Two beautiful cars for you to watch today.
Runkeeper Review
I’ve been wanting to write about my “new” walking/running that I have taken to recently and I also wanted to write about the different tools that I am using to keep motivated and track my performance.
I’m not one to make new years resolutions, so I really didn’t this year and thats not what this is. I’m heavier than I want to be and I want to attack that problem. I don’t have time to go to a gym. Even if I could make the time, they generally don’t have what I need and I’m not talking about the machines or classes.
I decided to just head outside and start moving around more than I already do. What is something that most everyone can do, no matter how out of shape you are? Walk. So thats what I did. I just stepped out side and started walking. I do this on my breaks at work. Yes, I know some of us are so busy at work we don’t even have time for breaks. I’m one of those people most days, but when I’m not physically in a meeting I force myself out the door if only for 10 minutes.
Since February of this year I’ve been doing just that. I started out only walking for about 15 minutes. I would go slow and didn’t get very far. The first walk that I tracked via RunKeeper was only .91 miles and my pace was 18 minutes a mile. Yes, that is slow. Most people walk about a 15 minute mile. But day after day, I just kept going. I turn on RunKeeper and just walk. Now I run a little too and my pace is down to 13:30. Not bad.
When I have time, weekend mornings usually my walk/run is 4 miles long and it only takes me about an hour. I do it before the rest of the family wakes up.
Back to Runkeeper. It is a free app that works on smartphones (iphones and Android phones). It uses GPS to track where you are and how fast you are going. You can use if for walking, running or biking. You can keep track of where you are and how well you are doing while you are on your walk. It even gives you audio updates of distance, time and pace. After your walk/run or whatever you can review your performance on your smartphone or on the website. Here is what that looks like:
This walk is from the San Diego MS Walk I participated in at Legoland, California. It was a fun walk. Don’t worry, the MS Walk isn’t usually that long, we did they extra and optional extended walk. I believe its usually only about 1.5 to 2 miles long.
I hope to add more websites, apps and gear that I’m using to help me stay motivated and enjoy my walking.running. Until the next post, get out there and do something!
Book Review: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
My rating:
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie is another History Book Club read that I took forever to finish. This is because the book did not keep me coming back and I read many other books while I was reading this one. About 3/4 through the book I pretty much knew what I was going to write for my review. The first part of the book, the part leading up to her marriage, was interesting, and for me the best part of the book. From that point until just before the end of the book, it read like a soap opera. She went from man to man and had so many woes. Towards the end it was the story of a geriatric old woman, and her pains. Her triumphs in war, but more so her art collections, and her passing fancies. It wasn’t that this book was written poorly, thats not it at all, I just didn’t find the story of Catherine II’s life all that interesting. Maybe for people who are more interested the her social relationships there might be more, but I didn’t find my self identifying with any of the people discussed in the book. I didn’t get to really know anyone but Catherine, which is who the book was about so again no fault of the author. I was a little let down by this one and I think it will be a while before I pick up another historical biography. I need to refresh my mental palate.
Books of 2012
While I didn’t make my goal of reading 50 books in 2012, I did get through a good portion, 36. By the numbers:
- 5,384 pages from 6 ebooks and 12 print books
- Longest book, Elizabeth the Queen (688 pages)
- Shortest book, Just Bento Cookbook (127 pages)
- Oldest book, Charlotte’s Web (1952)
- 168 hours and 41 minutes or just over 7 days from 18 audiobooks
- Longest book, The Canterbury Tales (20 hours, 52 minutes)
- Shortest book, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (20 minutes)
- Oldest book, Iliad (usually dated to around the eighth century BC)
Here is a brief review of some of the winners and losers:
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is part of a series call The Last Survivors. The series consists of 3 books so far. Book 4, The Shade of the Moon, is expected September 3rd, 2013. This was a book on a subject that has interested me for some time, the apocalypse. This novel is written from a teenage girl’s point of view. The story starts before an apocalyptic event occurs, and continues, with most of the novel occurring during the worst of things. A good book from a child ’s view. Some things are more important to a child than an adult so it was interesting to see things from that perspective. While I enjoyed the book, especially the day-to-day dealing with the apocalypse stuff, it did drag on a little. I listened to the unabridged audio of this book. The reader was very good. All in all this book is a solid 
.
Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith. This book was one that I won because of my membership in The History Book Club on goodreads. Great book. I wasn’t really in to the royal family before, but now I have had my interest peaked. This is a great starting book for anyone wanting to know more about the royal family. This is a history book, so if you think you will be bored reading it and you have no interest in the royal family. Chances are you will not like this book. Skip it and read something fun. I have an interest in the royal family and history so I gave this book 
.
The Iliad by Homer. This is on my list because I want to read more books considered to be classics by many of the ‘must read’ list floating about the Internet. I listened to this book. The reader was okay. Can’t rate this any higher until I have time to read the cliff notes and figure it out more. I caught the general idea, but geez! It was a good read, but a difficult one. I gave it .
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. A very good book about Steve Jobs. I read this on a kindle. I found that while Steve was a marketing visionary he was not a very nice person. If you have ever wanted to know more about Steve Jobs, read this book first. This is a must read for apple fans!
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris. This is book #4 in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I started reading this series when I first saw an episode of True Blood. I liked the series so I started to read the books. They are a fun read. You defiantly don’t get much intellectual stimulation from these books, but they are a fun read to add to your line up of biographies and other non-fiction. This was the first in the series I ‘read’ instead of listening to. I read it on a kindle. I enjoyed it more than the others. Great series. I’m looking forward to the next book.
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks. I listened to the unabridged audio of this book. Pretty good. A lot like Gladwell’s books. He even quotes Gladwell once or twice.
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris. This is book #5 in the series. Back to the audio book for this series again. I enjoyed this one as much as the last.
Beowulf by Unknown. Another attempt to read the classics. I listened to this book and enjoyed it more than The Iliad, probably because I understood more of what was going on. for this classic.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I have always wanted to read Kipling. Such a famous name and associated to many stories we all know, but few of us have read. This clearly falls into my classics list. I listened to a good reading of this novel. This is of course a children’s novel and must be read that way. Even still it is a great story and I liked it.
The Witches by Roald Dahl. A fun quick read. I had read this before when I was much younger and I also remember the 1990 movie of the same name. Great book, but beware, it may be too scary for some children. My little girl Samantha, age 4, saw the cover (I didn’t read it to her) and said it was too scary. I had to hide the book after that for fear I would give her nightmares.
The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan. This is book #3 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I listened to the unabridged version of this book and enjoyed it as much if not more than the other books in the series. It was a fun quick read.
Zone One by Colson Whitehead. I listened to this apocalyptic novel unabridged. While I liked the idea, I didn’t enjoy the execution as much. I was disappointed that this ended when it did. I also did not like all the switching back and forth from one timeline to another. Would have been better if it just covered the timeline it ended on.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. While many would agree that this book is a classic, I have to say that I did not enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I still have the link to the list this book was on: http://www.divinecaroline.com/49804/102633-30-books-everyone-read-30
I think this got better towards the end. It was a long read. Many characters many generations of the same family. There was a lot to keep track of throughout the story. Some themes and ideas weaved in and out of the story and that was a nice surprise. Great prose. Read out loud it sounds great! It took me a very long time to read. I kept interrupting it with other reads that were more fun to read.
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris. The sixth book in this series. Not as good as the last two. I again listened to the audio of this book.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling. My second Kipling novel of the year. While this was enjoyable I think I liked The Jungle Book better.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. This one was a recommendation from my wife, who after watching the TED talk wanted to read the book. She ordered it on Amazon and I couldn’t wait for her to finish her copy and read it on my kindle while she was reading the print copy. It was an excellent read for everyone, especially those of us that are introverts. 
, the highest rating of the year thus far.
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli. I’m not a big graphic novel fan but I did enjoy this book. I probably picked it up because I had just been to Comic-Con in San Diego that month. It was a fun read.
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. Another Dahl book and movie. It was okay only. Definitely for children. I listened to this book and gave it .
It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell. My father-in-law shared a Parade article with me that was an excerpt from this book and that had me hooked. I found the book on audio and loved listening to it. Excellent leadership book, filled with entertaining stories and great advice. Listening to an unabridged version read by the author was a huge plus! , the second perfect score for 2012.
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris. Another Sookie Stackhouse novel that I listened to the audio of. It is number seven in the series. This one is slow to begin, but ended so well that it still gets .
Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner. This book was another that I won through the History Book Club on goodreads. I didn’t have high hopes for this book, I thought it would be dry based on its topic and thickness. However, I really like how the book was laid out, covering an era at a time and what was going on in the nation and how the FBI reacted to it. It made the book very easy to follow and a nice read. While I was not very excited about the story, it was not the first book I picked up when I had time to read, it was well written. It did have some fairly excited parts for me like when discussing spies especially. I wish there would have been more discussed about spies as that is very interesting to me. However, I realize that this would have left the book astray of its intended topic.
I learned a lot about the history of the FBI so the book succeeded in its goal. I had no idea that Hoover was such a large part of the agency. For the first 2/3 of the book I felt like I was reading his biography.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the FBI. I now feel I have a better understanding of one of our nations super secret agencies.
Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts. I really enjoyed this first book in the Jake Grafton series and I hope to read more of them. I listened to this book and thought it was read very well. I immediately went out and watched the movie version as well. , 3rd perfect score of the year.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I listened to this classic. It a bunch of stories written as poems. Some of the stories are adult in nature. Its written a very long time ago so you have to concentrate on the language to understand it. It is a good book to listen to. It was a little too old for me to enjoy. I did like some of the naughty bits as they were entertaining especially the language used! It was one of only two books I’ve read that used the word ‘defenestration’. The other was a history book speaking of the Defenestrations of Prague.
The Bible (New Testament KJV) by Anaymous. While anyone who knows me knows I’m not very religious, this book definitely falls in the classics category, as the most read book in the world. So of course I listened to this huge work read by non-other than James Earl Jones, which made it more enjoyable, however it was still very long and hard to get through, so it earns only .
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The best of both worlds, this book falls into the classics category but also science fiction. While I love the idea, I didn’t love the story in this book. I’m glad that I listened to this book though, otherwise I may not have finished it.
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan. After a bit of a dreary story from The Time Machine, it was time for a fun read. However, I was a little let down by this audio book. This is the fourth book in the series and the story reads the almost the same as the previous 3. Every time I finish one I’m not sure if I will read the next book in the series.
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. I had already read this book before, but I wanted to read it to my four-year-old Samantha. While her attention wavered over the 3 weeks that we read the book (a chapter a night every other day, mommy reads on the alternating nights to Samantha) mine did not, I fell in love this wonderful work all over again. After we finished reading the book we watched the 2006 movie together. I think I prefer the original 1973 animated movie better, but I had trouble finding that at the library.
The Athena Project by Brad Thor. I read this via my kindle and enjoyed the story. It was a good fun read. This is supposed to be the first in a series of Athena books, however, it was originally published in 2010 and I can’t find any mention of a second book in the series.
Surak’s Soul by J.M. Dillard. Part of the Star Trek: Enterprise series, book #5. This was a guilty pleasure. The book had a very simple plot and you have the book figured out about a ¼ into it and there is really now need to read the rest, nonetheless, I did enjoy reading it immensely. I think I enjoyed reading the book since the television series needed so quickly with only 4 seasons. I liked the characters in this last television star trek series, so I really enjoyed that their stories can continue in print form, or for this book at least, in pixel form and I read this book on a kindle. I have already obtained the second book, By The Book, in the series. I’m skipping the first since it is just a novelization of one of the episodes of the television series.
Mr. Bento 8 Month Review
I’ve had my Mr. Bento for 8 months now. This is my updated review of a great all around lunch box. I wrote about my initial thoughts back in February. Before we get into it, I should mention there are different version of Mr. Bento. The one I got is a little larger than Zojirushi Classic Bento Vacuum Lunch Jar, which is considered the classic. You can even get them in red, gun metallic, lemon yellow I still love the Mr. Bento.
So, I have taken more than 40 pictures of all the different lunches I have made using Mr. Bento. I added all of them to the Mr. Bento group on Flickr. This group has thousands of pictures and every picture has great ideas of what to fill your bento box up with.
I have found that it is easiest to fill my Mr. Bento up when I have already planned ahead what I am going to load into it. Of course, if you already have left overs in the fridge this makes loading up your bento much easier! I have never spent more than 15 minutes filling up the bento. Somethings that take longer to make, I sometimes do the evening before.
The basic Mr. Bento has four food containers. From top to bottom they are:
- Small side bowl 6.8 ounces. I’ve found that this makes a great dessert container. Because it is the smallest container it means that I limit whatever sweets are in this container. This container is not water tight, although I have put some wet fruit in this one without any problems. The items in this container will stay cold for about 4 hours, or warm for a little longer depending on what it is.
- Large Side Bowl 10.1 ounces. This container is a very good size. Its great for big pieces of fruit. I like to put two peach halves or two pear halves with cinnamon in this container. This container is right on top of the insulated main bowl, so it stays warmer or cooler longer than the top small side bowl. This bowl is not water tight either.
- Main bowl 15.2 ounces. This bowl is the least water tight of all. Although it is the largest bowl that stays warm or cool. It is the only bowl with an insulated top. A good way to keep this bowl extra hot is to keep some very hot soup in the bowl under it. This is where you put your main entree. The bulk of your meal. Again, lots of ideas on the Flickr group.
- Soup Bowl 9.5 ounces. This is the only water tight bowl. It has never leaked for me. It hold soup, yogurt, or whatever you want. This one is the hardest one to clean because you have to take the rubber ring out every time to wash it. I use a toothpick to get that ring out.
Above is a typical Mr. Bento for me. From the top left clockwise, you can see I put miso soup in the soup bowl (this is a warm bento). I get the soup from trader joe’s. Next the Katsu chicken is really just a fried chicken patty from smart and final on top of some rice. Next is my old stand by, pears from trader joe’s, they come in a glass jar. I sprinkle a little cinnamon on them to give them some extra oomph. Lastly, dessert. Two cookies and a little piece of sees candy. That makes for a very satisfying meal!
All the container bowls must be hand washed. I don’t really find this a big deal, because I figure by doing this the containers will last longer. Some people on the Amazon reviews have commented that they have some lingering food smells coming from their containers after prolonged usage. I’ve had mine for 8 months and have not had that happen to me.
After packing some lasagna I did have a very light stain start in the main bowl. No big deal. It doesn’t bother me. I originally got the Bento because I was tired of having sandwiches everyday for lunch in a plastic bag from a grocery store. The bento lets me bring anything I wanted to work to eat and best of all it would stay cold or warm until I was ready to eat it 4 to 6 hours later.
Now that I have had the bento for a while I find my self packing sandwiches again. Even though the shape of the containers is circular you can easily cut the sandwich in triangles and pack them in the main bowl easily. If you want to get creative and your one of the people that don’t like bread crust you can use the large side bowl to cut your bread before you make your sandwich. Then it will easily fit in the main bowl. I’ve also found that the new thin circular bread they are making now makes a perfect fit for the bento bowls, as does hamburger buns.
Below is an example of the round bread.
For Sale: PS2 and 12 Games
I am selling my used, but in ‘Like New’ condition Playstation 2 Console – Black
- The console
- 2 wired controllers
- 1 TV connection cable (proprietary PS2 connector on one end and on the other component RCA connectors: 1 video, 1 left audio, 1 right audio)
- 1 power cable
The games are all in the original case and still have the instruction manuals they came with. All game disc are in excellent condition. They are:
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Similar postings on craigslist are going for:
Playstation 2 slim + 6 games – $190
Playstation 2 System plus GAMES! – $94
1st generation ps2 playstation 2 – $100 – No games
PS2 Playstation 2 system with 10 games 2 controllers – $100
I’m asking $60.
Why I Hate Libsyn….and Why I Can’t Leave Libsyn (or can I?)
Dang I hate these guys! Last year when they “upgraded” everyone to the new “improved” libsyn they dropped 3/4 of my podcast episodes and it took them 3 months to get them back. Actually, I uploaded all but one of them myself. They only had to recover one and that took them three months.
This is their main function. To store podcast for our listeners to download. And that simple thing they could not get right. Now we are switching banks and I have to change my credit card information on their antiquated interface. When I tried I was notified that I would have to leave the type of account that I have been on since I signed up 5 years ago, it is no longer available on the new system, so they say.
Strange part is that I’ve been using this account on the new system for the last year with no problems. If you’re screwing over your oldest customers, I started podcasting in November of 2005, then at least be frank about it and tell the truth.
The real reason is, they don’t make as much from me as they possibly could. I would normally leave a company that treats me this way. But this is the worst part, I’m stuck. Libsyn is still the best company out there doing this (such a sad fact!). So my alternative is to stop podcasting. In all honesty, I have not put out a podcast in a very long time. I have held out hope that I would one day be able to podcast again.
Once again I’m considering hanging up the microphone for good. Not because I want to stop, but because I’m being screwed over by the only company that can help a podcaster out.
If you are looking to switch to Libsyn or are considering starting a podcast at all. I urge you to move to another platform and consider all alternatives carefully. Because you may find yourself contemplating giving up podcast just because of Libsyn as I am now. I’m very sad that Libsyn is helping to destroy podcasting by treating their members so very badly.
Your Guide to Bento Lunch Boxes
One evening my wife Michelle asked me if I wanted to get a new lunch box like hers. She got something like this.
But this lead me to think, “I need to do some research.” So I searched adult lunch boxes. One of the results was for Mr. Bento
Mr. Bento is a stainless steal cylinder. It looks like a very larger thermos. Inside it are 4 containers. The bottom container is for soup, next up is the main meal bowl, then a large side dish bowl and finally a small side dish bowl. All the bowls are plastic (BPA free). You can microwave the bowls but not the lids. The soup bowl stays very hot for a long time, while the meal bowl stays warm and the top two bowls stay at room temperature. Cold food stays cold as well. This is a good picture depicting how the bento box works.
Mr. Bento also comes with a spork and a carrying bag. All these containers also help you have a variety of food. A review on Amazon lays out the intended organization well:
This unit is optimally designed for the Japanese style lunch. A soup, Rice, entrée and pickled/salted vegetables. Normally you’d put your soup in the bottom container, fill the middle container up with rice. Your entrée would go in the third and the veggies in the fourth. Since the soup and the rice container both have insulated tops they stay warm.
I thought of it like this: soup bowl gets soup; main bowl gets the main entree; large side dish bowl gets fruit; small side dish bowl gets veggies. But in reality I usually use that small bowl for chips/cookies/trail mix. I figure that at least that stuff is in the small bowl so I don’t have that much of it.
As for size, the amount of food in it is way more than enough. I’m never hungry after lunch. I’m very satisfied. The thing is pretty big. I’m not a small person either.
The reviews on the Amazon page great. They really helped me make a great decision and let me know the draw backs. For example, the bowls will stain and are not dishwasher safe. This hasn’t bothered me at all. It doesn’t take long to wash the bowls by hand. Also, I thought filling them up in the mornings would take a long time, but I’m done in 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how complicated the meal is to prepare. Also in the reviews of Mr. Bento they mention the flickr group, which I joined right away and have been posting pictures of my meals. It is a fantastic way to find great ideas for filling up your bento.
It has been awesome having a warm meal int he middle of the day. Whatever I pack is just what I want to eat and I don’t have to settle for whatever fast food place is close, or whatever the cafe at work has that day. I can make just what I want to eat! It is really fantastic.
Another reason I bought Mr. Bento was to try to reduce the amount of food I eat at lunch. The portions at restaurants are huge and I don’t want to be eating that much. As Makiko Itoh says in The Just Bento Cookbook
“Incorporating healthy homemade bentos into your weight-loss program is a great idea. Their compact size makes portion control easier, and also means you don’t get into the bad habit of eating fast food and high-calorie snack food for lunch…”
By the way the reviewers on the Mr. Bento page and on the The Just Bento Cookbook page agree that Ms. Itoh’s book is the best bento book around and after reading it I would have to agree with them! I borrowed it from the library and now I will have to buy it. I can tell it is one of those books I will constantly be going back to for great recipes. This is the only book you need. I checked out a few others and was very disappointed.
Anyone thinking about changing their lunch routine or looking to keep their portion sizes down, should really give Mr. Bento a try. I’ve had mine for a few weeks now and I’m not getting bored of it. I still use it everyday I go to work and I look forward to a great lunch everyday!
Simply Organic Alfredo Sauce Packet Review
I know, but Sprouts didn’t have a white pasta sauce. Instead they had this. I should have just walked over to Albertsons. This little packet was awful. I tried to compensate by adding a bunch more cheese, but it didn’t help. Don’t buy this stuff its not what you think. It is not creamy at all. Its like water mashed potatoes, and has the same flavor. You have been warned!
