The last 24 hours has been quite entertaining.
Yesterday, I was invited to have coffee and desserts at a social evening held at the Epping Presbyterian Church as my friend was involved with making the coffee for the evening. I went since I had no Kendo training that time and really had nothing better to do.
It was a small gathering of people, about 18 or so people that came, and some of them had been organised to bring the desserts, while others brought coffee, and coffee machines etc. There were brownies, apple crumble, almond slice of some kind, tiramisu, cheesecake and ice-cream. It was an interesting night because of a topic that was kind of discussed. Now, this is 'religion' related, so if you have issues with that, turn away LOL.
They first started with asking if people could taste the difference between real coffee, and instant coffee. Two people were selected to give it a try, and one passed, while the other failed. Well, it means that, imitation coffee, the instant stuff, to some people is as good as the real thing. But, for those who know better, then they can tell the difference, and appreciate the difference and well, for most, would prefer and chose the real coffee over instant if the choice was to be had.
Their statement then carried over to life, and religion. Is it possible, that for some people, they live an imitation life? Believe in imitation religion? That they don't know better, and thus are happy to continue to live a copy of a life, that would be, could be better. What they do in life, what they think "living" is about is in fact a weak, shallow, hollow imitation of what life is really like. Then of course, comes the question of how do you get past that? Well, since they were focused upon the religion aspect, they continued down that line by saying learning and being educated about the 'true' religion, and how it benefits you because you then can live a 'real' life cf to a 'imitation' life.
Putting the religion aspect aside, it does raise some things. Think back to the movie The Matrix. Where reality, is different to 'reality' that people live. They live this so called imitation life, while their bodies are in pods in the real world... Are we truly living a life? Or is everything that is happening only really a figment of imagination in my own mind? If so, then my brain is a pretty awesome thing to generate the entirety of the world around me.... I guess this is quite an old topic, but just to have it brought up was interesting.
I also had a nice chat with one of the guys there who I know, and it was good to catch up on life and the universe.
Today, popped over to uni for Kendo.
A typical training session I guess, we did a lot of basics, and then a very long rotational jigeiko. One of the club members who is normally quiet was very aggressive today. It was great, though slightly different and I was taken aback a little and ended up copping a really hard hit to the elbow, and then also one to the ribs.... But it is great for them to actually be like that, as it will improve their Kendo. The jigeiko was really tiring, but good because I hadn't really been able to train 'hard' for a little while.
Though, today, something bugged me a little. One of our 'seniors' has been playing pretty much the same time as I have. He's also been working full time for quite a while now. He doesn't own his own bogu. For all of this time, he has kept on using club bogu. I don't know exactly, but I don't think he is in financial pits because he does go out and socialise a reasonable amount, and to me, it means he could save up some money and buy a cheap set for the same amount of money he spends going out. Which would be the same as the club sets he borrows. I don't know why he doesn't, but, in a way, I feel that he is not very serious or dedicated to Kendo because he doesn't seem to want to get his own set of bogu. The club sets are/were for those who had passed their bogu test, and were waiting for their sets to arrive from order. As it is right now, one person is doing just that, using a club set until theirs arrive in a few weeks. Or also for visitors who are travelling from overseas who didn't bring their bogu with them. But what he does, isn't that... it's almost like he is lazy to own his own set, to look after it, to carry it around, but just grabs whatever is in the storage space.... I don't know, but, I don't think too well for it.
One thing that kind of came up for me in Jigeiko today also, was how I play/react to different styles. Playing one person, I just don't put much effort into them, because I feel that they are just about 'hitting'. Their cuts carry no real kiai or fumikomi, and I feel 'nothing' when they cut me. They also hit a lot, and to the point where, it isn't really 'when opportunity' exists, it's just like... hitting. So I let them hit, and I focus on keeping my distance and center, and trying the odd cut when they present opportunity for me to make an attack. Playing a beginner bogu player, I play different, I try some more advanced waza because I have the luxury that the beginner bogu player is kind of a reactive motodachi will will probably not stop the cut. It's probably the wrong way to go about it, but most beginner bogu players stand quite stationary and means I can seme into distance and go for the cut. When I am playing more advanced players of equal or greater skill, then once again, I change. For those who are greater, I go back to basics, distance, focus on making cuts and opportunities. For those who are the same, I treat it like shiai style practice because they are those that I would be 'playing' if I ever competed.
I don't know if I've learnt much today, but I know that I'm getting slightly better a little in my dou cuts and distance since we have been doing more practice on that.
So, that's sort of how things went. I found it entertaining at least.
Oh, if you watch anime, DO NOT get any fansub episodes from the group Atlas. They suck. I mean, really, THEY SUCK. If you don't believe me, think as if someone transcripted the Jap into English, and then stuck it into babelfish, and then stuck the result into the episode and release it. Sure, you can kind of figure out what the heck is going on, but it's not coherent at all...... Save your bandwidth and time, avoid Atlas subs.
Yesterday, I was invited to have coffee and desserts at a social evening held at the Epping Presbyterian Church as my friend was involved with making the coffee for the evening. I went since I had no Kendo training that time and really had nothing better to do.
It was a small gathering of people, about 18 or so people that came, and some of them had been organised to bring the desserts, while others brought coffee, and coffee machines etc. There were brownies, apple crumble, almond slice of some kind, tiramisu, cheesecake and ice-cream. It was an interesting night because of a topic that was kind of discussed. Now, this is 'religion' related, so if you have issues with that, turn away LOL.
They first started with asking if people could taste the difference between real coffee, and instant coffee. Two people were selected to give it a try, and one passed, while the other failed. Well, it means that, imitation coffee, the instant stuff, to some people is as good as the real thing. But, for those who know better, then they can tell the difference, and appreciate the difference and well, for most, would prefer and chose the real coffee over instant if the choice was to be had.
Their statement then carried over to life, and religion. Is it possible, that for some people, they live an imitation life? Believe in imitation religion? That they don't know better, and thus are happy to continue to live a copy of a life, that would be, could be better. What they do in life, what they think "living" is about is in fact a weak, shallow, hollow imitation of what life is really like. Then of course, comes the question of how do you get past that? Well, since they were focused upon the religion aspect, they continued down that line by saying learning and being educated about the 'true' religion, and how it benefits you because you then can live a 'real' life cf to a 'imitation' life.
Putting the religion aspect aside, it does raise some things. Think back to the movie The Matrix. Where reality, is different to 'reality' that people live. They live this so called imitation life, while their bodies are in pods in the real world... Are we truly living a life? Or is everything that is happening only really a figment of imagination in my own mind? If so, then my brain is a pretty awesome thing to generate the entirety of the world around me.... I guess this is quite an old topic, but just to have it brought up was interesting.
I also had a nice chat with one of the guys there who I know, and it was good to catch up on life and the universe.
Today, popped over to uni for Kendo.
A typical training session I guess, we did a lot of basics, and then a very long rotational jigeiko. One of the club members who is normally quiet was very aggressive today. It was great, though slightly different and I was taken aback a little and ended up copping a really hard hit to the elbow, and then also one to the ribs.... But it is great for them to actually be like that, as it will improve their Kendo. The jigeiko was really tiring, but good because I hadn't really been able to train 'hard' for a little while.
Though, today, something bugged me a little. One of our 'seniors' has been playing pretty much the same time as I have. He's also been working full time for quite a while now. He doesn't own his own bogu. For all of this time, he has kept on using club bogu. I don't know exactly, but I don't think he is in financial pits because he does go out and socialise a reasonable amount, and to me, it means he could save up some money and buy a cheap set for the same amount of money he spends going out. Which would be the same as the club sets he borrows. I don't know why he doesn't, but, in a way, I feel that he is not very serious or dedicated to Kendo because he doesn't seem to want to get his own set of bogu. The club sets are/were for those who had passed their bogu test, and were waiting for their sets to arrive from order. As it is right now, one person is doing just that, using a club set until theirs arrive in a few weeks. Or also for visitors who are travelling from overseas who didn't bring their bogu with them. But what he does, isn't that... it's almost like he is lazy to own his own set, to look after it, to carry it around, but just grabs whatever is in the storage space.... I don't know, but, I don't think too well for it.
One thing that kind of came up for me in Jigeiko today also, was how I play/react to different styles. Playing one person, I just don't put much effort into them, because I feel that they are just about 'hitting'. Their cuts carry no real kiai or fumikomi, and I feel 'nothing' when they cut me. They also hit a lot, and to the point where, it isn't really 'when opportunity' exists, it's just like... hitting. So I let them hit, and I focus on keeping my distance and center, and trying the odd cut when they present opportunity for me to make an attack. Playing a beginner bogu player, I play different, I try some more advanced waza because I have the luxury that the beginner bogu player is kind of a reactive motodachi will will probably not stop the cut. It's probably the wrong way to go about it, but most beginner bogu players stand quite stationary and means I can seme into distance and go for the cut. When I am playing more advanced players of equal or greater skill, then once again, I change. For those who are greater, I go back to basics, distance, focus on making cuts and opportunities. For those who are the same, I treat it like shiai style practice because they are those that I would be 'playing' if I ever competed.
I don't know if I've learnt much today, but I know that I'm getting slightly better a little in my dou cuts and distance since we have been doing more practice on that.
So, that's sort of how things went. I found it entertaining at least.
Oh, if you watch anime, DO NOT get any fansub episodes from the group Atlas. They suck. I mean, really, THEY SUCK. If you don't believe me, think as if someone transcripted the Jap into English, and then stuck it into babelfish, and then stuck the result into the episode and release it. Sure, you can kind of figure out what the heck is going on, but it's not coherent at all...... Save your bandwidth and time, avoid Atlas subs.
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