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2012-366 Day 37 – The Lost Year

I’m sure most of you reading this are aware that I had some health issues involving my neck and shoulders that knocked me out of action for a long period of time (hence my naming it “The Lost Year”), but I’ve never told the whole story (mainly because I’m not even sure how much of the whole story I know myself). I will attempt to catalog the experience here.

It all started late August 2010, out for dinner with our good friends, we walked into a store in the mall and a sense of vertigo staggered me. It was unlike anything I experienced before and, after a steadying trip to the restroom, when it recurred, I was concerned something was significantly wrong. Walking back to the car, the nausea associated with the vertigo peaked, and I wound up throwing up (although I had overeaten at the restaurant). Our friends drove me to the emergency room, and I spent the next several hours having tests runs and slowly returning to normal (as long as the bed wasn’t raised). It was chalked up to a case of food poisoning, and I was released in relatively short order (for an E.R).

I wish the story had just ended there, but at the time I was teaching in Santa Clarita and experienced a recurrence of the vertigo coupled with a rapid heart beat and what felt like a drop in blood pressure (the later two symptoms probably a minor panic attack). Thankfully it was a lab class so I was able to mostly camouflage the symptoms by wheeling a chair around and using it as a support. Needless to say, the next day I visited the doctor. After explaining the symptoms and getting checked out, it was determined that one of my eardrums was (embarrassingly) impacted with wax, so much so that it took several visits, as well as intervening home treatments, to finally get it cleared out. The vertigo symptoms persisted to a lesser degree during my teaching of class (in retrospect probably due to the change in pressure of my head travelling over the pass, it always seemed to be worst then), eventually reducing to near zero over the semester.

Unfortunately in reaction to all of this, my neck and shoulder muscles had become unusually tight and were causing some pressure and tension in my skull. This greatly worried me and made me wonder if there wasn’t some more overarching cause than just the food poisoning (which I never really bought) or the ear problems. Suffering through an intense headache with tension at a softball game, I asked a Physical Therapist there if they knew anything that might help. Before I knew it, my head was by my ankles and my neck felt very rubbery. I thought maybe it had loosened up, so went home and tried to get some rest. Unfortunately it seemed the adjustment had done more harm than good, as it took a week for me to even be able to support my head when I got out of bed. I had my neck and shoulders checked out again and was prescribed some muscle relaxants, which helped a little bit but, due to my control issues, I was hesitant to take anymore than a couple times.

Strength and stability in my neck were a long time coming, and the shoulder issues persisted. An x-ray of the area came back clean, and I was put into physical therapy (actually my second trip, my first round came early in the process after an MRI was suggested but ultimately nixed by the insurance company). Whereas the first time through I had the same doctor, this time I was rotated among whoever was available, and I was slowly improving on my own so I stopped going after a month or so.

Eight months in and I was well enough to do the Ragnar Relay for the second time, which definitely helped my confidence. I was still experiencing discomfort in the neck and shoulders, but now it seemed to be largely due to inflammation which could be knocked down a bit with ibuprofen and the like. With the improvements came a realization about how much my attitude was affecting me and how I was acting. It mostly came from an area of fear, as I had never had anything this prolonged happen to me before, and I hate when anything happens with my head. I had convinced myself something was very wrong, and the lack of a clear diagnosis just fed into that fear. Over the next few months, however, I came to realize that even if the inflammation did not subside, that was not going to prevent me from being active, as I didn’t want to live my life that way.

I played volleyball as usual that summer, and definitely could feel an improvement over the softball season of the previous fall (very little of which I remember, which is either good or bad considering my team came within one strike of winning the championship and blew it). As I came up on the anniversary of the initial vertigo incident, my neck was feeling largely better, I had not had any recurrences of the vertigo since those classes I taught, and the remaining inflammation was eminently treatable. I thought that maybe my neck and shoulders just needed a little more building up, so I joined a gym and started working on those areas. I was able perform all the exercises with minimal problems, so the structure seemed fine, it looked to be a case of working the muscle.

So at the end of this month it will have been a year and a half since the initial problem. Looking back, I realize that I could have saved myself a lot of pain and grief had I not overreacted and assumed the worst. My shell of invulnerability had been cracked, and I was undergoing a trial of faith (a story for another time) which did not allow me to fully trust in God. Outside of some distance running conditioning and weight gain, I’m actually more active now than I was before this whole story occurred (adding Karate and Soccer). There still seems to be some inflammation and shoulder stiffness, but I’m largely able to look past it (only really feel the stiffness when stretching). In all, had I known then what I know now, the experience would have been completely different and I may not have dropped off the face of the earth for the better part of a year. Sadly the saying about hindsight being 20/20 is all too true, and, while there is no way to recoup that time, all I can do is make sure I make the most out of my time going forward.

I learned several valuable lessons from this experience (of course, why else would I have to go through it) and, while I am a little ashamed of my initial response/handling of the situation and my subsequent withdrawal into myslef, do feel as though I am a stronger person now because of it. I still have a few more things to fix (apparently I can still be a little dour at times, as I seem to still be sometims defaulting to the quiet, dealing with it, persona I had for a while there rather than my previous more engaged self), but isn’t that what life is for, fixing things?

Weight: 233.4 Max: 240 Min: 233.4 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 13.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 12 (14486 points, 636/2750 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
February 6, 2012

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2012-366 Day 36 – Super Bowl

Wow, what a game. It’s a shame that the Patriots receivers suffered from such a case of the dropsies a the end. I would not have cared much one way or another, except that I have a general distaste for New York teams due to my Dodgers allegiance so I was rooting for New England a little more (tempered by my wariness of Boston teams from my Lakers allegiance), and I had to pick a winner ahead of time for a little game and placed my lot with New England. Turned out to be a mistake, but what can you do?

I’m still looking forward to having an L.A. team to root for, but who knows how long that will be?

Had an awesome time at the Super Bowl party I was at, lots of good food and fellowship. The commercials seemed below average this year, with only a couple that stood out. Didn’t watch the half-time show (I’m sure not much of a surprise there), outside of about 30 seconds of the opening (seriously?) and 30 seconds of the dancing penguins in the middle.

It’s always fun to have a common event to share with others, and the Super Bowl is one of those things with a little bit for everyone.

Weight: 233.4 Max: 240 Min: 233.4 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 13.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 12 (14177 points, 327/2750 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
February 5, 2012

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2012-366 Day 35 – Saturdays

One advantage to working for the state since I went to college is the fact that I’ve always gotten to enjoy the traditional Saturday/Sunday weekend. Sundays are usually reserved for church related activities and sporting leagues, leaving Saturdays as my generally unscheduled day (recently changed with my beginning of karate, although since it’s from 11-1, it leaves a majority of the day still available). Obviously, I still manage to schedule stuff for that day (tonight an engagement dinner, next week a softball tournament), but it certainly does make a nice target for the end of the week. It also makes it difficult to get the energy to take the time out to blog, so I’ll have to plan more ahead to write for these days. I didn’t do that this week, so I’m off to just relax anyway. See you tomorrow.

Weight: 233.4 Max: 240 Min: 233.4 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 13.5 miles (+3 miles)
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 12 (14177 points, 327/2750 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
February 4, 2012

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2012-366 Day 34 – Teaching II

Two weeks in and we’re doing fairly well. The first week we went over the syllabus and the first chapter, which was the basics of hardware and software (largely terminology). This week we covered software ideas (why software works the way it works) and the first half of networking. Granted it was only the last hour of class, but time absolutely FLEW while we were going over the networking topic.

The first semester teaching this class, I came up with a fun (simplified) demonstration of the Internet Protocol where I took a stack of index cards, placed 5 characters of a message on each (including spaces) and then numbered them. I then have everyone stand up and hand the ordered stack to a person on one of the two sides of the room. The rules are simple, all the cards have to get to a person on the other side of the room, and you can hand your card to anyone in the next row. If the first person you turn to is busy, find the next person in the same row and try to hand it to them, until you find someone who can take the card. This example replicates how information moves along the internet, with the packets finding their own way to the end goal. After demonstrating that the packets will usually arrive at the destination out of order (the last card to arrive today was 32 out of 33, with random batches inside that were out of order, sometimes as many as five places), we can then use the numbering to reorder the message and retrieve the information.

It’s gone over well all three times I’ve done it, and serves to break up the lecture a bit. I’m still working on developing interesting examples for some of the other areas, but I’m rather proud of this one.

This is a subject that I love to teach, and it is a gigantic advantage to have such a firm grasp on it. It allows me to be very flexible with the topics and to answer pretty much any question that the students can pose. I enjoy the looks of sudden comprehension that come across every few minutes, and I know the students appreciate the glimpses into the inner workings of the machine.

Weight: 233.4 Max: 240 Min: 233.4 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 10.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (12977 points, 1627/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
February 3, 2012

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2012-366 Day 33 – Big Boy Pants

Here’s the point where I get to man up and say I was wrong. I sat here a few weeks ago and discussed that with hard work and dedication, I could be awesome and skip a belt in Karate. The part about me being awesome hasn’t changed, but the intervening three weeks have demonstrated that I had misplaced priorities and a strong desire for position based respect, problems which extend outside of just Karate for me.

It is an obvious fact that if something is wrong with the foundation of a building, the entire building is in danger. Likewise in any endeavor that requires building from a series of basic steps to mastery, if you do not spend time on the basics, mastery will be more difficult. My initial desire to skip a belt stemmed entirely from the goal of achieving Black Belt as quickly as possible, but quickly obviously does not always mean best. At class last night I realized that I could continue on my current track to skip and turn in a relatively sloppy performance (but likely still pass), or I could slow myself down, focus on only the Orange Belt material, have a much stronger performance, and give myself the extra time to truly refine my fundamentals.

Perhaps it would not be such a problem if my goal was merely to reach Black Belt, with no regard as to the method or what to do next. Earlier in my life (like I’m that old) that may have even been the case, but at this point I want to do it correctly. The problem was in evidence when I tested for my red stripe (demonstrated the form required) for Orange Belt and I messed up one of the moves in the sequence. I had been spending so much time on the tournament form (one level higher) that I had only done the Orange Belt form four or five times, not nearly enough for ironing out the problems. It was still acceptable, but it wasn’t good. I could rush past it, or I could take the time to do it right.

In all, it really came down to pride. I hate the fact that I’m at a low rank. The month and a half at white belt was torturous for me. I want to be looked upon and respected, and this was an area where that wasn’t possible due to my belt color. My realization last night? Respect isn’t tied to my belt color (I know, a little slow on my part, at least it only took two and a half months), and in reality someone should have less respect for me if I sloppily advanced two belts over properly advancing one. That Black Belt isn’t going anywhere, and adding two months to the journey is only going to make me better in the long run.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 10.5 miles (+2 miles)
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (12977 points, 1627/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
February 2, 2012

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2012-366 Day 32 – Resolution Update

So we’ll use the first of the month to check on my resolutions. Okay? Okay.

1) One blog post (long or short) every day this year. – 100% so far, yay!

2) Lose 20 pounds. – Been bouncing back and forth between my low and high, starting to get more serious about watching what I eat to help. Going from my current weight (236ish), actually on pace to exceed this goal (which I won’t complain about).

3) Run 600 miles. – And failing miserably on this one. Haven’t been able to talk myself into getting up in the morning, and the extra karate isn’t helping. As long as I add 5 miles each month and make running more of a priority, I should be okay, but I need to get back on the horse. I’m thinking of running the Disney Half Marathon in September again, so training for that should go a long way to getting my mileage goal. 8.5/600 = 1.4%

4) Complete 5th Gup Green belt test by end of year. – On schedule even without belt skip.

5) Complete first novel. – Haven’t worked on this since last year, so no progress.

In all, an okay first month, with some areas to improve in, and a couple I’m doing really well in.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 8.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange (Blue?) – Next Test Date: 3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (12310 points, 960/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
February 1, 2012

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2012-366 Day 31 – One Month Wrap

One month in, huh? To paraphrase someone near and dear to me, “Seems a lot shorter and a lot longer then it has been.” Coming up with things to weigh in on or talk about has been at times easy and difficult, and I really try to avoid the “things only I would be interested in,” but can’t help it that sometimes the sneak in. Anyway, my thanks to those of you who are following this, but I maintain that it is a project first and foremost for myself to get back into the groove of writing regularly, which allows me to not worry about the number of page views.

With 335 days left (Really? Wow.) I am maintaining a list of topics to cover, although a lot of them will require some time to develop (rather than the off the cuff stuff I can put together quickly). The list has three topics checked off and ten more waiting in the wings (some which can be revisited). I have very much enjoyed the journey so far (except for the couple times when I’ve had to search for a topic at 10:30 pm), and look forward to where it might be taking me next. And for those of you irritated by parenthesis, well, sorry, that’s not going away any time soon (consider it my signature move so far).

Thanks for the comments so far, and I should note that I have the comments moderated to prevent spam from filling up the area below the posts (believe me, I have zapped a ton of spam on this site even before I started blogging on a regular basis). I will not edit or reject any real comments, good or bad, and since they go directly to my phone, I usually can approve them pretty quickly (if you use the same e-mail address, it should automatically approve any future comments after I approve the first one). I love all of you reading this, leave me a comment if there’s anything you want me to touch on.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 8.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange (Blue?) – Next Test Date: 3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (11821 points, 471/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
January 31, 2012

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2012-366 Day 30 – Soccer Evaluation Day

Is it weird for a 31 year old to be trying a sport for the first time? I’ll tell you one thing, it certainly felt a little weird, to the point where I was actively questioning what I was doing while waiting for the evaluation process to begin.

I arrived at the field a little early, owing to the fact that my softball team had been knocked out before the title game, so I didn’t have to rush over to make it at the start. I sat down for a minute to watch the current goings on, the women having their evaluation drills, then got up to figure out what I had to do to get registered. As I walked towards the office that seemed to be the right location, one of the women stopped me and asked if I had signed up with anyone or was joining solo. Apparently I look like I know what I’m doing? Anyway, I told her I had just signed up by myself, and she asked if I wanted to be on her team. Considering I have no expectations for this year and don’t particularly care what team I’m on, I said sure. I went in the office, got my number for evaluation (56, the guys started at 50 so I was sixth in line to try everything, and there ended up being about 22 guys there for the evaluation, plus one woman who came late that we’ll meet later), and got my home and away jerseys (I told them I figured number 21 was long gone, but lo, there it was lying right on top in my size). I headed back out to the field to get ready for the evaluation.

The first drill required we run to midfield, settle a pass, pass it back, run around a cone back to midfield, settle another pass, then run around a far cone, get a long pass and take a shot on goal. Outside of the fact that I settled both passes by stepping on them, rather than corralling them with the side of my foot, and took the final shot with my left foot instead of my right (it was the one closest when I was running in stride), I think I did okay on this one.

The second drill required us to do some tight slalom dribbling, then pass to the middle who would then set us up for a one-time shot (there might have been another slalom drill between these two, but I don’t remember it). The ball got away from me a little bit, but I got it back and managed to complete the slalom without too much more difficulty. Had to chase down the ensuing pass, and my shot was wide.

During that drill they asked if anyone was interested in playing goalie, there was one guy who brought gloves and was hoping to primarily be a goalie, and I wanted to at least try, so he played goalie for the first half of the people and I played for the second half. I stopped all the shots sent my way but the last two, one of which was a wicked shot by the woman who had come late and had obviously played before. The shot bent right around me, and was really impressive. Don’t know that I made all that great an impression, since most of the shots I stopped were right at or around me, but at least I tried.

The third drill lined us up on two sides, having the first side pass to the second, and the second side pass back to the first for the shot. I started on the first side, passed across fairly accurately, and received the return pass a little deep and got off a semi-decent shot. I moved across to the other side and sent my pass too deep when it was my turn to be the second side.

The final drill had us go from the 3/4’s of the way across the field, track down a long pass, and then take a shot. I did as well as I could on exhausted legs and again, don’t think I looked too bad.

In all I’d say I played very average, which I suppose is not bad for someone who hasn’t played a lick of soccer in his life. The areas I can most greatly improve in are my ball handling (which is pretty non-existent at the moment) and just getting some practice in with my shots, which should give me better directionality. I imagine that with a little experience, I should be at least passable as a soccer player. No games next week (“Why?” I thought. “Oh yeah, Super Bowl.”), so my first game should be February 12th.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 8.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange (Blue?) – Next Test Date: 3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (11821 points, 471/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
January 30, 2012

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2012-366 Day 29 – Softball Tournament

All right, so maybe I’ll have enough juice to talk about the playoff tournament today after all. We were knocked out in the second round by the eventual champs (who went undefeated). It had been so long since the last games, however, that it felt barely connected to the regular season.

In our first game we played the third place team in our division (we were second) and the game started out as a back and forth battle. We were up 3-2 after one inning, then tied 6-6 after two, and the other team had scored 9 runs through three innings (I don’t remember what we had after three). Since we were playing in a different park with longer base paths and more outfield, I had originally planned to put all our fastest defenders in the outfield and I’d play shortstop. Over three innings, however, it was becoming apparent that they weren’t using a lot of the outfield and we could use an extra bit of range in the infield, so I switched out to right field and Chris came into play short. We wound up getting the first out of that inning at third base when I backed up an overthrow at first and threw across the diamond to get the runner trying to advance. It wound up working out pretty much perfectly after that, and we steadily pushed runs across until we scored the 24th run in the sixth inning and triggered the mercy rule, 24-9. Usually I keep score in these things, but seeing as we didn’t know how many games we were going to play and the teams were going to be disbanded after today anyway, so I think I went something along the lines of 4-6 with a couple RBIs and runs scored.

The second game began after about 20 minutes against the top seed in the tournament. We pushed across one run in the first inning, but they scored three, and after three innings we were down 10-1. At that point we realized that they were using more of the outfield and less of the infield, so I switched back to short and played the fast outfield. They scored no more runs in the game, but we couldn’t capitalize on some opportunities and only scratched across one more run, and wound up falling 10-2. I went 1 for 3 in this game, with my only hit coming in my final at-bat as I got the first two off the handle and grounded out to the right side. Apparently we spent all our runs in the first game.

As usual, softball was a lot of fun, and I loved my team this year. It would be an honor to play with any of them again. I look forward to next season, although the detour through the softball tournament in two weeks out to be a lot of fun too.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 8.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange (Blue?) – Next Test Date: 3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (11821 points, 471/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
January 29, 2012

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2012-366 Day 28 – Karate Tournament

It didn’t go well. I was fourth out of five in my division in forms and second out of two in my division in sparring.

The poor showing in forms was entirely my fault, I messed up one of my blocks coming down the middle and was probably just a little too jittery overall. Need to slow it down a step next time so I look more in control. Came in fourth by less than .1 per judge, but, again, entirely my fault. Would probably have been in contention for second had I not dropped that block (first if I had slowed down a bit coming on too).

I’m very frustrated by the sparring bout but, since I’ve had some space from it, I’m looking on the bright side: with EVERYTHING breaking against me, I still only lost by one point in overtime. Most of my hits weren’t counted by a majority of the judges, and I took a pop in the nose for good measure too which, had it been ruled illegal as it should have, would have allowed me to win in regulation (but the other guy’s nose started bleeding afterwards, not sure when that happened, sorry Logan). It was an unpleasant experience, and I don’t know that I’ll repeat it for a while.

In all, I’m mostly disappointed in myself, and I look to do better in the future.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 8.5 miles (+2 miles)
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange (Blue?) – Next Test Date: 3/12
Fitocracy Level: 10 (11123 points, 2023/2250 to next level) – ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
January 28, 2012

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