Boowr Rouuwrr

We all need people to be accountable to, and people to support our endeavors. I think we, including me, have more than our fair share of these individuals. And I just found one more to help me on my way.

My dog has more personality than most people I know. I think she knows what I'm up to here, with my training and all that. Every time I throw a kick without any enthusiasm, she barks at me. When I sit down and stretch inattentive muscles, she starts to play tug-of-war with me, which really gives me a good stretch. And I have made a bit of a game out of my workouts. Every time she woofs, its ten pushups. Every time she does her rouuwrr, I can't really spell that, its fifteen. She makes it very difficult to go to bed too. She is only a foot tall, but she is, no kidding you, over four feet long. So me not going to bed may sound like a bad thing. However it only encourages me to do a little bit more every night, if only to throw an extra couple (soft) kicks to get her to move over.

By the way, her name is Cloudie Oudie Odis. Chloe for short. Matches her body, no?

Imagine...

As of this morning, I have seven unidentified bruises on my legs, two seriously swollen hands, and various unidentified cuts and other abrasions. I think my first couple days have been a success.
I'm not judging this based on my wounds. I'm happy because I know that the aches I feel are only making me stronger, faster and more flexible. I earned the swollen knuckles, and can proudly say the boards broke when asked about them. The knuckles only swelled because of a bad angle on the first break. But did that stop me? Ha!
It has been little over two week since I first learned Danielle's matirx scene with Jesse, and already I feel an increase in ease and proficiency. I can just imagine what we could do if we increased the time given to these specific tasks. If something feels that much better after only a couple weeks, imagine what it could be like after a couple of months, or a couple of years. I joined Kung-Fu when I was nine (correct me if I'm wrong, Master Brinker) and I shudder at the wasted time. Imagine what I could do now if I had only practiced an extra five or ten minutes a day. That would have been an extra 60 hrs 48 min a year. I would have another 912 hrs 30 min under my belt. I could have been awesome!!!
So I say, okay. I admit I'm still young. If I start now, I will have made up for those lost 912 hrs in fifteen years. No time like the present.

Sorry, I gotta go. I have things to do.

Accountability, Here I Come

I have been doing a lot of reading lately, mainly about other peoples' opinions, aspirations, goals, feats and development. Every time I read a new post, I feel inspired and thrilled that people I know are doing so much to improve themselves and their community. Then I think, I think its my turn.
First, I'll explain the title to this page. A couple of posts have been made about a certain dog named Sophie, and about her zeal for life, her love for everything, her innocence and the impact she made in this world. It was these posts that made me decide to finally take the initiative and do something. Not something to save the world, but something to change the path I'm on, to save myself. Remember, these were posts about a dog. Not world hunger, not war, not society, politics or death. The first post made me smile and made me think. The second post made me cry.
Being completely honest and accountable is harder than I thought. My head has been reeling over the last couple of months. Issues have been forced into my view that I had been ignorant about. I honestly was one of those people who were aware of problems like famine, war and social expectations, and figured I couldn't do anything about it other than live my life without being the cause. I was the person that Master Brinker was trying to reach. Thank God or Buddah or whoever you choose that he did.
I think I was more mature when I was sixteen and eighteen than I have been in the last year. At sixteen, if someone said that I couldn't do something, I did everything I could to prove them wrong. And I did. The color of my belt is proof. Lately, if someone tells me I can do more, I think to myself, yeah, your right. But what? Then the issue closes. How pitiful, how pathetic is that?
So, I'm doing something to smarten myself up. I'm taking the initiative, and I'm doing something my instructors have been telling me to do for months now. I'm making myself accountable, and in doing so I'm laying myself out as best I can in attempt to destroy all possibilities of backing out of this. How better to do this than to do it publicly, on the internet, and for my peers at SRKF to see?
I've made some dumb decisions as of late. As of today, they are corrected. I can do so much more in terms of training. As of today, I'm doing it. This page and my future posts will see to it that these things get done. Holy crap, I have never been so scared and so exhilarated in my life.

I guess this is one more way that Sophie the Bouvier has made an impact.