on july 19, 2010, i left my last full time job after helping it get acquired.  since then i made a conscious decision to take some time off.  initially i planned to take 6 months off to travel and to do some soul searching. it was nice to finally cross off some items from the bucket list. my hiatus ended up running 6 months over due to a combination of the job market being tough, and being picky on my part.  finally, with 1 week short of a complete year off, i will be starting a new job with a start-up on the july 11th. after spending the last 5 years next to the ball park, i will have a change of pace, working next to the transamerica building. change of scenery should be fun. looking forward to getting started, but definitely need to enjoy my last few days of complete freedom.

I’m a very happy and proud big brother 

Doing a “guy’s night out” to bid a close friend farewell before he gets deployed to Afghanistan, we went to a lounge in the city, that caters to the 25 and up crowd. This place is normally drama free. However, as we were walking to our cars, my incredibly nice lawyer friend, who gave up his big practice job to do pro bono work for the underprivileged gets shoved by some guy who wouldn’t believe he didn’t have an extra cigarette.  Trying to defuse the situation I stepped between the two to try to separate them. No need for confrontation over a cigarette!  But the guy would not back off, and takes a swing at my friend.  Fight instinct took over.  Blocked, and side stepped his punch, hooked my arm around his neck, tossed him to the ground and put him in a rear naked choke. I think he was shocked that a guy half his size took him down so easily. I’m glad he didn’t try to resist so I didn’t have to apply any pressure. I really did not want to have to choke him out. At this point I told him I had no beef with him, and he needs to calm the f*ck down.  He shook his head, and I told him to walk away as I let him go. I can’t believe I’m 34 years old, trying to have a nice night out with some friends, and I had to resort to putting someone in a choke hold…..over a cigarette.  At least I was able to stop a potentially ugly situation from happening without anyone getting physically hurt.  His pride on the other hand, probably took a blow.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

a few months ago when a friend came to visit and wanted to run the goldengate bridge, i thought, “no problem”.  at the halfway mark, i felt like my heart was going to explode.  this made me realize that i wasn’t nearly in the shape i thought i was.  so now that i’m somewhat grounded and have nowhere to go, i started my training.  last week, was week 1.  i barely was able to do 3 miles (which took 33 minutes).  my goal for week 1 was to do 3 miles @ 10 minutes a mile.  i was able to achieve that on day 3.  i skipped a day and on friday i got up to 3.4miles in 34 minutes before my legs and knee felt like they were going to give.  week 2′s goal was to work up to 4 miles in 40 minutes, but to my surprise, i was able to do that today (day 1)!   week 3′s goal was to hit 5 miles, but since i already hit my week 2 goal, i might have to try to hit the 5 mile goal this week.  time for the obligatory celebratory drink! kanpai!