Kyellan

Looks like Italy is treating you well. This pleases me

Yup, that's the feeling. That's it, right there. I took 5 days off from work and I'm feeling markedly better. Not back to 100%, but I no longer feel my bruised brain pulsing in my head. I relaxed, did some cleaning, celebrated my wife's 31st birthday, and just generally didn't push myself for a few days. Things are better now. Take care of yourself, man. It's important. We like you =)

I'm getting myself comfortable with it, and then I'm going to do a video of myself going through it. Mostly for my own reference, but I may use it from time to time to demonstrate for people I know just what it is that I am working on. =) They're pretty delicious sammiches! I'm trying different combinations and such, looking for the sweet spot. Still not quite there, but getting closer! I may try biscuits, but it will definitely cost me more calorie-wise I think I can see my way back to where I want to be... it's just going to take some time. Hopefully not too much, though! It is simply the way of the world, my brother. We walk parallel paths, for reasons unexplained. One of life's great mysteries. ============================ No major update here. Things are good. Struggling with some knee pain, but that's no surprise given the injuries. The dog slammed his head into my left (uninjured) knee late last week during some playtime, and I'm still sporting a bruise there that smarts from time to time. The joys of pet ownership =) The spirit of the tiger is beginning to flow more smoothly in me. I need to start working on my tiger call--certain techniques in tiger kung fu call for a specific sound. It's similar to the idea of the ki-ai from Japanese martial arts, but the sound of the tiger is "WAH". It's supposed to be driven from the diaphragm in a pitch specific to each person, a primal and fierce roar. I have... some reluctance to make loud noises, as I've always been a soft-spoken kind of guy, but it's something I need to start practicing. I'm now confident that all the movements of the form are in my head. I just need to make each transition so familiar to my brain that I can do it without pausing to think. Then I can begin training each technique to perfection.

Well, the madness of August is over. I didn't manage to do a whole lot other than work during that month, but I did put one major accomplishment under my belt: I finished memorizing the "first pillar" of the Hung Gar system, the foundational techniques known as Gung Gee Fook Fu Kuen, or "Taming the Tiger in the I-shaped Pattern". It's taken about a year of work, and it is a very long form with something like 350 individual techniques. Now that I've memorized it, the next step is to internalize the movements so that they all flow naturally, without thought or error. I'm doing okay on that so far, but that is pretty much going to be my physical focus for the next month or so. My data logging fell off for about two weeks due to the stress I was under, so I'm also reviving that. Still hovering around 205 lbs, give or take one on any given day, which I'm fairly happy with; despite the stress, I didn't fall off the plan too hard. I've started making breakfasts for myself: batch cooking English muffin breakfast sandwiches on the weekend and freezing them for the week. They're not the most amazing thing ever, but they're pretty cheap and come in between 350 and 375 calories, which isn't bad at all. I'm taking a long weekend this week: 5 days in a row of no work to focus on. Hopefully by the start of the challenge this bruised-brain feeling will be mostly gone, and I'll be feeling more like myself again. I worked myself into full burnout, and I'm still struggling with it a week after the worst of the craziness ended. The plan is to practice my Gung Gee flow, and get better at it. Attend class regularly again, and get myself back up to feeling healthy and strong, instead of bruised and weak and tired. That's pretty much it. Nothing fancy here, just patient recovery of my abilities and improvement of skills.