Jim over at Hiawatha Cyclery inspired me to post my weight resolution.
Ever since my wedding two and a half year ago where I was at a significant low in terms of weight (160 lb.), I’ve been gaining, slowly and painfully. I’m at 186.2 lb.
Numbers say that this is close to being obese. Whereas just under 160 is “Normal Weight”.
That’s fine and dandy, and should be a good enough indicator… but the real indicator is this. If you have “normal weight” imagine wrapping your midsection several times around with rubber, 25-30 lb. should do it. This is known as the spare tire.
Not only are you walking around with this excess weight, you’re also trying to sit comfortably with it, get up from sitting down with it. It turns doing anything into a chore.
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I’ve been reading about Miligram’s shock tests which also relates to the Stanford Prison experiments. Both sort of confirm the same thing: given the proper authoritarian conditions, ordinary people will act in a brutal manner. I’m paraphrasing this, but it is a valid takeaway.
It’s a way of understanding war-crimes and even police brutality.
I’m trying to use this to understand my own take on morality. From what I understand, 2/3 of people follow the authority (someone in a labcoat), and about 1/3 stick to their guns and quit.
You can read this and say, that given the right conditions, anybody has the capability to do evil. But that seems like a detrimental way of taking this. Yes, during war, evil horrors are committed, but if we read between the lines there are people who resist this. There are people who despite all pressure will resist any of this.
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Yesterday as I left work it dawned on me that I had been in the San Francisco Bay Area for a year. It is one of the most drastic changes in my life since going to college.
I remember announcing to my family that Katie and I were moving to the Bay Area as I had accepted a job at Yahoo! working on one of my favorite web sites, Delicious.
The decision to move, the actual move itself, the settling in period, exploring the area, meeting friends new and old… it was all an adventure. The question everyone asks is how’s california… it’s awesome… even after a year.
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I haven’t been completely happy with myself lately.
I am happy with my life in general, and external things. In fact, let me preface this post by saying that I’m happy with my wife, my friends and my family. Even my job is pretty good despite the oncoming layoffs which I hopefully won’t be subjected to, but you never know.
I mainly see my intellectual and physical development hasn’t been where I’d like, despite an urge to advance in both areas (i.e. in more simplified terms I’m getting dumber and fatter).
This post isn’t meant to be a downer… my hope is I can improve on each of these aspects one by one. I think it’s completely natural to have peaks and troughs in terms of personal development. I think it’s when I identify a low that I make valiant efforts at trying to improve myself. Let’s see how things go.
I’ll attempt to post more details. One of the things I want to do is keep a better journal of my life, be it a blog or otherwise… it seems to be what all the cool kids are doing … or were doing 
Here’s what I’m missing in the South Bay in the next week:
- Django Con is on the 6th of September
- Free Agile Training is on the 10-11th
- Yahoo Hack Day is on the 12-13th.
I am looking forward to seeing my friends’ wedding, and taking a look at my house, and settling some financial affairs, but all in all, I’m not looking forward to Minneapolis at all.
Visiting Minneapolis is way different than living in Minneapolis. It involves being away from home, taking care of affairs that are easier done in Minneapolis than in CA (we have professional contacts that we’d like to keep that live in Minneapolis as well as a small piece of rental property).
It involves driving around a lot… which is why I’ve been on a kick to get a folding bike so I can take it with me next time. I don’t drive much at all in the Bay Area, and I never did that much in Minneapolis.
It also involves working out of a coffee shop or possibly the Tea Garden, while I enjoy doing that, I don’t really enjoy doing that all the time.
It’s also the idea that this is taking place of a proper vacation where I can just rest.
It’s also going to be hot… and that’s compared to being in the South Bay. I’ll make the best of it, and I’ll enjoy what I can… but sitting at home, I am not really looking forward to this trip.
