themindfantastic

I read an article today about how the requirements of the Canadian Forces have been scrapped (in a way) and that the requirements of the Canadian Forces are actually not that difficult to pass…

They Require you to be able to do the following…
(Minimum Requirements)
Push Ups (Men Under 35) – 19 (Women Under 35) – 9
Push Ups (Men 35 or Over) – 14 (Women 35 or Over) – 7

Sit Ups (Men Under 35) – 19 (Women Under 25) – 15
Sit Ups (Men 35 or Over) – 17 (Women 35 or Over) – 12

Hand Grip Measured by adding both left and right hand scores.
(Men Under 35) – 75 (Women Under 35) – 50
(Men 35 or Over) – 73 (Women 35 or Over) – 48

2.4KRun [Men Avg] {Men Superior}

Under 30 – [11:56-10:13] {Under 10:13}
30-34 – [12:36-10:35] {Under 10:35}
35-39 – [12:56-10:58] {Under 10:58}
40-44 – [13:25-11:12] {Under 11:12}
45-49 – [13:56-11:27] {Under 11:27}
50-54 – [14:25-11:57] {Under 11:57}
55 + – [14:56-12:27] {Under 12:27}

2.4K Run [Women Avg] {Women Superior}
Under 30 [14:26-12:36]{Under 12:36}
30-34 – [14:55-12:57]{Under 12:57}
35-39 – [15:25-13:27]{Under 13:27}
40-44 – [15:55-13:57]{Under 13:57}
45-49 – [16:25-14:26]{Under 14:26}
50-54 – [16:54-14:56]{Under 14:56}
55 + – [17:24-15:27]{Under 15:27}

Chin Ups (Not tested But Should Be Able To Do)
(Men Under 35) – 6 (Women Under 35) – 3
(Men 35 or Over) – 4 (Women 35 or Over) – 2

Yes this isn’t actually that difficult to pass… but I will tell you, I can’t actually pass these right at this moment and so I want to be able to pass them. Not because I desire to get into the armed forces… I won’t be signing up, I just want to use it as a level of fitness that I should be able to keep to just in case type thing. Now thats just to get INTO Basic Training, and in Basic Training one will find their physical requirements increase a great deal, and maybe if I can get this goal done, Ill try for what might be required by Basic Training, but for now this is a good guide for me to figure out I can keep to.

I found that at least for me (and everythnig I mention here is garnered towards MY experience, YMMV) antidepressants have been more of a hinderance than a help, though admittedly I dunno if they did anything towards the depression I struggle with or simply gave me one obvious focus of my life, to make sure I took my meds at the right time daily… anyone who has missed a few hours or a day of taking their antidepressant medication will tell you that fun doesn’t really enter into it. So I focus on trying to make life itself hard to be depressed about. Freaking out not having food in the house means I should make sure there is always food in the house. Freaking out about not being able to pay rent, means I should ALWAYS make sure I can pay rent and if possible get rent to be paid without concerning myself with any part of it. Being unable to get out of bed in the morning or out of the house during the day means finding absolute reasons why I have to do something every day, not just something that I can easily ignore. Freaking out about the fact I live life in a crappy residential hotel means I have to find a way to live somewhere better. Freaking out about the fact I can’t afford to meet up with friends because I am too embarassed to sit there while they eat/have coffee and I have my ‘complimentary glass of water’ means I have to learn to budget better. Problem is I find that I am no longer living life, but rather forcing myself to be and do stuff I might not always like or agree with, is that the goal? No but then exercise hurts before you get used to it, doing yoga for the first time I was reminded of the predicament of ‘The Fat Kid in Gym Class’ something my body should be capable of doing, just isn’t able to be done. Eventually though one gets better, one finds a healthy niche or mindset in these things, and hopefully that means happiness or at least ‘Not Being Depressed’ which while not the same thing, is really all I care for at the moment. I hope I get there.

As part of my overall goal of materialistic reductionism, I am working towards reducing the stuff I don’t want to actually get rid of. One way to do that is to digitally keep it in one form or another. For example, books, I have a number of really good books, but anyone who has ever moved, that box of books is FREAKING heavy.

So I scan my books, OCR them, and make a PDF & Text file of it. This means I have a great deal of EBooks, not just from my personal scanning (though I have a number from that alone) but lots of Gutenberg Project books as well and stuff I have found online. More than I could really read in my lifetime. I also have a number of TV Shows and Movies, Music, Audio programs and Lectures. I have a great deal of pictures from when I used to do semi pro photography and more. Most of my stuff has been turned into digital formats, but that means I have CDRs and DVDRs full of stuff without really any organization and as the months go by the discs get scratched and I start to lose stuff… so I have to buy a bunch of good DVDRs, and start organizing my data, file by file disc by disc, then archive the resulting discs, one copy for use… and a second copy for storage. I have about 250 Discs to do, mostly DVDRs. This is a very large project but when done I should be able to reduce the amt of original discs to under 200 (there are a number of discs which contain information I have somewhere else on another disc). I should be able to put in a small box all the discs and while it will be kind of heavy it won’t weigh anywhere near as say all the physical pictures, books, videotapes/video DVDs, Audio CDs, would. So when I move my small box will contain everything of importance to me. A good thing… a very good thing.