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.