Day 285 – (AD 715) – Jim's Trek Part III – 21.8 Miles – Thinking On My Schwinn 170

Good Day,

My thoughts and prayers go to Cathy and her family. I will miss Ian. Memories of Beaconsfield, trombones, and Ranch, the two of you…and Sir Ian will always have a part in me.

Today I pedaled 21.8 miles on my Schwinn 170. My total mileage is now 14,764.4; 23,761.1 kilometers.

I am still located on Stuart Highway headed south in Northern Territory.

From Slate I just read an article by Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack “The World Is Not Falling Apart” (December 2014)

“Newsreaders will always perceive that they live in dangerous times… And as the political scientist John Mueller points out, in most years bee stings, deer collisions, ignition of nightwear, and other mundane accidents kill more Americans than terrorist attacks.”


Are you ready for the BIGGEST New Year's Masquerade Ball?

"Republicans Raise $500k For Scott Inauguration" - CBS, Miami – (Dec. 26, 2014)



And sometimes it is hard to understand what is just what. Having been an English teacher I got caught up in the article “Teaching Essay Writing in Pyongyang” by Suki Kim in Slate (Dec. 2, 2014) -

"It was not until later that day that I looked on the Internet (to which only the teachers were allowed access; the students were not aware of its existence) and learned that North Korea had already been knocked out, and the results had been announced some time ago."

I know that I try not to be taken in by any extreme, from either side of the aisle, writer and/or “pseudo-entertainer” commentator. I posed a question to Google Search – “How to know if a media commentator is biased?” I got 9,290,000 results in just 0.53 seconds. I asked iSEEK and I got 25 results…and WolframAlpha didn’t understand my query.

This is my 756th Jim’s Trek post. And according to Blogger Jim’s Trek has recorded, as of this morning, 57,967 Pageviews.

I welcome comments or thoughts or ideas. Please feel free to contact, email me at Jim’s Trek.

Be healthy and enjoy your day.

Jim

Day 284 – (AD 714) – Jim's Trek Part III – 22.3 Miles – Boxing Day On My Schwinn 170

Good Boxing Day,

Hope Christmas Day was a pleasant one. Mine was very, very nice with the family.

Today I cycled another 22.3 miles on my Schwinn 170. My total keeps on mounting – Grand total this morning 14,472.6 miles; 23,726 kilometers. I should be hitting the 15,000-mile mark shortly.

And as I forewarned my blood sugar count would rise somewhat during the month of December. This morning it was up 4 points. I recorded 115. I’m a bit about the normal sugar level which “is currently considered to be less than 100 mg/dL when fasting and less than 140 mg/dL two hours after eating.” And “A person is said to have diabetes if his or her fasting blood sugar level is higher than 126 mg/dL after not eating – fasting – for eight hours.” (WebMD)

I am now 562 days WITHOUT my diabetes medications.

Well it looks like there is something on either the lens of the camera or on the windshield of the Google Maps vehicle. Yes, I am still headed south in the Northern Territory on my virtual Trek through Australia. I have now completed 58.37% of that journey and I am located on the National Highway 87. Only 463 miles to go to my next destination and goal point.

Well I know that age must be slowly creeping up on me. Even my electronic devices are trying to tell me something. Each morning after I pedal on my Schwinn 170 for 70+ minutes I record my weight and other vitals. This morning I dictated "169.6" as my weight into my iPhone. The computer brain seemed fit to write out “”Sensodyne”. Nope there is nothing wrong with my teeth… I hope.

Last night with some of our left-overs I made an Okonomiyaki - お好み焼き for supper.  A sort of Japanese pancake, in my version, that I learned to make a couple of years ago. Still as always, a great supper and “go-to” dish.

Okonomiyaki in the frying pan

Okonomiyaki on the platter

Okonomiyaki on plate.

I needed to wind down after the day and supper. I watched two distinctly different polar opposite movies last night. That’s sort of how my mind works, most days. The two movies were the 2013 Dallas Buyers Club and the 2014 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. If there is any uniform lesson to be taught by each of these dissimilar movies – "Can we ultimately learn from our mistakes?"  (Just me thinking…)

This is my 755th Jim’s Trek post. And according to Blogger Jim’s Trek has recorded, as of this morning, 57,888 Pageviews.

I welcome comments or thoughts or ideas. Please feel free to contact, email me at Jim’s Trek.

Be healthy and enjoy your day.

Jim

Day 283 – (AD 713) – Jim's Trek Part III – 22.1 Miles – Christmas Day On My Schwinn 170

Good Day,

This early Christmas morning I pedaled 22.1 miles on my Schwinn 170. My total thus far – 14,720.3 miles; 23,690.1 kilometers.

And it is nice and quiet at my location on National Highway 87 in Northern Territory in Australia.

This is my 754th Jim’s Trek post. And according to Blogger Jim’s Trek has recorded, as of this morning, 57,823 Pageviews.

I welcome comments or thoughts or ideas. Please feel free to contact, email me at Jim’s Trek.

Be healthy and enjoy your day.

Jim

Day 282 – (AD 712) – Jim's Trek Part III – 22.1 Miles – Christmas Eve On My Schwinn 170

Good Day,

It’s Christmas Eve 2014. Guess this is my 63rd one. And some of the houses here in Tampa certainly have managed without the snow.

This morning I cycled 22.1 miles on my Schwinn 170. Today is my 712th pedaling and I have clocked a total of 14,698.2 miles; 23,654.5 kilometers.

The only thing I wish was that the roads near my home in Tampa were as clear and empty as the road, National Highway 87, where I am now located on my virtual Trek. I am still headed south and I am about 508 miles from my next destination and goal point.

Please be safe on whatever road you are traveling this year.

This is my 753rd Jim’s Trek post. And according to Blogger Jim’s Trek has recorded, as of this morning, 57,776 Pageviews. I have now succeeded in surpassing last year’s December Pageviews by 17 at 1,417… and there is still 7 more days to go.

Merry Christmas.

I welcome comments or thoughts or ideas. Please feel free to contact, email me at Jim’s Trek.

Be healthy and enjoy your day.

Jim

Day 281 – (AD 711) – Jim's Trek Part III – 21.3 Miles – Using My Internet Connection On My Schwinn 170

Good Day,

Yes this morning I pedaled another 21.3 miles on my Schwinn 170. I have now cycled a total of 14,676.1 miles; 23,619.0 kilometers.

My blood sugar dropped 11 points this morning to 98 and I have now gone a total of 523 days without having to take any diabetes medications.

And I am on National Highway 87 and still headed in a southerly direction.

This morning I got a wee bit side-tracked.

Fox News reports – “North Korean websites back online after widespread Internet outage” – Dec. 23, 2014

“Prominent North Korean websites were back online Tuesday after an hours-long shutdown that led to speculation by some researchers and web watchers that the country's Internet connections could be under cyberattack.”

Question – Since the number of Internet users in North Korea is, sort-of, reported as 605, (which of course may be a bogus number), why would a complete, but temporary outage of their system make any difference?

From Wait But Why and Tim Urban -

"15) No North Korean people have access to the internet because the government is concerned that people would see things that would make them feel unfairly critical toward the West, and the government would like to protect the West’s reputation by preventing the people from going on the internet."

And CNN’s Greg Botelho – “With Internet still spotty, how might North Korea respond?”

“North Koreans' ability to surf the Internet -- for the few in the reclusive Asian nation who could ever really go online anyway -- is rockier than ever.”

And from Martyn Williams at ComputerWorld – Mar 15, 2013 – “North Korea’s Internet Returns After 36-Hour Outage " –

“North Korea doesn't have much in the way of Internet connectivity and there is little redundancy in its connection. Its main connection runs via China Unicom in neighboring China, and there is also a back-up satellite Internet connection via Intelsat. The country has just 1,024 IP (Internet protocol) addresses, making its national network more like that of a medium-sized company than an entire country.”

I think I am confused…as I type to my Internet freely accessible blog, Jim’s Trek…  It must be that I am cycling virtually on this side of our Earth.

This is my 752nd Jim’s Trek post. And according to Blogger Jim’s Trek has recorded, as of this morning, 57,691 Pageviews.

I welcome comments or thoughts or ideas. Please feel free to contact, email me at Jim’s Trek.

Be healthy and enjoy your day.

Jim