November 24th - Sleeping All The Time

I still do pushups everyday.

My Thoughts 💭 个人想法

I have been sleeping a lot for the past few weeks while working 7 day weeks. Its been hard mentally but seeing my bank account go up in such large increments is a big motivator that has pushed me to work so hard for 3 weeks. I'm now at 2,800-ish dollars in the bank and I plan on working hard again hoping to get another 5,000 saved up so that I can afford my travel and possibly stay at Maling Kung Fu School for 1.5 years or maybe even 2 years... which would be amazing. 

So, my previous post talked about me changing my plan a little bit (and to be honest it changes every day) but I think I'll do some online courses while in China to get me some certificates for schooling. I might take Google's IT Support program and take Code Academy courses to buff up my computer programming skills. I looked at doing actual university classes but, dang it, those are expensive. We'll see.

"Every day, practice ways that you can follow your bliss. At work or at home, do the things you love to do as often as you can. This will increase your feelings of being successful, regardless of the outcome of your efforts." 

-Jerry Lynch, Thinking Body, Dancing Mind, pg 108 

I also dusted off the Thinking Body, Dancing Mind book that I have and read a chapter called "Fear of Success"; it helped a lot as it seemed to directly talk about what I'm dealing with. How when you're close to your goal you start to doubt yourself, people close to you start changing a little bit, and things like that. I think its a pretty neat coincidence that I stopped reading it only for me to start reading it at the right time.

Today's Vocabulary 📖 词汇 

视频的词汇

狂风暴雨 kuáng fēng bào yǔ "Crazy wind, deadly rain"

开药 kāi yào "to perscribe medicine" (verb)

吃药 chī yào "to take medicine" (verb)

下药 xià yào "to poison" (verb)

伸展 shēn zhǎn "to stretch" (verb)

偷懒 tōu lǎn "to goof off, to be lazy" (verb)

有效 yǒu xiào "effective, valid" (adj)

谋财害命 móu cái hài mìng "to murder for money/gain" (idiom)

颜值 yán zhí "attractiveness index" (noun)

生产力 shēng chǎn lì "production, productivity" (noun)

冒着 mào zhe "to brave, to face dangers" (verb)

视频的对话

今天狂风暴雨，你还出门？

我得去健身啊！教练说了，运动要有效，一定要每天做，不能偷懒。

你们那是什么教练呀，这样的天气还让你们去运动？这是谋财害命吧！

话可不能这么说，教练是为了我好！

 哇！你们教练给你下了什么药？

 什么药也没下，每次还得劈叉拉筋，痛得要命，不过，他颜值高啊哈哈哈！

呵，原来是为了看帅教练，高颜值就是生产力啊。

就是啊！所以我现在愿意冒着风雨出门，我走喽！

聊天的新词

换气 Huàn qì "to take a breathe (swimming)" (verb)

升职 shēng zhí "to promote/ promotion" (verb/noun)

世界 shìjiè "world" (noun)

弄啥嘞 nòng shà lei "What are you doing?"

慢慢来 màn man lái "Take your time"

敦煌小亭 dūnhuáng xiǎo tíng "Dunhuang Pavilion"

坚定 jiāndìng "firm, strong" (adj)

我拿走了它 wǒ ná zǒule tā "I took it away"

喉咙 hóulóng "throat" (noun)

摘抄/摘记 zhāichāo/zhāijì "to excerpt/ to take notes" (verb)

情绪化 qíngxù huà "emotional" (adj)

小财迷 xiǎo cáimí "money grubber" (noun)

会员 huìyuán "member" (noun)

I'm still studying a little bit every day. The big thing I'm doing is trying to sound more native and expand my vocabulary so even watching videos about small things, like "How to use 吧" or "how to ask someone how their day was", help me. 

The big thing with each lesson I study, similar to how you study martial arts forms, is that you take at least one thing from it and are able to use it. I know I don't remember every word from every lesson but I am able to remember and use a handful of them which helps my Chinese. For me, learning how to use different sentence structures and idioms is the hardest to remember but I still try and thats the big thing. You have to try even if you will be wrong.

Today's Move 🥋 今天的动作

Not the best picture I know...

Today's move is called 斩手下劈掌 (zhǎn shǒu xià pī zhǎng) or "Chopping Hand Into Downward Splitting Palm". It is the sixth move in 先天罗汉十八手.

Chinese Explanation:

接上势

身体左转再右转

左脚向左跨步

右脚回收 

脚尖点地

两腿屈膝，下蹲成丁步

同时，左手内旋上摆

随后下落

屈劈立于胸前

掌心向右，掌指向上

右手下落上指

向下劈掌于右膝外侧下方

掌心向左

目视右下方

Following the previous move, turn your body to the left and then to the right. The left foot takes a step to the left and the right foot follows with tip toes touching the ground. Both legs bend the knees, squatting down into "Ding Bu" (T-Stance). At the same time, the left hand circles and swings upward then falls downward bending the arm infront of your chest. Palm center facing to the right and the fingers pointing upward. Right hand falls downward infront of the right knee turning into chopping hand. Palm inward. Eyes look to the right downward.

This is apart of my "Learning 先天罗汉十八手" daily move series that will be going thru all 23 moves over the next 23 days. Hopefully at the end we will all be able to perform this wonderful form!

 

I keep writing, even though its not everyday. I've got a couple of ideas to get this blog some traffic though!

 

-Johnny