Monday, June 23, 2008

Matt is Back!!




Matthew "Matt (Mathias)" Harding is an American video game developer and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations. Harding has since achieved notoriety through widespread coverage of his travel exploits in major print and broadcast media outlets.

Originally from Westport, Connecticut, where he began his game industry career working for a video game specialty store called Cutting Edge Entertainment, Harding later worked as an editor for GameWeek Magazine in Wilton, Connecticut, and then as a software developer for Activision in Santa Monica, California and then Brisbane, Australia.

Harding claims that a sarcastic joke of his about the popularity of shoot 'em up games led Pandemic Studios to develop the game Destroy All Humans!, on which he received a conceptual credit. Saying he "didn't want to spend two years of my life writing a game about killing everyone", he quit his job and began traveling, leading to the production of his first video.

Harding was known for a particular dance, and while videotaping each other in Vietnam, his traveling companion suggested he add the dance. The videos were uploaded to his website for friends and family to enjoy. Later, Harding edited together 15 dance scenes, all with him center frame, with the background music "Sweet Lullaby (Nature's Dancing 7" Mix)", a 1992 world music song by Deep Forest that uses lyrics from a dying Solomon Islands language.

(The original "Sweet Lullaby" music video, which was nominated by MTV for music video of the year, consists of a little girl riding a tricycle in front of iconic scenes from around the globe. The same clip was used as a station identification for the SBS television network.)

The video was passed around by e-mail and eventually became "viral", with his server getting 20,000 or more hits a day as it was discovered, generally country by country due to language barriers, before the launch of major video upload sites.

Harding created a second version of the video in 2006, with additional dancing scenes from subsequent travels, called "Dancing 2006". At the request of Stride, a gum brand, he accepted sponsorship of this video, since he usually travels on a limited budget.

His videos are viewable on YouTube, Google Video, and his own site www.wherethehellismatt.com. His second video has been watched 9,726,484 times on YouTube as of June 22, 2008 and Harding's YouTube channel is ranked "#30 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Directors" as of March 25, 2007. Harding released his third dancing video on June 20, 2008. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries.


Monday, June 9, 2008

Mahalo to Aloha Skin Spa!


I want to personally thank Lin and the great staff at Aloha Skin Spa in Lake Tahoe for a wonderful day of treatments. The true Hawaiian spirit of family and the islands greets you as you enter the spa. I encourage everyone to take a side trip to Tahoe for this spa.


Aloha Skin Spa
770 Northwood
Incline Village, NV 89451

http://www.alohaskinspa.com

phone: (775)832-5551
email: info@alohaskinspa.com

Monday, June 2, 2008

Slimming of Lower Legs

I read this great piece on MSN this morning, and as a certified fitness instructor myself it's one of the most common questions asked. Great info here...especially about intervals. For myself and others that have bad knees, treadmill/elliptical at a constant high rate may not be the answer. I do the "7s". What is that? I walk, say at about 4 mph for 6 minutes and then do a 7 mph rate for 1 full minute. I call it the 7s but it probably should be called the 4-6-n-1? Well the point is...the body does a better job of building the heart and eliminating fat if you do intervals of high intensity rather than a medium rate for a longer period of time. Try it next time you workout. See how much you sweat by doing the "7s" for 30 minutes or any combination of intervals that works for you compared to a standard 30 minute "same rate" routine.

Let me know your comments and thoughts.


Elliptical or Treadmill?
Which cardio machine is the best to slim down heavy thighs?
By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

Q. I walk on the treadmill every day for three miles at 4 miles per hour. I haven’t noticed any fat loss in my legs yet. Would I get leaner legs by using the elliptical trainer instead?

A. To decrease fat in your legs, you need to aim for body-fat loss all over since you can’t dictate to your body where it sheds fat. Fat loss is about burning more calories than you eat. Both the treadmill and the elliptical are great ways to burn extra calories. But how hard you work on either of them (and how long you stick to it) will affect how many calories you burn. That, in turn, will affect how quickly you see fat loss.

Elliptical trainers have different levels of resistance. To burn the most calories that you can in the time you spend in your workout, try to move quickly through higher levels of resistance. Aim to work out at the highest levels of intensity that you feel comfortable with.
When it comes to burning calories on a treadmill, there is a big difference between walking, jogging and running. Generally, walking burns fewer calories since you are working at a lower intensity—unless you add hills to your walk, speed up your walk, and even try to insert some jogging intervals into your walk.

You don’t mention how long you’ve been at your current routine. But keep in mind that lower body fat is resilient. It’s a healthy kind of fat, unlike ab fat, which is associated with increased health risks. Not only that, there is a decreased circulation of fat-burning enzymes in the lower body area, which also explains why it’s harder to budge.

Some research suggests that, for women especially, more high-intensity exercise is needed to help budge stubborn fat. So, is your walk too easy? Walking at 4 miles per hour may be a moderate pace if you are fit or over 5-foot-7-inches, but it might be a vigorous pace if you are new to exercise or 5-foot-4-inches and under. If you’re not pushing yourself, speed up to burn more calories.

And watch out for off-duty eating. Often, women who begin an exercise program in the hopes of losing weight, compensate for the calories they burned in their workout by eating more. You may only be burning about 300 calories on your three-mile walk. All you’d need to do to negate that burn is to sneak in an extra candy bar, or a couple of beers. Sometimes, people feel like they deserve to splurge as a reward for their workout. But if you do, you’re unlikely to see the fat loss you desire (although you’d still be getting all the health benefits of the walk).

To ensure that you’re not eating as much as you exercise off, keep a food and fitness log for a week to keep track of your energy input and output. Also, try bumping up your calorie burn by either walking faster, longer, or at a higher intensity (add inclines), or by inserting some jogging sprints.