omnifinite

I wonder how many desperate starving people in war-torn countries could be given a better life with the money someone spends on the nose Cosmo tells them they're supposed to have or the pecs they won't bother to build themselves. We already consume 4-6 times our fair share of global resources as it is. Part of the reason America is hated by so many in the world. Something for people to think about when they look in the mirror I guess.

Most modern martial arts are too watered down to ever be considered "complete". I wonder if they were more well-rounded in the days of yore.

I don't think anyone in Aikido is known to "boil" . Every ounce of aggression they allow into their bodies they pay for in the dojo. I think his issue was that you appeared to be judging the content of his post by its packaging rather than, well, the content. Oh well... back to the topic. We should probably be glad (Gracies and whoever else included) that in this day and age the loss of a fight usually doesn't mean you're maimed or dead. I wonder what the developers of these arts would think about the use of a "referee".

Sensei maybe? Hopefully I'd be able to continue for that long at least.

When someone comes to you with something to prove, I wonder if saying, "My uncle is a lawyer... touch me and we'll sue the !@#$! out of you," would be an effective deterrent. That might suck all the ancient warrior romance right out of the conflict for him . Think a blast of 21st century banality can do the trick?

Well I lasted 7 seconds.

When did we stop being individuals?

The human mouth is a dirty place. If you cut yourself by hitting someone else's teeth you can get a nasty infection. They loose a tooth... you might lose your hand from gangrene. Ick. Not much of a tradeoff there.

Wow... he should really not be messing with stomach 9 like that. Let's hope the people he's doing demos on don't have heart attacks or strokes later in life. As for reference... this is a great site on pressure point locations. http://www.acuxo.com/

I read that the effects took so much planning and coordination and time and money that other movies simply won't be capable of copying them, and we won't see effects like them in big budget movies any time in the near future (if ever, they say, but that's pushing it). Sounds like we'll be very impressed.

BFA in Interactive Design. Doing web design now.

It seems that public school is slowly removing all traces of real life from their environment in order to keep the "peace" and cover their asses from lawsuit-happy parents (who are just as much to blame). In the end I think this sort of thing leaves the student pampered and sheltered and ill-prepared for the real world. Of course towards the end they have the nerve to turn around and tell you that colleges value people who stand out as individuals... something they've spent the past few years discouraging you from. I was so glad to be out of that place .

Ween yourself off of Microsoft products. Best tip I can think of.

My amazon wish list grows longer every day.

Maybe because boxing is supposed to be a sport. I don't know the rules of boxing, but it's completely understood and accepted that it has them. That means you can show a big fight on TV or PPV and for the most part people will go, "Hey, that was a pretty good fight." If someone bites an ear off or something they say, "Hey, he can't do that. He cheated." That doesn't happen with martial arts, because they were made for combat. People watch a competition and go, "Yeah, let's see them use that in real life... he should be dead by now." Or whatever else we say all the time in these forums about sport arts. There's controversy that keeps many people from taking martial arts competitions seriously. I'd rather not watch martial arts decay into sport arts of course, but I don't think there's anything wrong with having sport arts here and there. Maybe sport arts need an entirely different name separating them from their combat roots to make them more definable and broadcast-friendly. We can't have real martial arts competitions on TV... someone ends up maimed or dead.

If someone has their gall bladder removed, does it influence the effectiveness of the gall bladder meridian?

It's really good to see that everyone has voted 'No' so far. Yick.

Napoleonic complex .

Equality means being invisible. It means you're a dime a dozen and have to deal with all the crap society throws at you on your own without having anyone to swoop in and rescue you. It means you aren't exempt from anything... the good and the bad. It means you have to struggle to be noticed and heard just like everyone else. It's a pretty bleak existence really, but you just have to deal with it. Some people who are part of the groups that haven't been equal in the past aren't ready to lose their specialness yet. They don't want to be invisible. And when they've lost that specialness they no longer have the privilage of holding things over other people's heads. They'd rather have things both ways. I'm just giving general examples... not talking about anyone on this board. Putting ourselves in categories just fuels the tension between us. If you need to talk about how menstruation affects your training (and any other issue that comes to mind), go for it. I'll read it. Some ignorant male might actually have come across a suggestion for you in his travels. We're all human beings with insight and brains here, when will that be enough?

Scary... I have a feeling that teaching chi and meditation and breathing and philosophy will produce much better human beings than the ones being produced in the churches of the preachers who wrote those articles.

Does it matter?

Now the question is, is "growth" a measurement requiring the perceptions/ideas of others? Being entirely free of external standards, wouldn't you simply be "different" than you were the day before? What's the use of "better" or "worse" in a vacuum? Someone losing their mind might decide that ending some random person's life would be a step towards personal "growth". He might feel very accomplished, but the outside world would consider him dangerous and deranged... a conclusion he might be better off listening to for his sake. The external can probably be a useful tool (hence its existence at all), but it should be used very very carefully.

If it feels better there's probably a reason for it. With our punches the fists are at 45 degrees. The mechanics of the arm can allow for more effective strikes that way. I don't know if they're more or less effective than vertical punches... but I would think more (in a way it might be a compromise between the two... best of both worlds). From what I've been told, in the past in the orient the kids learning Karate as part of their schooling were taught to punch with a horizontal fist just so it would be less likely that they'd seriously hurt each other. Plus at 45 degrees you can hit gall bladder 24 and liver 14 just right at the same time .

Some sort of hardcore Okinawan Kempo system would probably be good for breaking people quickly (and using pressure points all over the place in the process)... but I'm biased .

I believe the translation of 'shodan' is something akin to "first man". In the past in the orient the awarding of a black belt was a passage into "adulthood" in a way. Not necessarily in regards to age (usually at least 16 or so) but maturity and understanding and responsibility as well. It was the beginning of your training in that you were finally ready to learn the serious stuff... the "real" stuff... having reached a level where basics and form and control and understanding of concepts are no longer your primary obstacles. So I guess that could explain why we're so wary of 8 year old (let alone 5 year old) black belts. We can't see how they could be at that level. Using this measuring stick, they probably aren't.