Gears of my machine

First of all, I want to appologize to not only the team but give myself a slap for posting a couple days late. I am not going to go into it but it involves a word that starts with "w". Looking where I am at regarding my training is going to involve a number of changes. I have to open up the drive train and change out the gearing. Right now they are gummed up, rounded and in some places chipped. Not to mention the oil is dark. As of late my diet completely sucks, metabolism requires a tune up and cleaner fuel. I basically live on coffee and sporadic food binges with absolutely no balance. No time off and burning out as a result. Numbers are low but consistent and I am following through on writing something down everyday, although vague, its happening. I plan on doing some major changes in the next few weeks. Ripping open the gears and changing them out to a whole new gear set. Mix up the ratios and get back to the top fuel state I was in a short time ago. I really want to grade this year and I really want to pass. Enough said on that. First, in order to stay engaged and demand performance, not to mention a good schooling, I am signing up for san shou. I feel after listening to ample amounts of advice and witnessing the benefits in others around me this will be highly beneficial to my soon to be advanced and demanding training regiment. Second major change which in all honesty, freaks me out a little. I am going to try get my diet on track and burn a different type of fuel I have never considered, ever. For the month of April I am going to try to be a vegetarian. This will do me some good to clean out the system and detoxify as I'm sure there are copious amount of toxins and probably a small I beam in there somewhere. My wifes on board which is good because she knows way more about this stuff than I do. I think if it wasn't for my partner joining me, it might be easy to say to heck with this, I'm not a rabbit, give me a steak. It also gives us an opportunity to try to reach a challenge together and thats always cool. Well thats all I have for this week. See you all on Friday.
Brian Chervenka

Setting the targets

Looking ahead into the new year raises the bar of  actually how far I need to be in my training to accomplish earning a black belt. I feel in a lot of ways I set myself back farther than I actually thought. Not so good if this is going to be the year I take the challenge of grading. I learnt much from the mistakes I made last year, which should make things a lot better to plan and organize a routine for this term. As sceptical as I may seem at this moment in time only installs the determination to succeed and fulfil my goal to get to the next level of training. It was mentioned at the meeting that a person shouldn't put the accomplishment of black belt as a triumph to the top but look at it as another plateau or another turn in your path to wherever it is you envision as your destiny. I have always looked at it this way and I do see where I want to be. I know in my heart and in my future vision I can accomplish this with a few added things to keep the mindset where it should be. First step is to journal absolutely everything I can for reference purposes and focus. When I was journaling regularly last year the inspiration to go above and beyond came to be an installed motivator, it does really work if you stick to it. I'm not going to get wrapped up in the numbers like I did last year, it just installs stress and brings you down if you let it. This challenge is designed to be fun and hone you and your multitude of skills to a perfectly polished and sharp machine. Don't get wrapped up in the numbers. Stick to the plan and see through the requirement for what it really is and the numbers will take care of themselves. I will mix up all the requirements again because that will take the monotony of it away. I found trying to do a bit of everything each day became way too overwhelming and took the fun out of it. I plan on completing the less time consuming requirements first and foremost, to concentrate on one thing at a time aside from remaining dedicated to the physical requirements. One thing that a person taking on this challenge should understand right off the get go is don't try to do this all on your own. I'm not really cool with reaching out to others because I have done things on my own for a long time. Last year taught me something new. You are no less of a person to ask for help or be willing to work with others to accomplish your goals. They need you just as much as you will need them. I gained a lot of help and inspiration from members of the team last year. Sifu Wetter posted a multitude of advice regarding a plan to layout a weapon form which was very helpful. Thanks again Sifu. If any one is interested in what he had to say I can forward you his post. It was an awesome tool from a Sifu that has a few weapon forms under his belt. Sifu Rybak gave us all a swift kick in the ass that we all deserved and motivated us to put our skills out there and get our first demo together. It was pretty cool witnessing the creativity that Sifu coordinated and to be part of the end result. Sifu pushed us out of our comfort zones and expected more out of us than what we may have felt was good enough. Thanks go to you too Sifu Rybak. One thing that I did was write down any piece of advice or something that stuck in my head from a team mate and wrote it in my journal and I intend to do the same this year because it helped keep the motivation up and the connection true to the team. If you are stuck on something use, kwoon talk. This is a tool that is highly neglected and it is probably one of the greater displays of how dedicated our teachers are. There are a number of black belts that check kwoon talk quite frequently. I have posted many question regarding training and have always received advice or direction within hours. Not only from one black belt, but several, which gives you many perspectives on how you can decipher and solve your problems. I have a really good feeling about this year and look forward to training and succeeding with not only my teammates, but those that I will work along side with to achieve black belt this year.
Brian Chervenka

Fuel

I am spending alot of time lately pondering on diet and the food that is distributed to the public. Most of it is absolute garbage and I really don't understand how you can loosen regulations on what is and what is not allowed to be put in our food. I really don't get how you can legally get away with installing disease such as cancer and diabetes and all the effects that come with genetically modifying our food in the name of money, and literally and slowly killing people by the masses. Where I come from that is known as murder and quite frankly these are people we can honestly do without. There is also the total bullshit claim of how they're so many more people to feed and they have to do this in order to feed everyone. Once upon a time before the corporate disease and sociopaths took over everything, we had hundreds of thousands of honest farmers. We had great economic relationships with other countries that supplied us with natural, non modified products. We used to have massive sugar beet farms, animals that used to be fed by crops people grew. Now we use corn syrup and steroids.  Then came a bunch of clowns that said why are you wasting all that time and money to feed your livestock. Grow massive corn fields that require very little maintenance or overhead and shoot these steroid implants in the cows ear. Feed them corn that has nothing in it really that is of any benefit to man nor beast. The corn fools the animals digestive system to think it is eating what it is supposed too and the steroids make the animal grow that much faster and the money comes in that much quicker. No more extra costs, just quicker profits with less overhead. For those of you that eat meat you will notice something if you really pay attention. Most meat nowadays has no flavor and when you cook it, its mostly water. Welcome to the world of steroids. All this crap is altering our genetics as people and killing us. If you don't believe me try to hook yourself up with a farmer that feeds their animals naturally and see if you can buy a chicken off him or whatever. You'll realize I know what I'm talking about. I came from a farm and lived in southern Alberta, an area that was rich with pork, chicken, and beef farmers. I seen the crops change and the steroids come in. I also seen how normal people became rich fast and the after effects. Another good example is wheat and soy. Wheat wasn't bad for you like it is now because the seeds my father bought weren't altered to grow the perfect kernel regardless of weather or soil. To be the right weight and size. There was also many places to buy different types of seeds. Now you can probably count on the fact it is monopolized by some corporation with some sociopath at the helm. Soy, same story. Pretty sad overall when you look at all these shareholders that are financial backing to disease and murder. Thinking that just because they put a sociopath in place to run operations, that it washes their hands of all responsibility and they didn't know. Really though, how pathetic are you as a person to poison woman and children and think we are all stupid in the name of money. How much is enough. When are we going to stop being sheep and start restoring the community and annihilate the disconnection. Why are we as a whole buying into the crap that we read and watch on television and see it as truth. Why have we let corporations become stronger than the very people we voted in, to run our governments. The same people that should have stepped in stopped all of this from happening in the first place. Things have to change, but one mans rant/meltdown isn't going to do it. We have to change together as people.