The Trials of Kishi, the Gray Jedi: Chunin

[karinajean]

Dojo day!!! I'm so excited and happy for you.

[ladylydia]

Re: ranting--for a while, I actually ended up writing out the rant in whatever online forum it was, and then copy/pasting it to Notepad and saving it on my hard drive, rather than letting it out into the world. Accomplished two things: 1) getting it off my chest, and 2) not ranting where anyone could "hear" me. =)

I just figure that what blogs are for.  I literally started mine just to rant about stuff without clogging up facebook.

[ladylydia]

Those negatives look painful.

[PinkNinja]

Yay, DOJO!!!!!!

This makes me very happy for you.

[Kishi]

Dojo day!!! I'm so excited and happy for you.

 

Thank you. I can't believe how happy it made me to be back on the mats again.

 

Those negatives look painful.

 

More than looks. ; But like I said. Good pain, not bad.

 

Yay, DOJO!!!!!!

This makes me very happy for you.

 

Thank you!

 

*

 

Write: 5006/10500

 

Log: 6/6

 

Read: 0/1

 

Fiber: 5/6

 

Quiet day, relatively speaking. Trained my clients, swung the bell, got drunk and played board games with beautiful women. It was a good day.

 

Even got to amateur!newaza with one of them, which was fun. Was well-timed given that I've found my way back to formal training.

[Kishi]

Welp. Too-early o'clock again. Time to go to bed. But things have been happening.

[RisenPhoenix]

We ended up doing a mixed session for judo and karate. Spent 80 minutes on o-soto drills and it was glorious. I trained with a brown belt who helped me realize that a lot of the old school's aggression wasn't good for teaching me how to pay attention to the little things. Instead of telling me to attack all the time, he told me to treat it like fishing, to wait 'til I could feel an opening and then attack, even if the opening felt small. This one session felt more productive than months of training back then. Afterward, we did some work on karate fundamentals, moving off lines of attack and shifting in.

 

As expected, I've got some rust to polish off, but the technique appears to have survived largely intact. Special thanks to Shotokan (the user, not the art) for that.

 

After that, Sensei and I dissected some techniques and spent an hour just shooting the shit and talking about life. It was fun.

 

I missed this. I missed this so badly. I'm glad I blocked the time off to make this happen.

 

Also, the dojo is a garage without any ventilation. It's hot and muggy, and it'll be brutally cold come winter. Feels just like the good old days. :'D

 

Good day today.

 

I read this with the stupidest grin on my face.

 

Because happys.

 

That is all.

[CourtnieMarie]

so glad for the good dojo feels

 

i missed out on whedon ranting but i also haven't seen AoU yet so I had to skip some stuff just in case spoilers! i did just want to say that one of my favorite quotes from him is when a reporter asks him: â€œSo, why do you write these strong female characters?" and he responds: "Because you’re still asking me that question." that was in 2006 though.

 

i can't say much without seeing what he did with Black Widow and I also never read the avengers comic books. i may have to pick your brain once i cross at least one of those off the list

[Kishi]

I read this with the stupidest grin on my face.

 

Because happys.

 

That is all.

 

Thanks, man. It's good to be back. I'll have to see if I can get some video at some point.

 

 

so glad for the good dojo feels

 

 

i missed out on whedon ranting but i also haven't seen AoU yet so I had to skip some stuff just in case spoilers! i did just want to say that one of my favorite quotes from him is when a reporter asks him: â€œSo, why do you write these strong female characters?" and he responds: "Because you’re still asking me that question." that was in 2006 though.

 

 

 

i can't say much without seeing what he did with Black Widow and I also never read the avengers comic books. i may have to pick your brain once i cross at least one of those off the list

 

 

Thank you!

 

Oh, indeed. Whedon does good work. Better work than a lot of people in his field, and particularly in his treatment of women. It's just that there's a subgroup of people who aren't impressed with him, and a certain subset of that subgroup think that he doesn't do enough/that what he does isn't particularly executed well. Pitfall of any fandom I suppose.

 

You do it before the Spartan this year in Boston (I assume we're all doing this again) and you can pick my brain all you want.

 

*

 

Okay, let's do a more focused update this time.

 

Write: 5006/10500

 

Log: 7/7

 

Read: 0/1

 

Fiber: 6/7

 

All right. Yesterday was bit more action-packed than I would have liked. I've heard it said before that if you drink a lot one day, you pay for it the next day: either you train poorly or you recover poorly. For me, it was recovery. I woke up and I didn't want to do anything. But I'd made up my mind that I was going to. I wanted to go ahead and run one last 'diagnostic workout' and test to see how far I was coming along on my pike presses and such as all that.

 

Bottom line, things are looking up. More squats, more pike presses. I get to level those up and come back and everything should be good. I didn't practice GHR's on Sunday, though. One, I ran out of time, but in hindsight I think this is okay because two, I'm practicing them right now with the most assistance I can get. So there's no real deload possible for them at this time. I don't like having missed them twice, though. That just doesn't feel good to me.

 

So... we're 11 days into the clean-eating experiment. And, to tell you the truth, I have mixed feelings about it.

 

I don't really miss the cheat days themselves. That much hasn't changed. But I think that they might have served a different kind of purpose for me on a psychological level. I'm noticing now that I don't say 'no' quite as easily as I used to. Though, to be fair, I haven't really said 'no' to much in a long, long time. But, like, having a cheat day threw it into focus for me. I knew that on a certain level I should at least try to resist bakery treats and things like that because there was going to be a day when I wouldn't have to, and I could indulge to my heart's content.

 

Now I don't have that mechanism anymore. This past Saturday, I indulged in Apple Pies - not actual pies but mixing hard cider with Fireball as the Boston Nerds taught me, and I taught the Lady Gamers down here - and fast food and pizza, and then last night when I closed, I took home three brownies that we missed on donations.

 

Full disclosure: both days I ate as much good food as I could to balance the bad out. Saturday, I did fast food because I'd had a lot to drink, and coming home I just didn't want to do the work of cooking early in the morning and all that. Sunday, I ate like normal, and only after I'd eaten everything did I go for the pastries. It helped - instead of three brownies, I only did one with a little bit of ice cream on it, and I'm chucking the rest today.

 

All the same, I just don't like how this feels. I'm obeying the letter of what I said I'd do as far as eating clean, but I feel like i'm violating the spirit of it. It's a bad feeling. And I'm not in any hurry to get lean - trying to go fast and find shortcuts and all that did precisely fuck-all for me, so I'm done, thankyouverymuch - but for all intents and purposes I'm back to straight IIFYM and my body doesn't like it one bit.

 

Somethings gotta give. Okay, then. RESET

 

 

I've got to clean this up. For the rest of the month, barring non-work social engagements, I'm off every unclean thing. It's just not what I do anymore.

[RisenPhoenix]

You do it before the Spartan this year in Boston (I assume we're all doing this again) and you can pick my brain all you want.

 

Duh.

 

Also it seems as that I'm not moving, barring some weirdness happening.  So couch/floor space is yours again if you want.

[starpuck]

Popping in and posting all willy nilly.

 

On brand loyalty, and I'm sure you've all seen this bit of amazing before (If you haven't, I apologize that you will now lose the next two hours of productivity to watching these.) but this is probably my favorite HISHE.  

 

 

On Joss.   I dig him.   "Joss is boss" as Hulk would say lol.   And a lot of it goes back to what courtniemarie said: i did just want to say that one of my favorite quotes from him is when a reporter asks him: â€œSo, why do you write these strong female characters?" and he responds: "Because you’re still asking me that question." that was in 2006 though.

 

On figuring out what and how to eat.   Boy oh boy, ain't that the biggest bitch ever?   I'm still trying to sort it out.   I don't /get/ it.  I'm doing, exactly what I was doing during my last challenge, and yet THIS challenge I am losing weight/inches better than I was before.   What gives??  Not a clue.  LOL.   I eat the same things every morning/lunch during the work week and just try to make the least evil decision when out on the weekends.    I used to drink milkshakes every day!!!  Now I can't even tell you when I last craved one.   I'd rather just go get 10oz of freaking TrueGurt!  (so addicted, omg).   

 

Just keep experimenting.  I think our bodies tell us when we've found the right method.   We just don't know what the 'THIS IS IT' sounds like until we actually hear it.   Which can be super annoying.

[Kishi]

ARGH I want to hang and post with people, but I have to avoid being up 'til Too Late O'Clock because I have to get up at Too Early O'Clock.

 

Swinging the bell. Trying to get up with it. Think I might be missing a piece in my get-up somewhere, so my practice is going to shift over to the transition from the first press to the prop-up.

 

Did my Janda sit ups today. Wonder if it might not be a bad idea to get good at Jandas first and then start to Hardstyle-polish the technique. It's a bit more gradual than Pavel prefers, but on the other hand, he prefers that you do your sit ups with a partner or a certain kind of resistance device (surprisingly, not kettlebells). I have to make do with a rubber band. Going back to the basics is probably a wise move here; would welcome some input on that.

 

And... yeah. Day 2 of Eating Clean. Feels good.

[Kishi]

Well, got around to other people's threads (some of 'em) but time's up and I gotta start winding everything down. Sorry about this.

 

Got three hours of sleep last night. This was not as bad as it could be. Spent today traveling between Raleigh and Charlotte to get up to speed on the new procedures we have coming. This ended up being a rough day - the restaurant we went to does the most business in the state, on account of being located in the Uptown part of Charlotte, which is where the bankers live.

 

Their profitability is really tied up in the location. In terms of product/philosophical integrity, we're way better where we are, and we're only the 2nd. We can catch them, I think, or at the very least do a good job without compromising who we say we mean to be.

 

Strength-trained, because I ended up grabbing some coffee to help me drive home safe and I wanted to use up all the energy. Hit my progression standard on the squats, but failed on push ups and pull up negatives.

 

Did swings and get-ups today because, again, wired and trying to get my nerves to settle. Managed to get to prop-up a few times. Which was a happy.

 

Writing hasn't happened yet. I need to do this.

 

Fiber has been on par this week.

 

Caught up on my reading today. It was good.

 

Ate clean again today. Had many opportunities to eat junk food. Ignored it every time. Feels good to be different.

[CourtnieMarie]

nice job yesterday, kish! being able to say no to foods you don't need always feels rewarding... i just realized typing this that I can totally resist the cake in the work kitchen today. I was just about to go get a piece because "it fits in my calories" today. but i don't eat cake so thank you for your update and inspiring me to make a better decision for myself! i will indulge in a chocolate protein bar tonight

 

oh, and having willpower on 3 hours sleep?! that's above and beyond, man. awesome.

 

and then you got the beginning step to TGUs down a few times?! wth.

 

i'll have whatever your having please.

 

[Kishi]

Early day again tomorrow. Wrote some, ate some. Need to read.

 

Have logged.

 

Will be free to talk more tomorrow afternoon. Ish. Maybe. Saturday for sure if not.

[karinajean]

happy travels, business man. hope you get rested up quickly.

[Teirin]

Take care *hugs*  You've got a lot going.

 

LOVE that description of your training.  Good to hear you getting back to it and getting to train more on techniques and reading your partner.  Sounds like a great time!  Have fun at it again tonight!

 

Hope the latest incarnation of food balance works out.  There has to be a glance there between no treats and all the treats :-/

[Kishi]

Duh.

 

Also it seems as that I'm not moving, barring some weirdness happening.  So couch/floor space is yours again if you want.

 

Aw, dude. I'll have to cozy up next to the heating grate again. Good enough.

 

Popping in and posting all willy nilly.

 

On brand loyalty, and I'm sure you've all seen this bit of amazing before (If you haven't, I apologize that you will now lose the next two hours of productivity to watching these.) but this is probably my favorite HISHE.  

 

 

On Joss.   I dig him.   "Joss is boss" as Hulk would say lol.   And a lot of it goes back to what courtniemarie said: i did just want to say that one of my favorite quotes from him is when a reporter asks him: â€œSo, why do you write these strong female characters?" and he responds: "Because you’re still asking me that question." that was in 2006 though.

 

On figuring out what and how to eat.   Boy oh boy, ain't that the biggest bitch ever?   I'm still trying to sort it out.   I don't /get/ it.  I'm doing, exactly what I was doing during my last challenge, and yet THIS challenge I am losing weight/inches better than I was before.   What gives??  Not a clue.  LOL.   I eat the same things every morning/lunch during the work week and just try to make the least evil decision when out on the weekends.    I used to drink milkshakes every day!!!  Now I can't even tell you when I last craved one.   I'd rather just go get 10oz of freaking TrueGurt!  (so addicted, omg).   

 

Just keep experimenting.  I think our bodies tell us when we've found the right method.   We just don't know what the 'THIS IS IT' sounds like until we actually hear it.   Which can be super annoying.

 

Ooh, that video speaks truth. Yes it does.

 

Joss is good. He writes well and does good things, and he writes good action dialogue, so I appreciate him and forgive him his faults more often than not.

 

Bodies are seriously weird. Although I seem to recall reading that women's bodies are weirder than men's. They respond to a lot more stimulus, particularly stress. Particularly mental stress. Your challenge this time around involves a lot of self-compassion, and your results might be directly correlated with this letting-go of stress. Maybe. (also TrueGurt sounds amazing).

 

Like tuning an instrument by ear.

 

nice job yesterday, kish! being able to say no to foods you don't need always feels rewarding... i just realized typing this that I can totally resist the cake in the work kitchen today. I was just about to go get a piece because "it fits in my calories" today. but i don't eat cake so thank you for your update and inspiring me to make a better decision for myself! i will indulge in a chocolate protein bar tonight

 

oh, and having willpower on 3 hours sleep?! that's above and beyond, man. awesome.

 

and then you got the beginning step to TGUs down a few times?! wth.

 

i'll have whatever your having please.

 

 

Thank you. That's incredibly flattering, to hear that something I did inspired you to do something good. I'm glad.

 

You know, it's funny. You might say that it was a willpower thing, but, any time we stopped for something at a gas station, I'd take a long look at the stuff they had. I found myself asking, "Kishi, man, is this something you need? Like, not just on a hunger level, but on a true, honest, deep-down-in-your-gut kind of way?" And I couldn't find anything that fit the bill for me.

 

I looked. Believe me, I did. I kept thinking that I'd find a pack of nuts or some jerky or something, but I just never found anything that gave me a feeling that it would truly satisfy me. In the end, I got a bottle of water and I was content.

 

Hahahaha. You really wanna know? Okay.

 

happy travels, business man. hope you get rested up quickly.

 

Girl, me too.

 

Take care *hugs*  You've got a lot going.

 

LOVE that description of your training.  Good to hear you getting back to it and getting to train more on techniques and reading your partner.  Sounds like a great time!  Have fun at it again tonight!

 

Hope the latest incarnation of food balance works out.  There has to be a glance there between no treats and all the treats :-/

 

Don't I know it. In some ways, it feels really good, but in other ways, it's dreadfully wearisome.

 

Heh, well, that's what it feels like. It was a refreshing change of pace from the old "Attack Always!" Probably because, if you're always attacking, your focus is on aggression, and not on learning how to feel things out... which, tbh, isn't something I'd even bothered to consider as a possibility.

 

I suspect there is. It probably requires a very great deal of mindfulness and a willingness to live in the present. Still learning that.

 

*

 

Okay. NUMBERS

 

Write: 5258/10500

 

Log: 5/5

 

Read: 1/1

 

Fiber: 4/5

 

There.

 

It's been a rough few days. Between the travel, the new concept-testing, and the early start times, I've gotten about ten hours of sleep in the past three days. This does not a happy Kishi make. I'm handling it all right, so far. I made a habit of getting a lot of sleep back before this all started, and the coffee is cheap and plentiful. But it's still chaotic, and unfortunately it doesn't look like it's gonna slow down for another couple of days.

• I have another early day tomorrow, after which I'm going to have to go train a dude (and hopefully the other, too, though as of this writing that's not confirmed).
• My parents are moving back to Raleigh. Exciting! I have to help them with getting their shit unpacked. Not as exciting! They want to get it done in the morning. Least exciting! And I somehow have to balance the amount of time that they want to spend with going off to see friends in the afternoon/evening.

Ugh. Tired. At this point, it looks like things don't officially slow down until Monday, which may not actually be a day off depending on whether my managers can get their act together.

 

Still, if I'm honest about it, I'm mostly frustrated from a training perspective. I took it easy today; even though I had time for a full strength routine, I sensed that something was just off in me today. Any time I ignore that feeling, bad things happen, so I listened and just did swings and TGUs. Training tonight will be a crapshoot depending on who shows up and I'm already in at a disadvantage on account of the no-sleep thing.

 

I doubt I'll get around to anyone quite yet tonight, but I wanted to give something a bit more up to date and let you know what was going on.

[pwallace]

If Kishi is going to be in New England I must know! I owe that man a beer! To be sure I could probly be persuaded to purchase a round for RP as well

Sent from my phone, through the banging of weights, to the chimp translators aboard the tardis powered by the dylithiam crystal flux capacitor.

[Kishi]

If Kishi is going to be in New England I must know! I owe that man a beer! To be sure I could probly be persuaded to purchase a round for RP as well

Sent from my phone, through the banging of weights, to the chimp translators aboard the tardis powered by the dylithiam crystal flux capacitor.

 

Well, if RP doesn't mind a bum sleeping on his floor again, I'll be up there some time the first half of November. I look forward to seeing what kind of dark beers y'all do up thur.

 

*

 

 

Hokay. Okay. I don't think it's gonna fall down.

 

And now I'm done with four days of hard work. It's... hard to describe. That's probably a function of fatigue and just being finished with the whole thing for my part.

 

My job for the past few days has been to travel and to observe and to train every single person working in my section of the cafe. This was a surreal experience - most of the people I was training were people who trained me when I first started working here. Definitely made some mistakes that they ended up correcting me on. But for the most part they trusted me, and it ended up working out. Or at least, if shit went wrong, nobody caught it, and we're freaking dedicated to catching shit going wrong now.

 

The choice to not train last night was a good one. Karate was good as a result. More time spent working on technical stuff and getting my game back on track. It seems to have gone better than I might have anticipated. Sensei got around to watching the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and got a hankering to practice footwork and positioning, so that's what we did.

 

Then we went to practice Judo. This turned out to be super cool. Since I'm a long, gangle-creature of a man, sensei figures that my best bet is to work on ashiwaza - foot techniques. Things like sweeps and trips and things of that nature. Since I'm a big fan of ousoto-gari - big outer reap - sensei figures the next best way to expand this world is to learn sasae tsurikomi ashi - lift/wrapping foot block.

 

 

We tried this before, some time ago, back when I was a wannabe strength athlete who thought he was a martial artist. It never quite clicked, you know? I could never seem to put all the pieces together. But last night... it clicked. Maybe it was all the uchikomi I've been practicing, or maybe it was the shift in my state of mind, but this time it clicked almost every single time. I remember, when we first practiced together, I used to spend the time kicking sensei in the shin instead of placing my foot and tripping him over it.

 

And then I accidentally invented sasae to harai goshi.

 

 

Mine looks a little different, though. I take a way different angle to enter for the throw, and he says I'm entering on a circle as opposed to drawing him toward me. Also, his harai carries him far and forward; mine seems to carry the opponent straight downward, as per the video.

 

Sensei says I can't officially take credit for inventing it until I get at least a brown belt in judo. Oh well. These guys can take the credit until then.

 

Today was the last day of work for a couple of days, I think. Got home and trained. Pulled a Cheechoe in that I had a bunch of different sessions throughout the day.

 

Strength work first. Nothing but strength work.

 

Skater Squats: 5x5

Diamond Pike Presses: 5x5

Banded GHR's: 3x5

 

Whole thing lasted half an hour, including mobility work. Would have gone 5x5 on GHR's but ran out of time.

 

Went off, trained clients, came back, was feeling kind of feisty. So, swings and get ups. Good on swings - 8x10x53. Get ups were rough tonight, though. But that's to be expected. As little rest as I've had this week, it makes sense that I'd be tired.

 

Wasn't tired enough, though. Janda sit ups: 3x3. Because it was the day for it.

 

Fortunately, folks aren't going to be in town until Monday now, so I'll have tomorrow for sweet, blessed rest. I might just go for a walk.

 

To tell you the truth, though, I kind of like this mini-sessions kind of set up. It felt good to have challenges spread throughout the day.

 

And I really like this program, too. It presently feels like it's a modular design: strength is the main thing, with power work to excite the system and accessory work to polish weaknesses. If time crunches during the day, I adjust, remove a module, and attack with everything I have.

 

It seems to work. There is a part of me that's tempted to take this auto-regulation a step further, but I can't honestly explain the results of this month's experiment if I make the kind of change I'm considering. No reason to jump the gun yet. Steady, sober work. This is what my body likes.

 

How is my diet going? Well... interestingly. As I've noted, I've been very careful. I didn't yield to temptation at all, not even a little bit... until Friday, when our Barista passed me a frozen mocha. I walked away, telling myself that I would throw it away, and by the time I was at the trash can I'd already knocked back enough to give myself a headache.

 

Crazy, right? It was just the right combination of a craved thing with being tired with being a trigger. Yes. A trigger. If someone gives me food, I eat it. I don't think about it. I just do it. It's a very specific giving, though, where the giver specifically presents me with the food. And I feel like accepting it allows me to build/develop a relationship with that person.

 

Later that day, one of the cashiers asked if anyone wanted a cookie. I shook my head and brushed it off. There was nothing to make that food attractive to me.

 

So, you know. That's a thing that I've known for a while thrown into stark relief.

 

Legs are kind of sore now. Which is probably a function of not getting any real recovery time the past few days. We'll see what tomorrow holds. Anyway, I'm off to write and such and get some dinner in me.

 

Catch you later, nerds!

[Teirin]

Lots of good training (more Judo!!), some personal insight, and general happiness and progress. Good to see life treating you better at last. Enjoy your rest day and hope things go well with your family tomorrow!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Kishi]

Lots of good training (more Judo!!), some personal insight, and general happiness and progress. Good to see life treating you better at last. Enjoy your rest day and hope things go well with your family tomorrow!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Yup! I think I figured out why sasae is going so much better. I made banded uchikomi a part of my morning routine, and more specifically practicing uchi mata.

 

 

And it occurs to me that the pulling pattern from uchi mata transfers over really well to sasae. That's just a n00bish thought, though; I don't know how much actual carryover there is.

[Kishi]

Welp, today was a day. Needed the rest. Hoo.

 

Played Pandemic for the first time. That game is awesome.

 

Had some cheatz, but even with them, I don't think I went over even three thousand calories, so the energy balance portion of the equation is totally fine. This is the kind of thing I had in mind - food and friends and funtimes.

 

I'll post some numbers tomorrow when I'm not so tired.

[Kyellan]

Played Pandemic for the first time. That game is awesome.

 

Pandemic is the best. I played it in London with a bunch of fellow fantasy nerds at WorldCon last year. They had a GIANT version set up--the board must have been four feet by five feet, or something ridiculous like that. Even just watching it while other people played was fun. I always keep my copy of Pandemic on hand in case I need a pick-up game with random people, because it's so simple and fun.

 

I actually played a "perfect" Pandemic game a little while back--a win with zero outbreaks. This never happens.

[RisenPhoenix]

I actually played a "perfect" Pandemic game a little while back--a win with zero outbreaks. This never happens.

 

I had a game night with Nerds a while back where we played Pandemic.  Most people at the table had never played Pandemic before.

 

We kicked the crap out of those diseases.

 

And then Tin Man and I felt bad for giving the other people false hope that Pandemic is regularly beatable.