Category: Personal

Categories
Personal Technology Website

2021 One

Hi, hello.

Welcome to a blog post.

We are all doing blog posts again in 2021.

More and more people are saying this.

Firstly, and foremostly, I’ve wanted to write on this thing in forever. I’ve been putting it off for a while because, truthfully the web stuff I manage was getting too out of date and I didn’t have the time or energy to update it. Writing on the site just reminded me of all the potential security holes it had.

Honestly, it probably wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. It was only about a year out of date, but the way I set it up didn’t lend itself to change easily, even if this was originally the goal of the whole thing.

WELL, IT’S 2021 AND WE ARE LEAVING THAT IN THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY.

This site you are now on is now properly containerized. I spent a bunch of time banging my head against the wall to get all my configuration files correct and now I can spin up a WordPress site with proper certs in a single script. All my other sites that I manage I’ve moved back to a more managed host. They will load slower, will run on older versions of software, my total control over all the aspects of the back end is gone, but with that, I don’t have to worry about them. They will just hum along without much of my input. It’s a huge mental relief because some of those sites were just completely offline for too long.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Sorry, first thing, that popped into my head when I tried to type “So we…”

I plan on trying to split up some post ideas I have into many smaller posts because I tend to blow these things way too far out of proportion and they never end up posted.

In that, let’s do some quick re-caps and get the hell out of here 15 minutes early.

Like, many, I’m sure, I’ve been on more Zoom calls than I can count this past year, but I did manage to do some good things within them and in spite of them.

Dimescon happened again, albeit online this time. This has been a yearly tradition where we do small presentations on just about anything. The numbering of events has skipped a year as Dimescon 2020 never happened because 2020 doesn’t deserve a moniker. This year mine was about one of my favorite things, posting. It has been lovingly edited and posted below. I’m all blurry because the source media file is taken from a Zoom recording and my picture was all teeny tiny in the corner.

TECH SIDEBAR: I recently have been trying to figure out ways to augment my main computer as I have many that could provide use. In that I figured out a way to get remote rendering with Adobe Premiere. That means I can have my little server box work away at a final render of a video and not be locked out of my main computer while it cranks through all my insane effects in three and four dimensions. I did this by installing Adobe Media Encoder on the server box and setting a watch folder. This watch folder is network shared. That way when I transfer the Adobe Premiere project file over in the folder, it sees it and starts rendering sequences in the root folder in Premiere (not in a bin). The one hiccup is I have to make sure I transfer my media files over BEFORE the project file, otherwise Adobe Media Encoder tried to start rendering without the source files and messes up. Otherwise, it is very cool. More on the shared computing stuff later.

Remote rendering on my server box viewed from my main PC

My improv group did a holiday show, that I quite liked, we did a riff on a Hallmark movie that I thought went very well. Here is that show:

OK, this has been a solid first post of 2021. I’m going to call it here and continue on later. In conclusion, 2021 is a land of contrasts.

Categories
Activism Improv Personal Video Video Games

What I have been up to (Julybruary 4tst edition)

Hello, from the hyper-time sphere, where time is both accelerating and standing still.

Last time I posted (besides the boring nerd server post) was in April, and let’s say things have still been happening. Lots of things are still happening.

So let’s get this train wreck-a-rollin’

Improv

But all the venues are closed (or were, and still should be), how can anyone be doing the righteous work of improv comedy? Well, go to the online, like everything else in your world. “But, Matt, wouldn’t it be worse?” Oh, sweet summer child, of course it’s worse, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. And do it we have. We’ve has a few online shows, and they have been alright given the circumstances. It has, at the very least, allowed me to multitask on new levels. Managing downloading pictures to show, a live chat, music, sound effects, audio and visual cues, and also Im the occational prov. Well, it’s a lot.

Activism

You are not going to believe this, but activism stuff is still happening. I know, you’re like “Get right out of town, Matt.” First, no, I will not, and second, it’s true. Given the *gestures around to everything* there is still work that very needs to be done.

It seems like forever ago now, but I did host another candidate stream, found here:

That took a lot to put together, but I think it went smoother than the first. I’m the stream boy. I’m the one who streams. I should probably work on the naming a little.

We also got an opportunity to put together a short video to be played during the all digital Taste of Tippecanoe. I had four day to put it together, but I like how it turned out. I tried some editing techniques I’ve not done before. Editing video is so relaxing. Getting lost in the edit is like one of my favorite things ever. Pure zen.

Check that out here:

Tim and Matt Play

We are still going! A little more sporadic than we have been, and I’ve been dealing with just monumental tech issues for a solid month since updating to Windows 10 2004 (Beware!), but I’m hoping to get that figured out soon. It is only extremely frustrating. Come hang out with us Thursdays at 8:30-ish. We love interacting with friends in the chat.

Fighting Games

I don’t know exactly what sparked it, but I have been so into fighting games lately. Way more than I have in any other recent time. I haven’t had nearly enough time to play and practice them, but Street Fighter V, Killer Instinct, and Smash are pretty much all I play when I get a moment. Just caught the bug. I’m hoping to maybe get an actual solo game stream where I rotate stuff eventually, and they will definitely play a key role. If you ever want to play any of those, let me know.

Running

I can’t get enough of it, and I want to do more. The NYC marathon got cancelled (this is a good thing!), but the initial email said I was guaranteed next year as a resolution. The follow-up turned out that that is not the case. You are guaranteed an entry next year or one of the next two following years. That sucks ass. Here’s to hoping. Since I think all major marathons will be cancelled this year, if they already haven’t, and I wouldn’t do one anyway all things considered, I am thinking of planning my own personal one to run sometime when the weather is far from rightful. Is it fall yet?

Honestly, I’ve been up to so much and without much of, if any, a break. I am kind of fraying at the edges, but I am going to try to keep it together as best as I can. I hope you are all healthy and keeping it together the best you can, too.

Categories
Fitness Personal

That 2018 Fitness Post!

Hey, welcome to April end of May. Only *checks watch* 5 months late on the start of this. It’s fine. It’s fine, let’s just pretend this is January. I’ll set the mood. It sucks. It’s cold out. Your body is never going to be warm again. It’s persistently grey-skied, and it’s seemingly always night. OK, now that you are sufficiently depressed, let’s get this train wreck a-rollin’.

In summary, 2018 was a good year for fitness for me. Thanks for coming everybody!

Fine, let’s dig into the numbers a bit. This is what we are known for here at Killer Tofu HQ, data dives and frequent, on-time posts. The two things.

I personally approached 2018 as a makeup year for 2017. I really felt like I slacked off in 2017. So, did that show in the numbers? Well, let’s start with the baseline, the number from 2017.

2017

Running:

Total Runs: 86

Total Distance (Mi.): 650.47

Average Pace: 10:42

Average Time: 1:12:14

Full Marathons: 1 (1 failed)

Half-Marathons: 2

10ks: 2

Lifting:

Total Weight Lifted (Lbs.): 129,741

Days at Gym: 80

2018

Running:

Total Runs: 114

Total Distance (Mi.): 874.81

Average Pace: 10:55

Average Time: 1:25:13

Full Marathons: 2

Half-Marathons: 2

10ks: 1

Lifting:

Total Weight Lifted (Lbs.): 83,896

Days at Gym: 74

I definitely put more miles in. 224.34 more miles! I’m very happy with that. And I will say, it shows in the race outcomes.

I PR’d in Chicago, and then turned around and beat it in Indy. I am so stoked with those races. I also PR’d for a half during the Santa Hustle. I never broke 2 hours for a half-marathon, and I just crushed it by 8 minutes. I am ecstatic how I finished out 2018. I wish the weather didn’t turn because I felt like I was in such a good groove. I would very much like permanent fall please. A breeze 65 degrees at all times would just be peachy. Alas.

The average pace went up, which is not great. It didn’t jump a whole lot, but speed continues to be my weak point. I think that is going to be my goal. I really want to speed my runs up. At the very least I’d like to continue to beat my PRs.

At least for this year, I’ve changed up my Marathons. I’ve done Chicago and Indianapolis for the past few years, trying for NYC. Well, I didn’t get into NYC again, and also Chicago this time. I still want to do at least two marathons, so this year I’m running Minneapolis, Minnesota and Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve never ran Minneapolis, but Madison is one of my favorite towns in the few times I’ve been there. Great running town.

Sidebar, last time I ran in Madison, I ran around one of the lakes, about a half-marathon. I parked at some public garage, near a support. Well, after I was done, and when I was pulling out, I wasn’t paying attention and dented the passenger-side fender on that support. Normally, and understandably I would be extremely upset at myself. This time however I was on such an endorphin high that my reaction was basically, “Oh well, cars are made to be broken.” That was until hours later when I calmed down and then realized the damage I did and had the proper reaction, you absolute idiot (me to me).

Now for lifting. I definitely spent less time in the gym this past year than I did the previous year. It was a 32.6% increase in the number of runs and a 34.5% increase in number of miles. It was also a 8.1% decrease in the number of times I made it to the gym and a 35.4% decrease in the amount of weight I lifted.

These are rough measurements, but it seems like the more I run the less I left and vice-versa. This should be apparent with just how time allotment works, but now it’s in the data! It seems to correlate at roughly the same rate. Glad we can confirm the obvious here at KT HQ.

With any hope 2019 will be better than 2018 with more improvements. OK, I’m going to stop writing or this post will never get out. BYE.