“Cool, so the image actually showed up like I hoped it would. Here’s a good story of what happened yesterday. So, I woke up around 11:00, took the bus to the hospital, got there around 1, and then went back around 1:45. In order to get a good image of my hip on the MRI, they first had to inject a bunch of chemicals into my hip that would show up better on the MRI machine. For this, they used an X-ray machine and a bunch of long needles HA. They let me take a couple pictures, in the following two images you’ll see some of the tools they used, and then you’ll see the needle deep in my hip lol. After that I got the actual MRI, which lasted about 20 minutes. I basically layed in a tube and listened to weird noises for a while. Then, they sent the results to my doctor, who I have yet to speak with.

After the MRI, I went to the Mariners game with some peole I live with: a Japanese girl Ryouko, a Korean girl Min, and a Vietnamese guy John (haha). It was Japan night and we won, of course. Ichiro dominated! on the way there my bus got hit by a UPS truck lol.”

“test entry “

hella long day, got the MRI, will update more tomorrow. peace

I’m leaving for the hospital now for the MRI. woo!

“Two words: SHARK WEEK. Shark week on the discovery channel is sooo sick. Sharks are the most ridiculous creatures ever, their grace and beauty paired with the deadliness factor is unmatched. I’ll be watching “”Ocean of Fear”" tonight to kick off the beginning of shark week. Weekends are always my off days during training, so I get to relax today! Oh, and I changed the song on the main page to, “”Jason Mraz – I’m Yours”" Check it out, it’s such a amazing song. Probably the best simple to good ratio I’ve ever heard. Train hard!”

“I’ve always prided myself on my training: I train to get better at tricking, not to look good. It’s a HUGE push in training. Recently, because I haven’t been able to do trick oriented training, my workouts have felt really empty. I’m still putting up as much weight as before, if not more, but I feel like I’m training without purpose. So, although I’m producing results, I feel like I’ll never feel those results in the real world. Before it was always, “”ab training so my backflips are faster”" now it feels like, “”ab training…just cause”" it suuucks. The big thing pushing me through my workouts now is fear of the mundane. The day I work out just to look good is the day I stop tricking. I never want to see that happen. Train hard! train with Purpose!”

A typical day in the life of Dogen: Wake up at 11:00. Go to China Town for food with some friends. Buy a Japanese CD. Come back and play poker for 3 hours. Win 50 bucks. Workout. Sleep. Repeat.

I’ve at an interesting point in my life right now. Tricking is everything to me, training is my absolute passion, without doubt. And not being able to trick, not even being able to practice basic kicks? That is damn hard for me. I was coming back from my morning ab workout this morning and I almost crushed my waterbottle I was so frustrated. I literally felt enraged. I can’t trick with these injuries! But man, that rage came in handy. I just finished my evening workout, and damn do I feel good. I tore through bench today, it was up 20 pounds from last week. Not being able to trick or train the way I want to is making me crazy, but at least it’s having nice side effects. Train HARD!

“yo yo yo yo!!!! Dogen here! haha. So I just gotta make a post about this. A while back, maybe three years ago, I bought a book called, “”The Art of Happiness”" written by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler.

I bought it because I was interested in Japan, interested in Asia, and thus interested in buddhism. Little did I know it had almost nothing to do with any of those. Rather, it is a ‘handbook for living,’ according to the back cover. This book is absolutely phenomenal. The book is essentially about how to improve your life by being a better person. It’s really all about perspectives. An amazing read, the only book I have ever read more than once. I can flip to just about any random page, start reading, and finish the sentence by memory.

It’s really changed the way I look at things, in terms of helping myself versus helping others and all kinds of relationships. If you have a chance, definitely pick it up! It’s an amazing book that’ll put your life into perspective ”

“I woke up today, checked my computer, and found a very fun e-mail waiting for me. “”Boating today, BE THERE!”" written by a clever korean friend of mine, Joshua Yoo. Needless to say, we met up with a few of his high school buddies and took their boat out on lake washington for a day. I even tried water skiing! haha but I had to stop after about 30 seconds in fear of injuring my hip. Luckily I was pretty smart about it and nothing happened. WOO! Other than that I’ve been chilling with a couple Japanese girls that are living in the house for a bit. We went out to Indian food today and I got some HELLA bomb coconut curry. Nice! I’ll be buying my plane ticket for Japan extremely soon, and I should have my MRI set up within a couple days. wooo!”