I just want to say that the Mandarin is amazing in Iron Man 3.
I just want to say that the Mandarin is amazing in Iron Man 3.
I sit and sip at the vanilla soy classic I have in front of me. I’ve grown accustomed to soy, ever since I found that it was the dairy that was making my stomach upset. It’s a good drink, strong, but drinkable here. The in house vanilla syrup is giving this a bit of a marshmallow aftertaste which is delicious, but getting a bit strong at the bottom of the cup.
I’ve admittedly let it get a bit too cold since I’ve been writing in my journal.
Coffee, for me, at least, was a late addition to my list of indulgences. Much like alcohol (started drinking at 25) I feel like I can appreciate it better now that I’m older and only started drinking it the last couple of years. My guess is that I was around 33 or so.
I don’t remember too much personally about Dad. We were never that close, in that we talked a lot. He did love cappuccinos though, this much I know. I recall many a time watching my father sip at a cappuccino while he read the paper. Sometimes it was after he picked me up from grade school. Every weekday between shifts at his retail job, he’d come and pick me up. Maybe it was a late lunch, I never knew. But I would remember the cappuccino, and how he’d put in two sugars. Then drink it slowly and finish the paper before bringing me back to work so I could finish my homework in the back.
Never tried them then. For me, coffee was mainly a flavor. Not a beverage to appreciate on its own.
Times have changed. Now Dad’s gone and here I sit at my weekend ritual.
Having a cappuccino.
I miss you Dad. Happy Father’s Day!
So based on my current readings, there are a couple of things to watch out for.
The FitBit Flex
I’m loving my FitBit One and all of the tracking it does. I was never one to actually go out just to take a walk, but the FitBit One has me going home to pad my step counts for the day and earn achievements. That, plus Ingress means I’m walking seven to ten miles a day. The Flex just seems like a natural progression, and I would not have to take it off for sleep. I’d just be wearing it. The only downside so far is that the current version of Android installed on the Nexus 4 still doesn’t support the Low Power standards, so I’m stuck with a PC dongle for synch data.
And that is unacceptable because I want up to the minute metrics.
The Google Smartwatch
I’ve wanted a smartwatch for years now. I just want something to show me IM and text messages so that I don’t have to take out my phone. I kind of feel that we’re at that point. What I’d go for is probably somewhere more of a luxe, subtle sort of look. Would love an analog watch with an Omega look and feel that also happens to have a screen overlay over the watch face. I know I’m dreaming, but that’s what I want.
The Nexus 7 Revamp
I love my Nexus 7. It is a great every day carry device. It’s the right size, weight, and form factor to keep in a bag and carry on a daily basis and use on a daily basis. Current scuttlebutt forecasts a July announcement of some sort.
So those are the three things I’m looking out for in the near future.
I’ve been playing a lot of Ingress lately. One Sunday, I walked 15 miles. A little more than half a marathon, and I felt fine. Which was great.
What was not so great, (or really great) was a realization I had upon checking my pedometer. Â If I kept up my current pace of walking, I would flip it.
That is, there would not be enough digital number spaces on the pedometer before the reset date of 99 days had passed.
So, being me, I decided that the solution to a non existent problem was more technology. So I purchased a FitBit with some amazon credits that I had laying around. With all of the credits, it ended up being around $50 so I felt like it was an acceptable risk. I had done some reading, but what ended up selling it was the achievement system.
FitBit actually sends me updates when I reach certain milestones, such as 20,000 steps in a day or beating my previous record of climbing stairs. So the achievement system was a big selling point for me. It was just enough gamification that I could feel like I’m competing against myself. If work had achievements, I would probably get way more productive. I can’t imagine the achievement titles, though.
That and consistently higher ratings and reviews on various sites, even when compared to the Nike Fuel Band and the Jawbone Up.
My current peeve with it is the lack of support for the Nexus 4. I’ve been reading that it has to do with the lack of Bluetooth Low Power support. I don’t care as long as they manage to fix it in the near future. Right now, I’m just impatient to see how well or how badly I’m doing during the day. I’m trying to alleviate that by walking home for lunch, and syncing there, but I may have to end up seeing if it’s possible to get another wireless sync dongle and then keep one at work. I did bring in the dongle and it worked, although I’d really prefer it if they managed to get the wireless sync working via low energy bluetooth.
Right now the issue is that the Nexus 4 has a chip capable of synching up with the fitbit, but the bluetooth stack in the current version of Android does not. Which is frustrating, but I suppose it will be an issue that is hopefully resolved sooner rather than later. There is a lot of technology coming down the pike that looks like it would be fun to integrate, like the Pebble smart watch and such.
But back to the fitbit.
A lot of you know that I have a CPAP, and for years I’ve been suffering from Sleep Apnea, although I’ve only been treating it over the past year. The fitbit also has a really comfortable wristband that can hold the fitbit against my wrist. From there, it tracks my movements and then makes an analysis based on my movement how well I slept that night. It’s another tool in my arsenal that I can use to track my sleep.
I love metrics, but I hate the work involved to track them, so any opportunity to automate the process is welcome.
So, with the wireless dongle, the fitbit transmits the daily information over to my computer. From there, it heads up to the fitbit.com site, where it creates the dashboard. The dashboard is where my data is presented to me in an executive summary format. Graphs, percentages, and an “on track” meter for caloric intake.
It’s also telling that I bought the fitbit instead of you know, resetting the pedometer every couple of days or so.