Belly Redevelopment Plan

Conventional wisdom and the wisdom of our elders always states that once you hit 30, your metabolism slows down a bit and over the course of the next decade or so you become a big fatty. Or at the least you gain a few pounds. I once read an article which spelled out that the average American gains a pound a year between the age of 20 and 40. And that's just the average. So for every person who's 40 who hasn't gained that weight, there's a person who has gained twice that.

Suffice to say that it wasn't 30, but more like 31, 31 and a half where, unexpectedly, I started the inevitable weight gaining process. I can't stress enough how suddenly this happened, like I woke up one morning 25 pounds overweight. I wish I had the biofeedback intelligence to notice this sort of thing, but alas, I don't. It's a very odd thing since too I haven't substantially changed my eating patterns or exercising regimen. Most folks who know me can attest that much like a dog, "a tired John is a happy John", and as such, I make sure that I have activities every day that tire me out.

Combine my twice weekly beach volleyball sessions, basketball league, the obligation to take Shaak Ti running, and our twice daily dog walks, and I feel like I exercise pretty damn well, and pretty damn often. So then where the hell did this belly come from?????

The petty side of me wants to blame Alycia a bit for this. In my attempts to fatten her back up to healthy weight and find a good stable of reliable gluten free foods/baked goods I feel like I made too many delicious meals and deserts, and not having the self control I should, partook in way too many of them. Truth is it's not her fault, and if I really wanted to blame someone, I'd foist the blame squarely on my own shoulders (not just for having no self control when it comes to sweets) for being such a damn good cook.

The moral of the story is that I've decided to take osme of this weight off. But how? I'm none to fond of the grapefruit/South Beach/Atkins/Three Legged Dog diets, but still want to figure out how to shed some unwanted pounds, when all of a sudden, like a divine inspiration, I read an article online that made perfect sense. Thank you Internet!!!

It's called the Steve Ward diet. He's a professeor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT in the 1980's (just the person that I want dietary and nutrition adice from) and described what he considers the simplest diet in the world. His explanataion goes like this:

"All that you need for my diet is graph paper, a ruler, and a pencil. The horizontal axis is time, one line per day. The vertical axis is weight in lbs. You plot your current weight on the left side of the paper. You plot your desired weight on a desired date towards the right side, making sure that you've left the correct number of lines in between (one per day). You draw a line from the current weight/date to the desired weight/date. Every morning you weigh yourself and plot the result. If the point is below the line, you eat whatever you want all day. If the point is above the line, you eat nothing but broccoli or some other low-calorie food."

It's pure genius. Not only does it satisfy the numerical cravings of my accountant-brain, but it gives me a whipping boy, something other than Alycia or myself to get pissed at when I can't eat a handful of chocolate frosting (Damn you Sara Eddy for your delicious buttercream frosting recipe!!!!). Instead of coaxing Alycia to nag me to eat better (which she is loath to do, something about being too nice), I can simply get mad at the graph for forcing me to eat steamed turnips instead of cake. It's perfect.

Suffice to say I'll let you know how the progress is on this....

Actual Work Work

Sorry all, my schedule, nay, my very equilibrium has been thrown off kilter by the resumption of actual work. Yay, verily, real honest work, fitting the dictionary definition of the contribution of positive productive activity in return for monetary remuneration. Anyone aware of my plight to perform as little of this as possible may be well aware that a return to such a "deviant lifestyle" as that of a wage earner is enough to throw a substantial sized monkey wrench into my otherwise smooth running mental faculties.

The moral of this story, and the reason for this rambling diatribe against gainful employment and all of its wickedness is to apologize to the few readers out there who rely on this very medium to brighten their day, and make their lives better. As I return to the land of the wage earner, my blogging takes an unfortunate back seat to the aforementioned "work". Not the back seat of the 1982 Chevy Nova where you watched The Evil Dead at the drive-in with Susie Jenkins in high school, no this is the bad backseat where you're stuck, four wide with siblings on the sticky vinyl bench backseat of a Chevy Caprice with no air conditioning as you plod through Bakersfield in August as your brother chomps Red Vines and belches his hot stanky licorice breath at you. Oh, and you hate licorice......

The truth of the matter is I've had WAY too much coffee today and am trying to apologize to my three readers out there for the sparse blog postings. Sorry all - don't fret, the humorous cross country trip and subsequent acclimation to North Dakotan culture will be well documented for you to read. Fear not.

Graduation Day

Though all of the milestones have already been passed for Alycia to gracefully shimmy into the land of professordom, there was still the actual graduation ceremony at San Diego State to attend. It wasn't necessary for her to attend in order to attain the ranks of professor, but it was a great opportunity to get a picture of her in her cool robe. Graduation was this Friday, and though we had to leave Yosemite a day early, it was a fun event to attend, and probably gave Alycia some closure on her long seven year ordeal as a grad student.

On our way to graduation!!!!

We hopped on the San Diego trolley for all of one stop (parking would have been an issue) and made our way through the masses of undulating undergrads to Cox Arena. Alycia got to sit up on the stage with the other newly minted PhD folk, and since my vantage point was far away, I got up and moved so I could sit right behind her and try to snap some photos.

At Alycia's request I brought along a book to read, and am glad I did, it was a fairly boring ceremony. After the speeches from the various dignitaries, they presented degrees to the PhD folks first, then spent the next ninety minutes reading off the names of all the master and undergrad degree recipients. As you can imagine, I spent this time reading my book. After the ceremony, we had picture time in several locations and then ran on campus errands - return the gown to the bookstore and drop off a form at her department building. And that was probably our last time to visit campus.....another chapter in the life of the itinerant learner comes to a close.

Alycia in her full gown regalia - all hail!!!!

Carrotmob - A New Approach to Boycotts

I read about the Carrotmob a few weeks and have been intrigued with the group ever since then. They have a unique take on boycotts and have engineered a "reverse boycott" program which has been implemented a few times in various cities, most notably, their first big event in San Francisco some time ago. It's a pretty cool idea.

Off to Yosemite

Note to all you thousands of readers - we'll be off to Yosemite for the better part of next week, so there will be no posts for several days. But I'll make amends for that by a) posting a slew of entries now and b) having some really cool pictures once we get back later next week. Sadly 2/3 of my regular readership (my Dad and Alycia) will also be on the trip so my Google Analytics numbers should really suffer.

Even though the trip comes in the midst of a busy stretch for us, and the fact that we have to come back a day early to make Alycia's graduation ceremony, we need to make time for the trip now. Why now? Well Alycia has lived in California now for 12 years and has never been to Yosemite!?!?!? Never? Yes, never. I find this fact to be a travesty, so we schedule a trip before we left California for the savage frozenness of North Dakota.

Maybe it's my love of National Parks (instilled by my Dad) or the fact that I've been to Yosemite so many times it's so familiar, but I think it's sacreligious that she hasn't yet visited. So think of this less as a vacation and more as the final educational step for an otherwise smart, educated, worldly PhD - Alycia "Haven't Been to Yosemite Yet". We're here to help, and help we shall.

A New Climate Zone

Probably no more peaches in North Dakota - unless.......

Part of the fun of our upcoming move to the bustling metropolis of Grand Forks, North Dakota will be learning all about the nuances of what trees, plants, and veggies will be able to grow in our new home. Don't get me wrong, this won't be an easy task. I've spent 20 years in Southern California and take my plant knowledge somewhat for granted. All my previous knowledge and experience may have to get tossed out the window as we move from USDA Hardiness Zone 10 (warm) to Zone 4 (very, very cold).

Suffice to say the plants that can barely withstand a hard frost here in San Diego aren't going to cut it in North Dakota where the wind chill aided temps can regularly get to -40 or -50 Fahrenheit in the winter.

Luckily a bit in Internet research has helped my realize I can grow citrus indoors (RAD!!!!) without the need for pollination, and a few other fruit trees (pear, cherry, and apple) should to OK in the frigid Dakotas, but all this is conjecture at this point we'll have to see what pans out. I may also wind up constructing a greenhouse on the property, since there's certainly enough room, and Alycia seems to enjoy the prospect of having some fresh, organic, home grown veggies through the winter.

House Hunting Success

We returned from our house hunting expedition in Grand Forks exhausted but excited at the same time. After a whirlwind four days of house viewing, mortgage broker meetings, form signing, and Dairy Queen cakes with Alycia's parents we came back triumphantly to San Diego having bought a house in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Our real estate agent, Darren Thompson from Greenberg Realty did a fantastic job showing us every possible house that fit our criteria, and exhausting every option in finding us the perfect house. Darren was also a last minute replacement for our regular agent who was on vacation for the time that we were out there, which made his stellar assistance all the more impressive.

Despite the fact that we reviewed houses that we had found online, and that had been on the market for months, we ended up snatching a house that was on the market for only four days. The irony of this was not lost on us as we fondly recounted the hours and hours of Internet research.
Here's a picture of our new house in Grand Forks. After a bit or research, I actually found that our house is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. It was built in 1915, and has some phenomenal craft work, built ins, and woodwork throughout the main floor. It's a three bedroom, one and a half bathroom house with a full length sun porch on the front of the house, and a very serviceable mudroom on the back porch.

The great part is that there is a ton of space in the yard for not only dogs to scamper around and conduct their doggie business, but also for me to plant some fruit trees and have an awesome garden. On the south side of the house are two garages, a double (newer) and a single which would be great for work space, some storage, or whatever uses I can think of for it.

At the very least it's nice to have a mental picture of our destination, and we don't have to busy ourselves anymore with the hassle of searching for a house. Now, we just have to think about the whole moving thing.....

604 Consecutive Games....and counting

So I operate my computer in a glorious orgy of multi-tasking splendor. I typically have 3-4 Internet windows open with a handful of tabs in each window, allowing for fast simultaneous reading, typing, editing, and research. Taking all these open tabs and combining them with the couple of Word and Excel documents that I'm working on, I have a very busy computer desktop. This may sound like a combination of short attention span, OCD, and manic computing behavior rolled into one, but somehow it works for me. Don't try to change me, I like who I am.

For some reason, my brain works well when I can spend 20 minutes on a work related spreadsheet then give my brain a quick rest by checking my g-mail, refreshing stock quotes, and reading another three paragraphs of an article on subversive educational techniques. This mental respite takes only a couple of minutes and since it keeps my brain thinking and processing (all be it on a different topic), the efficacy upon my return to that work related spreadsheet seems very high.

Luckily my computer screen faces away from Alycia, I think she might find that the manic switching and Alt-Tabbing would drive her nuts.

Anyways, so the moral of the story is that I find the Freecell game to be very helpful in keeping my mind engaged and sharp during a quick break from work related stuff. At one point I had some scientific evidence to back me up in the form of an article that studied people who played simple problem games or word puzzles for five minutes during every hour of focused mental tasks. The researchers found that keeping your brain thinking and engaged, but on a different task helped lateral thinking and problem solving. Sadly, I can't remember the location of this article, so uhhhh....you'll just have to take my word for it that it was real.

So suffice to say that I frequently play Freecell in small bouts between work to keep my mind stimulated, to the tune of 601 consecutive games won. Certainly this is no world record, merely an impressive feat of an otherwise distracted and work deterred individual. I shall keep you all informed and let you know when we pass 1,000 consecutive wins.