April 18, 2013

• Mornings

  I have every friday off from both school and work.  Usually it’s my catch up day.  That means catching up on homework, laundries, groceries, etc– in reality, it’s not much of a day off, but it’s a flexible day that I can do whatever I want with.

  Some things I’ve done so far:

  Laundries.  The problem with laundries and judo is that a judogi (the training jacket and pants that you wear) are super thick cotton– they have to be much thicker than the normal karategi or dobok, because the fabric and seams need to support your weight.  Otherwise, when someone tried to lift you, your clothes would just shred.  The problem with this heavy duty cotton is that not only does it smell awful (think gym clothes, only worse) but when you wash it, it takes up craploads of space in the machine and it takes forever to dry.  I’m someone who doesn’t believe in using dryers, because, well, if you hadn’t noticed, there is a sun if only you’d go outside.  So that means that I have to time my laundry days for sun.

  Exercise.  Well, there’s no judo today, and there’s no badminton.  So I’m taking it easy– did a bit of warmup exercising, because I hurt my shoulder pretty bad last class.  My partner was using sasai tsurikomi gaeshi, which is a method of blocking your opponent’s foot (kind of like sweeping).  But he dragged me forward in a really strange way and didn’t let go of my sleeve, and as a result, I basically kind of lept headfirst forward– would’ve faceplanted if not for my reflex to try and roll, but because of the way he tangled me, I was at too shallow an angle to roll and instead ended up spearing the ground with my left shoulder, which is now pretty bruised and sore.  I guess a day off is not a bad thing.

  Baduk.  At the club, we’ve recently started up an internal seeding tournament.  The whole point of this is to figure out what everyone’s level is, so that when it comes to an actual tournament, we can apply the proper handicaps and make it an interesting game for everyone.  Out of the 20 or so regulars at the club, I’m actually one of the less than a handful of people who has an actual rank, from online play.  So, basically, that means that we’re getting people to play eachother, with me as a benchmark.  Currently, I’m a 7 kyu player– for a while, I was 6kyu, but because of this semester, I really haven’t been able to improove very much.  However, I want to at least be a true benchmark 7kyu, so that means I’ll have to play a few games online here and there to calibrate my ranking.  I played a game this morning, getting matched in a quick game (10 minutes per player total).  Quick games are always kind of interesting because players don’t always play the best move– they play what they think is the best move, given the time restrictions.  I managed to win when the opponent resigned, but in reviewing the game, it was pretty hairy– I had gone headfirst into an epic fight that I wasn’t sure I could win.  My reasoning was that if I couldn’t win it, it would set me back quite a bit, but the game would still be playable given the opponent’s personality– but if it turned out in my favour, it was such a huge battle that it would cost my opponent the game.  Turns out that things worked out for me despite me not reading it through (it would have required me to read a dozen moves in advance, which is quite hard to do under time pressure), and when the area filled out it became clear that my opponent had lost.  That wasn’t a great calibration win, because those sorts of epic battles are usually decided by a momentary lapse of judgment or by chance (if neither player is thinking far enough ahead to actually know what’s going on).  But well– I guess my fighting spirit and luck is partly what got me to 7kyu in the first place, so perhaps it is indicative.

   

  Change.  As in, money.  I hate change– I miss the days of Korea where I could just use cards for everything, and if not, where small change could actually be enough to afford something to eat.   Here… well, we have PayPass in Australia, but there are still a lot of places where you can’t use cards and that annoys me.  I get given change, it goes in my pocket, and then it goes in jars on our shelf.  Same goes for [CM].  I found out recently though that the Commonwealth Bank near my workplace has a change exchange machine, where you can literally dump a bucket of change in it and it gives you credit for bills. I have about 5 kilograms of change, which I will, after lunch, bring to the bank and exchange.  I wonder how much I’ll get…?  It’s hard to estimate, because in Australia, the 50 cent coins are enormous, wheras the 2$ coins are one of the smallest ones.

   

  Paper writing.  Oh GOD what am I doing blogging

  • 8:42 pm
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