Getting back on the health & fitness track after losing motivation, at age 49

It's not easy to start a fitness regimen at any age. And it's not easy to re-start a regimen once you have lost motivation. In my experience, you don't HAVE to hit rock bottom, where you're completely disgusted with yourself...but wherever you are, the important thing is to DECIDE that you're going to change.

I fell off the exercise wagon because of stress. Which is ironic because giving up exercise is giving in to stress. I know from experience that exercise is medicine, or therapy. It is a fact that exercise produces endorphins which are natural mood boosters.  

But I let my stressors, mainly centered around job loss and the resulting severe financial pressure, get the best of me. I wanted to spend every waking moment focused on fixing my situation, sending out resumes, reaching out to everyone for advice, and searching for a solution to my problems. I felt that exercise was frivolous and self-indulgent, though I knew deep inside that it was not. My depression only grew worse as I blew off workout after workout. 

I still struggle with the depression. Every day is a roller coaster ride of emotions as new doors open and then close in my face. It is so hard not to take every rejection, every unreturned email or phone call personally. I've also started to get angry at my friends for not recognizing how miserable I am and not offering to help. You read about suicides every day and everyone always says afterward..."If only I knew what he was going through." (Note: I don't think I'm suicidal, but if you think you are, please call a professional immediately!)

The point is, that today, I made the DECISION to not let my situation get any worse. I went on a run...and it was hard after a 2 week layoff. But I didn't stop until I'd run two miles...then I walked a 3rd. It was a struggle to get through the first mile, and I lost form during the second mile, but I felt reborn at the end.

Maybe getting back on my exercise routine will do more than band-aid my symptoms. Perhaps it will be the basis of my resurgence, and the foundation of my mental recovery. I hope so. 

Apple Macbook Pro Message App hanging

Recently, the messages app on my Macbook pro started hanging. I had no idea what caused it and thought it was related to a recent software upgrade (to El Capitan.)

The app would open, then go into the "spinning wheel" mode where nothing happened at all. It seemed to last forever and my only option was to do a "force quit." I had to rely on my phone to send/receive messages.

After several days of searching, I finally found the thread with the answer:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7408309?start=0&tstart=0

It turns out the problem is due to the Contacts app. I had contacts enabled for both my icloud and gmail accounts. When I turned off icloud (as I have over 1500 in gmail) then restarted Messages, the problem was no more.

Ralph, I don't know you but God bless you!

Ten Tired Traffic Myths - still alive and kicking

Our region is home to one of the top 6 transportation boondoggles in the country right now - the I-77 toll lanes project.

While the contract itself appears to be fraught with problems and penalties, such as penalties for building nearby projects that take traffic away from the toll road, the opponents keep touting Myth 1 as if it is the obvious answer.

The answer to me is actually in Myth #7, get a little bit of traffic off the roads, and you get a significant reduction is delay times. This is because traffic delays are non-linear. I don't expect the toll road opponents to understand that because they have problems with Myth #1, which is kind of math dependent as well.

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/12/10-tired-traffic-myths-that-didnt-get-a-rest-in-2015/422274/

iPhone 6 Dead Microphone

I didn't post an update but I finally fixed my dead microphone problem. What I did was take my iPhone to the Apple store. One of the geniuses ran an audio test which confirmed the microphone was bad. Since my phone was still under warranty they swapped me with a new one and I was on my way in about an hour. It took that long to make sure I had a fresh backup and update the OS on the fresh phone.

The many microphones of the iPhone 6

Siri stopped hearing me when in speakerphone mode right after my last software update to iOS 9.1! However, I can still talk to people and do other things normally. 

Working:

• Voice memos
• Siri via headset
• Voice dictation via headset
• Speakerphone voice

Not working:

• Voice dictation via phone itself
• Siri via phone

I haven't resolved the problem and have a case opened with Apple Support. However, during troubleshooting, I learned the iPhone actually has 3 microphones as shown in this diagram from Apple:

Siri went deaf. She couldn't hear me nor could I do voice dictation.

I upgraded (?) my iPhone 6 to iOS 9.02 the other day. I didn't realize Siri wasn't working until this morning. Here's what I did that didn't fix her:

1. Power on/off
2. Toggle Siri on/off.
3. Toggle Cellular data on/off.
4. Soft reset (hold down power and home button simultaneously for 10 seconds.)

Here's another procedure that did not work:

Try resetting your network settings:

WARNING: These steps will make you lose any entered passwords in already joined networks. SAVE ANY IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS OR WEBPAGES, YOU MAY LOSE THEM.

1. Open Settings
2. Tap General
3. Go down, tap Reset
4. Tap Reset Network Settings
5. If prompted for a pass code, enter it.
6. Tap Reset Network Settings
7. A series of different screens will show. This is normal.
8. Once this is done, unlock your phone and try connecting to a network or cellular network.
9. Try using Siri.

Problem adding GMail Account to Outlook MS-Office 365

This threw me for a loop this morning for a couple of hours. I logged in via the web browser just fine. I set my GMail account for IMAP. Still couldn't add it to Outlook.
Kept getting this error message despite several attempts and triple-checking my spelling, etc.

Your IMAP server wants to alert you to the following: Please log in via your web browser:
http://support.google.com/mail/accounts/bing/answer.py?answer=78754 (Failure)

Finally found the solution here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2984937

Cause

This issue occurs when you try to sync to a Gmail account after July 15, 2014 and Basic Authentication has not been enabled for your Gmail account.

Google has increased its security measures to block access to Google accounts after July 15, 2014 if those accounts are being set up or synced in apps and on devices that use Basic Authentication.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, enable Basic Authentication for your Gmail account. To do this, go to the following Google website, and then select Enable when you are prompted about whether to let less secure apps access your Gmail account:

Allow less secure apps

For additional security, consider enabling Google’s two-step verification and app passwords as documented at the following web pages:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/180744?hl=en

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en&topic=2784804&ctx=topic


Note The workaround described here takes you to the page in the following screen shot. You click Enable to work around the issue.