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Hello my friends, thanks for tuning in for another chapter in the ActiveSteve life story, as laid out before you all on the world wide web. This story is about a fun race that I volunteered for last weekend, the Frontier Adventure Racing season-closing Fall Classic, which was held in the whitewater region of Ontario / Quebec, and more specifically, hosted by Esprit rafting. The race was a 10-14 hour race, and the host site is about 2 hours away from Ottawa. Although I would have preferred to actually race in the event myself, I just didn't have the training under my belt. What's that? Why didn't I say I couldn't due to my knee? Well, you'll just have to read on in order to get the full story, won't you? Before you do that though, have a look through the pictures that I posted up on flickr, and take a peek at the custom map that I made through the course of my volunteering.

Hello all! Well, doubtlessly there are those out there who have been starting to wonder what is happening with good ole ActiveSteve. Well, fear not, I'm about to fill you all in on the most recent happenings :-) There have been a number of contributing factors as to my delay, not the least of which is the fact that my home computer crapped out on me, causing me a certain amount of grief in the interim. However, all that is sorted out, and I'm now typing this on a brand new machine that I've put together. Oh yeah, and since I was getting a new computer, I decided that it was time to build a new computer desk. You can see the pictures from that little project over on flickr. Of course getting a new computer never is as easy as plug in and go, and I spent many late nights (and continue to) recovering old data, as well as configuring both my new computer, and my resurrected old computer (it now will be my dedicated music studio machine). Now, as exciting as that probably is to some of you, others are probably more interested in some of the other recent activities, so with that in mind, read on at the link and find out what's new.

Hello gang. Well, right off the bat, it looks like I'll have to apologize for the non-catchy title. I simply can't think of a better title than what you read at the beginning. Since I've been back from my extended trip to NZ, I haven't really taken any substantial time off from work. Actually, scratch that, I haven't taken any time off apart from stat holidays. However, since Jody's cousin Renee was getting married in BC this summer, it gave us a great excuse to book a nice week of vacation over on the far left side of Canada. The trip ended up not costing us too much, since we flew out on points, and then stayed mainly with Jody's folks on Gabriola Island. As a result, we managed to squeeze in a couple fun activities while we were there, and spend quality time with the family playing extreme bocce, watching the Olympics, and enjoying some great home cooking. There are of course many pictures up on Flickr, which you can check out at your leisure. I also put together a map of one of our activities, a hike up Mount Benson, one of the nearby 'peaks' in Nanaimo. When you're done checking that stuff out, come on back and read on for more details on the week.

Howdy my friends! Time for another quick tale of fun and excitement from the pages of my travel journal. Right off the bat, I'm going to admit something to all of you. Jody and I simply haven't had the chance to get away just the two of us for quite some time. As it turns out, between our various international trips last year, due mainly to my own selfish NZ ambitions, we just didn't travel together. While this was admittedly not a conscious decision, we certainly do plan to rectify that in the coming years by having some more excellent international adventures! In order to get back on that track, we decided it best to start small by a weekend getaway in the beautiful area around Picton known as Prince Edward county. There are a bunch of new wineries springing up, and we decided to do some cycle wine touring and stay in a B and B. Of course, another major reason for this getaway was to meet up with my sister Andrea, as well as Patrick and Helena. More on that later on if you read the full post, but in the meantime, you can have a gander at a little custom map that I put together of our wine touring, as well as the pictures that Jody posted on flickr.

I'm baaack. Yup, for all of you folks who have been waiting with bated breath for news of the latest actions of one ActiveSteve, here I go again. You'll note that I'm using the vernacular ActiveSteve rather than current usage (in)ActiveSteve. There's good reason for that, as will become apparent should you choose to read this post in its entirety. Not only have I decided to get a little bit of running in on the side, I've also taken up more active volunteering activities, such as the weekend long staged Raid Pulse adventure race up at Lac de L'Argile. I volunteered at another adventure race a couple months ago, but this one was a multi-stage event with a full day of racing on Saturday, a night stage in the middle of Saturday night, and a full day of racing on Sunday. I knew that this time, Thierry would be giving some more active roles than I had the past weekend at the 5 Peaks race, so I had to be in top form. It was a total blast, and read on to find out all about it. I've also treated you to a custom map from the event, as well as a collection of images on flickr. Enjoy, then follow the 'read more' link.

Hey gang! I sincerely hope that everyone's summer is going swimmingly. Mine, despite the minor setbacks related to not being allowed to run, has been fun so far. Even though I'm frustrated with the lack of running, I can definitely take solace in the fact that I do indeed still have my health. As such, I'm still embracing activity and getting out when I can to do interesting things. Such has been the case yet again for the past couple weekends, where I once again threw my hat in the ring as a volunteer to help out at local races. I'll put up two separate posts for you to all digest, and this first one is about the 5 Peaks Trail Run that took place near Farrellton, Quebec. If you're interested in seeing some pictures from the event, head on over to the folder I put up on Flickr. For fun, I also decided to bike back from the event for a little extra training, and since I haven't put up a map in a while for all you keeners, you can check that out as well. When you're done, come on back and read my short tale about the day. Oh yeah, and as a bonus, I have a pseudo update on my knee first.

Since I've got your attention on these matters, I think I'll also share another source of inspiration that I've unearthed. I was going to tack this onto the end of my last post, but decided that it was important enough to get it's very own post. This inspiration comes from an unlikely source. Well, maybe not unlikely, but undiscovered by me until just today. It came in the form of a news article shared to me today by Larry, an old co-worker of Jody's from her CREA days. This article was about a fellow by the name of Randy Pausch, who just died today from pancreatic cancer. He was a university prof with a very distinguished pedigree in the world of virtual reality. So just what is the source of inspiration from him? Well that would be his 1hr and 16min lecture that he delivered in September 2007, which was his 'Last Lecture'. Basically, profs at Carnegie Mellon are given the chance to reflect on their lives and give a lecture based on what they would say if it would be the last lecture they would ever be giving before dying. Well, in an odd twist, Randy was actually doing just that. He had already been handed his death sentence resulting from the cancer diagnosis, and had to come to grips with it.

Hello friends and well-wishers. You may be wondering what is happening with ActiveSteve, especially given that my last post was all about buying a video game system. Well, I'm here to assure you all that my athletic aspirations have not gone too far away. Granted, I'm not running these days, but I'm still cycling, and trying to get out paddling and swimming a bit. As well, I've taken up going to the gym again, so at least 3 times a week I'm doing weights and flexibility training. My theory for this is to stay sharp and toned, and keep all my little stabilizer muscles in good shape, so that once I ask my body to start performing again, it'll be ready to support me in that. As such, this post will fill you in on a tentative future plan that's been percolating. Now, I don't want to jinx things by spilling the beans too early, but this race requires commitment about a year in advance, both monetary and physically. I've already started training for it, and saving up for it. Next step will be booking flights. Curious yet? Well, read on and find out what I'm talking about. And the accompanying picture here? Well, that's just a screenshot from my training software showing a little mountain bike ride that I went on last weekend. You may note my high heart rate for most of the ride. It was a good push, and I felt great at the end.