CommaFeed and InoReader Duke It Out [RSS Reader Review]

By now, everyone with an internet connection is aware that Google Reader, the beloved RSS reader of choice for millions of users is riding into the sunset come July 1. Last month, I reviewed some of the RSS choices out there and had concluded that the Old Reader was the closest thing to Google Reader that I could find. Well, friends, thanks to a post this morning on MetaFilter, there might be yet two other contenders to check out - CommaFeed and InoReader.

Since I wrote my first blogpost about Google Reader alternatives, I have successfully steered away from Google Reader and have been using the Old Reader more and more, but I am always willing to see what else is out there. I'm not after anything fancy in an RSS reader - I guess that's why I'm not too jazzed about Feedly. At the same time, it would be easy for me to move on to a better product if it offered something else I could use.

First, let's take a brief peek at what I said is my current favourite RSS reader substitute for Google Reader:

The Old Reader - the current favourite

The Old Reader - plays much like Google.

Some points on the Old Reader...
- Simple and clean "just-the-facts-ma'am" aesthetic.
- No mobile version (but they are working on one).
- It has a "social" feature: It wants you to sign up with Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or a Google Account.
- Encourages you to find your friends so you can share content with them.
- Requires you to import an OPML file, which you can get from Google's Takeout service, or you can import your subscriptions manually, one by one.
- You cannot subdivide your feeds into folders according to category - this is okay if you only have 20 feeds. But, any more and it might get messy. I like to have a little control over my feeds' organization.

In my original review, I gave the Old Reader 4 stars.

CommaFeed

The Back-story: When I first read on MetaFilter about CommaFeed, I instantly had to look this website up. People were saying it was definitely the Google Reader substitute, and I trust the opinions of MetaFilter users (why not, being a MeFite myself...).

Hmm. What can I say about CommaFeed... except, "Hello, Old Reader! Ah, I-I mean CommaFeed!"

Not much to say...

The Good: The interface is very much like the Old Reader, and Google Reader for that matter. Subscriptions on the right, feeds on the left. A great thing about CommaFeed that you don't get from the Old Reader is that it won't harass you to start an account using any social media, nor to find your friends or share stuff with your friends. For some people, this is great. Also, importing your feeds is simple - it will do it for you. No Google Takeout!

The Bad: Well, not really a bad...but we have seen this before...Like Old Reader, you cannot subdivide your feeds into folders. It just cannot do this. Also, there is no mobile version. The creators of CommaFeed are asking for users to donate scratch to their cause, so they may be working on a mobile version.

Conclusion: Take it or leave it. CommaFeed isn't bad at all. It's just like the Old Reader! Which is somewhat similar to Google Reader! It's the Pepsi to the Coke of Google Reader substitutes! And because of that, I give it 3 stars.

InoReader

The Back-Story: I found out about InoReader from a fellow MeFite in the CommaFeed post on MetaFilter. They said that they had tried different RSS Readers, including the ones I had reviewed. They found InoReader, and that is all they have been using since. That's where the story ends (or begins?).

InoReader. Just try, will ya?

The Good: Looks, operates, tastes like Old Reader / CommaFeed / Google Reader clone...yes, definitely. BUT, you can subdivide your feeds into folders!! InoReader, where have you been all my life!

The Bad: No mobile version. And if you try to use InoReader through the browser on your smart phone it sucks. Really, that is a downside with any of these "simple" RSS readers - no mobile app. On the plus side, InoReader does offer a Chrome Browser add-on you can use on your computer. I've also managed to use InoReader on my Android tablet (through the Chrome browser in desktop mode).

Conclusion: All things considered, InoReader does everything I want in a RSS Reader. It's simple, not too many bells and whistles, and gives me the option to put feeds into folders (yay!). Why wouldn't I dump out of the Old Reader? InoReader gets 4.5 Stars! (until something better comes along...)

What RSS Reader have you been using? Have you found anything you like?

Spammy Sponsored Posts on Facebook (and how to make them go away)

Last week, I started noticing what Facebook calls "Suggested or Sponsored Posts" at the very top of my news feed on Facebook. I don't mean the stupid meaningless ads for becoming an Addictions Worker, getting a criminal record pardoned or getting a divorce lawyer that show up on the right hand side, I am talking about the ads that are smack-dab in the centre column of the Facebook news feed where everyone's status update shows up. I pretty much ignored them and scrolled down to the goods: my friends' statuses, pages I like updating me on the latest, news from affiliated TV stations...Having all this extra crap show up is a bit annoying, but I don't think the advertising is avoidable considering Facebook is free to use.

It was when I got the following ad showing up that I paid attention:

Now who doesn't want to lose body fat?

I'm not one to gross out easily, but really, the graphic is sort of  "eww!". And normally when I'd see something like that I'd scroll past it quickly. But Facebook, using whatever algorithm it uses to determine what kind of ads I see on my news feed, decided I needed to see this ad THREE times in one session. Meaning: this post was interspersed among all the other stuff I read in three different places down my news feed wall. (What are you saying, Facebook? That I have belly fat?)
 
I thought I managed to tell Facebook I didn't want to see this ad any more by ticking the "I found it offensive" box, or "it was against my views" box and the "it was spamming my wall" box. I thought I was free from seeing it again until I logged back into Facebook later and the ad showed up again - it was the first thing I saw, right at the top!

How do I get rid of these unwanted posts? I experimented with the ad three more times to figure out a workaround, and I knew there had to be an easy way. And, as it turns out the best way to lose these ads is to treat them like the game notifications for Candy Crush that your friends inadvertently send you in your news feed: HIDING the ad by telling Facebook you don't want to see any more notifications from X company again, like in this example for a Raw Food cleanse company that showed up on my Facebook feed (I swear...I have no idea why this is showing up...):

Put your mouse arrow close to the "Sort" drop-down at the top right corner of the ad. An "X" will appear which you can click. It will give you the option to Follow Post, Hide and Report Story or Spam. You can either use the "Report Story or Spam" option, or "Hide" (both take you to a similar place).

Now, make sure you click on Hide all stories from X Company. That should be it. I followed this formula, and haven't seen any Cleanse or Fat belly ads in my news feed.

Take it from me, the Spam option does not work. If you call an ad spam in the hope that it will forever disappear, the ad CAN reappear in your news feed (and DID reappear repeatedly for me until I hid it). Facebook uses programming - not human beings to base what it shows in your news feed. I don't think my feed will ever be devoid of ads - supported, sponsored or the like. But, at least I can control what I see a bit better. And in any case, as it is for my Facebook news feed, it would seem the algorithm has a weird sense of humour!

No Can Do an Internet Free Life

Could you spend an entire year without the internet? I don't think I could. I'd say these days I could last a week without Google. (Is that bad?)

Back in the early 2000s, my hubbs's grandmother owned a cottage in the French River area of Ontario. We'd go up there every chance we could in the summer, and sometimes spent weeks there. There was no phone line and no cell signal. No cable TV. No computer. No newspapers unless we went into town. Back then, we'd spend our time sitting by the lake, swimming, reading, playing board games or sleeping. It was a different way of life, and one that we really enjoyed. We were definitely unplugged from the rest of the world.

2002 was before the time when social media became "a thing". There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube...NO GOOGLE! Online banking was just beginning. High-speed internet was fairly new. Today, fast forwarding years into the future, I wonder how I would manage without having the internet. I think I'd be okay for a week - then I'd be wondering what was happening "out there" without me. Even when we were at the cottage, I was jonesing for a Toronto Star after four days, wondering what's been going on in the world. These days, the information superhighway is hard to escape, and some are very happy for that. When my mother-in-law went on a Mediterranean cruise last Fall she let us know what was going on with her throughout her trip on Facebook. When she came back she said how she enjoyed having access to wifi during her trip so she could read up on what she was missing back home. The days of travelling and not knowing what is happening around you are over.

Last year, the media outlet, the Verge asked journalist Paul Miller to stay off the internet for a whole year, and he gladly accepted the charge. No Facebook, no email, no Twitter... Fine with Miller. He was burned out from the internet and wanted to unplug. This story piqued my interest. Here is someone who at the start had been effectively plugged in with news, technology and social media since he was twelve, and decided to cut off that electronic lifeline for a whole 365 days. Every time he would update readers on his progress, I would read between the lines cynically and think: The man must be having a hard time...Or perhaps it was the photos they would include with his articles in which he looks absolutely miserable.

As Miller's journey ended, he concluded: "My plan was to leave the internet and therefore find the "real" Paul and get in touch with the "real" world, but the real Paul and the real world are already inextricably linked to the internet. Not to say that my life wasn't different without the internet, just that it wasn't real life."

Every thing is linked to the internet, and so are people. In detaching from the internet to have more human contact, Miller found it harder and lonelier. Interestingly enough, he also thought disconnecting would cure some things he was going though, but realized the internet was not his problem and he still had some personal stuff to work through.

I am not surprised at all by Paul Miller's conclusions of the internet and how the world is connected through it. It is perhaps the reason I love being online so much. I have been able to renew old friendships, get in contact with family I wasn't aware I had, and give myself a little voice "out there" that I am able to share with everyone - and that is just with social media.

Who doesn't feel like "unplugging" for a while? When given a choice, I can give up TV without a problem - and have quite easily. I hate the phone and cut my land line a couple of years ago. I gave up Twitter, but now I'm back on [wry smile]. But, the internet as a whole is something that has been so much a part of my life for the last 17 years, I find it hard to fathom living without it for an extended period of time. Today, the internet has become a powerful lifeline for commerce, entertainment, social activity and knowledge and I find it difficult to stay away from it. Not surprisingly, as his off line experiment came to a close, Paul Miller realized this too.

Read more about Paul Miller's journey off line here.

Photo credit: The Verge

Nasty Nanna's Awesome Pasta Sauce [Secret Recipe]

Behind every great recipe, there is a story. It's time to share a secret I've been keeping to myself all these years. The boyfriend is long gone, his "Nanna" long dead; but her delicious pasta sauce lives on.

Many moons ago, I went out with a guy whose Grandmother was an Italian immigrant. She was the quintessential Nonna (but was called "Nanna"); a portly woman who always wore an apron over her short-sleeved house-dress, ready to get to the housework at hand. There was always a pot on the stove, her house was very clean. But what warm and inviting casa she created for herself and her husband was completely counteracted by her damaging and downright mean demeanor. The cherry on the top was the fact you could never communicate with her in a meaningful way as she could not understand a lick of English.

Any time I went over to visit her with the boyfriend I would have to endure an afternoon of sitting at her kitchen table and listen as everyone conversed in Italian. I had no idea what they were saying to one another, except that I could tell when Nanna was talking about me as she contorted her face into a snarl and pointed her thick finger in my general direction. After each visit, I would ask the boyfriend what her complaint about me was this time. He would laugh and say the same things: that she was fired up because I was not domesticated enough (??), I didn't speak any Italian even though I carried an Italian last name, nor did my family follow any real Italian traditions, and I planned to work outside the home for a living [insert eye-roll here]. The message was sent: I was not appropriate for her grandson. This ended up being true in the end...or I should say, he was not appropriate for me.

About the only decent thing to come out of that relationship was an awesome pasta sauce recipe that this guy learned from his Nanna and he made for me a few times. I remember asking him if I could write down the recipe and keep it - "NOOO!" he said, emphatically. "It's a secret recipe, never to be shared! No one can know!"

He had to be joking, right?

That's exactly what I thought when I stealthly paid hawk-eyed attention to every step he took to make that sauce. Then, I wrote it down, and have used this recipe religiously since, but haven't ever really given out the details on how to make it.

When I make pasta sauce, I make a ton of it. I used a Sunday a few weeks ago to make more of this delicious sauce to fill up my freezer for the next few months. Lately, we have been on a health kick in the house of Sim, and no doubt about it, this sauce is not what I would consider "low fat" per se. But, most of the ingredients are as natural as you are gonna get, so that has to stand for something (okay, canned tomatoes are not from nature, but I try to go for the low salt canned tomatoes).

[My caveat: I am severely allergic to beef, so I don't cook with cow. This is a meat sauce where I use turkey or chicken, but this can easily be adapted to use beef in place of poultry, if that is your preference.]

Nasty Nanna's Meat Sauce
Prep time: 1 hour / Cook time: 3 hours

You will need:

2 packs of ground turkey, chicken or beef
5 cans diced tomatoes
5 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 large cooking onions, diced
1 celery bunch, chopped
3 cups chopped carrots
2 medium green peppers, chopped
2 medium red peppers, chopped
10 medium-sized mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp Italian Seasoning (or your own oregano and basil)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 big ass pot with a lid (I don't know how big mine is, but fits all the above in it with about an 1 1/2" space between sauce line and pot rim).
1 little frying pan

(This makes A LOT of sauce, and is meant to fill your freezer for the next 2 months with awesome sauce goodness. You may want to scale it down by half if you have no room or are not interested in having extra).

In the big pot, add a little olive oil to the bottom and brown both packages of meat.
While the meat cooks, start chopping up your veggies.

Once the meat is mostly brown, drain some of the fat until there is about a tbsp left.
 - Add your onions to the meat and stir regularly (10 minutes).
 - Add the rest of the veggies. Allow all to cook with the lid on. Stir periodically so onions don't burn on the bottom (about 15 minutes).

Time to Fry the Tomato Paste and Garlic

While the meat and veggies are cooking in the pot, you'll want to fry your tomato paste in olive oil and garlic. This is the aspect of the recipe that really makes the sauce awesome and makes your whole house smell like an Italian Restaurant:

Frying the garlic with tomato paste in olive oil is the ticket!!

Take the small frying pan
 - Add 2 tbsp olive oil to the pan and heat on low/medium.
 - Add 2 tbsps minced garlic and one small can of tomato paste.
 - Stir concoction until the garlic browns and the tomato paste absorbs all of the olive oil.
Once the paste has absorbed all the oil, drop what you fried into the pot with the rest of the meat and veg.

Then it's can opening time!

Mmm! I can smell it from here!

Add your 5 cans of diced tomatoes and 5 cans of crushed tomatoes. Stir after each addition.
Cover the pot, and place the sauce on low/medium heat. Check and stir the sauce every 20 minutes to ensure the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pot. Do this until the sauce comes to a boil, then turn the heat down to low to simmer. Stir periodically after that.
Once the sauce has boiled and is simmering, add your spices (oregano, basil, bay leaf...). I have some Italian Seasoning from Club House that works well.

You'll want the sauce to simmer for at least two hours before eating for optimum flavour.

Yum!

Have this sauce with your favourite pasta, meatballs or whatever. It's awesome! So with that, the secret is out. Now go and make...(and pass it on!)

*Fun Factoid: Did you know Picking Up a Dropped Stitch has a Facebook page?
Go to it now and like it to get all the updates!*

So Long, Google Reader...Now What? [Review Within]

There has been a lot of discussion over the past month on the internet (and in the house of Sim) around the announcement made by Google of their plans to shutter their popular free web-based RSS aggregator, Google Reader, come July 1. Google claims people aren't using it as much and decided they need to concentrate their efforts on other things.

No sooner was the announcement made, and Google Reader aficionados took to starting and signing petitions on Change.org to “Save Google Reader” in the hope of keeping their beloved Reader going. There are also plenty of blogs, news stories and snippits on Disqus comment forums of how precious the Reader is, and that there is nothing that compares to it. My husband holds that thought dearly. No one I know of is as big a user of Google Reader as my husband. When he learned of the news that Google Reader was done, the man started going through the 5 steps of grieving (he was on the "anger" stage for a while, slowly easing into "acceptance"). Wanting portability in the mobile environment, ease of use, and the simplicity that Google Reader offers, he tried a few newer RSS Readers, but he says they slow his phone down, or the interface is way too complex. So, for now, he has settled on staying with Google Reader until he goes down with the ship on July 1.

Google Reader! Hello, old friend...

I am also a user of Google Reader, but not to the same extent. I originally got into using it because Blogger, the site that hosts this blog, has a built-in blog RSS reader that is linked to Google Reader. I concur with others' sentiments; I like GR, because it's simple and easy to use. Nothing fancy about it - just a list of your subscriptions on the left of the screen and the new feeds of all your subscriptions on the right. I am sad to see it go, and admittedly, a little irritated by Google's said reasons to give up on it (when I suspect it came down to money).

In any case, I like to do research, and try to make the best of a bad situation. So, in that frame of mind, I am now searching for a new RSS Reader, and I thought I would share my findings with you.

My caveat: I hardly ever read RSS feeds on my phone. I prefer to read things mostly on my Asus eeePad Transformer Android tablet - and at that, through the Chrome web browser. [Briefly, my experience with using mobile apps on my tablet has been iffy at best (another discussion for another time), and I usually prefer to view things from the internet on my tablet through a browser, in desktop mode.]

I tried four different RSS Readers (all free): Google Currents, The Old Reader, Feedly and NewsBlur. Let's begin.

1. Google Currents

The Back story: Google Currents is meant to be a magazine aggregate app for the android mobile market, and is also available for Apple's iOS. I happened to have it on my Android Tablet - it came with the operating system. At first I didn't know what it was for. I was drawn to it on the suggestion of a few techie gurus online that Google Currents could be a useful replacement for Reader.

The Good: First impressions? Slick. For starters, because Currents is a part of Google, you can easily import your Google Reader feeds into it. It then makes your RSS feeds look sexy, turning basic text and photos into an attractive magazine look. Man, my blog feeds never looked so hot!

You can then click on one of the "magazine tile" articles (or blog posts) and the feed will open up into a magazine format with two-column pages. It looks sharp!

You can also add other popular sites like Forbes, the Onion, and CBC News to your subscription feeds. The app comes with some feeds that are pre-loaded, but you can get rid of those, and will also suggest feeds to you. Of course, sharing capabilities is part of the app - G+, Facebook, Pinterest - it's all there.

The Bad: About the only thing I don't like about Currents is the app forces you to click through each subscription feed individually to see what's new. Google Reader, in contrast, will just display what's new from all your subscriptions in a scrolling webpage format. Clicking through each subscription to see what's new can be a little annoying and time-consuming. Google Reader still wins on that count. 

Conclusion: I suspect Google Currents is really meant for magazine/news sites - not blogs. Then again, in its current format, it would still be a pain trying to click through each individual subscription to see what's new. If that doesn't matter to you, and you like to check out each individual subscription feed, you might like this. The feeds really look outstanding on it. You can tell money was poured into its development. 4 stars for look, 3 for the UI.

2. The Old Reader

The Back story: When the news broke in March that Google Reader was kaput, a few sites like LifeHacker recommended the Old Reader as an alternative, stating it was very similar to GR in functionality. This reader is currently web-based only - no mobile version yet, but they're working on one. On its website, the Old Reader is touted as being "the ultimate social RSS reader. It's just like the old google (sic) reader, only better.”

Social, huh? When you load up the page, it tells you to sign up - with Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or a Google account. Seriously, I hate it when sites force you to sign up with your social media account. My first thought was that I don't want Facebook to share every single thing I subscribe to. I also don't want some app/website/whathaveyou to share crap stories unwillingly with my friends. Well, it turned out to be okay so far; I signed in with my Google account.

The Good: The Old Reader is very much like Google Reader in a lot of ways particularly in looks and functionality. Unlike Google Currents which uses your Google account to import your subscriptions from GR, the Old Reader requires you to import an OPML file, which you can get from Google's Takeout service, or you can import your subscriptions manually, one by one.

The Old Reader - plays much like Google.

The Old Reader is very clean-looking, devoid of anything fancy. There isn't much to report about it, other than the feeds are not as pretty-looking as Currents. But, if you are looking for a reader that gives you a just-the-facts-ma'am way of checking what's new from your subscriptions, the Old Reader does this effectively. It also encourages you to seek out your friends and follow their feeds. You don't have to involve yourself in that if you don't want (I didn't).

The Bad: Well, this is not a complete detriment, just a wishlist: you cannot sub-divide your subscription feeds into folders. For example, I have many knitting blogs in my RSS feeds, but I also subscribe to other sites and blogs too. It would be nice to have the option to organize feeds into folders. I'm sure the developers are working on that.

Conclusion: At this point, it looks like the Old Reader is the closest substitute to Google Reader that I have found so far. 4 stars.

3. Feedly

The back story: Well, it's quite simple. Google Reader is going down, and out of that tragedy Feedly kicks in, advertises, and gains a huge following. Is it like Google Reader? "No, it's better!" they say. Let's see.

Feedly is available in several formats including a widget for Firefox, and apps available for Android, Kindle and iOS. I noticed on the Google Play store that a Feedly app was available, and even though I haven't enjoyed too many mobile apps on my Android tablet, I decided to take a chance on it.

The Good: Hold that thought.

The Bad: The app allows you to change the look of your RSS feed to four layouts: Title, List, Magazine and Cards, but they don't all play nice on my tablet. The Title view is just that - the titles of articles. The list style might as well be title view as it only lists titles and gives no synopsis of the articles. Cards view only gives you pictures of articles, no synopsis. The way the magazine style displays on my tablet looks a lot like a newspaper, but it was dizzying to read it as such. Instead of scrolling through your feeds, you flick your finger to "turn the page" to the next set of feeds in newspaper layout. In such a layout, Feedly combines different feeds from different sources on one page which I found confusing. It is reminiscent somewhat of Google Currents in appearance, but in a copy-cat sort of way and doesn't work as well as Currents.

This is a screenshot of a Feedly feed showing 4 different feeds on one page. Confusing?

The Continuation of the Good: On the PC, the Feedly Firefox plug-in provides some promising things that the mobile app doesn't offer. For one thing, the browser version looks similar to Google Reader, in that your subscriptions are listed on the left, and your feeds are in the middle. The magazine layout plays out like I feel it should by giving you the title of the post, as well as a brief synopsis of what the article is about in a snippit. To get Feedly to display the entire article, you have to click on the snippit. The article will then open up within Feedly in a separate window. It isn't terrible, it does an okay job, but I'm looking for something to use with my tablet, and I didn't find the Android tablet version translates very well.

And a little bit bad with the PC Firefox plug-in browser version: Ads. There are ads with Feedly. If that bothers you, back away.

Conclusion: I didn't find Feedly fulfilled my needs very well. I don't read my RSS feeds on PC, and the app version wasn't that great. 3 stars. Moving on...

4. NewsBlur

The Back Story: I think LifeHacker had suggested NewsBlur as an alternate to Google Reader.  It's accessible online and through a mobile app, so I was able to find the app to try on my tablet. The Reader is free up to 64 feeds, so if you are a major user of RSS, you will have to pay an annual subscription fee (no idea how much).

I will make this critique really brief. I loaded the mobile app onto my tablet. I tried to load an RSS subscription onto my dashboard, and this happened, not once, but three times:

"Unfortunately, NewsBlur has stopped." Good night, I am outta here!

Viewing NewsBlur through an internet browser pushes and pushes and pushes you to link social media feeds from Twitter and Facebook into your RSS feed. It also "recommends" other feeds to follow (which honestly irritates me). If that's your thing, then NewsBlur might just be the right RSS Reader for you. Sorry for the quick critique, but I backed away from NewsBlur quickly as it does not play nice on my tablet, never mind all the harassment with social media. I won't blather on about it any further.

So there you have it. Until the RSS landscape changes, I think the winner for me is the Old Reader. It's so simple to use, and I can add what I want without being harassed to add something else or share it (unless I want to). The look and UI is clean and uncomplicated. It goes to show you that you don't need to make things fanciful to make them functional.

Do you use Google Reader? Have you found a substitute RSS Reader yet?

Tripping Through Nike+ Kinect Training

I am not athletic, but always wished I was. I can't run fast, can't catch, and I throw a ball like a 4 year old. I can't jump very high, and I can hardly do a push up...forget putting one foot in front of the other...ask anyone who knows me. I am clumsy.

Periodically, my Mom reminisces about all her athletic pursuits she participated in when she was in school - basketball, volleyball and track and field. I'm not sure if my father was athletic, but there are photos that exist of him doing karate. Not me. My athletic prowess was so bad that one year when I was tested for the yearly Government of Canada elementary school fitness test, instead of getting a patch to show how fit I was like all the other students, I got a sticker. Whose genes did I inherit??

The actual sticker

Regardless of my lack of athleticism, I have always tried to incorporate fitness into my life. For example, I elected to take Phys. Ed. every year in high school just to force myself to stay active. I'd take long walks every day and I watched what I ate. In University, I used the campus gym. Later on out there in the real world, my husband and I got into going to the Y. Ever since, the two of us have worked at keeping each other's diet in check to a certain degree. We have derailed our diet a few times, but we are always willing to admit weight-gain, and jump back on the treadmill when our fat jeans become too tight.

One thing I hate about adapting a healthy lifestyle, though, is exercise. If the skinny pill existed, I'd be all over that. But, the fat doesn't disappear on its own, so there I go putting on my running shoes. 

To supplement our treadmilling, my husband, forever a gamer, looked at different exercise programs that exist on gaming systems. There is, of course, the ever popular Wii Fit, but looking at the reviews, he settled in on the Nike+ Kinect Training program for the Xbox. He tried it, and thought I might get something out of it (why not?). The program uses the Kinect motion sensor device, which means an infrared camera follows your shape around the room (and you don't have to hold onto an Xbox controller while exercising, which frankly, would blow). The camera sees you as a white shape and avoids details like facial features. Seeing my fat-ass blob on a TV screen is a GREAT motivator to get into an exercise regimen, if I ever needed an excuse.

When you first begin Nike+ Kinect Training, you get to choose from two fitness gurus - a brawny dude with 'tude named Alex (I think), and Miss Maria, a fit chick with cool pink Nike runners. I went with Maria immediately when I could tell the dude was going to be a bit like the Duffman! from the Simpsons. The program then has you do a series of tests to determine your fitness and athleticism levels. These tests made me sweat, and reminded me that I have lost all my flexibility in a short period of time. I also almost knee-capped meself with the Burpees, push-ups, and Mountain Climbers...Dude, I was hurting by the end of it. I really didn't like Maria.

A few days later, I began my first "Get Lean!" cardio session. By the end of it, I thought the program really had no idea how physically unfit I was. I was breathless for a majority of it (and not in a Madonna way...), yet it forced me to do every single rep without stopping. In one exercise, you hop on one foot in an imaginary square for 30 seconds. If you switch feet before Maria tells you to, the program will force you to switch back until you have completed 30 seconds in total on that foot. I kept losing my balance, while Maria reminded me to use "my core" to keep me on one leg. She obviously didn't realize the "2-pack" my core has to work with...

The push-ups were something else; the program has you kneeling sideways to the TV, and Maria instructs you to not look at the screen. But, I wanted to see if I had my form right; Maria was too smart for me and kept telling me to stop looking at the TV. That portion of the workout took a while...Then, onto Mountain Climbers, which have you start in a push-up gesture, then switch your legs back and forth, like you're climbing stairs while still touching the floor with your hands. My Mountain Climber looked more like I should be singing, "Heyyyy Macarena" at the end of it.  Maria caught on to my poor execution by saying: "You can do better than that," and other judgmental rhetoric. Balance is integral to the program - and there was a lot of falling. Dude, I was hurting by the end of that session. I hated that bitch, Maria.

Hell no, Maria...

I have just completed week three of the Nike+ Kinect Training program. Guess what? I can do Mountain Climbers now! Or, I should say, they are looking less like breakdancing and more like they should. So the longer I keep with the program, the stronger I am getting. The program makes you sweat - no doubt about it - but my muscles hurt less as I proceed with my routine. Maria is still irritating, but there is a volume button for that.

I would recommend the Nike+ Kinect Training program for the Xbox for anyone who can stand up. You don't have to be athletic to use it, although being able to stand on two feet without falling certainly helps! Be prepared to sweat!

Have you ever tried a fitness program on a game system? Did you see any results?

Photo credits: 1) personal archives/2) Microsoft Studio Community/3) siliconrepublic.com

The Lazy Fare Gardens Are Springing!

Yesterday evening was the first time since Fall I took the time to clean up my flower beds. I thought it might be a good idea to do some maintenance before things started sprouting. Even though the weather has been cool and gloomy, my tulips at the front are coming up. And, another sign that Spring is here: it seems my red maple on the front lawn is starting to bud.

I only made enough time last night to clear out the two flower beds at the front of my property, since last night was also my workout night. I began by trimming back my lavender, and pulling away all the dead leaves from my large hosta. I also found where the neighbourhood cats have been digging to use the loo (nasty!).  Then, onto the flower bed at the side of the property that is really just some bushes, lilies and periwinkle. The area is situated under a large pine tree, so I had about 10 pounds of pine needles and cones to clear out. I ended up with enough dead stuff to fill up a yard waste bag.

Everything's coming up tulips!

I am what you call a laissez-faire (or lazy fare) gardener. I don't like structured neat rows of flowers. I like the wildflower-type of gardening - pretty perennials and interesting texture. I choose my plants wisely - usually perennials so I don't have to continually plant and replace my flowers. Some years I get adventurous and buy packets of seeds to see if things will come up. This year, I plan to try growing cosmos, foxglove and chives. I really haven't put a lot of work into my gardening in the last couple of years, but I am hoping to turn that around this year. I enjoy it immensely, but over the last two years we have been concentrating our efforts on rebuilding our rotting deck and constructing a new gazebo to go with our hot tub, so not much attention has been paid to gardening recently.

I have 6 garden beds in total. Basically, the perimeter of my back yard is a garden, then two beds at the front. There were four more beds originally, but some were pointless and too much work, so I covered those up with seed and sod. The previous owner of our house was responsible for all the gardens - all were not well-tended, overgrown with weeds, rhubarb and Queen Anne's Lace. One good thing was the number and variety of gorgeous hosta plants that I found growing in the flower beds. There are hostas EVERYWHERE! Good thing - hostas are very hearty and fill in spots in the garden like no other plant. They are very forgiving too, as they flourish in areas with little sunlight and transplant very well.

My flower beds don't look like anything great right now, as the below pic shows but I expect they'll be in bloom soon enough!