Easy Tips for Better Diet/Exercise Results

Abusing Sports Drinks:

A common problem is the abuse of sports drinks, which are high in calories and sugar. These particular drinks, like Gatorade, are meant to provide energy/fuel for running an hour or longer, or if you're working out at high intensity for at least 45 minutes. If you're not meeting those conditions, water or a low calorie drink such as Gatorade G2 is a better idea. There are alternatives to Gatorade as well.

Food Timing:

It only takes about 15 minutes after eating (especially sugar) for insulin levels to rise, which can cause you to feel a little lazy and slow. It's best to eat 1-2 hours before a run to avoid this. However, insulin will not release mid-exercise, so you can eat just before a run. If you're looking to indulge yourself, wait until after a hard run; the sugar triggers an insulin response which stops protein from breaking down and builds up energy sources.

Overeating:

To avoid overeating, drink a glass or two of water, or a bowl of soup before a meal. This also applies to an afternoon snack; a glass of water before going to get something to snack on. Most people think they're hungry when they're actually thirsty. You'll want to avoid eating energy bars if you're trying to lose weight, as these are high in sugar and low in fiber. They are perfect for long runs otherwise.

Maintaining Energy:

Your body contains about 90 minutes worth of carbs. If you run longer without some type of mid-run fuel, you'll run out of energy and be more vulnerable to "the wall". To counter this predicament, take in 30-60 grams of carbs for every hour you exercise to help fuel your body. Try a sports drink or some dried fruit!

Recovery:

Recovery fuel is needed after a workout, but it's often overestimated how many calories an individual burns, which can lead to over-eating. If you do an easy workout that's 45 minutes or less, 100 calories is sufficient for recovery.

Some other helpful links, and sources.

Runner's World

Active: Cool Running

-Aaron-

2010 Fall Ultimate Champtions!

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Originally uploaded by Famille Wielosz-Caron

Go Green Machine! Our team won the 2010 Fall League Ultimate championship!

Pale Blue Dot Kinetic Typography Update 2

I tried to upload a video, but for some reason it just wasn't taking. I think it's too big (that's what she said?)

Anyways, I started the long project and have been working quite a bit on it. I felt like there should be an easier way, than how I was doing it. After doing much research, I found a new approach that could save me a lot of time, and make it much easier to get the results I want. I will get some images or video up soon.

In the mean time, check out this video about white space.

Kinetic Typography - What Is Whitespace? from Elrond Hubbard on Vimeo.

-Aaron

Istanbul, Not Constantinople

Uploading this here, because WMG took off the audio on YouTube. Putting here after it was requested :)

-Aaron Jones-

Pale Blue Dot Kinetic Typography Update 1

Started on this last night. Spent the majority of the time gathering more information, and sketching/planning. So far so good. Not quite sure about the theme I'll use; I have a few ideas. For now, I'll just get all of the layers and text in there, to match the timing. After that, they can easily be edited for later.

Pale Blue Dot Kinetic Typography

Goal:

To create a kinetic typography project based on Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g

Examples:

• Song Blink 182 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0LIvrxf-R0 VERY good style, especially towards the end. Takes a lot of outside material and puts it into the video. Might be too busy, which would take away the effect and simplicity of Sagan's words.
• Minimalism Poem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3lSSp-3068 Simple, as it's spoken and not a song. Good example of how it can go slow with speech. Use of different fonts is great - stylistic. He also changes backgrounds.
• Human Rights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYWg3zSXiBw&NR=1 Nothing is spoken. The music is what sets the tone. Kickers at text break points to grab attention and give feeling. Maybe a bit too boring - lost interest after a minute or so.
• Pulp Fiction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HePWBNcugf8&feature=related Use of size and separation of text gives meaning to what is being said. The splatter effect is pretty sweet, and lasts throughout the rest of the clip, which makes it seem more panic-like.
• 300 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WldBRXIYroQ Hate the color combinations, and the compilation is kind of boring as well. The interesting part of this, is the vector animation played during the down-time, from Andrew Kramer's Evolution DVD

Tips:

• Differentiate people by using different color or different font. Never use the same for multiple people.
  
• Most projects use the circular gradient background. Light > dark.
• Don't use the super-scroll text across the screen, where it moves so fast you can't actually read it - which is the point; to read along.
• Music makes a huge difference. Don't pick something stupid if using it. MUST fit.
• Animations are great. Make something interesting, like moving objects, or objects that fit what is being talked about. Like scroll text around Earth if talking about space.

Text:

From this distant vantage point, the earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

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Update?

Wow, just realized I haven't updated this in a long time. Anyways, I've made a little progress toward Signs, but nothing really worth noting. I ran into some trouble with the models and the way they were set up. I've been focusing more on level design and graphic design. I'll put some stuff up here in the next few days.

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-