DAUB #2

This is DAUB drawing #2. Again, we were supposed to draw it upside down. (I have given you the right side up version as well.) Again, I am not pleased with the result. And again, erasing and sketching out the drawing first were not allowed. I was just supposed to put my pen (although I did it in pencil) down in one spot and draw around the outline until it was done. This is actually my second attempt at the drawing, as the first one ran off the page. And yet again, the quality of the drawing was not important, just so long as I used dark, bold lines. This has got to be the wierdest drawing course I've ever taken. I'm already planning on getting rid of this book once I finish it. And I for sure won't be recommending it to beginners.

Josh and I went up to the dojo for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. Why is it that men complain so when they get hit there, but refuse to wear personal protection? They say, "It's uncomfortable." But is it more uncomfortable than getting kicked in the groin?

Before we even started sparring, I asked Josh if he had his cup on. He said he didn't and admonished me to keep my kicks above the waist. I replied, "I can't promise that. My old legs don't always get up that high." So he can't say I didn't warn him. It was pretty cool though. He aimed a roundhouse at my head, which I blocked and came at him from behind with a squat kick. I didn't plan it that way, though he insists I did, it just happened.



I talked to John Tedder in church this morning and told him that Sensei is planning on having us tested soon. I told him that I didn't feel I was ready and he replied, "Yes you are. " I then expressed concern that the board wouldn't know what I could do and what I couldn't, and he said, "They know." I asked him how they would know if they've never seen me work, and he responded, "They have...they know."

I mentioned that my biggest concern was bunkai, since we'd never gone over bunkai for any kata higher than naihanchi. He said he'd try to get caught up so he could come up to the dojo and work bunkai with us between now and then.

Now back to scanning Italy pictures...

P.S. I apologize for the poor quality of the pics. They were taken with an old instamatic camera, many of them from the window of a moving tour bus.