A freaking 5.6 earthquake and the news has been going on for an hour.

Give it up! Nobody got hurt, nothing broke.

A 5.6 isn't even a big deal. At least not to someone who has been in a 7+.

After the boom, I was screwed. I had worked full time as a sysadmin for about 18 months. No one would even interview me as a sysadmin because I looked junior, even though I had been doing sysadmin with each job for over 20 years. Because I had not written code for 18 months, no one would interview me as a software engineer.

I took my first job after 7 months of unemployment at Zone Labs. I became a perl programmer. I've been writing perl almost full time since 2002.

Webroot put the C++ carrot in front of my face. I even did the unspeakable. I canceled an interview where I would have been programming perl again to take this job. Unspeakable, because any schmuck should know, that if you can sit on 2 offers, you might get a bit more out of the company you end up working for. But then again I'm not just any schmuck. :D

But the main point is that someone I know trusted me enough to give me this job to write C++ code. After 3 months of some very Microsoft specific projects, I am finally writing code in a more real language, C++.

So I am working my butt off relearning stuff I have not done in 10 years. Even though compared to C, C++ has a lot of overhead, I am happy.

In about 3 years, my next trick will be to convince another company that I've been doing work that is not really tied to the Microsoft environment so I can get a job in a Mac or Linux shop.

OK, the Moleskine PDA is only semi successful.
I carry a cahier notebook in my back pocket at all times. So running projects and small todos' to clear my head are written down here.

Where this does work is to follow the basics using the post-it tages on a standard notpad to track my tasks for the week at work. I have a red one for the page that starts the week. I use a tellow one to follow other pages as i move through the week.

This makes it easier to summarize what I got done in a weekly status report.

So far the moleskine notepad is not useful. basically except for work, I don't have project that run long. Things seems to get done in a week or two. With few exceptions, I always get most personal things done within a week or two. OK, putting Paul's routers on ebay has been on the sidelines for months. I do screw up.

Appointments are in my google calendar or my phone. Addresses are in a tiddlywiki that I store in email.

Overall I try not to keep that busy a personal life.

Had a thought. Duh..........

There is a site I hit when ever I setup cygin sshd. I emailed the guy an update he needed to add for vista installation. OK, yes, after using vista for the first time, It does suck. What do we do when important sites go away because of retirement or other issues.

Is there always a guarantee someone else will fill the void? For the most part if something has been in print, you can locate and probably get access to that publication

With web sites, the bill stops being paid and the resource is lost forever.

Can you imagine, in 30-40 years when I'm dead, this post won't be available for the world to read. That one person will be sad. :D

I have finished reading a book on Glycemic Index(GI) and Glycemic Load(GL). I am a bit confused. According to both book I should be eating more fruit. I have alway thought of fruit and high sugar. And truthfully, fruit does satisfy my hunger. It never has.

But the GL book does talk about having fruit with meals more than on their own. I've actually been doing this. At lunch on the days the catering company provides food there is always fruit salad. Fresh fruit, not canned stuff. But even dried fruit is allowed. But the portion is tiny.

I do need to find more veggies to eat. I eat broccoli or cauliflower most days. This will get old. Although I have something I do to portobello mushrooms that I think are killer.

I am not a fan of the squash. If I can learn to cook then right I like beets. I only like carrots a few ways. First is decimated in a soup or stew. Second drowning in ranch dressing. Third is my friend Paul's glazed carrots. Of course there is carrot cake. At my favorite Indian Restaurant, "Bombay Garden" has this killer carrot dessert. Do any of these seem healthy and low GL? N O P E :D


My portabello recipe:
Buy the large crimini or baby portabello. Same thing. 2-3 inches in diameter if you can. Brush with olive oil. Then sprinkle salt and pepper. turn them on their back and make sure the "gills" are exposed. If not run your finger through the flesh. Pour a tiny bit more olive oil into the gills. Then pour some good Balsamic vinegar into the gills. Now ether bake or grill the mushrooms without turning them over. The balsamic will reduce inside the mushroom. I hope this is really low GL :D

I've been dealing with Diabetes for about a month now. Some thing s are going well. My blood sugar is almost always 125 or lower. I lost 22 pounds so I am 299 and stable. My blood pressure is back down to 124/81. It was 145/92. The ophthalmologist says I am great and should see a optometrist. I even went to the gym 5 days last week.

The problems are the supplied lunches at work and getting access to a Registered Dietitian.

When I joined, I though it was great. I got a $2500 raise in the form of company supplied lunch. The problem is that 1-2 days a week there is lunch I cannot eat. Pasta and Pizza days are ones I have to eat out. Also Indian food day is bad. Blood sugar was 138 90 minutes after lunch.

How is it that the Hindus get vegetarian every day. I have a medical issue, and food is not supplied 1-2 days a week. Some how that is freaking wrong. Religious beliefs over medical issues. Last I heard, religion is a choice. This from an agnostic.

Finding a Registered Dietitian is impossible. My insurance company does not have any on plan. The local Diabetes Society has one for $175 per visit. Are they kidding? $175 per visit for someone with a bachelors or masters degree and a certification? I need to keep looking or change careers.

Now I need to change my diet and exercise to get the next 10 pounds off. By Thanksgiving I want to be in the high 280s. By the time I visit my folks at the end of December I want to be about 280.

Last week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I did 20 minutes on the elliptical. On Tuesday and Thursday I did weights. This week I want to up the aerobics to 30 minutes and do 10 minutes on the weight days.

I am going to try and cut down on my portion sizes a bit. I am not specifically counting calories. I have not eaten until I was stuffed for over a month now. So hopefully I can eat a little less and not feel like I am missing something.

The largest battle I face will be at the 270lb mark. Both when I was seeing a personal trainer for a year back in 2001 and in 2004 when I tried Atkins, 270lb was a plateau. I might have to be prepared to just maintain that for a month or 2 and then make a plan of attack to get past that point. My goal is 230lbs.

I think that at 230 my body fat will be about 20%. When I get to that point I'll pay to have myself dunked in a tank for a proper body fat measurement. I hope to be at 230lbs by next October at the latest.