Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: technology

Introducing the Bryce Font

(download)

This morning I sat down with Bryce to work on his penmanship. We love his new school, but his penmanship seems to have gotten worse since leaving Elia's. Anyway, today we used the iPad instead of pen and paper. Using a fantastic app called iFontMaker (http://2ttf.com), Bryce practiced all the letters and numbers PLUS at the end of the exercise we had a TTF font of his current penmanship. After a minor CSS tweak his BryceBohling.com website now uses his font for the titles. How cool is that!? I'm excited to see how his font, er, penmanship will evolve over time. Here's a quick video showing how easy it is, plus here's a link to download his font if you are interested: http://2ttf.com/QiOQ6FhA.

When Technology is a Bad Thing

I love, love, love gadgets. Shocking I know. However, this week a particular gadget let me down. My Garmin Forerunner 305 (GPS sports watch) reminded me of the horrible truth: in a 352 day timeframe I exercised SIXTEEN times...and that's if Denise didn't borrow the watch. If memory serves me correctly, she used it at least twice in that time period, which means at best I exercised FOURTEEN times in 352 days. Wow, that's awful!

Garmin_training_center

This year I turn 40...obviously a milestone in life. The only way I can see changing this awful trend that honestly started 6-8 years ago is to start setting goals once again. No, I'm not changing my diet...I really like food...and the bad-for-you-kind especially. Yes, I will try to reduce the QUANTITY of food I consume, but I'm honest with myself...a diet won't work for me. Fortunately, I can still be very active. Apparently all the years I ran cross country in high school and college has allowed me to go run whenever I want. I recently ran a long 5K (over 3.1 miles) at a 7:20 pace without any training. The point being, I'm not at all handicapped. It simply comes down to my willingness to designate time every day to exercise.

So I'm documenting my by the time I turn 40 goal...not for you, but for me. I am currently 168 pounds and 26% body fat...almost the worst I have ever been; I think I topped out at 172 pounds and roughly the same body fat. Anyway, my goal is to be down to 155 pounds and 15% body fat. While I truly believe the 155 pounds is achievable, the body fat goal scares me a bit. For the first 25 years of my life I was was under 10% body fat, but that drastically changed in my 30s. And unlike just a few years ago, losing a few pounds is not as simple as going for two, easy runs in a week. 

I have 106 days to reach my goal. It will certainly be the most challenging. Especially since it is SO easy for LIFE to get in the way. And so easy to embrace technology, rather than enjoy the natural splendor of the outdoors. So what I really need to learn to achieve my goal? Say, "No" to technology at least once a day.

Helvetical

Helvetical extends the work done by Jon Hicks on Helvetireader, turning the mayhem of the Google interface into something that doesn’t offend. It was created for use with Fluid.app but I’m sure you can hack the CSS to work for your needs.
via iamadtaylor.com

Whether you prefer to use Google Calendar in-browser (use the user style) or prefer an out-of-browser experience with Fluid (use the user script), you now have no excuse to look at the hideous default view of your calendar.