a bit of the past and some of the future…really long post

Posted by Steve Hanna on July 27th, 2005 filed in Random

Last week I got my lip pierced as detailed in the gallery. This sounded like an excellent idea until I decided to go to kung fu the next day. Normally, kung fu is fairly laid back; we work hard, practice our forms, do some applications then call it a night. Well, this day was perhaps a bit different. Due to some of us expressing interest in sparring he decided to turn our class into a sparring period. So, I taped up my newly acquired piercing to ensure that it wouldn’t bounce around too much and we got started. We didn’t use any padding or even mouth guards (which would later be my downfall), we were just instructed to pull our punches and sweeps before any real damage could be done. Little did I know that for some people this is harder than it sounds…

Now, I haven’t been doing martial arts for very long, in total it has been about a year now. Although I have only studied a year I have put in considerable time and effort during my short lived martial arts experience and I feel like I have really learned a lot. At my club at uiuc we did a lot of sparring, so I learned quickly what moves made me a better fighter and which ones resulted in me lying on the floor wallowing in my own injuries and self pity. The point I am trying to make it, when I would engage an opponent I would land my attacks but I would pull the power at the end to ensure that the person was not injured. Apparently this skill is not a sought after one, as I found out when I sparred.

So, back to my point. There is another guy there who I shall call Yu to protect the actual name of the person I sparred. He is a fourth level shaolin student (this means he has demonstrated proficiency in nearly 40 forms and various other feats), and has been doing shaolin kung fu for about 4 years. All in all, he is fairly decent at what he does, his movement is not as rhythmic and smooth as it should be but when it comes down to it, his forms are pretty solid. Yu has one fatal flaw, he can be arrogant and cocky and nothing incenses me more than people with this attitude.

I decided that I would surmount this attitude by combating it with my own…ego and confidence that I was defending the ‘underdogs’ (note: you see, this is what we call hypocrisy…shut up). So I start sparring with him and I basically start teasing him, snapping to distract him stomping my foot, sweeping etc. It was working out fairly well. For him being the advanced student I was able to block nearly every attack he threw at me while ensuring that I got a few strikes in as well. Well, during the last 10 seconds of our match, I must have blinked too long, dropped my hands, or something equally ridiculous, because I realized that I had just been punched in the mouth. You see, now we’ve come full circle. He did not pull his punch nor the power behind it which left me with two swollen lips. The whole situation didn’t really hurt that much, although I did have a one half inch gash in my upper lip where a mouth guard should have been protecting. Furthermore, I have been hit in just about any place imaginable while sparring and I feel like in other situations I have been hurt far worse than the damage he inflicted. I was just upset that for being an advanced student, Yu didn’t seem to be able to control his punches at all. I guess this rant probably came from my bruised face…or vanity…

As a result of that incident, I looked like a freak show going to work on Friday with two swollen and one cut lip. So for the rest of my weekend I managed to sleep around 30 hours because I didn’t want to leave the house but surprisingly enough, I didn’t play any wow at all. I managed to read two books: curious incident of the dog in the nighttime and choke. That at least kept me busy. Both books were pretty decent yet The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime has a very funny part where he talks about how sometimes he has a dream that everyone in the world dies due to a disease. The only ones not affected by the virus are the autistic kids who then make the world into some sort of a utopia. Anyhow, pick up either one, you will enjoy them.

This weekend is defcon, a black hat security conference. I am very excited about attending the conference for the second time. It is full of semi-decent technical talks, but the most fun is had under the vale of night in Las Vegas when friend gather and the drinking and gambling begins. My best friend and I will be having a great time during the nearly-august hot days of summer in the desert.

Also at Defcon there is a techno/rave type thing called the Black and White Ball in which about 300 fat/sweaty/hackers act like they can dance while some DJ scratches out some tunes. Last year when we went we just got drunk, this year I am even more prepared. I will be equipped with the same about of tequila as I had last year, yet I will be wearing the coolest*GAYEST, GAY GAY GAY stretchy, leopard print shirt ever. It was only $4 at my local Children’s Hospital Thrift Store (hey, it was to support the kids…right?).

I also got a new tablet pc but it hasn’t arrived yet. I got it totally decked out through M$’s employee purchase plan, so I am sure the nerd part of my brain will cause me to salivate some more and I will post more details at a later date.

Well that is about I have to say for now (wow, I wasted a lot of time at work), but in case you want to see my never-ending, continuously growing, bibliophilic wish list, you can find it here.