@whatupwilly!

Being Prepared For The Worst - Part IV - First Aid Certified!

2010-02-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned a few times, C and I were planning on getting first-aid certified by the Red Cross. We both finished the class and passed the (relatively easy) exam at the end.

We are now certified for 3 years by passing the Red Cross first aid course.

So what does that even mean? In a 4 hour course, how much could they really have taught us?

Did I learn how to save someone's life if I pulled up next to a horrific car accident? Maybe (probably) not.

But they did teach you some fundamental skills/tips to not completely panic in the case of an emergency. And that sense of "I'm not going to completely lose my shit" is a nice feeling to have.

We only did 2 hands on lessons in the class (how to do arm splints and what to do if you find a person passed out face down). If you don't have time to take a class, you could definitely learn all the material out of a book:

(American Red Cross - First Aid & Safety Handbook)

Of course the beauty of the class is it forces you to learn. It would be hard to motivate myself to read a first-aid book and learn that way.

Here are the 5 most interesting things I learned from the class:

Consent - To avoid any legal troubles, ask for consent before you administer first aid to anyone. Good Samaritan Laws will protect you from getting sued if you at act reasonably and ask for consent. If the person is passed out, there is a concept of implied consent. (i.e. if a reasonable person was passed out in this position, would they want first aid help)
If you start, you better finish - If you decide to stop and help someone, at that point you are committed. You can't just walk away. You need to either wait for a professional to get there or the person leaves on their own.
Call 911 if... - The instructor gave a bunch of tips on when you should call 911 even if it doesn't at first look like an emergency. e.g. ) If someone bangs there head and you see fluid coming out of there ears or nose, they may say they are feeling fine, but they likely have a skull fracture and should see immediate help.
Shock - When someone is in shock it can be life threatening. There body is pumping all it's blood to vital organs to keep you alive. One of the symptoms can be extreme thirst. Do NOT give a person in shock anything to drink or eat. Food/drink does 2 bad things: 1) it makes your body spend energy on your stomach instead of vital organs (heart, brain, etc.) 2) if you need surgery, it's best if you don't have anything in your stomach.
Fire dept + Poison control - Put the telephone number of the closest fire department and the direct number to poison control in your cell phones. Calling both of these directly will be faster than calling 911. Calling 911 via your cell phone will route you to the California 911 system and there will be a bunch of routing required to get you to the local fire department anyway.

Be safe out there folks. Learn some first aid and be a bit more prepared to help your loved ones and anyone else who might need a hand.

Live Music In The City: Elevaters & Supertaster

2010-01-31T18:49:00.000-08:00

Every time I go watch live music I think "I should really watch more live music".

Last night gave me the bug again. C & I went to Coda Jazz Supperclub in the mission (it's in the old Levende space) for her birthday. We did dinner there and hung around for an absolutely amazing show.

Dinner itself was just OK. One of those meals where everything tastes "fine" but not great. Overall, pretty forgettable and I'm not dying to go back for the food.

But the music was incredible and very memorable.

Elevaters
The opening act was a group from LA called the Elevaters.

EPK from Elevaters on Vimeo.

From the Coda site:

California genre-bending band Elevaters is the new hope for people craving unconventional hip-hop. The racially diverse group manages to push their musical experiment to new heights, all the while never loosing their populist appeal.

C and I absolutely love this band now. Even a couple sitting near us who looked like they hated life and each other couldn't help but to nod their heads with the music.

Bands like the Elevaters make you wish you spent less time studying and more time practicing to be in a band with your friends. Forget all those books on finding the secrets of happiness. Watch these guys live and you will see 6 guys who will just make you feel happy listening to their craft.

I can imagine one of these guys telling their dad "me and my friends are going to start a band". The dad, wanting his son to be an engineer, delivered all the TV-cliches like "how are you going to earn a living? when are you going to start taking your life seriously? what will your grandparents think?". But the first time dad watches his son perform live and sees him in his element, making a club full of people happy, he understands and he can feel proud.

C and I got to say hi and thank you to a couple of guys in the band (Ben and David) after their show and you really could tell they loved what they did. Thank you Elevaters..we got a couple of your CDs and we will come watch you whenever you are back in the bay.

Supertaster
The other performers of the night were Supertaster.

Supertaster is the latest offshoot of the Jazz Mafia, San Francisco's eclectic and highly talented musical collective. [...] the band has become one of the most incendiary live acts on the Bay Area music scene. This dynamic five-piece ensemble has developed into a band that slides easily between raw funk, post-rock, glitch-hop and more.

It is really hard to describe the talent and range of this band. Karyn Paige has some of the most amazing pipes I have ever heard live. She reminds me of a cross between Erykah Badhu and Samantha James (if that even makes sense). Their drummer, Joe Bagale, has a soulful Harry Connick Jr. sound WHILE rocking the drums. Amazing. There are not a lot of bands that can switch from original jazz tracks, to hip-hop and rap covers (my favorite probably was "Forget about Dre" with some original lyrics and a trombone back-up"), to sets of freestyle rap.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Supertaster perform again too.

And finally, a big thank you to Coda. You've set up a great intimate venue for the bay to catch some great music. We will definitely be back.

Magify.me - Visualize Your Tweets

2010-01-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

This week, one of my closest friends, @nalin, launched a new site he built in his spare time (amazingly most of it done over a weekend of extreme food poisoning).

It is called magify.me.

Simply, it turns your twitter stream into a more visual experience. When you link magify.me to your twitter account, an instant home page is made. It takes the various links you may have in your stream and makes a very nice visual representation of them.

I love it. It's clean, simple and serves a really nice purpose. It isn't trying to be another twitter client as there are already plenty of those. But if you have been using http://www.twitter.com/username in your email signature, you should think about switching that over to http://www.magify.me/username. It's a lot nicer than your default twitter page and there are quick links to go to your facebook, actual twitter page, blog, etc.

The site is in early beta and @nalin has a list of things he wants to add when he has a chance. But play around and send him your feedback (via twitter @magify or even just leave a comment here).

A few interesting marketing-related things also happened when @nalin first launched @magify..but I'm going to save that for my next post.

Being Prepared For The Worst - Part III - Where will you meet?

2010-01-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

Did you know, according to the USGS, there is a 63% chance the Bay Area has an earthquake of 6.7 or greater before 2036 (i.e. in the next 25 years)?

63%. Scary.

But anyway, I'm not going to dwell on that too much or try and figure out/dissect how they came up with that number. The reality is, it could happen. I've beaten that horse to death.

Question: What happens if you and your family are not together when a big quake happens? What happens if the quake leaves phones down and worse, it leaves your home inhabitable. How do you meet up?

It's a pretty simple question with a potentially scary outcome. If you didn't decide a meeting place with your family and your home is not an option anymore, you could spend hours/days wandering aimlessly trying to reconnect. Every minute apart would be a minute wondering whether your family was safe.

C and I decided that our meeting place will be the parking lots behind AT&T park.

It's a good location because it is only about a mile from our house and there is a lot of open area where you can potentially stay clear of tall buildings (a bit harder to do now with all the condo apartments).

Even in a huge-building-crumbling earthquake it is likely you will be able to find a safe area to rest here. Also, it is near the water and that can be invaluable if the roads and such are down.

I'm not expecting the few people who are reading these posts to go out there and buy emergency supplies and stockpile your house. Most of you are thinking "well...I should" but aren't getting around to it. I get it. That's human nature and I've been talking about doing this for months before I finally did.

But this is one thing you should be able to do before you leave the house today. Decide a meeting spot for you and your family. It's an easy thing to do and you can feel good about getting 1 step closer to being prepared.

Being Prepared For The Worst - Part II - First steps

2010-01-19T21:25:00.000-08:00

C & I made some good progress in getting prepared for the worst.

First Aid Classes
We signed up for some first aid classes at the Red Cross in San Francisco. They are on Feb 2nd (4 hr class for $50). The class teaches: "how to recognize and care for victims of injury or sudden illness plus how to treat cuts, bruises, bone and muscle injuries, shock, bleeding and other emergencies." I think learning some first aid is a lot better than squealing nervously in the face of an injury.

Emergency Supplies
It is really amazing but it has been a week since the Haiti earthquake and news is still rampant about people who don't have water and food. I know the environment in Haiti (existing poor country, bad infrastructure, and all sorts of awfulness) make getting supplies to people who need it much harder.

But don't forget that when Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of people were also stranded for days without water and food.

I hate sounding like a nutso-alarmist, but if San Francisco was hit with a huge quake, being on your own for multiple days is a real possibility. Think of this stat (via Wikipedia):

As of January 1, 2009 the California Department of Finance estimated the population at 845,559. With over 17,000 people per square mile, San Francisco is the second-most densely populated major American city.

Think about that. 17,000 people in a square mile. That doesn't even include people who are commuting into the city on a daily basis and the fact that we live downtown (SOMA) where the density is likely higher.

17,000 people in a square mile. In a major earthquake, water, power and electricity are likely out. Many buildings are in shambles. The roads are a mess. How many emergency personnel and how much time do you think it will take to get aid and supplies to 17,000 in a square mile. I shudder thinking about it.

I know..I sound like a nut-case. But after today, I'm a nut-case that will be a bit more prepared. We bought the following on Amazon:

Amazon.com Widgets

Our Survival Items - Round 1

I've always wanted a Leatherman. This little exercise was a good excuse to get one. A Leatherman makes a swiss army knife look like a fancy-Q-tip.

I absolutely love this. It's a hand crank & solar powered radio/flashlight/phone charger. Needing a flashlight is a no brainer. But I previously never thought of the importance of needing a radio. In the age of MP3 players and streaming music, I haven't owned a radio in years (let alone a radio that would work without needing to be plugged in).

First-aid kit. No explanation needed here. There are a lot of different options when it comes to First-aid kits so I settled on something compact and not too extravagant.

Water disinfectant. This little bottle, for only $13 bucks, will amazingly purify 500 gallons of water. God damn I'm sure they could use this in Haiti.

A few survival lists I read said make sure to have some of these emergency blankets. They are cheap, waterproof and windproof. You'll want to have these around in case you need to spend time outdoors in an emergency. I was also considering some emergency light weight sleeping bags.

Waterproof matches. Also a no brainer to have in the house/emergency kit.

This is just the start of our emergency kit. You can actually buy some pre-packaged kits (Quakehold! 70280 Grab-n-Go Emergency Kit, 2-Person 3-Day Back Pack,) but it was a good learning experience building up a kit myself.

Check out the Red Cross site for more tips on what should be in your kit.

Other things we still need to add to our kit:

Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
Pictures of us
Some cash

What else am I forgetting?

Some of you may think this is a bit extreme. I probably would have thought the same thing before I read Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life. But just watch any news footage about Haiti, videos about Katrina or the South East Asia Tsunami in 2004 and you will sadly realize needing this shit is a real possibility.

Please donate to Haiti relief if you can.

Managing My Money

2010-01-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have helped contribute to building a half-dozen+ PFM (Personal Financial Management) applications. I spent 4 years working at Yodlee where I helped shape parts of Moneycenter. Since I've left Yodlee, I've consulted with quite a few start ups who were/are building "Mint-like" applications. All of that makes it ironic that I am not that great at managing my own money.

That's not to say I don't know how to save money. I'm actually pretty cheap when it comes to a lot of things (most things). I can save money.

My big problem is not properly managing my savings.

I have an Ameriprise Financial Advisor. I've been working with my advisor since 2004. She is really nice and seems to know the market and makes recommendations all the time on what I should do with my savings. Most the time I just nod my head and agree with whatever she recommends. Stupid I know.

My advisor has done a good job of getting me diversified (i.e. spreading out my money in different types of things: stock, cash, bonds, funds, etc.). Through 2008, I definitely lost a lot of money like a lot of people. However, it would have been a lot worse if I didn't have some diversification in other things (cash and bonds).

So what is my problem?

My problem now is that my financial life is too complicated. I have:

8 bank accounts (spread among Bank of America, Wells Fargo and VirtualBank [yes, that is a real institution])
10 investment/brokerage accounts (spread amount AccountTrax, Ameriprise, Scottrade, E*Trade and Invesco Aim)
4 credit cards (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, American Express and Citibank)

If it wasn't for Moneycenter, it would take forever to figure out what my networth is.

Some of the above is because I have incorporated myself as an S-Corp for my consulting business and I have set up separate accounts for that. But it doesn't need to be so complicated...does it?

I took my first steps to simplifying earlier this week when I met my advisor. She did her usual: "Here is what is going on with your accounts, I think we should do xyz with this account, abc with this account, move some money into this account, etc. etc. etc.". After 30 minutes I replied back:

Don't get me wrong. I understand everything you just said to me. Most of it made sense. But here is my problem. If I had to come back here tomorrow and repeat to you how my money is spread around and more importantly why...I couldn't do it. I have no idea why I have $xxx in a Wells Fargo Ultra Short Term Muni and $yyy in a Wells Fargo Short Term Muni. I see it on paper but I don't know why. We've been working together for 6 years and I think my finances have just gotten out of control. What can you do to help me simplify.

She looked stunned. But she quickly knew what I was talking about. By the end of the meeting we had consolidated 4 of my investment accounts into 2. I now only have 8 investment accounts! Well..it's a start.

This goes back a bit to my 2009 reflections where I said I want to do "More with less". I'm happy I ended this week with a little "Less" in my life.

I'm going to spend some more time this year looking at what else I can do to simplify. I read Ramit Sethi's book/blog "I Will Teach You To Be Rich". It has some good tips on simplifying and automating your money. I'll give it another skim and see what I can put in action for me.

What seems to work for you?

Being Prepared For The Worst - Part I

2010-01-14T20:25:00.001-08:00

We have all seen the awful things going on in Haiti right now. Please donate if you can (I actually think it's better to donate via websites such as http://american.redcross.org/haiti vs. the texting method because the money will get to the organizations faster via the websites).

All of this coupled with the recent slew of small quakes we have had in the bay area recently makes you wonder how prepared you are for a disaster.

I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, C and I are probably at about a 3 or 4 in terms of being prepared. I think the one thing we have going for us is enough water and non-perishable food in our house to last at least 5 days. We stockpile spam. It's a weakness.

But otherwise, I think we would be in rough shape.

I'm going to add one more New Year's resolution to my list (maybe booting off learning Chinese..because it hasn't been fun at all): being prepared for a disaster.

This is oddly something that C and I have been talking about doing for the last 6 months. We both read the book Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, and believe me, when you read it you'll feel the urge to get prepared for a disaster as well.

It is a really fantastic book and it will open your eyes into how potentially helpless you will be in an emergency (i.e. a huge quake).

Here are a few depressing but thought provoking questions to think about (most are raised in the book). If there was a big quake in your city, and assuming you were lucky enough to have your apartment in tact, but the rest of the city is in shambles with likely no help to get to you within 48-72 hours would you know:

What to do if you or your partner had a severe cut or broken bone in the quake? If you did know what to do, do you have supplies in your house?
Do you have enough water for 3 days? I read that a person needs a gallon of water per day (I kind of question that..but it's a good benchmark to use when stocking up)
What do you do with all your shit and piss if all the plumbing is out?
How long after electricity goes out is the melted frozen food in the freezer going to be good for?
Do you have even the basics of flashlights, candles and matches/lighters in your house?
Do you have a plan in place to contact each other in case you are separated and phones are out?

Scary shit isn't it? I'm not an "End-Of-World Alarmist", but I think not being able to answer yes to the above and MANY more similar questions is a disservice to yourself and family. I can't answer yes and that is sad.

So my NEW resolution is to be prepared for the worst.

What do I want to accomplish in the next few weeks?

First Aid classes - I took some first aid in high school but there is a reason they make you get re-certified every year. You don't remember that stuff if you aren't doing it on a regular basis. You can get first aid certification at your local Red Cross (Bay Area folks - The Bay Area Red Cross has different classes for CPR ($60 for 4.5 hrs) and general first aid ($50 for 4 hrs)).
Emergency supplies - I'm not even sure what else we need to be prepared. Again, the Red Cross site has lots of good tips that we'll be going through. We'll probably be making a Target/Costco trip to stock up this weekend.

I'll be updating this blog as we make progress towards not being helpless in the face of an emergency. Hopefully it will inspire some of you as well.

Be safe. Donate if you can. Hug your family and friends extra tight tonight.

Another Term At De Marillac Academy

2010-01-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

I started another term as a volunteer running coach with De Marillac Academy today. I’ve been coaching an elective running group with De Marillac for about 1.5 years now and I’m now on my 5th term with them. I use the term "coach" loosely because I pretty much tell the kids to run in a circle for an hour once a week.

(me and a few of my kids from a previous term)

De Marillac is a pretty interesting school. It is in the heart of the Tenderloin and sadly surrounded by some pretty awful sites. On my 4-5 block walk to the school every week I regularly see junkies, passed out homeless people, blatant drug transactions and all the other things you expect to see in the Loin. My kids and I regularly see people shooting up on the streets. Sad stuff.

From the schools website:

De Marillac Academy is an educational family that provides an innovative, comprehensive and accessible Catholic education in the Lasallian and Vincentian traditions to children from underserved, low-income families in the Tenderloin and other at-risk communities in San Francisco.

(And no…I’m not Catholic and I have no idea what Lasallian and Vicentian are).

The school is in an old building and is sorely lacking in places for kids to play and exercise. There isn’t a gym at the school and they have a tiny little courtyard (smaller than a full basketball court) with a few hoops where kids can play. The entrance to the school is security gated and you have to be buzzed in via the intercom to enter. I went to a fairly middle class grade school back in Canada but it seemed like a country club compared to De Marillac.

Quite the dreary picture isn’t it? But what the school lacks in flash and amenities it makes it up with amazingly good kids.

I’ve gotten to know about 20+ different kids during my coaching and they are fantastic. Good natured, outgoing, obviously mischievous as 6th-8th graders tend to be, but definitely a solid bunch of little people.

These kids are surrounded with the type of poverty, crime and shadiness that prevent many SF residents from even entering the Tenderloin. But they never bemoan their surroundings. They take it all in stride and just have fun being kids. Inspirational.

So where do we run if they don’t have a gym or a field?

It’s not very glamorous, but we just run around Civic Center plaza. It’s that square in front of city hall.

If you are ever in the neighborhood on Tuesdays between 3 and 4 pm, don’t be surprised to see my kids (all wearing their school uniforms) and I running laps. It’s a bit of a weird site, but I’m glad I can help get these kids some much needed exercise.

Note, if you are in the city and you have a flexible schedule on Tuesdays De Marillac can always use more volunteers to teach their electives. Every term they try and have electives (including running) taught by a few volunteers. The electives will vary depending on volunteer availability and some in the past have included juggling, baking, fencing, and hip-hop dancing. So if you have some time and a special skill you would love to share with kids, let me know!

Special thanks to the group at JustRun SF for introducing me to De Marillac and my good friend @macknuttie who first got me thinking about volunteering with youth sports.

A Culture Of Lateness

2010-01-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

I think I have minor OCD when it comes to being late. I hate being late. It doesn’t matter if it is meeting friends at a bar or meeting clients for a meeting. I hate being late.

If I happen to be running late, I start feeling slightly nauseous. Even when I’m likely going to be the first one there, I still feel nauseous.

If I’m going to be 5 minutes late for a restaurant reservation, I usually call the restaurant to let them know even though I know they don’t really care.

My OCD on not being late is why I don’t understand why we live in a culture of lateness. We all have friends who start getting ready at 7:55 when they know dinner is at 8. We have all been to meetings when even the meeting organizer shows up 10 minutes late and walks in without even an apology. I just don’t get it.

When I started working at Sapient in 1999 I was in heaven. It was a professional culture/cult where being late was not accepted. You would often be fined (a dollar or something similar) for even being 30 seconds late to a meeting. I was in heaven. Thank you Sapient for making me realize I wasn’t crazy to want things to be on time. There are a lot of us out there.

Where did we learn being late is OK? I don’t think it was in school because I remember grade school being a time when being late meant being embarrassed at the front of the class. Did we learn it was OK to be late because…it was OK? Because it almost never matters if you are on time or not?

How many times has this happened to you:

4:58: You are meeting a friend for a drink at 5 pm. You get there a couple of minutes early just to make sure your friend isn’t waiting alone. You are the only one there.
5:00: Still the only one there
5:05: Still the only one there. You start getting a bit annoyed.
5:10: A bit more annoyed
5:15: Even more annoyed and you have probably looked at your watch/phone about a dozen times by now.
5:20: Your friend finally gets there and says “Oh my god, sorry I’m late again, blah, blah, blah”. Your response: “It’ OK” (while fuming a bit inside).

That’s why people are always late. Because the rest of society lets them get away with it. It shouldn’t be OK.

I’m obviously not saying you tell your friend “Fuck you asshole. Why are you always late? You think you are more important than me? *throat punch*”

But I think calling out your friend or colleagues in a non-deuchebag manner can go a long way.

This last week, I had meetings on back-to-back days with one of my clients. Both meetings had: Me, 3 or 4 people from another consulting company, and 3 or 4 people from the client team including the client CEO.

In the first meeting, everyone was on time except the client CEO. He has his admin open the call up on time and ask us to wait for the CEO. He joins us 15 minutes later without even an apology.

The next day the same thing happens! Same meeting, same people, and another 15 minutes late from the CEO. Lame.

After the meeting I asked one of the guys from the other consulting company if Mr. CEO was always late. The answer: “Always, it’s ridiculous”. But I also got the sense they never said anything to him about it.

After some thought and pausing over the “Send” button a few times, I sent the following email:

Hi CEO,

I wanted to quickly share some feedback with you.

During our last few meetings that I have attended with the wider team you've been 10-15 minutes late each time. I of course know you must have an absolutely hectic schedule, but at this point I'm sure everyone else does as well [Editor Note: It’s a crazy time for everyone on the team because we are a few days from launch of the site]. However, having 5-6 people waiting on a call for 10-15 minutes when time is so short right now seems inconsiderate and a bit unprofessional.

Personally, in terms of my time, I start tracking and billing my time the moment I dial into a conference call. In the last 2 days, I've tracked just under 30 minutes ($[xx] that will be billed to your company) waiting on the phone. That just doesn't make sense.

I kindly suggest that if you know you will be more than just a few minutes late, to have [your admin] let the team know when we can expect the call to start so we can continue working on other activities. I think this is especially true for the [other consulting company] team that is huddled in a conference room for these calls and not in front of their computers where they can be working to complete this release.

Thank you for listening,
Will

Yes, I was a bit nervous about sending this email. It might have rubbed him the wrong way and when you are a freelance consultant, pissing your clients off is never a good idea.

But this CEO, outside of being chronically late, is a good guy. He is friendly and he is always quick to thank his own team and the other folks working for him. I actually thought he would take the feedback well and appreciate that I sent him a private email instead of calling him out on the call in front of everyone.

And I was right. Mr. CEO sent the following email back:

Thanks Will. This is fair feedback. I apologize for the late start in the last couple of meetings. We have been swamped but that is no excuse. We highly value your time and the time of [Consulting company] and I agree this is not an effective use of time or money. The last few meetings I was stuck in between some urgent matters that I could not break away from but will work with my team to communicate things better and try to estimate the impact of unexpected emergencies.

Sincerely,
Mr. CEO

Well, I don’t know if it’s actually going to make him stop being late. But it felt good to not bottle up my annoyance and give my client that feedback.

So the next time someone makes you wait. Don’t be a dick about it…but don’t be afraid to let them know it’s not cool and their time is not more valuable then yours.

2010 - New Year's resolutions

2010-01-06T21:22:00.000-08:00

I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. Not that I don’t think I have a lot to improve on, but I’ve mainly been too lazy to think about it let alone commit it in writing.

But 2010 is a new year.

I was a bit inspired by one of my favorite bloggers Penelope Trunk. She wrote a short post on “How to keep a New Year’s resolution” .

I love Penelope Trunk’s blog because she doesn’t just spew what she thinks on a topic, but she’s absolutely fantastic at referencing “bigger-picture-human-behavior-traits”.

For example, her tips for keeping New Year’s resolutions: start small, think in increments of three weeks, get the wording right, visualize what you will look like and start now are all great, if not obvious-when-read, tips.

But what got my attention the most in her post was this paragraph:

I realized this after spending two years reading what positive psychologists have discovered makes people happy. And, it turns out, that everything we know about what makes us happy comes down to having self-discipline to do what we know want to be doing.

I love that. It makes so much sense. It’s so obvious. It’s empowering. And for the most part it’s a great reminder that being happy is sometimes as easy as “Do what you want to be doing”. Duh.

The hard part is sometimes answering the question “What do I want to be doing”.

And that’s where my 2010 Q1 resolutions come into play. Yes, Q1 (i.e. Jan -> Mar) resolutions. Nerdtastic. But I think keeping some shorter term goals (but a bit longer than the previously recommended 3 weeks) will keep me a bit more focused.

Here are my Q1 resolutions in no particular order:

1. Blog More

I really have this love/hate relationship with writing. I think I’m a decent writer. I can sometimes make people laugh and I can sometimes narrate a fun story. I’ve tried to restart blogging quite a few times. But I sometimes find the act of writing a drag even though I’m usually very satisfied with the end result.

I’m commiting myself to blog at least 3 times a week for the next 3 months. If Sunday rolls around and I haven’t hit 3 posts – I’m going to just do 3 bullshit posts and then look at myself with disdain. Hopefully by the end of March I’ll remind myself whether blogging/writing is something I want to be doing. My 10th grade social studies teacher who told me to go into journalism would be proud. Thanks Mr. Scott (?).

2. Launch 3 Websites

My great friends @nalin and @emh are both fantastic technologists as well as great “idea” guys. We have had many a conversation about “Wouldn’t it be great to build a site that did this”, “I think we could make money building an app that did blah, blah, blah”. @nalin has been good about developing a lot of his ideas and @emh is also pretty decent at starting side projects. But I’m the worst. I just stew on these ideas I have. I don’t act. It’s sickening. And my inaction depresses me. The worst part is I have a technology and product management background. I really have no excuse to not crank out a few fun sites.

I have 3 fun website ideas I’ve been brewing for a few months. I’ve built a prototype of one. My goal by the end of March is just to put these sites out there. They won’t be that pretty and they aren’t going to change the world or make a lot of money. But I’ll get them out there and I’ll break my streak of “All Talk”.

3. 30 minutes of Rosetta Stone Chinese 5 times a week

I’m Chinese. I speak Chinese at probably a 4 year old level at best. Maybe a mentally challenged 4 year old. A mentally challenged 4 year old that drank too much contaminated Chinese milk. I’m going to China at the beginning of February for a few weeks. I know I’m not really going to fine tune my Chinese by then. But it’s good incentive for me to hunker down and start learning some Chinese. I’ve done a few sessions with Rosetta Stone…and it’s an interesting experience so far. I’ll probably blog more on that later.

I of course have a larger list of things I want to work on. Cook more inventive and fun foods, surf more, start triathlon training again, volunteer more, etc. But the 3 goals above are good to get me going and keep me focused for Q1.

What are your resolutions?

2009

2010-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

[Editor's Note: I know. I've tried to restart blogging about a 1/2 dozen times unsuccessfully. 2010 is my year to change that]

Why do some years seem to “fly by” and some years “seem to never end”?

Thinking back to the last 10 years of my life (my life in San Francisco) I always seemed to think every New Years “this year really flew by”. But this is likely just due to some kind of memory trick that is projecting how I felt about this last year onto my last 10 years.

Because 2009 really flew by.

I feel like it was just a few months ago when C and I were flying back from spending New Year’s 2009 in Brazil. My memory of eagerly waiting to feel the cool, beautiful, mosquito free breeze of the bay area is clear as can be. I fondly remember the smile on C’s face as we walked out of the airport to kiss the breeze.

I feel blessed that 2009 was not a year that seemed to never end. There were a few months in 2009 that felt longer than others and I believe it was because they were extremely emotionally charged months. But I digress and won’t go into all those gory details now.

2009 was a very interesting year of work. I continued to do some consulting with my good friends at Pacwest Consulting Partners. However, as oil prices fell, so did some of my work with Big Oil. I logged about ½ the hours I did in 2008. This was for the best, as consulting and writing code for Big Oil Supply Chain management isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds.

My side gig doing freelance Yodlee consulting far exceeded my expectations. I worked with 8 different clients helping them integrate with Yodlee’s SDK (Software Development Kit). It was a fun mix of start-ups and older school financial services company. I got to write a lot more code this year and it constantly reminded me how much I enjoy coding. You just can’t compare the satisfaction of creating code vs. PowerPoint’s. Big thanks to my friends at Yodlee for all the referrals.

You add all that up and I oddly still worked less in ’09 than I ever have. This was my 2nd straight year of cubicle job evasion and it has been fantastic. But I still have that itch.

That itch of doing something great. Of doing something more than just making a living consulting. That itch of legacy building. Do I tell my kids –

“You should have seen me when I was in my 30s. Sometimes, I wouldn’t need to leave my apartment for days or even need to shower to do my work. I would work in my underwear eating salami and cheese by the fistful….kids do you believe that..my underwear! Those were wild times”.

Well that actually doesn’t sound too bad of a story to tell.

But a part of me just wants to do more. And that’s my mission for 2010. As 2009 ends, my 1 guiding principal for 2010 is “More with Less”. And I will write more about that in a future post.

To wrap up this post, I’ll end with my most important lesson learned from 2009: Just shut up and listen. This works in business and in love. Just shut up and listen. I really used to think I was a good listener. And sometimes I was. But a lot happened in 2009 that made me realize sometimes the only listening I was doing was to myself. When I finally learned to just shut up, conversations took on a new life. I learned. I grew. I hope I’m a better person for it.

Just shut up and listen.

10 Days to PMC Challenge - 160 mile bike ride!

2009-07-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

10 more days until I start a 160 mile cycling journey to raise money and awareness for cancer research!

You can find full details here: http://www.pmc.org/profile/WY0004

The race is a 2 day ride through beautiful Massachusetts. The below isn't the exact route, but it's close (and the maps on the http://www.pmc.org site are quite..odd)

I've been training pretty well for this race. I put in about 60-120 miles a week riding (and boy is my taint tired). So I feel like I'm in great shape for it and ready to tackle it!

I'm $900 dollars away from my fund-raising goal of $4200 and I feel like with a big push over this next 10 days I'll be able to hit it.

Huge huge huge thanks to all my friends and family who have already donated. You're all the best.

If you have been thinking of donating but haven't yet....go ahead and just do it now. You'll love yourself for it later: http://www.pmc.org/profile/WY0004

Wish me luck!

HTML/CSS rebirth

2009-07-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a story I tell my grand kids.

I remember when I developed my first web page. It was in 1996 at my first co-op (internship) at Nortel in Ottawa, CA. I worked for a software research lab and living in -30 degree weather was a great incentive to do nothing other than work.

I remember creating a few Hello World test sites and the first bug I ran into was why the hell was the <centre> tag not working. Well..because HTML doesn't recognize Canadian spelling (e.g. centre vs. center).

I went on to do a lot of PERL development and cgi-bin apps. I learned a ton and it I felt like such a pimp going back to college and knowing how to build web apps. Over the next dozen or so years I've done a lot more web development (mainly java and .NET).

One thing that's always been lacking for me is mastering HTML and CSS. I've picked up CSS and can make my way around it but my skills are mediocre at best. I think I'm still stuck in the 90's mentality and wanting to put everything in tables and put styles right in tags.

During my developer years at Sapient, I worked on over a dozen web projects. However, almost all of them were staffed with "Site Developers". These folks cranked out HTML and CSS while peeps like me did the programming to make the pages do something other than look nice. And after years of just plugging together pages that were handed to me I realize I have a lot to learn to create sites from scratch myself.

Hence, I'm going to forget everything I already know.

I'm going to throw out my experience hacking together web pages, kludging together CSS, butchering sites by throwing in a few inline styles, etc.

I'm on a mission to relearn front-end dev skills so when I start creating some new sites I won't cringe at the HTML and CSS when I look back at it a few months later.

Cindy Alvarez makes a great suggestion, that I can access Safari books for free online using my SF library card ID! Only need to dig that up now...

But I also stumbled across this set of tutorials that look like a pretty solid place to find the tricks of the trade.

Any other online tutorials you would suggest?

I'm back?

2009-07-07T14:03:00.001-07:00

I know better than to say "Man I miss blogging, I'm going to start blogging again for real!!". I've had the urge to restart blogging in the past and I never get restarted.

BUT, I am really itching to start blogging again. I am in a bit of a lull with work and I have (even) more time on my hands than usual. So...let's see if I can keep this up and start trying to write something worth reading.

Over the next few weeks, I'm planning a bunch of mini-projects for myself (get a lot better at CSS, whip up an app idea I've been stewing on for a while in Ruby on Rails, change this awful blogger template, take a CPR/First-Aid class, take some dance classes, continue training for PMC, building a simple Yodlee-SDK web app, etc.). I'll see if I can keep this blogging up and write about those projects along the way.

Running of the Bulls - 2008 - Encierro 1 July 7th

2008-07-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

SIDE NOTE: WOW, an update to my blog. It's been 2 years to the day! Guess running with bulls was inspiration enough.
------
I have never wanted to run with the bulls. Never.

I have seen it dozens of times on TV and on the internet.

I have never ONCE thought: "I want to do that". It was always an abstract-absurd-mystical event that I knew occurred, but not something I thought I would ever take part in. Kind of like a Japanese game show.

I have now run with the bulls.

I have felt terror and fear like I never could have imagined. And I hope to never feel that again. A dramatic-hyperbole of a cliché, but it’s true.

...Yet it was one of the highlights of my life.

Short Story
On July 7th, 2008 - 3 friends (Nalin, Aaron, John) and I ran with the legendary bulls in Pamplona, Spain. We did it for Aaron’s bachelor party. It was scarier and much more dangerous than any of us imagined it would be. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to any of our friends. But we are all immensely glad we did it. I know, it sounds stupid to me too.

We all came out of it relatively unscathed with the exception of a few bumps, scratches and a deep stomach-churning desire to fire-hose vomit.

The running turned out to be a huge physiological and psychological experiment on my body and mind. The "Long Story" of the running is below. It is heavy on a lot of details that may be helpful to anyone who is also planning on running it.

Long Story
The long story below is REAL long. You have been warned. A few short cut links are here.

The Journey To Pamplona

The running of the bulls is actually a week long festival that has a running every day for a week. We decided to run the very first day (Monday July 7, 2008 aka Encierro 1), what is traditionally the most popular day to run.

It is notoriously difficult to get a hotel in Pamplona during the festival; hence, many people don’t bother. Instead, we left our stuff in our Madrid Hotel and jumped on a train to Pamplona with nothing but a bit of cash, our white outfits and a sweater. I recommend not even bringing a bag.

Tips for taking the train:

This website has some good tips on booking your train ticket ahead of time which is highly recommended: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online.html
If you can afford the extra euro for the first class cabin, splurge. You get a meal, movie (in Spanish) and nice-comfortable reserved seating. I can’t tell you how valuable this is, especially on the journey back, when you are dirty and exhausted (not having slept for about over 24 hours)
If leaving from Madrid, you take the train out of the Atocha train station which is breathtakingly beautiful for a train station. It’s near Madrid’s Prada museum and is a 30-40 min walk from the center of Madrid.
If you print up your train tickets ahead of time (recommended) you really don’t need to get to the train station any more than 15 min before your train leaves. The beauty of train travel vs. flying

The ride itself was about 3.5 hours and we got into Pamplona around 6:30 pm. Well, we now had about 14 hours to kill with no hotel.

Pamplona
Pamplona is an absolutely beautiful city in Northern Spain. We heard that no travelers go to Pamplona except for the festival. After being there, I can’t imagine this is true, because it is a lovely city of winding alleys, cobblestone roads, bars, restaurants and modern plazas that surprised us all.

Walking out of the train station, you immediately see everyone dressed in the traditional white outfit with red scarf and sash. Not just the other travelers or tourists visiting Pamplona. I mean everyone: grandmas grocery shopping, kids playing in the park, older couples in coffee shops.

During the San Fermin festival, it seems like everyone embraces the tradition and events whether they are running it or not. You slowly begin to understand that this isn’t just a tourist event but a deep routed tradition.

Since we had 14 hours to kill, we just walked from the train station hoping to stumble upon the main area (we had no map). This turned out to be fairly easy as the train station turned out to be just a mile or so from the festivities.

We hit a fair where we picked up our own scarves and sashes (8 euro each, which we later learn is a rip off - if you wait to get to the t-shirt shops along the route they are 2.40 euro each, but we figure that was a small price to pay for fitting in).

(John, Aaron, Nalin and Me)

Soon, we stumbled upon the main festival streets of Pamplona. And calling it a block party is like calling the Superbowl a football game. It just doesn’t do it justice

(Jam Packed Revelry In Pamplona)

It was street after street after street of people packed shoulder to shoulder drinking and partying. The streets were absolutely filthy with bottles, cups and who knows what.

(This was was the streets looked like for blocks on end)

At this point, anyone who knows Nalin, John, Aaron or myself is going to assume we got ourselves a few drinks and joined in. Surprise! We didn’t. A few reasons:

We did not want to be hung over (or drunk) running with the bulls
We were out in Madrid until about 6 am the night before and were still feeling it a bit
Not drinking at all helped us stay awake all night

I really recommend anyone who runs not drink very much the day before. They say that police will stop anyone who looks drunk or hung over from running. However, unless you are barfing as you try to get on the course, I don’t think they are going to stop you. So just do it for your own safety.

The next 12 or so hours was spent walking around Pamplona (we have this place memorized) including the bull running course numerous times, talking strategy, eating, sitting on benches people watching, and a bit more eating. It actually went by a lot faster than I was expecting. You can kill some time eating a later dinner until about 2 am in some places and then grab a very early breakfast at about 5 am like we did.

At the beginning of the bull-run course, you can get a close up view of the bulls in their pen. They are enormous and their horns look extremely sharp. Something hit all 4 of us when we saw the reality of what would be chasing us in a few hours. I know I’m not the only one that started to get a barfy feeling in his stomach.

(The Bulls the night before the Run. My theory is they keep the spotlight on them all night to make them grumpy and angry for the run itself)

A lot of people you see fall asleep in the streets or parks around town and then wake up for the running. I actually wouldn’t recommend this because you obviously become a prime target for pick pockets and thieves. Nalin and I met a guy named Evan in Ibiza who was in Pamplona the same time as us. He fell asleep in a park, wrapped his bag around his legs so no one would steal it, and was surrounded by his friends. When he woke up, his bag was ripped open and some of his stuff was scattered around him - minus his camera of course. Be careful.

(Random dude passed out on the sidewalk in the middle of the night)

The Morning Of The Run

The running of the bulls starts at 8 am. We heard that you had to be on the course at 7 am or they don’t let you on.

We headed over around 5’ish am to do another walk along the course and scope out our starting spot.

There are quite a few websites that list tips for running of the bulls. We read a lot of them before coming to Pamplona and we narrowed down our strategy to the following:

Start immediately before Dead Man’s Turn (map below) - this is one of the most dangerous parts of the run. You often see bulls sliding into the wall of this near 90 degree turn, often slamming people between them and the wall. We figured that if we started right before the turn, we would be well past the turn by the time the bulls got to us.
Run along the left hand side - In general, you want to run on the inside lane of any turn (e.g. if it is a right turn, be on the right side) to avoid the bull slamming you into the wall (see above). After Dead Man’s turn it is nearly straight into the bull arena with a slight left before entering the arena. Because of this we wanted to run along the left hand side.
Run fast as fuck - This is a bit self explanatory. We weren’t trying to be one of those guys that runs right beside the bull and slaps them.
When in doubt - Escape - Along the remainder of the course there were 2 potential spots to jump off the course through a set of fences. We each told ourselves that if there was any question for our safety we would jump ship.

Simple enough right? The best laid plans of mice….

Monkey Wrench #1 - Policia Try to Fuck With Us
At about 7:40 am (20 minutes before the run starts) the course is PACKED shoulder to shoulder. We are standing about nervously, talking about our plan over and over again and debating how fast we can move in such a large pack.

Suddenly, the Policia separate the runners into 2 groups. They form a line directly behind where we are standing and start telling us to walk forward? Huh?

We don’t really have any idea what is going on and we are marched past the bend. No one knows what is going on. Suddenly, strategy #1 is out the window.

We now overhear some horrifying news. For some reason, all of the people in front of the police line (half the runners, including us) are being ushered OUT of the course. We are being told that we cannot run today. WHAT?

We are furious. We are livid. The entire point of our Europe trip was to run with the bulls. And a lifetime highlight was being made a lifetime lowlight. We look at each other cursing.

[Psychological side note #1: Interesting side note here. As I mentioned earlier, I never really had a desire to run with the bulls. Even standing on the course nervously in the morning, I was having a few second thoughts about the sanity of this decision. However, the moment I found out that the opportunity to run was being taken away, there was nothing more I wanted to do. Strange. This reaction surprised even myself.]

Hundreds (thousands?) of runners are moved off the course and we all look at each other despondently. The running starts in about 15 minutes.

Well, we didn’t come half way around the world to stand on a fence.

Many of the displaced runners just walk and mill about sullenly, but a small handful just start running. The 4 of us, still not really sure what just happened, break out into a mad sprint. We are desperate to find a way back onto the course. No one is sure where we are going. We are like lemmings running to find our way back to the top of the cliff.

We sprint through various winding back alleys of Pamplona hoping to find a fence that we can jump. After what seems like 5 minutes, I am alone. I’ve lost John, Aaron and Nalin in the confused scramble. [Psychological side note #2 - Again surprisingly, I didn’t even think to double back and find them. All I wanted to do was get myself back on the course. Weird. Really weird]

I finally find a fence that is crowded 4 people deep waiting for the run to start. These folks have been waiting for hours to get a good spot to watch the run and I feel it isn’t going to be easy to push my way through. But before I know it, I squeeze my way through the crowd, crawl through 2 fences and I’m on the course!

I feel happiness and elation that is inappropriate the position I am in. I am almost right at the gate where they let the bulls out. The start of the course. This was not part of the plan.

Amazingly, I find Aaron, Hesh and Nalin all on the course and we are back to together - breathing heavily, legs tired from the sprint, but all as elated as me.

(Minutes away from the start)

Luckily, we manage to keep moving our way up the course and oddly end up back to where we were planning on starting. We still have no idea why the Polica did what they did. That was fucked.

The Run
My watch reads 7:58 and the race is about to start. This is a map of the course (about 0.5 miles total). This map actually notes the injuries that occured on the day of our run.

(The Course)

The race uses multiple rockets to signify significant events. We read:

Rocket 1. Signifies that the first bull is released
Rocket 2. Suppose to be about a minute later, the last bull is released

Everyone says that you start running lightly when the first rocket launches and then start hard running when the second rocket goes off. All in, it should take the bulls about 3 minutes to finish the 0.5 mile course.

*BOOM* The first rocket goes off.

I start the jog with the rest of the group. Surprisingly, the masses move quite well together.

About 15 seconds later, the second rocket goes off. WHAT? Already? Panic. This was unplanned for.

The masses begin to sprint. Hard.

I am running up the left side and I see John and Aaron vaguely around me.

People are crowded all along the very edge of the road making me run a lot closer to the middle than I was planning (and yes, the middle is generally where the bulls tend to stay). I wasn’t expecting people to just stand ON the road the entire running.

My adrenalin is pumping probably harder than it has ever pumped. Marathons, triathlons, and even swimming from Alcatraz had nothing on this.

In total, I probably had about 0.25-0.3 miles to run before getting into the bull fighting arena. Before the run started, I thought it could be possible that I get into the arena before I even see a bull.

Not so.

As I am sprinting, the look of fear on the faces around me is shocking. I see hundreds of faces turning around and the fear on the faces is like a Godzilla movie with white people. Lots of cursing is heard. John overhears someone yell "Whose idea was this anyway".

The fear is contagious because I get more terrified by just seeing everyone’s faces and it becomes very real.

I continue sprinting.

Someone trips up ahead. Bad bad news.

Imagine tripping and falling on the ground…with hundreds of people running as fast as they can right behind you. A cartoon like pile up ensues with people just falling over on the fallen runners and making a large dog pile. Carried by my momentum, I run right into the pile up, pushing a few people to the ground (sorry). I manage to not fall completely, and with a hand on the ground, spin myself out of it to avoid most of the mess.

One of my biggest worries was getting caught in a pile up and having a bull smash right into us. It happens. Luckily not to me.

I keep running and then I hear someone shout "They’re coming".

I feel even more panicked. I contemplate jumping into a doorway, but think better of it, and just keep running.

I hear cow bells. And not the funny Saturday Night Live kind.

I mean cow bells attached to 1 ton beasts with very sharp horns.

I keep running.

The sides of the road get even more crowded as the people running in the middle move to the sides. I see the first pack of bulls run by me. I’m unscathed. I catch a quick breath but keep moving.

Another side note about the run: about 12 Bulls are let loose in the run. It is safest for runners if the bulls stay in a pack. If they stay in a pack, they generally stay in the middle of the road and don’t bother anyone (unless you fall in front of them). But often along the twists and turns, the bulls separate into multiple packs. It is the most dangerous when a bull ends up alone because it will get disoriented and start attacking people. It may even run back into the crowd.

I keep running.

I make it to the turn into the arena when out of the corner of my eye I see a bull spin out right at the turn. It is lying on the ground about to get up. It is now a disoriented lonely angry bull. Scary.

I have a big decision to make. Do I think I can make the final 30-40 yards into the arena before the bull gets up and beats me in there? Or do I jump the fence now and call it a day? My mind is racing. You do NOT want to get caught in the narrow tunnel into the arena with a bull. But if the bull got up and started running, we would hit the tunnel at the same time.

I’m contemplating jumping over the fence and forgetting about the arena. My heart is pounding. Then I hear Aaron shout: "It’s clear! Get out!"

Fuck it. I go for it.

I sprint. Or at least try.

[Physiological/Psychological Side Note #1: At this point I only have about 30-40 yards left and I am sprinting. I’m telling my body to sprint faster because I don’t feel like I’m running very fast. I can’t move any faster. My mind is positive I can run faster. My legs refuse. I still don’t know why]

I enter the tunnel (about 10 yards long) and I want to turn around. But I’m afraid if I turn around I may see a bull right there and I’d rather not see myself get gored. So I keep running.

I enter the arena and veer left right away. I HIGHLY recommend you veer left or right immediately when getting into the arena. As the bulls enter the arena, they just run straight to the exit.

I see Aaron in the arena. We made it! We are alive! We ran with the bulls!

Here is a YouTube video of the run itself:

The Arena

I didn’t know until this year, but the running of the bulls actually ends in a real bull fighting arena. Runners try and make it into the arena before the last bull, at which time they close the gate.

A rocket goes off signifying that the last bull has cleared the arena!

We don’t see Nalin and John after the rocket, but we assume they just jumped a fence and are fine (we hope).

Aaron and I hug and jump in joy. Words cannot describe the jubilation and elation we feel. All the people around us are smiling, hugging and are giddy.

We cannot help but to scream into the jam packed arena: "Are you not entertained? Are you not mother fucking entertained?" I think we earned the right to be a bit douchey.

(Our Fans In The Stadium)

*BOOM* a rocket goes off. The lesser known "Act II" of the running of the bulls begins.

Act II - Arena Mayhem
I didn’t know until this year either, but after the arena is closed and full of runners, they let a bull back into the crowd. Yes. They LET a bull back in. Luckily (?) these bulls are a bit smaller and their horns are tapped. But they are still extremely fast and angry.

A bull charges into the masses and knocks a ton of people down. Aaron and I run for the walls and try and climb out. Aaron is about to climb out when someone just pushes him over and he goes flying. I am just hanging on top of the fence as the bull passes.

They let the bull run around for a few minutes while runners try and touch the bull. Machismo at it’s highest. Bodies are flying all over the place.

The bull eventually gets to exit the arena and the crowd continues to erupt.

Well, it’s not quite over. They repeat this lone bull terrorizing activity about 6 times (new fully energized bull each time).

Here is a video I took of one of the runs. I’ve noted a few notable moments.

35 seconds..bull running right past me
55 seconds bull picks a guy up and he rides his head
1:50 me running for shear life
2:40 the bull jumps over the railing into the crowd and the policia jump into the arena because of it (not really well captured on the video)
3:58 the bull almost getting me again
4:14 a huge cow bull (?) comes out of no where and almost smokes me and the guy beside me

It’s finally over. They open up the arena and I leave. I’ve run with the bulls and walked away in one piece.

I go to our predetermined meeting spot and Nalin, John and Aaron are all there in one piece too. However, Nalin is doubled over in pain, but is ok. [Physiological side note #2 - A weird thing happened to all 4 of us during this event. I’m sure everyone has felt queasy at moments of nervousness. But all 4 of us (especially Nalin) felt like barfing after the run. Adrenalin overload? Any ideas?]

We all exchange our running stories. We all say how it was one of the greatest moments of our lives. And we all say how we would never do it again.

We walk back to the train ready to leave Pamplona. I have blood on the back of my t-shirt. It’s not mine. We see a guy walking along the street with his shirt ripped open and a foot print on his back.

Happy to be alive is an understatement. Great work boys:

NOTE:

To any haters that want to say: "You guys are chicken shits. Real men hit the bulls as they run by, chase them down in the arena, blah blah blah". Fine, fine. Whatever.
To any PETA folks that think the running is cruel. Well, I can’t say I disagree. But I have no problem eating meat either. Even foie gras and veal. Mmmm…baby cow. Go splash paint on someone wearing fur.

One month

2006-07-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

One month since my last post. Yes, I'm alive.

I haven't been very inspired to blog recently. No real reason other then a lack of inspiration and interest.

But I figured a post to let people know I'm still alive would be nice. Let's see..what's going on these days:

- Still going out a lot. A few mini-black outs. But nothing too dramatic to warrant a post onto itself (not including July 4th weekend in Vegas..but I'll leave that post off here). I've got a handful of pics on my Flickr site. That's probably a better place to check on a regular basis to see what I'm up to. I recommend viewing the sets on the right to see the pics grouped into a more logical order.

- I'm not training for any marathons or triathlons right now. And it feels GREAT! I'm still keeping in decent shape, but it's nice not feeling the freakish desire/need to work out 10 times a week. Good luck to my buddy Merrill on doing Iron Man Lake Placid this weekend! His first.

- I just came back from the worst business travel trip ever. Even worst then my last trip to Jersey. My boss and I were flying from SF to San Antonio for a meeting. We had a 1 hour stop over in LAX and were scheduled to land in Texas at 11 PM. Kind of late considering we had a 7:30 am meeting the next day. Bless our luck, but a power outage causes most of the airports in So Cal to shutdown. Our 1 hr layover becomes 5. We land in San Antonio at 4:30 am. A lovely 2 hrs of sleep for an all day meeting. Wheeeeee. *whine* *whine*

- I'm flying to Bangalore, India next week for work. I am really excited about that. My first time and I'll be gone for about 10 days. I hope I don't get food poisoning and crap my pants..again.

- The day after I get back from India, I'm off to Vancouver for one my best friend's weddings. Congrats Schaubnuts!! I can't wait.

- Watched 2 Indie movies recently at my neighborhood indie theatre - Lumiere:

Heart of The Game - One of my favorite movies of the year. A documentary that follows a high school girls basketball team for about 6 years. The natural and unforced drama in this movie put Hollywood shit like Coach Carter to shame.
Lady Vengeance - I oddly watched this movie by myself in the theatre..completely drunk. Don't ask. It was a weird night. Here's a combo that doesn't work so well: artsy fartsy korean movie, subtitles, drinking-drowsiness. I fell asleep 3 times in the movie. I had no fucking clue what was going on. All I know is there is one mean bad ass Korean chick in this movie.

- Watched 2 Hollywood movies back-to-back a few Sundays ago.

Superman - Loved it. I enjoyed Batman Begins a lot more. But I liked Superman Returns more then the first 2 X-Men movies and Spiderman 2.
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Hated it. How did this crap make so much money?

Why are Hollywood movies so long now? I literally watched these movies right after each other..and that was pretty much 6 straight hours of screen time. I had bed sores.

- And I got a promotion at work. Mixed feelings about it..but that's a whole other story that isn't really worth blogging about..just drinking about.

Alrighty, that's my last 30 days in a nutshell. I left out a few things like almost getting blown up in Vegas, my car being broken into, my new love of mansion pool parties, retiring of my favorite t-shirt and replacing it with Long Green Love, and a few other mundane details.

Just find my anonymous blog to get all the real juicy details.

I hate America

2006-06-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

OK, I don't really hate America. I love living in the states. It's treated me well this last 6+ years.

BUT, it's treatment of the NHL hurts my soul.

Last night, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers in a gritty Game 7 Stanley Cup finals game. The Oilers played their hearts out..but were simply outplayed by the better Hurricanes team. Bravo to both teams.

As I leave a bar in South Bay (Bennigans) where I watched the game with some Canadian friends, I immediately turn to sports talk radio stations in my car to hear game recaps.

KNBR - has a baseball game being broadcast. The other AM sports station has a sports talk radio show on. What are they talking about? The U.S. Open of golf! The Stanley Cup finals just ended 10 minutes ago and they are talking about a golf major that ended yesterday???

This morning, I drive to work and listen to Sports Talk radio again. KNBR is talking about the NBA finals. The other station is interviewing a baseball player! What the hell..I listen to the radio for 30 more minutes switching between the 2 stations and the hockey game is not mentioned once.

Jesus...it's impossible to be a hockey fan in the states.

So wrong

2006-06-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

100_0402
Originally uploaded by whatupwilly.

It was like a car accident. I know...I'm an ass. But I couldn't help but to take this picture.

And if you think this was bad, about 15 minutes later, this old-dirty-homeless looking guy came up to her and they started making out.

The homeless guy even proceeded to rub her near-bare ass in the park.

I would have taken a picture of that, but the vomit in my mouth slowed me down.

When I grow up

2006-05-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

I think I figured out what I want to be when I grow up.

A writer.

Writing is such a strange thing for me. In highschool, writing papers was what I hated the most. I would literally write papers where each paragraph would take me 30 minutes to an hour. I was tortured over how to word things and string together sentences. But I managed to write. And what came out was actually pretty good.

I remember I wrote a story in grade 7 (that I loosely ripped off of The Terminator plot) and my grade 7 teacher thought it was amazing. Mr. Bell actually spent 10 minutes reading it out loud to the class. I remember the surrealness of the situation like it was yesterday. My teacher and classmates laughing as he hit the funny parts. The mild and lackadaisical clapping at the end. Pretty cool..but I still hated writing.

And I continued to rock English in high school. Being a stereotypical Chinese kid, I of course did well at Math and Science. But I always looked back at my papers as my proudest accomplishments in highschool. I would proof read them and think: "wow, that's pretty good". I even won a couple of English awards. My Dad was sad I didn't win the math award. My socials and English teacher both told me I should think about going into journalism. I scoffed.

Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity (hey Schaubnuts!) knows that my writing is really not that great. It can be funny at times. But it's easy to sound funny when I'm writing about the stupid things I do when I go out.

But I think I have it in me to be a decent if not a good writer.

I'm inspired by writers like Bill Simmons of ESPN. His casual, funny, and poignant writing style is something that I feel I can relate to and perhaps emulate?

I also just got a book at the airport on my flight to JFK. Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs. He's the same author of Dry, Running with Scissors and Sellevision. I have no idea why I bought this book. I haven't read any of his other books. I had never even heard of Magical Thinking before. I never buy books like this. I have nearly a hundred books at home, airport souvenirs from my 100% work travel days. Easy reads: James Patterson, John Grishman, and all that other New York Times best selling, easy reading stuff.

These books are the literary equivalent of summer Hollywood movies. Entertaining, easy to digest and generally predictable. Seriously, how many CIA conspiracies or Southern lawyers with dark secrets in their past stories can I read about? Apparently...a lot.

But for some reason, while walking by the Magical Thinking book, I was compelled to pick it up. It's a collection of Augusten's own true stories. Stories about growing up. Working at an Ad Agency. His quest to become a writer. Just a bunch of odd and humerous stories from his life.

I'm inspired.

I can write like this. My life may not be as exciting as Augusten's is (I was never given a blow job by a taxi driver who used to be a cathloic priest), but as I was reading this, I couldn't help but to think I can write stories like this that will make people smile.

I know I could never be a novelist. I don't have it in me when describing a man walking into a house to note details like the creak on the 19th century floor boards, the smell of vinegar used to clean the 15th century antique table in the expansive Victorian foyer of his late mother's Georgia home that use to be one of the first cotton farms in the South that freed slaves. I don't have that level of detail or attention in me. Nor do I care to.

But I think I have short stories in me.

With the exception of blogging, and writing in journals when I traveled, I don't write recreationally. I haven't tried writing fiction since high school

But I think I'll give it a shot. Maybe start with a story loosely based on my childhood? I dunno. I'll think of something. A satirical, based on reality, memoir?

I may or may not post any of the writing here.

But if I do, it may be a nice change to read some fictional drivel I write instead of my narratives of snorting rum or eating sweaty cheese.

See Will Tri - Wildflower Half Ironman Triathlon

2006-05-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

My first half ironman triathlon. In brief, it was awesome. I finished strong, I'm really happy with my time and as much of a cliche as this is, most importantly I had fun.

Summary

Overall - 818th out of 1768 athletes
Overall men - 707 out of 1264
My division (Male 30-34) - 136 out of 224
Total time - 6 hrs 15 min 7 seconds
Swim 1.2 miles - 34:39
Transition Swim->Bike - 5:01
Bike 56 miles - 3:22:34
Transition Bike->Run 3:08
Run 13.1 miles -2:09:45
Number of showers taken in 48 hours - 0

The Long
The below recap is LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. I'm writing most of this on a flight to New Jersey so I have some time to write. I don't expect many people to read it all (hell..I couldn't even get through re-reading it after I posted it), but scroll down and see some pics as well.

Morning Prep
We camped over at Lake San Antonio on Friday night. A lot of my friends think this must have sucked because I wouldn't get a good nights rest. In fact, it was the total opposite. Camping makes you go to bed early (pretty much once it gets dark) and I slept solid from about 9:30 till 5:30 am.

At 5:30 I lied in my sleeping bag just thinking about the upcoming race. Surprisingly, I wasn't that nervous. Sure my stomach felt a bit queasy, but I didn't quite want to barf like the morning of my Alcatraz tri.

Camping with Merrill and the other people in SF Tri Club (my AWESOME tri club) actually had a calming effect on me. Everyone was pretty chill in the morning and no one was freaking out. When I prep for events by myself in the morning, my head goes a little crazy and I get a little neurotic. Not so this morning.

I ate a couple of peanut butter bagels, bananas and some coffee and I felt pretty great. Refreshed, energized and ready to go. Only one thing left to do. And that was to crap.

*too much info ahead*

Taking a shit has to be about the most important thing before an endurance sport. When you are going to be doing something for 6+ hours, not carrying around a pound of bio-waste in your gut and intestines is a good thing. I INTENTIONALLY didn't crap the night before to make sure I could poop in the morning.

As I walked over to the bathroom I was actually nervous. No joke. The following thoughts ran through my head:

"Do I have a crap in me?"
"OMG, what if I can't shit"
"Please God, loosen my stool and let me push it out"

I'm not even joking. My walk to the bathroom was the most nervous I felt all morning. I sit on the surprisingly clean campsite toilet and try and poop. *plip* *plop*. I get up to wipe my ass and what do I see? Two fucking raisin sized pieces of shit.

"That's it?" I actually say out loud in the bathroom.

F@CK. I ate 2 giant plates of pasta, 2 bagels, 4 eggs, ham and toast the previous day. How can that only result in the losing entry in a rabbit shitting contest?

I begin to feel scared for the first time all morning.

As I begin to walk back in pooping-shame back to the camp site I begin going over some of my mental mantras that will get me through the day. "THINK POSITIVE". I force myself to laugh about it and tell myself

"Shitting 2 raisins is better then nothing. That will probably shave a minute off your bike".

*end of too much info*

I get all my gear ready and like everyone is paranoid that I have forgotten something. But I'm confident that I have everything: wetsuit, cycling shoes, running shoes, runners cap, body glide, advil, power bars, gels, sunblock. I'm set!!

Merrill and I jump on our bikes and make our way down to the transition area.

On our way down, miracles of miracles happen. A rumbling stirs. And my prayers are answered. I need to poop again!

*start of too much info*
I stop off at a port-o-potty (which again is..oddly spotless) and I must have lost a pound.

I walk out in victory and think: "Maybe the key to a successfully pre-race crap is to wear your helmet" (which I was).
*end of too much info*

We get to the transition area and I get all my stuff set up. I feel good about my transition area considering that this is my first tri of the year and I haven't practiced transitions at all.

(Transition area - sea of racked bikes - Lake San Antonio in the background)

I mentally tell myself:

When you come back here after the swim, take your time. You're going to be doing this for the next 6 hrs, spending an extra 30 seconds in transition to make sure you have everything is not going to kill you.

Merrill comes over to my transition area and he forgot his body glide (body glide is like a deodarant stick, but you rub it on all the parts of your body that may chaffe - it helps prevent things like bleeding nipples, wet suit rash, thigh chaffing, etc).

"Can I use some of your body glide?" asks Merrill innocently
"Sure..but..um...I need to warn you" I begin to say. "Actually, never mind, here you go"
"Um. What? Tell me" stammers Merrill, already painfully aware of what I'm about to say
"Well, that has been used very liberally on my inner thighs and balls already. And even well applied to that spot between my asshole and balls".

Merrill grimaces, but when faced with wet suit rash or the prospect of what is effectively me tea bagging most of his body, he takes the virtual tea bag. Merrill groans extra painfully when he applies the body glide to his neck.

The Swim - 1.2 miles - 34 min 39 seconds
I am waiting near the swimming area for my heat to start. It's pretty cool because I get to see the pros take off and come out of the water. I also see Nalin and Monica who made the trek down just to come and watch. You guys are awesome.

My heat - real men wear PINK!

Watching the pros come out of the water

Monica and Nalin did a great job taking pics!

I feel good. Swimming is my strongest leg. I begin to tell myself another one of my mantras:

"Swim hard, sight well, don't panic, and have fun".

I use a lot of these mantras to get me through the day. More later.

I started in the last Male 30-34 year old heat (damn it..I'm still 29). With pink swim cap on (eveyone in the same heat is given a matching cap), I jumped in the water waiting for my heat to start. I pee in my suit for good luck and warmth and I'm off!

Warming up and peeing in my suit before starting

The swim start was great. There were not that many people in my heat and it was not a chaotic mess at all. I immediately get to the edge and I don't feel anyone kicking or clawing me. I'm lined up aiming for the first buoy and my swim stroke feels good.

And we're off!!

About 5 minutes into it, I think: "Why isn't anyone trying to kick me?". I take a quick peak and realize I'm already slightly off course! What the hell? How did that happen? I look at the buoy and think I'm lined up straight for it. But everyone is to my right and there aren't many people around me. "Don't panic".

I shake it off and just start making my way for the first buoy and I get back into the mass of swimmers. The first turn feels good and I feel like I'm close to the front of the pink cap heat. Actually, I have no idea if I am. But I tell myself:

You are kicking ass, you are out ahead of these other swimmers. Nalin and Monica are going to be amazed when they see you are one of the first pink caps out of the water.

That little motivational pep talk keeps me going strong. I even begin to see some yellow caps from the swimmers in the heat before me (started 5 minutes earlier). I feel even more confident and pick up my stroke.

I think I get a little caught up in telling myself what a swimming stud I am and I realize I'm a little off course again. I'm inside the buoy line and I need to correct. "DON'T PANIC". I correct myself, but I'm a little mad that the voice in my head was too busy telling me how great I was and not reminding me to keep sighting (sighting is when you look up every few strokes to make sure you don't go off course).

I make the last turn for the final stretch back to shore and I'm feeling good. Then it happens. The first green cap passes me. This is first guy I notice who started 5 minutes after me (in the 35-40 year old heat) and has caught up to me and is now passing me! I try drafting off this obviously faster swimmer and he smokes past me. I have no hope in keeping up. I need to pull out another one of my mantras (that I was actually very pre parred to use on the bike, but not so much on the swim): "IGNORE IT WHEN PEOPLE PASS YOU, JUST RACE YOUR RACE".

That mantra calms me down a bit and I swim hard for the finish.

I swim all the way until my hand hits the ground and I launch out of the water. I feel great! The arms are a little tired, but I feel pumped. I hear the cheer of the crowd and as I peel off my wet suit to show my SF Tri Club racing jersey, I hear "Go SF Tri!" from some of the other athletes.

Coming out of the water

Stripping off my wet suit - you can see my SF Tri Club jersey on underneath

Transition 1 - Swim to Bike - 5 min 1 sec
This is the first tri I have done where I wore my tri shorts and tri top under my wet suit. The first few I did, I just went commando and put on my clothes at the transitions. Not only does this slow your transition time, during Escape from the Rock I think a good 50 or so spectators got a good view of my junk (it was COLD WATER!) as my towel fell off.

The transition goes well and I'm on my bike pretty quickly. The only thing I forgot to pack was some advil. But I didn't really feel the need for it on the bike anyway.

The Bike - 56 miles - 3 hrs 22 min
Biking is by FAR my worst event. I haven't been cycling very long and I just don't know what my body is and isn't capable of on the bike. But I have my game plan in place and I just tell myself some more mantras:

"IGNORE IT WHEN PEOPLE PASS YOU, JUST RACE YOUR RACE"
"CYCLE CAREFULLY, DON'T GET A FLAT"
"DON'T BE DISCOURAGED IF YOU GET A FLAT, JUST SUCK IT UP AND FIX IT. DON'T CRY YOU BITCH"
"EAT, DRINK, EAT, DRINK, EAT, DRINK"
"SAVE YOUR LEGS FOR THE RUN"

I'm hoping for just finishing the bike in under 4 hours. This is ridiculously slow, but that's my goal. I want to make sure I save enough leg strength for the run.

I start my ride around 9:40 am.

The 56 mile bike course

My nutrition plan is simple and I stay on track with it:

Drink every 10 minutes
Eat a power gel 10 minutes after each hour (10:10, 11:10, 12:10, etc)
Eat a whole power bar at 40 minutes after each hour (10:40, 11:40, etc).

I end up eating and drinking a lot and it worked great. I had energy the entire ride and I never cramped up or bonked. I ended up eating 4 whole power bars, 4 gels, a banana and probably 4 bottles of Gatorade on the ride. I didn't even need to pee once on the bike!

The bike felt really good. I let people pass and I kept on what was probably a 17 mph pace. Not fast, but I was happy with it. I remember reaching the 1/2 way point and thinking: "I feel great, 1/2 way done and I feel fresh and energized".

I keep cycling, literally having hundreds of people pass me. On the entire bike course, I probably only passed about 10 people. I was fully prepared for this to happen, so I just don't care. I feel good and I'm just hoping to finish without a flat.

At about mile 41, we hit Nasty Grade. It's the "famous" part of the bike long course. It's about a 2-3 mile stretch where you climb about 1000 feet. I calm myself down and just power up it. I actually manage to pass a few people on the ascent and I continue to feel good.

Check out the climb at Mile 41

After I made it up the grade, I was pumped. I knew the bike was mostly downhill from here . My main concern right now was: "Don't kill yourself or get a flat".

I whip down the hill of Nasty Grade and almost hit 50 mph. Frightening. Someone actually took a very ugly spill going down the hill and I felt for the guy and wished he was ok.

I start pumping my way towards the end of the bike and I realize that I am going to finish the bike in about 3 hrs and 30 minutes. I'm ecstatic. I never thought I would finish that quickly and I begin to think "Wow, I might break 6 hours and 30 minutes".

Yes...I was flexing for the camera. :)

Going into Wildflower, my main goal was just to finish. I also would have been happy with finishing in under 7 hours. My streeeeeeeeetch goal was to break 6 hours and 30 minutes. When I finished the swim and bike in about 4 hrs and 5 minutes, I realized I was probably going to hit my stretch goal!

Transition 2 - Bike to Run - 3 min 8 seconds
Transition #2 was pretty simple. Rack my bike, get off my cycling shoes, put on the running shoes, drink, eat a gel, eat a banana, apply sunblock, pop some advil, pack some gels for the run, throw on my hat and start running (I forgot to put my running # on!)

As I said in a previous post, I haven't run in 2 weeks becomes of shin pain. So I was a little nervous about how my legs might hold up. But they felt GREAT! I didn't even have that jelloy feeling of switching from cycling to running.

My legs felt fresh and my body felt energized, even after 4 hours of activity.

The Run - 13.1 miles - 2 hrs 9 min
I'm running out of the transition area and I see Nalin taking my picture. It totally lifted my spirits. I also see Monica and I give her a high five and I think I had a banana in my hand at the time. Sorry Mon :)

Yo Nalin!! I feel pumped!

I've run a couple of races in about 8 min/mile paces before. But I knew not to try and push it that hard for this run course. It's very hilly and my legs weren't in top shape. I told myself just to run at whatever I was comfortable with. And this turned out to be about 9.5-10 min miles.

The first few miles of the run are normally the worst for me. It's when your legs are just getting used to running instead of cycling and there is normally a lot of discomfort. However, my legs felt great! They felt better then they have in months and I felt extremely lucky. I couldn't help but to run with a smile on. There is no doubt in my mind that I am going to finish this race. And that was a great feeling.

Me in all my spandex glory - I swear, I hate the fact that my top is a belly shirt. For real...it's a LARGE!! I don't know why they make them like that...

At about mile 2 I stop to piss. I have probably finished drinking 72 oz of fluids in the last 4+ hours but I have not pissed once. I brace myself for what I know is going to be a painful piss.

OK, I don't know the science behind this, but whenever I go on long rides and don't pee, that first pee I take after a couple of hours screams with pain. Is my urethra dehydrate and the warm-flow of urine is a shock to it? I don't know. Doctors?

We hit some pretty rough trail hills on the run. My plan was to just keep running, even on the hills. I try running up one of the hills and realize I'm barely moving. I see people around me doing the same. Lots of arm swinging and leg moving, but we are moving at a craaawwwwwwwl. So I figured I might as well just walk up the steep hills and use the opportunity to stretch my legs.

Running the hilly trails

I think this was a great plan, because I wasn't really that much slower then the people "running" up the hills. I was a bit afraid I would lose any momentum I had and just want to keep walking, but that wasn't the case.

My nutrition plan was to eat a gel about every 40 minutes and drink Gatorade at every mile. I stuck to the plan and again I remained cramp and bonk free. Oddly, sticking to my nutrition plan is one of the things I'm proudest of this weekend.

I kept expecting to hit the wall during my run. I felt that during my first SF 1/2 marathon around mile 10. The last 3 miles were incredibly painful. I felt that during the Vancouver Marathon. My legs were in a ton of pain the last 2 miles.

But it never came. I just kept on running.

I felt like Forrest Gump. "Run Will Run" I could almost hear Jenny saying in my head.

I hit the 7 mile mark, where I was definitely expecting to feel bad. But I didn't! I only had 6 miles left. I told myself: "You run 6 miles all the time. This is just another 6 mile training run."

I look at my watch. Oh my god. If my math is right, I am going to break 6 hrs and 30 minutes! In fact, i might even hit 6:15! It's weird. When I realized this, I think I might have even slowed down a bit. I knew I was about to beat all my goals, so I told myself just to keep a steady pace, enjoy the scenery, smile and thank all the volunteers and great spectators shouting words of encouragement to me and not push it.

As I started running through the campgrounds with all the campers, triathletes and other people cheering I feel amazing. I'm smiling, my arms are pumping in the air and I literally feel the best I have running in months. No real pain or discomfort. Just a big fat stupid grin on my face. Special thanks to the amazing SF Tri Club group who cheered me on loudly as I raced by our camp site. More cowbell!!

I reached mile 12, and with only a downhill mile left, I'm not just grinning. I'm all out smiling. I have a huge shit-eating-teeth-bearing smile on. Patented rectangle smile and all.

I'm running into the chute before the finish and I see and hear a bunch of SF Tri Club people cheering me on. It feels amazing. I don't even really bother sprinting to the finish line like I normally do. I continue to just run my pace and enjoy the experience. The cheers, the sun, the crowd and the announcer: "And crossing the finish line, William Young from San Francisco".

I finish. I'm a 1/2 Ironman. Months of training, fear, doubt, angst are behind me.

I jump up and click my heels at the finish and I'm done (I think I got more air then I did at Alcatraz).

My Best Matrix imitation

I hi-five a bunch of my other Tri Club members who finished before me. They all look great and I'm happy to share my accomplishment with them.

I also see Nalin and Monica at the finish. These 2 were amazing. They drove all this way, spent the night at a hotel on Friday night just to see me race. They probably saw me a total of 4 times for about 2 minutes total. But the smiles on their faces when I finished meant the world to me. Thanks again guys. You're the best. I have much love for you both

Aftermath
I finished the race with no cramping and no real pain. I'm obviously tired, but I continue to feel great. I saw a lot of people cross the finish line and just collapse. Or at least completely cramp up and need to be assisted to the medical tent.

5% of me wishes I picked up my running pace to about 9 min/mile and finished the race about 10 minutes faster. But 95% of me is glad I raced the way I did and enjoyed every moment of it.

My good friend and training partner Merrill finished in 6:13:40. He beat me by just over a minute. This is pretty amazing considering we started at different times and never saw each other once. So it was not like we were pacing off each other and he just sprinted past me in the end.

As we recounted our races, we realized how he was able to beat me. Merrill pissed multiple times while riding. Literally. He didn't even whip it out. Just pissed in his shorts while riding. Barely slowing down. Merrill has a 9 year old kids bladder and he pee'd 4-5 times on the bike. If he stopped to pee each time, that would have probably added 2 minutes to his time and I would have beaten him. Hahahaha. Great job Merrill. We did awesome. Good luck at Lake Placid for your first Ironman.

Even as I write this 4 days later, I still feel euphoric about the whole experience. It was amazing and something I will always remember.

I don't really know what is next. Maybe Vineman. Or Escape from the Rock again. Or surf more. Or hit the gym more and put on some weight. Whatever. It doesn't matter right now. I'll figure it out.

Shout Outs
I wanted to really thank the many people who have supported me leading up to the tri.

SF Tri Club - You guys are the best. The training weekend at Lake San Antonio we had gave me all new levels of confidence, and the long weekend ride/run bricks did as well. Janelle and Richard going a couple of days early to set up ALL of our tents was even more amazing.

Merrill - my most regular training partner. Our emails on "I ran 8 miles yesterday, what did you do?" were a great constant motivator.

Nalin and Monica - again..thank you.

And all my friends who encouraged me along the way or checked in on me after the race: Schaubnuts, Aileen, Tushman, Eva, Alice, Doug T, Pat, Erica, Brandee, Vanessa, Shannph, Evan, Nik, Aaron, Lisa (thanks for an AWESOME pre-race care package), Grace, Elena (who even while chillin in India remembered to email me the day after to see how i did), V, Jason E, Doug, Sarah, Lynda and I'm sure a few other.

To my family..who didn't call or write before the race, and still has not called or emailed to see how I did...oh well. I'm too happy to be bitter.

Woo hoo! One 1/2 Ironman in the bag. Ironman Canada next year?

Finished my first Wildflower 1/2 Ironman triathlon!!

2006-05-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

Wooo hoo! Finished my first 1/2 Ironman Triathlon yesterday.

I finished with a time of 6 hrs, 15 min and 7 seconds.

As this was my first 1/2 Ironman, I didn't really know what my time would be. I would have been happy with sub 7 hrs and I would have been ecstatic if I brok 6 hrs and 30 mins. So finishing at 6 hrs and 15 min...wow.

Relatively, I finished 816 out of 1257 male athletes. Not a great percentile..but who cares! I finished! Wooo hooo!!

I'll post a full race report soon, but I wanted to let my friends know I'm alive and well and feeling great.

Peaking

2006-05-01T23:58:00.000-07:00

5 days before my big triathlon.

5 days before swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and running 13.1 miles.

And I feel great about it.

A lot of books I read about triathlon training talk about peaking at the right time. Not training too hard in the beginning so that you are worn down by the time your event comes, or not training enough before you realize it's too late, etc.

Although my training could have been better, I feel like my conditioning is really good right now.

My legs have still been bothering me a lot when I run, so my running is limited to once a week. This in itself does suck because my original training plan had me running around 3 times a week.

But whatever...

The last few weekends I did some big confidence building work outs.

3 weekends ago, I did a 60+ mile bike ride (Lucas valley/Nicasio) followed by a ~6+ mile run brick. It felt great. I was sore and tired, but I cranked through it.

2 weekends ago, Merrill and I did another ~60 mile bike ride (Paradise Loop + Marin Headlands + Legion of Honor + Ocean Beach) followed by another 6 mile run. Again, I felt great! My runs were ass slow, but who the f@ck cares. I finished, felt strong and I mentally feel great about Wildflower.

Wildflower is a hell of a lot harder ride then the 2 rides we did above. But I still feel good.

So much of endurance sports is mental. And I feel like I'm mentally ready to make Wildflower my bitch. F@ck whatever time I get. But I'm confident that I'll finish and that's what I care about.

Oddly, this peak in training has coincided with a dramatic increase in the amount I have been going out. In the last month+, I have been doing the Thurs-Fri-Sat-night-back-to-back-to-back going out trifecta almost every weekend.

In fact, this past weekend, Evan was in town and we went out Thurs-Fri-Sat-AND-Sunday night. I still did a couple of hung over works out on Sat and Sunday though (begin to taper down a bit, so nothing too intense).

Life is all about balance, and I love the fact that my body is letting me drink, hang and dance till 3 am and then still go out and exercise for 5+ hours straight. Woo hoo!

Who says life is over at 30? F@CK that...life just gets interesting. Well..especially when you are like me and have no real responsibility outside of my job, working out, keeping in touch with my family back home...and having fun as much as possible. Life is pretty entertaining.

*OK* This post was pretty cocky sounding. But that's what blogs are for, to brag when you're feeling good..to whine when you're feeling low. And I am feeling GOOOOOOOOD. So haters..you can lick my newly-shaved-for-atheltic-performance balls.

San Francisco's finest

2006-04-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in Starbucks, waiting for the work on my car to finish @ Tire Broker.

In front of me are 4 San Francisco parking and traffic employees. Yes, that's right, the fine civil employees who give us all parking tickets.

It's easy to hate these people right? But isn't it just their job? And you can't hate someone for making a paycheck and paying their bills right?

Well..maybe you can.

I wish I could take a picture of these 4 without them noticing.

They are all crowded at a table and they oddly brought their own tray of cinnamon buns. That's right..their own tray of cinnamon buns. And not just regular cinnamon buns. I mean the type of buns you get in the mall that are at least 1000 calories each.

And no wonder. Each of these workers are probably a good 40-50 lbs over weight. Apparently riding around in the parking cart doesn't burn a lot of calories.

I'm not saying you should hate these folks because they are overweight and on what looks to be a 1 hour "coffee break".

I'm saying you should hate them, because as they shovel cinnamon bun after cinnamon bun into their borderline obese bodies, they are recounting some of their favorite tickets they have given people.

"One time, I gave this guy a ticket when he was just a couple of inches inside a bus stop area. Boy was he pissed...hahahaha"

Bastards.

I'm never gonna dance again...

2006-04-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

I was at The Monkey Club last Saturday night. I like this place, it's cozy, has good hip-hop, strong drinks, and nice bartenders.

A rare occurence happened and a random girl asked me to dance *gasp*.

I didn't really want to dance, so I dropped this line:

I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm

She just stared at me. Confused.

That's what happens when you quote songs from the 80s to someone who is in their low 20s.

Karma

2006-04-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

My "check engine" light turned on for my Xterra a couple of days ago. F@CK.

It's oddly enough my first car, so I got a little paranoid about it and took it to the Nissan dealer.

On my way there I stopped to get some gas. I take off the cap on my gas tank and I see an empty potato chip bag stuffed in there! WTF? F'n parking on the streets of SF and the sh!t that happens.

I tell that to the mechanic and he says that a lack of a vacuum in the gas tank (caused by the crumpled bag) could have broken a sensor. But they needed to do a diagnostic check. Price tag just for the check? $200 bucks.

MOTHER F@CKING POTATOE CHIP WRAPPER!!

I leave my car there and get called back by my mechanic a couple of hours later.

Apparently, the KNOCK sensor is busted. Whatever the hell that is. The price tag to fix? $700+!! To fix a stupid sensor that the mechanic couldn't really properly explain what it was for. He also said I needed to replace my engine belts ($200+) and all my tires ($800+).

Great. Stupid car.

So why Karma?

On my way back from picking up my car I stopped at Burger King to grab a Double Whopper and 4 piece chicken nuggets.

It cost $4.64.

I gave the drive-thru guy $10.04. And I got $6 in change instead of the $5.40 I was suppose to get back. Not only that, I got 8 piece chicken nuggets by accident as well!

Wow. $1700 in car repairs. But I got 60 cents extra back from Burger King and 4 extra chicken nuggets.

Someone is really watching out for me.

MOTHER F@CKIN POTATO CHIP WRAPPER!!