Wii Be Not Fit

A hectic schedule, drinking, and poor diet habits, have led to a lifestyle that is a lot less fit than in my 20’s. While I wouldn’t consider myself obese, it wasn’t until a few months ago I realized just how much larger I had become. My friend Ricardo graciously offered to take some pics of Michelle & I just before Sydney was born. When Michelle & I reviewed the proofs, I was suddenly hit with the reality that I was heavier than I imagined (or not as skinny as saw myself daily). In fact, at 5ft 6in my weight hit a peak of 220lbs in January, but when I looked in the mirror I saw the beer belly that made me appear as pregnant as Michelle this past year. I didn’t notice how round my face had become or that I was slowly losing my chin as my neck had widened a great deal. The brutal truth had been revealed, and I could see what other people had been commenting on for over a year.

I had a chance to pickup the Wii Fit game released earlier this month, but had not set it up until this past week. I chose the Wii Fit mainly because the idea intrigued me, and I have already seen the benefits of playing Wii Sports. The game comes with with Wii Fit controller pad, which is a large floor unit roughly 18×9 inches. The unit is plastic, but felt solid and was fairly heavy. It’s powered by four AA batteries, which come in the package. Setup was a breeze, I simply inserted the Wii Fit game disc, and was walked through the process of creating my fitness profile.

In creating my fitness profile, I was asked to choose a Mii. This is the first game I have played where the Mii had hands & feet. That was not the only visual adjustment made to my Mii. After choosing the Mii you are put through a Body Test. You are asked questions about your height, age, and the weight of the clothes you are wearing. The test measure BMI (Body Mass Index), weight, and balance. The results of my first body test:

• BMI 30.46 - Considered obese
• Height - 5ft 6in
• Weight - 196.5lbs
• Balance - Poor (Afterwards, I realized the measurement is based on how quickly you find your balance)
• Wii Fit Age - 42

Upon being told my Wii Fit age, my Mii character suddenly transformed into a heavier obese version. I was impressed and disgusted at the same time. Family & friends had chided me about my weight, but now the Wii Fit was piling on too. My results were certainly less impressive than when Ben Sanders jumped on his Wii Fit.

After completing the Body Test, I was asked to put a stamp on the Wii Fit calendar to mark my results. From there I had the option to go and try different workout routines. There are four main areas including Yoga, Strength Training, Balance, and Aerobic Conditioning. Keeping with the gaming theme, users are awarded Wii Fit points, which unlock various fitness games within the Wii Fit plaza. Being the first day, I simply went through a sample of each area.

I did well in the Yoga & Aerobic areas, but was weak again in Balance, which I attribute more to learning to master the floor controller, and my Strength was decent, but not great. You are led through the various routines by a virtual fitness instructor, and your overall fitness time is tracked to help create the graphs found in the Wii Fit plaza. I kept my first day pretty light, and worked out for about 45 minutes.

This morning was the second time I had used the Wii Fit, and upon entering the plaza I was told it had been 5 days since my last workout. The reminder can be encouraging or nagging depending on your mood when playing the game. I was asked to do another body test, and was surprised to see the following results:

• BMI 30 - Still considered obese
• Height - 5ft 6in
• Weight - 193lbs
• Balance - Good (Better since I understood how to take the test)
• Wii Fit Age -31 (Yeah me! I’m 11yrs younger)
• It was nice to see the progress graph after taking the body test.

Conclusion - My first impressions of the Wii Fit is that the game is well suited for anyone new to fitness. The instructions are clear, and the exercises are challenging, but not overly difficult. The gaming aspect is a nice touch to keep your workouts fresh & interesting. For someone who is active already, and in good shape, your opinion might be different. I think a fit person will initially enjoy the game, but soon become bored by the routines. However, I have not unlocked all the fitness routines, and I could be mistaken in that assumption.

I’m going to continue to use the Wii Fit to see if the routine can actually achieve some quality results. Not only am I trying to achieve good health for the sake of my family, but I was recently inspired by the CNN story on Muata Kamdibe who reduced his body fat percentage from 44% to 6.5%. His progress is documented on his blog “Mr. Low Body Fat.”

Update 6/6/2008 - Laura weighs in on the Wii Fit over at her blog.

NTPC Meets June 12th

Reuben has asked me to be the speaker for the next NTPC (North Texas Photo Club) meeting on Thursday, June 12th. I will be giving an overview presentation of features in Photoshop CS3, and doing a general Q&A session.

NTPC information can be found on their website, and their Meetup community page.

Outlook vs Thunderbird vs Entourage

I shot a question off on Twitter last week simply asking for a decent Outlook replacement on the Mac. I received a few recommendations, mainly Entourage & Thunderbird. I thought it best to detail my needs in a blog post to solicit more detailed responses.

I have email correspondence dating back to 1988, when my messages were either on electronic bulletin boards, Prodigy, or Compuserve. My message archive has been copied into Word documents, converted to Compuserve mailboxes, and ultimately into Outlook PST files. It is my hope that at some point I can transcribe some of those messages into a memoir of some kind.

Given the GINORMOUS archive of messages, I have been slow to move away from Outlook, currently the only PC application I still use. I know I can run virtual Windows on my Mac, but I really don’t want to fire up Fusion just to check email. I also have pushed the limits of the program by including Notes & Categories in all my Contacts, while tagging messages & calendar information. Currently, I sync my Outlook calendar to my Google calendar which makes it easy to get my schedule to people who need to know. And there’s the little used Journal feature which helps me track billable time on projects (also tagged with Categories & associated to Contacts). Outlook also syncs with my phone so I have a 90 day snapshot of everything I need on the road. Chances are you could ask me what I have done on any given date in the past 20 years, and I could find it somewhere in Outlook.

Which leads us to my original question - what application (or group of apps) would best suit my information management needs?

I use Gmail which excels in terms of message searches. I do not have any folders setup for my Gmail account. I simply search for the thread I need, and it’s so much quicker than Outlook.

Thunderbird looks like a possible option, and it appears to have a calendar plugin, but what about contacts? I would want to use the Notes (& Categories if possible) from my existing Outlook contacts.

Entourage seems like a poor man’s Outlook. I’m not sure I want to exchange one single-file message system for another single-file message system. Also, I remember reading something about Spotlight searches were incapable of reading the Entourage data file. I would lose my Google calendar sync option with Entourage.

I might have to change my approach to this problem. I was hoping to move some of the current Outlook information into the new system I choose, but I may have to do a “clean slate” cutover. This would entail still using Outlook for message/calendar history, but that may be the front-runner solution.

UPDATE - IDUG Dallas Meeting is June 10th

The Dallas chapter of the InDesign Users Group will meet on Tuesday, June 10th at the Clampitt Paper Creative Center.

Your humble chapter leader will be delivering a presentation on using styles in InDesign CS3. We will discuss paragraph styles, character styles, object styles and I’ll mix in some next style techniques. If time allows we’ll even explore nested styles.

The meeting agenda is as follows:
=================
11:00-11:15AM Socializing, Announcements, Eating
11:15-12:30PM InDesign CS3 Styles
12:30-12:45PM InDesign Questions
12:45-01:00PM Closing and Raffle

Be sure to register for the meeting online at our Dallas chapter homepage. I look forward to seeing members and new faces at the meeting.

Movie Review - Prince Caspian

The Plot - It’s been over a thousand years since the High Kings & Queens ruled Narnia and it is not the same magical place. Telmarines have invaded & conquered the land, leading many Narnians to go into hiding. It is only when Prince Caspian, heir to the throne, is betrayed by his Uncle Miraz that events are put into motion that bring the Pevensies (Peter, Edmund, Susan, Lucy) back to Narnia in its time of need. Will the High Kings & Queens be able to save the Narnians once again?

The Review - I first became aware of the C.S. Lewis series when I was in the third grade. I watched the first story, “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe” on TV as an animated movie. Within the next few months I had read the entire series of books. When word came that the series was going to be launched in epic movie fashion, I envisioned something grand along the lines of the Lord of the Rings series. The first movie was a bit of a disappointment. Good, but not great.

I found that I enjoyed the sequel a lot more. The original actors reprise their roles as the Pevensie siblings, and new faces are introduced. Unlike the Lord of the Rings & Harry Potter, this series does not call upon the same characters in every book, which may allow for all seven stories to be brought to screen. I thought the characters & story were better developed in the sequel, and overall it drew me more into the film.

While not Oscar winning performances, I was moved by Peter’s growth through the story as his arrogance leads to failure at the expense of Narnian life, and his willingness to accept his failed faith brings about a moment of redemption. The pace of the movie kept the Peter/Pevensies story arc from overtaking the rise of Prince Caspian, but the Prince felt like a support character at times.

Overall I was happy with the film, and hope the quality of the series continues to improve as the next books are brought to life in film.

Grade: B+ (The series hasn’t quite reached EPIC status yet)

POW! BAM! ZING! Updated Website!

Between clients, the birth of my daughter Sydney, finding time for Michelle, school, frequent air travel, and well, that which we call having a life, it’s taken several weeks to get the website redesign flushed out. But here you have it. I chose to build the site using Brian Gardner’s Revolution Theme set. Overall, it wasn’t too difficult to tweak the theme, and Brian has some decent Camtasia tutorials on the website. He has also built a pretty active community around his themes. If Brian cannot assist you with web development, he has several recommended WordPress enthusiasts who can.

I can now direct my attention to generating the content that we (the collective) have so readily talked about in recent months. I have my minions working in the background to transfer content from previous sites, and launching the podcast is the next big update for the blog.

For longtime readers, I appreciate your patience during this transition, and for all the new folks dropping in, expect great things here.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

It’s inevitable. If you’re going to take on Adobe products, you’re going to get your hands dirty (and your head full) of keyboard shortcuts. The following shortcuts work in Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign.

Knowing the shortcuts for the toolbar is a good start, and then I would commit CMD+Spacebar (for the Zoom tool), and Spacebar (for the Hand tool) to memory. Don’t have a CMD key? That’s okay, on a Windows computer the shortcut for the Zoom tool is CTRL+Spacebar. Even if you are not a keyboard shortcut person, those two commands are more practical then simply selecting the tools from the toolbar. The “temporary” shortcuts allow you to quickly switch back & forth between whatever tool is active, and navigating the document. You only need to be using the Type tool or Pen tool once to understand the advantages.

NOTE - If you’re using InDesign, I suggest using ALT+Spacebar on a PC or OPTION+Spacebar on a Mac for the Hand Tool. This combination allows you to use the Hand Tool even if your cursor is active in a text frame.

To access the program preferences use CMD+K (CTRL+K). To reset the program preferences for Photoshop or Illustrator use CMD+OPTION+SHIFT (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT) as you start the program. You will be prompted to delete the existing preferences, and the application will be reset to the factory default settings.

NOTE - To reset InDesign preferences on a Mac use CMD+CTRL+OPTION+SHIFT commonly referred to as “The Claw.”

You can download a quick Photoshop Shortcut list & InDesign Shortcut list from the Media Cats website.

(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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The Tutorials Are Coming

Yes, the rumors are true. I will be putting up responses to student questions as written tutorials and video podcasts. Expect to see this section populated in the upcoming weeks.

Movie Review - Redbelt

The Plot - Mike Terry is a Jiu-Jitsu instructor who shuns competitive money fights because he believes competition weakens a fighter. He seems content to run a small dojo west of Los Angeles until a series of events begin to intrude on his daily life forcing him to evaluate his principles, and their impact on others.

*Spoiler Alert*

The Review - This is not an action film. This is a drama about the internal struggle of a martial artist, and his principles. The movie trailer, and IMDB reviews would lead you to believe that this is a film of emotional substance. Fans a David Mamet showered IMDB with praise for message of this film, and its artistic qualities. I must have missed all that.

While Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a good performance, and spouts some memorable lines, I found the lack of character development makes the movie fall flat. Now I can appreciate the minimalist approach to setting up the story arcs, but when the film ended (with a hug) I found myself asking what did any of the characters have to do with the story?

One of Mike Terry’s students is a brooding police officer. Maybe it’s not important to know why he’s brooding, or what troubles he has with his wife, but these plot points are just dropped on the viewer as factual items. When the officer in question commits suicide, I was neither compelled to feel the honor of that act, or the impact it had on his family. In fact, the introduction of his wife could have been completely left out, and it wouldn’t have changed the impact of that scene.

Mike Terry’s wife chides him throughout the film for not being financially responsible, or more to the point his principles keeping him in the poor house. When she sells him out, I really didn’t see why she would have stayed with him for over five years in the first place.

Given the one-dimensional snapshots of every character in the film, the story was very predictable, and only Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance as Mike Terry led me to believe something was about to happen. That’s probably my largest complaint about the film. The emotional moments that are meant to inspire the audience, seem pointless because of the lack of character development.

Grade: C- (Maybe this is the type of movie that requires multiple viewings to get the point)

May 17th - DFW Adobe User Meeting

I will be giving a demonstration of Illustrator CS3 at the May meeting of the DFWAUG (Dallas/Ft. Worth Adobe Users Group) user group. The meeting will be at the usual location Nerdbooks, and will be held on Saturday, May 17th.

Hope to see a decent turnout for the event. I generally get the call for the Photoshop or Lightroom gigs. It will be a nice change of pace to flex a little vector muscle, and see what folks are interested in.

If you haven’t registered for the DFWAUG newsletter be sure to goto their website now and sign up.

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