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.)
