If you have been reading The Blue Boots for some time now, you should've noticed my scientifially-unreliable experiment on having 180-minute cardiovascular exercise a week, and my terminated experiment on 20-minute cardiovascular exercise a day due to personal reasons going on in my life. Consequently, I've also terminated from the national challenge to run 2011km this year.

This year I want to focus on the opposite of stress and pressure: Relaxation. Reduction. Breathing. Inhaling. Rejuvenating. Healing. I believe in the idea that less is more.

This applies to the prominent aspects of my life, including the little inanities of my days. You know, the economy of words, the lower the body weight, the less stuff we have, the reduction of our consumption of any form, and so on and so forth.

In my work, I used to be so impressed with the latest headlines and biggest news stories there ever published. I keep following these news and try to digest them personally, so that I can process them and craft my ideas with them, and turn these information into my own articles. I'm more of the big-picture first than detail-by-detail person, so I like to look at all perspectives first of my subject matter before I make a formal statement. However, before I know it, I got lost in the words I dove in to; different people use different vocabularies, and I realized that the simpler the words used, the better it is for people to understand, because at the end of the day, it's not the words you say that makes you memorable. It's how you make them feel. Maya Angelou knows that better than anyone else.

For example, we can get big stories out of little stories. This applies to almost anyone I meet, no matter how ordinary they are. Most of the time, it's the people who are given the least attention that turns out to be our everyday heroes. And I appreciate how the security in my new apartment building is just the way he is - always positive, always ready to chatter with tenants and strangers alike.

I also think that the way a person dresses, the way he or she puts on clothes to show their skin, is the way they project themselves - and in turn, their behaviors create amazing images of themselves when they have made a terrific impression on somebody else's eyes. If we happen to smile a lot, like the security guard at my lobby, we recite our biological similarities instead of finding our racial, ethnic, and gender differences. This is called positive psychology.

I learned that positive psychology, a new optimistic branch of psychology, is defined as the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. I believe that using the less is more rule is applicable to anything.

In this case, I'm introducing you to my plans for my Semester Project for my psychology class, which I'm focusing on positive psychology, mainly using internal locus of control, which is scientifically defined as the perception that you control your own fate. In fancy language, it's basically what they call the self-fulfilling prophecy. Now, since psychology is the science of behaviors and mental processes, I don't want to get too philosophical about the metaphysical aspects of the word "prophecy".

During our first class 2 weeks ago, my professor went back to a little bit of Science 101. He explained to us the definitive term of "the placebo effect" we get when scientists perform operational experiments. The placebo effect are causations only by expectations only. "Believe, and you will," he simply said. It's really just like our spiritual faith: We just trust the process, no questions about it.

Sounds simple enough. But if we take that into our internal locus of control, that we believe that we have the right and the power to control our fate towards positive, healthy, and happy expectations, we've established the power of our will, and optimism is as infectious as God's will, just like the smile of a stranger can go viral and make everyone's day just a little bit better.


Before, I told you that I told my professor about my 20-minute a day of cardiovascular exercise hypothesis, that it can increase my GPA, which I was thinking about to make as my Semester Project. But I took it to the next level.


I've always despised those quarterly semester progress grades we get, because it pressures us in terms of how we do in our academic standing so periodically. Now, I'm taking it to its fullest advantage. We'll see how my 4th week (out of 15) reflects my performance. From there, I would be having 2 more consistent progress grades until my instructors determine my final grades.


To help my academic performance, I also included other specific measurements that I can easily control (Since gradings are determined by external factors, not completely internal). This includes 13 paces of 3.1-mile runs, 13 records of my RHR (Rsting Heart Rate), 7 Weigh-Ins on body weight, 5 measurements of body fat percentage, and 3 tests of systolic and diastolic blood pressures, all to be done consistently every week, every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, and every month.


Here's the breakdown:

• 3.1-mile runs (total of 13) every week
• RHR records (total of 13) every week
• Body weight-ins (total of 7) every 2 week
• Body fat percentage measurements (total of 5) every 3 weeks
• Systolic/Diastolic blood pressure tests (total of 3) every 4 weeks
• Grades (total of 4) every 4 weeks

• no genes predisposing dementia or other diseases
• appropriate nutrition

• optimistic outlook
• physically and mentally active life-style

• support from family and friends
• meaningful activities
• cultural respect for aging
• safe living conditions

• 8 hours of sleep everyday
• shifting negative thoughts everyday
• 30 minutes of sunlight everyday
• 1200 ~ 1500 calorie consumption everyday
• 30 minutes aerobic exercise, 3 times a week
• 2 meaningful social engagements a week

1. Earn A to A- grades for all my classes.
2. Write about Saluna, my alter-ego, until the name "Saluna" is interchangeable with "Stacia" (i.e. taming my id and optimizing my ego and superego, so self-actualization is applicable here). For the final creative nonfiction project of my Creative Writing class, I'm accounting this semester.
3. Run a 3.1-mile distance at 15'34", beating my personal best 5k by 1 second.