Crazy full weekend
Sometimes you have calm weekends, not a lot going on. Then you have the other ones. Where you're supposed to get R&R, but you end up having so much happening you're exhausted when it's all over. Yeah, that was this weekend, for me. But it was GOOD.

Yeah, so Thursday was a pretty light day, although it was so long ago now, it feels like forever. FOREVAH. Standard stuff - work and kung fu. Kung fu was cool, we did sword sparring. Sadly, Justin and I were reserved for judging and didn't get to spank the newbies. It was still pretty fun. I think everyone liked it. Friday started slowly, and I went to go to kung fu to handle the massive crowds. Massive crowds of me and only me. Hey, I think I could be considered to be a massive crowd. It was kind of sad - I just stretched, and read, and fell asleep, and answered the phone, and left. Not too much. But from there, it was time for guitar at Newman. The Catholic Student Convention was this weekend, and it was pretty big. Tons of college kids (75, to be more specific). So Friday was the first night.

For Friday the choir was put up to be background music for an hour of adoration. So we set up, and actually a lot of the music ended up being only guitars and choir, and a couple of songs were just piano, and one was harp (quite cool). We did some very good songs, and I think everyone liked it. It was a lot of fun. And then we got to one of my favorite songs, in the middle of which something unexpected happened. I wish I could say something like "I burst into this AWESOME solo and the crowd stood up and started roaring for more" but it was more like "a string broke". Yeah, that's right, one of my guitar stings broke. AGAIN. The same one that broke last time (first - I did have two break before I restrung it). In the freakin' middle of a song. So I managed to keep playing without missing a beat, although it was a little unsettling. Thankfully, it's a twelve-string, so the pressure involved means it didn't really go too out of tune. We managed to keep things going okay, I got it retuned, and everything else went fairly well. We got a lot of complements for the music, which was cool.

After that it was time to go to the best place on Earth for food (if you're only allowed to eat at once place on Earth) - Village Inn! We invaded it, basically, with something like thirty people. It was a lot of fun, though. Crazy stories, a game of spin the ketchup bottle going on at the one booth some people had, and actual consumption of edible things. It was good.

So, sleep for a bit, then waking up earlier than I would normally have awakened to do something different. Paintball! It's been over a year since I've been. I did miss it a lot. It was tons of fun. Me and Carlos and a few other guys went and played against some Army boys, and basically annihilated them on the field. I've been gone too long, though, my bunkering (rushing to touch a bunker to make somebody out) skills are lacking. It's okay, I'll probably be going back again this month. Yay!

So I came back from that, moderately exhausted. What's next? Well, FOOD first, of course, as Carlos and I fought the urge to phase out into brain mush from being tired, and then a workshop. What kind of workshop? A Chinese wrestling workshop! Yay! I don't remember how to spell it, but it's pronounced [shwhy-jiow], and it's good stuff. We had a visiting instructor (who actually has a major article in this month's Inside Kung-Fu) teach us. We learned how to fall, how to take someone down, how to hip throw properly. The art is about 5000 years old, so it's been around quite long. Apparently there are stone carvings portraying some of the techniques, which is cool. But this is where judo and jujitsu got their roots. Although I kind of like this better. So a lot of getting tossed around for three hours or so.

From there, it was time to party! My friend James is getting older, so it was an excuse to gather all sorts of mischevious people and party. It was pretty fun. And Libby's learning how to mix drinks well, apparently. I was pretty tired, so I didn't stay too long. I ended up randomly talking to a friend for a bit before going to bed, then slept HARD.

And I had to get up early again, of course. To go back to Newman and do music for a mass with the Bishop. The Bishop and I see each other quite a bit, apparently. The music was pretty good, except my voice was all in the bass range so I couldn't hit any of the proper higher notes, which was funny. But everything else turned out okay. And a bunch of the convention students gathered to go eat at Pepper's afterwards. Good food, although it made my belly rumbly.

From there it was time for - what else? Kung fu! Yes, to instructor training, where it was just me, Justin, and Sifu (and Justin's grandfather, egging us on). To purely learn. I have one side of my sparring set practiced completely, now. I have to finish the second side, which should be faster, and I should be good to test. Which will be very good. It was different, because I was purely doing the set with Sifu, and when you practice with him, there somehow a bit more urgency that you do everything fast and you do it RIGHT. But it was good practice.

So yeah, I was exhausted after that, and basically laid down on my couch after that and passed out. Then time to get up again and go BACK to church, for another mass. And this one went quite well! My voice was back a little better, although we had some close calls with our music sheets somehow moving away from the music stand and the books they were in being CLOSED. But we made it through somehow. Although I had a part of my guitar fall off in the middle of mass, which just makes me wonder. My guitar is probably getting more attention than it needs. Maybe it's a cry for help. It wasn't too important of a part (a washer on the head), so it was okay.

Bleah. I still haven't recovered my sleep, so I'm quite tired. BUSY weekend. And tonight's not any better. Tonight. Midnight. HALO 2. I've got my copy purchased. Do you? I'm scared to even play it, because I may end up not going to bed. Yeah, I'm a big nerd, so what. I like being a nerd! It's fun. You should let go of your pride sometime and try it out. It's good stuff. I'll have to tell you the verdict once I get a taste of its luscious goodness.

But in the meantime, it's off to other things. So I'll give you your random link now. Since it is the eve of a major, major release, I thought it'd be good to provide a means to be educated. There's lots of places to find reviews, and what games are good and which are not. But if you want a place to start, this would be as good a place as any.

- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:22 PM | 1 comments