Written on
October 10, 2006.
Well, I finally came back to Karate after about a four week break. Well, almost three week, for three of those weeks, I only managed to go to Karate once a week and last week I wasn’t able to go at all (had a gig). Well, today I finally came back.
What was odd is that in the beginning when we were warming up, I had a big headache one the sides of my head like there was too much pressure and I had to empty a little ballast (if you know what I mean). Well, after the warm-up, it slowly went away. About halfway through, it was fine.
We did a well rounded training today. Basics in the beginning, 5 step sparring after that and closing with Heian Godan. After we closed, Josh said that he was gonna go to a tournament and wanted some Kumite practice. So we all lined up in front of him and one at a time, we did a three combination attack. I got him a few times but the final one, I kicked, went in with a feint jodan to the head and was gonna snap a yakozuki to the chest. Well, we both kinda went in at the same time and as he smiled (while going in) my fist was in the wrong place so I went in to his mouth and got bitten. I mean he didn’t chomp down on my hand but my fist just ran into the sharp edges of his front teeth.
So that started bleeding but he was fine.
For the past two times I’ve missed Karate a few weeks, the first day I come back, something always goes wrong. Last time I came back, I forgot to make a tight fist and my thumb accidentally got kicked which hurt. It doesn’t hurt anymore but I still can’t flex it back as much as my other thumb.
Written on
October 9, 2006.
A good friend of ours invited us to come along with him to this Holistic Living Expo that was nearby. We agreed to go. What would make this trip so good is that our friend is not at all into that stuff (neither am I for that matter) and we knew he’d be saying all kinds of stuff to them.
Anyway we got there and it was pretty big. I walked with him around and we came across this Miracle booth that had a bowl of candy, Andy (our friend) said, “hey! Now that’s a miracle!” Than we passed by this phykick (spelled something like that) lady who gave out free mind/palm/etc readings and Andy planned on asking her what his dead wife’s name is (his wife isn’t dead). So he went up to her and said, “can I have a quickie palm read? What’s my dead wife’s last name?” She waved him away.
Than there’s this Scientology booth and Andy gave them a big quiz on their own religeon and had a big debate and we had to pull him back.
Many, many years ago, Pa used to be into that stuff (but not anymore) and he told Andy that the Holistic people speak “a foriegn language” in a manner of speaking. Since Pa knew kinda what they meant, he could “translate” what they were saying (and it’s not like they weren’t speaking English, they just kinda had analogies and different things). Well, he wasn’t able to translate ’cause Andy got the pyscics on the defensive before he could pretend to be serious.
It was really fun/funny!
Written on
October 6, 2006.
It’s one thing to see pictures of me making the Shamisen (back in July) but it’s sure cooler to watch it being made in action! Well, let me satiate (spelled something like that) your curiosity (or lack of) with a short video of making the Dou.
Written on
October 4, 2006.
Finally, somebody posted up a video of Huun Huur Tu during their US tour. I missed them when they came to Santa Cruz back in ‘96 (when my musical tastes weren’t as broad) so I’ve never seen ‘em live. . . until now!
They’ve also played at Henflings (which is a biker’s bar in Ben Lomand or Boulder Creek). Kind of an odd place to hear Tuvan music but apperantly it was really good and they didn’t need any mics or anything.