Ben Hosken

Doing a back hand spring for the first time when I was 35 was a totally amazing life changing event for me. Doing something I NEVER thought I could do. Fantastic!!!

I just downloaded a bunch of material about this so I’ll be giving it a go over the next week or two.

Switching to long blacks instead of capucinnos made a huge difference. Less sugar…less calories but most of all less bloating from the dairy.

Rarely to I have anything else now.

Took quite a bit of focus on my diet and plenty of core stability work to get there. Doing gymnastics twice a week really helped….lots of exercise and good solid ab work.

A final 10 day detox pushed me to the 6 pack.

Since then I’ve put back on a couple of kg so its not quite there now.

Finally did a formal course on Ruby on Rails…its taken a while but a focused weekend course has been well and truely worth it.

Now onto the projects….

Last weekend I did a programming course and the teacher their used a BLANK keyboard along with Dvorak setup. So I decided its time to learn to touch type.

I’ve been a hunt and peck typist for 20 years and probably have a speed of around 40 wpm but I only use three fingers and miss type lots.

I downloaded Ten Thumbs Typing tutor and have found it FANTASTIC. Part of the beauty about learning to touch type with a new kb layout is that I can’t look at the keyboard.

1 week in and I’ve learnt 65% of the keyboard. I’m going cold turkey next week.

I’ve been taking tumbling lessons for the last 2 terms and have been working on back flips for the last month (once a week) with a fantastic coach.

At the start of the first term (back in March) I could not even do a headstand.

I’m now to the stage of doing them myself perfectly off a minitramp to start and can do ok ones by myself.

Best advice is to get a coahc who knows how to teach it properly and then its guts to get over the idea of jumping backwards. I tried it by myself on a super soft crash map and even then it took three goes to attempt one ;-)

I never ever thought I’d do this, especially given my age (34).

I’ve been doing circus tumbling class for the last 6 weeks and managed one last week. It was one of the high lights of my life….

Keep up the momentum, keep your arms straight in your handstand and practice during it onto a soft surface initially.

Now for a back handspring.

Is great.

Downloaded from iTunes the day before released here in Australia and have had it on non stop repeat. takes a couple of listens but its the best since 1997.

Now to get the pets to tour.

I did a one day course at Brain power (in Australia). It cost around $500 and ran for around 7 hours, with the before lunch being the main learning time.

I started at 390 words per min (wpm) and got to 1600 wpm at the end of the day.

I’ve continued to practice this week and remain around 1500wpm with good compreshension…at least it is as good as if I read it at my old speed.

No amazingly new techniques were taught but I did find the full day course to really work for me rather than a set of 1 hour blocks split over a few weeks.

It really gave me the tools and knowledge I need to kick up my reading speed. Well worth it.

Looks at this stage like it will be for our wedding aniversary in September.

Always a big hit. Check out my recipe

http://www.neuronwave.com/2004_03_01_archives.php#107958123748728173

The most life changing, challenging and immensely rewarding thing I’ve ever done.

Our kids are our future and the most precious gifts.

My wife and I are both on our son’s kinder committee (Suzette is secretary and I’m fund raiser). Each month we have a meeting around 8pm so we’re going to get out b4hand and get dinner together.

On top of that we’ve got the gold coin jar ($1 and $2) which is being loaded up for swanky Japanese every few months.

Ok after much stuffing around I’ve got TextMate installed and Rails up and running and 2 Ruby books by my desk and I’m doing bucketloads of code snippets and testing away.

I’ve started with all the simple stuff I know in language x y and z then I’ll move to the fun Rails stuff.

My fantastic 12” ibook has just turned 3 yo and started to get a problem with not coming out of sleep.

Back to the shop where they managed to screw up fixing.

After 2 weeks I decided I needed to work and bi the bullet with a new 15” Powerbook.

2 Weeks later my iBook is finally fixed (its going to my wife to switch her) and I’m totally in love with my powerbook.

Its faster, sleeker, sexier, louder and BIGGER…I can finally code with two windows side by side.

Go and get one…...It is totally the 1 thing I would take to a desert island.

Rumor has it that there will be a world tour this year.

These guys are the only band in the world I would pay a LOT of money to travel to and see. If they come to Australia I’m there.

Quick to build and worthwhile for the resume as I continue to build more and more wireless/mobile apps…. but it has low impact due to a) the age of the tech and b) the low customer uptake in Australia…..3g is the place to play or midp

I’ve created a blog to track my experiences at http://physicalcomputing.blogspot.com/

I got a whole load of electronics stuff for xmas and a great book in December and already I have my microcontroller saying “hello” to my Mac !!!!

Its well worth doing but make sure in the first few rides, you have the tension right down low so that you can more easily unclip you feet when you come to a stop.

Oh…and you’ll fall at 0 mile per hour twice.