April 28, 2009
Landscaping: Before and After (Or, I’ve Been Legitimately Skipping the Gym)
Although I've been telling everyone how doing our own landscaping has been killing me, I haven't put up much in the way of proof.
Keep in mind that much of this stuff is not yet blooming, so I'll be sure to add pictures as it does.
Before. . .
After:
Here's a close up of our one bed. This features a weeping blue atlas cedar and two varieties of blue-leaved hosta.
Here's another view of the weeping blue atlas cedar. It's such a cool plant but it's starting to lose some needles and I'm panicking a bit. It better make it.
Before:
After:
That's a weeping snow fountain cherry tree and in the far corner is an Eastern Red Bud and three halcyon blue hosta. There is more to come in the back yard, including (potentially) a blue stone patio as well.
Before:
After:
We created two beds here. One is in the raised rock wall area and includes a back row of blue mist caryopteris, heuchera, and liriope.
The front bed is anchored by a clump birch tree which is just starting to get some leaves, three more blue hosta, three lavender, two blue star juniper, a dwarf white shag pine, three siberian iris, and a blue boy holly around the corner.
Blue oat grass will be going in on either side of the sidewalk, beside the white shag pines (above bottom left, where the stepping stone is currently placed). Below, you can see the holly on the corner.
Before:
After:
This bed contains three more lavender, two blue star juniper, a dwarf white shag pine, two blue princess holly, a blue ice cypress (better seen below), heuchera and siberian iris (also seen below).
Before:
After:
We're only missing the stepping stones that will wind all the way to the back yard, which we should have within the next week or two. Included in the rock garden are purple coneflowers, Nikko Blue Hydrangea, elijah blue fescue grasses, blue mist caryopteris, siberian iris, sedum autumn delight, liriope, heuchera bronze wave, and some evergreen blue trailing flowers. . .
. . . that will eventually spill over the rocks. These below, are the little blue grasses sticking out from the rock wall.
From the back of the house:
Seen here are three butterfly bushes (two blue, one pink), a Dragon Lady holly, a viburnum carlesi, some upright blue/purple phlox, elijah blue grass, and a blue star clematis that will climb up that trellis there against the house.
We have been busy indeed. In addition to the plants, we used almost 10 yards of mulch. Believe it or not, we're still not finished. Part two of the self landscaping job starts soon!
April 27, 2009
Making It Work In The Dark
I had to drag myself to the dojo tonight. I spent most of the day outside in temperatures that were around 90 degrees, working on my yard and gardens. What else is new? By the time I had finished eating dinner, I was ready for a nap. Instead, I dragged myself to the car and arrived at a sweltering hot dojo.
Our dojo is not one of those strip-mall places with central air. There's nothing fancy or high-tech about it. We have window air conditioners that sometimes cool things off (or not). Mostly not. We have flooring that bubbles up when it's hot. When the temperatures rise in there, on the second floor, it's definitely unpleasant.
One of the most important lessons I've learned from my dad is this one: hot air rises, cool air sinks. So, I sunk onto the floor and did my stretches in a horizontal position. I don't tolerate heat well and when you stack that on top of the exhaustion I already had, I was pretty miserable.
I tied my hair up on the top of my head and the four of us in attendance, decided that the lights were staying off. We didn't need anything else heating things up. At first we could see just fine, but as the night wore on, the darkness was as heavy as the heat. It was the perfect time to build up to having a night time attacker.
Without being able to see facial expressions, and only being able to see a shadow coming at you, it felt realistic. I sometimes have a hard time following through on techniques and let people out of things before I probably should. But I didn't tonight. Each of the two guys I worked with saw the ground a bunch of times and I was proud of how I responded and what I did. It wasn't always pretty and things didn't always work the way I wanted them to, but I found myself trying to work several techniques instead of just trying one that doesn't work and giving up.
The darkness added a veil of scariness to the whole drill. You wanted to finish your opponent. The other woman and I each took a turn with each of the guys, and then we took turns attacking each other too. It was a very realistic drill that taught you something about yourself. It starts out being something you think will wreck your confidence, and then you find out it's done just the opposite.
After class, I was talking to the other woman in the locker room about the drill. We were discussing the issue of self-defense. As a woman, people tend to side with you if you're attacked and you happen to take out your attacker. But what if you're a trained martial artist, you're attacked, and you break some bones or cause other serious damage? Then what? What exactly is a woman allowed to do to defend herself in the world and how does that change when that woman just happens to be a high ranking martial artist?
It's an interesting question and it made me think about a conversation I had with one of the builder guys the other day. He was fixing something on the exterior of my house and I was planting some flowers. He noticed I was kneeling funny and asked me about my knee. I told him about my surgery and he asked me how I had injured myself.
"Karate. I was sparring at the time" I told him.
He asked me how long I have been training and what rank I was. I told him my next rank testing will be for Shodan and he asked me with complete seriousness, "So, when you get your black belt, you'll have to go get your hands registered with law enforcement right?"
I laughed out loud. I think he was a little embarrassed, so I contained my laughter and told him I had heard something about that somewhere (Where did I read that anyway?), but that I didn't think I was required to do that upon getting a black belt. Am I wrong? I guess I always thought that was a joke.
It does raise an interesting question though. If a man attacked a woman on the street, and she (a trained martial artist) fought back and broke an arm, ripped a ligament, poked out an eye, and sent the family jewels packing? Would she be in trouble?
Personally, I think the guy is asking for it if he's a stranger on the street and he grabs me. Of course, there's the issue of appropriate force; but when it comes to it being a stranger on the street? I'm not taking any chances. It's my life we're talking about here.
What would you do if attacked on the street by a complete stranger? How would you feel as a juror, on a case where an attacked woman beat the living daylights out of her attacker or even killed him? These are interesting questions and I'm going to do some research of my own and see what I can come up with on this topic.
April 26, 2009
Just Breathe
Breathing is supposed to be natural. Most of us know exactly how to do it when we're born. We are able to continue breathing throughout our life, without thinking too much about it. It's just natural, the way it should be.
Then there's karate breathing.
If you're not a karate person, or if you don't do breathing kata, it's kind of like this:
Inhale like you've never inhaled before. Breathe in through your nose until your sinuses shake and your body can take in no more air. This sinus shaking business is visible from the outside. If it's not, you're not doing it right.
Then, punch and breathe out. When you do it though, growl with the back of your throat so you feel really uncomfortable and weird. Breathe out until you have no more air left and the only thing left for you to do is cough awkwardly.
This, people, is karate breathing, and I can't seem to do it to save my life.
The other night in karate class, we were working on various waza. We have 10 of them and they're small series of moves. For example: step back and block up, punch, punch, clear down with kiai. Done. That's waza one.
Waza are the most difficult things to remember. They just don't stay in the head because they all tend to blend into one another. One of the shodans was helping me get them back in my head the other night and afterward, we took turns picking a number and then doing that waza.
When it came time for one of our 3rd dans to do his, he took waza three and did this breathing business with it. He did it a couple times. First slowly, then faster. Personally, I'd never seen anyone do a waza like that before. When he was finished, the shodan teaching that night asked me and another 1st kyu if we had any comments.
"Yeah, I thought we told him to do waza three!" I said.
The 3rd dan looked at me funny and said, "That was waza three!"
I said, "Well, it didn't look like my waza three. It didn't look like any waza three I've ever seen before."
Everyone laughed. They all know I have issues with the breathing. That's putting it lightly.
I came home that night and was telling Mr. BBM about class. I showed him how waza three had been done. I think I did a fairly good impersonation. The problem is, I can't do it in class. It's simply that right now, an impersonation, whenever I do that breathing. For now, I can't seem to make it my own.
I'm just going to need to practice at home, with music blaring or something, until I get comfortable with my own lungs and with the growling.
April 24, 2009
Learning How To Fall
A couple week ago, when Big I started first Danzan Ryu ju-jutsu, I was worried that this wasn't going to be her thing either. The very first thing that they learn in class is how to properly fall. There's a lot to remember and it's a little different than how we do it in karate. I spent the first night of class watching her fall on her arms constantly when she tried to do the side break fall. I watched her forget to turn her head sideways for the front one. I was worried.
Last week, they started doing roll falls and I began to really worry. Big I is not your typical little girl in the rolling department. It doesn't come naturally to her the way it does to many others girls. I wrote about this in the past and described Big I trying to do a forward roll as someone throwing their forehead at the floor. She just doesn't get that you're not supposed to roll on your head and almost break your neck. I think a big part of it has to do with how tall and skinny she got so very quickly. She just doesn't know how to work with that body yet.
However, this week at class, Big I made some major progress. With the exception of only one or two times, the kid got every break fall nearly perfect. Her Sensei was impressed. This was only her third class.
The class progresses with the usage of scrolls that have various techniques on them, and this week they were able to move down to the 5th technique. The children's class is currently only Big I and her Sensei's daughter. They get along really well, work great together and although Sensei's daughter seems to pick things up a little quicker than Big I, she's also his daughter and has had some at home training.
This week though, Big I was doing so well. When we got home from class, she wanted to show Mr. BBM all the things she had learned. There, in the middle of the family room, she showed him her break falls without being on mats. She is genuinely excited about what she's learning and tries to show her "moves" to everyone. Last night, she told me that if I'd like, she can teach me and Mr. BBM what she's learned in class. It may not have looked like it was her thing at the start, but it's appearing that it's becoming her thing fairly quickly.
There's a new giveaway over at The BBM Review, and it's food! Go now! Leave a comment and win one of three gift packages.
April 21, 2009
How to Make Your Teacher EXTREMELY Cranky
My speech students are working on their final speech project. The last speech is a group speech with an intense question/answer period following it. Students were able to form their own groups. I helped, if necessary. In some cases it was necessary. For example, the four students who decided they wanted to be a group of four when I had already told them groups could be no larger than three.
Breathe in, breathe out. FRUSTRATING!
After two weeks of group work during class time so that I could supervise, assist, and advise, outlines were due today. I should stress that this was the fourth time they were handing in outlines. The only thing different about this one was that I also required a group outline with a group introduction and group conclusion and transitions in between. It's not confusing, especially since I went over how to create it at least four times in class. On Thursday of last week, I wrote the exact format on the board and went over it. There was no shortage of instruction on how to create this outline.
I have six groups in my class and figured I would be able to get through all of their group outlines today during class. The plan was to conference with each group and advise them regarding changes they needed to make.
I got through two groups. The first group took me about 15 minutes which put me on schedule to finish all of the groups by the end of the class time. Then I got to the second group.
One of the group members was absent. . . again. The other two guys sat there, doing nothing, as they've done for the past two weeks which has surprised me because one of the guys is one of my best students. I have repeatedly told them to use their time wisely, to work on their group introduction, and that if they weren't busy, it signaled that they weren't going to do well on this speech.
Their outline was a complete mess, and guess what? No group introduction, no group conclusion and barely a transition. It was scattered, incorrectly formatted, and just plain irritating because it had nothing that I told them it needed in the previous weeks.
"Let me see your notes from last Thursday," I said grumpily.
They stared at me like I'd just asked them to recite the Bible, backwards, in Farsi or something.
"Where are your notes on how to do this group outline?" I demanded.
They stared at me, but this time, they were both turning a little red.
"So neither of you have notes on how to do this outline?"
They both nodded in agreement. "Ah, well that explains why this looks like garbage." I couldn't help myself. I was just so angry. I mean seriously! Why do I stand up there speaking to them, instructing them, spelling things out word for word, if they're not going to listen or write it down?
I had a little fit on them, hacked their outline to pieces with my pen, and then told them I'd have to take it with me to grade it because at that very moment, I was tempted to put a big fat zero on it. I asked them if they'd like to go and make a copy of it before class was over so they had my notes and suggestions and they stared at me again.
Hello? Anyone home?
"It's not really a question guys. Go and make a copy so you have my notes and can piece this mess into something decent for your speech next week! GO!"
I'm not usually this cranky with my students. I'm really not. In fact, most of them would say that I'm downright pleasant. But when I have spent this semester bending over backwards to try to get them on track and kick their butts into academic shape, and they turn in something as pathetic as that outline and then just stare at me like that?
UGH.
When I was finished with them, I had five minutes left. I told the students I was willing to stay late and work with any group that needed help. Two groups stayed and I'm thankful they did. Those two groups proved to me that I taught them what to do properly.
It's not me; it's them. Sometimes I need to remind myself.
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