2009

2009 was a year of transition. New job, life status changes, ie. engaged, and a lot of moves.

1) I lived in 3 different places during the course of 2009. Nuts. I am sick of moving.

2) I learned what I have to do fitness-wise to enjoy life as I get older.

3) A real job. Work is neat. For once, I get to apply my knowledge that i have spent a lifetime accumulating in school.

4) Writing. Writing emails and blogs is different from real writing. I learned that the hard way, but I am happy with my improvement. And I'll only continue to improve.

5a) Engaged. It's nice I have met my teammate for the rest of my life. Now, it is just a matter of patience for us to wait and being our life together. There is a lot we have to look forward, and I think the wedding is only first of many things to come. I

5b) It's kind of auto-pilot for the guy after the proposal. But I will never forget May 2, 2009 for the rest of my life. Neither will she. The planning and thought leading to it is an incredible experience. And the moment itself? It's indescribable. The only thing you wait for is her answer, though you know the answer already by the look in her eye.

6) Homesickness. It really hit me this year. I miss my family, I'd like to be closer to them distance wise. They're a 3.5 hrs plane flight right now, but a 3 hr car drive would be nice, too.

7) JJ Abrams. You had a great year. Good work.

8) Go Horns. If they win in 1 week, they have chance to do something really special for the next 5-7 years. The door is open for them to become a dynasty. It's up to them to step up and do it.

Penultimate 2009 Post

The older one gets, the more bad habits form. You are in a hurry or lazy or whatever, and you do something the just get by. It's a recipe for bad habits to form.

For me, I formed bad habits with exercise. I would exercise, but it would not be pushing myself. I made excuses for not doing so, because I was afraid that the chronic compartment syndrome symptoms (fro pre-surgery days) would come back.

In truth, I needed to be pushed. I needed to challenged.

I started taking part in an athletic conditioning class after work at the gym. The class is composed of several series of anaerobic and aerobic exercises emphasizing increasing the heart rate and total body conditioning.

At the beginning, of the course, I was lagging, protecting myself, actually babying myself. There was a day earlier, in July, where the instructor stopped class, walked up to me, and looked at me. He questioned why I was wasting my time, if I was not pushing myself.

I was stunned. I did not know how to respond. I wanted to leave. I was embarrassed, humiliated. I went home that night, and I could not sleep as I kept thinking about that. I was not mad the instructor. He was right. What was I doing? How could I be at mad someone, when the only person to really be mad at was myself?

I did not go back to the class the month of August. I spent time remembering what we did for basketball practice back in the day. I called my Mom and asked her about her yoga. I tried swimming again, albeit the water was much colder than I remembered it. I evaluated my diet, looked at what I should do in that realm. I am pretty particular/careful, aside from my addiction to brownies, so I was okay there. I started jogging again.

Slowly, one day I "trotted" around the soccer field at a slow pace. No one would confuse me for Usain Bolt. But, it was more effort I had given to running for a long time. I also came up with a system of exercises to help maintain lean muscle without having to life weights, which bore the hell out of me.

You have a lot of time to think about things when you are running and don't own an iPod. For me, it was a time where I built up motivation, "ganas" as Jaime Escalante talks about in Stand & Deliver.

I showed up to the conditioning class about 4-5 weeks after the incident. The instructor saw me come in, and he gave me the jerked, raised chin greeting. The class started.

I was nervous as hell, what if I did not keep up? Was my time wasted?

60 minutes later, I was sweating. I was a bit sore. But I was standing, and not out of breath.

The instructor approached me after the class and hugged me. He told me he was proud of my effort and I had challenged myself. The best part of it was though, he said I could attend another class where you do the exercises in this class, but you also get to work with speed bags and those big body bags in boxing. This has been really fun the past couple of months. Tiring, but fun.

I spent most of my 20s understanding how to navigate the path of least resistance between a thought to its realization. Graduate school requires a certain amount of navigation to avoid the rocks or Scylla & Charybdis. My teens were all about being stubborn and taking things head-on, forgoing elegant solutions - brute force, if you will.

After my surgery, I quit pushing myself because I was afraid of re-injuring myself. I was scared. Now, I am past that, and ready to embrace exercise as something fun, not something that I have to do. I can do the activities I like, because I can find activities that accomplish my goals. Lean muscle and resistance training is very important for men and women. Free weights exercises are one way of accomplishing this. If you do not like free weights, there are other ways to do reach one's goals.

Life successfully navigated requires an amalgamation of both ways. I had to figure this out, and I have the gym instructor to thank.

The Case of the Squeaky Shoes

Since I started working, I have had to wear dress shoes Monday through Thursday, with occasional Fridays when dress shoes must be worn. Fridays are casual Fridays, and so, I like to bust out my running shoes or casual non-athletic shoes.

In January, I thought it would be a good idea to go out and purchase new dress shows. I figured it made and it was a justified expense because fatigue coupled with tired/sore legs/feet is not acceptable. I found an adequate sale and 2 pairs of shoes - 1 black, 1 brown.

I like the brown ones a lot. They have laces and are very comfortable. The black ones are equally comfortable, but they squeak. For whatever reason, when I tried them on in the store they did not squeak. Yes, the shoes are the correct size.

After a few weeks, I discovered it was because dress socks are thinner, get sweat-soaked faster, and rub against the heel side of the shoe to generate this squeak. At the store when I tried the shoes on, I wore athletic socks, which are much more absorbent. I started to wear my thicker dress socks with the black shoes, but it only delayed the onset of the squeaking.

Over the summer it got to the point where I was extremely annoyed with these shoes. I would take them off when I was in my office, so as to dry the socks/shoes. This was only a temporary solution.

Then, an idea came to me when I was at the grocery store - heel gel cups! Dr. Scholl's makes them as well as Spenco on Amazon. I have been wearing them and have eliminated the squeaking as there is less surface for the wet sock to rub against the heel wall. Also, these things are so comfortable; I feel like I am walking on air.

These are what they look like. They are cheaper on Amazon or at Payless Shoes. HAAR!

The Journey Ends .... A Half-Hearted Evaluation of the Merits of Reading Ahead

Tonight the journey ends. After 57 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, my housemates and I are left with episodes 58-61, which were originally televised as a movie, but for DVD and TV were separated into four episodes.

It was an amazing experience to watch the series without reading ahead. You see, I hate surprises, and so, whenever I read ahead. I like to focus on details, like character development, sets or in animation the drawings, etc. Recently, I tried not reading ahead with Avatar, Green Lantern: First Flight, and District Nine. Only once did it fail me.

Let me first say, all three movies had a very nice story and were very engaging of my interest, however, District Nine was almost unwatchable for me due to the camera work. It gave me varying degrees of vertigo and disorientation - it is that style of camera work, like in Blair Witch, where it looks someone is using a camcorder and waving their arms as s/he film. If I had read ahead about it, I would have probably not seen District Nine - no movie can be good enough to compensate for such wonky camera work, at least for me.

As for Avatar, well, I am very glad I did wait to just watch the episodes. The story has been absolutely amazing to see unfold and the creators were able to sustain the momentum and even generate it throughout the series. I have very high expectations tonight as we watch the finale.

My fiancée watched a couple of episodes and became interested in it as well. I think next year when the live action movie is released, we will forgo the movie theatre and look forward to re-watching the animated series - in Blu-Ray (one would think it would be released in Blu-Ray as the movie is released)!

For now, I will end with this:

Water... Earth... Fire... Air.

Recently, my friends and I have been introduced to Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is an animated series, dating back to 2005-2007 when it first aired on Nickelodeon.

What amazes me, is how I let this show slip through the cracks, until ~ 2-3 weeks ago. Perhaps in 2005, I was too busy writing my dissertation or finding a postdoc. Who knows. All I know is that I recently saw a movie preview for the upcoming movie next summer, and I thought to myself, "Ahh, that looks cool. Some archetypal hero representing some element, and oh wow, the Fire people are the bad guys. Yeah, cool, I'll watch it."

[The image I have posted, is the main character's trusty 10 ton 6-legged, flying bison - Appa. A very loyal and imposing friend to have.]

I brought it up in conversation to a friend, and he stressed how well executed the animated series was. WHAT? It was based on an animated series? Oh Snap!

So I NetFlixed the first 4 episodes. I liked it, I liked it a whole lot. I told my housemates/friends about it, and they were like, "I dunno Thakman Jones, you thought It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was good, too!"

HAAR! We tried watching an episode together, and then another, and another, ..... Yeah, we liked it!

What appeals to me the most about this show is that the characters are not flat. They are dynamic. The story itself, well, we've seen this sort of theme/meme in movies/series/literature - a hero comes of age, a hero understand his/her destiny and comes to embrace it, a person driven to ill pursuits out of a misguided but noble sense of honor, the hero embarking on a quest. There are probably others, but these will do for now, as I am only on episode 12 out of 61.

What is remarkable is that the primary antagonist, at least for now, is an amazing character. You can describe him as a "bad guy" but he is not "bad" for the sake of being bad. There is a reason he becomes the way he is, and his story and motivations are absolutely fascinating.

I feel, only my gut feel as I have promised not to spoil or read ahead about the series, is that one's redemption, both the hero and the current primary antagonist will play a role. If the first ~20% of the series are an indication, the creators have done an impressive job with their execution. I feel like the whatever direction the series takes, it will be an interesting journey and a compelling story.

What a thoroughly entertaining and delightful show.

A 10 List

Forgive me for not posting recently. I am still learning work-life balance. I am going to get more regular about this. Regular like fiber. HAAR!

1) I'm engaged. It's exciting to this I've met the person I am going to share my life with, grow old with, etc. Now, the planning is underway, and it is the last hurdle. It is a tall hurdle. Argh. Haar.

2) Arghaar. It is my new word to describe wedding planning talk.

3) In July 2009 we should see new NIH guidelines regarding stem cell use in the U.S. This will be a big development in terms of scientists are able to use in their studies.

4) Anything sort of a Big XII championship followed by a national title game appearance and win for Texas will be a disappointing season. The road for the title game goes through Florida, but you play the games for reason. We'll see what happens. Next 4-6 years are going to be exciting times for Texas fans. F' oklahoma.

5) The summer is coming up, and I am vehemently looking forward to grilling with my housemates and friends. There are a few new recipes I have been devising that I am looking forward to trying.

6) People who have no belief in the fantastic, the amazing, that dreams can come to fruition suck royally. As far as I am concerned, these types of people are unnecessarily negative and have no place in my life.

7) I am surprised by how nice the PS3 is. My fiancee seems to like LittleBigPlanet. The game looks fun and the system is quite nice. It definitely has better reliability than the Xbox 360 based on what I have been perusing online. But I'm an Xbox guy. Sony pissed me off with the way they treated me ~2001 when my PS1 died within its warranty period. So, I am hesitant to make my video gaming bed with Sony again.

8) Today is the digital TV signal conversion day. HOORAY! The future starts today!

9) The new Daves Matthews Album is surprisingly good. Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King.

10) The Star Trek movie (2009) was incredible. I need to see it again sometime, or perhaps wait for Blu-ray / DVD or whatever. It is movie that met my expectations.

30 Going on 31

This past year, my 30th, was a good one. It also marked the end of my 3rd decade, ages 21-30. What is remarkable for me is that it seems as though it was just yesterday I was making way between my dorm and the engineering quad at UT while fretting some stupid Unit Ops exam or just salivating for the next bit of knowledge in neurophysiology or transport phenomena.

I miss those times, but I am also happy to be where I am. I think 10 years ago, I was going through what I would call the worst period in my life. It takes time to heal, it takes time for things to pass, etc. I think for me to think back to that time in my life, and for me to recall it with a smile on my face, well, it is a testament to these words of wisdom handed to me by someone far more grounded than I was at that time. It is safe to say I have healed, and that part of my life is compartmentalized.

My greatest fear for the next 10 years is straying from the path that will help me realize my potential. I refuse think anyone, outside of athletes, can say that life is downhill at 30-31 onwards. There is still so much to do, so much to achieve.

My 20s were a time when I had a chance to train my mind and broaden my skills, and essentially, set me career trajectory for the first part of my career. My 30s are here now, and its time to start executing on that stuff.

Soon, it will be time to get married, looking at buying a home, think of a family, plot the next point in the career trajectory, etc. It is hard to believe that the things we do, the people we meet in our 20s set us up for all these decisions and influence our modes of thought.

In the last 10 yrs, I have been able to witness the isolation of the human embryonic stem cell line, seen federal research on it banned, then observed breakthrough at circumventing hESC use, and now, come Monday the ban is lifted. Considering my line of work, and training this is remarkable in a 10 year period of time.

Who knows what the next 10 years holds- academically, career-wise, and personally? I do look forward to being able to share this with the girl I love, my family, and friends.

More importantly, what advances in movies based on comic books / graphic novels will we see? I cannot wait! Finally, I really do think, in the next 10 years, I will my Longhorns from The University of Texas at Austin win 2 national / BCS championships. I really do.

It is absolutely sick the amount of coaching and talent that is there and will be there. It's on you, Longhorns, to make me look good when I revisit this post in 10 yrs!

Until then ......

HAAR!

Next post - what the new stem cell policy really means. Enough introspection for now!