On the road

So I leave for northern BC early tomorrow morning. I'm going to do field work up by Willeston Lake. We are collecting samples of Triassic rock to look for biomarkers of past life forms.
I don't know what the internet will be like so if I can't blog, I'll write down my entry and post them all when I get back next week.

For acts of kindness today I let a lady ahead of me in a line-up, I let Romeo come for a car ride to the store, and I made eye contact and smiled at the timmies lady and said thank-you.

Today I consumed: a bowl of oatmeal with raisons and nuts, half an orange, a bagel with cream cheese, some left over mushroom-barley risotto and I'm going to have some toquitos and a beer while I watch a movie. I drank a small coffee, a cup of tea and 7 glasses of water. What a difference from a couple of months ago when I was drinking over a pot of coffee a day!

New life stuff

So this month has seen a lot of changes that I didn't see coming. I quit my job in Stony and I will be working in Westlock which means I won't be able to be a part of the advanced black dragons class any more. It was a tough decision, thinking about leaving that class was the hardest part of deciding yes or no to Westlock. I'm hoping I'll wow them so much they will make a new shift up for me so I can make Monday/Wednesdays.

Funny, but quitting my job once again made a connection from kung fu to other parts of my life. This sounds like I'm tooting my own horn but I want to make a point: when I left my practicum site (in Westlock) they wanted me to stay, I sat down with the office manager and a couple vets and they embarrassed me with wonderful feedback and comments on my work ethic and offered to match what I would make at my job in Stony. I had to decline as I had made a commitment to work in May there. When I knew that Westlock was the place for me and gave my notice a very similar meeting took place with my current boss. I always feel embarrassed when people go on about my work etc. It feels like I don't deserve any accolades for just doing my job properly but apparently it has become a rare commodity these days. Mediocre and just barely good enough and how soon can I get out of here has become the norm. The mastery we talk about at kung fu again applies to all aspects of our lives. By going the extra mile and making sure things are done right, following through, being in the moment- paying attention to whats happening right now, are all things that make you indispensable in your work place and as a friend, as a mom/dad/sister/brother or anything.

Anyway- bit of a rant but I just think it's cool how kung fu connects to all aspects of our lives. I will be away at the end of the week, Adrien and I are going away for our anniversary, 15 years!

See you all next week.

Andrea Prince

andnowlikeyoumeanit.blogspot.ca

Happy birthday Mary Anning!

For geology buffs....today is Mary Annings birthday!
If you don't know who she is, look her up. She was the first woman geologist and was the discoverer of many new species like the ichthyosaur. She was hard core!

For acts of kindness today, I gave my dog a treat, I said hi to a lady on our dog walk and I bought my husband a treat when I went grocery shopping today.

Today I consumed: a bowl of oatmeal, some strawberries and peach, some cheese and 2 buns, a cheese and tomato sandwich and some barley mushroom risotto with chicken. I drank 2 cups of tea, 1 cup of decaf coffee and 6 glasses of water.

Long Weekend

I was a little disappointed in the turn out for Friday's Demo practice.  It looks like I'm losing alot of the self defense portions as partners disappear.  To me, these parts are important.  It gives "meaning" to the forms we are showing for those who don't understand forms...I'm not sure if that makes sense or not, but it does in my head.  Regardless if I'm making sense or not, I hope this week we can get it all together without any absenses. 

For Sihing Janzen's challenge.  I'm not sure how I'm going to take a video and post it yet but I will try to figure it out.

long weekend

hello everyone what a awesome long weekend i had, my dad was home for two days and he smoked some mouthwatering burgers and some delectable pork loin wrapped in bacon with three different rubs, and of course sihing donnuhues (sorry for misspell) fight to the death fudge. Also i had my friends come over and we played two epic game nights, its just a long game. I even got started on my speech it still needs a lot of work, but it is a least started. The only sucky thing is on Saturday i landed on my knee wrong when i was doing flying kicks. It feels pretty good now but u have not been using it for anything for three days now, so i will still try to take it easy on the knee but i feel like i am making a fast recover. I guess this is all i have to say for now so stay extraordinary.


234lbs


Sihing Langner  

With intent

This past while I have worked on various defences vs. punches, knives etc. as we always do and they all have similarities with each other. They all require a block from the attack regardless of what it may be. This again leads to our variously infinite sequences of strikes, counters, locks etc. The reason I am writing about this is that with most of our techniques we have a defence for an attack which leads to our first option for defence. Now if this should fail in any way and our attacker still is a threat to us we then sequence into our second option and so and so on. Now as we become more proficient in our movements, blocks and flow the one thing we must be cognizant of is purpose. I see many of us flowing from one sequence to the other without any pause. Why is that? Well as I would watch more advanced belts practice as I was first starting out I thought that was great to watch – speed, technique all flashy and advanced looking. Later I saw a flaw in this perception. Remember if someone attacks you with a punch and you block with a technique are you going to fly into backup plan b then c and so on. I hope not. You must feel that initial block, feel that initial lock being performed and not get ahead of yourself thinking it has failed before even stopping to take stock of the purpose of it. If the lock or defence fails then move on to the next step but only after you feel it work or fail. If it fails, search to understand why it failed and then after fixing this move onto option b and so on. I still practice and slow down my techniques to check if this movement is sound or if I need to correct it. If I just flash through six movements without purpose I’m just doing a flashy dance hand sequence that’s all show and no purpose.
Sifu Bryant
My Blog

Broadsword Form

So here is my form as per Sihing Janzens challenge this week. Apologies for a little shakiness. I'm going out of town until the beginning of next week, but I'll video tape it again when I get back.

For acts of kindness today: I let my husband sleep in and I got up with Julia, I edited a paper for a colleague of mine and I said hello to 3 people at the dog park.

Today I consumed: a piece of peanut butter and jam toast, some instant noodles with toast, half an orange and I'm going to eat some chicken nuggets with rice for dinner. I drank 3 cups of tea, 5 glasses of water and a lemonade.