Micropsychographics: Twitter Types And Retweeting

"I have noticed very different responses to different styles of URled tweets. And I think it has to do with the psychological makeup of the recipients of the messages, just as much as the text in the message."

read more | digg story

UPS Announces It Will Stop Advertising on O'Reilly

From Thinkprogress.org:

In response to our Stop Supporting The O’Reilly Harassment Machine campaign, UPS told us yesterday that it was investigating whether to continue supporting O’Reilly’s show. Today, UPS announced it will stop advertising on O’Reilly’s show. Here is the statement UPS emailed out just moments ago:

Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.

read more | digg story

Jeff FTW.

I labored long and hard for titles for this post. I thought maybe, "How to lose 60 pounds in two and a half months" or, "how to stop yourself from dropping dead at 42". But instead, I think I'll just present everything in a pretty straightforward manner. Let the numbers do the talking.

Last night was March 15th. I turned 42 on March 13th. On my birthday I went back to the Doctor and had blood drawn. I got my results on Monday, March 15th. That night I rode my bicycle for 15 miles. It took me a little more than a half hour to ride that distance. My average speed was over 25 miles an hour. For over 30 minutes I rode at 25+ mph. 

When I got off the bike, the odometer read 1,003 miles. Since January 1st I've ridden one thousand and three miles on my bike. 

Now, let's rewind:

After Thanksgiving, when I last weighed myself, I was 227 pounds. I had visited the Doctor a few months prior and was told in no uncertain terms that I had to radically change, or I was going to either have a stroke, or a heart attack. My bloodwork and blood pressure were alarming. So bad in fact, that my Doctor wanted me to carefully monitor my blood pressure for 30 days, and if it didn't change, I was going to have to be put on Blood Pressure medication. 

So I did what anyone else would do when confronted with that. I got depressed and ran from it. I never monitored my BP, I never watched what I ate, I never changed my habits, and I slipped into a very deep depression. Deeper than I was already in as a result of the changes I was going thru that I wasn't telling anyone else about. Shortness of breath, dizziness, light-headed, etc.

As a result, I weighed 227 pounds following Thanksgiving vacation. Alarmed, I decided that I was going to do something about it.

As soon as Christmas was over.

I mean seriously, how fucking stupid AM !? 

So I took my vacation. I enjoyed Christmas. I ate everything I could and never bothered to weigh myself again. I'm sure I was north of 235 by this point, but I'll settle for the last weight I can confirm which was 230.

Let's recap where I am at this point. Operating from a 6 month old blood workup, I can safely say the following:

My blood pressure was, "Alarmingly high". I don't remember the exact number, but it was around the 160/100 range. Yeah, fucking deadly.

My total cholesterol was 380. It's supposed to be UNDER 199.

My triglycerides were 580. They're supposed to be UNDER 149.

My HDL, which is supposed to be OVER 39, was 31.

I weighed 230 pounds.

On January 1st, I reset the odometer on my bike. My goal wasn't that lofty. I told myself if I could *average* about 5 miles a day on my bike, that'd be about 1500 miles for the year and that's a nice amount to ride. That would be about 5 miles on most days, and on the weekends maybe a couple 10 mile rides. Seemed reasonable... The first ride on that day was for 4 miles. My average speed was just over 11 miles per hour. I was dead. I tried to follow that up with some situps and I was able to do 5.... yep, five of them. 

I don't know why I didn't get discouraged, but I didn't. I can't answer that question. Why I kept at it, what was motivating me early on, because honestly, I can't remember. It was hard. It was cold as hell in the garage, it wasn't EASY to ride on rollers, and the overall experience was somewhat lacking. I was alone, riding in a garage... it wasn't very... um, fun?

But I did stick with it. I noticed very quickly that I could push myself a little bit more every time and slowly started adding more distance to my ride. I wasn't concerned with ANYTHING else. I just wanted to add a little more to each ride. At first, I started adding quarter miles. "Yesterday 5, today 5.25" I'd say. Then I'd have a sense of accomplishment, I suppose. Something tangible to take away from that day's ride. Then I started adding half miles. Then miles. By February I'm riding upwards of ten miles at a stretch, and now I start wanting to go *faster*...

While all of this is going on, I'm starting to keep track of what I eat. Only barely at first. Trying to remember what I ate to jot down in my Moleskine that I'm using to track cycling. Not really knowing how many calories, etc. Then I got "Eat This, Not That" and I felt like I finally had the missing piece to the puzzle. I started shopping for groceries and taking that book with me. ALL of my purchasing decisions were driven completely by that book. Frozen Pizzas? No more, I'll make my own healthier whole food alternative. Which salad dressing? What bread? Which peanut butter? What's a good lunch meat? Every decision I made was driven by one desire, and that was to eat simply the "healthiest version" of that particular food, and that book helped me make that choice EVERY time. 

As I started paying more attention to my diet, I noticed I started wanting different things to eat. Sometime around early January for instance, I had a Sprite. It was the first one I had drank in a week or so. I took two sips. I've never had a soda since. I don't eat, nor do I desire ANYTHING with High Fructose Corn Syrup. I eat oatmeal every day, and several times a week eat it twice. When I *crave* food, more often than not what I crave is a bowl of oatmeal with fresh strawberries sliced up in it. One bowl of that and I'm in heaven for the next several hours.

Speaking of time... the other thing that I started doing, and I believe this is just as important as what you eat, is eating ALL the time. I used to skip breakfast, then go eat a huge lunch that (I thought) would "fill me up" until dinner. I'd wonder why I got tired in the late afternoon and always wanted to take a nap. Now, I wake up, eat a VERY big breakfast at 8 AM or earlier, eat again at 11, then again for lunch at 1, then make sure I eat something at 4 to hold me over until dinner at 6, then I eat something with heavy protein in it around 8. I don't eat anything else after 8:30. Ever. But guess what? I don't need to. I'm never hungry. Ever.

So that's what I did. I changed everything I did. I only tried to do ONE simple thing. "Just do everything right". All I wanted to do was make the RIGHT decision, every time a decision presented itself. It was as simple as that. I had no cravings. No "desires". No need to cheat. No reason to lie. I was only competing with one person. Me. If I let someone down, it was me. If I lied to someone, it was me. It boiled down to two simple things. I'm not saying EASY things. I'm saying SIMPLE things. Discipline and Self Control. That's it. I know it *sounds* hard, or something, but honestly. It's not. It's simple, straightforward, and anyone with a medical degree will tell you EXACTLY what you need to do. You just have to get off your ass and do it.

So what was the result?

Well. Here are the numbers. Straight facts. Laid out:

Total Cholesterol was 380. It's supposed to be under 199. Mine's 179. I lowered my total cholesterol by over 200 points.

Triglycerides were 580. They're supposed to be under 149. Mine are 101. I lowered my triglycerides by 480 points.

My HDL was supposed to be over 39. It was 31. Friday, it was 45. I raised my good cholesterol by 14 points.

My blood pressure was 110/62. That morning, my resting heartrate was hovering just above 50.

I weigh 171 pounds. I've lost 60 pounds. Over one quarter of my body is gone. Last night I did 105 situps without breaking a sweat.

I've ridden over 1,000 miles in less than 3 months. If I just keep it up at the rate I'm currently riding, I'll finish 2009 with over 4,800 miles under my belt. I only wanted to average 1,500.

The Sword of Damocles is gone.

Jeff, for the win.

"The coolest thing I've ever done..." or "Kiss me, you adorable little phone..."

Let me preface this post by saying the following: "I don't care if your iPhone can do this". It probably can't, but even if it could, I don't care. This is about me and my experience this weekend with my phone.

So I decided to go to Columbia this past weekend. I hadn't seen Ray, Jess, and Grant in ages, and I had finally settled on buying a BMX bike to race this year (more about that later). I've lived in South Carolina, in Myrtle Beach particularly, for about 20 years or so, and in that time I've probably been to Columbia about 3 times. You see, I'm not much of a City dweller, and Columbia never had much to offer beyond the usual city accoutrements. More/Bigger Comic Book stores, a wider selection of Bicycle shops, etc. Obviously I have NO idea where anything is, nor even the remotest idea of how to get there.

But I have a Google Android Phone, and Google has this thing, perhaps you've heard of it? "Google Maps"? Good, you're familiar...

I'm driving up to meet Ray. He lives near the comic shop, and I figure I'll drive up to his place then we'll drive around, fuck off, and meet Jessica for lunch. Again, I have no idea where he lives, or even how to get there. I'm pretty good from here to Dillon, heading to Charlotte. All my family lives in Charlotte and I go there all the time, so getting up to Dillon's pretty straightforward, heading over to I-20, then into Columbia...no problem, but as soon as I get close to Columbia I'm completely fucked because I don't have a clue.

But again, I have a G1. 

So I decide to let Ray help me a bit, and that's what led to what I thought was just the coolest, most seamless, transparent, useful and completely straightforward thing I've ever done with a phone:

1. Ray goes to Google Maps. He selects my address (from his address book, naturally) as the starting point, and his address (default, of course) as the destination.

2. Google Maps the route. He likes this route. He clicks the email link and emails it to me.

3. He emails it to my Gmail account. This is the default email account for my G1.

4. *ding* My phone chimes, alerting me to a new email.

5. Clicking on Ray's email brings up Gmail on my phone, and I see the directions. There's also a link if I want to see the map. Of course I do, so I just touch the screen to view the map.

6. My phone, hyper intelligent being from another planet that it is, realizes the link I clicked on was a google map link. It asks me very simply, by means of a popup selection, "Do you want to open this link in a browser? Or would you like me to open the Google Map application that came with your Google phone?" Naturally I touch "map, baby".

7. Google Maps launch on my phone. Then it draws Ray's directions on my map, starting with my place, and ending on Ray's front porch (I know it's Ray's front porch because I can click street view to see where I need to park when I roll up on his place).

8. Then, looking at the route, I think to myself, "I wonder where I am on this thing?"

9. Then it dawns on me. I have a google phone. It has a built in GPS. What if...

10. I hit "Menu" and am completely NOT stunned to see "my location", which of course I select. GPS powers up, and about 45 seconds later, I'm dropped right on the map in realtime, letting me know precisely when I passed the exit to Ray's place, and where the next exit will be for me to turn around and get back on my route.

All of this happened effortlessly. I did nothing weird. Nothing hyper technological. No special software or hardware beyond just my phone and the email app that came with it, and the google map application that was preloaded on the phone. In fact, you could say with all confidence, "Even my mom could've done this", which as every technophile knows, is the ultimate test.

Surf Report for Myrtle Beach

surfreportmyrtlebeach.com is your source for updated surfing information around the Myrtle Beach area. We have many tools that surfers can use in order to know exactly what is going on in the ocean. The surf report is updated daily at least twice and if you want to see a live source then check out our live cam.

read more | digg story

Night riders: Twilight rides at Harbison offer new twists, turns for cyclists

On most nights, the deer and possums and raccoons have the run of Harbison State Forest.But March 5 wasn’t most nights.

read more | digg story

Easter Eggs (And Missing Parts) In Watchmen's Titles

The beautiful title sequence to Watchmen is loaded with secret references that couldn't fit into the film (like the entire history of the Minute Men). Check what you may have missed and what got cut.

read more | digg story

6 Weird & Wonderful Things People Have Built With Twitter

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a "microblogging" service that invites you to share what you're doing with the world in 140 characters or less - and it's currently taking the world by storm, with everyone from Scoble to Shaq on board. Its charm is that its usefulness is entirely open to interpretation - while many just don't get it...

read more | digg story

Facebook Is for Old People - TIME

It was designed for college kids. But it took legions of people their parents' age to fulfill its ultimate destiny

read more | digg story

"Where are the cute baby pictures?" or "What part of 'The Internet' did you forget this morning?"

At some point, the people who contact me on Facebook, or Twitter, or LinkedIn somehow or another always seem to come around to the same topic of conversation. Kids. Invariably someone says, "Where are the pictures of your kids?"

So here's my answer, "There aren't any."

"Why?", you may ask. Well, I have an answer to that too.

"Because I don't presume to do anything to my children that will follow them around for the rest of their lives without their explicit permission to do so."

Did people suddenly forget the nature of the Internet and the longevity of data?

Okay, lemme put it another way. Let's say for instance, I told you, "Hey, did you know there were literally hundreds of pictures of you all over the Internet that you have no control over?" What then? See, that's my problem. Nobody knows. It's all in the future, and once you upload something, it's completely out of your hands... forever. You lost ALL control. Oh sure, you might have legal recourse... maybe... but probably not.

Oh, and I know allllll about privacy and "locking down" your account to prevent people who you don't want to see your photos from seeing your photos. But I'm not talking about that slim, tiny, minority of people who are technically savvy enough to navigate convoluted Social Network Privacy features. I'm talking about the people who just upload anything they take, which, in the context of the moment, I'm sure, is probably hilarious....

...until that kid turns 16 and his/her friends stumble across the naked baby pics you uploaded the night Jr. got into your makeup and painted Yo Gabba Gabba on his pee pee. Cute? Sure. Social Disaster? Probably. Embarrassing? Definitely. Your fault? Oh, without a doubt.

I know I seem like I'm a pretty outgoing guy, but I'm also a little cautious when it comes to Internet privacy. I'd rather err on that side. I also try very hard to practice empathy. I'm not my child. My child/children is/are their own person/people. I would rather defer to their judgement and let them decide what pictures wind up online forever. Will I police those? You bet your ass I will, fiercely. But at the same time, I'll acknowledge that those decisions are theirs, not mine to make.

Obama Reverses Bush Rule on Protection of Endangered Species

From Digg via Washington Post:
"In a move that will subject a number of government projects to enhanced environmental and scientific scrutiny, President Obama is restoring a requirement that U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine whether their actions might harm threatened and endangered species."

Oh noes! The wacky environmentalist tree huggers are actually using... *gasp* ... science to ensure that development is done in a responsible manner. Damn those hippy liberals for wanting to promote responsibility!

read more digg story

UPDATE: Awww... looks like Governor Hockey Mom is going to be disappointed. Once again, that pesky science gets in the way...

"Palin Fought Polar Bear Protections"

"Governor Discounted the Findings of Nine Recent USGS Studies"

"Even as the [Bush] White House has finessed its position on polar bears in the face of legal challenges and public pressure, Palin has led her state's efforts to block protections for the world's estimated 25,000 polar bears, of which roughly a fifth are believed to reside in Alaska."

"Listing the polar bear as a threatened species [under the Endangered Species Act] will have a significant adverse impact on Alaska because. . . [it] will deter activities such as commercial fisheries, oil and gas exploration and development, transportation, and tourism,"

See More...

I pity the people of Alaska. When they went in the booth were the choices "Some Democrat" and "Lowest Common Denominator"?