June has come and gone faster than we would have imagined. It's the funny thing about being busy - time tends to disappear! We did a lot of things, and didn't do a lot of other things that we probably should have done. Overall, it seems to have been a decent month, though not across the board.
The biggest news is our continued preparation for the baby's arrival in August. The 3D/4D ultrasound was a very cool experience - highly recommended for all expecting families! We also continued to get settled into the new rental home, finding it to be far more relaxing than the old apartment. We've had to buy some things here or there, such as shelving for storage, but overall it's been good.
Career wise there's not really been too much excitement. I've been actively working with a couple clients, have not gotten nearly as much writing or reading done as I would have liked, but am still moving in a generally forward direction. Personally, I've made huge strides in the meditation front. I've not really blogged about it, but a couple months ago I started trying the Holosync meditation program (audio tracks that cause brain patterns to reach a meditative state without having to spend years and years learning how to get there). I had a breakthrough a week or so ago, finally reaching a point where I could release a bunch of emotional baggage, left over from when I was a teenager. I highly recommend using this program.
Anyway, on to my full progress report...
Self-Improvement
1a. Watch less television. This certainly was an improved area. I think I watched maybe a couple hours per week over the last half of the month. I was simply too busy and too tired to be bothered. Unfortunately, this exhaustion spilled over into other areas, too. The bad (?) news is that the summer seasons of Psych and Monk will be starting up in July, so there go a few more hours... :)
1b. Read more books. I read Steve Martin's memoir on his comedy career, and that's pretty much it. I've not even been able to keep up with my weekly news magazine subscriptions (The Week and The Economist). I've been quite the lump in the reading category. I need to refocus and re-engage in this area.
1c. Improve my vocabulary. I'm trying not to cuss so much. That's my short-term goal. In terms of bigger words, no, I've not made progress here. I do have an approach in mind, but it's going to take some time to get it sorted. I had really hoped to be traveling 50% in June, but it didn't come about, so I didn't find myself with unattended free evenings. Oh, well.
1d. Keep a cleaner house. We really like the wood floors. Well, most of the time. I hate stepping on little bits that wouldn't be noticed on carpet. But, for the most part, it's much easier to keep the floors clean. I bought a big dry mop and run it around every week or so, and not major pain with vacuuming. In the downstairs, I've been vacuuming regularly, but mainly because of debris from unpacking new gear. Hanna's been home from school and bored, so she's done a great job of keeping the laundry and dishes in check. So, I guess this is an improved area - yippee!
Health & Wellness
2a. Exercise more. Compared to May, this area is much improved, though I'm not into a routine by any means. I'm trying to use Pavel's "grease the groove" method, doing at least 1-2 pull-ups each time I exit my office (where the fingerboard is mounted). I've increased my reps from barely 1 to a solid 3 in a month's time, so this is progress. I've also started doing some kettlebell work again. Toward that end, I made a big purchase in June: a 2nd 32kg kettlebell and another 16kg kettlebell (since I loaned mine out and needed one). Now I'm able to do deep squats with 2 racked 32kg kettlebells, which is a lot more interesting than with a pair of 24kg bells (140lbs vs 108 lbs, basically). It's enough to make my head spin! In July, I need to get into a routine, if at all possible.
2b. Lose the fat. Early in June I thought I was making progress here. I've started taking EAS' Betagen, and that's pretty fab for a build-n-burn workout approach. Unfortunately, my work schedule made it tough to get the lunch dose, and so I stopped taking it well before I should have, and now I'm feeling a bit pudgy again. My weight is down, which could be good or bad, depending on if it is due to reduced fat or muscle atrophy. Hopefully it's the former, but after playing with the kettlebells, I think it may be the latter. I'll get there, though.
2c. Eat better. We ate at home far more in June and it was great. I bought a better grill and, whenever it wasn't raining (it rained a lot in June!), we ate fresh-grilled foods. Hamburgers, ribs, chicken, pork loin, some hot dogs and brats... all good stuff! And, I worked hard to include a veggie with meals as much as possible. In general, I think we made really good progress here, and now simply need to keep it up. When cooking at home becomes second nature, then I'll know we've turned the corner. The biggest headaches are a) thawing meats before grilling, and b) having meats thawed and starting to age that you really don't feel like eating. Here's to progress!
2d. Address form issues that are affecting my knees, hips, ankles, and shins. Mitigated/closed.
Professional Development
3a. Write more meaty blogs. I did write a couple decent blog posts in June, I think, that were relevant to infosec. Beyond that, especially over the past week or two, my entries have tailed off. I simply didn't know what to write, I didn't feel like writing, and frankly I was just too tired to think about anything. I expect this to improve and turn around soon. I have a lot of interesting topics brewing now that I hope to blog about in the coming days and weeks.
3b. Begin writing articles. My Key Management article for EDPACS was accepted, though I don't know when it will be published. I have the research pulled together for a Web 2.0 Security & Privacy article for EDPACS, too, but I haven't had time/energy to write it. More importantly, I have an idea for a book and have outlined it, so simply need to get my act together on it. I'm thinking that I may write an article or white paper on the idea in conjunction, too. More to come!
3c. Begin writing white papers. I'm thinking of converting the consultant commentary piece that I did in May to a white paper for work, though it may not work (it was too much of a folksy piece and not really based on research). My other thought, as mentioned above, is to take my book idea and write a white paper on it first. The topics are similar, so one of these will likely work. I'm motivated to do both because there are financial incentives at work to write and publish.
3d. Attend webinars and other free or cheap training programs. Still no progress in this area last month, though I've met with a ton of vendors (for free). There are a few sessions coming up that I may attend in July, but the problem is that they are during the day and I may have billable responsibilities. We'll see what happens.
Fiscal Responsibility
4a. Finally pay off high-interest debt. Now we come to the "ugly" part of June. Not only did we not make progress paying down debt, we in fact lost ground. This is mainly due to needing to make some purchases for the new house, such as buying a futon for the downstairs (we didn't have anything to sit on in the family room), and buying a home theater system (also for the family room). We also are starting to make purchases for the baby, and then there are the other onesie-twosie stuff, like my kettlebells, and so on. The only good news is that we received our tax rebate, Hanna's Super Teacher award, and a couple other checks. The biggest negative was that my quarterly bonus was complete and utter crap (gee, can't tell I'm a bit bent out of shape over this, can you?). Despite "beating expectations" for the 4th quarter, we didn't apparently make our numbers, and so they only funded the bonus program 50%, screwing us and all our hard work. In the meantime, non-acquired people made their full annual bonuses, which are generally 4 times more than our equivalent annual bonus. Anyway... rather annoying when one is trying to pay off debt!!!
4b. Start putting aside money for emergencies (goal: 3 months' expenses). We continued to put money away and are in a good position, I believe, to handle Hanna's taking October off without pay. *whew* It's actually remarkably easy to save, and so I don't know why I didn't do it before. Oh, wait, I do know. It seemed more important to me to pay off the debts than to save, which ended up screwing us in the long-run. RECOMMENDATION: Always put away some savings so that you can cover unexpected (or expected) interruptions in income. Thus, you won't have to rely on credit as a safety net in the short-term. RECOMMENDATION #2: Avoid acquiring debt whenever possible.
4c. Begin investing in aggressive funds. Pending available capital, deferred until 4a and 4b are good.
4d. Continue reducing expenses. As noted, we had a lot of 1-time expenses in June that killed us. Furniture, equipment, utility setup fees, and so on. The goal is to now finish the 1-time baby purchases, and then put away all credit cards to avoid acquiring new debt, period, end of story. We'll get there, but it will take some time.
