okay, so the title doesn't do it justice...i was trying to mimic in writing the "ea sports...it's in the game" tagline that starts each EA sports game on the xbox (and presummably other consoles)...whenever my daughter hears that she interrupts with "it's in the game" -- pretty funny (and sad at the same time i suppose).

but i digress...

anyhow, i just picked up a copy of tiger woods 07 recently and finally loaded it up last night (argh: still no xbox live league game setup!).  when i loaded it up i disregarded the background talking until i realized that it actually was live updating sports information -- they were talking about what was happening at that moment in the master's golf tournament...and then on to other sports scores like baseball games of the day, etc.  WOW!  that is a great idea...then i noticed an espn on demand section where it also could read recent sports headlines form espn.  brilliant.  great job ea sports on improving my peripheral experience on the game console!

i've been trying to learn more and more about wpf/e and the current functionality in the february ctp, so i decided to jump on the create-a-video-player-skin bandwagon and mock something up.

i thought it would be quite the incredible thing (read: couldn't think of a better idea) to show a zune player...so whoala:

and when you click 'start player' (yes i know it would be cool to show the player as a playlist and use the normal zune buttons, but c'mon, v.0.0.3 here...work with me people) it rotates to show you the video (if you don't own a zune, the player shows videos landscape rather than portrait).

anyhow, i'm hoping to evolve this a bit more when i have some more free time -- there is a small bug in the stream downloading calculations that i'm hunting right now.  in case you haven't seen the default video playing, it is the red vs. blue of scott guthrie.  here's the link to my zune miniplayer.

i don't like geraldo, but i don't like bill o'reilly either -- and i don't claim any political party, i just think they are both media hounds...

but way to go geraldo for calling bs on this one:

...or another lesson in common sense.

i've not been in a great mood lately, namely because of random health (not serious...at least not yet) 'situations' that have caused me to continue to ponder about how i've gotten to that point.

probably one of the triggers was me watching a late night show on the learning channel called "i eat 33,000 calories a day" (note: i tried to find the description but the learning channel website has a broken link to it).  it's a profile of about 4 people in england who are obese, in the morbid sense.  we're talking 600lb+ here.  they were eating in excess of 30,000 calories a day.  now, personally i draw the line at 12,000, so this was getting ridiculous.  all kidding aside (no, i don't eat 12K a day, but i could see how easy that could be), it was sad...and got me thinking (again).

you see, i'm not in the best shape.  in college i ate taco bell about 3 square meals a day.  religiously.  i was a huge taco bell fan...c'mon who isn't.  but, i was also riding a bike everywhere (had no car) and was pretty active in general...so i never gained weight.  fast forward years later and i've been married for a while now, 2 kids, "corporate" jobs...and i can't seem to find that bike anymore.  net result: +60 lbs.  ugh.

the events leading up to this are obvious to me: eating more (and of the wrong stuff), exercising less.  i didn't need any 'body for life', 'weight watchers', dr. phil, or oprah to tell me that.  i'm a victim of my own bad habits.  the choices you make in food have domino effects as well.  for me, it's resulted in lethargy, self-esteem loss (at the beach), GERD (which results in basically having heart-burn throughout the entire day, which is quite painful), and now more recently, dental health (i'm on part 3 of a 4-part series involving a root canal, crown, and potentially 2 cavities -- we'll have to see in part 3).  my wife and i have our engagement photo on our refrigerator and people cannot believe it is me.  add on top of all that, i have horrible heart problems in my family...and my dad had 2 heart attacks and is the recipient of a heart transplant.

when will the light finally go off.  like i said, i don't need any program to tell me that i'm out of shape and not doing anything about it.  the formula is simple: eat smarter, do some exercise...and do more exercise if you aren't eating smarter.  it's motivation for me that is lacking.  and traveling isn't helping -- conference buffets, late night dinners, etc.

anyhow, i really don't know why this was worthy of a post and certainly is more noise than signal to most of my entries, but part of me felt that if i put it in writing (rather than in my brain and my wife naggingreminding) something will change...maybe.  at least i'll cut down to 8,000 calories a day ;-)  some tips i have found are drinking less soda (oh yeah, i've already had 3 kidney stones as well -- mother of pearl you do not want those) and finding water-based, sugar-free drinks like crystal light.  for me, my drinks must have flavor, so plain water isn't a good first step.  the other thing i'm trying to do at conferences is leverage meal choices.  i've started to request kosher meals or vegetarian.  why?  first, because i'm hoping the choice will be better (and more controlled portion) than a buffet line.  second, because it usually *is* better.  that's one tip i'm trying out at least.

wish me luck -- and if you are a programmer like me who has seemingly started to spend more time behind the keyboard than usual, i hope you aren't in the same boat.

hmmm...maybe i could have taken a walk instead of taken the time to write this :-)

when i travel and need a rental car, i use avis...not by choice really, but it's a company standard i guess.  to me, to be honest, a car is a car...service is where it is at.  i'm a member of the preferred program (which anyone can be, you don't have to 'earn' it) which entitles me to essentially skip the main counters when i rent (although the preferred counter is quickly becomming the 'main' one it seems).  i've also recently received 'select preferred' probably because i've rented enough.  i'm not sure what the difference is other than the fact that they assume i want the largest, most fuel inefficient vehicle available.  my last 3 rentals were: f150 truck, crown victoria, grand marquis, sonata.  the last one is only because i said i didn't want to drive an f150 again!

anyhow, the service has been great and recently i've noticed some added bonuses.  i've never gotten email receipts before but just started to...and they are realtime.  my last trip i returned my car in denver airport.  the gentleman asked me how the car was, blah blah, etc.  as my receipt is printing in his mobile device/printer (literally), my phone buzzes that i have a new email...what was it?  an email receipt of this rental.  wow, now that is realtime baby.  way to go avis.  big bonus points for me as a geek and a traveler.