Thursday, July 27, 2006

Nothing like a good rant...

...to bring you back to the world of blogging... :)

With the relaxed karate training summer season I'm having, I didn't have much to talk about the last few weeks but tonight, sorry, I gotta let it out.

First my story. I'm in my first of three weeks of vacations, weehee, and as such, I could go to about four classes of karate in a week. That was actually the plan when I looked at this week a couple months ago. Now Monday came and it was humid as all heck and I felt more like relaxing at home with the kids than going to karate so I decided to skip that class. Then Wednesday came. We had guests, my wife's cousin and her daughters. Now, I like them very much, but I probably could have left in the middle of dinner and gone to a 7pm class but instead, at 4:30 I took the decision that I would cook burgers on the grill and would have fun swimming with them instead.

Now tonight, nothig special was planned, it's still very hot and humid but I felt like going, so I went. See, the class is at 6 and usually, it would be near impossible for me to make it without getting a babysitter since my wife usually has a hard time making it home before 6:15, but she too is on vacation this week. There's this young dude who often attends this class and is usually either a tiny bit late, or he cuts it very close. I can understand his situation, his workday ends late and he has a hard time making it, just like me, usually. Now today, we're maybe 7 or 8 getting ready to start class. Class starts, he comes in through the door and our room is right by. We can hear him say aloud "Man was I feeling well by the pool" or something along the lines of it. We've started stretching by then. He goes downstairs to the dressing room and comes back, we've moved to jumping jacks and our instructors is waiting on him to tie his belt and he seems to be having some problems with it when one of his friend tell him that he's late. "Late for what, there's no time to show up" was his stupid reply. He later made a couple comments about some warmup exercises.

Dude, if you don't feel like coming to class, do us all a favor and stay home.

That's all I'll say.

I know some will say our instructor should have said something, or made him/us all pay for his behavior. It's just not the way they do it and frankly, this kind of thing usually never happens.

Why did I tell you the long story of my Monday and my Wednesday. To show how I behaved when I didn't feel like going... I'm not perfect mind you, but I think that if you respect others, they will respect you in the end...

Now on to our regular programming, it's been very quiet lately. Football is over (Andrew's team won the championship :)). Soccer is on a semi-hiatus (no games this week, practices are not always happening, a bit disappointed with it but I take the days off when they come ;)) and did I say, I'm off work for two more weeks :D

Karate wise, I'm not learning much new, at least no new kata, or self-defense techniques. Lots of work on basics, and repetition, and stances. We've worked on hip throws tonight and some technique against a knife trust. Interesting stuff...

Been sporadically working on Sushi no kon sho, our traditional bo kata, but nto enough to really nail it from beginning to end. I've also not worked with my bo too much lately. Took it outside a couple days ago and my wife gave Andrew's bo to Matty, our 2 and a half year old terror. He twirled it around and she shot a little video of it. I should put it on youtube soon and will let you know in here...

For now, take care, I'll be back... sometimes :)

FM

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering where you were. Enjoy the weather while you can. It won't last long

FrogMan said...

BBM, you odn't know how accurate you are. Here in Quebec, we're used to saying that you can't blink in the month from May to August or else you'll miss Summer, or the one day that was hot.

This Summer has been really hot and the swimming pool is put to good use :)

I do read your blog regularly, although I don't comment much, and I'm a huge Rockstar fan, so your reviews and reports are must read for me :)

Take care, Steve.

Dr. Augustus Dayafter said...

The MAN is back! Dude, we've missed you. Welcome back.

frotoe said...

glad to see you are posting again! I can see why that guy annoyed you. Its one thing to have to be late for a class because of a work schedule-completely excusable..but because he was enjoying the pool?? he should have kept his mouth shut. There is no place for arrogance in the dojo. (or any where else really) I'm a firm believer in karma.. what goes around comes around..and it WILL come around.
Mere

FrogMan said...

thanks oniyagi. For some reason, I didn't have your blog in my subscriptions list. I now realize I have a lot of catching up to do :) Hope the ankle gets better soon. Take care!

frotoe, that's the first I've seen this name I believe. Glad to have you reading around here. Saw your blog too, will be reading it. You just summarized my thinking of his attitude. While it's true that there's no place for arrogance anywhere else, I feel it applies even more to the dojo, which place should be one of learning and respect.

Take care, Steve.

Mir said...

The more I experience dojo life, the more I can see how one's attitude effects those around them during training.

I remember this one time when I was teaching a couple of new teenaged white belts. They had this really uninterested look on their face, and their physical effort was less than desired. As a beginner in teaching others at the time, I stopped what I was demonstrating, and I asked these two "Why are you here?" I was serious about the question. I really wanted to know what their goals were, and why they had showed up at the dojo. They really didn't have an answer for me because they had not asked themselves this question before...

Then I realized that their mental state was similar to how I've felt when I wasn't commited to something. Like when I have to decide what I want to eat for supper, and I'm standing there saying "I don't know.. um... what is available?" I can stand there with a blank mind for a long while.

Mathieu said...

Indeed, nothing like a good rant.

That attitude sucks. Period.

Indeed, stay home.

In the summer, there's just about too much things to do. It's hard to stay motivated to do karate. :)

Cheers, dude.