.
So I've been taking Capoeira for just over two years and you'd think that, in this time, I'd have made some serious progress. Yet despite all my work and effort, even the simplest things it turns out I still have room to improve on. The ginga, the basic step or stance of Capoeira, I had been doing wrong until just recently, maybe three weeks ago. My legs have hurt ever since, as I'm trying to start doing it right, which is good. It's not necessarily that I was going ginga completely wrong, it's that some of the finer details of the technique were eluding me. Just one class with a different instructor and bam, I'm learning new things.
As for why I'm talking about this now, last night I learned something equally mind-blowing. Cartwheels, called au by Capoeristas, are a basic thing. I was taught them either my first or second night of class. I've been doing them ever since. I thought I was getting pretty good at them. Turns out that during that time I had been placing my hand ever so slightly wrong all this time. The difference in hand placement is at most a couple of inches, and is probably just an inch, but it has such an impact on not only all my au, but handstands, back bends, and other stuff that it's incredible. Honestly, if I showed you the difference, you might not even see it. I wouldn't have until last night.
I'm often awed not by how much I've learned, but how much more I have to learn even about things I thought I knew. Sometimes, like last night, I got this by asking an insightful question that led to a sudden realization. Other times I learn things through instruction. I'm not sure which is more but I definitely believe one thing:
Never stop asking questions. Sometimes the answers will astound you.
March 29, 2011
March 24, 2011
Technique vs. Strength in Capoeira
One of the most commonly repeated comments I hear while reading about Capoeira or watching videos is that Capoeira moves are more about technique than they are about strength.
Bullshit.
Yes, absolutely, if you do the move with incorrect technique, it is harder. But ALL Capoeira moves require a certain level of strength and flexibility. Even the most basic step, the ginga, takes strength to do right. Practically anyone can do a half-assed or incorrect ginga, not that hard. To do it right, however, requires a lot of leg strength. I only recently started doing ginga right, and I'm on my 2nd year of training! I'm pretty good at back bends, but it wasn't learning the technique of the move that was hard, I didn't have the upper body strength or back flexibility to do the move in the first place! I imagine most people can't do a back bend, and they certainly can't roll into a back bend from the side.
Specifically the Macaco is the move that I've heard this nonsense the most about. It's essentially a back handspring from a crouch. Technique is important, but if you don't have the leg and back strength to kick up, technique won't mean squat to you.
I'm not sure why people like to spout this nonsense, though perhaps it's some attempt to make Capoeira seem more accessible to people. Technique or not, you gonna take Capoeira, you gonna work and you gonna work hard if you're ever going to get past ginga and some kicks. I'm just sayin'.
Bullshit.
Yes, absolutely, if you do the move with incorrect technique, it is harder. But ALL Capoeira moves require a certain level of strength and flexibility. Even the most basic step, the ginga, takes strength to do right. Practically anyone can do a half-assed or incorrect ginga, not that hard. To do it right, however, requires a lot of leg strength. I only recently started doing ginga right, and I'm on my 2nd year of training! I'm pretty good at back bends, but it wasn't learning the technique of the move that was hard, I didn't have the upper body strength or back flexibility to do the move in the first place! I imagine most people can't do a back bend, and they certainly can't roll into a back bend from the side.
Specifically the Macaco is the move that I've heard this nonsense the most about. It's essentially a back handspring from a crouch. Technique is important, but if you don't have the leg and back strength to kick up, technique won't mean squat to you.
I'm not sure why people like to spout this nonsense, though perhaps it's some attempt to make Capoeira seem more accessible to people. Technique or not, you gonna take Capoeira, you gonna work and you gonna work hard if you're ever going to get past ginga and some kicks. I'm just sayin'.
March 22, 2011
Of Mice and Me, Part III
So remember how I said Facilities came and got my dead mouse? Well, they lied to me. The mouse and its stench remained. I complained many times and was ignored so eventually I took it to my boss and told him "fix it, I'm working from home till it's over." Even after my freaking manager gets involved Facilities tried to play it like there wasn't the smell of rotting dead thing in my cube. My boss then played the "I'll CC everyone who can fire your stupid ass on this next email". Then, and only then, did the actually nice people in Facilities show up. And tell me to GTFO of my cube. Seriously, they moved me.
Awesome!
No, really, awesome! I got moved from a cube with a view that was right next to a conference room and had foot traffic going by it all the goddamn time to a cube with half a view and zero foot traffic. I'll miss seeing 100% of the outside, but I'm stuck in a corner where no one can see me unless they walk all the way back here and the all the way into my cube. Freaking sweet. I'm so happy back here I even have some comics back up! My only actual complaint is that I have to walk forever to get to a hot water source that works for my tea, but aside from that, I am pleased.
So, live mice, dead mice, and now? New cube. I like how this turned out.
Awesome!
No, really, awesome! I got moved from a cube with a view that was right next to a conference room and had foot traffic going by it all the goddamn time to a cube with half a view and zero foot traffic. I'll miss seeing 100% of the outside, but I'm stuck in a corner where no one can see me unless they walk all the way back here and the all the way into my cube. Freaking sweet. I'm so happy back here I even have some comics back up! My only actual complaint is that I have to walk forever to get to a hot water source that works for my tea, but aside from that, I am pleased.
So, live mice, dead mice, and now? New cube. I like how this turned out.
Death of religion?
The BBC is reporting on the supposed death of religion. I should only be so lucky. The comments are rather entertaining since, at the time of me writing this, most of them are in moderation. However, I think it's pretty telling that this report is coming from the UK and not the USA, as I'm 90% sure the religious seriously outnumber the irreligious here.
March 16, 2011
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is… right?
Why is this phrase something I remembering hearing a lot when I was younger and one that I have not heard in recent history? That used to be common sense, a reasonable response, the smart response. Everyone knew it, and everyone who didn’t follow it and got burned admitted they knew it sounded too good to be true. Perhaps I’m viewing my childhood with rose-tinted glasses, but I swear I remember people not falling for stupid shit all the time.
Today things seem bleak. Anti-vaccine, anti-science views are on the rise; homeopathy and naturopathy are alive and well; psychics and astrologers are doing good business; that Nigerian scam made loads of bank and apparently still does… what the hell is going on? Was I sheltered from stupid when I was young or are people just getting more stupid, more credulous, and less skeptical?
If someone came up to me after I was in a car accident and told me that to cure me of my accident he’d take a piece of the car that hit me, dilute it ten million fold in water, then put three drops of that solution on my tongue, I would think he’d lost his mind. If I had a child and someone suggested to me that instead of preventing things like polio, rubella, and measles with vaccines, that I should not vaccinate because my child might suddenly become autistic and those other diseases weren’t that bad anyway, I’d assume that person was a lunatic. If someone came up to me after a funeral and told me they could help me talk to my dearly departed, I’d assume that person to be a scam artist and a genuinely evil person. If was engaged to that special someone and some guy told me that, due to the star pattern that I’d be born under, our marriage would fail, I’d think him insane and an asshole to boot. If someone from Nigera emailed me and told me they could help me make money if I’d only give them my bank account information, I would giggle at the utter ridiculousness of that request.
People fall for each of those situations I listed every single day. Beyond that, people don’t seem to be ashamed for falling for this crap; they seem to be even more stubbornly arguing that these fairly pathetic and obvious scams must actually be true because they heard about some guy somewhere for whom it worked. Anecdotes trump evidence these days.
When did skepticism, questioning the unlikely, and belief in science take such a fall? Why is it when I question something that sounds ridiculous, like taking royal jelly from a bees to improve fertility in a human, do I become the asshole? Why is not just accepting something that sounds insane now a bad thing? Are the kids not asking questions anymore?
Unfortunately, I think I have an answer: despair. Life is hard right now, there’s no denying that unless you’re ungodly wealthy or a Republican with your blinders on. People are struggling with jobs, money, housing, health care, children, and more. Businesses are closing, even when they aren’t being run by idiots. The world is heating up, bacteria are becoming more prevalent and more dangerous, and the calamity is Japan is fresh on everyone’s mind at the moment. How is this an answer to why people are more credulous? Simple: people need hope.
Hope is powerful. Hope can make life bearable again. Having recently had a complete 180 in my hope situation at work, I can attest that this is a real thing. And, though it pains me to say this, what I think all these things I mentioned have done for people is given them hope. It’s a long shot, but given how people still buy lottery tickets religiously, long shot hopes might be even more appealing to desperate people. And these days, with hope being in short order, any hope in a storm will give succor.
Even though I can be an asshole when it comes to believing stupid shit (especially homeopathy and vaccines), I have a hard time denying people the only hope they have, no matter how stupid the hope. This may shock you, but sometimes even I know when to just nod, smile, and say nothing. I guess I'm going to just have to bite my tongue for a while. Either that or accept that I really am a know-it-all asshole.
Today things seem bleak. Anti-vaccine, anti-science views are on the rise; homeopathy and naturopathy are alive and well; psychics and astrologers are doing good business; that Nigerian scam made loads of bank and apparently still does… what the hell is going on? Was I sheltered from stupid when I was young or are people just getting more stupid, more credulous, and less skeptical?
If someone came up to me after I was in a car accident and told me that to cure me of my accident he’d take a piece of the car that hit me, dilute it ten million fold in water, then put three drops of that solution on my tongue, I would think he’d lost his mind. If I had a child and someone suggested to me that instead of preventing things like polio, rubella, and measles with vaccines, that I should not vaccinate because my child might suddenly become autistic and those other diseases weren’t that bad anyway, I’d assume that person was a lunatic. If someone came up to me after a funeral and told me they could help me talk to my dearly departed, I’d assume that person to be a scam artist and a genuinely evil person. If was engaged to that special someone and some guy told me that, due to the star pattern that I’d be born under, our marriage would fail, I’d think him insane and an asshole to boot. If someone from Nigera emailed me and told me they could help me make money if I’d only give them my bank account information, I would giggle at the utter ridiculousness of that request.
People fall for each of those situations I listed every single day. Beyond that, people don’t seem to be ashamed for falling for this crap; they seem to be even more stubbornly arguing that these fairly pathetic and obvious scams must actually be true because they heard about some guy somewhere for whom it worked. Anecdotes trump evidence these days.
When did skepticism, questioning the unlikely, and belief in science take such a fall? Why is it when I question something that sounds ridiculous, like taking royal jelly from a bees to improve fertility in a human, do I become the asshole? Why is not just accepting something that sounds insane now a bad thing? Are the kids not asking questions anymore?
Unfortunately, I think I have an answer: despair. Life is hard right now, there’s no denying that unless you’re ungodly wealthy or a Republican with your blinders on. People are struggling with jobs, money, housing, health care, children, and more. Businesses are closing, even when they aren’t being run by idiots. The world is heating up, bacteria are becoming more prevalent and more dangerous, and the calamity is Japan is fresh on everyone’s mind at the moment. How is this an answer to why people are more credulous? Simple: people need hope.
Hope is powerful. Hope can make life bearable again. Having recently had a complete 180 in my hope situation at work, I can attest that this is a real thing. And, though it pains me to say this, what I think all these things I mentioned have done for people is given them hope. It’s a long shot, but given how people still buy lottery tickets religiously, long shot hopes might be even more appealing to desperate people. And these days, with hope being in short order, any hope in a storm will give succor.
Even though I can be an asshole when it comes to believing stupid shit (especially homeopathy and vaccines), I have a hard time denying people the only hope they have, no matter how stupid the hope. This may shock you, but sometimes even I know when to just nod, smile, and say nothing. I guess I'm going to just have to bite my tongue for a while. Either that or accept that I really am a know-it-all asshole.
March 15, 2011
Wow. Just wow.
As reported by Bad Astronomy, House Republicans to a man (or woman) "...voted down a simple amendment declaring the reality of climate change. Not that it was human-caused, or dangerous, just that it existed. Which it does." Holy fucking shit.
You want to argue that global warming isn't caused by man you can get some backup, some evidence that says you might be right. But that global warming is happening? That the planet is warming? You have to rely on cranks and discredited pseudo-scientists to get any evidence to merit your claim. Which is to say, you have to ignore a vast amount of evidence to believe your claim. Or, which may be the case here, you have to be a deluded idiot or being paid for your belief, and in the case of the people who are, in theory, running this country, I'm not sure which of those options I find more horrible.
I disagreed with Anthropogenic Global Warming (man made) for a long time. But now that I've actually spent the time and read a lot of data, I found that the science is sound. Also, 90%+ of climate scientists agree that AGW is real and 97%+ of climate scientists at least agree that the warming trend is real. This little demonstration by the Democrats, for whom I hold little love, just goes to prove one thing: the Republican party is anti-science. That is fucking terrifying.
Democratic Congressman Ed Markey gave a sarcastic speech that summed up the recent attacks on science by the Republican party fairly well.
I have never been prouder to be a Libertarian.
You want to argue that global warming isn't caused by man you can get some backup, some evidence that says you might be right. But that global warming is happening? That the planet is warming? You have to rely on cranks and discredited pseudo-scientists to get any evidence to merit your claim. Which is to say, you have to ignore a vast amount of evidence to believe your claim. Or, which may be the case here, you have to be a deluded idiot or being paid for your belief, and in the case of the people who are, in theory, running this country, I'm not sure which of those options I find more horrible.
I disagreed with Anthropogenic Global Warming (man made) for a long time. But now that I've actually spent the time and read a lot of data, I found that the science is sound. Also, 90%+ of climate scientists agree that AGW is real and 97%+ of climate scientists at least agree that the warming trend is real. This little demonstration by the Democrats, for whom I hold little love, just goes to prove one thing: the Republican party is anti-science. That is fucking terrifying.
Democratic Congressman Ed Markey gave a sarcastic speech that summed up the recent attacks on science by the Republican party fairly well.
I have never been prouder to be a Libertarian.
March 14, 2011
Of Mice and Me, Part II
Well, now that I went out and said how cute mice are, they got revenge on me the only way they had left... The little fucker died somewhere in my cube. I came in today and was greeted by the stench of dead rodent, and as a bonus, I couldn't find the wee body. The bastard had crammed himself into some part of my cube and perished. What a wonderful morning. Fortunately the lovely people from facilities found him somewhere and got rid of his remains while I was out to lunch. Now his mousy remains are gone and I can get back to working without a stench in my nostrils.
March 11, 2011
Now I'm depressed.
Everyone knows things are going a little rough in the economy. Yeah, you hear "good news" on the news from time to time, but as everyone I know agrees, things are hard right now. It's hit close to home in several places, but it's punched hard with today's revelation...
Between Books may close soon.
My favorite bookstore, my favorite place to get gaming supplies, my comic outlet is close to going under. I spoke to the owner today and he's been having a rough few years, and recently he had to let go one of his only other employees, a staple of the place. Lots of things about today's economy are depressing, but that I might lose my very favorite place to buy books? That one of my friends might lose his life's work? That really hurts. The best I can do is buy some books, which I will do, but unless other people also go buy some books, it's only a matter of time.
Go buy books!
Between Books may close soon.
My favorite bookstore, my favorite place to get gaming supplies, my comic outlet is close to going under. I spoke to the owner today and he's been having a rough few years, and recently he had to let go one of his only other employees, a staple of the place. Lots of things about today's economy are depressing, but that I might lose my very favorite place to buy books? That one of my friends might lose his life's work? That really hurts. The best I can do is buy some books, which I will do, but unless other people also go buy some books, it's only a matter of time.
Go buy books!
March 7, 2011
Of mice and me. No, that's not a typo.
So there's been mouse sightings in my workplace. I know this because of the ear-piercing shrieks that come from the women I work with when they catch sight of mice. The otherwise sensible woman I work next to is rendered nearly inconsolable when a mouse appears. More than once when there's been a sighting of these little rodents work has, for those women, ground to a halt as they scream, discuss their terror with other women, jump at every unexpected movement, and pull their feet up onto their chairs.
Now, as a concerned and indeed compassionate adult, after a mouse sighting I take great time and care to make sure these women hear what they need to hear: that they are complete pansies and absolutely entertaining to me in their terror. And, no, I'm not kidding, I rail on these women for being afraid of a thing the size of my Mr. Potato-moto chip-clip. Seriously, the biggest mouse we've seen is, including the tail, maybe the length of one of my fingers.
Maybe I'm just a jerk, but I cannot get worked up over a tiny rodent and find it silly that other people do. A spider the size of my finger would concern me a bit; a wasp that big would get me to arm myself with smashing weapons; but a mouse? A cute little mouse? No. I had lots of little pets when I was a child, including mice, and have seen adorable little rats and whatnot as a grown man. Sorry, not scary. Startling when you're not expecting them, certainly. But that startled turns to "aww" very quickly for me.
One important detail to this story is that in all these scream-inducing mouse sightings, I have barely ever even gotten the slightest glimpse of the little bastard. I think they're adorable, so that annoyed me. However, since the mouse generally ignored me, I didn't hold much hope of seeing one.
Then I neglected to put my breakfast bars into plastic tubs! I didn't see a mouse, but I saw the signs of the little guy eating my breakfast bars. Rather than throw them out immediately, I decided to wait and see if I could see the little guy. And, with my continued neglect of throwing mouse bait out, today I finally got to see the little dude! Twice! And he was a tiny, adorable little mouse who ran away from me with all possible speed.
Obviously, as I value my ears, I haven't told anyone this. The women would either freak out or get mad at me for taunting my mouseless fate; everyone else would just tell me to stop it since it's hard enough to get rid of mice as it is. But, through a combination of neglect and patience, I finally got my very own mouse sighting here at work that didn't involve screaming.
And, yes, I threw away the mouse bait. Otherwise I'd probably get more screaming at some point soon.
Now, as a concerned and indeed compassionate adult, after a mouse sighting I take great time and care to make sure these women hear what they need to hear: that they are complete pansies and absolutely entertaining to me in their terror. And, no, I'm not kidding, I rail on these women for being afraid of a thing the size of my Mr. Potato-moto chip-clip. Seriously, the biggest mouse we've seen is, including the tail, maybe the length of one of my fingers.
Maybe I'm just a jerk, but I cannot get worked up over a tiny rodent and find it silly that other people do. A spider the size of my finger would concern me a bit; a wasp that big would get me to arm myself with smashing weapons; but a mouse? A cute little mouse? No. I had lots of little pets when I was a child, including mice, and have seen adorable little rats and whatnot as a grown man. Sorry, not scary. Startling when you're not expecting them, certainly. But that startled turns to "aww" very quickly for me.
One important detail to this story is that in all these scream-inducing mouse sightings, I have barely ever even gotten the slightest glimpse of the little bastard. I think they're adorable, so that annoyed me. However, since the mouse generally ignored me, I didn't hold much hope of seeing one.
Then I neglected to put my breakfast bars into plastic tubs! I didn't see a mouse, but I saw the signs of the little guy eating my breakfast bars. Rather than throw them out immediately, I decided to wait and see if I could see the little guy. And, with my continued neglect of throwing mouse bait out, today I finally got to see the little dude! Twice! And he was a tiny, adorable little mouse who ran away from me with all possible speed.
Obviously, as I value my ears, I haven't told anyone this. The women would either freak out or get mad at me for taunting my mouseless fate; everyone else would just tell me to stop it since it's hard enough to get rid of mice as it is. But, through a combination of neglect and patience, I finally got my very own mouse sighting here at work that didn't involve screaming.
And, yes, I threw away the mouse bait. Otherwise I'd probably get more screaming at some point soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)