I am a software programmer working at RealVNC with many interests including singing, and am a Christian. Many of my friends remember me as a Part III mathematician at Peterhouse. Find out more or contact me!
Making the rounds today, and just wanted to point it to anyone living under a rock: Google has released their new programming language, Dart. See also discussion on eg Hacker news.
Kettlebell
All I can say is, I want one. Been doing KB movements with plates just now, and last week, and they really are amazing. Massive fun.
Some people might be interested in this. He doesn’t mention it in the video, but the diet chart in the middle’s a giveaway that he does CrossFit. (Parkour Documentary — Strength is Happiness, via “Tami”)
An interesting discussion of what counts as an example of the really interesting new ideas that bounce around in academia. I’m already forgetting Chaitin’s theorem, so I can’t comment at all on the proof, but see Tao’s remarks at the bottom.
Weekly roundup
Back stiff every time I sit up: subbed plate thrusters for wallballs yesterday and knackered delts and dorsals. Good times: sticking to programme and joints feeling better. Unfortunately, after several emotionally exhausting weekends seeing someone I’d rather not, sleep is increasingly unsettled. Doing my usual trick of much ceiling staring in the evening, waking up sore from tensing and turning, and picking up my phone to check the time, yesterday four minutes before the alarm, today two. Waking up consistently on time is a bad sign for me usually that I’m too preoccupied with my old struggle. Saddly, I’ve tried a few times with a few people, but haven’t had mutual mood for a good chat for weeks; needs determination.
In other news: last week, watched some films; had Thursday and Friday nights with Eden; Hannah got engaged on Saturday to Andy; re-read first chunk of Doctrine of the Knowledge of God; had Student Team meeting; got some more weight plates; and, massively enjoyed Broadway Melody of 1940, a slight surprise.
Joys of commuting: playing chicken with the oncoming cars on Arbury Road
Ouïe et non
I have a confession to make; it’s like telling someone you’re ill, an admission of weakness. I’m afraid of singing now. When I was littler, I had ringing problems in my ears sometimes, and in the last year, it’s been coming back somewhat. I simply can’t hear when I’m in tune anymore, so I’ve been steadily losing confidence. The last year of choir has been increasingly embarrassing, as I’ve become more and more out and unsure, and I just wanted to make a clean break: I’m not singing in public anymore because I’m too worried I won’t hit the note.
Prolix tip: It’s not all about muscle
While I’ve been stepping up my attachment to Crossfit since Christmas, I’ve been bibbing the Kool-Aid thoroughly and picked up some new ideas of my own. Unfortunately, poor Daniel and Hannah have been subjected to my bouts of holding forth on fitness and nutrition, as I think things through and come up with my own, idiosyncratic take on things. By and large, I am enjoying Crossfit a lot and would reccommend it to absolutely anyone. I’ve finally taken the plunge this week of buying some kit by getting some weights and upgrading my PVC and rope to a set of proper rings.
This post has a purpose. All the material on the Crossfit site is very helpful and seems about right, so, far be it from me to suggest it needs supplementing, but there have been some things I wish I could have appreciated sooner. The first is that fitness is not all about muscle.
It might surprise some people, but I am actually sensible about taking things steadily, avoiding overtraining and burning out. I didn’t jump into Crossfit before making sure I could keep it up for a reasonable length of time, I’ve been getting back to doing piles of bodyweight excercises since Christmas with increasing regularity, and each time I try a new excercise, I am, by my own reckoning, sufficiently cautious with it. I thought I was doing OK when I did loads of ring dips a couple of weeks ago after getting my new toy. After a hiatus of a few years, I’d had chair dips back in my routine since about Easter, and it seemed a sensible step up.
The tip is not to overextend your muscles on new excercises. I was strong enough to do dips on the rings, after a couple of days getting used to them, but the range of motion is larger than chair dips, and I simply wasn’t flexible enough. I pulled my shoulder by dipping too low (it feels like it’s just between the delt and lat). It wasn’t fatigue, or muscular tiredness along the whole of the muscle, but the twinges at the end of a muscle from pushing my arms up with my whole bodyweight. It’s getting better, slowly, but it does serve as a lesson to me. Fitness is not all about muscle.
Windows 8
I’ve got to play with a copy of Windows 8. It’s a strange feeling, sort of like getting to drive the next Porshe a year before it’s released. I not quite comfortable with spending so much money on something conspicuous, I won’t buy it myself, and I prefer my Aston in any case (that is, Unix). But, nonetheless, it is strangle interesting and cool to have a play. It looks very different: the thoroughly predictable base of Windows 7, but with the ‘start’ menu replaced by a touch interface, and other big changes. It’s going to break lots of people’s code, people will complain about how it looks, and I haven’t had long enough with it yet to judge myself whether it’s worth it or not, but it won’t be long before we start seeing it everywhere, for better or worse. I’d rather follow the release of FreeBSD 9 though…
Some pretty awesome sketches/posters for most of the bible books. For graphics-lovers. Mucho sans.
Proms day and previous week
Busy week, busier day! Work going OK, not too much to say. Various social things in the evenings and guests. Today was the Last Night. I read To Have and Have Not and started Dubliners, saw Caroline, and enjoyed a great entertainment despite tiredness. Rings dips are tough: it feels like I tweaked something from starting off at 50 for time each day, so I’ll back off a bit. For future reference: don’t lose your place in the Last Night queue by not realising they switch the day and season queues around. Women with stupid clothes massively annoy me, especially when I’m tired and struggling to focus. Finally, I splashed out this week of bought piles of Astaire films and books the junk-filled Central Library is missing.
