12 minute run.

remember the presidential test for physical fitness? if you were in middle school during the 80's i'm guessing you do. of the various activities that we were tested on, there were two that haunted me - were my nemesi (if there is such a word) year in and year out. they were the bar hang and the 12 minute run. without going into too much detail i'll share this much: 1. i never "hung" for more than .5 second 2. i never ran for 12 minutes so to find myself on a relatively quiet sunday afternoon running almost a mile in 12 minutes at 32 years of age and still 29lbs away from my goal weight - well let's just say right along with freddie mercury and the gang i was feeling very much the champion. short term goal is to see if i can run for 14 minutes straight. weeeeeeee. and i'll just keep eyeballing the bar we have installed in the doorway to the laundry room.... b.

exercise and sunshine.

is interfering with my ability to blog. for the last week it has been beautiful outside; warm and sunny. because of that i've been compelled (or strongly encouraged to spend time outside walking). i've also been exercising a lot because i want to be more than halfway towards my goal weight by the time phase two of my program begins. so much has fallen by the wayside since i began this quest towards greater health and fitness. a few of the casualties are: i made it 1/3 of the way through zelda windwaker and then quit. i only log onto star wars galaxies to check my in game email. i no longer obessively blog before bedtime i have not eaten chips, dips, cheese, crackers or any combination thereof since november now i can: see my toes fit in an airplane seat zip up my kick ass boots all the way run in four months i will: finish my first triathlon in under 3 hours see my feet wear my fabulous red chinese pants stop traffic. b.

aaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

i just wrote the best post and then i lose connection as it's posting and it is gone. lost. forever. my brain hurts. b.

we are all william.

why the fascination? because inside all of us is a little bit of william dying to get out. b.

oh the irony.

just saw a lincoln/mercury luxury suv commercial with the peter gabriel song "big time" playing as the soundtrack. what?? what?? i had resigned myself to the music i brooded to growing up being used to sell stuff after mazda co-opted the smiths how soon is now? for one of their commercials. but this musical gaffe is so obvious it belies belief. can't decide who i am more annoyed with: lincoln or gabriel. *sigh* b. suc cess I'm on my way, I'm making it I've giot to make it show, yeah so much larger than life I'M going to watch it growing the place where I come from is a small town they think so small they use small words -but not me I'm smarter than that I worked it out I've been stretching my mouth to let those big words come right out I've had enough, I'm getting out to the city, the big big city I'll be a big noise with all the big boys there's so much stuff I will own and I will pray to a big god as I kneel in the big church big time I'm on my way-I'm making it big time big time I've got to make it show yeah big time big time so much larger than life big time I'm going to watch it growing big time my parties all have big names and I greet them with the widest smile tell them how my life is one big adventure and always they're amazed when I show them round my house, to my bed I had it made like a mountain range with a snow-white pillow for my big fat head and my heaven will be a big heaven and I will walk through the front door

my new favorite tabtop.

the m200. i love this machine! toshiba went all out to experiment with utilities that enhance tablet usage. i was three sentences into my review when i realized 1: this puppy has been out awhile and 2: there are people who have done a far better job reviewing it this is an amazingly in-depth review (granted it's in french - hint use google translations) good overview review (conveniently in english for those of us who chose the spanish route in high school) photo review by lora nice write up on the accelerometer functions although i was/am a die-hard slate user (fujitsu 4100 followed by the nec versa-lite), i was tired of switching back and forth between my work machine (a dell axim) and my tablet. i would say i definitely use the m200 as a tablet 50% of the time and as a laptop for the other 50% (hence "tabtop"), and despite the extra weight (almost 2lbs heavier than the nec) i'm coming around to the notion of having two machines in one. biggest drawback: probably the fact that i am monk's long lost little sister and i obsessively clean the screen each day as they seemed to have use a special coating on the screen which makes the smudges more apparent. this. this i can live with. b.

mel brooks is my homey.

woke up yesterday with this. it occurs to me that having a case of vertigo is a lot like having the spins without the booze. two words: not fun. one word: fascinating. i'm completely fascinated by the fact that i essentially have a level in my head, or virtual whiskers. call it what you will there is something physically that keeps you standing up straight and keeps the room from swaying. seems like such a simple little thing, yet having it be out of whack is completely unnerving. although i have to say this is way more unnerving. a 17 year old boy was surfing the internet and found himself on a missing children's site. turns out his mother had kidnapped him from his father when he was three years old. the story was #1 on countdown with keith oberman tonight. b.

roll your own film festival.

i found this article on slate in late december. i had already become a big david edelstein fan from listening to him (on npr) review donnie darko and some of my other favorite flicks on the drive back and forth to msft. at any rate i found our tastes to be similar enough, that i trusted his recommends and made a mental note to try and catch some of them. fast forward to a week later, and i'm updating my netflix queue and it occurs to me to go back and find the slate piece. turns out you can add movies that have yet to be released to your list and netflix will move them up as the dvds become available. i've already got american splendor and thirteen on the way. can't wait for bus 174 and elephant. now the ultimate feature should be a way to publish this list out with links to netflix. sort of like blogrolling for movie fans. b. ps_ i updated my blogroll to the blogs that i read religiously. trying to figure out how to create a reference roll for the ones i get to less often.

blogging from afar.

another blogging dilemma. to blog or not to blog from remote locations? i was in vancouver, b.c. this past saturday night with my sony tr2 (japanese version w/bluetooth) and was able to hop online while on the train (gawd bless amtrak for powerplugs at each seat). i didn't blog because it occurred to me that by doing so i was essentially alerting the world (okay the 10-20 ppl who read my blog) that i was away. it seems even sillier as i write this that i would imagine some local soul would: a. read my blog religiously - even tho i haven't posted regularly since october b. know where i live c. be inclined to commit breaking and entering d. all of the above, and have no date for valentines day. still for some reason it just seemed risky. so my question is, how many of you openly blog about your comings and goings - and - has that ever presented itself as a problem? b.