Excellent Weekend

An excellent weekend. Spring is finally and firmly here in Calgary, the leaves are shooting out of the buds on the trees and the first lawn mow was required.

Aside from the rebellious neighbor's daughter having a big party Friday night, everything was great. Kicked back Friday night, had some massages on Saturday, went to Aikido, and had my family over for mother's day. Sunday was spent over at Jason & Sharon's for Forrest's 3rd birthday party. Monday Leeanne came over -- was good to see her after losing touch for a year or so. 

7 Fundamentals From Bruce Lee

Great stuff.

    1. What are you really thinking about today?

    “As you think, so shall you become.”

    2. Simplify.

    “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

    “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

    3. Learn about yourself in interactions.

    “To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”

    4. Do not divide.

    “Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.”

    5. Avoid a dependency on validation from others.

    “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”

    “Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.”

    6. Be proactive.

    “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”

    7. Be you.

    “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/03/07/bruce-lees-top-7-fundamentals-for-getting-your-life-in-shape/

Changes

Lots of changes going on... mostly for the better.

Driving

I've decided to start driving into work. For the moment, I've had enough of racing to catch trains that never come on any kind of schedule, and pack in tight coming home with the inevitible bums that want to hang out on the train during rush hour. Trains that get above 30 degrees in the summer and stink like urine and stale booze. So when one of my work compadres had a spot to sublet I jumped all over that. Besides, the city of Calgary is planning to start charging to park at the c-train, which will make it a big $40 difference to drive in rather than take the train.

Public transit is broken in Calgary big time. It's not a profit center guys -- it's to get people to stop driving into downtown and polluting so much! This means more trains, free parking, and get rid of the free downtown zone during rush hour. The homeless need lots of help but you're not going to get folks like me using the train as much when they're full of passed out drunks and stinky people looking for money.

Aikido

The new dojo started up this weekend. It's a great space and the time slots are much better. Classes start in the morning whenever you get there and end when you have to leave. Now that I'm driving, I don't have to race for the train and be 20 minutes late if I miss it. It's only a 10 minute drive away first thing in the morning so it work so it's also much faster.

Saturday morning classes also start at 10:30 rather than 8:00 so I get a chance to take the kids in the morning and let Hiyat sleep in. Works better all 'round.

Perhaps the best thing -- I only teach once every 3 weeks. Allows for greater flexability and a whole lot less stress from the dojo senpai.

Work

Everyone that was outsourced is now gone at work. It's sad but it also allows for some clarity and clearing out of some of the negative energy at work. It also means that everyone in the department will be on one floor for the first time and perhaps we can actually start working together.