Next Door Nature Scaled Down - Fort Bennett Park

One of the best parts of Geocaching is that you're often introduced to little gems in your own backyard that you would never have discovered. This is exactly what happened when I decided to go hunting for cache GC2KXDA, titled "Well, well, well."

What I found at the site was, no surprise, an elaborately covered well along with signs telling the history of the area and even a Witness Tree. Poking around further I found a trail, which I would later find out is the Palisdes Trail. The trail is only about 500 meters long, but it was so quiet and woodsy I very much liked it. I felt like I was rudely interrupting the birds as I jogged along the trail disturbing them. How I wish I could have stopped, listened and learned. I even thought I saw a flash of red dash off in the distant trees, which in my mind's eye was a red fox (thankfully, not this one), but more likely was probably someone's fluffy cat.

The area I was exploring is known as Fort Bennett Park, and has some interesting history to accompany it.

All in all, the location is really wonderful and would make a fun place to come back and explore with a little one. I think it would also work great as a sit spot, a location you return to day after to day, to observe and learn about birds in the area. It's next door nature on a small scale, but a gem none the lees.

Here's a few snapshots to get the flavor of the area:

Review: 21 Ways To Create A Sales Stampede On The Internet

I have to admit, I was flattered when a team member at WalleyTheWebGuy.com reached out to me to ask if I’d review 21 Ways to Create a Sales Stamped on the Internet by Jason “Wally” Waldron. I’m always on the lookout for resources I can pass on to folks I develop software for, and figured a book on marketing is just that kind of resource. A few days after I replied I was interested, the book showed up.

I’m going to have to be blunt here: I’m not a fan of the writing style of 21 Ways. It’s basically broken down into chunks as follows: first, there’s a super enticing headline (example: “Build Your Sales Funnel And Drip Money Into Your Bank Account For Life”). Then there’s a few paragraphs of chit chat, usually including an anecdote, and finally a couple of direct paragraphs for implementing the strategy alluded to in the title. I ended up finding it both wordy, as well as short on detail.

But here’s the thing: the advice given is actually remarkably good. Much of it that seems counter intuitive has taken me years to learn. For example, many of my customers are distraught to learn that the software they create can’t be somehow legally protected from having competitors. But as Waldron explains, and I’ve learned the hard way, that’s exactly the kind of market you want to avoid. Being part of an active and competitive marketplace is ideal because that’s where the customers already are.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve climbed on my soapbox and given speeches to prospects and clients about the importance of providing actual value. Not some slick experience that looks valuable, but the real deal; something that solves a real problem. I was surprised and delighted to find that Waldron is on the same page with me here, and stresses that same point a number of times in 21 Ways.

I find that many marketing strategies seem to be based on trickery. If only you can trick Google to list your site first, and enough folks to opt in to your e-mail, then you’ll manage to trick enough people into buying your product to make a boat load of money. That’s obviously not the terminology that gets used, but more often than not, that seems to be the strategy. And while Waldron comes across as being a classic fast talking web marketer, he goes out of his way to advise strongly against this approach. SPAM, duplicate content and any other sort of shady activity has no place according to Waldron. The book makes it clear: you’ll win by providing value. You’ll be doing actual work (writing blog entries, creating an e-mail list, reaching out to customers, etc.). There may be short cuts you can take, but those are technical matters to make life easier. At the end of the day, you’re going to have to work for this.

Perhaps the strongest recommendation I can give to this book is that I found myself using some of the techniques. I was talking with a client about how he could improve on his conversions, and all that advice from Waldron about e-mail came bubbling up. Between the client and myself we developed an automated e-mail follow up strategy that is absolutely inspired by Waldron’s suggestions.

If you’re looking for detail, theory or don’t like a strong sales pitch, 21 Ways isn’t for you. But, if you’re new at all this and you want an approachable text to help you take action today, 21 Ways may be just what you need.

Another Case Of RSS Love

I was poking around the support site for my new laptop when I noticed a link to subscribe to driver updates:

I figured this would be handled over e-mail. I was wrong. Here's what I saw when I clicked the subscribe link:

That's right, an RSS feed. And that was one of my main points: RSS is a simple and powerful way to deliver a stream of information. By adding this feed to Reader, I have yet another bit of "news" in front of me that's just as relevant as political updates and local driving conditions. RSS lets me consume all this information in one consistent place.

Which leads me to wonder aloud: information is Google's business, but they want to reduce costs; why not phase out the UI of Google Reader but leave the underlying API for developers to tap into? That means fewer developers dedicated to a project they aren't excited about, but continued involvement in a massively powerful framework that drives all sorts of novel applications of the web.

Gotcha of the Day: Handling requests to a long gone wiki

My friend George and I had a shared client with an interesting Search Engine Marketing opportunity. Years ago the site had hosted a wiki, but now those links were being sent to 404 pages. Something like:

  http://www.thesite.com/wiki/The_Meaning_of_Life

George and I talked it through. What would be the best user experience for folks who followed those old links? Surely we could do better than a 404 page. Because the topic of the website hadn't changed over all these years, we decided that a clever approach would be to turn those Wiki requests into site searches. Users wouldn't see the old Wiki, but they'd be taken to relevant content on the site.

Implementing that solution from a technical perspective wasn't terrifically hard. The first step was to make a small script I called wiki_resolver.php. Here's the code:

<?php
/*
 * A PHP file for handling old requests to the Wiki.
 */

$query = str_replace('_', ' ',                      // [A]
                     substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 6));
$qs    = http_build_query(array('q' => $query), 
                          false, '&');

header("Location: /search?$qs", true, 301);         // [B]
exit();
?>

[A] turns the Wiki URL parameter into a search engine friendly string and [B] sends the user to the search page. Notice the 301 redirect, the preferred redirect for this scenario; that's thanks to George's attention to detail.

The second and final step was to redirect /wiki/ request to this script. I did this via my beloved Apache Rewrite Rules. The one line of code we needed to add to the .htaccess file was:

  RewriteRule ^wiki/(.*)        /tools/wiki_resolver.php    [L]

And that was it; requests to /wiki are now gracefully handled.

I love SEO solutions like this one that put human visitors first, and robot visitors second. With all the attention paid to pleasing Google and related services, it's often the actual visitors who are left out of the equation. Not this time.

Google Reader is Dying, RSS Isn't

The Internet is once again melting down: Google has decided to close shop on Google Reader. People are not amused. I can kind of see why Google might think Reader wasn't worth their time. Feed readers have been around for a decade, which in Internet time is essentially forever, and they still haven't attracted mass appeal.

But consider this problem:

Let's say there are handful of sites that I get information from. For example, a popular news site, some dude's blog, a community site and a forum. How am I supposed to keep up with all this content?

I could manually visit each of them, but depending on how many sites I want to read, this will get old quick. Sites that don't update content regularly but when they do I'm eager to read it, suffer the most in this scenario. After checking for new content a few times and not seeing it, I'm probably not going back to that site again.

RSS and feed readers elegantly solve this problem. You put all the sites in one location, and visit that one location to find out what's new. A site that posts 10 times a day, and one that posts monthly, can be kept up with just as easily.

You could argue that over the years major players have surfaced that will do this aggregation for you. I don't need to visit 10 different pop culture sites when a single visit to Buzzfeed will do. And you could also argue that services like Twitter provide a stream of headlines that can replace a news feed. But both of these arguments miss the point. They leave the above problem unsolved. And in a world where everyone is a publisher, we've got more streams of content on the web today not less. Feed readers are more important than ever.

And to those who suggest the demise of Google Reader as a sign that RSS itself is dead, I'd have to disagree. RSS is a simple and powerful mechanism for sending around information. In many respects, it's a great equalizer: CNN, Twitter, the status of your printer, the contents of your fridge, can all be codified as RSS streams. I'd expect my Mom to care about RSS as much as I do about the pipes that live behind the walls in my house. We just want everything to work. And when her new TV starts showing her CNN headlines, the latest photo updates from my brother and articles from my blog, she'll be happy. She won't care or even know that the whole shebang is powered by RSS.

Google is stepping out of the market feed reader market and I say good for them. Before Google Reader there was a healthy ecosystem of entrepreneurs battling it out to see who could win the feed reader game. Google Reader squashed that. With them leaving the space, it should make room for the little guys to matter again. The problem of making it easy to track content from disparate sources is still there, and the person who solves it will win big time.

Adding a splash of (random) color to Cygwin's rxvt windows

While making myself at home on my new laptop I thought I'd try to tackle an Cygwin annoyance I regularly run into. My general practice is to have one rxvt window open that represents my local machine, and then one open for each remote system I'm ssh'd into. Within each rxvt instance I'm running screen. Even with screen I find that I can often lose track of which window is connected to which host and I have to Alt-tab through a whole mess of them before I can find the right window.

The solution I'm playing with: why not vary the rxvt background color so that I can quickly determine which window belongs to which host? I don't want to go through the trouble of predefining the colors and hosts, so instead I'm taking the lazy way out and picking a background color at random. A quick Google search shows this is not an original= idea.

Here's the script I came up with:

#!/bin/bash

##
## Spawn an rxvt instance with a random background color
##

BGS='snow ghost GhostWhite WhiteSmoke Gainsboro
     floral OldLace Linen Mint MistyRose
     LightGray Sky LightSteelBlue
     PaleGreen Khaki LightYellow Beige Plum
     Thistle Seashell1 Bisque2 PeachPuff Azure1 SteelBlue1
     LightCyan1 Grey68'

count=`echo $BGS | tr ' ' '\n' | wc -l`
index=`expr $RANDOM % $count`
color=`echo $BGS | tr ' ' '\n' | head -$index | tail -1`

rxvt -background $color "$@"

You can tweak the colors selected by choosing from any of the standard color names. In the cold precise world of computers, I do love that someone took the time to name each shade of color with such care.

Song of the Day: Modern Love cover by Luciano Colman and Maxi Gonzalez

Not exactly sure why, but I'm absolutely loving this cover of David Bowie's Modern Love by Luciano Colman & Maxi Gonzalez. I've heard it on my soundcloud stream a few times and every time it starts to play I instinctively click over to the browser to press the the "Like" button even though I've already done so at least 3 times.

What do you think?

Batteries Not Include Or Needed. Pocket Games and Activities

I was reading through The Dangerous Book for Boys when a section on coin football triggered memories of killing time playing this distraction as a kid. The cool part about the game was that all you needed was 3 coins (quarters, if I recall) and a flat surface.

This got me thinking. Surely there must be a whole bunch of games and activities you can do using little more than the the contents of your pockets? And there definitely are. For starters, there's a whole bunch of well known pencil and paper games. But with a bit of creativity, there are even more things you can do.

I ran a bunch of Google searches and put together a list here. I hope to add to it as I can think of more activities.

Here's a preview of the list:

So, next time you're stuck in in an especially tight spot, hopefully one of these ideas will help get you out.

Have any activites/games you'd add to the list?

Your Distraction for the Day: Axis of Awesome's 4 Chord Song

Here's just about the most amazing on stage performance I've ever seen. (Note: there's a bit of cussing in it, so this isn't ideal for kids.) Watch and be amazed:

Via: Girls are Geeks

Review: Comet's Tale

I admit it, I'm not a dog lover. Sure, I see their utility, but I've never quite understood the appeal they have as pets. I suppose it's because all I ever hear about are the maintenance side of things; the person who has to rush home to let them out, or worry about where they are going to kennel them before they go on travel. Thanks to Comet's Tale, I've got a fresh perspective on the power of canine-human relations. What a story this was, I found that once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.

I consider myself very fortunate that I blindly picked up Comet's Tale and didn't read the back cover or prologue. Instead, I just dove in. What I found rocked my world every step of the way (poor Shira had to sit through me describing every chapter in the book on our runs). Briefly, the book follows Steven Wolf as he copes with a debilitating spine condition that leaves him less, and less able to function. At the same time, he adopts a retired racing greyhound. That's all I'm going to say about the plot, as I don't want to spoil any of it.

The story I can best compare this book to is The Blind Side. Both stories beat incredible odds, have unlikely heros and just leave you completely inspired. My guess is that some Hollywood producer will pick up this book, read it and find that they have to make it into a movie (but don't worry, the book is better than the movie). It's that kind of good.

Careful, though. The book is powerful enough that you may just find yourself with a dog in the house, or another one added to your family.

Soaking Up Some Weekend Sunshine

My mother-in-law was in for the weekend. After living here for over 10 years we finally took her to see the Marine Corp Memorial. It was perfect weather - 65 degrees and sunny. Even after a few visits to the memorial, I'm still moved by it.

In the afternoon, I took our 8 year old out for a bit of Geocaching in Lubber Run park. The park provided has a wonderful trail, stream and bit of woods. I didn't get the sense that it was very large, but it's still a gem to check out in Arlington.

We spent a good 30 minutes looking for the Excalibur cache in park, but finally had to give up looking. As we walked away from where I was certain the cache would be placed, I couldn't help but continue to search. Sure enough, I noticed one rock that looked a little out of place and found the cache. This turned out to be the best named and most cleverly camouflaged cache I've had the pleasure of finding. When you're ready for a tricky cache, go after this one.

It's so tempting to post a picture of the cache, but I'd rather not. I don't want to spoil it for folks who will go out and find it.

Gotcha of the Day: Creating a semi-automated cygwin install script

I love cygwin. Wouldn't last 24 hours without it. And the installer is very reliable and easy to use. The only headache I usually run into is when I setup a new laptop. I find that I'm constantly re-running cygwin to make sure I've got all the packages I need installed.

This time I had plan, though. I noted which packages I was going to need and using setup.exe carefully went through and selected each one. It took some time, but I figured I'd only have to do this once. Of course, once the download process began I lost my Internet connection and was going to have to repeat the process, including the annoying package selection step.

I figured there had to be a better way. And thanks to ServerFault, I now know there is. The basic strategy is to create a script that invokes setup.exe using command line arguments.

Below is the script I arrived at. At the top is a list of packages I want installed. It's safe to re-run this as often as I want, so adding new packages is easy: just add it to the list and re-run.

#!/bin/bash

PACKAGES='
openssh
zip
unzip
subversion
git
screen
gcc
make
automake
autoconf
vim
vim-common
rxvt
ncftp
cvs
rcs
aspell
aspell-en
md5deep
ImageMagick
'

C=/cygdrive/c
export PATH=$PATH:$C/cygwin/bin
mirror=http://cygwin.mirrors.pair.com
pkgs=`echo $PACKAGES | tr ' ' ','`

./setup.exe -A -q -n -N -d -R 'C:\cygwin' \
          -s $mirror \
          -l 'c:\temp\packages' -P $pkgs

The process for setting up a new laptop then becomes:

1. Install cygwin using the default settings
2. As administrator run the above script. I did this by opening up a cmd window using Administrator privliges and then running:

    c:\cygwin\bin\bash cygwinstall.sh
   

It's not a fully automated process, but it's close enough.

Dealing With That Awful Touch Pad

I'm liking my new laptop but hating the touch pad. Specifically, I hate the buttons the touch pad.

But then it hit - why do I even need to use those buttons? Why can't I get clever and use a different approach?

My solution: map caps lock to the left mouse button.

This is trivial to do in autohotkey. I just added the following to the standard hotkey configuration I use:

  Capslock::LButton

The harder part is training my brain to actually use it. I initially set this up on my laptop that uses a mouse and a full keyboard. It's odd to control the keyboard click away from the mouse, but also weirdly satisfying. If nothing else, I'm psyched to be putting the caps lock key to a real use, rather than just disabling it.

This may just work.

If this works, I'll have to figure out a key to map the right mouse button to. Baby steps, though, baby steps.

Update: I'm really liking this setup. This approach may just be crazy enough to work. I've added Alt-Capslock as the method for accessing the right mouse click. It's actually pretty easy to type, and doesn't appear to conflict with anything. Here are the latest rules:

!Capslock::RButton
Capslock::LButton

One Last Rainy Day Activity

The Snowquester was a no show. And rather than having the chance to romp around in a winter wonderland, we got to watch rain and slush from our living room window. As the day was finishing up, our 8 year old and myself decided we'd do one last activity. It's one we've turned to in the past when we didn't want to anything too mentally taxing. Here's how it works: we grab whatever board games and objects are handy, and start stacking and building.

Before we knew it, was had some of structure with a train motif going. It didn't really matter, it just kept us both occupied.

Had we had more time, this would have been a fun exercise to take some macro photos of and experiment with making our own graphic novel. Or better yet, I could have just video taped him destroying the sucker and we could have examined it in slow motion.

Luckily, we didn't take it that seriously.

First Impressions: Windows 8

Almost 5 years ago I played with a Windows Phone—the Wing—and I observed how silly it was to have a Start Button and other desktop UI features crammed into a tiny phone interface. I was quite surprised then, this weekend to fire up my new laptop, hit the Windows key and have a Phone/Tablet like start screen come up rather than the usual start menu. Could it really be that rather than bringing the desktop to phones, Microsoft was bringing a phone UI to the desktop?

The short answer: yes. Welcome to Windows 8.

From the little research I've done, I've learned the following about Windows 8:

• Windows is attempting to align their tablet, phone and desktop UI's by having a common launcher and app model across all their UIs.
• The desktop experience is still very much available, but if you want the basic app universe you have on your phone, you can have that too.
• Windows 8 is despised by all. Or at least by people who comment on Windows 8 tips articles.

For the second time in as many days, I'm going to respectfully disagree with the Internet. Windows 8 is not an abomination. Or at least, not because Microsoft dared to think outside the desktop model. As I've said in the past, thinking outside the desktop is a good thing. There's nothing magical about folders, windows and a start menus. They're just abstractions built on top of other abstractions.

My Mom is able to navigate her kindle easily enough. If she had that same basic app model in a laptop I think she'd find it very intuitive. Do I need a full screen weather app? Definitely not, but for her to be able to quickly press 'Weather' and get what she needs would be ideal for her. Sit someone down and try to explain how to use Windows 7 (left mouse click on the start bar - oh wait, what's a left mouse click? Let me explain ...), and then show them that they can hit the Windows button and press what they want on the screen, and I think you'll see that Windows 8 has real promise.

Is this Launcher Screen plus Apps a model useful for someone like myself, a professional programmer? Not yet. Of course, my dream UI isn't neccessarily the desktop UI either. I do most of my work at bash prompts and emacs. Back when I ran X-windows on a Linux box, I especially enjoyed using ratpoison, an almost mouseless window manager. Point is, Windows 8 isn't my dream, but neither is Windows 7. Or OS X, for that matter.

So yeah, I'm disoriented when I use Windows 8. Apparently I've got a number of shortcuts that involve the start menu thoroughly engrained in my muscle memory that I need to overcome. But I'm glad to be playing with the latest version of Windows, and I'm glad it's stretching the notion of what I consider normal. I bet if I get creative enough that Start Screen can turn out to be invaluable. In the mean time, I've been getting used to hitting Windows-D to jump me back into Desktop land when I get lost.

One other thing that jumped out at me: apparently Windows has dropped their fancy beveled edges on their windows. The result is lackluster chrome around each window. Perhaps this move is related to syncing up the UI experience among phones and tablets that can't render the fancier UI? Regardless, it seems pretty ugly and I'm surprised to see them regress in the looks department. Is it a deal breaker? Certainly not. But it's an odd choice none the less.

So what do you think? Are you in the camp that claims Windows 8 is "as bad as Vista?" Or are you loving it? What are your favorite tricks?

Uh, Where's the Snow?

So Snowquester is here. We've got school and work canceled. We're just missing one itty bitty thing. Snow.

So far, I've seen rain and slush. Snow, not so much.

Ditch remote work? Go for it Yahoo!

Apparently Yahoo is no longer allowing its employees to work remotely. And as you might imagine, the Internet is in a tizzy. There's quite a bit written saying this is a very bad idea.

I have to humbly disagree with the Internet on this one.

I say, go for it Yahoo!

Here are two reasons for my contrarian attitude:

1. If companies want to succeed they need to demonstrate innovation. And that's not just innovation in the products they produce, but in their customer service and even HR practices. Is forcing people to show up at the office innovative? For most corporations, no. But for a tech company, I'd say so. Like many innovations, this is either an awful idea or just crazy enough to work.
2. Yahoo! has its own problems to solve. If they've done their homework and decided that communication is lacking, then forcing people into the office may be just the jolt they need to cause change. Should this be a cue that remote work is dead? Obviously not. Your company's problems may call for extending remote work. Companies have to decide what's best for them, and not just drift from trend to trend.

Two caveats:

1. Had the memo been directed to just one part of the company (programmers, marketing staff, etc.) I'd be on the side of the web. But because it's a universal attempt to bring folks into the office, I think there's something to it.

2. If I was a remote worker and I got this memo, I'd almost certainly be looking for a new job. But that's OK - not every company's culture is a fit for every employee.

Update:

A few more thoughts about this topic:

• I know nothing about the politics of Yahoo. It's quite possible that this move was as shallow, juvenile and poorly thought out as some suggest. I still stand by the notion that stopping all remote work can promote/represent a strong change in the culture of an organization.
• One somewhat related policy that this reminds me of is the Topless Meeting approach that we ended up using at my last office job. A topless meeting is one where you aren't allowed to bring in a laptop or other device. We found that this dramatically refocused the meeting and meant that people were both physically and mentally present. At the same time, I've seen just as dramatic results introducing Instant Messaging to teams that weren't using it. All of a sudden, the technology provided a level of communication unheard of. So which is it, is technology bad or good for people and organization? This of course is a silly question. Technology is a tool that should be used or not used to reach a goal.
• Complaining about lack of Remote Work is a bit like complaining about your organization not giving you a cell phone or laptop. On one level, those can provide a huge degree of flexibility (and act as a status symbol). On the other hand, they provide a level of connectedness that can make it tricky to ever really be away from the office. What a gift it can be to only be able to do work in the office.

Flyover

Caught a few pics as a military helicopter flew by. Plenty of helicopter traffic, just one of the joys of living near DC.

Those are external fuel tanks, right?

First Impressions: Lenovo Ideapad P400 Touch

I've had my new Lenovo P400 for about 3 days now. If learn more or my opinion of it changes, I'll be sure to update this review.

First off, I had the most delightful buying experience purchasing the Lenovo P400 at Best Buy. I walked in, and was quickly greeted by a sales person. I told him the specs I was looking for and he showed me my options. The P400 stood out as having a touch screen, a backlit keyboard, a 1 terabyte drive and being $100 off. I played with it a bit, and the sales person even jumped through hoops so I could get Internet access on the device (so I could read reviews, naturally). When I asked the difference between Window 8 Basic and Professional, he rattled them off without missing a beat. When I decided to buy the laptop, he grabbed the box, charged me for it and had me on my way. No need to check out again at the front of the store. Best of all, I wasn't pressed into buying an extended warranty. He didn't even make mention of it. Heck, he even reassured me I could bring the laptop back within 30 days without a restocking fee.

Seriously, it was the most effortless laptop buying experience I've ever had.

The P400 booted up and Shira had no problem setting it up on our network. I had no problem installing Carbonite on the device, and am currently 8% through the process of transferring files from my now retired Dell Vostro. Carbonite promises me that in "a few days" all my files should be in place. In the mean time, I've been using it for casual surfing and getting a feel for the device and Windows 8.

Here are some first impressions of the device:

• The touch pad is awful. I mean truly dreadful. Like almost bad enough that I'm tempted to package the whole thing up and return the laptop to the store. The problem is that Lenovo (IBM?) decided to ditch the separate left and right buttons found at the base of most touch pads and integrated them into the pad. You can use the pad as normal, or click where the buttons should be. This makes for a plasticy feel, noisy operation and one that lacks the physical edges to guide a touch typist. Worse than all that, I find that when I click a button the touch pad area often picks up slight movements in my fingers and moves the mouse just a tiny bit. Enough that it agitates me. Anyway, it's a hideous design. I assume that in another few days, I'll get used it. I'll be shocked if I ever decide I love it.
• The keyboard is nothing special, though I do like the backlit feature. It does have a bit of a loose feel to it, which I don't love.
• The touch pad seems to be setup as a space saving design, yet doesn't seem to save any space. The physical laptop appears to be bigger than my Asus. Which is OK, I use a netbook for when I travel and space is a real concern.
• The touch screen is a nice addition. I don't really know when or how I'm going to use it. However, Windows 8 seems to be designed with tablets in mind, so having a device that can approximate one is a smart idea to me.
• The device comes with Windows 8 which at times is very disorienting (compared to Windows 7). I actually had to Google Windows 8 Shutdown to find the Right Way to reboot the laptop. I'll have more to say on Windows 8, soon, I hope. I will say that I'm pleased that the device came with it.
• I like the Home-End-PgUp-PgDn key layout. Itmatches up to my Asus, the other active laptop I'm using, which is a real bonus. I can't recall the last time I was using two laptops that had the same keyboard layout. That's a treat.
• The laptop comes with Microsoft Security Essentials, my preferred anti-virus software, already installed. That's really handy.
• There's seems to be a minimum of bloatware installed on the computer. I think they wanted to make Windows 8 shine, and so a minimum of crap has been pre-installed.

All in all, the laptop seems to be working well. I've yet to push it, but I'm impressed with how much laptop you can get for around $750. Provided I can learn to live with this touch pad, I think this is going to be an excellent platform to program on.

By the way, here's all the software I intend to install on this puppy. This should cover my programming and blogging needs:

Update 3/7/2013: The top row of keys contain both the function keys (F1, F2, etc.) as well as common short cuts (mute, volume up, volume down, etc.). Nothing too exciting there. But here's the part that's just rocked my world: usually the F keys are accessed by default, and the short cuts are accessed by holding down the Fn key. The P400 has this inverted! So, pressing F2 will lower the volume. To actually press F2 you need to hold down Fn and F2. While being a major break in tradition, and not very helpful to someone who uses key short cuts (F2 to rename files, anyone?), it's actually a way overdue move. Why should a bunch of seemingly esoteric keys (F1, F2, etc.) take precedence over something you'll actually use - like a mute key.

Update 3/12/2013: I noticed the laptop reported WiFi was unavailable a few times while the rest of the devices in my house were connected up just fine. Sometimes turning WiFi off and on fixed the issue, sometimes a reboot helped. I finally visited the Lenovo Support Site and installed the latest network drivers (Intel Wireless LAN Driver (2230N BGN) - 15.5.7.52). Since then, I've had no further issues with WiFi being dropped. Whew, that was a close one.

Update 3/21/2013: A few days ago the mysterious WiFi issue popped up again. The laptop was able to connect to my home and cell phone WiFi hotspot, yet it was stuck with limited connectivity. I talked to Lenovo, and they said to call my ISP (Verizon Fios). They, in turn, said it was an issue with the laptop. In the end, rather than send in a 2 week old laptop to be repaired, I opted to return it to Best Buy. As promised, Best Buy returned the laptop without any hassle or fees. And thus ends my ownership of a Lenovo Ideapad P400.

Here's a few additional observations I've had:

• Best Buy really did rock. The no hassle buy and return means that I'd very much like to buy from them again. The only downer is that they've changed their return policy to 15 days from 30. Ouch.
• Specs wise, the P400 really is remarkable. Since returning it I've looked around at a variety of other options I've yet to find anything with the specs (i7 processor, 8gig RAM and touch screen) with such a good price and small footprint. I'll keep looking around, but I may just buy another one. Though that touch pad is annoying enough that I'm looking into all my options.
• I used the touch screen a few times while browsing full screen. Using the touch screen is way slower than the keyboard. But, it's a lot more convienient to drag the screen around than use the touchpad to drag the scrollbar. There may be a use for touch screens on laptops after all.

Amazing imagery, Off the charts bravery

First off, a video about free skiing. The scenery is amazing, the moves breathtaking.

ONE LOVE - the movie from Freeski-Crew.com on Vimeo.

And then there's this video from National Geographic where George Steinmetz takes us through the process he uses to take aerial photographs. His preferred method: paragliding. It's amazing to think that he's gotten photos of places humans simply don't or can't go. Never before has so much adventure been had by a man who comes across as so down to Earth. It's definitely a talk worth listening to. And the photographs, well, wow. Just wow.

Via: PictureCorrect.com

If I have a superpower, does that mean I get to wear a cape?

Check it out: What most schools don't teach. It's a whole lot of famous people (at least to us programmers, anyway) talking about the importance of learning to program:

Here's how I'd sum the topic:

Computer Science - it's not about computers, and it's not about science. Instead, computer science and programming in general is the study of problem solving. When you code, you are effectively solving a problem with such clarity that you're able to articulate it to a soulless computer. Learn to do that, and you're entire outlook on life will be different.

Debugging, building abstraction, breaking problems down, dealing with complexity. That's what coding is all about. Those skills are essential to every job, it's just that programmers have a language to express these ideas in.

Where should you start? If you want to makes games, tell stories or make other creations, go with scratch (even if you're an adult). Otherwise, you should pick a programming language that will help you solve a real problem you have. That might be autohotkey if you want to streamline your computer experience, Tasker if you want to make your Android phone do amazing things, or sed & awk if you need to tweak millions of lines of text. After you write your first useful program and you'll be hooked forever.

From there, learn the fundamentals. Two powerful ways to do this: HTDP and SICP. Just download Racket and you'll have everything you need to get started.

One final tip: if you want to learn to code, you only need to do two things: read tons of code, and write tons of code. The rest will take care of itself.

My only concern with the video: some poor kid is in for the shock of her life when she joins a startup and doesn't get free lunch or anything else. Nor is she going to have time to ride a scooter around the office because she's programming 17 hours a day. Other than that, great video.

Via: code.org

More Destruction in the Hood

A little clear cutting isn't the only destruction we have going on near our home. The Navy Annex is being demolished, which is making for quite the spectacle.

These pictures, taken with my Galaxy S3, just don't do the destruction justice:

The Power of the Hoodie

I snapped this picture last night. It's of our wiped out 8 year old, as he waits for dinner to be served:

All I could think of was this article I saw posted a while back:

The first hoodies, they say, were manufactured by Champion Products in the 1930s. They were designed for athletes and labourers. It was the result of a technological advancement; Champion had developed ways to sew thicker underwear material. Before that, they’d mostly made knitwear. The first hoodies were sold to cold-storage warehouse workers and tree surgeons working in the hinterlands. Then they were sold to school athletes, sitting on the sidelines in inclement weather.
...
The hoodie’s countercultural associations came later. In the 1970s, hoodies made their way into hip hop and skater culture. They kept breakdancers warm while they waited their turn to hit the floor. They served another purpose. Hoods are cheap instant anonymizers. They protected graffiti artists and skateboarders as they trespassed to perform their art. They protected muggers as they performed their art too.

It's remarkably to consider how much utility and baggage one piece of clothing can carry. And it really does work - is our 8 year old resting his eyes, or plotting a scheme to avoid having to eat the vegetables that will soon be on his plate?

Personally, I very much like my black hoodie and find it a surprisingly warm choice for the walk to the bus stop.

My Work Tablet: Staples Quad Ruled Composition Notebook

I've got an iPad, Nexus 7 and Galaxy S3 device at my desk. But those guys are just for testing apps. For real work, my tablet of choice is the Staples® Quad Ruled Composition Notebook. Yes, that's a $1.99 notebook. But it works oh so well! The graphed ruling means that I can easily write and sketch on it, and the composition style binding means they don't fall apart.

Here's what they look like:

For years now, I've started off each work day the same way. I draw a vertical line down the right hand side page. I use the far right column to note my TODO list (usually with times of the day when I plan to have the item completed), the middle (narrow column) is where I jot down blog posting ideas, so they'll be ready if/when I get time during the day to blog. Finally, I use the whole left hand page so scribble down notes, ideas, phone numbers, etc. Here's how the page generally looks:

My Dad independently found out how awesome these notepads are, and in the past has required their use as a lab notebook for his students. I think he even uses the same left page as notes, right page as data, technique, too.

For any page or information that I want to store or share electronically, I just snap a photo with my cell phone camera. Problem solved.

The system Just Works. So much so, that I can't imagine replacing it with any fancier device - be it paper or electronic.

A Little P-51 and P-38 Love

This post is about the P-38 and P-51 can opener, a US military issue piece of gear that has taken on a sort of legendary status. Bottom line: they are cheap, very durable, and most importantly, have many, many uses.

The Humble P-38

One of my readers sent me a link to this article: You’re a SEAL Stranded in Hostile Territory: What’s in Your Survival Kit?. Of course, being a fan of all things in kit form, I was definitely curious what the big boys carry. And yes, I smiled when I saw this requirement:

P-38 can opener
   a. Packaged so as to not rattle while in case.

I guess some gear never goes out of style.

The other aspect of the list I found interesting was just how standard the kit was. If you started with a AMK survival kit and went on a shopping spree over at CountyComm.com, you could probably build exactly what they describe in the article. Naturally, you'd want to pick up the handcuff key from etsy.com (a surprising source for escape and evasion gear, no?).

I suppose the ordinariness of the kit just speaks to the fact that wilderness survival is a pretty well thought out animal. Whether you're a Boy Scout, hunter or special forces operator, you've got more or less the same needs.

The P-38's Big Brother, The P-51

I keep a P-51 on my key chain, and usually keep it from flapping open using a Ranger Band (read: slice of an old bicycle inner tube). However, the band I was using just worn through, and I thought I'd look to alternate options.

Turns out, a jumbo paper clip seems to hold the P-51 together fairly well:

As a bonus, I now have an extra McGyver Survival Kit Multitool on me, should I need it.

Artists and Travelers at Work

Apparently author and artist Danny Gregory has a new book out: An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers, and as such, is doing a series of video interviews with each of the contributors. I'm finding them absolutely fascinating.

Many of the challenges and benefits they encounter from sketching while traveling match up to those I encounter while blogging and photographing our trips. And of course, they are filled with inspiration, be it drawing, travel or just creative ideas in general. Definitely worth taking some time to watch. If nothing else, it's nice to see a smart way of marketing a new book in action.

I saw the first video on Urban Sketches, a blog/project that I'm really loving. I'll have more to say on that site soon, I hope, as it's a truly wonderful resource.

Tommy Kane: An Illustrated Journey from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Liz Steel: An Illustrated Journey from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Steven Reddy : An Illustrated Journey from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Prashant Miranda: An Illustrated Journey from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Tell me after watching the above videos you don't have the urge to toss some pencils and note cards in your bag with the plan to make some art on your next trip?

One Thing We're Really Good At

That one thing? Destroying stuff.

In about two days they've cleared all trees, and nearly all the vegetation that separated our block from the highway on ramp. It's all part of the bridge maintenance project they're working on, and is no doubt a reasonable and required step. But still, it's amazing how quickly we can destroy what took decades, if not longer, to grow.

In many respects, it's humbling.

Gotcha of the day: Tweaking Blogger's Image Display Size

I'm loving the new image upload capability on Blogger. The multi-select capability to upload a bunch of photos at once is huge. And while I'm a bit skeptical about selling my soul to Google+, the ability to have super easy access to any of my cell phone photos is also amazing. The only thing I found missing is that I no longer get to choose what size my photos will be displayed at. At least I don't get easy access to this while editing in HTML mode.

Whenever I upload photos, the following code is dropped on the page:

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKHtCunRQ-Y9k1usy9-yZ5oDithQG-iqk026M20A5PMKJVZB9vKG82v1RhXpXoDUCFSdJzoTIf9AuJgr5fxqrmn6SxHZO4Heu4t7m7mlogKvXDJAUT9H_nPdOdq1SZnd1IsagBeg/s1600/20130225_164926.jpg"
 imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" 
 src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKHtCunRQ-Y9k1usy9-yZ5oDithQG-iqk026M20A5PMKJVZB9vKG82v1RhXpXoDUCFSdJzoTIf9AuJgr5fxqrmn6SxHZO4Heu4t7m7mlogKvXDJAUT9H_nPdOdq1SZnd1IsagBeg/s320/20130225_164926.jpg"
/></a>

The default size to display images is 320 pixels wide. Turns out, I can set this to any arbitrary value by tweaking the HTML code a bit. I just need to change the img source URL component s320 to a new value. For example, I can take the above URL:

 http://2.bp.blogspot.com/../s320/20130225_164926.jpg

And change it to: s580, and now the page will show a 580 pixel image:

 http://2.bp.blogspot.com/../s580/20130225_164926.jpg

See this example live:

Proof Spring is Right Around The Corner

Sure, it's cold outside...but you can't help but notice the buds on the trees. I'm telling you, it'll be spring before we know it.

I'm still amazed at the quality of photo the Galaxy S3 can produce. The above was taken in macro mode with no additional accessories.

Field Testing a New Set of Cans

My Mom gave me my first pair of active noise cancelling headphones this weekend. After I bust them out of the package, I asked my dad for a few suggestions as to what songs I should first try them out on.

His responses were: Sergei Rachmaninov's, Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. My Dad then went on to tell a story about his college days. Apparently he had a buddy down the hall with an especially sweet sound system, and every day he'd go down there to blast Tchaikovsky's 5th. He also told me about the time that they were blasting the 1812 Overture out the window of his Frat house, that is, until the cops showed up to shut them down. Way to go Dad, I'm impressed!

The pieces of music were beautiful, and the headphones work great.

Here, give them a try:

By the way, I especially like the occasional very delicate hand/finger gestures from the conductor of piece by Rachmaninov. I wonder what they mean and how scripted they are, or whether he's just making all this up to look good? I'll have to get the skinny from my Dad.

A Most Fishy Passover Plan

It's that time of year again, when I go to the supermarket and get absolutely freaked out over the presence of Kosher for Passover items. That can only mean one thing: I'm already behind on my Passover cleaning and prep.

And how did I react this year? By crying in the isle? Nope. By taking out my notepad and starting a TODO list on the spot? A good idea, but again, no.

No, I looked over the on sale items and said, "hey, look, at that deal on sardines and anchovies - I bet those will make my Passover Rock!" So I bought a variety pack:

Like most brilliant ideas, I'm already wondering what the heck I was thinking.

But at least I took action! Action high in Omega 3 action, at that. That has to count for something?

Shira has also made her first purchase for Passover and it's quite a bit yummier:

Mmmm.....chocolate!

Pairs well with sardines, right?

OK, time to work on that TODO list...

Let me guess, you're totally prepared for the big Passover, right?

So not ready to have this conversation

As I was tucking our 8 year old into bed we got onto the topic of family resemblance. He explained to me that a person typically looks like his mom. No, I corrected him, you get your looks from both your mom and your dad. No, he pushed back, you get them mainly from your mom. After all, he reasoned, you come from your mom. "Yes, but" I started to say, and then trailed off as it suddenly hit me that I most definitely didn't want to get into the topic of how a daddy contributes to the birth of a baby. I mumbled something and tried to move on to the next topic.

He puzzled over my words. "Are you saying that Jeffery at school looks like his dad because his daddy carried him in *his* tummy?"

Crap. Now I've really confused the boy.

In the vaguest possible terms I tried to explain that he was right, babies always come from mommies.

I expect a phone call from the principal tomorrow asking me why Michael is spreading the rumor that some babies come from daddies, and some from mommies. Add to this fact that our son is absolutely fascinated by the fact that in DC, boys can marry boys, and girls can marry girls, and you've got one potentially very confused little boy.

Rule #1: never underestimate 8 year old logic.

I'm off to Google "What age should you teach your kids about sex?" My gosh, what did parents do before the all knowing internet?

Your Third Option For Shaving

For nearly all my life I assumed you had two choices when it came to shaving: a disposable razor, or an electric shaver. Sure, there were lots of razor options - from cheap CVS brand to battery operated, multi-bladed monstrosities, but they were all more or less the same. Many years ago I had a cheap electric razor, and quickly decided that an old school blade was better.

Sure, some time ago I heard rumblings of a third shaving option, but that involved far more than a new razor. To do shaving right, I was told, involved brushes and mugs and soap and aftershave and, most importantly, time. So while it was novel to consider, I never did anything about it.

A few weeks back I started an experiment. I splurged and purchased a $6.00 shaver and a few dollars worth of double sided safety blades at Rite Aid. After installing the blade in the shaver I realized what I was holding in my hand: it was exactly the same thing as the disposable / cartridge razors I'd been using for years, at a fraction of the price.

This last weekend I finally put the setup a to the real test. I shaved one side of my face with the new setup, and the other side with a multi bladed contraption. I asked Shira to guess which side was which. She got the answer right: she guessed the slightly smoother side, with a tiny cut was the new razor, and the side where I missed a spot was the multi blade one. Bottom line, the combination setup worked just as well, if not better, than what I had been using.

The economics are almost staggering. The same shaver I bought a few days ago, is now on sale for $3.45 (with free shipping!) and you can get 100 blades for $8.63. Figure you use a new blade a week, that's almost two *years* worth of razors for half the price of a 12 pack of fancy disposable razors.

I'm not saying that you're going to like the replaceable blade system more than your fancy 3 blade Gillette system. But you're a fool for not at least trying, right? And if you want to get fancy supplies, go ahead, but as I've learned they're hardly required.

Gillette and friends are truly marketing geniuses for convincing the likes of myself that a cartridge razor is my only option for shaving with a blade. Seriously, how did they pull that off?

The Grandpa Project, v1.0

A few weeks back I was mulling over what kind of surprise I could give me 92 year old grandpa. To make the matter trickier, he's effectively blind from macular degeneration. And then it hit me: music. Who doesn't love music? And there's no doubt, it can have amazing effects on us. I dashed off a quick e-mail to Shira with my half baked plan: I'd add a whole bunch of songs to an Apple iPod, box it, a pair of headphones and some basic instructions for an aid to follow, and ship it to my Grandpa. Once unpacked, all he'd have to do is put headphones on and hit play. Voilà! My Grandpa would be rocking out to tunes that I'd selected. To my surprise, Shira responded that she thought it was a good idea--an extremely rare occurrence when it comes to my hair brained schemes.

My plan was to keep this little project as simple as possible. I chose an iPod shuffle for a number of reasons. First off, without an LCD screen, it's essentially designed to be used without sight. Second of all, the iTunes integration means that I could trivially buy and install a playlist. Finally, there's something novel about my 92 year old grandpa sporting an iPod. Shira picked up a 1GB iPod shuffle on eBay for cheap, and I purchased a comfortable and cheap set of over the hear headphones. The hardware turned out to be easy enough.

Then came picking out music. This got tricky in a hurry. I'm hardly a music guru, and I wanted to give him some music that I thought he'd like as well as some music I enjoy. Most importantly, I wanted to avoid analysis paralysis. I didn't want to get stuck trying to make the perfect playlist, only to never get around to making anything. In the end I decided on a simple strategy: pick two songs from each of the following categories: classical, 40's music, country, rock, pop and electronic. Where possible, I picked drinking songs. With the exception of the 40's music, which I had no strong affinity, I wanted to pick songs that I relish listing to.

Here's what I arrived at:

• Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) by Frank Sinatra
• I'll Be Seeing You (1944 Single) by Billie Holiday
• If I Were a Rich Man by John Williams
• William Tell Overture by London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Act 3: Duettino - Sull'aria (The Shawshank Redemption - 1994) by Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Victoria Anderson & Ivan Marinov
• Alcohol by Brad Paisley
• Friends In Low Places by Brooks Stars Garth
• Run by Collective Soul
• All I Want Is You by U2
• I'm Sexy and I Know It by DJ K.O.
• Born This Way by Lady GaGa
• Clarity (feat. Foxes) by Zedd
• Fine Without You (feat. Jennifer Rene) by Armin van Buuren

For the very first track, I created an audio introduction. You can listen to it here. It serves as pretty solid proof that I'm not quitting my day job to be the next Ira Glass.

I packed up the setup and sent it off. A few days later, I got an excited call from my Grandpa. He hadn't yet listened to the music, but was very much looking forward to giving it a try.

And yesterday I received another phone call, the verdict was in: he was absolutely elated with the music, the iPod and the sentiment.

The project was a success, and I can tell I'm going to have to think of a clever ways to get him more music. I'm also considering sharing some audio snippets from our travels. I can't show him photos of where we've been, but I can share the experience through sound.

You can find the instructions I put together explaining how to hook up the iPod here. Feel free to grab, customize and put them to work for yourself.

Review: The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person

I've tried to read the The Book of Job (you know, the one from the Bible) before. It starts off with a couple of chapters that are both understandable and pretty riveting. And then things get less understandable. A lot less understandable. After a few chapters , I've lost sight of who's trying to convince who of what, and why. When I saw Harold Kushner of Bad Things Happen To Good People fame, tackled the text I was hoping he could guide me through the book.

It turned out to be a wise choice on my part.

The first thing Kushner explains is that there's textual evidence that the Book of Job consists of two independent parts. The first two, and last chapter comprise a simple fable. One that's ancient, and easy to understand. The middle 39 chapters or so, however, comprise a complex poem which may be among the most difficult texts in the bible to understand.

Well that explains my difficulty, doesn't it?

Kushner then proceeds to walk the reader through the 39 chapters of poetry, pulling from different sources, explanations and examples to make it as understandable as possible. And he manages to succeed; I walked away with q coherent view of how the Book of Job can be understood.

Kushner's book, however, is more than just a user's manual to the Book of Job. In many respects, it builds on the philosophy that he originally describes in When Bad Things Happen To Good People. And just what is that philosophy? Well, consider the following three statements:

1. G-d is all powerful
2. G-d is all just
3. G-d is all good

Now, suppose something terrible happens to you, like in Kushner's case, the loss of a child. How do you make the above statements make sense? If you suppose (1) and (2) are true, then how can the loss of a child be considered good? And if you suppose (1) and (3) are true, how can you suppose that a child dying is just? Instead, Kushner outlines a philosophy where (2) and (3) are true, and that (1) isn't. That is, G-d is not all powerful. Crazy, I know. In the above example, he might say that G-d is good and just, but he wasn't responsible for killing your child - cancer, a drunk driver, or whoever else was. When I first heard this philosophy I didn't buy it for a second. But after reading When Bad Things Happen to Good People and now his take on the Book of Job, I'm more and more convinced that Kushner is really on to something.

Another way to look at it: if you're someone who looks at arguments against G-d like this one, and think, "Hmmmm, there are some really solid points there" - then you might find Kushner's philosophy especially sensible.

Regardless of what you believe, this book is an absolute winner. It was a true joy to untangle such a mysterious text.

Now *That's* A Bus Trip

Mention traveling by bus, and you're going to have to sit through me telling stories of me traveling 12 hours by bus to visit my girlfriend in College. (A decision that would have been reckless except for one fact, she's now my wife).

12 hours on a bus? That's nothing! How about traveling from DC to Antarctica by bus! OK, our hero actually made it the Southern tip of America via bus, and took a ship to Antarctica (versus what? swimming?).

I've only read a brief summary of his trip. When I get the time, I'm psyched to dive into the full itinerary. How can it be anything but fascinating?

Via: Backcountry.com.

From Pant Leg to Backpack

Stumbled over this clever recycling project:

had a pair of nice, heavy, duck cloth pants that bit the dust, so I decided to make a Veschmeshok-ish type pack...

From this:

To this:

What a sweet little hack.

A related project: Ten minute no-sew recycled t-shirt bag!. Though, that one is considerably less manly.

Extremely Close, Indeed

Here's 3 minutes and 30 seconds of wow. Some people just have the right combination of skills, nerve and good luck:

Via this question about base-jumping from high rise buildings.

And if the above didn't get your adrenaline pumping, this movie should:

Say it with more than a little bit of snark

This last Shabbat, I accidentally gave away someone's honor to another person (Sorry Jonathan - no hard feelings, I hope). During the Kiddush, I promised him that if Hallmark ever came out with a card collection for Gabbaim, I'd be sure to send him one. Better yet, I hoped that someecards would step up to the challenge.

To my surprise, there were those at the Kiddush who hadn't heard of someecards. Well, let me do my Internet duty and introduce you to them. With Passover just around the corner, here's a few someecards to get you into the mood and give you the idea about what they are all about:

So, if you've got an occasion, and need a little attitude than Hallmark can provide, say it with someecards.

You're welcome.

Getting a Kick out of Valentine's Day

You might think that because Shira and I skipped the romantic dinner and box of chocolates this year, that we didn't celebrate Valentine's Day. You'd be quite wrong. This year Shira truly kicked it up a notch by arranging our attendance at a V-day couples Kick Boxing class offered by the Northern Virginia MMA studio she attends. The idea was to give significant others such as myself a view into the training that the ladies do on a regular basis.

This is only slightly problematic for a few reasons: (1) I'm not in shape for this kind of work out (take me on a 5 mile run, no problem. Make me do 10 push-ups, and you've got a big problem, and (2) my coping mechanism for dealing with stressful situations is to talk, and there's a strict (yet unwritten) no-talking rule during workouts.

Still, for the sake of love, we decided to go ahead with this little adventure.

I got to the gym and Shira wrapped my hands. I tried as best I could, but I couldn't resist one crack about the wrapping feeling oddly similar to my Thursday morning Tiffilin ritual. See:

The work out got started, and the I found myself actually enjoying the warm-up. A little light jogging around the gym, a couple of burpees, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad. I was even keeping my mouth shut.

After about 20 minutes of the hour long class I was spent. I mean done. I didn't have a single burpee, push-up or or high knee left in me. There were 3 other couples in the class, and I was clearly the only guy struggling. I would have felt bad if I had any energy left in me to feel anything.

Somehow I managed to make it through the entire class. For a few moments in there I thought, you know, this is probably what it feels like just before one passes out. But I didn't pass out. Instead, I just lost my dignity, and got a blister on each foot (apparently I was failing to pivot on the kicks. Yeah, pivoting was the least of my problems). And in a strange way, masochistic way, had fun. For the record, I did chit-chat with the instructor and Shira a little bit (I had to!), and the class didn't fall apart.

The gym had each of the ladies present their man with a rose and we posed for some pictures. I left sore, and with additional respect for the workouts Shira endures. Maybe I'll be ready to do this again next Valentines day, but certainly not a day before that.

Maybe next year we can just do the candle lit dinner thing? I know, where's the fun in that.

I love you babe, thanks for a Valentine's Day I won't ever forget.