I'm an avid football ("soccer") fan. My favorite sports team is Arsenal. My
favorite player in the whole world is Thierry
Henry. I am getting into footgolf. It is governed by FIFG. The only
(public?) footgolf course in Milwaukee Country is at Zablock
Park.
I've studied several martial arts. Most recently, I studied Nami Ryu Aiki Heiho.
Mike Mack operates the only dojo for this martial art of which I'm aware in
Milwaukee. It is the only Japanese traditional martial art (TMA) that
has ever been taught to the US military, and it's only taught there to
Special Forces. I want to study Hontai Hakkei Ryu Aikijujutsu, but
there's only one dojo
of which I'm aware in the US, and it's in PA (It used to be in MA).
This is Hontai Hakkei Ryu Aikijujutsu. It is literally the most sublime
melee martial art I have ever seen in my life (although it likely has a
ranged component).
This is Nami Ryu Aikijujutsu. It is quite possibly the most efficient
martial art I have ever seen in my life. I sometimes try to think of
myself as a proponent of other martial arts, but, as soon as the chips
are down, this is the martial art to which I go under pressure when
"it's just got to work". #WeNeverContestThePointOfConnection
#InterestingGameProfessor
#TheOnlyWinningMoveIsNotToAttemptToConnect(ToYourOpponentsCenter)
#SilverDollarGroupings
This is my favorite martial arts technique in the whole world: "The fight's over, son." Rokushaku bos (six-foot
long bo staffs) are as non-deadly or as deadly as you want them to be;
they're never more deadly than you want them to be. Bojutsu is a great
martial art.
This is another great bojutusu video (although it's technically a part
of historical European martial arts [HEMA] not TMA). I'll take a solid
(not hollow) graphite-laced-with-graphene competition bo staff over a
katana any day of the week (and twice on Sunday, as the idiom goes). #ByRidersLance! #ByRollandsBo! #TheDArtagnanOfTheBo#AllMyLifeAllIEverWantedToBeWasHim#AllMyLifeAllIEverWantedToBeWasHim
#TheIsaoMachiiOfTheBo
The Isao Machii of the Bo:
"You haven't looked under this [gi top] to see the big, red 'S' yet, have you, my man?" - Alexander
Scott, "I Spy": "So Long, Patrick Henry" #FasterThanASpeedingBullet
This is yet another great bojutsu video. (They're competition bos, but
I bet they're aluminum and hollow.)
Michelle
C. Smith is one of the greatest bojutsu masters in the world.
(So, the samurai were basically mounted
archers, until gunpowder reached the islands, at which point they
became basically mounted riflemen. When they were out of ammo, they
switched to the yari, which was basically a stylized lance [although it
maybe more resembled a spear, physically] MOUNTED [in fact, taekwando
originated as an unarmed style by Korean peasants intented to dismount
armed Japanese samurai during ride-by attacks, hence taekwondo's high, flying kicks], THEN used the katana MOUNTED,
then used the wakizashi/tanto [whichever was the part of their daisho
set], then the iron fan 😀, then used (Japanese) jujutsu, their form of
unarmed combat, with the intention of re-arming themselves with their
first defeated opponent's melee weapon(s), guerilla warfare-style. They
kept score and were paid by the severed head. #OneRiotOneRanger#OneFrenchRiotOneSamurai#OneFrenchRiotOneSamurai#OneFrenchRiotOneSamurai#OneFrenchRiotOneSamurai#OfficiallyInterpolHasNoOpinion#MeIThinkItsClint#MeIThinkItsClint#MeIThinkItsClint#MeIThinkItsClint#HeyClintWheresNat? #ThereIsNoMacGuffinThatCouldMakeThemDoThat#TheyreBothShieldAgents
#TheresNoMacGuffinThatCouldEvenGetThemToFightEachOther #HoldMyBeer #OneFrenchRiotOneSamurai)
I'm not sure how randoris got the reputation of being square dances. At my dojos, after, say, 4th kyu,
the rules were there were no rules. There was a brown belt (1st kyu)
John at one of my dojos who specialized in bullrushes
in your "6" (directly from behind you): the other attackers would
distract you, he would circle behind you, and then he would basically
lay down the NFL linebacker tackle. One time, he tagged Belter-Sensei
with one, and I thought she was going to expel him from the dojo! It
really sucked the first few times you got tagged by one, but I never
let my 6 be unguarded in public to this day. Sometimes,
the higher-ranking students would smuggle bo-tantos (wooden knives)
inside their gis and pull them on you on the mat 10
seconds or so after sensei had said "Hajimae!" (lit.
"Go!" or "Begin!"). #HajimaeMotherf***er...! Sometimes, the
sempai would display the toolbox to maximize the fear response in the
victim #IAssumeAllenAndMarkHaventBeenToCountyOnAccountOfTheToolboxYet?
#JustABitPrelaw!#WellThatsTheBuyInHere#Bazinga, and, other times,
the first you would know about it was when you felt it pressed into
your ribs in męlée accompanied by the whisper, "You're dead". #YoureWorryingGilbert
(So, "kyu"s are pre-black belt ranks, and "dan"s are black belt ranks.
Kyus work like negative numbers or golf scores: lower is better. Dans
work like positive numbers or basketball game scores: higher is better.
In [one of] my dojo's systems, everyone in the world is kind-of an
honorary 7th kyu. When you pass your first belt test, you become a 6th
kyu. All kyu ranks wear a white belt [except that females may wear a
hakama, or black gi-overpants {originally riding chaps for the
samurai}, as soon as they attain 6th kyu], except 1st kyus, who wear a
brown belt. Shodan, or 1st degree black belt, comes after 1st kyu
[There is no 0th kyu/0th dan]. At 1st dan, males may begin wearing a
hakama. Rankings proceed through the higher dan ranks. 2nd dan is
required to teach. There is only one 10th dan, The
Doshu, at any point in time. Steven Seagal is a 9th dan. If a
student ranks higher than you, they are your sempai [higher ranking
student] and you are their kopai [lower ranking student]. #WeAreAllBeginners)
Another randori video.
Here is some real(istic?) yoroi kumiuchi (鎧組討 lit: "armored striking
and grappling"). I'm not sure how much the samurai used the yari
instead of the katana as their primary męlée weapon when they were
unmounted, but, other than that, this looks pretty legit to me. The
wakizashi (脇差 lit. "short sword") or tanto (短刀 lit. "knife") (a katana
and a wakizashi/tanto combination worn together by a samurai
constituted a daisho [大小 lit. "the long {sword} and the short {sword}"]
set) evidently saw a lot of action in ground fighting as the "finishing
weapon". #WhatIsThisOctagonOfWhichYouSpeak? #Bazinga
Here is some yoroi kyujutsu (鎧弓術 lit: "armored martial art of the bow
and arrow [archery]").
I
adore hustlers in all
their forms (#NoGoshNoNo). I would love, on some level, to be
an 8x8x8 Strato Chess hustler at Washington Square in NYC IRL (#NoGoshNoNo#NoGoshNoNo). I'd love to be a pilot-hustler in an
action-adventure group like James
"Howlin' Mad" Murdock on "The A-Team" in my fantasy life ("Did you
see how he turned the helicopter?!") ("'One step ahead of the game'
isn't a plan, kid: [15-20] steps ahead -- beating your opponents's move
[5 moves from now before HE
knows what move he's going to make 5 moves from now] -- that's a plan. [...] And I LOVE it when a plan comes together!"
#IMovedAPawnYeah "Excuse me, I just hit
my golf ball through your window; do you mind if I just - play right
through?" #PlayRightThrough#PlayRightThrough).
I've always thought of Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott as hustlers
on some level. Before I knew what "I Spy" was, I had a Twitter 'blog
about a football hustler of sorts (really, a then-MLS player) named
Easy Worthy, with actor-in-concert Alex Sanders (TFC's all-star
goalkeeper) https://twitter.com/EasyWorthy14.
Update: I have
partially resurrected Easy's X account https://x.com/EasyWorthy12.
I really like Kelly Robinson, and there's a episode of "I Spy" where he
gets hooked on ouzo; in "honor" of this, I drink a lot of ouzo-based
drinks. To save myself the trouble of explaining what ouzo is to every
bar patron at every bar, I had AI make this table:
Various Anise-Based Alcohols of the Mediterranean:
Spirit
Primary Region
Typical ABV
Character & Serving Style
Arak
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel
50% – 60%
The "ancestor" of the group. Pure grape spirit
triple-distilled with aniseed. Unsweetened and intended to be diluted
1:2 with water.
Ouzo
Greece & Cyprus
37.5% – 50%
A distilled spirit that may include other aromatics like
fennel or cardamom. Must be at least 37.5% ABV by EU law.
Rakı
Turkey
40% – 50%
Known as "Lion's Milk." Traditionally made from grape pomace
(suma). Similar to Arak but usually slightly lower in proof.
Pastis
France (Provence)
40% – 45%
Contains licorice root and sugar. Famous brands like Ricard
are usually bottled at 45%.
Sambuca
Italy
38% – 42%
An anise-flavored liqueur with high sugar content. The higher
viscosity makes it ideal for serving neat or flaming.
Anis
Spain
35% – 55%
Varies wildly; Anís Dulce (sweet) is typically around
35%, while Anís Seco (dry) can reach 55%.
(Note: Alcohol content can vary by producer and local regulations.)
This is my favorite ouzo-based drink: https://www.webtender.com/db/drink/4368.
I call it a Greek rose, but one made with sambuca is called an Italian
rose, one made with pastis is called a French rose, etc.
On December 4th, 1975, my best friend's dad
murdered my best friend's mom on a neighbor's front porch. It was
the day their divorce was to become final. It is an event that shook my
world to its core from which I still have never quite recovered. I had
never even had a goldfish die up to that point in my life, so I didn't
quite understand what people meant when they said, "Alice is dead." All
I knew is I was woken up at what seemed like 4:00 AM CST, ushered into
the basement, where there were all these uniformed police officer and
investigators in their black trenchcoats (not tan trenchcoats like
"Columbo"; black trenchcoats like "The X-Files") with their
walkie-talkie squawking, told to say goodbye to Stevie Tooie - he
hugged me, which he had never done before, for reasons I didn't
understand at the time - and, then, to this day, I have never seen him
again. If anyone know his or the twins (his older brothers, Jim and
John) whereabouts, please tell me at your ealiest convenience AirAdventurer194@gmail.com.
#AllMyLifeAllIEverWantedToBeWasHim! #AllMyLifeAllIEverWantedToBeWasHim! #AllMyLifeAllIEverWantedToBeWasHim!
Newton single-handedly dragged mankind (well, at least Western
civilization) out of The Dark Ages, essentially invented STEM as we
know it, and, should we eventually colonize every habitable planet to
the limit of out light-cone from some event, he would be IMHO
personally responsible for it..
(No offense is intended by any misattribution in the above; I shall do
my best to correct any misattributions as I become aware of them. Thank
you for your understanding in this matter.)
