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Upgraded!

I signed up for iTunes Match earlier today.

Since then, I've downloaded (replaced) exactly one song, and I've spent an hour or so searching the Web for "iTunes Match error 4001" and "iTunes Match error 4010" and so on. I've tried some of the tricks, I've set up a smart playlist, and I'm still just sitting here at Step 1 in the iTunes Match section of iTunes.

iTunes Match is, as they used to say, NRFPT ((Not Ready For Prime Time)). That's disappointing. It's the first thing from Apple in a long while that didn't "just work."

If this doesn't start working by the end of the day on Monday, I'm going to seek a refund.

Today marks the start of my tenth year of blogging.

Since this post I've lost a dog and one awesome friend, but gained a daughter, a wife, and two good friends. I've moved twice and purchased one home. I've lost two girlfriends that struck me as potential marriage material but re-gained an old friend that quickly became a marriage of over 6½ years.

I've bought one new car for myself, and two for my wife ((When I say "I" here I mean "we", but "we" didn't seem to flow very well.)). I've gone on what I would call a true vacation exactly once.

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For the past few weeks, my left calf muscle - right at the bottom of the calf and several inches above my ankle - has felt "off." It's been noticeably sore (but not painful) between runs. After a run it has felt pretty good, but when I've focused on more fore-foot to mid-foot form it's been noticeably goofy.

Today when running 8:00 straight separated by a 5:00 breather, the back of my left knee felt odd. It still feels odd now, eight hours later, and a bit like I hyperextended my knee a little.

I'm not a wimp, but if there's one thing I keep reading it's that people tend to take things too aggressively and push too hard too fast, and that only leads to injuries. I've been good about this so far - and I wouldn't even call this an injury, really - but until I get to know how my body reacts to running a bit better, I'm taking a break as a precaution.

The plan right now is to take ten days off, with ice on the calf and the back of my knee, and repeat the fifth week of C25K. I still plan to do something to keep my cardiovascular system improving - maybe I'll use the recumbent bike at Golf Evolution or something. My legs have never really been tired after I've run (because, let's be honest, I'm not exactly running very far or very fast), but I'm pleased with my cardiovascular improvement.

Which, come to think of it, goes a bit against what I just wrote about being frustrated by a lack of improvement. Early on I remember having a harder time running 2:00 straight than I did today running 8:00 straight. I attributed a lot of that to the cooler air, but that's not it, not entirely.

BTW, if you're on RunKeeper or DailyMile, look up "iacas" and add me as a friend.

I agree completely with what @gruber wrote: the new Twitter app (and to a lesser extent, the new Twitter website) flat out stinks.

I guess Tweetbot is the way I'll go for now.

Carey sent me this Shape article and though I have no plans to do it, I'll post about it here.

But it's worth it. Doing as little as 4 minutes (or one "Tabata") can increase your aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, VO2 max, resting metabolic rate, and can help you burn more fat (and make you look 200-percent leaner) than a traditional 60-minute aerobic workout. That's right—4 minutes of Tabata can get you better fitness gains than an entire hour of running on the treadmill.

The trick to getting all these benefits is the level of intensity. To do a Tabata, an exercise developed in the '70's for Japanese Olympians, all you have to do is pick a cardio activity such as running, jumping rope, or biking and go as hard as you can for 20 seconds. Follow that with 10 seconds of rest and repeat seven more times. And when I say "as hard as you can go," I mean 100-percent maximal intensity. By the end of the 4 minutes you should feel like you're going to die.

This sounds like something that'd be more fun to bet someone else they can't do than to do yourself. 🙂

Sprint has been running commercials lately about their unlimited data plans for the iPhone. The tag line has been something about "bet you don't realize how much data you actually use."

Guess what? I bet most people don't realize how little data they use.

Since I reset my phone on October 14, I've sent 76.4 MB and received 179 MB. That's it. This seems to be consistent with my earlier numbers.

Yes, I'm on wifi a good portion of the day, but so are many people. Unless you're watching Netflix constantly on your phone - and away from wifi - I don't know how likely it is that you're going to surpass 2 GB.

I remember AT&T said that something like 5% of people use more than 1 GB of data per month, but that 5% accounted for 95% of the data used on its network.

Odds are you're not in that 5%. Sprint scare tactics? Don't pay more than you have to, folks. Check your data usage and choose a plan that gives you a comfortable, not an excessive, amount of room.

I'm going after a new gig, a new job. It's in one of my current fields, and I'd be great at it. The people who know I'm going after it think I'll be great at it.

The holdup? There's someone in that position - in a manner of speaking - already. That person should probably use his talents in other, higher-level types of things. It's not a "grunt work" position, but it's more "grunt work" than glamour, and yet it's the kind of work I really enjoy and at which I really excel.

So, fingers crossed, and I'll know within the first couple of months of 2012.

It may be a coincidence, but since I've started running, my appetite has plummeted. In some ways I think it has to be a coincidence because the farthest I've run and walked in a week is seven or eight miles (outside of normal walking of course).

I feel okay. I'm not dizzy. I'm not sick. I'm not suddenly busier than I have been in the past. I'm sleeping the same amount and just as well.

I'm not drinking more or less Coke Zero (I guess some zero-cal colas can inhibit appetite).

While I used to get hungry at about 4pm, sometimes a bit earlier, nowadays I'm eating a few Oreos during the day and then forcing myself to eat some food at 8 o'clock at night.

If our scale worked, I'd be curious to know what I weigh now.

Just curious.

My friend Daria said/says that I get along better with women because "I'm a listener and a talker." I tend to think it's because most guys are jerks.

But the jury is still out on me: the sample size for me is too low to draw any valid statistical conclusions.

If I spend 15 minutes working on my putting stroke, I can begin to see changes immediately.

If I spend 15 minutes working on my full swing, the proof is readily available, right there on the camera.

But 15 minutes - even 15 days - spent running won't get you anywhere. Not noticeably, that is.

It's tough to wrap my head around the fact that I still suck - a lot. I'm no faster. I think I'm pacing myself a little better and I'm not quite as winded. My form (again, something you can improve quickly) is better. But am I a noticeably better runner than four weeks ago?

Nope. 🙂 Not that I can tell, anyway. Not really.

I'll keep at it. Four weeks down, five to go. And then I'm off on my own (I've kind of decided against C210K simply because I don't want to have to carry my phone around another couple of months).

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka' but 'That's funny…'"

- Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

Carey likes to watch a bunch of horrible TV shows:

• Teen Mom
• Millionaire Matchmaker
• 16 and Pregnant
• Housewives of Wherever
• Survivor 😉

I don't know if I watch any totally lousy shows like that, but I did watch Ringer and Hart of Dixie for a few episodes, so I'm sure she'd include those in my list.

What bad and terrible TV shows do you like to watch?

Trust is not something that should be given OR taken away without a very, very good reason.

"The Nod" is something men seem to understand. "The Nod" is the way we recognize each other, say "hello" without goofily waving our hands in the air like a schoolgirl, and it demonstrates many things, including respect, an understanding, acknowledgment, etc.

Women don't seem to understand the nod, or for whatever reason, choose not to nod. And that's okay, because a man doesn't have to feel like a schoolgirl when waving to a woman, though the wave will tend to be somewhat less subdued.

When running, I've discovered that nobody nods. Or if they do, you can't tell because they're moving around and you're moving around enough. So, though this may be the only place this occurs, "The Nod" takes a back seat to a small, barely noticeable wave when two runners wish to acknowledge one another. And again, when one is a female, the man may wave slightly more exuberantly.

At least, that's how it all seems to me. 😉