the simple ramblings of a boy…
Hamburgers or cheeseburgers?
Hamburgers… but only because I’m dairy intolerant. And why not get specific? A&W Papa burgers with no cheese. *drools* I crave these papa-patties like crazy about once a month. IMHO, A&W makes the best “fast-food“ burger. Nothing eats home-made, of course.
Do you have a regular workout routine? What's your favorite form of exercise?
No, I do not currently have a regular workout routine but I am in the process of putting one together.
As for my favourite form of exercise, I prefer sports or activities to going to the gym. I have a long-standing love affair with soccer but have never been good enough at it to play at the premier competitive level. And, I suppose, consequently never felt an absolute passion for playing as I know many other players do. I am not the most skilled player but I can run pretty darn fast. Right now I am on a bit of a soccer hiatus to focus on parenting responsibilities but plan to start back up in the spring.
And then along came Parkour. *Sigh*. I can’t say enough about it… or think enough about it anyway. As much as I love playing soccer, Parkour is, oh, so much more. I can honestly say (and have said before) that I have never been passionate about or obsessed with doing any one thing in my life before Parkour. I think about it everyday. Literally. In fact the workout routine I am working on is being designed around it. I am trying to select some of the better Parkour training videos I can find, taking notes and customizing it to my current abilities and surroundings.
My main resources to date have been the videos from the Techniques page on the Urban Freeflow website, and the two Parkour training-session videos below from the Resources section of the Parkour Coaching website, both shot by Julie Angel. I have started going to a gymnastics club to work on certain aspects of my training that I do not yet have the confidence to even attempt on cement. That was last Thursday… I will definitely be going back… and posting pics and videos too.
Would you go on vacation by yourself, and if so where would you go?
Submitted by Sean & Stefan.
I would, of course, firstly make sure that Ladyshark had ample baby-sitting support for the boys… Then I would take off to Lisse, France to the “birthplace” of Parkour. A bit of a pilgrimage, if you would.
I know, I know… I’m like a broken Parkour record. It’s just that I have never been passionate like this about anything before. Anybody? Yes. Anything? No.
So, that’s where I would go.
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steelie
Happy Earth Day! What are some of your favorite ways to reduce, reuse and recycle?
Well, this question couldn’t have at better time for this mini rant…
One of my favourite enviro-friendly things I do (one of the ones I’m prouder of too) is my no-styro rule. I (in general practice*) refuse to use Styrofoam anything. Especially daily consumed “anythings”, like coffee cups, takeout containers, plates… either way, you get my point. At work, I even have a small Rubber Maid container for when I don’t bring my lunch and have to buy food from one of many local vendors… an trend that has caught on with others in my office. At one point, I think we had five of us toting around these reusable containers, often getting weird looks from the vendors until they got used to us. I also have a mug at my desk that I use when I go to get coffee.
My wife, ladyshark, and I tend to on the same page for a lot of the enviro issues, which is great. Infact, we both have these heavy duty Thermos travel mugs that we use when we allow ourselves to indulge in the increasingly frequent occasional latte. In addition, we usually tried to steer clear of establishments that use Styrofoam cups. However, yesterday we thought, “Well, we have our own cups… what’s the big deal?”
What’s the big deal, indeed…
Nothing really, unless (whilst your partner is concurrently returning shoes at a different store, you look away briefly to tend to your toddler who has managed to explode the bulk of a large muffin over his new sweater) the person making your latte uses two SEPARATE Styrofoam cups to measure out the soy “milk” for your drinks. I couldn’t believe it… but didn’t say anything because at that point, I knew those cups where destined for the garbage and, as a general rule, I’m not out to make enemies. Thus my silence. However, I briefly look back at Little “L” to again tend to the muffin shrapnel in his hair when once again, I look back to see her preparing our drinks in TWO OTHER Styrofoam cups… seriously, “WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY” (WTF) LADY!
Times like this I wish I were “slightly” more confrontational… I mean, COME ON! We brought our own bullletproof mugs that will last us forever so that we could avoid using disposable cups that would end up just sitting in the landfill forever.
“Oh, oops. I forgot [to think about what it is that I’m doing to the environment every time I throw one of these cups in the garbage]!”
Shut up. Please.
****SELF-RIGHTEUOS-RANT WARNING****
People please, if you are going to go out and buy coffee/tea everyday, purchase yourselves a nice mug that will last you a while. Most places (in Canada anyway) will even give you a 10-15 cent discount on your beverage. So this way, instead of throwing out over 240 disposable cups a year (multiply that by the number of hot beverages you consume each day at work) you could be saving almost $40 a year (now multiply that by the number of hot beverages you consume each day at work).
At least Oprah has hopped on the bio-deisel-bandwagon with her show last week about all the little things we can do to be a bit more environmentally friendly everyday… Now, an entire flock of people will ONLY NOW start thinking about these issues thanks to Oprah. Holy “Friday” that woman has a lot of influence… Of course now, she’ll probably get sued by slew of companies that produce disposable products. Sorry “Swifter”, Oprah just knocked your stock down a few pegs… Time to sue. Make some of that money back.
Okay, okay. That was a serious digression.
Long story short… buy a nice mug. If you and nine other people in your office decided to make this change, you would collectively be contibuting 2400 fewer disposable cups to the landfill every year. If ten people at ten different companies did the same, there would 24,000 fewer… and in ten different cities, 240,000 fewer… 10 provinces/states, 2,400,000 fewer… and then if all of this were carried out across a mere 10 countries on this planet, 24,000,000 fewer disposable cups would be added to the landfill every year… Multiply that by the number of hot beverages you consume each day at work.
Now go hug a tree… they’re a big reason you breathe.
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steelie
What's the best April Fool's Day prank you've pulled off or been fooled by?
I like to joke around but I’m actually not too much a prankster, per se. That being said, while I realise that this prank is not isolated to April Fool’s Day (so I may lose points for this), I have this one ongoing prank that I’ve been playing on one of my co-workers since Christmas break… so by default April Fool’s Day gets included…
Most people took the Christmas week off but I had used the remainder of my vacation time for the birth of Baby “X”. So, I worked. I wanted to listed to music without my headphones but the built-in speaker was below my desk (in my computer, oddly enough) so the sound wasn’t the greatest. I share a cubicle wall with one of my co-workers who has great external speakers hooked up to his computer. I did a bit of digging and found a small freeware application that allows you to control the iTunes on another Mac on the same network. I was able to play music through my co-worker’s speakers but control it from my own computer. It was great! What eventually made it even better is that I never told him I found this little program…
… he was off over the break… HE is a prankster… he has played a number of small tricks on me in the past and now I’m finally able to get him back.
So, since January, I’ve been randomly launching iTunes on his computer and/or switching songs on him… not all the time… and not at regular intervals… maybe a couple of times one week… maybe not until three weeks after that. It’s fun. He has no idea. I don’t think I’ll tell him until his or my last day.
I’ve “been had” enough times… I plan on milking this one for a while.
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steelie
(PS: Sorry to be such a poor Vox neighbour lately… too busy for my own liking. I do read as much as possible. Just not much time to post or comment.)
[UPDATE]
I meant to inlclude this earlier… if for no other reason to help with the visualisation of how this happens and why it’s so funny to me. My favourite example to date was one time TM was having a bit of a meeting at his computer with our production manager JL. They were looking at a booklet design he had created when (and this is the gutsiest I’ve been so far… almost didn’t do it) I launched iTunes, popping it into the forground on his desktop. JL said, “What was that?” TM replied, “I don’t fucking know. iTunes launches itself sometimes and I can’t figure out why!”
I was on the other side of the cubicle wall in a silent laughing fit.
I know some of you will think this is mean of me… but anyone who knows him would LOVE the idea that someone is putting (a harmless) one over on him. I mean, hey…. the guy shot the manager of the HR department in the testicles with a toy pingpong-ball gun he has at his desk. He’s due.
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steelie
What were you doing one year ago today?
Submitted by CassandraMorgan.
A year ago today was a Sunday… and all I know for sure is that I did Parkour for at least part of it.
(Surprise!)
What was your favorite game to play at recess in grade school?
Submitted by Elisheva Chana.
A number of us made up a game we called two-step tag. I was essentially your standard game of tag where one person was “it” and they had to try and tag someone else to make them “it”… except… you had to stay on the playground equipment at all times. Of course there were always some pieces of playgroung equipment that were too far to jump to, so we decided to allow players to take two step between pieces of the “safe” equipment. If you took three steps, you were automatically “it”. There were no tag-backs (couldn’t tag the person who had just tagged you). And we played almost everyday for years.
It’s funny… I’ve actually been thinking about this game recently, what with my new foray into Parkour and all. 😉
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steelie