The Daily Parker

Sir Terry and Neil Gaiman have a joint cameo in Episode 1 of BBC4's radio adaptation of the funniest book ever. I'm trying to sneak a listen to it in my office.

Hurry: it's only free until next Wednesday.

To read:

• Pepsi is dropping Aspartame, which, by the way, doesn't stop obesity.
• Bad urban planning exacerbated the destruction in Kathmandu and puts other Asian cities at risk.
• Indian food is delicious, and now we know why. (My bet was on turmeric.)
• American Airlines rejiggered its operations in Chicago and Dallas in March, which is a good thing.
• The Economist reports that Chinese scientists have changed the genome of 86 zygotes, which, had the zygotes been viable, could have resulted in genetically-modified humans. Creepy.
• Does Duke create corporate stooges? Not always.

Back to cleaning up after a production bug this weekend.

Yesterday, owing to having a dog and not passing out from exhaustion after writing a blog entry, I blew out my Fitbit steps so far past my old personal record that I'm not sure I'll surpass it for a very long time.

Yesterday's total was 30,496 steps over 27.7 km. Apparently I drank enough water yesterday that I'm not a raging ball of sore muscles today. And so far today, I'm over 8,000 steps, with another few thousand pretty much guaranteed before dinner.

Today's gorgeous weather encouraged me to go outside. A lot. In fact, I hit a new record today: almost 27,000 steps and more than 24 km—so far. I still have to take Parker out at least twice tonight, though he's a little tired from the 5½ km he and I walked earlier today.

Next up on the agenda: lots of water, starting to prepare food. For some reason I'm really hungry...

After seeing Carousel yesterday, I'm going to take advantage of really gorgeous weather today. Parker will also benefit. Updates as the situation warrants.

First, a not-so-smart car:

I'm not sure what amused me more, the disproportionate tow truck or that the Smart Car driver parked in a rush-hour tow zone long enough for Streets & Sanitation to remove him.

Then, for everyone who takes his dog to work, there's this food truck:

I didn't pick anything up for Parker yet. ($2.50 per biscuit? Did I read that right?) But if it comes back, maybe.

I'm still trying to debug the performance of our principal application, which shouldn't be struggling the way it is.

I did, however, take two minutes out of my life to watch this:

I mean, yes:

Sometime Tuesday or Wednesday I hit 2 million steps since October 23rd.

Unfortunately, a combination of weather and talkative sales people on Wednesday prevented me from getting my 10,000 steps that day. Otherwise I've hit that goal 64 times this year, averaging 11,750 steps per day since January 1st—going up to 13,400 steps per day in the last 30. I've also lost 3.7 kg this year, stabilizing right around my target weight three weeks ago.

I realize this is old news, but I'm really jazzed how some simple changes in my life have made such a crucial difference. A fitness tracker costs around $100; most come with some kind of social gaming software (Fitbit lets you challenge your friends), which can give you even more incentive to get off the El a stop early or get up from your desk every half-hour.

My to-do list today only has 14 items on it, of which 6 are checked off already. The actual time it will take to accomplish the remaining eight items varies between 20 minutes (laundry, tonight, essentially a fire-and-forget activity) and four hours (Staging release of the Holden Adaptive Platform).

So, once again, I'm going to shove a bunch of articles to my Kindle:

• Within a 10-minute walk from my house is a mausoleum built in 1858 that the city didn't move when it created Lincoln Park.
• Virgin America will fly A320s from San Francisco to Honolulu, which means we really are living in the future.
• Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens will close 200 stores in the next few months. No word yet on which Chicago stores it might close.
• Wildlife porn alert! Urban coyotes.
• I missed the Last Week Tonight episode last October in which John Oliver asks, Ayn Rand: How is this still a thing?
• Another one from Citilab: see L.A.'s amazingly-clear parking signs. How come we don't have them in Chicago yet?
• Did I already link to the new Azure Table Storage design guide?

Now to do the next few things on my list...and watch the thunderstorm outside my office window.