Training, music, book, and weather. In that order.

Now that I have had a couple days to digest the seminar with Mrs. Tori Eldridge (linked at right), I feel I am prepared to write some thoughts. Never (and I mean never) have I been trained by a person with so much raw exuberance. She loves To-Shin Do, and that passion bled off on everyone in the room. Her technique was explosive, graceful, and precise. As I suspected, she used me quite a bit to demonstrate how a short person can topple someone over a foot taller than they are. For lack of a better term, she used scare tactics to throw me off balance. I can't tell you how many times I thought she was hitting me before I found myself lying on the mats. Good times. She also had a reputation for being something of a brute. I have heard that on more than one occasion myself. Well, so did she. She made a concious effort to be gentle. Aside from a couple bruises where she grabbed me on my inner thigh, I am no worse for wear. In fact, there was one instance where she grabbed my neck and when I put my hand on hers (to resist her attack when she said "he can resist me from here...I guess I wanted to enact what she was saying), she eased up and told me "sorry". I tried to quietly explain that I was merely acting out what she was saying, but I don't think she heard me. Ah well. It was good times. She even gave me a solid topic for my next newsletter submission. Several times, she was hear to say "own the center". I won't get into it now, but when I have the column ready, I will post it here too.

Saturday night, Mike (Bahr, linked at right) and I got together for some guitar playing. As his blog points out, we have been getting together about once a week or so for the last month. We have had little progress aside from breezing through some songs to determine their "playability". Also, as Mike says, we had a bit of a breakthrough. These moments come only once in a while with established projects and many times takes months to reach for a developing project. Needless to say, we had the best musical experience in years. As with Mike, I am not getting into the details...you will have to see us play when we are ready, but I have the feeling this project will be more fulfilling than anything I have been a part of thus far. I attribute this to a few factors: 1. Mike and I have largely identical musical tastes, 2. we have no reservations against (or for) anything in particular. All ideas are considered and then thoughtfully included or left out, and 3. games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Seriously. We have been playing these games together for a year and a half. As we have played these games, we have often discussed how cool it would be to do certain things with real instruments. Now we are beginning to realize such fantasies. So here's to Mike's and my further discovery.

My book is starting to come along a little quicker. In fact, when my writing (like tonight's) shows up here being a little sub standard, it is because of such progress. I have blown my writing wad for the day. Anyway, since I lost the bulk of my writing so long ago, I have had an opportunity to re-evaluate the style. I have been considering making it a narrative. Ultimately, I decided not to go that route in large part (actually, entirely) because there is no one main character. The main characters are spread across a region of roughly 600 miles, and the events take place over a 35 year period. Some of my characters, who were real people, die of old age before the story I am telling is done. So I am sticking with the third person view. I am also toying with the idea of turning the one book into two or three. Two if I keep it in the same time frame as is currently planned, three if I decide to have it start ten years earlier (still ending at the same point). I will keep everyone posted.

What the heck is up with the weather? Last week, I needed a jacket at noon everyday, and all of a sudden we are in the mid to upper 70's. AZ weather is bipolar.