(no subject)

[draconis]

Gakked from gryphonrhi:

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious but you have no idea. Ask away.

Of course, I'll still subject those to the same two rules I have for people asking me questions face-to-face....

1) Make sure you actually want to know the answer, and
2) I reserve the right not to answer (downgraded from the original version of, "I reserve the right to tell you it's none of your damned business" ::G::)

Comments

[rhi]

So what is your favorite color? (And is that for 'clothes you like to wear,' 'art you like to look at,' or what?)

[jcbdragon.livejournal.com]

::S:: Generally, deep blue.

For clothes, just about any jewel tone works.

For art... I know it when I see it?

[eponin10.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite thing to do when it rains?

[jcbdragon.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... that one requires a multi-part answer, actually...

If it's a thunderstorm, I love to "ride" it, and soak up all the energy I can from the wind and the electricity.

If it's a warm spring/summer rain, go hiking in the woods, and listen to the droplets falling off the leaves.

If it's a cold, winter rain, curl up someplace warm with a hot drink and good company -- either friends and good conversation, or a favorite book... or a warm Gryphon! 8-)

[eponin10.livejournal.com]

Cool. I used to love thunderstorms like that. Lately they just make me jumpy. It might have to do with the fact that about the only time we get thunderstorms around here is when the weather is really bad. Like, we're under tornado watch, or some such.

[jcbdragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Usually, when I start getting jumpy/irritable during stormy weather, it means I'm either trying to "hold on" too tightly, or trying too hard to "push the storm away"... but if I just relax and "ride" it, it's quite pleasant.

I've never surfed, or "really" flown (i.e. without the use of an airplane), but I've always compared those with what I do with thunderstorms -- if I try to fight against it, it's a huge effort, and at best I end up very tired. If I blend with it, it becomes a nice, pleasant, rejuvenating ride.

[eponin10.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try that. :) I never thought of it that way. Thanks!

[themouseketeer.livejournal.com]

I know this sounds really, *REALLY* daft, but I realised I don't actually know - when and why did you start martial arts?

[jcbdragon.livejournal.com]

Not daft at all!

When I was a kid, a karate school (dojo) opened up in my home town. This was during the height of the Bruce Lee craze, and I decided to take lessons. Unfortunately, the school closed after about six months when the owner skipped town with the money he was supposed to be paying for rent and utilities. At this point, I couldn't even tell you what style it was, although from my vague memories, I suspect Tae Kwon Do.

We now fast-forward to my freshman year of college. My room-mate was a 4th-degree black belt (who also looked like the perfect target for a mugging), but I didn't know this. The Ole Miss Isshinryu Karate Club had a dojo in one of the old gymnasiums on-campus, and my room-mate and I had just watched a demonstration they'd put on. I'd always been fascinated by the martial arts, so I'd decided to start training with these guys... and I've been doing it ever since. It's one of those things that just "feels right," if that makes sense. I literally don't know how to *not* do it anymore... and I'm perfectly happy with that! 8-)



When I moved to Memphis, there weren't any Isshinryu schools, so I started looking around for another style. I tried several, and ended up in a kung fu school, where I got my first black belt ranking (although they uses sashes instead of belts). My work schedule changed, and I wasn't able to attend classes for about 6 months as a result. When I got back, I found that the instructor had changed the schedule in such a way that unless you were able to be there every night of the week, you'd have a very hard time getting all the information you needed.

After a few months of this, I saw a flyer for a demo in town for a style that used pressure points to knock people out. I was very skeptical, but decided to check it out. They did knock several people out, but most of them used a strike to the head or neck, which I could also attribute to blunt-force trauma. When they knocked one guy absolutely stone cold without ever touching him except below the elbow on one arm, I was out of alternative explanations! The next week, I was training in that style (Ryukyu kempo), and was with them for 8 years (and one black belt rank) until we moved to South Carolina. We were there for a year, and I worked out briefly with an Aikido school there, but we had "philosophical differences" ::G::. When we moved to Nashville, I found another Kempo school, and I've been with them ever since. I've gotten a second-degree black belt through that school, and plan to test for my third-degree this spring/early summer.




An amusing story... a few days after that first demo back at Ole Miss, my room-mate and I were in the little on-campus diner talking, and I was fiddling with one of those foil packets of ketchup, folding it back and forth in my fingers while we talked. At one point, I folded it one time too many, or too hard, or something, because a very tiny hole formed in the packet, and ketchup sprayed the gentleman walking past our table.

I was horrified, and my room-mate was laughing his ass off. I was even more horrified when I looked up and saw the person I'd just sprayed -- a *very* muscular gentleman that I recognized from the demo, a brown belt who'd been doing a form while the two black belts were hitting him, kicking him, and breaking boards on him!

To make matters worse, I'm trying to apologize to this gentleman, and my room-mate is deliberately antagonizing him!

Well, the two of them finally decided to take mercy on me -- it turns out that the two of them were old friends, who were enjoying the hell out of my obvious discomfort! That was when I learned that my room-mate was a 4th-degree black belt, and over the next two years, I came to learn that the brown belt whom I'd sprayed with ketchup was very much a *gentleman*, and one I was proud to call "friend."

[themouseketeer.livejournal.com]

Cool :-) Thanks for that. Love the story, too.