| (no subject) |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|10:25 am] |
A curious thing: there are buses now running past our house.
Will probably not post again until I am in MD. Will attempt to post as often as possible from there.
Bye. |
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| Stick Fighting |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|11:43 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Radiohead - Wolf at the Door | ] |
I just started learning Kali stick fighting last week, and it's the style taught by this guy:
Thing about Mr. Inosanto is that he worked with Bruce Lee, and he was an instructor at my Thai camp last summer! He told me my form on my straight knees was really good! I almost died.
So, back to stick fighting: I'm doing this and it's pretty interesting. I started because this friend of mine and I were talking about how our instructor is so hell bent on doing just Muay Thai and not mixing it up with anything else anymore that the Martial Arts Club has suffered a lot. So he asked me if I wanted to train a few times a week, and I replied, "YES."
We've been working on basic narrow, downward "X" strikes and a combination called the Zambratta; I tried to find a video for it, but it's basically a 10 part combination that goes on forever, repeating. Attack, defend, attack, defend, attack--then repeat with the other person. Maybe I'll have someone recording us doing it sometime soon so it's horror can be seen in action.
I'd only done the Zambratta once (last Thursday), and after that (today) the guy I'm training with said, "Now do it with two sticks." Of course, I can't do it that way. I can't even do stick fighting with my left hand, which is what we trained almost exclusively today until one of our weapons--a red-oak bokken--snapped in half in the middle of an attack drill. I felt pretty good about it because it was his stick and not mine, which means I was doing the slicing motion properly.
And since I'm reading A Fighter's Heart, I'm thinking the next thing I'll try to figure out is Brazilian Jiujutsu. I've got to say, I'm curious to see what I've been missing all these years by not learning effective grappling. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|12:27 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | inane | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
Happy Bastille Day, France! Can the USA borrow some revolutionaries to storm AIG? LOL.
Looking at adora_tan's ILUFrance meme thing, my answer would be art nouveau. French art mated with Japanese design to create works of unparalleled sense and beauty. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|10:17 pm] |
Now that I've passed the actuarial exam I get to start job searching in earnest. Yay!
:(
Is that why I have a headache? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|08:43 pm] |
I got banned from the entire efnet network today. I have no idea what I did to deserve it. I was logging into an irc chat room I was in not 24 hours ago and I couldn't - and then I was banned. No other explanation other than the error message that kept replaying.
I try very hard not to do anything that will get me in trouble any where. To have this happen anyway is really depressing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|10:00 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  artistic | ] |
How to WIN AT USING SAI!
I guess I gotta pull a Candace on that line layer, namely make LOTS and lots of lines to fill shyte out and make it rich rather than futz with that retarded point by point pressure futzer.
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| Vitamin Lead: All Natural Component in your Nutritional Supplements |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|07:17 pm] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DenialismBlog/~3/GM1G7dOgsOc/vitamin_lead_all_natural_compo.php http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/07/vitamin_lead_all_natural_compo.php Stephanie Rodgers of the Mother Nature Network reports on a recent study of lead content in popular multivitamins by Consumer Labs. According to the news summary (the report is subscription only):
Of the 300-plus children's vitamins and prenatal vitamins tested for lead, only four were found to be lead-free. Those include TwinLab Infant Care, Natrol Liquid Kid's Companion, NF Formulas Liquid Pediatric and After Baby Boost 2 (for lactating women). No multivitamins for adult women tested negative for lead, but the ones with the lowest concentrations include FemOne, Viactiv Multivitamin Milk Chocolate, Family Value Multivitamin/Multimineral for Woman, and MotherNature.com Women's Basic Multi.
Now, since there are trace amounts of lead in nearly anything, it's hard to say what this report means. Sciblings, do any of you have access to the actual report?
It seems to me that the market would be really effective in eliminating vitamins that contained high levels of lead, if only the information about contaminants were easily available and consumers could choose safer alternatives. Read the comments on this post... |
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| Missing Dog |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|04:41 pm] |
Ack! I've found a missing dog, and since I've never cared for a dog before, I don't really know what I'm doing here. I'll post a picture of it as soon as my camera batteries have charged, although I doubt I'll find its owner here. My more immediate need is some general instructions on dog-care, since I'll probably be caring for it for at least a day or two.
Please help? |
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| The Taxman Cometh via Ticketing! |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|11:57 am] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DenialismBlog/~3/wQNbzfb-Cs4/the_taxman_cometh_via_ticketin.php http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/07/the_taxman_cometh_via_ticketin.php You've probably heard that California is in trouble financially. No one wants to cut services and at the same time, no one wants to pay taxes. So what do you do? Ticket ticket ticket! And raise the fines for those tickets.
In the years I've lived in California, I've never seen so much traffic enforcement. They're radaring all over the highways. And check this out--those fancy new parking meters are capable of neat tricks. For instance, it's pretty easy to change the hours to 8 PM. 8 PM! In Oakland. Some ticket fines have more than doubled! The linkage to the financial crisis is explicit:
Oakland has raised the price of parking tickets, extended meter times to 8 p.m. in most parts of the city and is more aggressively enforcing parking violations, including in residential neighborhoods.
The decision is driven by the city's budget woes, which deep cuts to city services alone did not solve. Falling sales and property, property transfer and hotel taxes have contributed to a $51 million decline in revenues.
One way or another, they're going to get this money out of us. Would you rather just pay taxes or be nickled and dimed by the police? Which, of course, raises a related issue...why limit your fee collection to speeding and parking fines? Charging people for crimes, such as DUI, may be a money maker too... Read the comments on this post... |
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| Also... |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|05:42 pm] |
All the rage in Japan these days is Organic Restaurants.
Essentially the same exact food that they eat, only apparently it is called Organic this time around and costs nearly 50 bucks for one course.
One more step towards making organic vegetables available only to those who are affluent.
Anyway, I am going to one of these chic restaurants and I will try to give the food a fair shot, but I am skeptical as to whether this food will actually be organic or if I will be witnessing the placebo effect in action as lambs to the slaughterhouse dump their cash into the register before they leave.
Don't get me wrong. I love the concept of organic vegetables, I just don't see it as possible in a country that relies soo much on chemicals to maintain the beauty of its fruits and vegetables to the point that many Japanese still don't eat apple or grape skins. Not to mention that Japan's food self-sufficiency rate is an astoundingly low 39% and given that the elite in Japan only eat "grown-in-Japan" I will be surprised to know how they managed to clean up the soil for these organic veggies. Sorry for the ranting, but the math doesn't add up and gullible people are everywhere.
I think it will be like the Chinese vs. Japanese gyoza (pot-stickers) scenario I witnessed on TV.
There was a taste-testing event in which the participants were informed beforehand about the origin of the gyoza and reacted accordingly. The Chinese gyoza was given the thumbs down and looks of disgust, while the Japanese gyoza was praised for its superb deliciousness with these Orgasmic sounds... I have had Japanese gyoza and let me tell you...never once have I had an orgasm induced by it. |
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| FUCKING JAPANESE POLICE! |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|04:30 pm] |
Every time I get on my bike, it is worries me that I am going to get stopped by the police. Sure enough, it happened today.
Let me share what happened:
I went to the gym and decided to take the long way home (7km/4.35mi out of my way) and I get to a busy intersection without a stop sign or light. Feeling a bit tired, I decided to turn back and head for home. On the opposite side of the road, going the other way is a police car. Behind me is a school girl on a bike. I get off my bike and walk over the bridge and start back down the path on the opposite side of the river. I look back and I see that the police car has done some kind of U-turn and is going the other way down the road.
I slow my pace, as I am on a bike trail with only a few roads accessible to cars.
About 1km in, two officers are waiting on the road pretending that they are looking around. Then one comes up to me with his hand raised.
I stop and he says: "Do you speak Japanese?"
In my head, I say, "Yes, but not for the likes of twits like yourself"...and I reply, "No."
He tells me it is a spot check and he asks my name and where I live.
I then ask him if he would like to see my bike papers. Surprised that I carry these papers on me, he said, "You have them with you?"
I said, "Well, police check me almost every week and it is getting really bothersome."
He said, "Yes, it is bothersome."
Fed up with the pleasantness they have given to this entirely embarrassing charade, I start questioning him.
"So why do the police stop me all the time?"
He says, "Oh, crime is going up in Japan, so we must stop people."
I snap back, "You didn't stop the Japanese girl that was on the bike behind me."
"We are sorry. Please, just cooperate," he tells me.
So I expand upon my perceived reality of the situation, "It is because I am white that is why you waited 1km down here and stopped me. I just went to the gym and I decided to ride my bike a little. I have lived in this area for 4 years and I pay my taxes. So, why am I treated like a criminal in this country?"
"Thank you for your time and have a good day," they say as they walk back to their car.
"SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!" I shout.
*the other one chuckles*
Down the road, I came to another intersection and there they were. They nodded and I shook my head disapprovingly.
In my general understanding of the situation, crime in Japan has gone up and as the number of foreign residents has increased, so has the crime committed by foreigners.
That being said, similar crime data suggests that while the Japanese population is decreasing, crime committed by Japanese is in fact the same as it was when the population was higher and younger.
Moreover, the crimes most often committed by foreigners include: Overstaying one's visa, failing to register one's bike, and failing to notify the government when one has changed employers or house.
Meanwhile, the crimes most often committed by Japanese include: random stabbings, murder of family and non-family members, solo and gang rapes, and groping on trains.
If we compare the types of crimes committed, we see that while crimes by foreigners have in fact increase, a majority of them involve crimes that hurt no one except the perpetrator. On the other hand, crimes committed by Japanese almost always involve someone getting killed, hurt or emotionally scarred. If I was a logical member of the Japanese police force, I might spend a little more time trying to figure out how to stop people on the train from groping others, how teach parents that it is not reasonable to put your 2 year old baby into a garbage can with the lid closed for 12 hours, how to prevent sick creeps from chopping up a body and flushing it down a toilet or stuffing the body into a train station locker, or how to train police officers not to let the prime suspect in a case -where a girl was murdered, raped, and buried in sand-filled bathtub on his balcony- get away barefoot!! You'd think it would be easy to find someone not wearing shoes in Japan!
I won't even get into the punishment of some crimes where the victim is not Japanese.
Yes, America has it's fair share of racial profiling and crazy crimes too. Though, I can honestly say I have never talked to the police more in any other country than Japan. |
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| Writer's Block: Mentor Me |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|09:37 pm] |
I definitely have had influences, teachers especially, who have tipped or nudged me one way or another as I float along like a rubber ducky. Mentors? I don't think so, not really. At the time I sincerely felt that those people cared about me, but not that much. To me, mentorship implies a much firmer hand on the proverbial rudder, but not as firm a hand as that of, say, my parents. |
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| Pic meme |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|09:33 pm] |
THE RULES:
• Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
• NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
• They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
• You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.
( kochira e ) |
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RAGE!