Thursday

People talk much about ecology and the need to slow down the crisis of the global ecosystem, but there can be no solution to the problems of nature unless we can find nature within. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Friday: 133.0

Form Of the Day: Box Form. It appears that I have been doing the stomp, cat step and spear hand on the same side both ways. I'm not sure if that's kosher for this form or not (this is the only one that has the "mirror form" built in- you always do it on one side and then the other in succession), but it is actually not complicated to switch the three techniques to their mirror side- so I want to. I just need to take a moment's pause just before the stomp to assess which side I'm going to.
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Saturday FOD: Hurricane Hands.

Dang those excessively clever Incas. I have a pivotal plot point in my WIP that I was really excited about, involving (what I THOUGHT was) an original idea. It is a form of morse code translated to knots in a length of cording. Turns out those damn Incas did it first:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu

Which doesn't mean I can't still use the idea; I just won't get credit for thinking it up by myself, even though I *DID*. And I will likely get history nerds whining in my comment section that I suck because I cribbed something from one ancient culture and grafted it onto a different ancient culture. 
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Sunday FOD: jian.
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Monday FOD: Plum Blossom Frag.  Note that the strikes from the kneeling position number THREE: the third is a right palm-heel while the left hand comes back in a Black Crane-esque ward at jaw.
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Tuesday FOD: Kiu 2. Same issue as last time with mixing some of the pieces up. Note that Part ONE has the little hop back, because when you are doing Part TWO, you have the wrong toe forward to be able to do this technique.  Note also that part TWO does not have the double spear hand nor the little sideways palm-heel at the end. I must like those two techniques; I keep wanting to put them in both halves.

Part 2- first step is forward with the LEFT foot. Part one does not use footwork at all in the opening technique, so the confusion here originates from mixing it up with Snake Versus Five Animals- in which Part 1 steps forward with the RIGHT foot and part 2 steps BACKWARD with the LEFT foot. The opening of Snake Versus Five Animals, Part two, also uses the very same hand/arm motions as in Kiu 2 Part 2. Confused? Me 2.

The new space is cleared at my work, and all the instruments and crap aren't moved into it yet- there's tons of room to do forms! Yay!
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Thursday: Had a dream about sword training, followed by a dream in which Bryan was promoted to black belt.

Competition class at GB Bellevue. It was really hot in there, and I got to use the phrase I stole from Ginger Snaps: "It's a Brazilian degrees in here!" Gavin high-fived me and said, "I can't wait to steal that one!" I said, "Be my guest, cuz I just stole it from somebody else!"

All live matches. Started with the Prof, and got about 20 seconds in before he had a violent allergy attack and had to quit. Turns out he is allergic to cats. He's never had a reaction to the cat hair on my gi before, but I guess today there was a lot of it. I had to go out in the alley and take off my jacket, pants and rash guard and shake them hard to try to get the cat hair off. I was wearing bike shorts and a sport top, but the guys still started hollering at me to be careful because there were men hooting and yelling from the next building over (there weren't). I said "Good, maybe they'll start throwing money." (nobody did)

Note to self- start washing gi's on "extra rinse", don't leave them lying around anywhere that the cats will nap on them, give them a good snappy shake outdoors before dressing, and put a tape-roller wand in my gym bag.

Advanced class- all live matches again. I was stuck on bottom half guard the whole time with Kelly, which was frustrating, but I did fairly okay against everyone else. I worked with a number of people that I've never worked with before- and I noticed that when they caught me with something, then tried the same thing again later, I was able to counter and not get caught a second time. I am a slow learner, so that was good progress for me.