I never pretend to be all tech geeky. I free admit that after all these years I finally figured out the acronym BSOD means Blue Screen Of Death. But yesterday I learned what SD in SD card meant. It stands for Secure Digital. How about that? I never bothered to care about what it was, but now that I know, I feel dumb for not knowing (or caring) before.
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Meetups of users of various online communities have been happening for some time now. In just the past 6 years, I’ve met women from a birth club board for lunch playdates, have potluck dinners with people from political sites, teas with online friends from gardening forums and recently met up with FriendFeed users at local burger joint. But you see the problem; it’s all involving food. I’d say that 95% of the meetups I’ve had with people has been surrounding food. ?On one hand, good food and drink are great social lubricators. Beyond the topic discussed on these sites what other conversational ice breaker is there that doesn’t seem awkward and insincere. Recently, I’ve been wondering why there aren’t more meetups of an active sort among these groups.
When you get into the personal realm in these online communities, the topic of weight loss and food issues come up pretty frequently. People share recipes, discuss what they had for dinner or talk about their time at the gym. Yet, when we get together our first thought is what restaurant to meet at or is it a potluck. Why not do something different? Why not make a meetup where we all take a yoga class or just a simple hike in Griffith Park??
At LA Metblogs, Will Campbell organized a day long through LA. I wish I could have made it but either I was busy healing or just busy. This guy Mike organized a walk through LA to celebrate his 10 years as an Angeleno. It became an annual event and last year was the 3rd year of Great LA Walk. The same day as the FriendFeed meetup, the Los Angeles Flickr group organized a photowalk around Union Station. These are all great ways to get some activity in a meetup.?
Many would suggest that I search sites like Active or Gyminee to find people who’d be willing to do an activity. I’ve tried that, but since I’m not active in those communities it’s a bit hard. ?To make it more frustrating for me is that most people who put Los Angeles in their profiles live in OC, the Valley or the west side. ?There’s nothing really local for me here in Northeast Los Angeles. The few people I’ve found in Pasadena put up posts like, “Looking for a partner for quick 10 mile trail run at 5am.” Yeah…10 mile, trail, and 5am effectively exclude me. ?
My logic in wanting to do a meetup around a physical activity has a lot to do with support. Sure, I could find a group to run with on Gyminee, but they don’t “know” me & I don’t know them. I’m sure they’ll be supportive of my efforts, but will they get my sense of humor? What if they all want to talk politics or tech while running? Whereas say I organize a Twitter/FriendFeed meetup, we all know each other from there and the activity will be more focused on fun versus getting mileage in.
Tell me. Am I off-base here or is anyone else interesting in doing something like this? Even if it’s a simple as a hike through Griffith Park ending in a picnic (more food!), that’s still more active than a group of us sitting around chatting…you know, like we do on our computers anyway.
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4 of my 5 uncles were born in March. I know the dates, but I not kept track of which uncle belongs to which date. So…I wait until the 27th, when is the last day I know for sure there’s a birthday, and call all of them.
Whenever I see Major Nelson’s (from Xbox) tweets about hitting the gym. I always want to reply: Get a Wii!
This is what runs through my mind when I’m starving and looking for something to eat:
Ilia takes a turn
When you live in Los Angeles as a childless person, you find the city at once exciting and boring. When you live in Los Angeles as a parent to wee ones, you find a city you never knew existed. My husband recently reconnected with college friends on Facebook and made a date to meet. Where we used to plan to meet friends at a bar or restaurant, if they have kids as this friend did, we now seek out toddler friendly meeting locations and times that work around naps. It was in this spirit that he agreed to meet this friend at Travel Town, for every parent of a child uner the age of 3 is well aware of Travel Town. It’s centrally located, has free admission, many spaces for the kids to run around and most importantly, trains.
The meeting with the friend was nice, the kids ignored each other as they usually do, but something happened soon after our arrival. I saw the librarian from my daughter’s school. Her son is in the Dual-Language program with my daughter. Turned out, she was there celebrating her youngest’s birthday and invited us to join the celebration. This made Ilia very happy because then there were other kids her age and other girls to play with, instead of just the two 3 year old boys we had in our small group.
There’s something interesting watching my kids play with other kids. Ilia becomes both aloof and overprotective of her brother. She makes sure Alton is included in the fun, but then wants nothing to do with him. Alton is happy being left alone, so he’ll wander off to walk by himself or sit off to the side an watch the other kids play. Occasionally, he’ll yell out to “Ewa” and run alongside her for a bit. My daughter is very social and she’s fascinated by older girls. She thinks of them as substitute older sisters. The females who’ll teach her about being girly, because it’s clear to her that mom is not going to do that.
The party was attended by most family members, but everyone was gracious and open. There were two piñatas, which made the kid of the lady we were meeting very happy. Apparently, he’s always wanted a piñata. My kids, who have not only had piñatas at their own parties, but have attended many other parties with t, still don’t get it. Ilia, instead of grabbing any candy she ran across, mulled over the options. She discarded those she didn’t like, she allowed other kids to snatch candy from her, she was thoughtful about what went into her bag. Naturally, this meant that when she saw how little candy she got compared to the other kids, she was a little upset. I explained to her that she had more candy at that moment than she did 5 minutes previous, so she should be grateful. She smiled and had a lollipop. Alton, on the other hand, did the same thing he always did; grabbed a piece of candy nearby and popped it into his mouth. When he wanted a second piece, he went back, surprised as always, that all the candy was gone.
We left soon after, but it was an afternoon well spent even if this time around we never got to see the trains. As my daughter said, “We come here all the time, it was nice to be here and not just look at trains for once.”
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Image via Wikipedia
Aren’t they precious?
That’s the only think I can think of when I read about Congress’ plan to help homeowners.
The House is expected to pass the legislation today, and supporters are optimistic that the Senate will follow next month.
For existing mortgages only, the measure would remove an oddity in bankruptcy law: Judges can reduce, or cramdown, the principal on a vacation home, car or boat, but they cannot do it to a mortgage for a primary residence.(LAT)
Well, thank goodness for that, because it’s pretty obvious that only those with boats or 2nd homes are the only ones being impacted negatively during this financial crisis. Baby steps. Their hearts were in the right place. And at least the President understands:
“I just want everybody to understand, that’s the rule for investors who own two, three and four homes,” [Obama] said. “So it should be the rule for folks who just own one home as an alternative to foreclosure.”
The legislation would limit the new bankruptcy rules to existing mortgages. Homeowners would have to seek a voluntary modification from their mortgage holder at least 15 days before filing for bankruptcy. And the bill would require the homeowner to share the profit from a home sale with the lender if it takes place within four years of the bankruptcy. The bank would get 80% of the profit in the first year, 60% in the second, 40% in the third and 20% in the fourth. (from the above linked article)
Sounds interesting, but as the article notes, there’s concern it would push people to declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy declarations stay on your credit report for 7 years. Considering the draconian changes the Republican Congress made to the bankruptcy laws a few years ago, I doubt that even if there was a rush, that many would prevail in filing.
Like so much lately, it’s best to adopt a wait-and-see attitude toward this. No one wants to file for bankruptcy and adding on more hurdles will likely turn off others.
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Netflix Watch Instantly Workout Videos
The internet can be a big lifesaver not only to your health, but also to your wallet. Last year, as you may recall, I took up running. That was fun, but with the kids, work demands & constantly getting sick, it was hard for me to exercise. I had the idea that I would walk my kid to school every morning, walk back home, grab the boy and drive over to the gym for a quick workout. I did that exactly once. Real life intruded on my plans. So after driving the kid to school, I’d come back home and work or mess about online.
My solution for fitness became the rare spurts of Dance Dance Revolution on the Xbox and accessing the Fitness module via my cable’s OnDemand. DDR was only worthwhile when the kids were asleep, as they both kept getting underfoot. The same with the Wii Fit I got for my birthday. My daughter insisted that it was always her turn. I love the Wii Fit, but until I figure out how to switch the cables between the Wii and the Xbox, I use whatever is plugged in, which is usually the Xbox. Lucky for us then, that we have a Netflix account. As you may recall, I’ve rented some fitness videos via Netflix. Now with the Xbox Live Gold Membership ($49/year or try Amazon), I can use Watch Instantly to view exercise videos. I have my queue loaded up with various videos that target different areas of the body.
But variety is the spice of life. I remembered using workout videos online after the birth of my 1st child, so I dove into the internet. There are so many more places to get your fitness fix in the comfort of your own home. When I had to cancel my gym membership recently, I stepped up my focus on finding the right exercise combo for me. So, if you’re watching your pennies and are forced to cancel your gym membership or just don’t have the time or inclination to go to gym, here’s a list of sites that have free workout videos:
Fit TV
Exercise TV
Hulu (these videos are mostly Execise TV videos)
iTunes (h/t to Siel for this one)
Fit TV
ExerciseTV
Hulu Fitness Videos