The half-life of Windows installations

How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less, a simple 147-step process recorded by Mark Pilgrim. (“Yes, I would like to activate Windows over an active internet connection, now that I have one. No, I would not like to register with Microsoft. Yes, I have read the privacy statement and agree to give up my computer, my civil rights, and my first-born child. I wasn’t using my civil rights anyway.”)

BFL, week 4, day 5: lower-body

I’m clearly underestimating my own strength when it comes to the Ab machine. Had to add on a set of Bent-Knee Leg Raises at the end just to get my abs to feeling like I’d done some work on them.

(  Lower-body workout numbers  )

Waistlines: a Bose-Einstein contemplation

Since I’m working on gaining muscle while I lose fat, weight alone is not the best indicator of progress (though it is still of use — I’m not going to put on 80 pounds of muscle). I’ve tried measuring my waistline, but the results are too variable. I just tried now, and got 50 inches and 48.5 inches depending on exactly how I ran the tape around my back. I think, short of tattooing a guideline on and getting a friend to run the tape around it, my waistline is going to remain an imprecise quantity, like the position of a particle near absolute zero. Perhaps it’ll get more knowable as my mass decreases.