Dave Dash

Goal-setting for weight loss

2006-06-25T00:00:00-07:00

Well losing about 20-25 pounds (of mostly fat) in the year before my wedding definitely had the intended effect of receiving positive comments from friends and family. I secretly had the intent of not just being able to lose weight, but wanting to help others lose weight too. There's no reason to suffer through anything if you can't use it to better yourself or others later.

Since I've met my current goal (160 by wedding), I think I'm going to have a new goal, and I'll use this opportunity to walk people through the way I lost weight --- sort of. I took a lot of liberties with my daily diet, and I don't recommend that others do the same. I do recommend that people write down any drastic changes that they might be contemplating and their desired goals and discuss them with their doctor or other qualified professional. Everything that I mention in this blog is purely anecdotal and should not be construed as best dietary practices.

Determining your motivation

Before you determine what a new goal is, you need to find a reason to even lose weight. If you don't have a good enough reason, losing weight is tough. Reasons only need to be good enough for you. Here was my reasons for losing weight by my wedding:

Look thinner by the time of my wedding
Be able to say I'm in the medically recommended weight zone
No longer be subject to my brother teasing me
Feel better
Make it easier to do other physical activities that I enjoy
Not have to look at that big bulging gut.

Any of those reasons is sufficient. For example, who wouldn't want to look their best for at their wedding. I had the benefit of receiving a lot of attention from friends and families. We had an Indian wedding, and Indian aunties really notice the weight changes --- which in a way can be pretty nice when you are intending to lose weight.

In the week following my wedding, I've seen my weight rise out of that "recommended weight" zone. I want to be firmly entrenched in that "recommended weight" zone, and then I'd like to start gaining muscle mass. Once I'm at my new target weight, I'll be firmly entrenched in that weight and if I can continue decent eating habits and do strength-training, I could reach somewhere in the 150s and have strength to show for. It goes back to the "making it easier to do physical activities" goal. I like being able to lift boxes, people, etc, without exerting too much effort.

Determining a weight

Having a reason to lose weight should be easy enough. Determining how much weight to lose is another proposition all together. This is an excellent time to get the opinion of a professional. However, if you are fairly certain that you are overweight, you can usually play it safe by saying a 10% weight loss. If you or anybody close to you has the slightest worry that this might be an unhealthy weight, check with a doctor.

I had been floating between 175-185 pounds for a number of years, I decided on 160 for a goal. At the time it seemed ambitious. I had tried losing weight before, but not to that extent. The idea of being in the BMI range for a healthy weight seemed like a fantasy.

It's a fairly good idea to pick a goal that is significant. I could have set my sights low and said, I'd like to be 170 pounds, but that's not much of a change. Physically it's very little change, as I remember. The idea of hitting 160 pounds, however... I couldn't even remember when I was last 160.

I decided that each time I hit a goal, I'd re-assess where I am, and see if it made sense to lose or gain more weight. At this time I feel like I could lose more, so I'm going to shoot for 15 more pounds. Putting me at 145 pounds. Beyond my occasional 14 miles I bike to and from work when I'm called in, I am planning on adding in at least some abdominal exercises.

Determining a date

Your goal date is probably more important than your determined weight (as long as the weight you pick is healthy). When I started, going from 185 to 160, seemed crazy and way faster than I expected, but over a year's time, that's only half a pound a week --- which is quite reasonable.

An arbitrary date to reach a goal might not mean much to you. For me, I picked my wedding day --- and it had the intended effect of getting a lot of attention. Luckily for me, I can determine if I kept the same weight-loss pace as I have, I'd be around 145 pounds by Christmas. The nice thing about this being my second goal, is I can determine whether or not I liked that pace. If the pace seemed too relaxed I could just adjust the date or weight to suit me.

I'm picking New Years Day, 2007 as my new goal date. I'll be 145 pounds by then. It'll be a good time, because this is when many people decide they should start losing weight. At that point I can serve as an example.

Determine what you are willing to do to achieve the goal

Setting a date and a measurement for a goal is a huge step. In fact, you could probably achieve your goals with just that information alone. The other necessary steps will just come into play. However, it is helpful to know what you'll do and won't do to get to where you want to be.

Let's be clear, dieting is simply burning more calories than you consume. What will you do to achieve that? You can either burn more or consume less or both. The bulk of my weight loss was from consuming less. Burning more, for me, did help, but not as much as people would like to believe¹.

Do both if you can, but don't get hung up that you can't bike to work (even though you can) or that you have no time to use that treadmill. With some dietary adjustments it should be easy to lower your calorie intake to the point where your body starts wearing down on its reserves.

Personally I also picked a few specific things I was willing to give up. I was willing to give up sugar (not everyday, but regularly), fried foods if I had to, and even dairy products. Omitting foods didn't make me lose weight, but it did prevent me from snacking. Snacking for me made having a calorie deficit nearly impossible.

I also had to accept that I couldn't stuff myself at mealtime. Late night pizzas, all-you-can-eat buffets --- none of that. My fianceé-at-the-time (now my lovely wife) was very good at convincing me that I only needed to eat until I was no longer hungry. That alone, helped quite a bit.

There will be bouts of hunger. You are starving your body. You are telling it, hey, I'm not eating enough to maintain this weight, so please chew on my reserves. The danger of course, is that your reserves are fat and muscle. Some dietary, and exercise changes can make that loss appear to be mostly fat. This time around, I'm willing to stick to the same course. It worked before, it should work again.

Determine what you won't do to achieve this goal

Equally as important to what you'll try to do is what you won't try to do. It might be important to establish that you will not exceed a certain calorie deficiency/day. It might also be important to you to not jump on fad diets. Whatever it is, you should find out what you don't want to do, make sure you are justified in feeling that way, and then stick to your guns, unless you've been scientifically proven wrong. It's far too easy to get caught up in a numbers game and start sacrificing your health just to meet the right number on the scale.

Conclusion

If you know what you want, when you want it and are willing to take steps to achieve it, you'll be fine. Goal setting is important in just about every facet of life, not just weight loss. Realistic goals can get you where you need to be. Make sure you're setting up some realistic goals.

So to recap my own goals: New Years Day 2007 I will be 145 pounds. I'd like to hear if other people have some weight related goals in the comments and their strategies.

Last summer I biked about 70 miles a week, but the bulk of my weight was in the winter when I started working more and more from home. ↩

the Mind

1998-12-30T00:00:00-08:00

Yesterday I ate at an Indian restraunt. It was okay. I mean I don't like Indian food usually. This, however, was pretty good.

I have sound working on my computer. Linux is a good Operating System if it's preinstalled or you know Ryan Hayle.

Today I got to go to the airport and pick up my brother and sister-in-law. Now I'm bored again. I think I'll find something interesting to do...

I might try to get that Hindu Mandir Online thing working... that could be interesting.

If this entry had no title, it would be sad.

1998-12-29T00:00:00-08:00

And you would be sad.

Today my Uncle and his family gave me the X-files movie on VHS Cassette (I'm guessing this would be Julie and Auntie's idea). I watched it. It was similar to a long episode of the X-files that was pretty good. It's just not nearly as cool the second time around.

Later tonight Molly came over and we eventually gave birth to cookies. They were good despite the pain we went through (no, just forget I used the word "birth" in that last sentence).

My brother shall be returning soon. Last I heard he and Kelly were in Thailand.

Thank you and before I say goodnight, I leave you with a pleasant link. (Note: This will make sense to Run-Friends and perhaps nobody else, except maybe Su').

Damn Asian Bastards

1998-12-09T00:00:00-08:00

"So the guy gave me a piece of paper and he said that you drop it. Then the walls started to melt. Then I started to melt."

Hey, I found out a new trick you can do on this website... well if you have IE 5 it works, it may work with IE 4 too. Okay, in this journal page, I have not yet removed the large moon logo. What you can do is go to the favorites menu (works if you have a lot of favorites in a lot of subdirectories) and just scroll down. Everytime a menu opens the browser re-renders everything starting with the lowest layer. In other words the moon will appear.

Once I dreamt of a city of gold (earlier today), and then I realized why it could not exist. If portions of the city were gilded, people would start mining the city. So the gold would have a negative effect, because people will be hasty when they mine the gold. The gold will be a catalyst in ruining the city. Similarly copper is quite valuable. In China copper telephone lines were dug up and sold on the black market. To rememdy this, China just advanced it's technology and started using fiber optics (Negroponte). Technology makes things cheap. So, I'm sure I could come up with something better than a city made of gold. I could probably figure out some aesthetically pleasant design that doesn't have this yellowy sparkle that people all love to steal. It will also be cheaper. This will be the city of cheap technology. It will be guarded by the Technobots. With their gestalt technology they can merge and form the mighty Computron. Computron will be the most powerful thinking machine in the world, and the mayor.

My roommate was a sexfiend.

Yesterday I ate at Subway. I tried the Parmesan Chicken Wrap. It's not that great. Here's why. Subway makes good sandwhiches. Their employees aren't trained well to make wraps, since mine had a tear in it. They make very good sandwhiches and they taste better than their wraps. It was better than school food though. School food today wasn't bad. It was edible.

I am a threat to my own security.

1998-12-08T00:00:00-08:00

Fort Max - poking into God's territory for over 100 years.

I want to see Patch Adams this weekend. I just might do that. I also want to see Star Trek: Insurrection. I think I want a gun. A ray gun...

Cool Info is moving to pair networks. I will be working on a news article entry system that mimics what I use right now. I'll work on it over break.

I use my workstation as a development machine for my web pages via Front Page and the Personal Web Server. The root page used to be an old web site that I had for Fort Max that I only developed on my computer and uploaded to the Internet. It was very corporate sounding, back when I cared about that stuff for ftmax.com. It never occuured to me that if CCSO did a scan of my computer, they would notice that my workstation is the host of a corporate web site. Here is some mail:

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:48:01 -0600 (CST)
From: CCSO Security 
Reply-To: security@uiuc.edu
To: davedash@uiuc.edu
Subject: dorm room connection

I have noticed that the machine 130.126.72.54 has a web page for a commercial
entity. This is strictly in violation of university policy and state law.

If this page is not removed immediately, your network connection will be 
disabled and student discipline charges filed.

-- 

 [      Security Officer                |       CCSO/University of Illinois   ]
 [      security@uiuc.edu               |       1304 West Springfield         ]
 [      (217) 265-0000                  |       Urbana, Illinois   61801      ]

Don't bother entering that address, there's nothing there, since I deleted the site (it was a dated one that I never used) and locked it. It's so strange some of the things that I take for granted can be stripped away so fast.

I finished reading Xenocide. Very Deux Ex Machina, I've heard bad things about Children of the Mind as well. I can imagine why. I will, however, finish reading the series as I am curious as to what Mr. Card is trying to achieve. I did like the book. I read at least over 100 pages on one day.

The Onion will have an MTV Christmas Special supposedly. This should be interesting, hopefully someone will record this for me. It's funny, Onion is one of the better sources of humour, we need more things like that on TV. Canadian TV has funny stuff that crosses the line, as does British TV. It's in our best interest to mimic these, instead of remaining prudish about our humour. Damn you America for spawning crap like SNL and MAD TV.

Since I have no original ideas, here's my Christ Day wish list:

Sony Netman or Diamond Rio PMP300
PCS Cellular phone with cellular service for one year (so next year someone else can get me a year of service)
IBM Laptop SCSI whatever you can or a DELL Inspirion must have DVD support
SGI 1600SW with Number Nine card
SONY DCR-PC10
Soundblaster Live
UMAX PowerLook 3000
Lego Mindworks
Something with a pretty LCD screen that goes on my computer.
A ray gun.

That's my Christmas want list. It's unlikely that I'd ever get any of these (for Christmas this year) since most things are in the $1000+ range. I will however go for the laptop this summer (with DVD support) if you people fail to appease me. If you do get me an LCD toy, it better be pretty. None of that stupid LCD stuff.

I ate at Burger King yesterday. It was very good after a disconcerting school dinner. I shall eat out more often. I will try to avoid Burger King for a while. Their sandwhiches are good, but they are the kind that make you not want to eat their for a few months.

InSoc - we make life easier

1998-12-05T00:00:00-08:00

"They're after me!"

I read more of Insoc.org. The guy is really really cool. His music is awesome. He's good at the computer stuff he does. His propaganda is hillarious. I also agree with his opinions on drugs. I wish more musicians were this cool.

So I was reading this astrological reading...

VIRGO (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): If you want something enough you will eventually get it. Your heart tells you that is true even if your head says it is illogical. Of course, if the something you want is something you were destined to have, it could arrive any time - like today, for instance.

This tells me nothing new. The first sentence is something that a lot of people believe, but their is no real way to prove. The second sentence probably applies to everybody. There are some things that just aren't feasable that we may want. If I'm destined to have something, yes of course I could have it at any time.

I really love this journal thing. It's an excuse to not talk to people individually. Why bother? Most people are bound to not give a care about one or two (at least) of the things I talk about. Why risk having one of your ideas ignored? So I have this journal system. I can post any damn idea I have that I feel needs to be shared. If someone's interested and they read it, they can talk to me about it more. If they aren't interested they just skip over it and I don't feel like an idea of mine has been ignored or not understood.

I think I know why I dislike my roommate. He's inconsiderate. I'm currently working on my final paper for speech and he's currently watching Street Fighter videos with a friend. He could have asked. It's blatantly obvious that I'm working on a paper. I'm not going to make a situation awkward and ask him to not watch this. It is his room too, I just wish he's be a bit considerate.

Ugh, I was a bit foolish to eat a Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. Not only do I remove the ham inside it, but the cheese that's in it doesn't agree with me. It's a pity that the insides of me are so much like my brother (lactose intollerant). One day they'll synthetically make food that tastes good.

Stinky makes a stink.

1998-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

"Whee!" Soaring through space, Stinky's PSX will never be seen in Urbana-Champaign for a very long time.

Wednesday we were little kids again at Fat Don's (a campus specialty restaurant). We played with the Ketchup and the Steak Sauce Bottle.

I hit the jackpot for MP3s. I've found all these neat live Aphex Twin and Orbital songs. The only difference from a studio and live cut is an audience and it sounds different slightly. Sometimes the sound is a little low quality, due to who recorded it, etc. The Orbital songs from Birmingham tend to have too much bass... that forces me to have to deal with Winamp's equalizer. The song of the week is an Orb song. Supposedly it's Toxygene live in Moscow, but it sounds nothing like the two other versions of Toxygene that I have. It's very space-future sounding. I've listened to it so much that I can't place it with another song that I've heard, becuase it's too familiar. The other two Toxygenic songs are mass-media-future sounding. Like something we'd have sometime soon. Supposedly the new Winamp (2.04+) are supposed to get rid of skips and stuff, but that's not happening. Oh well. I'll try to get my latest collection to the MP3 server in the sky before I leave. I'll at least start uploading by Sunday. I'd hate to go home and find myself musicless... although my CD-player supposedly works... and I could go CD shopping with my Jewish friend.

I'm really being pushed I guess. My Thanksgiving break will be relaxing, but I fear I'll be spending a lot of time composing a rough draft for my speech on an inclusive education model. Dammit, I need a day. Not just a day where I have no obligations, but a day where I have no future obligations to worry about. I have an outline due Friday, stuff to read, a paper due next week, a speech in a few weeks, end of the quarter soon, immunization tests that need be done, credits that need to be transferred properly, class registration that needs to be properly done.

Stinky made a stink tonight. I have witnesses, Neal, Mike, and anyone else who was unfortunate to walk by my room. I had to leave my room and go talk to the Katie with the red hair. Eventually the stink faded away. I don't want to sound like I'm exaggerating, but it was really bad. Mothballs and open windows should cure the room.

I heard Stinky talking to Josh in the hallway and I asked Josh in ICQ what Stinky said about the PSX (PlayStation):

You'll be really happy...he said he's not bringing it back after Thanksgiving...cuz he's gonna have to study for finals...Don't celebrate TOO loudly...:):)

If all goes well, this is a permanent thing.

Diwali Night 1998

1998-11-06T00:00:00-08:00

"This 52 lbs. package shall be our new God!"

Mmm.. Pokey sticks. If anybody knows of a good pokey-stick like recipe, I'm all ears. I had them last night.

Everybody loves my contact paper that's on my door, including the cool janitor. I should take a picture of the door sometime. I'll just wait until I get the NetCam.

The had a little kid (someone's son), Johnny, on KQ this morning. They were interviewing a coach of some team and the kid asked all these questions, like if the coach still smokes, if the team curses, fights, etc. It was pretty cute. Of course those Carl Sagan type kids do get annoying after a hundred or so "Why?"s.

Ah... my 52 lbs. package has arrived. It sounds really awesome. So now I have a total of seven speakers dedicated to the audio I want to hear (5 speaker stereo + 2 speakers for computer).

It's amazing what you find out in my halls. I found out about a Diwali function presented by the Indian Studen Association. My friend Anand had a few extra tickets so he let me tag along. It was very good. It was meant for a smaller amount of people than most functions I attend. They performed in the Illini Room of the Illini Union. We were sitting at a table with this one annoying lady who complained about the music they used for some dances. It's almost worse than people who talk during a movie. The food was mediocre, but compared to residence hall food, excellent. The performance was great. They had this cool backdrop with these eyes that would stare at you. I think they used a black light to make it glow. The dances were great too. What really made it an awesome function was the sound. The sound was crisp and clear. The only problems were those inheirent with some Indian singing, such as singers who attain high pitched notes. The event also had a lot of comedy sketches by the emcees. It was mostly second generations which was nice, because second generation people know how to put together an appealing event. I think Molly, Adam, Katie, Tom, Nick and anybody else who's been to an Indian event with me would have loved it.

All saints day...

1998-11-01T00:00:00-08:00

Meijer is really annoying. They often change their prices every week, thus causing confusion on how much you are paying. Like I paid almost $8 for a 24 pack of Lipton - almost as bad as a vending machine, but not quite. Yesterday Mike (my neighbor) and I went to Meijer, and since I was there I felt compelled to buy something. So I bought a some Frappuccino, I ended up paying $4.80. WTF. Meijer also doesn't price all their products on the shelves. That's the most annoying thing in the world. Of course, I wasn't doing my part in asking for a price check, but really, $1.20 for some fancy yuppie drink? You've got to be kidding me. I may have to go shop at Target for more stuff.

Mike and I noticed a Perpetual Dawn (sorry, it's a song from Orb) yesterday. It looked like it was 6AM, 7AM and then 7PM at various periods during the day. In otherwords, no day yesterday. No day today either, although I was never outside. It has been cold, but I have to tolerate it. I think Jack starts to smell after some time in the morning, so I keep my window open and my door open to bring fresh air into the room.

If you step into my hall you can smell the boo-puke left by somebody who didn't know his boo-beer tolerance this Halloween. Drinking to the point that you are going to vomit is stupid. Vomiting in the hallway is stupid. Stupidity doesn't belong in Allen Hall.

I guess my neighbor had a talk with Jack and pointed out that we don't get along. Jack and I had a talk. I hate having talks with Jack. I mean, I don't mind talking to Jack, but addressing issues is really annoying. Mainly because it deals with a lot of judgement. I suppose it's something I should get used to. I guess both of us just get "pissed-off" at each other and need to tell each other when this occurs. I suppose it's a good thing. I went into this whole roommate business negatively to begin with. I will still make fun of Jack and post updates that are demeaning, because Jack is wierd. He admits it. I am also going to have to find a clever way of recording him on my computer, Cooledit is too big. Okay, I just found some shortcuts... :)

Laurel Prussing When asked to indicate which principles she supports concerning education in a survey from Project Votesmart said, "Give children vouchers to choose their parents." Perhaps a typo, I like it anyway. I decided instead of seeing whether I like Ewing or Prussing (for House of Representatives) to screw it. My vote goes to Prussing, because she seems like she'll support the things I like. I'll make up my own arguments for not choosing Ewing. "Ewing is the demon-seed spawn of the devil. His last term in congress brought the devil one step closer to taking away everything in which you believe. This Novermber when you vote, don't vote for evil, vote for non-evil, vote for Laurel Prusssing. Laurel Prussing lets kids choose their parents."

Sounds like India has it's own "religious right," known as the Vidya Bharati, making educational demands. They want to ban certain poems and stories. Schools shouldn't teach the young "graphically about the female body and her emotions."

Our school has this cool thing. Let's say you are going to a web site. If it's busy or down or just hard to connect to, this webcache system (128.174.0.245 or webcache.gw.uiuc.edu) takes up the task of trying to connect to the site for you (I'm assuming that's it's only task, so it's faster). I also think that it just serves you frequently vistied pages. So if you go to Yahoo, and someone else does, it's their right away, and the webcache thing just gives you what it has. That is kick-ass.

Little things

Today we can celebrate the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1922).
Jack got a "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" poster Friday and put it up Saturday. It's scary.
I've cleaned up my new "better-than Adam's loft" desk. There;s a lot of space to work with. Of course that space may change in a week or two.

(optional)

1998-10-29T00:00:00-08:00

This may be a bit boring, so it's marked optional. I've decided to put all my one-liner things at the bottom all in one paragraph. Otherwise I have three or four paragraphs of little tidbits and that gets annoying.

Tuesday night, Jack ordered a pizza from Dining Services. Jack doesn't understand that chewing with your mouth open is rude.
"Jack," I say, "chew with your mouth closed." Jack wonders with a confused half grin, "Why?" Oh, ignorant ignorant Jack, do you not know? "I don't like to hear you chew." Jack still confused, thinking it's some quirk with me. I help him out and explain, "It's impolite." Jack struggles to chew with his mouth closed, but at least he tries and at leasts I don't hear a bunch of chewing noises. Silly China-man, will you ever learn our ways? I suppose college is the only time he'd ever learn things like manners, etc.

This may or may not be out of context. From Kay's page: "Robocop and I went to bed." Oh boy, another soap-opera that I can twist.

Okay, for anybody who was wondering what Aural Stimulation was, Dimension Music cites somebody (probably from Winamp), "aural stimulation adds some high frequencies to the output, so that the ear hears high frequencies with the music. This tricks the ear into thinking that the recording is crisper, because mp3 tends to filter out most high frequency stuff, so the presence of incorrect (but unobtrusive) high frequencies makes it sound better." So it is not what I expected it to be, which would explain the unfamiliar name.

Looks like I save $299 by not buying a Matrox Marvel. No drivers for Windows NT. I'll just wait till Windows 2000 comes out. I wish Adobe would create Photoshop for Linux.

And now for the tidbits of information:

I woke Jack yesterday with Logon Rock Witch... oops, oh well... that's what happens when you have stupid sleeping habbits. Mr. "I have one class on Wednesdays."
I've decided that I should use the computer lab in our basement more often. It's quieter at many times and there is no Jack and no PlayStation.
Woo-hoo! I passed my fire safety inspection test... hopefully it's not the only test I pass.
Ever wonder who hacks the hackers?
Download this. If I choose to use this as my default laugh and laugh at more things, I think Jack will be scared of me:)

Bees

1998-10-27T00:00:00-08:00

I'm afraid of bees and any bugs that can be mistaken as bees. Lots of bugs crossed my path yesterday. Urbana-Champaign decided to be warm this week. MTV took over a small sector of campus today. I managed to get a free demo CD from Intel and lemonaid from Old Navy who were assisting MTV. The lemonaid made me have a strong affinity to Old Navy jeans. This is why I love Molly, because she wears Old Navy jeans.... I think.

Okay, I'm up early, Jack is making all these wierd noises in his sleep. Like drooly sucky noises. This is disturbing. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to kill him. Why can't he sleep normal?!? Thanks to the structure of my room, my open window doesn't make it cold unless the door is open as well (so the air can flow somewhere). I left the door open when I brushed my teeth. Jack is now covered in his blanket. Okay, Jack tosses and turns in his bed. This time he hit his leg against something, and he spoke, "shit." It's amusing.

Lobster Night

1998-10-06T00:00:00-07:00

Oh my.. Lobster night at UIUC. Most of the residence halls server Lobster. It was mildly incredible. I didn't eat any because lobster looks disgusting and I don't like sea food too much. Some people went a little overboard. One person was about to eat ten lobsters. For some reason all seafood disgusts me. No wonder why the Jews don't eat most sea food. They secretly want me on their team.

(no title)

1998-09-21T00:00:00-07:00

This Saturday I had a talk with my roommate Jack about his Street Fighter addiction. During lunch he asked, "You think that I don't have a life because I play Street Fighter all day?" After a while human conversations become very silly because people tend to think a like. I answered, "Yes." I anticipated that he would try to find a similar flaw in me, due to the nature of his question. "Well I can say that you have no life also, since you are in front of the computer all day. At least that's what I see." I replied calmly, "Yes, but I study using my computer." I guess Jack is open to the fact that he has a severe video game addiction. His main excuse is that this December there is a Street Fighter cometition in Chicago. I hope he'll get wasted.

Anyway, Jack is getting less annoying, it's just that he needs discipline. Like there is this towel that I think he uses for showering, and he leaves it on his chair all day. That has to go.

Saturday my meal plan ran up, so I ate at BW-3. They have them in MN, WI, IL, OH, and PA. I found out about them from Shang who went with me (he's from Ohio). The food is good and very affordable. I think that will be my Saturday dinner every week since wings are only $.25 on Saturday nights.

TMBG coming soon... I'm so busy, someone's gotta remind me.

Today I have two meetingish things. I have a pre-lab for chem due tomorrow so I have to do that tonight. I have to read some Chemistry. I also have to write out my speech outline for the speech I am giving on Wednesday. I have to have a quiz in Chemistry on wed. Thursday is catch up on everything day. Friday I have a presentation and my math is due. I also am doing poorly in my math class. Just barely racking more than 50% in graded homework. Take the hardest UMTYMP take-home tests and assign the six problems that are proofs. Choose four of those each week and that's what my assignments are like. I have to try to do harder in this course. I think after my September Cycle finishes I'll have catch-up time so I can read stuff for that class. I have a test soon for that class too.

September Cycle

1998-09-16T00:00:00-07:00

I am caught in what I call the September Cycle. It's when all the first major assignments are due. I have a speech due next week and a presentation due next week. Nothing really exciting will happen to me for most of the month, so the updates will be sparse for the next week or so. I ate at FAR's Pizza Parlor. It took a few hours to get our food and finish it, but it was worth it. Best meal I've had from this campus. The Pizza was mediocre, but the salad was nice.

Come and gone...

1998-09-13T00:00:00-07:00

This Thursday I had the pleasure of having Dan, Amy and Molly stop by for the rest of the week. We had a great time. We mostly hung out. Yesterday we went to Chicago to hang out with my friend Sunita, visit the Sears Tower and eat pizza at Lou Malnati's.

They left. I think I will miss them, because despite the heat level in my room, they added something here that was nice. However, right now I don't feel that loss. I believe I am still in the same mode of not feeling loss, becuase it is interfering. I think if I had nothing to do today I would feel very sad. I however have lots to do, I have to clean this mess-of-a-room for one thing. I have an assortment of documents to organize. I have several homework assignments to begin or at least preview. By keeping myself busy I don't feel lonely. Except now I have two bottles of Frapaccino's that Molly was supposed to take with her that will linger there for a while. Perhaps late at night when it gets hot I will try to finish them.

My brother and sister-in-law bought a Saab recently. Dan Lavenda and I can hardly wait to see it. My brother is going to make an effort to visit me either this month or next, which will be nice. Well I am off to cleaning my room.

Which reminds me I got a few gifts for my brithday. My mom and dad bought me a real nice Columbia Jacket and nice gloves (which are a tad too small) and I think my mom got me some Toblerone from her trip to India. Molly got a plant for me. Her parents got me some hot cocoa that they had sitting around and Molly gave me two of her brother's CDs (one of which I already have). Katie sent me a beanbag which is on loan, which I think is a great thing because I was complaining to my mom and Molly how I wanted a bean bag or something becuase I like to sit somewhere else other than my bed or my chair to read. Marc got me HUGBEES! Thanks again everybody.

Oh yeah, on Thursday I bought my ticket for They Might Be Giants. I am sitting in Section three (of four) in Row C in seat 7. So it's a good seat:) Unfortunately I'm going Solo to it, but that's okay... Also I may be going to see Moxy Fruvous next month.

I love UI

1998-09-02T00:00:00-07:00

I've decided that I love this University. Not because it is anything special, but because I think that's how the University wants me to feel. No wait what the hell am I saying. No the University of Illinois is a very decent school. I don't know why I like it, but I do for some reason. Maybe the good balance with academics and cultural diversity, etc. I dunno. Probably because it has a large library. A library that gives away good cookies.

Well speaking of, thanks to the Residence Hall Interlibrary system, I have Heretics of Dune.

My class schedule is slowly getting smaller and it looks like school will suck only once in a while instead of twice. The food service in Allen is poor. Today I had snickers ice cream from Edy's that was good. It was bad when the machine didn't work during dinner time. Grr. The food was bad for dinner, I didn't eat much. The hot cocoa machine still does not work. Woe is me.

Unit One is really cool. This week we have Barbara Trent, Oscar award winner of The Panama Deception. I went to a talk yesterday and she talked about all these cool programs she was involved with. She talked about how she fled from the FBI. She talked about how she made movies that exposed the government. Yesterday I watched some of her other movie, Cover Up: Behind The Iran Contra Affair. I watched some of it because it was too cold for me in the main hall. Today I will dress appropriately and watch the Panama Deception and hopefully stay for discussion. The fact that I can do this in my own hall is just so neat. I mean talking about all these cool issues with some person who has a shiny award that sits at the Front Desk of our hall and stuff. Wow, Allen Hall is cool.

My best friend in the whole wide world got her ICQ password today.

First Day at UIUC

1998-08-23T00:00:00-07:00

(ed: Title changed from "Day 24-27 No Molly... for that matter nobody" to "First Day at UIUC -5/26/2006)

Thursday I could really tell that I had friends. Adam helped me the whole day with packing. Mike Jorgenson and Marc helped me throughout the day by keeping me company and Katie joined us for dinner. We marveled at how neat it was that we made a very good meal buy ourselves (well actually Marc and Katie made a good meal).

So I ended my traditional life as a Minnesotan resident that night. I barely slept. Tried to catch up on reading and packing. We left at about six in the morning on Friday. The ride was pretty fast. We made a slight mistake that cost us 20 miles or so. We arrived at Allen Hall at 3 PM.

My brother and I with some help quickly loaded my boxes of stuff into my room. We went shopping for a refrigerator and a microwave. Then we ate food at a Steak and Shake. We came to my room and loaded all my new stuff inside. We set up everything as much as we could and then my brother left. It's was disconcerting to part with the one person who was always looking out for your best interests for your entire life.

I went to the orientation night activities. It was there that I met Heather, my neighbor who lives down the hall. She's a cool person who hails from Omaha, Nebraska. I skipped out on the movie and decided to hang out with Heather, and explain to her some things about her computer. I felt very Adamish. I talked her into housing my IBC rootbeer collection for the night as well.

I found some guy who knows as much about computers as I do who was also the network guy for our hall. Luckily he's on my floor. He picked up the cable I needed to connect to the Ethernet. Unfortunately I was too incompetent to get DHCP up until Saturday (Day 26) afternoon. I also met Brian, my neighbor who doesn't like to walk.

I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to sleep on the bottom bunk since my roommate is not yet here. That worked. I woke up and had enough time to get ready before day orientation stuff started but had to skip out on breakfast. I met Stefan Pfister during lunch. Stefan went to my Jr. High and Highschool. We ate lunch and went to a bunch of orientation sessions together. We later met up with Heather and went book shopping. Books are expensive.

Stefan and I went to eat at the Luau but ate inside instead of outside, since the inside has AC. We skipped the rest of it, because weren't into dancing and stuff. We hung out watched south park I saw his room. I later went to my room and attempted to sleep or clean up my room or something.

9 PM rolled along and when I popped downstairs Stefan caught me and asked me if I wanted to see Blade. I ran upstairs and got Brian and we all saw it. The movie was very cool. Oh yeah, sometime that day I gained a roommate.

I had a tremendous sleep-deprived headache which is still persisting. I had trouble sleeping more than a few hours last night as well. I have to talk my roommate into reconfiguring the air flow of this room. I ended up showering and going to the basement where it's cooler and hung out. I later decided hanging out won't cut it. I slept. Some janitor guy pitied me.

I went upstairs and decideded to finish some things. Then I went downstairs for brunch with Brian. We met this girl Mary who has a baton. She's one of those people who fares well solo.

Brian and I made an excursion to Walgreens and some other place to get some stuff we needed. It was hot and annoying outside.

Not much else has happened today. This weekend has been pretty good so far. I like it. I just need a new telephone and a large fan. I should shave my head and put heatsinks on it. It's neat being from anywhere other than Chicago, or for that matter any place not Illinois.

Day 22!!! :( No Molly (Tuesday)

1998-08-18T00:00:00-07:00

Well today my cousin and her family left. Today I had a fun day. Katie, Marc and I and later Daniel watched Freakazoid! We later made some food out of all the things we could find. Then we went to Marc's where I read and they watched British TV. Well I ended up watching some TV. Katie was saddened that it would be the last day that she'll see me for a while. For some reason I can't express the sadness as she does. Perhaps it's because I am reading the Dune series. The time for being sad about leaving is not now. I should enjoy leaving in order to start off on the right foot when I go to college. Perhaps I just adapt in order to survive. I make light of leaving everyone by telling them that I may never see them again (which is improbable) or that the next time I see them will be far from now. For now, I just wonder: What would a McKatie sandwhich be? What would it look like? What would it taste like? Well overall, today was a good day. Tomorrow my mother arrives from India.

Day 13 No Molly (Sunday)

1998-08-10T00:00:00-07:00

It appears that I no longer have my University of Minnesota Email account. This is a small loss.

Well yesterday we went to the Uptown Art Fair. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did in years earlier because it was not only very hot, but I refrained from buying refreshments (or rather having my brother get refreshments). I went with a group of friends: Zach, Adam, Tanya, Jesse, Jesse's cousin, Yishan, Marc, Dan Lavenda and Katie. We were later joined mysteriously by Laureen. I think our problem was that we went as a large group. We split off into a group of 3 and a group of 8. 8 doesn't work. When I went with my brother we were usually 4, maximum. I'm sure if Molly were here we would have gone off on our own. I should make a list of why it's good for me to have Molly around.

Most of us ate at Uptown Express. They can make anything. I had a Gyro. Dan and Laureen got an interesting plate of food from the Cuban Food place. It looked good and I should have opted for it.

AFter that we went to the Improv in the Park at the Lake Harriet Rose Gardens. Most of us got there pretty early (all but Tanya, Marc, Laureen and Adam, because Adam couldn't find his car). Yishan was feeling weak and worn out so everyone but me went in cars to the Lake Harriet Bandshell. While I waited for Adam's car of people I walked around the rose gardens and the surrounding area. The place by the parking lot was pretty. It was a bunch of rocks and some water. It reminded me of this place me and one of my cousins visited in India. They had some neat fountains at the Rose Gardens that were nice too.

Eventually everyone came back and we watched the Improv. All I have to say is that Dr. Doug, my teacher, and this one other girl, seemed to be on a different level than the other people in the troupe. Parts of it were funny though. I think the audience was easily amused.

Dark ominous clouds formed and then started to rain heavily just as the show ended. We ran to a shelter and decided to go to my house and watch a movie. Ryan Hayle, again, showed up at the Rose Gardens very late missing almost everything. The whole lot of us went to my house and we watched a few people play Super Mario brothers and eventually Katie and Dan brought home the Full Monty. I had a headache by then, which seems to be a recurring thing (I think it's my lack of water intake). What I saw of the movie was somewhat amusing. I wouldn't have rented it myself though.

Overall it was a pretty nice day.

Day 11 No Molly

1998-08-07T00:00:00-07:00

Since many of you are going to college soon, you may need to arm yourself with this pieces of scripture:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
-Mathew 6:5-6

This was on the KQ morning show. Some listener was complaining about football players who pray when they make a good play. I think it works well with the god people on campus.

Today I got a card stating that I've been accepted into the University of Illinois' First Year Impact program. Yay?

Actually, now I have a new NIC card and 128MB more memory... hmm that brings me to 192MB of Memory. 64MB was manageable, 128 is comfortable and 192 is luxury for me, but memory was cheap enough for me to go for this.

I broke one of our casarole dishes today. I don't know exactly how it fell, but it did. We have so many, I doubt my mom will notice.

I got a call from my roommate today. He seems really cool. He's bringing a TV/VCR and a play station. I don't require any of these things, but it's nice to know it's there. I guess we're getting a microwave/fridge. This is good... oh yeah, I can drink hot cocoa in the winter now... I can even steal food from the cafeteria!

It's my sister-in-law's birthday today. We took Kelly to Buca to eat. The food was very good. I don't think I'll eat for a while.

No Molly Day 8

1998-08-04T00:00:00-07:00

It's been an entire week. It's frustrating - making a meal for one. I had Macaroni and Cheese from Annie's. It was very very good. To make it, required boiling. Molly's the one who boils stuff.

I went to Best Buy with Marc and looked at a notebook with his friend. She doesn't know much about computers and wanted to get other things as well, like a scanner. After Best Buy, Marc and I went to Paul Loudon's for a bit. Then we went by Katie's, but Katie wasn't there.

The mail came late today. When I got it though, I was very happy. I got a letter from a friend of mine who is canoeing in Canada. I call her Molly (among other things... you know, like "dear" and "loved one" or "chosen companion"). I read it and I was happy. Included was Katie-bait (a letter for Katie). I even have an address where I can send her mail. I intend to write something.

Katie fell for the bait and showed up as Marc and I made pasta and tater tots. Katie checked her email while Marc and I ate and watched the Simpsons. Then the three of us watched Freakazoid!. It is a damn funny cartoon that is forever lost in syndication. It's on the Cartoon Network at 6PM CDT on weekdays.

Montgomery

1998-07-26T00:00:00-07:00

Well Dan Lavenda, Molly, Katie, Zach Wyman and I went to Montgomery which is south of Shakopee. It was pretty fun. We did a lot of walking around. There's not much in that town really. I didn't like the Kolacky's that much. To me they were just dinner rolls with jam inside them. I guess the rest of the group got something out of them that I didn't.

We also went to Northfield and walked around on St. Olaf's campus. That place is very churchish. I'm glad I don't go there. I pulled a Gandhi, because I had only $2. I ate when I got home, but never stopped being hungry. I should probably eat breakfast soon.

Today I organized more of my room. It is now easier to find stuff.

Canoeing

1998-07-18T00:00:00-07:00

The group of kids we have for SEI II are great. They are all smart and in class they are well behaved. The girls get obnoxious during break time. Actually not all the girls. One girl is really cool and lots of people mistake her as a TA (unless they mistake Molly and I as students). She's into nanotechnology, genetics, quantum physics. Very cool kid. We'll certainly miss these kids. Marc's kids aren't that great.

Thursday we went to an orchestra concert at Orchestra Hall. We took my cousin with us too, it was pretty neat. The concert had two good pieces at the beginning. The rest I didn't like because it was all opera-like. Adam, Molly, my cousin and I later went shopping at Rainbow. Molly went home and Adam, my cousin and I had icecream sandwhiches (Kempswich).

I talked to my cousin for a while. I won't see her for at least three years since she'll be in Germany with her family. It's wierd. I think she's looking forward to it.

Friday (yesterday) at the Northrup Turnaround where we pick up our kids there were huge trucks and busses. It was of course Tori Amos and her stuff. We didn't see her, but we did see her stuff. Marc and I asked around the trucks whose stuff was whose and well we were pretty much right. I offered my kids $20 if they could bring Tori Amos to class. They failed, but I don't blame them.

Later that day Molly and I ate with Raj, Kelly and Adam. Then Molly and I went to DanAmy and we went to see the Wedding Singer. The second time around made me "get" everything. Everything made sense now that I remembered it was the eighties that the story takes place. Once again. I recommend this "Romantic Comedy." It is funnier than hell.

Today I woke up at 5, left home at about 6 and went canoeing after Paul Heinecke (and another boat went after Laureen Ojalvo) while they swam 5 miles in Lake Minnetonka. Paul didn't make it all the way. Laureen of course did, she got second place for her age group. I think she rules! Paul almost made it, but for a person who had very little sleep, did a lot of work the day before, and has not swum in supposedly 17 months... wow... that was awesome. I realize that I may enjoy canoeing when there is less weight and people on the boat. Less chance of things going bad I guess. It was nice after I finished canoeing. This was my second time going. I went before with school that was cool too. I think I should go again except with fewer people in the boat (four gets crowded).

Went to Tanya Zhu's house for her Graduation Party. Most of the people were tired from canoeing or swimming or Smashing Pumpkins the night before or a mix. Now I'm tired.

Truman Show

1998-06-06T00:00:00-07:00

The Truman Show is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time. It was very original. There are enough trailers on the site that will allow you to make your own opinion on whether it's worth your time to see the movie.

We (Molly and I) saw this with Tom and Becky. We then split up into two groups. Tom and Becky going elsewhere. Molly and I going to a better place, UNOs. UNOs makes great Pizza. I hope I find a good Pizzeria in Urbana.

Hmm... I'm tired. I will sleep, I have to go to some silly temple graduation thing at the Mandir (ed: updated the URL 5/24/2006). I better update the site sometime.

Memorial Day weekend?

1998-05-24T00:00:00-07:00

Some people died for something. Which means this weekend we catch up on stuff we haven't gotten around to doing.

I was accepted into Unit 1 today! Friday we went to see Godzilla (or Gozira). It was a very good movie if you expect an action movie. After that we went to Tanya's and played Boggle. That night or maybe the next morning I stumbled upon a good game web site.

Saturday Adam came over. I got my hair cut and I thought I looked a lot like my brother (it's all spiked), but no, today my brother cut his hair too and it's really short. Adam and I started moving stuff around my room. If you've ever been in here, I changed the desks around again. It's very spacious in here if you are working on office stuff.

We were midway moving stuff and Molly came over and we went to Hyland Park in Bloomington (based on my directions). We played Tag, it was fun. Yishan had some ailment that caused him to be lying on a picnic table while people poked him with ray guns.

After that Adam and I moved more stuff then went to Arby's with Marc, Mike and Molly. After that Adam and I moved the rest of the stuff and everyone else played Dr. Mario. At midnight everyone left. Adam, Marc and I stayed up until 2 and then we slept woke up around 8. Adam and Marc picked up some pancake stuff and they made pancakes while I finished cleaning my room.

A lot of people went to Taylor Falls. I don't have rock climbing gear and wouldn't feel comfortable going rock climbing with all these people who are probably many times better than I.

I went to a Barbecue with my brother, sister-in-law, Mom2, Mandy and a few other people. The food was good.

Now I will learn how to do some stupid programming project.

UMTYMP Graduation

1998-05-16T00:00:00-07:00

Wednesday we had our UMTYMP graduation. Present were Molly, Tom Borchert, Adam Engelhart, Suzy Reichel, Laureen Ojalvo, Eve Xin, and others. Doug Shaw gave an astounding speech. Suzy also gave a speech which was good. Raj (my brother) and I did not like the food at all. Other people said the food was alright, but I think maybe my brother and I have higher standards for food.

Anyway, I got a lot of help for my fourth CSci assignment in Recitation. Recitation was boring so I emailed Katie (ed: Romportl - 5/24/06) for the last two minutes. There's a link, you can email her too (ed: there is no link, it was removed in a belated attempt to thwart spam - 5/24/06). I'm going to start using her as my personal wailing wall. Except I won't cry. I'll just babble about how I don't want to be in my classroom at the moment.

When I got home, Molly and I started working on invitations for our graduation. Hopefully we'll send them out today or on Monday.

Yesterday, Molly and I went to Minnehaha Falls and rain fell on us (which she enjoys more than I) and then hail fell on us (which neither of us enjoy at all). We ran back to a mini-shelter and then to the car and headed to someplace safe, Arby's. Molly has sided with me and really likes the Roast Chicken and Pesto Panini Grill sandwich. We then left for the play at Hopkins (Pirates of Penzance). I got to talk to the crew and even where a shirt of a crew-member (because mine was sopping wet). Molly returned to the light, and I found Mike Jorgenson and we sat down and then were joined by Adam and a surprise appearance by Jason Waye. The play was very good.

We (Molly and I) went home, were tired, started printing labels for the invites. Then we realized they didn't print what we wanted (well I realized that, Molly was asleep on the couch). Molly left home, and I went to sleep.

Today I worked on my C++ project a little. It's not too bad at all. Tomorrow my dad comes back from India during Simpsons/X-files... I hope his plane gets delayed so I don't miss any of the show.

Calendars

1998-05-12T00:00:00-07:00

Well, I surprised myself again. The Calendar algorithm was very very simple to figure out. It pretty much uses the same type of logic as anybody would if they were to make an HTML calendar by hand. So, I wrote this thing, now I have to do something else... yes, I need to write an interface that lets you add/modify/remove events (do you know how annoying it is to write something like that... oh well).

It'll be nice when the whole web site is finished. I take it nobody has been able to find it's location. It's fairly easy. Tom probably has the best chance of finding out where it is located.

I'll post a time line for the entire site's completion, so you people can have a good idea about what I am doing and when I'm doing it. I'd give it a good month or two... although I'd like it done at the end of the month.

Mike Jorgenson has been in town, Molly and I had lunch with him at UNOs. UNOs makes great Pizza. I tried eating a slice of the leftovers and I was full... I have another half slice to go. Then I remember, you can never eat more than two slices of UNO pizza.

Yishan should be back sometime tonight. I won't eat at UNOs with him, because I can't eat there more than once a month or once every two months.

Day after Prom

1998-05-10T00:00:00-07:00

Prom... well despite it costing a couple hundred dollars, it was worth it. It's just a nice occasion. Here's how mine and Molly's went.

At around 8-8:30 I woke up and took a shower and everything and Jesse had arrived. Jesse and I ate breakfast (Eggos) and then Katie arrived. Jesse and I didn't feel like waiting for Molly so we went to Gingiss to pick up our hideously expensive Tuxedos (which I can hopefully return tomorrow...) then we went to Glenrose Floral in Hopkins to pick up our hideously expensive floral "accoutrements."

We came back to my house and we started making Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie and Pesto Pasta stuff. Our word of the day became "scrod." Hopefully I can get some pictures from Scrod-Prom 98. My mom smelled something burning, opened the oven, and sure enough she had left some miscellaneus kitchen items inside one oven that Katie Pre-heated. Katie was filled with a little too much guilt, even after Molly and I convinced her that it was alright. My mom bought a lot of new kitchen toys that day though, it was very nice of her.

Katie and Jesse left for their respective places-to-be and Molly and I finished cleaning up the kitchen and dishes. Molly and I showered (seperate showers, because we can afford those types of luxuries) and got dressed. This wasn't easy. Molly had a hard time getting her corsage on properly, and I had a hell of a time putting my tuxedo together. We eventually figured it out (with help regarding the boutonniere from my mom). Then we departed for the Grand March at the Lindbergh Center at Hopkins High School.

Waiting in line wasn't too comfortable, but we finally went under the arch, had our picture taken and then we went to where LifeTouch was and had our professional Prom pictures taken. We went back to my house for our homemade dinner.

When Molly and I got back, Katie and Jesse soon followed, and then Molly's parent's and grandmother did too. Several pictures were taken of us outside the house. The dinner for the four of us was very nice. We ate in our formal dining room (which had been a longing of Katie's since the first time she came over to my house). We had the very fancy China and glasses and serving dishes. The whole time I couldn't stop but think of how much more efficient it would have been to eat at a restraunt. But, that wouldn't have been as nice. My mom was kind enough to get a few pictures of us around the dining table, before we ate.

After dinner we did all the dishes and did a decent job of cleaning up after our selves. We took a few pictures of doing dishes. (Who does dishes on Prom night?) Then we took pictures of ourselves at the stairs. It was about nine-thirty when we finally left for the Prom.

The actual prom wasn't that great, just a typical dance at the Marriot Hotel (opus 2). It was very nice seeing a wide spectrum of classmates. It was not just one or two cliques, but most of the Senior (and some of the Junior) class. It was amusing watching Caitlin "skank" to Reel Big Fish.

Molly and I went back to home to change into better shoes and then left for Becky's and that was mildly fun. I left there less tired because I slept through Princess Bride (which I have yet to see). I came back around five am today (when I started this message). I took off the tux and crashed on my couch. Woke up at 8:30 and then again at 11:30. I returned the tux and finished entering this message.

Jesse and I plan on writing a cheapskate's guide to prom (dandelions make nice corsages, etc.). We'll probably do another dinner thing with Katie and Jesse using the Upscale Macaroni and Cheese or Spicy Macaroni and Cheese recipes that I found on the net.