Alright, I'm updating, finally. It's amazing how time get's away with you and you look at your blog and say "Wow! I need to update!"

Friday afternoon I did an unsupported rising elbow break. Anna got it on the video camera and I took the still off of it.

That's pretty cool, huh?

Last week I learned about a scholarship worth between $60,000 and $4,000 over four years. Of course the idea of $60,000 was really cool, so I decided to apply. Only problem was the deadline was three days away. Ok I figure, I'll have to hurry. Well, because of the stupid website for the scholarship and because of stupid Y! mail, I wasn't able to get the application until a day and a half before the deadline! So Mom and I ran around like chickens with our heads cut off and finally managed to get it on time, just barely!

Saturday Mom dropped Anna, Joshua and I off at the dojo to watch the black belt testing. There is a testing every six months and this time our dojo was hosting it, which was cool. We didn't have anybody testing for black, but one of our instructors was testing for his third degree black. He did some very cool kata in spite of the fact that he was coughing and sniffing through the whole thing. He got his belt. Two of our brown belts tested for their first degree brown (the belt just below black). All the other people were from other dojo's: about 8 or 10 people testing for black and one other fellow testing for third degree. The whole thing was all very cool: we watched some really neat breaks and some very good fights. It was also interesting to see people from other dojo's do kata and compare it to how we do it.

One of the little girls I worked with in Memphis asked me to write her a poem. I couldn't think of what to write, so I wrote about not know what to write. I thought y'all might find it amusing.

So you want a poem? An artistic arrangement of words?
Something that rhymes, and maybe mentions birds?
I suppose I'll have to oblige you and wrack my little brain
For some lines that are witty and avoid those that are lame.

Well, here goes, and please do wish me luck,
For I feel rather unable, like when trying to back a truck.
But just for you I shall do my best and hope that no one laughs
As I stumble around on my poetic legs, like an unsteady newborn calf.

But what to write my poem on? What shall the topic be?
Should I write of a sunset? a pretty thing, we all agree,
Or of a piece of old newspaper, floating in the wind,
Carrying the headline "Brits manufacture tin"?

This is indeed a big question, one that requires great thought
Perhaps I should form a committee, before whom it would be brought.
Or of course I could flip a coin, much like Jonah's shipmates,
But maybe not, because then Jonah was almost fish bait.

What method then should I use? Oh, how shall I decide?
Is there no answer to this question, will it forever with me abide?
Surely there is some way, a clearly marked path
Whereby a poet may write, and his head not have to bash.

But now an idea is upon me. Oh, what a glorious thought!
What of our friend Webster, and the countless times help he has brought?
Why, I am sure he can help, the man who wrote that giant book
The one I used to sit on, so over the table I could look.

Now a dictionary, you see, is to be used with care
Only by those who are qualified: none others should dare.
For it can be so heavy, that if by accident it is dropped
Someone could be quite splattered, and from the floor have to be mopped.

I open to a random page, 1416 it happens to be,
And select a word that sound interesting, adventurous and free.
Ok, it doesn't actually sound adventurous, this word of which I write
For "parvis" sounds more like an illness, maybe caused by a dog's bite.

But as I examine this word, it turns out to be nothing of the sort.
It speaks of a church before which lies an enclosed court.
A word very rarely used, "parvis" speaks of architecture
Of the way something is built, of it's overall structure.


So now my poem has a topic, something of which it speaks
And a tremendously cool topic too, one that all others beats.
I must say I am really thrilled to have produced this work of art
Which will probably live on longer than that thing we call the cart!