Kaizen Day 44, May 25 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 44 of that routine



Whenever I plan to go to the city I set my alarm to go off at 4 AM. I will always wake up by myself around 3:57 AM, the alarm will almost never go off while I am still sleeping. Today I woke up at 3:30 AM. I decided to get up...what is the point trying to get another 15 minutes of sleep in

I made myself a cold brew coffee the night before and I drank this between 4 and 4:30 AM

I left the house at 4:30 AM, walked to the train station, this took 40 minutes. I caught the 5:20 train, I read about 30 pages of the book Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen . The train arrived at  Newark at 5:55 or so, got on the PATH train and arrived at the World Trade Center station around 6:20

I then walked to the New York Sports Club gym on Broad street and did 30 minutes of cardio which burned a total of 361 calories





For breakfast I had some yogurt and fruit

I had a apple as a snack

For lunch I had a cheese sandwich and a burrito


For dinner we had egg noodles with homemade bolognese sauce, we had sauteed cauliflower on the side

I had a handful of chocolate chips for dessert




Activity for the day
Total steps:  23,628
Total floors: 34
Total distance: 10,9 miles

Kaizen Day 43, May 24 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 43 of that routine

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a back, bicep and leg workout and then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM


Today I had a day off, the plan was to watch Alien Covenant in the morning, in the afternoon I would be watching the UEFA Europa League final between Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester United


For breakfast I had an English Muffin with eggs and bacon



The movie Alien: Covenant was pretty good, a little slow at times but also very suspenseful at other times. I though it was more like a cross between Prometheus and the original Alien movie. The new female star was really good and Michael Fassbender is back as the android*  (don't want to spoil anything here for you in case you didn't see the movie)

Alien: Covenant

After the movie I rushed home, I laid out my Ajax jerseys, you can see them in the pic below

Ajax Amsterdam jerseys from back in the day

I then watched the game between Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester United

The game was OK, not too exiting, United's defense was impenetrable, Ajax made too many mistakes with passing the ball around, also there were never players runing free, United did park the bus at times... oh well..there is always a next time


For dinner we had the same as last night since we made it for 2 days: lentils with kale and pasts

Activity for the day
Total steps:  11,866
Total floors: 14
Total distance: 5.5 miles

Kaizen Day 41/42, May 22/23 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 41/42 of that routine

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a chest, shoulder and tricep workout. I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM

I worked from home today and I spent at least 5 hour on the phone in various meetings.

For breakfast I had eggs, asparagus and spring onions, I also had some bread

Lunch was a cheese sandwich

For dinner we had pasta with ground meat and cauliflower

May 22

Activity for the day
Total steps:  10,010
Total floors: 14
Total distance: 4.8  miles










May 23

Today I didn't do any workout, I did walk the 2.2 miles to the train station when going to work

Spent a good 3 hours on the phone today. I managed to beat my buddy Vlad again in 9 ball at work, he would say I had a lot of luck

For lunch I had a burrito and avocado

Dinner was lentil soup  made with my homemade chicken broth, we also added kale and some pasta to eat.

Had some blueberries, a peach and an apricot for dessert


Activity for the day
Total steps:  19,426
Total floors: 8
Total distance: 8.4  miles

Kaizen Day 41 May 21 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 41 of that routine

I decided not to go to the gym today. I got up at 5 AM, had my coffee and went for a 2 hour walk since nobody else gets up before 7 AM anyway

It was a beautiful today, a little nippy but nice and bright

Listened to the how stuff works podcast, the episode was about déjà vu

They also discussed something known as jamais vu , this has also been named "vuja de" and "véjà du"

From wikipedia

Jamais vu (from French, meaning "never seen") is a term in psychology which is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer.
Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before. Jamais vu is more commonly explained as when a person momentarily does not recognize a word, person, or place that they already know. Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of aphasia, amnesia, and epilepsy.
Theoretically, a jamais vu feeling in a sufferer of a delirious disorder or intoxication could result in a delirious explanation of it, such as in the Capgras delusion, in which the patient takes a known person for a false double or impostor.[37] If the impostor is himself, the clinical setting would be the same as the one described as depersonalisation, hence jamais vus of oneself or of the very "reality of reality", are termed depersonalisation (or surreality) feelings.

The feeling has been evoked through semantic satiation. Chris Moulin of the University of Leeds asked 95 volunteers to write the word "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. 68 percent of the subjects reported symptoms of jamais vu, with some beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word.[37]

I definitely had this happen to me where I would think a word sounded strange, I also had this happen with a person's name. I still remember the name, it was one of my mom's friend, she was named Mira


For breakfast I had some oatmeal with blueberries

I watched parts of a bunch of English Premier League games today, it was the final day and all games were played at the same time


For lunch I made a salad with red pepper, carrots, asparagus, spring salad, onion and kidney beans

Watched Real Madrid win the Spanish league.


For dinner I made some salsa, grilled some chicken, we also had chips and black beans and corn

For dessert I had a cookie and vanilla ice cream

Activity for the day

Total steps:  13,642

Total floors: 10

Total distance: 6.1  miles

Kaizen Day 39/40, May 19/20 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 39/40 of that routine

May 19th

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a chest and tricep workout. I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM

For breakfast I had some yogurt and fruit

Worked from home today, noticed it was bike to work day, since I biked home from the gym, I guess that counts.

Had a cheese sandwich for lunch

For dinner we grilled pork chops, string beans and sweet potatoes


Activity for the day
Total steps:  8,184
Total floors: 12
Total distance: 3.5  miles



May 20th

I woke up at 6, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a back, bicep and leg workout. I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 8:30 AM

Had some eggs with grated potatoes for breakfast

For lunch had some extra pasta that my kids made, pasta was with homemade tomato sauce and strin beans

For dinner we had burgers made from grass fed beef picked up from a farm nearby. With the burgers we had a spring mix salad, we picked this up at the farmers marker

Started to watch the The Wizard of Lies with my wife, a movie about the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme

Activity for the day

Total steps:  12,182

Total floors: 23

Total distance: 5.2  miles

Kaizen Day 37/38, May 17/18 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 37/38 of that routine


May 17th

Got out of bed ad 5:10 AM today, had my coffee and listened to some podcasts. Left the house around 5:45 AM and ran for about 40 minutes
Had some yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Walked the 2.2 miles to the train station and hopped on the shuttle to work

Had a cheese sandwich for lunch

For dinner we had pasta with bolognese sauce


Activity for the day
Total steps:  25,687
Total floors: 7
Total distance: 12.1 miles





May 18th

Whenever I plan to go to the city I set my alarm to go off at 4 AM. I will always wake up by myself around 3:57 AM, the alarm will almost never go off while I am still sleeping. Today I woke up at 3:30 AM. I decided to get up...what is the point trying to get another 15 minutes of sleep in

I made myself a cold brew coffee the night before and I drank this between 4 and 4:30 AM

I left the house at 4:30 AM, walked to the train station, this took 40 minutes. I caught the 5:20 train, I read about 30 pages of the book Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen . The train arrived at  Newark at 5:55 or so, got on the PATH train and arrived at the World Trade Center station around 6:20. It was a beautiful morning, here is a pic I took around 6:20




I then walked to the New York Sports Club gym on Broad street and did shoulders as part of my workout. I also did 24 minutes of cardio which burned a total of 301 calories

For lunch I had a Mediterranean rice bowl




Today it was 91 degrees fahrenheit or 31 degrees celcius, I am so glad I can wear shorts in the office. Meanwhile my team members from Denver had snow..crazy weather...


Dinner was meatless chili

Had also some ice cream for dessert

Activity for the day
Total steps:  24,465
Total floors: 21
Total distance: 12.8 miles

Kaizen Day 36 May 16 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 36 of that routine

Today I did not do any workout.  I walked the 2.2 miles to the train station, hopped on the van to get to the office

Today I learned

Gated check ins

We had a meeting today, we talked about builds and someone mentioned Gated Check-in

I had never heard of this term before today, so I went to look it up. I found it on the msdn site: TFS 2010 – An Introduction to Gated Check-in 

When this trigger is selected for a build definition, any check-in that is made to a file that is mapped in the associated workspace will trigger a verification build. If the build succeeds, the changes will be submitted to the repository. If the build fails, the changes are not allowed to be submitted and must be fixed and resubmitted.

Shaking the tree

This term I heard while listening to the dotnetrocks podcast  episode Enterprise Angular and Azure with John Papa

What that means is basically removing dead code from your project, any code that is not used is removed

I had an avocado and a burrito with cherry tomatoes  for lunch

On my walk home from the train station, I noticed a USPS truck that was broken down. Just as I was passing it, this tow truck showed up. I took a picture of it

Dinner was a bean soup made with chicken broth, string beans, zucchini, spinach and tomatoes.

Activity for the day

Total steps:  18,523

Total floors: 9

Total distance: 8.6  miles

Kaizen Day 35 May 15 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 35 of that routine

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a back, bicep and leg workout. Did push ups in sets of 20 between doing machine rows. I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM

For breakfast I had some yogurt and fruit

Worked from home today, dialed into a bunch of meetings and did some coding as well

Also kept an eye on the WannaCry worm that is infecting computers around the world. Most of theses computers are XP machines, pirated copies of windows as well as unpatched copies of windows 7 and up

You can track it yourself here: https://intel.malwaretech.com/pewpew.html Click on the blue connect button so it start animating.

It was interesting to see how security companies like FireEye all went up nicely in wake of this attack

I took a look at these companies

FEYE FireEye Inc
SYMC Symantec Corporation
CSCO Cisco Systems, Inc.
PFPT Proofpoint Inc
CHKP Check Point Software
SCWX Secureworks Corp
PANW Palo Alto Network
TMICY Trend Micro Inc. 

Here is the gain for today

Not bad, if you have some of these in your portfolio


For lunch I had some Cheddar cheese and tomatoes.


Dinner was a bean soup made with chicken broth, string beans, zucchini, spinach and tomatoes.

Dessert was a piece of banana bread



Activity for the day

Total steps:  10,972

Total floors: 21

Total distance: 5.2  miles

Kaizen Day 34, May 14 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 34 of that routine

Since it is Mother's Day, I decided not to go to the gym today. I got up at 4 AM, had my coffee and went for a 2 hour walk since nobody else gets up before 7 AM anyway

I snapped this pic, it's kind of cool, you can see the reflection of the moon in the canal

TIL

While listening to the stuff you should know podcast, I learned about 2 scales used to determine the severity of a coma, these 2 scales are

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

Rancho Los Amigos Scale (RLAS)

Here is what wikipedia has to say about these 2 scales if you are interested in learning about them

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a neurological scale which aims to give a reliable and objective way of recording the conscious state of a person for initial as well as subsequent assessment. A patient is assessed against the criteria of the scale, and the resulting points give a patient score between 3 (indicating deep unconsciousness) and either 14 (original scale) or 15 (the more widely used modified or revised scale).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Coma_Scale

The Rancho Los Amigos Scale (RLAS), a.k.a. the Rancho Los Amigos Levels of Cognitive Functioning Scale (LOCF) or Rancho Scale, is a medical scale used to assess individuals after a closed head injury, including traumatic brain injury, based on cognitive and behavioural presentations as they emerge from coma.^[1] It is named after the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, located in Downey, California, United States in Los Angeles County.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Los_Amigos_Scale

I only knew 2 people who were in a coma, both of these people died within a week and both were family members

At the end of my walk, I had walked 12,000 steps and had climbed 15 floors

Back home when everyone was up, my oldest son made delicious omelettes with spring onions and Gruyère cheese, we also had bacon on the side

I cut up some fresh fruit and we also had this fruit salad

With sadness I saw that Feyenoord won the Dutch soccer title, Feyenoord has not won in 18 years. My team Ajax finished second, this means that they can enter Champions League qualifications via the 3rd round.  Ajax is also playing the Europa Cup Final against Manchester United

Here are the final standings

 

For dinner, we had grilled chicken, spring mix salad, sweet potatoes as well as yellow potatoes baked in the oven

My oldest son made chocolate chip cookies, I had two of those for dessert



Activity for the day

Total steps:  16,865

Total floors: 25

Total distance: 7.3 miles

Kaizen Day 33, May 13 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 33 of that routine


It was a really crappy day today with lots of rain, I did not go for a run and didn't go to the gym either

For breakfast my daughter made some pancakes, I had 2 of those

I decided to use some of the chicken bones we had frozen to make a chicken bone broth. This bone broth will be used as a stock for a risotto which we will eat for dinner





After 8 hours, here is what it looked like when I put in in jars. I froze 3 jars and put 2 jars in the refrigerator to use this week

For lunch I had a chickpea/while bean salad with tomatoes, onions and spring mix lettuce

I also discovered a new podcast and started listening to it from episode 1: STEM-Talk

The most interesting people in the world of science and technology. STEM-Talk is an interview podcast show produced by the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a not-for-profit research lab pioneering ground-breaking technologies aimed at leveraging and extending human cognition, perception, locomotion and resilience. Twice a month, we talk to groundbreaking scientists, engineers and technologists. Our interviews focus on the science that our subjects are engaged with, as well as their careers, motivations, education, and passions. Think of them as “profiles in science.” 

Dinner as mentioned before was risotto with peas, chicken and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Had a little bit of ice cream for dessert

Activity for the day

Total steps:  10,407

Total floors: 6

Total distance: 4.9 miles

Kaizen Day 31/32, May 11/12 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 31/32 of that routine


May 11

Worked in NJ today, did the 2.2 mile walk to the train station.   No running or gym workouts today.

Had a sandwich for breakfast

Had General Tso's chicken for lunch

Walked a around while having meetings on the phone where I was mostly in listening mode

Walked the 2.2 miles back to home from the train station

For dinner, we had  turkey bolognese with string beans on the side


Activity for the day
Total steps:  18,432
Total floors: 6
Total distance: 9.5 miles






May 12

Got out of bed ad 5:10 AM today, had my coffee and listened to some podcasts. Left the house around 6:20 AM and ran for about 40 minutes. Midway my phone ran out of juice.... arghhhhh. It was kind of nice to run the way back with silence actually

Worked from home today

Had a cheese sandwich for lunch

For dinner, we had the same as last night since we made it for two days, we had  turkey bolognese with string beans on the side

Activity for the day
Total steps:  12,170
Total floors: 4
Total distance: 6 miles

Kaizen Day 30, May 10 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 30 of that routine

I woke up at 4:30, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a chest, shoulder and tricep workout.  I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:00 AM. I went earlier to the gym today because I had to watch my daughter while my wife drove the youngest son to school because he had to go on a class trip.

For breakfast I had a couple of eggs and some bread

I worked from home, had a bunch of meetings and did a fair amount of troubleshooting. I took 1/2 a vacation day because I wanted to watch the Champions League semifinal between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid

I watched the Build 2017 conference keynote, there were some interesting things shown, it was mostly focused on Azure

Watched the Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid game. The first 20 minutes were insane, once Isco scored however Atletico faded away.  The final will be great: Juventus vs Real Madrid


Lunch was a burrito and some cabbage salad

For dinner, I had minestrone again

Dessert was some yogurt and blueberries

Activity for the day

Total steps:  8957

Total floors: 20

Total distance: 4.0 miles

Kaizen Day 29 May 9 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 29 of that routine

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a back, bicep and leg workout. I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM

I listened to the triangulation podcast with author Daniel Suarez while biking to and from the gym

Daniel Suarez is the author of five books, including Daemon, Freedom(tm), and Influx. His latest book, Change Agent, depicts a near-future world where genetic editing technology has become commonplace. Daniel talks to Leo Laporte about how he writes, how biotech like CRISPR is poised to create the next industrial revolution, and what it will be like when your steak is grown in a vat instead of raised in a pen.

I read all Daniel Suarez's books so far, I loved Daemon and Freedom, will have to check out Change Agent

For breakfast I had a couple of eggs and some bread

I worked from home, had a bunch of meetings and did a fair amount of troubleshooting. I took 1/2 a vacation day because I wanted to watch the Champions League semifinal between Juventus and Monaco

Lunch was a burrito with some tomatoes

For dinner, I had a minestrone with beans

Dessert was some watermelon

Activity for the day

Total steps: 14,223

Total floors: 15

Total distance: 6.6  miles

Kaizen Day 28 May 8 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 28 of that routine

Got out of bed ad 5 AM today, had my coffee and listened to some podcasts. Left the house around 5:30 AM and ran for about 40 minutes. On the run I listened to the Tim Ferriss podcast episode: The Savant of Speed — Ryan Flaherty.  I noticed that the runs are getting easier than when I started, it is actually not that bad the last 2 minutes or so. I am thinking of either adding some distance or maybe running faster, not sure yet, I will give it a week or so,

Cooled down, took a shower, walked the 2.2 miles to the train station

At work I had a slice of pizza for lunch as well as an apple and an orange

Played 5 games of 9-ball at work, managed to beat my buddy Vlad 3-2, even though he lead by 2-0 and he also put in the 9 ball from the break in the first game. In the end, I had a little bit of luck and managed to win the last game,

Today I Learned

I finished the Ancient World podcast, I started to listen to a new podcast (new for me), this is the Stuff You Should Know podcast. I started all the way from the beginning, the first 20-30 podcasts are around 10 minutes each so I am blazing through it. So there was an interesting episode, I have never heard of this before, it is called Guerrilla Gardening

From wikipedia

Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, areas that are not being cared for, or private property. It encompasses a diverse range of people and motivations, ranging from gardeners who spill over their legal boundaries to gardeners with political influences who seek to provoke change by using guerrilla gardening as a form of protest or direct action. This practice has implications for land rights and land reform; aiming to promote re-consideration of land ownership in order to assign a new purpose or reclaim land that is perceived to be in neglect or misused.
The land that is guerrilla gardened is usually abandoned or perceived to be neglected by its legal owner. That land is used by guerrilla gardeners to raise plants, frequently focusing on food crops or plants intended for aesthetic purposes.

You can also check this site out if you want to see pictures and get more information http://guerrillagardening.org/

For dinner I had the same exact thing as yesterday: Italian Wedding Soup

For dessert I had some yogurt with fruit

Activity for the day

Total steps: 27,224

Total floors: 5

Total distance: 13.9  miles

Kaizen Day 26/27, May 6/7 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 26/27 of that routine

May 6

Got out of bed ad 5:10 AM today, had my coffee and listened to some podcasts. Left the house around 6:20 AM and ran for about 40 minutes.

Had a combination of breakfast and lunch today around 11, I guess I can call it lunch, it was a cheese sandwich and some tomatoes

For dinner we had burgers, sweet potatoes and salad

Total steps:  20,038
Total floors: 4
Total distance: 10.2 miles




May 7

Went for a nice 2 hour walk between 5 AM and 7 AM. I shot this 4 minute video around Blair Hall in Princeton at the university



For breakfast I had some eggs, an English muffin and some tomatoes

For lunch, I had some rice, zucchini, onions and tomatoes. I added a little soy sauce and sambal oelek to give it some flavor and heat



Dinner tonight was Italian wedding soup.  Dessert was a little bit of ice cream


Total steps:  14,310
Total floors: 10
Total distance: 6.5 miles