I want to be a confident public speaker. Not a nervous public speaker.

My global clients always put that at the top of their wish list when we begin our work together.  Confidence is a powerful energy. So is nervousness — which is why I never want to get rid of nervousness. If you’re not nervous, you’re not ready to speak.  Heart racing, blood pumping.  This is called adrenaline. And all of us have experienced adrenaline.  It’s the energy that allows us to focus on our goal. It’s the energy we’ve experienced before a big game, a big exam, a big race…a big date.  Public speaking is a massive adrenaline rush. Confident public speakers always experience the adrenaline rush.

Confidence is perceived by others in many ways.  How do we ‘judge’ confidence? Is it tone of voice? Body language? How much knowledge you have? How you’re dressed?  To me, confidence in public speaking is how much you’re willing to give yourself to an audience. How much you’re willing to break from the “normal way of doing things” in order to present something that the audience didn’t expect. You didn’t do the standard, “hi, I’m Manager big company, here is my agenda (go through that slide), here are my slides (go through those), thank you, any questions?”

We’ve all seen that presentation.  Not the most inspiring way of doing things. But we’ve also seen the speaker who doesn’t do it this way (go to Ted.com to see some great examples). Those speakers leave a memorable impression. Yes, some of them have slides (and I still use slides as well) but they don’t rely on slides to lead them. They rely on the human contact to guide their presentation. This is confidence. And all of us have the ability to do this. 

The first 2 minutes (see my earlier blog post) is very tough. But you will settle in by finding the eyes, finding the energy source. You have to give your audience the chance to connect to you, though (one to one million).  Turning to slides right away will disconnect you. Once you do this, it is very tough to reconnect.

The confident public speaker is inside every speaker. Public speaking is human speaking…nervousness and all.

Enjoy!

1) The ‘book-it-so-you-have-to-do-it’ phase.

So you’ve heard about all this skydiving malarkey and how ‘it’s so awesome’, ‘a once in a life time experience’, ‘worth the [somewhat exceedingly expensive] price’, so you think the only way you will actually get of your arse to do it, is by leaving yourself no choice and to book the damn thing. This is a good tactic; however, prepare yourself for the immense feeling of doom/horror/excitement when you get off the phone. Now it feels you have no choice, and you can start coming to terms with the fact that you will probably jump out of a plane at some point in the very near future. Obviously some insane people will relish the prospect of jumping out of a plane for the first time; I however blame my curious side. What is the big deal about skydiving and is it actually awesome? Or does everyone just say that to sound awesome? Well, no choice now, I’ve booked it and I’m going to find out!

2) The ‘wake-up-in-the-morning,-hopefully-the-weather-cancels-it’ phase.

Now it’s the morning – you know the bus leaves at 11:30am to go the airport and there are at least three clouds in the sky and a very slight breeze. Hopefully I can get a quick get out by it being binned of for some external weather complication. After all, it’s the thought that counts isn’t it? I am a crazy kind of person, I booked a skydive!

3) The ‘balls-it’s-actually-going-ahead’ phase.

You make the call, they confirm the bus is coming to pick you up, and the horrendous anxiety sets in. You start to feel queasy and become very aware of what may happen. You keep looking over the banister at the top of the stairs, you look over the side of the balcony, you imagine the highest points you have ever been and consider jumping off it. ‘What have I done?!’ You get on the bus and start signing forms which talk about death, complications and liability and just sign away like you’re already doomed. ‘Excuse me, how longs the journey?’, ‘Not long!’, ‘Nooooooooooooo.’

4) The ‘lets-watch-the-safety-videos-and-skydiving-videos-which-make-you-feel-worse’ phase.

You sit down and try chatting to the other victims around you. Nervous banter begins and ends when you realise you are burbling. After the videos finish playing you really begin to realise that this is going to happen and that it will be you soon – falling around in the sky with your face all mushy. The butterflies are really going now and I try to seek comfort in talking to my mates – who just seem really excited. I am not sure whether I am excited or just horrifically scared!! Maybe the two are supposed to go hand in hand? Hmmm…

5) The ‘get-the-gear-on-and-wait’ phase.

And it’s exactly that. They shove you in a luminous boiler suit, put a pack on your back with some lovely crotch straps, whack an egg-head forming hat on and adjust for hilarity. And then you wait for the plane. It’s this part when you start feeling a bit better because you really come to terms with the fact you are actually jumping. You are also at the stage where you are most knowledgeable about the companies’ death/life ratio and injury stats after running around interrogating all the staff in a mild state of panic. I would like to point out that I actually start getting quite excited, but still, very scared. I start to worry about what would happen if you land to discover you have wet yourself or vommed in your instructors face mid-flight. Has anyone done that before? What would you say to them?!! At least these thoughts detract from the thoughts of death or serious maiming.

6) The ‘am-I-going-to-ever-set-foot-on-earth’ phase.

The plane pulls up and you walk towards it. The feeling now is of slight panic but also the excitement is building. I am not sure whether that was because I was trying to force myself to be excited, or trick myself into being excited, but whatever, I was definitely quite excited! As the plane takes off you start realising how high it’s going. Check the altimeter. Ah, 400ft up. What am I jumping again? Oh right. 15,00ft. The ground gets smaller and smaller and so does your stomach. Nevertheless the atmosphere in the plane was quite chilled really. You have all the cool-dude pros with you and, as it was so loud, no awkward, painful, jibbering conversation could be started. It was all about mentally preparing yourself and trying to take in all the emotions. This all went out the window when my instructor beckoned me over to get strapped in as the first. Nooooooooooooooooo!

7) The ‘strapping-in-cuddle’ phase.

A few seconds pass and you wonder why you are 13,500ft in a plane, sitting on a strangers lap as he twirls your hair, but this is the reality. I am all strapped in and my guy is making sure my matt of hair doesn’t impair is view for when we jump. In a strange way, the sitting on the lap thing is actually strangely reassuring! At least I’m not going down by myself and I am assuming that this guy knows what he is doing. We are given oxygen masks and I concentrate on breathing deeply.  I look out the door. He slides it open, and its boom time. I can’t really remember what I was feeling at this stage, I think I was just trying to be really brave and get in one it! I remember looking over the side of the plane at the ground. Then I was instructed to bend my legs over the edge of the plane and lean back.

The ‘aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa’ phase

Before you know it, you lean back and you’re out. The feeling is extremely intense. It was cold, windy and noisy. I thought I was going to scream the whole way down, but I was completely stunned to shock. I had my mouth open and I was looking all around me in disbelief at what was happening, and I was actually thinking, ‘this is pretty awesome actually’. I thought that my tummy would be really tickling – like when you go down a rollercoaster quickly, but it was fine. I could deffo feel my face going all mushy and there was a hairy moment when I though my egg-head hat was going to fall off and grot me, but thankfully it didn’t. My instructor tapped me to reach out – which I feebly did. Some people say it feels like you are flying – just to clear up, it definitely feels like you are falling really, really fast. It’s pretty cool when you come up to a cloud though because you can relate to it coming closer. When you go through the cloud you can see lots of rainbows which is cool. I kept trying to concentrate on the views and the sensation. It is strange feeling because everything seems so far away and makes it feel like nothing is real. It is like your mind is so confused it can’t work anything out. It is true that the freefall goes quickly, but not as quickly as I thought it would. I can remember nearly all of it and it was definitely amazing.

9) The ‘fly-up-really-high-and…silence’ phase.

My instructor tapped me to signal me to hold onto the harness and suddenly I felt myself being pulled up extremely fast. It was then extremely quiet all of a sudden. I took a few, well; loads of breaths to calm myself down and then my instructor took my goggles off for me. I looked down at my feet. Wooa I am high up!! I looked around and I felt more exposed than I did when I was freefalling. The quietness makes you think about the position you are in – which is horrifically high up in the air!! It was at this point too when my ears reeeaaallly started hurting. I suppose I shouldn’t really say it because it may put people off, but my ears cained due to the altitude. I couldn’t equalise them either so I tried to forget about it. We started gliding down in a spiralling motion – this did make my tummy go all tickly like on a rollercoaster though, but it was a really cool feeling. I was freaking out a bit as well because you can see your feet are not attached to the ground but I started to actually enjoy being out of my comfort zone.

The landing went smoothly as well – I had heard horror stories of people breaking their legs on landing, so when my instructor told me to lift my legs up, boy did I hoyke ‘em high! The strangest feeling was coming into land, because the people and objects get really close really quickly and you start to realise you are falling really fast. That made my tummy go a bit too! I was wandering when we were going to start slowing down, but we did in the last seconds.

10) The ‘shit-me-I-did-a-skydive’ phase.

As I was the first one out I was able to watch the others come in. I was extremely elated and couldn’t believe what I had just done! I was a quivering, excitable wreck and was thanking everyone involved probably a bit too enthusiastically – especially my instructor who literally legged it away. Ellie came down first – she also had ear pain issues, and Laura came down second – she felt a bit motion sick. However, apart from that we were all pretty amazed. Pretty quickly we became really exhausted and lethargic. We couldn’t believe it was all over. I had heard that you get such an adrenaline rush from a skydive that you end up buzzing all day; however I felt I wanted to lie down and sleep! I also felt like I wanted to tell everyone I knew that I had done it though. I definitely felt satisfied though and couldn’t stop thinking about the feeling of being up there, falling really fast through the clouds.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Even though I was really scared during the lead up, as soon as I actually had to step up and jump, my fear had gone and I just got on with it. More importantly, I enjoyed it too! It makes all the worrying totally worth it. It is also important to remember that it is natural to be kacking your pants. After all, what is natural in the human nature to freefall at 15,000ft?! Nothing! So give yourself a break. It’s easy to dangle your feet out and lean back when you come to it and that’s all that matters.

I definitely felt like my jump was worth the money, and I wasn’t bothered when I didn’t buy the extra $150 DVD of my freefall. You don’t need it in the end because you have your own memories of the event, and so I didn’t fork out for that. I was worried I would regret it though. If I was asked to do a skydive again for free, then I would DEFFO do it, however, as a poor graduate I think I will spend my money testing out new adrenaline rushes/buying food. If anyone was to ask me whether to do a skydive, I would say 100% yes, it is actually really awesome and a great sensation. And for your information, I didn’t pee my pants or vom in my instructors face. Phew!

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind -

As if my Brain had split -

I tried to match it – Seam by Seam -

But could not make them fit.

The thought behind, I strove to join

Unto the thought before -

But Sequence ravelled out of Sound -

Like Balls – upon a Floor.

Emily Dickinson

I have a shiny new word (well, acronym) to explain what I’m going through: ADD. Adult ADD. Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. Which basically means it wasn’t recognized in childhood. I guess if you don’t get in enough trouble, it’s easy to miss.

I admit, I feel kinda silly. I mean, I have a hubby with ADD and a brother who was ADHD (and still undoubtedly ADD). Looking at it with new eyes, I realize that most of my family probably has it. Which is probably why our interruptions and impulsiveness, vague boundaries, etc. never bothered us overmuch.

And I feel silly that I’m a medical provider (working with psychiatric patients, no less) who didn’t realize how much there is to this. It really is a syndrome – a constellation of common symptoms unique to each individual. That said, the underlying familiarity of so much of it combined with my increasing struggle just to hold my normal days together – well, let’s just say I opted for a formal diagnosis.

In a nutshell, I was diagnosed as having both inattentive and overfocused ADD. I would think the two are mutually exclusive, but apparently not. The therapist who diagnosed me was kind of thrilled, actually – he said that combo is really hard to diagnose.

Getting away from all my thoughts about this new way of approaching my difficulties (and I have many, many thoughts… thankfully coming at me a little bit slower in the past couple of days), I wanted to write down some ideas about time before I… well, before I forget them. *grin*

So, I never realized that time is such a big part of ADD symptoms. In fact, I don’t think I even realized until lately how much of a problem I have with time.

I am chronically late. It’s gotten me into trouble before, but not so much now. My job allows for it, and that is 100% awesome.

No matter how long I think something will take me, it always takes longer. Usually a lot longer. I realize now that I am often embarrassed to admit how long it took me to do something.

Turns out, these things are common among people with ADD. It’s not that I lack some inherent skill to work efficiently. There’s an explanation for it.

It never occurred to me that TIME could be so skewed. I want to document how time has changed for me in the past couple of days.

I know that medication is only part of the answer, and believe me, I’m working on other changes, as well. I am starting to feel more hope than I have for a long while – hope that I won’t always be a disorganized, flightly fuck-up. I am on day 2 of stimulant therapy. It’s nothing short of amazing to me how such a tiny dose of stimulant, how a tiny bit of brain tweaking (tweak! ha! no pun intended) can make such a big difference.

I feel almost effortlessly happy. The world looks sharper and clearer. The debilitating fatigue and constant feeling of overwhelment has lifted. I am much more able to stay on task because I have only one or two distracting thoughts at once. I think I had 10-20 before. I didn’t even realize it. Sometimes you don’t realize how bad things are until they change. Contending with 1 or 2 straying thoughts seems entirely doable. 10-20 straying thoughts? Even if those thoughts are so, so worthy of exploration, it’s just not possible to stay on track well enough to feel like your mental health is intact. And I wondered why I was so tired all the time, so overwhelmed all the time… it seems clear now. How much energy was it taking me just to go through the motions of an ordinary day? It would seem a lot. No wonder the fatigue can get debilitating.

I’ve been thinking a lot about time. There was this experiment I saw on TV not so long ago, where the way the brain experiences time in relation to adrenaline was explored. You know how people say that when something bad or scary (or even exhilarating – like bungee jumping) is happening, everything moves in slow motion? Is that just a subjective perception, or is time really moving more slowly?

This is absolutely fascinating – worth the 9 minutes (it will go fast – hee hee!).

An interesting aside (interesting to me, anyway): as people get older, time seems to move faster. The explanation I’ve heard most frequently is that when you’re older, you have more past time to which you compare your current experience of time. Like, if you’re five, a year seems forever because it’s a fifth of your lifetime.

I decided a few years ago that I didn’t buy it. I developed a theory (okay, not an actually scientific theory, but you know what I mean) that time really DOES speed up. Although the few times I’ve mentioned this idea to people, they look at me like I’ve got a nut loose, it would appear that the idea is not so far-fetched after all.

Our experience of time is subjective. What it is to one person may not be what it is to another. Brain chemicals and drugs alter our perception of time (if you didn’t watch the entire video above, go back and watch the second half about the experiments with mice on drugs).

Well, what happens if some of us are chemically designed by our genes to function at a different speed? For an ADD brain, on full-tilt all the time, perception of time moves more quickly (I can’t tell you how many days have whisked by me with not much to show for it). You notice and are distracted by a lot more, including your thoughts. Everything seems to be coming at you at once, there never seems enough time to get things done (which, combined with a constant barrage of stimuli and thoughts, don’t exactly equal optimal efficiency), and the way you judge quantity of time is pretty much fucked. You feel like you’re being run into the ground, and it takes an inordinate amount of energy just to keep yourself straight, deal with your family and job, etc.

Think about this. If a normal brain on adrenaline (stimulant) slows down time to slower than “normal,” what happens with an ADD brain on stimulant (medication or adrenaline or even cocaine)? With ADD, you feel like you’re moving too fast, there’s a constant state of stress, and in my experience at least, trying to slow yourself down only causes more stress from the effort. (I can tell you, it’s frustrating to wake up daily, determine to be on time by moving more quickly, only to find you’re as late as ever… how did it not go the way you planned? It’s like the harder you try, the more you fail.) Add stimulant to the ADD brain, and instead of making things go in slo-mo, you’re actually kind of moving at the same pace as everyone else.

I know there’s a better explanation for this, but while I normally like to get all cerebral on everyone, I’m going to leave it at this clunky explanation.

A tiny, tiny dose of stimulant the past two days has made me feel like I’m living in the world with the rest of you. Can I get high off of it? Well, do you get high off of your brain chemistry? Not likely, “high on life” cliches aside.

Getting away from ADD and moving from chemistry to physics, I really do wonder about time perception. Is time really all in our minds? Does it not actually EXIST outside our brain chemistry? We know, at the very least, that it can be manipulated. WWED: What would Einstein do?

Still hunting down shops for first tat. Infinity Ink, gone. Shame. They had a great rep and decent rates too.

Dropping in on Sacred Heart tomorrow. Fingers crossed for walk-ins. I think all tattoo shops should have the option for walk-ins; sometimes it’s just a spur-of-the-moment thing, yeah? Although that’s probably true more for tattoo aficionados than the average oh-shit-I-need-to-get-this-lasered-off case.

If for some tragic reason Sacred Heart has a huge waiting list / doesn’t work out either…

Liquid Amber – new studio, all female-crew. Justina (lead artist) is supposed to be amazing.
Dutchman - crappy website, great artists. The guy who owns it, The Dutchman, has an international rep and gets to pick what and who he wants to tattoo.
Next - good for both piercings and tattoos. Rivals of…
Adrenaline Vancity? – multiple locations across Canada. Their shop Downtown is huge.
Funhouse - haven’t heard too much about these guys but their artists have a very good rep around Vancouver.

Investigate how birth happens in nature

Did you know that animals in the wild usually birth easily and naturally without any problems?  Their biggest concern is predators! If an animal is attacked during labour, the surge of adrenaline will allow them to expel their baby quickly and flee to safety.  Otherwise, if they are still early on in labour, contractions will cease while they get to safety.  Labour will not recommence until they have reached safety and created the right environment again.  This is no different in humans, except we’re not generally being hunted!!  We do however, release adrenaline in response to other stressful situations.  So think about your current environment…whether you feel relaxed or stressed.  This will determine how well you birth your baby.

To see some beautiful births of animals in the wild…when left undisturbed to just ‘get on with it’, visit ‘You tube’.  There are lots of amazing videos on there to check out. It even shows how animals clean up the afterbirth…yum, yum!!  We can learn a lot by observing nature!!

So, this week the A is all about ADRENALINE & ACTION!!!   I’m talking skate parks on the beach & bmx racing through the forest like you’ve never seen before!  This time I’ve got some help, from INASECTV’s newest recruit, Tara Bell!  And of course I’ll be talking tweets from the Action-Sports world!  Buckle up cause this A Show’s  gonna be a bumpy ride!

To see more videos & become a member check out INASECTV.com

Awww jeahh, I’m done with Moot Court for the semester.  I’ve gotten through one 25-page brief, two practice oral argument rounds, and two preliminary rounds.  It feels dayam good, son.

When I’m looking forward to a particular date – in this case, November 13, the day I’d be done with Moot Court – I focus on a specific movie to gauge how fast time is moving.  For this one, I focused on the film “2012″.  As I saw teasers, then trailers, then billboards, then TV ads popping up, I knew November 13 was approaching, and hence, the day I’d be done with Moot Court.  And, yes, my friends, 2012 is opening tomorrow.  And I’m done.

You still with me?

At the same time though, I can’t shake off the feeling that I’ll miss it.  Masochistic, for sure.  The thing is, when you face challenges, you feel alive.  Instead of the usual, mundane routine, you’re forced to wake up and gear up for the challenge.  A lifetime of pushing limits is better than a lifetime of hiding behind them.

It’s the high that’s addicting.  That adrenaline rush you get right when you’re about to face the challenge, the rush you get when you’re in the middle of getting it done, and the rush you get when you finally come out on the other side.  It’s that same high I got when I performed on stage, and now, I guess, at the podium.

It’s funny how the process leading up to it can be excruciating, but the high makes it all worth it.   One moment, one shot.

Cue Eminem.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I love
Left 4 Dead 2!

If you knew me well, you would know that I am a total obsessor of Left 4 Dead. Can you imagine how excited I was for the demo to come out ? Baby in a candystore, let me tell you. I would like to put out there that this game comes out Novermber 17th. Please don’t be a dummy like me and go to Game Stop at midnight on the 11th because you let your excitement over power your brain.

This campaign is starring 4 new survivors named Rochelle, Coach, Ellis, and Nick. This is a very race friendly game. I figure the producers of Left 4 Dead probably got a few million letters/emails about how the game only catered to the white-folk. I mean, even Louis was the whitest black man on the planet! Not this time. Even the zombies are black! I guess, what do you expect when the game is supposedly in New Orleans…ok that may be taking it a bit too far. ^_^

The demo takes you through a small portion of one of the main campaigns. It is based during the day and was mostly outside. In the beginning, the survivors are dropped off of a ferry on the edge of town and make their way through the zombie infested streets to the first safe house. After the safe house, the survivors make their way through a park. The park has a nice little garden maze with zombies hidden everywhere. After the garden maze, the survivors make their way to some little construction zone. After mentally preparing themselves, they open the door and and alarm sounds. This is a new little thing where the survivors must find the alarm and shut it off before the horde stops reappearing. Not a bad place to get kill numbers up just in case one of the achievements is to kill 50 gazillion trillion zombies like in the first game. They make their way around the little maze of the fences and up the ladder. After shutting off the alarm and killing the final zombies, they jump off of the building onto the port-o-potty’s or climb back down the ladder and make their way into the bus station. After killing off zombies, survivors make their way into the safe house and the demo ends. BOO!

I did not reserve my copy until after the demo came out and only got the chance to play through it about 5 or 6 times. However, I get some cool baseball bat? Anyway. Alot, I do not remember. This could be because it’s 2:30 in the morning, but also because my memory is shot to hell. Anyway, from what I can remember, this is what I think. LEFT4DEAD2RULESMYWORLD!

L4d2 has a few significant changes as well as minor changes that change the game play, but it still is the same mass zombie killing game that we have all grown to love.  A few of the more significant changes are the new special infected.

Charger: This special infected will charge – hence the name – at you and can also grab onto you slamming you onto the ground multiple times until the charger is either killed or you are.

Jockey: This is the one that I had the most problems with. The jockey is able to scratch/punch you like a regular infected, or can attach itself to your head taking over all body functions. This allows it to take your body anywhere it wants. In the case of the demo, I was taken over by a jockey in the garden maze. The jockey managed to take me outside of the maze right as a random horde appeared. I was separated from the group and spent time incapacitated until the horde was cleared out and somebody was able to get to me.

Spitter: A confusing redneck looking woman of a special infected. This one will spit acid that, if you are standing in, will cause you to lose health. Acid is also released when in the spot that the spitter dies in.

Another thing, is the addition of the wandering witch. Supposedly, this witch only wanders during the daytime and will act like the original witch during the night. She is rumored to be much easy to kill than the original witch.

Other than the those minor details, all other special infected are still there, resting in their homey corners waiting for spring out at any moment. The tank did seem like it may have been a little faster, but I also noticed that during the crash site. It may make for some interesting versus play. I kick ass at versus. I wonder if it will still be 4vs4. I guess it would have to be to stay fair, eh?

Another addition that didn’t excite me as much, were the new weapons. This is only because I am a very brute shotgun type of girl. An AK-47 or a new magnum is pretty cool, but nothing can overcome the beauty of watching the shot gun blow open the head of a random zombie – WHICH! I shall talk about in my next paragraph. Along with the new semi automatics, there are some pretty awesome melee weapons. They include the baseball bat, frying pan, crow bar, police baton, guitar, the elusive chainsaw and I feel like I am missing one/a few, but you get the gist of it. From what I saw, you can either have a melee weapon or pistol/s and then your regular big time weapon. I found it more beneficial to have a melee weapon instead of pistols because of the random police/shield wearing zombies that can only be shot from the back.

I give an A+ times infinity on the graphics. L4D was never categorized as an aesthetically pleasing video game, but who played it for the graphics? The sequel now has better graphics, along with the ability to shoot limbs off of zombies. You can even shoot a hole in the back of the bullet proof zombies and see their guts and junk. Target practice to the next level!

A few new equip-ables are also available to make game play more interesting. A can of boomer bile is one of them. This can be thrown on a zombie or onto the ground. This works the same as regular boomer bile and zombies are attracted to it. It is an evasive maneuver and is probably the best new equip-able IMO. the pipe bomb and molotovs are also in this category and still available for use. There is also an adrenaline shot. I have not had the chance to try it out yet, but I have heard it slows down everything around you so that you have the chance to focus attacks. You can either have pills, or the shot. Along with the health pack, you can also have a defibrillator. You can use this on a dead team mate to immediately bring them back to life instead of waiting for them to appear in a closet somewhere. I do not know if this is available during versus games, but would be pretty bad-ass if I were. Have I mentioned that I kick ass at versus?

I guess that it pretty much is a given that I am super excited about the release. I feel like this is preparation for the real zombie apocalypse. LET’S DO THIS!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9636831

Buy Now

The vintage t-shirts that we use.

Un son accrocheur + un flow saccadé=hit. Bien fait!

Hello everyone and when I say everyone I mean every pilot, air racer, skydiver, media press for sports,base jumper, speed rider, parachutist or air sports fan. We know you like adrenaline, powered aerobatics, adventure, speed, and most of all you enjoy flying! We like this as well especially when we read every piece of adventure you’ve been part of.

Flying and basic air sports stories are very exciting and that’s why we come up with the idea of sharing them with others. There are many people out there that wanna give it a try doing skydiving, hang gliding, aerobatics, basic flying or evan base jumping! That’s why you guys should ,,teach” this people and try to motivate them to start!

Certainly every one of you has a true, amazing story from his/her last escapade. Maybe you always wanted to publish it but nobody thought it’s too interesting, or maybe you never got the chance to speak about the last adventure you had.

Publish your story, article,adventure,topic or editorial on our website. Allow everyone to read! You never know who might see it. Maybe your next fan? Maybe a great publication for air sports that wants YOU on their next cover? Maybe your friends and family!

Get in touch with us and find out how can you publish your article!  www.airsports.tv/press.asp

Make your hostel reservation:

Canopy / Zip line 1,5 kilometer long
If you’re looking for an adrenaline rush Mi Universo’s canopy/zip line can deliver!
18 Kilometers out of town towards Buenaventura there a small mountain pass town called “Kilometro 18″. From the village its a short 2 km walk into the jungle and here you’ll find the finca (farm) Mi Universo. Its mainly a Colombian weekend retreat with small cabins, camp ground, swimming pool and a small restaurant. But what really make the place special is one of Colombia’s longest Canopy’s/zip lines.  Its 1,5 kilometer long and guaranty a fun ride to the other side of the valley and back.
We do tours in our truck for 50.000 pesos per person (minimum 3) in the weekends. Which include the transport and one ride. And the ride can also be included on a half/full day ATV tour. Please contact us and book in advance!

Day 60: ‘fraid o’ guns!

Day 60 offered me the chance to shoot some guns as I ventured off to Gormley, ON. Target Sports Center is a shooting range that allows us unlicensed wannabe shooters to get all badass and shoot a 9mm (among others)!! Got down there no problem – just thought it was cool that I was going to shoot guns. Upon entrance the wooziness of my nerves set in. Well, no big issue there because nerves pass and I went there to shoot some guns so I told those nerves they better darn well pass, or else!!!

Be prepared to run your own show. My new buddy Dave (shooting officer/gunman/the man) told us we could pick whatever gun we wanted…I’ve never even played a video game let alone touched a gun so I wondered how I was supposed to pick one but ended up going with the Glock 17; a semi-automatic pistol like a police officer might use.

After about a 30 second run through with Dave the gun expert, I was left to shoot my first gun. I stood there, alone in the lane, with one eye shut looking down the barrel to my target. I shut both eyes and BAM! Probably not the best idea to shut both eyes, but who’s to know what to expect when shooting a gun for the first time ever?! Also, be prepared for kickback! I got a bull’s-eye in my first 5 shots, to which Dave, the gunman/my new BFF said, “Don’t want to cross you, you little sniper, you!” I never thought I’d appreciate being called a sniper, but I did. After this first gun I was absolutely buzzed. The adrenaline kicked in, had full blown Parkinson’s hands, and a smile that screamed, holy shit, I just shot a gun!

Next we tried a Smith and Wesson Revolver, whatever that is?! Looked like something straight from an old western film and sounded like nothing short of a great idea to me. The bullets were so cute and little, but turns out that was the best part. The revolver seemed a little bit wimpy to me after shooting the Glock 17, so we upgraded to an M-14 riffle. I now have bruises on my shoulder.

As if that wasn’t enough we ended our expedition off with a Remington 12 gauge shotgun. This bad boy is a “pump-action shotgun” (that my friends, is a direct quote from my good friend Wiki). So this “pump-action shotgun” was a powerful mother effer. I shot twice and that was plenty. One bullet is the equivalent to 9 of those cute little things I told you about for the Smith and Wesson Revolver. Who knew shooting guns would take such a toll on your body?

Bruises aside, this was some balls-out fun with guns and I’d do it again in a second! Yes, I’m from a small town but I have come to learn shooting guns is no red neck country bumpkin’s activity. This is hardcore in a nasty kind of way. xo mkr

About Target Sports Center:

For $40 and the price of ammunition you too can say you’ve shot real mother effin’ badass guns.

They say no appointments are necessary but planning ahead never hurts. They almost turned me and my friend away because by chance that day a business group had booked a shit ton of lanes… Thank goodness for my sweet smile and power of persuasion or else we would’ve been out a quarter tank of gas and all the way out in Stouffville (middle of nowhere) for nothing!

After the completion of a $400,000 renovation, this place is worthy of being on MTV Cribs… even as a gun range! The facilities are very clean, the staff are all super friendly, and the guns, well, they’re awesome.

Thank you to my friend Matt who came along with me for the adventure and who helped take photos!

*Please note – If anything, shooting a gun will demonstrate just how powerful these things really are. I solemly swear never to make fun of a movie where people shoot guns and hit nothing. It’s harder than it looks!! Guns also kill so use with caution xo mkr

Sinik – Adrénaline

Pour son prochain album, Ballon d’Or, prévu pour le 30 novembre

Merci à GénérationsFm

So the other day, I don’t exactly remember which one, I was just happily living life, when suddenly:

Some dude: “Hey like, umm like, I dunno, like, duhh, uhh, NaNoWriMo?!”
Me: “WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! Some alien with ears on his hands is trying to kill my mother by feeding her biscuits?!”

Okay, so that didn’t really happen, but it was fun thinking it did nonetheless. For some reason I stumbled upon the craziness that is NaNoWriMo (Nationel Novel Writing Month, you can check it out here) and for an other, even more dubious and dark, reason I decided to join in! I’ve been meaning to write something, I didn’t really care what, really, extremely long ever since I started writing. As cliché as it may be, I never got around to actually doing it. NaNoWriMo does exactly that which I never had: put an immense pressure on you so that you are slightly less prone to fail. Oh yes, this opportunity seems most perfect, almost TOO perfect…

I draw horrible comics to keep me sane

I must say, and this is very good, that I haven’t been this excited for something for as long as I can remember, I am shaking with adrenaline, pumped with caffeïne, and loaded with brain fluid. There was supposed to follow a list of things that weren’t quite okay, but I decided to scratch since everything will be fine, and I know that’s not true, but I will make it be fine, even if it means giving up my good night’s rest, my sanity, or my personal hygiene, I shall prevail!

Any other lunatic monsters partaking in this marvellous event?
Will you let the sea come by and wash over you, or will you bring a self-inflating rubber boat carrying a box of life-essentials?
It’s the first for me, and never in my life have I been so happy with the salty water flooding my body, so sticky and yummy…

You can look forward to XXXXXI (extra-extra-extra-extra-extra-insane) posts, requests for things only pregnant women would crave for, and last and also very least: some other stuff.

Hats off lions, it’s time for the hunt!