May is ALMOST over
But not yet. Not yet. It's late, yes, but I felt a blog was in order. It's been crazy here and there. How?

Well, we did have a lovely three-day weekend. I spent 1.5 of those days CLEANING. Which is sorta sucky, but good at the same time. I realized the majority of my cleaning involves taking care of old mail. Because I don't like messing with mail. Not sure why. That, and I have a few magazines more than I probably need. But I did get a lot done! So I feel accomplished. Just need to take out a few loads of trash, vacuum, and it'll be better. I also realized I have not enough shelf space for my DVD collection. Goodness! What's a nerd to do? Maybe I just need to upgrade my shelf. But not yet. Not yet.

Ooh! Mike (a sihing from Vegas) is looking like he'll be around for a few months. We got to have a day of sparring on Friday. It was very educational. I realized I haven't sparred in TOO long. So I sparred with the other Eric, and then with Mike. The other Eric's gotten quite a bit better. To be honest, he's got lots of speed, but he's still sort of a wuss. I pull all my punches (I probably need to stop doing that so much), but he hits. The problem for him is when he hits, it doesn't really hurt. I don't know how much harder he can hit, but I'm thinking he still has a ways to go. I mean really - he kicked me in the FACE and I didn't really even wince. That, and he throws very high kicks. Which, in our class, just begs for a specific counter-attack. So yes, I racked him three times. I was nice, though, again pulling punches. Or in this case, kicks. And threw a shin into his thigh. And at the end of the fight backfisted the side of his head. I think that's what ended our match. Then he went up against Mike. Mike racked him, too, but didn't pull it as much as I did. He ended up hitting the ground, and was done for the evening.

Then it was MY turn to fight Mike. I do like fighting him. He's had many more years of experience, and a lot of his is in street fighting. So he does a lot of shin kicks. A little different from what I'm used to, but it was cool. We traded some hits, I actually did rack him (well, I could have, but I thought it wiser to not pull it too close on him). He popped me a few times nicely, I got him a couple, and then it ended when he countered a punch, spun me, circled me, and put me into a rear naked choke. I could have tried to get out, but I just tapped. He had it pretty good, if he hadn't let go, I venture to guess another five seconds and I might have blacked out. It was a lot of fun! And no, I'm not kidding. Maybe I'm just masochistic.

So then today we had class again. I led warmups, standard fare. After class was over a lot of the students cruised over to Chris's school. Chris is one of the other black belts under Sifu (one of the two students I trained next to who now run their own school). Chris is a little crazy, but he was excited to see me and show off his kwoon. They have a pretty cool school - it's out in north Tulsa. And by north I mean north of 244. So yes, in the sketchier part of town. His students are interesting. Mike showed up, so... yes, inevitably, it turned into sparring. Mike sparred with Chris's students, taught them a few things. It was fun to watch. I just sat on the side, watched him and Eric spar the other guys. And surprise! Eric got racked AGAIN. He really needs to learn that throwing high taekwondo-style kicks is begging for pain. Afterwards I went in to talk to the guys about different techniques, and checked up on their conditioning. Apparently my shins are still a little above normal on the "OH MY GOODNESS THAT HURTS" scale. I think I left a few bruises around there. On other people's shins. But it was interesting to talk to the guys. They do love their kung fu, so we got along just fine. I think I'll have to get back up to speed on my sparring, then get into it with them again sometime.

Aside from kung fu, what else has been happening? Well, the cleaning. The puppies! They're all gone, except for three. I think one of them will be picked up tomorrow, and one my parents are keeping. The other is still up for grabs. If you're interested, let me know.

And now time for a little side story! Well, preceded by some pictures. CRAZY pictures. Yes, these are real. And yes, it's in Oklahoma. Surprise.



The fellow in the pictures is Larry Earley. He lives about 30 miles from Tulsa, in the very rural community, just off the 412 turnpike. He has 20 acres of land and on it, a few cows and horses. Mostly it's pasture land that is fenced with woods surrounding him.

He is neighbored by a larger cattle ranch.

His neighbor has complained for several years that wild hogs had been raiding his cattle feeders and salt licks.

Last month he saw what he thought was a cow in his pond and went to see if it was stuck in the mud and would have to be pulled out. When he got close enough to realize it was a hog, the thing made a charge at him. He had driven his truck down to the pond and carries a pistol in it (as any Oklahoma redneck would, and I say that with genuine affection). He got his handgun and when it came at him again, he shot it twice and killed it.

Wild hogs in Oklahoma usually run from 100-400 pounds with a 400 pounder being a monster. Because this one had been feasting on grain for several years it had grown to mammoth size. When Larry took it to the processor it weighed in at over 1100 pounds! The meat has no wild taste, as it was grain fed; and Larry is quite the hero. He has fed many in the county and provided the homeless shelter in downtown Tulsa with a couple of meals.

Isn't that lovely? Mmm, yes. Actually, I HAVE bacon. I need to get one of those microwave bacon pans. I tried cooking some on the stove. It didn't work out so well.

Okay! Time for random link! Today it's just random. Nothing overly fun or cool. Just random. It's something that I've been researching. And I found it something good to know about. Just in case I might need to know in the future.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 1:21 AM | 0 comments

 
Changes
I've talked about it before, but I do believe that there are cycles in our lives where things change. Not just one or two things, but LOTS of things. It seems to be one of those times for me. So what's changed? Ah, well, I'll break it into individual paragraphs (as I have a tendency to do).

One change is the whole side business thing. I think it's shifting to a point where it really is a side business. I'm not just playing around anymore, I'm actually making some money with it. How much? A decent amount. Enough to cover payments of...

A NEW CAR! Yes, I just felt like saying it like that. I haven't bought one yet, I'm probably going to wait a few months. But if everything goes as it has been, I'll be able to afford it. I'm debating between two. They're about the same price, which is moderate, a little more expensive than my current car, but not much. Choice One: A Toyota Prius. It gets 60 MPG, has all sorts of gadgetry inside, and just has the cool factor of being a hybrid. It's not the best-looking car, though, and it's not very zippy. I've had a few people mention that they somehow don't see me in that car. They see me in something more like Choice Two: A Honda S2000. It gets a little worse mileage than my current car, but my current car is actually really good for mileage (averages around 25-26 MPG). It's VERY zippy, it's small and cool-looking. Plus, it's convertible! If I went with it, I'd probably keep the old car, use it for my main ride (to put the most miles on), and use the S2000 on weekends and for fun. I'll probably decide and buy one in a few months. If anyone has any recommendations or advice, feel free to toss it into a comment.

Kung fu! Things aren't too different, although it's something that's changed a little since I got the belt. However, we have one of the original students coming back to Tulsa. At least, there's a possibility he will. His name's Mike, and he was living in Vegas. Some stuff happened, and I guess he just wants to move, so he's thinking about coming back. From what I've heard of him, he was one of the best fighters in our kwoon. I've fought him once - he left some very nice scars on me after that one day. They faded, but he definitely knows how to mix it up. That has the chance to change things quite a bit. Also, we have our tournament coming up - you should come! June 10th. Details in the future. We'll be doing a lion dance, there will be other demos there. Should be luscious.

I got a new guitar. Just now, actually. My sister Marni's roommate Marni (there's no typo there) is moving tomorrow morning and needed some rent money, so she wanted to sell her Fender Stratocaster. American made, a high quality instrument. I was planning on buying one eventually, but this just pushed it a little sooner than anticipated. That's okay - it's really a great guitar, and feels awesome to play. I might have to record some new songs with it.

Which I can now do, once I install my new hard drives! I spent $200 at Best Buy. How much space does that buy? You'd think something like, oh, 250 GB, right? Or even 300! But no, with that money I purchased 640 GB of space. I'll be RAIDing them so they're mirrored, or perhaps doing a manual backup. When you have 320 GB of stuff, you don't want to accidentally lose it, much less with 640 GB. So I'll sacrifice half of it to keep a solid backup. Which means I have space for Naruto! And music, both other stuff and my own. I might just get a new computer to put them in sometime.

And I have an old friend coming into town who I haven't seen in forever. Rebecca! She's an ex, and we separated purely because she had to move away. It was a tragic tale. But I haven't seen her in a while, so it'll be good to hang out with her.

Speaking of redheads, I finally got to meet another friend of mine who I've known for over a year. Has that ever happened to you? You meet someone somewhere, online, or on the phone, and don't meet them for a while? We were pen pals, basically, for over a year. We finally got to hang out, and it turns out she's very cool. Better in person than online, I must say. We had some eerie similarities in taste, such as what she chose to start learning guitar with (song choice), and the fact she's a math guru. We'll probably see each other again sometime. Maybe even before another year passes! But who knows.

Oh, and my old roommate Nick has moved into the neighborhood. Well, he's moving a mile away in about a week or so, so we might actually start hanging out a little more often. That, or perhaps car pool to work. He's got two roommates, they bought a house. If they don't kill each other, it might turn out very nicely. Oh, and we'll only car pool if I get...

A NEW JOB! Well, I'm leaving it open to possibility. I've had a few pokings into new job opportunities. I'm just hoping to find something that uses my education (aherm, it's annoying that no one seems to notice/care I have a Master's Degree at my current job) and can actually give me some fun work to do, with upward mobility a realistic possibility. I may know if this change will happen within a couple of weeks.

So yes, many changes. A few rather major ones. Plus the whole buying a house thing. No, not yet. But that's probably going to happen around the time of the next "cycle event". Need to get my new job (if it's going to happen) and solidify my side business, first. When I'm making six figures, I might be able to afford a house comfortably. And that might happen sooner than I originally was expecting it to.

And that's all! Well, I have a few pictures on my phone I wanted to put up, but I'm feeling lazy, so not today. I WILL put up a random link, though. So random link time! So random. Hey! I do kung fu! Did you know that? Kung fu started with the Shaolin temple. Or so they say. Did you know that there are still some Shaolin monks that are around? And that some of them like to mess with people who don't know anything about kung fu? Now you know.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:04 AM | 4 comments

 
Carpe Diem
Yes. Seize the day! I've seized a few days lately. One of which was Friday. I had a co-worker come by, we got some food. It was Cinco De Mayo, so maybe that was motivation to be a little crazier. We picked up some food to go, and I was talking to the girl at the counter. She was rather cute, and when we get back to the car after grabbing the food, I was thinking, "Why should I hesitate?" So yes! Yes, dear reader, I went back inside and asked her out. I must admit, it's the most unique response I've gotten yet. She laughed and smiled, said thanks, and said, "Thanks, but I've got a girlfriend." Yes, that's right. A GIRLfriend. I made some comment about saying that was a valid excuse, and she gave me props on being brave. Not sure if it was because I reacted in a more positive way to her admission of having a girlfriend, or because I came in and just asked her out. And if you think she made it up, I actually made a comment about she didn't have to make that up, if she didn't think I was "worthy" (in so many words) she could just outright reject me, and that'd be better. She said no, she was telling the truth, and showed me a ring. So looks like I just picked the wrong girl.

Oh well! It's probably better that way. It's too bad, though - she was quite lovely. But I did seize the day. Or the night, I guess.

And this past week I've been seizing days all over the place! Yes, working my butt off. Not at work, mind you, but after work. Trying to get my business going more. And it seems to be working! I actually seem to be in the black on a daily basis now, which is a BIG accomplishment for me. Deep down, I'd like to brag about it, but I don't think I have much to brag about. Yet. I'll just keep my nose to the grindstone and so forth, and perhaps I'll get there.

Speaking of bragging and things I don't brag about, I DID get my black belt. Finally. It feels weird to be wearing it now, but I rather like being in all black while I'm teaching. Ooh! We have a lion dance coming up. For a birthday party. Imagine that. There will be some rather surprised girl this next weekend. Should be fun.

Speaking of lion dancing, Sifu's teaching me and Cory a new move. He wants something fancy for our tournament (June 10th), so we need to learn something new. And something new we've learned. It involves jumping from elevated positions. Rather scary, but since Sifu seems to think I can jump rather nicely, he has no qualms asking us to do it. So that means we have no choice but to do it. Hopefully everything will be polished by the time we perform it.

Speaking of performing, Sihing and I went to the Renaissance Fair on Sunday. It was crizzazy. Straight out of my childhood imagination. I was impressed. We got to check out all the booths, and we were there in time to see a jousting competition. I have video of it, but I'll put that up a little later (I need sleep soon). And we also tried our hands at archery, which I haven't done in forever. Turns out my skills were actually not too bad, for not having done it in forever. I nailed the target dead on a few times. Maybe that could be a side hobby. Could be fun! At any rate, we'll probably go back again sometime this month, but with some cash to partake of the lovely events and massive food items.

Okay, that's enough for tonight. I should get some sleep. Work tomorrow, then more work, then play! It'll be good. Random link time - don't know how many of you check this regularly, but Google's video page has some crazy stuff on it. You know, cute things, amazing things, and sometimes just weird things. Oh! And one more thing. Even though Wii is weird for a name, I'm definitely going to get one. And I think you might want one, too, when you see what it's like to play it.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:20 AM | 1 comments

 
Saturday Afternoon
It's Saturday, I'm chillin' with not much to do (at the moment). It's a rare moment of peace. Although I do need to take out my trash sometime soon. Which is more like a rare moment of piece. Something like that.

Yes! Hopefully this weekend will go well. I don't know about as well as last weekend, but well will be okay. Why did last weekend go well? Kung fu was good all around, and it kicked off nicely with a little game of poker. Higher stakes than normal. Since it was payday, I figured why not. It was okay, since I turned out to have the upper hand! Yes, I won the majority of the jackpot, which was lovely. How much, you might wonder? Not too much. A measley $65. Considering I only put down $5 cash, that wasn't too bad. I actually won $95, but I had to subtract my buy-in. Texas Hold 'Em! Gotta love it. At least when you're doing well.

So that was quite nice. Bought me some dinners and covered my work munchies for the week. And a movie rental or two. Speaking of! I rented The Fly. Oh man, I had forgotten about that movie. It's actually really good, although one of the more horrific movies I can remember ever watching. If you're brave, try it out. One of Jeff Goldblum's best. That, and I just finished watching Ichi the Killer. It did the impressive accomplishment of making me almost stop watching. It has some quite horrific scenes as well, although a bit less tasteful than The Fly, if you can believe that. Definitely not something for the weak-hearted. The gore is above and beyond, plus some other scenes that won't fly in American releases.

As far as movies go, I went to an early showing of Mission Impossible III with Amy, who managed to find out there was Thursday night showing. Thankfully, almost no one knew. We walked in at ten 'til, almost no one there, and there were already people lining up for the midnight showing (which more people knew about). So a decently calm showing. It was a good movie! Even though Tom Cruise is INSANE, the movie was good despite his being the main character. And Philip Seymour Hoffman made for a very good bad guy. Plenty of twists and turns, I was entertained enough by it that I might actually go to see it a second time.

Work lately has been bleah. Our boss's favorite phrase is "Is that work-related?" which he says at least five times a day, I think. Since most of us are done with all of our current projects, it's hard to stay work-related. I had been checking on my logs for my side business, and even that was too not work-related for me to do, so apparently I can't touch anything related to non-work stuff when I'm at work. So no e-mail (that's not work-related), no independent research on stuff, no online mail, no chat programs, etc. It's a lovely sort of business constriction. At least we still get CNN and Slashdot. And also The Daily WTF, which I like quite a bit. Somehow Friday's entry felt a little too close to home. Oh, and everyone at work loves their Engrish, too. Makes for great desktop backgrounds.

So yes, I'm still working on my side business. It takes a lot of my time, but I'm making progress. I am actually making money with it, so that's good. Not a lot, but it's probably just enough to off-set the rising gas prices, which I'm happy with. If I keep getting progress, then I might actually be able to pay some bills with it. Who knows? The sky's the limit!

Okay, so it's time for the weekend. Take out some trash, maybe play a little, get some R&R. Random link! I'll share something we talked about at our weekly meeting at work. Yes, one of my co-workers actually printed this out and gave everyone a copy. He said he printed it because we wouldn't believe it if he just told us. And you know something? He was probably right.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:08 PM | 0 comments