I moved my personal residence two weeks ago and got most of the unpacking and organizing done with a day or two, but there are a few things I’ve been avoiding, one of which being a box of old radio stuff.

The contents of this box bring back memories of a lot of things I miss, or have tried to compartmentalize in one way or another. Friday evening I decided to go ahead and organize the contents of the box and toss out some things that were really of no importance – such as old radio show content schedules.

While looking through the box I found a video (shot and edited by someone else) of an interview I did with the rap artist 50 Cent in the 2005 timeframe.

It’s somewhat humorous to look back at this video and think about how much has changed in my life, and how much I’ve personally changed. I’m still a high energy, goofy kind of guy that admittedly loves to perform (It’s a Leo thing I guess), but the personality/lifestyle I created as “JJ McCain” was a bit over the top.

The interview has five different segments, four of which I’ve uploaded to YouTube and posted below (Missing segment was on a corrupt disk and I couldn’t pull the file).

I hope you enjoy this unique look back to my days on the air…

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

No matter your fitness level, you’re going to experience peaks where you feel great, but you’ll also experience valleys and at times feel completely unmotivated, or that you aren’t progressing at all.

No matter what part of the cycle your body is in, there will be times when you hit a wall and feel like you have little motivation or simply feel as if you have nothing else to give. Unfortunately I found myself feeling this way last night.

I’ve been inline speed skating pretty consistently for about a month now and am getting adjusted to my new boot and the larger wheels. Things have been going pretty well and my progress has been promising, but I’ve had a nagging cold for about a week and a half which has hurt my performance.

At last nights practice we did a drill that seemed to wipe out my energy and motivation very early on. Before long I found myself sitting on the sidelines watching my teammates skate… and feeling very discouraged. I wanted to be on the floor, but had the overwhelming feeling of “I just can’t do it.”

I processed the feelings for a bit, pulled out my iPhone and posted this on Facebook,

“Getting killed at inline speed skating practice tonight. A bit discouraging.”

I’m not sure if publicly admitting that my performance wasn’t where I wanted to be helped or if it was simply getting it off my chest… but by the next event I was able to turn things around and finished the practice on a strong note.

When your motivation is down and energy is zapped it’s important to work through the feelings because you’ll eventually break through and reap the benefits of your effort.

Thank you for taking the time to read my ongoing “Get Fit” series. Click here for previous posts.

 I don’t know about you, but I think creating new ad campaigns is a blast.

I’ve previously highlighted the new TV commercials for my employer, and thought you might also like to check out the new billboards.As you know, billboard messages have to be extremely short, but can still pack a punch if done well. The core message we wanted to highlight in the board campaign was that the credit union has been helping members build their financial future for a long time, hence the history references.