Arbitrary ways to define value

Do you ever find yourself counting things? Chances are if you don't have some sort of OCD or any particular reason to count something, then you don't. At least I assume so. This isn't to say that I count my steps from my car to the door, but there are a few things that I do randomly count for no good reason.

A trivial example is how many steps I take on a particular "block" of sidewalk. Somehow if I take less than three steps per block, then I'm going at a pretty good clip. More and I'm just mosying, less and I'm really going fast for a walk, or I'm just playing "mr. long legs" on that particular day. Point being though, I judge the quality of my walking speed based on an arbitrary distance on the ground. Especially considering sidewalk blocks are not especially consistent in their spacing.

An older popular "count" of mine is the number of lane changes I was required to make to get from one place to another. The less times I was required to change lanes to get from A to B, the more I generally enjoyed going from A to B. Most likely this theory is along the lines of it being "easier" to get there, even though I don't find changing lanes all that difficult. Though the less traffic I have to pay attention to while cruising, the better.

My most recent example of counting that I think is perhaps a little more valid is counting the number of times I need to plant my feet while riding from point A to B. Of course this is completely dependent on when I travel from A to B, the traffic at the time, the route I take, how fast I go, and a bunch of other things. But if I can get from A to B without having to put my feet down even once, that was a good ride. Sometimes I even turn it into a game at red / turning green lights to see if I can drag it on long enough to not have to plant down. So far, it's super rare to get a '0', and I don't even have an idea what an average "score" is, but it's still fun to play.

Weigh-in Number 3

Yesterday was my third cross-fit paleo weigh in. It's crazy cool how well this is going for me. The first weigh-in was after cross-fit but without active diet control. It was a good drop from my personal high weight. The second weigh-in was a ridiculous improvement, inches in places and dozens of pounds elsewhere. On top of that, the benchmark workout of Fight Gone Bad has improved at least 10 reps each time we do it.

Now comes my third weigh in. Over the past three weeks, I haven't noticed any weight loss personally, but it's not entirely unexpected. I hit a plateau as far as my weight is concerned. With that in mind, I decided to take this and turn it into a good thing. This period I had dedicated to "fitting my skin" literally. After losing almost 30+ pounds, I had quite a bit of extra skin in unattractive places. So by weighing in the morning and adjusting what I ate accordingly I tried to maintain the weight actively. I didn't change the type of foods I ate, just the amounts.

With this change I still ended up losing inches in places which was good and only 6 pounds of weight loss. Almost exactly what I was going for, and it definitely shows as well.

The most important result I just recently learned is a tangible health benefit increase. When I donated blood almost exactly one year ago, my cholesterol level was 210, just in the 200-240 low risk range. I donated blood just over 2 weeks ago and the scores are finally in. 176. Hell yes, a 40 point drop and I'm well into the "healthy" range. So not only do I actually feel better, I feel better knowing that I'm better on paper as well.

Next: Post paleo challenge plans, is there a post?

Internet in the desert

Driving between Las Vegas and Reno sucks. Plain and simple. The only thing that makes it worse (besides running a 400) is doing it solo. It's 400+ miles of mostly the same desert on a regularly trucked road and over 80% of it is two-lane. Listening to some new CDs helps pass the time, but my new found activity of choice is Facebooking the journey. It at least makes me feel like I'm talking to someone, and even a couple of my updates got replies. It's not perfect, and being on the iPhone while driving is a terrible idea, I know.

The most surprising part of the whole shebang though is the very small amount of dead space along the way, and in particular where the dead spots are. Between Tonopah and Hawthorne is some of the most empty area I can think of, but sections of the road gave me 4-5 bars of reception. On top of that, data was good to go as well, as evidenced by my recent "Facebooked" journey back from Vegas.

Originally the concept was meant to provide a timeline for my Oranim kin to see what places are along the way from Reno to our party in Vegas and give a little perspective to the drive. I quickly realized that since we were all travelling back at around the same time, no one would actually get the updates as I sent them. They're all still there for them to read though, and I know the more perceptive of the group got what I was trying to do.

In any case, I love to drive and it's better to travel with people. What better people to travel with than my entire list of Facebook friends, am I right? I've got a couple more journeys planned to Vegas in the near future, and even more fun "Nevada" factoids to potentially share. Hopefully this little one-time side project might even be educational for me and entertaining for others.

Weekend activities: Part Deux

Well there's nothing I can do about it. My weekends during the summer are officially taken. Between crossfit and NSC, my worries about what to do on a given weekend are officially over. Saturday FMP's are just part of life now, and good thing too. Best part is they don't start until later in the morning, leaving me a little bit of time to go out Friday night if I feel so inclined. Recovering from the FMP pretty much takes up the rest of my day, then leaving Saturday evenings open potentially. Then Sunday NSC has rides going on finally, meaning Sundays are pretty much booked. Again after a good 4-6 hour ride, I'm inclined to take the rest of the day to recover. Thus ending up at Monday to do it all over again.

I'm actually pretty impressed with my social calendar as of late as well. Must mean winter's over and I can finally come out of hibernation mode ;) Two weeks in a row of 210 VIP, followed by a crazy good paleo dinner / NOAN outing, rock band evening, and then BR 1138 in Vegas.

Looking forward then to "the birthday" next weekend, LA area outing the weekend after that, then back to Vegas to celebrate (finally) the engagement of two great friends. After that, who knows. Oh yea, that's right, FMP and NSC, that's what's after that! This summer is looking to be great.

Love hate relationship with blogging

It's one of those times again were I go through the evaluation of "is it really worth it to keep up my blog?". To give some perspective, I read anywhere from 5-10 blogs daily. Most are technical blogs, a couple are just fun blogs, and then the two or so web comics that give me a little chuckle. The difference between them and me? Well two-fold and related. People read their content, and they have content worth reading. I'm not sure how much of it is original content, or how much is just regurgitated from other blogs /work / school, etc.. Wherever it's coming from, I enjoy reading it, but them I'm left with little to say for myself.

With the frequency that people blog, I sometimes wonder how they have time to blog, do the thing they're blogging about, and do things that have nothing to do with blogging (work, sleep, eat). This all comes around to my poor personal time management skills and then maybe reflecting them on others.

I'm curious how people manage their own time. I don't suppose this is something that is explicitly taught by parents, maybe it is. I know they're quite a few books on the subject, but reading one, rather even picking the right one, seems like it would take even more of an investment in the time I already feel like I don't have.

I guess my biggest problem is that I'm just plain ol' lazy. I should really admit that right out front. After I get done with work, get done with the gym, and figure out what I'm planning on eating over the next 10 hours or do, I don't feel like doing much else. Watch a little tv, stare at the computer screen deciding if there's something else worth staring at, things like that. I'd like to say that I will watch less TV, but I know that's not about to happen. It's far too entertaining and easy to do for me to stop. But I do think I can try to watch less "spontaneous" tv.

I know this was a random, unorganized blog, but typing it out at least helps me. Too bad I can erase before I post. There's some funny stuff in the liner notes.