Experiments in Woolgathering

I mentioned the seminar over the weekend of Sept 18th in a previous entry and have been meaning to write a bit about it since. Well, now I finally have the time and inclination.

The sensei who taught the seminar, which was at our dojo, was Kevin Choate of Chicago Aikikai who is a 6th Dan. We followed the apparently standard 1 class Friday evening, two Saturday during the day and one Sunday morning format for ASU weekend seminars.

Frankly, Choate Sensei is amazing. Some of the stuff he was showing us confused our senseis (and one of them is a 5th dan), so you can imagine how we were doing! That said, he was very willing to help us understand, frequently stopping class to answer a question or demonstrate a particular facet of the technique we were fumbling through.

Eventually, gradually, I’d gain a measure of understanding, either intellectually or physically of what we were doing. Occasionally though, for some reason, my body and mind would both grasp what we were doing… and that was pretty amazing.

There were two things that he emphasized that really stuck with me. The first was to be aware of possible second attacks after dealing with the first (or conversely to follow through an initial attack with a second one). The second was to economize your movements – every move you take should affect your attacker, if it doesn’t it’s pretty likely you moved for no reason.

This Tuesday past was our 8th anniversary. I took both Monday and Tuesday off, in part because I was essentially gone all weekend for an aikido seminar at our dojo.

True to our tastes, we celebrated the occasion with video games and food. We picked up a couple PS2 games (Champions of Norrath and Todd MacFarlane’s Monster Hunters [more or less]), played Champions most of the day and then went to Ruth’s Chris. There’s hardly a classier, more decadent place to dine in this city. Hand picked prime steaks, great wine, killer desserts, large, delicious sides. Oh, and the service, which is utterly top notch.

I paid the price a bit the next day – too much rich food for my guts, but it was worth it.

Champions of Norrath is a pretty cool game. Similar to the Baldur’s Gate games mostly, somewhat different progression system. We haven’t cracked open the 2nd game yet, so that says something about how much we’re enjoying Champions.

So, all-in-all a pretty spiffy anniversary!

This Tuesday past was our 8th anniversary. I took both Monday and Tuesday off, in part because I was essentially gone all weekend for an aikido seminar at our dojo.

True to our tastes, we celebrated the occasion with video games and food. We picked up a couple PS2 games (Champions of Norrath and Todd MacFarlane’s Monster Hunters [more or less]), played Champions most of the day and then went to Ruth’s Chris. There’s hardly a classier, more decadent place to dine in this city. Hand picked prime steaks, great wine, killer desserts, large, delicious sides. Oh, and the service, which is utterly top notch.

I paid the price a bit the next day – too much rich food for my guts, but it was worth it.

Champions of Norrath is a pretty cool game. Similar to the Baldur’s Gate games mostly, somewhat different progression system. We haven’t cracked open the 2nd game yet, so that says something about how much we’re enjoying Champions.

So, all-in-all a pretty spiffy anniversary!

Currently I’m reading The Scar by the gentleman in the subject of this entry. It, and his 1st book, Perdido Street Station, are set in the same world, Bas-Lag. (more…)

Yesterday on the way home from work I stopped by Raisin Rack, which is a natural/organnic food place, to pick up a couple supplements and a few other random things.

As I was there, I was thinking about supporting small, quasi-local (they’re based in Canton, I’m in Columbus) stores versus supporting the bigger chains who are bothering to stock a good selection of organics/naturals now.

It’s sort of an interesting conundrum. One the one hand, if it weren’t for places like Raisin Rack, a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have had relatively nearby place to get the supplements I take to manage my Crohn’s Disease or most of a number of other organic versions of stuff I like. On the other hand, I think it’s important that the larger chains carry the stuff so that other people know it’s out there and maybe eat a bit healthier. Plus, in my case at least, the big chain stores are much nearer to me than Raisin Rack is.

Now, as it turns out, most of the foodstuffs I can get at the chains; while nearly all the supplements, at least if I want to get high quality, I still can only get at RR (and about half the time when I go I’ll pick a few food items). So, I sort of naturally end up supporting both without having really resolved the question in any absolute sense.

For what it’s worth, I’ve tried some of the brands of supplements at the chains and they are not as good, or so my body tells me.

So, I’m pretty much back in the swing of Aikido after my 2 months off for the surgery.

Sensei asked me about testing for 4th Kyu last Saturday (I was close to being ready before I went under the knife). It was nice in less obvious way: we’d been working a lot on 4th kyu techniques since there are a couple other people close to testing for that rank as well, so apparently I was doing well enough that he thought I was close to being ready again.

I’m not going to be ready this weekend (even if I’d gone Monday night, which I didn’t) and the next weekend is a seminar, so maybe the weekend after. We shall see.

Before the surgery thing I’d hoped I’d make 3rd Kyu by the end of the year, but that’s obviously not going to happen, too bad at one level, but hardly something that was within my control. I’m just glad I’m back on the mat!

Okay, just finished this a bit ago. As the title suggests, it’s about vampires. Anyone who has read anything by Chris Moore before knows that he is a top notch hilarious author who still manages to make you think. Moore has a gift for coming up with situations and bizarre analogies that definitely sets him apart in my eyes.

Fiends delivers on both hilarity and thought provocation.

The plot revolves around a insurance claims manager turned fledgling vampire, Jody, and her boyfriend/minion Tommy. It’s set in San Francisco. Tommy is an unpublished writer who’s just moved to town from Indiana and now stocks groceries (and occasionally bowls with them) at the local Safeway. Jody needs someone to help her deal with her ‘condition’ and run errands for her during the day. As oddball situations pile on, both Tommy and Jody struggle to deal with vampirism, a dead guy in their freezer, the cops, the Emperor of San Francisco, and the vampire who made Jody – who is apparently trying to frame them for the murder of several of his victims.

I laughed out loud several times. I cared about the characters, was surprised at a few points and generally didn’t like to put this book down. While I didn’t find this novel as good as some other Moore titles, in particular Lamb and Coyote Blue, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Okay, so I’m going to try the blog thing. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s got to be better than the boring homepage I have now.

Once I get this populated with a bit more content I’ll retire the old page.