November 3, 2023: Me Day - Age 38

The eleventh year, a month late in doing (half of) it and over a year late in posting it (he writes, in 2025). Last year was fun on all dimensions of work, family, and personal growth, but just busy, and didn't leave much time for reflection. Read on for my annual personal inventory on the year.

Wake up and watch the sun rise.

Someday it will be sunny again in the morning. But I think this section can go away. For now, the next closest thing is whatever mountain I climbed in the summer; this time, on a trip up to Jade Lake:

Selfie from above Jade Lake

Measure physical stats.

Tontal stats 2023-11-03

Two years on the Tonal home gym now, and 167 workouts in, I'm still happy about it. Strength score went from initial 502 to 1078 last year to 1314 now. Most of the strength score comes from how long I can grip the handles while deadlifting its max of 200 lbs, which is kind of a hack on the score; I don't think I'm overall stronger than last year, since I've been slacking off for the past couple months with a busy time at work and some travel.

Weight: 143.2 lbs +1.5 lbs
Body fat: 13.2% +0.6%
Chest: 33.25" -0.25"
Right arm: 11.75" +0.25"
Left arm: 11.25" +0.00"
Waist: 28.25" +0.50"
Hips: 35.25" -0.25"
Right leg: 21.00" +0.25"
Left leg: 20.25" +0.00"
VO2 max: 35.9 mL/kg/min (new)


Measure my max push-ups and pull-ups.

39 push-ups, -5: fast, strict, chin touching the ground.
18 pull-ups, -2: fast, no kipping, chin above bar.

I need to be more consistent with my workouts in order to maintain and improve here.

Reflect on fitness.

Last year, I tried to make a push to raise my endurance (as measured by VO2 max estimation on my Apple Watch) by introducing zone 2 training, going from 35.3 mL/kg/min last November to 40.2 mL/kg/min by July. But, I traveled a bunch, got busy, fell off the wagon, and quickly dropped back down to 35.9 mL/kg/min. This is a lame number and I feel lame. It's just that zone 2 training is so boring.

I intended to set some strategies and fitness goals at this point, but ran out of time to finish Me Day and didn't. Then I didn't make much fitness progress! Womp, womp.

Take a long walk.

Back to the blessed biome that is the trails right near my house while blasting some of my favorite tracks and singing badly. So great--I should probably do this more than once a year!

Read from a favorite book.

Last year I started, and this year I finished, two amazing epic web serials, Ward and Planecrash aka Project Lawful aka Mad Investor Chaos and the Woman of Asmodeus. After that, I guess I read some other stuff, but it's hard to even consider those now--how can anything that isn't over 9000 pages long even compare?

Year   Books   Pages

2008   28      8,946

2009   18      7,244

2010   12      3,312

2011   16      6,469

2012   35      13,985

2013   33      11,760

2014   15      5,796

2015   30      18,694

2016   16      8,487

2017   17      6,824

2018   14      7,423

2019   21      13,901

2020   7       3,408

2021   3       1,538

2022   6       13,460

2023*  17*     14,893*

Kid photo break

I continue to enjoy the kids more the older they get. We did a lot more in the way of family activities, less in the reactive "take care of young kid" mode.

Get blood tests.

Nothing surprising or out of whack here. I got a new vitamin/mineral panel here, and insidet hat, serum iodine was low, but not sure if that's durable or important. Will check it again next year.

Take stock of finances.

Chloe has been saving a lot of money. Me, not so much, but the paper value of CodeCombat continues to increase, so I'm at peace.

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

Do Quantified Mind testing.

The brain seems fine, nothing jumping out as related to age. Highest-ever score on Color-Word (Stroop), likely just random fluctuation. Average scores on everything else. Cognitive decline: not today!


Note that all these graphs have cut-off vertical axes, and in most cases very little variation compared to population variation.

Have a spectacular dinner with Chloe.

Chloe took me out to a different fancy seafood restaurant that is a new favorite, and also to a surprise escape room afterwards. I love escape rooms!

Reflect on the past year

I didn't do this, or the other typical sections–ran out of time and didn't revisit. Writing later on, I should have made the time, as I realized some important things that I could have realized earlier (see next year's entry).