Friday, May 30, 2008

Harvey Korman, we'll miss you.

I'm up way past my bedtime. I thought this might happen, having had a Monster energy drink far later in the evening than I should have, so I figured I'd do a little surfing to pass the time until exhaustion finally claims me.

And now I'm crying because I just discovered that Comic Powerhouse Harvey Korman dies at 81

"Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing Saddles," died Thursday, May 29, 2008. He was 81."

I love to laugh, and I grew up watching The Carol Burnett Show and all of Mel Brooks' movies, so I have laughed often at Harvey over the years. I feel as though I have lost a friend, somehow.

Farewell, Mr. Korman. Thanks for all the laughter, and Godspeed.


Harvey Herschel Korman
Feb. 15, 1927 - May 29, 2008

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Retraction

I'm currently on the phone getting chewed out by my Mom. She has indicated that she's not 'frail', as described in my last post. So there it is.

Mom's not frail. In her words, 'Frail can not shake that booty!"

Have a good day.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Thoughts on Taking Action, Updates, and my Mom.

Something I've known about myself for some time is that I can get in a rut, a funk, a downward spiral, get the blues, and other depressing maladies just the same as other folks can. I'm amazingly human, and therefore subject to many human foibles. I can get in a sour mood even though my life is good, family's fine, my school is running great, and so on.

So how do I fix that? Well, my best cure seems to be one word: ACTION.

The times I tend to feel the most down on myself are when I feel as though I'm becoming stagnant, not making progress. I enjoy a nap even more than the next guy, but I don't like feeling as though I'm not moving forward in some area of my life. There are lots of areas in which I'd like to improve, such as skill in martial arts, business prosperity, physical capability, financial capability...you get the idea. I like to make progress in some or all of these areas as often as possible, but I still occasionally hit the doldrums. Usually, it's because of a lack of planning or organization.

So it's a holiday weekend, and we've enjoyed spending family time together, and doing various activities separately. I watched the Division I NCAA lacrosse finals today (the one sport I'll actually watch in its entirety on TV other than MMA fighting), and then felt a bit down. Cranky, even. The holiday weekend was nearly over, and I felt as if I had accomplished nearly nothing. Hmph! My darling wife and son were playing games in the back room, so I was left to my own devices. What to do, what to do?

I decided to clean the garage.

You have to understand what a monumental undertaking this was. The garage used to be my school, many years ago. Once I opened the doors of Jade Mountain, we started using it for 'storage'. This meant that if we didn't know what to do with something, we chucked in in the garage. Years of chucking stuff, and not ever throwing any of it away, has filled that once clean and organized training space into something resembling...well...a big pile of junk.

So I put on my rattiest clothes and went to work. In the process of figuring out what to throw out, what to donate, what to keep, and what to put up on Ebay, I found some cool stuff (pictures, martial arts notes, some extremely sentimental cards and pics, and some ketchup). I cleaned and oiled our bicycles (I knew we had them, I had just forgotten where). I fixed the speedbag platform. I cleaned and oiled the entire dumbbell rack and weight bench.

It took me around 4 hours. Approximately 1/4 of the garage is now usable, and I'm thrilled. Amazingly, I'm also re-motivated! I'm ready to hit the ground running tomorrow with some running and strength training, more cleaning, and a visit to my son's school for his kindergarten 'graduation'. As usual, taking positive action has vastly improved my mood.

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Stuff that has happened lately:

We enjoyed watching the UFC fights on Saturday. I was disappointed to see Sean Sherk lose, but it was an honest fight, and there were other good fights on the card as well.

My fantastic wife is preparing for a dance recital this weekend. I'm so excited to see her on stage! And no, she will not be using a pole.

There's a chance I may be getting a moped/scooter soon, thanks to my fabulous parents. They happen to have one that they aren't using. As soon as we figure out how to wrap the thing and fit it in the mailbox, we're set.

BB came out for a visit recently, and we enjoyed pho, hanging out, and some groundfighting while he was here. He did a pretty good job! I'm thrilled that he's graduated with his Masters in Mental Health Counseling. Not only is he following his calling, his bliss, but he'll finally have time to get back into shape now that his classes are over. You go, man!

I changed one of my workouts recently and practically destroyed my legs for a week. Honestly, the workout LOOKED harmless enough...I thought it would be fine. I'm doing it again next week, just to torture myself.

I recently purchased a cheap pair of powered speakers for my computer. WOW!!! I had no idea that something so inexpensive could make such a difference!!!! COOL!! Now, I don't have to hold the speakers directly to my ears to hear the Youtube videos!

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Somewhere around Mother's Day, I had a nice long chat with my Mom. Some may recall that she was in a nasty car wreck last December that shattered her left arm in several places. She ended up with two long plates in that arm (we tell her it's bionic now), and a rather dreary prognosis...'You'll never have full use of that arm again, Mrs. McClendon. And you can forget about making that touchdown signal." He actually said that. No touchdown signal.

Mom dutifully went to physical therapy, just as the doctor ordered. I didn't hear much about her rehab, only that she was going and working hard. She sounded relieved when her mandatory therapy was over, but she was still unhappy about her progress. She still couldn't make the touchdown signal.

No, Mom's not a football referee...she just doesn't like being told that she 'can't' do something.

Here's what I was surprised and thrilled to learn during our chat: after her rehab was over, she had started going to the gym three days a week. She'd start with the treadmill as a warmup, then hit the weight machines for a simple circuit workout for an hour, then the jacuzzi, saunas, and then the showers. Mom had become something of a gym rat.

Let me explain a bit more about Mom. She's 60 years old. She's a petite woman, much shorter than I. She looks kind of frail on first glance. One would not think about 'iron determination' when you first looked at her, but having seen it in her my whole life, I was surprised to suddenly realize how out of the ordinary her drive might seem to other people.

Many folks in her position would have just said, ' Well, I never wanted to raise my arm up that high anyhow.' Not my Mom. She dug her heels in and told the doctor, 'Just watch me!'

When she first started out, she couldn't curl a 2 pound dumbbell in her left arm. Not one time. However, she never gave up. Soon, she curled it. Then again. Then again. Then it was 4 lbs. Then 6 lbs. By now, she's up to 8 or possibly 10 lb dumbbells. Recall that her left arm was s-h-a-t-t-e-r-e-d in that wreck. But she hasn't given up. I don't think she knows how.

Honestly, I don't think Mom is making any statement with her continued training. She's not trying to set an example, or trying to inspire others. No, she likes to keep things simple. She just wants to be able to raise her arm over her head if she so chooses. And to me, that's the most inspiring thing of all.


Love you, Mom!

Friday, May 02, 2008

Iron Man and Bruce Lee

Iron Man is AWESOME!!! Thanks to my fabulous wife, I was able to hit the midnight showing of Iron Man tonight at our local Alamo Drafthouse. Wow! What a fabulously cool movie! The audience was great, and we laughed and hooted and clapped at all the right places, especially at the cameo appearance of Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee. Robert Downey, Jr. was a perfect Tony Stark. It was well worth the lost sleep.
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So why is it that I'm always most inspired, creative, and ambitious when I'm up far past my bedtime? I'm about to drop from exhaustion, but what I want to be doing is making workout plans, cleaning the house, organizing the garage, and writing short stories, all at the same time. Any plans I make are going to look rather silly in the morning, and anything I write is going to seem awfully odd when read by the light of day. And the other stuff makes too much noise. I wish I could feel like this in the mornings instead!
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We're on our way to buying a new location for Jade Mountain. A new facility could be quite a long ways off, but a long journey starts with a single step, so we've started the process. Financing is a tricky thing, and we'll just have to see what obstacles are in the way, and how we can go around, over, under, or through them. Several things happened recently that suggested that it might be time.

I'm a pretty down-to-earth kind of guy. I like things I can see and touch. Facts are good to have when moving forward with any project, as are well-laid plans. However, I'm still in touch with my feelings (Yoda taught me well), and when I get such a strong gut instinct that it's time, then my friends, it's time.

One of our students, who works in real estate, brought in a property listing for me to see. I drove out there that very night after class, and got a really good feeling about the place. On my way home, I heard a song on the radio that really seemed to fit at the time, something that made me optimistic about the possibilities. Then when I got home and turned on the TV, I got the final sign. Let me explain...

We watch a lot of movies...high-brow, low-brow, foreign films, popcorn- and chick-flicks, action, drama, horror, you name it, we watch it. We saw Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story with Jason Scott Lee long before we opened my school. In it, there was a scene in which Bruce took his future bride to an old building and explained to her that it would be the location of his first school. The influence of his school, and his martial arts, would affect the world much like ripples from a pebble dropped in a pond. We know this to be true, for his influence is still felt today. He handed her a pebble, and asked her to drop it to the floor of the school, thereby starting the ripples. It was a very symbolic gesture, and whether it truly happened, or no, the scene stuck with me.

The day we signed the lease on our school, I had a pebble in my pocket. I took my darling wife Christina into our new school and reminded her of the scene. I told her that without her support and love, I would never have been able to open the doors of Jade Mountain. I asked her to drop the pebble...and she refused. With sweet tears in her eyes, she insisted that we had to do it together. So we did.

...and THAT was the scene that popped up on the TV when I turned the power on that night.

Whether we are able to actually get the place we're hoping for is irrelevant. What's important is that we've started the process. However long it takes, we will find the right place for Jade Mountain.

And now, I'm headed to bed. Happy Friday, all.