Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Sea World, Baby!

Ninja vs. a One-Armed Bandit

...which is what Howard Wolowitz told his mother when he was going to Vegas, Baby!

I've just booked my flights and hotel for going to Vegas at the end of the month, and then I'll be flying back to Edmonton. It'll cut my time in Victoria short so I'll miss one dance class and a couple of swim classes. On the other hand, it'll be a last huzzah before returning to Real Life back in Edmonton, and my friends Amber and Jason are also going. So it should be fun.

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Check-In: 2015-02-09 (Monday)

Body: TOTAL WIN! (rest, walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: TOTAL WIN! (feedback/writing, chores, Vegas)
Spirit: TOTAL WIN! (feedback/writing, walking in nature, dog, friends, family, Vegas)

I was still a bit sleepy yesterday so other than getting my step goal (a moderate 15,000 right now) I physically rested and went to bed early. As a result, I was up at a pleasantly early time today (shortly after 9:00 am), which should help me get a lot done today--and there is a lot to do.

Some of my friends are going to Vegas at the end of the month, so yesterday I booked flights and hotel to join them, which was learning and concentration for some points under the mind category, and also worth emotional and social points in the spirit category. More on that in tomorrow's news post.

I also got feedback on the outline I submitted on Sunday. Reading between the lines of my Writing Police's very diplomatic feedback, there is a lot of work to do. But I knew that would be the case going into this, and I'm excited by the opportunity to burn down Sunday's outline and build it anew. I already have some ideas.

This is a huge emotional victory, actually, this ability to take feedback well and be excited by the new opportunities that it creates. It's really easy for creative types to get negative and defensive about feedback, which is a short path to unhappiness and low quality. Success appears to come from a long process of iteration and feedback. And successfully following such a process means enjoying it.

Okay, I'm only on cycle #1 of this process, but I'm moving onto cycle #2 with good cheer. It's a good sign.

Monday, 9 February 2015

Check-In: 2015-02-08 (Sunday)

Body: WIN! (walking, rest, diet, sleep)
Mind: TOTAL WIN! (writing, cleaning)
Spirit: TOTAL WIN! (writing, cleaning, walking in nature, dog)

Yesterday was of course the day I completed my writing assignment, so it still has a big impact on my mind and spirit scores.

I'm knocking the body category down a notch just because of the short sleep Saturday night. It's important to note that this is not a karmic failure of any sort; it's just a fact that short sleeps will add up to bad moods if they are sustained. No further judgement is implied.

Besides, I still got 25,000 steps--my first 25,000 day or even 20,000 day in a while. So I'm still gonna call it a win. And I had a good sleep last night and am mostly recovered today.

The Right Kind of Out of Balance


For the last several weeks, I have been trying to attain balance. Get exercise, eat well, sleep well, drink lots of water. Meditate. Build confidence and willpower.

It's important to maintain balance. But sometimes it's necessary to lose balance in the right way. Walking, for example, is basically a process of falling over and catching yourself repeatedly.

I lost a lot of sleep last night pulling my writing assignment together. According to my Fitbit, I slept 3 hours and 14 minutes. As much as I appreciate the fact that I slept for a Pi amount of time, I'm exhausted. But I got it done.

A sustained diet of 3 hours of sleep per night will do serious harm. A single night of 3 hour sleep is easily recovered from. It also provides practice with restoring balance, which is probably more important than being in balance.

The above photo could be looked at as a metaphor, with me falling over, unbalanced by the dog who represents the lack of sleep--in fact, the photo itself is out of balance in terms of its composition and focus, for a post-modernist touch. The photo could also be looked at as a picture of me playing with Luna, which I posted because I'm really tired and didn't want to look for something that fit the theme better.

I think I'm going to throw a Tau onto that Pi for the number of hours of sleep tonight.

-- 2015-02-08 (Sunday)




Check-In: 2015-02-05 - 2015-02-07 (Thursday - Saturday)

Body: TOTAL WIN! (rest, exercise, diet, sleep)
Mind: TOTAL WIN! (writing, NASA TV, scribbles-to-bits)
Spirit: TOTAL WIN! (writing, walking in nature, dog, talking to friends, corresponding with people)

The most dominant feature of the last few days is that I have been writing. I have Writing Police who are setting deadlines for me to help motivate me to write. The first objective was to write an outline and character synopsis for my novel. Today I handed in the assignment, on-time.

Every time I write I really enjoy it. Yet I often resist writing out of fear--fear that I won't do it perfectly. Well, the writing I accomplished in the last few days isn't perfect, but it exists. Now the process of refining it can begin. Eventually it will need to be turned into prose, one piece at a time. Eventually I will have a book.

Now that I have found willpower, I can make this happen. I just have to remember that I enjoy writing.

Friday, 6 February 2015

This Week's Ninja - And Then I'm Tossed Into the Deep End!


It's the beginning of my fifth week in Victoria, so I've created a new ninja lid. As it is the beginning of the week, I don't yet know what theme is appropriate to it. I suspect there will be something about focus and determination, but it's hard to predict. It'll be fun to see what comes out of it.

And in case anyone was wondering, this is the lid to a water bottle. I originally came up with the idea so I could easily identify which half-empty (or half-full) bottle of water was mine. It wasn't until the third one that I realized I was doing one a week and that it was fun to apply themes to them.

This week certainly started with some adventure in any case. As I mentioned in my check-in for yesterday, I was supposed to start my new swim class, an intro course designed for adults who haven't been swimming in a long time. Unfortunately, we misread the schedule and showed up for the end of the class. For a minute I was afraid we'd have to go home feeling really, really sad, like children who had been offered ice cream and then didn't get any. Fortunately, there was some kind of aqua-fit class that we could join instead, and it was starting right away, so we popped over to try it out without asking too many questions.

What ensued was one hour of gruelling aerobics where we ran, kicked, flailed, and churned at maximum effort. It was the hardest workout that my lungs have had in some time. Normally, such high-intensity work causes my lungs to seize up, but I was able to balance the load perfectly and got one hell of an aerobic workout. We were wearing floatation belts (Mark apparently found he could use his like a seat) which made it harder to drown, but it didn't do all the work. It only helped. And then we were given anti-matter dumbbells, so described because they really want to float, and you are then instructed to swing them around down under the water.

Mark just looked up this aqua-fit class on the schedule, and apparently it was the advanced deep-water aqua-fit--an interesting suggestion for a couple of guys who were late for the "please teach us not to drown" class. Talk about being thrown in the deep end.

But we made it. We actually loved it, which is why Mark looked it up on the schedule--we're thinking of going back.

Sometimes the unexpected adventures are the most interesting ones.

Thursday, 5 February 2015

Check-In: 2015-02-04 (Wednesday)

Body: TOTAL WIN! (swimming, walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: WIN! (swimming, scribbles to bits, NASA TV)
Spirit: WIN! (swimming, walking in nature, dog)

Yesterday was the first day of my swim class--or was supposed to be. A mix-up in the schedule caused Mark and I to miss it, though we instead got the opportunity to join a deep-water aqua-fit class. It was... intense. But also a whole lot of fun.

The swimming was a big point for the body and spirit categories (hard work and super fun). I'm only counting it as a minor point for the mind category since it wasn't really skill training. But it did involve getting more used to the water, using mental focus to get through the hard work, and other mental training, so it is worth something.

Honestly, I may have to go back to the aqua-fit. I really enjoyed it.