January 1st of this year I was 218 pounds, heaviest I’ve ever been. 28.7% body fat; cheap bathroom scale measurement, but close enough to know I was way out of line. My waist was 42 inches, again by FAR the fattest I’ve ever been. For the past year I hadn’t been able to do up the waist on most of my suits, or the top button of my dress shirts. Makes life uncomfortable when I live in the suit-and-tie world most days.

I used to sit at my desk with my belt, waist button, and fly wide open (just so I could sit), chair pulled up close to my desk so if someone walked in they wouldn’t see me doing my Al Bundy impression. Not exactly brimming with confidence and pride.

Three years of injuries. First a torn rotator cuff, then a slipped disk and torn back tissue. Inactivity, self-pity, total loss of discipline, all added up to a nice little death-spiral of sloth and expanding gut.

Fast-forward three months. As of yesterday, I am 202 pounds (lightest I’ve been since university!), and 24.1% body fat. That’s after a week-long vacation food bender in Fernie. Phase one of Operation: Rebuild the Mountain complete.

Big thanks to Tim Ferriss and his book “The 4-Hour Body“; the diet protocol of which I credit the majority of my success.

Now that I’ve lost the “dead weight” (so to speak), I plan to spend the next three months establishing a strong physical foundation to help make sure I never lose so much of my life to “recovery” again. I’ll be using Ferriss’ “Pre-Hab” training protocols, based off Gray Cook’s Functional Movement Systems program. My focus will be on flexibility (the genesis of nearly every physical problem I’ve ever had), symmetry (making sure both sides of my body are equally functional), and stability (building up my core muscles to handle the next phase).

I haven’t felt this physically good in a long time. It’s nice. It’s natural. I’m a big believer that we’re all meant to move, to work, to be active, it’s just life that gets in our way.

One other big side benefit: Since I’ve enjoyed so much success, and been quite openly proud of it, I’ve now got my girlfriend, my father, and at least one co-worker following the 4-Hour Body diet. I’m confident that if they stick to it, it’ll work just as well for them as it did for me.

—

(Wow, doesn’t matter how many times I re-write this, it comes off sounding like an infomercial. If it matters to you, I’m not making any referral money from Ferriss’ book or anything like that. I am just genuinely grateful for his help in achieving my goal. First time I’ve ever honestly tried to follow any kind of structured diet program, and fortunately I really like Tim’s methodologies.)

I may not have had much to say on this site lately, but once again I feel that I have to at least make one more try to add my voice to the outcry against the blatantly harmful, invasive, unfair, and obviously corrupt influence on our copyright and privacy legislation. Bill C-11 this time (a turd by any other name…) has at least stumbled slightly, and is being offered for discussion. Below is the email I sent to my MP and the Bill C-11 committee members.

james.rajotte@parl.gc.ca, laurie.hawn@parl.gc.ca, Christian.paradis@parl.gc.ca,  James.Moore@parl.gc.ca,  Dean.delmastro@parl.gc.ca,  mike.lake@parl.gc.ca,  Phil.mccoleman@parl.gc.ca,  Peter.braid@parl.gc.ca,  Paul.calandra@parl.gc.ca,  Rob.moore@parl.gc.ca,  Scott.armstrong@parl.gc.ca,  Paul.calandra@parl.gc.ca,  Glenn.thibeault@parl.gc.ca,  Charlie.angus@parl.gc.ca,  Tyrone.Benskin@parl.gc.ca,  Pierre.Nantel@parl.gc.ca,  Pierre.DionneLabelle@parl.gc.ca,  Andrew.Cash@parl.gc.ca,  Geoff.regan@parl.gc.ca

Good day to you all.

My name is Michael Lawton. I am a 34 year old business owner (third-generation with our financial services company) living in Edmonton, Alberta. I vote consistently at all levels, and speak often and passionately about politics in our country.

A strong passion of mine is, and has been for a long time, communication technology. I.e., the Internet. I believe it is the most vital and influential invention since the printing press for education, entertainment, and entrepreneurship. As such, I am deeply troubled by the direction that the Canadian government has been attempting to take over the past few years. There is an obvious and powerful influence on Bill C-11 and its predecessors coming from sources that are not in the best interest of Canadian citizens, and actually serve cause immediate and significant harm on those you have been asked to represent.

I urge, beg, and, with all the power I hold as a voting citizen, demand the following three principles be introduced into Bill C-11 and any other future attempts to change our copyright, communications, and privacy legislation:

1. No SOPA-style amendments. That means no website blocking, no warrantless disclosure of subscriber information, no expanded enabler provision, no unlimited statutory damages, no iPod tax, and no content takedowns.
2. Maintain the fair dealing balance found in C-11 by expanding the provision to include education, parody, and satire and relying on the Supreme Court’s six-factor test to ensure that the dealing is fair.
3. Amend the digital lock rules by following the Canadian Library Association’s recommended change linking circumvention to actual copyright infringement.

This debate has been intentionally mislabelled as “suffering businesses versus thieving criminal” by a small but extremely wealthy and influential group with much to gain from limiting our abilities to create, innovate, and compete. Please recognize that this characterization is intentional, and serves to distract from the real damage these proposed changes would have on Canadian business and people. The list of groups, representing millions of fellow citizens, that are against unfair practices like the unlimited digital lock superiority include:

• Retail Council of Canada
• Canadian Bookseller Association
• Association of Canadian Publishers
• Writers Guild of Canada
• ACTRA
• Canadian Consumer Initiative
• Public Interest Advocacy Centre
• Canadian Teachers’ Federation
• Council of Ministers of Education Canada
• Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
• Canadian Council of Archives
• Canadian Library Association
• Canadian National Institute for the Blind
• Canadian Civil Liberties Association
• Canadian Bar Association
• Privacy Commissioner of Canada
• CIPPIC

Please side with Canadian citizens, our rights, and our entrepreneurial ambitions. Canada needs to foster freedom and creativity if we hope to continue our contributions to the greatest frontier of global opportunity ever seen by humankind. I urge you to not go down in history as the people who stood in the way of our future.

Sincerely and hopefully,

Michael Lawton

Well colour me disappointed in myself. Here it is, Halloween night, and I haven’t written anything new and original to share and scare.

Oh well, can’t let my favourite night of the year go by without getting on my little cyber-soapbox. Here’s a little piece of flash fiction I wrote in 2009 that I was kinda proud of (even if I’m still not crazy about the ending).

Always wear comfortable shoes when driving at night

Run.

Keep running. Run faster.

Don’t stop. For anything.

Run.

RUN!

…

Turn right. Down that alley.

NO!!

BACK TO THE STREET!

Right. Go. Stay in the streetlights.

Why are all the houses dark? Why isn’t anybody home?

Where is everybody?

…

I don’t know where I am. I don’t recognize anything, no buildings or street names.

I don’t know where I left my truck. I don’t know what I hit. Hard enough to crush the steel bumper and snap off a wheel.

I know there wasn’t anything there when I got out to look.

…

I don’t know what’s chasing me.

…

Can’t scream anymore. Hard enough to breathe.

Tried calling for help. No answer.

Tried pounding on doors. No answer. Not a light or sound from any of these houses.

Haven’t seen a single other car drive by, or person out for a walk, or even a stray cat or squirrel.

Just row after row of the same three models of some developer’s idea of suburban paradise.

…

Have to keep running.

I can hear them. Chasing me. No idea how many.

Can’t see them, but I can hear them.

They’re getting closer.

Keep running.

…

Left. Wait. Haven’t I already been down there?

Every street here looks the same.

There has to be a way out. A way back to the main road. With other cars, other people.

Just keep running. Left. Go. GO!

…

Is that a light? Is that a light on in that house?? It is!

HEY! HEY!! HELP!!

THERE’S SOMETHING CHASING ME!

PLEASE! HELP!

…

…

The light’s out.

…

I can’t hear anything. They’re gone?

No.

They’re here. They’re h

I’M SORRY I’M SORRY IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I DIDN’T SEE YOU I’M SORRY IT WAS AN ACCID

Happy hunting my little demons. May candies feed your bellies and fantasies feed your nightmares for weeks to come.

Cross-post from Rebuilding the Mountain

TL;DR – Tore up my back last year, MRI just came back clean, tracking my recovery here.

Forever ago I was born.

Decades ago I grew up tall and I grew up fast (not so quick or mean; wrong name). 6′ 4″ by 12 years old.

Something I was surprised to learn at that age: not everything in your body grows at the same time or rate. Things like your bones, muscles, tendons… when you go through a series of crazy rapid growth spurts they don’t all keep up with each other.

Flash forward through many wonderful years of high activity and bodily destruction. My doctor told me to think of it like an old elastic band, stretched to it’s maximum and held for years. It wasn’t that I did anything huge and dramatic, just lifting some decently heavy (for me) weights, and my form slipped a little. And like the proverbial camel’s back, those elastic bands snapped (metaphor inception FTW!). One of my vertebrae slipped, tearing ligaments in my lower back and impacting against some kind of important nerves.

(Could have been much worse. The nerves that got tweaked just caused some weird shooting pain down my leg. If the disc had slipped another direction and hit a different set of nerves I could have been dealing with really nasty problems like bowel control and impotence!)

This was September 2010. Not realizing the extent of the damage, I went home, threw on an ice pack, and proceeded to try and stretch it out. For the next week, I twisted and pulled and bent and did everything to try and work out what I thought was just a pulled muscle. Finally went to see a doctor (walk-in clinic), and without even examining me he said the same thing I thought: just a pulled muscle, suck it up. So for the next three months, I just kept working it, stretching hard, going to yoga, even seeing a chiropractor on a friend’s recommendation (never before and likely never again, but that’s a discussion for a different time). All this time I was making the injury even worse, re-tearing the tissues over and over again. Not sleeping, couldn’t sit at my desk, just feeling horrible.

It was actually the chrio who finally asked me what my x-rays said. “What x-rays?” He went white. He had been working on me under the assumption that the first doctor actually knew what the F$%& he was talking about when he told me it was “just a pulled muscle”. Stop everything, go see a real doctor, get your x-rays. This was December.

Saw doc, got x-rays. Doc said I had done so much damage in the last few months trying to “fix” things, that he couldn’t tell what the original injury was or if/how it was healing. So new orders: do nothing. Nothing. No lifting, no bending, don’t walk or stand for more than 20 minutes. No sexy fun-time. For a month.

January 2011, I’m back to see my doctor, and he confirms that I’ve torn the hell out of my lower back. The only thing I can do is rest and wait. “It’s like a broken bone, you can’t work through it or stretch it better, it just has to heal.” Timeline? “At least a year before you’re at 90%.” Can I get ANY exercise? “Walk. Best thing for your back, and pretty much the only thing that won’t strain the area and make your recovery even longer.”

Depressed, bored, weak, I sit and watch as my beloved Rocky Mountains break every snowfall record on the books and have their greatest ski/snowboard season in history. While I sit. Walk around the track at the YMCA in the mornings for 20 minutes. Weeks. Months. I actually start to feel a bit more normal, not in constant pain, able to sleep most of the night. And I forget just how vulnerable I am.

March, I borrowed my dad’s snowblower. Doesn’t weigh that much, I’ll just throw it in the back of my truck. Sure it’s a bit awkward, but it’s nothing…

Seven months since the original injury and I’m back at square one. Fuck. Me.

Since then I’ve been back doing nothing, going for the occasional walk. Eating and drinking like I didn’t give a crap, because I didn’t. Never felt worse in my life. Combine that with the total inactivity, and of course I’ve put on a bunch of fat, gained probably 4 inches around my gut, and lost what muscle I had.

Follow-up MRI in July, reviewed results with Doc yesterday. Good news: no permanent nerve damage, tears have healed (though still extremely weak). Got the official go-ahead to start exercising again.

Hence this.

I will be using this blog to track my progress, record stats, talk about the recovery process. Most of it will be pretty boring to anyone not me: what I ate, how long I rode my bike, etc. Like I say in the description, this blog’s for me. If it can help someone else, great, but really all I’m looking for is a place to review my work and use the shame of public failure as motivation. So on that note, thanks for reading and please feel free to send any advice or questions you have my way.

1. Pick a exotic, interesting country, somewhere not unknown to Western travellers but not over-touristy either. The kind of place fun people go backpacking in groups.



2. Pack one black suit/white shirt and dress shoes with good grip. Be willing to lose them.
3. Find a group of younger (20s) travellers. Hang out, socialize, get to know one guy (specifically a male, doesn’t work with a female, best if he’s a movie or comic fan), find out his name, home town, etc. Give them a fake name, background, etc. If he’s got a background or family in government, military, or law-enforcement, pick someone else.
4. Casually find out where they’re staying, how long, where they’re going next. Give wrong info for your hotel/hostel (i.e., don’t be easily findable).
5. One night, be “accidentally” spotted wearing your suit. Don’t talk, run.
6. Find a web café, get pics and details of target (Facebook, etc.), info on where they’re staying, where they’ve been and are going if possible. Delete web history/cache/etc.
7. Print as much stuff as you can, build loose “dossier” in a large envelope. No fingerprints.
8. The day before you leave: trash the suit, rough yourself up, make it look like you’ve been attacked and beaten up badly. Has to look real.
9. Late at night show up at the target’s room, out of breath, near panic.
10. Act like you’re in trouble, don’t say who or why. Give him the envelope, tell him NOT to open it.



11. Tell him he has to deliver the envelope to a specific trash can (in a market or church or other high-traffic location) tomorrow before midnight.
12. If you can get a convincingly realistic prop gun, take it out. Tell him to keep the lights off, give a dramatic farewell, and run off into the night.
13. Get cleaned up, ditch clothes (and prop gun), head to the airport or bus station. If you know their next stop, send postcard with a cryptic message about everything being “safe” now.

If he does what you ask (not open the envelope, throw it in the garbage), you’ll be a topic of conversation, an interesting story with a question-mark ending.

If he opens the envelope… he will freak the hell out, and probably come looking for you (which is why you used a fake name, location, hotel, and left the country. Also why you avoided fingerprints, in case he’s extra motivated). The mystery will only grow as everything you told him ends up being false. Every James Bond, spy or assassin movie he’s ever seen will resonate in his mind for days, weeks, years. And even though nothing will happen to him, and even though he’ll get a postcard saying everything’s “safe”, he’ll wonder for the rest of his life who you were and why you were interested in him.

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space–each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

The hover-text in Monday’s xkcd hit me just right.

Required something a touch more personal than a mention on Twitter or Facebook. I need to remember things like this.

Maybe that’s what this thing is now.

Holy crap has it really been nearly three months since I was on here? I need to start trying to form coherent thoughts that take more than 140 characters to elucidate.

There’s a thought that’s been rattling around in my head for a while and I need to get it out. I don’t want to, because it’s depressing and unhealthy and generally something on which I don’t like focusing, but at this point it’s become like holding in a fart on a crowded bus.

I’m 33 as I write this. Let’s say, for the sake of simple math, I live to be 93. As well, for simplicity’s sake and a touch of optimism, let us assume I am able to travel and function and enjoy my faculties right up to the end. That gives me 60 years. 720 months. A little less than 22,000 days. Most people would say that sounds like a lot. To me, it is a terrifyingly, infinitesimally small amount of time.

There is something like 195 countries in the world. I used to consider myself fairly well-traveled, fortunate enough to grow up in a family with the means and desire to see the world. But when I really think about it, I’ve maybe visited 8 actual different independent nations (E.g., Canada, USA) . Some for only a day, which can hardly be considered a true experience of the culture. That leaves 187 countries in which I’ve never set foot. If I want to see them all, that means I need to average just over 3 new countries a year, for the rest of my life. This year, our big travel plans are Vancouver. Maybe, if we have a really good year, Mexico in the winter. Those will be great trips, but I still haven’t eaten a-ping in Cambodia or wrestled a zebu in Madagascar. It is a 100% impossibility for any one person to experience every culture the world has to offer, or will offer. And some days it genuinely pisses me off.

Here is Wikipedia’s list of best-selling books.

Here’s Time’s ALL TIME 100 best English-language novels.

Here are 100 Must-Read Books for the Essential Man’s Library.

Here are the 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.

Here are 1001 books you MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE.

I love to read. Most books take me a long time to get through; I usually only read a few pages at a time before going to sleep. Let’s say I read 6 books a year (which is probably optimistic). That means I will likely read approximately 360 more books before I die. Even if I double, or triple my reading rate, how many books is that? If I just decide to read all 1001 books (BEFORE I DIE), I’ll need to average about 16 a year. More than one per month. Just for those “classics” that “everyone” “should” read. No room for small-time, self-published books that I might love, that I might connect with on a deep personal level. No cult-y, off-beat stuff that no critic would ever consider essential reading, but that I might thoroughly enjoy. Comics? I’ve read Watchmen, the only one that ever seems to show up on these lists. I just finished re-reading the whole Transmetropolitan series; one of my absolute favourite stories and characters from any media. Which “best” novel must I give up so I can finish reading The Walking Dead? Or the next Dark Tower novel? Again, it is a 100% impossibility for any one person to experience every piece of literature the world has to offer, or will offer. And some days it genuinely pisses me off.

(This is becoming a very negative post, and I apologize for that, but for some reason these thoughts of mortality and lost experiences have been stuck in my head for a while, and I’m really hoping that this will exercise those demons.)

I often share this personal maxim with friends: “You haven’t had your favourite meal yet.” I mean it in the sense of “You don’t know if you’ll like it until you try it.” I believe that in a broad sense, also more literally there is so much food out there to try in the world, that (statistically speaking), you probably never will get to try what would be your favourite meal. That upsets me. There is more music and movies and games and art that has been created and will be created than can ever be heard or watched or played or experienced. That upsets me. But it also motivates me.

I crave new experiences. When I visit a new restaurant, and there is something on the menu that I don’t already know what it will taste like, I have to try it. If I’m going somewhere new, I’m going to seek out things unique to that place, experiences to have that I haven’t had before, or won’t be able to have elsewhere. This is a vital part of my life. At least I want it to be. But like so many people, so much of my life is safe and sedate, rote and routine. This is a conscious and accepted choice; I want financial and familial success, stability at the core of my life, and a future certain enough for me to take greater risks along the fringes. I live where I live and work where I work because I believe it likely to lead me to a place of financial means and flexible time enough to do many of those adventures that I crave, and to do them with people I love and a family to grow with. There are people who make different choices, and I am grateful to know of them. I may not be able to experience everything the world has to offer, but I can experience so much more vicariously through the sharing of others’.

OK, thank you Internet, for letting me get this off my chest. Writing it did what I hoped it would: get me to break the mental feedback loop of focusing on all the things I won’t get to enjoy in this world, and instead fire me up once again about all the things that I will! One final extra-nerdy thought: we level up by gaining EXPERIENCE; don’t let your life become a grind.

(TL;DR – Try the special.)

Dr. Michael Geist, Canadian copyright watchdog, mentioned on his blog that the public may still have one more chance to have their opinions heard regarding Bill C-32, the new Copyright Act:

In order for briefs on Bill C-32 to be considered by the Committee in a timely fashion, the document should be submitted to the Committee’s mailbox at CC32@parl.gc.ca by the end of January, 2011. A brief which is longer than 5 pages should be accompanied by a 1 page executive summary and in any event should not exceed 10 pages in length.

I’ve spoken endlessly about this before, both in digital and (exhaustive, just ask my girlfriend) verbal arenas. Bottom line: this act, as currently written, puts locks first, rights second. In other words, it will be illegal to break any lock (i.e., digital security measure), even if you are doing so for completely legal reasons (such as ripping a Blu-Ray movie to your computer, or playing a clip from a CBC news story to your class).

As apoplectic as I get when ranting about this to friends and family, I try my best to be as eloquent and concise as possible when discussing the matter in more formal situations, or in a context such that may actually reach someone of knowledge or influence on the subject. Even rational opinions, when expressed with extremist sensibilities, are easily dismissed as only belonging to the extremists. Most Christians do not agree with Fred Phelps and his “ministry”. Most marijuana smokers are nothing like the scrawny, dread-locked, unwashed, half-conscious deadbeat sleeping under his “420″ placard. And the vast majority of those that believe in fair dealing with copyright are not Bond-villain-esque uber-hackers bent on the destruction of society, capitalism, and the entire entertainment complex!

And so, in the spirit of honest and constructive dialog, here is the email I sent to the Bill C-32 Legislative Committee (cc’d to my MP James Rajotte):

to: CC32@parl.gc.ca
cc: Rajotte.J@parl.gc.ca
date: Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 1:56 PM
subject: Bill C-32

To the members of the Bill C-32 Legislative Committee;

As per your news release: “STUDY OF BILL C-32, AN ACT TO AMEND THE COPYRIGHT ACT” of December 06, 2010, I would like to add my support to the advocacy of maintaining a fair approach to copyright that does not result in digital locks trumping consumer rights and that advances fair dealing for the benefit of creators, consumers, education, and business.

I feel that Dr. Michael Geist has done an acceptable job of defining certain beliefs about Bill C-32 that I share, and so in an effort to maintain clarity I will quote his words as they match my opinions:

• I agree that Bill C-32 “…must retain legal protection for digital locks…”, but must also “…ensure that digital locks do not trump all other copyright rights by preserving fair dealing and consumer rights.” I believe that Bill C-32 must clarify “…that it is only a violation to circumvent a digital lock where the underlying purpose is to infringe copyright. This approach – which has been adopted by countries such as New Zealand and Switzerland – would ensure that the law could be used to target clear cases of commercial piracy but that individual consumer and user rights are preserved.” (emphasis mine)
• With regards to defining “Fair Dealing”, the Copyright Act should codify the six-part fairness text as identified by The Supreme Court of Canada:
  • “The Supreme Court of Canada has identified six non-exhaustive factors to assist a court’s fairness inquiry: (1) the purpose of the dealing; (2) the character of the dealing; (3) the amount of the dealing; (4) alternatives to the dealing; (5) the nature of the work; and (6) the effect of the dealing on the work.”

I strongly believe that these two issues form the heart of what both the proponents of Bill C-32 believe needs to be addressed, and of which opponents of the Bill are most concerned with the consequences. I strongly believe that no one in this committee or administration wishes to see the abuse of copyright that takes place when unquestionably fair, non-damaging (or even beneficial) use of a piece of work is prevented, punished, or even “chilled” due to a rights-holder taking advantage of poorly-written legislation. All that needs to happen to guarantee that the rights of Canadian users and institutions are held in priority is to enshrine “Fair Dealing” as the defining concept behind any claims of wrong-doing, regardless of the method or means of the wrong-doing.Please listen to Canadians. Thank you.

/Michael Lawton
Edmonton, Alberta

The unfortunate reality of these sort of highly technical issues is that there tends to be few parties with a full grasp of the situation and potential consequences. Unfortunate because there is often a significant disparity between the level of access and influence these parties have to those entrusted to make decisions. This results in a situation where only one side is being heard, the other marginalized, and major legislative decisions being made without all the facts. The marginalized side screams “BIAS” and “BRIBERY” and “SELLOUT” while the general population dismisses them as a bunch of paranoid geeks and petty thieves… until 5 or 10 years down the road when everyone starts to feel the results and wonders how such horrible and obviously harmful laws ever came to pass.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is the US’s copyright legislation that much of Bill C-32 (and even more of it’s predecessor’s) is based on. It was passed unanimously in 1996, and took almost 10 years before enough of a public outcry over the endless lawsuits, overly punitive damages, impeded competition, stifled speech, and frivolous abuse that the government began discussing reforms.

If the people could have seen how harmful and unproductive those parts of the DMCA would be, it never would have passed in it’s form. Right now Canadians are looking at our own DMCA, with egregious oversights and corporate/foreign priorities just as dangerous as those passed in the US 15 years ago. We can look South and see just how bad the consequences will be. There is still a chance to make your voice heard. Don’t wish you had, do it.

… or maybe just winter in Alberta.

I love this snow. Light, fluffy, fun. Yes the responsibilities of an adult world can make appreciation of this spectacle somewhat more difficult, but even amidst all the shoveling and snowblowing and driving and cleaning and plowing and parking and digging and everything else that comes with our messed-up society trying to pretend that we don’t have to care about what’s happening outside our windows, I hope there’s a tiny glimmer of snow-day delight in your heart when you look out over a beautiful blanket of white.

I really think we need to stop trying to force “business-as-usual” regardless of the weather. How much more relaxed and happy would we all be if the city just declared “snow day” and told everyone to stay home, take your time, clear your own walks, move your cars so we can plow the streets, go out and roll around in the snow for a while, play with your kids/pets/whatever. I know not everyone can just take the day off (plow drivers for example; maybe doctors), but if 90% of the city just stayed home for a day or two while we got everything cleaned up not only would there be FAR fewer accidents and other vehicle problems, but in general people would be happy about the snow! And maybe go out and enjoy it a little, like when we were kids.

Well, that was a year…

Top Music in 2010

(play count of the last 12 months according to last.fm)

Artists

Tracks

Twitter

I see "mountain", "awesome", and "happy". Good sign.

Facebook

"awesome", "beer", "happy"... "hurts"

Top words (in order) were awesome, happy, may (?), time, morning, hurts, weekend, snow, halloween, facebook, find, mountain, anyone, room, really, mountains (plural should count together IMO). Not sure if the word cloud or that list includes captions on posted links/pics/videos, comments, or just straight status updates.

Bookmark Tags

I tag a lot of videos

Not feeling like writing a heck of a lot right now, so I’ll just end with a sentiment I agree with whole-heartedly: