Mic Drop

It's maybe a little early in a reboot to drop the mic on the whole situation, but I just rode my bike 70km in about 3h:15m on Sunday.

If I am recalling correctly that would be the farthest I have ridden my bike in one day, even figuring when I was super in shape.
I feel good about it, my body really hated me for the rest of the evening, I assume because it was 30 degrees and I had completely depleted myself of hydration and electrolytes!

I very much feel like I'm hitting my stride though.  I'm not as fast as I was before, I'm not as strong as I was before again either, but I feel like there is progressively steps forward being made. I know as I work moving forward that I will get to the goals I want simply because I can really feel what's changing.

Clothes fit better already, I can run 5k in a decent time already, I can make my body ride 70k and I can lift weights not too far away from where I was before.

I'll get there!

Different From Before

As I am working to get in shape this time around there are some stark differences from before.  One of them is that it's not an all or nothing proposition this time around.

In 2010 I worked my ass off to get in shape, pretty much literally.  I ate barely anything and out of about 240 days I probably was over my calories maybe 5 or 7 times or something.  I worked hard, ate nothing and dropped weight like crazy.

Here in 2019 I'm, as already stated not as far gone as I was before, but I'm also taking the time to enjoy the life I have along the way.  My friend and I went to the US for a night to see a Weird Al concert and go to Darien Lake, on that trip I ate the things and didn't work out on the Wednesday (other than 10000+ steps at the park).  I'm sure it's a much healthier way to accomplish all this.

Anyways, progress is being made, I'm only 15-20 pounds from my goal now (because my goal is a bit elastic) and I'm hoping by the end of the summer to be only 15-10 away! Woo!

Reboot

It's been a while huh?  Like 4 years since the last post!  What can I say? Life gets busy.  So what's been happening? 

When we last chatted I was married to a woman, and was just welcoming a 3rd little girl into our home by way of Foster-to-Adopt.  Shortly thereafter that woman decided I was no longer necessary, so out of the blue, that just a week previous I'd bought a new car with some input from her on the process.  I had to find an apartment in less than a day!  I had no legal claim over the girls and supported her to the Children's Aid Society as a good mom.  I also gave up any claim to pensions or spousal support or anything, heck I even paid her, and she kept the house!  I lost/gave up everything except my personal things and my car.

As you can imagine, my life was upside down for a while there.  I was working for a while about an hour away from where I was then living and so everything kinda started to slide.  I did try to keep up running and biking but it was very difficult.

I then took a new position, Site Supervisor of a school age program which split my hours up a bit, early morning and late afternoons, that was good, I moved much closer to my work and that was good too.  For a while in there I could have - and maybe should have written a dating blog!  Those were some adventures to be sure.  I continued to ever increasingly see the little ones that my ex-wife had in her care and did finally adopt.

I met a new woman after a few shorter relationships, she is amazing, we dated like a whirlwind and moved in after only about 4 months, she's got 3 children, much older than the little girls were, but they were welcomed with open arms and hearts. I gained a few pounds.  The only thing worse for your waistline than misery, is contentedness!

I got to go to San Diego Comic Con in 2017 and 2018 thanks to Andy from The Flash Podcast! An amazing opportunity from and amazing guy! I proposed to Brooke while in San Diego in 2017 and in the February of 2018 we got married! Twice actually.  On Valentines day at the courthouse and on the 24th with all our peeps.

I took a new position with Compass - co-Leading the entire Peterborough School Age division! That happened in Mid-April 2018.

We moved from a small town into the small-ish city that summer, and then the bus of life hit me again when my ex decided that I'd never be seeing those three little girls again.  They had literally just spent a week at our house and the day we moved into town and I dropped them off at the ex's house was the last time I would see them in my home.  Now there has been all sorts of hate and vitriol about that back then all that time ago.  Not undeserved, but I'm not really interested in reliving that moment any more than I have to on an ongoing basis.

Christmas 2018 came, another incident with the ex as we attempted to surreptitiously drop off gifts, intending to not be seen, to not create an event.  Of course we were spotted, by the middle little one, and my ex flipped, some back and forth ensued...  not at all a great time.

To try to forget all that we went off to Punta Cana, we took pictures at the beach and I was wholly embarrassed at myself.  Where had the guy that is standing on the left of this blog gone?

Life can really run you over sometimes!

So we came back and I hit the gym, hard..  sometimes multiple times in a day, and then I got a concussion in a fantastically unglamorous way and was benched for at least a month from doing anything remotely strenuous.

Shortly after I bonked my head we discovered that Brooke was pregnant, and while the pregnancy has not been easy, it's moving along (I felt the baby moving last night even!)

Mid April 2019 I was hired for yet another new position - with a whole different company, this time going back to my tech roots and fixing tech stuff for children who need assistance with communication.  A lot could be said about the year where I was in a leadership position at Compass.  If you were to talk to the people I was leading they would say I was a great guy, and a good boss, and there to help and listen and support as needed while also giving the space to sort out their own problems.  If you talked to my superiors I was on a learning curve and not as good as my co-program lead and...  well, basically, I didn't drink enough of the Kool-Aide.  Since leaving I've had a few people wonder to me if I would please come back.

Short Answer - No. My new job is great, they see me as competent and capable, they pay me well and I have a pension now!  Why would I go back to a place where most people did not see my value.

As we've approached summer we made summer bingo cards for the kids, mostly fun stuff to cross off, go for a bike ride, catch fireflies, a few chore type things - help mom 10 times etc...  I made my own card taking written responsibility for my fitness situation on it basically..  may card has things like run 3 times in a week, bike 2 times in a week go to the gym at least 2 times in a week...  we are mid 3rd week into this now.  I believe I'm down 5 pounds at least, didn't really get an accurate look at the scale yesterday at the gym.

And that brings us to here.

Am I (was I) as out of shape as I was back in March 2010? No, definitely not.  Am I the superhero I was when I took 2nd place in a Zombie run out of 3500 survivors? Also no.  But today I'm 2.5 weeks closer to the later than the former.

A lot of things try to suck the Power out of your life - situations, people, events.  It takes Wisdom to recognize what's happening and then Courage to make things right, even if it means admitting where you are at and rebooting the franchise!

10 Pounds

It's funny what you consider to be "fat".  When I was 230 pounds I didn't really think of myself as fat.  I practiced karate and played hockey,  surely these are not the activities of a fat man. 

Five years ago when I got down to 150 pounds I looked back at  what I used to be in amazement,  how did I ever do sports?!  As I've said in other posts on this blog I did come back up to about 166 pounds once I started to build muscle and that's the weight I've been for about the last four years. 

Over the last year we've had three children come to live at our house and in that time I've gained about 7 pounds. So I'm around 174 pounds at the moment and I will admit that I feel fat. 

So am I fat? Not really. I'm part way between a 31 and 32 waist.  I can still run 5k in less than 24 minutes.  But I feel fat,  I feel out of shape. 

So what's to be done?  Back in February I was feeling the same and every night after the kids were in bed I'd go to the gym and workout for an hour.  I don't have that much free time now. So for the last couple of days the alarm has gone off at 4:40 so that I would get up in time to go for a run and a shower before I left for work at 5:30.

Diet has to be part of what's happening to be successful as well though,  I know from experience that working out without changing the diet,  or that dieting  without working out will not achieve the goals I want in a timeframe that I want. So we are back to counting calories,  Back to the methods that got me in shape in the first place. 

I had the willpower and the strength to lose weight before,  I can do it again now,  even if it is only 10 pounds.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Kickstarter!

Hey everyone!  The video pretty much explains it all but here's the scoop. 

I've launched a kickstarter to help me get a table at Toronto Comic-Con 2106!

You can pledge as little as $10 and in return you get original art you'll never see anywhere and prints of cards I've already done!

I explain it all in the video.

https://youtu.be/B-YpPclOzX8

If you want to get right down to business the kickstarter link is right here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1326342442/a-table-at-artist-alley-for-toronto-comicon-2016
Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Out With A Bang

I was able to finish off  this year strong with several trips to the gym in the last few weeks. It turns out moving to Campbellford has been a boon to my fitness as now the gym is less than two and a half minutes away as opposed to the twenty minutes away it used to be while living in Bridgenorth.

The gym I'm able to go to now is not as elaborate as the Peterborough Sport and Wellness centre was,  honestly it's a more glorified and well equipped version of what I had in my garage,  free weights the typical circuit machines and some cardio equipment along with floor space. It's a home  gym on steroids.

All that said I've been there seven or eight times since the 19th! I feel short of my goal to go 2500 kilometres this year but by less than 200 k. I did go further than last year though.

This year I'm not making a distance based goal as I felt last year that I chose riding my bike instead of running or  weightlifting simply to get more kilometres racked up instead of focusing on tougher workouts.

With that change in goal in mind I'm not sure how exactly to go about setting a goal for the year this time around as ' work out harder ' is a very nebulous goal.  In the short term I want to get back to the 165-168 pound range (down from 172 pre- Christmas)and perhaps working toward bench pressing my weight or more again.

What are your goals for 2015? Where you successful in reaching your goals for 2014?

Gym Membership

I was at the gym in Campbellford just now and it was awesome!  I haven't had a gym membership in nearly a year but these last four months since the girls came to our house have been awful for exercise.  I was out walking a lot but it's not the same.

All I did tonight at the gym was run, but it was great!  I was able to run without having to push a stroller and without freezing my face off.   The best part is that it's a 24 hour gym and only five minutes from our new house!

The last four months have seen me gain about 7 pounds and get a bit soft around the middle,  it's amazing how fast the body backslides when you can't get out regularly. 
My plan,  be back to my August shape by the end of the month!

One Seventy One and a Half

So I got on the Wii Fit U scale yesterday (it’s the same as the Wii Fit scale, just new software) and I was up over 170lbs.  I have not been over 170, in over four years!

There was no real BIG shock, but there was some dismay.  over the course of two tiny little months I have gone from fit and pretty trim, to a bit soft in the middle as evidenced by not fitting well in a sitting position in my dress shirt on anniversary dinner night.

I walk all the time, probably an average of 4 km a day while pushing a stroller.  I run once in a while, usually twice a week, and have fit in a work out maybe once a week on average since the children have arrived in our home.

Clearly it’s not enough, at least not enough for what I am eating, which is not all that much different from pre children in the house days, except for a bit more banana bread.

And so. It’s on.  how does getting fat start? it starts with being over some weight you have not been over in four year and then just letting it slip by unaddressed. I worked too many hours to let this fitness go away.

Yesterday I ran 9 km, today 5, and I walked 2 more, and worked out during rest time.  My actual hope is that this time the loose skin goes away with the fat, but we’ll see about that as it happens.

Babies and Fitness

Leading up to being off with my two new girls I heard quite a few people speculate that my days of having time for fitness were over!  As with much of what I have learned over the last four years, making time for anything is a choice,  simple as that.

A quick look at my tracking and in the weeks since the girls have arrived my fitness patterns have certainly changed. Not in duration but in what form they take.

I'm sad to say that I have not done much weightlifting in the last few weeks. That is certainly hard to make time for as someone has to be inside and the weights are out in the garage.

Cardio is not a problem!  We walk all over the place, usually between 4 and 6 kilometres a morning.  It's not high intensity but walking with a double stroller is a pretty good workout.  And now I've got my croozer stroller figured out we can run or bike and I can have both girls with me no problem.   Today for instance I ran 10k! It takes a little longer than it would without the stroller,  56 minutes today,  but it's really doable and it lets me take the girls and give Amber some time to do things with a little peace and quiet.

In the month that we've had the girls here my weight is actually slightly down over all, I was 165 yesterday morning (down from about 167 or so at the start of August).

It is that way though even though I eat a few more snacks (yogurt and homemade banana bread are frequently available). But I make a conscious effort to get that workout in even if it is just an hour of walking or a quick hard run on a weekend morning when Amber is home.

The time for fitness is there,  you just have to find where it's hiding.

Hey, I’m Walkin’ Here!

As I have mentioned I have a couple of kids now and I am the primary caregiver through much of the day.  With that in mind it has become unbelievably difficult to make my usual fitness routine a part of my day.  This has not been helped by the fact that Amber has been sick or overwhelmed by school interviews, new job positions and moving her things to new classrooms.  I have not been out running or biking since Wednesday of last week.

I have, however, been walking.  I think I have walked every street between my house and the Tim Horton’s end of town in the last few days.  Each morning after breakfast, which is at about nine or so, we pile into the stroller and head out.  It’s kind of nice actually, the baby likes the stroller and the older one likes to look around and wave at people and cars and such.  I like it because while it’s not the high intensity workout I am used to it is still a workout since it’s walking while pushing a huge double stroller.

I’m hoping that once my mom has had her checkout by CAS I can at least get out the couple of days she is here during the week and on the weekend when Amber is home all day, wanting an hour or so to myself is not such a bad thing I don’t think.

I am going to have to make an adjustment to my distance goals though and add ‘walking with the stroller’ a category of my distance travelled.  I of course was not counting any walking before, like if we walked to the store or whatever, but if I even have a hope of keeping my goals in sight these morning and sometimes afternoon walks will have to count toward the total.

Well, I’m A Parent Now

I’m officially off on Parental leave from work starting Monday, though I have been off since Thursday as our newest little addition has come to stay at our house for good (unless some crazy unforeseen events occur).  Sadly dear readers I cannot post pictures as we are still technically Fostering at the moment, but she is a blonde haired, blue eyed beauty. 

Some who are reading may recall that this is actually my second crack at this as I did have a step daughter for almost four years from my first marriage.  I know I was not as good at the time as I could have been and I hope to do a much better job as a parent this time around.  There are over ten years more life experience and a College Diploma in Early Childhood Education, and three years working at day care between my previous experience and this new endeavour.

I’m pretty jazzed about the whole thing as you can imagine.  It’s changed my schedule quite a bit but I have managed to fit in my running this past week, but to be fair Amber is still off from teaching until the start of September.  Once she goes back to that I’m sure my schedule will change even more.

What is even more exciting is that we’ll be getting a second child in less than a week actually.  See they are sisters and the most previous foster parents of these two children couldn’t take on two children, so we got tapped! On Friday of this week I’ll be (foster) dad (for a short time until we adopt) to not one, but two girls! Awesome! I’ll keep you as up to date as I can and post pictures once I am allowed!

Now That’s What I Call A Week Off

I mentioned that I had last week off work and that I wanted to go at least 140 kilometres during that time.  I’m happy to say that it was a huge success and in between some visits with our first foster-to-adopt child I was running and biking around the countryside like crazy.

I actually did a little more biking than I expected and a little less running than I wanted but all in all the goal was achieved.  Twice during the week I rode my bike from here to Peterborough up to Lakefield and back.

It’s a good ride and is about 34.5K which is a good amount of time to spend too, about an hour and a half.  My dad can ride for hours on his bike and but the time I’m out for about 80-90 minutes I’m done.  Not because my legs are sore or anything, just because my bum is sore and I’m a bit bored with what is going on.  Maybe if I had bike shorts that would be better.

On Friday I was out riding and came across two people on their road bikes, (I have my mountain bike this year) and I thought ‘Hey, I’m passing these folks!’ and so most of my ride I was up over 28-30Km/h (17-18 mph).  I caught up and passed them and stayed ahead! The next day I did the same route but only managed about 22-24 Km/h (13-14 mph) it just goes to show how a little competition can drive you.

I only ran three times this week, but I ran 10k twice and 6k once and due to weather, the first 10 and 6 were on the same day, just one at about 6am and the other at about 6pm!  They were good enjoyable runs really, but they were not record setters for speed that’s for sure.  My legs were a bit tired by mid week!

Come Saturday morning I had gone 143.84km all told, completing my goal with a day to spare.  I would have gone out again Sunday, but our little on woke up at 4:30!  Amber got up with her, but when I got out of bed she was still awake so I didn’t think it would have been fair of me to head out running or biking or whatever, plus I figured I had earned a day off!

So all that, some drawing and a lot of playing on the floor was how I spent my week off work.  Now I have three days to go until I’m off for 35 weeks!

Git On Yer Bike

As stated earlier, I wanted to go at least 140 kilometres this week.  It looks like I’m well on track for that since it’s only Thursday morning and I have travelled 102 and change.

Most of that distance has been on my bike as I have made a point to get out and do some sort of riding every day except Tuesday so far, and on Tuesday I ran twice.  I skipped Tuesday on the bike because it was a bit drizzley when I went out in the late afternoon.  For some reason I’d rather get wet running than I would riding.  I think because it helps keep me a bit cooler when I run, and so it makes it a bit more enjoyable as compared to being really hot.

Twice now this week I have ridden from my house, in to Peterborough and then out to Lakefield and then back home, 35k in all.  it’s a pretty nice ride too except when the wind is coming up the river and pushing me back.  I hate riding into the wind, it just seems like you have to work so much harder, especially on a mountain bike where you are sitting more upright.

What are your favourite conditions for a bike or a run or a jog or whatever it is you do outside?  Let me know in the comments!

Going The Distance

All too soon the weather will turn ugly here in Canada and so over the last few weeks I have been working hard to go as far as I can each week in order to be able to meet the distance goals I set for the year.

Last week was great for that! The first two days I was able to switch around my lunch to the end of the day and leave a few hours early because I was cooking and we had low numbers at day care.  Tuesday i rode my bike 53k even.  From my house in Bridgenorth, down through Ennismore, through Gannon’s Narrows, to Buckhorn and then back past the road to Curve Lake, through Selwyn and back home.  It was a 2.5 hour trip and it was great!

It’s been nice and cool this past week too so I was able to run in the afternoons and this week I actually ran just a smidge over 30k.  Five of those were actually my fastest run through town in the last two years as well.  Sprinting like mad I covered the distance in 21:50.  Not my fastest 5k time ever to be sure, but doing that the morning after walking around the zoo with kids for 9 hours, not too bad.

So why all the importance on distance?  Simple, the spring this year in Ontario was atrocious and there were a few weeks were I only travelled 10 or 15 kilometres! That really set me on my heals as far as distance goals goes.  I figured since the start of July I wanted to average at least 80K a week, which is about double the average I would want to meet my over all distance goal of 2500K for the year.  How has that been going? Well in the five weeks of July (which includes up until yesterday) I went over 500k!  Take a look!

The red is running, the blue is biking, the orange at the end it the weeks totals

I have this week off work and my hope is to average about 20k a day, so about 140k for the week, we’ll see how that works out.

Friend Making Monday

If you’ve taken part in Friend Makin’ Mondays before then you are familiar with the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to read and comment on a couple of other posts.

This week’s topic is ‘Feeling Fruity’

1. What is your favourite fruit?

I would say that my favourite fruit is Golden Delicious Apples

2. Is there a fruit that you really really don’t like?

Asian pears!  Ugh gross!

3. If you could only drink one fruit juice for the rest of your life, what flavour would it be?

Apple juice I guess.  I don’t really drink juice at all unless you count Poweraide Zero

4. Tomatoes – fruit or vegetable?

Tomatoes are a fruit because the seeds are on the inside.

5. How many portions of fruit do you eat a day?

Usually I have fruit at least once a day since it is dessert at daycare for lunch, and then we usually have it as part of snack too

6. if you were making a smoothie what fruits would you add?

Strawberries and bananas, why mess with perfection?

7. Are you allergic to any fruits?

Nope!

8. Do you have a favourite fruit recipe? Feel free to share the recipe with us.

Of my own? Banana bread I guess.

9. Do you have any fruits that are local to your area?

Ontario grows Apples and pears and peaches and such I believe, but I don’t know of any local orchards.

10. What is your favourite fruit pie?

I would say Strawberry / Rhubarb pie, but technically strawberries are not a fruit, they are a berry, so Apple.

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions. Don’t forget to come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments, so we can check out everyone’s answers.

Have a great day

When No One Is Watching…

Yesterday I got home from work and went for a bike ride.  It was a bit windy, but I had just run the previous morning and so I wanted to change it up.  I always find it helpful to get out and do something after a stressful day at work.  It helps to clear my head, and to be able to go in to work the next day with a better outlook.  With that in mind, now that I work with children all day I go ride my bike or run or workout or whatever alone, where no one is asking me questions and I don’t have to teach anything.

Amber wasn’t home for the evening last night either so after an hour of bike riding I quickly made dinner and then went into town to pick up a book and as I was driving I felt like if I was quick I could do some more at home even.  Without Amber there I could basically do whatever I want, and not feel like I was losing time with her.  This is pretty much my fitness plan for when we have the kids here.  Get up early still, and while Amber is just moseying around getting ready and they are hopefully still asleep, I will go run/bike/workout that way I still get my time to be all fitnessy and I don’t have to do it at the expense of family time.  I might be way off with this plan, especially if the baby still has colic when she comes, but it is the plan heading into the whole adventure.

So I got home from town and thought, there is nothing on TV I want to watch right now, I have nothing on the PVR that I’m dying to watch, it’s beautiful outside.  I’m going to go run 9K.

So I did, I put on shorts and a shirt and out I went again to do about another 46 minutes of working out simply because I could.

When no one is watching – I do fitness.

Batman’s 75th Give Away

Like I said, giveaway, but not here, over on The Mighty Chrispy blog!  Check it out here!

The Mighty Chrispy’s Batman 75th giveaway!

Enter for a chance to win:

A copy of Batman: Gotham Knight on DVD

Trailer here:

And this Original Art that I have:

Two pretty cool things that can be yours very easily.

Happy 75th Birthday Batman

it’s been long known around here that I am a Batman fan.  He’s been mentioned at least a dozen times on this blog.  And so for his 75th birthday I thought I would just suggest to you that you might want to go check out a few of what I consider to be the best Batman stories that I have.  I know you are busy, I’ll keep the list just to five.

 

5. The Long Halloween

The Long Halloween is heavily influenced by film noir and films such as The Godfather. The series continues the story of Carmine Falcone introduced in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Set early in Batman's career a few months after the events of Year One, the story revolves around the gradual transition of Batman's rogues' gallery from simple mob goons to full-fledged supervillains. It is also the origin of Two-Face. As the story unfolds, Carmine Falcone hires "freaks" (Poison Ivy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter) in an attempt to stop the Batman and restore power back to the family, only to discover that the freaks are more powerful than he expected.

4. Batman: Year One

Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City from training abroad in martial arts, man hunting, and science for the past 12 years, and James Gordon moves to Gotham with his pregnant wife, Barbara, after a transfer from Chicago. Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violence of Gotham City.

The animated adaption of this is one of the few animated Batman movies I have ever gotten Amber to watch! But it’s also kind of slow paced with not gigantic action sequence, more of a character story witch is what she likes.

According to IGN it is one of the most important graphic novels ever written.

3. Batman: Hush

Hush is a 2002-2003 comic book story arc that ran through the Batman monthly series. It was written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams and colored by Alex Sinclair. The story depicts a mysterious stalker called Hush, who seems intent on sabotaging Batman from afar, and it includes a large number of guest appearances by Batman villains. It also emphasizes the romantic feelings between Batman and Catwoman.

I finally bought this book mid 2011 I think and reading it was what really got me back in to comics.  It’s a fantastic story with really great Jim Lee art.  After reading this and hearing that DC was doing all new #1 books, I signed up for a subscription! and have been collecting since!

2. The Dark Knight Returns

The Dark Knight Returns is a 1986 four-issue comic book miniseries starring Batman, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, and published by DC Comics. When the series was collected into a single volume later that year, the story title for the first issue was applied to the entire series. The Dark Knight Returns tells the story of Bruce Wayne, who at 55 years old returns from retirement to fight crime and faces opposition from the Gotham City police force and the United States government.

So many people list this as their favourite Batman book of all time.  I don’t simply because the art is not all that great, the story is however, amazing!  There is an animated adaption of this book as well, also amazingly good.

1. Death of the Family

"Death of the Family" is a 23-issue comic book story arc first published by DC Comics in 2012 featuring the fictional superhero Batman and his family of supporting characters. The arc spans several titles featuring characters of the Batman family including: Batman, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. The story involves the return of Batman's arch-enemy, the Joker, and his plan to destroy all of the people Batman has come to rely on over the years: the multiple Robins, Batgirl, Catwoman, Alfred Pennyworth and Commissioner James Gordon. The title is a reference to the classic Batman story arc "A Death in the Family" (1988), in which the Joker murders Jason Todd.

The most current one on the list and an amazing story as well, if not a little bit twisted.  Snyder writes and Capullo draws a fascinating Joker.  A really great read!

Stay turned later today for a giveaway!!

Also check out The Mighty Chrispy for a Batman comic that I am writing and drawing!

Morning Run

Over the last few weeks I have switched shifts a few times here at work.  I regularly have the early 7-4 shift and while that is awesome for pretty much everything else, it’s not so great for fitness type stuff.  Especially in the summer time.

Each of the mornings that I have switched shifts I have made a point of making use of the time and heading out for a run.  The air is much cooler and the sun is only peeking through the trees and so I makes for a very enjoyable bit of time to be out and getting some work in. 

A lot of days it’s an amazing benefit to be able to have that switch, like today.  By the time I go home today it’s going to be about 30ºC (about 86ºF) and it would be blazing hot in the sunshine.  So today it was awesome to get the run in early!

This is something I am going to attempt to be able to do for the rest of August and part of September.

When do you like to run?  In the coolness of a morning, or the blistering heat of the afternoon?

The Comic Book Store

You’d think as a 34 year old man I’d scoff at the idea of going to the comic book store.  That as a guy that plays hockey and teaches karate and ‘does fitness’ I’d be more in the group of folks that mock those that traffic the comic book store.

Quite the opposite.

I think now that I am who I am, I am even more confident about being in there.  But I also wonder if that idea that like fat, lazy, lonely guys are the only ones that read comics is gone thanks to fact that movies about comics have pretty much taken over the theater and are generally seen as awesome.

The Store I go to on the regular is Dixon’s Books.  It’s an older couple that owns and runs the store and they are nice and welcoming.  Jeff’s cards and comics one street over on the other hand seems completely unwelcoming and in fact a bit condescending.  Dixon’s has my business, Mrs. Dixon (I assume) seems to be about 80 and she chats me up like my grandma would, is eager to give me things that are on the counter and generally makes my experience enjoyable.

To be fair I haven’t been actually going to the comic store for all that long.  I mean I have been into Silver Snail in Toronto a few times a year since I was in University (so about 15 years now).  most of the comics I have now are volumes of the New 52 from DC that I bought from Chapters online because it’s a 34% discount!  It’s kind of a pain to be about 6-8 months behind the monthly printed version, but far cheaper.  I do get Batman and Nightwing (now Grayson) in the mail each month though.

I didn’t make a point of going to the store until the guys that made me love The Flash, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, started working on Detective Comics. With how good their run and the Flash was (and still is for me since I’m months behind as mentioned above) I couldn’t wait that long to get me hands on their work on the Batman.

I really don’t get why comics get a bad rap, that people scoff at them as ‘just for kids’ or at least that has been the case in the past I guess.  they have such amazing and varied art styles!

And they have really great, fun and intelligent stories.  Pick up any book by Scott Snyder, or Geoff Johns and you’ll see what I mean.

There is such a variety of comics as well.  If you are not into superheroes there are still westerns, romance, mystery and comic versions of best seller books and movies as well. 

They are a fantastic tool for learning to read, or learning a second language, in fact it’s how Jim Lee, artist and now Co-publisher of DC learned how to read English (he’s from Korea)!

Comics are great! And you should go to the Comic store, and if you are in Peterborough, you should go to Dixion’s Books!