Pros:

• Played on Riot! Games stage for League of Legends (LoL) and lost horribly! My screen was one of the highlighted ones and it was not a good game for me… maybe this should also be a con…
• Played in a Battlefield 3 mini-tournament with the new expansion pack CQB.  I came in tied for 5th but ended up 6th or 7th score wise.  Not bad for a tourney of 16.
• Cosplay and lots of it this year!
• High-Rez studios releasing Smite, another MOBA type game like LoL only in a 3rd person point of view.

• Double Dragon Neon! This game brings back memories
• Lots of free-to-play games coming out
• Won a t-shirt at Ghost Recon for winning our match
• Torchlight 2, Diablo 3 betas on PC for 30 minutes

First the shoes… I talk to my boss a lot about running. Ever since my wife ran her first marathon, the Mount Desert Island, back in October, we have conversations about his races, my training and my wife’s training. He noticed that I wore Mizuno’s and asked why I had purchased this particular shoe. My response was because of my severe pronation and flat feet. His response was to try the VFFs as they have help his feet out. So like a good scientist, I did my research…

Part 1: The shoes and form!

I was hesitant to get a pair because while they may really help out my feet and running style, they may also really make me more prone to injuries, not to mention the stares of running in “toe shoes.” I debated for a bit, discussed it with my wife and I made the final decision to get a pair when my boss emailed me one night saying they were on sale. Score! But not quite yet… You see, VFFs fit very differently than regular shoes. You actually need to try them on at a store first as your toes may be “webbed” differently than anyone else. OH! And their sizes start at 40 and go to 47 so there is no real sliding scale. So, I made the trip to my local REI to try on a couple of sizes before making the final purchase (along with some toe socks). In the end, I chose the Bikila since I was planning on road and treadmill running.

Lovely aren’t they?! I wanted something different and back in high school, I had running flats that were red, yellow and white so I wanted something similar. Once in my hands, I put them on and walked around the house for a couple of hours. And thus ended the first step in using the VFFs. Now you may ask, why stop there? Well, there is a breaking in process in using these shoes. One doesn’t simply just start running in VFFs. There is a gradual progression and my first step was to wear them in the house for a couple of hours and then give my legs a break for 3 days.

Let’s take a look at the sole of the VFFs before going into running. As you can see on the right, the sole is very thin. So thin, that you’ll feel pebbles and rocks on the ground if you step right on them. With no cushion to protect your heel, your running form will change so that the balls of your feet (between your toes and your arch) will touch the ground first with your heel just grazing the pavement/treadmill below. As you can see below on my shoes, the balls of my feet as well as my toes have started to wear out first while my heel is still relatively new looking.

Part 2: The incremental run!

I don’t care how you space out your runs but I would suggest being able to run 3 miles before starting to train in any VFFs. Once you can run 3 miles easily (easy for you that is), work on this plan. One big note though, this is meant more for distance and endurance rather than speed. I started out slow and once I was finished with my increments, then I was able to work on speed. Remember to think about how your feet are hitting the ground rather than how fast and how long you are running for.

0.25 miles in VFFs then 2.75 miles in your regular shoes then take 2-3 days off

0.5 miles in VFFs then 2.5 miles in shoes then 2-3 days off

0.75 miles in VFFs then 2.25 miles in shoes then 2-3 days off

1 mile in VFFs then 2 miles in shoes, 2-3 days off

1.3 miles in VFFs then 1.7 miles in shoes, 2-3 days off

1.6 miles in VFFs then 1.4 miles in shoes, 3 days off

2 miles in VFFs, 1 mile in shoes, 3 days off

2.5 miles in VFFs, 0.5 miles in shoes, 3-4 days off

3 miles in VFFs, 1 week off

3 miles in VFFs, 1-2 days off, 3 miles in shoes, 2-3 days off [repeat twice]

3 miles in VFFs, 3 miles in shoes next day, 2-3 days off [repeat twice]

3 miles in VFFs, 3 miles in VFFs next day, 2-3 days off [repeat twice]

Please remember to take days off and by days off, I mean no running or working out. After my first 1.3 miles in the VFFs, my calves were torn up for days. I rested 3 days and ran the next still sore. But, by the end, you should have built up your calf, feet and ankle muscles to the point where you should be able to handle running 3 days in a row with VFFs. It might take some people more than 2-3 days to recover from a run but it will be worth it. I suggest lots of stretching and hydration!

Part 3: The real training

It has been about 3 weeks since I’ve been running on a daily basis with the shoes now with some soreness (which is to be expected) but nothing too serious. I’m putting in about 13 miles a week and the mileage will only increase starting today.

I can’t tell you how frustrated I was when I joined the beta. After playing CoD:BO for months (getting to 9th prestige), I entered back into the world of PC first person shooter (FPS) gaming. The learning curve wasn’t too hard as I’ve always been a PC gamer, but the learning curve for BF3 was incredibly harder than I had imagined.

I had a couple of weeks to enjoy BF3 until Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) came out.  Like CoD:BO, MW3 was fast paced, easy and required some strategy, but not to the level of BF3 did.  And within a week of MW3′s release, I played the game twice.  The rest of my gaming December was filled with BF3.  Why?

Tanks, helicopters, jets and more tanks!

In MW3, the game is very linear.  You worry about your other opponents who are also ground forces.  Once in awhile, you’ll get the killstreak helicopter or airstrike, but those can be easily shot down with a rocket launcher.  Otherwise, you worry about those on the ground.  Fast forward to BF3!  Tanks, helicopters and jets that you as a player can drive/pilot.  You can blow up buildings, collapse them and all inside. You can destroy barricades, lay down anti-tank mines or hop in an anti-air vehicle and shoot down those pesky choppers.  In the case of BF3, you not only need to worry about ground forces (other players), but you need to also watch out for tanks that patrol, light-armored vehicles (LAVs) that can transport others to objectives, or even jeeps that can run you over!  And that’s not mentioning helicopters that can spot you, shoot you down or blow up the building you are hiding in.  Battlefield 3 adds that extra dimension and strategy that Modern Warfare 3 can’t and that is vehicles.  How do you defend or attack your opponent who is steam-rolling you in an M1 Abrams tank?

Alright, enough about the game.  I’ve spent entirely way too much time playing but I’ve had a lot of fun.  If you’d like to add me, check my stats or play with me, feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll be more than happy to join you.  I now leave you with some screenshots and a short video by jackfrags!

My Battlelog Profile

If you want to read more about SOPA, you can go here, here, here, and  here.

Go Daddy has a long history of supporting federal legislation directed toward combating illegal conduct on the Internet. For example, our company strongly supported the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, the Protect Our Children Act of 2008, and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP). Go Daddy has always supported both government and private industry efforts to identify and disable all types of illegal activity on the Internet. It is for these reasons that I’m still struggling with why some Internet companies oppose PROTECT IP and SOPA. There is no question that we need these added tools to counteract illegal foreign sites that are falling outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement. And there is clearly more that we could all be doing to adequately address the problems that exist.

But it is more than just theft of IP in this situation.  It is about complete censorship.  For a company like GoDaddy to support a bill of internet censorship when its main business purpose is to allow people to create their own sites is ridiculous.  There are even more companies who support this bill.

But there have been dozens of large companies that are speaking out against SOPA.  Ben Huh of Cheezburger, has vowed to move over 1000 domains from GoDaddy over the support of SOPA.  Will this matter to GoDaddy?  Of course not, but news is spreading!  There have been support from a number of hosting providers including our own sponsor HostGator.  It is nice to know that our sponsor sides with us!

So what can you do?  Move from GoDaddy to another registrar or hosting provider.  Here are a list of codes that you can use [Reddit]

• Name.com Use “NODADDY” for 10% off transfer ins (COM, NET, ORG, TV, INFO, IN, US, CO, ME & TEL) and also receive 40% off any of our hosting plans. They also oppose SOPA:  http://blog.name.com/2011/12/getting-on-our-sopa-box-and-saving-you-money/
• HostGator.comis doing 50% off Shared / Reseller / VPS first month. Coupon code: NOSOPA http://blog.hostgator.com/2011/12/22/sopa-must-die/
• Namecheap.comIf you use the code “BYEBYEGD” Namecheap makes a donation to Save The Elephants or use“SOPASucks” for $6.99 transfers.

So what next?  That is up to you!  For now, there may be some interruptions in services here but it will be temporary!  Just until I migrate my domain from GoDaddy to another registrar.

[Wired] [Reddit][TechCrunch]

Happy Holidays!

More info to come in this placeholder post!

There is 1 caveat to the entire cloud music service though… Data. I currently use both Amazon and Google Music and I stream music from my phone pretty much all day while I am working. Although I currently have an unlimited data plan through Verizon (I have the Thunderbolt), I have used 0.7GB in the 14/30ish days this cycle. If this rate continues, I’ll use at least 1.5GB this month without tethering! (Yes I tether… 4G speeds for my laptop anywhere is so useful) With Verizon’s new tiered data plans coming out (or AT&T’s data cap), I could only wonder how much data people would use per month…

Amazon Cloud

Initially, Amazon had a cloud storage service where you could store any files that you wanted for a charge per GB used as well as the data transfer fees. This wasn’t such a bad deal since you pay for what you need and use. But then came the talk of cloud music streaming and Amazon decided it would be a great idea to give everyone 5GB of storage on their cloud free! And even better, if you purchased an album online on the Amazon store, they upgraded you to 20GB free (for 1 year, then $20/year after). Sweet! 20GB is some pretty decent storage that is free (esp. when you buy an album for only $0.99). Other storage services charge anywhere from $10/month for 50GB (which is $120/year) but compared to Amazon’s prices, other cloud storage services can’t compare ($50/year for 50GB or $1/GB/year). But just yesterday, Amazon announced that if you had any cloud storage plan above 20GB, your music would not count towards this storage! So you essentially have an unlimited music storage service with 20GB to back up your photos, documents and whatever for just $20/year. To me, this is an exceptional deal! Unfortunately though, if you stick with the 5GB storage that is free, your music storage will be counted. But really, how expensive is $20/year for files you can access anywhere you have an internet connection. OH! And their music player app is cross-smartphone compatible.

TL;DR
Pros:

Cheap
All-purpose storage
Unlimited music storage (for paid only)
Cross-platform music player (app)
5GB FREE

Cons:

5GB is not a lot of space

Google Music

I initially used Amazon cloud first since it was the first available to me and I thought it was awesome until my friend got into the Google Music beta (before me, and also before Amazon’s unlimited music storage). Google offers storage and streaming of your 20,000 songs. Songs, not size! So if you bought your CD (yes, I still buy CDs) and ripped them at a high bit-rate, your files will be considerably larger than the typical MP3 or M4P files. So I requested to be put into the beta and when my invite came, I immediately uploaded my music from both my laptop and desktop. Now, I knew there would be duplicates and I figured that I would parse through everything later… but Google already did that for me once everyone was uploaded. No duplicates and whenever I add new songs to my “Music” folder, it automatically adds them to Google Music. Talk about your seamless syncing! And they even gave me about 20 songs free to listen to as it should “fit my taste.” So as I write this, I am listening to my 2100+ songs on the web based app on my work computer. And when I am away from my desk, I play music through my Droid app on my phone. But how much is 20,000 songs? If you estimate about 4MB/song, you would be looking at 80GB of storage. And remember, this is just for music only! The biggest downside to Google Music is their app, which is only available for Android phones only!

TL;DR
Pros:

FREE
Storage for 20k songs (which is a LOT)
Seamless sync between computers
“Smart” file management
Some Free songs

Cons:

Music only
>App is Android phone only

Apple iCloud

Now, I sold my iPhone 4 just over a month ago and it took less than 2 minutes to sell on eBay. In hindsight, I should have sold it for more, but I was glad to be rid of the phone. Not that there is anything wrong with the phone, I happened to enjoy my Android phone so much more. Anyways, back to iCloud, the new Apple cloud storage system that replaces MobileMe, which was their paid ($99/year) cloud storage system for a measly 5GB which was then upgraded to 20GB. Now, iCloud is free for all iTunes users (Mac or PC) and you get 5GB of storage! This storage is similar to Amazon’s where music, picutres, documents and videos can be kept but Apple also introduced iTunes Match. iTunes Match scans your iTunes library for songs and compares your library with the one Apple has. Match then creates a list of songs that you have and will play the one already on their own servers (at the higher bit-rate of 256kbps). If you have a song that Apple does not have, then the song will be uploaded to their servers for access. Pretty simple and in this case, you don’t need to sit there and manually upload your entire library, which is awesome and such a time saver! And the upgraded song quality is also very nice (although your “unique” songs will not be upgraded). So really, the only storage you would need, would be for the songs that iTunes doesn’t have already which saves a lot of extra space! The biggest problem with iCloud is that you need iTunes… so this will not work on Android devices and computers that do not have iTunes (like my work computer since I can’t install anything myself). All of this can be yours for $25/year!

Another beef that I have is with this graphic:

Not only is it outdated, but the data is completely skewed! Amazon now doesn’t charge you for music storage so the cost is really $20/year but you get 15GB more of general storage! So not only is it cheaper, you get more! And it doesn’t take weeks to upload your entire library. It did take a couple of hours for 2100 songs, but I just let it upload overnight while I was sleeping. Easy peasy!

TL;DR
Pros:

iTunes Match (reduces upload times)
Upgraded bit-rate for songs you have that iTunes has (which is pretty much everything)
All-purpose storage

Cons:

5GB of storage
$25/year (most expensive of the 3)
Requires iTunes
>Not for Android phones

Conclusion

So there you have it. The 3 top music cloud services. If you ask me, I’ll stick with Google Music and use Amazon for documents, pictures and videos. And if I ever get an iPhone again, I might use iCloud, but the chances are good I’d just use Amazon because of their increased storage capacity.

Stay tuned!

Family Guy Box Set ($13 each)