Personal Stories
November 13, 2016

In Pursuit of Greater Kindness

Pictured: Having a damn good time Over the years, I've had a decent amount of time to reflect on my own psychology. I've always been very big on the idea of doing no harm... put simply, I aim to have a damn good time while I'm alive, while being as kind as possible to everyone around me. Though this sounds good on paper, in the past, this mentality has caused me a significant amount of grief. The root of the problem lay within my own psychology... I cared too much (bear with me, you'll see what I mean). In the past, at the end of each day, my brain would systematically review the social interactions that had occurred, and it would identify the areas where I felt I had made mistakes... moments where I seemed…
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Vlogging
November 12, 2016

A Quick Check-in From Mount Royal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COempKADkfA Transcript Oh my. Internet, what are you doing here? How are you guys doing? It's been a while. I just wanted to check in to let you guys know I wrote a blog post, it's called Haters Gonna Hate, you can check it out somewhere on screen here. I'm at Mount Royal right now doing day 26 of my third 30 day challenge. It's damn fun to do this actually, I feel quite good, just the great nature atmosphere, forcing myself to get off my butt everyday, it's good, as usual. And, yeah, what can I say, I just feel better for it, and I look forward to 30 day challenge #4, which, I don't quite know what it is yet, but I'm working…
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Personal Stories
November 10, 2016

Haters Gonna Hate

In a recent blog post, I shed a bit of light on some difficulties I faced in my personal life: "2015 hit me like a semi. My life changed drastically, and I quickly found myself in a world where I could not find that feeling of peace that I had learned to use as my compass. Changes happened too quickly, without enough thought and comfort, and, as a result, my stress skyrocketed." 2015 was indeed a very rough year, but back in 2014, I had major conflicts with my family, my girlfriend, and even my mentor. As the year came to a close, I had no choice but to laugh at how unbelievably dark things had become. If asked to total up the problems I faced, I'd use one word: hate.…
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Personal Stories
October 17, 2016

A Question Of Taste

As you may know from some of my prior blog posts, I sometimes push myself to extremes when it comes to which foods I eat, how I approach weight loss, and how I approach exercise. Somehow, extremes seems to work better with my brain, rather than slowly progressing towards an ideal change. So, I was intrigued when I randomly encountered a video on YouTube featuring Penn Jillette, one half of the magician duo Penn & Teller. In the video, Penn describes how he lost 100 pounds... while still being able to eat whatever he wants. Now, don't get me wrong - I fully understand how much the Internet is plagued by gimmicky weight loss headlines, but take it from me... there's an interesting message embedded here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NelIXCuuSZ0 If you just read the title, or…
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Personal Stories
July 19, 2016

Color Me Rad

It all started with Prison Break Race... from that point on, I was hooked on the obstacle course lifestyle. It didn't take long for me to try a few more: Mud Hero, 5K Foam Fest, Polar Hero. The first promised a gratuitous amount of mud, the next threw foam into the mix, and the last was fearlessly scheduled during the winter. Each was interesting, and may even be featured in future posts. When selecting races, I was always driven to go for the most unique first. So when I heard of Color Me Rad, a 5k race where you get blasted with colorful dyes while running, I was definitely intrigued. I knew I'd have to try it at least once, so I signed up immediately. It's important to mention that unlike…
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Personal Stories
June 15, 2016

My Experiences With Weight Gain and Weight Loss

Me, before For the majority of my adult life, I've been overweight, and at certain times, obese. For many years (though particularly prior to 2011), my discomfort regarding my weight kept me from experiencing life to the fullest. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin, so I was much more likely to spend time alone, rather than be social... at least in the real world. (You don't excel at software development without being at least a little bit introverted.) I went out like normal humans, but probably at a lesser frequency that you might expect. I spent more time typing things into glowing machines, and would often enjoy gaming as a hobby - it had social elements, but it was kind of taboo, where non-gamers were concerned. In any…
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Personal Stories
June 14, 2016

Prison Break

In 2014, I was minding my own business on Facebook, when all of a sudden, I saw an ad for something called Prison Break Race. A 5K obstacle course, sort of akin to the popular Spartan Race series, except, this one had a unique premise. You and many other "prisoners" manage to escape confinement, and have to run through a 5km (3.1 mile) obstacle course, while avoiding guards that are actively trying to catch you. No, this wasn't just a for-fun backstory - there were actual people that would be trying to catch you. As soon as I heard that, I was sold. Within minutes, I paid for my own right to be chased by prison guards, a unique life experience. I had never signed up for an obstacle…
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Personal Stories
May 28, 2016

Onwards… With Challenge

Photo by farmboyted In 2013, I met a girl - we'll call her Elizabeth. We initially connected on an online dating site, and after messaging back and forth, we decided to meet in the real world. Our first date consisted of us walking around the old port, chatting, and eating at a restaurant in Chinatown. She was a frequent traveller, one that would fly from city to city, and stay a few months in each location, exploring the world, all on her own. She spoke of crazy adventures overseas - tales of freedom, exploration, adrenaline. Meanwhile, my stories revolved largely around carefully typing things on a keyboard, quietly tweaking computer programs, websites, written works. As the night progressed, this contrast between worlds made it difficult for us to…
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Personal Stories
May 13, 2016

The Taxi

Over the years, my work has led me to spend more and more time at the Palais des Congrès de Montreal - specifically, at the job fairs that are usually hosted there. Attending these fairs usually means I have to speak for an entire day to an almost endless sea of people. Though eventually exhausting, this is something I absolutely love to do. It's kind of like those for-fun sci-fi convention interviews I used to film, except it's practically non-stop, and it's about introducing people to services that may be useful to them, as opposed to making them laugh. The key to my enjoyment, I think, is that I genuinely love the services I represent. Photo by Kenn Chaplin So anyway, back in June 2015, I was scheduled to attend two back-to-back fairs at the Palais des Congrès de Montreal. The first…
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News
July 13, 2015

Recognizing Work and Life Experience

Note: In 2013, my corporation, Alternate Scene Productions Inc., was hired by Champlain College's Continuing Education department for its social media consulting services. This led to me personally working close to Champlain's Continuing Education staff, primarily in support of their Recognition of Acquired Competencies (RAC) services. Though I'm not employed by the college, I do feel I've become somewhat of a spiritual member of their team. Today, I've decided to share a blog post that I wrote for the college, one which promotes their RAC services, originally written for a Spanish-language website. The post was an absolute pleasure to write as it summarized everything that I loved about their services. I'm sharing it here today because I think it gives good insight into what I do for a living outside of this blog,…
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HumorRecommendations
October 1, 2014

The CS Gas Incident

So I'm not sure what I was doing, initially, but at a certain point in time, I found myself watching a YouTube video of some random guy shaving his own head. This, of course, is the exact type of situation that YouTube can bring about with its near-endless collection of videos. (According to them, 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute. That's a lot of cats.) So regardless of the original idea that triggered my binge-watching, I evidently decided, at one point, that I wanted to know how people managed to shave their own domes. And so I got an answer to that question, and while doing so, I also discovered an interesting YouTube personality. Over time, I watched more of his videos, and eventually, subscribed. Photo by The…
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CostumesDragon*ConPersonal Stories
September 28, 2014

The Suit Bag

Me with my pal Conker By this point, I think pretty much everyone that knows me understands one thing: I really like hanging out with geeky people in costumes. Despite a recent video where I expressed doubt about continuing my yearly Dragon Con attendance, I did end up attending for a fifth consecutive year. However, unlike most years, I flew to Atlanta without knowing whether I'd do the interviews that I'd become accustomed to. Overall, I was in a mode where I was thinking about where my online presence was going, and whether I would continue spending my free time as I was. This was largely due to the timing, as I'd recently experienced a certain amount of turbulence in my personal life. Though I weathered the storm, it was the ideal environment…
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Humor
August 9, 2014

Money, Please

One day, at work, I received a text message from a colleague. All it said was the following: Succint. I was busy doing a few things at once, at the time, so it took me about a second to get back into the context. Basically, she had ordered food for lunch, and was looking to collect the cash before the restaurant actually delivered. It wasn't long before I dropped the money off, and went on with my day. But when I looked at the text message again, I saw more than just a request for action - there was some humor to it, in my mind. It was the sheer simplicity of the text, "money please," that spoke to me. To me, those two words perfectly summed…
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