The Messed up SYC

I had the best dream ever last night. 

So to start, I got to the chapel for the SYC, but apparently I got the schedule mixed up and basically I crammed everything that we had planned for Saturday into Friday night. It was a disaster. One of our elective speakers didn’t show up to speak. So I had to, that sucked. 

Then I think we just straight up skipped Saturday, because we did it all Friday.

Then on Sunday, Breaking Of Bread was normal, but the Family Bible Hour was just the worst. I guess Zach and my Dad put a streaming program on the chapel computer to watch sports on the Saturday, but the program was a virus. So it only played live basketball all the time, which is weird for so many reasons. Even if I turned off the system and the speakers it still played, it couldn’t be stopped. I was super ticked off and I was going all hulk crazy in the sound booth breaking things and smashing my fist on the desk, meanwhile it was packed and everyone was blaming me. But it was really Zach and my Father's fault.

So yeah, the moral of the story is don’t mess with my sound booth. Also don’t try cramming all the activities of Saturday into Friday...

Hotel Shananigans

Gather 'round to hear the tail of our trip to a hotel.

The Front Desk:

It all started on a beautiful sunny evening in East Toronto, when Nathanael, Devin, Sam, and myself all rolled up to the Hotel. At first glace it looked amazing, little did we know that it was really a portal to the underworld. After grabbing our stuff out of the #eelantra(Yeah, that is the name of my car) we walked in. At this point we were still excited with that pre-hotel excitement. I go up to the front desk, since I am the one who made the booking. After talking with the clerk for a few minutes, he tells me that he is going to give me an "upgrade", now in my mind, at this exact moment I was excited. This excitement quickly diminished when he told me that my upgrade was to a bigger room with one bed. Now this wouldn't be an issue if there wasn't FOUR people who needed a place to sleep. Now I am not a confrontational person, so instead of getting mad, I just decided to make it work. So I asked for a cot. He looks me in the eyes and says "Sure! Not a problem, that'll just be $10 a night". At this point I am starting to feel like I should become a little more confrontational. So I say "Nah, we'll skip the cot". To this he replies, "Okay, we'll give it to you for free" At this very moment I wanted to punch him, just give me it free the first time. Right before everything is done and ready to go he decides to let me know that there is a $8 a night parking charge. I say nothing, there was nothing to say, I just walked away from the desk and we headed up to our room. We took some time just to get settled in and then we headed off to the pool, for a quick swim.

The Battle for the Beds:

When we got back from the pool, there was a cot in our room. This is good. But that still leaves one person without a bed.(Sam and I shared the king size bed, since it is basically two beds.) We call the front desk and say "Could we get another cot", they say "sure!" at this point we think we win this battle for beds. We were wrong, they called back because they were sure they had already delivered a cot to our room. They had. We told them we didn't have one. They told us that they were sending someone to check. So the janitor came to our room. But before he got there we quickly hid the cot in the bathroom, Nathanael was taking a shower. When he showed up he come into the room and was very confused when he didn't see the cot, he left and about 20 minutes later brought us our second cot. We had finally won! Everyone now had a place to sleep that wasn't a floor and the Janitor thinks he is going crazy.

Cheapness Abounds:

The next morning we were feeling pretty good. I was still a little annoyed that they made us pay for parking, but I thought I could make it up for with eating all of the free breakfast, since there is no sadness breakfast food can't cure. We get to the breakfast place, and ask the hotel staff about the free breakfast, they tell us that we need a special card from the front desk to qualify for the breakfast. So we go ask, of course, we didn't qualify. So there was no breakfast for us. What kinda of hotel doesn't give everyone a free breakfast. After this we go to check out. We find that our free "upgrade" wasn't actually free. This pushed me over the limit. I walk over to the front desk and in my most stern voice, say "I thought it was a free "upgrade", to a room with not enough beds for everyone." My sarcasm rang through out the halls of the hotel loud enough to wake the rest of the guests. At this point he decided to cut my parking cost and made sure I didn't get charged more for a room that was awful. Then he told me to write a review for the Hotel. I did. It was not a happy review.

This ends my story. I hope you enjoyed my rant. 

Nolan Out!

Adulthood

I am officially 85% adult. Yup, that is right! I have a car, a job, and I am saving for a house.

But lets be "serious" for a minute. My job is going super well and I am loving it. I get to go and fix clients computer problems.(most of them I wouldn't even consider a problem, but I guess that is what happens when you've been to school to learn this stuff.) I work for a company called Jolera, and my boss has an amazing beard. Can't argue with that.

I have a car. It's a Hyundai Elantra 2007(Or the #EELantra, as I have offically named it) and in case you haven't seen it, here is a picture of it:

#Eelantra

It is an amazing piece of mechanical genius. But more importantly, I love it. I love having the freedom of being able to drive where ever I want, when ever I want to. If I want to go get a Pizza Pizza Panzerotti, I go and get one. It is that simple. Life.

Though I don't like the fact that I have to pay for insurance and gas. Good thing I have a job, eh? Money comes in and money goes out. My next big Purchase will be a house. So over the next year and a bit I will be saving all of my extra cash so that I can buy my dream house.

Then after I buy my house I'll only be 10% away from being a full adult. I need a wife for the last 10%.

Nolan Out!

Pearson International Airport

Well, this is it. I am officially back in the civilized world. I am sitting int this airport excted to be going to get back on to a real sleep scheduled. Now that is excited news!

Looking back, it's been a good run. After spending a total of  10 months fishing eels over the last 5 years, I know I am going to miss it, but as I sit here in this Toronto airport it is the last thing I ever want to do again. But I know when April rolls around next year and I realize that I will have to continue to be a real adult, I am going to be sad.

Looking forward, I am excited for hat comes next. I have a job interview Monday for what looks like a great job. Doing what I took in school no less. As well as starting my own business with Nathanael on the side. It's going to be an exciting summer and a more exciting year!

Well There is my boarding call so I got to go,

Nolan Out!

Just some whine

So this is just a quick rant session. Ready? Well, here we go.

So I am six weeks into this eel fishing thing and I hate myself. Once you get about a month in you just start hating it. It's like a light switch. One day you think you don't mind it, the next you hate it. Like a lot.

It's 7:21 AM. Most people are waking up. I am just about to go to bed. This is my life now. Will it ever end? I don't know. Likely. But it isn't coming soon enough, that's for darn sure!

On a much happier note, I went to McDonald's tonight. While waiting for the tide to go down me and Jessup(Jesse's eel name) went to get our favourite food. Plus it's his birthday, so celebration was in order. We are both satisfied... for a while.

The down side to this McDonald's run was that I wasn't hungry for Gerry's breakfast. Gerry is a wonderful man who cooks food for us. He is basically an angel.

I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight.

Nolan Out!

Brain Stuff

Aha! I bet you thought I was just posting a one time blog post full of empty promises didn't you?....Well maybe a little bit, but in my defense I just moved over the weekend so I haven't really had a lot of sit down and ponder time. That being said I have this wonderful 2 hour class that is largely filled with stories and is rather boring. Thus I sit here writing to you, feel honored! Anyway, I won't waste large numbers of words talking about my moving experience because I have an agenda for this post. That post is based in my brain....and your brain and all our brains!

During my second trimester (no i was not pregnant. Its like a semester but we do 3 a year instead of 2, hence the tri part) I was introduced to neuroanatomy by a brilliant man who was truly passionate about what he taught. Since then, I have tried to keep up on the latest research on the nervous system in many different respects.

So true to that, I have been looking into what roles the diet and immune systems play on the brain and vise versa. Recently, a study was published by the University of Virginia School of Medicine that stated the discovery of previously unknown vessels that link the lymphatic system with the brain through the meninges. Basically it was once thought that there was no direct link between the brain and the lymphatic system and when one developed an autoimmune disease (the body attacks itself) it was not linkable to a problem in the brain itself. The evidence of a direct link may provide a new approach to looking at what causes diseases such as MS and Alzheimers. Instead of thinking of the brain as just the control center of the nerves and hormones only, it may be directly linkable to the immune system as well.  I won't go into the specifics here because I don't want to make this post to long. If you would like to read more, I suggest reading this article or the actual study here, keep in mind you will only be able to read the abstract unless you have a subscription to the journal.

Contrary to what many believe, much of the human body and its function is not very well understood and researchers are constantly finding new mechanisms and processes, such as the one mentioned above, and the exciting thing is that as more and more is discovered, we are able to fill in the gaps between symptoms of a disease and the cause. In traditional medicine, the effort has always been to cure the disease after it has occurred or at the very least, minimize the symptoms. As we get closer to the original cause of these diseases, we are be able to reverse the disease or even prevent the disease from occurring at all . In the same way that it was discovered that smoking can cause cancer, AIDS is primarily transferred through sexual intercourse, and scurvy is due to a vitamin C deficiency if we can pinpoint the mechanisms behind neurological and autoimmune disorders we may be able to prevent them.

Thats all for now folks!

Eel Fishing 101

This is my fifth year being a commercial eel fishermen. You'd think after four years I'd have learned my lesson and found a new career path.

I can't talk to much about how this season is going catch wise. I have been sworn to secrecy. But what I can tell you is that I am enjoying this season a whole lot more then I did last year. Everything is running better and the attitude around here is a whole lot more upbeat.

Now normally I'm not allowed to post photos of me on the job, but this year I have some special permission. Here are a few snapshots of me and the guys working.

Jesse just using his Go-Pro

Me just holding this Eel steady for the picture

Now in case you were actually fooled by those pictures. This is not even close to what my job here in New Brunswick looks like. But wouldn't it be cool if that was what I actually did?

These are more accurate pictures showing what we do:

Except out nets look more like this:

Well that brief description of my job is all I got time for, since Sam really wants to play Towerfall and he can't do that if I am using my laptop. 

So,

Nolan Out!

Looky Here Lads! He be Postin Again

So its been slightly over one year since I last posted. In that post I said I would update on how things were going in the US and how we were doing, needless to say that did not happen. I have recently come to terms with just how bad I am at keeping people up to date on things, something I hope to slowly remedy. Either way I have been thinking lately, (well more like reading) that continuing to write on this blog would probably be good for me. Unlike when I initially undertook this blog with Nolan like 6 years ago, I no longer am writing to play to an audience (even if there wasn't much of one haha). Don't get me wrong I enjoyed writing the few posts I did, how I did, but always in the back of my mind was "will people find this amusing? Will they find it enjoyable?". This time around the focus is on me, and don't take that in a me being self-centered type of way. Rather I am treating it more like a journal. Now before you turn tail and run, I would like to lay out what that means, what I will be saying, and what I will not be saying:

1.
 I will NOT be telling you sappy personal feelings and disappointments in my life.

2.
 I will NOT be putting what I think is wrong with the world and how Christians are not doing what they should be doing, why I think non-christians are dumb yada yada yada. If you want that go read the Matt Walsh Blog haha.

3.
I WILL be posting as a Christian, things to encourage, to support and lift up.

4.
I WILL be posting things I find interesting in health, I have learned so much about the human body in the last year and sometimes feel ready to burst talking about the latest research in the field of health.

5.
I will be posting things I find interesting in Technology and other random things.

Thats a very rough outline of what I hope to focus, or not to focus on. As I said earlier I am writing this because these are the things that interest me. I realize that most bloggers won't post about the awesome effects of vitamin D on the body one day, and the next day post about why they love their android phone. But these are the things I love and like to talk about.

 As to the things I will not be posting about, I said that for a very specific reason. That reason being that I have recently been reading on the effects.....affects? of stress and depression on both the mind and the body. What causes stress and depression and what are the best remedies.No, I am not in a clinically depressed state and I will not be needing antidepressants haha. I am however, a student living in the 21st century where stress and acute episodes of depression are rampant, and I am not immune. A few days ago I was listening to a man speaking on the effects...affects? of stress on the brain and its function. One thing that he said that really stuck with me, is just how much time the average person spends inside their own head, contemplating, worrying, arguing with themselves. He stated that the average person spends around 50% of their lives just thinking about other times in their lives whether it be the future or the past. The resounding problem with this, is that the overwhelming majority of these thoughts are negative. This is a double whammy, not only are you missing whats currently going on, you are reliving or creating negative thoughts that will only amplify the stress and or depression in your life. The main reason I wanted to start writing again was to start changing the time I spend being negative. In a world that is overwhelmingly negative, I decided it was time for me to personally inject some positive into the world.

So thats it, I want these posts to speak on the things that I love, that I find interesting, or things that I feel God has been pressing on my heart. Anyway, this post is probably one of the most emotional you will see, so if it was to much, don''t worry! Facts and helpful/boring things are on there way.

Seriously I might end up writing another post later today.

College coming to a close

Three years? Is this real life? Do I have to be a real adult now? These are only some of the crazy thoughts running through my head as I sit here in the lab at school with only two weeks left. I feel like it was just yesterday was my first day of classes at a real school. Anyone remember those posts? "today is my first day of real school" is exactly what it said.

Have I changed in the last three years of school? Yeah, I think I probably have. Hopefully for the better. If nothing else I  know I am in better shape now(See post below.) How is it that you can know you changed so much but not really be able to explain how? Is that a thing? it's weird, I know I'm different, probably more mature. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone. It's probably more all the little things, and not one big thing, yeah know?

I don't know if that last paragraph made any sense. If not you'll survive.

What else is there to tell? Placement, I guess. I've been working at Vale. Go check my facebook and instagram for pictures. It has been going well. I have been learning lots and getting a better understanding of what I learned in school. It is crazy at how big some networks actually are(Mom, if you read this next part you won't understand what I am talking about.) When going into a router or switch on a Vale network and just taking a look at some of the things that are going on with the configuration, it blows my mind. Granted, I was expecting a production network to be bigger then a lab set up, sure. But the amount of stuff all going on at once and working, for the most part, is crazy. Not to mention the amount of stuff that school didn't actually teach me, is impressive as well. Just gotta learn it on my own I guess. From fiber to VOIP, I've got a lot more learning to do. But I guess that is life. If you don't push forward you fall behind.

I always seem to start posting again once eel season starts to roll around, I guess the thought of leaving for 2 months makes me feel weird and I feel the need to write my thoughts down. Oh! Yeah, I'm going eel fishing again this year. Sam is coming as well, and a new comer, Jesse Fontaine(You remember the potato cannon guy.) Should be another interesting season with a whole crap ton(a metric crap ton) of stories to go along with it. If I am not sleeping in my free time, or playing Towerfall, maybe I'll take some time and make a post or two.

Anyways that's all I got time for right now,

Nolan Out!

My Weight Loss Campaign

So this story began around the beginning of the 2013 school year. I was working out regularly and eating decently during the entire 2013-2014 school year. I think I even lost 15lbs that year. There was much rejoicing. This put me at a normal weight of about 210lbs. Not to big and just above average.

But it all changed one day. Actually it was the day after my last exam. I jumped on a flight and headed off for a land that is full of awe(and I mean awful, not awesome.) a land where the eels flow like water and the pizza pockets are plentiful.

My fat face when I weighed 221lbs.

This was the beginning of the end. I started eating. I ate a lot. For 6-7 weeks I lived on an impressive amount of Pizza Pockets, Mr. Noodles, and the cooking of everyones favorite cook, right Sam? I was working out just enough to make me think I wasn't putting on weight. But alas, I was putting it on faster then fat kid on cake. I was the metaphorical fat kid, actually I was the literal fat kid too. I was now sitting around an impressive 221lbs.

After my time in New Brunswick came to an end things only got worse, well for my waist line. I was off to the sunny north were I would be working at Northland Bible Camp for the summer. You'd think this type of environment would be conducive in my weight loss endeavors. Sadly it was not. Those wonderful ladies who work so hard at feeding the amazing campers and staff at camp all summer do their job just a little too well. And I was putting on calories twice as fast as I could burn them off. by the end of the summer I was sitting at a large 234lbs. This is the most I have ever weighed.

During the last week of camp Devin Lawrence and Myself decided this was enough. We made a plan to lose 20lbs by Christmas. This goal seemed reasonable. #20lbsbychristmas. So we started working out at least 4 times a week. Not once needing to step foot in a gym, Why no gym you ask? Because we have a membership at the Church of Latter Day Pumps, as some have called it. Or in other words, we went to our church to perform our work outs. All we really needed was a big room. And Sudbury Bible Fellowship has such a room.

When it came to what foods we ate, well that is were I give credit to Nathanael Martin. He told us about the app MyFitnessPal. This is basically a calorie counting app. This app figured out how we should eat to lose #20lbsbychristmas. And we stuck to it, like a fat kid on cake.

MyFitnessPal

I'm part of the Sarlo family. And for those who don't know us, our last name give us magical powers that allow us to eat more food then the average hippo if we need or want to. So you could say I'm not a fan of diets, I had never really been on a diet I could stick to. I would always fail a week or two in and give up on the whole eating right idea. Working out was never my issue. But not eating food, that was and is a battle. I don't know what it was this time, maybe it was the app keeping me accountable, or maybe I just found some new will power I didn't know I could access. I stuck to this diet, and have grow to love it. I still go over from time to time. But always manage to keep it under control.

Who is this guy?

So remember that 20lbs goal we had? Well at about 3 weeks in we were already there. It was amazing the weight just fell off. It was crazy. I never really knew how much food the body really needs to survive. I know not eating enough is an issue. I get that. But I wasn't feeling tired and I always had tons of energy. So whatever I was doing was working. Once we were two months into this weight loss campaign we had lost about 30lbs. So now what? Well we changed the hashtag. Our new goal was #40lbsbychristmas. Well wouldn't you know it. We made that in about 3 more weeks. so we changed it again #50lbsbychristmas.

If your reading this and have me on facebook you'll know that I made it. I was 184lbs before December 25th. This whole experience has showed me that weight loss isn't this big complex thing. It is as simple as "burn more calories then you eat." I said this is simple. Not easy.


If you're over weight, choosing to lose weight is one of the best decision you can make. I will encourage everyone to work on being healthy. If you don't know where to start message me. I would love to let you use my workouts. Actually I'll link them at the bottom. I'm no personal trainer and I couldn't tell you very much about how the body works, but I do know that what I did works. I lost 50lbs. You can too!

Down 50lbs.

Nolan Out!

The first 8 weeks
The second 8 weeks
The last 8 weeks