Honky Tonk Widgets

Shucks Howdy!

(how much longer can I keep it up?)

Good morning world! Nothing like waking up at 4:30 to get to work! Actually... the hour isn't so bad once you get out of the bed!!
It's just that small window between the alarm going off and getting up that's actually difficult, and it doesn't help when your dog wakes you up during the night... Better get used to that with a baby on the way!!
Emma's check up went well, the doctor said there is now a 90%-100% chance that she's a girl, which is good since we've been calling her Emma... Emmanuelle is a fine name, but not what we wanted to choose for a boy.
Jamming to the Paper cut chronicles today on the way to work, just realized my fingers feel like papercuts after yesterday's guitar practice... My poor squishy fingers!! Until I master it, I'm just rocking the chromatic scale and G,C and D chords. It's hard work! but I think -- hope -- our daughter will appreciate her dad being able to play a little on the guitar. Also, it's surprisingly relaxing!

This week I've been a total slouch when it comes to working out. I've just been lightly doing chin-ups... with my body-weight I suppose chin-ups can't be "light" push-ups and a little bit of cardio. Surprisingly I'm down 3kg from Sunday!! (also about 100grams from last Friday.) I'd like to drop about 8kg, but I've been changing so many things lately, it's hard to focus on it. Becoming a manager has severely messed with my schedule -- 12 hour days is the norm! :(

Mmm.. oh yeah! like the title says, I haz widget action!! I'm about to write another using a different layout and try to update it with baseball data. Pretty cool no? I think so...

Until next we meet!!

See you space cowboy.

We have Biscuits!

Today was going to be a rant - and it still might if we're not careful - but first let's give a big "Hello World" to everyone..
I know it's not an epic development on my practice Android widget, but it sure seems like it! I finally got the app to grab a page from baseball.yahoo.co.jp (or is it just yahoo.jp ? ) read through it and parse out the table I want, kill the anchor tags, preserve the formatting and finally spit it out into a webview which shows the Japanese text on both Android 2.3 (my phone) as well as Android 4.0 (my tablet). I'd call that a successful first step!!
I think I attached a screenshot from the tablet. (edit: it wasn't the screenshot)
Next up... widgetifying it or changing it into a table view (instead of a webview), or beautifying it.
Btw the guy across the aisle from me on the train is jamming to some super loud elevator music... I can hear it through my 'OkGo'.
If anyone out there is actually reading this (and I have it on good authority from Google that there are, indeed, some people bored enough to peruse my ramblings) and would like me to expand on anything, drop me a comment or send me some smoke signals (are there apps to read smoke signals like there are apps for reading morse code flashes of light?) Otherwise I'll just keep randomly meandering through the joys of blogging.
On the same topic, besides writing code on the go, reading books (illustrated books) to my baby and watching movies, any suggestions on what to do with this tablet? Also, can anyone recommend a good touch pen?
Points for anyone who gets the reference in my title.
See you spacehounds.

..... .... ..... ..... ..... Your title is being loaded...

Howdy World!
 Back from the transformer again, still using the firefox beta. Chrome let's me use my google account to log in and sync my stuff with chrome, but so far I'm noticing that in spite of a little graphical trouble, Firefox is easier to use and renders my pages more like the desktop version.  Case in point, chrome wouldn't let me blog!!

So.. what's with the funky title? Today I tried out my source code on ICS and it had a hissy fit!! android.os.networkonmainthread exception (or something very similar...) Apparently, and with good reason, I'm not allowed to start processing network requests directly from the main thread... or well.. do much of  anything since it can crash the os or freeze it whatever..

So let's dive into the fun world of IntentServices. Basically just make an intent service and a receiver class and presto! Problem solved!! Neat right? Obviously that's a lot simpler than it is in actuality, but y'all don't really care about all the complex code do you?

On the guitar front... maybe I'll get a chance to try tuning it tonight! I think I got 1 string in tune on Sunday, and replaced 5 of the strings. One of my pegs doesn't have a place to grip so I have to tune with a pair of pliers ... suck!!

Looking forward to the weekend! Will be buying some wood and building a chest of drawers if it all goes well! Maybe I'll look at the plan if I have a chance and modify it a little to have secret panels!! (probably not)

Anyway, see you space cowboy!

Transformers Redux

Transformers : More than meets the eye.
 I have to say, this transformer is really cool!
I'm writing this blog on the way home from work with the tablet docked on the keyboard, using firefox beta 14 for mobile devices.. neat no?

Last year I bought Charlie Brown's Christmas from the android market (then market, now play) and I opened it up last night... I can't wait to read it to my baby!!

Next stop, my station.

See you space cowboys!

Transformers! And Cameras.

This weekend has been a crazy shopping weekend.
We finally got a video camera for when we have our baby, it's super awesome!!

Here are the specs:
JVC full-high vision camera.
Face recognition etc
32gb internal storage with SDXC capacity.
And the fun part:
Wi-Fi! We can set up not only to download it from the camera to a computer, but also as a streaming video source!!
Not only that, we can use our smartphones to monitor the video and control it remotely... pretty neat right?
We'll use it to share live events with y'all back home :)

Speaking of transformers... I got the Transformer tablet!
It's really cool, but, I didn't root before upgrading the firmware!! O.o now I have to suffer through ads in my browsing!
I'm looking around XDA for their downgrade instructions. This thing has serious battery-life and typing like it's a laptop is really nice.

now I don't need my laptop :( .. I have 50gb on box.net and about 5 gb on dropbox, so I have enough storage to keep files like on a laptop.

Tomorrow back to work and working out... :( I gained about 2 kg this weekend!!

see you space cowgirls

Saturday shopping

Yay! Got baby stuff!! :)

Up to our eyeballs in the baby goods now! I got a neat little Snoopy garment that is for boys or girls -- it's red -- and we got other Disney garments. Got a baby bath, baby bed, mosquito netting etc! Getting ready!

On a different note, I got new shoes today, it's so hard to find shoes in my size, but I got 2 pair for 6000 yen!
Busy Saturday! I feel like we went all over everywhere!

I got a guitar today that my brother in law bought about 20 years ago so I re-strung it tonight. It's missing a head so it's really hard to adjust string 4 so I kinda half-heartedly tuned it. I broke the 'A' string so I put the old one back :( at least now it has 5 new strings and 6 strings total! I got the first three big strings in tune so tomorrow I'll finish and start learning :)

Tomorrow there are so many things to do! Movie, build dresser, shop for a tablet... so much! what to do what to do! Only tomorrow will reveal what will be.

see you space cowboy.

T-to-GIF

Happy Friday!

First Friday blog -- prolly gonna be something boring!

Let's see... in the land of being a manager... bleh! LoL so busy all the time.. almost to 200 hours for the month. .. YaY

Hanshin won today! :) Speaking of, I'm making progress on my little android project. It's Java so, .. like riding a bicycle! I can get the data off the web and display it in a scrollable view, so I'm happy.

Keeping up with the exercise.. Today was brutal! :( ah well keep on keeping on!

Going to buy a baby bed this weekend. -- keeping it brief, cuz I'm watching MiB in prep to watch MiB 3 this weekend maybe.

see you space cowboy

Crowded trains and sleepy brains

It's always a long day when I go to the office.

  Today I had a meeting near a train station my train passes through, so I don't have to transfer, but it's super crowded so no sitting down. I changed into my vibrams while standing though so it's all good. And it's an express, so more crowded but at least 20 minutes faster!!

Today I ran another HIIT on schedule, but balls is it hard. I start sprinting/jogging, but by the 5th sprint it's walk/jog/sprint, and at number 8 it's stagger/sprint... Maybe 2 more Weeks to get into it?


Today in coding:

I'm working on putting together a little android app that will get me some scores from baseball.yahoo.jp and show the standings, maybe into a widget.

So, today I got a little button and some text. Click the button and it downloads the data, then loops through it until I find the table I want and starts spitting out the text.
Next up, splitting the string into substrings, storing the data and printing it on the screen

no pictures today, see you space cowboy.

Long Day

Fun day today.

Went to a parenting class today for first time parents.. after boring us by reading aloud the text in a booklet they gave us, we finally got to try wearing the baby belly and walking around. No surprise, but with how big I am and how I work out with heavy weights, I didn't really notice the weight of the belly much. It had a weird feel though on my balance, and the material is super comfy, I want a pillow made from the fake belly! I'd like a harness like that for weight training, seems like I could put it on and do chin-ups or push-ups and really increase my training!

Washing the baby was fun though, with my big hands and arms, I feel like the baby will feel safe when I wash her. Rieko is a bit worried about washing the baby though because she's smaller and not as strong. And let me tell you, those baby dolls are SUPER heavy!! It's a surprise how heavy the heads and bodies are.

I did another round of weight training this morning... GAH! What was I thinking when I planned this exercise routine? I'm lucky if I can scrape myself up off the floor after the second set of dragon flag negatives (I can do 3-ish now). I've been such a chocolate monster lately though I have to keep trying! Maybe I'll cinch down my diet a bit more. I figure I'll get stricter next week once I get used to my new exercise schedule.

Speaking of schedules... I woke up at 4:30am on Monday for the eclipse, and I have to say, I liked it. I've woken up every day this week at 4:30 (and gone back to sleep since I had nothing to do) I think this could be a good thing to do!

Picture of the fake belly below! and the crazy awesome moth thing I saw today!





















-see you space cowboy.

Today in Review

Busy day!
Let's not talk about work. Currently sales are in a slump -- where is the love?
Today is a rainy day so instead of doing a 15 minute HIIT like planned, I ran up the stairs five times in reps of two each. Number five laid me out! How long till I get into better shape? All the marathon training has killed my muscles for exploding. I can go run 30km in 3 hours or so but up and down the stairs for 10 minutes? -Dead.
I think this year, from this week I'm going to dedicate to making good habits and self-improvement. Each day I want to do  some exercise, and some study. I found a great app on the Droid for kanji study, so I'm putting a couple runs in during the day. I'll try to write this blog before the end of the day.
In the news:
Tokyo Sky Tree opened today! It's 3000 yen to go to the top, someday
I'll pay and go up, but it's impossible until after July!
Our baby Emma is the size of a butternut squash! Less than 3 months until she will be born! It's exciting no? We bought a baby carrier, I can't wait to use it! Photo attached with a hairy baby.

see you space cowboy.

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse May 21 2012 -- Taken from my Galaxy SII

May 22

Hello World!

Last weekend I started learning Android programming, it seems fairly straightforward, but kind of irritating how you have to switch between the xml and the code. I haven't tried enough yet to really make any assumptions though, we'll find out soon if I can make my Hanshin Tigers app before their season ends!!

I'm starting a "diet" and exercise plan so I started the blog to keep track of it. Of course I'll also use it to talk about other things, writing is supposed to be good for you right?!

My weight-lifting routine is crazy intense, I have yet to complete a full set-- here's what I do 3 days a week:

• Wide-grip chin-ups / chin-up negatives
• Sissy squats
• Clean, jerk and press
• Stomach vacuums
• Heavy bench press
• Sumo pile squats
• Swiss ball pullovers
• Dragon flag negatives

Then other days, I train with interval running -- HIIT: 30seconds sprint, 1min jog repeat 10 times.

Park training:

• Chin-ups
• Squat-jumps
• Body-weight row
• Stomach Vacuums
• Dips

I just started Monday, so I hope I can keep it up!