31 days into 2011 it's definitely a mixed bag. Some good, including a very fun (if far too short) cruise on the Disney Wonder; some not so good, mostly work stuff.

Disney Wonder

As a general rule I don't do new year's resolutions, but after a couple of months of eating too much I decided I wanted to hit a specific weight goal before the cruise. I started at 216 on January 3 and made my goal, 205, on the 20th, the day we flew to Los Angeles for the cruise. My new weight goal is less aggressive; I want to get to 190 by the time we leave for our next cruise, at the end of April.



The two-night Cruise to Nowhere itself was a whole lot of fun and way too short. It was really a preview for us of our upcoming 13-night back-to-back cruise, also on the Wonder, in late April and early May. We did enjoy ourselves in the limited time allotted.



Work has been less than fun. I am still at Nokia, though actively exploring other options. Giant company syndrome is in full effect here and it's really dragging me down. One major thing lately is that while I was not personally hit by some recent layoffs, I have been pulled onto a project (temporarily, they say) formerly shepherded by someone was laid off. The person who is no longer here was the only one who really knew the details of this work and now I'm floundering trying to keep up with the needs of this project, while having very little idea of what's actually going on. They're supposed to bring in someone to take over, which does raise the question of why the original person doing the job was laid off in the first place.



Home life is fine. Cats are healthy and happy.

I do my best to work out every day. It's become an essential part of my daily routine, and the results are showing. My weight is down, I've gained significant muscle mass and my clothes fit better. Here's my current fitness routine.

Monday (evening): Elliptical (45-60 minutes) and Pilates

Tuesday (midday): Upper body strength training (arms, chest, core)

Wednesday (midday): Lower body strength training (core, legs)

(evening): Elliptical (45-60 minutes) and Pilates

Thursday (midday): Spinning

Friday (midday): Spinning

Saturday and Sunday: Running, gradually increasing time/distance; Elliptical (90 minutes); Cycling (various) — all depending on weather and whatever else is going on over the weekend

Well, that's easy, especially if you include Tweeting and instant messaging under the "texting" category: texting, by a mile.

The Palm Pre @ Times Square

I am never comfortable talking on the phone, whether with people I know (even friends and family) or to companies and call centers. I feel flustered and fail to get my points across the way I want to. With texting, email and other keyboard-based communication, I can think about what I want to say and review before I send.

I'm sure this says something about the insular anti-personal society but I'm too busy reading email to think about it right now.

I can’t bear the webOS Gowalla app anymore. It’s big, bloated, slow and kills the Pre battery. And Gowalla has now said (on their support forums) that they’ve abandoned the webOS platform. I like Gowalla and I would like to continue using it, so I’m working on my first webOS app: a Gowalla client (using their public API) stripped down to its essentials. You’ll be able to log in, get a list of nearby spots and check in. That’s it. Oh, and I plan to add one feature that even the official app doesn’t support: saved or delayed checkins, for when you have GPS but no EVDO.

I’m calling my app GoSmalla. You may groan now.

This is not a true formal UML diagram; it’s really just the sketch of what I have in my head. Various lines don’t connect, but if you look at it as a rough flowchart you’ll see where I’m going with this.

GoSmalla: A conceptual sketch (click to embiggen)