I just finished a 60-day workout routine known (accurately) as Insanity. This was a very tough couple of months, where I started out completely out of shape.
I joined a group of friends at the gym every weekday morning at 6am, which meant I had to drag my butt out of bed two hours earlier than usual - not easy, but I managed to make it happen.
The program is pretty tough. The first day, we were all worn out after about 10 minutes of what seemed like extreme training, only to find out that this was just the warm-up. Next came about 20-25 minutes of much more intense workouts. There were probably 4 or 5 different routines for that first month, all tough, but after the first month, I started to be able to handle most of it reasonably well.
But of course, that wouldn't last. Phase 2 started, which meant the 35 minute timer was now 55 minutes, and the exercises even more intense. After another month of this, the program is finally over.
The best measurement for me personally isn't in pounds or inches, but rather in what I'm capable of doing. The program includes a fitness test, which has you track how many of a set number of exercises you can do in a minute. We did this I think 4 times, and each time was a major improvement for me. At the beginning of the program, I was in horrible shape, hardly able to exercise for 5 minutes without collapsing. Now, although I don't have that 6-pack yet, I'm nowhere near up to the level of the people in the videos, and I'm still having problems doing some of the harder stuff, I'm significantly better than I was 2 months ago, which was the goal.
I considered quitting shortly after phase 2 started - it really is difficult, and it does hurt sometimes, and it would have been much easier to just give up. But after just a couple days off, I was right back into it, knowing that it would all be worthwhile, and it has been. I'm now considering what to do next after taking the next week off - either starting up the program again, or do something different like traditional cardio and weight training, or possibly getting in running shape for something like a half-marathon.
I'd never have even started, let alone finished, without the support of my friends. If you're going to start a workout program, I'd absolutely recommend doing it with other people - it made all the difference in the world. So thanks to Donte, Noel, and Tina for keeping all of us inspired to stick with it.
I received my new business cards in the mail last night. I went through hundreds of styles at VistaPrint and a few other business card sites, and eventually decided to go nice and simple.
As part of my quest to lose 50 pounds, I decided to try something crazy, and spent the last week seeing what life is like as a vegetarian. I'd call it a success, but I definitely won't be converting permanently.
I started last weekend - I didn't have any meat on Saturday, but it was just out of laziness instead of on purpose. As it often happens on the weekends, I didn't feel like cooking or leaving the house, which meant my meals consisted of what I happened to have in the kitchen - in this case, Raisin Bran, yogurt, and Triscuits with salsa. On Sunday, I decided to continue the trend and give the no-meat thing a try for a week. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I had a couple salads, some fruit, cereal, and carrots, and did just fine.
Tuesday night I cooked up a nice meal: brown rice, sauteed potatoes, an onion, a green and a red bell pepper, black olives, fresh corn, and a half a dozen spices and seasonings, topped with Pace Picante Sauce and lowfat cheese, in burrito form. This turned out really well, except it was a whole lot more than I was expecting. I figured it would last 2 or 3 meals, but it turned out to be 6.
Tonight I decided to try a portobello burger, something I've wanted to try for a long time but never got around to it. People say portobellos are very "meaty", and even though I've never believed them, I've always been a little curious. I tried Blu Burger in north Scottsdale (actually way north Scottsdale, just this side of Carefree), where I topped it with lettuce, tomato, sauteed onions, and included a side salad. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't even consider comparing the mushroom to meat. It was slightly less mushroom-y than regular mushrooms, but not enough to make me want it again. I also considered trying some fake meats like tofu or soy this week, but in the end decided against it - just not worth it.
So I proved that I can cut back on my meat intake without a whole lot of difficulty - but before this, I've already mostly swapped out beef for significantly less fat with white-meat turkey and chicken. It was a fun experiment, but I'm looking forward to a nice turkey sandwich or maybe a buffalo chicken caesar salad in the next couple days.
The diet's been moving kind of slowly since halftime - I'm up to 37 pounds gone over a total of 18 weeks, but only about 11 pounds in the last 11 weeks, even with the added exercise and the vegetarian week. But at this pace, I'm expecting to hit my goal by around November, and we'll see where it goes from there.
Date: 2011-07-29 22:25:00
Name:
Terry V (via Facebook)
It's like I don't ever know who you are anymore!
Date: 2011-07-29 22:27:00
Name:
Joe Enos
If I could eat 5 pounds of meat every day and not gain any weight, like I did back in high school, I totally would. Stupid old age.
Date: 2011-07-29 22:29:00
Name:
Melissa E (via Facebook)
Please come and teach my husband a lesson or two! At least let him see that you ate lettuce and lived to tell about it ;)
Date: 2011-07-29 22:49:00
Name:
Joe Enos
There's always hypnosis - you've seen the Veggie-Boy episode of Cheers, right?
Date: 2011-07-30 01:19:00
Name:
Wendy E (via Facebook)
You ate a mushroom???!!! Wow ... I'm proud of you!
Date: 2011-10-14 07:14:51
Name:
Ronnie H (via Google+)
Hey, Joe... Check out myfitnesspal.com. Its a great weight to track what you eat, calories, carbs, and protein. You can also input your exercises track how many calories you burn.
Date: 2011-10-14 07:15:29
Name:
Joe Enos
That looks pretty awesome - I'll give it a try. Thanks
No red meat was pretty easy - I really like chicken and turkey, so I was able to survive without a problem with no burgers or steaks. Not that I don't love beef, but as long as there are plenty of tasty meat choices, I can live without it. Pork was still allowed, but I tried to keep that to a minimum.
I've given up soda before for about a year or so, which only ended because it's just so darn convenient. It's not always easy to find iced tea or other moderately healthy non-carbonated drinks that taste good, or decent drinking water. But I've managed to put in a little effort to get back to a mostly-water routine, with some iced tea, juices, and things like Vitamin Water Zero.
For my desserts rule, my exception was small pieces of dark chocolate. I've been buying the Lindt extra dark chocolate from the grocery store, and having a couple squares every night - it's very reasonable when it comes to fat and calories, provides health benefits, and generally makes it easier to avoid the big ice cream cakes, cheesecakes, pies and other good stuff out there.
Deep-fried foods was probably the toughest. There are a lot of times when deep-fried stuff makes up the majority of the menu. I love Americanized Chinese food, which is mostly fried stuff (orange chicken, sweet and sour pork, sesame chicken, etc.). Chick-fil-A's signature chicken sandwiches, strips, nuggest, and fries fall in this category, so I've stayed away from there. But I've held true to this rule, sticking with places like YC's Mongolian Grill, Samurai Sam's, and Subway, in addition to making my own simple meals like ground turkey soft tacos, turkey sandwiches (using a wide variety of turkey styles from the grocery store deli), and cereal, sometimes with berries added.
In general, I've been making smarter choices as well. I've tried to have at least one or two salads per week, my favorite being the buffalo chicken ceasar salad (without the caesar dressing) at Babbo Italian Eatery. I've looked for foods with light sauces like olive oil, balsamic vinegar, or hot sauce, rather than heavy cream, butter, or sugar based sauces like alfredo or barbecue sauces. I've kept greasy foods like pizza down to a minimum.
For my halftme break, I'm planning a week or so of food that I've been off for awhile (in moderation), including a steak (which I had yesterday), Chick-fil-A sandwich, some Chinese food, and BBQ brisket. For this week, I'm starting a routine of walking a couple miles every morning, which will continue and turn into jogging, and eventually running, as I start to get myself back in shape. It's been probably 14 years since I've been able to run more than about a quarter of a mile without feeling like collapsing.
Part two will start in a week or so, and will incorporate light exercise, which will hopefully keep the pace of weight loss going at a few pounds per week. In addition to the walking/jogging/running, I'm planning on starting up light weight lifting again, just 10 minutes or so per morning at first. I like the four food rules I've been using, so I think I'll stick with that, except I'll give myself a "cheat day" each week for BBQ beef, a dessert, a burger, or something else so I don't go crazy. With any luck, I'll get these next 25 pounds off in no more than another 2 months, and we'll see where things go from there.
A couple days ago was the 10th anniversary of my last day at Montgomery Ward, my first real job. I started on May 11, 1998, making $6/hour, when I was 16 years old.
I started in Merchandise Pick-Up at the Chris-Town Mall location, where I stayed for a little over a year, before moving to Mesa near Fiesta Mall, and was promoted to human resources specialist, with various other duties.
A couple days after Christmas 2000, the announcement was made that Wards would be shutting down permanently. Each store was to sell its remaining merchandise and close the doors - my store lasted until March 24th, 2001.
Here are some of my memories about the place:
- Once in a while, on a slow day, I used a secret I learned about the phone switchboard, to prank call two phones in the store connected to each other, and listen to the results (always confusion, sometimes hilarity).
- In the Christmas rush of 1998, Lin Sue Cooney from Channel 12 News came in to buy a Furby, which I rang up. This was the most famous person I ever met at the time.
- I was almost fired once for telling a customer to move her car. She pulled her car up on the sidewalk, and the loss prevention officer called to tell me to tell the customer to move her car, which I did. Apparently, I was not tactful enough, and my store manager wrote me up.
- For a stretch, I was working 6 days a week every week, including open-to-close Saturday and Sunday, while still going to school. This partially explains how my grades slipped a little and how I didn't have much of a social life in high school.
- I had many roles to keep me busy: merchandise pick-up clerk, phone operator, business office clerk, receiving associate, human resources specialist, new employee trainer, register repairman, copier repairman, cash office clerk, neighborhood solicitor, small electronics salesman, special stock team lead, graphic designer, and sign-hanger-upper (that's a technical term) - this was actually very scary, working with a wobbly 15-foot ladder, hanging up heavy plastic signs.
- In 2000, Wards spent several million dollars giving away prizes to random shoppers, in the hopes that it would attract new customers. In the end, we gave away $6 million in prizes, a lot more to spokesmonkey Regis Philbin, and didn't see a dime from new customers.
- Sammy Sosa, the steroid-abusing, skin-bleaching home run hitter, with his incredible grasp for the English language and perfect American accent, was our spokesperson for awhile, attempting to follow in the footsteps of Scottie Pippen and Mike Ditka, two sports heroes that people actually liked and respected, and still think fondly of today.
- I learned a valuable lesson about executive management, how they'll lie and cheat in order to do what's best for their paycheck. This has helped to keep me skeptical in companies I've worked for - not all executives were dirtbag liars, but some of them were, and my experience at Wards has helped me to spot them.
- My store manager in Mesa was an interesting personality. He had the absolute worst handwriting I've ever seen (below is a task list he gave me once). He called everybody "Buppy". He insulted people behind their back. And he was just generally abrasive and annoying most of the time. But in spite of the many things I didn't like about him at the time, he saw something in me, and gave me the opportunities to advance. I didn't realize at the time, but this was an important step in my personal growth, helping to give me the confidence I now have in my career to continue moving up.
- There was a giant Grand Opening sign in a backroom somewhere from the time the Mesa store originally opened. As the store was closing, the team was going to give it to the employee with the longest tenure at the store (I think it was over 20 years), but she couldn't take it. So instead, they gave it to me, after many of my co-workers left me messages, including "Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?"
- As the HR representative of the store, I was responsible for ensuring everybody's timesheets were completed and that they were paid correctly. On the very last day, after clocking out, I processed the final employment termination paperwork and submitted my own separation from the company, the final non-management employee in my store, and the last one out the door.
My boss's task list for me:
And here's a cheesy training video - I had to show this tape to every new employee, so it's probably been viewed a couple hundred times - sorry for the lousy quality.
As we commemorate the 234th birthday of the United States of America, I think it's important that we take a minute and remember what we're celebrating. It wasn't easy to form our own nation, as the Revolutionary War proved. But George Washington, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln stood their ground and bravely fought off the British invasion to ensure that America (or Texas as it was known back then) would be free for centuries to come.
On June 17th, 1775, George Washington, John Adams, John Hancock, and a young Ronald Reagan met in Des Moines, Iowa (the nation's first capital city) to discuss the dispute regarding the taxation of trade routes by the greedy British Trade Federation, who stopped all shipping to the small port of Naboo. Washington, known to his friends as "Big George", came up with a plan to stop England's policy of "taxation without representation" that had been in place for several years. After months of planning, Big George's concept became reality. He spread the word across the colonies, and by March 1776, it was a success: everyone just stopped paying their taxes.
Unfortunately, when April 15th came around, the British IRS began to notice that no tax returns from across the pond had been delivered. At first, they just thought there was a problem with the post office - after all, we had just gotten past Sears Catalog season, and the postal workers were tired and starting to show signs of disgruntlement. But after a couple more months, the government came to realize that they weren't going to pay. This upset Her Majesty the Holy and Beloved High Queen Lizzy the First, who wasn't going to let some pissant colonists get away with such a brash action. She immediately ordered aerial bombing of the colonies, a move that seemed a little premature, especially since airplanes wouldn't be invented for over 120 years. The House of Commons immediately took steps to impeach Lizzy and replace her with King George, known to the American people as "Little George".
Washingon, Adams, Edison, and a unanimous Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, declaring once and for all that a united and non-partisan government in America would live and flourish forever. In response, Little George's first official act in office was to stop the American uprising and regain the trust and love for England that they had lost during the last few decades. In order to accomplish this, George did the most sensible and reasonable thing he could think of - he negotiated a peace and partnership that would provide both countries with stability and strength. Just kidding! He bought a bunch of Hessian thugs to come over and kill as many Americans as they could. In addition to these mercenaries, Georgie sent over a bunch of redcoats (so called because of their ties to Communist China) to fight for the crown and prevent freedom and representative government that was spreading like a plague among the colonies.
America had only a small organized army - the majority of the fighters were ordinary people who used everyday ordinary tools, like pitchforks, shovels, and baseball bats to hold off the British troops. Luckily, when the first British weapon caches were being packed, a typo on the requisition orders gave the colonists a slight advantage. Originally, each troop of 100 soldiers was supposed to have 1 trumpet and 99 rifles. Instead, upon opening their suitcases, they discovered that they had 1 rifle and 99 trumpets. The soldiers, with nothing better to do on their long marches, decided to play their trumpets anyway, while lined up 2-by-2 like targets, so it was pretty easy to tell when a group of redcoats was on the way. And since it took an average of 45 minutes to reload their one rifle between shots, the Americans were able to defeat these troops pretty easily. This luck didn't last, as future troops were more prepared for combat, leading to a long and bloody war.
The war lasted for several years, with many casualties on both sides, with battles on the ground and sea, and foreign alliances on both sides. Eventually, with no other alternatives available, Big George travelled to Yorktown, Pennsylvania, to take on General Charles "Creamed" Cornwallis, in a one-on-one cage match to decide the winner of the war. The fight lasted 12 rounds, with both contestants exhausted by the end. Washington just wanted it more, and by the end, he was the last man standing. News of the defeat made it back to England about a year later (internet speed was very slow back then - it took an average of 3 months just to send an email from Virginia to Georgia, so you can imagine how long it takes to get a message across the ocean), and a year after that, the last British troops left American soil, finally officially recognizing it as American soil.
After a few false starts, a united government, broken into three branches was formed, with President Big George leading the way. The new U.S. Constitution defined the legislative branch as the houses of senate and representatives, and defined the judicial branch into two groups as well: the group that has 4 people that vote one way on every issue, and the group that has 5 people that vote the other way on every issue. Over the years, various political parties have been born and retired, such as the Federalists, Whigs, Anti-Masonics, Pro-Masonics, Know-Nothings, Know-It-Alls, Greenbacks, Jeffersonians, Fillmorians, Rutherfordians, and the Flat Tax party.
The prosperous and free United States that exists today only exists because of the courage and strength of our founding fathers over 200 years ago. The 4th of July is a time when we can all think about some of the great things that this country has done since its beginning: many of the greatest scientific and medical advances in the world, saving the world from multiple power-hungry dictators in WWII, and of course, Chuck Norris. I'm proud to be an American every day.
A few months ago, I received a notice from my wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless, that they were shutting down their SMTP Mail Relay service. The shutdown occurred on August 29th.
If you're unfamiliar with SMTP, basically it's the standard that is used to send email through the internet, and requires a server that allows you to send your message (I won't get into the details, mostly because I don't know all the technical details of how it works). Normally, your ISP provides an SMTP server that you can send messages through, even if you are not using that ISP as your sending address - for example, the email address I use is joe@jtenos.com, but I send all my outgoing mail through smtp.west.cox.net when I'm at home.
Cox, my ISP, which is one of the largest providers in the country and likely the most popular ISP in the Phoenix area, does not allow you to use their SMTP server unless you are on their network, which means I can use it when I'm at home, but not from another network, such as my cellular network. This means that when I'm using my cellular phone for email, I cannot send messages using the mail client on the phone, because I can't use Verizon anymore, and I don't have another alternative.
Of course, there are alternatives, and Verizon is only too happy to tell you what you should be doing:
"Verizon Wireless considered this service, along with the needs of our customers, and decided that there are better alternatives for our customers than the SMTP Mail Relay Service."
"If your email provider does not permit you to use its SMTP mail server, other solutions include browser-based email access; check with your email provider for availability."
So I'm paying a premium for internet access on my cellular phone, signed a two year contract with Verizon with the understanding that I would actually have internet access, and with only a couple months notice, Verizon takes away one of the fundamental parts of the internet, the ability to send email, and tells me: Oh by the way, you should be using WebMail - you can receive mail using the mail client on the phone, but you can't reply to it or forward it.
Obviously Verizon is looking to cut costs by removing one of their services, saving on their hardware and overhead costs. In the long term, I'd have no problem with this if they did it the right way - if they phased out their SMTP service over a period of a couple years, and either started to charge a monthly fee or stopped offering the service on new customers and grandfathered out their existing customers at the end of their contract, it would be fine - customers like me simply would not buy their service and go elsewhere. But the fact that they stole a basic service from their existing customer base with a very short notice is absolutely unacceptable to me.
This is in my opinion the definition of a breach of contract. I signed up with Verizon for two years with the understanding that I could send and receive emails on my phone - now I can't. It would be like if they suddenly decided that you can't have call waiting or voicemail - it's a fundamental service that they had no right to take. I talked to Verizon's customer service, and received nothing but ignorance and arrogance - they pretended to know nothing about the problem, saying that it should still work, or that I can use Cox, or that I should use WebMail. I'm at the point where I'm giving up, and will be forcing them to end my contract early, with no penalty, and switching to AT&T or Sprint, where I would not be ripped off.
The absolute worst part of this change, in my opinion, is the "we know what's best for you" attitude taken by Verizon, as demonstrated in their letter, where they explain why they made this change:
"As part of our commitment to ensure that our customers are provided with the best possible user experience"
In other words, we're taking away a service, not reducing our price, and you're going to like it. I'm not buying their garbage, and I hope more people follow in my footsteps and leave.
Don't go to Sprint. They already did this 12/31/08. (see http://www.sprint.com/landings/pcsmail/)
I have Cox, too. They could easily allow us to send email over their SMTP servers. Our phones can be programmed so that they transmit our Cox User Names & Passwords so that only legitimate mail goes over the Cox server.
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I recently adopted two new cats from the Humane Society. After the first week with my new kitties, I really couldn't be happier.
When I first brought them home, they seemed only to be interested in fighting with each other - not real fighting, just kind of an "I don't like you" attitude along with some hissing and batting. I needed to name them, so I was trying to think of male and female TV or movie characters who were excellent at fighting, and came up with Vinny and Lisa from My Cousin Vinny (on a side note, here's one of my favorite scenes from the movie: My Cousin Vinny Deer Hunting). In the pictures, Lisa is first up, followed by Vinny. Both are domestic short-hair cats, both very playful, and while they're still getting used to their new environment, both seem to be very happy here. Lisa's just under a year old, birthday on September 10, 2008, and Vinny is about 2 years old - the previous owner didn't have an exact date, so I decided to give him a birthday of the day I picked him up, so it's August 22, 2007.
The first few days, I kept them locked up in my spare bedroom, for a few reasons. First, I needed time to get my house prepared - get the breakables out of reach, move some important things out of harm's way, etc. Second, I wanted to keep their new environment simple, with their food, water, and litter box within easy access, so they's get used to it more quickly. Third, I wanted to kind of force their disagreements out in the open - being trapped in a small space together forces them to accept that they live together.
Well, my house still isn't clean (if you know me, you know I'm a complete pig who, when my house is too dirty to live in anymore, I just move), but it's better now. On Wednesday evening, I let them out into the house. One of them, not sure which, decided to pee on my bed on Wednesday night. Not the best thing to happen on the first day, but I'm hoping it was a one-time thing. Each day, they've been gradually nicer to each other, and so far yesterday and today, I haven't seen them hiss or fight at all - a little chasing, but that actually looked more like playing rather than real fighting, which was great to see.
On Tuesday, I took them to the vet for their initial checkup. Both were running fevers, and the vet administered some antibiotics to cover a suspected infection. Both have coughed and sneezed some this week - the vet said that I should give it a week or so to run its course before worrying, so I'm hoping that this is just one of those things that clears up soon.
Well, that just about covers it - life is a lot more interesting now that I'm responsible for other living things - this is a first for me. I've always intentionally avoided taking responsiblity for anyone else - it's just easier not to ever have to worry about anything but yourself. But I think this was the right move for me - might be a little more work, but the love and attention they've given me this past week makes it worthwhile. But in case you're wondering, I still haven't changed my mind about kids - I guarantee that I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever have children - that's just a little bit too much for me...Cats are enough.
This weekend marked the beginning of the most ridiculous concept ever created: Daylight Savings Time. I live in Arizona, one of only two states in the U.S. smart enough to avoid this lunacy (Hawaii is the other one). Parts of Indiana used to have some intelligence, but apparently they gave in to peer pressure a few years ago and decided to start screwing with their clocks like everyone else.
I hear so many arguments for why Daylight Savings is such a great idea, but none of them make any sense at all. Apparently all of them are based on the idea that more sunlight is a good thing, so we should be awake for it. So you move your clocks forward, meaning you're awake for the entire time that the sun is out, instead of sleeping through some of it.
If the sun is out for 10 hours in the winter, and 14 hours in the summer, then you're already getting 4 extra hours of sunlight per day in the summer, compared to the winter. Some of that you probably sleep through, but the sun is out a good two hours longer in the evenings. But if you're in a stupid state (a.k.a. not AZ or HI), the sun is out three hours longer in the evenings - 8:30, even 9:00pm.
Isn't two extra daylight hours enough for these people? Why do they need another extra hour at night? Nature makes things very simple - in summer, the sun is out longer than it is in winter. That's a fact. If you believe that light is better than dark, then that means there's something "wrong" with winter, not with summer. Why are people using the wrong time for 8 months (that's right - a full 2/3 of the year) each year, during the months that there is already naturally more sunlight than the other 4 months?
My one goal in life is to rid the world of this ridiculous epidemic of stupidity once and for all. Please join with me and fight against this absurd tradition.
@Crisatunity: Now that I look at it, I think you're right. Maybe I should go into the guitar-selling industry. It would be easier than building a new logo...
There's a fun site out there called "Hey, It's Free!", where they provide freebies a few times per day for various products and services. They filter out all the garbage and publish only legitimate links to offers - from coupons to food to magazine subscriptions to books to just about anything else you can think of. Most freebies require some kind of registration, but it's typically just a couple of quick pieces of information - name, address, email, and maybe one or two questions. And since most of the freebies are from large reputable companies, you don't have to worry about spammers or other unscrupulous activity.
Another free site I like is http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/. They offer one licensed software a day. A lot of it serves me no purpose, but every now and then there's a gem in there.
The Dark Knight: An excellent movie - in my opinion, it should sweep the Oscars. The best non-comedy movie to come out in a very long time.
Get Smart: A fantastic reimagining of one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
Television:
The one new show that stood out for me was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which debuted in January. The show has been a pleasant surprise - it doesn't exactly follow the story or theme of the movies, but it is an exciting and fun show.
Strong seasons from my other current favorite shows: House, Bones, and Chuck.
The return of 24. The series resumes in January 2009, but there was a sneak peek in November in the form of a TV movie called Redemption. The upcoming season looks like it will be as good as the previous 6.
A few interesting things happened to me personally in 2008:
This blog started in May 2008, and it has been a lot of fun to maintain. It's been a great experience from a software development perspective - I wrote the entire thing from scratch instead of using a commercial product like Blogger or WordPress, and I'm continuing to come up with new ideas to improve the design and functionality. During the election season, I saw a huge jump in visits, and was the #1 Google search result for a number of local races - an incredible feeling to know that I played such a role in the election process.
I decided to start taking college courses again, for personal enrichment and potentially useful life skills. I started in the Fall 2008 semester, and I have decided to continue taking one class per semester indefinitely.
In September, I was promoted to Software Development Supervisor of my department at work. The day-to-day job didn't really change, but it gave me a formal leadership role over my product, and the knowledge that my company's management trusts my judgment in software development decision-making.
In November, I bought a house. So far, things have been great.
New Year's Resolutions are usually a complete waste of time - statistics show that only a small percentage of resolutions are actually kept throughout the year. But I do have a few goals that I'm setting for 2009:
Learn the new .NET 4.0 Framework. I'd like to stay on top of new technology as it's released.
Get back into Java development. I've started a few small programs, and even though it's not part of my current job, Java experience is a great thing to have.
Learn at least the basics of a few new languages. I'm interested in Ruby, PHP, and Haskell right now, but I haven't decided if those are the ones I want to learn. But learning some specialized languages can only help my software development career.
A personal goal: to continue living healthier than I have in the past. Over the past several months, I've lost 45 pounds and feel much healthier than I did just six months ago. I'd like to continue losing some more weight through smarter food choices and some exercise.
If you are interested in making a New Year's Resolution of your own, check out the Resolution Randomizer (Silverlight required).
It's been awhile since I've been able to post anything - I recently moved, and most of my free time has been spent on the move. Everything has gone very smoothly, and I'd like to thank all the companies and people I worked with - most are local to the Phoenix area:
Kate Teske at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage: Kate was my real estate agent for this purchase. I worked with her in the past, and was impressed with her service. Within a couple days of contacting her, we were already looking at dozens of houses that met my search criteria. When we found the house, Kate worked hard to get me the best deal possible, and ensure that I wouldn't be walking into any surprises. Highly recommended if you're in the market to buy or sell your residence.
State Mortgage: My loan went through a mortgage broker, State Mortgage. My loan officer, David Krushinsky, provided outstanding service getting the application started, getting the best rate and program for me, and following through until closing. My loan processor, Sophia Miller, did an excellent job keeping me informed and involved as the loan went through the underwriting and closing stages. I will always go through State Mortgage for all future mortgages, and I absolutely recommend that you call David before signing on with any other broker, lender, or bank.
First American Title: I didn't work much with my escrow officer, Vicki Van Zanen - but I was impressed with what I saw. Closing went off without a hitch, and all of the financial stuff went smoothly.
Arizona Discount Movers: I had to move a piano, which is a little too delicate to move on my own, so I had to find a professional who knows what they're doing. While they were at it, they handled the large furniture as well. The movers were very professional, and did an excellent job in a reasonable amount of time.
Johnson's Cleaning: Cleaning has never been one of my strengths. Since I was renting my previous house, I needed to make sure the place looked good when I returned it to the landlord. Johnson's Cleaning cleaned the place up very nicely, for a very reasonable price.
Sears (Desert Sky Mall): The house didn't come with a washer and dryer, so I had to buy those myself. The sales guy, Don, was extremely helpful in giving me the information I needed to make an informed decision on the appliances, giving me straight talk instead of a sales pitch.
DirecTV: DirecTV had a special for new customers, which will save me a couple hundred dollars over the next year, and then will even be a little cheaper than I was getting with cable. It took awhile to schedule installation, but when the day came around, the technician did a great job.
Overall, I couldn't be happier with the way the past month has gone. It's been a lot of work, but since we're at (hopefully) the bottom of the housing crisis, it's a great time to be a homeowner - things have nowhere to go but up, and with any luck, the house will appreciate considerably in the next 4 or 5 years.
Last week I started my Linux class at Mesa Community College. It meets twice a week, 4 hour sessions, for 8 weeks, so I'll be keeping busy for the next couple of months. So far we haven't done much more than an introduction to the operating system and the open-source industry, but I'm expecting a lot more in the next few sessions. The class is supposed to be a decent foundation toward Linux certification, so hopefully it will get significantly more intensive soon. I'll give a full review of the class after it's over in 7 weeks.
I graduated with a bachelor's degree from Arizona State in 2003. I've thought about graduate school a few times in the last 5 years, but decided against it, at least for now. A master's degree just wouldn't do a lot for me in my current career path. Instead, I've decided to take some classes for personal enrichment and general studies, starting with this Linux class. I'd like to take some subjects that I missed out on in college, like US history, biology, chemistry, physics, and a few non-academic classes like cooking (so I can actually cook something other than Hot Pockets), singing (so I don't sound horrible when I sing along in the car), and shop (so I'm not completely helpless around the house).
I figure as long as I stick with lower-level classes, and only one class per semester, it will keep me occupied, without the headaches I had back in my last two years at ASU. For parts of 2002 and 2003, I was working full time (plus more sometimes), and going to school full time with only upper-level classes - not a fun experience, and not something I want to do again.
I have rebuilt my personal website, http://www.jtenos.com/. The color scheme now more closely resembles this blog. In addition, the entire back-end application has been redesigned and rewritten to use newer and better technologies than before. I won't get into the details, but you'll notice some nicer looking things like virtual message boxes instead of real ones, faster response time, and a general cleaner feeling. Also, the Silverlight has been removed, since I never really was able to implement it properly.
I expect to work on boosting the performance further, in addition to adding more functionality, including Silverlight, in the near future.
If you have any issues with the new site, please contact me.
I came across an interesting lecture from Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law. The lecture is on why no one (specifically a suspect or potential suspect) should ever talk to the police during an investigation - they should instead exercise their Fifth Amendment rights, and remain silent. The audience for the lecture were law students, so the arguments are made from the perspective of a criminal defense lawyer.
The lecture obviously holds true for guilty people - they may say something to incriminate themselves or provide information that the police wouldn't have otherwise obtained. But the real interesting stuff comes when you discuss innocent people. Probably the best argument is that no matter what the situation, it cannot help you to talk. They can use your words against you, but using your words in your favor would be hearsay, and therefore inadmissable in court. There are several other reasons, all of them good, for not talking to the police.
The second half of the lecture comes from a police officer who was there to give another opinion, from a different point of view. He gives away some of his interrogation secrets, like lying to the suspects in order to get them to admit to something "off the record", when in fact nothing is off the record. The overall theme of his lecture was that Professor Duane is absolutely correct. In the end, talking to the police is great for the police, and never good for the suspect.
I've never really been interested in law before, but this was a very interesting and informative set of lectures. The first lecture was 27 minutes, and the second was 21 minutes - I believe it's well worth the time to check it out.
I'd like to discuss something that's bothered me for years: When nearsighted people look in a mirror at something far away, why is it still blurry?
I'm not alone with this question - I googled the topic and found many "experts", all who say the same thing: some nonsense about how the light travels just as far regardless of whether or not you're using a mirror, so nearsighted people still can't translate the angle of the light properly, so it's still blurry. Very convincing arguments, with lots of fancy pictures, but for some reason I just don't buy it. I'd like to offer an alternate explanation. I don't actually believe this - but it's kind of a fun thought experiment.
Premise Your eyes don't receive light; they actually shoot out rays of something that bounce off objects, then reflect back to the eye, like radar. When you look directly at something, the rays from the center of your eye are strong, and get progressively weaker toward the edge of your eye. Your brain receives each of these rays, and interprets them. Sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? But it answers a few questions:
Why do nearsighted people still see blurry images when looking in a mirror? Answer:Nearsightedness occurs when there is a flaw with the eye - I don't understand all the physics behind it, but it's not important for this discussion. When you look at something, the outgoing "eye rays" don't go out properly, and therefore the image is blurry when the rays bounce back to your eye. When looking at a mirror, the ray goes out your eye already flawed, bounces off the mirror, bounces off the target, then back to the mirror, then back to your eye. It started off bad, and is returned bad.
Why does it hurt to look directly at the sun, but you can look a tiny bit off without a problem? Answer: When looking directly at the sun (or a bright light), the outgoing eye rays are overpowered by the light, and there is feedback, which is painful. When you look near, but not directly at it, the strong rays coming out of the center of your eye are no longer focusing on the sun, so they don't get any feedback. The ones that are pointed directly at the sun are weaker rays, and therefore the feedback doesn't affect them as much.
Problems Some problems with this theory follow:
If light doesn't actually work the way everyone thinks, how do cameras work? Answer: Cameras and video cameras must shoot out rays of their own - similar but different from natural vision. This happens without the camera designer knowing it - the process of receiving light has a side effect of shooting out these rays.
Why can't we detect these rays? Answer: Unknown. There are things that we just can't scientifically explain yet, but we learn new things every day, and we may just be able to detect these rays someday.
How can you see things incredibly far away, if the ray originates from your eye? Wouldn't it take a long time for the ray to get to its destination and back? Answer: For this to work, the ray would have to travel at incredible speeds, much faster than the speed of light. Possibly even instantaneously.
Conclusion This theory is full of holes, but it was fun to come up with. It reminds me of the "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?" discussion, except with vision instead of sound. In this theory, if no one is there to see something, then there's nothing to see. There's still "light", but with no one or thing to shoot out the eye rays, there's no visual representation of the object. It's a nonsense theory, but it does explain the original question about mirrors and nearsightedness, and that was the whole point.
If you have an alternate theory, even a ridiculous one, on the mirror problem, other than the accepted scientific one, please let me know.
Isn't Phoenix great? Two days ago it was close to 110 degrees - very hot for most of the country, but the start of an average summer here in the valley. Today it didn't even approach 70 degrees. And when I got home, a huge storm hit for only a few minutes, and the ground was covered in hail. And we'll be back over 100 in less than a week.
Date: 2011-12-23 18:30:00
Name: Mike E (via Facebook)
I watched the video but totally missed you. Which one are you?
Date: 2011-12-23 18:34:00
Name: Joe Enos
I went by an alias, they called me "Shaun T".