Keep Clean

My uniform collection grew to 5 uniforms - 3 blue and 2 orange. That's only because I'm too lazy to clean them every so often. The unintentional consequence of this infrequent laundry is mildew smell - especially t-shirts/tank tops I wear under the uniforms. Fresh out of the dryer, they smell nice and clean. Not so, once they absorb a leeeeettle bit of my sweat...

I have heard a few laundry tips from our changing room:

• Wash in 2 cycles.


• Use dish washer detergent.


• Sprinkle baking soda over the laundry.


• Boil them.


• etc...

Here's a new one. Lifehacker.com published a top 10 food and drink hacks. At number 7 is how to clean everything with vinegar including mildew towels which I assume should work with my mildew uniforms and tank tops.

I will give it a try and post the result once I get all my uniforms dirty. In the meantime, if you have tried-and-true laundry tips, please share.

Day 3 - Kip UP

On Monday night Xu had us new folks have a wild stab at liyu dating. Having never attempted it before, I was mostly left with a head and neck ache. Last night, though, I got to learn it for real. As it turns out the pieces individual are not that complex even when done all together it looks pretty daunting. This made it all the more puzzling when I couldn't do them. I never expected to get the kip up or head flip right away. But I somehow got stuck on my stomach unable to unfreeze my muscles to kick my legs under me. The cylinders would not all fire at once. Still, I'm glad I got to be taught it so I can work on it now instead of throwing down wildly with no clear idea what I'm supposed to be doing.

The unfortunate thing is, I don't get to work on it before class tonight because I have to work late. Yay overtime - boo my 20 days being thwarted already. Ah well. I'll embrace the chance to let my neck rest and look forward to trying it again tomorrow. And seeing Qbertplaya on Saturday!

Day 1 - The Dark Side

This time last year I was working two jobs, seven days a week, and training maybe once every two weeks or so when I got the fluke morning off of was able to drag myself to a Sunday class before hustling like mad to work. Luckily, around February things changed and somewhere in there I began training my first night classes. So I've never before experienced training nights in the winter - damn it's dark! Normally I don't mind when the time change throws us into nighttime at 5 pm. It's seasonal; it's fun. But rolling in after being at work all day and then getting ready to train, I look outside and see black and just think, "It's time to be in my bed," even if it is only 6 in the evening. Mmm bed. but I will not let the black of night stay me from my appointed task. And my 20 days are off to a rollicking good start.

Last night I got to learn/try some new L2 moves, which is always fun. And in so doing I had to do lots of sweeping. Or in my case, attempted sweeping. Now I've been taught the sweep many times by many people and been given and endless array of pointers and tips, but sweep perfection still eludes me. What I'm realizing, is that for me it's a strength issue. I can comprehend these moves all day long, but I really just don't have the power in my hips to overcome toe leverage of my long ol' legs to whip them around with any kind of power. So many level two move involve some incarnation of sweeping, and my hips/quads are simply wimping out on me.

Luckily, strength is a fairly straightforward thing to rectify. I'll keep training harder, even if it is soporifically dark outside. Each sweep brings me closer to daylight savings time.......

Past-Present-Future

It's been awhile since I've done a post, which isn't to indicate that I haven't been training. I've been training a fair bit; I've just also been working, dog sitting, cat sitting, turtle sitting, and Thanksgiving-ing. And when I got home nights I was too lazy to sort my thoughts into a coherent order, even to the casualness of blog-standards.

Anyway, training has been great, learning lots in L2 and continuing to work hard in L1. This past weekend I had a bad cold so after soldiering through Friday nights class I spent the last two days resting, losing then regaining my voice, and now blowing my nose incessantly. Should be ready to go for tomorrow though. Looking ahead I'm taking a much needed, long overdue and extended vacation home for the holidays. I'll be gone for a solid two weeks and I'm a little concerned about my ability to make myself train even lightly while at home under a barrage of seasonal activities (namely cookie eating). So to gear up I am going to try to train every day until I leave. That's 20 days, for the curious. It's a lot, but I know I can do it. And hopefully it will get me on a roll so that when I go home I do train enough so that the return isn't too painful. I always tried to never get more than four days off in a row, and since starting L2 I haven't taken more than 2 days off consecutively; so the thought of two WEEKS off - two weeks and three days - is blowing my mind a little right now. It's easy to tell myself now that I'll train, but I know when I get home and I'm surrounded by distractions it will become easy to "forget." So here's hoping I can start the momentum now and work on that self-discipline a little. And while I'm going to concentrate on getting enough sleep, I will endeavor to make sure I'm popping up regularly and posting my progress.

(And sadly I can't claim credit for the picture below. I just thought it went with the theme. Though I am a little fuzzy on why he has a samurai sword.)