Even though the economy is in the drain and businesses are still collapsing, I was able to meet my workout quota for Q1. I’m still not seeing much of a difference with all these crunches andpushupsso I decided to step it up with some curls and added the run rate of mymileage. Themileage includes any activities such as running, cycling, and swimming although I haven’t touched a pool this year.
Jordan's workout progress
I’m still trying to figure out how many calories I should be consuming a day and what types of food are best during training, but it sure is hard to find something other than a hamburger at a local pub for lunch. If you guys have a trusted website for calorie intake, then I would love to see it! )
Last week was my first official working day in the UK, which came after two exhausting months of processing a work permit and VISA. Fortunately, I’m here and lovin it!
The only difficulty I can’t seem to wrap my hands around is driving on the left side of the road. It’s strange that they moved the steering wheel to the right side but didn’t invert the pedals. The accelerator is still on the right and the clutch left, so lets just say it’s my first rodeo. Not only that, I just bought a new car for my assignment over here and during the test drive I really must have been freaking out the seller. He kept saying “Other side of the road!, You can’t turn here!, look to the right!” Well, bring on the challenge!
Another interesting change is the vernacular.. These guys keep asking me if I want a fag? You typically don’t say things like this in the states unless you want trouble, but here it translates to “Do you want a cigarette?” Another friend of mine, Hanna, keeps saying “Go on, get your fancy dress on”. Well, I’m still not completely sure what that means but I assume its costume. I should probably keep a list of all these somewhere and if you know of any others then be sure to comment!
Typically, I tend to bite off more than I can chew when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. My Big Harry Audacious Goals (BHAGs) are usually to stop eating chocolate, run a sub 5:30 minute mile, or anything that is drastically different than my typical behavior. Well, I have been consistently missing these BHAGs so I decided to change my approach.
This year I have used the ‘uoch’ approach. Take for example my Push-up and Sit-up goals this year. I would like to complete 4,320 and 13,500 respectively. At first this sounds like an unobtainable BHAG with no end in sight. Instead, if you use the ‘uoch’ approach that I adopted from Dr. T and take it step by step, then it seems manageable.
Below I have the YTD performance with monthly projections. This will also allow for historical compares of past performance.
Now the question is how long can I hold this up? Well, who knows! …but I plan on posting monthly results. If you start to see me slacking off, then feel free to comment with constructive criticism!
Nick and I took a trip to Sweden for a few customer visits this month and I decided to show him how to pony up and play real golf.
Unfortunately, golf is not like riding a bicycle for me. Even if I used to school Tiger back in my high school days I feel like a score near 100 on a nine hole game is a major handicap.
Oh, and for those of you who don’t know Tiger, he was my imaginary competitor on super Nintendo.
This being my first trip to Sweden I was also impressed with the landscape. I noticed similarities between the rock formations of Enchanted Rock in Texas and the west coast near Goteborg. It was full of giant slabs of protruding granite glistening in the sunlight with minimal vegetation.
Although this trip was only two days, I would highly recommend this as a great place in the summer for a week vacation at an ocean front bungalow.
I’ve officially had my first mountain bike race in the Italian Alps. I have also officially never felt such numbness in my saddle. For those male cyclists out there, you probably know what kind of numbness I’m referring to. I thought I almost lost the poor guy around mile 23 when I couldn’t feel anything. I’m not sure if it was the 5000 feet of vertical climbing along this 27 mile race or the relatively new seat, but all I could think about was finishing this beast!
Altitude of race course
(Course profile in meters)
I’ve had a few MTB races in the past including a 24 hour team event, but after 3 consecutive hours of racing on the saddle the ball game shifts into a new level. I noticed that my legs starting cramping after a 2 hour, 3000 foot, ascent to the apex where the downhill started. I polished off my 300 oz’s of hydration around mile 13 without knowing the distance till the next rest top and this is when things went awry. I noticed that my heart rate dropped below 135 bpm when it should have been averaging 175 bpm so my heart was ready to attack but my body was lacking energy to deliver. After another 7 miles of exhaustion I finally reached the must needed rest stop. I shoveled in about 300 raisins, 5 oranges, 2 bananas, and another 300 oz of hydration and felt soooo much better.
(NI Team)
Here is a picture of the fearless NI team that attended this race. As you can see, we all had our game faces on except I’m stuffing my face with a powerbar.
(850+ cyclists)
This was by far one of the best organized races I’ve been to from the volunteers and race markers to the pasta party and awards ceremony. I hope to attend this race next year with a few extra bottles of water!
Standing outside Old Town Hall at Marienplatz I started to ponder just how much fun a guided bike tour of downtown Munich might be. My preconceived notions of Munich were that its primary tourist attraction was beer, and alot of it. In fact, during last year’s Oktoberfest participants chugged over five million liters of beer while chomping down 200,000 bratwurst. To my surprise, this was not the only useless fact I would learn on my bike tour, but also a detour through Munich’s nudist meadow and a local surfing spot down the Isar river.
We jumped on our California Cruzers and hit the town passing through Hofgarten, Odeonsplatz, and lunch in the English gardens. From all the places I’ve been in Europe, the Odeonsplatz quadrant of Munich is one of the best representations of Baroque, Neoclassical, and Rodocco architecture.
A must see is the Residenz and interior of the Theatinerkirche. Also, the Hofgarten’s adjacency to the Konzlei and elevated Northern position in the city gives a great vantage point for snapping a few pictures of downtown Munich.
The tour also stopped in the English Garden where we ate like kings! Liters of Wiesen beer, half a grilled chicken with honey glaze, and a plate full of potato wedges. After finishing lunch, the afternoon took an interesting turn.
We all jumped back on our Cali cruzers and began navigating our way along the pedestrian walk ways when suddenly an old man wearing nothing but hiking boots passed me on the right. At first I thought I was losing it, but when I looked out into the meadow everyone was naked. The guide started laughing and gave a brief explanation of how this meadow never escaped the 70’s peace, love, harmony movement. Then, the next stop was one of my favorites where locals used surf boards to catch a 3 foot roller. It reminded me of the boogie bahn at schlitterbahn except free! I’ll definitely be hitting this place next time with board shorts.
Looking back, I’m now convinced that Munich has much more to offer than the beer gardens and I would highly recommend Mikes Bike tour. I think next time I’ll try the BMW museum. Fingers and toes crossed that they will let me do a test drive!
300 feet. I know you are probably thinking this is another stunt I pulled while driving around Italy, but this time the jokes on me.
In Italy, it’s all about service at the pump. Instead of allowing the auto-motorist to fill up their own vehicle they have decided for safety reasons that trained gas pumpers should do it instead. Therefore, Antonio, while smoking a cigarette, walks up to my car in his greasy overalls and asks for the key to unlock the gas tank. With the distinctive throaty voice of a chain smoker, he asked me “pieno?” (which translates to “fill ‘er up?”) I responded with “si, grazie” and then proceeded inside to purchase a candy bar. After paying the absurd 94€ gas bill, I gave a fair well salute to Mr. Dbag Antonio and headed on my way.
After about 150 feet I made it back on the highway and started to eat my snickers bar when I noticed someone pulling up beside me in the fast lane honking their horn and pointing frantically behind me. I took a look in my rear view mirror and my car had magically turned into a coal burning locomotive. Black smoke was bellowing out from all angles, and started seeping in through the doors. 200 feet out the car lost all functionality and I coasted another 100 feet where I waited till the smoke cleared before I went back to the gas station… Antonio must of missed class on diesel day.
400€ later, I had my car towed to the mechanic and took an hour taxi ride home. Tomorrow I’ll have to sort out how I’m getting my car back…
It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the difference between work and play at National Instruments especially when it involves Designing, Prototyping, and Deploying innovative products that improve everyday life. Last month, I worked with our marketing department here in Italy to decide on a project for my AEs to collaborate on. With BIAS fast approaching (Italy’s largest Automation and Instrumentation tradeshow) at the end of the month we decided to leverage our Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC) to deliver a complete industrial control and automation solution.
I created a video to show the initial design and layout through construction and final completion that resulted in a huge success at the tradeshow. Filippo, the team leader on this project, did a phenomenal job architecting the software and guaranteeing completion in less than 1 month. The other AEs also did a great job working on specific product lines for interconnectivity. This video only shows a small glimpse of the great efforts put forth by the team…
You might notice that we tried to emulate the hit television series ‘Pimp My Ride’ with a special focus on PAC!
I do! I am about to describe to you what is known as ‘Business Class Fakegrade’, not to be mistaken with Upgrade. This technique should not be disclosed to just anyone and be careful who you forward this post to or they might steal the idea.
Step 1) In the Airport
As normal, proceed with checking your bags and passing through security and walk casually to your gate for departure. When boarding ensues this is when you wait till 75% of passengers have boarded and then you make your move to board the plane. You must also have atleast two objects in your hand.
As your walking to find your seat, for every center row that has three empty seats, place an object of yours in one of the seats. Usually, I’ll throw my jacket over the seat for the first set I see, then my briefcase on the second set, and finally I occupy the third.
Step 2) Doubt
I know, I know, you’re probably thinking that “What if someone is sitting where you left your jacket or briefcase?” Well, that’s the genius of probability! If 25% of the passengers are left to board the plane, you currently occupy 3 rows of 3 seats, and the gate closes in less than 10 minutes, then your certainty of success is roughly 92%.
For example, Let’s say someone after you gets on the plane and notices your jacket on their seat. This is when you act oblivious to the situation and allow them to innocently remove your jacket and place it on the seat next to them. This is success #1.
Step 3) Success
Now, for every plan you must have redundancy for backup, and as you have probably already noticed, your briefcase has provided this. Success #2.
Then, another passenger enters the plane and occupies the row you are currently standing in, so you kindly walk to the row your briefcase is occupying.. and the airplane door closes. Success #3!
Now that your laying down in a row of three empty seats you can top it off with some ear plugs and a pillow for a First Class Fakegrade across the Atlantic.
I’m not sure I like to admit this, but I’ve been known to throw a few triple axels in my hay day. That’s right, Jordan Randall is an Ice Skater.. As it appears in the picture below, I almost landed the Nancy Kerrigan’s Blade of Glory… except mine was self inflicted. The land ended uncomfortably… dropping two kids with me. I guess that’s what they get for getting in my way on the kiddy rink. “O’Doyle Rules!”
All and all we had a great time! Chad, a long time buddy of mine from Stillwater, and some coworkers from NI Italy decided to spend the day ice skating to escape the hustle and bustle of big city shoppers making their last minute purchases for Christmas.
Then Chad and I headed up to the Swiss Alps (Cervinia) on Sunday for a little snowboarding and skiing action. The weather was absolutely perfect and we grabbed ourselves a few Bombardinos.
I’m not sure if it was the Bombardino or double black diamond that Chad and I accidentally went down but we got separated on the back side of the mountain and Chad almost ended up spending the night in Zermatt. They close the lifts after 3 pm for skiers to cross back over to the Italian Alps from the Swiss Alps and Chad was about 15 minutes late. Needless to say, we pulled the I’m American Card and got him back across. If you see him sometime, make sure to ask WHY he was 15 minutes late…
)
