It's Shake N Bake, and I helped

Insomnia...

2010-09-07T01:59:00.000-07:00

...sucks. I've struggled with it for years. Working and schooling full time for so many years really messed with my sleep schedule. It didn't help I already had some poor habits from my younger years. When I graduated in March 2007 I vowed to finally settle down and develop some good sleep habits.

Now here I sit at 2:00 am in September 2010 and not much has changed. It's easy to make excuses and I also face some tough challenges. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea about a year and half ago. It adds another layer of complexity to my sleep issues.

I used to cling to my insomnia like it somehow made me different or cool. I could stay up score bonus time with the things I love. Movies, music, video games and internet are an insomniacs best friend and worst enemy. Lately, though, I've grown weary of it. I'm tired of my life being defined by my condition and I feel like it's the one thing holding me back from the next level in my life. It's time for change.

I've said all the platitudes and tried all the gimmicks. Time to tighten the bootstraps and just get it done. I'm hoping by finally writing things down I can start to make a positive change. I'm opening the dialog, so feel free to bring it up or call me on it when I fail. Here are some of the things I'm hoping to work on.

HYPNOS

I know, duh, sleep is the cure for insomnia. I need to focus on quality AND quantity. My past thinking was only the former mattered. I seem to function best when I've had 6-7 hours of quality sleep several nights in a row. Most other remedies I hope to implement focus on quality, but I know I need to set a schedule to get the quantity I need.

MORPHEUS

Being a creative individual I cherish my dreams, both waking and sleeping. I find that my dreams are a good indicator of the quality of sleep I'm getting. Most nights lately I don't dream at all. I still recall the night of my sleep study to diagnose my apnea. After determining I had apnea, the put a CPAP mask on me. I immediately fell into REM sleep, the state during which you dream, and stayed there 3 times the average length. The dreams I had were unreal. I'm considering keeping a sleep journal next to the bed and including a section to record my dreams.

DEW OF THE MOUNTAINOUS VARIETY

Caffeine is a drug. Time to call it for what it is. I don't think I'll need rehab, but the time to quit is now. I drank my last one earlier tonight. Fortunately I have my wife on my side this time. With both of us don'ting the dew at the same time hopefully it'll stick. I've tried replacement therapy before with mixed results. This time the replacement is good ol' H2O. I need to hydrate something fierce.

APNEA

I need to get this apnea thing under control. When I was first diagnosed with apnea my insomnia actually got worse because I was afraid of suffocating in my sleep. Then came Mr CPAP machine. It was like heaven the first few months. I was getting awesome sleep and felt like my sleep issues were finally under control. Then the honeymoon ended. I can honestly say I HATE the mask. Some nights I wake and literally tear it from my face. Without it I don't sleep but with it I go insane. My plan is twofold to get this under control.

I need to treat the symptoms. I'm not the most diligent at maintaining my CPAP mask and machine. A little effort will go a long way in helping me cope with the here and now of my condition.
I need to find the cure. There are two major causes for my apnea. I have enlarged tonsils that need to come out. Not a fun prospect for a man of my age. Also, my doc won't even consider it until I've fixed the other issue. I'm a fatty. I'm 5' 10" with a fairly thin frame. I weighed a whopping 125 lbs when I graduated high school and felt soft and out of shape at 155 lbs when I was married in 2000. I'm tipping the scales at 215 now. Disgusting for a guy that used to run a 5 minute mile.

CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS

Exercise. Period. It has to happen. I'm still trying to figure out when. The what is easy. I love runners high. I love a long grinding climb on my mtn bike followed by a sweet singletrack descent. I love, love, love disappearing into the wilderness with a full pack, a map and compass. I find myself in a viscous cycle of not working out because I don't sleep well and not sleeping well because I don't work out. I've tried easing myself back into it. Time for some shock therapy.

MISC.

Melatonin is my friend. I should pay a visit more often.
Luminous entertainment (computer, TV, video games) needs to cut out early.
Books are awesome. I've been meaning to read Cosmos by Carl Sagan. That should help me drift off.
We need a new bed. Probably the biggest thing I feel the most helpless about. With the new house it just isn't in the budget right now. I want to do it right this time, too. King size with technology developed by NASA that wraps you in the wings of a thousand baby unicorns, which is expensive.
It all gets worse when I'm sick or my TMJ flares up. Yay for another cylce (sick => don't sleep, lack of sleep => sick). Need to stay healthy.
Probably shouldn't be blogging at 3:00 am...

Boolim and the LCC crew

2008-03-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

I'm here in Korea to set up design IT infrastructure and do a little training with a new Production Artist crew called the LCC. They work at one of our main factory liasons, Boolim, for licensed apparel. No, we're not outsourcing, yet.

Boolim offices on the right. No factory in sight. We always refer to Boolim as "the factory", so I was surprised to arrive and find only a main office building. The main factory is across town and they are our liason with several other factories across asia.

Beware, o ye who enter here, for death awaits with sharp pointy teeth. Just kidding. The front desk security guy is awesome. Almost as awesome as Cheryl at the Michael Jordan building front desk. Almost.

"The Boss"
Looks like Amber found my blog. At least Silver is amused.

The Crew
Silver, Jinju, Jenny, Danny

My desk

The Office, minus Dwight Schrute

My favorite time of day, lunchtime.

Dorky foreigner, Amber, Danny

Jinju, Jenny and Silver

My driver, Mr. "Jeeves" Hur

Notice the screen in the middle? IPTV, media player, internet, GPS and bunch of other tech stuff in one device. Everybody has 'em here. We're sooooo behind the cool tech times in the US.

Random Pics

2008-03-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

Get Crunk(y)

SotA (Scooterman of the Apocalypse)

Ummm, I've got this itch...

I'm not sure what a Pocari is, or what kind of exercise they do, but their sweat is quite delicious.

"Light" traffic at 9pm

The Dormy

2008-03-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick peek at my fine accomodations. The Grand Intercontinental it is not, but it gets the job done.

The main entrance, where all the asian businessmen hang out smoking cigarettes while waiting for their taxis.

The business end...

...and the party end.

I'd show you the halls, lobby, restaurant and gym, but they aren't much to look at. They smell like old fish, too.

It's a serviced residence, so it has a few more amenities than a hotel. I have a washer/dryer, fridge, stove and microwave. The bidet is nice and the heated floors keep my dogs toasty in the mornings. It's nice climbing into a freshly made bed every night that you didn't have to make yourself. I'll have to cut a deal with my wife when I get back. ;)

The Hive...

2008-03-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

...is STILL under construction.

A little inside joke for my Nike friends.

Blog Dump

2008-03-07T08:04:00.001-08:00

A blog dump's a comin'. I've got a lot to post, so I'll break it up into multiple posts.

Enjoy!

Shop Smart...

2008-03-01T05:35:00.000-08:00

Shop S*Mart!

10 points if you know the reference.

Seoul Searching

2008-02-29T03:41:00.000-08:00

Yup, I did it. I just used a cheesy soul cliché in the title. Watchya gonna do?

For fun these past few nights I've been cruising the streets around the ol' Dormy in my size 9's checking things out. I thought it'd be hard to find places to eat, what with not being able to read Korean and all. Fortunately a good deal of the restaurants have pictures on their menus so I can point and grunt for what I want. It's been great getting my fill of real Asian food. Even so, there are a Pizza Hut, Buger King, Outback Steakhouse, three 7-11's, two Dunkin' Donuts and of course Starbucks that I've found so far within walking distance if I get sick of the kimchee and bulgogi.

Walking, even on the sidewalks, is a dangerous affair. Traffic here is INSANE. When it gets really bad the scooter and motorcycle delivery drivers spill over onto the sidewalks. They rip on by at 90 miles an hour within inches of anyone walking along. Unfortunately the washing machine in my unit is all in Korean, so I haven't been able to wash all the soiled shorts from many an encounter with the insane Scootermen of the Apocalypse.

Ask my wife, I don't have much of a sense of smell. Regardless, a casual stroll through the streets of Seoul is a constant bombardment on the olfactory sense. With the myriad restaurants and street vendors the smells are varied and mostly pleasing and/or interesting. Occasionaly, though, a smell will hit your nose with a slightly off tinge. Must be a spot where a particularly startling scooter encounter occurred.

Here's a shot from my hotel window:

And bodgy stitched together photo of the full view:

Jet Laaaaaaaaaaag

2008-02-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to leave Portland on Saturday at 10:20, arrive in San Francisco at 12:07 and catch my flight to Seoul at 1:39pm. The flight from Portland didn't leave until 11:30-ish. I landed in San Fran at 1:23, deplaned ASAP and sprinted for International in hopes they would hold the plane for the 3 or so people on the flight from PDX. I hit the terminal at 1:40 and the doors were closed, but the plane was sitting right out the window. Once the doors are closed, they don't open.

Fortunately the fault was with United and I was flying business class, so they hooked me up with a hotel, meal vouchers and a few extra frequent flier miles. The downside was the earliest I could fly out was 12:57 the next day to Narita airport in Tokyo. I had a 4 1/2 hour layover in Tokyo then a 2 1/2 hour hop to Seoul to finally land at 11:10pm on Sunday 2/24.

Total transit time was supposed to be about 16hrs. From the time I left Portland to the time I landed in Seoul totaled a whopping 44 hrs. Granted a chunk of that was spent sleeping in a hotel in San Francisco, but it still translated into a hefty case of jet lag.

Leaving on a jet plane

2008-02-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

It's official. I leave for Korea on Friday at 10am. A quick 2 hour hop to San Fran, hour and half wait and 13 hour jaunt into Incheon airport. Fortunately Nike treats their employees well and I'll be livin large in business class. "Hot towel for you, sir?"

I'll be staying at the Dormy hotel, trying to make up for a college experience spent without one room living. My room has a small kitchenette, clothes washer/dryer and a bidet. You know you're living the high life when you've got a bidet. It'll be nice having some small conveniences since I'll be there for 3 weeks.

Things will get all twilight zone on the way back. I leave Korea on Saturday 3/15 at 2pm and arrive back in Portland 2 hours before I left. Weird. I guess the return flight passes through the Bermuda Triangle.

4 Things

2008-02-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

4 Jobs I've Had
1. Autobody paint prep
2. Scraping dried donut icing from the floor of a bakery (and washing the pans)
3. Houseman at Sundance Ski Resort
4. Squeegee monkey and graphic designer at a screen print shop

4 Movies I Watch Over and Over
1. Star Wars ep IV, V, VI
2. Ghostbusters
3. Big Trouble in Little China
4. This is Spinal Tap

4 Places I Have Lived
1. Springville, UT
2. Beaverton, OR
3. Vancouver, WA
4. Auckland, NZ

4 TV Shows I Like to Watch*
1. Austin City Limits
2. American Gladiators
3. The Biggest Loser
4. Heroes

*Would Firefly qualify even though there's only one season on DVD?

4 People Who Email/IM Me Regularly
1. I could list about 5 names, but I'll just say "Developers", the people downstream from me in my workflow
2. CNN Breaking News
3. Miscelaneous purveyors of erectile enhancement medications
4. Becky

4 Favorite Foods
1. Mushrooms
2. Caesar salad
3. Potstickers
4. Baked Spaghetti

4 Places I'd Rather Be
1. Living in a home I own
2. In the arms of my wife
3. Moab
4. outside

4 Things I Look Forward to
1. The onslaught of screaming yard monkies when I walk through the door every night
2. Snuggling my sweetheart
3. Tax returns
4. My pending trip to Korea

I hate renting...

2008-01-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

Dear JPM Real Estate,

I'm writing in response to your notice dated 1/23/08 regarding a rental rate increase to be effective 2/1/08. As I hope you are aware, Oregon state law requires a minimum of 30 days notice for any rental rate increase. As such I am including a check in the amount of $850, our current rate, for February rent. As per Oregon law, notices will not be honored unless filed properly. Please re-file any notice you deem fit and allow for 30 days from the time of re-filing.
Furthermore, I feel that the rate increase is unjustified in the unit's current condition. Firstly, let me give you some detail on our history with JPM. We signed our initial lease in January of 2006 with one of your employees named Melissa. Apparently Melissa's employment was terminated shortly thereafter and our paperwork was "lost". Save Melissa, JPM was unaware of our inhabitance until our February rent check arrived. At that point Maria contacted us and spent several weeks searching for our "lost" paperwork to no avail. Despite our providing copies of the original lease, Maria required we sign a new lease in March, backdated to January 3rd, or face eviction.
In your notice you site "increase cost of utilities" as one reason for the rental rate increase. At this time we pay ALL utilities, rendering this point moot. Furthermore, water, sewer, garbage service and garbage container were the responsibility of JPM in our initial lease. The new backdated lease put all utilities into our responsibility. Maria would not budge on this point and claimed that utilities were never paid by JPM at Mayjohn Court Towne Homes. We later learned our neighbor's utilities were paid by JPM.
Your notice also states increased "property expenses" as reason for the increase. I am curious as to what these property expenses are. If they are HOA fees I highly suggest you investigate the Mayjohn Court Towne Homes HOA. In the 2+ years that we have lived here the only service they have provided is a once a month mowing of the half-dead lawn. They are, however, very quick to tow any vehicle parking in the extremely faded, undistinguishable "yellow zone", resulting in a late night $285 visit to the tow yard for my mother-in-law. Despite the towing the street always seems to be clogged with vehicles. The street is unkempt. The signs are an eyesore (except for the pristine towing signs!). The buildings are dingy. The mailbox is in a sad state of disrepair. The fencing between units in the rear is falling apart and is dangerous. The police frequent our street on a weekly basis, if not daily in the summertime, to deal with several residents near the end of the street. Many residents do not abide by the 10 p.m. noise curfew, especially in the summer. There are also several heavy smokers in the near vicinity who enjoy "sharing" their habit by smoking in the back and side yards within feet of our open windows. One resident even had someone living in a tent in the backyard for a few months that frequently enjoyed rather pungent cigars.
If the "property expenses" are in regards to maintenance I have several requests to make. When signing with Melissa, there were several points discussed in regards to items that would be fixed after our inhabitance. Melissa told us that a painting/resurfacing of the kitchen/bath/laundry cabinets was already "in the works" as was a repair of the warped and marred countertops in the kitchen. This has not happened. We were told the bathtub would be resurfaced. This was finally completed in August of 2007 and is already beginning to crack and peel. We were told a power washing of the dingy exterior was already scheduled. It has yet to happen. There are a few windows with blown seals. These were to be resealed. The only maintenance item completed as promised was to deal with the mold on the garage wall caused by a leaky water heater. This was done by painting over the mold with an anti mold paint. The water heater burst in summer of 07 and was replaced with one that was up to code (the former was not). The wall remains only treated with paint. The rear outdoor faucet did not function at the time of inhabitance and was to be repaired. It was finally repaired in summer of 07. All these items were raised again with Maria, who said she would look into it. None were addressed until Devina Baker took over our account.
In light of the rate increase I would also like to formally request the repair of some issues that have come to light after living in the unit for a time. The refrigerator is dying. It has been "repaired" several times in the past few months by blowing dust out of the compressor. It's temperature fluctuates significantly, it leaks water and we often hear hissing noises from it, as if water were dripping onto something hot. The door seals are also in disrepair.
Several wall outlets are loose internally, causing plugs to slowly slide out, creating a moderate risk for our small children. Some items will not work when plugged into some outlets due to the looseness.
The fireplace tile damage that is noted on our move in report is worsening.
The clothes dryer tube under the house was clogged some time back. The repairman cleared the clog, but punctured a hole in it in the process. He claimed this was acceptable. I informed JPM verbally, but would like this notification to be in writing as there could be potential damage due to moisture seeping in under the structure.
Lastly, I would like to point out our rental rate history. Our initial lease rate was $790/mo. In February of 2007 our rate increased to $850/mo on a month-to-month basis. We asked to sign a new lease, but were told by Maria that new leases were not being offered at the time. Now you are proposing a further increase to $920/mo. This would constitute a total rate increase of 16.4% in just over one year. I personally find this highly unreasonable, especially considering the points outlined in this letter.
In closing I would like to sympathize with Devina Baker for inheriting this mess from Melissa and Maria. She has been nothing but prompt, professional and friendly in helping us work through maintenance issues as they arise from time to time. Had we been working with her from the beginning I'm positive we wouldn't be in this situation.
I hope that we can find amicably beneficial solutions to the problems outlined above and agree on a reasonable rental rate for the property.

Sincerely,
Kyle and Rebecca Bake

Anne Frank

2007-11-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here it is my final day in Amsterdam. Our meetings finished up sooner than expected, so I had most of yesterday and all of today to do as I pleased. We've been galavanting around Amsterdam shopping, sightseeing, riding on the canal and even took a quick jaunt throught the Red Light District (gasp! don't worry, it was fast, we were only looking and I had my eyes closed most of the time.) I have a lot to catch up on in the blog from the past 2 days. The first of the week was pretty boring, unless you want to hear all about the inside of a Nike conference room in Hilversum. I hope to break it all down in a series of blogs when I get home, because I don't have much time to sit down and type while I'm here. I did want to get a bit down now, though.

Today we had the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank house as it's only a mile or so from our hotel. We walked down after breakfast and were able to walk right in to the museum. You enter the museum from a few buildings down, watch a few brief little videos then progressively work your way through the warehouse below then into the offices above and Secret Annex beyond that.

In reading and studying the Diary of Anne Frank in school, I always pictured their hidden area as a small little room tucked into the attic of a little row home. I was quite surprised at the size of the space they had to hide in, but then I related back to the fact there were 8 people and they couldn't leave. They also don't have any of the furniture in the space. I know my apartments have always looked bigger until I moved in.

It was a humbling experience for me to remember back to the story of Anne Frank and to be in the spot where it actually happened. I was able to look out the window she used to peek from and look down to the street where she saw many of her friends carted away. I saw the original wallpaper she had pasted with pictures of movie stars to help brighten her mood. I was able to look into the gardens at the actual tree she used to look at to lighten her mood. I saw the concentration camp registration cards of her family and the Van Pels.

It's one thing to learn of the Holocaust and read of the atrocities that happened. It's entirely another to be in the place that it happened, to see the yellow "Joden" star, to see the photographs of the SS carting away real people and be standing on the very street the photographs were taken on.

Canals...

2007-11-15T01:02:00.000-08:00

...are usually one of the first things that come to mind when one thinks of Amsterdam. For my first few days here canals were the only thing on my mind, but unfortunately they were of the root variety. I awoke early Saturday morning to intense pain in a tooth I've had problems with over the past year. The filling has fallen out multiple times and I've been reluctant to have the same dentist fix it again. So when the filling fell out a couple weeks ago, I put off having it fixed until I could find a new dentist.

Murphy's law struck and I found myself in the chair at my old dentist having a partial root canal the morning I was supposed to leave for Amsterdam. I hopped from the chair at 9am with a temporary filling, a promise the infection was taken care of and a reassurance that I didn't need any special painkillers or antibiotics. I cruised home, grabbed Becky and the kids and headed to the airport.

The novicaine was wearing off right about the time we took off and I was managing the pain with Advil just fine. As the evening progressed the pain grew worse. I kept myself occupied by watching the inflight movies (The Simpsons and Evan Almighty) and reading a couple magazines I bought at the airport. Once the stewardess found out about my situation she was an absolute lifesaver and kept me in a steady supply of ice. The flight from Portland to Frankfurt was a bit uncomfortable, I didn't sleep much, but it was still somewhat enjoyable and uneventful.

We arrived in Frankfurt and I was still fairly comfortable and managing the pain. The connecting flight to Amsterdam is where things went south. The smaller plane pressurized quicker than the larger plane and ascended quicker. By the time we were descending into Amsterdam I thought my head was going to explode the pain was so bad.

Once the plane depressurized I was able to manage the pain, but it would still come in waves. There were a few times Monday and Tuesday that I almost vomitted it was so bad. Then Tuesday evening we were at dinner and I got a small piece of food in the offending tooth. I used some floss to pull it out and a piece of my temporary filling came with it. INSTANT RELIEF! My dentist is soooo fired when I get back.

I still have some pain, and the infection is still there. All in all it is very manageable now. I've heard antiobiotics are available OTC here, so I'll check that out this afternoon while we're out and about.

I suck...

2007-11-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

...at writing. Just ask my mom how much I wrote while I was in New Zealand for 2 years. As such I've been avoiding the whole blogging craze (apart from the occasional fluff post on my favorite gaming site). Now I sit here on the eve of my first official business trip as a "grown-up" and need a way to keep in touch with my family and share the excitement with them. I have blog space on MySpace, Facebook, 2old2play, and a million other places on the web, but I thought it'd be nice to start anew here.

I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to spend a week at Nike's European headquarters in Hilversum, Netherlands. I'm heading over with a small contingent of imaging operations folks to discuss apparel imaging as it relates on a global scale. I was chosen to go based on work I've been doing around imaging automation and data consolidation. Quite flattering that a low-level illustrator jockey like me be chosen for such a trip.

Nike definitely does things right. I'll be flying Lufthansa business class direct from Portland to Frankfurt, Germany then a quick hop to Amsterdam. We'll be staying in the heart of Amsterdam at the Amsterdam American hotel, so the evenings after work should be fun exploring (don't worry mom, I'll stay away from the red-light district and hash bars). We also have plans to visit the Rijksmuseum and see original works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and my favorite, Frans Hals. Hopefully we can make it out to the Frans Hals museum as well so I can see my favorite piece, the Archers of St. Hadrian.

I'm taking my camera and laptop, so keep an eye out for updates here.