Kieran-Lilith

We had a motivational speaker at school this week. He told us: Boys are jerks and girls are crazy. I disagree that all of you boys are jerks, though quite a few are. That second part, though, is very true. We girls are not always the most rational bunch. A lot of them are only intent upon winning whatever game they play with guys, and they don't care who they hurt or how to get there. You know, I'm a girl, too, but even I can't figure out how a girl's brain works. I'm one of the guys....which means I'll never get a guy, either. Just be grateful you've stayed out of the harems for a little while longer.

Our sensei actually says our blue belts are the equivalent of black belts in a lot of schools, and I believe him on that. I also thought it used to be a requirement by Mr. Adams to have a brown belt in Judo to test for black in Eugue Ryu. This is interesting, I'll have to ask my sensei what he knows.

SamuraiDave- Oh, yeah, I know both of them. Sensei Jones was just teaching us a jujutsu-aikido thing with the wrist last night. The last time I saw Sensei Faulder was in the summer, I think. Maybe August or September at latest. Blind Dragon- That's definitely interesting...How do you get promoted to shodan at 15? After only 3 years? I thought in Eugue Ryu the rule was must be age 18, and must have trained for 5 years?

I can relate to this topic really well myself. I love training. I love my school and my art. I think about it a lot, I seek out books about it, I read about the culture that developed it, the philosophies it stems from and uses, I immerse myself in it as much as possible. I make constant references and comparisons in my mind. For my Algebra II project with conic sections (we draw a picture using conic sections), I drew two people from my dojo sparring. For my Geometry Exam last year, I examined the geometric properties of kata and stances. I've written papers about martial arts for English, I study the physiology part of my biology text book (on my own time) to look at how the body works. I'm a 16 year old sophomore in high school, and I do this stuff. My friends...disliked my constant relating to a topic they never have understood and never will understand. One of them used to be a martial artist, and she said she never wanted to hear another word about karate pass my lips again. My friends have a lot of trouble relating to me, and I to them. Of course, we're fundamentally different people. Most people wonder how we became friends in the first place, we're so different. For a while after they told me they never wanted to hear about it again (right after my belt test, too-that sucked), I really was wondering if there was something wrong with me. If there was something that was really not right about doing the things I did. I wondered if they were really right, and I was obsessive. I love martial arts with a passion, and I got lucky because I had an experience shortly after that that assured me I'm really not that weird. After a seminar at my dojo, all of us went out to eat. In that hour and a half or so, there were discussions of techniques, weaponary, martial art movies. There were inside dojo jokes, where people would joke about giving push-ups. Martial arts got compared to ballet. I got to realize that I really wasn't weird-or if I was, so were all of them, so I fit right in. We all love the arts with a passion. We're not weird, we're just a different kind of normal-the dojo breed normal.

I still would have gone to the first school I was at, I think. I would have kept up practicing, though, and really gotten on my parents about helping me find a school. I would have inquired sooner with my friend about the school I go to now. I knew about it, but I didn't really go for about 6 months after finding out about it. I would definitely want the style I'm in now, though, and I would definitely want to keep Sensei. Sensei rocks.

It would certainly be easier to study for tests if you knew exactly what you needed to know. My green belt test, Sensei was reading off the names of people on the list at the end of January so the February testers knew, and he mentioned that he expected a green belt to know the whole packet. I got lucky. Even with that, I had to know stuff that was definitely not in the packet. Sensei normally has about 20-30 kids in the kid's class every month now. When I joined, there were only 15 kids, if that. Maybe less than ten some nights. I only have one notebook at the moment. When I first joined the adult class, it took me a while to realize that I needed a notebook. I was the first of my friends to get one, and I use it more than they ever do/did. Blaise usually borrows paper and a pen from me, and Atalanta071 used to have her own notebook. She quit at the end of February. She picked the night before my green belt test to tell me this, among other thigns. As if I hadn't been stressed enough... I do have a blog I use for recording the night's classes, and I can PM that to you if you'd like. I leave some things out. I got warned once about what I write on this forum, I don't need trouble for writing in a blog.

I haven't read all of these, only about half, so please forgive me any repeats. "I'd love to have a 'battle of wits' with you...but you appear unarmed. "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be liked for what you are not." "If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer." "I bow to no one, and I fight for a cause." "Have the fearless attitude of a hero, and the loving heart of a child." "Always forgive your enemies-nothing annoys them so much." "The basis of optimism is sheer terror." "When you're right, no one remembers. When you're wrong, no one forgets." "Cheer up. The worst is yet to come!" "Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film." "Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm." "When a man's fight begins within himself, he is worth something." "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become." "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him keep step to music which he hears, however measured or far away." "Ask yourself constantly, 'What is the right thing to do?'" "If, when you look into your own heart, you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about, what is there to fear?" "Our minds have unbelievable power over our bodies." "To struggle when hope is banished!/To live when life's salf is gone!/To dwell in a dream that's vanished-/To endure, and go calmly on!" "Never forget what they did to you, but never let them know that you remember."

So, you are moving for sure? Where to? Sensei's tests do seem to change sometimes, but my opinion's a bit off, I think. My first test was when I was in the kid's class, my second test was when I was in the adult class, but it was really rushed because I had a choir performance that night, then the last two have been in the adult class. They line up pretty well to Blaise's, though. He's a purple belt, one of my best friends. Do you have a blog that you use like an online MA journal?

Yeah, Sensei still has kata and sparring nights on the last Tuesday and Thursday...hey! Kata night's on Tuesday! With the kid's class I suspect it's going to be very hard for the kids. Their katas got messy, and we all know how Sensei feels about that. In the adult class I'm not sure if we'll do kata, though. We've been working on a lot of aikido techniques in there. Something that might interest you- We've been told that Black Belt Magazine is getting rid of all their VHS, and it's one video for $5. Thanks for all the information about the Senseis. I hadn't even known how many there are, and I'm not too sure who some of those you mentioned are. I do know your brother and Sensei Jones, I met Sensei Young once, Sensei Barnett sounds familiar, but I'm not putting a name with a face. And thanks, I treasure the green belt (and wish it would break in faster, it's really stiff) and I'm having fun driving....I almost drove off the road on Thursday, but that's only the second time I've done that. So I think I'm doing fairly well. I'm guessing your brother mentioned my birthday, because I'm pretty sure I didn't. Thanks, though. Sweet sixteen...

Thanks, and I slept like the dead....and wished I was dead upon waking up to serious soreness.

Okay, I'm back to the forums, finally. Yes, I passed. I can't believe I passed...It was hard and cruel and painful...and it was probably the best night of my life. SamuraiDave- It's nice to meet you. It ususally seems like there's so few of us Eugue Ryu people out there...but there are more than there were. I didn't even know we had that many schools. I'm not sure about the one in Delphos, there's a Sensei who I think was in that school and his sister, but they don't come to our school very much anymore. For a while, they came all the time. Yes, I've met Sensei Smith. We met at the all day workshop in August, and he's been up at our dojo since then. Hey, when you come in June, are you going to visit us? Eugue_Ryu_Stylist- I've been to your school's site, and it's really interesting. It's a lot more extensive than my sensei's site is. Do either of you have blogs that you use to journal what goes on during your classes, just for future reference and for sharing with other MAs?

I don't do TKD...but I still do about 12 of those. I used to do TKD, years and years ago, but now I'm in karate.

A while back I made a thread that informed everybody we were to test. Atalanta071 did not test, and has informed me she's leaving the arts, which I find really sad. On the other hand, I did test. And I passed! HALLELUJAH! I ended up fighting 17 people, all in the adult class, in the space of about an hour. I felt like I was going to fall over, but I did it!!!!

Hmmm...serious fears....betrayal, bad things happening that I can't stop and can't run from, choices going bad. Not so serious fears....the opposite gender (I'm hopelessly shy, it seems), failure, nightmares, and myself, if that makes any sense.

I, like many, seem to be influenced by the media. I've always been interested...but when I was younger I was just too lazy to get out and start. I "play-fought" with the boys on the street, but even earlier than that I was obsessed with Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and Mortal Combat...so says my parents about a six year old me. Then I found out my dad used to be a brown belt in TKD, and I idolized my father (Daddy's Girl)....and, even though I didn't join then, I did join. I've been at my school for a year and a half, testing for my next belt next month.

Hello. I'm an Eugue Ryu student under Sensei Shane Topp. I'll be testing for green next month.

Well, Atalanta071 and I are both up for testing, at the same time, again. In February, she will test for 6th kyu, blue belt, and I'll test for 5th kyu, green belt. She has the easier part, if you ask me. She has to know three-four kata, terms, and techniques. I have to know four-five kata, terms, techniques...and I have to fight everybody in the class for an hour and a half, if I'm not mistaken. And nobody will tell me what it's like. Oh well. Hey, does anyone else have to fight for a kyu test? If so, what kyu?

I am a 15 year old girl, to be 16 in March, with four months left to wait before I get to have my driver's LICENSE. At the moment, I feel like I'm really ahead of the game.

I do that and a few other "versions" of that. Not as much though, since I've started driving and can't risk hitting a tree. The other versions being pretending that there's a person running along side the car who jumps either from tree to tree or something like that, but never touches the ground. The other version is imagining a blade leaving a rut next to where the car has travelled, but always jumping over streets. I also have the mirror thing and the shower thing, and I can disassociate myself on a daily basis as well. But I actually make an effort to do that so I can see myself how others do.

You sleep with the obi/sash you earn the night of earning it.

At the high risk of sounding like an idiot...what is the Karate Underground? Is it like KF, here? And yes, it does sound like a school field trip. Just like my sixth grade one, in fact, in which I knew nobody.

I'm a sophmore, I got mine last year from Jostens. I have a white gold ring with an aquamarine stone. Around the stone is my school's name. One side has my name, and then has a girl who appears to be sparring on it, the other side has my graduation year (2008) and my school mascot.

Okay, scratch what I said earlier in the year. Nowadays, I have anywhere from one to two hours, depending on how awake I am when I'm doing my homework. But I at least do all my homework, better than I can say for most my classmates...

Well, my own life has turned into a soap opera again...hate it when that happens.... To those non-Americans who do not understand our terms: Freshman (Frosh, Freshies): Student in first year of high school Sophomore (Sophs): Student in second year of high school Junior: Student in year three of HS Senior: Student in fourth, and last (hopefully) year of HS. Homecoming: Fall Dance, really big and important that one goes or one is labelled a geek for all eternity and times to come. Ummm....there's a football game, and they have a whole HC court and King and Queen, and the Queen has her attendants... Prom: Kind of like HC, but only for Juniors and Seniors and it's even more important. And the dresses are frilly-er and poofy-er. HC dresses are...tighter, show off more, usually. At least, around here that's how it is. After-Prom: Events that last all night after the dance to keep as many kids from going out and getting drunk as possible.

I think a better question is: Where haven't I bowed? Hmm.... I've avoided bowing at the bathroom. But...for the most part, I seem to have gotten the principle of "When in doubt, bow" ingrained into my head fairly well.