Kim and I flew into Oahu Monday evening. We caught a shuttle downtown to Waikiki to stay at a hostel for the night. Yesterday we hiked to Diamond Head crater, which gave us a nice view of the city. We hung out on the beach at Waikiki for a little while before we took a shuttle right back to the airport to catch a flight to the big island of Hawaii where we are now. Today we’re going to get all our permits in line for the Na Pali coast on Kauai and figure out camping in Volcanoes National Park.
October 18, 2006
Honolulu Hawaii
September 21, 2006
Hike to Lake Malakwa with Nathan
Nathan was up for the day with his time off from the busy fire fighting season, so we ignored the rain and went for a hike. I did this a few weeks ago with Jake, but it looked much different in the rain. The stream we hiked up was a lot higher and it wasn’t really possible to keep your feet dry. I still jumped in the lake once we got there, but it was COLD! This is really a beautiful day hike. It may be my favorite in the Cascades so far.
It was good to see Nathan, even if for only a short time. I had no idea he was sporting a mohawk these days. I told him he should keep it for the rehearsal dinner, but probably shave it off before the wedding. He had a long drive ahead of him after the hike, all the way back to Central Oregon.
September 16, 2006
Hypothyroidism
I’ve begun to treat my hypothroidism again instead of ignoring it. I made a post almost two years ago about hypthyroidism when I was first diagnosed, but after not liking the way the levothyroxine made me feel, I quit taking it and thought I would just exercise more or eat better. I think I’ve done both over the last few years. I eat much better thanks to Kim’s love of food and her new culinary abilities, and I’ve been more physically active than when I first began my job by biking to work, doing Aikido and most recently by training for a half marathon. After seeing next to no results in weight loss I did some more research, something I should have done years ago.
I ordered some books from Mary J Shomon, a patient advocate who has thyroid problems and writes about them. I heard about here from a nutritionist who after talking with me convinced me that some form of hormonal treatment may be necessary to achieve the health goals I have. After reading through Living Well with Hypothyroidism and What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Hypothyroidism by Ken Blanchard, it comfirmed the idea that I needed some medical help with this problem.
I don’t like taking pills, even multivitamins. Probably my main reason being that I don’t like having one more routine to do everyday, although I also believe that most things that people take pills for can be much better dealt with by changing diet, exercise or stress in your life. So I begin taking medication hesitantly and will keep an eye out for a more natural remedy. So far I’ve been taking it again for close to a month and don’t really notice much of anything different.
September 15, 2006
First Moment of Lucidity!
I’ve been keeping up my dream log pretty well. There were a few nights that I didn’t get very much sleep and couldn’t remember any dreams. I’ve been state checking a ton in waking life, looking for wording that changes, asking if the people around me are people that really might be around me, and every so often I hop and see if I can start flying.
So far no luck flying in real life, but the other night I actually noticed that as I was walking I kind of floated along every few steps. Then it hit me! I was dreaming! I was so excited that I then immediately woke up. Very lame.
The next night the dream I was having right before I woke up had all sorts of dream signs in it but I just couldn’t recognize them well enough. I was hanging out with high school friends again, there was a guy at the side of the Burke Gilman trail trying to sell me a lucid dreaming kit, and I even started doing the float walk again. Each of these instances seemed a bit odd to me, and I don’t even remember how I rationalized them or if I did, but it didn’t hit me until my alarm clock woke me up that I was getting prime signals for lucid dreaming.
Definite progress. I can’t wait for more.
See more progress on: lucid dream
September 9, 2006
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
I’ve finally decided to get serious about this lucid dreaming thing and bought a book that seems to come highly recommended called “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming” by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold. Stephen LaBerge has years of experience researching lucidity at Stanford, and started the Lucidity Institue, whose website seems to be the best resource for lucid dreaming on the internet, lucidity.com. A lot of the book’s basic info is available on the website for free, but I only paid $2.50 for the book on half.com since it’s old (1990), so it’s well worth having a something I can read in bed easily.
So far I’ve been keeping my dream journal up to date about a week and doing critical state testing the last couple days. That’s where I stop and ask myself if I am dreaming during the day to form the habit so that I’ll more likely do so while I’m dreaming. I sporadically have been writing my dreams for the last few years, but never this regularly. I’m remembering my dreams more easily and noticing when I wake up during the night, something that apparently happens quite regularly but we usually forget like dreams.
Besides the practical how-to aspect of lucid dreaming in the book, there’s a lot of other interesting information, psychology and philosphy. There’s also discussions of what lucid dreaming can possibly be used for with lots of step by step exercises. If anyone is curious about lucid dreaming or needs a good motivator to start learning, this book is a great inexpensive tool. I would definitely try this before buying any of those $50+ courses or gadgets for lucid dreaming you see on the internet. I’ll definitely update this post when I have my first lucid dream.
See more progress on: lucid dream
September 5, 2006
Jock and Jill Half Marathon
This is the blister I got from running a week
after the event. Healing nicely, eh?
I ran my first half marathon this weekend. It was the Super Jock n Jill Half Marathon in Woodinville WA. It feels great to just have done it, and I ran it a bit faster than I thought I would considering that I haven’t been training all that long. I think that’s in large part because most of my training has been running home from work, which is 7.5 miles almost all uphill, which goes a lot slower than this flat course. There’s a hill to run up and come back down between mile 6 and 10, but it’s mostly gradual. I was on pace to finish under 2 hours at mile 10, but I totally ran out of gas. 10 miles was already farther than I had ever run straight through before. The last 3 miles were HARD! I felt really dehydrated and there was only one water stop in those last 4 miles I think. I had no idea how fast I would finish, so I told Kim 2.5 hours and I ended up coming in at 2:10. I have one really big blister on my right foot and am sore, but feel great about the run otherwise and am considering doing more half marathons before I work up to a full marathon sometime next year.
See more progress on: run a half marathon
August 14, 2006
Cape Alava
Kim and I took off for the Olympic Penninsula this weekend to camp near the ocean. The drive there took soooooooo long. It took us 2.5 hours to get on the Edmonds-Kingston ferry. We hiked in Friday night to camp near Wedding Rocks, some petroglyphs. Afterwards it was time to do the hike back out and the drive home. It was great to have a relaxing outdoor weekend with no phones, computers or even many people.
July 30, 2006
Climbing Little Si
Kim and I went climbing with Brian and Jay at exit 32, AKA Little Si, on Saturday. We spent all our time at Blackstone wall. I felt surprisingly good about my climbing considering I haven’t done much recently. My main complaint is that I have no forearm stamina. I did quite a few sport leads with Kim, while Brian worked harder routes and trained Jay for some trad climbing.
July 9, 2006
Rafting the Wenatchee
Saturday Kim and I took Kim’s parents, met up with Jesse and Deborah, and did some rafting on the Wenatchee River near Leavenworth. We went with Osprey Rafting. Our guide’s name was Billy, a semi-crazy sounding, 22 year old. He had some cool tatoos and mentioned he had already had 2 brain surgeries, I think he said he had also had cancer, and he seemed to like extreme sports. We went over the basics since it was everyone’s first time rafting except for Jesse and me, then we went through our first rapid and dumped a lady who was in our raft.
We stopped right after that for lunch, ported the rafts around a dam, and got back to it. Jesse and I paddled in front, and Kim and Deborah took turns riding in the front of the raft as our figureheads. All the rapids except the first were after lunch. There were some fun class III’s, but even Kim said she didn’t think it was as scary as she thought it was going to be. Probably good I didn’t freak her out too much on her first trip so that I can get her to go on bigger rapids with me later. Of course, we’re a little late in the season for big rapids, but I think it was a good level for Kim’s parents who had a good time but were pretty exhausted by the end. I was too, but had enough left in me to do the three hour drive home after we had some Italian food in Leavenworth.
June 29, 2006
Oooooooooooooommmmmmmmm
I’ve been marking an M on a calendar for every day I meditate and so far I’m lucky to average three times a week. I’ve been getting better though the last few weeks, both at quieting my thoughts quickly and actually doing it. I think next month I might mark every day with an M and check off the days I meditate. It’s a small change, but I think I’ll have better motivation to cross things off than to mark M’s.
See more progress on: meditate daily