Ice Cream & Heart Attacks

And now for something more serious. With more people in the western world having heart attacks, it doesn't make sense to me of why we still eat so unhealthily. There's a real long list of things that potentially can clog arteries which directly supply and valves that work within the heart muscle, yet we still enjoy guilty pleasures.

Yes this is personal because my dad had a fourth heart attack last week and I didn't feel like writing much because I was too worried about him. And too far away to be of any help while he was laid up at the hospital.

Back-tracking six years, a neighbour had to drive my dad to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. Turned out my dad's heart had murmurs. No it's not like murmle murmle murmle by Robert Munch. It's when a heart beat is irregular. No biggie, just a tattle-tale heart-beat that Poe would have loved to have learned about -- heart attack imminent.

Three years later, ice cream, nachos and greasy food without much exercise in the balance caught up to my poor father. He was down for the count as my poor sister put her CPR skills to use. She very calmly broke a couple of ribs, which is a side-effect but kept dad going until the impressed paramedics arrived. Turns out she'll make a fine nurse when she's done her program. My heroine.

So my dad recovered and walked 5km a day, not an easy task to work up to from sedentary life. However he was on track, having given up smoking long ago, given up most of the greasy foods and ice cream and even the weekend bottle of wine & cheese. He actually listens to his doctor and even went to acupuncture for detoxification of kidneys and lungs. Dropped 30lbs and was feeling quite well.

This Christmas... we were really good and didn't eat too much fattening food. This past week I got a text message from my pastor in Victoria stating, your father had a heart attack again, but he's fine now, thanks to your sister's CPR skills and in stable condition. Oh good....

Turned out that a random fat particle got dislodged and carried up and into the heart, causing blockage. Turned out to be a bad thing requiring a stet to shore up the heart's artery. Healthier than he had been in years and still, attack on the heart like lightning. My dad cheated death yet another time, and continues to help support my sister's nursing schooling.

Knowing my dad gets that much exercise, I had a good heart to heart with my sweetie who is also in nursing and with my diet. Decided that I'm doing okay for diet mostly, doing yoga and walks. That said, needed to hit the gym and get back on a bike, drink more water, less of the missing hours of sleep.

Learned a lot about going to the trainer and getting my body composite. With textbook heart rate 130/80 & 60 bpm, I'm have 17% fat which was a few percentages above the limit for my age, but on the fluids end of things, i have 50% water -- right on target for freeing up toxins out of the body.

My sweet girl and my dad as well are very happy to see that I had taking pro-active measures on my health. As for my dad, he was up and about flirting with nurses the day after and recovering while watching the hockey games. So what did I have to eat for supper? Creamy beef stroganoff. However, by draining off the excess cup of grease after browning the pound of beef, it wasn't too bad for me.

Now my dad gets a heart monitor embedded up under the left side of his collar bone and mini defibrillator leads connected to his heart to restart heart and activate an early warning to call 911 if his heart tries to stop again. A bit cyborg rebuilt stronger with the technology, but I'm muchly relieved for this amazing sounding invention. Guess what didn't make the cut on my latest grocery shopping trip? Ice cream.

The point is, changes to diet and establishing exercise routines can do a heck of a lot of good when the crucial time comes. I don't want to think about the alternatives, but am proud of my dad for dropping the weight and getting back in shape. The ticker might be wearing out, but the mind is still super active so my dear father, thank God above, got another chance with another cat life down. So my mother is renewing her CPR training and I'm trying to cut down more grease from my cooking.

Life goes on. So look after the ones you love and look after yourself.

-- PLR --

v-day approaches so learn from the past

Now for something more light-hearted. Valentine's day cometh and that strikes terror to the hearts of singles and men everywhere. Once upon a time I wrote a cheeky guide for my slightly gothy girl and she loved it. Now I write for the nursing student I do love and adore.

As my sweetie Sharon does read this, I apologize if I got stuff wrong, but it's how I remember stuff. As I'm predictable at times, I have no intentions of giving away any surprises for this V-day. But as tech school grad, I do have the experience to recount what has and hasn't worked over the years when in college.

Writing and giving a poem to a girl I had a crush on? Win.

Finding out she was hoping to date someone else? Worst fail of high-school.

Found out she kept the poem on her wall for years when the other date didn't turn out. Win.

Finding out that knowledge years later in college when I'm already dating someone else? Fail. But no regrets.

Writing a poem for a girl I had a crush on in my college newspaper column while single? Win. Having her friends laugh at me as she walked away indecisively blushing? Fail. Thankfully I had developed a thicker skin by then.

Making brownies? Win. Almost burning them while making out? Fail. Asking Sharon to marry me? WIN three years ago; Hence why brownies were forgotten. Tie game.

Romantic dinner out in Banff? Win. Not making reservations? Fail with bonus round of searching out a restaurant where someone else's reservations fell through. Win. Taking her to the fudge shop afterward? Win.

Feeding on fudge and giggles followed by wine & cheese while watching romance of Mask of Zorro? Absolute win.

Cooking pasta for fancy dinner? Fail if it's a staple student meal.

Cooking grilled fish with white sauce & rosemary? Win.

Roses? Win. Farts? Fail.

Dancing in the kitchen spontaneously? Win.

Asking to go out for Karaoke? Fail. Singing on voicemail? Win.

Taking her to Bedouin Soundclash or the ballet? Win.

Most recently last year.... going out to a look-out point, in the dead of winter -30C with windchill, for a dance atop the hill? Chattering teeth fail. Having her cuddle up with me to warm up? Tie game,

Getting stuck waiting at the train tracks for the freight train on the way to the hilltop and feeding each other A&W fries? Win.

Calculating the number of miles I've walked just to see her? Biggest kiss of a win.

Doing Sharon's laundry or dishes on occasion and helping her with studying? Win.

Bringing coffee and a pastry or her A&W take-out favourite, a mozza mama burger, for supper when she's bogged down with research essays? Win.

Listening to her rant about worries on skype when apart and missing each other? Win.

Lads, the point of the dates is in the efforts. Girls don't really care what you do, as long as you put some logical thought into it to make it memorable. It isn't in the huge date plans made last minute or weeks in advance, it's in spontaneous stuff and the small stuff done weekly, like maintenance on your car checking the oil, listening to her requests. So learn from past mistakes and give it another shot. Cheers to that awesome date on V-day. But make it happen all year around and if she's worth it, it'll be a keeper. Good hunting.

-- PLR --

January catch-up

Like katch-up shouldn't appear on mac & cheese when it's done justice, nor should the news when a month old. Yet here I am trying my best to keep an even keel when I've been moving way too much in a forward motion, in personal and working life changes. So I'll try to chronicle it for a while and keep track of the successes and near-misses. Call this a brainstorming session for the weekend edition.

Having always been a fairly scattered personality in my ideas when it comes to writing, photography, planning and everything else under the sun, I have grand intentions but never get 75% done. That had to change, and we've all said that before, just before procrastination hit. But now it's do or die because I realized I was able to get so much done over the past month. Everything except writing on this blog. Screw writers' block because we create messes so we can clean instead of getting to work on something that pays little usually. Enter the dynamite of the spring cleaning and I can't wait until the weather thaws out.

Looking for that illusive Loch Nessy of organized life I rolled up sleeves and got messy. Having planned out and followed through with vacation plans, I got a lot more done; even though I took three days planning and shooting a wedding for my friend (editing has been a harder task) and organizing my old files and papers from school days. My poor sister protested as I hauled up her stuff from school too.

The recycling box got over-loaded from 4 boxes of old assignments and crud and like-wise three boxes of photos hit the round editing basket. Why I kept all the blurry, ex-gf, bad composition and other photo mistakes was mostly a lack of time and guilty reminder that I needed to get better at my craft. It was an eye-opener of how much film I developed. I'm suitably scared to start doing the same to my 1000x's in digital files, but tough luck. It's called the delete button. Also found lots of gems buried in the rubble so that was encouraging.

My poor mother was fairly happy to get some basement storage back and embarked on her own purging of pre-school teaching stuff too. It was a good waltz down memory lane and I hope to digitalize them all in the spring so I can take them with me from Vic to Calgary. A road-trip is still a wistful idea, but will be a heck of a fun time if I can get everything in line to pull it off, including a car maintenance laundry list.
 
When I got back home I realized that wasn't so bad and went to work on the other stuff. Revamped my room organization because it was bugging me having no place to sort stuff. Put a 4x2ft plywood board on a bunch of milk crates and voila an editing table. Photos, mail, books & other crud was way easier to get at and sort away. Recycling bin is near by as well. So are plans to re-vitalize my website and photo sharing.

My computer was sluggish and disorganized so that's next. It got the customary yearly nuking back to basic install. All my files were safe on different partitions, but I did a back-up of photo and document files anyway. computer games disappeared and amazing how much I could done. If I could find a better labeling system that'd even be better so I'll look for some freeware. It's tearing me apart on deciding whether or not I re-install them. One game only is the deal as a reward for purging through stuff and staying to a time limit. Same to movies though that was hard to give up. I allowed to watch a few more if I keep writing more.

Although it's been a way cooler reward to tackle my reading list -- aka too many books over-flowing from my shelving and tucked on top of my dresser. So I'm narrowing it down and going to review a bunch of them as I hack through them. A Sony E-reader helped make the transition and eventually I'll find enough stuff from the library to download instead. More on that later.

Next was my agenda book as the year wrapped up and I needed a new one. Got a new cellphone (2nd hand) which has windows mobile on it and the task list and calendar reminder alerts are golden when so busy. My palm-pilot got me through a year of journalism school but proved to die too fast in the cold to be a reliable time piece. So I'll find out how the Motorola Q does. Funny enough I'm still using the 'palm-pilot' of writing on my hand since I can't use my cell-phone at work meh.

Lastly was getting through the musical theatre commitment that was been going on for the past few months. Titanic: the Musical set sail on January 13th and I got to relax finally. Went into high gear and got so much errands done for last minute deliveries of dry-cleaning, seamstress alterations, random stuff like dozens of batteries for wireless microphones and everything else. The car odometer hit 500km in a week but it was worth it. Both production manager and costumer designer, who are both dear friends and asked so much but I was happy to do my small part to get the show on. More on that later about patterns in life and sewing. Through the planning and execution of said plans, the amount I was able to get done on top of editing the wedding photos and university opera productions to the point where I'm like just get everything else into high gear.

SO there ya go.... if you're keeping track, I'm getting way better at keeping track of what I want to get done. yay for Mondays.... stay tuned for more to come. As the radio dj on beloved CBC radio 2 pointed out, two weeks in, the new years resolutions are still good and in a week the three week habits will set in.

Soon to follow this weekend will be eReader vs books, sewing & life patterns, cellphones, photo-shoots as well as a bit of health and world events reflections, a trip from my old archives and some other editorials. It'll be a heck of a January issue. Thanks for reading and peace-out.

-- PLR --

having a blue christmas like Elvis?

so pleasing when the season is the reason
but it's so hard when so depressing
people are so busy stressing
forgetting to count blessings
so find something to believe in
joy and peace brings relief in darkest days

From talking with my friends who are all mopey and tired out from studying for exams and sick and tired and no fun. Maybe growing up on the rainy west coast, I kinda brought my own sunshine with me if that seasonal disorder was getting me down. Found ways of coping when it got depressing because others were having rough times too.

Don't get me wrong, I've had enough rough Christmas times. There's a few years when I was white as a ghost in photos because I was so sick and tired from school etc. and it was really hard to be joyful. Or having a sad time for various reasons. But I'm surviving so far! After searching through a few malls to find just the right one, I’ve been wearing a Santa’s hat for the past decade. It’s pretty fun to be a cheeky elf anyways :)

Thought I'd pass on a few hints to defeat the lameness that makes Christmas less fun in no particular order but always fun from my family's traditions and other stuff I do.

1) Go carolling around the block -- even if you're tone deaf, elderly neighbours' smiles will make your day
2) Find a Christmas lights tour -- there's bus-tours and maps in the newspaper for colourful cheerfulness
3) Escape! Into a good book/movie/video game, whichever, take a mental vacation with a cup of cocoa
4) Phone or write to a friend! Ask them to break you out your funk or mope together (but not too long!)
5) Count your blessings -- remember how many ways you're cared for everything you need

6) Make Christmas cookies -- Pretty much kid-proof so i’m sure you will do fine! but don’t burn them.

7) Do random acts of kindness -- you can never do too many but even better during Christmas

8) Write Santa a letter -- don’t tell me you’re too old to believe in the spirit of giving and magic

9) Blast old carols or movies -- easier to get into the Christmas mood (movie list forthcoming here)

10) Create gifts -- not using credit cards lessens stress, re-gifting and making crafty stuff is enviro-friendly too

11) Donate or help make a hamper -- again with remembering how blessed you are and help a family out

12) go to a Christmas recital -- if you don’t have a kid in school, they’re a blast to see and reminence

There’s plenty of other stuff you can think up to stave off the winter blues so get creative and hope this helps out. Reminding others to do the same is just as awesome to show how you care. Not to be all gushy but we gotta look after each other. So go share the joy of the Christmas spirit.

jet set life

Having forgotten how busy my schedule becomes between: working full-time; volunteering for two different projects through my church and the university operetta company; and finding time for my girlfriend, roomates and other friends. Half the time I'm fueled by the evil but so useful coffee, the other half of the time it's just pure sugar-coated excitement of being involved and getting so much stuff done.

Now I won't complain for boredom nor comprehend how people can twitter their angst of nothing to do. To divulge these projects in more detail I will in coming days, but this is the first time I've had to breathe in a while -- and that's between three coffee shop meetings, a photo-shoot consequential editting to put off the other two larger shoots I did over the weekend, and errands & tasks to put off. There goes my day off from work.

Admittedly I do sit on my butt in rare few spare moments/hours to read, watch movies or video games, but haven't had barely any time to do that lately. Forcing myself to write necessary emails or open up a book or article over breakfast cereal, coffee break at work or when crashing before bed is about the only thing that keeps my mind from other stuff that my life has incorporated to stay connected.

Keeping in touch I might begrudgingly use Facebook and this blog more: barely updating my status once or twice a week, I don't understand how someone could find time to twitter, text & blog all at once. How much is necessary to make public? Will someone possibly want to read about someone's ability to operate a toothbrush or make pancakes -- something I'm quite accomplished at and love to share if you're not busy to come over on a Saturday morning -- but that's besides the point.

Living in a larger city has spun my head around seven times from Saturday on how many events, workshops, benefit fundraisers, concerts, theatre productions, sports games, club outings and protests there are going on all the time.... With the access of the library to data-banks, periodicals, world's supply of newspapers, and paperback & ebooks, where do I even begin? I can't even decide on a single book so I'm reading short stories -- just as delisious and cut short. No wonder it's not a luxary to just sit at home and relax with my feet up and do nothing.

And even if I do that, the cat, who does nothing but dream under a sun-beam all day, jumps on my lap and stares at me like I was crazy to scold him for not mopping the floor or doing the dishes while I was gone for the day.

To suit my mood, I was listening to Jazz Manouche on Broadway: Hot Club of Edmonton from the lovely CBC radio 2 concert on demand archive while typing. If you're up for some gypsy jazz with some Stéphane Grappelli infused fiddling, check it out ^_^ Just make sure you have enough time to enjoy it.

Gotta run for my next appointment so stay tuned ^_^

-- PLR --

blasts from the past

While realizing this should be a posting place of new and improved writings, I shant forget my past endeavors as I did write fairly decently to begin with. So I'm looking through my archives of stuff and adding oldies but goldies. This is in order to create a blog with some flavour already simmering and finally amalgamated together for the first time ever in Philip history!

Not wanting to take all the fun on myself, I will find others' works (with permission when possible) to guest post and also link brilliant work I stumble across while cruising the interweb.

I'm finding I have too much different interests, my fault for being a recognized by a few teachers and instructors as a bit of a renaissance man, separating my work into different streams of different blogs. I shall continue to drill for old stuff from my archives and revitalize half-baked ideas and old interviews never carried into publishable form and find a home for them online.

Basically wanting to pump new stuff up, however, it was more motivation and walks down memory lane to get me started and more into a constant flow of writing. You can't start a pump unless you prime it with oil or water first so here is some juicy writing to get me going. So do enjoy and let me know what you thinks!

-- PLR --

Movie Review: RED

What else to do on a Friday night? Go catch a movie for once and get out of the house ^_^

There are few movies I'll end up going and buying a ticket, so it had better have some appeal -- some classy actors, good writing, things blowing up, some drama and suspense. Not knowing much about the graphic novel, there's far too many of them, but Retired, Extremely Dangerous caught my eye by posing the question, what to do after the thrill of a dangerous job? After the Sunset with Pierce Brosnan as a retired thief was first to come to mind, but this movie is more deadly-pan humour.

Based on the cult D.C. Comics graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer, RED plays on tongue in cheek humour of super agents who seem slightly ordinary once they turned in their badges. Director Vikram Bhatt, who did The Time Traveler's Wife, probably had no problem casting some great star power the moment they read the crazy script. Bhatt kept the action from slowing down by jumping from city to city on this wild goose chase to unmask classified skeletons from a political closet and using solid camera work.

After different charming toughs from Die Hard to The Whole Nine Yards, Bruce Willis plays a retired agent out of his element in RED. After the life of a highly trained CIA operative, he seems bored; reading books, staying in shape, looking up his old mentor, taking out the trash, talking to a pretty girl on the phone, going on a first date... and that's where it gets out of control.

Thrown into the fray, Mary-Louise Parker, who co-starred in Proof and now Weeds, doesn't let Willis steal the screen, showing spunk like Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies as Parker embraces her new life of adventure she'd only read about in romance novels. The real romance doesn't really sizzle between the two as convincingly, more like she'll make him muffins to take in his lunch.

Finding Morgan Freeman, who played action roles like in Lucky Number Sleven and Batman Begins, to be in a retirement home seems the last place for a former razor sharp agent. The theme of getting older is endearing balance of denial and amusement similar to Space Cowboys. Freeman plays a smooth old timer field agent and pulls some classy moments. So does John Malkovich, after another spy spoof movie Burn after Reading, as a paranoid spook of a conspiracy theorist. A plot with him involved is a sure sign that things will not go exactly as planned nor will he fail to charge screaming at someone. Malkovich delivers with magnesium explosive catalyst eccentrics which may crack a few ribs in side-splitting laughter.

However, the real charm of Helen Mirren, who played the Queen, now with a sniper rifle and Brian Cox, the villain in X-men 2, with a bottle of vodka and intrigue as these veteran spies give the plot thicker depth and eloquence. Karl Urban, who played Doc McCoy in Star Trek last year, holds his own against Willis, proving a tough advisory as both play dirty pool at times.

The big caliber bullet action is good with little time for cliché or dead space and the comedy gaffs are quite clever. Giving a nod to the Blues Brothers in getting the band back together for a reunion tour, the character developments and depth shows tender moments in old friendships and love amongst ricocheting remarks. Embellishing from the original work, the trend of graphic novels going to the big screen continues to get more awesome as it goes.

They don't make them like they used to nowadays yet even old school secret agents can get in over their heads. With some pokes at cold war defections and smoke & mirrors, RED is a fun lark of old agent vs new agent and worth the price of admission. Though it is near the end of its run, RED are due to come out February 8, 2011 on DVD and Blu-Ray. What I learned from this movie, walk quietly and carry a big pig but don't mess with a redhead's purse -- which is all I can say about my favourite scene from this adrenalin flick.

-- PLR --

Testing 1.2.3.... thanks for dropping by this experiment

Right. It's a dreary blustery Chinook of a night and I'm reading and turning in around midnight. Good as any a time to rekindle my writing.


If I thought the purpose of snogging blogging, journaling oh so eventful, dear diary my life is emo important, to write down all the little happenings of my day about the mustard stain on my shirt and armchair cynicism on how to run the gov't. If it hadn't really caught my fancy for the longest time it's because it seemed so darn trendy. On the other glove, fact is that I HAVE to post in order to build up my writings skills. I had gotten so lazy once I stopped having to learn, research, study, and regurgitate on the test.


Oh how I miss the pressure but don't really miss GPA stress of school. Yet the assignments were so great at forcing me to write daily. Now, instead I"m feeling like doing something else like reading, playing video games or poking the cat... Anything instead of the point of my occupation with getting all the ideas flowing through my head onto paper. At least in digital form.


SO might as well face the fact that I rarely have to write 500 words even in an email any more. That's just not good enough after writing 2000 word essays and in-depth articles. I miss it and I must get back into practice. Like I have been saying for ages or how I thought I'd lose 10lbs by starting to swim and work-out again. Apparently it takes three months to really start to lose any weight because your liver has to break down the fat. Makes that saying about chewing the fat make more sense now.


If I keep going for three months, I'll be in better shape with my writing, maybe even more energy after I get off the couch or computer chair once in a while. I even wrote out a game-plan so I can keep myself accountable.


One of the things I really did want to focus on was good news stories and links to interesting studies & articles. Like this entrepreneur/philanthropist of a gentleman in Toronto who went away from a meeting with the great Nelson Mandela and took to heart Mandela's words that “Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world.” It's a good read in the Maclean's business section -- some interesting stuff is written in there so do check it out.

This has been a good night of write and soon to be regular thing. Thanks and goodnight.

-- PLR --

Limiters on where this blog will be headed

As promised got my head on straight to what I was going to limit and grow within these virtual pages of this blossoming new venture. Goes something like this:

As I spent too many years around college newspapers and communications classes, expect this:

Editorial response to news & opinions on events & concepts

Researching on subjects so I can be legit, maybe even interviews if I get ambitious.

Holidays & significant events?

For instance this day in history... in 1922, King Tut's tomb was uncovered by archaeologists.

Even though that is a cool random FYI in a discovery that it really exploded light on history to the modern world. Increased interest in popular culture and imagination. It does pose a question of why we just don't care as much as a society anymore about important discoveries of things and events older than a twitter post at times. Sigh....

Length? 400-800 words per day? Why because that's all a good article should take to spit out the facts ma'am. Schedule it Monday to Friday after work when my mind's blank anyway and get'ter done by midnight.... off to a good start here.

Limited to no particular theme of what is hopefully unpopular and useful. Will be destined to become at least half a dozen different separate blogs.

personal experiences

cooking recipes tampered with

observations on society & news

writing exercises

Although I mean to write articles, I do love writing all sorts of stuff. My writing page is evidence of that with 100+ posts and tons of creativity. Ya I want that back like I want to be in good shape again. Maybe I'll get determined and do both

So including and not limited to:

poetry & prose; top 10s & lists; product, movie, book & theatre reviews; results of social experiments & questionnaires sociology style.

Then there's the weekender and religious stuff, all churchy & spirituality -- explaining the Bible in modern context as I know it.

But in-depth research on weekend ^_^ as I have little use for a social life when I'm tuckered out from work and volunteering but occasionally I get out the door in some social form.

Audience? young people churched & undecided; artsy & cultural enhanced & technology saavy.

Rant? Nope. Political? Occasionally. Logical arguments and few fallacies? I can only hope.

Social commentary! always. J-school soundness? always.

Encouraging words can never be heard... enough

Finding old man winter's bitter blues happening all around me I wrote this to a friend who was having a rough week. Encouragement, what a word, it's got the word courage in it. [Middle English encouragen, from Old French encoragier : corage, courage] hey wait... Courage -- the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.

[Middle English corage, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor, heart.]

As I'm into words and everyone around me needs some encouraging, break down the words, do take heart and keep on trucking as they say out here in the prairies.

Theodore Roosevelt did so say


It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs,
who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

so that his place shall never be with those cold
and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

This stuff is what kept me going a few times over the past few years since I first heard the quote, but more on that in a little while.