And a stick of buttah...

This is totally a blast from the past...



For some reason I remember it slightly differently though. Amazing what time will do to your memories. Crazy animation!

As for my 'planned post' on Competition... Yeah I'm horrible at planning posts. I think I'm much better at random updates.

Freerunning Philosophy

Sébastien Foucan is one of the founders of Parkour and considered the father or founder of Freerunning.

On his website is the following (along with lots of other cool stuff, go check it out) philosophy of freerunning that I just love:

**********

Freerunning is an evolution. Move like an animal. be fluid like water or find your own balance with a certain philosophy. This is the path of the Freerunner. Be focused within yourself more than the outside world.

The most important Freerunning advice is to follow your own path, your intuition - Make progress step by step. Don’t forget to find the path towards your own balance - Your own rhythm is essential to enjoyment and understanding Freerunning”.

Sébastien believes in the concepts of:

No violence
No violence, no destruction! Be focused on Passion and Creativity

No competition
Do not seek a prize, don’t compete against others! Competition is an illusion, where only the winners are remembered and losers forgotten you can learn from it, but it’s not The Way. In the Freerunning philosophy there is no Loser. The journey is more important than the goal.

No group
Just be one community, we can share with others,some people have more experience but we are all different and you need to find your own path.

No chief
No Leader, follow your way!
People can inspire you and you should respect them,
but you have to follow your way!

**********

My next planned post is actually related to the "No Competition" point listed here... I really like what he says.

Jump Westminster

Sorry... I've been a bit obsessed with Parkour/Free Running lately!

This is a great documentary about a program in England where they are using Parkour as a sports program to keep kids off the streets. Really cool.




At 28 minutes, it's pretty long - but even the first few minutes are awesome. Seeing this little kids practicing parkour REALLY makes me want to practice this with my kids, I think it would benefit them and me a lot!

Absolutely Still

The first song on the new Better Than Ezra album is one that I really DO like - and they have come out with a video for it that is slightly trippy but still cool.



This one is their first singles so you may hear it on the radio.

Coldplay

More and more I find that I really enjoy most of Coldplay's music, especially when I'm in more of a 'Chill' mood.

So even more awesome is that right now you can get a free live Coldplay album called Left Right Left Right Left from their website!

Sweet!

Jaded

I honestly don't know what is going on lately.

Two things have recently come out that I have been looking forward to for some time.
One, a movie: X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
The other, a new music album: Paper Empire by Better than Ezra.

(I actually pre-ordered Paper Empire throught the BTE fan emails and received an autographed copy the day before it was available in stores)

The weird thing is that while I don't hate either of them, I like them both... but I'm not FULLY satisfied. I enjoy them, but am left wanting more in a way I can't really explain.

I must say that I was actually not satisfied at first with the prior BTE album "Before the Robots" either, but it really grew on me after listening to it for a while and I really like it now.

So it is possible that for both of these, I just need to give them some more time and attention. (I honestly wouldn't mind seeing Wolverine again :) )

What is most strange about this is that it isn't just these two things that are this way for me, they are just the most immediate and big examples.

Maybe it's just a stage of life I'm going through.

I quit World of Warcraft a few months back - that took a lot of time - and while I could easily fall back into it, I don't really care to, but I feel this void since then. I think WoW was filling the void, but not really satisfying anything either.

So I am going to try to concentrate on the things I know I want to do more, but haven't GIVEN them enough time. Art, Music, Fitness, maybe even a bit of writing...

We'll see.

One thing is for sure - I do NOT want to continue feeling unsatisfied by everything, because I think a big part of that is my own choice. I will change that. I am going to be positive and I'm going to be satisfied and NOT jaded!!

Reach

From the Cannes Short Film Competition:
Reach


(via Drawn)

From those YouTube Cannes vids - "Sebastian's Voodoo" is a creepily intriguing one and "Black Hole" is a good one too.(I haven't watched them all yet, and I'm not sure if I will or not)

Punch Out!!!

Fun Commercial - I wonder how it will compare to the original being on the Wii??

The People Demand More Videos!!

And by the people I mean ME... cuz nobody else really cares that much! Woohoo!

But seriously I could watch this stuff all day.

Unfortunately I can't cuz I'z gots WORK to do!!







It's Not My Time by 3 Doors Down also has some Free Running in it... but I wish they'd stay on the runner more than they switch back to the band! Still, not a bad music video.

And finally for those who are sick of these amazing videos, or would rather watch something else - here's a GREAT Muppets/Oceans 11 trailer!!


**Update**
Sorry... had to add one more - this one is 8 minutes long - but it's a very fun watch. I love the older people's reactions to the traceurs!

More Free Running

I think Free Running is SO cool - and saw this post on kottke so I had to share it here.

Levi Meeuwenberg has done lots of stuff! Even some of the very first scenes from one of my favorite TV Shows - Chuck! Awesome! Check it out:


I have seen portions of the Sasuke/Ninja Warrior show and I wish they had it on my current (as of yesterday) cable plan. Those hardcore Japanese game shows always amaze me.

You can also find more info about the Physics of Free Running there at that link, interesting read.

And we need another Parkour video as well:


Now I just need to figure out what's up with my Equilibrium - since I've been getting older I get dizzier/woozier easier (those are great words) and that won't work with some moves, like the basic roll.

SO yeah. Gotta do me some research methinks.

Dumbells and Abs

Last week I started the ab workout class that is offered here at work - Yow! It's awesome!

I was able to go all 3 days last week, but Monday I missed it due to a service call with Oracle support, which went an hour and a half longer than I expected. (The call was an hour and a half)

I'm definitely looking forward to getting back into the ab class again today.

Taking that class last week actually helped save me from injury during an indoor soccer game. The team we were playing against has some major kickers - and one of those kicked the ball extremely hard right into my stomach. I was still sore and very tight from the previous days ab class so it didn't do a thing to me! It felt good that it didn't hurt - made me feel tough.

Anyway - on to dumbells! I plan on doing P90X again - maybe even kind of doubles if I can find the time (for the next few weeks this will definitely be impossible due to the energy it takes to take part in this corporate indoor soccer thing we're doing!) - BUT one thing I really want to find before doing P90X again is a bigger variety of dumbells - especially more than 25 lbs for my arms, otherwise I just won't get what I'm looking for.

So - keep an eye out for good deals on dumbells for me ok? Thanks!

We need some Jedi...

Or we may very well be in trouble...



May the Force be with you!