Kata

02.25.2005

Even with my body rebelling against me, I still made it through karate this week. I skipped most of the kicking under the advice of my chiropractor, since she explained that the jerking motion in the hip while kicking can irritate the muscles causing my pain discomfort. If I knew how to kick with better control I would be alright. as it is, I flail way to much.

Yesterday we did my favorite part of karate, the katas, or in my case, the kata. I only know 1 for now. I know of at least 8 others, but only have a reasonable chance of picking 1 of them up any time soon. I like it because it's a distinct set of moves in order. I suppose this means I would also like tai chi.

We also practiced a couple of throws. Jerry had the most fun, finding that his frail, dainty 180lb body could fling my massive, hulking 385lb body down with ease were I to attack him from behind via bearhug, as long as I was in the mindset to not actually hurt him while doing so. This was almost as much fun when the we reversed positions, and Jerry's long, slender arms found they could not encompass the truly macho chest that I've come to develop over the years. When I looked down and saw his hands, 4 or 5 incehes away from each other, trying to gain a grip to restrain me, I started to laugh so hard I almost peed on myself.

We've got to start taping this class. Or maybe it's best that we don't.

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Sciatic - The Nerve of Doom

02.24.2005

For the month of February I've been fighting my body. On the 1st, my back went out. Then it eentually moved to my lower back, then my right hip. My chiropractor's diagnosis is that I probably have a bulging disc. This disc is irritating a mass of muscles in my butt and hip, causing them to eventually contract around the sciatic nerve (which runs the length of the leg). With that diagnosis, I started down the chiropractic road of recovery of spinal adjustments, a really good massage, and lessening my vigor when going to karate and yoga.

I'm gradually getting better, but it's frustrating. Usually when my back goes out, it might be out for a week and then I'm ok. From hearing stories of others, part of the blame for this is due to my resolution of self improvement. While I'm losing weight, my muscles are moving and reforming (to help make me the hulking stud lives deep inside me). With my new excercise regimen, replacing my non-existant one, my body has received a shock. On top of that, karate and yoga have me stretching and kicking in ways that most 400lb bodies aren't accustomed to. The muscles then rebel by contracting to protect what's inside (that damn sciatic nerve). This is probably over simplifying it, but that's the way I understand it.

So, I'm trying to make my body better and it's fighting me. I'm still going to yoga and karate, although there are some excerises and kicks I'm skipping over for now. Maybe I can convince my body to let me win?

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Busy-ness

02.23.2005

Been way too busy to notice if anything is interesting enough in life to mention here. Still alive, if any relatives are checking....

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Focus

02.15.2005

For the past couple of days I've had trouble focusing. Not visually, but mentally. It feels like I've got a lot going on, but if I slow down and think about everything is about normal. My key to life is making it as stress free as possible, but for some reason I feel like some stressful situations are trying to sneak up on me.

Work is most peoples source of stress. I've got work configured to where it usually doesn't cause too much stress. I've got the Montgomery Scott Method of Timing down pretty well ("Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?") which gratefully allows time to fix most of the problems that tend to creep in. Karate and Yoga are going well, although my body is fighting it by giving birth to a roaming pain - it's my knee, no, now it's my back, wait, it's my hip - I'm just starting to get too damn old.

Then there's all of my little home projects. I think I've had some new lighting fixtures setting in the garage for close to a year now. It would take all of 2 hours to install the 3 fixtures I've got, I just haven't had the gumption to do anything about it. And then, of course, there's still learning the gaming engine for my much thought about wrestling game.

Once my work demo in March has wrapped up (my only foreseeable deadline), maybe it'll be time to take a week of at home and see what all I can catch up on. It worked pretty good last October when I just stayed home and wrapped up chores. Maybe I can wrap up some more?

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Multiple Holiday

02.14.2005

Welcome to Valentine's Day, right smack dab in the middle of National Black History Month.

I wonder what it all means.....

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