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2012-366 Day 125 – Failure

Today (technically yesterday) was slammed, with teaching in the morning, the annual psychology faculty/staff/student softball game in the afternoon (I’ll have to talk about that some other time), and dinner and hangout with our friends and their kids at night. All that made the blog finally slip both Jess and my minds and now it’s one a.m. and I realize that I didn’t update the blog. I’ll keep on updating, but am a little sad that I missed it by an hour. As long as I update for the rest of year relatively on time, I’ll still count this as a success. I have my karate test tomorrow, so I’m going to leave it at this for now.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 138 miles (+3 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 20 (45653 points, 5697 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

Posted in Matt 2012-366, Matt General. Tagged with .

By Matt
May 5, 2012

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2012-366 Day 124 – Summer Break

I can’t tell you how excited I am that we’re only three weeks away from the semester ending, both for my regular job and my teaching job. I’m excited for my regular job because it means campus congestion goes WAY down making walking around, parking, and finding peace and quiet just so much easier. We’re nothing without the students, obviously, but it is kind of special when they’re not around. Admissions and Records needs to be available year round, so we stay open and busy, but foot traffic does go down.

As for the teaching job, it gets to the end of the semester and I start to realize what a toll adding the extra time does to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the job and am grateful for the opportunity, but a semester of compressed lunch breaks, preparing materials, and getting everything done on top of a regular job and all the extracurricular activities wears you down. The approximately month long winter break helps with some refreshment, but the summer break really helps me get the rest for the next academic year.

You might be able to tell that today’s post came out of a place of fatigue, but it’s a good kind of fatigue to have. Here’s to the home stretch!

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 135 miles
Fitocracy Level: 20 (45653 points, 5697 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
May 3, 2012

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2012-366 Day 123 – 2012-366ers II

As I mentioned yesterday, we hit the 1/3 mark with Day 122 and it’s been pretty much 50 days since I did my first survey of fellow 2012-366ers, so I thought we would check in. Only updating on those that were current up through last time, although I’ll take a peek and see if anyone restarted as well.

Angela H’s Leap Year 2012 – 366 Review Challenge on Yelp
Link: http://www.yelp.com/list/leap-year-2012-366-review-challenge-doraville-2
Status: Current through yesterday
Comments: Still going strong. I also appreciate the fact that she’s not just handing out 5 star reviews or just a sentence for each, but actually putting the work into them.

Helen Trams 366 0f 2012
Link: http://tramhelen366.tumblr.com/
Status: R.I.P. 4/13/2012
Comments: I guess keeping up with three blogs at once proved too much from Miss Tram. I have to imagine detailing that much high school drama was exhausting, let alone living through it. I’ll have to look and see if there’s another blog like mine still going out there, as this was the closest thing I had found before.

366 Days of Photos by Clare
Link: http://365daysofphotosbyclare.wordpress.com/
Status: Current through today
Comments: I still love the layout of this blog, and the pictures are generally well done. I have to imagine this one will go the distance.

2012 – 366 Games in 366 Days
Link: http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/97831/2012-366-games-in-366-days
Status: Behind schedule
Comments: He had played 53 games in 74 days (71.6%) last time I checked and has been playing at a bit of an uptick since, now at 94 games in 123 days (76.4%). He has no small amount of work to do to get on schedule, but it’s still a very cool idea and I really enjoy checking in and reading the short game descriptions.

Venomator’s 366 Project – 2012
Link: http://www.mobitog.com/threads/venomators-366-project-2012.3676/
Status: Current through yesterday
Comments: This one’s a bit harder to track as all the updates are occurring in a single message thread on a bulletin board, but all appears to be well. There is a pretty cool month in review graphic he’s able to make out of a calendar to show the shots from each day. Did have a recent complaint of running out of ideas, hopefully he pushes through it.

2012: 366 Day Challenge on Yelp
Link: http://www.yelp.ca/list/2012-366-day-challenge-ottawa-2
Status: Current through today
Comments: If you’re in Canada, this is still the Yelper for you if you want daily reviews.

366 Page Comic Challenge
Link: http://www.todorrobot.com/category/366-page-comic-challenge-2/
Status: Last Updated 4/25/12
Comments: More updates since I last was there, very consistent although missing a few days. Hasn’t updated in a week though. Will check back in next time, hope it’s back in action again!

I did find a couple new photo blog daily challenges while looking for other projects (One of my entries is on page 6 of the Google search results for “2012-366”):

2012 366 Project
Link: http://www.parmmasuta.com/category/2012-366-project/
Status: Current through yesterday
Comments: This one is easy to follow since all the entries are the dates, but then you have to click them to see the actual photograph. A small note accompanies each picture.

Hungry Girl por Vida
Link: http://www.hungrygirlporvida.com/blog/tag/366/
Status: Last updated 4/23/12
Comments: Will give this one a bit of a pass due to the fact that it has a unique set up, they have daily pictures but are posted weekly, so each weeks post has seven pictures in it. Last week’s pictures are so far unaccounted for, but we’ll check back in on them next time just to see. If you can’t tell from their blog title, these pictures are all food based.

It’s good to see that so many people have remained dedicated to their challenges, I think we’ll check back again next either around the 50 or 66% mark, depending on how badly I’m reaching for topics at that point. Apparently, however, it’s much easier to do this kind of project with pictures, judging by the preponderance of those kinds of sites, I’ll keep that in mind for next year.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 135 miles
Fitocracy Level: 19 (44886 points, 464 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
May 2, 2012

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2012-366 Day 122 – Resolution Update and Special Announcement

And now we’re already to May. Wow. How we doing on the old resolutions? Pretty well, I must say. This also happens to be the exact 1/3 point of the year (366/3 is 122, right?), so consider this the monthly and 33% checkup.

1) One blog post (long or short) every day this year. – On track.

2) Lose 20 pounds. – With Ragnar and some longer runs at the end of the month, I seem to have cracked the plateau I was at and started to lose again. Down 11 pounds now and looking forward to putting 230 permanently behind me. On track.

3) Run 600 miles. – Again, Ragnar and some long runs helped out a lot in this category as well. Jumping nearly 20 miles in two days will help solve the catch up problem. Still lagging though, I should be at 200 miles right now, but relying on half marathon training to catch up. Speaking of marathons, check out the bottom for a special announcement. Behind. 135/600 = 22.5%

4) Complete 5th Gup Green belt test by end of year. – Blue Belt (8th Gup) test is this Saturday. On track.

5) Complete first novel. – Had a few more good ideas this month, but have yet to actively start working on it. Behind.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: A couple of you have heard this already, but thought I should tell everyone. I have, of course, succeeded in winning a lottery that will cost me money. What lottery is that, you ask? Well entry to the New York Marathon is open to the general public via a lottery system. They estimate about a 9% chance of making it in via the lottery. I thought I would like to run it at least once, and figured with such low odds I should start now and I may get in by the time I’m 40. Well, victory is mine, I suppose. Since I already have two half marathons scheduled for the end of the year (New York is on November 4th), we are discussing rolling it over to next year (I can roll it over twice). Either way, we will be making our first trip to New York in the next two years, so if you have any tips, tricks, or connections I would love to hear them.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 135 miles
Fitocracy Level: 19 (44886 points, 464 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
May 1, 2012

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2012-366 Day 121 – The Raven

Jess and I went on a double date yesterday with our friends Cathy and Keith (huh, I’ve never really used the term double date before, it’s a little weird), and we decided to go see The Raven, a fictionalized story about the last days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life and a serial killer bringing his works to life. Jess is actually a pretty big Poe fan, so she had been looking forward to the movie since it was announced. I, on the other hand, could take or leave Poe, but was looking forward to see what they would do with the material.

First things first, we both agreed that John Cusack made a pretty good Poe. I will let Jess enlighten you with her take of the movie (ha, challenge thrown!), although she did tell me this morning that it was growing on her the further away from it she got. I found it to be a slightly above average suspense movie, and I found the Poe references to be a bit lacking. Outside of the abundance of Ravens in the movie (something like twenty, I get it already), it really did seem to be about 20 minutes between isolated Poe story references (rather than being the undercurrent throughout the story). I was in the right ballpark as to the culprit, although for the wrong motive (although the motive did seem to come out of nowhere). We were all jarred by the end credit sequence, which Cathy correctly identified as something out of a 007 movie and was completely out of place. I felt like they made the end credits first when it was a different movie but didn’t have the budget to redo it after they went in a different direction. Just my theory though.

In all, I’d say that if you have an interest in Poe, you could go see it. It is a bit gory at times, although I thought it could have been a lot worse. Definitely not a kid’s movie though. The more you know about Edgar, the more enjoyment you’ll get, although it does kind of plateau after a bit.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 135 miles (+5 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 19 (44670 points, 680 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
April 30, 2012

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2012-366 Day 120 – Weekend Wrap Up III

So once again a major weekend event (Ragnar) wiped out the Wrap Up last week, so we’ll catch up a bit.

Sunday (4/15) – Soccer Game 6: Today is my first Sunday after soccer ended, and I kind of miss it. Good timing, however, as May is jam packed and June begins Rocky Peak’s volleyball season.

Monday (4/16) – Chipotle: Actually had Chipotle for lunch on back to back days this week.

Tuesday (4/17) – Fun with Excel: My pupil sent me their results, and it was good.

Wednesday (4/18) – Ragnar Relay: If you’ve been reading the blog, you’ve probably heard quite enough of this . . .

Thursday (4/19) – Ragnar Checklist: this . . .

Friday (4/20) – Ragnar Day 1: this . . .

Saturday (4/21) – Ragnar Day 2: and this, so we’ll give it the San Diego Vacation treatment in the Wrap Up.

Sunday (4/22) – Soccer Game 7: In an interesting turn of events, I went back to look at the standings page and we’ve been awarded the tie for the last game. Had we gotten the win, however, we might actually have made the playoffs, as the fourth place team is playing the first place team this week (we’re in fifth) and only has three wins (we wound up with two). We beat the fourth place team in the regular season, so we would have won the tie breaker. Oh well.

Monday (4/23) – Recovery: I had a nice day of rest yesterday, so I’m feeling pretty good going into the crazy month of May.

Tuesday (4/24) – The Board: The board will be rebooted on Tuesday. You may or may not hear from it again. Depends how desperate I get for content.

Wednesday (4/25) – Resume Advice: One of the projects I give my students has them update their resume and turn it in. I just got those turned in, so I may have some more advice depending on the results of that assignment.

Thursday (4/26) – Aggression: Nothing much to add to this one, things have leveled out.

Friday (4/27) – Fulfillment: It’s amazing what fulfillment and rest will do for you, I’m feeling pretty good right now.

Saturday (4/28) – Workout Music: Jess weighed in, still plenty of time for you to.

Weight: 231 Loss: 9 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 130 miles
Fitocracy Level: 19 (43684 points, 1666 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
April 29, 2012

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2012-366 Day 119 – Workout Music

Wow, today was the first day that it didn’t even occur to me that I had to write a blog post, I was that checked out. Jess reminded me a couple minutes ago (11:15) and now I’m up against the clock. Since soccer is over and I should have a little bit of time tomorrow, the Weekend Wrap Up will wait until then. For now, however, a topic that occurred to me due to the fact that I played the same song four times consecutively while finishing up my 11 mile run in Ragnar. What song was that? Well, due to the magic of youtube, I can share:

It just has a fantastic beat to it and really gets me into the mood and rhythm while running. While the Nike+ software on the iPod I use running has a powersong setting that lets you set a song to play during the hard parts, I constantly forget to set it and was very fortunate the song came on the random shuffle when it did. (Okay, I did kind of help it along by skipping a bunch of stuff earlier in the run.)

Is it bad that I select my workout music mostly for the beat and response I have to it and not for the lyrical content? I couldn’t tell you what half my workout songs are about, but some come from groups that you probably would associate with me (Linkin Park, Eminem, Black Sabbath, etc). Granted, there are some workout songs that you would totally expect from me (pretty much anything from TobyMac, “Move” by MercyMe). I do have a new favorite that I just acquired but haven’t put onto the iPod yet which will probably be my goto song in the future:

This is an edited version, where the one f-bomb has been removed (the lyric is “Who the f— wants to die alone?” so I certainly can’t fault them for the sentiment). When possible I do try to get the clean versions if the song has a lot of swearing in it (I actually find it mildly amusing that some of the Eminem tracks I have sound like lyrical swiss cheese), though if there is one or two in there I tend to ignore them.

I’m curious as to other people’s workout music, both songs and theory. You can probably tell from my two examples that I like a strong drum beat and a pretty up tempo song. If you feel like it, drop a line in the comments with your picks/thoughts.

Weight: 231 Loss: 9 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 130 miles (+3 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 19 (43684 points, 1666 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
April 28, 2012

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2012-366 Day 118 – Fulfillment

Huh, things are getting a little touchy-feely around here. Have to talk about monster trucks or something tomorrow to make up for it, I guess, but for now I seem to be stuck here. I got a bit of an extra charge out of teaching today, one which was unexpected and wholly welcome.

We started the class with databases, following up on the spreadsheet talk from the previous class since they are related. After the break I intended to do a fly by of two chapters but forgot that the first chapter was on computer security related issues, and I LOVE computer security related issues. The entire class is full of topics that I’m extremely familiar with, but computer security was my undergraduate concentration, and being just that much more familiar with it while being able to communicate it to people who don’t have much of a basis in it is really gratifying. To put it in baseball terms (why not?), I can hit any of the pitches thrown at me for any of the other topics, but I absolutely crush anything computer security related.

I also got to debut a line Jess told me from one of her co-workers. “Passwords are like underwear: They should never be seen, you should change them often, and never share them.” That one went over very well.

I wound up taking up most of the remaining time with security issues, so those students should never get hacked, fall for a scam, get phished, or even so much as contract a virus on their machines. Watching various realizations dawn on their faces as I covered the various topics truly was very fulfilling.

Weight: 231 Loss: 9 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 127 miles
Fitocracy Level: 19 (43365 points, 1985 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
April 27, 2012

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2012-366 Day 117 – Aggression

The weather today is very reflective of my mood, that is to say I feel aggressive, cool, and tinged with a bit of darkness. I’m not entirely certain of the cause of this feeling, though I do know I am grateful that I have Karate tonight to work some of it out.

I get this way occasionally, possessed by some sort of energy that sets me a bit on edge. I’ll admit that this is when I drive the worst, more ready to see the flaws in others and more protective of my space. It rarely manifests in any direct way, more like an aura that pushes everything up to 11. This is the state I generally find myself in before big games, usually playoff games or end of the season, and, if I harness it correctly, I can help feed my performance. It does, however, leave me more susceptible to a let down, and if something doesn’t go well early it could be more damaging than good.

Now that I think about it, the last time I felt this way was our final soccer game this Sunday. When things started going wrong in the first half, they snowballed and I allowed seven points. A quick reset and refocusing of energy, and I only allowed two points in the second half. I can’t really describe the feeling, aggression is certainly a stab at it, but I almost would have to say that it’s a buzz of determination. It is best when I have something to focus that determination on, but there are times, like now, where I don’t have a ready outlet and it seems to add a near vibration to my existence in my seat.

I’m not sure that anyone else feels this way (I have to imagine I am not unique in this), although I do have to wonder how others deal with it. I’ll probably also throw a run in tonight (time permitting), just to dissipate it a bit more.

Weight: 231 Loss: 9 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 127 miles
Fitocracy Level: 19 (43119 points, 2231 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
April 26, 2012

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2012-366 Day 116 – Resume Advice

This may or may not have something to do with what I’ve been doing all day at work. Okay, it has everything to do with what I’ve been doing all day at work. I’m reviewing the applications for a position that we’re hiring here, and I need to get some stuff off my chest. Advice will, of course, be kept generic to avoid incriminating the guilty. And there are soooo many guilty.

1. Customize your resume – For heaven’s sake, I’m pretty sure I just read the same resume photocopied a bunch of times. Excepting for minor differences in applications that they know, you get the idea of what a standard IT worker does pretty quickly. Reading it over and over again just gets mind numbing. Do something to make it stand out and make sure you customize your resume to the position being offered, hi-lighting the relevant experience and emphasizing the abilities your thing will suit what the employer is looking for, especially if they list a specific skill . . .

2. Bring up the right skills – If, for example, the position lists OCR as a primary technology that you will be working with, and does so with a nearly ridiculous frequency in the job posting, consider mentioning any experience you might have in the field on your resume. Heck, just put the words on there somewhere and go play with a scanner. Want to guess the grand total number of references to OCR technology I encountered over the entire run of resumes? That’s right, one. And that person got disqualified due to distance considerations.

Now there are other things that are knocking people out of the running here that I can’t fault them for trying (out of the area, too many degrees or too high a previous salary for an entry level position), especially in this economy. But for those that are in the running, making these errors is just inexcusable. I get the feeling that everyone pretty much said, “Oh look, it says IT in the title, they must be looking for a desktop support person,” without ever taking a glance at the description.

Oh, and lest you think I’m kidding, I went back and counted the number of times “OCR” showed up in the position description. Take a quick guess before you hit the end of this line. Ready? 1, 2, 3: 7 times in 6 sentences.

Weight: 231 Loss: 9 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 127 miles (+3 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 19 (42647 points, 2703 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
April 25, 2012

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