Saturday, February 21, 2009

Slapped in the Face with an Oar-shaped Reality

Well, here we are, attempting to do stuff for the tourney, which...as I say every year, I don't want to do, and I always end up doing it anyway. This year, I'm only entering two events- weapons and self defense. I don't care to do any more.

I am so tired with work and school, that martial arts hasn't been too on the forefront, despite te fact that I may or may not have an aiki test soon. I just don't care and I don't think anyone else does either. Today I worked with Batta for review, and I am not nearly where I should be. I really would like some help on this test, but I don't think I will get it any time soon. The aiki class is ballooning again, and karate is just too crowded.

The oar kata is fun, but a lot of work. I hope I will be able to be half-way competent with it for the tourney, considering I will be the first person ever in the system to do it at competition. It should be interesting to see how many dirty looks I get for this one.

Let's see...Sarge's kid got ranked, Sprinkles, Meatball...and that's all I really care about. Rankings smankings- Frankenstein's brother Lil' Stein almost got flatten by my eku, and again by two bos, by not watching where the hell he was going. Like his brother, he is an idiot. Frankenstein could not teach a Lemming to commit suicide. Sarge actually pleaded with me to take adults. I did kata work- *sigh* my katas are quickly running away from me. I forgot ichi-bo. Boo.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Penguins are indeed vicious ninja birds

Not much to write here. I have been sick and as a result, haven't been to class regularly. Work still sucks, and I am still waiting for a date for my aiki test. The dojo is cleaner though- thanks to the clean up day and a shoe rack from Spam, it actually looks like a decent place to train where you won't get allergic reactions. It remains to be seen how long this cleanliness will last. The floor is already nasty.

I'm juggling the idea of the tourney this year. As usual, I say I don't wanna go but something always makes me go anyway. I am not in a good position to compete this year, considering Jion isn't exactly a tournament kata, and neither is my bo kata I am working on. I just feel blah about the whole thing, really.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

The Year of the Mama, and a clean dojo

It may be the year of Ox according to Chinese calendars, but at our school, Sarge has proclaimed it to be the year of the Mama. And so far, it is fulfilling that ideal. Sarge just had fun getting drunk in Pittsburgh, leaving her son to stay for clean up day.

I have to say, as I always do, I got way in over my head, but judging by the condition of the place when we started, cleaning day was overdue. The poor kids that got the storage are probably did the most work- the storage area is an unofficial changing room where decades of stuff has been piled into. It was covered in mold. Eww. Forget about the spike in allergies, that shit could have killed us. Thankfully, I had gloves and masks on hand. Batta braved the bathroom, and Spam took evidence of the fact that I actually managed to get kids to clean. The sad thing about it is, the older juniors are slower than shit! The 7 year-olds zipped through two mats in the time it took them to complete a side of one. And Meatball...ah, poor Meatball. His short stature and his OCD cleaning style meant that he was washing the same mirror for twenty minutes.

All in all, it wasn't bad. We toasted the occasion with sake and sprite, and that was it. Finally I can rest again...