I try to have a minimal amount of crap on me at any given time. So… what do I have in my pockets right now?

• Keys - car key/fob and a keychain with home/garage/work keys.
• Cell phone - communication, calendar, time, etc.
• Money clip with $40 cash, driver’s license, Discover card, debit/ATM card, backup credit card, and movie theater reward card.

That’s it. I used to carry a wallet with endless amounts of crap in it, most of which I never need anyhow. I recently made the decision to get a money clip and take only what I use most often, and am liking the results so far.

Occasionally I carry a knife (you never know when it will come in handy), and I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a pocket-size, high power LED flashlight to carry, but I’m not sure if I’d get enough utility from it to justify carrying it.

Whew, a long overdue update. Since my last post, I’ve gotten my new bike on the road. I’ve put roughly 5000 miles on it, done the 12,000 mile service myself (oil/filter, rotate motor to change sparkplugs and inspect valve clearance, etc). I also had the bike with me at the Adirondack Buell Rally (great event, by the way).

My commute is shorter now. Due to some changes at work, we’ve moved our Albany office to Clifton Park. This cuts around 15 miles off my commute (each way) - and luckily, it’s these 15 miles that contain the horrible traffic and congestion during rush hour. This saves me around 30 miles of driving per day, and 30-45 minutes of time. This gives me more time, and a monetary savings of $50-$70/month at current gas prices, depending on what I’m driving.

In early May, I took a trip partially down the east coast on the bike with a friend. This took us through Atlantic City, Baltimore, and the surrounding areas - giving us casino time, time at Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags America, and a bunch of relaxing, riding, and seeing sights. It was fun and relaxing.

However, since the trip, I’ve been slacking off in going to the gym - some of this was being busy, some of it was being lazy. I also started eating like crap a little bit again, but nothing too horrible. I didn’t gain any weight back, rather, I maintained where I was at, so I’m not too disappointed. I finally got back to the gym tonight, and did a nice long workout to get back into things.

I plan on getting back into my routine of going to the gym a few nights a week. The 5-nights-a-week thing is a bit stressful, especially during the nicer weather when there are other things I want to do. A few nights a week is a nice balance, though. My goal is to drop some more weight, and then buy a new jacket and pants for the motorcycle - maybe the Spidi H2OUT Marathon set or something. An expensive set, so I want to meet my gym goal before dumping the cash.

Another ongoing goal is paying off my debt. I backpedaled a little on this, however. After I bought the new bike, I also bought a brand new Can-Am Outlander 650 XT, and financed it, giving me another $10,000 in debt. I did qualify for the promotional interest rate on the loan though, which is nice - 3 year, 3.9% interest, so that debt is not a huge deal at all to me. The big items are paying off the last couple thousand on my car, and paying off my loaded up Discover card before the 0% promotional period ends.

If you’re still reading this giant wall of text braindump, then kudos to you!

A quick post to throw down some random thoughts/updates.

First, on the gym front. Since my last update on this topic, back in early December, I’ve been going more-or-less every weeknight. My weight hasn’t gone down too much, however, I am definitely building muscle, and my body seems to be leaning out a little. Last month, I clocked in at 23.1% body fat - not too terrible, but definitely overweight. My goal is to bring this down a fair bit, and rather than looking at the scale, I’ve decided to gauge my progress via monthly body fat analysis at my gym. Once spring sets in, towards summer, I’ll be spending less time at the gym (to make time for summertime interests) - perhaps 2 or so days a week (albeit, with more intensity during the time spent there).

I’m happy with my progress so far. I’m going to continue training at the gym and pushing myself harder, and keep making attempts to eat healthier. One major health step I’ve made is to cut soda out of the majority of my diet - instead of being a go-to beverage, it’s now a treat to be had once every couple of days (instead of a couple times a day).

Second is the topic of dreaming. Lucid dreaming (or, more accurately, the goal of getting to the point of lucid dreaming) has been a goal of mine for quite some time. At one point, I was keeping a dream log to track my progress, but that didn’t end up faring too well. I may take another shot at maintaining a dream log (which would be a separate blog) - stay tuned for details on that.

I’ve just bought a new motorcycle as well. More details and pics on that will be posted shortly.

I’ve been doing a horrible job at blogging, as usual. I’ve gotten a head start on what would have (yet again) been a New Year’s resolution - going to the gym. I started going to a local gym with a friend - which is great, it gives somebody to work out with, somebody to be accountable to, etc. So I figured why not get started on what would likely end up being another New Year’s resolution - blogging more.

I’d like to attempt to write a blog post every night. That probably won’t happen, but it’s something to shoot for. Anything at least semi-regular would be nice. Anything goes here, programming, personal stuff, workouts, etc.

As far as the gym - my main goal is to lose some weight and get into shape. Bulking up a little bit is a secondary goal, but nothing I’m going to actively seek at the moment. I seem to have settled in around 200 pounds lately, and I wouldn’t mind dropping at least 50 of it (or less, depending on how much muscle I build, being that muscle weighs more than fat).

Wooters.us desperately needs some attention. This seems to be a recurring, tragic issue. It’s just hard to find the time to do it - I have so many other things I want to do as well.

And, on a closing note, I think I’m going to host a programming competition this month. I need to get in gear, and set up a site and everything for it, but I’m hoping for moderate success. There seems to be a void over at allegro.cc these days with Jakub gone, with nobody left to host ChristmasHack. So I’m planning on organizing ‘SantaHack’ to fill this void. More on that as it comes.

I haven’t posted a blog post in a while (almost a year, to be exact). Not sure why - the thought just never seems to cross my mind.

Not much has really happened over the last year. BAFIRC is more or less on the back burner, again. Wooters is in a gross state of neglect. It seems like I lose motivation to work on these things after working 40 hours a week. I did finish up with college, in December of last year, with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. I’ve continued on working at the company I began interning at a few years ago.

I miss programming as a hobby. Coding all day at work really drains on you. I don’t do much when I get home - I wish I did more coding, gaming, and such on my own time. The most gaming I’ve done in a while is playing Gears of War 3 for a while, but even that is something I haven’t done in a few days.

I think I need to start going to the gym. Not only to get into shape, but to give me something beyond computers to focus on, because, frankly, I seem to be losing interest. I’m considering finding something new to go back to school for, and I’m torn with wanting to work less and not wanting to earn less money. I may seriously consider working less and going back to school once I finish paying down my debt. I have around $20,000 or so in student loans, and I owe $9,000 on my car still - once those are gone, we’ll see where I go from there.