Cleveland Tournament!

Pictures from the Cleveland Tournament!!! Inoshita Sensei's Clinic! I thought it was inside the hospital, i didnt' realize he has his own building. That van on the right is the one we drove up to Cleveland and back in.
This is Mark, I was just showing him and Hiro-san my DSi on the drive up.

This is mark in DSi-added sunggasses...

This is the gym where teh tournament was held... well a part of it anyway.

More gym

More gym

even more gym

MORE GYM!!!!

....

This is Hiro-san, he's really cool. We get along well and I practice my Japanese with him a bit.

This is Herb, he's also cool. Like me, he does various martial arts and so understands where I'm coming from more often than not.

This is during an actual match, I had some time before my first fight that I didnt' have to be in armor, so I snapped a few pictures since I couldn't get my own fight.

This is Mark in armor, I took this just before I got suited up for my first fight.

This is... I forgot his name... anyway he was just observing, he's only been taking it a few weeks. We have him in armor now, though.

This is the gym where the tournament was held from the outside.

This is me before my tournament bouts, I got ready just after I took this.

This is a picture of Hiro hitting my do... why I took it, nobody knows!

Here's Herb and White playing around, I'm not sure what Dojo White is from, but he's pretty cool.

This is Paul, he drove up seperately from us to help with the tournament stuff. I dont' know what exactly because I wasn't paying attention, i was excited about fighting and sake.

This is me all armored up!!! Get ready to fight, Ryan!!!

This is Inoshita-sensei, he's a bigwig, so he was doing tournament stuff most of the time. He took time to watch my last fight in the semi-finals, though! Thanks sensei, I appreciated that.

Greg Lyons... this picture represents him well. I'd love to spar him in open hand martial arts...

Here's before I changed at the tournament. Sleepy, but ready to rock!

Here's me after the tournament... sooo tired, but so happy.

Someone's bogu all wrapped up, here's how it looks when it's inside the bag.

My tournament t-shirt and my legs! More to come of the shirt.

It says nature on the back, it was the theme for this year's tournament. Very appropriate for a druid don't you think?

Amusement

It amuses me immensely that people take strong stances on stupid things. Take gay marriage for instance... unless you're gay or are friends with a gay person, why in the holy fuck do you care? I care so little that when the topic comes up I literally say "who cares" and don't bother presenting my point of view. I'm not even going to present it now, because it doesn't matter, it has nothing to do with me. Why do Americans LOVE to stick their nose in everyone else's business so much? It's incredibly annoying. Things like abortion are similar, I'll never be in that situation, so why do I care? People who are actually dealing with the issues are the ones who should make the call. Women and men who have either kept a baby, aborted one, or are considering one or the other are the only ones qualified to make that decision. Do I have an opinion... of course... do I think my opinion is well-informed... not in the least, so I'll mind my own business. I have no idea what emotions are attached to that kind of thing, so why should I have any say in it? Furthermore, why in this "free" country, and I use the term with strong sarcasm, do people want to force their morals on others? There's not a single law in a truely free country that should have anything to do with morality. Laws exist to protect people, if a law doesn't protect someone, it's pointless. I'm not saying abortion laws don't protect people mind you, they may or may not, it doesn't matter. What I'm saying is that things like the death penalty are stupid things to debate. If that person has murdered 12 people in cold blood, then that person being alive is a threat to us all, so fucking kill his crazy ass. As far as HIM being protected, breaking a law voids many of your rights, so that's not even a consideration. Any moron who thinks that murderers have rights needs to be moved to an isolated town. Then we can release all of the murderers into that town, because it violates their rights to be locked up... problem solved.

OMG!

I'm in so much PAIN! I guess that's what a weekend of fun will do to you. I had no idea until just now, I fell asleep last night, I think I slept like 16 hours or so. I felt fine last night, just my feet and right wrist were a little sore, now I'm in so much pain it's hard to move. Ah but it's glorious pain, I know I'll be stronger for it. Anyway, on to the tournament!

We arrived Friday evening and had a long long practice until late Friday night, they provided our dinner, which was some crappy mexican food, there's no Japanese catering service in Cleveland I suppose. We went back to the hotel and I called Ting Ting very breifly, but I had to go to bed cuz we were waking up at 6:30.

Saturday! The day of the tournament section! We woke up around 6:30 and went downstairs to get our breakfast from the hotel, as soon as we were all done eating we went back to the gym where the tourament is being held. My division was one of the first to fight! Of course we had a two hour practice before we even started the tournament... man these guys like to practice. Anyway, I was SOOOO excited when it came time to fight. I ended up making the semi finals, although I won two of my matches without scoring a real point. One match I forced my opponent out of bounds twice, and we were already on overtime, so I won. The other one we used up all of our overtime as well, so the judges called me the winner because I had control of the match more or less. I finally lost on another close fight. This time was also an overtime match, but I did something stupid and stepped out of bounds once, so when overtime ran out, the judges called the other guy the winner. I was very sad that my fighting was over. Although at the same time my wrist was hurting, hahahaha. Too much fighting. Anyway, I spent the rest of the time before lunch watching some of my teammates fight. They all ended up losing their first fight, so I was bored most of this time, only getting to see a couple of fights of people I know. Lunch was a bento (japanese box lunch) and it was DELICIOUS. Man I love Japanese food, I was already so happy from fighting, so this really made my day. After lunch there was only the highest ranks and the team battles left. The highest ranks are all in one division. I saw one team member lose his first fight, but Hiro-san made it really far, he won his court and fought in the semi finals. Poor guy was tired, but he's damned good, I have to get way better than him. We had some crappy american food for dinner, stupid catering again. Then we got completely wasted on sake, I wanted to call Ting Ting during this time, but I didn't want Ting Ting to hear me drunk (I sound slow and stupid when drunk). They ran out of sake except for the special bottles they brought just for the sensei, so I thought I was done. Then walking back Hiro-san he waved me over using a glass of sake as a lure! So I sat with Hiro-san and Herb-san and finished off a bottle of sake for Hir0-san's ex-sensei who was apparently finished. I was so drunk at this point that I was aware we were sitting in a circle with many people, but I could only see a couple of people away. I'm not even sure where that sensei was sitting. We got back to the hotel kinda late and went to sleep.

Sunday was yet another practice before the testing. I was a bit nervous about the testing and made a couple of mistakes. There was an Iaido seminar after that, it lasted hours and hours before they posted the testing results. I'm very dissappointed because I only got yonkyuu, and I know I should have made nikyuu, but it's only my own fault because I looked like an idiot out there. They were clear about where to stand or how many times to do things, so even if I weren't nervous, I would have made many of the same mistakes again, it was rather annoying. Honestly I'm also a bit annoyed at my teachers for not warning me ahead of time, I dunno how they expect me to know that you only do four of everything in the testing rather than 5 like normal. I just LOVE making myself look like I have no idea what I'm doing. Anyway, we left... what time did we leave? I don't remember, but we got to Columbus around 6:30PM or so and stopped at a Japanese restaurant... HIBACHIS! It was delicous, the perfect way to top off the day. i'm glad we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at the hotel, it let me eat sooo much Japanese food. I talked to Ting Ting a bit when I got home, but she had to go cuz she was at school, I knew I had to go to sleep soon, though, because my body was exhausted. I fell asleep not too awfully long after taking a hot bath and now here I am, just waking up. Time to go find some food, I'm starving.

So Tired

Ugh, this is hard to keep up with. I've been working my ass off getting ready for Cleveland and I'm still FAR from ready. I've been sleeping a couple of hours here and a couple there, no solid sleep for many days. I also have a blister on my left hand, I have no idea how I'm going to deal with that. I'll bring one of my wrist wraps and use it on my hand if the blister gets too much worse, which I'm sure it will, since I can already see blood in it. That's what I get for overtraining. Ah well. Three solid days of kendo, this will be a blast regardless. Hope Ting Ting can forgive me for my selfishness, haven't had a lot of time for her lately. I'll take lots of pictures with my DSi while I'm in cleveland, that won't make up for it, but at least she can experience little flashes of my time there.

Damn

Got a bit of a long day today, I'm supposed to have a kendo seminar from 1-4 PM, but my freaking work, AS ALWAYS, scheduled something with just a few days warning at that EXACT FUCKING TIME. I have an orientation starting at 1:30 PM, hopefully it'll be less than an hour and I can get back to the seminar >_< It's a very important simenar. People at school keep asking me why I'm in a bad mood, it's been like that for two weeks! Why does everyone think I'm in a bad mood? Am I really acting differently? I dunno, all I'm thinking about lately is my tournament, maybe I'm just focused and people mistake that for being mean, because I'm usually attentive and silly?

Achy Day

Ah, not such a good day today, gonna miss my first class! My car wouldn't start, so I had to spend an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. In the end, the cable was just messed up, the one that goes to the battery. What a thing to spend an hour on -_-" I don't expect this day to end well at all. At least Ting Ting seems to be in a good mood today. I really need to find someone to work the 18th for me or I'm going to miss my kendo tournament!!! It's not my fault, because of complications with our schedule at work, no one knew whether or not they would be working that day! Really sucks. Well I don't have much time to blog today, so I'll end here, hope my day gets better! Hope Ting Ting has a good day too.

I dream: a familiar girl, a green and yellow plain, forests in the distance. A group of familiar people, a farm, a calm, relaxed lifestyle. I live there for weeks, I never talk to the girl, I'm a farmer, I enjoy my life. A great war comes, everyone has to fight, even the girl. We go to train in a snowy landscape filled with glacial cliffs and mountains. We train, we prepare, we learn to fight and to use magic. We're in a huge, icy temple, it's been abandoned for years, the corpses of our fellow soldiers line the floors, fresh blood running down to the exit. There are only a few of us left, but we go to fight in the morning. The girl and I are in different squads, there are only two squads left. My squad leaves first, hers is supposed to leave right after. We march for awhile, maybe an hour, and I feel something strange in my pack. I open it... the girl I've never spoken to has left me a gift, a very sweet gift. I abandon my squad and rush back to the temple. She's there, one of the familiar people, a very large powerful man, has come back looking for me as well. We leave to catch up with our squad, the girl comes with us. We camp in a glacial valley that night, a small streem has cut an entrance and an exit into the valley. In the middle of the night, she and I aren't sleeping still, we're talking. She asks me to come somewhere with her. I follow her to great cliffs with thin ice bridges and ropes running accross. She asks me to come accross with her to the other side. I realize she's going to kill herself, she's afraid of battle, she's certain she'll die anyway. Instead of starting accross a bridge, she starts accross a rope, I shout "NO", but she's already moving, she stops quite a distance out onto the rope, to my amazement she's just standing there on the rope, looking at me. She smiles sadly, and she says "And what if I do this?" as she leans to the side, allowing herself to fall. Without thinking I launch myself strait down, grabbing the rope, breaking the brittle, half frozen thing away from the cliff. Somehow I catch her with one hand while holding the rope with the other. We swing down, narrowly missing the ground, and swing back and forth on the rope until it finally comes to a stop, leaving us hanging just above the ground, safe. We head back, the war is over, our side won somehow, that group of familiar people isn't angry with me at all, they just ask what happened and laugh when I explain. They seem happy about it. I wake up.

Meh

Nothing much happened today, there was some kind of crazy acrid fog hanging over the town last night, though. It smelled strongly of sulfer and made me choke badly until I got used to it, it still gave me a headache after that, though. Pretty calm night, still a lot going on at school right now, though, friday nights seem kinda busy compared to normal. Not to say they are stressful or cause a lot of work or anything, my job is easy even when it's super busy. I added lots of Maximum the Hormone songs to my playlist, they are my favorite band right now, the only ones in a long time to pass up Tokyo Jihen in my mind. Jihen latest stuff isn't that good though... Eh, no wonder Asian people leave certain words out of English speak... it's so hard to say... should be Jihen no, but in English it's Jihen's? But Jihen's sounds stupid O_o

Ah

Ah, not a bad day, my brother isn't as badly hurt as everyone was saying. Dad says he doesn't even look like himself, he's swollen and burned, but the doctors say there shouldn't be any scarring on his face, just his arms (that's what he gets for wearing sleeveless shirts). I dunno about his ears, someone told me they were blown off when it first happened, but it's probably crap, just like most of what they told me. My first words to Dad when he told me that T.J. was gonna recover were "I'm calling him an idiot next time I talk to him." in a very even voice. To this dad launches into a defense about how hard it is to turn off propane torches... Dad knows better than to argue with me much, though, we only ever argue when he's defending someone, and he's never defending anyone that's in the right. Anyway, he'll still be staying with me for a few days, but I hope to catch some rest today, I'm going to hang around on msn for awhile to see if Ting Ting shows up, but since I wasn't there for like 4 days she probably won't come on, haha. It'll take a while to get back into our usual routine I bet, especially since this all won't be over for a few more days T_T

Oh, I'm gonna add some music to my blog as well.

My Family

My lord, even my mom, who is completely unrelated to my brother has called me. At first she pretended to care a lot and said she cried all night, but I think the attitude in my voice was enough to get her to stop trying to get sympathy from me, I KNOW she doesn't really care. It's the same with most of my family... My dad and my aunt Angel are the only ones I know of who actually interact with my brother at all, I believe they genuinely care. The rest of my family... Gods how I hate them, preening for sympathy like the lowlife scum that they are. I'm REALLY upset that I didnt' get to talk to Ting Ting much lately, but I'm the only person in my family with half a head on his shoulders, so I'm the only one that can organize this circus they are trying to turn my brother's accident into. I'm the only one who's even coherent enough to think about things like medical expenses, life insurance, funeral arrangements. Gods I hope he doesn't die, it'll devestate my Dad, and THAT I won't know how to deal with. *sigh* it's hard to sleep, not because I'm worried, I was never close to my brother, but ever since they explained to me exactly what happened, I haven't been able to stop thinking about how STUPID that was of him, and how much of a completely HELL it must have been when the car exploded, trapped in an inferno of burning propane as glass shatters all around you and your flesh burns... Anyway, I need to get to school, I have a speach today and this whole thing has put me behind... I was hoping Ting Ting was online... well she'll read this, so don't worry Ting Ting, I'm FINE, just busy O_o

!

There was a lot I wanted to say for today, but shortly after I got home from school, I got a call from my dad. Apparently my brother has been flown to a hospital in columbus by helicopter. He was in a really bad accident, some kind of propane explosion, he might be dying. My father wants me to pray, I think T.J. needs a doctor, not prayer. Anyway, There are probably some things I'll need to take care of in the next few days, if T.J. lives I hope he gets out quickly, otherwise he'll find himself saddled with more medical bills than he can ever repay. To someone who believes wholeheartedly in reincarnation, it's much worse to live a lifetime of debt than to spend a short lifetime well.

Yet Another Strange Event

I had just come back from doing some schoolwork and sat down reading an article online, just letting myself take it easy for a few minutes. As I finished the article, I heart voices talking. I strained my ears, but the voices didn't get any clearer, I couldn't make out what they were saying. I slipped into my sandals and picked up my katana, heading outside to see if something was going on. I checked all around my house, but saw nothing, all I could hear were the spring birds chirping away. But I heard voices... very distinctly voices. I walked back in and sat down in the exact same spot, and I heard nothing. Not a thing was moving aside from the birds when I was outside. What was I hearing? The voice of spirits, the voice of the wind, or the voice of the birds? A car went by as I was writing this, and I thought to myself: "I can tell by the sound of that car, that there's no way I was hearing voices from actual people outside, the only way that's possible is if they were crouched just below my window... in my neighbor's fenced-in yard. The voices definately weren't "in my head", although I never deny the idea that I might simply be crazy. I don't think I am, though, I think they really meant something. Maybe in time things like that will be clearer to me, they are certainly clearer now than they were when I was younger.

Crazy Two Days

Eh, things weren't so good the last two days, there's a LOT going on! I'm in charge now on Friday nights and I don't really like being in charge, haha. In addition to that we had to stay over to do lots of things. Today wasn't as bad, we didn't have to stay over as long and we only had some things to do later. So my coworker and I went to the gym to spar in the meantime. My coworker has had only limited training, so he kind of sucks at fighting, but I played around and had a bit of fun. Then when we grappled I really started to have fun, he doesn't look that strong and he's not THAT big, but he was able to pick me up like I was nothing! It surprised me so much the first time he did it that I was only able to get back down and get him into a submission by planting my feet against the wall, hahahaha. It was glorious fun, though, I LOVE being surprised. I'm going to spar with him fairly often to help him improve his overall fighting, and grapple with him for fun! He's better than your average fighter by a good bit, and his strength helps to make up for some more of the skill gap, so I can actually have a ton of fun grappling with him. I was also amazed that I can still control myself very well in midair, I guess I've lost a lot of weight, I don't think I would have had much control a few months ago!

First Post

Eh, been a long time since I kept a journal, that's kind of what I'm using this for. Um, I had three hours of kendo last night, then I worked all night, then I played an hour and a half of racket ball. Obviously my old energy is coming back lately, feels pretty good. On the other hand, I seem to be sleeping quite a bit lately, I think it's my anemia. Ever since I got sprayed with M.A.C.E. during training a few weeks ago, my nose has been bleeding again. It's not as bad as it was before, though, so the effects are WAY less. Anyway, the past couple of days have been nice, a good way to wind down as my spring break starts to come to a close.