Well my break sucked. I worked. I got super sick with a 103 degree fever. Then I worked some more. Then I wrote two ethics papers and studied for a midterm. Thank the fracking Elder Gods whose names can not be spoken that my "break" is over and I'm back to making progress here.
I woke up extra early, the first day after daylight savings in order to drag my barely awake butt in front of my computer so I could officially register for my summer semester classes. Government, Comp II, and Algebra.
The system crashed right after I logged on.
It should have taken me 1 minute,
it took 53.
I went back to class this morning. Attended the S.I. session for A&P before lecture, just to get the gears turning. The usual mind grease of coffee wasn't working very well, but I survived without lapsing into a coma.
Then I ate lunch, went to the gym, worked out, ran 5K, went back home, showered, crammed for my Med Law and Ethics midterm like a possessed monk, then ate dinner, went back to school, turned in my papers and took the fraking test on which I think I got an A but won't know until next week.
Whew! Now it is time to begin the descent into Microbiology madness as I spend all my free time from now until Wednesday 3pm when I have another mother fraking test in that class. Plus there are pianos to tune, taxes to do...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Once upon a time...
Well, since I'm technically on break from school I thought I would write about my background a little bit.
For approximately 20 years now, I have been a rather serious student of the Japanese martial arts. I hold 3 black belts in separate arts, have trained and taught briefly throughout Japan, dabbled in the esoteric and spiritual aspects a bit, and basically lived my life as a peaceful warrior for many years.
When my wife became pregnant 2 years ago, my training slowed down quite a bit. I ate a lot of the wrong things, drank too much beer, smoked too many cigars, and put on a lot of weight. When I did train it was taxing to say the least. My reduced physical health had a negative impact on my self esteem and my work life. Pretty soon I wasn't training at all and generally felt like crap.
Almost 1 year ago, I made the decision to make some life changes. I was going to start working out hard again, watch what I ate, live a cleaner life stlye, and generally start to take control of my health.
I started working out at a local gym very consistently. I was too embarrassed to go to to the dojo in my condition at the time, so I decided I wanted to lift weights and run. I wanted to concentrate purely on improving my physical health and conditioning. I started studying nutrition and putting my new found knowledge to work. I applied the discipline that martial arts training had honed in me over the years to really working hard and getting into shape.
In the first month I dropped 15 pounds, and was able to run farther and faster than I had in a long time. I started to feel better about myself. At 3 months I was still going strong and was 25 pounds lighter. I was back in the dojo training and teaching, and it was at this point that I decided to not only improve my health, but my mind as well. I had worked hard and made some changes, the truth of the universal law of cause and effect, it was time to apply this principle to another area of my life that I wasn't happy with, my career. That is when I decided to go back to college and pursue a different career path. That is when I decided to pursue my dream of entering into health care, and after a lot of research, into respiratory therapy.
It will be 1 year exactly tomorrow since I started down this new fork in the road. I'm 40 lbs lighter, and have put on quite bit of muscle. Still eating clean and working out almost every day. I've reduced my alcohol consumption by 80%. I quit smoking. I dropped my blood pressure by an average of 25 points. I've also completed 1 and a half more semesters of college with a 4.0 so far.
As rough as things seems lately, if I look how far I've come in the last year, it makes me optimistic about what I potentially see in the future. The law of cause and effect rules, and I'm continuing to work really hard towards my self and life improvement, so karma dictates my just rewards in the end.
Got to go to the gym now :-)
For approximately 20 years now, I have been a rather serious student of the Japanese martial arts. I hold 3 black belts in separate arts, have trained and taught briefly throughout Japan, dabbled in the esoteric and spiritual aspects a bit, and basically lived my life as a peaceful warrior for many years.
When my wife became pregnant 2 years ago, my training slowed down quite a bit. I ate a lot of the wrong things, drank too much beer, smoked too many cigars, and put on a lot of weight. When I did train it was taxing to say the least. My reduced physical health had a negative impact on my self esteem and my work life. Pretty soon I wasn't training at all and generally felt like crap.
Almost 1 year ago, I made the decision to make some life changes. I was going to start working out hard again, watch what I ate, live a cleaner life stlye, and generally start to take control of my health.
I started working out at a local gym very consistently. I was too embarrassed to go to to the dojo in my condition at the time, so I decided I wanted to lift weights and run. I wanted to concentrate purely on improving my physical health and conditioning. I started studying nutrition and putting my new found knowledge to work. I applied the discipline that martial arts training had honed in me over the years to really working hard and getting into shape.
In the first month I dropped 15 pounds, and was able to run farther and faster than I had in a long time. I started to feel better about myself. At 3 months I was still going strong and was 25 pounds lighter. I was back in the dojo training and teaching, and it was at this point that I decided to not only improve my health, but my mind as well. I had worked hard and made some changes, the truth of the universal law of cause and effect, it was time to apply this principle to another area of my life that I wasn't happy with, my career. That is when I decided to go back to college and pursue a different career path. That is when I decided to pursue my dream of entering into health care, and after a lot of research, into respiratory therapy.
It will be 1 year exactly tomorrow since I started down this new fork in the road. I'm 40 lbs lighter, and have put on quite bit of muscle. Still eating clean and working out almost every day. I've reduced my alcohol consumption by 80%. I quit smoking. I dropped my blood pressure by an average of 25 points. I've also completed 1 and a half more semesters of college with a 4.0 so far.
As rough as things seems lately, if I look how far I've come in the last year, it makes me optimistic about what I potentially see in the future. The law of cause and effect rules, and I'm continuing to work really hard towards my self and life improvement, so karma dictates my just rewards in the end.
Got to go to the gym now :-)
Friday, February 27, 2009
Define: Break
This week has been rough. I had the A&P cardiovascular lecture exam and a microbiology exam on virology the same day. One right after the other. The sheer volume of information on the A&P exam made it pretty hard to review for. The instructor mentioned how this exam covered more material than any other in the curriculum. The micro exam was given by a teacher who is big into the "Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains" which translates as to her exams being relatively difficult as a result of their varying format. Studying for both of these bad boys simultaneously was a biatch.
But I survived. I honestly don't know how well I did. I'm pretty sure that I passed, but I'm certain that I got some answers wrong. I was doing a lot of educated guessing and some of the cursed doubting via over thinking (a perpetual kiss of death and a violation of one of my cardinal rules). But I won't know the results until after break.
Yep, I'm on break. Well from having to go to school anyway (I still have to write two ethics papers, study for a midterm and a test for the week I get back). Meanwhile, the rest of my stressful, uncertain and generally hellish existence persists. Honestly, school is a refuge for me. A place that I can occupy my mind as to not think about how much the rest of my life (except for my wife and kid) sucks (kind of like the gym). It is a place to focus on the future as opposed to my dismal present. Don't get me wrong, I know it could be worse, and it has been in the past. But, after a long time of dealing with this horseshit it just kind of wears on you.
Anyway, since I'm on "break" I have to work more, so I better get going.
But I survived. I honestly don't know how well I did. I'm pretty sure that I passed, but I'm certain that I got some answers wrong. I was doing a lot of educated guessing and some of the cursed doubting via over thinking (a perpetual kiss of death and a violation of one of my cardinal rules). But I won't know the results until after break.
Yep, I'm on break. Well from having to go to school anyway (I still have to write two ethics papers, study for a midterm and a test for the week I get back). Meanwhile, the rest of my stressful, uncertain and generally hellish existence persists. Honestly, school is a refuge for me. A place that I can occupy my mind as to not think about how much the rest of my life (except for my wife and kid) sucks (kind of like the gym). It is a place to focus on the future as opposed to my dismal present. Don't get me wrong, I know it could be worse, and it has been in the past. But, after a long time of dealing with this horseshit it just kind of wears on you.
Anyway, since I'm on "break" I have to work more, so I better get going.
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