Creatures of habit

Humans by nature are creatures of habit, myself especially. When I find something I like, I stick with it. That means going to the same restaurants, choosing the same things off menus, buying the same wine at the same store, and doing the same workout. My workout was very consistent - run for 30 minutes on the treadmill while watching an old Star Trek episode that the DVR grabbed for me (apparently Girls Gone Wild has a huge audience with the Star Trek Voyager following, as evidenced by the 90 second commercial they play on EVERY break - thank you 30 second skip). This run became very routine, and even though I knew that you should mix it up in order to keep your muscles from becoming used to a workout, my habit won out.

Last week I decided to go for a run outside. I have no idea why I was suddenly insipred to do this, as I have always preferred running on the treadmill. I did a very easy out and back / loop combo that was only 2.4 miles. Even though it was pretty much completely flat it totally kicked my butt. I also got to run around the lake by my house while the sun came up, shining across the perfect glass surface with the flatirons in the background. I was sold. So Saturday I lost my mind and added the Davidson Mesa out and back in as well doing 5.4 miles, which is way longer than my normal 3 miles. Today I did 4.5 and while there's no doubt that I had a hard run (legs are sore), I'm not writhing in pain on the floor.

My new routine feels great, and now I have to figure out how to keep it from becoming a habit again...

Facebook, you finally got me

I have been resisting Facebook for years now. Some of my friends have been pushing me toward it, but I held my ground firmly. Clearly if you're reading this blog you can see that it's not a resistence to technology. I embrace technology, web 2.0, blah blah blah. The reason I've been resisting Facebook is partially because I felt facebook was for teenagers and pedofiles, but also because I didn't see the point. I should have realized that this has happened for me before. When I first learned of Twitter, I really didn't get it. My first tweet was something like "Working for a software company in Boulder". It wasn't until I started following people that I understood it really meant it when it said, "what are you doing RIGHT NOW?". I've tried lots of other "web 2.0" technologies and most didn't stick. Twitter did, and now facebook has as well. Part of the clincher was that Becca was on it and honestly that really surprised me. She's not a big fan of technology in general, so if she found value in it there must really be something there.

So, I created a facebook account and started filling out my profile info. Then I searched for the people I knew were on facebook (as they were the ones giving me grief about not having an account). Soon I started getting accepted friend requests. OK, cool, so now what? Hmm, let's look at their friend list. Wow, so-and-so is on here. Friend request sent. Hey, look who else is here. Friend request sent. Oh look, on my info tab I can click on my high school name. Whoa! There's some people I haven't talked to in 18 years. You get the picture.

So I quickly became hooked and started finding people I haven't spoken with in many years. I still haven't caught up with emailing everyone I've found (or have found me), but I'm getting there. I'm trying hard to not let Facebook interfere with my job, which is tough, because I sit in front of a computer all day. It's just way too tempting to keep checking it. Yea, another computer thing to suck up my time. Becca will be thrilled...

Poorly placed space bar usage

Sometimes I type too fast for my own good. When I was in high school, they offered typing classes. I took 2 semesters of it, and although it was tedious (we actually typed on typewriters believe it or not) it has been a fantastic skill to have. I've timed myself on programs that measure that type of thing and can get between 80 and 100 words per minute.

However, sometimes my typing speed is to my detriment. I have noticed that I tend to use the same phrases quite often when I write, as I'm sure most people do. A phrase I use a lot is "about it". An example is, "I would like to hear about it." In and of itself, this is a perfectly normal, mundane phrase. However, when I get into speed typing mode, at least half the time my thumb decides to hit the space bar at the wrong time with those two words. So instead of "about it", I end up typing "abou tit". A simple mistake, but resulting in a somewhat embarrasing situation (especially when IMing to a woman, and you can't hit the backspace to correc tit before she see sit). :)

Your weight changes like Oprah!

I have joked a lot with friends and family that my weight fluctuates like Oprah. It's funny to me at least, and is definitely a way to make me feel better when I gain a few pounds. In the picture I captured the graph of my Gyminee weight tracking. I joined Gyminee in October of last year when I heard of a challenge posted by Brad Feld which he called his weight jihad. I joined the Boulder Boys weight loss challenge, and it worked pretty well. I lost about 12 pounds in the three months we had the competition. You can see from the graph that I lost a lot of weight right away in a very short period of time. That's what I call my obsessive period. Then, you can see that it starts to fall apart, going up and down and for the most part staying flat (or maybe even creeping up at a small incline). That's what I call my post-obsessive period.

Typically, after the post-obsessive period, I have a gluttony period. For whatever reason, I work out hard and starve myself for a few weeks, or even a month. Then I just can't take it anymore, and I start eating the things I have been depriving myself of. For me, that's essentially chips (potato chips, corn chips, etc). I can go on in that mode still working out hard, telling myself that I'm "maintaining" now. Then I'll say things like, "this must be my natural body weight, because I'm not losing any more." Being completely honest, that's all a load of BS. If I would just "maintain" a healthy eating and workout plan, then I likely wouldn't lose my mind from deprivation and binge on a family size bag of Doritos.

So, right now I'm back into an early stage, but I'm trying not to be too obsessive about it. I realized that I started getting into the gluttony period a few weeks ago, and I cut it off before it could do serious damage. I'm trying a new plan I'm calling obsessive maintenance. With this plan I still hit the treadmill, and I still eat healthy and small portions for the most part. However, I'll let myself have a snack size bag of chips every few days, and a couple of cheese and crackers, etc. I'm hoping that by using portion control and not complete deprivation I will stem the post-obsessive phase and stick to my guns this time. If I can maintain this for a few months, the hope is that it will become natural habit, and much easier to continue.

The big gap in the data points on the graph was me entering the gluttony period and then back into obsessive. I don't know what my weight climbed back up to as I decided I didn't want to know until I had tried lowering it again for a while. I'm psyched that I'm back on track and the lowest I've been since I started tracking it. Wish me luck and strength of will, and soon enough I'll reach my goal.

The Masters

I'm not a big golfer, so much so that I play maybe once every couple of years. However, it was still unbelievable to walk onto the course at Augusta. This has to be one of the most beautiful courses I have ever seen, and the organization and number of people is unbelievable. I got a few shirts as souvenirs and I'm still waiting for the picture of Tiger (he hasn't appeared as of this post).

So this week the bizdev plan is:

1) Shmooze at the Masters

2) ?

3) Profit

Playing Roulette on airplanes

So whenever I'm on planes I play roulette with who is going to sit beside me. It used to be that it was unusual if the middle seat wasn't empty. Back in the good old days there were a lot more flights, and they didn't get full. Now they've cut back enough that every plane is oversold, and therefore completely packed.

So, I end up playing "who will sit next to me" roulette. I am one of the first people on a plane, having status. So that lets me make sure I have space to put my bag in the overhead and get settled in my seat. Then, as I sit there I watch all the people coming on the plane. Since I now know that the odds of having an empty middle seat are close to zero, I hope for a "small person". I don't care if the person is male or female, tall or short, but what I do care about is width. I want someone without wide shoulders, and especially without a wide middle. Bottom line, I want space so I don't feel like I have to lean away from them.

As people walk onto the plane, I'm watching them and in my head saying, "no, no, please God no, liveable, no, yes - bummer, no, no, no, liveable, liveable, no". You get the picture. Clearly, I have no real choice in the matter, but it's my little game I play in my head and it makes me feel like I have some bit of control.

Today, I got liveable twice in a row for each of my flights. I'll take it. So as you walk on planes, watch the people watching you and see if they're mouthing anything to themselves. Hopefully you get a yes when they look at you...

"BizDev" is pretty cool

So this year I added yet another hat at work: business development. At first it was a little confusing as to what I was supposed to do. However, I've been on a roll lately meeting and greeting with the best of them.

Last night I attended Intel's Nehalem launch event held at the NASDAQ Times Square building. While "networking", they were filming Fast Money below us. There were some definite big players in attendance, and the catering and wine stations were supurb.

So I have to say that bizdev is pretty cool. As far as I can tell it's lots of shmoozing, lots of talking, and lots of asking. I need to engage phase 2 soon: somehow increase our revenue because of the shmoozing. It makes me think of South Park:

1) Collect underpants

2) ?

3) Profit!

Or in my case:

1) Shmooze

2) ?

3) Profit!

Once I figure out the ?, I'm golden.