Engineers and Cats

As both an owner of cats and daughter of an engineer, this made me almost pee my pants I laughed so hard. (It's about 6 minutes long and you definitely need sound.)

I is for...

I is for ISKF (International Shotokan Karate Federation). I think this is the first of many times I'm going to fudge with the letters a bit. I already have K's (karate )and S's (Shotokan) planned, but no I. Then John suggested this solution. He's so smart.

So, Lara got started with the karate club in college, and I joined in too when I got to W&M. We had a pretty strong club up there: we had a nearby sensei who came to campus twice a week, and we were allowed to go to his dojo whenever we could make it. (You could always tell the people up for their black belt test; they headed to the dojo like every day) We usually had about 10-20 people at trainings-- Sensei wanted a club where he needed a megaphone to be heard. :) We also had the privilege of Sensei Teruyuki Okazaki coming to our testings and doing clinics for us three times a year.

Club Photo for 2005-2006. Okazaki Sensei is at far left, Sensei Pohle far right.
(I am in the middle row, fifth from the right in pigtails.)

Okazaki Sensei is the head of the ISKF and trained under the founders of Shotokan karate, Masters Ginchin Funakoshi and Masatoshi Nakayama. He was very influential in the start of the Japanese Karate Association, then was sent to the USA by Master Nakayama to help spread karate to the world. He's based out of the HQ dojo in Philadelphia, and visits entire countries, so to have him come to little ol' Williamsburg was super huge. We think our sensei must have rescued somebody's baby or something for our club to be so lucky.

Testing, Fall 2006. Kata section, Bassai Dai

I also went to Tokyo on a school grant to train at the JKA HQ dojo in the summer of 2006. That was an experience-- training with maybe one other person who speaks your language (I only had studied Japanese formally for two semesters before leaving). It's amazing, though, how much of "sensei speak" is able to cross language barriers. I could tell when he would be demonstrating something that we were doing bad [Japanese mutter mutter in low voice] and when he would show us what we were supposed to be doing [Japanese mutter mutter in higher tones]. Listen to any teacher of a physical activity and they do the same thing.

Testing, Fall 2006. Roundhouse to the face! I love this picture.

And I have to mention it- karate gave me my sugapi! I met John through the karate club... and I still say I don't understand karate relationships. I am definitely not looking my best at trainings and a gi is not the most flattering outfit ever, so to have a boy think you are cute when he only sees you at karate is a little weird. But I still love him. :)

OMG!! You have to check out the mad eating skillz of Cinnamon the Original Disapproving Rabbit Bunnies are too funny

Favorite Links ...Tuesday

Since I'm running this blog I can change up the weekly schedule if I want to... even if I really like the alliteration of "Favorite Links Friday" [sigh]

I spent the morning going through the posts and pictures on the Daily Coyote site and I feel that other people really just need to check them out. SS runs the site devoted to her rescued coyote friend, Charlie. Charlie came to her as a very young puppy when he was orphaned, and with the help of her cat, Eli, SS enjoys the gorgeous Wyoming scenery and Charlie's antics. She posts regularly on her blog but is five months behind the present since that was when she decided to start the blog in the first place-- so don't be surprised by talk of snow when it's warm outside. I appreciate the real-time, because you can never see too many pictures of cute baby fluffy things.

I also find it funny that Charlie is now much bigger than Eli, but still is scared of the cat when he gets mad. My favorite story SS told was when Charlie annoyed Eli into getting a hiss and a swat, which sent Charlie hiding up on the bed. Not deterred from his play, Charlie was tossing about a toy, only to lose it and have it land next to the perturbed cat. SS was cracking up over how obvious it was that Charlie really wanted to get his toy back, but was afraid of Eli getting mad at him again. :)

Another bonus is that her photos are super-great! They vary between really breath-taking mountain scenes (a personal favorite is "Horizon Fire"), artistic shots of Charlie looking stoic, and the more frequent berserker, Charlie-at-play moments. Looking at some of her stuff, I sometimes wish I could get photos like that.

Besides, she titles her pictures wonderfully: things like "Corn Spaz," "Yippee in a Puddle; It's Friday," and "Sometimes you Feel like a Nut." I think we all need a little yippee in a puddle because it's Friday now and then. :)

Cute!

So, I'm on this mailing list for a British (go figure) cross stitch store, and normally they send emails about stuff I have no time or desire for. Except this week I got some cute patterns! I may get the bunny alphabet and do something cute for lara (shhh... don't tell her), and the shop can always use sheepy things.