Lessons from March Madness

March 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

A closer look at March Madness

It’s the Night before Madness and I still haven’t finished my bracket—or my wife’s. Last minute, as always. While sitting here at a restaurant waiting for my wife and kids to show up for our weekly family dinner, I’m watching a little ESPN, hoping to gain one or two more morsels of information that’ll help me figure out which 5-Seed is going to get upset this year in the first round. (Right now, I’m leaning towards West Virginia, who plays Clemson, by the way.)

For some reason, though, I can’t get out of my head the turmoil and heated discussion that took place Monday morning immediately following the announcement of the 68 teams that now make up the NCAA National Championship Tournament. It was 64 teams. Then, a year or two ago, they expanded the field to 65, with a “play-in” game that saw the winner getting the unenviable gift of a first round matchup against the Overall #1 Seed, so named as the best team in the field according to the selection committee. And this year it’s 68 damn teams. Too many if you ask me, but that’s a topic for another day. For those of you not at all interested in basketball or sports, bear with me; I’m getting to the part about the lessons learned from this always exciting and chaotic tournament in just a moment. Read more of this post

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‘American Idol’ Fitness

March 13, 2011 by 21 Comments

This week I made my debut on American Idol. Since I possess very little vocal talent, I suppose I should clarify. My awesome pal, Stephanie, called earlier this week with tickets to the American Idol screening in Hollywood, and although my first instinct was to pass (as I have kids to shuttle, homework to supervise, classes to teach and clients to train), I chose to drop everything and drive those hundred miles up the coast to Hollywood in search of one of my all-time idols—Season 10 judge and Aerosmith front man, Steven Tyler.

Four of us 40-something mommies giggled and chatted on the ride up as we played hookie from the minutia of our daily lives. We somehow also managed to create a sign made with bright poster board, colored Sharpies and a funny caricature cut-out of Mr. Tyler’s prominent lips and rockin’ hair. The final product was a work of multi-tasking genius. Colorful and to the point, it read: “Steven Baby…Walk This Way and just Gimme a Kiss!” with a thick arrow pointing down toward the sign holder. We elected our cute blond friend, Maureen, to wield the sign! Needless to say, our plan worked. After waiting outside the studio for hours and making friends with other Idol fans, we were assigned our seats. When the studio usher looked us up and down with her discriminating eye to assess how we’d “read” on camera if it happened to pan over us, she also read our sign. We were clearly not here to see any particular “idol,” we had a higher calling: Steven Tyler! Read more of this post

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5 x 5 in 25

March 10, 2011 by 4 Comments

When it comes to working out, last week was one of the worst I’ve had in a long, long while.  You see, since 1990, my first year in college, I’ve had this 3-Day Rule.  Simply put, I forbade myself from ever taking more than three days off from working out.  And except for maybe three or four times, I’ve made good on that promise.  No matter what– birthday, illness, holidays, even on my honeymoon as my wife would attest– when and if that fourth day hit, I made sure I did something.  Whether it was going for a quick run, doing some push-ups and sprints in the driveway, or going to the grocery store to buy gallon milk containers to use as makeshift dumbbells, I made sure I got my workout in.

Fast forward–um– a few years and I’m proud to admit that, even though I seldom break that pact with myself, I’m much less restrictive now, forgiving myself for the occasional lapse.  Even then, though, I make sure the workouts that I am able to get in make up for the ones I missed. Read more of this post

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Floor and Ceiling Functions

March 8, 2011 by Leave a comment

While the ROUNDUP (round up to the nearest number, specifying the number of digits), ROUNDDOWN (round down to the nearest number, specifying the number of digits), and ROUND (round to nearest number up or down, specifying the number of digits) are very helpful, sometimes you wish to round up or down to a specific multiple.  Maybe you are dealing with large numbers and want to deal work only with multiples of 1,000 or 10,000.  Or maybe you’re building a graph or chart and want to minimize the scale.  The best way to do that, you decide, is to make the base (lower bound value) lower than, but as close to, the lowest number as possible.

No matter the reason, performing this is easy.  For each of them, you only need the number you are rounding and the multiple you’d like to round (up or down) to.  Examples follow:

Value: A1=1,798

Floor(A1,5)=1,795
Floor(A1,10)=1,790
Floor(A1,25)=1,775
Floor(A1,100)=1,700
Floor(A1,1,000)=1,000
Floor(A1,1,500)=1,500
Floor(A1,2,000)=0

Ceiling(A1,5)=1,800
Ceiling(A1,10)=1,800
Ceiling(A1,25)=1,800
Ceiling(A1,100)=1,800
Ceiling(A1,1,000)=2,000
Ceiling(A1,1,500)=3,000
Floor(A1,2,000)=0

As always, if you have questions, drop me a line or post a comment.

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A Journey to Personal Well Being .. by Hao Liu

March 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

I started my journey to personal well being a decade ago when I was desperately out of shape physically and mentally.  In 2000, I was a new grad fresh out of college starting a career as a software engineer at HP in Cupertino, CA.  After years of being inactive and living an unhealthy life style, I had ballooned to nearly 200 lbs.  That was hefty even for my 5’10” frame.  I was not exactly happy with where I was physically and mentally.  After another year of partying and unhealthy living, I randomly, quite literally came in contact with Team In Training and started to train for my first marathon.  My life style didn’t really change right away, but I stuck with the goal of finishing a marathon and worked at it the best I knew how.  Four months after we started our training, I crossed the finish line at the 2002 Los Angeles Marathon.  I had lost a bunch of weight in the process and was feeling that I had arrived.  Read more of this post

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