StoneMonkey

urghghghgurhghgrghghg. I felt ill yesterday too, but I went to training anyway. It was... ...the best training session ever. I realized that I now have absolutely no fear doing front and back flips. Before, I'd be like "gah. okay, count to five and do the flip.... 1, 2,3,4,5, FLIP". Now I'm just like "FLIP, FLIP, FLIP, FLIP, FLIP". Obviously I got way to excited and started flipping without a care. I must have done like thirty straight back flips without a rest! After the training session my legs felt weak and I had an awful headache. I kept feeling worse as time went on. I couldn't even get out of bed in the morning. Entire body was absolutely wrecked. ... NOTE TO SELF: if you're ill, don't go on a flipping spree and exhaust yourself completely. Stone, signing out. ------------------------------------------------ Aw, thanks guys! I'm going to be resting for the next few days, hopefully I'll be better soon.

Bleeeugh. Illness has struck. Feel unwell. All strenuous activities temporarily paused. Need to get better by Wednesday. Need to get sweet footage of me doing flips so I can post it all over Facebook and terrify my mother. On the plus side, I'm going back home on Friday! I miss my cat so much. He's such a floofball. ....I should just end this here and get some rest.

Haha, they've not come without sacrifice! I feel like a walking zombie. I literally dream about juggling, maths and flips nowadays (and I had a really, really weird dream where my 5'3, 55 year old father decided to become a pro boxer a few days back. Like... dude, what the fuck. The human subconscious is an enigma.). It is! It's just, the thing is, I get so excited when I hold them that I can't stop myself from getting completely distracted.

Hmm. Sounds like you have a lot on your mind, huh? I'm glad you got it off your chest! I haven't a single doubt that you'll be able to get through this slump fine. Of course, I don't know you that well, but you come across as a person who thrives on progress. Now, the thing with people like that is that they become far, far too used to seeing ahead and often forget to just stop and look around them once and a while. When was the last time you stopped and appreciated just how far you've come? I don't know about you, but in the course of reaching Level 16 on these forums you must have done some really awesome stuff! For just a day, don't worry about where you'll be at thirty. Think about where you're at right now and where you were two years ago.

Haha! I love the bit about cold showers. You know, when I first saw your willpower challenge I thought about recommending them. Only thing is, most people respond to such recommendations with "...yeah, no.". I have a cold shower every morning. If I've done heavy strength work earlier I usually start off cold and alternate between hot and cold before finishing on hot (really good for recovery). Warm showers make me feel sleepy, so I don't really have them anymore. I initially started cold showers to boost my willpower, too! It's helped a lot. It is nowhere near as bad as people think. It also gets a lot better as you get used to it! For the first five seconds it's hellish, but after that it starts to feel really pleasant. If you focus on your breathing for the duration of the shower you won't even feel it. Pros: All of the health benefits you've already mentioned. Wakes you up immediately. Immense mood boost. Cold showers are difficult! Overcoming difficulty always feels great. No more huddling into a towel after bathing, shivering as the heat from a hot shower leaves your body. In fact, due to the fact that your body is in metabolic overtime, you'll feel far, far warmer even after the shower. Cons: It hurts a little at first. People think you're insane. Your parents will frown upon it and insist that you'll catch a cold. You can do it! I believe in you!

Aw, sorry to hear about the bumps.. but on the plus side you're dealing with them so well! In regards to the jump rope, I'm really impressed that you did 20 minutes off the bat. The first time I jumped rope I felt like I was going to die within the three minute mark and my life started flashing before my eyes by the fifth. They're really good for your knees, though. And cardio, but.. uh, I'm, like.. allergic to cardio so.. yeah. Looking forward to more!

Ahem. (I love how this is the only thing I remember from the whole film!) Sorry for the lack of updates! No, I did not destroy my technological brother in arms (read: laptop) again. I actually had a dream about that last night! But I digress. The last few weeks have gone by very, very quickly. I've been very busy! Coursework, training, this and that.. I've been so busy that I've been feeling far, far too tired to really post on here at night (which is really the only time I have to post.) However, the cool thing about being really busy is that you make crap tons of progress. In no order, here's a list of my recent achievements; First side-flip. Woo! I can now do all three of the basic flips. First time doing three back flicks in a row. Three assassination targets struck off my list (...I mean, three pieces of coursework finished way before the deadline). Three ball fountain is now automatic, finally got the half shower on both sides and can do a few throws of juggler's tennis. LOADS of new skills on the diabolo! One arm handstand is now at THREE WHOLE SECONDS! (...yes. I know that is only one more second.) My top rock (the standing up bit of breakdancing) actually looks good now! Honestly, I haven't been posting about it, but this challenge is going well! I've got a week-long grind until the start of my holidays. Ah, can't wait! -------------------------------------------------- Oooh, mathematician! Yeah, I'm the rebel formerly known as Mandrill. And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling Haha, I changed my username before because I'd read Journey to the West and thought Sun Wukong (whose first name translates to Stone Monkey) was the coolest thing ever. No no, my computer is still alive! I've just been swamped with too many things to deal with, haha.

I'm back!!! Right, sorry for the small lack of activity. I've been focusing a lot on my mathematics over the past few days and my nights have mostly been spent playing with proofs and shit. However! Saturday: Okay day. Did all I had to do and went bboying practice too. Sunday: Shitty day. I just felt really tired for some reason and I wasn't feeling anything I was doing. I was working on my side-tucks but I just felt out of it! I didn't go powerlifting either because all I wanted to do was sleep. Plus, my back hurt because my butt felt really tight. I instead went home and gave myself a nice foam rolling.. and my back feels TONS better in the morning. Spellbook progress for Week 1: I entered handstands and dive-rolls into the book (diverolls because normal rolls are far too simple). It's going to be a while until I get to work on the cool shit! Today: Sort of okay day..? I woke up late and didn't do the stretching or hand balancing, but I did completely knock out my Statistics coursework! I have this thing called the "coursework hit list" and I treat every piece of work like a target on a list of assassination targets. (holy shit that sounds SO dorky when written down) But yeah, today, I was able to finish off Statistics completely. Fucking LaTeX though... it's a pain. So yeah, I guess I traded my challenge goal for a bit of stress off my shoulders. However! I did do some fairly good juggling. I found yesterday that if I talk whilst juggling I can catch more throws! It boils down to not counting the throws whilst doing them. However, the friend I was talking to counted and I managed to get 54 throws down. Right! I'm going to bed. I have a pretty hard day tomorrow; powerlifting + mathematical modelling + circus arts isn't exactly the friendliest combination.

And another day done! Woke up on time, did my stretches, hand-balancing and juggling. Just came back from bboy practice, juggled and did a bit of diabolo. Guys, seriously, my reflexes have seriously developed thanks to juggling. Like, it's not 100% but I've noticed myself making some serious ninja catches over the last few hours! I let my friend juggle my balls use my juggling balls today and he got frustrated so he threw one at me out of nowhere with full force. My hand just went to the right place! I'm slowly becoming more and more of a ninja. Right! I'm tired as hell. Goodnight, guys!

Win some, lose some, hm? Haha, you have very similar habits to me! I generally get pizza on Saturdays and watch anime whilst deep stretching. It literally takes pizza and cartoons to get me to forget the horrors of stretching. Absolutely agree with the stretching bit. I used to really have trouble with my back when training anything. Like, after gymnastics, I wouldn't be able to sit down easily. However! I got me a foam roller and committed to stretching and now I can dead-lift without crippling myself. Look into foam rollers, I can't recommend them more. Ooooh, climbing! I used to climb a lot, I but I was a really shit climber. How'd you find it? Vertical locomotion is a key skill for any assassin.

Hey, have you looked into how you breathe when sleeping? There's something called the 4-7-8 breathing technique that a lot of people swear by. Me, I just drink chamomile tea before sleeping and I don't know, it works for me! Maaaad respect for climbers. Keep doing what you do!

Today was SOOOOOO much better than yesterday. Woke up, did my strength training, stretching and juggling, then got everything else done. Then I did some diabolo work before heading off to do some weight training. I'm getting back to where I was before I neglected the iron! My whole body aches, but not in a "fuck-i'm-gonna-die" kind a way, more of a "oooh-hurts-so-good" kind of way. ----------------------- ...that jelly is so adorable. To think that it's ultimate fate, it's purpose, is to be eaten. ..I'm getting emotional over a bouncing jelly with a face. I actually feel sad looking at the poor thing. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat jelly again. O_O But yeah, I'm honestly flabbergasted myself! I find it's soo much easy to shift weight when you're straddled in a handstand. Right now it's really a strength issue: I can't hold one for more than 2-3 seconds because it stresses my shoulder out! Hopefully with some more planche and press work I'll be able to get the time higher. Hey, that's great! I got interested in juggling after learning about the crap-ton of benefits it gives. I don't know, you might find it nice to juggle for your breaks and stuff? I seriously started juggling two weeks ago and I can only do like, 25 three ball catches.You should be pretty impressed with yourself for picking up three ball juggling so quick!

RAHHH Today's going well. Woke up on time, did my stretches and hand-balancing and did a good bit of juggling. The ass injury from yesterday was all but forgotten; it was a tiny bit sore in the morning but that was blown away completely by a nice icy cold shower.

Bleh, today was a mess. Woke up late, no morning juggling. Had gymnastics training and was doing okay, but then I decided to play on the ropes. I tried to dyno off the damn thing but lost my grip and went right onto my butt. ...on wood floor. It hurt like hell! Not that bad though, It's not a massive injury or anything. I felt better after ten minutes and decided to train flips instead. Went for a front tuck, but my head wasn't in the right space and I just stopped in the air. No injury; I just rolled out of it (yay parkour) and I was okay, but it fucked up my mindset. I spent the rest of the session doing handstands and back flips. Overall, it was a pretty crappy session. My butt still feels odd. I did do some diabolo stuff and juggling in the evening though! My three ball was going really good and I'm getting the hang of grinders on the diabolo. Overall today was pretty shit. No worries though, tomorrow is a new day.

URRGGHH TODAY WAS SO LONG. I was completely drained after the lifting in the morning; even an alternating hot and cold shower wasn't enough to rejuvenate me. So I decided to have a ten minute nap in the middle of my lecture and I felt much better! ...gah don't look at me like that. I studied the content beforehand so I missed nothing. So! After lectures I went to the juggling space for two hours. It was great. I'm apparently picking up juggling really quickly, which is nice to hear! Tricks obtained this session: 25 three ball catches (New record) - Juggling (obviously) The Trapeze and the Double Trapeze The Suicide from trapeze Five bounce catches The Grind The Whipcatch (this is the coolest fucking move EVER, I was so chuffed when I got it)I think my progression pace is based on the fact that I've learned how to fail properly. A lot of people meet failure with self-disgust and anger. This clouds their minds and further reduces the chance of success by taking away from their focus. However, me, I've failed a lot, so much that I know that getting angry about failure is useless. Being strict about failure is important, but strictness \neq anger. If you learn how to fail gracefully and intelligently, success will come quicker. And that was Wise Old StoneMonkey's philosophy stack for the day. Gymnastics tomorrow! Hope to nail my side-tucks and finally land a good round-off back tuck. ...and then it's on to the true boss of this game, the round-off flick tuck. (only it's going to be one of those "muhahahaha, you may have defeated me, but someone stronger than me lies ahead! Yes, I realize just how dorky that sounds.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sure did! It was hard, but looking back it was oddly fun. Apart from the cold-warm-cold-warm shower, that shit was nasty. ...actually no everything was nasty. Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do. I... certainly will. I'm actually extremely paranoid about tea and laptops now. Like, if I drink tea I put the cup on the other side of my room and walk across every time I need a sip. Now the only way tea will get on my laptop is if my teacup becomes sentient. ...aaand now I'm paranoid about my teacup becoming sentient. Thanks for sticking around! I'll do my best not to cut it short like last time.