Linkage

Where are the blogs?!?!

I know I have promised some of you blogs covering the trip t DO and how I surprised everyone with my dramatic weight loss. I've even told some of you my plans to post about the weight loss experience. This is just to let you know I haven't forgotten and I still plan on it.

Between leaving DO to head back to some more time at my in-laws, the drive home and having a friend stay over for a week I haven't gotten back into the swing of things. Unfortunately the family friend went back home today and come Monday morning it's back to the same old.

My schedule has been slightly tweaked but nothing major. I just need to catch up on a slew of things. House work, yard work with the warmer weather popping up more and more and still get the exercise in there.

It's heady stuff getting used to the new phase I'm in with my weight. I'm trying to find the sweet spot between eating enough to maintain without gaining weight back OR losing too more weight. Yeah, that's the weird part. It all depends on how much I do.

Having to increase my caloric intake to match my daily expenditure instead of working on the deficit I did for so long feels so alien.

Anyway I haven't forgotten and I will be making the blogs. For DO 2009 I'm planning on blogging each day of the con as I remember it. I'm sure the others there will happily chime in and fix my geriatric memory when I slip up.


~The Dad

I'm not liking the new iPod Shuffle design

Taking the controls off the unit to make it smaller was a big mistake. Anyone who wears any MP3 player during exercise knows adding weight to a cord makes it fall out when you sweat and are moving around constantly.

Tack on the fact it costs an additional $80 for the inside the ear headset that has the controls on it is ridiculous.

Positives:
Double the flash memory

Multiple play lists

Negatives:
Moving controls to headset cord has proven track record of failing in the gym for the active and sweaty. This has been shown with in-line volume controls or sound dampening controls.

Color options are light and dark gray.

No good without buying special headset. Anyone who wants inside the ear or over the ear have to pay much more since they will need to buy headphones that charge extra for the controls and can't just pick up any generic headset.

Conclusion:,
Not being able to find your gray mp3 player that is smaller then a key will cause no end of grief for those of us who can't even keep track of our wallet or key rings. Adding vivid colors to choose from to find the unit when you put it down is a cheap and easy fix.

I'm afraid the negatives outweigh the positives too much. I run and/or do an hour on the elliptical daily and have a hard time with headsets staying in. I've worked my way through many brands and designs.

Both of these are design flaws that I am surprised the Apple engineers missed.


~The Dad

Things I learned at Digital Overload 2009 (The Cliff Notes version)

Tiger Woods has a gun and is not afraid to use it

If your top grade Canadian maple syrup is too runny you need to contact the border patrol over this international incident

Sumo wrestling leaves bruises, LOTS of bruises

When you are in line at a LAN convention by a web comic you are a geeks
When you are hanging out in line with friends you meet from those forums you are a geeks
When you are hanging out in line with those same friends whom you talk to almost daily on an IRC channel you are a geeks
When one of those friends whips out his cell, launches an app and then starts chatting in the aforementioned IRC Channel at the
same time you are geeks.
IF you combine all of these at once you have maxxed out geekdom and wait for the epic levels to be released

The petting zoo is in fact down the hall. Don't confuse us with your reality.

People do not believe what they see in front of them.

The New England Lemur is a curious creature. When removed from it's family unit it likes to run and climb over everything it sees until it comes across beer. Then it works hard to imbibe all the beer it can't fit inside another's sneaker.

7-11 is a magical place akin to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If you are looking for it you can't find it.
If you do make it there avoid the Gatorade. They kick you out when you read the label wrong.

People who can't attend take their new relationships PDA phase over to Twitter how they make googly eyes at each other while eating dinner at the same table and make the rest of us want to lose our lunch hundreds of miles away.

The center of the universe is located in Providence, Rhode Island in a Dunkin Donuts.

The final sign of the impending apocalypse has occurred and judgement day is around the corner. Proof is found in biblical verse:

"Lo, when the Blue Jew comes from the frozen lands of the tundra to meet up againts the Stormin Mormon who matriculated due west of the holy meeting place then they shall meet in a devastating ritual of the ancients. Imitating the form and battle tactics of a far away land they shall once and for all fight for supremacy. "




~The Dad