Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: patience

More about Taiji (and Bagua) and me

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I can talk about martial arts for hours on end and never get tired of it. In class today, we went overc the Fair Ladies, which is something I’m struggling with on the left side. It’s in the beginning of the third section of the Solo Long Form, and it’s something that my teacher’s teacher has recently tweaked. He has changed two of the four Fair Ladies into Master Choi ones rather than Master Liang’s. In the previous form, all four of the Fair Ladies were Master Liang’s. Oh, by the way, the movement is called Fair Ladies Weaving at Their Shuttles so you can see why I call them My Fair Ladies. Or not. It could just be my brain.

I realized in teching myself the left side of the form that I have been fudging the new Fair Ladies. To be fair to me (heh), I was taught a completely different form a decade-and-a-half ago. They were awkward and overly elaborate, and I was just never comfortable with them. Then, they were changed about a decade ago to be much more streamlined and simpler. They were all Master Liang’s Fair Ladies, which were purely for health. Now, there are two of his (for health) and two of Master Choi’s (for combat). They are much more intuitive, but I have not yet gotten them into my body. Why? Because I practice the third section much less than the first two.

One really good thing about teaching myself the left side of any form is that it makes me clarify the squidgy parts of the right side of the form. Funnily, there are a few movements that I do better on the left side than the right, but they are few and far between.

The third section is roughly 17 minutes, which is longer than the other two sections put together. It’s natural to practice the first section the most, then the second, then the third. And it’s natuaral to fudge things when they’re fuzzy in the memory.

I filmed my teacher doing the first section a few weeks ago. I have that section down pretty well. I’m going to film her doing the second section soon, and I know that I’ll have problems here and there with that section. Then, the third section at some point. I asked if I should start with the third section because it’s the one I knew the least, but she said it was fine to start with the first section.

Now that I’m done with the Fan Form, I’m going to spend the next few days polishing it. Then, it’s the Karambit Form. In yesterday’s post, I talked about how I had to go into detective mode in order to figure out what I was doing wrong in one specific part of the Fan Form. How I kept missing what the teacher was doing even though I studied (I thought) her very carefully. Even when I was looking at her right hand as she caught the fan, I was looking at the fan and not her hand.


Continue Reading

Almost Recovered

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I am pleased to say that I’m mostly recovered. My flu/fever symptoms are gone, and my sleep is shite again (a clear indication that I’m getting better). However, I’ve been having the chills on and off over the last couple days, so I’m keeping an eye on it. My knees hardly ache at all, and going to taiji class yesterday really helped. I have to remember that gentle movement on the daily is a good thing, even if I have no motivation to do it at the time.

This is the problem with having depression. Even when I know something is beneficial to me and that I’ll probably enjoy it at the time–it’s difficult for me to actually force myself to do it. The inertia is strong within me, and I can sit on my ass for hours on end without even thinking about it.

On a side note, I did a testing of all the new Diet Coke flavors and live-tweeted it. Take a look if you want a good chuckle. They’re not all linked because I included pictures, but just trawl around that time, and you’ll find them all.

TL;DR: Twitsted Mango is the shizznit.

Oh. I just remembered tomorrow (today when you read this) is going to be Valentine’s Day. Here’s my valentine for you.

Acting Like an Adult For Once

Posted on by • 0 Comments
mantra mantra mantra
Going to my happy place.

It’s hard to see progress sometimes because it’s not something that happens in huge leaps and bounds (usually). It’s slow and incremental, and it takes a lot of time to accumulate into something tangible. It’s the same with anything that increases over time, and it’s only easy to see in retrospect if you live with it every day. I’ve talked about this before, and I have a great anti-example. I only see my parents once a year at the most, and it’s easy to see how they’ve aged from year to year with such a gap in between. However, when I dare look in the mirror, which is probably once a month or so, I’m astounded anew at how old I am because I feel like a twenty year old inside. I know that’s trite, but it’s true. How the hell did I become this middle-aged woman staring back at me? I look at my age spots, wrinkles, and faded skin, and I wonder where the time has gone. But, since I live with myself, I don’t notice it on a daily basis.

I’ve written about my fraught relationship with my parents, and I’ve also written about how it’s improved in the last few years. I really noticed it when my parents and I sat down to have a talk about my future last night, something I was dreading. It happens every year, and it usually ends in recriminations and tears. There’s shouting and hurt feelings on both sides, and it twists my insides for weeks. This time, my mom informed me the night before that my father and she wanted to have the talk before my father went back to Taiwan, and I was expecting it to go much the same.

I resolved just to nod my head and agree with whatever they said in order to make it go more smoothly. There was no point in arguing, and it wouldn’t be an affront to my core just to say whatever to get it over. The problem is, my parents know how to push my buttons. Of course they do because they’re the ones who installed them. My father, especially. He makes baseless assumptions about me, well, his basis is, “I feel this way, therefore you must, too.” He even brought up the classic fight we used to have throughout my childhood, something we’ve argued about since.

I used to wash my hair in the morning, and then go outside with wet hair. He would say, “Put on a coat; I feel cold”, and it still bothers him that I would refuse. He said I said it was because he didn’t ask nicely, but that wasn’t all of it. I wasn’t cold, so why should I put on a coat? He said he felt cold for me, and I retorted that he could put on two coats and feel warmer. I added that I was right in that I had hyperthyroidism when I was a child, which meant I was never cold. I’m hypothyroid now, but I still rarely get cold–though my threshold isn’t the same as it was when I was younger. Anyway, to him, it’s an example of how I was a recalcitrant youngster not minding my elder. To me, it’s an example of how he’s a narcissist and can’t imagine someone feels differently than he does.

Continue Reading

Patience, Grasshopper

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I forgot I was taking Wednesday off social media and immediately checked my mentions and notifications when I woke up. When I remembered, I stopped. I hadn’t looked at my FB feed or Twitter TL, and I don’t plan on doing that today. I feel bad about it, but in my defense, I’m discombobulated by my parents’ visit.

Speaking of which, one of my biggest pet peeves is being talked at the second I wake up. This is an ongoing issue with my parents. They’ve been up for hours (usually) by the time I get up, and they have a list of things they NEED to discuss with me the SECOND I wake up. As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my favorite things about living alone is that I don’t actually have to talk to people most of the time. I work at home, so I don’t have coworkers, either. I don’t sleep well, either, so I’m usually groggy when I wake up. I feed Shadow his breakfast (which he didn’t care for this morning. Probably because it’s a day old and had been in the fridge. This is a new pet peeve of his); I smoke half a cigarette; I do my taiji routine. After that, I start on my big vat of Coke Zero (sob, we didn’t have enough time together), and I slowly start feeling like a human being.

After an hour or so, I can do any communications I need to do as long as they’re electronic. To actually talk to people in real life, I need at least two hours of silence. I’m not saying this is a good thing, nor am I saying it’s optimal. I realize I’m privileged because I can set this schedule for myself on a regular basis. That said, I hate having questions pelted at me the second I walk in the vicinity of my parents. Not only haven’t I had the time to wake up yet, my brain isn’t yet functioning. It’s yawning and grumbling and slowly stretching its metaphorical arms.

I’ve given up coffee for several reasons, one being that as I get older, it’s harder on my stomach. The downside is that I don’t get the boost drinking coffee gives you. I love my Coke Zero (noooooo don’t gooooooooooo), but it’s just not the same. I’m sure there’s nearly an equivalent amount of caffeine, but it doesn’t kick in the same way. I want a punch to the gut, which coffee delivers. Coke Zero (why, Coca-Cola, why???) is more like an ivy drip with its steady stream of caffeine.


Continue Reading