Category: Motivation

Hard to believe the number of years that have gone by since I started this blog. Originally, it was a means to an end; intended to help me maintain my writing skills while continuing to build my writing acumen and researching various topics that interested me. Unlike most bloggers, I started this through the lens that I was doing it for myself. It didn’t matter how many followers I had or how much or how little I wrote. As long as it held my interest and I wanted to continue , I was accomplishing the goal.

Originally, my intention had been to write primarily about karate and Type-1 Diabetes. After all, these were the topics that I was deeply versed in. Over time, I started to include topics related to Buddhism, health & fitness and nutrition. All of these things tied together in some form or another, lending credence to their inclusion. And of course, there’s no denying that I frequently make a point of writing my opinion on a variety of topics, whether they relate to my primary subjects or not.

Over time, I started making small goals for myself, challenges, if you will. I started by challenging myself to write about something on a daily basis. This may sound easy in concept but it definitely wasn’t. trying to figure out something to post daily was often very challenging, resulting in my seeking opinions from others as to what they would like to see posted and even topics they’d like to see me cover. In a way, it got me to come out of my little shell and consult with others, as well.

As I got into the groove to post daily, I started to challenge myself with numbers. Let’s try posting for 100 days in a row without missing a single day. Done. Let’s try a full year. Done. Let’s even try posting for 1,000 straight days in a row without missing a day. Abso-fuckin-lutely done! After that, I decided to take a step back and focus on other projects, train at some other dojos and work on myself a bit. I also have a day job that, you know, I should probably not ignore. So I took a break for a while.

As the months have droned on, I’ve slowly started to return to this blog, writing more frequently than I have in the past year. It’s not that I really have more free time to do so or more opportunities but I have come to recognize that I still enjoy it. And when you find something you enjoy, it’s kind of hard not making the time for it. What’s been nice is I seem to have a slight increase in followers in recent months. I’m no online influencer or anything but even if all of these folks only read the occasional post here and there, it’s nice knowing that someone is seeing my words and possibly gleaning something from them. I’ve even received a few reader comments recently, which is always nice to see.

It’s been nice to get back to something that’s essentially become familiar and comfortable. While I don’t think I’ll ever go back to writing a post on a daily basis, it still nice to see increased followers and some engaging by some of them. It shows me that while I’ve been doing this for myself and I enjoy it regardless of the outcome, there are still some folks who are getting something from it, as well. ☯️

One iPod ,my biggest pet peeves with modern society is the propensity everyone seems to have developed for analyzing and critiquing every little detail of every movie and show they watch. While I can say with firm honesty that I have a tendency of comparing any martial arts or policing approaches on the screen to my own experience, I believe that people should just sit down, shut up and enjoy the ride. After all, tv and movies are intended to entertain. While sometimes rooted in reality, this doesn’t mean it will always be an accurate depiction. But I digress…

I got lucky this weekend and wound up with four days off. The stars don’t often align that way and so many days off in a row that I haven’t had to request usually means that my family plans some sort of trip or activity. This time around, we went nowhere and did nothing. Except experience a drainage backup in our basement but that’s a story for another post. No, this time my wife and I chose to keep the weekend reasonably simple and stayed home. We did, however, treat ourselves to a little somethin’ somethin’… We went out to see the new Deadpool & Wolverine movie.

We obviously weren’t going to take our boys to see an R-rated movie but that worked out just fine, because it allowed my wife and I to have a much-deserved date to the movies together. We secured a babysitter and spent the weekend watching the first two Deadpool movies and “Logan” in anticipation. I was a bit surprised at the short play time for the movie, sitting at 2 hours and 7 minutes. Movies in recent years have spent so much time pushing that 3-hour threshold that it was a bit refreshing to watch a superhero movie that was only two hours.

Now, here’s where a few spoilers will start rearing their ugly heads… I don’t plan on summarizing the entire movie, mind you. But of you haven’t seen this movie yet, you may want to consider stopping here. The movie opens with Deadpool digging up the Wolverine’s grave. Some of the comedy comes off as a bit over the top but the movie in its entirety definitely evens it out. Personally, I’m a bit burnt out on the whole “multiverse” concept in shows and movies. Seems like that’s the direction everyone wants to take and it gives them Carter Blanche to use characters and storylines that would otherwise be unavailable to them. But this movie did a pretty good job of it.

Besides a side-splitting montage of Deadpool wandering the multiverse looking for a Wolverine replacement, we get to see the return of several Marvel characters that took place prior to the MCU. This includes the likes of Blade (Wesley Snipes), Elektra (Jennifer Garner) and Wolverine’s daughter, X-23 (Daphne Keene). We even got to see Chris Evan’s reprise his role as the Human Torch and a host of returning mutants portrayed by their original actors from the original X-men movie from 2000. It’s a wild ride of action and fight sequences, plot twists and lots of laughs. It was definitely worth the outing and I think my wife enjoyed it, as well.

There seems to be an unspoken challenge out there for any new movie to outdo others that come out before them. but this one definitely didn’t disappoint. The movie struck the perfect balance of funny, action-packed and nostalgic, all while keeping it short enough that the audience didn’t get bored or exasperated. The only point I would score as a negative is that when Deadpool & Wolverine are eating at the end, they should have been having chimichangas instead of shawarmas. But that’s just me. ☯️

It’s no secret that technology is quickly outrunning the generation trying to use it. More and more, it seems that every device or gadget has features and functions on it that I either completely ignore or can’t understand. I recently spoke to someone who was using a landline and she explained that she’s never had a cell phone and never plans to. I kind of miss those days. Don’t get me wrong, I love my smart phone and I wouldn’t see myself going without it. As a family man with responsibilities, it’s a great tool for managing my daily tasks.

One area where technology keeps moving ahead is with personal vehicles. I remember that my first car was an early 80’s Toyota hatchback, 3-speed transmission with only one side mirror and it didn’t even have a tape deck! Radio only. I absolutely loved that car but it had no power steering; you turned the vehicle on muscle power. It had halogen headlights that were yellowed and barely lit the road. It was the pinnacle of 1980’s imported vehicles, but compared to today, it was a piece of metal burning gas.

Last summer, and I probably wrote about this already, I purchased a 2021 Toyota hatchback as our household’s second vehicle. It was like coming full circle for me, since a Toyota hatchback had been my first vehicle. There’s still no tape deck. In fact, there’s no deck at all; music is played through Bluetooth on my phone. Amazingly, the vehicle has sensors that warns me if a vehicle is coming up alongside me and slowly steers me back if I start veering across median lines on the road. It’s pretty neat, albeit a bit concerning that my vehicle would have this sort of control while I’m driving.

Despite all the functions, my archaic ass has adjusted other them quite well and I enjoy driving the car. I never realized just how many features were involved until the road trip I was on, last week. Typically when I travel to Saskatoon for my eye injections or something, we’re looking at about two and half to three hours’ of travel time (I sometimes do it in less but I have friends who are still cops, so imma keep that shit to myself). I usually make a point of stopping once during that transit, either for coffee or to accommodate my Diabetic bladder.

On this particular trip, I was travelling from a city much farther north than I’m used to. As I was travelling alone and had skipped breakfast, I had no need of a washroom and I had filled my gas tank along the way. At roughly the 3-hour mark of traveling without stopping, I start hearing a beeping sound. It was unfamiliar but I assumed it was something on my insulin pump. Like a stubborn goon, I didn’t want to stop just to press a button so I tried to shimmy the pump out of my pocket (I was wearing jeans) without stopping or removing my seatbelt. Not my brightest moment but I managed it. In checking my pump, everything was clear and the alert wasn’t coming from the pump. I turned off the music right at the moment the chime went off again and realized that it was coming from the dash of the vehicle…

Apparently, I had been driving just long enough without stopping that my car decided to check up on me. I had never seen this happen before. I got a chuckle out of it, so I grabbed a quick snapshot. I guess in a world where “smart cars” are a thing, I should be overly surprised. But it’s nice to know that my car will give me a reminder if I’m behind the wheel too long. ☯️

I had a bit of a unique experience on Monday night. The evening was carrying on as it often does in our household. My wife was working her remote job diligently in her home office, my oldest son was hiding away in his room like the preteen he’s becoming, and the toddler and i were relaxing downstairs, watching cartoons and doing laundry. Around 7 p.m., we got a doorbell ring. For the most part, our neighbourhood is pretty quiet and we rarely have someone come to our, with the notable exception of food delivery or the few door-to-door salespeople we get in the summer.

In answering the door, two young boys were standing there. Perhaps 12 or 13 years old, they were exactly what you would expect of boots their age. A bit disheveled but not necessarily dirty, hair all over the place and a kind of contained, quiet energy that they would access to at any moment. They asked me if I would like them to rake my front yard. I know a lot of people who would have simply said go ahead but this is 2024… I asked them how much they charge. They asked me what I thought was fair, so I told them if they would completely rake the front yard and bag the leaves, I would give them $20 each. I would even provide the bags. They agreed and went to the front yard to wait.

They had an interesting combination of eagerness and wariness and when I brought the rakes and bags to them, they actually asked me if I planned to rip them off. I asked them what they meant and they indicated that they’ve had a few households refuse to pay them afterwards. I flourished two crisp 20-dollar bills and explained that they knew where I lived and knew I was in the house. Refusal to pay would warrant them getting their parents involved and MAKING me pay, which seemed to satisfy them. The fact that some folks reneged on payment bothered me more than the fact they asked the question. I also explained that so long as they raked the yard properly and collected all the leaves, they would get paid. They soon got to work.

I did warn them that they only had about an hour of daylight left before it would start getting dark and it would be difficult to spot any missed leaves. My two sons were fascinated and were watching out the window. It was a good learning lesson for them as, at their age, I would have been the one doing the raking. My father wouldn’t have paid someone else to do it. I explained all of this to them. My toddler was totally on board with raking. My oldest kind of shrugged and retreated to the sanctuary of his room.

Shortly, the doorbell rang again and the boys said they were done. I stepped outside to “inspect” their work and I have to admit, the front yard looked pretty sweet. I fulfilled my part of the deal and paid them each their $20. I got to talking to them a bit and asked if they’d had the opportunity to do many yards in the neighbourhood. They replied that they hadn’t as many residents either didn’t want them doing it or planned on doing it themselves. They were trying to make and save up some money so they could pay for things throughout the summer.; something I rarely see in today’s youth, including my own children.

What was nice about this occurrence and why I felt it important to write about it is, I fancy myself as someone who doesn’t paint everyone with the same brush. It’s easy to consider modern youth to be tethered to their devices, vane and entitled and typically lazy. I’ll go out on a limb and admit that I’ve met many who are like this. The important lesson and the little ray of hope for the future, is that there are still those select few who will work for what they want or need and aren’t afraid to put themselves out there instead of hiding behind a screen. It reminded me a bit of myself when I was a kid. ☯️

Throughout the years, I’ve often given some thought to the many missed opportunities and paths I haven’t walked down as a result of being diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes at the age of four. With that one fateful event, many doors suddenly closed and certain things that I might have contemplated were no longer available to me. Although often disappointing, it also thought me to develop an instinct that I would use to work hard for certain things simply by virtue of the fact that they told me I couldn’t have it.

It wouldn’t be until years later, when I had reached adulthood, that I would ultimately realize that some things that had been refused me were the result of others’ laziness or fear as opposed to the fact I genuinely couldn’t or shouldn’t do it. One of those things were the Beaver Scouts. I ironically joined the Beaver Scouts when I was four years old, back in my town in New Brunswick. Although I was young enough that I didn’t really understand the implications of what I was doing beyond needing to wear a stupid hat with a beaver tail, it was something nut father believed would be invaluable as I got older.

The Scouts are a fantastic way to learn some basic, rudimentary outdoor and socialization skills that can be easily carried into adulthood. When I got my diagnosis, it was decided that the Scout leaders had neither the knowledge nor the training to have me in their group, in the event I found myself in medical distress. Although I understand that perspective, neither did my parents, if I’m being totally honest. But the result was that I was unceremoniously punted from the group. It set a poor standard for the remainder of my childhood, which is why I had to do most of the activities I loved in my youth without my parents’ knowledge or consent. Not something I would encourage in others but here we are.

Little did I anticipate that almost four decades later, I would get to experience that lost opportunity through the eyes of my son. Nathan is a bit of a withdrawn individual; often preferring to sit quietly in his room or the basement, playing on electronic devices rather than spending time outdoors or doing something active. He has no issue socializing with other kids but getting him to willingly do something structured and active has always been a challenge. That’s why when my wife indicated she had signed him up for Scouts, I was surprised that he was not only willing to go; he seemed to be enjoying it.

Last week, I attended a ceremony where Nathan was officially given his investiture into the Scouts. It was a nice thing to watch and I was proud of how attentive he was to the instructions he was getting. He appears t have a few kids in his respective “lair” that he gets along with quite well, and even spent his first weekend away from home at a camp out event with his Scouts group. He hand-crafted some crafts, started a fire and slept two night with his group. It can sometimes be a bit hard to get Nathan to open up and share his thoughts or experiences but he was able to mention that he enjoyed himself and would be willing to do it again.

He still needs to get a uniform shirt, since they didn’t have one in his size that night. But he got some attention and took his oath, got his scarf and some patches that he earned during his weekend. Now, we just need to get him a blanket to start sewing those on. That’ll be fun, since he doesn’t know how to sew. Neither do I. Considering I nearly severed my thumb recently, I’m probably no safer with a sewing needle. But I digress…

Scouts can be a great way for young people to learn the basics of life; not only in the great outdoors but in general. Part of the “tasks” he needs to accomplish include aquatic abilities, helping out neighbours, doing chores around the house and doing good things for others. It’s the foundation on which a well-rounded young individual can base their life and get a bit of discipline while still having fun. As Joe Clark used to say, discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm. Here’s hoping he sticks with it. In the meantime, I get to live out my missed experiences vicariously through my son. ☯️