Friday, November 5, 2010

Tired, Tired, Tired

It's Friday! It does not feel like Friday to me. I'm not sure what day it feels like. My husband hasn't had a day off in almost a month. Good news a is, I think he has this Sunday off. It's not for certain, but he's trying. The days are starting to bleed together. I plan on taking Sunday off from the elliptical. My feet and calves feel achy and tired today, and I feel a little worn out. Got to keep moving though.

I'm still amazed at how my walker is improving my balance and stability. I think I might be ready to try to walk with it with no shoes. Maybe. My Five Fingers shoes had to be washed today, so I am barefoot right now. I could put them on when they're still wet, but I don't feel like sloshing around when I walk. They take about 12 hours to dry completely when they're inside. I'm sure they only take an hour or two if I put them outside in the sun. But I don't feel like doing that right now. All I feel like doing at the moment is relaxing on the couch, and reading my book. It's 1:00 PM right now, but it feels like 7:00 PM. Maybe I'll make a cup of green tea to wake myself up.

Elliptical stats for the day:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1322
Resistance level-1
Endurance- Great. Got a bit tired the last two and a half minutes.
Injury- None. Feet feel tired and achy, but that's all.
Time-25:10

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
198.4 miles since April 28, 2008
2.89 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

Here is the picture of the day.

198.4



Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Writing Sites And Mileage

I took yesterday off because I had a lot of writing that I want to get done. I now have no writing assignments at the moment, and I need to go look for more. I still have my one client over at Text Broker (well two, but they're on the same account), but I am mainly writing for a site called Demand Media Studios. I have a love/hate relationship with this site. I have been a member of the site since March or April of this year I believe. They have various formats of writing such as the "how to" format, the "list" format, the "short answer" format, and a few others I think. I do the "how to" format.

Demand Media Studios was a site that I had always wanted to be a part of. I was always frustrated to see that they required a resume and writing samples. I didn't have either one of those (I am working on those slowly), so I always gave up. I got brought into this site through another site called eHow. Demand Media Studios is the parent company of eHow, and eHow was changing the way they did their site. They were switching to the Demand Media Studios platform for writing. Due to this merge, I was brought into Demand Media Studios. I was very excited when I got the e-mail earlier this year.

My problem came about when I started to look for titles to write on. They have over 100,000 titles, but most of them make no sense whatsoever. For example, the title "How to Clean a Sharp SF 2052 Copier". Luckily there are some easier titles that come around every now and then. I find most of the tiles I write under the health section or the culture section. Sometimes those sections are empty, or filled with random titles about cars. I'm glad they came up with a way to hide titles that you don't want to see any more. That's made everything a lot easier.

I've written about eight how to articles in the last two days. It takes me about an hour to write one (and that's slow compared to most people). My process is like this. I look up titles, and claim the ones I think are going to be the easiest to write. Once I've got 10 (the claim limit), I look up research links. Demand Media Studios is very specific in the research links you use. They have certain web sites that are banned for use, and they like web sites that end in .edu, .gov, and sometimes .net. I never use sites that end in .com. Thank goodness for SearchEdu.com. Once I have all my research links, I get to work. The great thing about this site is that the articles have a minimum word limit of 400 words. And every article is worth $15.00 (no matter what the word count is). So if you can find 10 articles every time you search, you can make a good deal of money. My problem is always finding titles. Oh and the other good thing about the site is that they pay twice a week.

On to the fitness portion of my day. Things are still going well with my elliptical. I'm looking forward to Saturday or Sunday when I increase my time to 30 minutes. I'm trying my best to be patient. I know it's in my best interest to take it slow using my "new" shoes. I figure I can go about .8 or .9 mile in 30 minutes. That's really close to 1 mile, and I'll be tempted to go further, but I will try my best not to.

Elliptical stats for the day:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1324
Resistance level-1
Endurance-Excellent
Injury- None.
Time-25:10

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
197.6 miles since April 28, 2008
3.61 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

Here is the picture of the day.

197.6

Writing Sites And Mileage

I took yesterday off because I had a lot of writing that I want to get done. I now have no writing assignments at the moment, and I need to go look for more. I still have my one client over at Text Broker (well two, but they're on the same account), but I am mainly writing for a site called Demand Media Studios. I have a love/hate relationship with this site. I have been a member of the site since March or April of this year I believe. They have various formats of writing such as the "how to" format, the "list" format, the "short answer" format, and a few others I think. I do the "how to" format.

Demand Media Studios was a site that I had always wanted to be a part of. I was always frustrated to see that they required a resume and writing samples. I didn't have either one of those (I am working on those slowly), so I always gave up. I got brought into this site through another site called eHow. Demand Media Studios is the parent company of eHow, and eHow was changing the way they did their site. They were switching to the Demand Media Studios platform for writing. Due to this merge, I was brought into Demand Media Studios. I was very excited when I got the e-mail earlier this year.

My problem came about when I started to look for titles to write on. They have over 100,000 titles, but most of them make no sense whatsoever. For example, the title "How to Clean a Sharp SF 2052 Copier". Luckily there are some easier titles that come around every now and then. I find most of the tiles I write under the health section or the culture section. Sometimes those sections are empty, or filled with random titles about cars. I'm glad they came up with a way to hide titles that you don't want to see any more. That's made everything a lot easier.

I've written about eight how to articles in the last two days. It takes me about an hour to write one (and that's slow compared to most people). My process is like this. I look up titles, and claim the ones I think are going to be the easiest to write. Once I've got 10 (the claim limit), I look up research links. Demand Media Studios is very specific in the research links you use. They have certain web sites that are banned for use, and they like web sites that end in .edu, .gov, and sometimes .net. I never use sites that end in .com. Thank goodness for SearchEdu.com. Once I have all my research links, I get to work. The great thing about this site is that the articles have a minimum word limit of 400 words. And every article is worth $15.00 (no matter what the word count is). So if you can find 10 articles every time you search, you can make a good deal of money. My problem is always finding titles. Oh and the other good thing about the site is that they pay twice a week.

On to the fitness portion of my day. Things are still going well with my elliptical. I'm looking forward to Saturday or Sunday when I increase my time to 30 minutes. I'm trying my best to be patient. I know it's in my best interest to take it slow using my "new" shoes. I figure I can go about .8 or .9 mile in 30 minutes. That's really close to 1 mile, and I'll be tempted to go further, but I will try my best not to.

Elliptical stats for the day:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1324
Resistance level-1
Endurance-Excellent
Injury- None.
Time-25:10

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
197.6 miles since April 28, 2008
3.61 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

Here is the picture of the day.

197.6



Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Must Be Patient

It's been very tough for me to go less than a mile on my elliptical this last week. I'm thinking about going a mile tomorrow, as I feel fine and have no pain anywhere. But I know I should be patient, and I should take things slow like I had intended to. It's only about two more weeks until I will hit a mile again. That will get me up to 35 minutes. So I will continue to take it slow.

Today's .7 mile was very fast. I think I hit the 1/2 mile point in 16:30. That puts me on track for being close to my personal record for one mile. My pace was somewhat fast today, I saw 60 RPM a few times. I kept my average pace at 55 to 56 RPM. I need to figure out a way to keep the towel from slipping out from under my left foot when I go faster. Maybe I can use duct tape. Heh heh heh. We'll see what I can come up with.

Elliptical stats for the day:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1339
Resistance level-1
Endurance-Excellent
Injury- None.
Time-25:20

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
197 miles since April 28, 2008
4.33 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

 

197

Interesting section of the road. Looks like it's a narrow part with a bridge of some sort.

Must Be Patient

It's been very tough for me to go less than a mile on my elliptical this last week. I'm thinking about going a mile tomorrow, as I feel fine and have no pain anywhere. But I know I should be patient, and I should take things slow like I had intended to. It's only about two more weeks until I will hit a mile again. That will get me up to 35 minutes. So I will continue to take it slow.

Today's .7 mile was very fast. I think I hit the 1/2 mile point in 16:30. That puts me on track for being close to my personal record for one mile. My pace was somewhat fast today, I saw 60 RPM a few times. I kept my average pace at 55 to 56 RPM. I need to figure out a way to keep the towel from slipping out from under my left foot when I go faster. Maybe I can use duct tape. Heh heh heh. We'll see what I can come up with.

Elliptical stats for the day:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1339
Resistance level-1
Endurance-Excellent
Injury- None.
Time-25:20

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
197 miles since April 28, 2008
4.33 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

197



Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab


Interesting section of the road. Looks like it's a narrow part with a bridge of some sort.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Quickie Update

Quick update today. I increased my time to 25 minutes, and everything looks good. My toes might start aching around 22 or 23 minutes, but it's still OK. I went at my usual pace for today, and that seemed to be fine also. I went about 55 RPM and then made it up to 57 or 58 with no problems.

Elliptical stats for the day: All estimated:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1325
Resistance level-1
Endurance-excellent
Injury- None.
Time-25:11

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
196.2 miles since April 28, 2008
5.06 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

 

196.2

Looks like a sunny day when this was taken. Gotta run! Have a good one!

Quickie Update

Quick update today. I increased my time to 25 minutes, and everything looks good. My toes might start aching around 22 or 23 minutes, but it's still OK. I went at my usual pace for today, and that seemed to be fine also. I went about 55 RPM and then made it up to 57 or 58 with no problems.

Elliptical stats for the day: All estimated:
Distance- .7 mile
Revolutions-1325
Resistance level-1
Endurance-excellent
Injury- None.
Time-25:11

Virtual walk tour stats for the day:
0.7 miles today
196.2 miles since April 28, 2008
5.06 miles to Mechums River, VA, Charlottesville City County

196.2



Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab


Looks like a sunny day when this was taken. Gotta run! Have a good one!