Archive for September, 2007

I killed a moth. He flew up and landed on my shirt, just now. I flicked him with my middle finger, from the side, sending him careening to the floor. I watched him flutter around upside down, eventually turning upright. He walked slowly across the carpet, climbed the moth-sized ledge to the hardwood floor of the kitchen, and stopped moving. He doesn’t respond to my prodding. I feel bad. I didn’t need to flick him. I could have just brushed him. Now he is dead.

I ran 5 miles this evening. It felt good. I think my IT band issues are in the past. I feel strong. Even after 5 miles, I feel like I could have reasonably run farther or faster. I even considered tackling another 2 or 3 just to confirm that I could. But this training is much less brazen than the last. I took things too fast and hurt myself last spring, and I don’t want to do it again. Plus, why risk it right before ski season?

I feel pretty good. Taking Saturdays off has been helpful. I feel relaxed. Tomorrow, I’ll spend 10-12 hours studying, but that’s ok. I don’t feel too worried about it. In fact, I bet I’ll feel pretty good tomorrow night. I’m almost looking forward to it. This plan has had one weird consequence though: my weeks start on Sunday, so Monday feels like it’s the second day of the week, which I’m not used to.

Today, I watched anime, read a book, ate chipotle, cleaned around the house, and did some webdesign. I had intended to have people over for dinner and talking, but Brandon’s mom has been ailing recently, and he had to spend the night with her. So instead of spending the evening talking with people, I went for the run, and finished some of the website stuff that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I finished another bit of the photography page, and finished the Israel section more. There are only a few things left to do before I am satisfied with those.

I am designing myself a life intensification period. The spirit of it is the fartleik style running training. In that training, you break up a long run into smaller runs, which are done at different speeds, alternating between a relaxed pace and a 10k pace. I want to see if life can be trained that way. The life intensification period will be interesting, I think. Eventually, it will last for a month. I want to intensify and balance the body, mind, spirit and heart. Here are some notes so far:

body
Short cardio Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Long cardio on Sunday. (biking or running)
Weight training on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
Stretching every morning.
Situps and pushups every night.
Eat at least one piece of fruit per day.
No fast food, except Chipotle.
Drink at least one liter of water per day.
No exercise for the sake of exercise on Saturday. Cook a full meal on Saturday.

mind
Study hard.
Talk with people about interesting things when possible.
Read more of The Economist than just the News in Brief and Leaders.
Read 3 edge.org articles per week.
No studying or class work on Saturday.

spirit
No complaining.
No making myself seem less competent because I think it’s funny.
No intentionally misunderstanding people for lols.
Re-tune celibacy initiative, integrating input from CNakarado.
Practice breathing exercises and silence during morning stretches.
Practice silence on Saturday until noon. Turn off cell phone on Saturday until 2 PM.
Spend Saturday morning in extended stretching, meditation, or sleeping.
Spend Saturday afternoon with people or outside.

heart
Hug at least one person per day.
Express genuine gratitude or appreciation for someone that enriches my life, each day.
Keep a log of progress and sentiments during the process of the intensification period.
Create art.