6.9

 Last week I had a bit of a scare with my van, as when I got out of school for the day I saw this giant puddle under my front bumper.

When I first saw this, I started to panic, as I still needed to get back to Spruce Grove from NAIT. After panicking for a few seconds, I calmed myself down and started to run through some diagnostics. First thing I did was find out what fluid it was. I dipped. my finger in it and it turned out to be oil. It wasn't worst case scenario, as I keep spare oil in my van at all times. Following that I checked my oil to see where it was at. I've known for awhile that my van likes to consume a little bit of oil between oil changes, which typically occur every 5000 kilometers or 6 months. Since I did my last oil change 5 months ago in March, I have gone just over 8000 kilometers, so more than I would typically do. When I checked the oil, it was right around where I expected it to be, which was good, but confusing. Now I have a big oil leak from an engine that wasn't leaking oil. Weird. Finally I called my Dad to get a second opinion on what to do, and I ended up getting the vehicle over to he dealership to get a quick inspection, which revealed nothing of concern. 

I think I handled this situation better than I would've without my training in Kung Fu & in the automotive field, as the Kung Fu helped me calm myself and the automotive knowledge helped me do quick diagnosing.

6.8

 Last Monday was my first public demo of the year, as I had been working for all the previous ones. It was good to get back into a performance, as I definitely felt a bit rusty. My weapon form felt fairly good, but it could use some refinements. Being in the dragon again was fun, but I definitely felt it for awhile after. Doing both back to back also showed me that my cardio isn't quite where it needs to be, which is good to know. 

19390 push ups

19390 sit ups

565 M'long Koon

465 Hockey Stick Form

787 Kilometers

6.7

After missing the last two demo's, I will finally be able to participate in one on Canada Day. I am really looking forward to this, as I have missed participating in the demos. The practice on Thursday showed me that I need to get my stage confidence back, as I messed up my hand form in different ways every time. The first time was the worst however, as I did the wrong section of form that would've ended at the part I don't know yet. But the rest weren't as bad, just stumbling in a few places. Overall I'm feeling good about getting back into demo mode, and getting ready to perform again.

19040 push ups

19040 sit ups

478 M'long Koon

478 Hockey Stick Form

692 Kilometers

6.6

I stopped in at the Tiger Challenge yesterday after work to say hi and see how it was going. I caught the last bit of the level two Young Dragons, and most of the level one adult Pool Noodle Sword Fighting. From the brief amount that I saw, it looked like most people were having lots of fun, which was good to see. It still sucks that I wasn't able to attend this year, but I'm glad that everyone seemed to be enjoying theirselves for the short amount of time that I was there.

6.5

 This year a few requirements have gotten technically “harder” for me. They are all requirements about mandatory attendance at events. They have gotten "harder" because I currently work every Saturday until 12 at the earliest, typically later. This directly conflicts with most of our events, such as the Tiger Challenge or the Farmers Day Parade, which both take place during Saturday mornings. This is the first year that this has become a conflict for me, as I only started my job in August of last year. I’m going to be in school until the end of August, so my work schedule will got back to normal after that for a bit, but of course that’s after most of our team events for the year.

6.4

 I would typically reserve the Tiger Challenge blog for after it happens, like most people do. However this year I felt like getting a head start so I'm writing it now. Jokes aside, I won't be writing a reflection blog on the Tiger Challenge this year as I won't be participating. I would really like to, but I will be working instead. This is the first year that I can remember where I won't be in the Tiger Challenge, which does make me somewhat sad. If I was still working full time then I would've attempted to get the 25th off, but since Saturdays are currently the only day that I work, I'm not really able to do that. I know that this may not be the most "insightful" blog after last nights meeting, but it is by far the one that I needed to write the most.

7020 push ups

10250 sit ups

205 M'long Koon

205 Hockey Stick Form

425 Kilometers

6.3

 Going into this year I was undecided what I was going to do for a weapon form. I had just done cane, with stick the year before, sword and nunchucks in the few years before that. I decided I wanted to do something different, but I wasn't sure what exactly that would be. I knew that I wanted it to be something that isn't usually seen as a weapon. This led me to pick a hockey stick. I figured that since I haven't ever played a game of hockey, and that I haven't been in a pair of skates since grade 5 that a hockey stick would be the perfect choice for me. I knew it would be a challenge getting used to the length and shape, since I was used to a regular staff. I also knew that if I wanted, chunks of my previous forms would still work since the general shape is still similar to a cane and a staff. So that's what I did for my beta form. I didn't have an ending figured out yet, so I took the ending from the demo version of my cane form as a placeholder for the beta version. I'm going to ditch the last few moves that I showed on Thursday, and make the form longer and make a new ending that doesn't share almost every move with my ending from last year.

3900 push ups

6240 sit ups

110 M'long Koon

110 Hockey Stick Form

246 Kilometers