Commitment To Excellence

Commitments

• Health: have been maintaining my exercises. Have been seeing different articles and different people (these authors) speak of "changing it up." I do not think I am there yet. Will just stick with these basics until there is something to change up. Am doing what I call floor exercises: sit-ups, leg-lifts, push-ups. It still astonishes me that most of these exercises, I could literally do one or none. And sticking with it... am now doing sets. Do not let anyone say it is not worth it. Even as I sit here texting this my body is thankful. Just got done. Over and over... nothing exciting. Sure does feel nice.


• Computers: am still learning and practicing HTML and CSS. Have been competing lessons at Alison.com. Am still texting this blog in HTML. The Trump project is still ongoing. Am going to link my cabinet files to the index today. Eventually will have a nice set-up.


• Gardening: need to get out to clean this Spring's area.
  UPDATE: 2 February 2017.Spent a couple of hours out cleaning up garbage, and I think that is it today. Am 100% disabled. Have a picker upper so I don't have to bend each time, yet the process really tears me up. My neighbor Dimas helped me toss an old couch into the dumpster someone had left out on the street. Below is an image of Dimas taken last year while he was working on his truck. The image also gives an idea of where the dumpster is located out front... this is where we tossed the couch.



Dimas Out Front




• Photography: need to get out more.

Addendum

Am going to put the rest of today's commitment information onto another blog. Have been blogging regularly, but have not been opening a post for each day. May start adding a new post each day, so that it is more accurate to keep track of my commitments.

How To Prepare An Excellent Scrambled Omelette

Scrambled Omelette - Presentation

My most recent post was about preparing an omelette, yet this post is going to describe an even more tasty omelette. A scrambled omelette so that "the fold" is not involved. Was in the kitchen preparing a nice batch of chili con carne today, and had some left over diced capsicum (yellow pepper and bell pepper) and left over meat. I have a fresh tomato in the veggie drawer as well as some cheese food slices in the refrigerator. I stock my pantry with plenty of general spices: salt, pepper, garlic powder and crushed red pepper to spice the omelette. I prefer olive oil to fry the capsicum until soft and clarified.

You will need a stove top, a nice skillet (mine is an American made 10.5-inch iron skillet),and a quality spatula (mine is solid, American made, stainless steel) to prepare the meal. A one skillet meal! Yaaaay.

The white bowl contains the spices listed to the left under "egg mixture."
Directly above the white bowl are the diced peppers (shown below),
diced meat, and tomato.

Egg Mixture:
• four Eggs
• two tablespoons of Milk
• one-half teaspoon of Crushed Red Pepper
• one-quarter teaspoon of Baking Soda
• one-quarter teaspoon of Ground Black Pepper
• one-quarter teaspoon of Table Salt
• one-quarter teaspoon of Garlic Powder
• three tablespoons of Olive Oil

Filling Ingredients:
• one medium Roma tomato
• two sandwich slices of cheese food
• diced meat

KEY: Olive Oil

Note the color changing in the peppers because they are being clarified by the oil.

The image below illustrates the level of preparedness that must be organised. The egg mixture is ready to be whisked, "before" the peppers are clarified. There is about a five-minute window of opportunity to compose an excellent scrambled omelette.The image above is about the oil. Once the skillet is hot from cooking (clarifying) the peppers, the eggs will be added to the hot pan.

The spatula is handy to manipulate the egg mixture and peppers. The tomato is sliced and diced as well as the cheese being close at hand. It takes a few minutes for the eggs to firm up. As the eggs firm up, add the tomato and meat and continue scrambling the eggs. The following images show the eggs firming (I think it is water being cooked away).

This image above, the egg mixture was only been added about one minute ago along with the tomato. The heat cooks off the moisture in the eggs and tomato. The image below, the sausage has been added and the egg stays where it has been scooped.

The reason I keep emphasizing the olive oil is because of its importance, of course. "And" the temperature of the pan reached while the peppers sauté (clarify). Because if both are just right, nothing sticks to the pan. The omelette can just be ladled out onto a plate. The image below... it took three scoops and is was on my plate. No fuss, no muss.

Isn't this beautiful?

Put a lid on the skillet to melt the cheese and the heat will soften the tomato slices just right.

Healthy Hacking - How To Prepare An Omelette

Last night I set out the beginning of my day with a list: wake-up, coffee, exercise, and Alison course... no You Tube. Have been awake a few hours and have accomplished this list of tasks. It really excites me that I followed my suggestions from last night. While sitting here sipping on a cup of coffee (mud, joe), I ran across some images of meals that need to be shared to keep my blog posts up to speed. As soon as I sleep a bit will post images showing my latest omelette and the avocado-tomato-egg sandwich spread. This sandwich spread is more of a dip than spread, just depends on perspective... I have bread and don't have any crisps.

Prepped Tomatoes

When preparing an omelette, get everything ready. Here in this image are diced and prepared tomatoes. Before going much further, put a skillet onto a burner and get it hot. Prepare the eggs with seasonings to whisk, whip, or mix vigorously. For this omelette, I added some sliced cheese food (artificial cheese) which is unwrapped,pieced and waiting along with the prepared tomato seen below. Once the skillet or pan is hot, I added some spray oil and almost immediately poured the prepared eggs into the skillet. Make certain the pan bottom or cooking surface is hot, and the oil covers the entire cooking surface.

Finished Meal

Cover the eggs after they are poured into the hot skillet. Let them fry a bit. Then, I added the prepared tomatoes and the cheese that I had set aside, on one half of the frying eggs. The frying eggs look like a pancake only made out of eggs. I re-covered the mixture to let it cook. Checking almost constantly, I waited until the eggs were fully cooked and the cheese slice had melted; then carefully I folded the empty half over onto the half with the added ingredients.

Really use caution and take enough time to fold the omelette half over the other half. Watch the cooking omelette so as not to over cook, and it will look neat and tidy just as this. Can see the bread is at the ready, and personally, there is a side of beef/potato hash in that bowl. I am a big fan of habanero sauce as my spice. Can see a greenish drop over to the side displaying its color.This morning (25jan 17) as this blog is being texted out, I am getting into the mood to have an omelette.Am going to add this image to flickr.com, also.

Hacking Health - Healthy Avocado Sandwiches

Am having a wonderful day. Woke up, exercised, and got right into my computer work. Have a bunch of plans working inside my head that I do not want to forget. Listing of my thoughts is complete. Made the most excellent sandwiches for dinner. Yummo.

Prepping The Veggies

Check out that color. Yummy! A buck and 69 for that avocado. Avocados are healthy, packed full of vitamins, and avocados are known for containing good fiber and healthy fats.

Above, the avocado is neatly sliced. The avocado slicer is a kitchen "gadget" made specifically for savory (block) cheese slices. The tool slices the avocado wonderfully... this is obvious, hey?

Ready To Eat

Have my chips ready to go and my drink. Am including this image because one should note the remaining avocado w/seed and container. This is the proper way to store unused avocado. Will include an image or two of the results of this storage technique inside this post.

Have everything set out for this image because this shows the ingredients with a written recipe... a visual recipe. One can examine the image and decide for themselves how to proceed with the sandwich preparation.

Ready To Eat

So I went all out with avocado, tomato sans bacon. Quite refreshing. A good sandwich is an art form.I love avocados. Am going to share how to keep them in the refrigerator. And how I get the slices "just right."... below.

Lon's Avocado Slicer

I had a half-an-avocado left over. Want to share how to store left-over avocado so it will not lose taste. First, note the container up above in the second image. This is the container I will use... the seed is still inside the half to keep fresh. Second, below note the two images day old avocado I am posting today

Stored for Two-days

This avocado is left-over from the meal above. Note the same piece of fruit in the images above.

Using my avocado slicer (block cheese slicer) I cleaned up the fruit. The fine results are shown below.

Cleaned up and ready to eat.

I used this halved avocado in the illustrated recipe below this image.

Avocado, Tomato, Egg Sandwich Spread

All leftovers. And will start my exercise regimen as posted in an earlier blog. And then will upload the images of my sandwich spread. The whole idea is staying focused on what I have been blogging. It is taking a lot because I am "really" not motivated but I have done two sets of sit-ups and different leg lifts. Whew. Am having a very bad attitude today. Am just sitting here watching YouTube after having completed plenty of exercise. Waiting on dinner (baked fries) and my attitude is much better. It is wonderful what exercise does for us (me). I feel much more relaxed... calmer. Am so thankful I started doing this.

25 January 2017; Update; 1644 hours

Woke up hours ago. Finally, am getting a little motivation as it gets dark outside. Dang. Puts a damper on gardening, yet I did capture a couple of images. While processing them I ran across the images below describing my "fresh" homemade sandwich spread. This stuff turned out to be quite utilitarian. I used it as a chili con carne topping as well as a sandwich filler. Half a large Hass Avocado that cost me $1.69, half of a 0.25¢ Roma tomato, one boiled egg, bread, and some spices was used to constuct three meals. Filling meals. Wow. And I am thinking quite nutritious meals at that. I have been neglecting my fresh veggie intake. Will monitor veggie intake a bit closer.

Hacking Health - List Of My Exercises

Am trying to stick with it. Lots of things happening today. Trump is being inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. (Yet it has to be mentioned that one President was elected twice: Grover Cleveland was our 22nd and 24th President). Am up and at it early, have had some coffee, and will exercise. Have been using HTML5: Edition for Web Authors as a reference to keep my pages semantically correct. Will get back into my review and studies at Alison.com. And these folks are serious. Am learning quite a bit and am hoping with review some of it will be retained. Am seriously having problems with retention. Think I will make a list in order to remember what I need to stay focused, and should actually go back through my posts to refresh my memories. Today's weather will not permit me to garden nor make plans to capture images.Dang! Need to do laundry as well. Will do some exercises, drink a bit more coffee, and watch some YouTube if there is anything good.

I purchased some photo frames a while back, and was actually able to print three images. So will need to get one other item in order to start displaying my art. Yaaay. Am very excited.

0945 Hours

Am trying to get motivated for the day. The weather is crummy but have completed two sets of leg and glute reps. Hopefully, this will help my adductor pain subside. This takes a lot of time also. Yet, hopefully, it will be worth it.

21jan17: Was sitting here post processing images of my most recent meal. Decided to have a look at exercises I could add into my regimen. The variety and alternatives are quite numerous. Am starting to think the best idea is to just move. Actually just doing whatever is needed to "move" and doing the movement in a way that works the muscles. Working my muscles effectively is the idea.

List of My Exercises

• 20 sit-ups:

I use a pillow to keep my tailbone from digging a hole through my skin. I do the exercises slowly and using "form". Am remembering when I first began this endeavor, exercising, that I could not complete my first sit-up without pulling myself by cheating. Now I do 3 sets of twenty.

• 20 right leg-lifts:

Am crippled and deformed a bit on my right leg, so I concentrate on this appendage. When I began, was able to lift my right leg, so have been trying and strengthening it. I do 3 sets of 20 reps.

• 10 ab leglifts:
• 20 right-side leg-lifts
• 20 adductor squeezes:

Over the past year or so I have been experiencing major discomfort in this area. I put a pillow between my legs and squeeze. 3 sets of 20 reps. Hopefully, this will help me decrease the pain. It really is quite extreme.

• 5 Push-ups:

It is embarrassing to be able to do so few, but I am sticking with it. When beginning I could not do a single push-up. Now, I am proud to say (quietly) that I am able to do 5 push-ups on demand! Did 3 sets of 5 push-ups.

1830 Hours

Setting Goals

I read that it is smart to set goals. And to stick with the goals to accomplish your agenda. This applies to everything. If I set the goals, it will give me an objective. My goal is to alleviate pain. Have pain medication but it doesn't work for everything. And the pain worries me because the medications are not working. Therefore, I have listed my goals in this post so that I can hopefully keep at them. I took a nap... and slept for a couple of hours and I feel good. The weather put a damper on my photography walk abouts today and have been working on my Trump web page. Need to look at my Alison class though. Which I will accomplish as the night ages.

Goals

Improve Photography

Sell Photographs

Fight Pain

Improve Coding Skills

Study and Learn

Hacking Health - Putting It All Together

2139 hours

Started an online course at Alison.com. The "course" is named Diploma in html5, css3, and Javascript. And let me just say, "These folks mean business and they are not screwing around. Am continuing my exercise regimen... did three sets of six push-ups. It is funny because when I started blogging about hacking health, I could barely manage One! And in a few minutes I will start three sets of twenty sit-ups: funny because before, I had difficulties. Below, is an image of this morning's dessert/treat.

Cookies With Milk

There was a jumping spider that visited earlier during the week and I captured images while it was sitting on my heater. The spider may have gotten vacuumed up when I was sweeping the rug. Am not sure, yet I think it tried to hop away while I was in mid-stroke. Ha. Am sorry to have lost the model because the heater images were out of focus.

Now back to this code course and exercise.

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

0351 hours

Have been studying for hours. Decided to have a break for some chow. I am very happy to have been applying myself to this free course.Sure is fun and the time is well spent! $$$$ Ha! Thank You so very much. Moving around between CSS and HTML is already getting easier... literally over-night. In order to keep it up there are some rules that I learned back at college. Three credit "hours" a week means at least three hours of instruction time. In order to maintain a level of learning that suits me, three hours of instruction time obligates me to double that time studying what has been taught. Even composing this blogspot counts as far as I am concerned. I will need to utilize what Mr. Tabor has taught me.

Alongside this, I need to keep up my healthy hacking. Which is quick nutritious chow and the exercise. Yaaaay! It appears that applying myself to this blog is paying dividends.

0500 hours

Just finished eating most of my dinner. Will pick at it, relax, and ponder the rest of my time

2200 hours

.Went to bed. Dinner (below) made me sleepy. I have really been monitoring what is included inside packaged food. The quick meal I ate included real turkey (as opposed to what? I am not sure) and the same with the 100% "real" potatoes. Makes me wonder why the company is so proud of "real" potatoes. What's in baked packaged potatoes when the "real" logo is not on the package. Reading the ingredients is very important.

100 % "Real" Potatoes

I wrote a simple blog post about a meal put together about a month ago. There are images of the ingredients included inside the post article that show exactly why it is worth the time to read what is inside the package. Instead of trusting the images on the package.

The dinner that made me sleepy was not much, yet was "real!!"

"Real" Turkey Sandwiches

Inside that jar is some honey that I thought to thaw. It has been out a while, so am not sure about it. Will do a bit of reading to learn. It is staying solid. Hmmm.

Photography Basics

Began this article back during September of 2016, and put it aside. Am searching for motivation because the Spring Bloom begins soon. Thought I would put together a post for my own personal reference. Have been procrastinating and have had no motivation. I get stuck in front of the monitor and get doing other things and forget my photography. Think I have found a way to motivate: am going to define "some"of what Wikipedia calls "concepts and principles. Well here goes:

Concepts and Principles Of Photography

• Angle of View:

What the lens sees when the camera views an object that can be captured with clarity. Sometimes objects are within this angle yet are not distinguishable items over to the very edge of what the lens can pick up. Kind of like on the fringes of one's vision. Also, our eye ball bends and adjusts as we view objects, yet a camera's lens is solid and does not flex nor adjust. Field of view comes gains importance when capturing images up close: our eye would adjust (by bending) to compensate... and fixed solid lenses will create aberration and distortion. Wide-angle and fish-eye lenses are designed to alter the angle of view. Searched around and found a video to help visualize angle of view and all of the inter-related concepts. This is basic stuff and very important to grasp. This is why camera makers include "kit" lenses along with a dSLR purchase at a certain size. So that an entry photographer can start capturing images right out of the box. My Canon Rebel T-5 came with a "kit" lens:18mm-55mm. This size covers basically a standard eyesight range. There is a fish eye effect lens image below.The video above explains the angle of view, focal length, and lenses much better than I could text.

Fish Eye Effect

Need to credit this image below literally. It is from wikipedia and labeled for non-commercial re-use.





• Aperture

The f-stop!!Am going to access another video by Philippe Dame. Am constructing this post alphabetically, yet aperture is his next video in his series loaded onto YouTube.The aperture is an opening through the lens that can be adjusted to control the amount of light striking the sensor. The diaphram opens and closes, depending on the setting, to allow more or less light.

Aperture Diaphragm

The best link I could find to teach about diaphragms is about the human eye. Our Iris

Need to credit this image below literally. It is from Wikipedia and labeled for non-commercial re-use.





• Chromatic Aberration

Wanted to discuss this next concept linked above because I find it interesting. Am finding that all of these terms are inter-related and connected. So it is worth the time to study. The Spring bloom is coming shortly this year. Have missed it each year since beginning my photo journey and hope to use this blog to keep me focused.

• An aberration of my own.

Major Tom - My Friend

This is an image of Thomas. The right side is "blown out.," caused by the Sun entering my kitchen window. I try to avoid this effect, yet this image is an example of why an aberration may actually enhance a run of the mill portrait. To me, this flare shows off Tom's personality. He seems to be eyeing, "When are you going to stop sticking that 'thing' so close to my face?



Below is an image of a Joshua Tree which has a nice natural lens flare aberration. Completely unintended.

Lens Flare - Joshua Tree



My own flares and blow outs above are prevented easily by changing my perspective. Just moving before capturing the images. But to me, these two images are uniques because of the aberrations.

• Circle of Confusion