Month: April 2024

Blueprint: Build a bulletproof body

I want to get fitter so I try to learn from experts who have proved themselves. And this is a good example. The author has done some amazing things. Quite jealous to be honest.

For me, I just want to get stronger at climbing and get back to (proper) running, all without (more) injuries. I have read before about the different cycles that top athletes so it was interesting to read about it directly and all the science behind that. I know I need to add (more) strength training and endurance. I should create a proper work plan for each week, a bit of less climbing but better prepared? But I am not clear how to use the knowledge from the book to climbing, when, at the end of day, you want to climb hard every week, as I am not going to compete or anything like that. Or saying in a different, how to handle your ego and jealousy.

Season:

  • Recover Mesocycle: low volume, low intensity. This is the chapter I liked the most from the book.

— 2 strength-based rehab routines per week

— 2 endurance-based rehab routines per week at low intensity and no more than 45 minutes.

— 2 days rest

  • Base Mesocycle: increase volume, low intensity

— 3 strength-based rehab routines per week

— 4 low-intensity endurance-based rehab routines per week in zone 2 (aerobic).

— 1 strongman strength session

— 1 day rest

  • Build Mesocycle: reduce a bit volume, increase intensity

— 3 strength and speed sessions per week (force-velocity curve)

— 3 low and long (10km) open water swims operating in zone 2 (aerobic).

— 3 high-intensity interval sessions in zone 4-5 (anaerobic) (separated by 48h)

— 1 day rest

  • Peak Mesocycle: reduce volume, increase intensity:

— 2 strength and speed sessions per week for maintenance of fitness

— 2 low and long (5km) open water swims operating in zone 2 (aerobic). Focus in tecnique.

— 3 high-intensity interval sessions in zone 4-5 (anaerobic)

— 2 day rest

Shoulder pain: Practice hangs from a bar. That’s what our “ancestors” did… Simple

Eudaimonia: fulfilment. It’s different from happiness since it openly accepts that pain and struggling should form part of the process. Happiness without fulfilment is a failure.

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmouting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests

Epictetus

Askesis: healthy hardship. “The comfort zone is the great enemy to creativity, moving beyond it necessitates intuition, which in turn configures new perspectives and conquers fears” Dan Stevens.

Why we adventure to combat spiritual decay:

A man has achieved his present position by being the most aggressive and enterprising creature on earth….. The comfortable life lowers a man’s resistance… the comfortable life causes spiritual decay

From 1956 book “The Outsider” by Colin Wilson:

Broccoli with Garlic Sauce

I want to eat more broccoli. And this is a new recipe:

Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli
2-3 pieces garlic
small piece ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar (brown if possible)
olive oil
1 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp water
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp sesame seeds

Directions:

  1. Boil 1.5 litres of water in a saucepan
  2. Remove the florets from the broccoli head. Be sure the head is cleaned.
  3. Blench the broccoli in the boiling water for 30-45 sec. Just to see how it gets a bright green color! Remove from water and pass it via cold water. Set aside.
  4. Grate the garlic and ginger.
  5. Prepare the sauce by combining together soy sauce, sugar, oil, corn starch and water. Set the sauce.
  6. Heat up a nonstick pan to medium heat. Add a bit of olive oil.
  7. Cook the broccoli for 2-3min each side. Until you see a bit of char. Put aside
  8. Clean the pan, and put at medium-low heat, add olive oil and paprika (replacement of chili oil). Mix clean so it doesnt burn.
  9. Add the garlic and ginger. Gently cook for 2-3min
  10. Add the broccoli and turn the heat to medium. Sauté for about 1min
  11. Add in the stir fry sauce and if you have a lid, place it immediately so you can steam the broccoli steam for about 30-45 seconds. If not, just toss the broccoli so it gets the sauce spread in all bits.
  12. Plate the broccoli and garnish with white sesame seeds

rsync go, NASA SP287, git options, Undersea cable failures in Africa, Quotes, Log4j, done list, Dan Lynch, Systems-based Productivity, Run Africa

rsync go: Interesting talk about rsync, as it explains how it works and it is something I didnt know. But then, all other things/projects mentioned are cool and related. I need to try to install rsync go in my vm. ccc slides and repo

NASA to the moon: This is an engaging and provocative video regarding the Artemis III (project back to the moon II). He makes some hard questions to the people in charge (I have no clue about physics) and it seems he has a point. Not sure it this will get any effect but again, looks “smart”. When he mention the NASA SP287 (What made Apollo a success) document as the grial for going back to the moon, I wanted to get a copy (here) so I could read it one day.

Git options: Nice post about popular git config options. I am a very basic git user (and still sometimes I screw up) but the options to improve diff looks interesting so I will give it a go at work.

Undersea cable failures in Africa: It is clear that Africa relays heavily in submarine cables (it doesnt look like there are many cable systems intra continent). And the Red Sea is becoming a hot area due to different conflicts…

Quotes: I like the ones regarding simplicity:

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. (John Gall)

In programming, simplicity and clarity are a crucial matter that decides between success and failure. (Edsger Dijktra)

Log4j: This is old news but when it came out I tried to run the PoC but I failed 🙁 This is just a reminder. It was annoying because I manged to install all tools but never managed to exploit it.

Done List: I feel totally identified. The to-do list is never done and you feel guilty. Done-list, much healthier.

Dan Lynch: He passed away, and as usual on my ignorance, it seems he is one of the unsung heroes of Internet, migrating ARPANET to TCP/IP.

Systems-Based Productivity: TEMPO refers to five dimensions of productivity: T (Time Management), E (Energy Management), M (Mindset), P (Proficiency) and O (Organization).

Run Africa: very jealous.

Infraops challenge, Devika, Daytona, NTP 2038, Linux Crisis Tools, videos, Chocolonely, LLM, Transformers, Enforce-first

InfraOps challenge: A bit beyond me, but interesting If you could try without applying for the job.

Devika: Agent AI. Another thing I would like to have time to play with it. If you have API keys for some LLMs, looks like it shouldn’t be difficult to run and you dont need a powerful laptop (?)

Daytona: My development environment is a joke, just python envs. But I guess for more serious devs, could be interesting

NTP and year 2038: Agree, when it is not DNS, it is likely NTP (seen this with VPNs and SSL certs in boxes with NTP unsync), or something blocking UDP.

Linux crisis tools: I haven’t got my hands dirty with BPF but I am surprised with so many tools. I would add nc, netstat, lsof, traceroute, ping, vim, openssl etc but because I do pure networks.

Jim Kwik: How to improve your reading speed. One improvement is you use your finger or a ruler. Need to watch again.

Rich Roll: The guy is super chill. I would like to be able to do some ultra at some point in life… Very personal conversation.

Ferran Adria: I didnt know much about the person apart from being one of the best Chefs in history. I like how he starts the interview and take over for 15 minutes. Haven’t watched till the end. But just the beginning is priceless.

Mark Manson: I have read all his books and his emails. Interesting his story.

Chocolonely: I didnt know it was a dutch company and interesting history behind. I want to try one day, but I haven’t found a dark choco version.

LLM in 1000 lines puce C: I was always crap at C. But interesting this project as something educational and intro in LLM.

Visual intro to transformers: The easy joke, unfortunately, this is not about Optimus Prime.

Indonesia Heavy Metal Girls: Unexpected. Respect.

Enforce-first-as: I dint know about this until last week. Cisco defined by default. Juniper disabled by default. And this makes sense with Route Servers.

Feta and Spinach Filo Pie

I haven’t done this for a long time so it was due. I used to use his book quite often. Recipe:

Ingredients:

100g nuts (I used sunflower and pumpkin nuts)
5 large eggs
300g feta cheese – crumbled
50g grated cheese
oregano
1 lemon zest
olive oil
1 knob of butter
500g fresh spinach
1 x 270g pack of filo pastry
cayenne pepper
nutmeg for grating

Process:

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C
  • Toast the nuts in a large ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat until golden.
  • Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl add feta, grated cheese, oregano and pepper
  • Add the toasted nuts and mix.
  • In the same frying pan, add a bit of olive oil and add half the spinach. Stir until wilted.
  • Add the lemon zest, grated nutmeg and piece of butter to the spinach.
  • Add the rest of spinach. Stir until all is wilted.
  • Then add the spinach to the egg mix. And clean the frying pan.
  • Take a piece of ovenproof paper roughly 1.5 bigger than your pan. Pass it through water so it is wet.
  • Lay it out on a clean work surface, rub lightly with oil and flatten out again.
  • Keep adding sheets of file on top of the ovenproof paper. Add a bit of oil and other spices in each layer. The idea is to cover the frying pan later. I used 6 layers in total.
  • Move the ovenproof paper and filo to the frying pan. Pour the egg/spinach mix. Add a bit more grated cheese.
  • Close the pie folding the edges (as it should be 1.5 bigger than the pan).
  • Fry at medium heat the pie so the bottom is crunchy. 1-2 minutes. Dont burn it!
  • Add some spices and olive oil on top.
  • Then move the pan to the oven for 20 minutes aprox or golden and crisp.

Quite happy with the result:

Narconomics

Very interesting book. It explains the mechanics of a drug cartel from the point of view of economics. I didnt think issues like supply chain, HR/PR, competition/merges, offshoring, R&D, online business, diversification, etc were part of drug cartel, as you only think of those as part of a licit business. There were many things that I didn’t know like the birth of “legal highs” in NZ (and Matt Bowden)

The goal is to fully understand the “business” because the current laws/actions, etc against drugs are clearly not working. So this way you can really offer a different approach to tackle the issue. You are not going to destroy them 100%. Most of the actions are at the source of the drug business: growing the plant (decrease in growing area causes minimum increase in retail price). But the book shows that is not effective and prevention (done in the consumer’s land: like rehab, education in jails, etc) is much more productive (for the same investment). As well as legalization (ie marijuana) as that brings control (“safer drugs”, tax revenue, etc) and put out of the market the dealers/cartels.

This is a difficult pill to swallow (punt intended) for governments and citizens but the writing is in the wall.