There's a 94 year old man who lives in the same apartment complex as my parents.  His hands are knarled with tree-trunk veins and goosebumpy, yellowed fingernails.  I suspect he can't see much through coke-bottle glasses, but he still, fascinatingly, has all his coarse brown-grey hair.  Every morning he takes the elevator down from his apartment to the small gym in the lobby of my parent's building, ensconsed in a wheelchair bearing an orange flag, the kind you'd see on the back of a child's bicycle. I've seen him there almost every time I visit my parents: rowing, achingly slow.  Lifting ten pound weights up up over his ... [More]

  I learned trigonometry in high school (OK, barely) and dissected a (bulbous, slightly glazed over, am still slightly traumatized) frog's eye.  I learned how to make quiche in Grade 10 Foods class and I know how to tell you in French that your car has run over my foot. But no one ever taught me basic law, economics, or common sense.  I think a third period class on how to whip up a killer spreadsheet and how to gently manhandle an overly demanding boss would have been so much more relevant than say...obscure chemistry or pottery class.  But there's no school of common sense, nor any shortcuts on the road to the most spe... [More]

  Crossfit is expensive.  There's kind of no way around that: it's more than a gym membership, but probably less than a daily vanilla latte habit times 30.  I tend to think that most people could make cutbacks to coffee drinks and weekend Budweiser's if they really wanted to join, but I also understand that there are a lot of people who simply can't afford the bucks.  I think that part of the reason that Crossfit is so addictive is the people: the cheers, the encouragement, the inspiration of fitter, faster, and more agile peers.  But: if you have no money, or there's no Crossfit in your area, you can still do many ... [More]

So I'm about a year into this hardcore fitness endeavour.  I've never felt stronger, more vibrant, more determined to peruse the deep mysteries of what the hell my body can do if I prod it earnestly enough.  My friends all tell me I look better than I ever have, and that I seem so much happier.  I weigh 16 pounds more than I did when I started this.  I don't give a flying rat's ear about being heavier than a kayak anymore.  I can lift shit, and do it ad nauseaum.  I am simultaneously humbled and stimulated by the power of my body and grateful that I've been granted opportunity to enjoy it to its full potential. ... [More]

The inherent beauty of Facebook is the ability to creep on people you haven't thought about in years.  It's kind of comforting that the grade 4 bully is a little bit shlempy, no?  Yes, it totally is.  And it's awesome to see that the Universe sometimes has mercy: your nerdy, humble guy friend in college landed his dream girl and perfect career.  It's also fun to creep on ex-boyfriends and studiously avoid the dishwasher with endless concentric perusal sessions, but I digress.Several months ago, I had a friend request from a girl named Kamber Lindenbach.  I didn't recognize her name, but since I write online, I get a l... [More]