The first big thing is that I’m moving back downtown. After two years of living in the suburbs and being close to work, I’m returning to Belltown to live and party and do that whole thing. I’m not going to go into all of the reasons, but it just seems like it’s the right thing to do. I never thought I’d move back to Seattle proper, but then again, I never though I’d move back to Seattle at all. So here I am decided it’s time to make a bit of a change in my life.

The other big thing I have staring me down is preparations for Sakura-con 2010. As has been pointed out to me a few times, we’re a month away from con and we have a lot to get done in time for the show. I also have to make sure I’m in shape for the convention, as there is an absolute crap-ton of walking, lifting, and just generally being active that I will do for the con. Unfortunately, this also means that the con will be all encompassing of my life for the next month. It’s really a second job; not to say I don’t love it. It’s just a lot of work.

Of course, I also have my actual job at MS, which is, thankfully, not SUPER hectic, just mostly busy. I’m currently really enjoying my current job, and the situation is an absolute crapton better than it used to be. It’s just that there’s a bunch to get done.

Oh yeah, I haven’t really mentioned what I’m working on now. I”m not going to go into specifics, but it’s a service related to the new release of Windows Phone.

But yeah, March is going to be a fun one. It’s also just going to have a shit ton to accomplish.

Now, normally, I absolutely HATE Valentine’s Day. It hasn’t helped that I’ve been single for the previous four, but even when I’ve been in a relationship, Valentine’s day tends to just not go well for me. So, this year, instead of lamenting that I am without a special someone; I decided that I’d just do something that makes me stupidly happy.

I went skiing.

There are few things in life that make me happier than skiing, and on a day when a lot of people I know were quite unhappy, I chose to do what I knew would make me happy. Thus, my friends, Ryan and Alex, and I went up to Crystal Mountain for the day. In exchange for getting up at six in the morning, we were rewarded with 4 inches of fresh powder and a virtually empty mountain. Even though one of my boots crapped out on me; it was still amazing.

As for my evening? That was spent enjoying a G&T and watching my favorite Winter Olympic event on TV.

Yeah, best Valentine’s day ever? Just do what you love and forget about the rest. ^_^

At the same time, I don’t see why this is super exciting. It’s Twitter, but tied into Google. It’s literally just another system I’m going to hook my other web 2.0 sites into and get comments from friends. In some ways, it feels really phoned in by a company, that honestly, I expect better from. They combined their reader service and their chat IM client and called it a new invention. At least they were smart enough to realize that people already have external services for stuff and it’s best to just play nice and import them.

On a side note: I’m slightly unamused that no one seems upset that they just added this. Maybe it’s because I’m a bitter Microsoft employee, but seriously? If MS tried this anywhere, people would be going ape shit. But because Google is doing it, and it’s internet related, it must be ok. Seriously, trying to circumvent a competitor by putting your competing widget in an already overpowering product…why does that sound familiar? Am I the only one beginning to think that Google is becoming a little too big? When do you flip the Megacorp-Is-Evil bit? Just some thoughts on the subject.

First, I want to just say that, I have a pair of Brooks Beasts. They were what I ran this past years Ragnar in. I used them in tandem with a pair of custom orthotics. That should tell you had badly my feet used to pronate. When running season was done, I would lift in them. They were, my athletic shoe of choice.

Note the key usage of the past tense. In case you hadn’t picked up on it, I haven’t put on my beats in about two months.

Just before Thanksgiving of this year, I decided to get a pair of the Vibram Five Finger KSOs. My friends Lowell and Cailyn had been living in them for a couple of months and wouldn’t stop going on about them. After doing some research I decided I’d give them a try. Given how my feet are, I figured at worst, I’d just be sore for a bit, give up and call it a day.

Well, after easing my way into them (seriously, give yourself time to adjust), I discovered that I really really loved wearing them. It started off as me wearing them to work and around the house. Then I started wearing them pretty much full time, accept for the gym. Then, after a weak of wondering why my knees were bothering me after working out, I realized I wasn’t handling being in the Beasts for working out and walking anymore. So I ditched them and it was my KSO’s all the time.

When I got back from vacation, I decided that I actually wanted a couple more pairs of 5 Fingers. I decided I wanted a pair of Sprints to work out/run in, and I wanted a pair of brown KSO Treks that I could wear with dressier ensembles, as well as to work when I was drying my regular KSOs. Thankfully, Lowell was able to hook me up, so I didn’t ave to wait to get them. I can honestly say that I love my Treks and Sprints as much as my original pair of KSOs.

I’ll probably write up more of the experience next month when I’ve started up my initial change in training from Skiing/Climbing to Running/Convention. (Yes, I actually have to train a bit for the Con. I’m on my feet for most of 4 days.) For now, however, I cannot stress how awesome the shoes are. They are super comfortable and I’ve reduced the amount of pain I’ve felt in my legs and back since picking them up. I whole heartedly recommend them.

First, read these posts.

Now, let me preface this by saying, I play a lot of video games. I’ve played a lot of video games. Given this, it’s not very often that a game grabs me in such a way that I literally want to be playing it all of the time.Darksiders is one such game. I bought this game along with Bayonetta, figuring that I’d alternate between the two. I’d been following the game, but the reviews made it seem like it would only be ok, and that I’d just be consumed by the need to play Bayonetta.

Gabe, Tycho, I’m right there with you. The game’s awesome.

Well, over the course of 2009, a bunch of my friends changed their diets to be more like the paleolithic. They ate no starches, no processed carbs and generally upped their meat intake. Now, being a very skeptical person, I thought this was kind of crazy. I’d heard of this before, or so I thought. To me, my friends had just discovered the new Atkins. Congrats, guys, you’ll be done with this in 2 months and back to where you were. Except they never got there. In fact, they were all dropping rate for a prolonged period of time and in very large quantities. I’m talking guys going from 230 to 160. (Apparently 70 lbs is the current average) Over the summer, when they were only a few months in, I was with 3 people who had, in total, lost my body weight of 170. I was in shock.

So fast forward to the end of October. At this point, I’ve been hanging out/living with people who didn’t eat carbs, starches, etc for a while. At this point, my diet is beginning to mirror theirs, as we just eat together a bunch. As this is going on, I begin to find that I’m having fewer and fewer episodes with my own blood sugar. I’m feeling better and I’m less sick. Needless to say, I’m a much happier person. After having given it some thought, I start to consciously make changes to my diet, and I’ve been eating this way ever since.

So what are the benefits? Well, the biggest is that I’m not having the crazy blood sugar crashes I used to. I’m able to go for extended periods of time without eating and I’m not getting headachy or becoming a complete dick. The other major advantage I’ve had has been that I’ve actually lost a little bit a weight. While I’ve only lost about 7 lbs or so, that’s pretty significant, as I really didn’t have a lot of excess weight to lose.

So that’s kind of my story. I now go around eating as few starches and processed carbs as possible. I’ve gone as far as to bring paleo foods to pot lucks and managed to have people really like the stuff, even though it lacked all the carbs. (I found a recipe for jambalaya that was quite the hit). I still get some weird looks from people, and a lot of people are skeptical when I explain it, but well, the results kind of speak for themselves.

If you’re interested, I’ll point you to my friend Lowell’s (he started all this) intro letter on the subject. It’s worth a read if you want to get healthy.

Also, I listened to this today, and well, given my druthers, I’ll take the beer:

As I type this, I’m sitting in a first class cabin, using free wifi. The best part, I didn’t pay for first class, I was automatically upgraded because of my Delta Skymiles status. Honestly, this is quite a pleasant treat given my usual travel experiences. for once, I haven’t had any craziness. I sped through all the lines, I had good seats (although I gave up my nice seat with plenty of leg room on my first flight to the guy who was 6′6″) and I’ve been getting free gin and tonics.

Honestly, this is so strange for me, given how much…fun I tend to have whenever I fly. I know this is very temporary, but at least for now, I’m actually enjoying this. ^_^

Amazing, simply amazing.