Month: August 2007

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Hamster – Love and Friendship

hamster - love and friendship

Informer: SueOn
Source: Nirvana Musing

I just have to say how awesome this picture is. The hamsters are awfully cute and the situation is very sweet. I’m not sure if it’s photoshopped or not, but it would seem quite difficult to pose hamsters. Maybe the flower was added in later.

The original source notes it as “Friendship and love defined in one photo.” However, I’d like to see it as a different way. At first it may seem like the friend hamster is lowering the hamster holding the flowers, but it could be completely opposite where the friend hamster is pulling the hamster away, or how I like to call it as rescuing a friend from the evil female monster. What true friend would allow a buddy to fall into the claws of the devilish opposite gender.

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Laser Printers and Air Pollution

While chatting with Ungsunghero, he brought up the news about how laser printers are a health risk due the fact they pollute the air. There was a recent report published in Environmental Science & Technology: Particle Emission Characteristics of Office Printers. This story was covered by both Ars Technica and BBC NEWS.

A group was comparing indoor air quality (offices) vs outdoor air quality of urban areas by comparing the amount of tiny particles in the air that can lodge into your lung and cause damage. They noticed there were fewer particles during non-business hours in the office, however once business resumed, the number of particles rapidly increased up to 5x the amount of outdoor particles. Through a process of elimination, they were able to pinpoint the origin of the particles to the laser printer.

Of course not all laser printers are equal and after a thorough test of 60 laser printers, they’ve broken them down into 4 categories: non-emitter, low level emitter, middle level emitter, high level emitter

They’ve deterimined that the particles that the laser printer shoots out are actually tiny particles of toner or toner related material. The study also found out new toner cartridges tend to emit more particles and the amount of printed on the page also made a difference. Printing an image which covered more area of the paper released more particles into the air.

Anyway, why did I bring this story up? I took the following image when I got my tower fan, but I thought I’d recycle it here.
laser printer next to air filter

My laser printer is situated right next to my air filter, out of pure coincidence. It was probably due to the fact it was the only place where there was a spot big enough for it. I wonder if the HEPA filter is good enough to capture the particles…

My laser printer is generally off since I don’t print that much and even on idle, laser printer pulls in quite a bit of electricity.

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Pull Up Bar

So I’ve been meaning for a long time to pick up a pull up bar. I’ve enjoyed doing pull ups, but there really wasn’t anything around that would be able to hold my weight while I did the pull ups.

I decided to pick up something at Amazon.com: GoFit Chin-Up Bar. For $15 (+ free shipping since I have Prime), it sounded like a decent deal. Reviews of the item are pretty good too.

I got the Pull Up bar today and installed it over the corridor that connects my kitchen to my dining room:
pull up barpull up bar

At first I had not planned to used the brackets, which you screw onto the wall to keep the bar from slipping. However, after reading this review:

Like all of the other people here, I bought this bar and it has performed magnificently. $15 is ridiculously cheap for the high build quality of this item, but **BEWARE**.

******* DO NOT USE THIS ITEM WITHOUT THE BRACKETS ******, no matter how strong you think it is.

I am approximately 165lbs teenager and was using the bar sporadically throughout the day just for fun. Again, I hung this WITHOUT the brackets, which I learned to regret.
One time when I was pulling myself up, the bar fell broke off and fell, leading me to land party on my back and neck.

I immediately got back up like nothing happened, but the next day my back and neck are experiencing shrieking pain.

The use of brackets is not only recommended, but required. It takes only a few minutes!!

I decided it was in my best interest to install the brackets before using. It sounded painful to have the bar slip while doing pull ups.

After installing, I was excited to try it out. However, I was shocked to find myself even struggling to do 1. I was able to do 5 easily just a few years ago. Guess I’ll be practicing more on it. Chin ups on the other hand, I was able to do 3 easily. Must be the push ups I’ve been doing and it’s been strengthening my biceps.

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VoiceStick – Maximum of 3 Rings

For the longest time, I always wondered why my parents never left me a message on my answering machine. See, I have this VoiceStick VoIP account. Unlimited incoming calls for free. Plus the fact it gives me a 626 area code, means my parents can call me via their regular phone without paying any long distance.

I mean, my parents have always left my voicemail when they called my cell and I’m unavailable to answer it.

So the other day, I decided to try calling the number, just to test out the answering machine to make sure it’s working properly. After 3 rings, I get disconnected and hear the following message: “Nobody’s available to take your call at the moment. Goodbye.” VoiceStick does have its own voicemail system, where it even emails you when you get a voicemail, but I didn’t really care too much about messages left on this number (since it’s only my parents who have it. *whistles*), so I disabled that. I had set my answering machine to pick up on the 4th ring, but since it never got past the 3rd, that’s why the answering machine never picked up.

Anyway, I logged into VoiceStick’s account management system to see if there’s a way to increase the number of rings or the duration of hold before redirecting to voicemail/disconnecting the caller, but was unable to find any setting like that. I decided to email them to see what I can do about it:

Hi,

I was wondering if you could tell me if there’s a way to increase the number of rings for my VoiceStick number before going to voicemail/ending the call.

It currently rings 3 times and then plays the automated message telling that no one is available to answer the phone.

I was wondering if I could increase that to 4 or 5 and if it’s possible, how to do it?

Thank you.

Here was their reply, short and to the point:

No there is no way to change that at this time.

Harper Evans
Voicestick CustomerCare

I wonder if paid accounts are actually able to tweak this setting, because 3 rings is just not long enough. I mean sometimes back at home, it takes 5 rings before anyone picks up the phone.

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Microsoft Health Screening Results

So there’s this yearly health screening thing that Microsoft holds where they take some blood and some skin samples and some tears. I was just kidding about the tears and skin samples. Anyway, they measure your blood pressure, your cholesterol and all the other mumbo jumbo. My numbers have always been pretty nice, just that my body fat % and BMI (body mass index) is a bit high.

Last years result were:
Blood Pressure: 114 / 79 (desirable: 120 and below / 80 and below)
Total Cholesterol: 162 (desirable: less than 200)
HDL Cholesterol: 54 (desirable: 40+)
LDL Cholesterol: 97 (desirable: Less than 100)
Triglycerides: 54 (desirable: Less than 150)
Glucose: 94 (desirable 60 – 110)
Body Fat %: 24.4% (desirable: 8% – 19%)
BMI: 26.6 (desirable: 18.5 – 24.9)

I was recommended to do cardiovascular exercise 5-6 days/week for 30 minutes to lower my Body Fat % and BMI. That was one of the reason I got the exercise bike.

This years results are pretty much the same. I did lose about 10lbs along the way, but that didn’t really help lower my Body Fat % or BMI much.

This years result are:
Blood Pressure: 120 / 80 (desirable: 120 and below / 80 and below)
Total Cholesterol: 134 (desirable: less than 200)
HDL Cholesterol: 50 (desirable: 40+)
LDL Cholesterol: 72 (desirable: Less than 100)
Triglycerides: 60 (desirable: Less than 150)
Glucose: 86 (desirable 60 – 110)
Body Fat %: 24.3% (desirable: 8% – 19%)
BMI: 25.5 (desirable: 18.5 – 24.9)

At first I was shocked when I saw how close to the borderline my blood pressure was, but then I look at last year results and there were only up a tiny bit. I also attribute any errors to the fact that the lady taking my blood pressure made me laugh while the numbers were dropping.

My total cholesterol took a big drop, lowering both good and bad cholesterol. Not too sure if that’s a good thing, but I’m still within the desirables. So that’s good, right?

I have no idea about the triglycerides or glucose as those numbers moved around a bit, but not much.

Both my BMI and Body Fat % dropped, but by so tiny of an amount. Haha. I’m debating if it’s worth it to continue exercising. ;p Interestingly enough, last year I told them I was 5′ 6″ and this year I told them I was 5′ 5″. I noticed if I punch in 5′ 6″ and 153lbs into the BMI calculator, that puts me at 24.7, just within the desirable. I think I’m really 5′ 5″ (tried measuring myself yesterday with a tape measure), but I’ve given both numbers out as my official height (license shows 5′ 6″). If you want to find out your BMI, you can use the BMI Calculator at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. BMI’s in my opinion are never that accurate as they use your height to estimate your volume. Xyon says the most accurate way to measure BMI is to have to strip naked and step into a pool of water and see who much the water level rises.

All in all, I’m happy with my results and the numbers say I’m pretty healthy. Rob (our project’s Lead PM) walked out as I was going in and asked how much damage I was expecting. You see, I bring in snacks and food every week, ranging from candy to cookies, from dried mangos to beef jerky. People drop by my office to get food every now and then and I don’t exactly bring in the healthiest food. Rob drops by every now and then for a slim jim or cookie. He said the damage my snacks caused wasn’t too bad. Derek on the other hand… he’s afraid to come to my office now.