Video of boat ride to Asmat area

This video is actually from on the way back to meet the airplane again. The tide came and allowed us to take this "short cut" through this set of trees instead of looping out closer to the open sea where the waves were much rougher. Sadly, the combination of video quality from small digital camera and compression system of YouTube make it tough to see well - but, I assure you, it was a wild ride.

Shout out to Albania (how often do you see that?)

To the newly elected Albanian President Bamir Topi, I have two messages:

One, congratulations. Two, good work.

Another success story

The last story I linked to was about a crazy race that made a ‘normal marathon’ seem easy. This story is another success story about a couple who made lifestyle changes that led to remarkable success in their weight-loss.

Last night I burned through a solid 2000 calories, including 1000 during a tough spin class. Hope to repeat the same workout tonight. Tomorrow morning I depart for a quick trip to Papa, where I hope to get in at least one day of high-elevation hill work. Next week I will be back to Singapore and will have the results of a full body analysis test.

Like that weekend I read the Hobbit

Not exactly. This one was much more physically demanding. Mentally, I'm not sure - perhaps a draw. Between Friday and Sunday, I burned through nearly 7,000 calories including 6 aerobic classes. And, it didn't have nearly the fat intake of last weekend's deep-fried fiesta. Pictured below is the star attraction. The googles proved absolutely unnecessary, too bad those don’t make similar protective devices for the arteries. I reckon all my work from last weekends was really just about un-doing the damage from this event.

In addition to a healthier life, this program is about being able to do so many things that I have never been able to because of my weight, including run a race - hopefully a full marathon. Here’s a story that makes that seem like a less than ambitious goal, even considering my starting point. Considered differently, it makes my goal seem so much more easily attainable.

Back to work

Sure, the weekend in Bali was really amazing. Good weather, good friends, and good times. I have posted a couple photos below. You can see some online photo albums from Heather and Dave. After a wonderful long weekend in Bali (which – as the photos indicate – including a break from the beer ban that stopped just short of Jager-zone), it was time to get back to work in a serious way. Pictured above has been one of those recents mega-workouts - I have been targeting to burn at least 2,000 calories 5 days per week. This "Super Bike" class involved 200 people doing a 2-hour spin class session. It was alot of fun (though my feet were killing me and the wonderful Jakarta smog seems to have given me touch of respiratory infection) and I burned 3,500 calories.

So, what's the plan going forward? April was major lost time due to sickness and work issues. Much of May and June were distracted by wedding preparations. Based on the way my pants fit and a marginal decrease in weight, it does appear I kept the BMI going in the right direction. I did a lot of leg work, including many Body Pump classes, which has provided strong gains in leg strength. But, in terms of body weight, there is no doubt I am off the pace of my goals. Next week, I will travel Singapore and will use the Body Mass Analysis machine to get a better sense of where both body mass and BMI stand.

The ultimate goal is to run Standard Chartered Marathon in Hong Kong early next year (around March or so), which means a few things. One, I've got some serious catching up to do. Two, my commitment is being extended beyond "one year" - in part to reflect a penalty of lackluster performance in recent months and also to continue preparation for this major event.

Bali, Bali, Bali

This is the first time I have ever cut a cake, I usually just treat them as bite-size goodies.

After I taught this young lady how to bust a move, I fried some chicken and read lines for the new Miami Vice, "Tubbs in Asia."

Oh, so late

First it was email updates. Then, I got bad about those. Then, it was blog updates. Then, I got bad about those. Well, I will put this one on both – and plan to rededicate to the blog updates, as well as better committed on the regime which it is profiling.

The big news is pictured above from the ceremony in Jakarta. We will have our reception gathering next weekend in Bali.

Below is a fun photo from ‘This week at work with Scott.’ This was a traditional welcome ceremony for a group of guests that I took out on a tour to a local tribal village for one of the two tribes indigenous to the project area for our mine. After this, we had a feast of live grubs, tree-eating mollusks, and local mud crab.