Blue-Brown Belt and Other Stuff

I just belt-tested this evening and earned a blue-brown belt. On the one side, I made so many mistakes, it wasn't funny. I didn't kiai enough, I didn't breathe properly, I didn't have enough endurance, I didn't move my hips enough, I used too much power instead of technique, I leaned forward too much, Augh! On the other side, I did know the techniques required, I did recover seamlessly when I made mistakes, I was neither too gentle nor too rough with my uke and I did remember to kiai a fair number of times. I am very disappointed with myself, but I don't think the belt is completely undeserved. I probably wouldn't have tried for it yet, except that I was pretty much told to do so by Sensei and Shihan - it was a lot of work on top of helping everyone else prepare. It's probably for the best that I did: I can only help people insomuch as I know and can demonstrate the material myself.

In other news, I think the dojo Christmas party is shaping up to be really fun. A good lot of parents and adult dojo members have said they are coming. Unfortunately, our Sensei won't be coming, or if he does, rather late: work conflict. On the fun side: it'll be a potluck, so not so much work, and at least several people (including myself) are planning on making music and singing. :-)

Workwise: I finished a bit of required work, and am now having fun, trying to make a work program multithreaded, or at least pseudo-multithreaded, so that a long process can be interrupted if need be. The "program" is actually an add on for another program, and apparently the original program never anticipated multithreaded DLLs and puts some pretty insurmountable roadblocks in the way of true multithreading, so I'm going with the pseudo-multithreading. I think I have it pretty much licked.

I've got next week off, and I'll be helping a few people move. Then we kick off next year with a Jiu Jitsu "trainer training". After being in the dojo an average of 4 times a week for the past couple months, it feels like Jiu Jitsu is taking over my life. I think it's good I'll be taking a two (three?) week vacation from it.

There are several JavaScript/Perl programs that have been put on the back burner while I've been in Jiu Jitsu overdrive. I hope to finally get around to making the games playable and the other programs actually useful.

I've also got some repairs and improvements to be done around the house: I want to put a ventilator in the bathroom and install a fireplace.

I switched from Vodafone (they bought out our previous provider) to Telekom, which was a mistake. I've switched again to UnityMedia, which is a good deal so far, but now I've got a conflict with the German Telekom. I need to talk to a lawyer about that. I'll probably end up paying for two years of overpriced Telekom service that I don't need or want. *sigh*.

The youth group I mentioned in the last post didn't work out very well and has pretty much self-destructed - the youth stopped coming. It looks like we'll be starting a new group with two kids who are more enthusiastic about helping their community. I hope we can attract a few more kids like these two to the group.

I'm still working on perfect pitch - it is slowly, ever so slowly improving. I've been at it for months now, and I have only about a 30% chance of getting through the first six levels of the easiest setting with no mistakes (that is, recognizing 18 notes in a row, from a single octave with no sharps or flats).

I'm still meeting with the Chinese student to exchange guitar lessons for Mandarin lessons, though we give it a miss more often than we meet - both he and I have schedule conflicts fairly often.

Altogether, life is going okay.

General Update

Well, things have been rolling right along. I'm supposed to take a month of vacation leftover from last year before the end of June, but I haven't managed to take any yet. I've been rather busy with work of late, despite the "Kurzarbeit".

In related news, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to create a proper cross-compiler toolchain for big-endian ARM processor so I can develop for my OpenMoko (SHR) / Neo Freerunner. Getting the cross-compiler itself is easy, but getting all the libraries etc. to compile is near impossible. I've given up for the moment and taken an older pre-compiled toolchain, just so I can get something done.

I've taken part in 2 Jiu Jitsu trainings since my last post. I'm continuing to be a co-trainer for Nippon Jiu Jitsu, and in fact am adding to it by leading 9:00 am Saturday "free trainings" between now and the belt test next month for any kids who want to practice up before the belt test. I've discovered I need a first aid certification before I can get a green belt - I need to do that soon.

We're continuing our Friday evening devotional, sometimes with more, sometimes fewer people, but still going good. Our (Baha'i) cluster is now officially an "A Cluster", meaning we have a vibrant community with lots of people involved in core activities. I'll probably be participating in a Ruhi 8 course soon - though my Saturday morning free training may conflict with that (time and place is not yet set).

Oh - big news: Mom has cancer, but most of my few readers will already know that. She's undergoing chemo and radiation - the prognosis is good, because it was caught early.

I *still* don't know if I'll be going to the U.S. this Summer. DW is definite that she's not going: she protesting the new Teraherz scanners the only effective way - boycotting air travel. If I go, it will be around the week of July 10-18.

Miscellany

It's about time for an update:

A week ago last Tuesday I went to the company central and dragged along my "praktikant", even though he was no longer a praktikant and his contract was about to run out. He's now done and starting his studies at the University here. :-)

I am doing a lot less "Kurzarbeit", i.e. a good deal more work. In particular I am currently trying to get a set of cross-compile tools set up for both MIPS and ARM processors. Documentation in OSS really, really sucks. I think once I get my set to compile, I'll post my script to generate them somewhere.

My Sensei was out both Monday and Thursday this week. On Monday, his official assistant, B., managed to get some parents really angry with him and give Sensei an earful - he was too heavy-handed and caused a couple of kids to be really upset. On Thursday, another brown belt, T., led the group - this time, the kids were so happy with T., that several asked if he would be there on Monday, too. I think that evened things out a bit. :-)

We've also been very active in Baha'i activities. Last weekend, we were all underway in different cities for the Baha'i cause: I was at a practice session for guitarists and singers who wished to improve their skills for Musical Firesides, DW was at an institutional meeting, and K. was underway trying to get youth and children's classes started. Tomorrow we're having an Ayyam-i-ha celebration at our place - I've made some stollen for the party. :-)

Short Work, Co-Training, Between the Years

I really need to get in a routine of posting. Since I last posted the biggest change is that I am (and all my colleagues are) in what Germans call "Kurzarbeit" (literally "short work") - that is, I am to work (much) less than usual and the employment office pays part of my salary. This has given me tons of free time, which I've been filling with different activities: Mondays and Thursdays I go to the Dojo two and a half hours earlier to act as a co-trainer for the kids and junior classes; I've been attending more Baha'i activities; I've been reading more; I've been surfing more (I discovered reddit).

The Dojo has a lot of kids: there are usually between 10 and 20 kids. I still can't remember all their names, though I've been trying to learn them. The juniors are much easier: there are only four who come regularly. It is very gratifying to see the kids (all of them) progressing - not so much in their Jiu Jitsu skills, although they are improving there, but in their interpersonal skills and their attention span - that is where it is really gratifying.

The next belt test is in 3 weeks, and I feel pretty confident, what with all the extra practice as co-trainer. Even so, I plan on stepping up my practice a notch: I want to go to a "sister" Dojo Wednesdays to train some more - I can't usually make the "free training" on Fridays because of our regular Friday evening event.

What Germans call "Between the years", that is between Christmas and New Years, we (myself, DW and DD=dear daughter) were in Berlin, visiting P. P is an elderly Iranian woman, whose husband was martyred some time ago. She herself spent some time in an Iranian prison and still has some health problems because of it. Kelly produced a radio show with her, telling of her experiences, and later Kelly helped her write a book about it (in German). She's pretty happy and sprightly anyway. We camped out with sleeping bags in her living room and had a good time, visiting museums, seeing shows and such. I fixed some problems with her laptop for her and installed Skype and a webcam so she could communicate with family and friends, while DW and DD went window shopping on the famous KuDamm. We had intended to be back home about 9:00 pm on New Years Eve, but due to weather, our planned train was canceled and our alternate trains were all late, such that we ended up getting home about a quarter to midnight. We were in good spirits anyway. We spent a good chunk of the time in a Chinese restaurant in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station - the last open restaurant - waiting for our next connection. They were really nice about letting us stay in the warm restaurant and reading our books instead of waiting out in the cold, even though they wanted to close up shop.

Yesterday I hurt my thumb in Jiu Jitsu practice, but not badly, I think: I slammed my hand down on the mat with my thumb underneath. It's red, sore, stiff and slightly swollen today, but usable. Our Sensei has been having us do more free sparring of a sort - officially there is no free sparring, but we have exercises where we wrestle - no standing allowed - but locks are allowed.

Last Friday I finally visited H, who I've been attempting to visit since October. He's a Christian who really believes in living Christ's message - the love everyone Christ, not the "hate fags" Christ. He lives in a house out in the boonies, with a dog, a cat and four sheep. I played a lot of guitar and we discussed religion and society, and we were pretty much in complete agreement about everything. I also told him a good bit about Baha'i - he was interested and asked a lot of questions. I also got a bag of wool for my sister :-) . I still have to clean it before I can send it to her. I'm not sure if we're going to the U.S. this Summer, what with reduced income and uncertainty and all, but if we do, I'll probably bring it along instead of sending it.

A somewhat older story (November?), but very happy thing: I've had a solar panel for most of a year now, and had been intending to set it up and make it usable. Sensei's girlfriend, E, is a teacher, and she was participating in a project week on energy conservation and alternate energy sources, so I suggested that she could use my solar panel to demonstrate. This was the motivation I needed toget off my ***, and I fixed everything up so that it worked, with the various components detachable, and then gave it to her together with a voltmeter, so that the students could see how the solar panel could charge a 12V battery, and how that was converted to 220V (the European norm) which could light a bulb or run other appliances. I wasn't there myself, but apparently it was a great hit. :-)

A change of pace

I spent Monday and Tuesday fixing bugs, and was feeling really good about being "back in the saddle", working on things I do well. However, late Tuesday I found out that we're stopping bug-fixing until we update our documentation. *sigh*. I understand, and actually agree with the decision and the reasons for it, but dang it feels like I was just getting up to speed on a race-track, when it's suddenly decided we need to do some boating. :p

On Tuesday evening our local "Round Table of the Religions" had a meeting at the local mosque. It went surprisingly well: there was a lot of anger, sadness and grief over the situation in Gaza, and some recriminations over who did or didn't do what in relation to a "silent march" that turned decidedly vocal and anti-Israel. Altogether, however, the people at the round table remained relatively respectful and we managed to work through to something of an understanding, and make some decisions on how to go forward.

It's not yet midnight (11:45), and I'm going to bed! I must be sick or something.