The Photo Revealed

Here's the story:

Years ago, some friend of mine--including some people who now read my LiveJournal-- had a fantasy football league going.  They gave their teams extremely ridiculous names, and one of the teams was called The Disembodied Heads of Carrie Fisher.  When Mackie got one of these . . . things, both Kala and I said, "Oh!  It's a disembodied head of Carrie Fisher!"  (Even though I think it's supposed to be Leia's mother Padme, or whatever the character's name is.)

These toys are particularly weird and even grotesque, and the chance to make fun of them is too good to pass up.  :)

Pounding

Yesterday evening was tournament practice.  Class runs for 90 minutes instead of 45, and we go over breaking, forms, and sparring.  I'm not planning to compete with breaking and forms--no interest.  Sparring though . . . sparring is fun.  It's also exhausting, which is why it's always the last half hour of class, so I had to wade through the first hour.  (Maybe next week I'll show up late.)

This time for the sparring practice, the instructor put us in two lines and first person in each line became opponents.  We fought until the instructor blew his whistle, whereupon the next two rotated into place to fight.  It was great fun.  All the adults were red belts--three ranks higher than me--but I didn't care.  I kept getting matched up with a woman, though, who consistently held back, which was a little annoying.  (I knew she was holding back because when she got matched up with someone else, her fighting suddenly became a lot more intense.)  The bouts go fast and furious, and even after ten or fifteen seconds, you're left panting and sweaty. 

I've learned that while front kicks are easy and fast, they're almost useless in sparring because they're so simple to block.  Side kicks are a little better because you can kick higher, but they're risky because of the threat of being knocked off balance.  Back kicks, spinning back kicks, and wheel kicks are the most useful for two reasons.  Turning your back (but not your head) on your opponent is a defensive maneuver that still allows you to strike.  And the spinning motions look really cool.  Seriously.  The flurry of movement is a little confusing to your opponent, which makes it harder to block or dodge the kick.

One of the guys in the class and I have an unwritten understanding that we don't hold back, that we pound on each other at full strength.  We both like it that way.  You're not supposed to do this in sparring--you're supposed to use just enough power to penetrate your opponent's defenses and score a point.  We ignore this when we fight each other, and we both have bruises to prove it.  It's great fun!

Got home and had to peel my dobak off to shower.

Rain!

Slept nine hours last night and woke up this morning to . . . rain!  Steady, pouring rain!  After more than two dry months, we're finally getting a steady, soaking shower.  It's supposed to do this for a couple days, too.

Funny how quickly the relief switched to annoyance at the damp.  Humidity is at 100%, and you can tell!  I closed up the house and turned on the AC.