Wednesday 29 April 2009

Rib damage

So am recovering from misogi finally. Quite achy the last two days! Foolishly tried to do my hundred sword cuts the morning after the 2500 cuts and got to about 25 before I had to stop from screaming wrists. Found a bit of jo swinging much nicer.

After some googling on t'internet I have concluded I cracked a rib a couple of weeks ago falling onto Tom Hume's knee in the dojo! Still quite tender to touch but OK to breath - just every now again I use one particular muscle group and the pain! Ouch.

Jesus - aikido mastery (hah!) does not come cheap!

Sunday 26 April 2009

The Collective

So after at least a year in which I proclaimed myself free of the awful burden of needing to play music I am back on that paticular wagon. Went to see my friend's band, Super Kasanova, play in London last week and was inspired to get a band up and running again. Watch this space for new songs from Catherine, my wonderful other half, and I. If you want to partake in recording or performing in any way just contact the collective.

Misogi

Just back from Misogi. This is a ritual undertaken by aikio practitioners on the anniversary of O Sensei's (Aikido's founder) death every year.

This year we spent 50 minutes doing saburi, or sword cuts with bokken. Interesting when you do something like this in that after about ten minutes, wherever your technique is flawed it will start to give out. But as you've started and committed and everyone else is doing it you must keep going. So you alter your technique and then after about twenty minutes your shouting the count out using aggression to keep going and get through it.

This gets you so far but not far enough. After half an hour your in and out of a state of no mind (mu shin) and egoic reeling and ranting and complaining about the pain and the blisters. It's then that you either join the people wobbling and flailing about but keeping going and getting through it or get really clever with your cutting and improve it enough to make it to the finish. Either way, no one gets off at this stop.

Would be interesting to do misogi more often and take an aikido technique and do that one technique a thousand times, see where you fail, what you have to do to make through the wall.

Thursday 16 April 2009

Gavin Darcy, MCP

Just back from my first Microsoft exam and I passed! I was pleasantly surprised. I can now place the three letters, MCP, after my name, hurrah!

I've spent years in IT and never bothered before but it feels great to finally get a professional qualification.

The last month has been coloured by at least an hour every evening mostly boring myself stupid studying, with occasional bursts of interest when I learned something usefully nerdy. So I'm going to take a well deserved rest for a week or so before booking my next exam and starting the process again.

MCDST here I come.
MCSE, you're on my list.