instagram...it's neat! but is also a bit frustrating.

Now that Instagram is on Android of course I had to see what all the fuss was about.



I have to admit, it's pretty damn fun playing with the filters. I've downloaded and removed a lot of photo editing apps from the market, and this one is by far the easiest to use when it comes to playing around with the available changes. Also, now that I *can* do these things with my photos, I kind of want to all the time!

All in all though, I can't say I'm as impressed as I expected to be. There aren't a ton of share options, you don't get a user page so you have to go through the ridiculous process of emailing yourself photos just to get their URLs, and your pictures only save to Instagram with the filters with no option to save to the gallery.

I read somewhere that I don't remember now that the reason people don't "get" Instagram is because it's not so much a way to share pictures overlaid with neat filters but rather an entirely different social network for photography. I am going to have to call shenanigans on that idea. Yes, you can follow people but most of those people are using the service to send to Twitter or Tumblr anyway, so that feature is just nice if you don't want to miss any pictures that might get buried from your friends in those other networks.

Plus, I'm sorry to break this to you, but taking pictures on your phone and tweaking them with an application does not make you a professional photographer. There seems to be a misconception about that.

Conclusion: Fun application to play with and I'm definitely going to keep using it, but I'm disappointed in the lack of ease with doing things with your pictures after they've been uploaded.

a brief history of when i turned evil and took over the world

When I was looking for those nostril flare pictures I came across these ones from a G+ conversation in which I tried to fight the dark side.

Ultimately, the power of good won...well, goatees are the real hero here since apparently Jedi of the dark side can't grow them.

fitness blogging and random everything blogging

At work I've been participating in a Biggest Loser contest that only resembles the TV show in that we can win money if we lose the highest percentage of weight in a certain amount of time. The contest comes to an end next week and so far I'm 20lbs and roughly 13% down. I'm hoping to hit 14% before it's over.

The contest has been a great source of motivation for me and right now I weigh the least amount I've ever weighed in my adult life, which comes with the added bonus of finally being a healthy weight for my height. 

Part of what I used to motivate me was getting emails from Fitnessmagazine.com and Self.com about food, health, and weight loss every week. Fitness Magazine recently posted an article about how blogging can help you lose even more weight. 

So, I started a new blog to talk about some of my health and fitness stuff I'd been looking up and learning over the past three months or so, wrote two short posts, then deleted the blog. I couldn't help thinking "this is dumb". That actually happens to me a LOT. I'll think up a specific subject I might want a separate blog for and then I create it, let it sit for a sec, then delete it. 

I bring this up because Nerd Fitness just posted an article about collecting metaphorical (or real, if you're weird) piles of underpants. I have a ridiculous amount of projects in my life that I've abandoned step twoing. I also have an unhealthy number of abandoned and deleted blogs. Is that something that's normal for us internet kids? 

Oh well. I always have ol' faithful here for my collection of randomness and not at all connected subjects. Plus there's like, 15 of you who will click this link from Twitter and make me feel good about myself! 

#firstworldblogproblems

PS: I realize the whole "formspring" trend has kind of run it's course, but I saw one of their randomly generated questions, "Can you flare your nostrils?" and I had to answer it. Mostly because I like to make funny faces in pictures. 

tealicious!

I have a rotating stock of tea that I keep at work. When I go to the store I try to pick up at least one new flavor but I've found some pretty dang good ones that I tend to fall back to a lot. So I thought I'd share!

Good Earth Original Sweet and Spicy was actually a little bit much for me at first but then I grew to like it a lot. I started out leaving the bag soaking for only a minute and then worked my way up to four for the full flavor. The spice in it is really strong but when I sit down with it I think "this is what warm and comfortable tastes like".

Good Earth Cocoa Chai is a new one in my rotation but oh man I love it! You get the delicious taste of hot chocolate without the calories, plus a nice solid zing of chai! It's going to be my new go to warm up drink for the winter.

Bigelow Constant Comment is another really strong taste that I had to get use to. It's got that same kind of nice strike of spice but this one has a very strong orange flavor. I usually like this one in the mornings to settle in because it makes me think of breakfast.

Good Earth Vanilla Chai has been a staple in my collection for a very long time. Sometimes I get regular chai but I really love the way the vanilla softens the chai taste with this one. I would say even if you normally take your tea with sugar, you likely won't need it with the vanilla chai. Sometimes I'll have a splash of milk or a little bit of honey even though I don't think it really needs the sweetening. However, it's a very versatile tea!

Twinings Earl Grey isn't the best Earl Grey that I've ever had but it's pretty solid. I usually leave the bag soaking for only a minute or two so I can get more of an Earl Grey flavored hot water taste. I know that might be a weird thing to say since, you know, that's kinda how tea works, but I can't think of a better example of hot leaf juice. It's a solid Earl Grey for the lazy tea drinker though. They also make a decent Lady Grey.

Now, of course, those are just the lazy teas. I am trying really hard to be less lazy and drink more real tea. That's where ThinkGeek comes in!

I actually picked this set up for someone else for Christmas and ended up changing my mind and keeping it for myself. Not gunna lie, I am super happy with that decision. This tea is legit. Like, super legitimate. 

The smell and flavor explodes gloriously out of these teas. And they didn't skimp even a little bit on packaging the best of the ingredients off the table rather than what you get off the chopping floor in bagged tea. 

My only criticism is that this tea only comes in these little sampler containers. I realize that I can just order my trucks of tea from Adagio...but then it won't be called PIRATE chai! Or be a Star Trek joke! 

In the end I'll probably keep my bagged tea line up for work and continue to slowly grow a delicious home collection that I can be proud of. Before I drink it all. Then my tummy can be proud.

kindle fire for kids?

A co-worker asked me about my Kindle Fire the other day because someone recommended it to him as a device that would be a good alternative to the more expensive iPad. Apparently his kids (ages 10 and 8) have seen their one of their friends playing with an iPad and wanted one. The ten year old actually ended up getting a little Netbook recently, but the eight year old was interested in a tablet.

I was a little torn on this one. I gave him my Fire to handle and answered all the questions he had, but the more we talked the more I was not so sure that the Kindle Fire would be a good thing to give to a kid. He wanted something for road trips to play games and watch videos. OK, there are plenty of Android games you can get through the Amazon App Store even though it's cut off a bit, but videos...well, the Kindle Fire is excellent for *streaming* video. Not so much when it comes to loading up your limited 2 GB with downloaded videos for a long road trip. To be honest, I haven't even spared my Kindle Fire a thought when I wasn't near wifi. 

He also asked about Parental Controls which I thought would be another pretty huge issue. The only control parents have is turning the wifi on and off which is only sort of useful and I think would become extremely annoying having to go back and forth just to stop your kid from downloading things you don't want them to download. Which leads to the biggest problem - your Kindle Fire has to be connected to an Amazon account. One with a credit card. One that your kids could charge up insane amounts of content on purposefully or accidentally. I am fairly certain you can't just use a dummy account with no credit card info, since you get a receipt for every single purchase, even the free stuff. 

Is the iPad better for kids? Does it have better parental controls? Do you have to have a credit card associated with it? I'm curious now. Sure, it costs $300 more, but you might lose that much anyway in rogue Kindle store purchases! 

I think he ended up sold on the neatness of the Kindle Fire and, like most current owners, was still interested in it just based solely on how cheap it is for what you get. I'm just not convinced this is a device that you would actually want to hand children. To me it seems more useful for someone who wants to get a device to read books on anyway and they just step it up the 50 or so extra bucks for a tablet because at that price, why not?

Haha, if I had to pick two words to describe my Kindle Fire experience or why I think people buy them it would definitely be "why not". 

Not that I don't enjoy the hell out of my Kindle Fire (saves me using up my phone battery!) but I doubt it is a good idea to hand it to your young child unless you're sure you have a pretty damn responsible child. One who loves wifi. 

In related news, after I was done answering his questions he revealed to me that while he was on vacation in Hawaii he and his wife discovered Macadamia Nut Hershey's Kisses! You apparently can't get them anywhere BUT Hawaii! He gave me some for helping him!

Spoiler Alert: They are awesome!

screw you, mother nature.

A friend and I started jogging on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday doing three miles every morning (which means waking up at 4:45AM ;_;). So far we've just been alternating walking and jogging laps and we're hoping to build some endurance to eventually work our way up to being able to comfortably jog and talk at the same time for a full five miles in an hour or less.

On Monday I strapped on my Vibrams and went out in my yoga pants and a sweater...and almost died. It was effing cold! Plus I don't have any toe socks for my Vibrams so I was fairly confident my toes were going to fall off by the end of it.

Today I had on socks, tennis shoes, long johns, men's sweat pants, my long sleeve PAX Enforcer shirt, my ECCC Pawn shirt, a sweater, a jacket, and gloves. Oh, and I got to rock the sweet Razer trucker hat that I got for free at Prime last year, though I can't really say trucker hats are the greatest thing to wear in an effort to keep warm.

I topped everything off with a reflective yellow vest so the end effect was that I looked like I was about to flag traffic or wave in an airplane. I was damn warm though. Which is a good thing today, since IT IS SNOWING RIGHT NOW. WHY IS IT SNOWING?!

I was super excited when I read (OK, skimmed) this recent post by Cliff Mass about how Eastern Washington is about to make that glorious switch over from being balls colder than Seattle to balls hotter than Seattle.

Today I am disappoint.

what does it mean?!

Total of 8%? Damage is overrated anyway.

Also I was going though my random Steam screen shots and found this one, which I thought was pretty rad:

I think it's from one of the DLC? Who knows with those nasty vault hunters. 

In related news, my Soldier is finally over 60 and I desperately need a couple more people to join Beau and I in defeating Crawmerax!