Finally, a Proper Update

Sorry to keep everyone in suspense, but here was how my weekend went, starting with my first security gig Friday night.

Parking Lot Security
I help out along with practically everyone in the dojo at the home games for the University of Alabama under the guise of being a "venture crew" which just so happens to be compromised of 99% dojo folk. We run a R.V. parking lot, and run it damn well.  While we do not get paid, the crew does and we'll use that money for a trip or something, we get fed well, and this past Friday was gator.  I had not had gator before tonight but I can say that although it's not my favorite, gator tastes good :D  Ended my duties around 9:15 to head home and get dressed for my next security gig.

Frat Party Security
So as I arrived at my assigned house of Phi Gam, a few minutes early which is ten minutes late, I walk in to ask if any of the brothers has seen any of my partners in anti-crime, to which they replied that they didn't need security until tomorrow night.  After checking the text my boss had sent me I realized I came to the wrong house a day early, and was actually scheduled at Phi Kappa.  After busting my ass back to my car and breaking more than one traffic law while traversing the campus I parked and proceeded to run down new frat row, asking the drunk people I pass if they could point me in the direction of Phi Kappa.  Upon arrival at the house I proceed to talk to the president of the fraternity who tells me what I have heard before, that no security is needed until tomorrow night.  After calling my manager and asking for further instruction, I was placed at Sigma Alpha Epsilon for a whole thirty minutes until another of my managers came down and took me to a new posting at Delta Sig.  I was added security as they had a rather large crowd at the band party, as a local country music favorite was playing and all the rednecks were out en masse.  Corey Star or something of the such was his name, and for country music he wasn't all that bad, for the most part.  After being placed on stage duty I then guarded a corner of the stage next to the giant amps for the rest of the set, which thankfully was only a half hour left by the time I was put into my post.  After escorting the star to his lounge, I was then retrieved by my manager and ushered to my next momentous task, which was guarding a wall at Delta Kappa which had been a problem as many of the drunken revelers had taken to throwing beer cans over into the neighboring frat house, and it was now my duty to prevent that....until two in the freaking morning.  After that glorious shift from 10-2, I then went back to SAE and performed what is referred to as "Asset Protection" but what is commonly known as "sit on your ass and occupy yourself on your laptop so you don't fall asleep"  After catching a quick catnap I was back on the job at 3 p.m. and proceeded to perform the glorious task of providing security to a bathroom, by which I mean I was to sit at a door and only allow people inside the building to use the restroom if they had on the appropriate wristband.  After a mind numbing five and a half hour shift I was relieved and treated myself to some tasty Chinese food.  After walking around campus for a few I was back on the job at ten at guess which house, that's right Phi Gam, providing security for their shitty band party was merely a matter of staying awake which was absolutely no problem as the cold wind and constant walking kept me wide awake.  After getting off at two I hurried my ass home and passed out until about three the same day.

Sunday
My day of much needed rest.  We couldn't make it to mass as I was too exhausted to even hear the alarm and Caroline, my wife to be, had just worked a grueling swing shift from 11 the previous night until 7 that morning.  We then proceeded to lie around the house all day and talk of things that needed to be done, while at the same time doing nothing.  It was a good day that was ended in a movie night with the feature film being the hysterical Full Metal Jacket.  The snacks were paid for by the bike I had returned to the store, with the remainder going towards paying our monthly tuition for karate.

Overall, a fun weekend huh?

Until something mildly interesting happens,
Doug

Mini-Update

Body count is as follows:
Roaches-184
Flies-3
Moths-1

And one happy me :D  Set off two bug bombs in the kitchen(box recommended one, but double the fun right?) which apparently only served to paralyze the little buggers because I got the fun task of picking them off every surface of my kitchen with tweezers while crushing them to make sure they were dead.  Going to leave all the foodstuffs out for a fortnight to make sure the deed is done, and if I never see another roach in my kitchen it will be too soon.

Heading out to pick up my check from work right now and after doing some schoolwork, working in the yard, and eating a sammich I will give y'all a proper update.

No Fear, No Pain, No Mercy

Things have been a little hectic around the house as of late.  Coming off of a rough weekend as well as having a busy start of the week finds me lacking the time to update this blog unfortuneately.  Heck even now I am just hopping on for a second to keep the ball rolling on this thing.

Will update very soon(Sometime tomorrow hopefully) about the hell I went through this weekend working my security job.

Right now I have every single foodstuff as well as the pots and pans strewn about my dining room as I am about to eliminate the roach problem in the kitchen once and for all.  After back to back bug bombings before we moved in, the kitchen still was infested with roaches which only got worse as there is only so much a woman who works 48ish hours a week and an easily distracted man can do to keep a kitchen spotless.  To solve the problem I went down to Home Depot and returned not only with bug bombs, but with roach traps as well as roach spray.  Tonight will be the last night those damn buggers breathe clean air, or will brave the journey outside their homes because they will find my kitchen is no longer a safe haven for their brethren, but instead a barren wasteland of death and destruction.

Until tomorrow(Hopefully)
Doug

Many Hand's Make Light Work

Phew, almost lost this entire post to a surprise Windows update, man you gotta love those >.<

Morning, I could say I was up at the crack of dawn, but I was already up and driving before that.  Been a busy few days that I've actually got some stuff done in.

The rain we had a few days made working in the garden bliss.  The packed clay I was having to hack through with a pick axe turned into something that actually looks like soil, and the patch is just now starting to look like a garden and not just a dead patch of dirt.  I'm having two friends over for lunch and fellowship and I will put them to work with me while they are here, and they won't mind because they are awesome like that.

Had a rough night teaching Kusanku Tuesday night, admittedly the student already new it but he has been out for awhile so working on it was challenging as it was a combination of not only tweaks, but basic patterns as well.  It didn't help that it hurt to rotate my neck more than a few degrees either way from how sore my neck was from Monday night.  My brain was dead but my body was still moving and thankfully my wonderful wife to be was able to pitch in and nit-pick while my brain slowly churned along.  I'm only feeling a little bit of soreness from Monday still, so maybe a little kata this morning will even me out.

While coming back from dropping my girlfriend off this morning I noticed something humorous, the order of feeding in my household goes as follows: Cat, Dog, Me O.o  After a little thought I understood the reason, as my cat will not stop bugging you or weaving through your feet as you walk, and my dog will just sit there with those forlorn eyes if I try and make myself food first.  He's doing well though, this is his second day on a raw meat diet that I switched him to and thankfully no vomiting or diarrhea to be found, which many of the websites I did research on warned of the switch.  He gets about 1.25lbs of chicken leg quater, bones and all, along with two eggs in the morning which I am still working on teaching him to break himself, as he will just lick the eggs unless I do the dirty work for him.  He's also still working out how to properly chew as many dogs fed only kibble tend to inhale their food and not understand the concept of chewing, kinda like teenagers.  I hold the chicken leg for him to munch on right now, but we will eventually get to the point where it's his nature again to chomp down on some raw meat properly.

 A nice little break came my way with my NEW 100 class, the introductory class for my interdisciplinary studies program, as we will not be meeting for the next three weeks, which definitely frees up a day of mine big time.  We are instead working on individual learning projects, their pet word for do as you please but tell us what you do.  A minimum of 20+ hours is supposed to be spent for a high pass grade on this project.  Don't know if I will meet those requirements but I do know the perfect project idea, I am going to construct my own worm tower of power.  That's right, a tower in which worms can compost freely in, and not suffer the high costs of buying their own land.  I got the idea when I did a little research into worm composting online and saw a site which claimed to offer the only worm composting tower on the market, for close to $115 worms included.  Now the idea wormed it's way into my head, bad pun I know, and I decided that hey! I could do that myself easily and save money.  So for the next few weeks that will be an active project I will be working on and blogging about so I will post news, pictures, and maybe even ask for ideas these coming weeks.

Until my life is exciting enough to post again
Doug

Meth Heads and Sore Muscles

/rant
So to begin, towards the end of a long drive home from class, I almost rear-ended two degenerates who inhabit this world as they pulled onto the highway from their side road in a beat up, rusted oldsmobile and proceeded to creep along at 10 freaking miles an hour!  After swerving into the other lane and honking I came to a red light, at which I rolled down my passenger side window in time for these two meth heads to creep past me yelling "Fuck you!(but in their inebriation and southern drawl it sounded like Fuuuck Yew)" Those poor, dead men walking proceeded not to notice the red light I was stopped at and rolled through it at their stately 20mph.  Luckily the traffic had already turned and there was not an accident.  I was then treated to the sight of them cutting across all four lanes of traffic almost causing another wreck with oncoming traffic as they pulled into the nearby gas station.
Luckily, I was too tired to even care about the wastes of flesh inhabiting our society.  And of course I almost get into three different wrecks before I get home due to Alabama drivers not having a freaking clue how to drive.
/endrant

On a different note, I am now typing this while feeling every muscle in my body radiate intense hate towards me for the beatings they took at class tonight.  To start class with we did 250 jumping jacks, 300 sit-ups(I led), as well as 200 push-ups. , and that was the warm-up for the two and a half hour hell we volunteer for several times a week.  We then proceeded to do team competitions involving basics and kata's, with the winners getting a break, 2nd place team getting only 50 of an exercise, and the team coming in last having to do 100.  Then we started adult class.  The rest of the night was a blur of more exercises, laps, and crazy exercises along with muscle condition exercises and more competitions.
I am very blessed to have two very awesome people accompany me home as I would have had a terribly difficult time trying to stay awake on the ride home.  I go now to drop my girlfriend off at work and to go catch some dead man's sleep.
Until I type again
Doug

On the Seventh Day, I Rested

Had a nice and relaxing Sunday yesterday, I really needed it.  Was out working in the yard for so long that instead of blistering on my palms, they decided to skip that step and go straight to oozing pus and being tender and whatnot.

I was able to go down to the director of New college today and run a few ideas past him, to which the reply was always positive.  Everything is on track and everything is moving in the right direction so I am happy.

On a completely unrelated note I had to walk home from campus do in part to my bike pedal broke off(not the pedal but the bar attaching it to the gears) which would make for a total of 2 bikes that has happened to as well as 4 bikes in total that I have destroyed since the start of the school semester.  Something about me and bikes just does not mix well, probably ride them a little too rough.  New bike will cost a good chunk of change so I have that expense to look forward to, the return of this bike should put a nice dent in it though.

To close I have some lyrics from a great band I just discovered, although they've been around for awhile.
Lamb of God, Omerta: "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool, or a coward.  Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law is both.  For a wounded man shall say to his assailant, "If I live, I will kill you.  If I die, you are forgiven." Such is the rule of honor."

Plans for the Future

With the interdisciplinary program I am currently enrolled in it gives me an enormous amount of leeway to actually qualify the learning I am doing in the real world on my own time, as credit hours that can eventually be used towards my degree.  This freedom makes it all the more simple to pursue my passion of Isshin-Ryu, as well as pursue my collegiate goal, not of specific education driving me towards a specific career, but towards enlightenment as an individual.  I go to school not to learn how to do my job(that's what class is for) but in order to make myself a more whole human being, in order to lead by example for my future students.

The reason I am talking about my collegiate studies today is because I need to get my thoughts into words that will stay.  I am trying right now to set up three different Independent Studies Contracts, which is New Colleges equivalent of hey, you teach yourself a class and tell us about it, and I have so many ideas for all of them I need to right them down.  These will be ranked chronologically



1.) I am going to make a customer service related course out of my soon to be annual trip to Angel Fire, NM to visit my adoptive family as well as work at Trailheads, hopefully in a management position which will be all the more possible if my schedule will permit me to stay for most of the season.  I will have a focus on customer relations and on how good customer service and relations in the past will lead to repeat customers as well as referral customers, this is a perfect line of inquiry as the shop was brand new last year and we believe the only reason we did so well was solely based on our customer service skills, with the reason this being so important as it is not a retail position but rather a customer service position as it is fully geared towards catering to a customer rather then saying that will be $32.50 ma'am, debit or credit.  I will have this course graded on the research I have done as well as on the writing portion that is required of all Independent Learning Contracts as I will summarize all my findings for the time I spend working and dealing with customers.


2.)  This is a tossup, but I will label my priorities first and go with: Do an in depth analysis on teaching methods as well as learning and absorption rate of a karate student.  Circumstances permitting, I will start an intensive training program with a close friend of mine, or a new student, and study the complex process of learning as well as technique.  I will also help create an intensive work out regime for them and possibly a dietary plan to go along with the specific needs of such an intensive program.  This course can be measured both on the effects to the student's body, as well as by my Sensei in the degree of advancement that will have been achieved.

3.)  I turn my backyard into an Eden.  This will be an applied learning course I want to do as it will take all the practical knowledge I have garnered from my current agroecology class and I will apply it to the egosystem of my backyard.  This will be more work then it seems as there is a great deal of manual labor to be done along with research into everything required to create a fully sustainable garden ecosystem.  I have already started this project and  have already run into difficulties as the backyard of my current residence was originally a house, with lack of topsoil, packed clay, and a foundation still laid down to contend with.  I am also currently working on developing a vermiculture composting system(growing worms) in order to further facilitate the enrichment of my soil back to optimal standards.  Not only do I plan on creating a worm farm basically, but a traditional composting pile, as well as a rain barrel set up in order to reduce the maintenance cost of the garden.  This course will be graded not in whether or not I can produce some tasty vegetables, but in whether or not I have been able to create a sustainable system that will eventually produce some tasty vegetables.

*phew* that was a load off my shoulders.  I go in Monday morning to have an appointment with the director of New College in order to see if I can sway him to see my side in these issues.

Until soon I guess
Doug

Product Review/Recommendation

So as many of you creatures of the night might have seen, there is a crazy guy who inhabits infomercial land by the name of Tony and his product is P90x.  This product works!  It is a definitely worth the astronomical price tag(which can be reduced some by shopping around)  As well as the equipment costs it will run you $150-250+ total, weights and everything, but there is no better workout routine to whoop your ass in to shape.

The best recommendation I can give anyone attempting this suicidal routine is to drag a buddy into it with you.  Personally I was drug into it by a guy who turned into a very close friend of mine, my Sensei Mike.  We worked out starting at 6:30 in the morning every morning to start with this summer, eventually moving the time back for both of our sanities.  The only downside to my summer of fun was I eventually contracted mono without realizing it, and had displayed the symptoms since the second week of the program without realizing it, and to think I was having such a hard time getting up in the morning >.<  I was unfortuneately not able to fully complete the program as I eventually had a lymphnode in my neck that swelled up to almost a ping pong ball size causing me difficulties eating and drinking.

Overall this program is not for the weak of heart, literally as well as physically, and it will push you to the edge of boundaries you never knew you had, then sparta kick you off the cliff.  I have recomended this to anyone who asks for a good work out program and have pushed it on my mother, my sister, my girlfriend, and bought a copy of it for myself.

Rating: 12/10

Pictures from my previous rank test

This is just a small sample of the pictures that were taken during my 1st degree black belt rank test

Zero Hour:Post One

Welcome to the blog.  I have just created this in hopes of further sharing my journey through the martial arts with those who might find it interesting.  Feel free to comment, follow, and even email me as I am always willing to respond to pertinent questions about the martial arts.

For starters I am 20 years old, I have been studying Isshin-Ryu for about 4 years and this fall I will be ranking again for my next degree.

I am a student at UA in their liberal arts program and I might use this blog in order to gain further credits as the program I am in is very much an individualistic learning course based on independent study.

That is all for now as I am actually procrastinating and not studying for my test tomorrow like I should be doing.