Pounding Out the Code

Here at work on a Saturday, still working. Ah, the delivery of a product.

So sorry to have neglected Brain Squeezings these past few weeks. If it's any consolation, I'm ignoring everyone else too.

-Rich

Good Freakin' Grief

Boy, am I tired of putting in the time. I've been fighting the creeping crud all week, and mostly winning, but the Project is continuing to demand time, and will continue to do so over the weekend. I've had to nix Tae Kwon Do attendance for the week, too; I'm sure the school sees me as an absolute flake by now.

Anyway, enough griping. This, too, shall pass. I have sleep to get to, and the good news is that the money is still very nice. If the world keeps being good to me and I can keep costs down, I can be entirely out of non-mortgage debt by the fall.

Something to look forward to, anyway.

Snore...

-Rich

Crazy Week; Getting Some Exercise

Oy, only back for a week or two and I'm already going for days and days without posting. Ah well, remedying this tonight.

The week has been a full one, with multitudinous support calls to answer, development to do, bugs to stomp, and meetings to suffer. But one survives, of course. And this weekend I'll be flying to Philadelphia to visit the family over Easter. I'm mentally exhausted, but riding that fulfilled feeling that accompanies the knowledge that no one can in good conscience say I'm not doing my utmost. :-D

Mentally I've been tired, but physically I've been feeling the need to get the blood moving a little. My weight loss from maintaining a simple caloric deficit has slowed over the past weeks, and while it'd continue if I just kept up with the diet plan, feeling so much lighter on my feet has motivated me to undertake an exercise program.

Since I never seem to do anything without making a physical and/or spiritual production out of it, I shopped around a bit and have settled on and enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do class. As Tripp can attest, I dabbled a bit in Tae Kwon Do and Cuong Nhu back when we attended the University of Richmond together, but since then he's done lots more than I have (I never actually took a test; just learned a form or two and some fundamentals about strikes and maintaining my balance while doing absurd things like roundhouse kicks); he may even have attained some real belt levels along the way--care to fill in the gaps, Tripp?

But since I've been thriving on the structures I've imposed on myself over the past few months, I came to the conclusion (watching some martial arts film or documentary a few nights ago) that it was time to revisit the old discipline. The DoJang (dojo) I've joined is Karen Mitchell's American Taekwondo. The people are very friendly there, and Karen herself is a good, patient teacher, which will be a real help to me. There are lots of kids there, but a good number of teens, twentysomethings, and thirty- and fortysomethings too. Two husband-and-wife pairs that I know of, and several of the instructors have their children attending too. A very cool group.

I had my first class tonight; my knees are complete rubber from maintaining the different stances after several uninterrupted years of desk driving, and I may be in some pain tomorrow, but I have the weekend plus Monday to heal up. :-) I was pleased; the balance and some of the techniques came back quickly, to the point that Karen figured out that I'd had instruction before. I've still got the old flexibility, too: the wide, lean-down-to-your-leg stretches beforehand, and above-your-head kicks were no big deal, though my kick control leaves a lot to be desired. As I mentioned, though, maintaining stances, and indeed any sort of exotic weight shifting or holding was tricky. They finished the lesson with push-ups, crunches and leg-lifts too, which were excruciating to my out-of-shape muscles, but exactly the sort of exercise I want.

There was even a big good-natured production around my trying on the uniforms, because I'm taller and broader than their typical students, but in the end one was ordered, and I'll be properly attired in a few days or weeks.

It felt really good to start doing something. A new circle of potential friends, a good look at my svelter self in the DoJang's mirrors; I'm definitely feeling good tonight.

-Rich

A Recuperative Friday

Back in the office today, after a week full of teaching, handholding and question-answering. It's been a long while since I've presented anything to a group of people, and it was good to get back in the swing of it.

Every one of them has my work e-mail address, now, too. I expect my work Inbox to melt down at about 9:15 Monday morning, but in the meantime I will be enjoying my weekend. I'll only have to put in a few hours to get some last-minute cosmetic changes in; as a result I think I will relax by doing some mundane things like mowing the lawn and cleaning the house up a bit. There's a contingent that will be golfing tomorrow, but I won't be joining them; after all the face time I've had over the past few days I need a few days alone to stoke the fires again.

I'll be presenting this material another ten times the week of 4/19 through 4/23, so a recharge is pretty much mandatory.

Yeah. I definitely need to get away sometime May-ish. I'll have to see what sort of vacation time I have available this year.

-Rich