I’m being stalked by a word. First it pops up in a Rick Mckinley sermon I heard on my iPhone. This same word practically beats me to death when we watched Night of the Hunter before Christmas. Over New Year’s the word snuck up on me in a game of Wii bowling (with Mii characters…
Take 84 hotel maids and tell half of them that their job consists of exercise, lots of it, and what happens? The half that learns about the burn factor of their job loses weight and sees an improvement in blood pressure. The other half doesn’t. Maybe obesity is psychosomatic? Via NPR.
At the edge of Coyoteville we’re too cheap to subscribe to Consumer Reports. This makes it a little tough to get the straight dope on big ticket durable goods. But with our beer getting warm and Home Depot’s 10% discount set to expire at midnight, we decided to do the best with what we have.…
Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. To-day, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our…
I know, here it comes: the retrospective cliche. But what are you going to do? Highlights for 2007 included a DEAD WHALE!!!!, my first backpacking trip in 20 years, nearly losing my wife, getting lost in Ballinger canyon after dark, learning to identify birds, joining a climbing gym, and of course, my daughter’s wedding.
Tim Ferriss promises that you can lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days without exercise. Let’s just ignore the fact that Tim’s diet spanned six weeks (not 30 days) during which time he lost 15 lbs. (not 20), and forget the fact that Tim’s diet role model cheats by exercising a little (50 marathons…
This weekend I tried out the auto belay device at the local climbing gym. Remember, I’m not a climber. I start getting uncomfortable when I get over ten feet off the ground. And the auto belay is not giving me any solace here. The device works like those key rings that janitors clip to their…
Engadget has an article about a Land Rover concept car that uses an iPhone to control the vehicle. Aside from the gee-whiz cool factor of the thing, you really have to wonder about the logic of having a touch-screen electronic interface for a vehicle with the core purpose of traveling in harsh conditions. It seems…
I use Google Maps alongside with USGS and USFS maps when I plan a Jeep junket. I just find it easier and faster to browse Google Maps than an actual topo map. The downside is that Google Maps isn’t always accurate. I’ve wound up facing dead ends a number of times following roads that appeared…
Yesterday when Maureen, Ros and Norah stormed the shops in downtown San Luis Obispo, I had to follow along seeing that I am the cash box. I don’t mind doing a little shopping with the women folk, but I really don’t understand the process. After 20 minutes my nerves start to itch. My anxiety level…
Kevin Drum notes that any talk about peak oil is moot if manufacturers are close to peak production.
Being a sucker for a new frontier I purchased an iPhone last night, or maybe I should say that my bank purchased an iPhone and in exchange I gave the bank another piece of my soul. And I did this knowing full well that the iPhone would make my life into a living hell. Aside…
One of the epiphanies behind David Allen’s GTD process is the fact that you need to break tasks down into “next actions.” For instance, one of my to-dos is the 30,000 mile service on my Jeep. But to do this service I have to do a lot of smaller steps. For instance, before I change…
Popular Mechanics, the perennial bastion of testosterone, offers up 25 Skills Every Man Should Know. Some of the items on the list are editorial are no-brainers, such as Back Up a Trailer or Clean a Bolt-Action Rifle. Well, duh. Those are the basic minimums for manly behavior. Some of the other entries border on wtf?…
This past week I felt a little like a kid who got a pony for Christmas…and a firetruck. First comes the new Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard”, and next comes Gmail with IMAP. Using Gmail as an uber-account for all my mail accounts, I might be able to defrazzle my inbox at last. Using Apple’s…
