I remember that same night, before the incident, there was a white guy who was asking where the restroom was. He seemed a little drunk. I told him that it was likely in the theatre. The black thief also talked to him, apparently letting him know where the bathroom was. I would not have suspect him of any malevolent intent. I guess he had done ( Read more... )

At the Aikido of San Leandro, there was an article posted on the window with a picture of a 12-year-old boy named Paul Leonardi. I wondered how old this newspaper clipping was, and I had no way to tell because the date was clipped off. I decided to look online for anyone who was named Paul Leonardi and aikido. I discovered he is teaching at ( Read more... )

Sunday: set off for Portland, ate at Williams deli with a sandwich because restaurant had no seat available, stopped at Albany for the night, ate at Y
Monday: set off for Seattle, stayed two nights, observation deck of space needle, went to pike place market, Mt. Rainier, almost no AT&T service, Chinatown, saw hospital where I was likely born and ( Read more... )

Of the several things that interest me about aikido, there is one in the form of a question: Does aikido work? Will a martial art that host no tournaments and no punching or kicking teach you anything about protecting yourself?
When I first learned it, I did indeed feel like it was was unrealistic. The uke (performing the attack) strikes against ( Read more... )

From the NY Times is an article about that infamous military bowl of spaghetti to show how complicated the Afghan strategy was. It is apparently a PowerPoint presentation, the chart is no different from bullet points, no different from an old-school posterboard.

What I have envisioned while reading this article was that the PowerPoint/Keynote ( Read more... )

Yesterday, I went to aikido after a week of not going, and I had such a fun time there. I'm afraid that my schedule has changed that I will not be able to go on Monday and Wednesday as usual, and instead go on Tuesday and Thursday, both of which are for people of mixed level, meaning I don't get a beginner's instruction.

I wasn't able to go last ( Read more... )

I didn't encounter yonkyo before, until last week. It was a matter of using your bone to cause pain on the wrist. The foot is placed at the armpit because a major artery exists there. If you put pressure on it, it would decrease blood flow to the arm and pinch the nerve, and as a result, increase blood pressure on the rest of the body. The ( Read more... )

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I accidentally hurt LW today, during the first class. We were doing shomenuchi ikkyo (first technique). I was slow but deliberate at first, and she was rough and fast with me. We usually do the kata four times, two on each side, and switch ukemi.

When it was time to switch side, with her being the uke, I grazed her funny bone and got her feeling a ( Read more... )

I practiced, and our sensei was there. He taught the second class, but only for thirty minutes. He wanted to devote the rest of the time to having the four recently-promoted godan (fifth-level black belt) aikidoka perform all varieties of kata techniques. He had apparently asked them to come, and all four of them were there. They were later given a ( Read more... )