Have five minutes...

So I have a spare five minutes to blog...

It's been a crazy busy couple of weeks (is it ever not so?). Right now I'm waiting on some samples in an oven. We ground up some rock, added some sodium peroxide and set the samples to bake. Kinda cool.....

Another girl and I are training how to digest our samples for microprobe analysis. By dissolving the rock in acid and sending it through the microprobe, you can get information on the specific chemical make up of the rock and trace chemical changes through time. This is useful when your trying to figure out the paleoclimate/paleogeography/sea level etc. of your study area.

Down side:

Takes at least 5 hours to prepare 11 samples....sucky!

Oh well....back to the grindstone (pardon the pun:)

Not the best start...

So, the new year has started and, although not in the UBBT again this year, I made a list of fitness goals on PHYSOUT for myself. I have to say though, that I am not doing as well on them as I did last year. In a way, I'm glad because that means I've made them more challenging, but the fact remains I need to get my butt in gear.

So I was all stoked to play catch up and pushed myself on Tues and injured myself. I hurt my back doing knuckle pushups so I had to take yesterday off working out and have been hobbling around the house ever since. Pretty pathetic!

This year is not starting out how I had planned! Bah!

It's hard when I know I'm falling farther and farther behind on my goals, but I know if I push too hard, it will set me back farther. Ah patience and progressing wisely....it's a fine line that's for sure!

Grad school is sssssooooo fun! I get to sit all day in my own office (that I share with two other guys, but still total awesomeness) and read about the coolest stuff! Right now I'm reading a paper on the Permian-Triassic (about 251 million years ago) mass extinction during which they think over 90% of all Earth's species went extinct. I suggest you google it if you haven't heard of it...pretty amazing. The formation I'm going to be working on is from this time period.

Ok so some of you (probably most) don't find that to be fantastically interesting but still....

I'm really enjoying it so far.

So ya, ups and downs...that's how life goes I guess eh?

End of the year....and the ubbt

So I have to admit, I've been done exams for almost 2 weeks now and I have not been blogging. Funny how you can keep putting things off and time just slips by.

The Ubbt is coming to an end for me quickly and I'm kind of sad in a way. The Ubbt experience has done a lot of good for me. It taught me to hold myself acountable for my goals and progress and I've accomplished things I didn't think were possible.

I can now do 50 pushups without batting an eye, something I would have thought impossible, especially with my back issues. That, for me, is a major accomplishment.

The Ubbt also helped my leadership skills. I ran my leadership seminar as well as the kwoon renovations. I learned alot about organisation and running something. They definatly were learning experiences!

I also managed to accomplish my goal of getting into grad school. I'm so happy it worked out!

I practiced my fan form and tested for second degree as well. Check and check on my list...

However, I didn't manage to get everything done that I wanted to.

My 1000 reps of Kempo....not even close, and that was an important one. And I can't do the splits...once again, not even close:)

But the ubbt has taught me how to set goals and accomplish them, it has introduced me to people all over the world and most of all, has given me an excuse to train.

So although this year I'm not participating again, I have a list of goals to get done...including tackling Kempo!

Thanks Sifu Brinker and ubbt guys! You made this year awesome!

Swamped...as usual:)

In final exams....

Always manage to sneak up on me somehow:)

Brain hurts...feels kinda gushy....

Whew! What a last couple of weeks!

What a stressfull last couple of weeks! I had 4 midterms in four days, had to do a 20 minute presentation to a geology class and my professor and hand in another presentation that I have to give in the coming week.

That first presentation was sssoooo stressful! I had to give a twenty minute power point presentation (including handouts and references) to a class of my peers, graduate students and my professor. My topic was the midcontinent rift that occured 1.1 billion years ago along Lake Superior. The biggest part of the stress was that (apart from being graded), my professor has been involved in most of the major studies in this area, so I really had to know my stuff.

I tried to take control of the situation and gave my friends questions to ask me ahead of time, so I could have answers prepaired. I think it paid off, because I managed to avoid a major grilling by my professor; those who presented before me and weren't asked any questions got asked tough ones by my professor...not fun!

I think it went ok, but I was shaking afterwards. I have to give another presentation this week in another class, but this one is only five minutes. I've been finding it hard to keep my focus for this last one after going full board for the last two weeks. I hope it goes ok. Public speaking is not easy!

So that's what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks...stressing out and practicing my public speaking.

I have to say, oddly enough my Kung-Fu came in handy. By taking control of my situation and trying to shape it to my advantage, I managed to make it through. Definatly a valuable lesson! No matter how out of control you feel, there is always something you can do to stack the odds in your favor.

Crazy how Kung-Fu applies everywhere eh?