I notice that I speak in hyperbole quite a bit, but I don’t think I would over-exaggerate if I said that the Nike+iPod running system quite literally changed my life.
I had run on and off with my buddy Chris for a year or so. Or rather, I’d stumble along behind Chris as he ran. I never enjoyed it and most times when Christ would call to invite me on a run, I’d find an excuse not to go.
I needed some motivation and I needed it quickly. My weight had climbed up to 244 pounds and my Mii on WiiFit was obese! I had to do something. We had an old iPod Nano lying around so I decided to invest $30 and buy the Nike+iPod Sports Kit. With the sensor in my shoe, and the dongle plugged into the iPod Nano, the Sport Kit would track my distance and calories and automatically upload the data to Nikeplus.com. I could track my progress and literally watch the fat melt off my chubby frame.
Fast forward 6 months and 330 miles and I’m down almost 20 pounds! Nike+ has been awesome, to say the least! So why the “break up” headline in the title of this post? It all started with my other buddy Jack and a little website called livestrong.com.
Jack is a runner and I talked him into getting the Nike+iPod Sports Kit to track his runs. He swore up and down that it wasn’t accurate. I told him he was crazy. Mine was spot on. But he persisted and planted a seed of doubt in my mind.
Livestrong.com has been around for a while, and I actually joined it in 2008. I just never utilized it much.
As I had lost a little bit of weight running every day, I thought I could lose even more if I actually ate healthier (I’m addicted to Wendy’s and Carl’s Jr!). So I logged back into livestrong.com to start tracking my calorie intake.
I need to do another blog post just on the livestrong.com interface and how awesome it is. As I got used to using livestrong, I noticed that there was something new on the website that wasn’t there in 2008. It was simply entitled “Loops“. Wait a sec, this looks familiar! Kind of like the “map it” feature on Nike+!
I start clicking around and lo and behold! I can create loops (aka routes or maps) that will calculate calories burnt, distance, and all that good stuff too. It integrates directly into my caloric intake and is subtracted from my daily calories! Very nice.
The biggest drawback to this new system is that I have to recreate all my running routes with the Livestrong map tool. Good thing it only takes about 4 minutes per loop! After a few minutes of work, I have the following loops built:
As you can tell, Livestrong is very web 2.0, with big buttons and overall prettiness. I recreated the second loop, “6 miles around Bear Creek”, and actually ran the route the first chance I got. I get home and what does my Nike+ tell me? I only ran 5.5 miles? What the what? A half a mile is a pretty big discrepancy! I talk to my wife the math genius, and she does assure me that distance, when calculated correctly, is the constant in the equation of distance and time. Nike+ HAD to be incorrect.
If I wasn’t going to use Nike+ anymore, or at least count it as accurate, that meant I was going to have to track all my stats myself. That didn’t phase me as I have done some spreadsheets before. I quickly found a Running Log template that someone had created for Excel and set it up for my personal use. At the same time I visited Runningworld.com to find some help on nursing my strained calf back to health and found out by accident that they offer a free online Running Log as well. All the work was done for me!
Runningworld.com is a great website with lots of tools for runners. The one thing their Log doesn’t track is calories.
So now I’m in double redundancy using Livestrong and Runningworld, but it seems to be the only way I can get an accurate count of how much I’ve ran. At first accuracy didn’t seem so important, but the longer I run, the more accuracy is important. Nike+ says I’ve run 330 miles, but what if it is 350? That’s a big difference!
I am fulfilled. I have seen Stryper in concert and they surpassed all my expectations!
I’ve been an enormous Stryper fan since 1988. They played a crucial part in my coming to know Jesus Christ in a very real way. I’ve memorized every note and lyric of every song of every album they have released. I just had never seen a live show.
Until this past Saturday, November 14th that is. And man, what a freakin’ eh awesome show it was.
Stryper at the soundcheck:
I had the privilege of getting a “meet ‘n greet” pass that enabled me an early entry into the concert, a chance to hear the sound check, and a chance to meet the band.
This didn’t go as well as I’d hope. We were supposed to get in at 5pm but weren’t given entry until 6. The band was on stage and as I walked into the club, it was like I was in a dream! There was Michael Sweet, the Stryper frontman! Right there, 5 feet away from me! Tim Gaines, one of the best bass players in music, right there! Mr Oz Fox, guitar player extraordinaire, right there!!! Robert Sweet was behind his drum kit, so I didn’t get to see him so well. I was a little overwhelmed!
The band ripped through 2 songs and it was magical! The club stagehand was being a little pushy as they were an hour behind and sat the band down at a table and put everyone in a single file line to get an autograph. At this I was more than a little bummed.
I don’t care about autographs. I just wanted to tell these guys “Thank You” from the bottom of my heart. They helped me get through those tough teen-age years with my sanity and faith intact. We were rushed through the line and I did get to shake hands with all the guys except Michael. I got to say thanks, but it wasn’t what I had hoped for.
All that activity took us to about 6:45pm. I went straight to the front of the room where and got my place almost dead center. There was just one problem: the concert didn’t start until 8:30pm. Oh well….I just got my legs locked and waited almost 2 hours in one spot.
Finally the lights went down and on came 3 young guys from Canada (eh!) that made up the band Manic Drive. I wasn’t expecting much, so I was taken aback as they came out and rocked the house! They had a lot of energy and looked like they just loved to entertain. I liked ‘em so much I bought both of their CDs at the merch table.
Manic Drive:
The next band to hit the stage was called Flight Patterns, featuring Michael Sweet Jr on guitar. I had never heard their music, but was hoping to like ‘em.
That was just too much to hope for. Flight Patterns just plain sucked. They were off key and off pitch, and they sounded like a very bad wanna-be Relient K cover band. The bass player was super annoying and played an open E string for every song.
Flight Patterns:
Eventually Flight Patterns got off the stage and it took about 45 minutes for the roadies to set up Stryper’s equipment. My back was aching and my feet hurt for standing up for so long, but the moment of truth was near!!!
The lights went out…..long silence…….and then DUN DUN DUN DEDUN! Stryper came on stage ripping through Soldier’s Under Command!! Yellow and black leather (not spandex!), long hair, ah, everything I dreamed of!
It is all kind of a blur, but I remember they played through most of To Hell With The Devil and The Yellow and Black Attack. They played probably 3 or 4 new songs from Murder By Pride and even covered Judas Priest’s Breaking The Law. I will say this…every song they played they played with an intense fervor and energy. Say what you want to about the yellow and black and the big hair and all that, but Stryper are some absolutely awesome musicians.
They played their encore to To Hell With The Devil. It was one of the most bestest moments of my life (aside from my wedding and kids and such).
Now I can check off a life long goal to see and meet Stryper. Thank you Jesus!
Every once in a while a song will come along and make you think in ways you hadn’t thought before.
Flyleaf’s new album, Momento Mori, has one such song. Entitled “Beautiful Bride”, the song is an amazing example of creative music and intriguing lyrics.
Beautified diversity
Functioning as one body
Every part encouraged by the other
No one independent of another
You’re irreplaceable, indispensable
You’re incredible
You’re incredible
(Chorus)
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
Strengthen your arms now
Train your fingers for battle
Urgency’s here now
Train your fingers for battle
Fighting this violence
With your feet wrapped in peace
Sad tears and silence
Now screams of joy
Victory
(Chorus)
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
We’re not gonna fall and forget
How far You went to pick us up
If one part’s hurt the whole body’s sick
If one part mourns we all mourn with Him
Rejoice, we’ll sing with you
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
(Chorus)
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
It’s not very often that a song will stop and make me think. When I did, I thought about this wondrous group of people I belong to, the Body and Bride of Christ. It is a humbling thing to think of the great men and women who came before me and how many gave up their lives to live and love for Jesus. I think of my friends now who struggle with every day issues of pride and anger and lust; yet for all our weaknesses, Jesus still loves us enough to call us His Love, His Bride.
Mastedon is the name of a Christian rock band formed by brothers Dino and John Elefante (former members and songwriters of Kansas) in the mid-80s. The band was formed mainly as a studio project and released two full-length albums and two stand-alone songs on compilation albums.
from me: I’ve been a huge fan of Mastedon since 1989. Being a young Christian metalhead, I stumbled upon this band with awe and reverence. I was at their one and only concert at Cornerstone ’91!
The Elefante brothers were the founders of Pakaderm Records which released some great Christian metal albums. X-Sinner and Guardian got their start on this label. Mastedon also released their second record, Lofcaudio, through Pakaderm. I’ll give you a minute to find the connecting dots of the names…Elefante brothers, Pakaderm Records, Mastedon…
Mastedon has always been head and shoulders above other Christian metal bands. All the other bands had their secular counterparts: Whitecross was the Christian Ratt, Barren Cross was the Christian Iron Maiden, X-Sinner was the Christian AC/DC. Mastedon had their own sound and their music was better than any other melodic metal band, secular or Christian.
After 19 long years, Mastedon has released some new tunes, and they have only gotten better. 3 is destined to become a classic, must-have for any melodic rock collector.
I have audio samples from each song from the new album below. If you love what you hear, and want Mastedon’s back catalog, you can but it from . iTunes is much cheaper than Amazon.com. They do not have the mp3 downloads.
I have give a big shout out to Bravewords.com, as they were crucial in my finding out about the new Mastedon album. They are a wealth of information for the avid music fan!
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I need to do another blog post just on the livestrong.com interface and how awesome it is. As I got used to using livestrong, I noticed that there was something new on the website that wasn’t there in 2008. It was simply entitled “Loops“. Wait a sec, this looks familiar! Kind of like the “map it” feature on Nike+!
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