Playing The Stock Market

I have always been curious about playing the stock market. At first, it seems to be just like gambling or playing the lottery. You have a hunch or a feeling. Or you bet on a horse because it has the same name as your grandmother’s dog.

However, some say that picking the right stocks on the stock market is a bit more scientific. Before buying a stock, you first look at indicators that are signs that a stock will increase in value. Or you read in the newspaper that there are new oil discoveries in the Gulf, so maybe buying oil futures is the way to go. Or you hear that the new Chevrolet all electric car will be using batteries from a company in Massachusetts. Or you read a news article about a truck company in China making new truck motors which get 80 mpg. That’s what my brother-in-law did last year and bought penny stocks in the company which are doing very well.

Unfortunately, the market has been in a free-fall and I have wondered when it will smooth out. Is now the time to buy or should one wait? However, the recent bailout vote in the European Market yesterday caused a rise in the Dow Jones and may be a good sign that a economic recovery is eminent.

To test my theory, I decided to buy some stocks and see what would happen. However, I only used Play Money and bought stocks through a game APP called iTrade (not eTrade) for the Apple iPhone (or iPod). The APP is free and you can get it through the iTunes Store. This APP is not Scotia iTrade on the NYSE which is an official brokerage that uses real money https://www.scotiaitrade.com/pages/home/main.shtm

Once you register on iTrade APP, you are given $100,000 of play money to buy and sell stocks on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). You can buy and sell only during the hours that the stock market is open. The APP lists your stocks and shows graphs of the ups and downs.

I decided to use only about $50,000 of the $100,000 play money and bought 6 stocks. You can read news articles provided relative to the companies and try to make decisions based on these indicators. You buy and sell stocks at their actual daily prices and the stocks fluctuate in fake value with the real value of the stock.

During the passed 8 days, my $100,000 has increased in value to $106,014.31 and I have made over $6000.00 in one week. At this rate I could make over $300,000 per year on my stock portfolio. I only wish that it was real. Maybe it’s time to buy real stocks.

You can see a snapshot of my portfolio at the left. It lists my net worth of $106,014.31. I bought six stocks which have fluctuated in value but mostly increased. My stocks are Ford, Sirius Radio, Microsoft, Google, Analog Devices and Home Depot.

You can also see a list of Hot Stocks that iTrade predicts to increase. It might be fun to watch these over the next few weeks to see what happens. Let me know   what Hot Stocks you know about and we can watch them too.

Comments Welcome: markryan82@comcast.net

Weather and Natural Disaster Alert Info

Well, better late than never for this weather blog. Hope you can use some info now or in the future. I have been following the weather for last few days and listening to all the weather alerts just like everyone else. As Hurricane Irene bears down on the northeast, it becomes more and more of a reality and the strike zones have been pin pointed quite accurately along the eastern seaboard. Although it has been decreased to a tropical storm in the Boston area, we could still have torrential rain and high wind gusts and flooding, so be safe and keep alert.
I have been looking on the internet for weather related information and have accumulated a few interesting web sites that maybe helpful now and in the future when other disasters occur. Recently we have experienced earthquakes and now a hurricane unlike what we have seen for 25 years. Just click on the web sites below for further info.

The NOAA web site listed below with the image shown at left top, shows some wind gust possibilities for the Boston area. They predict that the wind gust speed should be at its highest about 2PM on Sunday afternoon and approach 70 mph. The web site is interactive and you can get different kinds of weather maps. It’s a Great resource. Try it.

I also got a great portable radio as a gift once that works with battery, solar and crank up. It can get NOAA weather alerts, FM, AM, and SW. It’s a Voyager Radio and sells for about $49 on Amazon.com.

Safety Tips:

Like everyone else, I have done some preparation for the hurricane and have made a list below for your information.
1. Clear all loose items around the yard that might fly around in the wind and cause damage.
2. Make sure you have an emergency kit with essential supplies in case the lights go out and there is no power for a few days or longer. (first aid kit, tape, flashlight, extra batteries, candles, matches, can food, can opener, water, battery powered radio, sanitation and personal hygiene items, copies of personal documents, extra cash, maps of area, cell phone with charges (home and car), multipurpose tool, medications, medical information, emergency blankets, towels and other personal items.
3. Make an emergency plan with contact phone numbers to reach help or relatives and a place to meet if you are separated from family.
4. Get enough gasoline for the car and emergency generator. There won’t be any after the storm if the electric pumps don’t work.

Reference Web Sites
Voyager Radio at Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Kaito-Electronics-KA500GRN-Voyager-Emergency/dp/B001EUG3II/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314456945&sr=8-1

Emergency Contact Card

http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/ECCard.pdf

Red Cross Make A Plan

http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/checklists/Be_Red_Cross_Ready.pdf

Emergency Evacuation Map- Mapquest.com (Draw an evacuation route on the map.)

http://www.mapquest.com/

Hurricane Tracking Map – Saturday 12 noon – (8-27-11)

http://weather.boston.cbslocal.com/tropical/tracking/at201109.html

Graphical Probability Weather Map – National Weather Service -NOAA

http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/massachusettsLoop.php#tabs

Comments always welcome:  markryan82@comcast.net

Star Gazing

I read an article last week in the Boston Globe Magazine called Star-Struck. You can see the reference below. It was about Astronomy and it got me to thinking about all the adventures that I have had looking at the stars with my family and friends.

I remember in the late 1940s when my father first pointed out all the millions of stars in the night sky and how they seemed to move across the heavens, as the night progressed. He also showed me the different Moon phases and we wondered about the man on the moon and who lived up there. Later in the 1950s I read an article with my father about people living on the Moon under ground. I really believed that the article was true. Later, I told my science teacher about it in grammar school. He smiled when he saw the magazine article and then explained that it was just a Satire (fiction). He said, “Don’t be embarrassed, maybe people will really live on the Moon some day.”

Then in July 1969, the first man landed on the Moon in Apollo-11. I was now a science teacher and started to collect all the published pictures showing astronauts and their fantastic voyages. Space flight was always a dream of mine and I watched with wonder at all the developments that world scientists achieved learning about the stars. Space walks, satellites, probes to Mars, sampling moon rocks and always doing tests to determined if life exists out there.

Later in the 1960s, science fiction writers began producing thousands stories about trips to outer space. Eventually the TV series Star Trek was born and I relished each episode as I traveled into the unknown “Where No Man Has Gone Before” with the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

Today there are even more fantastic movies and TV series that depict man’s exploration of the heavens and alien monsters. In the not to distant future we will eventually make a journey to another planet or star system and maybe discover another life form. However, today we can still look up at the heavens and dream.

Recently, I introduced my grandchildren to star gazing. We have a camp way up north in New Hampshire on the border with Vermont and Canada. The night sky is really dark and beautiful and not contaminated with city lights. Each night you can see patterns of bright stars as you try to imagine the shape of a constellation. “Look at those stars there and imagine a big spoon, that’s the big dipper”, I said to my grand kids as I pointed north in the sky. Of course the shape of a constellation is in the eyes of the beholder. Thousands of years ago people looked at the sky and imagined seeing things that were familiar to them like a goat or bear or warrior and thus named the constellations.

To help see the stars and moon a little better, I bought a pair of binoculars. You can shop online and see what kind best fits your use, but I found the 10x50 size was adequate for star gazing. The number 10x is the power of the eye piece and tells that the object you see is 10 times larger than actual size. The number 50 is the size or diameter of the objective lens (far end). Mine is 50 mm. With a larger objective you get more light and the image is brighter as well as the field of view larger. However, the larger objective gives you a lot of bounce (image wiggles). It’s best to brace your arms against your sides when looking through the binoculars otherwise the image seems to bounce around with the slightest movement.

To further help with my star search, I found an APP for my iPod called Star Walk ($2.99). You can see some info about the Star Walk APP at the link below. It has loads of astronomical information but also allows you to see the night sky in the iPod just as if you were looking at the sky. As you move the iPod to the right or left, the sky image changes to what you would see in the north, south, east or west direction. You can adjust the APP for the time of night and location. To see what the sky would look like at a future or past date, you can flick the time dial and watch the sky change as the stars and planets fly by. It’s like a time machine.

After making the correct adjustments, I gave the iPod to my grandson who is 11 years old and loves computer gadgets and was amazed with this iPod APP. Of course his young eye sight is 100 times better than mine. Where I saw one star, he saw 6 stars. As he held the iPod over head and looked north, I pointed to the North Star and said, “See if you can make out the Little Dipper Constellation.” Using the iPod, he saw the star pattern up in the sky just like it was shown on the iPod.

As soon as he found out how to use the iPod, he turned it to face another direction and found a bunch of other stars and constellations and was pointing them out to me. I could just make them out with my “Old Eyes” and was just so pleased with my grandson’s excitement.

My granddaughter was now using the binoculars and also finding stars and planets that were not just dots of white light but also had various colors. Every other minute she would say, “Josh look at this,” as they exchanged the iPod for the binoculars. You can see some photos of the constellations seen on the iPod and some other pictures at the link below on My Photos.

I’m now looking forward to our next sky adventure. There are millions of more stars to search for and hundreds of constellations to imagine. Hopefully, my grandkids will pass along this excitement to there children and grand children. And so, time marches on.

References:

Boston Globe Magazine (July 10, 2011) Information on local star watching places and references
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2011/07/10/star_struck_by_amateur_astronomy/?page=full

Star Walk APP
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-walk-5-stars-astronomy/id295430577?mt=8

Star Charts
http://www.midnightkite.com/starcharts.html

Star Trek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek

My Photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/StarBlog#5630749683842213986


Comments: Comments always welcome. markryan82@Comcast.net

The Gophers Are Back

The gophers I had last year in my back yard are back. Over the last month I have seen a family of four eating all the clover in the grass lawn. My wife thought they were so cute, as they foraged for greens and rolled and played. We would watch them with curiosity as they ran across the lawns in neighbor yards.
But now the tide has changed. The rascals have started to eat all my flowers. They have even eaten the flowers on the deck in pots. My neighbors and I are exasperated with the devastation they have caused to the landscape. I know they have to eat, but why not just the crab grass or weeds.

I am now fed up with the gopher’s eating habits and decided to get out all the guns. I started with the old myths to keep out varmints. That’s what Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny use to call them. The old myths advocated putting moth balls around the garden or using fox urine.

I sprinkled a whole box of moth balls around the bushes, the foundation and under the garden shed. Now I can smell the odor as I come in the driveway 30 feet away. I bet no moths will come within ten feet of the house. After leaving the balls scattered around I saw the gophers actually sniffing them. That sure didn’t work and now I have a hazardous waste site with (naphthalene) scattered around. I guess I am going to have to pickup all those balls.

Next I tried fox urine. This was advocated as the crème de la crème of animal deterrents. It comes in a spray bottle and stinks to high heaven. I sprayed it everywhere around the house foundation and under the shed where the little varmints are living. It smells like a bar room in the in the city or a back street alley. Now I have stray alley cats frequenting the area.

My last thought was to get a Haveahart Trap. I looked online and found out that this works pretty good but you need to be careful not to catch other animals or to get bitten by one or sprayed by a wayward skunk. I looked at Home Depot and Aubuchon Hardware online and found the best price at Aubuchon. You can see the web link below…. http://lawn-and-garden.hardwarestore.com/79-504-animal-traps.aspx

I needed a larger size for the gopher and got the 32x10x12 inch one, ($54.95).  It comes in a flat box and is supposed to quickly spring out into a box shape, but not for me. Is anything ever easy? I had to read the directions several times to see how it unfolded and how to set all the clips and wires so it was functional. In addition, I had to bend the latch slightly that holds open the trap door.

I loaded the trap with some fresh lettuce and cucumbers but no luck after one day. I then loaded it with a cut up apple and left it overnight on the side of the shed near the gopher den. The next morning there it was, my first critter. I told my wife and she said to release the poor critter and worried that the family of four were going to be separated from each other. I then released it for several reasons. One was to make the wife happy, next to see that I could open the cage without getting bitten and lastly to see if I would catch another one on a second try.

I was worried that the gopher would run back at me and up my leg when I opened the cage door. So I braced my self for the attack of “GODZILLA” and opened the trap door. To my delight, the gopher scurried off running quickly under the shed. A few minutes later I imagined hearing some animal snickering and the whole gopher family laughing. “I’ll get you varmints next time, said Elmer Fudd”.

The next morning I set the trap again with fresh apple pieces and I caught the mommy gopher. I covered the cage with a sheet to quite the animal and put it in the back of the SUV. I then drove to the town park which is next to the town forest and released the “cute” critter. As she scurried off into the woods, I thought I heard animal swearing but it was probably just my active imagination.

I set the cage again over several more nights and have caught the rest of the gopher family. They are now all living together in a larger woodland area with plenty of food to forage. I wish them well but don’t expect any post cards.

You can see some photos at the following web link ….. https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/Gopher62411#

Comments are always welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net

Multiple Rain Barrel Drip System (Part 2)

Last month I built a (one barrel) Rain Barrel Water System for my garden. Unfortunately, one barrel full of rain water will only last a couple of days to feed all the plants, if there is no additional rain. Consequently, I added two more barrels (total of three), so that I would have garden water for a least a week without a refill. If there is no rain I have to supplement the water in the barrels with a garden hose.

In order to have the rain barrels provide water to the garden automatically I also bought a water timer that comes on at a set time each day and allows the water to run out of the rain barrel through a main half inch hose. The main half inch hose is then connected to a network of smaller quarter inch hoses ending in drip emitters at each of about 50 plants. The emitters are preset for one gallon of water per hour for a garden hose pressure system. In the rain barrel gravity feed system with very little pressure, the water drips at about a quart of water per hour. I have the water timer adjusted for 30 minutes per day in the early morning to provide each plant with about a half quart of water.

The barrels are set on top of building blocks (8x8x16 inches) to give adequate support for a barrel full of water. The blocks are piled two wide and six high for a total height of 48 inches. This height provides enough water pressure for the water to run out of the barrel by gravity only with no need for a pump. It is also important to level the blocks so that each barrel is exactly level with the next barrel. I found for my set up that the two block sets had to be 26 inches apart on center so that the manifold pieces would be level and fit together.

The rain barrels are connected together with a PVC pipe manifold. As rain runs off my garden shed roof into a rain gutter, it is piped into the first rain barrel. Since the barrels are all connect at the bottom with a manifold, the rain water fills all three barrels simultaneously. Excess water runs out a top hole in each barrel. Make sure you have a good seal on all the PVC connections with PVC cement. In addition, put some silicone tub sealer around the connection where the PVC comes out of the bottom of the barrel. Once it gets wet with water, the seals are hard to fix.

I selected ¾ inch PVC so that all the connecting pieces could eventually connect to a regular garden hose with a simple pipe adapter. The total cost was about $200 for a three barrel system or less for a one barrel system. The approximate individual cost is as follows: Three trash barrels ($30), One Water Timer ($30), PVC Manifold for 3 barrels ($20), Drip Hose ($20), Drip Emitters and Hose Connectors ($30), Drip Irrigation Starter Kit ($25), and Thirty building blocks ($45). Although the cost may be a large investment, the system will last for years and save a lot of time with the automatic watering.

Most of the parts can be purchased at Home Depot (drip hose and kits). Additional parts can be purchased online from DropWorks.Com or DripDepot.Com or Amazon.Com. DripWorks.Com has an interactive catalog where you can flip pages and look at all the garden accessories.

I tried several water timers from Home Depot but they all had a diaphragm-valve and needed water pressure from a garden hose to work. I did some research online and found that a water timer with a simple ball-valve did not need any water pressure to have it open and close and could work with a rain-barrel gravity feed and almost zero water pressure system. Looking online I found the Gilmour Water Timer to work the best. I ordered one from Amazon.com and got it in a few days. It has been working great now for a few weeks.

You can see some photos of the three barrel system and its construction at the Picasa link below…
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/GardenRainBarrelSystemPart2#

You can see a YouTube video at the link below…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XLihRNbfE

You can see my previous Blog on one rain barrel at the link……
http://opennutshell.blogspot.com/2011/05/garden-plants-and-rain-barrel-drip.html

Comments always welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net

Garden Plants and Rain Barrel Drip Irrigation

Getting the garden ready is always time consuming but can also be rewarding when completed. In addition, to the weeding and watering all summer, you also have to watch out for the garden pests whether they be       humans, animals or insects. That is where a good fence is handy. After a hard winter with a lot of snow, I had  to repair some of last year’s fence with new screening, wood braces and screws. I recently noticed some animals prowling he area looking for tasty vegetable leaves to eat. The gopher is back, a raccoon, a brown fox, skunks and plenty of birds. You can see some photos and a video at the web links below. Read on first.
The next chore is to rototil the soil and rake out the rocks and debris. The New England soil seems to grow rocks like potatoes. Each year I find more and more. I then add some fertilizer, compost and dry manure to replenish some of the nutrients used up by last year’s plants.

The first plantings are the potatoes and onions. These are hardy and can be planted even before the last frost which is around Memorial Day, in southern New England. I dig a trench around the outside garden fence and drop in the potato cuttings with eyes facing up about six inches apart. I then cover the potatoes with about four inches of soil and pack loosely. As the plants grow, I push more soil around the stems so the roots and potatoes grow deeper. I use the same method for the onions.

The next plants are a mix of vegetables. Although I usually start plants from seeds beginning in March, the time just passed by too quickly, so I bought some already grown plants in flats at the garden center. This year I bought three types of tomatoes (cheery, big boy and early girl). In addition, I got some eggplant, peppers, butternut squash, zucchini, romaine lettuce, and string beans. You can see a diagram of the garden and the location of plants in the photo link below.

I then placed each plant between 1 and 3 feet apart so they will have room to grow. Latter I will put six foot tall stakes and metal baskets for the tomatoes. I also tried to place the plants in a different place from last year’s plants. This helps with more nutrients and also eliminates any plant specific fungus that may be stiil around from last year. After digging each plant hole with a trowel, I place in the plant and firmly pack in the loose soil. I then make a small circular trough in the soil around the plant with the trowel so that when I water, the water stays around the plant and doesn’t run off.

This year I decided to put in a drip irrigation watering system. This conserves water, allows for slower and deeper watering, the water soaks into the soil over time and prevents water runoff. It also keeps the water at the roots where it is needed and off the leaves where fungus or mold grows on wet leaves that results when water is sprayed on the plants.

I connected the main drip hose to an elevated rain barrel, thus allowing the water to run by gravity feed through the network of hoses. This eliminates the use of garden pressure hoses or electric water pumps. There is one ½ in. main water hose that runs down the center of the garden connects to a network of ¼ in. hoses running out to each plant. On the end of each ¼ in. hose is a drip emitter that allows 1 GPH of water to drip on to the plant roots.

Later I will install a water timer to the main hose that comes out of the rain barrel. The timer will be set for about 15 minutes to provide about a quart of water to each plant. After trying several water timers, I found that most timers are made to run on the end of a garden faucet which has about 30 psi pressure. This pressure helps regulate the diaphragm valve to open and close. However, this type of timer will not work on a rain barrel gravity feed system since the water pressure is very little about (0-1 psi). Consequently, I bought a Gilmour water time that has a ball valve that does not depend on pressure and will work in the rain barrel setup.

Hopefully, my rain barrel water system with a timer will be a great addition to the garden for those times that I am away from home during the summer. No more watering the vegetable garden with garden hose in hand which normally took about an hour moving the hose around each side of the garden and soaking about 50 plants.

You can see a video clip of My “Rain Barrel Drip Irrigation System” on YouTube at the link below …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KroiW2PWFxU
You can also see some photos of the garden plants and the rain barrel watering system by clicking on the link below….
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/GardenPlants#
You can buy a drip irrigation starter kit and supplies at several places. Checkout some of the websites below…
Home Depot…. (type in the search bar…drip irrigation kits, water timers) http://homedepot.com/
Amazon….. (water timers) http://amazon.com/
DripWorks…. (kits, hoses, connectors) http://dripworks.com/
Drip Depot…. (mini emitters, connectors) http://dripdepot.com/

Comments and suggestions welcome… markryan82@comcast.net

New Book Formats - (Print, PDF, ePub)

New Book Formats - (Print, PDF, ePub)
(see info below for free books)

I have created a slide presentation in Powerpoint (PPT) to illustrate my books and all their different formats. You can download the Powerpoint Presentation to your computer directly and view it in PPT format if you have the Powerpoint program on your computer or you can go to my Picasa Web Albums to just view it as photos in a slideshow format. Select your choices below. You can also get some free digital books, see below.
If you choose the Powerpoint Presentation, it is animated with slide transitions and hyperlinks that you can click on to view my books at Lulu.Com or move to the next slide. If you just watch the Picasa slides (with no animations) you can also see my books at Lulu by clicking the link below. It has been quite an experience for me learning about and then trying out the different formats and testing them. I have basically learned how to do this all by researching the info on Google.

I also save some money doing the formatting myself when I want to publish another book. If I just send my new book in WORD format to my publisher at Lulu.Com they will format it for me for a cost. To just take my already published books and reformat them for the new ePub version to be sold on Lulu or at the Apple bookstore called iBooks, the cost for me is $99 (up to 250 words), $199 (up to 500 words) and $299 (up to 750 words). The cost to advertise a new book in various media outlets can run in the thousands. So I have decided to “just do it” all myself and have fun learning a new skill in the process.

I have tried to make the books available for purchase in three formats for your convenience on Lulu.Com. They are Paperback, PDF and ePub. Each format requires a different set of parameters that need to be adjusted to make the final product readable in that format. The cost of each book is pretty much determined by the publisher and if I want the book circulated to other media outlets like Google, Amazon or iBooks. I still have to pay almost 80% of the final sale price to buy my own copy of the book. Nothing is free. With each sale, I only receive a few pennies revenue as the author. However, I am glad for each sale as my books get greater circulation and readership.

The Paperback format is a regular printed book with colorful cover and white paper pages with black print. Some readers prefer to hold a real book in their hands as they browse the pages. The Paper version is first typed in WORD and requires, page sizing (4x6 inch for Pocketbook), margins, fonts, font sizes, headers, footers, page numbering, page breaks and any special hypertext links. I then upload it to Lulu and go through their publishing Wizard to design a cover, select a copyright, describe a preview and then select the marketing outlets.

The PDF is similar to paper but is in digital format (Portable Document Format) that you can download to your computer and read with Adobe Reader (free download at Adobe.com). After, you can either read it on the computer screen or print it out to paper. To get the WORD document into PDF you need to have a WORD (Add On) that saves the document in PDF or a special conversion program from Adobe. Once in PDF, you can resize the document to fit the screen.

The ePub is a new format that you can read on a handheld device like the iPod Touch from Apple or the Kindle from Amazon. In this format the document is free flowing without paragraph endings or beginnings and can be automatically resized to fit the screen of your viewing device. You can also resize the text larger or smaller, you can flip pages with a finger tap on the screen and you can select a table of contents that allows you to move to another section or chapter of the book. You can also set bookmarks or highlight or look up info in a dictionary or email a section.

You will need an eReader APP to read the ePub books on your iPod Touch. I find the iBooks APP to be the easiest of all the eReaders. It is free and you can download it from the APP Store. To get my book in ePub format, I first save the manuscript in WORD to an HTML Web Format. I then have a special program called SIGIL that converts the HTML to ePub. Once in ePub format you can adjust the text for page breaks, chapters and table of contents. This took a lot of trial and error to find all the finite nuances to this formatting method. Once in ePub format you are now ready to upload the book to Lulu and process it through their editing system. This is all quite time consuming but also satisfying when you are done creating your own book.

Once you have the iBooks APP on your iPod Touch your can go to the iBooks Store and download thousands of books. Some are free and others have a cost. You can also get books or documents sent by email in either ePub or PDF format that you can open up in iBooks with just a tap of your finger. In iBooks you can flip back and forth from PDF to Books and see all your selections neatly stacked on a book shelf (See Picture Above). You can also buy eBooks from Amazon and other outlets and download them to your computer or iPod Touch and open them with the iBooks APP. You can see additional info about iBooks at the following link at Wikipedia …. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBooks .

If you would like a sample eBook to read in iBooks on your iPod Touch or iPad, send me an email and I will send you one of my books free. If you want to try one in PDF to read on your computer or iPod free, send me an email. You can also purchase any of my stories in digital format (Paper, ePub or PDF) for as little as $1.76 at Lulu.Com. Try it out, we now live in a new digital age and need to learn new ways or be left behind.


Click your choice below (1,2,3)


1. Powerpoint Presentation ….. click link …….. https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AbdIp6qZEsAXZGZqdHdrODVfMjFoa2JnejhnNA&hl=en
Then click (Start Presentation)

2. Picasa Web Albums at ….. click link …. https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/AdventuresOfTheRomeoGangBooks#

3. Lulu.Com …click link ….. http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fListingClass=0&fSearch=Adventures+of+the+Romeo+Gang%2C+Mark+Ryan&fSubmitSearch=Go&showingSubPanels=&fSort=relevance_desc



Let me know if you have any problems with the selections. I am always willing to help. Comments are always welcome. markryan82@comcast.net .

Diet or Die ?

I think that most of us would pick the diet. It seems that everywhere you look today; we have become an obese society. I see the photos on the TV news of kids and adults walking along the busy streets or playing in the school yard with their “love handles” protruding over their belt line.

Recommendations from the FDA and the Surgeon General have sighted the need to lose weight and exercise as a means of controlling your weight, reducing heart disease and living longer. Restaurants are now downsizing their food quantities and schools are serving more nutrition meals to school children. Even the chow lines in the military services have reduced the amount of fatty options we are feeding our soldiers.

Every year we make our New Year’s resolution to go on a diet and loose weight and do more exercise and live healthier lives. However, after a few months of struggling we our back on the usual bad eating habits as well as less exercise.

However, this year I promised myself to try again but I do need some incentives and more help. It is very tough trying to diet on your own. At my annual physical, my family doctor gave me a general good bill of health but saw that I had gained about 20 pounds since last year. He urged me to diet and exercise more and also offered me to participate in some programs offered at my HMO. These involved a nutritionist and an exercise program. I had tried them before but with limited success.

Recently, I saw an APP on my iPod which is also available on-line at http://MyFitnessPal.com . It is a free program and has a bunch of on-line tools to help track your food intake and your exercise. It gives you daily progress reports and short incentive messages. Since I am a gadget person, I put the APP on my iPod and also synchronized it with my desktop computer. That way I can enter and see my progress with my iPod mobile devise or at home on the PC.

Since I know that I have to keep accurate records either on the iPod or PC, I try to stick to a diet and do some daily exercise so that I will have data to enter but also see some meaningful changes. The iPod has become my personal mentor. It has forced me to stay true to my set goals. It’s like someone is looking over your shoulder and reminding you of all the do’s and don’ts. However to my benefit, over the last 4 days I have lost 3 pounds and have successfully kept to a healthy diet and to some daily exercise.

When I started the program last week, I weighed 256 pounds. My ideal weight should be a max of 175 pounds. With the iPod program I could calculate my BMI (Body Mass Index) and BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate per day) so that I could set some practical goals. Using my age, weight and height, my BMR is calculated to be about 2400cal. I decided that for a minimum I wanted to loose at least 1 pound per week so by next year I would weigh about 200 pounds.

Normally, nutritionists have calculated that 1 pound of body weight is equal to about 3500 calories. Consequently if you eat 500 calories less per day than your body needs from your (BMR), then in 7 days you will have lost 3500 calories or 1 pound of body weight. The converse is also true for gaining weight.

Since I want to loose 1 pound per week, then I have to reduce my calorie intake by 500cal per day or 3500cal per week. With my calculated BMR (2400), I subtract the calorie deficit (500) and get my maximum daily calorie intake (1900). This is the maximum number of calories that I can consume each day so that I reach my goal of 1 pound per week. I can also reduce this even further with exercise.

The neat thing about the iPod program (MyFitnessPal) is that it has a data base of 630,000 food choices and their equivalent calorie amounts as well as thousands of exercises with their calorie equivalents. In addition you can adjust the actual amounts of food intake (cups, tablespoon, etc.) or exercises (reps, minutes, etc.) with a dial meter. The portion or amount is then adjusted automatically. You then hit the ADD button and it gets added to you daily diet chart. Everything is then automatically updated and synchronized with your mobile device and/or PC.

Of course some days I am under my calorie goals for the day which allows me to go over a little the next day. However, I have tried to stay under my maximum calorie intake so that I can loose more weight faster, as long as you are eating a balanced diet with all the needed nutrients.

I have included some snapshots below of some of my Diet Info so you can see the progress that I have made. One of the reasons for posting this info on my Blog is that I want to keep this program going for at least a year. I know that you all will be asking me if I have continued my regiment, with the same exuberance in a week or month from now. Wish me luck. If you like, please join me on this health quest. The program makes a claim that followers of the program have 3x more success when done in groups.