Last week, I posted a selection of postings that I made on Twitter. Because I tend to find more "Twitter-sized" chunks of time than "blog post-sized" bits, it provides a way of sort of taking notes in public.

That fits in well with how I've long handled even longer-form blogging. I gather flotsam and jetsam from my own thoughts as well as my input streams, sort and ruminate on it and share the result.

However, when your notes are scattered across notebooks, Kindle clippings, Twitter postings, Delicious bookmarks, saved RSS items from Google Reader, etc, gathering that all together in one place to digest and transform becomes a challenge.

To that end, I've been slowly building up prototype code to gather each of those sources. A few months ago, I took care of gathering up my eBook notes via the Kindle. Today, I used TweetSharp to grab both my own Twitter postings as well as those that I marked as "favorites". So, I'm sharing that prototype with you.

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Not that long ago, Shelly and I went to the movie theater nearly every weekend. Over time, that dwindled to once every few months.

There were quite a few factors, but one stands out above the rest. The experience just didn't add enough value any more. Some of that is because I've got a fairly nice home theater.

That home theater easily surpasses the experience at the bottom 1/3 of movie theaters out there in all of the ways that matter to me: screen quality, seating options, snacks, the people in the theater with me, etc.

Basically, good home theaters with Blu-Ray or HD streaming rentals have completely leapfrogged the bottom end of the movie theater business.

The problem's been that there hasn't been anything added at the top to compensate (at least where I live). Until recently that is.

A few weeks ago, I heard about a new theater that Kerasotes was opening in St. Louis Park that stepped into that gap. Here's a list in their own words about what makes this theater different:

• NO pre-show advertising.
• NO lobby video games.
• Cease seating after films commence.
• Enforce policies that will encourage courteous behavior.
• No one under 17 admitted without an adult or guardian after 7:00PM.
• Infants (2 & Under) ticketed at adult price.
• Provide covered, free parking with direct access from the parking deck.
• VIP Premium Seating for guests 21+ with custom-designed oversized loveseats separated by personal tables.
• The Lobby Lounge for guests 21+ to enjoy cocktails, wine, or beer with savory food made from fresh ingredients.
• Reserved seating with print at home ticketing powered by Fandango.com.
• Total Stadium Seating in every auditorium.

We've now been to see several movies in this theater, particularly in the VIP balcony, where we sit in the front row, dead center, in what are the best seats in the house.

There's no problem with people wandering in 15 minutes late, no problem with people talking on their phone (actual ushers take care of such problems) and the first 20 minutes of what's on the screen is actually just a few previews and actual movie.

In short, this new take on theaters has us actually going back to the movies and doing so, willing to pay more than we did before. My biggest question is why it took them so long.

Twitter's become the place where I tend to capture the observations and comments I have in the moments I have them. What follows is a collection of my favorites from the past week or so.

Of course, what's at home is the giant cookie exchange, so I shall escape to my refuge in the basement.

I should clarify that the exchange is giant, not the cookies.

Before bed, we have to go through the house and make sure all edible items are out of basset reach. Like with bears and camping.

You'd think, having spent an evening in jail over a paperwork mixup related to car license plates, I'd renew them on time. You'd be wrong.

Irritating sales guy who keeps calling, but never leaves a voicemail? Meet "send all calls for this contact to voicemail". I love tech.

Yea though I modify data live in production, I will fear no evil, for I made backups.

As distasteful as the task is, I'd still rather deal with cleaning up the snow than mowing the lawn in the summer.

Winter really hit all at once. I usually don't get full mustache-cicles while shoveling until January or so.

If a boat is sinking, do you spend your time arguing about who cut the holes in the bottom of the boat, or do you try to patch the holes?

If you claim not to lie, yet use the phrase "I don't have time", you lie.

Today continued my long streak of being entirely unable to assemble Ikea-style furniture without at least one piece being backward.

I can choose to buy or rent (and SD vs HD) for movies on Amazon VOD. Why is my only choice for TV series/episodes to buy (SD or HD)?

A few years ago, I discovered the term "serial enthusiasm". Like the author, I have always found myself to be prone to those same tendencies.

I discover a new topic or hobby and dive in enthusiastically. That enthusiasm is arguably the very definition of geekiness and the antithesis of cool. Adam Savage recently articulated that dichotomy in an interview with MAKE magazine (I read it in print).

I think of enthusiasm as the opposite of coolness and adolescence is a turning point for this.

Savage's claim about the turning point is that when you get into junior high, it starts being "cool" not to be really in to something. Geeks and nerds are one of the few groups of people where that enthusiasm survives well into adulthood.

For me, as that enthusiasm blooms, I tend to find communities (some real, some online) of others who share my enthusiasm along with new resources, books, tools, websites, etc. I engage in conversations and generally enjoy spending time with my newfound enthusiastic compatriots. Then, a few months later, a problem arrives: my enthusiasm shifts to something else.

This almost always leads to someone from one of those communities inviting me to an event or asking for me to continue my contributions and I say, "No". Sometimes people are perfectly OK with that. However, enough "No's" and eventually, I see a reaction familiar to those on this side of serial enthusiasm. It's a puzzled look (or its online equivalent).

A similar look comes when I run into someone I know, but haven't seen in a while. They ask about something they saw on this site or heard me talk about the last time we spoke and ask how that project is going. I find myself feeling a bit sheepish when I have to admit that I haven't thought about or done anything on it in months (or even years).

For a long time, this trend bothered me. Was I doomed to jump into topic after topic and never get any depth? But then I started paying attention to my own past and watching this serial enthusiasm play out in my day to day life.

What I noticed was that "serial enthusiast" wasn't really the best description of my behavior. Instead, I've come to describe it as "cyclical". That's because I tend to actually return to areas of interest over and over again, in a cycle.

In those areas, my interest has deepened over the years and it's clear to me that I'll be returning to those in the future. Like an old friend that doesn't live next door, I don't visit them every day, but when you do, the experience is familiar and plays off of the depth of previous experiences.

For some of those interests, like BBQ, my return is tied directly to actual physical seasons. As much as I love smoking a pork shoulder in my smoker, doing so when it's -20F while wading through 2 feet of snow doesn't really make for a relaxing and fun Saturday.

For others, the cycles are ongoing, but shift in their flavor. I love listening to music. However, if you were to grab my iPod on any given day, the genre of music I'm listening to would be subject to a cycle that I haven't ever charted, but definitely see. I'll listen to nothing but punk for a week or two and then spend a week listening to rockabilly and maybe a week with Irish folk.

All the while, I'm listening to giant piles of music. I've got headphones on for at least 8 hours a day. It's not like I ever give that up.

Software development is another one of those ongoing interests where the cycle is actually within the interest. I might be digging deep into LINQ or learning Ruby or front end template development, but, except for vacation, I build or study some aspect of software development every day.

Still other interests are more straighforward cycles. I tend to listen to podcasts for a while and then none for weeks or months at a time. The same is true of audiobooks. And making stuff.

What it boils down to is that I'm getting a gradually clearer picture of what these cycles look like and how to embrace them.

I'm identifying the things that are steadfast in their presence, if cyclical in their form or flavor. And, I'm becoming OK with the ebb and flow of those things that are more transient in my life.

I'm going to try to organize this site and other communications to be in harmony with this reality and align my projects to make sense with it. Committing to a long-term project or a deep dive into a topic that isn't in my list of ongoing interest is likely to end in frustration for either me or other interested parties.

I'm interested in knowing if this self-observation lines up with how other people perceive me and if aligning my activities to work with, rather than against, this reality will improve my day-to-day.

Over the past few weeks, more than a few people in my “stream” of information mentioned that they were fasting. For some of those, it was part of their observation of Ramadan. For one other, it was just something they were doing in prep of a big feast.

Regardless, it combined with several conversations I’ve been having with someone I work with. See, this co-worker (who is in what nearly everyone would call good shape) regularly goes close to 24 hours without eating while just “not hungry”. It all made me curious about the effects of fasting on the human body.

What I found was really interesting and sparked a short-term experiment carried out last week and a longer-term one starting this week. I read a few articles, a ton of medical journal abstracts and a few things became very clear along the way.

Rather than there being dangerous side effects for short term fasting (1-3 days), the benefits kept stacking up as I kept reading. However, one particular study’s conclusion really struck me. When subjects did a 24 hour fast for one day per month, heart disease in the group went down DRAMATICALLY (think 40%).

That struck me because of the health problems that my mom has and, in all likelihood, I inherited. My grandfather died before I was born of a heart attack before turning 60. My mom has had high blood pressure for as long as I can remember and, a few years ago, had a coronary blockage. My own cholesterol and blood pressure numbers indicate that it’s pretty likely that I am on track for the same problems.

As I continued reading and more and more benefits related to cardiac health were described, I became simultaneously intrigued and apprehensive. Clearly a lot of science was adding up to point to a clear way to improve my health and possibly even lose the weight that’s been stubbornly clinging to my mid-section, but the 24 hour fasts that were in the literature and used for intermittent fasting seemed like an impossibility for me.

I’ve lost, at various times 20-60 pounds, with the help of appetite suppressants (only to regain some of it back). The biggest problem I faced (and continue to face) regarding my weight is that I am so constantly hungry. When I eat “proper” meals, I am nearly never full at the end and am almost always hungry an hour or 2 later.

When on the appetite suppressants, I manage to knock back the hunger enough to make reasonably good decisions. However, once I’m off of them (and they won’t let you stay on them for the 50+ weeks I’d need them to lose the weight I need to), I struggle with the hunger in major ways.

After looking at all of this information, I am convinced that intermittent fasting is something that is likely to help both my health in general and make it easier to lose the weight I need to in order to make *that* part of my health come in line too.

However, all of that would be entirely moot if my intuition about my own hunger was true. I imagined the hunger during a 24 hour fast as horribly difficult. Fortunately, I’ve read enough books like Predictably Irrational to know better than to trusty my intuition.

So, last week, I attempted my first 24 hour fast. From 1pm on Thursday to 1pm on Friday, I consumed no calories. No food, no juice, no milk, no sugar in beverages, nothing. And, it was much easier than I thought. Yes, I was hungry. However, it wasn’t much worse than when I am leading up to a slightly delayed meal. For instance, if I normally eat lunch at 11:30, but have to wait until 1pm because of a meeting. It never got any worse than that.

I had no dizziness, no light-headedness, wasn’t any more tired or weak, etc. In short, a 24 hour fast is very do-able for me.

As this is rambling on longer than I intended, I’ll get to the point. All of my reading and my small experiment set up what I’m planning over the next 12 weeks or so.

The studies indicate that it takes about 18 hours of fasting before the benefits kick in. At about 30 hours, the benefits start slowing down, pointing to an 18-30 hour fast being a good length. Note that the science says that there is NO slow down in base metabolic rate out to 72 hours of fasting and I have no intention of going that long.

While some people have gone to a completely alternating days schedule, the benefits are achievable with far fewer fasting days, so I’m aiming for 2 days a week of between 24 and 30 hours of fasting. To still be able to eat something every day, I’m going to be starting the fast after lunch on a given day, skipping the following dinner, breakfast and lunch and starting back on food the next afternoon or dinner.

I’ve also recently started back at the gym, so will be doing weight training 3 days a week plus some days walking/treadmill.

I need to set an appointment with my doctor and at the gym too to get base numbers for things like cholesterol and triglycerides. I’ll be taking waist, hip, arm, leg and neck measurements and weight. I hope to get a basal metabolic measurements as well. Even though this is just one person, and so anecdotal, I want as much data as I can to know what the actual results are. I’ll also be taking pictures, though I probably won’t share them publicly (I trust you understand).

The reality is that going without food for periods like this was the normal state of things for the entire history of humanity for all but the last 60 years of 1st world history. The science all says there is very little risk here. However, I will be paying very close attention and working with my doctor to mitigate any risk that is present.

This is gonna be interesting.