Starting off with... I have a new rule for this series of blog posts; all journal entries should be written impromptu or on the spot. This means not copying previously written down notes or entries from my digital or bullet journal.

This is how I originally started writing journal entries in the past by the way. I would login to write.as at night and write a journal entry based on what was in my head at that time.

More of a brain dump, versus a routine that involved going over previous journal entries, then compiling them into one big journal entry/blog post.

Over time, as I got more into bullet journaling, this practice of writing a journal entry on the spot went away. It was replaced by writing a journal entry based on entries I've written down on my bullet journal or daily logs in Obsidian.

At first it was great. I had so much material, so many thoughts and ideas to write about. But as time went by, I noticed that blogging this way became more like a job for me. I lost that excitement that you get with writing something on the spot and then immediately sharing it online. Not to mention, it was a chore having to go through and filter previous daily log entries to find something I can copy or write about.

I'm not saying this method of writing is bad. It's just that for me, it was no longer working. It was no longer keeping the spark for blogging alive that is. And so that's why I'm going back to more impromptu writing with this series.

My eldest son joined a competitive martial arts sport team. I am of two minds about him joining.

I was hesitant about him joining, because of the financial expenses that came with joining a sport team. And yes, I can confirm that it is expensive. There's training fees, competition specific gear you have to buy, competition registration fees, etc... Not to mention, the increased transportation expenses from having to drive him back and forth to his training sessions.

On the other hand, seeing the training that he has to go through, I can only see it benefiting him as he grows up. Not just to make him better at sparring per se, but also to forge him into a person that is mentally tough and can handle anything life throws his way.

My son was so timid and shy by the way before he started doing martial arts. Now he's confident and willing to try out anything, well except food that is. We still need to work on that LOL.

And this is because the master he is training under is very strict and demanding. He expects the best out of his students and pushes them to their limits. He's not being unreasonable though. He is not training students to win a few local competitions here and there. No, he's training them to win competitions at the highest level. The parents who let their kids join the sport team know this. I know this, although this is not the reason why I let my kid join the team.

I let my son join the sport team because I feel like this is the best way for him to get more sparring training. They do sparring in their regular classes, but most of the sparring done there is pretty mild. I want my son to be able to handle someone coming at him aggressively, someone coming at him with the intent kick him in the head. I want him to be able to fend off an attacker like that. I don't really care about him winning national competitions, if that does happen then that would be just icing on the cake.

Now I know what most people will say. Taekwondo is not that good for self-defense. Hmm yes and no. Yes, there's a lot more to self-defense than just kicking and punching. Yes they punch in Taekwondo too. You score 1 point if you do in a sparring competition LOL. But I would dare you to take a roundhouse kick to the head from one of the more competent black belts, and then tell me if you think it is effective.

Anyway, Taekwondo as a martial art to me qualifies as one of the three self-defense skills he would need; namely striking. The other two skills being grappling and weapons training. You could substitute Taekwondo with any martial art that has striking, like Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Krav Maga, etc... It just so happens that he does Taekwondo now and he really enjoys it, so why not help him really get better at it.

By the way, if you want to see a movie that showcases Taekwondo used in a self-defense setting, check out the movie “Officer Black Belt”.

Although the trailer above shows more Judo moves than kicks, there were a number of scenes in the movie where I thought Taekwondo was put to good use. There's this scene specifically, where the protagonist faced off against a guy with a knife. He used his Taekwondo skills to fight him off and subdue him.

It must be noted that they do teach the kids takedowns in my son's Taekwondo school, but they don't focus on it as much as they do with kicking.

Judo by the way, is the other martial art that I would like my kid to learn, but he's not interested, so I won't force him. Maybe I'll try to get him into BJJ. Either one will satisfy the other self-defense skill he needs, which is grappling.

So anyway, going back to talking about his master. He's old school like that and I have no problem with how he teaches. Honestly, I think everyone should experience a teacher/coach like him at least once in their life. It toughens you up. Makes you more resilient. Helps you deal with pressure at work and in life in general.

Anyway, I wanted to write more but this post has gone long enough and the environment I'm in right now is no longer conducive for writing. Let me end with one pet peeve of mine: people talking loudly on their phone in speaker mode.

Talking loudly on your phone is bad enough, but in speaker mode, in a public setting, with people around you, that should be a crime. This is happening right now as I type. I can't imagine what the guy beside her is feeling right now. Must be using up all his energy to try and ignore her. Like seriously, invest in some headsets. Or you know, you could also turn off speaker mode and put the phone on your ear.

Jeez. Anyway, if you've gotten this far, I appreciate you for taking the time to read this piece. Hope you have a great year ahead of you. Peace!

#Journal #Blogging #Writing #SelfDefense #Taewondo #MartialArts #PetPeeve

#Journal #Status #MusicVideo #JJProject #KPop

Drove the Mazdaspeed3 today. I also drove it last Monday and Tuesday. I've noticed I've been driving it more than the Mazda 3 Turbo. It's not that it's a better car than the newer Mazda 3; the Mazda 3 is a better daily driver. It's simply because I don't want to rack up miles on the newer car, especially when the Speed3 is still perfectly capable of daily driving duties.

The Speed3 might already have 145K miles on it, but it still drives well, still looks good (from afar LOL) and can still haul ass when I need it to.

The Mazda 3 on the other hand just crested 16K miles and I'm cringing already. I want it to gain miles slower than the current rate it is gaining miles at. I'm trying to save it for longer drives like road trips, and for drives where I know I will be stuck in stop and go traffic. It doesn't help that the wife tries to drive it every chance she can get. She is literally addicted to driving this car because of how good it drives, the swell of low-end torque and the ease at which it can pass other cars on the highway. Oh and did I mention, there's no wheel spin when I floor it from a stop. Not even in this colder and sometimes rainy weather.

I understand that to some, this might seem like a luxury. Every morning I get to pick which car I want to drive to work in. In a sense, it is a luxury to have that option. On the other hand, none of the two cars I have are “luxury” cars. One is an old beater that happens to be a hot-hatch from a bygone era. — (Now that's a blog post for another day, making your own beater car.) — The other, is just a Mazda 3 with a turbo engine, though the interior is really quite... I'm not gonna say luxurious, but I will say... premium.

Regardless if its a luxury or not, I can tell you how I achieved such a feat. I pay off my cars and keep driving them, instead of trading them in for a new one right after paying it off. You save so much money by not having a monthly car payment. And if you save enough of that money, you can then buy another car in the future, and still keep your old car as backup.

#Journal #Cars #Mazda #Mazdaspeed3 #Mazda3Turbo #PersonalFinance

A consequence of this event is that, I now have to eat the pancakes for breakfast. I wasn't just gonna throw it away. So I ate it. It did taste good though.

The difference between eating pancakes versus eggs for breakfast, is that I'm hungry 2 hours earlier. I'm having to snack already before my morning meetings. I usually can last close to lunch time without snacking. But not today. It's because the pancakes just don't have enough protein and fat to keep me full for a longer period of time.

#Journal

What's the point of this exercise? For me, the point is I got to rest my eyes. I work on computers all day. Spending lunch time looking at my phone will not rest my eyes. Looking at something far away in the distance does.

A bonus I got from doing this, is that I had time to think. Without my phone in front of me while eating, I thought about starting an online journal once again.

Why?

I dunno. It's something that's been nagging at me for awhile now. Every once in awhile, I get this itch to journal online.

Another thing nagging at me is this fear of losing the ability to creatively write entirely on my own, without the use of AI. I want to be able to write something at a moment's notice. I want to be able to write down something that I just thought about mere seconds ago — and explain it in my own words, in my own sentences, whether they are grammatically correct or not. I want to be able to do all that and not use AI in the process.

With the advent of AI tools, I feel that this is a skill that I will soon lose if I don't practice. And one way to practice is to blog or write journals online.

And so that's how this post ended up here.

#Journal #DigitalMinimalism #Writing