That’s what it’s like here in Massachusetts today, the day before the special election to fill the seat left vacant upon the passing of the late Senator Edward Kennedy. Martha Coakley and Scott Brown are vying to fill the open seat in the Senate. For those that haven’t yet decided who they’re voting for—yes, there are those that still think about who they’re voting for, rather than just voting the party line—these ads have become useless. They’re now just vicious attacks on character, neither candidate can claim that they have the best interests of the public at heart anymore. And then the “non-candidate” ads are thrown into the mix. Democrats Coalition for This, Republican Election Coalition for That. Now it’s their turn to attack the opposing party’s candidate, with the sole purpose of getting people to vote Democrat or Republican. No longer is it “For the People”, now it’s just “For the Power”.

While my mind has been made up for weeks as to who I’m voting for, I can understand the bewilderment of anyone tuning into the media to help make a decision. If my mind weren’t already made up, I’d be at the point where I don’t want to vote for either of them, and not because of the reason you might be thinking. While one might think that both candidates are the devil incarnate after watching a few ads from each party, frankly I’m just disgusted at what a ridiculous mess the race has become. For a month now, the only ads you see on TV or hear on the radio are personal attacks and character assassination.

Once. Just once I would like to see a candidate run a good, clean campaign from start to finish. Talk about yourselves. What will you do for Massachusetts, for your country, and for me as a voter? Truth be told, you don’t give a damn what voters want anymore, you just want to be prom king or queen. You want the popularity and the power to do whatever you please, vote as your respective party wants you to or as will benefit you, and ignore what benefits your constituents.

I put it to all of you, every last politician, run a clean campaign and I’ll vote for you—I don’t give a damn what party you are. Put the voters first, and you’ll gain votes, it’s as simple as that.

UPDATE: I was watching the news on Boston’s Fox 25 last night from 5:30-6:30, and every commercial break consisted of nothing but Scott Brown & Martha Coakley trash-talking ads, with non-campaign trash-talking endorsements interspersed here and there. Absolutely annoying. We know about the election by now–give it a rest!

The article points out that times are changing and advertising dollars are dropping on broadcast TV, so the broadcast networks are demanding higher fees for cable companies to carry their channels. Another blow is dealt to cable companies in the loss of customers to web-based television.

It seems to me that the loss of customers points to a deeper issue. While it’s all well and good that cable companies are upgrading their fiber optic networks to help carry new higher-bandwidth content, it seems that none of these companies want to innovate and provide a service that web-based television and others can’t compete with. Sure, DVR was a welcome addition to my cable system, but that was nearly 5 years ago. What has Comcast done for me recently? My cable modem speed has gone up to 22Mbps from 15Mbps. That’s nice, can’t really complain there. But what about their television service? The cable boxes I’ve been provided in the past few years have all sucked. They lock up a few times a month, they’re slow to change channels, and the interactive guide feature just plan stinks. It hasn’t seen a facelift in years, and it’s terrible compared to Verizon’s offering on FiOS.

Let’s go back to broadcast TV fees and advertising for a minute. Now that broadcast TV networks are demanding fees for their programming, what does that spell for the future of television? If they have a guaranteed revenue stream from cable providers, they don’t have to worry about advertising quite as much, which may translate into lower quality programming. We’ve already got enough lower-budget reality TV as it is. Do we really need another season of The Bachelor or Survivor? Sure, it costs the networks less to produce than a “real” TV show, but with less of a need for advertising dollars, what incentive is there for broadcast networks to create programming that people will actually want to watch? Too many great shows have been canceled to make way for more reality TV because it costs less.

Another issue that I see is the “double-dipping” that the broadcast networks are getting away with. Their programming is freely available to anyone with a television and an antenna in their local broadcast area. If cable companies are providing the broadcast networks’ feeds via the cable network only to those in the local broadcast area, why is it acceptable for the broadcast companies to demand fees from cable carriers? I don’t think they should be able to have it both ways. If they want to charge for their content being provided outside of a local broadcast area, that’s fine, but if you can’t charge for it over the air, don’t charge my cable company to provide it to me. The cable companies don’t make any money off the advertising on the local broadcast channels, and they cannot preempt commercial breaks with their own advertisements.

I guess this is what it comes down to: If networks want more advertising dollars, they need to create programming that people will watch, not just the slop reality TV that half the country watches just because it’s there. And if cable companies want to stop losing customers to web-based television and other technologies, they need to start innovating beyond their current offerings. How about integrating a Slingbox-like feature into cable boxes that allows me to watch on-demand and DVR programming on my computer or iPhone anywhere in the world? Strike a deal with Slingbox. I know there are costs associated with all of this, but if prices are going to rise anyway, how about giving me something new for my money?

The One Hundred Pushups program is a 6 week training program designed to take you from any starting point to being able to perform one hundred consecutive pushups. It consists of an initial test where you perform as many good form consecutive pushups you can muster without resting. Once you have your results of the initial test, you move onto Week 1. Each week has a small chart prescribing how many pushups you should perform each day during the week, based on how many pushups you were able to perform during your initial test.

Each week of the program consists of 3 days of working out, so I did my initial test on Sunday and started my week on Monday. This way, I’ll be doing pushups on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with rest days in between and weekends off. I will fill those days with other exercise, most likely cardio and sit-ups/crunches.

To keep track of my progress, I’m using the website’s companion iPhone app, aptly named Hundred PushUps (iTunes link). Not only does it track your progress, but it also helps with during your workout, telling you how many reps you have to do in each set and counting out your rest periods. It’s got a simple, clean interface that makes it easy to use while working out.

Hopefully in 6 weeks I’ll be able to do one hundred consecutive pushups. In the meantime, I’ll post regular updates here on my progress on both the One Hundred Pushups program and the Health Challenge.

One Hundred Pushups website: http://www.hundredpushups.com

I urge anyone who’s trying to lose weight or just get into shape to join me in the Health Challenge. It runs from January 1 through February 28, 2010. It’s pretty simple, and there are only 6 rules to follow.

The Rules

from John’s blog

1. Eliminate as much sugar from your diet as possible. No more candy, cake or cookies. You are allowed Two otherwise illegal candy bars per week IF you follow all of the other rules.
2. No sugary drinks like Coke (here’s why) or alcoholic drinks (huge calories)! In fact, nothing but water, unsweetened tea or coffee to drink! You are allowed Two otherwise illegal drinks per week IF you follow all of the other rules.
3. Decrease food portions by 30-50% for all meals. Instead of eating whatever portion you are given, slow down while eating and stop after you feel full.
4. Snack all you want, but only fruit, veggies or nuts are allowed!
5. Exercise at least 5 times a week. This doesn’t mean long exercise daily! It means frequent bursts of exercise. Pushups and situps a few times a day for example.
6. Publicly update the rest of us and encourage others to keep going! (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

For more details on how to join the challenge, take a look at John’s Health Challenge post. There’s a section on how to join at the end of his post.

I haven’t quite decided exactly how I’m going to track my progress. I use Traineo.com to track my weight goals, but that’s about all I use it for beyond the forums. The diet tracking leaves a bit to be desired. I’ve also been playing with dailyburn.com, but it’s a little too cluttered for me. I think I may end up with an Excel spreadsheet to track my progress. Whatever I ultimately choose for tracking, you can be sure I’ll be posting updates here every few days with my progress.

Here’s to a healthy and happy New Year!

Cheers!

For as long as I can remember—as far back as my early teens—I’ve been overweight. I’ve always had a gut. I’ve never really been “fat” as I think of fat. My arms and legs have always been lean, all my excess weight has been kept in my midsection. I smoked for over 10 years, but I quit on May 5, 2005. I gained more weight when I quit, but I don’t know whether that’s tied to my quitting smoking or my increased consumption of beer. Probably both.

In August, Rachel and I decided to try out the South Beach Diet. I’ve never really believed in diets, and honestly have never tried one. I was skeptical, mainly because of all the negative things I’ve heard and read about fad diets in the media. Rachel’s parents used the South Beach Diet a year or so ago, and they seemed to have good luck with it, so that contributed to my consideration of the diet. After reading the book—which isn’t as long as it looks, nearly two-thirds of it is recipes—my opinion of the diet had changed somewhat. I still thought of it as a diet, something I might or might not stick with.

After the first two weeks, known as “Phase 1″ in the book, my outlook had completely changed. It truly is a change in eating habits rather than just a fad diet. The first two weeks was much easier than I thought it was going to be. Giving up sugar, beer & wine, sugary drinks, and most carbohydrates was easy. I wasn’t hungry all the time, and didn’t need to snack throughout the day. Eating lean meats, green vegetables, nuts and low-fat cheeses for the first two weeks was so easy, and I’d lost so much more weight than I had expected that we decided to stick with Phase 1 for an extra week or so. I’d lost nearly 15 pounds in the first 3 weeks of the diet that there was no question in my mind that I would stick with the diet.

We’d gone from eating out 2-3 times a week and eating processed foods to eating healthy, home-cooked meals every night. Rather than ordering my regular sandwich at the cafeteria at work, I switched to salads for lunch on the days that I didn’t bring leftovers from the previous night to work. I was surprised at how easy it was to make the change in eating habits. The main driving factor for me behind sticking with the changes was the weight loss. In 5 months, I’ve lost 25 pounds and I’ve never felt better. Not bad for only changing eating habits without adding any kind of exercise. Fitting into clothes that have been in storage bins for years is a great feeling!

Over the past couple of weeks, however, I’ve gained about 3 pounds. I’m back up to 207 pounds from 204 the last time I weighed myself. I knew that I would gain a few pounds over the holidays, so I’m not surprised but I am a little disappointed. My goal of getting to 200 pounds by January 1 isn’t going to happen, but I’m not deterred. On January 1, I intend to update my goal to get to 185 pounds by June 2010. With a little luck and adding some exercise to the mix, I think it should be fairly easy to meet this goal.

All of that said, I invite and encourage anyone reading this to join me in my quest to get into shape and increase your general health and well-being. My plan is to update this blog at least once a week, and link to it from both my Facebook profile and Twitter. If you think this is something you’d like to do, please leave a comment and let me know!

I’m providing a few links to sites and apps I’ve used to help track my progress, and some places I’ve turned to for inspiration.

Traineo: Traineo is a simple tracking tool that allows you to track weight, measurements, and quality of diet. I say quality of diet because it doesn’t allow you to track everything you eat, but it allows you to input calories consumed and rate your diet. Their forums are great, a good sense of community and inspiration to keep you on your path.

Weightbot: A beautifully-designed, simple weight tracking app for the iPhone. The interface is simple, user friendly, and just plain great-looking.

South Beach Century Club Recipes: A great collection of South Beach Diet recipes. Be careful when looking at the Phase 1 recipes, some of them contain ingredients not recommended during Phase 1, but it’s not widespread. There are a few great recipes I enjoy on this site.