At the Movies: Django Unchained

Django Unchained: 4

Another Quentin Tarantino movie, which means I had to go alone.  My wife will no join me to see a QT movie as the violence repulses her.  As QT movies go, the violence was not everpresent.  when it was present it, as usual, violated laws of physics.

Django is a slave, turned bounty hunter, turned romantic.  Godd performances were turned in by Jamie Foxx, Christopher Walz, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo di Caprio.  I think Samuel's was the best of the lot.  Don Johnson's appearance was nice little bonus.

My wife is tempted to see the movie since QT dies in it.

At the Movies: Wreck-it-Ralph

Wreck-it-Ralph: 4

An animated film that takes through the worlds of 1980's arcade games and the lives they lead after the arcade closes at night.  A fun film that I enjoyed.  The voices of John C. Reilly and Jane Lynch were used for a couple of the main characters.

Wreck-it-Ralph is a bd guy in the arcades tired of being a bad guy.  He almost brings down the entire arcade economy in his attempt to become a good guy.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 12/22/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Troy, Hussein, and Dan

Ukemi:

Full set.  And I helpd Dan with his.

The Walk:

Twice.  I then spent some time with Dan on some parts of the Walk.

Releases:

None for me today

Techniques:

Troy did 1-17 of Ju Nana Han Kata and was promoted to Ikkyu.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 12/21/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Troy, and Dan ( a new student)

Ukemi:

Full set.

The Walk:

Twice

Releases:

Trey, Troy and I did our releases together.  The first time we've worked with each other in quite some time.  It was good to work with someone who could find the faults.

Techniques:

I then worked with Dan on "Punch the Dummy"

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Thursday Night - 12/20/2012

Aikido players: No students showed up, so I went home.

Volleyball, 3-0, 2-1

The last week of regular play in this current season.  We played an inexperienced team with only four of their players on court.  We handled them fairly easily, but did have a close call in the second game when we had the guys setting.  That caused a huge amount of confusion in positioning on court.

The second match was much closer.  We lost the second game and won the third 15-13.

Now on to the playoffs

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at Taqueria El Nopalito
Aikido
Attempted to get to Texas Art Supply - failed due to traffic

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Mailed an artfire order off
Texas Art Supply
Aikido
Did some more mat work
Dinner at San Lorenzo

Sunday

More mat work
Football
Dinner at Joe's

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 12/15/12

Aikido players: Tim and Troy

Ukemi:

Just a few warm-ups

The Walk:

Not today

Releases:

Not today

Techniques:

We worked through the first twelve of Ju Nana Han Kata with Troy as tori.  It took us about two hours.  We ended with Kote-gaeshi.  My falls for the left side of that need some brushing up.  I'm going to have to have some folks throw me with that during warm-up.

I then ran through the first 14 of Koryu Dai Yon.  I'm, still having trouble with 8 and 9 ( the counters to 1 and 2).  The hand transitions are just not in my brain yet.

Aftermath:

A number of bruises from the entry for Ushiro-ate.

Aikido Friday Night - 12/14/12

Aikido players: None.  No one showed tonight.  We'd tentatively cancelled class and no stragglers showed up.

Aikido Thursday Night - 12/13/12

Aikido players: Sal

Ukemi:

None tonight.

The Walk:

Once

Releases:

Sal and I both did our releases tonight.  Mine were not very good.

Techniques:

We worked through the first two of Ju Nana Han Kata to knock off some rust since it'd been a while since Sal had been to class.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Volleyball, 2-1, 3-0

Another late night of volleyball and we played fairly well.  We probably should have one all of the games, but we just lost the third game of the first match.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Blueberry muffins
Refreshed the sourdough starter for bread on Sunday
Walked the dogs at Frankie Carter Randolph, took a minor spill on a slippery slope
Aikido
Worked on matting some art
Into town to Texas Art Supply, Rice Epicurean, and 59 Diner
Worked on matting some art

Sunday

Started some sourdough loaves and some Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls
Football

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 12/8/2012

Aikido players:Tim, Troy, Brad and Hussein

Ukemi:

Partial set.

The Walk:

Twice, as usual

Releases:

I worked with Brad on his releases.  They went pretty well

Techniques:

I worked with Brad on 1-10.  I'd told Tim that he was just having occasional issues on a couple of techniques and thought he might be ready for promotion.  Brad had a rough day and was off on most of the techniques.

Troy and I worked on Aigamae-ate as a follow-up to Friday night's run-through.  This technique exposes a number of the issues Troy had on Friday night with a number of techniques.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 12/7/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, and Troy

Ukemi:

Full set.

The Walk:

Not today

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

Troy ran through 1-17 with Trey as an uke.

Trey ran through O Waza Ju Pon with Troy as an uke.

I ran through the first 14 of Yon Kata with Trey and Troy as ukes.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Thursday Night - 12/6/2012

Aikido players: Troy

We decoded, for various reasons, that a class tonight would be unproductive.

Weekend update - SMOFCon 2012

K and I flew out to Philly to go to SMOFCon this past weekend

Friday:

Up at 5 a.m. to catch the flight to Chicago and then on to Philly.  Caught the train to downtown and then walked to the waterfront and in to the Hyatt.  "Planning across Divisions" and "Discussing difficult issues calmly" were the two panels I sat in for the afternoon.  K and I then wandered into the city and ate at Eulogy, a Belgian beer restaurant.  A large group from the con was there that we had managed to miss joining up because of elevator issues at the hotel.

We got back to the hotel and watched a little football.  We were asleep before the first quarter ended.

Saturday

Up and off to breakfast at Mrs K's Koffee Shop.  Good food good prices.

"Understanding Skill Sets and Jobs", "Evaluating Yourself: What Jobs Are You Best For?", "Maintaining SF Con Culture" were the panels I sat in on for the morning/afternoon.  I then met with a number of Art Show folks for a couple of hours.

Then on to the Fannish Inquisition.  It went fairly well with the exception of one poorly phrased question which pointedly called out one person and castigated him in public.  It was very poor form.

Dinner was with the Exhibits division. 

I chilled out after that until time for the "Statistics and Probabilities" panel (i.e., Poker tournament).  22 people entered, I ended up ni 6th place, 2 places out of the money.  I think I was active in around 10 hands.  One had me with a pair of 8's and the flop was K-8-K, so I flopped a full house.  I managed to pull in a few of chips on that one.

My last hand, as big blind, with not enough chips to make big blind, was 9-5 off.  I lost that hand quickly.

Sunday

Up early for breakfast with my sister and niece.  Panels for the morning were "How to Talk to Tech", "When the Chair Is the Problem".  We then caught a cab to the airport with another fan.  Back through Chicago and back home, arriving home around 11 p.m.

Aikido Thursday Night - 11/29/2012

Aikido players: Brad (I thought we were going to have a busy class, but it did not materialize)

Ukemi:

Partial set.

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

We worked through the first five of Ju Nana Han Kata, right side only.  Gyakugamae-ate, Gedan-ate and Ushiro-ate had a few issues  I keep thinking he's ready for promotion, then we have issues on a number of techniques.

Aftermath:

None of note.