Thursday

”We either make ourselves miserable,
or we make ourselves strong.
The amount of work is the same.”
- Carlos Castaneda


Friday- 131.0. FOD: Kiu Two. I had to look up the opening techniques of both sides. For some reason, I had Snake Versus Five Animals stuck in my head, and kept wanting to do the openings of that one instead. Note that Kiu Two starts with a LEFT punch for Snake A (not a rt punch as in Sv5), and a left FORWARD step for Snake B (not a left back step as in Sv5).

It just occurred to me that I know as many Snake forms as the Black Sash Snake stylist does.

Note that I need to check my FOD bowl and make sure there is at least one stone for the Green Dragon form.

Darby never got back to me. I guess he's too scared I'll want to spar. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get to finish learning Green Dragon from him, but then he didn't get all of Hurricane Hands from me either.



Sat FOD: Wood Monkey. Don't forget that the first roll culminates with an axe kick, then a double back-of-the-hand strike down.

The arm circles immediately after that- I'm doing them clockwise, even though I am pretty sure I was taught counterclockwise. Clockwise makes more sense to go into the next strike. Since I no longer have a teacher, I am going to do them as I darn well see fit. So there.

Note that the rear roll is over the RIGHT shoulder, and the kick is with the left leg. The first time I did it, I wasn't sure which shoulder/leg it was- but it quickly became apparent that doing it left-shoulder-right-leg leaves you facing the wrong way for the technique that comes right after.



Sunday FOD: Three Step Arrow. I keep wanting to confuse this with Spear Hand- both fragments, both Mantis, both referring to weapons that you're not actually using.

Cutting down my soda intake a bit. One less here, one less there. Unfortunately, the Mountain House chicken a la king is full of hot peppers, which make me want to drink soda!



Mon FOD: Chen Dao. Used the broom handle as a substitute dao. A few moments of cluelessness as I tried to dredge up the opening- but once into it, I was fine till I got to the end and wanted to do the closing movements out of catherine Dao instead. I checked my notes, ran through both endings… they are quite similar, although each form has you in a different position *entering* the sequence.

Less soda today. Feeling some withdrawl.


Tues FOD: Little Red Dragon. I feel like I haven't done this one in a long time, but it (standard and mirror versions) went fine aside from the fact that I accidentally did three Dragon claws at the opening instead of two. It goes 2 claws, elbow strike, 3 claws. Just to mix you up further, Lun Chi begins with an identical opening, only using 3 Dragon claws.

This has always been one of my favorite forms. It's a short little thing, but it feels good, and it has the prettiest flying kick in it. JB's looks prettier- but mine is not bad, as long as I'm fully stretched out! I had to micro-fu it tonight at work, because I can't do good flying kicks in certain of my work pants.



Thursday: Arial silk. I was kind of dragging ass tonight for some reason- I tired easily, and actually started to get a little queasy near the end, with all the upside down- and don't feel like I advanced much. One important thing re: the basic climb- if I place my feet while my knees are still bent instead of waiting till they're half straightened, I get a higher climb.



Someone found my blog by searching on "spots on a toddler's groin pictures". I find that disturbing. Hopefully it was a parent looking to research some rash they found on their kid... but I don't recall having done any blogging about toddlers' groins.