Malweth’s Metablog

I hope to be back on my blog now. My goal is to update once a week or more. There’s plenty of things going on in my life now for me to write about here.

Education

News

I talked about studying for the CCIE at one point. That’s fallen to the wayside in favor of a graduate degree. However, I think my approach to the CCIE might have been wrong (I was following the Odom book). Odom starts with the physical layer and works his way up… a class I’m taking this semester (”Computer Networks”)’s textbook starts with the application layer and works its way downward (skipping Presentation & Session layers, of course ;)). This does seem like a more natural progression, though one could certainly spend enough time on the network layer to never reach Data Link and Physical layers. This class should be interesting, as it takes a more internal view of how things work (not per-Cisco, but looking at the RIB, FIB, queuing, etc).

My overall educational goal is currently in the Ph.D.  direction. I’m currently working on my M.S., which at my part-time pace should be completed in 2010. After I’ve completed it, I am planning on continuing onward toward the doctorate. My ability and drive should enable me to reach that point. I work very hard in my classes now and have no desire to stop.

This semester will be tough because of the topic. I know networking very well and it can be hard to filter out what I already know to reach what I don’t… I don’t think it will be a problem, but it may be boring at times!

Philosophy

I’ve been working on better organization, better use of time, and more creativity in my approach to education and work. My big take-aways for this week are: (from a Disney workbook on Imagineering) buy the best tools (notebooks, paper, pens, etc) you can afford and treat them like they’re the cheapest. I’ve got the first part down… I love moleskine notebooks and my parker pen! I don’t like to use them, though!! I try too hard to save the notebooks for”good” writing when the “good” writing turns out to be worse than the scribbles and drawings I put down elsewhere. This is something I’m stopping! My notes aren’t particularly interesting in any case (they’re technical about projects, project ideas, school ideas, thesis ideas, etc) and tend to be made of scratchy block diagrams… but these block diagrams are above and beyond the long notes I write otherwise.

The other one for this week is to focus on a question. In education (and work, often) a topic sentence is often garbage. There’s nothing more meaningless than most (technical) paper titles! Instead, I want to focus on a topic question. A question requires a direction. A sentence does not. I realize that some questions can be vacuous (I often hear others asking them in class ;)). I therefore have these three rules (with perhaps more to come):

1. No Rhetoric.
2. Must be open-ended.
3. Must be answerable, but need not have an answer.

The latter rule may seem contradictory, but it’s not. A question can be non-rhetorical yet still be unanswerable in context. Once the Topic Question has been asked, brainstorming can begin…

I haven’t nailed down exactly how I want to brainstorm and organize my educational questions, but I’m working on a GTD / 43-Folders (+ A to Z archives) organizational scheme. It’s not optimal yet (especially as far as projects go), but I’m working toward it.

Fitness

After a hiatus for a few months this summer (no gains, no losses), I’m mostly back on track for diet & fitness. I need to re-overhaul my diet again (incorporate more vegetables, whole grains & avoid more poisons like HFCS). I am, however, making some excellent strides in my exercise regimen. I could use more cross training and resistance training, but I’m doing very well on cardio and stretching!

I have a goal to run the Barrington, RI “Trot Off Your Turkey” 5k race in November. It sounds like an extremely laid back 5k race, so a perfect first foray into road races. Keep in mind that I’ve hated to run in the past (I was a High School swimmer, never a runner). Currently I’m on week 5 of the Couch to 5k (C25K) program, which is a major milestone of the 9 week program. Tomorrow will be my 2nd day (each week has 3 running days) which has 8 minute runs with a 5 minute walk between. Saturday is my first major run at 20 minutes continuously. Every run begins and concludes with a 5 minute walking warm-up/down.

My “secret” goal (not so secret) is to run the 2009 Cape Cod Marathon to completion. I have no goals of great times or even to run continuously… As they discuss in The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, the goal is simply to finish. I would like to finish before the course closes, however… Training for this task begins after the November 5k (or perhaps as soon as my C25K program is complete, since that should occur first).

A Busy Conclusion

Yes, I’m keeping my time filled! If this isn’t enough, I’m sure I’ll come up with more! I haven’t even talked about work projects and how I’m double booked on projects through the end of FY’10 (I am working on two projects half time, but one often gets pushed to the side… which means I have “extra” work to do on my own time or on overtime). How can I manage everything? I don’t know if I really can, but I’m hoping marathon training will help!! I’ve heard that this sort of effort (not to mention the extra energy from being in shape) can really help you keep the rest of your life straight. Only one way to find out……..

I did some quick searches, but couldn’t find anything on the web about this… I’m going to try it.

One of the problems with calorie counting is keeping track of them. There’s plenty of methods out there: there are electronic calculators out there for it, people write down their calories or points, and there are many software packages (some of these are quite good). I’ve used the latter two ways in the past and it works for a week or two, but a few missed days and it’s game over!

What if you use play money to keep track of your daily calories? Calorie intake is a lot like a daily budget and having some physical connection to those numbers could not only keep you on track, but help teach just how much you should be eating.

Let each penny be one calorie… (So $1 of play money is 100 Calories). With some decent play money (or a similar scale with monopoly money) this should be easy to work with. Going out to eat? Take your money with you and ask for nutritional information (or bring one of those restaurant Calorie guides with you). Run out for the day and REALLY need to use more? Carry one IOU slip with you each week (these could be created on your own quite easily)… Don’t forget to pay the bank back! (I’ll be using an index card file as my “bank.”)

Give yourself that daily “salary” ($1200 perhaps) and pay your way to getting in shape.

Two books have taught me the secret behind Self Motivation and Getting Stronger (or Better At) anything. The Sixty-Second Motivator helped me understand how motivation works (in general), and Body For Life is helping me develop a strength training and exercise routine. Interestingly, one of the things that helped me develop this simple thought was a criticism of the Body for Life program: some people find it too inflexible.

I’m positive that the following will sound obvious and stupidly easy, but I haven’t had past success in developing a routine for something I’m interested in. This is also something that I’d like to apply to the Game of Go in order to become a stronger player.

The Sixty-Second Motivator tells us that Motivation is increased through an increase in knowledge or an increase in importance. “Knowledge” threw me until I started matching that up with Body for Life. Sixty describes knowledge as an understanding of why we should change our routine. This is certainly important, but a better match-up with Body would describe knowledge as using time more efficiently through good planning. Importance fits in better with my simple epiphany:

Motivation:

• Increase Importance
• Increase Knowledge

Time Commit:

• Create an Inflexible Daily/Weekly Schedule.
• The more inflexible your schedule is, the more Importance you’re giving the change.

Time Optimize:

• Plan out your activities for each session.
• The better planned your schedule is, the more Knowledge you have, and the more likely you’ll be to follow through with your plans.

I’m going to start working on getting in shape this weekend… I think I’ve come up with a good rewards and motivation system:

Points are awarded for various activities, events, etc. Points can be cashed in for rewards.

Points are earned in the following ways (and you have a low-cap of -500 points):

• Target Daily Calories rounded UP to the nearest 100 (example, 1800)
• +10 points for every 100 calories under the target (maximum 30 earned points)
• -10 points for every 100 calories over the target (minimum 100 lost points)
• -100 points for Not Keeping Track
• Working out
• Effort Levels have time factors:
• Hard workout (Muscle pain on the following day, target heart rate, sweat)
  1.5 times the actual time spent (+50%)
  Example: Running, hard elliptical workout
• Moderate workout (sweating, heartrate up)
  1 times the actual time spent (0%)
  Example: Yardwork, light elliptical, actively playing with dog
• Light workout (no sweat)
  0.5 times the actual time spent (-50%)
  Example: Walking, light Qigong, light Taiji
• Time spent equals points earned (after factor):
• -15 points for <30 minutes of daily activity
• +15 points for 30-90 of daily activity
• +30 points for >90 minutes of daily activity
• Weekly Weigh-in
• If losing weight:
• -80 points, gain > 2 lbs
• -40 points, gain 1-2 lbs
• 0 points, 1/2 lb gain to 1/2 lb loss
  (note that half pound changes cumulate, so a 1 lb gain over 2 weeks
  results in -10 points)
• +40 points, lose 1-2 lbs
• +80 points, lose > 2 lbs
• If Maintaining (with losses acceptable) the above chart shifts up and all gains cumulate

This means that a maximum week results in 30 x 7 + 30 x 7 + 80 = 500

Getting 500 points in any given week will be next to impossible! I’d figure on a good weekly goal of around 200 points. Rewards are described below:

• Food Rewards
• -100 points, Uncounted Dessert (2 scoops ice cream or equivalent)
• -250 points, Uncounted Large Dessert (Restaurant portion)
• -750 points, Uncounted 3-Course Restaurant Meal
• -1500 points, Uncounted Holiday
• Gift Rewards
• -500 points, $10 “giftcard”
• -2000 points, $50 “giftcard”
• -10000 points, $500 “giftcard”