Realm of the Imponderable

RDOC #42
Whoops... haven't written much here for a long time... maybe cos' there wasn't much happening to write about.
I have successfully done 9 consequetive throws in 5 ball juggling, which is a vast improvement from 2 months ago when all I could do was throw the balls and watch them hit the ground. It's much more difficult than it looks; I have to keep track of 3 balls flying around, not just one (as is the case in 3 ball juggling). That would make it..hmmm.. 3 times more difficult?

okok enough of that.. You're probably sick of hearing me go on about juggling.

Went for the Ring of Steel practice a few days ago. They're an acting troupe that, as the name implies, focuses on the fighting aspect of theatre acting. They practice choreography with all manner of weapons from Eastern to European style, though the most common one is of course the standard rapier. Simply put another way, this group does the same thing as the people who choreograph the fight scenes in The Last Samurai or the lightsaber battles in Star Wars, but not at such a professional level.
Anyway what I'm learning here now is the basic moves used in theatre fights, some stunts like rolling and breaking falls and of course safety measures during perfornance. Right now I'm using the wooden practice swords, but I'll be progressing on to rapiers pretty soon, and then on to other weapons like spears or axes. Maybe in a few months I'll be performing on their acts
Speaking of acts, they are hired dto do stuff at events like weddings or other occasions. They once staged the capture and subsequent rescue of the bride at a wedding, smashing the wedding cake in the process. (Which, unknown to the parents of both the bride and groom, was a prop cake made from foam and cardboard)

So that's some of the fun stuff that's been going on here.

RDOC #41

Went snowboarding for the first time last sunday. Painful painful... I wonder how these snowboarders get started and clear the initial stage of sprained wrists and sore backsides...
Anway at the end of the day I could do a respectable zigzag down the slope with the snowboard, paying the price of a highly bruised tailbone, a bump on the head, four sprained fingers and muscle aches for the next 3 days. Nope, I won't be doing that for a long time; skiing may be an old man's sport in some people's opinion but it's my sport in mine.
Thought I'd add a few funshots tp my other page. They should be up soon; Check it out

RDOC #40

First week (and weekend) of school
And it looks to be an interesting term at the very least, considering that it's also ski season and I actually got all the courses that I wanted this term.

As always, the usual start of term gabrah took place over the course of the week, starting from the first day of classes. Books needed to be gotten, my driving license (which has a typo error in my name) had to be replaced and I had to rediscover where all the venues of my classes were. Some of the buildings here are veritable rat warrens; I swear sometime if you take a left and a right, turn around and take a left and a right you don't end up back in the same place.

Just went snowboarding at Mount Brighton today. Overall verdict: I've never experienced this much pain when I first learnt to ski, so I'll stick to skiing... On my first day of skiing all I had was a slightly twisted knee; today I had two huge bruises on my knees, a bump on the head and four twisted fingers. (and not to mention a really painful ass as well)
Skiing and snowobarding are two very different sports; give both a tryout, pick the one you like better and stick with it.
There's still a raging debate on which is better: skiing or snowboarding... I just have to jump in and say that they're just too different for you to really compare them, and whichever one is better depends purely on personal preferance.

Argh.. moving around now is a real pain in the ass (literally)
CNY is 'round the corner... going to take the excuse to have some fun again.

(more later)

RDOC #39

As many of you should be astute enough to realise, this is my first entry here for a long time. And if you noticed that, you'd also probably realise that its because december is exam and holiday season and hence, "busy".
It's the first day of 2004 here in sunny California and I just got up after coming back from my first "typical" New Year bash (I usually celebrate New Year at a house party not a night club) and it was an interesting experience. A lot of time spent lining up, first to get in and then to get to the bar and then to get to the bathroom. I'm reminded how much I dislike crowded situations. But then again how often do I get the chance to go to a party on the rooftop of a hotel in the middle of LA?

K.. back to what I've been doing over the holdays. (No need to talk about exams, eh?)
Went up north to Boyne Mountain with 3 friends for a 5 day ski trip when the winter break kicked in. After 3 days of skiing I can safely say that I have lost neither the ability to ski nor the love of the sport. One disappointment on the trip was that there wasn't enough snow to open up all the trails and so we were stuck with only the main trails near the center of the resort. That was ok for me cos' most of trails were intermediate or advanced but not good for my 3 companions because for the first day at least they were more or less confined to the beginner slopes which were very few at that time. Still, two of them (David and Kevin) got much better after the first day and Kevin managed one of the expert slopes I took him along on the third day.
Learned the hard way how to drive on snow covered roads on the way back. We were caught in a small snow storm and it reached almost 2 feet deep at the side of the road. Fortunately there was somebody who pulled us out of the snow pile and there wasn't any damage to the car. I guess we all gotta learn one way or another...

Tripped over to LA after that to visit my brother who's working here in Dreamworks. We went to Hollywood Boulevard and Santa Monica Beach over the past few days, saw the Ripley's Believe it or Not! museum and other stuff along the walk of fame. Santa Monica Beach wasn't as nice as it would have been in summer but at least it also wasn't as crowded as it would have been too..
I'm hoping to go to Universal Studios sometime in the next few days... the first time we went the lines were a couple of hours long. Just walking around the outside was pretty impressive though so I wonder what it's like on the inside...

Right... my brother and the rest of the people are awake now and getting breakfast. Not too bad for wake up time, considering it's only 1215 now....