Whirlwind

[Sciread77]

It's been a whirlwind, but the the bebe has finally started sleeping through the night.  Mostly.  I've been back at work for 3 weeks now.

 

I am currently 3-5 lbs above my best week here, but still well under the triple digit I will never be above again.  If I'm being entirely honest, for a couple of weeks I was terrified to even ste on a scale for fear of failing that.  I took my head out of the mud last Sunday and want to be back on track.

 

Part of the chaos has been a really cool and completely unexpected occurrence, but given that I didn't previously debrief, I'll begin with that.

Previous Goals:

1.  Help my wife (at the very least) return to diurnal living since she's got only one more week of leave left.

-Nailed it.  She's still tired but we have a functional routine.
 

2.  Actively lose weight at the 0.5-2 lbs/week rate of my goal, including prioritizing my protein like before.  

-Failed, but I believe I modified the goal.  I never got close to my upper limit and am currently sitting at the same weight I was around September. 

 

3.  Get the house in order and establish routines. 

-I kicked butt here.  Not only did we establish family routines that work with both of us working, I built 90% of a craft room for my wife before Christmas <i>without her knowing I was finishing the basement</i>.  At times, I felt a lot like Andy Dufresne during his escape from Shawshank prison, timing hammer blows to line up with thunder or neighbor's fireworks or craziness from the dog and kids.  The house still gets wrecked pretty easily, and there's a lot of work to do before our visitors arrive in March, but I'm feeling much better.

 

4.  Keep reading, keep keep reading.

-BOOM! Knocked it out of the park.   

 

5. Read to the kids daily. 

-Also knocked it out of the park.  We've been working on reading comprehension and they're listening to the new picture version of Harry Potter 1.  Each night they tell us about what happened the night before to catch us up.  It's awesome.  The 4-year-old is starting to point out differences between the book and the movie. 

 

6. Rock the interviews.

-I felt good about the interviews, but received no offers. I'm terribly disappointed in myself.  I played the politics completely wrong on it.  I'm not blaming "politics" as if it's an unrelated thing that took away my opportunity.  The promotions were both 80% about appropriately executing office politics, and that means I have a lot to analyze and fix.

 

---New Goals---

 

1.  We're still tired, and both my wife and I are averaging 4-5 hours of sleep.  While optimally we'll get 7-8 like we were before the bebe came, I want to shoot for a realistic amount.

 

->My goal is for both of us to be in bed by 9:30.

 

2.  Time to get back into the swing of things with my weight loss.

 

->Actively lose weight at the 0.5-2 lbs/week rate of my goal, including prioritizing my protein like before.  

 

3.  The house is mostly in order, I just need to finish off a couple of rooms and make some trips for donations. 

 

    Also, something really cool happened over the holidays.  It's not really my story to tell in detail. Here's my part of it: surprise, you have a sister-in-law!    My (new?) sister-in-law and her husband are coming to visit in March.  We're stoked, and we're preparing the toy room to be the guest bedroom we mentally pretend it to be.

 

->Get the house ready for guests.

 

4.  Reading still helps.

 

->Keep Reading, 1 book every 2 weeks at the least.

 

5.  The kids love reading and are getting better at it.  

 

->keep reading with the kids.

 

6.  I'm branching out professionally.

 

->Execute the marketing plan, tweak my political game, and land interviews to those next opportunities.
 

[Sciread77]

Wolfen's Post reminds me: I've found a site with the Foreign Service Institute's old languages courses and materials, for free, and I've been having a blast with it.  I've more or less stopped playing with Duolingo for the time being while I'm working on it.  I just finished the Introduction to French Phonology course and I'm making my way through the French Basic course.  It's all way behind my reading ability, but my pronunciation was atrocious so I'm starting over with my speaking.

 

I was also going to mention that I told my (very Italian) grandmother that I was learning French, and I am amused to report that she was offended that I would learn a language of the Northern Invaders before perfecting tongue of my ancestors.  

[Sciread77]

1. ->My goal is for both of us to be in bed by 9:30.

In bed by 11.  This one will be tough.
 

2. ->Actively lose weight at the 0.5-2 lbs/week rate of my goal, including prioritizing my protein like before.  

I'm up 2 lbs from my last weigh-in yesterday.  I'm going to have to get mentally used to daily weigh-ins again, but no biggie. 

3.  ->Get the house ready for guests.
Well, it didn't get any worse than it was yesterday.
 

4.  ->Keep Reading, 1 book every 2 weeks at the least.
I'm halfway through my first February book.
 

5.  ->keep reading with the kids.
We didn't read last night because it was such a late night. 
 

6.  ->Execute the marketing plan, tweak my political game, and land interviews to those next opportunities.
In process.

[Sciread77]

1. ->My goal is for both of us to be in bed by 9:30.

In bed by 10.  That's progress, at least!
 

2. ->Actively lose weight at the 0.5-2 lbs/week rate of my goal, including prioritizing my protein like before.  

I'm feeling pretty good about what I ate yesterday.  I got up and ate three packages of snack cakes in the middle of the night during my stupor, though, so I'm less excited about that lol.

3.  ->Get the house ready for guests.
Still didn't get worse, and is a bit better prepped for when we actually hit it this weekend.
 

4.  ->Keep Reading, 1 book every 2 weeks at the least.
No reading yesterday, but I'm well on track.
 

5.  ->keep reading with the kids.
We didn't read last night because it was also a late night.  They're always sad when we don't read.  But we read before nap and bedtime on the weekends to make up for rough nights like the last two.
 

6.  ->Execute the marketing plan, tweak my political game, and land interviews to those next opportunities.
In process.  I will say that I'm getting interest from the kind of parties I want, so the the first part of the funnel is working correctly. 

 

**************************************

 

7.  I forgot to add one of my major goals that I am actively working toward in both the short and long term.

I've been studying French as part of my regular routine for 2 years, 1 month, and 8 days now.  After several hundred hours, I am pretty good at reading French, decent at writing French, and still terrible at listening to and speaking French.  This is not ok.  After a long introspection I realized that my current method of study (primarily Duolingo and reading things in French) will never get me to the conversational level that I want to be at because I rarely hear French unless it's the French that I've taught and spoke to my family. All the native French speakers in my family lives in other countries and we primarily interact via Facebook, which is why I am ok at writing French.

 

Given these facts, I decided to take a radically different approach for the time being.  I discovered the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) French courses for diplomats from the 60s and I am diligently studying those.  I've already completed the Introduction to French Phonology Course, and today I completed Unit One out of the 24. I'm also narrating my daily life in French, which is working out pretty well for me although it probably looks and sounds pretty hilarious.

 

-> Complete at least 1 unit each week and use as many phrases as possible during daily life, especially with the family.
 

[Leigh]

On 2/6/2018 at 3:13 PM, Sciread77 said:

I was also going to mention that I told my (very Italian) grandmother that I was learning French, and I am amused to report that she was offended that I would learn a language of the Northern Invaders before perfecting tongue of my ancestors.  

 

 

Tell her that you have sneaky plans to learn the language so you can start invading them in the next decade *nods* and then detail out some crazy plan to slowly convert them all to liking  Italian culture/wine/food more than their own and that you plan on recruiting more and more Italians to invade so you can breed them out. Then cackle like a crazy person and just wait for her to laugh at you.

 

[Sciread77]

2 minutes ago, Leigh said:

 

 

Tell her that you have sneaky plans to learn the language so you can start invading them in the next decade *nods* and then detail out some crazy plan to slowly convert them all to liking  Italian culture/wine/food more than their own and that you plan on recruiting more and more Italians to invade so you can breed them out. Then cackle like a crazy person and just wait for her to laugh at you.

 

 

I love it. 

 

But it the laugh never comes. My grandma never mastered sarcasm (and can rarely even identify it) in spite of almost 60 years of constant exposure from living with my grandpa. 

[Leigh]

But that's even better! She might think you were serious and offer to help plan it all out which would be fun for you and also an oddly fun way to spend some time with Grandma if you ask me

[Sciread77]

We can dream.    Fixing my (atrocious and broken) Italian is next on the list.  I can basically talk my way around a kitchen #LifeSkills but I'm otherwise useless.

[Sylvaa]

Glad to see that everything is getting back on track so quickly. I know how difficult it can be to adjust to a new baby and the updated schedule. 

 

What about reading to your children in French? 

[Sciread77]

It feels like it’s been forever. 

 

I’d love to read to my kids in French and plan to eventually. But if I’ve learned anything in my last few weeks of intensive study, it’s that my mental impression of how French words sound and how they actually sound might as well be from two different worlds. I need at least a few more months to figure out how French sounds. I don’t want to pass my bad habits on to them. 

 

Le Petite Prince, je viens pour toi!

[Aquarii]

6 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

But if I’ve learned anything in my last few weeks of intensive study, it’s that my mental impression of how French words sound and how they actually sound might as well be from two different worlds. I need at least a few more months to figure out how French sounds. I don’t want to pass my bad habits on to them. 

Have you considered watching movies in French? French movies in the target language would obviously be the best for this, but you could even find French dubbed movies. I know when I was studying German, I switched the language to German on my Netflix and a surprising number of American films and TV shows were available dubbed in German. I am assuming the same would be true of French.

[Sciread77]

8 minutes ago, StarlordPhoenix said:

Have you considered watching movies in French? French movies in the target language would obviously be the best for this, but you could even find French dubbed movies. I know when I was studying German, I switched the language to German on my Netflix and a surprising number of American films and TV shows were available dubbed in German. I am assuming the same would be true of French.

 

That’s a good idea. I have done some of this and I listen to the work of Jules Verne, a childhood favorite of mine, on audiobook along with the writing. I need to do more, and haven’t done this recently. Frankly, the audiobook work has probably been the most effective for me thus far. 

 

The kids learned how to set Netflix to French (and Spanish) to the annoyance of my wife. They’ve only seen The Real Ghostbusters, Transformers, and a few other classic TV shows in the French dub.  They understand French remarkably well, even if they’re limited in what they can speak. To be fair, at 2 and 4, they’re still learning English too. 

 

I intended to do this at work before I went on leave and after I returned, but I’ve been caught up in drills since I returned, learning how to say variations of sentences and phrases so they roll off my tongue and sound right. 

 

That’s a lot of words to say, “Great idea, I’d forgotten about that, I’ll add it to my program.”

[Aquarii]

1 minute ago, Sciread77 said:

That’s a lot of words to say, “Great idea, I’d forgotten about that, I’ll add it to my program.”

 

I found it pretty helpful. I mean, obviously the best route is speaking with native/fluent speakers, but when you don't have that, films are great. I think modern foreign or dubbed films are particularly good, because then you get to hear modern dialogue and idioms at a pace similar to that actually spoken in the target country.

[Sciread77]

If only the movie we were watching wasn’t On Demand. 

 

French dubbing is awesome and pretty common on account of Quebec. One can reliably find French and Spanish and that makes me happy. I tried watching Pirates of the Caribbean first but that was way beyond me. I think something more along the pace of the Harry Potter movies would be better. 

[Aquarii]

2 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

French dubbing is awesome and pretty common on account of Quebec. One can reliably find French and Spanish and that makes me happy. I tried watching Pirates of the Caribbean first but that was way beyond me. I think something more along the pace of the Harry Potter movies would be better. 

 

Another thing you could do in the beginning is watch dubbed movies that you are already fairly familiar with so you have an idea what they are saying, which might help make connections between phrases and idioms. Then to level up, start watching things you have never seen before. If they have subbing and dubbing available, turn them both on in your target language so that if they are talking too fast to catch all the words, you can still read the words below.

[Sciread77]

So the last 3 nights I’ve fallen asleep at 10 pm, 9:42 pm, and 9:49 pm. If this keeps up I will be very happy. 

 

We we were iced in today, which is easy for hill people like us. We have to go up a steep hill on our driveway and down two long, steep hills to get out of our neighborhood so even when the rest of the St. Louis region is moving we are often trapped. Fortunately, it melted off by late afternoon. 

 

The house is getting in better order. Part of the improvement was moving the bunnies from the basement to the garage, which makes their cage easier to clean, the house smell better, and sets them up to get a lot more attention since the garage is basically bunny-proofed and we don’t have to prep an area. 

 

I’m also happy to say that I was able to translate the line of French in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which gave me butterflies but delighted the family. 

[Leigh]

You mentioned Quebec... do I smell a fellow Canadian? *wave from Ottawa* Also throw on Disney movies with the French audio and the subtitles as well, that way you can watch something with the kids that's kid friendly, hear how the word sound and you can read it! I found that insanely helpful when I was trying to brush up on the language. As of now, I can understand a decent amount of work related spoken french and I can read an oddly large amount of it... but then again there are soooo many french words that are damn near the same in English

[Sciread77]

1. ->My goal is for both of us to be in bed by 9:30.

Well, I suppose that 11, 10, and 10 aren't bad.  I've been getting within the target for sleep, although yesterday I woke up with a migraine.

 

2.  >Actively lose weight at the 0.5-2 lbs/week rate of my goal, including prioritizing my protein like before.  

I've hit my protein goals, but due to the Valentine's Day thing I've been also consuming waaaay more sugary treats than I previously did.  I used to include eating only one thing that didn't contribute to my goals per day and I need to include that too for this to work.

 

3.  ->Get the house ready for guests.

It's not getting worse, except for dishes.  The house is staying in order.
 

4.  ->Keep Reading, 1 book every 2 weeks at the least.
Almost done with one book, and I've been reading some biographical material on my ancestors for the last few nights.
 

5.  ->keep reading with the kids.
Paw Patrol and Harry Potter.
 

6.  Still in motion.

7. I'm working to bring my overall average study time to 90 minutes per day.  Since 1/22, it's currently sitting at 48 minutes.  Weekends are the killers right now, although maybe that's not a bad thing.  

It's funny that studying written language is not nearly as exhausting for me as studying spoken language.  It's probably because I find spoken English to be tiring after a  time, too.  Especially if I have trouble hearing or understanding what is being said.  It's like dropping a tranquilizer in my drink. Not because it's boring, but it just burns through my mental energy.

I've been reading French and Spanish for years now, both books and news.  It's slower but doable so I've probably got more structures in my brain set up to handle it.  My brain is probably building the networks for spoken language.  I wonder if continuing studying spoken French for hours a day will improve my stamina with English?  My MO for years has been to give up and mentally check out of conversations in loud places like bars, which I hate for being boring and stressful.  Maybe this will improve those skills and make them less stressful?

Just a thought.

[WolfDreamer]

On 2/6/2018 at 3:13 PM, Sciread77 said:

Wolfen's Post reminds me

 

Pleasure to be of service. 

 

Glad you're still striving and thriving. Let me know if I can help in any (other) way.

[Sciread77]

I have to say, today has been a bit of a rollercoaster.  The morning was utterly chaotic, as I was unable to find my keys for some time.  I hit an early high during a morning interview and slumped for most of the rest of the day.  Other than the interview, today has been unproductive and rather blah.

 

I'm looking forward to the holiday weekend.

[Sciread77]

I am currently on track for most of my goals.

 

1.  Except for last night, I've gotten my goal sleep or more for the last week.

 

2.  Hard miss.  I've been a cookie-and-brownie-and-cake eating machine.  We more or less ran out of protein over the long weekend.  We haven't had a major grocery run since before we all got sick with the flu on December 20th.  Last night, we rectified that and minimized the junk food we brought home.

 

I've not weighed myself again, for fear of the number on the scale.  But I can feel comfortable clothes becoming tight, and that's not cool.  It fills me with a lot of anxiety.  We're in the thick of my worst season for weight management and health.  I talked to my wife about it over the weekend and we're making changes to ensure that this trend reverses (for both of us!).  But between the two of us, I'm the one that turns into a black hole for sweets.

 

3.  I cleared, organized, and bleached the landing. The bunnies live in the garage now, but their grossness still infected our entry area.  I organized the stuff sitting out, wiped it all down, swept to the n-th degree, and scrubbed the floor and walls with bleach water.  It is much better now. 

 

The landing is the room just adjacent to the guest room.
 

4.  ->Keep Reading, 1 book every 2 weeks at the least.
So far so good for this one.  Received a gift book for Valentine's day and picked up another one yesterday.
 

5.  ->keep reading with the kids.
They really love to read, and really love the Harry Potter book.
 

6.  Still in motion.

7. I've taken a break this weekend.  I've listen to some things in French but I've not done any hard memorization or book studying.  Maybe that's the way to go.

[Sciread77]

Well... Goal number 2 has been going full speed in the wrong direction.  I'm .3 lbs below my ceiling, and I'm the heaviest I've been since August 7th.  I'm also not comfortable in my clothes again.  We're a full day into the rebound, so I hope my next mention of this is a positive one.

 

 

 

[WolfDreamer]

8 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

I hope my next mention of this is a positive one.

 

I almost chose the sad reaction to this post, but I didn't because 1) I believe in you and 2) I can tell you have hope.

 

Because of my own struggles today, I literally just posted this status on Facebook: "Sometimes in life you take two steps forward then get knocked 10 steps back. But don't stop stepping forward, no matter what."

 

Just keep at it and don't give up. Even one step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction, right?

[Sciread77]

49 minutes ago, Wolfen said:

 

I almost chose the sad reaction to this post, but I didn't because 1) I believe in you and 2) I can tell you have hope.

 

Because of my own struggles today, I literally just posted this status on Facebook: "Sometimes in life you take two steps forward then get knocked 10 steps back. But don't stop stepping forward, no matter what."

 

Just keep at it and don't give up. Even one step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction, right?

 

1. Thank you. 

 

2.  I absolutely do. 

 

3. Slow, steady, and consistent is what I’m striving for. I’ve gone hard and fast many times before and it tends to end in a much harder crash than the one I’m experiencing now. Like after these clothes stop fitting altogether and I have to move to the next ones up. 

 

My non-contributing edible food for the day was a flamethrower burger from DQ, but I’ve otherwise been eating healthy, delicious food that contributes well. And altogether it should be fine for me. I’m on the way to a church class and didn’t plan ahead well enough for a non-fast food dinner. 

[Sciread77]

The last week or so has been informative.  I think I have more insight into the whys of some of my tendencies and habits; in particular, why it's so easy for things to charge in the opposite direction when they go awry. 

 

I seem to have missed the fact that one of my newer prescriptions causes elevated insulin levels in the blood.  When I am on course I have little or no sugar, which in turn lowers and stabilizes those insulin levels.  I'm normally not hungry all the time.  However, and this is why I think the holidays are so difficult for me, if I have a few bad days of overindulging in sweet, delicious desserts my blood sugar spikes, my insulin levels rise, and I begin to fight off the cravings and other physical symptoms all at once. So on top of fighting my perennial bad habits, there's an additional physical component.  That explains why I found myself waking up in the middle of the night to eat more garbage, as well as why I've gained so quickly. Valentine's day was my fall this year.  Weird.

 

On a sad note, though I've been doing better, my weight cycles are right on the cusp of my upper limit and have exceeded it for the last 3-4 times on the scale.  This was, at first, immensely depressing.  On retrospect, it means I've gained about 5 lbs in February and by the time that the increase started showing I was a day into correcting the behaviours.  That's not quite as bad as it's been in previous years.  It's just disheartening and for a while I've felt powerless to overcome the cravings or to stop the gain. 

 

I've felt derailed in general over the last few days, with just about everything except, oddly, house and family.  We took turns being sick with a 12-hour bug Friday and Saturday but ok to go to the Museum of Transportation on Sunday.  We got a lot done on the house.

 

I've been able to tread water with French, but I may back off a bit on my intensity and focus on reinforcing what I know while taking walks.  I need to add exercise back into my goals so I'm going to be sure to do that next time.  No need to take the entire 24-unit French course before June.

 

Fortunately, tomorrow is the last day of our intro-to-Lutheranism class at the church we're joining tomorrow.  The class is great, but with the kids' dance class on Thursday it makes for two late nights in a row and that's been murder on us this month.

 

I think a lot of the root problem is related to goal 6.  I'm feeling burned out and trapped, and that's not good.  I'm usually an internal locus of control kind of guy, but sometimes I feel helpless in the face of career road blocks that don't respond to my portfolio of efforts.  

 

I'm still putting one foot in front of the other.