Cutest... Photoshopped.... Pic..... Ever....

Click on it... c'mon.

This is just so goofy...

pictures!

Hey everybody...

So tired! I spent all day moving and cleaning part of the garage to continue my goal of making it into a workshop. Lots of heavy machinery being lugged around!

Then, like a maniac high on endorphins, I went and trained for an hour at PMA. Whew!

Anyway, just thought I'd share some pictures! Here is Chabi, looking cute as ever.




And here are the fishies! Well... what's remaining of them...

Life gets in the way sometimes...

The weather is getting warmer and nicer, and as a result, I'm spending more time outside than inside. Therefore, less blogging. :)

We're now in the extremely slow process of finally clearing the garage, in the hopes of putting my power tools in there and creating a bonified workshop for me to work my creative side.

During my blogging hiatus I've managed to acquire an aquarium of goldfish, play in a small broadway-ish gig through COS at the Queens Theater in the Park, cheer my Mets who are not doing too bad for the start of the season, boo my Knicks for sucking yet again, and chuckle silently at the Yankees for having a $200 million payroll and still being in last place, muhahhaha!

Training continues apace, and with the completion of my blacksmithing class, my Tuesdays are once again free, and so I'll be back to helping out at the Phase 1 Kali classes as well as making Tuesday my "A Day" for JKD. I'm enjoying FMA a lot, and have pretty much made it my main focus at PMA.

My car battery is finally giving out after nearly 5 years... pretty impressive! I gave it a jumpstart this morning, and we'll see if it charges up for once last run.

Ok, pictures and video probably should be forthcoming in the next few days... uh, maybe weeks.... after all, it's getting nice outside. :)

Today we play... Compare and Contrast!

Props to Alanis with some nifty self-defense moves. :)

Myspace is crap

Attention Dear Friends:

I've cancelled my Myspace account. It's not that I don't love you all, it's that I hate Microsoft and their inability to control and protect their system from bots and spam.

Regards,

Ken

Will the Real Pikachu please stand up.... please stand up....

Feline Serenity

Accomplishments

• Did a pre-emptive strike on the snow, with early shoveling and massive shock&awe rock salting.
• Practiced some stuff from Moyse's Tone Development through Interpretation book for relaxation
• Taught two lessons. I still hate NYSSMA.
• Sayoc Kali training! Finished a massive knife drill that must have been a sequence of at least 28 steps. It's good to be back.
• Uploaded the Chabi video in the previous post... enjoy!
  

Chabi Catnip Joy!

Today...

... was a good day. Quick recap.

1. Worked out a bit... some jump rope, some fly presses, some lat raises and some situps.
2. Worked on a transcription project... almost done! Just about 13 measures to go.
3. Had a meeting with COS music director and executive director about stuff.
4. Had 2 lessons tonight... they did well! I hate the NYSSMA organization. My kids are doing well despite the crap they have to deal with them.
   

Royskopp - Remind Me

My rough weekend, with a few bright spots

Sigh, where to start?

• Dermatologist appointment was for Friday 10:45am. Waited until 12:45pm to be seen, 20 minutes of which was spent waiting in the actual examination room. After a quick 5 minute exam, which I'm not sure they really looked too intensely at the affected area, said it probably wasn't ringworm but eczema, and they give me two small vials of lotion, and send me off on my way. Okay, just 2 hours of life wasted... nothing bad really happened did it? Except....
  
• I get back to my car, and my right passenger window is smashed. GPS is stolen. So much for my X-mas present. I hope the bastards track my house and try coming over... I have a few new moves I'd just LOVE to try on them, most involving paralysis or death.
• The lessons that Friday evening were good. Thank you so much for practicing hard and putting in some geniune effort. Made my crappy Friday much smoother.
• Met up with a new friend in town, and tried Pinkberry for the first time. Had it with coconut and chocolate chip, so not exactly super healthy, and I'm not a big fan of yogurt, but it was pleasant nevertheless. Afterwards, we hung out at the 5th Ave Apple store, and discovered it truly is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. NYC truly is the city that never sleeps.
  
• Saturday involved a little office drama at COS... it's been a rather high drama area lately. Nothing terribly serious though, more an inconvenience than anything. A double shift of rehearsals went rather well. Later that evening, had dinner and drinks with staff members, and balance was restored for the day.
• Sunday had 6 students instead of the usual 8... two will move to Tuesday for this week. Still exhausting. One of my students STILL didn't get the assigned book yet, and I had too use Finale to quickly whip up some lesson material. Maybe at some point, I'll write my own book.
  

All I can say is, thank goodness that was all over.

Carenza #1

It's a bit rough, as you can see. My left hand clearly is weaker than my right in terms of fluidity and strength. The alive hand (non-weapon hand) needs work, and is totally non-existent when I have the weapon in my left hand! I think I also need to open up a bit more during the double stick (wasn't much room to work with, but still...)

I'll keep putting stuff like this up from time to time... it really reveals a lot of things that I can't sense yet while executing the maneuvers...

New idea...

I haven't posted much... been quite busy with the COS JSE season, and blacksmithing course, and the training. But rather than make a huge post, I think I'm going to try something new... just listed the things accomplished semi-daily.



So:

1. Made an appointment to see the dermatologist... Stupid ringworm rears its ugly head again. 10:45am tomorrow. Either I caught it from the training grounds, or it lay dormant and never really went away. Stress from student's parents not following my advice probably exacerbated things.
2. Threw a lot of stuff away! Cleaned a lot of crap I meant to clear out.Completed my collection of series 1 and series 2 CubeWorld cubes. Yes, I know, it's a silly little toy, but it does say "Ages 8 and up". I need something to stare at and help me fall asleep while I'm grumpy from not being at the training grounds... see point #1.
3. Cleaned out the poop box, but ran out of poop bags in the current cartridge... down to the last one. Reminder: get some more at PetCo. Target doesn't have them.
4. Bought a firewire cable that has adapters for big and small plugs. I hope it's the last one I have to buy... stupid things keep getting swallowed up. Used said firewire cable to transfer a tape of a recent quartet appearance from last week. Google Video now has my upload of it and is processing it and taking forever. :P
   
   
5. No students today... the student I would have had is doing a performance at her school talent show. Hope she does well! :)

Anyway, I'll edit in more if something earth shaking occurs, but that's it for today!

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Animated Violence. :)

XiaoXiao No. 3

I so want something like this... :)

Multitouch is AWESOME! It's the same stuff that's had limited appearance in Apple Macbooks (the two finger scroll option), but it's already in Apple's upcoming iPhone...

Laptop Cushion

This feels pretty good!

Made it!

I survived the bladesmithing seminar! 30+ hours of work, a ton of mistakes and setbacks that were valuable learning experiences... Tuhon Tom Kier helped impart knowledged that led to 12 razor sharp blades of various styles. I think we all did very well, and he said it exceeded his expectations for a bunch of bladesmithing newbies!

Here's me with the finished blade. It's still quite flawed, but razor sharp... and there's only one in the whole world like it. I'll make the sheath sometime this week or next... didn't have time to make it this weekend. I might even make the sheath out of white kydex...




A better photo will be forthcoming... :)

Day Two: The knife takes shape...

Too tired... but blogging must go on... :)

The knife is polished, heat-treated, and tempered... all that remains is the Corian scales, sharpening, and making a sheath....

Passing out.... will write more tomorrow.