"I think your social network is trying to sell you something.
Construct your identity through collected friends and directed advertising."

--Library Voices, "Love in the Age of Absurdity"

As of December 07 2007 this journal is Friends Only and all posts prior to December 07 2007 have been made private.

I twitter publicly as strand206.

Comment on this post if you'd like me to add you to my friends list.

Health and Fitness

Let's start off with some good news. I have been exercising regularly and losing weight. I've been making efforts to eat better. I am getting healthier and fitter every day. Here are the numbers:

Month	Average Time Worked Out	Average Weight	Weight Lost	Days exercised
August	31.94 minutes	281.62 pounds	N/A	18 of 31 or 58%
September	28.93 minutes	276.8 pounds	4.82 pounds	15 of 30 or 50%
October (tentatively)	39.6 minutes	269.6 pounds	7.2 pounds	4 of 5 or 80%

I may eventually do a more targeted workout, but at the moment I am getting on an elliptical machine, exercising for a period (usually 45 minutes to an hour) and recording my weight and workout time in a spreadsheet). I feel it is more important to establish the habit of working out and--perfect being the enemy of the good--I am not yet concerning myself with working out areas where I'd like to see some reduction.

I want to lose four or more stones by August of 2010. My goal weight is less than 224 pounds, preferably less than 210 pounds. Given my progress so far I see this goal as being easily achievable. In fact, it may be early to call it, but I will have lost the first stone later this month.

While I have been focusing primarily on working out more, I have been documenting my diet by photographing everything I eat and drink, excepting water. I may end up using these photos to truly dissect my diet and make improvements, but at the moment it's simply made me more aware of what and how I eat and I already feel that I'm making better eating decisions.

I have seen some studies that indicate simply working out leads to an increase in appetite and folks eat more to accommodate for the calories they've burned off. This is not true in my case. I burn on average approximately 1500 calories per hour worked out. I work out an average of 30 minutes a day, and 3500 calories is approximately 1 pound. In a month of workout I should lose approximately six pounds. In the two months I've been working out I've lost approximately 12 pounds. If at some point in the future my exercise regime turns out to not be enough to reduce my weight I will alter my diet.

My ability to deal with my weight so efficiently is a byproduct of no longer being broke. Which leads me to my next point.

Economics

I don't talk much about my career online on purpose. Talking about work online can bite you in the future, especially if you use it to vent. However I feel I can talk about my career trajectory without fear of future repercussions. I work for Aquent, a company that contracts out talent to various companies. In the Puget Sound their largest client is Microsoft and my work has been with Microsoft. When I started at Aquent I was a member of the "search optimization" team. The work wasn't difficult and I showed myself to be a valuable member of the team.

I was rewarded with a Technical Writing position working on maintaining internal documentation in which I got to work closely with some great folks with many years of tech writing under their belt. The position also rewarded me with a doubling in my pay rate. Unfortunately, after a few months working on that project Aquent's contract was not renewed. I was disappointed, but Aquent was able to put me in a Content Production role working on a large intranet website. I was told that the position would likely be temporary, and at the beginning of 2009 that sounded likely, but the market has been slow and I have remained on the project since February.

I've been suffering some burnout, and am trying to figure out how best to deal with it. I have entertained the idea of finding a content production or technical writing position elsewhere, but I doubt that I would be given as much freedom as Aquent allows me. I can work from home, I have flexible hours, my coworkers are great, and my management generally gives me glowing support. Furthermore, I'm not certain that I want trade in my job for another one very much like it. I like what I do and I am pretty good at it but I'm seldom excited to head into the office and I know I'm capable of being excited about my work, if it is the right work.

It's not perfect, I have been concerned that I might be cut from the team I am on but I think that is not likely in the next few months. I have been experimenting with working a reduced schedule, and realized after a couple of weeks of working 6-7 hours a day that having Monday off would be the best way for me to give myself more productive time away from work. I realized over the weekend that this is my moment to get my ducks in a row and apply for the MLIS program at UW.

Education

I'm not entirely certain about pursuing an MLIS, but I know I want to further my education and there really isn't any other degree I'm very interested in pursuing. I don't know if I'll be able to get into UW's program, my college GPA is under 3.0 and I think that will be the weak point of my application. It's a lot of stuff to gather together. I need to get three recommendations, take the GRE, complete the programs application... And if i get in I need to come up with 25,000$ for two years of schooling, plus figure out how to manage living expenses. Assuming I don't get in I should have a fallback plan, preferably that has me living in Seattle for the next three years. Maybe I could pursue a Bachelor's in Informatics if I can't get into the MLIS program? I don't know, and I don't think I need a second Bachelor's.

Folks who have taken the GRE, which study materials helped the most?

The Internet

I own 6 domain names and four of those currently have hosting. I would like to put up actual content on some of them and decommission the hosting on those I will not be using. Below are the domains I own:

• aino.us including the subdomains:
• migr.aino.us
• mount.aino.us
• vill.aino.us
• sinbrandart.com
• t-hee.com
• theunknownunknowns.com
• b-strand.com (unhosted)
• grammarholocaust.com (unhosted)

The most immediate plans I have are for sinbrandart.com which currently has a blank Wordpress blog. I would like to post public content there and have it be posted on Livejournal. (I intended to have this post show up there first, but that plan got pushed back.) I'd like Twitter feed in the sidebar along with recent photos from Flickr. I think I'm going to try out this blogging thing the kids are into. I can see b-strand.com mirroring or redirecting to sinbrandart.com. grammarholocaust.com, theunknownunknowns.com, t-hee.com and the aino.us domains all have potential to be interesting sites, even if they just end up being one page of content, but at the moment I'm not developing them.

Recreation

I sold my Magic collection and am using the proceeds to fund a semi-weekly draft at Gamma Ray Games.

It looks like my weekly D&D game will actually be weekly again. We'll see.

Domestic Tranquility

I'm quite comfortable in the Emerald Tower.* I live in downtown Seattle, pay eight hundred a month for a studio apartment in a building built in the last decade, with a dishwasher, washer/dryer, nice kitchen, concierge, and gym. I'd like to pay less in rent but I doubt I can find anything that approaches the quality here that remains central and close to bus lines. Long term I'd like to have roommates again, but it is difficult to find a good fit. So, even though eight hundred is the most I've ever paid for rent I expect to be paying it for a while. Well, that and my lease goes through November of 2010, so I'm stuck here wether I like it or not. I guess it's a good thing I like it.

Overall my place is coming together. After rearranging my furniture four times I've figured out how to layout everything as efficiently as possible, I need to de-clutter, and eBay a few items. My closet needs cleaning and there's a pile of thing to give to Goodwill.

I can't get the printers attached to my Time Capsule to print. It's lame to have to bring my laptop to my printer every time I need to print something.

I am still looking for one piece of furniture, something that can function as both a shoe rack and a bench for my entranceway. It should be about a foot wide, three feet long, and two feet tall. I have no idea if something like this exists...

Travel

I will be visiting my brother in San Francisco over Thanksgiving. I may visit my parents in Beaver Bay, MN over Christmas. My mom has offered to pay for the tickets, and while the expense of travel isn't my primary concern, I would like to see them and that may outweigh the inconvenience of travel, especially as my parents were unable to visit me this Fall as we had talked about at the reunion this Summer.

I am interested in attending MaxFunCon 2010 (A con about things that are awesome) May 7-9 at Lake Arrowhead resort in sunny Southern California, but the large expense makes think three times before registering. I plan on attending PAX 2010, I'm on the fence about ECCC. Are there any cons in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, or Victoria I might be interested in? I might want to max out my con schedule over the next year.

Goals

• Continue working out and monitoring my progress. Adjust as necessary. Weigh approximately 210 pounds by August 2010.
• Focus on improving my work quality while maintaining a thirty hour work week. Take Mondays off as an administrivia personal day. Work for yourself on Mondays to prepare for the GRE, maintain your apartment, and plan for upcoming events.
• Plan out everything needed to produce an excellent application for UW's MLIS program. Create a backup plan. Begin to study for the GRE.
• Customize sinbrandart.com's Wordpress setup to import content from Flickr and Twitter and export posts to Livejournal. Begin to blog at sinbrandart.com a couple of times a week.
• Continue gaming.
• De-clutter. Clean your closet. eBay unused valuables and donate unused items to charity. Troubleshoot printers. Acquire a bench for entranceway.
• Get ticket for Thanksgiving to SFO or OAK. Determine Christmas plans. Decide wether I will attend MaxFunCon 2010.

*A take-off of Sage Tyrtle's "Ivory Tower".

I posted to Twitter "I've been working out and tracking my weight for a month and a half and though I've felt fitter haven't noticed any significant weight loss." this morning, and it's gotten several replies:

@xaandria "@strand206 but have you noticed inch loss? If you're working out, you're probably putting on muscle as fast as losing fat."
@willowbl00 "Since starting Parkour, I've gained 20 and dropped a size. Yay muscle!"
Kristen Finlay: "It's all in how the pants fit!"
Melissa Leff: "Could be a building muscle tone, losing fat thing where it balances out."

there's a conversation to be had here, and it's not going to be had on Twitter or Facebook, they're not places for long thought, whether it be long-term or long character count.

I have been tracking my weight and working out consistently for a month and a half. I've been feeling fitter, my moods been better, and my pants are looser. However, I've not lost weight. I'm six foot four and roughly two hundred and eighty pounds. According to the BMI I am obese... I don't agree with that assessment, I think for someone with my body type (broad and tall and a little gregarious aloof, the Viking body type) I'm merely overweight. But if we're using the BMI as a yardstick I'll need to lose 35 pounds (-12.5%) to be "overweight" and 75 (-27%) to be at "normal weight". As a long term goal I would like to be close two two hundred pounds. I have been near 200 lbs once in my adult life, and I liked the way I looked and the way my pants fit. But I got there by poor eating habits, smoking, and being poor. I think I'm healthier at 280 pounds today then I was at 200 pounds a few years ago, but I'd like to wear 36 inch waist pants again.

Or, as Frank O'Hara puts it in Personism, "if you're going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you."

I know I must be gaining muscle mass, but my long term goal is to lose weight. I think I can lose a stone (fourteen pounds) a quarter. I've been using an elliptical machine in the gym and tracking my time on it. It's a low-impact aerobic workout, which means I can do it when I feel tired and I don't feel exhausted the next day. I've been working out for about an hour most of the times I've visited my gym, and I'm working on increasing the daily average each month. In August I averaged 30 minutes a day, in September I hope to average 35. My diet is pretty good for a bachelor, I eat a lot of fruit and only order pizza once a month or so. It could use some improvement, but food is one of my pleasures, I don't want to have to treat it like a vice to achieve my goals.

Things I've learned so far: A fitness center in your building trumps good intentions to ride your bike or go to a gym five blocks away any day of the week. This is an amenity I will gladly pay for in the future. If I tell myself I'll go to the gym every day I'll actually make it about every other day, and I shouldn't be concerned about missing short-term goals (go to the gym 5 times a week) as long as I'm hitting long term targets (average 35 minutes a day over the course of the month, even if it means working out for two hours one Saturday). Focus on improving good habits (eat more fruit) over feeling guilty about bad ones (don't feel shame about ordering pizza).

What are techniques or tricks you've used to exercise more and/or lose weight?

I just received this email. I've never signed up for a Joe Mallahan email list. I have never heard of him. How did they get my email address? Who would vote for a spammer?

from Joe Mallahan <mallahanformayor@gmail.com>
sender-time Sent at 11:35 AM (GMT-07:00). Current time there: 11:37 AM. ✆
reply-to mallahanformayor@gmail.com
to B Strand <myemail@gmail.com>
date Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 11:35 AM
subject Joe Mallahan for Mayor
hide details 11:35 AM (1 minute ago)
Images are not displayed.
Display images below - Always display images from mallahanformayor@gmail.com


Dear Supporter:

The Mayoral race has really heated up in the past couple of weeks as we build toward victory on August 18th. Thank you so much for the support you have provided, which has allowed me to emerge as the clear challenger to the incumbent.

I bring to the table fresh ideas and executive experience that will be valuable to the City of Seattle and make the city a better place to live and work.

You can help me achieve these goals by going online today and contributing to my campaign here. A contribution of $25, $50, $100, or more will provide a significant boost to my efforts to bring that new perspective to the Mayor's office.

I have assembled a great team and the attached video, which we released last week, is just one indication of the level of professionalism we are achieving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3N1-ExoHU. Supporters like you make it possible for me to promote my candidacy and my vision for a better Seattle. A contribution today will allow us to maintain a top-notch campaign.

The Seattle Times has recognized my efforts to repeal the Head Tax in Seattle, saying "Joe Mallahan gets legitimate credit for shaming the mayor and council into a planned repeal of the tax." I will continue to fight for small business owners and work to bring city services back to the residents of Seattle.

My opponents recognize I am the challenger to beat. I have received the endorsement of the 37th District Democrats and have been the top vote getter in the 46th District Democrats, the King County Democrats, and the Metropolitan Democratic Club. I am the only candidate talking about improving, and restoring, basic city services to the people of Seattle. These services are as simple as making our neighborhoods safer or upgrading our roads and sidewalks throughout the city, and as broad as ensuring our city is prepared for the next security emergency (snowstorm or otherwise). Our city government has lost sight of the people it is elected to serve. I will return that vision to City Hall.

Your contribution today will help me to the Mayor's office where, together, we can clear a path to a better Seattle.

Warmest regards,

Joe


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I had a dream a few weeks ago. I dreamt that I was at a car lot at sunset and spotted an awesome black VW van. The dealer made me an offer: come back at six AM with five hundred dollars cash and it's yours. I woke up in a panic, it was seven twelve and I was still in bed, I hadn't gone out in the predawn to buy the dream van.

I don't normally dream about vehicles, normally I dislike cars and everything that goes with them, maintenance, insurance, gas, parking... it's all so much of a chore, for what? Expediency? I'd rather take a bus or a train. I think a Nova special on the future of the car I'd watched the night before had got me thinking.

I like to run numbers on hypotheticals, and I'd done the math on what it would cost me to own or lease a relatively new car with decent mileage, and I estimated the expense at a doable three to five hundred a month. I still have no interest in owning a car, but the perspective of ownership expense encouraged me to do something I've been meaning to do for awhile. I signed up for Zipcar, and earlier this week I tried it out for the first time.

I've signed up for their 50$ a month plan, which gets you reduced rates (8.55/hr for most cars, 9.45/hr for some, and 6.30/hr for Priuses). I knew my first trip would be down to IKEA, and on Monday I looked at my options. I could wait until Tuesday evening to borrow a Prius near my house, or I could borrow a Civic near my work that evening. I got a special overnight rate on the Civic of 34$ (from 6pm to 8:30am) and after fees and taxes it ate up about forty dollars of my credit.

I got to the parking spot around five fifty and checked out the car. There was a scrape on the front bumper that I called in on their easy to use phone system.The Civic itself was roomy enough, but the driver's wheel seemed to low, and traffic at six around Seattle was nerve-inducing. I got on I-5 South, got lost around Renton, and eventually ended up at IKEA around seven. I was a little out of it from traffic-nerves and couldn't figure out how to open the trunk to stow my bag.¹ While I was fiddling with the trunk (I'd popped the hood, thinking that was a trunk release) I dropped my iPhone onto the concrete lot. The screen's glass cracked, but the display itself is still working fine.²

I headed into IKEA, had dinner, and did some shopping. I planned on buying some frames, and impulse bought a desk. Thankfully I was able to fit everything perfectly in the back seat, though next time I'll carry a tape measure, and concern myself with the dimensions of the vehicle.

I drove back to Seattle, stopping over at QFC and grabbed some groceries. I bought some larger items -- a twelve pack of beer and TP -- and was thankful that I had a car to take home those items. I drove home and unloaded the car. Parking wasn't hard to find but earlier in the evening it would definitely have been difficult. I knew I had to get to bed soon, so that I could return the car before eight thirty.

Overall, I found the Zipcar easy to use and convenient, the day rates are a bit too high for my tastes and even the overnight special was a little too high. In the future I'll plan ahead and reserve the Prius that lives two blocks from my apartment for trips of three to five hours at a time.

I love the flexibilty of being a pedestrian and bus-rider. It means never having to find parking, and being able to change your plans on the fly without worrying about where you parked. Still there are a few times where having a car to help run errands makes life a lot more convenient. I expect those to happen once or twice a month, and when they come up, I'll rely on Zipcar to let me have the freedom to bring home more than a few bags of groceries or visit my friends in the suburbs.

1. I eventually figured it out. You use a Zipcard to lock and unlock the car. The key is affixed to the dash on a cord, but can be detatched from the cord... I didn't realize that you could take the key out to unlock the trunk until I got it home.
2. Unsurprisingly, Apple will not fix it.