I need to draw one, that is all.

Matthew Aaron Kelly
ENGC 1101-42
Professor Cleaves
2/09/10
Trials and Tribulations of Budo
I practice a Japanese Martial Art, or Budo, called Kendo. Practiced and taught in a very traditional sense but still a light atmosphere among peers. We are taught respect our training place, the dojo, by taking our shoes off, bowing when entering and leaving and other traditions. It is a medium-contact sport using near-full-body armor including three main pieces, chest piece (dou), helmet (men), and hand guards (kote). We use a bamboo sword made of four pieces of wood and leather to hold it together called a shinai. It is a very engaged budo involving endurance, strength, but mostly a willing mind. Many traditions are upheld while during the course of practice. Learning such a martial art can be very demanding yet rewarding and has almost a militaristic feel to it. It can be very stressful mentally and physically which have brought forth many different unique thoughts and emotions I have never considered in my life before.
We call our teacher by the Japanese name, Sensei. Sensei is used as a suffix for a person in a respected position, such as teachers, doctors, professors, and many others figures of authority. He is a strict but fair teacher who uses mainly examples to show you how things are done right. It is often hard to understand exactly what he means on the first and second times he explains it, but I try not to worry since I know it will be shown in again later. My main issue is when I am performing taught action. This involves us being up close and personal with my opponent, striking each other with our shinai. When it is our turn with Sensei, this is where stage fright tends to set in. Knowing exactly what he wants us to do at times seems easy, but he can often see flaws in our work due to his twenty years of experience. Sensei is quick to point out the flaw, and will make you repeat it until you perform it to perfection. When you strike a target you have to call it out by name, shouting it strongly with good spirit. At the same time you are lunging with your hips towards your target and slapping your right foot down. The strike, the foot slap, and the shout should all be at the same time. There is a term in Kendo for this action, kikentai, and the action of doing it at the same time is called kikentaiichhi. The term icchi is referring to all before it, being as one. Ki is your spirit, Ken is your sword, and Tai is your body. So the closest English translation is, spirit, sword, and body as one. It is one of the strongest points you learn early on that is your goal to master. This mindset is added to any action you perform in Kendo. To gain perfection such a goal is impossible, though can always strive for it. I have learned from the arts in Japan that you can never obtain perfect, but you can always get closer.
The main stress of Kendo for me is jigeiko. Jigeiko is free sparring, a training session where one trains and apply the fundamental skills of Kendo. Every time I come to Kendo, I worry about what I will gain from jigeiko. We spend two or three minutes with each person and continuously spar until time is up. No points are scored, since the main purpose of jigeiko is to learn from each other. Jigeiko is done at the end of practice, when you are fairly worn out from previous encounters.
I try my best when I am practicing with Sensei, but I am already fatigued from the day’s lessons. He is quick to point out mistakes and while using the time wisely, he keeps on the pressure with strikes that are supposed to show me where I am weak. When I don’t get how to change my actions, it looks if he is just beating down on a defenseless person. He does this for a reason, and anyone in kendo would respect this. It does benefit me in the long run, as I learn from it. I would try to block on instinct, but it is something my Sensei frown on. Blocking is something I was never taught, so I should not be practicing it until I have learned how to do it. What he wanted me to do was apply pressure to him, attacking his weak points. My problem of thinking things were not open took me several weeks to grasp when I could hit something. The next problem was, I was afraid of hitting places other than men for non point-scoring hits. Only recently did I go for kote or even the rare dou hit. I believe I have a clearer understanding of how I should present myself. When I give it my all, I need to make sure I am looking at not only mastering what I know but what could possibly be next. Unfortunately even when I give it my all and learn from my Sensei, the job is rarely ever done. I will still have several other matches with fellow students leaving me exhausted and often unable to give it my all with them.
In the end I leave with sore feet, and several bruises. I have a smell of sweat combined with the leather and cloth used to make the armor, a stink unique to Kendo. My hands and legs are often spotted blue with places where the cloth gets touched. When you complete something so intense in but two hours, a very rewarding feeling to be that worn out and damaged. This is something many will brag to other Kendo students, their family and friends. I have been doing this every Saturday for almost a year now, and hopefully will be practicing Kendo for the rest of my life.

SENSEI SAID MY JOURNAL SHOULD SAY I SHOULD LISTEN BETTER!
Noted.

Last week Sensei was beating down on me hard and telling me not to block and take some hits. So this week, I went for hits that were actually successful. He still brought on a lot of pressure. But I really felt like I made progress. That felt really good.

I was reminded how much I suck at suriashi and fumikomi. But good fun, long and heavy day that I actually liked. Can't really think of much more that went on. I did feel I was being less awkward about hitting Kote

I was talking with Mon and Nate inside the ice cream shop about that practice. Nate brought up that one could have a journal to note what you are doing wrong, right, etc. Then you can look over it and think more clearly about what you learned in Kendo. Mon or Nate then talked about how Mon blogged about must of her experiences in Kendo. Since I believe myself to be a technologically inclined person, and already had a blog on my own personal website.
Whenever we learn things, one way is from Sensei's instructions to the whole group. The other way is from each other one-on-one with keiko or jigeiko. So I start with what I recall told from each person I was with.
Nate told me early on to keep zanshin and for kihon strikes, so with him I got to get used to that and worked on it.
Sensei was very straight forward in what he wanted, but not in a way I understood right away. In jigeiko today I had issues understanding that he wanted me to not block(something I have never been instructed to do), and to attack for the sake of pressure, not just for kihon. Which I didn’t quite understand, since I felt he got me in too close to even really strike. The purpose was to have me strike regardless, not needed to step forward. Eventually I may have an opportunity to strike with fumikomi, in order to get a strike that would count as a point.
My Men was too tight, my skull was bruised. Oh well!
I was flustered from the fight with sensei and had troubles getting engaged again when it came to fight Mon, so I think I wasted any sort of usefulness there.
Not sure if I remember how things went with Tyler. I haven’t been doing jigeiko too long and he hasn’t been here many Saturdays. I think it was like Berry with less talking. Does that work for an explanation?
With Berry I worked on zanshin and looking for proper openings. I had some issue with turning around and coming back, having to do with zanshin that I practiced with.
Elizabeth and I seemed to both be fairly tired and would go in spikes of of effort and apathy. She then asked if we could practice men tare-tare men, switching off. I liked that suggestion, seemed to work out.
Gibb and I could rarely get anything off on each other. I heard Nate working with him on zanshin before, so I got him to stick to that, instead of trying to reset the match after every confrontation. Thinking about what I could hit for a counter-attack or pressure I took my trys on hitting kote here and, kind of brought things together for the day.
Again, men, hurt, bllerrggg. That reminds me, time to go tie it tightly now and take my stuff out of my bag in general.

Everything I have seen and am currently watching. Just because.

http://www.washuu.org/animeseen.txt

-- In Progress --


Fushigiboshi no Futagohime
Mahou Negima! Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Lba OAD
Toradora!
Kidou Senshi Gundam 00 Season 2
Ga-rei Zero
Eve no Jikan
Kuro Shitsuji
Asu no Yoichi
Minami-ke Okaeri
Maria+Holic
Kokaku no Regios
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Ride Back


02-28-2009

-- Finished --

3x3 Eyes
Ai Yori Aoshi
Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi
Ah My Goddess OVA
Ah My Goddess Movie
Ah My Goddess TV
Ah My Goddess: The Adventures of Mini-Goddess
Ah My Goddess Sorezore no Tsubasa
Akira
Asatte no Houkou
Azumanga Daioh
Baccano!
Bamboo Blade
Bartender
Bleach (~ep.50)
Blood+
Blood: The Last Vampire
Berserk
Cat Soup
Card Captor Sakura
Chaos;Head
Chi's Sweet Home
Chobits
Chrno Crusade
Claymore
Cowboy Bebop
Crescent Love
Da Capo
Dead Leaves
Dennou Coil
Detroit Metal City
DiGi Charat
Dragonball
Dragonball Z
Elfen Lied
Eureka Seven
Escalflowne
Ergo Proxy
Fate-Stay Night
FLCL
Full Metal Alchemist
Full Metal Panic
Full Metal Panic Fumoffu
Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid
Futakoi
Futakoi Alternative
Fruit Basket
Galaxy Angel
GANTZ
Genshiken
Genshiken 2
Ghost Hound
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GiG
Goldfish Warning!
G Gundam
Gundam 00
Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories
Gundam 08th MS Team
Gundam SEED
Gundam Wing
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
Gundam: Char's Counterattack
Mobile Suit Gundam
Great Teacher Onizuka
Green Green
Haibane Renmei
Hayate no Gotoku
Hand Maid May
Hellsing
Hidamari Sketch
Hidamari Sketch x365
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Himawari
.hack//SIGN
.hack//Roots
Honey and Clover
Ichigo Mashimaro
Inuyasha(Much of it)
Itazura na Kiss
Kanon
Kannagi
Kasimasi ~Girl Meets Girl~
Kamisama Kazoku
Kemeko DX
Kiddy Grade
Kimi ga Nozumo Eien
Kono Minikuku Mo Utsukushii Sekai
Kumo no Muko, Yakusoku no basho(The place promised in our early days)
Kurenai
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (-ep.15)
Last Exile
Lovely Complex
Love Hina TV
Lucky Star
Maburaho
Mahou Sensei Negima
Mahoromatic
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikes S
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Mai HiME
Manabi Straight
Midori no Hibi
Minami-ke
Minami-ke Okawari
Moyashimon
Nagasarete Airantou
Natsume Yuujinchou
Naruto(~ep.150)
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Ninja Scroll
Nodame Cantabile
Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter
Noir
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Onegai Sensei
Onegai Twins
Ouran High School Host Club
Origin
Outlaw Star
Pani Poni Dash!
Planetes
Pokemon
Potemayo
Princess Mononoke
RD Sennou Chosashitsu
Robot Carnival
RahXephon
Read or Die OVA
Read or Die TV
Rental Magica
Rurouni Kenshin
Ranma 1/2
REC
Rozen Maiden
Rozen Maiden Traumend
Ryofuko-chan
Saikano
Samurai Champloo
Samurai X
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
School Rumble
Scrapped Princess
Seirei no Moribito
Sensei no Ojikan
Serial Experiments Lain
Shigofumi
Shingetsutan Tsukihime
Shugu Chara!-ep21
Sketchbook full color's
Spice and Wolf
Spirited Away
Steam Boy
Tenchi Muyo In Love
Tenchi Muyo! GXP
Tenchi Muyo! OVA
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki 3rd OVA series
Tenchi Muyo: Magical Girl Pretty Sammy
Tenchi Muyo: Mihoshi Special
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
The Melanchoy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Totari no Totoro
Toshokan Sensou
Trigun
Tsukuyomi Moon phase
Utawarerumono
Vampire Hunter D
Welcome to N.H.K.
Yakitate Japan
Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na
Yumeria
Yu Yu Hakusho
Zero no Tsukaima
Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi
Zero no Tsukaima - Princess no Rondo
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Kendo

Started it February 14th. (Every Saturday 3:30 to 5:30-6:00 (Pay monthly #35 for dues)

It is most entertaining. Not only to watch, but to do... So much room for improvement without being retarded. After knowing how it works and what it takes, watching spars on youtube is amazing. Screw other martial arts and sports. Sword fights were always cool in movies, but this is so much better.

Kendogi(kendo keikogi[gi][the top/shirt]) ~ $40
Hakama - $30
Shinai(Bamboo sword) - $35
Bokken(Oak sword, for solo strikes only, or silly stuff... not needed) - $15
Suburi bokken(Weighted for building muscles, solo strikes sort of thing... have yet to buy) - $50
Bogu(Full armor set, kote(gloves) dou(chestpiece) men(headpiece) $500-$2000

Just a less than a year later from Cooter's death(age4yr?) Desu(age2-3yr?) went from great to dead within 24 hours. Yep.


Bunnies live about 7 years, Cockatiel's live about 24 years. Fuck.

Red mage, FF1 pixel style, imo.


http://www.washuu.org/redmage.gif

Idea from

http://kotaku.com/384530/my-second-gami ... ers-choice

I am so sick of marketing. It makes me fear the spreading of ignorant philosophies. Our consumer whores produce so much waste.

I am so sick of our politics. No one can see the bigger picture of the human species existence on this planet. Both extending our life and enjoyment.

I am so sick of fat people. Grow up and work at it. TV wont tell you squat, nor will some book, or some gimmick. If it comes prepackaged from a factory, and you ain't moving those legs, fuck off, or give up and accept your fate.

I am so sick of religion. We live in the future. Give it up already, we don't need people living on the crutch. You are bringing down the progress of society.

I am so sick of patriotism. We are all proud of our accomplishments, but did you really do anything other than say you love your country, you hypocrite fuck? It is about time we open our minds to the rest of the world. We are not alone, and we will die together.

I am so sick of prejudice. Who are you to decide? You are only digging a ditch for yourself. We can all improve ourselves. Constructive criticism on legitimate problems please! If you can't do that, at least ignore their so called "problems" and deal with your fat, zealous, ignorant ass. You are the filth you believe everyone else is, and you're the one bringing down society.

I am sick of myself, I have wasted so much time getting my head together and worrying about everything. There is a lot to worry about, but I still need to get my foundation to bring joy and success to my life. I hope I can bring that to myself and hopefully assist others in bettering their lives. But I know something I can do even if I seem to keep failing, and that is to avoid bringing doom to the human race.

This is good...

Soon

MahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMaho
MahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMaho
MahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMaho
MahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMaho
MahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMahoMaho

Why did I ever put so much time into worthless pieces of crap? What a fucking expensive hobby, that rewards you with what you with time wasted. Two more frames per second in a video game? fuck that. More usefulness? What to have more applications that you don't really need? No one can really pay attention than more than one thing, they are just kidding themselves if they can.

Computer parts are cheap enough that they don't have the backing other than, dump and replace. There is no equipment to test what is wrong with the hardware or than it is dead. How do you fix an operating system or software? Reinstall, restart, reformat...... reinstall, restart, reformat.........REINSTALL, RESTART, REFORMAT! How do you fix hardware? Replace. What happened to working on stuff? Editing? Fixing? Upgrading? You don't upgrade anything, you replace shit, I don't upgrade my ram, I replace it with something better.

When will my stuff implode on itself? ANY FUCKING SECOND. Files can corrupt without your control, circuits can fry any time you turn on or off your computer, or process any bit of data through it. How do you prevent all these problems? BUY MORE HARDWARE! Want to save your files? Get more hard drives.

Though, most technology is a piece of shit, expensive innards in cheap plastic shells incapable of protecting the insides other than to support them.

What are my choices now? Play a console?


Okay here... Playstation 3? Unreliable and expensive.
Xbox 360? Unreliable and expensive.
Wii? ... Reliable, fun, but small selection of games.

Time to save for a Wii and hope for the best, even though single player games leave me depressed and down and lonely. Online games leave me frustrated with a hate for everyone.

I could go for a old, inexpensive, sturdy laptop, capable of internet browsing.

Anyone need a 40gb HDD? Also I have two.. maybe working 2.0ghz Athlon XP CPU's. 1gb of DDR RAM (512mbx2), Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard, 17" CRT Monitor (1280x960 max res), ti4200 AGP video card. This is all from a second computer I have had for a couple years now and have barely made any use of it, other than to steal hard drives for my main PC

Blogs are for mindless ranting, right? Tell me if I forgot anything to be cranky about.

I am totally going to learn japanese and become a good chef, at least those.


Also, fuck conservatives and fuck religious idiots. kthx.

The future is going to be fun...

What should I do? Life, The Universe, and Everything!

Because yeah, that's what we do, if you don't know what to do or bring by now.. please don't show up.

You know what to do, same shit as always.

Bring your stuff, Computer, Monitor, Mouse & Mousepad, Keyboard POWER STRIP, LONGEST ETHERNET CABLE ( or two ) and all other cables necessary to hook up.

Kane supplies good music (if you wanted to share something, just give it to him to play :P ), so bring headphones and not speakers.

If someone has a chair they can easily move, bring it, I might need one or two. Also, a table that is sturdy enough to hold a CRT monitor or two would be nice.

Come early, get your choice in a spot. I need help setting up and such, also figuring out how to make room for playing with the Wii AND fitting everyone... seems there will be one or two more people than usual, though when gibb's friends came over that was a good practice for that.

Snacks: Bring them, or we get them later.

MY MOTHER IS CRANKY, ("Rawr!") and wants us not to stay longer than Saturday, only like till 1pm, because I have to fully clean the house for tomorrow, and apparently that cant be done in one night, has to have a full 24 hours to let it set and dry or something. So yeah, don't expect to stay long into the next day.

So dc-computermods probably wont have their LAN for a while now :(

So, since I hope people will be closer to home for the holidays, I'll have to host a party sometime soon! Any suggestions when? Please! Like after Christmas, a little before? What weekend? Maybe we can do a weekday? (Depending on when class stops)

According to Invisionfree, it is okay to make new threads and post in them, but best if you don't touch old threads until the posts are restored in them.

They said 2-3 weeks (since the crash) till everything they can restore is restored.

http://support.invisionfree.com/index.p ... pic=400001

Lets not goto my house, lets do something I have wanted to and have suggested to others to do.... Goto http://www.dc-computermods.com 's LAN, they say their next one will be in December, we can all just sign up there when pre-registration is open! I am guessing anytime soon or at least a couple weeks before they schedule it they open that up, so we all enter there and do some more serious LAN'ing, maybe even register in a competition ( So get Counter-Strike Source ready, and maybe even practice some ) Hide the pr0n and Warez too... and Virus/Spyware/Adware scan before hand, I believe they have rules like these already posted on their site, along with what to bring (like cables and accessories) and what not to bring ( 5.1 Surround Sound or second computers.

Hurrah!



also kill video -> http://www.washuu.org/MaexxnaShuu.avi

Trying the Twin Emperors finally!

EDIT: FRIDAY20 - SATURDAY21!

GTF TO MY HOUSE, kk? anytime from saturday after like 1pm to like 3 am Sunday, stay till like 5pm Saturday.

./b/ and /h/ have been updated, hurrah!

http://www.washuu.org/b/wakaba.html
http://www.washuu.org/h/wakaba.html

http://invisionfree.com/forums/Kamidake ... owtopic=57

Ahhh!!1 Motherland!

I'll be in Kauai Island, Hawaii, Tuesday the 3rd through Tuesday the 10th. That is all.

Basically killed the guy 10 times before we actually killed him... grrrr, but that means we will have the skill to do it again and again! yay for farm status!

http://www.unknownworlds.com:90/ns

Weeeee... also I played a gnome warlock for a bit... got really tired fast though, so I don't think i'll touch it again though :/

They be hot... I now give the false impression of full Ten storms ( only 4/8 actually )

Fun time fighting him, not to bad of a fight, big drain on mana though.