Osu

[Kishi]

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

Good for you taking responsibility for your own progress. There is a long history of people being great martial artists and not-so-stellar human beings. You are at a point where you can do the training and evaluate for yourself whether it is making a difference. Getting out from under the negative emotions was clearly exactly what you needed to make that leap possible.

 

Yeah. In the dojo that I run in my head, I imagine that there's a big sign with RULE #1 emblazoned on it, and it says "Real life comes first." And then there's this whole philosophical blurb underneath it. It's pretty great.

 

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

It's okay to try things and fail. Or try them and decide they are fine but not for you. The 7th dan who taught the instructor's seminar I went to last fall talked about this issue. Really senior people have to go out and investigate things on their own. She said that it is easy to spend months going down a dead end. Having a few other people you can trust to give you honest feedback helps a lot. Even so, you have to do your own experiments first.

 

Osu. I'm just glad I'm in a place where I can conduct the experiments.

 

16 hours ago, Mistr said:

I'm so glad you found a good dojo!

 

God, me too.

 

*

 

So. Yesterday was filled with just so much pizza. It was pizza for the new employee lunch, and it was pizza at the scifi buddy's house last night. Incidentally, I'm pretty confident I can say now that Domino's takes Pizza Hut in a fight. It's not even close.

 

We finished up S3 of The Expanse. It took a real 2001 turn in the final episodes, but I don't think it's bad for that. My buddy likes it more for the Cold War coding and the character drama, and that kind of took a back seat at the end? But I'm encouraged - I genuinely think that the way S3 ends really opens up the Cold War between Earth and Mars and could be an analog for the nuclear arms race?

 

Of course, S4 has to drop before we can get into that, and if it hasn't by the time we get together again, it'll probably be off to BSG for us. I got pretty far into it, but I never quite made the end of it. Dunno if it'll be worth it or not.

 

Anyway. I got to bed earlier than normal but late enough to get to work late enough that I'd have to use leave to leave in time to get to Kyokushin. Bugger. Gonna have to get down earlier (it's totally doable). But it's not all bad news - I'll be getting out later than I'd like, but the flip side is that I'll be able to get out in time to hit BJJ instead, and that'll still end relatively early. After that, handstands and skipping rope and hitting the bag until 22:00 or so? Then see what I can do with that extra half hour.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Domino's has become my go-to for delivery. It's better than the other chains.

[Kishi]

6 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Domino's has become my go-to for delivery. It's better than the other chains.

 

Yeah! Like I've always thought so but I've never had a day where the comparison was made so plain.

[sarakingdom]

I'm really, really glad the new dojo feels like a good place. It sounds like a very healthy move, after all the drama and burnout. There's just no substitute for a friendly dojo where the people you train with are your allies and go around with this vibe of trying to be of service to each other on the mat, and enjoy their training. Given how refreshing that feels to you, I suspect it's a somewhat overdue training change; something really wasn't working before. I have great sympathy for your former sensei, but I'm not sorry you made the move. You really do sound lighter and happier, and more enthused about your training. Which is the way it should be.

[Kishi]

14 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

I'm really, really glad the new dojo feels like a good place. It sounds like a very healthy move, after all the drama and burnout. There's just no substitute for a friendly dojo where the people you train with are your allies and go around with this vibe of trying to be of service to each other on the mat, and enjoy their training. Given how refreshing that feels to you, I suspect it's a somewhat overdue training change; something really wasn't working before. I have great sympathy for your former sensei, but I'm not sorry you made the move. You really do sound lighter and happier, and more enthused about your training. Which is the way it should be.

 

Yeah. It feels good. I don't feel anxious about it when I miss out on training or like I'm going to get castigated for having a life off the mats or something like that.

 

And believe it or not, I actually feel really bad for K-sensei, because as a martial artist he's really good. But at the same time, I can see a lot of toxicity in how he comported himself too: talking about going off to promote the school but doing nothing to help and then changing his story about things when confronted about it. Or saying that he really wanted us to get a lot of bodies on the mats, only then to change it around and say no, he always wanted a small class. And he never showed up to any of the meetings that were called by manong and J-sensei to discuss how things were going in the school (although I'm not clear on whether that was them not communicating with him or what. But even then, if he didn't indicate that he wanted to be a part of it, why would they? And it wasn't like he was taking a lot of initiative on his own). And that's all on top of forced training on one half of the student body (because that's what Waifu was).

 

So, yeah. A lot of mixed feeling in there. And that's got me anxious for Saturday, which I'll explain below...

 

*

 

Thursday was a good day that went way off the rails.

 

I got to BJJ and we proceeded to practice The Dread Kimura. It was me and the coach alone, so naturally it was a lot of one-on-one. Some rolling, some practice, some lecture on philosophy, etc. Good stuff. I rolled with him and got tapped six ways to Sunday, but I didn't mind or feel even a little discouraged. When you're going with someone who's better than you, victory isn't knocking them out or tapping them or whatever. Victory is being a handful by choice (as opposed to a spaz) and making it harder for them to get what they want out of the round. I accomplished that, and while it's not always satisfying, it felt good this time.

 

We talked a bit afterward about the state of the school. Coach considers the current state of things to be "a good problem." He'd hoped we'd have more bodies by now, but he's okay with working on giving me and the others a good base for when more bodies show up. This sounds remarkably like how it went in the Karate program, and I've already been down that road once. So I dug into it a bit and it seems that we're not being consistent right now with our messaging - website says one thing, Coach says something else, and the flyers that we have say something else again. This is a really bad sign, because it's so simple to fix that it kind of boggles me a little bit to think that manong - who's put himself in charge of that - hasn't really addressed it. That we aren't or haven't done so? That's... not positive.

 

So I'mma message manong about that. Because we've already lost one good program in this place, we don't need to lose another.

 

The part where it went off the rails is that I went to the gym afterward but got there kind of late. And the vicious cycle started up and it pretty much cascaded to the end. Got to the gym late, got out late, got home to chores that weren't done and had to be done before I could cook dinner, on and on and on.

 

I didn't get down until really late, and got up late and got to work late. You can see how this goes.

 

Anyway, today. There's a thing going on with the publicists tonight at 19:30. So I'll show up for that, and it'll be good. Afterward, it'll be legz and abz.

 

Saturday is going to be a full day, and it's got me nervous. Not because it's a full day, but it's going to be the first time in about a week or so that I'll have seen the one mutual student of K-sensei. I have no idea what he knows about what's gone on or what he thinks about it, and I'm not sure how it's going to play out. There's no reason to assume that it'll go poorly, and the young man has a good head on his shoulders, but you know. Still nervous about it.

 

But tomorrow is time enough for its own troubles. I got enough to play with today. And hopefully I can get down early enough that I can start getting up early. Because if I'd just gone home and got dinner after mat time, it would have been a totally different beast.

 

Need to start taking more steps toward that, and the weekend is as good a time as any.

[Urgan]

26 minutes ago, Kishi said:

I got to BJJ and we proceeded to practice The Dread Kimura. It was me and the coach alone, so naturally it was a lot of one-on-one. Some rolling, some practice, some lecture on philosophy, etc. Good stuff. I rolled with him and got tapped six ways to Sunday, but I didn't mind or feel even a little discouraged. When you're going with someone who's better than you, victory isn't knocking them out or tapping them or whatever. Victory is being a handful by choice (as opposed to a spaz) and making it harder for them to get what they want out of the round. I accomplished that, and while it's not always satisfying, it felt good this time.

 

Best feeling ever. Except it usually is paired with discomfort in unpredictable places since they have more tools in their kill-it toolbox.

 

26 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Saturday is going to be a full day, and it's got me nervous. Not because it's a full day, but it's going to be the first time in about a week or so that I'll have seen the one mutual student of K-sensei. I have no idea what he knows about what's gone on or what he thinks about it, and I'm not sure how it's going to play out. There's no reason to assume that it'll go poorly, and the young man has a good head on his shoulders, but you know. Still nervous about it.

 

A totally understandable way to feel about it, but there's nothing for it. I'm glad this bandaid is being ripped off now, because it can only get more awkward the longer time passes.

[Kishi]

1 minute ago, Urgan said:

Best feeling ever. Except it usually is paired with discomfort in unpredictable places since they have more tools in their kill-it toolbox.

 

Yeah, but what can you do? The explicit goal of practicing with someone who's not as skilled is to work on more advanced ideas and concepts. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement - they practice the more exotic stuff that they can't pull off as easily with equally high-skill people, and we get to hone in on the basics and discover, holy crap, they work!

 

4 minutes ago, Urgan said:

A totally understandable way to feel about it, but there's nothing for it. I'm glad this bandaid is being ripped off now, because it can only get more awkward the longer time passes.

 

Yeah. I would have really preferred to do this last weekend, but that was the trip and I didn't think to get in touch with him over social media. The fact that he wasn't there last night could mean that he's off with K-sensei, or that he was at school, or something. I dunno, girl. I just dun no.

[Urgan]

2 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Yeah, but what can you do? The explicit goal of practicing with someone who's not as skilled is to work on more advanced ideas and concepts. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement - they practice the more exotic stuff that they can't pull off as easily with equally high-skill people, and we get to hone in on the basics and discover, holy crap, they work!

 

We always have the smile that says, "oh sweet Jesus it hurts."

 

3 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Yeah. I would have really preferred to do this last weekend, but that was the trip and I didn't think to get in touch with him over social media. The fact that he wasn't there last night could mean that he's off with K-sensei, or that he was at school, or something. I dunno, girl. I just dun no.

 

Dat life thing. 99.8% chance it is utterly unrelated to karate and/or karate drama. Lord willing it will be done this weekend and that last loose end is tied up and you can carry on with your bad self.

[Mistr]

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

The part where it went off the rails is that I went to the gym afterward but got there kind of late. And the vicious cycle started up and it pretty much cascaded to the end. Got to the gym late, got out late, got home to chores that weren't done and had to be done before I could cook dinner, on and on and on.

 

I didn't get down until really late, and got up late and got to work late. You can see how this goes.

 

I know how hard it is to fix this cycle. Let me just point out one part that is easy to change. You DO NOT NEED TO COOK DINNER before you eat it. You might do prep ahead of time and put cooked meals in the fridge. You might prep meals or meal components and put them in the freezer. You might set something up in your IP with a timer. You could even stock your car with beef jerky, protein shakes, a bag of apples, some granola bars - any kind of portable food so you can grab a bite to eat before going to the gym. If you are desperate, I understand there are places that will sell you cooked food that you can eat right away.

 

I'm sure you have objections to some of those possible strategies. Think about what you really care about in your food. In this day and age of coolers and microwaves you can have pretty much anything you want ready to eat. If you really care about sleep, you can fix this.

[Kishi]

On ‎2‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 1:31 PM, Mistr said:

I know how hard it is to fix this cycle. Let me just point out one part that is easy to change. You DO NOT NEED TO COOK DINNER before you eat it. You might do prep ahead of time and put cooked meals in the fridge. You might prep meals or meal components and put them in the freezer. You might set something up in your IP with a timer. You could even stock your car with beef jerky, protein shakes, a bag of apples, some granola bars - any kind of portable food so you can grab a bite to eat before going to the gym. If you are desperate, I understand there are places that will sell you cooked food that you can eat right away.

 

The problem isn't the time it takes to cook things, it's the timing of the things themselves. When I get home, generally, all the stuff I used to cook is unwashed and it's buried under a load of dishes that have to be done, and the drying rack is full of dishes that have to be cleared out. And everything has to be done by hand, and that takes time. If I came home, and all that stuff didn't have to be done, and I could just get started? It wouldn't be a problem. Because it doesn't take long to do what I do: 1) throw a bunch of stuff in the IP, and while that's going, 2) mince some veggies, warm the skillet, and 3) cook eggs in the warmed skillet. The IP's fast enough to be done for a while once that's over, so figure about 10 minutes to achieve pressure, 1 minute to cook, then another 7 or so to keep it warm while I catch up.

 

One ~20 minute chore isn't a big deal. But doubling that time by being lazy with my other chores? That's where the problem lies for me, I think. And it's not even that I'm opposed to batch cooking or anything, but I get so busy on the weekends that it's hard to make time - if it's not the mats calling me, it's my friends. And if it's not them then it's something else. There's always something else.

 

*

 

So, let's see. Friday was it? Okay.

 

Had another meeting with the publicists. Not much to meet about; the whole thing dissolved pretty quickly into us just hanging out and catching up about life and things and stuff. I was contributory. That went great.

 

Afterward was legs and abs. Abs went well. Legs were stymied somewhat. Deck squatting once you're on a flat surface is really about getting your feet back under you, and that's proving to be a challenge even with the help of the weight. I'm optimistic, though, that in the long run this is going to work out.

 

Saturday, the plan was to go to office hours with the publicists, get out at noon, hit up judo and kali and then go check on my parent's cat. This plan did not happen. Part of the reason for me to go to office hours was to teach one of the others about what we were doing to build email lists. This is the same dude who, you might recall, I was supposed to meet with that fateful Tuesday night, and who stood me up. Well, he almost stood us up again. "Office" - really our CEO's house, bless her, she had good coffee and pastries - opened at 9 and I get there at 09:20. Dude wasn't there. Worked until 11:00, which is when the dude just wakes up. He's out in Chapel Hill, which is a long, long way from Garner, and he has the gall to vacillate over whether he's even going to show up again before CEO calls and cheerfully browbeats encourages him to show up.

 

And you know, looking back at it? I probably could have left. I probably should have left. None of us are being paid yet, and my inner mercenary has a tendency to gnash his teeth about responsibility. But I didn't feel right doing so. CEO knows about this one's lack of initiative - she was CC'd on our attempts to meet at first, and the dude basically didn't put up any damn initiative in that at all - so she's essentially trusted me to low key manage the dude. Taking off when I hadn't even had the chance to do what I was being trusted to do wouldn't have sat right with me.

 

(and just to preface the comments about this dude's lack of reliability: frankly, it is a poor sign. But the dude has dropped the lion's share of our startup costs by a huge margin. Which just makes the whole thing more flustering for me than anything else. Like, dude, come on. If you're gonna drop that much money, I'd think you'd be rushing to be more involved in this instead of just doing so to "be included." Come TF on, man).

 

So, I waited. I waited until the dude showed up. Then he, the CEO, and I spent a while getting things reorganized on our listbuilding service, which took forever because there were crucial steps that we needed her for that she took off in the middle of (she didn't know she needed to be there). Eventually she comes back and finally at about 14:30 or so I'm able to start to teach the dude his stuff. Ultimately, I didn't get out of there until about 15:30 or so.

 

So no martial arts for me. No chance to start judo again, no chance to go see the other student and clear things, no chance to practice, no nothing. Frustrating. But not the end of the world.

 

I dropped by my parent's place. My bro had stopped in to check on things too; we changed the guard and I let him know that I was interested in being his guinea pig. We didn't really have time to discuss it in depth and I don't think he's going to take me up on it, but I've been dying to make the offer and I'm satisfied with having done so. Let the seed grow if it's meant to.

 

After that, I hung out and provided some company for the cat for a bit before going back to hang with the CEO and others at a coffeehouse/bar in Garner which frankly deserves, just, all the business. I'm super hopeful for them. It's kind of a problem that Garner is a relatively quiet town, so every chance I get I try to offer patronage. The fact that they have good beer every time I've gone makes it easier.  So I worked out some problems on the novel and then played boardgames before going home and working on chores.

 

Sunday went way more according to plan. Got up early enough, drank some coffee, and did some upper body training. Push ups did better. Inverted rows did worse. Mixed bag, but I have a feeling that the missed day last week played more of a factor than I thought. And ultimately, it worked out to more volume overall. I can condense that down in time, but getting that volume is more important, and that was accomplished.

 

Watched my bro's stream while I could - he's DMing now after a series of unfortunate events, but I think he's better than the last guy and I don't think that's just my bias talking - then went off and boxed. The BJJ coach's young daughter joined us, so our plans to spar pretty much flew out the window and we instead worked on a lot of basics and did light, technical work instead. I still managed to video us sparring some and was able to watch afterward and get a sense of some things I'm doing wrong, some habits I need to correct (leaning too far forward to try to get a shot as opposed to controlling distance and closing with good posture. Boxing forgives that sort of thing since you can't get kicked or grabbed. I do not forgive).

 

Went out and grabbed some dinner with the boxing coach before coming back to practice BJJ. We had four people on the mat last night. Went over, well, everything, but mostly it was side mount escapes and find our way back to guard. I randori'd really well, though. I managed to apply just about everything I learned in the past couple weeks in drill, and when it came time to go I was able to apply that stuff as well. I moved with what Professor called "the perfect amount of aggression" - lots of grip fighting, lots of scrambling, not a lot of getting locked down or obsessed with any one thing. I'm not sure if he gave me a lot of room to work or if I was just that much of a handful, but I walked off the mats feeling like I did well and that I had more to learn.

 

Today is a resting day today. I'm also fasting. Part of eating at maintenance is that you have to, well, maintain. If you have periods of indulgence, there are two obvious responses: 1) to return to maintenance afterward as if nothing happened and allow the fullness of time to balance things, and 2) to have periods of lack to balance them out. If indulgence were a rare thing for me, I'd opt for the former, but as it is every single week presents opportunities to indulge and I do not resist them. So 2) it is.

 

But yeah, rest. No real plans beyond that.

[Urgan]

24 minutes ago, Kishi said:

One ~20 minute chore isn't a big deal. But doubling that time by being lazy with my other chores? That's where the problem lies for me, I think. And it's not even that I'm opposed to batch cooking or anything, but I get so busy on the weekends that it's hard to make time - if it's not the mats calling me, it's my friends. And if it's not them then it's something else. There's always something else.

 

There are times in the week I jealously guard. These are the recovery and chore times. (AKA, mostly Sunday) I get real salty with any idea that one can just fly off and fritter away those hours because you can't get those back. The kind of chores I handle are the food and clothes kind of chores. Throw in a nap and you've got the necessities of life. It's like the autobahn.  

[ReturnOfTheDad]

Sounds like a full weekend!

 

On the schedule issue and the fly wheel of lateness (which I know all too well), something that really helped me out is a productivity methodology called ‘time blocking’. The daily practice of this was a game changer for me. Helps me balance life, family, training, chores, work, sleep, all that jazz. It also allows me a more methodical approach and opportunity for analysis to pinpoint, address problem scheduling areas, and build in contingencies to shuffle tasks if something comes up unexpectedly.

 

Here’s a good overview from a productivity YouTuber that I like a lot:

 

Hope this helps!

[Kishi]

23 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

There are times in the week I jealously guard. These are the recovery and chore times. (AKA, mostly Sunday) I get real salty with any idea that one can just fly off and fritter away those hours because you can't get those back. The kind of chores I handle are the food and clothes kind of chores. Throw in a nap and you've got the necessities of life. It's like the autobahn.  

 

Right. And being a jealous guard of my time is not something I've really been about in a while. I tend toward being generous, when reality is I could stand to be stingier about it.

 

21 hours ago, ReturnOfTheDad said:

On the schedule issue and the fly wheel of lateness (which I know all too well), something that really helped me out is a productivity methodology called ‘time blocking’. The daily practice of this was a game changer for me. Helps me balance life, family, training, chores, work, sleep, all that jazz. It also allows me a more methodical approach and opportunity for analysis to pinpoint, address problem scheduling areas, and build in contingencies to shuffle tasks if something comes up unexpectedly.

 

It does! It actually feels very intuitive just based on what I can see in other explanations of it. Will definitely have to watch the video at some point to get a sense of the thing.

 

*

 

So, Monday wound up being a restful day, but like most restful days there's just not much to say about it.

 

Went out to game, but half of us weren't there. We pressed on anyway. Had to be cued into an investigative mindset for the campaign as we went from heavy combat to checking into a theft. Like you do. I broke the fast for dinner, because I realized that if I wanted to use fasting as a control mechanism, it wouldn't make sense to do something beyond the 20-24-hour mark if I was going to have multiple occasions within a week or so of each other. Like this week. I'm making chili for the unit for Singles Awareness Day, and there's a party I'm going to on Sunday evening. Doing too much fasting could be a negative for me, but there's no reason not to use it if it can be used responsibly.

 

Anyway. Wednesday plans have already been cancelled. I'm debating between judo and staying back to work on chores - dishes are caught up and laundry's in a good spot, but my place could stand to be cleaned a bit. OTOH, miss the mat time.

 

Karate and deloaded S&S tonight, though.

[Kishi]

Tuesday done!

 

Tuesday was a good class to go to. More fighting because less students. It was as I hoped. Lots of conditioning and timing, though, too. We even broke out knuckle push ups on boards, which I haven't done in a while. Was kind of surprised at the softness of some of these people - guess they need more practice.

 

We worked on some stuff that I'm kind of weak at - specifically back kick and what I guess would be a reverse roundhouse? Where you build some momentum and get the guy with the back of your foot as opposed to the front.

 

The fights went well. Lit some people up and didn't waste time on jab, just used it to find range and blast with the cross. K-sensei would've been proud. Even used back kick in the rounds which I felt really good about.

 

After that, my usual stuff. S&S. No skipping rope since we skipped in class. Did some BJJ rolling drills and then hit the bag for a while. Managed to get video, and my posture looked okay. Need to work on turning the bottom foot during roundhouse, though. Also need to work on controlling that distance.

 

Called the extra stuff a little early since my hamstring started to bug me, but even then I still had a hard time getting down in time to get up on time. I'm thinking at this point that I might as well just cut bagwork on weeknights and focus instead on just doing the bare minimum, which in my case would be S&S/GB and shadowboxing, and maybe some skipping rope.

 

I was right about the logistics - having things cleaned up made a huge difference, but I had so much extra time that I freaked out and didn't know what to do with it and wound up spending it poorly.  Like you do. Oh well.

 

Anyway, I got gi cleaned and ready to go, but I think I'm going to take tonight off. Between wanting to get some cleaning done and needing to get ish together for chili, I figure it's probably for the best. I can definitely make this Saturday's judo, though. One, because I'll be up in time due to office hours, and two because my office hours don't depend on anyone else showing up. Yet.

[Urgan]

14 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Tuesday was a good class to go to. More fighting because less students. It was as I hoped. Lots of conditioning and timing, though, too. We even broke out knuckle push ups on boards, which I haven't done in a while. Was kind of surprised at the softness of some of these people - guess they need more practice.

 

TFW you only do pushups as warmup for Aikido dojo time because Screw Pushups With a Rusty Rake, and then you get complimented on your form. Must not be a common movement in their arsenal. Sounds like a great place to train to me lol.

 

16 minutes ago, Kishi said:

I was right about the logistics - having things cleaned up made a huge difference, but I had so much extra time that I freaked out and didn't know what to do with it and wound up spending it poorly.  Like you do. Oh well.

 

How does it feel to have Clean House status? I think of it like the Well Rested status in Fallout, only moreso.

[Kishi]

5 hours ago, Urgan said:

TFW you only do pushups as warmup for Aikido dojo time because Screw Pushups With a Rusty Rake, and then you get complimented on your form. Must not be a common movement in their arsenal. Sounds like a great place to train to me lol.

 

So no joke, when we were on the planks, Ky-sensei actually pointed me out as having good form. Guess all that gymnastic body work is good for something? XD

 

5 hours ago, Urgan said:

How does it feel to have Clean House status? I think of it like the Well Rested status in Fallout, only moreso.

 

Well, Clean Kitchen status, but even that's better than nothing. It feels weird to wander in and just be like, "Hey. Let's start cooking."

[Kishi]

Welp. Wednesday didn't turn out good in the ways I'd hoped it would.

 

Oh, it still turned out good. I worked on my writing and cleaned up the story (and major tip of the hat to @DarK_RaideR

for inspiration, although I reckon he did not know until now) but I got wrapped up in the work. I got the chili made but that took longer than I thought it would, mostly over my millennial insistence on fresh ingredients and slow prep. Totally my fault, but it led to me staying up crazy late and getting up late as a result.

 

Fortunately, I have some OT in the system for just such a thing, so I can get out on time and to karate tonight. So, no foul. It costs me some OT, but life is hard and I expect that kind of thing.

 

Anyway, speaking of chili and the holiday, Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours! Whatever love you have, may it warm you and be a source of comfort. Since chili and junk food are on the agenda, I ran my measurements. I haven't been keeping up that much, and I was kind of afraid to, but I'm holding stable. My AI's even doing a touch better - waist measurement's running a little lower today. So I think this notion of balance - of true maintenance - has some legs. We'll see. Plan is indulgence today, then extended fast tomorrow, then normal on Saturday, indulgence on Sunday, fast on Monday. Saturday's going to be the odd day because of office hours, which stand not only to affect training but also food choices and such like that.

 

Which I won't mind and will flow with, but, you know. Wrinkles, plans, contact, etc.

[DarK_RaideR]

Wait, what did I do? More importantly, what did you do?

[Kishi]

25 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Wait, what did I do? More importantly, what did you do?

 

It was the Bloody Elbow article I saw you link one time. It touched on a lot of ideas I wanted to write about and ultimately led me to do some research which allowed me to change my main conflict into something that works.

[DarK_RaideR]

In that case, it's my trainer who should take credit for inspiring you, not me.

 

Funny coincidence too, the exact same competition was happening again this last Sunday. The male athlete who would be fighting from our camp withdrew weeks ago when we found out his coach is a known neo-nazi. Our female competitor requested that the usual high heel wearing bikini clad ladies between rounds do not show up at all,or at least not during her fight. And our coach said he won't be participating again in the future, citing the organizers, fans, bikini girl sexism, greek vs albanian/turkish/bulgarian/evil foreigner booking/promotion/marketing etc as reasons.

[Kishi]

52 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

In that case, it's my trainer who should take credit for inspiring you, not me.

 

I do credit him for that; I also credit you, because I couldn't have known without you talking about it.

 

52 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Funny coincidence too, the exact same competition was happening again this last Sunday. The male athlete who would be fighting from our camp withdrew weeks ago when we found out his coach is a known neo-nazi. Our female competitor requested that the usual high heel wearing bikini clad ladies between rounds do not show up at all,or at least not during her fight. And our coach said he won't be participating again in the future, citing the organizers, fans, bikini girl sexism, greek vs albanian/turkish/bulgarian/evil foreigner booking/promotion/marketing etc as reasons.

 

That's awesome.  I'm really glad to hear he's holding true to his convictions in the matter. It sounds like he's doing a lot of good there.

[Mistr]

22 hours ago, Kishi said:

So no joke, when we were on the planks, Ky-sensei actually pointed me out as having good form. Guess all that gymnastic body work is good for something? XD

 

Well, Clean Kitchen status, but even that's better than nothing. It feels weird to wander in and just be like, "Hey. Let's start cooking."

 

Both of those are great!

 

Good job on having functional core strength and a clean kitchen!

[Kishi]

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

 

Both of those are great!

 

Good job on having functional core strength and a clean kitchen!

 

Thanks!

 

*

 

So the chili was a hit! Turned out I made just enough to have a bowl to myself when all was said and done. Couldn't have gone better. I guess you give me a recipe to follow, I can execute well.

 

That being said, having leftovers, I figured I needed to get them home rather than just carting them around with me everywhere, so I got home and got them took care of. It was too late for karate at that point, but I could make BJJ, so that was what I did.

 

BJJ wound up going well. The Professor wasn't there, but his student - a blue belt - was there and able to teach. So we mostly just reviewed our previous material and then got exposure to Knee On Belly.

 

I also kicked a dude in the face. We were practicing the self-defense applications of guard and using the legs to hold someone off when you're on the ground - you sort of spider with the opponent if they're close enough and keep your legs on top of their thighs, then lever your hips up and kick into their face. (It's not easy, of course, if the guy's trying to get around you, but that's fighting for you). There was another student there, had his hands up for target, but with his face close behind, and I was told to kick hard. So I kicked hard, blew through his hands, and got him in the mouth.

 

Felt terrible. But on the plus side, we know it works!

 

Anyway, after that was done, I went to the gym and practiced deloaded handstands and ran through the couple kata I've picked up so far at the new place. Their kata are very... utilitarian. I approve. Shadowboxed and called it a night.

 

Got home, ate junk food, did some laundry and went to bed.

 

Fasting today. I didn't binge or anything like that last night; I didn't feel overfull and woke up hungry this morning. But the hunger pangs turned out to be thirst pangs, and fasting feels fine right now. Plans tonight are a little on the interesting side: there's a fight night at the dojo that I'd like to go to, but I also need to get cleaned up for that party on Sunday. So the idea is, burn the rest of my OT to leave early, get cleaned up, hit up the dojo, and then hit the gym afterward. I've already got snacks and such to break my fast after fighting and before the gym, so... yeah. We'll see how this works.

[Urgan]

13 minutes ago, Kishi said:

BJJ wound up going well. The Professor wasn't there, but his student - a blue belt - was there and able to teach. So we mostly just reviewed our previous material and then got exposure to Knee On Belly.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Kishi said:

I also kicked a dude in the face. We were practicing the self-defense applications of guard and using the legs to hold someone off when you're on the ground - you sort of spider with the opponent if they're close enough and keep your legs on top of their thighs, then lever your hips up and kick into their face. (It's not easy, of course, if the guy's trying to get around you, but that's fighting for you). There was another student there, had his hands up for target, but with his face close behind, and I was told to kick hard. So I kicked hard, blew through his hands, and got him in the mouth.

 

Felt terrible. But on the plus side, we know it works!

 

It happens, but that's where learning to be a good uke applies, too. Uke is partially responsible for protecting himself. Say what you will about Aikido and their punching game, but a black belt with plenty of cross-training experience would have decked me absentmindedly (I think he might have had a couple beers before rolling into class, or something of similar potency....) had I not had my hand against my face with no space between. If you get casual, you get hit. Can't even trust your superiors to always have pitch-perfect restraint. Of course it sucks the guy got hit and hopefully he's not sporting some interesting colors as a result. Next lesson: how to guard against being kicked in the head!

[Mistr]

I agree with @Urgan. My dojo has been putting more emphasis on teaching good ukemi. One of our beginners was moving into an exposed position during my class this week. Of course this is the new person who has done some boxing and is interested in how effective aikido might be. It never occurred to him that he was exposing his ribs to a kick. We don't teach how to kick and only rarely work on dealing with kicks. That doesn't mean we ignore those openings. There are plenty of senior people who have trained in hard styles who will help with that.

 

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

Anyway, after that was done, I went to the gym and practiced deloaded handstands and ran through the couple kata I've picked up so far at the new place. Their kata are very... utilitarian. I approve. Shadowboxed and called it a night.

 

I'm so glad you are finding good things at your new dojo.

 

Yay for people liking your chili!