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eredienI don't do a terrible lot of stuff outside of school. I mean, I do musical stuff and do computer stuff and draw and write, but that's generally about it. I'm not also doing, say, particle physics.
This results in me having a very few hobbies which I take very seriously and tend to obsess over, in a good way. I don't just want to write, I want to write a Nebula-winner. I don't just want to play Mozart, I want to play Mozart with all the dynamics and the accent markings in place and get the stacatto note just...there, and feel like I'm making beautiful music.
So, I started taking tai chi. And that was a great deal of fun and made me feel good, mentally and physically. And then I started doing western-style martial arts (swordfighting, a little wrestling stuff, and some other odds and ends) on top of that. And then I started learning Maori stuff from New Zealand. And so when Randal decided to see if he could get his kendo teacher's son over here to do kendo and iado, traditional Japanese martial arts, I thought, "hey, why not try it?"
I just had my first class. Wow, it's so hard. It's like, "keep the sword parallel to the ground, and step like this, and hold it like this, and breathe, and go fast, and try to be relaxed." And my arms are aching now. But it's amazing. And I'm so glad I'm doing this. It's so focused and so much fun and it's so energetic. And I'm going to be so sore tomorrow. But I don't care.
I didn't notice my gradual transformaton into the kind of person who will happily chatter on about tai chi for an hour, but I can't say I'm surprised by it, and it's definitely not a bad thing.
This results in me having a very few hobbies which I take very seriously and tend to obsess over, in a good way. I don't just want to write, I want to write a Nebula-winner. I don't just want to play Mozart, I want to play Mozart with all the dynamics and the accent markings in place and get the stacatto note just...there, and feel like I'm making beautiful music.
So, I started taking tai chi. And that was a great deal of fun and made me feel good, mentally and physically. And then I started doing western-style martial arts (swordfighting, a little wrestling stuff, and some other odds and ends) on top of that. And then I started learning Maori stuff from New Zealand. And so when Randal decided to see if he could get his kendo teacher's son over here to do kendo and iado, traditional Japanese martial arts, I thought, "hey, why not try it?"
I just had my first class. Wow, it's so hard. It's like, "keep the sword parallel to the ground, and step like this, and hold it like this, and breathe, and go fast, and try to be relaxed." And my arms are aching now. But it's amazing. And I'm so glad I'm doing this. It's so focused and so much fun and it's so energetic. And I'm going to be so sore tomorrow. But I don't care.
I didn't notice my gradual transformaton into the kind of person who will happily chatter on about tai chi for an hour, but I can't say I'm surprised by it, and it's definitely not a bad thing.
