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It took less than two weeks but Boot Camp cracked me.  Specifically, it cracked my foot.  Even more specifically, it cracked the 5th metatarsal in my left foot.

A quick visit to the clinic and the doctor suggested the likely problem is a stress fracture , so he sent me off for x-rays.  Until next week at least, I am supposed to stay off my foot if I want to get back to normal walking.  A cane was suggested, which I purchased, but after a few days of that, I would much rather have crutches.  The cane has thrown off my alignment and I have more pain in my hip and knee than I ever did in my foot.

According to the doctor, that’s the end of Boot Camp, which is a hassle as I was training for the Vegas hockey tournament.  His opinion is that I should be good to go by the time the tournament begins, though.  I hope so.

Damn foot.

Posted on March 16th, 2008 by admin
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The hardest thing about my first day at Boot Camp was getting up. I haven’t voluntarily seen 5:30am in a long time and it came too soon after a restless night of half-sleep. It was so early that my dog, who for the last 3 years has acted as my 7:00am wake-up paw, was bleary-eyed and confused when I got up hours before dawn.

My morning routine started out normally: down 2 flights of stairs, let Finnegan (the aforementioned dog) out in the back yard to do his business, back upstairs to crack open some expensive dog food, throw back some food of my own - but that’s where my typical morning activities ended. This time I wrapped myself in cold-weather workout gear and head out into the early morning. As luck would have it, the rain was pouring down for my first day at Boot Camp.

I arrived early and found other participants in their cars, trying to keep warm before having to trudge around in the cold, rain-soaked field. At 6:00am, everyone congregated at the end of the field. We dropped off our gear and got right into it: 2 laps around the running oval and then back to the instructor for more. A few exercises later (pushups, crunches and some others), the instructor measured everyone (bicep, chest, stomach, butt, thighs) and gave us some more information.

Pretty easy. I figured this whole Boot Camp thing was going to be a cakewalk!

Until about 6:05am this morning. The moment I stepped on the field, I had to start running while holding weights over my head. Have you ever done that? It’s much harder than it looks, trust me. Many exercises like this one (movement combined with weightlifting), innumerable pushups, racing around a circuit of stairs and every combination of stationary weight-lifting and I was getting pretty damn tired.

Our instructor then paired me up with another participant in which we had alternate between exercises. The catch is that I had to do pushups while he ran the stairs circuit. So, the slower he was, the more pushups I had to do. But the faster he ran, the more winded he was when it was his turn to do pushups and my turn to run. It was pretty tough.

The end of class seemed to linger just beyond reach of each new exercise, like the elastic dental appointments that seem to stretch into infinity. Finally, we were done and I was completely wasted but happy that I made it through.

I wonder what Day 3 is going to be like.

Posted on March 5th, 2008 by Alistair
Filed under: Fitness, Health | No Comments »

Anticipation was moderate over this year’s Macworld, nothing like last year when the iPhone was all but a guarantee, but still high enough to garner attention from traditionally non-Apple news agencies.

The featured products included refreshed AppleTV and iPod Touch (added some functionality), iTunes with movie rentals and the star of the show: the MacBook Air, a super-thin notebook. The design is typically Apple, with sleek lines, minimalist crafting and a pricetag to match. It’s a beautiful machine but not one that made me jump up and decry my MacBook Pro purchase of 6 months ago.

However, for me, the real standout is Time Capsule. A wireless base station with a terabyte backup drive in it that functions as a network drive or as a backup location for Time Machine. To me, that’s a brilliant solution that allows me to add up to 1TB network storage and backup destination for the 2 (or sometimes 3) Macs I use around the house, replace my aging Linksys wireless router with a high-quality base station and minimize the growing number of digital devices in my home.

Before today, I was considering purchasing an Extreme Basestation, but with Time Capsule, I’m excited enough to have pre-ordered.

Posted on January 15th, 2008 by Alistair
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For many years now, I have been lamenting the lack of TiVo in Canada. So, it was a happy/sad day today when I discovered that the set-top box will be available to us on December 11th, just in time for Christmas.

Happy? Well, I’ve coveted the system for years now and am excited about the opportunity to include it in the bundle of technology connected to my TV.

Sad? Primarily because it’s pretty close to Christmas and I’ve already committed most of my funds. This is another $350 (or so: $199+tax for the box and a minimum 1 year subscription at $129) that I shouldn’t be spending. Also, because it means that I’ll likely be watching more TV.

There are many cool things about TiVo:

• It will record shows for you on a built-in hard drive, up to 80 hours.
• You can auto-skip commercials upon playback.
• An entire series can be pre-programmed to record, so I’ll never miss an episode of myself Adam Savage on Mythbusters.
• You can search for content by keyword rather than having to know the show title.
• Record another channel while you watch TV (perfect for when the Canucks are playing at the same time as I’m on Mythbusters).
• Transfer shows to your computer, your iPod or burn a DVD with TiVoToGo.
• TiVo will make suggestions for programs you might like, based on other subscribers who selected similar programming (much like Amazon makes suggestions after you’ve viewed/purchased a few books).

These are all great features for someone like me who isn’t home a lot but still has a few favorites on TV. The last one, though, is interesting for Canadians. I can only wonder if the suggestions are being made on the entire pool of TiVo subscribers (hence, more U.S. content) or if there have created a subset for Canadian subscribers.

I guess we’ll see if Corner Gas or How it’s Made (Canadian version) comes up when I get my very own TiVo.

Posted on December 3rd, 2007 by Alistair
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While waiting around for my Guitar Hero III to arrive (it’s only minutes away right now…) I was flipping the channels and found Back to the Future.

Watching it for the 29th time or so, I still find it entertaining and well-written, laden with pop culture tie-ins from the 50’s and 80’s.

Robert Zemeckis does a great job harnessing Christopher Lloyd and Crispin Glover, while using Michael J Fox’s rising popularity to turn out this film. Years later, he directed a similar film that used a historical events for plot development that were extremely well done.

One of the things that really makes both of these films work is the pace: fast enough, but consistent and easy to follow.

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Alistair
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