[As usual, three weeks lag here, if you aren’t reading this on my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/blazeward). If you’d like your news fresher, and the monthly Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef newsletter, all I ask is a buck to help keep the lights on around here.]
There is news. Good, even. Uplifting, in my case.
Some of you are paying attention and remember that I transitioned out of doing Kung Fu last summer over issues and found a GoJu Karate dojo teaching a compact curriculum focused more on budo than keiko (sports) or kenko (health and fitness). And I have several years of experience in Kung Fu, going back a ways. Three and a half to most recent. About three in the 90s when I was living in LA and studying with a bunch of Vietnamese folks. And a background in dance which helps with movement and knowledge of three-dimensional space.
I started as a White belt. Everybody starts in white. Instead of the usual 5-10 color/ranks to black that many American schools had adopted, this sensei has culled things down as tight as he thinks can convey the art itself.
White, Green, Brown, Black. That’s it. And only Black, rather than 10 grades of black belt that often become pecking order bullshit for folks that never really got over themselves.
Yesterday, I put on a Green Belt. Kinda jazzed about that. Working towards Brown, which is likely a year away, as he’s planning on making some changes to the dojo this summer and opening it up to a handful more students, all of whom are new to GoJu, like me, but have studied other karate forms for a while. I’ll be behind most of them in many ways, and ahead of them in others, because all the kata are new to them, even a reduced list. All the grapples, takedowns, controls, and breaks will be new to them. At the same time, they are all students who know how to punch, kick, and block. Know how to learn.
Gonna be an adventure.
Based on conversations with my sensei, I have started a new book that will effectively turn into my black belt thesis. A “What Have I Learned?” kind of thing that I might only ever put a single copy on my shelf, or maybe I make it generally available. Dunno. I might teach someday. And I might not. Don’t have to know at this moment, but writing it all down will force me to really organize it into a compact form for communication, and I’m pretty good at that.
Follow this space for more as we go.
Deep into Red Branch #5. Might finish it this week or over the next week. 41K now, targeting 50-55. That last major confrontation is just ramping up.
Probably Heather after that. And some other things. Little slow ramping up this morning, but I’ve been going like hell for too long. Sat in a coffee shop yesterday and wrote pure rant as an essay that will likely never see the light of day, because most of you aren’t ready for that sort of thing. (If you have to ask, that includes you.)
Going into Seattle later today to meet with someone, but all I know is an ask for coffee. Will go. Will find out. Will go from there. Will get back to writing.
Still having fun building up the thing that will turn into Colossus this summer. Still planning Holden #3. Got lots to do, including a few old projects I intend to finish and publish next year.
Hope your tuesday makes sense.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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