I trained with the UT wushu club today for the first time. Well, I can't say I'm particularly impressed by their skills. One of the guys (Eric) told me that the people with poor skills are the ones who like to show off, and most everyone that's good is lazy. Well, that seemed to fit quite well with what I saw. None of the "good" people would show me anything. I can tell this Eric guy has talent, but he's always using the excuse of, "Oh, my knee is hurt, I can't do anything." Yea... awfully suspicious. What are they trying to hide? hmmm...

Well, the "class" was 2 hours long. They stretched for an hour (literally!), then did kicks/jumpkicks for the other hour. I was saving my strength, thinking that the kicks were warmup, and it was like, uhhhh... how come this is taking so long? But yea, I guess it's just a different kind of workout than what I'm used to.

Afterthoughts: Before I came to UT, I was all like, No way in hell I'm gonna join that sorry UT wushu club, but I guess there have been some changes since then. Mike, Nien, Ken, and I were all like, "yea, we'll get together and train traditional!" HAH! I guess we found out we're not nearly as motivated as we thought. And I guess training contemporary wushu is better than not training at all. And another concern was that they might try to leech off of us or otherwise exploit us. Well, apparently, they're not interested at all in traditional- a good and bad thing. And as for exploitation, if you count wanting us to join the performance team, I guess I've been "exploited" for quite some time already. Ummm, yea, better not go into that.

But yea, another very big reason for not wanting to participate in the club is that they, ummm, haven't exactly been known for their talent, so to speak. And it might seem somewhat shameful to be associated with this organization. Yea, I guess if I were in the presence of "real" wushu athletes I'd probably be like, "uhhh... I don't know them," but among the lay population, it's no big deal. I guess I should go in there with the attitude of if it's not good, then by golly, I'll MAKE it good, but it's tough... I basically dropped any hopes of being a competition martial artist again when I came to college. Yet the guys in the club are all thinking to themselves that they're training up to be on the 2008 Olympic team, when that's such a long shot that it's funny. The club as a whole seems to suffer from delusions of either: how good they are, how easy it is to get good, or how untalented the rest of the wushu world is. It seems like my own goals & views don't coincide with those of the club.

Personally, I have no plans/intention of ever competing again- that's just not what I train for anymore; I train for me. I think if I join the club, that'll be the mindset I'll take. I know it may seem selfish, but for the moment, I'll just train for me- my own benefit, and if participation in the club should ever become anything else, I'll need to reevaluate why I'm in it.

This'll be my last blog posting from home in a long time. Today I begin my journey to UT, and enter the world of college... this should be interesting...

In honor of me & Mike's last days at kung fu, we decided to get some of our classmates presents. Man, I was reminded once again of how hard it is to pick presents for people... no wonder people stress during the holidays so much. I had lunch with Frankie at pho on Tuesday, then played mahjong again with Johnny (for a little bit) in the middle of the night.

*I would have had more to say, but I forgot it all since I kept those temp blogs too long. =/

On Friday (8/16) night, I went and watched Princess Blade after kung fu at the Magnolia with Stephen (L.), Connie, and the kung fu crew. I ended up walking in about 10 minutes late cuz we thought (incorrectly) that we had time to shower in between class and the movie. Unfortunately, that caused us to miss the "coolest scene of the movie," according to several sources. Anyways, it was a Japanese film (based on a comic book) with English subtitiles; it's a pseudo-futuristic samurai-ish story about a female assassin who's been betrayed by her clan. Only the beginning and end of the movie are any good, but it was ultimately quite amusing. After the movie, John suggested that the kung fu guys go eat together. We went to Cafe Brazil, and I had migas- which are probably best described as a mangled omelette with a couple tortillas tossed in.

The next morning was the AAU (Chinese martial arts) tournament. We did a lion dance as the tournament opener even though this wasn't our tournament. I competed in the 11-18 year old category, and placed very well in my 4 events. On my pole form, I even managed to score a perfect 10.0! Now, I don't think I deserved it, but it was a very nice feeling to receive such a score for the first time in my life. I dunno, I guess the AAU was never exactly a very tough tournament in terms of the competition, but it felt particularly awkward this year because there were particularly young competitors in my division this time. It kinda felt like I was cheating little kids out of their medals. Anyways yea, during the tournament I had such bad gas. I swear, farting during a form has got to be among the worst fears of competition martial artists; it's right up there with tearing your pants and dropping your weapon, hahaha. Yea, forgetting your form gets to be less and less of a big deal as you get better at winging it. =P

Today, a couple of the kung fu guys hosted one last cookout for me & Mike at Don & Penny's place. I filled up early on mostly soda, so I couldn't stomach as much food as usual. =/ It was still fun though; it's good to know that they care enough to do this kind of stuff for us. When I leave for college, I might not remember the rigors of training or even my forms, but I'll remember the friendships... and the cookouts. =P

Alan hosted a little get-together at his house on Wednesday as a farewell to our friends going off to different colleges. The ironic part was that about 80% of us (including Alan) are all going to UT. I dunno, it still seems kind of unreal that some of us will be going our separate ways soon. =/ Well, I mainly just chatted and played a little cards. I had to leave early to go to kung fu.

I just got back from playing mahjong with Johnny and his friends. Apparently, mahjong is Johnny's new obsession so he called me up at like 11:00PM asking me to go play. We played from about midnight till 2:00, watching Orange County play in the background. Then everyone started getting hungry, so we went to Albertson's and picked up some steaks. Johnny's friend made some killer garlic-seasoned steaks, and we feasted before settling back into mahjong. We continued playing, this time with Gladiator playing, and finally called it quits a little after 4:00AM.

A construction-type crew started work today on repairing my house's foundation. My house is on this elevated piece of land, and apparently the ground had started sinking, and cracks had formed all over my house. Anyways, the work involves a good deal of jackhammer use, which is reeeeaaaally hard to sleep through. Uggghhh, what a way to start off your morning- being woken up by a jackhammer. Blehhhhh. Oh yea, and they chopped down half the trees in my front yard. ACK! The foundation work could take several weeks, after which we might need to redo the landscaping and get the interior of the house redone.

I got called this morning by someone saying that I'd won some kind of publisher's contest. Now, getting the feeling that this was probably a hoax, I knew to withhold any sensitive information. He already had my name, address, and phone number and the only things he asked were my age, occupation, and if I owned a Visa/MasterCard. I thought the question as to what kind of credit card I had was kinda fishy. Now hopefully that isn't enough to screw me over, but if I should find myself the victim of a credit card scam in my name, I'll be able to look back on this moment and be like, yup, this is the exact time & place where I shot myself in the foot! =/ Well, for now, I guess I better be on the lookout...

I went with a big group of friends down to the Dallas Museum of Art today. The group consisted of: Me, Erika, Mamei, Edward, Liz, Nien, Jane, Monica, and Jessica & her sister. I had read in the paper a few days earlier that they were going to dismantle one of the famous permanent exhibits (the giant Stake & Rope sculpture) soon, so I thought it would be a good idea to see it one last time while it was still there. Since the venture was my idea, I somehow got pinned with the great responsibility of planning and coordinating the trip. Man, what a nightmare. Ok, so I drove with Edward to pick up Mamei & Erika then drove down to Chinatown to the DART park & ride. I thought it'd add to the interesting little adventure cuz most of us (including myself) had never ridden on the newly opened DART lightrail. Well, I must say, it was quite convenient, but it was hardly exciting, and I don't think it's run as well as the trains in Taiwan- not even close.

Well, anyways, the museum was rather nice- I liked it. It didn't take as long to look at (just about) everything as I'd thought. I guess cuz I really only like certain kinds of art. My favorite was the contemporary art section, although some of it's so weird you have to wonder who deems it "art" as opposed to trash. Oh, and I left the exhibit with a greater respect for Jackson Pollock; there was one painting of his that actually showcased some "real" artistic ability. There was a kids' section in the museum too, where they had crayons and various activities.

On the way back, we stopped and got drinks at Lollicup. The "snow" series of drinks are really tasty- kinda yogurty tasting. mmmm...

*I've been breaking out in this terrible rash. It keeps going away then coming back; it's really nasty. I think it was caused by this green plum that I ate. Yea, yea, I know- plums aren't supposed to be green; but this one was special, ok? Don't ask.

**Oh yea, and whoever invented the buttonfly deserves a beating. geez... It's an extreme inconvenience when you really gotta go, man I'm serious!

I recently ordered a computer from CyberPowerInc. It's a considerably better deal than from any of the big name companies. A general rule of thumb when buying computers is that any name-brand company will rip you off... big time. The only redeeming aspects of ordering from them (that I can think of) are: more reliable customer service, trade-in incentives, and greater assurance that the company won't go bankrupt and leave you with a worthless warranty. But anyways, I got (on back-to-school special) a: Athlon XP2200+, 512Mb DDR RAM, 80gig 7200 rpm hard drive, 64Mb Geforce4, 16X DVD, 40X12X48 cd-rw, SoundBlaster Live 5.1, Altec Lansing 3-piece speakers, and one hell of a cool case for a $898 subtotal. But man, shipping & handling is a bastard; $54 for a grand total of $952... suckage.

*(A comparable site is iBuyPower.)

**I didn't find out until after I ordered that it would take about 3 weeks to actually arrive, grrrrrrrr! Dang it, it might not get here by the time I leave for college, blehh...

I went with several kung fu friends today to see "STOMP" performed in the Music Hall at Fair Park. John & Bee footed the bill for me as a "graduation gift." Well, the show was amazing. I was surprised by the fact that it was more than just senseless drum beating (errr, random object beating would be a better phrase): the musicians/performers actually developed some character and incorporated a lot of humor, audience participation, and short mini-plots- all completely sans dialogue, of course. I had previously never considered myself as a fan of rhythm-oriented music (after having some less-than-pleasant experiences in the African culture segment of 9th grade Humanities class), but I walked away from the performance with an altogether different perspective. I highly recommend this production; it's a gazillion times better seeing it in person than watching HBO's "Stomp Out Loud," which I was only mildly impressed by.

Afterwards, we went to Braum's for some ice cream. Then I went and got myself a sub-par haircut.

I was down in Corpus Christi this past weekend with people from my kung fu school to do a show for the grand opening of a Chinese restaurant. It was about an 8 hour drive, uggghhh. We left Dallas around noon on Thursday and got there pretty late at night. Friday was a long day of performances. We woke up early and had to set up; the first show was around noon. The second show, in the mid afternoon, was absolute hell. It was probably 100+ degrees out, and we had to do dragon dance, kung fu, and lion dance back-to-back-to-back. The last show was at 7:00ish. Everyone basically collapsed back at the hotel after that. The next morning, we drove over to Padre Island to play at the beach. It wasn't until after we got out of the ocean that we noticed a sign that read something along the lines of: "Warning: bacteria levels in the water are higher than recommended levels. Swimming is not advised." Haha, D'OH! Yea, so if we all die of mysterious illness in the next couple days, we'll know why.

After that, we drove home- stopping at San Antonio along the way to "see the sights." We didn't really stop to see anything- we walked along part of the Riverwalk then spent about 5 minutes in the Alamo before continuing home. During the trip, we had Chinese buffet for just about every meal. Needless to say, I've had my share of Chinese buffet for the next couple weeks.

I'm leaving to go perform kung fu/lion dance down in Corpus Christi. I should get back late Saturday evening or early Sunday morning.

*I'm having soem trouble moving some merchandise. There was a mixup at the end of last school year and there were too many Plano West Martial Arts Club T-shirts printed. We have some larges and extra-larges that will be made available for sale. The designs for the front and back are as such. Contact me when I get back if you're interested.