We can rebuild him. We have the technology!

Earlier I had mentioned that I was trying to improve myself, professionally and personally.

On the personal side, I want to say that I have made a decent start. I go to the Total Blitz gym about 4 times a week, and I still manage to go to Bally Total Fitness at least once a week. I started this all on December 30, 2005. I weighed in at 173 lbs. and was at 22.1% Body Fat. My goal is to get down to about 14% Body Fat. I'm not too concerned with my weight, as I would love to weigh 165-170 lbs. if it was predominantly muscle. I don't know where I am after a month, but I honestly won't consider myself to be losing weight until I see inches come off my love handles and gut. I'll just have to work harder to achieve the goals I want.

On the professional side, I have signed myself up for accelerated computer training, i.e., a boot camp. Specifically, from February 6-12 I will be in Austin, TX working my ass off to get CCNA & CCDA certified. I am not being sent there by my company (although it is much appreciated that they are giving me payed time off to attend); I am paying out of my own pocket to take this course. I am excited and nervous. I believe this is the best action I can take, as I have found it harder to self-study for the CCNA certification. My hope is that by attending this boot camp I am placing myself in an atmosphere where I will thrive and learn. As opposed to reading a book on the subject, I will be able to engage in labs, simulations and lectures from a CCIE professional. I hope to be a CCIE myself someday, so this CCNA certification is the first step on that path. A friend and coworker of mine has already taken this course and has given me some good advice (doesn't hurt that I also see this in terms of a friendly competition as well, so I'll want to do as well as he did).

I haven't achieved my goal of finding a girlfriend, but then again I haven't really tried since I have this training class next week. Also doesn't help that I love geeky things like this:

• http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/timetravel1.htm
• http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/view.php?id=800
• http://blog.livedoor.jp/affilive/archives/50347434.html
• http://www.lemonzoo.com/funny_videos/216/tom_kills_oprah.html

Well, I hope to be updating you all next week from Austin. One friend of mine has already started suggested places for me to visit while I am there. I hope you all are well, and I will post again soon.

(Update, 02/02/2006: OK, I do know how well I've done working out this past month. My weight has risen to 174 lbs. but I went down to 21.2% Body Fat. So I am losing fat and building muscle. It's a good start.)

Quick post

Just wanted to post a link to some simple truths we should all be aware of. Enjoy the read if you decide to risk the link ;-p

... and yet not the way I would have liked to start off

So in my last post I spoke about how I would like to start off 2006 on the right foot, by getting myself in shape and working to increase my skills professionally. I joined a second gym and was being diligent in working out 3-5 times a week. Then I go and get myself sick.

I hate being sick, especially when all I've got is a slight case of a cold but it's enough to keep me from doing anything strenuous. I've had it for the past week, and made it through most of the stages (i.e., sore throat -> low fever -> stuffy/runny nose -> congestion/sinus pain -> cough) so I expect to be over it pretty soon. I just hate how I know I'm sick and feel winded by this illness, yet I think I can still go out an exercise. Either make me sick enough where I'm bedridden or leave me alone!

Anyway, that's enough of my whining. Got some things to work on today, but I hope to be posting again soon.

Starting the New Year off right

This is what I call a good start to the New Year.

The Bears are the NFC North Champions and the 2nd seed in the NFL playoffs.

The Buccaneers are the NFC South Champions and the 3rd seed in the NFL playoffs.


The Gators won the Outback Bowl by beating Iowa 31-24.

Spent New Year's Eve with all my friends at one of their houses. Had a very good time, but kind of took a laid-back attitude to it all. Plenty of food was eaten, but I didn't really drink much. Honestly didn't feel like it, and was driving that evening anyway. I never make any resolutions, but I do have some goals for this year.

1. Get in shape! I already have a membership to Bally Total Fitness which I use as much as I can, but sometimes I get lazy and don't drive out there to workout. Usually, this happens after I get home from work and I know I should workout but I end up staying home. Well, no more excuses. I joined a second gym, The Blitz, which opened up in the shopping center across the street from my neighborhood. It offers a complete workout in 20 minutes so I have no reason why I can't go there everyday. I just started with them, so I'll see how I look and feel in a couple of months.
2. Improve myself professionally! Lately I have not felt as though I have been accomplishing the goals that I have set for myself professionally. I honestly feel that I have let myself become complacent in terms of my job and skills, and as I look back I believe that I have wasted my talents in doing so. There is nothing wrong with my job, but I always set high expectations for myself and as I evaluate myself up to this point in my life I feel I haven't lived up to my standards. What I hope to do to change this is to get back in to programming, maybe learn a specific skill or get a certification (CCNA), or change my surroundings. It will also require me to make some changes to my lifestyle, mainly just set aside time to start educating myself but that is not a big deal and will only require some discipline.
3. Improve myself personally! Besides getting myself in to shape, I have also set aside some personal goals for myself. I would like to learn some foreign languages, as I have traveled quite a bit in my life and I would like to continue to do so (already planning on going back to Japan later this year). I would like to learn to play the guitar. And I would like to find myself a girlfriend.

Now, this all sounds like resolutions but I don't think so because I haven't set any kind of time frame on any of the goals I have listed. I know it will take time for me to achieve what I want, so I have no illusions about getting all this done this year. I will use this blog to make periodic updates on my progress on all these goals, and hopefully I will be able to look back at previous posts and see the differences.

Lastly, some of you may have noticed a new item up at the top-right of the blog. That would be my Xbox Live Gamertag. Yeah, if I wasn't enough of a gamer before now I have an Xbox 360. I never really intended to get one but circumstances brought one to me. I have to say it's a pretty neat little system. I only have two games for it, Dead or Alive 4 & Perfect Dark Zero, but that is good enough for now.

I hope everyone has gotten off to a good start here in 2006, and I wish you all well. Check back soon.