Project David 2.0 at 4 months - 40.2 pounds

Today marks 4 months since I started Project David 2.0! And today the scale showed that I have now lost 40.2 pounds so it is flour time! For those that have been following along since the start of this project you know the story of the flour, for those new to my blog, every time I lose 10 pounds I buy a 10 pound bag of flour which I place on my desk in my home office. A great representation of the weight I've lost since I started this. (Notice the storm trooper lego mini fig in front of the middle bag. Wonder how many mini figs it would take to reflect my weight loss!)

A couple of weeks ago I didn't think I would hit this milestone by the 4 month mark. Starting with Thanksgiving weekend, big traditional dinner, leftovers, dining out several times over that weekend. I actually came out of the holiday weekend up just 1.5 pounds. Not too bad. The next challenge was that I started my new position at Best Buy the Monday after Thanksgiving. Nearly a week of orientation, and team lunches. Stayed flat for that week. When I've been averaging losing 2.5 pounds a week, being up 1.5 over nearly 2 weeks necessitated some extra cardio sessions to increase my calorie burn and bring me back inline with my average.

I continue to be amazed at my progress and the changes that have occurred. It has come much quicker than I ever imagined. One of my incremental goals was to lose 25 pounds by Christmas, which happened before we got to Halloween. I never really imagined how this would impact my clothing, and well, I've had to replace basically everything. I've asked for clothes for Christmas because I need everything. And I imagine come spring I'll need everything again as I hit my final goal weight.

Here are some statistics during Project David 2.0:

1. 40.2 pounds lost in 4 months
2. 1.2 points - the amount I've lowered my A1C in 4 months (6.6 to 5.4)
3. 268.98 miles walked on the treadmill since September 30 (took me 6 weeks to add cardio)
4. 513,201 steps logged on my Fitbit since I got it on November 12
5. 2 pant sizes dropped
6. 1.5"off of my neck. Sure is easier to find shirts now!

My original goal was 61.6 pounds. This number was based on what I thought might be attainable in 11 months time, and as I was getting ready to start this I was looking at the Body Mass Index and wondered what it would take to move to a healthy classification. I didn't think that number was possible, and also knowing that the BMI table doesn't take into consideration body composition, so I figured 61.6 was good enough. I really need to (and should have done this before I started) get my body fat measured and base my goal on that. I do know that I'll be revising my target weight in January, as I am realizing that I have more than 20 more pounds that I can afford to lose. Right now, I am excited with the thought of getting below 200 (6.4 pounds from now) for the first time since, well, probably 20 years ago if not longer.

Thanks for reading and thanks for everyone's support. I couldn't do this without all of the encouragement that you all give me!

Let the adventure begin!

West of House

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.

There is a small mailbox here. (Zork I, Infocom)

AT END OF ROAD

You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully. (Adventure PDP-10 (Colossal Cave Adventure))

For most techies/geeks/nerds, you will recognize these lines as the start of two classic adventure games. I first played these adventures in the late 70s, early 80s, one on my Apple II+, the other on a teletype connected to our district's PDP-11. To successfully complete the adventure you have to navigate your way through the developers universe, completing a series of puzzles, quests, riddles, challenges or battles, figuring out which way to go next, and collecting the tools and artifacts along the way that you need to be successful.

This morning I will begin my next adventure - the start of my career at Best Buy. And in a similar fashion to the classic adventure games, I will need to navigate my way through, leveraging the tools and information that I find to solve the challenges, puzzles, and opportunities I encounter along the way, to be successful. With this knowledge I will build a map that will help me find my way through. There will be paths that lead in the right direction and others that I might have to backtrack from, challenges that stretch me, puzzles that may stump me, but pulling from my knowledge and experience and working with my colleagues I will find the right path to reach success.

I am joining Best Buy's Global Business Services team as a Program Director, focused on leading initiatives to support business opportunities through technology. Something that I am passionate about. During my interview process I had a chance to meet several great people, each sharing that same passion. I look forward to getting in and learning the business and to begin working with those individuals and the rest of the GBS team, and other Best Buy teams. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experiences with the team and to engage in the continued development of GBS and the services it offers the Best Buy enterprise.

You are standing in a parking lot, in front of a large brown building.

> Let the adventure begin!

Week 13: The other part of David 2.0 - Professional Transformation

Project David 2.0 consists of two components - physical transformation and professional transformation. Up to this point I've focused my blog on the personal transformation aspect, but have been working quietly on the professional transformation. Today we get caught up on both parts!

Personal Transformation

Yesterday marked the end of week 13, and also 3 months of David 2.0. My total weight loss at this point is 33.6 po

unds of my original 61.6 pound goal. Look for that target number to change (increase) after the first of the year. I have also logged 142.26 miles on the treadmill over the last 46 days. It wasn't put of my original plan but I will be setting a mileage goal for this project as well. All is going well, and I continue to be amazed at the difference that those pounds are making.

Professional Transformation

The other leg of this project was the professional side. The goal was to figure out where I wanted to be professionally. I've spent the past 10 years as an IT consultant, focused on project and program management. It has been very rewarding and I have been fortunate to be a part of many business changing initiatives, but over the last year or two I have felt something missing. I started to focus more on my big picture - that is, what am I looking for in the long term? Where do I want to go professionally? What is it that I enjoy doing the most, and what do I need to do to get there.

I had decided that one thing that I missed was seeing the long-term benefits of a project that I implemented. Many times I've gone in to do a project, then following the launch, my contract is up and I move on. Never seeing the full results of what we did or having the chance to continue to improve, or update the solution. In order to do that I felt I needed to transition from a consultant role to an employee role. Ok, I can be good with that. So the next question, where do I want to work? I've been interested in Best Buy for the last couple of years. Why? Well, my wife has worked there for almost 10 years and loves it, I am a big fan of the products, it's a big company, it's a technology company, and they are in the midst of their own "IT transformation". Many of the reasons that I got into technology in the first place. In August, as I was in the midst of thinking about all of this and starting David 2.0, I received a LinkedIn message from Jonathan Kidder, Best Buy Social Media Manager for HR Recruiting, letting me know Best Buy was in the midst of hiring IT people as part of this transformation. A couple of days later I received a tweet from @bestbuy_it_jobs saying the same thing. It took me a week or so to follow the link and look at the current openings. Once I did I saw one or two positions of interest and connected with Jonathan. That led to Jonathan connecting me with one of the recruiters for GBS, which led to me applying, several rounds of interviews, and to last Friday where I received and accepted an offer to join Best Buy's GBS team. I'll be starting right after Thanksgiving.

The first 90 days of Project David 2.0 have gotten off to a very successful start. While it has only been a short journey so far, and there is much more to go, it has been very exciting and very rewarding. I am excited about the new doors that have opened and the challenges and rewards that they will bring. I look forward to continuing to share my progress and success as Project David 2.0 continues.

Week 12: Major milestone - more flour

Why is this man smiling? Because today marks 12 weeks on Project David 2.0, and as of today I have lost 30.8 pounds. That means two things. First, it's time for another bag of flour. Second, I am officially at the half way mark of my original goal of 61.6 pounds. That goal will be increasing.

Holding those 3 bags of flour I continue to be amazed at how big those 30 pounds are. I can set those down, but 12 weeks ago, it was part of me. I can't even being to imagine what another 30 or 50 pounds is going to look like.

What have been the keys so far? Diet, exercise, and water. I continue to use the myfitnesspal app and web site to track everything (almost) that I eat and record my exercise. I continue to make smart food choices, and continue to avoid things like soda or Halloween candy. As for exercise, on September 30th I started walking on the treadmill. Averaging 50 minutes and close to 3 miles a night. I have walked 116.12 miles since I started. I did not set a goal for walking during this project, but maybe I will. We'll see. The other key is water. My daily is 12-16 8oz glasses of water. I've found it is much easier to get all of my water in during the week. I take two 32 oz water bottles to work each morning and they are both easily gone by the middle of the afternoon. Drinking another one in the evening is no problem. On the weekends for whatever reason, I struggle to get all of my water in.

In the next couple of weeks (before Thanksgiving) I am going to go in and have my A1C tested to see if this loss has made a difference yet. I have to believe it will.

The challenges will be coming over the next several weeks - Thanksgiving and Christmas. Around here, like for most of you, it is a feeding frenzy. It's going to take a lot of will power to manage my portions. I love the foods that my family prepares for these holidays. But I am also loving how the first 30 pounds gone feels!

Smoke Detectors: Why do batteries only fail during the night?

I am convinced that somewhere in the world there is a engineer just laughing his head off over the design of smoke detectors and their batteries. Why is it that the low battery warning beep only occurs during the night? Last night, or should I say this morning, at 3:08AM, that familiar beep woke both my wife and I. I heard it, wanted to pretend I didn't hear it, but a minute later my wife said "did you hear that beep?" Yes I did. That meant that it would sound again in 15-20 minutes. And that also meant that I would need to get up and figure out which of the 5 smoke detectors on the upper floor was the culprit. And at 3:22AM, another beep. Since two are in the kids rooms with doors closed, I was able to "quickly" (how quickly can you be at 3:22AM) ruled them out. So, I got up and stood in the hallway, locating myself between the other 3, hoping it wasn't the one in our room, with the vaulted ceiling, and waited. Next beep came at 3:34 and I determined it was the one in the hallway. Got the step stool out and removed it from the ceiling, pulled the battery, and sent it to the basement since it continued to beep after the battery was removed. (Capacitor still had a charge in it.)

Two weeks from now we end Daylight Savings Time, when I would normally go through the house and replace all of the batteries. I think smoke detectors know this as well.

It's flour time! Total loss now at 20.2 pounds.

Today marks 8 weeks since I started project David 2.0 (What is David 2.0?) and today also marks the second 10 pound bag of flour added to my desk! As of today's weigh in, I've lost 20.2 pounds. Can't believe how big those two bags of flour are, and that used to be part of me.

When I started this project I had hoped to lose 25 pounds by Christmas. I thought that would be a major accomplishment. I had no idea that I would be this far a head of my progress goal. I have no idea how the pace will continue as I work towards my goal of 61.6 pounds. I will not assume that it will continue as it has, but I am hoping that the daily cardio work out I started on 9/30 will help keep it close to this pace. I'm not a runner, but I am walking for 45 minutes every night and the pace has me up to 2.6 miles a night.

I feel great. I had no idea that taking 20 pounds off would feel this great. When I lost weight several years ago, it was over an extended period of time, and I don't remember really being aware of the changes. Maybe in part because I still should have lost more weight, and in part because it was much more gradual and the results were not as obvious. Today, my clothes are clearly getting too big. I joked that one of the goals I set was to donate all of my clothes by Spring. Not sure I'll be able to hold out. I've already dropped a shirt size. Pants are starting to hang on me, and when I needed to wear a shirt and tie a couple of weeks ago, I had extra room in the neck!! I know what will be on my list for Christmas - the gift we hated getting as a kid, clothes.

25 pounds is my first goal. At 30 pounds I'll be close to half way and plan to go in and have my A1C tested (Type II diabetic) I am not sure how the weight loss and diet change will impact it, but I am hoping that at some point I'll be able to reduce the medications that I am on. And maybe it won't be much of a change until I get to the 61.6 pound goal. Can't wait to find out!

S'mores - it doesn't get much better

The kids have been wanting to have a fire in our "fire pit" so that they could roast marshmallows and make s'mores. Too many activities this weekend when it was in the low 60's kept us from doing it. Tonight, when it had been 84 degrees today, we made a fire and made s'mores.

It is so relaxing to sit around the fire with the kids, marshmallows on the sticks, the kids waiting for daddy to set his on fire. After all, a marshmallow isn't roasted until you've had to blow out the flames.

It was a great evening, clear sky, and as the temperature cooled off, the warmth of the fire felt great. My wife and I shared with the kids memories of when we were kids and going to church camp every summer. What it was like to sit around the bonfire every night, under the stars.

I never get tired of a fire, especially outdoors. Hopefully we'll have a few more this year. I know the kids are hoping for more fires so that they can roast more marshmallows and make more s'mores.

"Small" victories in David 2.0

Today marks 7 weeks since I launched David 2.0, my personal and professional transformation project. I am well on my way towards my goals. As of this morning I have lost 17.4 pounds. This has translated into me dropping a shirt size, getting close to running out of holes in my belts, and an overall increase in energy. This past Friday I finally introduced a key component - exercise. Blew the dust off of the treadmill in my office and started walking. Boy did that feel great!

Another small victory is that for the first weekend my weigh in this morning was the same as it was on Thursday. Usually on Monday's I weigh in 1-2 pounds more than I did on Thursday/Friday. This puts me behind for a couple of days while I work that off.

Three things occurred this weekend. I walked 45 minutes each night, made "better" food choices, and did a better job of drinking. Water that is! To come out even this morning was huge. Saturday night my wife and I enjoyed the company of some good friends and had dinner at McCormick and Schmick's followed by drinks at The Local. Now my wife and I did share an entree, I did skipped the calamari - hard to do, and did enjoy a glass of wine and a fabulous upside down apple pie with ice cream (shared as well). This was followed at our next stop with a couple of high calorie, high carb beers. All enjoyable - friends, food, and drinks. Part of what helped was making wise choices through out the day on Saturday, knowing that I was going out that night, and making fairly wise choices at the restaurant. The shared entree was a perfect portion, supplemented by a salad.

Overall a great weekend that showed me you can enjoy when doing it smartly, making wise choices, and planning for the bump in intake through out the day.

Small victory on the path to an overall new David 2.0

What do I look for in a Recruiter?

Yesterday I received an email that opened with "I recently came across your resume on the internet and believe the job opportunity below would be of interest to you." I get an email like this every couple of weeks. I find this interesting for two reasons. One, my resume has not been active on any sites (Dice/Monster) for over 4 years, and two, you think I am interested because of a single keyword in your search.

This brings up a good question. What do I look for in a Recruiter? Over the past several years I've worked with many different recruiters in the Twin Cities, either when I've been looking for a new contract/position, or been in roles where I needed to hire contract resources. Like any profession, there have been some really good ones, where I keep them in my network and continue to reach out to them when I have a need, and there are others, that, well, let's just say I no longer have their business card on file.

Here are four keys that I view as to what makes a good recruiter:

1. Have a relationship with the hiring manager and/or client company. It's easy to just glean open reqs off of vendor management systems, and throw a bunch of resumes at them, hoping that one of your candidates will get selected. Having a relationship is going to give you a true understanding of what the client is looking for and what you should be looking for in a candidate, which should give you an edge over other recruiters.

2. Know what the position is that you are recruiting to fill. When you get a req, don't just read the description. I can do that. Too many position descriptions are boilerplate, and may not always reflect the client's true need. Work with the client to find out what is behind the req. (Relationship) What is the real scope of the work? Are they posting for a Technical Program Manager when what they really need is a Business Analyst or Developer? Knowing what the client is looking for is only going to enable you to find the right candidate and sell that candidate on the position.

3. Get to know me. My best experience came from a former recruiter who has become a good friend - Robert Stanke. (Ok, it's Bob to most of you, but I met him when he was still Robert!) When Bob first recruited me, he was working on a couple of open reqs that my experience matched up with pretty well. Before Bob would submit me as a candidate he had one requirement - we had to meet for a 1:1. He wanted to get to know me so that he knew what I was looking for in my next position, what I liked, didn't like, what made me tick, the things that don't come through on the resume. He wanted to get to know me so that he knew how to present me, and could sell me to the client.

4. Communicate. Keep me in the loop. Once I’ve been submitted, a periodic update would be nice to let me know the status of the req. Has the req been filled or closed? Delayed? Am I still in play? I’m working with a recruiter now who provides me a weekly status update on an open req she’s working. I know things come up in a business and positions are delayed and canceled. With a good client relationship you should be aware of what is going on with the req and be able to communicate the status to the candidate.

These are the four keys that keep a recruiter in my network and their business card in my file.

Fair food not fair game: Updated

Over the weekend we took the family down to Spencer, Iowa to go to the Spencer (Clay County) Fair. This is something my wife's family has done for years. One of the nice things about this fair is that they have a good sized machinery hill (John Deere, Case IH), and the tractors are open so that you can climb on and in them. This is a big draw to my 4 year old son. He can't get enough of the tractors. He's a John Deere boy thanks to his Papa who retired from farming a couple of years ago.

One of the other things about the fair is the food. 3 weeks ago we went to the Minnesota State Fair. I went conservative at the state fair, only had 3 mini donuts, but did have about 3/4 of an order of cheese curds. Add in 3 glasses of milk at the all you can drink milk stand (2 white, 1 chocolate) and just 2 Sweet Martha's cookies. Needless to say, for the day I was over on my calorie goal by 50%. It could have been much worse. That calorie violation fhad a negative impact on my weightless for the week. For whatever reason I hit that Monday up 2 pounds, resulting in a week that was spent getting me back to the previous week's loss total. A price to pay.

This weekend I knew going in I was going to have one of the Nutty Bars that they sell at the Spencer Fair. Vanilla ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and covered in peanuts. This was going to be a given. No mini donuts this time. No cheese curds. I did have a gyro for lunch. Not very calorie friendly either (it's the pita). I haven't figured out yet how bad I violated my calorie limit for the day, but I know I went over. Sunday added another challenge. A church potluck. You know how those country church ladies like to bake. So many salads and desserts to choose from. I tried to do as best as I could given the temptation. But there was a cherry cobbler that was to die for. :-) Dinner was very sensible tonight. Chicken breast and spinach. Like I could really balance this against the cherry cobbler!!

So what does all of this mean? I've been working on my weight loss for 5 weeks. I've been very dedicated to controlling my food intake to honor my daily calorie goal. As of Friday morning I've lost 13.4 pounds. A good pace. I'm not sure what the scale will say on Monday morning. Going into this weekend I expected to take a hit. Why? Because I was going to allow myself a little food pleasure. Now I know that I will never hit my goal if I continue to take these little holidays from the calorie control. But I also know that to completely deny yourself some of these treats creates the risk that you will go overboard at some point and over consume. Don't get me wrong, this is not something I plan to do every 3-4 weeks. And I'm not beating myself up for the extras this weekend. I just know that I've got to stay true and continue with the overall discipline that I have been working under and stay focused.

My goal is 60 pounds by August 14, 2012. (I'd like to hit that by my birthday in July). My second goal was 25 pounds by Christmas. I have 3 months to get there, and there is no reason that I shouldn't be past that - that's a pound a week. And there are no more fairs between now and Christmas!

UPDATE: On Monday morning the scale told me that I over indulged on the cherry cobbler and other things. Weight was up 2.4 pounds. Now I know I didn't eat that many more calories. One other thing I left out was the fact that I didn't drink near the amount of water that I usually drink on a daily basis. Guessing that also had an impact.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Day 30 of David 2.0: Progress update

Day 30 update

Today marks day 30 of my journey to physical transformation. As of this morning I have lost 13 pounds. So what is my goal? Have I set one? The answer is yes. I've set a goal to lose 60 pounds in one year. I set an incremental goal of 25 pounds by Christmas, and am well on the way there.

Why 60?

The short story is that when I looked at a Body Mass Index (BMI) I found that even in losing 60 pounds I was still classified as overweight, but only barely. Now I know that this is not a very good indicator as it does not take into consideration muscle mass, but it is a general indicator. 60 is a round number, and one that I honestly believe I can hit in 12 months. My starting weight was 246.6, so actually I plan to lose 61.6 to get to an even 185. In 2003 I was diagnosed as Type II Diabetic. At that time my weight was around 290-295. Over the next 12-18 months I lost 50 pounds through mostly diet changes. I've maintained that weight loss plus or minus 5-7 pounds since. Now its time to take control and take the next step.

How am I doing this?

The tool. To accomplish this I have been following a reduced calorie diet. To manage this I am using the myfitnesspal application and recording everything that I eat. I've also tried the very similar livestrong app, but just like the myfitnesspal one better. I've found it easier to use, easier to add foods not found in the database, more accuracy on the nutrition values of the foods in the database, and one of the nice functions is that it can scan barcodes on food packaging and then pull the nutrition information from the database. I've logged every meal and snack for the last 3o days and it just becomes automatic. I know meal by meal how I am tracking for my daily calories, and can adjust my eating based on this. Myfitnesspal also looks at my calorie intake, activities, and weight loss and recommends changes to my daily calorie allowance to help manage my weight loss in support of my goal.

Food choices. Since I am recording everything I eat, I am really paying attention to food values - calories, fat, protein, fiber, and carbs. I find I talk myself out of eating certain things because I know it will have a negative impact - too many calories or not enough substance to fill me up, and don't want to risk going over my daily allowance. If I know I'll be having something for dinner that might be a little heavier in calories, I can work backwards and adjust through the early part of the day to help keep me on track. It's the little things. Eliminate the cheese, or skip the sauce, or sometimes skip the bun. It's looking at what makes up the calories in a meal and determining what you really want to eat. I'm not claiming perfection in this. I went to the state fair and paid the price. Cheese curds, mini donuts, a couple of Sweet Martha's cookies, and the all you can drink milk pushed my over my daily calories but almost 50%. Amazing how that impacted the weight.

Water. Water is key. I am averaging 12-16 glasses a day. I've found that by drinking the water I've reduced those hunger feelings that I experience in the evening.

Exercise. I have not added exercise yet, but that is the next step. I've dusted off the treadmill. I'm not a runner. In the past I've typically done 30-40 minutes of walking every night, gradually increasing the pace. That's the plan, and my 60 day progress update will include how I've done with exercise.

That's where I stand today. I am fired up about this. I did not expect to see the results that I have in the first 30 days. I don't believe I will continue to see the same pace of loss, but believe it will be close, especially adding exercise. Each day it gets easier and the results really help drive me.

What's with the 10 pound bag of flour?

A bag of flour you ask? Yes it is. A 10 pound bag. This represents the 10 pounds of weight that I have lost since August 14th, the start of my physical transformation. Actually at 10.8 pounds as of this morning. To help me visualize the progress towards my goal, I decided that I would purchase a bag of flour every time I hit another 10 pound increment. The bags of flour will be stacked on my home office desk, which is also the room where my treadmill is located, to give me a constant visual reminder of my progress.

It really hit me as I was carrying the bag with the flour in it out of the store and across the parking lot. While it might only be 10 pounds, it was noticeable as I was carrying the flour. Then it hit me, I was constantly carrying this 10 pounds a month ago. I can't imagine what a few more bags will feel like. But I can't wait to find out!!

Are you ready for some football?

Order is restored to the universe. Last weekend college football kicked off, tonight the NFL. Until today, Fall was in the air. (Where did the 85 degrees come from today?) Football starting and baseball winding down to the Fall Classic.

I love all sports, football (college and pro), baseball, NASCAR (yes, it is a sport - those guys are athletes), basketball (prefer college), and soccer. Probably in that order.

A fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Oregon Ducks at the college level, the San Diego Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings on the pro. I grew up in Oregon, and married into an Iowa family. Looking forward to this weekend when the Vikings travel to San Diego. The only game where I don't cheer for the Vikings. Go Bolts!!!!

Really disappointed that the Ducks did as poorly as they did against LSU. Not sure they can recover and get back to the top of the BCS rankings. Was hoping they would have a chance to get back to the national championship game and make amends for last year. It's tough to make a repeat trip, but you hope for it.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

As I stated in my first post, my transformation consists of two components - personal and professional. Ok, so what does that mean? One thing it means is that I turned 47 this year and realize 50 is not that far away. But what else does it mean? There must be more. There is. I've spent a great deal of time over the last year in personal reflection and this is what has led me to this transformation plan.

Personal Transformation

In a nutshell it means that on the personal side I have made a commitment to improving my health which includes weight loss and a goal to reduce my dependency on my diabetes medication through dietary changes and exercise. I have a target weigh loss goal, but want to provide a little background before I disclose my goal. I believe this will have a great impact on other areas of my life.

Professional Transformation

On the professional side it means that I am going to answer the question - what do you want to be when you grow up? I've been successful as a Technical Program/Project manager for several years. The last 8 years as a consultant. Something's been missing though. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I have some ideas as to what that is. And I have some ideas on what it will take to answer this question and I am ready to implement those ideas.

David 2.0

And with that we have the building blocks of David 2.0. Reaching the goals in each of these transformations will be very rewarding and life changing, but I believe that the two are interdependent and that success in either one will drive the success in the other.

Welcome to David 2.0

After much thought, maybe too much, I have joined the world of blogging. Why a blog? Because 140 characters of Twitter just isn't enough to get out what I want to share and say. 

But why David 2.0?  What is it? David 2.0 is going to be the vehicle for me to share my journey through a personal and professional transformation (more on that soon).  I will also thrown in posts about family, technology, sports, and life in general. 

So, welcome to David 2.0. I can't promise that every post will be of interest to everyone who reads it, but it will be of interest to me and I hope that once in a while I share something with you that will make you stop and think, laugh, or learn something.