Spring

Spring time has hit SF. The trees and flowers are blooming like crazy. And while we still get fog, it’s nice to shake off the funk of winter. The days are longer and even on chilly days we’ve been getting a lot sunshine.

Warmer days also means more motorcycle rides! I didn’t get to ride much last summer. This year I’m in a better position and able to focus on fun activities like riding my bike.

I feel a bit out of practice as my only rides these last few months have been back and forth to work and an occasional ride over to the beach. I’m itching to get out on the windy open roads and let my beast purr a bit.

Bad

My eating habits these last few weeks haven’t been that good. I haven’t been eating fast food or anything. Just not eating quite as well as I have been. The schedule change has been rough on more than my sleeping patterns.

This past weekend I made sure to get my meals for the week in order so I wouldn’t be stuck eating out for lunch every day. I didn’t go down a notch on belt for the first time in years to give it up now! lol

Speaking of, since I’ve done a decent job of weight loss, I’m down to 194lbs. I’m coming up on a new workout schedule next month. This one has been awesome and I’m glad I really mixed things up. I’ve gotten used to working muscles I always neglected in the past. Now I can structure my workouts w/o worrying about skipping the gym because I’m not focused on certain muscle groups. Little changes to habits work!

Strange

It’s always fun when speaking to a complete stranger and watching the look on their face here. I was standing next to a guy in the mirror at the gym locker room the other day. I started chatting with him just randomly. No flirting, just me being me. He gave me this perplexed look and actually said, “why are you talking to me?” My response, ‘well you’re standing next to me butt-naked in a mirror. I figured we could exchange conversation.”  He walked away somewhat wary, as if I had some ulterior motive.

I giggle to myself and went on about my day. I guess it is easy to wall yourself in Cities like SF. I mean you get bombarded by people with a cause, sign here, donate for this, save the tress…blah blah blah. And that’s before you even get to the panhandling homeless guys. lol So, I think it is natural that people learn to keep their shields up, so to speak.

It doesn’t phase me. I get a little disappointed obviously. But, being from the South, I’m gonna keep on doing what I keep on doing and that’s be me. Should you be perplexed or not understand, well that’s your issue.

Happy weekend all.

 

Smile

Still

Well, I hate to say it but I’m adjusting to the new schedule. It appears this week my rhythms are even adjusting. Today was the first day since I switched to the new shift that I didn’t come home utterly exhausted after the gym. I had a good workout but it felt more like it was supposed to.

So, I guess I’m gonna survive after all. I was beginning to have my doubts for sure. lol

*

The project is finally picking up a little more speed. We are getting into the thick of things. If it weren’t for all the politics between depts it would be moving a whole lot faster. Next week, the training team for the developer is back to train us on phase 2 of the software. There is one more training phase in late May, then we are all on our own for the duration till we go live.

My dept is already whining about the money it’s costing to have the ops personnel (including myself) off the floor. I hope and pray we don’t get pulled off before the project is over. I can already see it taking more than 5 months that were allotted. Both of the project leaders are keen on me because I have such a broad knowledge of hardware, software, and policy. I’m glad as they’ll plead my case later on the chance the dept has to pick and choose who to leave on the team.

*

Now that I appear to be adjusting, hopefully I’ll get some more blog posts in. I have plenty in my head just no time to sit down and type them out. Cooper is doing fine on the new schedule. Although, on the really early days I’ve gotten up he has taken to looking at me like, “what the hell are you doing up so early?”

Roles

No not the dirty kind. Get out of my gutter. After my snafu with the Intense Debate plugin, I got a request from a reader on how I managed junk comments on my blog. The WordPress plug-in community is wonderfully diverse and there is usually a plug-in for almost anything.

Because I leave my blog open to new users as a requirement for 3rd-party log-ins like FB, twitter, Google, etc, I get tons of fake users meant to get around my comment filters. Their tricks rarely work but I still have to occasionally go thru and delete all the fake accounts.

The easiest way I’ve found is thru a plug-in called Role Manager that defines the user account groups built into WordPress as Roles.  Each user group/roles has a break out of all the capabilities any user in the group/role can perform. Reading, posting, editing, deleting, etc. I find it a much easier way to manage my user base.

Anyway, it has a nifty feature where you can duplicate a user group/role and give it your own name and capabilities. I duped my subscriber list of real readers into its own group. This leaves the default subscriber user group/role to fill up with the fake accounts. When I get ready to delete the junk, I do a quick perusal for real new users and move them to the correct group. I’m then free to delete the rest en-masse.

Simple and effective.

Rev

It’s always nice when I can educate other drivers about motorcycle riders. Even if it starts out pissy.

The other day, I’m coming home from work. I pull up to a car at the light. And as I normally do, I rev my engine as I pass to let the cars know I’m coming. One lady didn’t understand this I guess. She happened to be next to me at the next light and decided to roll down her window and attempt to tell me off.

Lady: Why do you guys always do that? It’s so rude. Why do you have to roar your engine and be so disruptive!
Me: *After flicking open my helmet and smiling* Ma’am, we aren’t trying to be rude, we’re actually trying to be courteous and let you know we’re next to your vehicle. That way you don’t suddenly turn into us and run us over with a vehicle that is usually 4-6 times our size and weight.
Lady: *bewildered look and half open mouth attempting to formulate a new thought after abruptly having to discard the last intended one*
Lady: *more pause*
Lady: Oh. I didn’t know that. I always wondered why so many of you people [yes she really said you people] do that. Now it makes perfect sense. Thank you.

The ironic part of this whole things is at the very next intersection she turned right and almost ran over a cyclist!

I normally wouldn’t bring it up but having explained it to a buddy and another random car driver less than 2 months ago, I felt it was worthy of a PSA. If you live in a state like Cali, where lane-sharing is legal (or not) that motorcycle driver revving his engine next to you isn’t being a dick, he is trying not to get run over, have you pull into him, or open your car door unexpectedly and hit him. Yes some riders are total lane hogs and/or dicks but that doesn’t make us all bad.

And as many of us moto riders are fond to saying to each other when parting, ‘keep the shiny side up!‘

Just

Well, it looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I appear to be adjusting a bit better to the new schedule. Instead of being exhausted every day or every other day, I’m up to every 3-4 days. lol Hey, I’ll take every improvement I can get.

This week has been better overall with timing and my rhythms being better. I am beginning to feel like I will survive this schedule after all.

The project itself is slowly picking up steam. Having got off to the slowest start in history, things are picking up speed now. The managers seem to be getting a better grasp on priorities and timelines.

Maybe, by the weekend I’ll actually feel like I’ve accomplished something useful.

Hope springs eternal…

Said v2.0

Yes, it really says 8:00am for the time this posted. What is the world coming to? lol

I’m always touched how people come to my defense. Even complete strangers (except thru my blog) send me words of encouragement and support. Truly, it reaffirms my belief in humanity anytime it happens.

Many of you were curious to know what was by whom, etc. I guess I didn’t really clarify but that was never the reasoning behind it. I’m not currently inclined to name names as it invites more drama than is needed. He is local and we have a lot of mutual friends in common. What was said is done and over with.

The point was my approach and my realization that  it didn’t hurt. I didn’t deflect, it just didn’t hurt. It was a wonderful realization that I am the man I sought to become all those years ago when this blog started. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not finished nor am I done attempting to better myself. It was just a very simple yet powerful realization.

And again, thank you all for the comments, emails, text messages, even phone calls. It meant a lot to me.

Smile

Debate Over

Sorry about the last post that disappeared. It was never supposed to go live. I guess I hit the wrong button. I’ve already reverted back to my old commenting system. It interfered with my other plugin that hands off comments from FB back to my blog. People really enjoy that so the Intense Debate Plugin got the boot.

Said

After having had a wonderful weekend, someone said something to me today that was meant to be incredibly cruel. Call it jealousy or just pettiness, what was said and by whom is not the point. The point was I totally didn’t take it that way he meant. I actually felt like it was a compliment so I gave the reply, “thank you.” Said person, I guess could tell I was being sincere and was, of course, infuriated.

Forgetting for the moment why anyone would think it is ok to stoop to such behavior, the comment totally missed the mark on all sides. It wasn’t me hiding hurt, which I could do in my sleep for most people. [1]I may bitch about SID, but she did give me an amazing resilience.  It just didn’t hurt.  Afterwards, when I had more time to reflect on it, it totally made my day. Having grown enough over the years, it was a random but significant moment that validated years of personal growth.

References

References
↑1 I may bitch about SID, but she did give me an amazing resilience.