The craziness continues

It's hard balancing work, healthy habits, social events, my programming side job, and normal every day events all at the same time.

Yesterday I didn't go to the gym. This decision was made for many reasons:

1. I had a terrible headache, due to the TMJ in my jaw
2. I was still very sore from previous days at the gym (mostly my shoulder/chest)
3. I wanted to get some programming done after someone recommended a new feature
4. It seemed like the day dragged out, and I just wanted to go home

I could go on forever with the list. But the thing is, it didn't really matter. I still feel healthy due to the diet change, and feel that I'm early enough in the workout that it probably shouldn't be daily. Yeah, the walking and biking could be. But the shoulder exercises, not so much.

Tuesday I did bench press instead of the hand bike. Bench also targets my shoulder issue, so it was good. Because I did that instead of the hand bike, I actually went 3 miles in 10 minutes on the bike, instead of 2 miles. The energy that I saved from switching exercises allowed me to do more on the bike, which worked my legs a bit more.

Everyone says "it's good to keep your muscles guessing" and I agree. But right now, I need something somewhat consistent to get me started, and the small changes between shoulder routines should be enough for now to "keep my muscles guessing".

On top of the gym, and switching to a healthy diet, and programming until almost 1am last night... I still need to find a new place to live! AHHH craziness!!

Plus this weekend is Imagine RIT, and I'm helping Joe move, and I'm going out with some people from my old job Friday night... and the list goes on.

Obviously finding a place to live should be priority #1, and I am going to do some looking around on-line in my free time, then try to visit some places before work one of these days. It's just pure craziness right now.

Day 1 on the new plan

So after day 1, I'm already feeling more energetic.

I didn't even have my diet worked out completely, but the 5 meals throughout the day kept my energy up enough to get in a good work out after work, and go buy some good food for the rest of the week. I had so much energy after work that I wanted to go out for a bike ride when I got home. Decided that was a bad idea, since I just went 2 miles in 10 minutes on a stationary bike.

Workout consisted of what has been my normal routine for a few months:

1. Walk (Yes, walk. My hamstring won't let me run much until it gets used to walking long distance)
1. I usually do a mile. Today I ran the last 1/8th of a mile. The hamstring was definitely feeling it when I started the run, but it wasn't too bad
2. The "Hand Bike"
1. No idea what this thing is really called, but it's like pedaling a bike... with your arms. I did it for my physical therapy on my shoulder. Today I did level 3.5 for 6 minutes. Last time I did level 3 for 6 minutes. When I started my physical therapy I was doing level 1 for 6 minutes. (I've gone as far up as level 6, but I can't do that for too long.)
3. Bike
1. I usually do 10-15 minutes. Today I did 10, and went exactly 2 miles in the 10 minutes.

I haven't been able to get to the gym consistently over the past few months, but when I was there I did this routine. I do this workout for a few reasons:

1. My main goal is to lose weight (or more so, lose the fat. The number on the scale doesn't matter much.) As such, a mostly cardio workout will help lose the weight.
2. I still need to work on my shoulder, or else it "relapses". The hand bike does both the shoulder AND the cardio, and I still do shoulder exercises at home with the resistance bands.
3. It's short and manageable. I've been out of the game for too long, so a strenuous routine would not work right now. As I get back into shape a bit more, I'll add more to this routine, including some actual strength training. And obviously I'll add more onto the walk/run and bike as I am able to.

After the gym I picked up everything I said earlier... some apples, bananas, mandarin oranges (in the little cups, so that I can take them for lunch), grapes, and I saw peaches in the little cups as well, so I got some of those too. Oh, and I was going to get some nuts - cashews or peanuts or something - and I forgot. Guess I need to pick them up tomorrow before work. The nuts will help provide protein throughout the day, both at work and at home.

I was going to go to Walmart on my way home from work, but then I thought... who the hell goes to Walmart for fruit? Not me! So I went to Wegmans instead. Maybe slightly more expensive, but it'll last longer than the crap they sell at Walmart, and all the stuff that I got fresh was also organic. I'm not a huge "everything needs to be organic" kinda guy, but if their fresh fruit is organic, I'll take it.

My new eating plan

I've often heard, as many of you also probably have, that eating 5 small meals a day is more healthy than eating 3 big meals per day.

With that in mind, and the fact that my work schedule is forcing me into some new habits, I've come up with a new eating plan.

I usually eat breakfast every morning somewhere around 7am. That's about the time I used to get up for work, so that's when I'm used to eating. I've been trying to push it back a bit, so that I'm not so hungry at lunch, so that's probably going to be close to the 8-9 area now. This morning I had some cereal for breakfast. usually it'll be either cereal or eggs, both with optional toast. I've gotta pick up some fruit to go with that too. (Bananas, apples, oranges... all good breakfast fruits)

Then, I'm finding that soon after getting to work (an hour or 2 in, roughly 12:00 or so) I'm starting to get hungry. So I need a small snack. Today I brought some of my mom's left over tuna salad that we had with dinner last night. Healthy, not too heavy, and a good time for a snack (given my schedule.) That will likely be an apple or something most days. Just something small to hold me until lunch.

Then I head to lunch around 2:00. Today, I had some more left overs from moms... a couple pieces of BBQ chicken, and 2 small salt potatoes. Not too big, but not too small either. I want to try to cook something for myself before work, so that I can have something healthy and not have too much work to do come lunch time.

Around 6 (when most other people are leaving my office) I have time for another snack. Tonight I brought a can of Chunky soup. I know for most people that's more like a meal, but it's not a full meal for me unless I have something with it. Plus, it'll give me energy to go work out after work. 

So basically, this is actually going to be more like my dinner. I'd like this to be something I've pre-prepared as well, and include some more of that fruit with it, balancing out the meal a bit.

Leave work at 7:30, gym probably 8-9 or so, that means I'm eating late, which I know is not good. But this time, something small and full of protein - since I just got out of the gym. Probably a couple PB&J sandwiches and a couple glasses of milk. Probably put some protein supplement into a glass of milk, and some more fruit. (My mom often has grapes sitting around, and I find myself constantly snacking on those when I'm at her house, so I'll probably get some grapes too.)

I've also found myself eating less beef and more chicken and turkey. So most of the meals will probably be chicken based, or I also occasionally have sausage. Either way, I've been kinda light on the red meat lately, and I kinda want to keep it that way. Not that I don't like it (I do enjoy a good hamburger or steak occasionally) I just LOVE chicken, and there's so much you can do with chicken.

So this is the plan I'm going to make for myself, and I'm going to try to stick with it as much as possible. I really want to start into a healthier life-style, and I think I'm in the right mindset right now to make it work. Tonight will be my first day back to the gym in a while, then I'm going to head to the store and pick up that fruit I was talking about. (I'm really craving some mandarin oranges right now...)

New Job and Moving

Job

As you may know, if you follow me on any type of social media, I started a new job on Wednesday.

I got laid off from my previous job on March 7th, and started the new job April 24th. Not too bad, if you ask me. Especially since I basically didn't lose any money. I received 2 weeks of severance pay and all of my unused vacation from my old job, which added up to about 6 weeks total.

I started the new job this week, which is pretty cool.  It's a desktop support position, just like most of my previous jobs, so I will be mostly dealing with internal issues. The hours are a bit different than I'm used to, but it's not bad. 10:30am-7:30pm, with an hour lunch (usually around 2:00 or so.) Not nearly as bad as the 8pm-6:30am I was doing at the hospital, but different enough that it's throwing off my daily routine a bit. I'm sure I'll get used to that though.
The biggest thing right now is that I need to find time to go to the gym, which I generally like to do after work, but I'm so tired after work that I don't have any energy to go to the gym. Maybe I need to bring a healthy snack with me that I can eat an hour or so before I leave, to give me an energy boost.

Thursday I talked to my bosses about my epilepsy, and what to do if I have a seizure. They're going to pass the information on to a few other people who they feel should know. I gave them a copy of my "seizure first-aid" write-up, which they are going to forward to the people who need to know. (That document is available here if you want a copy of it.) It's just information that I copied and pasted directly from the web, formatted to fit on a single page, but it's information that the people that I work with closely should know.

My benefits start back up on the first, which is awesome. That means that I don't have go into debt to get my meds when I need a refill, and I don't need to worry as much if I need to see the doctor or dentist. I still need to setup my HSA though, and I need to wait 3 months before I can get into their 401k.


Moving

Now that I have a new job, I need to look for a new apartment. I need to be out of my current place by June 1st. (We put in the non-renewal notice the day that I got laid off... just my luck, right?) I now have proof of income, which is required to get a place, I just need to find a place that is affordable and available.


I kinda want to live by myself for a while. I've actually never lived alone before, I've always either lived with family or a roommate(s). I know it'll probably be a bit boring living alone but I want to try it out for a while, mostly just because I've never done it.

I'll probably end up getting a 2-bedroom, wherever I go, and put my weight bench and stereo in the second bedroom, along with some other random stuff that's currently in my bedroom that doesn't need to be there. (My coin collection, a ton of Metallica swag, random computer parts, etc.) I basically want to turn the extra room into my "man cave". I'll probably put a table or something in there as an assembly/disassembly station for computers.

I'll probably only be there a year or two, then I want to look into getting a town house. I was planning on getting a town house this year, but when I got laid off those plans changed. Now I'm gunna need to be in an apartment for at least another year, which is not the end of the world.


For those who are in the Rochester area, I'm looking to move out toward Brighton/Henrietta area. Right now I'm looking at the apartments across from MCC as my first choice, but they're a bit more expensive than I want to pay. Also, I know it's hard to find but, I want a place that I can have laundry in the unit. So far, all of the place that I have looked have some type of communal laundry room, where I have to pay per load. I could deal with that if necessary, but I'd rather not.


Conclusion

So that's about it for now. Life is a bit hectic right now, but things will calm down and return to normal soon. Right now I'm just enjoying the ride, and looking forward to the spring/summer weather :-)


TL;DR

Got a new job, looking for a new apartment, enjoying life.

New Personal Blog!

I just moved all of my more personal posts (not related to my app development) to a new blog... this one!
Any blog post prior to this one was originally part of my development blog.

From now on all new posts that do not have anything to do with my app development, or other 1515 Studios related business, will be posted here. Some posts may appear in both places depending on the content.

This blog will mostly be dedicated to my fight for epilepsy awareness, and the latest adventures with my personal encounters with epilepsy. But will also contain things like what I'm doing for work and fun outside of my development, and whatever else happens in my life that I think people will find interesting.

I have not done any work on designing the look of the blog yet, so bear with me for a while. It has been a while since I set up my other blog, so I need to fumble through the setup process again.

Purple Day

As some of you may have seen on my social networks, today was purple day for epilepsy awareness. March 26th every year has been designated as a day to wear purple to raise awareness for epilepsy.

I went to an interview of sorts today, and I wore my purple hoodie, with my only polo shirt that has any type of purple in it. Let me say, it definitely grabbed the attention of the person I was meeting with. She not only noticed that it was purple, but also noticed that it was an Epilepsy Foundation hoodie.

I posted about this event a few times over the past week or so, and some of my friends and family decided to wear purple for me today. One friend even wrote on my Facebook that she not only wore purple, but that she also talked to 3 people about epilepsy and about me... That's awesome.

These gestures may seem small - Wear something purple, say a few things to some people about epilepsy - but it makes a HUGE difference. And to those of you who helped support me and my cause today, you have no idea what it means to me. I obviously can only do so much by myself, and every extra person is a great help.

For anyone who may have shown your support that I didn't know about, thank you as well. I don't need to know that you showed your support, I appreciate the effort regardless. I hope that you were able to at least mention to someone why you were wearing purple, but if not that's fine too.

I hope that everyone who is reading this has learned something about epilepsy from me at some point, and/or have taught others about epilepsy. If anyone ever wants information of any sort about epilepsy, feel free to ask. I'm always glad to spread knowledge.

The Interview

Some of you may have seen on my social networks that I went to the gym Friday. I went to the gym for a few reason:

1. I go to the gym at the college that I attended, which is about 20 minutes away from my house. I got the membership there because I get an alumni discount, and it was about 3 minutes away from work before I got laid off. (Unfortunately, I renewed my membership 2 days prior to being laid off.)
2. I was in the area, because I had an interview about 5-10 minutes away from campus.
3. The interview left a VERY sour taste in my mouth.

I was EXTREMELY upset when I left that interview. Normally, if I leave an interview upset it's because I messed up (or I think in my mind that I messed up.) There was something that I said or did that I realized later was a bad choice, and I think that it had a negative effect on my interview. This was not this case this time.

Truly, I went into this interview not expecting much. After talking on the phone, it didn't seem like the job was a good fit, but it was my first scheduled interview since getting laid off so I figured I'd go anyway. Who knows, maybe I get a different vibe from an interview than I do from a phone conversation. 

I did get a different vibe, but my impression of the individual who interviewed me (and called me) was actually made worse, which I didn't think was possible.

As I said, I knew this wasn't an interview that I thought would go well. It was for an IT job - desktop support position - which is basically what I've been doing for the past 10 years or so, so that part was fine. The bad part came in when the person told me that they have one IT person, and this person works part time. This person was not going to be around anymore, so they wanted me to take his/her spot and work half-time as an IT person and half-time as a front desk type of person. Not really what I want to do, but I kinda need something right now.

So I get to the interview. First of all, this guy said about 20 times in the interview that he could not believe that my former company had 3 people in IT for the amount of employees they have. "We have one guy part time, and 50 employees, I don't see why they needed 3 people." Literally, I heard almost those exact words at least 10 times in less than an hour.

Then he starts asking me about the programming background that I have on my resume, to which I respond "it's a hobby of mine that I do on the side" and explain to him some of my programs.

so he says "how can this be of use to us?"

"Well, I do a lot of scripting as well, so I could possibly automate some of the repetitive tasks that are done by writing a script to do the task for you."

"Well how do I know that you aren't going to leave us for some start-up company, and become the next Zuckerberg?"

...now I'm kind of upset, but remaining calm...

I'm not quite sure how I worded it, but I explained to him that although I have skills in programming, my skills are not quite good enough for most corporate uses, and that programming isn't really what I want to do all day.

So now, after already feeling like he's trying to make my skills sound useless, and make it sound like my workload is overestimated, he decides to take me on an office tour. Step one on the office tour, the office next to his - where he successfully introduces me by the wrong name. To make it worse, he introduced me as Jason.... Jason is my older brother. People used to call me Jason ALL THE TIME in high school, and it seems as if I've been living in my older brother's shadow my entire life. So, even though he likely had no idea, that REALLY hit the wrong chord. (I obviously corrected him.)

Begin 30 minute conversation with this person... about nothing. About how she is not an IT person, and cannot handle the "dangerous" tasks, and blah, blah, blah.

Tour continues. He's trying to introduce me to people, but most of them are not there for some reason, and some are out for a smoke break. As two of them come in from the smoke break, he stops one of them and talks to him about some drawing that he needs a copy of, and something that needs to be sent out... 15 minutes later, we're leaving this person's cubicle. Never even introduced me. Oh well. Just seems kind of disrespectful to waste so much of someone's time who is interviewing to work for your company.

Next stop - the print room. Where he starts questioning my abilities. He says "Well, we have <X machine> would you be able to work on that?" 

My response - "Well I haven't worked with that exact model, but I've worked with similar machines, so I'm sure I could handle most problems with it. And anything I can't handle immediately would only take a small amount of online research into the specifics of this model."

"Oh, so you couldn't handle this if it breaks down?"

"Yes, I could, at most it would take a few minutes of research to fix it."

Is it just me, or do all of his responses sound demeaning and condescending?

And last but not least - the server room... which is a closet... with 2 servers... and a box fan blowing on them for cooling. Yeah. That's about all I've got there. (Meanwhile, he continued the whole bit about questioning my abilities to handle their phone system and some other menial tasks.)

Now back to his office, where he can once again make it look like this place truly needs only 1/2 of an IT person, and he can tell me that he doesn't want to pay me like an IT person because I'll be doing front desk work 1/2 time.

So yeah, needless to say, I was pretty upset by the time I walked out of this place. I went to the gym partly because I felt like I was just thrown into a pit of high school bullies, and needed to blow off some steam. I will not be accepting THAT job, even if it is offered to me. 

And just as a closing remark: if you want someone to take your company and your interview seriously, try treating them with at least a tiny bit of respect.

Bad News

This is not quite bad news for my apps, but bad news for me personally... Yesterday I was laid off from my day job.

They have been laying people off left and right for the past year or so, so I'm not 100% surprised, but it's still not easy. I got the news around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, and was able to say some goodbyes.

People have already been giving me job leads, and ideas for places to look for something new, and I am thankful for that. My boss (and his boss) both made it abundantly clear that it had nothing to do with my performance, or my attitude, or anything like that, it's just that the company is going through rough times and they needed to do some more cutbacks. They both said that it was a joy working with me, and that I did great work, and they wish there was another way. I had quite a few people offer to write me a letter of recommendation if I need one, so that again shows that people enjoyed having me there and liked my work.

For now, it's off to the unemployment website and job search websites until I find something new. I'm sure that I will do some work on my apps, and maybe work on some new ones, with my new found free time. But as stated previously, I will likely be spending a lot of time searching for jobs as well.

World Cancer Day - or not

I posted this on Google+, but I figured I would post it here as well. I get REALLY upset when cancer gets so much attention because NO OTHER disease, disorder, etc. gets even 1% of the attention that cancer gets. And cancer does not affect NEARLY as many people as some other ailments.

As most of you know, I have epilepsy. So I am using epilepsy as an example for a few reasons:

1. I am knowledgeable about epilepsy
2. I want to raise awareness for epilepsy
3. I want to raise money for epilepsy research, treatment, and other services for people with epilepsy

I think it's an absolute tragedy that cancer gets so much attention while the rest of us get ignored.

---

Did you know - That epilepsy is one of the most common disorders out there, and is also one of the most under funded as far as research and other resources?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/04/10/a-storm-in-the-brain.html

We've been trying to get recognition from places like Google for years, but we keep getting ignored. We've even been asking for Google to support Epilepsy Awareness via a simple Google doodle, but can't seem to get any attention to it. ("We" being the Epilepsy Foundation, people living with epilepsy such as myself, and other non-profit organizations.)

http://www.change.org/petitions/create-a-google-doodle-for-epilepsy-awareness

Although +Google will not support epilepsy awareness in any way shape or form, the official +Google+ page is advocating for "World Cancer Day." It's funny how organizations and businesses help certain charities so much, but completely ignore other causes.

Cancer has MANY awareness months for different cancers. Each has it's own color as well. Epilepsy has one month of awareness and one color - November, and purple - and it gets hardly ANY attention even then. (Partly because prostate CANCER shares not only our month, but also our color!)

Once again, I am standing up in the wake of all this attention that cancer is getting and grabbing some for myself and my cause. And I have no shame in doing it. Even on "World Cancer Day".

A Note to Onlookers

Yesterday after work I went to Walmart to do some shopping before heading home. On my way into the store, I saw an elderly lady on the ground, seemingly in some kind of trouble.

I know what you're thinking: "What did you do? Was she OK? What happened to her?"
The answer: I did nothing. I walked into Walmart and did my shopping. Was she OK? What happened? I have no idea, and probably never will.

Why did I do what I did? Because I quickly assessed the situation and realized that it was already under control.


Background:
For those of you who don't know me and haven't been following this blog, almost 28 years ago I was born with epilepsy. Now, you're probably thinking "What does that have to do with this situation?" and I'm going to say it has a whole lot to do with situation. Or more accurately, it has a lot to do with how I reacted to the situation.

I've been in this woman's shoes. (Obviously not literally.) I've been in a public place with people staring, doing nothing productive, quietly saying to each other "What happened? What's wrong with him? Is he going to be OK? Oh my!"

All that this behavior does is upset/embarrass/confuse the person who is already in an awkward situation, and disrupt the lives of everyone else in the area. Especially in my case: I wake up not knowing where I am, or why I was unconscious, or what happened, or who was there when it happened, or who is there now... that extra commotion just leads to extra confusion.



Back on track:
In the case of what happened yesterday, there were all sorts of people looking in on this situation in the exit/entrance of the store.

Why didn't I stop? As I said... I took a look around and noticed a few things:

1. The woman was not alone. Her family (or what appeared to be her family) was with her.
2. A person of authority was present: in this case, a store employee
3. The family was calm and not asking for help. This tells me that they probably already have all the help they need.

Basically, there was nothing that I could do that had not already been done. The family knew about the situation, the store knew about the situation, and if more help needs to be called the store will do that.

I did my shopping, cashed out, and returned to the place where I entered the store. What did I find? An even larger crowd had gathered, paramedics were there, with a stretcher and an ambulance just outside the door. Again, nothing productive that I can do. My only choice is to keep moving, or add to the chaos that is already present in this situation. 

The only problem: The crowd had grown so much that I had to actually slide past someone to actually get out of the store. They were almost completely blocking the entrance/exit. THIS is where the onlookers truly transform from innocent bystanders, into a nuisance. They're no longer just annoying the person who has already had a bad enough day, but they're in the way of other people who are just trying to go on with their day, and they're possibly impeding the work of the paramedics and other authority figures. Plus, they're forcing an even larger crowd to form, because nobody can get through.

Conclusion:

Judging by what I saw, the woman probably is fine now. Who knows, maybe she had a seizure, or passed out, or slipped and fell... all I can tell is that there was no real panic or rush by the family or the paramedics. If it was a dire situation, the paramedics would have been in a (controlled) rush to get her on the stretcher and into the hospital so she could receive immediate attention. Since I did not see that, I can assume that the situation was not as bad as the crowd made it seem to be.

What should you do if put in this situation?

As I said, there are some key things to look for:

Main thing to look for: Is the person alone?
If yes:

1. Ask if they need help. If they are unconscious, call for help immediately.
1. If no help is needed, continue on with your day - forget about steps 2 and 3.
2. Stay with them as long as they need - if at all possible. At the very least, try to stay until help arrives.
3. Ask if there's anyone you can contact for them. Family, friends, significant other, etc.

If no:

1. Quickly assess the state of the people with them: 
1. Are they people of authority? This can be police/security, firefighter/paramedic, an employee/manager of a store or facility, etc.
1. If yes, there's probably nothing you can do. If not, maybe you can call someone.
2. Are they family/friends of the "victim"? (victim, for lack of a better word)
1. If yes, Are they calm?
1. If they're calm, the situation is likely under control. If you feel like it's necessary, ask if you can help in any way. If they say no, continue on with your day.
2. If they're not calm, see instructions for if person is alone.
2. If not family/friend, and no people of authority, see instructions for if person is alone.

This is obviously just a BASIC breakdown of how you should deal with a situation like this. I'm sure that there's more that I may be leaving out. In the end it breaks down to this: if the situation is under control, sticking around is not helping. If it's not under control, check to see if you can be of assistance.

If you have medical training - are a doctor, nurse, paramedic, etc. - you may want to stop, regardless of the situation, and ask if you can help in any way. Otherwise, you are likely just going to get in the way in many cases.