December 17, 2007

TDA and feelings, a contradiction?

Who am I?: Hello. My name is Nathan Teodoro, and I blog at TDA Training, an eclectic amalgamation of martial arts training articles, links, and instructional videos. I love to training, and love to teach. My blog is an extension of my teaching. When I teach, I learn, and so I blog. Again, hi.

What am I doing here? When BBM humbly begged me to guest-blog for her, I was at a loss for what to post. BBM usually writes witty expositions on the events of the day, breaking down not only the details, but her feelings and stuff. At TDA Training, we don’t do feelings. We train. When we think we have a feeling coming across our nerve endings, we train that right out of ourselves. That’s the difference between a BBM and a TDA – feelings. She’s got them, we simulate them in training!

So, now that I am the temporary BBM, I will attempt this feeling thing, and see what happens. Commencing now, in no particular order, I am sharing some feelings!

Holiday travel: It bugs me when I have to fly for business, and the holiday travelers-who may have never flown-get in the security line and don’t have a boarding pass, or don’t know that they can’t pack large gourds of perfume (gifts) into their carry-on luggage, or don’t realize that metal is what sets off the metal detectors! Longer lines, I can deal with, lack of common sense makes we want to train on someone…

The “Christmas” controversy: I grow tired of the culture war, or the war on Christmas, or whatever you want to call it. The vast majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, whether they profess to be a believer in Christ at all. It’s what we call a tradition! I know atheists, Wiccens, Scientologists, and those of the Jewish and Muslim persuasion may sometimes be offended at our brazen displays of nominal or sincere Christianity, but so what! If I were any of the above (I’m not), I think I’d understand that most of the people in this country (I hear over 90%) celebrate these traditions, and I should just put up with it. Why is it that tolerance doesn’t go both ways. Truly religiously intolerant countries forbid, in many cases, the practice of any religion other than that of the state, or forbid practice at all (as in the former Soviet Union and other totalitarian states). I think most would agree that we tolerate those who are not of the majority religion here very well. I also get tired of hearing from those who always complain about the lack of tolerance for Christmas. There! How’s that for hypocrisy?

Blogging quality: BBM, Mokuren Dojo, and Karate Thoughts Blog are some of my favorite MA blogs because they are consistently good. And gracious. I can’t manage either at TDA. I can be good sometimes, and occasionally gracious, but never both. As Gordon at the The Blue Wave Taekwondo School has recently posted, time is so precious recently that I can’t always seem to get in a good post. Chris at Martial Development’s idea of careful research, then posting is an ideal I can’t live up to, so I don’t always try. My posting is based, many times, on an idea. For me, blogging consists of burst of “inspiration,” followed by some filler. I only try posting interesting filler, but it’s filler nonetheless. Oh, well.

The “Surge” is working. All should be happy that everyone wins except the “insurgents” (terrorists) and their supporters. America wins by following through on her commitment, innocent Iraqis win by winning the chance to establish a free society in the midst of a region of turmoil and tyranny. A proto-democracy in the midst of totalitarian theocracies. Neat.

On politics, I’m glad that VP Cheney isn’t running, and that we have a chance at fresh faces and fresh blood in the Executive. A chance…

Finally, on BBM: She has been one of the best friends to bloggers of all types. Based on the links and comments she gets to posts, I assume her blog draws everyone from moms, karate chicks (respectfully), IT geeks, martial arts instructors and students, and everyone in-between. I think she’s a phenomenon. Or, as some character in some movie said, “phenomenonon!” Someone raising little girls, blogging all night, and trying to earn her black belt. Wow. I just writing about training. How boring!

That’s it! Back to work!

BBM, get better soon. We need you!