Interlude Part 2

Last weekend Rachel and I participated in a karate Tournament. We both managed to come home with some chunks of plastic! I got 4th in weapons (I was competing against super good black belts!), 3rd in bunkai (forms with people punching in), 3rd in kempos (short techniques), 2nd in forms, and then 1st in sparring. Rachel got 2nd in weapons (she was in a different division than me...) and 4rth in sparring.

If you are interested there are pictures that were professionally taken at this link. You can view any of the pictures. I'm in adults weapons, and red belt divisions. Also some random pictures of me in the kids photos, where I was helping judge. From this link you can also purchase any pictures that you like. So mom, you can update those photos I gave you if you like!

After the tournament Rachel and I went to see Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center, which was pretty awesome. I don't see too many musicals, but for some reason hearing dialog sang took some getting used to...

China Itinerary

I just got the itinerary for China.

July 20 Depart USA for China
July 21 Arrive BeiJing
July 22 Beijing Touring
July 23 Beijing Touring
July 24 Train to Terra Cotta
July 25Fly to Giulin and Drive to Yangshou
July 26 Yangshou Rafting
July 27 Fly to Shaolin
July 28 Shaolin
July 29 Shaolin
July 30 Shaolin an afternoon flight to Beijing
July 31 Depart for USA
July 31 Sunday back in USA

So yes, that's 4 days at the Shaolin temple in China, where we get to train kung fu with the monks. How awesome is that? I also heard the rumor that one of those days at least will be devoted to weapons. So they might split up the group and you get to choose what weapon to learn, to be taught from the monks themselves! I'm pretty psyched about that part. My really only complaint is that I'll most likely have to choose only one weapon.....

Another cool thing, is that Grand Master Damasco, who is the main man behind this trip, will be doing an exhibition form, which will be awesome. But also I believe my own Sensei, Sensei Santillo is also rumored to be doing a demonstration form. So I'm pretty excited about all of that. It will be super cool.

And of course since this is a Kempo trip... there will be daily martial arts training. It should be fun and unique for sure.

Some long overdue Updates

First things first I suppose. Two weeks ago I tested for my new belt, which was a Full Green Belt. It was a lot of fun and what was so great, was that I was testing with a lot of friends from the Dojo. That is always a blast, as we all knew each other, and could just really enjoy the test. Even if it was one of the most exhausting tests ever, lasting 2 hours and 45 minutes of constant exercise and karate. By the end I was getting dizzy just standing there, from exhaustion and probably dehydration lol. But we all made it through it and it was a blast.

Then the next Tuesday at academy, the main instructor presented me with a test invitation for brown belt, in a week and a half. For brown belt there is a special advanced test, that takes place once every about three months. This particular one was scheduled for March 25th, or a in a week and a half from when I got the test invite. I was both surprised and absolutely honored to get a test invite for the next rank, literally a few days after I just tested for my previous rank lol. But at the same time, I was a little worried as I knew how exhausting tests were.

What made it worst last Saturday, the main instructor Sensei Santillo asked me "so, what are you doing cardio wise to train for the next next Friday?". Holy crap I had train physically for the test? And I only had a week? He kinda freaked me out to say the least lol. But in the end tonight's test wasn't so bad really. It turned out to be more technical than physically exhausting. Don't get me wrong, it was still physically exhausting, but it was more, getting tired from doing lots of karate, and less from doing tons of exercises, so it was more fun in my opinion.

Anyways, here is a picture I took of my most recent three belts, with their rank certificates.
As you can see, the Brown belt certificate is bigger, because it's better I guess.

In other news, as of Monday I will be promoted at work as well. This is a promotion to GS-13, and is a big promotion. It is a large increase in work, 15%, where all my previous promotions were a 10% increase. Also, at the end of 20 weeks, I start the partial signatory program, where I start being able to send out actions without them being reviewed by my boss first. At this point my production will increase by another 10%, so 25% more work than what I am doing right now. 20 weeks from now is Mid August, or about the time of our August vacation. But the good news is that it is also a significant jump in pay, and I get my own office.

As you can see, there are no windows whatsoever, making it feel like a large closet with a desk and a computer in it. Nevertheless, it is all mine, and I don't have to share it with anyone! Also as you can see, I found nice home for the painting that Caleb made for me. However, as you can also see, I still have plenty of wall space, in case Caleb ever wants to make some more paintings for me!

Also, as one more random aside, I got Rachel to get HBO on her cable so that I can watch A Game of Thrones on HBO next month!

Anyways, I know I have rambled on quite a bit so far. I know Stephen will complain. But then I think he is just jealous that I post more than just random youtube videos that I find online.

Red Belt - Sempai

Last weekend I tested for my Red Belt. The Red belt is a special belt and basicaly means I am now an official assistant instructor, or a Sempai. The Red Belt doesn't advance me in rank persay, but does indicate that they believe I am qualified to be an instructor. As a result, its a really cool thing.

Spears and Caves

Once again I am epic fail when it comes to pictures. If I get any I'll post them retroactively.

On Saturday I took part in a spear clinic. That is right, I am learning Shaolin Spear forms. My sensai, when he isn't failing at breaking sticks, told us that the Spear is often called the "king of shaolin weapons" which is pretty cool eh? I think so at least! The forms are very flourishy and pretty, and tons of fun to do, and to watch I think. There is a lot of twirling of the spear around your body and over your head, as well as some stabbing and a couple of impalements (of your opponent, and not yourself). As I said it was tons of fun and I managed to learn 1 of the forms (there are a total of 3). With any luck next week I'll learn the second form! Anyways this will bring my weapons skillz up to 3, as I now know forms for Bo staff, Broadsword and now Spear.

Then as I hinted at the end of my last post on Sunday I went caving with Rachel. Rachel and her mother are part of a local caving group in the greater DC area. As such from time to time they get together at nearby caves and... go caving! This last weekend was such an excursion. Rachel and I joined up with her mother and four others and explored a nearby cave in West Virginia.

As I told Rachel before we started, I wasn't sure what to expect from caving, as I have never gone caving before, or for that matter done too much climbing. What I found out caving is, is darkness, dirt/mud, close spaces, climbing, and exploration. It is also, lots of fun. After throwing on some old jeans and a long sleeve T-shirts, I got equipped with a helmet, a helmet light, and some gloves, and joined the others in going down into a hole in the ground. The cave itself is like a whole other world, it is pitch black in there, with uneven ground. Yet with the helmet light I never felt like the darkness was a problem, and it wasn't until we all turned off our lights that you really realize how dark it was.

I think the way to sum up what caving is though, for me was summed up with two words, climbing and exploration. The caves are light a maze of tunnels, crawl spaces, and ledges. The fun part and objective to caving then is to explore as much of the cave as you can. For example, there was one part when we saw a hole in the ground near our feet, kinda at a wall. We squeezed through the opening to find another tunnel area. In this next area there was four different routes possible. Down and to the right took us on a loop, that we climbed down, over and some light climbing to another area, which then turned around and connected us to where we began. Then to the left there was two options, to go down about a 20 foot incline and a drop, or a small ledge going over that crevice area, but being exposed to said drop and jumping across. What I did was I climbed/slid down the incline to the bottom. I should have climbed, but it ended up with me sliding more than anything... then I climbed up an incline to the top, where the other route connected. At the top of this part of the cave was a small opening. I was convinced this opening was too small for me, but with my hands outstretched I was able to inch and twist my way through the opening and to the other side. The other side then was another large opening room with some rock formations. We explored a bit in this area, but this one was more or less a dead end, but a neat one nonetheless. Then we went back through the whole to the previous area. This time I took the upper route back, which involved bracing my foot on the left side of the wall, and jumping across the crevice area I climbed up the last time, to a ledge back at the area where we started.

There was another part that we climbed, that I honestly did not think was climbable. There was one area that was basically an angled wall, that was too steep to climb normally. On the left and the right side there were areas that could possibly be climbed. The left was a steep climb, that would have seemed too slippery to climb up. On the right was a crack where the two walls connected, the crack extended about 15 feet high, and being as narrow as maybe 4 inches across, so far too narrow to sneak through. But past this crack it seemed climbable to the top. I went on the right side. The crack was too narrow to sneak through, so the only option then was to pull ourselves over top of it. So bracing my left foot on the left wall, and my right foot slightly behind me on the right wall, remember this was at the corner, and then putting my hand inside the crack for a handhold I managed to pull myself up into the crack and lodge myself in the crack with my back against the left wall. From here I had to inch my way up the side of the crack, for the most part using my arms to pull myself up to the top of the crack, and remember my back is against the wall, while lodged in the crack. After finally pulling myself up high enough using just my arms, I was able to sneak my legs through the rest of the crack to the other side. From there with my back still against the wall, I placed my feet against the opposite wall and "chimneyed" across the crevice, with about a 15-20 foot drop or so beneath me. What chimneying is, is going across with my back against the wall, and feet on the opposite wall, just slowly inching my way across. This is actually quite an easy maneuver and it wasn't long till I made it to the ledge on the other side and was able to finish the last gentle climb to the top.

For me then the most fun was in exploring new areas of the cave, and just climbing to reach new places. It was a lot of fun, and kinda cool to do things that I initially didn't think was possible. Like fitting through the tight crawlspace, or climbing up the crack to get to the top of the cliff area. There was also an area where Rachel and a couple of the others pulled out some rope and climbed down to explore another part of the cave. But I didn't have any rope climbing gear so I didn't get a chance to go down there. But Rachel basically belayed down the cliff, and then climbed back up, using a safety rigging on the rope to climb back up after they explored that part of the cave.

So yeah, overall I would definitely say my first experience caving was a blast. I had a lot of fun and it was nice going with an experienced group of people, that were both safety conscience but also very much into pushing what and where they could go. It was fun and challenging, and I can say today, a day later, managed to make me sore. It is definitely something I"ll end up doing again in the future, to other caves, and other explorations. And it is always fun to come up with new and interesting ways to get Mom and Grandma to worry about me.

Testing and Rennfest

So last Friday I tested for my Green Belt. I've posted before on the rigors of such tests, and while this one did for sure meet such a description, it wasn't quite as bad as the previous test either. So I personally thought that was good lol. My favorite part at the end was when the main instructor says "okay in this last minute your guy's job is to convince me you aren't tired". This of course after the two hour test of constant activity and exercises. Then at the end after they handed out the belts he said "you guy's almost convinced me" then he points directly at me "but you're lips don't have any color." So yeah, I was slightly dehydrated by that point lol. Which is par for the course. The good news is I won't have to go through that again for a while, I'm anticipated spring maybe? Possibly winter. But I'm thinking 3-4 months minimum.



Then on last Sunday Rachel and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Again, I have to apologize for not having pictures... I've seriously been dropping the ball here. But for the most part it was like the one last year. Sadly though this year Ken and Becky weren't able to make it. But we did meet up with Tom and his gf Bashear. So that was nice, as it was last years Rennfest that I saw him last. Another "its a small world moment" it turns out that the job that Tom had before moving to DC was located in Pittsburgh and the company he worked at was a contractor for the navy. Rachel also worked up in Pittsburg for a few months with the navy, so she was familiar with the company and project that Tom was working on during his time there. So they were having fun tossing out names and projects lol. Anyways I though it was funny!



In terms of the actual fair though, I must say I was once again disappointed in the jousting. They seem to just go through the motions, which isn't nearly as much fun as it could be. In comparison the renn fair I went to a few years ago in Mass. had a lot more energy, and comedy going on between the knights and the competitions. Which is a shame because this renn fair is much larger and nicer of the two otherwise. But besides that the fair was a lot of fun. My favorite shows were the Shakespeare Skum, which did a show called "Macbeth in 20 minutes or less". This is a group that I saw last year as well (they did Hamlet last year) but they are tons of fun and are based out of London. And there was a sword swallower who was a blast to watch. He did some sword swallowing as well as some relatively simple (as in I couldn't do them!) magic tricks. But the show was a blast. And of course I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the excellent food offerings. Hmmm... smoked Turkey leg! Overall it was a great time, and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

Anyways that pretty much brings me up to date. This weekend I'll be going to a Halloween party/housewarming party for a friend from Karate. So Rachel and I need to find some costumes for that. And then on Sunday I will hopefully go caving with Rachel, well she is the "secretary" for a caving group so I get to try that out this weekend. With any luck I'll have some pictures even! But no promises.

Blue/Green Belt

So last night I tested for my Blue/Green belt, or more accuratly blue belt with green stripe. So I'm definently progressing with karate.

I think I've mentioned in previous posts how exhausting these tests are. Well last nights was without a doubt the most exhausting of them all. There wasn't one thing we did too much of, but rather a constant state of moving and exercising for 2 and a half hours. We would do some moves, then sprint. Or do some things and in between do frog hops. The instructor would ask us if we are tired, we'd say yes, and he'd respond with a then run around the complex. I probably could have passed out a few times. As we got pushed to the point of exhaustion, and then past it just for the heck of it.

Needless to say at the end of the test I downed the 40 ounces of water I brought with me, then when I got home I must have drank another gallon or two. Ultimatly it was a great night lol. And all I have to say, is that I"m kinda happy that my next test is a couple months away again. I'm not sure I could do that every week lol.

Rumblings

So I realized that it has been a few weeks since I have last posted. I figured I'd jot off some random stuff, so at least everyone knows I'm not dead or anything.

I just finished watching "Spartacus" a la Netflix. This is a show that has been intriguing me. Specifically I love the area and period that it is representing. And this show has been surprisingly good. The pilot was horrendous. But every episode since has been amazing. It has a lots of violence, language and nudity, but the strength of the show was how it balanced character development. As any good show about the period they focused on political maneuvering as much as the action. Though don't get me wrong, the fight scenes always managed to be fun to watch, and well choreographed. They deftly wove the story around different characters, comparing and contrasting them deftly throughout the series up till the climatic ending. The ending was quite satisfying, as well as epic. I'm really curious where they will take the second season.

I have also lost quite a bit of weight. This has the downside, I'm finding out, of needing an entire new set of clothes. Which is why I was so happy that Kevin was willing to part with some. I must say though, it is nice fitting into a size Large shirts, and size 34 waist. I don't know the last time I can say I was there. Probably junior high school sadly.... Anyways I figure I would love to still lose about another 10-15 pounds minimum. My goal I think is to have a "beach body" in time for the Long Lake vacation this year.

In Karate I have started to learn the Chinese Dao, which is a Chinese broadsword. That has been tons of fun. So far I have learned "dragon set one" and I'm hoping that next week I will learn the second sword form. The ability to learn weapons like this was one of the reasons why I decided to join the karate school that I did. And I must say it has been a blast. I have two more lessons (i purchased five extra to learn the weapon) left, which is sad. But not the end thankfully lol. After my lesson this past Thursday one of the other students told me that he thinks I smile more when I have a sword. I don't doubt this to be true lol.

Work is going well I suppose. I just got promoted right around Easter, which should mean I have to do 10% more work. Though if that is the case, it seems to be going quite well. I do for sure enjoy the extra pay. And the other benefits is just that with the promotion my boss has to review my work less strenuously. So I'm still kinda curious how that will play out in the end. So far I really havn't noticed anything different. One thing I can say though, is that I called up an attorney to suggest to them an amendment for the case. Basicaly he was unable to reach his applicant (the inventor or the like) in order to propose the amendment. The reason? A week long holiday in Japan. That's right, 1 week, public holiday. I know a government worker complaining about lack of holidays is much a pot and kettle situation. But really. 1 week! I'm very jealous.

Okay, so enough rumblings. Hopefully at some point I will even have something interesting to blog about.... sadly my life isn't that exciting lol. Until then, vaya con dios.

Blue Belt

As I mentioned in my last post, tonight I had my test for blue belt. It was only in February that I tested for my last belt, purple. So not very long. What happened was that at the twelve hour class, Sensei Santilo gave me a test invite. My main instructor hadn't even seen me do my lastest form in completion. Which was why she hadn't given me the test invite. But at the twelve hour class Sensei Santilo saw me do it, and said I was ready. Which is an amazing honor.

The thing is though, the tests are rough. The twelve hour class was long. But testing is intense. Two and a half hours long. The thing is, you dont go there unless you know your stuff. So the testing is more a test of endurance, determination, and tenacity. It was the most challenging and intense night of my life.

At one point, when we were dong our defensive maneuvers, our instructor Mr. Dires did a take down. So I'm laying on the ground with him over me. He tells me get out of it. So I roll away. So then he kneels on me. And tells me to get out now. So I manage to roll away again. Mr. Dires though, doesn't give up. We subsequently grappled on the ground for about five minutes or more. Grappling is like wresting. The idea is to lock out the opponent, using a wrist log, arm bar, choke... that sort of thing. But I refused to get locked out. By the end I was absolutely exhausted. I finnaly gave up when he pulled out a club (padded and soft, just a practice one) and started hitting me with it lol. It was exhausting but fun. The other people there were excited for the break, me I was out of it for the next twenty minutes lol.

Anyways, it was rough, it was exhausting, it was fun and exhilarating. And now I am a blue belt. Which is exciting and cool. And now I get to learn a sword form :-p. So I'm excited. Though, i hope that the next testing will be longer than two months away.....

It's been too long.

I realized it had been a while since I've updated last so I thought I'd throw up a post here. Sadly not much has gone on since the snowstorm. About two weeks ago now I tested for my purple belt in Karate, that brings me up to the "intermediate" level. So that was exciting, but is probably the most exciting part of my life at least recently.

In other news my favorite author George R R Martin got the green light from HBO to produce a tv series based on my favorite books ever. So needless to say next spring I will be adding HBO to my cable lineup.

http://tv.ign.com/articles/107/1073428p1.html

Besides that I thought I'd post an article regarding the patent office here. Basicaly there is a lot going on in the whole patent world right now. Lots of political and other pressure to get through the backlog. Some friendly name calling, and mudslinging. And even some fairly decent pending legislation. Its all good stuff. If you are curious about some of the fun things I get to keep in mind at work this is a great article in that it is long, but has most everything interesting/relevent.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/a_patent_on_problems