Friday was fun; tango and then west coast swing (both at easy levels, so I could focus on subtleties and not remembering the darned steps).
There was this one poor woman I danced with early on, who I _think_ missed the first couple of days (makes it harder to start, that's for darned sure) and was wearing open toed shoes (a definite mistake if you aren't very sure you can follow safely). Apparently she was even warned by friends about open-toed shoes, but wore 'em anyway.
So, to get to the ugly bit, I paired up, we closed the partnership, and I took of with a bold lead right to where she had planted her foot. Oops. That was not a happy toe. So, after a couple of timid false starts, I moved us to a calm corner and went over some vital basics of following for her survival. I really didn't want to cripple her further.
Seems she was told a wrongness about how to step back... she was stepping, with a definite foot plant, and not gliding or sliding the foot back. As I was trying to help, the teacher wanders over, noticing our little pow-wow and offers a nice word of encouragement. I was then able to keep dancing without actually crippling her! It was very encouraging!
We left a tad early from West Coast Swing to get to the airport in time to pick up my son Nik, who is 18 this year, by the way. An actual adult! It's neat and weird... it doesn't seem like so long. Definitely raises issues of my own mortality, and my father's for that matter, that I'm not really keen on addressing. It's good to have him here, though.
Saturday was absorbed in the Taiji Classic tournament, a dojo-only event still (in this, its second year), but it may expand as we get used to it. It started at 9 and I got home about 3:30pm. I spent a chunk of the time experimenting with this program I was designing, but I finally decided I didn't like the direction I was going and so I re-vectored my efforts. Ultimately, later in the weekend, I decided I didn't need to write it at all -- I could do what I needed to do without writing code, even though I wanted to write the code. It would be a side-track on a project that needed more direct action... not distractions. I'll still write it! But... later.
I did help judge one round of push-hands, and that was kind of fun, but otherwise the event cut a large chunk out of a day I would have rather spent doing something else.
I was a competitor, though, too, in the black-sash push-hands, which was done... last. Of course. In the class, in practice, I'm good; I am up there with the best in the class, and I enjoy performing the art of push-hands. But in a tournament setting, I get all wound up and I also lose faith in my ability to use softness to overcome hardness... instead, I reflect the intensity of my opponent.
My first opponent was a nice, friendly, but also very aggressive and motivated kung-fu student (who, I'm pretty sure, has done training before; he's skilled and enthusiastic). I lost by two points, but I should have won. But I don't regret losing to him; he did well, and I responded incorrectly to his style. It was educational.
But, by the format we had, with only four competitors in a double elimination, that meant by losing my first match I would then compete for third place. I was very unhappy about this.
MG, a wonderful fellow student, and a dedicated practitioner, fought HC, another co-student, but one without the same strength in push-hands. MG won his first round by, I don't remember exactly, 6 or 9 points or so. So he would be vying for first or second place.
My second round was then against HC and I won by 20 points, with HC not scoring. I felt bad about that, but I was annoyed, so I just... did it. And I did my push-hands correctly then, too; because I was reflecting my opponent.
MG the lost to kung-fu guy, so the ranking was 1, 2, 3=me. I was pissed. I got wound up for the event, and I should have taken 2nd or 1st but I didn't because of the ordering (I did better by points, though, but that doesn't count). I'm still annoyed by it.
If I'm going to compete, I want to win. If I'm going to win in a tournament setting, I need to practice that style of push-hands (which is significantly different than what we do in class). Or I need to compete a lot more often, preferably in cases where I'm not desiring to win, so I can learn to use the correct softness in competition instead of getting all wound up and reflecting the hardness of my opponents. I know in my head that is the right way, but my body doesn't want to do it. Or, I need to compete not at all.
Damn it.
The rest of Saturday was mostly a waste; I was pissed off, and my left hand hurt; it was almost crippled Sunday morning even, with the big joint of the middle finger almost frozen up. It's better now.
Ended Saturday by watching City of Lost Children with Nik, who hadn't seen it before. Wonderful, surreal, beautiful movie. French movies tend to be absolutely horrible, but this one (and others by the director) are lovely.
Sunday was a tad better, though I hadn't gotten quite over my annoyance at the tournament. I'm going to have to speak up in class monday about it. I have things I need to learn still.
Did some planning for a shockwave cannon bang-making device, went to the store, stared at supplies, realized I had made mistakes in my list-making, went home, redrew stuff, rethought a couple of bits, went to the store again, bought PVC, and did some fitting and preparing of that PVC. Tomorrow Nik and I will glue some stuff together, and Tuesday we'll either build more or test... with the final testing to be done before next weekend so I can do another build and document it as well.
In the middle of the day, I spent an hour and some with a nice friend (LJ user tia_tarina), making a mould of a Tardis Key; a fairly simple flat thing really. Decided to do a two-part mould out of body-double; the purple, slow-setting version, because it's thinner and flows a bit better. While the first half was setting (of a two-part block mould, cast in a bit of spare PVC), she bought Nik and I lunch (Sparkylibrarian wasn't up for food right then and took a nap instead). After, we put in the second half and, once it had gelled sufficiently, she took it home. It was really nice talking with her! I hadn't spent much 1on1 time before (none, really) though I'd been to her property and helped make a zombie movie there, and she's friends of friends, and so forth. So that was a nice interlude in my weekend.
To wrap up Sunday, I did the minimum necessary yard work for the week; did another test shave on the cat with a new clipper (cuts good, the noise is a bit more annoying to the cat), watched Zatoichi 3 with Nik and M2 (er, Sparkylibrarian), and now I'm typing this though I should be reading and getting ready to sleep.
So, good night all.
Posted by Edwin at June 24, 2007 10:13 PM