Doom, oly lifts, school talks and coffee

OK. Let me first make sure we're all on the same page.
I'm not a big coffee drinker. I don't crave coffee nor like to use it as a "booster" for my day when I'm tired.
But in the last 5 days, I've had 3 "coffee moments". Granted, they were all ice blended coffee drinks (because I'm still a kid when it comes to my beverages) but this is getting a bit much (says this while sipping his coffee waiting for the next meeting).

So my experience of using Doom and Quake 2 songs as my workout music has been kicking ass. The BFG Division song is still by far my favorite. Literally every work out starts with that.

It's also been perfect sound-track to my olympic lift practices (because they're all instrumentals it makes focusing easier). Speaking of olympic lifts, well good thing is I'm definitely stronger than before. Bad news is my should mobility/strength still seems lagging behind. Damnit.

It's summer now and that means 3 t-shirts per day, 4L of wate3r while the sun is out and a hell of a lot of sweating. Oh man. It also means schools are in summer mode and this year they're quite interested in having extra curricular activities like comedy workshops! The problem with that is I have to go to these schools to give an "introductory" session in their morning assemblies. For the last 3 days, I have been out and about at hours I can barely pronounce...things like "seven a-m"...ooohh it makes me cringe just saying it.

So yes, I can foresee quite a few coffees my way next week as I find myself burning my eyes out at the wee hours of the morning as I get ready in this summer heat. Either way, hopefully in the next 10 days I'll have somehow adjusted to these early morning schedules. I just hope I don't develop a coffee addiction. We'll see.

Doom 4....OST!

First. Listen to this whole track.

This, by far, is the heaviest track of the whole DOOM OST and it has totally changed the way I work and work out for that matter.

Now watch this:

and

And tell me you're not super duper excited about the rest of the sound track.

... or is it just me.

Anyway, now with this music, it has completely changed the way I work. Turning my work into different levels within the game depending on what audio track is playing. So I've got the songs plugged into my spotify account and it plays randomly. When I hear something that is more subtle, I slow down and when it's an aggressive track like the BFG track, I work until the track ends..like super duper focus. You know what's strange, the more aggressive the sound track, the more I'm able to be in the zone. Oddly when I'm listening to more of those yoga-tracks, my mind tends to wander.

However, 1 hour of this and my brain needs a big break so in the long run, it feels like things balance out, but the over all experience of everything is much better.

And speaking of over-all experience, with this music, my snatches improved and so did my endurance while working out. Granted I've been mixing up my work outs and it could just be the strength gains I've had so far, but still this is definitely helping.

But I must say the last time I found music like this was either Spybreak in The Matrix:

Or The Quake 2 sound track:

Which brings me to the ultimate youtube video I've been enjoying so far.
Doom 4 to the Quake 2 OST:

I cannot get enough of this video! I am so ready to play doom but promised myself I will only get it after I build my brand spanking new rig in the future....when is that? Right now, no plans are in sight. Sadly.

Anyway, so here's to another 10 days of awesome working to this music. Let's see what happens with that in the next 10 days. If my improvements keep happening or I burn out to the intensity. Either way, it's going to be awesome!

The ultimate burnout

Ever been so mentally burnt out that you feel bad for yourself? I won't lie but I'm currently at a point where my mind has decided it just needs to go for a walk...out of my head. So far, after waking up today, I've had a  very tough time not getting distracted. Kind of like having a dam with a lot of leaks and even though the dam is still filling up faster than the leaks, somehow those leaks won't stop.

I had a few things I wanted to get done today but it got to a point I had to categorize my mind is ill ahah. It's something I've had a tough time accepting because I know we can push that little bit more, heck have a cup of coffee, hit that extra supplement or just push yourself, but it's these moments that shift me from "enjoying the moment" to "going through the motions". And right now, other than this entry, today has been a very big going through the motions day.

So the last week has been intense, I've finally gotten back to my Olympic Lifting training (finally!). I got to enjoy a live band show thanks to Underground HK's Heavy #14, and man, it totally threw me back into my drumming days. I literally spent all the time staring and enjoying the drummers. I remember leaving feeling good but also disappointed that I stopped my drumming and kept thinking "maybe I could just start again on the drum pad?". Ah, and this is where the whole "time waits for no man" factor stands in front of me once again.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a efficiency/productivity freak. Like I find so much fun is squeezing out every potential value out of each minute of life, but the older I get, the more I realize productivity/efficiency is only half the game. The ability to make the right choices is the other half. I mean, doing something you don't want to be doing, but doing it at maximum productivity doesn't exactly make it something you want to be doing. Sure at least I feel like I was wasting the minimum amount of time at doing it, but it shouldn't be about wasting the least amount of time, should it?

And that brings me to the next issue that anyone and everyone faces -- doing the things you want to do vs. doing the things you need to do. I guess that's where someone's sense of responsibility and integrity comes in and that is going to be the infinite battle and frustration between responsible and irresponsible people. Oh man, it boils my blood when I find myself doing someone else's job/responsibility because it's for the good of the big picture.

I guess as you can see, it's been quite a struggle for me recently, especially after the drumming incident where I thought "why aren't I drumming anymore!?" and I have no one to point at or blame other than myself. Hmm, maybe I'll have an answer in 10 days time? Maybe not. I'm too burnt out to give an opinion on this :P

Now, going to do what I'm really good at right now -- get distracted without trying.