Blogging & Yawning

It’s week three of the UBBT and things are going fairly well. My pushups and sit-ups are all over the place, I’m doing anywhere from 100-300 everyday depending on how much free time I have. I’m well ahead in that department and I think it’s the easiest goal so far. I’m finding the hardest part about the sit-ups now is rug burn on my tailbone and back from doing so many.

I was using my elliptical machine almost every day in December but I find it more comfortable now to run twice the distance every second day. I think I get more out of it by running longer distances on nights I don’t have class.

Of all the requirements on the list I was worried about the sparring one the most because it relies on other people. I decided to shorten the 1000 matches to 500 to make it more feasible. That works out to around 10 matches a week, so far so good. I’ve started to grab people for sparring after class or during open training.

The trickiest goal so far is the 1000 random acts of kindness. Some days are easy to get a bunch done and others I completely forget about it and don’t get anything done. I’ve been trying to figure out what counts as a random act of kindness, is it things I normally wouldn’t do? Can it be basically any nice gesture? I haven’t been counting things I do all the time like opening doors for people or letting someone in during traffic because I’d be doing it regardless of the UBBT. Sometimes at the end of a day, trying to come up with an act, I resort to using Facebook to compliment people on things.

I’ve got two acts of kindness that I’m proud of.

#1: I jumped out of my car at a red light to tell the guy in the truck ahead of me that his back tire was dangerously low.

#2: I witnessed a minor car accident while shoveling my driveway. Both cars stopped so I figured the drivers would sort it out, I went back to shoveling, glancing up now and then to see what was going on. After a few minutes the car in the back, the one that had rear ended the other car, suddenly took off. I crossed the street to see if the woman in the other car was fine and to offer her my name and number as a witness to the hit and run.

I’m especially proud of the tire one because it’s very simple and people usually don’t go to such lengths to help anyone on the road. Most of the time we just think, “That guys got a low tire, well it’s his problem,” I think it’s a good example of a simple change in thinking that can really help everyone around you. Maybe the guy will be inspired to do the same thing for another motorist down the road, and he’s not just a danger to himself but anyone around him if he has a blowout.

I’ve looked into some gyms and private lessons for my agility goal. I wanted to start right away but its competition time and it’s hard to get private lessons from a coach. I gave them my name and number and the gym will call me if anyone has an opening. I was going to go on Tuesdays but I’m going to start going to San Shou every now and then (to get more grappling time in) so I think Thursday nights will be the best.

I’ve slowed down reading lately but I’m already getting back into it. I finished a couple more books over my Christmas holidays and then took a week off. I got three more books from the library and I’m now reading “A Passage to India”.

I am feeling kind of lousy today and hoping I’m not coming down with anything. I hurt my wrist somehow and I have no energy. Days like today are ones were I have a very hard time motivating myself to do anything at all (I haven’t done anything at all today). I worry about days like these but every now and then I’m going to take a day off, I just have to make sure I stay ahead and don’t develop any bad habits.