Don't Panic

Running – Day 5 Recap

myjorgenson — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:58:56 +0000

So my running plan has been going rather well, though I haven’t been going through it as fast as I should. There have been a few days where scheduling, and a recent cold/flu/stomach unpleasantness/runny nose/blah have set me back slightly. But as of today I’m feeling quite good.
Day 5 is my second run of week 2 on the Couch to 5km running plan I’m doing. It has me running for 1.5 minutes, and walking for 2 minutes. These runs are still very comfortable, and I haven’t had to drastically alter my running path yet.
With my family up visiting last week, I got to go on one of my runs with Mom, which was quite fun. I also realized I run slower than her when I’m on my own. I still get where I need to go, so I’m happy. By the time she comes down for her second visit at the end of October I should actually be able to run for 5km, or possibly more. Very excited for that.
Another benefit of this running program, is that my wardrobe is now starting to expand again. This is a very good thing as I recently started working at Banana Republic, and fitting into nice looking dress clothes is good, considering I have a large backlog of dress clothing to use for work. Only problem is about half of that clothing is just a tiny bit too snug.
I’ve yet to go back to the gym for swimming, or to get an official mass for this post, but I can say that I’m feeling better, which I think says just as much.
My diet has also been changing as of late. Lots of fruit, water in place of sugar filled concentrated juice, and an attempt at cutting back on fancy lattes.
All told I’m feeling pretty good, and I’m eager to see results.

Book Review – Psycho II by Robert Bloch

myjorgenson — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:13:50 +0000

This one will be quick.
I recently finished reading the books Psycho II by Robert Bloch. This is a sequel based directly off of his original novel Psycho, and has absolutely no relation to the Psycho II movie that came out around the same time.
This wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t by any means as good as his first Psycho novel. Much of the tension is lacking, and the use of Norman Bates in this book just seems boring.
The book is based around the escape of Norman Bates from his hospital, and the creation of a movie based on the events that happened in the first book. Sadly there is no attempt to be extremely meta about the situation and make any reference to it being a Hitchcock pictures, or use any of the details from the actual film creation. Instead, there is a lot of heavy handed pseudo-psychology, and strange sexually driven glimpses into the seedy belly of the film industry.
Overall the book feels as if it’s trying too hard to do something that should have been extremely simple.
For fans of Robert Bloch and the original Psycho, it is worth checking out, but if you only have a passing interest, best you just pass completely on this one.

Embarassing Myself to Fitness

myjorgenson — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:28:17 +0000

On top of the running program I’ve recently started, I’m planning on joining a gym. I’ve recently tried one workout at the Gold’s Gym in McKenzie, and was quite impressed. For those in Thunder Bay, it is essentially the same as the Athletic Club, only is has a larger pool, and is slightly less crowded. I’m waiting to hear back from one their fitness experts to get exact details on pricing for membership.
The real reason for this post is to publicly set my goals for fitness. When I went to the gym, they ask you to list your fitness goals. I made mine based on my assumed current mass (see science teachers, I remembered that weight is not really a useful term). I assumed I was clocking in around 185lbs, maybe 190lbs, turns out I’ve hit 202lbs which is unfortunately an all time high. That moment I decided it was time for a personal intervention. It seems an overly relaxing summer, a non-existant running program, and too much beer have added on a surprisingly large number of pounds.
Here is my current list of goals for the next year:
1) Be able to Run 10km without dying
2) Lose 1-2 inches from my waist line.
3) Be able to Swim 5km in under two hours
4) Gain some muscle definition
5) Bring my weight down to 170-180lbs
6) Be able to fit into pants I could wear less than two years ago
7) Change my eating habits, and adopt a healthy lifestyle to support the above goals
The reason I’m stating this all in public is to try and keep myself honest. I’ll be making regular entries about my progress, as with the running program, and will have this as a record of changes.
Hopefully my friends, family and readers will be supportive, and help see me to my goals in the next year. Got make sure I look my best in my new Banana Republic clothes.
As well I’m looking at getting a Wi-Fi Enabled Scale from Withings, since we currently don’t have a scale at all. It keeps a record of your weight stored securely online, as well as having an iPhone/iPad app for viewing the data. Can also collect BMI and other relevant info, plus it automatically does all this, because it will be sending data as soon I step on it. If I want to go to the extreme, it can also be set to automatically tweet my mass to a Twitter account of my choosing, not sure about that option yet.
This rant is done for now, and I look forward to a productive and healthy year. Wish me luck.

Calgary: Two Weeks In

myjorgenson — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:09:05 +0000

For those of you reading this blog that don’t give a crap about my health and fitness, here is an update about our move to Calgary, and us settling in over the last two weeks.
Our condo has developed very nicely. All of our belongings are unpacked, and we can actually find almost everything if we need to find it. We also did some extensive Ikea shopping and have set up three new bookcases, a very spacious desk, and a wardrobe. With the arrival of my parents next week we’ll also be getting our barbecue we got as a Christmas present, a sofa, and doors for our wardrobe.
The building itself has been quite nice to live in, only a few noisy neighbours, specifically the spanish lady down the hall that regularly babysits her daughters four rowdy children. I can’t wait for school to begin for them.
We are both doing very well job wise. I recently have gotten a job at Banana Republic in the same mall my better half will be working. He has been stalking the malls looking for suitable employees to staff his newly opening Sunglass Hut location. So far the one thing we’ve noticed, is that Calgary salespeople are extremely lazy. I guess that’s what happens when it becomes too easy to get a job.
We’ve also been doing some housecleaning and upgrading. As a result we’ve got a few things up for sale right now:
1) A lovingly used iPhone 3G with no contract, but sim locked to Rogers. For sale on eBay.
2) Another lovingly used Apple device, a 32Gb iPod Touch, also for sale on eBay.
3) a Dining Room Table, Six Chairs, and a China Cabinet. For sale on Kijiji
If you’re interested in any of these, please contact us through the sale websites.

Otherwise we’ve loving the city of Calgary. It really is just a larger version of Thunder Bay, which has been extremely pleasing to both of us. We can’t wait to see all our friends and family who will be visiting, and look forward to making our first trip back to Thunder Bay in January.
Take care everyone!

Running – End of Week 1

myjorgenson — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:32:13 +0000

So I finished the first week of my new running program. Week one had me running three separate days, alternating 8 x 1 minute of running with 1.5 minutes of walking. I managed to survive without seriously injuring myself which I’m extremely happy about. I am also very happy to see how the running plan extends itself. Turns out the app I’m using increases my running over the course of nine weeks total, ultimately bringing me to running continuously for 28 minutes without a break. At that point I should be able to comfortably run for more than 5km at a time, and lose some of the weight I’ve gained over the summer.
I’m really enjoying running so far, and especially enjoying having a Lululemon store nearby for excellent running supplies, and occasional support. Some day soon I may be able to keep up with my Mom while running.
Next week my running plan takes me up to 1.5 minute runs with 1 minute walks. Can’t wait to start on Sunday.

Running (New Plan): Day 1

myjorgenson — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:37:56 +0000

As per my twitter post of last night, I started running again. It wasn’t anything super exciting, but it was me, actually putting on shoes, shades and ear buds, then going outside and running. I found two new iPhone apps to help me on my way with running this time.
The first app is called Get Running and uses the Couch to 5K running plan. I believe is has a five or six week running program, which gets you from sad state of running (which I’m in) up to 5K of pure running without killing you. Today’s first run had me doing 8×1 minute of running broken up by 1.5 minutes of walking. I was able to keep up, but glad I wasn’t doing anything more than that right now. The app is cheap at only $0.99 on iTunes, and has background processing, so I can listen to music or podcasts while running. When it is time to change activities the app brings my music volume down to give me audio cues in terms of time and activity. It also includes warm up and cool down sessions, as well as recommendations for stretching and diet. Overall, I’m thoroughly impressed, and can’t wait to do my second run on Monday.
The second app is Runkeeper Free for after I reach my goal of 5km of actual running. I’ll likely update to the pro version in due time, though it will have to be worth while for the $9.99 price tag. This app appears to include everything I’ll be needing at that time, which hopefully is just logging my runs for me. With the app being GPS enabled, it will be able to record my running time, distance, and I’m sure some other useful data for me to look at later. Mostly I just want a hassle free way to keep track of things, without doing any manual entry. Plus with background apps on my iPhone I’ll be able to keep up on my podcasts, or listen to music, while this does all the hard work for me, other than the actual running that is.
Hopefully this new running plan all works out. My goal is to do three days a week of running, and two or three days a week of either swimming or weights. If anyone out there has any recommendations for good pools or gyms in the South West of Calgary, please let me know.
Wish me luck.

We’re Here! – Calgary, Finally

myjorgenson — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:23:31 +0000

So my hopes of staying current every single day during our trip was not successful. But for those of you still hanging around and reading we are still alive and well.
We got into Calgary on Monday, signed all of our legal paperwork, got the keys, and then stayed at a hotel. We didn’t have a bed at the condo yet, and had no intention of sleeping on the floor.
Tuesday brought us back to the condo, and our very fast three hour unpack of our shipping container. Said container, was conveniently and “illegally” parked immediately outside the front door of the condo, for ease of use. Thankfully no one cared or complained.
Today saw us continuing to unpack, and we are nearing the bottoms of our piles of boxes. We got two new shelving units set up today, which allowed us to unpack most of the office, and all of my books. We still need to get a computer desk, and should be able to do so soon.
It’s now somewhere between 11:21 pm and 1:21am for my internal clock, so I’m off to bed.

Trip to Calgary Day 2: YWG – YQR

myjorgenson — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:35:36 +0000

This morning we embarked on Day 2 of our 5 Day journey from Thunder Bay to Calgary. We arrived, safely, in Regina this evening after a couple of slightly more eventful hours on the road.
Today we started with the breakfast of champions, Starbucks and sugar loaded pastries. Thanks Jean.
We then hopped on the road, and promptly made a wrong turn. But never fear, we had Kathy, the voice on my iPhone TomTom app to get us going in the right direction, or so we thought. Kathy seems to have had trouble getting us back onto the ever important Trans Canada Highway, and sent us down a road in the middle of nowhere. Click here to see the route Kathy gave us, which took us down a wonderful rutted dirt road, on which we saw no other living people for 45 minutes. Make sure to try street view to get the full effect of the isolation and terrifying lostness we had. Did I mention it also had started raining heavily at that point? Either way, we lived, and I’m glad Ryan was driving instead of me.
After we got back on the proper road, it was pouring rain about halfway to Brandon Manitoba. We stopped and lunched, texted loved ones of our current life state, and continued with me behind the wheel towards Regina.
For the most part, my leg of the journey was smooth easy driving. Nice divided highways, 110km/h speed limits (The Highways are one good thing about Manitoba and Saskatchewan… or is that only good thing?). THEN the storms rolled in, along with dark skies, blinding rain, and me needing to run windshield wipers on max speed. To those that don’t know, I have a serious problem with high speed wipers, and rain, and driving while in those conditions. So after today, I’ve been told that in I am to stop driving and give control of our beautiful car over to Ryan in those conditions instead. I’m glad I couldn’t see it, but I was apparently quite white knuckled and panicked looking.
Though, as you can tell by now, we safely made it to Regina, checked into our hotel, and went visiting at Sunglass Hut locations, and got some food.
To those planning on visiting Regina, make sure you stop by Brewsters for food, best Brew Pub type restaurant I’ve ever been to. The beer was fantastic, and mostly well thought out home brews. The restaurant was very nice looking, no craploads of junk stapled to the walls. The service was extremely good, the girls there knew everything about all the food and beer, all while getting to wear well fitting outfits, instead of a the black napkin sized outfits people at Moxies are forced to wear.
This more or less wraps things up for me tonight, need to rest for our continued travels tomorrow, which bring us to our next stop Saskatoon. Don’t expect to be hearing anything exciting about that stop.
Though in geeky news I figured I’d pass on the following:
iPad users – Scott Pilgrim comics now available in their own app, $6.99 per 150 page volume, very good stuff. Almost done volume one here.
Readers – The Passage by Justin Cronin is currently top of the pile on my Kindle App, and at 1/5 of the way through I am extremely impressed.
Mom, Dad and Brother
- Deep Fried Butter, and more disgusting food in Indiana
- 180 Square foot Cabin fits 4 people and 1 dog
Just plain cool
- Hand drawn panorama of London in 1845

Trip to Calgary: Day 1 – YQT to YWG

myjorgenson — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:14:03 +0000

Hello Everyone.
If you’re reading this, take comfort in knowing that we have survived the first leg of our move to Calgary.
We left this morning at 9am from Thunder Bay and made it safely to ~~Winterpeg~~ Winnipeg by 5.30pm local time.
No major events during the whole trip, at least nothing of note in any unfortunate way. We were amused by the signs stating that the highway has OPP Aircraft Patrol. Does this mean that there really are flying pigs?
Also, there was the great accomplishment of our car rolling over 10,000km while passing through the metropolis of Wabigoon.
Anywho, that’s all for today’s update. Thank you everyone for all the well wishes, and you’ll hear more from us tomorrow.
E&R

The Future of Book Stores

myjorgenson — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:50:56 +0000

This evening I was browsing through my RSS feeds, and came across an interesting entry from The Digital Reader. It detailed how since 2009 Amazon has been selling more eBooks than paper books. In 2009, they sold 143 eBooks to every 100 paper books, and now in 2010 they sell 180 eBooks to every 100 paper books. What does this actually mean for the future of book stores?
For large brick and mortar stores, it means that customers are slowly moving away from physical books. It also means that their competition (Amazon) is already well ahead, again. Having crushed them in physical book sales, now they have a huge lead in providing a shopping environment for digital books.
I do believe that stores selling physical books will eventually become a thing of past, though I believe that this vision future is still far off. Stores selling physical books cannot rest and wait for that day to arrive, they need to innovate, and they need to do that very soon. Yesterday if possible.
I also believe that this will be a problem for book stores of any shape, size or purpose. University Book Stores, Independent Book Shops, and even Used Book Shops, will all eventually feel the squeeze of the digital book. We’ve seen this happen with digital music, and it is becoming more and more evident with digital video. Mostly I’m surprised it has taken this long for text to go digital.
So what do these stores need to do? Give up and go home? Surrender and hope Amazon or Google buy them? No. These stores need to focus on something sorely lacking in every retail environment, customer service. These stores need to reevaluate what makes them great, and what turns customers away and forces them online.
For example, a used book store has many built in benefits. Prices will be low, creating a natural draw. The book seller will see every book that enters and leaves the store. Popular books will be readily available, and less popular ones hopefully less available.
What these small stores will inevitably run into is lack of motivation. Where should they go next when things have been good in recent years? Financial instability has pushed people to find cheap books. Green products are in vogue, and 100s of pages of recycled paper sold for a profit are a natural yes. It is easy to see these positives, relax, and hope things remain this way. They could sit back and pray that people will always feel nostalgic for the feel or smell of a paper book. They could also keep things the same because the customers might not like change. Essentially the market will push this store to stay put, to enjoy the moment of comfort. In reality, now is the time to strike and get ahead of the competition.
I envision a book store where an owner is willing to cut the fat from their operation, and run lean and aggressive. Make sure the staff is knowledgeable, make the top priority customer service, and surprise every customer with a terrifyingly accurate knowledge of every book in the store and where to find it. I see stores branching online to bring customers to their store, or to bring the store to their customers. I see stores creating an environment and experience that can’t be had online. Comfy chairs, coffee bars, well organized books, rows of books to discover, and friendly staff waiting to serve every customer. The end goal should be positive and fond memories of the store.
A good book store can help a customer find a replacement for a crappy book. A poor web experience can also easily replace a crappy book store
Let us hope that small book stores do no bring about their own demise through lack of trying.