Yeah, it's fall now, which means I should probably offer an update on how I did with the summer goals that Debi tagged me to do back in June. Let's see ...
(1) Knock some items off "The 50." Well, other than getting a blog set up about that (a blog on which I have yet to fully detail the items I've finished), I didn't do squat on the list. I'll try to do better this fall.
(2) Figure out the tabletop loom I bought last summer. Hey! I did something on this one. I took a week-long weaving class (more like weaving bootcamp) at Stony Mountain Fibers, and learned what I need to know. (When I'm on the right computer, I'll actually post some photos.) Unfortunately, one thing I learned is that my loom is missing all the heddles. However, in the small six-degrees-of-separation world in which we live, it turned out that a friend had gotten extra heddles when she bought her loom, so she passed them on to me. As a result, a project for the winter is to get them installed on my loom and then figure out if I need to order some more.
(3) Try to learn the rest of the skill forms I need to know for a black belt in Myo Sim kendo. I managed to learn a couple of them, and have a couple still to learn. That's okay, though, since there's at least a year and probably two before I'd be ready to test.
(4) Battle the clutter and disarray that is my house. Yeah, right! I did get things a bit cleaner when younger son returned to the dorm, but it's basically the same cluttered hovel it was in June around here. In fact, having admitted that, I should probably finish this post and go vacuum. The vacuum cleaner has been sitting in the foyer since the time I vacuumed the dog and cat hair out of the bedroom (upstairs) and off the stairs; I think that was about three weeks ago. I have been trying to will one of the resident men to vacuum the main floor, but shall concede defeat and do it myself. Yeah, they win this round.
Finally in terms of updates from the summer, my new hero successfully finished her summer of basic training at the Air Force Academy, and has started classes. It's still not an easy existence, but she's hanging in there. And she's still my hero for doing so.
Some summer highlights: Various work projects; The Dark Knight, though I only saw it once; four quilts (a Quilts of Summer II post will come once they've been formally presented); a short trip here and there (sailing on the Chesapeake Bay; Gettysburg, some details of which can be found here; a pig roast thrown by Mark Warner); lots of kendo; a bit of planning for the Vietnam adventure; and probably not enough sleep. And now, to the vacuum!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Rocky Horror Picture Show (Review)
I absolutely could not stick this classic science fiction film with the three in my other post. Rocky is one of those classics that gets better with age. I say this as someone who has never seen it in a theater in all its participatory glory. I've only seen in on a TV screen, albeit in the company of my dear husband who is a fanatic and who sings along and shouts all the right answers at all the right moments. And now that younger son has seen it in participatory fashion, he can join in the fun.
Rocky is, at its heart, a musical tribute to all the classic science fiction movies of the 1950s and 1960s with a few horror and detective movies thrown in. It is not for the faint of heart or the prudish. The story is recounted matter-of-factly by a criminologist, with the action starting as he begins to recount his tale. After watching the wedding of two of their friends, our hero (Brad, played by Barry Bostwick) and heroine (Janet, played by Susan Sarandon) depart to visit the professor in whose class they first met. Their car breaks down on a deserted road and, to get out of the rain, they end up in the castle of Dr. Frankenfurter (played by Tim Curry) who appears to be having a party of some sort. After that, as my sons would say, hilarity ensues. Strange hilarity. Bizarre hilarity ... with get-up-and-dance-or-at-least-sing-along music. To describe it in detail would not do it justice.
One day, I may just have to see this in its cinematic, participatory goodness, but until then I'll continue to enjoy it on DVD, seeing something new or having a new bizarre thought each time I watch it.
Rocky is, at its heart, a musical tribute to all the classic science fiction movies of the 1950s and 1960s with a few horror and detective movies thrown in. It is not for the faint of heart or the prudish. The story is recounted matter-of-factly by a criminologist, with the action starting as he begins to recount his tale. After watching the wedding of two of their friends, our hero (Brad, played by Barry Bostwick) and heroine (Janet, played by Susan Sarandon) depart to visit the professor in whose class they first met. Their car breaks down on a deserted road and, to get out of the rain, they end up in the castle of Dr. Frankenfurter (played by Tim Curry) who appears to be having a party of some sort. After that, as my sons would say, hilarity ensues. Strange hilarity. Bizarre hilarity ... with get-up-and-dance-or-at-least-sing-along music. To describe it in detail would not do it justice.
One day, I may just have to see this in its cinematic, participatory goodness, but until then I'll continue to enjoy it on DVD, seeing something new or having a new bizarre thought each time I watch it.
Bad Blogger ... No Biscuit
I could make any number of excuses why it's been a month and a half since the last post. Too many little things to do? Nah, that's always the case around here. A trip? Can't count, 'cause it was only for two days. Steve took my power adapter to the dorm? Well, he did, but that only accounts for the last week. Too much killing time with unimportant things? Now we might be getting somewhere. One quilt down and at least two to go in the near future? Okay, we're getting closer now. Whatever the reasons, I'm back, with the first order of business being three quick movie reviews for the 42 Challenge I'm doing. I do have some science fiction books set aside to read, but movies seem to be so much easier to watch, typically while I multi-task and do something else at the same time. And it's not as though we've been watching highbrow or cerebral movies here this summer either, as you can see from the reviews below.
Escape from New York
This movie was made in the early 1980s but was set in the late 1990s, which was a good thing because laughing at the way the (now) past was foreseen was one of the more entertaining things about this movie. In the movie, the government has turned Manhatten into a maximum security prison where the most brutal criminals are locked away for life. There is a wall around the island, the bridges onto the island have been mined, and troops patrol the opposite shore to deal with anyone who tries to escape across the water.
The President in en route to a conference to unveil a new advance in nuclear fission when his plane is hijacked and crashed into a building (one thing the filmmakers, regrettably, in a way foresaw correctly). He escapes the crash by ejecting in a pod, but then is stranded in the middle of the island prison. On the mainland, Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) is awaiting transport to the island. A special forces war hero before starting a second career robbing banks, Snake is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president and retrieve the cassette (one thing the filmmakers got wrong about the late 1990s) containing the fission information within 24 hours. To ensure cooperation, he is injected with two microscopic explosives that will only be deactivated if he returns with the president and the cassette. If he doesn't, they will explode when the 24-hour clock runs out.
I won’t spoil the movie (should you elect to watch it) by revealing the ending except to say that there is a plot twist or two along the way. The saving grace of the movie was, as suggested above, seeing what the filmmakers hit and what they missed about their near future and our near past. The rival to the continued reliance on cassette tapes in terms of sheer hilarity was the larger-than-a-brick wireless phones used in the command center. On its own, the movie probably doesn’t merit a close look; the redeming value is comparing what really was in the late 1990s to the film’s vision.
Night of the Comet
It’s hard to imagine 1980s Valley Girl sisters, a comet, and zombies combining into something worth watching, but I actually enjoyed this movie. A comet passes by the Earth, turning anyone who wasn’t properly shielded to dust, and turning those who were only partially shielded into zombies. With the help of a hunky truck driver who also survived the comet’s passing, the girls battle both zombies and a think tank of scientists at risk of becoming zombies and who want the girls’ blood to help find a vaccine. Viewed as a comedy and with a nod to the 1980s and all things Valley, this movie is well worth watching, though I’m not sure I’d recommend it for kids. It will also help you know why, if I’m a bit disappointed in something, I might let out with “Daddy would have gotten us Uzis!” in my best Valley Girl voice.
Idiocracy
Disclaimer, nay, Warning: This movie is so politically incorrect that even Fox, its maker, ended up truly embarrassed by it and put it into very limited release before hiding it on DVD and/or HBO. It makes the current controversy over the use of the term “retarded” in Tropic Thunder look like an ice cube beside an ice cap. This was not just a dumb movie; it was a very dumb movie. But, much as I shouldn’t admit it, parts were laugh-out-loud funny. If that makes me a bad person, well, so be it. The movie was made by Mike Judge (of King of the Hill and Office Space fame), and parts were downright funny.
In the present, several volunteers, chosen to be about as average as they come, are placed in frozen hibernation to test the idea that the best soldiers, if not needed to fight a war today, could be stored to fight in a future one. Unfortunately, the people running the experiment are arrested, and the hibernation capsules are forgotten. Fast forward 500 years, and the country has turned into a bastion of stupidity thanks to people with lower IQs having had more children than people with higher IQs. When two of the capsules are unearthed and come open, Joe and Rita, two of the most average people to be found in the 2000s, become the two smartest people in the world in the 2500s. Of course, they aren’t seen that way at first, and get accepted only after they save the world’s plant population. Parts of this movie are extremely tasteless and juvenile, but other parts are quite funny. I’m not sure I’d spend money to rent this one, but I wasn’t sorry I switched to this on one HBO channel when the season finale of Generation Kill ended on another.
Escape from New York
This movie was made in the early 1980s but was set in the late 1990s, which was a good thing because laughing at the way the (now) past was foreseen was one of the more entertaining things about this movie. In the movie, the government has turned Manhatten into a maximum security prison where the most brutal criminals are locked away for life. There is a wall around the island, the bridges onto the island have been mined, and troops patrol the opposite shore to deal with anyone who tries to escape across the water.
The President in en route to a conference to unveil a new advance in nuclear fission when his plane is hijacked and crashed into a building (one thing the filmmakers, regrettably, in a way foresaw correctly). He escapes the crash by ejecting in a pod, but then is stranded in the middle of the island prison. On the mainland, Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) is awaiting transport to the island. A special forces war hero before starting a second career robbing banks, Snake is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president and retrieve the cassette (one thing the filmmakers got wrong about the late 1990s) containing the fission information within 24 hours. To ensure cooperation, he is injected with two microscopic explosives that will only be deactivated if he returns with the president and the cassette. If he doesn't, they will explode when the 24-hour clock runs out.
I won’t spoil the movie (should you elect to watch it) by revealing the ending except to say that there is a plot twist or two along the way. The saving grace of the movie was, as suggested above, seeing what the filmmakers hit and what they missed about their near future and our near past. The rival to the continued reliance on cassette tapes in terms of sheer hilarity was the larger-than-a-brick wireless phones used in the command center. On its own, the movie probably doesn’t merit a close look; the redeming value is comparing what really was in the late 1990s to the film’s vision.
Night of the Comet
It’s hard to imagine 1980s Valley Girl sisters, a comet, and zombies combining into something worth watching, but I actually enjoyed this movie. A comet passes by the Earth, turning anyone who wasn’t properly shielded to dust, and turning those who were only partially shielded into zombies. With the help of a hunky truck driver who also survived the comet’s passing, the girls battle both zombies and a think tank of scientists at risk of becoming zombies and who want the girls’ blood to help find a vaccine. Viewed as a comedy and with a nod to the 1980s and all things Valley, this movie is well worth watching, though I’m not sure I’d recommend it for kids. It will also help you know why, if I’m a bit disappointed in something, I might let out with “Daddy would have gotten us Uzis!” in my best Valley Girl voice.
Idiocracy
Disclaimer, nay, Warning: This movie is so politically incorrect that even Fox, its maker, ended up truly embarrassed by it and put it into very limited release before hiding it on DVD and/or HBO. It makes the current controversy over the use of the term “retarded” in Tropic Thunder look like an ice cube beside an ice cap. This was not just a dumb movie; it was a very dumb movie. But, much as I shouldn’t admit it, parts were laugh-out-loud funny. If that makes me a bad person, well, so be it. The movie was made by Mike Judge (of King of the Hill and Office Space fame), and parts were downright funny.
In the present, several volunteers, chosen to be about as average as they come, are placed in frozen hibernation to test the idea that the best soldiers, if not needed to fight a war today, could be stored to fight in a future one. Unfortunately, the people running the experiment are arrested, and the hibernation capsules are forgotten. Fast forward 500 years, and the country has turned into a bastion of stupidity thanks to people with lower IQs having had more children than people with higher IQs. When two of the capsules are unearthed and come open, Joe and Rita, two of the most average people to be found in the 2000s, become the two smartest people in the world in the 2500s. Of course, they aren’t seen that way at first, and get accepted only after they save the world’s plant population. Parts of this movie are extremely tasteless and juvenile, but other parts are quite funny. I’m not sure I’d spend money to rent this one, but I wasn’t sorry I switched to this on one HBO channel when the season finale of Generation Kill ended on another.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Announcing ... The Fifty (a new blog)
One of my summer goals was to make progress on what I referred to as "The Fifty," a list of 50 things I made to try to do in my 50th year of life. I didn't make it and, having just turned 52, am still working on it. I've listed all 50 things in the new blog, noting which ones I've completed. As I can, I'll add details, pictures where I can, and other fun stuff. World, you owe this one to Debi, who very politely guilted me into putting this up. I've thought about doing this as a blog for some time, but Debi pushed me over the edge. As I said, I'll update it as I can. Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
My New Hero
My kids are fond of saying, “He’s my new hero!” when hearing or reading of someone (usually a male; hence, the “he”) who is doing or has done something they consider to be totally awesome. I have my own new hero these days, the young woman with whom I tested for a brown belt in Myo Sim Kendo in February 2008. At the time we tested, she was one-third my age, which sounds so much nicer (to me) than saying that I was three times her age. Whatever. When we tested, she was 17 and I was 51; we’ve both since moved up a year on the age scale.
At first glance, one might not expect her to be my new hero. Besides the age difference, she joked about putting her “Run, Hillary, Run” bumber sticker on the front of her car, while mine definitely went on the rear bumper. In terms of both politics and religion, those two subjects rarely brought up in polite company, we’re sort of at opposite ends of the continua. All that aside, I’ve told her she’s my new hero because of where she is and what she’s doing these days.
She’s my hero these days for knowing as well as anyone can as a teenager what she wants to do with her life at least for a while, taking the steps to make it all happen, and then following through and doing it, hard though it may be. She’s now into her third week of Basic Cadet Training (known to some as “Basic Cadet Torture”) at the US Air Force Academy, currently living in a tent at someplace called Jacks Valley for two weeks, doing such things as learning field first aid, hand-to-hand combat, and how to shoot an M-16; running the obstacle course and an “assault course”; and (my personal favorite) putting on padded suits and fighting with sticks. I expect that my new hero will excel at this given her kendo experience. She’s certainly used to sparring with men much bigger than she is; two of her fellow kendo students are her height while they are on their knees, and she holds her own with them as well as or better than any student at her level.
As I told her in one of my cards (cards and letters supposedly really helping Basics get through their training), I don’t think I could have done what she’s doing when I was her age. Physically, my body might have been able to handle the training, but I know I couldn’t have handled it mentally. Now, I probably could handle the mental part, but the physical part, probably not. There’s also the issue of knowing at some deep level what she wants to do with her life. I’ve always admired people who know what they want to do when they grow up, or who have the whole ten-year career plan mapped out. There’s probably a comfort there that those of us who much more wing it through life might enjoy were we to feel it.
About 1,400 Basics started their training at the Academy almost three weeks ago. I think about 20 have left so far, having decided that it wasn’t for them. Another 300 or so will leave before the graduation. I hope my new hero makes it. I think she will, but even if she doesn’t she’d still be my hero for trying. (And if you're wondering why I've very pointedly left her name out of this post, it's just in case anyone she knows out there were to find it; I wouldn't want this to come back to haunt her.)
At first glance, one might not expect her to be my new hero. Besides the age difference, she joked about putting her “Run, Hillary, Run” bumber sticker on the front of her car, while mine definitely went on the rear bumper. In terms of both politics and religion, those two subjects rarely brought up in polite company, we’re sort of at opposite ends of the continua. All that aside, I’ve told her she’s my new hero because of where she is and what she’s doing these days.
She’s my hero these days for knowing as well as anyone can as a teenager what she wants to do with her life at least for a while, taking the steps to make it all happen, and then following through and doing it, hard though it may be. She’s now into her third week of Basic Cadet Training (known to some as “Basic Cadet Torture”) at the US Air Force Academy, currently living in a tent at someplace called Jacks Valley for two weeks, doing such things as learning field first aid, hand-to-hand combat, and how to shoot an M-16; running the obstacle course and an “assault course”; and (my personal favorite) putting on padded suits and fighting with sticks. I expect that my new hero will excel at this given her kendo experience. She’s certainly used to sparring with men much bigger than she is; two of her fellow kendo students are her height while they are on their knees, and she holds her own with them as well as or better than any student at her level.
As I told her in one of my cards (cards and letters supposedly really helping Basics get through their training), I don’t think I could have done what she’s doing when I was her age. Physically, my body might have been able to handle the training, but I know I couldn’t have handled it mentally. Now, I probably could handle the mental part, but the physical part, probably not. There’s also the issue of knowing at some deep level what she wants to do with her life. I’ve always admired people who know what they want to do when they grow up, or who have the whole ten-year career plan mapped out. There’s probably a comfort there that those of us who much more wing it through life might enjoy were we to feel it.
About 1,400 Basics started their training at the Academy almost three weeks ago. I think about 20 have left so far, having decided that it wasn’t for them. Another 300 or so will leave before the graduation. I hope my new hero makes it. I think she will, but even if she doesn’t she’d still be my hero for trying. (And if you're wondering why I've very pointedly left her name out of this post, it's just in case anyone she knows out there were to find it; I wouldn't want this to come back to haunt her.)
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Real Genius (Review)
This is another movie that purists might not call “science fiction,” but since, as with Transformers, it’s listed under that genre in the Internet Movie Database, I’m counting it for the 42 Challenge. My two sons, one of whom had already seen this, put it in the Netflix queue, and it didn’t take long for me to know why. Highly intelligent young men; lasers; pranks, hijinks and MIT-style hacks—what was there not to like?
In terms of plot, a university professor is using his undergraduate geniuses (one of whom is played by a much younger Val Kilmer) to do the work on a laser project that a secret arm of the government is funding for use in a weapons system. The students don’t know what the research will be used for, but when, with the help of a former student who dropped out in his own unique way, they find out, they fight back in the way they know best, by re-engineering the system to … well, it’s a quite worthy hack.
According to my atomic physicist son, much of the laser research presented in this movie is dead on. In other words, what sounds like jargon really does mean something if you speak that language. The premise of the laser as used in the weapons system stretches things, but I was assured that much of the rest was valid.
Was this movie deeply thought-provoking? No. Was it fun? Heck, yes! I've already told my nuclear physicist husband (who arrives home from a workshop late tonight) that he's watching this with me tomorrow.
In terms of plot, a university professor is using his undergraduate geniuses (one of whom is played by a much younger Val Kilmer) to do the work on a laser project that a secret arm of the government is funding for use in a weapons system. The students don’t know what the research will be used for, but when, with the help of a former student who dropped out in his own unique way, they find out, they fight back in the way they know best, by re-engineering the system to … well, it’s a quite worthy hack.
According to my atomic physicist son, much of the laser research presented in this movie is dead on. In other words, what sounds like jargon really does mean something if you speak that language. The premise of the laser as used in the weapons system stretches things, but I was assured that much of the rest was valid.
Was this movie deeply thought-provoking? No. Was it fun? Heck, yes! I've already told my nuclear physicist husband (who arrives home from a workshop late tonight) that he's watching this with me tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
What I Might Do this Summer
Debi tagged me with the meme that Becky tagged her with, that of listing goals for the upcoming summer. The number of goals does not seem to be specified, but both Debi and Becky listed four. A list-maker at heart (this year, my daily list is written on the back of the previous day’s entry from the Zen Page-a-Day calendar), I may not be able to keep it to four, but I’ll try.
Goals for the Summer (and possibly beyond):
(1) Knock some more items off “The 50.” (I really need to blog on this topic at length one day, or maybe even set up a blog with each entry devoted to a different item.) The basic idea is that on my 49th birthday, as I was entering my 50th year, I made a list of 50 things to try to do in that year. Said year got extended into a two-year celebration centered around my 50th birthday, and then extended again. After some swapping of items on the list for things I did on my recent trip to New Mexico (another blog post I need to write), I have 13 items left to do. I figure I should probably try to finish by my 55th birthday because at some point after that I’ll want to start on a list of 60 things to do to commemorate my 60th year.
(2) Get out the tabletop loom I got at the Y’Art Sale last year and figure out how to set it up and use it. The one-morning-a-year Y’Art Sale is sponsored by our local Second Street Gallery as a fundraiser and features all manner of artsy and craftsy supplies, samples, whatever. I couldn’t justify the floor loom they had because unless we were to totally clean out the upstairs of our garage I have no place to put it, but I did get the tabletop loom. One of my elementary classrooms had a floor loom, and I used to love using it until the day the teacher banned me from it. See, we could start weaving after we’d finished our work, and since I was always the first one to finish, I always got the loom first. After a while of this, I got banned in the interest of fairness even though I was not the one who said that you could go weave when you were done with your work. I didn't make the rules; I just took advantage of them. And no, this was not the start of my disillusionment with the public education system (another blog post I should write!) but it certainly didn’t help.
(3) Try to learn the four or five skill forms I still need to learn for a black belt in Myo Sim kendo. Black belt tests are held once a year, usually in late summer, so learning them this summer would make for a good start to a year (one year minimum; it could easily be more) of intense practice to get all the various forms to the appropriate level of speed, intensity, and accuracy. Let’s see. I still need to be taught three ways to take a sword away from someone who is attacking me (in case the eight I ‘ve already been taught aren’t enough) and one (out of six) tea party, a two-person form involving an attack from close quarters. Tea parties are a bit humbling because they’re typically done with metal-bladed swords, making the possibility of doing harm to one’s partner or self very real. They also involve some pretty rough leg switches, as in going from kneeling on the left knee with the right leg out in front of you, bent at the knee, to the exact opposite position, kneeling on the right knee with the left leg out in front of you, a switch to be done as fast as possible, without lifting one’s head any higher than absolutely necessary. Oh, yeah, you’re also drawing and swinging that metal-bladed sword at another person as you do this. In other words, the more practice, the better. I also need to work more on some partner exercises, which are two-person forms you create with a partner.
(4) Finally, in the interest of harmony at home and my own sanity, I should probably include the continuation of my ongoing battle with the clutter and disarray of living with three adult or nearly so males who don’t really care where things get put down or what gets left where. Part of the battle is modeling good behavior to them without at the same time enabling their tendency to avoid cleaning up after themselves and letting me do it. Having recently gotten a new refrigerator and a new, slightly larger dining room table, I’m currently concentrating my efforts on the kitchen and dining room. I may not make it past those this summer, but just getting those two rooms done would be a good start.
See—I managed to stop at four! I could add all sorts of things like lose a few pounds, but those are better suited to New Year’s resolutions than summer goals. Besides, if I manage to accomplish even part of the above, I’ll probably lose a little weight in the process.
In the interest of sharing the fun, I’d love to see if Rich’s and Annie’s summer goals bear any resemblance to Debi’s. I’d hate to think of the family all pulling in different directions. And it might be interesting to see what Debi's friend Kara has planned now that she's back from her trip.
Goals for the Summer (and possibly beyond):
(1) Knock some more items off “The 50.” (I really need to blog on this topic at length one day, or maybe even set up a blog with each entry devoted to a different item.) The basic idea is that on my 49th birthday, as I was entering my 50th year, I made a list of 50 things to try to do in that year. Said year got extended into a two-year celebration centered around my 50th birthday, and then extended again. After some swapping of items on the list for things I did on my recent trip to New Mexico (another blog post I need to write), I have 13 items left to do. I figure I should probably try to finish by my 55th birthday because at some point after that I’ll want to start on a list of 60 things to do to commemorate my 60th year.
(2) Get out the tabletop loom I got at the Y’Art Sale last year and figure out how to set it up and use it. The one-morning-a-year Y’Art Sale is sponsored by our local Second Street Gallery as a fundraiser and features all manner of artsy and craftsy supplies, samples, whatever. I couldn’t justify the floor loom they had because unless we were to totally clean out the upstairs of our garage I have no place to put it, but I did get the tabletop loom. One of my elementary classrooms had a floor loom, and I used to love using it until the day the teacher banned me from it. See, we could start weaving after we’d finished our work, and since I was always the first one to finish, I always got the loom first. After a while of this, I got banned in the interest of fairness even though I was not the one who said that you could go weave when you were done with your work. I didn't make the rules; I just took advantage of them. And no, this was not the start of my disillusionment with the public education system (another blog post I should write!) but it certainly didn’t help.
(3) Try to learn the four or five skill forms I still need to learn for a black belt in Myo Sim kendo. Black belt tests are held once a year, usually in late summer, so learning them this summer would make for a good start to a year (one year minimum; it could easily be more) of intense practice to get all the various forms to the appropriate level of speed, intensity, and accuracy. Let’s see. I still need to be taught three ways to take a sword away from someone who is attacking me (in case the eight I ‘ve already been taught aren’t enough) and one (out of six) tea party, a two-person form involving an attack from close quarters. Tea parties are a bit humbling because they’re typically done with metal-bladed swords, making the possibility of doing harm to one’s partner or self very real. They also involve some pretty rough leg switches, as in going from kneeling on the left knee with the right leg out in front of you, bent at the knee, to the exact opposite position, kneeling on the right knee with the left leg out in front of you, a switch to be done as fast as possible, without lifting one’s head any higher than absolutely necessary. Oh, yeah, you’re also drawing and swinging that metal-bladed sword at another person as you do this. In other words, the more practice, the better. I also need to work more on some partner exercises, which are two-person forms you create with a partner.
(4) Finally, in the interest of harmony at home and my own sanity, I should probably include the continuation of my ongoing battle with the clutter and disarray of living with three adult or nearly so males who don’t really care where things get put down or what gets left where. Part of the battle is modeling good behavior to them without at the same time enabling their tendency to avoid cleaning up after themselves and letting me do it. Having recently gotten a new refrigerator and a new, slightly larger dining room table, I’m currently concentrating my efforts on the kitchen and dining room. I may not make it past those this summer, but just getting those two rooms done would be a good start.
See—I managed to stop at four! I could add all sorts of things like lose a few pounds, but those are better suited to New Year’s resolutions than summer goals. Besides, if I manage to accomplish even part of the above, I’ll probably lose a little weight in the process.
In the interest of sharing the fun, I’d love to see if Rich’s and Annie’s summer goals bear any resemblance to Debi’s. I’d hate to think of the family all pulling in different directions. And it might be interesting to see what Debi's friend Kara has planned now that she's back from her trip.
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