A new year

I used to not look forward to New Years, and all of the resolutions, planning, and excitement it brought. I thought my future was cloudy at best, without a lot of hope for an easier and more rewarding life. This notion started to change 15 years ago in Minneapolis. I remember telling myself in an alcohol induced reflection moment that the past was the past and I will only live in the future. Several days later I would meet the love of my life and would never look back again.

The uncertainty of things outside my relationship with Lorelei still existed, and slowly as our family grew and my career took off these uncertainties have dropped by to where I am today. I look forward to each and every day, week, month, and year. These new days bring new opportunities for love and growth.

Friday, January 1st, will bring with it a new list of resolutions:

1. Lose my remaining 30 pounds and get back to a healthy weight.
2. Find new employment that challenges me in a positive way.
3. Take our family on a vacation that is well deserved.
4. Take life on head first and use every presented opportunity to it's fullest.
5. Play with my kids more.

2009 had challenges that we overcame, but in 2010 we make our luck, and we kick ass!

peace
cd

Middle MicroManager

I have become what I despise, a middle manager. But it's worse! A micro middle manager. I have been managing the design and installation of our company's new website. I know next to nothing about web design or coding, but I have time and project management skills so it was assigned to me. I have been told to micromanage, in not so many words, the person doing the web site coding. Put a picture there, take a picture out here, change those words to red, leave these ones alone, etc.... It's maddening. You hired talented experts to do this job, let them do it.

merry christmas

cd

Plateaus

I've hit some plateaus, one induced, one I can't escape.

The first plateau, a self induced holding pattern at around 260 pounds. I lost 45 pounds as fast as I could this summer with a lot of biking, basketball, working outside, not eating everything in sight, and playing a lot with the kids. I got here in about three months. I've lost this 45 before, several times. There were always schemes involved, with some sort of false reward system in place. This time things would be different. I need to learn how to stay at a healthy weight (what I am now) before I start to lose some more (I could still lose 20 or 25 pounds). I've been here now for three months. Since the ground became white, my only exercise is friday basketball for around 75 minutes. This self induced plateau has been a good thing. I will never gain that weight back again. Ever.

The second plateau is at work. I work for a company with a hub and spoke management style. The hub makes all of the decisions, and the spokes are the rest of us. We have over 40 employees and they are ALL supervised by the President of the company. There is no vertical possibilities for anyone. The new year will start a new effort to find employment where plateauing isn't possible.

peace
cd

Awkward

How do you tell your boss that his writing stinks? I publish a bi-monthly newsletter that was my initiative. It was supposed to tell existing customers about new services and possibly attract new customers. Through my boss' efforts, it has moved to information dense material to a soapbox for fringe ideas, and it's making colleagues angry now. The writing is unprofessional, inflammatory, and goes against all of the paradigms of our industry.

I need a drink!

cd

Developments

Up late, watching "The Wackness", drinking beer, contemplating life.

Life is good, not what I expected, better than I expected, and getting better.

Getting nostaligic for times I never had.

The blog will be changing. At times it seems like Iam living a version of "The Office". I may be writing a bit of the shenanigans that go on at work. Managing the marketing at a biotech firm for a boss that doesn't understand how business works can be entertaining.

peace

cd

Change I Believed in

So I'm sitting here in Atlanta waiting for my exhibit to open. To kill the time I am watching a documentary on how Barrack Obama's campaing worked to get him elected. I remeber watching him during the race and getting really inspired. Inspired to see our country get better, inspired to see a President work hard for everyone, inspired to not have our country work unilaterally in the global political process. I voted for him because of how he made me feel.

A little more than one year from the day he elected I am concerned. The energy that surrounded him wherever he went is gone. The politics of divisiveness and selfishness are back.

I hope we as a country can find this energy again. We've navigated through the toughest economic setback in the last 70 years. In order to sustain this progress we must find the energy that sustained Barrack Obama's campaign. Energy that his agenda could not sustain.

I'm just sayin.

peace

cd

Update

It's been a while, but I've been busy. The weight loss continues, albeit at a slower pace. I now hover at around 260, and still am losing about a half pound per week. This makes me think I can sustain this when I am done. I just eat less than I used to, and I exercise more than I am used to. It may sound like a "duh" moment. I went old school and it works. I weigh myself every morning and every night, take a mental inventory of what I ate that day to make me heavier or lighter, and I try to adjust intake for the next day. I want to get under 250 by the end of the year and I should be able to get there without much effort.

I have been very busy lately. I was in Honolulu for business two weeks ago, I'm off to Atlanta next week, and maybe Albequerque in the spring. The job has been very busy but exciting. I am getting experience developing a marketing plan, creating marketing deliverables, working tradeshow booths, and I am about to start planning for a new building. Good stuff!

peace

cd