http://www.shasticon.org/blog Lung Shou Pai (Dragon Claw Style) Kung Fu, Roleplaying Games, and the intersection of the two. Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:24:06 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I finished up my physical therapy today.  I have one more follow-up appointment with my doctor next week, but he said if I'm feeling fine I can just cancel it rather than showing up.  I'll wait until the last minute before deciding.  I've had some slight pain in my heel ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/09/10/theraputic/ Just in time for my birthday, I got an email from USA Chin Woo announcing the dates for next year's Taiji Legacy, newly renamed as The Legends of Kung Fu.  Mark your calendars for July 17-19 and start practicing.  I'll see you there. http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/08/28/taiji-legacy-2009-the-legends-of-kung-fu/ I'm doing two sessions of physical therapy a week now, mostly strength and mobility stuff. One-leg presses to redevelop and retrain the damage to the big muscles. Balancing on only my injured ankle on a squishy foam block while throwing and catching a medicine ball to force the ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/08/05/mutant-healing-factor/ I don't usually use cut tags, but these photos of my leg in varying stages of healing are a little gruesome.  The first photo was taken right after they removed the post-surgical bandages, so it's a week healed at that point.  The most recent one is how it looks now.  ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/07/31/im-a-leg-man/ I'm completely off crutches. I can walk without the boot, but it's slow and uncomfortable and my foot is still really swollen, so I stick with the boot most of the time. I don't really need the cane, but it takes my weight off the injured leg so ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/07/10/walkman-ii/ I'm healing well. I can walk on my injured leg now, albeit slowly and primarily with the big black space boot. I could probably manage walking without it if not for the swelling that prevents me from flexing my ankle much. I'm tired of crutches. It's ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/07/03/walkman/ Yesterday morning a bunch of us planned to get together and make our first real foray into parkour training. While sitting around waiting for the others to show up, I jokingly posted to twitter: Waiting around for the other wannabe traceurs. On the menu: rolls, speed vaults, turn vaults, ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/06/15/shortest-hobby-ever/ I don't want to say "I'm getting into parkour." I may try it once and discover that it was a monumentally bad idea, that my hands can't take it or my upper-body strength needs more work than I'm willing to do or I'm just not that into running, even ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/05/23/lart-du-deplacement/ After hearing exhaustively about it on MacBreak Weekly for week after week, I finally broke down and got a twitter account.  I decided that I'd give it 48 hours and if I wasn't completely engaged, I'd quit.  I think that within about 12 hours, Deirdra was already annoyed with my ... http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/03/31/im-a-twit/ As of the beginning of the latest session, my friend Jay has started studying at our kwoon. If you enjoyed the stuff I was posting back when I was a beginner student, you should check out his blog, as he's doing very similar things there. http://www.shasticon.org/blog/2008/03/14/more-dragon-claw-that-you-can-handle-assuming-you-handle-dragon-claws/