Hey Everyone,
Just a quick announcement, in an effort to come up with a self scoring contest, I came up with the ridiculously simple concept of robots firing lasers at each other in a fictional arena. Each robot controlled by a different PHP script, and a central arena managing it all.
It's basically a turn based game where your robots take turns for you. It's been rather popular around the office, and such so I thought I'd open it up to get more opinions and find more bugs.
It's not an official contest yet (no glittering prizes), but it will be one we get the bugs ironed out.
Please go take a look: Web Bot Battle!
Just a quick announcement, in an effort to come up with a self scoring contest, I came up with the ridiculously simple concept of robots firing lasers at each other in a fictional arena. Each robot controlled by a different PHP script, and a central arena managing it all.
It's basically a turn based game where your robots take turns for you. It's been rather popular around the office, and such so I thought I'd open it up to get more opinions and find more bugs.
It's not an official contest yet (no glittering prizes), but it will be one we get the bugs ironed out.
Please go take a look: Web Bot Battle!
I climbed recently at Val-David, and had a rather interesting time. The climbs weren't particularly hard, just... different. Most of them were "slab" I think. Where the rock isn't straight up, but actually leans in, which makes it easier, which is cool. The problem was a near complete lack of handholds.
I think the climbs were really good for me from a technical prospective. I (and apparently most men) use a lot of upper body strength when climbing. Now while I'm actually not that strong, it's not uncommon to see me hanging off one or both hands while my feet do something rather silly that generally works out in the end. Another favourite is pulling with a hand and pushing with my feet to jump up and grab something higher. This works, but it can only get me so far.
Rock climbing shoes are curiously good at gripping things, putting all your weight on a small rock sticking out less than a centimeter is pretty common. So once I actually started trusting my feet to carry all my weight, things went pretty well. I'd like to try a few slabs at allez-up next time, and restrict myself from using any hand holds while I'm on them.
I've also discovered my new favorite formation, the crack. Easier than stairs!
Note to my PHP friends: I had zero posts for a long time, so I've gone with some personal posts to get back in the swing of things, I should get back into PHP posts soon.
I think the climbs were really good for me from a technical prospective. I (and apparently most men) use a lot of upper body strength when climbing. Now while I'm actually not that strong, it's not uncommon to see me hanging off one or both hands while my feet do something rather silly that generally works out in the end. Another favourite is pulling with a hand and pushing with my feet to jump up and grab something higher. This works, but it can only get me so far.
Rock climbing shoes are curiously good at gripping things, putting all your weight on a small rock sticking out less than a centimeter is pretty common. So once I actually started trusting my feet to carry all my weight, things went pretty well. I'd like to try a few slabs at allez-up next time, and restrict myself from using any hand holds while I'm on them.
I've also discovered my new favorite formation, the crack. Easier than stairs!
Note to my PHP friends: I had zero posts for a long time, so I've gone with some personal posts to get back in the swing of things, I should get back into PHP posts soon.
So I've been biking for a while, and I'm really starting to enjoy it. As I mentioned before I aim to rock climb, cycle, or hit the weights at the gym every day so I generally bike about three times a week. I went biking with a friend earlier this week and he contrasted our cycling styles.
Apparently, I bike like I'm a car, while he cycles like he's a pedestrian (apparently my methodology requires a bit more guts). While when biking down the road I'll stick to the right, but I'm more than willing to take the left lane when I'm turning (there's something empowering about towering over almost every car on the road), even on some of Montreal's busier roads. I also signal my turns, and stop for red lights. My friend on the other hand relentlessly sticks to the right, crosses roads with pedestrian lights rather than the big turn, and runs lights like any true Montreal pedestrian would.
As a small disclaimer, I also wear a helmet, have a blinking LED tail light, appropriate headlight and all required reflectors.
On a side note, I found a bigger hill. 54.8km/h, I could have gone much faster but there's always a street light at the bottom of these things, and the roads here are horrible. I find I actually peak well after the bottom of the hill (after I've passed the street light).
Apparently, I bike like I'm a car, while he cycles like he's a pedestrian (apparently my methodology requires a bit more guts). While when biking down the road I'll stick to the right, but I'm more than willing to take the left lane when I'm turning (there's something empowering about towering over almost every car on the road), even on some of Montreal's busier roads. I also signal my turns, and stop for red lights. My friend on the other hand relentlessly sticks to the right, crosses roads with pedestrian lights rather than the big turn, and runs lights like any true Montreal pedestrian would.
As a small disclaimer, I also wear a helmet, have a blinking LED tail light, appropriate headlight and all required reflectors.
On a side note, I found a bigger hill. 54.8km/h, I could have gone much faster but there's always a street light at the bottom of these things, and the roads here are horrible. I find I actually peak well after the bottom of the hill (after I've passed the street light).
So, I've decided this is the summer that I finally get into shape. Apart from not being happy with my current weight, getting out will also allow me to meet more people in Montreal which can only be a good thing.
I've come up with three key activities, and my goal is to do one every day. I don't always make it, but I've had some good stretches. The activities are: rock climbing, cycling (currently 12k, planning on upping this a bit once I find a better half way point), and weights at the gym.
Rock Climbing: A friend introduced me to this a few months ago, and apart from a rather difficult first experience I quite enjoy it. There's a couple local climbing gyms, as well as a great group of people who go out doors every week or two. Thanks to some great help and instruction I'm now gaining confidence on 5.7s (Yosemite Decimal System). I usually climb at Allez Up but tried Horizen Roc this past weekend. I can't wait until I'm good enough to take a lead climbing class. Also, there's a trapeze class at Horizen Roc
.
Cycling: I've loved riding a bike forever, and it seems to satisfy a need to spend time doing something thoughtless while being outdoors that's been left empty since I didn't have a dog to take for a walk. I bought a bike a while back, and have started biking to a distant grocery store for a bottle of water and an apple, then back. I've already had several minor repairs to my bike as a result of Montreal's crappy roads. I average 24Km/h, and my max speed so far is 47Km/h.
Gym: I joined the YMCA a while back with a friend. The downtown YMCA here has two gyms, the regular one on the third floor (that's huge, and quite busy), and a "technogym" on the second floor that's small, doesn't have the nice big windows, and is usually almost dead. They've got this great program where included in your membership every 6 weeks you can have a meeting (~1hr) with a personal trainer to work on setting up a program, your goals etc. They will also teach you how to use the machines (critical for me). In the techno-gym, it goes one step further where your work out program is encoded into a smart key, all the machines take the key, they then: set the appropriate weight/resistance, #repetitions, #sets, seat height and other adjustments, plus it records your work out. I like this option, as it basically lets me shut my brain down for an hour while I work out. Thanks to the computerized machines, I get handy little reports, so for example: during my first workout I lifted a total of 7,945Kg (that total could be obtained by lifting a 1Kg weight 7954 times, or some more sensible combination of more weight on different muscles), I'm now past 10,500Kg.
I'm pretty sure I've got some new muscles where there was none before, though you'd have to be quite familiar with my body in order to notice... So if you've noticed please stop stalking me.
I've come up with three key activities, and my goal is to do one every day. I don't always make it, but I've had some good stretches. The activities are: rock climbing, cycling (currently 12k, planning on upping this a bit once I find a better half way point), and weights at the gym.
Rock Climbing: A friend introduced me to this a few months ago, and apart from a rather difficult first experience I quite enjoy it. There's a couple local climbing gyms, as well as a great group of people who go out doors every week or two. Thanks to some great help and instruction I'm now gaining confidence on 5.7s (Yosemite Decimal System). I usually climb at Allez Up but tried Horizen Roc this past weekend. I can't wait until I'm good enough to take a lead climbing class. Also, there's a trapeze class at Horizen Roc
. Cycling: I've loved riding a bike forever, and it seems to satisfy a need to spend time doing something thoughtless while being outdoors that's been left empty since I didn't have a dog to take for a walk. I bought a bike a while back, and have started biking to a distant grocery store for a bottle of water and an apple, then back. I've already had several minor repairs to my bike as a result of Montreal's crappy roads. I average 24Km/h, and my max speed so far is 47Km/h.
Gym: I joined the YMCA a while back with a friend. The downtown YMCA here has two gyms, the regular one on the third floor (that's huge, and quite busy), and a "technogym" on the second floor that's small, doesn't have the nice big windows, and is usually almost dead. They've got this great program where included in your membership every 6 weeks you can have a meeting (~1hr) with a personal trainer to work on setting up a program, your goals etc. They will also teach you how to use the machines (critical for me). In the techno-gym, it goes one step further where your work out program is encoded into a smart key, all the machines take the key, they then: set the appropriate weight/resistance, #repetitions, #sets, seat height and other adjustments, plus it records your work out. I like this option, as it basically lets me shut my brain down for an hour while I work out. Thanks to the computerized machines, I get handy little reports, so for example: during my first workout I lifted a total of 7,945Kg (that total could be obtained by lifting a 1Kg weight 7954 times, or some more sensible combination of more weight on different muscles), I'm now past 10,500Kg.
I'm pretty sure I've got some new muscles where there was none before, though you'd have to be quite familiar with my body in order to notice... So if you've noticed please stop stalking me.
