Building a better gym

Gyms and I don't gel well.

I like the idea of coming out from the gym - feeling lighter, more agile, and fresh from a shower. I just don't like the part of going to the gym, and the part where I need to actually exercise.

So its natural that I come up with ideas on why I don't like the place, and how we can do it better.

Idea 1 : Retrieve heat generated from the machines

The idea to make gym machines "green" by making them generate their own energy and also contribute to the grid has been coming up lately. However, electricity generation is a lossy process - any energy conversion other than heat will invariably be lossy. How about make the machines generate heat, then? Large gyms like the LA Fitness I go to now have hundreds of people taking showers through the day - if the gym can generate all the hot water it consumes, that's a lot of energy saved!

There are lots of places to head from that point - surplus hot water can be used to offer free laundry, at least for towels, making our gym bags a little lighter and giving us a straight motivation (a free hot towel, powered by our sweat, waiting after the workout)

Now, there were a few other ideas I had come across, but I forgot them all by the time I opened this browser window. Will update this post when I remember.

Wish there was a "green" way to revitalize my memory.

Desktop Tower Defense

I came across Desktop Tower Defense at http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/Game3.asp while aimlessly roaming about - and have been stuck since.

Its a flash based game, with crude hand-drawn graphics, and it takes all of 2 minutes to see what is going on - little creeps are trying to cross the desktop, and the player needs to build a maze of towers to prevent them.

That said, its more addictive than the flowerpot throwing Jardinains several years back.

If you need to read more, there's Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Tower_Defense

-kundan

"Take me Away" - website that can suggest vacations

I have taken days off, and have some money put aside for travel, and need to take a break - somewhere, anywhere, as long as its a nice place. Searching on Expedia and the lot is painful -as 300 million other people also have that weekend off (say, thanksgiving or labor day), and have beaten me to the air tickets. Where do I go?

If that sounds familiar, the best match I've found so far is http://skyscanner.net - key in your home airport and your dates, and it will present prices to many destinations - both domestic and international. That can give you some ideas.

Granted, presenting all possible combinations for a given set of dates, a starting airport and a budget is probably a few billion places, but even a pick of 50-odd options to places I've never been to is great - beats having to punch in random places into the online travel sites!

Also useful: http://us.lastminute.com/ for a list of last minute destinations and prices

Geeky fun with Google Maps

Came across this website today:

http://www.mapofstrange.com

Allows users to submit strange things seen on google maps. Hit or miss, and a lot of crop circles and old planes, but some are really interesting.

Take, for example, these high resolution aerial photos in Africa that have been contributed to Google Maps from national Geographic:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=10.90385,19.935069&spn=0.000244,0.000429&t=h&z=22

There are a few other high res images - zoom out and scroll around. Look for others in the region from the map of strange website.

Wilson's Leather

Not quite in the tone of the rest of the blog, but wanted a space to "shout out", and what better place than my blog of random useless stuff?

Wilson's Leather had long been one of my favorite stores - great for not-too-expensive leather jackets and stuff, and lots of locations. Soma liked the purses from the store as well - and I liked the fact that we were buying purses from a leather manufacturer, and not a brand name that has little or no connection to leather. Or, for that matter, a very well reputed brand that did come up as a leather goods / upholstery store, right from the stagecoach days, but now sells a lot of their lower end products in nylon and cloth.

Anyway - we walk into the new Wilson's in the new Tanger that has opened close to us (Deer Park), and are shocked - what's 9 West, Kenneth Cole, etc doing as entire sections of the store? the store look more like a Sears in its cluttered interior?

We bought something that looked like a good deal, then noticed bad stitching all over the item, so wanted to return. Where, in today's competitive retail world, does it take 15 minutes and several handwritten / typed forms to perform a single return, for an item that has not even left the store since purchased? I'm not talking of waiting in line - it took us 15 minutes at the counter to complete the return. The salesperson kept pointing out how complicated that was, and she seemed to be the more experienced of the people working at the time.

Came home, a little disappointed and suspicious, and searched. Should have noticed the news earlier - apparently Wilson's sold its name, website and stores to a separate company back in July of last year:

"The Brooklyn Park-based retailer on Tuesday said it sold the Wilsons name, 116 outlet stores and its online retail assets to G-III Apparel Group Ltd. of New York for $22.3 million in cash. The fate of Wilsons' 100 remaining, mall-based stores and 14 airport stores remains unclear as the retailer moves to cut costs amid rapidly declining sales of its leather clothing and accessories."

(ref: http://www.startribune.com/business/24092414.html)