My Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping Experience

Central Iowa is the home to at least two (maybe more) multi-state fitness chains designed around a ten week extreme/total body shaping/transformation: Farrell's and Kosama. The gist of each is that you combine a planned diet with cardio and strength training and that you see awesome results in a mere 70 days.

Several friends have done each and back in August I decided to give Farrell's a try. Their ten week program comes with a $389 up front fee which is admittedly pricey but includes some personal equipment (boxing gloves and wraps), some intellectual property (a guidebook with nutrition and exercise information) and your workout fees for those ten weeks.

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Visualization comes to Foursquare

I've been a big fan of Fourquare, the smart-phone location based social network and game, since before I was even able to use it.

This week it got even more interesting as two third-party visualization tools based on the Foursquare API hit my radar

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Ames floods

Image by Arturo Fernandez/The Register

The flooding in Ames this week has been quite simply amazing. It was captivating yesterday to follow the updates from friends and connections in town on Twitter and Facebook, as they sent information on road closures and pictures of the damage.

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Where exactly is the Silicon Prairie?

Chet Culver's idea of the Silicon Prairie

There is a weird buzz going on around the term “silicon prairie”. I’m particularly attuned to it because I work with the organization Silicon Prairie News, an online news publication promoting the activities of high tech, high growth and innovative companies in Des Moines, Omaha, and the surrounding areas.

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Iowish t-shirts

Last year I made my first purchase from what was then SMASH when I picked up the "Kiss me I'm Iowish" t-shirt for my wife for our anniversary on March 12. I thought it was a fun gift since we were married in Ireland and all. The only problem was that she was too pregnant at the time to wear it (she did wear it home from the hospital after the baby was born in June).

I was excited to see that SMASH, now called Raygun, is selling the same shirts this year. However, they aren't the only ones. I was horrified tonight when I stopped into HyVee and saw this monstrosity:

Now, it's not so much that it's ugly (which is certainly is) or that it's Hawkeye (which actually makes me chuckle) but I was most disappointed in the fact that they blatantly copied the idea from SMASH/Raygun.

Or did they? I googled "Kiss me I'm Iowish" and found this lady in Southeast Iowa who claims to have invented (and trademarked) both the word "Iowish" and the phrase in question. Uh oh.

Update on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 2:33PM by Geoff Wood

Apparently, the lady in Creston made a call to the Register recently.

Oprah thinks Iowa is "getting better"

I don't know the specifics but I'm guessing that I'm not in the target demographic for O, The Oprah Magazine. However, I caught a tweet today that announced that Oprah (or more likely one of her staffers) had decided Iowa (the state) was in fact 1 of the 100 "people, places, ideas, and stuff [the magazine is] loving more than ever."

Iowa clocks in at #32 and is one of three geographic places on the list (we rank behind formerly looted, ransacked and hurricane-devastated Oak Street in New Orleans and ahead of the hydrogen-bombed Bikini Atoll).

32. Iowa 
Legalizing gay marriage in 2009 + producing artisanal charcuterie (try La Quercia's organic prosciutto) + University of Iowa football landing among the top 25 college teams for the fifth time this decade + ranking second on MainStreet.com 's Happiness Index = one seriously happening Hawkeye State. 

Don't get me wrong, it's great for our state to get publicity. I agree that Iowa has improved and I'm in a somewhat unique position to see that since we moved back here last summer after five years living out-of-state. However, I do question their formula they provide above. The legalization of gay marriage is certainly worthy of such a determination (and, in my opinion, should be celebrated) but I question the other three.

Item 2 - Apparrently, we now produce "artisanal charcuterie". I admit, I had no idea what "charcuterie" is but according to the interwebs it's the "branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products". I've never tried La Quercia's prosciutto (nor do I have any idea where in Iowa "La Quercia" is located) but I bet it doesn't hold a candle to Mr. Porkchop on RAGBRAI.

Item 3 - Hawkeye Football. Really? I get it, Hawkeye football is good. I'm not a fan but that's neither here nor there. Quoting their ranking doesn't make a lot of sense since it's the judgement of external sports media (and coaches secretaries). Collegiate sports are divisive in this state; the Hawkeyes are no more the Iowa's team than are the Cyclones and it doesn't make sense to use either.

Item 4 - Mainstreet.com's Happiness Index. I s'pose it's a good thing that this website's subjective combination of "Non-mortgage debt as a % of Annual Income", "unemployment rate" and "foreclosure rate" for our state is more favorable than it is for 48 other states, it doesn't mean anything to me as Iowan.

As I said, cheers to Oprah for recognizing Iowa (although being on the same plain as a hurricane ravaged neighborhood and an American bomb testing location makes me worry about what she formerly thought of us) but next time dig a bit deeper and showcase our true accomplishments.

Recent Silicon Prairie News Interviews

Two of my recent SiliconPrairieNews interviews have led me to the East Village in Downtown Des Moines.

They both rank up there with my favorite interviews thus far and are certainly opinionated and passionate innovators in the Des Moines Entrepreneurial Community.

The first is Mike Draper, founder of SMASH. I first came across SMASH way back in February of this year when I first saw the famed, "Des Moines: Hell Yes" t-shirt online. We had since bought a few SMASH shirts (the aforementioned one, a take-off on it for my buddy's fundraiser that said "Ben Washburn: Hell Yes" and one that I gifted to Hope for out anniversary/Saint Patrick's Day that reads "Kiss Me I'm Iowish") but I had never been to the store until the interview Mike. 

Mike has some interesting thoughts on Des Moines as a business locale and what one can learn and give back to the community after spending a few years elsewhere.

Mike's full interview is here:

The full SPN post is here: SPN interviews Mike Draper.

The second is Scott Kubie, founder of Market Street Media Foundry. Scott has some great thoughts about the "bar for success" in Des Moines and what our community needs to move forward.

Check out the full video of my interview with Scott here:

Check out the post here: SPN interviews Scott Kubie