Craig Dugas - A passionate tech junkie with a thirst for knowledge

The Single Packing Peanut

Costco recently shipped an SD card my way... and upon opening the package, we found but a single packing peanut in the unpadded envelope.  It turns out the card is waterproof, able to withstand extreme hot and cold temperatures, electro-static-proof and shock/drop resistant.  My guess is that the single peanut was a sign that I just received a bad-ass secure digital card. Or someone in a warehouse was thinking - "haha, what's the person going to think when they open this up and find one packing peanut."

Craig Dugas


Cat Nap

After my long workout Sunday, I came home to find true relaxation in the form of my cat, Eppes, napping in the sunshine.  The AWB + point focus of the Lumix kept this shot all about kitty.


Craig Dugas

Parking in the Snow

You turn in to the parking lot after a fresh snowfall and pull up flush next to another car in the lot.  You can't see the lines, but this is common in the northern states.  Some days the snow decides to fade away throughout the day and as vehicles leave and enter the parking lot all day, you're occasionally left with what appears to be a jackass, me and my SU ARU in this case!

Craig Dugas

S.O.S. - Maine Breakfast

For the third time this week, I prepared a warm and savory dish of S.O.S.  It is one of my absolute favorite meals and has an unmatched home-style taste.


Make your own using my personal recipe at http://28may.net/recipes

Craig Dugas

As an added bonus, my preparation won't have you in a post-meal coma :)

Breakfast Eggs

 

Finding tasty new ways to prepare eggs isn't as easy as one might think. That being said, here's a Turkish inspired recipe I put together this morning that is my new favorite breakfast!

  • 2 eggs, poached
  • 1/2 C cottage cheese + 1T sour cream, creamed
  • Sprinkled with San Juan Sazon

Per usual, I've kept things on the healthier side by using omega-3 eggs, low-fat cottage cheese and fat-free sour cream.  The whole plate is very "melt-in-your-mouth."  This protein-rich meal has about 250 calories, so a slice of wheat toast for some carbs wouldn't hurt.

Enjoy.

Craig Dugas

Bozeman Walk 1

For February in Bozeman, Montana, this weather week has been rather pleasant.  I try to keep my small point-n-shoot camera on my person these days, and here are a few shots taken over a lunch-time walk today.  In order: Lindley Park, Heading North on Church St., Service Electric in Sepia.

Craig Dugas

     
Click here to download:
Bozeman_Walk_1.zip (6304 KB)

Marathon Training - After Week 2 and MORE!

From emotion comes motion.
Running is a whole new game once you have a goal in place, and that's primarily why I've had a great past two weeks!  That deserves re-iteration - the physical, emotional and general well-being granted from running with a goal outweighs any workout that you simply just "do."  You might have heard the maxim from emotion comes motion in the past, it is very true.  Time and time again, I've found emotionally charged workouts can be engaging, euphoric, and powerful.  On the other hand, if you go into a workout with a sour attitude, you'll probably be miserable by the end - no kidding.

I'm on schedule.
As for marathon training, I reverted to my original schedule that does not include cycling days because I found that on some of these days I have so much energy I've been adding cycling on-and-off.  I've also found that you can have a lot of energy and be tired simultaneously.  It's weird, but waking up groggy and looking forward to hitting the mat for some push-ups can apparently be a reality.  Cool!  Fourteen weeks remain to build up my mileage - I'm cranked up and ready to do this thing!

What's bringing this all together?
A great deal of my training enthusiasm is based on sharing my training online with friends and family at dailymile.com.  I have the most amazing family members running that haven't run in over a decade!  I have a friend training for the Vancouver marathon that recently broke a toe and is still running (with doctor supervision, of course)!  I have dozens of great friends that have joined in the 2,000 Push-up Challenge to help keep fitness an everyday part of our lives.  It doesn't get much better than that.

What now?
More running, more push-ups, more everything!  Thanks for sticking with me, everyone!

Craig Dugas

[posted both on http://blog.craigdugas.com and http://fitness.craigdugas.com]

Protect Yourself Using Google Alerts

If you haven't used it, Google Alerts is a free service provided by Google that will alert you by e-mail whenever a search term is indexed by their system.  It's a great way to keep track of your interests (including yourself) on the Web.  Garry Tan recently posted the Preventing Blight video at axonflux.com by Matt Cutts (Google Webspam Engineer) about general guidelines to follow to protect your blog or web site from spammers.  The 20-minute video contains a solid foundation of tips, one of which focuses on using Google Alerts to alert you of spammers.




I expanded slightly on Cutts' idea to create a compound alert for a domain that looks like:

site:craigdugas.com (viagra OR xxx OR cialis OR levitra OR porn OR sperm OR mortgage)

- which will send an alert every time one of the terms viagra, xxx, cialis, levitra, porn, or mortgage is indexed by Google.  I'll even get a notification of this blog post based on those terms.  It's a tiny amount of work for the free insurance you get to protect yourself from one method of blogger and hacker spam. There are many potential expansions on this idea, maybe to alert you when a competitor posts their product name/link on your site.  Any person or business that uses the Web should have a strong set of Google Alerts set up - it's easy and free.

Craig Dugas

Heebs, Where Everybody Knows Your Name... (MSN)

Today's post I put together last week.  It is an homage to Heeb's , the closest store to work with 50 cent refills, frequented by my coworkers and myself.

BTW, I've received a couple questions concerning the MSN drawings, so to clear up any confusion:
  • I only drew some of these, others are collected from what others have drawn to me.
  • These have been collected for a couple years... we're not coming up with these daily!

  
(download)

                                                                                       
Click here to download:
Heebs_Where_Everybody_Knows_Yo.zip (476 KB)