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Not your choice. Trust your instructor. It's not common, but not unheard of. Take it for what it is and keep working.

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If a person and I are believers in religions such as voodoo, and I curse a person to die, and they die, am I criminally liable, even if it was not magic that killed them, but rather the victim's deeply-held belief that I could curse them to die and it would work? What about voodoo dolls? If I...

I'm not saying he didn't have a malicious motive; I believe he was getting a kick out of making me look foolish. However, he did make me do a little introspection; and it seems to me my pride has been riding shotgun for a bit now. Time to stop that.

I was talking to a work friend recently about martial arts; he had tried training karate as an adult and then quit; he was wondering if he was too old to start. Having started at 46, I was telling him it's never too late. While this was going on, a young fella hauled up, listened for a bit...

I do that also. And yes, same as counting sheep, I'm out very soon thereafter!

"Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun..."

You say that like it's a bad thing. :)

I saw what you did there.

It said: The meaning of life is a philosophical and existential question that has puzzled humans for centuries. The answer to this question may vary depending on one's beliefs, values, and personal experiences. Some people believe that the meaning of life is to seek happiness and pleasure...

I asked ChatGPT what distinguishes it from other Okinawan karate styles. It is, er, close...but no cigar. Here's what it said: Isshinryu is a style of Okinawan karate that was founded by Tatsuo Shimabuku in the late 1950s. While Isshinryu shares many similarities with other Okinawan karate...

My question to ChatGPT was simple; which is the easiest martial art to learn? I did not qualify my question intentionally, leaving it very open-ended. This was the response. It's difficult to say which martial art is the easiest to learn, as each martial art has its own unique techniques...

Endorphins, mostly. The subconscious recognizes that you're not going to stop making demands that cause pain, so it gives the mind and body some happy drugs to get through it.

I don't do seminars anymore, but then I'm much less active than I was in general. Twice a week at the dojo from 5 PM to 7:30 and practice at home and I'm done.

Of course. However, that has changed over time. I now find I can do physical work until I feel ill, and if I don't stop immediately, it will become a serious problem. But I do know exactly what you mean. I never liked to run in the Marine Corps, but I did it a lot. Once I got in good enough...

OK. Thanks for the conversation. Bye.

I have attended seminars which were eye-opening to me. Some of them were with people here. Knife fighters, stick fighters, and so on. I learned a lot. I was humbled. Not all of my experiences at seminars have been bad. But I still would not say I 'trained with' them. I was not their...

People sure do like to judge others. Especially people they don't know, people whose shoes they have never walked in, people whom they frankly have no right to judge. This topic was recently brought up in our dojo. There are certainly those who earned black belts a long time ago and have...

I guess. I mean, I had forgotten about this, but I was once asked to attend a local seminar hosted by a sensei I happened to know, featuring a famous actor who was once a Power Ranger and now taught his own style of martial arts. We were asked to bring a bo. Sounded interesting, so I ponied...

I've noticed some folks seem to set great store by the number of people they've trained with who are well-known, and by their fame. I also notice that these same people seem to have a different definition of 'trained with' than I do. I consider training with someone to be an ongoing situation...

All of this. 100%.

Not in the face.

ChatGPT: Please write a paragraph on why I want to be a black belt in karate. "Becoming a black belt in karate is a significant achievement that requires years of hard work, discipline, and dedication. It represents mastery of the foundational techniques and principles of the martial art and...

ChatGPT?

It used to be that whenever I had to lay off anything in our dojo, it was due to an injury or illness and I counted the days until I could get back at it full-strength. Broken things healed. A busted toe, a bruised rib, a broken hand. It was just a matter of time. But time passes and some...

In general, I'm not a fan of cross-training. I tend to believe that a person has a set amount of time to devote to training any martial art. Some people have more time, some have less, but let's say you have 6 hours a week you can give to training. You can give that time to one art or you can...

I saw a martial arts meme the other day. "If you want to be a lion, train with lions." I have no disagreement with that, but the operative word there is "if." I like training with great martial artists, and I always try to give my best effort, but seriously? I don't want to be a lion. I don't...

If they prefer having their arm broken or shoulder separated to bending over, I guess they could resist. If you have leverage, I haven't had that happen. It's a good way to test your armlock, though. Have the uke try to resist, but not to the point of injuring themselves.

You want boxing, then.

Twice a week, I put on white pajamas and hang out in a small room in a strip mall with a bunch of similarly-clad weirdos and try to bash each other's brains out, for one thing. Did not do that before. I have a family now, outside of blood relatives. Teaching kids for long enough to see some...