Tales of a Masochistic Troubadour

Pourquoi le silence?

For a while, I was whipping out an insane number of entries.  Then a dead stop in October.  Pourquoi?

Well the Masochistic Troubadour has taking his masochism to new extremes since the last post.  I've been to Las Vegas and Hong Kong, launched a brand new wireless network, working literally three jobs (and thereby re-orging three teams), stepped up my training for Capoeira and Ving Tsun AND am getting ready for a ski trip this weekend.  I've had to conciously reduce my sleeping schedule by half an hour to fit everything in, which I've compensated for by getting so utterly exhausted that I fall into REM sleep right away.  Anyhow, I'll write about all this later.

For example, today I was actually planning on going up to Blue Mountain in the morning for a break-in ride, go downtown to the QQ office for the afternoon and then train Capoeira at night.  I got up and was ready to go, but changed my mine since the stress of all my overdue work got the better of me.  My face is breaking out in zits.

Yeah, I'm nuts.

Okay, I suck

Reading through my post on The Wayward Cloud, I realise how much my writing sucks.  Hell, a few words I used in that article were brand new words I've never used before.  And I only learnt those words from reading other people's reviews.

I suck!

Glad to be back in Toronto

After travelling for most of last week, I'm glad to be back in Toronto.  I'm usually a good traveller, but this particular trip really screwed me up.  Why?

1. Travelling after a long weekend: Long weekends are screwy already; a Tuesday feels like a Monday, etc.
2. Flying to three cities over three days.
3. Travelling the day before the actual day of the event: Especially when I was re-booking my hotel in Vancouver.  The Wednesday was actually the second day of the work week and I woke up in Edmonton but ended up in Vancouver.
4. Waking up at 0500 every day.
5. Not having enough light in the mornings to kick start my bio clock.
6. Eating crap every day.

I took Sunday to adjust, but I'm still feeling a bit whacky.  Actually, I'm feeling kinda bloated since I was my normal amounts but not really burning the calories.  Planning on going to Capoeira four times this week so hopefully that's going to get my system back to normal.

Muffins, Wraps and Sandwiches

It's been three days in a row that I've been fed the same muffins for breakfast, and the same wraps and sandwiches for lunch.  I've never been fond of sandwiches in the first place, but having the same stuff in three different cities three days in a row is starting to REALLY ANNOY ME.

North America, let me introduce you to.... VARIETY.

Holee shit!

Greetings from Vancouver

I'm finally at my last stop on this crazy trip out West.  Glad to be back in a big city.  I don't think I could stand another day in the flat lands.

My days are going to be full while in Vancouver.  If everything works out, I should be going to Mestre's Capoeira class tonight, then dinner with an old acquaintance.  Tomorrow night and Saturday will be family stuff.

PS: Apparently every taxi driver in Alberta agrees that Toronto is colder than Calgary/Edmonton.  The humidity and wind makes a big difference.  This is doing much for my machoism.  As a Torontonian, I am officially tougher than the Albertans.

PPS: If you're in Vancouver and you're a red blooded male, you gotta go to Kobe's Japanese Steak and Seafood House.  Dude, like I thought we had good hiring practices at Salad King, but this place puts our waitresses to shame.  Ouch!

Greetings from Edmonton

Now I'm in Edmonton.  BP and I caught an earlier flight since the training session finished early.  Having nothing better to do in Edmonton, we went to the West Edmonton Mall and killed time.

Apart from the ecclectic collection of attractions, the WEM is really no different than any other mall.  In fact, it's got less variety than Square One, Yorkdale or the Eaton Centre.  Rather dissappointing actually.  We finished the night off by watching "Serenity"...  I'll be writing about that  later.

My impression of Calgary: a small town spread over a wide area.  I think I'd get bored silly if I lived here.

Greetings from Calgary

I'm in Calgary right now for work.  On Thanksgiving Day, downtown Calgary is a veritable ghost town.  Apart from being accosted by a few of the homeless, I've been left with absolutely no impression of Calgary whatsoever.

Everyone around the world

I heard the news about the Bali bombing on Saturday morning and immediately called KC since she was on route there for a two week vacation.  Fortunately she was still in transit in San Francisco and I was able to pass the information to her in time for her to verify her plans.

The world is definitely becoming more and more of a smaller place.  It seems like every time there is a major event around the globe, there's a very good chance someone you know will be touched.  In the past two years I've had a colleague who's lost a sister in the Tsunami, a relative who fought in the Afghan war, an uncle who got stuck in London during the subway bombing and now a friend visting Bali.

Unfortunately positive changes tend to develop slowly, so the only events the world tends to pay attention to are negative ones that happen in explosive bursts.

A new baby coder!!!

On Saturday 05/07/16, a new arrival was received by the Cranky Coder family.  Born at 7 lbs odd, Rosie is the newest member of the Cranky Coder family.

Cranky Coder is the first of my high school chums to reproduce.  Congratulations and way to go dude!!!

PS: I am a bit disturbed by your description of the amount of stress you are experiencing.  You have been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment at your previous place of employment, so for you to say that this is the most stressful experience in your life leaves me concerned as to my ability to handle offspring.

PPS: One Amazing Miracle Blanket is coming your way.

Powering Human Fission

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  IT'S HERE

It's here!  It's finally here!  Caffeinated Mountain Dew is here!

Nuclear generators have their uranium.  I have my Mountain Dew to power my human fission reactor.

Here's what it says on the back of the bottle:

RECOMMENDED USE: DEVELOPED FOR PERIODS OF INCREASED MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERTION.  HELPS TEMPORARILY RESTORE MENTAL ALERTNESS OR WAKEFULNESS WHEN EXPERIENCING FATIGUE OR DROWSINESS.

RECOMMENDED DOSE (ADULTS): DRINK 591 mL (1 BOTTLE) AS NEEDED.

MEDICINAL INGREDIENT: PER 591 mL: CAFFEINE 91 mg

NON-MEDICINAL INGREDIENT: CARBONATED WATER, GLUCOSE-FRUCTOSE AND/OR SUGAR, CONCENTRATED ORANGE JUICE AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVOURS, CITRIC ACID, SODIUM BENZOATE, SODIUM CITRATE, ACACIA GUM, ERYTHORBIC ACID, EDETATE CALCIUM DISODIUM, BROMINATED VEGETABLE OIL, COLOUR

CAUTIONS: CONTAIN CAFFEINE. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN, PREGNANT OR BREAST-FEEDING WOMEN, OR CAFFEINE SENSITIVE PERSONS. DO NOT CONSUME MORE THAN 1000 mg CAFFEINE PER DAY.

The 355 mL cans actually recommend 710 mL as the recommended dosage with about 110+ mg of caffeine.

Between my skyrocketing energy output and this new wonder drink, I am going to be a holy terror on the hills this winter.  Now if I can just figure out how to keep the calorie intake up to fuel my systems.  Man cannot ride on caffeine alone; man needs his carbs!

Eeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!