Entry 61: thoughts concerning organization

Recently, I have updated my inventory by adding a smart phone to the things I carry. This has opened up a new world of possibilities regarding the sharing and distribution of information.

On a personal and professional front, I am going to begin adding QR codes to my artwork and calling cards. For those who do not know, a QR code is a form of bar code that contains a packet of information. This code is scannable by anyone with a smartphone. It can be a plain text artifact, a web link, phone number or message. I plan on adding a QR code to each artwork so people can scan it and instantly be taken to my website or be given a
Description of the work itself.

My business cards will contain a link to an online resume or a link to my website home page.

Now… To make a web site to link to….

Entry 60: off-line activities

Drill this weekend. It was up in the air for a bit because of the budget not being passed. It is horrendous that our leaders bicker and argue while our service men and women are on the front line, putting themselves at risk with the possibility of not getting paid for it. If it comes right down to it, I would prefer not to get my own money if they need to send it to someone who is deployed.

I am back and forth on my pt test right now. Sometimes I pass some times I do not. The run is my main hurdle at this point. I run at least a mile daily. I have started pushing two for the last month in an effort to accustom myself to the distance I will need to run at basic.

My weight is no longer an issue. I have not been what people would consider fat, but I have been over weight. In the last two months I have shed nearly 20 pounds. I missed my goal last drill by one lousy pound. This drill I’m under the limit by a few pounds. My goal is 175 and I should be able to reach that within the next month.

Progress on my work book concerning the next level of Jedi warrior training has come to a screeching halt. With the fact I have been laid off from my job looming over my head, I find a distinct lack of motivation to accomplish anything remotely resembling work. Perhaps once I have finished my responsibility at this child prison I will have more desire to once again put my efforts into creation.

I am looking foreword to having time to paint again. If I can put the hours I would normally spend babysitting into art, I will be able to create and finish many new works. This must be a priority this summer.

“proceeding with more caution”

Entry 59: rants and ramblings

This is something that has been bothering me for awhile lately. It is the concern and decency that people treat others with. I have standards that I hold myself to. To not speak badly about people I work and live with. To not gossip or judge their actions because god knows i have enough on my own plate to go eating off someone elses.

Why is it so hard for others to give me the same regard? I have been laid off at work because of the black speech of others. Other teachers found it necessary to look over My shoulder and report my every misstep to the higher ups. Did they not have enough to do with their own classes? I know I never had enough time to loom over their backs.

To make matters worse it is carrying over into my life outside of work. People looking over my shoulder online. People I have personally approved as “friends” to see and comment on the parts of myself that I choose to share. I think this bothers me more because though it did not cost me a job, it cut deeper because of the trust I placed in them.

Maybe I am being overly touchy, maybe it is all just poorly timed but because of this double dose of crap, I am having a very hard time putting up with bullshit when I see it. Things like singling people out for punishment who have not earned it. Putting people through hoops to humble them… Bull shit. It’s not even directed at me but it irritates me and I call people out when I see it being done. Maybe this makes me a dick. Most people don’t like having their gossiping and hazing pointed out. I just can’t tolerate it right now.

What makes it worse is that after I let my disappointment known, I feel like a huge jerk because the other person honestly has no justification for what they are choosing to do to someone else and they end up cussing at me or crying. Is this just what humans do to each other and we make it some kind of day to day game? Has it just not mattered to me before? I suppose it’s my fault for expecting different?

In the game of houses, you win or you die.

Entry 58: Status update

Life. One word that encompasses everything that a person finds important. To say that life has been busy would be an understatement. In the Jedi community, “real life obligations” is a popular excuse for extended absences. That they had to step away from being a Jedi while they took care of more mundane duties. My absence, while causing me to step away from the community, has brought me closer to being a Jedi instead of distancing me from it.

I have not updated my training and service logs for around 8 months. I am going to just give the sum totals instead of breaking them down into individual practices. In 2010, I logged 267 hours of SAR training. This is verifiable through Kentucky emergency management. My martial arts training came to a rounded total of 170 hours. Sadly the only way to verify is to come and spar me to see if my art reflects the time spent training.

My personal fitness training regimen has changed since enlistment in the guard. I am required to meet the fitness requirements of the us army. This has lead to the inclusion of a 2 mile run push ups and sit ups.

I side tracked my lessons and projects to meet my physical fitness standards. I will be resuming these now that I have more time. As for now, expect me to finish my warrior projects.

Until then.

Entry 57: Warrior 101

Exercise 5 -spirit.

Well, not much I can say about this particular spiel.  Lots of oriental terminology to describe things that actually can be described by science.  These concepts are not foreign to the western arts, they are just not mystical.

Martially speaking, working all techniques from the core is not an esoteric practice.  It does not impart any sort of magical power beyond balance and force.  All strength comes from proper application of the core.  When your core is lower than your opponents, you gain leverage.  All fighting originates in the core, so it is no wonder those that use it had “magical” fighting powers the others did not.

Controlling ones breathing is also another means of harnessing the most from the body.  When you exhale when you strike, you are using your body more efficiently.  The exhale of air contracts the abdominal muscles.  This causes your shoulders to drop, accelerating your strike.   This also works for the yell, same idea.

Kata, not important in the western arts.  Infact, there are no “kata forms”.   Predetermined routines are seen as counter productive and take away from ones spontaneity.  Instead we flourish free form, by shadow boxing, putting together what ever movements feel right for the moment.

The concept of no mind is abhorrent to a western mind.  As i have said in other essays, there is a level of spontaneous action that must come from diligent practice.  This is the no mind that i think the east states they use so often.It seems to me a state of pure reaction.  Problem with this is that it does not lend itself to proactive action, just the practiced counterstrike that the east likes so much.  This leads to martial arts in which the first strike is half hearted to provoke an action.   In the west, the actions are spontaneous, but the mind is always active.  Considering where your opponent is, where their strike is likely to come from and how to get there first.  The practiced actions subject to the mind.

Entry 56: Offline Activities

Made the news again.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-30576-Nashville-True-Crime-Examiner~y2010m7d14-Four-Rivers-K9-Search-Rescue—Recovery-Team

Entry 55: Warrior 101

Exercise for lesson 4.

This is a good lecture.  Most people do not understand the difference between tactics and strategy.  I knew the difference ,but i had never thought to put them to words.  If it were a battle, the strategy would be to take such and such hill to insure a good defensive fortification, the tactics would be the employment of the troops and their skills.

All of the tactics described are essential to good combat, not matter from the east or the west.  Reading your opponent probably one of the most difficult things to master.  It is easier when you are using a weapon.  If the tip is held with drawn, it is impossible to thrust without moving it back into line so a thrust is an unlikely attack from that position. If they are holding their sword tip downward you dont have to worry about a descending cut. It is intuitive as much as it is logical thought.  Thus feinting counters any reading your opponent was able to do.

Controlling the range of a fight is more than just maintaining distance.  It is being able to move into and our of fight range at will.  It is about closing in and grappling when you want to, not when your opponent wants to.  Controlling the fight range is a conscious decision to engage or not at your discretion.

When considering avoid, evade or intercept, from a western mentality, the intercept is a superior technique and what a swordsman should desire.  Once should never be purely on the defensive.  In the german mentality a good offense is a good defense.   It is the high art to counter cut rather than simply block or evade. Both of those actions are inferior because while saving you from death, does not injure your opponent either and he is hence free to harry you at his leisure.  When one cuts in such a way that the blade not only displaces your opponents strike, but is also a dedicated strike of its own, you will have the advantage becasue they will not be able to stop it.

all things considered, we should look more closely at the strategy of the east vs the west.

Entry 54: Warrior 101

So been a good month of getting things back together after the wedding, time to begin posting my lessons once again.  I almost forgot where i left off.  I need to get back into the habit of posting.

Evaluation

What are the threats that you consider are the most likely that you will face?

In my line of work, being a teacher, i am not likely to face life or death situations.  I also do not live in a dangerous part of the country.  I often visit bigger cities where physical conflict is more likely, but the most i am likely to face around here is a drunken bar brawl.

What are your physical, mental and emotional strengths?

Physically i am fit, and working on being more so.  I am able and trained for physical conflict so if need arises, I am able to respond.  Mentally I have gone though changes when it involves my interactions and my awareness of situations.  No longer do I walk into a room and think, “I could kick his ass, and his, but i want to stay away from him”  I walkin and think “not a threat, not a threat”  I look for improvised weapons and place myself with an easy escape or barrier.  I  was not conscious of this change it just came with time.  Emotionally i am pretty even tempered.  I do not rile easily and I don’t go out and seek conflict, at least i only do when its for training.

What sort of martial art do you think might be best suited to your perceptions of risk and your assets?

Personally, I feel the martial art that i am currently studying is good enough to suit all purposes.  It is not broken down into other components, it is a complete fighting system.  They did not shatter it into parts as so many eastern arts have been, for example, japanese arts once included the sword, judo, kempo and aikedo.  Now they are seperate from each other, when samuri would study all those as components of his art.  The western arts were not broken down into subcategories becasue the gun made them mostly obsolete, and they went unmolested, preserved in their written context.

This lack of fracturing gives a practitioner a complete fluency of techniques that range from simple take downs and restraints  to full out battlefield slaughter.  Master Meyer says “There are holds of love and there are holds of war” it is important to know both.  I also learn how to comport myself with arms and the proper application of force.

Entry 53: Integration – SAR

This weekend I went to the state of Kentucky’s BSAR class.  This is my second time completing it, and it was much better the second time.  It was not a large group, no more than 20.  This class involved more compass and nav study, ropes, knots and how they are used rescuing victims.

This was a multi-day class culminating in a night search to test skills.  We found the victim only after an hour and a half of searching.  I was again given the the responsibility of leadership, commanding a squad in the field.

A very good class, and I logged 20 hours of training.

Entry 52: Warrior

Thinking back over my martial history, I can see a progression through these stages.  Not all of them.  But I have visited a couple of them.  I began my time as a hobbyist.  I was probably too young to understand a martial mindset.  I would go to class, practice a bit, and that was it.  I did not have to take it home with me or put in effort outside of class and that was enough.

Once I started my current martial art, my mindset changed.  Of course this is after my training as a jedi as well, but I will get to that later.  I found a martial art that is a self motivated fighting system.  We do not have classes, only a study group and we get out of it what we put in.  If you put in time and effort, you will do well.  Even in finding and passing on techniques.  Research and homework are a necessity of the art.  All of the techniques are taught by those that researched them.  There is nothing handed to us on a platter just for showing up.  There is a certain amount of basics that are shown to new practitioners to get them understanding the terminology and concepts then they are required to bring their own discoveries and interpretations to the table.  Even new members can show the instructors new things.

Also, the brutal effecitveness of the art requires a mindset shift.  Historical violence and what we consider violence are completely different.  It was a brutal age that deadly conflict was a very real threat.  A warrior mindset was necessary day to day.  Understanding the techniques, how they are applied, when to apply them and the culture that brought them about all help develop a more martial outlook on life.

If I had to choose an outlook I was in right now, i would say that i would be in the deadly outlook.   I do not think the art makes me an unbeatable machine of death nor am I looking for an unbeatable combo.  I would say that I am dangerous.  The techniques I study do not really need to be strung together in a series of combo moves to decimate someone.  We teach techniques individually and they range from simple holds and escapes to death strikes and bone breaks.  I don’t think I can cause harm, I know I can.

I do not think I am a warrior.  I do not live by my art for one;  it is a hobby.  War is not my profession.  That being said, martial arts is now part of my lifestyle as a Jedi.

When I began my Jedi training, its integration was separate from my everyday life.  That began to change the longer I spent as a jedi. I made choices that I felt a jedi would choose.  I decided to pursue a career in teaching, a very jedi thing to do.  Having a career that is based in the jedi ideas is a huge step toward integration.  My martial career began anew and received a greater importance as it was a “jedi activity,”  I also started serving on a Search and Rescue team. Right now, there are no activities I participate in that are not somehow related to the jedi path.  Does this make me a warrior?  I don’t think so.