life, Bujinkan, more life, writing, watching, travel

I really am getting a bit lazy about updating, aren't I? And msn messenger won't work any more so I've been pretty cut off. Oops. Uh, I spent the last ten days or so suffering from sinusitis, and doing fun things like coughing up great green gobs of phlegm every hour or so, getting splitting headaches, and losing my voice and sleep from all the coughing. Fun. I only started to get better around Thursday, and today was my first cough free day.

Bujinkan tonight was nice. We had a visitor from Ecuador so Jack was showing off a bit, which meant we got to do a bit more stuff than usual. I also had a good partner which considering I haven't trained in nearly two weeks due to my ongoing sinusitis, was a welcome relief. For the first half hour we did full nelsons - how to avoid having them put on, and what do do if they were put on etc. That was fun though my neck will be sore tomorrow... Also, my partner was a lot taller than me so it looks kinda ridiculous for me to try to put a full nelson on him (key word try, cause my arms don't even reach that far *L*). Next, we did hung bo, first with full nelsons, and after our necks were aching with someone trying to punch you. The key was to never let your opponent have any space and to not use the hung bo to force them to do anything (though you could if you wanted to cause people tend to respond when you crush their throat...). And after that, for the last half hour, we did guns. I was so very happy that my partner had a smooth, non-realistic gun since I still bear the scars from the last realistic plastic one I used for training. Also, every time we do gun training I end up with the same bruise on the top of my right hand, weird. We did various responses to someone grabbing your gun while you're holding it, while it's holstered, and what to do if they did grab it. If they have the butt of the gun while it's holstered, it's surprisingly easy to get them to let go by turning to the side and simply walking away. What to do when you have the gun but they're preventing you from drawing it is harder since you have to place your left arm under their arms and leave it there, while pushing the rest of your body down without moving your arm. Very counter intuitive and not always successful.

I heard back from Hawai'i this past week and I didn't get a postgrad place. They had a lot more applicants than usual this year apparently. I'm not actually as disappointed as I thought I would be. I'd been annoyed because not knowing if I was going to uni was messing with me making permanent plans beyond early summer, so now I know for certain that my year is free and if something comes up, I can do that something (whatever it will be). Meanwhile, I have 1-3 more universities that I can apply to in autumn, whose applications I can now devote a lot of time to. My job search options are now a little more open since I can commit to something for over a year, though I'm not holding my breath for finding one. On the other hand, I'm not going to starve or be homeless if I don't get one, and right now, I can work on my books and short stories, keep trying to get published, and finally read/watch all those books and shows I've put aside over the years. My new goal is to get Uric finished and have queried a few agents by the summer after next - a prospect that wouldn't have been possible if I were doing a postgrad degree.

In the world of short stories and magazines, two of my stories are being held hostage in slush pile hell and/or recession of doom shenanigans. Hopefully they will be released before I have to mount a rescue mission. Uric wise, I realized that I had to research Romania before I could write Louis' part which led to the library, which led to a lot more books then I meant to take out *sigh* and also, liberal abuse of the inter-library loan system.

My list of books to read which I don't own is up to 38. This is completely the fault of siriaeve once again:P Who through librarything, somehow got me to goodreads which, since it's free and slightly easier to add books to than librarything, I've been using to record, uh, every single book I've ever read in my life (as opposed to librarything which I use to record the books I own). This is a bit of a daunting prospect since I think of new books I haven't added to the list every day, but so far I'm at 1775 books read in my lifetime, and that's without adding in my star trek collection (which will have to be done by hand after they get entered onto librarything since they take up a whole bookshelf and are double stacked) or the countless other books I've read then forgotten (made all the harder by the fact that I don't remember acquaintances names half the time much less author's or book titles). The hardest thing so far has been remembering all the obscure Christian lit I read during the hyper religious phase of my preteens. I'm surprised at how good I am at remembering covers, but titles really do escape me. Also, sorting 1775 books onto shelves (tags, basically) is exhausting, but kinda mesmerizing. And I keep finding interesting new books to read which get added to my to-read list *sigh*

I don't suppose anyone remembers the name/author of a small little book, filled with lots of photographs, on sacrificial/ritual sites in Gaul? I loved that book so much, and reading it meant I got a first on my Gallia in the 3rd century bc exam. I want to add it to goodreads, but I can't remember its title or author. I'm fairly certain it was in English and its author was French, but it could have been in French too.

Watching status update: Finally finished off True Blood, which I had been watching in fits and starts for awhile since watching Jason make an idiot of himself was painful. Enjoyed it enough to look forward to the next season. I miss watching Natsume Yuujinchou and so have switched to trying to finish off Mushi-shi which is similar in tone though not as cute and heart-warming. Also watching, in no particular order, Murder Princess, The Penguins of Madagascar, Being Human, Kuroshitsuji, BokuKano, and various movies I haven't seen or wished to rewatch. This is in addition to our usual shows of House, Chuck, Supernatural (that last ep was very meta), Breaking Bad, and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Oh, and random eps of Top Gear and Dirty Jobs. Also, I've been rewatching Wonderfalls with ozmaz and enjoyed it even more the second time. (I kinda wish I had a tv version of myanimelist.net so I could discover how many days of my life I've spent watching television.)

And, in other news, my brother Ron is moving house back to Louisville due to his job. (He currently lives many hours into rural Kentucky.) So my father and I are heading out there this weekend to help them pack/fix things/watch the kids etc. We'll be doing the usual rounds of the rest of the family out there, and will probably be gone for a week or two. Anyone who is around and wants to meet up, let me know. Dad and I leave at 4am on Sunday because we're driving through the night to get to Pittsburgh at 10am when the Grand Concourse opens for its Sunday brunch buffet. It's something we used to do every few years when I was younger and we went out to visit, but we haven't been there for awhile, and I'm craving eating banana's foster while listening to harp music and watching freight trains go by.

life, Bujinkan, more life, writing, watching, travel

I really am getting a bit lazy about updating, aren't I? And msn messenger won't work any more so I've been pretty cut off. Oops. Uh, I spent the last ten days or so suffering from sinusitis, and doing fun things like coughing up great green gobs of phlegm every hour or so, getting splitting headaches, and losing my voice and sleep from all the coughing. Fun. I only started to get better around Thursday, and today was my first cough free day.

Bujinkan tonight was nice. We had a visitor from Ecuador so Jack was showing off a bit, which meant we got to do a bit more stuff than usual. I also had a good partner which considering I haven't trained in nearly two weeks due to my ongoing sinusitis, was a welcome relief. For the first half hour we did full nelsons - how to avoid having them put on, and what do do if they were put on etc. That was fun though my neck will be sore tomorrow... Also, my partner was a lot taller than me so it looks kinda ridiculous for me to try to put a full nelson on him (key word try, cause my arms don't even reach that far *L*). Next, we did hung bo, first with full nelsons, and after our necks were aching with someone trying to punch you. The key was to never let your opponent have any space and to not use the hung bo to force them to do anything (though you could if you wanted to cause people tend to respond when you crush their throat...). And after that, for the last half hour, we did guns. I was so very happy that my partner had a smooth, non-realistic gun since I still bear the scars from the last realistic plastic one I used for training. Also, every time we do gun training I end up with the same bruise on the top of my right hand, weird. We did various responses to someone grabbing your gun while you're holding it, while it's holstered, and what to do if they did grab it. If they have the butt of the gun while it's holstered, it's surprisingly easy to get them to let go by turning to the side and simply walking away. What to do when you have the gun but they're preventing you from drawing it is harder since you have to place your left arm under their arms and leave it there, while pushing the rest of your body down without moving your arm. Very counter intuitive and not always successful.

I heard back from Hawai'i this past week and I didn't get a postgrad place. They had a lot more applicants than usual this year apparently. I'm not actually as disappointed as I thought I would be. I'd been annoyed because not knowing if I was going to uni was messing with me making permanent plans beyond early summer, so now I know for certain that my year is free and if something comes up, I can do that something (whatever it will be). Meanwhile, I have 1-3 more universities that I can apply to in autumn, whose applications I can now devote a lot of time to. My job search options are now a little more open since I can commit to something for over a year, though I'm not holding my breath for finding one. On the other hand, I'm not going to starve or be homeless if I don't get one, and right now, I can work on my books and short stories, keep trying to get published, and finally read/watch all those books and shows I've put aside over the years. My new goal is to get Uric finished and have queried a few agents by the summer after next - a prospect that wouldn't have been possible if I were doing a postgrad degree.

In the world of short stories and magazines, two of my stories are being held hostage in slush pile hell and/or recession of doom shenanigans. Hopefully they will be released before I have to mount a rescue mission. Uric wise, I realized that I had to research Romania before I could write Louis' part which led to the library, which led to a lot more books then I meant to take out *sigh* and also, liberal abuse of the inter-library loan system.

My list of books to read which I don't own is up to 38. This is completely the fault of siriaeve once again:P Who through librarything, somehow got me to goodreads which, since it's free and slightly easier to add books to than librarything, I've been using to record, uh, every single book I've ever read in my life (as opposed to librarything which I use to record the books I own). This is a bit of a daunting prospect since I think of new books I haven't added to the list every day, but so far I'm at 1775 books read in my lifetime, and that's without adding in my star trek collection (which will have to be done by hand after they get entered onto librarything since they take up a whole bookshelf and are double stacked) or the countless other books I've read then forgotten (made all the harder by the fact that I don't remember acquaintances names half the time much less author's or book titles). The hardest thing so far has been remembering all the obscure Christian lit I read during the hyper religious phase of my preteens. I'm surprised at how good I am at remembering covers, but titles really do escape me. Also, sorting 1775 books onto shelves (tags, basically) is exhausting, but kinda mesmerizing. And I keep finding interesting new books to read which get added to my to-read list *sigh*

I don't suppose anyone remembers the name/author of a small little book, filled with lots of photographs, on sacrificial/ritual sites in Gaul? I loved that book so much, and reading it meant I got a first on my Gallia in the 3rd century bc exam. I want to add it to goodreads, but I can't remember its title or author. I'm fairly certain it was in English and its author was French, but it could have been in French too.

Watching status update: Finally finished off True Blood, which I had been watching in fits and starts for awhile since watching Jason make an idiot of himself was painful. Enjoyed it enough to look forward to the next season. I miss watching Natsume Yuujinchou and so have switched to trying to finish off Mushi-shi which is similar in tone though not as cute and heart-warming. Also watching, in no particular order, Murder Princess, The Penguins of Madagascar, Being Human, Kuroshitsuji, BokuKano, and various movies I haven't seen or wished to rewatch. This is in addition to our usual shows of House, Chuck, Supernatural (that last ep was very meta), Breaking Bad, and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Oh, and random eps of Top Gear and Dirty Jobs. Also, I've been rewatching Wonderfalls with ozmaz and enjoyed it even more the second time. (I kinda wish I had a tv version of myanimelist.net so I could discover how many days of my life I've spent watching television.)

And, in other news, my brother Ron is moving house back to Louisville due to his job. (He currently lives many hours into rural Kentucky.) So my father and I are heading out there this weekend to help them pack/fix things/watch the kids etc. We'll be doing the usual rounds of the rest of the family out there, and will probably be gone for a week or two. Anyone who is around and wants to meet up, let me know. Dad and I leave at 4am on Sunday because we're driving through the night to get to Pittsburgh at 10am when the Grand Concourse opens for its Sunday brunch buffet. It's something we used to do every few years when I was younger and we went out to visit, but we haven't been there for awhile, and I'm craving eating banana's foster while listening to harp music and watching freight trains go by.