Doctor Who: Planet of the Ood

( spoilers )

On reviewing

I was rather touched when claraste and gilaed told me on Friday that part of their Torchwood watching ritual had involved reading my reviews afterwards, though I suspect they do this via the feed onto Facebook than on LJ itself. Induction Scheme Speculator, who I don't believe has an LJ identity, is also reading them on Facebook and wrote me an very interesting message following my Partner's in Crime review. Apart from revealing there is some point to Facebook beyond poking people and a version of Desktop Tower Defence I haven't yet beaten, I was curious to discover I had this separate audience for reviews. I know most of the active LJers on my flist read them too, but most of them are almost certainly also reading parrot_knight's reviews (and probably half a dozen others) so I don't feel I'm particularly contributing anything.

I'd also been half considering stopping the reviews. I'm not convinced they necessarily improve my viewing experience, especially given the tendency for stories in the New Who stable to fall apart when poked with a stick. I think instead I just need to work harder to decide when this matters and when it does not (so much).

Resolutions Post

1. Find a way to get more exercise

So this week I decided to start getting to grips with this properly since my progress so far this year has been pretty pathetic. Checking my BMI suggests I'm about a stone over-weight so as well as a general wish to be fitter (in particular to improve my cardio-vascular system) I want to lose a stone. In the mean time it transpired I had not purchased the exercise book I thought I had and my bicycle was pronounced dead. I did find the Hacker's Diet (How to lose weight through stress and poor nutrition) which includes a simplified version of the exercise plan in the book I lost.

So I now have two exercise books and a brand new bicycle. Trying to exercise on the days I commute is hard work since I spend so little time at home, but I do cycle to the station and B tells me the swimming pool in Liverpool is free entry and close to my department. I am also going to check out dance type lessons both in Liverpool and Manchester (since dance is the only type of exercise I remotely enjoy). So the plan is to cycle and swim on commuting days and use the exercise books on the days I work at home. Weekend's tend to be chaotic, so I'm not making any promises to myself about them, however claraste is keen that we should go for a run together on Saturday mornings when she and her family visit (about twice a month).

The Hacker's Diet recommends a daily intake of 500 calories less than you burn. However it also lists the daily burn for someone my size as between 1300-1700 calories and 500 looks like an awfully big proportion of that, especially when you consider my sedentry lifestyle probably puts the burn at the lower end of that scale. At the moment I don't intend to start counting calories obsessively, but I've been letting my portion sizes creep up and been allowing myself snacks and second helpings - this I intend to stop. The diet also recommends tracking your weight with a weighted moving average which seems sensible - so if I can get Open Office suitably organised I shall start on that as well.

2. Drink/buy less alcohol.

Alcohol bought: 2 bottles wine.
Alcohol opened: whatever was opening when gaming on Friday. I didn't keep track.

3. Do list of "before bed" actions pinned to fridge.

As usual. Bag packing done well. I've moved tidying off this list as it wasn't happening. I've kept loading the dishwasher on it in the hopes that I will occasionally do that.

4. Write a grant.

No progress.

5. Done.

6. Done.

7. Try a new recipe each week.

None this week (B away for most of it).