LONG week
Ugh. Yeah, it's been a very long week. It should have been a horrid week, but I grabbed it by the cojones to make sure it didn't completely jack me over. A lot of it's been stuff at work. My boss and I haven't been getting along so well this week. Although he's not been getting along with a lot of people this week. We also had one of the guys from our group leave, move to another job. I think there might be more following up on that. It just hasn't been an extraordinarily happy place to be lately. Made me feel kind of like this in recent days:


So considering I spend eight hours every day there, that wasn't great. Thankfully, kung fu's been okay. Although I think I may have broken a finger. I'm not sure. If I did, it's just a fracture, because I've still got total functionality. I've just had a weird sort of soreness and swelling between two knuckles in one of my pointer fingers. And it's right in the middle, so it's not a joint thing. But it really hasn't been bothering me, so I'm not really complaining. It's just weird.

And I've been trying to get time with my friends, but they're all busy. Busy DATING people. Which is making me ill. I'm tired of not being able to spend time with friends because they're busy being all gooshy about someone else. Especially my female friends. For some reason their boyfriends all seem to feel threatened by me and are uncomfortable with me spending any time with them, unsupervised. So anytime I've seen my friends (of the female variety) lately, it's been with their guy right by their side.

Yeah, I'm single right now, and it's the whole summer love thing that's being pushed in my face. And it's starting to piss me off. Just about everyone I know has a committed relationship, and it's being rubbed in a little too much for my own comfort. Especially all my ex's that I still talk to. Even ones I don't! My most recent ex I saw at Best Buy the other day, with her new guy. We don't talk anymore - she's the type of person who terminates all contact upon breakup. So I saw her, and her guy (who was at least three inches shorter than she was) with his arm wrapped around her waist. She didn't see me notice her, and I looked away. When she did see me, she made like a tree and got out of there.

Rebecca did come to visit, which was sort of both good and bad. Yes, she has a committed guy, too. Thankfully, he didn't come attached to her waist. But he did come attached to her phone. He seemed to be nervous about her seeing me at all. I guess I'm just TOO MANLY for some of these guys to handle. What, with my rock star kung fu skillz, I can understand. I hadn't seen her in a long time, and it was good, but it brought back memories. Which probably didn't help the whole rubbing summer love in my face whilst I be single.

But like I said, I took my bad week by the cojones, and I took a SICK DAY. Yes, I was feeling rather ill, so I split my week in half, and it made things better. Caught up on some sleep, got some more work done on my side business. And watched some decent movies. Saw Firewall, with Harrison Ford. It was pretty good, I was surprised. Also saw 16 Blocks, with Bruce Willis. And it was actually a good movie, too. It had an alternate ending, which was interesting, although I think I was okay with the theater ending. I have yet to watch Braveheart, which I haven't seen in forever. I think it'll fit my week's mood, though.

In other news, looks like I'm selling my amp. My guitar amp, yes. It's a Roland Cube-100. Very rare to find, but the guy who sold it to me (MANY years ago) wants it back, apparently. So I'll probably sell it back to him, get a new amp of some kind. Probably something a wee bit more portable. The Roland is large and in charge. And much heavier than it looks.

The new car is still on - have to wait until I have verified income to cover it, but I'll be doing it. Hopefully by the end of next month, while there are still a few months to do road tripping in good weather. It won't be any sort of solution to life issues, but it sure will be fun to have. Probably very good for the stress reduction.

Now time for random linking! I've got a few today. First, in the guitar theme. It's just cool. And for those of you still in school, you will LOVE me for this. Even those of you who are graduated and finished, you'll still find appreciation. If you look closely. Finally, it's been a while since I've linked any files, so video time. I used to be huge into magic when I was a kid, and I haven't gotten over it completely. Of everyone I've seen, lately the one that's been making me wonder is a guy named Criss. Oh, he'll do something that I understand the explanation of sometimes. Then he'll do things I don't understand the explanation of. And he'll do things that are a little freaky. Then he'll do things that are a little more freaky. And sometimes - he'll do things that are a lot freaky.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 1:13 AM | 3 comments

 
Tournament WAS Saturday!
And if you didn't go, too bad. You missed out on a lot of good stuff! The biggest tournament Sifu's had in a very long time, perhaps ever. I think over 300 people were there. Oh, and if you're not Amy, you probably weren't there. Shame, shame! You can ask her about what you missed.

The quick version: We had some excellent demos to start the tourney, from various schools. They were all very different, but good. Finished it up with our own demos, including a sparring set between me and the other Eric (which we did without messing up, yay), a bit of demonstration from the kids (including some rather exciting board breaking), and wrapping it up with the lion dance. The lion dance seemed to have gone over well. We got several complements, and above all, Sifu was very happy with it. Sifu doesn't get very happy about much. So the fact that he did about this was a fairly big deal. There were video cameras there, hopefully I can get a copy of some of the events.

Then it moved onto the actual competitions. Black belt forms was first (after the horse stance competition), so I competed there. And I won! I didn't have too much competition for my category, but I think I did the form okay. After that I spent most of my time helping out around the tournament with various things. Including being a scorekeeper as well as a judge for the continuous sparring with some categories. Sihing was pretty much in charge of the tournament and Sifu just kept watch to make sure he was running things okay. Everything turned out fairly well, though.

So went through all the various competitions, and then it ended with adult sparring. And FINALLY with black belt sparring. I got matched up with a guy who had faster kicks than anyone I've fought previously. He nailed me in the head with a snap axe kick. Although I did rack him multiple times. Apparently not hard enough. I think only once was it noticed very well. It was a close fight, the judges were split on who won each round, but in the end he got the match. It was okay with me, because after me he had to face Shannon. And no, he didn't beat Shannon. I'm just glad someone else was there to get pounded by Shannon instead of me, this time. It was almost becoming a tradition for me to face him to see what kind of pain he could inflict. It was quite a pleasure to watch someone else in the hot seat. He fought two guys and won first. I still feel bad his first, erm... victim. I'd never seen this guy at a tournament before, so I had a feeling he was rather new to our style of sparring (continuous). Shannon hit him once in the side of the head and the guy (a rather young guy) got rocked. HARD. His eyes looked like they started rolling back in his head as he stumbled off to the side for about two or three seconds. When you're in the middle of a match, two or three seconds is a LONG TIME. And it didn't really improve for him from there. Shannon did make the crowd (whoever was left at the end of the tourney) entertained, though.

So at the end of the night, I had a couple of new bumps and bruises, I was sore and exhausted, but the tournament turned out well. It was good stuff. In the morning I went back to the kwoon for the workshops, starting nice and early at EIGHT AM. Holy cow. I'm not a morning person, and I was still sore from the day before. So what was the first workshop? Why, Chin Na, of course. Joint locking techniques. From an older Chinese man who was VERY GOOD at it. I still have bruises from it. I think that might be on video, too. Hopefully they recorded the time where he grabbed my wrist and threw me to the ground with enough force to spin me around (lying down) on my butt about six times. Seriously. He didn't look extraordinarily strong or big, but he was more powerful than anyone else in the workshop by FAR. He was just playing with us. But it was fun. He'd just say, "Chin na me. Chin na!" And we'd try doing a lock on him - he'd either melt away from it or reverse the lock to put us on the ground. Our wrists were all very sore by the end of the workshop.

We had a few more workshops, including a staff form workshop, a self-defense workshop (that really wasn't anything new), and Sifu's takedown workshop. Oh man. Sifu's workshop only had three of us. One older student from Tai Chi and Crystal (who's 14). So yeah, I was Sifu's demo dummy. And I got thrown to the ground plenty of times. But there were some good techniques. I need to try to remember at least three of them.

That was essentially my weekend. I'm still sore from it, but I have some good bruises. I might post pictures of them later this week. This week it's back to the grind, work and such. But it's late! I should get to sleep. So I'll leave you with a random link. Random link action! I was watching the ultimate guy's movie earlier - Road House. It always makes me smile. Somehow Patrick Swayze reminded me of Shannon. Don't know why. Anyway, I found a blog that's related to the movie. Sort of. Well, you can see what I mean.

Oh! And since I've been thinking about cars lately (don't know why), bonus random link. Not everyone knows what my first car was. But I'll tell you what. It was faster than people assumed it would be.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:54 AM | 1 comments

 
Tournament Saturday!
That's right, the tournament is this Saturday. Starts at 10 AM, at the Hicks Park Community Center. That's at about 33rd and Mingo. So if you're interested in seeing some crazy kung fu action LIVE, then you should come check it out!

I'll be competing, doing lion dance, helping judge, being busy all day. Black belt forms are first, but sparring isn't until the end. Don't know why it's like that, but oh well. Chances are I'll be fighting Shannon (again). Or Sihing. Well, technically Shannon is ALSO my Sihing. But I'm definitely the low man on the totem pole. Should be interesting, definitely.

Aside from that, work was productive today. I actually did finish a project. I think it was my weekly project. Tomorrow we have a get together at Jamba Juice. Not sure why, but I guess it's a team building thing. I find it funny. I'll tell you why... later.

And my side business continues. It's building, slowly. I have a part of it definitely working, making some money, which is COOL. Now I'm working on expanding it. To give you an idea of how this is going - the combination of all of my various incomes means that there's a good chance I'll be making six figures. By the end of this year. Seriously. I still can't believe that - it's crazy. But hey! Since I've got a little more money coming in than normal, it means I'll be able to get, oh, say... a NEW CAR! Yes, I've decided which one I'm getting. And I have to go with Honda. Why Honda? I'm not sure, but I think I might be in love. And depending on how things go, I may have it as soon as the end of this month.

If I get it, that'll be the first car I've ever chosen. So it's almost like a first car for me. Although, ironically, it'll be a second car, since I'm keeping the current one. You know, to head to work and such. Since a two seater isn't the best for standard errands. Although I have a feeling I'll be driving the S2K quite a bit when I first get it. Just a hunch. So if you want a ride, let me know - I probably won't have a problem picking you up. Hee hee! It makes me rather excited.

So in other news - we've been preparing for the tournament. I helped Justin (my Sidai, not Sihing) work on his sparring. Amy came by and got to witness class, so she has an idea of what it's all about. And Sifu's changed Monday/Wednesday classes, so we now have two separate classes: one for beginners, one for intermediate/advanced. I'll be teaching the second class. Just makes me realize how far I've progressed. It's crazy!

That's what the rest of this week will be, is tournament preparation. I just hope we get our lion dance perfected for Saturday. We'll see!

Okay, random link time! I've got a good one today. Have you ever sold anything on eBay? Did you know that people can ask you questions about your product? Did you know that there are a lot of dumb people out there?
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 11:16 PM | 0 comments