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During my trip in Japan I was really attracted to the cars people drove there; they were small but could seat a family, looked very sporty, but at the same time cute.  When I saw the Honda Fit 2009, it was almost like love at first sight.  I recently came an owner of the Honda Fit 2009 sport, with manual transmission.  Here’s my first impression:  I’m no car expert, and I won’t talk about the features it comes with; those can be found in the Honda.ca website.  As well, most of my opinions are compared with the Honda Civic 2006, because it’s the only other manual car which I have driven before.

The exterior

The sport edition had everything which I wanted to give it the sporty look: alloy rims, spoiler, skirts, and fog lights.  The only thing missing was the tinted windows, but I resolved that the very next day.

The interior

The dashboard looked very sleek, and didn’t look cheap when compare to other cars in its class.   Unfortunately, there was no room in the instrument panel for me to put my Windows Mobile phone in (which I use for GPS navigation).  The same couldn’t be said about the side door panels, which looked very plastic and cheap.  The shift knob looked distasteful and felt like rubbery ball, but I can easily replace it.  The seats were comfortable and was able to provide me with the lower back support I needed, and the fabric was smooth.

The driving experience

The clutch for the Fit was very light, and virtually gave no resistant when stepping on it.  This made it harder for me find the right acceleration point when taking off from 1st gear, however made gear shifting to be less jerky.  When driving, the engine was really loud, and the ride was more bumpy than the Civic, as well gear shifting wasn’t as smooth and a clicking sound could be heard with each gear shift.  Of course, making comparison with the Civic was probably unfair since the Fit is a lower class car.  However, I found the Fit’s handling was better, and could turn the corners more tightly.  I haven’t tried doing any hard accelerations, since the car hasn’t run in yet.  Yes, I know I’m old school.

During a week of vacation without traveling, I went on a shopping frenzy, and got myself a lot of new toys.  The vacation is almost over, my addiction has settled, but I don’t even want to think about my credit card bill next month.  Here’s all the toys I got:

Samsung 21.6" LCD Monitor

My first item was a Samsung 21.6″ Widescreen LCD Monitor from Futureshop.  It was glossy black and on sale for $200, and would replace the old Samsung 15″ LCD in my evening room.

Specifications:

• Model: SyncMaster 2253LW
• Resolution: 1680 x 1050
• Brightness: 300 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio: 8000:1 DC
• Response time: 2ms

Dell Vostra 200 Mini Tower

To go with the monitor I got a new Vostro 200 Mini Tower desktop computer from Dell which I spotted on sale at RedFlagDeals.com.  I plan to use the computer as a media center and hook it up to my TV and home theatre system.  After doing a few customizations to the system the final price tag came to $359.

Specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E4600
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz
• 230GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
• Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
• Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW

Logitech 2.0 Stereo Speaker System

The Dell computer didn’t come with any speakers.  I wasn’t looking for something fancy since I already hook up the computer to my home theatre system, so I got the Logitech 2.0 Stereo Speaker System LS11 which was sale for $20 at Futureshop.  As expected the sound quality wasn’t that great but at least the glossy black face matched with my Samsung monitor.

Lacie 1TB External Hard Drive

I’m one of those people that collect a lot of stuff on my computer, and previously I owned 320GB external hard drive.  However, I constantly find myself burning DVDs because my hard drives are always running out of space.  Even though, my new computer had a 230GB hard drive, I knew it would not be enough, so I got myself another external hard drive:  Lacie 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive.  There was no sale, but was $170 at Futureshop, which was a reasonable price compare other external hard drives, and it was glossy black as well.

Specifications:

• Interface: Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• Cache: 8MB or greater
• Transfer rate: Up to 480Mbits/s (60MB/s)

Shuttle KPC K45

Getting one new computer wasn’t satisfying to me.  I always wanted to replace the old IBM NetVista which I use as a server at home.   There is a saying that a server is suppose to be a “black box”, and that is exactly what I got from Canada Computers for $219; the small form factor Shuttle KPC K45.

Specifications:

• Intel Celeron Dual E1200
• 1GB DDR2 667Mhz
• Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics
• 80GB 7200rpm SATA

IOGear 2 port KVM

Finally, since I had two computers but only one monitor I needed to get a KVM.  I got the IOGear 2-Port Compact USB VGA KVM with Built-in Cables GCS42UW6, even though reviews say that people had problems switching from PC to PC.  I decided to take a chance and get it anyways because it was the cheapest KVM I could find: $20 at Dell and it was glossy black too :).  I had no major issues with it, however flickering can be seen in the monitor if the screen is displaying black.

Specifications:

• One USB keyboard, USB mouse, and VGA monitor control two computers
• Max resolution: 2048 x 1536, DDC2B

Since the finals in 1998 with the Chicago Bulls vs Utah Jazz, I don’t remember a match up that looks this exciting on paper. I personally don’t like watching the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons, which meant 1999, 2003-2005, 2007 were no good. For the years 2000-2002, when the L.A. Lakers took on the Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, and New Jersey Nets respectively, the Lakers were already sure winners even before the finals started. As for 2006 with the Miami Heat vs Dallas Mavericks, there wasn’t anything wrong with the teams and the series ending up with the Heat getting an upset, but when looking at the two teams there wasn’t any WOW to it.

This year’s finals it looks exciting, not only because it reminds me of the Laker/Celtic classic rivalry of the 80s, but also because of the players involved. We have Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and the Celtic Big Three: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen; four athletic NBA All-Stars who can drive, shoot, and handle the ball well.

My Prediction

Lakers in 6. Boston is a great home court team, but I feel that the Lakers will be able to steal the opener in Boston. Even with The Big Three, none of them have been to the finals, and their nervousness has already shown in their playoff games against Atlanta, Cleveland, and Detroit where only Paul Pierce show signs of being able to carry the team. I feel the Lakers will lose one game at home simply because I don’t remember any team being able to win 3 in a row at home since the finals have changed into a 2-3-2 format. Kobe Bryant has already won 3 champions, and thrives under the spotlight. After a huge turnaround season from last year, being the best team in the western conference and winning his first MVP, I feel this is Kobe’s year and winning the NBA champion would be a fitting end to what he already has accomplished this season.

135 lbs, I remember the last time I saw that figure on the scale was back in the early 90s when I was still in highschool.

Early in March, I saw a photo of me taken on Feb 23rd; that was I was going to lose weight. I was 155 lbs with an approximate 19% body fat. My goal was to drop 20 lbs and 2.5 months later I’ve succeeded (135lbs, 14% body fat).

I followed a simple plan to lose weight: eat less, eat healthy, and exercise daily.

Eating healthy meant no more chips, and fast food, and for the first month, I was a vegetarian. My 3 meals a day would consist of crackers for breakfast, cereal (no milk) for lunch, and salad for dinner. For the 2nd month, I started eating some meat again because I felt dizzy when playing basketball, but I still ate salad for dinner most of the time. I also changed the way I ate; apparently chewing your food makes you eat less, because it gives time for your stomach to tell your brain that you are full. It seems to work, because even though I ate much less than before, I never felt hungry like the grapefruit diet plan I tried.

Changing my eating habits was actually the easier part. Personally, I don’t like doing repetitive workout routines, and I won’t have the will power to exercise 45-60 minutes daily. I had to find a short, but effective workout so I would do it everyday. I found Tranz4m, a 23 minutes workout which has the following routines: Warm Up, Leg Circuit, General Circuit, and Abdominal Circuit. Although the workout is 23 minutes long, it’s very intensive, and my muscles didn’t easily adapt to the workout. This is because you do each exercise as much as you can in 15 seconds for the General Circuit and Abdominal Circuit. When i started to adapt to the routine I targeted myself to do more repetitions.

It turned out that my weight lost didn’t only made me look slimmer, but I also had other benefits I didn’t expect, for example I’m sleeping better at night and I’m playing better basketball.

The Wii Fit, just released on May 21st in North America has become very popular, but recently it also had it share of complains indicating that it’s misleading people about their fitness. Two articles that I recently read about are:

• Wii Fit tells 10-year-old she’s fat
• Wii Fit: Interview with Dr. Judith Stern

To measure a person’s fitness level the Wii Fit uses the Body Mass Index (BMI). Not to go into great detail the BMI is a formula which uses your weight and height, and the result can be categorizes into different classifications.

In summary, the argument is that the Wii Fit misleads people because the BMI does not differentiate fat and muscle. Since muscle is heavier than fat, then a person who is well built will be misinterpret as obese (as claim in articles).

First, it should be mention that the BMI was not something Nintendo created, it’s a system that has been around for quite a while and the categories which Wii Fit uses are data coming from the World Health Organization, thus if there is a flaw people shouldn’t blame the Wii Fit but the BMI system instead.

As an owner of the Wii Fit I thought it would be interesting to test the formula out.

The argument indicates that a muscular person will be misinterpret as being obese because muscle is heavier than fat. LeBron James, is a is NBA player. With his size and power, he virtually can’t be stopped when driving to the basket and is often referenced like a tank. He is listed as 6′8″, 250 lbs and many consider him 30 lbs heavier than his peers in the same small forward position, as well his body fat percent is 6.7%.

Using the formula his BMI result is 27.52, and is classify as overweight. This does seem to give an indication that the BMI system is flawed, but considering all that muscle he has, he is only listed as overweight and not obese. I went on to calculate how much he have to weigh to be considered obese. To be classify as obese the body mass index must be least 30, and using this number I derived that LeBron James needs to weight 273.12 lbs, approximately 23 lbs more than he currently is. With a body fat of 6.7%, it would seem impossible for him to put on this additional amount of muscle. However, lets consider the impossible and assume that he does add 23 lbs more muscle to his body. With this additional muscle would he be more fit?

Knowing that LeBron James won’t be gaining 23 lbs anytime soon, I looked for another person who has experienced a similar situation. Kobe Bryant, listed as 6′6″ and 205 lbs, is currently considered NBA’s best player lost 20 lbs last summer. Kobe’s body fat is known to be under 10%, so the weight lost would mean mostly muscle lost. Doing a search lead me to an article explaining the reason for the weight lost. In summary, the article mentions that too much muscle mass can hurt an athletic abilities, and lugging around the extra weight whether it’s fat or muscle will tire a person more easily because it’s more work. The article also mentions that Kobe lost 20 lbs to improve his quickness, as well as having more energy for the entire game, i.e. making him a more fit player.

Just for the fun of doing more math, I calculated Kobe’s BMI using both his past and current weight. The results were 26 and 23.69 classifying him as overweight before the weight lost and normal respectively. Looking at Kobe’s game this year compare to last year, I would say it has gotten better.

In conclusion the BMI system may slightly misinterpret your fitness level if you are a high level athlete with a body fat of under 10% as in LeBron James’ case. However, the majority of us aren’t high level athletes and won’t be able to use the muscle mass as an excuse if we are classify as being obese. Furthermore, have extra muscle mass doesn’t necessarily make you a more fit person. Is the Wii Fit misleading? In my opinion, no!