Rae Roy's Blog, page 73

WTF Wednesday – Deeply Afraid and Deeply Saddened.

Approximately five hours ago, I cried myself to sleep out of fear for what the future holds.

Early this morning, I learned the difference between a Canadian and an American. I know. #notallAmericans

Four years is enough time to do irreparable damage to the world.

I can only hope that many of his election promises won’t be met. I can only hope that somehow, Canada can lend a cup of sugar without being dragged into a war.

To my American friends, I hope no harm comes to you or your loved ones. 

R~

Fortifying Friday – Tired

I’m tired of so many things of late. My phone gets updates that purport they will be improvements, yet swype is now not working properly. Amazingly, the Facebook app is working just fine. Usually it breaks with every update. But lately Facebook makes me sick. It is filled with people who lash out at others for having a different viewpoint than they do. One point lately has been on palm oil. Don’t buy the candy that has that in it. There’s never a thought that that candy bar might be one of the only options for someone with food sensitivities and a necessary gluten free diet. Also never a thought to those products perhaps being the only ones affordable for someone.

I’m tired of people who spend their days attacking people online in some sort of perceived social advocacy effort while they could instead be organizing with others to get real change to happen through parliamentary process. I feel like too many have chosen educating others on social issues as their method of involvement and not enough are taking real actions that make a difference in the lives of others. This may just be my perception. A person’s perception is their reality though. Quite often, this might be based more on feelings and past experience than factual data from a larger sampling. Still, I know several people who are on the ground level taking an active role in making a difference for homeless persons and for first nations youths, to name a few. Actions speak louder.

Scientifically, it’s illogical that I react to things that have chlorine in them because it’s everywhere. That doesn’t change the fact that I react to it.

Science doesn’t have the answer for everything. Many medical tests result in misdiagnosis. The blood test for gluten is one such test. They don’t know how much gluten needs to be in your system for it to show a positive result. As such, the biopsy is still the only way to confirm Celiac’s disease. The trouble now is that many doctors refuse to send patients to see the internist if the blood test is negative. The same medical testing issues exist for a wide range of conditions especially in the autoimmune arena.

In case it wasn’t clear, I’m saying that the answers aren’t always found in the data.

November is a hard month for me. Not only is it often raining and gloomy, but it marks a sad event in my life. It’s the fifth anniversary sometime this month. Why don’t I remember the actual date? I was too distraught to process it. I wrote a poem about it in hopes of it helping me heal. You can read it here.

This is another thing that they don’t really have an answer for. There must have been a “problem”. It’s an incredibly common occurrence. Not that it’s lack of rarity makes anyone who has experienced it feel any better.

I’m sorry this post probably seems like a mess. I’m feeling emotional today. Life is often a struggle for me and I feel this most in November. A year after that awful thing, my marriage ended. In November. See? Awful month. The saddest day of the year is in January though, so factually speaking, November is probably not awful for other people.

Like always, everything I have going on is this month. My martial arts grading happens two days before my French exam. NaNoWriMo is all month, but that is a nice escape from everything else.

Anyway, I have 20 hours of online French I need to get through.

Ciao,

R~

Thoughtful Thursday – November Madness

Well, like every November, there seems to be too much going on.

After spending my days writing copy, I spend my evenings either studying French or writing a novel. One might think this would burn me out, but while writing copy can be draining, writing a novel feeds my soul.

I am a little worried though. It has been a long time since I have had to write an exam, especially a French one. There seems to be a lot of hours left to complete in the online portion. I’m worried I won’t make it. At least the course is cheap if I have to repeat, but I’d rather not.

I need to fix my kitchen drawers, which are in pieces in my living/dining room, so I can make room to practice iaido. Any extra time I can spend will be helpful to prepare for grading. I’ve started some ankle strengthening exercises to reduce my wobbliness. I aim to get the drawers done over the weekend, so I can get on the rest. That, of course, dips into my French time and my writing time.

C’est la vie.

Ciao,

R~

NaNoWriMo 2016

It wasn’t until the screen asked me what novel I was going to work on that I decided it would be The Blood Waitress Club. It is a tale of roller derby and demons. It used to be vampires, but no one wants to read about vampires these days. There will be an assortment including vampires instead.

Right now, all the odds are stacked against me to succeed at my 50,000 word conquest. I suppose I can count my blog posts technically, but that doesn’t help me complete the novel. This month, outside of work, I need to log 25 hours of online French learning, 9 more hours of classroom learning plus a final exam. I also have to prepare for Nidan grading, so I can’t miss any time to write more. 

Whatever. As long as I add to the current word count, I’m going to call it success even if I don’t reach 50,000.

Good luck fellow NaNoWriMo participants. I’m off to buy a book for this project.

Ciao,

R~

Merry Monday – Adjusting to Your Surroundings

On the weekend, I traveled to Peterborough, Ontario for the annual koryu iaido seminar. I always come back from seminar with some helpful corrections and some less relevant ones.

The thing about seminar that is different than my dojo or the grading floor is that it is packed with people.

There is a kata that we do where I normally cover a large distance across the floor because I assume a kendo like stance and use okuri-ashi. If I did that in seminar, I’d run into the person in front of me. 

I often sacrifice technique at seminar in favour of paying attention to my surroundings. Several people near me were obviously oblivious to those around them. 

On this particular kata, it was not the instructors offering corrections, but people near my own level. This actually drives me crazy. Instructors can usually understand immediately whether you’re doing something wrong or adjusting to your surroundings. 

Now, I did receive some helpful corrections such as that I’m not putting my hands back far enough during jodan and my metsuke needs improvement as sometimes I’m looking at the target rather than the opponent’s eyes. I also learned a better timing for noto and some of the katas.

I realize to those who don’t follow my martial art, I just used a bunch of words you don’t understand, so here’s a breakdown:

Koryu – This is any kata that isn’t from our grading set, though as we level we are expected to include some koryu in our grading. I must include one koryu kata when I challenge Nidan grading in a month and they chose the other four kata from the standard grading set.

Iaido – This is the martial art I do. It is pronounced “eee-eye-doh”.

Kendo – This is another sword art commonly practiced by iaido practitioners. It is a sport and competition based sword art.

Okuri-ashi – This is a particular step that involves your feet staying in a right front, left back pattern as you move. Basically, you pretend the back is attached to the front by an invisible rubber band. Now, in kendo they do it a little different. The front foot moves first if going forwards and the back moves first when going backwards. I have not mastered this yet.

Jodan – When the sword is almost vertical above my head, the end of its handle should be vertically level with my forehead.

Metsuke – The gaze. In my art we have no physical opponent and have to convince you there is one in front of us by having our sword in the right place and by looking at the right place. We are telling a story.

I really enjoyed the weekend and the grading preparation was helpful. I had a lot of fun playing boardgames with a friend and her mom. There was also tasty pho. Libations were thoroughly enjoyed after the seminar.

I made my first book sale and I raffled off a copy of one to help pay for the seminar. Signing books feels strange. I’ll just have to get used to it

Fortifying Friday – Going Places

After finishing my work today, I headed west to pick up a dojo mate for an iaido seminar. There was a lot of chatting about a variety of things before dropping her in Peterborough. 

Peterborough has a strange spot near the Trent Severn Lock where your options are a tunnel or a bridge. The thing is that the tunnel and the bridge are shared with oncoming traffic. I opted to avoid the tunnel, not knowing that the only other option was the bridge. It was strange and it scared me. I had the illusion of choice. I guess I should’ve done the thing that scared me.

After doing her in Peterborough, I headed further west to Oshawa to a friend’s house and we got delicious pho. I’d been thinking about our pho plans all week. We got them to add veggies to it. I need to remember to ask for this in Ottawa. Also, I don’t know if my pho place has glutinous rice balls. 

After that, she bought books off me, so I’ve made my first two sales. I should remember to sign them for her before I go home.

We played this game called Quirkle with her mom. It was pretty fun. It’s like Scrabble but with shapes and colours. I won, but I bet it was beginner’s luck. They introduced me to One for the Money. Seems like a fun story. I’ll have to check the books out. I could use more humour in my life.

It’s been a long day of travel and socializing and  we have to be up early, so sweet dreams.

Ciao,

R~

Thoughtful Thursday – Tension

All day she waited for the moment that was planned months ago. As the weather grew dark and stormy, she lifted her chin defiantly. Nothing was stopping her today.

She had an important package to retrieve. 

But first, there was a workshop on building tension. 

As the workshop started, she received a message from a friend, which contained a video. It was from his toddler. She wanted to play it right then, but the authors had begun speaking about tension.

For nearly two hours she listened to their suggestions and comments. They offered tricks and suggested ways to… 

But what did the young boy have to say to her?

Right… The workshop. Oh, a book recommendation that sounds interesting. She writes it down. 

It is question time and she challenges them to talk about positive ways to create tension that don’t involve dramatic things like bombs. Mostly because she thinks they could all use some positivity.

Naturally, there’s the obvious example involving two consensual adults. 

The meeting comes to a close and she plays the video. He would like her to go trick or treating with them on Monday. Her heart melts because he is supremely adorable and of course she will go trick or treating!

And finally. She gets her package of books that have stories she wrote in them. Immediately, she has to sign a copy. Her mind goes blank. What can she say? She figures it out.

Then she lugs the heavy bag of books to her car and sticks the key in the ignition. Something is off about it, but the car starts so she leaves. Snow pelts the windshield. She’s on edge because it’s hard to see between the snow and the gleam of the traffic and car lights on the wet roads.

She reaches home and her car key falls apart. After logging the books into her home, she realizes she forgot to address the signing to the person. 

Oops.

Ciao,

R~

Sad News

A friend of the family passed away. He was found in his garage. Given that he was a man who liked to putter, it was probably the best place he could have chosen for his last moments.

It was on his riding lawnmower that I had my first driving lessons. A large red beast that my friend and I used to ride together, taking turns driving. 

That year, she and I got in trouble for letting some fish out of a cage in the pond nearby. Oops. We thought we were doing a good thing. The bait shop owner wasn’t happy.

Now, this man was a very nice man, but also very unlucky. One year, his dog ate his false teeth while he was sleeping. Another? He accidentally set his garage on fire. In the north, it’s not uncommon for us to have fun by shoveling our snow into a pile to jump into from a height. My brother and I did it often as kids with no problems. Well, this man was shoveling off his roof and now and again his shovel would follow the snow and he would jump down and retrieve it. One of the times he jumped down, he missed the snow pile. It is a 2-storey house. He didn’t immediately notice he had broken his leg and finished the shoveling. 

Most recently, he hadn’t been living really. He was hunched over, barely mobile, and in a lot of pain. 

Rest in peace, Ed.

R~

Merry Monday – Danger

Danger is really dependent on perspective.

I bought a dangerous thing at the store the other day. 

They had this set in a locked case along with hunting knives. The young man in that department got the key and placed it into a cloth bag, which he then locked the zipper on. The lady at the cash unlocked it.

Now, I’m aware the whole point in to ensure I can’t use it in store. Here’s the thing, though. If I already had a thing sharp enough on me to cut through that plastic, I could’ve also cut through the cloth bag. If I really wanted to do something, that wouldn’t have stopped me. The other thing is that it’s the type of store that is typically hard to find someone to help you in, so I would’ve had plenty of time alone to do something. Also, the utility knives are easily accessible if I really wanted to hurt someone.

I walked to the cash smiling about the futility of their security measures and because I was thinking about my wand project at home that I needed the knife for. I was intending just to get a small knife to whittle, but the one I wanted wasn’t there and this whole set was $20 after tax.

I’ve long wanted a wand, being a huge fan of Harry Potter, but none of the wands available for purchase feel like my wand. I think you can guess what I’m shaping this found twig into:

I haven’t figure out all the steps yet. Right now I’m just trying to get the blade shape. I’m daydreaming about the other parts like the tsuba, tsuka, and tsuka gashira. 

Well, the day has been long, I’m sore from yesterday’s martial arts lesson, and my brain is mushy from French class, so goodnight.

Ciao,

R~

Fortifying Friday – Working Out

Image created using Bit Strips.

This week I decided it was time to get back in shape. Not just generally fit, but in condition for martial arts. So I’m using Rushfit. Here are some problems I ran into:

1. I started on Tuesday instead of Monday, so I skipped the Day 1 Strength & Endurance workout because I want to leave Tuesdays as just cardio given that I have iaido on Tuesdays. I also want my main rest day to be Sunday because that’s an iaido day.

2. Wednesday was supposed to be Abs & Core, but my abs were still killing me from playing too hard with my toddler buddy, so I did the Day 1 workout instead, or tried too. I think they put the hardest workout too soon in the program. It was daunting. I had to skip the core stuff. I also didn’t have weights and could only find one weight instead of two at the store. At least I did some of it. I had a date planned the next day involving a lot of walking, so I didn’t want to kill myself and have a bad time on the date.

3. I had to start getting up earlier which is a monumental task for me. This week I read an article that said early risers have less inflammation in their bodies and anything I can do to keep inflammation at bay is a good thing. Plus, if I can get up earlier on the weekends, I will have more time to write. So far, I’m failing at this one.

4. I can’t make it through a whole workout yet. They’re almost two hours long! Hell, I barely make it through the warmups. Yesterday, I was close on the stretching one though. I liked that one. Today, I decided to do my own thing that was shorter as I was short on time. Mainly? I practiced martial arts.

Hopefully, next week will be more successful. I figure it’s not terrible that I’m struggling given that George St. Pierre sweats buckets while doing it and he works out a lot more than I do.

Well, back to work as I have plans this evening.

Ciao,

R~