Saturday, December 05, 2009

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Live Blog

I'll fire up the event at 7:30 PM and movie watching will start at 8:00 PM. Again let me know if you intend to participate, I'll add you as a panelist.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Raiders of the Lost Ark Live Blog

Online viewing party starts at 8 PM EST. Be there or be square! Shoot me an email or contact me on Facebook if you'd like to participate, I'll ad you as a panelist to the event that way I don't have to approve every single one of your posts. :)

Monday, October 05, 2009

Return of the Jedi Live blog

The Empire Strikes Back Live Blog

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Marathon multiplier: Week 1


Not only did I survive the first week of the marathon multiplier, I crushed it. As of this morning I have ran 53.5 km or 33 and a quarter miles for the metrically challenged out there, leaving me a little over 73 km (45.3 miles) to run between now and February 6. I think it's totally doable. In fact I started to run shorter distances as of this morning aiming for a faster average pace. I really want to be able to run a 5k under 25 mn... For whatever reason...

In all fairness my average pace was slow all of last week but I had to deal with some pretty bad weather conditions, particularly Sunday morning when everything was covered with about an inch of ice. I had a couple of scares running downhill in the northern part of the park.

The weather forecast for this coming week is a little bit of snow but mostly very cold, no single digit temperatures though (just checked the latest forecast, there will be one night at 9), and that I can handle.

The marathon multiplier puts me at 80 km (50 miles) year to date and we're January 13! I can't believe I had to wait to be 42 to discover I could do all this running.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Polaroid is back

Polaroid announced about a year ago that it was abandoning the technology of instant films,and shutting down its plants around the world. Although it made sense from a business standpoint, it was not only marking the end of an era but I also felt that digital photography was in no way a replacement for the instant film.

Enters the Polaroid PoGo. It's a 5 megapixel digital camera with a thermal printer built-in. It allows you to take a photo, crop them and add a custom border including the classic Polaroid frame and then print it.

Looking at the specs, the only downside is that you can only print about 20 photos per full battery charge.

$94.95 @ amazon.com

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Nike + iPod = The best $30 I've ever spent

The first part of the video is focusing on the Nike + SportBand, a product that has been recalled by Nike back in November 2008 so don't pay to much attention. What I'll focusing on in this post is the Nike + iPod Sport Kit.




So ahem yes, farewell Nike + SportBand we hardly knew you. Now going back to the Nike + iPod Sport Kit if you have any model of iPod Nano or an iPod Touch second generation this baby will only set you back $30 and here is why. Nike and Apple are telling you that you'll need the Nike + running shoes but in reality you don't. I am personally using the DLO action pocket but you could easily make your own.

In fact this I believe most of the issues people are having with Nike + are related to inaccurate information. For example this video is wrong.




At no point are you presented with a login window in iTunes and that left me scratching my head for a while until I figured, all I had to do was sync my iPod then chose to visit nikeplus.com when offered by iTunes and use the "save your run" function.

Love:

Spoken Feedback: While running and listening to music on your iPod you will get feedback on the distance you have already run or what is left once you pass the halfway point. They will come up every mile or kilometer based on your preferences and you can chose a male or female voice. You can also manually trigger feedbacks by hitting the center button.

Distance measuring units: You can select miles or kilometers depending on your personal taste and of course if your training for distances like 5 or 10k.

Power Song: Oh man this is one of my favorite features! Select a song on your iPod that motivates you when running and when you need a little boost all you have to do is hold down the center button (before you ask: Gonna Fly Now)

Workout Options: Not only can you select time , calories or distance but distance covers everything from a 1k to a Marathon! If you have no specific goal in mind you can just select basic and Nike + will just keep track of your run. Also the workouts you are using the most will appear on the very first menu.

The Nikeplus website:
Ok, I have to admit, I hated it at the beginning but I really got into it and I love the options of setting youself goals and also register for challenges with other Nike + runners.

Hate:

The Nikeplus website: But more specifically the social networking aspect of it. To use a video game analogy it's like Nintendo's friend's codes. They've made it so safe, you can't really hook up with anybody unless you use the forums and I find them for the moment at best confusing.

User's Manual and online Tutorials:
Both contain either wrong or outdated informations.

It's easy to recommend the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. It's well designed and fairly easy to use. I wrote in this post mostly about the technical aspect of things but the incredible value comes in the motivation it gives you to run. You just want to get out there and not make a complete ass of yourself.

On a final note if you're considering accessories, you might want to skip the Nike + iPod Watch remote, I didn't find it particularly useful.

P.S.: The sport kit is only compatible with the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch second generation or higher, not any other models of iPods.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Probably not such a good idea

With Nike + you can set yourself goals but you can also sign up for challenges with other Nike + runners. I've joined 24 challenges so far that I consider doable, I might have stepped over the line however with number 25.

Enters "The Marathon Multiplier (1/3)". Here is what it's all about:

"This is only for the very toughest Nike+ runners. How many Marathons can you run in a month?

A series of challenges. We start with three in the first month, four in the second and five in the final month. Keep up and you're in the second month. Whoever can keep the pace until the end of month three wins the respect of the forums. Are you up for it?"

So errr yes I'm going to have to run the equivalent of a marathon every week for the next 3 weeks to make it through the first month and that's of course in January when the weather is the best in New York. Not that it really concerns me, I was running on New Year's day by 15 degrees, I'm just hoping there'll be no snow storms.

If you're scrolling down the list in the little Nike + widget I'm currently number 54 because I was the 54th runner to sign up. Challenge starts on January 5.

I'll be posting updates... Yes I know, I'm crazy.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Run, it's good for you


According to a study from the Stanford School of Medicine who tracked 500 runners for 21 years, elderly runners "were younger, leaner, and less likely to smoke" than nonrunners. 19 years into the study 15% of the runners had died compared to a whopping 34% for nonrunners.

If that doesn't convince you to start running, I don't know what will.

Source: Archive of Internal Medicine.