Thoughts on my life, recently
Things are going pretty well these days. I feel like I've got a good rhythm down for life in general, and even though not everything is where I want it to be right now, things are at least on track.
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-- WORK / SCHOOL --
-------------------
Last week I attended an info session for the MBA program that I'm looking at doing. San Jose state offers a 3-year program with 8-week courses, meeting once a week on a weeknight, and twice during the course on Saturdays. At the end of the program, you receive both an MBA, and a Master's in Engineering, with a focus in Systems Engineering. It sounds like a great deal, and I definitely want to get SOMETHING started that'll give me a way out of the routine at work. Courses don't start 'til January, which is fine 'cause I need to study up for the GMAT exam. I took a practice test last week and only managed to get a 70% on it. I'm definitely out of practice with regards to simple arithmetic, but it's nothing that hitting the books won't help fix.
Work is going okay. I've been putting in 10, 11, and 12 hour days for at least the past month, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting a break from that anytime soon. Unfortunately I committed myself to this project even though it took a bad turn when I realized that one of my key assumptions in my original estimate proved to be impossible. Now I'm two months in with two months to go and every day I get both a little more and a little less nervous. Sometimes it feels like I've gotten absolutely nowhere, but other times I'm able to see something come together and feel SOME sense of pride. This is a big, important project, and the company's got a lot riding on it. I just hope that I'm able to pull a miracle out of my ass, and what's more, that they're able to recompense me for all the extra effort I've been putting in.
Still, one way or another I'm looking to leave once this project wraps up. Part of me is interested in at least asking if they'd be willing to pay for me to go to school, but even if they were, I'm 95% sure that I wouldn't be interested in sticking around once I got those degrees.
--------------
-- FINANCES --
--------------
Michelle and I merged our bank accounts, and I've slowly been trying to put together a budget that involves both our incomes and both our bills. So far, things are looking pretty good, and I'm left wondering how it seems to be that every month we're both scraping by before our next paycheck. With the budget that I originally set up, I would allocate $X for all my bills, estimate my monthly expenditures like going out to eat and new clothes and stuff, and the rest would be "extra" cash. Somehow that extra cash always managed to spend itself. This time around, though, since all of the money is going into and out of one account, I feel like I've got a better grasp of where everything's going. Once the dust has settled, we'll figure out exactly how much we can put away every month. I'd really like to have a good 15-20% down payment for a house in the near future, and from the looks of things, there's a good chance that we'll have that in 2-3 years! Budgeting for "fun" will still be tricky, but I think that once the "future house" money is safely in savings, that'll come a little more easily.
One of the big expenses we're looking at over the next year or so are to replace our aging TV, which has started acting up again. It occasionally shuts itself off, which leads me to believe that there's an issue with the lamp again (which was what we replaced soon after we got it 3 years ago). We swung by Fry's today to check things out, and it looks like we can stick with the size we have and go with either an LED or an LCD for around $1500. I need to do some research into the pros and cons of each, and of course shop at other places.
The other big expense is to get me a replacement road bike. I'm thinking about going to the place that Michelle got her bike at. The couple that owns the shop were both very knowledgeable, and really worked with Michelle to find a bike that truly fit her. I'd never really seen customer service quite that good, and I think I'd like to get me some of that! :)
--------------
-- EXERCISE --
--------------
After the race earlier this month, I took a little hiatus from working out, just so I could recover a little bit. Now I'm ramping up my workouts so that come October, I'll be ready to do my first Olympic-distance triathlon in LA! This week I ran 3 miles on Tuesday, swam 30 minutes and rode my bike to and from work on Friday, ran another 3.5 miles on Saturday, and did some weight training today. I think if I can keep this up for the next couple of months (and step up the intensity once in a while) I'll be good to go!
I finally put to use the Nike+ toy that Michelle got for me last Christmas. It's an accelerometer sensor that fits into special Nike shoes (or into a little $15 attachment for ANY shoe) that keeps track of your runs. Now, I haven't calibrated mine for my pace just yet, but it seems as though I need to focus on keeping a steadier pace. My first run using the system was with Michelle, so it was admittedly at a slightly slower pace than I usually put up, and a 2-mile run took me 3200 steps. Later in the week, when I ran on my own, I ran 3 miles and it only took me 4000 steps. I chalked it up to a faster pace, meaning longer strides. But then I ran again yesterday and went 3.5 miles taking only 3300 steps. I'm really not sure what to think about that. Hopefully the accelerometer will be smart enough to figure out the subtle differences in my strides.
----------
-- FOOD --
----------
Yeah, I know, this is a long post, but it's been like two months since my last one. I recently decided to try and branch out from my usual lunchtime fare of "lunchmeat" and try new foods. My first foray was something that I'd done before, Lettuce Cups with Tofu and Beef. They were delicious, but I didn't want to stop there. My most recent issue of Men's Health had some great taco-cart recipes, so last week I made a fantastic carne asada, and tonight I whipped together some carnitas. Both recipes were ridiculously easy to make, and both are unbelievably delicious. I think that sometime this summer I'll have people over and whip up a batch of each. I mean, who doesn't love tacos?
Part of the reason I wanted to branch out in my eating habits is because diet is a major contributor to how I look and how I feel. I think back on how much fucking food I used to eat and it astounds me. I mean, I guess I was a growing teenager, but on taco night I used to put away two burritos (beef, beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, olives, lettuce) AND tortilla chips AND extra beans. I'm surprised I only weighed as much as I did. I trained myself to eat a lot of food, and unfortunately now I don't have the metabolism of a teenager, so even some slight indulgences cost me. The first time I really controlled my own diet was in college, and one of the biggest contributing factors was that I could only really eat at the dining hall, which limited my options for what was available. My meals were, to put it plainly, dull. I had the same turkey sandwich every day for lunch, the same pasta and salad for dinner. It worked (I lost 10 lbs) but it wasn't realistically sustainable. Boredom sets in, and the need to feel something from food eventually takes over.
So yeah, in a nutshell, that's why I'm trying to train myself to cook my own meals. Re-learning how much I need to eat when it comes to the foods that I love (pizza, Mexican, etc.) is the key for me. Two soft tacos with some beans and I'm good for lunch. A slice of pizza and a salad and I'm good for dinner. Sure, part of me wants to gorge myself like I used to. But I think part of being an adult is the ability to control your more base impulses.
And that's really the whole point of this post. I'm talking about taking control of my life as I feel like I'm progressing into adulthood. For whatever reason, marriage was the trigger that got me to feel like unless I was doing something productive at night, I was wasting my time. Hence the grad school. Hence the budgeting. Hence the meal planning. And you know what? It feels good to have that kind of control over my own life.
-------------------
-- WORK / SCHOOL --
-------------------
Last week I attended an info session for the MBA program that I'm looking at doing. San Jose state offers a 3-year program with 8-week courses, meeting once a week on a weeknight, and twice during the course on Saturdays. At the end of the program, you receive both an MBA, and a Master's in Engineering, with a focus in Systems Engineering. It sounds like a great deal, and I definitely want to get SOMETHING started that'll give me a way out of the routine at work. Courses don't start 'til January, which is fine 'cause I need to study up for the GMAT exam. I took a practice test last week and only managed to get a 70% on it. I'm definitely out of practice with regards to simple arithmetic, but it's nothing that hitting the books won't help fix.
Work is going okay. I've been putting in 10, 11, and 12 hour days for at least the past month, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting a break from that anytime soon. Unfortunately I committed myself to this project even though it took a bad turn when I realized that one of my key assumptions in my original estimate proved to be impossible. Now I'm two months in with two months to go and every day I get both a little more and a little less nervous. Sometimes it feels like I've gotten absolutely nowhere, but other times I'm able to see something come together and feel SOME sense of pride. This is a big, important project, and the company's got a lot riding on it. I just hope that I'm able to pull a miracle out of my ass, and what's more, that they're able to recompense me for all the extra effort I've been putting in.
Still, one way or another I'm looking to leave once this project wraps up. Part of me is interested in at least asking if they'd be willing to pay for me to go to school, but even if they were, I'm 95% sure that I wouldn't be interested in sticking around once I got those degrees.
--------------
-- FINANCES --
--------------
Michelle and I merged our bank accounts, and I've slowly been trying to put together a budget that involves both our incomes and both our bills. So far, things are looking pretty good, and I'm left wondering how it seems to be that every month we're both scraping by before our next paycheck. With the budget that I originally set up, I would allocate $X for all my bills, estimate my monthly expenditures like going out to eat and new clothes and stuff, and the rest would be "extra" cash. Somehow that extra cash always managed to spend itself. This time around, though, since all of the money is going into and out of one account, I feel like I've got a better grasp of where everything's going. Once the dust has settled, we'll figure out exactly how much we can put away every month. I'd really like to have a good 15-20% down payment for a house in the near future, and from the looks of things, there's a good chance that we'll have that in 2-3 years! Budgeting for "fun" will still be tricky, but I think that once the "future house" money is safely in savings, that'll come a little more easily.
One of the big expenses we're looking at over the next year or so are to replace our aging TV, which has started acting up again. It occasionally shuts itself off, which leads me to believe that there's an issue with the lamp again (which was what we replaced soon after we got it 3 years ago). We swung by Fry's today to check things out, and it looks like we can stick with the size we have and go with either an LED or an LCD for around $1500. I need to do some research into the pros and cons of each, and of course shop at other places.
The other big expense is to get me a replacement road bike. I'm thinking about going to the place that Michelle got her bike at. The couple that owns the shop were both very knowledgeable, and really worked with Michelle to find a bike that truly fit her. I'd never really seen customer service quite that good, and I think I'd like to get me some of that! :)
--------------
-- EXERCISE --
--------------
After the race earlier this month, I took a little hiatus from working out, just so I could recover a little bit. Now I'm ramping up my workouts so that come October, I'll be ready to do my first Olympic-distance triathlon in LA! This week I ran 3 miles on Tuesday, swam 30 minutes and rode my bike to and from work on Friday, ran another 3.5 miles on Saturday, and did some weight training today. I think if I can keep this up for the next couple of months (and step up the intensity once in a while) I'll be good to go!
I finally put to use the Nike+ toy that Michelle got for me last Christmas. It's an accelerometer sensor that fits into special Nike shoes (or into a little $15 attachment for ANY shoe) that keeps track of your runs. Now, I haven't calibrated mine for my pace just yet, but it seems as though I need to focus on keeping a steadier pace. My first run using the system was with Michelle, so it was admittedly at a slightly slower pace than I usually put up, and a 2-mile run took me 3200 steps. Later in the week, when I ran on my own, I ran 3 miles and it only took me 4000 steps. I chalked it up to a faster pace, meaning longer strides. But then I ran again yesterday and went 3.5 miles taking only 3300 steps. I'm really not sure what to think about that. Hopefully the accelerometer will be smart enough to figure out the subtle differences in my strides.
----------
-- FOOD --
----------
Yeah, I know, this is a long post, but it's been like two months since my last one. I recently decided to try and branch out from my usual lunchtime fare of "lunchmeat" and try new foods. My first foray was something that I'd done before, Lettuce Cups with Tofu and Beef. They were delicious, but I didn't want to stop there. My most recent issue of Men's Health had some great taco-cart recipes, so last week I made a fantastic carne asada, and tonight I whipped together some carnitas. Both recipes were ridiculously easy to make, and both are unbelievably delicious. I think that sometime this summer I'll have people over and whip up a batch of each. I mean, who doesn't love tacos?
Part of the reason I wanted to branch out in my eating habits is because diet is a major contributor to how I look and how I feel. I think back on how much fucking food I used to eat and it astounds me. I mean, I guess I was a growing teenager, but on taco night I used to put away two burritos (beef, beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, olives, lettuce) AND tortilla chips AND extra beans. I'm surprised I only weighed as much as I did. I trained myself to eat a lot of food, and unfortunately now I don't have the metabolism of a teenager, so even some slight indulgences cost me. The first time I really controlled my own diet was in college, and one of the biggest contributing factors was that I could only really eat at the dining hall, which limited my options for what was available. My meals were, to put it plainly, dull. I had the same turkey sandwich every day for lunch, the same pasta and salad for dinner. It worked (I lost 10 lbs) but it wasn't realistically sustainable. Boredom sets in, and the need to feel something from food eventually takes over.
So yeah, in a nutshell, that's why I'm trying to train myself to cook my own meals. Re-learning how much I need to eat when it comes to the foods that I love (pizza, Mexican, etc.) is the key for me. Two soft tacos with some beans and I'm good for lunch. A slice of pizza and a salad and I'm good for dinner. Sure, part of me wants to gorge myself like I used to. But I think part of being an adult is the ability to control your more base impulses.
And that's really the whole point of this post. I'm talking about taking control of my life as I feel like I'm progressing into adulthood. For whatever reason, marriage was the trigger that got me to feel like unless I was doing something productive at night, I was wasting my time. Hence the grad school. Hence the budgeting. Hence the meal planning. And you know what? It feels good to have that kind of control over my own life.