Why are we here?
"Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
"...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
"Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
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For the last...ugh, close to ten years now, I've been studying Xingyi with a guy who is more interested in results than form or 'specific techniques' (Tim Cartmell was one of his big influences). I've branched into learning Yang Taiji from this dude as well as Sun Taiji. We do a lot of resistance training, freeplay, and weapon work (also including resistance training and freeplay in the weapon work, necessitating some protective gear...).
Getting a little creaky for the full-contact fighting and grappling, but this training has rounded a lot of stuff out, and I'm finding the biomechanic-orientation of it to be really interesting. Nothing of what I learned before paid quite so particular attention to biomechanics and such. Ironing those things in isn't easy, and we all know that under stress we lose a fair percentage of the picky stuff, but the more that gets ironed in, the more we retain when the fecal matter hits the fan.
Anywhoo, the dude has given up on class teaching, but retains five of his former private students for a 'group' class every week. I guess that has become the private student class. I never actually TOOK any of his regular classes, as I was more interested in the Xingyi than what he taught in them.
...I guess I'm also studying the Japanese language, but not in class. I'll never be fluent, but it's fun, and keeps the brain working.
Why are we here?
"Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
"...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
"Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate
That’s some cool stuff that you’re learning. I haven’t learned much in the way of Chinese martial arts. I learned a little Wing Chun years ago but I haven’t kept up with it. I’ve been interested in Xingyi for a while.
I should look into learning Japanese. I plan to go to Japan at some point.
Thanks, man. I love it. I mean, there's a lot of Taiji out there that's purely for stretching and health with zero martial application, and a lot more that gets into the mystical stuff (which, honestly, is not my interest and I have little belief in that part of it). This is more old-school stuff (without any mysticism), with less emphasis on rehearsed things or static play, and more unrehearsed, resisting, and fluid free-practice.
The Xingyi? Same. None of the vibrating arm qi mysticism, just a different way of hitting.
I got lucky with the Xingyi. My old school had changed drastically and become intolerable for me; after 12 years of practice, I quit there. Didn't know what I was going to do, was totally despondent. Another dude who quit the school at the same time as me had gone to this guy for Taiji. So I sent him an email. His grumpy response was basically 'I'm not interested in any more beginners. Meh, unless you were interested in learning Xingyi or something like that.'
[me] Erk. Really? Xingyi is something that I've been interested in learning for about ten years now, but never had the opportunity. If I had to pick one thing to learn, this would be it. <- This was all true, ^_^
[Him] Oh. [grumpy again] But I don't have any classes for that, so unless you could take time Friday mornings for a private class, I'm not interested in teaching.
[Me] Actually, I work a four-day week and have Fridays off. So, I would love to come on Friday mornings for a private class.
[Him] ...okay, we'll see how it works out.
The stars aligned.
I'm currently using Duolingo and Lingodeer. After 135 days of learning, I've got the Hirigana and Katakana alphabets memorized, and I'm starting on Kanji (waiting for a special dictionary with mnemonics to arrive). Vocabulary is coming along, and I'm starting into grammar. Again, I'll never be fluent, but it's fun. And it'll help when we go back to Japan. We have two more visits to do, according to my wife.I should look into learning Japanese. I plan to go to Japan at some point.
I cannot say how enjoyable I found our time in Japan -- if you can get there, GO. And stay for a while. It's not hard, even without any Japanese language skills.
Why are we here?
"Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
"...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
"Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate
And DBS manga wraps up it's tournament, eh, as per usual I like some of how it did it more than the anime and like how the anime did other things better
Wrap up to the Jiren fight was obviously better in the anime, honestly it would have been difficult to surpass that
But 17's wish was handled better, for start the whole "we knew you'd wish them back" sub plot was left out entirely, and the result was simply Universe 7's ranking amongst the universes improving
but now we get to the real treat, the manga continuing(skipping all the movie stuff) and it looks like our first completely new arc in a while will be Galactic patrol stuff, and Buu and his accompanying lore finally getting some use
: Looks around, does another look around. Plays music and just starts wrecking everything he can gets his hands on.:
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Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence.
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