The company I work for, they’re opening a proper office in Austin. I’m still going to work from home. Been doing it over 10 years, I see no reason to stop, especially since my home office is better set up and equiped for the requirements of my job.
However, I did discover the new office isn’t too far from GT Distributors.
“Honey…. I need to uh… go to the office (yeah, that’s it).” 🙂
Work ran long today. I was determined to finish the compliance with the new open source software usage policy, so I could get back to more creative endeavors. I’m all done save hearing back from the CTO on a couple things.
Consequently I missed my martial arts class tonight. Bummer too, as it’s weapons night.
Tonight is also the sparring class. If all goes well, I’ll have something from the UPS man in a couple days that will make that class finally happen. Details will be posted after Mr. UPS stops by.
In lieu of proper class, off to the garage I go. Going to work out on the DIY mook jong. I think I’ll stick my blue gun in the holster too for a little “cross-training”. And on all that knife blarg I’ve been writing about lately? That is one benefit to the Delica: there’s a trainer version. Hrm.
Had a very draining day at work today. Nothing necessarily bad, just had many things going on at once, lots of things to coordinate, people to wait on, things to do, and was doing it non-stop for a very long day.
After all was done I sat on the couch with Wife and Kids for a bit and talked, then went into the garage. I spent about 30 minutes in there taking 30 pieces of .223 Rem brass. Resize and decap. Trim. Clean the primer pocket. Debur and chamfer the mouth. Prime. Just getting the brass all ready to load my next round of .223 hunting load experiments. I’ll probably add powder and bullets after dinner.
But who knew it would be so relaxing. It was just a nice way to unwind from the day.
I love my new martial arts study. For the record, Parra Kali/Silat and Jun Fan Arts. Or to put it another way, Filipino Martial Arts, Thai Boxing, and Jeet Kune Do principles.
I like that it’s free. Not free as in beer, but free as in freedom of expression. I did some western boxing and while I love the science and mechanics, I don’t like how restrictive it is. Too many rules, so many options at your disposal and you can’t use them. Kuk Sool could allow me some level of expression, if you were allowed to do things. The art could allow you to do a lot of things, but the way the art is taught is too rigid and bound. Still, it was good that I participated in that “classical mess” (as Bruce Lee might refer to it) because it laid a good foundation.
But now, I feel free. Sure there are drills. Sure there are steps. Sure there are techniques. But overall what’s coming out of this is allowing your body to flow. For things to be natural. Sure we might spend a class exploring backhand strikes (as we did tonight), but it’s looking at the concepts of how they can work, how they don’t work, how they can be used to open things up and you can then create other entry points or where to flow next. Ultimately it’s conceptual, it’s principles, working at a higher level, allowing you to find what works for you.
It’s most refreshing.
On the other hand, I feel so clumsy in class. There’s much to unlearn, and there’s much to learn. Just being in a different environment is still a bit strange to me, even after all these months at my new school. My body and mind are still wanting to be rigid, and while my soul is striving to be free the body and mind are still locked up. I’m working on it. I’ve even noticed it in my handgun shooting.
What I’m looking forward to is more free-sparring. I’ve been unable to participate in the full-on sparring classes due to equipment limitations, but that’s soon to come to an end. It will be a humbling and educational experience, and I can’t wait.
Today I had a private handgun lesson with Karl Rehn of KR Training.
I asked for the lesson because I know putting a set of highly-trained eyes on me can help me watch for things I’m doing but may not be aware of, and where I can improve.
The shooting part of the lesson mostly involved using the Central Texas Standards. Go check it out. On paper it may look easy, but it’s not. Karl can shoot 100% on it. Me, I’ve got work to do, but I knew that and that was the point of today. The question is, what exactly do I need to do.
I won’t bore you with all the details, but I will state a few things:
Things to practice, either in live or dry fire:
Some of the above may make sense to you, some may not. It’s mostly notes for myself.
I’ve got a lot of practice ahead of me. Especially since Tom Givens is coming back to the area on October 23-24, 2010 for Combative Pistol 2. That’s an intensive course, and I better have my shit straight before I walk in there. About 9 months away, I have no excuse.
You know it’s cold when you embrace the warmth coming through your laptop’s keyboard as a way to thaw your fingers.
I carry a few knives on me.
I carry a Spyderco Delica as a self-defense knife. I carry a Leatherman Wave as my portable toolset. Whenever I need to cut something, like opening a box the UPS man dropped at the doorstep, I always pull out the Wave. The reasoning, due to my training, is to keep the Delica reserved for those “special needs” one may unfortunately be involved in. You want to keep that knife sharp and ready for such a circumstance.
I just came to the conclusion that’s the wrong way to go about it.
I should be using that Delica for every cutting need I have.
Reason? Doing so would put it in my hand a lot. It gets me using the knife in its intended context frequently. It makes it comfortable in my hand. To draw it, to unfold it, to cut with it, to fold it back up and put it away. We tell gun folks to dry fire practice all the time and go to the range and live fire practice too. Why aren’t we doing that with our knives? And if we are, why must we only do it in a special “practice time” context? Why can’t it just be a normal part of the day? In a self-defense situation the hardest part will be deploying the knife, so why shouldn’t we have hundreds upon thousands of repetitions of that to ensure we’ve got it down and it’s a natural thing? If you need to open a box, use the Delica. If you need to cut some rope, use the Delica. Open a letter, use the Delica. That’s what I should be doing.
So using the knife will dull it. Of course it will. This is why you must periodically clean it and sharpen it. Get yourself something like Spyderco’s Triangle Sharpmaker; it does such a great job and is really easy to use. If you don’t or can’t use that, just get something that keeps your knives honestly sharp. There’s no excuse for your knives to be anything less than razor sharp; even Cub Scouts earning their “Whittlin’ Chip” card are taught that the safest knife is a sharp knife (if you don’t know why, ask me). If the knife is regularly maintained, that negates the need to reserve it to avoid the wear and tear. Besides, a good self-defense knife shouldn’t be some expensive beauty queen you don’t want to risk breaking or losing; it should be solid and perform but nothing to cry over should it be damaged or lost (thus the choice of a Delica).
My head will be down for a bit.
I need to convert a library of C++ code into a Mac OS X framework. It’s heavily complicated by the copious inling of functions in the header files (bad thing in a dynamic library situation). Much rewriting and massaging of code must ensue. *sigh*
Head will be down for a while.
But given I’ve been awake since about 3 o’clock this morning and have to stay up and active until late afternoon anyways (Kali class tonight!), I think I’ll take a break from work in a little bit and run to the gun range. Stay tuned….
This is a tale of customer service that I think went above and beyond, thus it is a tale that must be told.
Christmas wish lists.
Children all wanting Nerf blasters from Santa.
I turn to Amazon.com because they’re the only ones that appear to have the particular models in stock.
One model, the Nerf Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 seems to have 3 flavors for sale: the regular version, a version with 100 bonus darts, and a version that comes with a second drum magazine. I think the second magazine is where it’s at, so that’s what I… err… Santa puts in the order for.
UPS man delivers very close to Christmas Eve. When the box arrives we just put it into the closet and don’t look at it until Elf-time late at night on Christmas Eve.
Ugh. They sent me the wrong model. They sent the 100-dart bonus pack, not the extra drum version. I’m bummed, but what can I do? These are from Santa, something must be delivered from The Fat Man® by morning time, so I have to run with what I was given. Ultimately that’s OK as the kids won’t know one way or the other, but there was the principle of it. Furthermore, when I went to the computer to double-check the order and invoice to ensure I didn’t mess it up (because all 3 flavors were in my shopping cart at one point, maybe I removed the wrong ones?), I realized that 1. I did correctly submit the order, 2. the price difference between what I ordered and what I received was $22!! Yikes. If it was a simple product flub that’d be one thing, but that’s a fair chunk of money.
I contacted the seller, The Toy Giant (they were selling via Amazon). I explained the situation, provided copies of the invoices, pictures of everything. In the end, it was their mistake, but I won’t be hard on that. It’s a rushed time of year, I’m sure one of their busiest, and given the similarities in the product ordered vs. delivered I can certainly understand the mistake. No hard feelings, no big deal. All I asked for was for them to refund the $22 difference to my credit card, since that’s about all that could be done given the Christmas circumstances.
Their reply?
First, it was prompt, which was great.
Second, they offered to send me the correct product. I quote from the email:
I don’t mind shipping the version with the extra drum and you can keep both.
I was certainly caught off-guard by that. They admit their mistake, and not only do they correct it but they expect nothing in return.
I don’t know what brought that on, if it’s their normal course of action or was brought on by the Christmas circumstance. But it doesn’t matter. They didn’t have to do what they did, but they did it.
That’s some great customer service. They didn’t just make things right, they went beyond. Or who knows… maybe to their bottom line it’s not beyond, maybe it was cheaper and easier for them to do what they did. Who knows. Doesn’t really matter. The perception to the customer is certainly a great one. I’m left with a very positive impression.
I just finished a dry-fire practice session.
I’ve been noticing in my dry-fire lately that I’ll draw to ready then have a tough time finding the front sight. I figured it was something with my grip or presentation not being “just right”. So I tried to work on those, but it never felt natural.
I just slowed down a bit and realized what I was doing.
For some reason I was pressing my right cheek into my right arm/shoulder on the presentation. I don’t know why, but my guess is an unconscious effort to get my right (dominant) eye lined up with my right arm, which lines everything up with the sights and so on. I think it’s from all the rifle shooting I’ve been doing lately.
As soon as I stopped myself, as soon as I kept my head centered, lo, there was the front sight! The little red fiber optic beacon shining brightly at me.
Always good to slow down, step back, and look at yourself once in a while. You may be doing things you don’t realize.
Stuff From Hsoi 