This summer I am playing in a 6-v-6 soccer league run by the Manhattan Parks and Recreation department. We are generously sponsored by della Voce bistro italiano. The team is made up of ex-teammates from my high school team - the Manhattan High School Indians. This includes the likes of Noah Reagan, Oscar Montenegro, Justin Kastner, Steve Howe, Justin Deweese, Brett Robinson, and Jim Launchbach. The team is supplemented by friends to round out a good, but aging team.
We finished the regular season with 3 wins, 1 tie, and 3 losses. At least 2 games we should have won (the tie and one loss). We are starting the tournament tonight and hope to play better in the tourney than we did in the regular season.
I have enjoyed the soccer but the best part is catching up with old friends. It is amazing that Oscar hasn’t lost a step and has turned out to be a hard working banker and family guy. Steve and JK are still in pretty good shape and still quite the players despite the lack of practice. And Jim is as strong and aggressive as ever - a nice thing to have on the back line. And it was fun catching up with Deweese but it sucked that he broke his collar bone in the first game.
Well, I am officially crazy today. Not only did I recently agree to run in a half-marathon (thanks to Ben and Adam for convincing me along with the constant pushing of Jeremy) but I started training for it. I could have easily said I would do it and then back out a few weeks before the race. Instead, I decided that I should start training in hopes of being able to complete the half marathon as well as put myself in position to start training for a full marathon.
Before I start I wanted to get a baseline of some numbers to compare my current health with my health right before and right after the event. So I had Kari do some measurements and take some pictures. Beware, the pictures posted below are not for the faint of heart!
Current weight: 180 lbs
Resting Blood Pressure: 132/79
Resting Heart Rate: 62
Body Fat (estimate): 21.12% (using the U.S. Navy body fat formula) or 18.97% (using the formula developed by the YMCA) (using this calculator and these measurements: 34, 35.5, 40.5, 14.5, 5′10″, 180).
I am going to try and follow this training plan. So I got up early this morning and went for a 3 mile run. I finished slower than I hoped (28 minutes and 46 seconds). But I did finish despite some knee tightness/discomfort as I ran.
I am hoping that by posting this I will be motivated to continue training as well as to run and complete the race. So my craziness started today and will continue until I finish the half marathon. And maybe, just maybe, I will decide to run a full marathon in the spring (of 2009). Feel free to post encouraging words in the comments section - and feel free to keep your unflattering comments about my picture to yourself
If I would have known about this competition as a kid I probably would have spent a lot of time with my trusty ball. Unfortunately, I am old and inflexible now. So I will just have to enjoy watching their amazing abilities.
Update (10:15a 11 July 2008): The DNS information should be propagated by now and most of the bugs worked out. We had some issues with CVS and host name that needed to be fixed. Hopefully those are the last bugs we find for a while.
Update (5:00p 09 July 2008): Looks like the DNS information is harder to change than expected. So the post of this entry was a little premature. Oops!
For the last 2+ years I have been working to upgrade our project management server to use new hardware and new software. And it is finally complete! Today, we finalized the migration from the old project management server to the new one. The new one is running GForge AS 5.4 purchased from the GForge Group. We had several issues getting this done but it looks like the job is complete (some of them mentioned in this post).
I would like to take the time to thank Tim and Marcelo (from the GForge Group) for helping get the migration completed. They certainly worked hard this last week to make sure this happened.
I would like to thank Travis, Cole, and Seth (past and present members of the CIS system admin staff) for working to get this migration completed. They worked on it for quite some time to make this happen. They also suffered my constant pressure to get it done and get it done correctly.
I am particularly excited about a couple of features in the new software: 1) CruiseControl, 2) the Eclipse plugin, and 3) Subversion. I have used CruiseControl for some toy projects in the past and I am really interested in getting it to work for some of my real projects (SpAda and Cadena). And since I use Eclipse as my main work environment, it will be nice to have the ability to interact with GForge from inside of Eclipse. That integration will make it easier to track and fix bugs as well as keep on task. And with the ability to use Subversion, I will finally get a chance to try it out. I have been using CVS for so long that I do checkouts from my fridge to get my midnight snack.
But the best feature is that the CIS department system admin staff will be taking over the admin duties for the box. This means no more late nights or early mornings fighting with the machine. And it means no more customizations to deter script kiddies. And it means no more little changes to the GForge code to make sure it works correctly. Best of all, no more KSUAFRS (a custom download manager that Jesse and I wrote for GForge) - John and Robby decided that feature was no longer necessary.
I am really glad that this task is complete, that it got done without any major issues, and that the admin duties now fall on the department (instead of me).
Today is the day that the project management server is getting migrated. It will soon be running on new hardware (dual Opteron 248, 12G RAM, 80G hard drive) using new software (GForge AS 5.4). I am hoping that in a few hours I will post a completion announcement here.
Wish us luck and say a prayer that Murphy doesn’t visit Nichols Hall today.
I have been doing this on-n-off since then and have generated 4460 grains of rice. I am pretty steady at vocab level 40 (although I have dropped as low as 36) and hope to achieve their highest rank of 60 at some point (fat chance but I like to set lofty goals).
Sorry, I just had to brag a little bit. Besides, it is always fun to promote worthy causes - and feeding the hungry is always a good cause.
I just watched this hilarious video that makes fun of both techies and non-techies. It does have some vulgar language so make sure to not watch it at work or around kids (or around those that will be offended). I was laughing out loud watching this.
It does remind me that techies like me have no business talking to regular people.
I have a cousin who is crazy. Not certifiable or someone you would commit to an institution. But definitely crazy. He is a storm chaser. He enjoys following storms, taking photographs and video, and writing stories about the chase. His name is Jake Wallentine and he is an amazing young man.
He grew up in Wichita, KS - what I consider to be the tornado capital of the world. And I think because of that, he got interested in meterology. He recently completed his first year in college (or what people in Oklahoma call a college) at the University of Oklahoma. He is working towards a degree in Meterology.
And in his free-time he does things like this. I will be living vicariously through him since I am a big storm-nut as well. I just never thought about pursuing it as a career.
It sounds like he will be starting up his own website to help show his pictures and tell his stories. I have had the privilege of assisting him in getting started. So far, I have just provided some advice and feedback but it is still early in the process so I might get to help more. I will be sure to point to it once it is up and running so my friends and family can also share in the fun.
I am almost half way into 2008 and wanted to publicly review the progress I have made on achieving my goals (see this post for the list of all my goals for 2008). Overall, I am not doing very well so it is time to refocus, reevaluate, and recommit.
[Note: Each goal is shown in italics with a description of my progress following.]
I want to publish on this blog regularly. I am hoping that I can consistently post 3-5 items a week. And not just any-ol-garbage; I want to post good, original content.
As I said earlier, I let the goal of posting 3-5 times per week on this blog slide a little. Because of that I need to recommit to this goal. Over the coming weeks I will post more and more until I can get into a routine (aka, habit). Maybe then I can achieve it.
I want to create, update, and maintain the wallentine.com website. This will include the subsites (todd, kari, and virg) and special portions of the site (reunion, anniversaries, etc.).
This goal started well but has sputtered over the last couple of months. I spent a lot of time creating the content for my part of the site (todd.wallentine.com) but I ran into several snags when trying to make the site look good - IE just disagrees with the other browsers on what to do with proper CSS. So this goal needs more focus and energy.
I want to make a real effort to build a personal brand. This will include the wallentine.com website but it will also be reflected on my social networking sites (facebook, linkedin, etc.).
I am making progress on this by using the social networking sites. I have up-to-date content for my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles as well as on FitLink. I have made every effort to build up both networks of friends and connections on Facebook and LinkedIn but haven’t made use of the advanced features yet (applications, job postings, recommendations, etc.). I have also been using FitLink to track my fitness progress. So I am making a good start on this but a complete wallentine.com website would certainly go a long way in achieving this goal.
I want to develop my language skills. To start with, I will learn Spanish.
This goal has been neglected. Before our planned trip to Spain I was spending some time on this (in Oct 2007) but since then it has been ignored. Of all the goals that I set, this is certainly the lowest on the priority list so it will likely continue to get neglected.
I want to develop a sound financial plan and start executing it. This will include both short-term and long-term plans and will likely involve insurance, investments, retirement, and personal savings. It will also include the use of a tracking/planning tool like GnuCash.
I have been spending a great deal of time lately educating myself about financial planning and management. Mostly I have been reading, thinking, and talking with very little time devoted to executing. I still need to set-up Gnucash, enter all of my data, and start keeping track on a daily basis. On the bright side, I was able to read Rich Dad, Poor Dad as well as another related book (The Millionaire Real Estate Mindset: Mastering the Mental Skills to Build Your Fortune in Real Estate by Russ Whitney). And I had already read the 9 Steps to Financial Freedom book by Suze Orman so my education in this area is starting well.
I want to figure out a great career plan. It has been a long time since I have truly thought about what I want to do in my career so it is time to think about it and start the planning.
I have thought a lot about this but not in a formal way. In other words, I need to sit down and consider what I am passionate about and how to turn that into a career. It might help to start writing in my notebook about this to help me track my thoughts.
I want to improve my overall health. This will include regular exercise and eating right. I want to get to the point that these are habits and I actually feel something missing when I don’t exercise or feel gross when I eat wrong. This will include tracking my “body metrics” (blood pressure, heart rate, bmi, body fat percentage, etc.).
My goal of improving my overall health is going really well. As seen here, I have been working hard at the exercise component. And I will say that I do miss working out when I take a day off. For example, I went up to my grandmother’s funeral in Ames, IA. After the long day the only thing I wanted to do was go for a run. I ended up running a couple of miles before going to bed. I am also more in tune with the things that I eat. When I eat badly (e.g., Burger King, Taco Bell, and other fast food), I can feel it. This makes me less likely to eat that junk.
Now, the specific goals:
Read Code Complete by Steve McConnell - Own it but haven’t started reading it yet.
Learn the basics of SPARK and Ada - DONE - I understand the basics
Read Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston - Currently reading it but it is a lot slower read than I expected.
Install GnuCash and get all my information entered
Read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Rip all my CDs onto my music server
Read Conscious Living: Finding Joy in the Real World by Gay Hendricks
Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki - DONE
Finish the rockwall in front of my house
Read Freakanomics - Currently reading it and it is very good (thanks Adam for loaning it to me)
In conclusion, I am making progress but I would have to increase my pace to achieve all of these goals. So I encourage those that read this to post inspirational comments for me that can help me get my butt in gear.
