Today was a beautiful day for a run. After a year and a half of living in the Lansing area, I finally found Rose Lake Wildlife Area and my new trail running spot 🙂

The trails are pretty tight and a bit overgrown in some areas. It forces you to dodge and duck all the time, making you feel like a running back in training.

I’m still learning the area as you might see from the screenshot above. I made a wrong turn and had to run an extra mile (not shown on the screenshot) to get back to my car 🙂

Highlights:

• Dragonflies everywhere. I ran through clouds of them, stirring them up in the air around me.
• One bug inhaled. This could be a lowlight but since it was only one, I’m going to keep this in the highlight section. 🙂
• Ran 4 miles instead of my usual 2.5.
• Bumped into a lady who was petting a little painted turtle on the trail. 🙂

Nice weekend.

Hi Friends and Family,

I’ll be participating in ExtraLife today, a gaming marathon that raises money for the Children’s Miracle Network. Sparrow Hospital (where I work) is part of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital which treats thousands of children each year, regardless of their family’s ability to pay. These kids are facing scary stuff like cancer, cystic fibrosis, and injuries from accidents to name just a few.

If you would like to support me today, follow the link below and donate. Any amount will help! 🙂

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=191138

Thank you and game on!

The highlight of my summer… hands down! 🙂

So I turned my phone into a paper weight by doing some custom upgrades to it. Everything was running perfectly with the upgrade. It was fast and nice and shiny. Then I decided to restore a backup and it’s non-responsive now.

Lesson learned. I’ve messed around with custom upgrades and got comfortable. Those disclaimers actually mean something.

I’m curious how the next days will go until I fix it or (more likely) get a replacement. I can already feel the slight sting and anxiousness of being “disconnected.” I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a bad thing. Life was fine before mobile phones, but this is also the first time I’m without any sort of phone (landline or mobile).

Until then, I’m only available via e-mail or Skype. 🙂

UPDATE: After letting the battery die completely, the phone ended up booting back up 🙂 Life is good.

I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, but I’m finally committing to no TV/Netflix during the week, except for my favorite PBS Newshour program 🙂

My nighttime routine for the past few years involved watching a few TV episodes on Netflix before going to bed. My favorite was The Office. I could blow through the full series and then gleefully press the Season 1, Episode 1 button, seemingly, into eternity. But no more!

I’m not quitting because it kept me up or disrupted my sleep.

The reason why I’m quitting is I really want that time back! The thought of how many hours I’ve spent watching and re-watching shows on Netflix is depressing. Sure, it can be a nice disconnection after a long day, but man will it invalidate hours of your life.

So here’s a few things I’m going to put in TVs place:

• Playing my guitar
• Listening to CBC Radio 2
• Reading! Finally, I have such a list to get start on.
• Lugnuts games
• Walking

Help me stay true to this promise! If you can, wait a few months and then text, e-mail, or comment on this post to see if my TV is still dark on weekday nights. 🙂