After setting a long time, I move
Apr. 7th, 2005 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberSo, I mentioned I was inspired by ACUS? Part of that was, "go out and meet people and do stuff." Like, the Kali class I've started. Which was today a lot of fun.
I've wanted to do a martial art for years. Like, literally, back in the days of BBSes I researched it. I was looking for 1. actual effectiveness in a fight and 2. weapons (see 1). I decided that the best for that were Escrima, Ninjutsu, and the Israeli Armed Forces thing whose name I've forgotten.
In the Bay Area there are actually opportunities to learn such things; in Colorado at the time it was all Kung Fu. I poked around on the internet months back looking at options, and found a couple. Tuesday I went to check one out.
Neat setting in the ground floor of a reclaimed Victorian; pretty much exactly the stage on which I played the game with Erick Wujcik a month ago, except smaller. Did I mention that? Hm. He came to the Bay Area for the Game Developer's Conference, and Saturday before my immensely successful party (I didn't mention that either, eh? Huh) ran a sort of modern weird-stuff-is-happening game set entirely in a old Victorian house/commune in Berkeley. Ending I found hilarious: we were all given what amounted to the power to rewrite reality on a whim. It is not right that we should have this vast power, we decided, we who were just normal granola-eating barely-psychics before. We determined to take the power given to us and divide it amongst all living things, so they could call on low-level psychic abilites like we had, in times of need. "It's like we're taking a pat of butter and spreading it out all over the toast," we said convincingly to those considering keeping the power for just us.
Only it turned out it was an infinite pat of butter. Oh, I'm still giggling.
Right, where was I? Neat building, and a lady instructor about my age. Turned out to be a good call, since she seems to have a low-stress "this should be fun" attitude. She was teaching at one point how to skip around kicking ankles and heels; reminded me of Army of Darkness (Little Goody Two Shoes!). But she clearly knows her stuff, and teaches it. Also, the people were neat-looking and seemed to enjoy themselves. Small class, too; 12 people. Diverse colors and abilites.
So today I went back to join in.
One thing I really picked up from college was from Chemistry, the idea of the activation energy. The energy in an exothermic reaction, charted over time as it reacts: it starts out at one mid-level, but in order to get to the final low-level equilibrium, there's a high hedge of energy the reaction has to vault. Applied to life, it's much easier to not do the reaction than to do it.
Anyway, today turned out to be a stick day! So I got to learn how to whip the stick around so it whooshes through the air. Fun! It was actually sort of line-dancing with a stick, but I figure anything's good now, and I really do like the instruction; the more knowledgeable students seem happy to be detailed to bring us n00bs up to speed. Good pace of instruction; I feel that I'm picking up a range of stuff. Friendly.
Also, my right arm is like, "The hell are those muscles?" And the muscles are like, "Oh, don't worry, tomorrow we'll let you know..."
Bought the stick I was using. You and me, Stick. Oh dear, I just named my stick "Stick." Good thing I'm not a guy.
So, yeah. Shiny.
I've wanted to do a martial art for years. Like, literally, back in the days of BBSes I researched it. I was looking for 1. actual effectiveness in a fight and 2. weapons (see 1). I decided that the best for that were Escrima, Ninjutsu, and the Israeli Armed Forces thing whose name I've forgotten.
In the Bay Area there are actually opportunities to learn such things; in Colorado at the time it was all Kung Fu. I poked around on the internet months back looking at options, and found a couple. Tuesday I went to check one out.
Neat setting in the ground floor of a reclaimed Victorian; pretty much exactly the stage on which I played the game with Erick Wujcik a month ago, except smaller. Did I mention that? Hm. He came to the Bay Area for the Game Developer's Conference, and Saturday before my immensely successful party (I didn't mention that either, eh? Huh) ran a sort of modern weird-stuff-is-happening game set entirely in a old Victorian house/commune in Berkeley. Ending I found hilarious: we were all given what amounted to the power to rewrite reality on a whim. It is not right that we should have this vast power, we decided, we who were just normal granola-eating barely-psychics before. We determined to take the power given to us and divide it amongst all living things, so they could call on low-level psychic abilites like we had, in times of need. "It's like we're taking a pat of butter and spreading it out all over the toast," we said convincingly to those considering keeping the power for just us.
Only it turned out it was an infinite pat of butter. Oh, I'm still giggling.
Right, where was I? Neat building, and a lady instructor about my age. Turned out to be a good call, since she seems to have a low-stress "this should be fun" attitude. She was teaching at one point how to skip around kicking ankles and heels; reminded me of Army of Darkness (Little Goody Two Shoes!). But she clearly knows her stuff, and teaches it. Also, the people were neat-looking and seemed to enjoy themselves. Small class, too; 12 people. Diverse colors and abilites.
So today I went back to join in.
One thing I really picked up from college was from Chemistry, the idea of the activation energy. The energy in an exothermic reaction, charted over time as it reacts: it starts out at one mid-level, but in order to get to the final low-level equilibrium, there's a high hedge of energy the reaction has to vault. Applied to life, it's much easier to not do the reaction than to do it.
Anyway, today turned out to be a stick day! So I got to learn how to whip the stick around so it whooshes through the air. Fun! It was actually sort of line-dancing with a stick, but I figure anything's good now, and I really do like the instruction; the more knowledgeable students seem happy to be detailed to bring us n00bs up to speed. Good pace of instruction; I feel that I'm picking up a range of stuff. Friendly.
Also, my right arm is like, "The hell are those muscles?" And the muscles are like, "Oh, don't worry, tomorrow we'll let you know..."
Bought the stick I was using. You and me, Stick. Oh dear, I just named my stick "Stick." Good thing I'm not a guy.
So, yeah. Shiny.