what in the world am i doing?

facebook is a great tool. the internet is a great tool. but i think it's really strange how sometimes i look at pictures and see the status updates of my friends who i used to share my life with, and realize exactly how different our lives are now.
where we used to spend so many hours of our day together, only to have us go off in very different directions and start to see the world in different lenses. i wonder if we still think of the world in a similar way. or if we maybe never did, and just thought that we did.

it's an odd thing to see how different we all experience this world, and to have it put in our face so directly.

but it's also very cool.

so i followed, a bit, the results from IMAZ that passed this weekend. as friends post pictures from the event, and tell me little tid bits about the race, i am really happy for them to still be able to go out there and kick ass. yet at the same time, i miss the scene. not to suggest that i ever raced IM distance, nor do i have any desire to. but i'm still envious of just being able to hop out there and go for a nice long run, or seriously long ride.

my life is just heading in a different direction right now.
part of that is still at the PTs office, and soon to be ortho office for my crap leg. but mostly just at work and in the classroom.

for the first time in a while, maybe ever, i'm really enjoying my studies.
i'm very interested in the material that we're learning, and hope to get to use it some day.

i think that i really have to start getting comfortable being kind of lame in the athletic world. but it's so tempting to just say fuckit and get back out on the road and train a lot when i see your pictures with huge smiles on your faces while you're cranking out that 112 mile bike tucked in that aero position.

but i know that i have to stay the course for now.
i had my fun in the sun, and now it's over. boy do i miss it.
not to suggest that my body could take it anymore either though :)

anyway, i have just a bit more accounting homework before i go to bed.

i feel like i need to post about this in case i need to look for it later in life.
starting in mid-august, i began to get shooting pain in my right shin. it started out as kind of annoying. the pain is bad, don't get me wrong. it just kind of jumps up and hits me.
the pain is right in the center of the tibia. sometimes i have it in the left leg too, but not nearly as often as the right leg.
i hadn't really done anything major that i can think of to make it bad. the only behavioral change that i made was that i started to ride my bike to work with that big bag on my back. i wonder if maybe i damanged some nerve back there and that's what's getting me...
i don't know though.

anyway, i didn't do anything with it for a while. i got an ice pack and started icing it, but that didn't help.
so in early october, i went to the doctor because it was just getting really frequent (5-10 times a day). and it was starting to freak me out.
they gave me a prescription for PT, where we've been treating it like shin splints and just working on losening up the backs of my leg.
i saw some progress for a couple of weeks, and about a week ago, i actually went almost pain free.
as soon as i was getting ready to discharge myself, the pain mysteriously came back.
so much so that it is really kind of scary.
the pain comes in and doesn't go away quite as quickly as it used to. i sometimes have to sit there for a minute or to for the pain to subside. the initial shock is still over pretty quickly. but the pain lingers around long enough that i have to just wait before i can go on again.

i have an appointment with the orthapedic surgeon to see if it's a bone fracture, but i don't know how it could be. i haven't been running regularly for a while. and for the past month i haven't really put any stress on it at all.
it should be getting better, shouldn't it?

at least it shouldn't be getting worse, wouldn't you say?

tonight is one of those nights where people for generations will ask you "where were you when america elected its first african-american president?" and what they really mean to ask you is "where were you when america elected its first non-white male president?"

at times throughout the past few months, even though i've been extremely busy, i have had time to think about whether or not this is as big a deal as it’s going to be written in history books for generations. and even though it is very emotional, i find myself wondering if i've just bought into the hype of it all. but i think that ultimately, it is a great symbolic moment in history. i think that if you don't feel it down in your core, and think of it more like winning a rivalry football game, then you haven't lived enough yet.

so what? is it just race? no. of course it's not just race. but the race part of it says so much more about the society in which we live that could not have been illuminated without that element. being a minority, granted not one that has received quite as much downside as others, i've had a unique perspective of feeling like i don't quite fit in. don't get me wrong, i've had great friends all of my life. and they've all made me feel welcome, loved, and normal. but there's still something else there that's not quite explainable (especially for someone who is not a creative writer) that has always made me feel like i don't quite have what it takes to be evenly competitive. some of you may argue that being asian gives me an edge if what people are expecting are brains; but that was never what i wanted to be liked for. anyway, what i'm getting at is that i've been so fortunate to have such great friends for so long, that the whole race thing has kind of been something that i read in history books, and never really felt like it held me or anyone that i personally knew back. i understand that it's still out there, but the communities in which i have lived have made it possible for all kinds of people to be successful predominately on their merits. so in some ways it's not such a novel thing for me to expect that a non-white male should be elected to the most powerful position in the world.

YET IT IS EXACTLY THAT!

IT IS NOVEL.
IT IS NEW.
IT IS GROUNDBREAKING.
IT IS DEFINING.
IT IS HISTORIC.
IT IS WHAT AMERICA IS!

what we have done here tonight is to show the world that we are a society in which people are recognized and respected for what they can contribute to the community. that is the community locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.

pause... i need to go watch obama's acceptance speech.
wow, shit, that was a good speech. it's what i've been waiting to hear him (or anyone) say.

where was i?
well, since i've essentially lost my train of thought, i'll move on to the next thing that i wanted to talk about. it is an offshoot of what obama talked about in his acceptance speech. i was going to save it for last, but i think it's a good time for me to put it on paper because i'm thinking about it again.

the topic i want to address is about work. i'm kind of new to this concept of work. but in the past few years, i've really started to learn about it. i've always been a "busy" person, always running from one thing to the next. never really knowing why i was doing what i was doing. as it turns out, it didn't matter so much that i wasn't any good at any of the things that i was doing, but it was more important that i was doing lots of different kinds of things to gain experiences, and that i was, in fact always doing SOMETHING. and doing it even if it was killing me.
i've commented to friends that i have been skeptical of obama as president because he seemed to be running on a platform of promise. a promise to "give" things to the poor. to "redistribute the wealth". and what i took away from that was that he wanted to take away from those who had put forth effort and give to those who did not earn their keep. i have seen and heard too much of what i think comes down to people wanting something for nothing, and wanting it now. i know that feeling all too well because i was like that, and i didn't realize it. many of us have grown up in an environment where everything is given to us. we have never really had to work for what we have. credit was easy, and we could just buy and eat our way to happiness. but ultimately it is all just emptiness. there is nothing fulfilling about having things that took no effort to get. all that getting things easily does is make you want to get more. and when the time comes that the only thing fulfilling about getting was the getting itself goes away, what are you left with? nothing. the crap that you got for nothing is still worth nothing. and fulfilling part of "getting" is taken away. i think that this is where we stand today as a country.
i was fearful that obama wanted to somehow continue the "giving" so that people could continue their "getting". i wondered how someone could come out clearly to the public and recreate jfk's point about asking the public to ask not what the country can do for them, but....., and to know that the work itself is what is important. there are dream makers who know this is at the essence. but there so many more who have yet to experience it.
tonight's speech let me see a little more of obama's genius. he was direct with the public. he has shown his wisdom. he put it all out there. he knows that tonight is not the end. and he knows that tonight it is not success. tonight is only the statement of the country saying that it wants a chance to succeed. it is an acknowledgement that we have taken our gifts and abused them to the point of abusing ourselves. it is an acknowledgement that we must redefine and repair ourselves. obama let us know that tonight is not success. it is only the opportunity for success. it is not his success, but ours to create. it is not his task alone, but ours together. that we must expect failure, but not be discouraged by it. we must expect to work hard with callous hands. we must expect to disagree. but we must expect to work together. so that we can expect to succeed as a people.
i was a little surprised when this segment of his speech was met with little applause. i was quite literally jumping up and down wanting to scream (but held back out of respect for my neighbors), thinking that it's so great to hear that one of our leaders actually gets it, and lets you know it. i believe that no matter whether there is a democratic or republican president in office, if the president of the united states can get this message across. to motivate people to be diligent and to work in concert with their neighbor, then this country can lead the world to do great things together.

another thing that i thought was very impressive about this election is the amount of activity from young voters. i must admit, i wasn't, and am still not much into politics. but it occurred to me not too long ago, that the effects of a presidency are usually latent. and that the true effects of a presidency won't be felt until near the end of a term and on past that president's term. therefore, it is those young people who will have to live through the effects of a presidency. so it is in their best interest that they have a say in who is elected.

one last note, before i go to sleep, about 2 hours later than i had hoped to be there... i think that it's interesting to see how some of these events unfolded. i honestly believe that this vote would have been much closer if not for the steep decline in the stock market the past year. if people's bank accounts were doing just fine, or maybe just slightly worse than before, the american public would have had a much tougher time voting for obama. not because he's part african-american, but because people tend to stick with status quo unless pushed pretty hard. but what caused this market crash? well, some would say greed. and yes, i believe that had a good part of it. this is how i see it. i started this blog post by posting the question "where were you when?” i want to take it back to that. one of those moments in my lifetime that people will ask, or at least think is "where were you when the 9/11 attacks happened?" my answer isn't all that great. but i feel like that event added a lot of momentum to the then already chain of events that was happening. for whatever reason, probably oil, we have been in and out of the middle east messing with people for oil, all in the name of good business. most of that all happened before i was either born or old enough to know what was going on. but we had already shown the world that we are excellent consumers..... the best in the world, if you will. anyway, i see this as leading to this and that, and well, ultimately 9/11. by the time this happened, we had already planted the seeds in people's minds that everyone should own a home. there are many reasons for that too. many good, but some, less than good. and i see it as an attempt to give EVERYONE the opportunity to have EVERYTHING at NO COST. thus the drive in policies that allowed financial institutions to give money away to everyone, no questions asked. 9/11 made that initiative a prime directive and accelerated the encouragement of such free for all policies. long story short, the next domino to fall was the global financial system, just in time to tilt the landscape enough to get obama elected and to make this a defining moment in US and possibly world history. i feel that what has happened over the last 30-40 years is that america has pushed itself and the world to a breaking point, and is now leading itself and the world into a new era. at least i hope that it is. i hope that it is an era in which we can lead the world in recognizing that we are not alone on this planet, and that things that we do absolutely affect many around us. i hope that it is an era in which we can lead the world in showing how people of different beliefs can live together harmoniously. i hope that it is an era in which we can rediscover the value in effort. I hope that it is an era of hope.
Watching obama speak tonight, I felt like this fallen giant of a country was shaking it off and getting ready to stand up to walk again. I hope that it is true. and I hope to get some fucking sleep.

oh, to answer those questions about where was i when?
on the morning of 9/11, i took the morning to ride intervals on south mopac, and found out about the attacks as i walked into my apartment after my morning ride, to my phone ringing, and the person on the other end of the phone asking me if i'd heard the news.... of course i hadn't.
where was i tonight? well, of course, i went for a swim in this nation's capitol, and had the entire pool to myself. literally, i was the only one in that pool from 7:00-7:30. then doing my accounting homework, then writing this blog. now sleepy time.
tomorrow, we work.

the answer is, that it never is.

i have had a couple of topics that i've wanted to write about for the past few days, but haven't had the time to do it.
so i'm trying now.

first, are some initial thoughts on this housing problem thing that we're looking at.
it seems that there is one big problem. and that is that there are too many houses on the market, and not enough qualified buyers to afford the prices that they are still going for.

there are a couple of ways that this can be handled.
the most important thing, though, and what people are worried about is that you may end up having to clear the decks by slashing prices.

but i think that maybe you don't have to slash prices.
what bringing the price down does, is it allows you to reach out to people who either have less money, or just don't want to pay that much for a product.

again, this view is local though. the way that i read what is being said, is that within the united states, there are not enough people who either have or earn enough wages to buy these homes.

but what about outside of america? what about world-wide? we have seen that in the big markets, like NY, property is being purchased by foreigners who have money. supposedly, there was an increase in the number of canadians buying homes in AZ so they could come down and sun during the winter months.

anyway, one way i propose to look at the problem is this. there is also a claim that there is a shortage of math and science development in this country. why not open up immigration quotas (not standards) to more potential immigrants, and get them to start buying this "overhang" of housing inventory.

this does two things. it increases competition for jobs and for housing. so the idea is that the quality of our technology industry and/or research will improve, while increasing the demand for both jobs and homes in the US; hoping that an influx of knowledge workers does not act as a local market price dump on wages. in any case, i think that the wages of knowledge workers will exceed that of unskilled workers.

there is no doubt that any idea of this sort would bring tough questions about the nation's stance on terrorism. and in today's political climate, stricter immigration is a key topic. but to be sure, i'm really only talking about upping the quota on high end laborers, or those who can earn high wages, thus building the pool of qualified buyers for these homes.

you might also argue that this increases the wage gap. and well, it probably would. you'd have just as many people who are out of homes right now that would not qualify to get into homes because of the increased demand, and what will probably be a strict lending scheme that is probably not likely to reverse itself for a while. but let's be frank, a lot of those people shouldn't have been owning homes anyway. not to say that people don't deserve to have roofs over thier heads. but you need to be able to legitimately afford what you buy. our appetite for consumption of everything in this country is undisciplined. i think that prosperity is great. but it must be earned and earned individually. so that collectively, the advantages are honest.

i'm back in school. for those of you who did not know.
we've been in class for about 3 weeks now, i think. it's been pretty good.
oh yes, what school?
well, if you refer back several months, maybe only a few posts (oops.) i accepted a spot at George Washington University's EMBA program.

that means that i'm going to school and working at the same time.
thank goodness i'm on a 40 hr/wk client right now.
i don't think i could do it otherwise.

well, we'd find a way to make it work i suppose.
anyway, school is great. i'm really loving it so far. i'm totally engaged in the material, and 8 hour class days feel too short! imagine that.
this is coming from someone who couldn't sit through a 50 minute class without trying to sleep at least 3 times in a class period.

the work is pretty heavy though.... tons of reading, and more papers than i'm used to writing. the most writing i've done in the past several years is what y'all see up here. that's about it.

so it's good. my days are packed, i don't get to do much except for study.
the workouts have come down. i haven't really managed to "excercise" yet. or fit it into my schedule. i have days where i might put on "workout clothes" and move around vigorously for about 30-40 minutes. and that's it.
although, i am making it a point to ride once or twice to work each week.
so far, it's really only been once a week for the past month.

but it's great.
i ride about 15.5 miles each way, and strap on a 30lb bag on my back.
that part sucks!
it's not a casual ride. but it's good.
so on days like today, when i rode, i get just over 2 hours in.
yeah, slow. but consider the bag, and that i have to stop at traffic lights, etc.
cut me some slack, ok?!

oh, i was riding to work this morning, and my friend JM rode up alongside of me.
he rides 30 miles one way to work each morning!
but he doesn't ride home :).
anyway, it was really nice to have someone to ride with this morning, and he gave me a good pull for a while too.

what else?
hmmmm... can't think of anything else too important to say.

oh, i fear that this may be the end of swimming for a while.
i just can't see how i can fit it in with all the homework that i've had.
il wanted to try to swim once or twice during the week, but it's just not happening.
not with this class load.

i'll have to admit, i think i underestimated how much work there was going to be.
i knew there would be a lot, but i thought i could still grab a couple of swims in.

ah, hopefully, it will change.

ok, off to do..... yep, you guessed it.... homework!

ciao.

just got back from checking out this place in arlington.
went for dinner. called guajillo. it was super good.
found a new mexican joint that is actually worth going to.

makes me happy.

check 'em out.
http://www.waheeyo.com/index.html

the summer games begin today.
for the past couple of years leading up to this event, we've been hearing a lot about the quality of the air in china. today, one of the headlines on msnbc.com is "heat,humidity, and haze". the haze, based on all of the noise that has been building up, i'm willing to agree with people that it's probably pollution, and not fog, as the olympic officials state. but what is funny to me, is how people are making any kind of noise about the heat and humidity. as a summer sport athlete for just about all of my life, growing up in alabama and texas, it's just hot.
hot and muggy. that's what summer is. and athletes are concerned about performance in these conditions? ok, maybe it'll be tougher to set world records, but isn't your job to go over there and compete, and crush the competition? no matter what the weather conditions? and after all, isn't it also the SUMMER olympics? not the "spring" or "fall" olypics? they're elite atheletes! able to perform under all conditions. the harsher the better! let the true champions emerge. don't let only those who can perform under ideal conditions even have a chance at claiming greatness!

i don't know who it is that's complaining about the weather and conditions. but suck it up and hit it with everything you've got.

it's kind of funny to observe people, or guys, who are new to the professional workforce.

in the past few years i've had to dress approrpiately for work. somehow, i managed to get by until i was in my 30s before having to wear business clothes for work.

anyway, i have noticed that the younger guys, who are not accustomed to the different "looping format" of belt loops, tend to miss a loop in the back of thier pants, when they feed the belt through.

most of the time, with more casual pants, there is a single belt loop in the center of the back of the pants.
however, with more formal clothing, it seems that there are two loops that are just off center. so if you're used to wearing more casual clothing, you'll often forget that there are two loops back there, and only get one of them.

don't ask me why i'm looking at the back of guys' pants. but let's just say that when you're riding the escalator with a herd of people, it's difficult not to look forward.

anyway, i think it's pretty funny.
eventually, people get it. but it's just kind of a funny observation.

you'll also notice that those people often have wrinkled shirts too...

this summer has been going along pretty smoothly so far. been having some decent workouts, work is steady, and i'm excited to get started with classes in a month.

in the meantime, i've been enjoying the outdoors on the weekends.

a few weeks ago, one of my water bottle cages broke, and i needed to replace it.
it broke because it was old, and i used it a lot.
when i moved here to the DC area, i had been using the profile water bottle cages on the back of my seat. they worked fine on the open roads in texas, but on the crappy bumpy roads of DC and surrounding areas, my bottles would constantly pop out.
so i was limited to two water bottles per ride. believe it or not, for the past 3 seasons, that has really limited my rides to 2-3 hours.

so now that the time for me to replace a water bottle has come along, i went to the store to look.
i'm kind of a cheap ass, so i wanted to get the cheapest thing they had. but i also wanted something that would actually serve my needs.

so i explored the next price level up.
the store had these "specialized rib cage pro"s. i grabbed a water bottle and stuck it in there. no problem.
then i tried to pull it out. uh... hello? this thing won't come out. shit, not to be embarrassed, but more importantly, not to be beaten by a piece of plastic, i worked with it until i figured out that you have to angle the bottle to get it out.

WOW!!! i have to try one of these things.
so i bought one and put it on the bike.
the next day, i rode to swim practice, stuck a bottle in the back cage, and rode over the wood bridges, hit every bump that i could find. and over the 7.5 mile course, the bottle never came out.
the next day, i went back to the store and bought a second one.

now i can carry 4 bottles again..... i hate stopping for supplies on a ride.

fast forward a couple of weeks. the helmet that i've had for about 8 years began giving me a reason to start looking for a new one. the one that i was wearing was a giro boreas. it's been a great helmet. but it stopped fitting after the front pads fell out. so for the past several years, i've been riding with an obstructed view; constantly having to push the helmet out of my eyes.

finally, recently, the side pads have started to disintegrate.
in all honesty, the helmet is in fine working condition, i just needed a reason to shop for a new one.

i shopped for a couple of weeks, and i went right back to the top of the line giro helmets. on thursday, i bought a giro ionos. do you know how hard it is to find those things in store? for some reason, not many stores carry them. and the stores that do carry them don't carry that much of a selection. i went to 5 stores, and only two carried them, even though the websites for all of them said they did. and of those two, only one of them had the color and size that i would accept. i ended up with a color that is ok, the blue/black, but i wanted a white one again (white is easier to see in dim light).

but i love it. it fits so well, and is nice and cool on these hot days.

this morning, i went out for a ride with DJ.
i decided that i liked riding out mcarthur blvd, because it's a pretty straight road, not many stop lights, and is only moderately traveled by cars. although, today seemed a bit heavier than the past couple of times that i've ridden out that way.

skip timeline.
yesterday, i was reading an article about how there are more bikes out on the road recently due to the high price of gas.
i have noticed that a little bit.
the article wanted to pit cyclists against motorists.
it's an easy thing to do.
what most people who don't ride don't want to accept is the fact that the same people that ride bikes, also drive cars. and some of the people that drive cars also ride bikes. you're not one or the other.
i would accept, however, that there are those people who know riding etiquette, and those who don't. and that is independent of whether or not you're a "cyclist".
i have several opinions on this, but his post is not the place for it. i might write one later.

jump back to this morning.
DJ and i were coming back. we just went for an out and back.
mcarthur blvd is a two lane road, with traffic going one lane in each direction. but on one side of the road, there is a small paved path. but not in all sections. there are some sections that it moves up onto the road.
so it's a little confusing as to what is exactly supposed to happen there.

anyway, DJ and i were heading back, on the side that has the path. and as riders, we generally stay on the road, unless it's safer to get on the path. generally, we stay away from the path because that's where there are pedestrians, and for the most part beginner cyclists (i.e. dangerous obstacles). however, there are some places where it makes sense to use the path as a cyclist, like where there are blind turns for cars, or basically any place where the road just gets extremely narrow.

we were going at a decent clip, maybe 20mph, and we went through this section where the road and path merged as one (so it was basically a shoulder). it also just so happened that it was around a turn. so there was limited visibility.

DJ went through just fine, and then, out of nowhere, these two women were in my face!

here's the thing....
i was reading that article yesterday getting a little frustrated about the commentary, and i pretty much decided that i'm going to get in the most trouble with beginner cyclists who don't know what proper protocol is, and can't handle thier machines. these two ladies, were maybe not elite cyclists, but were clearly good enough to know to ride on the side in the direction of traffic, and were good enough bike handlers that riding on the road should be no problem for them.

so i ditched to the right as much as i could, because that seemed like the best shot for me. but my tire got sucked off the side of the road, and i went down knee, elbow, and wrist sliding along the pavement. it's really quite a strange thing to experience. on the one hand, you're thinking, pavement is not slippery. yet, for some reason, i'm still moving. damn, this is going to sting when it's over. hopefully nothing is breaking right now besides my momentum. and all you can do is go along for the ride.

crap!
what the hell?

man, i was mad.
i really didn't expect that these stronger riders would be riding on the wrong side of the road.

i couldn't say anything to them. i was too ticked.
well, they say that there are two kinds of riders, those who have gone down and those who are going to go down.
i've hit the ground before, but this is the first time that i've skidded across the ground. i'm counting that as my badge of honor, and i suppose i can be included in the "those who have gone down".

the best part about it was that the water bottles stayed in thier new cages throughout the fall and the slide. and i did knock my head on the ground (not too badly) but the helmet didn't shift or move off of my head.

good equipment.

as for how i'm doing. the road rash is ok. it stings.
but my wrist really hurts, and my knees are getting really sore. i was worried that i cracked my right patella. but probably not... i'm expecting a nice bone bruise though.

a few weeks ago, i posted a complaint about comcast's customer service.

today, i had an annoying itch to contact them again about a strange issue.

long story short, i decided to write frank, who is a comcast rep who replied to that first post, to see if he was for real. i read some other posts about him, and decided it'd be worth a shot, because i had trouble getting help that could solve my problem.

in my email to him, i didn't ask for him to call me or fix my problem. i just wanted him to note that i was having difficulting getting help for my service.

well, wouldn't you know it (i wouldn't have)... he called me within about 20minutes. i didn't leave a number or anything, but he found me, and was ready to tackle the acutal problem that i had.

he worked with me for a while, and was extremely helpful. in fact, was able to resolve my issue.

frank is a real guy, and is determined to do his job to perfection.

if there are any of frank's bosses out there that read this stuff, i want you to know that frank is out there killing it to salvage the company's reputation. having reps out there like him, with his expertise and dedication to the job may just be the one saving grace that your customer service system has.

and if you can build a team around his dedication and values that scales, it might just be possible, some day, to have a respectable customer service department; something that is lacking across the board in many industries today - that all customers and consumers dream of.
that would be an impressive accomplishment that would set you far apart from your competition.

of course, most of us would rather buy a product or service that doesn't require contacting support, but if we must, having a ready and capable team would definitely keep my business.

thanks again frank.