Saturday, December 22, 2007

Ouch! And a survey.

I knew that it wasn’t going to be a good day when my brother said on the phone, “I need to tell you that Mom’s OK…but she was in a car wreck this morning.”

Holy Crap!

As it turns out, she was on an icy overpass, about to exit, and a semi rear-ended her, sending her slamming into a concrete divider and flipping her car. She suffered three fractures to her left arm (the word ‘shattered’ was used), one in the shoulder, one in the forearm, and one in the wrist. Other than these minor inconveniences, she escaped with minor cuts and bruises.

To say that she was lucky isn’t really accurate. I mean, if she were lucky, the semi would have missed her, right? However, she was very fortunate to have not suffered major injuries, or even death, at the hands of a stupid truck driver who was going a bit too fast.

She’s still around, though. And as you might expect, I’m thrilled that she’s going to be OK. I’m also glad that it wasn’t her right arm that was broken…doing certain things really requires your dominant arm sometimes, and she’s already frustrated enough with one arm out of action.

So we’re glad to be heading up north to give her a hand for awhile. It’ll be good to see my family again, and Christina and I both need a rest from some things here at home. I’ve even written up some workouts that I can do in Mom’s basement (where we’ll be staying for the duration of the trip).

There’s more to talk about, including our Graduation Ceremony yesterday, and the SWAT party that Amy and Shawn held at their house today, but I’m actually kind of tired. I did a killer workout today that involved pull-ups, pushups, box jumps, deadlifts, kettlebell clean-n-presses, and the like, and I’m just whipped. Later.

40 Questions

1. Where were you 1 hour ago?
At Amy and Shawn’s house…they had a great party for the Jade Mountain instructors.

2. Who will be your next kiss?
That would be my wife.

3. Do you kiss a lot of people?
Nope.

4. Are you wearing socks right now?
Lemme check….yep.

5. When was the last time you went out of state?
That would be last Christmas, when we went to Indiana to see my folks.

6. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?
No, but we did see The Golden Compass last week.

7. What was the last thing you had to drink?
A Coca-Cola at the party.

8. What are you wearing right now?
Amazingly, I’m still wearing jeans, socks, shoes, and a red shirt. I usually strip immediately upon returning home at night.

9. What was your last purchase?
I picked up some Subway sandwiches for lunch.

10. Last food you ate?
Probably some of Renee’s fabulous stuffed mushrooms.

11. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Brian.

12. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
Nope…but I’m planning on using Amy and Shawn’s generous gift to get some new running shoes!

13. Do you have a pet?
Just one little Beta fish named Willie.

14. What did you do last night?
We had a Graduation Ceremony at Jade Mountain, then we ate at Pho Mai, courtesy of Amy and Shawn. Man, they’re just awesome!

15. Are you a vampire?
What? Um…not really, no.

16. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
To be honest, I’d love to be asleep on the couch. And that’s where I’m headed after I’m done here.

17. What is the last thing you purchased online?
Ross Enamait’s new conditioning book and dvd, Full Throttle Conditioning. It’s really great!

18. One thing you hate about yourself?
My lack of self-discipline. As a martial arts instructor, I hold myself to a very high ideal, both in my training, in my relationships, and in my life in general. Even so, I must constantly keep myself on track to do the things I know that I should do. I’m just as human as the next guy.

19. What's your favorite soup?
Pho Mai’s pho tai, without a doubt.

20. Do you miss anyone?
Why yes, I have many friends and family that I don’t see very often.

21. Last movie you saw?
Stardust.

22. What are your plans for the day?
My day is nearly done…resting on the couch, then cleaning the kitchen and maybe some laundry before bed.

23. Did you have fun today?
As a matter of fact, yes I did. And had a fantastic workout as well!

24. Who is your last text message from?
Christina

25. Were you an honor roll student in school?
Yup. Graduated in the top ten percent of my class.

26. What do you know about the future?
I know that it’s approaching rapidly…and I know that it has the potential to be wonderful.

27. Who rode in a car with you last?
Monkey.

28. What is your all time favorite band?
I still have a huge crush on Cathy Dennis, but I love lots of music.

30. How old do you want to be when you have kids?
I was 32 when Monkey came along. I may be nearly 40 when and if we have another.

31. Did you meet anyone new today?
Yes, a new fellow came by to visit the school.

32. Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
Nope.

33. How do you like your soda?
Coke over ice with lime wedges.

34. Do you like hot sauce?
Yes, in spite of the hot-potty issues that come with the hot sauce.

35. What are you doing tomorrow?
Cleaning house and preparing for a trip.

36. What day is tomorrow?
Sunday

37. What is your current mood?
Cheerful, but a bit tired.

38. Are you someone's best friend?
Yup. I have some really great friends.

39. What did you get for Valentines day?
I’m sorry to say that I have no idea. My hippocampus is simply not big enough to hold that kind of info for very long.

40. Someone who last bought you something?
Christina, Amy, and Mark. Thanks!

***

Happy Holidays to you, everyone!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

20 Deep Questions

1. What is more difficult for you, looking into someones eyes when you are telling someone how you feel, or looking into someones eyes when they are telling you how they feel? I don't shy away from eye contact when talking to someone, but if I had to choose, I'd say the first one.

2. Think of the last time you were REALLY angry. Why were you angry? When we went to help my wife clean out her things from her former workplace. It is only because I have a responsibility to set a good example for my students that I did not punch her former boss in his smug little face.

3. You are on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago non-stop. There is a fire in the back of the plane. You get ONE phone call. Who would you call?The in-air fire department? Traffic control? The moron next to the sink in the rear calling his wife and doing nothing? I'd be frantically trying to put the fire out...come on, SOMEONE needs to step up! Didn't anyone read those safety cards?

4. You are at the doctor's office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. (1) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? (2) What do you do with your remaining days? (3) Would you be afraid?

1) I'd tell a few close friends and my family.
2) I'd get my affairs in order, spend time with my family and loved ones, and also spend time meditating and finding peace in my situation. Oh, and I'd still be training.
3) I'm sure I'd have moments of concern, not so much for myself, but for my family.

5. You can have one of the following two things- trust/love. Which do you choose? I think trust. Love can be created, and nurtured, but without trust, it won't work.

6. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. Do you save the dog? I am the boss. I'd save the dog.

7. If you could tell one person how you really felt about them right now would you? Sure.

8. If you could go back and be with your first love, would you? Although I have fond memories of my first girlfriend, I'm certain that we'd be a horrible match nowadays.

9. Think of the last person who you know that died. You have the chance to give them 1 hour of life back, but you have to give one year of your life. Do you do it? As much as I'd like to be generous, an hour just isn't worth it. I'd give them that whole year, though. And they'd damn well better make good use of it.

10. Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend? Yup. At least, I think so!

11. Does love = sex? There are far too many types of love for this to be true. I have many friends, whom I love dearly, and I don't have any desire to have sex with them.

12. Your boss tells your co-worker that they have to let them go because of work shortage, and they are the newest employee. You have been there much longer. Your co-worker has a family to support and no other means of income. Do you go to your boss and offer to leave the company? Again, I'm the boss.

13. When was the last time you told someone HONESTLY how you feel? My darling wife and I had a heartfelt discussion last night, but that's commonplace for us. We share our feelings very openly.

14. What would be harder for you, to tell someone you love them or tell them you hate them?It would definitely be harder to tell someone I hate them.

15. What do you think would be/is the hardest thing for you to give up? My family. Everything else can be replaced, one way or another. My job would be a close second.

16. Excluding family love, when was the last time you told someone you love them? Probably to one of my best friends a week or so ago.

17. If you had to go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? Man, I go round and round about this sometimes. In the end, I have to think that my entire lifepath has led me to this moment, and this particular situation. It's where I want to be, so I wouldn't want to jeopardize that.

18. It is a dark night, you are alone, it is raining outside. What are you doing? Reading, surfing the net, or watching training DVD's.

19. Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying? Sure.

20. If you could do anything OR wish anything, what would it be? I'd give my wife the power to grant wishes!

Ho, ho, ho...

And the holidays are here! Christina's got the lights up, and we found a nice tree, which is decorated very nicely. Monkey picked out the tree, and I must say that it's a good one. It does lean a bit to one side, but otherwise, it's great!

There's been much turmoil around here lately, and it's unfortunate that I can't really get into it here. Suffice to say that my wife's former employer was not at all what he purported to be. He, and others in his employ, proved themselves to be petty, manipulative, underhanded, and mean, and they have caused my family a lot of sleepless nights, frustration, anger, and despair. And so we enter our holiday season shaking our heads, and wondering how some people can live with themselves. It's truly amazing.

So, on a brighter note, it's been great having my wife home all day. She's been super-busy while she's organizing the house and trying to sort through the clutter around here. I'm just trying to stay out of the way and help out where I can. We get to hang out together and watch shows that we enjoy, and just enjoy each others company. She'll most likely be working again in January, so I'm enjoying her while I can!

So now that we're recovering from things, we're able to look ahead to our trip up North. I always enjoy heading up there to see my parents, brother, and extended family, and this year is no exception. When we're there, we stay in Mom's lower level (she's got a three-level home plus a basement), so we can nap anytime we like, and I'm really looking forward to that! They used to have a parakeet down there that enjoyed squawking at us every chance it got, but I hear that he's moved on to a better place. I'm surprised to find that I'll miss him a bit, even though I'm almost certain that he'd have enjoyed trying to peck me to death, given half a chance. At least there's still Rico, my Dad's little dog. He's a silly little thing, and spoiled rotten.

So that's about all for now. I'm planning to rest on the couch while I review some technique videos before heading out to class. I hope I don't strain myself. ;-)

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Two Things.

Two names you're known by

1. Sifu
2. Whit

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:

1. Underwear
2. Bad hair

Two Things You Would Want (or have) in a Relationship:

1. Communication
2. Attraction

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:

1 Teach martial arts
2 Hang out with my family

Two Things You Want Very Badly At This Moment:

1. To improve my conditioning
2. To organize our home

Two Things You Did Last Night:

1. Watched ‘Human Weapon’
2. Ate dinner…twice.

Two Things You Ate Yesterday:

1. Eggs
2. Orange Juice

Two People You Last Talked To:

1. Christina
2. My Mom

Your Longest Car Ride OR Other Trips:

1. Elkhart, IN to Angleton, TX
2. Katy, TX to Pharr, TX

Two Favorite Holidays:

1. Halloween
2. Thanksgiving

Two Favorite Beverages:

1. Orange Juice
2. Coca Cola (yes, I know it’s bad for me.)

Things About Me That Are Interesting:

1. I know kung fu. Really.
2. I’ve written two and a half novels of a fantasy trilogy.

Two Jobs I Have Had In My Life:

1. McDonald’s grill and drive-thru
2. CAD drafter

Two places I have lived:

1. Angleton, TX
2. Katy, TX

Two of my Favorite Foods:

1. Pho
2. Goi Cuon (fresh spring rolls)

Two Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:

1. Actually, I’m pretty happy right here.

Two Things I'd Like to Accomplish Before I Die:

1. I'd like to see a student of mine open another Jade Mountain.
2. I'd like to run the 1/2 marathon in less than 2 hours.

--------------------------------------------------------

By the way, how many folks actually read my blog? Drop me an email or leave me a comment...I'd love to know who's out there.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

38. That much closer to 40.

Today's my birthday. I'm torn between heading out to the park with a notepad in hand to sit and contemplate this past year and what I want to accomplish this year, or playing Mechwarrior II until I puke. Honestly, it's a toss-up at this point. I'll probably do both.

I've always loved having a Halloween birthday. I have great memories of the birthday parties my parents threw for me back in Angleton, where we'd invite my whole elementary school class, everyone would dress up, and we'd play games and cause trouble. That was a ton of fun! My 40th birthday will be on a Friday night...maybe we can do that again. ;-) It's always fun to have Frankenstein, Dracula, and other costumed ghouls involved in a competitive sack race!

Remember the old bow and arrow sets with the suction cups on the arrows? One year, Mom attached balloons to the wall in our 'toy room', and stuck nails into the suction cups so we could pop the balloons...that was cool! Maybe we can use throwing knives next time...

In looking at this past year, I'm pretty pleased in many areas. My school is doing well, we've got a fabulous group of assistant instructors and a great family atmosphere of which I'm very proud. Our Monkey is doing well in his new kindergarten. My fabulous wife's new job has finally taken a turn for the better after a rough start, and she's also lost over 30 pounds since the summer. All in all, it's been a pretty decent year.

As I get closer to 40, the value of discipline becomes more and more apparent. I can't eat like I did when I was younger...if I eat junk, I feel junky almost immediately. If I don't train, I lose speed, strength, and stamina right away. If I don't exercise my brain, I suddenly can't remember where my pants are...and I'm wearing them. So it seems that I'll focus this year on maintaining the habits necessary to keep me healthy, strong, and moving in a positive direction. And maybe set some goals in which I can become emotionally involved. Training just for training is great, but I want to accomplish something this year...I just don't know what, yet.

So today, I think I'll play, contemplate, teach class (only the early one), train, eat a fabulous pho lunch, and then we'll take Monkey out to Trick or Treat somewhere...just another birthday for me.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

It's Tuesday...just Tuesday.

Monkey came home with a bit of a fever yesterday, so he's home 'recuperating' today. By 'recuperating', I mean playing video games with me, watching American Gladiators and Pokemon, and general hanging out. He's not had any fever today, but there's that pesky 24 hour rule at school, so he's home.

Lots has happened since I last blogged...there was the Florida trip (where I learned how to replace a toilet), an early Halloween party(I was one of the 300 Spartans), UFC night (poor Rich Franklin)...that kind of thing.

Honestly, I don't have much to blog about just now, but I have the time, so here I am. An old friend of mine from high school should be coming by to see us this evening, and I'm looking forward to that...I haven't seen Saldivar for nearly a decade. When we talk, we're always discussing the merits of burpees and kettlebell swings...I'm hoping he'll stay for the grappling class tonight!

So...does anyone else out there still have a ridiculous crush on some singer from their youth? I joke about Kelly Clarkson all the time (I'm just SURE that she wants me to spank her), and Olivia Newton-John is still a total sweetheart, but I'm stuck on Cathy Dennis. She's a British singer/songwriter that rose to popularity in the early 90's with some great dance tunes, and has spent most of the intervening years writing catchy tunes for other female singers. And I can't get her outta my head (which is also one of the songs she wrote for Kylie Minogue). I mean, it's just silly. She's not even performing anymore, for goodness sake! Even so, if Ms. Dennis showed up somewhere I happened to be, I think I'd suddenly do an Oscar-worthy imitation of the village idiot, and would probably trip over my own two feet if I tried to talk to her. It's just ridiculous.

Ah well...a dear friend told me that, as long as I wasn't missing work to sit around and watch her videos, I'm probably fine. Really.

Since Monkey's having fun watching something or other, and the laundry is in progress, I'm going to do some burpees. Have a fabulous day, everyone.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

...and you know whose birthday THAT is??

Yesterday was my darling wife's birthday. Many times in years past, we would wait until the weekend to celebrate her special day, but not this year. I mean, we are going to a weekend getaway this weekend, but this year, I wanted 9-26 to be a bit sweeter for my sweetie.

After my classes were over, I hustled out and got flowers, balloons, and a card, and stopped by her work to present them to her. Ah, her beautiful, surprised smile was wondrous to behold! Kiss, kiss, and then I rushed off again.

Did you know that Party City has a ton of cool stuff? And the Halloween costumes are already out! Sorry, I digress...I picked up a big Happy Birthday banner and a tiara before picking up Monkey from school, and then heading home.

I was on the phone with her when she actually pulled up into the driveway and saw the banner...I think she liked it! And she wore the tiara before passing out on the couch.

A note from our first meeting...we were discussing personal information, likes and dislikes, birthdays, and such. In case you didn't know it, I've always been a huge Olivia Newton-John fan. I told her my birthday was on Halloween, and she agreed that that was pretty cool. Then she says, "Mine's on September 26...and you know whose birthday that is??"

Well, I was probably the only person for 100 square miles to know that 9-26 is Olivia's birthday. I thought "There's no way she could know that..." so I replied that I didn't know.

Of course, she immediately reminded me that it was, indeed, ON-J's birthday as well. I laughed, and told her that I did already know that, and that I was a big fan...a member of the fan club and everything.

She just smiled, and we kept walking. She told me later that she thought I was just fibbing to her in an attempt to look good. But then we walked by my truck, and I pointed it out...along with the ON-J Fan Club stickers on the tailgate. Her eyes widened, and then she looked back at me with a big smile. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Catching Up

Well, Mom has finally gotten after me for not writing in my blog. So I’m back. Ta daa! Actually, there has been quite a bit going on, and that’s why I’m not writing much…too busy out doing the stuff to write about it. Let me ‘splain…no, let me sum up:

We took a team to the Austin AAU tournament…13 competitors won a total of 20 medals. We swept the beginner push-hands competition, and many of our first-time competitors won gold medals in several events. Jorge Peraza had to compete in the adult division instead of the 14-18 division, and against folks who were much more experienced in Chinese broadsword…and he got a silver medal out of the 6 competitors. Beth Boyd got first place in her first tournament, and so it went. I even won a silver medal in Shuai-Chiao.

Sifu Dave Pickens of Round Rock, TX was the tournament director, and he was great to work with. Thanks a ton, Sifu Dave!

I was amused to see all of our young tough teens next to the few others in the continuous sparring division…they all had MMA gear on (we had cleaned the blood off of it beforehand) as opposed to the usual foam-dipped gear. It was supposed to be light-contact, and I admonished my students repeatedly to that effect…but when they were fighting each other, the judges seemed content to let them fight a bit harder than expected. It was a blast! All of our guys really enjoyed the experience, and I enjoyed the fighting spirit they displayed on the mat.

It was kind of a long day for us…when we arrived at 7:30am to check in, we were told that the internal events were to start at 8am…that included push-hands! None of us had our gear or clothes with us, so we dashed back to the hotel, changed, grabbed our gear, and hauled back to the tournament…only to wait until around noon for our first competitions. After that, it was a long day of ‘hurry up and wait’, and we really didn’t feel that we could leave for fear of missing one of our events. Felix, bless him, offered to go get us some food late in the afternoon…I was actually still chewing my chicken sandwich as I walked up to meet my final opponent on the mat. After I got quickly thrown twice by Matt (the black belt from NY), we got out of there around 8:30pm. We showered and changed, and headed to Hooters to watch the UFC fights.

I must say that, seated there and watching all of my students talking excitedly about the days events, laughing loudly and hooting at the screen where the fights were in full swing, I felt proud…and humbled. All of these folks were part of our Jade Mountain family, and their dedication and spirit truly moved me. It was a wonderful feeling.

All in all, we had a great time, and we’re already planning ahead to Labor Day weekend in 2008. Look out, Austin…Jade Mountain’s coming atcha!

That was two weekends ago. This past weekend, my Sifu, Arthur D’Agostino, came out for a seminar and to do some training with me. It was a really productive weekend, and now we’re looking forward to our Instructor Training event in Florida next month. That should be a blast! I don’t know that I’m looking forward to the firewalk, though…once was enough for me.

And so things have been rocking along pretty well of late. My darling wife has lost 25 pounds since the start of the summer, and she’s feeling fine and sassy…and I think she’s trying to kill me with affection. Not that I mind, of course! She’s feeling fabulous, and so am I. Monkey’s having a good time in kindergarten, and although he still gets notes sent home every so often, he seems to be assimilating fairly well. He’s a happy kid, and if we can get him to quit bugging the other kids, he’ll be fine.

One particularly sad thing happened last week…one of our assistant instructors suddenly lost her 11 year old son. We were all shocked to hear that he’d passed away, and our hearts are breaking for Renee B. and her family. Her son, Jason Alen Mathew Nankivel Jr., will be greatly missed. At Renee’s request, we are accepting donations at Jade Mountain to be forwarded to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in JJ’s name.

So…that’s what’s going on around here. Oh, one final note: I went to the dentist today.

Weeks ago, I was eating my breakfast and suddenly I found my eggs to be somewhat crunchy. Thinking I had left shells in my eggs, I did some checking and discovered that one of my wisdom teeth had broken. Nothing hurt, but it was certainly eroding back there. Hmph. Fine. Didn’t need that chunk of tooth anyhow.

But then I was chewing gum during our seminars on Saturday, and suddenly found another, larger piece of debris…from a different tooth. I figured I’d better get my butt to the dentist. So I followed my darling wife’s advice, and went to hers.

“Trust me,” she said. “You’ll love it there.”

When I first entered, I found a nice young woman at the front desk. Cutie. As I filled out the necessary forms, she even offered me some ice water. When she brought it, I could see that there were blueberries and pieces of orange in the ice cubes. Cool! Another cutie came to the door and called my name. “Follow me, please.” Yes, ma’am!! She was the dental assistant, who got me situated in a comfy dentist’s chair, got the bib around my neck, and chatted about my reasons for being there. After the Doc came in and discussed my situation, we decided on some x-rays and fillings…and here comes a gorgeous x-ray tech to take pics of my teeth! My wife wasn’t kidding! And then came the accountant to discuss payment methods! Cutie! I mentioned that it must be a prerequisite for working there…being gorgeous and all.

I’m scheduled for a follow-up tomorrow. And a cleaning on Tuesday. And a root canal on Friday. And a follow-up on Monday after that. OK, not really…but I can say, without a doubt, that I will enjoy my next trips to the dentist.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Tournament, new couches.

We're all fired up for the upcoming AAU Chinese Kung Fu tournament this weekend! A big crew from JMMA will be heading out there for a ton of sparring, pushhands, and some Shuai Chiao. What's that, you ask? Shuai Chiao is a style of Kung Fu that incorporates a lot of throwing techniques. Many skills are similar to those in Judo, but other throws are unique to the style. I've seen a few SC competitions in the past, and they looked like fun, so we're planning to participate this time around using the rudimentary throws and counters we've picked up along the way (thanks Paul!).

And it really is a big crew! Let's see...Shaun, Mark, Kevin, Beth, Eric, Leonard, Charlie, George, JP, Jorge, Jonathan, myself...I know I'm leaving someone out, but that's a great start! We're planning to enjoy ourselves, win, lose, or draw, and have fun with the whole experience. Look out, Austin, here we come! And yes, we'll be doing our best to keep Mr. Lawler from racing down the street wearing nothing but his lime-green thong of victory.

In other news, we finally got new furniture! After over 5 years with no furniture to speak of, we finally headed out to Gallery Furniture in Houston to see what they had. We got a 100% leather sofa, loveseat, chair, and a huge Ottoman. The set wasn't the cheapest, and it wasn't the most pricey, but it was PERFECT for us! And we're just thrilled to be able to sit comfortably for a change. I discovered that I can fall asleep in the chair in at least 5 different positions, and I haven't even really tested the sofa or loveseat yet. I have some time before classes today...I think I'll try the sofa.

That's it for now. I know, it's nothing terribly witty this time...no amusing stories, no odd commentary...but I just got in from running my sprints, and I'm pooped, so I'll do better next time. Have a fabulous Thursday!

Monday, August 27, 2007

mice, kindergarten, Randy Couture, and blind bowling.

Finally....I ordered a new mouse. Not the kind that eat cheese (although my old mouse did somehow manage to chew up a few files here and there), but an optical mouse that lights up in red and blue while I work. Oooooh....aaaaah....it's way cool. My old one had a habit of totally wigging out on me every so often, clicking, double-clicking, and triple-clicking all over the screen, closing programs, opening programs, and generally being a huge pain in my butt. That's all over now, and I'm digging the new mouse.

It's the first day of school for both Connor and Christina. She's been busting her tail with 18-hour days all last week to prepare her room for today, and it appears to have paid off. She's stepped into her role as the lead teacher in her school's biggest classroom, and is doing wonderfully.

I just picked Connor up from his first day of kindergarten at a nearby elementary school...he appears to have had a blast. He's still wearing the same clothes that he had on this morning, and he still has his backpack, and both shoes. So far, so good. We're talking about having him ride the bus to save me an hour of waiting in line to pick him up, but honestly, I don't mind...the wait gives me time to make calls that I seldom have time to make.

Randy Couture...that's one tough old man. On Saturday night, he kicked the crap out of an opponent 16 years younger than he. Gabe Gonzaga is no joke (although he does closely resemble a large monkey), and after watching him knock the crap out of CroCop, I was concerned for Randy's life. But it turned out just fine, and Randy whupped Gonzaga. Go Randy!

Speaking of old men, I just spoke to my tough-as-nails father. The man's nearly 80, half-blind, one-handed, and has no butt at all (I got mine from Mom's side of the family...thanks, I think). However, until recently, he still kicked everyone's tail at just about everything. Golf, tennis, bowling, whatever. Since his eyesight isn't what it once was, he hasn't competed much lately, but Mom mentioned that I should ask him about their recent bowling outing.

"Bowling? But...Dad can't see worth crap!"
"I know...just ask him."

Fine. I called today, and here's the story:

"I heard you went bowling last week...how'd that go?"
"Well, you know I can't see the arrows on the lane anymore...but I still beat everybody. I never looked at the pins, noways."

Dad also mentioned that he had tried to let my brother borrow his bowling ball...but Dad's was too heavy. Go figure.

If I'm half as tough as that old bastard when I'm that old, I'll be doing just fine.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Jarboofie.

Yes, I know that it's currently 93 degrees out there. Running in that heat is rather foolish, I know that, too. However, my workout plan states that I'm supposed to run 10 100m sprints and 5 50m sprints today. Also foolish was our plan to stay up until nearly 2am watching Disturbia before Christina was to attempt an early departure for work a mere 4.5 hours later.

What this means is that I just got back from running my intervals, completely exhausted, drenched in sweat, and having trouble with my fine motor skills. Yes, I'm typing this with my face, and the backspaces are killing me. Jarboofie, Brian...jarboofie.

I have a full day ahead...cleaning house, visit to WalMart, a visit to the Alamo Drafthouse in Katy to address a bothersome issue. And I can't forget the massage scheduled at 3pm, no sir! I'm in dire need of some body work.

And that's about all that my sweatlogged brain can come up with for now. Oh, I did talk to my dear friend, Jason, about joining us for the Half Marathon in January...that promises to be a fun weekend! Anyhow, get back to what you were doing. And do some pushups or squats while you're at it.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Tourneys, trips, musings.

I've got a few things to report, such as the Houston International Martial Arts Tournament, my recent trip to Pharr, TX, and other stuff that I'm sure will come to me as I write. Let's get to it!

Last weekend, August 3-5, 3 members of JMMA competed in the Houston International Martial Arts Tourney in Stafford, TX. Amy J. competed in Women's Beg. Staff, and Women's Beg. Mantis, Mark D. competed in Men's Beg. Staff and Men's Beg. Mantis, and little Jillian B. competed in Girls Beg. Mantis (age 4-6). Gold medalists all! The main thing I wanted to see in their performances was authority in their movements, as well as decent technique, speed, and power, and I was not disappointed in the least. I was extremely proud of all of them.

We had one more fellow who competed the next day, Charlie B. He gave a great account of himself in the Continuous Sparring, and came away with a Silver medal. He's been working his tail off during the last couple of weeks to prepare, and now he's looking forward to our next tourney in Septemeber.

Sifu Flores rolled in with his crew on Friday morning at about 7am. That man is crazy! They left the Valley at around 1am Friday, and drove all night. I met them at my school, where they rested for a couple of hours before heading off to Chinatown to see the sights. I'm not sure how Israel survived without crashing, but I figure he was on his third or fourth wind by that time. When they returned, I showed them to my mother-in-law's house, where they were staying for the weekend. I reminded them that we had our meeting at 6pm, and we were going to go to Pho Mai afterwards for dinner.

6pm...no Israel. 6:30pm...no Israel. 7pm...we ended our meeting early and went to eat since our stomachs were all grumbling, and no Israel. They finally did show up at around 8pm, having passed out at Mom-in-law's. I think one of them had even fallen asleep on the floor. We had a rousing good time at Pho Mai's, so much so that I think we annoyed some of the other patrons (sorry about that!). Then we all said goodnight and planned to meet up again in the morning.

Saturday morning, a handful of us met up at IHOP for breakfast. Jokes were flying, as usual, and we had a grand old time. Afterwards, we met up at my school and practiced, joked, and waited for a few others to join us before heading to the tournament. We skipped the Master's Demo and waited to get there until they were checking everyone in at 1pm or so. Everything was running a bit late, so we found some seats and watched all the kung fu folks around us.

I had forgotten until recently how much I enjoyed these tournaments. This time was even more fun because we had such a huge crew from our school and Israel's school in attendance. It made the waiting bearable, even enjoyable.

Some of the highlights from the tournament:

Larry having Jonathan "demonstrate" a wristlock...that ended up by a pretty girl that Jonathan had his eye on.

Charlie not quite understanding where to stand for the sparring picture.

5 words that struck terror in all our hearts: Lime-Green Leopard-Print Thong.

Judo Dog conversation that kept turning up at odd times:
"You've got a gun."
"What? This?"
"Yeah. That!"
"Well, I'm not gonna use it."

That kid's drunken form...impressive!

The empty hand vs. spear form. Most impressive!

Jonathan B. fulfilling his Green Belt requirement by asking a pretty girl for her email address...and getting it.

There was much more fun and hilarity, but my memory banks are full.

It was a fabulous weekend, and I'm already looking forward to the next tourney in Austin.

More recently, I drove down to Pharr to do a little groundwork with Israel's students. His kung fu is quite strong, but they are still new to grappling and groundwork, so that's where I come in. I actually managed to leave on time for once, since I had packed the night before, and I enjoyed a leisurely drive down to South Texas. It was me, Kelly Clarkson, Cathy Dennis, and a few other gorgeous ladies who all want me to spank them. Again, it was a nice drive.

After watching Israel's Junior Class, we got right to work and I went over several fundamentals of grappling, including shrimping, reversals, getting up from the ground, and a couple of submissions. I rolled around with a couple of his tough guys afterwards, and it was fun. Then it was off to Taqueria del Tio for dinner. (He's everybody's uncle!)

The next day, Israel and I got up early and traded forms for a bit. I swear, he earned the nickname Flash Drive this weekend...he may be young, but his mind is like a hard drive...it stores friggin' everything! I was happy to be able to help him with a few things, and he did the same for me. Lunch quickly followed, and then I was on my way home. Honestly, it was the most relaxing trip I've taken down there, and I look forward to doing it again soon. And on the way back, it was me and the girls again!

Today, I'm back on track, eating right and working out. I've decided to start my days with a jog to the park and some tai chi at least three times a week. I feel a need to be more active and practice my kung fu more often so that I keep those routines in order, in addition to the other training I'm already doing.

While I was at the park, sitting on one of the picnic tables and enjoying a quiet moment, I watched a navy blue van slowly circle a far parking lot, then pull out into the main drive of the park, drive to one end, turn around, and go back to the parking lot. Suspicious. I watched it for awhile, wondering what mischeif was afoot, and then I noticed that a young teenager was behind the wheel and a larger person was in the passenger seat. I also noticed that turn signals were used at every change of direction in the totally empty parking lot. This was nothing suspicious...it was a driving lesson! A huge grin split my face when I realized what was going on, and I remembered my Mom taking me to the Brazoria County Fairgrounds in her blue Mustang. A girl that I had a crush on happened to live across the street, and I recall how thrilled I was to be driving, and how I hoped that she might peek out a window and see me. Wow, I hadn't thought of that in a very, very long while.

I looked down at my hands then, and I saw the rough callouses that my recent training had provided me. Over the years, they had become calloused, then smoothed out as my training had changed...calloused again...then smooth again. I wondered how many times that process had occurred. I thought about my nearly 40 years on earth and how much I had experienced, and how much I have not. It seemed like an awfully long time.

As I watched that 15 or 16 year old kid carefully driving that van around, I realized that I can still feel those same emotions of excitement, anticipation, hope, and optimism as I did back then. I train almost every day. I watch what I eat, I'm healthy as a horse, I love my job, and I have a fabulous, wonderful family. Life is good...but it's not even close to being over! There are things to do, places to go, books to read, movies to see, skills to learn....wow!

The clear blue sky spread out above me, beautiful, and I felt ridiculously happy to be me. I'm loving my life today.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Quick Update...tourneys and such.

The trip to Ft. Worth and Plano last weekend (July 20-22) was really great! I got to visit with the one and only Brian Briscoe (seldom known as Alice these days due to an increase in butt-kicking ability), I enjoyed a workout at his Krav Maga school, we had a blast at the Taiji Legacy tourney in Plano...fun, fun, fun!

I've noticed that I tend to put off blogging because I want to write a really great entry each time. However, that usually means that weeks go by without an update, and they're really not that great anyway. So I'll be brief.

Amy won 2 gold medals, Renee won 3 gold as well. We had a bit of a moment before Amy's staff competition when her staff was judged 'too thin', even though the woman next to her had a slender staff as well, and wasn't told this. I ran out to see Nelson of Beijing Imports, and he only had a handful of sticks available, none suitable. "Oh, wait, maybe this one..." he walked over to a corner and took his coat off of a stick that ended up being perfect, if a bit thick. He saved the day! The new staff was so huge that we immediately dubbed it "The Log", and Amy won her second gold medal with it. Yay!

I watched some of the Shuai-Jiao events while I was there, and with all due respect, I just wasn't all that impressed. I've had training in Judo and BJJ, and I've been thrown by Theo (Godzilla in human form), and watching these guys just wasn't what I had hoped it would be. I thought about entering this competition at the upcoming tourney, but I have several students competing, and I don't want to miss any of their events...my responsibility is to them, not to seeing if I can beat the Shuai-Jiao guys at their own game. However, I might hang around and see if I can have a friendly bout or two. ;-)

The san shou fights were lots of fun to watch, and Westside's guys all took gold. The importance of conditioning was highlighted in almost every match, and there was one guy who apparently thought he was Jet Li, based on the stances he was using. He lost the fight...go figure.

The Houston tourney is fast approaching, and I'm looking forward to visits from Sifu Israel Flores from Pharr, Tx and the incomparable Larry Escher from Corpus Christi, and man, we're going to have a grand old time!!

There's other stuff, but I'll post more tomorrow. Have a good night.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Flip that House, Plano, and Fun with Burpees

It's Sunday night, and my darling wife is on an overnight babysitting gig for a friend. She just returned a week ago from her 'Project Boot Camp', and just as I'd gotten used to having her around again, she's gone. (SIGH) Ah, well. Her absence has left me with some time on my hands tonight...what to do, what to do?

Our home has basically been somewhat shabby ever since we moved in. It was simple to start with, and we kept it that way, except that we managed to fill every nook and cranny with STUFF. Some of it is important stuff, and lots of it is actually junk. The problem is that it takes a moment or two of examination of each item to determine which is which, and we just haven't made the time to do that.

Since my darling wife has been away, she's been watching Flip That House, a show that depicts folks who buy a run-down home, then rapidly fix it up, and sell it for a profit. I know...it sounds way easier than it actually is. She's not interested in flipping houses, but she IS interested in watching all the renovations that turn formerly shabby houses into fabulous little homes. And so our home's shabby days appear to be numbered. She's fired up, and ready to get started with some big changes just as soon as her paycheck starts coming in.

Since she's gone for tonight, I decided to start straightening up the garage. The garage used to be kept extremely clean, because I taught all of my students in there. No laundry all over the floor, no junk, no boxes, no (exactly what is that thing?) in the corner. However, the day I opened my school, I recall chucking my first piece of junk into the garage with the intention of 'taking care of it later'. My friends, later is here!

I figure I'll get the whole thing cleaned out and ready for whatever my wife has planned by around...say...November. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it'll take far longer than that to tame the whole house. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, a couple of my students are competing this weekend at the Taiji Legacy tournament in Plano. I'm really looking forward to it for many reasons, one of which is that I get to spend the weekend with my dear friend Brian. There will probably be pho and Tex-Mex somewhere along the way, so I'm thrilled.

One last comment...it rained again today, so I decided not to do my interval sprints outdoors, and opted for the 100 Burpee Challenge as a replacement. My first go at the 100 B's took me 7 minutes 20 seconds a couple of weeks ago. The next time, I must have been inspired, 'cause it only took me 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Today, I just didn't bring my A-game...7 minutes and 9 seconds. Dang. That's OK, I'll do it again soon.

Oh, did I mention that we now have tires and a sledgehammer at my school? Great for stress relief, I tell you!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Sean Sherk is one tough dude...

I caught the show on Sean Sherk a few days back, and was duly impressed. That is one tough little man! Here's a vid of his 'Caveman Training'. Enjoy!

Sean Sherk Vid

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

The cards were evil, I tell you!!!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I'm proud to be an American...just love it here. It's not perfect, but I feel extremely fortunate to be here, and I'm grateful to live in such a free society. Ok, that's what I have to say about that. :-)

It seems that I'm always working out while doing laundry. It takes our ancient dryer quite awhile to finish a load, so I generally have to wait around before I can switch things around. Apparently, this is prime workout time for me.

My agenda originally included a bunch of intervals on the track, but it's been raining for days, and I don't enjoy doing battle with mosquitos the size of rats, so I stayed indoors. Instead, I decided to try the Deck of Cards workout. Here's how it goes...

Each card requires a set of burpees (red cards) or a set of pushups (black cards), face cards count as 10, and aces count as 11. If you pull a 9 of hearts, then you're doing 9 burpees. Ace of spades, and it's 11 pushups. The goal is to get through the deck as fast as possible. My goal for today was to survive the entire deck without killing myself. I cleared a space among the piles of laundry, placed the cards close by and got to work.

I now hate the cards. All of them. They all suck, and I should just set them all on fire. But I won't...I don't want them to think that they've beaten me.

I completed the entire workout, yes I did. And now, I'm slack-jawed with exhaustion. See, when I started, I didn't realize that I was about to do 190 burpees and 190 pushups in all.

In other news, my darling wife will be moving home soon! She's nearing the end of her Project Boot Camp (and she misses us greatly), and should be returning home by the end of the week. This is good news, because I've been missing her as well, and so has the Monkey. She's made great progress in her quest to improve her health and fitness, and we plan to continue supporting her training once she returns home.

And that's about all I have the strength to type for now. Enjoy the holiday!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Trip, lots o' burpees

Just got back from a pretty fabulous weekend up near Greenville, TX. I haven't seen Dad's side of the family for nearly 10 years, and it was absolutely wonderful to see them again. It was an easy trip up there, except that our little Monkey had to pee just about every mile or so, and we wanted to encourage him to 'listen to his body', so we took waaaaaay longer to get there than is usually required. Even so, it was a pleasant trip up, an easy ride back, and lots of laughter and family fun in between.

Ever thrown a cast net? I have, but it was many, many years ago. One of the family projects during our trip involved heading out to Uncle John's pond to catch some catfish. These were to be relocated into Aunt Sissy's pond. Seems like everyone has a pond out there. After a mud-drenched hike to get to the first pond (and taking time to push Uncle John's golf cart through the mud near the river) we threw food on the water in the hopes of attracting the huge fish. They handed me a cast net and told me to get to work.

Apparently, these fish are fairly smart. The silhouette of a dude on shore with a cast net in hand did nothing to reassure them, and they studiously ignored us for the rest of the day. I managed a few decent casts, but came up with nothing but some small fish that we threw back. Next time, I'm going in with a wetsuit, snorkel, and a ballpeen hammer, and I'm coming out with some danged fish.

Family time always means funny stories, and I've heard most of my Dad's tales many times. I usually know the end of them before he gets ten words into the story. But I still find them hilarious, and occasionally have to translate them for my wife, who can't understand him once he starts laughing at his own humor. The old man has a great sense of comedic timing, even if he doesn't know it.

He mentioned the last trip to Texas in which he drove my late Granny to see her family. Apparently, there was an issue with the opening of a package of brownies during the drive, and PING! one of his eyeteeth popped out of his dentures. He said he looked for it in the floorboards, but never found it. He went to the dentist in Angleton soon after, and the dentist asked Dad about the missing tooth.

"So, do you have the tooth, Mr. McClendon?"

"Naw."

"Any idea where it might be?"

"I think it's in the defroster somewhere."

And for some reason, that was the funniest thing I'd heard in quite awhile. I'm still chuckling about it.

Hats off to Mom for driving them all the way down from Indiana. After a 4 hour delay due to some car trouble, and another 1.5 hour delay because of construction, Mom and Dad came easing down the road to Aunt Sissy's at about 12:30am Saturday night. They'd been on the road for over 24 hours, and poor Mom had been pouring water on her head to stay awake for the last few hundred miles. They were asleep almost before they made it down the hall to their room, but they were safe and sound.

Anyway, it was a great visit, and I'll probably write more about it later. I was really wonderful to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins after being away so long.

And now, one last little pat on the back for me...

It was late Friday night, and I knew I wasn't getting another workout in until today because of the trip. I was waiting for the laundry to finish drying so I could switch loads, and I decided to do a quick 100 burpees to pass the time. My best time so far had been 7:20.

Amazingly, I did them in 6:20, and yes, I did count them correctly. I sounded very much like a wheezing hippo that needed to be put out of its misery, but other than that, I was quite pleased with my performance. Next time, I'm shooting for 6 minutes.

Monday, June 04, 2007

510 Squats

Oh, the humanity!

In my junior class, I challenged the kids to a contest...a prize will be awarded to the student who does the most pushups and squats. I issued this challenge a month ago, and reminded everyone during each class. Last Thursday, I started the testing. To my surprise, the first kid did 200 squats. Next kid, 212 squats. Next, 224 squats. Next, 402. Yes, that's four hundred and two.

Wow.

I had no idea that the kids were capable of that much. Of course, they're smaller than we are. They use less energy to move less mass around. And they are filled with the boundless energy of youth, so I should have been better prepared for these results, but I was astounded.

You see, my personal record was only 268, and that was several years ago.

Of course, I decided to go home that night, and see what I could do. I've been training pretty consistently lately, so I warned my wife that I was going to do some squats and then would be useless for the rest of the day.

100. No problem. Just starting to feel it.
150. OK, what was I thinking? No, no, don't quit... just keep going.
225. Wow, I'm getting close to my old record! But why can't I feel my feet?
275. Yay! Beat my old record! But I've still got a ways to go.
350. Endorphins are supposed to kick in sometime, right? Right?
400. Only a few more to beat my juniors record. I wonder how many more I can do? And who let those purple elephants in here?
450. I think I'm dying. But I'm so close to the fabled 500 squats, I can't quite now! Gotta keep going...
500. Holy crap! I did it! I think I can bust out 10 more, just to be safe!

Now, do recall that I'm in fairly good shape. I'm not superhuman (that's painfully obvious), but my job as a martial arts instructor keeps me very active, and I enjoy my training. But I will tell you that my legs have been useless since last Thursday night. That means Friday. Saturday. And Sunday. Useless. Oh, I could walk, I mean, more or less. But I admit to being a somewhat comical sight this past weekend. The funniest thing about having legs that are completely shot is that you can be standing perfectly well and then have them give out from under you for no reason whatsoever, and then you look like a buffoon while you try to catch yourself.

Usually, I schedule a massage after this sort of thing, but it's been busy, so I just suffered through it. I worked out again today, and I'm starting to feel normal. Well, kind of. Here's what I did:

12 burpees
24 pushups
36 squats
400 meter 'run'.
repeat two more times.

Usually, I'll do this workout with 4 sets instead of three, but it was all I could do to hustle my big bodonky around the track each time with my legs still feeling a bit shot. That first run was funny, let me tell you! I looked like a drunken hippo that got Tasered in the butt, but I got around. That 400 meter interval should be a full-out sprint, but at this point, a funky shuffle is about all I can muster. I'll keep working at it.

Anyway, I should resume regular workouts this week, and since Monkey is now in summer Montessori school, I can beef up my training by going to the track, the practice field, or even work the wall with my lacrosse stick. I'm not planning to compete any time soon, but I like to be in good shape.

So it's back to the full training grid for me. Forms, sparring, taiji, meditation, grappling, the whole bit. I know it seems an odd blend, but it works for me.

And I still don't know who's going to win that contest. On Friday, one of the kids did 503 squats. I think he's the frontrunner at the moment!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Just Checking In

It's been awhile since I've posted, so I'll be brief in an attempt to catch everyone (both of you) up on what's going on.

Congrats to my Mom!!! Here's an article on her...she won Nurse of the Year out of 15,000 other nurses. Way to go, Mom! I'm really proud of her.

My darling wife has survived her first year as a lead teacher. I'm glad to see her finish up...starting in August, she's got a fabulous job at a fabulous school here in Katy, and she's really looking forward to not driving an hour and a half each way to work. And I'm looking forward to seeing her a bit more often. I get lonely without her around...(sniff).

Lacrosse season is over. At least I get to watch all the college semifinal and final games this weekend. I'm not much of a couch potato, but I do love to watch me some lacrosse. Watch out next year, guys...I'm already practicing! I plan to earn the nickname of 'the Ninja Hitman' or something of that nature. Wish me luck!

After many, many months, I've finally updated our website www.jademountain.org . Take a look, and tell me what you think! I'm still working on it, and some pages aren't up yet, but I should have pages for everything up in a week or so.

In other news, I've decided to start posting my workouts occasionally in an attempt to keep myself honest. I figure I'd better be doing something impressive, if I'm going to actually post it. Here's what I did today:

1oo Burpees. 8 sets of pushups. 8 sets of squats. 8 sets of ab exercises.

I should explain...my eight sets involve doing as many reps as possible of an exercises for 20 seconds, and then resting for 10 seconds, and then doing another set, and so on. The 100 burpees were absolutely awful, but I enjoy. Kind of. What's a burpee? Here's a clip...by the way, it's not me in the vid.

Class time approaches, so I'd better be off. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Lacrosse, hits, and stuff.

Lacrosse season is over for my team, Bayou City Lacrosse Club, and I’m already looking forward to next year. The GCLA playoffs were tons of fun, and although we could have used a few more bodies out there, we played pretty well. Metro beat us in our first game on Saturday, and then we got beat by Southside in the consolation game. We lost a couple of players during the second game for various reasons, so we had to play nearly ‘Ironman’ for the whole time. Let me tell you, that’s not quite as easy now as it was when I was in my 20’s!

I felt pretty good about my performance overall. I scooped the ball well, made decent passes, and even managed to score a goal in the second game. Oh, did I mention that I tried to hit nearly everyone on the field? And I almost succeeded!

Don’t get me wrong…I know that it’s not a good thing to ALWAYS look for the hit. However, I’ve been working hard all season, increasing my speed and endurance, improving my stick skills, and I’ve been applying myself much more on defense in recent weeks. And so I became a wrecking machine of sorts this weekend. I’m not sure just how many solid hits I threw out there on Saturday, but it felt gooooooood! I think I put 6 or 7 folks on their backs at one point or another, including one player with whom I played at TX A&M. He’s awesome…fast, great stick skills, and a fabulous dodger, but I got lucky and caught him just right while he was going for a ground ball. BOOM. I’m betting that won’t happen again! Oh, one other poor fellow had to leave the game after I hit him. It was a perfectly clean hit, and I felt like Conan the Barbarian after watching that guy fly up in the air and land flat on his back. I do hope he's OK.

And so, after being off the field for several years, it seems that I have regained some of my old confidence and skill. Woo hoooo!!! It was a really great feeling to have the guys pat me on the back as I’d come off the field, and saying ‘Wow, great hit!’ ‘Geez, we should call you SifuNinja!’ and the like. One fellow mentioned that I’d done a complete 180° from the beginning of the season. I thought about that comment, and realized that I had done just that.

When I first stepped on the field this year, I was still thinking thoughts like “Man, I hope I don’t drop the ball out there!” and “Geez, where the heck am I supposed to be?!” I was tentative and a bit nervous on offense, and didn’t really get aggressive when going after the ground balls. I messed up on the field far more than I did well. But I focused on improving where I could…sprint drills and burpee workouts helped me gain some confidence in being able to run fast and hard out there, and scoop drills helped me get comfortable in going for the ground balls. I got a cheap stick that worked a ton better than my old one, and that helped lots. As my stamina and speed improved, I noticed that my defense improved with it, because I could keep myself in position much better than before. And since I was in good position, I starting hitting folks when the time was right. And it worked! By the time I stepped on the field on Saturday, all those nagging doubts had disappeared. I was there to tear…them…up, and I couldn’t wait for the whistle to blow.

I am not a superior lacrosse player. Far from it. I’d like to think that I’m a wee bit above average, but that may be wishful thinking. Every team has folks that their opponents keep their eyes on. “Hey, watch number 2…he’s got a killer shot!” We all remind each other at the start of each game about which players we need to be cautious. I want to be one of those guys next year. I want to hear those other players saying, “Hey, watch out for number 13…he’s fast, he’s a shooter, and he’ll put you on your ass!”

I've got several months to prepare for next season...I’ll keep you posted. ;-)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Good, Bad, and Painful.

Well, interesting things happening here. I’ve been approached by a local business owner who runs an after-school pickup program and martial arts school that has a really nice location near my home. He’s interested in pulling out of that location, and it’s possible that I might be the one to take over. There’s at least one other instructor they are leaning towards for this project, so I won’t be crying if it’s not me, but it has been quite exciting to think about expanding the school and moving. I’ll keep you posted.

In other news, my dear old Dad may have had a minor stroke. Suddenly hit with acute dizziness, projectile vomiting, and the like, Mom took him to the ER. Once there, he lay on a gurney for a couple of hours before deciding that he’d had about enough of that. Tough old coot, that one. He’s home now, recuperating just fine. Last I heard, he was fixing the toilet or something.

You know, I realize that ER’s are busy places. I know that the doctors are often exhausted, and are doing their best to help everyone as best they can. My mom was an ER nurse for years, so I know a little something about it. However, I still get pissed when my 79 year old father has a stroke and no one can find the time to help him. I think the system should be changed somehow, but I admit to having little idea as to how to do it. I do know that it’s not a good idea to run a short-staffed ER with doctors running on no sleep. That’s always been a recipe for disaster. Anyway, he’s apparently OK, no thanks to the ER.

Played another lacrosse game on Sunday, and did fairly well defensively. The other team was a bunch of young, fast guns from Corpus Christi, and they liked to hit. Fine by me! I enjoyed getting in there and knocking them around here and there, but I should have focused on my offense a bit more. I was happy to block a shot early on in the game, although now I have a deep bruise on my thigh. Hey, at least that’s one shot that didn’t score!

I don’t know if I’ll make the next game, but I may try. I’ll be in Pharr for the weekend doing some training with Israel and our Sifu, Arthur D’Agostino. He leaves on Saturday night, so I may hustle home in time for the game on Sunday afternoon.

We just started our Assistant Instructor training program at JMMA, and I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the response. This will be the first time that I’ve gone away for training that all the classes will be held in my absence. Yay! Special thanks to those who have stepped up to become a bigger part of our school.

That’s about it. I’m thinking lunch should be happening about now. Later.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Back on Track

Honestly, I’d totally forgotten it was St. Patrick’s Day until I was walking around Wal-Mart and wondered why everyone was all greened up. Someone passed me with green hair, and I finally figured it out. What a week!

After my leg injury I spent all of last weekend hobbling around, and got almost no training done when my Sifu came to town. On that Friday, we did a little bit of tai chi, and he said that at least it looked better than it had looked last time he saw me perform that set. Not exactly high praise, but better than ‘wow, that sucks.’ My grimaces gave me away, however, and he spent a few minutes working on my calf before saying that, yes, it’s jacked up, and that our training time was pretty much over for the weekend. I had a choice to either rest it and allow it to recover or work on it, and have it really mess up. So, I sat on my duff during the entire fan seminar and allowed my friend and colleague Sifu Israel Flores to assist Art Laoshi while they taught my students the fan form. Argh. Very frustrating, that was. There was still a lot of good in the weekend, though. We did all manage to go see the movie ‘300’. Twice! It was even better the second time. Awesome, awesome show. Worth the wait. And we did some push hands work that will be quite helpful in addition to the other networking, business plans, and goal setting we did. Which reminds me, I need to get to work on our organizational mission statement ASAP.

So all of last week was spent with no lower body workouts. That was hard to take, especially since I’ve been working out far more consistently of late. I did work on some pushups, ab stuff, and pull-ups, but very little actual martial arts stuff that would inevitably stress my injured calf. I finally met up with Amy last Wednesday for a memorable and painful session, and then continued to stay off of it for the next couple of days. Then came Saturday, which was my first chance to really test my leg at one of our lacrosse games. I showed up late since I couldn’t leave until my classes were done, and I had trouble finding the field. I managed to roll into the parking lot just before halftime, so I was ready to start the second half.

I did worry about the leg…I mean, I need to be able to walk around to teach effectively, and pulling it on the lacrosse field would not be a good idea. I jogged around on it, did some juke moves and sideways shuffles, and everything felt pretty much like it always had. And it stayed that way throughout the rest of the game. My sprint wasn’t what it was a few weeks ago, but I did well overall. I felt good about a few spearing checks that made the opposing midfielders drop the ball a couple of times. My defense was good, but I still need some work on my offense. Our next game is this Sunday, so I plan to be ready to give ‘em hell out there.

Monkey is now with me during the daytime. He was having some trouble assimilating in his classroom at his last school, and we decided to pull him out for awhile. It’s been a great bonding time for us, and I’ve enjoyed it, although I’m still getting used to including him in all of my plans. I used to be able to get out and run the streets as part of my training, but now I’ll have to run on the treadmill at the Y so he can have a place to play nearby. No problem. Minor adjustments, really.

So all is well, life is good, and I’m looking forward to the week. Train hard, everyone. And maybe have some fun while you’re at it.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Aaahhhhh, CRAP!!!

Dang it!!! I decided to go for a timed run this morning, just to see if I’ve made any progress in that area. I’ve been running quite a bit lately, so I was hoping to see some improvement. I used to run 2 miles in about 13 minutes, so I decided to run just one and see if I could keep it under 7 minutes today. Well, I should have known something was up when my mp3 player suddenly went out as I started my run. Dang. I kept going, thinking that I was used to running without musical assistance anyway. My breathing became labored and my legs started to get a bit heavy as I went. Traces of the old asthma were still around. Double dang. I continued on my course, settled into a pace I could handle, and hoped for the best. As I turned down the last, long straightway that leads back to my house, I felt like I’d make it just fine. I refused to look at my watch out of principle, and kept going. With maybe 4 blocks to go, POP! goes something in my left calf. I had an instant of ‘DANG IT!’ before it started to hurt.

I’ve got it all strapped down now, with Nikken supermini magnets applied to the affected area. I’m hoping against hope for a cancellation at precisely 3:30pm today at Massage Envy because that’s the only time this weekend I can make it in for therapeutic massage.

Ah, well. Working out and being a martial artist brings dents and dings. It’ll be fine before too long, and I’ll add it to the list of long-forgotten injuries that have since healed up completely. I’m just complaining because I can.

Busted the Bag and Dave Ramsey

It’s been a pretty decent week so far. Workouts have been good, wife is feeling much better, Monkey’s fine…all’s well. I was in my school earlier this week and have added bagwork back into my workout routine. I must say that tracking my workouts has made a huge difference, and I’m feeling better than ever at this point. I’ve been truly inspired since my last Shang Wu Association meeting, and I’ve seen dramatic improvement in my productivity in all areas of my life. I’m managing my time better, my business is improving, I’m keeping up with household chores better, and I’m in the process of using Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover to get a handle on our cash flow issues. More on that later.

But first, a word on Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia. GO RANDY!!! What a fight! We had a group at my home watching the UFC last weekend, and WOW…there were some good fights on. Rich Franklin is back on the winning track, as is Matt Hughes, but the fight of the night was Randy vs Tim. With his first punch, Randy put Tim on the mat! Is was all downhill from there for the bigger man as Randy proceeded to bully and manhandle him for the rest of the fight. Tim’s left eye resembled an eggplant by night’s end. Now, THAT was a FIGHT!

OK, back to the money stuff. You know, it really is amazing to me that we’re not taught more about how to handle our money. My Mom and Dad are actually pretty solid in that area, but I know they’ve had their share of tough times and used to carry far more debt than they probably should have. Like most of us. And I didn’t really learn that much about handling money at school or at home. It’s odd, but our culture is not about doing the right things to build true wealth…it’s usually about ‘Bigger, better, faster, more…’ and keeping up with the Joneses.

Now that I’m running my own business, I really feel like I need to do more than that. I need to provide for my family in a much more concrete and reliable way. That means no debt, making and using a budget, and slowly building a financial foundation that will allow us to build a new school on our own land, buy a house with some land around it, send Monkey to the Rodeo Clown school of his choice, and retire well.

DR’s plan isn’t rocket science. It’s just about being disciplined, diligent, and patient. Here’s a nutshell version:

1. Get current with your bills. You’ll have to make an honest, detailed budget. Ouch.
2. Put away $1000 for your Emergency Fund.
3. Use the Debt Snowball concept to eliminate your outstanding debt.
4. Finish your Emergency Fund (3 – 6 months of living expenses).
5. Get busy putting money away for retirement!

I was inspired to look over this material last year by a dear friend who has used it to become totally debt free and financially SOLID. I admire him greatly, and started to work with this concept. For one reason or another (OK, I just messed it up and didn’t follow through with it), it didn’t work that well for me at the time. Well, as the samurai said, ‘Fall down 7 times, get up 8.’ So I’m attacking this plan again with renewed vigor. For more info, you can hit www.daveramsey.com.

In other news, I had a big macho moment this week…I kicked one of my school punching bags hard enough to bust it open. I didn’t realize what I had done at first, but I was working front kicks, and after a couple of shots, the bag rotated around so I could see the opposite side…it had split open like a wide grin back there. Don’t worry…I’m not getting a big head about it. Every student in my school has beaten the crap out of that bag, and I just happened to catch it the right way, I guess. Even so, it did make me chuckle at myself.

My Sifu and a fellow instructor are coming to town tomorrow, so we’re planning to get a ton of work done. Physical training, goal setting, business planning, as well as the fun camaraderie that we share, are all things that I really enjoy when we meet. Sifu is doing a fan seminar this weekend, in addition to the intensive training that Izzy and I will receive. I don’t know what the ‘theme’ for the weekend will be, but I’ll be sure and jot it down. On Sunday, we’re planning a group trip to watch the movie 300, and there’s a chance that I might have a lacrosse game right afterwards. Man, I feel badly for the opposing team members…I’m most likely going to be HUGELY fired up from the movie, and I’m gonna hit some folks!

OK, I’ve got work to do! More later!

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

50 Questions

1. Height?
5'-8 1/4"

2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
Do I look that stupid?

3. Do you own a gun?
yes, one pistol-grip shotgun. DO NOT break into my house.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
No, not at all.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
Eyeech! Well, maybe if it’s covered in chili and cheese and onions.

7. What's your favorite Christmas song?
Little Drummer Boy…play that thing like you mean it!

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Water. Orange Juice. An occasional Monster KHAOS.

9. Can you do push ups?
Duh. It’s part of my job.

10. Is your bathroom clean?
Um…define ‘clean’.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
My wedding band. I hardly wear it, but I adore it.

12. Do you like painkillers?
Only if I have a killer headache.

13. Oregon or Maine?
Do what now?

14. Do you have A.D.D.?
I don’t think so….hey, look at the kitty!

15. Whats your favorite State?
Texas!

16. Middle Name?
Whitsitt. And stop that laughing.

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
Man, I should have started my housework two hours ago!
I need to wash the car so I can sell it.
Can’t wait to work out today!

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought?
Franklin Planner refill, a workout book, and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu book.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:
Water, Orange Juice, and the occasional Monster.

20. Favorite food?
Usually, it’s pho. But I’m a bit uncertain today. I’ll get back to you.

21. Favorite way to unwind?
Honestly, I love conking out on the couch after a horrific workout. Not much unwinding there, just instant oblivion.

22. Current worry?
No worries…just opportunities for growth.

23. Current hate?
The huge charge for “Operating Costs” for my lease space.

24. Favorite place to be?
Anywhere with my wife and son, but also on the lacrosse field in springtime.

25. How did you bring in the New Year?
Dancing with family at ‘The Katy House’

26. Where would you like to go?
Scotland…och!

27. Do you own slippers?
Yowza.

28. What shirt are you wearing?
gray tshirt

29. Do you tan or burn?
Tan like a Mexican, baby. Oh wait…I’m part Mexican! That explains it!

30. Favorite color(s)?
Green, blue, purple.

31. Would you be a pirate?
Only if I could be a nice pirate.

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
Tons of songs! None of them terribly well.

34. What did you fear that was going to get you at night as a child?
The IRS.35.

What's in your pockets right now?
Amazingly, nothing.

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
Shoot, I laugh at almost everything…let’s see…someone said something really funny in class last night, and I actually had to sit down, but I don’t recall what it was.

37. Best bed sheets?
Those t-shirt sheets are awesome!

38.Worst injury you've ever had?
Broken toes, stretched tendons in my knees.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
Two, but only one is in use.

41. Who is your loudest friend?
Dunno.

42. Who is your most silent friend?
Again, dunno.

43. Does someone have a crush on you?
If so, I’m in the dark about it.

44. Do u wish on shooting stars?
Every single time.

45. What is your favorite book?
Far too many to list. Dennis L. McKiernan is always a favorite author, as is David Gemmell, Simon R. Green, and Stephen R. Donaldson.

47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding?
We made a CD with the themes from Braveheart and Rob Roy. Cool!

48. What song do you want played at your funeral?
Smack My Bitch Up by Prodigy. No, that’s a joke. How about “If I Only Had a Brain” by Harry Connick Junior? That’s more like me.

49. What were you doing @ 12 AM last night?
Sleeping.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
What?! Morning? Oh, I hope my darling wife’s knee is feeling better!

Monday, February 26, 2007

Hotel Indigo, Beat by the Maroon Team

It was a great weekend with a bit of a crappy ending. Every so often, my darling bride and I disappear for a little weekend getaway. Her wonderful sister and brother-in-law are nice enough to watch our Monkey while we’re away…at this point, we owe them a ton of babysitting when they have their own kids, and we’ll be happy to do it. We made reservations at Hotel Indigo (we’ve never been there) and after a pretty cool Graduation ceremony at my school, we were off!

The place was pretty different from many of the other hotels we’ve visited. The colors were green, blue, and purple, and it had the feel of a hotel on the beach, in spite of the fact that it was nestled firmly behind the Galleria. And the elevators were BIG. We’ve been to several hotels in Houston, and honestly, they all seem alike to me. But this one stood out. Now, the Room Service menu was crappy, and we had to move out of our first room because the A/C didn’t work, but aside from that, it was a pretty sweet place. They had really big showers. Cool. We slept a lot, visited House of Pies for breakfast and dinner, wandered around Barnes and Noble…generally, just enjoyed our time together. There was some necking, but I’m not going to get into that here.

So Sunday rolls around, and we pack up, go get the Monkey, and head home. Thankfully, I had cleaned up the house before we left so that we wouldn’t come home to a mess, and I had time to bring in our stuff before changing clothes to play lacrosse. The weather was beautiful…perfect lacrosse weather. Blue skies, cool breezes, niiiiiiiice. The opposing team had what our coach refers to as ‘a bunch of young flatbellies’. Yes, the other team did seem a bit young by our standards. Many of them were just barely out of high school, while our youngest guy is 31. We also had heard that this was literally the second game ever for some of these guys. We looked forward to a win.

We started out well, leading by a couple of points at the half, but we had started to notice something…our shots were starting to bounce off the goalie with alarming regularity. I mean, the little guy started heaving himself in front of our shots, and they just stopped going in the goal. Dang. Sure, the other team had a ton of guys, and they were running all over the field with their youthful exuberance, but we handled the ball better, and should have been able to run the score up a bit. Not so, according to the maroon goalie. He had come out there to stop our shots, and was taking his job seriously.

Personally, I was feeling pretty good. I had already given permission to my teammates to rag me if I scooped one-handed (a sure way to get the ball knocked out of your stick because you’re too damn lazy to stoop over and pick it up safely) and so I was coming up with ground balls here and there. And I was hitting well. I recall going for a loose ball and seeing one of their guys coming in at the same time. “I got man!” BANG. Down he went. Good for me! Another time, I played defense on #14, and when I came off the field, someone asked me if he had insulted my mother. So it was a good day for me. I did take one lousy shot and totally missed a pass that I was apparently supposed to catch and immediately shoot, but I’ll do better on offense next time.

In the end, we lost. We just couldn’t make a goal to save our lives, in spite of the vast number of shots we took. They pressured us just enough, and got enough trash goals to beat us. Argh. I hate being their first win. Ah, well. Hopefully, we’ll do better next time.

And so, I’m preparing for another fabulous day of workouts, classes, and housework. Have fun, everyone.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

300 Spartans and Colon Blow

Ah, beautiful weather again! Spring has apparently arrived, bringing pretty, blooming flowers, the chirping of birds in the air, beautiful blue skies…and loads of horse pucky. I had decided to go run some sprints this morning at my usual park, but when I got there, I noticed that there were tons of horse trailers parked in every possible spot. I didn’t see any horses, but I did notice that the road that runs down the middle of the park (which is usually an asphalt black color) had taken on a very decidedly brownish tint. And it smelled. I turned around and left immediately, trying to stay upwind of the gathering as I went. I’ve been told that the trailride is planned for this weekend, and I have apparently discovered it’s starting line.

So what else is new? Well, we’ve been enjoying a combination of frosted mini-wheats and raisin bran in the mornings. And let me tell you, that stuff should just be nicknamed ‘Colon Blow’. Wow. My pipes have never been so clean. Our little Monkey has been taking piano lessons from our lovely sis-in-law, and has been doing fairly well. When he’s not climbing the walls, that is.

My darling wife has been sick, I’m sad to say. This past weekend was a bit of a mess. She rallied on Saturday afternoon enough for us all to go see Bridge to Terabithia after my lacrosse game that day, but it was downhill from there. Poor thing spent Sunday on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket. No sleep was had by anyone that night, so Monday was a haze of sleep-deprived grogginess and crankiness. She is feeling better now, and I’m extremely grateful to Dr. A. for helping her out. Things are much happier in the household at this point.

Workouts have been going well. Taiji, kung fu, strength training, all going just fine, thanks. I’ve decided that King Leonidas’ abs would look much better on me, so I’m working daily on that little project. I’ve gotta say, I can hardly wait for the movie 300 to come out. If the trailers are any indication, this movie looks like an awesome, testosterone-filled action flick, and I am just counting the days until it hits the theatres. I mean what kind of stones do you have to have to not only fight a quarter-million angry Persians to the death, but to then inspire your 299 buddies to face them with you! Du-u-u-de. That’s a tough bunch of guys right there, and one kick-ass king. “OK, boys…yeah, they outnumber us, but if we divide it up, each of us has only got eight hundred and thirty-three Persians to kill. And wound one more for good measure. Let’s get to work!” My understanding is that, although the Spartans were killed to a man, they did so much damage to the Persian army that they had to pack up and go home. Whoa. That’s an ass-whupping of monumental proportions right there. Go Spartans! I’m sure that quite a bit of artistic license was taken, but the essentials of a free people fighting against an encroaching autocracy are still there. And I’m all about that kind of thing. I’d much prefer dying on my feet to living on my knees.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Weekend update

Man, I’m really digging this mp3 player! After culling some annoying songs from my playlist, I’m finally rocking and rolling when I’m running, doing pushups, weights, even when I do taiji. Chen taiji done to Prodigy is quite an interesting experience! I even wear it when I do housework…makes the chores go by faster, that’s for sure.

My good friend Larry came up for a Stick Fighting seminar this weekend, and we always end up having fun, and getting very little ‘work’ done. We did discuss some updates for the website over lunch, but that’s about it. That doesn’t really matter though, ‘cause we had a kick-ass seminar on Saturday! Attacks and blocks with the single stick, as well as some trapping, self-defense, and even a few nasty takedowns. ‘Twas way cool.

On Sunday, I had another lacrosse game, this time against last year’s league champs. They won. Go figure. The good news is that I felt pretty good…I ran well, appeared to be in the right place at more or less the right time, and didn’t have any massive mistakes. The bad news was that I’m in the process of breaking in a couple of new sticks, and my aim is a bit shaky. And I got totally run over by some big dude from the other team. We were fighting for a ground ball and I managed to look up to see a huge number headed my way. I didn’t even have time to register exactly what number it was…I recall taking an instant inventory of my situation and realizing that I was off balance and about to go for a ride…OOF…I hit the ground, rolled, and came up laughing. Whew! No injuries! Just a well-timed hit. Good job, whoever you were.

I had decided to take Connor with me again, but I was disappointed to see that he wasn’t nearly as interested in the game this time, so I had to split my attention between the game and making sure that he wasn’t neck-deep in the nearest ditch. Still, he’s a great kid…if a bit on the noisy side. I enjoy spending the time with him…he does come up with some interesting topics of conversation.

Today, it’s back to business as usual. I made some calls, chatted with my buddy Paul for awhile. Then it was off to the Y for a change of scenery and a workout. It’s raining today, so I passed on my usual run, forms practice, and run. I hit the treadmill and did a couple of miles with intervals at a pace that felt a bit faster than I’m used to. I worked on some taiji for awhile, but then the gym I was using was opened up for a class. I tried finishing up my taiji in another gym, but the ‘after school kids’ were in there, and balls of all types were flying everywhere. Not good for taiji.

I finished up by hitting a round of pushups, divebomber pushups, crunches, v-tucks, pull-ups, and medicine ball situps. Happily, I’m feeling rather drained. I’m going to make a sandwich, doze on the couch, then finish my housework before heading back to the school for the evening’s classes.

It’s not really that exciting. But I dig it! Oh, and congratulations to my buddy BB for passing his most recent Krav Maga test! Those things are grueling affairs, I hear. He’s apparently quite sore. So if you get the chance, poke him and see if he yelps.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Nice weather...at last!

Ahhh….the weather is absolutely gorgeous! It’s a welcome break from the cold and rainy nonsense that’s been going on out here lately. I don’t much like running in the rain, and I prefer running outdoors to the treadmill, so when the weather’s bad, I end up making a choice between getting cold and wet, or letting another run pass me by. Neither prospect thrills me, but today, I hit the road with my mp3 player blaring.

I’ve discovered that my jogging track at the nearby park is just about 2 miles from my home, so now I run out there to practice taiji and forms in the morning and then run back. I know I look a little bit odd out there doing Chen taiji or mantis kung fu, but no one bothers me, and the police seem used to me by now. Today, I had a great workout, and I’m looking forward to doing a bit more when I get to the school later this afternoon.

Last week was kind of rough. Although my visit to Florida had energized me and I was ready to teach, some new tenants had just started painting the space downstairs, and the fumes found their way into our school. WOW, that was bad! After awhile, all of our kung fu was ‘drunken’ kung fu! We cancelled the later classes on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the smell, but the place started to air out towards the end of the week, so we were able to get back to work. Saturday’s open class was FULL, and I was really happy to see so many people training.

Saturday, I had my 5-year-old son with me, since his gorgeous Momma had her monthly training session to attend in Houston, and I took him and a friend of ours to one of our lacrosse games. You know, I haven’t had Monkey out at a game in a long time, and the last time, he was so young that he really didn’t know what was going on. Things have changed. I set him up with some toys and lunch, made sure his coat and hat were on firmly, and pointed out where I would be playing before donning my gear and green-and-white jersey. When I was ready, and standing in the line of substitutes about to go in and play, I heard him walk up and say, ‘Daddy! Good luck!’ When I turned to see his little gap-toothed grin looking up at me, I’m not ashamed to say that my vision blurred more than a little. Later, when I was running with the ball at some point, I could hear him yelling, ‘Go, Daddy!! Go!’ And that’s how he earned a season ticket to our lacrosse games. Well, that and the fact that he talked to each of the players when they came off the field to rest, and somehow managed to include himself in the end-of-game handshake with the opposing team. He’s a good kid…I’m lucky to have him.

The UFC fights were on this weekend, and I was pleased to see everyone stocking up on chips and snacks on Saturday to get ready for the fights. Then someone reminded me that it was Superbowl weekend. Ah, well. Anyway, the fights were lots of fun, we had a dozen or so folks come out to see them with us, and I’m already looking forward to the next UFC. We did have a big laugh when Scott Smith did the Karate Kid crane stance during his fight with Patrick Cote…it didn’t help him win the fight, but he did get some style points.

I get lots of email (don’t we all), but I get a quote of the day each morning. Some are more useful to me than others, but this one resonates with me lately.
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." Mark Twain 1835-1910 writer

I’ve been applying this principle since I returned from Florida, and it’s helping a ton! Have a great day, everyone!

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Back from the Florida Trip

Well, I’m back from my big Florida trip. Lots of good stuff.

After packing, making notes, laying out my clothes, and making sure of my flight information, I finally staggered to bed last Wednesday night at about 1:30am. 4:55am came not long after, let me tell you! I managed to give my wife and son quiet kisses and then made it out the door with little trouble. The traffic at that time of day isn’t bad at all, so I made great time to the Park-n-Fly, and checked in at the airport on time. I waited for my friend and colleague, Israel, to show up from his connecting flight, and I worried that he wouldn’t make it. But he hustled down the terminal just in time, and we even managed to sit together on the way out to Tampa.

This weekend was an instructor’s conference. I am one of the founding members of the Shang Wu Association, dedicated to passing on a blend of Master Art D’Agostino’s Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Hong Style Chen Taijiquan, and we were getting together to see how we were doing, to train and talk, and to discuss goals for the coming year.

I had looked forward to this small gathering, and I was not disappointed in the least. We had a fabulous guest instructor, Paul, who spends months at a time in China or in Canada training with Masters Li Enjiu and Joseph Chen. He gave us some great insights into our Chen Taiji training and pushhands, and also some fabulous exercises to improve our taiji. In addition, Master Arthur went over some of our Kung Fu curriculum and cleaned up some things for us.

The main thing that I got from the weekend was a great sense of community, of camaraderie with the other Shang Wu instructors. We also discussed business strategies, and I’m so glad that I have a group that shares my business ethics. It’s not uncommon to see martial arts schools that are making money hand-over-fist, and churning out black belts by the dozen…but one might also notice that the skill levels of those black belts is not really that high, and they are somewhat sneaky in their sales pitches. Other schools turn out fabulous students of extremely high levels of skill and athleticism and fighting ability…but one might also notice that these schools have the fewest students, and are just getting by each month. We believe that one can run a high level martial arts school, and turn out great students, while making a decent living…without ‘screwing’ our students financially. I won’t get into the politics of the whole concept, but I’ll just say that I’m really excited about the coming year, and I’m looking forward to teaching Shang Wu martial arts to my students!

One thing that inevitably happens when we get together is that there ends up being a theme for the weekend. Someone makes a funny comment early on, and it’s repeated in various situations throughout our gathering, to the laughter of everyone involved. This time, we didn’t really end up with one theme but several funny topics of conversation.

Past themes for Shang Wu gatherings (and no, you’re probably not going to understand any of them):

Tombstone. (“Excuse me, but I believe you’re sittin’ in my chair.”)
Cow Tipping. (thanks, Mr. Lawler)
“(Spanish curse here), Barbacoa!”
“You’re gonna make me look at this @!#$?”
Rakka-takka-tak-takka-tat. (It makes it come out easier, I swear!)

And my personal favorite from past gatherings…

“I didn’t think you were gonna kick me!”

This weekend, we covered the following new topics of conversation:

Raheem’s date. (“Did you have anything to drink?” “Yeah…a hiene.”)
“I got my SWEET LEGS!!”
YOOP! SLAP!! YOOP!! SLAP!!
“How’s you’re pimp hand, Joseph?” “Strong, baby…strong!”
The deadly Chi Log.
“That only a .22. I kung fu master! I kill you with my last breath!”

And so it goes. I’m proud to be a part of a group that shares a vision of helping others, teaching solid kung fu…and has a pretty good sense of humor.

On Sunday, I just managed to get through security at the airport in time to make my flight, and I sat next to a thoroughly wonderful woman named Gwen, who had the sweetest Louisiana drawl. After a pleasant flight, I made it back to the car and headed for our first lacrosse game of the season. I was still changing clothes in the parking lot when the first whistle went off, but I didn’t miss much. We were playing Metro, a solid team that gives us trouble if we’re off our game. OK, I’ll say it…we were off our game. First game of the season, and we barely had 14 guys out there. I know that it’ll get better as we go, and I plan to do some damage on the field every chance I get.

I had only managed to lay one fellow out by the end of the third quarter, and I was exhausted! I had just recovered from my half-marathon and a whole weekend of Chen taiji will really take it out of your legs! I recall sitting on my portable stool with my helmet and gloves off, thinking that maybe I should hang it up for the day. I was beyond running at that point, and I felt like I might blow chunks at any moment.

As I considered leaving early, I suddenly became embarrassed. I mean, what kind of example was I setting? What would my students say? “Never quit!”, that’s what they’d say. So I strapped on my helmet, picked up my gloves and stick, and ambled back to the line to go back on the field. My turn came soon enough, and I’m happy to say that I caused some trouble out there. I’m not much on offense right now, but I can still play some decent defense. ;-)

So now I’m home, classes have resumed, and life is generally good. Aside from taxes that were due today and some paint fumes coming from the place downstairs from the school, everything’s cool.

Here’s another little survey. My Mom says she likes them.

1. What is your occupation? Martial Arts Instructor!!
2. What color are your socks right now? White.
3. What are you listening to right now? The rain outside.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Turkey sandwich.
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Quite well, yes.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green.
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Izzy.
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I borrowed it from a friend on Myspace…don’t know her well, but she’s cute.
9. How old are you today? 37. All day long.
10. Favorite drink? Ashamed to say that I do enjoy a good Coca-Cola belch.
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? MMA fights.
12. Have you ever colored your hair? Nope.
13. Pets? One beta fish named Willie.
14. Favorite food? Pho Tai with Gui Cuon. Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup with fresh Spring Rolls. Mmmmmmm!!! Honestly, I could have that for lunch every day.
15. What was the last movie you watched? Yellow River Fighter…a classic old Kung Fu movie.
16. What was the last book you read? Probably one of David Gemmell’s books.
17. What do you do, to vent anger? Work out. Breathe. Run. Or head back for more pho.
18. Favorite toy as a child? Star Wars figures….man, those were cool!
19. What is your favorite fall or spring? Fall. It’s such a relief after the scorching hot summer, and I love the deep blue of the sky in October.
20. Hugs or kisses? Both, as often as possible.
21. Cherries or blueberries? Blueberries
22. Do you want your friends to post this? Why not?
23. Who is most likely to respond? Dunno.
24. Who is least likely to respond? Not a clue.
25. Living arrangements? Married, in a house.
26. When was the last time you cried? I’m such a sap, probably during some movie or other.
27. What is on the floor of your closet? Let’s not get into that…
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Not sending to anyone in particular.
29. What did you do last night? Came home early from class, watched shows with my darling wife and went to bed. Nothing fancy.
30. Favorite smells? Usually food related smells are my favorite.
31. What inspires you? Folks who follow a dream, push through adversity to make it happen.
32. What are you afraid of? Nothing comes to mind. I’m sure there’s something.
33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Spicy cheeseburgers. I’ll take two, please.
34. Favorite dog breed? I miss our pugs.
35. Number of keys on your key ring? Less than a dozen, I’d guess.
36. How many years at your current job? I opened our school in December, 2003, but I’ve been a teacher for a long time.
37. Favorite day of the week? Sunday…family day!
38. How many states have you lived? 1

Be good, everyone!