Well I've finished phase 1 of P90X and I must say it was an awesome 4 weeks.  The workouts were absolutely intense, but the diet was/is the hardest thing for me to stick to.  So far so good though, I've managed to only 'break' the diet a few times.  I'm anxious to get phase 2 started, but  before I do I thought I'd post some body fat results so far.

I get my body fat tested in Plano at a place called Fitness Essentials.  They have what is called a Bod Pod.  The Bod Pod is a body composition tracking system that uses air displacement plethysmography.  It's (supposedly) very accurate and has even been used on The Biggest Loser.  You can read more about the Bod Pod works here.

So here are my stats:

Day 1: Body Fat Percent: 14.4%

Day 30: Body Fat Percent: 12.2%

So overall I'm down 2.2% after phase 1.  I'm very pleased with the progress so far.

Next stop: 10%!!!

Enabling emoticons on your iPhone is actually pretty easy.  Trevor showed me how a few days ago and since then people have been asking, so I thought I'd post the instructions.

Note: Only people with iPhones will be able to see these.  People with unsupported phones will just see blank squares (based on the tests I've done).

1. Open the App Store and download "Spell Number - Emoji for FREE"

2. Open the Spell Number app and enter the following code: 9876543.21

3. Close the Spell Number app and then go to:

Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Japanese

4. Turn Emoji on

5. Close Settings and open up Text Messaging

6. You will now see a globe icon next to the spacebar on the keyboard.  Select the globe and you will see emoticons that you can select.

Yesterday was the last day of week 1 and I must say that P90X is much tougher than I thought it would be.  I am skeptical when it comes to infomercial based products, but that has been proven wrong each night I put in a P90X dvd.  This workout program is absolutely NOT for someone who isn't already in 'ok' shape.  Day 1 of week 1 doesn't ease you into it, it makes you jump into the deep end.  Trust me, get in shape first and then do this program.

It's been tough, but I've been keeping my diet in line with what is recommended from the Nutrition Guide.  I'm "Level II" so I'm supposed to be taking in 2400 calories a day, minimum.  I do think I'm having more carbs than is recommended, but I try to keep them as low as I can.  I've been using the LiveStrong app on my iPhone to try to help me keep track of dietary info...or at least keep me in the ballpark.

As for the workouts themselves, they are pretty lengthy.  I'd say I average about an hour and twenty minutes per workout.  You should also prepare to be sore each and every day, just use the next workout to "work out the soreness."

That's all I can think of for week 1, stay tuned..

I try to go to the gym during the week, but lately I've been so busy with work I haven't had time.  So I decided (along with Jason Kennedy) that I wanted to change things up a bit.  Last week I ordered the P90X workout system.  The infomercials are good and all the reviews online are positive...so what the hell right.

Jason and I are going to try to stay on the same schedule as we go through the program.  Hopefully this helps with motivation as well as giving each of us a different perspective on how the workouts are going.

As for before and after pics... we'll see.

I will try to be more frequent with updates over the next 90 days. ;)

Last week SkateReel.ea.com was launched.  The site gives users the ability to watch their in game videos on the web.  The site and all it's "coolness" speaks for itself.  Be sure to check it out.

Also, be sure to check out my "SkaterTag" on the right hand side of the page.  It's one of the cool new features of the Skate 2 web site.

Tom has a nice write-up of the site and a couple of pics you can see here.

http://skatereel.ea.com/

Ok, so I'm not sure what to think about Graham Harrell not being invited to the Heisman ceremony this year.  Yes I went to Tech, yes I have season tickets to football games, BUT as a football fan I find it to be an atrocity that a player with his stats wasn't even invited.  Now, do I think he would have won?  No, but the fact that no invite was given is complete b.s.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking anything away from Tebow, Bradford, or McCoy... they are all deserving in their own right, but I have to believe that they are even amazed at how this unfolded.

Bottom line:  Complete FAILURE by the committee (or whoever) makes the nominations.

I am just starting to add photos, but stay tuned as more will be uploaded soon.  You can either click "Photos" at the top or click here.

*Note: Requires Microsoft Silverlight.  You'll get a download prompt.

A few weeks ago my 56" Samsung tv started turning itself off intermittantly.  Sometimes it would turn off after 10 seconds and other times it would turn off after a hour.  There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when it would turn off.  So after turning itself off 5 times in a row last week I decided to make the call to have it serviced.  The technician came out and replaced the bulb, it took a whole 10 minutes.  I was skeptical that it was the bulb, but it seems to have fixed the problem.  It hasn't turned itself off since the bulb change.

The project I am currently working on requires forums to be located at the root of the website.  Overall it's a very simple change, but I thought I'd blog about how I accomplished this.

This requires making changes to the siteurls_override.config (located at the root of the Web directory).  If you don't have a siteurls_override.config then add one.

Add the following lines of code:

<Override xpath="/SiteUrls/navigation/link[@name='home']" mode="remove" />
<Override xpath="/SiteUrls/locations/location[@name='forums']" mode="change" name="path" value="/" />
<Override xpath="/SiteUrls/locations/location[@name='forums']" mode="new" name="physicalPath" value="/forums/" /> 

That is it.  3 lines of code and now Forums should show up at the root of your site.

Note: The lines above should be nested within an <overrides> node.

Today, Tom Edwards sent me a link to a YouTube video of an "underground search engine rap battle" between Google and Yahoo!.  As a guy who works in technology this was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while.  There are a series of 3 or so episodes (at the time of posting) and they are definitely worth checking out.

http://www.searchenginerapbattle.com/