I’m testing a new app from a client. Would you mind terribly signing up and watching a few seconds of this video? Thanks.

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It can be hard to meet like-minded people in the geographically disparate Phoenix metro. Whether you’re into indie movies, programming or anything out of the mainstream, social media — especially Twitter — has helped bridge that gap, making the Valley seem a whole lot smaller.

But interacting online isn’t usually enough. Good relationships need in-person time, they need chances to see each other face-to-face. They need events like TechPhx.

Formerly PodcampAZ, TechPhx is the Valley’s longest-running event focused squarely on relevant — in this case, user-generated — media in AZ. This free shindig looks to pair geeks who’ve got it going on with newbies looking to learn, all in the friendly, welcoming confines of the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe.

It’s a place to share ideas, ask for help on new projects, shake hands with online friends, and learn digital skills that WILL make your life easier. Thanks to generous support, TechPhx is free to all attendees.

Yep, free. What a concept.

But free comes with a few strings attached. You see, TechPhx needs volunteers. This free event can’t happen without people donating their time and now YOU have a chance to help out. Yes, you.

We’ll be at there on Saturday, February 11th at 10:00 am in Room 203.

Get there. Stop talking about wanting to.

Stop doing the same things you’ve always done. Stop making excuses about not having enough time. Stop putting opportunities off because it’s just not the right time.

Get up, get in your car and show us what you got. Many hands make light work, and many good ideas produce great few.

See you on Saturday.

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

I was never baptized. I’ve never been to church with my family. I’ve never regularly attended any kind of religious service. I have, for most of my life, recognized myself as an agnostic, which is an efficient way of saying: “I can’t prove there is a God, but I can’t prove there isn’t one either, so I’m just not going to care.”

I do believe in the power of prayer, but only for the person actually praying. I believe that large groups of people, joined by shared faith, have a far better chance of living happy, fulfilling lives than those who choose to go at it alone.

I’ve never worshipped anything but myself.

Until I started reading Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment: Getting to Ecstasy Through Wine, Chocolate and Your iPod Playlist. In it, he mentions Sportuality, a term coined by a buddy of his that was into spirituality and sports (this sounds lot like a pothead ultimate frisbee fan, but stay with me) and needed a way to fuse the two.

Sportuality? That’s pretty dumb, right? And, like fusing many, many things (save PB and chocolate), it looks and sounds stupid until you experience it. Here are the basic tenets of Sportuality that I made up about an hour ago while on a plane to Portland. They are in the order I thought them up in, and are not organized besides that.

Always sacrifice for the good of the team
Where we’re going can’t be traversed alone. What you can’t do now may be solved by someone who can. Later, what you can do will save someone who can’t.

Recognize a leader.
Recognize your most talented teammate.
Make sure they get along.
Sometimes these are the same person, but too often an abundance of skill in one area hides a lacking in the other. Be sure that the leader can keep your most skilled teammate focused.

Accept hierarchy, but don’t act like one.
People are not equal. Some are smarter, faster, stronger. Others are better at managing groups. Others are great at leading them. Some people are just there to provide laughs. While you don’t always want to let your group comedian lead you, communication should stay flat, even if decisions are not.

Eliminate bad apples.
It may not be personal, some people just won’t fit. That’s okay. Let them go be happy somewhere else. Encourage them as quickly as possible.

Recognize hidden strengths.
Most great sports teams are NOT stacked with the best athletes available. Hell, some teams have guys on the team that will never get off the practice floor. That’s okay. Without those people busting their ass during the team’s non-public moments, the others couldn’t shine when the spotlight is on. Be sure to celebrate all achievements.

Follow a game plan.
Yeah, yeah, life’s happiest people experience life only in the moment, without a care about what has happened or what will happen. We get it. But what we often don’t know about those people is that they DO have a broad, overarching plan that allows them to live in the moment. They practiced hard (worked out, ate well), know their game (read good books, perused case studies) and mentally steeled themselves to block out what doesn’t matter (advertising for stuff we don’t need). Living in the moment requires planning for the future.

If you don’t love it, leave it.
If you don’t love what you do or why you are are doing it, if you don’t love who you are with or the feeling you get when you do, if you don’t love the way you act or why you are that way, then get the fuck out. Get rid of bad people. Stop paying for TV so reality shows and news don’t distract you. Give away stuff you don’t use regularly. Let love guide your way.

This needs a helluva lot of work, but it’s a start for me in trying to understand why I want what I want, do what I do and believe what I believe.

Do you have something like this?

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

The body composition challenge doesn’t factor Super Bowl Sundays into the lifestyle plan.

There are few things worse than eating well for more than a few days and then being thrust into a world of rich, high-calorie, great-tasting, completely and totally bad for you food that you can’t help but sample repeatedly. Oh sure, that buffalo chicken with bleu cheddar cheese dip was pretty tasty after one bite, but after that, more seven-layer dip than I’ve ever seen at a store and far too much time to eat it all, your body is going to punish the shit out of you. Literally.

While I let you read that again and grimace, I have a confession: my calorie counting went to shit yesterday. While I did start the day with my normal turkey ham, turkey pastrami, egg white, mushroom and spinach omelette AND got a good half hour of some full-speed tennis drills (I hit Katie twice. In my defense, she was totally standing at the net), everything after that was a blur of melted cheese, chips and napkins to stop the drips.

But I did do something I’ve NEVER done before. For the first time, instead of loading up my plate and going back for seconds and thirds, I ate slower, with smaller portions. I had a bite of this and a bite of that. I avoided the cupcakes. I DIDN’T chow down like a fat man.

Then we went home and made pizza almost from scratch with ingredients from Whole Foods. Good thing I was under my caloric intake for the week (1852 a day and I was 828 under as of Sunday morning), making yesterday’s binge a little less bad than it could have been.

I do continue to believe that diets don’t work, but a combination of food awareness and healthy meal options does. And even though my gut has punished me for yesterday’s transgressions, I can’t say I’d take it back.

Seven-layer dip is too delicious.

My pants are still a bit too big. That’s good. Anyone want to bet how much I’ll weigh in at on Friday?

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

Whatever I’m doing isn’t working.

When people smoke too many cigarettes and want to stop, they can without long-term side effects.

When people find that alcohol is ruining their life, they can also stop without any long-term side effects.

My god, I hope I never give in to Amazon's $54.99 case offer. So good, though.

Now that I’ve given up both of those, my next task would seem easy. But try as I have thus far, losing weight if tough, but not for the reasons I thought. I’m so glad the Pro Fitness AZ Body Composition Challenge was able to bring my doubts to the forefront. Really.

You see, I eat pretty well. Turkey ham, spinach, egg whites and cottage cheese for breakfast, nuts for snacks, sugar-free jello for sweets, chicken breast with veggies for lunch, some air-popped popcorn for snacks. Limited soda (less than one per day) and zero bread, pasta or much of anything resembling heavy carbs.

My problem isn’t WHAT I eat. It’s how much. And I eat far, far too much.

Thanks to Martin Cizmar’s Chubster: A Hipster’s Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool, I’ve finally figured out how many calories I burn just being alive and doing normal things like walking around. (just over 2500).

And with the Harris Benedict Equation, I’ve ascertained that most days, thanks to my physical activity, I burn between 2907 (1-3 days of weight lifting and running per week) and 3277 calories (3-5 days of exercise) per day.

In fact, for most of the past five months, I’ve burned right around 3100 calories per day while I trained for the Tough Mudder.

In that time, I’ve not gone down a pant size, noticed no difference in the size of my gut, still notice how large shirts are accentuate both my shoulders and belly and pray every morning before I look in the mirror that my pecs won’t be saggy.

While I’m reasonably certain I HAVE gained some muscle (remember, it weighs more than fat), there’s just no way someone with my level of physical activity should not steadily lose weight unless they were eating at least 3000 calories per day.

As much as I loathe to admit this, and those who know me will know why, Martin Cizmar is right. Calorie counting is absolutely the way to go here. Regardless of what I eat, I simply can’t lose any fat unless I burn more than I take in.

Time to use the Lose It app for more than a day, even if it takes forever to log meals. I have to find out (I know microwave popcorn late at night and third helpings of quinoa, veggies and chicken are involved) where in the hell all these calories come from.

Also, I have a 17″ neck. WTF, man.

Daily recaps.

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

(Until 8pm tonight, ANYONE that signs up for the 5th Annual Body Composition Challenge at either Pro Fitness AZ location will get a FREE workout, courtesy of yours truly.)

Lay down $99, win $3000. Pay less than one hundred bucks and you’ll be in the running to win 30 times that. Bet your bookie would approve.

I would like so much not to carry around all this extra weight. Sure, I run a lot and yes, I lift weights, but I’ve never been able to get into the kind of shape that doesn’t remind you you’re fat every time you slouch and bend forward at your desk.

The kind of shape that doesn’t show itself off every time you tuck in a shirt. The shape where you can do beauty queen stretches. The kind where car rides don’t make you want to unbutton your top button.

Two months to gain good inches and lose bad ones

I’m going to change that for the next 60 days, but I’d like your help. I’d like you to participate with me. But $99 is a lot, you say. Eating right and exercising is hard, too. So fucking what? Aren’t you tired getting the same results while doing the same things? Aren’t you done with making excuses about losing weight next year? Or when you have a break?

Starting today and continuing through March 19, 2012, I will be participating in Vin Vallejo’s 5th Annual Body Fat Competition through Pro Fitness AZ. I’ll post daily recaps at TylerDHurst.com, with weekly highlights right here.

I could really, really use your help with this. Hell, maybe we can all improve our health together. Sign up today and get a free workout!

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”

If the above quote, from Chris Dodd, MPAA head and lobbyist (or will be, when he’s allowed on the floor in a few years) is completely true, it is horrifying.

I prefer Square, but cash works when it has to.

He openly admits to bribing our legislators in exchange for passing bills that benefit his industry. This is highly illegal, immoral and unjust. It’s what our system was designed to prevent.

Someone is investigating this right? Justice Department or whoever is looking into political donations to make sure they weren’t out right bribes? To make sure there wasn’t a quid pro quo arrangement between private industry and public lawmakers?

The need for artist to be paid for their work is not being questioned here. I absolutely agree with their concerns. I believe copyright makes us better. But I don’t believe that protecting old business models should require sacrificing the technology, and freedom that technology represents, that allows us to evolve in ways we could never physically initiate.

For years I’ve heard the rumors about corporations controlling the government and how ‘ha-ha’ I bet the lawmakers are just pawns and thought, “It can’t be that bad everywhere. Maybe a few, isolated issues, but nothing widespread or important. Surely someone would have spoken up had they seen this happening. Right?”

Apparently I was wrong. And that scares the hell out of me.

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

If Derek Jeter did it, why not me?

I grew up wanting to be a writer, but it seems I’m more suited to be a tweeter. Never did I think I’d care much about past tweets, but now I’m very curious to read what is my online diary for the past four-ish years. Bet you’ll see a lot of funny, a lot of angry and a lot of characters.

Tweet 100k.

There were even a few people that stopped by just to see me tweet. Someone even brought their kid.

Nice of Ellen Streiff to stop by. She was on crutches and STILL made it down.

This was all Nick Bastian’s idea. We’ve had some fun together Rail-gating before ASU games, test driving the Hybrid I had for a week and a Day In The Life on the light rail.

Most real-estate people are super weird. Nick's a normal guy who also really likes the light rail.

But last night wasn’t really about me and my 100k tweets. Future Tempe Mayor Michael Monti was on hand to chat with us a bit and then went deep into his restaurant to talk politics. Monti’s La Casa Vieja is HUGE. Monti also knows Tempe history. Don’t get into a debate with him about that, ’cause you’ll lose.

I like this Michael Monti guy. Glad to see guys like Nick Bastian throwing his support behind him.

Sorry about the red eye in the above pic. So, what’s next? TD100k, the book? Maybe. Great bathroom reading. Just have to figure out how to get my archived tweets back from the Library of Congress. Should I seek out Nic Cage?

I’m also planning on releasing my 2010 NaNoWrimo effort, Mostly True Tales From My Somewhat Fictional Life, on April 1st. Thanks to help from Corey Nagle and Wendy Coneybeer, I think I’ll be able to hit that date. Will self publish through Amazon, then record chapters for Podiobooks.

2012 is going to be great.

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

Need an excuse to meet friends for a rocking Happy Hour? No? Good. Wait, someone does? Okay, this Thursday from 4:30pm until whenever Nick Bastian and I will be celebrating #TD100k at Monti’s in Tempe. Let’s talk SOPA/PIPA, what a loudmouth you think I am or even about Monti’s owner Michael’s run for Tempe mayor. Or you can just show up for the drink specials. Either way, Thursday, January 19, 4:30pm until Happy Hour ends.

Are you ready for #TD100k?

I’m under no illusion that quantity equals quality. I also know that online followers don’t equal offline popularity, my Klout score is good only for getting free promotional items and that most people would take one look at my Twitter stream and say, “WTF is wrong with this guy?”

But hot damn, this is pretty fun. For the past four-ish years, Twitter has been a platform for my thoughts, a place to share fears and ideas and a way to connect with the geographically disparate. As someone who thinks faster then he can talk, it’s an ideal medium for me and millions of others to get whatever we’re thinking out of our head.

I have no goals with Twitter, save one. But they’re not follower goals, not amount of tweet goals or even goals like getting new clients or making money. My one goal is to have fun. Period. And being the loudmouth I am, I’m having a blast. As I approach a staggering amount of tweets on m personal account, there’s plenty I’m thankful for, but who wants to read a long list of crap? (Yeah, I kinda do, too)

In no particular order:

1. Met Corey Nagle, whom I reply to the most.
2. Discovered Gangplank.
3. Met Derek Neighbors.
4. Met Samuel Richard and through him met Katie Charland, my future wife.
5. Got a job with Amanda Vega.
6. Lived in NYC and Chicago for a summer.
7. Met Peter Shankman and was invited to a most-expenses paid birthday party in Manhattan.
8. Been on local news.
9. Been on World News Tonight.
10. Lost weight and buffed up, thanks to Vin Vallejo.
11. Won a pig hat.
12. Was convinced to quit drinking after seeing the aftermath on my Twitter feed.
13. Met the Torch Theatre people.
14. Dated some fantastic women.
15. Written for the state’s most popular PR blog.
16. Discovered Everything Is A Remix.
17. Had a support group anywhere I had internet access.
18. Went to my first PodcampAZ.
19. Ran the last PodcampAZ.
20. Presented on-stage wearing an “I Love Cox” tshirt.
21. Learned how to write better. Kinda.
22. Know a guy in Argentina and consider him a friend (Carlos Miceli).
23. Met Amanda Rykoff from NYC, and I’m fairly sure I inspired her to do more. I think.
24. Annoyed my family.
25. Thoroughly embarrassed myself, for the world to see.
26. Made myself laugh.
27. Made other people laugh.
28. Learned that sending a photo of your penis is a bad idea.
29. Posed in form-fitting Spanx.
30. Discovered that auto DMs don’t really bother me that much.
31. Started to think in Twitter-sized chunks.
32. Really, really hate text speak.
33. Realized that asking for followers sucks.
34. Discovered that popularity doesn’t mean anything unless you impact lives.
35. Get that all most people want is some recognition.
36. Found that encouragement goes a long way.
37. Learned that the women who breastfeed in public are very defensive about it.
38. Had a weird stalker of sorts.
39. Really, really abhor text speak.
40. Don’t get why educated PR people would use so much text speak on Twitter.

41. Made enough enemies in my industry to guarantee I’ll never work for an agency.
42. Made enough silent supporters to know that most people don’t want to see me fail.
43. Understand that sometimes, people just want to laugh and be surprised.
44. I really don’t like lists.
45. Managed to get my Dad on Twitter.
46. Pretty sure I convinced Matthew Berry to start Tweeting.
47. Watched the Tucson shootings happen as real-time as possible, via Brahm Resnik.
48. Watched the Hudson crash unfold.
49. Cringed as the Mumbai shootings were reported.
50. Know more about world issues than most people that read daily newspapers.
51. Totally get Android versus iPhone.
52. Will never give up my iPhone.
53. Was part of a 20-minute, Chandler local TV segment with Urban Tea Loft.
54. Learned that when I’m mad and typing, I can be entertaining.
55. Understand that personal attacks are pointless and 99% bullshit.
56. Don’t really know why I’m still writing this.
57. Started to figure out why people seem to dislike so many others.
58. Still amazed that I can type and send pictures to almost anyone in the world at any time.
59. Don’t understand how anyone can follow thousands of other accounts.
60. Think we’d all be better off if we were just honest.
61. Still don’t get trending topics or the people that seem to love them.
62. Also still wonder why everyone doesn’t love Twitter.
63. Self aware to the point it hurts.
64. Also, Twitter is a perfect excuse for truncated or sentence fragments.
65. That timing rules above all.
66. I’m really getting tired of this list.
67. Oh, DMed my future wife instead of asking for her number until our third date.
68. Understand that shipping is most important.
69. Am having a blast.
70. Started StorytellersAZ podcast.

See you on Thursday!

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link

I was a Napster kid. Me and the rest of my frat brothers lived in the house that Paul Allen built in Greek Row on the Washington State University campus, which gave us access to the only T-1 line not controlled by the school. And because the server running the entire Greek system was in our attic, we had complete control over how and what we did online.

Back in 1999, this was HUGE. Considering some of us had just installed cable internet at home (most were still on dial up), the T-1 speed and constant connection opened a huge world of possibility. We could research online without having to wait, we could stream Britney Spears videos and porn. We could play Half Life. Oh, and we could pirate the hell out of some 128 kbps MP3s that sounded terrible on headphones and worse coming from speakers of a reasonable size.

Care we did not. We filled 40-gigabyte hard drives (!!!) to the brim with every song we could imagine. We’d then take those crappy MP3s and burn them to CDs so we could listen to them on campus. For the four months I lived in the Phi Kappa Theta house, I don’t remember buying a single song or paying to watch a video.

Do I feel bad? Eh. We went the path of least resistance. None of us had much money to buy CDs and no one liked to spend $15 an album for one song. We also reveled in the novelty of it all.

But as technology progressed and the industry figured things out, it became easier to pay for high-quality media. No longer did I have to search other user hard drives (how do you think Napster worked?) to discover some 80s song, as iTunes had it and could get it to me even faster. As the years went by, all my pirated music has been replaced by either iTunes downloads or ripped (purchased) CDs. It no longer made any sense to bother with pirating, as prices and accessibility made going legit easy.

We knew what we were doing wasn’t right. We knew that artists deserved to be compensated for their work. But we weren’t addicted to the files themselves, but rather the idea that sharing of goods, ideas and anything else was the future of the internet. Our interest went far beyond just having a hard drive full of free stuff, it was more about connecting and discussing what we liked most about our world.

Because of us and the millions of people who still share copyrighted works, SOPA and PIPA are threatening to punish anyone suspected of sharing and distributing copyrighted work. No trial, no evidence needed, just a letter and that’s it. Here’s a video explaining all of this better than I can:

Jeff Moriarty of Improv Media also has a nice piece on the subject.

While I understand the plight of anyone whose work is copied, downloaded, stolen or used without renumeration or credit, blanket legislation such as SOPA and PIPA are NOT the answer. The answer is far more complex and far more important than a bunch of aging representatives (average age of a Congressional member is 62) can obviously understand. If defeating this legislation means that I will make less money off my copyrighted works in the future, so be it.

The internet isn’t just about freedom, it IS freedom. The freedom to share ideas, share files, share thoughts and share stories. It is, at least it should be, the digital representation of our analog selves. We wouldn’t tolerate this kind of behavior in the analog world, why should it be any different online?

Check out our StorytellersAZ podcast. iTunes link