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Thursday, 02 August 2007

ABC Guy

I get a kick out of the weirdest things. Last night Helen and I were watching the local ABC evening news. At the end of the news they always do the shot of the people standing out on State Street. Without fail is this goofy dude with white hair. He always has on these crazy suits. Every time I see him at the end of the news I practically pee my pants laughing. I don't know why it makes me laugh so hard. I think I need a vacation.

Monday, 23 July 2007

2 month recap

I know its been a while since my last entry. So here are the highlights of what's occurred over the last few months:
1. I stopped working out. I feel like I can see a tidal wave of fat coming to adhere to my body. (Sorry no pics)
2. I took the family with me to a conference in South Beach Miami

Helen and Jeremy from our hotel balcony
Me and the boy in the sand

Me trying to look cool

Jeremy sitting in the cockpit of the plane
3. I went to the Philippines for a week and got diarrhea...again (Sorry no pics)
4. After the Philippines, I went to Korea for a 4 days (Sorry no pics)
5. The family went to the Brookfield zoo for the first time

Jeremy and Helen petting the sting rays

Jeremy and daddy not watching the polar bears

Mommy and Jeremy looking at the penguins
6. I became an uncle of twin nieces (for the whole story here's my bro's blog http://jchungum.blogspot.com/)

Baby Sydney

Baby Addison
I think that gets you caught up. I really do need to blog more often...

Wednesday, 23 May 2007

Body for Life Update

So it's been a while since I've blogged. Back in March Helen and I decided to get in shape. I thought I would give a quick update. I think Helen and I have both lost around 8lbs (depending on when we weigh ourselves). While we don't (yet) have bods that look like the pics in the Body for Life website, I'd say we now have improved bodies. I'll call my body version 2.0.
I'll note a couple of lessons learned so far regarding the Body for Life regimen. One, the Body for Life diet is not workable from my perspective. Basically, the book says you should eat many small meals. I couldn't make that work. My work schedule just doesn't permit that kind of eating schedule. For me, just watching my portions and drinking diet Coke is good enough.
What I found to be spot on is making sure that you lift weights as part of your work out regimen. The idea is the more muscles you have the more fat you burn while not working out which is actually where you burn most of your energy. Helen can attest that lifting weights for women does not bulk you out. The second thing I thought was very effective is working out in the morning (before you eat breakfast) which kicks in your metabolism in high gear early in the day.
It is hard to keep to a regular workout schedule. For the last two or three weeks, we haven't been able to work out but we're trying to get back at it. I'll give another update in the future (maybe with pics =P).

Monday, 02 April 2007

Second Life

I usually like to stay current on the latest tech trends but here's one I missed, the Second Life phenomena. For those of you not in the know on Second Life it's an on-line virtual world. It's not another World of Warcraft type of game. In fact its not a game at all. There are no monsters to slay or worlds to conquer its just an on-line world. You can configure your "avatar" but then you're free to roam and just plain ole exist in this world. What's amazing is that there's a virtual economy that has developed that is bleeding over into the real world. Your avatar can earn Linden dollars (L$), the currency in this on-line world. But these L$ have value against a real dollar.

So get this, there are people who are making so much money in L$'s that they're able to quit their real jobs. For example, one woman set-up virtual on-line shop to sell clothes that these avatars can wear. She's doing so well that she doesn't have to work her real job.

I decided to see what all the fuss was about and tried it out and I gotta say it was pretty silly. Maybe its because I'm normally a private person and I don't get jazzed at the prospect of chatting with someone on-line. Second Life is really a social networking thing and I think my existing "real" network is just fine. I did think that there might be an evangelism opportunity here. If you're scared to go to Africa, how about an on-line country? I didn't think to check if there's a virtual church. Maybe next time I'll look but I think it will be a while before I visit my Second Life as my First Life keeps me too busy and is much more interesting.

Friday, 23 March 2007

Macs Rule

We got a MacBook laptop not too long ago in anticipation that our Dell desktop is going to croak soon. I haven't used a Mac actively since my college days but I must say it is a better machine. Everything about it is so much smarter than a Windows based machine. It sleeps when you close the screen, the battery lasts forever, the user interface is better, the laptop construction is great, everything is just plain better. Now I haven't given Vista a go yet and I know we'll always have a Windows based machine around but I think Microsoft should be a little concerned. Especially as apps go browser based its not as compelling to go MS.