noattentionspan

Taxation, gotta love it.

In 2008 I jumped on the technological bandwagon (I’m such a Luddite in general) and eFiled my taxes through a tax company. All went well, or at least as well as expected when you are justifying the money you made and paid all through the year, and desperately trying to ensure that they don’t go and take more.

In any case, I filed, I stopped thinking about it.

Oh, and I moved.

In August of 2009 a letter was sent to my old address past the time when it would be forwarded to my new address.

I didn’t respond to the letter that I’ve never seen. Go figure.

The government decided that since I never responded to a request for information that, lo and behold, I had actually submitted in the paper form of my return but which was not included in the eFile form, they should re-evaluate my claim. In December of 2009 they did exactly that.

They decided that I should not be able to claim my daughter as my dependent without a Schedule 5 (the missing paperwork from above) so they took her out and decided that I owe them money. Not a small amount. More than enough to by more race wheels! Not that I need more race wheels, but you know what I’m saying, right?

Anyway, they sent me a letter (to the same address) to tell me that I owed them money. I didn’t respond to this letter that I never received either. Amazing.

So they sent my new bill, the one I knew nothing about, to collections in the government. Guess what, this arm of the government had NO problem tracking me down. Ah joy!

Anyway, I’ll have to jump through some hoops, but this will probably all get resolved in a month or so. I’m sure I won’t get an apology, but I don’t really want one, I just want them to go away.

I’m crawling back into my fucking cave though, no more of that eFile shit for me, Luddite and proud!

Nutrition and Exercise

— start of work

0900
- Pudding cup (100 cal)

1200
- 3 pieces of bbq chicken (red chicken)
- small amount of potatoes
- pudding cup (100 cal)

1400
- Wunderbar (310 cal)
- Large sour candy (90 cal)

1530
- Bag of chips (210 cal)

— end of work

1800
- small bombay chicken pasta salad
- small potato salad

2100
- 3 cookies

2300
- small bits of cake with icing
- piece of cake

Off to the gym this morning for a body composition test and I came out with the same feeling I usually have. Confusion, annoyance and more than a bit of frustration.

Hey, I know I weigh more than I should. Trust me, it’s a goal to lose an extra 10 – 15 pounds before Ironman. That would put me down to the 185 range (I’m 198 now it seems) and would make running the marathon at the end that much easier. And let’s face it, that would make me almost svelte, woo hoo.

When I make it to 185 though, I’ll still be 5 pounds OVER the heaviest the charts say a person should be for my height (5′10″). I am, technically, obese.

Okay, so that’s annoying. But we all know the charts don’t work for all body types. I’m not muscle bound, but I’m carrying more than my share of muscle mass. It takes more than a bit of solid muscle to move 198 pounds around a triathlon course. I’d have to lose a lot of muscle and all my fat to get down to below 180. I’m not willing to lose that much muscle thank you very much.

Still, regardless of where I sit on the chart, I can still count on the body fat percentage to give me a good clue right? If it’s high, fix it, if it’s low, maintain it.

My body fat percentage… 26%. Yup, I’m 1/4 fat. Non-fat to fat ratio is just a bit over 3:1. Ideal score here… 7:1.

Turns out that they use this fancy scale to determine your body fat percentage. It has a couple of settings including athletic and normal. Athletic allows for a higher muscle mass before doing the calculation.

This, it seems, changes the percentages fairly drastically.

For me, a guy who only works out 6 days a week for a total of between 8 and 11 workouts a week, Normal. Athletic, I was told, is for those who compete at a national level. Okay, I can buy into that I suppose.

The thing that doesn’t make sense to me… 26%. That means I’m carrying around over 50 pounds of fat. Sure, I’m carrying 20 or so, but 50? Something is off there. I just can not get my head around that number being accurate.

End of the day it’s just a test at the gym and not all that important. I know I need to lose some weight and reduce my body fat percentage and I’m taking steps to do just that. The test, I was hoping, would give me a realistic set of numbers to work with. Something to really tell me where I am so I’d know where to go.

The most informative thing this morning was the weight, something I can get at home.

Nutrition and Exercise

Breakfast (0645):
- Bran Flakes and 1% milk

— start of work

Lunch (1130): (big gap from breakfast and I was really feeling hungry. meetings galore)
- 2 pieces fish with chips
- Can of Coke (160cal)

Snack (1500):
- Mars Bar (260cal)

— end of work

Dinner (1900):
- 2 wraps with avocado salad, cheese, onions and steak slices in taco seasoning.

Today’s xkcd comic both amused and terrified me in a way.

Amused me because it really is funny. Convention would dictate that you not allow your younger kids to read through the Swimsuit edition or, heaven forbid, Playboy.

But these are, of course, absolutely tame compared to things they see in pop-up ads all the time. I can’t help but wonder if we aren’t, as a society, trying to close the barn door after the horse has escaped and the barn has burned down.

I’m not advocating leaving the swimsuit issue or the latest copy of Playboy laying around in the living room for your kids to peruse, not at all. I do sorta wonder how much they’d care though if they are the types of kids that have unrestricted internet access or computers in their rooms.

Here at my place there is unrestricted internet access, but the computer is in the main living area, not somewhere private and hidden. I monitor everywhere my daughter goes online, usually casually, watching her and chatting with her about sites. Sometimes by checking browser history or logs, but rarely. I did that more often when the boys were using the computers rather than the girls. go figure

Anyway, the comic made me laugh, and bugged me all at the same time.

Went out for a run tonight with the RunningRoom group. I was pretty mellow and wasn’t planning on running hard at all, particularly not since it’s a recovery week. But once I was out there for a km or so I started to pick it up a bit to catch all the folks I normally run with who were a bit ahead.

It took me a couple of km to catch them and by the time I did I was pretty tired and let them slip ahead again. After the next hill set I caught them again though and hung with them a bit until they pulled ahead a bit again. It wasn’t until I hit 10th that I pulled ahead again dragging out one of the newer guys with me. We went along together from 8th through to 20th and then he pulled ahead to make a light which I barely made behind him.

Down the hill and into the last couple of km I pulled ahead using my larger size and a bit more hill technique to pick up the speed. Once we hit the flats at the very end though he pulled ahead and I just couldn’t catch him. I ended up a couple of seconds behind him, but we both finished the 10km in sub 52. Not bad for a slow start and a hill climb up and through Moody Park.

My garmin and I are having issues though. It was happily reporting the pace and keeping the time, but it wasn’t recording distance. I’m working on it tonight but might wind up doing a system reset. ug.

Nutrition and Exercise

— start of work

Breakfast (0930):
- Kashi breakfast bar (120cal)
- Quaker Oatmeal to go bar (160cal)

Lunch (1130):
- Chicken, onions and peppers leftover from dinner. 1 plateful.
- Can of Coke

Snack (1400):
- 1 can fruit cocktail (384cal)

Snack (1500):
- Mars bar (260cal)
- Can of Apple Juice (160cal)

Snack (1630):
- 1 cup mixed nuts
- 1 large sour candy (180cal)

— end of work

Snack (1815):
- Gel before running (100cal)

Temp Run (1830)
- 10km (-725 cal)

Dinner (2130):
- 2 salami and cheese sandwiches (1/2 mayo and mustard)
- 591ml Canada Dry

Work was “one of those days”. On Saturday there was a power outage in the area of the office and Miranda and I were called down to handle it. It was a cluster fuck from start to finish. First we couldn’t get into the building (it was padlocked). We found a security guard, but she was from the wrong company and couldn’t help. We found the right security guard and getting into the office found we had no key to the server room (electronic pass, meaningless when there is no power). Finally a guy drove down with a key to the server room where he pointed out the lock box (in the server room) with keys for the server room. Useful like tits on a bull. After being there for 30 minutes and calling all the appropriate folks the power came on and things started coming up. I called the right person and Miranda and I went home.

Anyway, today was all about fixing the fallout from that catastrophe. The network guy in the office didn’t come in on the weekend to test things and make sure they were up, and he didn’t bother to show up at the office until 11am after being called at 9:30 to ask where he was and tell him to come in because the network was down.

Just to complicate things I had two new contract resources starting today. I put in the requests for their network accounts last week and no accounts were created. Why? Memorial day in the US, so the Indian group creating the accounts can’t create an account in Canada. What the fuck? I rather futilely fight with the bureaucracy and then hang up with their promise that it will be done in the morning.

At 3pm I get a call indicating that there is a problem in the paperwork. Seems I filled in the “requester” (me) and the “manager” (me) with the same name. This is because I’m the manager for the resources and I’m the one requesting the accounts. Who the hell else is going to request them? After going around the mulberry bush on this one a few times I caved and said fine, change the manager to be my manager. They can’t. I had to resubmit the forms. I told them to stuff it, have someone very high up in HR call me if they couldn’t process it the way it was. How absolutely frustrating.

The sun on the way home inspired me to fight the yard and get some work done. 1 1/2 hours of work to mow a relatively small yard and then clean up all the crap that resulted from the effort. There is still a lot of mulch detritus about by I simply lost the will to rake even more and my hands were starting to ache. As a panacea to the work day, it wasn’t what I needed.

And then there was my attempt at exercise. You really have to picture this to make sense of it. I’m hot, tired and sweaty from all the yard work. My hands are sore, my legs are itching from grass blow back and I’m not feeling motivated to do much of anything. The path of least resistance is to go for a swim. This counts as training, it helps me get to where I’m going, but it’s a lot less work in the physical department. I can just get in the water, release stress and go for it.

I grab my swim bag and drive to the pool. Crap, no quarter, I borrow a quarter from the cashier and scan my pass. I put the quarter in the locker and start to undress. And that’s when I realize that I have swim gear but no shorts or towel. My mind is just mush. I’m out the door before I remember to go back and get the credit applied to my card for the swim I didn’t take.

All that cost me was gas and a quarter that I have to pay the cashier. Oh, and pride, can’t forget that. Clearly I need the break.

Nutrition today started good and ended badly. 4 1/2 hours from lunch to snack, 4 1/2 hours from snack until dinner. Dinner far too late.

Breakfast (0845):
- Granola and yogurt

Snack (1030):
- 3 candies (100 calories)

Lunch (1200):
- Chile chicken over chow mein with side Caesar salad.
- Can of Coke

Snack (1630):
- Orange
- 3 candies (100 cal)

Dinner (2100):
- 10 chicken wings
- Burger (cheese and bacon) with fries

Some history is required here I think.

November 7 — Slip while dancing, falling face first. Catch myself in a push-up position and pop back up. No sensation of injury, too much alcohol to feel more than a little stupid about it.
November 8 — Swelling and spot bruising as well as tenderness and stiffness.
November 10 — First X-Rays. Radiologist indicates break towards the outer portion of the back of the wrist. Splint ordered by doctor.
November 16 — Second X-Rays. Radiologist indicates no break where originally found, break is actually closer to the middle towards the outer portion of the back of the wrist. Continue with the splint.
December 23 — Third X-Rays. Radiologist indicates that healing is not complete.
January 14 — Orthopedic surgeon reviews all X-Rays and states that apart from a long ago previous fracture injury (martial arts deemed the likely cause) and some resulting arthritis from that injury, NONE of the three X-Rays indicate ANY OTHER FUCKING PROBLEM.

So. What does this mean?

I fell and hurt my wrist. It bruised, soft tissue injury most likely the problem. The previous injury to my wrist was re-injured and contributed to the pain and stiffness. The splint isn’t helping other than being a mental correction to keep from over using the wrist. The splint is preventing me from reducing the stiffness and re-building the muscles. So, only use the splint if it hurts or if I feel cool with it on.

I do have to go for a nuclear bone scan (those are sooooo freaking cool) to confirm all of the findings, that’s happening on the 18th. I have a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on the 28th to review the findings, but I know what to look for in the report from the bone scan (learned that from the legs in 2008) so I’ll have a good idea ahead of time.

My splint is off and I’m trying to take it easy on my wrist (bullshit), but I plan on going swimming at the next opportunity, possibly tonight. I was going to spin tonight, but perhaps I’ll hit the stationary bike in Canada Games before or after a nice dip in the pool. I don’t expect to get far and I expect that my wrist will hurt with the usage which will be far more than I’ve done recently, but as long as I’m not injuring myself I’ll deal with the pain.

WEEEEEEEEEEE

I can get back in the pool

S

OK, to be clear, I started the day with the best of intentions.

The plan was fairly simple.

1) Head up to Best Buy and exchange the iPod dock for Gabrielle, the one we purchased didn’t charge 4th Generation iPods. argg.
2) Drive Gabrielle back out to Mission
3) Hang out with Miranda and her friend and build Lego or generally do fun 10 year old stuff (I was voting for Lego)
4) Head for a run with the Running Room group in the evening

The reality wasn’t so simple or cheap.

1) Head up to Best Buy to exchange the iPod dock for Gabrielle. They were basically sold out of everything, we found one we liked and they checked other stores for us and found one at Queensborough.
2) Get parking ticket off of the car. $45, weee.
3) Drive to Queensborough, actually do the exchange and buy a discount game for the XBox.
4) Have car break down on the road shortly over the bridge and need to call BCAA.
5) Walk three girls to Skytrain and get them passes to get home, return to the car to wait for BCAA
6) Notice that some asshole has nailed and destroyed my drivers’ side mirror
7) Tow car to Canadian Tire and find out what’s wrong. Blown Alternator, dead battery. $516, wee
Arrange to have new mirror assembly sent in for next day $70. Installation $95, might try that myself.
9) Hang with Gabrielle and play WoW.
10) Get Sheryl to drop G and I off at the car and M and M at M’s place for the night.
11) Drive to Mission to drop off G
12) Head home and do SFA for the rest of the night other than; WoW, Scrabble, TV.
13) Realize that I forgot to post blog entry from yesterday, ug.

Nutrition sucked as well, of course.

Breakfast:
- nadda

Lunch:
- Big Mac no pickles, Large Fries, Sweet and Sour Sauce
- Chicken wrap

Snack (0):
- Medium bag of chips
- 1/2 a bottle of coke (591ml bottle)

Dinner:
- 2 baked potatoes

So, I was just checking out Tavis’ very cool Ironman Canada 2010 training blog/site/experience at IWillNotBonk.com.

Man, his looks all professional and like

I can’t keep up with him AND his site looks cooler AND he has an awesomely inspiring intro video.

Excuse me while I go run off my Christmas breakfast to make room for Christmas dinner.

Very cool Tavis.

S

An amusing thing today, I was logging in to start the post just now and noticed that an old post was hit from google. Specifically, this old post “ah, to be 14 and fucking stupid again“. This was the post about when then now 17 year old boy, who was 14 at the time, decided to go out and get drunk with his friends on Spring Break. It all went downhill from there, no one was hurt (not even in the aftermath).

A few months ago, I posted an entry about blog stats and the weird things people enter into Google that gets them to my door step. One of the things, at the time, was “14 and fucking”. Scared me silly until I realized that it was going to the post above and then gave me a bit of a laugh. I’m pretty sure that the lecherous old perv who was googling that wasn’t getting what he/she wanted out of my blog.

Today, however, someone again hit the link. This time by being a bit more specific “14 years to 16 years fucking”. Funny again, in that they aren’t getting what they want here, but disturbing too. Unless the twit who’s searching for that is between 14 and 17 themselves… ICK. Someone should trace back to that IP and show up at the house with the angry parents of teenagers who want to take their frustrations out on someone.

On a side note, the now 17 year old boy isn’t any smarter now than he was then, if anything devolution has occurred. Such is the way of teenagers, of course.

From a work perspective, the IT department has annoyed me again, three times in 1 day! Sadly that isn’t a record for them. A development shop doesn’t need tier 1 IT staff. If we are having a problem, we aren’t going to have it resolved by questions like; “have you restarted your computer”, “is your cap locks key on”, “is it plugged in to the network”. Most of the folks here can take apart and build their own systems and have. Most of us can do a network diagnostics scan, and do, regularly. Ah well, bloody annoying anyway.

Exercise today? No, not likely. Gift wrapping, house cleaning and general lazing about. I am at 98km of running so far in December though, so I’m not overly stressed. I should hit 120 by the end of this weekend and still have a couple of days to add a few more in. I don’t really have a goal for this month apart from “over 110″, so we’ll see what the last few days of the year bring.

A lot of wrapping today which is not something I normally like doing. I still don’t like doing it. But I’ve been in a shitty mood, so it’s been something to keep my hands occupied.

Nutrition today could have been worse, but could have been better as well. How often am I saying that? sheeesh.

Breakfast:
- Carnation Instant Breakfast (chocolate. they’ve all been chocolate, I just wanted to add something in here)

Snack (0):
- Can of Coke (I’m seeing a trend)
- Small amount of chocolate from around the office.

Lunch:
- Leftover sausage and cheese over rice.

Snack (1):
- Home-baked toffee bar (cake thing with toffee on top, not bad).

Dinner:
- Can of ravioli with meatballs in tomato sauce (gotta love Chef Boy-ardee, eh?)

Snack (2):
- Another toffee bar and a small amount of ice cream.

Feeling like crap today, I actually left work in the mid afternoon with my stomach roiling. But I’m going to run tomorrow unless I can’t.

I did manage to get really pissed off at some shits who were smoking a joint outside the store when I walked by with M and the dog to grab pizza (I wasn’t cooking tonight).

I don’t get it, I live in this neighbourhood. Lots of people with kids and family do. Does anyone that knows me think I care what they smoke? Me? I could care less. But decorum? This I care about.

In front of a store blowing smoke in my daughter’s face? Bloody lucky I waited and took her home before coming back to talk to the nice gentleman.

Anyway, no one suffered trauma and other than a bit of a heart race I did nothing to get me ready for Ironman.

Bah..

I’m pretty sure that kicking someone’s ass would have counted for 5km though, eh?

S

So I moved on the 14th with a HUGE amount of help from the ex, S along with a couple of the kids. We were moving and cleaning until 3am. I then returned the truck and crashed out at S’s place at 4am to get back up in the morning and finish cleaning the old place.

There followed fun and adventure for a couple of days trying to get things at least livable, basically to no avail.

And on the 17th the nice folks from the cable company showed up to hook up my phone/internet/cable.

After a half hour of figuring out how it should be wired the representative hit some switches and checked a couple of things and bob’s your uncle, we had cable!

Another hour goes by and I grab a DHCP address from the connection and I have internet, woo hoo.

That is where things went downhill.

Seems that when I moved from Burnaby to a different part of Burnaby my phone trunk changed. I can’t get my old phone number. OOPS.

30 minutes of arguing later and I agree to change numbers, serious PITA factor.

That kills the internet as they have to redo the work order, but we still have cable.

And after the new phone number… no go on the static IP address I needed to keep to route the domains. Only 15 minutes of arguing here before I say screw it, go ahead.

So, they take down the phone, change the number again, change the static IPs and redo the workorder which… takes down the cable.

The cable guy left after being here for just under 4 hours for a simple 45 minute job, in theory.

I have a new phone number and a new static IP.

But at least for my provider the URL routes correctly to new IP.

S