The Parallela Project

It could be said that what we gain from experience is a keener understanding of how to psychologically trick ourselves into doing what we ought. As it happens, I ought to be eating way fewer carbs. Unfortunately for me, carbs are wonderful. Enter the trickery.

I want a Parallela (see photo). Unlike the various other microprocessors I have, this one isn't necessarily good for irrigation control or security cameras or making automated backups. It's like a computer version of Legos - when you dump a bunch out on the floor, nobody expects you to do anything useful with them. I have no idea what I'll do with this one but I do know that it provides 2 processors, quite a few programmable electronic logic cells, memory, and a parallel processing unit with 16 cores.

I want it, but I certainly don't need it. In fact, I don't have as much time as I'd like to experiment with the boards I've already got. To just buy one (if I could - right now they're backordered) would be an extravagance. So I'm going to run a little experiment.

For every day I don't eat any gratuitous carbs, I'll earmark a dollar into my e-toy fund. If I exercise, I earmark another dollar. After awhile, in theory, I'll both be healthier and have a Parallela! I call that a win-win. If it works...

Day 1 - no bad carbs
Day 2 - exercise (my part in producing 25 bags of leaves from the front yard)
Day 3 - Fat Sunday (Lent for Eastern Catholics starts on Monday...). No credit.
Day 4 - no bad carbs

Net = $3. Go me! Only 97 more...