Losing it[1]

Up a whisker to 199.6 pounds (14 stone 3.6 pounds, 90.7kg) this morning. Still under the psychologicackle 200 pound mark, so I’m happy

Despite getting home late and having to baby-sit a misbehaving server, which is the kind of thing that often gives me an excuse not to exercise, I did the whole routine again tonight.

Not only that, but I worked with a higher tension on the rower. Now that was hard work, but enjoyable in a strange way. Did a few extra reps on some of the dumbell exercises, too.

I wonder how long I can keep this up?

Oh what fun. Added some new disks to one of our main servers today, as we’d been running desperately low on space. My plan was to move the Exchange databases[1] onto the new space, which would free up plenty of space for documents, and allow the mail system to grow. Microsoft helpfully provide a tool for doing just that, which normally just does it without any fuss.

So, at 5:30, I set it away to do its thing. Mail services are automatically stopped and files are supposed to be moved[3]. I wait. And wait.

At 6:15, I decide to go home and let it get on with it, as I can easily manage anything that comes up from home….

Get home. At about 7:00, I check and find that the automatic process seems to have died. Stop it, make a manual settings change and try to start the mail system. I declines to start, giving an error message which indicates that the database it’s trying to use is damaged. Lovely.

So, I copy the 32GB file from one drive to another. Do my full exercise routine while this goes on. It takes bloody ages. All the time, the nice little progress bar keeps suggesting that it’s going to take another two minutes. Those would be some alternative universe minutes, then….

Eventually, the file is copied. Start up the services. No nasty messages. Log on to my email. No problems there .

Making sure the system is happy, I remove the old file. Woo hoo! Free space on my server!

Took nearly four hours from starting the process. I’m so glad I can manage things from home….

[1] Note for people who don’t get involved with that kind of thing: Microsoft Exchange is the office email system. Everyone’s email, calendar, contacts and so on live in a large[2] database file
[2] That’ll be one of those underatatement thingies. This thing was about 32GB in size
[3] Well, actually, it copies, makes sure the copy is OK, then deletes[4]
[4] Somewhat safer that way

Same today as yesterday - 199.4 pounds (14 stone 3.4 pounds, 90.4kg). I’m happy with that.

Quite honestly, if I didn’t lose any more weight at all from now, I’d still be so far ahead of what I thought I’d be able to achieve that I’ll be delighted….

Woooooo.

Pretty similar workout to yesterday’s. Apart from the addition of a single set of most[1] of the Bullworker exercises. I’m quite impressed with myself.

Plan to do something similar tomorrow. Due for a night out on Thursday, and might or might not feel like exercising on Friday. Maybe some more at the weekend, too…

[1] I’m omitting the leg exercises, on the grounds that my legs are doing quite nicely enough with the rowning, the bike and the walk to work. In fact my legs are showing some quite noticeable muscle definition. I’m also omitting the abs exercises, as I’m doing plenty with the abominable abdominal exerciser.

Ooooooh! Down to 199.4 pounds (14 stone 3.4 pounds, 90.4kg) this morning. And yes, that’s an actual morning weight this time.

Well, that’s finished yet another redesign of the site. The ever-so-slightly naff logo has gone[1], the sidebar has jumped from the left to the right, and we have new date headings. Having done that on Sunday, I spent Monday evening fiddling with the rest of lcb.me.uk, and getting it to match the new look of Losing it[1]. I even recreated the galleries, which involved much tweakage of my custom Thumbs Plus templates. Not 100% sure of those yet, as some of them don’t look quite right. More tweakage tomorrow.[2]

But for now, I’m once again moderately happy with the look of the site. And I’ve even felt more like posting more than I have in the last week or so.

[1] It was supreme evidence of my total lack of graphical skills
[2] Or today, to be pedantic[3]
[3] People sometimes accuse me of being pedantic[4]
[4] I generally reply with “Now what exactly do you mean by that?”

After a couple of weeks of getting no exercise to speak of[1], I managed to get it together again this evening. Nothing too strenuous, just:

• 30 reps of the four usual exercises on the abominable abdominal exerciser
• 15 minutes on the rower, which got my pulse rate up nicely
• Two sets of a few dumbell exercises
• The usual 10km on the exercise bike[2]

Now let’s see if I can manage that another three times this week…

[1] Apart form the walk to and from work, which somehow doesn’t really feel like exercise, even though it’s more exercise than a lot of people seem to get…
[2] After taping the pedal strap back on for the 99th time

I was running a bit late this morning, and managed to forget the usual weighing. Well, I remembered after I was dressed, and didn’t have the time or the inclination to strip off again.

So today’s figure was taken on getting home from work - 199.6 pounds (14 stone 3.6 pounds, 90.5kg). I’m usually a wee bit lighter at this time of day than first thing in the morning, so it shouldn’t be taken too seriously….

Later… with Jools Holland has, for over ten years now, been the best music show on British television. The format is simple: get about six acts on, arrange them in a circle around the edge of the studio, let the delightful Jools Holland[1] introudce them, do the occasional short interview and sometimes join in on piano.

What makes the show is the calibre of the guests. Very nearly anybody who’s anybody has been on at some point, with a diverse range to appeal to most tastes[5]. Another key feature is highlighting new acts before they become successful. I first saw and heard Franz Ferdinand, who I have mentioned previously, on Later, for instance.

Given that the show has been running for quite some time now, they have built up a superb archive of live performances. And those lovely BBC people are allowing them to be released on an occasional series of DVDs.

The latest of these, Cool Britannia, came out in the UK recently. It runs for over two hours, and includes performances from a range of British acts ranging from Ash to Travis[6], stopping off at Doves, Elbow, Radiohead, and many, many more.

It’s really a quite superb DVD. Where else can you see the amiably bonkers British Sea Power with enough shrubbery to satisfy any number of Knights who say “Ni!”, the Manic Street Preachers giving what looks to be one of the earliest performances of Design for Life, Oasis performing I am the Walrus, a preposterously young-looking Supergrass[9], Keane (like Franz Ferdinand, before they made it big), and so much more.

If you’re at all interested in primarily guitar-led British music of the last ten years or so, you should see this DVD. Buy it or borrow it, but certainly watch it.

[1] Formerly a member of Squeeze, has his own band, played on The The’s Uncertain Smile[2], presented The Tube in the early 80s, etc, etc
[2] And indeed recreated that performance on Later some years back when The The made a rare TV appearance[3]
[3] First time I ever saw Matt Johnson grinning[4]
[4] Jools seems to have that effect…
[5] This does mean that you probably aren’t going to like every act in every show, but it’s a good opportunity to see and hear some music you might otherwise miss, which has to be a Good Thing
[6] The tracks are sequenced in strict alphabetical order of artist name. Paul Weller comes between Oasis and Primal Scream, and there’s a nice[7] run of bands whose names begin with “The”.[8]
[7] Apart from The Darkness, who are a joke that should never have been let out of the studio
[8] I think that was to avoid any arguments about who was more significant, or whatever….
[9] Hey! Nice site!