fireka

Right now,i wear an obi that i custom made, it really means nothing rank wise except to me personally. But i refuse to advance in rank. I do this because i prefer the classic method. Basically, ill wear eithe r awhite obi, or my custom symbolic grey obi until my fellow karate-ka's in the master category of many styles (maybe even some chinese/korean artist) say i'm worthy of a Shodan. No test, no registration, simply i know my stuff or i don't and i have to prove it to a lot of criticts of high power who know there stuff. You might say "Well if you have friends in the martial arts how hard it could be?" i made myself another limiting rule: the people that i count towards my Shodan awarded to myself, can not know about this, they have to say im worthy of Black Belt on there own free will with out knwing about it. Then if they say that ill tell them what im up to and the last one ill ask to award me the belt if they really feel that way. So technically, it could take two years and it could take twenty two years, it just depends, but ill make sure i know my stuff. So praise or reject me! i dont plan on moving on this one, though i am open to suggestions, id like to know what you all think.

let me tell you my daily rutine, then i will let you decide, because i dont know if i spend a full eight hours or not: I get up at four thirty in the morning and shower, shave, put on my clothing for school. I look in the mirror that i practice kata in fornt of and say, "I come here with only Karate, empty hands, i have no weapons, but should i be forced to defend myself, my princibles, or my honor, should it be a matter of life or death, right or wrong, than here are my weapons, Karate, my empty hands." then i pray for about a minute. Beofre i go to the bus stop i run around my neighbor hood which i think is about 2/3rds of a mile, maybe a full mile, im not sure. I get on the bus and go to school. During lunch i like to read something martial arts related, sine my other half of my life is devoted to my other passion, writing. Usally its something like Isshinryu history and Kata, the biography of Funakoshi, Sun Tzu's art of war, Book of the Five Rings, ect. When i get home i do my homework, and then do something social for a few minutes, call a friend, come to this site, something. Then i usally write fiction, sometimes its martial arts related, sometimes not. I go to work, if i work that day, at five. I get a fifteen minute break if i work more than four hours and in that time, i practice kata. at least twice a week i make sure i spend a full hour in my gi training in technique and kata, i try to fit in more, but i also have to do stuff because im in the Navy DEP, and i am the leader of a comedy troop called "Sausage Gone Bad." but the Navy stuff often invloves creed study that improves the mind with similar principles to the Karate creeds and precepts, or physical exersise. so im not sure, but i know i took a pledge to make as little time in my life wasted as possible, so if i don't have anything to do, i will find a mirror or a wooden plank and practice technique. Even on the bus sometimes, i will practice Seiuchin breathing. Do i qualify?

i.e. if anyone knows were i can find an online video of seisan, that would be really nice, and youll be rewarded in heaven or..umm...where ever it is you plan on going.

"full time martial arts person"? I do not know what you mean. I follow the Budo as my life code. I train every chance i can. I seek to perfect my mind, body and spirit, and to serve my master with my skills (my master being my country) but to be a full time martial arts person seems to refeer to taking martial arts four or five times a week in which case i have already stated that as the problem. right now i can not go to a Dojo at all. I felt better today though when i put the gi on and trained, however i cant do kata anymore, there slowly shapeing way from what there meant to be and if i don't have a visual aid soon im going to miss the point. Oh, speaking of which, i have to give a book editorail, Isshinryu History and Kata: the history part is great, the kata part is crap, i could have done a much better job, that was terrible.

it is a mortal sin among artist now, to train yourself no matter how good your resorces and no matter what your natural skill for comprehention is. In some factors i agree with that. But it dosent stop me from feeling this way. You must understand, leaving the Dojo was upsetting, i get a pain in my heart everytime i think about it but i simply have no choice. I dont feel like abandoning the martial arts until i just happen to fall into a position were i can take them again, and 9 chances out of 10 i will be no were near an Isshinryu dojo when i do get to that point. Simple fact of the matter, thats easier said than done, and in fact, may just be immposible. What you are saying is i cant start training in this new fasion because it will fail, but the fasihon demanded for me to get were i want to be is finachiealy and time wise impossible. im happy for all of you who are lucky, who get to stay in your Dojo's. Im not gonna lie, i hated some of the attidues other people had in my dojo but i liked my sensai and i loved to train and now i cant train at all except this one little sphere that i learned in four months time and thats just not fair! ive been craving the Martial arts since i was very small, its like giving a six year old a thimble of ice cream. I wear my grey belt no matter what i do, it is a rebelion against the rank structure and im keeping it. But as far as training goes what on earth do you suggest i do? this martial council gives me no options. am i to be excommunicated from the martial arts simply because i am doing what my sensai always taught and trying to do well in school? "Karate is like boiling water, if not given constant heat, it will go cold." I cant just stop training! Im really fustrated.

my job requires me to know about Korea's history as it may be emminet to National Security latter

after i had to leave the dojo, i continued to study the seisan and saieuchin katas, as well as the histories and philosophies of Isshinryu. Through this study i have learned something about myself and the style i have chossen to learn and have came to a contious decesion. This may seem idealistic and pumpous to some, but i hope you can still consider me a felow martial artist anyway as i am about to, in a way, forge my own path. I have decided not to study a single style. Through learning about Isshinryu i think it had great roots but i do not like the politicts it later developed and i do not think they were in Shimabuku's intrest. I have decided instead of returning to a perminit Dojo and learning from one master to work towards black belt i will study everything. I will look for students and masters alike of all sorts of arts, spar and train with them for splurts, learning about there history, philosophy, technique, theory, everything. I have chosen to say, when asked what martial art i study, to respond by saying Bushido, the way of the warrior. I will learn things from all diffrent arts. I have chosen to keep the gi as my uniform of choice, and have died my Obi grey. this is to represent me as a ronnin. I will be always between the helpless student and the grand master, the only show of my skill will be by way of the fist and not the color of my belt. I plan on starting with a very close study of Sun Tzu's way of the warrior. If anyone sees a reason this path is ignorant or blured, please tell me now and i will have an open mind, for i do not wish to fall into oblivion, however i will keep in mind that it is pioneers who are known and not followers of slowly corrupting ways. I see this as the best way to get a well rounded experince in the Budo.

okay look ppl, the cereal box said 'kabooms'....nuff said.

ok, i have to stop this now before my post gets closed. a) I dont give a rats about my korean hisotry before 1950, and yes i know there are things like the Ninja but they wernt Nija's because thats physically impossblie, so i didnt even finnish reading your post. 2) no im not it it just for Tenchu grappling techniques because im not a moron! i was joking, see its this thing i do sometimes to...nevermind. what i wanted was to be able to talk about this art with someone who has actually done it. And as far as Ninja's today, when you think about it, what are the SEAL's, Ranger's and MCR besides the modern day adaption of the Ninja.

Treebranch, even if that were true Kill Bill would definitly fall into the more deep set catagory, and i dont understand everyones fear of being intellectual, trust me it wont kill you! if that were true, let Freaky Friday and Meet the Parents be fun films and keep Kill Bill sacred! i must sound fraky but that film meant a lot to me.

"in your dreams!" the Truman show was crap! i got to see a bootleged reel from Tounge of Fury, you guys will love this: It showed Chossen walking into this room on a star warsy set (obviously one of the evil councils flying pyrimids) when he sees betty staring back at him standing in front of a giant monitor. They do the thing like in the first one when the guy was wearing the kendo uniform, focusing the camera back and forth. and then chossen says: "Evil Betty! it can't be! i killed you" Betty: "Oh no you didn't (stupid laugh) i only did like this:" he picks up aremote and presses a botton and the monitor shows the scene from the first movie were betty dies. Betty: "That dose not mean a person is dead!" they go on talking for alittle while and all the time, the monitor starts showing ransom pictures of Koala's falling out of trees and scince from old Charlie Chaplin films.

lol, of course! it susing stealth to lurk in the shadows. Okay this thing is here (duffos) because the descrtion says JAPANESE martial arts, and it isnt a grappling art, and last time i heard there wenrt a whole lot of Ninja's in korea since its not even a korean word. Now help me out here, how much of this stuff, with the exception of the actual technique, might i already know? i am excellent with survival so in the field have i somewhat taught myself or are there things they know i couldnt have learned from other orginizations?

I dont know if this really applies but i had to anounce it. Its like finnaly finding your soul mate on a smaller scale i founbd a game im just absolutely in love with. TENCHU is so cool! why wasn't i told about this!

I think the best way to get my questions answered is to be 100% honest, and if im ridiculed than i know ill deserve it. Lets not lie to ourselves, this art is just cool. Who when they were a kid didn't want to be a ninja? and don't lie, i bet half of you that signed up for the classes started because you played Tenchu one to many times. I won't say im not one of you. But i really love martial arts, espicially the weapon arts, i like the feeling when i finnaly start to figure it out and it clicks and the weapon really does start to feel like an extension. So yea, i'd like to learn the stealth, the swordsmanship, the cunning and resorcefulness. And hey, i want to use a grappling hook. I also understand though that Ninjitsu is a way of life to a furhter extreme than Karate-do is. I already study the Bushido, but i really want to know more about Ninjitsu. If my heart isnt in the right place to take it now (i couldnt RIGHT now anyway, no school is available) maybe after i hear from some practioners, it will be. Arigato

prove to me that True Lies, the Matrix, and The Long Kiss Good Night (movies i also liked) has no basis, no symbols, and no meaning, and i will prove you wrong. this does not mean you can't sit and just enjoy the film if you want. Certainly there are films PRODUCED simply for entertainment, but none are MADE simply for entertainment. As they say in my own field "You write for love, you publish for money." I personnaly like looking for the reasons the director wanted to make THIS film, and more importantly, because they never get enough credit, why the screen wite wanted to write it.

a movie can not be just for entertainment because that goal alone is not enough to make the creators (actors, composers, directors, editors) have the will power required to make a film. Its a physically, mentally, and emmotionally painful process.

I have to be completely honest here ben, your kinda disappointing me, because i always thought of you as a solid film fan. No movie is just entertainment. I have competed in sundance and i can tell you, even if the general population sees it as dry entertainment, if there is no message there for you to belive in you will not have the heart and endurance to complete the film. Thats why i like looking for the inner message behind films, most people see as being congenial, such as Kill Bill i suppose, but better examples of filmsiv'e done that with are James Bond, Indiana Jones, Die Hard. movies that are, at the skin level, apparently meant just to entertain, there is a purpose behind all of that there creators really belived in or else they never would have gotten done.

evilo betty, your offcially my best friend. No really! its an honor having you beating random people in our town, welcome! But yea, he plans on making Tounge of Fury after a four year gap from DVD release to theater premere. This time he will be using scenes from Star Wars, quest of Horisaga, Tiger and Crane fist (again) and Blood Sport.

you totally missed the point. if you were looking for realism you should have bought a ticket for second hand lions. The idea was not to create a realistic feel or to have consequences to death, it was sensory over load. and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, while i may have slipped that itwas my favorite, NEVER recieved the best over all film award in my book, only best comedy. Best film before Kill Bill was One Flew Over the Ku-Ku's nest with Jack Nicholson. Kill Bill did teach me something about myself, and i think if you looked closely youd see how brutely it does target everyones most baisc primal insticts, sex and survival. Thats why i loved it, it was human characters acting truely like animals.

this coming from the man who said Never say Never again was the worst James Bond movie ever made. I love movies and im pretty picking. it tok plenty of meditation on the idea, but after seeing it twice and considering carefully i finnaly decided that Kill Bill was deffinitly my favorite movie, and therefore, in my opinion, the best movie ever made.

are you joking?! im willing to put money down for 1. Best film of the year 2. Best custme deigne 3. Best direction 4. best original score

Best Movie i ever saw. i gave it five of my twenty awards in the catagories of 1. Best over all film 2. Best Martial arts Film 3. Best Espionage Film 4. Best Drama 5. Most Violent Film

lol, yea. I'm not upset because i'm to bust laughing. Dude were did you develop that style? do you actually qoute poetry when your trying to holla in person? Anyways, shes kinda taken, but your style is awesome, i don't even think Suzana knew what you were talking about for a while though. so am i aloud to be your friend to?

when did this become so damn political. i wish i had seen it, but i kinda agree, mandi moore is hotter than them, though i love madonna, if nothing else, seriously for her music. I like to qoute James Bonds que in reguards to all kinds of television and music i watch "I hope there will be Grotetesque sex and violence involved." and why not?

thank you, i will continue to train at home. I have a qustion though, is advanceing in any form during this down period a bad idea? i mean, for example, if i run into someone of martial arts experince would it hurt to learn a new technique that could be practiced? maybe even a new kata? but i will stick mainly to what i know, i do not wish to revert to mistakes of the best. However i am learning a new art through corespondence corse, my grandfather is paying for it because he is so happy that i show such an advet intrest in my heritage. By video (going both ways, i watch there videos to train by and then send them a video of what ive done, live video chats, ect.) and textbooks im learning the Martial Art of the Celtic Sword. So i havent abandoned all formal training.