What to say

Maybe I could talk about world events.

Maybe about diet and exercise.

Perhaps a book I just read and had to share with you.

I could write about sock-outfit coordination, since that seems to have taken an important role in my life lately.

I could update you on me and my goals and aspirations and state in life.

Or I could just say nothing at all, and everyone, including myself, will continue to get along in life just fine.

No more blog. I hope you liked it.

-Matt

Your Monday Motivation

If you're not inspired by it...you must be dead.

The New Plan

One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority. --Napoleon Bonaparte

And such it is that I must change my tactics. I have been working out for about 10 years now, as you may have read previously. As you have surely seen, I have not turned into those dudes from 300, and they just had 6 months of preparation. Man, those guys are ripped. I'm not even gay, but if you want to see some fit-looking guys, see that movie. Anyway, I've been doing more or less the same workout for...the entire 10 years. Somewhere between 6 and 20 reps, 1-5 sets, 20-120 sec rest, bike, run, blah, blah, boring. As anyone who knows anything about exercise will tell you, doing to same thing all the time doesn't make you fitter - it might keep you in shape, but it is just as likely to give you overuse injuries.

So the goal is the do something different. If possible, something different every week. So why not take it one more step, and do something different everyday? That will keep the body guessing, keep it improving. And while we're changing the workouts for the better, why not make them shorter? I don't mind the gym too much, but if I can be out of there in 20 min instead of an hour and see the same gains, that is what I will do. Perhaps we could even change it to make it easier to do at home. Minimum equipment. And full-body, functional exercises. Biceps curls are nice for impressing girls, but do they really help you scale a fence or climb a tree or lift a grocery bag? Not really; my time could be much better served by using all the muscles involved in a real-world activity. If I did that, maybe I could even combine my "cardio" and "weights" together - it should be self-evident that working more muscles simultaneously will give your heart and lungs a better workout than working one small muscle at a time.

But...that sounds like a lot of planning. And creativity.

Enter CROSSFIT. Lo and behold, there is a website that fulfills all of my wishes. It gives me a new workout everyday (yes, it is free), and even tells me when it is a rest day. The workouts are short, and use functional movements with minimal equipment. If you really want to see what the CrossFit theories on fitness and training are, check out the following pdf files ("What is Fitness?" and "Foundations"). If you want the short version, here it is - CrossFit's "World-class fitness in 100 words":

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

So try it. I dare you. Abandon your long, knee-jarring runs. Forget about your biceps curls. Or just get off your backside. Do something functional instead. I can tell you, after 2 days of following the prescribed exercises, you'll never feel 13 minutes in the gym was so well-spent.

Learning to Lose

It has been a while since I have written. While I wasn't really physically doing much, there was a lot of learning going on. A lot of learning about me. I was learning about me the hard way - about 3 weeks ago, I failed a flying test. To make the gravity of the situation clear, failing a flying test can have slightly harsher consequences than failing a test (or even a class) at university, or failing your driver's test. It could mean the end of a piloting career here. Out of an original class of 20 on my first flying course, 13 remain (and only 3 out of the 10 of us who didn't already have a pilot's license). So failing = bad.

First thing about me that I didn't know - I am not good at flying tests. I am pretty good at flying, but somehow the tests don't fit under the same category. The lowest mark that can be awarded on any flight is "unsatisfactory," followed by "marginal" and then "low standard." Out of the 79 flights I have done so far, I have one unsatisfactory and two low standards. I have only done 3 tests - one was unsat and another was low standard. How is that for keeping a high proportion of bad grades at the important times? Pretty bad.

Another thing is realizing where my strong points are. I always thought that I would be struggling through the "hands and feet" aspect of flying - I could make the right decision at the right time, and the challenge would be making the plane do what I want. As it turns out, it is quite the opposite. I actually have good piloting skills, but I make bad decisions more than I should. One of the instructors said that my aircraft control is smoother than 95% of the people here. Looks like I will be spending more time thinking about what to do, since the part of actually doing it doesn't seem to be my problem.

The most important thing I have been learning is how to handle failing. I'm not big into losing. Sure, I can lose in board games and solitaire and sports, but the implications of this one made it much more important. Having been part of losing sports teams was probably a big help, but my experience that was most nearly related was getting hired for Rapattack, the guys who rappel from helicopters to fight forest fires, and then injuring myself and not being able to do it. Wow, did I ever think that life was going to end. I was not a happy person at all. I thought I needed to do it to get points for my city firefighter application. If I didn't do the job, I wouldn't be able to go on the vacation I was planning and I wouldn't get hired by the city. I wouldn't have the career I wanted, and I was pretty pissed off about that. All the world was against me, and I wasn't too happy with the world either. I saw no good in this at all. Trust me, you did not want to be around me.

This time... I had to do it better. I decided that the world does not stop just because I did something wrong. I have every right to be upset, and no right whatsoever to be rude, impatient, or angry with people around me. My temper seemed to be slightly shorter in the weeks following my failed test, and that is something for me to consider next time, but it was much improved over the last time. I decided that, while self-reflection and consideration are called for, moping and detachment are not. I still went on our planned trip to Lake Louise. I continued to go for wings and a beer on Wednesdays with my friends. I can honestly admit that I have still not considered what I would do if I did get canned (keep the eyes on the prize), but I was well aware of what was at stake. Knowing this, though, I still decided that I would not be the guy who needs to get hit by a car and live or have a near-drowning or whatever in order to appreciate what I have. A career is a pretty big thing to lose, of course, but even just the fact that I would be quite capable of surviving with a few bucks and the goodwill of family and friends until finding another one should be enough to keep me happy.

Most importantly, I decided that failing a test would not be only negative. If the only good from this is that I am learning how to lose a little better, then I will accept that positive. Nobody writes stories about people who are always on top of things, who always get it right the first time, who always make the right decision and live a charmed life. Teams that never lose a game in the regular season, in my experience, don't often win championships. Challenges, including failures, are the stuff through which character is fashioned. I don't want to lose, I don't want to fail, and I don't plan on doing it again on this course, but something must be taken from it if it happens. Maybe I even needed this failure to help me consider what I am doing, to give me the motivation to refocus and get back into it.

I think the quote called the Stockdale Paradox that I first saw on Jay's blog is my new ideal for dealing with losing (or any adversity):

Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. At the same time, confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

I failed, and I will be just fine. Retest passed. 21 flights to go.

A Speedy Evolution

After reading Why Darwin Matters and The God Delusion, I can't help but find this Family Guy clip hilarious. Just hilarious.

Inconvenient Truth

This weekend, I finally saw "An Inconvenient Truth." It's about time. Though its purpose may become slightly distorted in some of Al Gore's personal moments (like showing results of the presidential election and recounts and all of that fiasco), the overall message is clear - we are destroying the world, eating it up faster than it can regenerate itself. It is refreshing to see a politician who is so clear and passionate about something, obvious though his claims may be to many people, and to see it presented by a man who knows how to lecture. It provides quite the contrast to the speaking skills of the man who beat him in the aforementioned election. It makes one wonder what the world would be like, if the votes had turned out differently. I recommend that you see this movie.

Students wave signs, change world

Hey everyone! Big news! Students think they pay too much for school! Oh...oh wait a minute. They have rallies every year. They have rallies about many things, too - the young and naive idealism of that generation, some might say. But nothing brings more students together for a common cause than to complain about how much money they have to pay to go to university.

Granted, I am not an ideal candidate to write about their plight. Yes, I was a university student at one time, but I did not borrow a single cent during those four years. In fact, when I was done, I had a vehicle and a house. I still have something to say, though, and since this here soapbox is for saying things, that is what I will do.

I don't agree with you, protesting students. As nice as it would be for everyone to get free university and study whatever they wanted and live in eternal happiness, it is not the case now and it will not be the case ever. Society is structured around incentives, and in the past years it just seems to me that the incentives are artificially weighted too heavily in favour of going to university. Perhaps it is unfortunate that a person's financial state is of such importance in their choice, but it has to factor in there somewhere.

Problem 1 - horrific use of resources - How many university students do you know that are losing weight or going to the food bank because they can't buy adequate food? And how many do you know that drink Starbucks and eat at the cafeteria everyday? How many people in the rally today were wearing Parasuco jeans and fancy watches and designer shoes? How many spend gratuitously at the bar on the weekend?

Problem 2 - bad choices - Who wants a degree in English Literature? How about a BA in Philosophy? What's that, you can't get a job? SURPRISE. Sometimes, if you want to do what you love, you are going to be poor. If you don't want to be poor...you have to do something else. Are all these students aware that, if they wanted to do a trade, they would get paid while they work, and collect EI while they were in classes? Yes, the government subsidizes that training too, because we need more tradespeople. Making university cheaper is not going to solve this problem, and I would think it would exacerbate it.

Problem 3 - time management - I know way too many students who would rather build up debt than work at a crappy part-time job during the year and full-time in the summer. "I need to study," I hear. "I don't have time for that!" Well, you still have time to watch your tv shows every night and go out with the boys from class for beer and the game on Monday and your rez floor-mates every Thursday for wings and talk on MSN for three hours every night, so there is no sympathy from me. I don't see "going to school/partying" as more balanced than "going to school/working to pay for school."

Problem 4 - greater good - If taxpayers are supposed to subsidize higher education, will they get a benefit from it? I don't know. I seem to remember reading a survey from Career and Placement Services saying that "under 30%" (the lowest level) of graduates from my faculty were employed in the industry within two years of graduating. Same numbers for the Faculty of Arts. Doesn't seem like that subsidizing is doing a lot of good in many cases.

I don't hate students. I know it is expensive to go to school. I don't mind some of my tax dollars going to deserving students, and to the research and development done at institutions of higher learning. I just don't think that freezing tuition and continuing to write off millions of dollars on defaulted student loans every year is the answer. And it's MY soapbox, so I can tell you that.

Mercer...mad?

This is a story that caught my eye today. Rick Mercer...is mad. I think that it is probably pretty difficult to make a comedian mad, but that's what one particular writer has done - and a fellow Newfoundlander, no less. Apparently she is upset that her cohorts from the Rock are not showing dissent with respect to Canada's mission in Afghanistan. This comes from the Newfoundland newspaper "The Independent." Read for yourself. I couldn't find the article of which he speaks; perhaps it has been deleted?? Oh, and if you want to see what she is upset about, read Rick Mercer's blog here.

By Courtesy (St. John's)
The Independent
Friday, January 26, 2007

By Rick Mercer

For The Independent



Poor Noreen Golfman. She wrote in her Jan. 12 column (Blowing in the Wind … ) that her holidays were ruined by what she felt were incessant reports about Canadian men and women serving in Afghanistan. So upset was Noreen that, armed with her legendary pen, sharpened from years in the trenches at Memorial University’s women’s studies department, she went on the attack. I know I should just ignore the good professor and write her off as another bitter baby boom academic pining for what she fondly calls “the protest songs of yesteryear,” but I can’t help myself. A response is exactly what she wants; and so I include it here. After all, Newfoundlanders have seen this before: Noreen Golfman, sadly, is Margaret Wente without the wit.



Dear Noreen,

I am so sorry to hear about the interruption to your holiday cheer. You say in your column that it all started when the CBC ran a story on some “poor sod” who got his legs blown off in Afghanistan.

The “poor sod” in question, Noreen, has a name and it is Cpl. Paul Franklin. He is a medic in the Forces and has been a buddy of mine for years. I had dinner with him last week in Edmonton, in fact. I will be sure to pass on to him that his lack of legs caused you some personal discomfort this Christmas.

Paul is a pretty amazing guy. You would like him I think. When I met him years ago he had two good legs and a brutally funny sense of humour. He was so funny that I was pretty sure he was a Newfoundlander. You probably know the type (or maybe you don’t) — salt of the earth, always smiling, and like so many health-care professionals, seemingly obsessed with helping others in need.

These days he spends his time training other health-care workers and learning how to walk again. That’s a pretty exhausting task for Paul … heading into rehabilitation he knew very well his chances of walking again were next to none, considering he’s a double amputee, missing both legs above the knee.

At the risk of ruining your day Noreen, I’m proud to report that for the last few months he has managed to walk his son to school almost every morning and it’s almost a kilometre from his house. Next month Paul hopes to travel to Washington where he claims he will learn how to run on something he calls “bionic flipper cheetah feet.” The legs may be gone but the sense of humour is still very much intact.

Forgive me Noreen for using Paul’s name so much, but seeing as you didn’t catch it when CBC ran the profile on his recovery I thought it might be nice if you perhaps bothered to remember it from here on in. This way, when you are pontificating about him at a dinner party, you no longer have to refer to him simply as the “poor sod,” but you can actually refer to him as Paul Franklin. You may prefer “poor sod” of course; it’s all a matter of how you look at things. You see a “poor sod” that ruined your Christmas and I see a truly inspiring guy. That’s why I am thrilled that the CBC saw fit to run a story on Paul and his wife Audra. I would go so far as to suggest that many people would find their story, their marriage and their charitable endeavours inspiring. Just as I am sure that many readers of The Independent are inspired by your suggestion that Paul’s story has no place on the public broadcaster.

Further on in your column you ask why more people aren’t questioning Canada’s role in Afghanistan. I understand this frustration. It’s a good question. Why should Canada honour its United Nations-sanctioned NATO commitments? Let’s have the discussion. I would welcome debate on the idea that Canada should simply ignore its international obligations and pull out of Afghanistan. By all means ask the questions Noreen, but surely such debates can occur without begrudging the families of injured soldiers too much airtime at Christmas?

Personally, I would have thought that as a professor of women’s studies you would be somewhat supportive of the notion of a NATO presence in Afghanistan. After all, it is the NATO force that is keeping the Taliban from power. In case you missed it Noreen, the Taliban was a regime that systematically de-peopled women to the point where they had no human rights whatsoever. This was a country where until very recently it was illegal for a child to fly a kite or for a little girl to receive any education.

To put it in terms you might understand Noreen, rest assured the Taliban would frown on your attending this year’s opening night gala of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. In fact, as a woman, a professor, a writer and (one supposes) an advocate of the concept that women are people, they would probably want to kill you three or four times over. Thankfully that notion is moot in our cozy part of the world but were it ever come to pass I would suggest that you would be grateful if a “poor sod” like Paul Franklin happened along to risk his life to protect yours.

And then of course you seem to be somehow personally indignant that I would visit troops in Afghanistan over Christmas. You ask the question “When did the worm turn?” Well I hate to break it to you, but in my case this worm has been doing this for a long time now. It’s been a decade since I visited Canadian peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and this Christmas marked my third trip to Afghanistan. Why do I do it? Well I am not a soldier — that much is perfectly clear. I don’t have the discipline or the skills. But I am an entertainer and entertainers entertain. And occasionally, like most Canadians, I get to volunteer my professional time to causes that I find personally satisfying.

As a Newfoundlander this is very personal to me. On every one of these trips I meet Newfoundlanders who serve proudly in the Canadian Forces. Every day they do the hard work that we as a nation ask of them. They do this without complaint and they do it knowing that at every turn there are people like you, Noreen, suggesting that what they do is somehow undignified or misguided.

I am also curious Noreen why you refer to the head of the Canadian Forces, General Rick Hillier, as “Rick ‘MUN graduate’ Hillier.” I would suggest that if you wish to criticize General Hillier’s record of leadership or service to his country you should feel free. He is a big boy. However, when you dismiss him as “Rick ‘MUN Graduate’ Hillier” the message is loud and clear. Are you suggesting that because General Hillier received an education at Memorial he is somehow unqualified for high command? We are used to seeing this type of tactic in certain national papers — not The Independent.

You end by saying you personally cannot envision that peace can ever be paved with military offensives. May I suggest to you that in many instances in history peace has been achieved exactly that way.

The gates of Auschwitz were not opened with peace talks. Holland was not liberated by peacekeepers and fascism was not defeated with a deft pen. Time and time again men and women in uniform have laid down their lives in just causes and in an effort to free others from oppression.

It is unfortunate, Noreen, that in such instances people like yourself may have your sensitivities offended, especially during the holiday season, but perhaps that is a small price to pay. Best wishes for the remainder of 2007; may it be a year of peace and prosperity.

The ol' Look-back

While I don't really like making resolutions, I figure that a few weeks into the new year is a good time to look back and see what has happened in the last twelve months. You know, see if I am getting closer to any goals, developing myself, becoming a better person...or just getting older. So here, in no particular order, are some important things that happened in my life in 2006.

1) I started eating in a new way. With the Paleo Diet, I get more vitamins and minerals, more protein, less sodium and sugar, and I keep my body out of the constant metabolic acidosis that afflicts the entire grain-fed world. When I follow it strictly, I sleep better and need less sleep. I don't get sick. I don't feel tired after meals or in the mid-afternoon. There are so many benefits, and it makes so much sense to me now, that I look back at what I ate before (and what the government says to eat), and can barely believe it. Some people think that diets have to allow them to eat whatever foods they want. Well, I disagree. Some people like smoking weed all day, but that doesn't make it good for them. Pizza and beer on Fridays; that is generally the only reminder of my old way of eating that I allow.

2) I didn't get dumped. Hurray!

3) I (finally) started my next career course, my basic flying course in Moose Jaw. That entailed, of course, a move to Saskatchewan. Moose Jaw is not so bad, I am loving the flying, and I am doing well enough so far. Flight test number 2 (out of 5) is scheduled for tomorrow, we'll see if I love it in 24 hours. And - the best part of being in Moose Jaw - I no longer live in Winnipeg.

4) I stopped believing in god. It has been over 10 years at least since I last thought that there was some son of god who walked around on earth a couple thousand years ago, but I still wanted to believe that there was some sort of being that created the universe and set it in motion; or even that there was something that could intervene. I don't think so anymore. This conclusion was certainly not arrived at out of apathy - more like constantly thinking about it for years. So this is where I am at now.

5) I decided to attempt to earn the Canadian Forces Aerobic Excellence Award. I stopped after 644km in August, about three weeks after getting to Moose Jaw and being totally overwhelmed by the workload at the beginning of course. I needed 2000 in 2 years. Project status - abandoned. However, I started playing hockey again and it is radical. I am trying out for the base team this month.

6) I had one of the best summers ever. Seriously, it was awesome.

7) I passed my french language test, with a grade that means I will never have to take the test again in my career. Then I met some guys from Québec and realized I could barely speak french at all. Project status- continuing for the remainder of my life.

8) The first victim (Kyle) got married. The next (Joel) signed his warrant. And now it has just turned into an avalanche of seemingly unstoppable power.

Seems like a good year overall. Hopefully 2007 will be as good.

On getting old

We're all doing it. We're all getting older, one day at a time. Sometimes, though, you just feel its crushing weight a little more than usual.

I have now spent more than 26 years on earth. But the definition of a toddler, I am really old. For a teenager, I'm old. For someone in their 30s, I am still looking ahead. For someone in their 50s, I am just getting started.

For me, it feels like I am getting old and haven't even really started yet. Seriously, I am not even a productive member of society. I have been "in training" to make my contribution for MY WHOLE LIFE. I probably won't even start "work" until I am almost 28. It doesn't seem very efficient for society to be training me for half of my working life. I probably won't be working past 55, so I will really only be contributing to society (as opposed to being more parasitic, like now) for about 27 years. Can you really give back all you've been given in those short years? And as for the experience of it all, everyone's parents were right when they said that the time just goes by faster and faster.

From time to time, I think, "If only this course were over," or, "when I finally get posted, that will be it," or any of a variety of scenarios. But then I realize that this is the same thing I thought before. "Once I get to Moose Jaw," or "Once I get out of university."

Wisdom, and perhaps some solace, may be found in this:

For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. -Fr. Alfred D'Souza

New Year's Resolutions

I have self-discipline.
I have self-control.
I don't have a scale at home, and just weighed myself for the first time in nearly three weeks.

Maybe I need to work on the self-control and self-discipline when it comes to exercise and the consumption of delicious baking over the Christmas holidays.

I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions, however, and I certainly am not going to make any resolution regarding my weight. In fact, I generally loathe New Year's resolutions, since their major result is a gym clogged with well-meaning and totally unmotivated people who can't find the inspiration to work out at any other time of the year. "This year I will do it, for sure!" Uh-huh. And I'm sure next year will be the year too.

My first test of whether my conditioning has suffered will be tonight's hockey game. Playing organized hockey was one of my promises to myself last year (I guess you could call it a "resolution," and I even made it on this blog somewhere), and it has certainly been tons of fun. Why do so many people have so much trouble staying active?

Speaking of being active, I got something for Christmas designed to help me avoid that. Yep, I got books. Tons of books. Unless you count aerodynamics manuals, instrument flying regulations, and the DaVinci Code as literature, I didn't do a lot of reading last year. Now, I have all sorts of things to read, namely:
Why Darwin Matters;
Beyond Band of Brothers;
Guns, Germs, and Steel;
Flags of Our Fathers; and
A Taste of Temptation,
among others. I'm sure my weight will just take care of itself. Forget the gym, it's too busy; I'm going to go read!