CamelBak Zoid Hydration back pack (2010 model) review (by a runner)...

Hello! I was training for my first marathon and quickly realized the waist belt is not going to cut it. No matter what kind of bottle I carry, that won't do it. Realized it is time to get a back pack. Looked at many versions of different brands and checked online for reviews. The problem is, all the reviews I find online are by cyclists. None by runners. I thought I'd write up my review when I'm done with my research. So, here it is!

When I was looking for the best that suits me and taking some of my friends' opinions, there are a bunch of things I paid attention to:

• Most of them have "room" to carry a lot of other (than water) stuff. First of all, when you are running, you won't carry any 'stuff'. The most you carry are your ID, car keys, a small bunch of gel packs (which might be in your pocket anyways), and may be your mobile phone. So, I didn't see a reason to have more room to accommodate any 'stuff'. No matter how empty these "rooms" are, they are going to add weight. So, get a bag that fits your hydration needs. Pretty much every backpack has room for the ID/Keys/phone kind of storage.

• My friend suggested me to also get a cleaning kit, especially the one that can clean the tube. Trust me, I can't thank her enough. Make sure you get this cleaner as well along with your backpack. The tube gets so dirty so quickly, you have no idea!!

• Should I have a back pack that has a technologically advanced back gel structure (for air flow) etc.? Honestly, No. If you are riding the bike, these vented backs make sense as you would bend forward that would let air pass through the tunnels and you actually have the speed to do that. When you are running, these won't help. Once your back is wet, it stays wet. There is no way out. So, don't even bother. Just go with the light weight option.

Anyway, with these and few other observations, I narrowed down on CamelBak's Zoid (2010 model). Here are the things I liked about it:

• Light weight, holds what I need. This can hold up to 72oz of liquid. easily covers my full marathon distance and lot more, as I consume about 2 oz per mile.

• Has room for exactly what I would want to carry on my runs. My car keys, an expired license (in case I can't make it back and someone has to help me, I carry my expired license for ID when I can't carry my wallet). I don't carry my phone with me on my runs but this pack has enough room to hold the phone, an mp3 player if you need music on your runs as well as few gel packs, and a bit more.

• There is an adjustable belt that holds together the shoulder straps on the front. You can adjust the height of this belt to make sure the bag is snug to your body and won't wobble around.

Here is my experience using this:

• After my first run with this, my shoulders hurt. Not sure if that is because I was sub-consciously adjusting my shoulders to hold this weight or the weight itself causes this. But I got used to it by the 3rd run. You won't even notice it after that.

• The water inside the bladder stays at the temperature you started with. But the water in the tube quickly gets the temperature of the environment. For me, this makes no sense. I drink about 2 oz at a time and that pretty much means, I drink only the water in the tube at any given time. So keep that in mind.

• While CamelBak advertises a certain capacity, with the way the bladder is designed, it is next to impossible to really fill it to the advertised capacity. So, figure out your hydration needs and go for the next high capacity. If you need 30 oz, go for a 50 oz pack. If you need 50 oz, go for a 70 oz pack.

• By about 2 miles into the run, I'm all sweaty and the back is wet and the pack doesn't help. Nothing against this model, this is an issue with any backpack as such. But if you have two layers of clothes (which you should, on a long run), this is not much of an issue.

• On my first run, while the shoulders were uneasy, I found another major annoying issue. The water inside the pack keeps bouncing and making noise. It gets very annoying very quickly. I figured a way to fix it on my second run. When you fill the pack, hang it upside down, slowly squeeze the pack while pressing the mouth piece open. Do so until you clear all the air and the water comes out of the mouth piece. This worked fantastic. No more noise and it was a quiet run!

Overall, I give this one about 4 stars out of 5.

Sweet Revenge!!!

I'm a die-hard Patriots fan and I was watching the Jets-Bengals game yesterday. Initially, I was rooting for the Bengals, naturally, being a Patriots fan, I do not like Jets, no matter what. But then, I was thinking and suddenly started rooting for the Jets. Yes, a Patriots fan rooting for Jets!!!

I was thinking of what happened last 2 weeks and how Jets got into the playoffs. Of course, all the Jets fans, most of them obnoxious in any way you cut, would tell you Jets beat Colts and Bengals legitimately. Sure.. yeah, sure. Then I was thinking because of the way both Colts and Bengals played the Jets during the regular season, think of all the fans of those teams that couldn't make it into the playoffs. I know that feeling a few years ago, when Mr. Favre and the Packers just packed it in Vs the Jets and Pats lost a chance into the playoffs. Again, its no one's fault and those teams do have a right to do whatever they want to do. But think of it morally. Think of the way Colts acted this season. Very clearly, they wanted to eliminate the teams like the Steelers. Very clearly they were manipulating the playoff spots as much as they can. If you really want your players to be healthy, why play them at all? why play them into 3rd quarter? Did you see what happened to Wes? A non contact injury on his first play (by the way, this could happen in practice as well - so, can't blame the coaches for that). what if Payton Manning is lost for the rest of the season on his first play? so, just simply, its not about health. Its abou getting as many records as Colts can get and then manipulate the playoff spots to their best possibility.

with that popped in my mind, I started rooting for the Jets. Didn't the Bengals help them get in? Yes, now, that would be sweet revenge.

Being a Pats fan, I do want them to see win over the Ravnes today. But even otherwise, if I'm a neutral fan of football for this game, I still want Pats to win. why? I want to see the Jets go to the Colts and beat them. Imagine that!! Both Colts and Bengals who let the Jets win in the so called non-important games, lose to the same Jets in the most-important playoff games.

Sweet Revenge!! Imagine the joy of all the football fans whose teams lost the playoff spots due to these health-conscious teams!!! Awesome outcome!! Don't we all love that?!!

I'm rooting for the Pats this afternoon anyways. But if you don't belong to either of Pats or Ravens fan base, you should root for the Pats to win and next week, root for the Jet to win!!

I know, I will.

Sweet Revenge!!!

Pairing PS3 Slim with Bluetooth remote

So, I got my PS3 Slim from Costco and it came with a remote along with a game. I come home, set it all up with my projector to watch a blu-ray disk and try to use the remote, and guess what, the remote is bluetooth. And it needs pairing. Tried to be a good consumer and checked both manuals of PS3 Slim as well as the remote. Not surprisingly, they both referred to each other. Both by Sony! PS3 said check the device instruction manual and remote's manual asked me to follow the on screen instructions after a couple of steps. Perfect!!

Anyway, its not tough to follow the menu and get to settings -> Accessory Settings -> Manage Bluetooth Devices. Move to the next step and it just keeps scanning. I left it there for 10 minutes and no luck. Then thought I may have better luck searching on the internet. On one forum some one suggested this: "take the batteries out of the remote, press a couple of buttons (he did specify which two) and you should be good to go in 3 seconds".. wait... what??? Take the batteries out? of the remote?? Okay, this is it for me. How in the planet would a remote work in any way, without a battery? Out of stubbornness, I can't follow that ridiculous suggestion. so, I did not try that. If you are willing to try it, more power to you.

But here is what worked for me:

The PS3 Slim came with 2.85 version that won't register remotes. As soon as I connected that to my home wireless network, it recommended to upgrade to 3.15. I did that, which took about 10-12 minutes. Now, 3.15 has totally improved menu items along with boat load of other additions. Now check the menu items:

Settings -> Accessory Settings -> Register BD Remote Control (yes, an exclusive menu item for remotes).

Follow the onscreen instructions and this time it really won't take more than 15 seconds total.

Enjoy your PS3/remote and enjoy the holidays!

and stay safe.

Random thought - Paper or plastic?

With all the buzz around these days about being able to recycle and save some trees and saving the environment, if I ask you the question "paper or plastic?", what would be your response? Most of whom I have already asked this question, responded Paper.

While most people tend to use paper and recycle to save some trees, why wouldn't you say do not use paper at all and save all the trees? Common wisdom is that plastic is not good for the environment. Well, that is true if you just throw it away after use and let it interfere with the nature's pristine water cycle. But if you do recycle it, plastic is the best of all. You can recycle paper may be 3 times, 4 tops. You can recycle plastic hundreds of times. There is no theoretical limit, I believe! If you are going to throw it away (as opposed to recycle), then yes, by all means go for paper. That won't contaminate or interfere with the environment as much as stray plastic does. But if you do recycle, just go for plastic! Save all the trees, not just some of them!

And given the general idea that recycling is the way to go, plastic it is! So, next time you are in a grocery store, and are asked paper or plastic, you know what to say... unless you need that paper for your "cleaning" purposes! :)

The god theory...

Let me ask you one thing first. What was the longest time you have spent alone, not getting bored, not feeling to meet someone, not trying to have some FUN? Tough isn’t it? Being alone is not all that great. Let us all agree on that one. With me so far? Good.

Now, we will move on to talk about a thing that a lot of us humans claim to be alone. And has been alone since our great great great grand parents and continue to be so to with us, to our next generation and so on and so forth. Yes! I’m talking about this thing a lot of humans call ‘god’. (I will capitalize the letter g when I recognize it).

I have a question for all of you that say it is one and only ONE. Why is it alone? Doesn’t it have a family? its parents? Its siblings? Its uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews? None? If they are there, aren’t they all gods too, automatically, by genetic inheritance? (I guess when the forefathers wrote down rules for Hinduism, they understand this aspect of it. Hurray!! Atleast some one got it! Right or not)

Yes, I’m saying “It” and not “He” or “She” because I don’t want to offend any particular set of humans that think the god thing is a male or a female or an unidentified/unclassified alien. Well, I agree, I’m taking a much worse path by offending them all  well, that’s just me.

Honestly, for a particular sect of people on one part of the planet, its Allah, or Mohammed, or one of their relatives, and for another sect, its Jesus, or his father, or Mary (yeah, there’s got to be something about her, pun intended!!!). For yet other sect, its Shiva or Vishnu or Ganesh or Venkateswara (and that’s just a sampling from the gentlemen group, then there is ladies group as well as animal group).

But then we all say, there is only one. WHY? Yet, we all think our ONE is the great ONE compared to any others’ ONE. Hmmmmm.. .instead of us fighting among us humans, why don’t we all just ask our own respective ONEs’ to go fight among themselves and just come back with a winner. Woohoo, we got a winner, and now we also have only ONE. This time, a real numero uno. Until the winner comes back to report to us, we’ll just wait and hold any fights among us humans. Can we agree on that one? Please?

Let me put out a theory of my own! I’m not sure if it is already put out by someone else. Anyway, read on…

Not all humans are strong. Whether it is mentally or physically or by any measure of your choosing. The weak ones look for some guidance when they can’t make up their mind. That’s when a leader emerged. Obviously, there are a lot of such leaders. One per pack of these two legged, so called “intelligent”, creatures. In a given part of the planet, they all got together. And one fine day, they figured we can’t fight among ourselves. It is bad for all of us. So, let us define a vague thing so that we all look up to that. Vague enough that no one knows what it is yet no one would question it. And we will put some rules in place on behalf of that “thing” and we’ll just follow those rules.

Trust me, it worked brilliantly. Absolutely fantastic. Not surprisingly, same thing happened on different parts of the planet. Everyone was living happily within their own set of rules. And then, the world became flat (you know what I mean!!).

Now, when these groups met each other, well.. uh-oh! My rules are better than your rules. My “thing” is better than your “thing”. So, the groups started cleansing. A euphemistic name is “ethnic cleansing”. Nothing but murdering those who believe something other than what you believe in.

So, instead of applying the same approach again and create a new “thing” and its rules so that we can all live in harmony again, we went backwards. Back to the days of packs fighting and killing each other just because they all thought their own leader is the best.

So, with that thought, do you think we are evolving? Some evolution, huh?!

Let me give you another hypothetical analogy. How about all vegans, vegetarians and non-vegetarians fight and kill each other because each of them thinks their way of eating is the best. Sounds ridiculous? Or, all the Windows lovers and Mac lovers and Linux lovers try to kill each other? (Unfortunately, there are some educated idiots that are probably not too far from this idea!!!) Sound ridiculous?

Exactly my point! Fighting under the name of “religion” (whatever crap that means), is just as ridiculous.

Think about it. Religion is just a rule book. Just like there is a book for MLB or NFL.

Peace!