Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Mea.
Ukemi: 1 air fall each side. Left side was good, right side pinged the left calf a little.
The Walk: Went ok.
Releases: With Trey.
Techniques:
We worked through 6-10 for him and 11-16 for me, all from Ju Nana Han Kata.
Spent some time on Oshi-taoshi and Ude-gaeshi exploring pivots and such.
Spent some time on Shihonage for me and Sumi-otoshi.
Aftermath: None of note
Aikidokas: Tim, and Richard.
Ukemi: Went ok. Didn't do any big falls today
The Walk: Went ok. We're altering one of the stones, the footwork thereof, and that's requiring a little adjustment. Although I have done that footwork when Sensei Mike has suggested it.
Releases: None today.
Techniques:
We worked through 1-12 for both Richard and me, both sides. We worked far slower than I'm used to and it was a good learning tool.
Ushiro-ate: not enough off-balance. Rushing the rest of the technique.
Oshi-taoshi: I was not going up and over the mountain enough.
Ude-hineri: too far away during the initial off-balance
Waki-gatame: not letting uke into my house enough.
Aftermath: Tired. Sweaty. A good workout.
Aikidokas: Tim, and a new student whose name I did not catch
Ukemi: We went through basic slaps and started to work on forward rolls with the new student
The Walk: Went through this a few times
It's amazing how much time introducing a new student can take. I hope she sticks around.
Aftermath: None.
Friday: aikido
Saturday: Grocery shopping and then Weed-eating for two hours in the morning. Riding mower is still in the shop.
Aikido in the afternoon.
D&D in the evening. First time I've had room in my schedule for that in several months.
Sunday: not much. Grilled chicken, steak and sausage out on the grill for dinner. Made a Peach Pie, too.
Here's the list of stuff I had hoped to get done over my days off, with the ones marked that got done.
Done - Wait for the AT&T guy to fix the DSL
Done - Mow the lawn (1 acre) with a push mower. The riding mower is in the shop.
Not ready - Pick up the Taurus from the shop
Nope - Go blueberry picking
Nope - Go up to the in-laws?
Done - See Wall*E
Done - See Wanted
Done - See Hancock
95% done - Finish assembling the extension to the deck
Not ready - Pick up the 1/4 cow, if it's ready
Done - Call Adobe for help with my Photoshop issue
In the shop:
Uncle Leo's base
Assembly/feed table
95% done - Dog barrier for the other door
Reset wing on table saw
Done - Aikido on Saturday
Not enough folks - Gaming Friday or Saturday night
Did not do - Try to take some HDR photos
Looking at the list, I got almost everything accomplished. I made a mistake on the deck, so I have to fix that. I need to go through and finalize the home network after the DSL fix. I had to get the router reset and that messes everything up.
Aikidokas: Tim, Greg, Trey, and Tessa.
Ukemi: I worked on extending my legs through the falls some more.
I took a Big Fall. Without Pain. Yahoo! Now to continue the tradition.
Nami No Waza:
We worked on the first 4 chains. They are based off of, respectively, releases number 1, 2, 2, and 3.
Kogueri Double Hand Grabs:
We did the first 4 of these as well:
Two-hands to the chest.
One hand to the chest.
Heaven and earth.
Two hands to the same side and then bump uke.
I tried to do these with my eyes closed to get a better feel for uke's balance.
Aftermath: I was an absolutely dripping mess by the end of 2+ hours. Lots of overall soreness. Not calf pain!
Wall*E: 4
A Pixar movie. Really, what else needs to be said?
I enjoyed the heck out of this one. Got consistent laughs when Wall*E recharged and made the MacOS boot sound.
Only have one quibble. I think they messed up the scale of the two ships. The one that lands on Earth with Eve seems much smaller in space when compared with Axiom than when you compare their footprints on Earth. A minor quibble.
I'd happily see it again. It might be added to the library when the DVD comes out.
Hancock: 3
Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman star in a film about a superhero who's not as much of a poster boy as you would hope for.
Fun special effects and a decent story line. I just don't think I'm terribly interested in seeing it again. I can't think of any specific reason why not.
Wanted: 3
Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and others star in a movie about an everyman who discovers he has the genetics of the best assassin in the world. This everyman is then trained and welcomed into the brotherhood of assassins.
A fun movie with lots of bang of lots of chases. I did not spot the twist coming but I think my wife did.
The end scene pushed a bit of dialogue too far. I found myself thinking "they're more like guidelines".
Ronin: 2
Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Sean Bean, Jonathan Pryce
A suitcase is desired by Russian and Irish agents. Much mayhem arises from the quest for said suitcase.
You'd think that this high-powered cast would be able to pull off a decent movie, but I guess the script was sorely lacking, or the director was horrible. The movie was not that good. It felt very low budget.
This movie has an interesting tie-in with the film "Munich". There's a role in this movie that almost exactly matches a role in "Munich" and is played by the same actor.
Munich: 3
A Spielberg movie about the Munich Olympics and the Israelis taken hostage during that time. It then follows the retribution taken against the planners of the hostage crisis.
A good movie. I suppose I need to see how much of the retribution is factual.
This movie has an interesting tie-in with the film "Ronin". There's a role in this movie, "Papa", that almost exactly matches a role in "Ronin" and is played by the same actor.
I'm going to be off work for 6 consecutive days, and there are a number of things that should get done during that time. Let's see what I've come up with and then see what actually gets done.
Wait for the AT&T guy to fix the DSL
Mow the lawn (1 acre) with a push mower. The riding mower is in the shop.
Pick up the Taurus from the shop
Go blueberry picking
Go up to the in-laws?
See Wall*E
See Wanted
See Hancock
Finish assembling the extension to the deck
Pick up the 1/4 cow, if it's ready
Call Adobe for help with my Photoshop issue
In the shop:
Uncle Leo's base
Assembly/feed table
Dog barrier for the other door
Reset wing on table saw
Aikido on Saturday
Gaming Friday or Saturday night
Try to take some HDR photos
Friday: aikido
Saturday: work for 12 hours trying to get a release out the door. No aikido. durango's for dinner
Sunday: work, again, for 12 hours. Watch baseball (Chicago/Chicago) in the evening.
Rest of the week? Work Monday and then off until July 7th!!!!!
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Brad.
Ukemi: No air falls. While waiting for Trey to show up, I had a little extra time to run through reps. Got about 3x normal number of rolls in. Spent a little time after each one checking for things that might be issues on an air fall. Might upgrade to air falls again soon.
The Walk: Went ok.
Releases: With Trey. We found something to correct in each release.
Techniques:
We worked through 6-8 for him and 1 (Kubi-guruma) of the Owaza Ju Pon for me.
Trey was doing fairly well on his techniques.
I was re-introduced to mine on the right side and did ok. I went through three of the four steps of learning it.
1) Push uke's leading hand and let him roll-out.
2) Push only uke's neck and let him roll-out.
3) Push uke's hand and his neck and let him roll-out.
4) Push uke's hand and his neck and have him take the garuma fall
Then I worked on the left side. I only did the first step on that side.
Aftermath: Slight tweak of left calf muscle on a fall for ude-gaeshi. Trey told me to hurry up and get my Shodan before I fall apart.
Syriana: 3
George Clooney, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Robert Foxworth, Christopher Plummer, Jeffery Wright, Amanda Peet combine in a story of oil, the Middle East, Texas, the CIA and corruption.
Some violence, some torture and good acting.
Pride of the Yankees: 3
Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig in Lou's life story: from childhood to retirement from the Yankees.
Good stuff. Almost drew a tear from me at one point.
Bourne Ultimatum: 3
Jason Bourne comes back yet again and finds out how he got to be the way he is.
A fun movie, with amazingly indestructible vehicles yet again.
Friday: aikido
Saturday: K at work. I worked on shipping some stuff, but the local shipping outlet was closed, even though their sign said they should be open.
aikido.
Dinner at Durango's with a double, horizon-to-horizon rainbow.
Sunday: work on the extension to the grilling deck and dinner with mom at Valentino's Seafood.
Little did I realize that ratcheting the lag bolts for the deck extension would really give my thumbs a workout. They're sore!
Aikidokas: Tim, Greg, Trey, Tessa, and Brittany. Tessa and Brittany are two NASA co-ops, here for the summer. I hope they'll continue to grace us with their presence.
Ukemi: I worked on extending my legs through the falls some more. I think I'll work on that some more on Friday and try an air fall on Saturday.
The Walk: Went ok.
Releases: With Greg.
Techniques:
Tim had Tessa show us Ikkyo, Nikkyo, and Sankyo from the Ueshiba style. Pretty interesting. Ikkyo does not have a direct corollary in Tomiki. Nikkyo is our Tenkai Kote-Hineri. Sankyo shows up in San Kata.
Trey wanted to run through ude-hineri before we went home, so I served as uke.
Aftermath: None of note
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Brad.
Ukemi: No air falls. I'm trying to ascertain whether I am curling my legs mid-fall. I think I am. I worked on extending them through the falls and it does seem to improve things.
The Walk: Went ok.
Releases: With Trey.
Techniques:
Trey and I were not having a great night. We worked through 1-3 for him and 1-5 for me. I think I was attacking poorly, was not interested in some of the techniques.
Aftermath: None of note
Taurus needs to go into the shop for alignment and, maybe, suspension work. I was driving home in the rain the other day and the car started drifting while the wheels were straight. Also, when we go over Botts' dots, the car seems to do the Charleston.
I attempted to mow the lawn with the riding mower yesterday and it stopped moving after about 5 minutes. I attempted a fix for this a while back, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Into the shop it goes. The faster I get it in, the faster I get it back, the sooner I can mow with something besides the push mower. In this Texas heat, that can make quite a difference.
I went looking for some information on a drive enclosure that's giving me trouble. The link provided by a store appears to be the wrong site, as they don't mention any hard drive enclosures in their product list. However, the intro flash struck my funny bone.
I still need to find info on the drive enclosure. My 1TB drive is currently inaccessible.
Night at the Museum: 3
A down-on-his-luck divorced dad gets desperate and takes a job as a night watchman at a museum. The museum comes to life at night.
I'm amazed that I'm not upset that I watched the movie. I generally don't like the concept of Ben's movies. Maybe the scene with Ben and his mom made me give it a chance? I don't know.
A very well-respected cast, if not a strong script for the cast. Mickey Rooney had a fun part.
Jumper: 3
It's been a long time since I read the book. I can't even find my copy of the book. : ( But, not much of the movie resembled the book. I think the lead character, his girlfriend and his ability to teleport are similar to the book.
Still a fun movie.
Friday: Japanese class. Home after 10
Saturday: Japanese class. In town by 9am. We were going to go back out and go shopping in the Asian section of Houston afterwards, but K. decided it would be too taxing on the two students. So, we stayed home, baked some chicken and watched a couple of movies.
Sunday: Japanese class. In town by 9am. Back home to grill out for Father's Day: steaks, and salmon. Then the NBA Finals.
Japanese class is done!!!
We finally made the time to go out to the local-est blueberry farm in Houston. It's not local. It's about an hour and a half away, but it is the closest one.
We got there around 6 pm, not having had to struggle through too much traffic.
We grabbed our buckets and dove into the bushes, not to surface, or see each other, for about two hours. K. and I had big buckets. Our niece, E., had a small one.
When we emerged, the two big buckets were mostly filled. The small bucket had a couple of layers of blueberries in it. Turns out she'd been eating more than picking, but that's ok.
Returned uneventfully. Grabbed some dinner and watched the NBA Finals.
Time for some blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes. Yahoo!
Kung Fu Panda: 3
Saw this with my niece. We did skip out before the very end of the credits.
An okay movie. The voices were not overpowering. That is to say, they did not obscure the dialogue. I had trouble recognizing the voices, even though I knew who a couple of them were.
Anyway. Good movie about following your dream, doing things no one thinks you can.
I spent the last weekend in a Japanese class with my niece and two other folks. All together, there a four folks in the class: two adult, two not.
The youngsters are doing the best, far and away. I'm having fun, but the brain gives out around 2:30 each day.
The hardest part is paying attention to what the instructor is saying as she's asking me to translate. I have to concentrate hard, process what was said, and the process the translation. It requires a lot of energy.
A bunch of, potentially high-stakes, drama in my little aikido world. I hope it all straightens out well. Some of the events that have already transpired are one-way tickets, I think.
Somebody's got to blink.
Also drama in the publishing world.
All of this drama is caused, IMOGDO, by lack of communication. Talk, people!
I got involved in a book deal several years ago, mainly to get some of Roger Zelazny's lesser-known works republished and available to a wider audience. The book got published, and it may or may not have sold some copies.
It was not the wisest move I've ever made, at least the way it looks at the moment.
Things have happened in the past couple of days to inject some life into the cold, sodden ashes of the project. Sparks are flying and threatening to burn down houses.
Interesting times.
Troy: 2
Sparta vs. Troy
Wow, were there a lot of big names in this film: Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Peter O'Toole, and Brian Cox (Ah! He was in Bourne Identity). Unfortunately, they didn't have much to work with. I don't know why, but it was just "blah." No real tension. I didn't have much of a reason to be rooting for any particular character.
Friday: aikido, dropped off by K. who went to a genealogy meeting. 2nd car still in the shop
Saturday: up and off to the dealership to pick up the Taurus. No incidents on the way home, so it may be fixed.
aikido.
Dinner at home with K. and friend K. Cooked steaks indoors, came out ok. Cooked fish, made bruschetta and strawberry daiquiris. Good times.
Failed to fix her string trimmer. Failed to even get to the source of the problem. The started string on Ryobi string trimmer extends about 12 inches and then stops.
Sunday: slept in and then watched the Aggie women lose the early game to Florida in softball.
Went out to the shop, did the waxing of the metal surfaces of some power tools and then actually turn a couple of bottle stoppers. Destroyed a blank of yellow heart, but the purple heart and padouk came out ok.
Started up the string trimmer for the first time in a while. I'm glad I stored it away without any gas in it.
Watched the second game between A&M and Florida wherein the Aggies came through and scored in the top of the 9th and managed to keep the Gators from scoring in the bottom of the 9th. Now we take on ASU in a 3 game series!!
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, and Brad.
Ukemi: One attempt at right-sided big fall, re-aggravation of the muscle. Randy and I went over to a spare mat pile and attempted another one, to see what was going on on a softer surface. The fall looked fine, but it still hurt that muscle. Weird
I've got a two week layoff because of an intro Japanese course over the next two weekends, so maybe the muscle will be ready then.
The Walk: Okay. That sore muscle does make some of the pivots more difficult.
Releases: With Randy, went ok. He wanted to see a repeat of 6th release.
Techniques:
1, 2 and 5 (Kubi-garuma, Kata-otoshi, and Aikinage) of Owaza Ju Pon with Randy, right-sided only.
Worked on timing and all other parts of these technique with roll-outs only for uke. Did ok.
Did some work as uke for Brad at the end. It gave him a much taller uke to adjust to for shomen-ate, gyakugamae-ate and ushiro-ate.
I did ok. Some work on Shihonage and Mae-otoshi, as well as Sumi-otoshi.
Aftermath: Still stiff left calf muscle. Two weekends off for Japanese class.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, and Trey.
Ukemi: Took a big fall, right-sided. Landed weird on the left calf muscle and it complained. This is annoying. The fall feels ok otherwise.
The Walk: Went ok.
Releases: With Trey.
Techniques:
11-17 left-sided for me as tori. 1-10 for Trey as uke, left-sided.
Worked out some problems for Tenkai kote-hineri for me. I need to continue pushing. Got some compliments on shihonage for following uke properly.
On the first attempt of hiki-otoshi I did not "disappear" properly. Second attempt was much better.
On mae-otoshi, Trey clued in to the fact that I could have directed his fall anywhere I wanted.
Sumi-otoshi was ok. Trey side/back-falled out of it instead of a big fall. That indicates I was a little late changing directions.
Aftermath: Very sore left calf muscle. Pulled? Strained? Bruised left knee cap. Probably from an oshi-taoshi fall with Trey as tori.
I am Legend: 3
Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.
Starring Will Smith. There was some good tension in parts, that's for certain. There were some gaps in logic that weren't explained and some camera work that threw me out of the movie.
I'm considering marking it down to a 2 instead of a 3, because of the camera work. Nah. I'll leave it as is.
Music & Lyrics: 3
Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in a story about a has-been pop singer who has just a few days to write a song for the current popstar-of-the-month.
This was a pretty formulaic love story, but some of Hugh's lines actually got me to laugh, so I'm giving it a 3.
Lucky Number Slevin: 3
A case of mistaken identity leads into the middle of an old mob feud.
I did not see the twist coming until very late, if at all. A fun, somewhat violent movie. A good cast: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu and Josh Hartnett.
Friday: aikido
Saturday: Wired the set cabinets destined to be the new stained glass work table for the fluorescent fixtures. Caused myself some minor damage in the process. Lots of blood, though. Aikido. Dinner at Durango's. 3 DVDs: Casino Royale, Music & Lyrics and Lucky Number Slevin.
Sunday: Up early to fetch Kim and the in-laws from their cruise ship. I went early enough, I thought, to get into Galveston in time for some breakfast. I was looking for the restaurant when I got a call from Kim saying they were ready. So, I went and picked them up and they joined me at the restaurant to watch me eat breakfast.
In the afternoon I grilled out burgers and we dined well.
Monday: Yard work in the morning during which I discovered that the riding mower needs some work. In the afternoon, I grilled fish, shrimp and sausage. Once again, the family dined well. Oh, I also made some shortcakes and a coffee cake. Good stuff.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Richard, and Brad.
Ukemi: No big falls. Full complement of left- and right-sided otherwise.
The Walk: No walk today.
Releases: None today.
Techniques:
11-17 left-sided only with Richard.
We did some exploring of the new approach to some of these techniques with Richard. He'd not seen some of the changes that we're incorporating. We spent a lot of time on Sumi-otoshi. Looking at the differences between it and Uke-otoshi.
I did ok. Some work on Shihonage and Mae-otoshi, as well as Sumi-otoshi.
Aftermath: Still stiff left calf muscle..
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, and Trey.
Ukemi: Took a big fall, right-sided. Landed weird on the left calf muscle and it complained.
The Walk: Went ok.
Releases: With Trey. Went ok. Working on an alternative to having to duck on 5 and 7 by pushing up more. It requires staying much closer to uke.
Techniques:
1-10 left-sided only for both of us. It was a struggle. It was interesting to see how much a difference doing no right-sided techniques to jog the memory makes. I was very grabby on a number of the techniques, but I did manage to clean it up a little.
We went back to 1-step distance to clean up some issues from time to time and it helped. We explored some options for ushiro-ate for someone of Trey's height trying to handle someone of my height.
Aftermath: Very sore left calf muscle. Pulled? Strained?
I met him only once in person, at AggieCon a few years ago. The picture
I've got of him outside, doing a panel on sword work, is one of my
favorites I've taken
I met him through his written word, many times. I'm saddened that his
new worlds will be no more.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull : 3
Harken back to the days of the Temple of Doom and the Lost Ark and you'll find yourself properly prepared for the newest installation of the Indy franchise where the lead character is named after his dad's dog.
This time our ragtag group of archeaologists is not taking something from an ancient civilization, but returning something to one. And that, I think, takes a lot of dramatic tension away from the movie. There are a few instances of surprise, but I never felt that the result was in doubt. Maybe it would have been better if I'd not seen and Indy movie before? I don't know.
Still, I'm glad I went.
Iron Man: 3
The origin story of Tony Stark/Iron Man
I expected summer popcorn stuff and was not disappointed. It showed playboy Tony Stark grow into a more socially responsible person. I did not know anything about Iron Man going into the movie, so I have no idea how close it is to the actual comic.
If you can accept the comic book physics, it's a fun flick. The actors did a decent job. I recognized the 3 big names, but for the life of me I could not get Gwyneth Paltrow's name to come to mind while I was in the theatre.
Also, stick around until the end of the credits, there is an extra scene.
Friday: aikido
Saturday: chilled around the house while Kim was out and about. Our Taurus is a little iffy on the reliability side (i.e., it will die while moving at 55mph and not restart for a while), so I chose to hang out instead of going any where.
Aikido after she was done with her truck-necessary stuff and back at work.
Her parents and I then went to the library to help her close up the Book Sale and get the room clean for the next week.
Then off to Joe's for dinner. I made a pig of myself as I had not eaten much all day.
Sunday: Packed 'em all off for a cruise around the Caribbean for a week. I'm staying home due to a lack on interest in being stuck on a boat for seven days. I did some boat work in high school and I'm terribly interested in doing it again at the moment.
Went to see Redbelt on the way back from dropping them off at the cruise ship. Great movie!
Grilled some hamburgers out for my meals for the week. Mmmmm. I added some onion soup mix and some Dubliner cheese. It gave it a very nice flavor.
Most of Friendswood lost power for about an hour, so I went out and chatted with neighbors down the street. Everyone knew me as soon as I was introduced as "Kim's husband". :D
Redbelt: 4
From imdb: A fateful event leads to a job in the film business for top mixed-martial arts instructor Mike Terry. Though he refuses to participate in prize bouts, circumstances conspire to force him to consider entering such a competition.
The movie does a good job of portraying an instructor who has principles and is not in it strictly for the money. They operate on razor-thin margins, struggling to make rent for their space.
The events that occur are plausible, and the ramifications make sense.
The portrayal of the dojo is plausible, as well, although the set was too big if the dojo was as struggling as stated in the movie. The dojo would have moved to a more affordable venue.
The only minor quibble I have is when the lawyer came into the dojo for her first training session, she already knew that a red belt was the highest rank. The colors of belts, and their meanings, differ from one art to the next and one style of art to the next. But, it's a minor quibble.
I might end up purchasing this one.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Trey and Brad.
Ukemi: One big fall, right-sided. Wahoo! I did land kind of hard on the left calf, and it cramped up a bit.
I'll probably add static big falls on both sides next week, then back to my dynamic attacks on Tim that result in big falls the week after. Did the full complement of left- and right-sided falls otherwise.
The Walk: As usual. I counted the pace once. Faster than I normally like to count for some reason.
Releases: With Trey. Went ok.
Tim gave me an alternative approach for 5 and 7 to make it so I don't have to kneel and pivot with shorter ukes. The key is to push up, but stay very close to uke to prevent getting clotheslined.
Techniques:
1-10, except 9, for Trey. I served as uke all night. 3 step approach for all. We reverted back to 1-step when he got stuck on a technique, to try to resolve the issue a little quicker. That happened on ushiro-ate, and ude-hineri.
We also did some detail work on left-sided initial off-balances at the end of class to improve that basic skill.
Aftermath: Sore calf, slightly sore ankle. Generally sore overall. I took a bunch of falls, and got back up. Ibuprofen was called for.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Kim, and Trey.
Ukemi: No big falls. Full complement of left- and right-sided otherwise.
The Walk: Forgot the second pivot stone, momentarily. That messed up Kim and Trey.
Releases: With Trey. Went ok. Get off-line, push and follow
Techniques:
3 and 4 for Trey. I work as tori once for about every 5 times Trey served as tori. I was not moving well at the beginning, not getting off-line. That quickly improved and I was managing to complete the techniques.
Trey noted I wasn't getting much eye-flash on gedan-ate, so I beefed up that portion and got a little better flow from the technique.
We also did some duck-in-the-middle knife avoidance work. A nice precursor to full out randori, neither of which we do very often.
Tim got thrown around by Kim all evening. He would later report that it was a two-Aleve evening.
Aftermath: Slightly sore ankle.
Hard Case Crime is going to be publishing "Dead Man's Brother", a thriller Roger wrote around 1970. You bet I'm going to be getting it as soon as it comes out.
I just went and looked at the cover . It looks like more of a bodice-ripper and crime novel.
Now that I'm having to learn this kata, I figured I'd post the techniques for reference.
1. Kubi-guruma - neck wheel
2. Kata-otoshi - shoulder drop
3. Ude-guruma - arm wheel
4. Hiji-guruma - elbow wheel
5. Aiki-nage - fitting in throw
6. Shiho-nage - four corner (all directions) throw
7. Ushiro-ate - behind (from the rear) strike
8. Kote-gaeshi - wrist turn
9. Ushiro-kubi-gatame - hold from behind (the rear)
10. Shizumi-otoshi - sinking body drop
The Houston Chronicle carries a bunch of comics on a daily basis. One of them is "The Phantom."
In the current storyline, he and his wife have gone down to Galveston to bid on a rare airplane. Leaving Galveston, they're flying the airplane and the Phantom says they'll follow the coast, go by New Orleans and then on down to South America.
Now, I suppose they could have left Galveston and flown up the coast past New Orleans, testing the flight worthiness of the airplane, but I think they made a huge geographical error.
Anyone else see it?
Friday night: Aikido!
Saturday: 1.5 hours of mowing. 1.5 hours of sweeping. 1.5 hours of aikido. Dinner at Durango's with the in-laws
Sunday: Mother's Day brunch at District 7 Grill and then off to see the movie "Flawless"
Flawless: 3
A diamond caper movie starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore. Set in the 60's, Demi is the highest ranking female in the London Diamond company. She's been passed over for promotion several times and runs into a janitor who also has a grudge that stealing diamonds will assuage.
It was nicely done, the time was well-represented and the actors did a good job.
Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, and Trey.
Ukemi: No big falls. Just a few left-sided falls as the injured foot is the one that lands first on those. Did the full complement of right-sided falls.
The Walk: As usual. I counted the pace once in Czech. Tim noted some sloppiness in my feet. Maybe because of the ankle injury? I don't know
Releases: With Trey. Went ok. I do have some issues with #5 and #7 trying to be careful of the right ankle.
Techniques:
1 and 2 for Trey. I served as uke all night. We worked on three-step approach to both of these. He had some great Shomen-ates at the end.
Aftermath: Slightly sore ankle.
Aikidokas: Tim, Kim, and Trey.
Back on the mat. Yahoo!
Ukemi: No big falls. Just a few left-sided falls as the injured foot is the one that lands first on those. Did the full complement of right-sided falls.
The Walk: As usual
Releases: With Trey. Went ok. I do have some issues with #5 and #7 trying to be careful of the right ankle.
Techniques:
6-10 for Trey and Kim. I served as uke all night. I'm not confident in the ankle enough to do the small circle footwork yet.
Aftermath: Slightly sore ankle.
Got into the shop for a couple of hours last night. It was nice and hot. That's gonna give me motivation to get the dog screen for the unfenced shop door built.
Managed to get the light box insert (for use while doing stained glass work) built for the set of cabinets in which it will reside. Looks like this weekend's goal will be to get it wired up.
I've got aikido, mowing and Mother's Day to deal with, so no telling if I'll get some shop time.
Broken Flowers: 3
Bill Murray stars in a movie where he is trying to find out which of his many ex-girlfriends might be the mother of his rumored son.
An interesting movie, but I got tired of all of the fade-to-black transitions. I understand why it was done, but it was still annoying.
There was no solid resolution at the end of the movie. There's a suggested one, but the movie fades to black at the end, leaving the audience hanging.
12 Monkeys: 3
Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in a Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, Adv. of Baron Munchausen) movie about time travel and doomsday viruses.
This was a different movie than I expected. I was really expecting it to be far more of a horror movie. Instead it's more of a steam punk time travel movie.
Brad Pitt did a decent job with the not-quite-sane, son of a virulogist. Bruce did a decent job as the protagonist time-traveler.
A very quirky movie, with the indelible imprint of Terry Gilliam. I enjoyed getting this one off of my list of wanted-to-see movies.
Smokin' Aces: 3
Concept: Mafia boss is turning federal witness. Competing mafia boss had put a contract out on MB #1. Everyone and their dog wants the $1 million prize. FBI wants to keep folks from making the hit.
Death, blood and gunfights. Over-the-top, but fun. I had the reveal figured out fairly early on, but it was still worth watching.
Domino: 3
A vehicle for Keira Knightley, and it's a decent vehicle. Lots of mayhem, explosions and opportunities for her to pout.
KK joins a crew of bounty hunters. With her family and good looks, she evenutally gets a reality show called Bounty Hunters. They get filmed on lots of captures, but finally take on one with too little documentation. Bounty Hunters end up, mistakenly, capturing a Mafia bosses kids. Stuff ensues with lots of loss of life.
Mickey Rourke and Lucy Liu have roles in this, along with some start from BH 90210
I stopped by a local sign shop last week to inquire about signage for the back of my pickup. I've been planning on putting something back there for a while to try to promote the dojo. I finally made the time to stop someplace and look into the costs.
It's gonna cost me about $75 to have a sign made and applied to the rear window of the truck. I hope it'll be ready sometime this week, but I really have no idea as to their timetables.
I hope it looks good and doesn't just generate comments on my driving.
Friday night: aikido spectating for me
Saturday: drove Kim to her genealogy thing as she was having vertigo. We then crashed for the afternoon in order to be ready for our cooking class at Central Market.
The cooking class was pretty good. It was on outdoor grilling. One of the three entrees was a steak with a coffee-based rub. It was one of the best steaks I've ever had. Tender, tasty, and nicely cooked. Wow.
Sunday: slept in some more fighting off our respective ailments. I spent the afternoon completing the backyard deck for our grill. I'd completed the frame earlier in the week, so all that was left was cutting, and securing, the lumber for the top of the deck.
Neither of us slept well overnight. Ugh.
Aikidokas: Tim, and Larry.
They worked through part of San kata, I think.
I sat and watched all evening. I've been under the weather from a cold-like object and doing Pt on the ankle. I think I'll get back on the mat this coming Friday. The ankle's feeling pretty good after therapy sessions, and I'm managing to accomplish more difficult tasks during therapy.
Aftermath: None of note
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Larry, and Kim.
They worked Kim through 1-10 of the Ju Nana Hon Kata and Larry through some of the big 10 with Kim and others as uke.
I sat and chatted with Sensei Raymond who stopped by for the evening.
Aftermath: PT starts on Thursday.
We went to see Bruce Springsteen in concert last night. My ears have still not recovered completely. It was a good concert, the first time I've seen him live.
He did start about 70 minutes after the posted time on the tickets, but that's not terribly surprising. The arena was about 40% full at the posted start time.
The sound board folks had either the drums or the bass guitar pumped up too much. It was actually causing me pain in my chest from the sound waves.
It was a good set. I think he changed it in the middle, on the spur of the moment. He pulled out a request froom the audience about midway through and put the "E Street Shuffle" into the set. I think "Terry's Song" may have been included at the request of a letter sent to Bruce before the show.
It was nice of Bruce to let us in a little closer by sending greetings from the band members who were not there. He said his wife needed to keep rein on their teenage kids.
And below is the set list for the concert.
Cadillac Ranch
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Atlantic City
Magic
Because the Night
Candy's Room
She's the One
Out in the Street
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
The E Street Shuffle
Terry's Song
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
Thunder Road
Encore
Always a Friend (w/ Alejandro Escovedo)
All Just to Get to You (w/ Joe Ely)
Rosalita
Born to Run
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
American Land
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, and Trey.
They worked Trey through 1-10 of the Ju Nana Hon Kata.
I sat and took a bunch of pictures.
Aftermath: Waiting for clearance to start training.
My Aggie Ring got stolen last year when our house got burglarized. I'm sure they got a minute amount of money for it, they're not easily resellable. It had to get melted down.
Anyway, these rings can only be purchased through the Association of Former Students at scheduled times. I got the money organized and placed my order.
You could go to A&M for the Ring Day festivities or have the ring sent to you via UPS overnight. I originally planned on going up to A&M for the festivities, but the schedule was going to be very tight and I would have just been up there the previous weekend. So, I changed my mind and had them send the ring to me. It cost me less than the gas to travel there.
It arrived and it was gorgeous. Kim and I did the ceremonial dropping in to a glass of beer. I then drank the beer until the ring came rushing at me, at which point tradition dictated I was allowed to put the ring on. It fit perfectly.
I feel whole again.
Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Trey and Brad
I'm still off the mat, but I helped Brad work through the releases he knows and introduced him to another one. I was kibbitzing from off the mat while Tim was working with Richard and Trey. I'm glad my boot is able to rotate fairly easily on tile floors so I could do a semblance of the releases for Brad to watch.
Aikidokas: Tim and Kim
No, I did not get on the mat. Still in the boot for the ankle. I did go and watch my wife work. She and Tim worked on the Nami No Waza, similar to KG's chains, I think.
She had some really good moments when she flowed from one technique to the other without really knowing what was supposed to come next.
Report from the Dr. : sprained ankle.
Prescription: Wear a boot on the foot for a couple of weeks and then some PT.
So, I'd guess, four weeks until I'm back on the mat or on the volleyball court.
I've been going to this con since, I think, #14. Definitely since #15. So, I was determined to go, even with my twisted ankle.
In fact, it's probably better that I was limited in mobility than not. If I'd been more mobile, I would likely have been more disappointed in the con, overall.
The number of panels that were of interest was small. The number of author guests was small. That was probably a fallout from inviting someone to be Guest of Honor and then uninviting them. A number of folks heard about it and decided not to make the trip to College Station.
I spent most of my time behind the F.A.C.T. table, "helping" the Siros brothers. I got some reading done and a bunch of visiting, too. Given that I paid for a hotel room and entry into the con, it was a fiscally irresponsible weekend if you consider the number of panels I attended (3). I did not compound the issue by buying stuff in the Dealer's Room. This was my first con ever where I did not buy something in either the Art Show or the Dealer's Room. Amazing.
The Art Show was an interesting study in censorship this year. According to rumor, the Texas A&M Board of Regents was having their occasional meeting in the MSC this weekend. The MSC, wishing to avoid a confrontation with the Regents, told the art show folks to cover up any visible "naughty bits". They did so, under a bit of protest, with blue tape. A large number of con attendees subsequently taped over their own naughty bits with blue tape in protest.
I heard a rumor that the con chair's husband had did of an aneurysm recently. That would certainly adversely affect the planning for the con. The con seemed to be run fairly well over the weekend.
I hope they learn a lot from this one, because I'm actually considering not going in the future. It's the only guaranteed time during the year that I make it back to my alma mater. And I really enjoy going to College Station. It's a nice drive and a nice town. I need to additional incentive of a con to get me off the dime and get up there.
Volleyball, first game, Tuesday night. I went up for a block and came down on the opposing player's foot. My ankle twisted and I collapsed to the ground.
I'm able to put some weight on it, which is much better than 17 years ago when I really messed up the same ankle. I think I'll just be out a few weeks, but I'm going to try to get into a doc to get it checked.
I think we lost all three games, too.
Curses!
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Larry, and Trey.
Ukemi: Full ukemi warmup. Went well. No big falls.
The Walk: Went ok. Remembered what I forgot during the demonstration.
Releases: Went ok. I know we did some explorations of them , but I can't remember what we were exploring.
Techniques:
Worked, as uke, with Trey on Oshi-taoshi.
Worked, as tori, with Trey and Larry on 1, 2, 3 and 5 of Owaza Ju Pon. The footwork is very similar on all of these, so once I got it down for one, I had fewer issues on the rest. I did still manage to screw it up. I was getting too far off-line.
Did the aikinage left and right side. Too much muscle and too much movement on the footwork. Small circles are necessary.
Aftermath: Bruised foot seems to be getting better. Did I break it, or something similar?
Had my demonstration for Ikkyu over the weekend. On the trip back from the seminar, strong hints were made that I'm going to be working my tail off in order to get to Shodan before the end of the year. The requirement for 6 months in grade is seen as the main limiting factor.
I don't know if I'll have to do the demonstration in front of the Technical Board, or just my two usual Senseis. Although, if the local Senseis showed up, it would be 5 members of the technical board. That's the same Senseis who were at the seminar this past weekend.
Anyone want to take some Garuma falls for me?
We had 5, they had 3. We still got trashed in the middle game. 21-10, or something equally as ridiculous. We played well the other two games.
We were scheduled to get going at 9:00 a.m. We managed to get past a bunch of tasks and get onto the mat at around 10:30.
We reviewed the 12 double-hand grabs that we'd worked on Friday and then moved on to the final 2. It seems like we must have done more in the morning, but I can't remember what it might have been.
We broke for lunch around 12:30 and got back on the mat around 1:30.
The first order of business after lunch was demonstrations. I was demonstrating for Ikkyu, Larry was demonstrating for Shodan, and Jeff was demonstrating for Nidan.
Larry and I were serving as each other's uke, so we got good workouts.
I messed up on the walk. Larry gave me a few issues on the releases. We gave each other some issues on his demonstration of Oshi-taoshi. Neither of us could remember what technique we were supposed to be doing, so I attacked and he just came up with something. He thinks it was Shomen-ate. I think it was Aigamae-ate. Only the video tape can say for certain.
To save time, we each had to demonstrate on only one side. For Ju Nana Hon Kata, we both got to demonstrate on right-side. For the Owaza Ju Pon, Larry had to demonstrate the techniques from the left side. This would not have been so bad, but I had never uke'd for him left side. I had never seen him do the techniques left side.
I was in a bit of a panic, because the falls are garumas and I've had my neck twinged on those from time to time. And this time was no exception. On the first technique, things were a little off. I landed and my neck complained. I did a head-to-toe system check and all lights came back green, so I got up and we continued on.
My techniques: I know I messed up on the three I had to learn for this belt: Mae-otoshi, Sumi-otoshi and Hiki-otoshi. They were decent, but were imperfect.
We then got to sit down and recuperate while Jeff ran through his demonstration.
The technical board got together and pow-wowed for a few minutes, called us up, and awarded us our new ranks. Actually, Jeff already had his Nidan, so he just got additional acclaim.
After congratulations were passed around, we all got back on the mat for more seminar time.
The subject of the afternoon's session was Nami no Waza ("Way of the Wave"). This is a stringing of techniques together, starting from a release.
For instance, the first release falls into the 6, 7, 8 and 9 techniques.
The second release flows into the fifth release which then flows into T6, 7, 8 and 9
The second release, when uke drops all of his weight on the hand, flows into a hip switch and then into T15, 14, 17, and 16.
From here on is likely poor memory.
The third release -> T10, 12
Fourth release -> seventh release, T6,7,8,9
Fourth release -> locked -> hip switch -> T11
Ok. Beyond this I've forgotten the transitions. After a couple of hours of this work, my brain was full and I bowed off the mat. The rest of the seminar ended shortly thereafter.
A great dinner of spaghetti was dished out shortly. We spent a couple of hours chatting with everyone and then returned to the hotel. We got an early start Sunday morning and made it back to Houston in good time.
We pulled into Killeen and then around 2:30 after a nice, uneventful drive. The crew from Alabama were already there and recovering from their 11-hour drive. We had a chance to chill for several hours before the scheduled start of the festivities. We got the chance to play with "Lizard" and "Chance", Jeff and Gail's dogs. Lizard played far too hard and had to be tended to for a good portion of the afternoon.
The evening was devoted to exploring Riki Kogure's double hand grabs. These are a series of exercises meant to explore off-balances. There are 14 of these. We managed to cover the first 12 in the evening session.
Let's see if I can remember them:
double-hand to the center
one hand to the center
tenchinage
double-hand tenchinage
ushiro-ate
spinning armbar
waki-gatamae
double hand waki-gatamae
shihonage
kote-gaeshi
mae-otoshi
sumi-otoshi
wheel throw
hip throw
Sensei Mike (who has 3 dan grade certificates signed by Sensei Tomiki and two signed by Sensei Oba) had us switching partners every time we switched exercises, so I got to work with almost everyone there.
We broke up around 10pm and had an excellent dinner grilled by one of the attendees. I managed to get into bed around 12:30 and we were scheduled for a 9:00 am start on Saturday morning
It feels like a lost weekend. I did not get nearly as much done as I would have liked. And, probably due to a gut bug, I slept far more than normal.
Friday night: aikido
Saturday: spent 11 hours at a judo seminar videotaping. Lunch was at Wendy's and I think the food disagreed with me. I was in discomfort much of the time until Monday morning.
Sunday: Sleeping and gardening. I was awake only 6 hours. Bummer. I think I may have come close to passing out while gardening. I know I felt very pale.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Mike, Larry, and Trey.
Ukemi: Full ukemi warmup. Went well. Getting compliments on the big falls.
3 Nanadans running the class. Mike might be a Hachidan, I can't remember.
Mike was there to watch Larry and me run through our demos. He also tweaked some of our etiquette for the demo.
The Walk: Mike counted through this one quickly. He did make some changes to my version. Ack! I don't know if I can successfully incorporate it in two weeks.
Releases: Went ok.
Techniques:
1-17 right-sided for me. We made some adjustments for my Sumi-otoshi that made it much more effective.
1-17 left-sided for Larry, plus 1-5 of Owaza Ju Pon. My wrist got tweaked a little on Shihonage and that threw Larry out of his mindset for the last three. I noticed that he was off a little, but the final three techniques were good.
Owaza Ju Pon went well. I discovered where the soreness in my left calf is coming from. Owaza Ju Pon. I landed half-on/half-off of the additional mat we bring on for the garumas and that caused my calf to let me know it wasn't pleased.
I'm kind of concerned about some of the etiquette things being discussed. They run counter to every demonstration I've seen so far.
Aftermath: Bruised foot is still making its presence known.
We actually had 6 folks playing on the team last night. We played well, but did not win the match. I think we won the first game 21-19, lost the second one 19-21 and the third was fairly close, probably 12-15 or something.
My eye is still feeling the effects of the game. I took a spike straight on the left side of my face from about 2 feet. No black eye, but feels a little abused.
I was going to go to the local caucus after the match, but I was confused as to where it was. From what I heard, it was a madhouse. Four precincts trying to hold their caucuses in an area fit for just one, given the turnout.voll
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Jeff, Gail, and Trey
Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Took some big falls during this time for the first time with the new mats.
The Walk: as usual
Releases: Not today
Techniques:
I was a tackling dummy for the day. I served as uke for Jeff all afternoon. We worked on Koryu Dai San No Kata. I think. Some suwari waza stuff.
Lots of falling. A good, and educational, day.
Aftermath: Still have a tight left calf muscle and bruised foot.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Mike, Larry, Kim, and Brad.
Ukemi: We arrived a little late, so had to do a quick ukemi session. I think I bruised the area of the foot next to the little toe on my right foot during this.
3 Nanadans running the class. Mike might be a Hachidan, I can't remember.
Mike was there to watch Larry and me run through our demos. He also tweaked some of our etiquette for the demo.
The Walk: Mike counted through this one quickly. He did make some changes to my version. Ack! I don't know if I can successfully incorporate it in two weeks.
Releases: Went ok.
Techniques:
1-17 right-sided for me.
1-17 right-sided for Larry, plus 1-5 of Owaza Ju Pon. I took my first big falls on the new mat during this process. Larry's Hiki-otoshi was a little unsettling. Tim came over and expressed concern for my safety as uke.
We spent a lot of time on Larry's Hiki-otoshi. We also reviewed Waki-gatamae to try and eliminate an early arm bar that causes me to tap out before the usual end of the technique.
Aftermath: Bruised foot. And, I've got a gorgeous bruise on my right forearm, probably from the previous week's Hiki-otoshi
Let's see.
Aikido on Friday and Saturday.
Shoveling dirt for the vegetable garden Saturday morning. Vegetable mix is a lot tougher to shovel than sand for some reason. I need to get a yard of pine bark mulch for the blueberries as soon as the ground is hard enough for me to drive the truck out to the bushes.
Saturday evening: dinner with a friend at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Then we went out and did some washing machine shopping with her. Hers had just given up the ghost.
Sunday: work out in the shop getting the shelves for the glass used in stained glass creation made. Also looked at replacing the casters for the lathe stand. Took off the old ones and started preparing for installing new ones.
Then watched most of the Oscars. I was afraid Regis Philbin was going to be the host, so I wasn't planning on watching the show. When I found out Jon Stewart was the host, I changed my plans.
Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Kim, and Trey
Ukemi: Ukemi went well.
The Walk: as usual
Releases: With Kim and Trey
Techniques:
I was tackling dummy for the day. I served as uke for Richard, Kim and Trey. Trey had some of his family in the audience and Tim wanted to give them a good flavor of the capabilities of aikido. So, everyone got to throw the big man.
We spent a lot of time on Oshi-taoshi. Trey is learning it now that he's a green belt and Kim needs it for her next demo, as well. Richard got to see the changes we've made in the techniques recently.
All in all, I got to fall a lot. A good day.
Aftermath: Still have a tight left calf muscle.
Update:
Forgot to talk about the "Name No Waza" (I think that's the spelling). The Way of the Wave. I think it's what Pat of Mokuren Dojo calls his "chains". You take a release, say number 1, and continue it beyond it's normal ending. Uke decides he wants to get back into the fight and it turns into techniques #6, Oshi-taoshi. Uke doesn't like that, pushes out of it, and it turns into Ude-gaeshi. Uke reacts out of that and it turns into Ude-hineri. Uke sees the face strike coming and reacts, turning it into Hiki-taoshi, which is a terminal technique.
Anyway, I was uke for all 3 folks on this. We worked on it for quite a bit. I was the only one who'd seen it much before, so it made sense for me to show folks what happens. Uke's response really drives the whole chain of events.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Larry, Greg, and Trey.
New mats, new mats, new mats. We replaced the mats that have been around since the dawn of martial arts in this area with some brand new ones. We purchased the puzzle-type mats. I think they're 1-5/8" mats from greatmats.com, but I'm not sure.
The benefits to the new mats? They get to stay in place. We don't have to put them down and pick them up around each session.
The bad side? They're a little firmer for falling. I haven't tried a big fall. On the plus side, they do make popping up a little easier after a front fall.
Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Getting pleasant reviews on the big falls
The Walk: as usual.
Releases: With Larry. We explored his body drop entrance and added more off-line, as he was going too deep
Techniques:
Larry and I worked on 10, 11, 12, and 13. Left-sided.
Need to remember that there is an initial off-balance for #10.
Need to keep good posture on the arm bar finish for #11.
Need to stay behind uke's elbow for Kote-gaeshi
Need to wait for uke to recover after the first off-balance on Tenkai-kote-hineri.
Aftermath: A tight left calf muscle. Not sure of the cause.
I received a phone call from a previous business partner the other night. I though it was in response to an email I'd sent him earlier that day, out of the blue. After we got off the phone, a couple of hours later, I receive an email from him saying that he'd called me out of the blue. A weird coincidence.
Anyway, he said he's getting on his feet, business-wise, and will be paying me the money due me in our contract. I really hope he comes through. He said he was mailing off the first check tomorrow, which, with my delay in posting, was yesterday. He also said he hopes to have me completely paid off in May.
This would be a goodness. Should the money go to paying off more of the mortgage, into equipment for the shop, or into savings?
Now, can I get my web work client to pay up? Lord, it's annoying.
What a wonderful start to a new season, losing the entire match. :(
We haven't played in about 2 months, so we were rusty. My serves were off, but I got a couple of good digs and one stellar block.
We had some teams in the Open division that really don't belong there. The people in charge are going to rearrange the teams and adjust the schedules to account for the team changes. Or, so we've been told.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Jeff, Gail, Richard, Trey, and Wellington
Ukemi: Ukemi went well.
The Walk: as usual
Releases: None
First order of business, after The Walk, was a dry-run of Trey's demonstration. He had the choice of either me or Richard as uke and chose me. Little did he know that this was not a dry run demonstration, but the real thing.
We went through The Walk, releas4es for both him and me and then the first 5 techniques. He did very well. I don't think I screwed him up on too many things.
Techniques:
Trey and Wellington served as my ukes as I worked my way down from 17 to 13 left-sided. We did some playing with off-balances and compared them with the ones with which Larry feels comfortable. There are differences. We need to get with Larry and see if they work for him or not.
Aftermath: No new mats, yet. They are supposedly in town and due to be delivered Monday (yesterday, as I'm posting this on Tuesday).
Aikidokas: Tim, and Randy. I had two Nanadans all to myself.
Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Getting pleasant reviews on the big falls
The Walk: Not tonight.
Releases: Not tonight.
Techniques:
I wanted some work on 17, Hiki-otoshi, left-sided. So, we spent some time working through the entry and getting up to gake.
After that, we spent the rest of the evening on hand randori. There are times I feel I'll never get the hang of it. And, when working with the Senseis, it's more likely to feel that way than not. They're just so damn good at it.
Whenever I manage to get the upper hand, I know it's because they're letting it occur. Still, it's a learning tool. And, I supposedly need to be somewhat competent at demonstration-time. They don't do any on-mat review of hand randori capabilities during the demonstration.
Aftermath: None of note
After some resting of the sore muscles, it was time for some light gardening. No sod moving. No sand shoveling.
Just some pruning and prepping plants for movement around the yard. The plum tree, Crepe Myrtles, grapes, blackberries and Blood Oranges all got a little trim.
As a benefit, while trimming the Blood Orange, I found I fruit I'd missed when I harvested the rest of them in December. A nice, sweet treat.
Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Kim, Trey, and Brad
Ukemi: Ukemi went well.
The Walk: as usual
Releases: with Trey. It was good to work with someone shorter than Larry. Break me out of ruts.
Techniques:
I worked with Brad on Shomen-ate. He'd been away for a while, so we started from the ground floor. He got a couple of throws.
We also had Trey take some pictures of Kim throwing me with Shomen-ate. We're going to add those to the website when Trey gets them to me.
Aftermath: Beat from gardening combined with aikido. Need a drink and/or some ibuprofen. It turns out we're supposed to get new mats for the dojo this weekend. The ones we're falling on at the moment are about 30 years old.
According to the calendar it's still winter. According to the weather on Saturday, it was Spring.
We got out and put down two pallets of St. Augustine. During that exercise, we also dug out some clay deposits left behind by the construction folks. Those clay deposits formed a hill on the side of the yard that would cause water to stay near the shop.
With little concern for our muscles, we then spread out a yard of sand in the dog yard. We need to get another yard of sand for the spots we didn't get to with just one yard. We also need a yard of pine bark mulch to give the blueberry plants enough acid.
Much soreness of muscles ensued.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Larry, Greg, Kim and Trey Sensei Raymond was on the sidelines.
Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Completely freaked out on first warm-up roll. I landed safely, but merely by chance, I think. Big falls were cool.
The Walk: as usual
Releases: with Larry. We played around with only left-sided and with tori starting with hands in a neutral position. Weird. Got chided for improper posture from Sensei Raymond.
Techniques:
Larry and I spent the evening working on 17, 16, 15, 14 and 13. In that order. With me as tori.
We spent a lot of time working seeing Larry's reaction to the off-balances and seeing his recovery steps. I need to extend him to a corner on the initial off-balances for the last 4.
For Hiki, the second off-balance needs to continue along the line of the first off balance. Then I disappear.
For Sumi, the second off-balance is about 90 from the first and gake is about 180 degrees from the second off-balance.
Mae-otoshi seems to fall in place after the first off-balance.
The first off-balance for Shiho is the same as the other three.
Aftermath: None of note
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Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Greebo You are Greebo! The most evil cat in the entire Disc! Due to an old spell, your morphogenic field is a little mixed up, so you sometimes turn into a man. You enjoy killing, raping, torturing, playing with yarn and inspiring fear. When bored, you like to look for wolves to “play" with.
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Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Jeff, Gail, and Larry
Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Left side big falls are still weird. The end result is good, but the way I'm getting there is strange.
Techniques:
I went through reps of 14-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata, some of 3 & 4, and 8, 9 & 10. Working with Larry again. He opened my eyes up to initial off-balances on some of the later techniques.
On Hiki-otoshi, after meeting at ma-ai, I need to take a step to the back corner for the initial off-balance. After that improvement, the technique started flowing.
He also suggested some tweaks for the initial off-balance for 8 and 9. For these techniques, the second off-balance needs to be to a back corner. Actually, it does for #8. For #9 it's the lack of a dramatic second off-blaance that allows uke to recover and react in to Hiki-taoshi.
We discovered something I needed to do to complete Waki-gatamae. After the entry, and the arm-lock, I need to extend the off-balance a bit with a step out. Then I can breathe out and get the tap-out from uke.
Then Larry did some work on 1-5 of Owaza Ju Pon. And I uked for those techniques for the first time. They went well, except for #2. This technique should be a simple front roll for uke. Larry somehow managed to hook the arm onto which I would roll. I ended up taking a big fall, but without any support from tori. I landed on my ribs on the near side to tori, instead of getting further around and landing on the far side. I almost had the wind knocked out of me. Jeff took my place for the rest of Larry's practice.
Aftermath: Sore legs and arms. A couple of bruises. Sore ribs. A good session, though.
Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, and Larry
Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Left side big falls are still weird. The end result is good, but the way I'm getting there is strange.
Techniques:
Larry is going to be demonstrating for his Shodan in March and I'm doing the same for my Ikkyu. We're probably going to uke for each other.
So, the goal was to run through 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata. Actually, it was to run through a dry run of the demonatration. So, we went through the Walk and then the Releases and then the techniques.
I think I tori'd first and, according to the Senseis, did ok. I need work on Sumi-otoshi and Hiki-otoshi. Also Waki-gatamae.
Aftermath: None of note
Pat over at Mokuren Dojo tagged me with a meme. The rules: "Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!) Find Page 123. Find the first 5 sentences. Post the next 3 sentences. Tag 5 people."
We'll see if I can come up with 5 folks to tag.
The nearest book, here at work is Tad Williams' "Shadowmarch"
"He's a god, afterall."
"You say that so strangely, Qin. Are you feeling ill?"
Who knows if they read here, but what the heck.
Berry at Berry's weblog
Kim at Kim
Melanie at Hoosier-red
Poxbox at Poxbox's Aikido Blog
aikilass2006 at So, you want to start aikido
Ah, sweet victory.
I was doing stuff out in the workshop and got delayed getting in for tip-off. I have a completely functional shop, even if it still needs to have cabinets built.
When I got inside, I was apprehensive about turning on the game. I'm glad I turned it on, it was 22-7 when I did. I'm glad that the arrival of the in-laws caused me to get satellite so I was able to watch the game.
I was coughing throughout most of the game as I try to get over this cold. I hope the remnants of the cold don't keep me from aikido this weekend.
