Phase III begins

Phase III:

The current weight goal is 225 by 09/01/2009, and I will re-evaluate once reaching that goal and stabilizing. My current progress is charted below. However, to reach that goal, I must implement a more drastic Phase III effort.

Phase III Exercise Schedule:

My ultimate goal is currently 220, and I will re-evaluate once reaching that goal and stabilizing. However, to reach that goal, I must implement an even more insane Phase III effort. The goal here is to crash the weight by maximizing output and minimizing input. Then, when the goal weight is reached, gradually stabilize intake to match output levels.

Here is the new schedule:

Phase III Eating Rules:

1. No dessert
2. No snacks
3. Alcohol and coffee consumption at a minimum.
   
4. Breakfast: Meal replacement bar.
5. Lunch is not allowed unless lunchtime workout produces severe fatigue. In this case, a minimal lunch meal may be ingested.
6. Dinner must be limited to a minimal portion. Attempt to use the Japanese 30% full rule.
   

My running activity since I started training again in February is plotted above. Another ancillary goal of mine is to run 500 miles this year. This would be the most running since my senior year of college in a calendar year. I am currently at 250 miles and have been running for 5 months. Putting 14 miles up a week should just about get me to the year-end goal. The lapse in activity in the plot is from the ankle injury I sustained in early July. I was able to keep doing elliptical, but had to give up on the running for two weeks. . .

PSA Number 1

TO: MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

SUBJECT: SUMMARY OF REQUIRED ACTIONS TO ENSURE THIS AMERICAN LIFE IS PRESERVED INDEFINITELY

Over the past two years, our country has experienced a great economic downturn that has left many of you unemployed. You have witnessed misguided attempts to prop up companies that caused the downturn, and a re-distribution of wealth so staggering as to make it almost unbelievable. And yet, it continues on a daily basis. People who orchestrated your current problems are making off with your tax money as bonuses. These bonuses are just a little something extra, like a large tip at a restaurant, for them for doing such a bang-up job (literally) to buy another beach house or several imported luxury automobiles.

As if this is not enough to give, you must also give yourself to the people who have more money than you. You must toil day in and day out to get the scraps from their table. And you must do all this without question. Not only you, but your offspring must be raised to believe that they can do anything, never realizing that their destiny is prescribed by the plutocrats that control the whole of society. High society will choose which meaningless labor they will perform until such time as they can no longer line the pockets of their employer's board members.

To make these goals easily achievable, the following actions are hereby considered mandatory:

1. Never think. You are not being paid to think. Do what you are told and everything will be fine.
2. Watch TV. The propaganda machine is built around television. Therefore, watch as much of it as you can.
3. Eat more food. A stable American economy is built on huge waistlines. Make sure you don’t fall behind in the fat race.
4. Choose your poison. Immediately begin participation in a religion of your choice. If this does not appeal to your personality, you may choose to drink heavily. A properly-distracted or numbed mind is essential to the performance of your duties.
5. Vote. The true genius of our system is that there are two parties that are in the pockets of the same people. In reality, it doesn’t matter who you vote for, they are all the same, lazy, good-for-nothing crooks. But as long as you think you have a choice, you will stay in line. Your vote matters!
6. Buy, Buy, Buy! Another cornerstone of our economy is frivolous spending. There’s a new electronic device you need in order to keep up with the times, or a new dress to stay in fashion, or a new car! You wouldn’t want to keep the same car for more than two years, would you? That is treason. And the less gas mileage the better, the oil magnates need your help to feed their buy-an-island-every-year habit.
7. Buy a house. We need to re-inflate the market to unbelievable levels, so mortgage your future to the bank and pay twice the value of the home. Trust us, it is a good investment. . .
8. Live in fear. We spend a lot of time inventing things for you to fear, so be a good citizen and let it consume your life. Fear of terrorists, flu, gangs, natural disasters, anything! An additional benefit to us is the associated stress to you, since you may have a heart attack and not have to collect social security!
9. Join the service. We will pay you a remarkably low sum to risk your life for us. Anyway, what do we have to lose? Which brings us to . . .
10. Die. We don’t care how, or when. But if you could give us upwards of $100k for final care and expenses, it would be greatly appreciated. Please do this as early as possible, for your country.

Bettica Services, LLC

Dave and I have officially started an LLC, coined Bettica Services after the name of our shipduring the test in Italy. For more information, check out my old post on the Italy trial at the old web site.

I've been thinking a lot lately that negative experiences, particularly extremely negative experiences, end up making us who we are and giving us clearer pictures of our goals in life. For instance, I hadn't really thought deeply about what the hell I was still doing in my old job, wasting my life and effort away as a technical test engineer, until I was diving solo underneath the hull of the Bettica while the dry dock was half full. For those of you who don't know, half full would mean that a good deal of the weight holding the 400 foot ship on it's makeshift wooden stands was displaced while I dove into a cramped space directly under an entire warship and all its inhabitants, who were good enough to keep running heavy machinery while I was underneath the ship. Plus, the wind was bad that day, you could feel the drydock moving, and the waves were pretty rough too.

I have to say the act of tying a safety line before filling the drydock and wondering how much time I would have between hearing a crack in one of the supports and the whole shebang squishing me into human nutella to grab the line and attempt an escape. My one saving thought that if the ship came off its rocker and I survived, I would immediately exit the water, run up to the room where the test equipment was stored, and strangle the test lead with my bare hands. But I digress . . .

The fact is, that this experience, piled upon all the bad experiences in Italy and afterwards, ultimately had a very positive effect on my life. Even though it took a year of a hatred-filled haze and months of frustration, it payed off in the end. I got out of killing myself to do technical work that made other people feel good. I got a 10% raise to go to my new job that I enjoy in an environment that actually cares about it's employees.

It also provides perspective, and calibrates you to find out exactly how much you can take and still be standing.

I never considered myself a leader. But after experiencing such bad leadership, I am compelled to jump into every situation and ensure it is being performed to a level of my satisfaction and to my standards. I used to dread picking up the phone, still stuck in my old "highest-scoring introvert" phase. Now I call meetings that involve highly technical, political, social, and economic issues and feel at home doing it on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

The total incompetence of the people at my old job is another motivational tool. When I was still there, I used to believe that being the best in an environment of incompetence was enough. Now, I realize that in order to derive satisfaction from such a place, there has to be a place to go. What good is it being the best if the worthless people surrounding you are paid an identical amount? But if you find a place that actually rewards performance and does not just pay lip service to it, you can stay motivated.

Weakness is another trait of the people I worked with before. The majority of people were merely leeches on society and perfectly happy to be that way. They had lost all point in their work life. They were just riding the check for their whole lives. I can understand how you reach this point, particularly if you have no self esteem and are too weak to stand up for yourself. But how can you live with yourself, just going to work, not having any redeeming qualities, accomplishing nothing day in and day out? Even if you are working hard and producing results, all of the goals of your work were hollow, confused, and utterly pointless. Do you really want to spend most of your life in a concrete building, wasting away to nothing and accomplishing nothing except the excrement you leave in the bathroom?

I'm so glad I got out of there. But in all, my previous work experience was very rewarding in developing my new work mantra. You need to focus your efforts on your goals, and be sure that the goals you are setting are your own. You have to be strong and never hesitate. And you have to have some goal that is worth achieving in your work.

Unless I find and keep these things in my work, I can finally be happy in what I do. And of course, to satisfy my technical, hands-on needs, we have started the an aborist service under Bettica Services, LLC (see habit hobbies below). Yet another outlet to keep the dream alive.

Finally . . . . .