I concluded my summer internship at a commercial real estate firm in Manhattan in the beginning of the month.  It was a good experience and my first in a private firm.  Following my internship I decided to have a wisdom tooth pulled that was bothering me.  That resulted in the side of my face blowing up.  It wasn't pretty.  About midway through August I threw a party at my place.  Fourteen people came, we all had a blast.  I'm doing another party in a couple of weeks.  It will probably become a once a month thing.  The new semester of law school began a week and a half ago.  I'm very happy with my classes and schedule.  Right now I'm in job hunting mode.  I also created the website for my Jujutsu school, which can be found at: http://www.zenbujujutsu.com/.  It is still in its early stages of development, but I've spent about ten hours on it already, if not more.  It is fully functional, most of the sections have content, but it still has a ways to go.  That pretty much sums up August

I was driving home from Jujutsu in Staten Island to Long Island tonight.  There was construction on the Belt Parkway so I got off to use the streets to get around the traffic.  When I was on the corner of Fountain Ave and Linden Blvd (I believe that is the cross streets) I saw two african american teenagers (I shall refer to them as A1 and A2) chasing another one (I will refer to this teenager as V) down the street.  When they reached the corner, A1 grabbed V by his backpack.  They seemed to struggle a little, but I couldn't tell if they were just friends playing around or something more serious was going on.  Then V ran into the street to get away from A1 after A2 caught up to them.  As V ran into the street, A1grabbed his backback again and swept his foot out from under him, causing V to fall.  A1 then began punching V in the face.  I began honking my horn when I saw this and I dialed 911.  V starts screaming for help.  The kids continued to hit him and when they got his wallet and phone they ran away.  The light turned green and I pulled up next to V and told him I had 911 on the line and asked if he was okay.  I cannot believe the nerve of those two kids that robbed him.  This was a very busy intersection, perhaps several dozen people witnessed this and as far as I can tell, I was the only one that made any effort to aid this kid that got robbed.  I really didn't know what else to do but honk my horn and dial 911.  I wasn't about to get out of my car and try to physically intervene, it seemed very unwise.  If the two of them were willing to rob V in front of so many people in such a public area, I was not willing to risk my life for a situation unless I saw that V's life was in unmistakeable imminent danger.  I'm left wishing I could have done more, but in the end I feel that I did all I could.

Exercise Update

In an effort to keep myself working out consistently I have recently done two things.  The first is that I set my gym watch to go off every hour.  It serves as a reminder that I need to go to the gym.  The second thing that I did was purchase the Nautilus SelectTech Dumbbell System.  It is a pair of dumbbells that allow you to change the weight of each dumbbell from 5lbs to 52.5lbs.  I also purchased a bench that folds up and I can easily store under my bed.  The bench can change position for shoulder presses, incline bench press, level bench press, and decline bench press.  I can basically get a full gym workout for every body part but my legs and it takes up minimal space.  I picked it up on Sunday and I have been using it every day.  It is hard to find an excuse not to, those dumbbells are always staring me in the eyes, telling me to workout.  Below is a picture of what the set looks like:

The Dumbbells:

What it looks like with the stand:

Jujutsu Update

So, as I said in a previous post, I'm serious about testing for green belt.  I have set some small goals to get me there as quickly as possible.  The first is updating my notebook that I keep for the martial art so it covers every area of the yellow belt curriculum.  I had set the deadline for last Sunday to finish working on all Goshin Jutsu (self-defense) techniques and I completed that on time, my next deadline is for this Sunday to finish working on all submissions from white belt mat holds (Kesa Gatame, Kata Gatame, Tate Gatame - Mount, Gyaku Tate Gatame - Guard, and Ushiro Tate Gatame).  I am almost done with Kata Gatame at the time of writing this entry.

My biggest problem in class so far has been a complete lack of cardio.  It seems that it only takes a mere matter of minutes to get out of breath.  There is just no gas in the gas tank.  It is quite embarrassing and just plain sucks when guys ten years older than me can out move me like I'm an old man or something.  Knowledge wise I've always kept going over the techniques, so I don't really have to relearn anything because I've forgotten stuff, it is really just a matter of being able to perform everything in real time, as a reaction, not in slow mo.

Since my summer internship began I really haven't been going to the gym, tae kwon do, or jujutsu.  As a result I feel terribly out of shape.  I went to a full class of jujutsu last Wednesday and I almost passed out.  I fared a bit better in tae kwon do on Thursday and Saturday, but I still feel spent.  The crappy thing is that I now have an ear infection.  It came out of nowhere (if we disregard the cue-tip or two that I used in my ear a week ago) and it has completely thrown off my balance and I just feel blah.  Hopefully it goes away soon or at least gets better enough for me to get in the gym . . . I want to go to jujutsu again on Wednesday.  I finally feel like I have a rhythm going again.  If I can get myself stable in jujutsu for a good month I can finally take my green belt test that I should have taken over a year ago.  The same thing goes for tae kwon do, if I would have gone consistently I would have been several belts higher. 

I know I have been derelict in keeping this blog updated, so here is a quick update and hopefully more regular updates from here on out.

I have been spending the bulk of my summer as a summer associate at a real estate firm in Manhattan.  It is my first taste at working in the private sector and as a result I have made some significant decisions on the direction my legal career will headed in.  I have decided that for the time being, I am no longer interested in criminal law, at all, defense or prosecution.  I have also decided that for the time being, I am no longer interested in government work.  The private sector is more efficient and pays better.  My mind is basically made up.

My third and final year of law school is fast approaching.  I have not been too pleased with my performance in the last two semesters.  I had been very distracted and not as motivated as I had started, but I have decided to go back to basics, basically committing myself to recreate the dedication and focus I had in my first year, especially my first semester.

Working a 9-5 and commuting back and forth from the city every day has really thrown me off when it comes to working out, martial arts, performing arts, and flying.  My attendance at Jujutsu and Tae Kwon Do has been horrible, and that is probably an understatement.  I have one final level (8 weeks) of improv left at the People's Improv Theater, but I have decided to hold off and wait until I can focus on it more intensely.  I have had absolutely no time to fly, and my gym attendance has been sporadic.  These things happen.  I'm going to Jujutsu tomorrow night and hopefully I can regain control over my schedule.

Overall this summer has been about simplification.  I have been trying to find more and more ways to simplify my life to focus on things that matter most to me.  So far I have made several important improvements or perhaps I should call them simplifications.  Hopefully I can incorporate some more.

Below is a video from the New York Post.  Apparently there are bed bugs on the benches in the NYC subway stations.  Yuck.  To read the printed story, click here: New York Post, "Subways' Blood-Bug Invasion"

I personally do not give money to those that portray themselves as homeless on the street or in the subways.  I feel it is positive reinforcement of negative behavior.  Below is a link to an interesting video of panhandlers who are not what they may seem.

Click here to view the video: http://www.breitbart.tv/html/84523.html

I threw a party at my place on Saturday night.  I had nine people over and it was a whole lot of fun.  We had tons of food (I also ordered a few pies too many) and one of the guests made dip that was simply amazing.  I am very happy that I stocked up on more than enough liquor and beer.  We had an awesome beer pong tournament in which my team won three straight victories before drinking our way into absolutely no hand-eye coordination.  The main event of the night was the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC 83) on PPV.  The fights were very good…Matt Serra from Long Island had his ass handed to him.

I think I will do it again later next month.  I will be sending out the invites soon.

I had an improv performance Tuesday night and it was fantastic.  I followed through with making strong character choices and the laughes were rolling in.  I ended up being a hunchback shoe salesman in one scene and in another I was a pirate that thought staying on the ship to guard it wasn't a job for a real pirate.  I had a blast and I really feel that in the last couple of weeks my improvisation has advanced by leaps and bounds.  It is amazing that a simple choice like adopting new physical traits can do so much for my performances.  By doing so new characters just seem to pop out of thin air, with mannerisms and accents or voice differences, it is great and also very liberating. 

My mouth has been hurting me all week. So much so that I really haven't done much of any school work or anything else for that matter all week long.  I went to the dentist on Saturday and they took x-rays and it appears that my bottom right wisdom tooth is pushing in almost horizontally into my last tooth--I guess that makes it impacted--but regardless, it really hurts.  I also have an infection in my mouth because of it.  The dentist gave me an antibotics perscription and told me to call their office on Monday to receive an emergency refferal to have the wisdom tooth removed.  I really did not need this so close to finals.  If the tooth really was wise, it would have waited a month.