BT Calgary Blogs

Don’t let the tattoos fool you, Lucky Diamond Rich is a sweetheart.  The most tattooed man in the world hung out with us at Immaculate Concept for a good 2 hours this morning.  Lucky is full of hilarious stories about his travels and encounters with people he meets all over the world.  You can imagine being in the Guinness Book of World Records, you cross paths with some pretty interesting folk.

Lucky told us about his slumber party with the Tom Leppard (the 2nd most tattooed man in the world) and skipping the lineup to get into the smallest night club in the world.  His life is so interesting and I highly recommend you go down and say hi while he’s in town!  He is here for the week leading up to the Calgary Tattoo and Arts Festival at the Round Up Centre Aug. 14 – 16.

Big thanks to Steve Peace who hosted us this morning at Immaculate Concept on 17th Ave – he might look like a Judas Priest fan but don’t be surprised if you hear a little Kelly Clarkson in the play list (and he’s not ashamed to admit it.)

Mike Fleiss, the producer of The Bachelor series, *has* confirmed the Bachelor mansion will be occupied by either Reid, Kiptyn, or Jake.   Surprise!  Not.

Fans already suspected it was between those three. 

I have to admit I am happy we finally get a little Bachelor tidbit (thanks to BuddyTV).  I’m also glad Wes isn’t in the final three.  I wonder if his leagues of fans Chihuahua Mexico are upset.

Who has your votes Bachelor fans?  I’m on Team Reid Bing although I think Kiptyn’s 12-pack of abs make for a strong case.  While Jake is seemingly perfect, there is something a little Tom Cruise about him.  You never know if he’s going break loose and jump on a couch like a wild man.

And as for all these nasty Ed rumors…..scroll down and check out my post from last week!

What goes on behind the scenes of BT?  This Blog gets you inside!  BT Producers let you in on what the hosts do after the show and more!

Plus all the rap ballads you can handle from the K-man!

This was a tough one but after spending a couple of hours reading through *all* the entries (and googling Eddie Vedder pictures) and deliberating with the rest of the BT team, we came up with 2 winners for the weekend passes to Virgin Fest.  We narrowed down the pool to 10 finalists and drew 2 names.  Very democratic process. 

Sooooooo….. CONGRATS SCOTT H. AND STEPH C.!!! 

Lucky ducks.  Have a wicked time. 

There were some very convincing and creative entries so thank you for taking the time to share the love!  Long live PJ.

So many small communities across this province are in need of more doctors. And High River is no exception. But a new program at the University of Calgary is helping by getting medical students into these small towns to show them what life is like in these communities.

Here’s the story.

Dana Shaw is in this High River clinic for a routine physical. But Katie Hermanutz isn’t his doctor. She’s a third year medical student from the U of C.

Shaw says, “it was very good. Felt like I was with my regular doctor.”

Hermanutz has been in High River since the middle of April. It’s part of a ‘rural clerkship’ through the Faculty of Medicine.

“We get kind of a nice variety every week but we always get to come back and have our clinic time and experience our family medicine part of it everyweek, so it’s great,” says Hermanutz.

It’s a very different experience than medical students would get in the city.

“Instead of doing a specific kind of medicine just at once for one or 2 months we get to do all kinds of medicine all the time,” explains Hermanutz.

Hermanutz’s “preceptor” or mentor in High River is Dr. Sarah Makhdoom. She says the rural students always get more experience.

“All the evaluations show these kids are doing way better than the city students…. just because they have less competition, less students around so they get to do one on one experience.”

This is only the second year of this program, but it seems to be working. Seven of the nine medical students from last year’s program have continued on in rural medicine.
 
Hermanutz would like to stay on in rural medicine too.

“I’m from a rural area myself, I grew up on a farm, so it was nice to get out of the city and get into a smaller town.”

But even for students who don’t have a rural background, Hermanutz thinks this clerkship would entice them.

“It’s really a good program for taking people who are a little bit interested in rural or family medicine and really pushing them over the edge towards knowing that’s something they’d really love to do.”

And the communities can always use more doctors.
Shaw says, “I think its good to get them out here and let them see what life is like in the country and hopefully some of the will like it enough to stay here.”

And it looks like Hermanutz will.

She says, “I’m rural medicine all the way – yup!”

—————

Dr. Makhdoom tells me there are about 15 doctors in High River, but at least 4 of them are close to retirement. And all the doctors are carrying a full patient load. So, programs like this one are essential for the future.

Here some links for more information on this clerkship.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/ruralmedicine/undergrad/ricc

http://medicine.ucalgary.ca/about/ricc2009

Canada always seems to pull the short straw when it comes to getting the good gadgets first. Canadians had to wait patiently for satellite radio, the iPhone, and the Palm Pre (still waiting). Sure it gets the odd bone. Canucks were first to get the BlackBerry Storm (as they should since RIM is headquartered in Canada) and the Rubik’s 360 (hooray) but those “firsts” are few and far between. Well Canada, Americans can no longer make fun of you for not having 3G embedded netbooks. Your first one has arrived!  But the question remains…was it worth the wait?

(more…)

VERY GOOD FRIDAY MORNING !!!

We are in a ‘giving mood’ this morning on Breakfast Television — and we wanna make your weekend!

Here’s the scoop — as you read this blog, you may – or may not know – that I have a little thing going on called the “ABC” — which stands for “Andrew’s Blog Club” — to become a member, all you need to do is to drop us a line from our main page (breakfasttelevision.ca) – then go to “Connect with BT” and send us a note — just put ‘ABC’ in the subject line — it’s that easy !!

Today, we have a super-dooper prize pack up for grabs — that we will split between a couple of NEW members who sign up for the ‘ABC’ (ie. this morning) – and some existing members of the club (if you have already joined, you don’t have to do a thing – you could still win !!).

EACH LUCKY WINNER WILL TAKE HOME:

>A “President’s Choice” BBQ Pack – including BBQ Sauce, Spices and a “Pic-Nic” style carrying case…

>And, for your entertainment – a Double Pass to the new Disney Film “PONYO” (the screening is on MONDAY)…so you will have to pick up your winnings (if you’re LUCKY that is!) by Monday afternoon at the latest.

Good Luck !!

Oh, a few more notes:

-Go Stamps Go !!   Kick-off is Saturday night at 7:30pm – get your tix at:  stampeders.com

-If you STILL haven’t seen “Dating in the Dark” (Monday night on Citytv) – or “More to Love”      (Tuesday  nights on City) – what’s your excuse?????

-Have a GREAT weekend….

A.

BT wants to send you to Virgin Fest this weekend and we have *TWO* sets of 2 tickets to giveaway!  All you have to do is post a comment stating why you need to go to Virgin Fest. 

I can put my reason in two words:  Pearl. Jam. 

The lineup of talent for the 2 day festival at COP includes Metric, Wintersleep, Tokyo Police Club, Billy Talent, k-os, and Calgary’s own Michael Bernard Fitzgerald.  Feel free to get creative with your answers!  We want to hear from the hard core fans!

Got ahold of few snaps of Jill & Ed from their first week together visiting Ed’s family and friends. 

In the meantime, not sure what to make of the “Bachelorette Betrayed” article in Us Weekly…I’m going to chalk it up to a negative spin.  These pics were taken *after* filming wrapped and Jill & Ed look so happy!  Wishing them the best in their new life together!

Who else is missing the Bachelorette on Monday nights?  Still waiting to hear who the next Bachelor will be…

Heart disease is the number one killer of both Canadian men and women. Yet it’s also the most preventable.  But there’s a clinic in Calgary that can help you reduce your risk.

Here’s the story.

Carrie Kucy is hitting the treadmill again at the Heart Fit Clinic. That’s because a year ago, she found out she had very high blood pressure.

“When I went in, I found out my blood pressure was reading 179 over 110 and I had usually been 90 over 60, so this was a big shock to me.”

So shocking, Kucy called up the Heart Fit Clinic to start a program right away.

Diamond Fernandes, the Director and Founder of the clinic, says “we see people who have heart disease or who are at risk of heart disease and create lifestyle modifcication strategies to improve their health.”

These strategies include clinically supervised exercise programs, as well as nutrition and stress counselling. Plus…. part of the comprehensive cardiac assessment includes a test on the carotid artery, that’s an artery in your neck. What it does is lets patients like Carrie know what their risk is for heart disease.

Fernandes explains, “we use ultrasound and it’s a screening test where we determine the thickness of the layers of the carotid artery. If one has an increased risk of thickness it translates to a risk of heart disease.”

Kucy had the test done and recieved  some unsettling news.

“I found out my arteries were 17 years older than my age. I was 50 last year and that was a huge shock.”

But with the work Kucy was doing at Heart Fit, she saw changes right away.

“Within 2 months I was able to lower my medication in half, and in another 2 months I lowered it again by half and I was off all meds at the end of January.” 

This is exactly the kind of success cardiologist Doctor Gary Bloomberg says is so beneficial to patients and the health care system.

He says, “preventative medicine is really the way of the future.”

He says while we can’t change our genes,we can change other risk factors.

“Those we can alter, we very much want to try and be very aggressive in trying to identify and treating them.”

Which is what they do at Heart Fit. And Kucy says she’s been given the tools to make those changes.

“So you can have a better quality of life and a longer life.”

–

FYI – Carrie’s arteries are now back to her real age, just a year later! She’s also lost 55 pounds!!

For more information on what the clinic does and how much it costs to go there, visit the website:

www.heartfit.ca