jcm's blog

So I’m on a raw fruit and veg. diet with occasional nuts, and some tofu. It’s almost just a pure veggie diet, except there’s no bread, cheese or other high fat/carb. sources (though I do take many supplements and protein) so my body is forced to metabolize the fat it has stored (and it had a lot).

This is how I’ve lost over 40lbs since the start of April, when Project Brave New Jon originally kicked off. I’ve gone down in clothes sizes – from a large to a medium, from a large size 36″ to a medium 30″. None of the clothes I wear now were even in my possession just a few weeks ago – I have completely replaced my entire wardrobe (I’ve remodeled my apartment too, to fit with my attempt at being a bit more cool these days). I’ve become a whore to Banana Republic, A&F, The Gap, and other chains. I now own a new footwear collection (formal, informal, hiking, sailing, etc.), various shorts (and short shorts!), and Oakley sunglasses.

The big question now is what to do about this diet. I really enjoy the wonderful range of fruit, veg, salads, and have grown fond of things the old me just never enjoyed. I like peanuts, I love Avocado, I think a plate of blueberries and fresh Strawberries is just amazing (chocolate has nothing on that). I realize that I don’t really need much of the other stuff, so I’m debating about keeping this diet full time – with the caveat that I’ll eventually relax it a bit when I’m hanging out with friends for a meal. I have more energy now, I don’t need to sleep so much, I don’t need as much coffee to get hyper, and I feel just amazing, at least physically.

Brave New Jon is a giant leap forward. It’s an attempt to overhaul every negative aspect of my life in as short a space of time as humanly possible. I’ll push another update about the other stuff, though I’m currently doing stuff at a greater rate than I can document it

Jon.

So I’m on the most aggressive diet I’ve ever been on in my life, combined with a giant health and fitness craze (and in fact every other part of my life is currently being overhauled in many ways), and it’s fun. I just lost another pant (trouser) size, down to 30″ from 36″ at the beginning of April. At this rate, I should hit 28″ on schedule, or 150lbs – whichever happens first. I am determined to be “that thin guy”, or certainly not “the fat guy”. By the time I’m done, well, wait and see

I’m off to buy some more jeans…

Jon.

So I enjoyed surfing a little more than I thought I would. Actually, a lot more. I suck, but I want to get better – and it’s fun, fun, fun! So. I got a last minute magic deal on a return trip for this weekend. Itinerary:

* Saturday May 26 06:15am NW783 -> Los Angeles 11:01am. Driving to Joshua Tree National Park for an afternoon of hiking in the hills. This is subject to change, and I could do with recommendations on appropriate day hikes and other park detail. Staying at the Best Western Oxnard Inn at some point in the evening (it was free with my air miles).

* Sunday May 27. Silver Strand Surfing school, Silver Strand Beach. Surfing from morning until I get worn out (whenever that happens). I want to manage 4 hours or more, with a few breaks, but we’ll see. Staying somewhere in the evening, the Crown Plaza Hotel is booked out or I would enjoy their gym at 2am again. Probably end up near LAX.

* Monday May 28 07:10am -> Boston NW956 06:15pm. Will take laptop and power on the plane to get some coding/work/writing finished off.

Jon.

A part of Project Brave New Jon.

So I’m working on self improvement at the moment (anyone have any annoyances with my general persona…please let me know, and I’ll add it to the list ) with a view to the future. Since I got back last night, I’ve had a bunch of work to catch up on, emails, and all that. Then, this evening:

* I checked out a few local gyms. I’m thinking about joining BSC but I’m finding their opening hours a little out of whack with my schedule (read: I need a 24 hour gym that I can go to at 2am). I also don’t want a huge monthly payment, since I expect to use it only 1-2 times per week during the summer (I really want to be out climbing, cycling, sailing, surfing…). It’s convenient having towels, more machines than at home, and the option of getting a personal trainer to help me tone up.

* I picked up some surfing books. I’m reading about the history, as well as the technical. I’ve studied wave and fluid dynamics, briefly, as part of my general insomnia so I’d like to understand the science behind surfing. I hope I can spend all of Sunday out on the water, even if it wipes me out. There’s a younger instructor this weekend since my “regular” one is booked out. Maybe he’ll be amenable to my whims.

* Started looking into the guitar. I tried playing before, but now I’m pretty interested in trying a little harder. Advice is welcome. I won’t give up the violin, but I guess I need to work on my rock star image In all seriousness though, my music taste is getting adjusted too.

* I’ve decided to adjust my Starbucks/Whole Foods addiction in favor of smaller, but nonetheless very cool, local produce stores. The Harvest Market made me a very nice custom diet-safe salad – I’m well and truly on a “Californian” diet at this point. I’ve killed the salted peanuts in favor of fewer unsalted peanuts and more Avocado for protein. Besides, the latter tastes awesome in almost anything you’re willing to put it in.

* Looked at rollerblades. I was in City Sports over on Boylston (a major shopping street in Boston, to non-Bostonians, parallel to Newbury) looking at various skates. I nearly picked up a pair but I want to look around a bit more before I buy my first pair. I suck at ice skating, have never tried blading, and expect to suck. So I need to find somewhere I bit quiet to practice falling on my ass

Tonight, I’m drinking a lot of coffee, closing down bugs, looking at the kernel module infrastructure some more, defining “Project Awesome”, and other work related stuff. Early day in the office tomorrow, punctuated with some running, cycling and the beginning of a new car pool. I’ve decided to pick up a car in a couple of weeks myself. I really want to be able to drive up to Ottawa for OLS, with my bike, so I can cycle from Ottawa to Montreal and the inverse (if there’s time).

Jon.

Part of project Brave New Jon.

So I had some air miles (actually, I still have over 40K miles left), I’m a crazy kind of guy, and I felt like doing something random…so I’m flying back out to the West Coast for the weekend, to go surfing. I’m headed out on Saturday, and debating about doing another absolutely insane mini-road trip around the surfing – Vegas is a little impractical but I’m considering the alternatives available to me. I’ll do some serious writing too, from the beach – always my favorite place to get stuff done.

I did say there was more news on the surfing front

Jon.

It’s been a funky couple of weeks. Over the past two weeks, I have:

* Been to San Diego, Yosemite, Tracy, San Louis Obispo, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, San Buenaventura, and Marin County for the first time.
* Given a talk at a Red Hat Summit.
* Given a talk at a FreedomHEC.
* Surfed for the first and second time. More news follows.
* Driven from San Francisco to LA in a Red Ford Mustang convertible (with the top down, listening to Beach Boys music) and from San Francisco to Jenner in a Mazda Miata convertible, stopping over in Marshall Beach to eat Oysters and camp out under the stars.
* Sailed at night for the first and second time.
* Watched fireworks from San Francisco Bay.
* Crossed Tomales Bay at night, in gale force winds, in a dinghy.
* Hiked in Yosemite.
* Been pulled over by a park ranger (guilty of driving a red convertible).
* Been to the Haight district.
* Driven in downtown LA, San Francisco, and Palo Alto.
* Driven across the Golden Gate Bridge.
* Had bad cocktails and Martinis in LA.
* Stuck to my diet (excepting 6 Oysters that had to be tried).
* Discovered a renewed taste for Journey, Jewel, The Fray and The Beach Boys.
* Driven more than the rest of my life combined.
* Been to a gym after midnight for the first and second time.
* Eaten fresh Californian Strawberries for the first and second time (there really is no comparison).
* Figured out the Linux kernel module loading infrastructure.
* Devised a plan to make Linux driver support really rock.
* Decided to buy a car and do as many road trips as I can.

That’s just a small sample set of what I’ve been up to. I’ve got a lot more planned over the coming weeks as this project really ramps up – more excursions, more exercise, more living life. I have decided to throw myself at having fun while working hard, and living right.

Jon.

Photo: Tamales Bay campfire.

Photo: Action shots at “Camp Marshall”.

Photo: 2007 Mazda Miata. 500 miles on the clock.

So I enjoyed FreedomHEC (a sanitized version of events, sans company conf. super secret stuff, etc. will be posted here – including mention of the glowing Martini glass I was dared into buying from the revolving bar in downtown LA) and left after the Linux-powered rockets and SoC random talks, dropped Deepak and the Mustang off at LAX (man, I hate driving in downtown LA) and then hopped a flight up to San Francisco. I’m glad I left a little early as the flights were all delayed due to wind – and bear in mind it takes a lot to close half the runways at SFO – and I didn’t get in until late as it was.

At San Francisco, I had a somewhat cheaper rental reserved – a generic Kia – but I missed having a convertible and happened to drive past a Mazda Miata on the way out of the parking garage…so I made a U-turn and went back to upgrade. One confuzzled trainee, a manager discount, and some hassle later and I had a brand new 2007 white Mazda Miata (MX-5) to drive up to Tamales Bay in, along route 1. Top down, music playing…figuring out the new AT gearbox manual mode…all random run. The Mustang has *nothing* on this puppy. I’m quite convinced the Miata could take off, if you kept your foot down. Obviously I was obeying all speed limits and behaving in a civilized fashion

I arrived at the Marshall boathouse around 23:00 (11:00pm to Americans) and found Sven had taken a nap in his car. This was fortunate, since there’s not much cell coverage out there. We had an interesting and somewhat frightening crossing over the bay in heavy winds, in the dark, in a dinghy. 30 minutes, a lot of water, one giant campfire, and a change of clothes later and I was drinking beer from a keg and chilling out on the beach with the guys. We had music, beer, food, great accommodation (tents), and a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to doing this again in August – though not quite out in Tamales, but over the Bay in San Francisco nevertheless.

In the morning, we had breakfast and packed up, interspaced with a little hike up into the hills to get a great view of the Pacific. After that, we sailed back to Marshall beach for some Oysters before I took the Miata for a little drive north up to Jenner, all along California Highway 1. I stopped at various beaches and vista points along the way…see the photos. I stayed over for the night in Marin again, before taking a flight out of SFO (mixing in conference calls with flights).

Various other stuff happened…this is just a quick update while I’m sitting delayed in Denver.

Jon.