I'm speechless

over this.  That judges and attorney's can rationalize and try to explain a verdict like this as appropriate...

He doesn't need treatment.  He's 16 and got drunk, everyone I know did that.  I know I did.  I just didn't get behind the wheel of a car and kill 4 people.

He's not ill, nor does he have a drinking problem, he's a criminal and a murderer.

I finally did it

So I finally went ahead and got a Mac.  I went back and forth on getting one and finally decided it was time.  I got a refurbed 17" MBP.  Everyone says they're too big, but I love it.  I especially like the display on it.  It was either this or a 15" retina, and the retina mbp was about $1000 more, which is no small amount.

I did toss a few extras into the laptop.  I upgraded it to 16gb of ram and slapped an Intel SSD in so it's very fast.

So far so good...

Really Germany?

Sometimes I'm just stunned...

So the NSA has been spying on people, yes I know shocking, and it's come out that we actually spy on other world leaders....

SHOCKING AGAIN!

I'm sure the Germans don't ever spy on anyone....

Grow up people...

The bike

So I went from this:

To:

It's such a different ride from the katana.  I wonder how I'd have felt if I got the sprint, or god forbid the Daytona.  Anyway as it was told at work "single sided swing arm is super sexy" and I agree. Love the bike

Well....

So I finally pulled the trigger and decided to get a new bike.  Didn't get a Triumph, like I thought I would, and didn't get a Harley (Not ready for that yet).

I got a VFR800.  It's the bike I wanted since I got the Katana.

I don't have pics yet, they will come when I pick my ride up, but it's 2007, low miles and candy red.  Don't think there is a better color of bike yet.

More info to come when available.

Goal accomplished...

Way back when I started my "get healthy" kick I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever get this far but today I got the Goal Accomplished achievement in Lose It.

In 5 days it will be one year since I had a cigarette.  Yes I still occasionally miss them, but not enough to start again.  Hard to believe it's been a year.  It was very hard at first but I'm so glad I quit.

Since January I have lost 91 pounds, and I'm not allowed to go to the gym right now (haven't been allowed since 8/10).  I'm really missing the gym, but I hit my initial target weight this week.  I've subsequently reset my goal to be about 10 pounds less but that should be pretty straightforward.

A lot of people ask me how I did it.   Here's what I did:

Smoking: I picked a date and quit cold turkey.  No drugs, no cheating no nothing.  Yes it sucked, yes I was an ass, yes I was crabby and yes I put on about 25 pounds quitting.  The weight pushed me to part 2 of the plan.

Weight:  I started by just changing my diet and going to the gym.  At first I just logged my weight on the phone, then i got the Lose It app which I use to track my food intake and exercise amounts.  You can see how you're doing every day.  At my peak I was going to the gym 4-5 days a week.  I cut down to 4 days and one day of Yoga with Merinda.  When I cut my arm I had to stop the gym but will start again as soon as I'm medically cleared for the gym.

I do my best to record EVERYTHING I eat.  It's ok to go over your calorie target.  It's ok to gain a little every now and then as long as your overall progress is down.  Hell, you'll have weeks where you don't lose anything and just gain.  It's the same as smoking, just keep at it, and keep working and the weight will come down.


The hardest part for me will be to keep the weight off.  That part starts now.

damn damn damn....

So the day I've dreaded for the past few years has finally come...  My CISSP has expired.  I knew it was going to happen and I did little to prevent it.

Yeah I could have proctored exams (actually after doing this once NO I CANNOT.  It's absurd that I can get 8 CPE's for watching people suffer and giving up a weekend day.  ISC explain to me how watching people take a is FURTHERING my education)...  I could have watched webinars etc...  I kept hoping to go to a conference but didn't get to go.  

So now I'm faced with two equally unpleasant decisions.  Do I buy the latest guide and go take that horrid exam again, or just do without the worthless cert, and yes I believe it is an absolutely worthless certification.

Honestly as long as I'm employed I really don't care if I have it or not, but if I need to look for a job it's going to be a challenge to get one in short order, so....  I guess I'll need to pony up the $500 and buy a cram guide or 2 and take the fucking thing again...

ARGH!

The shitty part is, one of the other guys here gets sent to RSA every year to maintain his CISSP.  If I'd been sent to a conference this year and last year I could have probably scraped together enough stupid classes to keep it.