Personal Life

Apr 5, 2013

Say Goodbye To My Little Friend {4}

Peanut 1 A little over three weeks ago on March 13th, we had to put our dog Peanut to sleep.  She had stopped eating, had a hard time getting around and looked at us like she knew it was her time to go.  She had some non-cancerous tumors but they must have grown pretty rapidly, because one week she seemed fine, and by the next it was really too late to do anything.

If you didn’t know the story, Peanut came to us as a stray.  Keeshonden are not a common breed, and for her to show up on our doorstep was pretty amazing.  She spent a wonderful six years with us and we’ll miss her dearly.

The really weird piece for me is that this is the first time (save for the first couple years of college) that a dog hasn’t owned me.  I grew up with dogs, and even before college was done, I made sure to have another canine companion.  Since college we’ve had as many as four at a time in our home.  And in our current house, we’ve always had a pup roaming the halls.

But now, we don’t.

I still find myself looking down to make sure I don’t step on a dog when turning a corner, or heading to another room.  I’ve teared up when I have no one to give the yolk of my hard boiled egg to.  I still have the urge to open the door to let the dog out before I leave or get home from work.  These things I’ve done forever are no longer applicable.  It feels empty.

My wife was sure I’d have to have another dog immediately, but I think she has the itch even more than I do.  That said, I’m going to wait awhile.  Maybe replace some carpet, and avoid the wet spring.  Then we can look again.  I have no doubt we’ll add another furry family member, but not quite yet.  In the meantime, we have the photos to remember Peanut by, and we’ll give a little extra love to the cat.

I want to thank my wife for taking Peanut in for her final visit to the vet.  I was crushed when I took Shadow in, and I couldn’t get that out of my head.  My wife took the burden off of me and did it herself, and I know it was a really hard thing for her to do as well, no matter how necessary it was.

Have fun running in the wind Peanut, we’ll miss you.

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IBM Connect 2013 Recap – The People

Feb 19, 2013

IBM Connect 2013 Recap – The People {3}

In my last post, I spoke of the IBM Connect show itself, and what it meant from a show and technology perspective for me.  That’s only part of the story.  The real value in Lotusphere for me has always been the people.  The business networking is invaluable, but the enduring friendships are what truly stand out.  These folks have become family over the years and this conference has always been our family reunion.

That’s what I would really miss most if I decided not to come.  Not seeing these friends and colleagues in person would cast a definite sadness over my January.  It’s obvious that other friends feel the same way.  There were at least a half a dozen friends who no longer come to the conference who still traveled to Orlando to be able to hang out and see everyone.  For some, like my good friend Tom Duff, it was a very sad experience to call it his final Lotusphere.

But like Tom referenced in his blog post, Volker nailed it:

“Let me tell you something: life is about people, not about technology. Your friends will be your friends. And you will see them again. And again, and again. Technology changes, friendship lasts. In change, there lies opportunity.”

And I know these friendships will endure.  I can go all over Europe, or Australia, or pretty much anywhere in the US and I know someone I want to visit with, have a beer and a good meal with.  You people are special, no matter what color you are wearing or what code compiler you are using, or how pointy my hair gets.  I’m very happy to call you my friends.

I’ve always thought of us as a very welcoming group too.  You can see it in the yearly Blogger photos growing in size year after year.  We love to welcome new people in, and this year I was more encouraged by seeing some younger talent coming around.

It’s not a lot, and maybe not nearly enough, but I spoke with several people who were new to the IBM technologies in the last few years.  That’s a great thing, and we need to encourage more to do the same.  The only way our species can survive is if we breed more of us. :-)

In addition, I was really touched by a post by a new blogger named Monica Mora   who had always wanted to go to the conference, and this year she made it a reality. It’s a great post on the real power of “social” in our community.  I’d love to hear more of these voices in the future.

Speaking of hearing voices, one of the best things to humanize Lotusphere are the Nerd Girl Spark Ideas talks.  If you want to really get to know the kind, caring, artistic folks of our community, this is a wonderful place to start, and it’s not about our technology choices at all.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the week started with a tragedy to our Lotus family.  A Danish gentlemen named Kenneth Kjærbye passed away after a freak accident during the annual motorcycle ride that many of my friends and a co-worker partake in.  By all accounts, everyone from the police, to the motorcycle shop, to IBM were very supportive and responded warmly and wonderfully given the situation.  I could only offer my condolences, hugs and support to all of my friends who were deeply affected. They carried on with brave faces, but I know how much they were hurting.  Once again, this community came together to help however they could, and I’ve heard from the folks affected how much is was appreciated.  My thoughts are with all of you, and especially Kenneth’s family.

These are the extremes of this family.  We grieve together, and we enjoy life to the fullest together, and celebrate everything in between.  These people, you people reading this, are what makes this conference and our community special. Big virtual hugs to you all until we meet again.

By Category: Blogging, IBM Lotus, Personal Life Tags: , , , , ,

Jan 9, 2013

Planning a Resolute 2013 {0}

‘Tis a little late I know, but it’s time for me to outline my resolutions and plans for 2013.  So without further adieu, here it goes.

Enjoy my family – I want to put this here to remind myself to continue to maintain a really good family/work balance.  This is going to be a busy year for my job, and I want to make sure I can balance work, time with my kids, time with my wife and even time with my buddies in the man cave.  Family is the most important piece, so I want to make sure the other things don’t overshadow them.

Maintain my weight – This past year has been a great one for weight loss, and I could probably use to lose another 10 pounds or so.  That said, I’m not setting my sights that high.  I just want to maintain where I am, and not gain it back like I’ve done so many times before.  So here’s to watching what I eat and drink, and trying to keep things level.

Exercise SOME – Even though I lost a lot of weight this past year, it was primarily due to the fact that I changed my eating habits.  So this year I would like to actually try to exercise some.  Walk during lunchtime more often, use the Gazelle occasionally.  Spend more time doing things like yard work that really do burn calories.

Play more Games – I know this one sounds kind of cheesy, but the fact is that due to work and other obligations I had stopped gaming almost entirely.  I used to be a big time video gamer, and quite frankly I miss it.  Over the holidays my family and I played the Ticket To Ride board game, and I played a lot of Fieldrunners 2 and all five episodes of the Walking Dead game on iOS.  I really enjoyed it all, and want to make sure I carve out some time to get back to escaping with a good game once in awhile.

Learn some stuff – I don’t care if it’s by playing around myself, reading a book, watching a training video, or following a web tutorial, but I want to learn some new things.  Doesn’t matter if it’s about photography, web design, social media, cigars, software or anything else.

Update my personal websites – I haven’t updated my main site in a cringe-worthly length of time, and I’d like to change my blog template design too.  In addition I have a lot of personal nameplate sites and social networks out there, and it would make sense to have that a little more organized and up to date.

So I think that’s about it!  Quite enough to accomplish I imagine.  I still plan on hugging as much as ever, keeping my anger/sarcasm in check a bit, and forgiving more quickly when I do get upset about things.  I have a feeling 2013 will be a very packed, but very good year!

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Dec 31, 2012

2012 Post-Mortem {0}

As is tradition in these here parts, it’s time to reflect on last year’s resolutions.  A couple of them I did pretty well on, a couple, not so much.

Eat slightly less – Exercise slightly more.  This one was a pretty excellent success.  I was in a team based Biggest Loser contest where my team placed second (out of over ten teams) and I lost the most weight based on percentage and won the individual weight loss challenge.

We had a second individual contest over the months leading up to the recent holidays and out of 25 people I finished fourth.

I’ve just concentrated on keeping calorie counts down. I’ve really limited liquid intake to water and coffee (and whiskey of course) and I’ve tried using technology to my advantage with my FitBit and my Withings WiFi scale.

I haven’t exercised nearly as much however, so that will be a bigger focus in the upcoming year.

Watch Less TV. I passed this one with flying colors.  My wife and I watch some shows pretty religiously (The Walking Dead, Fringe, Revolution) but I’ve really cut back, and would like to cut back even more.

Take more photographs. #failedmiserably, unless you count gymnastics meets, then by all means I’ve taken more :-)

Be slower to anger. I did pretty well on this for awhile, but the last couple months have not been good for this resolution. I need to really get back into that mentality.

Be quicker to forgive. Even though I haven’t done as well not to get angry, I do think I carry that anger with me for shorter periods of time. Anger isn’t good for you, and you really do need to try to “let go.”

Hug more. Huge success. I’ve always been a hugger, and I’ve made it a point to be even more so this year, and it’s been wonderful. Hugs do a body good!

So in all, it was a pretty decent year for my resolutions. I think making them a little less specific helped a bit, and I had the wherewithal to actually stick to them. Looking forward to what 2013 brings.

So how about you all, how did your resolutions turn out?

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We live in the future

Nov 20, 2012

We live in the future {0}

A couple of weeks ago I flew to the US west coast for a business trip.  Mid-flight I tweeted the following:

I’m at 38,000 feet, playing Words with Friends, listening to NFL Sunday Countdown and drinking a screwdriver. THE FUTURE, I AM IN YOU!

I had my iPad in hand and was connected to the WiFi in the plane.  I was streaming a football game in the background, checking Twitter and Facebook and playing Words with Friends.  It really struck me how insanely cool that is.

As a kid, I would have never envisioned the internet, tablet computing, online real-time multi-player gaming or streaming audio.  Much less while mid-flight.  Oh and that tablet device houses thousands of songs, dozens of books, comic books, magazines, and several feature films, all in the palm of my hand.

I landed later in San Francisco, then drove to Petaluma, California to watch one of my favorite podcasts record live, This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte.  Think how unusual podcasting is? When I grew up we had a couple local radio stations and you had to listen to what was on, and only what was locally available.  Now anyone can record a show (in high definition nonetheless)  and make it available for download to people the world over.  Folks like Leo can make careers in podcasting and have fans anywhere.

Then driving back to San Francisco, I drove through a mountain tunnel, and then over the Golden Gate Bridge.  What amazing feats of engineering.  Humans continually amaze me, and it’s insane how far technology has come in my lifetime.  I can only imagine how things will be 10, 20, and 30 years from now…

The future, I am in you, and you feel awesome.

By Category: Personal Life, Technology

Google Creeps Me Out

Oct 22, 2012

Google Creeps Me Out {1}

I know it’s because I’m logged in, but it creeps me out when I open the Google homepage and this graphic is waiting for me on my birthday.  Nice touch, yet still very creepy…

 

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Oct 22, 2012

Today, I am the Answer! {13}

Today is another big milestone.  It’s the day I become the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.  Yup, I turn 42 years young.  I do have to say that I feel pretty good about things.  Been losing weight, loving my family, enjoying my job, and trying to focus on keeping things positive in life.

I don’t always do a great job in this regard, and I recently had a couple of fairly pissy weeks.  That said, when I just started tallying all up all the things I should be thankful for, it’s a really long list.  I cannot lose sight on just how lucky I am.

So, I’m grabbing my towel, and here’s to many more of these awesome milestones.

 

By Category: Personal Life Tags: ,

Jul 11, 2012

Twenty-Five Pounds {22}

Our Biggest Loser weight loss challenge at work is exactly two weeks away from our final weigh in.  As of today, two months in, I’ve lost 25 pounds.  Twenty. Five. Pounds.  I know that’s not a lot in comparison to some folks in the world, but man it feels good, and more importantly “I” feel good.

When grabbing 25 pound bag of dog food I can only think, “Holy crap, was I really carrying this much around as part of my body?”  And I was, and when you can visualize it in such a way, it’s brings it pretty clearly into focus.

Now you may think I’ve gone nuts and worked out like a fiend and only eaten sprigs of parsley this whole time, but that could not be farther from the truth.  The only thing I’ve really done so far is to eat less and eat better.  I only really drink water and coffee now for the most part.  And I use the application LoseIt! on my phone to track calories and try to stay under 1600 a day.  I do okay MOST days, but not all.  And if you look at my flickr or Foodspotting streams, you’ll see I’ve eaten some really good food these past two months.

The point I’m trying to make is, I didn’t make a whole lot of changes in order to lose these 25 pounds.  If I can do it, you can too.  Watch what you eat and eat a little less and that goes a long way.

Now early on I was walking a mile at lunch, and I bought a FitBit Ultra to track my steps.  FitBit wants you to hit 10,000 steps a day.  On a typical day I’ve been hitting 3,000.  Yes, ONLY 3,000 and I’ve still shed the pounds.  I really have not exercised much, it at all.

For the next two weeks (the homestretch of this challenge) I’m going to exercise by walking, using our Gazelle at home, water walking in the pool and limiting the calories even more.  I’m going to go nuts for these two weeks and see what happens.  Each member of the winning team gets $250 bucks, and that my friends, can buy a lot of sprigs of parsley.

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Jul 5, 2012

The Power of Music {0}

Last weekend, my family and I went to a little wine bar in town. It was open mic night, and a couple of my daughter’s friends were going to perform. We went and watched as the girls each performed, and then continued to hang out to see several different sets of people take the stage and do their own thing.

Some of the people did original songs, some did covers, there were even some really good instrumental guitar from a couple of the guests. The music ranged from pop, to punk, to flamenco, to classic rock, but the cool thing was that everyone was supportive, and really had a good time listening to all of the different types of music.

My eldest daughter has been taking guitar lessons for around the last six months. She has never wanted to play AND sing before. But after hanging out and seeing the live music, she immediately started learning some songs at home and singing along. It inspired her to want to perform. It helped her get past that feeling that she couldn’t do it. She was excited about the music, and excited to practice and get better.

My youngest has been teaching herself to play some piano (with a little help from my wife) and has also been taking some voice lessons. Well she immediately asked the wife to get her sheet music to “Lean On Me” so she could learn to play it and sing along as well. Seems she really liked what she saw too.

Hell, even I got the itch to perform again. A couple of the other Dad’s play guitar, so I might try to con them into playing something I could sing along to. Watching everyone perform really made me want to be creative again. I’ve started looking at old song lyrics and poetry, and wondering what I could do with it nowadays. That joy and adrenaline rush you can get from performing is like no other, and who knows, maybe I’ll experience it again soon.

No matter what though, I’m really thankful to have a great local venue that is welcoming to musicians. Good live music is something that inspires everyone, and it’s so cool to have something like that in my hometown. It makes me want to be creative again, and that includes coming back here to write. Let’s hope it becomes a trend.

By Category: Music, Personal Life Tags: ,

May 4, 2012

Weapons of Mass Reduction {6}

Earlier this week, my office at work embarked on a Biggest Loser weight loss challenge. I had planned on attempting to lose weight soon, so this was the perfect thing to jump start me. Myself and three of my colleagues formed a team, and we weighed in this past Wednesday. We are up against seven other teams of four people each. So with the competition so rough, we trained… by eating total crap.

For the week leading up to the weigh in, I ate all the nasty stuff I wanted as a last hurrah.

  • Pizza
  • Chili
  • Chili Dogs
  • Burgers
  • Burgers stuffed with OTHER meat
  • Gyros
  • French Fries
  • Garlic Butter French Fries
  • TONS of sushi (went for some of the deep fried rolls)
  • Meatloaf
  • Sausage Egg and Cheese McGriddles
  • Candy bars
  • Regular full-calorie Coke products

It was a great run, but quite frankly by weigh in, I was actually feeling ill from eating so unhealthy. So it was time.

As always with my attempts at weight loss, I need technology in order to help this geek out. So, I bought a FitBit Ultra and started tracking my food intake on Lose It! I’ll write more on that at a later date, but I really like the combo so far. We’ll see how it holds up.

So wish me luck. I’m off to an awesome start. I’ve already lost six pounds :-)

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