13 years of kendo and I still get blisters

Yesterday I decided to do suburi (素振り) while watching TV, and I got a blister on my left hand under my callus after about 300, finishing with 600. The callus is below the pinky, about half-way down the hand. 13 years of kendo and I still get blisters. :-p I want to say that my hands have not built back up since the surgery, or that the dragonfly bumps on the tsukagawa (柄がわ) contributed, but in the end, all I can do is smile, clip off the callus, and bear the pain. -_-;;

昨日私が素振りをやりました。三百素振りをやった後で、私の左手がまめを得ました。全部六百素振りをやりました。まめは小指の下で、手の中心にいます。十三年の剣道、私はまだ素振りでまめを得ます。-_-;;

昨天我自己練了一下劍道。練了三百下我的左手就起水泡了。總共練了六百下。水泡起在我的小指以下，差不多手的中心。劍道練了十三年我還在起水泡。:-p 可能是手術後練習不夠，還是劍柄上的蜻蜓，可是還是有點無奈。

-_-;;

On my way out of IL

Well... I finished my LCPC submission this past Monday and verbally agreed to Sony Entertainment's offer, so I guess I'm on my way out of Illinois and back to the Bay Area. They're still waiting on a final signature from Japan before mailing me the official offer. Hopefully this isn't indicative of how things will work. :-p

Feels... a bit odd. ^_^ But I've been getting more and more excited about starting work, so I think that's a good sign.

Amazing video

Pretty crazy graffiti animation video. I guess they left behind a lot of white walls. ^_^

打突部位なしの攻め

最近、私はもっといい攻めを練習します。昨日の稽古でちょっとなんか分かってなりました。多分。^_^;;

私はまだ打突部位に攻めしました。例えば、面に攻めて、もし小手が空ければ、小手を打って。または、小手を打ちたい、面を攻めてします。もっとよく考えて、それは多分間違えました。私が打突部位に考えての時、私が柔軟性をなくなりました。するべきのは打突部位を考えなくて、攻めて、何か空けて、その打突部位を打ちます。

Seme without a target in mind

Recently, based on some really good advice, I have been working on my seme. I'm trying to be less hesitant and more aggressive, with a smoother transition into the strike. During yesterday's practice I think I understood a little better. Maybe. ^_^;;

I am still doing my seme with a target in mind. For example, I would seme towards the men, and then hit the kote if it opens up. Or if I want to hit kote, I would seme towards the men to open it up. Now that I think about it, I think that's probably erroneous. Once I start having a target in mind, I loose my flexibility. Instead, I think the proper way should be to seme without a target in mind, and then hit what opens.

Indianapolis Mini-Marathon

I went to the 2008 Indianapolis Mini-Marathon with Aqeel this past Saturday (5/3/08). It was a half-marathon, with part of the course on the Indianapolis race track. Don't ask me why they call it a mini-marathon.

I was hoping to get under 2 hours, since I apparently had a chip time of 2:01 at Chicago 2 years ago. I thought I had a 2:10. I was feeling good around 6-8 miles, but I got really tired around mile 10, and I really ran out of gas for the last mile. Still, I finished around 2:06 for the gun time and I had a chip time of 1:54:35 for a pace of 8:45, so I accomplished my goal at least. Apparently I finished 712 for my age, 4409 in my gender, and 5679 overall. My bib number was 40735. (Searching for results by my name failed while bib number worked. :-p)

Now I can slack off until I got to start training for the Disney marathon next January. ^_^