A new week begins
I had neglected to post my blog's address in my AIM profile, where it had resided previously for a duration of time. Well, I put it back, and it seems a substantial number of people have discovered (or re-discovered) my blog. A number have expressed concern over my recent tribulations with certain elements of my life, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

As I said before, it's a bit of a period of rediscovery, finding myself all over again. I feel oddly like I've gone semi-evil for a few days. I'm not sure how or why. I think it's just a bit of the darkness that's crept into my soul, based on recent events. Eh - everyone has their bad days. I'm certain mine will pass. Thankfully, it hasn't been ALL bad. I did go to a splendid wedding this weekend, with an excellent reception afterwards. There was much dancing. It was a full Catholic wedding, done at Christ the King (large church, downtown). Very traditional, quite nice. A large group of the young Catholics clustered over in the bride's side, making her (mostly non-Catholic) family moderately uncomfortable, I'm sure. It was okay, though - she was happy. Congrats, Adam and Lerin! They're both awesome people, and it's things like that that bring my spirit up.

In lighter news, I had Justin (Sihing) over this weekend, we watched a number of full-contact fighting matches on DVD. Entertaining, and educational. Regardless of what happens with my teaching position, I still plan on continuing my search for knowledge in martial arts. I may modify my level of commitment of time to it, to make room for other things in my life, although my devotion to the art will stay unchanged. So Justin had his prom this weekend, and took his girlfriend to Flavors (under my recommendation). I need to call him and find out what he thought, and how his evening went. Hopefully it was ALL rather tasty.

And I finished Jade Empire yesterday! It took a total of about 26 hours, so that means it actually took quite a while. I finished with my super-good monk, who did all things right and well through his path. And I've begun with my super-evil female character. Ooh, she's so bad. That somehow fits with how I've been feeling lately. But she really is evil. For example, with my monk, I discovered a situation of misunderstanding. A man was being accosted by a woman's minions (even being attacked by them), and all apparently because he was engaged to a different woman. The first woman (the jealous one) had the impression SHE was the one to marry the man, because he had promised marriage. When they were six. I took my character to talk to this jealous woman, and she brought the fiancee in to make things more interesting. The setup was the same with both of my characters, the monk and the evil woman. With my monk, I talked sense into the jealous woman, made her realize that promises made as children are not always carried into adulthood, and she apologized. Everything was good, and my character even made friends with all of them. That, and the engaged couple said they would name their first son after me. Well, okay. My EVIL character did things slightly differently. Once they were all brought together, the same story was revealed, and I encouraged the promise to be kept. And when the realism of keeping such a promise was questioned, I suggested the women fight, to have the victor win the man's hand in marriage. Well, both the man and the fiancee were perturbed at the idea, but I convinced the jealous woman to go ahead, and she killed the fiancee before she could even react. The man was horribly distraught, and in his grief vocally attacked the jealous woman. Well, being the type of woman she is, she reacted by attacking him, in a more physical sense, and in a few moments, he, too, was dead. Only then did she realize what she had done, and blamed it all on me, and attacked me, along with her minions. Eh, I had to kill them all. And then rob their establishment.

So yeah, my female character is a bit evil. Hopefully it will be good for me to relieve my dark emotions in a vicarious manner, and not influence more.

Ah - one of the other positive things this weekend was another mass I was at - this time to play guitar for. It was at Sts. Peter and Paul, where they have a moderately large Hispanic community. So they were going to do Pan De Vida, and apparently the choir director had issues finding the rhythm to the song, or something along those lines. So a friend of mine from the choir asked me to come help them out, which I did. It turned out pretty nicely, although I discovered my guitar has been damaged. I am not pleased by this. I need to look into it a bit more, but apparently the area where the strap attaches at the base of the body has detached itself. There's a screw there, I guess where it screws into the body (I need to look at it more closely), and the threads appear to have been stripped. Or something. At any rate, if I pull on it, it slides out easily, which it is NOT supposed to do. I'm rather unhappy about this, as it's my 12-string, which I happen to like quite a bit. It means I have to be careful about using my strap, now, as it could theoretically come out at anytime. I'm considering taking it in to a shop to get it fixed. It may just need some superglue, but I'd prefer to have it done properly fixed, if that's not the best solution. We'll see.

And I'm off to Kansas City this week, to go to Sean's wedding! I think it will do me good to get out of town for a few days. I'm going to take a guitar with me, but I'm not quite sure which one I'll take. Probably the 12-string. Maybe I'll get it fixed before I leave, if it's not too expensive. And restring it. Although I may wait to do that until after I get there, so I don't have to worry about the temperature in the car re-adjusting my string tension for me.

I'm thinking I'll probably take the week off from kung fu to prepare for my trip, as well as to just take a break, which I haven't really done in a long time. Hopefully when I return, I'll be reborn, have renewed vigor to pursue my many lifetime achievements I have lined up to accomplish. Any suggestions on how to catalyze that would be welcome.

And now it's time for random linking! I found a cool one. For everyone who has their doubts about Star Wars and the storyline, who thinks the characters there are missing something... check this out. Some of the best writing I've seen in a long time. Keep in mind, it's written in reverse order, and it was only started earlier this year, so there isn't TOO much there. I believe the final entry was posted last Wednesday, though. Make sure you have a little bit of time before you check it out - you may get sucked in.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:44 PM | 1 comments

 
Weird week
Man, I've been going through a weird roller coaster of moods lately. I'm not sure what to make of it. Maybe it's time for one of those life-shifts. You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure, even if you never identified it as an independent "event". Where you take a look at your life, the recent events, and do sort of a recalibration. Figure out if you want to keep going in the same direction, or maybe change things up. So today's blog will be one of introspection. In an extroverted fashion. It's the way of the future! Share your innermost revelations with the world! Or at least with the people who have the right web address.

So the past few days were some that rocked my foundation a bit. It was kung fu related. And pretty much all of you know how much of my life is connected to kung fu - it's a very big part. I've been doing it for five and a half years, and I've been teaching for four of those years. Right now there are two major instructors (Sihing and me), plus the other Eric helping with other classes, where he can. Well, I had a talk with Sifu about things, although I won't get into specifics. Apparently he wasn't happy with some of my questions, and he suspended me from being an instructor for at least two weeks. It rather upset me - I didn't know I had offended him so much.

That happened on Tuesday. Yesterday I went in and talked to him, after going through the first class I've been in in years, purely as a student. It was weird, not being able to help students. I got to review all my solo sets, which was good. And helped condition a few of the other students, which was good. Anyway, we talked afterwards, and I think I sorted things out. But Sifu told me I need to figure out what I really want to do, and I do think he's right. I'm always squeezing myself tight with my schedule. I need to figure out over the weekend how much I can really help. Right now I go straight from work to help out with the kids' class, and also help on Wednesday nights, plus come in on Saturdays, and occasionally teach on Fridays. I don't know if I should take a little more time off, get some time to do stuff on my own time. Like play games, or watch movies, or play guitar, or even write music. Or read, or draw, or program. Bleah. TOO MUCH stuff I could do. The reason I went ahead and do kung fu hard core is because I want to get to a certain point, and then I can let go a little bit, focus on other things in my life, such as music. One thing at a time. Eh, I still need to figure it out, though. I think I like stressing myself out by pushing my time constraints as tight as possible.

E3 is going on right now - I have some friends who are there, in LA, right now. I pulled a few of the videos of the conferences from the major companies, and I'll tell you now - the PS3 looks pretty freakin' cool. I'm still trying to figure out if the demos were actually created from a game engine, or purely pre-rendered. One that's a big IF is Killzone 2. Regardless, it looks pretty. Pretty AWESOME. So the PS3 will be uber-powerful, leaving the other new consoles in the dust. Plus wireless capability (you can use the PSP as a controller), 7 controllers with Bluetooth, and 1080P dual output, standard. Kind of insane. The XBox 360 seems like it'll be decent enough, just have to see what they'll have for it, aside from Halo 2.5. I reserved mine already. Hee hee! And Nintendo's Revolution is SMALL. Three DVD cases stacked on top of each other. That's about it. Wireless, also. Not too powerful, but one of the cool things they've said is that it will be able to play any game, from any previous Nintendo system. Which means Punch-Out, Super Metroid, Starfox - all of them playable on the new system. Nifty idea, if they do it well.

Oh, and yes, Star Wars III came out yesterday. And yes, I saw it. At the one o'clock showing. One AM. I saw way too many people I know. And I have to thank Courtney for hooking me up with a spare ticket she and her brother had. Thank you, Courtney! We all took our respective PSPs and played a bit of Lumines, which was cool. A few other people took cards, and some took either portable DVD players or laptops to play the previous movies while they waited. And yes, there were plenty of costumed people there. Even a bit of "re-enactment" in the front section, with lightsabers and everything. The benefits of going to the first showings. According to the news it already shattered records for sales. So how is it? Aside from the fact that EVERYONE DIES, it's okay. No, but seriously, I won't put spoilers here. I personally think it's better than the first two movies by far. It still is much in need of a Han Solo to bring it up to par with the last three in the series. I mean really, Harrison Ford gets credit for half of the greatness of the last three episodes. And from what I hear, a lot of his lines were ad-libbed. Maybe that's what the new movies needed. Since the written lines often SUCK. But that might just be my opinion.

And I'm going out of town a few times during the next few months. This month, to Kansas City for my friend Sean's (Seanicus!) wedding. I'll be driving up there next week, take a few days off, hang out with him. Should be a lot of fun. A bit of good vacation, too. Without worrying about schedules and stuff. And I'll be wearing a tux. Hmm. Then next month, I'm leaving the country again. To where? To Mexico! Yeah, I haven't seen the family in a very long time. Way too long. I'll probably have to take a few days off without pay, but I think it's probably worth it. And yes, for the few of you who DON'T know, I'm half Mexican. Which means I have quite a bit of family in Mexico. It'll be very good to see them again. Might be scary to see how much they've all changed, though. Guess I'll see.

And music - nobody's said anything about my songs! Did you guys listen? Were they atrocious? Were they luscious? Somewhere in between? Should I stop now, or keep trying? I get my inspiration from others, so anything you have to say would be good, even if it's constructive criticism. I'd prefer you keep any destructive criticism to yourself, but thanks, anyway.

Okay, it's time for me to take care of a few things now. I have an extra bonus random link LATER, but for now, I'll do a standard one. It fits with my talking of the new item I ended up getting, which I'll stop talking about because no one wants to hear, even though I think it's quite cool. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be educated about the technology behind it.

EXTRA BONUS RANDOM LINK: Here it is. I don't normally get into Christian music, but a co-worker turned me onto this guy, and he's actually quite good. If you have doubts, check this out, then have your doubts.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 4:13 PM | 2 comments

 
Adventure - night blog!
Yes, I'm blogging at night. It's a change. How strange. But I have much to say. Still no time to format photos, ugh. I have so many. But I have... other things. Read on, if you're curious. Well, if you're here, you'll probably read on, even if you're bored out of your skull.

Okay - so to start - the weekend! Woo! It was CRAZY. Let me tell you. See, it all started on Saturday, very early. The tournament! Yes, indeed. I had to get there before 8:30, which sucks, let me tell YOU. Especially since I'd been hanging out with some friends the night before until some rather late hour. But yeah, I got up and went over. Apparently there was a typo, too, because Sifu had put on the program that registration started at 8, instead of 9. So a rather large number of people were already showing up early. Which was both good and bad. But things got under control, and we started getting everyone signed up and seated. We had a record number of people show, which was awesome. Except for YOU - you missed out. Should have been there, I'm telling you. (Except for Courtney - she did make it. You can ask her how cool it was.) Yeah, our demos to open turned out very well. Started with our lion dance. Three lions, yet again. And I got to be the gold lion, woo! Which is the "head" lion. And I was the head. To confuse you further. Yeah, our stunts turned out well, and we nailed the stack without any issue, which surprised me, but pleased the crowd, I think. I even extended my raised leg, to show more clearly how we were positioned to the crowd. We got a very good round of applause for that, and I was happy it turned out well for everyone.

So after that it was more demos from other schools. Some were cool, some were weird. We did have one from Sifu's original Sifu, a guy named Don Morrison. He did the first two thirds or so of Gung Gee, with iron rings on his arms. He did the stances quite low, and went through the form very strongly. It would have been impressive, even IF he wasn't freakin' 63 years old. Yeah, it was cool. And then it was our turn to do all our demos. It started with the kids. They all did Lau Gar Kuen (our first form), by the numbers. They did well! And then a few did Sam Yin Kuen (the second form), also by the numbers. After that, we had a couple of kids do individual sets, but Robbie won a lot of the crowd over, simply by the fact that he's about 6 and around four feet tall, but shows more ferocity than most of the adults. And he's quite good, too. After that, the kids all did some board breaking, which is always good. And then it was time for adults. So we start by doing Lau by the numbers, only the full set, where the kids only do the first fourth or so. And then the other Eric and I did the first sparring set, which turned out well. And after that, the bending of the rebar, between Justin and Eric. They did very well, and we awed some members of the crowd. I was quite proud of them.

From there the tournament really started, beginning with the kids' horse stance competition. They all did well, and the winner was actually from another school, with a very impressive two minute horse. Well, just under two minutes. And then the adults did their horse stance competition (which I did not enter, I save my pain for full-contact training). We did quite well, and the top two winners were from our school. Ron was the winner, with a 2:55 horse. The third place winner was from another school, and it was funny to see him after he fell, because he got up after he fell and promptly collapsed. I guess he didn't realize his legs were kind of dead. But he was okay. And the rest of the day was standard tournament stuff. It went well, though. Eric and I entered the group competition with the sparring set, and won our category, and then won grand champion, which was cool. We had a lot of complements on it, so that was good.

After that I just helped here and there, watched our students compete, and even helped judge one of the rings for sparring. It was only at the end I got to do my competitions, which were in weapons sparring (I won second and third, one in each weapon) and continuous sparring. Weapons sparring was a ton of fun. It was more amusing than any of the others. Eric kept playing when we'd practice by throwing the sword from a distance, and landing it. He and J.R. were competing, and Eric did hit him once like that. It was tied, 4-4, one point for the win, and J.R. threw the sword at Eric and nailed him. The look on Eric's face was priceless, but Sifu didn't count the point. Shannon won the staff competition, and ended up winning grand champion, by beating J.R., who had the sword. That grand champion competition isn't really fair, but it's funny to watch.

Black belt sparring! Yes, that was my category. Alas, only three black belts braved the category - one was a heavyweight karate master (big black guy), one was me, and the other was Shannon. Yeah, so I sparred Shannon. And he took me out pretty easily, but not as badly as last year. He nailed me with two very nice sweeps. One of them threw me on my face, but I caught myself just in time. The other swept my feet completely out from under me, and my back hit the (gym) floor. Hard. I couldn't help but smile when it happened. I did nail him with one of our combos we've been practicing, which meant about three continuous shots in the face. Hee hee! I'm catching up to him. Oh, and FYI, for those who don't know - Shannon is slightly senior to Justin. He's the old senior student. He's rather good. Since he has more than twice my experience, I don't think I did too badly.

It was a long day, and after that, it was time for relaxing. To prepare for the next day, which was the day of the workshops! I didn't get up too early, so it wasn't too bad, but I did manage to get up a decent amount of time before I had to be there. Well, before the workshop, actually, there was a storm. That's news. Because (and if you live in town this probably is no surprise) there was a very mighty crack of thunder. And most likely a very mighty strike of lightning that preceded it. Yes. I was on my way downstairs to my car, and then it hit. POW! So I jumped. Seriously. And then stepped into the garage and... nothing. It wouldn't open. Because the power was OUT. Argh. And I was going to be early, for once, too. So I called Sihing and he came by to pick me up. While I waited, I watched some TV. Yes, with the power out. My new UPS battery came in handy! I'm thinking it may have saved several of my system components too, so I got it just in time.

Sihing picks me up and we get to the workshop, where Sigung is. Buck Sam Kong! He's the man. And several students where there, all standing, listening to him very attentively as he told them bits of very good info. It was awesome to see how much respect they each had for him. The first workshop was over the 12 Hands of Hung Gar, which has some very good techniques. I need to remember to practice them more in sparring, though. I think a lot of people learned quite a bit. After that, time for some lunch at Subway, where I got some story time from Sihing. So here's the story! This is about something that happened over at Eastland Mall around the beginning of April. Why I never heard about it until now, I don't know. But it was Sihing and his girlfriend, walking back to the car after their mall excursion. And as they're walking, three Mexican guys start following them. Justin's girlfriend speaks Spanish and knew they had malicious intent, so she started getting a bit nervous. Sihing told her to just get in the car, that he'd take care of it. So they approached him, and apparently put their hands up in preparation for a confrontation. Well, Sihing was prepared. As they closed on him, he threw a round kick, striking the front guy's thigh with his shin. The guy immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming, and the other two guys, paused, and then thought better of their intentions. The cops showed up later and asked Sihing if he wanted to press charges. He simply said, "No, that's okay - I think they learned their lesson well enough." Apparently he broke the guy's leg.

So YES. Be cautious if you pick on guys that look like potential prey, even if you outnumber them, because you never know what can you may have opened. It may be a big can of worms, or if you're REALLY unlucky, a big can of whupass. I think that's what these guys managed to crack open this time.

Anyway, that was our lunch, then back to the kwoon for our full contact workshop. And I loved every minute of it. It started with Sigung telling us about what full contact is all about, and stories of how his students have entered into various competitions. How in China, where they entered against very strongly trained fighters, they learned how thoroughly some people train. And what works in a fight. I guess there were some taekwondo guys who entered, and Sigung said that there were Mongolian fighters who would rush them every time they tried a fancy kick and simply pick them up, slam them down. Sometimes in the ring, sometimes NOT in the ring. Even Sigung's students got their clocks cleaned a bit, but they did get in and fight, and didn't do too badly. The main thing Sigung said was that any time you get into full contact fighting, you WILL get hurt. The amount of training you have only determines how much you'll get hurt. And the training he put us through was great - mainly repetition of some basic combinations, some of which I'd seen before, but they're all quite effective. I'll say this - my whole back was sore the following day, from learning how to put the body behind each attack. The extra bonus was that Sigung picked me to be the demo guy. He'd look at me, smile, and then just say, "Eric!" and motion me over, so he could show how you're supposed to most effectively smack someone with a particular technique. I was honored; I think he likes me.

Sifu did get all of it on tape, so I have footage of it, and stuff to study, which is good. Yay! Maybe if you're curious, I'll show you someday. There may even be good shots of Sigung slapping me around.

After all that, it was Mother's Day, so it was time to take care of my mom. I had the family over and made everyone lasagna, which turned out moderately nicely. And baked bread, plus some wine (and Pepsi, of course), and cheesecake that my sister made. I plunked it all down for them while they watched Lethal Weapon 4, which is a great movie. I think everyone had a good time, and it was a lot of fun.

So yeah, BUSY weekend. This week's been very busy at work, especially with the consolidation of all the IT groups that has been announced. It's not a bad thing, just changes everywhere. I've been productive, though, which is good.

Something I found this week online I have to share. Not really a random link - this should be something you use, so I'll link it directly: maps.google.com. I think Google has a ton of doctors working for them, or something, because they make freakin' good stuff. Maybe someday I'll be over there. It'd be cool. Anyway, check out their map stuff. You can click and drag on the maps, they scroll very nicely. Zoom works well. Put in any intersection you want, any address, you can even get directions. And for a kicker, try clicking that link over there that says "satellite". I was wowed.

And I'm heading off to Kansas City later this month for a wedding. My friend Seanicus is getting married! It should be exciting. This has inspired me to consider purchase of a new toy. Something I'd use, especially since I'm going road tripping later this year. My consideration? A GPS receiver. A rather cool one. Yes, it's expensive, but I've been stressed enough about being lost in the past, that I think this will be worth it. I'm still in the consideration stages, but the more research I do, the more I lean towards picking one up. I'm all about having new technology toys. I can only get them every now and then, and in this case, I think it'd actually be USEFUL. We'll see.

Okay, super long nighttime blog is now over. Time for random links. And to cap off my super blog, two links. Two very special links. I know I haven't talked about recording music in a while, and mainly it's because I don't have the time. But lately I've been thinking a little more about it, and I went ahead and semi-finished one of my songs. So I have two. With lyrics. Yes, I wrote all of them. And sang them, too. Make fun, if you will - the second one I intend on redoing, but for now, I'll share it. So I'm opening my SOUL to you, be nice. Yes, the songs are rather bitter, but it's stuff that most people write songs about, so it was easy to use for lyric writing. I still don't like my voice, but maybe you'll be able to deal with it. The first song is about being a little Too Late, and the second about things that are No Longer there. Tell me what you think!

Oh - and BONUS random link... just found this. It's brand spanking new. For gamers everywhere - this is the future.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 11:34 PM | 2 comments

 
Eh, little addendum
Yeah, I don't take them TOO often, but occasionally they come out interestingly. So here's a couple.

The Race Car Driver You're 55% career-driven and 90% ambitious. In addition, you play 70% well with others, and you need a job that keeps you in the limelight 62% of the time!

You like the thought crossing the finish line alone, in front of the rest of the pack, but you also like the thought of other people watching. Sure, there's a pit crew, and sponsors, and a whole support team under you, but you're the one who gets all the glory. It's lonely at the top, and it takes a lot of work to get there. You don't want a job with normal working hours... no, you'd devote your life to this if it pays off in the end. Good luck with your future endeavors. Once you go forward, I suspect you're not the type to look back. Prefer to observe the speed limits when you drive? Try one of these (slightly) more realistic options: As of yet, I have nothing that would look normal on a tax form. Does this sound like it might descibe a job you have in mind? E-mail me with suggestions.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 58% on personability You scored higher than 59% on limelight You scored higher than 26% on career-driven You scored higher than 93% on ambition

Link: The Dream Job Test written by remymurphy on Ok Cupid

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- posted by Pootenheimer @ 9:37 PM | 2 comments

 
Cinco de Mayo
That's right, it's Cinco De Mayo today! Not that we really do anything fancy to celebrate it, in most places, but hey. Other major events are coming up - TU graduation! On Saturday. A rather important day for many people. That, and it's (coincidentally) Sifu's tournament! Yes, that's right. If you can make it - I think it's something like a $10 door charge, maybe less. If you're not competing. Competitors pay a bit more. But it'll be splendid! Hicks Park (between 21st and 31st, east off of Mingo), official start time around 10:30. So you should either go to graduation or the tournament. We'll have some splendid demos to see at the start, and Buck Sam Kong will be there! So it should be cool. I'll be sparring, which won't happen until later, but it'll be interesting to watch. Plus I'll be helping one student enter into the sparring set competition. Busy day, all around.

Oh, and this Sunday, lest you forget - it's Mother's Day! Yes, for mothers everywhere. It also happens to be the day Buck is giving two workshops, which will be excellent. So I'll have a full day.

It's been a crazy week. I've been hanging out with friends I either haven't seen in a while, or ones I just made. So it's been fun. Playing plenty of Jade Empire, with my very GOOD monk. I'm saving evil acts for the female character. She's both sexy and evil. Which somehow fits. Think what you will. If you're female, go ahead and be offended. And if you're male, go ahead and laugh, because it's true. And you ALL KNOW IT.

I've been getting back into Katamari Damacy! It's so cool. I love it. That's all I have to say about that.

Kung fu is crazy, with the full contact training. I found out something interesting on Saturday. Sifu told us he bumped our time from two to three minutes. We found out after class from sihing's grandfather Rudy that Sifu hasn't been completely straight with us. Apparently Rudy was watching the clock. So no, not three minutes. More like four and a half. Or more. Which is INSANE. And on that note, I actually held all my stances without falling once yesterday. Which is progress! Woo! Sifu even made a comment himself, that we're all improving, and he can tell. Oh, and earlier this week, I made a discovery. Normally the metal pole is reserved for people to poke a bit to see how soft they really are, and for Justin and I to condition our arms on, and a little with shins. Well, this week I went ahead and checked how my shins are doing, and I wasn't just bumping the pole with my shins, but actually KICKING it. The loud ringing coming through the classroom made everyone turn and look, and I just had to smile. Conditioning works! And I pity the next person who doesn't believe it and tries kicking me.

Anyway, I have to run to kung fu now, to help with the kids' class, and their sparring practice for the tournament. So it's a short blog today. But hey! I still have my random link for you! And today it's a GOOD one. Anyone with a cell phone will appreciate this. It helped me perpetuate my current Katamari Damacy fixation. Na naaaaa, na na na na na naaa naaa, na Katamari Damacy!
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 5:09 PM | 2 comments