Nearly One Third of the way to my goal….

[acdntlpoet]

Seems after gaining 2 lbs. while Colleen was in town, I was able to still drop a significant amount of weight this week. The weekly total this time around was 8 lbs., making my total since starting Jenny a nice solid 22lbs. For some reason I keep thinking my goal was 100lbs, but realized it was actually only 75lbs. Making this week only 3 lbs shy of reaching the 1/3 mark. Yep, that’s –almost one third of my goal in only 6 weeks! While I haven’t noticed ANY change in appearance or how my clothes fit, I AM fairly happy with watching the numbers drop… In fact I am finally back down to where I thought I was when I called to sign up for Jenny (turned out I was 25lbs heavier than I had thought). So that’s the news on the weight loss front for this week.


On the work front, I am finding myself writing in a way that is really messing with my brain. Due to some of the, shall we say, less than stellar articles coming out of one of my regional offices, I am facing a predicament of having to instruct a large number of support engineers as to what constitutes a GOOD FAQ or Technical Paper. As you can readily imagine, this can be a very esoteric concept since good FAQs for our complex software suites are typically more than the sum of their parts. Simply saying that an article needs to meet “x”, “y”, and “z” criteria isn’t cutting it. I have been forced to reject a number of documents submitted simply because they were insufficiently written, even though they met all the general criteria.

Because of this, I am working on a “user guide” of sorts to help try and educate my support engineers as to some of these less concrete concepts which combine to make a good FAQ. Imagine the mind-fuck that comes from writing an FAQ about how to write an FAQ, and you’ll understand the maelstrom swirling around in my brain. As Jean said to me last night after having given me a cursory review of my article, “It is very…. META”. Indeed it is.

I’m still not sure if this will do ANYTHING to help curb the problem I am facing. How DO you teach an entire group of people how to be good technical writers when that is not their goal or interest and English is not their primary language to begin with? Add on to that the cultural limitations which typically keep this group of engineers from thinking outside of the box and focused on following clearly drawn out requirements and process when they need to have a more conceptual understanding of a requirement which can’t be easily quantified, and you’ll begin to understand the difficulties my new responsibilities as Knowledge Manager bring with it.


On the civic service front, last night was my first session in the Washington County Citizen’s Academy. We had a good group of around 30-35 people participating in this class. After a general introduction to the Academy facilitators, and the stress inducing nature of having to introduce ourselves, we were greeted by the Sheriff himself. Sheriff Rob Gordon presented a good solid hour’s worth of overview regarding the Sheriff’s office and all the differing branches providing the various services to the public. Like the other facilitators, Sheriff Gordon is remarkably approachable and VERY proud of the office he serves as well as the people he has working for him.

Some of the highlights which I have to look forward to in the coming weeks of this 11 week program are:
Jail tour and ability to job-shadow a corrections officer for a shift
Hands on training for "Use of Force" including tasering a student
Canine demonstration with a student as "bait"
10 hour shift ride-along with a Patrol Deputy
And a multitude of 1 hour sessions covering all of the various programs and services provided by the Sheriff’s Office, including CERT team and SAR team demos.

This looks to be a VERY interesting and enlightening course and I am quite excited to be a part of it. At the very least it will give me a good insight and understanding as to how the Sheriff’s office is run and maybe even make some friends in the office. That can –never- be a bad thing, knowing how many speeding tickets I have received prior to moving up here  Who knows, I may even find a job to fall back on if this IBM deal shakes things up more than expected…. Computer forensics would be a pretty cool gig…


On the travel front, I will be hopping on my motorcycle and riding 875 miles down to Santa Maria, California on Friday to attend a close friend’s bachelor party (Aaron for those that know him). That will make a nice 17-1800 mile round trip for the weekend. Due to work, I am only able to take one day off, so I will be leaving fist thing Friday morning, and returning late Sunday night to be back at work Monday morning. It will be a long (12.5 hours non-stop) and lonely ride, but something which I am looking forward to. While nervous about taking such a long ride solo, I DO have many hours of solo riding under my belt and have also done a 1k mile ride in 18.5 hours, so I know I can physically do the ride with ease. My real concern is the mental aspect of a long distance solo ride. At the same time, I am excited to do it as a bit of a test to prove to myself that I can do it. I have never done a solo ride longer than 350 miles, so this will be one of those things to check off a "been there, done that" on the list and know that I CAN do it.

I just received my stock seat back from Spencer (aka Frank Turnier) who modifies stock motorcycle seats for comfort, height adjustment, and long distance riding. Honda, for some reason, can not make a comfortable seat to save their company; a common lamentation from most every Honda owner I know. For half the cost of a custom Sergeant, Russell, or Corbin seat (shipping was EXPENSIVE) and only a two week wait time (it took a while to get it there and back, total time in Spencer’s hands was less than 24 hours, probably closer to 12) I got a fully modified stock seat lowered, foam shaved and shaped, and with gel inserts for long distance riding. So far, the seat is exceptional! This weekend will be the true test. We’ll see how my rear holds up to 1700 miles on the newly modded seat.

With the addition of a communications system on the bike which supports audio inputs from my GPS and iPod, I am hopeful that having a bit of music will make the day go by more quickly and assuage any loneliness which may creep up on the road. I should also be getting some driving lights via UPS tomorrow, though it doesn’t look like the switch I ordered will be here in time, so I may need to wait to install those until after the trip. Kind of a bummer since this ride would be a good test for those as well.

As for the bachelor party, I am really looking forward to this. Friday night will be hit an miss since I am bit sure exactly when I will make it into town, but Saturday should be unbelievably fun. Thus far it sounds like the day will consist of either wine tasting (never a bad thing in my favourite region for Syrahs) OR trap shooting. Hopefully we will be able to do the latter since this is something I have always wanted to try but never really had the opportunity present its self. Don’t get me wrong, wine tasting would be sweet, but when posed with the option, I’d like to try something new and exciting. After the day’s activity, it looks like we will find our way to either Oktoberfest, or to the Hitching Post for a nice hearty man-sized dinner to celebrate. More than anything, though, I am really looking forward to just hanging with friends and enjoying our time together.


Continuing with the travel theme, Jean and I will be driving down to San Francisco on Sept 28th for a Cuban pig roast as hosted by Fergus. I can’t tell you how much we are looking forward to this too; Jean even more so than me most likely since she hasn’t had the opportunity to visit with friends in the past few months since we moved like I have had. Since we are leaving after work on Friday and need to be back for work on Monday, that weekend will be quite a long one even though no extra time was taken off! That will also put my personal total mileage between the two September weekends around 3k miles; one third of that being on my motorcycle!

Then, in October we will be flying down to Santa Barbara for Aaron&Erin’s wedding, so that should give us a nice opportunity to hang with friends again. After that, we are pretty much holed up in Oregon until people come to visit, since time-off from work is becoming very difficult to come by. Looks like short weekend trips will be in order, which pretty much takes away any larger trips to SoCal. I am sure the parents won’t be too happy with that considering the holidays are on the horizon. Hmm… perhaps we could convince them to just come up instead of making us come down……


Ok, since I have begun writing in more stream of consciousness, I will conclude before I become incoherent…. Consider this the last post until I return from my weekend ride and have time to sufficiently recover next week.

Comments

[plumerai.livejournal.com]

Dude, I didn't realize it had been that much weight off! Congratulations! For me, there was, like, an eight-pound zone where all of a sudden my body shifted. The weight loss was gradual, but there was a definite turning point where I, and everyone else, was like, "Woah, you've lost weight!" Our bodies are weird...

Enjoy your ride!

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
And yes, our bodies AND our minds are weird... see I figured if you commented, it would have been on the writing not the weight. Honestly, _I_ didn't realize it have been that much, since I see no difference! Hopefully another 50 or so pounds will provide the change I am looking for. :)

[plumerai.livejournal.com]

Ah, to be honest I'm at work and just skimmed over the parts that were under the cut--will write more later, when not at work.

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

No apologies needed and no need to write more if you don't have more to say! Hell, I'm still surprised people read, let alone comment on my entries! I typically write for an invisible audience, so invisible replies are all I expect ;)

[joeguppy.livejournal.com]

Oh, isn't that funny that we're on the same track when it comes to the usage of language? Beezarre!

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

Language use is probably more of a pet-peeve for me than you, but yes we are RIGHT ON the same track! It is amazing how confused an article can become when the correct language isn't used, or worse, that it is misused!

[elmunadi.livejournal.com]

One of my co-workers is ostensibly in charge of the marketing materials for a particular product line. He can't spell. His grammar is dreadful. His knowledge of the product line is not very good, even after nearly a year, and others have ended up rescuing, rewording, and essentially doing his job.

I'm underwhelmed... and in a recent meeting, finally lost it and, opined, while dissecting his latest (just before it went to the printers!!!), that if he couldn't at least manage to form complete sentences, his work was worthless. (I promptly apologized - I try to avoid nuking people in public).

I'm with y'all! (mind you, I probably live in a glass house of grammar, roofed with tiles of misspelling, but ... arrrgh!)

[silentglass.livejournal.com]

Way to go on the weight loss! That's an awesome accomplishment. The Citizen's Academy sounds like a lot of fun. You'll have to let us know how it goes. I've always wanted to do something like that.

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!
I found out about the classes when I was just tooling around the Sheriff's Office website. It is quite possible your local Sheriff's or PD do something similar... check out their websites to see, then DO IT :) It is a great way to gain a better understanding of your local judicial system and meet a ton of great people.... knowing your involvement in the Pro-Cars world, this seems like something that would fit very nicely with the level of community involvement you are already at! Great networking opportunities as well!

[llmarycatll.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the loss, irregardless of the fine dining visit with Colleen!

And. of course...hope your ass doesn't fall off this weekend.

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

STOP USING THAT WORD!!!!!

And thanks :) I hope my ass falls off, just not while putting the miles under my tires...

[llmarycatll.livejournal.com]

But I like the word ass!

Irregardless

[(Anonymous)]

Looks like its gaining some legitimacy:
"irregardless; a combination of irrespective and regardless sometimes used humorously" (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
Courtesy of Princeton no less. Yer gonna just hate it in a couple of years when Webster adds it to the dictionary arn't ya. Of course it's a living language, not dead like Latin where you can know all the words and how to use them. Hell, if I remember it correctly "It's" was considered iffy back when I was Casey's age.
Congrats on the weight loss by the way. Don't know how, but I've dropped 10lbs in half a week. Doesn't seem right but the Surgeon General says that I can eat 2200 a day and maintain 160lbs (my goal) and I'm only eating a wee bit over 1200 now so maybe it's OK. I don't feel bad, hungry or anything so I'm not one to argue. Again, well done.

Re: Irregardless

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

I will fight the legitimization of the word, tooth and nail! It is NOT correct, and should not be allowed into the mainstream language. WE NEED BOUNDARIES DAMNIT!!!!!

As for the loss... I am on a 1700 calorie diet, which may help explain your more escalated rate of loss in comparison. My goal is 200 even. I figure if I can get there, I'll take a look and see what it will take to get me to my "ideal" 180.
Thank you, and well done to you also! Not to spoil it for you, but if your diet was high in sodium, the first week may see a large loss due to water weight. Once the sodium levels even out, you will most likely see a more steady rate of loss in the 5lb range from what I have seen in my limited experience.

Re: Irregardless

[llmarycatll.livejournal.com]

There's no sodium in scotch.

Re: Irregardless

[dkingswood.livejournal.com]

You may be right about the sodium. I figured it would be like this the first two weeks or so and then turn into the bitch I expected it to be. As to the sodium specifically, they really push to keep away from at least adding sodium (from any source) to the meals. If you take each of their packages you are supposed to eat in a day and add up the daily % of sodium you get right about 100% so I'm not sure if you'd consider this a high sodium diet or no but that is neither here nor there, just like my child, I expect it to turn really ugly at some point. That way I'm not surprised if it happens and pleasantly surprised if all goes well. -R

Re: Irregardless

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

Actually I was referring to the amount of sodium in your diet before changin to the nutrasystem plan. The presumably HIGH level of sodium prior to going on the plan, then the change to a lower/appropriate level ON the plan could cause the dramatic shift down.

With that said, I don't think it will turn in to the bitch you expect if it hasn't been already. For me, the first 2 weeks were the toughest. Weeks 3 and 4 were still tough, but slightly easier. Weeks 5 and 6 have been much easier, and I feel like this is actually sustainable!

Either way, I think you'll do just fine :)

[elmunadi.livejournal.com]

That's evilly funny timing - M & I are going to be in SF this weekend (flying up friday morning and back sunday morning to wander SF and then do a wine country (Napa/Silverado trail) Bataan wine march in a day with our friend Jeff (Derrick of Kent).

BTW - The real telling point in mutual weight loss for us was when we noticed that the sex was.. well.. different... for want of a better term... bonier. irregardless of the regardlessness, lessness is a good thing!

[llmarycatll.livejournal.com]

At the risk of oversharing..
the weightloss sex... rocks

And... you said.. bonier.

[acdntlpoet.livejournal.com]

I'll wave as I ride by :)

I am jealous. Jean and I have tried to plan a Napa/Sonoma trip, but every time -something- major gets in the way preventing it. After a while, I just took it to mean we are not supposed to go, and that focusing on the Central Coast was where we needed to be. Still, I'd love to tour Napa/Sonoma someday...

So, you are saying the sex was "bonier" eh? All that WITHOUT the help of viagra? I'm impressed ;) Lessness IS a Good Thing^tm. While Jean has noticed a difference in herself, I have not noticed a change; bonier or not. Perhaps that particualr shift will be seen/felt after a few more pounds are by the wayside.

[llmarycatll.livejournal.com]

So you're saying you need....