Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Home Gym Machine

Posted by terrepruitt on June 28, 2014

I bought a machine like the Total Gym awhile back. I just have not used it much because it is one of those things that can take longer to set up in my house than to use, so it is annoying. It is also one of those things that if you have room to set it up quick or have it already set up it is a quick and easy thing to jump on and workout on. When I bought it I thought I had room and also it was one of those awesome Costco deals that are silly to miss. I’ve had it for about a year and when I “Googled” it today the ads still come up over $125 more than we paid for it shipped! Today I moved it to a “permanent” position so I will be inclined to use it more often. I have some favorite exercises to do on it.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaThe machine I bought is a Jillian Michaels‘ Body Shop. It is pretty much like a total gym but WAAAAY more affordable. It comes with an exercise printout that I used when I first got it. It has been so long since I used it I don’t know where I put that. But I will find it again and use it as it was a quick easy guide to use. Just a simple way to track what you are doing. It is nice to have a list. It is nice to just “jump on” and go without having to think about what to do. It is nice to have a plan.

I like to do Triceps Kickbacks on it.  With this machine you can change the level of the incline and also the tension.  Since you are on the sliding “board” your body weight is always a factor, but the incline and the tension you can adjust.  Then you can adjust the challenge by your body position.  You can lay on the sliding board or you can kneel on the sliding board.  Even with kneeling you can adjust the difficulty, you can kneel “sitting up” with a straight back or you can knee laying down on your legs.  There are so many ways you can do an exercise.  With simple tweaks you can make it different.

You can also do different versions of a triceps extension.  One you can use the cables to pull yourself up and let yourself down as you lay on your back.  You keep your long arm bones down at your sides and pull your forearms down, straightening your arms.  Keep your legs in an unmoving “table top” also helps activate your core.  As you are having to keep your legs still while you are sliding the board up and down.

Or you can flip your body around and use the “kick plate” as a push off.  Laying on your back with your arms overhead, you can use the plate portion to “push up” or push “off” from.  In order to activate the triceps the long arm bones remain stationary as the forearms do the work of moving the body board.

With the machine already set up and no moving of it having to occur, these are a few of the exercises you can do quickly.  If you have to set it up . . . these are still a few of the exercises you can do on it.  I have more that I like that I will be share soon.  But this is all for now.

Do you have any exercise machines in your home that you use?  What are they?  What exercises do you do on them?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Unknown Search Terms

Posted by terrepruitt on December 14, 2013

So just recently I was looking at my search terms on my blog and I was surprised to see “Unknown search terms”.  I clicked on the link that indicated it would give me more details about that.  It took me to a WordPress page explaining what the meant.  Apparently in September 2013 Google changed the way it does things.  It took me until November to notice, so I was a bit behind.  But I guess some search engines don’t reveal search terms for privacy reasons.  I don’t really understand that.  What does that mean?  How does indicating how someone got to your blog interfere with their privacy?  I know that NOT knowing how they got there affects what I write.  With “unknown search terms” I don’t know what people would like to see more of posted on my blog.

I would understand if search engines couldn’t revel search terms if the terms somehow led me back to WHO asked for them and/or why, but otherwise, all I know is that someone wanted to know about Doberman Pinscher, for example.  There was never any indication as to who or why, it just showed that someone was looking for that.  So I don’t understand what “privacy reasons” they are talking about.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaAlso, I might be able to understand it if everything I searched for didn’t start popping up everywhere I go.  Do you know what I mean?  I recently searched for a specific brand of shoes.  Now every time I open a browsers I see ads for THAT specific brand of shoes.  I wasn’t even logged into to Facebook and the advertisements on my news feed are about THAT specific brand of shoes.  I am receiving e-mails about THAT specific brand of shoes.  That sounds like a HUGE privacy issue to me.  This is not someone’s whose blog I visited via a search about THAT specific brand of shoes and a few days later I visit again and there is an article about them.  No, this is THAT specific brand of shoes ads and e-mails.  So how is THAT type of targeted marketing ok?  I find it very annoying.  I don’t want a “more targeted user experience.”

I used to love going to the internet and typing in a search and getting all types of responses —- unpaid.  I would learn a lot of things.  Now the responses are ads and targeted to my area.  Sometimes I am purposely searching for things I want to find outside my area, but my browser keeps going back to a “my area” setting.

Anyway . . . I digress.  I was bummed when I saw all the searches that are clumped under “unknown search terms”.  I used to use those now “unknown search terms” to give me ideas on what to write.  I had hoped that I was helping someone who was looking for one of those “unknown search terms”.  Especially if it was a search that had anything to do with Nia.  Now I have a small list of four or five and the rest are “unknown”.  I know they are “unknown” to WordPress because Google is not disclosing them, but it would be more accurate if they said “the terms that Google is now keeping secret from us/you”.  Because Google knows the terms they just aren’t telling.  And I don’t understand all the ins and outs and ways to profit from the internet, but I know it really has nothing to do with privacy and it is all about profit.

Oh well, now there will be some “unknown search term” I will never know about . . . . but I bet I will get an advertisement for it!

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Posted by terrepruitt on September 5, 2013

When I typed in the word practice this is what came up in Google:

prac·tice  /ˈpraktəs/

noun
1. the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to theories about such application or use.
2. repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it.

verb
1. perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency.
2. carry out or perform (a particular activity, method, or custom) habitually or regularly.

Nia is a practice.  Yoga is a practice.  Playing a musical instrument takes practice.  One does not just step into a Nia class and do it exactly right the first time.  One does not move into a yoga pose and get it exactly right the first time.  One does not start to play a song and do it exactly right the first time.  It all takes practice.  With Nia the emphasis is on the body’s way.  I have said it before, but I will say it again, there is a right way to do the moves, the body’s way, the way the body was designed to move.  But every body is different.  Some bodies do not move the way they were designed.  Some bodies never will, but some just need time.  Yoga is a little different in that the positions are a bit more exact, but still, if your body does not move or bend that way do not force it.  It could be that your body needs to work toward that pose, it needs to practice or it could be that the actual structure of your body will not allow for the exact post to be attained.  Either way it is a practice.

Nia is more forgiving.  Since it is a dance there is a lot of room for freedom.  With yoga people expect there to be one way to do the pose but again, not exactly true.  The individual’s body needs to be taken into account.  Some bodies will just not bend or fold certain ways.  They might be able to bend more or fold more than the first time a yoga asana is attempted, but it might never look exactly like that magazine picture.  Most pictures of people in yoga positions are just like that of high fashion and/or make up models.  They are the exception not the norm.  They are showing an example of what the pose in its absolute perfection is supposed to look like.  They should be required to disclose how many years that person has been doing yoga or how long they were actually in that pose.  JUST like people are telling young girls to give up the idea of looking like the women in magazines, some people need to go a little easier on themselves when it comes to yoga poses.

The idea is not “to look like the picture” but to be better and more comfortable at doing the pose as time goes on.  In the picture the person might have their elbows on the ground and when you start you can barely touch the floor.  Well, the proper way to learn (at least one way . . . another is props, but for this example we are using progression) is to practice until you can touch the floor.  Practice with good form.  Then practice until you can stay touching the floor – with good form.  Then practice until you can stay longer each time at touching the floor – with good form.  Don’t injure yourself trying to put your elbows on the ground and all the while not achieve good form.

I do not believe that practice makes perfect.  Practice just makes time get used up.  But good practice, practice with good form, practice that allows you to get better than you were is good.  “Perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency.”  Yeah that.  Being patient with oneself and allowing one to practice and make it good practice will get one further on a the path of proficiency than just trying to get to that pose without working into it.  While we all know this, I was reminded that many of us need to be reminded of this.

Nia is a practice.  Yoga is a practice.  Playing a musical instrument takes practice.

How are you are practicing?  Do you like the process of learning or do you like to just jump right in and do it right and all the way the first time?

Posted in Exercise and Working Out, Nia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Google the Problem

Posted by terrepruitt on September 21, 2010

Nia teaches me a lot of things. So does my husband. He is my computer technician. As you probably know with computers when something isn’t working correctly it isn’t always an easy fix. When he suspects what the issue is he can plan for it and figure it out and fix it. But sometimes something comes up that is not familiar. The first thing he asks me is “What have you done?”  The second thing he asks is if I “Googled it”. Two times within the last nine months something has been troubling my computer. The first thing was an “Active Desktop”. The second was a HUGE e-mail. They annoyed me enough I was desperate to find relief. This time I remembered that whenever I have something wrong with my computer my techno-geek asks me if I Googled the problem. So that is what I did.

The Active Desktop “thing” happened when I wanted to save a picture from an e-mail to my computer. It was a Nia e-mail and a Nia promotional picture so I wanted to save it so that I could help in promoting the Bay Area Nia event. When I went to save it my computer asked me if I wanted to make it an active desktop item. I believe I was in so much of a rush I didn’t read the whole question, I saw “desktop” and said yes. I was thinking it was just asking if I wanted to SAVE it to my desktop. When I said yes it caused this “thing” to continue to happen with my computer. Every time I clicked from icon to icon or from document to document or webpage to webpage, my screen would go blank for a second then it would flash back up and continue on with its task. I put up with that for months. Every time my monitor went blank, my stomach would sink because I thought my computer had died. But then it would flash back up. At one point I did “Google” how to fix it, but the directions did not match with what I was seeing in my files. But after feeling sick for months I finally decided that I couldn’t take it any longer and if I broke my computer worse than it was so be it. I looked at the directions again and just kept looking and poking into my system until I found what the instructions were telling me I would find. I fixed it.

Then a month or so ago, I tried to send an e-mail. I didn’t realize it was as big as it was until my e-mail program kept showing something in my outbox. Well, it wouldn’t send it, it wouldn’t delete it, it wouldn’t do anything with that one e-mail but the rest of my e-mail was working fine. So for about a month I just put up with it, thinking there was nothing to do. But . . . I did it a second time. (Eyes rolling). As I was scanning the document I thought, “Remember to check it before you send it.” But as always when I am on my computer I got distracted and by the time I finished typing the e-mail and pressed send I had forgotten to check the size. It was huge and it wouldn’t send. So it was stuck again. Now I had TWO stuck e-mails.

So again I turn to “Google” and I found something that explained what I had to do. Now . . . keep in mind that I am pretty much a chicken when it comes to messing with my computer because I know if I break it I will be without it. So I only do things that I am confident about. The solution to fixing the e-mail was to disconnect it from the internet. I was completely comfortable with doing that because when I had a corporate job I used to do that all the time in order to connect my work laptop. So . . . .I disconnected the internet from my computer. My e-mail program had no way to try to send the e-mail (that was too big to send) so it allowed me to delete it. Yay. No more e-mail that can’t be sent and a message coming up saying “Do you want to exit with an e-mail yet to be sent?”

So . . . my point is there are things in life you can “Google”, especially if it has to do with a computer problem. Did you know that? It took me years to learn that many people post answers to computer issues. Its awesome.

Posted in Helpful Hints | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Catch the Wave

Posted by terrepruitt on October 20, 2009

Everyone can pretty much go out there and look at all the videos that are posted regarding the Google Wave, but since I have a previous post regarding it, I thought I would add some additional information on my blog that I have since learned.  Plus I will link to some of the videos that I have seen.

The first video created by EpipheoStudios.com is a great little explanation of what the wave is.  The video is cute.  It also sounds like a plea to get an invitation.  (Which after watching the Google Wave Overview, I can’t really blame him for begging.)

The next video is from Google and it is almost 8 minutes, but if you watch it, it will have you going, “WHOOOOOAAAAA!”

Here I’ve typed up a summary in case you don’t want to watch the video, but I included a time stamp for each point in case you want to zap to it to see what it is about.

E-mail is 40 years old.  Google is trying to “update it”.  An e-mail sent is somewhat like a letter.  If you send an e-mail to five people there are five copies of the “letter”.  But a wave is a “hosted conversation”.  There is only one copy and it is in one place.  So when people comment on it the comments are stored on one wave and there are not multiple copies floating about. (Time stamp 0:30 of the Google video)

One use could be:  You can open a wave to plan a party (Time stamp 0:58).  Adding your contacts to the wave allows people to see and comment.  You can add a gadget to use it as an invite to a party (Time stamp 1:47) and your invitees can RSVP in the wave.  While in the wave you can click on your address which will pop a google map right into your wave (Time stamp 2:19).

After your party, everyone can drag and drop their pictures into the wave (Time stamp 2:39).

You can embed a wave into your blog (Time stamp 3:20)!  In an embedded wave comments can be on the blog or the wave (Time stamp 3:35).   (UI*)

There is a feature called “Playback” that allows you to see the wave in order of how it was created.  So you can see comments added in order even if they were added after a new blip (comment).  (Time stamp 4:35)

“Robots” can be added to a wave (Time stamp 5:06).  You can tweet and see the people you follow from a wave using a “Robot” (Time stamp 5:25).  The video says “Robots can be used to interface with other systems–anything with an API.”  (Time stamp 6:41)

There is translation in a wave using Rosy the robot.  You can type in English and your contact can receive it in his/her language.  (Time stamp 6:49)

*UI = User Interface

Well, if you watched the video, I bet you can see some of the possibilites that the Google Wave has to offer.  As the video begins the 80 minute video is mentioned so I am sure that you can imagine there are a lot of other things that wave can do.  I will learn about them a little at a time.  I am excited about the possibilites.

When I first heard about this I filed it away under “good for big companies”, but as I was watching the video I had some ideas on how I could use it to help grow my business and to help get the word out about Nia.  Using the internet to market a local business is very different than using it to market a business where product is shipped or can be downloaded.  So this would be a valuable tool . . . . . I can see that now.  I am ready to catch the wave!

Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »