GAAHHHHH!!!!
AARRGGHHHH!!!!
AAAAAAAA!!!
WAAAAAAA!!!
AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!
AAAAAAHH!!!
AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!
AAAAAAHHHH!!!!
*whew*, that’s better.
Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.
Unnecessary and unexcused AWOL writing hiatus over.
Back to our regularly scheduled blogging.
What an awesome year. Even though by some measures it wasn’t quite the year I had hoped for, there’s never a bad time in the world of Mike.
One unfortunate thing that I allowed to affect almost everything in ‘08 was my shoulder injury. In February I had what seemed like a very minor fall while snowboarding that ended up dislocating my shoulder and tearing my rotator cuff. I have NEVER had any kind of injury take so long to fully heal! I’m still not at 100%. The toll this took on my usual fun and games was catastrophic: couldn’t go snowboarding for the rest of the winter, couldn’t golf at all during the summer, had to drop out of a marathon training program (still managed to run a 1/2 marathon), couldn’t wear a backpack with any weight so no overnight hiking, couldn’t do any of the normal physical activities that I usually enjoy (weightlifting, rollerblading, squash, swimming, etc.) and, as important, that keep me in any kind of healthy condition. End result is me being in the absolute worst shape of my life: fat, weak, and pretty dang pathetic.
Enough! That’s the other thing I let that injury do for me all year: gave me an excuse to be a whiny lazy bitch, eat badly, not do the exercise I could do, etc. Starting TODAY, I’m back to eating well and working my a$$ off.
One goal I thoroughly enjoyed surpassing was writing at least one blog post a week. I managed to put up 62 posts in 2008, some of which actually involved original thought!
The big highlight vacation was a roadtrip through BC. Chrystal had never seen BC outside of Vancouver and our West Coast Trail hiking trip, so I resolved to show her as much of the rest of this incredible slice of paradise as I could. We did a whirlwind tour of the southern interior, wine country, up the Sunshine Coast, across the island, a week (SUR-fing) in Tofino, then up through the central-BC backroads to Jasper. Tenting the whole way, enjoying some incredible local produce, grilling fresh fish over a campfire, drinking amazing wine every night… awesome. A trip every Canadian needs to do at least once in their life.
I got all fired up about the proposed copyright legislation some twisted, ignorant, bought-and-paid-for, miserable excuse for a public servant tried to force down our throats and wallets. Not that I have an opinion about it or anything…
In May I moved this humble little blog from Blogger to my own Wordpress site. Also started Twittering, because I really don’t have enough ways to waste time online.
Dreamgirl (who I think should start her own blog) had a huge year as well: running her first marathon in Edmonton at the end of the summer, on one of the hottest days of the year! Also, to the joy of us both, she took a part time job at Mountain Equipment Co-Op. Just for the extra money, of course. Nothing to do with the staff discount, amazing trips, cool people, or any of that stuff. Really.
A big personal achievement in the work world was finally building and launching our new website and blog. I’m pretty dang proud of this, and I hope you will swing by every once in a while and let me know how I’m doing!
It gladdens my heart and embiggens my soul to see people celebrating my birthday (aka: “Mike Day”) in the appropriate fashion:
No Pants Day!
On Saturday, January 12, an estimated 900 New Yorkers dropped their drawers on the train. The question wasn’t modesty—it was, ‘Boxers, briefs, or bikinis?’
New York has always been so kind to me.
Willamette Week| “Pants. Off. Now.”Mary Allison Tadina wants to take off your pants. The 22-year-old Portland-born flight instructor is the instigator behind the city’s first ever No Pants on MAX event. In a feat of nonironic titling, the event is exactly what it sounds like: Participants meet at the Lloyd Center MAX station on Saturday, Jan. 12, and take off their pants. They get on the westbound MAX train. They attempt to act normal. “Well, you can to wear a winter coat and [hats and gloves],” Tadina explains, with a nod to the weather. “Just no pants.”
I never knew I was so popular in Portland…
Neighborhoods of the traveling pantless
Some thought it was art. Others thought maybe an advertisement. And many were simply bewildered as throngs of people in their tighty-whiteys, flannel boxers, and floral briefs made their way through the T yesterday.
Boston is such an amazing city, I love you all!
Even my old home town of Toronto came out in force to celebrate with me!
Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, even my friends down in Australia got in on the action. I tell you, it feels so good to have made an impact on the world like this. To see my message of “No Pants” being taken far and wide, thousands of people loudly proclaiming their love and appreciation by dropping trou.
I just… I can’t say how much it means to me…
excuse me, I’ve got something in my eye…
HUGE year for The Mike.
Moved from Ontario back to the Homeland, the Wild West, Prairie Paradise, River City, City of Champions and Festivals, a.k.a. Edmonton, Alberta. Brought the girl of my dreams with me of course!
Joined the family business, finally started building a real career like a big boy.
Now it’s time to actually start building a life.
I’ve been horrible about staying in touch with my friends here while I’ve been out East, so now I really want to reconnect with everybody. Facebook’s been a great start, but once my office blocked it I dropped out again. No more.
I also want to get a serious grip on my health and finances. I make these goals every year, but this year I’m putting a serious plan together, something measurable, something that I can track and hopefully stick to.
So without further ado, let me now present the first step of my plan, publicly listing my goals, to maximize all the wonderful benefits of shame and peer pressure:
1 – Body weight of 225 pounds (I’m a soft 210 right now, gotta lose about 10 pounds of flab and add 25 of decent muscle)
2 – Bodyfat %… (to be updated when I figure out what my current bodyfat is, and what it should be)
3 – Run 1/2 marathon (we loved it last year, might even go for a full this summer!)
4 – Zero credit card debt (one massive monkey I need off my back)
5 – $100 per month into my RRSP (to start anyway, gotta practice what I preach)
6 – At least one blog post per week
Challenging, but achievable. I’m looking forward to seeing how the year goes!
May the lessons of the past carry you forward to a new world of inspiration and amazement. In the words of one of the smartest and funniest people on teh webs: “You know how some people consider “may you have an interesting life” to be a curse? F#^% those people. Wanna have an adventure?”
