Busy Living or Busy Dying

I always seem to be killing time at nights especially since it seems I haven't had the undying urge to play poker online. I have been giving it a rest and I have to say I have missed it a bit but not enough to play and then fret over the fact that I didn't do this or pushed a hand to far or not enough, the very least is that I have been sleeping better instead of having these thoughts invading my slumber. I will get back to it eventually but for right now it's not to be.

The class at the Y has been going well and as I have said before I really am enjoying teaching martial arts and to feel a real passion for something that I haven't felt for in a very long time or ever. I think this has been what has been missing from my poker game. Like poker I know that I am not the best Tang Soo Do practitioner out there but it does not effect my bottom line like it does in poker. Seeing my students under me grow and develop a passion for the art like I have. Sharing my knowledge with other people is what it is all about. If I could just find a way to generate more interest in what we are doing and have the program really grow.

I am learning everyday that I teach something new about myself and it's giving me a deeper understanding of what it means to be a true practitioner of the art. Everyone that studies martial arts is ultimately looking to earn a black belt and feels that is a great accomplishment. I have to say that it truly is and I felt more satisfaction earning my first Dan (degree) then I think I did in getting my college degree. The reality of it is that I it is just the beginning and you don't really understand that until you have been studying for many years as a black belt. I going on a decade of having my 1st Dan and I feel that there is still so much that I can still learn. I am doing such advanced techniques but there is always something to gain from doing the first form you ever learned. When you stop taking something new away from that you should think about doing something else in life because that has lost all meaning to you. The idea is simple you should learn something new everyday of your life because that is what keeps you interested in living. If you have it all figured out you have nothing to look forward to and you might as well quit living. As Stephen King wrote in "The Shawshank Redemption" "You either busy living or busy dying." So growing everyday from finding something new to spark your mind is being busy living. I hope I never figure it all out because then that night that I go to bed I will have nothing to look forward to when I wake up so I might as well just die in my sleep. Our black belts are actually Midnight Blue becuase Balck is finality and death and the midnight blue is symbolic to allowing more growth.

Poker, Pallin, Soccer and Martial Arts

I have been rather silent in the past few months and I just don't know what to say. Nothing much is happening on the poker front. I have decided to take a bit of a hiatus from online play it just wasn't as much fun as it had been in the past and I think I was putting to much pressure on myself to have positive results in the form of monetary return and I wasn't getting the results that I liked. I played live a bit back up at Foxwoods and had I good result at the low limit tables but I blew most of it playing a Sit'n go where I bubbled out in fourth. I thought I had been discplined enough to resist the siren call of the sitn'go but alas I was weak and paid for my sins.

I have been gathering an interest in following Soccer and have been sucked into caring about the matches from many different leagues. English Premier League, Scottish Premier League(being part Scot I just have to), La Liga, Barcalona looks like the team for me, UEFA league Championships and yeah even MLS even though I know they are the red headed step child of world soccer. I have settled in on Celtic for the SPL even though it seems like I am a winner picker there but my Grandmother was form Glasgow and for some reason the Rangers don't seem to speak to me. EPL I haven't settle on a team a friend of mine is a Man U. nut but I am not committed to them I think I am leaning towards Liverpool but haven't made a public commitment as of yet. For the MLS I am a glutton for punishment because like every New York fan who roots for teams that play in Giants Stadium it's feast or famine and nothing in between so I have to say I am a Red Bulls fan and maybe they will have better luck once their new Soccer specific stadium is built and they are in there own home. Even though if they can't win on the road they will never make the playoffs. With World Cup qualifiers happening as we speak there is a bunch to be excited about and to hold my interest.

When it comes to politics I am very disappoint in the whole lot and am very afraid for this country that we live in. The latest example is the Sarah Pallin fiasco yeah that's the way to be the mavrick McCain appeal to the wacko religious right and delude yourself in thinking the women of this country will give in on every important value that is dear to them that this Moose shooting pit bull of a politician thinks should be taken away will give them votes because she has a vagina and are pissed off at Obama because he beat Hillary fair and square and didn't pick her as his running mate. Talk about being out of touch. Oh since I don't believe I am part of the media I will say what everyone is thinking, Pallin's failed policies of absentience only sex education came to bite her in the ass and to think that her daughter decide to have this child is something to be proud about and having marry this yahoo is the best think for this innocent child that is cooking in her uterus is one of the biggest piece of hipocracy when no one out there is condemning her for having premarital sex to begin with. Enough ranting I think I have say all I can without my head exploding.

I personal note I have been teaching my Tang Soo Do class for almost 6 months now and I seriously considering opening up a private studio as soon as I feel I can make a go at it. More to come as that develops.