AllanThinks

Tonight's the Night

This should be pretty epic. If you are in Central Kentucky, come on out and support your crazy, community marching band.

The Bachelor

I'm on my own for the next two weeks while Alison is in France spending time with her kids during their winter school break. She is on a Delta flight somewhere over the middle of Pennsylvania, and is probably enjoying a soft drink and the minuscule bag of peanuts that Delta likes to think of as a privilege of flying with them.

When we flew over there last fall, we flew on US Air for the first time, and had a great experience. But we only flew into Paris, and Alison is flying all the way through to Bordeaux, so it was easier to book on Delta via Air France. 

We managed to exchange some texts and a few emails after I got home from the Cincinnati Airport and before her plane took off. I got the impression that she might be over Delta. I know I sure am.

I don't know what I will do with myself the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I don't fall off the diet and exercise wagon. I'm going to try to keep it up. I'm down around 16 pounds. I'd like to lose another 10 or 15 before we head to Austin next month for HONK! TX where MMMB will be participating.

And speaking of MMMB, if you would like to help them get to Austin for HONK! TX, consider coming out to Buster's tomorrow night for a benefit show for the band. Admission is only $15 for a lot of entertainment, and the marching band gets all the proceeds. Doors open around 8, I think, and the show will probably get underway by 9. I hope to see you there. You Lexington locals, that is.

Best in Show

Created in Penultimate for the iPad. More about this later.

30:00/1.6

Those of you who I am friends with on Facebook have probably seen me post something similar to the title of this post as my status, pretty much every day, for the past few weeks. The numbers represent the time I spent using our NordicTrack ski machine, and the distance I traveled in that time.

So just a little while before writing this entry, I spent 30 minutes on the NordicTrack, and covered about 1.6 miles according to the electronic console on the machine. This is the most time I have spent on it at one time in about 7 years. I used to do 30 minutes daily on the thing. Every day.

This was back when I weighed as little as 183 pounds. I weigh much more than that now. A lot of my weight gain came after I met Alison. We've traveled a lot, eaten well, enjoyed fine wines, beers, and spirits, as we settled into our life together. The last 35 pounds or so of weight have come since I quite smoking in October of 2009.

Prior to quitting smoking, I was okay with what I weighed, for the most part. It was more than I weighed in 2005, not nearly what I weight now.

Back in December, we decided we needed a nice place in our home for the exercise equipment we own. That includes the NordicTrack, a weight bench and set of weights, and a Pilates Reformer. So we had a room in our unfinished basement turned into a home gym. You've probably seen Alison's before and after photos of the room.

The work on the room was finally finished the first week of January, when the rubberized flooring was installed. The next day, we both started using the gym. Baby steps to begin.

I think I spent maybe 5 minutes on the skier that first day. The next I did 7 minutes. The next, 10. The past 10 days of so I got all the way up to 27 minutes. Then I took a break over this past weekend as my brother was in town and was staying with us. We ate out a lot, and didn't get a chance to work out.

This is the first day back since Saturday, and boy did I need it. I have no idea how much of the 13 or so pounds I had lost in the past three weeks I might have gained back. I'm not sure I want to know.

But I will find out when I weigh this Thursday (I get on the scales once a week). What ever the scale says, I will have to accept.

Today I did 30 minutes and 1.6 miles on the NordicTrack, and I am back on my self-designed eating plan. And I will continue my quest to shed my excess weight and become a healthier person.

 

DIASPORA* ALPHA

If you know what the title of this post means, are a geek and early adopter, and would like to join the alpha test, shoot me an email to allanthinks [at] gmail [dot] com. I'll send you one of my 10 invites.

Four Posts

In less than 24 hours. Imagine that.

Let's see how long the blogging mojo stays around this time.

iPad

I just realized I have never written about our iPads on this blog. Yes, I said iPads. Plural.

Last May, I bought two iPads, one for me, and one for Alison. They are the 16 GB 3G + Wifi models. We love them more and more each day we use them.

My love for the iPad grew exponentially this evening when I discovered one of the coolest apps ever. I had never really thought about actually writing on the iPad. Writing by hand, I mean. Not with the on-screen keyboard. But I saw a blurb on another blog I read about a tablet device designed solely for handwritten note taking. It was described as being a lot less expensive than, but not nearly as cool as the iPad.

I realized then that it was likely possible to enter information on the iPad via your own handwriting. So I headed to the App Store and started searching. It turns out there are a lot of note taking apps available, priced from free to five or six dollars.

Since I don't work, and am not in school, I figured I didn't need to buy a full-featured and expensive note-taking app. All I needed was something to enter simple lists, like a to do list.

I think I found the perfect thing. It is called Use Your Handwriting GOLD, and is only 99 cents from the App Store. There is a free version that limits the number of lists you can have at a time, and does not allow you to email your notes. It also does not support cut and paste like the Gold version does. Both versions are universal apps and will install on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

I should mention that you can use a capacitive stylus to input your text in the app, but it is not at all necessary. You can write with your fingertip, and it works great. There is a large editing window that opens, and you write in plain text, click the Done button, and your writing appears just as you wrote it on your list.

And since it supports cut and paste, you can automatically copy anything you write to the clipboard. I can then copy my notes to Evernote, which then sync to my MacBook and my iPod/Touch. Way cool.

There are lots of photos and videos of the app in action on the webite. Check it out.

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to write this enthusiastic review of this app. I am in no way connected with the company that sells it. I just think it is cool as hell, and well worth its 99 cent price.

So...

This afternoon, I was playing around a bit with the design of the blog. I haven't changed anything about this blog in ages. The Typepad Dashboard is a lot different than it was the last time I did anything to the design and layout. It's going to take a lot of study and practice before I do anything major.

One thing I noticed when I was going through my sidebar content was that my blog roll was gone. So I tried to go to Blogrolling, where my blog roll was hosted, only to discover that Blogrolling ceased operations last November. The last remnants of it will disappear on April 1 of this year, so if you used Blogrolling, you should remove any code related to it from your blog template.

I'd like to create a new blog roll, but am not really sure how to go about it in the new Typepad. Are there any other third-party blog roll servers like Blogrolling out there? Do you use one? If so, which one, and why?

Let me know in the comments.

What?

Clicking the image will take you to its Flickr page. You can see a larger version there.

Moo Shu the Wonder Dog's second boarding of the Friday Ark.

J. D.

Clicking the image will take you to its Flickr page. You can see a larger version there.

J. D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shack Shakers, and the Dirt Daubers, who played last night at Cosmic Charlie's.