Holidays

As of last Friday I am officially on vacation until the 5^th!!! Two weeks to do whatever my heart desires, ah the possibilities. With all this spare time I should be able to put in a lot of effort towards my UBBT requirements. I just finished running 10 kilometers on my elliptical machine and a third repetition of Kempo immediately after. It was funny how junky my stances were after running, I almost fell down going into the first horse stance. So the plan is to do as much as possible in these two weeks to give myself a bit of a cushion incase I get gimped later on.

One of my personal requirements is to work on my agility. I want to be able to do back flips, front flips, handsprings and other gymnastics type maneuvers by February. I have already looked into some gyms and private lessons so it’s just a matter of picking the time to start. Earlier I was thinking of starting while on this vacation but I’ve changed my mind, I think it would be just a bit too hectic for Christmas: tis the season to be broke. I have a lot of university friends that I want to spend time with while we’re all free and I’m hoping to go on a Snowboarding trip right after Christmas for a few days. I think I will start soon though, winter is a good time to be inside practicing flips and landing on my head, plus I don’t know how long it will take me to get good so the sooner the better.

Since my last status update on books I’ve read “Lolita” and I have 50 pages left of “The Age of Innocence”. “Lolita” took me awhile and was the hardest book to read so far simply because of its subject matter. The first half came easy but the last half was slow going and had be cringing. I now have even more respect for the Modern Library list for including books that are controversial, books where I can take delight in the writing style even while loathing the subject matter.

I’m really liking “The Age of Innocence”. The beginning had me groaning and only able to read a handful of pages before being exasperated. The book is about high class, East-coast American society during the 1870’s, it’s a social commentary and condemns the inhuman lifestyle they lived. I hate stuck up, frivolous, hollow victorian-esque high society culture. I think it glorified triviality and condemned what really makes life worth living. The beginning of the book really laid it on thick and that’s what had me groaning. A little farther in I found hope in the Protagonist and the Countess Olenska and the satirical style of the book made the reading go down easy.

I finished my Kwan Dao form last week! I’m not going to add any new moves so it’s just a matter of tweaking the ones I have and practicing it. I almost ended the form a couple of times but I kept coming up with new ideas that had to get in. I’d be working on an end move and then discover something cool, throw that in and be right back where I started. I still want to add more but it can’t be the never-ending form and I have to be able to perform the whole thing without passing out. Maybe later I’ll throw in a few more moves, once my strength/stamina is better, that sucker is tiring to swing around.

I am really pleased with the progress I’ve made with the weapon. My Kwan Dao form puts my pole form to shame or at least feels way cooler. There is a bit of my pole form hiding in it though, I am becoming fond of long weapons. I’ve decided what I’m going to do for the “Making and posting of a film,” UBBT goal. I’m going to film myself explaining and performing my Kwan Dao form. I’ll start with introducing myself, the weapon, what I was hoping to accomplish, what I was trying to highlight about the weapon, then perform it and throw it on YouTube. Soon I will be an internet star.

I feel like I just burned through a lot of journaling material. I should split it up over a couple posts for double the efficiency (I won’t though).

Friends

This is the first time in my journal where I don’t really know what I want to write about. I’m in a weird mood right now and there’s nothing new I feel like talking about so I’ll write about a topic I discussed with a friend awhile ago. The topic was friends and social circles. About two years ago I felt like I was stuck in a rut. I was mostly hanging out with a handful of friends I’ve had since high school and getting tired of doing the same things over and over. Pretty much every weekend I would end up either going out to some crappy club and be bored or hangout at a friend’s playing video games and drinking. Either of these can be a blast every now and then but doing nothing else all/every time gets VERY boring. Plus you basically never meet new people.

I was getting frustrated and tried getting these friends to try new things and hopefully meet new people. It didn’t really work, and I was starting to get depressed that I couldn’t sway the group. As I mentioned I love the outdoors, going on trips and adventures in the mountains. I seemed to be doing less and less of the things I wanted to do and anytime I tried to plan something it was met with apathy (I just tried to use “unenthusiasm” and spell check has taught me this is not a real word, I’m learning) or everyone ended up backing out in the end. These are still good friends of mine, I love them and see them regularly, but the way things were going at the time I wasn’t in the social circle I wanted to be in and I was starting to find myself hanging out more and more with people I didn’t want to be around (friends of these core friends).

When I was getting ready to test for black belt and doing the assignments I had to memorize “Mastery,” by Stuart Emery. His ideas on mediocrity really hit home with me and one line in particular, “surround yourself with people who ask more of you,” meant a lot to me. I took a good look at my situation, thought things through and shortly after, reached a breaking point. I realized things were not going to change unless I took action. I decided to actively go about improving my social circle and I still am today.

I called up a few old friends from my JFW years and some other people I regret not knowing better. These people are people that share the same values and interests as me. For some reason I never really used to hang out with them unless we were on some trip together. Things went well and I started seeing these people more frequently and met other good people through them. I started doing new things: going to improve theater, pubs and pool halls instead of clubs, festivals, Settlers of Catan (best board game ever!), tea houses/coffee shops, and I started to frequent the mountains more often. I now have a completely different social circle than I did a couple years ago. I’ve met so many new and great people since then. I feel like I now have a group of friends that are always willing to try new things and go on adventures. Every weekend is a busy week end now and it feels great knowing there is always somebody I know ready to meet up at any give notice.

Being surrounded with good people that I expect more of, and that expect more of me, is an extremely positive influence. It makes life more interesting and helps mold me into a better human being. I think ones friends and activities can help or hinder the direction of one’s life and we all need to take a good look at them and see if things could be better.

I’m glad I picked up the phone.

Into The Wild

Today is the 6^th day I’ve worked on my UBBT requirements. I’ve been trying to get down a bit of a routine for the daily requirements such as the pushups, sit-ups, running, form repetitions and acts of kindness. So far so good, I’m off to good start with everything except the acts of kindness, it’s so far proving to be the most difficult just because I need to try and keep it in mind. Some days where I’m mostly by myself I don’t really know what to do. I’m going to have to come up with some ideas, I think I’ll have to stop thinking about the acts as big things but more of small, simpler things. I’ve been averaging about 160 sit-ups and pushups a day trying to do over the limit so that if I ever miss a day I don’t have to play catch up. The very first day I started was the day Master Brinker was pushup happy at class so I can thank him for the strong 250 start. I’m hoping to increase these numbers so that I can get far ahead, it would be nice to far exceed the 50 000 goal at the end of February.

The pushups were much easier to get into than I thought it would be, I can thank my Kwan Dao for the extra burst of strength, I start to feel restless already if I sit for too long and find myself getting up to exercise every half hour/hour or so. During the winter it will be harder for me to exercise at work because I’ll be wrapped in three layers of clothing and overheat after the fifth push-up and I seem to be on a lot of construction sites these days; people tend to think I’m crazy or just showing off when I drop down for pushups in the middle of a construction site.

By sheer blind luck my new roommate (I did find a roommate finally so I don’t have to move anymore, thank you kajiji.) moved in an elliptical machine so I’m using that for the run/bike requirement. The machine should make it much easier to keep up with the running, I can just hop on anytime and 10-20 minutes later I’ve done my 2.5 miles. I’m doing five kilometers easily in one sitting so I’m going to up it to as much as I can gradually. If I ever feel the urge to use a treadmill or bike I can head over to my previously mentioned friend’s apartment and use the gym there.

I only have ten rounds of sparring so far so I’m going to have to start asking people if they want to spar after/between classes and on Saturdays. I was worried about the sparring goal and didn’t want it to become a giant pain so I halved the 1000 rounds to make it a bit easier. The weekly journaling is going well too; (as you can tell if you’re reading this) I’m keeping up out of habit already.

I watched “Into the Wild” tonight, right before writing this. Wow! I can’t remember the last time a movie hit me so hard! It was absolutely fantastic! It’s incredibly moving, soulful, beautiful and thoughtful. Definitely the best “journey” movie I have ever seen. My thoughts about life, the way it should be lived, the way people should always try to better themselves, are summed up by this film. If anyone were to ask me what I think is an admirable way to live, I can say, “Watch Into the Wild.” Now I’m itching to go traveling again and meet the great people you seem to meet when traveling. It is remarkably freeing to wander wherever you feel and do what you want without worrying about obligations. I feel like there is so much I could write about this subject but I’m afraid it will turn into random verbs and incomprehensible spouting so I’ll leave it at this. If you haven’t watched this movie yet, do so at the earliest opportunity.

Winter Makes Running Hard

I just finished “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Kim” which brings my book total to 15. I am now officially half way to my goal and way ahead of schedule. I have another 13 months to finish the other 15 but I’m not going to slow down, anything extra I get done puts me closer to finishing the entire list of 100. The idea was to read a book every two weeks but I’ve been getting lucky with a few shorter books on the list. I managed to finish “1984”; “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Animal Farm” in about 2 days each, putting me quite a bit ahead, and I think only a few books took the entire two weeks to read. So I’m really happy with the way that’s going.

I officially start the rest of my UBBT requirements tomorrow. The run/walk/bike 2.5 miles a day requirement looks like it’s going to cost me a bunch of money. Once the snow hits I’m going to have to buy a gym membership somewhere or find someplace/someone that will let me use their exercise equipment. I don’t really want to buy a gym membership because I really only want to use cardio equipment for the winter. I have my own weights at home and in the summer I can just ride my bike outside on the trails.

I’ve been visiting a few nearby gyms and fitness centers (YMCA) to check out their rates. They are anywhere from 40-60 bucks a month, and I have to commit to at least a year membership. That’s already got me in trouble once and my roommate situation always seems to be up in the air so I never know when I might have to move. Tomorrow I’m going to ask one of my friends if I can use the gym in his apartment building, I’d need a key to get in so I’m hoping he has a spare. This might be my best option, his place is a short drive away, it’s free so I don’t need to worry about my ever-empty wallet as much, and my friend was saying he’d like somebody to work out with (an accountability buddy if you will).

I’m going to keep a separate journal just for the specifics of my daily workouts and to keep track of my numbers. This finally gives me an excuse to write in this cool, decorative leather book I have!

Nature

I watched the movie “Hero” tonight. It’s one of my favorite kung fu films, a bit over stylized for my tastes, but the choreography is pretty good and I love the cinematography. I like the use of nature and landscape images to evoke emotions. There’s something enormously powerful in nature photographs. They seem to contain so much history, meaning, beauty and truth. Taking out the human element and presenting the world in its purest, oldest state; a snapshot of how the planet has and will continue to live thousands of years, with or without people, makes me feel very humble. I think there is a lot we can learn from just sitting and observing the landscape. Images of nature help me reflect on life and seem to have a strong nostalgic link to my past.

I’m lucky to have grown up in a family that was fairly involved with the outdoors. I used to be in Junior Forest Wardens, this and Kung Fu are the best things I’ve ever done. The Junior Forest Wardens group I was in is the best in the country. We were always going on trips and doing neat things instead of sitting in a room having meetings. We did tons of backpacking, cross-country skiing, canoeing and survival skills exercises. I’ve spent a great deal of time in the mountains and I think it’s had an extremely positive influence on my character. I think everyone should try to spend time out in the wilderness and try to become a little more in tune with nature. Things like climbing a mountain, cross-country skiing on untouched snow at the foot of a glacier or sleeping in your own shelter made of logs and pine boughs in the dead of winter are all great experiences for boosting confidence and seeing more perspective on life.

The simplicity of having nothing to worry about except getting to your next destination, having something to eat and somewhere to sleep can be very relaxing. Being out on the trail with all the time in the world to sit and look at the world around you, forgetting about all your worries, is the best vacation I can think of. The summer of 07’ was the first time I actually felt like I was leaving my modern worries behind when I was on vacation. I was on the West Coast Trail and after the third day of sitting on the beach reading “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” I felt weight coming off my shoulders and reached one of the most peaceful states I’ve ever achieved. I still manage to go out on adventures but I’m disappointed in myself for not going nearly as much as I used to. I’m going to make a conscious effort to go out more from now on.

Good films always seem to put me in a broody mood. So the movie is what inspired this latest journal entry and topic. Its times like these where I seriously consider dropping off the face of the earth and living on a mountain or in a valley in some foreign country, flee from all my commitments and live a simple life far from major civilization. I admire what a lot of people from the Kwoon are doing in China. There’s a bunch of people traveling and training there right now and I kind of wish I was there with them. I might be a bit or a romantic but I could see myself living happily in a cabin on the outskirts of some insignificant village in China, like something from a scene in Crouching Tiger.

I remember the last shot in “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” is of a mountain standing above everything veiled in mist. That single image of a mountain ends the movie so perfectly that it will forever be burned in my mind. “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” is one of my favorite movies and my all time favorite Kung Fu film. It’s my favorite Kung Fu film not just because of the action or choreography (which I still think is unrivaled and I haven’t seen a movie do better) but because of the quality of its story characters, writing, acting and cinematography. It’s a brilliant film, not just an assortment of actions scenes slapped together, and I think there is a severe lack of Kung fu films like this that encapsulate the essence of Kung Fu so well. I wish more film makers would take martial arts seriously and create higher quality films. I highly recommend “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” to anyone who cares to listen or give me an excuse to talk about it.