Four jobs I’ve held:

1. McDonald’s Crew Trainer – I did kids birthday parties in Playland, it was a unique Hell.

2. id Software Licensed Developer – My Quake 2 modification, Powerball, was picked by id Software’s staff to appear in a boxed compilation in 1998. It was really awesome to get paid for something that a.) was already done and b.) you did with no expectation of getting paid.

3. Student Web Developer for Western Illinois University – This was my college job, truly one of the best that I could’ve asked for. I doubt any of my code is still in use over there since it’s been almost five years since I left, but I got to work with some of the best people!

4. IT Analyst III – My current job, runs hot and cold on enjoyment but it pays the bills!

Four movies I can (and do) watch over and over again:

1. A Christmas Story – An American classic. Every year at Christmas I have to watch it at least three times before I’ve got my fix.

2. Its A Wonderful Life – Jimmy Stewart. Need I say more? The movie always makes me feel great, Jimmy Stewart’s voice is awesome, and it makes you appreciate how much life matters.

3. The Lord of the Rings – I know its three movies, but work with me here people. I’m sure that one is going to remain to be one of the classic films of my generation and it is incredible.

4. Star Wars – Because I wouldn’t be a true nerd if I didn’t love Star Wars.

Four places I have lived:

1. My parent’s house.

2. My dorm room on the eighth floor of Tanner Hall, Macomb IL.

3. A small rental house in my hometown, for a few months after we got married.

4. My current house, still in my hometown… actually only a minute away from the rental house that we lived in.

Four TV shows I watch:

1. Heroes – CRAZY about this show. Hiro Nakamura rules!

2. The Simpsons – Still an excellent show after all these years.

3. Two and a Half Men – consistently hilarious writing!

4. Futurama Reruns

Four places I’ve been on vacation:

1. Kansas City, MO – visiting my aunt and uncle that used to live there

2. Dresden, OH – esteemed home of Longaberger Baskets, my Mom is a consultant

3. Indianapolis, IN – every year for GenCon (its coming up soon!)

4. New Orleans, LA – for our first anniversary

Four favorite foods:

1. Chicken Strip Dinner at Richards

2. Pizza Hut Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza, easy on the sauce

3. A French Dip Sandwich – any one will do, but Quiznos is the best nearby.

4. Pretty much anything my Mom makes, home cooking is excellent!

Four websites I visit:

1. Boing Boing – A Directory of Wonderful Things

2. CNN.com – I love my news!

3. GMail – The best webmail around.

4. My credit card and online banking, for the same reasons that Debra does!

Four people I’m tagging:

I’ll go with the people I know that Debra hasn’t already tagged:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Today marked Day 2 of cutting back on Diet Coke. I drank considerably less water today (mostly to curb the trips to the can), but I only had one Diet Coke. I slept like a rock last night, and I actually woke up feeling good in the morning for a change.

I’ve noticed that my energy level and comfort during the workout tonight was much better, I don’t know if this was the sleep, the water, or a combination of the two but either way I’ll take it.

Things at work have been pretty straightforward, same stuff different pile. However, as many of you already know, it was announced officially yesterday that I have been promoted to an IT Analyst III. Its the same job, but I’m just getting paid more to do it now. It was a bit of a surprise, but I’ll take every little good break that I can. The new position is effective tomorrow! 🙂

Those of you that have been inquiring about Teddy… he’s doing much better. We spent the obligatory $206 at the vet to get medicines and creams and all sorts of stuff for him and he is on the mend. He had another small accident this morning, but we had found that his medicine makes him thirsty and he drank 80 gallons of water just like I have been lately. Accidents happen, he’s still the best dog around.

Letsee… what else… oh yeah! Happy Belated Birthday to my good buddy ! You rock, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a filthy liar!

That’s all for me right now!

With Sensei Brewer and away, it was Sensei Quinn on deck to teach. The first class was a solid basics workout where we pretty much stayed in place all night long, doing stationary techniques. It was mostly lunge punches and front kicks, and as we stayed there stationary I felt like my hip action was good, my rear leg strong with rear foot pointed forward… in short it felt briefly like I was getting somewhere. Too bad it mostly all fell apart once I started moving forward. I’m still having trouble keeping my heel down, and I had a realization during the workout tonight: what my brain thinks is a straightened back leg is still very weak. When I push it all the way down it does what its supposed to, but right now it’s still a conscious effort. More practice should make it more natural, hopefully.

The second class was a masters class in Jion. I literally felt like I knew nothing about the kata by the time we were done with it. All of the intricities, the fine points, and the body actions that Sensei Quinn took us through were really great. The differences in interpretation between the way things have been done here and the way that he experienced them in Japan seems pretty numerous when viewed through the lens of tonight’s workout.

I know that we’ve been told to do what the current instructor says (and I find there is a lot of value in that) but the question has been raised by some of the brown belts (and a few black belts) about what to focus on as “correct” when it comes down to test time. In the end, more training is good training so it probably doesn’t matter that much, but I do see the points that are being raised that it can be somewhat confusing. My advice to the brown belts are to take what they feel is correct from any given instructor and what feels natural for your body and the rest of the black belts will hammer out anything that is presenting itself incorrectly. Also, not to sweat the details so much.

Either way, it was an amazing workout tonight. I was both sweated out and tired, and my brain was overloaded with new excellent things to know about Jion, most of which I’ve probably heard before once or twice but the light bulb went on tonight. One of the main things that really got to me tonight was the fact that I *really* have neglected back stance. What I considered back stance and what I was shown tonight (and felt tonight, in the hip action) is a whole other thing. When done correctly, I can feel the power being generated. When done the way I have been doing it, I get a mundane blah feeling of being stuck in the mud. That was probably one of the coolest things that stuck with me from tonight. That, and I finally feel like I’m doing something after the high level x-block near the end of the kata.

As I said… good karate stuff tonight!

Me, Simpsonized!
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

Apparently, my headshot translates to my 1996 Macaulay Culkin haircut in the Simpsons Universe. Even still, I’m looking pretty suave in Springfield!

Give it a try for yourself at Simpsonize Me.

A few of you have been shocked lately to find me ordering water at lunch. The rumors are true… I’m cutting back (and hopefully out) on my Diet Coke consumption.

The reasons are numerous, at the forefront are increasing reports that aspartame is bad for you. The fact that I was drinking $20 worth of Diet Coke a week was also Very Bad. Some of you that have witnessed the awe inspiring wall of Diet Coke twelve-packs in my kitchen… these people will understand how much Diet Coke I put down in a month.

I’ve had five Diet Cokes all weekend. I’m replacing it with water and Lipton Green Tea, both of which HAVE to be better for me. For some reason I’m not (yet) experiencing the ice pick headaches that I had the last time that I tried to quit the stuff.

Tasha has worked hard to give up the caffeine, so I have been inspired by her in this endeavor. We’ll see how it goes!

Because of my increasingly insane work schedule, I had to miss our first outdoor Saturday of the summer. I resolved that I wasn’t going to miss this one, so and I made the trek to Mapleton to dutifully march up and down the field.

We arrived late, the rest of the group was already done with 300 punches (that’s one time down and back). We joined them for 300 front kicks, 50 each of rising block reverse punch, inward block reverse bunch, downward block reverse punch, outward block reverse punch, and knifehand block spearhand thrust. Then we moved to the kicks: 50 roundhouse kicks, 100 side snap kicks (50 each leg), and 100 side thrust kicks (50 each leg).

After that, and I caught back up on punches. We did 150 lunge punches, and as we were catching our breath at the other end of the field we hear a voice on the breeze indicating that there wasn’t hair on our ass if we didn’t do sanbon tsuki (three punch combination) all the way back. So we did.

Counting each of those as a single technique, we did 1100 in an hour and a half. THAT’S a good workout, people. Special kudos go to , who joined us for the last set of punches and sanbon tsuki, even though she had been there for the first set. These workouts are for endurance, and I think we all proved that we’ve got that going for us.

We’re being told that next week we’re going to tackle The Hill, which is always a fertile ground for pain!

We were warned. Thursday night promised us that we’d be outside, and that’s exactly what happened. We went out into the side lot of the YWCA and did a grand total of 200 punches and 200 front kicks up and down the yard. It was good training, I found myself focusing on my back heel and my breathing. Both of these areas need A LOT more work, but I was able to gut it out.

I was somewhat surprised how winded and tired I was at the end… I’ve done many more techniques in one session than that and not felt that bad. I think it was a combination of the humidity and the general lack of sleep that I’ve been putting myself under right now, because I was really feeling it. By Friday morning, my hips near where my thighs connect were just SCREAMING.

Also, I found that you can find out a lot about a person by watching how they approach training outdoors. Some walk tentatively, like they’ve never been barefoot outside, others wear shoes or sandals. I prefer barefoot, for the pure and simple reason that God made our skin with the uncanny ability to grow back when it is lightly damaged. We’re doing Him a disservice if we don’t utilize that feature. That, and there’s something satisfying about having feet so caked with dirt and grass that it clogs the drain after you take a shower. It makes you feel like you actually did something.

The second class was a further exploration of sen-no-sen, only this time I was paired up with . My timing was really off… it could’ve been my rubbery legs from all the kicking, but I would lay more blame on my “rocking horse” style timing when moving. He would always catch me as I rocked forward on my front leg, making escape generally impossible. This is something I need to work on, as it is a common problem for me.

All in all, Thursday was a great workout. It was tiring, but you felt a sense of accomplishment at the end of it. I was a little sore on Friday morning, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Tuesday’s workout was a good one. We were treated to a traditional summertime slow burn first class, featuring basics primarily. For whatever reason, I was having an extremely difficult time getting my wind… it got somewhat better once Sensei Brewer turned on the air conditioning, but I didn’t start feeling like myself until partway through the second class. The basics training was good, however I have been neglecting it lately. I still feel like I am learning some lessons about hip action and connection from Sensei Quinn, but its hard to break so many long standing bad habits.

The second class was a study on sen-no-sen (taking the initiative first), and I was lucky enough to pair off with my good buddy . We were doing a drill where one side would initiate the attack by flinching or starting a forward movement, and the other would then counterattack before they could complete the technique (or, more appropriately the thought of throwing the technique). I have always enjoyed working on these aspects of sparring strategy, however I found my efforts labored on Tuesday night. There have been times in the last year where it felt like this type of strategy “just worked”, but this class was not one of them. I have found myself back to watching kumite videos from the Japanese Championships, dreaming of the day when I can have a reverse punch that sharp and strong.

More training will get me there!

Teddy’s Happy to See You!
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

As previously mentioned, even though Teddy’s feeling bad he still takes a pretty cute picture. He’s a very happy dog.