And so it begins…

Well, I decided against the martial arts school that offered Jeet Kune Do, and opted for a more traditional school that teaches Tae Kwon Do. There are two main reasons I made this decision. One was that The Blast was on the other side of town. Way too far out of the way for me to get to on any kind of regular basis. The TKD school is about a five-minute drive from my house. The other reason was that The Blast seemed to cater to the younger, “MMA” crowd. Now, while that is cool, and shows that they are progressive and keeping with the times, it wasn’t a good fit for me. I’m not an MMA guy. I’m not even a competitive guy. So, training for actual combat, whether on the street or in a ring, just isn’t practical for me. The TKD school offers a very traditional curriculum, combined with elements of a unique mix of styles. The school has a very strong lineage. I had my first class last night and it was great. I got thrown right in, and enjoyed most of it. In fact, the only thing I didn’t enjoy was how winded I got. The teacher told me I had good cardio for a guy my size, but I sure didn’t feel like it. He also complimented me on my techniques, saying I obviously remember a lot of my old training, and would just need some polishing on the techniques I know. All in all, I felt good about it.

In other news, I got an invite to the DCUO Beta Test. So I downloaded the game client and have been playing it a lot this week. Without going into too much detail (don’t want to violate the NDA), I can say it’s fun, and has potential. It has some problems with controls, and some of the game mechanics aren’t very smooth. But it’s a Beta, so who knows what the final product will be like? I can say this, it is one of the prettiest games I have ever seen. The graphics are very nice, and very comic-bookish. The game has gotten me back into comic books. Mainly doodling and writing characters. I don’t want to collect comics again, because I always feel like they’re not worth my money anymore. But I think that just has more to do with my age, and my attitude towards where I spend my cash. Michele still has to force me to spend money on pleasures for myself, sometimes.

Looking forward to the Vegas trip next weekend. Kind of bummed that I won’t be in as good of shape as I wanted to be. I’m kind of self-conscious about certain parts of my body (mainly my gut), and my missing front tooth. We’re getting dental insurance soon, but not soon enough. So, I’m stuck with the beer-gut and the partial for a while longer. Slap a wife-beater on me, throw a Bud in my hand and call me Bubba!

Writing is just a constant thing. I’ve started a few other small projects. I’m back to working on short stories, rather than trying to plot out a whole novel. I think that’s where my talent lays right now. So, I’ll probably just stick with that for a while. Not looking to make money at writing right now, so I’m ok with that. School is more of a priority right now. I have about two years of school before I can be a licensed family and marriage therapist. Maybe when I am doing that for a living, I can sit back and spend some time on crafting tales of adventure.