LesAtkins.com

Loving the New Era

Hello to all of my faithful readers from your less than faithful blogger. It has been a long time so here we go.

I had been with my previous employer for just over seven years and despite the stresses of being in a typically corporate environment I feel it was a rewarding experience. I learned a great deal at the company from a professional standpoint and I forged a number of great relationships with some remarkable people. Times and priorities change, however, and I have moved on to greener pastures.

It has been over a month since I started my new job and right now I still can not imagine being happier anywhere else. I now work for the Atlanta Cutlery Corporation in Conyers, Georgia. In short, I love working for these people. The company has been in business since the early 70s and the manufacturing devision has been around since the 1940s. It is a family operated corporation and from the first day I was made to feel like I was part of that family.

This company is a leader in the field which includes manufacturing and distributing items such as swords, armor, medieval clothing, knive-making accessories and a LOT of other related items. The main forms of distribution have been through wholesale and mail-order. While the company does have e-commerce websites for their different brands the focus to this point has not been in that area. As previously stated, times and priorities change. My job (to start) is to take the two websites that we have and turn them into attractive, high-traffic e-commerce storefronts that drive the majority of our sales.

• MuseumReplicas.com
• AtlantaCutlery.com

I joined the company as a “Senior Web Developer”, but in fact I am the only web developer. Until now all site development has been outsourced so I have taken on the task of creating a development environment at the company. This has been a little daunting, but so far it has been fun.

Aside from the work that I am doing, the best part of this job is that it is five minutes from my house. I have turned what was a 2.5 hour round-trip commute to about 10 minutes. I get to eat lunch at home and sleep a little later. I actually get to see my kids at a decent hour and spend quality time with them. I get to do some other things around the house besides plop down in exhaustion after my long drive. I get to work on a long honey-do list because I now have the time. Scratch that last one

Anyway, I said all that to say this. I love my new job!

Maybe I can take some of my extra time a actually update my blog more regularly. We’ll see.

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Quality Driving…Safer Kids

I know it has been a while since I have written anything here, but I am inspired to say something today.

I have to go through Gwinnett County to get to work and they just started their school year today. Since I ride a motorocycle to work everyday (weather permitting) I am very observant of the other vehicles around me. Today I noticed something frightening. The driver of a school bus was just laughing happily as she yapped on her cell phone. It is dangerous enough that she is on the phone and driving that huge piece of metal, but this woman’s cheese-wagon was about one-quarter full of children. I did not think to get the number of the bus at the time, but I can say this: The bus was at the intersection of Mink Livsey Rd. and Lee Rd. at approximately 8:20 AM. If you know this woman then please tell her to do her job correctly or to do a different job.

//End of rant

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Drinking the Sugar-Free Kool-Aid

I have seen it all over the place. In the grocery store, the drug store, on the billboard and in the gas station. My name seems to be up in lights! Unfortunately, the name “Atkins” is not celebrated because of me (yet).

The Atkins diet has been around for some time now and like many “diets” it has had fluctuating levels of popularity. I have met some people who swear by it and I have met others who said that it was just another one of those shim-sham diets that didn’t work. Yes I know that there are skeptics for everything and, yes, I know that Dr. Robert Atkins (not related to me) was reportedly obese when he died, but that does not mean the diet does not work. Overall I had heard pretty good things about the Atkins diet and I could not think of a more appropriately named diet for me.
I have discovered that my mid-section had become…well…larger than it should be so I decided to do something about it. I started the diet about two and a half weeks ago and I must say that I am impressed with the results thus far. I lost about 10 lbs. after two weeks! I am rarely hungry because I am eating all the time (it seems that way anyway). I just don’t eat many carbs. During the initial stages of the diet you are supposed to consume no more than 20 grams of carbs per day. I got a little gung-ho about it and have made it a goal to get as close to 0 grams per day as possible. So far I am doing pretty well. I eat a lot of meat, eggs, and cheese (specially selected). The idea of eating all of that stuff seemed a bit unhealthy, but I did more reading about this diet and found that despite all of the cholesterol intake my personal cholesterol count would actually go down.

What many people seem to misunderstand about the Atkins diet is the “0 carb” period. Many people that I have talked to have had the idea that the Atkins diet requires one to have no carbs…forever. This is not the case, of course. That would indeed be unhealthy During the initial two weeks (some go longer of their own choice) one is to keep a really low carb count (less then 20). After that period, when the dieter has seen some good results for their efforts and has reach their desired weight, Atkins encourages the dieter to slowly increase their carb intake and maintain a healthy diet.So far I have lost just over ten pounds and I am very happy about. I have a way to go before I reach my desired weight, but I know that I will get there before long.

I have also started going to the gym during my lunch breaks. My company offers its employees a free membership to Gold’s Gym. A number of my co-workers as well as my management go to the gym at lunch so we all ride together to get there. It is nice to have not only the support at home, but also the support at the office. Since I have started working out and exercising I feel better than I have felt in years.

Wish me luck. I will update you on my progress.

For more information about the Atkins diet visit their website at www.atkins.com.

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Shameless Begging

You may have noticed the appearance of some new colorful puctures on the site. Yes, I know I look like a sell-out, but I decided to add a little bit of advertising to help offset the cost of running this blog. Of course, the advertisements dont help at all unless you click on some of them and buy something! C’mon, help a guy out and click on through. You’ll thank yourself for it.

/ End of Begging /

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Podcasting and me

Okay, so I am sometimes a little bit behind in the trends, but eventually I get there. I have recently discovered the fun adventure of podcasting. No, my faithful readers, I have not taken to creating my own Podcasts, but I have begun to subscribe to some.

About four years ago I made a decision not to subscribe to any television service. How do I live? How could I possibly be spending my time without the tube (or panel as it were)? Well, that is easy, I read and spend time with my family. Yes, that may sound boring to many, but I love it. Anyway, we do watch movies and have a pretty extensive DVD collection. One thing I have missed, though, are the informative programs I found on the Discovery Channel and others like it.

Enter the Podcast…

Until recently I was under the impression that if one wanted to listen/view the content located at Apple’s iTunes music store he would have to buy it. I was wrong, however. A co-worker introduced to me the video Podcast. Of course the video will only work for you if you have a newer Video iPod (5th Generation). I was able to find a ton of FREE video Podcasts at the iTunes store. I watch some of this stuff during my lunch btreak at work. After checking out the cool video stuff I started looking through the large collection of FREE audio podcasts (you can listen to these on both the new iPods and the older generation models). I was delighted to find that there were podcasts from the Discovery Channel as well as other really cool sources. I listen to some really nice feature content to and from work. I also get the current world news! I know I could listen to the radio for the news, but it is nice having on-hand so I can listen at my convenience.

I don’t know if I will ever get into making my own Podcasts. Given the frequency of the posts on this blog you can probably tell that I don’t really have all that much to say in writing, much less with my own voice. But you never know. I might surprise you!

If you have an iPod and you have not yet tried Podcasts I suggest that you take a look at the iTunes store and subscribe to a couple of free ones that interest you. I think you will like it as much as I do. Better late than never, right?

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