The Harsh Reality of Social Networking
Month: January 2008
Paramount, Why You So Spammy?
[Yes, the title of this post is purposefully written that way based on the name of the movie I was spammed with.]
I use unique email aliases whenever I sign up for something, making it easy for me to turn off an email address if I find it gets abused. Amazingly enough, in all the years I’ve been using this tactic (it’s got to be nearly a decade by now), I’ve only had two clear instances of someone using an email address they shouldn’t be. One was a software development company last year (their President thought it would be ok to take a copy of the customer database to a new company he was launching), and the other is Paramount Pictures. Look at the email address I received this message to:
That’s right, I signed up for information about the forthcoming Iron Man movie (I really hope it lives up to the hype!), and Paramount decided to send me information about “How She Move” without my permission. I’m 99.999% sure that I didn’t opt in for anything other than info about Iron Man, but when I checked their database for my email address, it said I was signed up for something called “Paramount Vantage”. The Paramount sign-up tool for Iron Man information doesn’t have an option for Paramount Vantage, only for “other Paramount movies”, sharing information with “Other Viacom companies”, and the Marvel newsletter. I said yes to the Marvel newsletter, and no to everything else…I think.
I want to be fair to Paramount, so I’ve signed up again with another unique email alias, making sure that no additional options were checked. I’ll wait and see what happens…but it sure ticks me off when companies use email addresses beyond the permission given by the owner of that email address.
Yup, I Actually Did It: I Went to the Gym Yesterday
Yesterday afternoon, I did something I haven’t done in about 15 years: I went to the gym and worked out. Why? It was time (well, if I’m honest with myself, it was past time). I’m 6 foot 2 inches – when I stopped gaining height in high school I was about 160 pounds. When I finished college I was about 185 pounds, and stayed there for a few years. In my mid 20s though I started to gain weight through the typical combination of getting less exercise, eating a bit worse, and the slower metabolism of getting older. In high school and college you get some exercise from carrying heavy books from one class to another. When you’re self-employed and sitting on your butt all day in a home office, the most exercise you tend to get is moving from the office to the fridge and back again. When I hit 200 pounds I thought “Wow, this isn’t good”, but I didn’t do of anything much about it.
Sure, there were attempts at altering my diet, eliminating sugar, eliminating carbs (I did the Atkins diet), etc. I tried dieting alongside Ashley off and on for a couple of years, but nothing really stuck (due to my own lack of self control) and I continued to shift between 200 and 220 pounds (I think at my heaviest I was up to 225). A couple of years ago Ashley starting going to the gym, and I saw something interesting happen. There wasn’t much change at first, but when she started working with a personal trainer, she toned up, lost some weight, and looks a lot like one of those women you see on the cover of Oxygen Magazine (though I keep asking her not to work out so much that she gets arms bigger than mine! ;-)).
But back to me…for the past year or so I’ve been stuck at 215 pounds and that’s at least 30 pounds heavier than I should be. I’ve tried to control my diet, but I love food too much! So when you can’t live on lettuce and rice crackers (calorie input), you need to work on the other end of the equation (calorie output) and burn calories the old fashioned way: working hard. I’m still going to tighten up my eating patterns, mostly by eliminating sugar wherever possible, but it’s gym time.
Yesterday I spent about an hour in the gym, mostly working on my cardio – because without cardio, you’ve got nothing. How bad is my cardio? If I go from our bonus room (2nd floor of our house) down to my basement and back up again, I’ll be panting and it will take a good five minutes for my heart rate to go down to normal. That’s…pathetic. So, not surprisingly, my cardio was pretty bad at the gym. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, then five minutes on a stationary bike, then another 15 minutes on the treadmill. The treadmill had measurements for my heart rate, which felt like it was going to explode out of my chest at certain moments, but it was kept between 160 and 185 for all of my cardio workout. I then did some work on the weight machines, mostly getting motion in muscles that don’t get worked very often.
Tomorrow morning I head back to the gym – I’m going to go three times a week for the first two weeks, then try to ramp up to going every week day like Ashley does. I’m writing this to act as an encouragement to others who might be in the same boat as me, and also to make a commitment (in public) to getting in shape over the next few months. My short term goal is to make it down to 200 pounds by the time we leave for our vacation to Japan, which is the third week of March. It should be do-able…I just need to do it!
Pensionbook: Facebook for Grandma
Heh heh. From STRAIGHTFROMMYBRAIN.
CES 2008 & Media Center Blogger Bus
I’m finally getting caught up on some of my photo processing, so I’ve uploaded my photos from CES 2008 and my time on the Media Center Blogger Bus.
A few more pictures after the break… Continue reading CES 2008 & Media Center Blogger Bus
My Nose is Stuffed Up, But My Trigger-Finger Still Works
If there’s anything “good” about being sick, it’s that when your brain isn’t working properly enough for real work, there are usually enough functioning neurons to play a bit of the ol’ Xbox. I was given a copy of Mass Effect when I attended Mobius 2007 back in November, but I never got around to playing it until this weekend. What a fun game! It’s got the perfect mix of role-playing and action, something that attracted me to Bioware’s other RPG/action game, Jade Empire (I sure hope they’re working on a sequel). I’ve barely dipped my toe into the waters of Mass Effect, but I enjoyed the few hours I spent playing it a great deal – especially once I looked at the manual and figured out how to swap weapons. 😉 I also played, and purchased, the Xbox Live arcade game Battlestar Galactica – also insanely fun (but hard!). Pretty much anything that says “Battlestar Galactica” gets my dollars because I’m such a huge fan of the show. Maybe this year I’ll actually break the 2000 point barrier on my Xbox gamerscore!
Whenever I Need a Laugh…
Whenever I need a laugh, I turn to Miss Teen South Carolina and her stirring response about “US Americans” and map reading. This clip never fails to give me a chuckle!
Some of the comedic responses, like Miss Teen South Carolina calling 911, are almost as funny. 😉
My Precioussss….Nikon D300 and 24-70mm f/2.8 Lens Arrived
I know what I’m going to be spending my weekend doing: coughing, blowing my nose, and taking pictures with what is hopefully a fantastic camera!
The Blogger Bus & CES 2008
I had this great idea where I was going to write a free verse poem summarizing the last week of my life, but I just don’t have the metal firepower right now…so here it is in point form:
- I flew to San Francisco last Friday night, took a town car to San Jose, stop and go traffic made me feel rather ill (which never happens to me in a car).
- Hung out with Robert McLaws on Friday night, went out for Mexican food in a U-Haul truck (how’s that for a rocking ride!).
- On Saturday I was on a Podtech/Microsoft bus from San Jose to Las Vegas for 12 hours with a bunch of other bloggers (Robert Scoble, Marc Canter, Loic Le Meur, Dan Farber, Tom Foremski, the gang from Mogulus, Scott from AMD, and others). Bus toilet wasn’t “compatible” with toilet paper. Some bloggers were friendly, others completely ignored me. Was surprised the bus had the engine power to move so much ego down the road (including mine). Had some crazy conversations, played a lot of Halo 3, didn’t sleep a wink.
- CES 2008 was a blur – I was carrying way too much gear, no AC was turned on indoors because Vegas is “cold” because it’s “winter” there. I was drenched in sweat way too often. Yuck. Made a few videos for work while I was there with the Canon HV20. Met some new people, made new contacts, handed out a lot of business cards (though I forgot to bring along my Zune Thoughts cards…doh!)
- Was up too late, too often, ran down my immune system, and got sick. And it’s not like I was up playing poker or hanging out the sunroof of a limousine, I was just watching TV and working until 3am.
- I’m now home with a stuffy head/sore throat/chest cold, coughing up yellow phlegm and sounding like Gollum. Email is piling up, and I’m trying not to drown in work. My brain isn’t working, so I’m glad it’s the weekend. I need to rest up and reset my brain.
The Lord of the Rings New Year’s Eve/Day
Last night (New Year’s Eve) and today (New Year’s Day) Ashley and I did something we’ve talked about doing for a while now: watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies, extended edition, in succession. We “cheated” by having some sleep involved, but we made it through LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring last night, then watched Casino Royale fora bit of a change of pace, went to sleep, woke up, and today watched the remaining two LOTR movies. That’s 11.5 hours in total for all three movies – yikes! It was quite a feat – I wouldn’t think if would be hard to do, but strangely enough it was. I’m going to be dreaming in the Elf tongue tonight I think… 😉