Zippity Doo Dah

Time to lighten up a bit. August has been rather difficult.

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But okay, life is still good. And I've scheduled my first client! I'm scared to death but eager nevertheless. This is where I really start to piece together what I've learned and seen and what clicked and be empathetic and a good listener and build on client strengths and... do it all in Spanish. Wish me luck.

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Something I posted over at Toland's Myspace site:

What I'm listening to:

Wolfmother - S/T-- It's derivative as hell, but it just ROCKS ASS.

Sarah McLachlan - Anything I can get my hands on at this point. I'm mesmerized by her voice.

Audioslave - S/T--I'm doing this because I love Chris Cornell. But... man, I'm a Soundgarden fan, so I'm used to layers, you know? I still can't get past the fact that almost every Audioslave song is built on some half-realized riff with so much SPACE in it. Everyone says Tom Morello's this great guitarist, but I just hear him building entire songs on effects that my old Fender Vibro Champ could reproduce. The band just leaves Cornell's voice hanging so much that it drives me nuts, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around it.

The Allman Brothers - Dreams (box set) -- I can absolutely live without the 22 minute extended jams, but when they hit the studio and kept it under 5 minutes they could really bust out a good Southern rock song.

Merle Haggard - Down Every Road (box set) -- Like Patsy Cline, the man rarely recorded a stinker. It's really quite stunning just how many damn good songs he did. I still loathe "Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star" though. (And now I'm dying to check out Lefty Frizzell)

Gotta say, I foresee digging out my Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan again soon. Cover your ears.

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Let me say, for the record, that NOBODY TOLD ME HOW MUCH HARDER MUAY THAI IS THAN KRAV MAGA.

Yeah, I worked out tonight. I keep walking away from these classes thinking, THAT was one of the five hardest workouts of my life.

But... I'm running out of slots. Oh my gosh is this hard work.

I try to stay in shape. I do. I work hard, and it's barely enough to get me through class. Our instructor makes us dig down deep. DEEP. The warmup alone is a bear. You do round after round of drills that just wear you out. Try kneeing or kicking a pad for four two-minute rounds. And when I was clearly gassed after one drill, he told us to rest... "Except Paul and Brian." For some reason we got to spend our rest period doubling up on our kicks to the bag. I honestly got to the point where I started putting my hands on my knees between some of the last kicks.

You could have wrung a pool of sweat out of my clothes. Well, you could have if you wanted to be gross. Double dog dare you.

I separated my toenail from my toe a bit. I gave blood yesterday and suspected they'd taken ALL of it, but no, I was still able to bleed.

And we did a drill where you and your partner alternate kicking each other in the gut over and over. "Isn't this what killed Houdini?" I asked my partner. It stopped hurting after a while.

That was 75 minutes of miserable fun.

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MSNBC recently ran a really good piece on Krav Maga. I am occasionally asked what the HECK this is I'm learning. Well, their video, though it's got a bit of a business bent, is a good introduction. Just go to this page and scroll down to "Krav Maga Mania." I'd link more directly if I could figure out how. They interview Darren Levine and John Whitman, two top dogs in the organization.

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Wolfboy returns from his grandparents' house tomorrow. Hooray! I think he's been eating grilled cheese sandwiches three times a day and watching endless television. Might take a few days to de-program him.

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I feel better. Ya'll have a terrific night, weekend, life, all that. I suggest you turn to your lover and bite them on the neck.