Okay, holy shit I've been doing life wrong all this time. Results were AMAZING!! Best steak I've ever cooked. By far. Props to @Michael Matulef and @Shinobi for scolding me / coaching me to do better. The better quality (thicker, fresher) steak plus the reverse-sear technique made for a killer upgrade combo (duh! But still... wow). I had been buying prepackaged 1" steaks and freezing them. This time it was a ~1.5" thick ribeye directly from the meat counter (but tradeoff: those aren't grass fed). Previous attempts were all on just cast iron or backyard grill. First time reverse-searing. 200° to an internal temp target of 120°. Had not incorporated finishing with butter much before, first time using thyme. Garlic in there, too. My steaks had been fairly dry (even when not overcooked), unpleasantly tough, and mostly weirdly flavorless. This one was incredibly juicy, tender, so much flavor! The difference was like spending $6 at Denny's vs $80 at a steakhouse. NO JOKE. I have one prepackaged 1" steak left in the freezer; will try reverse-searing it and see how much the cooking technique alone can improve upon my prior results. I expect disappointment, but worth running the experiment! View quoted note →

Once more unto the breach, dear friends! But this time with a much better, fresher, thicker cut of meat -- AND -- a proper leave-in meat thermometer. View quoted note →

Flashback to summer 2022. Family doggos jumping in slo-mo! @npub1kuma...z2v7 and her two cousins. #dogs #dogstr #pupstr

I'm good at a lot of things, but cooking steak is not one of them. Okay, could have turned out worse, but still overshot the target.

I fully confess that bitcoin's fiat price is really fun to watch. But I'm less productive when it's really pumping (I'm too distracted). And Bitcoin is designed to pump forever. Therefore... will I ever accomplish anything ever again...?

Me: Bitcoin is pumping, Kuma!! @npub1kuma...z2v7: "I feel nothing"

TIL that "luminance" (aka brightness) for RGB #pixels isn't just a simple average. Yes, (255, 255, 255) is max white, brightest possible (8-bit) value. But colors are tricksy. example: Bitcoin orange is (255, 153, 0). If we naively calculate its brightness, we'd get: (255+153+0)/3 = 136 But notice that the naive calculation would give us the same brightness for (153, 0, 255): My eye easily says that the purple is darker overall than the orange. So instead the calculation is: Orange: 0.2125*255 + 0.7154*153 + 0.0721*0 = 163.6 Purple: 0.2125*153 + 0.7154*0 + 0.0721*255 = 50.9 Orange is CLEARLY brighter (aka higher luminance)! #nerd #videophile #graphics

Last one for today. If gymnasts could only do one strength workout, we'd usually opt for #dips. They're WAY harder than pushups and, at least for the high school kids I coach (who almost all start as TOTAL noobs as freshmen), it's the biggest strength gatekeeper (i.e. can't do good dips, can't do important skills X, Y, and Z). The rules in our gym: * FULL DEPTH (it's a constant theme!). Have to go as low as you can until you're physically stuck. * Muscle it down. Build strength in both directions. * No arch in the push up. * Keep toes slightly in front (key to avoiding that arch). * Head neutral. Bury or lift your head and you change your back shape. * Steady or explosive push up, but above all else keep body shape discipline. * Full push back up to support, especially the last inch through your shoulders/traps. The finish position should be as tall as possible (note the final shrug up at the end of each of my reps). * Generally elbows in for stability, reduce strain on the already-strained pecs. * PERFECT FORM throughout. Constant discipline during strength leads to discipline while competing. You'll see that I use my first dip as a stretch. I don't want to engage that max-stress push back up until I'm sure that my pecs are ready. I hold it down there, let gravity stretch me out, and usually even gently twist my torso a little bit each direction to accentuate the pec/shoulder stretch. If you want to work dip strength at home, I bought an inexpensive old man walker (WITHOUT WHEELS!). I'm sure you can even find used ones for even cheaper. They're plenty strong and stable. Just have to keep your knees bent. And the foldable ones offer nice storage convenience. #strength

While I'm definitely losing lots of gymnastics skills (or worried I'll break something if I attempt them), my baseline gymnastics strength is still decent. I used to be able to do 3 sets of 10 of these stall bar v-ups pretty easily. Now I'm just happily surprised I was able to get to 10 total reps once (but had serious doubts on #9 and #10!!). Didn't do a second set; if I did, I'd probably crap out around 5. For anyone who wants to work toward L-ups (legs to 90°) or V-ups (ankles to bar; what I'm doing here), find a set of stall bars like these; the back support they offer is a HUGE help. If I do these on just a normal freestanding pullup bar, it puts too much strain / torque on my lower back. The back support also allows for the more dynamic back lift at the top (I'm not just folding in half at the waist, my hips are rolling upward against gravity so that my back is nearly horizontal). Gets the upper abs involved and changes the shoulder angle/lat pull action. #abs #strength

Some of my #100aDayUntil100k #pushup reps are harder than others. Though this is the EASY version. A REAL handstand pushup has to be done on blocks or on the parallel bars so that your head can go deeper than your hands; notice how my head stops my arms from even reaching a 90° elbow bend. So while this video will impress non-gymnasts, to my eyes it's actually pretty meh. 😕 But I'm not strong enough to do real, full-depth handstand pushups so, 🤷‍♂️.

So before #100aDayUntil100k was a thing, I was trying to do 50 #pushups per day, but kept failing just due to time management throughout the day (and, no, couldn't just pump out 50 all at once before bed). So instead I've been aiming for 1 set of 10 every hour that I'm awake (so, ideally, ~160/day). Gets me up from my computer and gets the blood pumping more often. REALLY enjoying this approach, even if I miss a few hours.

Me: You will eat more vegetables and you will be happy! @npub1kuma...z2v7:

Good enough movie if you're not a Trekkie. Meh to ehh to ug if you are a Trekkie. But shockingly bad technicals if you have a 4k + Atmos setup.

Habla

A/V Nerds: "Star Trek: Into Darkness" on 4k UHD Blu-Ray - Keith Mukai

Sad to think that i'm way closer to the end of my gymnastics days than the beginning. But hoping to keep getting stronger and seeing what I can still do this season without breaking anything! This press #handstand isn't totally up to my usual standards, but it took a bunch of tries just to get one where I actually held the handstand so, yeah. Something's better than nothing!

Bug on habla.news tags. Each time I edit, it looks like the current tag list form field is getting appended to the existing list rather than replace.

#Audiophile / #Videophile nerd review of "Midway" on 4k UHD Blu-Ray.

Habla

A/V Nerds: "Midway" on 4k UHD Blu-Ray - Keith Mukai