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This isn’t the longest run (it’s really a 3 mile walk) that I’ve done, but it may be the most important.  As a semi-participant in Larry’s 6-pack Challenge and taking this summer to work out and eat healthier, I’ve started to realize how important my health is to both my happiness, confidence and really, my future.  Yes, I want to be able to enjoy the nice things in life, and great food is definitely one of them…but at the same time, to be a good husband and father, I need to be able to live a healthy life. So I’m trying to raise at least $250 for this week’s SF Heart Walk, which is (bonus!) locally sponsored by Del Monte.  The proceeds go to the American Heart Association.  Click here to pledge me! I realize it’s short notice, so don’t make this one of those “I’ll decide on it later” things…we all know we’ll forget!  Make a small donation now! In a twist of fate, I also learned that my uncle (my mom’s older brother) had a stroke last week and fell off his scooter.  He’s currently in the ICU.  Thankfully, he come out of his coma and can now answer simple questions, but he still fades in and out and has trouble staying awake.  We’re hoping that he hasn’t suffered much permanent damage to his brain.  So I’ll be thinking of him on race day and wishing him a speedy and full recovery. Do you have loved ones who have been affected by stroke or heart disease?

This isn’t the longest run (it’s really a 3 mile walk) that I’ve done, but it may be the most important.  As a semi-participant in Larry’s 6-pack Challenge and taking this summer to work out and eat healthier, I’ve started to realize how important my health is to both my happiness, confidence and really, my future.  Yes, I want to be able to enjoy the nice things in life, and great food is definitely one of them…but at the same time, to be a good husband and father, I need to be able to live a healthy life.

So I’m trying to raise at least $250 for this week’s SF Heart Walk, which is (bonus!) locally sponsored by Del Monte.  The proceeds go to the American Heart Association.  Click here to pledge me! I realize it’s short notice, so don’t make this one of those “I’ll decide on it later” things…we all know we’ll forget!  Make a small donation now!

In a twist of fate, I also learned that my uncle (my mom’s older brother) had a stroke last week and fell off his scooter.  He’s currently in the ICU.  Thankfully, he come out of his coma and can now answer simple questions, but he still fades in and out and has trouble staying awake.  We’re hoping that he hasn’t suffered much permanent damage to his brain.  So I’ll be thinking of him on race day and wishing him a speedy and full recovery.

Do you have loved ones who have been affected by stroke or heart disease?

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Culture Shock?

Can you believe it?  I’ve been working for 6 weeks now…how time flies.  So far I’ve been very happy with my job.  I’m getting to lead a couple of cool projects, I’m starting to better understand forecasting (a big part of what an ABM at Del Monte does) and I’m gelling with my team.

I’ve also gotten to do some cool things, like tour our Hanford, CA tomato plant, and attend a “photoshoot” for Contadina (complete with “food stylists” and champagne to close the shoot!).

Adjusting to working life after business school has been tough though.  Here are some of things I’ve noticed:

Weeknights are short!
I usually get home at around 6:45.  Once I’ve changed, sat down for dinner (lately I’ve been lucky b/c Em’s been cooking a lot) and digested, it’s already eight.  If I want to stick with my plan of sleeping by 11, then I have to start winding down by 10:30, which only leaves me 2.5 hours a night.  I have to be efficient if I want to squeeze in some gym time and computer time (for blogging and email) around the quality chill time I spend with Em.  Sometimes, I’ll bring home my work comp to do some work, which makes it even harder.

Weekends are short!
How come the weekends fly by so quickly?  I guess having 4-day weekends in school for my second year didn’t help.  Neither did having 2.5 months of complete freedom this summer. I feel like I blink my eye and Monday’s already rearing it’s ugly head.

Sleep is important.
I used to think that sleep was way overrated.  That I’d gladly sacrifice 2 hours of sleep so that I could get 2 more hours of “me time,” and that my performance the next day would only be marginally affected.  Oh, so wrong.  Now, if I want to be alert and sharp during work, I need to get those 7.5-8 hours of sleep a night.  I guess I didn’t feel like in school and at my old job, I had to be THAT awake and quick on my toes.

B-school is good prep for multitasking. Getting deluged with emails during b-school has definitely primed me for working life.  I can sift through work emails with ease.  But, for all it’s virtues (calendaring, meetings, etc.), Outlook is vastly inferior to Gmail on 2 things: email threads (how nice would it be to have gmail threads at work?) and search (I can’t find anything I’m looking for…I feel like the search function only searches the email title).  Microsoft, get your sh*t together.

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As a newly-minted working stiff, I can say that this watch pretty much mimics by life from Monday to Friday. I like how the afternoon lull between 4-5 pm is in there, along with happy hour, and bumming out in front of the TV. szymon: Average Day watch designed by Crispin Jones

As a newly-minted working stiff, I can say that this watch pretty much mimics by life from Monday to Friday.

I like how the afternoon lull between 4-5 pm is in there, along with happy hour, and bumming out in front of the TV.

szymon:

Average Day watch designed by Crispin Jones
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I’m liking my new watch. It took me a day or two to get used to the size and the color, but soon enough it grew on me. It’s a little old-school, a little Transformers, and yet a little modern. It’s the Casio G-Shock Tough Solar (#G5500C-3). The cool part is that it’s solar powered, and it also let’s you program up to 5 different alarms.

I’m liking my new watch. It took me a day or two to get used to the size and the color, but soon enough it grew on me. It’s a little old-school, a little Transformers, and yet a little modern. It’s the Casio G-Shock Tough Solar (#G5500C-3). The cool part is that it’s solar powered, and it also let’s you program up to 5 different alarms.

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Em and I drove to Pacific East Mall in Albany today for a massage. After we parked our car, we noticed a dog scrounging in the bushes for food. It had a collar and dog tag but looked thin and was walking with a slight limp. Not seeing anyone around, we chased her down and gave her some crackers to eat. She was trembling and easily scared by any sudden noises or movements. We got the dog into the car and called the numbers on her tag. One was for the vet and the other was for the owner. We couldn’t reach the owner, so we left a message and called the vet. Casey calmed down a bit in the car…she seemed to enjoy feeling the wind on her face out of the back window. She gobbled up the crackers we gave her and started responding to her name quickly. Eventually we got her to the vet…after about an hour, the grateful owner called us to thank us. She said they had just lost the dog about an hour ago, but that’s a little hard for me to believe. Seems like she was on her own for at least a day or two. In any case, we were happy to reunite Casey with her owner…saving an animal’s life beats getting a massage any day! (Well, maybe not tomorrow…I want a massage dammit!)

Em and I drove to Pacific East Mall in Albany today for a massage. After we parked our car, we noticed a dog scrounging in the bushes for food. It had a collar and dog tag but looked thin and was walking with a slight limp. Not seeing anyone around, we chased her down and gave her some crackers to eat. She was trembling and easily scared by any sudden noises or movements.

We got the dog into the car and called the numbers on her tag. One was for the vet and the other was for the owner. We couldn’t reach the owner, so we left a message and called the vet. Casey calmed down a bit in the car…she seemed to enjoy feeling the wind on her face out of the back window. She gobbled up the crackers we gave her and started responding to her name quickly.

Eventually we got her to the vet…after about an hour, the grateful owner called us to thank us. She said they had just lost the dog about an hour ago, but that’s a little hard for me to believe. Seems like she was on her own for at least a day or two. In any case, we were happy to reunite Casey with her owner…saving an animal’s life beats getting a massage any day! (Well, maybe not tomorrow…I want a massage dammit!)

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Being Tired Is Not a Status Symbol

One of the favorite past-times of my friends and I is sharing notes on stupid things people say at work. “Hey big guy, how’s it goin’?” “Let’s be sure to pick the low-hanging fruit.” Vet. Circle back. Bandwidth. Corporate speak is overused, obnoxious and it’s annoying.

Recently Details Magazine published a great article about another annoying workplace habit. The people who constantly complain about being tired. “I’m exhausted, man.” Or, for that matter, the people who complain about being WAY TOO BUSY to have time for anything. “MAN, I’m completely SLAMMED.” I’m swaaaaaaamped. Nobody wants to hear about it. The people who really ARE working their asses off 18 hours a day and twice on the weekends are easy to recognize. Everyone else is just complaining.

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People nowadays have enough sense to buckle their seatbelts when they’re in the backseat of someone’s car, no matter how short the ride is. Most people I know, when driving, will also remind their passengers to buckle up (especially important when you have guests visiting from countries like Taiwan, which has yet to enforce a backseat seatbelt law). So why is it that when we get into a taxi, we lose our wits and refuse to buckle up? New York taxi drivers are crazy! I’ve seriously ridden with some crazy cab drivers here. They’ll accelerate madly for 200 ft before slamming on their breaks to avoid the car in front of them, that was STOPPED the whole time, honking and complaining the whole way. They poke their nose out into the neighboring lane and cut off other cabs. Yes, it’s annoying and slightly gross to have to dig out the seatbelt in a cab. But don’t mess around with your life like that. You’re not invincible just cuz there’s a middle partition and you’re paying someone to drive you.

People nowadays have enough sense to buckle their seatbelts when they’re in the backseat of someone’s car, no matter how short the ride is. Most people I know, when driving, will also remind their passengers to buckle up (especially important when you have guests visiting from countries like Taiwan, which has yet to enforce a backseat seatbelt law). So why is it that when we get into a taxi, we lose our wits and refuse to buckle up?

New York taxi drivers are crazy! I’ve seriously ridden with some crazy cab drivers here. They’ll accelerate madly for 200 ft before slamming on their breaks to avoid the car in front of them, that was STOPPED the whole time, honking and complaining the whole way. They poke their nose out into the neighboring lane and cut off other cabs.

Yes, it’s annoying and slightly gross to have to dig out the seatbelt in a cab. But don’t mess around with your life like that. You’re not invincible just cuz there’s a middle partition and you’re paying someone to drive you.

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This is the first video game console I’ve bought since the Dreamcast (which, incidentially, is still in my closet…has there been a funner sports game than Virtua Tennis? love that game…). I got an Xbox for my birthday back in 2002 also. Any fun games anyone can recommend for the Wii? I have Smash Brothers Brawl, Super Monkey Ball and Wii Play. I really want the Wii Fit, played it at Em’s cousin’s place and it was a lot of fun.

This is the first video game console I’ve bought since the Dreamcast (which, incidentially, is still in my closet…has there been a funner sports game than Virtua Tennis? love that game…). I got an Xbox for my birthday back in 2002 also.

Any fun games anyone can recommend for the Wii? I have Smash Brothers Brawl, Super Monkey Ball and Wii Play. I really want the Wii Fit, played it at Em’s cousin’s place and it was a lot of fun.

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