Passions and Distractions

I believe this would be classified as a ‘lifestyle’ blog, though it wasn’t quite my intent at the time of starting. I mean, my first few posts in 2014 were about nothing at all. And I mean nothing. Then 2015 happened. And, well, I’ll let the posts speak for themselves. It wasn’t until mid-2015 when I started to feel like myself again, but that’s also when my posting became irregular and put to the wayside. But I want to start posting again. I want to start showing people that I’m good and will continue to be good. And so, fresh on the heels of last week’s post (which you can read here), I’ve decided to take my own advice and slow down for a bit. What I realized by doing that, and reading previous blog posts, is that I seem to have four (4) passions going on here.

Passion number one (1)

 

A very small selection of my Comic Books

I’m a dork. Through and through. In fact, my first few posts of 2014 highlight this. Although not exclusively (because dork-ish material is mentioned throughout my posts), entries such as:

The Expo Experience
An Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age
Time of Legends, An Age of War
The Superhero Effect
Why Do We Fall?

The Expo Series (Links to the entries can be found at the bottom of the post)

Europe, I Am In You! starts off with mention of Eek Fest

Why Stay?

Expo Ahead (I promised posts from the Expo, but, well, they aren’t coming. Sorry!!)

Passion number two (2)

Yoga Mat and Aikido Gi

Fitness seems to be up there too. Or lack of fitness. I mean, I start with good intentions but they never, ever, seem to amount to much at all. Those can be found in posts along the lines of:

The Martial Art of Peace
The Mats
Operation: Superhero
Orange Is The New Fit
For the Love of the Run
A Mindful Triathlon

Passion number three (3)

Notebook, Ink, Ink Well, and Bamboo Calligraphy Pen

Writing. I’ve alluded to it over and over (and I’m pretty sure I’ve stated it on more than one occasion). Writing is my career goal. I have two diplomas in Children’s Literature (from the wonderful folks at the Institute of Children's Literature) and wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve posted a few stories (links below), but the regular posts on this blog are in no way indicative of my skill as a writer. Nothing here is very polished at all. My writing posts can be found by clicking the links below:

The Page Turns
And She Still Got On That Train

Teddy Bear In The Locker (quite possibly my most polished story to date)

A Musical Interlude (if Teddy Bear In The Locker is the most polished, Gaining Music might be my go-to story… Tough choice…)

Wordsmithing - My Timeless Goal
A Story With a Life of its Own
Friends With Benefits. Writing Benefits.
A Whole New World

Passion number four (4)

A small collection of travel-related books

And finally, what seems to be my most written about topic: Travel. Sure, they may not be my most read blog posts, but they are the ones that I find the most fun to write. And if I’m having fun writing them, there has to be a passion there, right? You can find links to all my travel related posts by clicking on this link here:

The Wandering Jedi

I’ve also mentioned a new and upcoming trip in this post here, but by clicking on The Wandering Jedi, there’s links to all my strictly travel-related posts at the bottom.

Adding it all together

Adding it all together, you get a very disorganized blog. Four passions in one online corner. It’s a tad crowded, don’t you think? Well, that’s soon to be rectified. I’m looking to make a dedicated blog for at least one of those passions of mine. Not saying that it will take that passion away from this blog here, but I’m hoping to make those posts a bit more polished and thorough than what you’ll find here. After all, this is the Distracted Jedi. And distractions are kind of my stock in trade.

Sinceriously,

-Chad

A Mindful Triathlon

My blogging has been failing lately. I know it. I haven’t done much of anything really. Unless I’m out with my friend Cassie, I’ve been at home attempting to save money. That means putting time onto working on a costume for the Edmonton Expo, or playing either Dragon Age: Inquisition or Batman: Arkham Knight. Not a whole heck of a lot going on currently.

However, on August 29^th, my friend Mandy and I did Wanderlust 108 down in the Edmonton River Valley. Usually the events that I go to involve comic books, video games, and/or media guests from television and movies. But this one was an active event. A 5km run, two hours of yoga, and a half-hour of guided meditation. Hopefully participating in that would boost the lacking physical activity that I’ve been missing lately.

The run was the part that I was worried about. I only really started running this year, and by no means is it on any regular basis. But this 5k wasn’t competitive at all. That appealed to me. It didn’t matter how fast I went or what place I crossed the finish in. It’s cliché to say, but ‘the only true competition is with yourself’. As long as you do better than previously you’re winning. And I did. I haven’t been able to make it to 5km in my running previously. I have a route that I follow and It’s just shy of 4km. This time I made the 5km mark. A good accomplishment.

Following the dash through the River Valley, it was time to set up the yoga mats for two hours of yoga. Something about yoga outdoors (or any activity for that matter) has a different feel than doing it in a studio. It’s hard to describe… Maybe more of a feeling of contentment, if that makes any sense. Less like you’re going to be judged. I don’t know. As I said, it’s hard to describe.

Anyway, two hours of yoga. That’s the first time I did yoga since just before I left for Spain. The second time I’ve done yoga since the beginning of November last year. Needless to say, I was feeling tight and sore all over.  It was very much needed and I’ve been thinking since then that I need to get back into doing it. Hopefully once I have a bit more of a steady income again I can return to both yoga and aikido.

After yoga was a half-hour or so of guided meditation. Unfortunately I found that the meditation part wasn’t anything stellar. But it was still nice to just be still and allow the accomplishments of the day to soak in.

The day closed out with a brief wander around their market place and dinner at Kyoto for some sushi. If there was one thing that I could eat for the rest of my life, it would be sushi. And Kyoto has always been good to me when I’ve gone in before.

Wanderlust 108 was a great experience! Yoga (and other internal arts) is becoming more and more ‘mainstream’ and attracting more people to it all the time. I can only hope that events like this become more common around the city. I, for one, will definitely be going again.

If you’re interested, you can read about the Wanderlust Festivals by clicking the link here.

Sinceriously,

-Chad

And Back to Reality

Summer. It’s more than half way over now and I haven’t accomplished much of anything since I’ve been back home from my Barcelona trip. Not for a lack of planning, mind you. I blame a complete and total lack of effort and motivation on my part.

I’ve been wanting to write more. Get back into things that I used to enjoy doing. Now that I don’t have anyone to focus on, I can focus on me and my happiness. And writing makes me happy. Besides, I’ll never achieve my goal of being a novelist if I don’t write. Luckily I have a couple of friends that I can talk to about writing and keep the flow of ideas and motivation coming.

Ah, fitness. I’ve wanted to be more active and eat better for quite a while now. Going through older posts on here, fitness seems to be a somewhat ongoing (though never accomplished) theme for me. Hmm… Perhaps I’ll try creating a schedule and stick to that. I need to come up with a routine and hold myself to it. And once I have more steady pay and my finances in order, I can head back to aikido and yoga for some structured and guided classes once more. Besides, I feel very strongly that Operation: Superhero needs to happen.

While we are mentioning steady pay and finances, it’s an unfortunate fact that I need to start job hunting. Not only for the sake of keeping my roof over my head or allowing me to take to the mats in both aikido and yoga, but for fun and social activities as well. Edmonton is a city of summer festivals. When we have winter for as long as we do, we need to make up for lost time in the summer. However, those events do cost money (and some are quite expensive). I’m all for free fun such as walking through the River Valley, but sometimes you just need to treat yourself and perhaps someone else to an event.

Sinceriously,

-Chad

Summer - 2015

I’ve kind of been failing as a blogger lately. Unfortunately I haven’t had the energy or motivation to write much as of late. And aside from my attempts to have a bit of a social life, nothing worthy of note has really happened lately. But there are things coming up in the next few months that I am looking forward to!

It all starts today. May 20^th. My last shift with the Government of Canada for the year. It’s a bit of a bittersweet day for me. On one hand it’ll be nice to be able to get a bit more sleep than I have been getting, and a bit more free time to do some trip planning. However, it is also the end of my steady pay cheques for the year and saying good bye to friends until my next contract or I can get on permanently.

Next up is EekFest in St. Albert on May 30^th and 31^st. One of the two guests this year is Caity Lotz from Arrow. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Arrow is one of my all time favourite shows and any time one of the cast members is at a convention it is a huge selling point for me. I’m looking forward to my photo-op and adding her signature to my growing collection.

Then the time has come to say good bye to family and friends for three weeks. June 2^nd is the departure date for Europe 2015. I can’t describe how much I’m looking forward to it. It is a much needed trip. When I first booked my flights back in February, I was very much running away from life and the cruel curveball that fate threw my way. But now this trip has turned into so much more. It’s something I’m doing for myself, and that is a huge step. You can ask anyone I know and chances are they will say that I very rarely do anything for me. I very much focus on other people. That in itself isn’t a bad thing, but if you focus on others too much, you lose yourself. That’s what happened to me. I lost myself and then when I lost someone I cared about deeply I had nothing to return to. Now I get to learn about me.

When I get back from adventuring in the giant world, I get to hunt for steady work. Wish me luck in this endeavor. It is very much going to be needed.

The last event of the summer, my friend Mandy and I are going to be doing Wanderlust 108 at the end of August. A 5km run, outdoor yoga and meditation. It’s another thing that I’m highly looking forward to. I’ve let my fitness and general wellbeing fall to the way side for far too long. It’s time to put ME first and I’m looking forward to the experience.

That’s the summer plans. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit some camping and fishing in as well. I said way back here that 2015 was going to be my year. Well, it looks like summer is mine to experience.

Sinceriously,

-Chad

For the Love of the Run

Lately I’ve been doing some running to keep myself active and fit. With my trip less than two months away, I can’t afford to go to aikido at the moment. The fees just aren’t in my budget and to be brutally honest, I don’t have the energy for it at the moment either. But running, that’s a free exercise and it’s good for you!

I’ve never been a huge runner. I went a little bit last year and bought a pair of running shoes, but by mid-June I was run out and only wore my runners once more when I did my free OrangeTheory class at the beginning of February. So it came as a huge surprise to me when I felt like I wanted to go running. Why would I want to do that? I’m not big on running! What is going on???

I threw on some workout gear, laced up my shoes and set my Nike+ Running app on my phone to track me as I ran. That first run of the year… Oh man was I sore. My legs felt like Jell-O and I was coughing like a smoker when I got back home (I don’t smoke, by the way) and it was only 1.47km!! But you know what? It felt good. I was active. I was doing something. I wasn’t thinking, or sitting on the couch with the TV on. I was keeping up with how I want Operation: Superhero to go.

Since that first run just over a week ago I have gone a couple more times (both of which have been over 3.3km) and have started to feel better about running. In fact, I’m considering doing a 5km run in July! I think that would be a good goal to work towards and keep me active and motivated.