Summer 2013 Part 1

Hi Crew,

Summer is half over already!

The last two weeks have been one graduation ceremony after the next. Steven, Justin, and Ryan all graduated within 5 days of each other. So what's next for our heroes? Steven has moved back down to Calgary to start his residency at the new South Calgary Health Campus, Justin leaves for Taiwan in August to teach ESL, and Ryan has decided to move to Lethbridge with me in the fall.

In other fun news, Jason just got back from a trip to South Korea and Japan. It started as a work/school conference in South Korea where he presented a poster of his research and snowballed from there.

All this travel makes me jealous... which is why I have jumped on the invitation to go to Virginia with my dad and step mom this year. I leave in 8 days and will be gone for just over a week. In August, I will also be doing an annual camping trip with friends and then attending a family reunion in Missouri before spending a few days over in California. It's not Europe but it'll do :-)

In the meantime, I've just been working away. As always, nothing inspires returning to education quite like temporary summer jobs. I've been filling my evenings with my latest addiction: Hot Yoga. Ohhhhhhmigosh. Who would've thought sweating it out in a 35C room would be not only enjoyable but addictive? I went once, took the next day off to see how I was feeling, and then went the next three days consecutively. It is the single most incredible workout I have ever experienced in my life. The whole holistic approach to exercise, incredible teachers, a great facility near my house, solid results, and an enthusiastic partner in crime has made this one of the greatest physical activity opportunities I have had to date. If I had to pick right now, I'd say the discovery of this studio has been the greatest part of my summer so far and will be the thing I miss most when I'm back in Lethbridge where hot yoga is extremely limited.

Of course, summer is filled with lots of small things to look forward to. This weekend there is a housewarming party, a graduation party for a friend who just finished optometry (and was super lucky and got to do a practicum in Stockholm), an anniversary, and hot yoga before hosting a friend of mine who is in town for Sunday night.

Now if only the rain would stop. The only thing missing this summer has been the sun.

Cheers,

Jacqueline

At Justin's Grad: Some things never change :)

Summer Kick Off 2013

Hi Friends,

I have settled back home in Calgary for the summer and really look forward to spending the next four months with family and friends in the city. I'm working as an optometric assistant this summer and have had my first 5 shifts already. Lots to learn but should be quite manageable. The fantastic news is that it is close to my house, the hours are steady, and the pay is good. Unfortunately, that means that my days off are a little wonky  and not always consecutive but that's okay. It just means my work weeks get broken up a little more :)

I've been back in Calgary for a total of 6 days and already managed to get out on a 5 hour hike in Kananaskis country and been walking and biking through Fish Creek Provincial Park. My goal is to be outside and active as much as possible this summer. The boyfriend got a new canoe as a grad gift and we're already planning some pretty neat trips. Apparently there is an island in the middle of a nearby river that is a campground. Pretty tempting! Sounds like the annual camping trip with my high school friends will happen too. Otherwise, the only big trip planned this summer is a family reunion in Missouri.

Booo. I was going to upload some pictures from the hike yesterday but apparently I have left the connector cable for my camera in Lethbridge. I'll figure something out later.

As for the semester... finished up great. Got marks that far exceeded my expectations in every subject. Quite a little ego boost as I head into my final year.

Cheers,

Jacqueline

March 2013 Update

Hello Crew,

March is sure a busy time of year, isn't it?

Only 5 weeks of school left. I'm done all exams except finals, only one more lab, 3 more assignments, and one term paper left. I'm starting to feel the crunch of the semester coming to a close. If I get a good head start on things now, I should be okay. Motivation, come to me - please!

The last couple weeks have been mostly dominated by my independent study. Which I realize I never really explained to you in any detail. The official purpose of the study is determine baseline physical activity rates in full-time employed women over the age of 55. This demographic is of particular interest to us because not only do they have the lowest physical activity rates of any other but they also happen to be the most rapidly expanding demographic in the labour force. Coincidence? Who knows. It is quite possible that retaining employment past the traditional retirement age may contribute to keeping people active. Although retirement is commonly thought of as a time when people will be more active, enjoy their leisure time, and so on, it is often not the case. So anyway, how it works is that my professor spearheads a big research project and creates little mini projects within the big project for students to do as independent studies. My study is what I described above. In her study, my study is just a tiny piece. She's looking at functional fitness levels, job satisfaction, how much physical activity and sedentary time these women are engaging in, general health, field of employment, and functional balance. Myself and another student doing an independent study do all the testing for everything and just select what we need for our studies. Basically we've become lab rats. We're testing about 8 women twice a week for hour long appointments each. We send them away with accelerometers which record all their physical activity (like hypersensitive pedometers), have them do questionnaires, record some anthropometric measurements, and test them on the dynanometer and the neurocom machines.

The dynanometer is a functional strength test. They do leg extensions using the knee as the rotational axis on this machine and it controls how many degrees of flexion or extension that they can move through per second. It is a fixed rate so the harder they push against the machine, the harder it pushes back on them to maintain the speed. Here is a picture:

Fun times in the Physiology lab.

We get to buckle and strap them all in so that they are only producing the motion from their knee and not their hip, back, abs, etc. It often really intimidates the women before they know what to expect which can be slightly entertaining for us.

Another funny point that is entertaining is that the lab next door does sprint-interval training for metabolism research on self-propelled treadmills. These things are the noisiest lab equipment you've ever heard. If our participants hear trials going on in the other lab they often get concerned and nervously ask if they will be put through the same high-intensity testing :)

Here's a picture of our lab:

This is only half of our space. There's actually another room off to the left but it wouldn't fit in the picture.

Because I have keys and 24-hour access to the lab, I end up spending a lot of time in there. It is quiet, private, has a bathroom, sinks, tons of counter space, and only my prof and the other independent study student have access. Not going to lie, I feel pretty VIP whenever I'm in there.

Anyway, other than school work I've been trying to do lots of reading lately. Been working on classic authors that I've never had any exposure to but feel I need to be familiar with. In particular, I read "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and "Old man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway.

Also, I ran the 10 km Moonlight Run on March 9th. The weather was much worse than last year and I saw that reflected in my time. I ran 2 minutes and 15 minutes slower than the previous year for a time of 54 minutes exact. I'm still happy with that time though. Running with 2500 people in pitch black through mud and ice isn't exactly the time to be trying for a personal best. The fun thing was that both my independent study prof and the other independent study student in my lab were running it too. The three of us had fun joking that it would count towards are grade at the end of the semester :)

Well, hopefully you were able to understand a bit more about my study and what I've been up to.

Cheers and take care,

Jacqueline

PS: Check out the beautiful flowers a friend of mine sent me. The timing was impeccable - I was really needing a pick-me-up and less than 24 hours later, these showed up on my doorstep despite the fact that I hadn't said anything. I am SO grateful for the people in my life :)

When I first got them...

...a day or two later when they opened up :)

Reading Week 2013

Hi Crew!

Quick update because life is not overly exciting presently.

School is in full swing. I've already had midterms, group projects, and my independent study is going full throttle. This week I'm up in Calgary hanging out with family and the boyfriend for the week off.

In other news, I officially signed up for the Calgary Marathon on May 26, 2013. Training has been going well so far (minus this holiday week where Calgary weather has been pretty cold) and I'll also be running the 10 km Moonlight Run again this year as a prep run. That one is March 9 so the clock is ticking. I need to squeeze in some hill training because last year the big hill at the end is what did me in. Live and learn :)

Jacqueline

Bye Bye Vacation!

Hello Crew!

Today as a last hurrah before school starts on Wednesday I hit the slopes for the first time this season. Last year I managed to get out once but it was so spur of the moment that I ended up renting all my gear and borrowing outer wear. This time around I had my board newly serviced, new gloves, and the whole hill practically to ourselves. We never had to wait in line for a chair lift and had almost perfect weather (give or take a little wind). My only complaint was that there could've been more snow. Quite a few patches were icy. Not impossible to board on but just loud and scrapes up your board.

Me and Loren whizzing around Darren

No place like the Rockies

It felt amazing to be on the hill but I am wiped out now. Last Friday I ran 5 km and yesterday I ran for 45 minutes including hill training (got something in the works but before I announce it I have to wait for some clearance). Regardless I was sore before I even did up my bindings. Suffice it to say, I will sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow I head back to Lethbridge with my roommate and the new semester starts the next day. I already have meetings with my independent study supervisor booked so no denying it any longer. Vacation is over!

Here we go.

Jacqueline

Christmas 2012 & New Years 2013

Hello Everyone!

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I spent Christmas with my mother and step family in small town Alberta. My stepfather's family (he is the 5th of 7 children) is rather on the large side and accordingly, our house was overflowing with relatives. It was very high energy with lots of people doing so many different things at once. I only had to slip away for some solitude once in the four days spent there. Not too bad, right? The joy for me of course comes from being with my brothers who I very seldom get to see (let alone see all together). Steven, basking in the glory of his new i-pad, downloaded the Yahtzee game app (best 99 cents ever spent!) and kept me well entertained for a very considerable amount of time.

The tree was just a little too small...

 For New Years I went to downtown Calgary with my boyfriend and some friends to check out Olympic Plaza and pub hop up and down Stephen Avenue. All in all a good time was had. I even ran into a random friend of mine from Lethbridge by the LRT.

Otherwise, my break has been pretty uneventful. I've spent a lot of time with the boyfriend, my best friend, and family doing everything and nothing all at once. The grades I got back from last semester were encouraging and the best I could've hoped for given the circumstances.

Although I'm ready to be back doing productive things, I'm not ready to go back to Lethbridge. Having served my share of time, I'm ready to return to Calgary and start the next chapter of my life.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Jacqueline

Chocolate Dipping & School Wrapping Up

Hey Gang,

Today is November 23rd. How did this happen?!

I've already done my first group assignment presentation, booked all my final exam slots, finished all non-semester exams as of last Tuesday, and have two weeks left of classes. Only two group projects, two labs, and 5 exams to go until the semester is over for me. My last exam is December 13th and then we're on to Christmas holidays! In the meantime, here's a fun little ditty. This was a quiz I had in my biomechanics class. You had to use the software to make your model do two swings and land a triple flip combination. It's a lot harder than you'd think. You have to account for the motion of each joint in every single frame, find the right release time, and make sure your little buddy doesn't land on his face. Our prof is marking by international standards which means points are lost for bad technique and falling but also granted for aesthetics, sticking the landing, and the higher the difficulty, the more points your tricks are worth. Fun, hey?

(It is easier to see what's going on if you make it full screen by clicking on the box in the bottom right corner of the video player)

One other exciting piece of news: My physiology professor asked me if I wanted to do an independent study with her next semester. What this boils down to is I will be earning credits to help her with her research. Pretty sweet gig! I'm also pretty stoked because generally independent studies are student driven where you have to come up with a study idea or literature review topic, approach a professor, request that they supervise you, and do all the leg work to make it happen. I'm really quite honored that she said she had "had [me] in mind" for this project. We're working out the details now but I'll let you know what the extent of the study will be. The professor is one of my favorite professors too - glad she thinks highly of me as well!

Other fun news, last weekend I was in Calgary to do annual Burt Family Chocolate making. Yay! My grandparents, my brother, a family friend, and myself spent a good 9 hours in the kitchen up to our elbows in chocolate, fondant, nuts, coconut, and candies. As always it was great company, lots of laughs, lots of blood sugar spikes, and every year my technique gets a little better :) Here are the few pictures I snagged off my pa's iPhone. I'll post real camera pictures when I get them.

Not much counter space was left when all was said and done :) Happy problem to have!

My brother is amusing me just out of the frame :)

She's a pro! Been at it for 40 years!

Of course the Party Pants are appropriate attire for the occasion.

 Love to all and catch you after finals! :)

Jacqueline