My Holiday Season '06 (part 2)

Holiday Season '06 Items (continued...)

H) Exercise

3 minutes of one-on-one basketball. According to my estimation: that's about 4 offensive possessions. 4 chances to take a shot. If you're fortunate, 4-8 actual shots. Also, 4 defensive possessions. At least 4 chances to steal the ball, block/challenge your opponent's shot, or get the rebound.

3 minutes of one-on-one basketball. That's all it takes to leave me out of breath. And that's just one-on-one basketball, not five-on-five. Sometimes, I can't believe how my stamina has gone so bad when, at my age, I should be capitalizing on my energy. But at the time when I'm out of breath, I couldn't believe that my own body was able to play full-court basketball before - in tournaments even.

So my master plan to regain my stamina this break was to jog at least every other morning. I found my jogging pants and was prepared to use them again. I took it easy on myself. I would only jog from our apartment to the corner of Ventura and Wilbur, or Ventura and White Oak. Those are the nearest locations of McDonald's that I know of. Presumingly tired from jogging, I could grab a Big Mac or Cheeseburger for myself.

The real challenge is to alter my sleeping and waking schedule. I usually sleep at 3-4 am and wake up at past 10 am. I don't like to jog at 10-11 am. It just doesn't sound right. Exercise is a healthy activity. Sleeping and waking up late in the morning, I think, isn't. It runs contrary to the saying that my nursery teacher told me, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." So my auxiliary goal was to sleep early to wake up early. That was my challenge.

And then days passed...

I couldn't get myself to start sleeping early. I watch videos and read books at night because those times are the quietest. I couldn't get myself to concentrate during the day when my brothers are playing all around the house.

And then days passed...

Number of times I jogged throughout the season: Zero

I also thought of doing push-ups and sit-ups during the break, like I used to before, but that's another sad story.

My mind and body are rusty.

I) Books and Shoes

To end in a somewhat positive note, these are the ones I got for myself for christmas: shoes and books. I'm including them in this blog because I've been (sort of) "planning" to buy those things and I was able to do so. Yes, accomplished plans. (Lame). I bought the shoes from a Skechers store near the library. For the books, I got Barack Obama's two bestsellers: Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. I also had a Robert Ludlum and a Jeffrey Archer novel.

J) Youtube

Something that my christmas break never lacked: Youtube videos. I kept on watching documentaries, interviews, features, debates, and live performances of music artists on this wonderful website.