Master Cleanser...

I have never really been one to try out fad diets or other sorts of healing type things but about a month ago I was just feeling really dumpy. A friend had mentioned that she was going to do this wierd "Master Cleanse" thing, which sounded kinda suspect. So what I did was look it up on line and I started reading about what this thing is and what it does to you. The people who had tried it out raved about how this cleanse cleared their minds and bodies and it sounded like the things that it solved were exactly the things that I was feeling -- unfocused, kinda burned out, unable to take on the hard problems at work... that sort of thing. Oh, and a little overweight (185 is too heavy for a guy with my build and height). So I thought I would give this thing a try. Here's the deal:

* for 10 days, you eat NO SOLID FOOD.
* instead, you drink this weird lemonade mixture - 2 tbsp fresh squeezed organic lemon juice, 2 tbsp organic grade B maple syrup, little bit of cayenne pepper, 8 oz. bottled water. 6-12 glasses of this stuff a day.
* also, at night you have a cup of herbal laxative tea
* in the morning, a quart of luke warm salt water.

I am writing this about 4 weeks after I finished. The results of this thing were astounding:

1) I have my focus back! I am starting to think big again! I think that the last year at Tribe really burned me out (it was a tough year) and I had sorta been coasting ever since.
2) By the end of my cleanse I was down to 169 lbs! Now I am back up to 173 but that's a lot more like where I am supposed to be.
3) I had a mountain biking injury from 6 years ago just go away! Now I have full mobility again and can do all the stretches that I used to be able to back when I ran seriously.
4) Best of all (and this was a completely unintended side effect) is that my cholesterol which at last check was over 300 is down to 159!! Is that crazy or what?

So I guess the bottom line is that I will probably do this thing again -- like once a year, maybe next time in January when it's crappy outside anyway.

You've heard it all before, but this time it's true!

She really IS the most adorable baby ever in the history of babies!!!

Charlinn Rae "Charli" Lawler...

At 6:56pm on 11/22/07, Korin gave birth to our first child, and as we had been previously informed, it's (still) a girl! She weighs 6 lbs 10 oz and is 19.5 in. long. At this point, she has just turned a day old. So far, she has already learned to breastfeed and had her first doctor's appointment. So far so good! Korin is in the process of recovering - we decided to take the risk averse route and go with the c-section as there was a risk of bleeding that we knew about coming in. What we didn't expect was that she would come on Thanksgiving - 10 days before we expected! For my part, I changed my first poopy diaper this morning at 11:15. Just wanted to mark the day.

Charli has been wonderful so far. A sound sleeper with a big appetite, who hasn't been too fussy so far. It would appear that Asian genes trump Irish ones, as my little girl looks a heck of a lot more like korin than me. That's probably better though, considering that korin is a hell of a lot better looking than me ayway. I would have posted a picture, but i am working from an iPhone here and can't upload files to tribe on it.

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving, but I am pretty sure that mine was better!

it all seems new again on an iPhone...

Well, I just couldn't wait til Christmas and I got my iPhone today. It's damn cool (as I am sure you all know by now) and I am having all sorts of fun playing with my new toy. Typing is still a little slow for me, but I am improving already. Now if I can only figure out how to get my corporate overlords to pay the bill I'll be thrilled!

It is funny though how even youtube seems interesting and useful on a phone that looks so nice and works so well. Getting things going was pretty easy, provided you wanted to do things the way Apple wants you to do them. So now I have a new phone number (as cisco is still paying for the old one) but it is a minor inconvenience compared to the coolness factor of having tribe.net in the palm of my hand!

First iphone blog post complete!

Finally took the leap...

On 6/15, at San Francisco City Hall, Korin and I finally got married after almost 7 years of being engaged! It was actually a really cool day. Our parents and siblings were all here and we rented a limo and drove around SF to get pictures at key spots. GG park, the Pork Store Cafe, Al's Comics -- you know, the usual wedding day stuff.

!!

Employee #205,652

I recently went to the Dominican Republic for a little rest and relaxation, and while I was gone I went from employee #1 of Tribe.net to employee #205,652 of Cisco Systems. Seems like all the interesting stuff that happens at Tribe happens when I am gone. It's not like it was a surprise, we had been working a LONG time with Cisco to figure out what sort of deal may be there. It was pretty much coincidence that the final signing of papers happened while I was gone.

Anyway, now I am a small cog in a HUGE machine. Frankly, it is a bit overwhelming just how big this company is. I drove down to San Jose on Tuesday to drop off my HR paperwork (since I missed the orientation - also because I was gone). There have 2 campuses on Tasman - one that counts buildings by number (Building 1, Building 2, etc.) and one that counts by letter (Building A, Building B, etc.), and with all that space we are not even working down there! We are still working in the City and will continue to for the foreseeable future. The internal website for employees probably has more pages than all of Tribe.net does.

But the upshot of all this is that Tribe is out from under its debts (and payroll!) now, but it still has current and past employees that care deeply about the site and its future. The site does a pretty good job of taking care of itself at this point, but it is still continuing to slowly grow and will certainly require those of us who know how it works to continue to be involved. Sounds like a fun hobby to me.

So "Uncle Cisco" signs the paychecks now, and another chapter of my career has been written. Thanks to all of you guys for making Tribe.net by far the most interesting and rewarding chapter yet! I don't know if I will be keeping my little "t", but I will certainly be keeping my account! Maybe someday it will be noteworthy that I am Tribe.net user #2.

I suppose it's getting tiresome -- more snow sculpture...

Today is the finale of our snow sculpture series, and the whole family got into it today. Korin, her sister Sam, her mom and dad, and I all had a hand in this, our final masterpiece of the great blizzard of '06. The snow is melting pretty fast actually, but there is still enough to build some really cool stuff, like this sea monster for example. All I did on this one was work on the tail, and build up the piles for the head and humps.

You're a mean one...

I just couldn't help myself! All this snow...

Carving Trolls...

Korin and I drove out to Colorado last weekend from San Francisco. It was a fairly easy 2-day drive, out I-80 to Salt Lake City then south to I-70 (as the weather turned nasty in Wyoming). We arrived in time for dinner in Ft. Collins on Sunday night, where Korin's parents live. The plan was to stay here a few days, then fly to St. Louis on Thursday for a couple days.

Until it snowed a couple feet and completely shut down everything.

I haven't been in a snowstorm like that for a long time - a full fledged, national news making blizzard. The snow is over now and there are piles of snow 6 ft. high on the side of the street. And you know what 6 ft. high piles of snow means: Snow Sculptures! The one attached to this picture is my own handiwork - an ogre guarding Korin's parents house.