Hiatus

Hello everyone!

I have decided to take a break from doing the blog for a while. This is my 100th entry, so it feels like an appropriate time to stop for a while. In TV, this would mean I could go into syndication. Thank you for reading my blog!

Lesson Of The Week: Chewing The Cud

Cows are interesting. They eat grass and hay, but they grow huge. Have any of you ever seen a skinny cow? There is a perception about vegetarians being skinny, but I guess they blow that theory out of the water.

Hay is very difficult to digest, so a cow's digestive system is pretty tough! Cows belong to the ruminant class of animals, which have four stomachs and chew their cud. The average cow chews 40,000 to 60,000 times a day because of the amount of food it eats and chewing its cud.

After grinding its initial food, the cow swallows the food into its first stomach, the rumen. The rumen is the largest compartment and has billions of microorganisms inside. These organisms help the cow by digesting the plant fiber and producing fatty acids for the cow. This symbiotic relationship helps cows digest a variety of materials that are hard to digest for other animal classes. Any food that is too heavy or hard to be digested is stored in the reticulum, the second stomach compartment.

Once this is done, the cow regurgitates the unprocessed food to allow it to grind the food into smaller pieces, called chewing its cud. Once it is done chewing, the cow swallows the food into a third compartment called omasum. The omasum absorbs the fatty acids that were not absorbed by the rumen.

Finally, the food that is left gets passed to the final compartment called the abomasum. The abomasum works like a human stomach. It secretes acids to break down the remaining food.

This is the back story behind chewing the cud.

Spirituality: Luke Chapter 11 Verse 9

"And so I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you."

Reading this quote from the Bible, consistency comes to mind. The first line says you get what you ask for if you keep asking for it. This sounds a lot like prayer to me. In prayer you are asking God for help, such as help to heal a friend or help to give you strength to do the right thing.

The second line brings truth to mind. We are all looking to figure things out in our lives. As long as you keep searching for answers, then you will find those answers.

Finally, the last line brings action to mind. "Knocking on the door" can mean doing actions that you know are right and moral. If you continue to do good things, then doors will be opened to you.

To me, this quote is saying that if you keep on striving for your desires, then you will achieve them.

Finances: Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool

My best friend gave me a bunch of random video tapes once and in the collection was Mr. T's video "Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool". I never actually watched it, but I think I can hazard a guess at the topic.

I bet Mr. T says that you need to develop yourself as a person or else people will be taken advantage of by others. Of course, this is true no matter what age you are. We all have something we can be working on to improve ourselves. The same is true for your finances.

You have to plan ahead and think about what financial goals you want to strive for. For example, jobs have no guarantee on them. We are all "at will" employees and our bosses can let us go at any time. Gone are the days of working for the same employer for decades. So, you have to think of strategies to keep your income growing years down the road. My plan is to create my own business. In this way I can control my own destiny to a greater degree than working for someone. Also, I can learn a lot about myself, which will help me grow as a person too.

See Mr. T, I am not going to a fool for you to pity!

Nutrition: Sea Salt

Salt is bad for you. That's what we hear. Stay away from salty foods. There were a lot of studies done that show salt intake can lead to hypertension. However, it's all about moderation.

First, let's make a distinction about kinds of salt. There is sea salt and table salt. Table salt is made using a high heat process to purify the salt crystals to be over 99% sodium chloride. Then anti-caking agents are added to table salt. These agents are not good for the body. On the other hand, there is sea salt which is made in salt water and does not need anti-caking agents. Also, 2% of sea salt is made up of trace minerals that are good for the body. Sea salt has a distinctive flavor.

Now, sea salt has many benefits. It helps regulate the acidity level of the body. The body tries to maintain an acidity level, and if there is not enough salt in the body, then the body will try to lose more water through sweat and urine. By keeping a healthy amount of salt in the body, we can retain more fluid in the body. Salt also is a strong antihistamine, helping to relieve asthma. Salt can even help stabilize irregular heartbeats by working with water to regulate blood pressure.

I consume sea salt every day.

Programming: Resources

OK, so you run across a problem you need to code for but don't know how to go about it. What do you do? Finding where to look for answers can be the most frustrating experience for a programmer. We go into situations thinking "oh, that doesn't sound too bad", but inevitably a roadblock arises. What do you do?

Well first, realize that if you've come across a problem, most likely others have come across it too. Internet searches are a great way to find solutions because there are many sites dedicated to publishing solutions to programming problems. Some people joke that only one person wrote all the code used in industry and everyone else has just downloaded and adjusted the code for their use. That's an exaggeration, but online code samples can lead to great solutions!

Staying with the internet, most programming languages also have sites dedicated to themselves. They contain definitions of methods and classes that you may not ever have known existed. They also have code samples that show how to implement them.

Another resource for finding solutions is technical books. Bookstores have usually have a wide selection of technical books on most popular subject matters. If you use a tool that is more obscure, searches on online bookstores, such as amazon, may be more helpful.

Don't forget your best resource is the people around you. Your teammates may have personal experience with the problem. Don't be afraid to ask them for help if you get stuck.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Vulnerability

What is your image of a fighter? Probably some scary, big guy who is muscular and aggressive. Well, much of our concept of fighting comes from movies and sports shows. However, Wing Chun Fut takes a different approach.

Most people wanting to learn how to fight think they are going to learn how kick someone's butt right away. Here's the problem with that. Are you learning self defense so you can go pick a fight with people? I don't think so. If you're learning self defense, most likely you are doing it to defend yourself against an attacker. The attacker has probably watched you and thought you were a target, so learning to be the aggressor is not realistic to learning self defense.

Now, one of the hardest things about learning Wing Chun Fut is learning to appear vulnerable to your attacker. Our style is developed for smaller fighters. We do not takes chances with lunging attacks. We encourage our attackers to come in and get closer. When they do get closer, they are in range for our attacks and we follow them, keeping that same closeness between us until we find a controlled strike. By appearing vulnerable, we fool our opponents into coming closer and keep on them until we finish the fight.

Vulnerability takes a lot of inner strength.

Physical Fitness: Training Goals

When you want to come up with a plan for getting into great shape, you have to first come up with goals. Examine the reason that you want to start working out. Once you know why you want to start exercising, then you can prepare a workout plan that is appropriate.

For example, if your goal is to lose weight, then you will want to investigate the best ways to speed up your metabolism. You may want to start running four times a week. Another example is maybe you want to train for a sport like wrestling. This would make you try to increase your explosiveness. In this case, you might want to concentrate on exercises like squats and power lifts.

Once you decide what the goal of your workout is, you can plan your workout program effectively.

Lesson Of The Week: Rust

Did you ever wonder why metal rusts? Well, the short answer is water. Here's how it works. Metals are very strong materials; however, many metals are susceptible to oxidation. Rust is the result of the oxidation of metal. Oxidation is when the molecules of metals combine with oxygen molecules.

Even though metals seem to have no weak spots, microscopically, they are very vulnerable. The easiest way for oxygen molecules to reach metal molecules is through water. You're probably asking "what about air?" Well, oxygen in air is stable, so those oxygen molecules are not looking to bond with other molecules. However, when water molecules find microscopic spaces in metal, a reaction occurs. The hydrogen atoms bond with some of the elements in metals to form acids. This does two things. First, it frees up the oxygen molecules from their bond with hydrogen and they find a new partner in the metal, which is oxidation. Second, the acid compound form creates more areas of exposure on the metal. This is the reason why it is best to store metals in a dry environment.

Rust weakens the strength of metal. Solutions to this problem are usually either coating the metal with a waterproof liquid or using thicker metals. The thicker the metal, the more resistant they are to the effects of rust.

Spirituality: Deuteronomy Chapter 31 Verse 6

"So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you."

This is very important to me in kung fu. Recently, my master has been using me a lot to fight the door. This means when people visit the school, he asks me to spar with them so they can get a feel of what our school is about.

This is a lot of pressure because I don't know them at all. To fight someone and not get hit is a challenge, but that is what my master expects. So now I go into these situations with a new perspective. Before I fight, I put my faith in God to the forefront. I believe God will have a plan for me whatever the outcome, so I do not concern my self with getting hurt. Even when I fought someone who outweighed me by about 100 pounds, I put my trust in God.

This is what I get from this Bible verse: God is here to protect you when you are defending what is right.

Finances: Four Stages of Success

What are your financial goals? Do you want to be rich? Do you want to own property? Do you want to have enough money to be comfortable? None of these ideas are possible unless you have a strategy.

The first step is to have a goal. Figure out what you want to strive towards. It's easier to achieve a financial goal when it's quantifiable. For example, saying that your goal is you want to have enough money to live comfortably is a harder goal to achieve than saying you want to save $100,000 dollars. With the first goal, it's hard to know when you achieved it; however, the second goal is numerical, making it easier to see when you achieved it.

Next, you have to devise a plan. So if your goal is to have a steady stream of income, then you should be looking at something that can give you consistent earnings, such as renting houses or investing in mutual funds. Your plan should map out how you intend to achieve you goal.

After formulating a plan, now you come up with a system. Systems are more specific. You take your plan and apply it to the real world. So if your plan is to rent houses, your system could be researching good areas to buy investment properties where you know the real estate values grow rapidly and rent out the house. This is where you put the plan into action.

Finally, you have to watch your system. The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. You have to set time markers for achievements and see if you meet those markers. Ultimately, you want to make sure you are making progress in the long term view.

With these four rules, you should always be going in the right direction.

Nutrition: Spinach

One of the foods I try to get in every day is spinach. Spinach has a lot of health benefits. Spinach is rich in cancer fighting nutrients flavonoid and carotenoid. The varieties of flavonoid present act as anti-cancer agents and antioxidants. The carotenoid nutrients help fight prostate cancer by eliminating cancerous cells and stopping the reproduction of cancerous cells.

Also, spinach contains high amounts of vitamin C and beta-carotene, which helps fight heart disease by reducing the amount of free radicals in the body. Vitamin C is water soluble and beta-carotene is fat soluble, so their anti-oxidant properties are sure to be absorbed throughout the body and helps lower cholesterol.

We're not done yet! Studies have shown that eating spinach regularly helps slow the effects of aging on the brain.

For more cool benefits of spinach, go to this site.

Programming: Efficiency

When writing code, you learn that there are many ways to perform the same task. Many times, there is no difference in the methods. However, whenever possible, it is important to focus on keeping your code efficient.

One way to keep your code efficient is to avoid repeating code. For example, if you perform a calculation several times, it is a good idea to encapsulate it into a method. This way, if you need to change the code in some way, there's only one place to modify.

Also, thinking through your code can save unnecessary code. An example of this is avoiding unnecessary checking. Avoid covering scenarios that are not logically possible.

Finally, remember that the more efficient your code is, the easier it will be to maintain.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: UFC Myth

Have you ever seen the ultimate fighting shows. The bill it as finally getting to see which martial art is the best. It's true that there are competitors fighting from many different styles, hence why they call it mixed martial arts. However, there's one big problem.

The problem is there are rules. Fighting in these competitions ban certain attacks. For example, there are no groin, throat, or eye strikes. In wing chun fut, those are our striking areas because one strike in those ares stops the fight pretty quick. Have you wondered why all those mixed martial arts fights end up on the ground? Well, it's because the rules don't allow you to knee someone coming in. Really though, how often do you see fights in real life end up on the ground trying to get a submission?

There are not rules on the street, so to think that fighting in competitions is an accurate reflection of who is better is a myth. Our style focuses on defense. We pride ourselves on not getting hit. Think about it, are you really going to be the one to start a fight. If not, the first thing you need to do is defend the first attack. Please tell me anyone you've seen in a mixed martial arts fight be defensive minded. We're not looking to exchange blows. When we attack, we make sure we connect. That is real self defense.

Physical Fitness: Arms

Your arms have three major muscle groups: biceps, forearms and triceps. I like to work on all all three groups on the same day, but some people work triceps on a different day because it's an opposite muscle to the bicep. Play around with it to see which gives you the best muscle growth.

First I work my biceps. A curl bar usually has two grips, the curved part of the bar. I like to use the inside grip when doing curls, but the outside can be beneficial as well. In both cases, I keep my elbows at my waist to make sure I isolate the biceps. I don't have much gym equipment, so I curl while standing, if you can, seated preacher curls isolate biceps the best. Another exercise I do for my biceps is hammer curls. With this exercise, you curl using dumbbells, except your palms are faced towards your body instead of face up. I like to twist the hammer curl into a normal curl when I get to the top of the motion to work every part o the bicep.

For forearms, I put the curl bar behind my back. With my palms facing up, I roll the curl bar up and down my fingers.

For triceps, I take a dumbbell and hold it over my head with my elbows close to my head. I curl it over my head and then bring it down behind my head.

With gym equipment, you can hit these muscle groups in different ways, but this is a good workout on its own.

Lesson Of The Week: Doppler Effect

Have you ever been sitting in traffic and hear a siren get louder and louder until the vehicle passes you. Then the siren appears to have a lower pitch? That's the Doppler effect. It's a very deceptive concept.

Sound travels through the air in waves. These waves have a length, which is how far the wave travels. They also have a frequency, which is the pitch of the sound

The Doppler Effect comes into play when one object is moving toward another and will pass it. If the moving object emits a sound at a constant pitch, the frequency remains unchanged, but the wavelength gets shorter as it near the object because the sound's point of origin is getting closer. The consistent shortening of the wavelength allows the sound to reach the stationary object faster and gives the effect of a higher pitch.

As the moving object goes away from the object, the point of origin for the sound is farther and farther away, making the wavelength longer. This increases the time it takes for the frequency to reach the stationary object, so the pitch is lower.

However, if the object went right through the object, it would hear a change, weird, huh?

Spirituality: Matthew Chapter 5 Verse 11

"God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against because you are my followers."

To me this quote from the Bible is discussing people who want to tear you down. When you try to do good things for yourself, there will be people who will discourage you. This is one of the obstacles we face. For example, if you start working out regularly and lose weight, there might be people who say that you are losing too much weight. Another example is if you are doing well at your job, jealous people might talk bad about you behind your back to get others against you.

What do you do when these things happen? Well, this verse says God blesses you when people come lie about you to others. So even though you might be upset at the hurtful things others may say, the Lord will bless you and reward you if you do not retaliate. If you act like them then you are no longer a follower of God and will not be blessed. So, ignore haters because you will be rewarded in the end.

Finances: Time Is Money

Have you ever thought about the phrase "time is money"? Interesting concept because if that were literally true, then we'd be born millionaires and poor old people. Well, that is clearly not the case.

So what does it mean? One lesson I've learned that relates to this saying is that the sooner you get a good idea out then the more chance of good things happening. In essence, getting a jump on the situation by reacting quicker. For example, doing research on a problem helps me find a solution faster and stop a problem from getting out of hand. Also, moving quickly on an opportunity, like in the stock market, can help to increase your reward.

Another way of looking at the phrase "time is money" is to consider what an activity is costing you in man hours. For example, if you are at a store and are thinking of buying a $100 shirt, think about how long it would take you to earn $100 and then consider if the shirt is worth it.

Time is money, so choose wisely how you spend your time.

Nutrition: Why Is Sugar Bad For You

How can something so sweet be bad for you? That is today's question. Sugar is very addictive and is one of the main ingredients in most junk foods. Why? The answer is that marketers discovered long ago that sugar is addictive. There have been no clear studies that show a direct link to sugar and a chemical addiction. However, studies have suggested that the brain receives pleasure impulses when digesting sugar.

Another theory of why sugar is so addictive is due to an ironic cycle. Consuming excess sugar increases the production of insulin. This increase in insulin causes the body's blood sugar to drop. As a result, the body craves more sugar to compensate for the drop. Pretty crazy, huh?

Sugar has many problems. Consuming excess sugar regularly may lead to diabetes. Sugar can also wreak havoc with organs in the body's endocrine system, such as the pancreas and adrenal glands. Also, sugar is the leading cause of dental decay.

Try to eliminate refined sugar from your diet. For example, I add raisins to my oatmeal instead of sugar to get a naturally sweet taste.

Programming: Requirements

Logical thinking is the cornerstone of a good programmer. The best applications are well thought out and allow opportunities for growth. The ability to think ahead is important when designing a program.

Before you do anything, the first thing you need to know is your requirements. What is it that the application needs to do. You must figure out the specifications of the project. Then list out these requirements in a document. If you don't know where you are going, then you'll never get there.

Requirements are essential for completing business goals. The application is being built to satisfy a client. The requirements must take into account the needs of the client. Is ease of use more important than flexibility? How much user interaction is appropriate? Are there features that are must haves and some that can wait until a future release? These are the types of decisions that must be made.

Requirements are declarations of intent for building the application and must be considered thoughtfully.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: First Days

It was about a year ago that I started training in Wing Chun Fut kung fu. Previously I had no experience learning a martial art. There was one karate school that I went to, but the teacher who showed me around had a big ego. That left a bad taste in my mouth and I never went back.

When I first entered Master Lee's school, I was intimidated. I did not know what to expect and was worried there would be a bunch of guys with egos. Luckily, that was not the case. Everyone was very nice. I even made a friend with one of the older students, Charles. The environment was very conducive to learning because kept asking me if I needed help.

That was good because the first few weeks were rough. You're dipped right in the middle if everything, there's no easing into it. The first 20 minutes of class is cardio, and I remember fumbling around a lot and being frustrated at the awkward new motions I had to learn. Now it's all natural, but there was a lot of falling down in those first few weeks.

Remembering that time keeps me humble and reminds me that hard work pays off.

Physical Fitness: Lunchtime Workout

Nowadays it is difficult to find the time to workout. Work is increasingly demanding. For example, my job requires 50 hours a week from its employees. Then there's commute time and commitments to friends and family. Sheesh, do we have time for ourselves?

This is the challenge: we have to maximize the time we have. One aspect of your life you can take control of is your physical fitness. During my lunch break at work, I try to get in a 15 minute workout.

Here are some ideas of exercises you can do. If you can find an area that you feel comfortable lying on the floor, you can do crunches. I do 100 crunches on the ground. Then I do 100 leglifts. Finally, I stand up, put my hands over my head with my palms facing each other. I do side crunches in this position, with the top half of my body swaying side to side like a pendulum.

Next, here are come cardio ideas. If you can go outside, walking will help get your heart rate up. Another thing that I do is go up and down stairs. Luckily, we have 12 flights of stairs to traverse. Be careful not to put to much impact on your knees when going down the stairs.

Finally, you can also do push-ups while on break at work. I talk about push-ups in my blog here.

Remember to make time to take care of yourself because everything is dependent on your health.

Lesson of the Week: Adding Salt To Water To Make It Boil Faster

When I was young, I learned that before you boil water for cooking, you should add a pinch of salt. I always thought it was because it made water boil faster. Sadly, I found out today it has the opposite effect. Salt water boils slower than water without salt in it. Why is that?

Salt dissolves easily in water. After a few stirs, you have a salt water mixture. Since salt has a very high boiling point, water cannot boil while it's still mixed with salt. So, extra heat is needed to create the energy that separates salt from water. This need for extra heat causes the boiling point of the mixture to be higher than if it did not have salt mixed in. Raising the salt water to a higher temperature will of course take longer, so boiling salt water takes longer than regular water.

Also, the higher boiling point achieved by adding 60 grams of salt to water is less than a degree, so it won't help you very much cook at this new temperature.

Honestly, the only reason to add salt to water while cooking is to add flavor to the meal.

Spirituality: Luke Chapter 6 Verse 38

The more I read the Bible, the more I realized that it is full of real world advice about how to live your life. Here's an example that I received from my kung fu master, Master Lee. Luke 6:38 says,"Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full - pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."

This verse is something I believe in. If you do a good deed, then you will be rewarded. One way of looking at this is the way social work operations work. Non-profit organizations that help people in the community give goods and services to people in need. In return, they are making the community they live in a better, safer place to live in.

Another way to look at this verse is like "paying it forward". If you do something good for someone, then when you are in need, someone will help you. There is not any logical reason why this is true, but in my experience, things tend to work out that way. It is kind of like Karma. If you encourage positive energy, then that energy is around you and good things happen. I follow this philosophy.

Finances: Buying A House

Buying a house is probably the biggest investment you'll ever make. Currently, the housing market is in a slump and the Fed has lowered interest rates to making lending easier. What does this mean to you? Buyer's market.

Right now, people will compromise a lot to try to sell their house. I found this the case when I bought my house. The seller was a company that was trying to flip the house. The longer they owned it, the less money they made. So the owners were eager to get the deal done. They paid for all the closing costs, payed for someone I chose to spray for termites, and knocked a thousand dollars off the price of the house. The deal was more than fair, but I'm sure I could have gotten more if I held out a little longer.

The key is to shop around. Find an area whose property values traditionally rise. The property values in the city that I chose rise an average of 7% a year. This is a good time to buy housing in traditionally expensive markets because there will be a lot of deals to be had. Also, avoid buying the most expensive house on the block. They don't gain in value as fast as the other houses on the block. You can find estimates on real estate prices on sites such as this one.

Take your time in choosing your house because it is a long term investment.

Nutrition: Guacamole

If you're a fan of Mexican food, then there's a good chance you enjoy guacamole. Guacamole is made from avocados. Avocados grow on tall trees called Persea Americana, and in the United States, they grown in California and Florida. Personally, I love guacamole, but it was one of the first things are started taking off my list of acceptable foods. I knew it was high in fat and I figured it was just another junk food to avoid.

Boy, was I wrong. Avacados have great health benefits. One benefit of avocados is they are rich in potassium. Potassium helps to regulate blood pressure. Another nutrient avocados provide is folate, which helps fight heart disease.

One drawback to eating avocados is that they are high in fat. However, there's good news: it's the right kind of fat. Oleic acid is a monosaturated fat in avocados that helps lower bad cholesterol, LDL, and promote good cholesterol, HDL.

Be sure to check the ingredients of the guacamole before you buy it to make sure there's nothing unhealthy added to it, but guacolmole in moderation can be beneficial to your diet. The moral of the story is that sometimes things that taste good can be good for you too!

Programming: GUI

This is the most dreaded part of an application. Anyone can make a commandline application, but there comes a time when that doesn't cut it anymore. No one is buying games that are completely made up of ASCII characters anymore. This is why GUI's are important.

A GUI is a graphical user interface, and this is the view the user has of the program. This allows user to interact with programs in an easy to understand way. Windows XP is an example of a GUI because it hides commands such as cut and paste which you can perform by dragging an item instead of running typing the copy and delete command. In the beginning, there were no GUI's and everyone had to communicate with applications by typing computer commands. Thankfully, technology has progressed.

Some suggestions for making a GUI for your application. The number one rule is make sure the application is fully separated from the GUI. This means that the internal logic of your program should not have anything dependent on the view you choose. This allows you to easily redo the GUI or make alternate views available to the user like many games provide. Another suggestion is to have other people try your application with the GUI. Many times what we think is user friendly really is way off. This will help give some perspective on you creation. Finally, don't be afraid to ask for help. Programmers are normally not artists. It may be helpful to ask for help from graphic arists. Images can make dramatic improvements with the feel of an application.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Consistency

Expectations. The higher you go in rank, the more things are expected of you. One thing that is expected at all levels of students is crunches. My master expects us to do crunches every day and the amount required increases as you change belt levels. A beginner is expected to do 100 crunches a day. Each time you achieve a higher rank, your crunch requirement goes up by 100.

Why do we do this. First, the abdominal section is the only muscle group that you can work every day. More importantly however, doing crunches every day demonstrates consistency. In the martial arts, there is no greater skill than consistency.

The idea is that being consistent with doing your crunches can help you see that you can be regimented if you put your mind to it. Then you can use this ability in other parts of your life. One example is that you can make up a schedule for youself in which you consistently practice your skills. Another example of consistency is performing daily tasks. Since becoming consistent with my crunches, I have set aside Sunday evenings to make my lunch for the week and every night I floss and brush my teeth before going to bed. This is a big accopmlishment for someone who hated dentists and all things related to them.

So being consistent can make your life easier to manage.

Physical Fitness: Sets And Reps

If you want to promote muscle growth, you have to isolate the muscle group you are wokring on. So, My routine breaks my exercses into muscle groups. After you finish working on a muscle group, take about at least a ten minute break if you plan on working on another muscle group. This time allows the blood to flow to the area you were working on and begin rebuilding muscle tissue.

Workout plans boil down to sets and reps. Reps are the number of repetitions in a row you do for a particular exercise. For example, I do 100 crunches in a row, that would be 100 reps. A set is how many times I do a set number of reps. I need to get 600 crunches done in a day, so I do 6 sets of 100 crunches, or in other words, I do 100 crunches 6 times.


There are many theories on sets and reps. There's the pyramid theory, which has you do 5 sets. Increase weight or reps gradually each set, and the third set is the maximum you can do. Then you lower the weight or reps for the last two sets. Some people do 5 sets, always increasing the weight or reps. Some people keep it constant weight but vary the reps.

I always do 4 sets. My first set starts at a manageable weight and I increase it for the next two sets. The final set is either my max or I go back down to the weight I used for the second set. The important thing is to find the best combination that works for your body. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Lesson of the Week: How to Learn Chess

When I was growing up, I used to watch "Family Ties", the network sitcom that launched Michael J. Fox. He played the main character, a young man who was extremely smart and confident. On the show, one of his hobbies was to play chess. Chess seemed like a game that only intelligent people played, so I wanted to learn it. My father bought a chess board and let my sister and I play each other. It actually didn't seem that hard to learn, and before I knew it, I was captain of my high school chess team.

The biggest mistake people make about chess is that it is an IQ test. Chess has this mystique that the best players are geniuses and losing a match means your opponent is smarter. That is not true. Everyone starts out bad. It's the nature of the game. It takes a lot of thinking moves ahead and paying attention to the current state of the board. There is a lot going on with every move, but experience makes this multitasking easier.

Nowadays you can play online versions of chess against other people. That's probably the easiest way to learn to play. Yahoo Games has a online chess game that has a "how to play" section. You can get the basic rules there and play people at your level. Other sites, such as MSN, have similar versions of chess online for free.

That's a good start, but you will still be a novice. If you want to be skilled at chess, then you must study just like anyone else. There are many books on chess openings and defenses. My favorite opening is the Ruy Lopez and my favorite defense is the Caro Cann. There are many to choose from, find one that suits you and make it your own.

Experts in chess get that way by studying the past games of grand champions. So anyone can be a great chess player, you just have to work at it, just like anything else.

Spirituality: Psalms Book 1 Chapter 105

In this Psalm, the importance of worshipping the Lord is proclaimed. Not only should we praise God, but also we should "Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him." This verse tells us that seeking out the Lord will lead us to him and his strength. As a benefit, the Lord will share his strength with us. That is why it is important to seek him out continually. We can call on his strength when we need to.

In verse 5, it goes on to say,"Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given". What I take from this verse is that if you follow the rules he has given, then you are more to experience his wonders and miracles.

Also, this Psalm talks about God's relationship with his chosen people. It says of the chosen ones, "they were few in number, a tiny group of strangers in Canaan. They wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. Yet he did not let anyone oppress them." This shows that God will protect those who follow him and who try to follow the rules he has laid out for us. We are like the chosen ones. When we are born we are small and helpless. God watches over us and nurtures us as we grow older. If we continue to walk along God's path, then he will protect us from harm until we reach the promised land. I like that.

Finances: What Fed Rate Drop Means To You

The housing market has been bad over the last year. People trying to sell houses are having a tough time unloading their property. Also, financial lenders, such as banks, have taken on too many risky loans, resulting in increasing debts by these lenders. Even landlords are having difficulties finding tenants for their properties.

The housing market is an indicator of the US economy, and because of this, plays an important role in the economy. This is why the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate, an overnight lending rate banks charge each other and that helps to determine the rates for many types of consumer loans, by half a point to 4.75%. This is great news for people who want to borrow money and financial lending institutions because the rate at which they can borrow money is lower.

What does this mean for you? If you have a loan with a high interest rate, now is the time to look into restructuring your loan. The most obvious example is a home loan. Your mortgage company or another financial institution may be able to offer you a better deal paying less interest on your payments. Less interest mean smaller payments and more money in your pocket! Don't stop there though. Now is the time borrow money if you need it for project to invest in your future, like business loans or home improvement loans. Invest wisely, because you will still need to pay back your loan.

Nutrition: Health Benefits of Raisins

Much of the time when someone tells you to eat healthy, you think of bland foods that make eating a chore. Well, there are lots of foods that taste great and are good for you. One such food is the raisin.

Raisins are dried grapes and are naturally sweet. This sweetness comes from fructose and glucose, which are forms of sugar that are less likely to cause cavities. In fact, raisins have a phytonutrient called oleanolic acid that kills cavity-causing bacteria.

Raisins also promotes healthy bones in women because it contains the trace mineral boron. Boron helps to convert estrogen and vitamin D to their active forms, which helps protect bones.

Another advantage of raisins is that they are a source of antioxidants, although not as good as grapes.

Finally, raisins help to fight macular degeneration. There have been studies that show raisins help vision loss as people age.

I add raisins to my oatmeal. It's an easy way to stay healthy!

Programming: Debugging

We have all been through it. You come across a problem and have know idea where to start looking for the source of the problem. That's an average day in a programmer's life. We deal with bugs. In the coding world, bugs are the colorful name given to problems that occur within code.

The tricky thing in programming is that much of the time bugs are well hidden. The first way to catch bugs is with a compiler. If your code does not compile, the compiler usually does a good job of giving you line numbers where the problem might be and a description of the error. If this is the worst of your troubles, be thankful.

The second stage of bugs occur during runtime. These are a lot more tricky to find. Sometimes the messages are easy to find, as with the compiler messages, but other times they are not. Runtime errors often are dependent on the programmer to deal with. Once the programming is running, data is being manipulated all over the place, so it is imperative that the programmer thinks about hot spots where errors may occur and catch errors using code and generate appropriate error messages. The more errors you catch, the easier this phase of debugging will go. Many issues arise when programmers assume a variable will always have a value, but in actuality has a time when it is null.

Also, many IDE's, applications designed for writing code such as Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio, have built in debuggers. Debuggers allow the code to run, but also lets the programmer interact with the code while the application is running. For example, you can set break points in code where the application will stop and wait for the programmer to do something. Debuggers are power tools to let you see where the problem is occurring.

Finally, logic errors are the toughest to find. These bugs occur after you think you're done, but now your code is behaving strangely under certain circumstances. These are the hardest to catch because they can take a lot of testing to find. Debuggers are key to solving these issues.

In all cases, persistence pays off!

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Power of Positive Thinking

I make a lot of mistakes. While training Wing Chun Fut, the only way you get hit is when you make a mistake. If you perform your moves properly, you should not be hit in any fight.

Surprisingly, that's a lot of pressure. This means that you have ultimate control of your destiny. There's no one else to blame your outcome on because it doesn't matter who you fight or how long they have been training. Like my master says,"You can never lose a fight if you don't get hit.

So, correcting your mistakes becomes the most important task in your training. Students with a positive attitude do better and advance faster in kung fu. Why is that? It's because thinking negatively puts up imaginary barriers to your goals. For example, the goal of our school is that students can block all physical attacks by green belt level. Some people might say you can't get into a fight and expect to not get hit. We do. If you don't believe that it is possible you will be discouraged easily by challenges. Positive people know that hard times are a part of learning and will work as hard in the tough times as they do during the easy times.

Therefore, keep a positive attitude goes a long way.

Physical Fitness: Workout Plan

Everyone has their own physical fitness goals. Once you've determined your goal, it is tim eto formulate a plan. The plan is where you decide how you will achieve your goal.

My goal is to be as fit as I can be in all areas of my body. To that end, I have an exercise routine that focuses on muscle groups. I devote a day of exercise each to back, shoulders, legs, chest, and arms. Sounds like a lot, right? It is. Currently, I have no ability to devote that kind of time to working out. However, I have found that isolating the muscle groups in this way really develops all areas of the body. When I was exercising on this routine regularly, I was in the best shape I've ever been in.

To get around this, I put some groups together. So, I'd have a three day rotation: back and legs, chest and shoulders, and arms. Arms is made up of bicep and tricep exercises, so I try to keep that separate.

This my plan. If your goal is the same as mine, I hope this helps. The best thing to do is think about what you want to accomplish and write up an exercise plan that attacks that goal.

Lesson of the Week: Mohs Scale of Hardness

Everyone knows that diamonds can cut glass. However, do you know why? Diamonds are the hardest mineral according to Mohs scale of hardness. Mohs scale of hardness is a list, devised in 1812 by German scientist Frederich Mohs, of ten minerals in order of hardness. The higher the number, the harder the mineral. Diamonds are the highest at 10, but glass has a hardness of about 6. Since diamonds are harder than glass, diamonds can do damage to glass. The list is:
1 Talc
2 Gypsum
3 Calcite
4 Fluorite
5 Apatite
6 Orthoclase
7 Quartz
8 Topaz
9 Corundum
10 Diamond

Our fingernails are about 2.5. Geologist use this concept in the field to get a general idea of the minerals within rock layers they encounter. Of course, geologists will also take samples back to test in a lab. The differences in hardness are not uniform, but these minerals were chosen because they were widely available at the time.

Spirituality: Mark Chapter 12 Verses 1-12

The Book of Mark is in the New Testament. In this section, Jesus tells the parable of the evil farmers. A man plants a vineyard and rents it out to tenant farmes. The owner moves away to a different country. However, when the owner sends a servant to collect rent, the tenants kill the servant. The owner sends servant after servant, but to no avail. Finally, he sends his son to collect thinking they would never disrespect his son. Instead they kill his son, thinking that they might inherit his land. Jesus says the owner "will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others".

Jesus often used stories to subtlely say things he could not directly say publicly. In this instance, Jesus was alluding to the religious leader as bad farmers on God's land. They reknownce the prophets God send to them and treat his son, Jesus, unkind. He predicts their downfall at the hands of the lord so that the faithful shall inherit the church.

In life for us, this helps us to remember that you reap what you sow. Bad people get what they deserve, and it is not for us to judge. God will ultimately determine the fate of those who do us wrong.

Finances: How Stocks Work

Ok, what are stocks? Well, coompanies normally start off being privately owned. However, if the company needs money to grow, one option they can choose to do is sell a part of thier company to the public. This is what it means when it is said that a company is "going public". When the public buys parts of the company, they are buying stocks. So stocks represents part ownership in a company.

The price of a stock represents the perceived value of the company. The more good news about a company, the higher the stock price rises. Some stock prices pay dividends. Dividends are a share of the profit of the company given as cash to the stock holder. Dividends are great for stocks that don't rise very much.

When you buy stock, you buy shares. The stock price is the value of one share of the company, hence the word shares. For example, if the stock price for a company is $10, then 10 shares would cost you 10 x $10 = $100. Now if the stock price went up a dollar while you have it, then your shares are worth 10 x $11 = $110. You've made $10! How about that?

That is the basic idea of how the stock market works. As you can see a change in price can mean big gains or big losses. Do your research on companies before investing in them.

Nutrition: Cinammon

Cinnamon is not only tasty, but studies show that it is surprisingly good for you. Cinnamon is rich in manganese, fiber, iron, and calcium. These nutrients help fight colon cancer. The fiber and calcium combine to help bind bile salt to make them easier to clean out of the body, thereby cleaning out the colon. That's a lot nutrients packed in a spice. Cinnamon has a great ability to preserve foods, which people would use keep their food fresh in the days before refrigerators. It can do this because cinnamon slows the growth of bacteria.

Cinnamon can also help people with type 2 diabetes. Cinnamon both stimulates insulin receptors and impedes enzymes that inactivate them, thus enhancing the body's ability to metabolize glucose. This helps people with diabetes regulate their blood sugar. Along with this benefit, cinnamon works as an anti-clotting agent. It counteracts inflammatory fatty acids that contribute to clotting.

There's also been a study that showed that cinnamon can help stimulate brain functions such as memory. However, this has not gone through thorough testing.

Add 2 teaspoons a day to your favorite food. I add it to my oatmeal.

Programming: Microsoft COM

When you code, you realize that some code languages are better suited for certain tasks than others. So it can be helpful to use different programming languages for a project. The problem is languages don't natively work together.

This is where COM comes into play. COM stands for Component Object Model. This is the Microsfot standard that can be used to help languages communicate to each other. The problem with languages is that there aren't any standard data types among languages. So, COM defines a set list of data types that can be used. It's up to the individual languages to use the data and translate it into that langauge's version of the variable.

Another important part of COM is that it requires all COM interactions to happen within an interface. This way, all COM methods are predefined and data can be transferred to the modules in different languages uniformly. Now you know what to expect when you call the a COM method, like making a contract between languages.

COM was used in the nineties a lot and is still prevalent today. More newly technologies are using .NET to accomplish the same thing.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Controlling Your Emotions

You learn a lot about yourself when you spar. One important thing I've learned is how hard it is to avoid overreacting to challenges. Things like this come out for everyone to see when you spar. When I first started out, I got hit a lot. I was just learning how to defend myself, so I wasn't concerned about it.

Now, I've progressed to yellow belt, so my master expects me to stop all hand attacks. This adds a new type of pressure and makes getting hit a bigger deal. At first I got down on myself when I was getting hit because I made a blocking mistake. This is not good because it may lead to getting upset with the person you are sparring with for getting in on you. That's the last thing that you should do because that leads to sparring turning into competition rather than a learning experience, and you discourage the person you are fighting if you don't acknowledge their attacks. You can't improve with that kind of attitude.

I learned that if I accept my flaws, I can more quickly fix the problems. I ask questions a lot about how to defend attacks I get hit with. I also ask people who get in on me to throw the same attacks again so I can see what I'm doing wrong. I'm a perfectionist, so this has been an internal struggle, but I'm getting there!

Physical Fitness: Lifting Weights

Cardio is an important aspect for losing wieght. However, if you are serious about losing weight, weight lifting must be added to your routine.

Weight lifting, or resistance training, has many benefits. First, building muscle helps to prevent serious injuries. The stronger your muscles become, the more protected you are from bone and joint injuries. Muscles wrap themselves around your bones and help give them stability in movement.

Another benefit of resistance training is that it is a great fat burner. When you do cardio, your metabolism only burns fat for a few hours after you've done your exercise. In contrast, weight lifting burns body fat for 24 hours after completing your exercises. As a result, doing cardio and weight lifting in an execise routine will give great results quicker than just doing one or another.

Lesson of the Week: Learning Chinese

When you go to high school or college, most likely there is a foreign language requirement. It's easy to take Spanish or French because these languages are Romance languages just like English. You can get a good grade and learn a little about a culture that has a lot of similarities to America.

What if you decided to try something totally different from English? I studied Mandarin for two years. Mandarin is a dialect in China. There are about seven main dialects in China. The official national language of China is Mandarin, which is why most American schools teach it.

One cool thing is that Chinese languages are written in picture symbols, called hanzi. It is difficult to remember how to write the characters because some words have complicated designs. The characters used to be more pictoral, but China adopted a simplified version of the characters to make writing easier.

Another unique aspect of Chinese languages is that words have tones. A word can be said with different intonations and mean very different things. In Mandarin, there are four tones and it was difficult to get them right when pronouncing words.

I learned a lot about Chinese culture from studying Mandarin. I think branching out to vastly different languages is what the foreign language requirement is all about.

Spirituality: Ezekiel Chapter 26 Verses 1-6

In this passage, God speaks to Ezekiel to send a message to the city of Tyre. Jerusalem had fallen, and Tyre was excited. Ezekiel says,"Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem, saying,'Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir!'"

When good things happen to you, it's ok to be happy for yourself. However, there is no honor in revelling in another's failure. It's easy kick someone when they are down because they don't resist. This is what Tyre is doing. They are rejoicing in Jerusalem's pain. That is not wise. To be wrapped up in caring about beating someone so much that you actually enjoy their misfortune is not of goodness. We should strive to be better than that, no matter what has been done to us.

As a result of their attitude, Ezekiel says Tyre will be punished. "Tyre will become the prey of many nations, and its mainland villages will be destroyed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord." When someone else's misery makes you happy, you will soon find your own misery.

Finances: Input Vs. Output

Ok, time for another issue on controlling your finances. We've all been in a situation where you've lost track of your spending. You look up, and your bank account doesn't look as healthy as it once was. What do you do?

This is the time to figure out what is going wrong with your spending habits. We need to keep track of the money we take in and the money we spend. For most of us, the money we take in is the easy part because that doesn't change much. Since most bills seem to be issued in a monthly cycle, figure out how much money you receive in a 4 week or monthly period. For me, that would mean I would add two paychecks together because I get paid bi-weekly.

The next step is to determine where your money is going. Write out all your expenses that are required in a month, such as rent/mortgage, food, gas, etc. This will be your baseline, so you know how what you must pay matches up with your income. If your income does not cover these bills, then you really need to rethink how necessary the items you are buying are. For example, maybe your groceries are more expensive than necessary.

The final step is to figure out what else you spend in a month. These are things that are easiest to control, like going out to eat every day or buying clothes once a week. If this is your concern, be thankful because this is fixable. Writing down the money you spend in a month helps you to visually picture where the problem is occurring and attack problem areas.

Nutrition: Grapefruits

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted the last couple of days, nut I decided to take the weekend off to celebrate labor day. Of course, today is labor day and I guess I shouldn't be posting today for that reason, but here I go.

Grapefruits are a wonderful fruit! First, grapefruitd are rich in vitamin C. You can get 78% of your daily vitamin C requirement from one serving of grapefruits. Also, Grapefruits contain a lot of fiber. A half of a grapefruit yields 6 grams of fiber. However, to get this benefit, you have to eat the connecting segments in the grapefruit as well as the pulp. That's not too bad!

Another cool benefit of grapefruits is grapefruit juice helps to detoxify the body. Grapefruit juice does this by incerasing the production of liver enzymes that destroy toxins. Also, grapefruit juice helps these enzymes find toxins, making them more active.

There are also studies that show grapefruit juice helps to fight colon, breast, lung cancer. Also, a study in British Journal of Nutrition showed that grapefruit juice can help prevent kidney stones as well.

So add a glass of grapefruit juice or a grapefruit to your diet!

Programming: Recursion

The need to execute a set of code multiple times is common in programming. Loops are the way we accomplish this task. Sometimes though, the logic to use a loop is not readily obvious. This is where recursion comes into play.

Recursion is calling of a method by itself. In this case, there is a selection statement in which at least one of the choices results in calling the method again, often with new parameters. There is also a case where the method does not call itself, which is used to end the recursion.

Recursion works like a stack of cards. Each call to the method is a card on the stack. When a call is made, the card is put on the top of the stack. Once the ending case is reached, the method calls are resolved from the top of the stack to the bottom. So the first call to the method is the last call that is evaluated.

All recursion can be done with loops instead, but sometimes it is easier to write a recursive method that accomplishes the same task. Many times you can write ten lines of recursive code for twice as many lines of loop code. The drawback to using recursion is that all those method calls take up a lot of memory. So often in private companies, recursion is not used because speed is an issue. Another drawback is that writing recursive code is not straightforward, so maintaining recursive code is difficult.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Muscle Memory

One of the concepts I have learned from my Wing Chun Fut training is the power of muscle memory. I did not grow up in a family that was into participating in sports. In my father's youth, he was really good at cricket, but I didn't have much experience participating in organized sports. So I never had to train for a sport.

Now that I am training kung fu, I realize how hard it is to perfect movements. So much thought goes into making sure my movements are precise because the success of techniques is dependent on the details. This is where muscle memory comes into play. You ever do something physical so often that you don't even need to think about it to get it done. Things like tying your shoes or driving home. These are examples of muscle memory.

Athletes use muscle memory to perfect their skills. For example, basketball players practice shooting from spots on the court so that in a game situation they can make those shots without having to waste time thinking about them. Kung Fu works the same way. In a fight, you don't have time to think about how to block a particular punch. That's why we practice our blocks against street fighter attacks every night. The more punches you see, the less you have to think about things during a fight. Your hand just automatically does what it should to block an attack. It's freaky the first time it happens because you feel like you don't have control, but in reality, you are in control by practicing every night.

The two big things I've gained from muscle memory are reacting quicker to attacks and calming down during a fight because I don't need to look at my blocks to know they are right.

Physical Fitness: Push-ups

We all have hectic lives. Squeezing time to get into the gym can be rough. Earlier I talked about how crunches can be an exercise you can fit in everyday to work your midsection. Today, we'll talk about push-ups.

Push-ups are a great exercise to work your upper body when you don't have much time. You don't need any equipment and different arm positions put the emphasis on different muscle groups. When performing push-ups, on the way up, do not completely lock your elbows at the top. On the way down, get as close to the ground as you can without touching the ground. During the motion, only your toes and hands are touching the ground. If that is too hard, then you can do push-ups with only you knees and hands touching the ground. This will be easier but still get some benefits from the exercise. Be sure to keep your back straight throughout the entire motion.

There are three main push-ups I use. The first type of push-up has your hands by your shoulders, a little more than shoulder width apart. This is a regular push-up. This gives you an all-around upper body workout, working the shoulders, back, triceps, and chest.

For the second type of push-up, everything is the same except you put your hands farther away from you, maybe about 6 inches on each side. Your chest will start off lower to the ground. You will feel a pull on you chest as you head towards the floor. This motion works the chest muscles more.

Finally for the third push-up exercise, put your hands against your waist. Push yourself up as far as you can go while keeping you hands and arms by your waist. This is an awkward motion, so you may want to start off doing it on your knees until you get the hang of the motion.

I am trying to do 20 push-ups of each, 60 total, every other day. I'm just starting this, so hopefully I can stay on track!

Lesson of the Week: Rate of Acceleration

If you drop a brick and a feather at the same time off of a building, which would hit the ground first. Of course the brick wins that race. However, in a vaccuum, dropping the two obejects will have a different outcome. The two objects fall at the same rate and hit the gorund at the same time. Why is that?

How heavy an object is does not control how fast it falls in a airless environment. The scientist Galileo determined that objects on Earth have a constant rate of falling, called the rate of acceleration. This means that no matter how heavy an object is, it will fall at the same speed as any other object.

Now the trick is that the rate acceleration is dominant when there is no air in the equation. This is not the case on Earth. The reason a brick will appear to fall faster than a feather off the side of a building is because air creates an upward friction against objects. Now gravity will play a factor. Heavier objects can fight air friction easier than lighter ones because of the effect of gravity pulling them to the ground. The more mass an object has, the faster it falls in the real world.

Spirituality: 1 Kings Chapter 21

This chapter talks about King Ahab. King Ahab wanted a vineyard owned by Naboth from Jezreel. Naboth would not part with the field because he said the Lord told him that the land should pass from generation to generation in his family. Ahab gets upset and tells his wife, Jezebel, what happened. So she decides to have people slander Naboth in public as a blasphemer. Naboth ends up getting stoned to death. As the king goes to claim the field, God speaks through the prophet Elijah, telling Ahab that God will "bring disaster on you and consume you." Furthermore, God "will destroy every one of your male descendants". That's rough.

Hearing this, Ahab repents and God decides to spare him, but still destroy his sons. I see two really big issues here. The first issue in this story is the corruption of power. If you do not have a moral code that you live by, then desire can make bad things become acceptable. King Ahab has absolute power and fell prey to it. He allowed his wife to do his dirty work just to acquire a piece of land, not because of need but because of want. There is nothing inhibiting the king from making bad choices; he has no repurcussions that are readily visible.

As a result of no morality, Ahab's actions cause his sons pain. This is the second issue, families paying for the sins of the father. You can't choose your family, and there is a big responsibility parents have to protecting that relationship since they chose to conceive their offspring. King Ahab's lack of morality does have repurcussions. He has doomed his sons. Think about that. He neglected to protect his children and now they will suffer because of him. That is every parent's worst nightmare.

What I take from this story is to stay true to your moral compass because you don't know what consequences immoral actions may bring.

Finances: Credit History

The world revolves around money. It's a sad fact that if you don't have money, you have little control over your life. From where you live to what you eat, money dictates a lot about your quality of life. This is why having good credit is important.

Your credit rating determines the terms in which lenders will deal with you. Since most of us are not buying houses with cash, what they think matters a great deal. A couple of years ago, it was revealed that some auto insurance companies were using credit ratings to increase insurance rates regardless of driving history.

Credit ratings are scores based on your credit history. How you handle your debts is monitored by three agencies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Even though they each have their own system, if you are dilligent in repaying your debts, then you will have good credit. There has been a government law enacted that citizens are entitled to one free credit report a year. If you wish to order a free credit report, you can go to this site.

A credit report contains your credit history. You can dispute items you find on your report with whichever of three agencies made that report. Getting your credit rating costs money. Usually, if you are dealing with a lender, you can ask them about your credit score and they will give you a general idea.

Nutrition: Broccoli

Our moms love to tell us to eat our vegetables. They know what's healthy for us. It's important to have a balanced diet that includes greens. A great vegetable to include in your daily intake is broccoli.

Broccoli gets made fun of a lot on TV. Sitcoms have kids that are forced to eat their broccoli, but the kids cleverly avoid eating them by hiding the vegetables under a rug or feeding it to their dog. Too bad for those kids, they might grow up to be sickly.

Broccoli is rich in sulforaphane and the indoles, which help fight cancer causing metabolites that cause tumor growths. Also, these healthy nutrients that Broccoli provides have shown to boost the body's detoxifying ability. The immune system and cleansing organs, such as the liver, work better from the digestion of broccoli.

Preparing broccoli is very tricky. The best way to cook it is to steam it. Other methods of preparation leach out the nutrients from it. For the same reason, if you cut your broccoli, let it stand for 5 minutes before cooking.

Programming: Database Programming

There comes a time in every programmers life when they need to store values into something other than a text file. When that day comes, you will need to learn how to access databases.

Working with databases requires the knowledge of SQL. SQL stands for structured query language. SQL is a collection of standards set by leaders in the database industry. The idea is that all databases should follow these standards at the minimum to allow ease of use between vendors. For example, to get a value from a database, all databases should have a "SELECT" command that work the same. This is great because now you know that once you learn database programming, there will be only a small learning curve when you switch vendors. It would be frustrating to have to learn a whole new set of instructions if you switched databases.

Each vendor has ways of making their database transactions faster. So there are ways to optimize database queries, but in general it's best to stay away from this if you think you might change database vendors or allow your application to work with different databases, like Oracle and MySQL.

Database Programming is not bad, but creating a relational database can be tough. It is best to read about relational databases before trying to make one. If you plan on having only one table, then relational databases don't apply and you're free to do whatever you want.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Respect

Character qualities are integral to your development in the martial arts. The mind and body are trained to work seemlessly in any situation. Developing your character while developing your skills keeps the body and mind connection harmonious. One character quality we stress in Wing Chun Fut is respect.

We have four rules to follow for respect in our school. The first is lower ranks must respect the calls of higher ranks. There is a lot of work, study, and experience that go into each belt level. In our school, you earn your rank; therefore my master has the higher ranked student in a match call the strikes for the match. Lower ranks must respect the calls made because the higher rank has more experience differentiating a strike from a move that was blocked.

The second rule is higher ranks must respect the skill of lower ranks. Higher ranks must avoid becoming prideful. We should be happy when someone gets a strike on us because now we can learn a defense to a new attack. Your skill will grow from this and you will gain respect from others.

The third rule is we must respect women. It's hard for a woman to come into a martial arts school. We have to welcome them in comraderie and not try to intimidate them.

The final rule is to respect the power of women and smaller fighters. We have to encourage these people and try to overpower them if they have good defense. Use attacks grounded in skilled not power.

Physical Fitness: Sleep

Ok, I know sleeping is not the most exciting topic, but it is essential to keeping your physical fitness. One benefit to getting a full night's rest is recovery. Damage to tissues is repaired during the deep sleep stage. During this time, recovery from the day's exertion happens, and also human growth hormones are regulated. The more training you do in a day, the longer this phase of sleep will be. For best effects, try to get to sleep by 10 pm. Studies show the earlier in the evening you start your sleep, the more benefit you will receive.

Adequate sleep also helps with memory and learning. Perpetual lack of sleep have been linked to memory diseases such as Alzheimer's. Learning can also benefit from sleep. It has been seen that studying right before bed and taking a test the next day allows you to retain more than pulling an all-nighter. I've noticed this myself.

So how much sleep is enough? No one gives a definitive number, but the average person should get about 7-8 hours of sleep. Trial and error will show you what's best for you. Now go to bed!

Lesson of the Week: Binary

We like round numbers. They are easy for us to understand because we were raised to round things to the nearest 10 based number. So for example, if you have $11 dollars in your pocket, you are apt to say you have about $10 on you. This is natural because our number system, the decimal system, is base 10. This means that there are 10 numbers in our system, 0 - 9. For example, 29 is made up of a 2 and a 9. 100 is made up of a 1 and two 0's.

This is not the only counting system. In fact you can have any based system you want. One system used a lot in the computing world is the binary system. Binary is a base 2 system, meaning there are only two numbers, 0 and 1. Obviously 0 = 0 and 1=1, but what about 2? Well, it works the same as the decimal system, you stick more numbers together to make bigger ones. So, 2 in decimal is 10 in binary. Three in decimal is 11 in binary. This pattern of switching 0's and 1's continues. A fast way to figure out the conversion is to remember each place as a value. So:

1   1   0   0   1 Binary
16  8   4   2   1 Decimal

The values of each place increase exponentially. So the rightmost column is worth 2^0. The next spot is worth 2^1, and so on. When there is a 0 in the column, there is no value from that column, when there is a 1 in the column, then add it into your final value. In this case we 11001 in binary is 16 + 8 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 25 in decimal. Not too bad huh? This can be a fun game to play with your kids! Well maybe not, but it is interesting.

Spirituality: Isaiah Chapter 53

In these verses, Isaiah talks about the Lord's servant. The Book of Isaiah was written in the Old Testament, and reading it, it seems to be prophesizing the coming of Jesus in the New Testament.

What kind of person would God choose as his servant? In verse 2, Isaiah says, "There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance. Nothing to attract us to him." The servant that he talks about will not look like a royal figure, but will be an average looking person, someone that we may identify with. It is easier for us to take advice from people that we can relate too. If we perceive that the person talking to us doesn't know where we're coming from, then the message will often be lost on us. This is an important trait for the Lord's servant to have.

He goes on to talk about our reaction to the Lord's servant in verse 3, "He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way." The Lord chose someone of great pain to be the savior of the world. However, society shuns those in need, even today. We like to give donations to causes but not actually volunteer our time to help others. We could be missing out on wisdom within the needy.

Finally in verse 5, Isaiah talks about the sacrifice the Lord's servant makes, "He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed." The Lord's servant carried our burdens so that we wouldn't have to. He took on the burdens of the world to show us they can be overcome. Let us be worthy of his sacrifice.

Finances: Owning VS. Renting

Owning a home is the best investment you can make. If you don't own the residence you reside in then you are renting. When you rent, you are paying the owner money so that you can live in the home. The rent you pay probably is paying the mortgage on the home, so why should you help someone else establish themselves financially? If you owned the home, then you could be paying the mortgage on the home, estblishing credit equity for yourself.

Also, owning a home gives you tax breaks on the interest you pay on your mortgage during the year. Houses are great investments because in the long term, the value of the home will always go up. Another neat tidbit is that a law passed in 1997 may allow you to avoid paying capital gains tax on your home if you sell it.

Now houses aren't all profit. Be sure to have a prospective house inspected because unlike renting, you'll be responsible for all fixes that need to be done in the house. If you treat your home with respect, your investment will pay off!

Nutrition: Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of fat that is essential to our bodies. Without it, our bodies will not function properly and many ailments will result. Omega-3 fatty acids help prevent heart disease and control inflammation.

Omega-6 fatty acids are also essential and are prevalent in many foods we ingest. It helps to thicken our blood and allows blood to clot when cuts in the body occur. Omega-3's do the opposite, thinning the blood to keep circulation going. These two fats work together to keep the blood flow in proper order. However, when the balance is off, bad things can happen. An article on WebMD says that the average American has a ratio of 20 to 1 in terms of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids. This is way too unbalanced and heart disease can occur from internal clotting.

Another issue Omega-3 fatty acids affect is inflammation. Omega-3's can decrease inflammation in the body because it promotes the creation of cytokine molecules. These molecules helps reduce inflammation.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in foods such as seafood, walnuts, flaxseeds, beans, olive oil and winter squash.

Programming: Functional Programming

There are many different programming styles, each with their strengths and weaknesses. One such type of programming language is functional programming. A functional programming language is code that is completely made up of functions. There is quite a cult following for functional programming in the academic world, and there seems to be momentum for those types of languages in the commercial world.

The first big advantage of functional programming languages is higher order functions. They work like math functions. You plug values into these functions. Then, to get more complex tasks completed, you can put functions inside of functions, and the output can be functions or values. All output is resolved by functions.

The other important advantage to this type of code is lazy evaluation. Under lazy evaluation, results from pieces of code are not calculated until those results are needed. This is more efficient and saves processing time, always in demand.

Functional programming languages include Haskell, Erlang, and Lisp. This type of language can be maintained quicker than others because the code tends to be simpler and modular, broken into simpler component pieces.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: How Do You Know When It Is Right?

Kung fu takes a lot of discipline. We learn a lot of different movements and techniques. As we advance on our skill, the techniques become more complicated and dependent on details. The smallest detail is the difference between not getting hit and getting knocked out. Knowing the importance of this attention to detail, practicing your techniques consistently is the only way to achieve a skill so high that the moves happen without thought. This is due to muscle memory.

The question is how do you know you are practicing correctly? This is a question I continually ask myself. You first learn a move one of two ways, either by hands on application or following along in a mirror. It is helpful if you learn from a bunch of people because everyone will have their own insight about the move. I feel like I pick some new detail up each time I go to Kung Fu.

Knowing that you are doing it right is a tricky matter. It is not enough to see it. You have to let a higher rank perform it on you in combat. In our school, my master has a fight a lot in class. However, when we fight, he stresses to not let competition rule our mindset. If we do, then our minds will race and we will have little memory of the fight. Now if you go into the fight ready to learn, then you can see what your opponent is doing and take a mental snapshot of his techniques. As a bonus, my master touches hands with instructors and black belts to help them advance in their skill. By taking mental snapshots, we can keep a memory of what moves are supposed to be like even if we don't spar with others for long periods of time.

Physical Fitness: What To Do When You Are In A Time Crunch

Our lives are hectic. We usually have so many obligations that it is hard to find the time to fit in a good workout or go to the gym. So what do you do? The easy answer is, "Well, maybe I'll get to it tomorrow". However, you and I know that isn't going to happen.

When we put something off, usually it's for a long time. So the goal is to get some consistency going. If you can't get to the gym to get your full workout in, that's OK. As an alternative, come up with a five to ten minute routine you can do anywhere. To work your midsection, you know you can do crunches and leg lifts without equipment. You can also hit your chest by doing push ups. Finally, to work your lower body, you can do squats.

The cool thing is that you can be in full control of how you maintain your body. No more excuses! If you look out for your body, it will treat you right.

Lesson of the Week: Lightning

Here's are a couple of interesting tidbits about lightning. Did you ever notice that you hear lightning after you see it? In reality, both happen at the same time; however, light travels faster than sound. Lightning creates the sound called thunder by heating the air around it as it strikes. Of course, it does seem kind of weird seeing it before you hear it. I've noticed the same thing when I talk on a cell phone. If I'm looking at the person I'm talking to, their lips seem to be slightly ahead of the sound of the phone. Weird.

Also, did you know when we see lightning,it's on the way up? Lightning heads toward the ground with invisible negatively charged particles. Then, positively charged particles shoot back up to the sky. When they meet the negatively charged electrons are drawn to the ground. As a result, current flows from the ground to the sky and lights up forming lightning. So really, we are seeing the lightning coming from the ground, but it moves too fast for our brains to calculate.

Spirituality: Book of James Chapter 2 Verse 10

"For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws." Book of James Chapter 2 Verse 10

James is speaking of consistency here. If we want to follow God's law, then we cannot pick and choose the ones we think are important. If you do that, then you become the rule maker and by extension you are your own God. Basing morality on your opinion is very dangerous. We can talk ourselves into finding things that are immoral acceptable. This is why we need a moral compass set in stone, which is why we cannot neglect any of God's laws.

In the verse following this one, James gives an example of how this is hipocritical behavior. He says someone who believes that God's law says adultery and murder is wrong. However, this person murders others, but does not commit adultery. Something is clearly wrong with that. Living by a moral code will give you great rewards internally and externally. It is up to us to fully commit to this principle to set an example for others to follow.

Finances: Retirement

Social Security is not secure. If you think that the government will take care of you when you're older, well, you are not living in a realistic world. I worked on a suicide hot line for a few years and heard a lot about how "helpful" the government is to the elderly. Also, Social Security is running under a deficit. There more than likely will not be any money left for people like me when I retire. You cannot expect anyone to look out for you financially, which is why investing in a retirement plan is important.

If you work for someone else like I do, chances are your employer offers a 401K plan. Many businesses will match up to a certain percentage of your contributions. For example, a business might put a 50% match to your contributions on up to 5% of your annual salary. In other words, if you earn $30,000 a year, then you can contribute up to $1,500, 5% of your salary, and your employer will also contribute up to $750. This is great because this is essentially free money going towards your retirement. Only put in contributions up to the percent your employer also contributes to. In our example, you would contribute a maximum of 5% of your salary because after that, your employer stops matching your contributions. After reaching the maximum contribution, there is no reason for you to contribute because any other money you put in will not be matched.

If you still want to put money towards your retirement after contributing to your job's 401K, then you should investigate your options with a financial planner. Often, if you are in a low tax bracket, then a Roth IRA works well because you pay taxes on the money before it goes into the account. A traditional IRA doesn't get taxed until after the money comes out of the account. If you make a lot of money now, then wouldn't make sense to pay taxes on the contributions while you are in a high tax bracket. Also, because you are not paying taxes on that income going to the traditional IRA right now, you will get a tax break. Roth IRA's are good if you think you will retire in a higher tax bracket than you currently are in. Therefore, many young people are better off in a Roth IRA.

Whatever your choice, be sure to plan for the future because nothing is secure.

Nutrition: Caffeine

The average American consumes 300 mg of caffeine a day. Much of that comes from coffee, but caffeine is prevalent in many foods, including tea, soda, and energ boosting foods. Caffeine has paositive effects such as temporarily increasing the metabolism and helping the body stay awake for longer periods of time.

However, there are huge drawbacks to caffeine. The first is its effect on sleep. Adenosine is integral to the sleep cycle and allows our bodies to acheive a deep sleep. Caffeine fools the body into thinking it is Adenosine and blocks Adenosine from binding with the body as long as caffeine is in your system. This stops you from acheiving deep sleep, the phase of sleep that helps restore the bodies health. Without this deep sleep cycle, you will be tired, which makes people want to drink more coffee, which is probably the exact oppsite of what needs to happen.

The second issue is caffeine is addictive. Caffeine increases the dopamine levels in the body. Dopamine activates the pleasure center in the brain. So caffeine becomes hard to quit because the body begins to crave those "good feelings".

My recommendation is to try to cut most of your daily consumption of caffeine out of your diet. Avoid sodas and coffee. Tea has caffeine, but it also has antioxidants, which are good for you, so occasionally having green tea should be fine. The goal is to make sure you have control of what you are eating and to try and avoid creating food cravings.

Programming: Object Oriented Programming

If you know anything about programming, then you've probably heard of object oriented programming. It's the probably the accepted standard in commercial programming right now. Previously, the accepted standard was procedural programming.

What is Object oriented programming. Object oriented programming is a way to encourage groups of like code to be self-contained. Objects try to emulate real world things. For example, if you were writing a racing game, you would have a car object. This car object would be made up of methods and instance variables. An instance variables is data that you store that is important to the object. So a car might have instance variables for mileage, current speed, and fuel level.

Of course, during a game, this data will change. That is what a method does. Methods perform actions on data. So most of your code will be contained in methods, with each performing a specific action. For example, One method for the car object might be getCurrentSpeed(), which would retrieve the value of the object's current speed. Another method might be calculateFuelLevel(), which could take the speed and mileage to determine how much fuel was used and adjust the fuel level variable accordingly.

Objects are great because it forces programmers to have their code contained in one object from which other objects can access the information they need. This cuts down in duplicating code and makes it easier to maintain code. Objects are a good thing.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Humble

When you fight, you learn a lot about yourself. All of who you are is reflected in how you react to certain situations. For example, if you have a quick temper, then you will probably lose your composure the first time you get hit. Wing Chun Fut allows me to improve on myself by giving me oppourtunities to grow.

One characteristic that will help you advance in your skill is being humble. There are days that everything is going to fall into place and no one can touch you. Of course, here will be days when you can't catch a break. Do not overly celebrate your victories because there is always something you can learn from a fight.

The hard part of having humility is when someone beats you. I think the first instinct of most of us is to get defensive and angry. You start thinking you're better than that or they cheated you.

Take a step back. You gain nothing from getting upset. Be happy that they showed you a problem that you never knew existed. Now you can take steps to fix it and get better. In fact, ask the person who beat you to show you how they did it. They will often time get a new level of respect for you and you help yourself improve. A win-win situation.

Physical Fitness: Stretching

I don't know anyone who really likes stretching. Most of us do it as an after thought like,"Oh yeah, better stretch a little before I have fun". We try to remember things we did in gym class and awkwardly perform random stretches some amount of time. Yes, stretching doesn't get the attention it deserves.

From researching stretching exercises, I found out that there is some dispute about the usefulness of stretching. There have been studies that say warming up before exercising prevents injury, not stretching. The reason is that stretching does not help range of motion when your body is cold. Stretching does help with increasing the range of motion for muscle groups once the body is warm. So, the best method of preparing to exercise is to do a 5 minute warm up and then do your stretch routine.

One benefit to stretching that cannot be denied is flexibility. Regular stretching will increase your flexibility in the areas you stretch. You want to hold each move for about 5 to 10 seconds, feeling tension and not pain. A good stretch routine should last about five minutes and hit all the major joints and muscle groups. You want to make sure you stretch your hamstrings, shoulders, groin, back, and neck. Find the exercises that work for you and do the same stretches in the same order each time to gain consistency. Stretching once or twice a day should be the goal, but start out about three times a week and build your way up.

The funny thing is you never know how tight you are until you start stretching. Oh man!

Lesson of the Week: Why do we eat so much?

Do you ever wonder why is it most people can eat whatever size plate is put in front of them. A good example is buffets. Normally, would we go out of our way to gorge ourselves in macaroni noodles? Somehow the all you can eat sign turns into a contest about how much you can eat and keep down. There is a whole sport dedicated to eating as much as you can in a short time. Actually, there might be a physical reason why that is.

One theory is that humans were initially hunters/gatherers. There were times in the winter when food would be scarce. To adapt, the human body ate what it could during warm weather and turned food into fat. During the winter, this stored fat could be converted into energy to avoid famine.

The problem with having this genetic coding is that now the cycle is broken because there are not times during the year when food is scarce for most developed nations. Thus, fat never gets converted to energy. However, our instinct is to eat what is given to us because in the beginning of humanity, humans didn't know where their next meal came.

If this is true, then it is a challenge for all of us to be vigilant about what we eat and how much we eat.

Spirituality: Proverbs Chapter 13 Verse 11

"Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time."

This is one of Solomon's proverbs. This proverb speaks to society's "want it now" mentality. The media and advertisements promote this quick fix philosophy. There are always lots of commercials for losing weight quickly or becoming rich overnight. America invented fast food. We are all constantly on the go and we want solutions to our problems to fit our fast paced lifestyles.

However, fast solutions are normally temporary in nature. There are many stories of poor people winning the lottery and a year later being broke again. Fast solutions are fleeting answers. The problem is there is no value in a solution that you have not worked at finding. This is why you have to do math homework to understand the concepts. If you just copy the answers from someone else, then you never really learned the material and will suffer for it the day of the test.

Hard work always pays off. You just have to be patient and check your work to make sure you are doing the right things to succeed.

Finances: Does Your Job Value You?

Does anyone feel safe in their jobs anymore? It used to be that if you were able to get into a big company and last for a few years, then you would have job security. Employers valued experience. Nowadays, this is not the case. There are thousands of layoffs done all the time by Fortune 500 companies. In fact, part of the new corporate philosophy is to hire inexperienced labor to replace expensive workers with experience.

Since there are no guarantees in the workplace, it would be wise to periodically think about your job situation and consider your options. I'm not saying quit your job, but we only have a finite span of years we can work, so we must put our energies into things that will payoff in the long run.

Here is something to consider, is your salary currently comparable to the market value for your skills. Sometimes we work for a long time in jobs because of routine. However, business needs are constantly changing so you should make sure you are being properly compensated. You wouldn't want to miss an opportunity. Here is a salary calculator to help you get started, but there are many such calculators on the web: http://salary.money.cnn.com/

Another issue is pay raises. Are you getting promotions or pay raises at your job? Inflation controls how much things cost. Inflation rises approximately 2-3% a year. If your annual raise was less that that, then you actually took a pay cut. Make sure your employer values what you do. Often times, your skills may be better compensated by a different employer.

Just remember to keep your eyes and your mind open to opportunities.

Nutrition: Fiber

We have all seen reports about how good fiber is for you. It seems to be on half the boxes I read when I go to the grocery store. From all the claims that are made about fiber, you would think it can cure almost anything. Old people seem to require a lot of it. So what is fiber?

When people talk about fiber in foods, they mean dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is the parts of plants that do not break down in the body. These plant parts absorb water in the body as it passes through the digestive system.

Fiber comes in two varieties, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water. This type of fiber helps fight cholesterol and lower the risk of heart disease. From the American Heart Association's website, "Foods high in soluble fiber include oat bran, oatmeal, beans, peas, rice bran, barley, citrus fruits, strawberries and apple pulp".

Insoluble fibers absorb water and get bulky. This softens bowel movements and encourages them to occur more frequently. This is the type of fiber older people seek to help fight issues with their colon. From the American Heart Association's website, "Foods high in insoluble fiber include whole-wheat breads, wheat cereals, wheat bran, rye, rice, barley, most other grains, cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower and apple skin. "

Our digestive system helps process foods and prepare wastes to be expelled by the urinary system. On its way through the body, Fiber acts like a rake, picking up waste and toxins that cause diseases in the body. Also, its water absorption property softens up the waste products, making them easier to pass.In helping to move our digestive system along, fiber fixes other issues of our body as a side effect. Pretty neat, huh?

Programming: Learning Languages

Computer programming is different than many industries in that there is very little barriers to entering the industry. There are many free languages that you can download along with their compilers. Java, Ruby, and Python are all free. Of course, Microsoft languages will cost some money. I don't think Microsoft ever understood a coder's mentality, but that's another story. There are also free tools in which to write in these free languages. Finally, there are online tutorials to help you learn the rules of each language and get you started creating applications.

So this is a great society, isn't it. You can learn to program and all you need to do is put in the time to learn the tools and languages right? Well, it's not really that easy. If it were, then there might be a lot more programmers.

For one thing, learn how to program in tutorials may give you ideas on how to program, but you will probably be a poor programmer by your peers' estimations. School's help computer science students learn concepts about design and code efficiency. These types of things often get left out of tutorials.

Also, programming takes a special kind of person. You will come across a lot of obstacles before you finish a project. Programmers usually like challenges like this. It's usually hard to discourage good programmers. Patience is the key.

Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: God is in the details

In any martial art, discipline is important. You have to be able to be able to take instruction and then practice it on your own. My school is no different. We learn a lot of techniques, and we have a great emphasis in applying what we learn to real life fighting. The idea is that what is the point of learning lots of great looking forms if you never know if they really work. Without applying techniques, all we are doing is a glorified gym class.

The essence of our techniques are hidden in the details. Moves as small as keeping your shoulder in the socket are the difference between success and failure of a move. I've spent hours practicing my moves and I know that if you pay close enough attention, there is always something you can improve. In this way, you are never comparing yourself to others, but only to maximize your ability. Thinking in this manner can help you to far exceed any goal others set for you, and this is the power of focusing on the details.

In life, this means that you should look at the way you go about accomplishing tasks and think about ways of making these tasks more efficient. By trying to save small amounts of time in things that you do throughout a day, you can make more time to focus on things you like to do rather than chores you have to do. An example is if you are going to go grocery shopping, make a list for yourself and try to find the quickest route to getting all of the items on the list.