Got an e-mail from an LSM drumcorps buddy today — it seems that he has a friend who owns his own business works for a small business, who has designed his own website in Frontpage, and this page now needs an overhaul. My LSM cohort was kind enough to act as a liaison and suggest my services to him.
I’ve tried this before, and I crashed and burned…
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I think I just got stood up for the one-hour training session for my contract job.
We were tentatively scheduled to have a web meeting at 7pm Central. I never heard otherwise, so I was waiting at my computer with my phone by my side at 8pm Eastern. It’s now 9pm Eastern, and even accounting for confusion between timezones, it doesn’t look like this meeting is going to happen today.
I didn’t want to get myself engrossed in anything important, then have to interrupt myself for something more important, so I’ve been websurfing at my desk for the last hour-plus. Not that that’s entirely a bad thing, but I did have things I wanted to take care of. Like a cardio workout, or cleaning my desk, or podcasting, or administering the LSM forums.
I’m feeling a little put out… but not entirely, because he did say he’d have to consult with one of his coworkers and get back with me for a confirmation, which I never got. Maybe the conference they’re running is a little crazier than they banked on. I’m not really that upset or anything. It’s all good.
I’m going to sit here for another 20 minutes or so, just to be sure, then I’m going to e-mail my contact person and go take a shower. I’m unusually sleepy for 9pm on a Tuesday.
Update, Wednesday evening: Looks like my contact got caught up in putting out fires at the event he’s manning this week. He apologized in response to my e-mail and said he’s going to get with his co-worker and see when we can reschedule. I can certainly relate to getting caught up in taking care of business, so no biggie.
If I feel comfortable quoting a website makeover, I may have even more freelance work on the horizon… I’ve gotta just jump in and give it a go. The worst thing that can happen is that I screw something up and/or don’t get paid, and either case will be a learning experience.
I allowed myself one week to keep eating as I had been, instead of jumping back into weight-loss mode right away. Figured it might be better on me both physically and mentally, being that my body was still pumped full of pregnancy hormones. This past week, though, I started purposefully increasing my activity level and tracking my food intake.
Monday: 30 min walk + PUSH DVD #2, Session #1
Tuesday: 30 min walk + 15 minutes of jogging on a trampoline (rebounding)
Wednesday: 30 min walk + PUSH DVD #2, Session #1
Thursday: 30 min walk + 10 minutes of DDR Supernova, workout mode (60 calories burned)
Friday: 30 min walk
I signed up for an account on SparkPeople, mainly because a.) I’d been tracking my food intake on their BabyFit website, and b.) I had previously been tracking my food using Diet Organizer on my PDA, but my PDA battery had died. I only recently replaced said battery, after I already got in the SparkPeople habit.
I’m planning to give my impressions of SparkPeople on an upcoming podcast, but I’ll mention here that I like it overall. It touts the “Spark Diet,” which is mainly just Eat Right And Exercise, but it’s really the tracking that does it. Plus, there are “trophies” members can achieve by earning SparkPoints online. SparkPoints can be had by entering food eaten, entering exercises done, tracking goals, reading articles, reading e-mails, logging in, and basically just surfing around the site. It’s an ingenious idea to generate return traffic, and to keep people entering their info daily.
My weight hasn’t changed this week; I’m still at 201.5 lbs. I’m OK with that, though — at least I’ve lost and kept off the few pounds I put on in those two months of pregnancy. Now I have the chance to lose at least ten more pounds before we try again. The healthier I am, the better… although going through the medical game of 20 Questions at the hospital last month made me realize that my only major health issue IS my weight. Apart from that, I’m good to go. No heart disease, allergies, high blood pressure, any of that. So, count me lucky, I suppose.
Next week, I plan to measure myself and compare to my last measurements from September (if I can find them… I think I inadvertently threw away the sheet I’d recorded them on, thinking they were also in my PDA).
Here we go, on another fun weight-loss adventure. The way I figure, I should be able to jump in where I left off in the Fall, and keep on losing half a pound a week, if not more. If I can do that, I can lose ten pounds by the time we leave for our trip to Japan (during which I may end up gaining it all back). 🙂
Former travellers to Japan, please complete the following sentence:
“I can’t believe you’re planning a trip to Japan and you’re not planning to go to !”
That’s right, fellow readers, we’re taking the plunge and heading off to Japan, most likely in May. My lowest APR credit card just so happens to be able to swing airfare and hotel for a week in the Land of the Rising Sun. It’s not the best financial decision we could make, but it’s one of those things that I think we’d regret not having done when we had the chance.
We’re going to sit down soon (probably this weekend) and think about things we really MUST do while we’re in Japan, particularly Tokyo. We may have to forego our tour of southern Japan, just due to funding issues. We’ll see. At any rate, we already have some destinations on the potential to-do-in-Japan list:
I’m sure there’s a lot more we’d like to do, including visiting a shrine and just walking around the city, but that’s all I can come up with right this moment. Anyone have any additions, especially within a decent subway-ride of Tokyo?
I’ve also heard that it won’t matter that we’re not fluent in Japanese. Actually, only Sheryl has told me that, and she’s one of about three people I know (other than friends of friends) who have been to Japan. Who else wants to chime in on this one? Will I be OK asking how much this costs, how do I get to [insert place here], knowing my right from my left, counting to ten (and higher if I think really hard), and basic shit like that? Has everyone else had Sheryl’s same experience of dealing with English-speakers in all the important places? What words do I need to be able to *read*, if any?
(Aaron’s not too good with languages, and I’m cool with that. If one of us has to go take a crash course on Japanese, I’m it. Bring on the vidcasts and websites and CDs.)
I am SO stoked for this. I haven’t been this excited about a trip in a long, long time.
For your viewing pleasure… Anime Punch 2006, as presented by the Weekly Anime Review Podcast.
In March of 2006, Aaron and I attended Anime Punch (aka The Armageddicon) in Columbus, and we brought the old-school 8mm videocamera for shits and giggles. I played videographer and taped a few panels, some musical guests, and some otaku milling about in the hotel lobby for ambience. Aaron finally happened upon the source footage tapes last week, and captured them to his computer, setting into motion the process of video making. Also known as “Oh, shit — I’m certified in defunct non-linear video editing software, and now I have to translate that knowledge to a more basic yet more pirateable prevalent program.”
I acted mainly as technical consultant, showing Aaron the basics of nonlinear video editing — take your giant source file, make little clips of the stuff you want to use, then string those clips together on the timeline. We learned some things together, like how to apply audio and video transitions in Premiere. He was the main artistic force behind the project, deciding which clips to use, whether to keep the ambient sound, things like that. I put together the images for the intro, suggested the basic wipe as a non-annoying transition (“Is that like what they used in Star Wars?” “Yeah.” “OK, that sounds good.”), and showed Aaron the ropes of video editing, so to speak.
Both of us decided that we’re feeling a little better about someday making an AMV — well, I have about 10 seconds of one put together, but I feel like I might be able to finish the next minute and a half of my short song without crashing and burning.
But, yeah. Good times. Aaron wants to buy a digital video camera now. 🙂