February 12th

ok, this month has been terrible for my workouts so far. I did that stupid Bikrams yoga with Aggie a couple weeks ago, and my back has been fucked ever since, so I have only been doing really chill stuff like a hike here and there or some Qi Gong. I have yet to do my weight workout this month! I know, that is terrible and I'm going to have to get my act together if I want to meet my schedule of 12 workouts for this month. However, Paul is going away to San Francisco for a week for work, and I know I'll probably work out every day out of sheer boredom while he's gone. So that will help things along a great deal. Also, I am starting Qi Gong classes again on saturdays, and that is 3.5 hours of Qi Gong, so I'm going to count that as a workout once a week, but I won't count the at home practice because my "workout" resolution was actually supposed to be for hard workouts, not gentle things like Qi Gong.

Next friday I am also doing a Tae Kwon Do class cuz this guy in our BNI group who runs a school has invited the group to a free class. Honestly, I get the impression that tae kwon do is kinda crap, but I'll give it a go. I am suspicious of anything where you can have a black belt in 3 or 4 years of going to only 2 classes a week. If that were the case, I'd have a black belt in Karate already from the 5 years I did of it when I was a teenager, and quite frankly, I don't think I deserve a black belt for my knowledge of karate, so I don't know how this is any different. I feel like these programs that propell people thru the ranks really trivializes the spirit behind the meaning of "black belt"

As wikipedia says: The term black belt has become widely known as way to describe an expert in martial arts

Maybe my idea of "expert" is different from the idea of other peoples.. who knows.. but as I see most martial arts as life long endeavors, I don't see how someone can be an expert in so short a time. I mean, if it was a 40 hour a week program, then sure.. (even after my 4 year TCM program of over 40 hours a week of class and studying, I still don't feel like an "expert" at all) but 2 hours a week? Come on! It's a joke.