done yesterday (20110506 Fr)

[mdlbear]

0506 Fr
  % woke up about 5am with a ferocious cramp in R. calf.  Ouch.
    methocarbamol, aspirin, Ca, K.
  * up 6:45; W=196.8; drugs, nose, teeth, laundry, dishes, coffee, light
  : sure enough:  screen isn't locked when Natty comes back from suspend,
    ->because xscreensaver isn't installed!
  * 15min:  install new front doorknobs and shaft
  @ The Ferrett's Journal - What Sex Is, And Isn't.
  @ filkertom: Coolest Prototype Tech Of The Day
    Game developer David Braben creates a USB stick PC for $25 | Geek.com
  * short walk; just around the parking lot and building cluster.  
    % Calf still hurts, but walking helps.  At least I don't appear to be as
      zombified as I was the last time I took cyclobenzaprine in the morning.
  @ 5 Unexpected Downsides of High Intelligence | Cracked.com @snipe
    amusing, but consider the source.
  % having a lot of trouble concentrating.
  & caprese salad to go with the YD's porkchops
  @ WFC: Full List of Walk Friendly Communities via TreeHugger 
  * started upgrading nova 
    * s/lenny/squeeze/ in apt/sources.list; apt-get update
    * apt-get upgrade

The day started around 5am with a ferocious cramp in my right calf. I hit it with methocarbamol, aspirin, calcium carbonate, and potassium gluconate. When I got up an hour and a half later it was tolerable, and walking helped a little, but it was still distinctly noticable at bedtime.

I took only a short walk around the parking lot and building cluster. Didn't want to push my luck and find myself farther away than I could hobble back from.

I had a lot of trouble concentrating. The Clueless Coworker is still attempting to get his code working; his current issues appear to be re-integration of stuff that got fixed weeks ago and somehow fell through the cracks when he made his branch. :-P I did get some documentation done.

Nobody knows when I'll be going back to research. I'd like to see things properly wrapped up and the product shipping, but on the other hand nobody knows exactly when that will happen. *sigh*

The YD nominally made dinner; that consisted of some pork chops with too many herbs on them, and leftover pasta. I made a caprese salad with fresh basil and tomatoes that Colleen had found at a farmer's market -- that was excellent.

Among the links, I was impressed that Seattle topped the List of Walk Friendly Communities -- I'll have to spend some time exploring downtown on foot one of these visits.

Speaking of which, here's my itinerary for next weekend:

  
     Thursday, May 12, 2011	Travel Time 2 h 05 m 
     #2552	 Depart San Jose, CA (SJC)    	 6:25 PM
 	 Arrive in Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA)	 8:30 PM

     Monday, May 16, 2011	Travel Time 2 h 05 m 
     #1685	 Depart Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA) 7:20 PM
 	 Arrive in San Jose, CA (SJC)	   	 9:25 PM

As usual it's a working weekend for Tempered Glass, but I may be able to squeeze in some other visiting. Comment or call.

Comments

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Seattle wins the Special Olympics again.

If you read the fine print, the award has little to do with how walk-friendly you actually are, but whether you have set of programs in place to make it better in the future.

http://www.walkfriendly.org/faq.cfm

> What is a Walk Friendly Community?

> A Walk Friendly Community is a city or town that has shown a commitment to ***improving*** walkability and pedestrian safety through comprehensive
> programs, plans and policies.

[mdlbear]

Point. Weird way of evaluating. And now that you mention it, a community has to apply for the designation. And it's a brand-new program, which helps explain why several cities I consider walkable aren't on the list.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think it's a federally sponsored program for incentivizing cities to adopt a set of pedestrian-friendly policies (and to create incentivization/pressure to adopt the policies if they want to compete).

I haven't researched it more thoroughly, though (my area of focus is biking, and less walking)

Night Cramps

[hvideo.livejournal.com]

The "big three" elements for preventing cramps are calcium, magnesium and potassium. I see you took took 2 of them as remedies. May I suggest a pre-emptive approach? Up the amount of these you are getting on a daily basis. It's far better to prevent the cramp in the first place than to suffer through the cramp and try to get it to back down.

For me, the key element was magnesium. Once I started magnesium supplements the cramps stopped happening. (If I stop the magnesium, the cramps return within a week.) But in general my diet was already giving me good quantities of calcium and potassium, so it's only natural that the one I was short on was magnesium. Your diet may be quite different. I was getting a lot of calcium from dairy products and had switched from regular table salt (NaCl) to Salt Substitute (KCl), so those elements were pretty well covered. I just didn't have enough magnesium coming in. (Magnesium oxide, while very cheap, is not well absorbed by the body - so a larger dose would be recommended than for the better absorbed compounds.)

Re: Night Cramps

[mdlbear]

Hmm. In my case it often seems to have been calcium, but I didn't know about magnesium -- I'll have to try it.