On Tuesday, January 5th, we woke to the alarm at 4:15am

Holy crap, what were we thinking? Last time Dave (aka @chefchopper) and I crawled out of bed that early, we were sprinting to make the redeye ferry off of San Juan Island and back to our beloved Portland. We are NOT early morning people.

We have, however, though some bizarre twist of fate, become fitness people. Granted, both of us did the sports thing in high school (and college as well, for me), but in recent years? It’s been all about short dog walks and long sprawls on our +5 Couch of Lounging. The last thing we ever expected was to become role models.

This changed in September when an opportunity to join an indoor fitness “bootcamp” landed in our laps. We’d already started taking slightly longer walks with the dog, but this… this new thing was daunting. Aerobic, even! The first workout? I think I nearly passed out three times. Second workout? Crash and burn in the break room. Third, fourth, fifth, I started to notice improvement. And by the third week, Dave started to drop pounds.

And pounds. And more pounds. As of this date, just over four months into it, he’s lost 74 pounds. (I know, it’s a guy thing…) Me? Two pants sizes. And I have this crazy thing happening called a firm core. As in stomach muscles! I haven’t had those since high school!

When Dave was 40 pounds down, I posted before and after pictures on Facebook. Our trainer immediately asked for copies and the next thing we knew, Dave was the new poster boy at the gym; up on the mighty wall of success. And rather than rest on his laurels, he kept going, sometimes even saying the craziest of things, like “I’m looking forward to exercising today,” or “I love BootCamp!” Soon he was over 60 pounds lost and looking (if I do say so myself) pretty darned good.

Which brings us to the morning of January 5th. See, our trainer managed to snag quite the deal for his business: a New Year’s Resolution fitness segment on KGW at Sunrise. The trick was to get all of us out there in the chilly pre-dawn, showing off our fit selves for Drew Carney and his camera man. And Dave – Dave had to be there because he was a featured success story.

Didn’t wake up quite so early that morning? No problem. Our exploits have been preserved for posterity on Drew Carney’s blog:

I do, however, feel compelled to point out an important behind-the-scenes fact:

Our usual workout (which burns in the neighborhood of 900 calories) lasts an hour. KGW’s crew hung out for two hours — and did we rest between each segment?

Hell, no. When you see Drew talking and all of us working out in the background, you might expect us to be thinking “Whee! We’re on the TeeeVee!” Nope. What we’re actually thinking? “Please stop talking now. We’re been at this for three minutes solid…must rest… please… for the love of God…stop… NOW!” We never knew quite when we’d be on camera for the next segment so we just kept going. And going…

I’m still in awe we made it this far, and Dave even more so. More than once he’s said to me, “If I’d known it felt this good, I would’ve done this years ago.”

Too true. I’d like to think that all it takes is getting over that initial hump of agony, but it’s not always that easy. Sometimes we have to trick ourselves. Or just push through the pain. What I do know is how we did it, and though this might not work for everyone, I figure what’s the harm in getting a little self-helpy for anyone out there with a fitness New Year’s resolution.

1. Start where you are. Six pushups is your limit? Start with six. Don’t go all Lou Ferrigno on your first day out. Dave wants to start running and I’m still working up to it after months of training. I have bad knees, so I start where I am: walking.
2. A little discipline goes a long way. We didn’t go for gimmick diets (do not get me started on those two miserable, constipated weeks on Atkins years ago… really, do NOT), and other than watching portions and cutting out a few excesses (life is too short for cheap beer), we just took the time to think about our food choices before making them. What ever you do, do not give up all your favorite foods. You’ll just want to splurge on them later.
3. The scale isn’t everything. I admit. I’m still working on this one. See, I’ve only shed about 20 pounds compared to Dave’s 74. It’s a girl thing. (Right? RIGHT?) I’m gaining muscle weight and firming up and that’s what’s important. The weight loss is a by-product of getting fit, not the other way around. I need to remind myself of this. Frequently.
4. But… but… but… I’ve already failed! No you haven’t! It’s still January, you donkey. Get back on the horse. It doesn’t matter when you start, or where. Just start somewhere sometime. It might be easier than you think. (Dave once owned the nickname Laziest Man Alive ™, and for good reason. Now look at him. Freakin’ Posterboy.)

So, who wants to share their 2010 fitness goals? Misery loves company, right? If you’re on Twitter and you want some cheering on, use the hashtag #getfit2010. We’ll be there, tweeting our aches, pains, successes, and failures for all to see. And I promise, if I start eating French fries every day and gain those 20 pounds back, I’ll tweet about that, too. But if Dave gains those 74 pounds back…nope. Not gonna happen. This isn’t a diet or a training regimen with a termination point. It’s a long term lifestyle change, and figuring that part out? That’s success.

(Editor’s note: We welcome MizD to the OurPDX family of authors! You can find her on Twitter as (wait for it…) @mizd.)

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Updated 12/21 to extract the live streaming couplets — thanks for your support!

I’m at 30 Hour Day — the 30 hour livestreaming telethon benefiting 3 PDX charities — up close and personal right now (well, at least for the first 12 hours or so). As part of the OurPDX sponsorship of #30HD, I’m pulling my Christmas tree stuff out of an eight-year deep storage to decorate the 30 Hour Day tree, bringing my menorah to light the candles for the last night of Hanukkah, and serving as Stage Manager for the first 8 hours of the telethon itself.

But it isn’t just about me. Or Cami Kaos or Rick Turoczy (the two intrepid co-hosts who’ll stay up the entire 30 hours). Or any of the rest of the talent, crew, volunteers or sponsors. It’s about doing good things for Free Geek, the Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots.

And you have the most important role of all here, you know.

First, do be part of the show yourself:

We’re showing We showed a live stream UStream 30HD Channel, courtesy of UStream.

We had live remotes from Beer & Blog at the Green Dragon from 4-6 today as well, so come on by.

Or follow along with your mobile browser, either via PDX.fm or the UStream iTunes application (look for #30hd).

But however you watch, whenever you watch — or even if you don’t watch AT ALL — please do donate here via Causes.

(You didn’t watch? I knew that already, but won’t tell. Instead, I’l invoke my super-patented double-dipping dose of Catholic/Jewish guilt & suggest that you ease that guilty conscience by digging extra deep, y’know..)

Because right now, you’re the one who matters most.

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• November 10, 2009 -- Food Carts Portland on NBC Nightly News (3)
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While going about my day recently, I came across something so …just…well frankly, the only word for it is Portlandy.

On one hand, this certainly is an excellent way to get people to notice you and pay attention. And as a method of drumming up the 1000 signatures and 5$ contributions in order to get public funding, I suppose it’s as good a method as any. But please, Mr. Burton, we need a bit more content once you get on the ballot. Substance and honesty. That’s what Portland needs right now.

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In the midst of a bustling (and fantastic) WordCamp Portland put on by Aaron Hockley and a fantastic host of volunteers we took the opportunity to talk with Matt Mullenweg, and since I never resist the urge to pass on a little knowledge we kick the interview off with a martini lesson. He was a quick study. Enjoy!

Disclosure time again: I gave a talk on Podcasting with my partner, Dr Normal at WordCamp Portland. Strange Love Live and OurPDX were both sponsors of WordCamp Portland. Oh, and I think it rocked.

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Things with Strange Love Live went a little differently than normal this week and so the posts are a little different too. Instead of a Tech Edition and an Afterhours on Friday night we did 2 full days of Tech from the Open Source Bridge Conference. We had a wonderful time and were thrilled to have been invited to be a part of the OS Bridge’s first year!

But when Friday night rolled around we had another show to do. Instead of settling into the comfort of our home studio we moved to the Open Source Bridge Hacker Lounge located at the top of the downtown Hilton with a special co-host for the night, Brian Westbrook.   It was a great night with fun people and we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful backdrop as we watched the sun fade and the city lights come on. Enjoy the video episode now and we’ll be back to you this week with interviews from the conference itself! (special thanks to @UncleNate, @Verso and @Emailstine for helping us make this all happen)

Looking for more fun from Open Source Bridge?

Why not check out the OSB09 photos uploaded to flickr?

Doug Coleman’s post on Read Write Web: Open Source Bridge Is A Huge Success.

Open Source Bridge Reflections and More Open Source Bridge Reflections on Seek Nuance by John DeRosa.

Selena Decklemann’s Open Source Bridge: Thank You All.

Mike Rogoway’s recap on Silicon Forest: Oregon tech week in review.

David Abramowski’s post on StartupGeek.org: Open Source Bridge, a success.

Rick Turoczy’s Friday night mash up post on the Silicon Florist.

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• December 8, 2009 -- SLL: Get Your Geek on With Foodgeeks (0)

Boy did we ever have a full slate Friday night. For our Tech Edition we were joined by Troy Harlan and Sam Alexander from Vidoop. Then we quickly moved into Afterhours where we were joined by No Kind Of Rider. Having a whole band in the studio meant all kinds of shuffling of guests, but we managed to hear from Jeremy, Joe, Wes, Jon and Sam, listen to some great tunes, celebrate our 100th episode and eat a delicious celebratory cake from Julie & Troy. It was a good night full of fun, I hope you enjoy it too!

On to technical matters. If DrNormal ever posted to the blog that he had me set up for him he’d tell you all sorts of behind the scene technical tidbits and goodies. But he doesn’t. This week there’s something he really wants you to know before you listen to the audio podcasts and since I’m a saint I agreed to take a few moments and tell you that starting this week the audio episodes will be released at a higher quality. That means the files are twice the size they used to be, but he swears that it’s worth it because the sound quality is at least twice as good.

Now on with the shows:

SLL Episode 100: Troy Harlan & Sam Alexander from Vidoop

Watch the Tech Edition

SLL Episode 101: Afterhours with No Kind Of Rider

Watch Afterhours

Want more No Kind Of Rider? They have an album almost ready to goand they’ll be playing this Thursday night at the Red Room on 82nd. You can check their Myspace page for more upcoming shows.

***

Join us next Friday May 15th to talk to Dana Plautz the woman behind Mrs. P.com, a storybook entertainment site that encourages literacy in a really fun way. Then in afterhours we’ll be back to our everyday shenanigans with a little help from our friends.

****

Are you attending WebVision 09? If you are stop by and see us. We’ll be there broadcasting live Thursday & Friday. A portion of our day will be set aside to talk to attendees and find out why they’re attending, we’d love to hear from you.

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We took Friday night off, but not wanting to leave you all high and dry we streamed a repeat, our episode with Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read Write Web.  Although we didn’t do a live episode, Dr Normal and I took the opportunity to watch the stream and hang out in the chat room. I especially enjoyed  the chaos that happened during afterhours  episode when Dr Normal had left the room and the stream died all hell broke loose and it was priceless.

Watch the Tech Edition:

Watch the Afterhours:

SLL Episode 57 Redux: Read Write Web with Marshall Kirkpatrick

SLL Episode 58 Redux: Afterhours with Marshall Kirkpatrick

**

Join us live Friday March 27th at 10 pm with Reid Beels.  He has his fingers in so many Portland Tech pies that what we cover in the Tech Edition is any one’s guess.  Find out what he’s doing to keep so busy within the Portland Tech community.

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Today is Rex Manning Day! No, wait! It’s better than Rex Manning Day; today is Coraline Jones Day!

Yes, folks, we here in Portland are blessed with the occasion of the Coralinepremiere at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall, officially kicking off the 32nd Portland International Film Festival in high Hollywood Fashion!

Coraline was created at the Laika Studios in Hillsboro and directed by Henry Selick, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. It’s also the first stop-motion movie to be conceived and filmed in 3-D. It boasts hand-knit sweaters for the puppets that star in this movie, hundreds (thousands??) of stop-animation puppets to act and star in it, and miniature sets that comprise the world of the stop-motion Coraline. If you haven’t seen the videos about the making of Coraline on the Coraline youtube page or even on coraline.com, you’re missing out on some amazing art that has been lovingly crafted to make this film in many different forms. 

There are lots of amazing little things to see, trust me… I’ve been subjecting my friends with everything I can find on Coraline and the creation of the movie for months now. Subsequently, I’ve gotten more and more excited with every new thing that comes out.

I’m huge Neil Gaiman fan. HUGE! I would say he is arguably one of the most important and influential writers of our time with his work in comics and young adult fiction. The work he has done in just these 2 fields alone, not to mention his screenplays and fiction novels, have helped push the envelope of what we think of when we think “comics” or “YA fiction.”

To see Gaiman’s Coralinecome to life through the vision of Henry Selick, and to see it done so lovingly and so artistically here in Portland, is very inspiring! I’ve always argued that Portland is a can-do, creative city that takes a very “anything is possible” approach to the things created here. It’s only fitting that the Coraline premiere will be held here with all the pomp and circumstance of any big Hollywood premiere.

Thanks to my very good friend Scott Daly (who RULES as a friend and Dad) from filmfeverradio.com, I will be able to see this stop-animation 3-D wonder tonight at the Premiere! I’m already excited after reading the review on Geek In The City and doubly so because it just looks so amazing! I can’t even sit still!

Well, scoot over Rex Manning Day! It’s time for Coraline Jones Day, and I’m ALL over it!

Coraline opens tomorrow, February 6th, Nationwide.

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Do you like to hang from trees and swing from ropes? Have a hankering to teach kids how to play music on the bank of a river? If you’re 18 years or older and are willing to travel to NYC this summer (small travel allowance for those traveling more than 300 miles), the non-profit Fresh Air Fund wants to talk to you!

Serving children since 1877, the Fund brings inner-city kids 65 miles North of New York City every summer to the Sharpe Reservation, where they live in five camps in the beautiful embrace of nature.

The many positions the Fresh Air Fund needs to fill include general counselors, waterfront staff (lifeguard certification required), farm hands, and the very interesting-sounding job ropes course teacher.

You can also work as a program specialist, teaching a variety of subjects, or as a camp nutritionist. Salary is competitive and previous residential camp experience or special certification (such as CPR training) will get you extra cash. At least one year of higher education is required.

You can find out even more information and apply for these jobs and more at the Fresh Air Fund’s Web site.

Don’t let the distance from our dear Portland, Oregon deter you from looking closer at this opportunity. It might be just what you need this summer: a challenging yet infinitely rewarding experience of being a mentor to a camper.

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Documenting the construction or destruction of a building is an interesting process. Both involve a lot of planning, but there’s also an opportunity to be creative. Case in point, Mississippi Studios is in the midst of a huge renovation and expansion project.

As the project moves forward, they are inviting local bands to perform amongst the wreckage and are posting the videos on Razing Mississippi.

This process reminded me of what’s been done in the Burn to Shine series, which started in DC, and has traveled across the country, including Portland, to show area bands performing in structures that will be destroyed at the end of that day.

The estimated venue opening date is March 2009, but in the meantime, check out some of the great artists who call Portland home.

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