Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[shaar]

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

happy carcass

 

This is beautiful.

 

Alka Seltzer Cold and Flu is my JAM.  It's kept my carcass moderately happy, or at least existing, more than once.

[Urgan]

3 minutes ago, shaar said:

 

This is beautiful.

 

Alka Seltzer Cold and Flu is my JAM.  It's kept my carcass moderately happy, or at least existing, more than once.

 

Indeed. And yet. It causes my husband to have gas/bloating and general misery while doing nothing (good) for his sinus cavity. Bodies are a mystery.

[Kishi]

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

Ah so the very first thing I decided to do was get sick. Again. It's like there's a pattern of husband getting sick and then me getting sick or something.

 

The couple that ills together chills together?

 

I dunno.

 

Anyway, don't underestimate solo practice. It can make a huge difference over time.

[Urgan]

5 minutes ago, Kishi said:

The couple that ills together chills together?

 

I dunno.

 

That isn't the way it works--he gets it, gets better, then I get it. And food still needs to be found and/or made. Having a malfunctioning digestive tract Healthy eating is all fine and good until you get sick and you're the one who cooks. "Luckily" I had to go across town anyway and mom just happened to have shrimp and grits lying around.

 

7 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Anyway, don't underestimate solo practice. It can make a huge difference over time.

 

That's what I've been doing all along, but it would have been better to have an actual human to throw. We have wood floors and my husband is scared lol.

[Mistr]

Sorry that you got sick. I hope you are recovering now.

 

Solo practice does help you to remember the techniques and the Japanese names. That is a big part of the material on the first few belt tests. Being able to show your moves under pressure is part of the deal. I know my sensei makes people go until they are winded so she can see how they move when they are tired. Being worn out tends to make a person move economically and avoid using muscle, which usually makes their aikido better. Plus the whole point of martial arts is dealing well under stress.

[Urgan]

3/8/2019 - 3/10/2019

New tricks

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

I am proud of myself. I managed two whole sessions without giving the side-eye to anybody. I was kinda preoccupied clinging on for dear life while alternating between murderous squat sets and trying to grasp the special theory of relativity, which helped.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 7/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Clean kitchen counters

Mop floor

Install new car air-freshener 

Get recalled airbags fixed

Buy new kitchen chairs

 

Courage

Within: Belt Test is a Battlefield

I managed to talk myself down from a panic at midnight Sunday night when it was really important to not hamster-wheel fear for an hour or so.

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 2/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 1/4

Cat food/water - 3/12

Cat grooming - 1/4

Nutrition 

2400 Calories. 2210 : 2272, 2114, 2146

 

Aikido

Jo. 2/3

Tech Review. 4/6

 

I went to the gym on Friday and surprised myself by being able to breathe and hit the prescribed doubles, 73lbs on OHP and 96lbs on bench. Wish I could say the same about the rest of the day, but you can't have everything. Being stopped up is, I suppose, preferable to sneezing and whatnot when attempting to do that office life. We are obscenely thankful for grocery delivery about this time, lol. I spent a large portion of the evening propped up listening to J-pop samples and not breathing through my nose. 

 

Saturday my iPod wasn't charged, so I now know that you can get about 3 hours of play time on 20% charge. This occurred because my car radio is slowly dying. We'll see how long it lasts. Oh, squats went to 192lbs for 5 doubles and deadlifts at 210lbs. It felt like death right until the last set when everything seemed to work okay. I'll never understand it, but I'm not going to question it too hard, either. 

 

Speaking of radios, the one on my nightstand did not appreciate DST any more than the average human and it now refuses to adjust the time. There is a lame time joke in here somewhere, I just know it..... I didn't spend any of it on chores. I just laid around wishing it was comfortable to lie around--took a nap and literally traded in breathing problems for a neck crick because of how one has to sleep when one has the remnants of a cold. I woke up and my sinuses were fine, but turning my head through a full ROM is now out of the question lol okay. 

 

At least I succeeded in flossing (and keeping the shower clean...) during all this, and I know what charities I want to donate to, I think. 

https://mercuryone.org/donate/ - specifically, The Nazarene Fund, which works to free sex slaves and relocate people targeted for death out of the Middle East

https://tolgabathospital.org/donate/ - this may seem really random, but I watch Aussie bat rescue videos for my edutainment and they're under a lot of pressure right now so now is a good time to pitch in, yeah?

https://www.ymcabham.org/annual-campaign This one sorta fell in my lap, in that I already go to the gym and they're doing their annual donation thing now.

 

To say it's daunting to donate when you know there are several major expenses looming is an understatement, but we'll figure it out.

 

12 hours ago, Mistr said:

Sorry that you got sick. I hope you are recovering now.

 

I'm taking it stepwise, sometimes with sideways improvement lol.

 

12 hours ago, Mistr said:

Solo practice does help you to remember the techniques and the Japanese names. That is a big part of the material on the first few belt tests. Being able to show your moves under pressure is part of the deal. I know my sensei makes people go until they are winded so she can see how they move when they are tired. Being worn out tends to make a person move economically and avoid using muscle, which usually makes their aikido better. Plus the whole point of martial arts is dealing well under stress.

 

I had a little bit of a head start on learning the names in that I came in confident in my ability to pronounce romaji at least. #animeftw Don't know how it would have gone for me otherwise lol. I deal rather badly when prepping for events like this. I got through my blue belt test by only thinking out the first few steps of the technique after Sensei called it to avoid thinking myself into oblivion. Also uke and I got a water break because another blue belt was testing and I finished my bit before him early enough that Sensei actually told us to get water. Praying for a repeat of that lol, but not expecting it.

[Urgan]

3/11/2019

FINAL CALL

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

Too scared of bench to be looking at humans.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 8/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Clean kitchen counters

Mop floor

Install new car air-freshener 

Get recalled airbags fixed

Buy new kitchen chairs

 

Courage

Within: Belt Test is a Battlefield

We might have had group therapy in class today. I've never been to therapy, so I'm not sure. Maybe it was just me. 

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 2/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 1/4

Cat food/water - 3/12

Cat grooming - 1/4

Nutrition 

2400 Calories. 2324 : 2324

 

Aikido

Jo. 2/3

Tech Review. 5/6

 

This was not a fine day. There were various things wrong with me that could be summed up as Sick, Beat-up, and DST. I made a very compelling case to not go to the gym, and I agreed with myself as I continued to get ready to go to the gym. Because I figure I'll feel less bad for having gone than for having not. So I did and managed a 101lb bench triple, which matches an existing 3RM. I'm not normally hit by DST this hard, but given Testing Time looms large, that is a big additional stress perhaps enough to warrant feeling like I got beat. It also happens to be precisely one year (3/14/18) I tested for blue belt lol. I could not imagine having taken less time than this for sure and I feel a bit better in that the people testing beside me have had more time to practice and were less familiar with the techniques when we reviewed for the final time in the evening. Not that I want them to do bad, but it just helps my confidence a little bit that I have managed to grasp these things better with my off-the-mat time. T-1 day now.

[Mistr]

You will demonstrate great aikido on your test. Go Urgan!

[Kishi]

6 hours ago, Urgan said:

I made a very compelling case to not go to the gym, and I agreed with myself as I continued to get ready to go to the gym. Because I figure I'll feel less bad for having gone than for having not. So I did and managed a 101lb bench triple, which matches an existing 3RM.

 

#TheIronIsACruelMistress

 

I'm glad to hear you could hit good numbers, especially with so many limitations in place. I bet you got more in the tank somewhere, and I reckon you hit this again when you're well and you'll rock socks.

 

Get some rest and good luck with the test!

[ReturnOfTheDad]

Best of luck on your test!!!

[Urgan]

3/12/2019

Getting all worked up

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

-

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 9/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Clean kitchen counters

Mop floor

Install new car air-freshener 

Get recalled airbags fixed

Buy new kitchen chairs

 

Courage

Within: Belt Test is a Battlefield

It is so real now. I am prepared and scared simultaneously. I did manage to control my brain enough to get to sleep, which may turn out to be helpful later.

 

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 2/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 1/4

Cat food/water - 4/12

Cat grooming - 1/4

Nutrition 

2400 Calories. 2188 : 2052

 

Aikido

Jo. 3/3

Tech Review. 6/6

 

If one thing had to slide today, it was food. I did not have a lunch available from home, a rarity, so I ordered grilled chicken tenders, fries, and collards as you do. Barely managed to clear 2000 and it will have to work, because there was not enough time in the late evening to fit in all the things that needed to be done. Adulted so very hard and made the more elaborate but larger recipe to ensure coverage into Thursday, reviewed all the Aikido techniques, got my husband to play dummy for all the nikkyo variations (which just requires him to stand and take it vs aborting a throw), and bought the darn chairs finally. They won't be arriving until nearly June because Backorder, but for now it's out of our hands. Dental care, shower cleaning, and checking in on the cats' food, water, and litter are proceeding apace in spite of Life ATM. After the test is over, life will get a lot easier.

 

On 3/12/2019 at 5:17 PM, Mistr said:

You will demonstrate great aikido on your test. Go Urgan!

 

On 3/12/2019 at 5:18 PM, Kishi said:

Get some rest and good luck with the test!

 

On 3/12/2019 at 10:21 PM, ReturnOfTheDad said:

Best of luck on your test!!!

 

Thank you all, I am super jittery about the performance aspect (standing up and putting on a show) vs the actual material. Which is par for the course, I suppose. 

 

On 3/12/2019 at 5:18 PM, Kishi said:

#TheIronIsACruelMistress

 

I'm glad to hear you could hit good numbers, especially with so many limitations in place. I bet you got more in the tank somewhere, and I reckon you hit this again when you're well and you'll rock socks.

 

You almost always will do better than you think you will if the system you have in place is conducive to keep on working when things aren't exactly perfect, but every day doesn't have to feel amazing to make progress. 

[shaar]

Test is gonna go GREAT I just FEEL it!!!

[Urgan]

11 minutes ago, shaar said:

Test is gonna go GREAT I just FEEL it!!!

 

I thrive while giving performances like snakes excel at giving massages lol. I guess this is why some people hit a rank and just kinda camp out.

[Kishi]

I mean, there's definitely something to it. It's one thing to have and develop the skill. It's quite something else to exhibit those skills in front of people.

[Urgan]

5 minutes ago, Kishi said:

I mean, there's definitely something to it. It's one thing to have and develop the skill. It's quite something else to exhibit those skills in front of people.

 

Dry mouth hits the minute the bell is rung for testing to begin. All the spit leaves my mouth and goes straight to my hands, I swear it. GAH. Worst stress-response adaptation ever since rabbits and falling over dead from fright. 

[Kishi]

4 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Dry mouth hits the minute the bell is rung for testing to begin. All the spit leaves my mouth and goes straight to my hands, I swear it. GAH. Worst stress-response adaptation ever since rabbits and falling over dead from fright. 

 

Nah, I feel you. Felt the same way on my last test. Shihan told me to go sit down and I was like, "Dun wanna, I have to pace this off, man." Nerves is nerves.

 

But you're gonna make it. You just gotta get your head out of your way and you'll be fine.

[Urgan]

3/13/2019

All I want to hear from Sensei

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

-

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 10/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Clean kitchen counters

Mop floor

Install new car air-freshener 

Get recalled airbags fixed

Buy new kitchen chairs

 

Courage

Within: Belt Test is a Battlefield

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 2/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 1/4

Cat food/water - 4/12

Cat grooming - 1/4

Nutrition 

2400 Calories. 2079 : 1860

 

Aikido

Jo. 3/3

Tech Review. 6/6 *I forgot to update these numbers for Tuesday's report, so here we are correcting that.

 

It is Done. Eating was not a pleasurable activity at any point during the daytime, so my macros are all jacked up as a result. That's okay, it's a perfectly natural reaction to a near-death experience as defined by rabbits. Thank God I had an epic distraction much of the day to help deal with the work downtime that is lethal when you got worrying on your mind. This I credit with helping reduce the panic to manageable levels until I got in the company of My People who were also testing. I had to put on a show of being nonchalant and jovial about the whole thing because when I get nervous I crack jokes and when other people get nervous I crack jokes. Which helps bring the mood somewhat into balance I'd like to think. We tested, and Lord we tested. The dojo was set to 70 degrees and I might have lost a couple lbs just from peeing beforehand and sweating all of the time.

 

It's about 500000000x better to be testing with your friends on either side of you. Also if you are not the one taking the longest getting through the techniques lolololololol....no shame on the one who did, I know she demonstrated she had a good grasp of the material, we all just went into it with different levels of confidence. Also she's going to send me the footage of our test, for which I am immensely grateful?? Afraid to see myself aikido-ing TBPH. But if there's anything worth clipping out of the test and displaying for the world to see, I will do. My husband watches my tests, which was kind of cool to have him there to see what all these late nights are about lol. First test in the advanced class, and we all put on a show--black belts are always entertainingly brutal. One almost clocked him with a bokken or jo when things got feisty on the edge of the mat, as you do. How our test worked was, we did our 1-player bokken and jo work, uke'd for one another's kumitachi, and each got a non-testing uke that we rotated through to show our ability to go to work on different body types. Then we did three round of jiu waza (grasping attacks only) with the ukes. So these people got almost as much of a workout as we did! If it weren't so hot, though, it would have been totally easy because dry mouth was my biggest foe. I sorta got control of that before I had the opportunity for a water break, which was neat.

 

18 hours ago, Kishi said:

Nah, I feel you. Felt the same way on my last test. Shihan told me to go sit down and I was like, "Dun wanna, I have to pace this off, man." Nerves is nerves.

 

But you're gonna make it. You just gotta get your head out of your way and you'll be fine.

 

I feel that feel so hard. Sitting still is not something that happens easily when all in the whole world you want to do is fidget. 

 

Yeah, I survived and here we are. We'll get the results on Monday, but I'm not fussed. Just so glad to be done I could kiss my worst enemy lol. If you get nothing out of us talking politi-shop, know it helped take my mind off the Big Scary and focus on articulating my views in comparison/contrast to yours and that was incredibly valuable on multiple levels. Arigatou. I only continued with it out of respect for how seriously you've taken reading and responding. Not many people are willing to do that these days.

[shaar]

Man I think I'm in the vast minority of people that enjoy testing and being put on the spot - IF it's something I know I'm skilled at and confident in. .... Maybe I really am an extrovert.  Huh.

 

YOU DID THE THING IT IS OVER TESTIFY~ \o/ Congrats on getting it done!!!!

[Urgan]

4 minutes ago, shaar said:

Man I think I'm in the vast minority of people that enjoy testing and being put on the spot - IF it's something I know I'm skilled at and confident in. .... Maybe I really am an extrovert.  Huh.

 

I mean, it's a really good character trait to have, being able to demonstrate what you know under pressure.You may be literally sitting on that fence, like half-and-half except without the abdominal atrocity that follows lol.

 

I don't mind showing a group how X is done (especially if the group is small), it's the being graded part that makes me lose my nerve. 

 

8 minutes ago, shaar said:

YOU DID THE THING IT IS OVER TESTIFY~ \o/ Congrats on getting it done!!!!

 

This made me lol. FREE AT LAST. I do kinda wish I had my belt now tho....

[Mistr]

Congratulations for getting through your test with you and all your ukes intact. I know what you mean about testing with other people. On the one hand you can hope that sensei was looking at the other person when you screwed up. On the other hand, you have a paranoid voice in your head wondering if it was you whenever sensei asks to see something again.

 

[Urgan]

7 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Congratulations for getting through your test with you and all your ukes intact. I know what you mean about testing with other people. On the one hand you can hope that sensei was looking at the other person when you screwed up. On the other hand, you have a paranoid voice in your head wondering if it was you whenever sensei asks to see something again.

 

True. Facts. In this case, some of the time it was obvious because Sensei was making verbal corrections. We only had to do a general redo of part of a technique a few times, though. Giant relief.

[Kishi]

7 hours ago, Urgan said:

I feel that feel so hard. Sitting still is not something that happens easily when all in the whole world you want to do is fidget. 

 

Yeah, I survived and here we are. We'll get the results on Monday, but I'm not fussed. Just so glad to be done I could kiss my worst enemy lol.

 

Sounds like you "left it all out there," as it were. Sounds like it's done as cleanly as it could be. I hope Monday turns out well for you.

 

7 hours ago, Urgan said:

If you get nothing out of us talking politi-shop, know it helped take my mind off the Big Scary and focus on articulating my views in comparison/contrast to yours and that was incredibly valuable on multiple levels. Arigatou. I only continued with it out of respect for how seriously you've taken reading and responding. Not many people are willing to do that these days.

 

LOL, I had a feeling that was what was happening there. Happy to be of service.  I don't figure on us coming out of this agreeing on much beyond a desire for a better world. Douitashimashite.

 

Anyway, yeah. I'm a rare breed as far as dealing with people and taking time to do things. It's not really rewarded these days. I'm glad you do the same for me. You're pretty great too.

[Urgan]

38 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Sounds like you "left it all out there," as it were. Sounds like it's done as cleanly as it could be. I hope Monday turns out well for you.

 

Thanks, yeah I'm fairly optimistic because I have seen what failed belt tests look like and ours wasn't that.

 

38 minutes ago, Kishi said:

LOL, I had a feeling that was what was happening there. Happy to be of service.  I don't figure on us coming out of this agreeing on much beyond a desire for a better world. Douitashimashite.

 

Also there was a corporate-wide two-day half-day webinars going down and LORD were they not relevant to anyone's interests. This is definitely true. We showed the Internet it is possible to have a disagreement without it immediately swerving into a ditch.

 

Thunder just struck and it scared me and the cats (husband is out of town in ~ FLORIDA PERFECT WEATHER TIME~ right now...). Like cannon-fire. 

[Kishi]

2 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Thunder just struck and it scared me and the cats (husband is out of town in ~ FLORIDA PERFECT WEATHER TIME~ right now...). Like cannon-fire. 

 

Now now, as long as you're not Thunderstruck yourself, you should be fine. :'D

[Urgan]

3/14/2019

Obligatory reference

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

Did gud.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 11/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Clean kitchen counters

Mop floor

Install new car air-freshener 

Get recalled airbags fixed

Buy new kitchen chairs

 

Courage

Within: Belt Test is a Battlefield

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 3/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 1/4

Cat food/water - 4/12

Cat grooming - 1/4

Nutrition 

2400 Calories. 2061 : 2007

 

Aikido

Jo. 3/3

Tech Review. 6/6 

 

Still not eating great, but at least it cracked 2000 again. Squats were punishingly difficult, rack pulls less so--naturally. Still jittery basically all day long, which is not recommended. The state experienced the joys of tornado warnings with the storm rolling in from the northwest, which meant driving home in lovely crosswinds while beating the wall o' water. It was a quick drive as these things go, which was merciful. Otherwise, there's been a good level of communication over the last few days within the family, now if I could just remember to check on the cat's food and water, this would be perfect.

 

14 hours ago, Kishi said:

Now now, as long as you're not Thunderstruck yourself, you should be fine. :'D

 

I don't normally jump during just any old storm. This one was a ninja-strike of sound. All low rumbles and then randomly BOOM IT'S THE 1812 OVERTURE UP IN HERE.