2 points to make before I get to the next topic:
- Please take a moment to stop and give thanks for all that you have. I always believe that I am very blessed to have the family and friends that I do. I am also extremely lucky in that I live in Tampa, Florida and I was able to escape the wrath of 4 hurricanes last year. Seeing the images of the devastation and continuing hardships due to Hurricane Katrina puts things in perspective, especially on how lucky most of us really are.
- This is nowhere near as heavy a topic as the last point, but I forgot to mention this in my last post. While we were waiting for Lake Texarkana Gamera to start at Metrocon, X and I started talking to some of the other people in the room. One young lady asked us what I thought was a pretty interesting question. Interesting in that if I was asked the question again, I would answer totally differently. I think she asked us why we had gone to Metrocon, or more generally why we liked anime. I can't even remember what I said at the time, but to answer that now I would say that it's to keep myself young (as if I'm really that old ...). What I mean is, now that I have a home, job, various bills and payments due, etc., I find that my time is mainly being spent trying to be responsible and act like the adult I'm supposed to be. Watching anime (and to a lesser extent playing video games) lets me escape from all my worldly pressures and lets me simply be a kid enjoying life.
U.S. Open 2005
After attending Metrocon, I felt a great renewal in my interest towards martial arts. This was fortunate, since the very next weekend was the U.S Open of Karate/World Martial Arts Championships. X was the first one to ever tell me about this annually held event. He went to it once back when we were in college, and he always talks about some of the impressive demonstrations and matches he saw. So last year we decided to go check it out and we had such a great time that we pretty much plan on going every year now. So, this year it was held at the Coronado Springs Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Walt Disney World. The tournament happens over two days (in this case on July 1 & 2) with martial artists coming from all over to compete in numerous events. The tournament is spread around multiple ballrooms in the resort, so X and I spent the first day going all over watching various competitions. I remember watching the individual competition for men's and women's traditional weapons, musical/extreme weapons, musical/extreme forms, and ISKA/USBA breaking. On Saturday, we spent almost all day in one ballroom watching the ISKA World Breaking Competition which was taped and will be televised on ESPN2 (sometime ...). I have to admit that this may be the coolest event for me to watch. Shit, who doesn't want to watch people break things? I want to speak more on this, but I'm honestly losing track of everything that happened. Unfortunately, that's what happens when I wait too long to write about something (and it doesn't help that I have the worst memory of anyone I know).
Another update will come shortly.
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