Kukri!

The moment they ask us to choose between two different paths, the implicit message is that we can only follow one. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Saturday FOD: Dance Of Life

Sunday FOD: Plum Blossom Fist. Note that when standing up after the kneeling Leopard fist portion, I seem to want to take a step with the right foot. Don't do it. Stand squared-up while doing the left-hip swirl, then take a LEFT step at the downward chop. This is the only way you can set up for a rt step on the horizontal chop, then the scissor step.

Winning search term of the week on my blog: "nude tai chi men only".


Monday FOD: Touch Bridge. Standard version only. Same error as last time- I wanted to do the fist overtop of the flat hand near the end, instead of the other way around. I don't know why I'm doing that. It makes no practical sense at all. FIST ON BOTTOM! FIST ON BOTTOM!

Tuesday FOD: Tai Chi short form.

Got a lot of research done on my WIP in the last 2 days. Mostly about food, plants, textiles. I started out visualizing a modified Louisiana bayou environment, but it seems like nearly everything I want to incorporate turns out to be Chinese in origin. I know some of that is coming from my MA and spiritual training..... but last night I was Wiki'ing all sorts of random foods and things that I wanted to incorporate, and everything kept coming back to China- including a whole lot of stuff that I had no idea originated in China or had connections to China. It's taking on that "this is not just coincidence" ooga-booga air. I guess I should just reconcile myself to the fact that the setting is in a modified ancient China. One of the pluses of this is that I can use CK as a resource, since she knows everything. She knows everything about everything- but *especially* everything about ancient China.

The weaponry (yeah, this is a big focus for me- heh-) was originally intended to be mostly staffs and knives, with the occasional sword. However, my characters are going to be spending a lot of time hacking bamboo (or a bamboo-like clone that I will invent some weird name for, just to cover up any errors in my research- gotta love fantasy fiction- don't know jack about your topic, or just too lazy to study it? MAKE IT ALL UP!). So I began watching all these Youtubes of survivalist hillbillies and grizzled old natives making everything short of a nuclear bomb out of bamboo... and they were all using these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukri
(These are Nepalese, not Chinese, just for your edification).

Now I think I'm going to forget sword altogether and have everyone use these as both weapon and tool. Of course, this means it will be necessary for me to purchase one... or two.... purely for research purposes, of course. Not just because I want another cool martial arts weapon.

The Mythic Scribes Forum rocks, by the way. The other writers are very helpful with suggestions and encouragement.



Thursday: Horrible nightmares all day today.

136.0. I have an excuse for this, sort of. The dishwasher was broken for about a month. I despise washing dishes (that was one of the jobs I did at that restaurant). After a couple of loads, I was like, I don't want to do this any more. So I bought pizza. I was good about portions (I never heated up more than one piece at a time), but the frequency may have been a little more frequent than was optimal. Well, the dishwasher is fixed now and the pizza is gone. I have also decided to start eating most of my meals with chopsticks for the next little while. I am clumsy with chopsticks, so it takes me more time to eat less food.

Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Bellevue. Got to drill with Nelson (yay!)

Same guard pull from standing that we did last time, continuing to scissor sweep. Note that the leg across opponent's chest should be sharply angled with your knee near their shoulder and your foot at their hip. Fight the urge to place the leg horizontally at their beltline. Also: The shin that is going to be on the floor, do not put it there until RIGHT before you sweep. If you put it there too early, the opponent can hop over it or kneel on it.

One more thing- keep ahold of that elbow, and yank it to prevent them from posting as you're sweeping. I was particularly lax about remembering/executing this while scissor-sweping on my stupid side.

Oops, still one more: As you mount, get that hand off the cross collar and square up. If you leave that hand there, the opponent can just continue the roll.

Next, one person attempts scissor sweep and the other sinks down their base to counter. Do not continue to attempt the scissor sweep when this happens. Replace closed guard.

Next, we did one of the coolest sweeps EVER. You attempt scissor sweep, opponent sinks base to counter. You sit up and hug over opponent's shoulder, grab belt in back. Hip up. Opponent tries to shove you back down on your back. (Note that you can pretend you are going into tactical lift, just to bait them into doing this). As the opponent pushes forward, you drop your bent leg so that the foot is hooked behind their knee. Then kick straight up. The opponent's own momentum rolls him to the side on his back (on the same side that you kicked). You get on top (side control or mount). This was kind of tricky, but done right it involved almost no effort and worked great. I almost launched Nelson onto his head once.

I skipped out after drills. Still feeling a bit headachey. I always wake up on Thursdays with a headache. I assume it's caffeine withdrawl, plus a bit of dehydration and hypoglycemia. This morning I drank some pop, ate, and even took an aspirin (which I rarely do), but it lingers.... maybe something else going on.


Yahtzee... I asked Nelson if he has done any MA training with machete-like weapons, and he has. I am going to try to meet up with him after I buy my kukri, and have him show me a little.