Renga: Brickish

So I had a great chance today–With Tampopo out of commission due to a migrane, I had my chance to specify what we did. Granted, that’s when my habit of dropping the ball when asked a direct question derailed my train of thought and caused me to go "Awaahanawahahna?" (Lit: What the hell are you asking me for?)

Rather than actually going ahead and doing what I wanted to (Facing down my fear of guns) we did exactly what I didn’t want to do. (White-Belt training) Lemme put it this way, in the family we do things a little strangely. In order to start training, people have to essentially give up their belts. (I gave up a Yellow-Green in Shotokhan Karate, and a Blue in Ku-Ke Tae Kwon Do) I usually just tell people we do, just to make things easier for them.

Last saturday, as noted in the last post, I passed my Rolls, marking that I was ready to begin full training as an Uchideshi and the first book, Water. This is equivalent to that "hey, here’s a white-belt" thing that usually happens everywhere. Yeah. Year and a half for me folks. Appreciate that little piece of cloth that you got for free. Granted, I am the first person in three years or so to pass rolls and move on, but that was softened by the fact that everyone else is right behind me.

 Isn’t my fault the dojo’s started completely over three times since I’ve been there. In retrospect, I’m thankful for it, but at the same time, I could have been learning the last few parts of Water by now and be moving onto Earth. But hey, I can roll like crazy now, anytime, anywhere, on or through anything. Kind of nice actually. Falling without hurting myself is, as I found out tonight by a slip on the mats, completely integrated into my body. It is nice, and the length of repeats is very, very welcome at this point.

Anyway, with the fact that everyone’s in roughly the same place, that means that Sensei can really start ripping into us with the old ways. Especially since I’m up in front ahead of everyone, if just by a little. Joy! We get to start the Martial Arts again!

 Yeah… if by Martial Arts you mean not the American version. When Sensei says old, he means old. For instance, where there’s usually just a shuttle run at a normal dojo, we’ve got to stop our entire momentum and tag something without moving it. Where there’s just a pushup drill or something equivalent, we’re diving through rolls and falls from positions we’ve never done before. And where others just practice stances in order, we’re flying through them, including a nice little kneeling to prone dive that I’m naming the buster, just because that’s what my stomach felt like.

 You see, sometime last night I prayed for an excuse to stay off of cardio machines, and I feel that I’ve got it. I got it really good. There’s a curse from a book called By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey. Terrible opening, just skip to chapter five, but the curse is "May you always get what you ask for." Yeah… I got the idea Lackey. *sigh* Got my cardio with a side of bruising. Wonderful!

 I actually couldn’t be happier with it though. If Sensei is actually meaning to put us through something even worse than what we did tonight, which left my legs literally grinding out from beneath me if I tried to hurry between places on campus afterwards, I think that I’ll have no problem accomplishing my little American Gladiators goal. Coupled with the fact that I’m staying here in Springfield to train, and yeah, I say that this actually has a shot at happening. Completely rediculous as it is, yeah, I think I have a shot now.

 Yeah, I nixed cardio based just on tonight, but I think that things will even themselves out. They always do.

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on why it is that I’m pursuing a lot of things I’m going after. The degree I’m in, martial arts, my learning bass, everything, pretty much. Mostly because as my school career finally winds down (One and a half years left!) I’m beginning to try and do some cleaning so to speak of my hobbies. 

One that’s actually really high up on the "drop this" list is bodybuilding. I don’t think that I’m actually pursuing the right ends, which may explain the recent lack of motivation.  Though I still want to see my abs before 30 and avoid the health problems that plague my family’s natural tendancy to be obese, I feel that bodybuilding is the entirely wrong word for it.

What kind of brought this up is seeing the casting call for American Gladiators. Yeah, so I grew up watching it, and still try to get back from the Dojo in time to watch because I enjoy it, and like the fact that it is just as physically demanding as it has always been. I think that the idea of functioning muscle and fitness are more what I’m after than real weight loss and such. Simply put, I want to make an application for casting for Season 3.

Season 3 because in looking at the current application, the season casts in April and tapes in May, and there’s no way that between school, my work and the dojo that I’d actually be able to get ready that fast. Not to mention, I don’t presently have access to a video camera, so that puts a big stop on it right there because of a required video because I can’t make it to an open call.

So, though I still want to find a way to get a "Solid" look, I think that that will take a backseat to planning for American Gladiators. After all, by watching a whole season, I’m confident that even a Gokusai from my dojo could avoid more than a few of the things that the Gladiators toss out at people. They all move so very straight and we move so very circular. Plus, there’s no better time to apply the base concept of the monk and the bus to something.

Monk and the Bus: An American football player and a Shaolin monk are standing in front of a linebacker that is charging at them. Rather than try and take the linebacker down, the monk simply steps out of the way. The football player blocks and after the dust clears, looks like he got hit by a bus.

I’m just saying that with many of the contenders, they think just as linearly as the gladiators, and they usually get mauled by them because the gladiators are simply larger than the contenders. In theory, even against that hyper little ******* Evan that won Season 1, I should be able to just circle my way out of most of them.

 That is, saying, that I make it physically into the competition and am actually conditioned to the point where I can, well, you know, not hyperventilate mid-event. See? I’ve got work to do.