I'm back on the treadmill

So I'm finally back on the treadmill and it feels great. They say it takes 28 days (or is it 21?) to make or break a habit, so I'm day 12 into a new routine. What's the routine? 5 minutes of stretching and 25 minutes on the treadmill, at a fast walk, with small weights. I'm going to work up to 30 minutes on the treadmill and heavier weights, but I'm trying to just get back into the habit of exercising.

The first week was brutal. It was just sooooo hard to get up, put on my sports bra, and just start stretching, much less get on the treadmill (that black piece of equipment that mocks me every time I enter the basement). Of course, it helped that the scale showed I had lost 3 lbs, but that's probably mostly water.

A presentation by Joe Dillon (http://www.thejoedillondifference.com) at my CEO group meeting earlier this month did the trick. He gave us flabby CEOs a routine we can follow: 30 minutes of fast walking with weights 3 times a week + lean protein and carbs at every meal. I'm not quite ready to throw out ALL of the sugar in my diet, but I'm being more careful, especially after the sweets of the Christmas season.

I need to make a few more workout CDs to make exercising interesting, but that's why God made iTunes, right?

If I can lost 10 pounds, I will feel like a million bucks. Stay tuned on my progress.

Flight 93 Crash Site

Last Sunday, January 13, I went out to Shanksville, PA to visit the Flight 93 crash site with my brother Alex and friend Andrew. We were told by friends who had visited that we would be moved the experience and that turned out to be an understatement.

Getting to Shanksville is not hard; the crash site is not far from I-70 and the roads are good. But it does require a commitment of over 3 hours each way from the DC area. When you get to Lambertsville Road, you wind down an unpaved road for a few miles and eventually reach a former strip mining area where the plane crashed. The place is pretty desolate in the winter.

Like the other 9/11 sites, there isn't an official memorial yet. The National Park Service and the Flight 93 Memorial Fund are raising money to construct the official memorial and visitor center - http://www.honorflight93.org

There is, however, a temporary memorial that is amazing to see. The NPS and local township erected a small shack, two flagpoles and a plaque. But there are thousands and thousands of memorials and artifacts that have been left by visitors. There are marble and granite plaques, t-shirts, sculptures, signs, stickers, pins, license plates -- all manner of expressions of grief, thanks, and respect. The Park service volunteer we spoke with (Donna, who volunteers her time at the memorial twice a week) says the NPS has over 30,000 artifacts in the archives.

While we were at the crash site, despite the cold, windy weather, there was a steady stream of people who came to visit. What brings people to this place, so far from an urban area? One man with a baby said it was his third visit, that his family likes to pay their respects every time they come down to visit family in MD. Another NPS volunteer says military personnel about to be shipped off to Iraq come to visit with their families, and they explain that Flight 93 is the reason they are going off to duty.

If you get a chance to go, go.

Pythagoras Switch

About six months ago, Maki's dad sent us a DVD of a program that had aired on Japanese television. The DVD is called Pitagora Suicci or Pythagoras Switch. It seems there is a huge underground of Rube Goldberg fans in Japan: schools host competitions, programs are aired on TV, and there are countless videos on YouTube devoted to what CJ calls "marble games." CJ calls them marble games because many involve rolling marbles through elaborate mazes, tracks and contraptions.

Here's a video from the Japanese program
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uv1eFphpLQ
-- at the end of each segment, you hear "pitagora suicci" or Pythagoras Switch
-- if this is what they are airing on Japanese TV, no wonder the schoolkids are so interested in math and science!

Here's one of our favorites. It involves rolling balls and marbles up and down ramps to finally create a bowl of ramen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvdq8cRNBM

Remember the Honda Rube Goldberg ad? It's on YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UScbWzhieNc&NR=1

Here's a French Rube Goldberg Video Involving Pool Tables and Dominos - unbelievable!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fPnsCPGhvE

We are addicted to these videos and watched a ton of them on New Year's Day, courtesy of the Apple TV! Hope you enjoy them, too!

Surfing YouTube as a Family

As I mentioned earlier, the lack of HD content on iTunes for the Apple TV has been disappointing. We have enjoyed some HD podcasts, but there are no TV shows or movies in HD.

It turns out that the Apple TV is fabulous for surfing YouTube as a family. On the weekends especially, Maki and CJ take turns watching YouTube videos that interest them. It goes something like this. Maki will watch a video on glass blowing or how to make speakers. Then CJ will ask for a Thomas video. Maki will then search for videos on Stonehenge or soldering. Then CJ will ask for a Thomas video. It's hilarious. Best of all, we get to watch these crazy videos in our TV room, on our comfy purple couch, on the big screen. Some of the videos look better than others on the big screen, but it almost doesn't matter.

The Apple TV Arrived!

Our Apple TV arrived tonight. Apple TV is a small appliance that lets you watch content from your iTunes on your TV. You can stream or sync music, podcasts, tv shows and movies.

So Maki set it up as soon as we got home. It was easy to set-up, get hooked up to my Mac, and register the device.

We viewed a couple of trailers, but were disappointed that they weren't in HD. Apple TV supports HD, and I was looking forward to purchasing HD shows from iTunes and watching them on our big screen TV.

I guess we're being early adopters once again because it turns out there is still very little HD content available through iTunes. The first HD content became available back in April and we were sure more HD content would be available by now. Alas, most of the HD shows are podcasts, not TV shoes or movies.

We were able to subscribe to several HD podcasts and they were free to boot. We are now subscribed to Feng Shui Living, Beautiful Places and At Large in Asia. Those of you know who me won't be surprised that I subscribed to a Feng Shui show. :-) The HD shows are pretty terrific and it was easy to download them from iTunes and watch on TV since the Apple TV automatically syncs the unwatched content.

It's also fun to surf YouTube and watch the videos (even though they are fuzzy) on the TV. This way, the whole family can watch the Rubik's cube how-to-video or the crazy Christmas satire.

I'm waiting for Heroes to become available on iTunes in HD.

Live vs. Fake Trees

Last Sunday, our Christmas tree went up. We have a fake tree, courtesy of Target, from four years ago and each year, Maki and I have a discussion about the merits of real vs. fake trees.

We got our artificial tree several years ago as an emergency decorating measure, because we were throwing a dinner for friends who had just gotten engaged. The house looked so plain, so I made a trip to Target and made an impulse buy.

My sisters are hard-core real tree believers. They love the scent of pine, and picking a tree is party of their holiday traditions.

But Maki and I think it's better for the environment to have an artificial tree (we're not sure of this in the short-run, but in the long run, we are convinced of it), and, let's face it, it's super easy to pull the tree out of the garage and have it up in matter of minutes. Our tree even comes with built-in lights. We also have a cat, and I used to worry about poisoning the poor creature. Finally, a real tree is so much work; you have to keep it watered and sweep up the pine needles every few days.

I grew up with a fake, silver, aluminum tree and if they were available at Target at the time of my purchase, we would have an aluminum tree today. There is something so retro and so obvioiusly fake about aluminum trees; I love them!

How about you? Are you a real or artificial person?

Photos in the Blog

I did it! I figured out how to upload photos and insert them into my posts! I knew it was possible, but just hadn't taken the time to figure it out.

So, I've gone back and added some small images to previous posts. Take a peek. I especially like the photos from our visit to Kyoto, and the images of US celebs hawking Japanese products.

http://jpmkadventures.blogspot.com/2007/11/kyoto-and-ieyasu-tokugawa.html

http://jpmkadventures.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-in-japan.html

Hope you like the additions to the blog!