taekwondo

Daily Post 0073: So This is Late…

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I was supposed to make this post this morning, but if you’ve read my previous post, you know that this morning turned into a shit-tastic cluster fuck of frustration.

I still haven’t done my 30 Day Challenge assignment. In fact I have done very little today aside from not destroying stuff, which is a huge accomplishment in my book. I’ll keep holding the course. You know… take one for the team and all.

So here’s the run down of yesterday, and I’ll maybe, eventually, at some point get around to not being pissed off with my day.

The Awesomeness of Yesterday

Before I get to my stitching I suppose I should do this. Not like I haven’t been spamming the Internet all day with mindless stuff…

I cooked breakfast this morning and had my coffee while checking emails. I wrote a quick update from last night since I felt that writing wasn’t as complete as it should have been. I’m not sure I really should have posted last night, but alas, there is nothing I can do about it now.

I wrote my 30 Day Challenge post. There actually wasn’t much to do today. There first few days are pretty intense, or at least they can be. There’s a lot of soul searching and figuring yourself out. There’s still going to be a bit of that, so it’s nice to have a ‘breather’.

I won’t really write more about it, since I wrote several pages worth of ranting for what I think about Day 6. After posting I went to the gym where I ran a 17 minute mile. It was an awesome run. I’m super happy with it.

After running I practiced my punches for Taekwondo along with my first form. I think I keep messing it up though. I also practiced my side and round house kicks. There was a bunch of stretching and yoga involved, too.

After showering I went to school where I made a cute little comic about an email with my instructor. It happened a few days ago, but I finally got over my fear to make the comic. I sent it to him, so we’ll see what he thinks. XD

Once the comic was done I ran to Publix since I didn’t really have food on me. I got a summer roll with a sweet tea. Because I had gone grocery shopping so early in the morning on Monday there hadn’t been any sushi trays put out yet. So I made up for that today.

When I came back to school Kalel was sitting on a bunch outside on of the labs. He was eating before going back to work, so I sat with him while I ate as well. We talked about a handful of things, it was an overall pleasant interaction. I’m glad I sat with him.

Eventually we got tired of talking about the work environment and decided we should both get back to what we had been doing. So I went back upstairs to my little corner.

I think of it as mine now even though it is a ‘communal’ spot.

No one goes there. I’ve moved things around to make it ‘my’ space. I want to take a power cord in so it’s easier to set up my laptop. I want to pin inspirational sayings to the walls as well. I want to make it mine for real.

So that’s stewing in my brain.

Anyway, I went back to ‘my’ desk, and read all of the stuff for the quiz this week, then took the quiz and got a 90. After that it was time to head out to the dojo for aikido open class.

Sensei Jan was teaching tonight! Yay! It was a really good class. A lot of the moves I had never done before, but everyone was super helpful and I picked them up fairly fast.

When I was leaving Sensei Beata mentioned that if I wanted to meet during the week to practice that she would train with me. She didn’t want me to stop training because my work schedule wouldn’t allow me to get to the dojo next month.

She said that I am mapping the moves extremely well and advancing faster than what they are used to seeing. She said that she couldn’t promise to make it every day, but that to let her know what my schedule was and we could work something out.

I can’t put into words how amazing it was to hear that. Sensei Jan and Beata are so fantastic and accepting of me. When we talk it’s like I’ve known them for years. Like we’re old friends. There’s just something about them that makes me feel safe and understood.

Side note: I’m not sure if I ever mentioned this (int he billions of pages I write…), but Jan and Beata are married.

I can’t believe that they want to go out of their way to make sure I am able to train. It’s more than training for me. In such a short time I have latched onto it, and aikido is one of the things I refuse to compromise on now. I was seriously wondering how I was going to survive next month because I as so angry that I felt like I had to give it up. Even if it’s for such a sort amount of time, I get so much fulfillment and self-satisfaction from it, that I don’t want to go without it.

I know that’s not fair of me. I know my schedule changes every month and that some months I work 5pm, while other months I work 5am. That’s my job. That’s what I agreed to. It’s not fair of me to be angry over it.

But I am. I want to go to the dojo because it makes me a better person. I want to go as often as I am physically able to be there.

I was trying to work it out in my head. I was trying to figure out how I could do both work, and aikido so I could have my paycheck and get fulfillment, too. But I couldn’t find a solution, and I was angry and frustrated. It felt like being stuck in the ‘terrible twos’ phase. I had a plan, I was executing my plan, then the plan got interrupted and my brain couldn’t figure out a way around it, so the only thing I knew how to do was be angry.

Luckily I was able to keep the kicking and screaming contained within my head. I think I would have worried Joshua if I had thrown a legit fit.

But Sensei Beata and Jan have come and saved the day. I now have an answer to my thwarted plan. Even if it is only a couple times a week, it would be amazing. I’m so honored and grateful for Sensei Beata to even think I am worth training. I’m sure she doesn’t do this for everyone.

I feel loved and like maybe next month won’t suck so bad after all. I can have my job and aikido, and I can keep being happy and not feel like I’m giving up a part of myself. It felt like it was coming down to picking between aikido and work, and for a while I was thinking about letting aikido win. I seriously like it that much.

So needless to say, that totally made my whole night, day, week, month. I’m not dreading next month now. A tension as been eased and I can breathe normally again.

Once I left the dojo I went back to work. I was still in my gi pants, workout top, gross and sweating from kicking ass and taking names, but I didn’t care. I wanted to work on my block out for this weeks assignment. So I had left all of my stuff at work so I could finish that off before going home.

There was a group of students in the lobby; Marc, Nicole, Desiree, and a handful of others. They mentioned wanting a lab to work in, but because of the events going on at school, there aren’t going to be any open labs until Friday.

I offered to open one of the labs for them to work in since I was going to be on campus anyway. I actually opened the Finals lab, which was so nostalgic for me. I spend literally 4 months in that room, working on all of the assets on my demo reel, and a few that aren’t. I got to sit at my old computer desk. It was like nothing had changed.

It was very comforting. I set up my laptop just like I had when I was a student, only instead of rigging, I had my massive tablet in my lap, sketching and coloring away. It was nice. Familiar, but different. It made me aware of how much I have grown, how much I have traveled over the past three years.

I feel like I’m doing really well with this new assignment. I’m going to use it as a way to study musculature. I think that will give the composition a better connection to the word ‘strong’.

I posted my WIP image to Facebook and WordPress since I’m so pleased with it. Totally shameless about how much I like it at the moment.

I posted my Push Goal Promise to Facebook afterwards, so that’s done and I can stop stressing over it. I’ve gotten some really supportive comments. I replied to all of my emails. I downloaded an app that Jon wants me to get. I showered. I ate…

And I’m back to being tired. It’s 1am. I don’t know if I have it in me to stitch. I actually didn’t stitch at all this morning even though I said I was going to. I think I can not beat myself up over it though.

I got so much done today. I’m going to let myself be happy about that.

Daily Post 0070: Back to Being Productive

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Oh man. Back to being tired, mentally and physically.

I biked this morning. 10ish miles. It was a good spin class and I’m glad I went.

When my alarm went off at 7 I thought about not going, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. So instead I packed up my notebook and went to the grocery store. I came home made breakfast, put the food away and still had time to start pondering over my 30 Day Challenge assignment.

Then it was off to the gym, which rocked, then back home. I cooked my meals for this coming week. Yay for being back 100% to my routine. I completed the brainstorming for this weeks assignments.

The IF word for this week is “Strong”. I will be posting my concept drawing either tonight or tomorrow. Depends on how awake I am after this post.

It took me a while to do the post of my goals today. There’s a lot of thinking and analyzing that goes along with day 4 of the 30 Day Challenge, but I think it was time that I needed to invest. I such a clearer idea of what I should be doing and where I’m going now.

I went to the dojo for taekwondo today. Sensei Mike was running a little late but class was awesome. We ran through all of the punches, kicks, and the first form all in the same class.

I really, really need to brush up on the kicks. Though I finally know the difference between a round house and a side kick. One you load from behind, the other you load from the front.

I came home, ate, replied to an amazing post from one of the blogs I follow, showered, then went to school. Rebeca had messaged me about an issue she was having with a rig. I took a look at the file, but it was one of those things that would be easier to talk about in person.

So we made plans to meet at school at 8:30, which we did. We chatted for a little while since she had been out of town. Her family is doing well and she enjoyed her trip.

We talked about the rig, and since I still had things I wanted to get done I came upstairs to work, which is where I’m currently at.

I forgot to mention that I worked on my script a bit (less than 30 minutes) before going to the dojo. It now pulls all of the information I need from the interface. So I have all of that being stored in variables. Now it’s just tweaking the code I have to work with them.

If I weren’t so tired I would finish off the script tonight, but right now I don’t think I would code a print statement to save my life.

I began working on an animation for Tre. Not sure if I mentioned that (you would think I would remember everything I just got done reading for my weekly recap). He has a mech that he rigged that I’m going to be doing something for. As it gets done I’ll post it.

I posted my IF Challenge stuff to ConceptShare, so that’s nice and done with. I’ve also already completed the discussion post, another thing I did earlier in the day.

Oh. My instructor really liked my Path image. He said he had wished I had done a statement for the image explaining what it meant for me. So I sent him this reply.

For me the story is of the girl, walking through life and creating her reality. She is looking back, reflecting on where she has been and what she was able to create through her journey.

The ‘water’ in my life is the emotional support I get from my family and friends. My relationships and connections with others helps me grow; much the way water nurtures and sustains the earth. I wanted the river to represent that.

Without the river the land would be a barren wasteland, and without the support of the people closest to me I would not be where I am at today. They are part of the path I am on.

Maybe a little overly deep, but I extremely enjoyed this project. It was my first full digital painting in Photoshop.

I made a B even though it was late.

I think that’s about it for my day. Just finishing up with some WordPress. I finally got around to writing a Weekly Saga. And I’m done with my daily post it seems.

Now to go home and eat since I’ve been ignoring how hungry I am in favor of writing. Since I’ll be awake from the drive home and food I’ll most likely stitch and listen to my book. That will be nice since I’m supposed to do that for an hour everyday.

Daily Post 0063: Kick Ass Assignments

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I’m writing this while I still have the energy and drive to do it. I feel like I am falling back into my old ways. The ways of Google Drive, where I would save writing to the very end of the of the day and then find that I have no will to write.

Today has been busy, and still isn’t over. Not fully. But if I wait until the end to write then I won’t do it. I’ll be too tired, too ready to fall into my bed and save it for the morning. But in the morning I will have a new list of things to do, and writing will have to wait again, wait until the end, where I will be too tired once again.

You can see the cycle here.

It’s so easy to push it off, further and further back, when really it’s the one thing that will make me feel like my day was worth it. I would say it’s the one thing I do for myself, but that’s a lie and we all know it.

I do aikido now, and that’s purely for me. And the gym. More me time. And cross stitching…

Really if I could just section of a small, little, 24 hour period of out every day to only do the things that I want to do I think I would be alright. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask for, right?

Gah, society with its silly standards of being a productive member and stuff. Lame.

So I can’t say that writing is the only thing I do for myself. But it fulfills something that the gym and working out doesn’t. I don’t know what the difference is. They both fall into the ‘spiritual / emotional’ spectrum for me.

Maybe it’s because one is a physical form of expression, while writing is a mental form. Either way, one is not a substitute for the other, and so by being lax in my writing and am not honoring a part of myself.

So I’m taking some time, now, right now, before work is over, to write because I deserve to have time in my day to do so, without falling asleep at my keyboard while I do it.

Today has actually been pretty awesome, which makes me happy. Last week felt like a disaster. I have no idea how I made it through any of it, but somehow I did, and then it was the weekend, and here we are at the start of another week.

This time, however, I’m prepared for it, and it showed with what I was able to get done today. Two to-do lists owned. /flex

I started with a bunch of ‘life’ stuff. I had to contact a handful of people (though Facebook). I messaged Sam about the phone, and Sabrina wanted to meet later in the week to talk about a script she can’t get working. I messaged Jin to see if I could remove a podcast I created for him from my Dropbox. I messaged Ray about the freelance and seeing how the rigs were holding up for him. I still haven’t heard back from him which is sort of not cool.

I checked out my assignments for my class this week. The way the class is structured is there are two main projects each week. So, this week, since I was up and being productive, I went ahead and did all of my brain storming and sketching for the assignments.

That’s sort of a huge deal because the person who posts first on the site ‘owns’ their idea. That means if you have a really awesome idea, but someone has already posted something really similar, you have to come up with something different.

So after my sketching was done I showered and went to school to scan my work and get it online. I was actually the first person to post for the week on both assignments. No slacking here.

While I had been working at home I went ahead and cooked, so I have food to look forward to. No more gross fast food nonsense for me. My body is thanking me.

I also replied to several of the Info Graphic posts on ConceptShare. My critiques tend to be more like mini novels, so that took a fair amount of time, but I felt it was worth it.

After scanning and posting my work for this new week I met up with Tre and we talked about his demo reel. I might be doing an animation piece for him. He has a mech, robot sort of thing that he just rigged. I haven’t animated in almost three years, so we’ll see how that goes. The animation idea is really nifty though, so I think I’ll enjoy working on it.

I left school around 5:30 so I could get to the dojo for taekwondo with Sensei Mike. Sadly I was the only one to show up today. But in a way that was pretty cool since I missed the class last week. I got to work all the way through the first form.

I’m still not very good at it because I have to keep stopping to think about where my arms are supposed to be. But I was able to make it all the way through, so now it’s just practice.

I got to see Sensei Ian for a little bit, but I didn’t stay for any of the Open Circle class. Instead I went to the gym where I ran 1.25 miles. Not solid, but I got to the 1 mile mark in 17 minutes even.

I got to do a bunch of stretching afterwards, too. So that was nice, and top that off with a hot shower… My muscles were in heaven.

Before I went into work I stopped by Publix. I didn’t have any food on me and I 100% did not want to go through a drive thru.

Instead I got a summer roll for the sushi bar, since I didn’t get my sushi tray when I went grocery shopping. I also picked up a pack of Special K protein shakes. Normally I get them when I grocery shop, but for whatever reason I thought it was a good idea to skip them this week… Since that’s currently what I am ‘eating’ right now, getting them was a good investment.

I came to school and ate the summer rolls while drinking water. Went into lab and got caught up on all of the WordPress reading that I haven’t had a chance to do. I feel bad that sometimes it takes me days to read a post. There were some really awesome ones though, so I’m glad that I got around to reading.

Several of the posts I read mentioned books, so I wrote them all down and will be adding them to my reading list. With luck some of them will have audio book versions available.

On the subject of books. I bought the taekwondo book Sensei Mike recommended a few weeks ago. I actually got two copies. One for me and one for Alejandro. Those should be here in a week or so.

I had to re-enroll for my benefits with work. There was a huge switch to a new provider and a lot of peoples rates when up. Mine actually went down, so I’m super happy about that. I even upped my life insurance coverage and it’s still cheaper. Woohoo.

And now I am over in ‘my’ little office cubical about to do the grading for the first project in my class. Clavan wants the grading done by tomorrow 5pm. I think if I don’t do it now, or at least part of it, that I won’t have it done in time.

I don’t know. Maybe I would. Tomorrow is kind of broken up though.

I have laundry in the morning, then some time, then a meeting with Sabrina at 5pm. Then aikido at 7pm. Going to the spin class at 9:30 am would be cool if I can get there in time.

With all of that I have to complete my reading, quiz, and discussion for school. Create a rough block out in Photoshop for one of my assignments, and then model assets for the second assignment since I’m going to make a CG image.

Basically for the ‘main’ project we have to ‘package the unpackagable’. You have to find an emotion, idea, or phrase and turn it into an object, then package that object.

I picked the term lion-hearted. It is a foundation for women. The slogan is “Unleash Your Inner Lioness”. Sort of cheesy, maybe, but I like it. I plan to create a CG scene with a glass container for the foundation, and then creating textures for the scene which will have the logo for the product.

Lots of work. But I’m totally stoked to get working on it.

But that’s added to the to-do list tomorrow. Without properly textured assets, there’s not way that I can pull off this assignment. So I need those first so I can create the UVs, so I can do the texturing…

I really only have two modes… “Hardcore, all the way, take no prisoners” and “zero fucks given”.

I think right now I’m in the first mode. We’ll see how well I survive this week with the workload I’m giving myself.

There is also a tutorial I need to look into. Rhonda is having an issue with her face rig, but I’m not familiar with the setup she is doing. So I told her I would watch the tutorial and try it out myself and see if maybe she is getting caught somewhere.

I don’t think, with all of that, that I would be able to do the grading, too. Not without something else getting sacrificed. But already it’s almost 2 in the morning, and I want to be up at seven.

Arg.

We’ll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Daily Post 0048: Bouncing Back

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Well, my legs are back to being sore and hating me.

I went running Sunday. Pretty sure I didn’t mention that. It wasn’t my best run. In fact my time slipped back a bit, but I haven’t been running in two weeks, and I ran up the bridge, the whole bridge. And any run is a good run, since it’s better than no run.

My shin splints are holding up better than I thought they would. So that’s another plus.

Yesterday I started work on the freelance project. Finally. I didn’t get super far during the CRI1 lab. It doesn’t help that I have to work inside of Maya 2013, which at the time I didn’t have on my laptop, so if I wanted to work on the file I had to be at school.

After the CRI1 lab I ended up going back out to Lane Bryant. After the fiasco of Sunday I almost thought about not doing it. But alas, it was a bit of a necessity.

So I ended up going there and had an awesome associate who helped measure me and find pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I ended up looking around at the clearance stuff while I was there, but didn’t see anything that caught my eye.

There was a sale going on, so I only ended up spending $70, which I actually put on credit card that I have for the store. Not that I couldn’t pay for the purchase outright, but I would be in a better position if I could wait until next paycheck.

Once that was done I went grocery shopping. This week is going to be shrimp ‘tacos’. At least the recipe is supposed to be served as tacos. Really I’m having them more as bowls. I made Spanish rice, and then put the shrimp and toppings over that.

It actually came out super awesome. It’s what I had for dinner last night after aikido. I ended up shredding zucchini (because zucchini goes with everything), and cutting up onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes to go with the shrimp and seasons.

Top it off with a little bit of sour cream and some cheddar cheese, and holy cow. It’s amazing. Or maybe I was just super crazy hungry and dirt would have tasted that good.

Either way, I’m looking forward to having it again tonight.

I also cooked some noodles, and set about two pounds of chicken breast to cook in the slow cooker with some mushrooms, onion, and red pepper. That came out pretty good too, though I’m finding that I might not be a huge fan of the texture that meat picks up when it’s in the slow cooker. It’s more shredded feeling. Which is alright, but something I’ll have to keep in mind. I’m not always in the mood for that.

Though corned beef might be a fantastic idea for next week. With cabbage, carrots, and onions… yes. That’s totally going to happen.

Anyway, while everything was cooking I downloaded Maya 2013 onto my laptop.

I was planning on going back to school after aikido, but I really didn’t want to have to do that if I could help it. I knew I was going to be tired and not want to be around anyone.

I didn’t get a chance to set up the program before I had to leave though. I barely got done with the cooking on time.

I made it to the dojo with 10 minutes to spare. Sensei Mike was already there and had me get warmed up. Alejandro, the boy who is usually at the taekwondo class with me, hadn’t showed up yet, but Sensei said that he is normally late.

So I had to start class on my own. Which wasn’t all that bad. I had to run a bunch of laps around the dojo. I was a little worried that my shins wouldn’t be up for it, but the dojo has a padded floor, so it was actually super gentle on my shins and knees.

I also ran for an extended period of time. I think it was about two minutes. Normally I when I do interval running I run for one minute, then walk, then run again, so on and so on, until my running app tells me to stop.

I was proud that I lasted as long as I did. I didn’t stop until Sensei told me to. So I survived that.

Once Alejandro showed up we started learning how to spar. We would take turns attacking and defending.

I need to work on putting more force and purpose behind my attacks. Same with aikido.

I stayed for the Aikido Open class (the advanced class). It was a One Circle Aikido class, which has a higher focus on balance than technique. I guess it’s a sub-set of aikido. It was still pretty cool. And I didn’t mind all that much being the novice in the class.

Judy was there. She was the first person I was partnered with on the class I went to what seems like forever ago now. It was a Monday morning, and I remember I was have serious issues with the thought of having to attack her. It was my second class ever, I wasn’t all that comfy at the dojo, I didn’t know her… Just all these factors going into being super uncomfortable.

Every part of my being was screaming, “This is wrong! This makes you a bad person!” Even though I knew it didn’t.

She took my hands and looked at me and said, “This is hard for you isn’t it?”

I had to fight the tears. It wasn’t that I was sad, just getting overwhelmed and I didn’t know how to channel the emotions.

I said, “Attacking people is wrong.”

“I felt that way too at first. And then I realized that the other person can’t practice and learn if I don’t attack. So by attacking, I’m helping them.”

That helped me so much during that class, and pretty much every class since then. I think that at least 10 times every time I’m at the dojo. When ever I feel myself pulling back or being hesitant I have to tell myself that I’m hurting my partner by not attacking correctly.

Just another thing to keep in mind along with the hundreds of other things.

When I got home from the dojo I started installing 2013 and got that all taken care of. I also poked around at taekwondo apps on my phone but haven’t found one that I like yet.

I ended up working on the freelance project until about 1am since 2013 installed fine on my laptop. That was nice since I hardcore didn’t want to have to go back out.

Once I wrapped up the project for the night I stitched one thread for the tiger cross stitch. I think that’s going to be a new rule that I have.

I might not have hours to devote to stitching every day, but I should take the time to do at least one thread. Little by little one travels far and all that jazz.

It also gave me a chance to decompress from ‘work’, since that’s what the freelance essentially is. Even if it is pretty cool / fun, and something I enjoy doing.

So that was yesterday. Productive and good.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump recently, but yesterday sort of eased it over. I’m not sure if it’s because I was kept busy all day, or if I’m getting back in balance.

I wonder if it has anything to do with taking my vitamin pill since I was horrible about that while I was at mom’s. There’s so many factors that could play into it that I suppose there’s no real way of knowing.

But for now I seem to be back to myself, at least what I feel like is myself. I have drive, and I’m getting things taken care of.

Right now I’m at the Laundromat. I have plans to go to the gym, but I’m going to be late to the spin class. So I’m thinking that I’ll warm-up on the elliptical then do some core work. Maybe some jump rope to work on agility.

I have SAL today at 1. So after the gym I’m going back home to put the laundry away, eat, then most likely head to school. If I have some time to kill I can work on the freelance project since there are some quick things I can tackle.

My goal is to have this rig done by the end of the day. Tre has already finished his, but he had 12 hours to work yesterday, while I opted to do all of my chores and go to the classes instead.

I don’t regret doing that. I think it was the right choice for me.

Well, that’s about it for now. Looking forward to my day which I already have mapped out. Here’s to hoping that life lets me stick to my plans.

Daily Post 0044: Getting There

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Today seems to be ending on a better note than what it started out on.

I started feeling better after my shower.

Drove to work. Traffic wasn’t bad. I didn’t listen to music, preferring the relative silence of my car, and the ambient noise of the drive.

This class doesn’t ask many questions (we’ll see if that’s a good thing or a bad thing when I grade their projects tomorrow), so I actually got done with all of my reading for this week’s assignments and took the quiz before the 11am break.

I have already completed the two exercise assignments, and am mostly done with the final project. I just need to create the logo inside of Illustrator.

<3 Illustrator.

That just leaves a one-hour portion of the Photoshop tutorial to work through, which I’m allotting two hours for, and the discussion post.

After lab I went upstairs to work rather than going to the break room. There’s a handful of empty cubical upstairs and I felt that would be a better environment.

At first there was a group of people talking, which was what I was trying to avoid, but after a little bit they dispersed and I was able to work uninterrupted for several hours.

In fact the only interruption I had was needing to get up to use the restroom. It was nice having that much solitude to work during normal hours. Typically I can’t get that unless it’s around 9pm, sometimes 5pm if it’s a Friday.

That’s the main reason I dislike open floor office setups.

No. I don’t want to see you. I want to be in my own little world of productivity. Go show someone else your new shoes. Preferably someone who won’t have to fake interest.

So yeah. It’s not even day two yet of this week and already almost all of my class assignments are done.

It’s a good feeling, especially since I have to travel over the weekend for my cousin’s wedding. I want to get all of this taken care of by Wednesday evening.

I figure if I can finish the discussion post and the logo tomorrow that will only leave the tutorial for Wednesday.

I worked until about 4:20. I was supposed to stop working at 4… That’s the cut off I gave myself. 20 minutes over is better than what I normally do, though.

At 4:20 I gave myself permission to cross-stitch. I worked through the 11am break, and only stopped working to move all of my stuff upstairs, where I continued to work, having lunch at the computer since I wasn’t in a lab.

So yeah. I took the last bit of my day as my ‘break’ and made a little bit more progress on my latest project. It would be fantastic if I could finish it tonight.

At 5:20 I packed up to get to my taekwondo class at the dojo, which started at 6.

I saw Ari in the break room while I was clocking out. But luckily I had worked my time in such a way that I couldn’t stay around and chat without being late to my class. So I dodged a bullet on that one.

Class tonight was awesome.

I learned the 20 kicks… Which I still don’t fully understand the difference between the round house kick and the side kick. I know it has to do with where the knee is positioned, but we didn’t spend as much time on the kicks as we did the punches last time, so all of the kicks are still pretty fuzzy.

We started learning our first stance, Taegeuk II Jang. We got about halfway through the moves.

When sensei Mike asked me if I was enjoying the classes, I gave a heartfelt, “I love it!”

Taekwondo is so different. I definitely feel my connection to fire and earth through it. Aggressive, yet solid. While aikido is more fluid grace like water and air. Which is interesting since I personally don’t think I am very connected to those elements.

But maybe in a way I am. Water tends to be associated with emotions, which I’m totally in touch with those guys… Bastards.

And air is normally spiritually and enlightenment, which I feel I am on the path towards that.

It’s something to muse and ponder on for sure. Maybe I’m more balanced that I originally thought.

Sensei Beata said that sensei Mike is working on being able to administer the taekwondo tests at the dojo, so who knows. Maybe I’ll work on belts for both aikido and taekwondo at the same time. : 3

Oh god. I can see my ego now…

Jen, the Badass Earth Dragon Who Did.

I thought about sticking around to the actual aikido class, but I opted to come home instead.

It had been raining all day, I had gotten a bunch of school stuff done. And I did 5 more pushups then I did last time. (I super suck at upper body stuff ;-; )

I was happy with my day and decided to come home, enjoy a warm dinner, and relax.

I unloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned all of the dishes that were in the sink. Not my dishes, but I didn’t mind doing them. It gave me a chance to unwind.

I cooked the green beans and heated up the leftover mashed potatoes that I made last night to go with the steak, and warmed up the other half of the stuffed chop. Currently the veggies and potatoes are still staring at me, wondering why my keyboard is getting all of the attention.

Fear not little veggies, you shall soon be devoured. : E

I’m having a hard cider with dinner because I can. I didn’t really think about how much space a six pack would take up on my little shelf in the fridge. So if anything I’m really drinking it to get it out of the way. It most likely would have been better to go to ABC and get only two bottles. I’m really not interested in drinking six. Maybe I’ll ask Joshua and Susan if they want the rest.

I thought about working on the Photoshop tutorial after dinner but I have decided against that. Instead I’m going to stitch and relax for an hour or so before going to sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

I need to wake up relatively early to get laundry done before 9:30, which is when the spin class with Erin starts. After that I have a meeting with Rhonda at 11 to look at her rigs and to figure out a battle plan for getting them ready for her reel.

1pm is when SAL has lab.

Aikido is at 7. So that will give me about 3 hours where I can work.

So I can do the discussion post at the Laundromat. I can try to get through the first half of the tutorial in SAL, then wrap it up afterwards… I need to factor in about two hours for grading at some point.

Maybe it would be better to start that at the Laundromat, finish it in lab, then work on the discussion post, rounding out with part of the tutorial before aikido, and finishing it off at home.

That would leave the logo for Wednesday. I would want a solid chuck of time to work on that assignment, and I’m not going to get that at all tomorrow.

Hmmm… I think I like that game plan. At least I have something for life to set on fire now. Look at me being all thoughtful and stuff.

I signed up for a Time Management seminar on Wednesday. It’s another one of those Wellness incentives that work is offering since ‘proper time management helps reduce stress’. I figured I would sign up and do it while I have the time to.

I doubt I will learn anything new with all of the Time Management-y stuff I’ve already done. But it makes me look diligent and involved, which I guess is a good thing. They haven’t fired me yet, so I must be doing something right.

That, or I’m just really that good at faking it. /flex

I don’t think there was too much else that went on today…

Aaron had an issue with a script he was working on, but he figured out the problem before I got home, so that was cool. And Sabrina and I arranged to meet next Wednesday to talk about creating interfaces. So that is going to be super fun.

Yep… That’s pretty much it…

Really, I can’t resist the green beans any longer and can think of nothing else other than finishing my dinner. So with that I’m off.