October 6, 2019: Me Day - Age 34

Year eight of this Me Day tradition. When reflecting, I noticed that it has been a great year all around, with the fundamental shift being that the kids started sleeping through the night. Huge!

Wake up and watch the sun rise.

Took a skateboard ride to Fort Mason, listened to some music, caught the sunrise. I might do something else next year to keep sunrises off the hedonic treadmill.

Measure physical stats.

Last year's powerlifting competition (max weight lifted for five reps on bench press, trap bar deadlift, and squat) was a good forcing function for my lifting. Even though I only worked out twice a week for ~25 minutes for most of the year, my five rep maxes went from 140 to 170 on bench press, 275 to 295 on trap bar deadlift, and 225 to 255 on squat. I lost to my dad on bench press by 10 lbs, tied on deadlift, and won on squat by 90 lbs.

This year, I've finally decided it's time to spend more time on fitness, starting off with a routine that has me lifting thrice a week for about an hour each time. The goal here is to put on more muscle all around, so I've put together a bunch of nutrition and exercise stuff together (mostly from Julian's guide and Examine.com's guide). This habit is course powered by my Beeminder lifting goal, which has now been going continuously for over seven years, guiding me to work out an average of 2.4 times per week.

Weight: 144.5 lbs +6.9 lbs
Body fat: 13.1% +1.1%
Chest: 34.00" +1.50"
Right arm: 12.00" +0.75"
Left arm: 11.50" +0.50"
Waist: 28.50" +1.50"
Hips: 35.00" +0.75"
Right leg: 21.25" +0.50"
Left leg: 20.50" +0.25"


Measure my max push-ups and pull-ups.

44 push-ups, +4: fast, strict, chin touching the ground.
22 pull-ups, +2: fast, no kipping, chin above bar.

Last year, I had hoped to break 50 push-ups, but I think only training bench press and not push-ups this year didn't lead to enough transfer.

Take a long walk.

My morning skateboard ride led me to undiscovered hidden stairway trails in Fort Mason; nothing to write home about from an urban exploring perspective, but very relaxing.

Read from a favorite book.

I returned to one of my favorite galaxy-scale space adventures in A Fire Upon The Deep, and was not disappointed.

Get blood tests.

I added some new blood tests this year and switched to WellnessFX for additional UI to help show biomarker trends over time, after looking into creating my own spreadsheet template. Still need to backfill old labs into this platform in order to get the benefit and see if there's anything particular to work on here.

Take stock of finances.

Although saving is not a priority for me right now (see last year for the thinking), I managed to increase liquid asssets a decent amount due to stable businesses doing well and not spending much money except on rent and childcare.

(If you're me, you get to see finance stats here. Since you're not me, you see nothing.)

Do Quantified Mind testing.

All clear so far: no discernible age-related trends yet. One test (symbol coding) is showing a decline, but I'm guessing it's more lack of practice, given that a few other tests are still showing an increase (most are showing no trend). Finger tapping is fine this year, too. Surprising how much some of the tricks for these tests stick with me even though I only do them once a year.

Call my family.

Last year's Beeminder goal to catch up with family more often has come in handy for getting calls on the books, as has my kids' ability to dial emergency contacts when they've filched my phone. Opportunistic video calls with the kids have been fun throughout the year. Still need to catch up with bro, who was climbing this weekend.

Have a spectacular dinner with Chloe.

This year, Chloe took me to a progressive Indian place I'd wanted to check out for a while (I love Indian), and I ate a fish. Good!

Reflect on the past year

Like last year, I only got around to this part three months later. It's been a good year, with a lot of the frustrations from last year solved. I attribute this primarily to first solving sleep, then using the extra energy to solve other things, plus the bonuses from the children aging.

What went well? This past year, I:

  • Started sleeping well again! Yes! (After three years of child-inflicted poor sleep, we finally got both kids sleeping through the night.)
  • Built my team from 20 to 30 (actually 39 at time of writing)
  • Made more progress on Chinese, giving much more effective conference talks
  • Spoke enough Chinese to Max that he passed the San Francisco school district native speaker test for kindergarten admissions
  • Increased my strength to my strongest ever, and started putting more emphasis on health routines
  • Am having a lot more fun playing with the kids than before
  • Was able to spend a lot more time with Chloe, especially time not just spent wrangling kids
  • My personal happiness was higher than last year, especially the second half of the year
  • We were able to see a lot of family, including many of Chloe's relatives in China; we've gotten a lot better at traveling with the kids
  • Finally got Clark and Max into the same childcare location that's also right next to my office
  • Max and Clark are getting along much better, with more playing together and much less hurting each other or me

What didn't go well?

  • I still had very little time for myself, my website, my friends, or proactive dad projects like the kid videos
  • While focusing on strength, I've started putting on a little bodyfat (up to 13.1%), and will need to cut that back at some point

How are my relationships?

Family relationships are good. I've only had time for a few close friends, but otherwise been devoted just to work and family.

Add at least one tradition.

Last year, I said I'd need to do better for Me Day and get some extra time for it, and I totally failed that. Didn't have time to do anything extra.

Destroy at least one habit.

This year, emoving the "Organize my files and computer desktop" tradition, since my files are staying organized now in this era of cloudfulness.