Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Return Of The King


The Return Of The King is the final volume of JRR Tolkien's famous trilogy. In it, one of the main protagonists of the storyline was prince Aragorn (pic^). Raised secretly with great privillege by the elves of Rivendell, he lived amongst the deposed people of his father's once glorious kingdom. When all hope seemed lost, he took charge of his destiny, and rallied his peoples to victory, reclaiming what was rightfully his.

Alright, all my pictures are back in melbourne so im using a picture grabbed from the internets. I've taken new pictures but i also left my cable back in melbourne. I like this picture (or screenshot...whatever) as I find Aragorn's story inspiring. When you're in a rut, and everything seems like it's going the wrong way, you need to take a long hard look at yourself and rise above it. Look at the priviledges that you have, what is available to you, and use them to your advantage. Prejudice and negative thoughts will only hold you back. I used to tell myself alot of negative things about so many things in life that now I take for granted.

Possibilities open up when you have a positive outlook on life. It's dangerous to keep thinking about the negative side of things as it makes you withdraw to your own deluded thoughts...forming preconceptions and untrue ideas about what may really hold the key to your destiny.

2009 (2008 reflection click here)
...shall come to pass with an unexpected twist in the story of my personal development. It will be remembered as the year that I came to realize my greatest shortcoming - the predesposition to form negative thoughts in my head about all sorts of things I have no real experience about. A series of events that transpired in 2009 made me realize this. Some were personal and involve family, but others I can share publicly. Take the gym for example. I take it for granted now, but merely two years ago I was telling myself that it was pointless and that playing badminton twice a week was all the exercise I needed. There are countless other missed opportunities and half hearted initiatives that failed because of too much negativity. This is what will have to change in 2010!

2010 Prelude
To approach things with a positive mindset sounds simple enough, but is really not so easy in practice. Just like weight was a major issue in 2009, this would be the major issue in 2010. Now that I am aware of it, how I go along implementing this change is yet to be determined. If anything, I do need a more contemporary approach to fashion and the kinesthetic arts.

This holiday, up till January 13 when I return to melbourne, I am undertaking an extensive program for personal fitness that would hopefully provide me with the fundamentals of kinesthetic knowledge on a solid platform of an able, physically fit body. Long story short, right I now have subscription to not one, but TWO gyms (ok, one expires soon so i had to start another that ends on Jan 13). A new gym opened up just downstairs in my condo, and it has a really awesome program going. Here is my schedule for the week:

Monday: Krump, NYC Hip Hop, USMC Kettle Bell Circuit
Tuesday: Badminton, Oz Hip Hop
Wednesday: Capoeira, Strength Circuit
Thursday: Badminton, Seoul Hip Hop
Friday: Bounce, Tokyo Funk, Vogue and Wack In
Saturday: Strength Circuit
Sunday: BMW Program

It's pretty packed. Between sessions, I steal the occasional set at the cable fly machine or do dumbell exercises. I only effectively do a body building circuit twice a week (strength circuit). The focus is not go have bulging muscles, but to have a nice toned body. Capoeira is heaps of fun. It's a brazillian martial art that feels more like a dance. I really like the new gym that opened downstairs, they have a very contemporary approach to bodybuilding and their USMC (military style) kettle bell circuit tones just about every muscle in the body. I only go to Celebrity Fitness twice a week now for strength training. Love the LifeFitness wide/narrow/medium pullup bars.

Dance classes are done by StreetNation, and all the instructors are veteren professional dancers. Kudos to to Eddy, Eric and Seven. I have no experience whatsoever in hip hop and dont even listen to it but I found dancing it interesting. It has a basic groove that involves more of the abs and shoulders and a bit less of the hips unlike Salsa. The Krump is an awesomely macho dance, while the different flavours of hip hop all have their own feel to it. Tokyo Funk is interesting...think Jackson 5 or MC Hammer.

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