Fit In 15: An Update

June 23, 2009 By

So, if June 17th was #fitin15 day 1, that would make today day 7… but I’m allowed to enter tomorrow, too… So I’m confused. In any case, it’s been a few days since I’ve posted a #fitin15 update so I thought I’d break down a small recap.

  • Day 1: June 17th – Went for a 25 minute walk alongside my wife and dog. Media captured was a series of images on Flickr.
  • Day 2: June 18th – Did walks and runs up the stairs of doom for 15 minutes. Captured (then edited) some video, and tossed it onto YouTube.
  • Day 3: June 19th – Went for another walk with my wife today. Media captured? None. Forgot every piece of tech I had at home (Cell phone included). Was kinda nice to unplug.
  • Day 4: June 20th – Took today ‘off’ because my legs were still burning – I blamed the stair exercises from Day 2. Spent 5 hours cleaning the house (Including vacuuming and hauling stuff up and down the stairs). I consider this a missed day, though I probably did more of a workout than most of the others.
  • Day 5: June 21st – Had originally planned on spending ab hour or more wandering aimlessly around the local conservation area. That didn’t happen. So I spent 40 minutes “Fake DDRing” instead. I used the same song and steps that I used to do daily. Captured the video (Full 40+ minutes) and have it on my computer. Not sure yet what to do with it – speeding it up messes up the music.
  • Day 6: June 22nd – I promised myself that I wouldn’t use biking during the #fitin15 challenge – outside of the house, I bike more than I walk. So if I was going to bike, I had to do something extrodinary – a lap around the city, perhaps… Or 15 rides up Fort Henry Hill… Or attaching an extra 15 pounds to the back and going for 15km. I did the later. Why? That’s a long story. Photos of the battery on the bike are on Flickr.

And that brings us today – which will be another post in a little while.

Filed Under: Archives, Personal, Projects

Fit In 15: The Stairs of Doom

June 18, 2009 By

So, today’s Fit In 15 was a video. You can find it at the end of the post. I decided that it’d be a lot of fun to run/walk up and down the dtairs for 15 minutes. I wasn’t too concerned. My wife said I was underestimating the challenge. Boy was she ever right.

I mentioned yesterday that I’d go more into my secret weight loss challenge – so here goes. Once upon a time, I weight 264 pounds. Those who only knew me as a real young guy may be laughing – I was skin and bones back then. But it’s true. See, I had discovered not long after getting my first part-time job that spending money = my choice of lunch. And that often was poutine. Or pizza. Or burgers. And chocolate milk. Lots of chocolate milk. When I actually gave up my 10-15L weekly intake of chocolate milk, well, it wasn’t pretty.

In any case, shortly after I graduated high school, I decided it was time to do something about the weight. With the help of a dietician I got my food in line, and then I hit the gym arcade. Really, nobody was fooling anyone – I wasn’t going to be found in a gym. Still wouldn’t. But Dance Dance Revolution? That I could do. The regimen was a strict 42 minutes/day at home, (The length of a specific set of songs) 6 days a week, and a 2-hour free-for-all down at the arcade on Sunday nights. The setup was a blast – I got an incredible amount of exercise and got a guaranteed slot of time with my friends. It was a lot of fun getting an audience around too.

In time, that technique brought me down over 50 pounds. I nearly passed the 200 mark once, but didn’t quite make it, and eventually seemed to settle atound 210. That’s yo-yo’d between 205 and 220, but I’ve yet to see 199 since… thinking about it now… Considering I graduated in 03.. It’s probably been 7 or 8 years.

That’s coming to and end this year. More on the goals and such another time. For now, here’s me making an idiot of myself running and walking up and down the stairs.

Filed Under: Archives, Personal, Projects

Alright Bob… You win.

June 17, 2009 By

So, I was perusing Twitter earlier today and spotted a tweet from Bob pointing to a recent blog post about the www.fitin15.ca challenge. It seems pretty simple – commit to doing 15 minutes/day of exercises from their website, and blog it, photoblog it, video it and so on. Not a bad idea.

So I commented on Bob’s post that I’d been secretly trying to lose weight and get healthier for a while now, and that this would be a great way to go public about it. My current goal is 199lbs – a weight I haven’t seen in nearly a decade, and I’m using everything at my disposal to get there. More on that, though, another day.

I also thought it would be a great way to help me blog more regularly. So this is my day 1 Fit In 15 post. I may not post daily. Tonight, I went for a 25 minute walk with my wife and dog. About half-way through, she took a few pictures of me walking (and jogging) to publish. Click on the picture to see today’s full set.

That’s it for now!

PS – If you haven’t wandered by the site in a while, I’ve got a bit of a new look. I’m still tweaking a few things and will make a more formal post about it when it’s done. :)

Filed Under: Archives, Personal, Projects

Meet @limestonetweets

March 23, 2009 By

So, slowly but surely, new online media stuff in Kingston is starting to grab hold. There are still [mostly] monthly meetups taking place to talk web technology and social networking, there are radio stations, newspapers and hockey teams on Twitter, and there’s a killer blog that’s starting to gain momentum. The last, oh, 6 months or so have seen an EXPLOSIVE amount of locals on Twitter, likely in a growth rate that rival’s the main site, and I thought it was time to do something with it.

So about 2 months ago, sitting alone in a hotel room, I created @limestonetweets. It’s a twitter account devoted entirely to the local Tweet scene and those involved in it. Beyond that, though, it’s been an experiment for me on multiple fronts:

  1. @limestonetweets is a directory, more than it is a soap box. The account follows(*) only people in (and around) Kingston, making it a perfect “first stop” for people in the city to find, and connect with, other locals. Sure, I use it occasionally to gather feedback, or announce a meetup, but it’s “following” list is a directory first and foremost.
  2. It’s also a chat room. Any DM sent to the account is broadcasted to the world – giving locals a chance to announce where they are to the whole community at once, and allowing for completely impromptu meetups to happen. Yes, similar COULD happen using something like BrightKite… but that’s not where the masses are.
  3. The account has also served as the test of my own abilities to manage multiple accounts. Verdict? Still out. For a while, I was really good at followbacks – that’s been tricky recently, but doable.
  4. It’s also been interesting to watch how the account has shifted from me working like mad to find locals, to other people finding it through friends. I spent hours combing the Twitterverse in serach of people from Kingston Ontario – as apposed to the Kingstons in Nova Scotia, Jamaica or the UK – to follow. These days? Not so much.
It’s a fun little experiment, though, and I think it’s proving useful.  I’m hopeful that in time, it’ll connect more people together and help the community in Kingston grow. That said, if you know someone I’m not yet following with it (I just cleared out a backlog) send me a personal @ or DM – or send a message @limestonetweets.
* More specifically, the software I’m using for the DM chat room stuff auto-follows, and I periodically go in and pull anyone not in the area. It’s toally a judgement call, but I err, usually, on the side of acceptance. I do, though, sometimes go through it’s list of followers, and see who they’re following, and who’s following them, to find other locals.
As an aside, hello blogosphere – It’s been too long.
Filed Under: Archives, Local, Projects, Twitter

Getting Back To Local

February 8, 2009 By

So, a little over a year ago now… Almost a year and a half ago, actually, I started up a little project I called the Limestone New Media Group. When I got it started, I was about the only guy in town on Twitter but I’d heard a few other people were listening to podcasts. I figured that 3 or 4 people had to only be the tip of the iceburg, and that we should probably all get together for a beer, coffee or lunch. While it did take a few months more before anything other than a 1-on-1 meetup happened, they did eventually happen. And they happened regularly… For a while.

The past few months, though, have seen a real steep decline in the “real-world” gatherings of local people… And that saddens me. The local meetups were something that brought together three things I enjoy: Kingston, the web and meeting people. The meetups, from day one, were always planned to be social, for-fun gatherings and I think most people who attended had a good time. So a few friends of mine, and I, are going to start to get them going again.

I regularly say that one of the things I find most rewarding in this new digital web media space is building connections between two people. Watching partnerships, ideas, friendships and even relationships bloom as a result of a simple introduction tweet, email or phone call is a lot of fun. It’s even more fun when you can do that on a larger scale. So a few weeks ago I created the @limestonetweets account. It’s serving, right now, as a directory of local Twitterers, but will likely be used for announcements and such as time goes on. It’s my hope that it will help unite more people and build some connections between folks with similar interests.

But back to the meetups. I mentioned we’re getting them going again, and we are: The firs local meetup/tweetup/gathering will be helpd tomorrow, February 9th, at 7:00pm, at The Merchant Taphouse. This keeps it on it’s original schedule of the second monday of the month, and at our regular location. Come out for dinner, come out for drinks, or come out just to say hello! We’ll be there. I’ll be in a bright shirt, and the sig with the LNMG logo will be on the table. (We’re usually in and around to the left). If you can, give me an RSVP (here, twitter, email, wherever) so that I can hold a big enough table.

See you tomorrow!

[wpcf]

Filed Under: Archives, Events, LNMG, Local

New Project – Could use your help!

February 6, 2009 By

So… this blog’s been quiet for a while, eh? I’ll work on that – I promise. Actually… I have been working on that… But more on that next week. Right now, late on a Friday night, I wanted to take a quick second to introduce you to a new little project of mine.

As someone who has played with the idea of being a freelance web developer for some time now, I’ve always gotten bothered by a simple little part: The hourly rate. Now, the status quo is that a better developer charges more then a crappy developer. A developer with a better reputation, and a more experienced history gets to charge more that a new developer entering the field. I’m fine with that – it makes sense to me. What has always bothered me is that so many people charge a 1-hour minimum. I know a lot of folks who will bill a full hour for a 30, 15 or even 5 minut job. And I’ve always thought that was a little silly.

So this past Monday I launched WordPress Development project I’m calling WordPress By The Minute which, as you might expect, breaks that minumum 1-hour charge mold.

The idea is simple and the pricing model is simple… But getting the ball rolling has been rough. So – I’d like to ask for your help. If you could post this idea (with a trackback) or tweet it a few times, I’d be highly appreciative. And of course, if you know anyone looking for work done, hand them my name? I have some testimonials on the site now, and will be building that list as time goes on. It’s an idea that I think has legs – if it could only find some ground to grab hold of.

Thanks for your help.

Filed Under: Archives, Projects, WordPress, WPBTM
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