As mentioned many other places on the blogosphere, November is NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month. In essence, it is a writing goal to compel people to post to their blogs at least once daily in November. I’m going to unofficially participate this year to see if I can get it done daily, if it goes well I’ll make it official next year.

Mad props to the former Miss on joining the fray as well as Debra over at Reflecting, and to all my other friends committing themselves to unabated bloggery goodness.

Time to take a few deep breaths before November starts and launch in feet first. Those of you reading this, give it a go too!

On Thursday night, the black belts were tapped to help correct during a very basics oriented class. Sensei Brewer worked with some of the lower ranked students in basic distancing concepts, and us black belts got to help keep them out of arms reach of one another.

In between the first and second class, and I were working on some distancing drills where we would do lunge punch or front kick and gradually work our distance apart so we were forced to cover more ground each time. We were reintroduced to this drill by Sensei Quinn last week and have been continuing to work on it.

I ended up across from Dobbleaire-san, when I started trying to get across “the line” – the midway point between one stance and the next – faster. This worked and I was able to catch up with him, so I resolved to try it during slow sparring if possible.

So I did. We got to do some slow sparring, and as slow sparring tends to do it amped up. With my first few partners things went normally, I was able to catch them but barely. Then along came my match with Oedewaldt-san. Before we began, he asked if we were going slow or free and I replied “slow… and free.”

Apparently, my intention was not that clear. I decided to use the strategy of wading in slowly and building a rhythm, then quickly launching across the line and throwing some techniques to break the rhythm. This worked extremely well, however I wasn’t quite so able to control my punches at this distance, and one ended up in his neck and at least two punches met with his mouth.

I felt bad- very bad- right after this had happened because it split his lip open and he was bleeding. I thought that perhaps I could’ve gone slower or controlled my punches more, but this is the nature of advanced karate. I’ve taken many a-lump in this exact same mode, and I suppose I can’t feel too bad about doling out a few lumps.

After class I apologized to him and all is right with the world, but I did wonder why I felt so badly about this one incident. I think in the end it is because this particular strategy worked extremely well and I had intended to use it ahead of time. I was happy that the strategy worked, but you never want that to be at the expense of your training partner.

I’m going to keep working on this same strategy in a more controlled fashion as things move forward. Hopefully in time I will figure out the distance. Until then, I hope my opponents can front a healthy rising block. 🙂

I’ve been listening to my iPod for about 5 hours now and I’ve not had one of the problems that I had before I attempted the fix, so I’m willing to designate that effort a success!!

Should something bad happen to this iPod, the backup plan was to use Tasha’s old shuffle until I deem the storage capacity on the new iPod Touch worthy.

It’s not that I don’t REALLY want the iPod Touch, its just that I’d rather have something that can do video have beaucoup storage space. I have designs on ripping my TV to iPod video format and have some sort of autosynch set up so that I can tow my MythTV video around with me and watch it once I get one of those… but that might be more tricky than it seems.

Either way… current iPod lives on, and I am happy I was able to do it myself. If I had any warranty left on it, I would’ve voided it, but I’m not worried about that. 🙂

Tonight’s class was a sparring bonanza. We started off the night with a partner drill relating to Taikyoku Shodan. We got in groups of three and basically just went through the first four movements of the kata and used them to defend against different attacks. It was a good, basic set of sparring drills and the higher ranks got to continue working on some distance principles that we started on last week.

In between class, and I did some distancing drills working on extension and covering distance like we did with Sensei Quinn last week. I can’t speak for him, but I’m getting a lot out of doing drills like that and seeing how far we can stretch our techniques and have them remain effective.

The second class consisted of further basic drills, and since the intermediate ranks have officially left the building it was mostly brown and black belts. I got a little rowdy with a few people during three to five time attack but it was well deserved, and we were all black belts so I hope the rowdiness was well received. What’s a few punches between friends? 🙂

We moved into one time sparring, similar to the Shodan test. We lingered a bit on side thrust kick and back kick, for some reason my back kicks were functioning quite well tonight. I usually don’t complain too much when that happens!

It was a good workout, the EndoRush did me well, and much good karate stuff was had!

iPod Autopsy
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

Two days ago, my iPod started acting extremely funny. It started with a clicking sound, and then it would not synch. I got the sad folder icon, followed by the sad iPod icon. I thought that maybe the battery had just gone out, so I put it on the charger.

The next morning, I decided to attempt to synch it again. This time it gave me a message indicating that the iPod was corrupted and needed to be reset to factory settings. I did that, and it popped back to semi-life.

I listened to a few podcasts and some songs, and noticed that things were strange between song transitions and the menus were freezing up. A certain song was freezing the iPod so bad that it would stop the song and drop to the menu. The iPod was continuing to exhibit a clicking sound, so I did some searching.

I found that some iPod exhibiting “The Click of Death” can be fixed simply by reseating the hard drive cable. That means I had some surgery to do. It took me about 15 minutes with a screwdriver to crack the case, but it only took a few seconds to reseat the hard drive cable.

I closed everything back up and tried the podcast again. No problem. No clicking. I tried the song that froze up twice, and it was fine. No clicking. I WIN! 🙂

Over the weekend, we stopped into GNC and educated me in the way of energy supplements since I had so much success from the Eight Ball shot that he gave me at the seminar. He pointed out EndoRush and cautioned me that I should only drink 1/4 of it since there are four servings in a 16 oz bottle.

I followed the directions and thanks to a Hiram Walker 2 oz shot glass I had the appropriate measuring tool… two of those and it was off to the dojo. I noticed about 10 minutes into the warmups that my muscles already felt warmed up and breathing was easier than it usually was before. Remembering advice from my Dad, I still did a full stretch out. He says that even when muscles feel warm they may not be, so stretch ’em out all the way.

It was Sensei Quinn on deck tonight, and we got a KILLER basics workout. Simple techniques up and down the floor, but focused on bladed shoulders and kicking off the back foot. For some reason I just couldn’t make my back foot stay down and I couldn’t keep from sliding. I need to work on it, Sensei Quinn tried several times to fix it but my old habits were dying hard.

There were only black belts left for the second class, so we did partner drills. We were working on jab and reverse punch, but we worked on it in “an old Japanese way.” We did sparring drills that were designed to work on distance and body action. I found out that I can do reverse punches from WAAAAY further back than I previously thought possible. We need to work on these drills more often… I think everyone got a lot out of them, if for no other reason than they were a slightly different perspective than we’re used to.

I was really impressed with the results of using EndoRush, and even more impressed with the results of the drills that we did tonight. It was a night of good karate and I didn’t feel terrible at the end of it, I hope to have more workouts exactly like this one in the near future.

That being said, Real Life is getting in the way: I have to work Thursday night and help my mother-in-law move on Saturday night. So my next opportunity to train will be Monday night or Tuesday night. 😛

Tonight I had to run to the store for a bag of rabbit food. I had chosen to wear my black NSFW (Not Safe For Work) t-shirt that was so kindly gifted to me by Miss and .

As I was checking out, I could tell that the checkout girl was trying very hard to read my shirt. Don’t you guys hate it when girls stare at your rippling pectorals? I know I do. Either way, I decided to play it cool while she furrowed her brow in a vain attempt to understand much like a monkey doing a math problem.

Finally, as she was handing me my receipt she asked “I just have to know… what’s the point of your shirt?” Maybe it was the way she asked, but I didn’t quite know what to say to that question. Do I point out that the gag is fashioned to look like a movie or video game rating? Do I explain to her what NSFW means? Do I launch into an explanation why that is funny? “Is it like a joke?” she continued. “Yeah… I’m a wise-ass and my coworkers wanted to point it out to me.” “Oh… ok… have a good night” she replied.

OK, so it was a lot funnier in the moment. Sue me, I’m tired. 🙂

Thursday night’s class was the usual test prep class… Sensei Brewer put Rush-san and through their paces. I’m going to fast-forward past this workout not because the class was unimportant but because there was a LOT of good karate stuff from the weekend.

The clinics with Sensei Otis this weekend were excellent. I think I did more backfist strikes in one session than I have in the last few years prior. The intensity level of the session escalated quickly, and I was really dogging it by the end. We did some drills on attacking to the angles that were making some good sense, and I was grasping the concept even though several of the iterations of partner drills did not go as smoothly as I would’ve liked.

We took a break for lunch, then it was time for the second seminar. It was more of the same concepts, although we got further into some body actions and distance drills. We did one drill in particular that really stuck with me where we did some footwork drills with a partner to allow quick turning and response to an attack. This is exactly the type of thing that I needed to focus and work on more and I hope to incorporate it into my sparring. For awhile I was across from during that one and it was one of those memorable moments of extreme fatigue and good hard karate techniques.

It took a lot out of me though, and I was almost completely blown out by the end of that session. Thankfully, help came in the form of an energy drink shot called an Eight Ball courtesy of . I drank it down (with a Diet Bawls chaser to get all the vitamin goodness out) about ten minutes before the start of the last session and I was able to keep my breath and make it through the seminar without any of the “I’m going to die” feelings that I had during the first two.

The final seminar of the day was on attack and defense timing and strategy. Much of this session was similar to elements that Sensei Brewer has been teaching both in class and in instructor training over the last few months, but with Sensei Otis the pacing of drills and opponents was very fast. I think I sparred with no fewer than 10 different people in an hour and fifteen minute period. Thanks to the energy drink I wasn’t completely dead by the end, but my feet, arms, and thighs were really burning from all the exertion.

We were headed over to the main dojo for the black belt examination. We had two people taking the exam: Rush-san and our very own . Having fervently intended not to have to spar during the black belt test, , and I were standing outside the dojo in our street clothes when Sensei Brewer came out and asked for a volunteer to spar during the exam.

and I gave each other the silent “you go first” stare, and he pointed out that he had done the last few black belt tests. So eventually I volunteered and cut an obscenity laden swath back to the truck to get my gym bag so I could change.

“But why didn’t you want to spar? You usually love it!” you might ask, and let me explain. I do love sparring, however as previously mentioned in many of my karate blogs over the last year or so I possess an uncanny ability to *sometimes* make the tiny, insane monkey that steers around FREAK OUT and revert to old, less desirable sparring habits. Sparring wasn’t a problem, however I did not want to be responsible for the outcome if this situation occurred. I was so nervous about it that I felt the rabies kick on while I was sitting there watching him do Tekki Nidan, and I knew there was nothing to be done about it at that point. The fight was coming to him, he was going to have to handle it.

As I’m sure photographic evidence will document, handled it like a champ and had an excellent test. In fact, he sparred generally better than he has against me in quite some time. I got some unexplained bruises from the exchange, I think we both scored some points by the end but he emerged victorious. I’m extremely happy for him on so many levels that I should just leave it at that, or else this long post will be a novel.

The same can be said for Rush-san. He was nervous and exhausted going into the test, by the end he was extremely exhausted but emerged with a shiny new black belt. He’s been a brown belt for an extremely long time and I am thrilled for him as well… getting your black belt is a moment that you will never forget.

As you can see, it was an excellent weekend for our dojo and for some good, solid karate stuff. I was sore today and will likely be sore tomorrow, but its that good kind of sore where you know that something went right.

We were a little concerned when 6:40 pm rolled around and the only people at the dojo were three black belts and half a dozen white and yellow belts. A few scraggling brown belts drifted in eventually, and Sensei Brewer arrived right as we were getting ready to put our heads together to formulate a lesson plan.

It was a very good basic workout for the first class. Sensei Brewer split the class into four groups and had each of the black belts spend a few minutes teaching a specific technique. He would come around, check our progress, add in a few corrections of his own, and then rotate the groups so we had a fresh batch of students. I got lunge punch, which meant my job was relatively easy. Most of my corrections revolved around squaring up shoulders or pulling back harder “like you’re ripping someone’s nose off.”

The second class was MUCH more intense. Sparring combinations up and down the floor followed by rapid fire Heian kata. I don’t know if it was just me or what, but I had a really tough time getting my wind during the katas. Thankfully, and Rush-san were testing, so they got the dubious honor of being called out and made to do several kata. There was some discussion about whether Tekki Sandan is on the Shodan testing requirements (its not in the passport book that way, but it may be a typo).

The remainder of the class was Sparring Bonanza. The class was split up to spar with the two testing candidates in a fashion befitting their respective test, and I got the honor of being across from first and we MIXED IT UP. I landed several good shots to his face, and he got me once or twice with his round kick. I was feeling pretty “on” tonight, so I left feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

I got the chance to rotate over and do jyu-ippon sparring with Rush-san. It was fun, but I don’t get as much pleasure out of landing single techniques when they know what is coming. I’d much rather put the thrusters on full auto and run right through there with whatever comes out. The class felt like it was over too soon, I would’ve liked to rotated around once more for some additional free sparring.

For those curious, yes, I did wear a shin guard over my 3″ wide dark purple bruised shin. When we were doing combinations, performing a round kick made it throb so I figured it best not to invite more blunt force trauma.

With testing for Sandan, I’ve been giving some thought to it since that’s where I will be next. I was talking with after class and the topic came up as to when we’d even start thinking about an exam. Unless something changes, I’m good where I’m at for the moment. I’m in no hurry to test because I feel comfortable with myself when I’m sparring and I’m enjoying teaching a little and training.

Now if Sensei comes up to me tomorrow and says start thinking about it, that may change the game but if left to my own devices it will probably be awhile before I even consider it. The training is the good part, the belt rank is less important.