Monday Night Awesomeness

On Monday night I went to Krav. There were only four of us there, so the instructor participated in the mass attacker drill.

You had to start in the center of the circle, sitting down with eyes closed and then when it started you had to jump up and fight your way out of the circle. Meanwhile, the attackers tried to keep you on the ground, knocking you over and then put you in a choke. (We'd been practicing the defense all class).

So when I started I jumped up just as the instructor barreled into me. He tried to take me to the ground but I managed to flip him and put him into the choke. I was so stunned at my own success that I actually stopped, looked down at him, and said "Now what do I do?" He was too busy laughing in delight to answer, so one of the other students yelled out "Punch him in the face!"

I felt very proud of myself.

While I was grappling with the instructor, I felt him graze my face. It didn't hurt so I didn't think anything about it.

Until I went home, and noticed that I had a swollen spot of purple and blue right at the corner of my eye.

I have the world's smallest black eye.

Monday AMV

I finished Soul Eater this weekend. That makes me kind of sad.

Monday-Video Clip

I'm totally hooked on TNT's show Leverage. Especially since Netflix has past seasons available to watch instantly.

Art and Soul

I don't know if any of you watched Top Chef Masters, but one of their contestants owns a restaurant in DC. Wednesday we went there to celebrate The Starving Artist's birthday. We all ordered different things and then shared. I got an Oyster Po boy Hoe Cake. The Hoe cake is a flat, grilled piece of corn bread, and then it had the po boy on top of it. It was amazing. Their fried oysters were really well done, and I liked their spicy remoulade sauce. Then it was served with some romaine lettuce. They had another one that had carmelized onions, apples, lettuce and goat cheese that was also really good. I ordered the roast chicken which was tender and juicy, and it came with a goat cheese biscuit which I didn't care for. It was just sooo dry. We also got various sides. We ordered roast vegetables, buttermilk mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and fried green tomatoes. The mashed potatoes were awesome and, has one of our friends put it, the mac and cheese was "literally the stuff that dreams are made from." They came in their own little skillets, and the macroni was thicker and more twisty than your average mac n' cheese. The mac was in a really creamy white sauce, and there was toasted cheddar all across the top. It was gooey. It was creamy. It was amazing. Yes, yes, I went to a gourmet restaurant and my favorite dish was the 6 dollar mac n' cheese side.

Monday AMV

I tried to watch Blue Gender last week, but couldn't make it through the first episode. I'm just not in the mood for giant scary robots.



So instead we grilled on the community grills, nestled in a copse of dead pines, adding the thrill of forest fire to the traditional back yard grill experience.

This is the first time I stood by a grill with a fire extinguisher. Just in case.

Cool video

Krav Report

On Monday, we used dizzy bats to simulate fighting drunk.

I was horrible at it. Fortunately my sparring partner was a big, tall guy, so I didn't have to aim so much as just stagger in his general direction.

Monday AMV

In honor of my skydiving adventure:

Skydiving

Corbeau in her Ronald McDonald Skydiving Suit of Awesomeness

Saturday we drove out to the middle of nowhere, east of Richmond, and went skydiving. Unfortunately, they only had three tandem instructors, and were running behind, so we spent some quality time hanging out in the hanger on a hot August day.

But at last, it was our turn to go up. Since there were four of us, they split us into two flights. My roommate, The Starving Artist and I went on the first flight, and I jumped with Instructor Dave. The rest of the plane was filled with a group of formation jumpers.

Dave and I were the last to jump out of the plane, and after being hooked up to him, I would say the most difficult part was walking up to the door. I had to drop my weight and then we sort of waddled.

There was a bar, but I was worried I'd forget to cross my arms over my chest so I just started that way. Dave said "1..2.." and then we were out. He said I gave an impressive scream. Between the adrenaline and trying to remember all the things I was supposed to do with my body, I don't even remember screaming.

He flipped us so we were free falling backwards, and we could watch the plane flying away from us. That was cool.

Then we were free falling, which was a lot of fun. Dave took us through some spins, and then he had me watch the altimeter so I could pull the cord at 5,500 ft. I was trying to be exact though, and I must have waited too long and Dave pulled the cord.

Going from 120 mph to the slow glide of the parachute is quite the sensation. This morning, I can feel where every harness was around my body.

As we glided, Dave showed me how to control the chute, and we did some turns and spins, and he took me through a cloud, which was really cool.
See the speck below the blue canopy? That's me.

It was a beautiful day and we jumped over some really pretty country. The other cool thing was feeling the temperature change, growing warmer and more humid the closer you came to the ground.

We landed and made a perfect landing.

It was a lot of fun.

Ground Defense

This week is ground fighting in Krav Maga. Ground fighting always leaves me black and blue, since it requires all kinds of force pushing you in all kinds of places.

Today we learned how to defend a headlock while mounted, and my sparring partner was a man who was at least twice my weight.

At least. I mean, when I was the attacker, straddling his stomach, my knees didn't quite touch the ground.

I didn't mind too much though, since ground fighting is the one instance where the instructors like you to practice with someone who is bigger than you, since another name for "ground defense" could be "rape defense."

It was much more difficult to flip him though. Possible, but much more difficult. It required explosive bursts and twists off the ground, plus quick recovery and attack in order to make it work. It was good experience though, since I learned some physics tricks to help in that situation. But I am black and blue all over.

I was going to stay an extra hour today and take the Level 1 class, but my right leg (which took the brunt of the class) informed me that it was a bad idea.

So now I'm home, with a bowl of cereal and ice pack. Life is good.

Monday AMV Late

Ugh, sorry things have been slow. Work's been insane.

Science!

I really need to find a way to incorporate zombies into my research.

Krav Maga Hybrid

There were only 3 of us that attended the fit class Sat morning, so the instructor had us finish up with something new. Something he called, "The Krav Maga Hybrid."

The three of us ran behind his car, pushing it around the building.

Twice.

Why does any building need three speed bumps anyway?

Monday AMV

I finished XXXholic over the weekend. I'm sad there's only one season, I was starting to really like it. I have a friend that's going to let me borrow the manga though.

Krav Report

Last night, we learned how to head butt.

Head freaking butt.

It was fun, but if its done properly and full force, you can only rep 4 or 5 of them before you start getting loopy.

I have to admit that the streak of mad scientist in me finds the thought of breaking someone's nose with my massive cranium very satisfying. In fact, I think this calls for some evil laughter.

Mwa ha ha ha.

We also learned a defense to being grabbed from behind. In an effort to make it more realistic, we had to stand with our eyes closed and wait for random attacks, because the defense is meant to work when you are off balance. If you're anticipating the attack, you don't get off balance.

Well, I definitely wasn't anticipating because I got pulled to the ground and found myself fighting from an awkward kneeling position. But the instructor was pleased, since a mess up showed that I was training properly.

When it was my turn to be a roving attacker, I actually managed to take a big guy to the ground.
I had to jump to even reach his neck, and figured he would probably just shake me off but what figured, "Why not?"

I jumped, grabbed and next thing I know he was on his butt on the ground.

Usually the attacker grabs the neck and pulls back, but since I jumped all the pull went straight down and he lost his balance.

Judging by the amount of times he came to thank me for giving him "good training" I'm guessing he doesn't get taken down very often. But he was grateful because he never thought about dealing with a jumper and, quite frankly, that's about how 80% of people would have to attack him.

Monday AMV

I'm totally enjoying Soul Eater.

GI Joe

Not as bad as Batman and Robin. But its pretty bad. Some of the dialogue is laugh out loud awful, and most of the time the story line is pretty silly, but the action scenes are cool if you don't think about them too much (how are they screaming under water? And, for that matter, how are so many things burning? Under water? Don't think about it. Just don't think about it.) Anytime the ninjas were on screen it was cool. Snake eyes was awesome, and his fight scenes with Storm Shadow were intense. The rest...well, try not to think about it too much, or you'll find yourself wondering just how someone becomes a low level maintenance tech on a sonic pulse cannon hidden on a secret evil base deep in the arctic ocean. Seriously, did they place a want ad? Craig's list? Evil Merchant Marine? Also, if you eject while the plane is currently out of the atmosphere don't you just...die? Float and die? These are just some of the questions I pondered during the course of the movie, despite my attempts at trying not to think about it. Also, that whole, "I was forced to do it by the millions of tiny, evil, nano machines in my brain" is like the oldest line in the book. Its up there with the twinkie defense.

SYTYCD Finale

I've been trying not to write too much about television, but tonight is the big finale!! I want anyone who's not Evan to win. I like Evan, he's cute and all, but the other three are all better dancers than he.

I loved the Matrix Paso Doble.

Workplace Fun

I got into a Sound of Music lyric quoting contest with a friend at work.

Unfortunately, I lost when I couldn't remember the stinking line that ends in "Schnitzels with Noodles."

Sad, I know.

WARNING: Extended focus and concentration on Sound of Music lyrics will create a brainworm that only Britney Spears can kill.

Random Comic Post

Wolverine has always had crazy hair.

But now, it's anime crazy.