altfunwithluc

There should be a name for the range of emotions you feel when you go to the vending machine (which I call the "dream machine") and buy something, and it just hangs there... without dropping down. So you have to buy a second one of the same thing, hoping that both will drop.

1) Confusion... Why am I not getting my treat?
2) Narrowing down options... Do I walk away? Do I buy another one? Will the second one drop? Is there someone I can call? Do I shake the machine?
3) Problem solving... Trying to shake the machine (which very rarely works).
4) Panic... Do I have enough money for a second one?
5) Disappointment... If I buy two of the same, I don't get two different things. But I've spent my $1.35 already. And I can't waste it.
6) Acceptance... Put another $1.35 in and walk away with your two identical treats.
7) Enjoyment... Two bags of Doritos are better than 1 bag of Doritos.

If you want an amazing song (ok I'm a bit biased) for your mp3 player or iPod, I uploaded a new track to MySpace tonight and offered it as a free download at

http://www.luctheriault.com/freedownloads

Enjoy! And tell you friends!

I rarely have the chance to post... I've been updating stuff on Twitter and mostly spending my time in actual production or planning of sound effects and music lately.

And really there's been nothing extensive to say...

I've been losing weight steadily for 3 and a half years now... Finally reached the under-200 milestone which, for someone my height, puts me in the ideal BMI range... I don't really follow the BMI stuff except to check a couple of times a year how I'm doing... Still a bit to go but I'm definitely close... and so much fitter (stairs... you don't scare me anymore!!!) haha

Hope everyone's well!

It's non-stop entertainment in my life.

Today, Sunday, is usually the day where I do nothing. Really nothing. I get up, sit in front of the tv, and then go to bed again. That's pretty well it.

But my nephew had a birthday party and I figured I'd go.

So I thought I'd take a nice bike ride.

In the first 10 mins of my bike ride I:

Hit the back of a minivan.
Busted my brake cable.
Broke my pedal.
Had my route blocked by a parade.
Got a flat.

Then, the day didn't get much better very quick... Came home decided to buy my new bike now instead of next year.

The shop was closed. Took a bus. On the way there, almost was blocked by the same parade but we were able to make it before the police motorcycles got to our point... Took the bus, and turns out they changed the route. So I'm sitting way off from where I"m supposed to be to catch another bus... Finally caught that bus, then had to wait 25 mins for the next one, a bus that goes by every 30 mins.

Then, though, it got better. We spotted $5 on the ground, the bus driver went out of her way to get us to our destination quicker by taking a different route, we made it to the party, late, but oh well.

We got nice fancy parting cookies then walked alllllll the way home... which is far, and turned out to be full of mosquitoes... man I'm glad I live downtown and not in the suburbs. We don't have mosquitoes here. Well very few if any.

Oh well... That's over. Maybe tomorrow I'll be the proud owner of this bike...



Now I'm gonna head out to watch justin.tv.

Random Thoughts From My Nephew

Him: "Have you ever seen peanut butteri n a bag?"

Me: "No, where did you see that?"

Him: "I just thought of it."

That was our whole conversation on the subject.

Things have been real busy lately...

We spent November, December and January in boot camp mode. We were doing active stuff 5 days a week... Lots of walking, the gym, climbing stairs (28 floors one day) etc.

I lost another approx. 10 lbs.

The funny thin is my motivation over the last few years, was hearing the song from a gym in the U.S., on a tv ad that played at the new year, where a guy sings in a high voice "don't wanna be the fat guy"... If you know the ad, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Well, I was the fat guy for a while. I remember calling my boss from when I was a teenager and he says "oh, skinny Luc" - I was thinking "not anymore"... I never really thought about my skinniness but looking back I was pretty skinny when I was a teenager. I biked a lot, moved a lot in college and the job I had when I graduated college was one where I was moving pretty well constantly.

Anyways, then I started working crazy hours, building my business. And I put on some weight. We moved to a smaller town with nothing to do and no public transportation. So we bought a car. Then I put on more weight. I actually didn't weigh myself at my heaviest but I figure I was about 255-265... Could be more I don't know but around there. I'm 6'3" so I wasn't huge or anything... yet.

Anyways, we moved back to the city, sold our car and moved downtown. We can walk pretty well anywhere. And we do. Being cheap and fat is a good combination. Do I give the bus driver my $2 or do I keep it and just walk home?

So anyways, I'm down to 214 as of this morning. Since Christmas, I lost about 5 lbs which is nice... losing weight over Christmas can be sorta rare. So I'm down somewhere around 40-50 lbs. My pant size went from 42, to 38, then 34... And those are loose I noticed in the last few days... My jeans as a teenager were 32... And I think that might be close to what I'm gonna have to buy next time I buy jeans.

We've been losing weight consistently over 2.5 years. Not only keeping it off, but continuing to lose it.

Weird things happen when you lose weight. Your clothes feel loose and you think it's the clothes that stretched. You feel bones you didn't remember you had... You start to feel your collarbone. You notice your ribs more and more. You touch your face quickly and it hurts a bone which used to be covered with fat. You put your legs together in bed and your knees knock together you gotta space them out a little. And in the last few days, I've been noticing the shape of my face has been changing... The areas next to my chin are more defined and it's tough to explain but on the sides of my face, the front is skinnier than the back instead of being a big round head.

Shaving's easier to do. I have more energy when I walk up stairs and when I'm... well... in the bedroom. Interesting things I didn't think about as a problem before but that suddenly are easier.

So what did we do? Well, we thought we were eating well before but looking back,. we really weren't.

We eat well... and actually eat better and better... losing weight makes you want to eat better.

And we move. A lot. My motto has been, for some time now, work smarter not harder. So in our business, we've arranged it so we're working less hours, but accomplishing more. We work short hours, get whatever needs to be done, done. And we treat our exercise/weight loss as another job. There is always a way and we've found what works well for us. We love walking around downtown, looking around, talking to people, etc.

We're on part 2 of our big workout project now... We call it bus camp. We've bought bus passes and take buses wherever 5 days (sometimes 6) a week... It's a way to do it dfifferently and we always fit a lot of walking in wherever we go.

Looking over what we've been doing over the past months (where we've kept track) and years, it hasn't been easy. It's taken a lot of work. But we love it. Never again will I be the fat guy. It keeps me going! Bus camp 2009! Woooooooooooooo!

Thanks to Sara too for being a part of it... couldn't have done it without ya!

I havent' posted here much - I've been posting mostly on my Twitter and posting here when I've got a longer post to make... But lately, who has the time?

Ok so... We walked over 15 kms (about 10 miles) today. It's the second time we did that walk and it was actually realy tiring. It's not too bad since we walk a lot but I think it's sort of my limit. We used to be exhausted walking half that but our endurance has been increasing a lot.

We've been doing a three month variation of boot camp. Basically, we do a lot of physical activity consistently 5 days a week. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we go to the gym, one day I climbed 28 flights of stairs in my breaks from the gym.

We're seeing results. We've been losing weight quite a bit for the past few years... ever since we sold our car, got rid of cable, and moved downtown. The other day, I tried on a pair of waterproof pants I had like 15 yrs ago... they hadn't fit for a long time. But they absolutely fit me. Yay!

It's been a lot of work - we've been eating well too (which is sometimes tough and sometimes easy because for some crazy reason we crave vegetables lately)... We don't go to extremes but we eat well. It's all worth it.

We're on week 5 of boot camp and we actually love it. Tomorrow (when we give our feet a rest from today's walk) it's either the gym or some sorta cardio kickboxing stuff in our living room...

Sara says I have chicken legs. And I keep touching above my chest and realizing how bony I've become. Not in a bad way, just nice to feel the bone more than the fat... I keep hearing that song for a gym that plays on TV in the new year "don't wanna be the fat guy" - sorta motivating haha

We basically treat our fitness and stuff as an extra job. It's nice to see on the scale that I'm at the weight I was in 1998 or so.

Besides that, we've been working on doing more of what we love in our career/work. A few months ago, we decided to "work smarter, not harder". Sara called it semi-retirement, I think sort of as a joke. But it's turned out that's exactly what we did. We started out working mondays, wednesdays and fridays... then that schedule was too hectic for us (really, who has that kinda time? haha). So now, we work a few hours, when it's convenient, a few times a week.

And we've been slowly working on building up the type of work we enjoy... My formal education was in radio broadcasting and I'd always been into music/radio stuff. But in my work, I moved further and further away from it. So now I'm moving back towards it. Whether it's doing some movie trailer voicing (even just for fun) or whatever, I'm enjoying doing more creative stuff. And I've been working actively on making sound effects. Yup, Luc the sound designer. And no cheesy, junky sound effects. I've been making movie trailer sounds, alarm sounds, all kinds of stuff that even impresses me when I listen to it. And I can be really picky with my own work sometimes.

So anyways, if you're still reading, I'm impressed. I've never posted anything this long before I don't think. Give yerself a pat on the back. You deserve it.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Peace. Me out.

A while back, the phone company deleted our voice mail instead along with another service we had asked them to remove from our line. We were sort of annoyed but decided it was finally a good time to get an answering machine instead. They later continued to charge us for it which is even dumber but whatever.

Anyways, it's an AT&T answering machine and we left the default voice for the outgoing message on there.

Sara's sister says she finds the man who talks scary. And Sara's friend says he sounds hot. We just tell people it's our butler. We call him Benson. Yes, we're real original with that one.

If you're real hungry for cinnamon rolls and have none... Take the bottom of a hot dog bun, add butter, sugar and cinnamon. Roll it up. Looks/tastes real close. It's true. I checked.

We've watched a few scary movies lately... One I can't remember the name of. One is Jaws. And one I can't remembert the name of either. Oh yeha, Dawn of the Dead. OOooooooo scary.

I had something else to post but I can't remember.

Is there really a point in posting this? Well, it's done anyways so I might as well hit post.

I'm not posting much on here lately. I've been updating Twitter more often. I'm a busy guy you know. And having to think of, and type a post, seems so long. Maybe I should post through audio since really, I have a lot to say, just never have much of a chance to sit here and actually type it in.

We've been working less hours lately... Work smarter not harder. That's how I roll. So we work 3 days a week. Sara calls it early retirement. Did I mention that already? If so, ignore me. So I'm not necessarily on the computer much - we're out walking and biking a lot. We love it. But lately, when I get online I get into what I call a YouTube loop. I'll watch one video (a prank or something) then see another related video I want to watch, then another and before you know it, I've got a list of 5 or 6 I want to watch later and can't leave because I keep finding new ones.

Oh, and last night, I sent an e-mail to Craig Ferguson - a late night talk show that reads funny e-mails (Sara loves the show). I sent:

Craig,

I think my wife has a crush on you. Could you make sure you don't act too sexy?

Thanks.

Luc

I've been telling Sara I sent something but she wants to be surprised if he reads it on the air. So she has no idea what the e-mail says. I keep telling her (probably 10-15 times today) "Oh, we can't forget... We should watch Craig Ferguson tonight." Yes, annoying, but oh so much fun.

We took some vacation time lately - 1 week, then took an extra week off. Then we worked a week and thought we could really use a couple of weeks off before the summer ends. So here we are in the middle of week 1. I did a bit of music today... It was fun.

So you're (sorta) caught up. Time to go park my a** in front of the television for a bit... I am on vacation after all.

Sara made cookies the other day for Canada Day...



And she made me this shake n bake chicken supper a couple of days ago...



Now I'm hungry all over again :)

I was playing around on my music keyboard today and ended up playing a rendition of Love In This Club by Usher and Young Jeezy - starting with a church organ sound preset and finishing up with a bagpipes preset.

She seemed entertained.

I was working late tonight and at one point, I got giddy. For a while now, I've been wanting to put together a "How It Works" page for a site we recently launched. I finally put one together... but made it funny. I'm a good drawerer.

It's a site where people write about help wanted signs they've seen on stores and restaurants in their area.

We've been so busy with programming new sites, making existing ones better, dreaming of boats, working on skinnying ourselves (is that a word), resting... We're enjoying our work so much more since we've cut down to 3 days/week... We actually look forward to it - and the work we do is amazing! It's a great time to be alive! Don't know why I just said that - it just popped into my head.

It's 2:38 - guess it's bedtime.

I tend to forget to post on here lately... I've been so busy that I've done quick short updates on Twitter, waiting to have the time to make longer posts on here.

I've been working on a new site that's taking a lot of programming work but should be a lot of fun and useful when it launches.

And we've got another one, a very Web 2.0 type site/tool that I'm just waiting to work on more actively. I don't really like programming - I like what the programming can accomplish (I think back to when we had to do our sites and content manually in HTML with Notepad... Well, I still use Notepad a lot but I'm programming database-related sutuff instead of static pages.

So this project has quickly become a large one, programming-wise, but it's turning out to be really interesting. We continue to have our best ideas at like 3 or 4 in the morning... We've tried to do otherwise, but when an idea hits you, it hits you.

I've been working hard. I want my boat. I'll get my boat. See? The power of positive thinking. Ok now I'm off to rest my head...

We went to the museum of science the other day... It was fun. I "drove" a container ship where it was sort of like a video game. But I found that driving it carefully around the icebergs was sorta boring. So I decided to veer towards the starboard side (see? I can talk like a boat guy - that means right) and crash it right into the iceberg.

Then a video comes on with one of the crew members saying like she's scolding you "Captain! You hit an iceberg!"

Then she says "Well, ok, try it again." or something like that. It was funny.

And not related at all, Sara and I have a contest to see who can get to our weight loss goals first. The prize? King or Queen of the office. Forever.

You notice odd things when you lose weight. The first thing I noticed a while back is that my fingers were bony. When I was washing my hands, I could really feel it. Not it's the spot just above my, um, special place - basically the spot RIGHT under my stomach, right above my walalalala.

All kinds of spots are tightening and I'm feeling bones near my shoulders I never knew I had. It's nice.

I have a niece that's about 2 and a half months old. Yesterday she was crying. To help her not cry, I decided to read something to her. The closest thing I could find was a Thousand Island visitors guide. So I read that.

I read an ad about boat tours with a really animated voice. She stopped crying and looked like she was listening to everything I said. Then I read an article about history of something - she cried. I think she was bored. Then I read an ad about a casino. She was mesmerized again. Then when I stopped she cried. Scuba diving ads? Mesmerized... and on it went. She liked it. It was funny.

I went to pick up my bike today from the repair place. It wasn't ready. We walked around for a few hours and went back. They don't have a part. Then the guy said he'll do the overhaul we ordered but just charge us for a tune-up (about $40 instead of $100 - the overhaul is a major tune up where they basically clean and repack just about every piece that moves). Cool!

Also got film developed. I had no idea what was on it since it had been so long (just found a disposable camera and a film from a few years ago). The camera had a bunch of pictures of all kinds of things. You don't care. And the film didn't work. The girl said she was able to get 5 pictures or so from it. They were fuzzy, grainy, and you pretty well couldn't see anything. They didn't charge for it. I'm always impressed when they do that since they do the work, it's your fault for bringing in an old film, but they don't charge. That was nice. And the disposable camera had prepaid processing (we paid $2 for one-hour processing) so everything cost us $2.

And Sara found a nickel, then later a penny (which we both thought was a dime) on the floor. So she came back 6 cents richer. Not a bad day. Maybe I shoulda bought a lottery ticket.

Sara and I made this...

I've been using Twitter a lot lately. Like most people seem to be saying, I still don't understand it, I still don't really get the point, but I can't stop posting haha.

I was thinking today... you know the expression "easy as pie"? What is easy about pie? It's tough to make, man. It takes hours. And tons of steps, cutting fruit, making the dough, rolling out the dough. Even buying canned fruit and a ready-made crust can take time.

That's it. Carry on.

That's what I sorta figured...