Thursday, December 12, 2013

Technical Difficulties



Okay, so on the exercise front, I have absolutely nada since Monday’s workout with my trainer, Samy, to report.  Boo!!!  I had planned on an hour treadmill run this evening, however, I procrastinated.  I had the time to load the audiobook that my wonderful friend Mark downloaded and sent me, I just didn’t do it.  But, in my defense, once I had it downloaded to my computer and then attempted to put it in a useable way on my phone…oh my goodness…can we say complicated?  Okay, so, for starters, I decided that I was going to go to Fry’s Electronics and buy a non-Apple MP3 player.  They had some for $30, but the guy mentioned maybe going with some Bluetooth earphones after I explained to him that my main problem was that the earphone jack in my phone is crap and cuts out constantly (this seems to be a Motorola issue because the exact same thing happened to my other Motorola Droid phone...around the same time too…just over a year since I bought it is when they both started having issues with the earphone jack).  So, I went over to the earphone section too.  I looked at the $30 Bluetooth earphones and decided I’d rather go that route than the whole new MP3 player route.

So, I get the new earphones home and attempt to sync them to my phone.  Uhh…wha?  It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to do this.  I eventually stumbled into the Bluetooth settings section on my phone, turned that on and then searched for available devices and it popped right up!  Yay!  It synced (quite quickly I might add) and I selected Google Music and slipped the earphones on and hit play.  The sound is fantastic!  And they’re so lightweight I almost couldn’t tell I was wearing them.  And they’re really comfy too!
I had downloaded the 3 audiobooks that Mark had emailed me earlier in the day, so now I just need to load them onto my phone and set them up each into their own playlist, right?  Right.  Easier said than done.  I load the first book into the music folder.  After it’s done copying over I open up Google Music but can’t find it.  What the heck?  So I get on Google and search for how to listen to an audiobook and the search brings up audiobook players.  Huh.  So, apparently, audiobook files aren’t the same as music files and you need a specific app to listen to them.  Okay.  Then I go to the Google Play store and search for audiobook players and find a free one that looks decent and has good reviews and download that.  I get it downloaded and open it up and then am immediately stumped as to what I’m supposed to do.

I again get on Google and search for how to use this particular app.  The guy is Russian or something and his English is very broken and odd.  After watching the first segment like 4 times, I finally catch that he says to create a new folder on your phone for the audiobooks and to copy the books into this folder.  Okay, great.  So I do this aaaaaaand nothing.  What!?!?!?!  I Google something else (by this time I’ve Googled so much I’m going cross-eyed and can’t remember what I’ve Googled anymore) and it tells me that some apps can’t function when the phone is in USB storage mode (aka-plugged into the computer).  So, I unplug the phone and hit the scan button again and voila!  Everything pops up!  Success!  I click on the new audiobook folder and it loads the book up and I hit play and IT PLAYS!!!!  Of course, by now, it’s like 2+ hours later.  Sheesh.

I am now set for doing long runs on the treadmill!  So, that hour run I had planned to do today?  Yea, here’s to hoping I do it tomorrow after I complete (and hopefully pass) my concealed handgun course tomorrow.

Well, totally unrelated to anything fitness related is that I paid off and picked up my new TV today!!!  It is H-U-G-E!!!  I mean, seriously huge.  I’m going to have to rearrange the things I have on the wall above and around the TV as a result of how huge this thing is.  Hahahaha!  But, you know what?  I’ve been wanting to rearrange the stuff on that wall for a long time now.  Now I have an excuse to do just that.  But, the new TV came with its own set of technical frustrations.  I couldn’t get my U-verse remote to program to the new TV.  I tried all 4 of the “regular” TV codes that AT&T had on their list of program codes for Sanyo, but none worked.  I looked under their list for HDTV’s and there were NO codes at all for Sanyo.  Really?  So I had to call tech support and a very nice and patient lady helped me.  It took about 10 minutes, but we finally got the right code and now I don’t have a future filled with use of 2 remotes awaiting me.  Well, technically I do still have to use 2 remotes…the 2nd one is for my DVD/Blu-ray player.  But, you know what?  I wonder if I can’t program that to the U-verse remote too.  Hmmm.  I’m not tackling that tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.  Or next week.  No rush.


Oh!  Another thing…my friend Mark’s work is starting a Biggest Loser challenge, starting on January 5th.  He has asked me to help him.  I am more than happy to do this for a couple of reasons.  First, I absolutely LOVE helping people in this way.  It is a passion of mine, really.  Second, motivating someone else motivates me…that’s my payment.  By helping others, I help myself.  I haven’t gotten so far as to type up any actual weekly workout schedules, but I have come up with 4 cardio workouts and 3 strength training “types” that we can mix and match for him.  I also bought him a copy of the Shred Diet book and some containers for Christmas to get him started.  I’m so excited!!! 

I had already decided that I needed a reboot on my own journey.  I have about (at least?) 20 pounds to go until I reach my goal weight.  I will start this new leg of my journey at the same time that Mark starts his challenge at work.  We’re going to do this together.  He’s going to get a membership at my gym, so it will be way easy for me to tailor workouts for him with a WIDE variety of equipment that is available at my gym.  I’m hoping to do at least 1 workout per week with him (on Sunday evenings).  If we can get in a second one, that will be great (it would be Saturday morning if we can swing it…all depends on the overtime I’m working at work).  We’ve also set a goal race for him.  He really wants to run and, more specifically, run with me.  I have plans to run the Capital 10K at the beginning of May and then I was going to run the 10K distance at the Schlotzsky’s Bun Run at the end of May again, however, that’s a good time frame for a 5K goal race for him.  Well, guess what!  The Bun Run also has a 5K distance.  So that’s our goal race for him!!!  And I will run the whole thing with him…at his pace!  We will cross the finish line together!  I think I’m going to see if I can talk him into starting his own blog…he has a lot on his plate already (he’s going to school on top of working full time and trying to lose 13% of his body weight in 3 months), but I’ll try!  I think he’d really benefit from keeping an online accounting of his own journey.
 

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