The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. The hermit crab is a colorful example of a creature that lives by this aspect of the growth process (albeit without our psychological baggage). As the crab gets bigger, it needs to find a more spacious shell. So the slow, lumbering creature goes on a quest for a new home. If an appropriate new shell is not found quickly, a terribly delicate moment of truth arises. A soft creature that is used to the protection of built-in armor must now go out into the world, exposed to predators in all its mushy vulnerability. That learning phase in between shells is where our growth can spring from. Someone stuck with an entity theory of intelligence is like an anorexic hermit crab, starving itself so that it doesn’t grow to have to find a new shell. Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”
I must whine. Still profoundly crippled here. NSAIDS do nothing at all. The stretch that Otto suggested- and the "press your shoulder blades together and then insert them into your rear jeans pockets" stretch that CK likes- definitely get into the painful area, but the nerve zapping lingers. As does the headache. I don't think I can function in class.
Reclining to read- or Trying to sleep- is agony. There is *no* position that doesn't send continuous bolts of Serious Pain up my neck and down my arm.
I skipped all classes yesterday and lay uncomfortably around working through my stack of literature on learning methods. Mined a lot of great quotes. I used a dinner-plate sized Salon-Pas capsicum patch on my shoulder blade- it stayed warm for almost 12 hours. I had a couple of small ones stuck on the side of my neck, too.
The "chocolate" gi is now hanging on the porch to dry before being laundered. To my pleasure, it appears that I have succeeded in removing the tye-dye effect. My twisted logic told me that if you soak something in a dark dye for an eon, it's going to *have* to dye through, right? In submission to your stubbornness? Well, I have found that it's less about the time in the dye bath and more about the stirring. For my second try, I used more dye, and two buckets (one for the jacket and one for the pants) so that there was actually ROOM to stir (and without slopping dye all over my shoes). A lot less time and a lot more stirring. (I could have almost bought a new gi for what I paid for a total eight boxes of Rit... live and learn).
Right now it looks more like a burnt umber- almost black- than chocolate, but I can live with that. It might lighten up a titch after the wash, too. It doesn't look like the stitching took the dye, but that's okay- I like the way that looks.
I am 90% decided that I'm going to bite the bullet and throw my other elderly white (or should I say "white") gi into the wash with it. If I get similar results to what happened with my red scrubs, the second gi should dye a lighter brown or some type of tan- nice and even, and light enough so that we have two distinctively different colors. My main concern is that the ripstop material pants (it's an Atama "summerweight" gi) might not dye the same color as the top. That might look weird- and if they're different enough, I won't be allowed to wear the gi at Gracie's (they want your jacket and pants to match).
(pic- Renzo and Rodrigo)
You should try to stretch your levator scapulae, go to ExRx.net and look up the stretch. It's a muscle that runs from your shoulder blade up your neck to the base of the skull. If it's in spasm you can get wicked headaches and a sore shoulder/back. It might not be the full problem, but it's worth a stretch.
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