Week 18: Fighting the Weight loss Plateau, Sharing VR with Family
Deep dive into extreme geothermal energy
Monday
VR Adventure:
We dove back into Until You Fall. Gotta be honest though, the workout isn’t terribly intense, and it’s getting pretty grindy. I don’t feel I’m progressing much at all. Not very fun, in other words. I might call the game done pretty soon.
Food: 29
Valentine’s Day chocolates, steamed vegetables, popcorn
Weight: 190.4
Today’s Awesome:
This week, we’re diving deep into geothermal. And not just any geothermal. EXTREME geothermal. As a refresher though, consider geothermal basics.
For Your Consideration:
Tuesday
VR Adventure:
None.
Food: 33
Thin cookies, couscous, steamed veggies, milk, veggie chips, whiskey
Weight: 189.4
Today’s Awesome:
There is a geothermal energy that the average homeowner can do themselves. Well, sort of. It’s pretty dang expensive. Geothermal heat pumps. They go for $10,000 to $30,000. Pretty expensive AC system. Some companies are trying to make it cheaper, but it’s pretty tough.
For Your Consideration:
Wednesday
VR Adventure:
We did some boxing, but also “flow workouts” (where you hit target with bats with swooping motions) to Disney music! That was pretty fun.
Food: 37
Ham and cheese sandwich, quinoa, chocolate chip cookies, milk.
Weight: 189.4
Today’s Awesome:
Alright, on to the awesome stuff. This company wants to use laser to drill down to incredible depths, 10 km to 20 km. The deepest ever drilled is about 12 km which is deeper than the lowest point of the ocean.
For Your Consideration:
Thursday
VR Adventure:
None
Food: 37
Cheese, rice, PBJ, popcorn, milk, whiskey
Weight: 189.4
Today’s Awesome:
How much energy is available from this incredibly deep drilling? Apparently: “Just 0.1% of the heat content of Earth could supply humanity’s total energy needs for 2 million years.”
For Your Consideration:
Friday
VR Adventure:
Long supernatural workout, and new levels of Beat Saber. Electronic house music isn’t always my jam, but the stuff that comes with the initial download is pretty dang good. Consider this “spooky” beat.
Food: CHEAT DAY
Weight: 189.4
Today’s Awesome:
So where does this promised rock melting technology stand? Well, probably not a great sign that https://altarockenergy.com is straight up broken. The last I found was this press release saying they were working last year in Oregon. Also here, in this report and others it looks like they were targeting 2025. For now, you don’t really need lasers to drill very far at the volcano drill site, so it seems it’s more a test of making a general power plant with “SuperHot Rock.”
For Your Consideration:
Saturday
VR Adventure:
I got to share VR with my family! Specifically my dad. He gave it a try, going through the tutorial, and seeing my go through Beat Saber and rock climbing. What really got his attention was golf. There is a pretty awesome golf game with legitimate buy in from major groups like the PGA and even Top Golf.
We also tried out an exploration of the International Space Station, and an incredible VR video of folks BASE jumping, where we jump along with them. Below isn’t the exact one, but you can even pan around just from the YouTube player and see things in 3D.
Food: FAIL DAY
Lost track traveling.
Weight: 190.9
Today’s Awesome:
There is another pretty awesome form of geothermal energy that might be more practical. It’s basically fracking plus geothermal. Called “Enhanced geothermal systems” or EGS. The fluids are supposed to be non-toxic, and the cracks are smaller.
For Your Consideration:
Sunday
VR Adventure:
Very long boxing workout.
Food: FAIL DAY
Lost track this day traveling.
Weight: Unknown
I missed tracking my weight this day out and about.
Today’s Awesome:
If you want to dive more deeply into all kinds of geothermal energy, this is a really great article going over a ton of possibilities. Really hoping those laser drills workout though, and provide energy for everyone for a couple million years.
For Your Consideration:
Outro:
The average is 189.8. That’s the same as last week. Dang. I hate a plateau. This is tough business losing weight. We’re down more than 14 pounds, but yeah, this is tough stuff. I’ve noticed my exercise is about half an hour a day less than usual. And my eating in the evenings is up. I’ll see about going for the classics: eat a bit less, workout a bit more, and see where that gets me next week.