Breathe deep

Challenge: To learn Tai-Chi (Tai-Chi-Chuan) in a week.

Rating: 3/5

Skills developed: A small sense of enlightenment and calm.

Overview/Rant: My only knowledge of Tai-Chi prior to trying this challenge was that Angel used it as a very seductive (and successful) move to score Buffy in the ever infamous 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' This seemed as good a reason as any to learn Tai-Chi. Also- the name literally translates to 'Supreme Ultimate Fist' which is another awesome reason to learn this martial art.

I feel I picked the perfect time to undertake this martial art as it is renowned for its calming techniques and tranquil methodologies... this coincided with me taking a piano grade 3 exam (see previous posts) and my driving exam... and passing both! Was the art responsible for helping me pass the exams? Who knows? Will we ever know? If life mimics LOST in any way- then the simple answer is most likely no...



Tai-Chi involves channeling your energy into simple, slow, very controlled movements. Your breathing must match your actions and ever action is deliberate and significant. I found a very good instructor online which helps capture the essence of Tai-Chi (see above). Obviously there's only so much you can do in a week (actually I did it for two) but I definitely felt a sense of calm while I undertook the exercises. While youtube is a brilliant resource for learning new skills (or watching cats do funny things...) I can tell that an actual instructor would really help in getting one to understand the heart of Tai-Chi.

Conclusion: Very enjoyable, non-exhausting (then again, I may have been doing it wrong) but very calming. Give it a go. If it's good enough for Buffy then its good enough for you...

Next week: Learn some tricks on the 'diablo.'

Random thoughts: Just watched the finale of LOST today... thankful that I had Tai-Chi-Chuan to calm me.

ALSO- jumping out of an airplane on Friday- first Skydive ever- I'll let yaz know how that goes!
    

Being A Reflective Practitioner...

Right so- it's been a while... My sincerest apologies for the delay- this annoying 'Postgraduate Diploma' was a bit of a hindrance over the last few weeks... but now... I'm.... FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!! And what helped my through it? 





And I would be remiss in not thanking all my family and friends too- thanks xxx


But enough of that... here's the last 5 weeks condensed into ONE post- it's like your getting more bang for your buck.


Week 12 - Learn Spanish for a week


Difficulty: 3/5 
Overview/Rant: Spanish is awesome. I had a lot of fun learning it at this brilliant website found here. It a teaching website that is completely free and has really helpful tutorials. I spent about 15 hours learning the language, which over a week is considerable I think. Completed 5 online lessons and feel I got a good understanding of creating day-to-day verbs and sentences. In terms of getting in touch with my Spanish speaking friend(s), I totally screwed that up with the whole 'life' getting in the way. So yeah- you can give this challenge the olde 'Epic Fail' stamp if you like- personally- I think Senor Juevo more than made up for the lack of success.


Oh- Senor Juevo died after he tried to make a run for it... yeah.. sorry about that... he did survive another 2 weeks though...




Week 14 - Record a song in a week


Okay- originally I was supposed to WRITE and record a song in a week... but yeah- life was busy. I DID write a chorus and verse which were both quite good- but totally didn't relate to each other... so that was scrapped. Instead I recorded a song I wrote about two years ago. Anything which sounds remotely good is all thanks to a certain Mr. Keith Burke with his awesome recording skills and even awesomer hair.


Here's the song- feel free to abuse it to no end. I know it's not perfect- but anything that sounds remotely good is down to Keith's editing skills. 


Special Thanks: Keith Burke for giving up his time to edit the track. Check out his own stuff here. (check out the hair while you're there) Also thanks to Laura for attempting to help me write lyrics. 


*** Note: For some reason youtube is being douche- I'll repost the link once it's working. Apologies for delay.




Week 15 - Buy the Lotto for a Week

I spent a total of €24 on the lotto this week (€4 quick picks in every store I walked into that week). Zero winners. My personal hatred of the lotto comes from the fact that it gives you this false belief that you're holding on to the winning ticket. You're sitting on the bus and you're looking around at strangers thinking "Sh*t, that dude knows I'm holding the winning ticket... okay... just be cool, get off at the next stop and wait for another bus..." 



In future I'm going to spend the €24 on pints, get drunk and imagine how awesome it would be to win the lottery... I might also buy myself a panini with the remaining euros... 


It could be me? It IS me... living the dream...




Week 16 - No Caffenine for a week

Difficulty: 4/5
Overview/Rant: Anyone who knows me knows 3 things... 1.) I can be grumpy, 2.) I can be tired and 3.) points 1.)and 2.) are dictated purely by what degree of caffeine is present in my system. No amount of loving family or friends can replace the caffeine fix I so need. I found this out the hard way... 


Monday - Wake up at 6:00am... "Feeling okay- wouldn't 'mind' a cuppa tea, but sure- I'll drink some hot water." 11:00am... "Man, is it me or have the students got more annoying..." 2:34pm... "Wow, what do non-tea drinkers do with themselves?" 


Tuesday - "No feelings of wanting tea... ha... maybe it's easy to give up tea. I CAN DO THIS! Maybe I should give up tea and coffee for good, I mean- who needs em?"


Wednesday - "Oh my god... what is this feeling in my brain? It feels like someone is cracking open my skull with a jackhammer... I feel ants behind my eyeballs and there's definitely a leprechaun making an appearance in my peripheral vision..."


Thursday - "MUST RESIST URGE TO KILL EVERYBODY!"


Friday -  (Steve sits huddled in a corner) "I'm a little tea-pot short and stout..."


Suffice to say- no caffeine had two major noticeable effects...
1.) I got incredibly bad headaches...
2.) I slept like a baby... (that's to say "I slept well" as opposed to "I cried all night and wet myself")


But... *dilemma*... is a good night sleep worth giving up caffeine... science would say "Oh god yes..." but what do I say... (Steve downs his tea, some of it dribbles onto his chin) ... the short answer is 'no.' The long answer is best said by... 







Week 15 & 16 - Finishe PGDE and get Blog up to date...


DONE... quite challenging. I finished my Postgraduate Dimploma in Education- I'm going to be a fully qualified teacher in a month or so.... uh... god help the children... well guess that's another 2 weeks challenges done... *cough cough*


"But wait one second!!!" (I hear you say with anger and confusion) "We were promised 52 challenges?! Surely finishing your course doesn't count? And updating your blog is a bit of a cop-out?!" 


Well my angry and confused friend.... 52 challenges you shall GET... although I'm gonna have to double them up during the summer (heck- maybe even triple those bad boys) because I'm finding it incredibly difficult to balance them with the rest of my life at the moment- so I'm EAGER to do them- but I want to do them justice! Worry not though- challenges will be undertaken down the line... with gusto (and possibly pesto... dunno why)... and 52 challenges will be COMPLETED... or so help me god- I'll kill somebody...


That's my cue to get some caffeine...


Cheers for reading. Thanks to people who've read so far and please keep sending me on challenges! Mucho gracious! 


Oh- this weeks challenge is to learn tai-chi... 


Steve out.

Eggcellent

Firstly... yes... I went there... and I'll be staying there for quite some time...

Challenge: To keep an egg alive for a week while keeping it on my person at all times.

Difficulty: 4/5

Skills developed: Responsibility of something extremely delicate.

Overview/Rant: So, was it all it was cracked up to be? You wanna hear about my eggcellent adventure with the egg? Tuesday last I was set the task of babysitting an egg for a week by a gentleman named Charles Beastley- I thought to myself: "What's this yoke on about?!" So without further eggistation I began the challenge of protecting the egg from the outside world.

In keeping with the Spanish concept- I decided to name my egg Senor Juevo (Mr. Egg). Senor Juevo was sophisticated, beautiful and delicate. He poached himself quite a few ladies in the past, but all ended up running in the end. He seemed hard on the outside, but underneath his shell was a gooey centre... as I discovered on day two...

Senor Juevo had an adventure in my coat pocket... I can't be sure of the details- all I know is he eggploded with joy... we did our best to save him but even my dear friend Benedict couldn't unscramble this mess...

A ceremony was held for Senor Juevo one hour later. There were candles, a prayer and a fry up...I resigned myself to failure... I was to be alone... but everything wasn't as it seemed...

Senor Juevo was back... how could this be?

Senor Juevo... was... a... Cylon*... there were many copies... each containing the memories and eggperiences of the previous models...

Unprepared for this, I inadvertently killed the second Senor Juevo only hours after his first death. Appalled at what I had done, I begged the gods to entrust me another Senor Juevo to protect... and the gods were obviously low on applicants that day because sure enough another Senor Juevo arrived on my doorstep.

Having moved on from my shell shock of seeing (and killing) two Juevos in two days, I promised to treat this Senor better than all the rest; I took him sightseeing in the city, shopping in St. Stephens Green and I cooked him a beautiful slap-up meal. TONIGHT I'm taking him to see the eggcellent production "HAIR" starring some of my amigos (Good Luck!). Senor Juevo recommended it after reading about it here.

Recommendation: Certainly a challenge. I'd give it a goo! Oh- an actual recommendation would be to wrap the egg in a plastic sealable bag- that way it won't destroy your clothes when it cracks.

Conclusion: So- this challenge would seem an EPIC fail... BUT- I've succeeded in keeping this egg alive for 5 days now and I'm going to CONTINUE to keep this Senor Juevo (numero 3) alive for as long as possible. Although, he may be so eggcited about the show tonight that he'll... f*&k it, I can't keeping using puns... you get the idea....

Next/Current Challenge: So- I still haven't written about the 'Spanish' challenge! Well the reason for that is I'm speaking with my Spanish speaking friend tomorrow/Thursday over the interweb. So I'll update when I get some external feedback. Also- my challenge this week is to write and record a song in a week. It can be whatever I want it to be, but it must be of some reasonable sound quality. So far I'm stumped for what to sing about so suggestions are always welcome!

* This is referring to Battlestar Galactica... if you haven't watched it then now would be a good time to punch yourself if the face as you've missed out on potentially the most amazing show ever... EVER! Actually on that note...

Lost in translation...

Right- so I succeeding in spending 10 whole minutes trying to learn Spanish last week... in my defense- I was working on my assignment... which I finished... although I've a second one to do... *sigh*  

BUT REGARDLESS - I'm going to do a double whammy of tasks this week to make up for a lack of epicness last week... so my TWO challenges to do this week are...

* Learn Spanish in a week ... and actually attempt it this time...

* Keep an egg alive

The task of keeping an egg alive requires the following... 

1.) An UNCOOKED/UNBOILED egg.

2.) Placed in a plastic zip-lock bag to protect my clothing should it crack.

3.) Must be on my person or next to me at all times.

May the challenge - actually -commence...

The truth will... do nothing apparently... nor will doing 'nothing' accomplish anything...

Challenge: To tell the truth for a week

Difficulty: 1/5

Skills developed: Neh... 

Overview/Rant: The aim of the challenge this week was to try tell the truth at all times. No 'white' lies- nothing.

So- how challenging was it? IN ALL HONESTY... it wasn't... it's simple to tell the truth at all times. There wasn't a single situation where I had to lie about something. I figured this would be a difficult challenge but when you actually work out how many times you're asked a direct question you'll realize that the only time you really lie is when you try to soften the truth. For example: "Sorry I missed your party" is an apology for missing someone's party- maybe you weren't bothered but now you feel remorseful- but "Oh sorry I missed your party, I had to do loads of assignment work..." is a lie (except if you were doing assignment work obviously- nerd). Granted it makes the recipient of the lie feel better, but then again if you wanted them to feel good then you would have went to their party in the first place... 

But basically, no one asked me a single question where I had to lie... 

It was uneventful.

It was a tad boring.

Hence the delay in posting...

BUT - I'm thinking of reattempting this challenge with a small, but significant, adaption- I MUST be brutally honest with everyone. For example "I'm not sorry I missed your party- you melt my head." Cruel but honest... I could then use this insight into my new book "Making friends..."

So then I decided to move onto challenge 11...

Which was EVEN more uneventful...

Challenge: To dictate my own week and not have someone else decide it...

Difficulty: 0/5

Skills developed: ....

Overview/Rant: The aim of the challenge this week was to not pre-plan my week based on someone else's decision.

Suffice to say it wasn't awesome. It was my typical week which involves getting up early, going to work, going to college, going home. I could write a novelette about the whole fiasco but I've pretty much ruined the entire story with that last sentence.

So I feel I owe an apology to the masses... you've been bored reading this, I've been bored writing it...

Next Challenge: So- in an attempt to cheer myself up about the boringness of the last TWO challenges I've decided to try learn some basic Spanish for a week. My aim is to do the following...

* Learn: how to introduce myself, how to count, basic verbs, basic words, etc.

* Try have a discussion with someone who speaks Spanish.

* Attempt an Ordinary Level Leaving Certificate Spanish paper.

I have only ever studied Spanish in secondary school for like a week and I was pretty woeful at it too... so...

Mayo el desafío comienza!!!

Which I think is Spanish for "The devil is in the mayonnaise!!!" or "May the challenge commence!!!"

Finally something to moan about...

Challenge: To avoid 'moaning' for a week...

Difficulty: To avoid moaning - 3/5... to avoid complaining - 5/5...

Skills developed: An increased sense of self awareness... also- an increased ability at lying to myself...

Overview/Rant: Right- this may seem like a weird challenge to undertake... avoid 'moaning' for a week... BUT I ask you (the sexy reader) to consider the implications of this endeavor... to NOT moan, about anything, for an entire week... Sentences like: "God I'm tired," "Ugh, I have to go to work..." or "I feel real crappy" are exempt from your vocabulary.

Now- to say I epically failed this challenge would be the understatement of the century. (I actually moaned about how hard this challenge was... thus failing it drastically... then proceeded to moan about how I'd failed it by moaning.) You may ask yourself, "Well that sounds like a stupid challenge..." and you'd be perfectly entitled to your opinion (and a smack in the face) BUT the reasoning behind my undertaking of the challenge was to establish if I could AVOID moaning for a week. Could I become more self aware of how I portray myself to other people? Do I (we) moan at times when actually I (we) realistically have nothing to moan about? How does moaning affect my (our) friends and loved ones?

So in essence I decided that I would take a step towards being a positive person by avoiding to moan at all costs for the entire week... and like I said... I failed... miserably. BUT- I did keep track of how my moaning can really bug other people- and I think I've concluded that there is a very small, but VERY IMPORTANT (hence the capital letters) difference between 'moaning' and 'complaining.'

I feel, and I invite arguments here, that moaning and complaining are two very different things. Basically it comes down to 'why' you say something. The difference, I think,  between the two is that complaining 'should' be a constructive exercise- you vocalize your problem or issue in the hope of finding a resolution. The aim being that the other person can choose to assist in solving your problem or listening to you come up with possible solutions. The tone and manner in which it is spoken is highly relevant- it must be said with a positive outlook, i.e. that you know there is a solution to the thing that is troubling you... and so on and so forth... (what a great sentence for tying up an argument when you know you're running in circles...)

Moaning, on the other hand, is where you vocalize your problem with the hope of getting sympathy and/or attention. For example: "I'm exhausted..." Like- I'm sorry- but WHAT THE HELL is anybody supposed to do with that?! "Oh- you're tired... okay- here's an idea- GO TO SLEEP!" While this may seem a teeny bit insensitive... part of me says - well- is the insensitivity coming from the person who moaned or the person who had to listen to the moan? Moaning is in effect a negative thing- moaning begets moaning (so glad I finally got to use 'beget' in a sentence) While my definition for complaining may seem like a cop-out and a way of saying that "I wasn't moaning, I was complaining... it's constructive..." I do think its an important difference to note and I think its the crucial difference between portraying a negative or positive attitude. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself- am I moaning for the sake of moaning? Does my moaning actually make me feel better? Does my moaning 'effect' ('affect'- someone help me out there) the people around me?

So- that's my moaning about the issue... done.

May not seem like much of a challenge- but hey- you can moan about that in the comments section...

Fun Things: Through the week though- and the contemplation of moaning- I feel I've come up with the most common reoccurring types of moan...

DIRECT MOANING - this is where you directly moan to somebody about whatever is bothering you... examples include "I'm tired," "I'm hungry" and "My foot is killing me from kicking that kid in the crotch." It is the basic of all moans. 

SOLO MOANING - this is where you moan to yourself about something, realize that there's no one around to listen and immediately set out to find someone to listen to your moaning...

INDIRECT MOANING - this is where you moan about something unrelated to what's bothering you... like waiting at a bus stop and moaning about the weather, when really its the fact you have to get the bus that is bothering you.

ORGASMIC MOANING - obviously an acceptable type of moan...

THE "MAKING CONVERSATION" MOAN - a strange device used during awkward silences... examples include "Isn't the weather awful?" and "Don't you hate Mondays?"

THE TRYING TO GET OUT OF DOING SOMETHING MOAN - this is where you moan to try get out of doing something. This moan can actually turn into complaining as it sometimes is followed by a solution to said problem. For example: "I don't wanna go to lectures... let's go eat ice cream instead!" Now- this is a mix of moaning and complaining. I let it slide because there's ice cream involved.

THE "RHETORICAL QUESTION" MOAN - this is where the moaner hits the moanee (the person who is forced to listen to a moan) with a rhetorical moaning question to introduce the topic they're about to moan about... the moanee is left powerless to avoid the upcoming moan... "Don't you just hate it when the guy of your dreams asks you on a date and you say yes and then realize that you've got nothing sexy to wear and you haven't shaved your legs in days and then you're worried that he might already be eying up a younger fitter.... blah blah blah"

THE "SIGH" MOAN - this is a louder than usual 'sigh' followed by a large exhale of air... this moan says "No seriously- I'm not moaning, I'm just breathing out air... it can be tiring at times... I'm grand... don't worry about me... I'm just going to ride a tandem bike by myself now..."

THE "IT'S TOUGH BEING AWESOME" MOAN - this is where someone moans about how hard it is being the person 'their friends always rely on' or how they're exhausted from hours of charity work or how their legs hurt after running 15 miles in 7 minutes... they moan but secretly love having a one-up on you for being a much better human being. This moan says "Oh me- when I'm not busy saving someones life or doing a million sit-ups I'm usually teaching blind kids how to see... but you haven't commented on how awesome I am recently so I'm going to pretend to complain to remind you of how awesome I am. I am awesome... and humble... which only makes me that much more awesome"

THE 'MOANING ABOUT MOANING' MOAN - this is usually done by someone in blog format who has way too much time on his hands...

Recommendation: Try it- seriously try to avoid moaning for a week. I found that once I accepted the fact that it wasn't beneficial in any way I actually started to feel a lot better about the whole thing. If you're not going to try it then at least try keep count at the number of times you moan in a day. You may be surprised...

Conclusion: Definitely a challenge. 

Special Thanks: Rebecca who listened to me moan relentlessly while I was sick on Monday. To Mum and Dad for their support, and mocking, of my attempt at not moaning.

Next Challenge: It's still mystery March- so I can't divulge BUT I will tell you that the next challenge is going to involve everybody I meet so it should be quite interesting.  May the games begin...

Random Thoughts: Try google image searching "moaning" or youtube-ing it... seriously... it's ridiculous...

But aside from that- it lead me to this song... which I'm liking- it's also ANIME-tastic...

The piano man

awww... look at the kitty playing piano...

Challenge: To be able to do my requirements for piano grade 3 exam in a week. 

Difficulty: 5/5.

Skills developed: Sight reading improvement. Increased piano dexterity. A renewed love for Meat Loaf.

Overview/Rant: Firstly I'll completely and honestly admit that I took this challenge out of fear of a certain Ms. Susan Bourke who has displayed infinite amount of patience at my lack of piano practice to date. The exam date is May but, as you will see, the pieces are quite difficult and need to be learned and rehearsed for months before the examination date. So I effectively used this blog as a study guide... [insert tongue sticking-out emoticon]

 Theory, scales, arpeggios and four-note-broken-chords make up for 20% of the test and are probably my strongest area at the moment. The other 20% is for sight tests and ear tests, all of which will come over time and practice. SO essentially my key area of concentration was my pieces...

So in order of difficulty...

EASY - Landler in A by Daniel Steibelt... which is unfortunately to available anywhere on youtube it seems. Well- imagine its easier than the other two... [insert smiley face emoticon]

MEDIUM - Wilder Reiter (Wild Horseman) by Robert Schumann... which I found played by what looks like a six year old... wow- how crap do I feel?

HARD - Prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach... okay... now they're taking the p*ss...

Hardest Parts: The left hand section in Wild Horseman and the entirety of Prelude. Also- watching kids a quarter your age doing it better than you ever could is a bit of a ball buster too...

Result: Well... I think Meat Loaf said it best when he said... (and we'll ignore what Susan said about the whole thing... [insert oh-dearie-me emoticon]

Recommendation: Piano is awesome- difficult if you actually try to do the grades. I can't really recommend it to anyone if they haven't studied piano before... BUT to those that quit and say "oh I wish I'd never quit..." then GO BACK TO PIANO! I quit when I was 15 and only came back to it a few months ago and it's the best decision I've made in a while.

Conclusion: I totally underestimated how much work I had to do for this exam... [insert omfg smiley face emoticon]

Special Thanks: Susan Bourke for her patience and encouragement. [insert super smiley face emoticon]

Next Challenge: It's the beginning of MYSTERY MARCH... this is where I do challenges WITHOUT telling you what they are... until after... obviously... or else I'd just have done nothing... an example, but I won't be doing, is "trying to start as many conversations about butter as possible in a week"... the challenges are 'mostly' harmless fun... [insert evil grin smiley emoticon]

Random Thoughts: Meat Loaf is awesome.

This post was bought to you by emoticons... cus a picture speaks a thousand blah blah blah...