La la la

Something happened to me this past weekend. I have no idea exactly what caused it, but I woke up Sunday morning sore all over.

There was nothing particularly strenuous about the match. I did notice my quadraceps were sore so I chalked everything up to just muscle soreness.

Well, since then the pain has been pretty ugly. When breathing is difficult, when a burp causes you to yell out in pain because of how the muscles in your chest suddenly contracted, when you can’t sleep because of the intense pain… something’s wrong. Every other bit of soreness went away but this just lingered at about the same rate. I started to wonder if I cracked a rib; don’t know how that would have happened, but given the pain did seem to run exactly along some rib paths well… let’s see the doctor.

Doc checks me out. He’s checks for a lot of things but nothing really makes sense. He didn’t believe it was cracked or broken. So he wanted to do a few tests to rule out some other low-hanging fruit. But for now he thinks it’s just some really tight and sore muscles and prescribed some muscle relaxers.

Let me tell you… that stuff is… relaxing.

So blogging hasn’t really happened today because I’m just too relaxed. Not loopy, but certainly sleepy. My brain wants to move at 100 miles and hour, but my body is content to just drag itself along. I’m motivated mentally, but physically… meh.

I’ll try to blog more tomorrow.

Blarg

Busy.

Lost time because of a doctor’s appointment. I’ve been in some serious pain since Sunday. Thought it might have been a cracked rib, doctor doesn’t think so (so no x-rays). Prescribed me some muscle relaxers and some tests are being run. We’ll see.

Meantime, I hope to be back here later.

It’s so good….

…. it’s criminal (potentially)

 

More about the iPhone dying

I mentioned how on Sunday my iPhone died, apparently of sudden and complete battery drain.

I’m still mystified as to why, but a friend read my blog posting and said he knew of two similar experiences. He said he believed the culprit at the time was a game called “Stick Wars Lite“. Funny he should mention that!

I was going to pick up foo.c to take him to the IPSC match but I arrived very early and didn’t know if he’d be up and about yet, so I pulled into a nearby strip mall parking lot and started to fiddle on my iPhone. To my surprise, foo.c pulled in next to me because he wa coming to grab some breakfast. I got out of the car and went into the shop with him. All this time the iPhone was in my hands. I heard some faint music and looked at my hand and noticed that the iPhone was still on and the screen must have been touched because it had brough up a game.

Stick Wars Lite.

I distinctly remember that game being active.

I then just hit the power button to put the phone to sleep.

Three people experiencing this? Might be more than a coincidence. However, I’m not sure that is the problem because I’ve attempted to reproduce it and it won’t happen (of course).

Nevertheless, I believe the phone did die because the battery was drained by something not playing nice and thus consumed all the power. One recommendation given was to never put your iPhone to sleep with an application active, to always go back to the Home screen before sleeping it. IMHO that should not be a requirement, or if it is then the iPhone ought to handle it automatically when you hit the power button.

I’ll keep an eye on things and if I can reproduce it, certainly I’ll report it to the developer. Being a developer myself, I appreciate it when people file (useful) bug reports, so I make sure to do the same for my fellow developer. Need a reproducible case first.

My First IPSC Match Scores

The scores from my first IPSC match have been posted.

I suck!

To keep things in perspective, this was my first time and so I was going slow because I don’t know how to play the game. Along the lines of not knowing how to play the game, there were learning experiences with Comstock scoring; say if I shot twice on a target and one shot was a clean shot to a no-shoot I could shoot again and that would have affected my score. So, I don’t take my scores from the match as any sort of gospel as to what sort of shooter I am. However, it is some degree of a snapshot and I want to analyze things to see where I need to improve.

A Damn Good Question

In light of the Foot Hood shootings, many people are asking this question.

Of all the places you’d expect someone to be armed, wouldn’t it be a military base? We trust them with massive amounts of weaponry when they’re overseas doing their jobs, so why can’t we trust them here?

On a side note, the officer that stopped the killer did exactly what has to be done these days: direct and immediate confrontation. Still, 3 minutes went by, many people died and many more wounded. How might things have been different if these soldiers were able to do what they’re trained to do?

Aliveness Training

Catching upon blogs and news, tgace had a brief blurb about aliveness training. He links to this post at TDA Training that contains a video discussing “aliveness” training. Here’s the video:

I must admit I laughed at the use of chess to explain aliveness, because it makes a good point. The way a lot of martial arts are taught (traditional or modern, doesn’t matter — it’s not the art itself, it’s how the art is taught and trained) is that sort of static pattern memorization and following, and that’s not going to make you a better martial artist. There is a place for “dead” (to use the opposite term) training. You do need to learn basic movements, basic concepts. You do need a compliant partner so you can learn the basic movements, how the mechanics work, the subtle factors (e.g. “if the arm is angled this way it’s not going to work…. try it here, now try it there, see?”). There is certainly a place and requirement for dead training.

But it shouldn’t stop there.

Once you get the mechanics down, now you need to take it into alive training. It can be as simple as a your partner providing some resistence so you can really refine the mechanics from the dead training, or it can be a full-out freestyle sparring session. It’s an attempt to take the movements and concepts into actual application.

This is one reason I had a problem with how my Kuk Sool training was taught. It was all fancy dancing and compliant partners. The vast majority of the training was dead training. There might have been a night now and again where something alive happened, and I relished those classes. But the majority of emphasis both in the school (depending who was teaching; Dewain did like aliveness) and moreso the WKSA (witness the “Houston testing” sessions that were little more than memorization-regurgitation dance-offs) was dead training. I do recall before I had even heard the term “aliveness” training that I was seeking this sort of training because I realized that me doing a lock and throw and my partner just falling to the mat was not the way to do things. My partner should go to the mat because I took them down through proper technique application not because “step 5, I the partner fall down on the ground”. There were attempts to improve this in the school, but it just didn’t happen before I had had enough. Again tho, this isn’t necessarily about the art. While Kuk Sool may be taught that dead way as a majority, I know it is not the only way it’s taught. There are schools, both past and present, that certainly do teach in an alive way. It is not strictly the art, it’s the school, it’s the teachers, it’s the students, that ultimately determine how things go.

But that all said, is aliveness some holy grail?

Nope.

Those that preach aliveness seem to forget that people can and do practice martial arts for reasons other than sport or combat or self-defense. Some people just enjoy it as a healthy activity that stimulates both body and mind. I know some people just cannot stand Tai Chi because there’s no throwdown hardcore kombat, and true there may not be as much martial application in how Tai Chi is practiced today and thus probably doesn’t have much for aliveness training. But does that make it any less valid an activity for someone to participate in?

Aliveness is a worthwhile concept, but it must be kept in perspective. It is just another tool, another training aid, not a holy grail. Depending upon your goals, it may be a useful tool or it may be one worth discarding. Just be honest in evaluating the use of the tool against your goals.

Sunday Metal – Ted Nugent

I may refer to “Uncle Ted” in other contexts on this blog, but today it’s all about the music (and not just because this is opening weekend for white-tailed deer hunting in Texas).

Say whatever you want about Ted and his politics, the man’s a great guitar player. A lot of hard rock and heavy metal bands and guitarists wouldn’t be what they are if not for Ted Nugent.

Random stuff

From today… just some random bits of things.

iPhone

I’m peeved that my iPhone went dead. I have no idea what caused the sudden drain of battery. Google turns up this isn’t an unheard of thing and hypotheses are some apps just are poor at battery management. That perhaps somehow I put the phone to bed with particular apps still running and someone sucked the battery dry. Don’t know, but oh well.

Managing Unknown Contacts

To understand the term “Managing Unknown Contacts” (MUC) see here or here. I failed at this this morning. *sigh* When I left the house this morning I stopped into the drug store to get some food and drink to eat during the match. When I went in I saw a girl (probably 18-25 years old) gathering her stuff on a bench outside the store. I go inside, do my thing, I come back out to my car and the girl approaches me. Initially I was stand-off-ish and unwilling to help her, but she ultimately said she just wanted directions. I answered her question and she went on her way. So, it was probably nothing.

However, I got in the car and realized I failed MUC. I didn’t move well, I didn’t use my hands right (e.g. fence), wrong dialogue. I know why: I was preoccupied with the match. Bad bad bad me. *sigh*

CHL

I am surprised at the number of people who have CHL’s but don’t carry. So… why do you have a CHL?

People at the match seemed surprised that I came to the match carrying and that I wanted to leave the match carrying. They were surprised at my carry. I was surprised at their surprise, and at their lack of carry.

I want to start asking people who have a CHL why they have a CHL if they don’t carry… and carry always (apart from legal or other such reasons).

Reloading

I got to try a Hornady Lock-n-Lock AP. I’m sold. No the Dillion isn’t bad, but there’s no question the LnL AP is evolution.

Walked away with a LOT of 9mm brass today (lots of people didn’t want their brass). Happy me.

Match People

I forgot to mention about the match. I was surprised at the level of shooters. I figured it was a local club and that it might not be that hot… maybe one or two guys, but that’d be it. I was floored at the number of people with “sponsor” shirts on, race guns, and other very serious gear and really into it. Lots of quality shooters. It was good to watch them and how they went about things, from how people choose to handle the course of fire (I like that about IPSC, vs. IDPA) to how they shot (e.g. the steady cadence in particular strings of the stage). Or just being impressed with how fast some of these guys are.

Family

I love my wife. She supports me. She is a rock for me.

My First IPSC Match

Finally!

I got to try my hand at action pistol competition. Specifically, an IPSC (USPSA) match run by the Austin Lone Star Practical Pistol Club (ALSPPC) and hosted by the Austin Rifle Club.

Foo.c was there too. In fact, we were on the same squad together.

This is the first time I’ve done any sort of formal firearms competition. Why do it? Because I can. Because I’m curious what it’s all about. Because I’d like to test my skills in pressure situations, and push myself to improve. I know this is not “self-defense handgunning” and I don’t pretend that it is. I do think it can be likened to sparring or how any sort of competition is akin to “self-defense” and “on the street”. It will still make me a better shooter, period, even if it’s not all “tactical”.

There were 66 people participating (fairly big turnout). Everyone was broken up into 5 squads, since there were 5 courses of fire, one in each of the 5 shooting bays. Because there were a lot of people, the match did take a while to do… 4-5 hours to run the actual match. Frankly, that’s the biggest downside to this. Cumulatively I shot probably what? 5 minutes? And meantime I was there 5 hours (a total of about a 7 hour day, including driving time). That’s the biggest bummer about it all is all the “hurry up and wait”. I will say I did like how our squad ran, in that everyone contributed to helping with tasks to make things move quickly: taping targets, resetting poppers, picking up brass, scoring, etc.. Because everyone chipped in, our squad moved along pretty well. The bummer was the squad in front of us in the rotation was moving very slowly (few people on that squad were helping) and the held up the waterworks, which was a shame. But oh well, this is how it goes.  The only other downside was today was unseasonably warm, but still a great sunny day for shooting.

So what was good about it?

Why the shooting, of course! The courses of fire were fun and challenging. I am “unclassified” since this is my first match, and I shot in a division called “Production”, which is basically using a factory-produced firearm. It can have a few modifications (e.g. better sights), but it’s nothing like the highly-customized race guns. Works fine for me, because at this point who cares. I just wanted to go and try… there’s no “gaming” involved in this (yet) for me.

My goals? To learn how to shoot IPSC, to not come in last (ha!), and to have fun. As of this writing, I don’t know the results of the match, but I did learn how to shoot it and I did have fun. I also learned a few things. I need to continue to familiarize myself with the rules of the game so I can just “go” and not have to sweat some of the stuff (e.g. making up a hit on a no-shoot). I need to do a lot more dry fire working on my trigger control (sometimes I was pressing “too hard” and thus end up pulling the muzzle down). I need to work on my long-distance shooting. A lot of the shooting today was at longer distances and it’s on those I had the most trouble; most of my handgun work is defensive handgunning and thus mostly at closer distances (and those I shot fine).

Another good thing? The people. Everyone in my squad ranged from friendly to very friendly. We had a mix of old timers and n00bs like me. While the guys that knew each other certainly joked around a lot with each other, they were all willing to answer questions, help out, and just talk and have fun. It was a great attitude and great group of people. I’m sure I’ll see many of them again at future matches. This is also a good thing because of the wait factor. Having good people to talk with really helps pass the time.

So that’s all good stuff. I learned a bit about how to shoot IPSC. I learned about some things I need to work on. I had a pretty good day. I’m sure I’ll do it again.

BTW, no pictures because something strange happened with my iPhone and it lost all battery charge. Don’t know why, but I’m bummed I couldn’t get any pictures or video because the phone crapped out. Oh well, next time.