Up North (& Out There doing it)

Nothing but fun

Foursquare is exploding and just can't get much hotter in the media. I've been doing it since October and there is only one way to put it -- it's fun for some strange and addictive reason.

But all of the sudden, after having the entire 'world' as my oyster and being the Mayor of just about whatever wherever I went, folks are catching on.  This morning, I got this note that bothered me waaaaay more than it should.

------Original Message------
From: foursquare
To: kdaddy
Subject: foursquare :: You've just been ousted as the mayor of Black CowCoffee Co!
Sent: Mar 13, 2010 8:10 AM

Hey there -

Sorry for the bad news, but Alicia M. has just replaced you as mayor of Black Cow Coffee Co!

http://foursquare.com/venue/332952

Don't take it too hard - a few more checkins and you could be back on top...

- foursquare

The only redemption, checked in at the Bagel shop later and boo-yah! Alicia M. got the same note about me!

I know, I know, Zoolander is thinking it right now -- doesn't this guy have more things to worry about and I don't know how he has so much time on his hands to even think about junk like this.

Joggler?

This is crazy -- I was linking out from an article on GoodToDo (one of my favorite work tools) and stumbled up this guy who is a joggler (juggling while running).

Amazing, he ran a 1:23 1/2 marathon while juggling.  That's 83 minutes to run 13 miles.

That' s a 6:33 mile pace!

One of many 1sts -- all in one move

An astonishing number of firsts, as I'm opening up my WiThings scale, in an attempt to liven up and continue the progress 23 lbs less of me initiative. (let's be honest -- weight loss and dieting is a real snoooooooooooooooooooooooooooze). 

So I bought this little number, and to be honest, it was a little bit of a stretch, spending $150 on a scale, but let's talk about the firsts, first.

First 1st -- Twitter-sourced purchase.  @Dens was tweeting about giving this to his sister for Christmas and said that @Jack gave him the idea.

Second 1st -- This, at the time of purchase, almost felt like a purchase for technology's sake. (Never a good move, but I've been accused of that before).

Right out of the box, its presentation is Apple-esque and very beautiful (quite shocking for a scale. Fired it up, and what I loved about it immediately was it was an electronic scale that gave you an immediate reading.

We've had two other scales in our house since Aug 4th. The 1st was an electronic scale that worked great, but I hated waiting, waiting, waiting only to get an 'Errrr' in the morning. Weighing yourself in the AM is rough enough without having to deal with that.

That scale was replaced by the old school 'normal' scale, but while that gave an immediate reading, I was never convinced that it was giving good readings and since little curious fingers could adjust the zeroing out -- didn't feel confident in it and sometimes went to check in on the old electronic scale.

If you do stick around on this new scale, it tries to calculate your BMI.

All of this (and here's the ringer on why I got this thing) is uploaded directly over your wireless network to your own personal tracking website.  The scale is quick enough to recognize different people and all of that.

My only disappointment is that I didn't have this on Aug 4th, when I started this whole weight loss insanity stuff.

Here's to a healthy waist line in all of 2010.  If I get real brave, maybe I'll even let you all take a peek.

D5000 -- Rocks

I am absolutely loving my D5000.

http://bit.ly/XVVLo
http://bit.ly/XbUIn
http://flickr.com/gp/kdaddy/i95t33

Daily Lit Dialed In

I met the founder of DailyLit.com three years ago and thought their idea was very cool. Subscribe to a book and have it delivered right into your inbox in digestible chapters. I think it's a great idea. However, if you zero out your inbox and get behind in the reading, it can be a little tough and I've abandoned a couple of times.

However, I just signed up for 'DailyLit's Big Read' which just launched and the first story was 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' – great timing to get in line with the Oscar's buzz, but just wonderful content for DailyLit. The wonderfully written short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald is just perfect for this type of consumption – and the best part about this title – its free.

One of the problems I thought about the email subscription was with something like 'The Art of War' – I can't remember what the number of emails required to read that was, but it was a lot and kind of depressing. Seeing (1 of 67) in your inbox subject line doesn't help your anxiety of your overflowing inbox.

Give it a try.

The Secret Post Office

How cool is this? Its the glass of water that I got from the post office that is hidden in the Mary Knoll Missionary facility. Its awesome and never crowded (shhhhhh!) and they are always very helpful. Today, not only did they give me some water, but they were being so helpful with this older gentleman who was trying to use an AMEX gift card and was slightly confused on what his balance was, how to use it, etc. The Postman was so helpful, reading the teeny tiny 800 number and writing down for the older gentleman since he couldn't read the back of the card. All of this after he said the reason that he didn't have the zip code for this letter that he wanted to send was because he typically just emails with this particular person (Zing!). The best part was one of the folks working at the post office laughed and the other one was thinking it wasn't quite that funny. To which I say, come on. Email and snail mail exist peacefully with each other and really don't replace each other. In fact, I'd build a case that a majority of people send more mail, because its special now.

Welcome Good Reads

So, this widget was the begining of the end for the technical problems for Why Run, but I've got it running on the left hand side

<--------------------------------------------------------------

down below so you can see what I'm currently reading. Funny, I've finally figured out how to have a couple of books in play at the same time -- they just need to be in completely different genres.

Setting the Table is actually pinching Made to Stick a bit, but I've got to crank through Setting the Table for this exec conference that I'm going to hosted by Creative Good.

Its tough

Man, its tough being playing the 'single' parent. This month between S and I, we are out of town 13 out of 21 business days. Its tough.

I don't know how you would do this without having help. Without our parents here to help out, we'd be sunk.

One thing I've missed

I've missed 'rockin' out' in the car ever since moving to the Big Apple. It's definitely one of the things that I've really never gotten over and was happy to rediscover over the weekend.

And, for the record, I like the band Everclear, even if they aren't the coolest. They have very catchy, great rocking out car music.

Good Living

Oh yeah --- what's that in the picture (soon to be posted once pictures get figured out in this thing) -- that's right The New York Times delivered right to me.

Sweetness.