Jessi of course

She asked after the first tournament she went to, perhaps even at that tournament, and again after this one since; Derek was right beside her. She was quite thrilled that it was possible to do that and not be in trouble and amazed at the same time.

Wow though check out the photo page after this week, my brother is sending me to class with the 7.1 MegaPixel camera and it is nice.

http://www.angelfire.com/ab8/senseijames/pictures.html

Oh he got DQ'd

but there were only three in the group so he still got 3rd, even though it wasn't intentional the kid did get knocked out.

And then I realized today a second thing that I have from the Jehovah's Witnesses in my life growing up, and that is firstly in about 5th grade we had one come to class as a new student, and he wasn't made to do the pledge of allegiance, that changed my life, and then another one later in school, taught me about the faith, and why they did many things, and that is was to try and stay true to the same bible that all other versions of Christianity follow. And I think that her talk about makeup and jewelery has stuck with me through the years, and to this day I don't like the covering up down with make up.

Great Day Was Had

Lawrence got First at Demo go Jessi, now all the instructors are wanting to steal her ideas for next time. Topeka had to go first, and then Lawrence followed directly after, so it went from traditional to NOT.... and many had a hard time telling that there were even two demos.

Did a quick demo about Chanbara with Sensei John Albillar.

Many kids did many awesome things, Jessi got much praise, David did knock a kid unconscious..... Had a great bit of fun with Glenn Scott from St. Louis and some others. Although I will say I think I talked quite a bit more than usual.

Also I do not want to be involved in sparring at all unless I am the center ref, or perhaps Jon LaPesh is as he was one I saw doing it right, maybe SeHan, but I don't know, because for the second tournament in a row, the center judge kept making up rules as they went along.

Holy Cow was that easy

I set up 2 refinance peeps to check on the 'balt and then had to call GMAC and they can even redo it out for 42 months and they should be calling me either today or Monday with new terms and such for payments extended out, because they listed it on my Credit Report for a Lease and they have to change it to refinance. So GM is going to give me a quote HSBC is going to quote me and I got a 299 and change quote from Up2Drive they, just have to send me some packet to fill out and send back.

I have a plan

to save the air quality of Beijing for the Olympic Games, for 2 days trade all the cars in for Ionic Air Breeze's and bam! We have clean air.... wait screw just Beijing, let do it worldwide I mean have you seen the commercials, heck we should just make giant ones and put them on top of every building and then put the little flashing light for airplane safety on top of that... I mean maintenance is a snap according to the infomercial and that would create thousands of jobs both for that company and then the installers, and then maintainers... come on world let's get started.

Hey Jude and

Let it Be, anytime either of those is on...

Lean On Me too.

Across the Universe is on the must see list.

It is by far the best musical I have seen.

Well played, well sung, and well scripted. I just feel I missed out on that it came and went so quickly from theaters.

So Fight Club, Boondock Saints, your list is growing. Other must sees.... hmm I can't think of them off the top of my head.

The movie was in fact so good I want the soundtrack with their versions of the songs.

I also realized how much I need to make an emote CD with Let It Be and Hey Jude for sure... but others I have to come up with as well. I think Forever Young needs to be on there as well.

60 some percent now

Tonight with David doing it for the first time we got to 18 minutes and 30 seconds of the DVD.

Found out Tuesday that Joe's chemotherapy will be for 30 weeks this time, which means no Japan until after that. So we probably won't go until December, but that's okay with me as I don't think I would have come up with the dough by May or June. This way too it will be a Celebration of being done with Chemo too.

Well I'm inching towards the finish line

My arms didn't crap out in the middle of the DVD today, however, I did after 54.5% instead of 50% So I made it to the extreme push ups portion, and I still got in my 100 Inclines and 100 Tris plus a good workout with "kata" and Sparring for a few hours off and on.

Q without an A

How do we imprint in youth the motivation to help others? And more importantly make that more motivating than the desire to help self?



So far a little:
Teach Goals not obstacles
championism not defeatism

I do Highly Recommend

The Day America Told The Truth

I finished it today at work, and wow, the statistics they gathered prove a lot of things many of my friends and I already thought, but now we have that evidence from a non biased perspective done through an anonymous survey of the US and that is just quite fulfilling to find out. Also it has given me many more ideas as things I should be doing.

sets of 50 are rough

wow I have to pause around 45 or so, but pushing myself does feel good, and wow does the 50 take a much bigger toll than the 33 or 34, although with just doing the sets for a couple of days I am getting a little more capable.

Jessi checked out a space for her demo team's extra practice which looks like it will be great, and she seemed more enthused afterwards, which is good. Today unbeknownst to
Jessi she was being tested as an instructor, in fact she didn't even realize that I was watching most of the time. She only had a few things, but they are normal for a beginner instructor, in the big classes she was uncomfortable because of their numbers, but she was doing okay when I made her teach, after I had them lined up the way they needed to be.... She didn't even catch on to that either, but she did a great job and I made sure to tell her so. Then I tried to encourage her demo teams ability in her mind. I hope that worked. Now I just need her to talk with Sensei Derek, and hopefully I can get her trained as a full fledged instructor herself.

She hasn't really decided one way or another whether she wants to teach on the Saturday or go to Master's Camp, so I am going to try and prod that out of her soon...

April 12th April 12th

well then... I have Jessi and Sensei Anne Harvey to cover for me in Top City, so tonight I'll have to work out some details with Jessi about what she can help take out there and such. Mostly how she will get out there I suppose, and Anne went out on a road trip for her Spring Break, whatever that is.

Talked with my mom today, and since I will have 0 secretaries in Top City tomorrow she is coming out to help out, and hopefully Jessi will head out to assist and then get in some experience with the class; since I am hoping to have her take the lead on it on the 12th.

broke the 200 barrier

well after last night with all the classes there is now over 200 candy boxes accounted for, now just to get all the monies back in by the first week of April. That did push us about 25 boxes over Wichita, they were just barely ahead. Awww snap I just checked and last night/today they jumped back into the mix they are at with an additional 4 cases ordered! So it will be super close, however right now we are ahead, and 85 boxes have gone through accounting on ours versus only 61 on her end. I think there also were only 5-6 instructors on both Pom and Karate side with over 100 yesterday when I checked, and out of all instructors 544 have been turned in to accounting so as far as sold for sure our class has 15% of the total! yea buddy

total out as a company is still 1765 though.... wow! That's $91,780 not yet turned in although 91 of those are at the office equaling $4,732

Good books

I was up late even reading The Secret of Inner Strength: My Story by none other than Chuck Norris, and say what you will about whatever, but it is a good positive book, and his early life was filled with hardships, and most of that which he accomplished in life he fell into through having a positive outlook. Here's just the final page:

Chuck Norris' Code of Ethics:
1. I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.
2. I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.
3. I will always be in a positive frame of mind and convey this feeling to every person I meet.
4. I will continually work at developing love, happiness, and loyalty in my family and acknowledge that no other success can compensate for failure in the home.
5. I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.
6. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.
7. I will give so much time to the improvement of myself that I will have no time to criticize others.
8. I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
9. I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness toward another person's viewpoint while still holding fast to what I know to be true and honest.
10. I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate respect at all times.
11. I will always remain loyal to my country and obey the laws of the land.
12. I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps myself, my family, and my country.

Granted I'm sure #11 and the last 3 words of 12 might not fly with myself at times, but those are great rules. Along with the rest of the book I highly recommend it.

Then I polished off Stick Fighting while at work, mostly about joint locks, while using a variety of stick weapons against strikes, kicks, and grabs, with some throws put in here and there, overall for a first time weapon user or one unfamiliar with how to apply locks with weapons it is a good book too.

Now I am on The Day America Told the Truth, a collection of survey stats from the 90's that is very telling about beliefs of the participants, and then it was broken down into regions so far, it is quite interesting. Next up after that shall be the Pilates book I have and two more after that before I have to go to the library again.

Oh and I finished unit 6 of my Japanese this morning to my Satisfaction, technically I've been through every unit at least 3 times, and possibly 7 on the later ones if not more, as I want to get 100% at the end not just 70-80%. Now there are just 2 more units before I start the Spanish one.

Well all that's left it the video

And I read up on an article in the October 2005 Black Belt Mag... which I believe Derek would have read if not I'll drop it by his office.... about Chanbara... that's right in 05 I think that's even when we had the clinic on it....

Also I am reading another groovy book YAY!

Well the rules are in

now just to make the page and change page 2 with the beheading and all for the kiddies....

Did stop in at the Library and grabbed some Spanish Learning Disks, as I'm almost done with my Japanese Course. Then I picked up a Yoga DVD and a Martial Arts work out DVD... Which apparently I lucked out and the Yoga is an awesome one, and so far the Martial Arts one is pretty advanced and beneficial.

So now that I'm up to 100/set of tri-sit-ups, I will probably start adding in the Yoga and the Martial Arts one in once a week or so.

all but page four... which I'm waiting on offical rules for

So page four will include pictures of required equipment, and then rules, with if going by my current rules, then pictures of points being hit and called out.

The DVD will follow the basics of these pages but with moving pictures of course.

Chanbara Curriculum Page Uno

That is what I have so far, I'm working on the rest.... which I still need Derek to send back whether or not the Rules I have are the rules we will use..... For my final Page

Summer time Differences

Chanbara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq0Tp9jcZuY&feature=related

nice vid although we only allow the 40" ones not the spear one, the Tanto, or any of the other ones.

Since apparently I am teaching it this upcoming Master's Camp instead of Iaido which of course I have a background in.... and Kendo which I don't.... This shall be interesting....

I have some drills and things... but it I am sure will be a mess....

Headgear must have face mask for head contact

Forearm fist pads are a plus, however, our newer hand pads and forearm pads ought to be okay.

Also the rules are a few years old... so I am currently verifying their validity...

I do now only have 408 tri-sit-ups (technically if you count 3 as one sit-up that's 136 which makes me feel better.


Also come to find out this summer Derek has taken it upon himself to design the course for me to teach, not so much a guideline, but rather a course....

That went over great right after the hey by the way that thing you planned on doing isn't going to happen, we are changing it with only a couple weeks to give yourself time to learn all about kendo.......and Chanbara.

chopping away at it

well I'm down to 909 tri-sit-ups left including today's number on Tuesday I did 402, Wednesday 600 and so far for today's 300... maybe another set here after Deerfield's paperwork and that will chop off another 300, but then tomorrow adds 201 making the need 810 to make up for days missed.... whew.. perhaps I'll get in two more set for today....then only 510 tomorrow... yeah that sounds better....

More Info is always good

Found out that my next goal now that I'm under 120,000 should be to be under 5,000 in credit card debt, and then after that should be to pay off to be under 50% of total credit limit, then two paths emerge:

A. pay down to under 35% of each
B. pay off and discontinue use except once a year and then pay off one at a time

because both affect credit scoring, but of course it's an extremely complicated process and they won't tell you which would be better for you. Because right now I have two factors for TransUnion to have me under 700 on my score and that's multiple accounts with balances, and high proportion of balances

so decisions decisions

multitudes of good news

A. I am under 120,000 in debt as of this month
B. watched an awesome documentary on tv and I suggest you go to http://www.kilowattours.org/
the documentary was kilowatt ours, and I learned quite a bit of things, which of course opened me up to even more.
C. My refrigerator is not that inefficient it only uses $49/year versus avg. energy star new $38
D. I could save about $100/year by replacing shower heads and faucets
E. Doing what I need to and replacing the inner workings of the toilets, cleaning the basins out, and possibly replacing the connection to the wall with a new one I could save about $10/month
F. If I got a whole home tankless water heater, and then a "remote" one under the kitchen sink for the dishwasher and faucet in there I could save $20 or more/month, it would save both water and energy.

Now if I could just find some LED light bulbs that would be most excellent... also I hope this month to be able to afford the trailer to be fixed up.

caught up in part

Well this morning before work I got in 300 pushups so now I'm caught up on those, I just have another set of 33 to do for today, however, now I still have 4 days of situps and today to catch up on.... so lets see if I have to double each that's really 9 sets of 33 and 9 sets of 34 tri sit ups to do so that's what just 621 tri sit ups 1863 total to catch up through today....

He did it again

This friggin' guy, micco I schwear to friggin' gawd...

He sent over 604 txt messages within 2 weeks

and he still has 2 weeks of this month left. Tomorrow I am going to call him and remind him that he still has $20 from last bill he owes me and it looks like next bill will be even more than that.... I told him to check his minutes and the options if he wanted more messages... but the dip shizz doesn't listen so now tomorrow I'm turning it off at 7am.

Well as usual my body had different ideas

I got back from brown and black belt testing, and KONK I was out until about 8:30 or so and then stayed in bed a little longer until about 9:30, so I only got in 102 pushups yesterday, and I am just dragging so far this morning.... I don't know if I'll even do paperwork today.

thanks love line

for having a guy from gladiators on and letting me know that it takes triple when I skip to accommodate missing one day of work out.... so today since yesterday was a full day.... I have 300 pushups and 603 trisitups to do