Lover of trading, tacos, 3D/AR/VR, cryptos, and most things Japanese

Yesterday was kind of a blah day. I was kind of in a funk all day. I miss my bestie, who’s been unavailable recently. I didn’t work out, but I did go for a nice, hour-long walk with my sister, taking full advantage of the beautiful weather. So that was nice. I called the placement firm and told them my history, and they didn’t seem to think it’d be a problem. I also played in a poker tournament, had a great session, and finished second out of 87 entrants.

I was contacted by another recruiter, this time for a position at a media company which sounds like it could have a lot of potential, so I’m looking forward to learning more about that. I have to drive out to Lakewood today to do a UA, then hit the gym, then maybe go shopping for some new sneaks and shirts. Tomorrow I’m taking my son out to get some highway driving experience. We’ll head west, up into the mountains, and have lunch at this little cafe I discovered on one of my rides. It’s a quaint little hole in the wall, just off one of the side streets up near Evergreen. It’ll be good father-son bonding time and I’m looking forward to it. In one month he’s eligible to get his license! Kids grow up so fast, cherish every moment you get to spend with them, for sooner than you’d like, they’ll be off living their own lives.

I found this great little reminder in one of my mags about mindfulness that I’ll share:

“7 Things Mindful People Do Differently”

1. Approach everyday things with curiosity
2. Forgive their mistakes – big or small
3. Show gratitude for good moments – and grace for bad ones
4. Practice compassion and nurture connections
5. Make peace with imperfection – inside and out
6. Embrace vulnerability by trusting others – and themselves
7. Accept – and appreciate – that things come and go

I’ve had a lot of mindfulness training these past few years, and these things ring true. So much in this life is about perspective. I just shared a TED talk on happiness that talks about how the functioning of the brain is actually 37% more effective when in a positive state than a negative one. I’ve felt this for years, often being criticized as an overly-optimistic person, and now there’s research to back it up! 😉 Seriously though, the way we look at things makes all the difference. That’s why I’ve always chosen to find the silver linings in things. This does not mean one should ignore the bad stuff that happens, one needs to recognize, accept, process and move through that shit too. But keeping a positive perspective make it so much easier to deal with the hard times. Accept your reality, and take the steps you need to take to garner more of what you want out of life. As the Big Hitter himself, the Dalai Lama, says, “Cultivate a mindset of gratitude.” Be grateful for what you have, focus on that, rather than what you don’t have. Focusing on what you don’t have breeds negativity, which impairs the brain, and thus your life. Stay present and try to live life with each breath. Make the changes you want in your life happen. Commit to it. To paraphrase Goethe, all manner of things you could not have foreseen make themselves available to you when you commit to something. It’s yours for the taking, go get it! 🙂

I awoke naturally at 7:11 this morning, so it seems like my body clock needs me to go to bed at 11pm. I cheated and snoozed a bit, knowing that my alarm would go off in 20 minutes, I grabbed a few extra zees. 🙂

I had a little trouble going to sleep last night. I was excited about getting up and going spinning in the morning, plus I have an interview with a tech placement firm today, and I had had a particularly good evening play poker. That’s what I do in the evenings now. After a full day of work and working out, it’s nice to be able to kick back, relax, and challenge myself at the same time. Poker is very meditative for me, as I fold most of my hands, so there’s a lot of time for reflection while I wait for optimal spots to play. I’ve also stepped up my game, playing at the 1000/2000 level, and I find the players at that level are much better than at lower levels. It requires me to think, to calculate odds, to be mindful of when and where I choose to bluff. And I’m adapting to it – my game is getting better, more solid. If I were playing for real money, I would have made a million dollars last night. 🙂

This morning was all about getting on the spin bike. I got up and went to the gym, walked to the spin room in my socks, and set up the bike to fit me before putting on my new cycling shoes. (They have solid plastic soles with cleats and are very slippery to try and walk on floors in.) I had the spin studio to myself and fired up my new workout playlist to listen to while I started cranking away. I did foundation training, spinning at a steady rate, for most of the 30 minute session. I did do a couple standing climbs/intervals, just to get the feel for standing up and pedaling again and get my heart pumping a little harder. I considered taking the 9:30 spin class, but have that tech interview at 1pm and need to run an errand at noon, so I didn’t want to push things this morning.

Yesterday was about doing a bunch of client work, getting back up to speed on the site. I discovered an error in the code installation that requires me to set up FTP access for the developers to log in and investigate, and it took several hours to get the information I needed from the client, so much of yesterday afternoon was spent waiting. We finally connected and got the necessary info around 9pm last night, and today I get to deal with support tickets and that sort of fun before my interview. I also spent some time watching writing vids by Natalie Goldberg and a Creative Writing Master Class from Oxford University. I think I mentioned that I reconnected with the author, Barry, who’s going to collaborate with me to write the story of these past few years. Oh, and I’m going to be digging into code and getting those skills current after my interview later today. Working and learning is where it’s at these days… 🙂

Great news! I was discharged from the hospital on January 28th, 2015. My half-birthday, my re-birthday. After 2.75 years of hard work and long waits, I am free to get back to my life again. I took the end of last week, through the Super Bowl (Pats win!), as a last bit of vacation and hit the ground running yesterday.

I am getting shit DONE. I’ve done a ton of follow-ups, emails, organizing, and the like. I am back at the gym, on a new whole-body workout plan. I went to get my ears pierced again only to discover my holes had not closed up after all that time and just had to buy new hoops with captive balls to get back my “old look.”

The workout plan I’m on is a modified whole-body, six day split. I’m doing bench and squats on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, with cleans and cardio on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Sunday is a rest day. I will do this split through the month of Feburary, just to get the bod back in shape and used to working again, then I’ll probably shift to my usual five day split, with added cardio, to build a better foundation for cycling this summer.

I’ve had several interviews in the past week, and reached out via LinkedIn to find a good local IT recruiter. Within 12 hours I had a recommendation that I’ll be following up with later today, so things are starting to pop on the job front too. My time at Payback appears to be nearing its end, as I haven’t heard anything from them in over a month and it seems the contract won’t be renewed. My other client, CommunityEchos, has been patiently waiting for me, and I expect to wrap up that contract this week.

I have also reconnected with the author about writing my story. That’s the reason I haven’t put a lot of detail about my adventures here so far, we are working on what will be at least a series of articles that talk in depth about every aspect of what I’ve been going through these past years.

I’ve said goodbye to my friends at the hospital. There were congratulations all around, and even a couple calls to wish me the best and tell me what an inspiration I was. Those were great, completely melted me, and made me feel like no matter what else happened, I have had a positive impact on people’s lives. It’s a great feeling.

Alright, another busy day ahead, I’m off! More soon…