Maybe last ride and upping the ante

Brrrrr, it was cold today out on the road.

I biked early this morning for a couple of hours. The temperature was about 38 degrees F but not too windy. I wore double socks, long tights, a polypropelene turtleneck, gloves and a skullcap all on top of my usual wear. I think this may be my last outdoor ride of the year, unless the weather stays above freezing conditions for the next few weeks. Otherwise, I don't think I'd enjoy the frostbite.

I already started thinking about next year's triathlons: I'm considering raising the bar from sprint distances to half ironmans--from .25mi swim/15mi bike/3mi run to 1.2mi swim/56mi bike/13.1mi run increase. Quite daunting. I thought about my very first triathlon and how gruelling it was to simply try and finish. That's all I wanted to do. However, from that period on all the way up to this year, I had no doubt of completing the courses and was just trying to better my times. Next year, if I up the ante in distances, I'd be putting myself back to square one; to the "maybe I'll get through it or maybe I won't" mentality. I think it'd give me that original first race high if I were to succeed--a way cool incredible feeling that sparked an 'I can do anything' attitude, which I dearly miss and can certainly use these days.

For now, I'll just wait and see what I decide in 2006.

I have high cholesterol: 227

I had my blood tested last week. Today, my copy of the results arrived in the mail. Some of the numbers were a bit high. Here are the major players:

Cholesterol: 227 (high). It should be < 200. I think this is the reference everyone talks about. It's really the sum of the bad cholesterol LDL + the good cholesterol HDL.

LDL: 151 (high). It should be < 100. This is the bad cholesterol and stands for Low Density Lipoprotein. I've certainly been eating lots of fatty stuff and been using a lot of butter in my foods for a while. It sure shows.

HDL: 75 (high, but a good high). Normally between 32 to 72. Stands for High Density Lipoprotein. I think the aerobic exercise had helped a lot with bringing this number up.

Triglyceride: 82 (good). Should be < 150.

Weird thing, but the high level of HDL good cholesterol offsets the other bad numbers and still puts me in the 'lowest risk' group, according to the results summary. My risk for heart disease is determined by the following formula:

CHOL / HDL = 227 / 75 = 3.0

A chol/hdl ratio of less than 3.5 is considered 'lowest risk'. Still, I'd say my overall cholesterol level is unhealthy, especially the LDL level. I guess it's best that I try to better my diet and exercise. The results were certainly motivating.

Winnie Cooper wrote me back.

Danica McKellar replied to an email I sent her months ago. (*smile beaming*head spinning*) Aside from praise, I asked what other branches of mathematics she has yet to study. And she mainly replied:

. . .
Thanks for your kind words. There are lots of topics I haven’t learned much about- for instance, PDQ’s (partial differential equations), Manifold Theory, and many others. Math is a whole big world that would take a lifetime to master completely, I think. Even professors have their specialties, they would not understand many other math professors’ research. :)
...
Good luck!
-Danica

"Good luck!" she said! And then my heart went googly gah gah. She truly is one hip problem solver. Now who would think math could be such a cool and sexy thing? Ooops, silly me. Danica did.

Inspired again. Gotta calc!

Trick or treat!

"Mommy, I had the best day of my life! I had candy, chips and soda!"
--Tina

It seemed that Halloween this year was a 4 day festival. Starting last Friday, all the kids visited their "pumpkin patches" at school to pick out their little handheld pumpkins. Saturday had a dress up party at the YMCA. Sunday had a huge town costume celebration at the local university campus (the kids played "Frankenstein Says" and other games). And Monday was the big treat-or-treat deal to cap it all off. On all the days, Tina dressed as a princess, Mindy as a fairy and Miguel as a ladybug or Teletubby Dipsy (he had two costumes).

No doubt the kids'll have their daily sugar rush for the next three months.

Happy Halloween!

Ha ha ha ha ha ... !

One day, I plan to do stand up comedy.
Here's my inspiration (video & sound):
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=Hpz6_aFSMPA&search=karaoke%20comedian

It's David Armand of the comedy troupe The Hollow Men, doing his sign language rendition of Natalie Imbruglia's song Torn.

:-) :-) :-)

His or Her Brain

I just took an online "sex i.d." test. It was one of those online questionnaire and quiz things, the results of which would determine if your brain jives more with either male or female side.

This test was one of the more fun ones to do with friends and family. Much more thorough and study based than the other analytical quizzes. I recommend it if you're bored, curious or wish to add something to your conversation topics at dinner.

I'll comment my results if you comment yours :-).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml

Instinctive sportsmanship

"Remember, Tina, winning a game isn't the most important thing. It's playing fair and having fun that matter. Does that make sense?"
"Yes, Daddy."
"Good. Now let's play Chutes and Ladders."

Okay, so I've constantly been giving my 'winning isn't everything' spiel to the kids prior to starting our board games. Tina, being the oldest, is noticeably doing her best at being a good sport, but it's obvious to me in her expressions that the gesture of being a good loser isn't coming easy. Still, it makes me proud that she does try. (Chutes and Ladders is a game of chance (and frustration), so it's pretty difficult for me to up the ante in her favor; and lately, she's lost more games than won. Oh those darn chutes!)

So off we went today to Toys R Us to search for some parlor entertainment that stressed more cooperative achievement than individual conquering. A non-competitive game. Unfortunately, practically all of the board games I came across had the common objective of "being the first to finish" or some equivalent. Now I'm not saying that the goal of winning is a bad thing; it's just that I wanted something with a different intent than our games at home, for the sake of balance. Anyway, it took some further aisle searching, but I eventually found something sort of collaborative--it's called Rush Hour-- where the kids could work together for the solution. We also bought "Don't Break The Ice," which I got more for nostalgia as it was one of my favorite toys in nursery school.

[Cut to home scene: our livingroom.]

Well, I kept my fingers crossed and what do you know. It worked! The little sweeties were having fun playing both games. With a lot of cooperation. With a lot of laughter. And no competition here, not even with "Don't Break The Ice". And also no words of wisdom were needed from yours truly to belt out. What a relief it was to see the kids' more favorable natures come forward, instinctively. I certainly must head back to the store soon for similar family fun stuff.

Chuck one up for non-competitive parlor fun.

Post Tri Season

I've called it quits for triathlons this season. Two races were enough for my first comeback year, although I had originally planned for a final 3rd event a few weeks ago. I still have an itch to compete, but I'm saving it for summer 2006. Ported from my workout philosophy, I often stop just short of a satisfied feeling, and that's in order to insure my desire to come back for more.

For the post season, the current weather is still decent enough to go bike riding. If all goes well, I'll do a ride this afternoon as this morning was just too cold for me. It'll be a welcome workout, as I'm needing the endorphins to pick me up from the stress of job hunting, or really resume-finishing. Yes, I'm still working on it. Now shush.

Employed or bust

I'm working on my resume. I'm going to get a job.

There, I've put myself on the spot. It was needed. You see, I sat yesterday at the laptop practically all day trying to update my employment and accomplishments with nothing but writer's block. And then I caught myself doing the procrastinator's shuffle: making cups of coffee, surfing the web (a wireless network certainly can be a beautiful but damning thing), flipping through cable TV and then playing with the kids. Rinse and repeat.

Hopefully today will be a different story. And this entry serves to put my determination and pride in writing and to the test. Perhaps for all the world to laugh at if my words and actions don't jive. But let's not make it so. Time for some motivation.

Now where did I put that Tony Robbins book of mine?

:-)

"One more thing..." cont'd

Today, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer revealed a new iMac, a new video iPod (with video output) and new applications. My prediction of a flash drive computer was incorrect.

Oh well, just the geek in me that kept tuned in to this event (via live iLounge.com feeds) with as much excitement as a die hard sports fan.

Game over. Heart rate back to normal. Life goes on.