eric135

24 Hour Fitness...

We finally pulled the trigger on our New Year's resolution to improve our health this year. I dread using the phrase "New Years Resolution" because I think that just jinxes things from the get go. But we finally signed up for memberships at the nearby 24 Hour Fitness. Our health has steadily declined over recent years, and much of it is due to inactivity. Add in a diet including too many trips to fast food and we've got problems. 

I used to go to LA Fitness (about 7 years ago) and was going 7 days a week until I hurt my knee using a machine incorrectly, and we thought about re-joining, but we needed someplace that had more open hours, since I work nights and tend to be active in the middle of the night. We're going to the one at Bell and 32nd Street.

24Hour Fitness looks like it will fit our needs. Our club is just 2 miles away and they are open around the clock except Friday and Saturday nights.

I also like that they have lots of elliptical machines as well as stationary bikes and treadmills, good for variety.

I've just been my second time in two days, and it feels good to be active again. 

I even managed to find the same elliptical machine at 24 hour Fitness that I was using at LA Fitness, the Precor 556i:

This version has a few tweaks that it didn't have before, but the button layout and functions are identical, which made it easier to get back into the swing of things.

 

 

San Diego: Sea World and the San Diego Zoo

 SeaWorld: We spent a couple of days in San Diego, celebrating my room mate's birthday. He'd never been to a dolphin show, and the last time I went was about 35 years ago. We never travel anywhere, and we just plain needed a break. It was warm, even by Phoenix standards. Our first day, it was 76 degrees, which was pretty lucky for us since Shamu soaked us to the skin shortly after this picture. 

 Our second day we went to the San Diego Zoo. I think I went there when I was a kid but I'm not exactly sure I'm remembering that correctly. It could have been something I remember vicariously via the magic of public television. I say this because I seemed to remember some of the zoo, like the bear enclosures, but I don't remember ever going to San Diego when I was a kid.

• We stayed at the Hyatt - Mission Bay. A beautiful hotel room, with a free upgrade so we got a nice fifth-floor view of the bay. Internet access was a tad pricey, $27 for 48 hours (they charge per day per device, which I thought was excessive). It was too cold to swim, and we're not into the spa thing. The only detail I have to complain about is that there aren't many close-by options for food. They do have a restaurant, the Red Marlin, but it was way too expensive for our taste (it would have been about $100 a meal and the reviews were so-so). They also have room service, and the rate was ok, about average, but the food was terrible. My medium-rare hamburger tasted like charcoal, and my room mate's chicken breast sandwich was just as inedible. 
• The beds were very soft. We haven't had much luck with beds our last several trips. The Luxor in Las Vegas had beds that felt like x-ray tables, and our bed the last beach trip was actually two mattress spring boxes stacked on top of one another. 
• Our first night, we ordered pizza delivery from Pizza Hut and watched the last Harry Potter movie on my room mate's new iPad. We could also have used the UrbanSpoon app on our iPhones, which showed many more delivery options. I was pretty impressed by the app even though we decided not to use it our second night, and ordered the previosly mentioned and ill-conceived room service.
• Our best meal was lunch the second day, when we ate at Albert's Restaurant in the San Diego Zoo. We ate out on the deck, surrounded by lush green plants and trees (we don't get much of that in Phoenix). What exotic foods did we sample? Meat loaf, garlic mashed potatoes, salad and apple pie a la mode for desert. But it was excellent.
• We decided not to lug our laptops, and instead used the iPad and my new Kindle Fire. They worked beautifully and I was able to do everything I usually do on my Fire that I usually need a laptop for: banking, surfing, Evernote, email, Netflix etc. The only thing we couldn't do was print our boarding passes but we couldn't have done that with our laptops either. 
• Without the laptops, we were remarkably and enjoyably light-weight with our flight carry-on's. I only carried my usual man-purse (large enough to carry both of my Kindles and all of my man-stuff), and my room mate only had his iPad. What a luxury!
• For air travel, I would highly recommend the FlightView app for the iPhone. I usually use text messaging but the app is better.
• The next time, we'll rent a car. We spent way too much for taxi service to/from airports and to/from the zoo. We walked to SeaWorld (a pleasant 30-minute walk around the marina) but were too tired (and wet) to walk back and just the 2-mile trip cost us $10.00. Plus having a car would have made the whole meal thing much easier.
• Getting hosed by Shamu was not as traumatic as I had thought it would be, given how nelly I can be at times. Those Orca tail fins can displace an awful lot of water. A group of Asian girls sat up front, wearing jackets with fur trim, and they looked like they fell into the pool. Luckily, our phones didn't get wet.

We had great fun, but of course, after just a couple of days, we were anxious to get back home. 

White Citrus Skin Care Products

An excellent gift I received this Christmas was a wide assortment of skin care products from Bath and Bodyworks. As I've gotten older, I guess my skin just isn't as good at taking care of itself anymore. I remember the good ol' days when all a guy needed was a bar of Irish Spring soap and a bottle of Prell shampoo. 

Now, not so much. My skin is much more dry than before, and my days of going to the beach for a week without sunblock are now behind me. 

The problem is, I hate most lotions. I hate the way most of them make me feel "sticky" and make my pants/scrubs stick to my legs. 

I love this stuff:

True Blue Spa Lotion w/ Parafin: I've been using this on a weird spot on my hand where I have skin that has peeled off over the years due to the fact that I keep pulling calluses off. It's a weird anxiety thing that I've had since college, and during times when my mind is idle (like watching TV or just sitting with nothing to do), I'll pick at my hand. The key to handling this is to keep my skin soft and pliable, where no hard leather-like calluses can form. I've never found a lotion as effective as this one. I've only been using it for a week and my hands look like I've been on vacation for a month.

   White Citrus Intense Moisture Body Butter. Intense moisturizing thick cream that absorbs very quickly. 

White Citrus Body Scrub and Body Wash: Much better for my skin than my usual, Irish Spring. Yes, I've had to pull out that not-so-manly puff ball, oh well. A little bit goes a long way, and it smells very nice (but not overpowering). 

White Citrus Lotion: Absorbs rapidly but moisturizes well. I like the fragrance, but it isn't overwhelming. The most important thing is that I use it regularly. With previous lotions, it made me feel so slick and greasy and made my clothes stick to my skin, which discouraged me from using them at all. 

Over the past week, my skin has felt and looked much better. The only downside is that it has added several minutes to my daily routine, but it's totally worth it. The fragrance isn't so strong that it violates our hospital's policy against strong perfumes. 

Plus, really, that weird OCD spot on my hand is almost totally healed. 

 

My review of the Kindle Fire...

Ah, yet another Christmas in the can for the year. It was, once again, a retail orgy opening presents on Christmas morning, but the gift-giving was definitely more reseved this year. Some of it was due to financial circumstances (I haven't worked very many extra shifts this year) but there are so many reasons to be thankful and grateful this year. The hospital where I work was doing well enough financially that they offered a last-minute Christmas bonus. We haven't had one in about 3-4 years, and the surprise was even more so because I personally thought the hospital system (two hospitals) was going under or would be bought out. So pleasant surprises all around.

I worked Christmas Eve as usual. It's one of the main drags of being a nurse in a hospital -- we never close, and someone has to be there. Thankfully, the night was a relatively quiet one, with fewer admissions than usual. We'll pay for that over the next few days. It just seems many folks are "just barely hanging on," trying to "make it through the holidays" putting off visits to their physicians. All of the food and drink won't help much. This week, we'll be seeing a lot of peripheral edema, blood pressure problems, aches and pains put off too long, and other sorts of human deferred maintenance come in through the ER. If I'm talkin' to you, consider lightening up on all the salt, drink, spicy food and oxycontin for the holidays :-)

My big gift this year was the Kindle Fire:

 I have the Kindle Keyboard (previously known as the Kindle3) and I'm very happy with it, but wanted something to more fully web surf with without having to crank up my netbook. My thoughts about the Kindle Fire:

• I personally like the form factor. I can hold it easily with one hand. I like the smaller 7" screen (as much as others apparently hate the smaller screen). 
• I also have no problems having the power button on the bottom of the unit. I don't even know why this is an issue because, if it were a problem, one could just turn the screen upside down and everything would work fine. 
• I don't mind not having external volume buttons. To change the volume, I just hit the Settings button. But some are saying it can be a problem if a program/app "takes over" the screen and doesn't give you access to the settings without exiting the program/app. I have not yet run into this situation.
• I don't mind the Carousel function. I had heard there were problems with "fat finger syndrome" having problems, but I guess I have greater than average manual dexterity. 
• So far, browsing has been a good experience. I personally can't distinguish any advantage or disadvantage to the Silk browswer, it seems to work fine either way. I personally have set the Fire to "Optimize each web site" for readibility. I like using the pinch-to-zoom and the smaller print, when viewing a full page on Desktop view, doesn't bother me.
• My Netflix experience isn't as good as I want it to be. There is a noticeable lag (maybe 1/2 - 1 second) in the audio of my Netflix shows/movies. I have read this is a widespread problem with Netflix, and everyone is waiting for an updated app. Watching video's on YouTube is very clear and sync'd, so I don't think it is a probem inherent in the Fire. I plan to try watching videos purchased from Amazon but, man, I really want the Netflix thing to get worked out.
• Listening to podcasts is, for the most part, a smooth experience. When on my computer, I listen to podcasts using Google Reader, but the Google Reader app for Kindle doesn't play any podcasts. So I am using Stitcher for most of my podcasts, and the few that aren't included in Stitcher's wide selection I use MyPod to download podcasts via their direct feed. MyPod isn't very user friendly and seemless as Stitcher, but between the two, I can listen to pretty much to anything I want. 
• The Kindle Fire speakers have been a hit and miss sort of thing. When playing Netflix shows, the sound is too faint without the use of earbuds, unless you hold the unit in your hands and thus the speakers are close to your head. Setting the Fire on the coffee table and having 2 or more people watch wouldn't be possible. However, my podcasts are very loud. When listening to my Magnatune podcasts, I can easily walk around the room and do other things without having to wear earbuds. I also notice YouTube video's are loud, so it might just be a Netflix thing.
• Reading books has been a good experience, which is good considering it is, in fact, a Kindle. I have been reading several books and find the Fire to be easy to navigate. However, after lengthy periods of time, my eyes do get fatigued looking into a back lit device. For hard core (multi-hour) reading sessions, I'd still use my Kindle Keyboard. I haven't had any probems with the brightness being too low. For indoor use with the usual levels of light through the window, I have to turn the brightness to the lowest level or eye strain is a definite problem. Books sync perfectly between all of my devices (the Kindle fire, Kindle Keyboard, iPhone 4S, netbook and laptop) which is nice.
• I've been able to do all of the activities I wanted to do on the Kindle Fire: read/write gmail, work outlook mail, Evernote, Facebook, podcasts, Twitter, etc. The only activity that my Kindle can't do is communicating, since it has neither camera nor microphone, but I have lots of other options for communicating. 

So, overall, after 24-hours of working with the Kindle Fire, I have been very pleased with it. 

Stargate Atlantis

I've finally found a series to watch on our Netflix that ISN'T a Star Trek series.

I've given Stargate series a chance before, since I've watched the original Stargate movie several times, but I've never been able to get into them for long. I liked Stargate Universe but of course it got cancelled.

Stargate Atlantis has an excellent ensemble cast. The story lines are, I think, more compelling with action being grounded in the city of Atlantis, rather than the "alien of the week" approach of previous Stargate series. Another plus, again IMHO, is that the acting is a lot stronger. At times, Stargate SG1 was heavily over-acted.

The interactions between the leads in Atlantis are more capably executed, with well-balanced use of humor as well as suspense, without the darkness and conflict of the SG Universe series.

The good times won't last forever, I'm on episode 27 of 99. I guess when I run out of SG Atlantis episodes, I may give SG1 another try. I could always watch the Deep Space 9 episodes again...

A little bit of early Christmas... my new iPhone 4S...

We have always hated shopping on the weekend of Thanksgiving. Over the past few years we've heard of all the violence associated with Black Friday, and we don't think it's worth the risk. Every year there are a couple of horrific deaths, sometimes just a random person getting shot to death while being robbed of some item they've just purchased.  But we were out in it the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  One item that we purchased early was my new iPhone 4S.  I've been a Blackberry fan for the past couple of years but my last Blackberry (Bold 9000) was getting pretty beat up. The trackball wouldn't click, and I was tired of all the times I was having to pull the battery to force a restart after the phone froze up.  I was going to ask Santa for a new Blackberry Bold, but have decided to go with the latest version of the iPhone. There were several factors that influenced my decision:

• I don't use many phone minutes. 
• Instead of talking on the phone, I have become a heavy user of phone apps, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Twitter, Stocktwits, Google Reader, Epocrates and other applications. 
• While there are plenty of Blackberry apps, many are quirky and don't work well, or have limited functionality. 
• I really wanted more effective tools to work with the data I use, such as the ability to view videos (my blackberry couldn't play videos), pinch-to-zoom, etc.
• I don't know what the immediate future will be for Research In Motion, creators of the Blackberry devices. 

It's been a very positive experience switching to the iPhone. 

My roommate has been letting me try things out with his iPhone 3G prior to actually getting one. 

Purchasing the iPhone was quick and easy. Unlike past experience, it took only a few minutes and they were able to transfer some of my Contacts data. 

Viewing and using data on the iPhone is a much better experience. The pinch-to-zoom thing is totally cool.

Kindle syncs perfectly.

I can manage my blog much more easily with the iphone vs. the blackberry. Before, management consisted of emailing my blog entries, that's about it. The Blackberry browswer was at times cranky, and I could never zoom in enough to see what I was doing. Plus, when the trackball broke, I couldn't click into the spaces to log in as a user. Now I have a Typepad app which works ok, and I can use Safari to do everything on my phone that I can do on my laptop. 

I really love being able to watch Netflix whenever I want. We have Netflix on every TV and laptop, but sometimes I'll watch something while I'm eating dinner at work, or while on break. 

I've been using iCatcher! to listen to podcasts. My favorites are the ones from Magnatune.com, Leo Laporte's podcast This Week in Tech, and the Rachel Maddow Show. 

The iphone app for epocrates is much nicer than the one for Blackberry. The photographs of the pills are helpful for patients to remember what dose of a drug they are taking, and the pill identifyer has been helpful when the patient does remember to bring all of his/her meds, but they're in those daily pillboxes for a week at a time. 

The battery life has been good for me. I've heard a lot of complaints that the iphone doesn't even last for one day of use but I use mine without any real worries and I use mine heavily, including Netflix and gps (the usual battery-draining culprits). I still plan to ask Santa for a backup power cord to keep in my bag, and we keep a car converter in our car, but so far I haven't had any problems.

I don't use the new Siri function yet. I don't know why but she never understands what I try to ask her. Amazingly, it can't help you find/use any data stored on the iphone other than phone contact info, it's strictly to pull info from an internet server based on it's best guess of what you want. 

I've used the Face-time feature once, to call my room mate. I don't think I will use it very much. I hardly talk on the phone, I do video calls even less.

 

 

 

Evernote and "Evernote: The unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done"

Evernote      

For the past year or so, I've been keeping notes in a plain text file saved in a Dropbox folder. I don't organize it at all, it's pretty much a dump of whatever I am reading, listening to, or written in my Moleskine notebook that I wanted to keep digitally.

It's a pretty simple setup, especially after I downloaded the Blackberry app. I can view this notes folder anywhere I have internet access, including my phone.

The problem with the Dropbox app is that it doesn't have any search function. If I'm looking for something specific, I have to scroll through the whole file, and now that it's getting to be a big file, it's getting to be a hassle. 

So I wanted to upgrade to a note-keeping system. Specifically,

• I want to be able to keep my notes online.
• I want to track tasks using the Getting Things Done method.
• I want my notes to be secure.
• I want to be able to sync my notes and retrieve via the internet.
• I want to be able to work with my notes on my phone.
• I want to use tags, and be able to pull up notes easily via the tags.
• I want to have the option of sharing specific notes with others.
• I want to be able to store images.
• I want it for free.

For the past couple of days, I've been giving Evernote a try. I have been reading tweets and blog posts about happy Evernote users, but the last time I tried to figure it out (more than a year ago) it didn't seem very user friendly. So either they've fixed that problem, or I've become more saavy (probably a good deal of both).

The tags work great. Tags are on a list by alphabetical order, but when viewing a list of all of my posts, all tags for that note are clickable so you can drill down into all other Notes with that tag. 

When the tags aren't enough, Evernote comes with a search function so you can find just about anything quickly. 

I would highly suggest reading Daneil Gold's Evernote: The unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done. I've assigned GTD tags by urgency (!!today, !!ThisWeek), location (@work, @phone, @computer, @waiting) and by project (.christmas, .resume, etc.)  I haven't had the need yet but if I interacted with others and needed input/response I would have another cluster of tags like #fred, #ethel, #lucy, #ricky. By searching for groups of tags, you can get a pretty thorough working list of things to be done:

• Searching "!!today" shows the stuff you want to do today.
• Searching ".projectX and #lucy" shows what tasks you've assigned to Lucy regarding Project X.
• Searching ".projectX and @waiting" shows what tasks for ProjectX are awaiting input/response from anyone.
• Searching ".projectX and @waiting and #ethel" shows what you are waiting for from Ethel regarding Project X. If you want to finish it today you can add the tag !!today.
• By saving searches, you can use them over and over again.

Evernote has launched a new function called Evernote Clearly. After running the install, now when I am reading a web page, I have a button on the browser that re-loads the page stripping off all the ads. You end up with a much more readable page that you can also adjust the font size. You can click on a button and beam that as a new Note directly into Evernote. Images are included, and all the links work (even if you just click-and-drag, when you paste into a new Note, the links work, which is nice). 

Some other nice features:

• You can send notes to Evernote via email, and you can assign tags via email.
• Images are scanned for text, and they will show up in search (for Premium users).
• You can imbed audio files.
• The free version includes a monthly allowance of 60MB of data. After that, it's $5/month or $45/year.
• You can generate URLs for specific Notes. For notes written in my Moleskine, after I type them into Evernote, I run these URLs through tinyurl.com and write the ~7 character string (the random characters after "http://tinyurl.com/") in red next to my Moleskine notes. This way, multiple note-taking sessions will have the same tinyurl for the same subject.
• You can grab the note URL and clip it into Google Calendar, so if there is a note associated with a calendar event you can read it.

Evernote also comes with apps for the iPhone 4S and Kindle Fire that Santa's going to get me for Christmas.

 

Lake in Watercolor pencils...

I've been expanding my horizons, working on my drawing skills with colored pencils and watercolor pencils. 

I still enjoy watercolors, but it is daunting to get everything all set up for what might be a short uninspired session, and you end up thinking you'd rather just not do it today so you won't have to clean up everything afterward.

That's where the watercolor pencils and colored pencils come in. I have Prismacolor watercolor pens, and I also have a set of colored pencils. 

I sometimes want to do something creative, but don't want to fetch clean water, get all my brushes out, tape down my watercolor paper and all that. No I can just pull out a handful of pencils and start sketching away. If I use my watercolor pencils, I can later spray a fine mist of water over the sketch and watch the colors intensify. You can take a brush and move some pigment around, or even switch to watercolor brushes and use that medium to put in dominant themes.

5in x 8in Moleskine sketchpad

Prismacolor watercolor pencils 

 

 

 

 

Absolutely amazing guitar version of Michael Jackson's Beat It by 15 year old Sungha Jung

Amazing. He also has an excellent version of Dancing Queen and Hotel California on his YouTubes. 

 Here's a duet with Trace Bundy performing Pachelbel's Canon. Beautiful. 

www.sunghajung.com

 

Wisconsin Isn't Ohio

Well, it turns out it won't be as easy a task to push the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, despite encouraging results in Ohio the other night.

• Wisconsin law does not permit a public referendum on the Collective Bargaining law. The only way to repeal the law is to recall Governor Walker.
• Unlike the Ohio law defeated Tuesday, Wisconsin's Senate Bill 5 specifically excludes firefighters and police.
• Wisconsin voters may not be as ready to recall a Governor as Ohio was to block a specific law or policy.
• Wisconsin voters may not be ready to recall a Republican and replace him with a Democrat.No Democrat is clearly interested in taking over the job of being Governor of Wisconsin.

From NPR