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Kaley and me: breathless anticipation

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Kaley-Cuoco-Undergoes-Sinus-Surgery-665x385Hello again, sports fans. It’s been forever (since November 2014) that I posted anything here, and for those of you who may still be following this blog, I appreciate your patience.

You’re probably wondering about the gratuitous use of a photo of the gorgeous and personable Kaley Cuoco at the top of this post. Well, first of all, the picture (and tag) may just get some of you to read my ramblings. Well, that and the “breathless anticipation” headline. More importantly, though, my chance viewing of Kaley in a brief snippet of a TV program I rarely get to watch, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, ultimately led to me making a beneficial change in my health and life.

Seeing Kaley on an edition of the Ellen show featured here, I realized I had left at least one stone unturned in my quest for better breathing. After dialogues with various physicians, and a seemingly endless series of medical visits and tests and questions and questionnaires, I finally, in early June, had the surgery Kaley had talked about on Ellen: a surgical procedure to correct a deviated septum. In recovery, even through the anesthetic haze, I already felt better. Weeks later, although I’m still sniffly and finding out that “allergies don’t take a holiday for deviated septum surgery,” I’m breathing better and snoring is for the most part gone.

Doctor, will I be able to play the piano after surgery? Will I look as gorgeous as Kaley (in a male way, to maintain decorum and also keep my Man Card) after surgery?

Dr. Robert Jacobs, who did the surgery, and our family doctor, Dr. Jeff Newman, did not ask for plugs in this post and do not even know I’m blogging about this, but Dr. Jacobs and ENT Associates did a great job for me, and Dr. Newman and Cardinal Medical Center recommended Dr. Jacobs for this surgery. I enthusiastically endorse them both.

The Fitbit Creed

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The Fitbit CreedWe are Fitbitters. We are Ultra Flex-ible: we battle weather, injury, fatigue, traffic, loose dogs and loose gravel, and keep going. Some eat Special K; many run 5K’s or 10K’s. We don’t just walk in neighborhoods, we Surge through Zip codes. No One has to Force us to recall why we want to get fit. We get a Charge out of that syncing feeling. And wherever we walk, run, lift, rebound, zumba, spin, plank, swim, TRX or crossfit…or whatever we do for fitness…we’re always in a good Aria!

A life well lived: I finally made it into the New York Times

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NY Times Biz masthead
1st guy, seeking directions on a New York City street: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
2nd guy: “Practice, practice.”

In my past work in marketing and public relations I’ve gotten a client or two placed in the New York Times, but now my own name appears in “those hallowed halls”–which is a phrase I reserve for those pages where the Times is not trying to tell us how we should all feel about politics. No, these are the informative-and-topical hallowed halls of the Times. A Travel feature in the Business Day section.

And wow, it’s a WHOLE paragraph. At the very end of an article. But it IS the New York Times. When you get your name in the Times, you salute the flag and say, “Thank you, Sir, may I have another [mention in the Times someday]?”

Typical for a major media outlet, the person who interviewed me spoke with me for about a half-hour, yet most readers can polish off my Paragraph of Fame in seconds. Did I tell them who I work for, and provide my title, and spell it all out for the interviewer? Yes. Did I ever once say I was “a business consultant”? No. But again..it’s…the New York Times.

And they spelled “Cotrupe” correctly. MAJOR bonus points for that.

If you did not already click the NYT logo at the top of this blog entry (which itself is far longer than my little paragraph in the Times, not that I am bitter), here’s the link to my moment in the sun. Enjoy.

Trotting to 24:56 in the Oceanside 5k

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1On October 27 I powerwalked and ran (about half & half) my first 5k, the Surf City 10 in Huntington Beach, CA, in 28:45.

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3For yesterday’s Oceanside Turkey Trot I had a goal: “25”…and I did it! Ran all the way and finished in 24:56. #576 out of 5,799 (top 10%) – #42 Age group Men – #48 Age group Men + Women.

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DSCF0451Also learned this: keep your cool! Less than a mile in, two guys dumped right in front of me; I got mad, “flew” past ‘em—and spiked the left hamstring! Told my hurt hammy two things: “25;” and what my CrossFit & Olympic lifting mentor Jimmy Baker says: “C’mon now, I know you got it in you,” and enjoyed the rest of the flight…

6Thanx to older daughter Michelle for the photos, and to my wife Joanne for getting me there, and joining Michelle in cheering me on!

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Battery case user, battery case user, pants on fire

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…and other adventures from the iPhone 5 energy frontier

When it comes to mobile battery life, I’ve been hurt before. For two years I owned an HTC Droid Incredible, which was a great phone but also had what I’m guessing (hoping, actually) was the worst battery life in the history of smartphones. After getting a supersized battery for it, I was often, but still not always, able to make it through the day without recharging. One of the reasons I was excited about finally getting an iPhone was anecdotal evidence of family and friends who owned iPhones and rarely if ever had to recharge their phones during the day. So I pre-ordered the iPhone 5 and made the transition from Droid rage to Apple of my ear.

Yet, apparently I’m such a power user that even the iPhone’s improved battery life is not enough to satisfy my mobile appetite. That, and having had the HTC’s battery constantly run dry, led to what I am calling Phone Trek 2012-13: The Search For More Pow’r.*

[UPDATE: see reference to this post on Mashable]

Lenmar Meridian: can’t quite put my finger on it

Our voyage begins with my new iPhone 5 in November 2012. I found multiple companies offering battery cases for it and placed my order with one on Amazon.com…then another…and another. All three had to cancel for what they stated in their cancellation emails were delays in Apple’s Made For iPhone (MFI) certification process. In April 2013 I received an email from Lenmar, which sells its Meridian cases for smartphones, that the Meridian for iPhone 5 was now available, and those of us who had ordered in the Fall had first dibs. That is, the Meridian, Henry Ford/Model T-style, was available as long as you wanted it in black. I had ordered it in white to match my phone, and Lenmar said red and white cases would be coming along soon. Finally, after some dialogue with those who run Lenmar’s Twitter page, in May 2013 an email hit my inbox that the red and white cases were available, and I snapped mine up.

iPhone 5 Meridian_red-white-black

The Meridian is a good case at a good price: the highest additional charging capacity of the battery cases I’ve found in the market, 2,300 milliampere-hour, or millamp hour (mAh),**  $89.99 at press time. Yet after about a week I found it was, literally, a pain to use. The Meridian has cutouts. All of these battery cases have some thickness to them–that’s where the added battery life, well, lives–and with the Meridian and some others, you have to “reach through” the case to use the iPhone’s own power button, sound on/off switch, and volume controls. Casually turning the screen on and off or adjusting the volume became a two-hand operation, which I didn’t like. More to the (pain) point, after jamming my fingers a number of times turning the power button on and off, I decided it was simply time to stop getting jammed up.

The Meridian came with an accessory that appears to come as standard issue with most of these cases: a headphone extension connector. That is required equipment because all of these cases add extra length at the bottom of the iPhone, such that headphones with a right-angle connector, and even some with straight connectors, cannot reach the iPhone’s headphone jack when it is inside the battery case.

Mophie Juicepack: getting a WiFi-syncing feeling

After the Meridian, I ordered the battery case widely regarded as the leader of the pack, the Mophie Juicepack Plus, $119.95 at press time. Mophie, which like Lenmar makes cases for the iPhone and other smartphones, appears to have “heard the market”: Mophie Continue reading

“Dropped 40 pounds in a year, Jeff? How did you do it?”

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UPDATE: -47 pounds and counting | The world is my treadmill…

Me: November 2011 Me: November 2011

In the months leading up to my Grissom High School Reunion in July 2012, I knew I wanted to do something to get in shape. When our younger daughter Heather returned home from college for the summer, she suggested juicing: blending fruits and vegetables in a specially-made juicing machine, and drinking the juice as a meal replacement. So we did that juicing “cleanse” for a month before the Reunion.

Two dear lifetime friends were, in my eyes anyway, the hit of the Reunion: Karen Cass Gill and Carol Baldwin Butterworth. Karen is in amazing shape, and you know those long distance runners from Kenya who compete in the summer Olympics? Well, Carol was in better shape than anyone I’ve ever seen other than, pretty much, those runners from Kenya.* Carol is Association Director Of Youth Teen and Families for a network of YMCAs in Virginia, and here’s what she said about it: “If I’m telling everyone to get in shape, how can I be anything less?” Everyone at Reunion marveled at her. A few days later, done marveling (at least for the moment), I asked her what she does to stay in such, um, marvel-ous shape. She told me several things, but the most important one was this: “I try to always get my 10,000 steps a day.”

I’ve worked in my home office for years, and at that point I figured I was probably getting, oh, 400 steps some days. I also knew that…

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2013 Relay For Life/Oceanside: $102,000 and counting

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“I love this plan!
I’m excited to be a part of it…”*

The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, Oceanside, CA, USA 2013, has thus far raised more than $102,000 in the fight against cancer. Proud to be a part of something like that…and hey, it’s not over yet: you can still donate through 31st August by clicking here.

* Bill Murray in the movie Ghostbusters

The Relay of Your Life

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The TRUPERS at Relay For Life, Oceanside, CA, USA, 04/20/2013

The TRUPERS at Relay For Life, Oceanside, CA, USA, 04/20/2013

Everyone has their causes and things they support, and whatever you do that is positive, you’re making the world a better place. So I’m not here to preach or sell. What I will say is that if you’re looking for a fun, positive, low-pressure event that helps to save lives, I highly recommend the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. I’ve written about it here, here, and here, so I won’t reinvent the wheel in this post, but it is one of the most worthwhile things I’ve ever done. Continue reading

Top 10 Famous Guys (and Women, Because “Gals” Is Not A Word This Blog Uses) I’d Have a Beer With

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Top 10 famous people I’d have a beer with (or, it has been pointed out to me by a number of women friends, beer, wine, or other drink optional):

MEN

  • John Kasich
  • Bill Clinton
  • Denzel Washington
  • Barack Obama
  • Bono
  • Brian Regan
  • Lewis Black
  • Mitch Hedberg (R.I.P.)
  • Zuck (yes, Mark Zuckerberg)
  • Saved best for last….Jesus

Honorable mention: Bill Murray; John Gruden; Jake Johannsen

WOMEN

  • Sandra Bullock
  • Sarah Palin
  • Condoleezza Rice
  • Victoria Soto (Newtown, CT…R.I.P.)
  • Avril Lavigne
  • Megan Kelly
  • Abby Wambach
  • Meg Whitman
  • P!nk
  • Jodie Foster

Honorable mention: Mother Teresa; Meryl Streep; Alex Morgan; Taylor Swift

Yes, this blog is aware it is going not just to Purgatory but straight to hell for listing Mother Teresa as “Honorable Mention.”

Sweet Home Alabama, and other thoughts

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Since around March 1 I’ve been working remotely from my personal favorite venue among the places I’ve lived and worked thus far in my lifetime: Huntsville, AL, USA. (You may find that quite a statement from someone whose current home base is Oceanside, CA, USA, just north of “perfect weather central,” San Diego.) The Rocket City, designated as such due to the omnipresence of NASA and other aerospace organizations and facilities in the metropolitan area, is home to my high school alma mater, Virgil I. Grissom High School, named after one of the three astronauts who lost their lives in the fiery Apollo 1 disaster.

Stratecast on Twitter

By contrast with the final mission of those three brave souls, my stay here has been a wild and wonderful ride that is not over yet. My current job as a global program director at Stratecast enables me to work remotely from anywhere with an Internet connection and an airport. So I’ve been working throughout the trip on my syndicated research reports, and growth consulting projects for great clients such as HP, based on the Big Data, analytics, and business intelligence market. I’ve even handed out my first technology innovation award for the year, which seems appropriate in a world-renowned hotbed of technology innovation such as Huntsville.

Big Spring Park in Huntsville, AL, USAMy mission on this trip has been personal as well as professional. Being in town from Wednesday through Sunday last July for my Grissom High School Reunion gave me just enough of a taste of the town to drive me crazy waiting for a return engagement. So my non-working hours have been chock-full of fun with friends, both lifetime and new, at Drake’s, Watercress, Connors, Ding How II, The Mellow Mushroom, Humphrey’s, Grill 29, and beyond. Continue reading