Seven Things

Since Mushtaq tagged me...

Seven Things I Will Do Before I Die

• Have a child
  
• Write and publish a book
  
• Find a way to get my black sash (i.e. permission to teach) in my old kung fu system.
  
• Complete my list of all the similarities between the techniques and principles of my old system and those I've learned studying FMA and dabbling in silat.
  
• Have enough martial arts knowledge to pass on to my child. Because few things are scarier than a Filipino descendant with a stick being asked "What system do you know?" and answering "Just some stuff I learned from the old man."
  
• Go to the Philippines and find an old GM to have at least one lesson. If none are living by the time I get to it, I'll settle for a first generation student.
  
• Finally learn how to play the jazz standard "Joyspring" on my trumpet. It's been a decade, and I still haven't mastered it.

Seven Things I Can Do

• Learn just about any skill if I'm apprenticed to the right person. I tell myself, "If I can learn kung fu, I can learn this..."
  
• Listen. Even now, the mental health counseling bug hasn't completely been eradicated from my system.
  
• Generally see the "big picture" or the general principles of a given thing, without necessarily needing every last detail.
  
• Hum along with the horn licks of every Chicago song from any album, all the way back to Chicago Transit Authority.
  
• Take care of my wife (I know I can do this, 'cos she told me so).
  
• Hang out comfortably with and feel accepted by lower-middle-class Appalachians in the morning, and rich, Liberal, semi-elitist snobs in the evening. It's all about how you listen to and talk with people.
  
• Stay calmer than average in a crisis situation. One of the lasting benefits of working in Residential Treatment.

Seven Things I Can't Do

• Stomach even a hint of the Filipino cultural "I'll-scratch-your-back-and-you're-an-ashsole-if-you-don't-scratch-mine" mentality. This is a bad thing, really, because I know I've actively avoided relationships with some people because of it. I have to work on that.
  
• Even think of the possibility of ever moving back to Euclid, OH.
  
• Play any tune done by Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker (except for "Scrapple from the Apple" and bits of "Ornithology")
  
• Own a firearm (at least if I want to stay married)
  
• Address a Catholic nun any differently than I did in grade school, even ones closer to my age
  
• Transition cleanly back and forth between "right side" hubud into the "left side."
  
• Resist chicken wings
  

Seven Things I Say Most Often

• Whaaaaaaaat?
  
• Oh, no he/she didn't!
  
• [I've got/she'll get/he knows/you deserve/I owe you/etc.] two things: jack and $hit.
  
• Gotta put the game face on, baby.
  
• [What'd I get you for your birthday/for lunch/etc.] Twice as much as I got you last time.
  
• [In response to feeling screwed with] Motherfcuker's got the wrong one, today.
  
• Told you that btich crazy.

Seven People I Would Like To Pass This On To

You know how I am about spamming people ;), so I'll just open it up to the first seven people who want to do this either as a comment or on their own blogs (and leave a comment telling us all where to find it).