2006 March 30

In less than a month, I've gone from ~175lbs down to 160. This brings me to the halfway point of my initial weight loss goal (145, if you do the math). I can't say that this lifestyle adjustment has been simple, but I will say that it's been far easier than previously anticipated. I'm using my geek skills to get me through, including a sweat-inducing workout on my Gazelle both last night and this morning. How is that geeky?
I pulled a 90-minute exercise session (without blinking) last night while I was playing Feeding Frenzy on the Xbox 360 – racking up a few achievements. I pulled an hour on it this morning, getting even more Feeding Frenzy achievements. I tell ya, the only way to work out is with a video game controller in your hand. I've tried it with television shows, but plain ol' TV just doesn't enable me to work up a sweat like a good PSP game or Xbox 360 diversion does. It's not just forcing my mind to do something else, it's keeping my controller steady, applying dexterity to the buttons, keeping my balance on the glider, etc.
160! Watching calories has been part of it… smaller meals have been part of it… more frequent munching has been part of it… daily workouts have been part of it… CalorieKing's exercaise and nutrition manager has been part of it… FatBlasters has been part of it… Green tea has been part of it. I'll “weigh in” again when I hit 155, with the final ten pounds countdown.
Technology can help you lose weight, too!

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Dude. Why is “everybody” writing about Apple's announcement that they're now letting users limit the maximum volume in iPods? A popular devices gets a relatively minor feature upgrade. THIS IS NOT NEWS! I suppose I'm just as bad for bringing it up, too – but it's more of a commentary on the commentary rather than more of the same commentary. Wake me when Apple does something major – like open up iTunes/iPod to other vendors, or concede that DRM is stupid. I'd expect this kind of excitement from an Apple fanatic, but not from the rest of the galaxy. Volume control? Judas Priest…

Read more on Not Necessarily the News…

Like most people, I have to flip back and forth between Firefox and IE (Maxthon, actually). There's no easy way to do it… unless you're running Optool. A longer right-click will invoke a menu that opens the current Web page in another browser! Easy as pie. Plus, you can resize the window, go to the Parent or Root URL, and monitor the clipboard for Web addresses. Nice, even if it's not quite ready for Maxthon. This isn't a plugin, though – it's a standalone (unobtrusive) utility for Windows.

Read more on Cool Optool…