monkeygirl

Oh I miss that show. I haven't seen it in forever. "The Girl with the Golden Boots" was a pretty funny one. Sometimes I just wonder what was going through these movie exec's heads when they made these things in the first place...

I've been playing the guitar for about 6 years now, and I play a little piano. I've actually been playing piano since I was three or so, but I didn't really have lessons, and guitar became my main instrument. Now I can play chopsticks

I move in to my dorm on Wednesday for orientation! I'm pretty excited...I think high school will have prepared me pretty well for college, so I'm not TOO worried. I've already met my roommate and she seems pretty cool. Plus I've met a bunch of other people that I'll see on a nearly daily basis (the Ultimate Frisbee team). I'm not quite ready...still have some more packing to do. But I think I finally finished shopping yesterday. I even had a lot of things already because I lived in a dorm for my senior year of high school...but there's so much more for college!

Ditto, MasterH. The phrase "taking it easy" can actually be misleading...there's actually a bit of a fine art to "taking it easy" on a sparring partner. For so much of our training we have been the lower ranked students, "entitling" us (or so we think) to fight with everything we have, in accordance with the dojo's rules of course. However, there comes eventually a time when you have to step back and lower the level. Whether it's because you're fighting a lower rank, or a very young person, or someone who is obviously tired. It's irresponsible and immoral to take advantage of their weakened state embarrass/injure them. Usually you are in this position because you are the higher rank. Simply giving your opponent a shameless beating helps nobody's training: they learn nothing by being pounded ruthlessly, and you learn nothing from an easy fight. On the other hand, if you just stand there and pace/"let them beat you", you're not only embarrassing them, neither of you learns anything. In a practice situation, you must always fight at the weaker (whether physically or in lower rank/skill) opponent's level. Generally, instructors have the right to raise the level of the fight a notch or two when they see fit, and this is usually during testing, or to challenge a worthy student to push themselves harder. Like I said, it's a bit of a fine art. Still, what that guy did sounds pretty cheap. It may have been an accident, albeit a reckless one. Sometimes when people are tired they end up throwing sloppy technique with ill-placed power behind it. As a matter of fact, that's how my right orbital was fractured over three years ago (can't believe it's been that long!). Anyway, you should have a nice calm talk to your Sensei and express your concern about the situation. If the guy truly is looking for a cheap k.o. (for whatever reason), he could be a danger to the other students as well. good luck

Waxing/Nair/Veet/other products are probably preferable to shaving, as they allegedly keep the hair from growing back as quickly. Personally I've never used any of those products, so I can't really recommend them other than as an idea.

battousai: are you playing nylon strings or steel? Nylon are much softer on the fingertips for beginners who haven't developed the callouses yet, and are good for training your fingers to make the shapes of the chords. From there, you can move to steel strings, which will make your fingers stronger. Unfortunately, that means having two guitars, which can be a pricey prospect. As for myself, I play a steel string acoustic that I've had for two years. Before that I was playing a little dinky nylon child's beginner guitar for four years. So I've been playing for six years, but I only had lessons for two of those, so I"m not that great. Mostly I write my own stuff because I'm also a lyricist and I like to sing, and it's sort of like therapy They're ballads, I don't really know how to describe the genre per se. It's sort of fok/alternative/emo...just kind of out there. However, I also dabble in a bit of classical (which is a nightmare on steel strings), some etudes and such. My biggest challenge is being a small person, complete with tiny hands. I worked at a summer camp last year and had plenty of subjects for comparison, and indeed I have the hands of an 8-year-old. So bar chords and anything that spans more than three frets (lengthwise) is not a happy situation for me. But I'm working on it.

I moved this to the Health, Training and Fitness forum.

Well, I agree with Kaminari here. Without any idea of who the characters are, their motivations, or where the book is going, any beginning ideas we can give you will be contrived and formulaic. You don't necessarily start planning a book from the beginning. Perhaps you just have one idea for a scene that you want to include, and the story could just build around that. Try some freewriting about the characters you have in mind. Just putting pencil to paper and writing--without thinking about whether or not it's good, just writing--can advance your progress in leaps and bounds. Hopefully you'll find that once the pencil gets going (and yes, I recommend pencil over keyboard), it's easy to keep going.

Yeah, I was a little surprised at that.

Did any other high schoolers take the AP Exams this spring? I just got my scores in the mail yesterday, so I figured everyone else probably did, too. That is, if you didn't surrender to the impatience (like I almost did) and pay $8 to hear the scores over the phone. Which, by the way, you could do as of July 1st. I'll never understand what takes so long to print and mail the incredibly simple result sheets they send. I took the English Lit and AB Calculus (single variable) exams, and got 5's in each, so I'm psyched. My college will give me credit and higher course placement. That's really helpful because I want to major in Economics, which takes a lot of math. I was really surprised about my English score, because I thought my essays had been terrible. I mean, I'm pretty good with on-the-spot essays, but the topics were ridiculous. I thought I would have been lucky to scrape a 3, but I guess not! So anyway, how did everyone else do? Any other interesting college/exam news?

I'm a big fan of the series, got it Saturday, finished it Sunday. I like how she's developing the characters and also her writing style at the same time. It's a very interesting process to observe from a "literary" sort of standpoint. And the books are just plain great Honestly, I feel that that "skeleton" gives the book some familiarity. It's a form that is part of her style, and is almost necessary considering that the main characters are in school, so everything follows the cyclical nature of the school year. Very interesting plot developments, I thought. I'm waiting for my mom to finish it so I can discuss all of my theories with her By-the-by, the new movie looks pretty cool. I'm interested to see how the new director turns out. I liked the last one as an improvement over that Chris Columbus guy, but we'll see.

I moved this to the Getting Started in the Martial Arts forum, because that's usually a very helpful place in finding a dojo/school.

I'd like to remind everyone at this point to remain respectful of all opinions, ideas, and of course, all other people. With that said, I'd like to congratulate Muaythaiboxer on this theory. Regardless of whether or not anyone has ever thought of it before, and whether or not it is 100% effective, you are thinking. I really think that when a martial artist stops becoming a robot of kata and memorized sparring combinations, and begins theorizing and really examining the way things work, is an important distinction. Sharing these thoughts takes a bit of courage. Anyway, I'm not trying to talk to muaythaiboxer with the assumption that he hasn't been training long, because that's something I honestly don't know about. I just meant to encourage others to follow his example...thinking, postulating, and sharing; opening up for critiques. Anyway, back to the theory. If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to begin with the most powerful technique, and go down your repertoire of techniques, ending with the least effective one. Here's my question: What about the idea that you may need to "set up" your most powerful technique? For example, you may want to "soften up" an opponent with a few well-placed elbows before putting them in a joint lock. Does your theory consider such a "setup" to be part of the same technique it's setting up, so that it's essentially one technique, or should one's most powerful (and therefore, first used) technique be something that doesn't need a setup? Well, that's kind of a loaded question, it's not meant to be multiple choice. I just wondered how your theory handles this.

I think a lot of style bashing comes down to ignorance and arrogance. A lot of people (in all aspects of life) like to shoot their mouths off about something they don't understand, so they can sound intelligent and superior. All the while they're hoping noone within earshot is a better authority on the subject. Who knows who they're trying to impress, but that's what they do. I guess my point is that if you know your style doesn't fit the mold they're trying to shove you into, be the bigger person and humbly walk away. Your time is much better spent on people who respect you, than convincing someone who already has their mind made up.

Have I posted on here before? Can't remember. BAH I'll go ahead anyway. I look at it this way: There are great MA guys, and there are terrible MA guys. Since I'm a martial artist, it's cool to have something so important to me in common with someone I could care about. But if the guy is a jerk, I'm not gonna care. As for the receiving end.. When I was in training, I was one of two teenage girls in a dojo full of teenage boys, so I got lots of attention. Then I left the dojo and went to a private school. Thanks to a proud mother, people were kind of aware that I am a black belt. I don't know what effect that had, but let's just say I never had a boyfriend during those two years.

Good luck! The first tournament is always a "testing the waters" experience. Of course, you want to win, but no amount of training in the dojang can quite prepare you for the exact feeling of being in a tournament. I was a very successful tournament competitor, but I got nervous every single time. I think the best attitude you can have is to not assume anything. Be confident, but (personally) I find that to go in thinking "I got this no problem" can make you overconfident, and you might not do your best. I always tried to keep a warrior spirit and do my best. The "warrior spirit" for me was basically me becoming a completely different person for awhile: nervous yet confident, unsure of what to expect yet feeling strong. I liked to be alone for a little while and stretch out, trying to meditate a bit and get calm. Then as the event got closer I "pumped up" and did a little shadow boxing. All the while I was nervous, kind of a buzzing feeling. I could never eat breakfast before tournaments (or morning tests for that matter). Anyway I'm kind of rambling. Maybe you can find something useful in that mess. Anyway, good luck and remember this is as much a learning experience as a competition! Every tournament is a chance to learn in some way or another. You test the quality of your own skills (after all, if you never leave your dojang, for all you know you're just a big fish in a little pond...if that's important to you). You can pick up new techniques from other competitors. You improve on the tournament experience for next time. You also learn a lot about yourself. Tournaments are about so much more than trophies. If you win, great, but if not...don't let it crush you. The greatest victory is over yourself, when you decide to never give up. Argh, rambling again. Good luck again and let us know how it goes!

Strength plays a part in fighting, but so do many other aspects: speed (if they can see the punch coming an hour ahead of time, what's the point?) technique (a strong, yet sloppy punch will be easy to detect and probably misplaced) application (hitting the most effective spots) strategy (outsmarting your opponent, adapting to their fighting style and learning how to beat them) While I don'ts study a Chinese art, these are general principles of fighting, I believe. While strength is important, the stronger fighter does not always win. A smaller, weaker opponent can come out on top if they are smart and skilled. There are also many self-defense techniques that require not very much force, such as joint locks, pressure points, etc... although I would definitely recommend still getting in a blow or two to keep from getting punched yourself while you're trying to subdue the opponent. As I said, I don't study Chinese MA, so I may not be 100% in accordance with principles of those arts, but I think my points are fairly universal.

I'll move this to the Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts forum

I'll move this to the Health, Training & Fitness forum.

Yahoo! and other services often have briefcase capabilities so you can upload files and access them from other places. You should be able to get a link that way.

Has anyone ever heard of this place? In Gettysburg, PA. I think they do Isshinryu. I'll probably get an intro lesson in a few weeks here, but I was wondering if any of you knew anything about the place. I spoke with one of their instructors but didn't get much information, other than learning that they don't do head contact. Also, I don't know much about Isshinryu. I have sort of a Tae Kwon Do background (not very traditional) ...how does it compare? Like what are the forms like, what are tournaments like, etc. Thanks!

Ooh, ooh time for a Batman Begins quote! "Why do we fall down? So that we can learn how to pick ourselves up." Eventually you'll start to like pushups as they become a little easier and you see improvement in yourself--noted or not by your instructor. After a while you begin to really love that familiar burn after a nice set of pushups. You yearn for more kinds of pushups...on chairs, triceps, chinese, handstand, etc.

Ack! Coldplay is one of my favorite bands... I like such a wide range of music, though. From Bread and Steely Dan to Metallica and Coldplay...and everything in between!

There was an animated movie? I just remember the series on Fox.

Welcome to the forums! There aren't many 16-year-old girls who enjoy learning ancient alphabets...that's pretty impressive! Which one(s) are you learning now?