Where In The Hell Is Matt? Matt’s Back.

(Just a note, there is a higher quality version of this.  Just click through to the Youtube page and it gives you the option.  Lets you see the scenery so much better.)

Oh this just fills me with joy!  Matt is back with another video of himself dancing to a new beautiful song in various locals around the world.  (I have the song from the first video on my Ipod.)  This time he is joined by fans in various cities as they rush in and dance around him.  How can something so simple as one guy dancing so badly in so many beautiful places be so amazing and touch so many people.  It just fills me with wanderlust and makes me smile.  Thank you so much for this video!

Check out his website for more:

Where The Hell Is Matt?

UPDATE 06.27.08  Senta Knuth just sent me this story from Minnpost.com writer Jim Walsh.  MinnPost - Dancing with the universe  He talks about how the video literally became an overnight sensation, what it’s like to dance with the planet (or the universe as he puts it,) and the discovery of 17 year old Bangladeshi singer Palbasha Siddique (who’s career is now taking off.)  Please check out the article and spread the video.  Thanks!

Weight Loss Challenge: Week 2

Week 2 is here!  So it’s been a good week overall.  I’ve managed to keep up my will power and stick to my guns as far as eating better personally.  I’ve had mixed results getting started with an exercise program.  As you may have seen I’ve purchased some sandbags for Sandbag Workouts.  I must admit that I haven’t done anything with these yet, but I have been hitting the exercise bike and walking.  I also got the chance to do a little fencing this week and am very excited to make that a regular part of my week.  I’ve already begun incorporating drills and exercises for fencing into my daily routine. 

Eating out continues to be a problem.  My family really would rather eat out.  I’m grateful for the help they are giving me by you know… feeding me.  But it is looking like I am going to have to make an extensive effort to look for the healthiest menu items until I can really get to do some of the cooking at home instead of eating out.  My other challenge this week has been sweets.  I have faithfully stayed away, but my family keeps offering sweets at every opportunity.  I’ll gently remind them that I don’t eat that stuff anymore and they’ll say, “Oh yeah.  That’s so good.  We’re so proud of you.”  But then they’ll offer it up again next time.  I don’t think its sabotage, its more a fact that eating this way is so ingrained in their everyday thinking and they are trying to be polite by sharing.  This of course lets you know that my efforts to influence my family in their eating habits has unfortunately not been successful up to now.  I will definitely keep trying. 

This next week I am looking to really amp up my exercise.  I need to get active with the sandbags.  I am also making an effort to cut back (eventually cut out) diet cokes and continue to increase my water intake.

	Week 1	Week 2
Height	6′3″	6′3″
Weight	278.0	275.0
Waist	46 in./43 in. @ hips	46 in./43 in. @ hips
Body Fat %	33.5	33.5
BMI	34.7	34.37

   

Get your own graph at skinnyr

 

See the first post: Weight Loss Challenge: Week 1

 

del.icio.us Tags: mens health. weight loss,fitness,belly off club,health

Playing With Swords

I just had the best afternoon with the people from The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.  (SCA)  As a lot of you know I am a history buff, with my main passions lying towards American Revolution, Civil War, Age of Sail/Nautical, Medieval, Renaissance…  And then of course I am a nutter for all things Pirate!  (I have more books on historical piracy than I can read at the moment.  But all in good time!)

I was listening to the All Things Medieval Podcast by Sir Justyn last night as I was driving around at work and started thinking about a buddy of mine that had done some SCA stuff while we were in college.  It got me wondering if we had any local groups here in Hickory, NC so of course I practiced a little Google-fu and found that indeed we did have a local group.  In fact, I found that we are in the Kingdom of Atlantia, SCA (which encompasses Maryland, DC, North Carolina, South Carolina, most of Virginia, and a portion of Georgia.)

The local Hickory (Catawba County) area group  is called The Canton of Baelfire Dunn.  This group of people is the friendliest bunch I’ve run into.  They immediately accepted me as their own and invited me in.  There happened to be a Rapier fencing practice occurring during/after the meeting I attended, so I was lucky enough to be able to stab people with swords!  I had done a very little bit of foil fencing in college, but this is all new.  I had so much fun, I can hardly wait until the next meeting!  Thank you again to all the members of Baelfire Dunn!  It was great fun.

 

(Rapier Picture: nurd grrl)

del.icio.us Tags: SCA,Medieval,Fencing,Swords,History,Hickory NC

Craziness At Work (true crime, not nice story)

Ok, so if you’ve read my twitter feed you’ll have seen this message: http://twitter.com/jdroepel/statuses/840223867  which said “Strange night at work. Homicide and body dump on the wooded hill of the adjoining property. Police, EMS, SBI, News, all over the place.”  Yeah, that was the real deal.  No joke. 

As you may know, I am working graveyard shift as a security officer.  I was doing my patrols, driving around our property when I turn the corner and almost run into a cop car and an ambulance parked with their lights on and driving up with its lights on is a fire engine.  I’m totally going ‘Oh crap!’ 

I jump out of my car just in time to see a paramedic come stumbling off of the wooded hill that adjoins our property.  He goes up to the fire engine and waves them off, then walks over and talks to his partner.  As soon as I can get a word in I’m asking what happened.  (Can’t see any police at this point, just their car.)  The paramedic looks at me, and with not so much as a blink he says one word with all the coolness of someone reading out the weather report from the newspaper.  “Homicide.”  Oh my freaking God!  I’m about to jump out of my skin.  He’s just looking at me like nothing’s the matter.  It’s at this point that I notice the three police officers and their flashlights halfway up the hill, just on the other side of our property line.  They are all standing around and looking at the body.

Turns out it was two homeless guys fighting.  One clocked the other upside the head with a brick, then stabbed him multiple times and threw his body into the trees down the hill.  They had been behind some department stores/stripmall when it all happened, but somehow there had been a witness that had called the police right away.  So apparently the suspect was caught right away.

The rest of my shift passed quickly as we watched detective after detective arrive, SBI (I believe) showed up, and then the fire department lowered a stretcher basket from the top of the hill.  They loaded the victim into a body bag and then carried him away up the hill. 

How awful and scary is this?  And to think it happened not more than a couple hundred yards from where I was.  Middle of the night.  Just gives me goose bumps and scares me.  I’m not a former cop, or future cop like a lot of the people I work with, so while maybe this is something they have seen before…  I’m a little freaked out by it.  Sorry to post such a horrible story, but I just felt like I had to get it off my chest and share it.

 

(Picture: mikey_k)

Sandbag Workouts

As part of my focus on weight loss and fitness, I picked up two bags of Quikrete’s 50 pound bags of sand from Lowes Home Improvement for $3.55 each today.  I had seen the article in Men’s Health Magazine’s June 2008 issue about sandbag workouts and decided to give it a try.  I’m going to double (maybe triple wrap) in contractors trash bags and carry one in a back pack and use the other for these exercises:

Fat-Burning, Total-Body Sandbag Workout - Men’s Health

Total Body Workout - Men’s Health

The Sandbag Construction Kit

Adding in a stationary bike in my apartment and my mountain bike for hitting the streets/trails and I think I’m starting to have a plan com together.  My only real concern is the fragility of the sandbags thin plastic bags.  I’d love to get a burlap sack like pictured in the Men’s Health article.

del.icio.us Tags: fitness,weight loss,health,sandbag

Weight Loss Challenge: Week 1

Ok, so here I am.  Biting the bullet and putting it all out there for the world to see.  As if my self esteem wasn’t bad enough as is, I’m showing you all this picture.  Uggh!  But, it is already better than it was.  I have already cut out all sweets and unnecessary sugars (anything not coming from fruits or complex carbohydrates.) 

I’ve already lost several inches and pounds from where my max was, so this picture and starting weight/body measurements are not as bad as it actually was.  But it’s still pretty bad. 

Life has been tough as far as eating right goes lately.  My new family (fiancee and future in-laws) eat out for every single meal.  No joke.  My future father in law prefers eating out to eating at home.  Add to that they have a proclivity to load up on the sweets and my willpower flew out the window. 

I’m not only doing this for myself.  My new family has a weight and diabetes problem that is running out of control, and it is my hope that if I start making better choices while around them, that possibly they will begin to follow suit and adopt a healthier lifestyle as well. 

I am going to be posting weekly updates on my progress, subjecting myself to the embarrassment of showing pictures and weight data, and forcing you to look at the horror that is my nearly naked body.  Ha ha ha.  So come along with me as I get healthy!

Height	6′3″
Weight	278.0
Waist	46 inches/ 43 inches @ hips
Body Fat %	33.5
BMI	34.7
Biceps	15″
Legs	24″

del.icio.us Tags: fitness,belly off club,health,mens health. weight loss

What Geek Are You?

Geeks Are Sexy just put up this post with this image from Flickr user ExtraLife.  In it is an image showing 56 types of geek.  Which one(s) are you?

Ok, I have to fess up and say that I am: Indy Geek, Potter Geek, Apple Geek, Food Geek, Travel Geek, Outdoor Geek, Book Geek, History Geek, Transformers Geek.  (Bolded and underlined to highlight just how much of a geek in each area I am.)  So when can we get individual copies of each geek?  I’d love to use one or two as my personal avatars.  :0)

 

Scientists Urge Religion And Science To Find Middle Ground

Mathew Nisbet over at the Framing Science Blog has posted this clip of several scientists talking about their faith and their belief in evolution.  They also talk about how the “theory” of intelligent design fails as a scientific theory and that they see no problems with religion and the theory of evolution reconciling.  The video was produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science who is calling for a return to a middle ground where science and religion can work together. 

I have to say that this really speaks to me.  As an ardent believer in evolution, it is nice to hear people speaking up and voicing an alternative viewpoint to the standard arguments that I am forced to listen to almost constantly.  Very refreshing and kind of a pick me up.  :0)

del.icio.us Tags: religion,evolution

Stunning Video of Lions Fighting

Male Lions Fighting from Joseph Kimojino on Vimeo.

(Just a Note. Vimeo isn’t letting me imbed the actual video. Click the link, it’s worth it!)

Joseph Kimojino over at the Mara Triangle blog has just posted this truly amazing video of two male lions fighting each other. I subscribe to Joseph’s twitter feed as well as his blog for an inside look at what the life of an African Wildlife Ranger is like. Truly amazing! Makes me want to do a photo safari right away!

<Warning! This blog does show the after effects of poachers and also of live wild animals doing their things. So if you are like my fiancee and get squeamish about animals dying. You’ve been forewarned.>

del.icio.us Tags: Lions,Africa,Safari

Where in the World is Justin?

So ok.  Really, I’m right here in Hickory, NC.  Big let down I know.  I should have said Doha, or Sarajevo, or somewhere cool like that.  But no, world travels have not been the excuse for my neglect of this blog. 

Some of you know that I’ve been struggling with a bit of depression/anxiety/OCD, a possible move to Michigan to live with family there, and a general all around lack of direction in life and especially career.  My dad actually called it my personal “doldrums.”  (Which is quite funny considering how nutty for all things nautical and Age of Sail I am.) 

A decision has been reached!  I am staying in Hickory.  My fiancee Amber is here.  I don’t want to move 11 hours away from her.  And since I haven’t been able to find a direction on my own, I’m seeing a Career Counselor tomorrow afternoon.  My one aspiration that I can really lock on to is that I want to help people.  I definitely want to talk to the counselor about setting aside my Political Science Degree and possibly heading back to school.  Maybe even looking at Radiography (X-Ray Technician.)  If you have seen my earlier post about Nursing School, well that’s part of my lack of direction.  Also, everyone around me keeps telling me that with my OCD, Nursing probably isn’t the best choice.  I can see their point. 

Wish me luck.  Hopefully my sails will soon be full with a stiff breeze.  (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)  I will definitely be writing more articles about Hickory, North Carolina, and the South as I explore and live.  Well thanks for reading this way too personal and more than just a little bit uncomfortable bit of sharing.  But I guess this is what blogging is supposed to be. 

 

(Picture: alexanderdrachmann)