Just a simple wish that all of your wishes come true, everyone.
Unless, of course, your wishes involve harming people.
Then you’ll have to deal with me.
🙂
Filed under: Announcements, General Dialogue, Special Events | Leave a comment »
Stretching My Legs
Posted on December 2, 2007 by Jorge
Circles Have No Beginning
My friend (and Capoeira instructor) Lang invited me out to attend her classes during my month away from Karate, so I took her up on her invitation and attended a few classes. I have to say, it’s been a long time since I did any structured class for Capoeira, and let me tell you, the first time I went my legs were sore as hell.
But the energy of Lang’s circle is strong. Much stronger than it’s ever been. So strong that it actually compels you to shrug off the fatigue and soreness and keep the games going.
It was nice to go back to something familiar,
even if it was just for a few hours…
Click to enlarge…
Circles Have No End
On top of the fact that Lang was teaching, my friend Tien also takes the class. Capoeira is where we met and became friends, so that was another reason to really enjoy my time there.
The icing on the cake was Mestre Augusto. He’s a great master from Brazil, full of mischief and incredible technique. He’s a lot of fun, and it was an honour to play several games with him. He is, as they say, a true malandro.
Three malandros. Mestre Augusto
is in between Tien and myself.
Click to enlarge…
It has been about four years since I have done Capoeira. I managed to meet Mestre Acordeon a short while go. That made me nostalgic, but I was embroiled in Karate at the time. I was determined to not let anything distract me.
It was only recently when I performed a short demo at my Shodan grading that I realized how much I missed it.
Mrs. J asked me an interesting question the other day…
If you had your choice to travel and study a martial art at its source, which one would you do? Capoeira? Karate? Which one of the arts that you know would you choose?
I realized that I couldn’t make the choice. It was too hard. I love all martial arts.
So I said…
France, to study Savate.
🙂
Filed under: Friends, General Dialogue | 5 Comments »
Scrabulous Tips
Posted on November 1, 2007 by Jorge
Unpopularity
I’m competitive in a weird way.
I’m not really afraid to lose, but at the same time, I don’t really like it. Who does?
When I lose at something, it’s more about improving my general skills than beating a specific person (except when it comes to the Spiderman: City Raid game that Dave, Beth and I are addicted to).
One of my favourite games is Scrabble. I wrote an article recently about how much I love playing Scrabble on Facebook. I’ve completed about 87 games and won 67 of them.
I suspect that a lot of my opponents think I am some kind of Scrabble Wizard, which is really not the case.
Considering that most of these people are my friends, I would like to offer up some of the cheap tricks that I use to usually score big points.
To Be or Not to Be
I have made a lot of Bingos. A Bingo (in Scrabble) occurs when you use all seven of your tiles at once, as a new word, or part of an existing word. On top of the normal score for the word, one gets a 50 point bonus for using all of their tiles.
A really good trick to spelling large words is to use an underrated prefix. The BE combo, as I like to call it. Here are some examples of random tile draws and what you can make out of them using this strategy…
- LDEOCUB – You could spell the word CLOUD, but it would be better to spell the word BECLOUD
- MEBASCL – You could spell the word CALMS, but it would be better to spell the word BECALMS
- CEKSBED – You could spell the word DECKS, but it would be better to spell the word BEDECKS
- GMOOLBE – You could spell the word GLOOM, but it would be better to spell the word BEGLOOM
See? A great cheap trick that nets you an extra 50. That could mean the difference between losing and winning. Or the difference between winning and kicking major ass.
🙂
Filed under: Gaming, General Dialogue | 8 Comments »
Measuring Progress with Pablum
Posted on October 10, 2007 by Jorge
The Watcher Watches
I’ve never really had ridiculous goals.
I’m simple that way.
I just want to be a good father, a good husband, and a good friend. It doesn’t sound like much, does it?
It can be a challenge, though.
Luckily I’ve been blessed with people that make all of those goals easy to attain.
I also find it great when other people want to set goals for themselves. I stand behind them (so long as the goals will never end up harming anyone).
I have to admit, though, that I can’t get enough of watching Little J hit all of these goals that she’s never really committed to.
It’s somewhat inspiring, to tell you the truth.
The fact that this little squirt can achieve so much in so little time is amazing. It’s amazing that all babies do this.
She’ll try to do something, and if she fails she gets pissed off. Be that as it may, she still won’t give up, and she’ll keep pushing and pushing until she reaches her goal, even though she’s not sure what it is.
Sort of puts things into perspective.
Filed under: Anecdotes, General Dialogue | 5 Comments »
One Three Ton Challenge
Posted on September 4, 2007 by Jorge
Getting Our Feet Wet
Earlier this year, our basement gave us a wonderful present in the form of several litres of water which took up residence in our carpet.
While generous of our basement to do this, we really don’t like that sort of gift. Unfortunately, there was no gift receipt, so we had to get rid of the water using a friend’s dehumdifier and a bunch of fans.
We determined that the problem was because of the weirdo-thaw we had at the time, and matters weren’t helped by the strange layout of the asphalt in our backyard.
It sloped towards the house, and ended at the gate to the front of the house, due to some previous owner paving on top of the asphalt that was already there, causing a lip to form, which acts as a dam.
So Mrs. J and I decided to landscape…
Bin busy…
Click to enlarge…
Don’t Like It? JunkIt!
Over the summer, I took time here and there to wield a sledgehammer against the forces of asphalt, cracking it and prying it up in large chunks.
Since there was so much of it – and since it’s not environmentally friendly to dump it – I asked around my circle about disposal companies.
Since Mrs. J and Little J were heading out to Mrs. J’s Grandpa’s cottage over the long weekend, I called JunkIt to rent a five-cubic-yard bin for hauling concrete and stone.
I figured that it would be a good time for me to take care of the asphalt on my own. It was much cheaper than getting other people to do it. It would also be great exercise.
The spade broke on the last ten square feet…
Click to enlarge…
Hauling Ash
So that’s how I spent the majority of my long weekend.
I discovered that the “rugged” plastic wheelbarrow was beginning to crack under the strain of the rubble I was filling it with, so I moved the pile one shovelful at a time.
It certainly was time consuming, but now the section of backyard beside the house is now asphalt-free!
And was it a good workout?
Hell yeah! Everything is so much lighter after you move around heavy debris!
Next year we will be making a nice path and a garden along the side of the house, along with an enclosure for the garbage/recycling bins. Perhaps even a nice sandbox for Little J.
Mrs. J was kind enough to snap these photos of the result of my weekend Labour (go figure it was Labour Day weekend)…
A job well done…
Click to enlarge…
UPDATE: One of the fine folks from Junk It just left a comment informing us that the capacity of this bin is much higher than I thought. Awesome.
Filed under: Anecdotes, General Dialogue | 12 Comments »
Barking Space 
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