Author: an Ichi Kyu

I study Kyokushin karate at a dojo in Burbank. I don't yet have permission to say more than this about my dojo. I am also a mother of two, both of whom have studied Kyokushin karate a year longer than I. They are instructors! My husband created the art posted on this site. I have his permission to use it, but he expressly asked me not to credit him as the artist. He's moved on to other styles, and doesn't particularly want a public association with this piece. I love this artwork, personally. And me? I work full time as a cloth and hair simulation artist, as well as a python coder, in the visual effects industry. I have roughly sixteen years experience in film and about four in television. I am 50; I suppose my decision to attempt the black belt test, along with creating this blog, represents my mid-life crisis. Wish me luck! 

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020

I’m a little bit discombobulated because kids woke my husband and me up at 6:30am. They asked what to do about the neighbors’ broken sprinkler jetting water into the sky. F said it was like a fountain, shooting up and into the street.

There was an earthquake last night, too, a small one: 3.7 in Englewood.

My children and I set up the computer on the back patio; we participated in karate class outdoors via Zoom. That was cool: our yard is still wild, even with the bit of laundry hanging about in an attempt at domestication. We practiced karate with trees as our backdrop and the night insects as our audience. Senpai Peter led most of Kihon and did a good job. Sensei offered corrections on the direction of yoko keage: Janice’s was too straight to the side and mine was too much at an angle.

S and I kept F in the center again. Though we were tired after class, we were not overheated, as we had been while doing Kihon in the upstairs bedroom. During class last night, we also did kiaias as quiet, more gutteral “shi-ahs” so we would not disturb the neighbors. Sensei taught the class this new kiai style, saying it was a kiai for advanced karateka: practitioners who know how to avoid conflict with neighbors and family during a pandemic!

It was great to see so many kids and adults on-line, taking part in the class.

Afterwards, I did my exercises on the patio: chest push-ups on the concrete and tricep push-ups in the overgrown clover. During squats, I punched at a tall dandelion; it was practically at my chest. I used the plant for targeting. My goal was to deliver punches fast enough and close enough to move it with air, but not actually hit it. Move it I did! I rushed through sit-ups and yes, did fetch a yoga matte for those.

Six minutes left before I need to login to work!

Tuesday April 21st, 2020

I write this diary in pen in a notebook in the morning and type it it into this site at night.

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats, with ten push-ups on my knees as extras, so sixty on my toes and ten on my knees, and seventy for squats and push-ups.

Aunt Karen’s son brought her home from the emergency room, but she went to her apartment and not back to the nursing home. We were glad to hear it, but still worried about her. One of her sons will look in on her.

Even though she still needs care, going back to the nursing home was not an option. Her doctors have not yet confirmed COVID-19, but it’s still a possibility, so for her sake and for the other nursing home patients, she can’t return. Wow–what a conundrum.

Karen told Richard she’d gotten to know a woman down the hall recently. Suddenly that woman was gone. Karen’s son told Richard that both rooms on either side of hers Karen’s were empty and the nursing staff would not say what happened to Karen’s former neighbors. Hopefully they are also alive and in their own homes with family, like Karen.

Goals today: it’s Tuesday, so we have Kihon as soon as work is done. I plan to change into my gi during lunch. Our class start time has moved thirty minutes up to 7pm. This makes sense for the kids in attendance, including mine.

I still need to email Sensei about this site and join his Facebook group. Ah Facebook.

Every morning, I wipe down the counters, table and other frequently used surfaces, including light switches, door knobs, fan controllers, etc., with a super-diluted bleach solution, then leave these surfaces to air dry.

In the kitchen, I pick one area to clean thoroughly. This morning, I tackled the expresso machine area and, because I wanted coffee, was rather impatient for it to dry. I grabbed a magazine fanned it.

Suddenly I remembered fanning aloe on the bright red skin of a sunburnt child after a trip to the beach. F always loved the ocean and a few times we stayed too long. That first time I brought her home after staying out too long, she was so red. I felt such guilt. Will she end up with skin cancer at my age? It has afflicted more than one person in my family.

My son is more fair, and has gotten sunburned a time or two, but with the second child, you figure out better methods. I bought him rash guards and slathered him opaque with sunscreen. F doesn’t like rash guards or sunscreen but will “humor” me, at least until she thinks I’m not paying attention. Then she pulls off the rash guard and runs back into the ocean, thinking I won’t notice. Sometimes I pretend not to. We miss the sand and surf.

Monday April 20th, 2020

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats this morning. After 60 push-ups, I huffed and puffed, but pushed myself to do ten more on my knees. Seventy squats often tire me out as well. During squats, I alternate sets with punches with regular sets. Ab exercises do not make me quite as tired, but they are starting to.

My father-in-law’s sister Karen is staying in a nursing home in New Jersey after she fell and broke her knee-cap. Recently, she’s had a fever of 100 and some shortness of breath. Karen’s son called last night to say they were taking her to the emergency room. They worry she has COVID-19. She is older than Richard, my father-in-law, and he’s 81. We hope she will be okay.

That reminds me to call Shannon tonight and see how she’s doing. Shannon is my age and in good health. Her husband is sharp, so if he is not sick, he’ll take her to a hospital if she takes a turn for the worse. Calling or texting to check in with her will put my mind more at ease.

Today I plan to run on the treadmill for twenty minutes and do my second set of exercises. Those are my goals, besides working and updating this website with this entry, and one further back in time. Sometime this week, I want to figure out how to get the posts to show up in the order I want them–by the date in the title and not the timestamp in which they get entered as posts.

How much of this journal will actually be interesting to people?

While writing outside, I hear birds, an occasional wind chime and the trash truck: picking up cans, brightening the lives of many a toddler. I remember taking first Rebecca then Joey out to watch the trash truck. I remember running down the sidewalk with both kids so they could watch it pick up one more can.

In ten minutes, I will clock into work on-line, but first I want to get dressed.

Sunday April 19th, 2020

Current Log

I’m sitting outside and it’s almost six pm. The birds are singing. I did not do any exercises or run on the treadmill, but did polish off five loads of laundry, changed the sheets on two kids’ beds, cleaned the kitchen floor and did yard work. I did recruit my son to help with the floor and laundry, while my daughter is cooking the main course for the six of us for dinner tonight.

Normally on Sundays, I call my sister or a friend, but I didn’t feel up to calling anyone today. I had odd dreams about work, and woke up at least twice during the night feeling either too hot or too cold. My friend Shannon is sick late last week and worried she has COVID-19. Her symptoms are so similar to an illness D and I had nearly three weeks ago: body temperature fluctuations, low-grade fever, sore throat and fatigue.

Jessica, the neighbor who once lived across the street, came over to check on her plants. When she moved a couple months back, I offered to keep many of the plants that she could not take with her to her apartment, and we also set aside part of our front yard as a garden area she could use. One of her succulents has a spectacular large pink bloom, and she took photos of it. She texted before arriving so we could stay indoors.

Both my mother and father-in-law, who live with us, wanted to say “hi” to Jessica, and did. Miriam, my mother-in-law, remembering the conflict we had had with our next door neighbors Beth and Lawrence over one of Jessica’s visits, insisted that it was “unreasonable” for them to expect to control who we see and talk to.

I won’t go into the conflict too deeply, but it was at the very beginning of the pandemic. The mayor had just issued the order to close restaurants, bars and schools. Some businesses were still open.

Jessica came to our front yard that day to check on her plants and get in a bit of gardening. I went outside with her. I was trying to keep my distance, but it’s possible I forgot or wasn’t paying close enough attention. We were gardening and chatting away. Beth, the neighbor, yelled from the window to Jessica that she was endangering our family and should leave. She also yelled at me for “enabling” Jessica.

Jessica, upset, left. I texted with Beth’s husband Lawrence several times over the incident. Honestly, in retrospect, I believe they were concerned about all of our well-being. At the time, it felt like an over-reaction, but given all the fear that people had and still have regarding this virus, I can’t say I still view that behavior as out of line now. Yes, I did not like it, since I and another good friend were targets. Lawrence and Beth are also old friends; they were afraid for our well-being and theirs.

Miriam is tired of hearing from all of us how she needs to limit her contact with others. Her sudden anger, directed at our neighbor, reveals her frustration at how limited we all are during this pandemic. She and her husband, due to their age and health concerns, are more limited than the rest of us. They and the kids have really felt the loss of their social circles and activities outside the home.

Under normal circumstances, D doesn’t get out a lot except for errands, appointments and chores. For me, it’s similar: I have to work, run errands or volunteer for some function. D and I are actually enjoying being at home more. We and the kids are less sleep-deprived. The kids and grandparents feel more limited, while D and I feel freed from our usual obligations.

Saturday April 18th, 2020

Current Log

Last night I was late for karate class, but managed to enter the Zoom class while kihon was still running. Sensei asked me to lead and call blocks as soon as I was in the class. Both kids were feeling tired and didn’t join, so it was just me, in our bedroom, and this laptop.

Sensei rotated between students to call the kihon exercises, so luckily I did not need to call kicks. He had us do an increasing number of push-ups, sit-ups and squats between blocks of exercises, too. “Go as fast as you can! Thirteen push-ups, sit-ups and squats, now!” he instructed. The number he called increased by one or two each time. We ended with a set of twenty.

I managed to stay on my toes for these and usually did “tricep-style” push-ups, in which you focus on bending your elbows under your body to work your triceps, rather than “out,” as in a traditional push-up, which works more your chest. I did switch to chest for one or two sets. If we made it to seventy total, I don’t know, but we did more than sixty. So I was in the neighborhood of the requirement for my Friday evening set. I was out of breath by the end of the workout.

I’m writing outside and I keep hearing this low hum, like a giant bee or a weed-wacker that is more quiet than usual. I’m pretty sure it’s a humming bird. They like our lemon tree.

Well, back to karate. I got up the ichi-kyu-diary website homepage, introduction and privacy policy. WordPress has you do some kind of “what-we-do-with-your-info” pages and they provide you with a canned version that you can customize, so I kept theirs with some modifications. I have two versions of my partner’s mural up, and the header image display for this website is supposed to randomly change between the two. However, I think it does the switch for the entire site and not on a per-page basis, as I’d prefer. One day I need to delve into the design side of blogging and add flexibility to the site. They do have a calendar widget, which could be pretty useful as a way to link daily blogs.

My daughter, F, read what I had posted yesterday evening. She was my editor. I also found a fabulous work of art that she’d made, and I want to put that up, but I should ask her. I’d like to one day have a little art gallery attached to the site.

AP, a good friend, co-worker and amazing artist, who creates sculpture, paintings and photography, in addition to working in visual effects, has put a lot of work into her site and it’s really cool.

So today, here are my goals: jog on the treadmill for twenty minutes, put this entry up on the website as the first actual log, and drop off a cake to C with F. Because it’s Saturday, I have off from doing the exercises (push-ups, sit-ups and squats) but not cardio. Running this past week has helped. The scale says 107 and last week I was 109 in the morning. I’m trying to check at the same time once a week. Also, I’m not indulging in quite as many sweets.

And F also has a goal: it’s C’s birthday. She made her a cake. We plan to drop it off at her house. Maybe I should text her parents and find out if they want us to leave it some place in particular. C is one of F’s closest friends, and her family usually throws the best parties. C is also a great kid.

Introduction: ichi kyu to shodan

Masutatsu Ōyama opened his dojo in 1953 in Tokyo, and established his own style, Kyokushin, which spread through both Japan and the world.

What’s an ichi kyu? In American Kyokushin karate, students of karate track their progress by wearing colored belts. These colored belts are called the “kyu” ranks; the ichi kyu is designated by a brown stripe, and it’s one rank below black belt. That sounds pretty fancy! In our style, reaching ichi kyu level can take anywhere from four to seven years, depending on how fit and flexible you are when you start, but also how much free time you have for practice and class attendance!

What’s a shodan? A recipient of a shodan, or black belt , is considered “competent” in karate.

Reaching competency

Passing from an ichi kyu to shodan is basically graduating to a level in which you are considered competent in our style. For us, this means you can teach kyu ranks.

Currently, both my teenaged children and I have received our shodans and have helped, in various capacities, to keep our small but mighty karate organization running, through and after the pandemic. We recently applied status as a 501c(7), so we are official!

The older blog entries record my journey from ichi kyu rank, through my shodan test and into my first year as a teacher.

I’m hoping to slowly change over the format of this blog to be more useful to our small karate group.

Friday April 17th, 2020

Daily Log: the back log

I’m writing outside. It’s cool and cloudy. It had been sunny and beautiful for the past several days, while I’d been working. After a very Biblical-feeling seven year drought in Southern California, cloudy days are beautiful days, too. Water falling from the sky is miraculous, cloud-cover and water will heal the scorched earth–it’s good on a free Friday. And will inspire me to get to work on my website.

So exercises: I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats last night and this morning. Did better with Japanese counting during the squats but botched it during sit-ups. I was trying to do a variety of ab exercises since I had seventy to get through and it is at the end of the week. To work my arms better, I am still throwing in ten extra push-ups on my knees.

My goal for push-ups for the black belt test is sixty solid knuckle push-ups on the ground, if need be. Well, dirt would be softer, at least in my back yard, than the Pergo floor. Pergo is this smooth, fake wood stuff. It’s pretty and easy to clean, but less easy on the knuckles than a yoga matte. Sensei wants me to challenge myself. It’s challenging.

I will soon be through Cixin Liu’s short story collection and will then hopefully get back to working on my own book. Ending and shaping the second one in the series and getting it out there would be great. Pick a meaningful, big event in the story and call that the end: that’s what I can do. I’m just not sure exactly where; I had ideas and now I’m doubting them.

I also asked F to to read the earlier draft of my first book, which is only four chapters where the current draft actually ends, and see if she likes the faster-paced original better. One of my DWA friends, CM, liked the original better than the current draft. I am just thinking through what to do with the current draft.

And my timer went off. (Every day, I time these writings. I usually stick to ten minutes.

Thursday, April 16th, 2020

Daily Log: the back log

This morning and yesterday evening I did my sets of push-ups, sit-ups and squats. During lunch yesterday, I ran on the treadmill for twenty minutes, with ten minutes walking. That last set of exercises yesterday evening was tough to get through.

My body must be starting to adjust to the extra exercise. Also, we had a good kihon the night before. Hopefully it will not take too long to get back into shape.

I did not realize that my activity had taken such a nosedive until I got on the scale and saw the evidence last week. If I can keep up the lunchtime cardio, once things go back to normal, that will help towards the black belt test.

Sensei has setup a Facebook page for black belts and brown-stripes. I do not want to join Facebook. Setting up a junk account and joining with that is perhaps the way to go. If D, my husband, could allow me to use his dormant account, but he didn’t like the idea.

Sabrina, a friend from work in her early twenties, told me she gets around security issues by creating a couple “fake” selves who live in different places and have different jobs, but are similar to her “real” self, in order to spoof anyone with nefarious intent. I don’t know if I want to go to that much trouble.

Given all the drama I’ve heard from friends and relatives over Facebook, I’m glad not to be a part of it. Maybe I’ll join with a fake identity, but let Sensei know who I am.

But it’s “virtual” Friday, because I have tomorrow off work. So I should do my best and worry about these issues at another time. I need to make a healthy breakfast and get in one more day. Today, I should walk during lunch and call someone fun, like Eliza. I dreamed about Shannon. I should check up on her.

Wednesday April 15th, 2020

The Back Log

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats last night and this morning. We also had a Kihon class via Zoom with Sensei yesterday evening. That was nice. So 15 of my push-ups, sit-ups and squats for the evening happened during class, then I did 45 afterwards (that’s 30 on the floor plus 15 on the thick exercise matte.)

Sensei had us do Kihon exercises in sets of 3 moves with a more quiet “shi-shi-shi” as our kiai. Those were challenging. Daughter F, my son B and I were pooped when Kihon was done. We kept F in the middle because she has such perfect form, or at least beautiful form. I may not be the judge of perfect, but I definitely know beautiful.

Sensei ended the class with a couple simple Tai Chi exercises. He practices these in the morning to center himself. I like the symbolism: pulling down energy from the sky, stars and universe, then lifting up good energy from the Earth to your heart, so you will be grounded. Finally, bringing that Earth-heart energy to your own Chi, where you combine it with that sky energy you previously brought into your Chi. Through you, by way of your heart, Earth and sky mix.

He had us feel the heat between our hands, which is particularly strong after exercising. Sensei demonstrated stretching that heat–our Chis–first left and right, on the diagonals, up and down, expanding oneself. He also instructed us to reach behind to gather up all our intentions and things things left undone, and bring those forward to combine with our Chis. “Resolve that what needs to be done will be done,” he said.

That’s my timer. Richard, my father-in-law, came down and we had a nice talk about radio waves.

I skipped my usual leg stretch on the bookcase. What’s one stretch?

Tuesday April 14th, 2020

The Back Log

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats last night and this morning. Last night, I managed to stay up on my toes for sixty (“tricep” thirty, “chest” thirty) and did a few extras. This morning, I did ten more “tricep” push-ups on my knees. I botched the Japanese count, however, because I listened too intently to the kids’ chatter.

They joked about a picture in F’s Spanish textbook: a cartoon of an older man named Jorge, riding a bicycle.

“He’s happy about everything!” chuckled F.

“Well, you need to be, when you’re seventy. You don’t have much time left!” I said, after they showed me the illustration. It was a silly picture.

Granted, what I said wasn’t exactly true: we may have a lot to worry about at seventy. Ideally we’ve learned what’s worth worrying about and what’s not. Wisdom has got to creep in sometime. Seventy seems like a good time for it.

(So weird: while I typed this entry into the site, we had a small earth quake. I kept typing. It didn’t feel like a large one but the sound was eerie.)

I spent thirty minutes on the treadmill: five minute walk to warm-up, twenty minutes jogging and five minutes walking to cool down. I listened to “Two Dope Queens.” They interviewed Michelle Obama. She’s down to earth. She talked about empowering girls around the globe and hair care. It gives you a glimpse into the lives of others: what’s different and what’s similar. Hair talk is fun.

A power plant had an explosion in Burbank over the weekend. Our IT folks had to go into our building and reboot all the workstations. They work hard.

While working from home, we finish shots, but it takes longer and the supervisors’ expectations are a moving target. At times it’s frustrating. I have been trying to let go of whatever expectations I have had regarding what my job should be, including the expectations laid out when I started, and just do the best that I can with what it actually is.

This company pays me by the hour. I do –or will–decide –whether or not I want to keep doing this job long term. For now, I remind myself that I have control over my own fate. My coworkers and I are lucky: we have jobs and we are able to work from home. Many of our friends, family members and neighbors are not working, or their jobs put them in danger of contracting the virus. This is not the case for my coworkers and me.

Somehow my timer didn’t start. I am outside and the birds are singing. And I have eight minutes to get dressed and clock in.