Monday, August 4th, 2008
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9:19 am - Real vs Fake
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I haven't posted in a long time, but I have a question to pose mostly toward my friends out there who have been in Martial Arts, or your friends if you'd like to point them this way.
I'm getting back in to Tai Chi starting today. To me, this is a good thing. I've missed it for quite some time since I had to stop. I need it mostly for the exercise now since my job has become pretty sedentary.
My issue, or just possibly concern, has been to the validity of the forms or styles taught by the school, Shaolin-Do. I found this school back around 2001-2002. There aren't many teachers for Tai Chi in the New Orleans area. They seemed to offer a very large curriculum of Tai Chi forms which seemed very appealing and not many schools often detail out what they actually teach over time. I enjoyed what they taught but they do move rather quickly (about a month or two between forms).
I took a trip with a group of buddies who were taking Kung Fu up in Jackson, MS to the Taiji Legacy in Dallas. It was alot of fun, but during the competitions I noticed differences in the styles I was being taught vs the same styles people were presenting. It left me to wonder if I could even compete in the future outside of the Shaolin-Do association.
Now that I'm going back I've done a little bit of searching on outside views of the Shaolin-Do schools. It seems people don't always have a high opinion of the Grandmaster Sin The due to some of his claims in his teaching linage. On the whole that point doesn't bother me. What does is the belief that what they are teaching sometimes isn't really true forms passed down from the Shaolin temples. They teach a Chen's Iron Fan form, which I've learned and enjoyed how it looked, but this is also one that seems under dispute by people in the Martial Arts community at-large.
Should I allow my concerns to really overrule the enjoyment and exercise I get from taking these classes? Are these forms and styles I'd never really be able to share with other friends in different schools in the Martial Arts community? I think my goals for going really should answer part of this, but they still linger at the back of my mind and I welcome other thoughts on the subject.
current mood:  calm
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(comment on this)
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Friday, August 10th, 2007
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6:58 am - To my Atlanta peeps!
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I'm in the Smyrna area tonight and tomorrow night for work and such. My boss and I are probably going to hit Peachtree St tonight, but can anyone recommend a good restaurant or two in the area? We're staying at the Renaissance Waverley over by the Galleria off Cobb.
Also...where would possibly be the nearest Dave and Busters? Heh
current music: Only whats in my head baby!
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Sunday, December 31st, 2006
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11:26 pm - Great start to a new year!
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What better way to start a new year?
Ask the woman I love to marry me!
I'm officially engaged to be married!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
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6:23 pm - NINJA!
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It's the Day of the Ninja!
Sneak out and kill someone special to you in a way they'll never see coming!
Order a Ninjaburger!
Whatever your ninja activity of choice...DON'T BE SEEN!
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(comment on this)
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Monday, October 2nd, 2006
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6:43 pm - Old unfinished games
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Thought I'd put up something on a topic of extreme meaning and deep emotion....VIDEO GAMES!
Actually more on the lines of games I never finished, but kinda wanted to...and more speficially...Final Fantasy X.
I started it originally when it came out. Played it for some time and got roughly half way through it. Then I kinda got away from it.
I've always loved the Final Fantasy series. I've played through pretty much every other game they've made. I've been told by my best friend that the ending to 10 is well worth picking back up.
Unfortunatly I've found it somewhat intimidating to get running again. I've got the guide (seems like you can't play a FF game without them now they are so complex) but I'm not certain what goal I was heading towards next. Getting each character their ultimate weapons (While not necessary has big benefits) has left me overwhelmed. Not to mention, and other people know, if you've played a FF game that there is a LOT of story from start to end. To pick it back up in the middle after so long may lose some of the effect.
I'm still trying to work back up to jumping into it again before WoW's Burning Crusade expansion comes out and sucks my life away. Time will tell if I give it a serious attempt again, or just look up the ending on YouTube. (I'd prefer the former though)
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(comment on this)
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Friday, June 9th, 2006
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10:02 am - Week from Hell
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It seems alot of people I've been talking to had a rather bum week. Mine decided to start on Saturday while I was in Texas for work. While we were out of the hotel working all day someone decided to steal my notebook PC and everything that was with it. They took a loaner notebook and case that was given to us from the company we're doing work for as well. Spending the week having to watch TV most of the time in a hotel room is not much fun. There is also the sense of kicking yourself and so forth for leaving it there in the first place. Regardless it's gone now. I've done most of what I can to protect myself as far as passwords and checking with the credit card company and bank. Just in case they happen to be somewhat computer literate and can get into my PC and find some remote cached info.
The rest of the week had it's issues, but those were related to work in general and not on a personal level thankfully. Our 24ft Truck was a moving death trap, and none of our alarm codes worked anywhere we had to go for the week. At some point it gets to be funny of course, but I am wholely glad this week is over now.
The positive note to this is that work said they'd cover my notebook regardless if their insurance did for me. (it looks like the insurance will at this point) I am glad for that part. Now I just need to get over the whole fact I was robbed and the insecure feeling that goes with it.
Oh yea, being single still sucks too.
current mood: Grateful for weekends
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, April 27th, 2006
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11:13 pm - Easter Egg!
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If you don't catch a website showing what it is...go load up Mel Gibson's Apocalypto trailer. When you see a screaming monkey near the end, pause the trailer and back up frame by frame.
You will have no trouble knowing where to stop.
P.S. - There is a spoiler in my comments now. If you want to be suprised then check out the trailer first.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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8:20 am - Three hours of Kevin Smith..
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Last night I ended up flipping through channels after I got home from work thinking I'd take in most of my normal fare. Instead I found out that one of the Encore channels was showing An Evening with Kevin Smith. The whole thing consisted of footage from Kevin talking/answering questions at different universities.
This stuff was better than alot of stand-up comedy I've watched.
It was so enthralling that I had planned to go to bed around 11pm...and just couldn't turn the thing off till it was over!
The guy has such a wit and personality about him that I just can't get over it. If you ever have a chance to check this out on TV (even without having seen any of his movies, though it helps) then you should. I just wish I had caught it from the beginning.
Hearing him talk about going out to protest one of his own movies (Dogma) though had me rolling. (He was interviewed on TV, but gave the name of his friend who was with him when questioned by the reporter.)
Snoogins
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
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11:23 am - Behold! Cuddley EVIL!
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Monday, January 9th, 2006
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2:57 pm - Just for Bambi
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Thursday, December 15th, 2005
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4:25 pm - Farmer Class for WoW!
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11:58 am - Wow
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No this isn't about Warcraft. It is about being a gamer and doing something special.
If you've even remotely followed Penny Arcade for the last few years you probably know about their charity Christmas drive they started two years ago called Childs Play. (http://www.childsplaycharity.com/)
I've always wanted to support this as a gamer and for kids who could use something this year while they are stuck in some misery, so I picked out a Nintendo DS and a game to go with it from Amazon.com and sent it off to the Texas Childrens Hospital.
I'm not one to usually rally behind much of a cause, but helping kids out and giving the world a better idea of what kind of people gamers are is one I will always support. Now i'm just glad a child somewhere will have a better Christmas this year.
Wow
current mood: grateful
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(comment on this)
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Friday, December 9th, 2005
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1:16 pm - For you baby...I could be!
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FastKev in Officer Under | In this compelling rollercoaster, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fastkev (Antonio Banderas) is an undercover hacker with a mission. He promises to protect k_may_li (Angelina Jolie) before his foe, rhast (Daniel Stern), gets to her. Imagining that this plight is reversible, he brings down a secret submarine. Voted by many as marginally better than pro-wrestling. | |
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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9:29 am - Ugh
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Some days just seem to have 'Long' written all over them...
current mood:  blah
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
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3:18 pm - Inspired by K_May_Li
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It's been over three months now since Katrina rolled into the New Orleans area. How have things progressed since then? I guess that depends on what part of town you live.
The Jefferson parish (counties for all you other people) area has pretty much been stable since the hurricane. I live in this parish..which is pretty large, but suffered the least ammount of damage in the primary area. Most things have re-opened except for stuff that took major damage. Resturants are back to their full menu's and repairs seem to be moving along. My parents are still living with me for now. FEMA finally got in touch and they are lucky enough to be getting a trailer, but it'll be a few weeks. I have no problem with my parents living with me, but the point of moving out was to get away from living with my folks!
New Orleans parish is moving along very slowly. I work downtown and from the companies we service it seems that most of them are back, or will be soon. Streetlights and stoplights outside of the CBD in some areas are still not working. There are still alot of shops and resturants closed. Signs are being displayed by many companies showing their support of rebuilding. Lots of windows still broken. Traffic is still nowhere near what it was pre-Katrina which means that while it's livelier now..it's not back up to full. There is still alot to tear down before they can rebuild. I still see alot of flooded cars to be moved. They do have the Superdome repainted though...not that anyone can use it for now.
New Orleans East, Lakeshore, and Chalmette areas (The ones that were on the news other than downtown) are still pretty much destroyed. Trust me when I mention that seeing it on TV just doesn't do true justice. They just let people back into the ninth ward recently (where one of the levee's broke open) and there isn't much for them to go back to now. This was also the highest crime area in the city. Power is still out in these areas but suposedly there are people gettin trailers to stay there and start rebuilding. Worst of all though...some of these retards in the ninth ward decided to threaten to kill the FEMA people who were there to HELP THEM! Naturally the government pulled them out. They wonder why so few people are sorry to hear that the ninth ward was destroyed in the first place.
Personally I think it'll get worse (if that is possible) before it starts getting better. The people who were poor before and collecting money from the government are still poor and now wanting more money from the government. People want to know what's going to be done to make the levee's stronger. They want to know what happened to all the promises that were made by Bush on TV. If New Orleans and Louisiana's politics weren't so dirty to begin with then I'd think the city could come out of this for the better. Right now I don't see it happening. Alot of people can not or will not come back to the city. This is fine by me in many ways. Traffic was bad enough as it was, and at least if you watch the news now a murder is the exception rather than the norm. Perhaps a few steps forward can be made in the end. Trump is still talking about building his new tower here which would be a good thing.
I, being an optimist, do still have hopes for New Orleans. I'm not ready to leave it behind. I love many things about it that survived Katrina even if I don't take advantage of them frequently. The French Quarter being one of the main ones. I still have time to change my mind if I really want, but I think life would have to turn pretty bad here before I would give up on it. Some of you are wondering how I'm doing? Really my life hasn't changed greatly. The places I frequent are open, the things I do are still available, and i'm still single and in search of someone to love.
Some things just never change.
current mood: chipper
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
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8:26 am - Silent Bob Speaks!
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Probably the best reason ever to read a forum where people do nothing but bitch....to see how Kevin Smith responds.
He's done it once before on Ain't It Cool News. This time he took a line of posts people made and put his responses on his own website.
For people who are interested and want a good laugh here is the link:
http://viewaskew.com/theboard/viewtopic.php?p=1273146#1273146
Even if you aren't much of a Kevin Smith fan this is somethin that should give you a laugh on a boring day.
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
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1:09 pm - Cause Shana told me to...
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If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad, or possibly illegal.
When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your journal to see what people remember about you.
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
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9:21 am - Huzzah!
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I'm an uncle again.
My neice was born this morning around 8:20am at Forest General in Hattiesburg, MS. Madison Sharp, weighing in around 7lbs 19oz.
I'll be up in Hattiesburg again this weekend to visit and bring my dad up there as well.
WooT!
current mood: cheerful
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
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8:58 am - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
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Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
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8:45 pm - Lost
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I've wondered if I would post anything for awhile about this.
What is there to say? I live or lived in New Orleans all my life. Now I may not be able to go back to that. Every hour the news seems to get worse. The levee's had broken in places, but the Core of Engineers was working to fix it...now it seems they can't. Water is going to kill the pump out there again allowing water to flood more of the city. Up to 15 feet of water.
By all reports my appartment has been spared damage. Yipee...but for what? What do I have to go back to when the rest of the city is destroyed. At least a month before power is even restored. How long to clean up? How long to rebuild? Is my stuff still there or have looters made it to my appartment by chance and taken what little I have? The last word was that we could go back into town in a week, but only to collect essential items and leave again. That may change again since they can't stop the water.
Tomorrow at 9am the few of us from work who have been in contact with each other are having a conference call to figure out what we can do. Our office is downtown. Most likely underwater now, but also had a problem leaking with water when it rained. Therefore it is very likely our servers and building have damage. Is the owner going to try and continue on? Have us work out of Baton Rouge to Lafayette? I don't know. What I do know is I am not getting paid right now and that bothers me.
It continues to feel like it still hasn't sunk in what has happened. I keep thinking we'll all go home and life will continue again as it always has, but the more I watch the more I feel hopeless about the city I've loved so long. I've canceled accounts for games, services, and things I don't NEED right now to save money. I sit in my sisters house in Lake Charles watching the news get worse and worse. Like everyone else I'd like nothing more than to get Chaotic Evil on some looters asses. There is nothing worse I think than feeling helpless. Wondering what there will be when you get back...not just for me but my parents and my aunt and uncle who are here with me as well.
I know we're all alive and well, but at the same time as I watch the news get worse I feel more of my life slipping away.
current mood:  gloomy
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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mischievous
