As you can see a lot of ups and downs but there is a long term trend, just like the stock market. In fact losting weight is a lot like personal finance and it’s easy to look at the short term but you have to stay focused on the long term. Here are some other highlights of my change in those 126 days:

As far as weight, I am only 89.9% of the man I used to be! Woot! I went from 187 pounds down to 166.2 pounds which is a change of 20.8 pounds. Now, ideal weight is a hard measurement to make and it will be different for everyone. If you want to find your own ideal weight forget the internet and do what I did to find mine which is to work with your general practice physician to determined where you should be. For me, we settled on between 162 and 167 as the ideal for my body type, age, and activity level. One other measurement of interest is that I did drop 3 inches off my waist which means nothing I own fits me anymore.

Moving on to percent body fat, my starting body fat was 22.4% and after this quest it now sits at 16.0%. This means of the 20.8 pounds I lost, 15.3 pounds, or 73.5% of my weight loss, was fat. Unfortunately this is the one goal I didn’t meet as I was targeting a body fat percentage of  less than 14%. The reason why I didn’t lose more fat is simple, I didn’t exercise at all during these 126 days. So now I’ll be adding some weight lifting (the best way to convert fat in to other tissue) and getting that in line.

The last key measure was my Body Mass Index (BMI). Starting out I was at a BMI of 25 which put me ever-so-slightly in the overweight category. By the time this experiment was done my new BMI was 22.5 which is solidly in the normal range.

One last thing. I know I can get on a rant sometimes but you can do this too and the secret is simple! During this time I did read a lot on healthy living and on weight loss and it comes down to two major factors in life that shape our bodies. A lack of understanding of what even constitutes good diet and exercise, common sense is so wrong, challenge it! Also having the psychological control to resisting the urge to do things we know are bad, it does take willpower and strength. If you want to know more, I found a great video during this time that sums this all up nicely. If you can spend 60 minutes do yourself a favor and check it out and watch all 6 ten minute segments.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm1dWjMGeM]

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As a Mac user, I was happy to see they launched a MacOS X compatible client application for SkyDrive so I could use all that space. There was just one little thing that bothered me, I couldn’t stand that client has the SkyDrive icon sitting in my Dock and menu bar at the same time! That’s just bad form from Microsoft on this one.

Being this is OSX there is a quick fix however, just open up a Terminal window and type the following to modify the SkyDrive clients settings:

defaults write /Applications/SkyDrive.app/Contents/Info.plist LSUIElement 1

If SkyDrive was already running, just close it and start it again and the Dock icon is gone !

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So this is a progress report of sorts and we’ll focus on the numbers since the numbers started this whole journey and numbers is how I am succeeding.

In the first two months, I have lost 13 pounds (5.9kg). To track my progress and get this information I record my weight everyday, first thing in the morning. As you can see it is an up and down journey by the trend is what is important not the daily successes or failures.

This weight loss is result of my activities and what led to this was methodical tracking of everything I ate. To set my baseline I crunched some numbers online and I set myself a goal of 1537 net calories a day. Net calories are important as this is what it would take for me to just live my normal day. If I exercise in any fashion I get to add calories to this total to make up for the extra energy expended. So this is my last two months of eating by weekly intake.

As the chart shows, I often have ended the day or week eating less than my net calorie total but this eating less is how you end up losing weight. How much is good but what you eat is also important. So to track this goal not only did I log how what I ate and how many calories, I also logged the carlorie distribution from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. As you can see, like more Americas, I do have a high carbohydrate diet. It must be the beer! The top five foods I’ve logged were tea, Fiber One bar, beer, onions, and chicken breast.

The other side of the equation is the extra energy expended. Here is my exercise log from the past two months. This is everything I’ve done the past two months other than living. Everything here is the result of physical activity and represent extra calories I can consume. The top five activities I’ve logged were walking, yard work, house cleaning, carpentry, and hiking.

So all this diligent data collection on myself has allowed me to know exactly how many calories I need to eat and when to stop in order to lose weight. Today my BMI is 23.8 and falling. I don’t record my percent body fat every day but when I started it was 22.4% and today is was 18.2%. My goal is 167 pounds (76 kg) and given the current trend I’m on I should be reaching that in about 4 more weeks!

It’s said that in order to make any change you need to be able to measure that change. By tracking my eating, exercise, and weight loss I have enabled myself to make better decisions to direct myself and my health.

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I was invited to be part of the inaugural Lockheed Martin Tweetup class and to visit the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics plant in Marietta, GA for the roll out of the final F-22A Raptor produced. For me it was a great honor to be one of only fourteen of Lockheed Martin’s Twitter followers to received this magical invitation.

Arriving at the Lockheed Martin plant on December 13th it was clear this was going to be a great day. Near record high temperatures for Marietta and clear sunny skies set the scene for what would turn out to be an awesome adventure but not before the first speed bump. Photos are normally a large part of a Tweetup but because of the classified nature of the work at Lockheed Martin, no cameras, anytime or anywhere, would be allowed. Instead we would be limited to the photos taken by the Lockheed Martin provided photographer and stock photos. Moving past that and placing our cameras back in our cars, we checked in and met our hosts for the event, Kimberly Jaindl and Alison Orne. We then boarded the nicest corporate shuttle bus I have seen and rode deep in to the facility to Building B-1, the huge main assembly plant that is four stories high and covers several acres in a massive open space.

Over in Building B-1 would be our pool area and after a quick meet and greet with others in our Tweetup class, we walked out on to the factory floor where the rollout ceremony would be held and were escorted like VIP’s to our seats in the media area. From here we could see the final F-22A tail number 4195 sitting in front of the huge hanger doors awaiting it’s move. We could see across the cleanest factory I have ever seen, the walls and emblazoned with flags, milestones, and slogans such as “Through these doors pass the most awesome fighters in the world” and “A mistake covered up may cost the life of a brave pilot.” Here basking in the spotlights, 4195 still missing it’s stealth coating and is mint green and black. Surrounding 4195 are hundreds of workers who produced this magnificent plane as well as dignitaries and the media.

On stage, the program began with the local F-22 Songbirds singing a rendition of the national anthem. A succession of speakers then took the podium to praise the work that went on with this program. Shan Cooper, General Manager and Vice President of Lockheed, stated “While the Raptor itself is eye watering, the people on team Raptor have made the F-22A what it is today.”

Addressing the crowd, Col. Sean Frisbee, the US Air Force Program Manager, noted that “This is not a funeral, this is a transition, this is only the beginning.” After all the speeches well wishes were given the moment had arrived, Lockheed mechanic Henry Mason climbed aboard the single seat jet, the South Cobb High School marching band began to play, and the large hanger doors opened slowly. The darkened plant was lit up by the sun and a small yellow tug slowly began to pull the F-22A out of the factory as it had done for the 186 other F-22A’s before it. The assembled crowd filled in behind the plane and the fourteen of us walked with the engineers, workers, and managers who built this amazing fighter. We circled around the plant to the front of the assembly building for photographs. It was amazing to see the pride and sadness from these workers who built the F-22A with it’s amazingly precise specifications and tolerances.

Then as the first surprise for our group, we were invited to be part of the team photo for the last F-22A. This was little intimidating as personally we didn’t really deserve to be there, but it was a great honor to be invited as guests and really who couldn’t resist.

After the ceremony we were escorted back inside for a brief lunch and meetings with more personnel who worked on the F-22 program. We met with Tom Wetherall, the director of F-22 Business Development, and had a candid discussion about social media and how it can be incorporated into their business plans. However this was cut short when test pilot Jeff “Trigger” Wallace exclaimed loudly “We’re here!” Accompanying Trigger was chief F-22 test pilot James “JB” Brown. Trigger and JB sat down for a much to short 30 minute one-on-one about their experiences with the F-22. They discussed how the plane has reached the limits of human physical endurance, how the F-22A can pull 9 G’s, how the plane can accelerate and what it feels like, and what it is like to travel a mile every 3 seconds. Finally they signed autographs for anyone who wanted them, which was everyone, and then they were off to prep for a test flight of 4188 which we would get to watch later.

Next up we were off for a tour of Building B-1 and the production lines of the F-22A, the F-35 center fuselage assembly, the P-3 Orion wing assembly and the C-130J assembly lines. The tour was conducted by Jeff Rhodes, Lockheed Martin’s resident historian, and he spoke in great detail on the history and current operations of the plant.

The last stop on our tour was the F-22A cockpit demonstrator, a non-classified near replica of the glass cockpit controls and displays. Lockheed’s Adam Dubinskas, ran us through several missions. I personally infiltrated enemy airspace and dropped a JDAM on a radar installation before downing two Mig-29’s with AIM-120 missiles.

Finally we all moved to a large patch of lawn to await Trigger and JB’s test flight of 4188, however something in their pre flight didn’t check out and the flight was scrubbed. But every day since them when I see a green F-22A flying above my home I get a a smile knowing I’ve met the person flying that plane.

I want to thank Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and all the people there that made the aerospace company’s first tweet-up an excellent experience. Their talented people, generosity with their time, and their knowledge of their products was very much appreciated. this event will always be remembered.

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Cobb County Resident is One of 10 Selected to Attend the Inaugural Lockheed Martin Tweetup for Final Rollout of the F-22 Raptor December 13, 2011 

Lockheed Martin Twitter Followers Will Tweet History as the Final F-22 Raptor Fighter Jet Rolls Off the Assembly Line

Marietta, GA (December 12, 2011) – Lockheed Martin will bring together 10 Twitter followers to the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics factory in Georgia for a one-day Tweetup, December 13, 2011, when the 195th and final F-22 Raptor fighter jet rolls off the assembly line and out the door. Cobb County resident Jason Whittenburg has been selected as one of 10 @LockheedMartin Twitter followers to attend and Tweet the event.

As a Lockheed Martin Tweetup attendee, Jason and the other 9 Twitters will interact with the Lockheed Martin historian, an F-22 test pilot, and others from F-22 project. Additionally the attendees will tour the Marietta facility including the F-22 and C130J production lines, the P-3 Orion wing assemble area, and have the opportunity to take a turn in the F-22 cockpit simulator. Attendees were selected through a lottery system in which many applied over a one day period in December.

The F-22 Raptor is the world’s first stealthy air dominance fighter and is capable of multiple missions. The F-22 program began in the early 1980s as the Advanced Tactical Fighter and reached initial operational capability Dec. 15, 2005. The F-22 is scheduled to remain in service through at least the year 2040.

“Being selected for the first ever Lockheed Martin Tweetup is an incredible honor having followed both the successes and failures of the F-22. Being able to tour, meet, and listen to the individuals connected with this important program is delightful and informative. Being part of history making is exiting”

Jason is the founder of Geeklog, a Business Analyst with IBM, a father of three, a home brewer, and an adult fan of LEGO. Follow his tweets at https://twitter.com/jwhittenburg.

Lockheed Martin Tweetup attendees are traveling from across the U.S. to attend this historic event. A list of registered Twitter attendees can be found on the Twitter list: https://twitter.com/jwhittenburg/lmtweetup. Information about the Lockheed Martin Tweetup can be viewed on http://www.lockheedmartin.com/tweetup/

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A tweetup is when people who follow a twitter account, like NASA, meet up in real life. With a NASA Tweetup, the space agency invites a certain number of it’s followers for a behind-the-scenes look at for a high profile event which includes special guests and amazing access to facilities.

The GRAIL Tweetup was held September 7-8, 2011 at the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida. For this event NASA received more than 825 registrations for the GRAIL Tweetup, but the final group only included 150 people. According to NASA, the members of the group came from across the globe including Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, and more.

The first day started off meeting other the attendees and NASA media officials. Next up was an amazing tour of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The first stop for us was the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where we walked the entire floor of this massive building in which we found a special surprise at the far end, the Space Shuttle Endeavor! Next up was the press site where the iconic countdown clock sits. Then it was off to launch pad 39A which will launch the new Space Launch System. Then off to launch pad 41 where prep work was underway for the launch of the Mars Science Lab on a Atlas V rocket. Our last stop was launch pad 17 where GRAIL was sitting a top of a Delta II Heavy rocket. Wow!

After a lunch break it was back to the conference cetner where we heard from a great lsit of speakers including many people working on GRAIL including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, NASA Launch Director Jim Adams, NASA Engineer Doug Ellison, MIT scientist Dr. Maria Zuber and representatives from Sally Ride Science. Next up were Star Trek’s Lt Uhura and NASA booster Nichelle Nichols and renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Unfortunately after several launch delays I had to leave, I did not get to see the launch. Due to weather conditions the launch was held two additional days until September 10, 2011 when is successfully launched and headed for the moon. GRAIL is a set of twin two solar-powered satellites, GRAIL-A is scheduled to reach the moon on New Year’s Eve 2011 and GRAIL-B will arrive New Year’s Day 2012. They will fly in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field to answer longstanding questions about the make up of the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. The spacecrafts are also carrying a multi camera digital video imaging system called MoonKAM that will offer middle-school students the chance to request photography of lunar targets for classroom study.

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Has the Linux ecosystem come far enough to allow a user with generic office needs to do their job effectively?

The hardware used for this experiment is my corporate issued laptop, a Lenevo Thinkpad T410, not too shabby. REHL is certified for this hardware which has the base specification of a Corei5 processor, 4GB ram, 320GB hard disk, and all the standard fare. The IT supplied software build had all the hardware working with the right drivers, the VPN was ready to go, and the office printers were available.

The First Week

Getting use the desktop experience didn’t take too long, I would say within a day or two I had built the memory of where the most used items were located. As far as the OS level functions, I was not missing Windows at all. By the end of the first week I was customizing the desktop and menus much like I did under Windows for fit my needs and the way I work.

Lotus Notes and Lotus SameTime worked the same as they always had under Windows. I was also attending and hosting web meetings with no issues. One of our legacy applications that I use regularly requires Java 1.4 and a web browser that supports the legacy OJI interface, yes old stuff. It was actually much easier to get this running under RHEL than it was on Windows, I just installed a old copy of Firefox and Java in my home directory and tweaked some settings to keep them isolated from the system installed Firefox and Java.

However, I knew going in to this that the biggest hurdle would not be living without Microsoft Windows but more importantly Microsoft Office. And Lotus Symphony was not up to the task of replacing Microsoft Office, it’s just not there for many reasons but the primary on is a completely foreign user interface. Since replicating Microsoft Office was paramount to my job, I downloaded LibreOffice 3.3 and immediately was off and running creating evil spreadsheets and presentations. Its user interface, while a bit rough, was very usable and after a few days muscle memory kicked in again and every was off and running. In our company we keep data in Open Document Format so LibreOffice 3.3 had no issues with anything I had created previously.

The First Month

After the first month, I was still doing my entire job on Linux and not having any issues at all with one exception, battery life. While running WindowsXP on this same laptop I was getting about 4 hours of battery life, however, on RHEL I am getting less than 3.5 hours. I like to be mobile with my work and the shortened battery life does irk me. As for performing my job duties, LibreOffice is an acceptable replacement for Microsoft Office. I would also say that I feel like I am actually more effective. I love the multiple desktops, Notes is much quicker running on RHEL, and I do like the separation of the top and bottom panels on the desktop.

My Conclusion

While this has worked well for me, I’m not sure that it would be a wise move company wise. I work with many developers and creatives who have their own tools and their own needs and there are just too many things that don’t run on Linux and for which there aren’t suitable replacements that I know of.
I’ll not be making the move back to WindowsXP but the battery life still irks me! I will probably switch to Windows 7 and test that out when it is approved at our company, mostly to see what it does to battery life.

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So we finally received our radon test results today and the radon level from our test was 3.5 pCi/L. As it took the US Post Office 10 days to deliver our test to the lab this result has a greater than 25% margin of error, so we will have to do another test, and probably FedEx it to the lab this time.

Given we live in a hot zone for Radon in Georgia, if the result of our second test remains in this range there is little short-term risk but given we now have three kids, two cats, and one dog, we will have to consider fixing our home to get those levels down for all of us.

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You should consider testing your home every few years, the EPA can help you find a local testing program or you can go directly to the Air Check for your test.

UPDATE: The results are in

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