



Ahthankyew

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Solar is go..energy saving is good...

Well I did it, I pulled the trigger on a couple of high output Sharp Solar panels....got 2 for 386UKP...
I am still investigating the best micro grid tie, invertor to buy, ideally the external ones you fit to the panel itself, since the more wire that goes from the panels to the invertor, the more power is lost...and with these things every inch of cable/power lost matters. There are some cracking ones in the US but not as simple to fit, and I need it to be very simple..


But there are some options, I just want to keep the total budget for the project under 600ukp... 500 would be even better.

Once everything arrives I will set them up on the Shed roof. as that has all day sun on it.. If the figures work out as expected to be better than interest from the bank after a year. I'll set up a couple of Kw's on the main roof.

In the meantime, I've become considerably greener than I realized.. I am switching all my halogen 22w lights to 5w LED's and a few other lights with led based systems....all picked up from ebay. The less kw's used in the house, the better my chances of getting a good return from the solar units.

The ideal thing would be to have 0 power bills, that's of course unlikely, but the closer I can get to it, the better.


Weight loss is also progressing, I did very briefly hit 76.999999 kgs on Friday, but Sundays BBQ and a bit of a "must eat the left overs" few days, has brought it back up to 77.5.. but I am continuing with the exercising and all is heading in the right downward direction


And after an especially hectic 2 days back at work, after my week off, catching up on work,  I am having a nice 4 day weekend...thanks to the Catholic south Netherlands' desire to celebrate Ascension Day. I am almost caught up on all my marking and can look forward to a chance to do a bit more Z80 coding...



Ahthankyew

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Solar ...hmmm

I've been giving very serious thought to the idea of getting a few large solar panels and fitting them on the roof to provide some additional income/reduction on bills.

As I've become more aware of my power usage due to the size of 1 power bill a few years ago, which was in error, I've started to replace all my lights with very low wattage systems and put timers into things that are not needed to be on all the time. This did result in a reduction of my overall electricity bills,. I expect some more of a rebate this year when the annual statement arrives.

Also turning the heating down a degree in the winter made no difference to me personally and produced more savings.

I'm especially interested in micro grid tie systems, which push the energy they generate back into the mains and allow you to use it, or have if fed back to the grid. The good point being that what you don't use effectively reverses the meter and you can, in theory get the power company to pay you if you put in more than you use...but that's unlikely. However it certainly reduces your bills.

Now some very rough calculations show that a 500euro system, of a set of 500w panels and converter, can generate about 80c a day income at half efficiency...considered a good guideline. ......assuming it does that all summer and gives even a few cents in the winter...it would still take some time to pay for itself....that makes it sound like a bad idead...

But..here's the thing.. I currently have about 4.5K sat in a savings account, its some grant from the government I have to give back as I've not started my Masters as planned. But till they request it, its sitting there...earning interest...at the massive rate of 13c a day......

so...500 euros can generate a daily average over the year  of around 40c's and 4.5K can generate 13c.......

Clearly its a better investment than putting any spare cash I have in the bank...though the bank lets me take it out...so I won't put all my cash into solar.
But I think this is the time to use my upcoming tax rebate for this(or rather whats left after my Dl1608 splurge)... I have space on my shed roof which gets sun all day long. If it works out as expected, and continues to outperform the banks interest rate.. I'll invest one of my 2 yearly bonus's in a couple of Kw system for the roof which has plenty of non-obscured space



Ahthankyew

Friday, 8 May 2015

over the hill after all

Well I decided to get back into the dating game.....dunno why, I seem to be perfectly happy getting piss drunk and crying into my pillows at night, but might be time for a change.

As usual I joined a dating site, lexa its called, its the Dutch version of Match. Its just a lot easier for a non Dutch speaking computer geek.

What a depressing experience that is though......scammers mostly Russian sending impossibly beautiful pics and clearly trying to hook you into sending them money. And then there's the "matches" who have not been on the site for months so clearly have moved on....great matching algorithms there.

But worse than that,  are so many people who simply ignore you...probably because they are not real, just shoved in there by the website to keep suckers like me pumping in money.

Its hard enough trying to sound interesting, windswept and witty in 200 words, picking your 5 best photo's that don't have you looking like a shaved sasquatch in a teeshirt but to get nothing when you say hello is demoralising.
.I think I was doing it right, sending nice emails with long explanations of why I'm not into one night stands, but like long walks on the beach, pina colada's and getting caught in to rain with someone who ticks all your boxes only to receive......  Nothing...not even a piss off you old fucker.
I actually quite like getting a no thank you, its some kind of contact after all.

Its not entirely bad, a few people have made contact, but nothing really clicking, I don't fit their set of tick boxes. Its very apparent that us over 50's are basically screwed (or not as the case may be). The meat market isn't really the place to find true love.

To top it all, both my ex's are on there too...sheez the whole world is single and yet no one seems willing to talk to nice honest blokes with flatulence issues....I knew Bina moved on a long time ago and have no interest in anything she does, but Brenda making a clear decision to find someone else...leaves me with a final bit of closure I needed....maybe time to stop getting drunk.



can't imagine why.


Ahthankyew

Thursday, 7 May 2015

87.5Kg :D Nice to break barriers and sound fixes implimented

phew the 4 days in a row gain was just a blip, last 3 days have seen the weight drop and yesterday dipped just below 88kg and today 87.5. Really pleased to see that 88 barrier broken, it seemed to stick there for ages.  Longer walks, and more pushups seem to have shifted it though. As well as making my own sushi. I find my 2-3pm sushi meal really fills me up nicely so I don't need to eat till much later. Now I am a bit more confident about how to make sushi I will whip up a batch every couple of days for lunch.

Now to break the 87 barrier... ideally before the weekend, when I'm having a bit of a party/BBQ with work, poker and band mates. I suspect there may be some grazing of food as I prepare most of it on Saturday.

My trousers are also falling off...not that that's entirely a good thing, I don't want to be out buying new clothes just yet... Belts for now. Oh and folds are gone...yup, no more folds... I am very pleased about that, stomach is flattening, moobs are not swinging as much and overall I am starting to see a noticeable improvement 6Kg is not a huge amount but the toning up as well helps it all come together... I might walk past the gym again today.



The DL1608 is really wonderful, still not 100% happy with channel 13's little bit of noise, but when something is plugged in it is working fine...I mailed Mackie to get an opinion, if they don't warm me of an error I'll let it go.

Had a band meeting to autopsy the bad gig and watch some video of us, and yes the sound at times was fucking  terrible, especially my singing parts, the vocals were horrible..as well as horribly distorted, it puts me off singing...but I know it was just too much signal to the PA causing massive clipping which we could not hear behind the PA speakers. But even so...I have so little confidence in my singing normally and to hear such horrible noises....uggg....

All the band members have agreed to invest in their own mics and/or personal monitors so we can make full use of the DL1608. We will use the gig money to help with that.
None of this will make us sing/play better but if we can hear each other better and eliminate sound swamping issues we often have in rehearsals and most noticeably at the Happy Days gig we will create an atmosphere for improvement.
Onward an upward.



Ahthankyew

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Small faults, I can live with....

The DL1608 arrived and after a bit of phaffing about getting it to downgrade its firmware to work with my Ipad1, its fucking awesome....but....

2 of the channel signal lights light up and stay lit regardless of any input.. This isn't right, they should only light up when there is a signal, so staying lit suggests some kind of noise...sure enough turning it up to 50+ you hear some hiss, but then you hear hiss on any empty channel at that level, however this is slightly higher.

But...it does work, since that line input will never have to be gained that high, so the best case scenario is that the light is just faulty and won't go off... given the saving I made, I can live with that,
But if it indicates a possible component fail...it might need to go back. Even though the seller isn't admitting to any fault, its there for all to see.

I've contacted Mackie to ask them what they think...we'll have to see.

It is an amazing thing though jut rough tests demonstrate it is something wonderful....can't wait to use it in anger...if its not going to blow up next week.




Ahthankyew

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

That better be muscle!!!

hmmm despite sticking to the diet (more or less) I seem to be gaining weight, only a fraction of a kilo but its started to go up rather than down since Friday when I did splurge a bit...I find this very strange, as I am being quite harsh on myself, food wise..avoiding snacks, no sugar, small meals and seldom breaking my 1500cal limit but still aiming for the 1000 a day.

But I am noticing that  my stomach is flattening and shoulders and chest are getting a little more defined... trousers also feel a lot looser, and teeshirts a bit tighter.

so.. I am assuming I am gaining a little bit more muscle mass, and since muscle is heavier than  fat...that's a good thing......I hope so... I don't really want to drop the calorie intake any more.

I am doing more pushups, sit ups and walks, so my overall condition is also improving and I even walked past the gym yesterday...to check the opening times.....that's progress!!

But I still need to lose the weight, so I'll slowly start to increase the exercise, and try harder to stick to the core 1000 calories. The gym may soon have to make space for me........
I still have the VL2, got a message from the potential buyer last night that he wasn't able to arrange the funds, so its still on the pedal board, not really too unhappy about that, but I do want to get a VL3X and am determined to sell at least of few of my existing pedals to fund it. The older gear is depreciating terrible now that new stuff is out so I need to get rid soon.

Having splurged on the DL1608 I really don't want to dip into my pocket any more..Its been an expensive month and rice and lentils is not that appetising.





Ahthankyew