Losing a part of me

Category: Productivity

  • Day 1319

    Sunday of the long weekend, and the last day of August. Tomorrow is Labour Day, and the unofficial end of the summer. What a season it has been.

    My summer has been far more productive than I thought it would be. For one thing, I did a lot more teaching than I had expected. Yes, most of my classes are booked within a week or two before the start date, but summers are usually slow. The fact that I taught three complete week-long classes and had five more days of 1- and 3-day classes since June 30 means that it was a very productive summer. However, if we add to that the fact that I have passed four certification exams since June 15 (including three major ones) and this summer vaults to the high end of productive and successful.

    While I consider my weight loss a complete shambles, I still weigh 22 lbs. less than I did on July 1… had my supplier not run out of meal replacements I know that I would be much further ahead… but here I am. I would rather be 22 lbs. less than two months ago than exactly where I was… or worse.

    In some respects the summer was a resounding success. Do I wish my life had not fallen apart? Yes… but that had nothing to do with the summer. Life is what it is… and I am going to continue to slog along. The last three certifications that I earned – SecurityX (Advanced Security Practitioner), Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect (Expert), and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) – are going to mean a huge boost to my career; the classes that I can teach are more in demand at the higher level, and the daily rate is much higher, and when I do decide to take a job (when my whole situation starts to stabilize) I will be worth a lot (with a much higher demand). At least there’s that.

    I certainly do not have all of my ducks in a row… but at least I have a lot of them lined up. What is next? I don’t know… but one thing I can say is that my life is never boring. Just once I wish it were.

    Have a great long weekend folks.

  • Day 593

    Fuck you, bathroom scale. Another day of staying true to the program, and another day of my weight going up. I have gained 1.2 lbs. in the last 48 hours despite staying true to the program. ARGH! With that, the number of days I weighed less than today jumps back from four to ten; this time it not only includes the six days in May, but also four days in September, as I have actually lost four days of progress… all while sticking to my program. This sucks!

    As I lay in bed last night, I had a thought that if my weight did go up again, I might need to give my plan another kick… possibly have breakfast and lunch for a day or two, and then go back to it. I don’t know if I am going to do that… but I am certainly not doing it today. I have tentative plans to take a buddy for lunch tomorrow to celebrate his birthday so I might do it tomorrow. As I told Leslie the other day when she was frustrated and wanted to quit: Okay… but not today; if you are going to quit then do it tomorrow. Never quit today. You (I) should never make these decisions in the heat of anger and frustration.

    I did not go for my exercise yesterday which might have been cause to not lose weight, but I still do not think I should have gained weight either. I had this incredible boost of wanting to be productive, and I was. I finished studying for the exam I needed to take to teach my class next week… and then I took the exam. I was thrilled with my results… with certification exams it rarely matters, but for this one you need to score at least an 80% to teach the class. I scored 90%. Yay! After that I took Her Floofness for a walk, but it was hot, so she did not want to spend a lot of time outside. We came home and I updated and edited my CV (it is always nice to add a senior certification to my credentials). I then prepared my introduction slide for the class I am teaching Thursday. While that might sound trivial, I teach a lot of different domains, and it would not make sense to include every credential I have for every class. This is an introduction to the Microsoft Cloud (specifically Azure) class, and it is the first Microsoft class I have delivered since May of last year. That is a real change for someone who used to teach Microsoft almost exclusively! In any event, after all that was done, I could have called it a day. I could have easily taken a cigar onto the balcony and watched TV or read my book the rest of the evening. NO! I put the slide decks for the Thursday class onto my iPad and took it onto the balcony to review. Yes, it is a very basic class… but it is also the first time I am teaching it in four years; it is also the first class I am delivering for a new training organisation, and I want to make a good impression. I will go further still. When I am finished with this article, I will go through all of the labs to make sure I am comfortable with them. I will knock the ball out of the park with this class!

    It is not yet 9:30am and I am ready to go. I will work straight through to 1:00pm, at which point I have a date with my wife. It will be another productive morning, and possibly even an afternoon to match it. We are in the middle of a heat wave (Canadian version of one anyways) so it is unlikely I will want to exercise midday; maybe when the heat wanes after 6:00pm I’ll hit the trails. We’ll see.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 501

    I ate more than I should have yesterday, and I paid the price for it on the bathroom scale this morning. Not only did I eat too much, I also ate too late. I have to stop doing that. I do not know what possessed me at 7:15pm to decide to make myself a plate of spaghetti. I did, and boom! I will do better today.

    My office area is completely transformed, and I am absolutely thrilled! I have everything set up exactly the way I want. The only decision I was on the fence about was whether to set up my primary desk as the one against the wall, or the other one which is perpendicular to it. The downside of choosing that one (which I did) is that the back of the desk, with exposed cables and monitors, faces the kitchen. I decided that was a better option than the alternative, which would have had my cameras facing both my bedroom and the bathroom. I have tried to be ever vigilant when I work from that desk to keep both of those doors closed when I was on camera, but I have occasionally forgotten. I have also remembered to turn off the camera when going to the bathroom, which is none of my students’ business. I have never forgotten to close the door while actually using the bathroom, but going in and out can be delicate. Now the only thing that I am missing is a cable long enough to plug my main laptop into my managed switch… Yes, I really have one of those.

    (I should mention that another disadvantage to choosing the other desk would have been needing to adjust the top shelves, which need to be screwed and unscrewed carefully. One more disadvantage would have been that while the backs of monitors and cables face the kitchen now, the alternative would have been having two full shelves of books facing the kitchen, which I thought was a worse alternative. G-d forbid my sink explodes, I would have to replace a monitor or two. Some of those books are irreplaceable, dating to the 1890s.)

    My productive day yesterday did not stop when I was finished organizing my office. I broke down all of the boxes that I have had accumulating the last month and took them to the recycling. I took all of my luggage (which has been sitting in the corner of my room since I was getting ready to go to Dallas) down to my locker. I also pulled out the tools and fixed the handle on my front door, which was loose and ready to come off in my hand at any moment. I admit that I was not so sure about how that one would go, and if I might not need to enlist the services of a handyman for it. I used to be pretty handy, but it has been a very long time since I have tried to do anything like that. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when it was done… and properly done at that. I hung up the half-dozen or so jackets and vests that were draped over chairs and couches. I folded the outstanding laundry (although now that I think of it, I suspect I have another load in the dryer that I will need to address today). I even put a broken chair into the car and took it to a dumpster (that I am not technically supposed to use). I took most of my martial arts weapons and put them into my Taekwondo sparring bag (not the one I would take to class today) and put that in the storage locker as well. After a very productive Sunday, my apartment is more organized than it has been in a very long time.

    At the end of my nearly seven hours of productive work, I should not have rewarded myself with a plate of pasta after my cut-off time. I will have to remember that. The simple equation is that when I am mindful, I lose weight, and when I am not then I do not. Really, Mitch… this is not Rocket Science. Stop doing stupid things like that!

    It is going to be a lovely day today, and I would like to take full advantage of that… but alas, my schedule will not permit me to. After class I will prepare my lunch, and then I have a meeting with my cousin who wants help with her IT environment. After that, I will take Her Royal Floofness for a long walk and I will time it so that I can be back in time to set up my environment on the balcony for this evening’s cigar class. It will be busy, but I am excited by just about everything I have on my list for the day. I am even excited to discuss software troubleshooting with my students for the next four hours.

    I will stay mindful, and I will get through the day… and tomorrow morning the numbers on the bathroom scale will be better than they were today.

    Have a great day folks!