Yoshitoshi's World

I woke up this morning with this question in my mind: What's balance?

In the metaphysical or conceptual sense, balance is used to mean a point between two opposite forces that is desirable over purely one state or the other, such as a balance between the metaphysical Law and Chaos — law by itself being overly controlling, chaos being overly unmanageable, balance being the point that minimizes the negatives of both.

I remember when I took on my own the studies of the "balanced scorecard" and its functionality in the corporate world. I found it fascinating how its concept and analytics brought all the different teams (HR, finance, management, marketing, R&D, IT, etc) and their levels together in a common page to achieve the ultimate corporate goal = the achievement of the strategic plan and perhaps some form of corporate harmony?

Perhaps the "balanced scorecard", Law and Chaos, Buddhism, ecology, and other ideas/concept based on "balance" are right... and all we (as human or just me...) need to do is translate them into our personal life (which can be a hard task itself)... in order to continue to improve and grow... in order to be more human... in order to get closer to the Supreme Force...

Running: I believe the half marathon and full marathons ideas were "not balanced" and a little too much of the extreme. I will continue training and hopefully be able to run a half at some point during this year. Nevertheless, I actually feel I've found my "niche" on the mid distance running... It is still challenging and pushing, but it goes faster! I am super enjoying the 5K thus far... I will go for a 10K soon... and from there see where that leads me to...

Yesterday's 5K (3.1 mile) time and new record for me: 26.26.86
Splits:
1 mile = 8.37.41
2 mile = 8.24.69
3 mile = 8.36.73
0.1 mile = 4.8.03

Yeayiee.... what a beautiful day! I am alive and the weather is great... can't wait to go for a run :)

Thus far I’ve been able to keep up with my training. I am excited. I like the way I feel (mostly sore but that’s the kind of “good” pain). I keep on challenging myself to other levels… I am sure the more I do this training the more wacko I am going to get in my ruinings… I am so ready to try some trail running… Mmm maybe this weekend or next one….

I am glad it is Friday and a long weekend waits for me. I am really looking forward spending time with my love… it has been 5 days since the last time we saw each other… wow time goes by slow and fast at the same time!

I was really surprised that my friend Liza asked me about how I was doing… it seemed to her I was not the same old same old… but can you blame me? At times I don’t feel happy or super WOWOWOWOWOW, but I don’t feel any need to worry about work… personal life… and my beautiful self….

Well, is it time to go? I will like to escape from work right now… it should be really nice out, the weather has been perfect lately…

Yup... I started my training again... I had a great run last night (even though I was still feeling a little under the weather)... the afternoons/early evenings at Asheville are getting prettier and prettier... just like a baby. How come? You know... babies are sort of ugly when they are born (they look like ET) and then as they start to grow up they sort of get cute especially if they have a good gene pool LOL ayy that sounded kind of mean but LOL it is all true! LOL LOL LOL

OK where was I? Oh yeah... training LOL... Yup... I am back on track... did a little over 30 min = a little over 6 laps around the park. The problem is that I don't know what each lap = in miles or/and km so I am sort of lost in that area... Mmmm I might do some research and find out more about the park measurements!

In my blogging research I came around this blog from Miki... she does some long distance - ultra marathon running and a good source of help/inspiration (I like her group of crazy long distance runner friends):http://shortangryperson.blogspot.com/ She was telling me about the Where's Waldo 100K in Aug... that should be interesting!! Thanks for your advice and encourangement "Angry Short Person" LOL.

OK.. time to go, get the heck out of work and do my 40 min run and then shoulders work-out... I am hungry!!! LOL Why am I always hungry??? LOL I am so ready for a burrito and a cold beer... but that's tomorrow with my friend Liza... Mmmm

It was a good weekend… kind of a “go-go” one, but overall I had a good time… the only part I am disappointed is that I have busted my halfie training as I was not able to do my 3 mile on Sunday. Anyways, this is a summary of the weekend:

Friday: after work I went to get a haircut so I would look decent for the DA5 event. After the haircut, went home and got ready… arrived Downtown at 6 and from there it was an adventure to find a freaking parking spot. During that process, I met with some of the “young” guys from work and we had a good talk in our way to DA5. When I arrived to DA5 I went into full gear pouring beer at the international beer booth.

After an hour or so of being there I was promoted (LOL) to the “common people beer booth” where it was madness! I didn’t stop for a second… I kept on pouring beer and laughing at Jason’s (one of my “gays”) comments about the beer and people. Let me tell you, that booth was “gay-lesbian central” OMG this was the first time I came in contact with sooooo many gay/lesbian people from Asheville LOL… and the best part they actually looked like nice/decent people… and the girls looked like girls with a brain and profession LOL…. I was amazed!

Saturday: Forget about it!

Sunday: I woke up around 11 am feeling sick and tired. Cleaned the house, tried to get ticket for the Smashing Pumpkins (which it was impossible because their ticket server crashed), went back home… had lunch… took a little nap that lasted about 5 hrs LOL, woke up at almost 8 pm… had dinner… cleaned my shoes… and went back too bed…. I didn’t do my training; I was feeling really weird/sick…

So here I am… at work… thinking about just starting my training again… what a shame!

Some pictures of the marvelous cat-dog Herr Faust Picasso, doing what he does the best strike the pose!

TGIF that’s all I can say… it has been a tough week with the budget saga at work… it is getting down to the clicking time of giving some numbers to my boss and I still don’t have all the elements of the “puzzle”, perhaps I am thinking in a “stratedigy” of giving him some Bushisms such as:

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it." --George W. Bush, Reuters, May 5, 2000

"This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th." --George W. Bush, on the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2006

Probably that won’t work, but I can try! At least I might make him laugh and be more compassionated with me LOL…

How sad… that’s all I can say… Cougars lost on the third round of the playoff vs. Charlotte Catholic… How sad! We had a big cheering army… even stopped raining so we could have a good game… how sad!!! We hang in there and I believe dominated the second half… we were tied 0-0… 70 minutes into the game… Goaaaaal Charlotte scored… with only 10 min left we were not able to score… we had our changes… but nothing… nothing was going in… HOW SAD!!!!!!! I am still proud of the Asheville girls they gave their all and perhaps next year might be our year to break the curse of “booted out at the 3rd round”….

In other news, I started my half-marathon training on Monday and thus far I’ve been able to follow the plan although at times my body reminds me that I am not as young as I used to be when I used to train track and field with the National Team (back in CRC), plus long distance training is WAY different than what I used to do… I know some people don’t believe me or understand, but that’s ok… I am very excited about being back in a training routine, I feel much better and I can even feel and see the difference in my body (I like your sexy back yeah… LOL).

Thus far this is what has happened:
Monday: 4.3 miles in 40 min on the elliptical machine (hill - level 6) + shoulders work-out routine
Tuesday: 3 miles in 31.5 min on the treadmill (hill - level 3) + light legs work-out
Wednesday: 3.2 miles in 30 min on the elliptical machine (hill - level 6) and then get the heck out fast to go home and get ready to see the Cougars…

Today I was supposed to get up early and do my 30-40 min run, but I was not able to do it… I couldn’t even move… I was really tired… so now I have to do it before I can go out tonight and meet with some friends to watch the baseball game and have some $1 beers LOL (you know how can you let go a beer for a buck right!?)…

My objective is to do my first half marathon in no more than 2hr 30min… I think it can be possible… and then go down in time on my sub sequential ones… Until I get to be an elite athletic and do a half marathon in 1:30:00 LOL LOL LOL ok that is a little too wacko LOL I am kidding!!!! Sure probably if I stop working and just train maybe I can do that, but I don’t think that would be really wise…

For some reason lately I’ve been feeling like my communication in English is getting a little harder… I can hear myself and my accent is stronger than other weeks and months… My vocabulary is becoming more limited or at least it feels like that at times and the formulation of sentences and conversations feel like spaghetti in my brain LOL. The weirdest thing is that I don’t speak Spanish with anyone at all… last week I got to practice it a little bit, but we are talking about speaking Spanish for max 10 min or so…

I think maybe the problem or part of it is that I actually don’t get to practice English that much LOL LOL… How come? Well, I don’t get to talk that much… mostly due to the fact that I am a very introverted person and I am not into “ok let’s form a speaking club” or something like that… I get to talk to people when I need/must to or when I find interesting people to have a conversation with… Other than that, I pretty much spend my days at the office where no one bothers me (well Robert is the only person that drops by my office to talk for a little bit), then home to talk in “cat tongue” and then the gym where I don’t speak…

Anyways… This is the summary of my weekend:

Friday: Forget about it!

Saturday: I went to the gym and did about 2 hrs of just legs. That was a little too much I must say… I was in a little bit of pain when I finished, but heck I thought it would just go away… but no! Today I can barely move LOL and I am supposed to start my halfie training… ouch… I’ll do what I need to do and follow my training schedule, but gosh I am in pain!

Anyways, later that day I went to Jus Running to buy the pair of running shoes I so desperately need in order to do my training. Some chick there measured my foot, saw me walk, etc and was a lot of help with the process… at the end I bought some Mizuno shoes, they were very comfortable and the only ones I didn’t feel like Bozo… I am not used to the long distance shoes… they are bigger and just weird LOL…. Please remember that this is coming from a jumper/hurdles person and the shoes I used to train and run in were way different! Another issue I have to adjust and even learn to for the halfies is to run in a different way not on my tiptoes… stay tune on this one for it is going to be a BIG challenge!

At night, I went to see the Cougars’ game… wow it was the toughest game I’ve seen and that is taking into consideration the World Cup LOL. My Cougars’ ended up tied 1-1, so they went to a double OT of 10 min each, then to a double subtle death of 5 min each, and then to a second round of penalty kicks… in there the girl from the other team missed the kick and we won… the game started at 7 p.m. and ended at 10:45 p.m. Amazing girls… they gave their all at that game… Poor Matt was still catching up his breath LOL. Next game is Wednesday and that should be a good/tough one against Charlotte Catholic… another one that you need to stay tune!

Sunday: I met with some ladies from a group called LIMS and we went hiking to Craggy Gardens (see picture above). It was a lot of fun… I really enjoyed meeting them and having some good conversations, mostly about relations…The day was beautiful and just great for being outdoors hiking! From there, we went to Old Fort to a Pow-Wow event and that was a total bust! I didn’t like it that much… I mean maybe if I were into Native American stuff I would have been “oh wow” but I am not… LOL

Therefore, I decided to leave a little early… went home… took a nice shower… and went downtown to do my Sunday routine: watch people! I stayed outside on the Flying Frog and had a delicious Mojito, read a little bit of a book, watched people, took a look at the Blue Ridge map planning future hikings, and from there went to Blockbuster. I finally decided to rent some movies… I am sort of behind on that area… so now I am doing a review of movies based on how disturbing/weird they are LOL 0 being the least and 5 the most… Also, I have a new mission of watching ALL the movies on this store’s foreign movies section… 0 being the worse to 5 the best…

And that’s it for now… I’ll keep you posted on the Cougars and my training!

Nanu Nanu!

It is official... I've been Cougarnized… I am officially a self-proclaimed Asheville Girls Soccer – Cougars - fan! They are feisty little girls I must say… they play great and they give their all… I am so proud of them!

I watched them last week when they won over North Buncombe (4-1) to win the MAC and now they are on the NCHSAA playoffs…

Yesterday, in their first playoff game, they MURDERED (for real! The other team never had a chance!!!) Fred T. Foard 6 – 0, I mean a whooping 6 – 0!!!!!!!!!!! Our goalie only saw one nanosecond of action… LOL for real!

Now I can understand why parents get all crazy about their kids playing... I mean I was jumping up and down screaming "goooooooooooooalllllllllllll" and ready to take off my shirt and do the "airplane" celebration everytime our Cougars scored LOL...

Next game is this Saturday at 7 pm… and although I already had plans to meet some friends at La Paz… I will go and have a “quick” Margarita and then go to support my girls…

Way to go Coach Matt, your girls are AWESOME!!! (BTW, great picture!!!), I’ll be there Saturday… this time it is Argentime… I’ll be wearing my Argentina soccer jersey (you see… the first game I saw them play I was wearing Brazil’s jersey, yesterday the USA jersey, Saturday is Argentina’s… then if we keep on winning I might have to buy new jerseys to continue the tradition… you know once you start something don’t break the spell!!) and we’ll continue moving on the playoff.

How exciting!!!

Upcoming news: it is official people… I’ll be starting my training for a half-marathon (aka halfie) on 5/14/07… the first one will be in Sept… I am still debating which one, but I will publish my schedule of “possible halfies” soon… First, I need to get some running shoes this Saturday :) yeaaayiieee! Stay post!

At times I find myself with the feeling I can’t breathe… It is a built up on my chess, a lack of oxygen going to my brain, the built up of the stress and frustrations and the lack of way to externalize this weird feeling to the point of draining me… and I feel exhausted…

I try to keep my perspective up, after all, life is beautiful and everything is working the way it should, maybe way too good to be true… and then I get hit with this feelings or lack of them? I am not sure… I just hope it goes away…

I am drained, I am tired, and it seems that everything hurts and my brain keeps on focusing on the gloomy out coming of life when there is not much I should be seeing blue/gloomy…. I don’t feel the same way… It is really hard to get out of bed, I am not interested on talking to people or being around them... even with those I cherish, and it is very difficult to keep a conversation with someone out-side of work (of course, work conversations are always dried, short, and cold maybe that's why I can keep up with those...). I go to bed late, wake up late, get to work late, and leave work late... I am always late!

Couple days ago I bought me a bonsai. I have gave bonsais to friends in important times, to reminding them that I can be of good support like a tree… but I never thought of getting one for me because I am not good with plants (I even killed a cactus!). Nevertheless, this time I decided to get a little Juniper that I named Batistuta (in honor of my favorite soccer player Gabriel Batistuta aka BatiGol) to remind me that everything in life (especially the most important-delicate things like love and friendships) are like trees… you really need to put time on them, keep the bugs out of them, and just take care of them in order to grow and have a healthy-fulfilling life… Hopefully Batistuta won’t die on me…

Tomorrow will be another day and I am sure the sun will shine… it is my choice, right?