A Tech’s Life

I nearly forgot something else that happened in November: I finished my Masters degree. Still have to wait for the official audit to be completed, but I submitted my thesis and gave my defense a few weeks ago (both approved and given an A). I have to wait until May to walk, which I probably will, but I’m now done and hold a Master of Science in Information Assurance. I’ve been accepted into the Ph.D. program at Capella University and was set to start in January, but have pushed that back until April. I think the brief time off will be helpful. I’m excited to begin the doctoral work, but another 5-8 years of school just sounds exhausting.

The weight loss leveled out this month, but I’ve been less than motivated and did poorly at sticking to any regimen. The good news is I haven’t gained anything substantial (still under 200). I’ve signed up for the “holiday underachiever” thing at work, where I’ve pledged to not gain any weight over the holidays. Hopefully this will help motivate me to at least be a little more aware of what I am or am not doing over the break. With the elective surgery coming up in a few weeks, it might be even harder to maintain the weight this holiday season. Goal is still to be under 190 by New Years, but with everything going on, I’ll be very happy just to maintain my current weight. I did manage to break my personal records for the 5K a few times this month. New record is 26:59!

[UPDATE :: 12-05-11]
I just completed yet another personal goal: I finished my first 10K run! Time was 00:55:01, which is two of my best 5K runs back-to-back. I’m paying for it today, however. My knees hurt so bad I can barely walk. I ended up running 6.30 miles, which blows away my previous distance record of 4.75 miles. Once I hit 5 miles there was no way I was stopping. I don’t think I’ll be running that far again for a while, but it’s awesome to finally have done it! Maybe next summer I’ll change one of my 5K races to a 10K race…

I really hate titling most of these thing. Anywho, November has come and gone already, which is just crazy. Despite all the hype yesterday, there was only about a half inch of snow on the ground this morning when I woke up. At least the snow blower now has gas. It does help enhance the holiday spirit a little, however. I seem to be more excited this year than I have been in the past, though I’m not sure why. Got the lights up outside already, as well as the Christmas tree, and shopping will commence soon (had to wait to get paid again).

We were able to get a lot done to the basement in the last few months. Replaced the nasty 70’s carpet in the family room with that hardwood laminate stuff, and then extended that into the pool/workout room and drywalled the non-brick walls in there as well. I also built a long desk and set up an office area in there, which is working out quite nicely. It looks SO much better down there now, and the usable living area has come in handy. Speaking of the office, I was able to acquire a new-to-me computer for the home office. After minor upgrades, I now have an original Mac Pro with quad 3.0 Xeon processors, 10GB ram, an SSD boot/app drive, BT and WiFi, hooked up to my dual 21.5 inch monitors. Very fast machine. Total cost was about $330. If it didn’t require fully buffered ECC memory, I would have stuck a lot more in it (supports up to 32GB).

Happy holidays to all!

Halloween is here (happy birthday honey!) and so is the chilly weather. Christmas trees and decorations are already on the shelves in many stores. Most of the leaves have fallen. It’s about this time that the mild depression usually begins for me. This year may be different, though. I’m already getting excited for Christmas, and can’t wait for mid-December to arrive. It could just be the two full weeks off of work that I’m looking forward to the most, but I’m excited this year.

It’s going to be quite difficult staying motivated to run and exercise I fear. October was horrible. Lots of sickness, trying to keep up with my final class, attempting to work on my thesis, and the random house projects all kept my work outs to a minimum. Thankfully the weight has stayed off for the most part, but I still don’t feel as well as I did. Now that my class is over, and I’m only a few short weeks away from being done with my capstone, I’m hoping I’ll start feeling better and can get back into the swing of things. I just registered for the St. Patty’s day race in Bay City in March, so hopefully that will help. One of my goals is to complete the Elements series of races this year, which will be at least six runs. A continued goal is completing a 10K run (not necessarily a race, just the distance). And of course there is the weight loss goals. I’ve been at a pretty steady weight for most of the month, which has been nice, but I’m still not at my target weight. My runs have been so infrequent that I’m running at a slower pace, so I’m hoping to get back to where I was soon. Not being able to run outside is going to hurt, but I’ll have to make due.

Happy Halloween!

School’s started all the way around. Students are back on campus at work, well into week four I believe. My last two masters classes have started, which are keeping me very busy. One is my capstone, so while I take my last official class, I’m supposed to be finishing my thesis paper, which isn’t moving along at the pace it should be. Having a more difficult time getting the interviews I need than I had originally anticipated. With Lacey taking classes as well, hectic only begins to describe it.

Since my last post, I’ve managed to hit my second weight goal: the scale now starts with a one. I’m sure it will take a few more weeks before I stop swinging back and forth over the 200 mark (as I’ve done a few times already) but nevertheless, goal two completed.

My running has also improved since my last post. I’ve set a new personal best 5K at 27:55, and a new distance record of 4.6 miles. My breathing isn’t bad after 4 miles, but my knees and ankles and getting quite sore about that time. It’s shocking to finally have my breathing outlast the rest of my body, but that’s not all bad. In my last three runs, I’ve gone farther each time. I set a new personal distance record at 4.15 miles, then 4.5 miles, and finally 4.6 miles with my run last night. I probably could have made it 5 miles last night, but I really don’t want to push my knees too far too quickly. I also participated in the Mud Creek Crawl a few weeks ago, which was the hardest 5K run I’ve ever done. It was off-road, and there were SO many huge hills. Finished in 31:41, and I’ll certainly take that time. I had to walk up the last big hill as my legs had little left in them by the end of the run. It was fun, though, being such a smaller group of people (only about 300 runners) and being so close to home. I’ll definitely be signing up for it again next year. There is a homecoming 5K here at work next month, and I’m considering signing up for it just as motivation to continue running. Already looking forward to the spring.

I really can’t believe that the fair is already over, and the kids’ birthdays have come and gone. Students are back in class, and leaving the parking lot at the end of the workday has gone back to being much more difficult. It’s down into the low 50’s in the morning, and the sun is going down much earlier. Oh – and Lowes has had their Halloween stuff up for a few weeks now. All depressing things.

As much as I’m already missing summer, I’m secretly looking forward to fall. I love the colors, the hoodies, and the less frequent lawn mowings. It’s just a bummer that this summer flew by without being able to accomplish many of the things I wanted to do.

Although the conclusion of the Warrior Dash has made me a little lazy, I’m still doing well with the weight loss and running, though I’m not doing the running nearly as often as I should. I signed up for a 5K off-road run in a few weeks, just as extra motivation to continue running. I’m actually looking forward to it as it’s a nationally recognized course and it’s right down the road. I’m hoping to try it out a few times before the actual run, as the Warrior Dash was the closest thing to a cross country run I’ve ever done.

Though my runs have been fewer this month, they seem to be much faster. I’ve hit 2 of my first 3 running goals already: under 30 minute 5K and under 8 minute mile. This week I’ve ran a 7:53 mile, and a 29:04 5K. I was quite sore after the 5K and I’m pretty sure the pain killers I was on for my back played into the great time. Either way, it’s exciting and motivating. My last goal is to finish a 10K run, which I’m still quite a ways off from (I think). My ultimate 5K goal (for now) is under 25 minutes so I’ll continue working on that while heading towards 10K. And losing more weight, which is the ultimate goal. Only 5 more pounds until weight goal number 2…

I made it through the Warrior Dash unscathed. It was awesome. Apparently it did well in Michigan, as they have already announced it’s return next July, and all the morning time slots are filled already! Everyone we ran with this year has already signed up for next year (including Lacey and myself). I’ve updated the countdown widget on this site with next year’s date in hopes to stay motived.

I’m also happy to say that the weight loss has persisted through all the events as of late. Hit my first goal, but after hurting my back, have gained back a few pounds, so I’m now teetering around goal one. I hope to continue my running, with my long-term goal of a 10K, and adding in some additional aerobic exercise. Considering starting the P90X series, but I hate how it consumes over an hour per day. Adding that in with the running, and I don’t see how I can get it all done, but I guess we’ll see. First step is to get the back feeling better. I tried running yesterday and only made it 1/4 mile before limping back home in near tears.

The last few weekends have been busy, and the next few sure won’t be any less hectic. Hoping I can find time to just relax for a bit and enjoy the “free” time before it all gets crazy again.

Overall, a pretty decent summer. Only wish it weren’t over already.

Back in October, I moved to using Ubuntu as my sole work OS. While I still love working in Linux, there are just too many things that make my work life difficult with this setup. For example, I struggled to get Webex sessions to work properly, and the lack of Silverlight (Moonlight didn’t work well with most things I tried) often forced me to open up my Macbook to complete tasks. With Lion coming out soon, I decided to move back to using OS X as my primary desktop. The biggest problem I had with this before was the lack of dual (external) monitors since I was using a laptop. I hated using the laptop as a second monitor due to the huge resolution differences. I could use the externally-connected monitor just fine, but when I needed to see something on the laptop screen, I had to sit up in my chair and lean forward, and was something I hated doing.

So, I decided to find a cheap way to get the setup I wanted (since work wasn’t going to spend the money on me). I found a USB video card from Diamond that worked with OS X that provided 1080p resolution and was able to get it for under $50 on Amazon. I figured it was worth a try, and was surprised on how well it actually worked. It is a little laggy when dragging windows around, but I’ve had no issues playing video on it. It’s allowed me to use dual external monitors with my laptop in clamshell mode, which is exactly what I’ve always wanted.

There are still many things I use Ubuntu for, since that box has 16GB of ram and the Samba implementation doesn’t blow like OS X’s. But I hate having to use a separate mouse and keyboard for doing tasks on the other box. I’ve used Synergy in the past for controlling my PC from my iMac, so I figured I’d give it a shot with Linux. After about an hour of finding the right combination of settings, I was successful in getting my Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad to control both machines at the same time. Now when I move my mouse to the right of my primary display, Linux instantly picks up control of the mouse and keyboard. So I’ve essentially kept my triple-monitor setup with two of them being OS X, and the other being Ubuntu, all with a single keyboard and mouse. So far this setup is working out quite nicely.

Not all holidays are created equal. Independence Day is one I love, mostly because it falls in the summer. This past weekend was a blast. Friends, fishing, water fights, cold beer, bonfires, Xbox, and just fun times. I even managed to work out some, keeping the temporary weight gain to a minimum (compared to most holidays). Though I think I’m paying for it today, as I feel exhausted. Tonight is supposed to be a running night, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it. My foot is bothering me again, I can barely keep my eyes open, and we have SO much stuff left to do before we leave for BbWorld on Sunday.

Speaking of BbWorld, I received a call from the travel agent we use here at work letting me know that our flights were changed due to something with Delta Airlines and our connection to Minneapolis. Thankfully after enough whining she was able to convince them to change things up for us, so we’ll now have direct flights both ways, and will be leaving at a much more decent hour. The re-routing they did had us going from Lansing to Detroit then to Vegas. Lansing to Detroit? Really? That’s just stupid. Thank goodness that’s no longer the case. I hate flying enough as it is. Here’s hoping for a good couple of flights.

With just a little over a month to go before the Warrior Dash, I feel like I’m definitely on the right track. I’ve ran three 5Ks in the last 2 weeks (all crappy times, but finished nonetheless) with many shorter runs in between. I believe I have one more day to officially finish C25K again, so I’m pretty proud of that. Down another few pounds, too, which I’m super happy about. Next week I’ll start working in some additional exercises to get the knees and back ready for the jumping, climbing, and diving required of the Warrior Dash. I expect my body to react poorly and the hot tub utilization to rise immensely, but at least I’ll have a full month to get it used to the beating.

The summer months (school being out) are going by way too fast. I really need to spend some more time enjoying the outdoors. I’ve yet to go golfing or fishing this year, so that needs to change real soon. Definitely more grillin’ and cold beer.

Decided to turn the 25 minute run into a full 5K run last night. I’m not quite exactly sure the time, but a good guess is just shy of 35min. I had started the Nike+GPS app somewhere near the start of the warmup walk and it said the 5K time was 39:47. So subtracting 5 minutes from that time should be pretty close.

Now, for me, that’s a good time. My time for the St. Patty’s Day 5K I ran last year in Bay City was 35 minutes flat, so I’m right about where I was last year when I had completed the C25K program. My knees are not as sore as I thought they’d be today, but I’m still probably going to rest a day before running again. I love that the route we take through town ends a 5K just past our driveway. The hill by the lake on Center street kinda sucks, as does the incline on Birchview in the last 1/4 mile. I’m so thankful for having sidewalks! It was something I missed at our old location.

I’m also down a few pounds from last week, so I’m very happy about that. Still a ways off from my first goal, but seeing the scale move again is very motivating. Since the weather isn’t the greatest out today, I think we will take the kids out for dinner. We have a bunch of Best Buy reward certificates that are about ready to expire, so we are considering picking up a Kinect for the xbox. Looks fun, and could provide additional exercise with the right games.

[update] The Kinect is surprisingly fun, and just the little games that come with it make you work up a sweat. Can’t wait to play with it more!