Hello Blog Rockets. We, the Good People of Lisablog, are heading to our Mount Tremper Headquarters. Stay cool and we'll be back tomorrow night with a report on Herb the Heron and the tap-ability of our Sugar Maple.
Hello Blog Rockets. We, the Good People of Lisablog, are heading to our Mount Tremper Headquarters. Stay cool and we'll be back tomorrow night with a report on Herb the Heron and the tap-ability of our Sugar Maple.
Hi Blog Rabbits. Another day of challenges down at the Dojo: 100 push ups, 200 sit ups, and some sparring practice. We, the good people of Lisablog, are here to tell you that if you want to get in shape like a Navy Seal, Kyokushin Karate is the way to go. It's also a great way to get in shape for a marathon. After a workout in the Dojo you will be like Dude, a Marathon, No Problem. We, the White Belts of Lisablog, had a crisis of confidence today as we were paired up for some kick-sparring with Sempai. Let us be the first to tell you that White Belt versus Black Belt = no fun for the White Belt. However, here is what we learned: There is a very important nerve that runs down the thigh from the hip to the knee cap on the outside (lateral) part of the leg. This nerve is called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. With a very simple kick (instep -- haisuko --to the side of the leg just above the knee), you can cause your opponent extreme pain and temporarily disable his or her ability to kick back at you. If you hit the nerve just right, you can even get the Pins and Needles Numb What-Happened-to-My-Leg Effect. We, the good people of Lisablog, can tell you that This is Kyokushin. And a tip for the wusses out there: if you see Sempai, Sensei, or Kancho coming at you with a kick, you should scream like a small injured animal and/or fake a seizure disorder. Peace out.
On a happier note, if you are a Peak Performer and you want to evaluate your diet, here is the place to do it: Nutrition Analysis Tools and System. Just Click on "Enter Here" and get started. You can set up an account (simply by providing your email address and creating a password. (Click on My NATS). The NATS program allows you to download a list of the foods you consume and analyze them for protein, carbs, vitamins, etc. You can save a list and add to it. You can also check out how many calories you're burning with the Energy Calculator. It's a totally excellent site. And if you want to learn more about Human Nutrition, check out this intro course at Berkeley. Easily downloadable to the mighty IPod.
From today's New York Times:
Lisablog homework assignment for the week: Make a list of your 715 best friends. Meditate upon the past eight days of the American occupation of Iraq. Peace out.
In the past eight days, at least 715 Iraqis have been killed or have been found dead, according to the Associated Press. The death toll has reached 1,320 already this month, higher than the 1,216 who died in October...
The Monkey Ball Biter of the Week is O.J. Simpson. If you're as old as the good people of Lisablog and if you're from Buffalo, New York, you might remember him as #32, The Juice. These days we simply call him Murderer. O.J. recently wrote a book called If I Did It, Here's How It Happened. As of eighteen minutes ago (5:01 pm. East Coast) the book has been scrapped by the publisher (Regan Books). Perhaps Knopf can snatch it up. We suggest the title: I Like Decapitating Chicks or I Bought the Law and I Won.
Peace. Go For It.
Posted by lisa jarnot
at 5:07 PM EST
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Updated: Monday, 20 November 2006 5:08 PM EST
Lisablog correspondent Danny K passes along this link to the UCLA Police. If you've been following the case of Mostafa Tabatabainejad, you can go to this website and email your concerns directly to the cops. Peace.
UCLA Daily Bruin. In case you've missed the news from Southern California, on Tuesday an Iranian-American student was assaulted by police when he failed to produce his student ID card while in the library. The incident was caught on video. You can watch it on YouTube, if you're up for watching the cops as they taser a screaming guy for six minutes. It's very Abu Ghraib. We, the good people of Lisablog, once had a shrink who pointed out that cops become cops because they are afraid of their criminal instincts. (The follow up is that the shrink turned out to be psychotic. Go figure.) As the Bard says, Don't follow leaders, and watch the parking meters. And a note out to my marathon-tip friends out there: thanks much for the comments and advice. (For the readers who missed it, see the comments of Sunday November 12th.)
Posted by lisa jarnot
at 3:19 PM EST
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Updated: Saturday, 18 November 2006 3:32 PM EST
Another sad and excellent piece on Brad Will, this time in The Village Voice.
And, if you're out and about in New York City this weekend, be sure to check out the New York Art Book Fair over in Chelsea. Our friend Helen came all the way from Scotland with a big heavy bag of terrific rare artists books. It's not often you can get books from Helen's Weproductions in the United States. This is a very special opportunity. The book fair is happening all day on Saturday and Sunday and here is the address: 548 West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenue. Admission to the fair is free. So haul your ass down there and check out some books that are more than just books.
Good afternoon people, and welcome to the Himalayas. Capital of Bhutan? Thimphu. It's a great city for marathon training: altitude 8,000 feet. Now, a simple Peak Performance note. Some of you may be asking: why are the good people of Lisablog so pathologically attatched to Peak Performance? This is a good question which we will attempt to answer for you today. The truth is that the good people of Lisablog have not always been Peak Performers. In fact, like all the rest of humanity, we, the good people of Lisablog have had our ups and downs and side-swipes. But in homage to all the underdogs out there, and out of respect for the underdog of our unconscious and superego, we, the good people of Lisablog made a decision to, as Rilke says, "change our lives." Our comic strip hero in this regard is of course the great super-hero of own borough of Queens, Spiderman. With the help of a nasty little spider bite, Spiderman changed his life. Not only did he change his life, but he lived by the motto: With great power comes great responsibility. Dig it. What can you gain from setting high goals for yourself and pushing yourself to make maximum use of your mind and body? There is much that you can gain from this Peak Performance attitude: firstly, you will find that it's much easier to get out of bed in the morning. Things that used to feel hard will feel easy. Do you dread going to work, taking out the trash, cleaning out the fridge, going to the dentist? We guarantee you that if you integrate a series of higher goals (graduate studies in linguistics, triathlon training, pilot school, kyokushin karate) you will find that the little things are much easier to attend to. So, set some goals, start your training, and take it one step at a time, but don't be afraid to push yourself. Did someone somewhere along the way tell you that you couldn't and wouldn't be all that you could be? Now is the time to re-write that story.
And finally, some tips for all the Kyokushin White Belts out there who are preparing for their 10th Kyu promotion:
Learn your dojo oath. It's easy: unlike other things you learn in the dojo, the dojo oath is in English. You have no excuse for not knowing it.
In practicing your katas, attend to those fine details of the form. Fix your stance, keep your back leg straight, punch for your target: not out to the side, but dead center chudan toward the solar plexus. Look before you step! Look! Step! Block or Punch! As Dylan Thomas once said, Do not go blindly into your kumite! You need to look at whoever it is you are about to knock out. Look! Look! Look! (Turning your head before the movement also helps to facilitate the movement and the turn.)
Learn as many stances as you can before your first promotion. Learning stances doesn't require a lot of brain power. Neko Ashi Dachi: Cat Stance. You've seen your cat do it. Now you know what it is.
And finally, try not to be nervous. This is your life. You decided to be a karateka. You're doing this for yourself, not for anyone else. Keep your focus on the art of the sport, not on what other people think of you.
Peace people, and rock on.
Hello People, and welcome to another foggy globally warm Sunnyside day. And now, the News: For the Oak Tree Freaks in the audience, how about a free copy of Field Guide to the Native Oak Species of Eastern North America? Send an email to Lisa Cress of the U.S. Forest Service at lcress@fs.fed.us She will send you the book. Don't say the Feds never gave you anything. We received our copy yesterday and we are very very pleased with it. It helped us to make that tricky identification of one of our local Sunnyside trees: Pin Oak or Scarlet Oak? It's a Pin Oak. How could we tell? The leaves can be pretty similar. So, it's all in the fruit. The Pin Oak has a shallower acorn cup than the Scarlet Oak. It's disky like a UFO. The Scarlet Oak's acorn hat is deeper, like a tea cup for a squirrel.
Other news: There is no other news today. We are wrapping our little Lisablog minds around marathon training and yellow belt promotions. Hang in there until tomorrow and we will be back with new improved meatier musclar news. Peace people.