I've been going to my current kung fu school since October, and not ever, not even once, have I stopped in at the donut shop a few storefronts down. But, oh, god, did I want a jelly-filled sugar raised today.

ETA: I think I left this unintentionally ambiguous. I bypassed the jelly-filled donut. I still have had no donut, and I feel I should be given a black belt for my sacrifice.

***

Writing.

Hey, in celebration of Valentine's Day, they're giving away free shots at Starbucks.

Of espresso, I mean. If you find out where they're giving away free shots of Jäger, let me know.

***

Another reason I like Steve Nash (yes, it's a man crush): He's got a new Nike shoe coming out. It's made from factory scraps. It's called the Trash Talk.

***

I am a song binger. Current binge is a two-song loop of I Was Wrong (Social Distortion), and Infected (Bad Religion), with a bit of snacking on Los Angeles Is Burning. How's that for romance?

***

A lot of ants died last night. Baited traps seemed to do a pretty good job. I'll lay down some more today to let them know I'm serious. I am serious.

***

At most of the martial arts schools I've trained at, it's considered a no-no to ask when you're going to learn or do a particular thing. You're supposed to be patient and concentrate on what you're learning now, not what you're going to learn later. Be respectful of your current material. So I've been trying to be subtle about asking my fellow students when we get to start sparring.

At my Shaolin Kenpo school, we started sparring at orange belt (the third rank). At my old Kung Fu school, we started sparring on our second day of class. At my new Kung Fu school, apparently, we start sparring at fourth level.

I'm a first level.

I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG TO SLAP A PUNK!

I'm just kidding. Mostly.

I really do miss sparring.

I got a ton of Starbucks gift cards from family for Christmas and my birthday, and since I like free drinks, I've been doing most of my coffee joint writing at Starbucks. The only drawback (for me) is that Starbucks doesn't really inspire me to take coffee/computer pics to document my writing progress. But this morning I found myself at a place in University Heights, and I remembered that taking pictures of my coffee and computer is one of the things I do, so that's what I did.

I'm not so sure about the coffee joint. I think I overheard the barista making fun of my drink (an Americano). If I want snotty comments from anyone, I'll call my dad.

I'll be seeing my parents on Friday to help them with errands. If the subject of my book comes up and Dad's first question is how much money I'm making, I might accidentally leave him at the store. I know that sounds mean, but it's not like he's never done it to me. It's like, dude, if you take a four-year-old to the bookstore, it's also your responsibility to bring him home. The same goes for the supermarket eight years later. Although I guess I should have known better than to wander off to stare at raw meat.

Sorry for the ramble. I think I'm tired. I learned the first two moves of Meteor Fist at kung fu tonight. Yeah, only two moves, but I gave 'em all I had.

We did an interesting long staff drill last night in class. Our assistant instructor had us stand one foot away from the big mirror, perpendicular parallel to it, and try to do our staff spins without breaking the mirror.

Added complications were a very crowded school, so we were hemmed in by other students spinning staffs, and still other students twirling broad swords.

Also adding to the degree of difficulty was our head instructor glaring at us. He doesn't like it when we bump the walls. Even brushing the bead curtain at the entrance to the practice floor gets him peeved. So, breaking his mirror would probably make him very unhappy.

I didn't break the mirror, but I did bump it with the end of my staff. Not so good.

We also learned a new behind-the-back spin. It's pretty cool when it's done right. I just tried it here in the living room. We've got one of those stupid plaster bumpy textured ceilings. I'm now wearing much of it in my hair.

Last night I watched the final episode of Justice League Unlimited.

( a bit of spoiler )
And I swear, once the Big Three ran or flew out-of-frame for the last time, I almost teared up.

And it wasn't even all that emotional a scene! I'm just that huge of a geek about this stuff!

This show was just the coolest rendition of the Justice League ever, and I'm so sad it's over.

Next up, I'm going to watch the first season of Justice League (the show that preceded Justice League Unlimited). Then I'll probably need to get the second season. Then, I might need to get the entire run of the animated Superman.

I wonder if they'll ever do a Green Lantern/Green Arrow show. With frequent guest spots by the Question (as long as he's voiced by Jeffrey Coombs). And also the Flash (Michael Rosenbaum).

Probably not. That's a shame.

***

Passed my first test at the new Kung Fu school. Sometimes it really doesn't feel like I've been doing this as long as I have, because I'm still really quite lame, even on the white belt material. Staff form felt pretty good, at least. And I got good marks on Respect and Attitude. I'm also punctual and maintain good hygiene.

My kicks, though? If you ever get in a fight with me, try to goad me into a fan kick. It'll be like being attacked by an arthritic stork.

Tonight my instructor pulled me out of class twice to make me take a water break. He praised me for not puking.

My conditioning sucks so bad.

After the holidays and enjoying a house guest (hi, David!) and spending a week out of town, I feel like I'm just starting to settle back into the post-holiday routine. I'm working on a small, low-paying, but easy freelance gig (the sort of thing I need to be doing much more of, only with bigger pay, since it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting any adjunct teaching this semester), and after finishing the latest "final" draft of the Norse book, I'm getting back to the actual writing of the YA weird beach book. Since I found last week's visit to the Museum of the Weird in Austin so inspiring, I'm starting the book right in the middle of the shrunken heads and the Fiji Mermaid and the What-Is-It???? in the box.

Made a nice reprint sale: "Far As You Can Go" to the audio anthology, mini-Masterpieces of Science Fiction from Audio Text, due out I'm-not-sure-when.

Speaking of routines, time now to strap on, change into t-shirt and kung fu pants and go smack big wooden sticks.

It's time to start wearing a cup again.

Close call today.

You leave the world with the same goods you came in with. Gotta protect the goods between.

I was hoping to rebound from yesterday's hypoglycemic kung fu class with a kick-ass class tonight, but we were doing rolls, and rolls are my absolute least favorite thing to do in martial arts. But since this is a new school, and a new start, I figured, hey, why not treat it as something new instead of something I already know I hate.

So, I'll say this: My rolls at the end of class were better than my rolls at the beginning of class. I'm calling that a success.

***



It's an old hoax, so maybe it's already been all over the Internet, but I'd never seen it 'til yesterday. I get so much sensuwunder buzz from this pic, I can't even tell you. (via National Geographic)

My story "Cât de departe poţi ajunge" ("Far As You Can Go") is in the January issue of the Romanian sf-magazine Sci-Fi Magazin. And what a table of contents! I'm between Kelly Link and Anne McCaffrey. Not in terms of stature or success, obviously, but possibly in terms of approach, it might be appropriate placement.

***

Frustrating kung fu class yesterday. Started off with insufficient blood sugar, and I felt my energy draining and had to take a break 15 minutes in to down a Go-Tart. Made it through another 20 minutes of stance practice, and then felt slow and dumb during punch/block drills. My training partner's punches kept going right through my blocks, which has never happened to me before. I mean, I've let myself get hit any number of times by standing there stupidly instead of blocking, and I've gotten hit by being late with my blocks, but I've never before made solid contact with a block and had the punch still drive through it. Ah, well. Better class tonight, hopefully.

***

I will pay $5 to anyone who successfully revises my last chapter. (Payment upon publication.)

I can't really think of a topic less interesting than my weight, but since when have notions of what's interesting ever influenced my journal entries? Anyway, please feel free to skip this one if you want. I'll never know, and I won't mind if you do.

Today I stepped on a scale for the first time since moving to San Diego, so that means I haven't weighed myself since the end of July. My new doctor didn't have me weighed either. Nor did he ask about family medical history. His nurse asked me how tall I am, and since I have a ballpark figure for that (like, 6'1" or 6'2", or thereabouts?), I could give her some data.

Anyway, my weight, in the middle of the day with clothes on and a meal in me, is about 208. Meaning I've gained about 13-15 pounds since moving. I have a skinny frame. I have no room for this extra poundage.

I can blame some of the gain on the 2-plus month layoff from kung fu, and I can maybe blame a little of that on reduced martial arts class time. At the old school, I did an hour of pre-class practice time, then the two-hour brown belt class, and then the one-hour lower belt class, three or four times a week. Now I'm doing 50-minute classes four times a week. But really, I know why I'm turning into goo. One need only take a look at the title of this journal: Writing and Snacks.

That's right, writing is making me fat.

No, it's the snacks!!!!! I snack in the daytime! I snack in the nighttime! I down handfuls of peanuts. I check my blood sugar and tell myself since my numbers are good that there's no harm in helping myself to a slab of spiral-cut ham. I drink pumpkin spice lattes and eggnog lattes and Brandy Alexanders made with Kahlua and eggnog (and a sprinkle of nutmeg, served over ice, substitute créme de cacao for the Kahlua and cream or half-and-half for the eggnog, if you want to be traditional).

I know there's a lot of controversy regarding the BMI, and I'm not even concerned with my BMI. But I know I feel okay at 195, and I feel really fit at 190. At 190, my gut doesn't even stick out that much. Whereas now, when I check my form in the mirror in class, I can hardly concentrate on my foot placement and posture because all I see is a sack of pudding hanging over my belt.

That's right, I like snacks so much that I keep a sack of chocolate pudding tied around my waist at all times, just in case I get a little peckish!

So, anyway, the snacks have got to go. The caloric coffee beverages have to become a once-in-a-while sort of thing. Kind of like they used to be.

Tonight's cup/page pic was taken at the hyperhip coffee joint in Hillcrest, which is where I'm typing this from. The beverage contains no cream, no sugar, no syrup.

Beans and water, just as our ancestors did it when they were trying to lose 13-18 pounds.

Buying Christmas wrapping paper might be my favorite part of Christmas shopping. :-D

I also wish to note that, even though many people say you can use a mop or a broom as a bo staff, actually using a mop or broom as a bo staff is really awkward. But maybe it's just because the aisle at Target wasn't wide enough.

I've been Kung Fu-ing like crazy lately. Friday night was testing, and I think it went well. I tried to lower my stances, achieve calmness, and take my time. When you're up with two or three other people in front of the whole school and the instructors, and this time the grand master (visiting from LA), it's hard not to get distracted by all the kicking and punching and leaping that other people are doing, but I'm getting better.

Sparring was not just fun, but funny. I got paired with one of my favorite fellow students, and we basically spent a few minutes trading groin shots. Thank god for athletic cups! The sound of impact against a cup (THOCK) is dramatic, but much better than the alternative. The black belt panel was laughing, and the grand master ended the round by saying if we went any further we'd end our family lines. Fun!

So, now I have a stripe for my brown belt, and I feel all the extra time I've been investing in practice the last few weeks was well spent.

Yesterday we all convened in the park way too early in the morning, where the grand master led us in a mantis/monkey form, and after a lunch break, Green Dragon Broadsword (!!). By the end of the day, I wished I'd gotten a spring steel sword instead of the heavier combat steel, but I'm all about the realism, baby. It's a great form, and while I didn't get the form down, I did pick up some really cool poses.

And today I am whipped.

We're at the coffee joint, and I'm going to think about maybe writing some words, but I'm really here for the coffee and donuts.

I have all sorts of good excuses for skipping the double nunchuk festival today: slept later than I'd planned, forgot to wash my uniform last night, my back hurts. All of which is true. But it occurs to me that I don't actually need excuses not to do stuff I don't have to do. I didn't go because I didn't feel like it! So there!

I used the time to walk through my empty hand forms instead. And my sai form, too, using Sharpies instead of sais, cuz, you know, I'm not supposed to pretend to be Elektra indoors.

Still trying to get from point A to point B in the novel, but today I did some work to make the gap between the towers (a novel being a bridge, with deck between the towers) a bit shorter. And I can see the other side now, I know what that last tower looks like, which wasn't true 100 pages ago. Just need to keep laying down deck. Otherwise I'll end up in the drink, and it's a long way down.

House guests coming out in a couple of weeks. Apartment's a mess. Someone come over and clean, cuz I don't wanna! I slept late! My uniform is dirty! My back hurts!

No, huh?

Well, I thought it was worth a try.

( Yes, another cup/page pic )

Still a bit stuck on the novel, one of those trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B things, so instead I wrote a short chapter (maybe point E in respect to A and B), which at least prevented me from losing all forward momentum, but didn't really help me figure out how to bridge the current gap.

Kind of a fun little chapter in and of itself, for which I had to research underwater nuclear weapons testing, trying to evoke just a tiny bit of Godzilla movies. Bit of a woolly beast this book is turning into, but in a way that makes it fun, I hope.

The weekend will be largely dominated by Kung Fu: double nunchuk festival tomorrow and 2nd degree brown belt pre-testing Sunday. My knees are feeling creaky and old, and I'm not much looking forward to trying to land those jumping double smash kicks. I really suck at those, but one must be willing to be bad at something before one can get good, eh?