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Saturday, July 04, 2009 Operation lose pounds... again. Man, where have I been? I went through the rigmarole of college and came out the other side with a little 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper that says I know how to do basic accounting. I did graduate with honours... that's pretty cool. I think my final average was around 95 or 96. Not bad considering the top student grad in the entire college of 1000 or so students got a 97 average. I'm not bragging. I was never one of those students who got high marks in high school - that was my brother's thing. I was a C student. Not because of a lack of intelligence - just a lack of motivation... other things motivated me at the time. Before I get off to a rambling rant I should get to the point of why I'm writing today. I had dropped to about 213 lbs by the time school started. Then our baby came and I got heavy into studying... the lethargic lifestyle and over eating has led to my weight ballooning. I did workout somewhat over the past winter and spring.... during one month i did about 26 aerobic sessions and saw no difference in my weight. That was really disheartening because I had watched my diet 6 days a week and drank water and did all the right things. Now, in fairness, I did see my body start to change from the weight work... but I honestly thought I would lose about 5 lbs in overall body weight. So here goes. For about the umpteenth time in my life I'm going to try and shed the weight. I've had three major successful losses in the past. 1991 - I went from 223 to 178 in less than a year. My method? I stopped eating anything considered junk food. I ate three meals a day. If I wanted a snack it was cereal, but I rarely snacked. No exercise needed. Of course, I was a lot younger then... and my metabolism was more cooperative. 1995 - Ain't it funny how a breakup can inspire. I was probably up to the 225 mark again by the time I decided to get in shape. I figured I wasn't physically what she wanted and I'd prove her wrong - although she was my inspiration at first, that changed as I realized she was never going to be part of my life again. This time I ate properly, but added aerobics and a bit of weight training to my plan. I ended up under 190, and in the best shape of my life at the age of 26-27. I played basketball against 17 year olds and had more energy then they did. 2000 - 2001 - In 1998 I got married and wasn't really ready for it. I suppose I hadn't had enough independance to that point or even had a direction in my life. It was definitely one of those cases of 'it's not you, it's me'. Anyhow, I had gone through several bouts of severe depression and anxiety and my weight ballooned up to 260 by early 2001. By now the internet was in full swing and it was easy to communicate with others without leaving my house and sitting around all day didn't help matters. I decided to do something about it. My sister turned me onto a book called Body for Life and I read it and followed that program religiously. It totally worked too. I went from the mid 250's down to nearly 200 lbs in the span of a year. I had dropped out of the Body for Life diet when I started smoking again though. My diet became cigarettes and coffee and the internet addiction kept me from eating until I really got hungry. So the weight stayed off. It ballooned back up again when I found myself in a negative relationship (again, not so much her, but the situation) and there is so much more to the story, but to bring it to present day... I've seen my weight go from 213 to 260 in less than two years. It's a combination of over eating and inactivity. I quit smoking 2 1/2 years ago too, but I won't blame that for the entire gain. The scale per say doesn't matter now anyway... it's what I saw this morning... ...I've been shying away from the mirror in our bedroom because usually when my girlfriend is around I don't want to see myself in the mirror. Silly, I know. Anyhow, she's away for a few days and after my shower this morning I sat down on the bed after drying off and looked up at the mirror. I was physically repulsed by myself. I looked in that mirror and couldn't believe that was me I was looking at. For the sake of my daughter - who I want to survive to walk her down the aisle and see potential grandchildren some day... I have to lose the weight. My goal is 190 - 200. That might sound high to some, considering I am 5' 9", but my body type doesn't lend itself to 170. In shape, with proper muscle development and aerobics my weight will get to 199. I'd be happy to see that scale drop under the 200 mark for the first time in 13 years or so... but I'll settle for how I look when I glance in the mirror. 40 is way too young to have a heart attack. It's do it now, or maybe in a year not be able to do it. Wish me luck. I'll detail my plan later and keep track of my progress on here.  
 Sunday, March 08, 2009 Hugo Robichaud Needs a Miracle Hugo Robichaud is a little boy who needs a miracle. His story was on the local CBC evening news this past week. The story is that he has been undergoing treatment for a tumor that was found in his abdomen, and which has spread in his body. There is treatment available in the United States, but Medicare in Canada will not cover the costs (somewhere in the neighborhood of $400,000 U.S.). There is no guarantee the treatment will work, but it may save his life or at least prolong it according to his parents Janet Cormier and Pascal Robichaud. Donations can be made at any branch of the Caisse populaire in New Brunswick. Stating that this is a Caisse populaire from south-east, we must give the account number (90646) and Transit number (00104). It is also possible to send a check directly to the family at: Janet Cormier and Pascal Robichaud 32 chemin Arluppe Cap-Pelé, NB E4N 1W1 Here is a link to the group on Facebook, where you can keep up to date and find more information: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=58899796365 Here is a link to the local newspaper story: http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/article/595562 Do what you can, even if it's just to forward this message. ~Michael
Thursday, December 25, 2008 Deck the Halls For Nancy and me, 2008 could be summed up in two words: studying and parenting. We actually had a bit of fun to start the year though. Ozzy Osbourne came to New Brunswick in January, and we saw his concert at the Moncton Coliseum. Well, "experienced" the concert is probably more accurate than "saw", I suppose. We we lucky to even get tickets. Thanks to someone on Facebook letting us know about an early bird sale and password we got a couple of really good seats near the stage. It was pretty sweet seeing Zakk Wylde's solos up close and we were far enough away to avoid the foam that got sprayed on the first few rows in front of the stage. The most impressive part for me was that, despite suffering from a flu, Ozzy put on a great show. It was surreal seeing the voice of Black Sabbath doing Paranoid before my very eyes. I’m half way into my second year of studying Accounting at NBCC. It’s funny how much more work there is since the last time I went to school. Of course, back then I was more interested in playing pool, chasing girls, and hitting the bar with friends than in reading books about straight-line amortization and capital gains. This time I’ve applied myself 100%, but all the hard work was almost lost in February when the NBCC custodians went on strike. For a while we were afraid of losing our year. About three weeks into the strike, hundreds of NBCC students marched on the provincial legislature in Fredericton to urge the government to settle the labour disruption. A meeting was arranged with Minister of Labour Wally Stiles, and I was chosen to represent the Miramichi campus at the discussions. We later met with the Union leaders to repeat our concerns. It was interesting to see how things work on the inside of negotiations. Fortunately the strike was settled and the schools reopened. March was not so much fun, because I had to go to Saint John for surgery. It was nice that they could schedule it during the March Break so I didn’t miss any additional class time. Unfortunately, there was some resulting nerve damage and my left arm has given me a lot of problems since. Fortunately, being right handed, I wasn’t spared writing the end of term exams. As the end of the school year approached, it became apparent that NBCC was not going to offer accounting at the Miramichi campus. This left two options - study marketing, or transfer to another school. When I asked Nancy what she thought of moving back to Moncton she was so happy that she jumped in the air, nearly knocking me over. It wasn’t easy for her to spend months in the backwoods of Miramichi while I was tucked away in the basement ignoring her in favour of textbooks. After the school year ended, I got a job with the Sunny Corner Ball Association, and I spent the summer taking care of the baseball field. I made the chalk lines on the field before games, worked in the canteen during games, and picked up trash after games... but cutting grass was more time consuming. I spent hours mowing, trimming, and raking the outfield and around the fences. When it was finally done, I started over again. After years of living in apartments with no lawn and its related mowing responsibilities, I made up for it in 10 weeks. It was rewarding making sure everything was just right for game days. As August came to an end, on the morning of the day we were moving to Moncton, I went up to the ball field to make the chalk lines one last time. As I approached the fence, I saw that someone had broken the lock on the gate. There were deep ruts of torn up grass and mud all over the outfield. Sometime during the night, someone had taken their vehicle out onto the field and destroyed what I had worked so hard to maintain all summer. I’m not sure if I’d ever felt anger like that before. Unfortunately, beyond reporting the incident to the police, there was little else that could be done. Later that day we completed our move with the help of our families. Despite the difficulty of having to navigate around boxes for a week, we were happy to be ‘home’ in Moncton. We were fortunate enough to get an apartment next door to the college – so close that it’s only a two minute walk from our door to the classroom! In September, we celebrated our daughter Sasha's first birthday. She started walking around that same time. During her first year I have noticed two things: (1) a toddler walks (and talks) kinda like someone who’s had too many shots of Jägermeister, and (2) they can go from acting cute as a bug into a screaming psycho tantrum faster than you can say bi-polar. In October, I began radiation treatment as a follow-up to my earlier surgery. The doctors hadn’t found any cancer, but they thought it was best to be proactive. It was somehow possible to balance home life, school work, and the daily trips to the hospital even when it seemed there were not enough hours in the day. I was secretly hoping the machine would malfunction, and zap me with a kajillion times the normal dosage. If comic books have taught me anything, it’s that super powers come from highly concentrated doses of radiation. Having powers to become invisible or travel through time would be awesome but, even if I could, I wouldn’t want to change a thing. You see, last Saturday we took Sasha to see her first Santa Claus parade. She sat in her stroller with bright eyes taking in everything - in particular the marching bands, music, and dancing. Even if I could travel through time I wouldn’t change a thing and risk not seeing her eyes light up like that. Best wishes to you and your family for a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!
Saturday, October 11, 2008 To commemorate or not to commemorate... Advertisements, commercials, infomercials, newspaper ads, billboards, radio ads, it just goes on and on... marketers are pumping the world full of crap and advertising that crap in hopes that we will spend our scarce dollars on it.  Now available - American League Wildcard gear! If you don't know what the Wildcard is, I'll explain. There are six divisions of teams in Major League Baseball. At the end of the season, each division winner gets into the playoffs, and they take the team with the best record in each league (American and National league) who didn't win a division and give them playoff spots too. Those extra two teams are called the Wildcard teams. Now, I'm a Boston Red Sox fan. They've had their share of success lately to be sure. They won the World Series last year, and also in 2004. It was really cool seeing clothing and accessories advertising the fact that they were World Champions (I'm aware there are other countries that have their own professional baseball leagues, and that the title is debatable). It's really irritating that no sooner did the Red Sox clinch a playoff spot this year, than the major league baseball website was offering Official "American League Wildcard" gear - hats, t-shirts, etc. This could fall into the category of the Peter Griffin "what grinds my gears" segment... is it really necessary to offer up merchandise for minor accomplishments like making the wild card position in the MLB playoffs? There is similar gear available in other sports... such as t-shirts commemorating NASCAR driver's who make the 'chase' for the Sprint Cup championship... keep in mind they haven't won anything yet... they have only earned a spot to compete for the title. The only teams that should be honoured for winning anything are the champions of a particular sport. Maybe even a division winner. But to reward someone for just qualifying for the playoffs is kinda weak... and in my mind just a marketing opportunity to grab some cash. It's also kinda insulting to those teams who actually win the championship. They deserve the accolades and paraphernalia... not a team who had a season just good enough to make it to the playoffs. _end vent
Sunday, September 28, 2008 Presence  Has anyone, before or since, commanded a stage like the late Freddie Mercury?I was trolling around YouTube checking out some live performances and stumbled on a blast from the past. I watched all five parts of Queen's Live Aid (1985) performance, and it literally (to borrow a lyric from them) "sent shivers down my spine". If you haven't seen it and like Queen or live music... definitely check it out here. From the first notes of Bohemian Rhapsody the crowd erupted with thunderous recognition and approval. Radio Ga-Ga, which is not by any means my favorite Queen offering, did it again... leave it to the Brits to be really 'into' a show... 80,000 pairs of arms in the air clapping along in near perfect unison. The last guy to accomplish that kind of salute was Hitler... but he did it with hate and fear... Queen did it with passion and love. RIP Freddie. Forever missed Never forgotten Photo: Statue of Freddie Mercury in Montreaux, Switzerland at Lake Geneva. Source: http://www.prideofmanchester.com/
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