I left my first bit of blood on the mountain today.
Flew right over the handlebars
I definitely remember it being in slow-motion. I could feel my back tire lifting off the ground, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to regain my balance. In my head, my goal was to perform a perfect swan-dive into a tuck-and-roll while my bike flew over me gracefully. Instead, my knee took most of the impact while my bike landed on top of me as I slid down the mountain a little ways.
Fun times.
This weekend was spent on a nice, short trip home to see family that I haven’t seen in years. Reunions aren’t really my thing, but it was relaxing to spend an entire day at a lake in the mountains. Between barbequeing, not catching any fish, drinking with relatives, and playing guitar in the rain, I have to say that it was a success. It’s so strange any time I go back home, but this time I got to meet a ton of new people, and the definite lack of stress that comes with fishing in the mountains was welcomed with open arms.
The weirdest part about this weekend was seeing everyone grown up. It’s amazing how much 2-5 years can change people - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. It also forced me to take an introspective look at myself and how much I’ve changed over the years. I won’t go into any details, but it was probably the first time I’ve dug that deep into myself without sinking into a slump. Turning myself inside out was never this painless, and it was never this rewarding. I didn’t think my perspective could get much fresher, but it did, and it was a pretty amazing experience.
Also, I saw The Dark Knight twice, and am planning on seeing it again - hopefully in IMAX. That movie has restored my faith in a lot of ways, and it will remain in my mind for a long time as one of the first great things I have experienced here in California. The first of many. Right along with watching the sun set behind the ocean. Right along with conquering my first mountain on a bike.
For now, I just need to work on taking things one step at a time.
Imagine one of the hardest activities you could possibly push yourself to do. Now, imagine that you’re having the time of your life while you’re doing it.
For the past two weeks on Friday, my company’s CEO has been inviting all the employees to a mountain biking ride on these trails around his house. The Huckabee Mansion, we call it. Anyway, I’ve gone on both of these biking adventures, and so far I have yet to be disappointed. I have to admit that it has been extraordinarily difficult, but at the same time, when I find myself at the top of this beautiful hill overlooking green valleys and the pacific ocean in the distance, I can’t help but feel like I’ve made it.
I’ve made it.
Allow me to explain. There are two distinct and extremely bi-polar aspects of mountain biking. The first is the hill climb - the hardest part. You’ve got to use every muscle in your lower half to push yourself up this steep incline while trying to keep your balance (which is extremely difficult at a very low speed). You find yourself at a point where you’re spinning your pedals furiously, only to find that you’re creeping ever-so-slightly up this hill. The end never seems to get any closer.
Now, I’ll admit that during both of these outings, I’ve reached a point in my climb where I’ve given up. My legs simply cannot push me any further and I am forced to dismount my bike and walk it up the remainder of the hill. I remember these moments not as failures but as learning opportunities. I know there’s been plenty of times in my short career as a developer where I’ve reached a point when it seems like I can’t go any further. I mean, I didn’t have the strength to make it up this hill, so why try going over the next?
The truth is that with every hill you don’t make it up, there will be a time when you can try again.
The second aspect of mountain biking is an extreme polar opposite to the first - the downhill cruise. This requires no physical effort from the biker other than quick thinking and fast reflexes. Don’t get me wrong, there seems to be some strategy to this, but I haven’t seemed to figure it out quite yet. Honestly though, I can’t come up with anything to compare this experience to. Your adrenaline is pumping, you’re exhausted from exerting yourself to your full potential to get to the summit, and now you’re trying your hardest not to offset your balance or lose control. Of course, this would most likely mean that you would fly over your handlebars and roll down a steep decline lined with rocks and brush.
In my opinion, this is the best part. However, I can’t help but hang on to the brakes for dear life and take the fall slowly. Hopefully that means I won’t lose control, smash into a rock, and die. However, I like to imagine letting go of the brakes one of these times and riding out the decline straight to the bottom, without a scratch on me.
I can only hope to be so lucky.
Well, the new blog is up and running, and I think I have the layout at a place that I like at the moment. I really like playing around with CSS, but for some reason I always forget what time it is while I’m doing so. For example, Saturday night I got to a good stopping place and figured, “Alright, I think I’ll head to bed now… it’s probably around 1 or 2 in the morning.” Nope, I was wrong. It was 4am. Things like this happen when I get intensely focused - I lose myself in trying to accomplish a task and forget everything else.
Anyway, WordPress is all set up and I added a little RSS button in the top-right corner of the page. I’m hoping that maybe this attempt at blogging won’t be a miserable failure like my past attempts. Maybe people will actually read this time.
Now that I’m done with school and working, I can see how some people start aching for a side project to jump on. During school, it was always really hard for me to focus on getting my homework done and do work for a side project. Now, I’m finding little projects to do like upgrading the Media PC to Vista, swapping out hard drives, and installing themes and applications on my brand new phone. Oh, that’s right. I got a new phone and I love it! It’s an HTC Mogul and it is awesome. I also got on the Sprint SERO plan (1200 minutes, unlimited messaging, and unlimited data) right before it died, so that made me extremely happy. Only 50 bucks a month! Whoo!
Uh oh… time to go to the gym. Today’s my last day with my Personal Trainer unless I buy more sessions, which I won’t be able to do for a little while, so hopefully he can show me the workouts I need to do until I’m able to afford some new sessions. My goal is 20 pounds in 10 weeks. Let’s see how that goes.
I thought I had been doing alright for a little bit in terms of my weight. Around this time last year, I lost about 25 pounds and I was feeling good. I was working out a bit, not a lot, but enough so that I was actually feeling active and good about myself. Then, of course, winter came around and I gained a bit of it back. After Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my trip to Austin in January, I wasn’t doing too well keeping up with my weight.
So once again, I tried going back to working out a bit and just watching what I ate. This time, I was able to lose a bit and maintain it for a while, but eventually my laziness caught up with me. In the past 2 months I’ve gained most of it back and I’m almost back to where I was a year ago (before the weight loss). I blame it on senioritis and the stress of finding a new job and moving.
I figured, enough is enough. I’m out here in California now with a new job and I realized that now is as good a time as any to get back in shape. So, I joined a gym and I got a few sessions with a personal trainer to get a workout plan and a diet going. Yesterday was my first day with the PT but I have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow after work. Hopefully it goes well, and I can keep this up. I’m feeling pretty tired right now, which is definitely a good thing since I can actually start going to bed a bit earlier than normal.
Also, I bought the domain http://www.robotsdontsleep.net today, so I’ll probably be migrating there very soon. No one really reads this anyway, so I’m thinking that I will just migrate entries over there and then sort of start fresh with actual readers. Sound like a plan? Great.
Well, I’m officially DONE with school. I now have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and I am so relieved that it’s over. I know it’s been awhile since I posted last, but I’m probably going to be moving to a new blog soon. I’ll get WordPress set up and finally buy a domain. I’m thinking probably www.robotsdontsleep.net or … does anyone have any other suggestions?
Also, I have been living in California now for about a week. I just started my new job on Monday and I couldn’t be more excited. I am doing some awesome work and I’m convinced that this is pretty much my dream job. Everything is just going perfect. If only I could get back into shape… Grr… I joined a gym today and I signed up for 3 personal trainer appointments. Hopefully if I’m paying for this damn membership I can get my ass to the gym every day. I really want to go to the beach. I’ve also been watching a ton of Arrested Development lately. God I love that show.
Wayne Jarvis: I spoke with GOB. He appears to know nothing.
Michael Bluth: Yeah, that’s not an act. He’s twice tried to microwave a Ding Dong while it was still in its foil… twice.
Wayne Jarvis: Twice?
Michael: Two times.
Lastly, I just wanted everyone to check out the new neude.net/. It has an entirely new format and I think it’s actually going to succeed. Before, it had kind of reached a niche among Neumont students/alumni/potential students, but I think with this new format it will have a much broader variety of readers. I’m probably going to be contributing to it soon, so check it out. Subscribe to its rss feed if you want.
As always, this is where I promise I am going to write more often. I’m hoping this time I keep that promise.