Something intersteing

Not in a good way though.

So there is a kid in the kid's class. He kind of reminds me of me at his age and rank. His own ego and disruptive attitude get in the way of being a good student.

When he started, he managed to hurt himself and kept sitting on the side of the class while everyone else was doing their forms. I think he's been faking more than not, but meh.

The other day, he was kiaping on all his motions in the forms "so he'd have more power". Then wanted to argue with the person working as his instructor.

Last week he was complaining about being sore, and gold bricking it. And yes he was gold bricking. Being sore when he didn't want to do the work, but jumping right back in when it was something interesting.

Today, he was fing up again, and getting personal attention from the same person. The Head Master put a stop to it, and said we don't have time to work 1 on 1 with students.

The other 2nd gup (second rank red belt) was teaching class. He'll make people hold their motions. Our rank, we have to teach. that's part of the requirement. I'm pretty good (or so the parents tell me, but I run my own Self Defense school on the side too, so that counts for my teaching as well), but he needs the practice. Anyway T was making them hold the motions too long. And half the kids were lost on the forms. So I fell in at the back to be a model to base they're moves off of. Had a 7th gup (orange belt) take the front. T and B (4th gup, 3rd green belt), would go around adjusting people.

People, including the problem child, were moving around. So I made everyone do Push Ups. 15. Hold the last one in the down position for a 10 count in Korean. about 10 seconds. B got excited (he loves push ups, and knows I require nice numbers). We do the push ups with the kids. PC started snarling and giving me dirty looks. I don't care.

he's closet to me and still being all "mean" about holding his motions. Snarling and sneering and the like. I told him to knock it off. He said it hurts. I'm in the same motion, with an injured shoulder, and I'm not snarling. Don't even try to pull that one one me.

Anyway end of class, when they were lining up he started shoving one of the other white belts around. I told him to knock it off. They lined up. After class, before mine, I pulled him to the side to tell him how to breath, breathing faster just makes it hurt sooner. A lie, but he needs to slow his breathing down, to get more centered.

Anyway he tells me he thinks he's the best white belt in the class (not even close), and that the others are holding him back because of their mistakes. He said if the one kid doesn't shape up he'd beat him up.

I told him to knock it off, he's not the best. Their mistakes are not holding him back, his own are. Practice on the breathing, and if he tried to beat up another student, he'd be tossed from the class.

Of course, the first 10 minutes of my class was the adult "instructors" getting a dressing down from the masters, for holding the motions and taking to long (not my fault, the head master even said I was the one that got it, which is when I called the orange belt over to be a guide going forward). After the masters finished I told them the issue with PC.

I'm going to have to getup early from now on. Get to work at 8, and to martial arts at 6. I'm going to take a personal interest in PC. Mainly because he does remind me of me, at his age and rank (yes I was an 8 year old when I was a white belt, 24 years ago). It also took me 2 years to stop being a white belt. Part because of my attitude, part because I refused to test for the higher rank. I was afraid of failing.

And I'm still not a black belt. 12 years off as an 8th gup Orange belt. 8th gup isn't used any more at my school. Then a year off because of work. Then 4 years off because of a drunk with a car. But it's still considered 24 years of Martial Arts, because while you'll forget your forms, your body remembers and hones the punch and kick. ;-)

Oh what a week

Wednesday was self defense class. Thursday I did ETK Day 3. Rocked it good enough.

Friday was the awesome. I took someone up on an offer to check out Joust Gym for a kettlebelll class. I couldn't keep up, but it didn't keep me from stopping. Only think I really didn't care for was the American Swing. I'm told it's a Cross Fit thing.

Not sure if it's truly a Cross Fit only thing, but I don't think it's a all that great. But you don't argue with the instructor(s).

Warm up, run around the building, forgot the distance they said it was, "american" swings, 15 situps, 5 burpees. Repeat for 3 sets. Workout was 10,9,8,7...1 double swings (normal real swings) and clean and jerks, followed by a 100 yard dash. I've Hate running by the way. I also never did a clean and jerk before. Only used 30lbs (bodyfit I think) bells, swings were easy, the clean and jerks were easy to get down and do, but hard for me to complete. Then the run. Oy. But I feel better for learning the jerk.

Today my right shoulder hurts to move. More pain I'll deal with it. It wasn't too bad during Martial Arts after warming up. At least not enough to notice it. however after cooling down, I've known it all day.

Today was Street Clothes day at class. Because we were training in a hallway. Community Center was doing a city soccer thing, and used our normal room for that. Hallway wasn't the greatest, but meh.

Wore my five fingers, 3 people in class are going to look into getting a pair now. I liked.

Downside. I took a forearm to the side of the head in sparing. It was a blind shot. The guy's good at the strange angle / off ballance / blind shots. this is the second time he's caught me in the head. Problem was today we had no gear. wasn't super hard, but caught the bottom of the jaw on the spin, and pushed the head back and to the right. still jarring.

The bigger problem, right before that, he went to sweep my leg, and kicked me in my ankle instead. the bad ankle, that was finally healed. This time the front of the thing. hurts to even stand. hurts to lay in bed. Doesn't look bruised but DAMN! Couldn't even walk up the stairs to the door to let my friends in today. Had to hop up, using the rail.

Also got my motorcycle out of storage. It's sitting under my car port now. Battery was dead, had to go buy a new one and replace it. Next winter, I'm putting it in proper storage at a shop, or I'm getting a trickle charger. Probably a shop though. Did 20+ miles on the surface streets, only about a 3 mile stretch on the the freeway. Loved every minute of it.

Oh, and because of the class Friday Night, I was going to do ETK day 4 on Saturday... But Martial Arts came first and injured now. So missed it completely.

really sore

Did ETK when I got home from work.
Week 1, day 2:
4 rounds of squats, halos and pumps.
Everything hurt the first round, went really slow

3 left 3 right turkish getups in 5 minutes. 24kg, and it felt heavy. Sore to the point shoulder stabilization and core connect weren't perfect. The were not horrible, but there was room for improvement.

And now off to Martial Arts.

stiff and sore

So I'm going to try and make Sandy Sommer's class in Delaware in June. I know I'm not in shape for it right now, last night proved it.

So to get into shape, here is the current workout plan. Hopefully I can stick to it for the next 8 weeks. For the next 4 weeks this is how it should look.

Monday: ETK, 100 push-ups, Yoga
Tuesday: ETK, Martial Arts
Wednesday: 100 push-ups, Self Defense
Thursday: ETK, Martial Arts
Friday: ETK, 100 push-ups
Saturday: Martial Arts, pull ups
Sunday: rest, or play around.

Sprinkled in the mix will be Sit ups, squats and pull-ups.

The ETK, is the Art of Strength Enter the Kettlebell workbook.

Yesterday:
36 push-ups in 45 seconds and 31 situps in 60 seconds, was looking at the MCOLES Physical requirements, because they were talking about using the MCOLES test for the black belt test. The current red belt testing requirements, the three ranks below black belt, are harder, minus the run.

Yoga was a "light night" 2 new people. Not that light means easy, just not power yoga.

ETK: 24kg kettlebell for swings, 16kg for Halos. My back was hurting from the Yoga and sit ups, after I got done, it was stiff but pain free. Still stiff.

5 rounds in the 10 minute warm up; wall squats x10, halo @ 16kg x10, pumps x10.
7 rounds in 12 minutes of 20 x swings and 1 minute active rest.

It was hard. But I owned it. I'll do the Turkish getups before Martial arts tonight.

And all this so I can be in shape in June, for the class, and my next martial arts test. I don't want to be me right now. Not even sure if I'm going to make the class in June, but looking like I will.

Finances and Emgerency Funds

In Feburary they cut my pay at work. 8% company wide for non-management. Management lost more than that. I rebalanced my "budget" (if that's what you want to call it) and I was doing good. I've talked about that here before. Good as in I was making all my bills. Problem is, I didn't buy things I needed to. Books for work, supplies for my self defense class, supplies for my martial arts class.

Then I had a couple of issues the last 2 pay checks. I get paid every other week. Had to buy some new clothes which were not cheap, an issue with my rent, AAA upping my policy for reason I can't figure out other than based on where I live.

Because of that, I dipped into my emergency savings. I didn't have much in them to start, but I was good at not touching it, and adding a little every check. However, this check due to still playing catch up, I didn't have the money to put back into my emergency savings, which is about 10.00 right now.

When it rains it pours though. Yesterday, my parrot flew into the patio door. Later he got spooked, and instead of flying to his cage like normal, he went full speed into a wall. then hopped up and flew full speed into my storage room, hitting the celing, the wall, the wall, the wall, etc. Finally he flew back into the hallway again, and hit another wall. Looked like he was trying to fly to my room. Acting like he couldn't see.

After that he was a little catatonic, and the joy of trying to find a vet that could take a bird started. My normal Avian Vet was closed. While calling around, he snapped too, struggled to fly to his cage, climbed in, and was rocking back and forth slightly on his perch.

After several calls, I found an Emergency Vet in Novi that could see him. There was one closer, but they recommended the one in Novi. The other choice was Milford (even further). They aid it'd be about $86.00 just for the office visit. I only had about $130 available at that point. They won't bill, they won't make arrangements, you pay or you don't get service. Problem is the bird was in need of seeing a doctor. Stuck over a barrel.

I got there, and the first thing the Vet tries to pull was getting a chem lab, because they think the bird has a history of seizures. The tech wrote that it was normal for the bird to fly into the wall. Which it isn't. I re-explain what has happened. Meanwhile the bird is acting like himself at this point. After lots more bs, when you design an emergency vet clinic, you might want to make sure people can't hear what you're pushing to other patients in other rooms, I ended up leaving with some meds.

He's doing good. a little nappy though.

So I normally ride the edge money wise. I do it because I'm trying to dig out of debt, because I don't always make the best decision money wise, and I don't think that things like yesterday could happen.

However it wasn't until this morning's shower that I realized the problem is bigger. I've been thinking I'd be good if I could get a decent emergency fund going. But I use Immigrant Direct for my Emergency Savings Account. It's good because the money isn't easily accessible like my normal bank account or my ING Electric Orange account. While it makes it harder to spend, it makes it harder to get when you need to rush your pet to people who demand payment on the spot, while trying to take advantage of you in a state of need. However there isnt' much of a choice when it comes to emergency pet care.

So, what I'm going to end-up doing is creating a sub-account on ING. Sort of like J.D. Roth's Mini-cooper account. I'm not going to exactly follow his way of doing it. But I am going to put money away. I figure 40 a month should do it. the first few months if anything goes bad, it'll have to come out of my normal accounts, but after that it should be good.

The money will be accessable when I need it on short notice, but it'll still be harder than normal to access.

last night at MA rocked

Last night's workout was a little harder, I got to play the whole time, but I burnt less calories. About 49 less.

1106 calories, in under 2 hours. The monitor said my max heart rated was 210 at one point, 111% my max.

Started off some light jump roped before class.

Class warm up was 50+ jumping jacks and Range of Motion.

Then 2 rounds of 30 seconds work, 15 seconds rest Circuit.
Push ups
squats
jump rope

Trust me, that's a killer. We all liked it, mostly because it was different.

Basic motions, with different motions than the ones we're used too. More advanced ones since all we had were 4th gup and up.

one steps

forms

and free fighting. I've got some new bruises from that, which kept me up part of the night. I'd roll over and roll on to one of them, which was enough to wake me up.

We even got Master Varga to play with us for one steps and free fighting.

Got some good criticism on my fighting skills, but that's ok. I tend to not follow up with after hitting, and Master Varga will leave himself open so you can do follow up combos. Other thing is I think too long in the fight. I'm looking for an opening, and by the time I find one and throw, Master Varga (or any of the other black belts) know what I'm going to throw before I throw it, because I take too long and basically telegraph it. Need to just throw and throw fast, the rest will take care of it's self. Or so I've been told.

martial arts last night

Last night, I took my jump rope with me and got to use it. 1155 calories over a 2 hour period. Max heart was 186 98% max, minimum was 92 49%. Average was 126. I got the highest heart rate on the 1 minute bag drill.

I probably could have burnt more numbers, but there was a lot that I didn't do. Down side to running the class.

Did 30 straight sit-ups, 20 straight push-ups (did a batch of 15 earlier). My sides hurt from the stretching.

Yoga tonight

Yoga rocked.

New guy there tonight, I'm not the only guy any more. He's got some experience doing yoga, so tonight was another "advanced" night. Ankle behaved, foot did not. cramped up.

Calories burned. 461. Max hear rate 165, average 111

Dinner, Salmon and a whole cup of rice. half with soy sauce. Other half, butter sugar, and soy milk.

I love finding new tools

TCPview, and netactview. They do the same thing, but one does it in Windows, the other does it in Linux.

Going through firewall logs Friday I found a box trying to hit Akamai Technologies' servers faster than once a second. Like 2 or 3 a second. The box lives on a part of the network with restricted outside access.

There was so much chatter in the logs I was looking at, it looked like it was the only box. The reason it caught my eye to start with was they all had Deny statements with them. Not knowing what the box was doing, we pulled it off the network. There have been infected user boxes before, from surfing sites that were a no no.

The other Network Engineer / Windows Admin today tossed TCPview on the box, it's basically a gui for netstat. Constantly updates in the window, and uses color codes too. However the box had been swept, put back on the network and updated.

I looked at the logs, thinking maybe the issue was a software update (as far as we know the sweep came back clean, the person who did the the sweep is off today), I saw several other boxes. Joking the other guy and I walked back to the area saying it's probably Adobe. Toss TCPview on it, and low, it is adobe updater.

I liked the tool. So I looked, turns out that netactview does the same thing in Linux. Very Nice.

I could do the same thing with netstat, but I hate watching text scroll by.

More Martial Arts

So Thursday was test night. Not for me. Those testing got to avoid the new physical requirements.

in order to test out of my current rank I'll have to do 45 push ups, and 45 sit ups. Non-Stop.

Today I decided to practice. I can do 25 situps. I haven't been working push-ups and dropped at 25 also. Then just to have fun, I did 25 squats. This was all before breakfast.

The squats winded me like I couldn't believe, and I could have done even more of them, but stopped just to have matching numbers.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try for 26 of each. I'll try to add 1 a day, for the next 20 days. In other words, I'll be doing this until Friday if I'm lucky, and then go back to not doing it, and complaining how much I suck because I can't keep motivated.

Martial Arts and random health

So Punch Gym is selling Polar heart rate monitors. After some discussion on the forum, I found out I can re-calibrate my polar myself. Something the Big Box Gym I belonged to said I couldn't do. I left the Big Box Gym for more reasons than just cost.

Anyway they say not to work out the day before doing the test. I blew that one. But here is what the test was yesterday.

HR Max 189
HR Sit 60
VO2 Max 34

Not the best numbers, but they're mine. All I can do is try to improve them.

Last night at Martial Arts, we had one of the kids move from the kid's class to the Adult class. He's 13, and almost as tall as me. He was told it's a big step up. Things are harder, we do more work, harder work and with way more discipline then the kids class.

During one of the water breaks, he said that yes, the adult class is a big step up from the kids class. I looked at him and said this is nothing, this is a light night. I thought for sure he was going to collapse on the spot. I was serious when I said that. He's also been told that I'm the push up master by one of the other students. Not because I can do the most in a row, but because I know the most kinds of push ups to do, and can do ones no one else can.

Last night was light.
Jumping jacks and Range of Motion
basic motions
water
kick drills
water
some forms
water
free fighting

we didn't do all the forms, didn't get into any one steps, push ups, take downs, knife or club defense, or things like that.

Calories burnt were about 750 over 1 hour 45 minutes.

I feel like there is not enough time in the day

I want to get my pull ups up
I want to do the 100 push ups
I want to do and finish the ETK

Problem is, I don't think there is enough hours in the day. I get up, go to work, work long hours, come home, run to a class, come home cook dinner, and if I'm lucky read before I crash.

just don't feel like there is enough time to do everything I want.

Today's work outs:
5 band pull ups this morning.
5x10 push-ups
1 hour of yoga
20 kb swings @ 32kg

tap tap

Is this thing on?

So 2 months in a row, the complex has screwed up paying me. They don't bother to try and credit my account until after I ask them where it is. The site manager is a hag when it comes to it too. The payment agent tells me the credit hasn't been applied, which it is supposed to on the first, and when they ask the manager the manager says I can pay the full amount. I say no, you'll be paid after I get my credit.

I'm going to talk to a lawyer this week. See if I should start sending them invoices in the mail, and failure to pay on the 1st, which their agent said they would, add a 10% late fee.

I'm getting tired of this crap. Should be simple, there is a bloody contract (the proposal they accepted), I even cut one class to save them money, and get my time back (Due to lack of enrollment).