Beijing and Taipei -- I've been to both now, during a time of heightened tensions between them, or amongst them and Washington, D.C....it amazes me that the leader of the "free world" has never traveled to Asia, or Africa or So. America or even Europe.   I can never discuss "Beijing" or "Taipei" again now and have it be the same as it was before I saw those cities with my own eyes.  They are not what I'd imagined them to be.  Cities never are.  How could they be?  People are far too complex to be reduced to any data set or algorithmic treatment we have yet devised.  How could any large collection of people be any less complex or interesting than the individuals from which the collection is comprised?  China -- both of them -- is amazing: lovely people, righteous history and culture, industrious spirit.  The food didn't do much for me....duck tongue, anyone?  No thank you...my McDonald's-nurtured energy input apparatus doesn't compute edible tongue, duck or otherwise.

I've lost about 30 pounds since the middle of February.  My high point (or low point, as the case may be...) must have been in my doctor's office in Reno.  In for a check-up and a prescription for my then upcoming India sojourn, we did the standard ritual with blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, etc.  And my weight, fully dressed, was 248.  Now you must know that I have never really weighed that much nor did I at the time.  I was fully dressed at the time, which must be taken into consideration.  And while I can't recall if I had my boots on or not, to give myself the benefit of the doubt and relieve any concern you may have regarding my weight, we can assume I did, which means at least 8 pounds of clothing can be subtracted from that otherwise excessive measure of biomass.  So I was probably 240 pounds.  At 6'4", that's still a bit of weight.

Today I weighed myself, butt naked in my kitchen, at 210.  So I'm 30 pounds lighter than I was then.   I feel better, my wife seems to like me more and I wore my skinny pants for the first time in months yesterday without even a hint of discomfort.   As long as I'm losing weight, I'll probably go for another 10 or 15 pounds, as getting close to fighting weight is the source of considerable satisfaction, outweighing even memories of cravings.

How did I do it?  Simple:  Eat Less Food.  Eat a lot less food -- daily.  Consume less.  And when you must eat, eat only very healthy foods.  No meat.  Less fat.  But get plenty of protein.  That means fish.  Eat fresh fruits in the morning.  Eat fish and vegetables in the evening.  Eat Balance Bars to curb hunger otherwise.  That's been my recipe.  And so far, it seems to be working....

JavaOne is a little over a month away...I have one more Sun Tech Days trip, to Tel Aviv -- leaving later this week.  And that's it for this fiscal year.  One more international trip, a couple of times to Silicon Valley, maybe a visit to NYC, and that should be the end of my travels for FY2001 (which ends at Sun on the 30th of June).   Then hopefully my bride and I will take a few days off to vacate ourselves...