cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, Pauline Nelson via mail, & Maxine Shirts
"Workwise, there was nothing on my Calendar for the week. I did several days doing some revision work requested by the folks heading up the consulting work for PetroChina. I met with one of them in person on Friday at II&T. That meeting went very well, and I believe he is quite excited about what I have provided, which is actually well beyond what they paid me to provide. My hope is that this work will result in a separate and large contract directly with PetroChina. I'll write more about how that idea turns out in a couple of weeks.
Besides movies discussed in the previous Thoughtlet, on Tuesday the 31st of December 2002 I went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science with Paul, Kate, and Grant. Andrea had already seen the Titanic exhibit, and she needed to take Rachel to the airport. Rachel I miss you! Thanks so much for coming down! Paul and Kate wanted Grant to experience the Butterfly Museum. What a kick. Melanie and Jared, Ben and Sarah, I want to go with Colby and Ethan to the butterfly museum sometime this next year. I call the following four snapshots of Grant: Attack of the Killer Butterflies.
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| Kate holds a white butterfly in front of Grant who wants to hold it. | Paul holds a red butterfly in front of Grant who wants to hold it. |
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| The butterfly lands on Grands face, and he shocks him. | The butterfly lands on his hand as he is rubbing his face and not sure if he likes this place after all. |
Grant fell asleep in the car on the way down to the museum, and was asleep most of the time we were in the Titanic exhibit. I was impressed with how the Titanic exhibit was put together. It was very respectful of those who lost their lives in this disaster. To bad you didn't all get to see this. Next time you're in town ask what is showing, because we do have a family pass to get in at a good discount. And butterflys, big lizards, and little kids are fun.
When we got back to the house Paul climbed on the roof and nailed down the wire over the chimney so the racoons and bird can not get in there this winter. Thanks Paul. Both times I went up there to do the job I got scared and climbed down. I remember climbing all over the grainery and in trees and not being afraid of heights. Guess I have to admit I'm getting old. I did take a few photos to capture the moment. The photo to the left is my favorite.
It was sad to say goodbye to Paul, Kate, and Grant on Tuesday evening. And I guess all good things need to come to an end. The good news is most of you seem to keep coming back. Roice visited later in the week when he came down from Austin for his friend Rick Zafar's wedding. Hopefully you will all come back, and hopefully very regularly. It was a good holiday, with the exception of not being able to spend time with Audrey and Heather.
One of the things I strive to do each New Year is to look at the things that have happened over the previous year and map out what I hope will happen during the next year. The specific example I want to briefly review has to do with swallows. I finished out my 2002 spread-sheet this week. On December 26th of 2001 I weighed 265 pounds. On December 26th of 2002 I weighed 237 pounds, and on Sunday January 5th I weighed 235 pounds. June 26th I weighed 226 pounds, and hopefully by the end of 2003 I will be below 200 pounds. I have learned a lot by counting swallows and thinking about what I write down. Like all of us in our society who were taught to feel better by sticking something in our mouth when we are feeling any emotions, there is a lot more emotional learning than intellectual learning involved in controlling our weight. I have simplified the data collection, and am only going to enter a series of 10 numbers per day into the 2003 spread-sheet, instead of the average 12 descriptions and 30 numbers per day that were entered in 2002. I do plan to continue counting swallows until I have had my weight under 180 pounds for six months. I recognize this might never happen. Guess that just means I will be counting for a long time to come. The following charts summarize my first year of counting swallows:
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| This chart summarizes the year. There are trends. The most interesting thing to me is that once my ankle got better and I started exercising, I stopped loosing weight, even though I didn't eat much more than before. | The details of the last six months show how much I ate and how my weight has practically stayed the same. I don't have good records for past years, and I anticipate my body is pretty comfortable and has been for over a decade at about 235 pounds. |
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| At first the percentages were interesting to me. However, as the year progressed, there wasn't much of a story, and just a lot of chatter in the data. | In reviewing the year, and by changing starches to be at the top, I realized that the percentage chart can be used to show when starches and sugars exceed a certian amount of my diet. These two entries are probably the most important negative contributors to my weight. |
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| The general integration, summation over time, showing all of the data collected doesn't seem to show much more than some straight lines. However, there is interesting stuff buried in these almost straight lines. | The derivatives, showing daily fluxuations in the data, show too much variation. I haven't figured out how to derive any useful information from these graphs yet. Expect I will. |
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| By taking out the swallows, weight, and goal, the vertical axis on the remaining data is spread out and there is more variation seen. Where the slope changes is where there is something going on. | The changes in the integral slope were enhanced by normalizing them against the amount of water swallowed. When I came up with this chart in about November was when I first realized that the key positive influence on losing weight for me is tied to the amount of fruit I eat, and the key negative influence is tied to the amount of starches I eat. The key is to keep the fruit curve above the starches curve, and this will be my goal for 2003. By the way, I'm not starting off very good after one week. |
After Andrea and I went to see `Maid in Manhatten' on January 3rd, I decided to stop at Laundry's. We haven't been out to eat in a long time. Matt had already eaten, and I figured if we split a meal it wouldn't hurt the budget too bad. Andrea didn't want to go in because she didn't have any makeup on, and she is proud enough of her appearance to not go out without getting more dressed up. I said to her `There's no makeup in the Celestial Kingdom,' and she came in with me. We had a nice meal of stuffed shrimp. It was a very nice dinner and conversation. A lady came up to us as we were finishing and said, `If you two are not married, you should be. You couldn't keep your eyes off of each other.' And neither Andrea nor I had our makeup on. I didn't notice the waiter charged us for ice tea, which we didn't get, nor would have wanted. So the bill was $3.75 more than it should have been. And whether it is attacking butterflys, swallows, or a night out, I remain convinced there's no makeup in the Celestial Kingdom."