Pneumatised!

MM,

I have once again been a workaholic as of late – not enough exercise.

I did manage to squeeze in a workout last Tuesday (April 4). Nathan and I ran a half mile, then went to the gym. My time for the half mile was I did 4 minutes 48 seconds.

At the gym, we did some more cardio. I did 10 minutes on the stepmaster. Then we did our weight training.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (aka chin-ups, military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Bar pulls (works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Seated row
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift
Back extensor

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)
Bicep curl
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Wrist strengthening
Situps

After, we ran straight back from the gym, which is just about 1 km. My time was around 5 minutes. (Unfortunately, I didn’t save it on my phone, but I remember it comparable to the time I did for a half mile.)

Wednesday night, since I missed gumdo practice on Tuesday, I practiced candle begi (candle snuffing with a sword). It has been so long since I practiced that that it took me a while to get used to it again. I must have practiced between 200 and 300 sword cuts. I have to snuff out two candles on my next sword test, and I needed to practice. It’s damn hard to snuff out more than one candle with a sword. One is easy. The problem when there’s more than one candle is you may actually snuff one out, but then the candle that didn’t go out will re-light the one you snuffed out. Argh! This is more frustrating and difficult that board breaking! Hehe. At least, if you don’t break the board, you still hit the thing. You cannot hit the candle to snuff it out. That’s not the point. Candle begi is a test of how well you control your sword. Cut down swiftly and quickly stop the sword precisely where you need it to blow out the candle. Anyway, I can definitely see how some people eventually can cut watermelons and cucumbers off someone’s abdomen. All I know is right now don’t let me try that on anyone! Anyway, I got good sword cutting practice in Wednesday night even if I missed gumdo and taekwondo all last week. (And yes, I still managed to blow out one candle on its own.) This just means that I have to get to class this week. This weekend is Easter weekend – I’m expecting the do jang will be closed, so I have to go during the week. Tonight is gumdo and taekwondo. I’m making myself go (despite my workaholic brain telling me to stay home and work), and if I don’t, Nathan is allowed to kick me in the butt. 😉

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

Occasionally when I’m writing, I like to listen to some meditative music. Tonight… er, last night since it’s morning now, I was listening to Anuna. Anuna is the famous Irish choir that performs medieval and contemporary chants and songs. One of my favourite chants from them is Media Vita (pronounced “mey-dee-ah vee-tah”).

Media Vita is originally a Latin hymn said to be written by Notker Balbulus (c.840 – c.912). It later came to be used as part of the funeral rites of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. (See Wikipedia article on sequence (poetry).) The full Latin text of Media Vita is given below followed by the English translation.

Media vita in morte suumus
Quem quaerimus ad iutorem nihi site domine
Qui pro peccatis nostris

Chorus:
Sancte Deus, sancte fortis
Sancte misericor salvator
Amare morti ne tradas nos

In te speraverunt patres nostris
Speraverunt et liberasti eos
(Chorus 2x)

Media vita in morte sumus

In the midst of life we are in death
What helper do we seek except you, O Lord
You who for our sins

Chorus:
Holy God, holy and powerful
Oh holy compassionate savior
Do not give us over to the harshness of death

In you, our fathers placed their hopes
They placed their hopes and you freed them
(Chorus 2x)

In the midst of life we are in death

When I listen to this chant performed by Anuna, I can feel the power of it. Perhaps it is because the song is in Latin, and I have always found Latin to be a particularly beautiful languange. Perhaps it is because Anuna performs this chant excellently. Or perhaps there is some meaning in this chant that I find resonates with me. It is strange, but even as a pagan, I find this chant beautiful. Even realizing that it is originally written as a Christian hymn doesn’t faze me. Perhaps it is because this chant was written ages ago back when Christianity was closer to its original pagan elements. Listening to this chant, I get a sense of some of the pagan gods, most notably Jupiter (Zeus in Greek myth). Jupiter was the father god of Roman mythology, just as Zeus was the father god of Greek mythology. Perhaps Jupiter decided to hang around, even though people where intent on displacing him with a nameless, formless, transcendent god. Jupiter’s glory and power is reflected wonderfully in this song, even if the original writer may not have intended this.

Whether you are pagan or Christian or a person of any other faith, this is an amazing song as it reflects much about our relationship to god(s). I recommend giving it a listen sometime.

Media vita in morte sumus
In the midst of life we are in death

Blessings,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame

P.S. For those who know their Irish myth, yes, I have noticed that an Irish choir singing this may inadvertently attract the attention of Morrigan, fiercesome goddess of war and death. 😉

MM,

Okay, anyone who knows me well knows I love cats. I have three adorable ones and still wish I could have more. Now, every so often, I visit www.cuteoverload.com and find something totally kittenly adorable, such as these two videos below.

First up, we have this “Catboy” Slim video of the Joker. I can’t believe anyone had time to do this video. It’s hilarious. Kittens getting all dolled up to go to a Fatboy Slim concert. The catnip scene reminds me of Puss ‘N’ Boots in the Shrek 2. If you’ve seen that, you’ll know what I mean. Now, don’t forget to watch this video right to the end with the cat on the turntable dolled up in his Fatboy Slim gear. Too cute! I want to know how they got the joker cap on the kitten!

Next up, we have the “weird friendship” of a cat and a rooster. You have to watch this to believe it, but I think the cat thinks the rooster is its “Mommy”. Watch as the kitten grows up and still cuddles up with the rooster at night! Watch the cat’s “come on, let’s play” body language. Can you say, “AaaaW!” Makes me wonder about moving out to a farm… anyway, enjoy the video.

BB,
Cassandrah
(exploring cuteness as therapy for the soul – we all know what a good laugh does for us)
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

Nathan showed this letter generator awhile back. Try it out. We all have someone in our lives or had someone in our lives (if you were lucky) who has consistently aggravated us emotionally and just plain pushed our buttons. For me, it was a family member, but let’s not get into those bad memories. Just try the letter generator. Whenever so-and-so person has bugged you out, go to the letter generator and get your stress out. It will also get you to “turn that frown upside-down”. I know it worked for me.

Whoever created this did a great service. It’s therapy sure to make you feel better.

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame

P.S. Please don’t seriously consider sending the letter to “so-and-so”. That isn’t the point. The point is to get rid of your stress without having to resort to something you may regret later on.

MM,

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Nathan and I went to the gym. I have been writing most of this week so far, so I decided I needed to get some exercise at the gym.

First, I did the stepmaster. Ended up doing 21 floors in 10 minutes. Then we did the following exercises.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (again military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press (we started using a slightly different leg press that is a little harder on the quads because you don’t use your glutes as much)
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Bar pulls (works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Seated row
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift
Back extensor

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)
Bicep curl
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Wrist strengthening
Side situps and jack-knives

After we ran 1 mile from Yonge and Bloor via Church Street. My time was 8 minutes 33 seconds. It’s starting to feel like spring 🙂 and the run felt good. Without the cold air in my lungs so much I felt like I could increase my time for the 1 mile again. I should be able to do mile and half easier now and maybe next time I will try to push the speed.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Friday is gumdo day. I’ve missed doing the sword martial art. I have been an orange belt for six months. Mostly because I’ve been too busy to go to gumdo and have primarily been focussed on taekwondo and getting loads of writing and some other work done lately. But Friday I made myself go in. It was easier to do because Nathan went to aikido and I said, “Let’s go to the gym after. I’ll be motivated to go to the do jang if we have to go to the gym after.” Gumdo class on Friday is good because there is more time for the instructor to teach us things and he likes to correct our techniques and point out what we may be doing wrong (i.e., like swinging our sword out to the side too far where it may potentially pull on the shoulder – not good). We worked on our patterns of course. And I got a few more pointers on my techniques. I never think of this as correcting, but rather information that I may not have known. (If only other students would take that perspective when someone tries to help them, but that is another story and rant.) Anyway, like I said I like getting extra tips and information especially if it makes complete sense (as in it will give more power to the technique or make it feel more natural). At 7:30 I had to leave to meet Nathan and go to the gym.

When I got to the gym, I did some cardio on the elliptical. I did 0.98 miles in 10 minutes. Then I did the following exercises.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (again military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)

The gym closes at 9 p.m. on Fridays, so Nathan and I didn’t have time to do a full workout – next time.

Tomorrow there’s another black belt meeting at the do jang. I realize this is supposed to help us help the Master with the running of the do jang, but frankly it’s his do jang and he can do what he wants. I think it’s nice he wants our opinion, but I wouldn’t really argue with the things he does. He’s a good guy. There are issues that come up that I suppose he likes to have us help him with, so I suppose it’s a good thing we have these meetings. However, they do take up time and for those who know how meetings can be like… well, yes, it happens sometimes too for martial artists – we aren’t perfect people. This time we are having training too. We haven’t had black belt training for awhile, so I’m expecting this to be good. Need some traditional martial arts training.

Now, get this… tomorrow is April Fool’s Day. Yeah, that’s right, it’s April Fool’s Training Day. Hehe… you “normal” people must think us martial artists are well… fools! Whatever. It’s who we are and who I am. So deal.

Blessings,
Cassandrah
(who has a lot to say, but not enough time to say it all because she does sooo much)
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I went to the do jang last night. Our track suits are finally in, so yay! I picked up mine. Cool. I need a track suit to go running in and I needed a new spring jacket. It’s black with my do jang crest on the front and red lettering on the back.

I took the 7 p.m. class and then took the half hour crazy kicking class after. I was so tired for some reason. My knee was bothering me a little. It’s strange but sometimes it’s easier just to do cardio kicks rather than the traditional martial arts style. 🙁 Overall, though I prefer the martial arts style because it’s about proper technique and not just speed. You can build speed after you get the techniques right. I’ve seen many people who have speed, but shoddy technique.

Today is a beautiful spring day. 😀 About time. I feel more awake and I need to get work done. Thus, I’m stuck at home working, but have the cats curled up beside me. Hehe… it’s actually a nice life.

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

Saturday, March 25

Nathan and I went for a run. I have been needing to go for a run for a few days now. We planned on running the mile and a half route, but by the time I got to one mile I was crapping up in the side. I hate those. It was stupid really. I ate and drank – not plenty, mind you – about half an hour before running. For me, I don’t exercise well until about two hours after ingesting food or drink. My cramps was all my fault. I should have known better. But I did run a good mile before giving up totally and I wasn’t even that tired – I was just barely warming up. My time for a whole mile was 8 minutes 36 seconds. After the mile I had to walk the rest of the way home. Walking with a cramped side, it took me just under 12 minutes to cover a half mile. It occurs to me that running I cover the same distance in a third of the time it takes to walk. Not bad – it means that my running pace is quite efficient. That’s something to be happy about. 🙂

Sunday, March 26

Nathan and I headed out the gym in the afternoon. We walked there because I had just eaten only about thirty minutes earlier – I was not about to repeat the same thing as the other day and get side cramps. We did our weight training circuit – see the exercises below.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (again military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Bar pulls (works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Seated row
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift
Tricep extensor
Back extensor

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)
Bicep curl
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Wrist strengthening
Situps

Now considerably more time had elapsed since I ate, I did some cardio using the stepmaster machine. I did 21 floors in 10 minutes. After, we headed home by walking to Yonge and Bloor and from there running one mile. I’m glad to say I wasn’t cramping up nearly so bad as the other day. There was slight cramping, but not enough to make me want to stop running. I also slowed down a little bit just to be sure I did cramp up badly again. My time for the mile run was 9 minutes 12 seconds.

Now, some good news. I received a few days ago an email from my do jang saying that our track suits have arrived! Yay! I will now have a lovely new track suit to go running in. It will help keep me warm and hopefully be more comfortable to run in than my old high school soccer sweat shirt. It will also be stylish too. The front will have a small crest representing my do jang, World TKD, and on the back it will say “World TKD” in red lettering. The track suit is black. Cool! Tomorrow I’m going to go pick up mine. It’s been in for a few days. Of course, they arrived on a day when I couldn’t go to the do jang as I had to other places to be. Go figure.

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

Okay, I don’t play games very often because when I do I get obsessed with trying to beat them. However, my boyfriend plays games every so often. One day as he was telling me about the game, Half-Life 2, and the part where people say they won’t go to Ravenhome, I came up with this little chant:

“Hell no… we won’t go…
We won’t go… to… Ravenhome”

Sung in that taughting way that only children (and I) can, but very very slowly, I spooked my boyfriend. He wouldn’t let me sing the chant while he was playing. 😉 Though, I thought it might have been cool in the game. Hehe.

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

I have once again gotten around to updating my website by adding a few pages and modifying another. I’m very pleased to present some of my creative writing under the section “Spiritual Development”. The page “Creative Expression for Spiritual Growth” has been re-written (the former page is now “Visual Art for Spiritual Growth“) and from there you will be able to follow the links to my visual artwork and my creative writing. The creative writing section is new. Please check out this new section by going to http://www.brigidsflame.com/creative_expression.html and follow the links to “creative writing”. I hope you enjoy it.

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame