It IS raining
Yeah, it's storming pretty nicely outside. I'm making a crazy late night blog post! Why, you might ask? Well, you see, I'll be leaving the country in a few hours. Yes, again. This time, I am, indeed, headed south. Mexico! I considered the fact I haven't seen my family in ten years, and that I've waited about two weeks to hear the results from my interview, so I figured getting a few days with the family probably wouldn't be a bad idea. I'll be getting a short nap here in a bit, get up, take a shower, pack my stuff into a bag or two, and then I'll be heading out. Should definitely be interesting.

We had our first real bit of sparring tonight for full-contact training. We still don't have full gloves - only one of the students has the full-sized gloves. I was using my standard sparring gloves, and Sihing used bag gloves he just got, which are pretty small and rather hard. I sparred with Sihing, then with Cory (who is moderately new, only about six or seven months), then with Sihing again, all back to back. I was quite tired by the end of it. Sihing managed to throw a few very nice punches and kicks, nailing me cleanly a few times. He had me wide open for one round punch - and I expected him to nail me so surely, I went ahead and rolled my head with the punch - although he never actually threw it. It was pretty funny, my head looked like he actually did hit me, I moved so far over. So it was back and forth a bit, here and there, and then I threw a round kick at his stomach. He blocked it, but didn't block it properly. Meaning he moved my kick. Into his groin. Yeah, he was on the ground for a decent amount of time, hands and knees. Apparently he could feel it in his throat. He took a break for a little while, so Cory and I had at it. I nailed Cory a few times, probably a little harder than I should have. I think I almost broke his nose - he said he had to readjust it, and he could feel it pop back into place. There was only a little bit of blood, though, it never actually started running. It seemed to knock the snot out of him, more than anything. We sparred for a bit, then Sihing came back, and we got back into it, pretty hard. His combinations are very nice, and he put me on the ground once, very cleanly. Not a sweep, mind you - he actually picked me up and slammed me into the ground. It was a good workout, I felt like I had actually pushed myself more than normal.

I went and saw Batman Begins last night, at the midnight showing. It was good! At least, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I must say I believe it's by far the best Batman movie. Some of the reviews seem to have been bored by the backstory they provide, but I liked it quite a bit. Gives his character more substance. And the new Batmobile is sweet. I wanted to applaud after the big car scene. It was a lot of fun. Luscious! The next one I'm looking forward to - War of the Worlds, a la Spielberg. Mmm, good.

Okay, I need to get a little sleep, at least. And this rain is making me sleepy. Hopefully the trip will turn out okay. I'll be back Tuesday sometime, and I'll let you guys know what kind of crazy sights I saw.

Link of the random variety! I found this bit of news about a guy who's working on a new invention. An invention COOL enough to merit random linkage. Behold!
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:26 AM | 0 comments