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After breaking my second Nike Sportwatch in the span of only one year. I decided that I will not be using Nike anymore.

I was pretty sure I was going to get a Garmin. I was looking at either the 210 or the 610 and was trying to decide if some of the features of the 610 would be worth it or not. But one thing that I just couldn’t look past was the fact that Garmin’s watches aren’t waterproof.

I just don’t see how you can make a sports watch and not make it Waterproof. It was rare, but I did kind of like using my Nike watch while I swam sometimes, plus, if I ever wanted to train for and do a triathlon, I would think that I would want the watch at that time as well.

Some of the reviews for the Garmin seemed to give it downs for reliability as well, and more and more I started looking at the Timex Run Trainer. It of course was comparable with the Garmin 210 except for the Virtual Partner thing (Which I was slightly interested in, but could live without). But it got very good reviews, and word was that it is rock solid. I use a Timex Ironman flix 100 as a backup sometimes, also as a standard watch. Well, that one went through a windshield not to long ago and kept working just fine, so I was willing to take a shot with this one too.

I’ve used it a couple of times so far. Things I like as compared to the Nike Sportwatch. It feels about the same on my wrist, similar size and weight. It’s not to bulky, could be worn as a regular watch if you wished. I like that the band is only a band (Not the cable to connect to USB like the sportwatch) which is I think the source of all Nike’s problems. The band gets flexed over and over every time you take the watch off, and I’m sure that wires inside that band are breaking, or becoming brittle over the course of time. The USB cable clips on to the watch face and connects with four pins on the back in the Run Trainer. I can’t see this connection type ever becoming a problem.

As far as using it, It’s fairly easy. Picked up the GPS signal the first time I ran with it in about 1:30 or so, so it took a bit. But every time since that I’ve done so it’s been between 10 and 30 seconds. Usually closer to 10. I’ll let you know if things change yet. I think the Nike Sportwatch was a little easier to look at data while you ran, as the up/down buttons cycled through all the metrics it was taken. With the run trainer you switch between four screens that you set up previously, If you didn’t set up one of the metrics you don’t normally care about on one of the four screens, then you won’t get to see it during your run (At least, not in a way I’ve figured out yet.) The only one this really hit me on, since I only care about three or four numbers usually while I’m running, was the actual clock. I wanted to know what time it was while I was running, and I hadn’t thought to set that up on one of the screens.

Now, here’s one thing that as of now I don’t really like, Training Peaks. Timex data is downloaded to your computer, and then automatically uploaded to training peaks for you to look up your runs, etc. Similar to the Nike Site, or Runkeeper. I wish it would just use Runkeeper, or you could choose between a number of different sites, and that was one of the options. Nike had this problem too of course, all nike runs synced with the nike site. I got used to it, and actually grew to like the nike site pretty well. I think Garmin runs natively with Runkeeper. It’s handy because I already had an account there and sometimes used their app. But I’m sure I’ll get used to whatever in the end. I’m sure you’ll hear about it hear if I don’t.

I’ll keep using it of course, right now I’m still going through initial stages. I’ve used it three times and haven’t charged the battery yet. I’m still trying to do the initial drain completely charge fully steps of the watch, I’ve been turning on the GPS Signal at random times throughout the day to drain the battery quicker. I’m getting close. It’s only got one bar left as of now.

written by Chris \\ tags: GPS, Ironman, Nike, Run Trainer, Running, Sportwatch, Timex, Watch

Every year about this time. I go to MLB.tv and think about signing up so I can watch some games online. Before I do this, I check out the blackout zone for the Cincinnati Reds, because I figure a good 2/3 of the games I would want to watch involve the Reds.

Every year, I am disappointed to see that the Cincinnati Reds (Along with the Atlanta Braves, and St. Louis Cardinals) claim me in their home market. Thus, all games I would want to watch from the Reds are available on Fox Sports Ohio. Or I could just buy a ticket and go to the ball park.

Did I mention I live in Mississippi. It takes me nine hours to drive to Cincinnati. Obviously I should be driving to all the games, why am I thinking about wanting to catch the game on TV. Oh, and Fox Sports Ohio, yeah, we don’t have that here. Everyone and their brother is obsessed with the Cardinals here.

So I can sort of understand being in St. Louis’s blackout zone. I mean it’s only 5 hours there, and 5 hours to Atlanta.

But Cincinnati, seriously. I just don’t understand the rationale for me being in their blackout zone.

Because of this, I keep my $125 every year, and again go all year with only looking at the scores the next day, or following on twitter, or getting the scores texted to me.

Can a smarter person than me please explain how the MLB is making more money by not taking all this TV money, and mlb.tv revenue because they allow teams to claim markets that are seriously unreasonable?

Or maybe I’m just the one being unreasonable. I should be getting in my car and heading up to Cincy for all the games.

written by Chris \\ tags: Baseball, blackout, cincinnati, mlb, rant, reds

That’s what they say right? That it takes three weeks to form a habit. Well. It’s been about three weeks since I kind of fell into a new self improvement venture.

I was shopping the day before Christmas at Best Buy and saw a copy of Rocksmith for fairly cheap. Even though I honestly didn’t have all that much interest in the game. I thought it might be fun so I picked it up along with a pretty cheap electric guitar to go along with it. All of this was purely on a whim as I was trying to figure out how to spend a best buy gift card I got for buying a new TV for our bedroom.

Now I’ve played the game a few times, and yeah it’s good fun, and the videos and games can teach some techniques and practice. But for someone who had never touched ‘literally never’ a guitar in his life before playing it has been pretty hard.

That being said I’ve muddled through a little of it. However mostly I’ve been looking reading through an Alfred’s teach yourself book and working through the exercises and watching beginner lessons on YouTube. So I’m happy to report that after three weeks,,, I still suck. Really badly. However. I am still having fun with it. And I’ve definitely gotten a little better after three weeks. I know at the very least that I’m building up the required hand endurance as my finger no longer scream in pain from squishing on steel strings.

I take a little comfort in the knowledge that after three weeks of running nearly two years ago, I was only going about 1.5 miles or so. Learning something new takes time, patience, and practice.

I’ve picked up a few observations as well. There seems to be two schools of learning guitar. There is the classic learn all the notes and strings method (the Alfred’s book I’m slowly working through). There is also the learn a few chords and just string those together. Then memorize a few riffs and these are the places that you put your hands etc. rather than reading notes and playing songs directly from music.

I’m doing a little bit of both. Slowly. For now I’m still having fun with it. I’ve gotten stuck on a song in Rocksmith because it has the unfortunate side affect of not being able to look at your hands since your watching the game screen. I’m sure after a bit I’ll start to be able to feel where my hand is on the fret board, but for now I just can’t do it.

I intend to keep working through the Alfred’s book and I’ll get back to Rocksmith again soon as I get a few more basics down. I think I might actually take a beginner course being offered here in Oxford in March. It is a five week course and might give me some perspective I don’t currently have. But we’ll have to see if I’m still at it in March first.

written by Chris \\ tags: Guitar, Habit, Improvement, Rocksmith, Xbox

Alright, As I did with boardgames played over 2011, I’ve recently been going over my running logs from the last year.

2011 was a great year for me as far as my goals. I had a good 5k PR early in the year. Ran what is a pretty fast 10k to me as well. I also ran my first half marathon and full marathon. I had a great experience for the half marathon, the marathon,,,, not so much.

I ran 1047.7 miles last year total. That comes out to 20.1 miles per week for 2011. At the beginning of the year it was usually less than that, at the end of the year, it was usually more than that.

Since my marathon, I’ve been right about 20 miles per week or so. I’d like to continue to do so, and running 1000 miles again next year seems like a doable goal. I would actually like to up to a base of about 30 miles per week for the time being.

As far as races, I’m currently wide open. I think I’ll probably do the Country Music Half Marathon again, since it’s with friends, and I’d kind of like to run a half marathon again to see what I could run it at. I suppose the Rock & Roll New Orleans Marathon would be a likely option as well, but I have to wait a bit and see what my schedule looks like this spring.

I’d like to do another full marathon to make up for all the mistakes of my last one. I’m just not sure when or what that would be. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to enter the lottery for New York this year and see if I can get in. If I do, maybe I’ll do that one. I’d like to do a ‘destination’ race at some point this year. Everything I’ve ran has been a ‘target of opportunity’ rather than something I’ve gone too. I’m not sure I want to run an opportunity marathon. I almost think it would have to be a destination race for me to take on the training again. Disney is another one that sits in the back of my mind.

I need to lose about 30 more lbs. I think that would make running a little easier and obviously faster. For the time being, I’m going to concentrate on that, and adding a little cross training for the next couple of months. All while building up to a base of around 30mi/week. Once I get to that point, I’ll check in with some races in March/April.

2012 should include at least one half marathon, and one marathon. I’m just not sure when or where those would be at this time. Also, likely that I would run neither with a time goal other than maybe besting my previous PR’s which aren’t great for either distance.

(Umm, wait. Does my half marathon split from my marathon count as a half PR?) I honestly don’t know the answer to that question.

written by Chris \\ tags: Half Marathon, Marathon, Reflections, Running

Like so many others in the boardgaming hobby, I enjoy looking back at the end of the year and seeing the games that actually made it to the table during the year, reflect upon what I wish would have made the table, and be surprised at what actually gets played in our group.

We call these lists our Five & Dimes. Those games which have gotten at least five plays or ten plays by myself during the past year.

I haven’t looked at the list yet, so I’m going to be shooting from the hip on this one.

So here we go:

DIMES

Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball.
No surprise here. I play this one at work with a lunchtime gaming friend at least once per day, usually twice a day. It’s a great little 10 minute game that does a pretty good job of feeling like baseball.

Scrabble
Also no surprises, as most of these plays are actually ‘Words with Friends’ games on the iPhone not really face to face scrabble games. I count and log all games played against humans. I don’t care what Hasbro says. They are basically the same thing. If they hadn’t screwed up their whole facebook thing, they could have been king of this territory, as it is now, a nice simple clone holds the crown.

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
It sucks that this game makes my dime list. But again it’s understandable. It has great asynchronous multiplayer on iPhone, and thus, nearly all the plays are on that platform. (I’ve only played this once in real life.) The kicker is I think this is a pretty weak game and I don’t think I’d ever play it face to face again. And surely would never buy a copy of it. The expansion does add a little bit to it, and makes the gameplay a bit more interesting though. I just started playing it though.

FIVES

Thunderstone
The bulk of these plays were from the OMGA gameday. AEG was nice enough to donate a copy for us to give away in a ‘play to win’ promotion. This game, Monkey Lab, and abandon ship got the bulk of the plays on this day. I liked all of these games, a friend ended up buying a copy of Thunderstone shortly after the gameday based on the fun we had with it, and a couple of the plays came from that. I really need to try the epic variant. I think I would enjoy the game way more with that variant as it is described.

Werewolf
I’m sure most of these plays were from Midsouthcon. I did not go to BGG.con this year, which is usually the one that puts this one on the top of the list. Which is likely why this one made it to the fives list but not the dimes list. Ultimate Werewolf box is shown as that’s actually the set I use, but the werewolf link goes back to the main game as I log my plays as that. It’s stupid that they are separated in the database, but oh well.

Poker
Well, the bulk of these plays were two or three tournaments I entered while I was in Las Vegas early in the year for a convention. Plus I tend to play this at night before bed sometimes using the Zynga app. I’ve played this way more than five times, but I often forget to log these plays. But obviously I did a couple of times.

Blokus
Most of these plays were either two player with my daughter, and a few were at the OMGA gameday teaching new people.

Unpublished Prototype
A personal game that I’ve worked on the rules for. It’s a very light game, but after a couple of initial plays I stuck it in the box with some notes and updated a few cards, but haven’t gotten around to trying those new cards again yet. No link on this one, as the game doesn’t exist in the database, and likely never will.

There you have it. That’s it. My gaming really took a bit of a hit this year. All my running and those goals I had for that this year made it difficult to play games late into the night and still be able to get up early the next morning for that 5:00 am run. Also, My group is very fluid, not managing to get the same game to the table very often, or many times in a row. There were a few games that came close, and many many that got two or three plays. But didn’t quite make the final cuts.

In a day or so I’ll take a look at the Game collection and check out the how I’m doing on my purge. (Foreshadowing, it isn’t good).

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Dimes, Fives, rant, Reflections