Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Tonji]

The Travel Photographer of the Year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13295855

As Louis Armstrong said What a Wonderful World.

[RED-DOG]

Diet.

Got to my target weight over a month ago, had no trouble maintaining it until this week. Now I can't stop eating. I start out OK, and then slip off the wagon as the day progresses.

Bread and chocolate are my two main weaknesses.   

Help! Why is this happening to me all of a sudden? Is it just a blip?

I've been keeping my diet low carb for most of this year on the whole. I've fluctuated between 18 stone back in 2007 to 14 stone when I went on a health kick after my first MS attack. I got lazy in 2010 and by Jan this year had jumped back up to 16st 7 so action was needed.

I've been kicking along nicely eating the same as you there and got down to 14st 12 over 4 months. It takes me a bit longer as I can only lift weights and due to my MS cardio is a no go because of my spasticity/clonus. I was in a great routine and flying along nicely with a lb or so most weeks coming off.

Since easter though I've got into the same rut as you and my 2 biggest weaknesses are also bread and chocolate too along with takeaways. I've not put too much weight on and only gone back up to 15st 2 but it's still annoying that my willpower is so weak I can't walk passed the bread bin or the sweet drawer in the fridge

I'd say it's just a blip and that you'll get back into your routine sooner or later when you decide enough is enough (I hope so anyway because I need to get this last stone off before vegas lol). You've done the hard work already so it's not a big problem in the scheme of things, one of my neurologists says that 'holidays' from the diet aren't all that terrible in the long run as long as they don't last excessive periods.

Cheers Mark. Obviously I don't wish failure on anyone, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one who's sitting on the embankment, wondering why they fell off the rails.

I'm back on it today after a week of debauchery.

Power to the people!

[RED-DOG]

The Travel Photographer of the Year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13295855

As Louis Armstrong said What a Wonderful World.

Thank you.

I watched it several times.

I don't know if it was the power of the images, the diversity of the subjects, or the fact that it's 5:20am and I'm unable to sleep, but I found the whole thing profoundly moving.

[RED-DOG]

Paraphernalia.

This is first entry in an occasional list of favourite words.

I might even do a search to see who used it last.

My money is on Ralph.

[RED-DOG]

It was actually WarBwastard way back in 2008

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=37753.msg830817#msg830817

[RED-DOG]

Who writes these adverts?

Just seen one on TV for Spin Palace on line casino.

"We frequently pay out 5 million pounds every day"

[gatso]

I heard today that if you shuffle a deck of cards, the odds are that no other deck anywhere in the world has ever been shuffled into that particular order.

I have no idea how to work out if this might be true.

Ask gatso, he knows what's true and what's bs.

def not calling bullshit on this one, after all it's not posted on the celtic bullshit diary

52! is the number of permutations and that's a fairly big number, I like this was of looking at just how big it is

52! is the number of different ways you can arrange a single deck of cards. You can visualize this by constructing a randomly generated shuffle of the deck. Start with all the cards in one pile. Randomly select one of the 52 cards to be in position 1. Next, randomly select one of the remaining 51 cards for position 2, then one of the remaining 50 for position 3, and so on. Hence, the total number of ways you could arrange the cards is 52 * 51 * 50 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1, or 52!. Here's what that looks like:

80658175170943878571660636856403766975289505440883277824000000000000

This number is beyond astronomically large. I say beyond astronomically large because most numbers that we already consider to be astronomically large are mere infinitesmal fractions of this number. So, just how large is it? Let's try to wrap our puny human brains around the magnitude of this number with a fun little theoretical exercise. Start a timer that will count down the number of seconds from 52! to 0. We're going to see how much fun we can have before the timer counts down all the way.
Shall we play a game?

Start by picking your favorite spot on the equator. You're going to walk around the world along the equator, but take a very leisurely pace of one step every billion years. The equatorial circumference of the Earth is 40,075,017 meters. Make sure to pack a deck of playing cards, so you can get in a few trillion hands of solitaire between steps. After you complete your round the world trip, remove one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean. Now do the same thing again: walk around the world at one billion years per step, removing one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean each time you circle the globe. The Pacific Ocean contains 707.6 million cubic kilometers of water. Continue until the ocean is empty. When it is, take one sheet of paper and place it flat on the ground. Now, fill the ocean back up and start the entire process all over again, adding a sheet of paper to the stack each time you’ve emptied the ocean.

Do this until the stack of paper reaches from the Earth to the Sun. Take a glance at the timer, you will see that the three left-most digits haven’t even changed. You still have 8.063e67 more seconds to go. 1 Astronomical Unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun, is defined as 149,597,870.691 kilometers. So, take the stack of papers down and do it all over again. One thousand times more. Unfortunately, that still won’t do it. There are still more than 5.385e67 seconds remaining. You’re just about a third of the way done.
And you thought Sunday afternoons were boring

To pass the remaining time, start shuffling your deck of cards. Every billion years deal yourself a 5-card poker hand. Each time you get a royal flush, buy yourself a lottery ticket. A royal flush occurs in one out of every 649,740 hands. If that ticket wins the jackpot, throw a grain of sand into the Grand Canyon. Keep going and when you’ve filled up the canyon with sand, remove one ounce of rock from Mt. Everest. Now empty the canyon and start all over again. When you’ve levelled Mt. Everest, look at the timer, you still have 5.364e67 seconds remaining. Mt. Everest weighs about 357 trillion pounds. You barely made a dent. If you were to repeat this 255 times, you would still be looking at 3.024e64 seconds. The timer would finally reach zero sometime during your 256th attempt

[Redbull]

I heard today that if you shuffle a deck of cards, the odds are that no other deck anywhere in the world has ever been shuffled into that particular order.

I have no idea how to work out if this might be true.

Ask gatso, he knows what's true and what's bs.

def not calling bullshit on this one, after all it's not posted on the celtic bullshit diary

52! is the number of permutations and that's a fairly big number, I like this was of looking at just how big it is

52! is the number of different ways you can arrange a single deck of cards. You can visualize this by constructing a randomly generated shuffle of the deck. Start with all the cards in one pile. Randomly select one of the 52 cards to be in position 1. Next, randomly select one of the remaining 51 cards for position 2, then one of the remaining 50 for position 3, and so on. Hence, the total number of ways you could arrange the cards is 52 * 51 * 50 * ... * 3 * 2 * 1, or 52!. Here's what that looks like:

80658175170943878571660636856403766975289505440883277824000000000000

This number is beyond astronomically large. I say beyond astronomically large because most numbers that we already consider to be astronomically large are mere infinitesmal fractions of this number. So, just how large is it? Let's try to wrap our puny human brains around the magnitude of this number with a fun little theoretical exercise. Start a timer that will count down the number of seconds from 52! to 0. We're going to see how much fun we can have before the timer counts down all the way.
Shall we play a game?

Start by picking your favorite spot on the equator. You're going to walk around the world along the equator, but take a very leisurely pace of one step every billion years. The equatorial circumference of the Earth is 40,075,017 meters. Make sure to pack a deck of playing cards, so you can get in a few trillion hands of solitaire between steps. After you complete your round the world trip, remove one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean. Now do the same thing again: walk around the world at one billion years per step, removing one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean each time you circle the globe. The Pacific Ocean contains 707.6 million cubic kilometers of water. Continue until the ocean is empty. When it is, take one sheet of paper and place it flat on the ground. Now, fill the ocean back up and start the entire process all over again, adding a sheet of paper to the stack each time you’ve emptied the ocean.

Do this until the stack of paper reaches from the Earth to the Sun. Take a glance at the timer, you will see that the three left-most digits haven’t even changed. You still have 8.063e67 more seconds to go. 1 Astronomical Unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun, is defined as 149,597,870.691 kilometers. So, take the stack of papers down and do it all over again. One thousand times more. Unfortunately, that still won’t do it. There are still more than 5.385e67 seconds remaining. You’re just about a third of the way done.
And you thought Sunday afternoons were boring

To pass the remaining time, start shuffling your deck of cards. Every billion years deal yourself a 5-card poker hand. Each time you get a royal flush, buy yourself a lottery ticket. A royal flush occurs in one out of every 649,740 hands. If that ticket wins the jackpot, throw a grain of sand into the Grand Canyon. Keep going and when you’ve filled up the canyon with sand, remove one ounce of rock from Mt. Everest. Now empty the canyon and start all over again. When you’ve levelled Mt. Everest, look at the timer, you still have 5.364e67 seconds remaining. Mt. Everest weighs about 357 trillion pounds. You barely made a dent. If you were to repeat this 255 times, you would still be looking at 3.024e64 seconds. The timer would finally reach zero sometime during your 256th attempt

lol that's immense!

[RED-DOG]

If we could just get rid of the yeasty clunge, gatso would be one of my favourite posters.

[Laxie]

If we could just get rid of the yeasty clunge, gatso would be one of my favourite posters.

Pretty sure gatso's not too keen on it either to say he's set himself the reminder.

[Marky147]

Cheers Mark. Obviously I don't wish failure on anyone, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one who's sitting on the embankment, wondering why they fell off the rails.

I'm back on it today after a week of debauchery.

Power to the people!

If you're still digging into the chocs you're not alone Tom, I've been terrible all week again so far and working all weekend didn't help me as I just sit in front of the pc eating sh1t

I've cut the bread out though apart from 2 wholemeal slices with Peanut Butter for breakfast. I can eat great until about 7pm when I start work and then it just turns into a train wreck.......

[Ant040689]

hey there Red Dog

Having troubles myself with eating healthily. This is an exert from my thread earlier today

"FUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKK Weighed myself at the gym and i am 20stone 9 pounds. My worst previously was 18st and 7 pounds when i last thought i was fat and trod on the scales, to promptly lose a lot of weight but WOAH!

I am 6' 3inches and generally always was quite muscular which makes me heavier but i have to lose about 4 stone.

Shocking."

Dunno about you but i was completely oblivious i was this weight and getting fat can creep up on you. FML.

First post on here, gonna follow the blog now being otherwise put off before from how many pages long it was!

[AndrewT]

How can getting fat creep up on you?

Surely you notice when your trousers don't fit you any more?

[RED-DOG]

Been a good lad (diet / exercise  wise) the last few days. Managed to get back to my target weight before I did too much damage.

[Cf]

Despite that large number I can't help but feel it's a statistacal certainty that at least 2 shuffles ever made have matched.

edit: prob misuse of the term certainty. very very very likely.