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I'm a fatso!

I've tried to stick to the weight watchers points system for 4 years, and have cheated every single week except for one. I've started a public accountability weight loss plan, which you can join me in if you're interested: fatso.diberard.com.

I'll be publicly keeping track of my progress in hopes that the accountability will scare me out of cheating on my diet and scare me into working out.

Science Project!

UPDATE: There's a third frame that got cut off. Please click on it to read the rest!

My dad found this comic in the paper he was reading on our flight back from upstate New York on Monday. I think it will be quite applicable to Louis and I in the future... hopefully I can set aside my perfectionism to let him make the project ;-)

Review: Stainless Steel Sharpie

Seeing as how my mom works for Sharpie and hooked me up with some, and how @sharpiesusan tweeted nonstop about how they're available at amazon.com, I thought I would give a review on the new Stainless Steel Sharpie. First, I'll give my initial thoughts before I obtained one, then the review once I got my hands on it.

I have to admit, I thought the idea of a SS Sharpie was cool as hell when I first heard about it. I mean, like most guys, I like metal. Plus, my dad is a welder, so I'm into that kind of stuff. I almost picked a stainless (or titanium) wedding band before I realized resizing them would be a pain. That's about as far as I thought about it though, as I didn't really seek out any pics or specs (I knew my mom would eventually get me one anyway). The one negative thought I had in my mind (which has since been contradicted) was that refilling this SS Sharpie would probably be a mess. Anyway, on to my first meeting with SS Sharpie.

Actually having the Sharpie in my hand was great. It looks amazing. The best part is probably the laser etched, raised "Sharpie" logo. I guess I never realized it before, but the cool new logo brought to my attention that when I hold the marker, the logo is upside down since I'm left handed. Granted, this is no knock, but I'll be trying to convince the higher-ups (i.e., mom) to make some lefty SS Sharpies! It writes great and it looks really cool and professional. My one concern over messy refills was unwarranted. The refill is actually the entire marker, and the SS part is basically a screw-on sheath and cap. Again, amazing. That about sums it up, like I said, amazing. Definitely worth the ~$6.

For a review from an actual expert, check out Office Supply Geek. They were nice enough to send me their review via twitter (@OfficeSupplyGee) after I had mentioned I was going to write one, and they have some great pics I was too lazy to take.

Busy

Sorry everyone. Life has been extremely hectic. I'm so busy at work that I have no time for anything else besides hanging with my family. Well, and updating Twitter. I highly recommend you follow that instead of this blog, as it's gone by the wayside unless I have something really great to talk about that a few tweets can't handle. Anyway, once I get some time I hope to pick the blogging back up, but for now, you're stuck with endless status updates.

Anyway, for a life update, all I really have to talk about is my family. If you didn't see on my website, I graduated with a combined BS/MS in mechanical engineering this past December and am currently working toward a PhD in the same field. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm real excited about my PhD research because it's a little more mathy (dynamic modeling) than kinesiology (for my MS). Linnea is great, she's got 2 part time jobs, one of which she works from home to spend more time with Louis. Louis is amazing. Every day something new happens, and it's so exciting. He recently learned to crawl and can pull him self up to stand. It's been very exciting (and scary) watching him move around and become more independent. Unfortunately, he'd rather play with the dog's toys and food bowls than his own toys. If you'd like more of Louis' updates, let me know and I can add you to the list. We're too chicken to un-password protect his blog for now...

Which ones? Please help!!!

Which glasses should I choose? I really like the plastic frames but all my glasses have been wire frame, so everyone I know prefers the second pair. I need outside opinions!!! You can reply here or on twitter. Thanks!

Great T-shirts!

I saw this ad on Facebook for a really cool t-shirt. It's a "you're killing me Smalls" t-shirt. Seeing as how "The Sandlot" is one of my most favorite movies for-e-ver, I couldn't pass up sharing this.

Oh, but it gets even better! If you go to the link for the shirt, they have the whole scene quoted. THEN, on the "related products" list for this shirt, nothing other than a Rick "the Wild Thing" Vaughn jersey, Jamaican bobsled team shirt, and yes, from one of my favorite trilogies, an Adam Banks jersey.

For those not hip to these movies, they're respectively: "Major League," "Cool Runnings," and "The Mighty Ducks." The dude who thought of making shirts from these movies is a pure genius. If I had money I'd buy one or two, or three.

Oh, how things change...

I started writing this post about how I realized the differences in my class taking habits between undergrad and grad school, but it started sounding real lame. Here's a recap:

Undergrad: Get A or B while skipping as much class as possible and never starting assignments early.

Grad: Actually learn what's being taught.

I was writing a bunch of stuff up on this when I realized that while I am trying to learn more rather than just pass these days, my classsroom work ethic hasn't improved too much. I still usually start homework the night before it's due, and if I have an afternoon test, I'll usually start studying that morning. There are exceptions. When I'm in a very time consuming class (where we get 2 weeks to complete an assignment), I'll actually start the homework 2 days before it's due. I guess that's a big improvement...

Gainsville Photobooth rental!!!

Oh yeah, and if you're planning an event, I highly recommend renting a photobooth. Linnea had one at our wedding and used it as our guest book. Guests went in, then the attendant glued their photos in the book, and our guests wrote to us next to their pictures. It was one of the biggest things at the reception, right up there with the dance floor and the hosted bar.

So anyway, you should especially get one if you live around central Florida. One of my good friends Taylor just helped start phobooth.com. They even have props and everything!

Thanks, Delta

I was going to post about this a while ago, but I've been extremely busy with class and work. I haven't even been keeping up with my photoswap scavenger hunt. It's unfortunate because anyone who was by chance keeping track of it probably isn't anymore... Oh well. Anyway, back to the post at hand. Linnea, Louis and I went to Atlanta on December 26th to visit her Dad's side of the family. It was a really great trip, and Louis was really great on the plane, but that's not the point of this post either. So what the heck am I posting for? I'll tell you...

We're walking through the airport, I can't remember which at the moment, when I see these Delta people signing travelers up for something. I spot a teddy bear being handed out, so we walked over to their little table to check it out. That's when I spotted the travel coffee mug. Bingo! They hooked me with the teddy bear (for Louis), and they reeled me in with the coffee mug. It wasn't a big deal though, as they said it was a sign up for sky miles. Awesome, no harm in signing up for that, at least until they made me put my SSN on the form. What? They said something about confirming my citizenship, and I think that's awfully strange for an airline miles program. Oh well, I went with it for the mug.

Well I SHOULDN'T have! What do I get in the mail a few weeks after we get home? A "skymiles rewards" Discover card. A credit card, not a frequent flier membership, a credit card. That sucks, I don't need a credit card with +10% above my other cards. So I sighed in disgust, and since I'd have to inconvenience myself by calling and cancelling the card. Luckily it was really easy since I hadn't activated it yet. At least I still have the bear and the mug, and they didn't get any money from me...

Unfortunately it didn't end there. After I got that card in the mail, I remembered the previously forgotten travel mug. Woo hoo! So I used it. The first time I used it some coffee was dripping down the side as I briskly walked from the parking garage to class. I shook it off. I do tend to walk hard, if you can describe walking as hard, and I also thought that it was on account of me trying to drink while walking hard. But no, what happened the next time I used it? It freaking spilled EVERYWHERE!!! This is coming off a long night. I needed that coffee to make it through class. I tried my best to fix it while walking "hard," but nothing was working, and I was making even more of a mess. Oh, I had gloves on too, so that was great, they're now mocha black instead of black. I finally determined that the o-ring wasn't seated properly. I was fed up at this time. I threw the cap in the next garbage can I passed, dumped some coffee to avoid splash-over (on account of my hard walking), and tried drinking as much as I could before getting to the last garbage can before class, in hopes that it would keep me coherent enough to at least copy all the notes down.

That sucked! I don't even want Louis to play with that bear anymore. I think I'll throw him away (with his bomber jacket too, stupid Delta bear...). Moral of the story: Don't be an idiot. If they hand out free stuff, it's a credit card.

Tweet, tweet.

I just signed up for Twitter today. I figured since I can get an app to easily update it on my iPhone, and I always want to blog about random things throughout the day but don't get around to it, that Twitter would be the perfect solution.

Keep an eye out, one of these days I'm thinking of having a Twitt-a-thon where I would update just about every single thing I was doing on a given day. It would be interesting to see how awesome or boring that day is...

UPDATE: See it on the sidebar --->

Patience is a virtue

Sorry to Taylor, or anyone who in the future feels the urge to comment on one of my posts, but it seems to only be Taylor. He's probably the only one who has my blog in a feed reader, so he's the only one who knows that I actually started posting again. Oh well...

Anyway, "gooooood girl" keeps posting about how amazing she thinks my blog is, but I've uncovered her dubious scheme. Her picture is a fake! I thought it looked cartoonish... Well, it's all a ploy to promote full tilt poker's website, as that's the only information on her profile. That's funny, because I've used full tilt poker. But, I got sick of seeing her fake-pictured comments on my blog, so now I'm moderating them.

I know, it sucks when you post a comment and can't get the instant gratification of seeing it on the page, but I'll try my best not to take too long screening them.

Facebook

I just realized how amazing the facebook iPhone app really is (oh, besides the fact that it always crashes). So for those who don't have it, if one of your friends changes their phone number in fb, the newsreel on the app will tell you, and also says "it has been added to your phone book."

At first I thought there was some fb phonebook I've never used, until one day, when someone who actually mattered changed their number. I went to my phone's contacts to change the number and it was already done! Facebook did it automatically!

Holy crap. That is phenomenal. Maybe one day after I delete all the "friends" I've never even spoken to in my whole life (for another post...) I'll actually add my phone number to fb so iPhone users can enjoy automatically receiving my contact updates.

Commencement?

Since I'm so awesome and finally deposited my thesis this December, I'll be graduating with my B.S. and M.S. all in one shot. I participated in commencement on Saturday. What are we commencing though? Is it simply the cliché "rest of our lives?" I'd rather think of it as an ending to all the crap I stressed about, because if it's a celebration of new beginnings, then I'll just get more stressed about all the crap I'll be getting stressed about while trying to earn my Ph.D.

Oh well. I "commenced" mainly because my Mom wanted to see, as I never graduated after my undergrad since I was in a combined B.S./M.S. program. I would have been completely fine with the whole thing had the guy not completely butchered my name. I mean, it was unrecognizable. I don't know how he turned 5 syllables into 2, and he forgot "the third," which made it even worse.

I guess the one consolation I have is that I got to wear this sweet-ass hood for being a M.S. graduate.

Trying email posting

Okay, so the LifeCast app blows. You can only do either text or pic,
and it stopped working! So, I'm trying direct posts from email instead.

Done, kind of...

Okay, I'm finally finished. It took 6 1/2 years, but I'm finally a college grad. Oh yeah, and throw in a MS too! Turning in my thesis on Thursday was one of the best school related feelings I've had. Too bad I followed it up with an incomplete final on Friday night. Oh well, that will count toward my PhD, so it doesn't really affect my happy feelings, since I rocked a 4.0 MS GPA. Anyway, life goes on and I have to pick back up with getting some manuscripts publishable and workng on my PhD research, but I took a relaxing extended weekend. That was nice.

Also, I'll be resuming my photoswap scavenger hunt today, so make sure to check out the pics I find!

Happy Birthday Linnea!!!

Movin' on up

I'm 6/10 of the first page of google links for "Louis DiBerardino" right now.

I say "Ha!" to you Louis DiBerardino the architect and Louis Diberardino the accountant without the capital B!

Now back to the thesis :(

Photoswap scavenger hunt!

I noticed a lot of people like to do scavenger hunts with the Photoswap app on the iPhone. It inspired me to make my own. It's not a competitive thing, rather just me seeing what pictures I'll get in return. I plan on creating a series of themed hunts (after the first one, "40 things"). Have fun keeping track of the things I find here!

Testing, 1 2 3

Testing the "LifeCast" app on my iPhone.

Posted with LifeCast