On my first day, I looked at the white board to reference the warm up exercises before starting my workout and saw the phrase - “Gyms without chalk are called Health Spas”

This quote neatly conveys the attitude difference between a conventional gym, such as Gold’s or LA Fitness, and a Crossfit gym.  Where gyms have many machines to help you isolate muscle groups, Crossfit gyms have nearly none.  Though typical gym mantra is often “Chest and Tri’s”, you will never hear that at a Crossfit establishment.

Crossfit, more a methodology than a gym, was created in the 1980’s by gymnast, Greg Glassman.  The idea of Crossfit is to create a well balanced athlete, as apposed to the muscle-bound he-man types that many gyms promote. 

So, back to my first day.  Dan, the trainer assigned to me, showed me the warm up.  400 meters on a rowing machine, and two rounds of exercises, each consisting of 10 overhead squats without weight, 10 pushups or dips, 10 pull-ups, 10 sit-ups, and 10 hip extensions.

After I completed the warm-up, I felt like I had already completed a full workout.  The “workout of the day” was listed on the whiteboard, but that didn’t matter much.  I am a newbie and will be receiving special treatment.  After thinking about it for a few minutes, Dan said, “Karen”.

Puzzled, he referenced the tall whiteboard that was gridded, each partition included a women’s name with an adjacent workout.  Finding Karen, I saw the definition: 150 Wall-balls with a 20lb ball.  Of course, Dan had to show me what a wall ball was, since I had not heard of the exercise.

A Wall-ball, is an exercise where you perform a deep squat while holding a 20lb ball, and follow that movement by throwing the ball high against the wall during the upward movement, then catch it and repeat.  This exercise really sucks. 

Before beginning, Dan glanced me a one over and decided that I should only do half the workout – 75 Wall-balls.  At first, I was a little miffed that he didn’t think I could handle the entire workout.  As I struggled through the workout, taking numerous breaks, I realized that Dan’s assessment was pretty accurate.  After completing the workout, I downed a couple of bottles of water and retired to my vehicle, where I spent nearly 30 minutes resting before deciding I was alright to drive.

The next day, Barbara.  Barbara, 5 rounds, each round for time and consisting of 20 pull-ups, 30 pushups, 40 sit-ups, and 50 weightless squats, proved to be a bitch.  Funny thing is – everyone was doing the same workout.  Unlike conventional gyms, where everyone is doing their own thing, everyone here was subscribing to the same pain.  Everyone was sucking wind and dripping sweat.  Everyone was hurting.  Everyone was also cheering each other on – even cheering me!  Day two exposed me to the culture of Crossfit.

Now having completed five visits, I am starting to adjust to the intensity of the workouts and to the atmosphere that is Crossfit.  I have met more members of this gym in five days, than my previous gym in an entire year.  Crossfit is a community, a culture, as well as a sport.

And there you have it.

Joe.

In a previous post, I informed you that I would be the Content Chair and Organizer of the 2009 Atlanta IT Architecture Regional Conference (ITARC).  Well I was.  It happened.  Now, it’s over. 

Let’s be clear.  The event was successful.  I believe, the attendees got more than they expected and they got it at a very reasonable price.  We had great keynotes.  IBM’s Rob High presented on SOA.  Robert Lario, from Visumpoint, introduced us to the topic of standards and how they provide the language for Enterprise Architects.  Microsoft’s Jack Greenfield, discussed Cloud Computing and how it affects B2B.  Cisco’s Harvinder Kalsi described successes with SOA. And Neal Ford, from Thoughtworks, rounded out the keynotes with his discussion about future technologies and trends, and why we are bad about predicting them.   We had great local speakers as well.  Their topics were varied, nicely constructed, and well received. 

It was a fantastic event and well worth the effort I, and many others, put into it, but I am glad it is over.  The hours it takes to pull off such and event are numerous and taxing.  Though we started planning this event several months ago, I was able to keep it from affecting the rest of my life fairly successfully until this last month.  Every spare moment, was focused on how to ensure its success.  My stress levels were elevated and my desire to do things like ride my bike, play my guitar, or blog about those things, was diminishing. 

The purpose of this post is to give some sort of explanation to the loyal visitors of this blog, who continued to visit, again and again, despite the absence of new articles.  Today I’m tired, but tomorrow, I should be refreshed and you can expect frequent postings going forward.

Now I’m going to go and wear blisters onto my fingers by playing a little Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze.

And there you have it.

Joe.

I hate chain emails… I basically consider them spam/junk mail.  There is a particular chain mail that has been circulating Facebook recently.  It’s called ‘25 Things About Me’.  The premise is that you list 25 things about yourself and tag 25 others to do the same.  When choosing who to tag, you are to pick people who either tagged you in their list, or people you want to know more about.

I don’t normally participate in such things, but after being tagged by three people, including a relative, I figured – why not.  Since I have been such a slack blogger this month, I figured I’d post it here as well as on Facebook.

1. I’m not a believer in fate, but the procrastinator in me sometimes lets it handle things.

2. I am a big baseball fan, but have never played. My favorite team is the NY Yankees.

3. I am half Italian and always wished I was 100 percent, but I wouldn’t trade my mother for the world!

4. I had two partial art scholarships and one full drama scholarship for college. I chose the drama one because it was the only one that didn’t require me to go to a specialized school. I ended up changing to a different school when I fell in love with computers, and ended up paying for college myself.

5. In 1995, I finalized the divorce of my first marriage, had my 25th birthday, quit my job, and left for Army basic training all in the same weekend.

6. I was an Army Ranger and loved it.

7. I once fell 60 feet in a rappelling accident. I broke my jaw in 3 places. Lost, cracked, or broke 18 teeth, and earned a wound to my leg so bad that if it had gotten infected in the first two weeks, it would have been amputated. Nathan, my friend and then next door neighbor, videoed it.

8. RealTV did a segment about the accident. Apparently, granting them the right to use the video also granted that company the right to use it however they want on other shows like “Stupid Things People Do”. It was unexpected and embarrassing. I tried to get them to stop using it, but failed. Now I hate it when people say they saw me on TV.

9. The Discovery Health Channel also did a segment about me on one of their shows called Impact. It was well done and in good taste. The experience diluted some of my resentment toward television.

10. I have been playing guitar since I was 14, but I still don’t really know how.

11. I would still be in the Army if I didn’t love computers so much.

12. Most of my family lives in New York or Connecticut, but I was born and have lived in Georgia most of my life.

13. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had four best friends during my lifetime. Interestingly enough, I have kept in contact with the first one, Nathaniel, even though we haven’t seen each other in over 25 years.

14. My six-year-old son, Daniel, is almost as big of a Star Wars fan as I was at 8. He still has a while to surpass my former enthusiasm because Nathaniel and I were die hard Star Wars fans for several years. We saw the Empire Strikes Back in the theater 25 times, yet our favorite movie was still Grease - go figure.

15. My favorite person in the world was my Grandfather who died when I was 11. I still think of him regularly. Now I have two new favorite people - my two children, Savannah and Daniel.

16. My wife, Joyce, has many college degrees and is currently working on her Doctorate. On the other hand, I never graduated from college. I guess opposites really do attract.

17. Joyce and I both hold arguably the most prestigious and difficult to earn certifications in our separate professions. National Board Certified Teacher and Microsoft Certified Architect, respectively.

18. I have been told by many people that they thought I was an “asshole” until they got to know me. Of course, there are those that got to know me and still think I am.

19. I usually only sleep about 4 or 5 hours a night. I am frequently doing things, like grocery shopping, at 3 or 4 in the morning (Check out the time stamp of this note, for example).

20. I was once very rebellious and did lots of drugs. Later, I became extremely religious and didn’t even curse. Now I am neither religious nor rebellious. I guess I am more of an agnostic pragmatist. I still don’t do drugs, but I curse horribly — or wonderfully, depending on how you look at it.

21. I started smoking when I was 7 years old and got caught, but didn’t quit. I just got better doing at it without getting caught. I quit when I was 28, however, I will have an occasional cigarette when I’m around friends who smoke. I probably average about a pack a year. Ironically, smoking always gives me headaches.

22. I am not an only child like most people think. My older sister, Jamie, was 12 years older than me and moved out of the house when I was 5 or 6. She died when I was in my early twenties and I miss her very much.

23. I wear my emotions on my sleeve and speak my mind. Advantages to this are: It is easy to tell how I feel and you can assume you know my true opinion of you. Disadvantages to this are: You will know how I feel and you probably know my true opinion of you.

24. I appreciate my parents, more, the older I get. I get my compassion from my mother and my sense of logic from my father. They are loving, kind people and are very dear to me.

25. My wife is my closest friend. I adore her and cherish the time we spend together. She is the most supportive person I know. She gets better looking with age (it’s not fair). We have fun together and our bond grows closer as we get older together. I love her with all my heart and am truly fortunate that she loves me too.

And there you have it.

I installed Windows 7 Beta 1 last night.  Before I tell you all about it, let me explain a few things for those of you who are not familiar with the term Beta.

Microsoft, like many others, puts its products through several phases during its release cycle before they can be called “ready” to be released.

The first phase of a product’s release cycle is called the Alpha phase.  This is the phase in which new features are being added to the product.  For instance, if Microsoft decided to put a print button on the Windows Calculator to enable users the ability to print out your calculations, that feature could added during the Alpha phase.  Sometimes, Microsoft will release an Alpha to give their customers some insight of what will be in available in the new product or product version.  Alpha releases are generally devoid of many features and are bug ridden.

The next phase is called the Beta phase.  For a product to qualify for beta phase, all major features must be complete.  This is not to say that they all work.  Beta phases are means in which a company gets the masses to test their software.  Many times private betas precede public betas.  Betas vary in quality, and usually their are multiple betas, aptly named beta 1, beta 2, etc.

Once the betas are at a point where the bugs are fixed or otherwise mitigated, the product graduates to the Release Candidate or RC phase.  The release candidate phase is the phase in which the company thinks it has a version of the product that can be promoted to the final phase.  All the features promised, are complete and generally bug-free.  The only thing that keeps a release candidate from moving to the next phase is the presence of “show stopper” bugs – or bugs so impactful, either by size or importance, that the product cannot possibly be released with it.  Show stopper bugs will be fixed and a new release candidate will be published.  Like betas, they are named in order RC-1, RC-2, etc.

The final phase of the release cycle is called Released to Manufacturing or RTM.  When a product has been RTM’d it is considered released.  Any new bugs will be fixed in minor subsequent releases called hot fixes, or patches.

Microsoft promoted its new version of their operating system, Windows 7, to Beta 1 on Friday, January 9th.

I am what people refer to as an early adopter.  I like to get products when they are very new and test them out.  I have been an early adopter of Windows for about 10 years.

When the Vista operating system was made public in beta form, I installed it and tested it out.  Much like I did last night.  In the case of Vista, I was unable to do many things.  Internet Explorer 7 was problematic, there were many applications I had that would not install, and many that did install, did not work correctly.  It was such a miserable beta, that I uninstalled it after a few days.  Then Vista’s beta 2 was released.  Most of the problems from beta 1 were resolved.  The second beta was stable enough that I installed it on my main machine and used it as my dedicated operating system, until Vista went into release candidacy.

Alternatively, installing Windows 7 was painless.  You only have to click on a few next buttons to get through to completion.  You could probably make it through the installation while asleep at the keyboard, as long as you were leaning on the enter key.  I give the installation an A+.

Despite having a somewhat older machine, Windows 7 successfully found all of the drivers needed for my hardware.  I did not have to chase down websites for various manufacturers trying to get the latest driver updates to ensure compatibility.  Instead, my experience was very pleasant.

When it came time to install software on my newly adorned machine, I found only a few hiccups.  I normally use a program called Daemon Tools which allows you to use CD/DVD ROM image files like they were actual disks in the drive, but it would not install.  Instead, I used a different program called Virtual Clone Drive.  So far, I like the replacement program better, and it installed without error.  The only other trouble I found was with my Cisco VPN application.  However, it turned out that I wasn’t installing the latest version.  Once I acquired the correct version, it installed and worked just fine.

I worked from home today.  I did my normal job, using Microsoft Office products, Visual Studio, and several other programs on Windows 7.  I did so without hitch, delay, or incident.  At no time did I have to revert to using a pre-Windows 7 machine to get something done.  The transition from Vista to Windows 7 was seamless and delightful.

I will post again on Windows 7 exploring its new features, but for now know that it is very stable and usable.

And there you have it.

Joe.

Addendum

I was reminded that I haven’t posted the link to download Windows 7 Beta. 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

As promised, I commuted to work this morning, however, it didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

It wasn’t raining, but it had been and was still rainy, so I put my rain fly on my commuter’s backpack.  If I had put it on properly, it wouldn’t have flown off and grabbed the spokes of my back wheel.  So after dealing with that minor fiasco, I was back on my way.

Traffic was terrible.  Over the holidays, a bridge, the city had been building for over a year, was completed and traffic was diverted from the old bridge to the new one which runs parallel.  This new addition was clearly difficult for people to accept as the traffic bottlenecked at the bridge despite it being wider and devoid of the sprinklings of pot holes common to its predecessor.  I managed to safely pass the “parked” cars on the right to maintain a reasonable speed.

Once I passed the car clutter, I experienced the strongest headwind that I have ever encountered on a bike – which I am sure is due to my inexperience.  I looked up the wind measurement and found that weather.com reported sustaining winds of 22-25 MPH with gusts of up to 35 MPH.  Not knowing what this really means, I did a little research and found a measurement called the Beaufort Wind Force Scale, more commonly referred as “The Beaufort Scale”.  It seems that Sir Francis Beaufort, an admiral in the British Navy, developed this scale to bring common terms to identifiable wind behaviors.  Unlike the Saffir-Simpson Scale, used for measuring hurricanes, the Beaufort Scale includes measurements for casual breezes and zero wind.

Using the Beaufort Scale, I estimate that I was riding in between Beaufort numbers 5 & 7, probably spending the most time in the 6 (Strong Breeze) region.

This had a daunting affect on my commute.  First, I could not gain any speed.  I normally average out at about 16 or 17 miles-per-hour for my 19+ mile commute, but this morning, I had trouble maintaining 12 mph.  This added significant travel time.  I also dealt with a lot of cross wind, particularly when I turned down a different street. This turn made significant change in my direction thus changing the angle the wind was hitting me.  The cross winds were so harsh that I pulled over twice to check for flats because my back wheel felt very loose.

My legs are sore.  More from lack of riding then effects of this morning’s winds, but I know I exerted my self more than usual.  My ride time was roughly 28% more than normal due to the heavy winds.

I figure I need to learn how to ride in such conditions, so I did a little research.

1.  Overall, every place I found gave this as the first and most important tip:  Make yourself as small as possible, giving the wind the least amount of surface area to hit.  Sit back in your saddle, pull your elbows in and get low.  Be careful not to get too low, though.  Arching your back past horizontal can create a negative aerodynamic effect by increasing turbulence.  Do your best to keep your back parallel to the ground and inline with your head.

2.  Keep your head still.  Shifting your head from side to side as you pedal, may normally provide your with better cadences, but during headwinds, it allows the wind to shift back-and-forth from one side of your body to the other.  This makes it more difficult to keep your bike straight, thus increasing fatigue.

3.  Gearing.  I have found conflicting advice on gearing.  Some places indicate that you should gear up to maintain a slower, but smoother cadence decreasing wind resistance.  Others indicate that you should gear head winds the same as you do hills.  When it is more difficult to pedal because of the environment, make adjustments to maintain cadence.  I agree with the latter.

4.  If you expect to be riding in windy conditions, avoid wearing loose fitting breakers.  Breakers cause wind resistance and keeps it from “blowing through you”.  This is good and needed, however, wind breakers that flap in the wind create unnecessary resistance and drag causing fatigue.  If you don’t have a tight fitting breaker, you may try putting your breaker on under your jersey instead of over it.

5.  Never stop pedaling.  Coasting allows the wind to have its way with your and your bike.  If it doesn’t push your wheel out from under you, it will gradually send your bike of course.  If you find yourself making constant adjustments to keep your bike in a straight line, maintain your pedaling.

6.  Crosswinds are dangerous!  Not only can gusts blow you of course, but constant crosswinds can be dangerous also.  Leaning into a constant side wind to maintain course can set you up for an accident if a truck passes by temporarily blocking that wind.  This can cause you to veer in the direction of the wind and the truck!  If you can’t avoid it, be careful while doing this.  Keep your upper body loose and prepared for sudden shifts in wind patterns.

7.  Be careful when riding with a tailwind.  Tailwinds generally allow for riding with less effort, however, don’t stop spinning as a great tailwind can shift into a nasty crosswind without warning.  If you are coasting, you will get pushed offline.

Winds are non-negotiable.  Learn to deal with them and keep a positive attitude.  Remember that you burn exponentially more calories when riding into a headwind, so be prepared.

And there you have it.

Joe.