Monday, July 29, 2013

Why I Bleed

Last week I went and gave blood. This would not normally be blogworthy, but this marked a milestone in that it was my 25th donation so I felt some sort of reflection on the topic was in order.

There are two main reasons I give blood. The first is that it's one of the few pure, selfless things I do. Apart from some sausage rolls afterwards and the getting a badge every so often I don't gain anything out of it. A random stranger gets something that will help them live and all it costs me is some time. The ethical calculus is pretty clear this is a good thing to do. And in a life that isn't big in getting involved in things and doing stuff to contribute, a pure selfless act is a good thing to throw in every now and then.

The other, bigger reason why I give blood is that it is something that I grew up with. Many were the times as a kid when my sister and I would sit on the sides of the bed/chair bit while my mother was giving blood. Mum is O-, and while she was able to was a pretty regular donor. Giving blood was even a rite of passage. On my sixteenth birthday after school Mum came into town (I was at boarding school at the time) and we went and I gave my first donation.

Since then I've not been as consistent as I'd like, and living overseas for a bit didn't help either. That should no longer be a problem as the Red Cross are much more organized about this now, and will automatically book your next appointment for you and send you reminders a few weeks out, making it much easier to not forget about it. In fact, why not make an appointment now?

Sunday, July 28, 2013

By The Numbers 30/52

Not quite back into the regular swing of things.

Wealth
Net Cash: $216.85
eBay sales cancelled out post-PAX splurge in Melbourne, and frugal living the rest of the week made for a nice result
Jobs applied for: 1
I did do this this evening just so I wouldn't have two zeros in a row, so could be better.

Health
Net Calories: ?
Monday was a bit hard to keep track of as I was out socialising most of the day between a coffee shop walkabout with some other enforcers and the after party in the evening. For Tuesday to Sunday I'm 94 Calories over my target
Weight: 94 kg
I guess Monday wasn't that bad, or there was more walking than I thought.
Fitocracy points: 0
Bad me
Blood donations: 1
Blood donation badges received: 1
I add a 25 donation badge to my 10 donation badge. I hope to get to 50 before 2020 (It's a long term goal)

Life
Bike Riding: 155 km
Back to work on the weekend after having most of the week off after PAX
Books read: 1, The God Argument by AC Grayling. Somewhat preaching to the choir for me, but good to be exposed to the arguments I try to put forward for my philosophy of life presented in a much better way than I can usually manage. He did seem to put a bit more emphasis on the right to euthanasia than I was expecting.
Games played: 2: bowling and an online game of Roll Through the Ages. Missed all my semi-regular gaming nights this week

What I kept

I used to play Warhammer 40,000. I quite enjoyed it and spent a fair bit of cash and time on the hobby. However, then I went overseas for a few years, and when I came back to Australia where my collection was there were new rule books and the relative power of certain units shifted, and I thought I'll get back into it in a bit when I have more cash, and for several years left it at that. Since then there's been even more new rule books at an even steeper price, and I recently made the call that I'm never going to play regularly again, and that the best use I could make of my collection would be to liquidate it. And now, thanks to the power of eBay, I'm now several hundred dollars richer (ignoring the 3-5 times that much I paid for the models and paint in the first place).

I didn't sell everything. There were a few pieces I wanted to keep as display pieces as I was particularly happy with how they turned out. So within the limits of iPhone photography here are the ones I kept.










Wednesday, July 24, 2013

By The Numbers 29/52

A bit late, and a few numbers that aren't as well defined as I'd normally have, but there's a reason for that: PAXAus. It was a bloody amazing weekend and even though it was a hard slog I'll be there again next year trying to cram even more fun in (I'm not sure if that's humanly possible, but let's see). Here we go

Wealth
Net Cash:-$236.41
Edit: I forgot to include my rent for this week. That makes this a bit more bleak purely on a numbers basis. However, since the purpose of getting money is to let you pay for the things you enjoy in life, this money has been used to great effect.
Jobs applied for: 0
Standard excuse for this week, PAX

Health
Net Calories: ?
Bad eating at PAX I hope was mostly cancelled out by various amounts of heavy lifting, walking all over the place, walking to and from trams, yelling with excitement, clapping, cheering, etc, etc, which brings us to a figure a bit easier to get
Weight: 94 kg (as of Tuesday night)
So a gain of 1kg. Could have been a lot worse. Bordercon was worse, but I was a lot more active at PAX.
Fitocracy points: 0
I could have put in all the walking but I've no idea of an exact figure and fitocracy doesn't really work on about 12 hours of walking

Life
Bike riding: 0 km
Books read: 1, Book 2 of the Dark Force Rising trilogy, I'm now working through The God Argument by A.C. Grayling
Games played: 13:  Zombie Fluxx x2, Lords of Waterdeep, The Resistance x3, Hanabi x2, Magic: The Gathering x5

Sunday, July 14, 2013

By the Numbers 28/52

No fancy intro this week

Wealth
Net Cash: $249.78
Jobs applied for: 5
better

Health
Net Calories: 117 Calories
I pigged out on a block of chocolate today which was over a days worth of calories in one go.
Fitocracy points: 965
Weight: 93kg

Life
Bike riding: 107km
Books read: 1
Games Played: 16. Lost Legacy x2, Expedition, Ticket to Ride - Team Asia, The Walking Dead x3, Glory to Rome, Kingdom Builder, Pass-ack Words, Hanabi x3, Attika, Innovation x2

Sunday, July 07, 2013

By the Numbers 27/52

Into the 2nd half of the year

Wealth
Net Cash: -$126.46
Ouch.
Jobs applied for: 2
Bad me.

Health
Net Calories: -1103
A while ago the app I use to track my calories suggested I need to revise my target intake to suit my current weight, but I didn't do it at the time as I didn't want to change the baseline I was reporting to, but since we are now half way through this seems like an ok point for a disconnect in the data. The new baseline intake is 1850 Calories a day, down from 1970 Calories a day (this is about one muesli bar or half a chocolate bar less a day).
Fitocracy points: 2542
This includes a few hundred bonus points for completing a quest (a recommended set of exercises), and I've leveled up to level 15.
Weight: 95 kg

Life
Bike Riding: 134 km
Books read: 0
Games Played 9: completed games of Through the Ages and The Hanging Gardens online during the week, 6 plays of Dominion (Dark Ages with a mix of other sets) and Battlestar Galactica with both Pegasus and Exodus expansions. Not bad for having missed the regular Wednesday and Friday gaming nights.

Monday, July 01, 2013

By the Pictures 1/?

Halfway through the year, lets convert all these numbers into some pictures

Wealth
One of the more varied graphs. Overall more positive than negative, but a bit more discipline is needed (at least until I get a better paying job).

 A graph of Jobs Applied For is just a few delta spikes and mainly a testament to my slackness.

Health
Net Calories
In only 6 of 26 weeks did I go over my weekly target. It would appear I'm getting used to being hungry, although the realization that exercising let's me eat more food has helped as well.

Weight
Steady progress for most of the year, but that seems to have plateaued over the last month or so.

Fitocracy points
A slow start that's picked up as the year progresses. Getting the dumbbells a while ago has added some variety and made it easier to get more points (I can do a treadmill session and a dumbbell session in a day and not feel too put out, but to get the same number of points with just the treadmill would be tough).

Life
Bike Riding
Yeah, pretty consistent most of the time.