Burnt

This blog is a day late. I was snowboarding in Jasper all of yesterday. I didn't get home until late and went straight to bed when I got home. It felt great to be out in the mountains again carving some snow. It was a beautiful warm day and I managed to get a really good sunburn on my face and neck. My nose is as bright as Rudolph's. My legs are a bit sore today, always a good feeling. Now I'm trying to decide what the equivalent "kilometers" for a day of snowboarding would be.

With April being the Diet cleanup month I'm pondering what to do. I usually eat fairly healthy but there is of course lots of room for improvement. To be perfectly honest, I find calorie counting, blogging about meals and reading recipes about as exciting as watching paint dry or doing my taxes. I'm sorry but I'm definitely going to be a bit of a stick in the mud on this subject. A couple things I would like to work on would be to try and cook better meals more often and to eat more veggies/fruit while reducing meat portions. I am seriously considering getting a blender and trying the smoothie thing.

I love good food and pretty much every weekend I go out once or twice with friends to a restaurant. My favorite and most visited restaurants are the ones that use higher quality ingredients. I'm talking using ingredients that are grown and farmed locally in a more natural and responsible fashion. Some of my favorites are Culina, Sugarbowl, Blue Plate Dinner and  Three Boars. Blue Plate makes the best veggie burger I've ever had, I actually like them more than most normal burgers.

Progress

It's been a busy Sunday, almost forgot to blog! The past week felt good, I was nice and sore for the majority of it. Feels nice to have that ache in my legs. I feel like I'm slowly but surely making progress with the sword. I still have a long way to go, I'm worried about having an actual form together in time since I'm not even comfortable with the basics yet. Brandi Beckett recommend a couple books to read and I have some videos to work off.

Bought a ton of groceries on Monday and I've been eating a lot of fruits and veggies this week. I'm trying to cook more often. Trying to keep and establish routines. I'm really bad at being consistent with a lot of things. Need to always be mindful so I can stay on track.

Back

I spent most of the past week out of town in Conklin area. It was a great experience for me to get out and work with some guys from a different department. I got to see some neat technical stuff and work with my hands for a change. I think the last time I wired anything was in school, which was a awhile ago. Working long days and having to be social with the people I was working with made for a week without a lot of numbers. Going to have to get my act together!

I Ho Chaun Blogojournal Sphere

One of my goals this year is to try and be more engaged with the journaling of other team members. Last year I was guilty of sporadically reading other peoples journals. I would go through periods of not reading anything at all and then I'd binge read to catch up. Every now and then I would find myself in an awkward situation where I felt ignorant of another members training. It was also pretty rare for me to leave comments.

So far I've been doing much better this year. I've been reading a lot more and trying to make a point of leaving more comments. I'm trying to make a routine of reading the group blog during breaks at work. My internet is so locked down at work its one of the few things I can actually get access to.

I'm going to be out of town in Conklin and Lac La Biche for the next few days. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to make classes this Wednesday. The combination of being sick and out of town for work lately has been interfering with my plan to go to the Monday/Wednesday classes.

Martial Arts Dance Fight

I have this pet peeve.I don't like it when people forget the style of martial arts I practice. I have friends and co-workers who I have repeatedly told, "I practice Kung Fu" and they still ask me how Karate practice is going. While I cannot really blame the average person for their ignorance of martial arts styles, it's still pretty annoying how people consider them interchangeable. I was trying to explain my sentiments to someone, searching for a good analogy when I came up with this.

"It's like telling you I'm a salsa dancer and every Monday you ask how my break dancing is coming along. Sure they are both styles of dance, but they are completely different."

Then I came up with a brilliant idea. I bet it would be fun to come up with a list of martial arts styles and their equivalent dance styles. Bonus fun for pretending I know anything about dance. So here it is. Beware of random and loose interpretation.

1. Karate A.K.A. Popping and Locking: start stop start stop, look Maw I'm jerky.

2. Tae Kwon Do A.K.A. Ballet: lots of jumping around and showing off your legs.

3. Jiu-Jitsu A.K.A. Modern Dance: weird awkward poses. On the floor a lot.

4. Judo A.K.A bad Ballroom Dancing: you are awkward, can't lead your partner and drop them often.

5. Capoeira A.K.A Break-dancing: Obvious. Actually contains break dancing.

6. Tai Chi A.K.A Liquid Dancing: Who needs bones anyway?

7. Ba Gua A.K.A Tango: So many circles, very little throwing up.

8. Sumo Wrestling A.K.A Moshing: Thanks for spilling my drink dude.

9. Wushu A.K.A Swing Dancing: Look at me I'm an acrobat!

10. Aikido A.K.A Bad Square Dancing: Take your partners wrist, now do-si-do and fall to the floor.

That's all I could come up with. Remember people, promote knowledge of your art and try to diminish ignorance.

Sick

I've been sick all weekend and motivation is down. I think I got the same bug that my roommate has. I'm getting a bit behind in numbers so I plan on kicking it up a notch next week. I've been very busy with work lately and on the road a lot. I spent a few days in Whitecourt last week, I was there the day after all the excitement happened. While staying at the hotel with little to do I started working on a customized spreadsheet to keep track of my numbers. I've never kept track of numbers electronically before so it will be a shift. I'm going to try and be more organized this year.

Now that we don't have regular Tuesdays and Thursday practices (well Thursday looks like it might be on again) I find my schedule is up in the air. I can't remember the last time I was at regular Monday/Wednesday classes. I'm going to try and go to those classes more regularly.

New Weapon

The weapon I've chosen to learn for this years I Ho Chaun class is the Chinese straight sword (Jian). I picked up my sword last Friday from the stock at Silent River and was delighted by the quality of the weapon. It seems pretty sturdy overall and is surprisingly heavy. The blade is fairly stiff and doesn't bend easily, giving the weapon a very solid feel. No Wushu floppiness here. As some of of you might be able to guess, I'm not a fan of light floppy Wushu. A sentiment that is reflected in my Kwan Dao usage. It's also very pretty with engraving on the blade that reminds me of the Green Destiny.

I'm excited, giddy even, to have something new to learn. I suspect a steep learning curve, its a lot different from what I'm used to. For the last couple of years I've pretty much stuck to two handed long weapons. I've done a bit of reading and watched some videos to try and get an idea of the basics. I've also been playing with it on and off throughout the weekend and I can tell I'm in for sore wrists and forearms. It is pretty tiring to swing around only using the one hand. From what I've seen I think the weapon is all about the footwork and body rotations.

Just the presence of my new toy sitting on my dresser has been enough to keep me excited all weekend. I'd be holding it constantly if I couldn't resist the urge to draw it and fool around every five minutes. If anyone out there has any knowledge they can share with me about the weapon I'd appreciate it.

Since I was so awful at journaling last year I'm very determined to not repeat my mistakes. This is an important entry for me since it is the first I've made this year and I am going to try hard to make it a Sunday routine. I give permission to everyone to give me hell if  my journaling starts to slide.