tired

Let's start this post with a little Vadering:

I've been putting in a ton of overtime at the office to stay ahead of my boss's large project while he's away in the States (he's back next week). This is finally taking a toll on my creative energy, so I haven't been as inclined to write anything—especially anything lengthy. My apologies. Unfortunately, I'll be putting in full days on both Saturday and Sunday as well, so unless some topic comes along that truly energizes me to blog about it, you can expect minimal blogging from me for the next little while.

This is the reality of working in publishing, which I knew when I signed up for this job: the deadline is always king, and everything revolves around the deadline. For an older guy like me, who can't be forced to work faster, the only alternative is to work longer, so that's what I'm doing. Luckily, I'm racking up some comp time, which I'll use up by taking a day off here and here, and/or by ducking out a few hours early on certain days.

Tomorrow morning, fairly early, I'm going to walk up the street from my place to poke my head into the local boxing gym. I'm pretty sure that, like so many taekwondojang in Korea these days, the gym is primarily for plump kids whose parents want them to lose weight and eat better. I'm hoping, though, that the trainer(s) there will take pity on an older guy looking to kick-start his weight loss and recover some measure of strength, endurance, and agility through private lessons (no way I'm training with kids—sorry).

There's a chance the gym might be closed in the morning: if it really is for kids, it'll work around the kids' school hours (and many Korean students have Saturday school, which should be no surprise even if you're only superficially acquainted with East Asian culture). If it's closed, I suppose I'll come back during business hours, assuming those hours are posted somewhere (Korean businesses often neglect to post them, and many businesses, especially low-end restaurants, close pretty much when they feel like it).

If I do start boxing, the plan will be to train five days a week, then restart taekwondo after about a year (we have a for-kiddies training hall in the building where I work, and I think I'm twice as old as the masters training those children). After that, it'll be a mix of boxing and TKD, and depending on how much free time I have, I might branch out into haedong geomdo (a type of Korean fencing). A few years after that, when I'm well into my fifties, I'd like to switch from TKD to hapkido, which I consider a more evolved and street-effective martial art.

But we have to begin at the beginning, and that all starts with a trip up the street to the local boxing gym. Wish me luck. I'll write again when I have more information.