Walmart Is Our Fitbit Gym

Fitbit expert tip of the month.

We have recently been involved in a number of Fitbit challenges and as the season gets colder it becomes more and more difficult to keep our challenge step count high. Our solution - move our steps inside.

walmart map

target map

We have resorted to extending our standard shopping duration and pacing the various large stores. It's heated, level, stocked with drinking fountains and bathrooms, plenty of distractions to keep the mind busy, and most importantly free (beat that regular gyms!). As we trace through every single isle we can accumulate a couple of thousand steps each revolution.

walking map

10 Mindful Movements

On Monday morning how are you feeling? Frantic or peaceful? Each Monday spend 15 minutes practicing the 10 Mindful Movements. Open this PDF for instructions, or this PDF instructions and watch this YouTube video for a demonstration.

"The practice was introduced by a Zen Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh, and it’s based on basic yoga and tai chi movements. Each of the ten routines is designed to be easily accessible and can be performed by people of all ages and all body types, whether they’re familiar with mindful practices or not. They can be done before or after sitting meditation, at home, at work, or any time one has a few minutes to refresh both mind and body.

For those new to meditation, the exercises are an easy way to get acquainted with mindfulness as a complete, multifaceted practice. For current practitioners, the movements add a welcome physical element to a sitting meditation practice."

Echoes of Christmas

Our family enjoyed an evening at Echoes of Christmas hosted in Liberty Park of Salt Lake City. It was an enjoyable evening of live signing, animals (even a camel!) and the Christmas story. Even the kids had a good time. You can tell it was a good time when your kids go from running around and rowdy, waiting for our turn, to quiet and paying attention.

"Echoes of Christmas is a Live Nativity that features 7 original songs that bring the true meaning of Christmas into our hearts. This 40-minute walking tour is a free event and open to all. Make this a family tradition. Dress Warmly."

Dates and Location

Dec. 11-13 & 15-17, 2014

7-9 PM, starting every 5 minutes

Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park

(enter from 900 S. at 600 E.)

Of course I had to geek out and traced a map of our path, along with stopping points, on my phone's GPS.

Tau of Scouting

Tau of Scouting

Action is better than inactivity.

Participation is better than watching.

Outdoors is more fun than indoors.

The unusual is more exciting than the usual.

The surprising is more interesting than the expected.

The mysterious is more appealing than the obvious.

The real thing is more appealing than a substitute.

Preparation is better than winging it.

-- author unknown

Purchase OnePlus One Without Invite

While supplies last, you can now pickup a OnePlus One without an invite, and they will arrive before Christmas.

Hide Chrome Avatar Menu

A recent update of Chrome turned the previously hidden new avatar menu on by default.  This avatar menu allows you to quickly change your login profile.  I only ever use one profile, so the button just gets in the way, and I have a few times accidentally clicked the avatar menu instead of the minimize button (muscle memory says the minimize button is always the first button on the left, right?).

At first I wasn't sure what the name of this "avatar menu" feature was, but after a bit of digging through the chrome configuration options, I found one called "Enable the new avatar menu" that looked promising and finally removed the button.  Happiness.

To hide the avatar menu button: browse to chrome://flags in your chrome browser, and search for the "Enable the new avatar menu" option, and change the setting from "Default" to "Disabled".  Finally click the "Relaunch Now" button at the bottom, and Chrome will reload with the avatar menu button hidden.


Update July 2015: This option appears to have changed to "Enable new profile management system", but there appears to be a bug which does not allow this menu to be disabled.

In the mean time one can always add '--disable-new-avatar-menu" to the Chrome shortcut link

Dropbox Fail

I just ran into what appears to be the Dropbox version of the Twitter Fail Whale.  I am trying to download some of my important files off of the Dropbox website, and I keep getting this error:

Sadness.


UPDATE: The issue has resolved itself as of the following morning.


UPDATE: Ran into yet another issue with Dropbox, which eventually resolved itself. At least the error messages are cute to look at...