Sam on Maui

I'm on week 3! Yay! I'm at the point in Energy where I can do a good portion of it without a lot of modification. Some stuff is still difficult, but overall I'm getting the hang of it. Since I'm familiar with it, I can focus more on doing things than how I'm doing things. Of course, the third session of week 3 changes everything, and Fat Burner brought a good challenge to it. I'll need to learn the routine, get comfortable, and then it should be pretty awesome :) Eating is going well. I'm not yet 100% compliant with Phase 1 eating, but that said? I'm eating more vegetables and cleaner than I have in a long time. Possible ever as an adult. So, from the 223lbs I was around December 20th when I ordered the DVDs and started working on Phase 1's menu, to January 1st's 219lbs? I'm now 215lbs. So, total of 8lbs lost over the course of 5 weeks, and only 3 weeks of which actually had me doing DDP Yoga and dietary changes at the same t...

Week 4 and doing pretty well! I’m not entirely sure how I should decide which way to really track my weight. The weekly, predictable fluctuation makes me wonder if I should pick the results from a certain day (say, Friday or Saturday) as my milestone or not.

IUGO Mobile Entertainment recently released their iPhone title, Implode! , on Windows Phone 7. I downloaded the demo, buying the game the same day. Obviously, my impression of the game is positive! But, obviously, I'd imagine you'd want more details than that.

Compiled Experience has come up with a handy new app for Windows Phone 7 called Left to Spend . I’ve been using it for the past week and find that its something well worth trying out. Starting the app takes you right to totals page. While the app looks very well Metro, there’s no other pages to swipe to, and that really speaks of how to the point it is. At the top will be your current, remaining total of spending money and how often its replenished. Below that it’ll show the period of time it spans, date-wise, and the purchases entered are listed below. Clicking on the gear icon on the bottom will bring up the settings screen. Here you can set how much you’re giving yourself and how often. For instance, you do like I do and set it for every paycheck to receive $x in spending money (my entertainment budget). Because you can set the amount and choose between daily, weekly, fortnightly (every two weeks) or monthly, you can really use it in the most practical means for you. The last op...

Its been about a month since I stopped using my Palm Centro and started using my Samsung Focus. Probably due to everything I read about the Windows Phone 7, the transition was quite smooth. I never really knew (or trusted) where to get apps for the Centro. As such I never got to experiment with what was available, or see how that aspect of PalmOS went. Fortunately, the included apps were good, and pretty much what I needed. Moving over to WP7 I was quite happy to find replacements pretty quickly, and some of them included by default. Data Viz’s excellent Docs To Go was replaced by Microsoft Office, Palm’s calendar replaced by Calendar (and is syncable!), the to-do list replaced by To Do Today, etc. I will say that while the calendar is nice, I think what I’ve seen of the Palm Pre’s accordian-style calendar is a lot more slick and functional – less wasted scanning through things due to the efficient presentation. Amusingly enough, the lack of multitasking in PalmOS has helped me no...

There seems to be no lack of zombies in games these days. Be they gruesome and frightening like the ones in Left 4 Dead, or cute and whimsical in Plants Vs Zombies, they’ve become a rather popular enemy for people play against. So, the proliferation of zombies in tower-defense games shouldn’t be a surprise at all. What do I think of IUGO’s game? Not too bad, actually.

One of most useful tools for a busy day (and life) is a to-do list. And, arguably, the to-do list is one of the ubiquitous apps for PDAs and now smart phones. While I never much used my old Palm Centro’s Tasks app, I’ve used to-do lists almost daily at work. There’s something very satisfying about ending the day and seeing that list (long or short) with everything crossed off! Of course, if nothing or very little is finished, well, that can be a bit disheartening, but alas, not every day ends well. One of the first apps I got for my WP7 phone was a to-do list, in this case Compiled Experience’s To Do Today , and I’ve used the paid version for about a week now. How’s it working out? Pretty well, actually.

Konami recently released Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night for Windows Phone 7 and iPhone/iTouch. I picked it up recently for my Samsung Focus, and thought I’d share my thoughts thus far.