I “failed” the initial test. I’m ashamed to admit I could only do 5 good-form pushups. So I’ll start out in column one. I’ll do the program Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as recommended and let you know how it goes.

Went to the doctor last Friday for a quick follow up. Last time blood pressure and fasting blood sugar were both borderline. This meant that I was at risk for high blood pressure and diabetes. If those things didn’t improve, or particularly if they got worse, I’d possibly have to go on medication to treat one or both.

But… I managed to lose 22+ pounds since my last visit, which was something like 3 months ago. Blood pressure is still on the edge, but enough where we’ll just keep an eye on it. Blood sugar is out of the danger range, into the high normal area. Also had some high enzymes which indicated excess fat in the liver, which can cause liver damage. These are now in perfect range.

So all in all, things are good. Gotta keep at the diet and exercise. It’s working. I’m actually the lightest I’ve been in probably 6 or 7 years. Another 20-25 pounds and I’ll be the picture of health.

I don’t understand when I see these really obese people walking around, how they are not dying. I mean, I was overweight, but not like a lot of people I see. If my weight caused so many problems, how the hell are they still breathing? I guess my body just can’t handle the fat.

I’ve been into these guys for the last year and a half or so. German tech-house duo. Can’t get enough of them.

Booka Shade - Charlotte

http://bookashade.com/

http://www.myspace.com/getbookashade

Arno and Walter also have their own label, Get Physical Music, which has some similar cool artists.

You can buy their music pretty much anywhere, but Beatport has some tracks you won’t find elsewhere.

That is all.

Fun weekend, but we are in.

Since the closing, we’ve been taking stuff over a car load at a time. All the stuff we didn’t want to pack - clothes, kitchen stuff, fragile or important stuff. The new place is only five minutes away from the old place, so we could do a trip or two per night. So we had a fair amount of stuff over there already.

Saturday, the movers were scheduled to arrive between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. and we were supposed to get a call an hour beforehand. So I got up bright and early and pretty much made trips back and forth until they showed up, which was at 3:30 p.m. A bit late, but they did an awesome job. We were in and done in time for a somewhat late dinner. We had just bought a charcoal grill, so I did up some burgers and hotdogs. Hadn’t done that in some years, so it was fun. Pretty much crashed hard after that.

Sunday found us at IKEA. Am I surprised? Not really. I was waiting for that one. This meant more stuff to carry and more stuff to build and install. Yay.

Still got some cleaning up to do, and a few odds and ends to carry over from the old apartment. But no rush. We’re mid-lease, so it’s still ours til a new tenant signs up. If anyone’s looking for a nice apartment in Newton, MA, right next to Adobe and the Riverside MBTA station, get in touch.

So I’m pretty beat, but it is quite nice to sit down in your own living room, or hang out on your own porch or back yard. Or bang nails and drill holes or smash stuff up without asking permission.

Today at 12:00 p.m. we commenced the closing procedure for our new house. Several hundred signatures later we were handed a set of keys. Most expensive little pieces of brass I’ve ever purchased.

Miranda, Kris and I then went out to Home Depot where I got my testosterone on buy purchasing power tools (I’m getting a sledge hammer next). Then spent the afternoon cutting things up, drilling holes, and inserting and removing screws at high RPMs, while Miranda pulled weeds in what will soon be a garden, and Kris danced with abandon, not having to worry about annoying the downstairs neighbors for the first time in her life. Then I sat on the living room floor and actually did a couple of hours work, while Miranda tinkered about and Kris continued to dance.

Kris and I sat on the bench on the front porch and watched the sun go down. Heaven. She cried her little eyes out when we had to go back to our apartment.

Before I left for Japan, I mentioned that I had reached my goal of losing 20 pounds. Yay for me.

As expected, I put on a few pounds in Japan. Lots of restaurants, mother-in-law worried that I wasn’t eating enough, piling mounds of food on me, my addiction to anpan - a bread filled with sweet red bean paste (couldn’t get enough of it while I was there).

Anyway, that was planned for. I didn’t try to hold back. I knew I’d gain some weight and just let myself enjoy the time, knowing I’d get back on track when I got home. So I’m happy to say that a week after getting back, I’m back down below the weight I was at before I left. I’m actually below 210 for the first time in… well, years anyway.

Next minor goal is 207 lbs. This will be a net loss of 23 pounds, or 10% of my weight!

Wow. Brings back memories…

The other day I mentioned that I had picked up a pair of magnifying reading glasses. (I was going to write a “cheap” pair, but they are actually pretty good ones.) I was driven to buying them while trying to read Furigana (tiny Japanese characters), but today I started reading a regular English book with them. The type was big enough so that I could read it without the glasses just fine, but I figured I’d try it a bit with them on. I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, or placebo effect or what, but I felt like I was reading much faster and more relaxedly. I realized that I haven’t really been reading as much as I used to. I thought maybe, that although I can focus fine, there might be just a little bit of strain involved, which on some level makes me tired and want to go do something else. At any rate, reading with the glasses on, I read a really big chunk of a book I picked up today. More than I think I would have otherwise.

On the other hand, these are obviously NOT prescription glasses. If I wear them more than 15-20 minutes, it definitely gets uncomfortable, and my eyes really feel weird afterwards. I’m afraid I might be doing more damage than good in the long run. Like I said, I’m due for an eye exam anyway, so I’ll see what they say.

Special version. Design by Kris. I told her I wanted an iPhone for Father’s Day, so she brought me this.

My whole life I’ve prided myself on 20/20 vision. But lately I’ve noticed that it’s just not what it used to be. Specifically in reading or doing anything close up. If something is too small, I naturally hold it closer to my face, but I find that I just can’t focus that close to my eyes anymore. I’m sure I used to be able to get something much closer and get it in focus. Now, sometimes when reading something, I have to intentionally hold it a bit further away. Then it’s too small to see, so I’m doing this back and forth thing, like some old guy.

This really came to the forefront when I started reading the manga I bought in Japan recently. Japanese has 3 native character sets. Kanji, which is borrowed from Chinese characters, and Hiragana and Katakana, which are essentially evolved and simplified Kanji. There are thousands of Kanji, but 40-something Hiragana and the same number of Katakana. Kanji have specific meanings, which may have different sounds depending on the context. For example, the character for “mountain” can be read “san” or “yama” depending on how it is used. Hiragana and Katakana are strictly phonetic, much like the western alphabet(s).

It can be tough remembering all those Kanji, and what specific word and meaning they have in any given circumstance. Thus, for a lot of kids’ books, and often manga too, there’s something called Furigana. Basically, it is the phonetic reading of a Kanji character, written beside or above the character in Hiragana. Below you can see the two Kanji that make up the word “Kanji”. The first character is “kan” and the second is “ji”. Beside or above each character are the Hiragana symbols that tell you what the pronunciation is: “ka”, “n”, and “ji”.

For someone like me, who knows a lot more words by sound than I do Kanji, it’s a life saver. Even if I don’t know what the characters mean, I can read it phonetically and know it says “Kanji”.

The problem is, those things are freaking SMALL! I find myself going through all kinds of facial acrobatics, squinting, opening wide, moving the book closer and further, angling it towards and away from the light, to read some of those teency characters. So tonight while out for dinner, I wandered into a Brooks pharmacy and checked out those magnifying reading glasses. The difference was amazing! So, for the first time in my life, I’m wearing spectacles. I think I look pretty cool, actually…

I’m an old man, but a cool old man, eh?

I’m actually due for an eye exam anyway, for another condition that could have an effect on eyes, but I’m pretty sure this is just age. At any rate, I’ll get checked out for real and if I need prescription glasses, I’ll be sure to get them. But these do pretty well in the mean time.