A week later and a dollar short.

August 31, 2004

I started an entry on Friday but never finished it. I got distracted during the day here at work, then didn’t think about it once I got home or through the entire weekend.

This past weekend was spent twiddling my thumbs, for the most part. I cleared a good portion of my Tivo buffer, including two movies I’d been keeping around for a few weeks. One was A Fistfull of Dollars with Clint Eastwood, and the other was The Frighteners. I’d seen Frighteners before, but never the Eastwood western. Part one of the “Man With No Name” trilogy, if I’m not mistaken, three of the quintessential westerns in American cinema. OK, OK, so technically Italian cinema, since those are the three best-known of the spaghetti westerns, where when Hollywood didn’t want to make westerns, Italian directors took to filming them in Europe.

I’ve started reading my news at the BBC instead of CNN, and I must say, I’m much more impressed with the BBC website than the CNN website. CNN is full of ads, sponsored links, and as much as I hate to admit it, fluff stories for the most part. The BBC website is clean, has far fewer ads, and covers news much better. More interestingly, they use a different way of referring to their organization. CNN and other US news outlets tend to use grammar like “CNN correspondant” and “CNN analyst,” but the BBC instead says “our correspondant” and “our analyst.” Makes it feel less like a monolithic organization. I’ve always felt the BBC had more class than CNN, anyway.

Sunday night I had a lot of trouble sleeping as occasionally happens to me, and I ended up not falling asleep until about 3 AM–no good when I have a 6 AM wake up call. Of course, I naturally woke up at 5 AM instead of 6 AM and dozed for the last hour, so all in all, Monday I was a pretty tired camper. I don’t know why that happens to me on occasion, and despite my Dad’s cries of me succumbing to the “Self sleep curse” or whatever he wants to call it, I think it’s more environmental than genetic. Too much caffeine, or too much bouncing around my head, or something of the like. It’s so frustrating when you lie in bed for so long and nothing happens, though. You want so desperately to sleep, but alas, it never comes. Blasted sleep patterns.

Yesterday I decided to start jogging again. As you may recall, I stopped jogging when I stopped getting up at 5:15 every morning to jog two miles before work, and I never looked back. Sure, I felt a little guilty at not doing my daily exercise, and I have a bit of regret that I’m not in as good of shape as I was last year at this time, but I can still work on things. Which is exactly what I plan to do. Too much Teriyaki Express, is part of my problem. That place puts in a secret ingredient that makes you crave it fortnightly, I swear. Even now, thinking about it at 8:25 AM my mouth is watering. Well, I also didn’t have breakfast, so that may be part of it, but I’ll never know for certain. I buy the chicken bento when I go there, always with white meat, but the oil they cook the chicken in probably doesn’t help me. Neither does all that white rice. Rice isn’t exactly BAD for you, but it’s not what I’d call especially healthy, either. Particularly when it’s slathered in the oil from the chicken and teriyaki sauce.

So I jogged yesterday after work. It felt pretty good, too, though I could tell that I was a bit out of practice after avoding it for the last month or two. It was nice to not have to stress about getting up in the mornings or worry about other things, but I’ve gained a little bit of weight and I need to get back it back down a bit. Last year at this time I weighed fifteen pounds less than I do now, but that was at the neight of my jogging. I was out every day, jogging for at least two miles, and since I was doing it on actual pavement in the sunlight it both helped and hindered me. The help was that my body had to work harder on the pavement and I burned more calories, and the hurt was, of course, my eventually knee injury that pretty much ended my pavement jogging for the time being. That led to my being laid up and watching the MLB playoffs last season as well as discovering the anti-inflammatory usage of asprin firsthand, but hey, who said that learning wasn’t painful? Or in my case, pain neccescitated learning. I only jogged for about a mile and a half to take it easy to start with, but hopefully by next week or so I can be back up to my three mile mark. My schedule is Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and with other calorie-cutting measures I’ll bet I can be back down to 175 within a month. 170 is my preferred weight, but I’ll also be using my dumbbells again, so I’m bound to gain a bit of muscle, as well.

I’d give anything to be able to jog outside in the sunlight again. as I walked back from getting my lunch yesterday (Subway, six inch turkey on wheat, no cheese), I realized how nice it was out, and that a year ago at that exact moment I might have been jogging outside in similar weather. For me, jogging wasn’t just a way to exercise, but it was an escape from the house for an hour or so. If you’ll remember, last year at this time I was unemployed and living at home, and time out of the house with my own thoughts and no distractions was a boon for me. Nothing against my Mom, of course, but living at home isn’t the best for the old mental health, you know what I mean? It’s just not the same. Jogging gave me the chance to do nothing but think. I was listening to music, yes, but I had no TV on, no computer in front of me, no phone ringing, just background noise of the music, my heart pounding in my chest, and my mind wandering, thinking of whatever I wanted to. Noticing plants, watching construction of a house as the days and weeks passed, always getting a breeze at certain locations, those sorts of thins. I miss that. Treadmills aren’t the same thing. A track, even though it’s outside, wouldn’t be the same thing. Jogging was like my therapy, but now it’s just exercise. I miss the therapy.

In truth, exactly a year ago I wasn’t jogging. In fact, my feet hurt so much I wasn’t doing much of antyhing. About a year ago I was still nursing the wounds resulting from the blisters I’d gotten from my solo hike outside Bend when I’d gone over with my Dad. That was such a great day, despite the whole getting lost and hurting my feet really badly parts. I was also preparing for a job interview for a position at the capital building. Boy, how my life would be different had I gotten that job. I’d be living in Salem (or commuting), doing something completely different that would lead me in a completely different direction in my life, and I know I’d be a whole different person.

I say with complete confidence that a year ago I was happier than I am now. Not that I’m necessarily UNhappy now, but I was just happier a year ago.

Switching topics, I talked with my friend Megan Bondehagen the other day. She’s the only person I know in the military at the moment, working in the–now I forget whether it was the National Guard or Reserves–while she was at Beloit, and she’s thankfully been able to avoid being shipped off to Iraq so far. She’s lost several friends, including the brother of someone she used to date and a good friend from home, and no her time has come and she’s going to be there by Christmas. She’s not particularly looking forward to it, but she knew it was coming. Here’s hoping everything goes well. I’ve only mentioned her a couple of times–she lived across the hall from Dan and I our junior year.

Work’s going fairly well. A little slow, but I can deal with that. Could be worse–I could be insanely busy and under stress like I was a few weeks ago. My boss has been cycling between a few different moods recently, and yesterday, much to my chagrin, he was in a micro-management mode. Those days are rare, but when they happen, we all know it. None of us can just seem to do anything right on those days, at least those of us dealing with him. I don’t claim to be a perfect employee by any mean, but a little slack on the rope is all I ask. I frequently feel like I get a lot of mixed messages from him, but that’s pretty standard for a lot of bosses, as I understand it. Well, it could be worse. I could have Guy, my idiot boss from Papa Murphy’s that summer two years ago when I worked there, as my boss. That would be insanely worse.

This week, if I’m not mistaken, also marks the first week of classes for students returning to Beloit, as well as the beginning of the second year since graduation. Right now I’m about where I expected to be a year ago, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. In addition to my calorie-cutting measures, I’m also implementing a strict set of cost-cutting measures to start my saving money so that I can get my own place starting early next year. The rumor around the office is still that we may move into the city when our lease is up in the spring, so I have to take that into consideration, as well. Hopefully I’ll end up soemwhere nearby if we do indeed move. I’ll just have to make sure I talk to my boss before I make concrete plans.

If anyone’s in interested in getting a Tivo, by all means, put me down as your refereal. You all know how much I like my Tivo, and it’s made television watching a lot more fun, by far. I’m not limited to certain days or times when I watch the shows I want to, and the commercial skip is by far the greatest feature I could ever ask for. Tivo has just introduced a referral program where if five people put me down as their referral, I get a free 140-hour Tivo machine. There are other rewards, of course, but that’s by far the best one. I know that there’s been some hemming and hawing from other members of my family about the possibility of getting a Tivo, so please, if you do, use me as your reference. Did I mention the 30-day money back guarantee? Well I did now. I wouldn’t have TV watching any other way now. It’s definitely worth the cost.

So there you have it. I’ll do my very best to start writing more frequently in the future, even if it’s just a short update. Heck, looking at my old entires from a year ago they were only two or three paragraphs. I’d feel a whole lot better with near-daily short entries than I would with once or twice a week longer ones. SO until next time, which hopefully will be sooner than later, adieu.

Posted in Beloit, Geekery, General