Expect Me When You See Me

The Etruscan essay is proceeding apace. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, i grabed my notes and headed for the park behind my flat (ie, the Crags...) and occupied myself there for a bit. Have eight sources down and another 4-6 to go, which is perfectly feasible. It really is true that once you've written a dissertation, 2000 words seems trifling. The lovely siriaeve has returned my (dissertation) first draft with lots of notes about commas and phrasing, and I shall edit and fix and write final draft soon.

I took a break earlier today because I really needed to get some exercise and went to karate. Not many people were there so we did groundwork/wrestling in the beginning, then moved on to learning a new kata, juroku, which sounds impressive until you realize it translates as "16". (Kata names are never that imaginative...) I actually quite enjoyed learning this kata, simply because it was very relaxing to learn something so straightforward and turn off the more hyperactively thinking parts of my brain. It's also quite an impressive looking kata when done properly and I think I shall keep this one memorized so that I can demonstrate a kata when people ask (it's much more difficult to do a hell of a lot of other things in martial arts, but katas look impressive and are easy... look at Highlander...).

Injuries are minimal. A few bruises, and I started bleeding under one of my fingernails while wrestling. It didn't hurt and was bleeding very slowly so we were all wondering where the blood on the ghis was coming from. Then during the kata, I noticed the edge of my fingernail was all bloody (leading to the hilarious, "You're bleeding from kata?!" comment from the instructer.).

The weather today is fog, fog and more fog. Only it's a happy, clinging fog that is obscuring all views beyond a few blocks away from wherever you are. It's quite cool. People seem a bit lost in it though since I keep seeing them looking around as if wondering where the rest of the city went. The birds are quite happy at least. As am I come to think of it. Endorphins are wonderful things.

Karate today was a lot of fun. We did a large variety of techniques, and most importantly, no kata *L* Also some fun games at the beginning, though I sort of resent being caught in the "nobody is warming up properly" backlash that keeps happening, where you get forced to run quick laps and other athletic things on top of a warm up of your own that already has you sweating... My partner today had very pretty blue eyes, and was named Damien. He was shy and reserved. I'm not sure if you're allowed to have a name like Damien and be shy and reserved...

Two of my fingers have been crushed and are completely numb, so am icing them as I'd like to regain feeling. I also have to ice my elbow. We did this sideways throw that I really liked, but it ended with your oponent falling on top of your arm, which is fine so long as your arm is flat against the groud, but with my joints being so flexible, my arm automatically turns another quarter or so when in that position, so for the first couple of times, my elbow got crushed at a very bad angle until I concentrated on conciously keeping my arm from twisting. ( TMI )

I really need to make a martial arts icon, don't I? Of course, I really don't have time. *puppy dog eyes at lucyjin*;)

So the seminar today was still a lot of fun, though the pacing could have been a bit faster. I know a few more pressure points and we did a lot of moves that I've done variations of before. Still convinced kata are a waste of time though... Some of the things he demonstrated were quite interesting, like the power of sound... We knocked someone over with the power of our voices. Weird, but cool.

Training lasted for about four hours total with a break for lunch, so we covered quite a bit of ground, which explains why my injuries are spead out across my body. The total bruise count so far is 13, but I may find more in the morning. There's a spot on my shoulder joint that is ridiculously painful to touch, which 1) makes me wonder what I did to get it that way and 2) makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with it. Only other major injury is that my right calf muscle was deeply bruised (someone grinding their knee into it can do that), and technically my wrist is swelling from another bruise, but I'm icing or heating them both which should hopefully help. Let's hope heat is the right thing to put on my shoulder. Oh, and the bruise on my right foot is in the shape of a triangle. How cool is that?

dizziebeth just spent a few minutes giggling at me over the phone after she realized the ibuprofen I've taken for the pain gives me a mild buzz. It's probably evident in this post too, though I don't notice it's effect. It should amuse havenward when I call her, at least.

So far, the karate seminar has been a lot of fun. I now know four new pressure points to torment people with, though one of them is rather iffy in my opinion. It was still a lot of fun, and afterwards, I ended up in the pub chatting with one of the women who had come over with her husband from America, and one of our Irish instructors who told me all about Japan *g* It's scary that the guy doing this seminar is not only from NJ, but is also from my town... The world is so very itty bitty.

Must got to sleep now as I must be up an hour early in order to go to the seminar. Ja ne!

Yay! I had a karate class with no major injuries. Somehow it feels like awhile since that's happened. Class was entertaining enough. I know everyone wants to learn how to do those side kicks cause they look cool, but I don't have much enthusiasm for them since they're bloody useless in a real fight. The training in the middle was fun even if I've found I constantly have to remind people in this class to actually punch like they mean it. They need to train people to be better ukes (let me remind those of you who know both meanings of that word to get your minds out of the gutter). I like the new kata we're doing better than the old one, even if I still think they're (mostly) useless.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to find the time to watch all the stuff on my comp so I can delete it, but also finish off my notes so I can write my essay due Thursday. I really need to buckle down and work, but I'm seriously suffering from senioritis or something. Cannot bring myself to work for more than a few minutes, and even separating myself from the comp or tv doesn't work since my imagination is just as good at distracting me. I've been on the same bloody source for two days now and it's not that hard to read or anything. *sigh* I really have to snap out of this and get actual work done, but I have no idea how to do that.

Gah. It's very bad that I stumbled upon a huge anime/manga fic recs site this weekend. Have done nothing productive - unless you count updating ficrecs, making lj icons, and watching anime as productive.

Went to karate today. It was actually a change from the usual. There was the usual torture at the beginning, but then it settled into an almost lecture atmosphere as we were told history and shown videos and taught about pressure points. You trained with anyone near you, which was a good change since lower level belts are much less set in their ways... I'd have preferred a bit more demonstration and learning of the points. My art, taijitsu uses pressure points, but I can only think of a handful off the top of my head since we're never specifically taugh them, so it was cool to learn a few more. I hardly have a bruise from it too (which is more than I can say about last Sunday's bruise. It's still large, vivid and painful. Stupid thing...).

Well, I saw sylk off to the airport this morning, and hopefully the plane won't be delayed too much by the snow. We've had a lot of fun these past few days. On Friday, which was miraculously clear and sunny (if cold) for January in Scotland, we went to Stirling to visit the castle. It was even better than I remembered it, and the views were utterly fantastic. On Saturday, we went to Craigmillar castle for which I will always have a soft spot, then did a bit of shopping on the Royal Mile. We had an excellent dinner nearby, but unfortunately, Sylk fell ill so she couldn't go on the tour of Mary King's Close. I ended up going and getting a refund for her, and going myself. It was quite fun, and creepy and entertaining though I think the only thing that made it more creepy than the Edinburgh dungeons was that you were in a place that might actually be haunted. One of the tour guides was really cute (and wearing breeches) too! *L*

Today, after going back to sleep, I watched more Prince of Tennis (just finished episode 127 an hour or so ago...), then went to karate, which wasn't as much fun since we did sport's karate the whole time. Something which I couldn't care less for. I also had the bad luck of consistently training with their top male black belt, which wouldn't be so bad since at least I was learning from someone good (I swear I could take on most of their brown belts and below without any sport's experience at all), but he was quite brutal with his sweeps, ignoring me when I pointed out how much my ankle was hurting. His last couple of sweeps were aimed higher up which was sort of a blessing, but not much of one since he hit my shin quite hard and an area the size of my hand has been swelling up. It finally seems to be going down a little now at least, and I'm not cursing from the pain anymore. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. After karate, I called havenward who said I sounded like I was in pain/amused/exasperated. I find that triconomy impressive in it's contradictiveness. It was lovely to talk to her again though. *huggles havenward*

I really have to settle down and work on my dissertation this week. I want a full outline done before I approach my supervisor again, which requires reading through one or two more sources than reviewing my 100 or so pages of notes. (A cursory count of my working bibliography reveals I have 89 sources so far... and my dissertatoin is only supposed to be 12,000 words. I am in so much trouble... *quietly panics*)

sylk is here! She arrived yesterday, and we spent the jetlag time watching Firefly, or at least most it. We'd reached Ariel by the time she collapsed completely, so I was very bad and spent the rest of the evening watching Prince of Tennis, instead of doing work. Will have to make up for it by doing work for the rest of the week whenever we're watching something I've seen. She's requested to see lots of castles, so that's what we're going to do... This evening, we are going to visit ashfae, which should be a lot of fun *g*

In other news, I have at least 9 bruises on my body (I'm sure I've missed some) from karate on Friday. No wonder I've been feeling like I've been beat up. There all quite impressive bruises too, though the one on my hand has begun to hurt less. Icing it really seems to have helped. At one point that evening, I was being thrown (over the hip) of this guy, and as he threw me (using way too much force and being far to into the throw) I felt the lower part of my spine as each vertebrae separated for a moment then came together. What a weird feeling, and one which I didn't want to feel again so I made sure he couldn't throw me like that (That first time I was being a good uke and letting him go with it.). I'm quite flexible in my spine, but no one wants to feel your own vertebrae, not to mention all my study of the human skeleton leaves me very well suited to picturing what happened in extreme detail.

Anyway, I'm off. I must take a shower and eventually wake up sylk who is still blissfully jetlagged on my futon, and take some pain killers. Ja ne!

It is very painful to move my right hand atm. There's a dark, deep bruise developing on the right side of it which causes me to swear every time i close my fist or press it against something (you'd be amazed how often you do that without noticing). A guy at karate kneed me directly on my hand... at least I think he did. It only started hurting a few minutes later. Adrenaline is such an amazing thing. It's a pity about the injury since the rest of the class, while not exactly focused on what I want to learn, was at least the challenge and level I was looking for (even if most of my partners weren't up to it...). He even warmed up the way I like to (which involves less jumping jacks (which are pretty darn painful and awkward for a woman with large breasts) and more stretches and muscle exercises.

Will now continue to ice my hand, and wait patiently for sylk to arrive, though I suppose I should sleep between now and then too, ne?

Karate was going okay today, even if the instructors were obviously annoyed at people not arriving early enough, and therefore were forcing us to do lots of exhausting things, followed by lots of technical things... Anyway, I accidently ended up paired with the largest guy in class, who was more than a foot taller than I am, and at least 300 plus pounds - for doing hip throws. Now this isn't really too much of a problem since I know I can throw anybody regardless of size, but unfortunately, on one of the last throws, he landed wrong and I had my foot in the wrong place, thus it was sort of flattened by a 300+ pound weight. Years of practice meant I didn't even gasp in pain, but instead told him that he'd have to find another partner and limped off.

During the next ten minutes, I massaged my ankle, and found I could walk again, so I joined in on katas, only to find after ten minutes that there was this deep ache starting in my ankle. Knowing better than to be that masocistic, I sat out the rest of the class, found the spot on my ankle where pressing down made me gasp and generally just keeping things moving. Walking home was... interesting. The ache was not only in my ankle, but was also at a point half way up my shin and slightly off centre and it only got worse as I walked.

When I got home, I discovered the shin area was burning hot, so I iced it while eating dinner and now there's an interseting bruise forming. So now I'm off to have a very long soak in the hopes that I'll be able to walk tomorrow.

I suspect I should learn to complain more. Suffering stoically is all well and good, but I could have gotten a ride home if I'd just spoken up. Bad masochist. Bad.