Pinboard is Eleven

Pinboard Blog:

Much of the core code on the site dated back to 2009-2010 and was written by Past Me, a vindictive, inscrutable nemesis who devoted his life to sabotaging Present Me.

You know, I just learned that in my coding class. Your worst enemy is your past self who thought this code was fine.

Anyways, congratulations Pinboard on being 11 and also being fine. I honestly don’t know how I would deal with the internet without this service.

super mario bros. 3

Tim Rogers:

Most of my life later, Super Mario Bros. 3, once my gateway drug, continues to be the road itself. As I try to involve myself on a more integral level with the creation of actual videogames, as I fully realize and spell out the very discretely mathematical ways one can make a game better than my hero-game, I balk over and over again at actually taking authoritative control. I know that love and peace and freedom, not cold calculation, is what birthed this game. The reason Miyamoto can’t follow it up is because this is literally the kind of game only one group of people can ever make once.

It’s actually unfair that SMB3 is to many people, their first great game. It sets such a high bar, one inevitably thinks that perfect games are a cosmic fluke rather than something we can actually accomplish.

Also, how did I only get around to reading the Action Button archives now?

Opinion: It should be my right to drive my car with my eyes closed. Who am I hurting, really?

Robin Urback:

The bottom line is that if God didn’t want me to drive with my eyes closed, he wouldn’t have made chewable Benadryl so delicious.

Pairs well with…(checks the internet)…any of it.

After Trying Online Counseling, Some May Never Go Back to Real-Life Therapy

VICE:

So teletherapy comes with lots of positives, says Cook, and could help more people access treatment. There is a flip side, though, starting with technology. “The software has to be there,” acknowledges Cook. “You have to have a reliable Internet source for video calls. We have to make sure the vulnerable folks who are left behind already won’t be further left behind because now they don’t have the right Wi-Fi or bandwidth or whatever.”

I can say that I didn’t like it as much. But for people who haven’t been able to get therapy in a physical space, there’s no doubt at all this is a massive improvement.

May-June 2020 in photos

Peloton after 1 Year (All Data Version)

I’ve made four seasonal blog posts about Peloton in the last year. Just to see it all in one place, here’s the data I’ve gathered from my Peloton usage after one year.

I’m not a bike or treadmill subscriber. I only use the at-home workout app to watch the videos. I think it’s been good for me, and in a year hasn’t become boring or repetitive. Peloton does two things extremely well: provide a constant stream of fresh videos hosted by charismatic trainers, and fills those videos with real, good music. I can’t stress how awful the music is in every other fitness app.

Now, to the data. Peloton lets you download your workout data in a really great CSV. You can do all sorts of things with it.

Number of types of workout

Workout Type

Calories Burned (this would be massively approximate)

Time Spent in minutes

Instructor Frequency

My Own Health Data

I’m only going to put this down once a year. According to my scale, I’m at 226 pounds. I’ve got a BMI of 32.4, a body fat percentage of 33.1%, a 1851 Kcal BMR, 143.6lb of muscle mass, and a metabolic age of 43 (I’m 37). In the last year, I’ve placed my health as a higher priority, and Peloton has helped keep me motivated. I’ll update this next year, hopefully with better numbers.

Peloton after 1 Year (Just the last three months version)

I’m proud of myself. Keeping up with a workout routine for one year is not something I’ve ever done before. I’m usually pretty bad at healthy routines.

This is the data just for the last three months. Click here to check the others. Because it’s been one year, I’ll make a separate post with all the numbers added up.

Number of types of workout

Workout Type

Calories Burned (this would be massively approximate)

Time Spent in minutes

Instructor Frequency

Heart Rate

So! Some notes.

I bought an Apple Watch during this period, and the integration is really nice. When you begin a workout, the watch becomes a heart rate monitor for the workout itself. At the end of the workout, the Peloton app gives you a nice summary of your heart rate during the exercise:

Of course, the Apple Watch version looks a little slicker:

It only tracks your heartrate if you use the iPhone to play videos, however. So if you like to play videos on your computer, it just won’t sync up. However, it will work if you use Chromecast, and it’ll even show your heartrate up on the screen. Nice.

Now, for some comparisons. Strangely, my last three months is very similar to the three months prior. Almost the same number of workouts, but with 5324 calories burned vs 3510 last time. I gained the time before as well, and that was attributed to taking longer workouts overall. But this time? I think the workouts got harder. Peloton has moved entirely to “at-home” workouts, and, you know what? They feel tougher. The instructor doesn’t have to interact with the studio crowd as much, and I feel like they cram more into each workout. Or maybe that’s just the difference between taking 9 vs 3 Jess Sims classes. She’s tough. She’s not Becs Gentry tough, but who is?

Video Game Time, May-June 2020

Games Played

Uh, Animal Crossing. So much Animal Crossing.

Games Finished

Eisee and I played Florence on Switch. It took two hours and it was just as cute there was it was on iPhone. I love two-hour games.

Games Bought

• Pocket Card Jockey. Hey man. Check your My Nintendo page sometimes. There’s good discounts there.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on GBA on ebay.
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
• Firewatch
• River City Girls
• Firewatch

Good Movies, June 2020

• Parasite, 2019 - ★★★★★. Damn, it really is better the second time.

• The Daytrippers, 1996 - ★★★½. Absolutely my kind of mess.

• Police Story, 1985 - ★★★★. falling down is art.

• Shockproof, 1949 - ★½ (contains spoilers). Grif just straight up abandons his kid brother and blind mom there huh

• Bonjour Tristesse, 1958 - ★★½. “To live, you must be drunk on something.” A pretty decent season 6 episode of Gilmore Girls.

• Lost Highway, 1997 - ★★★.This whole vibe is just way too familiar to me. I think I watched too many sexy 90s noirs growing up. Where were my parents?

• My Dad Is a Heel Wrestler, 2018 - ★★½. The Wrestler but instead of being tragically sad it’s just wholesome and cute.

• Cure, 1997 - ★★★. Actual nightmare fuel.

• Pleasures of the Flesh, 1965 - ★★★★. I loved this film. It’s like a comically tragic short novel. Just delicious.

• If You Could Only Cook, 1935 - ★★★. Nicest gangsters ever.

• Doctor Sleep, 2019 - ½. The Episode IX of Shining movies I guess.

Last Month on KSawyerPaul.Blog, May 27-June 29, 2020

• Last Month on KSawyerPaul.Blog, April 27-May 27, 2020
• Album on Rotation Today—Constantines by Constantines
• Album on Rotation Today—You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine by Death from Above 1979
• Link Blog, May 2020
• Cura, May 28, 2020
• Oh Great, The Fog Is Here: It Is Now Very Foggy On Top Of Everything Else
• Good Movies, May 2020
• May 2020 in photos
• Album on Rotation Today—Home On Native Land by The Hidden Cameras
• Good Movies, May 2020
• Streaming video with your friends on Discord
• Blackout Tuesday, the Black Squares on Instagram, Explained
• Albums in Rotation—RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
• New Mouse, New Keyboard
• Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
• Solid Windows Apps
• Slow Volleys
• Cura, June 18, 2020
• Podcasts worth hearing, June 2020
• Social Media Profile Photo 2020
• The Best of Youtube, June 2020
• The Apartment and How To Escape Toxic Masculinity
• Microblog Thoughts, May 24-June 24 2020