Full Up

[shanmonster]

Yesterday was very, very full. I spent the day at a kung fu seminar. It was most excellent to back to training again. The first half of the day was a testing, and I showed up during the sparring matches. There was some blood on the dancefloor, but no serious injuries. I witnessed some truly glorious kicking which made me ache in sympathy. One pulverising roundhouse kick made the victim buckle like a newborn fawn as he crumpled toward the ground. But somehow, he managed to remain standing. I still don't know how he did it.

But sashes were awarded all around. Congrats to Pete (black sash), Linda (green), Brad (brown), and Meredith (blue), as well as to the others whose names I don't know.

Afterwards, we worked with Sihong Jay on a nigh-unto-lost form. He learned it in his youth from a Northern Praying Mantis master, and until yesterday, it had never been shown outside of China. It's called Eight Elbows, and it is broken into four sections. We learned one of the sections yesterday. I'm hoping that between all of the workshop attendees, we'll be able to reproduce it faithfully.

I know I really like mantis style. Although my training is primarily in Hung Gar, I think Mantis particularly suits my build and my strengths. When I spar, I tend to gravitate toward that style of fighting, anyhow. Now, I just need to figure out that 6/4 stance. My quads are a bit achey from it today. That's a good thing.

Afterwards, we went out to Dolan's Pub for supper, where I discovered an old friend of mine (Dave Lord) working as a cook. I hadn't seen him in almost a year, and we parted with promises to get back together again. It's really quite strange that we haven't intersected more often, considering we have friends in common.

The kung fu crowd wanted me to join them at a royal piss-up in a motel room they'd rented, but I'm not very keen on heavy drinking. Instead, I opted to return home to f00dave with Linda and gha5t. I started playing with glowstick poi, taught myself several new tricks.

One I call a DNA Helix. It starts as a basic single weave which moves up overhead before coming back down again. I can do it in the reverse direction, too, but that's significantly trickier, and I probably still have some righteous welts on my shoulderblades from the resulting prangs. I can also do simultaneous directional changes with shoulder wraps, either in phase or in opposition.

Then, with f00's coaching, I was able to figure out some truly crazy stunts. I do kicking directional changes, but now I can do simultaneous kicking changes. And I'm on my way to doing simultaneous directional kicking changes while my poi are spinning in opposite directions. I also mostly have it figured out how to get my poi spinning in opposite directions so that they meet together in phase. That is much more difficult than it sounds, because it involves moving hands out of sync in order to create synchronicity.

My brain still hurts from it.

And here I'd thought I'd maxed out all the possible tricks I could do with poi. That'll show me, hmm?

f00 decided to see if he could do the same things he was getting me to do, and I had a seat and dozed off. He worked with Linda, too. At some point, I talked in my sleep to them. I dreamed of using the same poi principals of out-of-sync synchronization to make my muscles move in opposition. Maybe I'm onto something. Maybe I'm not.

In any case, I have to get back to mundane duties. I have to clean the house before dance class today.

And I'd also really like to finish my leather dance belt with the yarn falls. I had a discussion this morning with snowy_kathryn with some new design concepts I need to put to paper. I think I can achieve all of these things today.

But first, here's another link dump:

Henna Mug: Maybe not super cool, but it's given me ideas for fabric painting and costuming. And here are a couple of henna designs I enjoy: this and this.

Sony BRAVIA Commercial: Hey, raine_storm! Does this remind you of a certain Vampire game shenanigan?

Hollywood Madam to open Nevada 'stud farm': Heidi Fleiss says "Prostitution and modeling are the only businesses where women make more money than men." Hmm.

Doctor on trial - Testimony recounts baby's decapitation at birth in ER: Ugh.

New Sport Craze: Live Turkey Parachuting! Hahahahahahaha!

"My Lobotomy": 45 years later, a man tries to learn why: I'm amazed this guy went on to have what appears to be a normal life.

Russian Woman, Sons Accused of Cannibalism: Seriously, what is with Russian cannibals?

Time Up for Cross-Dressing Cop?: This story has everything: cross-dressing, workplace blues, and reincarnated deities.

Enzara: NSFW if you don't want the words "Vaginal Odor" in giant text on your screen.

This guy likes the Three Stooges too much. See?

Pee and Poo are so cute. I want the panties.

Four women forced to consume human excreta in Orissa: "In a revolting incident of superstition some villagers in Uparkhandadhar village of Sundergarh district in Orissa allegedly forced four women accused of being witches to eat human excreta under the disguise of witches."

Cocksucker's Mirror: Definitely NSFW. The guy's face is priceless (thanks, snowy_kathryn).

I had no idea the extent of the research and development behind banana hammock technology. No, it's definitely NSFW. Check these out, if you dare. Yellow, Cyan, Blue, Periwinkle, and Black.

Comments

AGH!

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

Is that image something to do with eggs
Benedict?

[evildrgo.livejournal.com]

Eight Elbows eh? I now know what mantis lineage you practice... Good stories behind that form too... But Eight Elbows is no good against Hung Gar, as you know. We are not afraid of elbows... :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

That's because Hung Gar men are crazy mofos. I know all about it, and have the bruises to prove it. Heh...

[duhastbees.livejournal.com]

you know,
to the uninformed,
normals (like meself)
you lead
a terribly
interesting life.

props to you for that.

also, the benedict made me laugh so hard I farted.

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention the multiply-choreographed poi-as-drum-beaters thing. With little glowsticks and a rock in the balls as part of the show. Now that was probably the best idea of the night! w00t!