Quote from EC: “You don’t have a cane but you’re still a pain.”
February 10th, 2010
This one came as EC let his sister know what he thought of her – Dr. Seuss style.
How I Lost 35 Pounds in 5 Months
January 16th, 2010
It’s January. It’s time to set goals. Many will have “Lose X lbs.” on their list so I thought I’d share how I lost quite a bit of weight recently. The secret of my success (yes, like Michael J. Fox) is – drumroll please – eating a solid diet of acai berries! Just kidding. I don’t know what acai berries are other than they appeared in banner ads all across the web in 2009. Acai berries might be magical but my weight loss tips are not. My weight loss came mostly as a result of discipline, which meant stopping bad habits and replacing them with good ones. The following list contains some of the practices, tools, and guidelines I followed while dropping a little over 16% of my body weight over the past five months.
1. Change eating habits before exercise habits
Many will join the local gym and exercise like crazy as they try to achieve their weight loss goal. If this is your plan, stop right now. Get your diet in order before you dive heavy into exercise. If you start with exercise, you’ll likely be hungrier, which means eating too many calories and too many of the wrong calories. Form good eating habits first, lose some pounds in the process, and then move on to exercise (see #6).
2. Aim for a realistic, healthy and sustainable goal
You may think you want to lose 50 pounds in two months, but I can say it won’t be realistic, healthy or sustainable. Simple online tools to help you determine the weight range you should be in and how many calories you should eat each day include:
These tools don’t take into account all the variables. They also don’t take into account things like body fat targets, waist size reduction, and overall fitness. Use the outputs as guidelines and a place to start rather than the answer to questions of your ideal weight and calorie needs. The idea is to set healthy goals that you can achieve and keep up over the long run.
3. Cut carbs drastically at the start
This one is likely to irritate some folks but I’ve found it helps kick start weight loss. Follow the first 2-week phase of the Atkins or South Beach diet. You’ll ween your body off carbs and most processed foods. Think of it as a smoker quitting smoking cold turkey. You’ll likely feel sugar withdrawals and swear that you’re dying but after about a week you’ll condition your body to be satisfied with more nutritious food. After the two weeks, start to add healthy carbs back into your diet, but limit starchy foods like regular pasta, white rice, and white breads. Whole grains are the suggested replacement. Just be careful not to fall for the marketing use of the term “whole grain” prominently featured on many food labels these days. You’ll need to checkout the ingredients to be sure it’s the real deal and not chock full of garbage in addition to whole grains.
4. Track what you eat religiously
I used DailyBurn to track my meals each day. Doing this made me conscience of what I was eating on a daily basis. 
It showed how many calories, carbs, fat, protein, etc. I was taking in. Make what you eat in your face even after you’ve stuffed your face. You’ll find it changes your eating habits almost immediately.
5. Drink at least 64 oz. of water per day
This is good to do in general but especially important when you’re trying to lose weight. Our bodies need H2O. Drinking lots of water can also help control your appetite.
6. Develop a sustainable exercise routine slowly
My secret weapons to sustaining an exercise routine. Sled dogs.
Being overly ambitious at the start of a big goal or project is common. When it comes to losing weight this (too often) means a killer exercise routine that inevitably burns out quick with zero positive results. Once you’ve established better eating habits (see #1) then start to establish a sustainable exercise routine. This means finding what works best for you. Can you only afford 30 minutes a day a few days a week? Find exercises that allow you to get a good workout in that amount of time. Only join a gym if you are going to go on a regular basis. Most people will not go to a gym if it’s an inconvenience. My wife goes to the gym regularly and I think it works for her because going to the gym is an enjoyable break away from the kids. I don’t care for the gym. It’s a hassle and exercise machines are boring to me. So I go on long brisk walks instead. That works for me. Find something that works for you, start slowly and ramp it up gradually.
7. Tell others about your goal
If you tell people your goal then you’re more likely to stick to it. I was encouraged and teased relentlessly for announcing my goal and progress on various social networks once a week. I would remind myself of the goal and give an update on my latest weigh in. I found my friends’ and family’s feedback helped me to stay disciplined.
None of the points above are ground breaking. There is no silver bullet. It’s hard work but does get easier as time goes by and new good habits replace the old bad ones. I hope it helps someone out as they strive to drop some pounds and develop a healthier lifestyle. If nothing else, I’ve now got this post for friends to shove in my face if I ever gain back the pounds I lost. That’s what I call motivation! 
My Top 21-100 Movies for The First 10 Years of 2000
January 11th, 2010
Here is a continuation of my previous list of top movies. The rankings after 40 become kind of pointless, but I did it anyway. I didn’t comment on these movies like the top 20. It’s too time consuming. If there are questions I get in the comments here or elsewhere, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts. Also, there are a lot of movies I haven’t seen. If you see a movie not on this list or the previous one that you think I should have on here, please leave the name in the comments. Chances are I never saw it. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not.
A side note: One cool thing I was able to do for this list was write a small Python script to get all the movie info via the Netflix API. Everything was auto-generated. I provided my ranked list and the script did the rest. Click on an image for the Netflix page for that flick. For each item in the list, you can also add the disc to your Netflix queue with the link under the title, see the Netflix users’ rating, and know if it’s available on Blu-ray as of the publish date of this post.
Quote from EC: “Let’s roll like a troll!”
January 11th, 2010
My nine year old son yelled this out as the family was getting ready to go out the other day. I’ll take partial blame for this one, as I have the habit of saying “let’s roll” when I’m trying to get the kids ready to go somewhere. I don’t ever recall throwing trolls into the mix. EC gets credit for that.
Why I Got a PS3 (And Not an Xbox 360)
January 3rd, 2010
I think I’m one of the last hold outs on the high-def revolution. I finally caved in this holiday season, and as a result, ended up buying a PS3. I’m not a big gamer. I play a little bit with my son and will occasionally play a sports game here and there. Therefore, my reasons for going with a PS3 over an XBox 360 are not likely in line with those of most big gamers so I thought I’d post them here. I realize it’s a bit too late to re-flame the fires of the whole PS3 vs. Xbox 360 debate, but my reasons for buying a PS3 may be telling for how Sony might have some hope with the PS3 after a horrific start.
1. I wanted a Blu-ray player
Definitely the number one driver was the Blu-ray player in the PS3. I would’ve had to buy a separate Blu-ray player otherwise and it wouldn’t have likely been as solid as the one that comes with the PS3. No brainer here. Oh yeah, in case you’re wondering, there is a noticeable difference between Blu-ray and an upconverted DVD when you start looking at 1080p HD displays 40″ or bigger from most normal viewing distances. I was never convinced of this until I saw it with my own eyes, up close and personal.
2. No charge for PSN
I understand why Microsoft charges for XBox Live and I expect Sony to try to start charging in the future or at least adding paid-only features to PSN. I think it’s absurd that an XBox Live subscription is required for things like Netflix streaming on the XBox 360. It’s not like Microsoft is providing any value add there. At least with the games, you can argue you’re getting the benefit of the whole XBox Live infrastructure and features. I think Microsoft needs to rethink how they force the use of XBox Live as more features come out that don’t necessarily require or make use of the XBox Live services.
3. Wifi is included
Hard core gamers don’t use wifi, I realize this. But I’m not a hard core gamer. For Netflix streaming, media server style streaming (UPnP) from my Ubuntu boxes, and my family’s limited online game play, 802.11g wifi works great. I hate that the Xbox 360 does not include wifi.
4. PS3 is still more reliable overall
I didn’t think this was the case anymore until I recently heard Leo Laporte on the Windows Weekly podcast say he’s gone through several Xbox 360 units with various failures. He said the last failure has driven him to the PS3. I also would read about troubling Xbox 360 failure rate numbers as recent as September of 2009.
5. The PS3 holiday bundle was better
I paid $299 for the PS3 on black Friday, but got it with two excellent $50+ games, Little Big Planet and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 had bundles with more games but none were as high quality and family friendly as those that came with the PS3.