Wednesday

Physical education is the fundamental discipline of life, but it is actually despised, neglected, and taught intellectually, because the true intent of our schools is to inculcate the virtues of cunning and calculation which will make money...... The establishment is a class of physical barbarians.... they do not know how to transform money into physical enjoyment. They were never taught how to husband plants and animals for food, how to cook, how to make clothes and build houses, how to dance and breathe, how to do yoga for finding one's true center, or how to make love. -Alan Watts


Friday:

The universe is conspiring so that I will never see Cindy again. Today I was going to go to Sleeper Athletics, and most likely lunchtime at Gracie Seattle as well- but I was prepared to skip the latter if I didn't feel 100%, so as to make SURE nothing stopped me from going to Sleeper. Instead, I fed and medicated the cats, crawled back into bed, and stayed there all day. My head felt like one of those tomatoes that when you slice it open, it's all dry and moldy inside. When I got up to feed the cats dinner and medicate them again, I wanted to go out and get the mail- but my coat wasn't by the door where I thought I'd left it. I searched everywhere, and began to wonder if I'd left it someplace. Then I noticed that it was sitting right by the door- exactly where I'd thought it should be. In that state, I guess it's for the best that I did not try to go to class- or get behind the wheel of an automobile.

Side Control mentions on his blog that he had "fever and fatigue" as well (bad enough that he bailed out of the school tournament this weekend), *and* Rodrigo, and others have had it as well... so apparently some bug I picked up at the gym.

Nauseating search term of the week: "naked bjj girl vs boy". Good grief. I'm pretty sure these twisted puppies are not finding what they're looking for on *my* blog.


Saturday: 132.5 Head still feels a bit weird. I think I'm functional, but maybe BJJ would not be such a good idea today.

Drum circle- smallish crowd, had to start and carry the beats a lot. Started 3 chants. Got a lot of join-in on the 2nd one, including some people who don't normally chant. Note that that one was just a sort of two- or three-tone moan. It ended up sounding like a bunch of coyotes baying at the moon; pretty cool. Perhaps even the four-syllable easy chants I tend to start are too intimidating for some people. Folks are even more inhibited and self-conscious about singing than they are about drumming. Next time: more two-tone moan. See if I can bring in a few more voices. I just know some of them are salivating to chant, and are too scared.... if I can just get them to open their mouths a couple of times (and see that people are not going to laugh, or throw tomatoes), we could build up a serious chorus after a few months.

The 3rd chant was sheer desperation. A very chaotic mash-up had jangled to a discordant halt at 8:58, and you really can't end on something like that. I waited for somebody to start something, anything... of course there was dead silence.... so I just sang. Pure I-have-no-idea-where-I'm-going-after-this-note-right-here. It came out all minor-chord-y- I actually thought it sounded fantastic (hee hee hee), but probably nobody else was going to dare tackle it. Thank you God, some of the drums started accompanying. I just did about 5 minutes, enough to tack a halfway lyrical and feel-good cap on the evening.

I so wish I could chant and drum at the same time, it would make things so much easier. Sometimes in a big group with other strong players I can pull that off, but without much support it's just too much pressure to try to focus on doing more than one thing well at once.


Sunday FOD: Black Crane 1. Both versions. Actually did mirror version first- not really meaning to, just started working and that's what popped out. I like that for some of these forms, the mirror version is already almost as natural as the standard version. Had trouble with the reap at the end of the mirror version, though. That still feels strange.

Looking at photos of Cranes on the internet counts as training for me. Kung Fu is cool.


Monday FOD: Iron Needle. I made a correction, based on how *I* thought the physics should work. Since I am now my own teacher, I need to make my own corrections.


Wednesday: 134

Lunchtime BJJ Gracie Seattle. Got to drill ith Angela, which was great.

Two cross jabs, thrust kick to belly, clinch, reap, end in closed guard. Posture up. Opponent yanks your elbows and hugs your head to hir chest. You stick your hands in hir armpits with the thumbs up, push and duck your head out. Grab hir rt sleeve with your left hand, grab the lapels (low) with your other hand. Stand up (step up with the knee that is on the side you have captured the sleeve first). Let go lapels, switch grip on sleeve to cross grip. Pretend you are reaching into the back pocket of your jeans, break closed guard. Hike the leg up onto your shoulder. Go around the side that you have the sleeve captured, pressure, fold hir in half. Grab the collar on the opposite side. End in side control.

We have done this before, often enough that I felt fairly ok with it- the only thing I kept doing wrong was letting go of the sleeve too soon. You pretty much don't let go of the sleeve till you're done with the entire sequence.

1 Roll with a 4 stripe white belt. I was on top for about the first 3 min, then it was trapped in back mount for the rest of the roll. He was clumsy with his choke technique, so didn't finish any.

Repetitive restarts with Angela, who is training for PanAms. I was just trying to pass her guard and she was trying to sweep me. I came at her a whole bunch of different ways, so she had to do all different techniques, but she got me every time.


Circus School (acrobalance). I got caught in some really intense traffic and got there 40 min late, missing the entire warmup *and* the conditioning.

Lots of high-flying, tricky stuff today. Willis is out of town for a couple of months, so we only had 2 bases. We did a 360-degree plank. A star where you balance upside down on your shoulders, braced on the base's upraised feet (I did okay at that one, but it was a muthuh to jump into... I needed a spotter to hoist my ass up). A 3 person stack with a base, a front plank, then a third person standing on the plank's butt as if riding a surfboard. I got up to a crouch, but couldn't stand- my feet were wobbling from side to side on the plank's butt too violently. (It doesn't help that this sort of thing tends to start all of you giggling.... balance is worse while you're giggling...)