Gymnastics: One Surprise After Another

Today I feel amazing! Though I almost forgot that once my foot started hurting. Note: Get new shoes! Today was a day of surprises and successes for me.

During stretches and warmup today, they actually offered to press us closer to the floor while doing our straddle stretches. Lately, I would’ve normally declined that but this time around I was feeling limber so I relaxed into the farthest I have gone yet. When he let up, I was able to stay down while relaxed by holding onto the floor, it was very invigorating and encouraging. My front splits are getting closer to the floor, but as my legs are changing size, the thing I most worry about at the moment is staying aligned. I should remember these things and work to make sure I imitate them next week, as I think it helped later.

I still can’t do a handstand properly yet. It isn’t that I am not capable. The reason now seems ito be disorientation. Now in addition to getting to the pause moment, I have to get over the disorientation of succeeding. Once I realise I’ve succeeded, I get dizzy. Damnit. It is quite a bit annoying. I would like to know how others get past that part. I remember not minding to be upside down when I was a kid — true, I never succeeded then either, my upside down was always propped feet on a wall or headstands — but really, I don’t understand why it makes me disoriented. This is what all those practices have been for. Very annoying. Despite all that, I am very satisfied to be able to start a cartwheel and stop in a handstand. Apparently I’ve done well since the concept was introduced, but today it was better. Once I get over the disorientation, I will be very happy. Also noteworthy for the day was my amazing success in the bridge. I not only got up, but I was not in any pain and I could move my legs and to the extra stretches. I was so surprised, I didn’t even think about turning it to a back walkover. It probably wouldn’t have worked, but I felt very successful.

Imagine my surprise, along came the time to do front tumbling, and the very first dive roll I performed was perfect…. and behind Zac’s distracted back. Yay and Damnit. We do dive rolls to prime for everything else. I did a total of five dives and only the first two — neither of which Zac saw thank you — were any improvement over my usual. The third, I am not sure what happened, but I was completely surprised when I ended in a perfect tuck, but not enough moment to stand. Shocking and bizarre. I felt my hips on my heels, but I fell back. Then I returned to normal. Just barely average dive rolls. Oh well.

The barrels for the handsprings keep changing size depending on my frequently changing issues. Lately its been the knees. I was avoiding landing and hurting myself, so we moved back to the medium barrel. Today, however, I surprised myself again. I did five or six handsprings and the only thing Zac had to remind me about was my arms, which kept bending or staying behind all in the landing. Several of those particular successes I found that I probably could have done without the barrel! I felt my legs land and my body was bent nicely… I think I was only touching the barrel those times because there was no room not to. Then I started getting tired and started incurring Zac’s comments again. It made me feel better to be getting feedback. That is a dangerous habit to get into. Feedback. I might not improve if I stop getting feedback when I do. Stupid me. I didn’t suggest changing barrels, however. There was another student in the class who was using it and I didn’t want to bother Zac with two different barrels to pull onto the mats. At the end of front tumbling, with me not actually failing a single handspring for the first time ever, Zac told me that next week the smaller barrel is to be the one we use. Yay! Back to the smaller barrel!

Off to back tumbling… and a crash. Ok, I didn’t crash, but I did surprise myself. I got in three back handsprings over the giant barrel before Randy took the rest of the class to the trampoline and rigging. The first one was awesome! Yes! I just didn’t expect the floor that soon… so I didn’t whip around like I would’ve liked. Again with being stunned and disoriented… again upsidedown. The next two weren’t quite fail, but they weren’t the best. It was great while it lasted.

While the other beginners worked in the rig, I turned my attention to a bit of equipment I hadn’t visited in a while. Not since my knee started being kind and letting me practice back handsprings had I visited the balance beams. The floor-level beams were covered with mats and I wasn’t so against the next one up that I wanted to clear the mats. I mounted the beam unconventionally and found my balance was off. Drats. Three feet off the floor, I practiced walking backward and forward and then spent the rest of the time balancing on one leg while the other took a tour around the world. I don’t know what the official term is for that, but the leg would start at the back, move the side, then go forward. All in slow motion and holding for a while at each point. I made my arms do funny things too varying between out to the side, up in the air or out in front. Only when I was going to sit myself on the beam to practice holding still and getting a nice mini-abs/whole body workout did I fall. I didn’t fall off the beam while moving to sit, but I did fall when was attempting to hold still. Class ended at that moment, so I took my defeat and thanked the coaches again.

The ladies room and the locker room were under a renovation, so I was worried about my shower… would I have to go home and be late getting back to work? I asked the staff and got permission to use a shower at another location on the premises. I felt weird walking around in my workout clothes (stretchy loose pants and an oversize t-shirt) and soaking wet with sweat and even more weird when I walked into the fancy locker room (Private Club Room!! Whoo!). Despite the awkwardness, I showered, dressed and left without donning my jacket. I didn’t have my brush with me, so I finger combed my hair out. As I left the area, people kept giving me odd looks. I wonder what they were about.

Oh well. whatever.

Tags: gymnastics

Video Games: High School Musical Sing It!

High School Musical Sing It!
Playstation 2

First of all, I didn’t spend a lot for this muffler game. It was a discounted used item from GameFly.com [PLUG If you join for a few months, you can give me discounts on my rentals. Check out everything at GameFly.com, please use the link in the sidebar of my blog. /PLUG] So between this game and the microphones I bought from GameStop for them, I spent less than $20. Not a bad price for this in total.

In High School Musical Sing It! there are songs from High School Musical and High School Musical 2. The object of the game is to sing in tune, pitch and timing with the song flying by on the screen. There is a multitude of characters from the movies to unlock and clothing and styles for all. Personally, I am not that fond of unlocking clothing. Its strange. Didn’t like it in Guitar Hero either… much. Anyway.

There are several modes of play: Quick Play, Story Mode and Party Mode. Quick Play and Party Mode are what you would expect. You get to choose the song to sing, the stage and the character. The difference between the two modes is that in Party Mode, up to 8 people can compete against each other one at a time. Story Mode tells the story of High School Musical told by Kelsey, the one who wrote the play everyone is auditioning for. I am not very happy with this mode as it ends where the original movie ends and does not continue to the sequel. However, playing the same songs in Quick Play will unlock more songs to sing. It was quite interesting to hear one of the songs about the fish, I had forgotten that cheezy/cute song.

My favorite thing about the game is the options regarding parts. You can duet with a buddy, or sing by yourself, choosing one part or the other, or you can choose Mix and sing almost the way you would sing when singing along with the musical numbers covering the prominent parts.

My least favorite thing. In total grade at the end of the song, I never scored lower than B… so either I am a better singer than I thought [HAH!] or the game is screwy. Ok… I know I sing ok… but to be able to get a grade of A on song you’ve never sung before is a little weird.

The technology doesn’t know what the words are that you are singing. The important part is hitting the pitches for each section for the correct duration. Until they get a song that will recognise that the words are wrong, though, this ability to score high on these games will be there for good long time.

Tags: High School Musical, HSM, ps2

NYC Randomness: Harmonica in the Subway

In the subway today, a man as playing an Harmonica. He was simply traveling from one place to another. He had no hat out, wasn’t asking for money. just playing.

He caught my attention, not just by sounding his instrument, but by his initial tune. “Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?” followed in medley style by “If I Only Had A Brain” then on to some other music. It was pleasant. I’d have given him money if he was on the platform.

Tags: New York, random, subway

Video Game Chatter

I added a couple new games to my inventory. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and High School Musical Sing It! Which means I had to buy microphones finally. Luckily, my local GameStop had one full set available at the very decent price of $10. Yes! I didn’t have to spend $50 to buy a Song Star! package like I wanted to so long ago. Now I can rent from GameFly such games as Karaoke Revolution and Song Star!Country.

I want to add such games as Fullmetal Alchemist: The Angel with the Broken Wing, and Final Fantasy X, but I am going to have to wait a bit for those.

My favorite XBOX game to play for while now has been Burnout 3: Takedown! I don’t know why, but watching Initial D the anime made me a better racer. It was an interesting development. When I am not playing the racing game, I turn over to Halo 2, the original reason for my ownership of the xbox.

At some point I acquired a NintendoDS and I have to say I really like the system, I just wish there was more games that I like to play on it. Right now my favorite all-time game for the DS is MyJapaneseCoach. It helps with a lot of Japanese learning. But there are issues and problems with the game, I really don’t think I would’ve gotten as far as I did if I hadn’t been taking Japanese language lessons at the time.

I miss having my brother to compete against. When I finally move, I am definitely getting the online deals.

Tags: ds, games, ps2, xbox

Japan Day NYC 2009

Event: Japan Day NYC :: Official Website: http://www.japandaynyc.org/
Date: 31 May 2009 :: 8am 4-mile Run, 10am to 5pm Festival

I missed most of the event and I am very upset about it. However, I did get about two hours at the end. Watching the J-pop singers was very fun and it was entertaining to watch the crowd grow and shrink around the stage.

When I arrived at around 3pm, I expected to find things winding down as it was a hot and sunny day out. However, the East Meadow lawn was filled with hundreds of people in varying outfits. From everyday casual city clothing to kimonos to cosplayers and everything in between. I wanted to sample some of what the tents had to offer, but as I approached, I found that some lines were closed and others where the wait times were over 50 minutes long. As a result, I bypassed the many interesting things in favor of the J-pop that was occurring on the stage.

Instead of being lured to the Go, Shoji, or Hello Kitty tents, I found myself crowding the stage area to listen to Ai Kawashima and the Yaz Band. Instead of participating in the multiperson jump-roping area, I snapped a few pictures and returned to the stage. Ai Kawashima’s singing was great and the Yaz band had me wanting to buy CDs. During a short break where the band left the stage and the equipment was rearranged for Ai to do her solos, I explored some of the now closed tent lines. There was a Chopsticks game, and something about Yo-Yo Fishing. People were walking about with what looked like yo-yo water balloon, quite interesting. There was also a closed tea tent that looked as if it had been closed for quite a while, I suppose they sold out. It wasn’t long before I returned to stage to listen to Ai Kawashima again. After a while, I couldn’t stand the sun much, so I wandered into an area not too far away under the shade of a few trees.

Before long, I was too annoyed with all the chattering. There was a woman on a cell phone and some people conversing in either mandarin or korean, I couldn’t tell because I was too annoyed to check it out, so I stood up and began my wanders again.

On one side of the stage were closing lines of food. The lines were so long, I couldn’t check out what I was missing out. On the other side of the stage was a golden object with poles on a table under a tent and behind gates. I assumed it was from the earlier parade of fifty people. Yet another interesting thing that I missed.

Soon, it was time for Ai-san’s music to finish and she finished to a cheering audience. Along came the MCs and the stage crew set up for the following band. Orange Pekoe had an interesting style to them. I liked about half of what they did. In the middle of the starting song. It began to rain. I had to put my camera away for while. It never got much past a heavy drizzle and some wind, but the packed lawn and stage area was sparsely populated in minutes. I pulled out my camera again and snapped a few pix of the emptiness, before stowing it out of the rain again. Only a few fans remained to watch Orange Pekoe. When I say a few, I don’t mean like three here. There were plenty of people who had umbrellas. No, when I say a few I mean compared to what had been there previously. It was still impossible to get to the front of the stage. Just as the rain cleared up, the group went into a song I didn’t much care for, so I wandered again. This time I wasn’t worried about what I was missing, I was checking out the closed tents and being amused watching how long the line still was for the Kabuki facepainting booth.

When the band finished their set, I returned to the stage area for the finale. I was to be a large Karaoke type ending. The song was “On Top of the World”. I was afraid I would mess up because I didn’t know the song. However, my fears were for nothing. Turns out I knew the tune well enough because it was a 60s song by the Carpenters and all I needed were the words… which were being displayed. It was quite a wonderful ending in the sun. All the musicians returned to the stage and they did various forms of solos depending on their style. During this time, I discovered Taro Masuda. A violinist. I thought he did a fabulous job in his solo and it made me regret arriving too late to see his section. I made a note to discover his music when I returned to the internet. And I didn’t disappoint myself. The crowd was great too, singing along to the song. I would like to have seen a professional recording of it.

During that last song, I discovered the location of a classmate of mine. He is in Japanese language classes with me at TENRI Cultural Institute. How did I discover him? Quite interesting that…He was picked up during a solo bridge on a camera that was panning the audience. Amusing I would see him at the very end of the day. He informed me of some of the more interesting things I missed. Seems there was a fantastic karate performance, some wonderful classical guitar music and COBU Taiko drummers.

While the East Meadow was being cleaned up, my classmate and I wandered around looking for his companions who seemed to have disappeared while the rain fell. A mystery! Was it a vortex? We encounted children doing cartwheels down the slope, a huge group of cosplayers, and even Ai Kawashima! We hovered at the edges while Ai-san did here interviews and her voice recordings. My classmate wanted to get a photo with her. So when she was leaving, he called (a bit rudely) “Ai!” She jumped. Poor dear was frightened by his calling her. When he asked about a photo (not in Japanese, btw, he was too embarrassed… I think he woulda done fine), she nodded and allowed me to snap the photo of the two of them. I think she was very surprised. We thanked her for her time, and as they walked away, for whatever reason, her bodyguard said Thank You as well… was he thanking us for be being quick and not threatening? I don’t know, but our mission was accomplished.

We never did find his companions. We took a quick walk to get some water at some point in our search, when we ran across a Shamisen player, it was a quite entertaining street performance. After a while we headed our separate ways. The festival was over and the cosplayers had even broken out. I think I will have to volunteer next year in order to get myself there on time. But even if I don’t I will definitely have to do better next year.

Tags: anime, j-pop, Japan Day NYC, japanese, manga