The beginning

For a new format that I finally realized might work in this blog, I'm going to write about one topic of each of the three broad categories in each post (or at least attempt to). Today, I'm going to write about a genre that started in Ghana, my semi-informed opinion on working out and dieting, and Linux (specifically what I'm learning with semaphores, signals, and mutex's and how to make linux light).

SoundsI got a great CD the other day from Amoeba Records on Haight Street. It led me to look up the history of Nigeria, which led me to find highlife. Highlife is a genre that started in Ghana in the 1920s, and lasted until the 1980s. Apparently, it kind of died out in the early 1970s after the war in Nigeria, but it's what led to afrobeat and the funky/disco music of the 70s and 80s western Africa. I still like Ali Farke Toure better than, say, Fela Kuti or Tony Allen (both part of Africa 70), but that's a matter of preference. So, check out highlife music, especially this guy. It reminds me relaxing on the beach after a really hot day (on the east coast of course) and eating a light and delicious dinner. Maybe Nantucket needs me for a week next summer?

Opinions
I've been going to the gym 4 mornings a week for the last month and a half. I spend about an hour each time. In the beginning, I had to get back into the work out mode (aka back into shape), so I did a lot of rowing and bike riding. I would lift weights and do my standard warmup:
3 sets of the following:
15 seconds of Samson Stretch on each side
10 overhead squats with a light bar
10 situps
10 back extensions
10 pullups
10 dips

Of course, in the beginning, I could barely do 10 pullups, and now I'm only at 2 sets before breaking into my workout, but I'm confidient that I'll get to 3 pretty soon (within the next month).

My workout today got lots of looks from gay men, guys with huge muscles lifting light weights, and almost every woman who caught the weight I was pushing with their eye.

Why? Do I go to a pansy gym? Maybe I work out with a bunch of Republicans for a reason. Maybe it's so that I can make friends with bankers, real estate brokers, advertisting CEOs, and venture capitalists for a reason. I just made a huge impression on all of these people: Don't fuck with Ben, he can probably kick your ass.

Well, guys. This is my opinion. I'm not that strong. I'm a likeable guy, and the weight I lift is something everyone in the gym could do if they wanted. But instead, they spend three hours focusing on their triceps by pulling on a rubber band and maybe leaning over to look like a jack ass.

I do exercises that make me look like the opposite of a jack ass. I don't care about my muscle tone, because that is secondary to the other 10 aspects of athleticism (I don't know them offhand, but if you check out http://crossfit.com, you can find out what I mean).

If you want to be an athelete over having nice abs, then check out http://gymjones.com/, or http://crossfit.com/, and follow their schedules.

By the way, today I did the "Crossfit Total" with a total of 785 lbs (I almost had 805). I did one back squat with 315 lbs, one should press (i.e. military press) with 135 lbs (no warmup, and failed on 145) and one dead lift with 335 (failed with 355). Next time, I'm going to be over 800.

Programming

So, Linux is easy. It's easy for programmers. I've been reading a book called "Advance Linux Programming" which is about the fundamentals of the Linux operating system. I got through Processes and Threads, and am on the chapter entitled "Interprocess Communication".

I'll have more to write about this once I try to build a kernel and libraries from scratch as I need them. I'm going to make a custom linux distro for an embedded environment I'm working with. I'll have to only include device drivers that I need, cut down the tasks that Lilo has to do (like printing, etc), and then possibly initialize slow devices that aren't needed right away after the GUI library boots (I'm thinking of just using FrameBuffer and a ported GUI library that works with it).

More to come on this front.