Polar Bear Swim

It's about time that a lot of people make New Years Resolutions.

I promise to NOT do any Polar Bear swims. Bet I can keep that one.

Should people start any of the activities that I do? Each has positives and negatives.

Running is a good one. Great exercise and a challenge to one's willpower. Sometimes it is very hard to hit that road and get the miles done. It can also be very hard on joints. It also needs serious footwear that doesn't last very long.

Biking isn't so hard on the joints and is a better method for actually getting places. It does require a bike, which is a major capital investment. Like running it can be hard to get motivated on crummy days.

Karate can be good exercise, but can also be the opposite. Joining a group that pushes too hard is worse than not joining any. I'd advise watching a class before joining. If they won't let you, just thank them and leave. Probably not the right group. Is everybody young? Not a good sign. Do they wear uniforms other than white? Leave.

Jiu-Jitsu can be a good choice. Any of the Brazilian forms are great for the young, but I especially recommend Gracie Jiu-Jitsu for the mature participant. It is non-competitive, which means nobody trying to really dislocate your bones.

If you live on the Sunshine Coast of BC, and are any of the adults who sometimes reads this blog, and if you might want to try Gracie JJ at the Gibsons school please give it a shot. I'll be there and be happy to be your partner. It takes a while to  get limber, and having somebody that really understands this would be nice.

Or maybe a nice PolarBear Swim is more your style.

Fragile

Plans are such fragile things.

This Christmas I'd planned to stay active by going for some lovely runs. It is now six days in and I haven't jogged an inch. A stupid nasty old cold has put an end to that idea.

In Jiu-Jitsu I am planning to complete my level requirements by next December. This means I'll need to complete 16 months of training in under 11 months. Not really hard, but there is little wiggle room. Anything could mess it up.

A bout with a flu, or an injury, or even a vacation with my lovely wife could cause an irreparable complication.

Not that it's really a problem. The goal is totally self- imposed.

So the fragility of the plan is really just an interesting aspect of the whole idea.

Must run

I keep myself centered with my physical outlets. Sure they have physical benefits as well.

With two weeks of Christmas vacation how am I going to keep active enough?

It isn't two weeks away from home non-stop. We will be back and forth to Victoria, and to Vancouver. We have lots of little trips to visit family and friends. We need to pop back once in a while to check on all our house construction. Our team plans on working on all the non-stat days, and who are we to complain?

The bikes aren't going with us anywhere, and both Karate and Jiu-Jitsu are down until the second week of January.

That doesn't leave me a whole lot of choice.

This is dangerous. Due to my usual level of activity I'm programmed to eat a lot. I bet over Christmas consumption will only increase.

Gotta do something.

The only thing left is running.

I'm quite used to this in Victoria, and know some routes in Vancouver, and lots around home. I always wake up long before anybody else. I guess that will be my daily run time. It's easy in summer, but this time of year the sun is still sound asleep. When home I can run later.

When in Van or Vic I can run through well-lit urban areas. I'm not scared of traffic, or night monsters. I just like to be able to clearly see the road ahead.

I've kind of drifted away from running lately. It will be fun to get back into it.

It just might help me stay centered, and to burn those Christmas calories.

　

　

　

Plain white suits

When I pick up a new activity, I usually get kind of obsessed.

The activity becomes a focus. It has been that way with computers, Karate, running, biking, and Jiu-Jitsu. I usually go a bit overboard even with activities that I only pick up in a minor way.

I like photography, and so have a total of 7 devices that can take pictures. This doesn't count Helen's iPhone. Maybe I'm not being fair to myself. Let's remove my iPod, which has a crappy camera that is rarely used, and my phone. OK, I only have 5 cameras. And I'm getting another for Christmas.

I've had a lot of computers over the years, but how many active ones do we currently have. Only 3, unless you include the two iPads.

I think you get the idea.

You'd think martial arts would be a perfect fit for somebody like me. There isn't any "stuff" to buy. Even running needs expensive shoes. Karate doesn't have even have footwear.

So just how have I managed to go overboard in Jiu-Jitsu? I take extra lessons, but what is there other than that?

I started last year wearing one of my Karate uniforms while I was trying the sport out. It worked, but wasn't really suitable once I'd settled in. The uniform wouldn't have survived all the grappling for very long.

The next time we were in the city I popped over to my favourite martial arts supplier to get a Judo uniform. My Karate instructor's discount made the price so attractive I got two.

By Christmas I'd added one of the official Gracie Jiu-Jitsu uniforms as well. After all, I like wearing a clean gi for each night, and I was training three nights a week.

The club's schedule received an overhaul over the summer, which meant a possible five sessions per week. Three uniforms just wasn't going to cut it. I bought another.

After a while actually going for five consecutive days per week, I found getting the uniforms clean fast enough was very difficult. The washing wasn't an issue, but the jackets need to hang dry.

I bought two more. Now I have a total of six, which works very well.

Sometimes we train without uniforms. When that happens we wear a tight, slippery shirt called a rashguard, and board shorts. Some people like wearing rashguards under their uniforms. It prevents floor burn. I tried it and like it a lot.

I now have six rashguards and five pairs of shorts.

I'm lucky we don't wear hats.

　

Mayan Apocalypse

Martial arts have ended around here until 2013. Year end is traditionally a time for looking back, and also for looking ahead.

Karate classes ended early this week, leaving only Jiu-Jitsu to wrap up.

The Jiu-Jitsu classes on Thursday were cancelled, and there was a big test for the 40 or so kids. I don't know how Shawn does it. They range from early teens down to pre-school age. Afterwards, it was a year-end party for all the students from every group as well as family. The food went fast and the place was packed.

Tonight we had the final two sessions. It was open mat, followed by Hapkido. I was there for the former, even though I've been down sick for the better part of a week. I went over my drills a few times, and helped a couple of the White Belts with their stuff. When the Hapkido class lined up, that was my signal to head home.

That's when I started thinking over the year past, and the year ahead.

A lot has happened in my martial arts world in 2012.

I started that year still attending Cheri's ISKF Karate Class. Last Christmas I was still a baby White Belt having only started at the end of September; not even allowed to attend the weekly Reflex Development class that the more advanced White Belts take. I was about a month into private lessons to increase my progress.

In January I stopped attending Karate altogether. In balance, I qualified for the Jiu-Jitsu Reflex Development class.

By April I was finished with private Jiu-Jitsu lessons, and by the end of the month had completed one fifth of my Blue Belt exam. I also launched a new Karate Club.

Most of my Karate Club were people who had left the ISKF club, or who had been former students of mine. Several were greatly overdue for belt exams. I pushed them, and by July most had completed two levels. Also by Summer, I had earned my Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt.

I stopped both activities for the Summer to be with friends and family. I did, however, realize a life-long dream to train at the Victoria Judo Club. It was very cool.

September had me back at both my regular martial arts. The progress of my Karate students has been steady, as has my own progress as a student of Jiu-Jitsu. I've started a schedule of private lessons again to enhance my progress.

My goals for the coming year are pretty ambitions. At Karate, it is all about the students. I'm trying to get us accepted as part of Karate BC and the Japan Karate Association. This year should see Cody wearing a Brown Belt, with others making similar gains.

In Jiu-Jitsu I plan on getting a stripe added to my Blue Belt, which would be more than 4 months early. I was quick getting through my first level, and would like to keep up this pace.

A Mayan Apocalypse would have ruined everything.

Filter

Technology isn't the problem. The solutions are the problem.

I teach at a high school, and things are very different than they were just a decade ago.

I have always been a big user of technology in the classroom. Back then it was desktop computers and the internet.

Now we have a great many more computers, still on the good, old internet. Most of the computers are now portable, and we also have a myriad of projectors and such.

The kids themselves now haul around their own computers in their back pockets. Of course, I mean Smartphone. Some carry iPads or laptops. Some have no such devices.

So we have access to a lot more devices, but what is the difference?

Way back when, one of the big issues was kids trying to use the school's internet to find pornography. Now they don't. If they want to find such material they can do so with their own or their home's access. I haven't found a kid looking for dirty pictures or video in years.

Sadly, our school is saddled with solutions to a problem that no longer exists. Our internet is filtered through automated censorship.

I wouldn't care if the filter didn't do anything at all, or if it actually worked to keep out the things it is supposed to. In reality the software is the laziest piece of programming I've ever seen.

Some sites are blocked, which makes some kind of sense. However, some of it is just ridiculous.

For example, educational mathematics sites are routinely blocked. The reason given is "gambling". Can't have the kids learning about probability at a math site.

News sites are also usually locked down. The reason for the censorship is "language". Such sites often have user comment areas, and I guess somebody might say something rude.

Saddest of all is how the software handles web searches. This only affects Google, as I suppose the programmers assume that there is no other way to search the internet. If someone tries a Google search that the filter thinks is naughty it will be blocked. Strangely, it always gives either no reason at all, or the reason is "pornography".

Sometimes the Google blocking works fairly harmlessly, but other times it goes insane, often for weeks at a time.

Do a Google search for "cat", and it gets blocked as "pornographic". Search for "school"; "pornography". Our school district's web site; "pornography". The web site we have to log into to do student attendance; "pornography". Any word; "pornography".

For most of our kids, this means that the internet won't work. If they can't Google then they can't use the web.

For my own classes, I teach them to use Bing when the filter on Google goes nuts. The lazy censorship programmers never bothered to set up their magic on non-Google search engines.

Being a schoolteacher I wondered what this all teaches the kids. When I ask them what they think it means, the only answer they have ever given it, "the government hates us."

Quite educational.

Bike no

I like riding my bike to work. It's great on nice days, especially if the sun is up early.

It's even cool when the weather sucks and the winter darkness is complete. Some of those days can surprise you. A break in the clouds, or a flash of scarlet sky can make it magical.

However, even when it really sucks it has a plus side. Doing it makes you feel tough. Look at me! I rode my bike through that crap!

Oh, yeah. It's also good for you, your wallet, and the environment.

Lately, however, I've been failing on all counts.

Our house has workers crawling all over it and I try to zip home whenever I can; as quickly as I can. I do so right after the school day ends, and whenever I have a spare block.

This doesn't work so well on the bike, so for two weeks I've been a car guy.

Don't get me wrong, the break is nice. The weather has been extra ugly lately.

And I'm not really all that tough.