simonives

[simonives]

Sharing and graphing fitbit statistics

To achieve this I needed:

A fitbit account

A Google Drive account

And an If This Then That (IFTTT) account

IFTTT is a great tool that joins to applications together through their APIs. In this case, IFTTT will access the weight and sleep data from my fitbit account (as I post it) and store it in a spreadsheet in Google Drive.

The following 13 steps outline how I set this up.

Log in to your IFTTT account.

On your IFTTT dashboard select "Create a Recipe"

Select the word "This" and type "fitbit" in the search field

Select the fitbit icon

You will need to authorise the fitbit application to connect with IFTTT if you haven't already done so

Select the "New Weight Logged" trigger

Select "Create Trigger"

Select the word "That" and type "Google Drive" in the search field

Select the Google Drive icon

Select the "Add Row to Spreadsheet" action

Enter the desired name, fields and location of the spreadsheet

Select "Create Action"

Select "Create Recipe"

And that's all there is to it. Next time a weight is logged in fitbit, either automatically with the aria scale, or manually via the fitbit dashboard, a new entry will be placed in the new Google Drive spreadsheet.

The data in the Google Drive spreadsheet can be shared however you like, and it can be used as a data set to create interesting visualisations for monitoring, communication and comparison purposes. You can use the built in graphing and charting tools within Google Drive's Spreadsheet app, you could use another great Google tool, Google Fusion Tables, to create fantastic and interactive data visualisations with your data, or you could use and external data visualisation application with the data set, or perhaps code something up in d3.js. Once the data is in the Google Drive spreadsheet it is yours to use however you like!

Note: To to log your sleep in a Google Drive Spreadsheet just simply follow the above steps but at step 6 select the "New Sleep Logged" trigger.

[simonives]

It’s not what you know. It’s what you can convince your class you didn’t just read the night before.

Twitter - @AcademicsSay

[simonives]

Recovering from a Back Injury, with Advice from Dr. John Berardi

But first, what did I do to my back?

I was simply placing my office key into my office door when my back just gave out accompanied by excruciating pain. I managed to get myself into my office, and into my chair, where the pain settled down somewhat. I spent the next half an hour or so writing up some notes on the computer and I went to get out of my chair. My gave out again and the pain was even worse this time. I passed out and awoke on my office floor.

After being admitted to the hospital emergency department I had a CT scan (we don't have an MRI scanner in the health service district in which I work) which confirmed that I had herniated both the L4-L5 and L5-S1 discs.

After a couple of days of treatment, comprising some basic physiotherapy and a range of pain relief medication, I reached out to Dr. Berardi for some advice. To my surprise, Dr. Berardi replied with some basic advice, contact details for his recommended treatment experts, and content from a presentation he had given in the past on nutrition for injury recovery.

Who is Dr. John Berardi?

I first came across Dr. Berardi online after reading about the nutrition plans of one of my favorite Mixed Martial Artists, Georges St. Pierre. Dr. Berardi had recently worked with Georges to work through an injury and to adjust his nutrition planning. Dr. Berardi founded and runs the renowned Precision Nutrition, the largest private nutrition coaching and research company in the world (hence why I wasn't expecting a response).

After reading through Dr. Berardi's reply, and engaging with his presentation, the following is my takeaway to aid in my own personal injury recovery.

Diet can have the biggest impact upon injury recovery in both the Inflammation (control swelling and pain) and Remodeling (stimulate tissue anabolism) phases.

Add some Omega 3 fats to the diet. These may include fish oil, olive oil, raw mixed nuts, avocados, flax oil, ground flax and other seeds. This is to aid in the reduction of inflammation. Avoid Omega 6 fats such as vegetable oils (corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil) and most processed foods as these will promote inflammation.

Other anti-inflammatory foods include Turmeric, Garlic and Bromelain (pineapples).

Often supplements can be the best source of Omega 3 fats, and other anti-inflammatory foods, as it can be difficult to eat enough, regularly, of the whole food sources.

NSAIDs can slow down the tissue healing process so are not recommended for longer-term use.

From the above I'll be looking at reducing and/or eliminating my use of ibuprofen (NSAID) and both adding Omega 3 rich foods to my diet and sourcing a reputable anti-inflammatory supplement. I won't be using fish oil as I'm vegetarian, but I'm certain I can get enough omega 3s from my diet and supplements.

During injury recovery, the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) can increase by 15% - 50%.

Important not to under-eat, and to eat at least 15% more, to avoid both loss of lean muscle mass and gain of fat tissue.

Macro nutrient needs, whilst recovering from an injury, are:

Protein - One "palm-sized" serving of protein with each meal.

Fats - One "thumb-sized" serve with each meal (Avocado, olive oil, mixed nuts, flax seeds).

Carbs - One "fist" of veges or fruits with each meal. One "golf ball sized" serving of starches (minimally processed - oats, yams, beans, whole rice, quinoa) with each meal.

From the above I'll be eating at least every four hours with an eye on macro nutrient quantity.

Vitamins and minerals are essential for injury recovery.

It is not often required to supplement with all of the recommended vitamins and minerals.

Multivitamins are helpful for recovery to ensure there is no deficiency.

Vitamin A (10,000 IU/day), Vitamin C (2,000 mg/day), Copper (4 mg/day) and Zinc (30 mg/day) for three weeks will aid and enhance recovery.

Amino acids including Arginine (7g, twice per day), Glutamine (7g, twice per day) and HMB (1.5g, twice per day) speed recovery.

From the above I will ensure that I keep up with my high-quality vitamin supplements that I take each day, along with the amino acid enhances whey protein powder that I have.

In addition to the nutrition advice I'll be following from Dr. Berardi, I'll be a physiotherapy outpatient for a little while too. I'll also be heading over to a larger regional centre for an MRI scan in the near future too so I'll be able to get a better detailed and more accurate diagnosis of the injury.

[simonives]

A New Personal Website

It's been a while in the making, but I have nearly finished work on a new personal website. I've found a bit of spare time lately and decided to put it to good use in replacing the old landing page at blogger.com that I have my simonives.com domain pointing to at present. I'm looking at a launch date somewhere in February 2015, which will allow me enough time to have the content properly formatted.

The new site will feature:

The obligatory Bio page.

A Research page outlining my research interests and recent research projects.

A Projects and Papers page providing numerous details of projects, papers and presentations that I have worked on.

A Teaching page outlining my current teaching interests.

A Gallery page, because what personal website is complete without a few images?

A Contact Details page, because what point would a glamor page be without letting you all know how to get in touch with me!

And a Download My CV option, if the information on the website is a little too much.

The new site is based on the ever giving Twitter Bootstrap with numerous other code and template snippets from all over the web. And, until I launch the behemoth, I'll leave you with a simple screenshot of the work in progress below.

Update: I have launched the site in its current form as version v1.2. Whilst the majority of the content is up, and the layout and navigation is complete, I have not made live any of the url's on the "Selected Projects and Papers" tile (in the screenshot below). These will be made available in version v2.0.

[simonives]

Fixing an annoying Adobe Creative Cloud Error

Simply spark up the terminal and enter the following:

$ rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AAMUpdater $ killall Creative\ Cloud $ open -a Creative\ Cloud

If you're not too keen on the terminal you can do this in finder. Just make sure you delete the correct AAMUpdater directory as the Adobe directory in the ~/Library directory is hidden. If you're going to do this in finder be sure to hit "Go" in the task-bar and select "Go to Folder". Paste in "~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/" and delete the AAMUpdater directory. You'll also need to shutdown and restart the Creative Cloud applicaiton using the activity monitor or some other process you're comfortable with.

Hope this helps someone else out there.

[simonives]

The best place to write a research plan in Mount Isa is at the Isa Hotel...with a cold lager for company of course :-)

[simonives]

Mount Isa

Packing and moving house is never fun. My wife Heather packed up most of our things (as you can see in the picture below), with my daughter and I finishing up a little more, and the removal company coming in behind us.

The house looked pretty bare once everything was in boxes (and I can't believe how dirty our bedroom's bench was! [below]).

I'm glad I took these photos as the removal company that we used billed us for more boxes than I counted on removal day, and more than is any any of my photos. I'll use these photos, and what they deliver in a few months time, to reconcile the invoice.

The drive from the Sunshine Coast to Mount Isa was quite pleasant, that is for a three day drive. I spent the first night in my swag in a little town called Childers. The picture below, taken that night in Childers, was a little wind-down cigar and merlot. That wine was fantastic, even if it was served in a plastic glass on the back of my ute on the side of the road!

The next morning was the drive to Longreach. Quite an uneventful drive, aside from huge amounts of road works! There's never that much going on in Longreach so I went to bed early with a delicious three-cheese pizza from a local pizza shop (and it really was delicious!).

The next morning was the long drive in to Mount Isa. First stop, Winton. Again, there's nothing much to see in Winton. I stopped off at the Banjo Patterson memorial for a coffee to keep me going until I hit Cloncurry.

On the way between Winton and Cloncurry I stopped off on the side of the road to take a 360 panorama photo with my camera. It's not that well stitched together but you can see it here. You can see how dry things are out west at the moment in that picture.

I got in to Cloncurry at around 4:30pm so I decided to stop off for something to eat (I hadn't eaten since breakfast in Longreach). Unfortunately, the only vegetarian "meal" that I could find was a cup of deep fried potato wedges. They were pretty gross.

Once the wedges were out of the way I powered on through to Mount Isa were my baby was waiting! I hadn't seen Willow in nearly three weeks so I was so so happy to get in.

The next day we visited the Mount Isa Fun Park where Willow tried her hat at sailing (in the playground of course).

Well, that's about it. We're back in Mount Isa and, so far at least, loving the change in pace!

[simonives]

Shiraz, sun and sand at Lot 104 #mooloolaba #queensland #australia

[simonives]

Simon's Espresso Manhattan

What you'll need

This is a simple recipe that adds only one ingredient to the classic Manhattan - espresso. The exact recipe per serve is:

2oz of bourbon

3/4oz of sweet vermouth

3/4oz of espresso

3 dashes of bitters

Process

To make this cocktail you'll need to start with some fresh espresso. Use a coffee that you would drink on its own, not something that's cheap and tastes that way. Start with the espresso as it's hot when made so needs to cool a bit before being added to the cocktail.

Espresso is the best coffee technique to use as it produces a a full-bodied coffee in a small serving size. If you use a french press or Chemex or something similar you'll get a great coffee, but it will be much larger than an espresso and water down your cocktail.

Don't add the espresso to the mixing glass or poor over any ice. It will heat up the glass and melt the ice. Make the espresso first and add it to the cocktail mix right at the end.

If you want to add a little extra "oomph" add some seeds scraped from a fresh vanilla pod to the bottom of the bowl you pull the espresso into. The heat of the espresso will extract the maximum amount of vanilla oils and add a richness and depth to your espresso and your Manhattan.

Once the espresso has been pulled you can get started on mixing the ingredients. The first ingredient is the bourbon. Add 2oz of bourbon per serve to your mixing glass.

Add 3/4oz of sweet vermouth per serve to your mixing glass.

Add 3 dashes of bitters per serve to your mixing glass.

Add 3/4oz of the espresso to your mixing glass.

Lastly, add some ice cubes and stir for 10 - 15 seconds before pouring into a cocktail glass.

I usually garnish with a toasted slice of orange (I didn't have any orange tonight when I took these photos) but you can garnish with anything that you think compliments the flavours, including the traditional cherry.

Enjoy!

[simonives]

Project Management Course

I'm doing a Project Management subject for my MBA at the moment, specifically called Project Management Concepts and Practice. It should be a breeze so I'll be aiming high with the grade on this one.

The assignment details are below and the exam, as usual, is to write four essays on four of six provided topics over a three hour period. I really wish this would be updated so that we could type the exam on our computers rather than spend three hours handwriting like crazy.

Purpose

The purpose of the assignment is to explore the application of concepts, tools and techniques covered in this subject and to present a report based on your findings.

Assignment Task

You may choose one of two options for your assignment task:

Option 1) Develop a project proposal for a new project; or Option 2) Develop a project appraisal of an existing or past project.

The assignment might be based on:

A proposal for a potential new project that you or your organisation have in mind;

Appraisal of an activity you believe would be improved by managing as a project;

Appraisal of an existing work project you are currently involved with; or

Appraisal of an activity you were involved with in the past that you believe could have been managed as a project

Assignment Report

a) A brief description of the organisational setting and the project environment to ensure the assignment examiner understands the context in which the project is set.

b) An outline of the objectives of the project and the importance of the project to the organisation.

c) A detailed overview and analysis of the use of relevant concepts, tools and techniques involved in project management. This should comprise the main part of your assignment and should consist of an overview and analysis of the relevant project concepts covered in the subject. At a minimum, there should be a mention of at least the following concepts:

How the project should be defined

How the project times and costs are estimated

A discussion of the project plan

The management of project risk

Resource scheduling

Project team issues

Project performance management

Note that although all of these concepts should be mentioned, some of them may be more important for you particular project than others. In these instances, you should feel free to focus your analysis more heavily on the more important issues as they impact your project.

Note that this assignment should NOT be confused with the Final Project in the MBA or the Final Project Proposal. However, if your final project is expected to be about project management, you could discuss with your subject facilitator how best to use this assignment as a contribution towards your Final Project.

Important Instructions

Assignment must contain proper citations and referencing using the Harvard style referred to in the Style Guide, that is: a. citations (or in-text references) of quoted and paraphrased materials to support your arguments/comments, and b. a reference list relating specifically to your in-text references.

Your grade will be adversely affected if there is no/poor citations and/or reference list, as referred to above.

Assignments of this nature normally contain between 6 and 12 relevant references from different sources in the reference list.

All references must be from credible sources. Journals sourced from the EBSCO Host library (see Online Library User Guide on the next page) should be used first, then books, company documents and other media.

You are encouraged to make use of the online library which can be accessed through the website.

We check assignment with anti-plagiarism software. Please carefully check your assignments before final submission to ensure that all quoted and paraphrased materials are properlly cited and referenced.

The total number of words should not exceed 2500 words (excluding your cover page, an executive summary, table of contents, list of references or appendices). Penalties may apply if you exceed the word limit (please refer to the Assessment Policy). You may place any supporting materials that exceeds this word limit in the appendices. However, a reader should not have to look at an appendix to determine the main throust of the points you are making in your assignment. So make sure all your main points are in the body of your assignment and refer to the appendices that will support the points you are making.

You are strongly advised to carefully read the Style Guide for clarification of these requirements.

For guidance on how to write an assignment, please refer to the Assignment Guide.

[simonives]

Who doesn't love popular renditions of the trolley problem!

[simonives]

This is the playlist that I've been listening to whilst working out each evening. I wouldn't usually listen to this stuff but it's strangely motivating to work out to (and most tracks have a solid beat to pavce yourself against)

[simonives]

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.

Joseph Joubert

[simonives]

First time listening to this song through a good sound system. Gotta say, there is some awesome bass guitar that's easy to miss.

[simonives]

The view above the smoke (Brisbane City is under all that).

[simonives]

Tough Mudder Sunshine Coast 2013