Going Pro, On the road, Taxing, 30/30

So last night my new GoPro camera showed.  Thanks to a glutton of Amazon spiff points from my online Xmas shopping I wound up paying a lot less than retail. (love my Amazon Rewards card) The box included a ton of parts utilized for the vast myriad of mounting options for the camera.  I am pretty amazed they can jam optics that good along with copious amounts of tech into a camera that is so small and light.

The cam comes with a slick remote control which allows you remote access to the camera even if it is far away from you.  However what I really like is the GoPro app which allows me a near real time view finder and remote control of the cam.  This will be awesome for Phantom aerial videos as I will be able to see exactly what the camera is looking at. (as long as I stay in wi-fi range) I look forward to giving the camera extensive testing soon.  It should up the video quality of everything I shoot considerably, even boring pull up videos.

I was multi-tasking last night working on other things as well, including getting my paperwork together to send to my accountant for taxes.  To be honest, now that I am single I don’t know that I really need to be having the accountant do them, Ali’s business was the primary reason we did it.  With just myself to account for there is only my W-2, a 1099, my mortgage interest and property tax bill to send off.  Still, I have used them for so long it’s like a security blanket so I shipped the papers off this morning.

Ever since Ali became a contractor we benefited tax wise since a lot of things could be written off as business expenses.  We have had pretty big tax refunds most years.  This year I really have no idea what to expect filing as single for the first time in 15 years.  Hopefully I can get a few bucks back to put towards some repairs/improvements I have in mind for the house.

I also edited the GoPro video Randall shot of our ride out to Ave Maria, condensing it down to a nice and tidy 7 minutes.  Check it out if you like.

Several of my calisthenic FB friends have been posting pics of themselves in deep A2G (ass to ground) squat position as part of some challenge called 30/30.   I finally looked into what it is all about.

The 30/30 challenge is to spend a total of 30 minutes per day in the A2G squat position for 30 days straight.  The benefit of doing so is multi-faceted.  This hold will help open up your hips, knees, and overall flexibility.  Since my lower body is quite stiff these benefits would be something I could really use.

So I got down into as low of a squat position as I could manage and held it.  Almost immediately I felt very uncomfortable pressure and pain in my twice operated on right knee.  My hips did not feel very happy either.

I wound up doing a total of 6 minutes of hold in squat.  Each time it felt slightly, and I mean slightly better.  I have 3 minutes today, two of them in my office.  I am hoping to be able to just drop down for a minute randomly throughout the day.

Here is the promo for the challenge and here is a link to the FB page for it. How low can you go? (and stay there)