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BLOG OF POOTENHEIMER... Fear it, Love it
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Mmm, so late, so good
It's Saturday! Well, Sunday, now. But I stayed up ALL night. Mmm, yeah. Playing, mainly. And it's nice to play. I finally had some relief from knowing my bills are PAID. So I could let myself relax nicely. Whew!

That meant taking a long nap today, then getting up, getting some cereal (so nice) and renting a movie. I didn't actually watch the movie, because I ran into a couple of friends at the Wally World I went to get cereal at. So we ended up coming back to my place and playing. A little bit of Steel Battalion (for the first time in a very long time), followed by a lot bit of Eternal Darkness. Both excellent pieces of gaming goodness. Eternal Darkness was good enough that they just now left. We'll have to continue it later.

Ooh! AND I finally bought my lining paper. It should be on its way next week. That, and I found a used file cabinet to get myself organized, which I'll need, since my little portable one is about ready to explode. I need a full filing cabinet, I think. So that'll help me get organized quite well. Only thing I need to get next is a bookshelf, as well as a monster magazine rack. Then everything will be good. Ooh! I did get my diploma in the mail. I looked at it today, it's very nice. I'll have to get it framed.

Yeah, I went home, visited the fam, helped them with some yardwork. Apparently the storm hit our backyard pretty badly and took a monster branch out of one of our trees. It snapped off, but it's a forked branch, and it's basically stuck twenty feet in the air, with the rest of it touching the ground. Yes, a large branch. So I helped by going and trimming a few branches (with a manual saw), and then carting a few piles of wood out front. There's still a lot more left to do, though.

Anyway, it's time for chapter 3 of my Canada trip. The exciting day. Saturday, one week ago today. Yesterday. Whatever. Woo! So we woke up at a moderately normal time, showered, got dressed, just in time for Sifu to call to let us know he was downstairs with Sigong (Buck Sam Kong) to go get breakfast/lunch. So we met, went across the street to a VERY good little Chinese restaurant. The most Chinese restaurant I've ever eaten at. The minority of the staff even spoke English. And 90% of the people eating there were Chinese, apparently. So yeah, it was quite authentic stuff. And quite GOOD stuff, as well. From there we went downtown in Vancouver to attend the big conference. Which was in, of all places, Chinatown. Go figure.





Yeah, it was a cool place. So we managed to get there, then find the conference. There were a lot of people there, it was pretty impressive.





We found a spot, and watched the big events commence! It started with a four-lion lion dance. Then a bunch of official ceremonial stuff, giving out props to all the grandmasters, mainly. I really didn't catch a lot of it, since most of it was in Chinese. The important part was that Sigong was a big person there. He walked on as one of the last people in a line that filled the length of the stage, and they went and pulled him to stand in the middle, which was cool. They each got certificates. I managed to snag a good picture of him with his.





Oh, and they ranked each of the masters, levels between 1 and 10, I believe. Sifu is a 7. You can guess what level Buck was at.






So after that, they did some crazy kung fu demonstrations. Some were better than others, they did all sorts of styles, including Tai Chi. Buck's students had some of the coolest demos, which included having another student wail on one without him even flinching (but taking him down in an instant after so much time) and bending rebar with the soft point in the throat. It was cool because Justin and I realized that if we had had a demo prepared (a sparring set, for instance), we actually would have had a decent demo, impressive even compared to some of the best in the world. And they were from all over - China, Malaysia, Europe, various parts of the states. I felt honored to be there.

After that it was time to kill some time until the crazy dinner. So Justin and I went off to explore the mall, and then play some video games. A bit of DDR, which is always good. Although there were a couple of Chinese girls there who could have kicked either of our butts.






After that, it was off to dinner! And dinner was even crazier than the conference. It started with a 10 lion lion dance. And then more official handing out of certificates, that type of thing. Mostly in Chinese, of course. FINALLY we got to eat, and it was an insane 10-course meal, accompanied by additional martial arts demos while we ate. It was very cool stuff. It just felt like a very rare moment, that not many people ANYWHERE get to experience. Some of the best martial artists in the world were gathered in that room. And we just got to chow down next to them. Oh, and the food was quite good. Interesting, to say the least.






After the dinner (which was at least five hours, I'd have to say), it was the long drive back to the hotel, and then more relaxing in front of the TV, reading, so forth. An excellent day, definitely worthy of devotion to as vacation time.

Yes, a good day. Today was such a nice day, too! Sort of a mirror of the nature of the leisure experienced in the day on that same day of the week, seven days ago. And I think I can sleep soundly tonight. It will be good. Before I can sleep, though... random link! Why have I waited so long to line my shelves, you may have wondered? Well, I had some special paper picked out, and I needed to make sure I had spare money (after bills) to buy it.
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as of 10/23/03

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