The Name Of the Game

You must not come lightly to the blank page. -Stephen King

Monday FOD: Snake Versus Five Animals. The amped-up Hurricane Hands was not just a fluke- this Snake form feels different as well. Mostly the Snake part and not the Five Animals part, natch.

Tuesday FOD: Spear Hand fragment.


Been ruminating on a particular sticky spot on my WIP for what seems like forever; last night I got a tickle of an idea. It's only about a square inch of the full picture, but I have something to work off of now, and the ideas suddenly started coming so hot and fast that I was scribbling them on the backs of queue tickets and stuffing them in all of my pockets so as not to lose any in the shuffle. Unfortunately, striking while the iron's hot is impossible right now since my iron (ie my laptop) is in the shop for the second time in two weeks.

Wednesday: Not gonna get the laptop back until late next week at the earliest. Rrrrrrrrrr.

Had a lapse in the sensible-eating department yesterday. Someone brought a quiche to work. Things brought in to work to share are a particular danger spot for me. Particularly in the middle of the night, when the food and I are all alone.... and it starts whispering seductively to me, trying to convince me that we should take our relationship to the next level. I am way too easy.   In this case, one mini quiche was the gateway food to a homemade egg/cheese/mushroom/bacon concoction (hey, at least I nixed the piecrust), with a box of doughnuts thrown in for good measure.

Wednesday lunchtime BJJ at GB Seattle. I spent a little time before class going over the parts of Wood Monkey and Five Points Of the Star that involve actual rolling on the ground- parts that I usually have to micro-fu through when they are the Form Of the Day, as neither my work nor my home has any floorspace suitable for rolling around on. 5 Points- note that the axe kick (for the standard version of the form) is on the left. Monkey- the axe kick is with the RIGHT leg instead. The back kick from the ground is with the left leg (which means you have to be on the RIGHT shoulder). I also forgot the second front roll after the groin strike.

Opponent front bearhugs you under your arms. You clasp hands together (I had to be corrected on that detail), thrust into opponent's belly while sprawling back a titch, then stick your arm in on the OPPOSITE side that your head is on. Wrap that arm around opponent's waist. Step in front, switch arm to wrapping up around the shoulder, hip throw. Follow opponent to ground and get side control. Then we did a set transitioning to mount. Angela suggests that I try to trap the far arm if possible (esp going into mount- head and arm trap),

Opponent is in top side control. You frame up, hip out (try to get the butt way out and get on your side- I am still too much on my back). Bring knee under opponent's stomach.

Try to get your other foot inside hir ankle and pull hir shin out. Reach over hir shoulder on the other side and gable grip. Shift your hip out on that side. It is important to do all three of these things at the same time. At first, Angela and I were puzzled about the shin thing. I was wondering, "WTH is this supposed to be doing?" a minute later, Angela asked, "Why am I doing this? What is this accomplishing?" So I asked Carlos. Turns out that *IF* you do all of these three things at once, correctly, it jerks the opponent over to the side enough to make the space bigger so you can get your foot out and achieve closed guard.

King Of the Hill, from side control, get full mount (for the top person) versus get full guard (for the bottom person). Half guard is a no-no.  First black belt Dave, who let me fool around a bit before placing me in guard. Then a big white belt guy, I made him work for it but he got me eventually. Bree, who was tired and injured, we fought for several minutes before she just bailed. As the bottom person, my first opponent was JM. (Ack!) I caught him in half guard and he had to work a few minutes to get out (I know I wasn't supposed to use half guard, but in the heat of the moment, ya know...)

One roll with Angela: I think I was putting up and okay fight, she finally tapped because I inadvertantly yanked on her injured knee.

Steve is back. It has been two years. He didn't remember my name, but that's okay, since I didn't recognize him at ALL at first- it came back to me after a few minutes, though. He looked at my belt and commented, "I see you've been doing well," I relied, "Showing up,"  He said, "That's the name of the game!"


Circus school (acrobalance): I got to work in a triad with Willis and the same new guy that I worked with last time, so that was a perfect situation for me. We did a whole mess of stuff- some review, some new. Too much to list! I did each technique first with Willis, then he talked the new guy and me through it. It was a lot of core work! Tired afterward.