exercise update

it's been 5 months since I started to get somewhat serious about exercising, i'm happy to report that i'm still doing it. i'm playing tennis 2-3 times a week, i've started to join some friends for an 8 miles walk every sunday morning for the last month. and starting today i'll be doing some exercise in the morning as well. since i committed to taking my son to school at 7:15am everyday, i'm planning to exercise for about 30 minutes everyday in the morning (either running in the streets or calisthenics at home). this will be in addition to what i've been doing. let's see how long this will last.

the one effect of all this exercising is that i feel slight aches and pains all the time from sore heels, arms, legs, etc.. also because i feel i've earned the right to eat a little more, i've actually gained weight, not much, but enough to cause me to be more vigilant about what i eat. the other thing is my heart rate has gone back down to about 58 bpm. it has gotten as high as 70 a few years ago. in college, when i was a lot more active it was in the low or mid 50s. i'll monitor the next month to see whether i can keep up the morning exercise, and what impact it has.

life is hard

spent a hour yesterday at the driving with a bunch of friends after we dropped our wives off at the mall. then off to lunch with our wives @ bistro jeanty in yountville. then back to my house to play poker with the boys, while we waited for our wives to shop some more. then off to the A's game with the family and some friends. it was a stressful day, with so much to do :)

ps. i need more days like this

meteor shower

My wife manage to convince me and my kids to stay up until midnight lastnight to watch the meteor shower. I set up the sleeping bag in the backyard and the four of us crawled in. In the 20 minutes outside we managed to see about 6-8 meteor. It was very neat. We even saw a couple of meteors with tail. It was something that I've seen in the movies but never in real life. Nature can always amaze us if we just take the time. The meteor went by so fast, none of us was ever able to make a wish.

Thang

hard work

blogging is hard work, I've find it very difficult to keep up the blog. I just don't feel interesting enough to keep going. It's like there's nothing new. Hopefully I'll make a better effort.

Let's boycott Exxon-Mobil over price gouging!

I'm sick of high gas prices, and not going to take it lying down. In looking over major oil companies' financials, it's obvious that Exxon-Mobil makes the most money selling oil. Of all of the major oil companies, they have the highest gross margin at 48.8%, the rest ranges from 16% (Valero) to 36% (Conoco Phillips). This may be because they are the most efficient but it seems unlikely to be the only reason. In any case, it is impossible to boycott all the oil companies because we need gasoline, but we could boycott 1 oil company and make enough of an impact to make a statement. This is possible because there are enough alternatives in most US cities.

I'm picking Exxon-Mobil to boycott because they are the biggest and most profitable oil company in the world. They are the flagship of the oil industry.

The plan is to boycott Exxon-Mobil products for the next 3 months: July, August & September. If we can get enough people to join in, it will be enough to affect their bottom line and show up in their quarterly reports. Which should affect their stock price. Let's hit them where it counts.

Let's get the word out, and let the boycott begin.

La Folie

This is the 3rd time that’s I’ve eaten here, and like the previous visits the food was excellent. Let me state clearly that the food here is excellent, well worth the money. And for those who like good sized portions, this is the place to go, a rarity among the fine-dining establishements. And the service was prompt and cheerful.
I was in a mood to try a lot of food, so I ordered a 5-course dinner which I substituted dessert for another entrée. I had been working to expand my capacity for food in the last 2 months, however, it was still more food than I can handle.
I had a soup, duck consomme with slices of duck breast and foie gras tortellini. While it was good, it was also kind of ho-hum tasting.
The next dish was the Seared Foie Gras, most striking/memorable dish for me. It tasted flavorful and decadent. The foie gras was “melt-in-your-mouth” soft. It was both sweet and savory. On top of that, it was a big piece of foie gras, the size of a hamburger patty.
I then had the Lobster salad, this was a great dish. It was light and refreshing when I could have been a little heavy.
The next dish was the Sturgeon with Porcini Mushrooms, Leek and Potato Broth. This was an excellent dish. Since I normally do not like fish I might not have fully appreciate this dish. But the flavor was deep but subtle, and texture of the fish was firm. It did have a hint of fishy taste, which I did not like. I knew that this would be the case, but I wanted to try the sturgeon, since I’ve never had it.
I then had the Quail and Squab Stuffed with Mushrooms. By this time I was stuffed. I had a piece of each and while it tasted good, my palate was getting dulled enough that I don’t think I can do this dish justice. I had the rest packed to go.
Next time, I need to remind myself to not get greedy and order too much. It will be difficult because the whole idea of eating out is to eat good food that I don’t normally eat, and when the restaurant is this good, it’s too easy to be tempted to order more than I can eat. At least I didn’t try to eat everything and overstuffed myself like I did at Michael Mina’s 3 months ago. On that occasion, I ate so much (it was only a 3-course dinner, but it was still a lot of food) that I felt full till the next day. At that point I felt that I need to expand my appetite to the point that it can handle a nice meal without getting full. So for the last 2 months I’ve been eating more and exercising more to make up for it. I would have to say I’ve succeeded.

keeping up with Gisele

one thing a lot of us learn financially is "don't try to keep up with the jones", because it would be an endless cycle. but there's a bigger/different problem. a lot of time, instead of comparing ourselves (our appearance, accomplishments, etc..) with the jones, we compare ourselves with the "superstar" in our world, and find ourselves lacking. for example, women would look at a picture of a 53 years old christie brinkley and feel bad about themselves for not looking as good as she does. or worse comparing themselves to models who are in their 20s, and then feel inadequate. instead of comparing themselves to their next door neighbors, who they look just as good as, if not better.

the lesson is that we need to be fair about our "peer group". unless we think we are models or movie stars, we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to them. we can use them (models & celebrities) as inspiration but we cannot feel bad that we can't compare to them, because no matter how hard some of us try, we just can't. they make a living with their appearance, so a lot of them spend hours every day working on it, not to mention other resources like personal trainer, chefs, etc.. to help them. not only that, plastic surgery sometimes plays a part a well.

so while it is aspirational to look to the "superstars", we should look at the average joes or janes to see where we really stand.

the Warriors Win!!!

the warriors v. mavericks game last night (5/3/07) was one of the most incredible basketball i've watched in a long time. (i supposed not so much if you're a mavericks' fan). but baron davis playing on one leg and still dominating was just incredible.
at the very least, i'll get to enjoy one more playoff series. i did not think that the warriors were going to make the playoffs, and i thought this all the way to the very last game. they had a tough road and played well to get to the playoffs. it's been an incredible ride since.
GO WARRIORS!!!!

simple logic

sometimes life is very simple, like this saying "the more you do it, the more you do it". simply put, the more you do something, the more you wind up doing that thing. if you want to exercise, you starting exercising, as you start to exercise more often, you find that it is much easier to exercise more often than you ever thought it would be, so you exercise more often. and the reverse logic is also true: "the less you do it, the less you do it". all this is because as we do more of something, we make time for it, it becomes part of the routine, conversely as we do less of something, we stop setting time for it, and then we don't have time, energy and/or resources for it anymore, so we stop.

so if you want to do something, just start doing it, you will find that you will starting doing more of it. you still need to research/refine what it is that you're doing, if you want to be better at it though.

in my own life, i find this to be true of exercise, eating, saving, sex, poker, practically everything. once i find something that this logic does not apply to i'll let you know.

retirement by 2020 or bust

lately i've been looking at my finances to see if i could actually retire in 13 more years. it's possible, but it's going to take a lot of savings and investments doing okay and not losing money for me to make it.
that said, i've wasted a lot money and time in the last 3-4 years screwing around. thank god it's not too late.
as for my health, i've been playing tennis with friends 3-4 times a week for the last two months, so at least i'm keeping it up. my wife actually signed up with a gym last week, and is now going everyday so far.

funeral planning

Attending my friend's father-in-law funeral caused me to have some thoughts about my own. One thing for sure, I know I wanted to be cremated and have my family do to my ashes what they wish, as long as they don't flush it. As for flowers, I would like to direct donations to charities in lieu of flowers.
Of course, I also wonder who would show up at my funeral. It makes me think that I need to make more of an impact in my community than I'm doing currently. I don't think anyone would miss me except my family and close friends. I think that I have lived a rather self-centered life up to now. Hopefully, this will be a reminder that I need to impact the community/world I live in more than I do now. We'll see where this leads as time goes by.

getting in shape

I've some how managed to stay fairly active this last month. The weather has been great so I've been walking to lunch a few times. I've played tennis at least a couple of times a week. Went jogging a few times, and generally just been more active. The reason for this increased activity is two fold:
1. to get in better shape/health. and more importantly
2. so I can eat more.

I've always felt that it is better to not put on weight at all than to try to lose it once gained. Therefore, I've been eating less since I'm not very active. Because of that, my appetite/stomach has shrunk some. Last month, when I went out to dinner at Michael Mina's, I was stuffed, so stuffed that I still felt full by next morning. Not a good feeling. I like food too much to not be able to enjoy a full meal. That's when I decided that I need to start eating more to stretch my appetite/stomach back, and to offset it by being more active in general. Let's see how long I can keep this up, and not get out of shape. Because I'm pretty sure I can keep up the eating, it's the exercising that's worrying me. :)

new reality at 40s revisited

I talked about the new reality of 40s a few weeks ago, and now I'm dealing with some. A friend's father just passed away yesterday. I'll be dealing with stuff like this for the next 10 years if not longer.

Why bother

I've seen a lot of people put too much weight and care in other people and their opinions, especially when those people don't really matter. Trying so hard to impress people they don't even like. I always say "the only person you have to live with is yourself, and whoever YOU CHOSE to live with". Only the opinions of the people you love and respect should matter to you, as for anyone else, to be blunt, even if they roll over and die, it wouldn't affect you, so why bother.

cha-ching!

My wife finally earned more money than me for the first time in 2006. She's a pediatrician, but has always worked part-time since her residency (that was 9 years ago), and still does. It's a good thing that this finally happened, but I wonder whether I should re-examine my income to see if it's all that it could/should be. Anyway, it's all good.

I wonder whether the dynamics in our relationship will change because of this. I should think not, but who knows. May be she'll feel as if she should have more say about how we manage/spend our money (she always have a say, but maybe she'll exercise that option more). May be I'll feel that I should defer to her more than I already do, who knows. I'll report if there's any changes.