Valentine's Day, Katimavik, Forest

Well, today is Valentine's day, and the anniversary of my breaking up with my ex. I didn't even realize it happened on Valentine's day, when it happened.

It really feels like this is more of a New Year's celebration, to me. It almost feels like I've only been alive for one year, and that my new life started last Valentine's day.

Hey, remember when I said that older folks tell you not get in trouble when they want you to get up to mischief? Well, recently, someone told me straight that I need to get my f***ing and fighting out of the way while I'm young, so that I don't have to have a mid-life crisis.

...Make of that what you will. I'm withholding my comment, for the time being.

Seems like every older folk I know is envisioning this Katimavik thing as my saga where I f*** and fight across Canada.

That reminds me, reading this Summary of Behavioural Standards they sent me, I notice that they make a point of stating that they allow Katimavik participants to engage in amorous and romantic pursuit toward fellow Katimavik participants and locals.

...I feel kind of pressured.

I've been reading some of these blogs that participants do while on Katimavik. Only three so far, but the general consensus is... negative. People complain of homesickness, about being overworked, and about their peers not pulling their weight. Everyone's counting the days until they go home, and they talk about what they miss in their old life. And complain about the length of the program. They also say they had fun doing this and doing that, but generally, this is pretty depressing stuff.

At least now I know they won't censor anything I say! I was actually kind of concerned about that.

Here's a link: http://www.gokatimavik.com/ (Lower-right side of the page, titled "Blogroll" are the blogs)

Notice that they're all from different places? There's even an eBlogger Katima-blog, and an active one used by someone who took the program over a year ago. Maybe they'll let me use this one! Probably not, though. I think it needs to be Katima-centric, which it probably only will be while I'm in the program.

Went to my old forest. I've taken a few pictures of it in my gallery blog. It's not looking too well. There must have been some kind of wind storm. There's no clear-cut areas, but the forest has been majorly thinned. Some trees look like they were torn out of the ground, and others look like they were cut down by humans. There are also trees that look like a lot of branches have been cut off. This is all only in the first section of the forest, though. Go far enough in and it looks pretty normal.

Went to see an old pine tree that I loved as a kid. It doesn't look as full as it should, and it's pines are slightly discoloured.

I took a few pictures and ran the camera out of batteries again. I'll upload the images at some point. I wish I'd taken a picture of that pine tree...

At karate last week, I forgot to mention that we trained for tournament participation. I was mistaken when I said that our not being a "tournament school" and that preparation for one would be all toning up meant that we were a basically sub-par school. Turns out I took the term "intensity" to mean "better". See, there are kata and self-defense rounds that are rated on a point system. A kata, as I said, is like a fight-dance. Self-defense has you go with a partner from your school, and your partner is expected to let you break free. Basically, these are rounds based on acting, and "intensity" basically means how real your act looks, in this context. So it might not mean that our school has worse fighters... Just worse actors.