DLopez

Mardi Gras in 'Nola is crazy fun! Bummer I won't be able to make it this year there, but Galveston does Mardi Gras too the week before... guess it'll have to do. Mardi Gras Galveston But once you've done the real deal in 'Nola, there's nothing quite like it! OOOOOOOOooooooooooooeeeeee!!!! I can't wait for mudbug season to start!!!

Thanks! It really wasn't that hard, but the results come out really cool!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Hope everyone was safe and had as much fun as I did! I can't link photos from a website, but I added one to the photo album. Here's my New Year's contribution: Happy New Year 2005!

You're missing the point, because your logic falls apart under this scenario: What if the "by the book" green belt is just a 13 YO kid and the mediocre black belt is a 30 YO man? Are you picking the 13 YO kid to beat the grown 30 YO man in a fight? And if true black belt earners are only those that win medals in competitions, does that mean the black belt holders that came in 4th place and on down don't deserve to be black belts? The point of this thread is that it shouldn't matter to you how hard someone else tries in class, or if you think they don't deserve the rank they're at. What matters is how hard YOU try in class, and how well YOU learn the material. If someone is an excellent student and earns their black belt at the same time another student that just puts out enough effort to get by, does that invalidate the excellent student's black belt, or mean the instructor or the school is a bad one? Of course not. Ultimately, it is up to the student to be as good as they can be. Those that choose not to be their best, simply help keep the lights on in the school so you can continue to train to be your best.

How's this for an example? A classmate of mine (who was just a yellow belt at the time) took some time off for a security job in Iraq. He and his fellow cohorts came upon some insurgents with rocket grenade launchers. They caught them by surprise, but they did struggle, and my friend employed a technique learned at the white belt level (Ki Bohn Soo #12 to be exact, for those who know what that is). For those unfamiliar with KSW techniques, basically he grabbed his opponent around the waist, and jambed his thumb into his opponent's throat in the small indent just above your breast bone (just one of MANY pressure points). He said when he did that, his opponent essentially stopped resisting and my friend was able to slam him down to the ground on his back and control him. Ya, no doubt about it, they work, even against a struggling opponent.

AngelaG, you are correct in your analysis, but I'm not sure if you can see that what you are concerned about also applies to punching and kicking as well. As you state, your opponent is going to try to block your punches and kicks, so what do you do if you miss the first time and you're too close to get another good punch or kick in? What other weapons do you have in your arsenal? I will use my punching and kicking techniques while at distance from my opponent, and if that fails and I find myself in such close proximity that I can't kick or punch effectively, I have my joint lock/throwing techniques that employ pressure point attacks. If that fails, and I find myself in a wrestling match, then I will have to rely on my grappling skills which also offer pressure point attacks. I'm not saying pressure point attacks are a better substitute for any skill you may have learned. I am merely making the point (did I just make a pun?? ) that pressure point attacks indeed work, and are very effective skills to posess that can be relied on just as much as any other skill. The only hard part about pressure point attacks is the time it takes to master them, but it's not like we're talking about an entire lifetime, although I do plan on practicing and learning them for the rest of my life.

My Christmas was great, too. Not because of the gifts I received, because they all SUCKED!! No, Christmas was great because of what it represents, plain and simple. I simply enjoy Christmas time. I ate like a total pig the entire time! (My first workout back at the dojang was a killer though!!) I'm tired of getting gift certificates. There's no surprise anymore when every Christmas you KNOW you're getting gift certificates. There's no thought put into a gift certificate, and usually not enough money in them anyway for me to get what I REALLY want.

Those are just different ways of saying the same thing. There is no difference in meaning between "fighting arts" and "martial arts".

As someone that's jumped into a fray to aid a friend before, I have only one tidbit of counsel to offer: It better be a good enough friend that you're willing to go to jail for!

That is not how we employ pressure point attacks in KSW. They are not "strikes" designed to daze or disorient (much less kill) your opponent. When we attack pressure points, it is to get a predictable reaction to the sudden intense pain as your opponent's body moves to alleviate it. Once you've had such a technique performed on you by someone that has mastered them, you become a "believer" in the effectiveness of pressure point attacks. Think about this for a sec... what is it you are trying to accomplish by punching someone? Inflict pain? Lots of it? Pressure point attacks accomplish the same thing, especially when your opponent is too close to effect a punch. Make no mistake, pressure points attacks are not a replacement for punching and kicking techniques, they are just another weapon in your arsenal. As for relying on them, if you train to make them an integral part of your training, it takes no thought to apply pressure point attacks - the same way you would rely on a punch. It does take a lot of time and practice to master such attacks, and I think that is where most people balk at learning them, because they want instant results and aren't willing to invest the time required to master pressure point attacks. I am going to rely on every technique I have mastered, whether it uses pressure point attacks or not.

Ya, that was Brandon Lee that died on the movie set. I have never seen the "dim mak" ever demonstrated, only heard of it in movies and such, so I don't know if it's real or just myth. I know pressure point attacks are very real, although in Kuk Sool, we don't use pressure points attacks to disable someone, we use them to get the person to cooperate and move in a predictable manner that the particular technique requires them to move. It's interesting though because nature is usually symetrical, and if there are documented healing benefits of accupressure and accupuncture, why is it so hard to believe there are destructive results from attacking pressure points? (Just thinking out loud here, so to speak.) Also, don't be fooled into believing that "science" has the answer to everything, and that if some procedure isn't documented in medical journals somewhere, then it's bogus. It could be real or it could be myth, but I sure ain't going to sign up for classes unless whoever's teaching can demonstrate it really works, but I don't think killing people in demonstrations makes for good advertising practices.

My face used to be very sensitive to shaving, until I hit upon a routine that's pretty much a condensed version of what monkeygirl suggests. I've found the gel doesn't make much difference except at the cash register, so I use the cheapest shaving foam, which is Barbasol Lanolin Skin Conditioning shaving foam, and I use Gillete Good News Plus (w/lubrastrip) disposable razors. Here's the key thing though,... Immediately after shaving, rinsing and drying my face, I apply a couple dabs of St. Ives Extreme Relief Intensive Healing Advanced Therapy Lotion (No lie, that's what's on the label!) on each cheek and rub it in good on all the just-shaved areas. It's unscented, so it doesn't interfere with any other scents I might want to wear. That's it. Applying a non-oil-based moisturizing lotion after shaving is all it took to get rid of my dry, razor-burned skin problems. Good luck!

DUH!! 3. Miniscule hamlet in the far east = Little Town Of Bethlehem (Far East threw me... more like 'Middle East', no? ) 10. Assemble, everyone who believes = Come All Ye Faithful 11. Hallowed post meridian = ????!!!!!!????? 15. Befell during the transparent bewitching hour = ????!!!!!!????? 3 and 10 just popped into my head when I came back to check if anyone had figured those out... but I can't figure out these last couple.

I guess I was subliminally thinking "vegetable" or something!

These are all I could get off the top of my head. I'm just an "elf-wannabe". 1. Quadruped with crimson proboscis = Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer 2. 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. without noise = Silent Night 3. Miniscule hamlet in the far east = 4. Ancient benevolent despot = Good King Wenselaus (?) 5. Adorn the vestibule = O Christmas Tree 6. Exuberance directed to the planet = Joy To The World 7. Listen, aerial spirits harmonizing = Hark The Herald Angels Sing 8. Monarchial trio = We Three Kings 9. Yonder in the haystack = Away In A Manger 10. Assemble, everyone who believes = 11. Hallowed post meridian = 12. Colorless December 25th = White Christmas 13. Tin tintinnabulums = Jingle Bells 14. A dozen 24-hour Yule periods = 12 Days Of Christmas 15. Befell during the transparent bewitching hour = 16. Homo sapien of crystallized vapor = Frosty The Snowman 17. I merely desire a pair of incisors = All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth 18. I spied my maternal parent osculating a fat man in red = I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus 19. Perambulating through a December solstice fantasy = Walking In A Winter Wonderland 20. Aloft on the acme of the abode = Up On The Rooftop