TestOut

Well the last week or so has been quite productive for me.

At work we have been working closely with our EMR vendor to resolve a few issues with interfaces and minor bugs that exist in their program. We also finished rolling out the new machines we received a few weeks ago, and also built two new disk images that we will use to roll out Microsoft Office 2007 to the employees in our building that don’t have it yet. I’ve also setup the new / updated webserver to host our current site and make our auditors happy again.

The Livestrong’s Daily Plate program is going very well. I’ve been logging my exercise and activity everyday and doing a weekly weigh in and I’ve lost just a little over 7 pounds in two weeks. This past week I have picked up my biking habits again so every other day I am out doing 15 to 25 miles which I’m sure is helping. Right now I am limited to about 1800 calories a day, which when making the right decisions at lunch and dinner makes it pretty easy, most days I am closer to 1600 calories. I can even feel that my pants fit better just after two weeks. I also noticed that I am getting used to the lower calories because I can’t eat nearly as much as I used to, but I’m sure that’s a good thing.

After taking a month or two off from biking now I remember why I love it so much. Last night we got some clouds and rain that helped cool down the temperature and made for a bit of a breeze from the north. I worked my from College Station to downtown Bryan and used the breeze and the cool weather to get me up to 25 miles last night which is close to my longest ride of like 32 miles. But just the speed of with the extra wind at my back which just makes it so much easier to maintain my 17-19 mph on the flat and 13-14 mph uphill. Usually my pace is right around 14.3 mph around town, but that probably included a bunch of stops and me just kind getting it done and not really pushing. If I push, I could probably do 16 mph for 10 miles but beyond that my legs start giving up. I hope to work my way closer to 50 miles in a single ride and then I would have to probably upgrade to a true road bike. Right now I have a 2008 Trek 7.2 FX. It does a great job of giving me a good road feel but keeping me upright, the components are of good quality and shift are quick and smooth, my only wish is that it was a bit lighter, but that always costs more.

My Linux+ is coming along nicely, I have completed the CBT Nugget videos I had as well as the entire TestOut training, now I just need to take a few practice tests and see where I am. I think the only thing that will trouble me is remember all the different options to these commands, there seems to be just a ton of them and not all are standardized. Also a few of the detailed configuration files for Samba and sendmail I just can’t seem to wrap my head around, but hopefully they ask enough generic stuff that it won’t be a problem. I will take a practice test sometime this week and probably schedule the test for one afternoon in the next two weeks.

Upcoming for the blog at http://www.waynezim.com I will continue to try to figure out what the Galleries things so I can share all the good high quality pictures with all of you out on the internet, and hopefully produce a few more articles about the great IT stuff I do day to day. I still have quite of bit of work to do with adding a profile and what I would call is a portfolio of projects and work that I have done in my IT career. I also hope to write WordPress Plugin that will help integrate SportTracks and the Livestrong’s The Daily Plate into the blog on my site.

The past few weeks have been quite busy for me. I spent about a week in Washington DC seeing the sights and enjoying the freedoms that our country provides. While there I found out that I had a ticket to the Indy 500 once I got back. So I took another day off work to road trip it up to Indy, which really wasn’t that bad since we had several drivers. The race was awesome it is just amazing how fast those cars can actually go, we were in turn 4 and watched several cars pound the wall just in front of our seats. Unfortunately, I got back to town to find that my dads lung cancer had made him take a turn for the worst, i didn’t get to share my experience at Indy with him but knowing what a race fan he was i know it wouldn’t have wanted me it on his account. I did get to say my goodbyes and spend a bit more time with him, he passed away early that Wednesday morning. I appreciate everyone’s well wishes the family is doing fine.

I have spend the last week or so working on my studying for my Linux+ certification which I hope to take at the beginning of next month. I hope this will diversify my IT knowledge and allow me not to be lost or have to Google every command when trying to do things on a Linux system. I have already watched the CBT Nuggets videos and now have moved into TestOut in depth study material which I should be able to finish by the end of the week.

Also, I joined Livestrong.com’s The Daily Plate program which is a food and exercise journal that will help keep track of what you do and how much you eat so you can hopefully lose weight. My sister has been doing it for a bit and Jen and I decided that we should give it a shot, if nothing else it gives you some statistics of how good you eat compared to what activities you do. So far I have noticed that the food database is quite extensive because I was able to add my Freebirds burrito by size and each component. The activity database is just as extensive which includes sleeping, mowing the lawn, washing the car, working one computer, watching tv and any other activity you can think of. It also uses your height and weight to estimate how much you should eat and includes activities in to it, it is pretty neat you should at least sign up and check it out.

As for the site, I have been trying post pictures from all these great places i have been recently. I have only had moderate success as you can tell from the front page. I will also be putting up a few articles about virutalization and more of the general IT stuff that I have been working on. If you have any ideas for posts i should do just put it in a comment and I will see if I can make it happen.

Getting Things Done

The Past Few Weeks