The Week that was

Hmmmm what to write about... I'm at a bit of a loss. I got a throat infection and had a sore throat most of the week. I also lost most of my voice which made the incessant phone calls at work a bit of a chore. The antibiotics seem to have done the job and I'm feeling better. I went for my first round of golf of the year. I usually only get out golfing 3-5 times a year. I bought my first set of clubs last summer and have been trying to get into it a bit more. The round went pretty well, I sank a couple huge putts and it felt awesome. I walked the course which was good for about 4km.

Hurray! Landmark event at Fridays class! I finally ended my sword form. I've reached the point where I don't want to add anything else to it. Now I just need to perfect it. I also reserve the right to completely change things if I can come up with something better. On the downside I also managed to pull or strain a muscle in my leg. I've been hobbling around all weekend and super sore.

I'm excited to be teaching a seminar at bootcamp this year. It's been awhile, I think the last thing I taught was my pole form. One day I would like to see a field full of Kwan Dao's but some might call that unrealistic.

Sifu Jesse Wetter

Tai Chi

I attended my first ever Tai Chi class on Saturday. I had fun, it was an interesting change of pace. The first half of the class I felt a bit awkward but I was comfortable by the end. Taking an hour to cover two moves really drove home how much I need to learn. I'm way behind the eight ball, I should have started Tai Chi ages ago. It will be a huge challenge to try and learn the entire form by the end of the I Ho Chuan year.

Pessure Release

With the Canada Day demo done and gone, the hectic practice schedule has come to a screeching halt. While I certainly enjoyed the craziness and excitement of preparing I'd be lying if I said I'm not a bit relieved. Between work, which has been nuts, and the dragon dance/demo I was starting to get a bit stressed. Much of the weight was released as soon as Master Brinker said, "Good job". I was extremely happy with our performances. It went great and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Now that we all have some more free time it is important to make the most of it. With the extra freedom I see opportunity. I have many things that I need to start focusing on. I'm hoping to finish version two of my sword form soon. I want to finalize it so I can start perfecting it. I am very close to being finished. Another big one for me is I need to learn Tai Chi. I should have started ages ago but the Tai Chi class schedule does not work well for me. I've put it off far too long, partly because I'm afraid I'll be awful at it. At least what I've been doing with the sword should help a bit.

I am happy to have a check mark next to the three public performances.So much to do so little time left in the I Ho Chuan year.

Upcoming Demo

I can't believe there is only one week left until the July first demo. We have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. I'm happy to see some new faces in the demo, glad to see people stepping up. We are going to need everyone at the practices this week to finalize things. The dragon dance is coming along nicely. We are short on time there too but things are going well so far.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me. It was my fathers birthday last weekend as well as fathers day. Today was my moms birthday. Between work, Kung Fu and family activities I feel like I've just barely managed to keep everything under control.

Parade v2

Yet another parade under our belt. Again I had good time, I think everything went well. It was much shorter than the Stony Parade so I didn't destroy my shoulders this time. That wind definitely made it a lot harder to swing the dragon around, it was acting like a kite. I think our improvised dragon dance for the demo went better than the one in Stony, having a bit more practice certainly helped. I liked how we ended the demo by banging out some pushups, a circle of pushups is always inspiring.

Thanks Sifu Wiebe and Lindstrom for the BBQ. It was a refreshing treat after all the hard work. I'm now starting to get very excited and nervous for July 1st. There is lots of work to do and only a few weeks to do it in. The demo will see a fair bit of change, I'm hoping a bunch of new people will jump in. Things may be a bit hectic but it is certainly rewarding.

Parade

Thanks to everyone who helped make the parade and demo a success. I think we were a big hit with the dragons and lion in the parade. One of the benefits of being the head was I got to see the faces making the Oooos and Ahhhhs. The kids really loved it. I had a lot of fun in the parade and I know I'm not the only one. I heard at least a couple of people new to the dragon dance say how much they enjoyed it.

My shoulders are still really sore, I definitely wore them out yesterday. Those double articulations sure are tiring. The demo went off without a hitch too. I think everyone looked great. Now I'm excited to do it again next week end. Hope to see the same turnout in Onoway.

"Not Good Enough" has far more potential than "Good Enough" Part 1

I'm guilty of missing a couple journal entries. *Sigh* it was going so well before. Time to get back into the action. I said I would make an entry about this awhile ago, it seems especially relevant now since we've been talking about mastery and mediocrity. This topic will be spread over a few journal entries.

I wanted to talk about the environment we live in and how we are bombarded by mediocre influences. Things like media, entertainment and food choices. I also want to touch on more obvious influences, like friends, family and work.

Lets start with media. If there was a god of mediocrity it would be television. A modern opiate for the masses. Now when I say television is fantastically mediocre I'm not talking about the shows necessarily, I'm talking about the experience. What you are exposed to when you sit down to watch television for a few hours. There are many high quality shows out there but the problem is they are surrounded by a sea of crap. Familiar with the saying 1000 channels and nothing on? When you flick on the tele its 95% filler. You can thank televisions evil cohort Advertising for most of that filler. So why do so many people sit through stuff they don't actually enjoy?

Why do people willingly expose themselves to heavy doses of mediocrity? Because it's easy. The most dangerous part of mediocrity is its appeal. It lures you into its stagnancy with promises to never hurt you, trying to hide the fact that it won't ever help you. There are ways to enjoy shows and filter out the junk. The first barrier of the filter is you. You need the ability to recognize when you are not being exposed to something meaningful and you need the willingness to seek out something better when that time comes.

I do believe its healthy to have entertainment time, we can't always be productive. Why not make the most of your entertainment time by actually being selective? Might as well only expose yourself to high quality entertainment if you have the option. We now have the technology to help with this. Things like PVRs, Netflix, DVD's and the internet. If you have a show you enjoy, you can watch it without all that filler. Think of the time you can save!

This same thing can be said for music, books, video games and radio. Mediocrity sells. I don't think anyone can deny that. Often the most popular or best selling stuff out there is blatantly average. Some people will argue that this is an elitist. stuck up attitude but I don't think so. I think people just like to grab onto whats within reach. Why get up for good when you have ok right next to you? The thing about an excellent anything is: it isn't for everyone.  Something excellent has a chance to fail, sometimes it can be uncomfortable, its far more susceptible to taste, it can be hit or miss. But oh my when it hits it hits hard. Isn't it more fulfilling to traverse over mountains and valleys then to trudge endlessly over plains?

To be continued...