Knight of Pentacles

 I'm guessing everyone missed the message that Amanda Wall posted in the general chat: "I have a community volunteer opportunity if any members or family members are looking for volunteer hours or reference letters or just that feel-good stuff -  https://forms.gle/cWwEdSCMRZj9VPCB9 In short, the Keephills Community Hall (15-51515 Range Road 32A) needs a little help painting! If any Sifu's are interested in passing it along to the main feed... that would be wonderful." After I saw the post, I sent her a message asking if they were still looking for people, she said: " Thank you! We could still use a few people on Sunday if anyone is interested." So, if anyone is free on Sunday, it's a good opportunity to get in a bigger ticket AoK.

 Things have been going well.  I'm generally getting my numbers in, but I haven't been having the progress that I would like, so it's time to ramp it up.  This week I was starting a new professionally led diet, which was a good start.  I'm also banning myself from social media for the week because it is turning into a time suck rather than a tool for connecting.  I'm doing up a loose schedule, or rather a daily task list, of things to be accomplished each day. I'll check in with myself at the end of the week! In other news, I realized last week that I made a mistake with my weapons form.  Well, not so much a mistake as: if I had to do it over again, I would have chosen a pre-made form for this year, and made the bold decision to make up a form on a fictitious weapon after I had much more experience with weapons overall for next year.  But I have chosen my spicy soup and now I have to eat it.  It just means there's a bit more elbow grease required....

 This week needed a bit of a different approach.  Physically I wasn't up for much, so I used it as an opportunity to focus on things other than push ups and sit ups.   -I've finished learning Lao Gar, so I've started going through that, focusing on my stances, transitions, or the 6 harmonies.  -I've started ramping up my acts of kindness, and been mindful of recording all the little AOK I already did.   -I watched a LOT of Star Trek, all Klingon-centric episodes.  I was feeling better today so I've started doing at least 10 minutes a day of just swinging the Bat'leth around, trying out some of the moves I saw in the battles.  I am gonna need to make another Bat'leth because this one is bearing the brunt of my early experiments, and that's ok.   -I've been reading and meditating every day.   It's been a good week.

 "The first step to mastery is the removal of everything in your environment that represents mediocrity, removing those things that are limiting." from Mastery by Stewart Emery What does that statement mean, practically speaking?  I mean, there's the obvious: keep a tidy home, get rid of toxic friends, don't watch trash tv, don't spend all of your time laying on the couch.  What other ways could we remove mediocrity from our lives?   Being a millennial, my first act was a quick google search.  There were a few interesting articles, including a number that referenced Mastery by Stewart Emery directly.  It was a good start.  I also checked Kwoon Talk, and again, there were some posts and comments.  But I'm a fan of lists, so I sat down and thought of a bunch of ways mediocrity can slip into our lives.  This is what I came up with: Professional - is your job fulfilling, or is it slowly draining your time and energy? Are you doing your job t...

 I've always hated the fact that most smoothie recipes and protein shakes are usually sweet.  Just once I'd like to see a meal replacement shake flavoured "Taco" instead of "Fudge Brownie".  So when I'm making up my green smoothies I don't usually put in fruits, I have great fun combining random assortments of vegetables and use plain kefir, yoghurt or sour cream as the base, sometimes just lemon juice and water. Today's smoothie: -dandelion greens -cilantro -half a roma tomato -3 teeny radishes -some yellow pepper -a stalk of broccoli -a pinch of saffron -plain kefir Today's smoothie is really good.  Our guinea pigs are really enjoying the plethora of veggies at our disposal, also!

 It's been an up and down week.  Following the banquet I was really trying to continue the momentum, but I felt REALLY drained for a few days.  The problem was that the culprit could have been: 1. post COVID fatigue 2. going back to night shift and NOT getting enough sleep 3. overindulging my sweet tooth and generally not eating well 4. the shock of suddenly trying to do 160 push ups and sit ups EVERY DAY (I thought I had been preparing myself properly since November, but looking back on my numbers from that time they were really pretty scattered and not consistent - lesson learned) 5. probably not getting enough protein 6. the combination of all of the above So, I took a couple of days off, I will admit.  Then I formed a plan.  I booked an appointment with a nutritionist.  I cut back on the sugar.  I got a bunch of veggies and have started making my own green smoothies (yum!).  After talking to a couple of teammates I realized that push up regres...