Surprise! I'm the worst I've ever been, and now I'm blogging about how I want to get better. I blame most of it on stress from my job, and also on the fact that working 40 hours a week is just too much. I will probably work my way up to a self-improvement post this time, and maybe also include the boys on the list.

Spring Break Experiment: Success?

I've actually gotten some stuff done now that I have inertia from my "experiment" week. I'm realizing that my resume isn't great, so I'm working pretty hard to bring that up to snuff. If I can pass one or two more exams and become proficient in MS Access and MS Excel and maybe a couple other programs that I don't really know about yet, I might have what some might consider a competitive resume.

I'm almost done with the first chapter of a study manual for FM/2, which is decent progress, considering it's all new material to me.

Mild success with the week so far. So for the case study I had to do for Econometrics, I discovered that using the natural log of price (my dependent variable; it's a time series and the residuals were heteroskedastic) was the key to unlocking a halfway decent model with the data I have. After settling on a couple of good models, I have only to ask my professor a couple of questions before finalizing my rewrite.

Other than that, I have to do a quick little essay for Wellness (trivial; also stupid!) and do this week's independent study for Discrete (usually challenging if proofs are involved). Hope to finish the essay today.

Managed to make a dentist appointment yesterday! It's about 3 weeks out, but that's fine. Somewhat related, Jackson seems to have a cavity on one of his molars, which sucks because he's not even 3 yet. Don't know what our course of action on that one is gonna be yet.

In conclusion, I almost feel okay with the progress I've made so far. If I could get some good studying time in today and the next couple (for actuarial stuff) and maybe went on 1-2 more walks, I will feel satisfied.

Mel is hiking Washington tomorrow! Here's a webcam view of what it looks like RIGHT NOW on the summit:

That's pretty scary. But also awesome. I am, as the kids say, jelly.

You know, I think I'd like blogging a lot more if I didn't feel obligated to write some sort of stupid title every time. I think I'll just try to post this entry without one and see what happens.

I took a walk this morning on the linear trail, and that was refreshing. It brought back a lot of old feelings too, of when I used to be outside a lot more. I'll have to keep at this. Though I won't say that I wish Jackson didn't have his adorable, wandering attention, it does make it difficult for me to bring him on walks like this. It might be hard to make this a habit, much as I might like to.

I think I might add "take a nice photograph" on to this weeks to-do list.

Eh

So Tuesday is over and I haven't done much yet. I did take Jackson to both the pet store and the park today, which he loved, and that made me happy. I also got an email from a job that I applied to which I'm shying away from; the position was Administrative Assistant / Data Entry, but the company is apparently based in Mumbai, and I can't find anything about it locally. The email itself was very canned, and though it told me they were interested, they didn't use my name (they CCed everyone else who applied), and they want to have some sort of online interview at "time ASAP" (their words). So no.

Oh hi... It's been like 2-1/2 years?

Here's a little experiment: I've fallen into crappy habits again (being lazy, mostly; and eating poorly). I'm on spring break this week. Can I get to a point again where I'm not constantly worrying about several little things at any given time? I'd like to:

• Make a dentist appointment. I haven't had a cleaning in... too long. I also need to get my wisdom teeth out.
• Make a doctor's appointment! I've been waking up with a slightly bloody nose almost every morning. I probably need to get it cauterized again. There are a couple of other things I need to talk to my doctor about too.
• Apply for more jobs! This isn't something I can explicitly finish, but the more companies I apply to, the better I'll feel about my chances of landing a job that will support my wife, son, and soon to be second child. Crossing my fingers for an entry-level actuary position.
• I need to buy some stuff for Jackson (my son). It would be nice to have a fridge lock so that he's not constantly getting into the fridge. Also a new diaper trashcan, our current one is broken and stinky.
• I really want a big blender or something. Since Aimee's pregnant, I'm not eating quite as well as I'd like, and Jackson simply doesn't eat well at all, I would love to have a way to make smoothies. That way, Aimee might be able to stomach more fruit and veggies, I'll have a convenient and quick way of downing more too, and we can actually sneak healthy food into Jackson's drink and pretend it's just juice!
• Who knows if / when I'll be able to hike again, but there's a linear trail nearby that's be perfect for just jogging or walking or whatever. Considering how many times I haven't followed through with the couch-to-5K thing, I won't make any sort of huge goals, but it will be nice to get out and moving (and the weather is halfway decent too).
• Along similar lines, I keep wanting to get a canvas bag and fill it with rocks or gravel.  The basic idea is that I can use it to do exercises which approximate going to the gym. While I might not be able to reap quite the same benefits, it's close enough where the money and time saved and the satisfaction of avoiding the gym (which I just dislike overall because I don't like being around people in those settings) more than make up for that.
  
  Idea came from this awesome book: http://brainoverbrawn.com/
  
  
• Study for actuarial exams. Something I've been really putting off. Which is stupid, since passing more exams means higher salary, typically.
• ...and I suppose I should do my homework. Have to rewrite a case-study on econometric models that estimate the price of commercial buildings.

I guess we'll see what happens. The main problem is that, though I don't have to go to school, I'm at home all week with Jackson while Aimee works. Ironically, I actually have less time now, since at school I at least have breaks in between classes sometimes. I'll try to do some of these things today.

Cannon Mountain

Cannon Mountain
36 of 48
4100 feet

The drive in to Franconia Notch State Park was pretty awesome and surreal! The day was really sunny and the foliage got progressively better as I drove north. However, as I got closer to the Notch, I noticed that there was a thick gray cloud sheet over the entire area. This was actually kind of neat, as the foliage colors were sandwiched by the gray sky and the slate color of the cliffs on the side of Cannon and... Lafayette (? on the right).







The trailhead started at Lafayette Campground (getting there required me to switch directions on 93), and started out by crossing a cool bridge. It had rained a TON the past couple days, and I was surprised that the water wasn't higher.

So I decided to reach the summit via the Hi-Cannon trail, which, it turns out, isn't quite as popular as the Lonesome Lake trail. In fact, of all the dozens of people that were behind and in front of me at first, I was the only one who took the Hi-Cannon trail when it split off.






Most of the first half of the trail was wooded and close enough to 93 where I could constantly hear traffic. It was also extremely steep, even with the constant switchbacks (seriously, the whole way up this section was switchbacks).

Eventually, the trail opened up and went along a nice open ridge (from which I could see my stupid car) and eventually gave a nice view of Lonesome Lake. To see a lake stuck in the mountains like that is great, especially since you would never suspect it was there from the highway if you didn't know about it.

Also awesome was this ladder that is actually a lot bigger than this picture makes it out to be. It's the first time I've seen anything like this on a hike.






After this, the trail went back into the woods and got a lot narrower and a lot wetter. It was also a lot less steep.

Eventually, I got stuck behind a group of people who were pretty much oblivious to the fact that I was going about twice as fast as them (the trail was too narrow for me to pass them). One older guy noticed me but he was too busy explaining some weird pretentious shit to a younger woman to realize that I wanted to pass. The guy actually looked me in the eye after I said, "excuse me," and he ignored me and kept talking and walking slow. I eventually plowed past them all the first chance I got, and one or two of them stepped back into a deep puddle. Heh.

Sooo anyway, the Hi-Cannon trail ended soon after this and joined the Kinsman Ridge trail on its way to the summit. Right around this point I entered the clouds and it became pretty cold. The summit and observation tower was another 5-10 minutes, and by that time it had to have been around 30°. The wind up on the tower was absolutely insane... I felt like I could blow over. I asked some guy to take my picture and he sort of freaked out because he was so cold and wanted to get off the tower. He still took it though.




Also neat was the fact that it was sunny everywhere except for where I was. This meant that I could occasionally look out of the cloud to sunny trees far below. After, I wandered over to the cafeteria and tram. I was pretty tempted to sit down for a meal and take the tram down, but I decided that it would be sort of... cheating.

Overall, probably one of the more enjoyable hikes I've done, and it's my first new 4,000 footer in 6 years and 362 days (2 days short of 7 years).