Posts Tagged ‘Shuri-Ryu’

I had a good time at Wizard World, but man did I miss karate class.
I walked into the dojo for the first time in a week tonight, and I hadn’t done so much as a punching exercise or push-up in the meantime. A week may not sound long, but I felt out of touch. I [...]

Sai Master
Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.
I’ve not played with it a lot yet, but I’m already in love with my new Canon EOS Rebel XSi. It’s pictures are light years ahead of what my old PowerShot G2 could accomplish (not unexpected), and it amazes me how much faster it is in everything from starting up to [...]

I made green belt tonight! The official title is gokyu, which roughly translates to fifth-level student. Purple and three levels of brown belts are still ahead.
I’m eager to learn my next kata, Naihanchi sho:

It looks like a fun kata to learn and perform, but it also lets me geek out about karate history and my [...]

Karate Moleskine
Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of my Shuri-ryu karate training at the Academy of Okinawan Karate.
It amazes me how far I’ve come in just one year. In addition to losing a lot of weight, my stances have become longer and lower, my kicks have gotten higher, and my techniques have [...]

I bought a six-pack sampler of lonsdales from Famous Smoke last week, thinking they would be the ideal size for late winter and early spring smoking. Last night that proved a sound theory when I lit up the box-pressed Sancho Panza included in the sampler.
The weekend weather teased us, hitting about sixty degrees yesterday afternoon [...]

What a difference a year makes.
Despite falling behind on my 52 Weeks Flickr group contributions, I now have an entire year’s worth of self portraits in my 52 Weeks set. Sure, I’ve got 8 more to post, but time-wise there’s a year in there and it’s neat looking back and seeing if things have changed [...]

It’s been an interesting start to the year already, but there’s a lot on the horizon.
For starters, Muy Mal is officially back, complete with a rockin’ new look provided by Russ Dickerson. John and Weston have already posted their first contributions and mine won’t be far behind. I’ll be wrapping up Down Vendetta Road and [...]

If someone were to ask me how this year went, my first reaction would be to call it a write-off. Then I got to thinking about it, and it actually hasn’t been so bad after all. Let’s look back, shall we?
I started the year by selling the German rights to Deadliest of the Species to [...]

Karate Tailor
Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.

I may have learned a lot of cool karate moves, but my sewing skills really need some work.
Between my own impatience and my wife having more important things to do, I decided I best start learning to sew patches on my karate uniforms myself. I did a little bit of sewing [...]

We just finished review week at my karate school, and I’ve officially been promoted to rokyu, or blue belt, in Shuri-ryu. With it comes a new kata called Anaku, which I learned in class yesterday and which I’ll be practicing intensely for the next few months.
You can get a look at Anaku (aka Ananku) on [...]