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I got a football tuneup on Thursday night as the Eagles played the Jets in the 4th preseason game of the year. This game is ALWAYS a yawner but I wasn’t shooting the game so it really wasn’t too bad. And if there’s one redeeming thing about shooting in the preseason, it’s that it’s still summer and the cheerleaders haven’t lost their tans yet.

Soundman extraordinaire and fellow gearhead Chris Kellett was my teammate for our shoot on the use of helmet radios in the NFL and those green dots you see some guys wearing. The segment will air on ESPN during a future “NFL Films Presents” show.

Chris shows his boredom with the preseason by napping while this photo was being shot. After you’ve been to a few thousand games, some of them get a little boring.

I was shooting with the SONY F900R HDCAM. It’s a nice camera, a really nice camera, but you have to wonder how much longer any of us can keep shooting tape. Having to digitize your footage in real time is becoming a bigger and bigger issue.

If I was forced to buy a camera six months ago, I probably would have gone with some form of tape. After using the XDCAM HD gear on several recent shoots, I’d say that tape is almost dead.

I got a great shot of Wem and his buddy Louie today at the dog park. Louie is a 17-year-old Brittany who has traveled the world. He lived in Russia for a while. He’s incredibly spry for a dog of his age. He even turns the table on Wem from time to time, dishing out a little dominance humping on his yourger counterpart.

Doh! I’m doing really well and my scale at home says I have lost weight but I had to miss my official weigh-in on Thursday night because I had to work. We’ll see what happens next week. Here’s the tally.

• week 01 weight 262.4lbs
• week 02 weight 263.4lbs
• week 03 weight 261.8lbs
• week 04 missed weigh-in
  

Adorable infant tires of being photographed, tries Tommy Lee approach. Film at 11.

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

Whizzing home from Washington, DC on Amtrak

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

I made some progress this week. I’ve started to get on a roll with eating better. Once you see results, you can use that to bolster your will power. Here’s how we stand.

• week 01 weight 262.4lbs
• week 02 weight 263.4lbs
• week 03 weight 261.8lbs

Vacuum sealed seconds and broken pieces. What a lovely way to sell tubesteak.

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

Yet another reason to wine about the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone.

I posted the article below this one (about Two Amys Pizza) using the Wordpress iPhone app. It’s a nice little program that has its limits, many of which could be overcome if I could properly edit HTML by logging into my blog and moving stuff around.

I really wanted to move the pizza image to the middle of the post and the only way to do that is to copy the image’s HTML from the bottom and paste it in the middle. No can do.

Here’s another one. You order something from an online retailer and they email you a long-ass UPS tracking number. How exactly do you get that number into the tracking box at UPS.com? Write it down and then tap it in? Kinda defeats the purpose of having a computer in my pocket, don’t you think?

There’s an incredible brick oven pizza place in Washington, DC called 2Amys. My sister introduced me to it a few years ago and it’s on my “must do” list every time I visit her.

This week I happened to be working in DC and last night I met her there for dinner.

I had the 2Amys basic pizza (tomato and mozarella pie) to which I added smoked pancetta and gorgonzola. Holy crap! If I’m ever headed to the electric chair, that’s my last meal.

They have some incredible salads, baked olives, deviled eggs and meat and cheese plates. Everything is really fresh and perfectly prepared. They have a really nice selection of beer and wine as well.

Please promise me that you’ll try Two Amys next time you’re in the DC area. You’ll thank me.

2Amys Neopolitan Pizzeria
3715 Macomb Street NW
Washington, DC 20016
http://2amyspizza.com

Just a quick note on my progress for week 2 of WW. According to their scale, which is the only thing that matters, I gained a pound. waaaah. I have started eating better though, making much better choices. This week will be better.

• week 01 weight 262.4lbs
• week 02 weight 263.4lbs

More Please!

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

Shot in Liberty Lands on August 14, 2008. These puppies are about 8 feet tall. There are some that are approaching 12 feet!

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

If you’ve never walked across your local bridge, I’d encourage you to do so. I snapped this shot on the Ben Franklin Bridge on a beautiful August afternoon.

Shot with my iPhone.

One of the most difficult things to figure out about the 3G iPhone is how the Google Maps app has changed since the original phone. The addition of GPS is interesting but probably not all that useful yet since most people use a GPS for the spoken turn by turn directions. However, you can find some cool uses for the GPS if you can figure out how it works.

The big thing you should know is that the little location button in the lower left of the screen must have a blue background in order for the GPS to track you. Touch the location button once and it turns blue and shows activity. In this mode, it will try to locate you and then track your progress, shifting the maps as you move. Touch the location button again and it turns gray. In this mode, it’s inactive and your maps will not scroll with your movements. Simple but not obvious.

Something that many people don’t understand is that the GPS needs a reasonably clear view of the sky in order to lock into the satellites. Recently, a friend showed me that his iPhone GPS wasn’t working and when I pointed out that he was standing in a cement room…well, the light bulb went on. If you don’t have a nuvi or tomtom or some similar portable GPS then how would you know?

What’s the first thing you do upon leaving your local Weight Watchers meeting? You go directly to the nearest taproom of course! The beauty of Weight Watchers is that you don’t have specific food to avoid, you just have to know how everything affects your weight and then make better choices about portion sizes.

All foods are assigned points. You get a certain number of points to consume every day. Eat or drink whatever you want as long as you stop when you exhaust your daily points total. Get points back for exercise. Simple, right?

Lisa is better at it than I am but I’ll “ramp up” in the next week or so. While she could have gotten onion rings or fries, Lisa chose the Memphis Taproom’s chilled blueberry ginger soup. It was a lovely shade of violet. The chef there really knows what he’s doing.

My wife has really found motivation by attending our local Weight Watchers meetings and has talked me into attending with her on Thursday nights. I’m a 6′1″ lad with some large bones. If I were to lose 40 or 50 pounds I would really be skinny. Let’s start with one pound and we’ll see how it goes.

I thought I’d post my weekly progress here as additional motivation. If you’re reading this and you want to keep me honest, send me an email.

The first meeting was last night and I feel better already.

week 01 weight 262.4lbs

Fresh out of the bath, Mr. Parky-pants shows off the piggies.

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

A Classic Ferrari shot from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. If you’re a gear head, you MUST see this place.

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

Al Kloda and I pose as the Philadelphia Eagles play the New York Jets during the preseason game at Lincoln Financial Field, Thursday, August 30, 2007 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Photo credit: David Maialetti / Philadelphia Daily News

more of my pix at my flickr photostream

I’ll take 20 million dollars to retire. What’s the Packers’ number? Gimme that phone. I’ll take a knee and never get up.

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