The I.T. Life

So if you haven’t already heard me ranting about this, I have lost a bit of weight. I’ve been on and off trying to get in better shape for probably a year now, and its paid off. I now weight about 207, and I hope to get down to about 200 or less by spring. I’m trying to ramp up my exercise a bit. I’m still committed to never enter a gym, and not start a regular exercise routine, so this means I get to do a lot of outdoors stuff. On Wednesday, I went for a 30min swim at the local pool, its been a while since I went for a swim and I could tell, after that 30min I was sore. I was really hoping to take the dog for a hike to the lake behind my house, but it gets dark so early this may have to weight. I am going skiing tomorrow morning for a few hours, and if I don’t break anything I plan to go for a nice hike with friends in the afternoon. I’m also going for a road trip Sunday morning so I will try to get some hiking in then too!

So Valentines day is coming up and I convinced the wife to order me some new EDC toys. Don’t worry, I’m gonna get her just as nice a gift. I’m planning on getting the Fenix EO1, which is a nice little 10 lumen single AAA light, I’m hoping to use this as a keychain light if its not too big. Next is a Nite Core Defender Infinity R2, a great 145 lumen single AA light. This will have 2 main purposes, a backup SAR / hiking light, and a primary EDC light when I want to cut down size or weight, instead of carrying my D20 R2. A really cool thing about this light is it can use rechargeable lithium batteries, which boost run time, and can possibly boost output as well. Lastly, the  Princeton Tec Eos, a 50 lumen three AAA headlamp. This probably won’t be a EDC for me, since I usually EDC at least one light, however this will be used for hiking and SAR.

Currently, I carry a pretty heavy SAR Bag. I’m not going to bother listing all my stuff, but what I am going to say is this year, I am going to start spending less money on new gear, and more money on smarter gear. I want to buy some new clothes, lighter weight clothes, this will cut down drastically on weight. I want to find a lighter weight pot, to replace my stainless steel 3 piece set. I want to start focusing on weight, and functionality.

I wanted to do a quick update on my wishlist. A lot of it came true one way or another, and the parts that didn’t are being taken care of.

• Under Armour: I got a great Under Armour Cold Gear hoodie, and a generic pair of thermal underwear.
• Thumb drive… No, and not gonna order one either. No real need, but I still drool over the Iron Keys.
• New Monitor… No, but I did order a Dell Inspiron XPS 9000 last week, (and a Mini 10, but thats not for me) and it comes with a free 23″ LCD. So, I gave myself this. But this was a good review gift, not, Christmas. Also, waiting on financing to be approved.
• Blue-Ray Player…. Yes Indirectly, Beth and I received a lot of Christmas money, so we bought a PS3. Hooray!
• Water Filtration, Stove, Watch.. No, No, No. However, MEC carries the watch I love now… so… well see what happens. If the computer falls through, I will probably go buy this.
• Headlamp… No, but MEC still carries the one I want, and I found a cheaper one that has great reviews, so, I may buy this next pay.
• Truck… No, and I’m actually starting to think a SUV is more practical, especially if we stay a single vehicle family. So I’m looking at the Nissan Path Finders, or possibly a Armada.

Hey All,

Welcome to the future! The world of tomorrow! 2010! Seriously though, Happy (belated) New Year! I was sick with a stomach flu for New Years, so, I couldn’t do anything at all for a while there. Than I was back at work, busy as ever. I had a good Christmas, for gifts, I got me a Under Armour hoodie, some other new clothes, and lots of cool little stuff. On Boxing day I went to Futureshop and bought a PS3, some games, and some blu-rays.
As far as 2010 goes, goals, plans, whatever, I’m pushing myself even harder. I NEED to loose weight, not because most people say they do, but I have medical reasons that, I actually need to. I’m not going into that now. On the plus side, I’ve been working hard at getting more active, eating healthier, nothing extreme, but seeing what walking and less fast food does for me. I’ve gone down a pant size, I’m a 36 instead of a 38. Thats great, its been years.
I’m going to work on my leadership, and my ability to speak with confidence, so I’ve joined up with ToastMasters. I start on Tuesday. I’ve contact St. Johns Ambulance and am going to get involved as a VMFR (volunteer medical first responder) this month, and push myself to be more active in HRSAR (Halifax Regional, Search and Rescue). I’ve been very busy working on there E2C site, getting it ready for launch and online registration. Its up, and there very happy now. In the spring, I plan on re-completing my Map and Compass training, and passing my Woodslore. This will be a big thing for me, both physically, and mentally.
I booked a date in July to take my PHP5 certification by Zend. This will be big for me as well, Its a hard exam and I’ve been putting it off for a year now. When I get this done, I want to look into another Adobe certification, probably Flash CS3, or a Sun exam, one of the entry Java exams. To do all this, I need to get organized, so I plan on devoting a hour, every morning to studying. I will ignore emails, and anything else, I need to do this. As my manager explained it, if I want to lead people and projects, I have to be able to lead myself, I need to be organized, and get everything I want done. If I can’t meet my own goals, my team won’t meet theres.

Anyways, thats enough rambling for now. My Sunday is half over, and I should get back to playing the PS3. Studying, and work start back again early tomorrow.