Two Weeks

As I was entering my time at work this afternoon, I realized that if I work exactly eight hours tomorrow and Wednesday that I'll be 80 hours over for this month. That's two full work weeks! How did I manage to do that?

I guess the one 80 hour week and the two 60 hour weeks would add up to an extra 80 hours...and my compensation is the satisfaction of a job well done. Yippee.

10 kg

I stepped on the scale this morning. Looking back to the first weight I have documented in my workout calendar (Jan. 27), I've dropped 14 lbs in exactly three months. I'm pretty sure I was about 8 lbs heavier around Christmas time compared to the Jan. 27 weight. That's 22 lbs, or exactly 10 kg (as my wife pointed out).

At first glance, that sounds like a lot, but if you assume four weeks per month, that's 16 weeks (since Christmas). That would mean an average weight loss of 1.4 lbs/week or 0.6 kg/week.

Slow and steady wins the race.

No Goodbyes

At the Andy McKee show he played a Don Ross tune, "No Goodbyes", and said "this one's dedicated to Tashi." I didn't know who Tashi is, but found out here. Notice the date he passed away. The Andy McKee show we went to was on April 12.

Here's the master playing this song. Notice the dedication in the info to the right of the video: "No Goodbyes"

Triumvirate

I've now gotten to see all of my three favorite guitar players live - Don Ross last year, Antoine Dufour a month or two ago, and Andy McKee just a couple weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the shows and hope I get the chance to see all of these guys live again.

Here's a pic from the Andy McKee show. His popularity has taken off over the past year thanks to Youtube (search for "andy mckee drifting" on Youtube).

2 for 2

I've been spending so much time at work this past week that I haven't had the time to go grocery shopping or cook. So, I've been eating a lot of fast food. What have I learned? Go to a fast food restaurant about 30 minutes before it closes and order a dessert (like an apple turnover) with your meal. I did this two nights in a row at two different restaurants and got the dessert for free both times.

I finally went grocery shopping and cooked my own dinner tonight - mac & cheese.

American Engrish

I love the website engrish.com. It's dedicated to mistaken English ("Engrish") found in east Asia on clothing, packaging, signs, etc. Having lived in Japan for two years, I have a great appreciation of Engrish. Here's a recent nugget:

I'll pass on the water passed by the manager....

I always figured Engrish to be an anomaly only present in east Asia, but I've come to learn that it also exists in, of all places, *gasp*, the United States. My wife found this example at a mall in Michigan. She took the picture with her cell phone, so the focus was a little off.

The next best thing to walking tall?

Engrish and Kneehongo

Why do people feel the need to try to look cool by buying apparel or getting tattoos with writing in a foreign tongue they don't understand? Why oh why?

Tipping the Scale

After being sick one week, then insanely busy with work last week, I finally got back to the gym yesterday. Part of my Sunday morning ritual before going to the gym is stepping on the scale. After two weeks of not working out, I expected to be a few pounds heavier than when I last weighed myself three weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised - I had actually lost an additional five pounds. The needle was just to the left of the line for 200 lbs. I'm going to call it 199.5 lbs. and say it's the first time I've been that light in close to 5 years.

Why do we spend so much time at the gym if we can accomplish just as much weight loss (or more) with sickness and elevated levels of stress? I think I'll start a "stomach flu with new responsibilities at work" diet. I guarantee somebody will buy my book. Who wants to help me write the draft for the infomercial?

Patriotic?

Is my Japanese wife more patriotic than I am (as in an American patriot, not a Japanese patriot)? Let me elaborate.

Since we got married June of last year, this was the first time we had the option of "married filing jointly" when filing our taxes. I went through all of the paperwork and found we'd be getting a return close to $3000 - roughly two-thirds of that being from my wife's withholdings, one-third being the savings for filing "married filing jointly" as opposed to "married filing separately", and the portion from my withholdings being nearly negligible.

From one perspective, a large return is bad since it basically means you've given the government an interest free loan over the course of the last year. Or can sacrificing the interest/returns you could have made on that money for the greater good of the country be seen as patriotic?

If so, that would make my wife more patriotic than me.

Elated Insomniac

Great news! My wife will be moving to live with me in July. When she made the final decision on Sunday, I told her I was so excited that my head might explode. She thought I was being sarcastic, but I was serious. This is a VERY big deal for me (and for her too, I think).

So, that's the elated part.

As of Tuesday of last week my responsibilities at work have changed. I've been put into more of a leadership role, helping oversee and guide people who do the work I was doing up until last Monday. Honestly, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the change - I've gotten much busier in the past week. At first I thought I wouldn't really enjoy the new responsibilities and would want to return to my previous job, but though I've been insanely busy the past several days, I'm finding I really enjoy it. I feel I have more control over the quality of our product, and am faced with more interesting challenges. I think the new responsibilities will help me grow as an individual (sorry about getting cheesy on you). Maybe it was perfect timing for a change - I had been doing the same job for ~1.5 years and was feeling a bit bored and stale.

So, with the change in responsibilities, I've inherited a very hot potato. And apparently "I've only been on this project for two days" isn't a good enough excuse for not making progress and not understanding the history of the project. It's only Tuesday and I've probably worked 30+ hours already this week. Yeah, I'm a party animal.

Oh, the insomnia part? I guess it's the excitement and anxiousness that comes along with a job change (nervous isn't the right word), but I haven't been able to sleep since Friday night.

So there you go, I'm an elated insomniac.