|
|
| |
 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
|
| |
| The Nashville Statement
|
| |
|
|
| |
Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
|
| |
Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
|
| |
|
email
|
|
| Snow This Morning |
A low pressure system that had been moving northeast through Wyoming and the Dakotas has entered into Manitoba, bringing with it plenty of moisture. The cold air has turned that moisture into snow and freezing rain.
So I am not cycling today.
Sigh.Labels: cycling |
posted by Daniel @
8:58 AM
0 comment(s)
 
|
|
|
|
| The Taming of the Few... |
As a computer programmer, I sit on my bottom for hours on end pushing little tiny buttons all day. On especially frantic days, I may actually burn an additional 20 or 30 calories through my vigorous typing... but the reality is that my job is very sedentary.
Now on the winter solstice in Winnipeg, where I live, we have 8 hours (and five minutes) of daylight, and 16 hours of darkness (less five minutes), which, if you work, means that most of the time when the sun is shining in the winter - I am squirreled away in some windowless place in a big building - and I don't get to see sunlight except on the morning bus ride.
The temperature falls as low as -49°F (without the "wind chill") in Winnipeg in the winter - which is just another way of saying that, for the working man at least - the only outdoor activity in the winter ends up being "frozen star gazing".
Which is all my way of justifying the fact (I suppose), that on average I put on about twenty pounds each winter.
I know, I know... I bought a big old nautilus gym set, put it together in my basement with the intention to start doing something about my exercise deficit - that is, not so much as a year round pursuit - but something to stave off the winter flab. I have been less than motivated in this department. Not that I don't like pumping iron in my basement... well... okay, that's not true - I find it tiresome and boring, and it feels like I am trying to be vain and not simply healthy... yet, as I say, this never seems to pan out for me. My good intentions haven't met up with productive desire yet...
Notwithstanding, in the summer I tend to lose as much from cycling and starving changing my dietary habits, as I gain in the winter. Were it not for this I expect I would be a very squat, plumb fellow.
So it is that I embark upon another season of weight loss. I have decided to do away with the scale altogether, and concentrate on waist measurement at the navel. For men, the measurement at the navel ought to be less than half one's height - that is, for someone who is six foot (72 inches), their waist at the navel should be 36 inches or less (less is better) - anything higher is heart attack country. For myself (a measly 68 inches), my target is something under 34 inches.
Now here is the hard part - an honest measurement. It is easy to take a tape line, and squeeze it around my plumpness so that the number is more pleasing, but that is not going to be a true measure of where I need to be. So about ten days ago I did a baseline measure. Forty two inches.
I have done this the last few years. Last year I started at forty six, and the year before that at forty eight - so forty two isn't as bad as I have been - but let me tell you, it is still an embarrassingly high number. When I graduated high school my waist at the navel was twenty eight inches. I don't expect to see that again until I begin (Lord willing), the "shrivel of the aged"
So I measured again this morning - and I am at forty inches now. I hope to lose an inch a week - so that by July I am down to 31 or 32. I will try to keep up with blogging it, just in case there are others who have similar struggles - perhaps we can encourage one another.Labels: cycling, exercise, weight |
|
posted by Daniel @
9:17 AM
5 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
| The Canada Goose. |
 They look so graceful and serene when viewed from a distance...
But on my ride in this morning, I was attacked by one. Yeah, that's right - attacked.
To be sure, it was partially my own fault. The route I take to work involves going through wooded areas and park like settings - and through places that, by their quiet and by their access to water, would make an ideal place for a goose to lay a clutch of eggs. So it was this morning, that as I passed through a particularly treacherous area - there was still plenty of frozen water around - only a few inches deep, but covered in just enough ice that you could go over it - carefully - without crashing through. If one did crash through it wouldn't necessarily mean death - but it would probably mean a wet, very cold ride, the rest of the way to work in temperatures that are below freezing.
So as I passed through this particular area, I had my head down, my eyes on the wheels and the ice - and that is probably why I didn't notice the irate avian sooner. To be sure, I had slowed my pace considerably in order to navigate with through the area in higher (more torque) gears. It wasn't until a rather louder than expected whooshing sound caused me to look up that I noticed, some ten feet in front of me, and about a foot off the ground - a very angry goose.
I would like to say that it's eyes were glowing red, but I promised myself I wouldn't embellish the story, it's eyes were cold and black - almost lifeless. The kind of cold deadness born of some dark, unspoken, purpose... I scarcely had time to notice however, because, after all, I was cycling right at it, and it right at me.
At first I thought I had startled the poor thing, and that it was flying at me in a panic. I have seen this happen many times in the past. I used to work cutting timber in "the bush" (that's Canadian for forest), and one of the jokes we would play on newbies is we would cut down a tree close to them - nothing too big - and angle it so that it would fall right on them. Then we would give it a push in their direction, and yell at them to get out of the way.
Now logic (and some math) would tell you that the tree is going to fall at such and such a rate, and that the easiest way to avoid getting hit by the falling tree is to side step it. But that is not what happens. Instead the wide-eyed newbie, gripped by sudden "flight or fight" panic, and realizing that there is no fighting a falling tree - immediately breaks into a run. Where do they run? Why they run away from the falling tree. But as the tree is tall, and accelerating as it falls - they find that they cannot outrun the tree, and it falls on them.
We all laugh at them at that point - because, had they calmly taken three steps perpendicular to the line the tree was falling on, they would have had plenty of time to get out of the way, pick up their water jug, and maybe even take a bit of some jerky. But instead - they run in a panic - away, away, away from danger - and for some dark reason, the rest of us find that hysterical.
Yeah, I know its cruel, but those who live through such an experience (They did it to me when I started), learn quickly that panic can kill you in the bush. So you take the hard lesson, get made a fool of - but in doing so you learn, and you learn quick.
So I say, I see the thing flying right at me, and I presume that in its panic it has leapt into the air, and is only seemingly charging at me with white hot fury in its cold black little eyes. So when it clobbers into me (they weigh more than you would expect), I feel sort of bad for the thing. Poor, frightened, goose - that's what I would have thought to myself, if the adrenal rush weren't beginning to take effect. .. In a heart beat it is past me, but I still hear the whooshing? For a second I am concerned that perhaps it has become entangled in my helmet or jacket, so I glance into my itty, bitty mirror - the one attached to my helmet that sort of looks like a star-trek cyborg thing, and all I see is goose. In that very second many things happened simultaneously.
At once I understood that the goose was not merely frightened, but was actually attacking me. I was being attacked by a wild, albeit fluffy and harmless looking, animal. I realized also that there was precious little I could do about it, being, as it were, that I was still trying to maintain my balance on a path that was alternately snow, ice, gravel, mud, broken pavement - all of which had been frozen into a hazardous series of frozen, tire-gripping, ruts.
I actually cried out at that moment. Not so much out of terror, though to my shame, there may have been a bit of that (who wants to admit to being -even momentarily- frightened by a goose?), but out of stunned disbelief. I think I said something like "Get out of here!" Not meaning that I was giving an imperative to the goose, ordering it to remove itself from the vicinity, not an imperative to myself, as though I were giving instructing to my body (Feet! move!) - no this was a wonder filled, almost questioning, interjection - not unlike saying, "... nO ... wAy ...! "
I added the mixed case to try and emphasize the way you would be saying that - you know in that very emphatic, "television sit-com" sort of way. Only when I said it, there may have been some shrill hysteria mixed in too. It was a time of sudden stress, and frankly, I am just happy I didn't wipe out.
Anyway, after following me at shoulder height and pummeling me with it wings for a bit, it broke off the chase. I was quite amazed though, and began to pray almost immediately - thanking God for the bizarre experience, and already planning an alternate route home. I don't expect it will keep to that nesting area too long - enough traffic goes through there (dogs and foxes too) that the clutch won't last long.
It was however, so out of the ordinary, I thought I should mention it. First commute of the year, and already I am counting how many flying things have abused me. Normally it is just bugs and the occasional flying dog - but this was too much.
The whole story is true too, except for the flying dogs.Labels: cycling |
|
posted by Daniel @
9:45 AM
11 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
| Bike Riding Season again... |
Well it is time to start up riding to work again.
It's 21 degrees Fahrenheit (-6 C)this morning, but it promises to warm up to 40 (5 C)or so by around two o'clock this afternoon. Most of the ice is gone from the major roads, though there is enough that, for the morning ride at least, I shall likely stick to back roads wherever possible. The ride home will be easier as the ice will have melted by then.
The cold is annoying, but it isn't a show stopper. Packed down snow on the road is a show stopper - but when that melts away, there is usually enough concrete for a safe ride; though there is the occasional puddle.
I put on some pounds this winter, so I plan to drop those over the next few months. We will see how it goes.Labels: cycling |
|
posted by Daniel @
5:47 AM
1 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
| I Am Not Discouraged. |
The weigh in this morning didn't give me the number I was shooting for, I was hoping for at least 185, but found the scale unwilling to surrender said number. Instead it spat with a smirk, a tentative 186. I say "tentative" because I have one of those electronic scales that takes 20 seconds to determine your weight, and if you step on it immediately after getting off it, you could gain or lose two pounds on the reading. I usually try and take the highest of three separate readings for this reason - to be fairly certain that the number, if exaggerated, is at least exaggerated in the other direction (so as not to give me a false sense of accomplishment).
I suppose I didn't do that last week, and to be fair, its been a while since I played the scale stomping game. So it was with some disappointment this morning that I found myself at 186, 186.5, and 187. The numbers remind me that I can't expect much of a shift on Monday if I have all you can eat pasta on Friday, and make a rich, homemade pudding (using the "caloric nightmare" 35% cream in it (that's 15 50 calories per tablespoon!), and expect to see great numbers on the scale on Monday. Nevertheless, even though I would normally take the higher reading (170), I opted to take the lowest reading today because it's my party and I will take the lowest reading this week if I want to. ;-)
Well, lesson learned, and my resolve has been strengthened. Cycling is great, but it is only going to account for about 1/3 the loss. I just have to say no to my lunch time buddies (they are like secular drinking buddies, except they go out and eat rich foods at lunch instead of drinking) consistently, and guard myself like fort Knox on the weekend.
Either way, my poor showing this week gives our friend Neil some breathing room.Labels: cycling, exercise |
|
posted by Daniel @
6:12 AM
3 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
| Weigh in Monday. |
In the right hand sidebar is my cylcing widget. It keeps track of the kilometers I have cycled this year, and the weight I have lost since I began cycling two weeks ago. My official starting weight was 189 lbs, and I hope to get down to 165 by August 15th (my 15th Anniversary). That gives me 14 weeks or so to drop another 21.5 lbs. The first year I cycled I dropped 37 pounds in that time, but last year I only dropped about 20 lbs. You would think with that kind of loss I would weigh next to nothing by now, but over the winter I put on weight like a hibernating bear.
Anyway I shall be posting each Monday - not that anyone but myself is really interested - on how I am doing. The first few weeks are usually pretty productive, but it starts to taper off when my body gets used to cycling again.Labels: cycling |
|
posted by Daniel @
8:06 AM
7 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
| Starting at 189. |
 You may have noticed recently that my cycling widget is back in the top right side hand side bar. I stepped on the scale today to see how much damage the winter did to my midsection, and found myself to be 189 lbs. That would be an ideal weight if I were say, 6' 2" - but being 5' 8" I am about 25 or 30 lbs beyond where I need to be. In 2005 I dropped 37 pounds in the summer, and last summer I dropped around twenty - but these cold winters leave little room for exercise, and I put it all back on as soon as the snow starts to fly. I am hoping to hit that magic 165 this year, but really, it is going to be a fair bit of work. I am aiming for my fifteenth anniversary in August. We shall see if it happens or not. I will keep a running tab of the scale in the cycling widget, not unlike Marc's scale over at Purgatorio.
 I shaved a path in my beard yesterday just because I thought, if I am going to do before and after pics, I should try at least use the before pic for my avatar - and being something of a comic book fan and a patriot, I wanted something decisively Canadian looking - and nothing says Canadian like a weird, "wolverine" beard. The beard itself was short lived however, since my wife is no fan of weird beards and would never suffer me in public with it - so I shaved it off immediately following the "photo-op".
The pics were taken with my palm pilot, so they are not exactly high quality, but they served the purpose. These are my before shots, at 189 pounds. We shall see what a summer of eating less and exercising regularly will do for me. I will take a couple of after shots in August.Labels: avatar, cycling, exercise |
|
posted by Daniel @
8:05 AM
13 comment(s)
|
|
|
|
|
|
