its been a week since i last blogged.. seems addictive, doesnt it...
Speaking of addictions, I remembered watching this video for an anti-smoking campaign I saw on Zee TV (Indian Cable TV channel) sometime during the 90s, n happened to come across the lyrics today... they didnt mean shit to me at the time, but I always tried recalling it.. neways, I happened to come across the lyrics for the soundtrack for that video, n just wanted to share it will all the smokers out there... :
Title: A lesson learnt late
It was, I remember, many years ago,
When I had failed to distinguish between a friend and a foe,
When they had invited me ,holding open the pack,
When I lost to curiosity, instead of being taken aback,
When on that fateful day , for the first time,
I held a cigarette in my hand.
It was, I felt a part of being in the teens,
And what had started with a puff or two became a routine.
The smoke's illusion blinded me for as it arose,
Arose my spirits too, and I muttered to myself, "I can" because,
With a cigarette in my hand ,
I felt like a man.
Soon it came out in the open, for it had become a habit I could not hide,
I was helpless, for I could not help but continue,
Even when I knew, it was eating me up from inside,
I was sick...my body and my soul and I realized,
With the cigarette in my hand,
I was a dying man.
Soon I was just a lifeless form, a hollow,
People shunned me everywhere, I wished,
If only had I done something which others could follow,
But it was too late, I had taken the wrong path, and I was ignored,
because
With a cigarette in my hand,
I was a hated man.
All the time, tears filled my eyes,
For people had bid me their good byes,
I wept because my cells , my body was choking ,
If only on that first day,my friends had been joking,
And then one day, the cigarette dropped from my hand,
I was a dead man.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Sunday, April 16, 2006
I've got alot to learn...
I wanted to post this last night, but was too tired to write after swimming, playing futsal and following that up with a roda at Bangsar. The fact that it rained practically all day long was seriously depressing, but only slightly delayed the start of the roda.
Anyway, the roda itself was awesome. We were visited by Professor Versatil from Grupo Batuque. This group is based in Los Angeles, USA, n is lead by renowned Capoeira Mestre Amen Santo. To the non-capoeiristas, Mestre Amen Santo played Mark Dacascos' capoeira teacher in Only the Strong. Yes People!!! A protégé of Mestre Amen Santo joined us at a roda..
Anyways, the dude was awesome... Its not like he flipped around n stuff... but he made the roda tons of fun mann... thou i kinda regret not takin the opportunity to play against him myself, just watchin him was awesome mann... like i said, he didnt do stuff which is totally flashy, but maybe he just went easy on us novices... He did have an awesome game against Instructor Rafael thou, but still nothing REALLY flashy.. which serves to provide me with another awesome example that I dont really need to be entirely flashy to be a good capoeirista in a roda..
I realized a couple of things thou... Firstly, his game seemed extremely relaxed as compared to the fast-paced game I'm learning and used to watching... He made it fun to watch n play capoeira.. He messed around in every game, laughed, played, n generally had fun, instead of taking everything so seriously..
The second thing I realized when he played against Instructor Rafael. Our instructor could definitely keep up with this guy's game. The only thing that may have overpowered Rafael would be Versatil's tremendous size... the dude was atleast 6'2", easily... n Rafael's about 5'9".. but back to the topic: what i realized during their game was that our instructor, through some reason known to him, tries to show us the vicious side of capoeira. I'm not sayin he's bein brutal with us or sumthin... but my guess is he's prolly a lil tired of us tryin to be flashy n showy, and tryin to make us more aware of what happens when rodas get violent.. Basically, as i mentioned in an earlier post, he wants us to be more aware of the trickery that sometimes occurs in rodas... And try to take care of ourselves when facing a dangerous opponent.
The third realization: I wanna try learning Capoeira Angola. Its different from capoeira regional (the fast-paced game the world usually recognizes as capoeira) in that its much slower. It looks easy to the casual observer, but Ive heard it requires more technique, and more precision in each movement. I definitely wanna try it out now, especially after watching the roda last night... Maybe i'll ask Rafael one of these days to teach me some Angola.
N oh yea, the guy's gonna be visiting our training sessions sometime this week. I hope I can get a few pointers from him... I did talk to him after the roda about his academy (thats when he told me that he studied under Mestre Amen Santo), got his name-card. If i'm lucky enuff to get to the US by this summer, Id def wanna find a good academy to continue with capoeira. So i asked him about training in NY. He mentioned a couple of his mestres had academies there, so i might check those out, if, God-willing, I'm lucky enuff to get accepted into the uni there...
Sigh, I've got a loooooooooooooooong way to go mann...
Adios ppl..
Anyway, the roda itself was awesome. We were visited by Professor Versatil from Grupo Batuque. This group is based in Los Angeles, USA, n is lead by renowned Capoeira Mestre Amen Santo. To the non-capoeiristas, Mestre Amen Santo played Mark Dacascos' capoeira teacher in Only the Strong. Yes People!!! A protégé of Mestre Amen Santo joined us at a roda..
Anyways, the dude was awesome... Its not like he flipped around n stuff... but he made the roda tons of fun mann... thou i kinda regret not takin the opportunity to play against him myself, just watchin him was awesome mann... like i said, he didnt do stuff which is totally flashy, but maybe he just went easy on us novices... He did have an awesome game against Instructor Rafael thou, but still nothing REALLY flashy.. which serves to provide me with another awesome example that I dont really need to be entirely flashy to be a good capoeirista in a roda..
I realized a couple of things thou... Firstly, his game seemed extremely relaxed as compared to the fast-paced game I'm learning and used to watching... He made it fun to watch n play capoeira.. He messed around in every game, laughed, played, n generally had fun, instead of taking everything so seriously..
The second thing I realized when he played against Instructor Rafael. Our instructor could definitely keep up with this guy's game. The only thing that may have overpowered Rafael would be Versatil's tremendous size... the dude was atleast 6'2", easily... n Rafael's about 5'9".. but back to the topic: what i realized during their game was that our instructor, through some reason known to him, tries to show us the vicious side of capoeira. I'm not sayin he's bein brutal with us or sumthin... but my guess is he's prolly a lil tired of us tryin to be flashy n showy, and tryin to make us more aware of what happens when rodas get violent.. Basically, as i mentioned in an earlier post, he wants us to be more aware of the trickery that sometimes occurs in rodas... And try to take care of ourselves when facing a dangerous opponent.
The third realization: I wanna try learning Capoeira Angola. Its different from capoeira regional (the fast-paced game the world usually recognizes as capoeira) in that its much slower. It looks easy to the casual observer, but Ive heard it requires more technique, and more precision in each movement. I definitely wanna try it out now, especially after watching the roda last night... Maybe i'll ask Rafael one of these days to teach me some Angola.
N oh yea, the guy's gonna be visiting our training sessions sometime this week. I hope I can get a few pointers from him... I did talk to him after the roda about his academy (thats when he told me that he studied under Mestre Amen Santo), got his name-card. If i'm lucky enuff to get to the US by this summer, Id def wanna find a good academy to continue with capoeira. So i asked him about training in NY. He mentioned a couple of his mestres had academies there, so i might check those out, if, God-willing, I'm lucky enuff to get accepted into the uni there...
Sigh, I've got a loooooooooooooooong way to go mann...
Adios ppl..
Thursday, April 13, 2006
am at the office right now... freakishly bored and redundant, with nothing to do... n i dont even feel like workin on my uni applications right now... even thou i know i shud.. n im wasting time..
To be honest, I dont feel too good right now... I stayed up late last night enjoying junk food (just a bit, not much) and WWE RAW... Slept at about 2.30.. n woke up at 8...n i had a moderately rigorous training session yesterday evening... to sum it up, i easily violated 2 outta 3 basic laws for attaining physical fitness (eat right, sleep right, train hard)
I dont even know if I can attend training today... Just feeling sick from not having caught up on my sleep for the last few days... even thou Tuesday (2 days ago) was a public holiday...
I've realized I can still be up for an intense training session if I havent eaten properly... but not sleeping enough, well thats an entirely different ball-game..
Maybe i'll go home n sleep for an hour or two before training.. or maybe i'll sleep alot longer, n feel better for the next session..
I gotta change this lifestyle, mann... not sleepin enuff, not training enuff, not eating right.. no wonder i suck at capoeira right now...
n did i mention I havent had time for breakfast yet today?? I'm really lookin forward to lunch, which seems like its a gazillion light-years away right now (read 10-15 minutes)..
To be honest, I dont feel too good right now... I stayed up late last night enjoying junk food (just a bit, not much) and WWE RAW... Slept at about 2.30.. n woke up at 8...n i had a moderately rigorous training session yesterday evening... to sum it up, i easily violated 2 outta 3 basic laws for attaining physical fitness (eat right, sleep right, train hard)
I dont even know if I can attend training today... Just feeling sick from not having caught up on my sleep for the last few days... even thou Tuesday (2 days ago) was a public holiday...
I've realized I can still be up for an intense training session if I havent eaten properly... but not sleeping enough, well thats an entirely different ball-game..
Maybe i'll go home n sleep for an hour or two before training.. or maybe i'll sleep alot longer, n feel better for the next session..
I gotta change this lifestyle, mann... not sleepin enuff, not training enuff, not eating right.. no wonder i suck at capoeira right now...
n did i mention I havent had time for breakfast yet today?? I'm really lookin forward to lunch, which seems like its a gazillion light-years away right now (read 10-15 minutes)..
Monday, April 10, 2006
Today, the House... Tomorrow, the WORLD!!!
This is gonna freak you out... I'm serious...
I found sumthin on my handphone, which cud change the world for years to come... I found out that my lil brother aspires to probably take over the world someday.. well, NO, he didnt sms me those exact words...
lemme tell u how it goes:
I was just sittin in my lonely lil corner in this office of mine, and just remembered I had a bunch of tasks to complete soon... In order to remember them this time, I decided to save myself a memo on my handphone...
Whilst browsing the menu for the 'Organizer' (little did i know what hideous, evil, insiduous activities were being planned, by this sinister character who claimed to be my youngest sibling, having just a couple of years ago reached an age comprising of double-digits), I came upon my 'To-Do List', and unknowingly unveiled a rather surprising series of plans for world domination (like sheep being led to the slaughter)...
How may I have the audacity to place the above-mentioned accusations upon so (apparently) innocent a being, you ask?? Well, the handphone I now possess was handed down by my very father to me (No it wasnt handed down generations!!! its not THAT old, u Freak!!).. Thus it happened that, one night, while my brother was fooling around with the handphone, he downloaded some of his more sinister (oh wait, I already used that word once... try menacing) plans for world-domination... Of course at that moment, he couldnt have had the slightest tinge of the notion that his very darkest thoughts might one day be unveiled by an unsuspecting character, whose blood reeks of innocence, and.. well... debauchery... namely... Me....
I now reveal to your very eyes what I shall hence-forth refer to as 'The To-Do List':
1) Buy 5 Ferraris for family and me (does he even KNOW that he cant even look over the friggin steering wheel, let alone drive a ferrari????)
2) Buy 9 Rolls Royce for family and me (umm... i know they're expensive n all, but I'd rather have the ferraris... plus, we're a family of 5, who keeps the extra Rolls'??)
3) Buy six 7 million villas with all facilities for family and me with 21 floors ( I wonder what 'all facilities' consists of)
4) Buy 10 latest windows computers for family and me (Laptop, LAPTOP!!! dont forget THAT!!)
5) Buy private jet plane for family and me (umm... cant argue with this one... as long as they have enromously huge Recliner seats)
6) Buy duplex size cinema for family and me (im guessing this is where he REALLY shows us his plans for world domination... on the Big Screen )
7) Buy 8 king size beds (somehow I'm kinda glad he didnt say 'for family and me' here)
This is where it REALLY gets nasty (Caution: Not meant for the faint-hearted):
8) Deposit 21 million in bank (21 million what?? if its rupees, then thats just peanuts.. if its dollars, well thats an entirely different story, init??)
9) Meet President Bush, President Pervez Musharraf, and Prime Minister Abdul Badawi (strange combination of personnel... they must all be in on it together... n Bush is just in there to get b**ch-slapped around...)
10) Buy 53 containers of soft drinks (he's gonna drown us all in soda...)
11) Buy 53 pizzas (or fatten us for the kill.. this seems better...)
12) Send ships around the world (Convoys?? Battleships??)
13) Visit America, India, Pakistan, France, Brazil, New York and Canada (Plans to take over the world, sure, but doesnt realize where New York is actually located..)
14) Buy 18 latest Nokia handphones for family and me (hmm.. well... he's doin sumthin nice for a change... before the unspeakable acts...)
15) Visit all of the wonders of the world (after u take over the world, u gotta check up on ur inheritance, right...)
16) Complete Carleton application, UPenn application, Brown application ASAP (Oh wait... this one's mine...)
17) Clean whole house... (Now this is the confounding part.... Pray tell, what DOES it all mean???)
Live in fear people, for you may never know when this plastic-sword toting, pellet-gun brandishing uncouth may show up at the shores of your land and wreak havok upon your unsuspecting countrymen...
The only available images of this infiltrator-to-be are childhood pictures on the garden-swing (he obviously realized the speed of the swing would disallow his distinctively smooth features to be accurately photographed and documented... Despicable, I tell you).
Please be on constant lookout for this deviant, and any information of his whereabouts should be passed on to the DAD agency. However, this agency has been known to have a negligible effect in nullifying this barely-teenage menace... Unsurprisingly, the MOM agency has been known to produce more satisfying results..
P.S. All plans revealed in the 'To-Do-List' are unedited, and have been copied directly from the list found on the phone. Disbelieve at your own peril.
I found sumthin on my handphone, which cud change the world for years to come... I found out that my lil brother aspires to probably take over the world someday.. well, NO, he didnt sms me those exact words...
lemme tell u how it goes:
I was just sittin in my lonely lil corner in this office of mine, and just remembered I had a bunch of tasks to complete soon... In order to remember them this time, I decided to save myself a memo on my handphone...
Whilst browsing the menu for the 'Organizer' (little did i know what hideous, evil, insiduous activities were being planned, by this sinister character who claimed to be my youngest sibling, having just a couple of years ago reached an age comprising of double-digits), I came upon my 'To-Do List', and unknowingly unveiled a rather surprising series of plans for world domination (like sheep being led to the slaughter)...
How may I have the audacity to place the above-mentioned accusations upon so (apparently) innocent a being, you ask?? Well, the handphone I now possess was handed down by my very father to me (No it wasnt handed down generations!!! its not THAT old, u Freak!!).. Thus it happened that, one night, while my brother was fooling around with the handphone, he downloaded some of his more sinister (oh wait, I already used that word once... try menacing) plans for world-domination... Of course at that moment, he couldnt have had the slightest tinge of the notion that his very darkest thoughts might one day be unveiled by an unsuspecting character, whose blood reeks of innocence, and.. well... debauchery... namely... Me....
I now reveal to your very eyes what I shall hence-forth refer to as 'The To-Do List':
1) Buy 5 Ferraris for family and me (does he even KNOW that he cant even look over the friggin steering wheel, let alone drive a ferrari????)
2) Buy 9 Rolls Royce for family and me (umm... i know they're expensive n all, but I'd rather have the ferraris... plus, we're a family of 5, who keeps the extra Rolls'??)
3) Buy six 7 million villas with all facilities for family and me with 21 floors ( I wonder what 'all facilities' consists of)
4) Buy 10 latest windows computers for family and me (Laptop, LAPTOP!!! dont forget THAT!!)
5) Buy private jet plane for family and me (umm... cant argue with this one... as long as they have enromously huge Recliner seats)
6) Buy duplex size cinema for family and me (im guessing this is where he REALLY shows us his plans for world domination... on the Big Screen )
7) Buy 8 king size beds (somehow I'm kinda glad he didnt say 'for family and me' here)
This is where it REALLY gets nasty (Caution: Not meant for the faint-hearted):
8) Deposit 21 million in bank (21 million what?? if its rupees, then thats just peanuts.. if its dollars, well thats an entirely different story, init??)
9) Meet President Bush, President Pervez Musharraf, and Prime Minister Abdul Badawi (strange combination of personnel... they must all be in on it together... n Bush is just in there to get b**ch-slapped around...)
10) Buy 53 containers of soft drinks (he's gonna drown us all in soda...)
11) Buy 53 pizzas (or fatten us for the kill.. this seems better...)
12) Send ships around the world (Convoys?? Battleships??)
13) Visit America, India, Pakistan, France, Brazil, New York and Canada (Plans to take over the world, sure, but doesnt realize where New York is actually located..)
14) Buy 18 latest Nokia handphones for family and me (hmm.. well... he's doin sumthin nice for a change... before the unspeakable acts...)
15) Visit all of the wonders of the world (after u take over the world, u gotta check up on ur inheritance, right...)
16) Complete Carleton application, UPenn application, Brown application ASAP (Oh wait... this one's mine...)
17) Clean whole house... (Now this is the confounding part.... Pray tell, what DOES it all mean???)
Live in fear people, for you may never know when this plastic-sword toting, pellet-gun brandishing uncouth may show up at the shores of your land and wreak havok upon your unsuspecting countrymen...
The only available images of this infiltrator-to-be are childhood pictures on the garden-swing (he obviously realized the speed of the swing would disallow his distinctively smooth features to be accurately photographed and documented... Despicable, I tell you).
Please be on constant lookout for this deviant, and any information of his whereabouts should be passed on to the DAD agency. However, this agency has been known to have a negligible effect in nullifying this barely-teenage menace... Unsurprisingly, the MOM agency has been known to produce more satisfying results..
P.S. All plans revealed in the 'To-Do-List' are unedited, and have been copied directly from the list found on the phone. Disbelieve at your own peril.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Run Forrest, RUN!!!
I ran today...
After quite a long layoff from my daily run... not that i had much of a run to begin with neways.. but back to the topic at hand..
so, i ran today.. for the first time in weeks... or months, actually...
I'd had a basketball workout with a bunch of guys ive started playing with recently... had an average game, considerin i hadnt played basketball in over a year (more on that later)...
After basketball, I felt like running... for no reason at all.. now those of u who know me will have guessed sumthin mite have been seriously wrong.. cuz i HATE running, even thou i used to do it quite frequently... I mean, put me in a futsal or basketball game, then sure i'll run my a** off... cuz at the point im focusing on the game, not on the running.. but put me on a jogging track or a treadmill, n im like Homer Simpson after a long hard day of work (wonder if u'll catch the irony in that...)
so all of a sudden i felt like running... so after a brief rest, i got on that treadmill down at the condo gym... n mann, i ran...
no seriously, i RAN... not as fast as.. umm, whoever's dominating the sprinting scene these days (i'd mention Marion Jones, but with all due respect, a woman's name might not do too good to me right now).. nor did i run as long as Forrest Gump..
I went on for 5 miles.. sure, no big deal for all u marathon runners out there... u guys can leave now... for the meagre audience left behind, i continue:
I ran 5 miles, mann... I ran hard.. I ran so frikkin hard I started sweating through my sneakers... The treadmill handlebars were covered in my sweat... Relax, I took a towel along, cleaned it all off when i was done...
So after im done running, I spent a few minutes stretching... n came back up... took a long (n i DO mean LONG) hot frikkin shower, hoping to rest that injured shoulder of mine...
came back up..
n drank the remainder of a bottle of Vanilla Coke...
Thats all...
Dont expect me to talk about any enlightening revelations talking bout my running n all..
I just wanted to record this moment in my personal record books as the day I get back to my daily running routine... ofcourse it doesnt have to go as far as 5 miles everyday, does it... i mean, with all due respect, am i kenyan man with a number on my back?????
P.S. For all illiterate ppl who might misinterpret that last statement, I seriously respect the people of Kenya... one of my closest friends is kenyan, n he can vouch for that... after he beats the living sh*t outta me, that is...
After quite a long layoff from my daily run... not that i had much of a run to begin with neways.. but back to the topic at hand..
so, i ran today.. for the first time in weeks... or months, actually...
I'd had a basketball workout with a bunch of guys ive started playing with recently... had an average game, considerin i hadnt played basketball in over a year (more on that later)...
After basketball, I felt like running... for no reason at all.. now those of u who know me will have guessed sumthin mite have been seriously wrong.. cuz i HATE running, even thou i used to do it quite frequently... I mean, put me in a futsal or basketball game, then sure i'll run my a** off... cuz at the point im focusing on the game, not on the running.. but put me on a jogging track or a treadmill, n im like Homer Simpson after a long hard day of work (wonder if u'll catch the irony in that...)
so all of a sudden i felt like running... so after a brief rest, i got on that treadmill down at the condo gym... n mann, i ran...
no seriously, i RAN... not as fast as.. umm, whoever's dominating the sprinting scene these days (i'd mention Marion Jones, but with all due respect, a woman's name might not do too good to me right now).. nor did i run as long as Forrest Gump..
I went on for 5 miles.. sure, no big deal for all u marathon runners out there... u guys can leave now... for the meagre audience left behind, i continue:
I ran 5 miles, mann... I ran hard.. I ran so frikkin hard I started sweating through my sneakers... The treadmill handlebars were covered in my sweat... Relax, I took a towel along, cleaned it all off when i was done...
So after im done running, I spent a few minutes stretching... n came back up... took a long (n i DO mean LONG) hot frikkin shower, hoping to rest that injured shoulder of mine...
came back up..
n drank the remainder of a bottle of Vanilla Coke...
Thats all...
Dont expect me to talk about any enlightening revelations talking bout my running n all..
I just wanted to record this moment in my personal record books as the day I get back to my daily running routine... ofcourse it doesnt have to go as far as 5 miles everyday, does it... i mean, with all due respect, am i kenyan man with a number on my back?????
P.S. For all illiterate ppl who might misinterpret that last statement, I seriously respect the people of Kenya... one of my closest friends is kenyan, n he can vouch for that... after he beats the living sh*t outta me, that is...
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
I wish it hadnt happened...
sumthin happened a couple of weeks ago.. it wasnt good...
By this point I'm guessin uve figured out I'm not really gonna go into the specifics of wut happened... since there's the ever-so-miniscule-but-still-existent chance the person who this concerns might just stumble upon my blog n read it... no, im not afraid of him/her.. I just prefer to leave everyone hangin...
neways, i really dunno wut happened, or wut made me do it... all i know is that my better instincts were against it... but it still happened... i made the initiative to do it, n the person responded...
all i can say is so far i havent had to face any of the consequences of what i did... i dunno how long that might last thou... so far it seems alright... i felt it'll be cool for everything to be back to the way it was... but turns out im kinda glad it didnt... so far... I also know for me it cant ever be the way it was before... no way mann, i aint gonna sink that low...
n if somehow things start to get outta hand again, i guess i wont really be reluctant to return to the way things were until a few weeks ago...
P.S. dun ask me what im actually talkin bout... i just dun wanna go into the specifics...
P.P.S. some of u readin this prolly think its to do with sex... i know who u r... :) n ur wrong...
By this point I'm guessin uve figured out I'm not really gonna go into the specifics of wut happened... since there's the ever-so-miniscule-but-still-existent chance the person who this concerns might just stumble upon my blog n read it... no, im not afraid of him/her.. I just prefer to leave everyone hangin...
neways, i really dunno wut happened, or wut made me do it... all i know is that my better instincts were against it... but it still happened... i made the initiative to do it, n the person responded...
all i can say is so far i havent had to face any of the consequences of what i did... i dunno how long that might last thou... so far it seems alright... i felt it'll be cool for everything to be back to the way it was... but turns out im kinda glad it didnt... so far... I also know for me it cant ever be the way it was before... no way mann, i aint gonna sink that low...
n if somehow things start to get outta hand again, i guess i wont really be reluctant to return to the way things were until a few weeks ago...
P.S. dun ask me what im actually talkin bout... i just dun wanna go into the specifics...
P.P.S. some of u readin this prolly think its to do with sex... i know who u r... :) n ur wrong...
It aint easy...
i was a big fan of the Ninja Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to be precise) when I was a kid...
who am i kidding?? I'm STILL a fan... well, not to the same extent, but I still think they were awesome characters, especially with those cool weapons n all...
neways, pardon the digression...
I owned a copy of their first movie.. aww mann, dun get me started on it, it was heaven for a kid like me who was so into martial arts n a big fan of ninja turtles, since it was the first realization of the shelled heroes on the big screen... Well, there was this one scene I recall, its where Splinter (errr, Master Splinter, that is) has this lil talk over a couple of drinks with the turtles during Happy Hour (ok, ok, it was really some sorta sensei-student-ninja-counselling thing) and goes sumthing along these lines:
Splinter: You are young, have loads of energy, testosterone, a very high sperm coun... errr, i mean, you are young...
TMNT: Ahuh, that we r, yessir Master Splinter sir...
Splinter: But one day, I will get my hairy rat's ass out of this sewer... (kidding... actually, his words were: but one day, I will be gone)
TMNT: No shit dude, look at u, ur like, OLD n stuff (kiddin again.. their reaction was more along the lines of 'OK, this sounds like serious shit, i better put this pizza away n sit down n listen')
So basically, to sum it all up, Splinter's tryin to tell em that right now ur havin fun n all that jazz, but one day i wont be around to take care of u, n ur gonna have to look after urselves, look after each other, clean up ur rooms by urself, wipe ur own ass, and, needless to mention, use ur ninja teachings wisely... u know the likes...
Now we get to the point of this blog:
After our capo training today, we all got a similar lecture from our instructor... n it reminded me of the above movie... n made me think. His words were sumthin like this:
Instructor: You guys are the advanced class. But I get better results from the beginner's class, since they train much more seriously n harder... u guys think its all ok right now, since capoeira's just a part-time thing for most of u, n everybody's a friend here... so when u train with them u dun wanna train hard for fear of injurin urself or the other person... but one day if some guy from another group comes to join our roda, ur gonna be in big trouble... ofcourse, first im gonna go head to head with him to make sure he doesnt cause trouble... but wut if im not there one day, and some guy comes along and messes around with u and u cant get back at him... its ur own problem...
Hearin all this got me thinkin mann... i mean, wut if one day he really isnt with us in a roda n some dude comes along n hands our asses back to us... damn... thought scares me... heck, not just that, wut if ur faced with a member of your OWN group who wants to take u down so bad he/she can taste it.. then what?? ur stuck with that forever...
n that got me thinkin.. I gotta stop slackin off... its not so much about training more, but rather bout training harder n smarter... cuz one day it might just happen... n rather than go home with a shattered knee or cut lip, id rather have the pride of successfully standin up n defendin myself (yeah, yeah, reminiscent of Custer's Last Stand, I know)..
Sigh... gotta work harder ppl... train harder, giv it all ive got... nothin comes easy...
who am i kidding?? I'm STILL a fan... well, not to the same extent, but I still think they were awesome characters, especially with those cool weapons n all...
neways, pardon the digression...
I owned a copy of their first movie.. aww mann, dun get me started on it, it was heaven for a kid like me who was so into martial arts n a big fan of ninja turtles, since it was the first realization of the shelled heroes on the big screen... Well, there was this one scene I recall, its where Splinter (errr, Master Splinter, that is) has this lil talk over a couple of drinks with the turtles during Happy Hour (ok, ok, it was really some sorta sensei-student-ninja-counselling thing) and goes sumthing along these lines:
Splinter: You are young, have loads of energy, testosterone, a very high sperm coun... errr, i mean, you are young...
TMNT: Ahuh, that we r, yessir Master Splinter sir...
Splinter: But one day, I will get my hairy rat's ass out of this sewer... (kidding... actually, his words were: but one day, I will be gone)
TMNT: No shit dude, look at u, ur like, OLD n stuff (kiddin again.. their reaction was more along the lines of 'OK, this sounds like serious shit, i better put this pizza away n sit down n listen')
So basically, to sum it all up, Splinter's tryin to tell em that right now ur havin fun n all that jazz, but one day i wont be around to take care of u, n ur gonna have to look after urselves, look after each other, clean up ur rooms by urself, wipe ur own ass, and, needless to mention, use ur ninja teachings wisely... u know the likes...
Now we get to the point of this blog:
After our capo training today, we all got a similar lecture from our instructor... n it reminded me of the above movie... n made me think. His words were sumthin like this:
Instructor: You guys are the advanced class. But I get better results from the beginner's class, since they train much more seriously n harder... u guys think its all ok right now, since capoeira's just a part-time thing for most of u, n everybody's a friend here... so when u train with them u dun wanna train hard for fear of injurin urself or the other person... but one day if some guy from another group comes to join our roda, ur gonna be in big trouble... ofcourse, first im gonna go head to head with him to make sure he doesnt cause trouble... but wut if im not there one day, and some guy comes along and messes around with u and u cant get back at him... its ur own problem...
Hearin all this got me thinkin mann... i mean, wut if one day he really isnt with us in a roda n some dude comes along n hands our asses back to us... damn... thought scares me... heck, not just that, wut if ur faced with a member of your OWN group who wants to take u down so bad he/she can taste it.. then what?? ur stuck with that forever...
n that got me thinkin.. I gotta stop slackin off... its not so much about training more, but rather bout training harder n smarter... cuz one day it might just happen... n rather than go home with a shattered knee or cut lip, id rather have the pride of successfully standin up n defendin myself (yeah, yeah, reminiscent of Custer's Last Stand, I know)..
Sigh... gotta work harder ppl... train harder, giv it all ive got... nothin comes easy...
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