Ghost Crabs: Your Previous Incarnation?

It took a few days to see it and even then, I wasn't quite sure if I truly saw it or if there was anything there at all. Let me back up a bit. At the writing of the post it has been about 3 weeks since I have been back from my Hawaiian honeymoon with my wife, Karen. The beauty, culture and way of life doesn't hit you in Maui, it washes over you like the warm salt water that laps at her white sandy beaches. For the first 2-3 days, I caught myself continually trapped and distracted by the scenery as well of the stress melting away as the sun and air soothed my being. Okay, so maybe Maui struck a hippy chord in me harder than I had originally thought. It was because of this over abundant stimulus, that I never noticed the small things until a couple of days in. Then it started. A specter like movement in my periphery; floating above the beach. The first sighting happened as we tried to catch the sunset on night one. The second sighting occured as we basked in the hot tub under the stars. Then, at first, Karen spotted it as we waited on the shore for happy hour to occur. Moments later, I saw it too and had to investigate!

The Trial of Raspberry Ketones or How I Learned to Limit My Tangents

Okay, so maybe I am a little behind the times here but, I felt as though I needed to chime in on something. To start off, I must say that this may be the first in a series of posts that follow an anti-miracle pill motif. I tend to get on rant tears and I don't know where this one will end up.

My target today is the raspberry ketone. You may have heard about it first, as it has been popularized, on the Dr. Oz show. TANGENT ALERT!: Now, I hope that I do not share the same audience as the great and powerful Oz and thus, maybe you have just seen bulletins on the roadside such as promotional tools for your neighbourhood "health food" store. By the way, the last time I was in a "health food" store all I can seem to recall was bottles of pills and solutions. The closest thing to a food item would be coconut oil, which I highly advocate and you'll get a glimpse later in the post. I would like to say more regarding Dr.Oz but if I continue on, I'll be late for my train and I'll never get back on track.

Education and Application: The Dead Drum Hypothesis

dunce: noun a dull-witted, stupid, or ignorant person; dolt. A person incapable of learning. 

Assessment. That was the name of the game during my Undergrad years. It was drilled into our heads that quizzes, exams, essays, performances etc. were all crucial weapons in a teacher's arsenal in order to properly use assessment of and for learning.

Day One Forever: Destroying Time Sensitive Roadblocks

For the longest time, my actions became robotic and predictable as I battled my demons and struggles. I guess the term reset would be the most accurate way to describe what I would do as soon as I became aware that I slipped up.

I would not really change the way I think or act but, I would hope that my past discretions would somehow be absolved. I would wait, as most do, for the most opportune time to justify a  reset. The biggest and most universal reset happens when the clock strikes midnight on New Yeas eve. For most, their apple cart not only gets tipped over but completely pillaged and used for fire wood as they abandon the wreckage. Others pick up the pieces and start over again. They, like me, would wait until the start of  a new month or even a new week. I think this satisfies the smallest part of each of us that is Autistic or deals with OCD.

How I Became a Teacher or How to Utilize the Universal Classroom

“The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions.”

-Dave E. Smalley

The ability and willingness of an organism or a group of organisms to change or adapt is what fuels the theory of evolution. Unfortunately, some folks see evolution as equivalent to an invisible hand that causes change. This is not the case. Organisms evolve when they are under environmental pressure such as the scarcity or abundance of resources or an all together change of resources. This process takes multiple generations to occur in all species, not excluding humans. By multiple I don't mean three, I am talking hundreds or thousands. This limitation of time, resources, consistency and ethics gives way to the reason we study mice, rats and other vertebrates in labs. They have similar biological mechanisms as us, seeing as they are mammals, and they can reproduce faster and with greater numbers. The assertion that humans are, for the most part - save for genetic variability - unfit to ingest and properly utilize modern fuel sources with out any negative effects is quickly becoming a reality. It is because of this overarching theory or looking glass of evolutionary biology that the Paleo/Primal community keeps growing by the day.

Why Do We Expect the Worst?

"We need to talk."

What hits you when you read or hear that phrase? "We need to talk." Take some time and really think about it. What cross your mind? What do you sense? What memories are stirred up? Finished living in your head?

[Golden Archives]: Do Something... Anything!

Emulating ingenuity one pixel at a time

Over the last couple of days I have been out and about trying to prepare for a trip. During this time I have had the evenings relatively to my self. At one point, I would have just taken the evening off to do nothing (chill out with my family, watch a movie etc.). Recently I have been doing something active and thus perpetuating the idea that I need to be doing more lifestyle activity or cardio.

If you have ventured off to the average fitness centre, they have TVs set up in front of a big bank of cardio machines. Unfortunately they are often muted and you are relegated to reading the closed captioning 30 seconds after the fact. It's like watching The Simpsons in Japanese and then re-dubbed in English captions. However, I picked up an old activity of mine with a twist that I have been experimenting with.

So, I hopped into some workout gear, laced up my shoes, hopped on to my stationary bike and started pedalling away. The difference being that this time I had my XBox360 controller in my hand. Now I have complete control of the TV and my interaction with it. I can play EA Sports NHL 09 and do my own interval training by pedalling to match the effort of the player that I am controlling. I have a base pace in which I would pedal even during intermission or between games, which is still a pretty steady pace. But if I am rushing up the wing, back checking or on a break away, I am cruising. On top of this, time flies by and by the end I am covered in sweat!

Other than that, the girlfriend and I took her dog for a walk yesterday (when temperatures are a more manageable 2 degrees Celsius and not -26 in the wind like today). We stopped along the way and I started a snowball fight which was amazingly fun.

As for my plans for waking up early and working out in the morning, they fell through today. Fortunately I have a bit of an evening to squeeze in some P90-x: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. Tomorrow is Friday Morning Shinny and P90-X: Plyometrics.

Later days,
Coach Kon

Thanks to jnrb50 for the photo