The thing is, I do have lots and lots to talk about, just no time or energy to do it. I don’t even have the time or energy to read other people’s blogs, assuming there are still such things. Are blogs dead? Did Facebook and Twitter kill the blogio star? Are we all just lame ducks waiting for the destructive palinization of civilization?

And does anyone remember MySpace? Oh, the hairstyles of three years ago make us so embarrassed, don’t they?

Everything we eat is bad for us, unless we nurtured it in the dirt ourselves.

Medical marijuana has come to Colorado and the Dispensary Wars threaten to tear the city apart. If only Hick can become governor and unite the state and find a decent defensive coordinator for the supremely defensive McDaniels. Jason Sheehan is leaving for Seattle and the last reason to read Westword goes with him.

We all wear masks, but why is it so hard for me to find one that fits?

I have a feeling iPhones are doomed sooner rather than later.

The cloud contains all our information and all our media, but what happens if we lose access to it?

Olympics. Olympix. Olympia. The gods look down from the control booth and try to get someone to care. But the only thing we worship is a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas under $2.

2010. The Year We Make Com-post.

Latre.

And at the same time, I’ve had to deal with another life change. The company I work for closed the office I was working at. Since they closed the previous office in April, I had been going into the further-away office two days a week and working from home the rest of the time. Now I’m working from home 100% of the time. I don’t like it. I need the occasional social interaction, plus I like having at least a semblance of a separation between work and home. But there’s no real choice.

Those of you who work at home know how important it is to have a comfortable work environment. There’s a lot of problems with mine, but until I get a new house or get the basement finished, I have to deal with what I have.

One thing that helps me get through the day is listening to music while I work. Not only does it help to block out other sounds and distractions (the neighborhood kids can be pretty noisy), but listening to music I like just makes for a more pleasant work environment in general.

I’ve also found that I’ve been really getting into music lately, like I haven’t for a long time. I think that’s partly because there’s just so much good new music out there these days – I’ve been downloading like crazy from eMusic, AmieStreet and Amazon lately. More on that in future posts. It’s easy to do, almost too easy, when you’ve given up physical media and are going all digital – which I’ve talked about in recent entries. And the CD archiving project has renewed my interest in music I already own. It’s a kick to hear something cool I haven’t listened to in years.

I’m sure there’s a fad aspect to this. I tend to go in cycles with my interests: music, video games, comics, blogging, movies/TV, etc. At any one time, I’ll be bored with all but one those. And right now, that one thing is music.

It’s important for me to listen to the music in the best possible way. I’ve got my music library (downloads plus ripped CDs) in iTunes on the PC, and that’s my primary listening venue these days. I also still listen on my iPod nano when I work out at the gym 3-4 days a week, but I no longer have the all-important car listening experience, since I don’t have a commute any more. My iTunes library is over 23,000 songs and growing quickly. When I’m working, I alternate between playing the entire library on shuffle play and listening to whole individual albums at a time – usually ones I’ve recently downloaded or ripped.

The problem is that iTunes is on my home PC and not my work one. The two computers are at a 90 degree orientation from each other in my computer room. My home office stereo was setup to optimize the listening experience at the home computer. I tried playing around with the stereo balance when at my work computer, but the experience was just not optimal. Headphones work okay, but I can only wear them for so long, the cord gets in the way, and I’m not crazy about the sound quality with comfortable phones.

Then I had the brilliant idea to hook up another set of speakers to the stereo. Because of the work space limitations, I would need some pretty small ones. I have a couple of pairs of small computer speakers that I could’ve just hooked up to the headphone/speaker jack of the home computer, but I don’t really like the sound of any of them, and the cabling for that presented some obstacles.

So I looked around in my basement and found an old pair of Realistic (i.e. Radio Shack) speakers that I had bought a long, long time ago for some long forgotten reason. I probably used them for rear speakers or something back in the dawn of surround sound. I did however remember that I liked the sound of them, even though they were small 4-inch cubes. So I strung some speaker wire and placed a speaker on each side of the work monitor.

Wow – I was blown away. I don’t know if they’re actually good or if my hearing is just really going in my old age, but I’m extremely satisfied with the sound these tiny things pump out. Yeah, I do have to crank the bass a bit on the amplifier, but no big whoop. What really gets me is the sound field. The stereo separation is fantastic, and I feel totally enveloped in the sound. Maybe that’s just because of where the speakers are placed in relation to where I’m sitting, and I would get the same effect with any speakers that fit in the space. But I don’t know – there’s just something about the sound of these things that I really like. Perfect for digital music.

I can’t believe how much this has improved my work situation in general. I feel more energized and productive having these things surround me with my tunes all day. Thank you, Radio Shack of old!

Latre.

Note: I’ve joined last.fm and have installed their Scrobbler, so you can see what I’ve been listening to by going to my profile. The most recently listened-to tunes are also displayed on this blog over to the side.

Pet Peeve of the Day: Brokers, lawyers, accountants, and plumbers.

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “why do contact lenses for distance mess up my close up vision”.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)

I’m getting tired of taking the reading glasses on and off all the time. I kind of long for that pre-LASIK time when I had one pair of glasses that I kept on at all non-sleeping times. Sure, it was a hassle trying to find the bathroom in the middle of the night sometimes, but I think that beats trying to read something and having to search out some glasses. I want an all-in-one solution to my vision needs, even if it means going back to wearing glasses “full time”. Oh, I still want to go without glasses when working out at the gym or doing other sports-type things (one good thing about the LASIK), but for everything else, I could definitely go back to the 4-eyes scenario.

So at my annual vision checkup this year, instead of going with another pair of reading glasses to cover just the degradation in that area, I decided to go with a pair of progressive lenses. They have a tall area at the top of the lens for magnifying distance vision, and a gradation of zones at the bottom of the lens for helping with various close-up and reading issues. The doctor said I should be able to wear them all the time. And indeed, they’re fantastic for almost everything. It’s not that big a difference when driving, but it’s enough to be noticeable. I can read street signs and license plates and such that are a bit further away than I used to. But the best thing about using them when driving is I can now read the dashboard and the multi-function display a lot easier, just by tilting my head up a bit. I no longer have to struggle to figure out the name of the song on the MFD playing from the iPod. It also makes texting-while-driving a lot easier. (Just kidding.)

And I’ve also noticed that wearing them around the house improves my TV-watching and videogame playing experience. I feel like I’m getting the full HDTV experience for the first time since buying my plasma TV and PS3/BluRay. I no longer have to sit on a bean bag chair in front of the TV to see all the enemies on screen when playing videogames. And I can actually read while watching TV, without having to take glasses on and off! (Yes, sometimes I multitask.)

I also find that using the new glasses to read in general works better than my old reading glasses, especially for graphic novels. Although that could just be because my prescription has gotten worse.

So, the glasses have changed my life in a very positive way and I adjusted to them very quickly. However, they’re not the all-in-one solution I was hoping for. The one thing they don’t work well for is computer work. In order to read a computer screen with the glasses, I must have my head tilted up at an uncomfortable angle. And even then, the zone of sharpness is not very large, and any head movement at all makes me lose it. This is very headache-inducing. So, I still need to wear reading glasses when I’m at the computer. And seeing as how my work involves staring at a computer screen all day, and I’m also at the computer a lot for personal reasons, that’s a large chunk of time having to wear a different pair of glasses. Bummer.

I talked to the doctor about possibly getting a pair that would also work for computer work, but that would be difficult. They’d have to move the mid-range zone up on the lens, which would take away from the distance zone above and would probably also mess up the closeup zone below.

So I’ve gone from two vision situations (reading glasses, no glasses) to three (reading glasses, no glasses, progressive glasses). Although really the “no glasses” situation applies only to the gym and sleeping these days. I’m having trouble adjusting to switching to the progressives when I’m away from the computer. Keeping a pair of reading glasses next to the computer is not a big deal, but for some reason I always forget to keep the progressives handy too, especially at home. At the office I usually don’t have that problem.

This has definitely caused some mixups. I was playing a videogame yesterday and needed some help getting through part of it. So I went to the computer and looked up something on the Internet. When I got back to the video game, I was having a hard time and getting a headache. I chalked it up to the fact that the section of the game I was playing had a lot of snow obscuring the action. Finally, N walked into the room holding my progressives and said, “Don’t you need these?” I had been playing the game while wearing the reading glasses, which I had put on while at the computer. Ha ha – I’m such a Plugger!

Even though there are problems, I’m looking at this as a positive development. It’s opened up my world in a way that hasn’t happened since I got my first pair of glasses in high school, or right after I had the LASIK operation when I could still read without reading glasses (a time period that didn’t last long).

Latre.

Pet Peeve of the Day: The amount of tweaking you have to go through when changing WordPress themes in order to still get things to work like you want them to. I think I finally got this new theme working okay, but it took a little fiddling around. Good thing I know some PHP and am beginning to figure out stylesheets. And now I don’t feel so beholden to any one particular theme and can probably change themes a little easier now.

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “you crush me 2009″.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: I’m playing an awful lot of God of War 2 lately on my PS3, even though it’s a PS2 game. I never did play it when it came out, so I figure I should finish it sometime before GoW3 for the PS3 comes out next year.

I wish I had gotten some pix of the family of foxes living in my neighbor’s yard, but they vacated before I could get a decent shot. I did get one video, but you can’t see much in it.

Latre.

Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Blog Update:

• “I Got You” (Split Enz)
• “Sorry” (Youth Group)
• “Weathered and Torn” (The Dream Syndicate)
• “Sweet Creature, What’s Your Name?” (Anton Barbeau)
• “Artists Only” (Talking Heads)
• “A Summer Wasting” (Belle & Sebastian)
• “Strangest Things” (Longwave)
• “Camaraderie” (Ian McNabb)
• “Do It” (Buzzcocks)
• “I Love You” (Barenaked Ladies)
• “6′1″” (Liz Phair)
• “Can’t Take The Heat” (I Am The World Trade Center)
• “Gift” (Curve)
• “The Well and the Lighthouse” (Arcade Fire)
• “Someone Else’s Friend” (Shake Some Action!)
• “Not About You” (Jonathan Coulton)
• “Snakes with wings” (Bill Nelson)
• “Get In Or Get Out” (Hot Hot Heat)
• “Love Is Only A Feeling” (The Darkness)
• “Ego” (The Sounds)
• “The Fall Of The House Of Usher: II. Arrival” (Alan Parsons Project)
• “The Light Pours Out of Me” (Trotsky Icepick)
• “Meeting the Remarkable Men (Show Me the Hero)” (Harvey Danger)
• “Tissue Tigers (The Arguers)” (XTC)
• “It’s Now” (Imperial Teen)
• “Stuck Between Stations” (The Hold Steady)
• “Praise The Lord” (Poi Dog Pondering)
• “Lovely Little Swan” (Close Lobsters)
• “The Dead We Wake With Upstairs Drums” (Bill Nelson)
• “Dark Wave” (Stephen Malkmus)
• “You Never Know” (Goldfrapp)
• “The Beginning (Week One)” (The Features)
• “500 (Shake Baby Shake)” (Lush)
• “Rocks Off” (Loud Family)
• “Relive The Magic…Bring The Magic Home” (Reggie and the Full Effect)
• “The Mask of Shame” (Steve Wynn)
• “Astronomer” (Trotsky Icepick)
• “Morning Star” (Fastball)
• “Walking With the Beggar Boys” (Elf Power)
• “Twin Cinema” (The New Pornographers)
• “Dancing With Myself” (Nouvelle Vague)
• “Blowin’ Smoke” (Arcwelder)
• “#37 (Feels So Strange)” (The Greenberry Woods)
• “Promise” (Violent Femmes)
• “Thank God” (The Maggies)
• “Hole” (Penelope Houston)
• “Destination Anywhere Else” (Shalini)
• “The Stranger” (Elf Power)
• “Uh Oh Hello” (Elefant)
• “Stranger on the Bus” (Berlin)
• “The Ghost of You Lingers” (Spoon)
• “Something Happens” (Mighty Lemon Drops)
• “Control” (Alphaville)
• “Real Cool Time” (The Feelies)
• “Rumour Sets The Woods Alight” (The Records)
• “She Can Do What She Wants” (Field Music)
• “In Passing” (The Lemonheads)
• “Starry Eyed” (Cinerama)
• “The Way We Get By” (Spoon)
• “I Often Dream of Trains” (Grant-Lee Phillips)
• “‘Cause It’s Love (Saint Parallelogram)” (Robyn Hitchcock)
• “Pre” (Relay)
• “She’s Slipping Away” (Stranglers)
• “You Were Beautiful” (Material Issue)
• “Ofor1″ (Poster Children)
• “Sunburst” (Lloyd Cole)
• “Magnetism Made Me Do It” (Bill Nelson)
• “The Time Machine (Dr Evil Austin Powers Mix)” (Alan Parsons)
• “Close…But” (Echobelly)
• “Top Banana” (Palomar)
• “Harness And Wheel” (The Kingsbury Manx)
• “Stray Dog And The Chocolate Shake” (Grandaddy)
• “Annie” (Elefant)
• “Aound the World” (Ho-Hum)
• “Angry People” (Barenaked Ladies)
• “The Breath in My Father’s Saxophone” (Bill Nelson)
• “Too Bad” (Girls Say Yes)
• “Find the River” (R.E.M.)
• “Two Yous” (Drop Quarters)
• “Modern Love Is Automatic” (A Flock of Seagulls)
• “Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)” (Kaiser Chiefs)
• “It’s Gonna Rain” (Violent Femmes)
• “Finished With Lies” (They Might Be Giants)
• “Fluke” (Mates Of State)
• “1995″ (Luna)
• “24/7″ (Hugh Cornwell)
• “Your Daddy Don’t Know” (The New Pornographers)
• “Oh Christien” (The Greenberry Woods)
• “Love And A Bucket Full Of Holes” (Bill Nelson)
• “You Or Your Memory” (The Mountain Goats)
• “Chymepeace (an ending)” (Bill Nelson)
• “Like Egypt Was” (Michael Penn)
• “Why” (Elefant)
• “Horrorshow” (The Libertines)
• “Wysteria” (Bill Nelson)
• “Nightclub” (Gay Dad)
• “Me Next” (Cinerama)
• “What I Say And What I Mean” (The Like)
• “I Miss My Life” (The Maggies)
• “The Strangest Things” (Hail Social)
• “Heavenly” (Possum Dixon)
• “Water on the Brain” (Flamingoes)
• “L’Amour Looks Something Like You” (Kate Bush)
• “(Gatekeepers Opening) Asu no egao no tame ni” (Yumi Matsuzawa)
• “A Simple Request” (Gene)
• “Pull Yourself Together” (Hefner)
• “Oh My Golly!!!” (Pixies)
• “Sean Penn Blues” (Lloyd Cole)
• “In Our Darkest Hour” (Phantom Planet)
• “Rubbish” (Luxuria)
• “Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause for Your Step-Mother!” (Sufjan Stevens)
• “Johnny Feelgood” (Liz Phair)
• “Adventures in Modern Recording” (Buggles)
• “Here Come the Warm Jets” (Loud Family)
• “Waking Up to You” (Hefner)
• “Frozen” (Ho-Hum)
• “Vermillion” (Mercury Rev)
• “Cruel Reminder” (Heatmiser)
• “Open Car” (Porcupine Tree)
• “IDK” (Relay)
• “Persimmon” (Poster Children)
• “No Reaction” (Absolute Zeros)
• “Roommate” (Don Dixon)

Weird how a Robyn Hitchcock song played right after Grant-Lee Phillips cover of Hitchcock’s “I Often Dream of Trains”…

Pet Peeve of the Day: When the local channels forget to “throw the HD switch” and I record a show expecting it to be in HD and instead get standard def and the black bars on all sides.

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “heathenism resort, mexico”.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: I actually finished Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) and have started on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS). It’s been forever since I’ve played an PS3 games, but I think that’s because anytime I turn on the TV, I feel the need to get through my huge DVR backlog.

List of current stress factors:

• More work, more responsibility, less pay.
• Need to get the girlfriend moved in by the end of the month. Still a lot to do to combine households.
• Need to get basement finished, but that’s not going to happen until after N moves in.
• Haven’t done taxes yet. Haven’t gotten my dad’s taxes back from the accountant yet.
• Need to fix floor in upstairs bathroom. A small part of it is rotted due to a (since fixed) leaking toilet.
• Will be working from home more soon, and current home office is not comfortable. Need a new one in the still-unfinished basement.
• DVR constantly almost full.
• Getting time to resume yardwork.
• Gravity exerting greater pull. No energy or time for working out.
• All my friends are on Facebook and I’m not.
• The Broncos are disintegrating and the season is still 7 months away.
• Will need to work 30 extra years before I can retire.
• Have severe sleeping disorder, which compounds all other stresses. Sleep deprivation is a horrendous and dangerous thing.

I anticipate that most, if not all, of these will be resolved, or at least made less anxiety-inducing, within the next few months. But for now I’m bugging out, man! Actually, it’s probably good that everything is coming down at once. If I’m going to be stressed, I might as well be really stressed.

Latre.

Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Blog Update:

• “Baby Elian” (Manic Street Preachers)
• “Strasbourg” (Julian Cope)
• “A Better Home In The Phantom Zone” (Bill Nelson)
• “Spy vs. Spy” (The Spinto Band)
• “Blue (Pipe) Line” (Failed Energy Giants)
• “Powderfinger” (Beat Farmers)
• “Small Talk” (Immaculate Machine)
• “A Life Less Ordinary” (Ash)
• “Back Of My Head” (Gil Ray)
• “Song in B” (Fretblanket)
• “The One That Got Away” (Al Stewart)
• “I Wanna Destroy You” (Soft Boys)
• “Auctioneer (Another Engine)” (R.E.M.)
• “Mad Jack” (Chameleons UK)
• “Intro-MC” (The Church)
• “Curse Of The Frontierland” (Game Theory)
• “New Routine” (Fountains of Wayne)
• “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives” (Voxtrot)
• “Cemetery in My Mind” (Midnight Oil)
• “I Love Trouble” (The Information)
• “Fantasy Island” (Anne Summers)
• “Bullet Proof…I Wish I Was” (Radiohead)
• “Field Jacket Blues” (Robert Pollard)
• “Domani” (Greg Dulli)
• “Two Rooms” (The Feelies)
• “Paperback Believer” (Go Home Productions)
• “The World’s Easiest Job” (Game Theory)
• “Mute Witness” (Morrissey)
• “How ‘Bout You” (Brendan Benson)
• “Human Fly” (Nouvelle Vague)
• “Glass Is Falling” (The Vanishing)
• “Gone Daddy Gone” (Violent Femmes)
• “It’s Getting Better” (Popinjays)
• “Love” (Poster Children)
• “Passion Is The Only Fruit” (Butterfly Child)
• “Sound It Off” (Mates Of State)
• “Still Life” (The Connells)

Pet Peeve of the Day:The kid down the block has a drumkit in the garage and practices with the garage door open. Guess this should be in the stress list. At least kids aren’t camping out on my lawn!

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “crabs name tha begings with letter p”.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions this year. Isn’t joining a gym (as cliché as that is) enough? No, it’s not. The real reason is that I’m not done with last year’s resolutions. And everyone knows you can’t start new resolutions until you’ve finished off the old ones. So, let’s take a minute and check the status of those 2008 resolutions:

1. Sell my comic book collection.
   Miraculously, I finally did that this week. I did save a few rare ones to sell on eBay if times get rough, but I actually sold the bulk of the collection (nearly 20,000 comics in 60-some longboxes) to a local collector who found me through my Craigslist ad (which was posted for all of a day). I even got something close to my asking price (in cash), and got rid of the warehouse shelving unit they were stored on at the same time. I thought I would be sad, but it feels like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Although my shoulders hurt from helping to load the comics into his SUV, which involved multiple loads.
2. Eat less and exercise more.
   Didn’t do very good on that one, though I’m hoping the whole gym thing will help me with that this year.
3. Keep in better touch with friends.
   Not sure. I don’t think I did very well, though probably better than 2007. What’s bad is that I didn’t take any trips to visit friends in other parts of the country, and I definitely want to do that this year.
4. House repairs and remodels, including replacing some appliances and finishing the basement.
   Didn’t accomplish any of this, although now that the comics are out of the basement I can finally start on the basement finishing project. Well, after I get rid of a lot of other stuff down there. Oh, I did at least secure a Home Equity Line of Credit.
5. Rip all my CDs to the computer.
   Ha! I barely kept up with ripping new ones, much less making any headway on the back catalog.
6. Read more books and play more video games.
   I finished one book and got halfway through another, but that’s probably not better than the previous year. I did however play (and finish!) more video games.
7. Learn a new skill or technology at work.
   I took some training classes but I’m not sure I really “learned” anything. Although I’m on a new project now that should give me a chance to learn some new stuff.
8. Take a trip to a beach with the gf.
   Yep, we went to Cancún in April.
9. Avoid driving into things.
   Yeah! No accidents in 2008! And so far in 2009…

Well, I mentioned in that post last year that I would be happy to accomplish any two of the resolutions, and it looks like I did even better than that. So I’m happy!

For 2009: More of the same. Plus I want to appear on Hell’s Kitchen. And see more movies. And listen to more music. And write more blog entries, or at least more than I’m writing now. And upgrade Wordpress again and change the theme.

Latre.

Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update:

• “I Have Faith” (The Dream Syndicate)
• “Poking Myself In The Eye To Spite My Finger” (Anton Barbeau)
• “The Day Of The Triffids” (The Celebrity Pilots)
• “A Different Man” (The Church)
• “The Return of the Beserker” (The Futureheads)
• “Head Full of Steam” (The Go-Betweens)
• “Hairdresser on Fire” (Morrissey)
• “Tall” (Poi Dog Pondering)
• “Detonator” (Ash)
• “Strong Enough” (Bill Nelson)
• “Dirty Mouth” (Hot Hot Heat)
• “Between the Worlds” (Be Bop Deluxe)
• “Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts” (Maritime)
• “Driving to Damascus” (Big Country)
• “Pastimes & Lifestyles” (Dogs Die in Hot Cars)
• “Yolanda Hayes” (Fountains of Wayne)
• “The Day The Rain Came Down” (Felt)
• “The One You Never Had” (Lloyd Cole)
• “Quality” (Barenaked Ladies)
• “Love’s Great Adventure” (Ultravox)
• “Distance Makes” (Maxïmo Park)
• “Dream The Moon” (Pere Ubu)
• “Limboland” (Sun & the Moon)
• “Just Too Bloody Stupid” (Close Lobsters)
• “I Come from Another Planet, Baby” (Julian Cope)
• “Lucy” (54-40)
• “From Georgia to Osaka” (Gene)
• “Conjure Me” (Afghan Whigs)
• “A Certain Bridge” (Last Man In Europe)
• “Return of the Roughnecks” (Chameleons UK)
• “Road To Ruin” (The Libertines)
• “Easy Does” (Let’s Active)

Pet Peeve of the Day: I may be totally off-base here, but it seems like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have gotten shorter and Comedy Central is throwing more commercials in. Anyone have any statistics? Although I guess that’s not a bad thing, since it makes my morning routine go faster.

Ben Affleck’s Wife-Related Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “juno yuppie woman”.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS). Still brutally hard!

The main list manager I used on the Palm was ListPro, which doesn’t yet exist for the iPhone. More on that in a future entry. The three main things I listed in it were my CD collection, my DVD collection, and… my weight log. I’m not sure… it’s one of the obsessive compulsive things, I guess… but every day for nearly five years, I’ve been weighing myself and recording the result. Oh sure, I would miss a day here and there, especially if I was on vacation, but I’d say I’m hitting around 99% of the days. I started out writing the weight down on a piece of paper, and then when I filled up a page, I would transfer the numbers to an Excel spreadsheet. That became tedious, although it was “fun” to chart the data in Excel and see a graphical representation of my (lack of) progress. When I got the PDA and installed the handheld and desktop versions of ListPro, I imported my spreadsheet into it, and then switched to entering the daily weight directly on the computer. The only downfall of that is that I had to remember what the weight was between stepping on the scale and going to the computer.

(Digression: Those of you who obsessively weigh yourselves most likely have a weighing routine like I do. Those of you who don’t may or may not be surprised to learn there is so much to the routine. It has to be done around the same time every morning, and before some activities but after others. I will not bore you or freak you out with the details, but if I remember correctly, the book Thinner by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) has a wonderful description of just such a routine. So check that out. Oh, and btw, my digital scale says “Thinner” on it, which I find eerie, as it brings back memories of the book. Plus, it’s like a command. “Thinner!” the scale rails at me, “YOU MUST BECOME THINNER! Or I will electrocute your naked toes with my tiny watch battery.”)

So in order to track my daily weight, I decided to have a little fun with it and I bought a recommended iPhone app called Weightbot. Yes, bought. I paid $1.99 (it’s up to $2.99 now) for an application whose sole reason for existence is to record a number up to once a day. But it’s got a cute user interface, and it does have a couple of different graphs of the weight data it can display when you turn the iPhone sideways. Oh, and it estimates your Body Mass Index (BMI). That’s it. It sure don’t do much, but it’s kind of cute, like Kate Hudson. And I can have it with me the bathroom and enter the weight immediately, instead of having to remember it when I get to the computer. The iPhone does not care if you are naked.

The downside is that there’s no way to export the weight data to the computer for manipulating and viewing there. Not to mention there’s no reliable backup (I don’t trust iTunes for backing up data). So… you guessed it… I still also enter the weight into the desktop version of ListPro every day. It’s so nice to have direction in life.

Note: I have not included any screen shots of the app itself, since I don’t want you guys knowing my current weight and comparing it to the weights I listed back in the daily posting days when I was constantly revealing it. That was dumb.

Latre.

Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update:

• “Damage Done” (Veruca Salt)
• “Trip To Life” (Circus Guy)
• “I Don’t Agree” (Stranglers)
• “Just A Little” (Frank Black)
• “Length of Love” (Interpol)
• “Why Don’t The Buildings Cry?” (Youth Group)
• “The Cap’m” (They Might Be Giants)
• “Poison In The Wall” (The Go-Betweens)
• “Brainsaw” (Therapy?)
• “Farewell” (Trotsky Icepick)
• “Money On The Dresser” (Local H)
• “No Sympathy – No Violins” (Classix Nouveaux)
• “Comfortable Place on the Couch” (Midnight Oil)
• “Drug Free” (Anton Barbeau)
• “Barrier” (China Drum)

Yes, I went to the gym and worked out and ran on the treadmill yesterday even though my right foot still hurts. And I went to the doctor about it today. Remind me to tell you about that someday.

Pet Peeve of the Day: Damn 70 degree weather in February. What is this, frickin’ Florida?

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “apartment fire alarm constantly beeping cold”. That sounds bad.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: The old same Castlevania: Order of Eccelsia (DS). Hey, I think I’m going to end up actually finishing this one. And fairly soon, too. I’m deep into Dracula’s Castle.

Yes, this blog is five years old!

Hard to believe I’ve been doing this blog thing for five whole years now. I had no idea when I started it on January 20th 2004, that I’d still be going strong half a decade later. A lot has happened in that time, but I covered most of it in last year’s anniversary entry, so I won’t repeat it, dwell on it, or re-bore you with the history of this humble little weblog. Although it is time to reexamine the statistics. Last year at this time, I had written 600 posts, for an average of a post every 2.5 days. Now I am up to post 918, which ups my average to a post every other day. Of course, that’s mainly due to the fact that I had a year-long string of daily posts from 10/30/07 through 10/29/08. So, again, hooray for me! I’m the best.

And to have this happen on the same day as another American milestone is just icing on the anniversary cake. While drinking my celebratory champagne, I will also be toasting our new President, as well as the new spirit of hope/change/whatever in America. This is a turning point in many different ways, and I think I’m finally beginning to feel better about the future. Don’t let me down, Obama Administration! Fix everything! Hey, if a guy can land a plane in the Hudson River with no causalities, anything is possible.

(Note: I originally designed the graphic above with an American flag in the background to celebrate the day, but decided against that version when I noticed it looked like the flag was being burned. Something tells me that’s not in very good taste.)

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned! The best is… somewhere.

And let me leave you with this little conundrum:
Are we human? Or are we… dancer?

Latre.

Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since The Last Entry:

• “Synthesize” (Shalini)
• “Falling Flame” (Echobelly)
• “To Wild Homes” (The New Pornographers)
• “Slipping My Mind” (Michael Penn)
• “MTV Song” (Anton Barbeau)
• “Dancing Shoes” (Arctic Monkeys)
• “Tad Song” (Anton Barbeau)
• “Wondering” (Dirty Pretty Things)
• “Untouchable” (Paul Kelly)
• “Crypto-Sicko” (Loud Family)
• “Everything Must Go” (Manic Street Preachers)
• “Love Reality” (Reggie and the Full Effect)
• “Windmills in a world without wind” (Bill Nelson)
• “This Time” (Icehouse)
• “Where and Why” (Chris Mars)
• “First-Time Mother’s Joy (Flying)” (Mercury Rev)
• “Garden of Delight (Hereafter)” (Mission UK)
• “Supergirls” (The Capes)
• “Strawberryfire” (The Apples In Stereo)
• “Days Run Away” (House Of Love)
• “Chemicals” (Poster Children)
• “Wonder Guy” (Girls Say Yes)
• “Seattle” (Fastball)
• “Stupid Dream” (Porcupine Tree)
• “Carry My Picture” (The Connells)

I actually did 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym yesterday, which took me 45 minutes. And then I spent another 45 minutes or so doing weight training. Yeah, I’m buff. (Actually, I’m as squishy as always, but at least I’m sweating more.)

Pet Peeve of the Day: Why do nursing homes never have adequate visitor parking?

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “can’t sleep alarm clock too bright”.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

Directions:
1. Put your iPod, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. Write the name of that song down, no matter how silly it sounds.

How would you describe yourself?
“Alphaville” (The Monochrome Set)

What do you like in a man/woman?
“Falling From The Sky” (Gutterball)

How do you feel today?
“Rainy Season” (Howard Devoto)

What is your life’s purpose?
“Something’s Gotta Give” (Pere Ubu)

What is your motto?
“Hewlett’s Daughter” (Grandaddy)

What do your friends think of you?
“Femtex” (Therapy?)

What do your parents think about you?
“She Goes To Bed” (Jason Falkner)

What do you think of your best friend?
“The Ring Song” (The Bravery)

What do you think of the person you love?
“Day Of Eternity” (Bill Nelson)

What is your life story?
“Crush Me” (The Crowd Scene)

What do you want to do when you grow up?
“Challengers” (The New Pornographers)

What do you think when you see the person you love?
“Seven Days” (Fastbacks)

What will you/did you dance to at your wedding?
“Interstate 5 (acoustic version)” (The Wedding Present)

Your favorite hobby or biggest interest?
“Pictures of You” (The Cure)

What is your biggest fear?
“Move It” (John Sharples)

What is your biggest secret?
“War Buddies” (Harvey Danger)

What do you think of your friends?
“Touch Me (I Want Your Body)” Samantha Fox

Latre.

(There’s a real “off by one” thing going on here. Some of these would have been better answers to previous or next questions, like the “motto” question should’ve had the “Something’s Gotta Give” answer. And wouldn’t “Ring Song” go better with the “person you love” question? But oh well, the chips fall where they may. Why are my family and friends confused about my gender? I like the matchup on the wedding/present question/answer. And the “life story”. Of course, I do want to be one of the Challengers of the Unknown if I ever grow up. I do like my women falling from the sky. Oh yeah, and I’m definitely Alphaville. I’ve even seen the movie.)

(FYI, In case you don’t know, the title of this post is a nod to the Smith’s song “Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before”. There’s a cover of it that I heard twice in two days: Once in the season premiere of Nip/Tuck the other night, and the other time over the loudspeaker at the gym I work out in, the next night. I didn’t recognize the artist and had to look it up. Turns out it’s Mark Ronson, whom I’ve never heard of.)

Pet Peeve of the Day: Playing music over the loudspeaker at the gym. Seems odd, especially since 80% of the people are wearing headphones/earbuds and listening to MP3 players.

Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “i lost my prius smart key”.

Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: None!

As I mentioned a few days ago, I haven’t been doing any jogging lately. It’s a combination of factors: laziness, cold weather, icy/snowy sidewalks, no time (going to bed too late). The usual. Wintertime makes it very hard to run outside. Although sometimes in the summer I use the excuse that it’s too hot.

So I’ve taken a radical step and done something I’ve never ever done before. I actually signed up with a gym (excuse me, “Fitness Center”). 24-Hour Fitness is currently having a promotion (which ends tomorrow) where you can get all access at any one club for one year for $200 if you prepay. That’s less than $17/month. No commitment (aside from the upfront money), no additional fees, no monthly charges. Even if I end up only using it a couple of times a month, it would still be worth it. There’s a huge facility just over three miles from my house, and it’s on the route between home and work. It even has a pool so I can swim some laps. The group classes (yoga, cycling, etc) are included. If I had known gym membership was so cheap, I would’ve signed up sooner.

I like having the one year limited time membership, since that gives me a long time, all four seasons, to see if this is something that fits my lifestyle. My current plan is to stop at the gym on the way home from work a couple of times a week for some cardio, and then maybe work up to some resistance training and such. It will be a switch for me, since when I jog, I do it in the morning to get it out of the way for the day. At the end of the work day, I don’t feel as much like exercising. But something in my body seems to be telling me I need to try a different schedule. I am a tad worried that after-work is peak time and I may not always be able to find a machine I want (especially the treadmills), but we’ll see how it goes. I may try some weekend morning sessions too.

I’m also kind of worried that I don’t know the first thing about using a gym, but I’m sure I’ll adjust. The center provides a fitness orientation session, which I have scheduled for late next week, so I’m sure that will help. I just have to be sure to not overdo it and injure myself. You all know how prone I am to injuries.

So, cross your fingers that this isn’t just another one of my crazy ideas or fads. I hope the membership is something I’ll actually use. And of course, it doesn’t preclude my morning jogs, though I’m sure if I use the gym regularly I’ll be doing less jogging. Although I can’t be doing less than I’m doing now!

I just know I’ve got to do something, anything to get into shape. I feel like such a lardbutt, it’s ridiculous. I weigh more than I’ve weighed in many, many years and I get sore and injured way too easily. Time to get this body into shape. Woo hoo!

Okay, now my hands are tired from all the typing. Time for a nap.

Latre.

Videogame(s) Played Recently: PlayStation Home (PS3, beta), Lego Indiana Jones (PS3), Wipeout HD (PS3)