Mindful Musings

One of those perfect quotes I always want to hang onto . .

“You and you alone are in charge of what happens in this story, all of us are challenged to use our talent and our intelligence to make the most of our experience.”

As some of you were aware, Jennifer was pregnant with our first child. Due to a sudden complication with her pregnancy brought on by a hidden weakness called an “incompetent cervix“, Jennifer had to deliver our baby at 21 weeks of gestation at an unexpected rest stop in Indianapolis.

Our baby passed away very quickly after the delivery in spite of all the medical attention that was available to her. She lived for 15 minutes and spent her last few breaths in Jennifers’ arms. She was absolutely beautiful and made me smile and cry at the same time. We baptized her Angel. She is the Angel of our eyes and our hearts.

I know she is happy in heaven. We will miss you our dear child. May the Lord bless you and may your soul rest in peace.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

I have always liked data in every form and manipulation of that data tickles my fancy a little too much. In pursuit of that endeavor, here is a little gem I recently uncovered.

I (recently started to) work out regularly on my exercise bike. I own a Nordic Trac AutoRider R400 which I absolutely adore. The bike is comfortable, there are lots of options and it is still fun to use it. Fun is a crucial component of any exercise routine. My plans are to train on this bike all winter and then ride in the summer. One feature of this bike that I find unsatisfying is the EKG monitor on the handlebars. The pads are not very accurate, nor very sensitive and the readout leaves a lot to be desired. I have been targeting heart rates (I have high cholesterol) and it is hard to do with the bike.

Recently I also found the Polar FS1 Hear Rate Monitor Watch for about $50 and I thought that it might be cheap enough and work well. Then I found the ADI05 Software Logger on Amazon (it works with the FS1 and all its cousins) for about $27 and it all fell into place. I had a heart rate monitor, a receiver to plug into my computer to receive my heart rate data, a data logger for my computer and all the data I could ever dream of. From one of the reviewers, ... keep track of how much time you have spent in each zone per week and tells you how many more times, for how long, and how hard you need to exercise the rest of the week to reach your goal of maintaining, improving, or maximizing. I love it.

Now I need to fork over another hundred bucks to get all the stuff and write some code to put it into cool flash graphs. I can’t wait! PS: I will be looking for a relatively inexpensive road bike come summer. Any suggestions would be well appreciated.

The Newspaper Clipping Generator: Create your own fun newspaper.

What Really Saves Gas? And How Much? How to save gas. Edmunds tests the “gas saving tips” that we have heard oh so often and over and over again. A couple really caught me by surprise. I really did think that leaving the air conditioning on would use more gas, not true at all. I also thought that tire pressure would have a major impact on gas mileage, again not true. No measurable gain.

Test #1 Aggressive Driving vs. Moderate Driving
Result: Major savings potential
The Cold Hard Facts: Up to 37 percent savings, average savings of 31 percent
Recommendation: Stop driving like a maniac.
Aggressive vs. Moderate Driving: read the entire test

Test #2 Lower Speeds Saves Gas
Result: Substantial savings on a long trip
Cold Hard Facts: Up to 14 percent savings, average savings of 12 percent
Recommendation: Drive the speed limit.
Lower Speeds Saves Gas: Read the entire test

Test #3 Use Cruise Control
Result: Surprisingly effective way to save gas
Cold Hard Facts: Up to 14-percent savings, average savings of 7 percent
Recommendation: If you’ve got it, use it.
Cruise Control: Read the entire test

Test #4 A/C On, Windows Up vs. A/C Off, Windows Down
Result: Nice in theory; not true in practice
Cold Hard Facts: No measurable difference (unless you open the sunroof, too!)
Recommendation: Please, make yourself comfortable.
Air Conditioner: Read the entire test

Test #5 Check Your Tire Pressure
Result: Important for safety and to reduce tire wear
Cold Hard Facts: No measurable effect on the vehicles we tested
Recommendation: Check your tire pressure often but don’t expect a big savings.
Tire pressure: Read the entire test

Test #6 Avoid Excessive Idling
Result: More important than we assumed
Cold Hard Facts: Avoiding excessive idling can save up to 19 percent
Recommendation: Stopping longer than a minute? Shut ‘er down.
Excessive idling: Read the entire test

MIcrowave Popcorn may cause cancer The culprit is FLUOROTELOMERS (which was spelled incorrectly on the site linked).

American’s gobble up more than 17 billion quarts of popcorn a year, but a recent FDA study found that a chemical coating used in microwave popcorn bags is seeping into popcorn.
DuPont is one company that makes the chemical coating. They say flurotelemers {fleuro-tella-meers} can come off the bag and into the popcorn.

A former DuPont scientist warns that more of the chemical is coming off the paper than originally thought.

“Even before we cook the popcorn the butter is already contaminated with a paper flurochemical that will be absorbed into your blood and stay in your blood for a long, long time.”

FDA scientists say the popcorn is still safe. But, now another study has found an acid that can be extracted from the chemical causes cancer in animals and is “likely to cause cancer in humans.”

The popcorn council says companies are moving away from using this coating on their bags.

Pictures of the house in early spring One of the plants at the edge of our yard bloomed in full glory this past week and I had to take some pictures for my parents to see since those flowers will be well gone by the time they arrive later this spring. So here are pictures of my back yard, of Luckey playing ball, of our apple tree, our magnolia plant and everything else that caught my fancy.

#9 Ghosh: I have following this for years, literally. I am Ghosh #9 in the world. Still far away from the Number One Matt in the world, but I will stop now!

Code like a girl Do engineers and programmers care about concepts like beauty and elegance? Should they? A subject very near and dear to my heart. I love to code elgantly, really pride in writing coherent and well thought out code but my professional mentor keeps finding things I missed or should have paid closer attention to. I can safely say that I learn almost every day and am very proud of it.

A more detailed post forthcoming, I wanted to make people aware that I have posted pictures from our trip to our online album.

Here is the album with pictures from Jennifer’s camera including Victoria Memorial and Missionary of Charity

This is the album with pictures from my camera including St. Xaviers and La Martiniere among other family pictures

So you thought Ionic Air Purifiers were good for you? Think Again! We were going to buy a Brookstone Pure-Ion Advanced Air purifier, but after this, I am having second thoughts. Though the Consumer Reports article does not address the “new” Ozone reducing qualities of the new Brookstone, I would still need to find some more reading material on this. I am thinking of getting the Friedrich C-90A or the Friedrich C-90B instead. Much better air movement, much cleaner air, cheap filters and a great product overall.

There are two others in the market that I would also like to know more about. The first is the Biofresh Air Purifier from Mitsubishi and the second is from a company called Air Oasis, the Air Oasis 1000. I wish I could just buy all of them and return the ones that I don’t like. But since that is not possible, I will have to settle for one. From everything I have read so far, I am still leaning towards the Friedrich because of its solid construction, but the Biofresh does have its benefits.

It is really gratifying (and admittedly very encouraging) to see one of your creations advertised on TV. Everyone should try it sometime!