Parallel Blog

I know I don't update this blog nearly as often as I'd like, but I've started a parallel blog where I'll be posting information about various technical projects I do. I didn't want anything about me personally on it so I just decided to start a new one.

Check it out if you're interested:

TimeGear.blogspot.com

Recent Project: Wine Bottle Light

This was a pretty simple project, though it does take some time. We 'prepared' the bottles by draining the contents and removing all the labels. Next, using a ceramic drill bit, we made a hole near the bottom of each bottle. All that was left then was to push each individual Christmas light through the hole until the bottle was filled. We used 3 different colored bottles and it turned out great! They're surprisingly bright and add a cool effect to the room.

Recent Project: bookcase

I've been looking for a bookcase for a while now and couldn't seem to find what I wanted. Everything was either crazy expensive or cheaply made of particle board. I hate particle board. So I opted to build my own. Not that i needed a reason to buy a table-saw... but as you can see, things turned out pretty nicely! What do you think!

Finished Product! And to be honest, we need even more room to store books!

Books

... that I've read lately...


The Big Short by Micheal Lewis

This book chronicles the root cause of financial collapse of fall 2008 to present. Lewis does a great job of taking a ridiculously complicated subject and laying it out in terms that were simple enough for me to grasp. Lewis has an interesting background - he used to work for a large financial firm in the 80's strait out of college. This was when the first investment banks turned public, a fact that contributed to the overall downfall of the system. He believed then, that the financial system wasn't a sustainable model and it was due to collapse sooner or later. He decided to get out while he still could - about 2 decades to early. The story follows the odd mix of characters that saw the crisis coming. What I got out of the book was that the government intervention was indeed needed to stabilize our economy (as opposed to just throwing money at the auto industry) and though that seems to have helped, virtually nothing has been done to insure that this won't or can't happen again. Its a good lesson in due diligence and keeping a logical perspective even if everyone else is doing the opposite.


Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath (they're brothers)

A great book about how to change peoples' minds and actions. I picked this book up to help me with my job, but its relevant to anytime you're tying to enact change. It has tons of examples and is an easy read. They break down the techniques for effective change into 3 categories; making the logical case, an emotional case and shaping the path so that the easiest way is the change you want. I strongly recommend it.

Anybody have any suggestions of books for me to read?

Guyana Medical Mission Trip

Jan 7 - 16th I was fortunate enough to get to travel to Guyana, South America for a medical mission trip organized by Jane Purser. Guyana is a unique little country between Venezuela and Suriname on the North coast of South America. A former British colony, its entire population is around 800,000 comprised mainly of the descendants of African slaves, Indian indentured workers (slaves) and Amerindians. The country is almost equally Christian, Hindu and Muslim and throughout you can see a mosque, a temple and churche all lined up together. They have virtually no trouble living in peace - now if we could only get the rest of the world to follow suit...


Teamed up with 8 doctors and multiple nurses and other specialists I quickly found my place helping with triage and the always important 'dumb-labor' (which I was more than happy to do considering I don't really enjoy other people's body fluids). It turned out to be active job because we tore down the clinic on average once a day before moving to a new location the next day. I carried a small notebook with me and kept a list of "likes" and "dislikes." Its hard to explain in words the entire trip, so maybe this is the best way to show what things had the biggest impact on me.

Dislikes:
-Chow Mein & Fried Everything (This makes up 80% of the Guyanese diet)
-Sweating in my sleep under a defective mosquito net
-Wearing DEET (bug spray) all the time. We started calling it cologne by the end.
-Not being able to drink the water
-Food portions were to big (The Guyanese have a huge problem with Diabetes due to the fact their diet is mostly white flour based foods and sugar)
-Church members and friends getting preferential treatment at the clinics
-Insane boat drivers
-Trinidad & Tobago customs (they made the entire cabin deplane, walk downstairs, go through security, and get back on board - even though it was only a stopover)
-Saying Goodbye to the team

Likes:
-Leo, our portly bus driver with affinity for flip-up sunglasses
-Coconut milk... with rum
-El Dorado Rum!
-Feeling fairly safe
-Guyanese being 'Pro-American' and fond of Obama
-"CoCo-the-Nut" our fearless mascot
-English speaking
-Carib, Banks and Guinness Foreign Extra beers
-Christians, Muslims and Hindus living together harmoniously
-Tarza - our gardener/security guard/provider of late night mixers (fresh coconuts!)
-giving away things
-bright stars at night
-Washa - our 'fixer' to get us up river to an Amerindian village, he was mostly stoned but happy to help... for the right price.
-Chartering a plane and visiting Kaieteur Falls


Orealla is a tiny Amerindian village about 3 hours up the Courantyne river that defines the boarder between Suriname and Guyana. We took 3 speedboats up the river and spent a night in the tiny village. This was my favorite part of the trip by far. It was amazingly beautiful and the people were the nicest yet. After unloading and holding a clinic for the rest of the first day, we passed out exhausted in a hammocks partially covered by mosquito nets. The next morning one of our team members (Conner who used to run track for OU) raced the 'fastest member of the tribe' in a 5000m race and won. We then persuaded a local to ferry us across the river to Suriname so we could say we touch it. Our original intention had been to swim the 1/4 mile across the river - but after talking to the villagers we decided that currents, piranha, cayman and some strange fish that was supposedly over 6 feet long and had bit the feet off of a few people lately - we opted for the dugout canoe ride.



Kaieteur Falls was amazing! On the second to last day we chartered a plane to take us into the interior to visit one of the largest waterfalls in world. This was an adventure on all accounts. Our husband (pilot/tour guide) and wife (stewardess/cook) team were awesome. The pilot used to fly for the Guyanese military and has an encyclopedic knowledge of local flora and fauna. His wife was an old Scottish woman was pleased to see I had a "Good Scottish name!" and was quick to poor us shots of rum soon as we were air born. We landed on the strip and hiked around the falls, took pictures and even swam above the falls before turning back for home.

Marathon

St. Louis, MO

Sunday April 11 I completed my first Marathon! I met a few of my closest friends and Nicole in STL for the weekend. We all piled into Greg's new house and just hung out mainly in his backyard. The grill ran non-stop and the beers flowed freely. It was difficult not to drink the day before the race, but lucky Greg and Dave were racing as well, so I had plenty of support. Race day started at 5:15am when we got up, had breakfast, and our dedicated fans drove us to the start. At 7am the race commenced. The course took us through most of the major landmarks of STL; running towards the Arch, the Anheuser-Busch Brewery (it smelled like warm cereal), back towards Forest Park, along Washington University, and finally finishing downtown.

The race went well. Temperatures were in the mid 70s. I got a little over-heated on miles 20-23 due to the sun reflecting off the concrete like a hot box. The course was much hillier than I expected with positive slopes for multiple miles. Dave finished first, a full hour before I did, followed by Greg, then myself crossing the line in 4hrs 30mins. Our fans were out in full force, cheering us on the last 200 yards. Thanks to Drew, Kyle, Cassie, Sally and Nicole for all the support!
This was the first milestone on my journey to Ironman. I feel more confident knowing I have a marathon under my belt, but it definitely put into perspective the challenge I've laid out for myself. I'll be focusing on biking next, what I consider to be my strength. The challenge will be to maintain this level of running and integrate additional biking and swimming from now until November.

After a short 6 month hiatus from my blog, I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things for 2010. I spent the last 6 months in Houston where I've been training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I've taken a few trips to Arkansas and Tulsa to see loved ones. I also managed to make it up to Oregon to visit my High School best friend. It is a beautiful state, and I was fortunate enough to get some hiking and camping in. I also made it up to NY once with a side trip to Boston to visit the Sam Adams brewery. I brought in the new year and Xmas in Michigan - coldest I've experienced yet, 5 degrees F with windchill below zero. I think I'm a warm weather guy.

...which brings up my plans for 2010! First things first, I'm starting a new job within the company I already work for. I'll be a Lean Specialist working to bring efficiency to our business. I'm heading to Guyana for a medical aid trip in January.

The other big thing for 2010 is in November I've signed up for a full Ironman in Cozumel. I'm pretty sure training for this will dominate most of my free time this year. Between training for that and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - I'm hoping to be pretty fit. I'm planning to compete in BJJ, a Marathon in April, the MS 150 bike ride in March, and I'm sure I'll do some 1/2 Ironman to prep.

Its my year to SHINE!

more updates to come!