[2007.09.11] Weight Loss Report

So, I forgot to update last week and that may have been a sub-conscious attempt to avoid bad news as I had gained 0.8 pounds resulting in a weight of 334.2 pounds.

Well, this week has gone much better. I lost 4.8 pounds taking me down to 329.4 pounds.

Yay! I hit my first mini-goal. 29.4 pounds left to go to hit the first full goal. Given that I have already lost more weight than that, it seems less daunting now. Only the upcoming weeks can confirm my assessment...

Superman vs. Doomsday

So, it looks as if DC is getting into the direct to dvd animated features business like Marvel. On 9/18, they have Superman vs. Doomsday coming out which is based on the "Death of Superman" graphic novel. One of the best selling, if not the best selling of all time.

I know I will be picking this up!

New Animated Spidey!

So, I am way behind the times it seems, but I just read that Kids WB is going to air a new animated Spider-Man show in 2008 named "Spectacular Spider-Man".

Check out the low-res trailer here...

Sony Ditches ATRAC, Connect Music Store

Sony Ditches ATRAC, Connect Music Store

Now that is a big deal. I have watched Sony continue to push the pathetically locked ATRAC format for years wondering why they kept going. Well, I knew then and know now that Sony is so hopelessly addicted to it's own ideas that it often refuses to notice that they're dead and buried...

Guess they finally got the hint!

An Open Letter to NBC re: Leaving Apple’s iTunes Store | iLounge

An Open Letter to NBC re: Leaving Apple’s iTunes Store | iLounge

Definitely worth a read. Yes, the article is pro-Apple, but I believe he makes some VERY valid points here. I know that I consider $1.99 per episode to be higher than it should be, but I have paid it on occasion.

UPDATE:

NBC says that it's all Apple's fault :) The quote about "flexible pricing" to me seems like code for wanting to raise prices or make people buy whole seasons or some such. Given the situation, I would definitely put money on NBC being the more greedy/willing to screw over consumers of the two corporations.

[2007.08.28] Weight Loss Report

Well, it has been a somewhat positive week for weight loss. I'm down another 2.4 pounds or 27.2 pounds overall. This leaves me at 333.4 pounds this morning. I am just shy of the first mini-goal of 330 pounds. Maybe next week?

BTW, I also threw up the legend to explain what those little stars mean :)

Hollywood reams the consumer yet again

[LANGUAGE WARNING - Pissed off Badger Alert]

I'm not sure if you've heard by now, but I've been following the latest escalations in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war. The Digital Bits has had some of the best coverage and it is worth checking out. Basically, Microsoft dropped a chunk of change at Paramount and DreamWorks front door in exchange for them to stop being platform neutral and go HD-DVD exclusive. So, now they going Universal in the HD-DVD camp with the other studios either being Blu-ray exclusive or platform neutral.

What has this done?

Hmmm...how about fucked over the consumer royally? In an idiotic format war that was in no one's best interests, Blu-ray looked to be starting to win and that is when Microsoft acted. Now, it has sown the seeds of confusion within the potential audience and I agree with the prevailing opinion that less people will go with either.

I have been considering my options for some time; cheap MS Xbox HD-DVD drive or stand-alone Blu-ray player (PS3 isn't worth even considering). Now, I can say I have no idea what to do. I think I will likely still with DVD because as usual Hollywood has continued to fuck the consumer and we just continue to bend over and take it...

UPDATE:

So, I have given this more consideration and I've decided they both suck, yet I still want them. Realistically, I will probably not buy either as the waters are just to murky right now :(

I got this of the Digital Bits:

In a poll over at IMDB, fully 63% of the 16,000+ people who responded chose: "I have neither system and this makes [me] want to enter HD media even less. I'll stick with DVD for the time being." The next largest group, 10%, said they had no opinion and another 9% didn't know what HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc were. So that's 82% of people who either just don't care, don't know about the formats or are turned off by the format war.

It's not like we're talking polling people on the street, but this is from a movie junkie website!?!?!? No one (at least in large numbers) wants to go near this mess. That so disappoints me that these two camps our ruining HD optical media for the whole industry...

[2007-08-21] Weight Loss Report

Well, another week in the plan where I made it out and met the plan's requirements. I stuck to my point totals by the thinnest of margins. Free pizza with my favorite toppings at work last Friday nearly did me in :)

So, I am now at 335.8 pounds and that is down 2.4 pounds from last week. Hopefully, by this time next week I can post a graphic showing a coveted "25 pounds lost" star. I could conceivably even hit my mini-goal of 330 pounds. The first major goal of 60+ pounds lost is looking more and more possible by the end of the year. I am concerned what havoc winter may play with my progress. Summer has already made getting out and walking difficult, but I imagine winter may be worse. I guess I will just have to wait to see...

Ben eating Jello for the first time

Dinner tonight at Sweet Tomatoes...Ben loves his Jello ;)

Blockbuster - part deux

Well, Blockbuster has given me something to think about. When I switched to Blockbuster from Netflix, it was due to getting rentals for the same price, but with the added benefit of being able to exchange my online rental returns in store for a free movies. I wasn't thrilled about switching to a company that is an example of much of what is wrong in the movie industry. Well, today, I got the gift of an e-mail from the corporate giant that explains that they want to begin charging me an extra $7 per month for this privilege. Or I can remain at $17.99 per month and only get 5 in-store exchanges a month. I'm not the kind of person that likes being forced to keep track of simple things such as this. I want unlimited and no worries.

Well, in this same timeframe, Netflix cut their costs by $1 per month. Maybe it is time to restart my membership there and dump the evil corporate entity?

Code Monkey

My friend Kirsten posted this to her blog and I have to say that I love this AMV. It's extremely clever and well done. The song also rocks ... well, somewhat softly ;)

and now on weight watch...

So, it's now time for another weight report. With Heather & Ben out of town this past week, I assumed I wouldn't do well as I tend to eat "bad" foods when I am bach'ing it, stuff like potato skins, pizza, chinese, etc. Well, I did do that, but I guess I kept to moderation well enough to still lose weight.

I'm now down 2.8 additional pounds at 338.2 that brings my running total to -22.4 pounds. This has not been my best week, but I will gladly take a loss any week. If I can at least stay moving in the right direction, hopefully I'll get to the end goal sooner or later and I'm just a wee bit off of my first goal of 330 pounds.

Review: Hot Fuzz

As Heather and Ben are off at the beach, I had a quiet day at home today. Last night, Matt came down and we grabbed some dinner (stuck to my WW point goals) and then we played Tennis & Golf on the Wii. The Wii definitely shines when paired with other people. It is fully a social game system.

Anywho, back to the review. As it has been a quiet day, I have spent my time, uhm ... sleeping :) In between waking up and napping, I watched Hot Fuzz. I wish I had seen this one at the theater like I had wanted, but life/work conspired against me. It's great, absolutely fun. Not the same movie as Shaun of the Dead, but there are a lot of similarities and you can catch occasional references. It's just a fun movie and Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Timothy Dalton (still my third favorite Bond) are all fun in their roles.

Simon Pegg's Nicholas Angel on the movie Point Break:

Well, I wouldn't argue that it wasn't a no holds barred, adrenaline fueled thrill ride. But, there is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork.

It's hard to pull out great quotes as much of the movie, like Shaun of the Dead is subtle, dark humor. I definitely recommend both. They can be a bit violent in places, but their great spoofs of their respective mixed up genres.

Just as an aside, I REALLY want the DVD library room shown in this flick :)

To stash away for Ben

I think Heather and I may have to pre-order this for Ben. I really want him to have the opportunity to read these as he gets older and it seems like a great deal at $117 for all seven books.

Weight Watchers progress

For those of you that know, I have been getting involved with Weight Watchers in the past couple of months.

Well, I have now decided to stop attending the meetings. They simply weren't doing anything for me and to be quite honest, Weight Watchers isn't tuned at all for men (at least from the meetings I have seen). I am still doing the program and am quite happy with it so far, but that is due to the fact that they have some nice for-pay web tools that allow me to geek out over my diet tracking. Well, in an effort to remain accountable, not just to myself, but also others, I have decided to start posting some of my results here. At one point I may have been embarrassed or considered this too personal, but the reality is that I am a big guy, but I am making decent progress towards being a smaller bug guy.

So, without further ado, here is my latest weight chart...



I started at 360.6 pounds and as of my weigh-in this morning, I am at 341 pounds or a 19.6 pound loss.

The goal listed above is definitely not my end goal, but it is where I would like to be at the end of 2007. It is aggressive and I'm not fully sure it is attainable, but hey, they don't call them "stretch" goals for nothing. My next goal is to hit 330 pounds with the year end goal to be 299 pounds.

I'll update every week or two with were I am.

[UPDATE: Just for info, the stars in the chart above are milestones within the Weight Watchers system, i.e. first 5 pounds, additional 5 pounds, etc.]

Got some new games for the Wii

Wow, another weekend has come and gone :(

Still enjoying the Wii and yes, I am still working on more review details, but I just haven't had the time to finish yet. Yesterday, I traded in some Xbox 360 games that just hadn't done it for me and picked up the following Wii titles:

Excite Truck
Super Paper Mario
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I also took the Wii over to our friend's Matt & Chrissy's house and he and I spent some time with Wii Sports and Excite Truck. Just like man video games, you really need more than 1 person to truly enjoy it as much as possible.

I've also spent some time with Super Paper Mario and it is fun and has some neat tricks, but wow is the dialogue in the game HORRIBLE. It is B-grade at best :)

The Simpsons Movie - Spider Pig Clip Download

The Simpsons Movie - Spider Pig Clip Download at demp.se/y - Adam Dempseys Blog

Check out this site to get the great "Spider Pig"! song from the Simpsons movie. It makes a great ringtone :)

Simpson Bill

Go here to build your own Simpsons avatar...

Initial Impressions of the Wii

My first few days were without internet access, so I didn't initially get to try that out (and once I did I discovered it isn't what I expected, but more on that later).

First off ... the hardware:

• Beautifully designed. My favorite of all the current consoles.
• The feel of the Wii Remote is good. It isn't too heavy, but is generally very comfortable.
• The Nunchuk controller is similar, but is rather more simplistic. Still, it feels natural to use.
• The range of the Sensor Bar to detect pointing directions from the Wii Remote is somewhat problematic for me right now. I can't find any position that allows me to stand or sit and play without moving the sensor bar, but I think this may be solvable.
• I really wish the console came with video cables better than plain old composite. Honestly, in this day and age, S-Video or more likely, Component really needs to come in box.
• Video generally looks good (given SD expectations), but I haven't tried hooking it up to my HDTV and likely won't until I get my hands on a Component cable.
• Seems I can save just about anything to good 'old SD flash. Nice change from other vendors.
  

Now for the software:

• I started with only Wii Sport. This game is a lot of fun, if not a bit repetitive. My favorite mini-games so far are Golf and Boxing.
• I rather quickly went out and picked up Wii Play bundled with a second Wii Remote. This game is a bargain bin collection at best. It isn't nearly as good as the Sport disc, but you only pay a $10 premium over a Wii Remote on its own, so the value isn't too bad. The Cow riding and fishing are fun. I have yet to get comfortable playing Billiards.
• I think games that demand physical action (sports, etc.) will work beautifully. I'm not sure the novelty won't fade on other titles, but we'll see.
  
• I rented SSX Blur and Elebits last night. Both seem fun, but I haven't really dug into them much yet.

More coming this week:

• Internet Connectivity
• Virtual Console
• More in-depth discussion on the listed game titles
  

Return from the Beach

So, I was really bad about blogging from the beach...

Too much relaxing to do. Let me give a quick run down now that we're back before I go to get some sleep...

• Amazing weather ... most of the week was clear and mid-80's temperature wise. We didn't get any nasty rain until late Saturday
• Ben didn't enjoy the water at all until Saturday morning ... prior to that he was afraid of the surf, but he did get into the sand ... lots of pictures to go through
  
• Ben broke a DVD player ... electronics mixed with a 1 year old is a no go
• I bought a Wii ... wandered into Wal-Mart while wasting some time and they had a single Wii box hidden at the back of the shelf. I will review it in the next few days
• Did lots of walking, 2-3 miles many days, but I still found myself back up about 5-6 pounds over 2 weeks ago. Food like the next entry explains ;)
• I love Buffalo Wild Wings ... really good wings and a good atmosphere

Now just one more day off and then back to work. Be back later with more ...

iPhone review at Yahoo

Review: Two Weeks With An iPhone - Yahoo! News

I haven't read the whole article, but it sounds rather interesting and worth a look...

The "plus" sign is a valid e-mail address character

I really need to go to bed, but I thought I would rant for a quick bit.

If you design a web page that asks for an e-mail address is some manner, you really better $%@& well known the accepted standards for e-mail or rather the "internet message format".

I get so pissed off when a web form won't allow me to enter a plus sign in my e-mail address. This is a valid and useful option. You see, everything after the + to the @ sign is presented but ignored for delivery. So, bill@vinsonweb.com and bill+spammingbastards@vinsonweb.com go to the same address, but I can at least see the address it was sent to. Now, when I give my e-mail address to any old company, I can see if I start getting spam on that e-mail account, I know who to blame.

There is no incentive for companies to fix this as it is used by a small group of people. Well, no reason except for the page designer sleeping soundly with the knowledge that he did his work right and isn't completely inept.

Bye, Bye Wildman look

BEFORE:

AFTER:

MID-WAY SNACK:


So, Ben had his very first haircut today. I was glad. Heather was a bit torn up, but kept it together :) He still has curls, just shorter hair overall. He handled it quite well, but did get a bit fussy towards the end, but never really cried. We ended up using Snip-its and I was pretty well satisfied with the job and with the environment of the place. There were lots of colors, lots of multimedia clips, and quite a number of toys for sale. All in all, a good choice.

You can see a few more photos here.

The Deathly Hallows

So, my hardback book copy of "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows" arrived today from Amazon and I picked up the audiobook version at Target while we were out. Looks like I've got some great reading during my vacation.

Possible 6G iPod User Interface Redesign and Videos

Mac Rumors: 6G iPod User Interface Redesign and Videos

I could totally see this design and yeah, I would be tempted to buy one :)

Make sure to check out the videos...they're short, but interesting ... if you're into the iPod's GUI ;)

Can't get it out of my head

I am wandering B.J.s with the song "Jinglebell Rock" stuck in my head. I keep humming it and I don't know why. To make things worse ... I can't stop!

Workin' for the weekend

Oh, did I mention my vacation started today at 5PM?

YES!!!! :)

Shuffle while you walk

I went out on the way home and picked up a green iPod shuffle. I must say that I really love this thing. It is small, light, clips to your clothing and in general just works great. It makes my walks much more fun as now I don't have to carry around my comparatively bulky iPod Video 5G. I originally considered the iPod nano, but this won out due to price and size. I also think the nano is due for a major retooling. If they make it cool enough, I might pick one of those up too at some point.

So far, between Heather, Ben, and I we have:

• iPod 20GB 3G
• iPod mini
• iPod Video 5G
• iPod shuffle
  

To a crisp I say...

I must say, I am very tired lately ... of work, of everything. I am just burned out to some extent and I really need my upcoming vacation to recharge. Right now, I have my first "me" time of the day and I am sitting on hold with NetFlix to fix something with my account ... not really relaxing ;)

Well, we hit the beach in a matter of days and really, hitting the beach for me means sleeping and relaxing. Wow! I just can't wait. I have a huge stack of comic book TPB (Trade Paperbacks) and I will have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for some enjoyable reading time. I am truly looking forward to book 7 of the series. I had wanted to listen to it on Audiobook, but I must have missed the pre-order guarantee deadline for that edition. If I find it, I will likely pick it up as well.

I'm also going to be working on pulling in all the video I have of Ben that has not been imported into iMovie yet. Probably going on to encode for Apple TV and YouTube from there.

Anywho, I am REALLY looking forward to getting away for a bit. I should still be posting as I can now do it from my Samsung Blackjack via SMS/MMS.

Review: Harry Potter OOTP/Ratatouille

Well, I think both movies were quite good. First off, Harry Potter...


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 4 out of 5 stars

This movie was very dark, but then again, so was the book. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone familiar with the direction the series is taking. Each of the seven editions grows increasingly dark as the children age. There are some great characters that are seen here for the first time, such as Dolores Umbridge, Luna Lovegood, Nymphadora Tonks, and Bellatrix Lestrange. All of these new comers add something to the Harry Potter universe. It has been a while since I read the book, but it felt rather true based on my memory. There are some rather funny scenes, but overall the mood is consistently dark. This story focuses HEAVILY on death and is getting to the point where younger children simply aren't ready for the material. Roger Ebert's review specifically dinged the movie for lacking the wonder of the previous outings, but that simply isn't there by this point in the story. We're in a whole new world at this point and I'm not sure if the criticism is fair. I believe it is a good choice for any fan of the series, but newcomers would definitely need to see/read the previous books. All in all, a great movie experience.



Ratatouille - 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Ah, on to the rats ;) I wasn't sure about how good this film would be, but I wasn't sure about Cars either and I can definitely say I am impressed. You know, you wonder if rats can be cute and interesting, but this is a great movie. It IS cute, well written, funny, and the animation ... I can only say that my jaw dropped. The fur, the detail in the fur and all of the little touches just make this an amazing visual spectacle. I couldn't decide what to pay attention to the amazing visuals or the great story. This one is up there with the Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., and Toy Story. Patton Oswalt is great as the lead character and rat, Remy. He makes the movie and adds so much to the characters obsessive, creative nature. There are also lots of positive messages for the kids. There is a bit too much in the way of references to "killing" as that is what people typically due to rats, but I think it is only too much for the real young end of the spectrum. Well worth checking out by pretty much all ages.

Just got out of Harry Potter OOTP

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was appropriately dark matching the book's tone. I need to think about a rating, but I am leaning toward 4 out of 5 stars.

I saw this nice standup for the Simpsons and figured I would have to grab a shot. Oh well, I'm off to see Ratatouille as well. It has been years since I did a double feature.

The firetruck I bought Ben

Apple Acquires CUPS

Mac Rumors: Apple Acquires CUPS

This is actually very interesting as this is probably the best open source printing architecture out there, but it needs more polish IMO. Apple is likely to integrate CUPS even more into OS X while hopefully continuing to support all the others UN*X operating systems...

SMS works too!

So, very cool, I can go either direction (cheap ($0.25 per MMS) or cheaper ($0.10 per SMS)) depending on my needs (text or text+image). Alternatively, if I do this a good bit, buying the $5 per month plan sounds like a good direction.

Testing Mobile Blogger

So, I figured I would test out the mobile features of blogger to go (Mobile Blogger). Seems to work rather well, and isn't too pricey to do each month. Maybe I should send to Blogger & Flickr on the same message...

mmmmm...always-on connectivity...

By the by, I snapped this photo outside of Target after picking up a Mega Bloks Mega Fire Truck for Ben. I thought the sky with rainbow had a nice texture to it.

Here is Ben's new toy...

The Badger Song

I know this is old, but I still think it is hilarious and oh, so appropriate for this blog :)

They grow up so fast...

Ben walked today and I didn't get to see it!

Heather and Ben went to a nearby daylilly farm to pick up some flowers for the backyard while I stayed at home and worked on cleaning up our office (which had become quite a wreck). While they were there, Ben took 10 steps in a row by himself. I definitely think that is counting as walking, but I just wish I had gotten to see it :(

It was nice he picked a date like 777 to walk on... :)

[UPDATE 7/9/07] I have since gotten to see Ben take a number of steps on his own...yeah! He still is more comfortable with crawling, but I'm sure that will change in time!

Badgers, Badgers, Everywhere

Another who loves the badger...the one on local TV that is...

Long story short, we have a local automotive dealer using a "badger"ing sales manager to illustrate everything they aren't. Terribly funny commercials, IMHO, but their online presence is darn close to zero. Takes forever to even find their site as they don't seem to have a site for the name their advertising, "Johnson Automotive". They're actually, "Johnson Lexus". No mention of the badger there that I can find. Probably Lexus is too high-brow for a talking badger ;)

UPDATE:

I found copies of the print ads.

I've fallen and I can't get up!

Actually in all seriousness, I have been in a lot of pain today. My back has been sore since Wednesday when we finished putting a patio in, but sometime on Friday, the pain seriously kicked in. I stayed home from work and tried to rest and stretch myself back into some sort of useful shape, but I'm still only part of the way there...

How Bill can be convinced to lower his standards...

I really wish I didn't like getting a good deal sometimes...

I have been using Netflix for the past couple of years if not longer. Well, my brother talked me into trying Blockbuster's online service. Well, long story short, I like it. I like it a lot, but I really dislike Blockbuster as I believe they represent much of what is wrong with the movie industry today (i.e. profit emphasis rather than artistic quality, "exclusives", Wal-Mart like elimination of all competition, caused the death of the local video store, etc.)

All that being said, I love getting movies in the mail, watching them, returning them to the store, getting free in-store rentals, getting my next batch in the mail. It is simply VERY convenient. Guess I have to just accept that I am going to compromise my personal stance for a few more movies a month and a bit of convenience :(

Review: Transformers

4 out of 5 stars

So, I went to go see Transformers on Monday night which was opening night for the flick. Theater was crowded, but not horrible as there were several showings at all at once. I'll cut to the chase and simply say that it was a LOT of fun. It is a great popcorn flick and if you did enjoy the 80's toys and cartoon, you'll definitely find a lot to enjoy here. The robots do look different than they used to and some of the action is too fast and motion blurred, but I can't say I even realized nearly 2 and a 1/2 hours had passed when it ended. There was a good area of action and comedy to hold my attention. Shia LeBeouf was great in his role. He added a strong human element to the movie and was very well cast. I especially enjoyed the scenes with his whole family. I haven't bothered to look them up on IMDB, but I got the best chuckles when they were all at home. John Turturro was honestly a riot as a slightly over zealous government agent. One of the weak areas was Megan Fox's acting. However, it was obvious she was cast as an eye-candy love interest. She is absolutely gorgeous and as I was leaving the theater I heard MANY people discussing the "checking out the engine" scene. I must say, she played her part admirably ;) One note, this movie is NOT for young children. I would absolutely draw the line at 9 or 10 years old. It is a bit too aggressive and violent (albeit without blood) for the younger kids. 

There have been quite a large number of negative reviews and it has finally dipped into a "rotten" state over at Rotten Tomatoes. I think some of the reviewers are being too hard on it explaining that their negative review is due to how they feel non-fans will react, but at the same time, they say anyone who grew up with the show and toys will love it? Seems a bit harsh to hold that stance given how many people know and love those toys, but oh well...

Long trip for 8 TPBs

Took a nice, long walk to the Holly Springs farmer's market and library this morning with the fam. The farmer's market is rather small, like 8 booths, but luckily that wasn't the main reason for the walk. The library, while small, is perfectly acceptable. I was much happier there after I figured out that they have a "Graphic Novels" section. I picked up 8 TPBs (Trade Paperbacks) ranging from Hellblazer to the Hulk to Batman and the Fantastic Four. A nice haul if I do say so myself.

Tomorrow, I need to spend more time on the outdoor patio I've been working on and Monday night, I'm going to get to catch the Transformers opening night show over at Beaver Creek. Everything I've heard or read makes this movie sound amazing. 88% freshness rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

The new blog of Bill

So, I have decided to try using Blogger for a while. I will probably be getting Heather on it as well as she now wants to try blogging. We'll see if I stay here or go back to WordPress. I'm just not sure I want to mess around with true web-hosting or not any more. I am just so busy and we're talking $120/year for what I have right now. That's almost a new iPod ;)