Now this is actually a real challenge to me considering I’ve been sitting on my butt for 3-4 months doing nothing but drinking beer and eating out every day. I gained quite a few pounds and weighed the most I’ve ever weighed – 150lbs. Nothing like a nice round number to wake you up. 150! Yikes!

So on November 1st, I started working out. I bought a new Garmin GPS watch to help motivate me. I love the watch and I’m loving working out everyday. I’m doing a variety of things, but the best thing is I don’t really have a plan. I can do anything I want so long as I do something everything everyday. So I’ve committed to doing P90X again, riding at least 3 times a week, running at least twice a week, and if I feel like it, I can hike or walk. My calendar for the first two weeks is quite full.

This past week I worked out a total of 13:23.55 hours, covered 73.11 miles and burned 4,920 calories. And I’ve lost 3 lbs this week, 6 lbs total in November. Not bad. Two more weeks to go.

Bartlett Lake Ride (Arizona) from soul4real on Vimeo.

Motorcycle ride out to Bartlett Lake in Scottsdale, AZ. Shot with my ContourHD Helmet cam clamped to the handlebars. Oct. 30, 2010

The story of Asila is an interesting one. She’s the rainbow bear in the picture. I bought her at a gay pride celebration in Las Vegas many years ago. I want to say about 11 years, but I can’t really be certain. I was dating someone who lived there at the time, and I traveled there often. Asila became my travel companion. She’s been to many different places in the US including Provincetown, Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Albuquerque, Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, and New York City.

Initially the plan was to keep a travel blog of Asila’s adventures, but 10 years ago mobile blogging wasn’t as big or as easy to do. I managed to take tons of pictures of Asila in all these great cities, but getting the photos into digital format and posted on a blog was time consuming. I never followed through with it.

Every so often I come across a stack of photos and as I flip through them, often a picture of Asila will pop up. She’d be sitting on a bar next to an iced cold one with a bar sign in the background indicated where we were visiting. If only I could find all those old photos now; I’m sure it would tell a great tale. Like the time I took Asila camping and it turned into a “where’s Asila” game. Every picture we took that weekend had her in it somewhere, hanging from a tree, propped on a shoulder, holding the keg pump, etc. 100+ campers and everyone knew Asila. It makes me wish she could tell her own story. Boy would she have a story to tell.

That’s unlikely to happen, so I’m just going to have to continue to tell it for her because naturally her story is my own. It should be a lot easier now with the advent of better mobile phone cameras and Posterous, where I post my mobile stuff. You can visit: http://soul4real.posterous.com or click the mobile web tab on my website. Check in an see our next adventure. St. Patty’s Day is right around the corner and rumor has it that Asila will be doing a dive bar tour on her bicycle.

Me & Coach Craig

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

This past weekend I drove to Bakersfield, CA for my college Track & Field and Cross Country reunion. I graduated from California State University Bakersfield 20 years ago, and I had never been back. That’s not because I didn’t enjoy my time there. In fact, I’d forgotten how much fun I had back in my old college days. But it was not the memories of fun that drove me back for this reunion. I wanted to go back so that I could say thanks.

We would all agree that our college years were our formative ones, but for some of us our experience goes beyond that. I felt, like many of my teammates back then, that given the chance I could probably do something really great. All we needed was a chance, and for some of us with mediocre talent and very little money for college, finding a college that would give us a chance and help pay for it was a dream. For most of us, greatness would come on the track or field at CSUB, but for others, like myself, it would come later after having graduated from college. I’m not trying to say that I’m some superstar or even great beyond the normal person that walks this planet. What I’m saying is that I wouldn’t be who I am today had it not been for the coaches in my life who taught me a good work ethic and how to be a leader. They also gave me a love for teaching and coaching.

My first track coaches in high school were teachers. My community college coaches were teachers, and Coach Coons at CSUB was a teacher. In fact, my senior year I asked Coach Coons what would I have to major in to become a track coach. I was a communication major at the time, and he said that in order to be a coach I would need to have a job that would allow me to be available in the afternoons when the kids had practice, and the best job for doing that was teaching. So the next day I went to my advisor and asked what I could change my major to to become a teacher. That next quarter I became an English Literature major. Why? Certainly not because I liked English lit classes. I wanted to be a teacher, so I could be a coach.

So that’s what I did. I suffered through an additional year of college and graduated with a degree in English Literature. Then I followed in the footsteps of several of my former coaches, coaching high school track and cross country and then later coaching at two community colleges. I’m not sure I would have changed my major had not Coach Coons suggested it. Who knows? What I do know is that I’m very proud of my accomplishments as a teacher and coach, and after this past weekend, I have now officially thanked all those wonderful coaches that helped shape and guide me in my life. Thanks Coach Coons making me a better athlete and person, and thanks Coach Craig for giving me the opportunity and for taking care of me during my three years at CSUB.

C and I took another quick road trip this weekend to escape the heat of the valley. We usually try to get out of town early in the morning before it gets too hot. But this trip was different because we were going up to Strawberry to see my buddy Alan (@cogdog). So we didn’t leave the valley until around 2pm, and it was screaming hot! By the time we got to Payson around 3:30pm it was still hot. We didn’t get a chance to cool off until a few hours later when we were finally able to sit out on the deck in Strawberry and enjoy the view of the greenery. Elevation is 5,889 feet in Strawberry, which is considerably higher than Phoenix. Yet it still gets pretty hot during the day.
Strawberry is a beautiful quiet little town. There are estimated about 1000 residents, but @cogdog said not all are full time residents. I like the town because it’s less than 2 hours from the valley, and it’s a beautiful ride up, especially the ride between Payson, Pine and Strawberry. I tried to capture a little of that in my video I shot.

We had a great dinner and lots of fun with Alan. I can’t show you how much fun because I’ve been forbidden to show you the videos of the two dancing, singing and guitar playing fools. Tis a shame, because they’re pretty funny.

Road Trip to Strawberry, AZ from Coop on Vimeo.

We had a great camp site, close to the water, but unfortunately we were also close to a turn around road. All night long people would be driving around trying to find camping spots and would drive right by our tent, stop, idle, and even turn around. All the while their exhaust would fill our tent and their headlights would shine would light up the area. We got no sleep during the night.

So my advice to you is no camping up at Hawley Lake in July. It’s just a whole different experience. Stick to May and June when it’s quiet and peaceful.

IMG_2211

Originally uploaded by nooccar

I’ve been working in the Maricopa Community College District now for 10 years, and I’ve met plenty of people along the way. Some of these people it’s a real honor to work with and others are a joy to call colleagues, but very few are people I’d want to hang out with after hours. That all changed this year when I started hanging out with the Cyber Salon crew once a month. They are true geeks through and through, and before I started hanging out with them, I’d never been in a bar with my laptop before.

Now we take over bars with our geekiness. We just come in, set up shop and have a good time. All we require is wi-fi and cold beer. I’ve learned so much from those pictured and a few other Cyber Salon members not pictured, and I’m really proud to call them friends. Can’t wait for the next Cyber Salon in June.

After some digging, I found out I could use a program called VoltaicHD to convert the video to Quicktime, and then I would be able to edit the video on my MacBook Pro. So I downloaded the trial version to try it out. It works, but the files are huge, and it takes for ever. I have no patience, and I wanted to see video and edit video right away, like I can do with a regular camera. Not so here.

Anyway, I finally got some video, but only short clips because the trial wouldn’t let me convert the larger files. Rats! again. Guess I’ll need to fork over $30. I want to make sure it’s the best option out there first before I spend money. Anyway, here is my HD video converted down to size for YouTube. After all that, I’m wondering what’s the point. It’s not HD anymore.