Wednesday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Tim, John, Robert, Keith, and Stanley.

Ukemi: did fairly well on both sides, better on the left this time. No real problems. Moon must have been in the right phase.

The Walk: Went well. I had a couple of mental lapses on the second iteration.

Releases: Sensei worked with me on these. Reminded me to keep unbendable, but relaxed , arm when doing them. I'm usually too tense.

Techniques: Sensei worked with me on 1-5. Went pretty well. He even took a Gaedan-ate. Technique was poor on that, but my impact into him was sufficient to generate the throw. Technique will improve.

Aftermath: Nothing of note. I think the senseis are alert to my time-in-rank and are trying to see that I get some work on the demonstration stuff in each class.

tag : Aikido

No more commute

I started my new job today, back at the place that laid me off 2.5 years ago. Looks like a nice long-term opportunity.

So far I have no computer and no phone, so I can't do any work. That will change shortly, I'm sure.

Commute today was 15 minutes, compare that to my previous commute of 45 - 75 minutes. And no freeway hassle, all surface roads. Just today I've saved around 5 bucks on gas. Sweet!

No aikido tonight as my cousin Eric is coming in to the library to give a presentation on living at the South Pole and in Greenland as a carpenter.

tag : Career

Wednesday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Tim, John, Robert, Keith, and Stanley.

Ukemi: did fairly well on both sides, better on the left this time. Dinged my shoulder a bit on the right, especially when I did an assisted roll. Ouch. John was going to work with me more, but I decided my shoulder'd had enough for the night.

The Walk: We skipped it. I think Sensei forgot because he wanted to get to Bakwas.

Bakwas : Worked with Robert on 1, 2a, 2b and 3. I had a really nice start to 2a (I think) once while John was ukeing for me. 2a starts off with a second release, flows into a fifth release and then goes into techniques 6, 7, 8 and 9. I did a decent second and fifth release and I timed the 6th technique perfectly. If I'd wanted to throw him on hit, he would have gone rolling off the mat. It was sweeeeet.

Aftermath: We ran about 15 minutes longer than we normally do. Had to stop for gas on the way home ($75 for a fill-up), so I didn't make it home until 10pm. Then stayed up to watch "Veronica Mars". Oh, and ibuprofen for the right shoulder.

tag : Aikido

Monday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Randy and Keith

Ukemi: did ok. Need to use my center to generate the throw. Keith and I were both having troubles. We blamed it on the moon.

The Walk: Went okay. Ran through it in opposing corners with Keith. Second time self-pacing.

Releases: 1 through 8 with Keith. Spent time working on falling instead of stepping.

Techniques: ran through the first 5 with Keith. Need to move in, not just to the side, when uke approaches. Number 4 is the weakest, of course.

Aftermath: Sensei actually mentioned the "d" word: demonstration. It'll probably be a couple of weeks, but I do have 40 hours of mat time.

tag : Aikido

Hey, Dude!

A weekend spent at the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas. My mom invited Kim and I to join her and my niece for a couple of days in Central Texas.

While growing up, I went there a couple of times and love the place. Kim and I went there once, a couple of years ago, while on a tour of Central Texas.

We rode horses a couple of times, got nicely sunburned, had some good food and did some dancing. Now I'm looking at acreage prices in the general vicinity of that ranch. We can't afford anything decent at the moment, but it sure is nice to look.

tag : travel

Strange phone call

I haven't started working at my new job yet, but the receptionist just called me up and said someone'd tried to reach me there. She didn't give them my phone number, but called me and gave me their number instead. I don't recognize the name, so I'll just have to call them and see who they are.

Bizarre.

tag : Career

1st royalty check

I finally received my first royalty check for "Mana from Heaven". It's only about 1/6th of what I'm due, but the rest will arrive in discrete intervals. I wasn't really expecting to see anything from it, I just wanted to get the stories visible again.

Still, the money's nice to have.

tag : Fandom

Wednesday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Tim, John, Keith, Rob (black belt, not sure what dan), and Stanley.

Ukemi: did fairly well on both sides. I think I did about 8 on each side. On the last on the right hand side, I collapsed my elbow and decided to stop then, before I started hurting myself.

The Walk: Went okay, second was less smooth than the first. Sensei moved me around while everyone else was doing it eyes closed.

Bakwas : Did a couple with Sensei. Not nearly as mind blowing as in the past. Also uke'd some for Keith and Stanley so they could attempt it on "Brahma Bull".

Shomen-ate: Worked with Rob on this. Attempted it until I got a couple decent ones on each side. Took about 8 attempts on each side.

Agemai-ate: Worked with Rob on this. Attempted it until I got a couple decent ones on each side. Took about 8 attempts on each side.

Gyakugamea-ate: Worked with Rob on this. This went better than the previous two. I'm certain that it's because the first part of this one is the same as the first two.

Gedan-ate: Worked with Rob on this. Position of the off-hand needs to be in front and above me as opposed to straight above me. Still, I managed a few throws with this even though technique needs lots of work.

Aftermath: No real problems. No painkillers needed.

tag : Aikido

A day of milestones

3 milestones occurred on Friday. Two good, one neutral.

Neutral: the truck turned over to 100,000 miles

Good #1: One of my closest friends received a job offer that has him
running a scuba shop and gets him out of an under-appreciated position
at a place that abused his good nature. With a raise and a cut of the
gross income of the store.

Good #2: I received the job offer I've been waiting on for about two
months. I'm going back to the place that laid me off which, in
comparison to my current job, will have more money, cheaper benefits, a
shorter commute and more work.

I'd like to apologize if me and mine sucked the good karma out of your
area, wherever you may be.

The question for the moment is whether my current job will still send me
to Boston a week from Monday. The conference is paid for, I've bought
my airline ticket and reserved a hotel room.

Place your bets. :)

tag : Career

Monday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Randy, Keith and Stanley. Chuck was in the dojo, but talking with Sensei Ray about some construction of items for the upcoming Judo tournament.

Ukemi: both sides without the crash pad. Sensei Randy is going to start adding tori-induced propulsion to the rolls, at least on the right side.

The Walk: Went okay. Ran through it the first time with eyes closed. Mucho off-balance in places.

Releases: 1 through 8 with Sensei Randy. Making improvements.

Aigamaeate: Worked with Sensei on this. Problems: holding on to uke with lead hand. Solution: use two-finger approach instead of whole-hand approach. Unbendable arm! I managed to get a couple of throws right and left side.

Ushiro-ate: Worked with Sensei on this. I'm not able to complete the throw with him for some reason.

Bakwas: Was uke for everyone on this. My size made it quite interesting for them. "Brahma bull" might be my nickname. I also sped up quite a bit during the kata. I must remember to stay slow.

Aftermath: Did not take any ibuprofen, woke up with a slightly tweaked left shoulder.

tag : Aikido

Waltz across Texas

I've just waltzed across Texas and, boy, are my tires tired.

Kim and I had appointments in various Texas cities over the weekend, so we had a lot of driving to do.

The first appointment was in Austin at noon on Saturday. We got up around 6:30, got final items packed and the dogs ready to travel. Popped in the truck, stopped by Shipley's for breakfast and were on the road by 8:00 a.m.

We'd wanted to do some geocaching on the way to Austin, but that departure time gave us no time for it, if the cache proved difficult to find. So, straight to Austin. There was a bit of delay on 290 in Chappell Hill due to construction reducing two lanes to one. Shortly thereafter, we stopped, switched drivers and cleaned out Jack's kennel. He'd been sick.

We arrived in Austin a little before my meeting was supposed to start and Kim took off to the dog park with the boys.

Four hours later, my meetings were over, so we packed back into the truck and headed toward Huntsville. We stopped in Taylor for dinner at Rudy Mikeska's bar-b-q joint. Probably the best sausage I've come across at a bar-b-q place. Not ground too fine and a good dose of pepper.

We stopped in Thorndale to find a geocache, I think. I just did a search and there's no cache near there to find. I'll have to double-check where we found the first one. We stopped later in Rockdale to find a cache at the library and failed, miserably.

We managed to pull into Huntsville around 8:30 after a stop at the Sonic for floats and shakes.

Sunday morning we loaded the moped into the bed of the truck, said our goodbyes and were on our way. Traffic was light, allowing us to make it home around 2:30.

We collapsed for a couple of hours. The dogs were at least as tired as we were.

500 miles. We've done more, but this was a tough weekend. Next weekend is a drive to Bandera, Texas and back. That's over 3 days instead of 2.

tag : Travel

Wednesday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Tim, John, Keith, Chuck, and Stanley.

Ukemi: both sides without the crash pad. Did fairly well, tweaked my right shoulder a little. Keith said it was because I'm twisting my torso on the way down. Seems he was having the same problem.

The Walk: Went okay, second was less smooth than the first.

Bhakvas (sp?) : Start off with the releases and work into katas of techniques 6, 7, 8 and 9. This is training for when you're not able to complete the normal releases because uke stops you from moving where you need to move. Brain fry was not so prevalent. Keith and I took to calling ourselves amoebas for the evening while working with each other.

Aftermath: Right shoulder's a little wonky, ibuprofen helped Wednesday night but it's still a little off today.

tag : Aikido

Delay's done

Not only is he quitting the House of Reps, and the election, but he's also moving out of state. At least temporarily.

Here's hoping Lampson wins the election.

tag : Politics

Monday Night at the Dojo

Attendees: Sensei Randy and Stanley.

Ukemi: both sides without the crash pad. Did well until Stanley pointed out that I needed to be looking ahead instead of down. Will work on that more next time.

The Walk: Went okay. Ran through it 3 times, the last without being able to see Stanley. A couple of hitches on the last couple of stones. Need to have more flowery motions.

Releases: 1 through 8 with Stanley. Worked better when Sensei Ray, from the sidelines, said: "Be bored."

Shomen-ate: Worked with Stanley on this. Got a couple of good throws.

Gyakugamea-ate: Worked with Stanley on this. Got a couple of throws with this in kata version and street version. Stanley was not able to thrown me on the street version, but neither was Sensei Randy.

Ushiro-ate: Worked with Stanley on this. Not getting a good turn of center with both hands on uke.

Aftermath: Nothing of note. Slightly depressed after the session over poor performance. Came up with the maxim: "Good Rolls, Good Releases or Good Techniques: choose one".

tag : Aikido