• 17:53 Sitting in a line that won't move at Shoppers. #

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Today on my pal John Barnes' UK radio show, we chat LIVE from the happiest holiday place on earth, Disneyland!

The show runs every Wednesday at ten o'clock (22:00) in the UK, and my segment is about ninety minutes into the show -- meaning you can hear it in the U.S. at about half-past three, Pacific Standard Time.

You can listen on the internet at BBC Lancashire; look for John's show in the daily schedule, or just click the "Listen Live" link around three-thirty today, PST.

09:57 OMG the best gingerbread I've ever had in my *life*. Imagine a thick, chewy blondie but GINGERBREAD FLAVORED! #fb flic.kr/p/7pK5Po

11:46 It's not too late to bake your own holiday CHERPUMPLE, the dessert version of a Turducken! bit.ly/4Yj2yC (via @charlesphoenixs)

17:45 My Twitter account is worth $141! What's yours worth? WhatsMyTwitterAccountWorth.com

19:14 The ideal Cake for Men! flic.kr/p/7pLUUr

19:17 The Russian section of our local supermarket #fb flic.kr/p/7pLWXn

19:49 Off work 'til Jan 4! Shopping and running errands with @TheFidget. Windy! Scarves! Carols on the car radio! It's officially Christmas.

20:15 Wait... they *remade* Gidget? When?? flic.kr/p/7pMvit

21:31 To my inquiring peeps/tweeps/facebookers/LiveJournalers: no Crappy Gift Exchange this year. But it will make a *triumphant* 2010 return! #fb

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• 19:02 #youknowyourfat a trending topic? Yes, I'm very familiar with it! #

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Went to Target with mom and Copper. Mom was taking forever, so Copper
and I went for a walk and waited outside. Burr it's cold!

• 17:09 Enjoying eye candy at #ttc Osgoode station whilst waiting for @officialnickb. #

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Summer solstice dinner, December 2009.

I'm at work today and tomorrow this week, then off until January 4th. Spending some time with family at Disneyland then down in San Diego for Christmas, then back home through New Years.

Planning a staycation and lining up an ton stuff do do around the house -- trying to start the new decade on the right foot with some cleaning up, throwing out some junk, donating some old clothes, digitizing old photos and videos to clear up shelf space, that sort of thing. I'm also seriously considering claiming email bankruptcy for the thousands of emails in my personal inbox that I've left unattended to -- some go back *years*, and at this point, I may just wipe the slate clean and start the decade unencumbered.

Then, I have to plan my birthday. It's my 40th, coming up on the 10th of January.

We're tentatively putting together some sort of party that weekend, most likely on Sunday the 10th -- but we may move it to later in the month for scheduling reasons. More about that later.

12:54 Having a fancy ladies-who-lunch lunch at Neiman-Marcus Café loopt.us/-X3g-g.t

23:54 at Faultline loopt.us/Eln3xw.t

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A lovely experience checking in at LAN at TBIT at LAX.

Our business class tickets really helped out: we had a 'porter' carry our checked luggage over to the TSA screening line, where he put them at the front of the line. We got the priority line to checkin, though we didn't get selected for the terahertz/millimeter wave scanning machine (an Asiana flight attendant did, though, and it seemed very Total Recall watching her assume the position while she was X-Ray Visioned.)

The OneWorld lounge is fine... it's operated by Qantas, who keep the liquor and the wi-fi and the Internet free, unlike the stanky United lounges I'm so used to. For Julian, for reference, it's Piper Sonoma bubbly, Darby and Joan chardonnay, and Strongarm Shiraz; we sampled but there's more intriguing Chilean selections no doubt coming up on LAN Peru, where I wonder if they've taken sides in the Pisco War.

Right now we're listening to a woman (speaking German German) and her daughter (speaking American English) play a Tetris game sponsored by Monistat 7 (tm). I can hear half plus about a quarter of the conversation; Chris can hear it all. "Mommy, I can't clear them all!" "Das is gut, Kinder!"

And now the flight to Japanland has headed out, the newspaper reading salaryexecs have been shuffled off by walkie-talkie-wielding JAL gate agents, and the place is quiet, except for the pre-pubescent girl battling virtual quadrangular yeast infections on the Internet.

Twenty minutes before we saunter on down.

A former captain of Wales' rugby team comes out.

From the Daily Mail: http://tinyurl.com/y97fq3l

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8418457.stm

Because they're not English wankers? :-)

Now, about those "leaves on the tracks" delays on the train...

04:08 My full review of AVATAR (no spoilers, I promise!): bit.ly/8zmNl9

15:52 Gorgeous nouveau design and creepy dolls in this lush, unsettling animated short called "Alma" tinyurl.com/yepdo4y

15:54 A whole high school of Michel Gondry neophytes. Amazing, wish I had cheap digital video back then! tinyurl.com/yarcmzo #lipdub #fb

20:17 Mmmmm... quite possibly our last short rub taco of 2009 at KogiBBQ Truck loopt.us/pU7VkA.t

21:54 ran 3.19 mi on 12/18/2009 at 7:36 PM with a pace of 23'23"/mi
bit.ly/8Tz6iO

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I was a big fan of The Biggest Loser for the last 2 seasons and it really hit home with me on several fronts. It was so bad to watching people losing weight as I chowed down on a bag of cookies. I was turned on by what they referred to as the "body bug" and thought it would be interesting to really measure what kind of calories I'm burning with the various activities I do now.

Bodymedia is the company that owns these devices now. I got mine a few weeks ago and I've been blown away. Here it is in action (and, yes, call me a FYFF whore since this picture number 2--sue me!)...



I pretty much wear it everyday, all day long. I find it tracks my calorie burn very well and it's been eye opening to see what it captures between walking, running, biking, etc. Walking alone is a major calorie burner for me because it's a solid and constant burn. If I run, the calorie burn is 2-3X higher.

Then comes calculating what calories I'm putting in my mouth--wow. It's no wonder why I've gained over the years. It's been insane. I thought it would be hard to track the calories, but it's been pretty easy with the web interface. My goal is to always burn more calories than what I take in and I've met that goal the past 3 weeks with flying colors. I'm not on any special diet. I'm simply moderating what I eat and how much throughout the day. My digestive it also a whole lot happier--best it's been in years. I've also eliminated high fructose corn syrup from my diet as well and I'm okay with that (for more than one reason).

I started at 180 pounds and my goal is 155 (I'm 5'8" and weight 140 pounds all through college). After 3 weeks I've already lost 7 pounds. :) My belt is starting to get loose and I'm about to take that in another notch soon. If I can get back into my 34W Levi's, I'll be happy their too.

This is definitely one aspect of my life I've been wanting to change for a long time and I'm very proud of what I've accomplished so far. This has not been nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Best of all, no special diets.

Four years ago I posted my first LJ entry, December 18, 2005. Without a doubt, it's been a wonderful experience here on LJ, but one I've not taken advantage of the last few weeks. Speaking of work...

It's been very demanding the last 2 weeks with a major system change taking place this weekend. We have a window this Saturday, 6pm-6am to get a lot of work done. Many people are involved, but I'm taking lead on most of it and I've put together a really good plan to get things done (and received quite a few kudos from various levels of management too about my documentation).

I've just been multitasking to no end. Nothing stressful, but just under a the pressure to get a lot done with the time allotted. If all goes well Saturday night, I can breathe a sigh of relief going into the Christmas holidays.

There is nothing worse than you telling your doctor some of your symptoms and he looking quizzically at you saying "Huh. That's odd."

What?!?!

I just got back from the midnight screening of AVATAR at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome...

( No spoilers, I promise! )