Fenris-wolf

I'm surprised no one else mentioned this - apart from "chivalry" and the like, it's pretty much a lose-lose situation for them. If they win, they bet up a girl, and if they lose, they got beaten up by a girl. It's irritating, but I can see where they're coming from. I think using the animal kingdom as a reason or to back up your arguments is pretty annoying really. What in all the hells has that got to do with you as a human being? Many animals kill their own young, I hardly think that is pertinant when related to human beings. I'm personally reasonably anti-"chivalry", and do you know why? I see it as sexism - from the woman. If a woman wants to be treated as an equal, to interact with men as a person and not be seen as less by them, why should a man be expected to then treat them as if they were made of china? It's nice to be romantic with your girlfriend or whatever, but then I like to return the favour - I do not expect special treatment and find it unpleasant even if it's along the lines of politeness as it simply reinforces my image as a woman and thus an alien creature. I do Muay Thai and the guys do not go soft on me because I'm female. And I would be severely p*ssed off if they did! There are men who have to go lighter on me because they are much bigger than me, or more skilled, but equally so there are men which I have to be careful not to hurt. Admittedly the other women in my club don't like to be hit as hard as I, but they are all very small (50-60kg) and it has nothing to do with a difference in genitalia.

I really feel for you, I couldn't imagine having something so awful happen to somebody I care about. There's nothing really I can say without sounding repeditive or hypocritical, but I hope Sami recovers well and you too.

Ooo, I have to say, really short hair feels so nice... Visually not my preference but I love running my fingers through really short hair. Mm.

I pretty much agree with most of the replies here... Maybe you are more intelligent than the teacher, but chances are they're more knowledgable. The fact is, you're going to get some abysmal teachers, it happens. If you're really bothered with it, try and get to know them. If you really want to milk them of knowledge, you want to get to know how they work. Teacher's are people too, they make mistakes. Try talking to them privately. If that doesn't work, just carry on with what you're doing. The information is all out there, you just need to work a bit harder to get there.

Not bad indeed, sounds pretty cool actually

Piano 12-ish years. Kinda dormant at the moment with no piano I sing as well, but have been pretty slack over the last few years. Would love to pick up piano again at some point but not really practical right now. More seriously considering guitar. Would be fun to pick something else up.

My sign is the Ox, my element Wood. What does wood signify, by the way? Interesting, my western star sign is Pisces, that really doesn't go with Ox - Pisces being airy-fairy and emotional (grr), Ox being steadfast and determined. I like Ox better! Of course, Tiger would be more fun...

Yay! My cup runneth over That doesn't mean that you should hold back if anyone else wants a say, keep 'em coming.

Ooo, you are so right

Nothing too deep here - I was signing up to one of the many popular free webmail servers (I don't think it was hotmail) and as usual everything I could think of was taken. So I looked up gods/demons/mythology to find something relatively obscure that sounds good and I found Fenris-wolf (from Norse mythology): Loki himself is half giant, and has three children by a giantess. The first is the Fenris-wolf, who at the end of the world will consume Odin. The second is the Midgard serpent, and the third is the mistress of death, Hel, who feasts on hunger and thrives on sickness. And it stuck - whenever I need to think of a username quickly I choose that. *shrug*

Wow, that's exactly what happened with my last bf pretty much! Haha, and I'm 19 too!

Hiya people, I'm having a wee problem here - my music collection is stagnating! That is to say, I've listened to everything I own a million times and I'm getting sick of it. I was brought up in a household that was really strongly into music - my father (who died when I was less than a year but still influenced me) was a punk musician, my mother met him through love of music, my step-father spent all his pay on vinyl and a good stereo, followed by sexy CD players in every room of the house and all the cars later on when we actually had some money. I have pretty eclectic taste - Nina Hagen, Bjork, Nigel Kennedy, The Rolling Stones, Basement Jaxx, St Germain, Missy Elliot, Britney Spears (only the ultra ultra sl*tty stuff, I don't do half measures or soppy crap ), Frank Sinatra, Chemical Brothers... You get the idea. So what I'm asking ya'll is can you please recommend me something new? The artists/albums you love and could rave on about for hours, the singles that made you feel something, the rave CD that you danced to for 12 hours... I'm open to anything. I'd be eternally grateful.

I know this is silly... But I noticed you used speed in your equations. I thought perhaps while we were being particularly picky we should make the distinction between speed and velocity? Speed being a scalar quantity: "a quantity which is fully described by a magnitude alone" whereas velocity is a vector quantity: "a quantity which is fully described by both a magnitude and a direction" So baisically, speed is only equal to velocity when travelling in a straight line. My point really being that most physical equations use velocity, not speed, and in terms of v=d/t for speed you'd need to be specific about the direction of the distance... OK, you get the idea. Maybe.

What about live and wriggling?

Well, Bart the Lover, (nice name BTW ), you pretty much made all my points! I fully agree. About the only difference I think it can make is that generally men are bigger than women so even if the woman is physically capable it is very easy for a man to use physical intimidation, even without hitting her. I for one could not hit anybody I cared about unless in a very extreme situation (I'm female) and realistically to win a fight with my partner I'd have to use dirty tactics. But that is not to say in any way that a man abusing a woman is in anyway worse than a woman abusing a man, or a man a man for that matter.

Where did that come from?? How are you going to get better if that's what you believe? Now, as to the question... this is hard! There are way too many perspectives on the question. But I'd give myself a 4 - 4.5. Of course, I think some of the people who put a 3.5 are possibly better than me, but by my estimation I'd say 4.5. In terms of overall effectiveness (I'm not even going to go into other aspects of MA) I can handle myself but I have a loooong way to go. In a year - if I keep training I'd like to think I could get up to a 6. In 5 years - I think about a 7. Because while I've learned quickly, I'm very capable, you hit certain plateaus and I think beyond the next couple of years it's going to be fine tuning.

Well, I got dragged by the daughter of a family friend when I was about 10 - I stayed, she didn't. But I really think playfighting with my father influenced me a lot. I dunno if I would have been so into sparring otherwise... But I'm happy the way it is.

Yes... Hope springs eternal.

Hmm. About all I can do is reassure you - I have lots of dreams about MA in general, and while my boy was training really hard apparently he dreamed about fighting/training every night! So you're not the craziest.... Maybe

Tee hee, a little behind here, but you know what's really fun? Feeding unsuspecting Canadians (or Americans etc etc) Martmite! He'd seen me eating it (mmm) and like most uninformed people presumed it was chocolate-y or something. Ahh, the look of utter horror when he ate it! Hm. I've eaten a huhu grub (NZ grub, looks sort of like a huge maggot, eat them bbq'd, everyone says they taste like peanut butter). Mine was all cold and greasy but not too bad. But the grossest thing I've ever eaten was a banana... skin and stalk included! For the entertainment of my friends (fools offered me money, mwah haha), involved a lot of gagging but I got it down! Also, sort of off topic but has anyone here ever felt that a particular animal looks "yummy"?? My bf thinks that giraffes look tasty, he had some in Africa and apparently they are... And while I think snakes are really cool while alive I think roast snake sounds yummy. I dunno, maybe I'm crazy!

Gah! I knew I should have specified... Lucias. As in, Draco's father. (dying in shame here )

Wow, it's amazing how literal-minded a lot of people here are...

Well, I refused to read it for a long time but when I was finally bullied into it I loved them. Sure, they may not be deserving of all the praise they got... But what it?? And it is great that it's encouraging kids to read decent length books. (Yes, I read a lot, yes, it's personal taste.) Not so fond of the movies, but it's hard to like a movie after the film, particularly if it's aimed at children. Again, personal taste. *shrug* But I do think Lucius was very sexy (in the movie)... mmm... am I sick?

Why wouldn't you know? Well, Mart, you're English... A lot of people here are American and their lack of international geography is an object of amusement for a lot of us "less important" countries. Not that I'm hassling anybody, my international geography sucks!!

OMG, you poor people! My body may be breaking down around me (at the advanced age of 19 ) but at least I can breathe through my nose! Yup, breathing evenly I guess is the main thing and most people do recommend in through the nose out through the mouth. We are also told to breath out every time we do a technique (or receive one), which seems to work for me - and it helps a lot with body shots.