At Kung Fu there’s a sparring opponent who is particularly intimidating. He’s extremely talented and accurate with his strikes, but they definitely have some umph behind them.

I have mixed opinions when it comes to fighting him. It’s great for my abilities, because it very much forces me to block better, strike faster, and be aggressive… but at the same time you can pretty much expect to get a beating – And it’s very hard to play hard when you’re anticipating damage.

Last night I sparred with him and it went okay. He landed about five or six strikes that knocked me back or out of balance enough so that if it were a match he’d immediately be declared winner. But I got in one or two good strikes of my own including one sweet jab to his head which caught him off guard (though to be honest it was probably more luck than skill).

Kung Fu Roland fought him next. KF Roland is extremely fast and has great fundamentals and flexibility which tend to yield positive results in a sparring ring. I didn’t see much of the fight, but I know it ended with Roland on the receiving end of a very bloody nose. When he came out of the bathroom, nose gauzed up, his kung fu shirt was splattered with blood.

It looked really really hardcore.

So here’s to you Kung Fu Roland. I hope your nose isn’t broken and that next time you’re the one catching his kicks.

Last night at Kung Fu I took a class from Master Tat-Mau Wong. Master Wong is the head of our academy and quite the martial artist. He is coaching the American Kung Fu Olympic team and was the chosen Kung Fu teacher (with students) to perform a demonstration at the recent opening of the movie Kung Fu Panda.

He’s totally intense. At one point during the seminar as he talked about inner power he said “If I needed to, I could shake this building with my chi.”

It was heavy.

The second half of this posts title is to commemorate my awesome Birthday which will be this Sunday (twenty seven!). I had an idea for a birthday adventure. I’m thinking about making a bunch of silk screened MSPaint logo picture MikeDiDonato T-shirts. They’d probably be pretty awesome. If you wanted a t-shirt I could make and ship one to you. I’d need about $5 (plus shipping) to cover costs but if you wanted to donate more than the five dollars all additional donations will go directly towards the purchase of a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Amplifier.

In this way you can get a sweet shirt and at the same time help contribute to the rock.

Leave a comment if you’d be interested in participating. If I got enough people, I’d probably make 4 or 5 different shirt styles to really boost the levels of awesome.

Last night I had my first night of teaching as a Kung Fu assistant instructor. It was pretty fun. I hope I kept the students engaged and entertained. I definitely need more practice. One of my instructors, who recently received his black belt, saw me walk in with my new satin digs but without the obligatory gray belt. Non-black belt instructors at my academy wear gray belts in order to increase mysticism. That way you never really know how hardcore your teacher is. So, Sihing Matt noticed that I was wearing my red belt and promptly disappeared into the back room. He reappeared and handed me his old gray belt. It was quite an honor. As he handed me his belt…

Sihing Matt: “wear this one. it’s lucky.”
Mike D: “because you made it to black?”
Sihing Matt: “yup. just don’t get the debilitating knee injuries that I got.”

sweet.

June is pretty unique this month because there’s a tournament in CT. While I can’t make the actual events, Master Wong (the biggest of the big in our kung fu family) will be coming to town. He’ll be teaching a few classes and I have to try and plan my schedule so that I can make it to as many as possible.

Whoa! The shiny new Satin Uniform has arrived! Check it out!

Rock!

I’ll be retrieving my satin Kung Fu instructor uniform this week.

On it will be embroidered the words “Sihing Mike D.” in gold. When I get it, I’ll take pictures.

In Cantonese, Si means ‘teacher’ and Hing means ‘brother’.

There’s a rumor going around that jonabad.com, the original internet, is coming back and that it’s going to be better than ever. Jon’s been working on it this week. Right now you won’t find anything more than a clip from Jurassic Park there… but Jon’s been tinkering. And when Jon tinkers, the world gets psyched.

In Kung Fu News….

Last night I was invited to warm up our Kung Fu class as an assistant instructor. How fun! It was great to get up there and get the class moving and stretched out. Afterwards, we had a great class. Unfortunately, I had pre-gamed with a monster steak and cheese sandwich, so there was definitely some ‘ugh’ in my ‘umph’.

We ended the class with my favorite body conditioning exercise where you stand opposite your partner and swing your arms together in a 3, or 7 move combo. It hurts like heck and this morning I have some sweet black and blue souvenirs on my arms to show for it.

Tonight it’s more Kung Fu and some much needed paper-writing for economics. Blast! I’m still without topic.

have been progressing along my kung fu training quite steadily, and I am quite proud of my accomplishments so far. Last night in the dojo, our sensei told me something very exciting — that I have been selected to train with Shaolin Monks in China for 4 months! This opportunity is not bestowed upon many kung-fu students, and I must say that I am very honored indeed.

Getting the time off work should be no problem. I have a huge amount of vacation and comp days banked up from the past few years, and my employer said I could even work from China, supporting the factory in Dongying!

This sounds like a perfect opportunity to both drastically further my kung-fu skills, as well as live in an entirely different culture for an extended period of time. While I’m really excited about it, after a long period of soul searching, I’ve decided not to do it. Why not? Well, because studying with the Shaolin would require me to shave my head.

My whole identity would be gone! Just imagine…how would I MSPaint myself?? I don’t think I can do it, readers. I just don’t think I can do it.