I turned 40 last summer. It wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it would be. The weirdest thing a few months later was thinking to myself how I’d now outlived John Lennon. Yeah, I know. I’m such a deep fellow.

I’d been running for a couple of years, mostly since giving up my gym membership for the great outdoors (okay – PAVED outdoors). A few months before I hit my “milestone” birthday, I’d switched from wearing running shoes to Vibram Five Fingers, which, naturally, changed the way that I ran. I’ll not get into the whole biomechanics stuff (there’s piles of that stuff available online). I did, however, notice that any knee pain after longer runs (10K+) had disappeared. In the latter part of the summer, I kicked off the footwear and began running completely barefoot until I’d gradually built up enough padding to run 10K unshod. That was kinda cool. During the winter months, I’d been holed up indoors more that I cared for on account of trying to balance work/home/school/family life. Needless to say, I’ll be starting from scratch once the weather warms up.

As I wasn’t being too active, burning bunches of calories, etc., I got myself a 35lb kettlebell to do some two-handed swinging. Any regular gym-goer will expound on the virtues of building muscle to burn calories (even while you’re loafing about). I wanted to get back into that discipline. Just before the Christmas season, I started getting more serious about the kettlebell and checked out books and articles by the training master: Pavel Tsatsouline. After reading about another serious kettlebell’r, Tracy Reifkind, and her routine, I got myself a GymBoss timer for intervals. I’m still trying to figure out a good routine for myself, but 20 minutes (off and on) of two-handed swings thrice weekly is kicking my ass just fine, thank you.

I’m sure I’d read somewhere that losing weight falls under the ol’ 80/20 paradigm. 80% of weight loss is due to eating better/right; the other 20% is exercise. I’d dabbled in GI and ABS diets over the years to little or no avail. Since I was falling into a good exercise routine, it was time to fix the biggest component of my life: FOOD! I’ve never been 100% vegetarian, though I hated eating meat when I was growing up, not because I had “morals”; I just hated the taste and texture. The only exception had been chicken (when battered, breaded, fried, etc.). I never went for tofu or any alternatives (I didn’t even TRY tofu until I was in my early 30s). I’d never been a regular salad-eating-kinda-fellow and tended to pile on the carbohydrates WAY too regularly. I’d lived on pizza, chicken fingers and wings, grilled cheese, burritos, veggie burgers and subs for far too long. Since I was changing a lot of basics in my life, I needed to change the most basic. This coincided with looking seriously into the book and philosophy of a gentleman called Ori Hofmekler and The Warrior Diet, which is generally based around eating foods like light protein, fruits, vegetables, nuts, yoghurt during the day, and a large meal in the evening. I’d probably eaten only a few spoonfuls of yoghurt in my life. It’s now a near-daily part of my eating, along with raw almonds, blueberries and raspberries, along with a protein shake. I’ve even been drinking my coffee black for about three weeks now and don’t miss the cream or half-and-half.

I’d given serious consideration and, after examining my diet long and hard, especially over the amount of “dead” or processed foods I’d consumed, decided that, in addition to all of the other changes I was making to my life, I would switch to a vegetarian diet. Just because I hadn’t been eating meat regularly didn’t mean I’d been vegetarian, on account of there being very little vegetables or “live” foods in my diet. I used to joke about being a Pastafarian when I was a teenager; either that or a breadetarian.

So, if you’ve got any must-have recommendations for cookbooks, websites, etc., let’s have ‘em!

In keeping with my ongoing pursuit of self-improvement, the other big facet of my life that is also being quietly worked on is the other four-lettered word: budget (okay, six-lettered). If you’re like me, I’d recommend starting with J.D. Roth’s Your Money: The Missing Manual and his site: Get Rich Slowly. I haven’t spent nearly as much time as I’d like with either of them, though I am trying.

Oh man, am I trying.

Since switching last spring to running while wearing Vibram Five Fingers, Luna sandals and (ultimately) going barefoot, I noticed considerable changes in my body make up, weight and reduced injuries in some areas; new injuries in others. With the *fucking cold* weather of late, I’ve not been out running as much. I did get out there a couple of times since Christmas, and, recently, started using a Seiko clip-on metronome to assist with getting a good 180 steps per minute. THAT is really cool and a lot of fun. I’m hoping to do a few competitive 5K’ers this spring barefoot.

So, with the lack of outdoor activity happening for me, and not having set foot in a gym for a couple of years, I needed to do SOMEthing to keep physically active. The exercise du jour: kettlebell. I started with a small 20lb bell early in the fall and quickly switched up to the beginning gentleman’s 35lb bell. I’m working my way through the week with two-handed and singled-handed swings and am gradually working my way up to cleans and snatches. No plans on RKC’ing.

Again with keeping active during the winter months, I picked up a pair of goggles over the Christmas holidays and started swimming twice a week. Other than slipping into the local pool with the kids for swimming lessons, I hadn’t swum in yeeeears. I nearly fell over after my first half-hour routine of swimming a bastardized breaststroke.

As I persist with work, school, family, exercise, leisure, etc. I hope to keep this site a little more active other than just posting Instagram pics.

One of the things that I wanted to do as a New Year’s resolution was get back to playing the piano. By “piano”, I mean, some form of keyboard; I’ve neither the money or the space for an actual piano at this stage in my life. At one point in my mid-20s I was taking piano lessons while I had a Fender Rhodes in our 650 square-foot apartment, learning simple jazz standards and trying to not be such a drummer stereotype. During December 2009, I’d been eyeing a chepo-o Casio at the local Toys R Us on while shopping for the boy’s birthday presents and the kids’ Christmas presents. At $100, I couldn’t really go wrong if it turned out that I was far too busy to stick with the notion of playing again.
During the pre-Christmas run up, I’d been walking along Queen St. West when I happened upon a fairly new storefront: The Toronto Institute for the Enjoyment of Music; music lessons offered. In the back of my mind, I was going to visit this place early in the New Year.

So, I bought the keyboard and signed up for lessons. After about six weeks now, things are starting to happen again. I’m falling back into thinking about scales, modes, fingering exercises, etc.

My other new year’s resolutions included doing one Max/MSP tutorial a day (soon, soon); reading all of the Marshall McLuhan I can mentally digest; start learning French (I say “start learning” as I’ve never been fluent past elementary school); enroll back at the University of Toronto this summer; get down to my ideal weight by June (a milestone birthday coming); WRITE!

We shall see.

So, yeah. The obligatory year end list feels a bit tedious for me after the shite year we (all) had. I know that, at this time of the year, the cliché is to be all inspired to do wonderful things well into the new year (quit smoking, lose weight, write that great American novel, etc.). However, my goals of recent months have either been attained or are getting closer to being accomplished. Keep in mind, I’m a shallow person, so stuff like finish watching Season Three of Deadwood, run xxK and call [name-goes-here] this week have counted in the past. I know that I’m not going to land the dream gig with [musician's name goes here] or win the lotto jackpot, so I’m starting with a more realistic list (which may make some of you go Huh? WTF? Srsly? and take it from there:

• Budget! Budget! (and I forget the third part). MoneyWell, I’m looking at you…
• Spend more time with Max/MSP; I’ll get there someday
• Re-visit and master the basics, like (X)HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Get reacquainted with Photoshop and Fireworks
• Take more pictures
• Write / blog more
• Finish that final installment in the Tesla series with norel pref
• Keep on running; down to 170 – 175 lbs by my b-day
• Do well with my work
• Chip away at the years of books piled up bedside (Amazon and me are taking a break for a while)
• Learn some electrical engineering fundamentals
• Eat out less
• Cook more at home
• Spend more time with my family
• Run a half-marathon
• Try not to let the PVR fill up so much
• Entertain in MY home
• Keep in touch with friends and family on a regular basis (Facebook doesn’t count!)

My favourite pithy expressions of the past year, which I will continue to use towards my personal philosophy (whatever the hell that is) have been: I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now, which was the tagline for the DDC / Coudal Joint Field Notes; the other being You can have anything that you want; just not everything that you want. I’ve no idea who coined that, but it’s a good one.

For those of you that I’ve tipped a few jars with, gigged with, IM’d and vid-chatted with, broken bread with (and by ‘bread’ I mean ‘burrito’ or ‘burger’), and reconnected with, I thank you for your friendship over the past year and wish you all the best for a happy and prosperous new year.

The first time I saw one of Toronto’s fabled albino squirrels was sometime in the mid-90s when my wife and I first started dating. She’d taken such an interest in them (how could you not?) that each time we rode our bikes past the grounds of 1001 Queen St. West (formerly 999) we were on the lookout with hopes of seeing them. One day, she hopped off her bike, camera in hand, and caught a snapshot of one. In the late 90s, we moved from Parkdale to Little Portugal (still a ways for a squirrel), where I’d happened upon a dead one on the sidewalk just north of our place. This was a sad moment, as we’d only ever seen two or three of them at one time.

A couple of months back, whilst visiting my video rental shop, I noticed that a newer side street on the far end of the 1001 block had been named for the park’s former residents. It’s been years since I’ve seen an albino squirrel, and wondered if they are still around, perhaps displaced by construction over the years. Looking at the above photo I snapped today, I can’t help but think of the old suburban axiom: the streets are named after the wildlife that used to live there.

And so marks the half-way point of the year. Yes, already. It’s off to scrounge for parking, fight the throngs, watch the fireworks, drink tea, watch some Season Three of Battlestar Galactica, listen to a podcast or two, read an article or two and call it a day.