Okay. . . Now you guys are going overboard.

So, today I decided to go watch my brothers hockey game. I'm glad I went, because it taught me something very worth while.

We all know that the key components when playing a sport are Sportsmanship, always have fun,be aware of your actions, have dignity in yourself and your team, respect for your team and the opposing team, etc. These are all really important for the players of the sport, but I think that the parents, family, friends, and anyone in the crowd should learn to abide by these rules as well.

As far as I could say, the parents of the other team were very disrespectful, and very un-sportsman like.

At the beginning of the game the score was pretty close, and of course when your team scores a goal, you're going to cheer loudly to let them know that your happy for this accomplishment. But, in my opinion, if your team is winning by more than 2, you should tone it down a little bit. No need to make the other team feel worse than they all ready do.

The parents of the other team were definitely going a bit overboard. Close to the third period, their kid's team were winning by so much that we knew we weren't going to be able to catch up. With this in mind, they were still overly yelling and screaming when they scored (more than when they were only winning by 1 or 2) but on top of that, they were yelling really disrespectful things at their coaches, players, and the referees. I really don't believe that telling the kids on your own team that "they suck" and yelling at the referees things that I do not even want to say on this blog was reflecting very bad things on their team. It got so bad near the end that some of the parents on our team, and their team were leaving because it was getting a little bit ridiculous.

All in all, I'll have to say that the kids on the team that my brother was playing against were very good hockey players. They definitely play a good, clean game. But, it was hard to recognize that because of the way that some of the parents were acting.

I think that we all need to think about our actions, and who they reflect upon. This was a very good life lesson for me, and I will always think about it before I do, or say something. This is just my opinion on the subject, if anyone has anything to add, feel free to comment :-)

Bottled Water - Reducing Our Ecological Footprint.

Silent River Kung Fu is working towards becoming a greener school, by lessening our environmental impact. As most know, one of the things that we are trying to do is eliminate all use of plastic water bottles within the kwoon.

I decided that for my blog I would research the effects of bottled water on the environment, and teach myself something new in the process.

First let’s start off with this.

SIX FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT BOTTLED WATER.

1. Tap water is just as safe as bottled water. In fact, the U.S government performs more vigorous tests on tap water than bottled water.

2. Purchasing bottle water is thousands of times more expensive than tap water. One-third of Canadians buy bottled water rather than drinking purified tap water.

3. Terephthalate (PET) is the most commonly used plastic for making water bottles. PET is derived from crude oil.

4. Just in the U.S., 1.5 MILLION barrels of oil are used each year for tasks such as (but not limited to) making PET, transporting bottles and powering water bottle factories.

5. 86% of plastic water bottles are not recycled.

6. About 40% of bottled water starts as tap water.


Bottled water is the top selling product in the beverage industry, but it’s also the worst for the environment. Each year, 2 million tones of plastic water bottles are put into landfills, drastically increasing the amount of time it takes to fill up a landfill. As well as, the recycling rate for these bottles is only around 27%. Scientist have proven that the best thing that you can do to reduce your ecological footprint is to stop buying bottled water completely.

Many resources are used to make, ship and recycle bottled water. In fact, if bottled water were eliminated, the oil that would have been used to make them would be enough to power 100,000 cars for a year. That is a lot!

There are many things that we can do to reduce this portion of our ecological footprint.

Stop purchasing the bottled water and use tap water. Or, if its taste you’re worried about, buy a drinking water filter to attach on the end of your tap.
Use a re – useable water bottle to put your water in. Even though we sometimes re use the plastic ones, resources were still wasted to make the bottle, and more will be used to recycle it.
I have a challenge for everyone that reads this blog. Go online to the following website, (http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators) (You have to click on Calgary for your location ) and calculate your ecological footprint. Then find out one thing that you can do to reduce it. Take action. We are aiming to be leaders through our actions, and what a better way to do it than to help the planet in the meantime. My footprint was 7.1, the Canadian average. But, I would need over 8 football fields of land to support all of the resources that I need to live. That’s huge! I’m going to take action by trying to carpool, walk, etc. to try and reduce the pollution that I put into the air.
What will you do?

Year of the Tiger

I want to start off with saying that the banquet was really amazing. All of the sihing's did such a great job at setting up, the banquet hall looked fantastic! It was truly a night to remember.

Of course, the banquet and ceremony last night was really exciting for me, seeing that I received my black belt. I really believed that all of the other candidates and I really saw yesterday who we had really become through our training, and how much that we had grown together as a group.

I am so proud at how well the demo that the kids classes put on went. I have seen so many different transformations in those classes this past year, and I can only begin to imagine what type of progress that the classes will begin to make this year. The kids were awesome, and I am really
looking foreward to this year.

These were just a few thoughts on the banquet last night.
What were everyone elses thoughts on the banquet last night?

Kids classes

I am very fortunate to have the chance to be able to teach in the kids classes. It is something that kung fu has given me, that is irreplaceable.
I have learned and experienced so much in the past year of teaching, that many 13 year olds don't usually get a chance to.

First of all, it is so inspiring to watch some of the kids in their classes. They have so much passion, and determination to succeed in what they are doing. I think this is something that many of us could learn from. Sometimes the longer we do something, we sometimes loose the passion that we had when we first started. We know that we have it, but it doesn't isn't always apparent to others. These kids just have so much drive to get something new that they just learned right. A good example of this is watching some of the new white belts trying to do their first shoulder roll. They watch the instructor do it a couple of times, and they say that it looks so easy, but they just cannot get it right. You can see the frustration in their eyes but they just wont give up. I think this is something that we can all learn from.

It is also cool to see how open most of them are. You'll have a kid that you have never even seen before come up and give you a hug and start telling you about the highlights of their day. Yesterday, Sihing Young came out to the 5:00 class to help out. We were doing stations and she was right into it with all of the kids. I think she was a bit shocked when one of the students ran up to her and gave her a big hug, and wouldn't let go :-). It was really cool because I know for a fact that the student had never seen or met her before.

I have been helping with the kids classes for around a year and a half now, and they have taught me so so much. I think that anyone that steps in there is (most of the time) given a truly great experience. If you get the chance, pop in there on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We like the help ;-)

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
~Albert Einstein

Leadership class

I joined the Leadership Program, for my 1st term option at school. As part of the leadership program, we were to go to the Elementary School and mentor a student for the day. I chose to mentor a little kindergarten boy who has severe Autism. I worked and learned along with him throughout the day. it was amazing, and a great learning experience for me to see and experience hands-on as to the challenges and difficulties some people face throughout day-to-day life. This little boy taught me so much. He taught me patients, understanding of differences, and most importantly not to be judgmental of behavior. this little boy's behavior is his way of communication, for example: jumping up and down laughing was him communicating happiness and "yes" that is what i need or want; turning away, making a loud noise or laying on the floor was his way of communicating unhappiness and "no" that is not what I need or want. I learned that, Behavior is Communication. As well as, seeing the others reaction was very interesting, those that I see as super nice and accepting, had troubles accepting the face that he was a bit different, and acted a bit different that we do.
I'll never forget this experience, and I hope to go back and see him later this year!

Another part of the Leadership Program at school was to raise awareness for the homeless and Boyle Street, and to volunteer there for a day. I as a student of the Leadership Program with from class to class at school talking to students about the importance of helping those who have no resources, food, or homes. We, in the program, got donations of clothing and food to take along with us to Boyle Street for the homeless. On the day we went to volunteer at Boyle Street, we were there making soup and sandwiches all morning, the serving them to the homeless for lunch. Once lunch was over, and clean up was done, we had the opportunity to go and visit and talk with some of the homeless. It is amazing the misconceptions we have of the homeless. For the most part, there people do not want to be there. But due to circumstances beyond their control they have to be. There were some very interesting conversations and awareness made. Most of them were very thankful, and loved to have us there. There were a lot of "God bless yous" said to us. I am very happy I had the opportunity to do this, and have matured and become a better person because of it. I look forward to going back there some day and helping out again.

" A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way."
~ John C. Maxwell

Stress

Stress has just been overwhelming me lately.

I think that it has been a time issue. There are only so many hours in a day to try and get everything that you want to get done, done. Between going to school, 1 – 2 hours of homework and projects, and studying for exams a day, preparation for black belt and rehearsals, and countless hours at the studio teaching and taking my own classes, I have just been cramming a lot lately.

Working towards my black belt has become a big part of my life right now, as it should be. Kung Fu really is my passion; it challenges me, and pushes me to my limits. The candidate practices have really been tough, yet I love them. Everything is finally coming together, and it is becoming more real to me every step of the way. I have really come to get to know my fellow candidates, and we have been pushing each other to our limits every day. This journey has really been an eye opener for me. If you had told me a couple years ago that at 13 I would be grading for my black belt, I would have told you you were crazy; but here I am, living in the moment, absorbing every minute of this.

A little while ago, I had set an academic goal for myself to maintain my four core subjects (social, science, language arts, and math) at a combined average of 90%. I recently got my first report card of the year, and my combined average was 93.8%. It’s all been very worth it in a way; I’m just hoping that I can keep it like this for the rest of the year.

For the benevolent fundraiser, I had set a goal for myself of $1 000 dollars. Although this definitely seemed out of reach to me, I had some faint hope that I could reach it.

I have definitely exhausted all of my resources. I first decided to go to my school to raise awareness, and promote the fundraiser. I decided to type up a cover letter to explain a little bit more about the charities, and the benevolent foundation, so that I could go to my assistant principal and talk to her about it. After explaining about what I was doing, she decided to go out and send a voice mail and an email out to all the teachers, explaining about the charities, as well as letting them know where the pledge sheets would be. I was very excited. I currently go to a catholic school, and I believed that I would get quite a fair turnout. At the end of the week when I went back to collect the pledge sheets, I had only raised $20.00, my asst. principal did let me know that a lot of teachers were interested, but kept telling her that they were not able to sponsor me this time around. I did understand, and although I was frustrated, I knew that I had spread awareness about global issues.

I have talked to my peers about it, and although both they and their parents were very interested, some of them said that they were not able to this time around. But, I am happy to say that there are now a lot of kids that know about the benevolent foundation.

Lastly, I have talked to most of my family, and they do sound interested, but they do not know how much they could sponsor me until Christmas time.


I am disappointed, in some respect that people within my resources are unable, this year, to commit to a dollar donation. But am very happy that I have taken on the task of raising awareness about the charities involved, and am proud to say that there are a lot more people aware of the needs of these charities. People have also told me that once financial situations become more stable for them that they will definitely consider making a donation to these charities.



“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
~Unknown

Training Journal

So,
as of last week I have been documenting everything that I have done to train everyday, and I've decided that at the end of each week I will post it onto my blog. That way I will be able to receive comment on whether or not my training looks sufficient of whether I need to step it up a bit :-). This is also a place for me to look back to in case something happens to my journal.

August 5, 2009

Time frame:
9:00am - 10:00am

Activity:

Met with Sifu Schermbrucker and worked on board breaking, as well as forms.

• We focused on my palm heel strike.
• Started out on the focus shield and did around 100 repetitions.
• Transfered over to a pine board, and I didn't end up breaking it with my palm.
• Blasted it with my elbow.

we also looked at the following forms.

• Hung 1&2
• Kempo 1&2
• Hsei Chen
• Lung 1&2

Reviewed on what I needed to work on and corrected it.

Time Frame:
1:00pm - 1:20pm

Activity:

• 60 repetitions of combative side heel thrust (right leg) on heavy bag. (reps of 10 6x)
• 60 repetitions of horizontal elbow (left hand) on heavy bag. (reps of 10 6x)
• Also completed 60 pushups. (reps of 10 6x)

Time Frame:

1:30pm - 1:45 pm

Activity:

• completed the rest of my side heel and elbow reps on the bag.
• Completed the rest of my pushups and 150 crunches.

August 6, 2009

Time Frame:

9:00am - 10:00am

Activity:

Met with Sifu Schermbrucker

• Worked on Lung 1&2, completing 50 reps.
• Noticeably improving my form by the end of the hour.
• Completed 150 pushups

Time frame

10:15am - 11:00am

Activity:

• 100 reps of side heel thrust (right leg) on bag
• 100 reps of palm heel strike (right hand) on bag
• 100 reps of elbow (left arm) on bag

**all in sets of 10 10x

• 150 crunches

August 7, 2009

Time Frame:

9:00am - 10:00am

Activity:

Met with Sifu Schermbrucker

• Completed countless reps of hammer fist (I changed my right hand board breaking technique.) elbow, side heel thrust, and knee.
• Finished off with theory questions
• Also completed 150 pushups

Time Frame:

10:15am - 10:20am

Activity:

• completed 150 crunches

So this is the end of my post. With everything that I had done this week.