|
kf6tac
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Country: United States
State: New York
Metro: New York City
Birthday: 2/20/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: WingTsun kung fu, watching TV, Cal football, having fun.
Expertise: Officially a chemist, soon to be a lawyer as well. Maybe one day I'll be some sort of "expert" in WingTsun too, but that's still a long ways off.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Legal
Message: message me
Member Since:
9/26/2003
|
|
| The problem with things like the Geneva Conventions is that they're a prisoners' dilemma: they only work if everybody (or, at least, everybody you're fighting) abides by them. Otherwise, those who do are just volunteering to be at a disadvantage. And because of human nature, there will almost always be at least one free-rider who decides to screw everyone else over by capitalizing on their hope for cooperation.
Fight without mercy. With mercy, do not fight.
| | |
| In typical Brian fashion, I've managed to neglect this Xanga for over a year yet again.
Contrary to what was previously indicated by my little self-summary over in the left margin (which has been changed to reflect the current state of things), I finally did more than just contemplate taking up martial arts and took the plunge. By sheer luck and some clumsy Googling, I stumbled upon City WingTsun, a school here in Manhattan (and also in Connecticut and North Carolina) that, as its name implies, teaches WingTsun kung fu. I say by sheer luck because, as I have since learned, the world of WingTsun (or wing chun, as it is more generally known) is filled with its own little sects of instructors, most of whom don't like each other very much. Grandmaster Leung Ting, the founder of the lineage taught at CityWT, is apparently regarded by some as a thug. This is entirely untrue, but even if it were, the man teaches us to kick ass - and isn't that really what matters? I was also lucky because when I set out on this adventure into the world of Chinese martial arts, I hadn't set my mind on learning WingTsun specifically, or even wing chun generally. I could just as easily have clicked on a link that would have led me to learn wushu, bagua, or any of the other numerous styles of Chinese martial arts. Without intending any disrespect to any of the other Chinese martial arts styles, I have to say I would not have learned nearly as much of what I wanted to learn from them as I have from WingTsun. Because it was created by a woman with self-defense in mind, WingTsun is fast, efficient, and does not rely on pitting strength against strength. While I'm no a five foot nothing guy who's afraid of his own shadow, I'm also not the biggest or strongest guy out there, and every time I step out onto the street, I can easily look around and pick out lots of people who would outpower me in a strength battle. Considering that self-defense was one of my reasons for getting into martial arts (funny how it's always the guys who want to learn to fight, even in a martial art created by a woman), I would say luck happened to be on my side when I blindly stumbled my way to CityWT.
On top of that, the instructors at CityWT are great and almost like family. In fact, my sifu (roughly translated, "kung fu father" - the head instructor at the school) and his wife have more or less adopted me while I'm here. I just got back from having dinner tonight with the two of them, three of my other elder kung fu "siblings," and two of my younger "siblings," all of whom are great fun.
Aside from training at CityWT and plugging them in that uncharacteristically big paragraph above, I've mostly just been trying to get through 3L year of law school. I summered at a great firm in Silicon Valley and have been hired back, so the only real obstacles in my path now are two sets of final exams (one of which is coming up soon). That and the bar exam.
Other stream-of-consciousness-ish thoughts about the year that has passed since my last entry (mostly about the fall, really): Cal football was a downer this year; the Axe had better be ours again next season. I still hate New York winter. The iPod Touch, though it's not an iPhone, is still an amazing gadget. Still need to see a Broadway musical before I leave the city. Facebook is terribly addictive. The TV writers' strike sucks.
| | |
| Yeah, I'm jumpin' on the Johari window bandwagon:
http://kevan.org/johari?name=kf6tac
That's all, really. Back to lookin' for a job.
| | |
| Feelin' empty and somewhat lonely again. Listening to sappy and/or emo music. Great.
On another note, I noticed recently how freakin' selfish law students
can be. Now I'm pretty damn selfish and I've done some fucked up
shit in the past, but that just makes it all the more worse that I'm
complaining. Apparently in law school they REALLY like to bribe
students to events by offering pizza. This isn't too different
from stuff in undergrad, where RAs (i.e. me and others) would bribe
people to come to events with cheesy sticks or other food items.
But in undergrad, people were always really respectful for the most
part - they'd take one or two cheesy sticks each and a thing of sauce
for a group of people, and then come back later if there was
more. Not so in law school. When people at the front of the
line see a large line behind them, they apparently think "Hmmm, I'm not
going to be able to get seconds so I should grab as much as I can
now." And then you end up with half the line walking away with
like two or three BIG slices of pizza each, and the other half of the
line getting stuck eating... well nothing. Worse yet, you'll see
somebody just grab an entire freakin' large pizza and then divvy it up
with one or two of their friends. The best (i.e. worst) part is
when some old guy who is clearly a professor or some sort of staff
member will show up, eat something like three slices of pizza, and then
get up and leave before the event itself actually gets going.
Clearly they have no interest in participating in moot court or
whatever, they're just there to score some free pizza and leave.
At least when I show up for free pizza, I stay and listen (even if I
don't actually care), but then again I almost always end up leaving
because I'm in the half of the line that gets no pizza and filling my
stomach is more important to me than whatever random event is happening
anyway. But seriously people, come on.
| | |
| Brian's frivolous revelation of the day: the last names of all the people in my apartment rhyme.
Excerpt from resident roster at the front door:
...
4A: Chang
4B: Tang
4C: Ryan-Lang
...
| | |
|
