And now for the one-man luge portion...

it's all downhill from here baby...reached the halfway mark in my initial round of the fitness program, as I said, I won't jinx myself by revealing too much beforehand like I was doing last time...but here are a few vague teasers...note the lack of looseness in my shirt...thanks for all the wonderful B-day gifts, I really wish I could have opened them with you and shared them all together!!

Love you guys...

M

Uhhh...

are you guys even reading this anymore?!?

Exhaustion...

How does a person deal with complete and utter exhaustion? When waking up, moving, wiping the counter, cleaning dishes, walking the dog, commuting to work, facing down (then inspiring, motivating, actually teaching) nearly 100 people on an almost daily basis becomes seemingly impossible. (Don't worry...it's not..I'm just trying to prod communication and discussion amongst four or more highly successful, highly driven, highly active, and highly depended-upon people)

How does a soul continue to grow when the currents of life seem so strong, when facing against the constant tide of listlessness begins to appear futile? What drives you? What motivates you? What makes you WANT to do it again? What happens when you slip mentally and admit you do not want to do anything at all? Why do you continue? Do you have a choice? Does anyone have free will? What sustains you?

These are just some questions I pose honestly and look forward to the answers of some great minds...please share your open opinions and ideas...and please do not be afraid to open up a bit...

Look forward to hearing from you all...

M

Who is in?

I am issuing a challenge (as well as a way to motivate and keep myself honest) to the rest of you who may read this blog. As of today, September 14, 2009, I will be going carbonated drink and alcohol-free until November 9, 2009. This completion date coincides with the first ninety days of my P90X workout program. As mom may or may not have mentioned, I've let myself go wild the first thirty days in order to gain weight. From a personal low of 73.6kg. on March 11th, 2009 to my current (and incredibly, exactly the goal I set for myself several weeks ago) 86.2kg as of tonight. I am aiming now to cut out the excess fat (Sausage Egg McMuffins, Bacon Double Cheeseburgers from Burger King-two at a time, etc...) I am going to transition, well, screw the transition, from tomorrow I will be eating lean and getting MEAN! My personal goal is a slow, steady, and gradual rise to 93kg. (Type that into a unit converter and see how shocked you are...)

Anyways, back to the main purpose of this post, I am challenging you all to join me in throwing out, at the very least, sodas and colas from our diets. The occasional sip of alcohol is obviously harder to do, and clearly not all THAT unhealthy in certain circumstances. But I can remember living at the Greenlake basement apartment in Seattle and first trying to do this. Why does it take so long to actually stick to some of these important lifelong promises we must make to ourselves. My proposed penalty for falling off the bandwagon is a $10 fine for each breach to be tossed into a communal pot to be used at a later date...preferrably on booze we can all share together!!

So..any takers?!? Join me and look forward to hopefully some impressive photos in about two months time...

See you in health!

Battle of the Millenium v1.1

Oh yeah...so her brother and I went at it too...

(Plus some extra shots from the approx. 50 min. ferry ride...the family, my friend, the captain, the girl, and the lighthouses on the breakers entering the island's ferry terminal.)

To the death!!!

Leaving Cheongsan-d0 (do=island), we rode the ferry with a family that had taking us touring the previous day. Actually, the friend I met and I had gotten a ride to the ferry terminal with the addjuma who ran and operated the min-bak we slept in. She also worked at the hair salon in 'town'. (Really..imagine an island where there may very well be ONE hair salon, ONE bank, ONE etc..... when I had first disembarked and was backpacking through the single street on my way to hike and/or hitchhike towards a beach I knew had places to sleep, I asked someone if there were marts further up the rode, "Oh no! This is the last and only mart on the island, if you don't buy food now, you can't eat later...there isn't even a convenience shack in Jiri village where you are heading..." Sheesh...

So anyway, we got on the empty ferry...and the family showed up at the very last second, makes sense when you're working with two young children... After setting sail, we all got on top and discovered there were no seats on this tin can. We took some photos, said 'hi' to the captain, and then the battle of the millenium took place. I was a worthy opponent..but clearly no match for my vanquisher....alas, I carry now a heavy, wooden heart...

A failed Egyptian Pyramid...A disastrous Eiffel Tower...hey, Mister...what is that?!?

As promised...my future alternative line-of-work. I spent my last day and a half on a beach off the southern coast of South Korea, it's not nearly as packed as the 'famous' Haeundae (which has set world records for number of beach umbrellas on one beach, 1,000,000+ in a day..seriously!!) but another, equally beautiful, though superiorly sparsely populated. After a first evening of wandering, spending the night watching a midget and his tall female friend entertain a beach crowd with song and karaoke entertainment (he was dressed in drag, they had a stage set up beside the small convenience shack where I'd bought my ramyeon for lunch that afternoon-I'd actually chatted with both of them earlier..he's the frendliest performing drag midget in Korea..of that I'm fairly certain) and eventually chatting with the cute girl at the convenience store on one end of the boardwalk. I spent a few hours drinking and chatting with her and friends, I even got so wild during one of the drinking games I destroyed a plastic chair..ha! Turns out she lives in Seoul one subway station away from me, so I took her out for a beer when she got back to the big city and promised I'd buy her mother a new chair. Anyways, I woke up the next morning pretty early..went walking shirtless while the waves washed up along the shore...met a Mongolian man, and eventually plopped down in the sand. Boredom took over, can only stare at cute high school girls for so long, and I build a sand pyramid, next I tried an Eiffel tower which collapsed on me, then I made a massive pile and attempted to recreate the Tower of Babel..all which led to me having an enormous pit and a gigantic mound of sand...what to do??? Only one good answer for that...SAND TURTLE!

While I was putting the tortoise-shell pattern on it, there were actually crowds gathering to watch me. Perhaps 20 people at the peak, but throughout the several hours I was digging, shaping, and burning my skin, people continuously streamed past, "WOW..what is it?" HA..they don't make sand castles over here...a few men brought their children and sat and talked with me for a while...both were industrial engineers...one bought me a beer, another left and brought me back grape juice, and someone lent me some sun cream. All in all...a great day, a BEAUTIFUL beach, and a damn good sand turtle if I do say so myself...I felt like a vagrant artist, creating beauty and putting smiles on faces for free.......anyone know what else could be better in life?