Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Saturday December 9, 2017 8:02 PM

Trip Preparations


I start Tuesday by starting to put together paperwork and passport copies and other things needed for the upcoming trip. At mid-morning I get in a good session with the weights where I increase the weights a bit. After cleaning up the roses and sweeping up debris from Monday's heavy winds, I grab a shower and jump on the motorcycle for a high speed run to downtown Los Angeles. I go to my favorite t-shirt vendor near Chinatown to buy t-shirts to give to friends for my upcoming travels. I know the vendor is Vietnamese and I greet her in Vietnamese and tell her that I'm going soon - so I get an extra t-shirt thrown in at the end and a good discussion with her about where to go and she's glad that I have friends there to show me around. And then quickly I'm back on the motorcycle for a high speed run home. WHen I get home I start the final push on my geographical information system class project due in 10 days.

I keep up the alternating cycle of bicycle riding and weight lifting on alternate days. I don't go for any long rides as the flu has taken a lot out of me. I read news reports indicating that this year's H3N2 strain is more severe than most years and also leads to lingerng inflammation in the body than other flus. Maybe that is why I am unmotivated.

On Friday and Saturday I keep up the alternating workouts and then spend a lot of the days at CSULA helping the senior design professor grade presentations. And I continue to mingle with the students and provide an enthusiastic and fun environment.

I want to go cycling on Sunday, but instead I lift weights at mid-morning and go walking and clean up the roses and water the carnations. The new carnation seeds that I planted a few weeks do not seem to be coming up. Hopefully they will come up over the winter or else I'll have to admit failure and buy some carnation plants. It is already December 3rd and I have not turned on my heater. I usually play this game where I try to make it to December 1st before I turn on the heater - and I failed the last few years as I had to turn it on before/near Thanksgiving. But this year I am into December with the house being a bit chilly at night and in the mornings but not quite cold enough to turn on the heater.

Throughout the week I finally turn the heater on as the morning temperatures are 58F inside the house. But I continue a good healthy pattern of cycling for two hours on one day and lifting weights the next day. Sometimes the weights are a struggle and sometimes they are a bit easier - though still challenging. I work through homework assignments throughout the week and start in on finals preparations. The non-profit organization that I run is affiliated with an upcoming child abuse prevention hackathon, so there are checks to be written, receipts to be received, and other strict reporting guidelines to be followed to help the child abuse prevention hackathon be a success.

By Friday I get out a for good two hour bicycle ride and run errands to get ready for the upcoming trip. I deposit checks for the hackathon and send out the officially-required "thank you" notes to donor organizations. And I write out checks to make the hackathon happen. The timing is bad as I've already booked my tickets to leave the country just as the hackathon is ending. But there are other board members who will carry the slack that I have created. I continue to work on schoolwork and other things to get ready for my trip. And spend some time working on new developments such as my own blockchain and my own k-nearest neighbor algorithms which could be helpfull in assessing child abuse cases.

Whereas Saturday is a bit slow with a good weights workout and a lot of homework for classes, Sunday is a good day. I start Sunday with a cold two hour road bicycle ride and warm up with a shower. I take a practice exam for my network security class and the results are good enough. I start the laundry and start running around the house gathering the things that I need for my trip. I cannot sit or stand still - the football games are on the telelvision but I keep thinking of things that I need to add to my luggage and I'm running around the house getting it staged up for placement in the lguuage. On this trip I'm carrying electronics for Digital Control Labs for possible business as well as 16 t-shirts for friends. Where is the room in my luggage for my clothes? I'm pondering this throughout the day and just believe that I will get it squeezed in at the last minute for tonight's flight.

Monday is missing from life since I leave Los Angeles on Sunday night just before 11 pm and arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Tuesday just before 11 am.