There are many perks to taking the pre-service firefighter training program.  How many people get to spend two days tearing cars apart with over powered hydraulic tools?  Well, that’s what I was up to this past Thursday and Saturday.  It was an awesome time!  We were at the GTAA fire training location at Pearson airport in Toronto.  This is a top notch training facility that has just about everything you could need.  While we were working on the far end of the lot we got to watch these massive airport fire trucks go through training exercises.  They have top mounted water cannons and they start drenching things before the truck stops moving.  We also got to do some international relations training.  The airport firefighters from Athens, Greece were in Toronto for training and during one of our breaks we got into a shirt swap with them.  So, I gave up a Seneca Fire shirt and got back a shirt from Greece!  The tools we used during training were a lot of fun, although they were pretty damn heavy.  You could literally cut through the metal on a car as if it was paper.  It was very therapeutic.  Here are some shots.

*One of my buddies using the hydraulic spreaders

*Another guy using the cutters

*We created a convertible

*We did it again…except this car was on it’s side

*This was my handy work with an air chisel.  The door was unlocked, but I figured it was more fun to open it this way.

*This is one of the massive airport fire trucks.

*Here it is in action

*Here is my Greek fire shirt

• I am finally done my first semester!  I had my medical exams on Friday and Saturday and I kicked the shit out of both of them.  I got 86 on my written exam on the Friday and 86 on the practical exam on Saturday.  That practical exam was pretty tough.  Quite a few people failed.  You walk into a room and have to do a medical scenario that the instructors cooked up.  My final average in that class was a 91.  I really didn’t care about having a high average, I just wanted to pass.  Now I can look forward to relaxing for a couple of weeks before my 2nd semester starts.
• A friend has been having some bad luck when it comes to vehicles.  First her minivan was stolen from out front of her building.  As a replacement, my mom gave up her old Neon for my friend to use.  We just transferred the ownership and 3 days later it broke down in the middle of the road!  So, she spent yesterday afternoon backing up traffic in Toronto.  I let her use my Jeep while we get that Neon repaired.  With her luck I can pretty much expect that it too will get stolen or fall apart or something!  I am sure some day she will be able to smile at all this misfortune.
• Something my friend told me about today was a new fine that is being enforced in Switzerland.  It appears that many people who hike the Swiss Alps enjoy doing so in the buck.  Yup…naked hiking!  I guess this is such a huge problem that they actually needed to create a specific law and fine for this.  Get caught running up the mountains in your birthday suit and you should be prepared to fork out $176.  There goes my vacation plans..
• I always try to bring you something fun with every post.  Here it is.  Why don’t I see things like this at my school?

Sorry about not posting yesterday.  It was a long ass day for me and I didn’t have time to stop and use my computer, or even my blackberry.  So the day started with a simple registration process.  After that I did a hearing test.  That was kinda hard because you never know if you are actually hearing the beep.  I then had to have my eyes checked and thankfully they are still 20/15, better than perfect.  After a shuttle ride we did our CPAT test.  This is a timed obstacle course that you must complete in 10 minutes and 20 seconds.  During the thing you have to wear a 50 pound vest.  It was tiring as hell but I killed it.  The most distressing thing about it was wearing the vest, gloves and a construction helmet that other people had been using all day.  It was all sweaty and smelled like ass!  I then got back to the main building and did my sit-up test.  I managed to bang out 55 sit-ups in 60 seconds.  We then got checked for body fat and they measured our hips and waist to get the ratio.  My body fat was 15.5%, which is down 1% from the last time I reported it.  Had I been able to get down just half a percent then I would have scored a little higher.  Oh well, next time.  I also had my flexibility tested with a reach test.  I knew I would have trouble on this test as I have notoriously tight hamstrings.  I managed to score 3 out of 5 but I missed getting 4 out of 5 by only 1 cm!  Then it was time for the beast.  The VO2 max test.  This was definitely an ass kicker.  They plug your nose and hook up these tubes to your mouth and get you to run on the treadmill.  Every 45 seconds they crank up the speed and incline.  At the end the incline is 9 and the speed is 9.  Anyone who runs can tell you that is a very tough situation to maintain.  I lasted 8 minutes.  Lucky for me I was able to max out my VO2 score so I got perfect on that one.  This is such a funny test.  Some people can max out in 5 minutes.  Some people can be on there for 12 minutes and not max out.  I really can’t tell you how to beat the thing.  All I can say is that you just need to breathe as deeply as possible and run until you are ready to die.  All those tests result in a score out of 30.  You need 18 to pass.  I managed to get 26 and am very happy with that score.  So, I celebrated by getting drunk and eating everything I could find!  I continued that into today and I think I gained 5 pounds.  I can’t slip too much though, I need to be able to at least maintain my current fitness level.  My goal is to actually improve.  I would like to score 28 the next time I do this.  I will let you know how that goes.  I would have loved to have taken some pics or video but the situation just didn’t allow it.  I always feel bad when I don’t have some media for you.  So here is a comic that has nothing to do with anything I just talked about.  But I think you will enjoy it.

When it rains it pours!  Life has been very interesting for my girlfriend and myself lately.  First she gets her car stolen and then her neighbors turn into cock-suckers.  Now, I will admit her problems are a little bigger than mine.  My HP laptop kicked the can and tried to make me late on a large assignment I had due.  Lucky for me you can buy an Apple MacBook in about 5 different places that are close to me.  I picked one up, recovered the data and now I am good to go!  Just when I thought technology was done fucking with me I got the dreaded RROD.  Yes, the famous Microsoft red ring of death on my Xbox 360!  I have a pic of the RROD below.  The funny thing was I wasn’t even trying to play a game, I was watching a movie that I needed to get through for an elective course the next morning.  I think school work is taking it’s toll on all my toys!  I will call up Microsoft and get my baby repaired under their extended warranty.  The only thing I will have to make sure is that they ship me MY repaired version with the HDMI port.  I have heard from many friends that Microsoft can really fuck around with you during this process.  It might be in my best interest to just buy a new one.  I have no desire to do that, having just finished paying for a new Mac.  I am going to do some research and look into doing this repair myself.  Luckily I am so busy with school that I don’t have time to play video games anyways.  I am also lucky that I have a Blu-ray player that allows me to still watch my dvd’s.  In other news:  tomorrow is fitness testing day for me.  I have to do a CPAT test in the morning and clinical tests in the afternoon.  The CPAT is a timed obstacle course that is pass/fail.  You have to do the entire thing wearing a 50 lbs weighted vest.  They add an extra 25 lbs for the first 3:20 while you are on a step mill.  I have practiced this and believe me when I tell you that your legs get tired!  After the CPAT I go in to get my body fat measured, I have to do a million sit-ups and then they measure my VO2 max score by killing me on a treadmill with some tubes hooked up to my mouth.  All in all it should be an interesting morning.  I think this one might be a little more relaxed than the fire ground so I will try to get a buddy to take some pics of me doing this.  If that isn’t possible I will still take some pics of us hanging around in between the two events.  Wish me luck!

My baby!  My poor, poor baby!!

Sorry for not posting anything yesterday.  As I mentioned, I spent the day on the fire ground doing live fire training.  I have to admit, it was fucking awesome.  Waking up at 6:30am on a Saturday did suck a little bit, but it turned out to be worth it.  It is amazing how quickly heat can build up in one of these fires.  Even though we are very well protected in our gear you can still feel the heat.  I definitely couldn’t snap any pics of what was going on as we were busy doing stuff all the time and I would have been kicked outta there if I pulled out a camera and started taking shots.  Then in the evening I went to dinner and drinks with the women.  We ended up spending Earth Hour at a bar in the west end of Toronto.  It was pretty cool with all the lights dimmed.  Even driving down the road you could see just how dark the city was.  I didn’t take this pic but it shows the two sides of Toronto.  One is how we normally do things and the other is during Earth Hour.  I think that we should probably try to get something like this going more often!

Well, I got my first recruitment test to be a firefighter under my belt.  I wrote for the city of Hamilton earlier today.  My god was it a long day.  The first test was over 2 hours long and had some math problems but was mostly situational stuff.  They would give you a scenario and you would have to list the order in which you would do things.  Then you would have to answer questions based on how confident you felt and whether you agreed with shit or not.  This test is only tough because you have no damn idea what they want to see.  It is pass/fail so if I fail I guess it will tell me that I am not human?  We then had a two hour break, which I used to go to a bar and get a nice beef dip sandwich.  Then it was back to writing another 2 hour test.  The second one was tough as well.  They read a passage for about 10 minutes and then you had to answer questions based on the specifics of the passage, but you couldn’t take notes or anything.  It was all memory.  Then we had a ton of math, geometry and mechanical type questions.  The cut off for that one is 85%.  I honestly felt pretty good about the test but I really can’t say whether I hit the cutoff or not.  I guess I will have to wait for a couple of weeks to find out.  One interesting thing was looking at the makeup of the people who are writing these tests.  Honestly, it is all a bunch of white guys!  There were about 500 people writing this test today (testing is over 3 days) and out of that I only saw 4 women and 3 visual minorities!  I wonder what it is about this career that keeps us darkies away?  If anyone has any opinions I would love to hear them.  Since my day was all about tests I thought I would give you some examples of answers I wish I could put down.  These are courtesy of Kontraband.  Enjoy!

Monday’s are always tough days for me.  I spend time in the gym with our trainer who really kicks our ass.  This is all part of the firefighter pre-service course that I am in at college.  Back on January 19th we did an initial assessment of our fitness and body composition.  Since I have no shame, I figured I would post the results up here.  Hey, if I have no problem posting the results of my trades then I should have no problem letting you know if I am a fat bastard or not!  I haven’t included all the stats, just the ones I thought you would find most interesting.

Age: 30

Height: 5 ft 9 in

Weight: 162lbs

BMI: 23.92

This is Body Mass Index, which is pretty much a height and weight ration.  It does not take into account whether you are composed of fat or muscle.  But it can be useful to know if your weight is proportionate to your height.  My minimum-maximum range for BMI is 21.66 - 31.64.  I am on the lower end so I am looking good here.

BMR: 1758

The Basal Metabolic Rate is a pretty cool stat to know.  It is the number of calories your body can burn at rest in a day.  So, my body burns 1758 calories even if I don’t get out of bed for 24 hours.  The higher the number the better here so I am trying to improve this by losing fat and gaining lean mass.

Body Fat: 16.8%

This stat is pretty obvious.  My range for this is 14%-19% so I am right in the middle.  I need to get this one down to around 13% or so.  I have been increasing my cardio workouts from zero to 3-4 a week.  That, combined with a controlled diet, should allow me to get to my target.

TBW: 60.9%

Total Body Water is a very important stat.  My range for this is 54.3% - 60.7%.  As you can see I am above my max in this category.  I would like to be even higher!  I used to always be on the lower end of this test and I payed the price with some kidney stones.  I hydrate myself like crazy now!

60 second push-up test: 40

I was able to do 40 push-ups in a minute.  Not bad.  I am pushing my muscular strength and endurance so that I can comfortably be over 50 in this category.

60 second sit-up test: 46

I am close to top marks in this category.  If I can get to 51 I will score perfect on the fitness test.  With the increased workouts I should be able to hit that without an issue.

This is new.  A web comic that actually has some relevance to me.  As you all should know, I am back in school doing a firefighter pre service course.  It is 3 semesters of full time school to prepare you for a career as a firefighter.  That covers half of this C & H comic.  About the strippers…hmmm…well…I like strippers!  As for an update with everything else going on: I haven’t traded the last couple days because I have been busy either studying or playing hockey.  I may not be able to trade tonight either as I have an essay to write and a test to study for.  FOCK…I thought I was in school to learn how to put water on fire!  If I do manage to squeeze in a trade then you will be the first to know.  Anyways, here is that comic:

Today was day 1 back to school.  I won’t lie, I got my ass handed to me in the gym.  As you probably know, I am doing a firefighter pre-service course designed to prepare you to get a job as a firefighter.  We spent day 1 doing some practical work including getting our bunker gear and learning how to get all of our stuff on properly.  Less than an hour of this day was spent in the gym.  Wow.  Our instructor knows her stuff.  Yours truly definitely needs to up his intensity of his training.  I need to get into a running routine as well.  I normally try to avoid running in favor of other cardio exercises, but I can’t get away with that anymore.  I need to do some real running out there.  I definitely have some big areas to improve and I will let you all know how I progress.  As I mentioned the other day my blog posting frequency will remain at a minimum of 1 post per day, but I will only be throwing it up late in the day.  That probably only threw you guys off this one day, as I didn’t have anything up for your Monday during working hours.  Sorry!  So, today I am not sure if I will trade, but I will take a look.  If I do make a trade I will throw it online tomorrow.  What I can offer you today is something pretty cool.  This is a montage of every Simpsons couch gag.  I thought this video would go on forever, but thankfully they sped it up.  It’s pretty cool to see the evolution of the show.  Enjoy!

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Update: The fockers who run the universe pulled out some copyright bullshit and had the video removed from Youtube.  I have updated the post with a different video…hopefully this one will stay up for more than 24 hours.  If not…well…nothing I can do.

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