LegendaryLife Blog

I am one of the 30 000 potential applicants to the Tourism Queensland competition for Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef position! Without delay, here is the video.

Video Transcript

My name is Jonathan Cantin and you’re looking at your next caretaker!

I have a University Degree in Biogeography, I studied everything from corals to rock formations and I’m also a teacher.

A little over two years ago, I sold everything I had for the paradise of Cairns, Australia on a Working Holiday Visa. I explored the local area and went up to Cape Tribulation with nothing but a tent and many cans of beans. I have had the pleasure of exploring Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, in addition to my home country, Canada!

I have a Pilot, motorcycle and golf cart Licenses, open water certificate as well as a black belt in Karate. I would love to be on Hamilton Island in August for the Hamilton Island Race Week.

I have been nominated for two Entrepreneur of the Year awards, one of which I won. In my spare time, I love designing on-demand products, motivating others with my blogs and mountain climbing. I am an avid photographer, enthusiastic writer, absolutely LOVE life and the opportunity it presents to me.

My home is the world and I thank you for your time and consideration!

I put a link to JonCantin.com on the video so the reviewing panel can easily find-out more about me and I can use the site to market myself for the wildcard position as well.

Applying Early

Originally, I was going to spent a few weeks making something absolutely amazing but after I saw news reports that Tourism Queensland may limit their applications to 30 000 entries, rightly or wrongly, I decided I simply couldn’t take the chance of having a great presentation with nowhere to send it to. They are swamped already, have applications coming from all corners of this world and my guess is that they can hit 30 000 absolutely anytime, including today.

About the Best Job in the World

Tourism Queensland is selecting one, very lucky person, from around the world, to work among one of the most beautiful regions and islands in Australia! I would LOVE the opportunity to be that person, hence why I applied. The job entails blogging, video production, publicity and a host of other things geared towards having both an amazing time and promoting the region as much as possible. The “job” includes a beautiful rent-free home during the six month, 150 000$AU contract in addition to experiences that will surely make whomever wins, headline news around the world. Throw instant fame into the mix and it’s no wonder why so many people are applying for this position that their servers crashed a few days ago processing the applicants!

Why I think I can get this position

To begin with, I have the educational background with a University Degree in BioGeography (Biology + Geography) and have taught people of all ages over the past decade. I am a self-starter who built many very innovative and successful companies that have a global reach and even better, I am young enough not to require living in a location near a hospital yet old enough to know my limits with a body that can do whatever I set my mind towards doing! I have extensive marketing experience both in direct sales and across many cultures as well. I love the outdoors, drove everything from a plane to a motorcycle and love adventure!

Where can YOU apply?

Competition is fun, the more people applying, the better it will be for all of us applying as it makes the achievement all the more spectacular should I be nominated to be the next Hamilton Island Caretaker. You can see a complete job description on the Tourism Queensland website and find out more about the job at Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Bottom Line

Visit JonCantin.com to find-out more about me!

Buzvia.com: Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef, Tourism Queensland and JonCantin.com

The steps of paranoia are a painful one!

Running around with your head chopped-off does nothing but make you die faster!

Jumping from one paranoid episode to another!

The propensity for people to jump from one crisis into another is happening yet again, right now, but this time, it isn’t terrorists but finances that are at the top of the list! What exactly did being scared of terrorists solve? NOTHING! If you review the news reports, trillions of dollars where spent, lives lost and even worse, the roots of the global economic crisis going on RIGHT NOW where formed. This is happening all again right now, the news has nothing good to say, governments are passing laws that make little sense and yet again, borrowing money they don’t have to put on the backs of the next generations to pay down. This has got to stop! You don’t dig yourself out of a hole by digging faster!

Where does paranoia come from?

Paranoia comes from not knowing what is around the corner… it served us very well in the ancient grasslands of Africa when many animals wanted us for their diner but now, with mass media and instant communication… this is killing-off our societies ability to maintain a clear vision regarding the future. There are problems now, there will be problems later but one things for sure, there will ALWAYS be problems. Going from a cycle of ignorance or indifference into paranoid frenzy as soon as a friend of a friend’s brother’s uncle’s grandfather looses a bit of money does nobody any good. The media, social groups, friends… all help create a severe winding-up of fears which only end-up making the entire situation worse for all involved, not better!

Paranoia affects your mental health!

I would be completely unsurprised if hospitals reported a significant increase in patience suffering from heart attacks, strokes and many other accidents… mostly due to the constant level of stress they put onto themselves. For instance, you lost 60% of your “savings” in the stock market over the past year… that would stress anybody out but if you treated the markets like a casino (they are one in the same in my opinion), you NEVER would have put your money in there to begin with. Never put money you can’t afford to lose on the market or with others, you are just asking to be burned.

So what is the solution?

The first is to accept that chaos will always win against stability, this is an important fact that is too easily ignored at our own peril. Second, a clear, long-term vision is required where small deviations might be necessary but the bigger picture of goal never getting out of sight. Micro-management isn’t any good for anybody.

Opportunity in Chaos

Each and every time there is extreme turmoil in society in general, you have winners who see the opportunity and losers who do not. This financial crisis is no different. Look at the marketplace, competitors are dying-off, retailers are eager for new products to sell and generally people are looking for escapes any way they can. The video game industry is booming right now as well as a few other sectors… try to think of what you can do to profit and actually help people, in the process, of making some money. Your goal shouldn’t be just getting out of this chaos alive, it should be to come out ahead!

The Bottom Line

Paranoia causes nothing but mental and physical stress, don’t allow yourself to be sucked into it!

Earth is insignificant compared to the vastness of the Universe!

I am an avid fan of CBC’s Quirks and Quarks show and last week, they had a top 10 listing of how our world will end by leading scientists.

End of the World?

It isn’t a question of IF but WHEN, whether tomorrow or 100 000 years from now, our species is a blink in the universes eye and we are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I am sure the universe is a very creative being and will use something abstract to end our civilization no matter how far away from Earth it colonizes. If you are hoping and praying for an after-life, where would it take place if there was NO UNIVERSE? Fun questions to ask yourself on a Sunday afternoon eh?

10: The Sun eats the Earth!

Our Sun uses hydrogen as it’s primary fuel source, it WILL run-out in about 7 billion years and turn into a quickly expanding “Red Giant”. Growing to over 250x its current size while losing a third of its mass in the process. The Earth’s oceans would evaporate, the surface would return to a molten form and if you are a human on this planet, no amount of air conditioning will keep you from spontaneously catching fire. Try to imagine yourself holding a nuclear bomb when it explodes and it should give you an idea of how uncomfortable this era of our Earth will be.

9: Gamma-Ray burst will microwave us!

What happens to water when you put it into a microwave? It gets how… now imagine if you where stuck in a microwave that had a wattage exponentially higher! How does this happen? Well, a star, such as our Sun, right before it explodes into a quark, releases a bursts of energy while undergoing a Super Nova. This DOES happen, has been recorded and so far, we have escaped them. Don’t worry, if you survived the first few seconds of this gamma-ray burst, our ozone layer would be destroyed and you would be fried by our Sun’s UV rays. Best to stock-up on some sunscreen and dig yourself a BIG HOLE to live in right now!

8: Rogue black hole eats Earth!

If the rogue black hole was large enough, it would completely shier the entire Earth and spit it out into its base elements. It would need to be just a few hundred kilometers in wise as well… so we aren’t talking about a HUGE black hole being necessary. Interestingly enough, the center of our galaxy is occupied by a super massive black hole!

7: Earth gets KO’ed by an asteroid

An asteroid a few kilometers in size hitting the Earth would lead to massive tidal waves, worldwide instant incineration as the seismic waves engulf our planet causing both volcanos to show-up everywhere and millions of molten asteroids caused by the initial impact zone rain down. If that wasn’t bad enough, possibly a few decades of nuclear winter along with a complete collapse of the Earth’s ecosystems would sure make the planet a lonely place unless you had Wikipedia to keep you busy!

6: Earth goes into a super massive ice-age!

Imagine that the entire Earth was covered by kilometers of ice! Scientists actually believe this happened about 750  to 650 million years ago on Earth. What can cause this? Well, our Sun greatly reducing it’s power output or CO2 levels dropping exponentially, no longer trapping any heat in our atmosphere.

5: Magnetic field collapses across our Milky Way Galaxy!

The magnetic field throughout our galaxy is all that is stopping it from imploding onto itself due to the powerful forces of gravity, remove this and our entire galaxy becomes flatter than a pancake! Don’t worry, the Super Novas caused by such a decline would fry you far before you ever felt the sky falling onto you.

4: Earth’s magnetic field reverses itself!

Cosmic radiation would be able to reach the surface of Earth and basically black-out our energy sources such as telephone wires, wireless networks and cause havoc on with any electronic equipment of any kind. The last reversal on planet Earth actually happened about 700 thousand years ago and we are 250 thousand years (so far) overdue for this to happen again as they usually occur every 500 thousand years. Time to trash your car and buy a wheelbarrow!

3: A nearby star goes Super Nova on us!

Damage from a Super Nova first causes a massive release of gamma-rays (above) followed by massive amounts of x-rays. Our ozone gets depleated in the blink of an eye (depending on distance) and voila, we get fried by our own Sun’s UV rays. To have any impact the super nova would need to be at least 25 million light years away from us. If you happen to still be alive, the genetic damage this causes would probably mean permanent infertility for all living things on our planet. The good news about this is that teenage pregnancy becomes impossible!

2: Super Volcano comes-up on Earth!

74 thousand years ago, a super volcano, about a hundred times bigger than anything we have now, exploded an incredible amount of material into our atmosphere. The result? Causing a global nuclear winter due to the ash thrown into our atmosphere with constant super-tsunamis and Richter Scale crushing earthquakes. Scientists expect one to occur in the next 10 thousand years.

1: Aliens invade us!

Let’s hope that these aliens don’t have the same mentality as us, otherwise, we are doomed.

The Bottom Line

The Earth may die tomorrow but you are alive today… appreciate it!

Buzvia: CBC’s Quirks and Quarks

The beauty of simplicity, the beauty of nature.

On one hand, I think new years resolutions are very important, if not critical on the path towards success but on the other hand, they can also be used as an excuse for inaction and rather detrimental to achieving your goals.

New Years Resolutions (Good)

New Years seems to be a special time for many, when actually, it’s no different than any other day. People use this time to meet friends, party and say “next year will be better than the last”. These are all wonderful things! It’s a great time to reflect on your life, past achievements and failure, learning from each. For many people, the event itself marks a turning point in their lives while for others, the energy to make this happen. The nice thing about New Years is that it happens every year and is usually associated with many holidays as well so may get a break from the toils for a job.

New Years Resolutions (Bad)

The bad, if not evil thing about New Years Resolutions is the fact that they do occur only once a year. A habit that is practiced but once a year, such as birthdays, is quickly forgotten and loses its importance soon after the event. I can’t count the number of times I have gone to the gym PACKED in January and by the time February hits followed by March, things return to their (normally) empty self. People make all types of promises, goals, changes in their lives but they are as short lived as the celebrations themselves. To create lasting change, you need weekly if not daily action towards that change, otherwise, it’s futile. The other bad thing about New Years resolutions is that too many are made but not shared with others, a secret of maintaining a habit is to tell everybody you are doing XYZ because it will create a reminder both within and externally each time you see these people. It DOES work.

If you have been especially bad this year keeping your New Years promises of the previous one, I would expect you to get a visit from Biker Clause as a reminder

New Years Resolutions VS Goal Setting

The main reason why I think goal setting is more important than New Years resolutions is because goals can be set within any time interval, be that a week, month or a decade if need be. New Years resolutions are static and you know how much I hate static things So, don’t make a New Years resolution this year, simply get in the habit of goal setting!

My Goals for 2009

Here are some my goals for 2009:

• publish my first inspirational/motivational book
• publish another WoodMarvels.com volume (current book one is already in pre-press)
• triple the total traffic from all my sites
• create lasting change in at least 100 people using LegendaryLife.com (thousands will join but not everybody will use it as intended)
• create two new sources of revenue for myself (online or otherwise)
• try to win some sort of award somewhere, somehow
• get WoodMarvels.com pre-cut kits into retail stores (online or otherwise)
• enjoy the gift of life even more!

These goals are all possible, quite a few already have some oil in their engines but they still need constant attention in order to create their own steam and produce power. I usually try to keep my long terms goals as simple and straight forward as possible, chaos is a great thing and is always makes the journeys more interesting but it can also modify the road you thought you where to take to turn a goal into reality.

The Bottom Line

Goal setting is New Years Resolutions 2.0

Anybody who tells you that you cannot do this or that because of “blah, blah, blah” have no idea what they are talking about… NONE! If YOU want to make something happen, it’s up to you and only YOU to make it happen.

Barriers to making things possible

No matter your handicaps, no matter how severe they are, don’t let them get in the way of your dreams. For instance, look at the incredible success that Steve Nash, the NBA player has in his career considering how short he is… sure 6ft3 isn’t short but by NBA standards, he is surrounded by giants! How about Richard Branson? He is dyslexic yet is a self-made multi-billionaire traveling the world and outer space! The world is full of unlikely success stories that blow people away due to their ambitions more than their talent.

Beware of what you wish… it may come true!

More than once in my life, I have experienced both personally and through others that what you wish, even for a small amount of time, may actually come true! The most apt example of this was a few years back when, on a long walk, I was wondering what it would be like to be arrested (completely out of the blue), little did I know that a few minutes this “wish” would come true! My life is full of examples of this along several time lines and I am absolutely sure I am not alone. I am not psychic (this is “impossible”) but I do seem to be rather good at seeing the future of decisions I make now in a flash with very little though involved.

So what is impossible?

To be honest, the only limiting factor for most people is the size of their dreams. If you told somebody a thousand years ago that they would be talking through a small portable box to people on the other side of the world, you would be crucified as insane yet with satellite phones this is possible from ANYWHERE. I have come to the conclusion that EVERYTHING and ANYTHING is possible, screw the laws of physics or other limitations brought-up by “smarter” people… if you think it can happen and put enough sweat and tears into it… it WILL happen.

The more you know, the less you know

Why do I think that even “impossible” things are completely possible no matter what the geniuses in this world say? Well, because they have an incredibly BAD track record. I honestly cannot think of an invention, from the press to the automobile where the geniuses at the time put pressure on the creator to give-up these “silly” and “impossible” thoughts! If you told me you where working on a time machine, I would say your chances of accomplishing this are near zero but NOT zero. Look at Thomas Edison who toyed away for years on a light bulb with endless prototypes before he achieved what the geniuses at the time said was impossible! My friends, if you remember anything from this blog article it’s this, the more somebody knows about a subject, the less they actually know about it.

Why do I say this? Well, knowledge is biased information, no matter its origins, how many times it has been proven, there is always something that is missed or mis-interpreted… throw enough of this stuff together and you end-up with a rather impressive body of knowledge that is so full of holes that it becomes a self-supporting yet rather hollow structure.

Ah, the problem with Religion

This is one of my largest grievances with religion… it doesn’t teach you that “anything” is possible, it puts the explanation of “God” as the answer to EVERY question you don’t know the answer to. How did starts form? Well, God did it. Where do babies come from? Well, God does that. Why did I get a C in my math test? Well, God wanted it to be so. What do you notice? Well, the utter LACK of curiosity. If religion teachings one thing, it isn’t to expand your mind, it’s to accept things as they are and stifle creativity in the young minds that need it the most. How did stars form? Well, this is a question that continues to take generations to discover the answer to yet religion says essentially “don’t bother, God did it and that is all you need to know… move-on”. Even though I say this, I do think it’s ironic that our understanding of DNA comes from a monk who studied peas, that religion played a pivotal role in the development of the printing press and many other things we take for granted as scientific fact. Hence, my indecision on this matter which will probably continue until my last breath. I am well beyond the question of whether there is a God or not, I have “advanced” now towards thinking of whether we are better off with or without religion.

The Bottom Line

Nothing is impossible unless you allow it to be so.

Update: This past week a “man” gave birth to a baby and a 72 year old woman gave birth as well… both thanks to the advances in medical knowledge. Both of these where considered completely “impossible” just a few years ago.