General

Anxiously sitting in the bleachers before the City Championships 1500m race in grade 5, I first learned about the performance-enhancing effects of music. One of my competitors told me that he usually sang "Old McDonald had a farm" in his head while racing to give him something else to focus on. But since this was a big race, he was going to sing along to something special: "Who let the Dogs Out." While it may have technically been an upgrade, the Baha Men's one-hit wonder was specifically …

[Read more...] about How to scientifically engineer a better pump-up playlist

Failure 1 Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t hold back the tears. It was one of the very few times I cried in front of my mother growing up. When I was a little kid my grouchy next door neighbour (whose name was literally “Oscar”) saw me crying and told me that “real men don’t cry.” And ever since then, I did everything in my power to keep from crying. But I had zero control in this moment; the water works began before we left the parking lot. I had just "failed" to make the rep …

[Read more...] about Sum of my failures