The Chronicles of the Great Nerd Warrior » octblopomo

Be nice to me, I voted!

dante8 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:43:31 +0000

Since I am going to be en route to my new place on Election Day, I voted early! Woot for democracy!

2008 Workout #83-85: Pullback, footwork, and kata…

dante8 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:43:55 +0000

Honestly, I can’t recall a lot about the workouts last week except that they were full of pullback, footwork, and fair to middling amounts of frustration at not getting these fundamentals to work correctly! Therefore, I will focus on tonight’s workout.

It was just the lesser black belts to start class tonight, so Kevin-san elected to split into kata groups. I got Liz-san, and we worked for most of the class on Bassai Dai and Tekki Nidan with more focus on the latter. We worked on the fundamental movements and we got to the point where I was being very picky about movements and relaxation but I think she did a great job.

The second class was partner drills, focusing on footwork. Sensei Brewer had us moving from the flats of our feet, working to push off of our heels to get going. This is an achilles heel (hehehe) for me, as I tend to pull my heel up after pushing with it and lose a bunch of my moving forward energy there. Tonight I had a few instances of getting the right feeling, but in the end I still need to work on this closely.

Thursday night is my last regularly scheduled workout for awhile in Pekin, so the black and brown belts might adjourn to Goodfellas for a few drinks after class. Be there or be square!

The Goings-Away…

dante8 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:54:27 +0000

This weekend marked the first major volley of going away parties. A very rousing good time was had with my D&D crew, culminating in a goodly amount of intoxicated Rock Band 2.

Today, we headed to Goofy Ridge to see Tasha’s family, and then it was on to our October family birthday party where they surprised us with a big basket of “necessities” for living away from our brood. These included cards for Euchre, a bottle of wine, a 20 year old cookbook from my grandma, and a good portion of chocolate and caffeine. They also presented us with a huge photo collage picture frame with everyone represented and a very nice card… it was very awesome.

Hopefully that about does it for the overly emotional goodbyes, but at this point nothing will surprise me. Onward to my last week of work in Peoria for awhile!

2008 Workout #82: Post clinic fun!

dante8 — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:47:43 +0000

Tuesday was the first class after our clinic, and we spent the majority of the class working on matters of pullback related to basic technique. It seemed to be a more intense class to me, I was having some difficulty catching my breath and making my body do what I wanted. I think it had to do with my body still repairing from the weekend… all those new muscle cells don’t know how to do the right things yet.

The second class was a buffet of good karate stuff. We started out with some basic combinations, and that led us to some partner drills where we got to apply those concepts. At one point, we did a timing drill where we got to square off against two partners and they took turns attacking you on a command from Sensei Brewer. Naturally, I got across from Oedewaldt-san and Sensei Quinn. It was a good exercise and I felt pretty strong!

We wrapped up the night with some Heian kata, a nice cooldown to a rockin’ workout!

Death Cab for Cutie concert last weekend…

dante8 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:41:56 +0000

Last weekend we took a break from the relocation procedures to take in a Death Cab for Cutie concert in Champaign. I had only been exposed to Death Cab for Cutie via a few tracks featured on The O.C. and the fact that they are considered a major force in indie rock. I didn’t have a lot of expectations going into the concert, which is good because THEY ROCKED.

As a result, Tasha and I ran out the next day and bought an iTunes gift card and picked up three of their albums. They did a great job and the performance of the song “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”, Ben Gibbard’s lead vocals were moving. They put a lot of energy into their show and it was really worth the money!

I think this has been the first concert where I came out of the show a bigger fan that I went in. I will see them again pretty much every chance I get!

2008 Workout #81: Yabe Clinic and Dan Test…

dante8 — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:49:27 +0000

Today was our annual Big Clinic in Saint Louis, we were lucky enough to get instruction from Sensei James Yabe again. I always enjoy attending his classes, we did a lot regarding hip action and timing while sparring. I will elaborate in more detail soon, but for now I am stiff and tired so I’m going to save the gory details for tomorrow.

Special congratulations go out to Sensei’s Oedewaldt and Quinn for passing their respective sandan and yondan tests, they both really put up a great exam and deserved every last bit of it!

Sold the house!

dante8 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:10:37 +0000

Just got a call from my realtor, she said that they accepted our counteroffer contigent on the completion of the repairs! Their counteroffer almost perfectly breaks us even with the 5% down that we had to have in order to secure our new mortgage in Colorado.

At this point I’m considering breaking even as good as making a little money on the deal, since the economy has softened (NOT receded) and we’re nearing the holidays. We win!! It’s sake time!

2008 Workout #80: A hard one!!

dante8 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:03:40 +0000

Tonight’s workout was exceedingly difficult. I was still sore from the Tuesday workout, the first class was an exercise in overloading my already sore and tired muscles. We’ve been working a lot on pull back lately, and I was really feeling it across my shoulder blades. In addition to that, the drill we did during the last workout was basically a fancified extended lunge with hip action, so I had a band of fatigued thigh muscle that was cramping like mad tonight.

We did a lot more on pull back tonight, focusing on a combination that consisted of rising block while punching at the same time, followed by downward block. This was amended during the second class to be pressing blocks and we got a chance to do it with partners, eventually adding another punch. I was having a pretty good go of it tonight, I felt like my timing was on and for some reasong the sparring was exceedingly stress relieving.

It’s time for another Sensei Yabe seminar on Saturday as well as a dan exam, it’ll be a good time!

We got an offer on our house, but…

dante8 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:22:38 +0000

it’s low.

I get to go meet with my realtor in a few minutes to work out a counter-offer. The trouble is that their offer was only around $1000 more than we have left on the mortgage, ideally we would cover the rest of the amount needed to secure the mortgage on the new house.

I have the cash, but it would be nice to not have to spend it on that. I know in this economy I’m lucky to have an offer, however I can’t help but feel like all the repairs and inclusions were for nothing more than breaking even. That stinks a little, but I suppose those things were what got me the offer in the first place.

At least, that’s what I’m telling myself!

2008 Workout #79: A happy return…

dante8 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:27:42 +0000

After a week that felt like a month, I made it back to the dojo tonight. I had a pretty severe headache beforehand, so I took a nap and woke late, so I arrived at the dojo around 7 pm.

Both classes tonight consisted of excellent basics and combinations… jab, reverse punch, front kicks… and then evolved into some more advanced combinations involving hip action and blocking drills.

Tonight was one of those workouts where I realize how much I need karate as a stress release. I’ve been carrying a lot of stress around lately with this relocation and tonight’s workout really helped as an outlet. I feel much better after this workout than I have lately.

More Thursday!!