Run this morning and fishing at the local pond

This morning, as my clothes were washing, I had a 38 minute run up and then back down a small hill just on North side of Highway 50. I wore two socks on my left ankle, which surprisingly helped stabilize my left ankle on this run. I am slowly working up to an hour run at a time. Tomorrow after Aikido class, I plan on taking my running shorts and shoes and run some of the trails behind the college.

During the dry cycle, I drove to the local pond where Dad and I had great luck but the last time I was skunked. After watching a couple of trout follow my panther martin but not strikes, I tried fishing with Salmon eggs off the bottom of the pond, but I believe it is too mossy already. I then followed the lead of a family who were fishing with worms and floats, I caught a nice 7 inch trout with Salmon egg and a float of my own. I caught and released and then fished for a couple more minutes. As as I leaving, I took this photo of pond, facing North-east towards Tomichi Dome.


The second photo is towards the W and catches the family who was fishing with their children.

Summer Aikido Flier

I just completed the following flier for this summer's Aikido class. I used a photo of Jake and I and then used Photoshop to create the background image. Here is a jpg of the flier:

I'll go ahead and print and post these fliers tomorrow around campus. I also sent in the final payment for Aikido Summer Camp in Rockies. I just talked to Jim and he won't be able to make tomorrow's class either so although I am going over to Escalante today in case anyone shows up (I doubt if they will) but hopefully by next Monday, the word will be out and more people may show up.

Tomichi Informatics LLC

Well, for a while I have been meaning to create a legal entity that will allow me to start offering consulting and programming services outside the library. There are a couple of local opportunities but I didn't have the legal structure to pursue any of them. I have been looking for a name for my own information consulting firm (when I lived in Illinois, I had a small corporation [defunct since 2003] called inhinc, I still have the domain registered at http://www.inhinc.net/). I wanted a name that reflected my home here in Gunnison and I after a while, I settled on Tomichi (I believe in Ute it translates as "Hot Water") after Tomichi Dome and Tomichi creek, as well as a major street in Gunnison. Initially I wanted to use "Informatica" but when it translated from Italian to English as "Informatics", I decided to go with informatics was easier to explain and as Wikipedia helpfully states as "Informatics studies the structure, algorithms, behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process, access and communicate information."1 which nicely sums up the type of knowledge and services I want to provide to the clients of Tomichi Informatics LLC.

Today I registered Tomichi Informatics LLC as a limited liability corporation with the Colorado Security of State Office's website and registered tomichiinformatics.com and tomichiinformatics.net domain names. I'll be hosting tomichiinformatics.com through Google and work on getting some content hosted there along with some marketing material and work blog (I would like to keep this blog for more personal posts, the work blog will focus more on technology and professional development)

I am not teaching Aikido tonight as Jim is not able to make it to class. We are planning on meeting tomorrow, Thursday May 28th at 4:45 for class at Escalante Fitness Center.

Running, rain, and no Aikido

This weekend I decided to go running Saturday, Sunday, and today. I had to wait out the weather as it rained off and on for the most of all three days. I hadn't ran for a week so Saturday's run for 20 minutes was harder than my normal runs. I increased the time for Sunday's run to 30 minutes. On a side-note, Sunday morning I went to the fishing pond Dad and I went on last Sunday, not a single trout bite the entire forty minutes while I was there fishing!

Today I ran for 40 minutes, my longest run to date, and after I was back at my cabin, it started raining again.

I am working at the Library until we close at 8:00 p.m. because of the high-demand for library services on the Memorial Day holiday (not a very subtle joke). The Escalante Fitness Center is closed so I am not teaching Aikido today. I talked to Jim yesterday so he knows. I still need to get out Aikido fliers for this Summer class.

Aikido for 05/20/2009

Last night after Jim and I warmed up with some forward and backward ukemi, we practice four different but related kokyunages.

My Rodeo is in the shop so I am riding my bike around town. After class, I rode home in the rain.

Aikido for 05/18/2009

The first Aikido summer class started a few minutes after 4:45 as I had to purchase a summer pass at Escalante Fitness Center. Jim was already ready to start practice and after bowing in, we went through the warm-up and then I introduced happo-undo (eight-way) exercise. We then practiced shomenuchi iriminage, first going through the most basic iriminage and then I introduced a variation for us to practice.

The next class will be Wednesday from 4:45 to 5:45. I am working on a summer class flier to post up around campus. I may post an item to a local Western State College e-mail list serve. I want to be creative with marketing this class to build towards a better fall term Aikido class.

Fishing with Dad at Needlecreek Reservoir

Dad came up to Gunnison on Friday night and then on Saturday morning we decided to drive to Needlecreek Reservoir. The reservoir opened up on Thursday so we were excited about fishing the lake. When we got to the lake, I took this photo of Dad.


I started fishing along the South-east edge of the lake to my usual fishing spot and I took a photo of a guy floating by and fishing. I was skunked at this spot so I decided to walk along the lake to my second fishing spot on the lake. Here is a photo of part of the path through these aspen trees.


I caught two fish at my usual spot while one fish got away. I kept both fish and I also took this photo of a butterfly that was keeping me company.

As the afternoon continued, I walked to a different spot further down the lake and took this final photo.

I caught a small trout that I released back to the lake. Dad and I drove back and cooked a nice trout dinner. Sunday morning we went to a local pond and quickly caught our limit. I was fishing catch-and-release with a panther-martin and then Dad and I went for breakfast. I had a great weekend with my father and started the summer fishing season with a great success.

Back from Angie's Graduation, prep for weekend visit

My youngest sister Angie graduate from Palisade High School Tuesday night. I drove to Grand Junction that morning and spent the day visiting my family. At Angie's graduation, I sat with my dad and afterwards, all seven of us kids along with Aura, Emie, Alexis, Keegan, and Adalaide all visited. My near 90 year-old grandma was there along with my mothe, Randy (her husband) had to work. We then went over to grandma for pie and ice cream and I had a great visit with my family. My camera froze half-close so I wasn't able to get any photos. My dad and brother Jesse are planning to come up from Grand Junction for a weekend of fishing on Friday. Jesse may stay for a week or so.

This week Escalante Fitness Center is closed so no Aikido until next Monday at 4:45 to 5:45.

Aikido for 05/09/2009

After attending Western's graduation this morning (Governor Ritter gave a good speech, personalized to Western and the people here), I came home and then went to the Gunnison Community Center for the final Aikido class with Jake.

After warming-up and doing some forward and backward ukemi, I got out my jo and we practiced jo-tori (jo techniques where uke grabs the jo and nage uses the jo to do a technique to uke), from katatetori and morotetori grabs with mostly kokyunages. With the jo it is easy to extend and throw uke, I also had us work on katenage and iriminage throws. After working with the jo for fifteen minutes, I put away the jo and we worked open-hand trying to replicate the same movements as we did with the jo.

We then worked on the five bokken katas and then I turned the class over to Jake to teach. Jake has talked about teaching Aikido this summer, so during his half hour, we first worked on katatetori pull attack to a kokyunage throw, the second katatetori with the other hand going for a punch to shihonage throw and pin. Jake then had us to a very interesting exercise where uke would tsuki acting in one of two roles: a drunk best friend who just takes a swing at you and a committed attacker who wishes deadly harm. Nage needed to respond in a soft way with the best friend and the committed attacker was more a hard response. I started off as uke and really attacked Jake as the committed attacker with a load kaia (a sharp yell as you attacked focuses and increases the realism of the attack) and committed punch.

After going back and forth, we ended the class with each of us being nage and uke for two minutes each. I was uke first and the attacks went well and Jake responded well, at the end I was nage for the final two minutes and after this intense Aikido practice, I was running on empty by the end and Jake caught me in a head-lock at one point before I found a sankyo that pinned him quickly to the ground. I wasn't able to much more when he was the committed attacker other than that sankyo, most of the time I just threw him with a kokyunage. The ideal of Aikido would be that your technique should not be different for either type of uke, being kind and compassionate regardless of uke's intent. From Jake's class, I have a long ways to go in my own Aikido.

Good practice today and I am going to miss practicing Aikido with Jake.

Run this evening...

I just finished a half-hour run, I ran past the house where I used to rent a room on Vulcan. I saw a professor I knew on the run. My right leg didn't bother me and I felt better throughout the run than my Tuesday run. I am planning to run tomorrow and Saturday I planning on attending Western's graduation at 10 and then teach Aikido at 2:00.

Aikido for 05/06/2009

Tonight was the last Aikido class of the term. Jake, Jim, and I started class with the usual warm-up. I introduced a new ukemi for us to practice, basically a side ukemi that develops easily enough into a full break-fall. We then practiced the following techniques:

• katatedori shihonage omote and ura
• katatedori hijinage - I had Jake take some photos of Jim and I doing this technique

The first step is to slide off the line and atemi (strike) to the face. This photo captures the moment when I slide my right foot off the line while my right hand goes for a distracting atemi to Jim's face.

In this second photo, my right hand has gone over Jim's arm while my left hand breaks free from his grip and comes over for the beginning of the nikkyo-style pin.
while I step behind uke for the full pin.

In this last photo, I am about to bring Jim fully to the ground for the pin. This is a quick technique and the pin can vicious and dangerous to uke if nage is not mindful of the power of the technique.

For the last twenty minutes of class and inspired by the tradition of my old dojo in Urbana, Illinois, Jim and I threw Jake a total of eight times each. Jim and I then attack Jake for a three minute randori. Finally, Jake did another randori with his eyes closed while Jim and I slowly attacked.

After class, all three of us met up at the Blue Iguana for a late dinner and a beer. Joey joined us of this end-of-term mini-party to celebrate as good year of Aikido and to thank Jake for all of his support and practice. I am sad that Jake is leaving but the one of the great things about Aikido is that you often meet up with old friends at seminars or when visiting other dojos when traveling.

Run this morning

I just got back from a 40 minute work-out that was a run down to the river and back. On my run on Sunday, I overused my right leg, causing pain to shoot up and down my right side. For the first twenty minutes of my run today, my right side felt fine, as I was coming back, my right side started hurting so I switched to a run/walk pace until I could get back to my cabin. I don't know what is causing this pain but I am encouraged that the pain took longer to occur and now after taking a shower and eating, I don't feel much pain at all. I'll continue to monitor how I feel but I want to continue to run and exercise. I am planning my next run for Thursday.

Aikido for 05/04/2009

Jake and I practiced alone and we worked on the following techniques:

• yokomenuchi and shomenuchi sankyo omote and ura
• yokomenuchi and shomenuchi yonkyo omote
• tsuki kotegaeshi
  
• tsuki sankyo

We then did some free-style practice where nage closed his eyes and uke first attacked 8 times with any grab attack and nage could do any technique. The second round we worked on yokomenuchi and shomenuchi strikes. The final round were ushiro attacks by uke with nage still keeping his eyes shut. This training forces me to extend my focus not through my eyes but on other senses. Only a couple of times in all of the times I was attacked with my eyes closed, did I feel connected enough and kinda of "knew" where the attack was coming and my body responded with the techniques. Another aspect of these training Jake and I discussed was after we made contact with uke, the muscle memory and the technique was automatic, even without visual cues.

Aikido for 05/02/2009

Jake and I practiced for about an hour and fifteen minutes at the Gunnison Community Center. After warming-up, we practiced the following techniques:

• Ryokatatori kokyunage
• Ryokatatori hijinage omote and ura
• Shomenuchi iriminage
• Yokemenuchi iriminage
• Free-style attack iriminage
• Katatetori, Hamni-hatachi, and Surawaza hijinage
• Katatetori, Hamni-hatachi, and Surawaza shihonage omote
  
• Katatetori, Hamni-hatachi, and Surawaza kotegashsi
  
• Ryokatatori, Hamni-hatachi, and Surawaza tenshinage

We then finished the last twenty minutes of class working on 1-5 bokken katas.