This was move-in weekend, so as a Morgantown resident, I knew there was only one thing to do: get the hell out of town.

We chose to drive east, to the Maryland State Parks of Deep Creek Lake and Swallow Falls. Having grown up in WV, where all the State Parks are free, it always comes as a bit of a shock when we have to pay to get in. But considering the amount of damage at Swallow Falls State Park from Hurricane Sandy, I couldn’t really complain.

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Saturday, we went to Deep Creek MD and Swallow Falls State Parks, and hiked around. Last year, we tried to go to Swallow Falls but it was closed, due to Hurricane Sandy.

There is still evidence of the destruction wrought everywhere we looked, even ten months after the storm.

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That’s right. County schools start Thursday, WVU starts Monday, so abandon hope all ye who hope to drive anywhere.

Today’s word is: walking

Yeah, I know, we’re halfway through August. Better late than never?

Book titles are linked to my review. Author names are linked to my page for that author. If you go to any review and click through to Amazon and buy a book, I get pennies for that purchase, so, you know, please do.
 
 
Mystery
Death at La Fenice (1992) Donna Leon
 
 
Historical Mystery
Lord John and the Private Matter (2003) Diana Gabaldon
Lord John and the Hand of Devils (2007) Diana Gabaldon
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (2007) Diana Gabaldon
The Custom of the Army (2012) Diana Gabaldon
A Plague of Zombies (2012) Diana Gabaldon
A Spell of Vengeance (2012) D.B. Jackson
Legacy of the Dead (2000) Charles Todd
 
 

Supernatural Mystery
Hard Spell (2011) Justin Gustainis
 
 

Historical Romance
Kitty (1979) Marion Chesney and M. C. Beaton
 
 

Anthology
The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction (2011) edited by Mike Ashley
 
 

Graphic Novel / Comic
Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod (2013) Brian Kesinger
 
 

Audio Books
The Privilege of the Sword (2012) Ellen Kushner (Author, Narrator), Barbara Rosenblat, Felicia Day, Joe Hurley, Katherine Kellgren, Nick Sullivan, Neil Gaiman
Small Vices (2002) written Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds
 
 
I read 14 books in July, taking me to 108 books so far this year.

Here’s the breakdown of what I read:
eBook: 10
Audio: 2
Paperback: 1
Hardback: 1

Multiple Formats: 3
Re-read: 8

Lots of re-reads this month, some of which are books I have in multiple formats. (I have The Privilege of the Sword in trade paper, audio, and eBook format. So yay for giving Ellen Kushner all my money!)
 
 
As for the genres I was reading:
Mystery:11
Fantasy:4
Anthology:1
Comic:1
Romance:1

Lots of mysteries. Half the fantasy I read were also mysteries, and the one straight-up fantasy didn’t have a lick of fantasy or a single supernatural creature in it.
 
 
And these are the books I rated 8/10 or higher (7/10 is a good and enjoyable book, but nothing special):

10/10
The Privilege of the Sword

9/10
Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod

8/10
Hard Spell
Death at La Fenice
A Plague of Zombies
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
Lord John and the Hand of Devils
Lord John and the Private Matter
The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction

There you have it, July’s reading.

A couple things about Decker’s Creek.

When I was younger, Decker’s Creek was in terrible shape. I mean, really terrible. It was bright orange from mine runoff/acid mine drainage, and there wasn’t much life in there, and what was there, you expected to mutated.

After a LOT of work, the Decker’s Creek watershed is now thriving, and the rail trail along Decker’s Creek is (with the exception of the bit through Sabraton) gorgeous.

Pictures are marked with the GPS coordinates of where I stopped to take the pictures. Assuming all the GPS photos aren’t completely blurry and unrecognizable.

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A month or so ago, Michael and I had an argument about what you call an object such as the one he is standing next to here.

One of us said, “trunk” and the other said, “stump.”

Who is correct (or is there a more accurate term)?

Also, one of us has a degree in Forestry.

This was actually a couple weekends ago, but, I forgot to post the pictures.

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I somehow managed to pre-order two copies of Magic Rises.

Anyone interested? If you are, leave a comment. I’ve got ONE book, so first response gets it.

On a related note, why the HELL do these books come out on a MONDAY? I received Magic Rises AND Kitty in the Underworld, but as I need SLEEP, I can’t read EITHER right away, because both are books I’ll almost certainly read straight through in one sitting.

Damnit.

I think that I’ve generated enough data now.

Couple things: where the pedometer is placed affects the step count. I wore the pedometers in several configurations: on my waistband, in my pocket and a combination of both. When they were on my waistband together (Friday), the Omron and the Pulse gave the closest results. When in my pocket together (Monday), the Pulse had a slightly higher count than the Omron.

The Fitbit always had a higher count, averaging 800 steps more than the Omron. (The Pulse averaged 15 steps more than the Omron.)

The Pulse and the Omron were relatively close in counting active minutes, with the Pulse being higher, due to the fact that you have to be active for ten minutes before the Omron starts that time.

A couple things I didn’t mention previously:

The Pulse has the ability to measure pulse rate. You hold the device between your fingers, cycle through the menu until you find the heart (pulse rate) icon, touch that icon and it measures your pulse through your finger. If you have the Pulse in the wrist band for sleeping, make sure the device is resting over the pulse point in your wrist and start the measurement.

It looks like the measurements are relatively accurate on average, but not very precise for any single measurement. The chart is hard to read, but I would take several measurements, one right after the other. The results are clustered around what should be the correct value, but can fluctuate wildly.

I’ll probably play with the pulse measurement more in the coming days, but for now, I’m not that impressed with it. Which is fine, because I wasn’t that interested in that option.

The battery life on the Pulse is nowhere close to as long as the battery life of the FitBit, however, on a positive note, the way it charges, through a short mini USB cable, means I’m less likely to forget to put it back on. (I had to resort to charging the FitBit at work, and taking off my shoes and putting the charging station on my shoe, to remind me to put the thing back on.) I also like the charging monitor better, and think I won’t have the same charging issues I did with the FitBit (sometimes I would put it on the charging station, and it wouldn’t charge, or the display wouldn’t update to show me that it was charging, so I generally had to fuss with it).

Another point in the favor of the Pulse is that it’s a brand new device and so the phone and web applications are still being developed, and one of the things that will be added is the ability to download your data as a CSV file. I have NEVER been happy with the fact that FitBit wanted to charge you a subscription to download YOUR OWN DATA, and that the data is “allowed” you to have was in no way the full data set you created.

I am hoping that the data set the Pulse generates will be closer to that created by the Omron. I’ll let you know how that one goes as well.

One additional thing I haven’t tested is wearing the Pulse while hiking and biking. I’ll be curious to see how accurate that data is compared to the data generated by my new Oregon.

No updates yesterday, because yesterday was all napping and reading.

The FitBit continues to significantly over-count steps. The Pulse vacillates around the total for the Omron, sometimes over, sometimes under. Interestingly, for the entire time period, the Pulse averaged out to one step more than the Omron. The FitBit averages 783 steps more than the Omron.

The FitBit is obviously delusional with regard to Active Minutes.

I’ll be very interested to see today’s totals.

When we were at Wheeling, we wandered into the glass museum (against my better wishes, I might add, since Michelle + Breakable Stuff = Trouble Found. There, I saw Fenton Glass Beads.

I usually pick jewelry because I find it interesting or amusing, but these I liked just because they are pretty.

When we were at the Ripley Craft Fair, Fenton had a table that was staffed by two of the women who paint the beads.

I made Michael buy me some.

This was the bead that pushed me over the edge.

Of course, I had to get the sesquicentennial bead:

I couldn’t get just two, now could I?

So I now have five hand-painted Fenton glass beads, and want more, because they’re gorgeous, and they’re made here in West (by God) Virginia.

Gotta support the state economy, right?

Obviously, I need more data points.

WOW.

Here are the end of the day totals:

Average of Differences Wed – Fri

Steps
FitBit: 774
Pulse: -559

Active Time
FitBit: 230
Pulse: 20

A quick note about Active Time. You have to be moving for ten minutes before the Omron begins to count active time, so it won’t count any walk 9 minutes or shorter, no matter how quickly I walk. For the FitBit, I combined Fairly Active and Very Active minutes; for the Pulse, I combined moderate and intense activity, although over the three day span I had less than 5 minutes of “intense activity.”

I think that the Pulse is correct in the amount of “intense activity” I had. I was pretty lazy this week during my walks.

Also, I’m not quite done today–I still have laundry and a couple other chores that will have me up and moving around. So I’ll look at this again tomorrow.

YAY! More data!

I wore three pedometers today: my regular FitBit, the Pulse, and the Omron. Again, I set the Omron as the standard against which the other two were judged.

All three pedometers were worn on my waistband.

Here are the totals over the course of the day:

(I noted what I was doing during the time periods. If not noted, assume mostly sitting around. I noted the driving solely because none of the pedometers gave me any steps while I drove, which is good.)

Here are the steps and differences each time period:

Tomorrow, I’ll get my end-of-the-day counts for the three days, and see how things came out at the end of the day.

And NOW, I am going to attempt to enjoy the start of my weekend.

I’m going to update this through the course of the day.

I’m wearing the Withings and my beat-up FitBit next to each other, clipped to my belt. The Omron and the old FitBit that don’t hold a charge are inside a cargo pocket.

Yes, I AM putting this into Excel, calculating the differences, and I’ll probably make a chart of it. Like I do.

I WILL DO SCIENCE TO IT

FitBit = clipped to belt
Pulse = clipped to belt
Omron = in pocket
FitBit 2 = in pocket

8:15 AM
FitBit: 1099
Pulse: 912
Omron: 1013
FitBit 2: 1147
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