I'll be on a panel tonight discussing benefits of cities and suburbs and I'll be on the suburbs side (surprised? Me too).

Want to hear from talented architects, LEED-savvy designers, socialities and some loudmouth with a blog? See you at 1007 NW Grand Ave, Phoenix AZ 85007 at Edge Industries office.

We start at 6pm, and we'll go until we're all talked out.

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I'm currently on Day 3 of a four-day trip to Portland and I can't honestly say I have any real idea what my daily caloric count has been. While I have been using LoseIt every time I eat, the restaurants that I've eaten at don't have nutrition information, for I've done a lot of guessing. I also haven't been keeping track of my walking (estimated about 15-17 miles so far) because I've walked everywhere. Well, that is when I wasn't waiting at a bus stop shivering (that's exercise, right?).

But I'm not TOO worried. A long look in the mirror this morning made me feel a ton better, as when I stand up, I don't look nearly as overweight as I feel. My gut doesn't hang, my pecs don't sag (much) and my legs are muscly. All good things, yes?
Totally, until I remembered something about two kinds of fat, the kind that we see on potbellies that's outside our organs and the (sub-cutaneous?) stuff that's far more dangerous.

I have lots of that second kind, so while I may LOOK in shape when I stand up, a quick turn or bend over produces far more chub than I'd like. Right now I'm leaning back in my chair because I don't like my gut pressing against my belt buckle (though I don't have a cool LEGO belt buckle like Jason Newlin) and THAT'S what I want to lose.

God damn this apple pie is good. But I digress.

First weigh in is on Friday. I've ran two miles once and played tennis three times in the past two weeks, so I don't expect any muscle gain, but I bet I've lost a few pounds.

And I feel better. My pants fit better. My belt doesn't pinch as much. THAT'S the most important part.

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Friends was about Gen X growing up in the perspective of how we all think they did.

Iron Man was a movie about how private war contractors know better than the public government.

Sports are about the endless struggle between the rich and the poor, only on the field/court/arena, the poor have somewhat of a chance.

Video games are a reflection of our inner-most desires and a portal into which we control our lives, in every relevant detail contextual to the game being played.

The best ones are art. The Wire is art. Tron is (visual) art. Madden is art.

Madden is like clockwork. Every year they release a slightly improved game incorporating the latest trends in both football and videos games. Its covers serves as awards to deserving players, those who are recognized by more than their number or position: it rewards the personalities.

You can't tell me that watching Tim Tebow isn't fun. You can't tell me that even non-football fans love a close game. You can't tell me that as annoying as tebowing is, it's the one thing I'll remember about this season. Hell, it's the one thing I'll remember about the NFL for the past few years.

What better honor could we bestow than featuring a tebowing Tim Tebow on the Madden '13 cover?
I'd buy it. Maybe play the game, too.

#TebowForMadden13

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Regardless, calorie counting as per Chubster's recommendation is going pretty well. Cool to realize how much I really put away per day, as well as finally understand how bad tortilla chips are for you. The cool thing about calorie counting is that I can eat ANYTHING, as long as I'm willing to count and accept it. I even had two cookies last night!

Oh, and marinated chicken is FANTASTIC. Katie has declared me to be the chicken preparer forever after I nailed the last two meals.

I realized yesterday that my snacking is more of a habit than a hunger thing (obvious, I know), which makes it easier to stop when I want to. Lots of water, lots of veggies and no microwave popcorn, except for the Tender White handfuls I shared with Katie and the Lewises last night.

Progress, yo.

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I ate two servings of pork, mashed potatoes and broccoli last night, followed with a huge s'more. And it was awesome.

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Who knew food affected your mood?

No Diet Coke, no popcorn and no...extrasensory enhancements make life a whole lot less fuzzy.

Is that a good thing?

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Thanks to the magic of the internet, I wrote and published this yesterday.

The toughest part by far in losing weight isn't working out regularly, it's not eating the right food and it's not even giving up soda. It's eating LESS food.

I work from home, where something to munch on is always available. I'm used to snacking multiple times a day instead of eating three large meals, but my problem is still quantity. When I was training for tough mudder, I easily put away 3500ish calories per day. This amount, coupled with my exercise, was enough to keep my weight even.

But because I'm not recovering from ingrown toenail surgery on both big toes, working out isn't really an option. Yes, I realize my arms aren't broken and there is a ton of stuff that I can do that won't affect my toes, but what I'm most concerned about is my body's ability to heal quickly. I don't want to be sore AND hurt, so I'm trying to offset my lack of exercise in the gym with more dog walking, more movement during the day and less food.

The food thing has been tough so far. My regular breakfast of turkey ham, egg whites, spinach and a little hash browns is going fine, as is my morning snack (protein/banana shake) and my lunch of chicken, spinach and whatever else I can find is super.

But then late afternoon comes around and I find myself craving popcorn, something sweet and something to keep me not bored.

Only two diet cokes for the past two weeks, though. And no microwave popcorn this week. Progress!

Also, did you know that pineapple has a ton of calories? Lots. Look it up.

Pictured below is Liberty Market's Western Scramble. I ordered it with meat and eggs only, ate the fruit and covered everything in salsa. No biscuit for me. Not a calorie-lite meal, but it tasted fantastic and wasn't terrible for me.

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At this time last year, I was already wishing I hadn't said yes to training with Vin Vallejo. I had puked my first day.

My first day.

My second day wasn't going a whole lot better when I realized that Vin would like not make me puke again, so I did the work.

This year, I don't have access to the same training. While I am four pounds lighter and much stronger, I'm also recovering from ingrown toenail surgery - on both big toes - making working out of any kind difficult.

Then I figured it was finally time to make better food decisions. I resisted the urge to chow down on Diet Coke and microwave popcorn and opted for cucumbers and mixed seeds instead.

I'm hungry, but that will go away. Starting p90x tomorrow, provided my toes can handle it. If not, I'll still head to the gym at my place and lift some upper body.

The food part is the hardest thing.

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This year, I'm going to win.

I'll be posting daily updates here under the tag 'bodycomp', with weekly updates at tdhurst.com.

My goals are a mix of endurance and strength.

Here are my starting measurements:

Neck: 16.5"

Shoulder: 50.5"

Chest: 45"

Waist: 42"

Hips: 44"

Biceps: 14.5"

Forearms: 11.5"

Right quad: 20.5"

Left quad: 21"

Right calf: 15.5"

Left calf: 16"

Weight: 219 lbs

Body fat: 26.7%

I'd like to be around 190 lbs, but that's not a hard goal. Being heavy isn't the same as being fat, but I do know that I feel good playing sports at around that weight.

I'd also like to drop to 34" waist jeans, because they hang better and look more streamlined that the 36" ones I currently wear.

My first few days will start off easy as I recover from ingrown toenail surgery on both big toes, but by week 2 I expect to be running or lifting every single day. I'll also update my struggle ridding myself of Diet Coke and slowly replacing everything I drink but coffee (black) and water with tea.

Day 1 has begun. You ready for this?

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Hey, your business model is broken. That sucks. Millions of people with skills that are no longer necessary are pretty pissed, too.

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Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Bad Things    We think all that nasty stuff is never going to happen to us, until yes, it happens to us. As anyone who has ever had a health scare will tell you, the gap between the abstract idea of being sick and actually getting sick is very, very wide. The older I get, the more fragile human existence seems to me. The more it needs to be cherished. Every last drop of it. Comment On This Image In The Gallery Buy This Print gapingvoid art for love life business comments for hugh commission your own browse the gallery cube grenades large serigraphs original works all galleries spread the word subscribe to daily cartoon add the gapingvoid widget forward this email links RSS feed Hugh's blog follow us on twitter customer service You are receiving this email because you opted in to the CDF mailing list at gapingvoid.com Unsubscribe Tyler@tdhurst.com from this list. | Update your profile | Subscribe Our email address is: director@gapingvoidgallery.com    Copyright 2010 gapingvoid gallery | creative commons terms apply.

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By now you’ve seen the awesome speaker line up we have planned for this year’s PodcampAZ. So much awesome we really don’t know how to contain it- and we can’t! Nor do we want to!

But have you seen the little link that says “Register”? No? Well, you should head there now and get yourself all signed up to attend this year’s PodcampAZ. You will be glad you did- especially because we can confirm some awesome names speaking that weekend! Evo Terra, the fabulous Amy Donohue, and we even have some local TV news fame speaking- 3-TV’s Carey Pena! Who would want to miss that? I know I wouldn’t. That’s why I registered, and you should too. Right now!

Make sure you check back on Friday- because that is when the final schedule will be set in stone and you can plan your two days of awesome accordingly.

PodcampAZ is also too good to keep to yourself, so definitely tell a friend. Or five of them! Register now for PodcampAZ 2011, November 12 &13th!

Now go register!

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Today's challenge was to write down a fitness goal for the next three days and this is what popped in my head:

Jump over a heavily fortified fence. I need to do this to get into the Chandler police equipment and evidence locker and see their loot.

I have to jump 3+ feet, pull myself up, balance on a six-inch wide lip (so as to not set off the motion detectors) and then leap across what looks like a few feet of razor wire.

A standing leap my do it, but I have to keep my weight forward to make sure I don't catch on the razor wire, which may reduce my leaping distance.

Maybe I'll throw something rubber over the wire. Or maybe pogo jump over the wall instead.

Will keep you posted.

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...and publish it and be successful and do Q&A sessions like the Rooster Teeth guys do at PAX. 

I've written some short-novel length stuff, but nothing complete yet.

But until then, I'd sure as hell like to see others succeed.

Teel of Modern Evil is helping a South African author turn a book of poetry into a printed piece. They need $330 to do it.

I gave $10. Won't you, too?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modernevil/unspecified-a-poetry-book-hopi...

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We'll talk long-form writing, how to create ideas from nothing and what physical fitness has to do with creativity.

Tell your friends?

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"I need a hacker, ethical preferred. You know anyone? I need two things: one, I need to scrape other sites in search of copyright infringement and two, I need to protect us against scraping.
This hacker/consultant person can help with other aspects too like firewall configs, device recommendations, DDOS protections, intrusion protection and software security auditing.
Nothing even grey area on my requests, everything I need is on the defense & up-and-up.
Know anyone? Know any place I could start to look?"

Help!

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