Mini-ITX Cigar Box PC

If you have never seen a mini-itx, it is essentially a miniature form factor motherboard packed with a bunch of onboard components. The coolest thing about the mini-itx is that you can cram it into the unlikeliest of places. Just take a look at all the home built PCs at mini-itx.com. Well, I figured one of these suckers would make a perfect Endian Firewall for my house and look cool too! I could put my computer and my wife's on one one subnet, my kids computer with a gazillion content filters on another and my public access servers on yet another. In addition, I could try my hand at building one of those cool looking cigar box PCs like on min-itx.com. So, I got a studly looking black cigar box on Ebay and dremmeled the heck out of it to make room for all the components, check out my cigar box PC pictures here. However, during that time, my regular Linksys router was starting to have fits. By the way, those things suck ever since Cisco bought Linksys. Don't buy one unless you can get one of the old versions from before Cisco neutered them or at least get the Linux version that only seems to be available online.

With the Linksys going into conniptions, the wife was complaining about our phone service (Vonage), our internet connection, and the frequent need for router reboots (those things don't handle peer to peer too well you know ;-) So I needed that Endian appliance in place, and fast. To do that, I just slapped a couple nics into an old pc and booted up the Endian firewall. Fifteen minutes later, my Linksys was thanked for its brief and painful service and relegated to providing wireless access to the Kid's subnet in my house. It has been solid as a rock.

So... Now what to do with my half built cigar box? I know, I'll build a MythTV server and have the Cigar Box prominantly and proudly displayed in my living room....

Fast forward a few weeks and I havent even touched the MythTV config, and a few weeks later we went through a huge TV upgrade. We are 100% HD and even have an HD DVR/Tuner from Comcast. It seems the MythTV idea is now obsolete or at least not useful without sinking a ton more dough into it to make it HD capable.

So now I have a dilemmna, is there a market out there for a cool looking, mini-itx form factor, cigar box PC? I guess we'll see, I've listed it on Ebay if anybody is interesetd. Check it out!

Adventures in Weight Loss and Healthy Eating (cont.)

By Christmas I had lost 16 lbs and I was no longer worried about those stupid Gap Jeans. Funny, I would never have thought of myself as such a granola but the changes I saw piqued my interest and I started researching how crappy the stuff is that we eat every day. I found that pretty much everything coming from your local grocery store in a can, jar or box is full of chemicals such as hidden MSG (there are like 80 common food additives hiding it), preservatives and chemicals that are known neurotoxins. All of this stuff is approved by the FDA as "Generally Assumed Safe" or GAS but what the heck does that really mean, is it still Generally Assumed Safe when you that stuff all day every day? Anyway, I also started looking into healthy substitutes for stuff like cooking oil (like coconut or grapeseed oil. See:http://www.newstarget.com/009701.html) and alternatives to sugar such as Stevia vs the neurotoxic sugar substitutes. See the Weston A Price article on Sugar Free Blues.

Speaking of Coconut Oil, I have done quite a bit of searching for good quality, inexpensive Coconut Oil and the 54 oz Jars of Nutiva at Amazon seem to be the best deal I could find. Make sure you order two so that you get the free Super Saver Shipper from Amazon. Don't worry, you will go through it in no time.

If anybody can find a better deal for the same quality, I would love to hear from you.

In the end, eating became a conscious and deliberate activity. Before preparing any food I asked myself the following questions:

1. Is the food I'm planning to eat a whole food source? (carbs, proteins, vegetables, nuts and fruit), that is, is it real or at least minimally processed?

2. Does it round out my diet? (Carb source, protein source, veggie or fruit)

3. Will it spike my blood sugar and cause me to crash? See blood sugar/glycemic index info at: http://www.nutritiondata.com/topics/glycemic-index

By the way, here is another interesting article on sugar, again from Weston A.Price: http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/sugars.html

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I had given up my morning coffee because I found that it was making me hungry even after I had just eaten. That was probably the hardest aspect of this whole lifestyle changing thing but after a week or so, I no longer missed it. But let me tell you, that week was a real drag, I had no energy, constant headaches and multiple urges to give up all this healthy living. But in the end, perseverance one out and I can tell you that I now feel dramatically different. I am full of energy, I eat when I get hungry, which not very often and I'm always very satisfied after a meal. I dont know if it is the diet or being caffeine free but sleep is awesome now.

I wouldn't attribute the 30 lbs lost and three extra notches in my belt since November due to diet alone. I have also been going to the gym for an hour each day, 5-6 days a week . However, the wholesome diet certainly gives me the energy to do that. I used to chug a meal replacement drink just before going to work out and I would be drained during and after my workout, in fact I would be jittery after a hard workout. Now I eat a small meal one hour before working out, or just a very small snack (maybe a celery stick with peanut butter or a bit of ham on a slice of bread) just before hitting the gym. Now I feel like I can workout for hours without feeling drained.

If you are looking to drop a few pounds, forget all those diet fads and use your common sense. Its easy, just ask yourself, is it healthy to go on a strictly protein diet? Which is better, Wonder Bread or whole grain bread made out of a very short list of ingredients (Whole grains, yeast, salt water, etc)? Which is going to give you more long term energy, white rice or brown rice?

Want to start shedding pounds and never go hungry? Here are the not so secret facts in no particular order:

1. Go for the slow carbs (always choose the brown stuff, brown rice, whole grains).

2. Only eat nutrient rich whole foods.

3. Ditch the sugar (table sugar, fruit juice, honey, syrup, brown sugar, cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sodas, etc, etc.

4. Eat every 3 to 4 hours at least. (As an example, cut your daily lunch in half and eat half around 11AM and half around 2PM.

5. Eat a healthy snack before you get hunger pains.

6. Ditch the coffee and other caffeinated drinks, they will just make you hungry by increasing your stomach acids.

7. Hit the gym. (Get a pedometer and if you arent getting 15000 steps by the end of the day, get off the couch and watch TV from your treadmill.)

8. Dont be afraid of the good fats. Slap a little coconut oil (Yum) on that whole grain toast, it will make you much more satiated.

9. Study a Glycemic index chart, and stick with the foods low on the glycemic index scale. In other words, consciously eat like a diabetic.

10. Finally, ditch the breakfast cereals. Did you know the glycemic load of a bowl of Cheerios is about the same as pure table sugar? Try the Old Fashioned, thick rolled oatmeal, you can get it in bulk at most health food stores such as Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage or Wild Oats (I cook mine in half water, half milk, toss in a bit of pure whey protein, a bit of coconut oil, scoop a few flax seed in there, slice up a banana and smother it in raw whole milk.Yum!)

Anyway, I should wrap this up but if you are interested in finding out about eating healthy, check out: http://www.westonaprice.org it is all about eating "whole food", that is food in its natural state (not processed/chemically altered). You can't go wrong with that. Also, if anybody reads this and doesnt think I'm too crazy, I'd be happy to hear about the healthy stuff you substitute for the grocery store crapola or even a recipe or two.

Adventures in Weight Loss and Healthy Eating

OK, it started when my wife and I stopped at the Gap Outlet to pick up a few items of clothing just before Thanksgiving. I found a some good deals on some badly needed jeans and simply purchased my size, or what I thought was my size without even trying them on. When we got home I had a "duh" moment as they simply did not fit. I complain to my wife that they should fit as they are "my size", so they must be defective. Must be why they are selling at the "outlet" store, they must be defectivly labled. My wife looks at me curiously and says, "Honey, they are sized right, you are just gaining a bit of weight".

Yeah, in the back of my mind, I realized this was the case but I just didn't want to admit it. I had been about 204 lbs when I joined the Navy in 1996 and was literally in the best shape of my life at the time. Now, I was pushing 232 and contemplating the thought of returning the jeans for a larger size. Hell no I thought, so I set them on top of my dresser with the lofty goal of being able to fit into them shortly.

About a week later, after having walked past those crotch huggers a dozen or so times, I received and email from a friend which consisted of an article by a guy named Tim O'Shea that blames the sugar industry and the drug companies for all the evil in the world. It seemed a little extreme at the time and normally I would have just sent it into computer limbo with a flick of the mouse button, (did I tell you it is super long too) but in the back of my mind, I knew I just had to read it. So I read how we are all addicted to sugar and don't even know it, and how sugar is going to cause the earth to come off its axis and fly into the sun :-) However, at the end of the article it states:

I CAN QUIT ANY TIME

That's what everyone addicted to anything for the past 300 years has said. So do it. If you think you aren't addicted to white sugar, prove it. For 48 hours. Not only cokes, high fructose corn syrup fruit drinks, donuts and ice cream, but condiments, sauces, and aspartame drinks as well. 48 hours. Meet the monkey.

So I took up that challenge. No big deal I thought, I could do this for a week or so....

It was a bit harder than I imagined, but not nearly as difficult as the article made it out to be. However, what really surprised me was that by the end of that first week, I had literally dropped 4 pounds and I had a light bulb moment. Hey, at this rate, I can fit into those jeans by Christmas!