Check-In: 2015-03-13 (Friday)

Ooh. Friday the 13th.

Body: WIN! (rest, walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: PASS (willpower: walking on a really tired day)
Spirit: WIN! (walking outside, cleaning out desk, watched Chappie)
Social: WIN! (watched Chappie with friends, corresponding with friends/family)

Briefly:

- Tired from kung fu (sore muscles) but walked anyway. I missed my step goal, but I was *seriously* tired.
- Cleaned out desk at work. Odd feeling, slightly spooky, but overall a positive thing, moving on to future endeavors.
- Saw Chappie with my friends Shane and Dean. Good show. Fun times.

Check-In: 2015-03-12 (Thursday)

Body: WIN! (kung fu, walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: WIN! (budgeting)
Spirit: WIN! (cleaning, walking outside)
Social: WIN! (kung fu, corresponding with friends/family)

The two dominant features of Thursday were getting back to kung fu for the first time in at least half a year, and also delving into budget planning for the first time in... possibly ever.

Kung fu was also useful in that I got to see some people I haven't seen in a while, giving me a good social victory.

Strange Days

Time has been strange in the last couple of days.

It started with going to kung fu on Thursday night, which is a definite reminder of the past, though I've certainly forgotten a lot over the last year or so of absence--and seven years of spotty attendance.

There's also the surprising physicality of it. Despite all the exercise I was getting in Victoria, and mostly continued in Edmonton, my first class back destroyed me. All of Friday, moving around was a painful reminder of how hard my thighs had been working doing stances on Thursday. I'll be glad when that goes away after a week or two of sustained effort--hopefully. In any case, it was this muscle-crushing exhaustion that was largely responsible for this post coming out on Saturday instead of Friday.

Excuses, excuses.

Though something I did accomplish on Friday, resulting in my timey-wimey whiplash, was going into work to pick up my things. In some ways this was a dive into the past as well, but a much more recent past. Also, the reality of cleaning out my desk (metaphorically--it had already been put into boxes, mostly) made the future loom distinctly larger. Though I'm still convinced that this was the right decision, scary though it may be on occasion.

Today I've been diving into the history of the things I own, as an ongoing process of getting rid of the junk I don't need. I did laundry, for example, but as I put things away, I went through all my cupboards as well as the clean laundry to decide what I actually want and need. I now have a couple of large bags of clothing to be either given away or recycled as rags.

It's a good process. One that causes more mess in the process of creating less mess, though a quick visit to the dumpster, recycling bin, and reuse store will clear out a lot of it.

Check-In: 2015-03-11 (Wednesday)

Body: PASS (walking, diet, but late bedtime)
Mind: PASS (research into education)
Spirit: WIN! (walking in sunshine, research into education)
Social: WIN! (visiting friends, corresponding with family)

Still battling the late bedtime monster, but otherwise doing well. Researching education is good for keeping me focused on the future, which is good for my optimism.

Check-In: Current Status

Body: PASS (walking, diet, but late bedtimes)
Mind: PASS (education research, blogging)
Spirit: WIN! (junking out, planning future)
Social: WIN! (visiting with friends)

Just getting a current status for the check-ins so I can start these things up again. I'm dropping the "total win" as a score simply because I think the granularity is unnecessary. A pass is a totally acceptable level, meaning maintenance is being sustained, while a win means I've gone over and above a pass, so everything is extra-groovy. Further distinction doesn't seem necessary.

The main thing I need to work on right now is getting my sleep schedule back under control--I'm again creeping into the late bedtimes and late mornings, but after the success I had with this in January, I'm not too concerned. In the near future I'll be firing up my writing again as well, in which case the Mind category should shift into the win category as well.

All in all, not a bad place to be starting from.

Edmonton: Infinite Possibilities

I promise I'll talk about my experiences in Victoria and Vegas soon--there's plenty to tell/boast about. But for now, my focus is on the present and future. As I return from sabbatical and vacation, I find myself in the position of rebuilding myself in Edmonton. The rest of my life is ahead of me, and my actions in the next few weeks will have a disproportionate impact on what the future looks like.

To that end, I'm starting to go through all the junk in my condo to decide what to keep, I'm figuring out what I'm going to do for income, and I'm investigating school and careers for the future. To succeed at all these things, I have to follow all the lessons I picked up in Victoria, which mainly means I should enjoy these responsibilities.

Anyone who has seen this kitchen recently should 

be impressed by the lack of clutter.

Enjoying the junk-out is easy. There's something wonderful and unburdening about getting rid of stuff. I've already cleared out the space above the cupboards, except for one tin of hot chocolate mix and one large cooking pot because they don't yet fit anywhere else. I've also cleared off a small shelf in my living room and made two brave assaults on the Paper Monster (all those unsorted sheafs of paper from old bills or old creative scribbles).

Figuring out an income for the short term is trickier. I'm going to try my hand at freelance editing work, which could result in far too little work and money, far too much work, or, if I'm lucky, a Goldilocks-zone of just enough work to keep me happily fed without eating too much of my time. Only time will tell. To supplement this, I'll need to look into other possibilities, one of which might be doing gardening for the summer, which would fit nicely with my fitness plans.

Figuring out school and careers for the future is also tricky, but at least easy to enjoy. I'm still interested in the kinesiology, but I'm also considering fields like psychology and urban planning so that I can learn about human health on all scales, from diet and exercise for individuals to designing healthy cities on the macro. All of these things sound fascinating. The trick will be designing them into a single degree.

I'm still worried, in the back of my mind, that kinesiology isn't quite the right direction for me to go, despite how naturally it fits with my kung fu and yoga hobbies. So I asked at MacEwan University's career counselling if they had career advice. It turns out that non-students can sign up for two $60 tests (students play only $20 a piece) to determine aptitudes and interests. I'll admit I was surprised by the high cost, given that these are just a couple of quick tests, one of which is even taken online.

So, being an able user of the internet, I found the same resources online for free.

According to the Myers-Briggs test I found, I'm an INFJ personality type, which basically is a complex mixture of dreamer plus doer. I guess I dreamed of saving $60 on a test and made that happen, so there's a good start. The description does feel reasonably accurate, actually, bearing in mind that it may simply succeed the same way that horoscopes do, by being vague enough to apply to nearly anyone.

I was also able to find something called a Career Cluster Interest Survey, which suggested I either go into Human Services, which is all about helping people meet their needs, or else Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications, which sums up my Communications degree nicely. Also testing strongly were Business, Education, and Health Science.

Again, some vague responses, but all of these line up with the kinds of careers I've been considering.

There's a lot more investigation to be done in all of these areas, so I'll have lots of fodder for the post this Friday.

The Blogs Are Back In Town!

There's a lot of catching up to do. There's the conclusion of my Victoria trip, the dazzling fun of my Vegas trip, and the infinite possibilities for the future that I'm now exploring in Edmonton.

The best photo I have to sum this up--at least, the best one that's conveniently available on my phone--is this flower-based-merry-go-round from (I think) the Bellagio: colourful, not quite what it appears to be, definitely strange, and quite entertaining.

News posts to follow in the next few days.