The road to healthy lifestyle

Having ‘beef jerky’ and ‘instant noodle’ and call it beef noodle for a meal is beyond unhealthy.  I did it a few times out of laziness more than working 8+ hours.  Now that I pay for my own health insurance, I don’t have full privilege of running to see the doctor anytime anymore.

In addition, I don’t really like how most of my doctors handle my visits.  Last time I went to see a doctor about my muscle spasm was a year ago.  This is how the visit went: went in half asleep, paid $20 co-pay, had a 5 minutes conversation with the doctor, came out with a muscle relaxation prescription that costs an arm and a leg.  Come on now.

As an engineer, if my machine is making a squeaky noise, I don’t just grease it up and hope the problem will go away.  We have tools like: failure mode analysis, shot-gun approach, SWAT team…etc.  I would expect (and I always forgot to ask) he/she would run a vitamins/minerals or some diagnosis to find the root cause – but no.  I was a bit disappointed. Very disappointed.  I have these problems all my life, it just doesn’t happen once so there must be something missing.

There are a few things I am working on: bike longer, swim longer and run longer without having to worry if I can sleep at night.  Dry skin and get sick easily in the winter.  I am taking the matter in my own hand and do my own research with reliable sources like WebMD.  Besides eating healthy, which I had salad every night now, and eating varieties, I think I need to take some supplement.

1/day for men, C, A, Potassium, Garlic, Iron, Fish oil = 7 pills … ewws

When I see people popping in 5 sup pills, I thought they are lazy.  But the reality is that we don’t get enough from daily foods.  I know I don’t.  Eating healthy is extremely hard for me to keep up.  It comes and goes; however, I am hoping to develop the habit and enjoyment just like I did with cycling.

-D-

FREE…FREE…FREE firewoods

Just in time for the winter cold and the holidays.  Come and take them.  All chopped up and cut to size – ready to burn.

Email for the address and time.

-D-

Sweet November is here

Summer is over and I am clearing up my backyard for the eerie winter storm.  A few days ago, there was a big wind howling in all over the Bay and I got a fair share of that.  As a result my v-shape tree went down.  Luckily it didn’t break any thing.  However, it’s taking a lot of time and I got to get my gardener to help me chopping down the tree.  And dug out the root.  It was an ugly treee and I have wanted to take cut it down, so no complain there.

The opening act of my 30s is almost over, and it’s been full of surprises, challenging and tiring so far.  After my gardeners, I was left alone – dog tired.  Laid down on my deck catching a breather, then I  realized I am not super man.  I can’t  do everything by myself.   I should not be so arrogant.  It’s ok to ask for help.  The day is getting shorter. The tasks list is getting longer.  The energy is getting lower.

By the time things were under control, I was exhausted.  No Halloween party – too tired and lazy to drive up to the city myself.  But I thought it was nice to pass out candy for the first time in my new neighborhood.  And I did.  My neighborhood kids are extremely boring…lame costumes and not that many of them.  Not even a single costume left an impression on me.  Still, I left them freely go deep in the candy bag.  I still have candy, come over and take them please!

-D-

Sink hole dive – “the pit”

Sound interesting and exciting…can’t wait.  This is what my potential dive buddy said about the pit:

Details of THE PIT:

*cave/cavern with  maximum depth of 138 ft

*You can see “halocline” effect ( where fresh and salt water mix)

*At the bottom You can also see human bones.

I like the human bones part of the dive…awesome!

Possible if I have big gut – BULL SHARK dive

-D-

Duz

Autumn is finally here.  The year is  coming to its final stretch.  The storm and cold breeze is rolling in.  Leaves are turning yellow and slowly falling to the ground.  With my new living setting, I don’t get to see it that much.  Unlike my old apartment, there’s a huge maple tree in front of the drive way.  My new neighborhood doesn’t have any uniqueness or character…there’s no walking distance to restaurant or cafe or shops.  There’s no diversity here – mainly Asian foods.  But I am getting used to it.  Coping in with the shared space.  I have changed.

Two more months before the year ends, yet there are still surprises strike every now and then.  Besides shooting for the star, for some very odd reason I stumbled into a sales position with another partner.  My first sales pitch at NetApp went quite well that I get to go out and “plant seeds” on every customer meetings.  Speaking of sales, this past weekend HS and I started looking for my next car after a decade of driving the same old car.  This is my first time dealing with dealership and it’s interesting how sales man can be very good with lying but it was so obvious that we can spot it right the way if you can do a simple adding and subtracting.  That’s just how the way business goes – one person is trying to make a living while the other person is trying to make saving – the numbers don’t line up too well.

Yummy Pad Thai

Papaya salad stand

On the same weekend, I got a new name while lunching at the Thai temple in Fremont.  Pad thai and papaya salad are always a hit there.  The waiting list is off the hook.  My recommendation is to put your in down the moment you arrive.  We ordered 3 pad thai and the wait was about 45 minutes.  Duz for 3.  One name with so many variations.  The papaya salad here is many times better than at Krung Thai…at least they had long beans, dried shrimps, crabs and cherry tomatoes.  And only $5/dish…beat that!

Along the line of lying and cheating, what really bothers this week is when someone you called best friend and the person you married to #ucked you up and scared you for life.  That’s the unforgiving act.  HS wondered how people can live after doing such thing.

-D-

Sneak peek preview

HH thinks I should update my website…so here it is!  Not a 100% complete, yet more like 10% to get me going.  At least the layout has been defined.  All I need to do now is load in the images.  Here are a couple of template links:

main page,  photos page, bio page

-D-

RLS

A perfect coincident, this week is RLS (restless leg symptoms) awareness, 9/20-9/26.  And today, I had “zero” hour of sleep.

Here are a few quotes about the disease from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:

“In most cases, the cause of RLS is unknown”

“Although movement brings relief to those with RLS, it is generally only temporary.”

It bothers very much…and not knowing the answer is even worst.  Today I am taking the initiative to join RLS foundation to be a support group leader and participating in researches.

-D-

Cave diving

Cave in Sapa, Viet Nam

This year diving will take me down south – Mexico.  Did some researches and talked to a handful of people, it came down to: Tulum and Playa Del Carmen.  I’ve been in several caves around the world (e.g. Oregon, CA, Thailand, Vietnam…) but cave diving??? will be my first.

Tulum is well known of cenotes and cave diving.  My friend, GE and her husband had dove in the past and recommended as well.  Unfortunately, Tulum doesn’t  offer wreck and night dives…for that, I’ll trek back to Playa Del Carmen for my wreck dives.

Photos from Xibalba dive shops

I’ll post a detail itinerary later just in case I don’t return.  And if you have an underwater case for a Nikon D80, I want to borrow.

Some interesting sites to read on:

The longest underwater cave in the world

Diving carvens in Tulum Mexico

-D-

Mountain biking – Lake Tahoe

We changed our biking routine this weekend by taking it to Lake Tahoe.  We started out at the rim trail head on the 50 near 89 by Spooner Lake heading south via Kingberry.

This I believe the summit for Kingberry trail.

Beside beautiful landscaping, Lake Tahoe offers a varieties of trails and difficulties but be prepared to deal with the high altitude and thin air.  Here are some footages of the downhill.

-D-

The birth of the SBIR program

SBIR – Small Business Innovation Research program.

The Role of Senator Ted Kennedy in the Birth of the SBIR Program

“The SBIR program would not exist if Senator Kennedy had not forced its evolution.”

Prepared by Arthur S. Obermayer – 8/28/09

-D-