Football Epilogue

Ugh. It's been way too long since I've done some writing. Ultimately, it would be great to put in a couple thousand words a week. It's the same as exercising/playing an instrument/etc.; the more I do it the better I get and the better I feel. For me, writing has the effect of serializing my thoughts. It gives some manner of order, and priority to all the things buzzing around my metaphorical beehive. This is similar to making a list, but I find putting some prose to the thoughts adds some perspective and even some gratitude. So what's been going on lately? In a word: life. I'm finally starting to settle into the new job. I'm even starting to enjoy it. There's an entirely different set of challenges, however these challenges still rhyme with a lot of what I did at the previous gig. Now that I'm settling in, I'm able to start looking at side projects to augment my experience and pursue some of the academic interests I have. I'm happy that it's ...

 I've been having a tough time finding a cohesive line of thought for putting in my blog. I tend to like some structure to what I write, at least a minimal amount of pre-planning. However, that's been tough lately. I think a part of it is the new job. It has me in a state of heightened anxiety as I learn my role. For me, this means results in a distracted level of focus. This is perhaps due to part of my brain waiting in anticipation for the next thing to do. There's also a continual mental inventory going on to make sure I'm not missing something. All the while, I'm not sure doing all the things I need to be successful in the new role or if I made the right choice in making such an abrupt career lane change. Ultimately, making the change was the only way I could find out. All that said, I am enjoying the vast majority of the new job. I'm getting to explore a new technology space that has me opening textbooks to refresh on my knowledge of quantum mechanics. It...

  Here's my progress so far after a month of Noom . I'm down 21.4 lbs as of this morning. While it's a big drop for one month, it hasn't been all monotonic as you can see from the bumps which (not surprisingly) correspond to the weekends.  I also had and still have a bit to give. In terms of percent body weight I've lost 7% of myself (yes there's a math problem for those who need to know my starting weight). In terms of where I'd like to get to, I'm one-third of the way (note: I like word problems).  However, this is really about the journey where getting there is only the first part; looking further out and setting new goals, be it maintaining, losing more or maybe even gaining a little more to find a "sweet spot". I'm intending for what I'm learning and experiencing as being the start of a life of new habits. A few things that have helped me so far are: Doing meal preparation:  I have healthy frozen lunches in the freezer at work and...

It's been a heavy, sad day. As most know by now basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash. On the surface it's the all to familiar tragedy of someone well known leaving this world too soon. In reading the reports I felt a sense of great similarity with Mr. Bryant. The news struck me as how young he was, particularly looking at how much life must have been ahead of him. Then came the realization that He and I are the same age (41 at the time of this writing). At 41 I often feel like an old man, but for some reason over the last day I'm getting the sense that 41, or even 49 is far from the end. Kobe's career was in full stride when I moved to California for graduate school in 2001. The early 2000's were a fun time for NBA basketball in California. The two premier teams were the Sacramento Kings and the LA Lakers. Being a new "NorCal" resident and a traditional Minnesota sports fan,...

About the only time of year I don't mind the mess in my living room is the week between Christmas and New Years. I like to let the kids and I bask in the holiday afterglow. The tree is still up and shedding needles (damn balasm) and doing well. The gifts are out for people to look at and tinker with. There are still some cookies, there's definitely good coffee (I got a couple cans of illy from my son). There's Premier League soccer on boxing day and over the weekend. The college football and bowl games are just getting underway. There's a nice reprieve from work and school. It seems that a lot of people like to set up the tree and decorate right after Thanksgiving and take everything down as soon as it's done. To me that seems to make the holiday more about the shopping season and as soon as everything is opened and handed out, it's time to move on without even taking time to enjoy what was just given. In a way it's a statement as to how...

Well, I finally have a bike commute under my belt for this year. I splurged on a new ride for my birthday this year and bought a Trek "fitness" bike. It's somewhere between a road bike and a mountain bike. The tires are skinnier and there's less tread, as is the case for road bikes, while the frame and handle bars are more upright. There are no shock absorbers or anything to soak up my pedaling energy as was the case with my previous bike. It is also very light weight. My only structural gripe is the seat is very hard. Enough so that I'm contemplating a stylish pair of bike shorts with sexy padding where you need it (see below). Sweet, sexy cycling shorts. Yes, I did deliberately choose a pic that looks like I baboon butt, but these may be an ass-saver on longer rides. I've been taking more and more rides for small errands and adding distance. Fortunately, much of Bloomington is very bike-able (with a few glaring exceptions) with big shoulders or pat...

I'm a big guy. I always have been. I always will be. In fact, the last time I got small (in the 230s) friends said I looked unwell. There were some other circumstances, but it was an unnatural look for me for sure. I've gained a few pounds coming off the holidays and a year of focusing on kids and work. I work hard on taking this as a fact of life. I'll find some motivation and slim down a bit again. One thing that drives me nuts on account of my Buddha belly and a long torso is not having a shirt, or at least an undershirt that stays tucked in. My current collection was totally thread-bare and unacceptable as clothing. I had to do some shopping and Most of the mainstream stores, I believe, are doing themselves a great dis-service by not stocking more tall undershirts.  Here are some findings for XXLT white v-neck tee shirts: Target:  NOT AVAILABLE IN MY AREA (WTF) Duluth Trading Company : $25/shirt, uber comfortable, but a little spendy. At stores Wal-Mart: NO...

Just a song that got in my head while getting motivated to keep stride through the Holidays. Enjoy!

There are certain parts of me I wish I could transplant. Not really the usual "body image" kinds of things like my gut, but parts that occasionally cause me significant pain and discomfort. There are: The inner areas of my knees that generate sharp pains from "partially torn ligaments" Headaches that largely seem allergy related My right shoulder which always seems to be biting down on the tendons that run over the top of it. My big left toe which seems to have some calcification and is leftover from football My neck that gets stiff when I sleep on it wrong  and... My back. I remember first "tweaking" my back doing squats in high school. Lifting much like the #TBT I showed off previously.  That resulted in nerve pain sharply traversing up and down me, but was mainly centered in my lumbar region. In all honesty I don't think that pain ever really left me. Every day I feel it in one form or another, particularly down my right leg and int...

I don't know where I'd be, without your dark and roasted bean and let's not forget the caffeine You pick me up in the morning But keep my up and moving Insides churning, outsides grooving And I take you with a little cream Who am I kidding, a lot of cream And need constant refill it would seem If there there's no Coffeemate to be had Then on to the half-and-half and with a touch of Splenda you taste splendid Although I'd drink you straight from the carafe I used to use a Keurig  machine But I found the portion quite lean So now on the weekend I make a full pot Still that doesn't last as long as I thought In the evening I switch to decaf So I can sleep at night Then awaken again tired and groggy Until I pour another caffeinated flight ©2016

As mentioned in a previous post, I procured myself a new fitbit. This allowed for me to compare the Fitbit One to the Samsung Health App I've been using on my phone. While the comparison will be going on for a while and I could get into all the minutia about the different accelerometer chips used in the different device, I thought it would be simple and handy to just use the two for a while and see how they compare.  I've had the Fitbit for roughly a week. The first figure shows the step comparisons between the One and my phone. As you can see they track pretty closely. There are a couple of deviations though, namely on 6/12 and 6/18.  To more closely see the variation I evaluated the difference between the two devices as shown in the second figure. Positive values are days the Fitbit counted more steps and the negative values are where it counted less steps. 6/12 and 6/18 are clear on this chart and also correlate with days I charged my Fitbit, i.e. it sat on t...

So on a good note, I won my match yesterday. On a bad note, the latter portion of my round was atrocious. Here's the rundown: Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot Par 4 4 5 3 4 3 4 3 4 34 Score 4 4 6 4 9 5 8 7 5 52 One neat thing I've been enjoying is the app  Swing-by-Swing . It provides hole-by-hole scoring, a GPS (although I question the accuracy) and even some side betting. Added features for $15/year can log other performance metrics such as greens in regulation, fairways hit, etc. It's a fun toy so far and may just prompt me to generate some graphs. For a little Overtime workout, I mowed the lawn...

Ok, maybe this isn't the best graphic, but I was thoroughly entertained by the fact that it takes into account bowel movements. Lately, I feel like I'm a bit of a "circadian beast". I'm finding myself awake early and to bed late. I'm feeling rested and productive. I'm feeling more motivated to get to work early and to work in my yard and exercise in the evening. I do have to give some kudos to my girlfriend who is a 6 am gym rat, which results in getting me out of bed early too (by choice). A month or two ago I was going back to bed or begrudgingly going to the gym too. Now I'd rather work and write early. It's a good thing. Bed is comfortable, but productivity feels better.

Here's a fill in-able .pdf for the gym. So I'm trying to put together a workout of my own here, something I can more or less follow on most normal weeks. A normal week for me involved getting a good start on my workouts on Monday/Tuesday then tapering off later in the week on account of parenting responsibilities, etc. I'm breaking the workout into:  large muscle groups in the legs and upper body, supersetting with core strength moves, on days one and two to make sure I hit them. Supplemental lifting day (arms, shoulders, calves, etc) on Day 4. I can do this routine from home when I have the kids. Cardio on most days with days 3 and 5 being dedicated to it. I put it in the context of running/walking, but take your pick. I got through days one and two.We'll see how Wednesday goes. Day1: Lower Body Lift Weight/Reps Superset Squats 135/15, 225/12, 250/10, 315/5 Side bends with 45lbs. plate, 20 reps  Hang Cleans 135/7, 135/7, 135/7 Oblique t...

It's NHL playoff time here in MN. Here's my view for the MN Wild v. Dallas Stars game from last night. The Wild, down 0-2 in the series, rallied to win 5-3. It was a very fast and physical game where the Wild had to come back from an early 0-2 deficit.

This is not my yard. I'm a big fan of getting exercise in ways that deviate from the typical go to the gym, run a 5K mentality that a lot of people think they have to have to get a workout. While a gym is nicely compartmentalized and structured it's not always necessary. Take a look at this alternate workout I got in on Sunday: Leaf rake rows, 90 minutes. be sure to switch hand positions to work back and arms symmetrically Leaf/yard debris dead lifts, 60 minutes. work gloves accentuate the experience by keeping any mush of animal droppings off of your fingers. Sapling pulling 30 rows minutes. grab unwanted tree/shrub starts at the base and perform bent over row to uproot the unwanted growth. Leaf bag farmers walk. 1 - 7 minutes. carry full leaf bags to trash bin area. Repeat lift on garbage day to get bags to the street for pick up. Stretching and hydration. Workout #2 will commence on the next nice day with planting squats, dethatching rake rows, aeration plyomet...

It's been an off week. I came down with a cold last weekend. Fortunately I was able to get a substantial amount of rest on Saturday and was mostly free of symptoms by Monday. My bigger issue this during spring and in the fall is allergies. They are a real hindrance to being productive and feeling motivated. They usually manifest themselves in some sort of pulsing sinus headache, stuffy nose at night, some asthma symptoms (i.e., wheezing) and an overall tired feeling. Medication (Claritin) seems to help the symptoms, but I still often find myself with a tired or unmotivated feeling. Oddly, I also think I'm noticing that drinking alcohol, particularly before bed, seems to exacerbate the symptoms. This is yet another work in progress, but hopefully I can find some ways to improve quality of life in this respect.

I had a big deadline this week. For some reason that throws my eating and exercising back into the stone-age. I stop buying groceries, take on a two-gyro-a-day eating habit and the gym..well, what's a gym?  It falls in with my having a little bit of a procrastination issue. Things for some reason have to wait until they are the most important thing and then nothing else matters. It's something I resolve to work on each time this comes up (roughly 4 to 6 times a year) and I've developed a couple coping tactics: Setting timers to help keep focus Adopting Only Handle It Once (OHIO) for most details, e.g. paying bills, to keep my plate clear Letting my todo list define what can wait and what needs to be done up until a deadline I could stand to better structure my schedule. The fitness aspects need to keep priority. I feel better with them.