After 200+ blog posts, my addlepated brain isn't even going to request a fact-check on this one: I don't like running. Never have, never will. Our church has, in recent years, supported World Vision, which (among many other things) helps Africans obtain clean drinking water. One of their fundraisers is the team in the Chicago Marathon. It's a wonderful cause, and many folks from our church- including committed couch potatoes- have stepped up and taken up running just to be able to help out. It truly is a great cause, but it's not me. Any number of quotes could sum up my position here, but Donnie and Marie Osmond's theme song from their television series of many years ago sums it up pretty well: "She's a little bit country, and he's a little bit rock 'n' roll". Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" was even more spot-on: "A man's gotta know his imitations".
Yeah. "Don't like" doesn't even begin to describe my feelings about running.
When I was in the Air Force, running was a thing we had to do. The area I was stationed at was quite hilly, and I constantly had shin splints. We used to get together a few times a week after class (it was a training installation) to run. Yuck.
I've long since given it up, but at the time I smoked.
Sooo..., just before the command was given to start the run, someone would yell, "SMOKERS TO THE REAR!" and about a dozen of us would quickly move to the rear in Cirque du Soliel precision, and the run would commence. We would start off as soon as we had lit up. I kid you not: we smoked while running.
So yeah, even though I've quit smoking, I still hate running. I respect those that do run- for whatever reason- but it ain't me, babe. No, no, no, it ain't me babe.
So... 10K: it's not running. It's steps.
I've worn a pedometer on a regular basis for the past few years. I've considered other devices, such as a Fitbit, but in the end I've always decided in favor of my Omron pedometer. As much as I'm a fan of big data, there are just some things I don't want to put in the cloud, and my exercise activity is one of them. I download data from my pedometer to my PC, and I can view it in a nice frontend there. Or, I can download a .csv and use my own analytical tools.
10K steps is a good benchmark. There seems to be a concensus on the internet that 10K is a good daily goal to reach for us in the sedentary Western daily routine. As I have a desk job (AND work at night!), 10K is generally a challenge. So today was a good day.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Showing posts with label Omron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omron. Show all posts
Monday, April 18, 2016
Monday, May 18, 2015
Data, defined (part 2)
Right after I hit the "PUBLISH" button on my last blog, I realized that I wasn't done. I know I had the option at that point to pull the piece back and add the other thoughts, but I don't like to throw out a wall of words just because I'm not done... I'd much rather give the reader a break and come back another day, and so here we are today with a continuation of sorts, taking a closer look at microdata.
But first, an update from the home front.
Sunday the 17th was the third Sunday that Jennifer had spent in the Dallas area. Our older son was off at a convention, leaving Mr. T and I a very quiet weekend. That's a good thing, too, as I still managed to rack up a sleep deficit. I've mentioned a few times that I'm a programmer that works nontraditional hours. I refer to my band of coworkers and myself as Nightstalkers. The big plus and big drawback of being a Nightstalker is that one often gets to stay at work until the job is done, which can sometimes mean a fairly long day, but the plus is that we are compensated for that time. Saturday ended up being a late day for me- nearly eleven hours, and then a technician was coming over to the house for the Spring air conditioning checkup at noon. At some point before noon I decided that I could not stay awake, so I asked Mr. T to wake me up when the tech arrived. The tech arrived and did his thing. I wrote a check for his service, and then went back to bed, getting up some time around 2030. Looking back, I really don't remember too much of what I did except for a bit of work on the Lego database. I was back in bed ~0430, and up Sunday a little after 1230.
Sunday was warm and the humidity was palpable. I opted for some breathable training attire to cut the grass. I have to say that I am perfectly capable of wearing some pretty nice-looking clothing combos, but fashion has little place in my workout or working outdoors clothing choices. As it was both sunny and windy, I had an Aussie-inspired wide-brimmed hat with a chinstrap. The short sleeved shirt and shorts were both black sweat wicking workout attire, and the footware: orange sneakers. Blood orange red, actually. New Balance all terrain running shoes. Peer reviewed, double blind studies utilizing FLOOS and LRBL have verified that these shoes allow me to cut the grass 19.3% faster than the average suburbanite. You read it on the Internet- it's got to be true!
After cutting the grass, I figured I'd take a walk. One would think I'd have learned my lesson from the last time I did this (two weeks ago, actually). No. No I didn't. I grabbed a fanny pack (these workout shorts don't have pockets) and headed out. Approximately an hour later I walked back into the house, drenched in sweat carrying an empty half liter water bottle.
All of that is a great segue to microdata. Why? Well, for starters, I have an Omron pedometer. I have the option of publishing my workout data to their website- in which case, my data would be a part on Omron's small data, and quite possibly, fitness big data. My choice, though, is to upload the data to the Omron tracking program on my computer, making it MY microdata. In the FWIW category, I logged 6.2 miles (13.64km) today- my best day in nearly two months of tracking.
The Lego database is growing slowly. I'm using Excel 2007, and having to relearn some things. I'm sometimes asked what should someone learn in Excel to be useful on the job. Well, it depends on the job. Every place where I've used Excel I've needed at least a few things that no one else asked for- and none of these were financial or statistical environments (which tend to be a lot more predictable in terms of desired skills). The Lego counts stand as follows: Basic bricks- 1 part number, 12 colors, 1666 elements. Plates- no counts as yet. Technic- 3 part numbers, 3 colors, 1049 elements. Total elements (pieces)- 2715.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
But first, an update from the home front.
Sunday the 17th was the third Sunday that Jennifer had spent in the Dallas area. Our older son was off at a convention, leaving Mr. T and I a very quiet weekend. That's a good thing, too, as I still managed to rack up a sleep deficit. I've mentioned a few times that I'm a programmer that works nontraditional hours. I refer to my band of coworkers and myself as Nightstalkers. The big plus and big drawback of being a Nightstalker is that one often gets to stay at work until the job is done, which can sometimes mean a fairly long day, but the plus is that we are compensated for that time. Saturday ended up being a late day for me- nearly eleven hours, and then a technician was coming over to the house for the Spring air conditioning checkup at noon. At some point before noon I decided that I could not stay awake, so I asked Mr. T to wake me up when the tech arrived. The tech arrived and did his thing. I wrote a check for his service, and then went back to bed, getting up some time around 2030. Looking back, I really don't remember too much of what I did except for a bit of work on the Lego database. I was back in bed ~0430, and up Sunday a little after 1230.
Sunday was warm and the humidity was palpable. I opted for some breathable training attire to cut the grass. I have to say that I am perfectly capable of wearing some pretty nice-looking clothing combos, but fashion has little place in my workout or working outdoors clothing choices. As it was both sunny and windy, I had an Aussie-inspired wide-brimmed hat with a chinstrap. The short sleeved shirt and shorts were both black sweat wicking workout attire, and the footware: orange sneakers. Blood orange red, actually. New Balance all terrain running shoes. Peer reviewed, double blind studies utilizing FLOOS and LRBL have verified that these shoes allow me to cut the grass 19.3% faster than the average suburbanite. You read it on the Internet- it's got to be true!
After cutting the grass, I figured I'd take a walk. One would think I'd have learned my lesson from the last time I did this (two weeks ago, actually). No. No I didn't. I grabbed a fanny pack (these workout shorts don't have pockets) and headed out. Approximately an hour later I walked back into the house, drenched in sweat carrying an empty half liter water bottle.
All of that is a great segue to microdata. Why? Well, for starters, I have an Omron pedometer. I have the option of publishing my workout data to their website- in which case, my data would be a part on Omron's small data, and quite possibly, fitness big data. My choice, though, is to upload the data to the Omron tracking program on my computer, making it MY microdata. In the FWIW category, I logged 6.2 miles (13.64km) today- my best day in nearly two months of tracking.
The Lego database is growing slowly. I'm using Excel 2007, and having to relearn some things. I'm sometimes asked what should someone learn in Excel to be useful on the job. Well, it depends on the job. Every place where I've used Excel I've needed at least a few things that no one else asked for- and none of these were financial or statistical environments (which tend to be a lot more predictable in terms of desired skills). The Lego counts stand as follows: Basic bricks- 1 part number, 12 colors, 1666 elements. Plates- no counts as yet. Technic- 3 part numbers, 3 colors, 1049 elements. Total elements (pieces)- 2715.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Meerkat's Greatest Adventure (of 2014), Part 2
Y'all know that the unifying theme of this blog is data. It's my data primarily, with occasional nods to Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT). Meerkat, our Subaru Outback, and Ziggy, our Garmin GPS, are members of the Internet of Things. But don't say that near them... they're people, as M*A*S*H*'s Radar O'Reilly might say.
Since Merkat is bigger and older than Ziggy, I've decided to turn the keyboard over to him (I think Meerkat is a him...), and let him revisit our trip. Take it away, Meerkat....
*********************************************************************************
Okay... so there we were,
With 1.9 miles on the tripmeter, we departed the SUL. Ziggy immediately started chirping instructions. It was Monday morning- 0738 local, and we found ourselves enmeshed in rush hour traffic. If the pilot had any common sense, we would have been moving through traffic at least fifteen minutes earlier. As it was, we found ourselves ensconced in a "popular" intersection, with nothing to do but wait our turn at the left arrow.
We finally got our turn and proceeded south.
To make this story more interesting, we drove south and west for a long time and arrived in Texas. I sat in the driveway for a day, and the rest of the time I slept in the street, while Ziggy got to go inside.
Afterwards, things got interesting.
The humans did all of their "visiting" and had all of their meetings, and then it was time to go home. Because of all of the unrest in Ferguson, MO, we decided to spend our tourism dollars in safer areas and avoided the St.Louis area entirely.
As we approached Oklahoma City, I sensed a irregularity in one of the mechanical systems, and promptly alerted the pilot. Not long after that, help arrived. A squad of shock troops deployed, led by a dude that could only be described as a cowboy: while the rest of the unit was in full battle dress armor, there he was in cowboy boots and denims, 9mm strapped to his side as if he did this every day.
In any event, he got us to where we needed to be, barked some orders, and in a few hours we were back on the road.
********************************************************************************
I promise that's the last time I will EVER let Meerkat write a blog entry! Well, I'll never let ANY individual that can be classified as a member of the IoT guest write in my blog. I really thought Meerkat was going to make it really interesting... I was wrong- sorry.
In the wonderful world of data, I FINALLY backed up my Omron pedometer data. Some of you might recall that in February (One simply does not raid the SUL) I lamented the loss of fifteen months worth of pedometer data due to a HDD crash. Well, even some us "old hands" are a little slow at times, but tonight I FINALLY downloaded the data to the desktop. I'll back it up to the external HDD once I clean it up a bit.
Clean?
Yes, the data- specifically the dates- are improperly formatted for my use. When I downloaded the software from the Omron site, I got the European version rather than the American version of the software. It doesn't really matter too much as I'm okay with kilometers and the energy expenditure is shown in kcal's rather than joules, but even though I'm okay with European dating, my copy of Excel sorts American style (for the unaware, Euro=day/month/year, American=month/day/year) So, the dates need to be edited before being backed up. There's a funny story about those dates... well, it's funny now, anyway.
Back when I was in high school, I was introduced to Fletcher Pratt's Naval Wargame (see "Imagination"). The resources I used for this game were all published in England, so I became accustomed to the Euro dating system, so much so that when I got my driver's license, I entered my birthday Euro style without thinking, and when I received my license, my birthmonth was listed as May rather than September. I had to go back to the license facility, explain what had happened and get them to issue a new license.
There may be some "big" data news in the next blog... probably. There may be a Christmas blog as well.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to
Since Merkat is bigger and older than Ziggy, I've decided to turn the keyboard over to him (I think Meerkat is a him...), and let him revisit our trip. Take it away, Meerkat....
*********************************************************************************
Okay... so there we were,
With 1.9 miles on the tripmeter, we departed the SUL. Ziggy immediately started chirping instructions. It was Monday morning- 0738 local, and we found ourselves enmeshed in rush hour traffic. If the pilot had any common sense, we would have been moving through traffic at least fifteen minutes earlier. As it was, we found ourselves ensconced in a "popular" intersection, with nothing to do but wait our turn at the left arrow.
We finally got our turn and proceeded south.
To make this story more interesting, we drove south and west for a long time and arrived in Texas. I sat in the driveway for a day, and the rest of the time I slept in the street, while Ziggy got to go inside.
Afterwards, things got interesting.
The humans did all of their "visiting" and had all of their meetings, and then it was time to go home. Because of all of the unrest in Ferguson, MO, we decided to spend our tourism dollars in safer areas and avoided the St.Louis area entirely.
As we approached Oklahoma City, I sensed a irregularity in one of the mechanical systems, and promptly alerted the pilot. Not long after that, help arrived. A squad of shock troops deployed, led by a dude that could only be described as a cowboy: while the rest of the unit was in full battle dress armor, there he was in cowboy boots and denims, 9mm strapped to his side as if he did this every day.
In any event, he got us to where we needed to be, barked some orders, and in a few hours we were back on the road.
********************************************************************************
I promise that's the last time I will EVER let Meerkat write a blog entry! Well, I'll never let ANY individual that can be classified as a member of the IoT guest write in my blog. I really thought Meerkat was going to make it really interesting... I was wrong- sorry.
In the wonderful world of data, I FINALLY backed up my Omron pedometer data. Some of you might recall that in February (One simply does not raid the SUL) I lamented the loss of fifteen months worth of pedometer data due to a HDD crash. Well, even some us "old hands" are a little slow at times, but tonight I FINALLY downloaded the data to the desktop. I'll back it up to the external HDD once I clean it up a bit.
Clean?
Yes, the data- specifically the dates- are improperly formatted for my use. When I downloaded the software from the Omron site, I got the European version rather than the American version of the software. It doesn't really matter too much as I'm okay with kilometers and the energy expenditure is shown in kcal's rather than joules, but even though I'm okay with European dating, my copy of Excel sorts American style (for the unaware, Euro=day/month/year, American=month/day/year) So, the dates need to be edited before being backed up. There's a funny story about those dates... well, it's funny now, anyway.
Back when I was in high school, I was introduced to Fletcher Pratt's Naval Wargame (see "Imagination"). The resources I used for this game were all published in England, so I became accustomed to the Euro dating system, so much so that when I got my driver's license, I entered my birthday Euro style without thinking, and when I received my license, my birthmonth was listed as May rather than September. I had to go back to the license facility, explain what had happened and get them to issue a new license.
There may be some "big" data news in the next blog... probably. There may be a Christmas blog as well.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Training, Interrupted
One of my greatest fears when I began blogging was what might be called "churn factor," or writer's block. I've written things on and off for some time. In high school, I wanted to write a Great Space Opera- a grand, expansive science fiction tour de force. I started countless stories, first with a ballpoint pen, then typewriter and finally computer, but for any number of reasons I never managed to write more than a chapter or two. As recently as 2012 I started one (that one has a bit of a chance of getting finished).
But here I sit, more than slightly astonished that my count of entries is over one hundred, and just last week launched a second blog (about my new adventures in digital photography) at http://hochspeyer.wordpress.com/.
I started this on Monday, May the 12th. This particular title owes its inspiration to our failed attempt to hit the gym. In weightlifting circles, its pretty much a given that when one is training, one is lifting. The converse does not seem to hold true, though- just because you're lifting, it doesn't mean that you're training.
I won't belabor all of the nuances.
The reason we didn't go to the gym was really quite simple: a massive rain storm had rolled through the area. Hail, reduced visibility, high winds, and lots of rain... the rain was so heavy....
How heavy was it?
The rain was so heavy, there were bubbles coming out from under our street. Which, when one considers it, is fairly odd. After all, one does not walk out to the street and to see it bubbling and hear it gurgling.
The rains came in two or three waves. The first wave featured hail and torrents. When the first wave had mostly abated, I picked up our older son from work, and then I went to work. During lulls at the office, I watched the storms roll through on the computer, and occasionally heard thunder above the noise of the plant and saw some lightning through the window, but the worst of it seems to have been the first wave.
No real news on the data front. Well, not entirely true. I recently downloaded Omron's pedometer software (astute followers of my Adventures in the Secret Underground Lair [SUL] will recall that I had previously posted a blog describing a catastrophic HDD failure which resulted in the loss of over a year's pedometer data [One simply does not RAID the SUL]). This time I plan to beef up my data security a bit- by actually backing it up!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Please try the other flavor of hochspeyer- digital photography! http://hochspeyer.wordpress.com/
But here I sit, more than slightly astonished that my count of entries is over one hundred, and just last week launched a second blog (about my new adventures in digital photography) at http://hochspeyer.wordpress.com/.
I started this on Monday, May the 12th. This particular title owes its inspiration to our failed attempt to hit the gym. In weightlifting circles, its pretty much a given that when one is training, one is lifting. The converse does not seem to hold true, though- just because you're lifting, it doesn't mean that you're training.
I won't belabor all of the nuances.
The reason we didn't go to the gym was really quite simple: a massive rain storm had rolled through the area. Hail, reduced visibility, high winds, and lots of rain... the rain was so heavy....
How heavy was it?
The rain was so heavy, there were bubbles coming out from under our street. Which, when one considers it, is fairly odd. After all, one does not walk out to the street and to see it bubbling and hear it gurgling.
The rains came in two or three waves. The first wave featured hail and torrents. When the first wave had mostly abated, I picked up our older son from work, and then I went to work. During lulls at the office, I watched the storms roll through on the computer, and occasionally heard thunder above the noise of the plant and saw some lightning through the window, but the worst of it seems to have been the first wave.
No real news on the data front. Well, not entirely true. I recently downloaded Omron's pedometer software (astute followers of my Adventures in the Secret Underground Lair [SUL] will recall that I had previously posted a blog describing a catastrophic HDD failure which resulted in the loss of over a year's pedometer data [One simply does not RAID the SUL]). This time I plan to beef up my data security a bit- by actually backing it up!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Please try the other flavor of hochspeyer- digital photography! http://hochspeyer.wordpress.com/
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