Fighting For Liberty

Let My Blogging Go.

At least … that’s what I’ve been doing. See, there’s lots of this stuff going on.

Family was up visiting for a week and a half or so. Tons of work to get done on the house in advance of Nunavut’s Long Winter. And … drama. Oh, how I hate drama.

See, I’m teaching karate every Monday these days and essentially running the school as Director of Programs. So I’m the financial guy, the marketing guy, and generally the guy who steers the ship so the head instructor can focus on head instructing. My stake in this is seasoning. The idea is to do this for awhile, pay my dues, so to speak, in a volunteer position, and eventually (I’m hoping next year), opening up a school of my own as head instructor. As a result of this position, however, I’m dealing with a lot of drama that I didn’t start. Which is tedious. The good part about that, though, is that I have the advantage of being an outsider here, so when it’s my task to deal with someone else’s issues, there’s no natural urge to sugar-coat anything. At least that’s liberating.

For my part, I’ve already received the blessing of our founder, a 10th Dan (ie: dude’s been running dozens of schools and doing the Martial Arts thing for a better part of 35 years and is as close to a living legend as you’ll get in today’s time), to open up a location wherever the hell I want because he feels that I’m a generally smart guy who seems to have an aptitude in three very important areas: 1) Running a business. 2) Teaching. 3) Bending people into strange and uncomfortable ways and generally doing some ass-kicking.

So that’s what’s going on in my neck of the woods. So while I’ll continue to be “around”, on here, updates will continue to be infrequent. I’ve trimmed my “daily read” list down considerably (limiting myself to mostly Northeast pals and a few lesser-known-yet-awesome blogs).

So anyway … um … how are you? :-)

David Me

This past weekend was the Northeast Blogger Shoot. Everyone’s got re-caps (at least, everyone that’s remotely New-England based).

This was year three, and I didn’t go, unfortunately. Couldn’t due to family visiting.

So what did I miss? Shoulder-fired .308. Full-auto goodness. Shotguns, wheelguns, AR-15s, and likely some pieces that I’ll never see for the rest of my life. Sounds like everyone had a grand an amazing time.

Though this morning I went to the range. Just a few firearms and a relative. We shot about 100 rounds total. You see, today, I took my brother-in-law shooting. He was born and raised in NJ, he’s in his 40s, and has never shot a gun.

Taught him the four rules, explained why I find the 2nd so important as both a litmus test for politicians and for the American way of life. We shot some .22, 7.62×39, .38 and .357. For a first timer, he was a surprisingly good shot.

We had a great time and on the car ride back he thanked me and said, “I could have spent all day there!”

It wasn’t a giant gunnie brou-haha – there was no bayonet charge or two dozen people trading arms. It was just simple, educational fun. And it was real nice hearing somebody describe how much they enjoyed a simple hour-long trip to the range on a Tuesday morning.

David Awesome Sauce, Boomsticks, Me

Jay asked the question. What are your guilty pleasures? Honestly, I don’t really feel guilty about anything I greatly enjoy, so here, in no particular order, are awesome things I enjoy that people will either find stupid, strange, or grotesque.

And speaking of grotesque …

1) Cottage cheese.

I freaking love the stuff. I’ll put it on nachos or chips, veggies, or just bust out a tub and grab a few monster spoonfuls of it. It comes in all sorts of flavors and variety, I like mine low fat and plain. Not unsalted though, that stuff’s nasty. Plus, you can eat a gargantuan tub of the stuff and it has few calories and gets you full. Yummo.

2) Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Best. Show. Ever. Joss Whedon is a genius of the highest order (see Firefly, Dr. Horrible, etc.), and this show has everything. Netflix has every single season available for instant online viewing. Start with the first episode of Season 1 and just keep going. That’s what TV should be like, not this CSI or Law & Odor crap. It’s funny, it’s serious, it’s horror, campy, intelligent, and awesome. Plus, there’s a musical episode!

3) Early ’90s Rap.

I generally hate rap – the serious kind, that is. But this stuff for me is like junk food to a college kid. I can live on it.

I can sing every single word in that song. In perfect timing. Fine. I’m a dork. Step off, I’m doin’ the hump.

4) Computer Gaming.

Most people I know find it strange that a 30-something with three kids and a minivan has a penchant for playing hours on end of Fallout 3. Grow up already, right? Wrong. Say it again and I’ll shoot you and your digital zombie horde! I grew up on an Atari 2600. Actually, that’s wrong, I started on a Fairchild Channel F II, though I really cut my teeth on the original 8-bit Nintendo. Oh, sweet, sweet Zelda golden cartridge!

I’ll always be a gamer, and I don’t give a crap what any of these n00bs with their PS3’s think. I was booting into DOS and clicking on grunting Orcs the DAY the original Warcraft came out. WoW. Give me a break. I played the damn game with a buddy of mine over a land-line with an external 14.4 modem hooked into the parallel port on my DX4-100 while you were getting your stinky diaper changed while a Barney video was rewinding in your Mom’s VCR, beeeotch. I KNOW ORCS. “Stop poking meeeeeeee!” I am a gamer. You simply live vicariously through your level 53 Mage in order to assemble some level of gamer-cred that you’ll never enjoy.

5) Banjos.

I just like the way they sound. :-)

David Me

I am officially, a Certified Muay Thai Instructor.

What’s Muay Thai? Some people call it Thai Kickboxing, some in the know call it Muay Lao as it arguably originated in Laos (though it’s the national sport of Thailand and is promoted heavily in Thailand because they gots the cash to do so). Think boxing, but being able to use kicks, knees, and elbows as well. It’s the “art of eight limbs”. Two hands, two elbows, two knees, and two legs (Shins, actually. We don’t kick with feet unless we want broken footsies).

It’s an awesome and highly useful fighting style and I love it. But something about the whole “Certified Muay Thai Instructor” thing kinda bothers me.

See, I’ve been training casually with Muay Thai for the better part of a year or so. I know all the strikes, I’ve got power and speed, have had plenty of sparring time, and I can certainly teach someone the art. That’s not the issue. The issue is, I wasn’t a “Certified Muay Thai Instructor” one day, though I had all this knowledge. Then the next day I completed a 6-hour “official” Muay Thai Cert Program, and the day after that, I’m a certified Muay Thai Instructor.

Honestly, I was a Muay Thai Instructor the day before the 6-hour cert class. The difference now is, I have a piece of paper that says so.

Kind of like a college diploma, only the Muay Thai certification didn’t cost 40K a year, took only a few hours, and I have a decent chance of working in this field successfully. Contrast that with someone’s opportunities after blowing $100K+ and four years of their life to become a 13th Century Byzantine Architectural History expert and I think it works out okay.

David Martial Arts, Me

I was supposed to head to the Republican candidate Gubernatorial (Goobers … heh), debate last night in Manchester, NH.

A range of circumstances contributed to me not going. Most importantly, my boy got sick. 101 fever shortly before I was to go. It’s not hard to stay home when you’ve got a sick child. So, I skipped it. Pumped him full of Children’s Tylenol and he got better pretty quick, and more importantly both myself and the car were home – just in case something crazy happened.

Priorities …

David Me

Maybe.

I don’t know.

You know, folks – I’ve reached that point where I’ve said pretty much everything I need to say. There are always stories worthy of snark coming out that I can snarkily comment on with snarky snarkness, but even that gets tiring. The haiku thing – well, I’ve wanted to do that for awhile, so forgive me for indulging myself a little there.

I try to read a variety of blogs that aren’t all of the same single-issue – but ones I do read that overlap tend to talk about the same stories and it creates this sort of exponential news-fest where an interesting tidbit will appear numerous times all with slightly different commentary. As a result, news gets tiring. We all read Drudge. Most all of us check out HotAir.

So for now, I’m deciding what to do with this space. Blogging has become somewhat joyless for me, so unless I find a spark, expect few if any updates.

David Me

i have noticed that
i find boredom in blogging
so haiku it is

’til i can’t stand it
all posts will be in haiku
except for block quotes

feel free to comment
though i shall not guarantee
that i will make sense

syllabic counting
something i find difficult
so bear with me please

David Haiku, Me

Been visiting family, soaking in the Black Belt thing (ie: recovering, which wasn’t too bad), and generally getting some things in order. Yes, I’ve been quiet. Yes, I’ll continue to be for a week or so more. Much needed mental break!

Oh … and GO FLYERS!

David Me

The test was yesterday. Today? I’m sore. Not in a terrible physical state (though at some point mid-way through the test someone stomped HARD on my foot and it’s red/purple today, swollen and tender.

But … there it is. All new and sparkly on my slimmer waist:

The test was … brutal. Four and a half hours long. Lots of fighting – boxing, grappling, kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA – we did it all. Numerous times.

And I had a BLAST!

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of having someone standing in front of you that you don’t know, and having carte blanche to beat the snot out of them.

My mindset going into the test was simple – This is MY test. I wasn’t about to allow anyone get in my way, and I didn’t. I was called the “most brutal” at one point (with a smile, not in a “you’re in trouble” kind of way), and I took that as a great badge of honor. I wasn’t the youngest guy there (nor the oldest), but I was certainly one of the biggest, and I made sure I was the one who hit the hardest.

After all the training, broken bones, sweat and sore muscles – two years worth – I’ve reached the beginning, and as that smile on my face clearly shows, it feels good.

David Martial Arts, Me, Uncategorized

Well, it’s tomorrow morning. By this time tomorrow, if all goes well, I’ll be a 1st Dan (1st Degree) with a title of “Shodan”.

This morning’s weigh-in? 234.4, so I’ve kept under my goal weight. Feeling pretty healthy – my back’s a little squirrely and it’s not going to get better taking a three-hour ride in a Jeep down South where I’ll be testing, but a good night’s sleep should take care of that.

Tonight … loading up on pasta, packing in carbs and water as much as I can stand. Tomorrow? Human wrecking ball, at least that’s my plan.

I’ll post an update on Monday! Don’t wish me luck. Luck has nothing to do with it. All I need to do is go kick some ass. :-)

David Martial Arts, Me