Take Control – A JD Rant (with video)

Slogans have meanings, my friends.  I can tell you that breakfast CAN be the most important meal of the day, but this is not a blog about nutrition.  This is a blog about taking control and motivating yourself to move forward in your career.  It’s all about the #NoExcuses mantra and with this video, I’m not just taking about it, I’m being about it!

One of my motivations was my friend Jenna who I know because she runs a group for on-camera hosts on Facebook.  Proactive, right?  Well, today she took it another step.  She was asking for suggestions for a new DSLR camera, so that she could use that tool to take control of her own career.  This is in the rant, but if you want to follower her awesomeness on Twitter, I got the hookup for you.  Get thee to Twitter and follow @jennatimetweets.  Hit her up with some #NoExcuses props…you know, after you finish with this blog!

DalyDose of Fitness: 5 Pushups (w/ Video)

I teach a Spin/Sculpt class at RPM Fitness Studio on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 am.  We do Spinning until about 10:30 and then we move over to the other studio to work on the sculpting portion.  We usually only get about 20 minutes in there, so I’ve been trying to come up with ways to get workouts done in short amounts of time.  For example, we had tried working up to 100 pushups by doing them in sets of 20, but we don’t have time to run through a circuit 5 times.  I decided to try these pushups out and I debuted them to the class a couple of weeks ago and I’m happy to say that people were in pain the day after.  Fear not, for you too can feel the pain of JD’s “5” Style Pushup.

Toilet Humor

If you are a friend/follower on Facebook then you know that the apartment building I manage, recently had all of the toilets replaced.  This picture is of the old toilets being stacked up in the garage for removal.  I was having trouble with captions.  Some good ones:

• All New Game of Thrones
  • THE crappiest parking job
  • Public bathroom from Hell
  • You’re in the drivers seat
  • Got gas?

Feel free to chime in in the comments section if you have more suggestions.  Did the fun stop there? Ummmm.  NO!

Summer 2013–1st Playlist

Well, it is about summer time.  That means warm weather, parties, vacations, days at the beach and summer jams that get played over and over, but supply the soundtrack of memories.  I think the songs that will be on repeat rotation are just coming out and here is the first batch that I’m playing.  Enjoy and feel free to add your own in the comments section.

* Photo note: my portable sounds this summer will be powered by the Nokia Purity earbuds(by Monster) , Sony X Headphones and the Sony NFC/Bluetooth enabled mobile speaker.

My Red Lumia just got an Indigo Upgrade

Apple should take note…Siri-ously.

Tomorrow users of Windows Phone and Android will get a chance to try out a new app that I’ve been playing with for a few days.  The company, Artificial Solutions, has been innovating NLI (Natural Language Interaction) for other companies’ sites and gadgets, but now is releasing their own Indigo app.  My red Nokia Lumia 920 has been officially upgraded with the presence of this app.

From my testing over the weekend, I’m impressed.  Besides the generally accurate voice recognition and picking up cues from natural speech, which are no slouch, they have already implemented a few tricks that make the app stand out.  Here are two that I find fascinating:

Rapping Parent Video Throw-down

My friend posted a rapping parent video today.  It’s the 3rd one that I’ve seen so I thought I’d have a throw down here on the ‘ole blog. I’m going to post all 3 and provide no commentary.  Seriously, I’m going to say nothing.

After you watched all three videos, you get to make your voice heard by VOTING in the snazzy poll at the end.  You can even drop some wisdom on us all in the comments section.

Now enough with this intro – let’s drop the beat on this throw-down!!

Finding Creativity/Beauty/Opportunity EVERYWHERE

Since I started my phone-tography blog… What?  You don’t know about that?  OK, stop what you’re doing and bookmark
http://phonetographs.wordpress.com
.

As I was saying, when I started my phone-tography blog, I knew that I was going to need to keep the content fresh.  That means that I would need to find things to shoot wherever I find myself.  This scene here seems pretty uneventful and not a likely subject of a photoshoot, right?  Well, check after the break for what I was able to find in this spot.

Cali-strated

Cali-strations: pictures taken during a day that, upon reflection, illustrate something about my California experience.

Having an amazing camera in your phone, like I do with my Nokia Lumia 920, there are days when I take pictures of things without even thinking about why.  Our devices are so convenient and I constantly use mine to discover and create shareable content, while also forcing myself to view, examine and appreciate my surroundings.

Today was one of those days that I took some pictures and had no idea why or what I would do with them.  When I looked at them later, I made two collages. (FYI – I use two collage apps: PhotoGrid and Phototastic)

Today’s Cali-strated theme is “Pretty on the outside – Weird on the inside”

Why I Hate Instagram

As I sit to write this blog entry, the thought strikes me that it is odd to have such an emotional response to a service, especially one that I don’t even use.  Needless to say, since I’m still typing, that those thoughts were quickly squashed in my brain.  To the many that rely on InstaGrime to display your meals in what you think is a quirky, artsy way, I might have to spend a bit more time explaining.  Let’s see if I can filter through the nonsense and get this issue squared away.  See what I did there?

What The Juice

I am a Midwest-raised, meat eating, beer drinking man, who is about to embark on a 10 Day Juicing “Reboot”.  As my friends’ son says, “What the juice?”.

It all started when my neighbor was getting rid of stuff in her apartment.  She called me and asked if I wanted her juicer.  I expected that she’d have a half-working cheapo model, but I still said “yes”, as I had thoughts of trying such a challenge.  I must have made a #NoExcuses manifestation, because this was a really nice Breville, in great condition.

What’s next? Read on, my friends.