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! 

Tuesday May 26th, 2020

Summary Friday to Monday

For the past three days, Friday through Memorial Day, a group of us called each other and other dojo friends. We brainstormed: proposed ideas to each other, vetted and debated each other’s ideas, asked each other’s opinions about how to preserve the dojo community.

We originally debated whether or not we could take over the building. Three people I spoke with had estimates on the rent that more or less correlated. Keeping the building during a pandemic that could potentially drag on, however, made less and less sense. It seemed to make more sense to let the building go, but preserve the community. How to do that?

At the beginning of Friday night’s karate class, Sensei also announced he’d been planning to retire, and the pandemic accelerated his timeline for this. That was another wrinkle: even if the dojo was able to continue without a building, what would we do if Sensei retired?

What do we actually want? We want to keep the dojo community together. Lots of legal entities could be suitable: an LLC, a co-op, a club. The dojo community still needs Sensei. He’s the force that brought us together and, along with karate, binds us together. So we want Sensei. He will retire, so we do need to form a plan for the community to continue after he retires. We need his guidance through that transition.

Short-term, we want to buy time. I also believe that, if we want Sensei’s help in preserving the community, and we want his guidance through this transition, we have to make that possible for him, given all that he currently has to juggle, and we have to make it worth his while.

My first response to the dojo closing was that this was a funding issue, and you solve funding issues with funds. Summer camps are not allowed due to the pandemic. No summer camps meant a significant budget shortfall for the dojo. Families are dropping out due to their own financial issues, which is further squeezing the dojo.

I just started calling dojo people I knew, and felt them out for how they were doing financially. If one or both persons were working, I just asked, “Hey, if we could get some money together to preserve the dojo, can you help?” I asked people to call other people, or often enough, they volunteered to do so.

Everyone I called was kind and up front about their abilities. And we debated: how best to spend whatever money we collect? How can folks help who do not have funds to put in? How do we keep everyone engaged?

We held a Zoom, defined our goals, and made both a short-term and a long term plan. The plan: see if we can hire Sensei as a consultant, and get some kind of organization in place. Quick.

Thursday May 21st, 2020

Yesterday in the afternoon, Sensei sent email saying that the dojo will close June 30th. F, S and I were so sad to read this. S was about five and F seven when they started studying karate at the Y, and we joined the dojo roughly a year or less later. S is fifteen and S twelve, so we’ve been with the dojo about seven years–most of their young lives.

I plan to call the Os, a couple who are a Shodan and Ichi-kyu, for ideas. If a group of us are able to put up money to help fund the dojo for the next month or two, perhaps we could buy time until conditions improve. It is possible real help may from the government or a grant. Perhaps we could figure out a better way to fund the dojo. I don’t know how long we could afford to keep the dojo going or even if Sensei would accept such an offer.

Other small businesses are in the same situation as his. More folks, voters, will realize that we, as a community, must take action if we want to keep these small businesses alive. I’m willing to gamble that help will come if we can hang on long enough.

Sensei has not exactly been getting rich off of the dojo. He often gives children scholarships, or allows families who have lost work to pay for membership through sweat equity. I don’t know how he’d feel about accepting financial help. He has had donors put up scholarship money for students. How would it be different if the dojo members came together to keep the organization afloat?

Also, I’m reaching out to the Os because, like my daughter and me, Mrs. O had planned to test for her Shodan in August.

Wednesday May 20th, 2020

Sometimes the Way isn’t clear. But Lao Tsu says, “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent upon arriving.”

Sensei sent email to the dojo membership saying that, due to the impact of the pandemic, he cannot safely, or in a way that is financially sound, open the dojo and plans to close it permanently.

The grandparents also spoke with us about possibly moving out, but I think we talked them into staying for now. They worried about us feeling limited by their presence.

I did write for ten minutes this morning, but don’t have it in me to post it given what I know now. Yes I exercised–hoping it will keep me sane.

I didn’t know what to say to Sensei. I sent him this picture:

along with the one above. Maybe I should send him the Lao Tsu quote. How to comfort and inspire the one who normally does that for you and many others? How do you teach your teacher peace, particularly when your own heart is a turbulent ocean?

Tuesday May 19th, 2020

I’m writing during my lunch break from work. Why? My son S will receive an award from his school this evening, so I clocked in early. We don’t know what award he will receive yet. I’ll clock out at six so I will have half an hour to do exercises and get ready for his ceremony.

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats. When I do my leg stretches, my right side hurts quite a bit under my knee and in my thigh area. It hurts enough that I can’t reach for my toes without considerable pain. I stopped trying today on that side. My left side is more flexible and pain-free. I have no trouble grabbing my toes on that side.

Kitchen cleaning and sanitizing did not receive as much of my attention this morning as normal. Besides, I’m not sure I need to do it every day: none of us have had COVID-19 symptoms, so the risk of infection is coming from outside our home, and not within it. Previously, when I started cleaning religiously, I feared that I or another family member had it.

Because this week is the kids’ last week of school, they have a lot of work right now. Next week will be more mellow. D plans to have them take two days to “detox” from all the computer time. If they are invited to very many “start of summer” parties over Zoom, we may make an exception for social events.

Yesterday and today I texted Jessica. I set an alarm on my phone to remind me. I hope it helps. She appreciates it a lot and has let me know. It is such a small thing to compose a text message and send it.

This makes me wonder how other friends are faring. I think of several friends that we’re only occasionally in touch with because we all have such busy lives. At work, we planned to include the three persons furloughed in our weekly department Zoom meetings. I hope that will help them feel more in the loop. Obviously, if they are busy or don’t want to participate, they won’t.

We will miss karate class tonight in order to watch his award live, but I let Sensei know.

Monday May 18th, 2020

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats. This is the beginning of my third week on eighties.

Apex, the grey cat, just climbed into my lap. It’s raining; I let the support chair under the trampoline down, hoping it will allow the water to drain. The rain isn’t heavy. I’m not sure that helped.

One of the bags containing Sabrina’s clothes is wet, though it was in a mostly covered area. Later today I will take out her clothes and let them hang dry, just to be on the safe side. Her large sunhat is on top, and that may have actually protected the clothing.

Today I should run, text Jessica and send email to work that I need to shift my hours tomorrow. B will be in a school awards ceremony. It will be interesting to see what format they use: Zoom, YouTube, Google. We plan to watch as a family in the grandparents’ study. They have a large television.

Mondays are more difficult, regarding exercises. Once I get through push-ups, the rest feel more do-able. Starting–that moment of hesitation that I need to get past–feels challenging. Now I try to just start and trust I’ll get through push-ups. For squats, today, I “recognized” each of the next two numbers corresponding to the two next sets while counting the current set. So while I’m counting my “ich” set, I think “Ni -punches, San – regular” as I count. Then while squatting and punching for the “Ni” set, I think “San – regular,” “Shi – punches.” I lost concentration during my last set of punching squats, and executed some sloppy punches, but then pulled it back together.

I am still doing stretches on the book case. My right side is quite sore and far less flexible than my left side. I worry that I may have injured it. It gives me a lot of pain during that stretch now.

I’m running late for work and need to wrap up.

Sunday May 17th, 2020

F has had a busy social life via Zoom today: Color Guard met; she’s currently playing games on-line for a friend’s birthday party, and she had calls with Dungeons & Dragons friends as well.

S had Religious School over Zoom, too. It should have been two hours, starting today, but we overslept. He still got in and was there for about an hour and a half. But that’s okay: during the first half hour, they experienced technical issues due to changes on Zoom’s end. However, the Rabbi’s son helped work out the kinks and they were up and running by 11 am. So basically, B missed the tech drama.

I also had a busy social life today, primarily involving the front yard. Jessica came over to garden. We talked through the living room window. She said it’s hard to live alone, particularly now. We agreed I’d text once a day, just to check in and make sure she’s okay. She is in her early sixties, and healthy, but it doesn’t hurt to have someone checking up on her regularly. If I get into the habit of doing it at the same time every day, I’ll remember.

Sabrina came by to drop off stuff for us to store. She moved her flight home to tomorrow. The amount of things we are storing for her really isn’t a lot. I have not yet tried to find places for her things in the house, but I’m not concerned about the space.

Sabrina and I talked for a while about work, her return home, and the two food trucks that pulled up in front of her house (the place where she rents.) One was an ice cream truck and the other, a Prosecco truck. She wanted both. People flocked to both trucks, however, and bunched together. They seemed to forget themselves and social distancing. They stood too close. When some of them received their ice cream, they removed their masks to eat it, without backing away from everyone else. Sabrina worried folks were unsafe; she called the police. They sent an officer over to remind people to abide by social distancing standards.

It’s difficult. We all miss life before the virus.

Sabrina felt dizzy while talking to me outside. She stood in the sidewalk, in the sun, and I was up in the driveway closer to the front door. I fetched her a thermos with ice water and a bleached wipe-y. I left those in the driveway, so she could get it. She was dehydrated and finished the ice water. I brought her a second one. She forgets to drink enough. That is one thing about life in LA that she is still adjusting to: it is much easier to get dehydrated here. By the time she left, I gave her a third glass to drink on the road.

Speaking of dehydrating, I pureed a bunch of loquats, put them in a veggie dryer and made fruit leather. It tastes good!

Tomorrow, back to karate exercises and running on the treadmill.

Friday May 15th, 2020

I may have work for at least another two weeks. Our head visual effects supervisor, who also leads our business unit, said everyone will have two weeks’ notice.

Yesterday morning, I thought I would have a lot of data entry to do during my lunch break. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Only about eight parents responded to the email I sent out requesting contact information to hold Religious School over Zoom. I will have to scour my emails and meeting notes for contact information. That will take a while and is a much bigger job than transferring data from email to a spreadsheet.

This morning, I woke up thinking about solutions for this problem. I came up with a few different ideas for how to approach the problem. Later today, I’ll call the Rabbi.

We could email all the classroom Zoom meetings to all the parents for whom I only have email addresses. Or we could setup a “triage” Zoom session for any one not already contacted by their child’s teacher. Based on their child’s age or grade, I’d direct them to the proper Zoom class session.

Another option would be to send out the teachers’ email addresses to the parents, and tell them they have to contact their child’s teacher directly in order to participate.

One thing I know for sure: I am the worst secretary ever: not organized unless I’m forced to be, resentful of tedious tasks and bad with names. If I were not a volunteer, I would be so fired!

Maybe for the fall, I’ll write a PySide widget as a standalone and have people do actual “computer” registration, rather than our usual paper-based registration. The widget could send email to a Temple email address. I’d write a second widget to receive the emails, collate them into a list and generate a spreadsheet. It could also generate a tab-delineated text version that could be imported into any spreadsheet program. But basically, have it all digital up front. I could setup a little database system that is super-simple and compatible with whatever other programs they have, but it could operate all on its own. I can make a table widget, that’s editable, that could display the data, too. And the Temple would own the code itself.

Oh, and I forgot the purpose of this blog: I did do push-ups, sit-ups and squats both yesterday after work, and this morning. I am a responsible karateka; if only I could convince everyone at the Temple to substitute push-ups for, say, challah or sit-ups for all those cookies the Sisterhood provides, or squats instead of watered down grape juice. We could count in Hebrew as we exercise! Then Japanese! Then, because we do live in Southern California, Spanish! We’d be fit, trilingual and versed in Judaism!

Saturday May 16th, 2020

It’s late, 10pm, but I’m finally getting in my ten minute write. We had karate last night and K, a ten year old ichi kyu, lead kihon and taught a bo-staff kata. He is an intense, intelligent and quiet young person; he did a great job. When he started the bo staff instruction, I hurried out to find bo staffs for the kids. I thought we had three, but I only found one. I initially came out with a smaller staff, a wooden sword and F’s bo staff. S fetched his. I practiced with a broom stick (witch that I am.:-) It was fun.

After class, I did sixty chest-style push-ups quickly in the clover, and threw in twenty “tricep” push-ups on my knees. Squats went ok, but sit-ups on the concrete patio were hard.

This morning, Senpai N lead kihon, then K did his exercises and kata walk. S and I participated. F lurked on the side, off camera, for K’s promotion. K did great, particularly given he had to do it all over Zoom with us on speaker. Also, doing the walk following exercises is no easy feat. He had a great attitude, and quickly absorbed and incorporated any notes given by Sensei or the Senpais. By the end of the morning class, Sensei awarded K his junior shodan virtually.

Sensei wanted us to participate in giving notes. At one point, S and I suggested watching stances, or keeping his guard up, merrily participating, then I realized we were muted. I did not know how long we’d been muted.

After class, I called my sister while walking on the treadmill. I used an incline of sixty percent and walked for an hour. We talked nearly two hours. It had been a while since we talked, so we had a lot to get caught up on. She may be able to apply for Medicaid this summer; often, many of her child clients take the summer off from therapy. If this summer is typical, and we expect it will be worse because of the pandemic, her income may drop to the level where she qualifies. At least then she will have some protection from being bankrupted if she contracts this illness.

Thursday May 14th, 2020

It’s Virtual Friday, since we are on four day weeks at work. Starting this Monday, the company will furlough half our team in character effects. Only our lead, and two of us who write a lot of tools, will be kept for now. Without work, however, we are unsure how long the company can keep any of us.

Yesterday I ran for twenty minutes while listening to the Two Dope Queens podcast. After work, on the balcony, I got in my evening exercises. Push-ups, even outdoors, were still difficult. I did notice that our lemon tree, which has been less productive lately, did have two lemons.

During lunch today, I will need to do list collating for the Temple. Well, that will make relaxing this evening all the more fun. I do need to think about the fact that this will be an extra hour of sitting at the computer. Sitting on an exercise ball instead of in a chair should help me stay a bit more fit and comfortable.

I will miss taking a walk and calling a friend or relative. I usually do that during my free lunch periods. Between my new lunchtime run, and kids borrowing my cell for school assignments, and chores, I have walked around our neighborhood less in the past couple weeks. Funny, I cannot remember any longer what I did during my lunch break on Tuesday.

Well, this is turning into a giant dump of all the little things on my “to-do” list. Sensei said what needs to be done, will be done. He’s right.

Last night, I put up a back log day from April. On that day, I wrote about my sister not having health insurance, but still being asked by her employer to come into the office. That’s not a small worry. That’s a big worry. I should talk to her again about health insurance.

Wednesday May 13th, 2020

We had karate class over Zoom last night. Sensei had P lead class, and he gave us a good workout. At the end, Sensei left us with these words of wisdom: it’s not the big victories in life that matter, but the small ones. When you get the big ones: a promotion, a degree, a belt, etc., of course you are happy. But all of the little victories, the small accomplishments, lead to the big ones. They are the foundation.

During class, I snuck in most of my push-ups while the class planked. After class, I did sit-ups and squats. I also did exercises this morning. I found I could get the Japanese count right if I recognized the next “ten” count to come during the previous one. For sit-ups, I “visualize” each set of exercises, regular sit-ups, diagonal abs, toe-touches, or bicycles, before starting and “link” these to their number. Sit-ups are more difficult lately, anyway.

I sent out a call to our Temple’s religious school families during my lunch break yesterday for their contact information, so I can collate it for the Rabbi. I’d been trying to avoid a bunch of data entry. Hopefully, I can structure the email responses into a document that I can then import into a spreadsheet. I’ll send the spreadsheet to the Rabbi and other teachers. He sent me email last night, eager for the information.

I also need to check in with Sensei again regarding this website and joining his Facebook group. Of course, the site of an adorable baby video greeted me immediately upon logging into D’s second Facebook account. Watching that baby video, I can understand how easy it could be to get addicted to Facebook.