Geez! This whole diet and exercise thing has something going for it. Having been on the plan for less than a week and dropped 3-ish pounds, I can see why those crazys on morning talk shows have been going over this for years! Amazing! My first official weigh-in is on Sunday, I’ll probably have to lose a couple of points on the Weight Watchers scale, which will be a difficult thing to do. I have been really restricted in my calories, but one point shouldn’t be too bad.

Hooray for me!

• What’s Special About This Number?
  Whoa. I hate math, but I love numbers!
  (tags: numbers Math reference cool)

I signed up for Fon, a wifi sharing system, in which you get a subsidized router and you share your wireless with the chance to use others wireless. All of this is facilitated through a slick Google Map interface and after receiving my router in the mail, I set it up and was impressed with the ease of it.

I am a Linus, that means that I give the wireless away and I get free access, if I were a Bill, I would get 50 % revenue of non-Fon day passes but I would have to pay. There aren’t very many Fon routers in this neck of the woods, but if I travel, major cities can have quite a few access points.

So what does La Fonera have to do with personal productivity?

If you share your personal productivity goals with people, they can help keep you accountable. I just started Weight Watchers and fatblogging (or fit blogging) and I made a very public share about how much I weight. It’s wasn’t easy, but I knew that if I share my commitment it would hold me more accountable.

I use the Getting Things Done system and this is my public commitment to making sure that I do my Weekly Reviews. That’s the part that I usually fail at getting done. I will post every week when I get my weekly review done.

Share your goals with someone and ask them to make you stick to it.

I have been very diligent since Sunday. I have done a good job of keeping my Weight Watchers points in check and worked out on Monday. A solid 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. I stepped on the scale this morning and I don’t want to jinx myself, but the display read 190. I don’t think I’ve really lost 2 pounds over 3 days, but it’s definitely progress.

Apparently fatblogging is become a bit of a trend.

I really, really meant to post yesterday about my new Fonera router and sharing and how it can eventually make you more productive, but in between making dinner, corralling the cat and trying to to fall asleep during Battlestar Galactica (Tivo’d), it was impossible. Look for that post later today, but in lieu of that I present, Flute-playing, beat-boxing Inspector Gadget Theme.

[via lifedev.net]

Jason Calacanis and Wil Harris have started blogging about their weight loss efforts. Wil Harris even registered fatblogging.com (link to come when it goes live… if it does).

I write this not to keep you up to date on the latest Calacanis schtick. I personally can’t stand him. I write this to start my own fatblogging/fitness/weight loss journal. I have a new category and will be posting every week what my progress has been.

The Plan

I weight 192 right now and ideally I would love to weight 160. Thats a total loss of 32 pounds. Now that Valentines day is over it should be easier because people won’t be bringing food into the office as much.

Esther and I bought an elliptical machine about 4 months ago and the usage has been spotty at best. I will be working out on it at least 3 days during the work week, and 1 day during the weekend.

Esther has recently started on WeightWatchers, and as much as I hate logging points, it really worked to keep me in line. I plan on doing the WeightWatchers thing to control my diet.

Watch for fitblogging posts, or if you are doing something similar let me know in the comments

• Pirate Toaster: ARRR! Pass the Jam ARRR! - Gizmodo
  Would it work with Rrrrrrye?
  (tags: toast toaster kitchen appliance)
• YouTube - A Tried And Tested Method - The Longcut
  very cool use of infographics
  (tags: youtube video infographics animation illustration)
• YouTube - Soft Rock - part 1
  Air Supply Rocks!
  (tags: music video youtube airSupply)
• www.BrazilianArtists.net, the A-Z of Brazilian Arts, Entertainment & Cultural Events in the UK
  (tags: politics flags flag world graphics culture)
• Declutter Your Desk
  I need to do this at work.
  (tags: howto organization desk declutter)
• The Getting Things Done phenomenon – an update primer - CenterNetworks - News, Reviews, Insights and Interviews
  A good GTD list
  (tags: gtd productivity lifehacks resources list)

Technical note:
I have had some issues with comments not showing up, I think I have resolved that. If you try and post a comment (’cause I know you want to) and it doesn’t work, please contact me

Now back to your regularly scheduled post

The last few days have reminded me that sometimes you have to give yourself permission to suck. What? Permission to suck.

Yes, I had originally resolved to post to the blog every day, but I have been so exhausted and busy that I just haven’t had time to write. On Friday, after not posting on Thursday, I was beating myself up, wondering if I should make it up, but I had to give myself permission to suck just a little bit. I have been doing really well in the arena of posting and i have been rocking out the work, so something had to give. Permission to suck granted.

If you haven’t done a check up on your New Year’s resolutions, today is a good day to start. If you have done well on some and not on all, like me, then give yourself permission to suck and then get back on the horse and try and make those resolutions stick.

Today, I helped teach a class about Adobe Illustrator. It was an art class, for college level students and I was pleasantly surprised by the level of skill that existed prior to my teaching. It was a little frightening, considering I went into college with minimal skills in my chosen profession and worked my butt off to get to the level I am today. These students are getting some of those skills in high school, what does that mean for the graphic arts profession?

That was not the chosen topic of this post, but it does segue nicely into finding your passion. While I was teaching today, I was really energized. I might have been a little off putting with my enthusiasm, but I found my passion.

I am passionate about my work, I do it well, but I believe my passion is teaching. Seeing students “get” what I’m trying to teach them is a profoundly rewarding experience. Here are some steps that I have found to find your passion:

1. Go back…way back

   Do you remember what you were passionate about as a child? I wanted to be a comic illustrator, which probably played heavily into my current career decision. What did you love? What really got you excited? Can you turn that former passion into a current passion?

2. Inventory your life

   What do you love to do outside of work? What do you do at work but wish you could do more? What in your environment would be indicative of your passions? I have guitars, two of them. I have a passion for playing guitar, although it is not nearly as strong as my love of design and teaching. What do you have or do that would help you find your passions?

3. What gets you excited?

   I know it sounds painfully obvious, but how often in our day to day lives to we get to explore what really gets us fired up? Between paying the bills and the day job, there isn’t much opportunity to really contemplate or really explore what we really love. Take 5 minutes and really focus on what you like, is that your passion?

Knowing what your passion is can greatly increase your focus, either in getting to your passion or in the execution of your passion. Focus breeds productivity, need I say more?

Do you know what your passion is? Did you find your passion in an interesting way? Tell me in the comments

The talk about passion on Valentines day, was totally unplanned. The irony…

Shadow on snow, originally uploaded by Pilou@ttitude.

Schnee: German for snow

Will it ever snow here?
Hate the TV weathermen,
They never are right!