Friday, January 15, 2010
You know what?
I can't stop listening to that song, Set the Fire to the Third Bar by Snow Patrol (featuring Martha Wainwright). I'm not a huge Snow Patrol fan, but this song has been featured on the Dear John movie trailer and I really connected with it. Of course, I love Rufus Wainwright, so it's neat to hear his sister, Martha, on this track. Good stuff, that.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Time machine
Sometimes I really wish that I had a time machine so that I could go back in time and do things differently. But I suppose that would introduce that whole sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind thing where you wouldn't reap the benefits of what you learn along the way. Also, in related news, I wish that the economy would improve and that the real estate market would recover a bit.
That's it for the fantasy portion of today's entry. In other news, I'm down 7 pounds over the last couple of weeks. That's with doing South Beach diet (sort of) and taking the dog on a few extra walks. We haven't really started Phase 1 of South Beach, since we had some good carb foods around that I didn't have the heart to throw out. So, we've been working on eating better overall and not surprisingly, it's working. I cooked a couple of things last night and put everything in the fridge so that it's easy to grab something healthy instead of going through the drive through on the way home. And I've been much better about drawing the line between work and home life recently. It's still hard for me to not check my email a lot in the evenings, but I'm getting better. And I only had one late night last week. So, it's a start. Progress, not perfection.
I also watched the Biggest Loser tonight to see what it's all about. It was interesting when they had a segment where the female trainer had to eat food (read: junk) that one team was eating before starting the show. She gagged and spit it out, then talked about how awful it was and berated them for eating it in the first place, asking them how they could ever eat such stuff. I get her position, but it seemed to be more of the shaming behavior rather than an actual discussion about why they began to eat that way and why it continued. Truth is, there are probably many reasons they ended up eating that kind of "food" and shaming them about it isn't going to help. Addressing why they started eating that way, and why their bodies alter to crave and tolerate such foods would be a better tactic. Education, not shame. There's already enough shame with being overweight as it is.
From one episode, I can't really say whether their approach is that good or not. Surely it has helped many people, but I'm not sure how realistic it is. I could feel the pain of one contestant who weighed in tonight and had lost a few pounds this week, after having lost 17 pounds last week. She was so disappointed, and she looked so defeated as her trainer explained that her body would have to adjust. Someone should explain that losing 17 pounds in one week (or rather a significant amount of weight depending on someone's total weight to lose) is more common in the first week due to water loss and that it starts to balance out as you continue to move and eat better. That's why it's so easy to fall off the wagon when things start getting tough. You have big losses at first and then it starts to even out and become less and less. That happens even more frequently when you have less to lose. So some of the contestants will continue to lose huge amounts of weight because they have a much larger percentage of weight to lose and it will be easier until the difference between their ideal weight and current weight dwindles. I dunno. I'm not sure I'll continue to watch it, but I thought it might have some good information and be inspirational. We'll see...
That's it for the fantasy portion of today's entry. In other news, I'm down 7 pounds over the last couple of weeks. That's with doing South Beach diet (sort of) and taking the dog on a few extra walks. We haven't really started Phase 1 of South Beach, since we had some good carb foods around that I didn't have the heart to throw out. So, we've been working on eating better overall and not surprisingly, it's working. I cooked a couple of things last night and put everything in the fridge so that it's easy to grab something healthy instead of going through the drive through on the way home. And I've been much better about drawing the line between work and home life recently. It's still hard for me to not check my email a lot in the evenings, but I'm getting better. And I only had one late night last week. So, it's a start. Progress, not perfection.
I also watched the Biggest Loser tonight to see what it's all about. It was interesting when they had a segment where the female trainer had to eat food (read: junk) that one team was eating before starting the show. She gagged and spit it out, then talked about how awful it was and berated them for eating it in the first place, asking them how they could ever eat such stuff. I get her position, but it seemed to be more of the shaming behavior rather than an actual discussion about why they began to eat that way and why it continued. Truth is, there are probably many reasons they ended up eating that kind of "food" and shaming them about it isn't going to help. Addressing why they started eating that way, and why their bodies alter to crave and tolerate such foods would be a better tactic. Education, not shame. There's already enough shame with being overweight as it is.
From one episode, I can't really say whether their approach is that good or not. Surely it has helped many people, but I'm not sure how realistic it is. I could feel the pain of one contestant who weighed in tonight and had lost a few pounds this week, after having lost 17 pounds last week. She was so disappointed, and she looked so defeated as her trainer explained that her body would have to adjust. Someone should explain that losing 17 pounds in one week (or rather a significant amount of weight depending on someone's total weight to lose) is more common in the first week due to water loss and that it starts to balance out as you continue to move and eat better. That's why it's so easy to fall off the wagon when things start getting tough. You have big losses at first and then it starts to even out and become less and less. That happens even more frequently when you have less to lose. So some of the contestants will continue to lose huge amounts of weight because they have a much larger percentage of weight to lose and it will be easier until the difference between their ideal weight and current weight dwindles. I dunno. I'm not sure I'll continue to watch it, but I thought it might have some good information and be inspirational. We'll see...
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Start your engines
It's that time of year again when I start my New Year's resolution. Usually, my resolution has to do with making my ass smaller. This year, that is part of it, but my real resolution is to live my life with more balance. As I sit here the night before starting work again, I'm reminded of how nice this last week and a half was with my family and friends. I had time to take better care of myself, sleep until I felt rested, read books for fun, and (gasp!) go to a movie with L.
It could go without saying that I do not do those things when I'm in full swing at work. But I am saying it to remind myself that my life in 2009 was wwwwaaaayyy out of whack. And therein lies the problem. My career has led me to a degree of financial security that I have not previously had. However, my financial rewards come at a rather high cost to my personal time, health, and relationships with people I care about. While I always strive to overperform and deliver on my work commitments, everything else falls off the face of the earth and that's just not healthy.
I'm not entirely sure how I will be able to balance everything, but I know that I have to try and get things under better control than they were last year. Of course, I'm hopeful that 2010 will bring less family problems and death as well.
My goals to be in better balance are:
1. Eat more healthy, more often throughout the day. This includes cooking more meals at home and making better choices when I eat out. L. and I are starting up the South Beach Diet tomorrow, which is similar to, but not quite as strict as, what I did on 20/20. If I can get to a place where I do that even 3/4 of the year (allowing for inevitable setbacks, holidays, etc.), I would be a much healthier person than I am today. If I can get to even that level of accomplishment, I will be happy. I know that I need to eat more frequently throughout the day to keep cravings from creeping in, too.
2. Move my butt. I really hate exercising. Everyone says to find something that you like to do, but honestly I am really not an active person and finding something interesting that doesn't make me want to bash my head in after 5 minutes is pretty tough. Coming off of the fall where I started having some joint problems, early carpal tunnel signs, and tennis elbow, I've learned that I need to be a lot more careful with the kinds of exercise I do. For now, I figure if I can get in 2 days a week of good cardio, that will be a start. I'll alternate that with more walking each day. So, I'll look for a couple of good classes at Gold's Gym for the 2 days of cardio, and aim to walk Oli more frequently around the neighborhood on at least 2 other days of the week. It's a start. Of course, this will require me to get home at a decent hour to do said exercise, since exercising in the AM puts me into a day-long coma, and a longing to just go back to bed and pass out.
3. ...which leads me to #3: leave work at a decent hour. And when I work from home, shut the computer down at a decent hour. No more leaving the office at 11 PM, or conversing with members of my team at 2-3 AM. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get everything done in just 40 hours a week, but if I could even get it down to 45-50 hours a week, I'd feel pretty good about that. Hopefully my reviews won't suffer too badly.
4. Make weekends a time for relaxation and doing things with family and friends. This is pretty straight forward, but I'd like to get my work done during the week and not have to work weekends whenever possible.
5. Get to sleep at an acceptable hour. No more rolling into bed at 2-3 AM. Part of this will rely on my getting work done and being able to let go of the things that are beyond my means. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.
So, that's it. One of the things I finally did was hire a house cleaner to come in twice a month. It's a luxury that is totally worth it, and I think we'll hire someone to come in this spring to do the initial yard cleanup also. Then we just have to do the maintenance.
Some other things we hope to do this year:
* Sell my condo. We're renting it out now along with L.'s properties, but it's a lot to keep it all going and is more stress than it's really worth.
* Replace the windows in the house. It will make the house more energy efficient, and needs to be done as a few windows have blown their seals now.
* Replace/repair the fence. I think some sections are bad enough at this point to just be replaced, but some could probably be repaired without too much trouble. We'll have to find a good person to come take a look and let us know.
* Remove the overgrown pine tree in the backyard. The tree makes a huge mess with pine needles, and it's situated in a horrible spot right in one corner of our fence and outgrowing the spot. I'd like to pull it out and put in something that is smaller and more suited to growing next to a fence.
* Read more for fun. Lately I've been reading books like crazy, and I've been having a blast getting into the stories and character development.
That's it. At least I have a year to work on it, and I know that I won't be perfect or make it happen all at once. But hopefully by 12/31/2010, I can say that I have things under better control and more balanced in a healthy way.
It could go without saying that I do not do those things when I'm in full swing at work. But I am saying it to remind myself that my life in 2009 was wwwwaaaayyy out of whack. And therein lies the problem. My career has led me to a degree of financial security that I have not previously had. However, my financial rewards come at a rather high cost to my personal time, health, and relationships with people I care about. While I always strive to overperform and deliver on my work commitments, everything else falls off the face of the earth and that's just not healthy.
I'm not entirely sure how I will be able to balance everything, but I know that I have to try and get things under better control than they were last year. Of course, I'm hopeful that 2010 will bring less family problems and death as well.
My goals to be in better balance are:
1. Eat more healthy, more often throughout the day. This includes cooking more meals at home and making better choices when I eat out. L. and I are starting up the South Beach Diet tomorrow, which is similar to, but not quite as strict as, what I did on 20/20. If I can get to a place where I do that even 3/4 of the year (allowing for inevitable setbacks, holidays, etc.), I would be a much healthier person than I am today. If I can get to even that level of accomplishment, I will be happy. I know that I need to eat more frequently throughout the day to keep cravings from creeping in, too.
2. Move my butt. I really hate exercising. Everyone says to find something that you like to do, but honestly I am really not an active person and finding something interesting that doesn't make me want to bash my head in after 5 minutes is pretty tough. Coming off of the fall where I started having some joint problems, early carpal tunnel signs, and tennis elbow, I've learned that I need to be a lot more careful with the kinds of exercise I do. For now, I figure if I can get in 2 days a week of good cardio, that will be a start. I'll alternate that with more walking each day. So, I'll look for a couple of good classes at Gold's Gym for the 2 days of cardio, and aim to walk Oli more frequently around the neighborhood on at least 2 other days of the week. It's a start. Of course, this will require me to get home at a decent hour to do said exercise, since exercising in the AM puts me into a day-long coma, and a longing to just go back to bed and pass out.
3. ...which leads me to #3: leave work at a decent hour. And when I work from home, shut the computer down at a decent hour. No more leaving the office at 11 PM, or conversing with members of my team at 2-3 AM. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get everything done in just 40 hours a week, but if I could even get it down to 45-50 hours a week, I'd feel pretty good about that. Hopefully my reviews won't suffer too badly.
4. Make weekends a time for relaxation and doing things with family and friends. This is pretty straight forward, but I'd like to get my work done during the week and not have to work weekends whenever possible.
5. Get to sleep at an acceptable hour. No more rolling into bed at 2-3 AM. Part of this will rely on my getting work done and being able to let go of the things that are beyond my means. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.
So, that's it. One of the things I finally did was hire a house cleaner to come in twice a month. It's a luxury that is totally worth it, and I think we'll hire someone to come in this spring to do the initial yard cleanup also. Then we just have to do the maintenance.
Some other things we hope to do this year:
* Sell my condo. We're renting it out now along with L.'s properties, but it's a lot to keep it all going and is more stress than it's really worth.
* Replace the windows in the house. It will make the house more energy efficient, and needs to be done as a few windows have blown their seals now.
* Replace/repair the fence. I think some sections are bad enough at this point to just be replaced, but some could probably be repaired without too much trouble. We'll have to find a good person to come take a look and let us know.
* Remove the overgrown pine tree in the backyard. The tree makes a huge mess with pine needles, and it's situated in a horrible spot right in one corner of our fence and outgrowing the spot. I'd like to pull it out and put in something that is smaller and more suited to growing next to a fence.
* Read more for fun. Lately I've been reading books like crazy, and I've been having a blast getting into the stories and character development.
That's it. At least I have a year to work on it, and I know that I won't be perfect or make it happen all at once. But hopefully by 12/31/2010, I can say that I have things under better control and more balanced in a healthy way.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
New Year's Day radio show
L. and I are working on our respective best of 2009 albums list for the Poptopia Parkway show tomorrow on New Year's Day. If you want to listen, we'll be on tomorrow from 8:30-10:30 PM on either 90.7 FM in Everett or streaming on the Web from KSER.org.
Goodbye 2009
Well, 2009, we have about 6-1/2 hours left together. Although you aren't the worst year in my life, you've sure ranked right up there with some of the worst. Frankly, I'm happy to see you go. From the reports from many friends and family, I'm not the only one to feel such glee at your departure. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I see 2010 coming right around the corner now...
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Happy holidays
No, I haven't forgotten my username and password, or how to type. It's just been a difficult time recently, and (unusually for me) I didn't feel like writing about any of it. As I mentioned in my last post, we were going to visit L.'s dad for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately L.'s step mom, J., passed away the weekend before we made it down for a visit. So, we spent our time trying to help out however we could and grieved the loss.
It was a really quick trip, and when we got back I had to jump right back into work to prepare for the final release of our docs. Of course, this was right after lay offs affected our group, so we quickly felt the loss of those co-workers who were let go. That made it quite difficult both personally and professionally. But, we made it through and finally got some respite the last couple of weeks as the holidays approach.
I had a nice break recently with the visit of a friend from London, A. She stayed with us one evening and we spent the next day window-shopping together. I also visited my friend, V., to give her a Christmas gift and spent some time talking over the past year and how I want next year to be. I know that there will still be challenges, but I'm hoping for a more uneventful year. My New Year's resolution is to bring my life back into balance. It seems like I live in extremes for the most part, and finding a niche for everything that is important gets harder and harder as the years go on. I simply can't keep working such long hours and neglecting my personal life and health, so that's the balance I'll try to achieve.
L. and I are hosting the Christmas festivities this year. We're having my dad over on Christmas eve, but we plan to go out to eat instead of make anything here. Then on Christmas day, my mom's family will come, including my grandparents and both sisters and nieces and nephews. We're really looking forward to seeing everyone and making the Christmas dinner. We have the house all decorated, with lights on the outside and a beautiful Christmas tree in the living room, complete with wrapped packages beneath the boughs. The cleaner came yesterday to give the place a good once over, and we're ready to open our home to everyone. Despite the crappy year it's been, I'm determined to make Christmas one of the bright spots and enjoy some time off. My vacation has officially started, and I'm excited to catch up on some great reading, great shows, and visits with family.
It was a really quick trip, and when we got back I had to jump right back into work to prepare for the final release of our docs. Of course, this was right after lay offs affected our group, so we quickly felt the loss of those co-workers who were let go. That made it quite difficult both personally and professionally. But, we made it through and finally got some respite the last couple of weeks as the holidays approach.
I had a nice break recently with the visit of a friend from London, A. She stayed with us one evening and we spent the next day window-shopping together. I also visited my friend, V., to give her a Christmas gift and spent some time talking over the past year and how I want next year to be. I know that there will still be challenges, but I'm hoping for a more uneventful year. My New Year's resolution is to bring my life back into balance. It seems like I live in extremes for the most part, and finding a niche for everything that is important gets harder and harder as the years go on. I simply can't keep working such long hours and neglecting my personal life and health, so that's the balance I'll try to achieve.
L. and I are hosting the Christmas festivities this year. We're having my dad over on Christmas eve, but we plan to go out to eat instead of make anything here. Then on Christmas day, my mom's family will come, including my grandparents and both sisters and nieces and nephews. We're really looking forward to seeing everyone and making the Christmas dinner. We have the house all decorated, with lights on the outside and a beautiful Christmas tree in the living room, complete with wrapped packages beneath the boughs. The cleaner came yesterday to give the place a good once over, and we're ready to open our home to everyone. Despite the crappy year it's been, I'm determined to make Christmas one of the bright spots and enjoy some time off. My vacation has officially started, and I'm excited to catch up on some great reading, great shows, and visits with family.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
There is a season
We recently got some sad news about L.'s step mom, J. She was a breast cancer survivor several years ago, and had been doing well after recovery for some time. About a year and a half ago, or maybe even two years now (time just flies), she found out that she had liver and lung cancer. She has been through many treatments, and while the early prognosis seemed to be promising, things have been slowly declining over time. Today, L.'s dad, C., emailed us to let us know that the decline is becoming more rapid now. The doctor is hoping she will make it through the holidays, and in true J. fashion, she cried bollocks and intends to go down to California for another treatment at the end of the month. I pray that she is able to go and that it makes a difference. I can honestly say that in her position, I don't think I'd have such a great attitude about it all. Some people are truly special that way, and it seems so tragic that they are the ones afflicted with such awful things. L. and I are going down to Florida for Thanksgiving to be with them and hope to have a nice time with them over the holidays. And I pray for her to have comfort and love at this time.
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