Arrrgh. Does it not strike anyone as insane that tobacco is a legal Drug??? By allowing Tobacco to be a legal drug the governments of North America provide the manufactures of this vile weed new victims/customers - our children!!!
I know I sound like a reformed smoker but it drives me nuts when I hear how much attention and money health issues like SARS, Mad Cow disease, AIDS, west Nile virus and even marajuana receive when tobacco products Kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. The kicker, its preventable death, the cure is remedial, outlaw tobacco cultivation and possession.

Went for my chest x-ray today (should be called X-rays, they took 5)
My doctor said its precautionary "just encase there is something more sinister at work here"
The worst part is he will only call me if something bad shows up.
So I can sit here and wonder how long it takes him to receive my film and determine if anything is "Sinister" and then to find the time to call me. 1 day, 2 days, Next Tuesday???
This weekend will suck...
Carved 3 pumpkins today
Exercise
2+ Miles @ 4.3MPH (new walking speed record) for 30 minutes
30 Min swim. (I was the only one in the whole pool area today, except the lifeguard)
Have you ever had the feeling your being watched...and silently critiqued on your technique?
Diet
breakfast
Corn Flakes and Banana, 2 coffees
Snack
V8
Lunch
Salad with 1/2 can of tuna & V8
Snack
V8
Dinner
Pasta, Salad with other 1/2 can of tuna
Snack
500 pumpkin seeds, Pop corn 1/2 bag, 8 mini chocolate bars (trick or treat), 500 more pumpkin seeds, yogurt, Ice cream with chocolate sauce (just a little cause that’s all there was)

Killer day today - Went to see my Dr. cause of a chronic pain in my side, have had it for over 6 months thought it was from smoking. I stopped and it didn’t. He gave me a slip for a chest X-ray.
Exercise

60 min on the tread mill 4.5 miles (ran for 5 minutes, I hate running)
Weights (increase the load so I could achieve failure on my 3rd set on every exercise)
Nothing more un-enjoyable than the feeling of failing muscles. NOT (not to mention you look like a dork)
1 Km swim Mostly breast stroke, when I do the crawl my goggles leak. I did the 1 k in 30 minutes which means I swim at 2Kph. (That’s not very fast)

Diet
Breakfast
Corn flakes with banana on top. Coffee
Snack
V8
Lunch
1/2 ham sandwich, banana, yogurt, V8
Dinner
Pasta, cookie, coffee

I have not lost any weight yet but all my pants are falling down.

After a great deal of thought and several 3rd party opinions on the subject I have decided to journal my daily exercise and diet activities.
I'm doing this for 2 reasons
First and foremost, so I can keep track of my progress and commitment to this lifestyle change.
Second, to help inspire myself and maybe others through accomplishment and perseverance. (if your looking for a workout buddy you just need check here :)
I try and partake in some sort of physical activity every day (after years of smoking and eating what ever I wanted within my personal void of exercise this is a feat unto itself)

Recap: I started exercising on a daily basis the 2nd week of September which consisted of a 30 minute walk @ 3.7MPH and a 30 minute swim, breast stroke.
As of the 1st of October I began to lift weights 3 times a week (Mon., Wed, Fri.) using machines
I perform 3 sets of 10 reps of each exercise
Leg Extensions, Leg curls, Leg Press, Vertical Traction, Chest Press, Shoulder Press, Rowing Torso, Lower Back & Abdominal Crunch
Since starting the weight thing I have only missed Thanksgiving Monday.
Every Sunday morning I have gone for a 10K power walk (power walk is defined by me as walking like your10 minutes late and there is a room full of people waiting for you.)

TODAY Tuesday, October 28th
Exercise
30 minute walk at 4.2mph (just over 2 miles),
30 minute swim, breast stroke. (Tried to race dude in lane beside me, got winded so to avoid drowning faked water removal from my goggles)
Diet
What can I say, I love to cook and I love to eat.
every day I start off great and finish like a fat slob on the couch :(
Breakfast
2 eggs, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast, 1/2 tomato, slice of processed cheese, coffee, V8
Snack
V8
Lunch
Ham sandwich with lettuce, tomato, mustard on whole wheat diet bread, V8
Snack
V8 (gotta love V8 juice, lots of good for ya veggies and low cals)
Dinner
Alaska Pollock Provençal
Green Beans
white rice, bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce
Snack
This is where I get into trouble.
8 cups of popcorn with cheddar cheese sprinkle topping (more or less) 7 Halloween OhHenery bars (the little ones) 2 little bags of glosette raisins, 1 apple and 2 cheese string sticks.
In closing
2 huge bags of candy coming down the pipe in T-3 days.

Made it to work for 7am today. Had to fight traffic this morning (dodged my daughter and tripped over my dog )
If an event of the same magnitude had happened when I was commuting I would be on facility (insurance) for another 2 years. I run a small business from home. It only makes a little money but it helps.

I use to be (and one day may be again) commuter man, you know the deal, get up, shower, get dressed, wake kids up, get them dressed, make them breakfast, make there lunches, pack everyone in the van (all in under 30 minutes) the whole time yelling HURRY UP! Drive them to daycare/school, kiss them good bye for the day (wiping the tears off the cheeks of the youngest one hoping she will stop crying but knowing she wont until after your gone), jump back in the car, rush to the Tim Hortons to get the morning cup of Joe, and then on to the QEW only to come to a complete stop... (Its funny how your body seems to keep rushing even though your only moving at 5/Kph.) Finally get to work and before you know it your back on the QE rushing to make a 6pm pick up. STRESSS!! Then home
order fast food, feed the kids, PJ's then story, kiss goodnight and sleep.

When we thought about it. It came down to this question "Do we want a stranger to raise our children so we can afford to feed them pizza and buy them cool toys to ease the guilt for not being there?"
uhhh NO.
ANSWER- SOHOSAD man!
I guess it came down to what?s most important in my life and If I was willing to change my lifestyle to accommodate those things. (with some help) 
So now I work whenever I want to, and I get to enjoy my kids and help them be the best they can be.
Every week I go to Judo, Music Lessons, Ballet, Piano, Swimming, Ti-Kwan-Do, Sports camp, games and mazes, Jujitsu and more swimming plus I get to exercise every day and I quit smoking.
At times its a little strange being the only dad in a sea of moms but they don't seem to mind so why should I.
Anyway I gotta go. The bell rings in 20 minutes, my son doesn't have his socks on yet and my daughter is still in her pj's
Have a great day!

Its Judo night at the YMCA and my son is busy throwing his way to the Olympics (hopefully) and here I am enjoying an hour of free time in the Y's computer resource center wondering what to write. Hummmm Politics sounds good.

I voted Blue (PC) in the last provincial election. Not because Eves looks like my step father, not because I blue is my favourite colour and not because Dalton looks like Norman Bates.

I voted PC because at this stage in my life I am a conservative kind of guy. I want less Govt in my life, I want to pay less tax, I don't like unions (for the most part) and I think that the last 8 years have been ok over all. I'm not saying things couldn't have been better but I think they could have been a lot worse.
Now that it's all over I gotta say this provincial election seems a lot like all the others.
I think the good people of Ontario have developed a pension for voting against something more so that for something. i.e. Bob Rae, Mike Harris....Dalton M.? Time will tell.
Now that the Provincial election is over its time for the Municipal election..
I gotta say it.. Who the fuck are all these people??? I mean for the federal and provincial its pretty much a 3 colour thing, you got your Red and your Blue and the orange guys. Yea I know there is a bit of green but for the most part its 3 colours.
But with the municipal election ugh.. your got your Mayor, Regional & Town Council, Town Council, Regional Chair, District School Board Member, District Catholic School Board Member and of course Le Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre.
Not to mention that most urban areas are sub divided into Wards
There are 6 separate wards where I live. This brings the total # of candidates to 64
SIXTY FOUR!!!!!! (ONLY 23 APPLY TO MY WARD)
Simple math 64 candidates, each candidate has 200 signs made up That’s 12 800 signs just for Oakville. This guy likes to put 6 signs in a row. He claims to use enviro friendly signs and plans on recycling them all when the election is over. Great. What about the other 12 600???
There has to be a better way to get the message out than these stupid signs.
I did notice that most of the candidates have web sites this year (printed on there signs) but the point size is so small that unless your walking by them you can't see it.
Its funny how the most important election, the one that affects the quality of life in the neighbourhoods we live in, the one that dictates who says what about our children’s education, about the problems that affect our communities is the one that is the most confusing and the hardest to make an educated decision on. I'm gonna stick with blue ;)

One of the side effects of my quitting smoking is I have started to exercise.
I started to do this for several reasons:

It"s good for you (even though it feels really, really, really bad for you when your doing it)
To loose weight (even though after 10 weeks I haven't)
It strengthens my resolve and my will power.

I remember taking my son to his YMCA programs, drinking large double, double coffees and having a couple of dum-air-ier Lights while I sat around waiting for him to finish.
This continued for over 6 months (6 months of going to the YMCA 3X a week to drink coffee and smoke....duh)
I now go to the Y 6 times a week to join the sweat soaked poorly dressed masses.
I started off by walking for 30 minutes on the tread mill at a "I gotta piss really bad and the nearest can is 2 miles away" kinda pace. I did this for 2 weeks expecting to see some weight loss...nope.
Week #3 I added 30 minutes of swimming laps after the walk.
I really like the swim cause it seems to cool you down and you can work up a sweat but not have to keep wiping it our of your eyes.
I continued this for another 2 weeks, every day, day in, day out
The beginning of week 5 thinking I should have shed some poundage I jumped on the scales and low and behold...
NOTHING not 1 f@%&#*g pound.
Now I'm pissed off so I do some reading on the web and decide to start weight training. So 3 X a week I'm pumping iron (I have to admit I.....really hate lifting weights)
At the end of week 7 I jump on the scales again and it says...you are still a fat overweight pig. No weight loss.
Next I add a 10K nightly bike ride ( OK, not on rainy nights, or nights that don't start with T)
and after 2 weeks of this, bam I am a weight loosing machine...2 LBS...for 1 day and then it came back :(
Then I figured it out, my scale is either broken or lying.
After this epiphany I went to the in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner and my mother-in-law said "you have lost some weight"..gotta take that at face value as this is the same woman that said "you are getting fat" 6 months earlier.
(cause I was :)
Then last night I hooked up with an old "use to be fat" friend (how times change) and he said "you working out? You look like you lost some weight."
In conclusion :

I think there is a secret affiliation between the "loose 60 lbs in 4 weeks" type of companies and bathroom scale manufacture’s.
The best way to experience the fruits of your labors is to meet with someone that doesn’t see you all the time.
Stick with it. Even when it seems that nothing is happening...something is happening.

My Bloginality is ENFP!!!

Go figure.....

I started smoking in grade 5 (1974, I was 10 years old)
My first smoke was a MORE (oh the irony) behind a pizza joint with a friend names Joe Black (go figure)
Does anyone remember DUDES? smokes in a denim cigarette pack? (wonder who the target market there was?) or the 15 pack cause kids couldn't afford 25's.
I've smoked like Andy Cap for over a quarter of a century
On Thanksgiving of 2000 my mother passed away from lung cancer
She battled the big "C" for over 7 years and smoked all the way through it.
After she died I decided that enough is enough. Tobacco companies have taken too much of whats important to me.
I have tried to quit numerous times over the years with all attempts eventually leading to falure.
But with falure comes wisdom. I found that having just one smoke would lead to starting again and again and again.
I now have mastered the "slip" and if I f**k up and have a smoke I do not beat my self up about it and run to the store to spend my $7.25 I just get back on track.
These things helped me quit

I haven't smoked in over 2 months now (other that a couple of slips :)
I can breath normally again, I have a super hero sense of smell, I can breath again, I've saved over 500 bucks, I can breath again, I have tons more energy and oh yea did I mention that I can breath again.
>(breathing is only important when you can't do it)
Did you know that the big 3 Tobacco companies in Canada don't have web sites. (at least I couldn't find one that resolved) I wonder why....

This is my first post to my blog site (hence there is no other posts yet)
I am reading through the enduser help files for my friend Ross to see if they make sense and looking for mistakes/suggestions for improvement.
I found this old email about BLOG and thought it was a great reflection on how fast things change in this industry.
I now know first hand what blog is... :)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick MacCormack"
To: "Ross Wm. Rader"
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: [TLDA-Members] Fwd: BulkRegister partners with New.Net

Hi Ross
this is off topic but more fun than the ICANN conversation going on.
I wanted to point this out even though I'm sure you already know.

------excerpt--------

" I've also observed that the professor that complains loudest about this
dynamic has spent more money on his blog than he has on studying and
documenting this problem."

---------------------
I've always been impressed by your writing skills Ross but "BLOG" IS NOT A
WORD!
why are you trying to make it one? and what does it mean?
If it is an acronym for something I do not recognize it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=blog
No entry found for blog.
9 suggestions found:
log
bog
clog
flog
slog
blob
bloc
blot
blow
For better results, try our search tips.
:)

Later
Rick