It’s been 30 years since that tragic, fateful day.
I remember it like it was yesterday. The week leading up to the weekend, you were excited for the camping trip to celebrate your 15th birthday. I remember my mom telling me I couldn’t go on the trip and being disappointed. Instead, I had a sleepover at my cousin Shawn’s place. You went camping though, and it did not end well for you. I got a phone call at Shawn’s, someone telling me that something bad happened to you. I was numb. Void. Lost.
Today is your birthday, exactly 3 decades have passed, and I write this memorial to you, to a memory of a person who was so dear to me and yet lost so long ago. Your influence on me was enormous, more than anyone knows. I even named my son after you. It was just his middle name at first, but over the past 3 years he has taken to the name as his preferred name. He’s 14 now. Every time I say his name, I think of you, and it hurts just a little bit, but I am happy that he gets to carry some small part of your legacy.
You would have been turning 45 today. I would have made fun of you for being an old man and halfway to 50, even though you were only 6 months my senior. In turn, you would have made fun of me for the fact that I still listen to heavy metal. You preferred the popular music of the times, the MC Hammers and the Vanilla Ices. You would have been working in the field of I.T. somehow, and who knows where you would have ended up. It was you in fact who put me on this path of I.T. as well, and I owe everything I have in my life, career and family, to you Jason, for putting me on that path. Just before you passed, you were working on a project for me. Even though you couldn’t stand the music I listened to, you offered to make a giant drawing for me of the album cover for Judas Priest’s “Painkiller”. You even showed a draft of it to me not long before you died. It was a pencil sketch, and it looked awesome. I wanted to take it as is, but you were adamant about wanting to finish it. After you passed, I could never muster up the courage to ask your mom for the drawing. I don’t know whatever came of it.
I took your passing hard, even back then. I didn’t cry at the time, oddly, but I’ve shed plenty of tears since. No, at the time, I just kind of withdrew and listened to music to help me cope. I remember that I delivered a eulogy at your funeral, but I have no idea what I even talked about, let alone how I even mustered up the courage to speak. I just remember feeling shell-shocked, stunned that I lost my best friend. I had returned to school a week later, and I remember in our wood shop class you had a few projects on the go, so I recovered two pieces to keep as mementos. The middle-finger cut out you made, as well as a piece from another project that you had stamped your initials into. The middle-finger has magical properties, because whenever I hold it, I am transported back to 1990 and I hear your crystal-clear voice singing “Fuck ya, Fuck ya, F-U-C-K Y-A.”. I’m still not sure what you intended to do with it, but it was awesome, it reminded me of you, and I kept it.
I mentioned music helps me cope. To this day, my favourite calming ritual is to sit down, put on a vinyl record, and listen. I keep my turntable in an area I refer to as my altar. The altar has alternating items that have meaning to me, but two of the items that never leave are those 2 pieces from wood shop. I keep them prominently displayed beside the album cover jacket of whatever record I happen to be playing. As I write this, I’m playing “Painkiller”, in your honour.
Having moved to the East Coast 20 years ago, I don’t get back to Elliot Lake much. I last did in 2018 to visit my mom, and of course I had to visit you. I visited the lake itself, and looked out wistfully to the island that was ultimately your doom. I also finally visited your grave for the first time, but it was a painful visit. I took a picture of my boy Jason beside it – and he was feeling my pain.
Tears come easy as I write this, and my hands are trembling as I wind down with nothing else to say really. I wish you were still around to see what I’ve become. I wish you could see my kids and what they’ve accomplished. Even though you’ve been gone for so long, you are still a big part of my life.
I have never forgotten you. I will never forget you. I love you Jason.
Rest in peace. I’m sure you are eternally listening to Vanilla Ice.
Okay, right off the bat, I’m writing this with you younger District 23 voters (18-44ish) in mind. 2020 has already been an absolutely ridiculous year, so naturally, one Mr. Higgs decided to do a power grab call a general election. Right. This is exactly what Canada’s have-not province needed. Voters on the lower end of my age range are facing uncertainties with starting up university. Other voters are worrying about how their kids will get to school, or get daycare, or get back to work, or increasing back pain, or a myriad of other things young adults have to worry about. Personally, I’m kind of hoping Cthulhu rises up from the Bay of Fundy, and I get to lead an army of sorcerers, warlocks, warriors and rogues down Coverdale Road… oh wait sorry that’s my next DND campaign. Let’s talk about another campaign that is based in reality: the completely-unnecessary-yet-here-we-are 2020 New Brunswick General Election.
Four years ago, during the Town of Riverview’s Municipal Election, as a fairly new Town resident I did some research about the candidates vying for Mayor and Councillor-at-Large, and I wrote up a quick blog post about it. It turned out to be very successful, from the perspective of readership and engagement, which I would like to think maybe lead to more younger people voting. So, I wanted to do that again but for Riverview’s candidates for this year’s provincial election, especially since there’s been literally only 2 weeks of campaigning. A lot of the signs out there still have wet ink. So I get it if you don’t have time to research all the local candidates. That’s okay. I tried to do some of that for you. I even included nice pictures of them. (Spoiler alert: one of them looks exactly like his party leader)
“Blaine?” – “Cthulhu?”
As of time of writing this, I am just a few days shy of 6 full years as a Town resident. In that time, I have REALLY grown to love this place. Like seriously. I constantly tell people how awesome the Town is. I call it the greatest Town in the world. I believe it is a great place to raise a young family. Now, I’m not under 40 anymore (boohoo) so I’m not sure I can really relate to younger voters like I did back when I wrote the Municipal guide. However, I feel like I stay in touch vicariously through my two kids; in particular I feel I can relate with today’s youngest voters through my daughter, who has been voting age for 2 years and is starting her 3rd year of university. I have taught her the importance of civic engagement, voting, and making up her own opinions and decisions through her own research. Let this post be a springboard for you to do the same! (I think maybe I’m supposed to use the word “YEET” somehow)
Okay, one last thing. The format this time is mostly a collection of details from my lazy-ass research through online presence (Facebook being the primary method), peppered in with some additional information I have gathered over various interactions with some candidates. In most cases I have tried to indicate if the candidate is a resident of the Town, any local volunteering they have done, and what local issues they prioritize as being important. I conclude each candidate with a “Bottom Line” that indicates if I think they are a votable candidate. Votable is not really the correct word but you understand what I mean. Like for example: Cthulhu is not votable because he will most certainly devour us all (I’m putting out a call for warlocks. Definitely need more battle-mages). For the order of candidates presented, I went with alphabetical order by party name. Okay, let’s goooooooooo!
Green Party – Mrs. Rachel Pletz
Like many of the other candidates, I didn’t know anything about Mrs. Pletz, and so I depended on her Facebook presence for information. The first thing that stands out is that the candidate is SUPER active with her social media. This is a young candidate who understands that technology is critical to voter engagement. Indeed, I did engage with Mrs. Pletz over her Facebook page, and we had a respectful dialogue. I wanted to know more about her history with Riverview, and what local issues she is concerned about. She is a former resident but now lives in Moncton (unfortunate). She provided a very long and detailed response to my initial set of 3 questions, and was very clear about the issues she is passionate about. The primary local issue is that of public transit.
One thing I found very interesting about her responses, is the belief that if elected, she will be able to vote on bills based on her own conscience and representing the community, a feature unique to the Green Party. It’s a nice theory, but I have not seen it in practice as the Greens of this past 2 years tended to vote together – following Mr. Coon’s direction.
The other thing that stands out from Mrs. Pletz’s online presence is her passion for diversity. She is very clear that she represents women in politics, but also supports gender equality. I didn’t want to quote any of these candidates specifically, but I thought her comments were important enough to share: “I will raise my voice to point out biases against LGBTQ communities, women and men on all recommended changes proposed in government. I will raise my voice to point out systemic racism, and systemic sexism.”
Bottom Line: I’m not convinced that Mrs. Pletz fully understands the constituency she is looking to represent, however her social justice stance comes across quite strong, and because of this I feel she is very votable to anyone with strong social justice leanings, and that typically aligns with supporters of the Green Party in general.
Another candidate I knew nothing about, so it was off to Facebook and the web. Right on his main Facebook page, there’s a link to a heathjohnson.ca – I thought, wow he’s got his own domain already. Cool. Well when you click on the link, it redirects you to his Facebook page. D’oh! So much for mining more information.
I was pleasantly surprised to see his page was filled with posts about all kinds of local issues. I won’t cover them all, but he mentioned the situation with the Turtle Creek reservoir (great), the need for further expansion of Riverview East due to the rising number of our town’s Anglophone students; and most surprising of all (to me), in another post Mr. Johnson cited some statistics about the growing Francophone population in Riverview, discussing the potential future construction of a new Francophone school in Town. This is a very important issue and I’m glad he raised it. Oh, and that post in particular was written entirely in French, and in the accompanying video you can hear he speaks the language flawlessly. Bravo, M. Johnson!
Mixed in with these local issues, Mr. Johnson had some of the usual LPNB-type posts.
From what I can gather, Mr. Johnson is not a Riverview resident, but he is involved in the GMA community as a youth leader with the Scouts, and spent some time in his youth as a swimming instructor at our Aquatic Centre. UPDATE: Yes, Mr. Johnson is a resident of the Town for the last 2 years. Yay!
Bottom Line: Mr. Johnson is very votable for anyone with Liberal Party leanings, and I think he would do a great job and work hard to represent his constituents.
I don’t know a single thing about this candidate, so this is my recap of what I discovered from his Facebook presence.
First, wow he looks a LOT like NDP interim leader Mackenzie Thomason (who by the way, absolutely ACED the NB Leaders Debate). Once I got over that shock, I noticed a photo he posted of his campaign signs, and on them he included his preferred pronouns (he/him). I think this is just wonderful! Getting a person’s pronouns correct is super-important in today’s society, from an inclusion and wellness perspective, and this will definitely resonate with younger voters. Sidenote: a couple of days ago, I was out walking Chewie and he was interested in a young person that was walking towards us. The person was wearing some pink clothing, but had short hair and looked pretty stocky. I said out loud “oh okay Chewie, you just want to smell him” and then as she got nearer I said “oh, her. Sorry.” and she was very cool about it, saying it’s okay. That’s how a respectful exchange should happen, and illustrates the importance of getting pronouns correct.
Okay, back to John. A lot of his political viewpoints shared on his page are typical of the NDP party stance we all (should) know by now. People-first, right to shelter, education, basic necessities, health, etc… In particular, I like that he called out the need for a civilian-lead police watchdog. Personally, I have a major issue with the 2 NB Party Leaders who went on record this past June as saying there is not systemic racism in NB Policing – even as 2 aboriginal persons were unnecessarily murdered by police (the statements were made after the first killing and before the next one). Good for John and the NDP for making this a party issue.
The one local issue I saw him mention on the page is about our abysmal public transportation situation, with calls for local activism in this regard.
Mr. Nuttall has lived in Riverview his entire life. I am not too sure what community volunteering he has done, and I’m not sure if he has any relation to the owners of the local Nuttall Restoration company. That company played a big part in the construction of the local Rebecca Schofield All-World Super Play Park, so it is possible if he is related that he participated in the build.
Bottom Line: He seems quite votable to anyone with NDP leanings. Although young and inexperienced, he already has a good view on issues that matter to younger people. He could round this out by showing his position on matters impacting seniors, working families, and small business owners.
My first impression of Mr. Berteit was via a Facebook post he made on a local group called “Ask Riverview”. The post was very well written and thought out. In it, he was specifically looking to engage the constituency for their input on our issues and concerns. I like a good political discussion, so I made a couple of posts about issues that are important to me. Mr. Berteit did engage with people at first, responding to comments and questions that were raised within the first day. I was encouraged by this. However, at time of writing, 2 weeks of time has elapsed and the candidate seems to have abandoned the thread. My concerns and questions went unanswered. Is this the kind of person I want representing me in the NBLA?
To be fair, somewhere in the thread he did invite followers to “like” his Facebook candidate page for further engagement. However, I should not have to chase answers to my questions that he asked for. He is applying for a job and needs my vote to get there, not the other way around. Answer my questions, Mr. Berteit!
I will also nitpick his candidate page’s banner. By his own admission, the party he represents has to overcome fallacies and misrepresentation of their stance on Francophones, Duality and the province’s Official Bilingualism. Their social media person should thus pay attention to details that could trigger their French electorate. Here’s the banner, see if you can spot the mistake on the French side:
Also to be fair again, on his same candidate page, he provided a resume of his experience, and also posted it in French. I read through that very quickly and didn’t spot any errors – it was actually really well written. Including the correct use of “À”.
The candidate does not currently live in Riverview, however he has described in comments on the page that he had intentions to sell his Moncton home and buy here. I didn’t watch any of the town hall videos he posted, so I’m not sure what local issues he is talking about and what his stance is on those issues. The rest of his page is mostly party platform posts (refreshingly not about language).
Bottom Line: Mr. Berteit is somewhat votable for anyone with PANB leanings, but I’d be wary of his ability to follow through on actions and really roll up his sleeves to get the job done.
I didn’t have to do a lot of research with this candidate. He is very well known to residents of Riverview, and he has been this electoral district’s MLA representative since 2003.
I got to meet Mr. Fitch a few times in my 6 years in Town, most memorably while working as a captain on the Rebecca Schofield All-World Super Play Park. The park was entirely community built, and I remembered most of the local politicians who showed up in support, whether they were there to support the crews by buying and serving lunch, handing out water bottles, or rolling up their sleeves and doing the dirty work with the rest of us. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I am certain Mr. Fitch worked at least 3 shifts, including one for the grueling Captain Fun (she was in charge of the worst job: shoveling and spreading gravel around endlessly). Mr. Fitch works hard. It is reasonable to expect he will do the same again.
When I think of the PC Party’s slogan, “Up to the Job”, none of the candidates can live up to the outstanding job Mr. Fitch has done. He cares about people, he cares about the Town, he cares about the province, and he takes his job very seriously.
Bottom Line: PC-leaning voters are going to vote for him no matter what. If you truly believe in voting for a local candidate, regardless of party platforms, then this is your guy as well. I predict he will win his seat again.
Okay, well that just about wraps things up. Don’t forget to vote in the many ways possible. Just make sure you do it on or before September 14!!
Let me know in the comments if you found this was useful, and any things you think I should include or look for if I ever write something like this again in the future. One thing I realized is I really struggled with the images. I started by linking directly to online assets, but they didn’t all load correctly. I then took quick snags of them and saved them, then reuploaded, and the alignments were all off. Look, I’m not the CBC. I’m just a guy. This is what you get for unpaid work. Deal with it.
Okay, you’ve read this far? Great. I’ll leave you with this parting thought: “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn“
How can a headache last for days? …Weeks? …Months? How about a full year? Well, pull up a chair while I spin you a tale of hardship and pain.
I remember the first time I ever experienced a migraine headache, but I didn’t recognize it as a migraine until years later when I reflected back on what happened. It was the early 90s, I was 16, in computer class at high school, when all of a sudden I started to lose my vision – everything turned blurry almost like if I had stared into a bright light for a while. I remembered feeling like something was severely wrong, and I was scared that somehow I was going blind. I don’t remember too much about my exchange with the teacher Mr. Grabiec, but I do remember that I left class and walked home in that state. I had no clue what was going on; the internet was still just a burgeoning thing at the time and was only available in schools. Soon after I arrived home, much to my relief the blurry vision cleared up and restored itself. But then just a short amount of time later, I experienced the worst headache I had ever had in my short life. It lasted for hours, and I don’t really remember much else about that day other than I stayed in bed. I think the next morning I woke up fine.
Aura
Later in life, I learned that this temporary vision loss is called an “aura” or “migraine aura”, and it’s one of many possible symptoms that can present as part of a migraine headache. From that time when I was 16 until I was nearly 43, I had experienced migraine headaches maybe once every 2 years or so. After a particularly bad one in 2015, I decided that I should start tracking them. I found that sometimes I would get the “aura”, which was my warning trigger to take a couple of Advil or Tylenol. Sometimes those worked and prevented the full extent of the migraine. Other times they did nothing. What I noticed while tracking was an increased number of migraines and what I’ll call “prevented migraines”, in 2018 and 2019.
On September 3rd, 2019, the day after Labour Day, exactly one year ago today as of this posting, everything in my life changed. I woke up that day with a headache. Not unusual for me. I took a couple of Tylenol. That didn’t work. I had a headache the whole day. I went to bed. Had difficulty sleeping. Woke up the next morning with the same headache. Took Tylenol again. Still didn’t work. Tried Advil this time. No luck. What the hell? My recollection of last September is a bit fuzzy, but here’s what I remember: the headache continued, every day, for the whole month. After 2 weeks, I figured something was wrong, and so I made an appointment to see my family physician. He couldn’t see me until late September.
As an IT Professional, I am naturally inclined to troubleshoot problems, so that was what I did while waiting to see the doctor. I tried CBD oil for the first time in my life. I think it did help, but only when I got to a twice daily dose of 1 ml. After that, the CBD no longer had any effect. I tried dietary changes, including giving up caffeine, sugar, processed foods, alcohol, and then reintroducing those things because removing them had no effect on the head pain, and lack of caffeine in particular was adding to the misery. I tried getting a back/neck massage. I got my eyes checked. The pain didn’t go away. I also noticed some days were worse than others; and the head pain varied differently too. The only constant was daily, always-on pain.
When I saw the doctor, I mentioned all of these things. I don’t recall much of what he told me, other than he thought it might be stress-related and that I should take it easy. Nothing was prescribed at this first appointment, and we made a follow up appointment 2 weeks later. He asked that I “take it easy” during the 2 weeks, and so I remember that, outside of my regular work, I didn’t do a whole lot. I took it easy. The pain didn’t go away.
When the day of the appointment came around, with still no change to my head pain, the doctor suggested I consider taking some time off work, and then prescribed me some medication. Amitriptyline (10mg) nightly before bed, and rizatriptan for the really bad “migraine-like” days. I remember that day because I had plans to go into work right after this early morning appointment. It was Tuesday, October 8th. After careful consideration of the doctor’s recommendation, I begrudgingly called in a sick day. This sickness absence turned into a 3-day absence, my first long sickness absence in almost 15 years. After the appointment, I went home and slept. When I woke up later, I decided that I should start tracking my head pain.
And that is exactly what I did. I took daily notes starting that day in October. Then in November. December. January. In that time, the head pain hardly ever wavered. The only changes were to the types of headaches: sometimes they felt like migraines, sometimes like cluster headaches, sometimes the pain was in the temples, sometimes the pain was in the back of my skull, sometimes on top of the skull. Some days, the pain was like a huge pressure being applied to the entire skull. Later on I had described it as feeling like someone had cinched a belt around my head, and was pulling it tighter and tighter and tighter.
Most of the time I am in the middle
I had started attributing a pain scale to how my head was feeling, mostly so that I would know when to take medication, and which medication to take. At pain level 1-5, I don’t do anything. When pain reaches 6-7, I take Tylenol (can’t take Advil anymore). When pain reaches 8-10, I take the rizatriptan. If it’s 9-10, I’ll also pop a couple of regular Gravol and try to sleep. The Tylenol is effective maybe half the time at reducing the pain to 5 or below. The rizatriptan only has a success rate of 20-30% at reducing the pain. For context, most days I wake up in the 3-5 range, and the pain normally increases by late morning/early afternoon, and gets worse in the evenings/nights. On the best days, the pain stays in the 3-5 range.
Over the course of those 4 months, I worked with my family physician to try different diagnostic tests and, through his consulting of his neurologist friend, he had me try out different medications, many of them in the same class as anti-depressants. I was on a waiting list to see a local neurologist, but because I live in a have-not province in Canada, the waiting list to see a neurologist for head-pain here is a 2-3 year wait. All of the diagnostic tests we ran came back clear and okay. MRI, CT scan, X-Rays, blood tests; all clear. It was frustrating for me to have daily head pain and not have a known cause.
The things my physician was having me try was definitely NOT working for me. The amitriptyline dosage ramped up to where I was on 100mg nightly. That didn’t help with the pain at all, however, it did work wonders at helping me to sleep, in particular when the pain was bad. One of the medications I was on, divalproex, turned me into a walking zombie. That was in November. In December, he put me on Topamax. That had me feeling major anxiety and I had really bad shakes. The doctor had hoped that my 2 week Xmas break would help with the pain, however it did not abate at all. On my first follow up in the new year, the doctor wanted me to stay on amitriptyline, Topamax, and rizatriptan, until I could see a neurologist.
My big dumb goofy glasses to help with light sensitivity
In addition to the head pain, I have experienced all kinds of other symptoms: nausea, dizziness, vertigo, ringing in my ears, shakes, tremors, sound sensitivity, scent sensitivity, and probably the worst of all: light sensitivity. This last one has been the most predominant symptom, as light feels like actual daggers to my eyes. I have taken to wearing large sunglasses that I can wear over my regular prescription glasses. These do a really great job at filtering out the light and minimizing the pain. With these symptoms, it has been difficult for me to differentiate between what are actual symptoms resulting/relating to the head pain, versus side effects from the different medications.
As January dragged on, my head pain seemed to be getting worse instead of better on the 3 medications I was taking. The really bad days had increased to where I had 10 migraine headaches in January alone. I became desperate.
Because I travel a lot for work, often to Toronto, I asked my family physician if he could give me the required paperwork to see a neurologist in Toronto. As his office was preparing that paperwork, I was also simultaneously calling all of the Neurologists I could find local phone numbers for.
In late January, I finally got a very lucky break. My wife Stefeny had seen a post on a social media page where people post “hits” or “misses” about local businesses. I don’t recall ever having seen posts on that page about the medical field, but in this case, a lady had posted a “hit” about a local neurologist, Dr. S. Dr. S was fairly new to the area, and he wasn’t on my list of local neurologists I had searched before. So I contacted the lady who posted the miss, and she gave me his office’s phone number. I called right away, and asked the secretary if he was seeing new patients. The secretary told me it was a six month wait and that I needed a referral. Six months was at least better than a 2-3 year wait, so I called my family physician’s office to arrange for the referral to be faxed over. On January 31 I had an appointment with my family physician, who suggested that I try to pester the new neurologist’s office daily for 2 weeks until I get a confirmed appointment date. So that was exactly what I did. I visited the office that same day for the first time, and pleaded with the secretary, asking if I could even just be placed on a waiting list for cancellations. The secretary did me one better: she actually found me a time slot on February 10th. I asked her for an email address, as I wanted to pen a letter to the doctor highlighting my history which he could read in advance of the appointment.
Stef & I returned to the car, and the emotion of having gone through 5 months of pain with no seeming end of sight caused me to start crying. I cried a number of times over this whole ordeal, so this was nothing really new for me, except this time it was tears of joy at being able to see a neurologist with 2 weeks instead of 2 years. This highlighted to me the importance of self-advocacy when it comes to healthcare in this province. I spent that night writing a very long letter for Dr S. to read. In the letter, I wrote about the 3 things that were most important to me: 1) My family, 2) My career, 3) Music. I went on to describe how the head pain had robbed me of enjoying these things that were most important me.
On February 6th, Dr. S’s secretary called me and mentioned an appointment had opened up on the 7th. I took it of course. The following day, I saw the neurologist for the first time. I asked if he read my letter. He had, but he wanted to hear my story again. In the end, he spent an hour with me, running through several lines of questioning and checking a few things. Dr. S concluded the he believed I had a condition called “NDPH”, which stands for New Daily Persistent Headache. He said the most important thing to treat was the migraines, and he offered two possible treatment options: Botox injections, or a fairly new migraine treatment called Aimovig, which is administered via self-injection. The Aimovig option conjured up images of me trying to self-administer a needle, so I asked for the Botox option. The doctor had agreed that I could stop the Topamax as it seemed to be having no effect, but he asked that I stay on the amitriptyline and rizatriptan for the bad days.
How I imagine I look everyday
I cried in the car again after the appointment. Mostly it was a relief to finally have some kind of answer, and a path forward. I immediately went to work researching NDPH. As I read up on it, I found myself nodding a lot, agreeing that this was fitting what I had been experiencing, right down to the fact that most people who are diagnosed with NDPH can remember the exact day the headache started. I certainly did. The rest of what I learned was discouraging. The condition has no known cause, no known cure, and a variety of treatment options with varying degrees of success. I joined an NDPH social media group that is almost 2,000 members strong – more than I thought there would be for something that was considered very rare. Even joining that group has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I have heard of success stories and coping mechanisms, that give me hope. On the other hand, there are members who have had NDPH for YEARS, the longest I think I remember seeing is 33 years. Most members are younger too. I seem to be in the minority in terms of when NDPH first presented.
I started the paperwork to get approve from my health insurance for the Botox injections. Dr. S had to sign a form declaring that the Botox was for migraine treatment and not cosmetic reasons. The insurance company took their sweet time getting back to me, and when they did, the news wasn’t great. They only covered 40% of the injections, which would cost in the neighbourhood of $700-$800 every 3 months. I recycled with Dr S to inquire about the self-injection Aimovig option instead. Two good things came from that. First, he mentioned that the pharmaceutical company Novartis have a program for Aimovig called the “GO Program”, which he felt I qualified for. I filled out the form and was approved! Second, the people at Novartis helped me to understand how the Aimovig treatments work, and they also helped with processing the insurance claim forms. Like with the Botox, my insurance only covers 40% of this treatment, and it’s a monthly injection that costs almost $600. However, because of the GO Program, Novartis covers the balance of the costs! Score.
Aimovig auto-injectors
I learned that the Aimovig is a self-injected subcutaneous drug that works like an Epi-Pen, and it was designed to help people like me with chronic migraines. I started my first injection in June, and have had it monthly since. I am really squeamish when it comes to needles, and I couldn’t bring myself to self-inject, so I have my amazing wife do it for me. Let me break here for a minute, as there’s something I have not talked about yet…
Me and this incredible person
My wife has been my rock throughout all of this. She has picked up where I cannot. It might not be obvious or evident, but because of this daily head pain, my life has been turned completely upside down. I can no longer do the things I used to without great difficulty or exacerbation of the pain. For example: basic household chores, outdoor activities like mowing the lawn in the summer, or riding my bicycle. These are things I used to enjoy doing. I haven’t been able to do them at all. My wife has been there for me this entire time, supporting me in any way she can. She’s joined me in the crying sessions, was there to listen to me, and ultimately helped me to pull through what has been the most difficult year of my life. I am forever grateful to have her in my life.
I tried climbing Mount Carleton this summer, something my wife & I try to do every year, and for the first time in my life I was unable to reach the summit. Music enjoyment has gone down, as sometimes the sound is too much. Sometimes brushing my hair hurts. Sometimes the electric toothbrush is too rattling. Sometimes tying up my shoelaces is a difficult exercise in futility. Even work has been a difficult challenge. I am fortunate that I have an understanding manager, and really great coworkers and staff – I have been very open about what I am going through, and they have all been really awesome about it.
Okay, back to the Aimovig. Throughout my daily note-taking, I have observed a reduction in migraines and the really bad head pain days. This is great news to be sure. In the past month I have only had 2-3 occasions where I needed the rizatriptan, compared to the 10 times back in January. It’s still not perfect, but I feel like at least the migraines are starting to come under control. In my last appointment with Dr. S, he mentioned that he thinks there are 2 things going on – the migraines, and the daily head pain. The daily pain is what has stumped him. I asked where we go from here, and I brought up the possibility of a headache clinic. The nearest one is a 3 hour drive away, but I’m willing to do it. He wants me to wait another 3 months for the Aimovig to really set in – but I’m not convinced this will really help with the daily head pain. He is an amazing person and an incredible doctor. He is very patient, takes the time to listen, and takes the time to explain things if I don’t understand. But, by his own admission, he’s not a headache expert. He’s more of a general neurologist. This is still a work in progress.
Life before the pain
While writing this blog post, I got the above reminder of my life one year ago, just before the daily head pain started. I feel like that person no longer exists. I am a Ghost of what I used to be. I heard someone in the support group use that line, and it really resonated with me, because that’s exactly the way it feels to have a normal life interrupted by this crazy condition. I bet that if you had asked that “me” from a year ago if he believed it was possible to have a headache last for a whole year, he would have been very skeptical. Yet here we are.
My mind has taken me to really dark places over the past year. I remember sometimes last winter when driving back home from work, I would think about plunging the car into the river I drive across to get home. But somehow I found ways to keep going on. I have spent a lifetime building resiliency, and it is that foundation I think that allows me to live through the daily pain. I feel bad for the younger people I’ve come across who have NDPH, as they haven’t yet been able to build effective coping and resiliency skills.
I’m not too sure what I intended with this blog post. Sometimes it helps me just to write things out. There were a couple of times this year where I actually did write something with the intention of sharing more broadly, but in the end, I backed out of publishing anything. In one case, I kept a copy of what I wrote, and the I re-wrote and posted something much shorter instead. A part of me is afraid of opening up this much to so many people. Another part of me realistically knows that hardly anybody will read all of this anyway, so what’s the worry?
In the end, no one in my group of family and friends truly knows what I’m going through. It’s hard to communicate the experience, but that’s really okay. I don’t want sympathy. I definitely don’t want any suggestions. I just wanted to write that this is something that I’m going through, and that sometimes I’m going to have a really shitty day and I’m not going to smile or answer your “how are you doing” question with a sincere “good”. If I look angry or upset, it’s probably because I’m in pain and barely coping. And probably angry or upset about it.
Mood Calendar at Work. And R2.
I’ll wrap this up in a hopefully positive way, by explaining the above picture (my “custom” page in the Mood calendar they handed out at my work). Late last year and early this year, as I was having some challenges with work (and with the head pain, obviously), I kind of adopted the “burning dumpster fire” as a symbol of what I was going through. It was a way of me signalling that not everything was okay, but that I was being light-hearted about it. That was before the major Covid-19 disruption to our world. Now, more than ever, the burning dumpster fire is a great symbol that I think many of us can relate to. 2020 has been a pretty shitty year for everyone. But like, it’s got to get better soon right?
For me and this NDPH – I can only hope that it disappears as quickly as it started. That has certainly happened with some of the people I’ve heard from in the support group. In the absence of that, I’ll look to celebrate the good when it comes, and try to fight through the bad that certainly will come. For as long as I have this, September 3rd will remain as the Unhappy Anniversary, Dumpster Fire Ghost Rick’s birthday if you will. Cheers.
PS: If you feel compelled to respond – a simple “Unhappy Anniversary” would be awesome!
To say that I’m a fan of Kalmah, the melodic death metal masters from Oulu, Finland, would be a massive understatement. I would categorize myself as a super-fan. Here’s a few reasons why:
I’ve been on board since the beginning with their debut album Swamplord. That album was a perfect storm of strong guitar leads, amazing keyboards, superb melodies, wonderful bass lines, unique vocal growls, and fantastic drumming – which churned together to make for one memorable album
I physically own all of their albums and in multiple formats. I have them all on CD except for the newest one, Palo. I also have every album to be released on vinyl: The Black Waltz (the limited to 100 black LP version), 12 Gauge (limited to 500 and I bought 2 copies!), Seventh Swamphony, and their last album Palo.
I’ve seen Kalmah live 6 times on their 3 tours of Canada. For the first two tours, Kalmah only played as far east as Quebec, so I had to travel 12 hours west by car to see them play. I’ve seen them play killer sets in St Hyacinthe, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, and Quebec City (twice). Then on Kalmah’s 3rd tour of Canada, they actually played in Moncton which is just next door to my hometown.
On these tours I got to meet the band and get autographs from them. They have signed my Swamplord CD, my 12 Gauge LP, and my The Black Waltz LP
I uploaded one of the very first live videos of Kalmah to Youtube in 2008 (Kalmah – Hades – Live in Quebec City) and it was for a long time the most popular live video of theirs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0L_JVVQ6-w
I bought one of the 50 longsleeve Kalmah “Swamplord” shirts that they made back in 2002 or 2003. When I met the band in 2008 in St Hyacinthe, Pekka told me he remembers sending it in the post!
I bought shirts from all the tours where they had merch and also bought a hoodie on the last tour
I am always promoting the band whenever I meet people looking for heavier music recommendations!
Monday, May 9th is voting day for the New Brunswick municipal elections. As a fairly new resident of Riverview (this will be my first time voting here at this level), I didn’t know anything about the candidates, and because I feel that voting is an important function of a free democratic society, I thought I should at least do some research prior to the election so that I could make informed decisions.
My approach, since I was doing this last minute, was to research each candidate in the two main categories (Mayor, and Councillor at Large) using only their online presence. I started with the candidate list posted at Elections NB http://www1.gnb.ca/Elections/en/mun16may09/16may09muncandidatelist-e.asp?ELECTIONTOWNID=65TOWNID1915, which had links listed for at least some of the candidates. I followed the same order of candidates as they appeared on this list.
Social Media along with the Web are powerful tools that every smart politician should use to their fullest potential, especially if they want to reach younger voters. I pored over websites, Twitter tweets, and Facebook posts all with the goal of learning more about each candidate’s qualifications, prior experience, platforms for election, and just to get an overall feel for the candidate as a person. To save you all some time, I’ve summed up the results of my research in this blog post along with a link to each candidate’s main page. Convenient, eh?
I’ve tried to remain as objective as possible in my reviews as well. I have no affiliation to any of these candidates – I just wanted to learn more to make a more informed decision Monday and share with the public in the hopes that it inspires you to do the same, so that you go out there and exercise your right to vote. Okay here we go:
Mayor (2 Candidates)
Unfortunate that there are only 2 candidates here for the position of top dog. But as you’ll see, the race was certainly interesting…
Scott Bulman
Whoo boy. So my initial exposure to this candidate came when I was driving down Coverdale by the Ultramar and saw his team putting up the large signs at the Pine Glen intersection. The candidate’s platform slogan “Reinvent Riverview” made me chuckle. I thought to myself, what is there to reinvent? This town is pretty fantastic as it is. Still, I remained open to learning how the candidate planned to reinvent the town.
So in my research, I found his Facebook campaign page of the same name. I was totally NOT prepared for all the drama. Several posts with comments that just scream of the candidate’s lack of professionalism and class. A lot of heat about a proposed online debate, which for reasons unclear to me the candidate wanted to be hosted by his own campaign team instead of by an unbiased third-party such as the media. Deleted Facebook posts, pessimism, criticism. Too much negativity for my tastes. He’s like Riverview’s version of Donald Trump. All that being said, there are some positives in this candidate’s campaign:
Makes a good case for change. Change is always good at any level.
Extremely strong use of technology to help reach out to younger voters. Kudos to the candidate and his team for making videos and using technology to reach out.
Has some good, fresh ideas to bring prosperity to the town
The candidate had a smart and fresh approach to reach out to voters, but his execution was clearly lacking due to lack of leadership and maturity. A strong leader can be charismatic and disruptive to the status quo, WITHOUT having to resort to the negative, tactless approaches this candidate used on his social media posts. Ultimately I feel like this will be his own undoing. If he does lose, I personally would like to see him come back in 4 years with some maturity and reflection on his first go-round, and maybe take that time to work with the officials whom are elected to try and help drive the changes he is wanting to make. Link: https://www.facebook.com/ReinventRiverview/
Ann Seamans
This candidate’s online presence is limited to a Facebook page and Twitter feed. It is difficult to find anything of substance on the pages, however a pinned post from 4/20 (ha) sums up very concisely the candidate’s background, accomplishments as mayor, and affirms her commitment to executing to the plans already put in place in her current term. A vote for this candidate is a very safe, stable vote. I have nothing more to add here – she seems like a genuine person who has a history of doing great things and still has more to offer. Link: https://www.facebook.com/Re-elect-Ann-Seamans-for-Mayor-118912085164187/?fref=ts
Councillor at Large (5 Candidates)
We have 3 of these to elect and only 5 candidates. Let’s hope they’re all good!
Scott Campagna
The top banner on this candidate’s website homepage has the word “Councilor” spelled incorrectly. While it is an acceptable spelling of the word, it is not the official title used by Elections NB for Councillor at Large. Visually the site is a bit appalling, but at least the necessary content is there. The first half of the homepage provides some of the candidates history as to why he thinks he is qualified, while the second half describes his platform and motivations. For some reason he is REALLY against kids playing video games, seeing fit to mention it TWICE in this section. Maybe his kids kicked his ass at Mario Kart too many times. Also he really likes the word “great”. Link: http://www.votescottc.ca/
Cecile Cassista
This candidate has a Facebook page that appears to be run by a teenager. It’s very unprofessional and full of spelling and grammatical errors. On top of that, the “campaign material” posted on the page is really just a 1-pager that reads in very much the same style: poorly written and also lacking any real information. It is not clear to me what this candidate was directly responsible for in her previous term. Definitely would not vote for. Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cecile-Cassista-Councillor-at-large-She-Cares/304288209642409
Andrew J. LeBlanc
This candidate’s website looks very professionally done. At the very least, I get the sense he takes things seriously. The website content clearly articulates the candidate’s accomplishments in his prior term, as well as communicates his platform for the future.
The site includes a Twitter feed which appears to be a funnel into his Facebook page’s postings. While I didn’t have time to read everything, his posts are prolific, of high quality, and seem to have substance. This candidate to me feels very genuine and believable. He appears to be younger and thus might represent interests more closely matched to my own. Link: http://www.andrewjleblanc.com/
Christopher R. MacDonald
This candidate’s online presence was not posted on the Elections NB page, however I did find a page easily on Facebook (with links to his Twitter feed). A lot of the social media posts have spelling mistakes and grammatical errors; I feel like they are being made by someone other than the candidate. This is unfortunate, as these posts seem to be the only way to gather information about the candidate’s qualifications and platform. All that being said, there’s something genuine about what the candidate is saying. I believe that he believes he can make changes to improve the community. He also comes across as a hard-worker, and that’s always a good thing. Somewhat votable; maybe a decent third choice if there’s nobody better. Link: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisforRiverviewNB/
Tammy Rampersaud
I knew two things about this candidate prior to conducting my research:
She was the Liberal candidate for our riding in the last Provincial election, losing to Bruce Fitch.
At some point during this Municipal campaign, her team put up a sign in my friend’s yard without asking permission; nay, without even having talked to him or his wife. Not a good move.
Good thing I knew these two things, because I didn’t learn very much else from the candidate’s social media presence. As far as background, the best I got was a photo of a newspaper clipping posted on February 23rd, that the candidate’s own posting admitted had “a few inaccuracies”. From all the other posts though, it is clear to me that the candidate is very involved in the community, and comes across as genuinely interested in making improvements. With no clear platform, it’s hard to make any other determination; but despite the lack of content, this candidate seems to be votable based on charisma and energy alone. Link: https://www.facebook.com/Tammy-Rampersaud-for-Riverview-Councillor-at-Large-432801186913409/
That is all for today. I didn’t have the time nor the energy to research and write about all the individual Ward councillors, since I only vote in my own ward. Take my lead and take the time to research them yourself though if you want.
Best of luck to all the candidates, and the rest of you don’t forget to vote on May 9!
Judas Priest’s “Burnin’ Up” is a 70s classic metal song from their Hellbent for Leather album. Its pedestrian lyrics are about sex, but I thought of it when I was writing up this recipe because it makes for a good metaphor for the slow-carb diet and for the taste of the chili. It was apt, so I co-opted it and now you have Burnin’ Up, a Slow-Cooker Chili recipe that totally meets your SCD needs.
Special note: the packaged food brands that I’ve listed were hand-picked amongst several alternatives because of their ingredient list and/or nutritional label. I’m not advocating any brand for any reason, but I just picked these because they were most appealing to me from a low-sugar, high-nutrient perspective. You can go with any jar of salsa, and any brand of canned beans or tomatoes. Just be sure to read your labels and avoid sugar-added items.
Alright, before you get started, check the ingredient list below and make a shopping list for anything you’re missing. Whatever blend of seasoning you go with is completely up to you, except you pretty much have to use chili powder otherwise it won’t come out tasting like chili! It will taste like pasta sauce. And if you like the heat but don’t have ghost pepper flakes, any addition of hot pepper should accomplish what you need. Just don’t go crazy with it otherwise it won’t be fun to eat on a frequent basis.
Ingredients:
Fresh vegetables:
Chopped mushrooms (~1 cup or so)
Chopped onions (from one whole medium-sized)
Chopped green pepper (from a whole medium-sized)
Packaged foods:
1x 650ml jar of salsa (Old El Paso Medium Restaurante)
1x 540ml can of Six Bean Mix (Great Value brand)
1x 540ml can of red kidney means (GV brand)
1x 796ml can of diced tomatoes (PC Blue Menu brand)
Protein:
2 lbs of lean ground beef
Seasoning:
2 heaping TSP of chili powder
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper
Ghost pepper flakes
So at this point, you should now be in your kitchen with all of your ingredients ready. Turn on some good tunes, and get rolling.
Directions:
Chop your veggies up to whatever size you like – I dice ’em.
Sauté the onions and mushrooms in olive oil, adding sea salt and pepper to taste.
While you’re sautéing, use the time efficiently by opening your cans.
Once your sauté is done, empty the contents out into the crock pot but save the pan.
In same sauté pan, cook up the ground beef. Add sea salt and pepper to taste.
Once meat is fully browned, drain it well and then add to crock pot.
Add beans, tomatoes and salsa to crock pot.
Add chili powder, more sea salt, more cracked black pepper, and ghost pepper flakes (don’t go crazy)
Mix well (90-120 seconds)
Set slow cooker to cook on its lowest, longest setting to achieve MAXIMUM FLAVOUR INTEGRATION
When it’s done, be sure to enjoy a bowl because how can you not? It will smell so amazing and incredible. Then divide up the remainder into your favourite containers for storage in the fridge and freezer (yes you should freeze some because it won’t last longer than 3 days in your fridge before it goes bad). Enjoy! I encourage feedback, positive or constructive, on this recipe or the process. Let me know how you made out, any substitutions or additions, etc. Cheers! \m/
Look, I like Pekka Rinne. He’s an outstanding goaltender. I just don’t think he is more valuable to his team than Carey Price is to the Canadiens. I agree that they are both legitimate contenders for the Vezina. Right now, Price’s stats are better than Rinne’s which would suggest a Price win for Vezina; however these stats are always in a state of flux and could easily change after just a couple of bad games.
I tried to validate my MVP argument using the Goals For statistic, as Nashville is 4th in the league in GF while Montreal is 18th (behind even the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs). (edit: Montreal now has one goal more than TML after the 4-0 win). When a team is scoring more goals, they’re less reliant on the keeper to net them the 2 points. The conclusion is that, a goaltender with similar stats, on a team that scores considerably less goals, is more valuable.
So, I told you to compare the Goals For of both teams, and still some of you doubted. So here are more stats that support my Price-for-Hart argument:(Note: these stats are based on the gamestate before Saturday night’s games)
Goals per game:
Nashville’s 2.94 is 3 tenths higher than Montreal’s 2.64. That’s a big difference as Nashville’s GPG is 6th overall and Montreal’s stat is only good for 20th. Still not convinced? Montreal’s GPG of 2.64 is the worst of the top 15 teams (Boston, at 16th, has 2.61). Look guys, you can’t win games when your team is not scoring goals (unless you’re the Montreal Canadiens). The fact that Montreal’s record is as good as it is, clearly to me, is due to their goaltender. That’s the MVP difference.
Shots For/Against per game:
Nashville shoots 3.4 shots more per game than their opponents. Montreal shoots 1.5 shots LESS per game than their opponents. Nashville is 3rd overall shots for, Montreal is 24th; Nashville’s shots allowed is 9th lowest while Montreal is 22nd in that department. Bottom line, Montreal goaltenders are seeing more rubber than Nashville’s and statistically, the teams who shoot more score more and who allow less shots allow less goals.
Being Outshot:
Nashville’s win percentage is an amazing .743 when they outshoot their opponents (which statistically is more often), however when they are themselves outshot, that percentage drops to .556. Montreal’s percentage difference is not so drastic, winning .667 the few times they outshoot the opponent, and an incredible.613 win percentage when they are outshot. Montreal is 2nd overall in that department. Goaltending.
Let’s look at the backup goalies:
Another argument I heard is that Nashville only wins with Rinne in goal and not with their backup; and that Montreal’s record would be negligibly influenced by who is in net. If that is true, then Carter Hutton’s stats should stink and Tokarski’s stats should be similar to Price’s… let’s have a look:
So, there is more disparity between the Habs goalies than between the Preds goalies.
I’ve now shut down every argument I’ve heard for Rinne over Price in the MVP race. I’m sure the Rinne supporters will come up with something though, rather than just admit that they’re wrong.
But Grimby, you’re biased because you’re a Canadiens fan. Of course, but I can remain objective, and the numbers don’t lie. Plus, I was not always a Carey Price supporter. I was upset when the team traded away Halak, and ever since then I had always compared Halak’s performance to Price’s. But something changed with Carey at the Olympics last year. I agree he earned his way there, but I was worried about how he would perform. He rose up to the grand occasion, and proved that he was the best goaltender in the World. And he’s been the best goaltender in the World ever since.
In June 2015, Carey Price will win the Hart Trophy for having been the season’s Most Valuable Player of the NHL.
It’s been a tough week. That is a broad, sweeping statement that can probably apply to a lot of people I know, each of whom have varying degrees of mental health. I don’t know for sure where exactly on the spectrum each person falls: from positive, strong mental health, to “I might need help” levels. The reason for my uncertainty? It’s nearly impossible to gauge a person’s mental health, at least from an external observance perspective. The only way to know for sure is to really talk to people. And these days, who has time for that? I say this with tongue in cheek, but truly it is an accurate portrayal of our current reality. We really ought to take the time to talk to each other. Especially the people who we are closest to. Next time you’re with a friend, or a relative, take the time to say you love them, you care for them, you are listening (really listening) to them.
From my own personal standpoint, while I was dealing with some really serious shit this week personally, I put on an air of positivism and normalcy for my friends, family and coworkers. I am thankful that I have a great and interesting job, because it allowed me to stay focused throughout the week!
I would rate myself as having a strong and positive mental health. I think I deal with stress very well. But when it comes to loss or grief, I don’t think I do as well but I try. I feel like I’m just a paper-thin shell that can fold at the tiniest strain of thought towards the lost one. So far in this post, I feel like my words are coming across as slightly mysterious or outright vague, and in part I think that is deliberate, so here is the skinny:
I’ve had a loss this week: my uncle hung himself.
My uncle was battling with some serious demons and lost, and he took the drastic road of a suicide attempt that has left the people who cared for him with unanswered questions and a strange trail of grief and uncertainty. Here’s the uncertainty piece: he’s not actually dead (yet). Well, not physically dead, but there is no more brain activity. My uncle is brain dead. I have difficulty reconciling that fact with the fact that his body is still alive and breathing with the help of machines. So when it comes to the grieving process, I am confused. I’ve dealt with loss before, but never like this. He’s brain dead, which to me is as good as dead. I want to grieve… but I can’t, at least not fully, and not until his body is gone as well. It’s weird. I feel like my family are all sharing these same or similar feelings, but none of us are explicitly talking about it. Why can’t we grieve now? Why can’t we let go? It’s almost as though, like my uncle, we are in a strange limbo state, and until his body passes (which is probably within the next 24 hours), we are not free from this state.
I didn’t know how to deal with this. I didn’t know how to cope. Then I got the idea to just write. I started writing, because I thought it would be cathartic. I wanted to share it with everyone too. To generate discussion, and to help with the grieving. Maybe this is my grieving?
I had no idea my uncle had such severe depression issues. I know that he’s struggled with addictions, and that he’s recently been in a bad place. But I felt like he was getting the help and support that he needed. Despite that help, the issues were severe enough that he took his own life. This is what I have a hard time with, I think. There is a history of depression in my family, and I like to think that I’m there for them. But am I really? Do I think that things are rosier than they are? It comes down to the talking and listening part I mentioned earlier. Is that enough though? I think so, because I’m an optimist at heart.
All of this comes on the heels of the Bell mental health awareness campaign this week. They’ve done some wonderful things and raised a lot of money and awareness for mental health issues. I think this is awesome, and truly believe that awareness is the key. If any of you are still reading this, first of all thank you. I know it’s long-winded and mostly self-serving, but I do have genuinely good intentions for writing it. So if you’re still reading, and you think “yeah, I’m having some issues” then please, PLEASE, talk to somebody right NOW. I don’t care who you talk to – it can be me, the person next to you, Telecare, your EAP, a dude on the street. Just talk to someone, and get some help. It’s out there. There’s always a way. There’s always an alternative. Suicide is not an acceptable answer. It’s an altogether too easy out for you that is selfish and leaves everyone around you in a trail of pain, guilt, grief, and uncertainty. You may think, in your lowliest state, that nobody cares for you, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I guarantee it. Call me on it, and I will show you.
RR
2015.01.30
—-
So what do you think? I’m interested in hearing from all of you, regardless of your mental health state whether you’re strong or needing of help. Weigh in on any part of my post. Have you been in this scenario where someone you love is brain-dead and on life support? Have you had to put on a happy exterior while dealing with pain on the inside? How are you doing anyway, really? Let me know – it can be publicly posted or private messaged.
2014 was another great year for real music. Even the bottom albums on this list are great, and are maybe a riff or a solo away from being top 5. I’ll count down the list with a brief descriptor:
25. Opeth – Pale Communion: Love these guys, but I think the album was one song away from being brilliant.
24. Wolf – Devil Seed: Solid traditional metal in which they finally (to me) shed the Judas Priest mimicry.
23. Cavalera Conspiracy – Pandemonium: Max returns with this punky thrash after last year’s abysmal Soulfly effort.
22. Gloryful – Ocean Blade: More solid trad metal, reminiscent of Greece’s BattleRoar
21. Machine Head – Bloodstone & Diamonds: This one was a bit of a grower, but it’s good. Maybe 2 songs too many.
20. Helstar – This Wicked Nest: The always excellent Helstar deliver another consistent heavy metal record. Not enough wow factor to crack the top 10 though.
19. Portrait – Crossroads: Strange, progressive traditional metal with vocals that remind me at times of vintage Warrel Dane.
18. Edgedown – Statues Fall: Solid power metal, almost Hibria-ish but more melodic. I loved it a lot at first but it lost a bit of its staying power over time.
17. Mastodon – Once More ‘Round the Sun: Their best since Blood Mountain, I was pleasantly surprised.
16. Sabaton – Heroes: Another surprise, I’ve only ever liked the occasional Sabaton song, but this album feels complete, and good headbangin’ fun.
15. Dawnbringer – Night of the Hammer: A late discovery that eked into 15th spot, this doom/trad album is almost flawless.
14. Overkill – White Devil Armory: A nice rebound after their last blunder. Title track is killer!
13. Allegaeon – Elements of the Infinite: Arsis-like, and awesome. Was top 5 at first but lost a bit of staying power over time.
12. Vestal Claret – The Cult of Vestal Claret: Sounds like a time-warp from 1979, all doom and trad. Check out the epic “Black Priest” for a heavy metal primer. Like Dawnbringer, this one is almost flawless.
11. Dust Bolt – Awake the Riot: Thrash! When done right, I can play all day. This one is done right. Only one dud kept it from being my favourite thrash record of the year (see #6).
10. Iced Earth – Plagues of Babylon: I liked the last one, the first with Stu, but I loved this one. This is the best Iced Earth record since Something Wicked. I loved it since the beginning, and it sounded just as great in December as it did when I first bought it in January.
9. Valknacht – Le Sacrifice d’Ymir: As some of you know I am super picky about black metal. These guys nail it with another near-flawless record. Hard to say if I like it more or less than their last one, but it’s good. Title track is epic and awesome.
8. Gamma Ray – Empire of the Undead: Strangely, I’m still on the fence about the opening track Avalon. I feel it is either unnecessarily long, or else fails as an “epic” song. It’s a good song though, and a great album.
7. Sinbreed – Shadows: Solid heavy metal through and through, punched by great drumming. Sadly it will be ignored like their debut.
6. Exodus – Blood In, Blood Out: This seems to be the most polarizing release of the year, with followers either loving or hating it. It was my favourite thrash album this year, with the title track sounding like an ass-kicking sequel to Exodus’ classic “Toxic Waltz”.
5. DragonForce – Maximum Overload: Their second album with new singer but first one I actually like. Sounds like a return to form, this is their best material since 2004’s Sonic Firestorm. Strangely, the bonus tracks do nothing for me.
4. Equilibrium – Erdentempel: These Germans are frustratingly inconsistent. Sagas was a masterpiece, ReKreatur was not. Their 2013 EP left much to be desired, so I went into this with low expectations. They far exceeded them, delivering the best folk metal album of the year.
3. Judas Priest – Redeemer of Souls: My favourite band delivers yet again. I was one of the few that liked Nostradamus, but this new record is far better in so many ways. Strange that KK is gone, but new guy fills the gap nicely. Rob still sounds amazing.
2. Vader – Tibi et Igni: Reviewing my notes, the first thing I wrote when I heard this was “damn good holy shit death metal”, and I think that best captures it. I fucking love this album. It is perfect.
1. Sanctuary – The Year the Sun Died: My favourite album of the year can be characterized using many of the words I’ve already used in this post: flawless, perfect, masterpiece, Warrel Dane. We waited 24 years since their last album, and the wait was certainly worth it! Great songs, no filler, lyrics smarter than anything you’ve read this year, and strong performances from each band member.
So that’s it! I’m sure there were a lot of other great albums out there that I just never got around to listening to (or gave enough time to). Looking forward to another great year for music in 2015! Sound off with your feedback on my list and commentary.
As a companion to my MTG Deck Building Fundamentals, I wanted to write about the different utilities available to my fellow Planeswalkers to help them improve their decks.
Mana production/acceleration.
Mana rocks, ie: artifacts that produce mana such as Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, the Signets, Chromatic Lantern, etc.
One-off spells that add instant mana, like the black and red rituals (Dark Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Rituals
Mana dorks, mostly found in green that add mana, like Birds of Paradise, or any of the elves like Elvish Archdruid, etc… These mana dorks are found in other colors too.
Replacement effects. Eg: rather than pay mana cost, you can do something else. Example, “Rooftop Storm” allows a mage to cast zombie creatures for 0.
Recursion, ie: the ability to re-use cards after their supposedly single use or after they die/are destroyed.
Graveyard recursion: there are tons of ways to use and abuse the graveyard, as anybody who has played with me can attest to. One of my favourites is Sun Titan, who pulls a 3CMC or less permanent from the graveyard to the battlefield when it hits the battlefield and every time it attacks. Trading Post lets me sacrifice a creature to return an artifact from the graveyard to my hand.
Flashback. Spells with flashback are cast again from the graveyard. There are even ways to give flashback to non-flashback spells; like with Snapcaster Mage.
Make single-use spells repeatable with things like Isochron Scepter and Elite Arcanist
Planeswalkers are a great way to play repeatable abilities.
Draw/Discard:
Draw engines like Howling Mine and Font of Mythos keeps everyone happy (until they draw their whole library!)
Drawing cards for yourself is an important way to gain advantage. It allows you to find answers quicker. Staff of Nin, Carnage Altar and Jayemdae Tome are colorless ways to do just that, but traditionally blue is the color of draw.
Discard: Less popular but still a way to gain card advantage over your opponents, particularly when they are holding on to a spell that they are saving as a game-ending bomb. Black is the strongest discard color with dozens of creatures and spell that enable it.
Tutors: Tutoring means searching your library for spells. There are several ways in several colors to tutor, but black is traditionally the tutor color:
Some tutors are directly to your hand, some go to the top of your library, and others put directly into play!
Direct tutors like Planar Portal, Ring of 3 Wishes, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Rune-Scarred Demon, Liliana Vess.
Conditional Tutors are usually cheaper to cast but are more specific, like Enlightened Tutor that gets an artifact or enchantment, Fierce Empath searches a creature card with CMC > 6, Mwonvuli Beast Tracker fetches you a creature with either Reach, Trample, Deathtouch or Hexproof, etc.. Tinker lets you search for an artifact and put it into play, at the low, low cost of sacrificing an artifact.
Combat Evasion and Tricks
Evasion means a way to make your creatures harder/impossible to block. Make them flying, fear, shadow, unblockable, protection.
Tricks like Fog (prevent all combat damage) or once a player chooses not to block your chump guy, then you pump him up and go for the kill.
Sacrifice outlets: depending on the deck, but sometimes having the ability to sacrifice your stuff is a big advantage. Let’s say someone goes to exile an awesome creature you have. Nope, you’ll sac it instead, put it in your graveyard where its easier to return than from exile.
Tokens and Counters: there are many spells that enable the token and counters strategy, primarily a green mage’s strength. Doubling Season, Parallel Lives and Corpsejack Menace are all essential.
Tribal support. There are many spells that enhance your tribes. Some are generic and can be applied to any tribe, while others are tribe-specific:
Generic examples: Coat of Arms, Door of Destinies, Adaptive Automaton, Cavern of Souls
Specific examples: Call to the Grave (Zombies), Anowon, the Ruin Sage (Vampires), Elvish Promenade, Goblin Grenade, Seraph Sanctuary.
Grimby: Army of One 