sarakingdom

A keeper.

That sounds awesome. And I think a mobility/stretching challenge would do you good for a while. A lot of your injuries seem like mobility issues.

I have no idea, and I've got to say, it's not the most practical word to use brain storage space on. I've never had a reason to use it before.

Alcohol also lowers freezing points. For the highly experimental.

In favor of the secular interpretation, I think Japan's attitudes towards religion are quite different from ours, and the senior Japanese aikidoka visiting the dojo would have said something if something inappropriate were being done. In my experience, the ones of your aikido lineage are not shy about correcting etiquette. So it may well be completely unimportant to the average Japanese person, or a totally accepted secular use. (Total speculation on my part, but I think what I observe is that Japan is far more orthopraxic than orthodox. Doing the correct thing is far more important than believing the correct thing, which puts them kind of opposite Western expectations. So to the Japanese aikidoka, it may not matter why you do it, just how you do it. In which case, I'd guess the dojo kami don't care that none of you believe it, they're perfectly satisfied with getting some attention every class.)

I learned, while googling things I saw in the webisodes, that pinecone jam is a real thing in Eastern Europe, as is cucumber jam. I can't quite imagine the pinecone jam... Also, this is the project manager who's basically not managing the project and leaving it to you, right? That doesn't sound like your problem.

The hangy, pullupy, rowy things have always been the sticking point of bodyweight workouts, IMO. It's not actually very easy to do with zero, or even minimal, equipment. (Though I once found a variation that was totally floor work, a dragging thing that can be done fairly easily on slippery floors and less easily on carpeted ones.) Sometimes I substitute actual rowing. Not quite as intense, but pretty good for where I'm at.

I would climb over mounds of dirt for penguins and dinosaur skeletons. And cross the river for the Gauguin. They just need museums with hills and things. God, the poor bears. They'd drag the spawn back and shake their fingers at you mutely, and storm off with the spawn giggling close at their heels. And suddenly you'll be going through dozens of jars of jam a week.

My self-care lately has been very similar. Shit-tons of audiobooks, whenever I'm not doing something that requires my word-brain.

I love fresh air, but I'm so bored by trees and dirt. Srsly, more trees and dirt? Great. But it is awesome for my ankles. Hiking is a nice foundation-building exercise, it gets everything a little stronger without being too tough on the body. But honestly, could we not hike in an art museum or something? It seems inevitable, like you're imprinting that pattern. I guess not getting eaten by bears is a big plus in Colorado, though, so you could do worse. (I really envy Bear's cottage. I don't need a lot of living space, that would be fine. Er, not if it comes with annoying children, though.)

It really does help. That's why I took up hiking last spring, even though it's not my favorite thing. It was fantastic ankle rehab. I am totally imagining your future uterus occupant as Masha, you know.

That would cross a line for me, I think. I would be happy to do it if the school were openly starting class with a Shinto ritual to appeal to the kami of the dojo, however real or metaphorical. (I'm certain there are some that do that.) But I'm uncomfortable using a Shinto practice as a generic secular way to start a class, and even more uncomfortable with teaching students an alternate non-Shinto meaning for it. Non-believers doing something they don't believe out of tradition isn't a problem, but non-believers stripping it of its meaning and substituting a different meaning feels like the wrong way to use another culture's religious tradition. Back to the issue of parents, I think the phrase "to show respect" can be confusing in some contexts, because some people aren't sure just how much that's different from worship or reverence. There's a gray area created by a whole series of words that are faith-based in a faith-based context and not faith-based in a not-faith-based context. I think it may be more helpful to explain that bowing is the gesture for saying "thank you", and used to thank all the people who made your learning possible is a good way to start and end your training, from the founder of the art to your teacher to all the other students who are helping you practice. (Or at least that's how aikido does it, I don't know if other arts bow to the other students at the start and end of class, as well as the teacher.) That's a phrasing that I think works better for parents who are unfamiliar with the meaning of bowing, and almost every use I can think of in a martial arts class is actually some variety of "thank you". I have heard of some Muslim students being prohibited from bowing full stop, not due to whether the meaning is religious or not, but because they're just not allowed to bow outside of prayer. I gather it's common for the sensei to substitute a gesture of respect borrowed from Chinese martial arts, the right fist wrapped in the left palm, so they're still able to practice with the class. IMO, there's a distinction between accommodating religious proscription, and accommodating cultural misconceptions (especially the ones that are ever so slightly old-fashioned and yellow-peril-tinged), but I think the senseis who deploy this option tend to do it with a certain amount of sensitivity to the situation. I gather it's rare in the US, and much less rare in dojos in the Gulf states.

Oh man, a few of these Youtube shorts were exactly what I needed today. How did you know?

Stressful work stuff, and stressful life stuff. I took a baby step on one of the worst items today. I think I can sort all these things out, but most of them will probably get worse before they get better. Ah well. Problems can be dealt with. Just work on a little at a time. I might shift the morning routine around a bit. It would be good to have something there, but it might not be realistic to do all at once. It might need to be the evening routine first. The sleep does feel good. I'm starting to get used to it. I just need to start it earlier.

So it's like this. I'm doing quite well on the evening part of my challenge, and somewhat less well on the morning part of my challenge. It's a time crunch thing. I can get in all the sleep I should have (and currently seem to need), or I have the time to do extra things in the morning, but not both. The other thing is, whoa, have I not been sorted out mentally lately. I think the caffeine is out of my system, but the side effects seem to be lingering. I've got some things on my to-do list that are making me very, very stressed and emotional and anxious. My current coping mechanism involves more walks in the fresh air, and working in public places whenever possible.

TEIRIN'S ALIVE! /brianblessed

Ice. Much ice. Hours of ice. And a movie.

This is the most Canadian thing I've ever heard. Good luck on your interview! An interview that runs long is, IMO, a really good sign.

Session #15: Baby Cart to Hades The revolver shook in his hand. "I didn't steal the monkey!" His voice was a thin scream. Sweat dripped down his forehead. No clue what drug he was coming down from, but he was coming down. "I didn't do anything wrong!" I didn't know whether or not he broke into the lab and stole the monkey. I did know he'd done a few things wrong since then. Enough for the 15,000 woollongs he was worth? Who could say. I didn't even like monkeys, but I was starting to have some sympathy for whoever was freeing them from the Ganymede Medical Research Conglomerate. It's always the groups with the blandest names that hide the worst secrets. "Then put the gun down," I said. "Can't you see it makes you look guilty?" Last Night Did I do some relaxing movement? No. Did I meditate? Yes. Was I in bed on time? Yes-ish. If not, how late was I? Half an hour. I did stay up reading a little too late, but I was in bed on time, and up on time. This morning Did I meditate: Just about to. Did I hydrate: Yes. Did I do my aikido warmup: Yes. Did I exercise: No, aikido warmups as stand-in. Checklist Is the music picked: Yes Is the comedy picked: Yes Is the additional social activity picked: Not yet. Score: 6 pass, 1 fail So it looks like the official count is about three pounds lost last week. Baby Cart to Hades by Hideakira Sakurai (from the Lone Wolf & Cub soundtrack

How are you doing?

Tell me more about this tavern lifestyle...

Week 2 sounds awesome.

Yeah, I get that fear of breaking something that's working. But taking three or four weeks off before you go back to lifting probably wouldn't be any worse than a pause, and some recuperation might be good. If you're injuring yourself fairly often, maybe easing back for a short period and getting some rest and flexibility work in is the better thing to do, even if you go right back to the lifting for the holiday season. You train a lot, and you've been training injured for a while. A short period focusing on a different sort of physical resilience might not be a bad move, especially with a lot of stress at work and so on. A little yoga to do some gentle strength and flexibility work and help you get your zen back on the mat (and at work) might be a good use of a few weeks. I don't know how you're calculating your lifting calories burned, but I bet you could get pretty close with yoga time or hiking for a short period. You know what works for you, and I can't even say I really know what works for me, but I do think never varying a routine is a recipe for burnout, either mental or physical. And maybe mental and physical burnout are things for you to take into consideration right now. (Speaking of the holidays, I apparently had some chocolate from last Christmas that I put away in a drawer, and totally forgot about. I found it when I was doing some cleaning. Who forgets about a big pile of chocolate?)

That sounds like a fantastic day. I am envious.

Y'know, shaking things up for a six week challenge or two is not the end of the world. You can go back to lifting, if that's what moves the needle. But a challenge of recuperation with sleep and yoga and working on the gimpy bits, or even just a challenge of indulging what you want to do instead of what you feel you ought to do, or trying new things to fill the role of lifting that you enjoy more, might not be your worst option. Challenges are about learning and helping you hit your goals, and I'd say that you have a lot of indications that what you need right now to hit your goals is a change. Between injuries and your general work malaise, business as usual doesn't seem like the best thing you could be doing in your personal time.