Jpatrickm

I’ve been a member of 24-Hour Fitness now for about 7 years. I bought into some pre-pay scheme way back when I lived in Seattle and now I pay something like $9 a month if I promise to bring them my first born child. Needless to say, I HATE the gym… I only go because the only thing I hate more is being single and fat. I don’t know where this gym-anxiety comes from but I was definitely skipped when they were handing out that gay gene.

Well my usual routine is to zip in and out as fast as I can without making eye contact. 24-Hour Fitness is like a damn cattle car so it’s difficult to avoid people all together; everyone is packed in and occasionally there is a line to use the equipment, but don’t even get me started on that one. Anyway, I make some vain attempt at a few machines and then I dash for an open treadmill to sweat away a peaceful 30 minutes with just me and my iPod. I’ve always loved running and so that is my failsafe workout when I’m not in the mood for anything else.

So there I was up on my treadmill thumping along at a pretty good pace, wedged between a long line of soccer moms in stretchy pink pants flipping through their “Women’s World”. I was doing my usual best attempt at gym-posturing, pretending that it was my scene and that I was all about fitness. Alternating my glances between the dashboard in front of me and the TVs suspended from the ceiling; making sure not to stare for too long to avoid drifting to the side of the belt and catching an edge and stumbling back. That would be a major gym mistake… an amateur miscalculation. Being at the gym is all about good form.

As I ran along at my 7.1 pace, starring expressionless at the wall of mirrors in front of me, trying not to make eye contact with the other anonymous sweaty faces also starring forward, I felt this strange ruffle of fabric in the shoulder of my t-shirt. I shifted the cord of my headphones around a bit thinking that maybe something was catching on my shirt. A few seconds later, emerging from the cuff of my short sleeve was a little tuft of semi-transparent fabric.

And right there, in the middle of all my macho gym-posturing, and looking sexy and cool, alongside all my little pink-bunny-suited moms and muscle-head guys…. I dispensed a dryer fabric softening sheet from my shirt sleeve.

And that is why I hate the gym.

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I’m sure everyone has already been bombarded with this news, but it’s just too cool to not write about. Today at Macworld 2007, Apple announced the much anticipated iPhone. The first looks are amazing. This thing is going to break the mobile phone market wide open. It’s not very often that a device is released with so many features all in one release. Usually the phone manufacturers are one or two generations behind and there is always that one little something missing that keeps people from switching over. The iPhone appears to have everything… and even better, looks to be coming through Cingular. The price appears to be $499 with a contract.

At first glance:

• Runs on OS X
• iPod, phone and internet communicator all-in-one
• 3.5 inch widescreen touchscreen
• 11.6 millimeter thick
• 8 GB storage
• Bluetooth
• 2 megapixel phone
• Wifi
• GSM with high speed EDGE
• Support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes

Here’s a few pics:

Read more about the announcement at Macworld at Engadget.com

engadget.com - Apple iPhone/
Live from Macworld 2007 - Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

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Can you tell I’m on an anti-Trump rant lately? Well I just thought I’d pass along a little more Trump-bashing. The new season of Trump’s “The Apprentice” was apparently a dive on NBC. He moved the show to L.A. from NY this season in hopes it would revitalize the ratings. The season premier averaged 9.1 million viewers compared with rival “Desperate Housewives” on ABC, which scooped up 18.6 million viewers.

The funniest piece of the whole story is that the ratings of his premier were behind even a REPEAT of the Fox cartoon “Family Guy”. Now who’s the fat slob?

Further proof that nobody is really buying into Trump’s huffing-and-puffing-king-of-the-world crap anymore. OVER IT!

Read the full article on Yahoo! news.

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Here are the 2 video clips I made while skiing at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire over Christmas. They really aren’t anything special and they are kind of jumpy but I figured I’d post them here anyway. Hope you like them

Skiing at Loon Mountain - Video 1

Skiing at Loon Mountain - Video 2

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I’d just like to say that I’m completely sick of hearing about this little war-of-words between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell. I mean come on… he’s defending the Miss USA competition as if it’s some stellar institution of moral values and honor. It’s a bunch of girls in bikinis prancing around on stage so a bunch of fat guys can drink beer and pretend they care about how Miss Alabama wants to save the world. This isn’t a spelling bee here… if you have nice boobs then you win. But let’s face it, the whole argument between Rosie and Donald really has nothing to do with the Miss USA thing… they are just in a race to the bottom to see who can sling shit on the other one faster. Frankly, in my opinion, it’s like a car wreak… you can’t help but slow down and watch but you really don’t want to be part of it.

Get over it people… soldiers are dying in Iraq every day and the best we can do is sit on CNN and call each other fat slobs?

On a positive note… Donald Trump was voted the “Most Annoying Person of 2006″.

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