onefootinthegrave asked: has anyone in your dojo ever said "everybody have fun tonight, everybody wing tsun tonight?"
yes. it has happened. As has the references to “kung fu fighting”. Inevitable, I guess. Here’s a good one: So Wing Tsun means “Praise Spring” but a lot of people mistranslate it or think it means “Eternal Spring”… Eternal Spring WOULD be “WANG Tsun” …. THE MORE YOU KNOW.
oh and technically we don’t call it a dojo. Not that I mind or care or that it makes a big difference or anything, but “dojo” is a Japanese term. Usually we just call it “the school” but if you wanna get cultural with it “gwoon” or “kwoon” would probably be more accurate.
Er, also, those of you over in the Wing Chun tag should probably be following the Wing Tsun tag too. Just sayin…
onefootinthegrave asked: 1. Dana White is a hack Vince McMahon wannabe. agree/disagree? 2. Vince McMahon is the only capitalist worthy of any respect because he makes no bones about doing "right" things and the Mr. McMahon character is the best/only critique of capitalism in modern American popular culture.
I’d say that the Dana White and Vince McMahon characters are two sides of the same Capitalist coin: The Company Head Who Will Stop At Nothing To….
White - The Boss Who Will Stop At Nothing To Elevate His Company
McMahon - The Boss Who Will Stop At Nothing To Elevate Only Himself
White is totally a sideshow and a hype-man with some talent at it, much like the McMahon character. But what’s essentially different is that White believes in himself as a promoter, not because he “believes in himself, period”. He believes in “good business” and not the criminal element. He did, in fact, have his chance to become involved with that element when he was a boxing promoter in Boston and had to leave Boston as a result of refusing to co-operate. One has to wonder though, at this point is he so against that element because of its dangers or because it had such a hand in ruining Boxing (and MMA in Japan) as a business? Of course, even in his efforts to be the best leader for his business, White can wind up supporting extremely idiotic and harmful things for everyone, his business included (see for example his crusade against online piracy and his support for SOPA)
The McMahon character is conversely a good promoter only incidentally, by way of the grandiosity of his shittines, the entertainment of his ludicrousness in his self-promotion. He is the charicature of the Boss. Sure he cares about the “bottom-line” but only in how it relates to himself. Performers may be (and have been) sacrificed along the way. Now, you may say “Yes but Dana White also….” but the sacrifices White allows he sees as “Part of the game that is Capitalism, you succeed if you’re the best” … he will let them “sink or swim” on their own. McMahon, meanwhile, will gladly sabotage anyone that he feels is “in the way”.
Have there ever been storylines with McMahon where he actually acts like a halfway decent guy who’s just trying to see the WWF/WWE and its “fighters/preformers” succeed ala Dana White? But by doing so he winds up still producing horrible outcomes for people just by virtue of running a business devoted, primarily, to making money? That would be interesting to see.
And of course, as we all know, deep down even the Boss who wishes to “elevate his company” wishes, mostly, to just bring reward unto himself. The aforementioned Capitalist coin is two-headed. So, taking these two characters together they become your mentioned “critique of Capitalism in modern American popular culture”, incidental as that may be.
annotations asked: Now I have to followup: the moment in Krull that made you frustrated and angry, yet you felt you had to accept it, was it the fact that the dude loses the glaive?
Actually, [SPOILER ALERT] it’s the death of Rell. Who saves their asses COUNTLESS times. Never gets enough respect. And knows that if he accompanies them he’s going to die saving their asses one last time. AND HE FUCKING RIDES THAT FIREMARE TO SAVE THEIR ASSES (again) ANYWAY. Mr Hero Guy tries to save him but then the lightning zaps start coming and he’s all “fuck this”. Couple this with how when the wizard asks Rell what he’d wish for Rell replies “Ignorance.”
Though, admittedly, losing the glaive is frustrating as hell too. Can you imagine playing a videogame where you have to through hell to get a weapon like that… and then you have to lose it? C’mon!
thenoobyorker asked: You need us peasants, quit killing us. With that said, tell me a joke
Quit killing y’all? BUT YOU TASTE SO GOOD.
Ok, jokes:
1) A man wants to get his name changed so he heads over to the courts. The Judge asks, “Ok, Mr. Joe Poostinky, what would you like to change your name to?” and he responds, “John”
2) Knock Knock “who’s there?” 2 ”2 who?” ”To WHOM” (obviously this one works better spoken than written. LET’S PRETEND, OK?)
3) Q. How many scene kids does it take to screw in a light bulb? A. Oh, it’s a pretty obscure number. You’ve probably never heard of it. (But you probably heard this joke months ago and it’s not cool anymore)
4) Life. Y’know?
andrewfm asked: Ever since I got into fitness, I've wondered: what is your regular training or workout routine? What do you do for strength training/endurance/etc?
Before I get into this, what’s crucial for me to note from the outset is that I train, in particular, to be better at Wing Tsun/fighting. This does mean strength and conditioning in some respects, but not others (for example: A real fight hardly lasts 30 seconds, much less more than minute, so I need anaerobic conditioning to last me in that “short” amount of time unlike a runner, long-distance or otherwise, who needs well-developed aerobic conditioning to last). So I make a caveat that not nearly enough people who speak on the subject of fitness care to make: your mileage, particularly for your purposes, may vary.
Now that that’s out of the way…
The majority of my training is an informal mix of light strength and light conditioning with a heavy emphasis on developing technique (in a variety of ways). So most Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays I am spending about 2 hours or more working like this, doing forms, drills, and sparring. All of this ranges from “light” to “heavy” and is pretty well apportioned along that spectrum as per the curriculum at my school. So if Monday is rough, Wednesday will be a little lighter and vice versa.
Three days a week I focus solely on strength/conditioning. Usually I split it between Tuesday and Thursday (45 Minute classes each) one day for a variety of strength exercises and one day for conditioning/mental-shit-test and Saturday for a bit of both. When it comes to strength I try to improve generally but with a specific focus on muscle groups to my back and sides. Triceps, not biceps. Lats, not pecks. The general rule is “functional muscles, not beach muscles”. Core strength and strength-in-flexibility (not JUST flexibility) are pretty important too.
When it comes to conditioning, the training is very MMA style. I will usually set up 3 to 5 minute rounds and try to last for 3 to 5 of those rounds on some sort of heavy-bag training or other sorts of fight stress simulation. The 1 minute breaks between rounds are used for light jogging so aerobic conditioning equals recovery.
Equipment I use:
- variety of pads and wall bag for striking
- protective gear for sparring
- heavy bag
- wooden dummy (don’t know the form yet, but there are a handful of exercises I can do)
- kettlebells
Most of the strength training I do is based on body-weight resistance, so I don’t need too much in the way of equipment. Also, betraying my warning at the top, the one thing I might recommend to all people looking to improve their fitness, regardless of fitness focus and even regardless of fitness level is to take up some sort of kettlebell training (with a certified RKC trainer, if possible). Right now I only really have time to train with kettlebells once a month, but once I get more used to the variety of exercises and build myself a program (and get myself some kettlebells) I plan on doing a very simple kettlebell routine at least once a week.
Now… all this sounds like a lot and.. it is. I don’t always have time for all of this (and the past two months I’ve fallen woefully out of shape as I’ve fallen out of my routine due to the demands and stresses of moving into a new place). However! It’s a lot easier to stick with a schedule like this than people make it out to be. One makes certain sacrifices, of course, but for me it’s not necessarily a sacrifice to not watch the TV I wasn’t going to watch anyway. Of course, I do wish I had more time to read and write, but I get most of that done on the train and anyway, this just happens to be a bigger priority to me. I’ll also note that I haven’t accounted in here for the time spent just teaching now that I am an assistant instructor. That’s more mentally exhausting than physically, but it can be taxing if you have to do chi sau (see first 20 seconds of my sifu doing it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0otIqBC7IQ0) with a lot of students.
stuffaboutminneapolis asked: Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris?
This was actually settled in Return Of The Dragon, but if you mean in terms of “who would I rather have a conversation with” the answer is still Bruce.
OK. Question Time.
“laid back/with my mind on my money and my money on my mind”
Ever find this terribly contradictory? You’re kicking back with some ‘dro and gin and juice and you’re relaxed… but worried about your finances?
I asked some friends and got two perspectives:
“well, if you have a lot of money you don’t need to worry about it. you are just happy about how much you have” — Debbuh
vs.
“an OG is never fully relaxed. its like the man thing about having your back to a wall, you may be having a nice meal in a restaurant but…” — Ali
What say you?
