MY WEEKLY PERSONALITY ANALYSIS

Ok, ok... this is really the most accurate personality test EVER.




You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN ATHENS

So, with my money problems cleared up (in a way), I could attend club last night. It was as intense a workout as I've had in awhile. I've had more excruciating, but my arms felt like lead after all the punching techniques we did.

Last session was basically a Bando seminar given by a guest instructor. This guy was the quintessential mix of humility and expertise. The way he moves reminds me very much of the head instructor of my old TKD club. And, he was funny, too, especially when it came to discussing the more practical applications of the techniques he was demonstrating. "Here's something you can do when you have your opponent against the ropes in the ring... or against the bar... or a wall, whatever." Or, "If he tries to run, you can try this move and that move... and for good measure, just punch him right in the face." My favorite was learning that elbow strikes, if thrown the right way, can actually serve to cut someone -- as in bleed.

No, check that. My favorite was the "tornado punch" -- basically a combo followed up by a quick spinning backfist. The instructor noted the amount of power I was generating with it. Of course, the power generation was easy. I performed the move enough times in the TKD form Do San. The footwork is from even more elementary forms, which is for me, the first three Pinan kata. It's funny just how much I've been able to connect between MMA moves and traditional moves. I should write a paper or something, although I'm sure it's already been written 100 times over.

The best part was a compliment I was payed on my technique. The instructor, who has about 10 pounds on me, said that if I were to connect with the spinning backfist, I'd probably knock him out. That's my favorite part of training. Not necessarily praise from people (even instructors) -- simply the acknowledgement that I learned what I was supposed to learn.

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IF IT AIN'T THE I.R.S....

It's freakin' banks nowadays. There was some glitch with my account and I couldn't go to MMAC on Tuesday. But, it's all good now, so I'll get to go tonight. Maybe I should post a b!+ch slap to them.

My biggest gripe isn't necessarily the account glitch, as much as the fact that I can't afford the pittance being asked for this one vintage (it "out-Shaft's" Shaft's coat) leather coat that fits perfectly.

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I GOT SERVED

I got told that a comment I made about his blog wasn't appreciated. I didn't mean it all like that, but I guess it could've been the ennui I was suffering from that day. Oh, well. I'll go on the record and say check out the blog. You can actually learn a thing or two.

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WANTED

If anyone out there knows where to find a decent quality sound file, preferably .wav or .mp3, of Jet Li's final line in "The One"... you know it: I am Yu Law... I'm nobody's b!+ch..." etc. etc., tack a comment on here or on my tagboard and let me know where I can get it.

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"CAN YOU TAKE ME HIIIIGH ENOUGH...?"

Yankee or Dixie?

47% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category.

All right! I guess I get to hang out with Ted Nugent, Tommy Shaw and that dude from Night Ranger, now.

Ed. note: I apologize if that was too obscure a reference for some of you.

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THE BEES KNEES

E's torn miniscus is giving her problems again; it hit last night without warning, as usual. She gets so depressed over it, and I can't blame her. E struggles a lot to be active, especially through the busy-ness of her grad program, but at this point, even tai chi is giving her problems. I know it's not easy watching me staying trim and fit, doing all sorts of stuff, when all she wants to do is walk without fear of her knee giving out.

She's got an MRI scheduled for this Wednesday, thank goodness, and the docs will see where to go from there. She's got a tentative surgery scheduled for a few weeks from now during her spring break, but we'll see what happens.

If you're of the praying persuasion, and I know some (but not all) of you are, this'd be a good cause. As for the rest of you, I'm sure warm fuzzy thoughts would be appreciated, too.

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AMERICAN IDLE

Slow weekend, slow week, slow life. So, I went and did something I haven't done in awhile, just crawled through random blogs off of Blogger's home page.

Let's see how long this new blog lasts: Bloggin For Your Noggin

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QUIZTIME

Quotes from Either President of the United States George W. Bush or Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars Movies

by Jason McGregor

Test your knowledge.

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MY WEEKLY PERSONALITY ANALYSIS

Right on, baby!





what decade does your personality live in?


quiz brought to you by lady interference, ltd

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN ATHENS

Oooh, yeah... finally getting into some interesting techniques! Real useful stuff, like some of the simplest takedowns I've ever been taught. Not to mention cimande limb destructions. Although, I wonder how many feathers I'd ruffle if I mentioned just how many of those "time-wasting, useless, dead forms" I learned between tkd and kung-fu actually have similar movements. Eh, I've got enough troubles ;).

I felt bad that SPEAKMAN was not there yesterday. Hopefully, his toe is ok. Though, I have to say that it was nice working with many different partners, especially though the muay Thai drills. Cooperative partners trying to work the techniques as dictated by the style as opposed to trying to sneak in his own old style. Although, I have to say that once I was able to connect a particular cimande's movement with a movement right out of the songmookwan tkd/shotokan karate form bassai sho, things clicked for me.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN ATHENS

I claimed my first casualty last night. Well, my second if you count the fact that I shredded my own knuckles my second night of pad drills. I'm glad I took the advice to start wearing shoes to club. I stepped on a partner's big toe and bent part of his toenail back while doing pekiti-tirsia knife drills.

Y'know, I hate to say it, but he's -- let's give him a name, howabout SPEAKMAN (as in "Jeff") -- one of those guys who 1) is still too caught up in their original martial arts style and 2) always hogs me. Eh, maybe he'll think twice this Thursday. The problem was I was having a hard time coping with a #5 angle attack, and couldn't get it with SPEAKMAN. The funny thing was, after he got hurt and I switched partners, I was lucky enough to find a partner who immediately spotted what I was doing wrong.

I could rant more, but I have to go to work. Maybe more tomorrow.

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SNOOCHIE BOOCHIE NOOCHIE

ITEM ONE
The song that's been inundating my thoughts since I first saw the movie Office Space last week -- Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster by the Geto Boys.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster
A real gangster @$$ n**ga plays his cards right
A real gangster @$$ n**ga never runs his f**king mouth
'Cause real gangster @$$ n**gas don't start fights

Hell, yeah!

ITEM TWO
Valentine's Day: Had to work all day, but came home with a flower and a couple of lil' gifts for E and was greeted with a cornish hen dinner and the movie In the Mood For Love directed by Wong Kar Wai.

ITEM THREE
Saw a nice Japanese movie the other night, Shall We Dance. Who would've guessed Japanese (non-Anime) movies could be so funny?

ITEM FOUR
Sam Adam Cherry Wheat is now my second-favorite beer.

ITEM FIVE
One of the eternal truths I've learned in my three-decade existence is "You always become what you hate the most." In my case, I'm now suffering the effects of seeing too much of Jay and Silent Bob in such a short period of time.

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MY WEEKLY PERSONALITY ANALYSIS

Nggghhaahhh!
Grrr arrr Rum and Monkey.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN ATHENS

ITEM ONE
Hehe... yeah... heh heh... hm... heh heh heh... knife drills are cool...

ITEM TWO
Additions to my Non-Amazon Wish List

One 24"-26" iron pipe

One axe handleITEM THREE
Once again, I ask myself the age old training hall question, applicable regardless of art: You don't wanna kill the buzz of your fellow students who want to learn and seek out training partners who they feel will stretch them during training drills. At the same time, you wanna work on your own $hi+, and you try to work with them in return, but somehow they end up putting you back in teacher-mode. What do you do?

This'd be fine if I was back at my old TKD club -- it comes with the 1st gup. But at MMAC, I'm the equivalent of a white belt. The problem is that while there are other martial artists from other systems there, I'm the only one whose done FMA outside of club, even though it was relatively miniscule. I've learned more in the past 5 weeks than I have in the two years I dallied with Modern Arnis/Sinawali. As they say, "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

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MY NON-AMAZON WISH LIST

• A used laptop off of EBay for no more than $200, incl. shipping. Yes, my standards are pretty low. I'll take something as low as a Pentium II. I just want something functional that was made in this century (i.e. the 21st). My half-decade old machine, for as well as it's served me, is truly on its last legs.
  
• A new bo-staff to replace one that was stolen awhile back. I haven't practiced my kung fu staff forms in waaaaaay too long.
  
• A new Edges2 training knife (also stolen)

Anyone wanna help out? Just rustle up some o' your spare change and shove it over this way (via the PayPal donate link on your left there). You know, the stuff you had slated for "Feed the Children" or somesuch. Come on -- if you haven't sponsored a child by now, you know you're not going to. If I had just a nickel for every reader... well, I might have a whole quarter! I'm gonna (re-)start graduate school soon -- I need my mobility!

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SNOOGINS, REDUX

E and I watched Clerks last night, as Mallrats was unavailable. While I enjoyed the movie slightly more than I did the last time I watched it, E seemed to hate it a little more.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN SLACKERSVILLE

E would say that I need to be kinder to myself. I did, after all, slightly injure myself at work three days ago, twisting some ligament that connects the left thigh bone to the hip bone, I believe. What do I know? I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. All I know is muay Thai drills didn't seem the thing to be doing. Heck, my 30-year-old @$$ is still feeling the after-effects of repeated takedown drills from two weeks ago.

So needless to say I didn't attend MMAC last Tuesday. Instead, I relaxed (sort of) at a coffee shop and was just about to get up and leave when they started the open mike poetry. Ah, yes, as you can imagine in a town such as Athens, OH you had just about one of every open mike poetry stereotype you know. The black-clad beatnik, head to toe. Only in traditional Athens-non-comformist style, her beret was a shade of deep purple. A couple of high-schoolers, one an "old pro" of sorts. You could tell she'd been here before, reciting tales of love with stylistic cliches. And I don't mean that to be harsh at all. Hell, she was up there reading -- props to her. She brought a friend, a nervous fellow up there for the first time. He sounded just as you'd expect for someone doing this for the first time.

All in all, some were good, some were bad. I admit to being far from qualified to give a deeper assessment. All I know is that while I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to avoid that again, I probably won't be rushing back there every Tuesday night. Hell, this time next week when I'm (hopefully) at Club again, I won't even remember the open-mike-night exists.

I suppose that makes me sound like a bit of a troglodyte choosing martial arts over poetry. But then again, martial arts are arts, too, right? I'm just pissed that I missed the knife fighting. I'll be there tonight and there'll be two straight hours of it, so that'll be cool.

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SNOOGINS

This week has sort of turned into an unofficial Kevin Smith filmfest at our house. Between Saturday and last night we've seen Dogma, Chasing Amy, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. For some reason, I enjoyed Strike Back waay more last night than I ever did. E felt the same way about Chasing Amy.

I'm guessing it was the company.

Next on the agenda: Mallrats.

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ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE

A gem from 1965 -- that's 39 years ago, for those of you who don't cotton ta none o' that fancy book learnin'.

Send The Marines
words/music by Tom Lehrer

What with President Johnson practicing escalatio on the Vietnamese and then the Dominican crisis on top of that it has been a nervous year and people have begun to feel like a Christian scientist with appendicitis. Fortunately in times of crisis just like this America always has this number one instrument of diplomacy to fall back on. Here's a song about it.

When someone makes a move
Of which we don't approve,
Who is it that always intervenes?
U.N. and O.A.S.,
They have their place, I guess,
But first send the Marines!

We'll send them all we've got,
John Wayne and Randolph Scott,
Remember those exciting fighting scenes?
To the shores of Tripoli,
But not to Mississippoli,
What do we do? We send the Marines!

For might makes right,
And till they've seen the light,
They've got to be protected,
All their rights respected,
'Till somebody we like can be elected.

Members of the corps
All hate the thought of war,
They'd rather kill them off by peaceful means.
Stop calling it aggression,
O we hate that expression.
We only want the world to know
That we support the status quo.
They love us everywhere we go,
So when in doubt,
Send the Marines!

Tom Lehrer: funny songwriter or prophet of Nostradamus-ian proportions?

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HOW?

Courtesy of site meter:

Referring URL

http://search.msn.co...%3d0%26pn%3d2%26&q=a Search Engine: search.msn.com Search Words: a

How on earth does someone get to this blog doing this?

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AN EXAMPLE TO THE FREE WORLD

The eating habits of American kids are widely considered a good example of what other countries must avoid.

E. Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 2001.

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MY WEEKLY PERSONALITY ANALYSIS

Schedule's full once again tomorrow, so here it is.


you are the "I hate you so bad" happy
bunny. You hate everyone and eveything and your
not ashamed of it.


which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

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"EVERYBODY'S MARCHIN' TO MARS"

It's amazing how the dated views (c. 2001) of a comedian, in this case my favorite, Dennis Miller, can be relevant today. For instance...

I get cross-eyed with rage when I hear that there are thirty-five students in a third-grade inner-city public-school class sharing one textbook while the AV-squad jerkoffs at NASA have lost contact with yet another billion-dollar piece-of-shit Radio Shack transmitter that was supposed to land on the surface of Mars and broadcast back pictures that I could take in Barstow in July. Hey, NASA. The space race is over. We won. We know all about space. It's full of black holes that relentlessly suck in all matter around them. Kind of like what you do with our f**king money. There might be water on Mars? Call me when you find oil on Mars, okay?

It's a nice warm feeling when someone else can eloquently crystallize your thoughts.

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FAITH

It's nice to know there are things in this world you can count on. For instance, I didn't watch the Super Bowl last weekend. I was working, and didn't care much in any case. But, I heard about "the incident" -- you know the one I mean -- and I wanted a picture.

Somehow, I just knew Mr. Ellis wouldn't let me down.

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MISCELLANEA

First off, let me say that Chapter 8 of Fast Food Nation is not for the faint-of-heart.

Secondly, I added a Creative Commons License -- just because I could.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

What's a guy to do when he spends an evening at home on a Friday night, surrounded by his girlfriend and three nubile Asian women from different exotic cultures, with dishes of fruits and cheeses, sipping fine beer and red wine?

Sit around and discuss the socio-historical-political-linguistic attitudes of Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines, of course. Get those fantasies based on Full Metal Jacket out of your mind.

One of the young ladies was describing her attitude toward her country of origin, Japan -- an attitude she felt was typical (with the usual caveats) of the young people of her generation. She basically said that although there are many elements of Japanese culture to be proud of, there just isn't (in her observations, anyway) that sense of nationalism and patriotism that she observes in the United States. She was sort of amazed to see flags flying all over the place -- US flags, state flags, and even in the deep south where she spent some time, "stars and bars."

Apparently, you don't see a lot of flag-waving in Japan. I didn't state it then, but I wondered how much of that is just the culture of modern-day Japan, and how much of that might have been the doing of post-WWII American policy for the region?

Things that make me go "hmmm..."

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SARNAC ADIRONDACK AMBER...

... is now my favorite beer.

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