mushin no shin

…is that the frequent making of fists is an incredibly effective way to remember to keep your fingernails trimmed.
Yeah, that’s how little I have to talk about right now. Well, there are things, but all the good thoughts are sloshing around in the muddiest depths of my brain, clearly in no shape to go out [...]

I saw Trouble the Water tonight — excellent, deeply moving film. I think the tag line sums it up nicely –

It’s not about a hurricane… it’s about America

I mean just damn, what more can be said? Katrina showed us our worst and our best all at once, and they’ve captured it masterfully in this documentary [...]

weirdness
everything is just — unsettling. I’ve got a nice buzz on — partly vodka, partly oxycodone.
But I should be nearly unconscious, which as you can see, I’m not.
It’s been a weird and shitty week, as you are aware.
tomorrow, things should start to get back to normal. I suppose I’ll go back to karate, though [...]

Awesome, in one night I can give example and counterexample to the ancient question of irony;
it’s not ironic that my knee injury forced me to miss karate tonight.
It is ironic that this leaves me home on a night the television happens to deliver both a show called “Bones”, and Doc Opera about an alcoholic curmudgeon [...]

I add, “I think I threw my knee out playing piano”.

Got my 2nd Degree Brown Belt today. It was actually pretty late, I should have been there in January, but I had my sabbatical in December which set me back a month, plus another month or two to get back where I was. Still not there really, but enough so to pass.
Anyway, onward.

I guess my little holiday bender is officially over now. Well it was fun while it lasted.
Lest you think otherwise, there actually was a greater purpose. 2007 turned out to be a mildly shitty year for me. Mildly in that nothing much happened, the problem was just that, well, nothing much happened.
I spent most of [...]

Pro:

It would be good for me
Having been very busy and having kept late nights, I overslept every day this week and only did about half of my usual daily practice
I skipped last week due to the Buddhist festival
I will feel justified to reward myself with my usual post-yoga Chinese takeout for lunch

Con:

Yesterday’s Peace Walk left [...]

Yup, as of today I’m a brown belt! Sort of a major milestone I suppose. A little over two years in, with two years to go towards black — I guess it’s a bit like becoming a junior in high school.
Well, I made it this far, the goal is in sight and there’s no [...]

Let me start by pointing out for obvious reasons that I don’t think an arrest record means jack in and of itself — not when our laws have little basis in reason or rightness. Further I do believe that even those who commit real crimes should not necessarily suffer the burden of their history forever, [...]