Month: September 2013

Five Year Work Anniversary

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In some ways it is hard to believe I have been at Thomson Reuters for 5 years.  So much has changed in my life in five years and so much seems not to have changed at all.  I love that I still get excited for things I am working for and changes in my group keep things new and interesting.  I have been in the same position for a year and a half but after 11 months the responsibilities changed enough that it is half like a new position again.  Working with great people on interesting technology helps also!  Here is to another 5 years if the future is as interesting as the last five!

As always when I mention work I would like to note that anything written on this blog are my own opinions and thoughts and are not those of Thomson Reuters.

Finally Ordered a New TV

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I have had my current Sony Bravia 40″ LCD TV for 8 years.  I got it at a huge discount as part of a Best Buy store opening I got to goto working at Partsearch.  My dad got the exact same TV but his broke at least 3-4 years ago.  Mine kept on working.  It even won out against MC’s tv when we merged our stuff of course I didn’t think there was much contest since she had a 27″ CRT or something!  Over the past year or two I have noticed dim marks in a pattern in the middle of the tv.  At first MC didnt see them but then they became more apparent.  She didn’t think there was any need to replace the tv and in reality it works perfectly well.  The dark spots got me wanting something bigger and newer.

Last holiday season i decided to take all the gift money i got and put it towards a new one.  The only problem was picking the right one.  Good reviewed LCD TV’s were more than i wanted to pay even if I could afford it.  I wasn’t sold on Plazma even though everything i read says that the new generations of them are really good and much cheaper than LCD.  Burn in horror stories of years past still stick in my mind so it was back to LCD options.  Then I found what I wanted but it wasn’t released yet.  Finally I got my head in the game and the model I wanted was on the market after what felt like several months (because it was several months from announcing them at CES to them being able to be purchased).

So yesterday after work I went to the store to order my new Vizio 55″ M series.  I did in fact goto Best Buy.  I am not a fan of that store anymore but I wanted the TV professionally mounted and they had better options that I know people have had good luck with vs ordering from Amazon.  I also went with a Vizio TV.  Several people have said they are built like crap.  I am hoping the online reviews are correct since many of them say they are good value TV’s.  I don’t need earth shattering features.  This TV comes with 3d and “smart” functionality both of them I don’t even want.  I don’t care for 3d and my smart features will be gotten from my Sony Google TV that probably is better than the built in functions.  The price was much better than more popular name brands like Samsung and Sony.  Interesting during my research I found that Vizio actually sells a ton of TV’s.  I am hoping the TV lasts and is as good as CNet said it was.

I looked at both the 50″ & 55″ but I opted for the 55″.  My official reason is my eyes aren’t the best but when I was in the store with both TV’s next to each other the 55″ looks huge compared to the 50.  I am hoping not to have to buy another one for a while so i figured i would get the biggest I can fit on my wall.  The 55″ will just barely (fingers crossed) fit on the wall space we use.

The earliest they can deliver it is on the 16th.  I can’t wait to plug it into my Bose speakers and give it a test drive.

 

After years of pondering if I should get a new TV, and months of finally saying yes I will get one I finally went out and ordered a TV today.

My Fitbit Flex

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Today i got a fitbit flex. I wasn’t planning on getting one but i was in BestBuy and walked past it and couldn’t resist. I have a Jawbone UP but have been wondering about the Flex evver since it was announced. With all my issues with my UP’s even though i like the UP i wanted to give the Flex a test drive. I plan on using both for a while to see what one i like better.

The Day My Wedding Ring Fell in The Bathroom Garbage

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I have been very pleased with my weight loss to date even if it doesn’t feel like I lost that much. Many people that see have been saying it’s visible but I still have a belly for doesn’t feel like a lot to me. That changed today when I was drying my hands after using the bathroom at work and my wedding ring fell off my finger into the garbage as I was throwing the paper towel. Thankfully the garbage was only paper towels and was able to dump it out and hear the ring hit the floor. I was very grateful to be able to get it back so easily.

I knew the ring was a little bit looser recently but I had no idea how loose it was until that event happened. From what I’ve read it’s actually quite difficult or impossible to have a ring size smaller. It’s easier to get it bigger but from what I can tell the only way I can get it smaller you have little balls added to the inside to account for the extra space. I need to bring it in soon to see if that can be done. Until then I am playing Russian roulette every time I wash my hands. Of course on the plus side I do feel like the weight loss is working now!

I Have a New Nemesis, Well Technically Two of Them

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On my road to a lower weight i have learned many things about food and about myself.  Recently the biggest things I have learned are who are my enemies.  I didn’t think I had many of them but I have learned that not to be true.  Early on in my weight loss mission I learned French Fries were not only not my friend but they were evil.  They became nemisis number one.  For years we were so friendly.  I ate them and they kept being so tasty.  Now they are generally what makes a meal ok to wow I will gain weight tomorrow.

This past month I learned of another rival, the once so nice cake.  MC has been making test cakes for Teagan’s upcoming birthday parties (we are doing one for Family and one for Teagan’s friends).  Being a good husband and father it was my duty, no responsibility to sample the test cakes.  What I learned was two fold.  One, MC makes fantastic cake but I kinda already knew that.  The decorations are pretty amazing.  Two, cake is now my nemesis.  Granted I ate 3 slices in one day of the first test cakes but I didn’t expect to gain over 2lbs doing so.  It took over a week to get back down to the weight I was before I ate the cake.  I know I need self control but it is not my fault my enemies are so tasty.  I am great if I just dont have any and stay away from it.  That is what I do with fries, but cake is harder to resist after I have one small slice I have to have more.

I think I need to fast leading up to Teagan’s birthday.  That is my current solution for birthday cake problems that are in my future!

Deleting Facebook and Starting From Scratch

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If you are a Facebook friend of mine and are wondering why suddenly you got a invite to be my friend again and can’t find all my old content here’s why.

I have been pondering my use of Facebook for over a year. It started last year when I took the entire month of July off from using social media. I read in an article somewhere and thought it was a good idea. It turns out I did not miss it as much as I thought I would. Once that month was over I started using it again but on a more limited basis. Over the past year I keep reading about the things Facebook can do with my content or is doing with my content. I wasn’t pleased. The new search functionality just spooked me. It’s not like I posted anything questionable but I just don’t like some of the business practices they’re doing with the information I put in the system. When I first started using Facebook it was treated as a personal area to post things to my friends only. Over time they keep doing things in semi-sneaky ways to make your data more public. It just makes me uneasy. I tried to remove old content but after much searching online it became apparent that there is no easy way to bulk delete anything. Most forum posts suggest just deleting your entire account and starting over. I didn’t want to do that but in the end I felt there was no other feasible choice if I wanted old content removed.

Everything finally came to a head today when I deleted my old account. First I exported all the data from my old account and verified that I wasn’t using Facebook authentication on any sites that were critical to me. Then I just remove the account. Apparently it takes 14 days for account to actually be deleted and then another month or so for all the data to be removed from their systems. After deleting the original account I went on and created a new one. I spent time inviting friends from the old account to the new one. I will be honest in saying that I did not invite 100% of the frames on the old one to the new account. I took this change as an opportunity to remove people I really don’t talk to anymore. I seriously thought about not signing up for an account again but in the end I did for two reasons. First, a lot of family loves getting photos of Teagan via Facebook. The second reason is more practical. I like having Facebook because it does enable me to stay in contact with people I don’t always get to see but I had issues about security and what they do with my data so I will continue to use it or treat anything I put there like I do with twitter. When I first started posting I didn’t do that and that was what bothered me.

Longer term MC and I are talking about how and if we continue posting photos to Facebook.  We have read some articles about what people (or Facebook themselves for that matter) can do with the photos and Face recognition and EXIF data. I would like to find a way to use my Flickr account to link to my Facebook wall with no data remaining on Facebook systems.

The bottom line is if you’re a friend of mine please don’t be offended if I don’t “like” post of yours or do lots of commenting on things you post to your wall or mine. I am just not doing that at all or very often going forward.