Drywall Tip

January 6, 2009 by nate

I just saw a drywall tip on YouTube that I wish I saw before I had finished my wall. The tip is for cutting around outlets. Most people measure/mark & cut. This dude suggested putting the drywall in place, then lean it back, grab some lipstick, put lipstick on the outside of the outlet, then put the drywall back in place and push it up against the outlet box. Now there is an outline on the drywall to cut.

good post

this guy called it!

November 14, 2008 by nate

Boy, did Peter Schiff call the financial crises we are now experiencing 2 years ago… everyone just laughed at him. Peter was a Ron Paul advisor in Paul’s 2008 Republican primary campaign…. hmmmm….. (seen this first on Signal vs Noise)

You are doing planet earth a favor when you send your old electronics to a “recycle facility”. Right?

November 10, 2008 by nate

des moines marathon

October 27, 2008 by nate

I completed my 3rd marathon last sunday. I finished with my best time to date, 4 hrs, 13 minutes, and 59 seconds. Jeff and I ran together the whole first half. He kept me on a good pace, especially at the beginning with all of the hills. My parents, wife, sister, amd kiddo were all there to cheer me on. Having people there that you care about cheering you on is such a motivator. I wanted to walk so bad the last 1/2 mile of the race but I knew if I did I would be bumming out my family to see me walk over the finish line….so I struggled all the way there.  Des Moines did a great job this year!

Winter heating fun

October 27, 2008 by nate

So I have a heat pump at my house with an electric resistance heat furnace for backup. For the last three years I have been switching to “emergency” heat when the temp got below 32. Now I find out that the heat pump automatically calls auxillary heat when it needs it. So tonight I’m upstairs and the heat pump is keeping @ 68 degrees but it has been running constantly and is pretty annoying. Hopefully I get use to it. Any hvac experts out there? Am I running this thing correctly? Am I going to get my utility bill and find that it was cheaper to run on just pure electric rather than running the heat pump pretty much all night.

strict

March 31, 2008 by nate

found this near a local establishment. seem like pretty strict rules to me. 

strictOriginally uploaded by .nate..

strobes are hot

March 9, 2008 by nate

i was working on this photo and had the sb-600 directly on the back of the label. i fired a bunch of shots and the last one made a weird noise and I noticed some black smoke rising from the bottle and it smelled terrible. i guess the strobes get a little hot.

burnOriginally uploaded by .nate..

what i didn’t know about working out

February 26, 2008 by nate

i was listening to a podcast the other day and learned a ton about working out, losing weight, getting in shape, and strengthening your heart.   This couldn’t come at a better time since I plan on starting to run again once all this ice melts. 

  •  aerobic exercise burns fats & sugars, anerobic exercise burns sugars but not fat 
  • to stay in the aerobic zone you have to stay in between 60-75% of your max heart rate
  • you can figure your max heart rate by taking 220 minus your age
  • if you stay in the aerobic zone you will get in shape faster and lose more fat
  • no pain no gain is a lie – you don’t have to work out hard to get excellent results
  • you need to work out for at least 20 minutes to burn any fat.  you will burn calories but not fat
  • hormones that grow the heart muscle don’t get released until after 20 minutes for guys, 30 minutes for gals
  • 30-50 minutes is a good amount of time to work out aerobically, 3 or 4 days a week minimum
  • to lose more weight, you work out easier for a long period of time, more days per week
  • only work out hard (anaerobically) max 2 days per week or you are not giving your body time to recover.  could result in injury.
  • once you go over 75% of your max heart rate, you start to build up muscle waste which needs to be flushed out of your body with oxygen.  if you don’t get enough oxygen your muscles shut down and you are worthless
  • if you want to train your body to be more efficient in eliminating muscle waste, you should train right at your aerobic/anaerobic threshold, so around 75%
… so i will be training very differently now.  i bought a heart rate monitor.

do you want to laugh and learn about photoshop?

January 23, 2008 by nate

this is the video for you… if you don’t like cats

Maddie Narcoleptic?

January 16, 2008 by nate

I don’t think Maddie is narcoleptic but someone apparently thinks she looks like it.  Enough to use her picture on their blog post.  I had to laugh when I saw this