Almost There

On Saturday I had Joey come to the dojo with me and we practiced the self defense techniques together. He got a good hang on how to perform the strikes so that I can block them fluidly. Harry made sure that I was doing every block the proper way and we even came up with a very creative block for when I get a kick thrown at me.

When I was practicing my presentation on Saturday Harry said it was good and he liked the way that I went into details about things. He said it was good that I did that and when I practice then I need to practice that way. Feels good to know that because I can now have a bit more confidence that I'm presenting my information the way it should be presented.

Good news is that Harry thinks the only thing I need to change in my prezi is the colors on one of the parts. It's hard to see the color so he said to change the color. If that's the only critique I get on my whole presentation that will be great. But I doubt that it will be so I am preparing to answer questions that I haven't really been asked yet. In the last upcoming days I am going to go back and reread some of my blog post about the other styles that I have practiced. I may even print some out so that  can have a copy on file for myself.

Question that I have to be sure to answer is: "How did I get into choosing martial arts and why?"

Knee Pains

So we have some bad news. My knees have been hurting me again. Not really as bad as they have been before but the pain has been very irritating. Usually I notice the pain while sitting down for a long period of time. Rather I'm sitting down at home for about 10 minutes or I'm on the bus for a hour. The other day I was on the bus for a hour and my knees were killing me. But when I stood up they felt so much better. I guess this means that sitting down will hurt my knees which we been knew before but now we can be sure of it.

This has made it a bit harder to focus in classes. Being that there aren't any classes where I can stand and do work then I have no choice but to sit down. Lucky my knees haven't been hurting too much in school, but I think it does have some type of effect on me. I notice that I have been a bit more tired lately. Going to sleep a bit earlier and almost missing my bus every morning because I'm so exhausted. This whole year has worn me out and it didn't help that my knee has been hurting. I wonder if my knee started hurting from not wearing my knee brace though. It was lost in my house for about two weeks. I just found it sometimes over this past weekend and currently have it on now.

I really hope that my knees don't continue to hurt for too much longer because Harry told me that if I feel up to it then I can try to perform the Kata at my final senior meeting next Tuesday. That means that I can go for my blue belt in Shoshindo Karate. It's been hyping me and clouding my thoughts ever since he has told me. So I don't really practice the movements physically, I do it more mentally. I think that on Sunday and Monday I will practice it very lightly, then if I feel up to it on the day of then I will perform it. But being that the pains are coming back a bit, I may need to back off a bit more again.

Final Meeting Setup

I’m so ready for this final meeting that I have been thinking of how it’s going to be. So it’s something like this. I want my mom and family to be there, but not only them, I want Amber and her mother and twin sister to be there. And I think that’s all the people that I will invite to the meeting. I want to make sure they are well fed though. I want everything to go well and I want to pass in front of the people I feel are most important to me right now. I want to order some pizza and wings for them to eat.

I understand that the people who aren’t part of my committee cant ask questions but I hope they understand that. They can’t talk or ask me questions from what I know. Also they have to leave while the voting is in progress. They can’t hear a word about what is said when it comes to me passing my project or not. I think it would be really embarrassing if I were to fail in front of my friends and family but if I fail its only because I deserve it so I know I will do well.

I think having a bit of an audience there will make me a bit nervous but I feel like this project is important enough for me to have all of these people come. I want them to understand what I have been doing and how it has affected my life. I hope that they all will take it as seriously as I’m taking it because this project means a lot to me.

I really look forward to this final meeting so I have these plans for it to go well. My mom already took the day off from work and Amber mom said she would check her schedule to see if she can come. This is how serious I am about these plans.

AP Update

If there is one thing that has gotten better lately it’s my grade in AP. Man, I can’t believe that I finally got an “A”. I mean I always considered myself to be a “A” type student but to actually see the letter grade “A” on that report card makes me soooo happy. I never really got a “A” before. All this year I had a “B” or “B+” so this first “A” excites me.

I remember a few months ago when I got my report card for the second period I kept complaining to Nena (my youth advocate) that a “B+” wasn’t good enough for me because I felt that I was better than that. So I finally get this “A” for the fourth period. I just can’t get over the hype. Man I’m hyped. I feel really god about this class because I know I understand it, its not a fluke, like I deserved this “A” and I got it. It makes me feel like the hard work is paying off.

The tests are hard but I know I can do it. I got a 3 on the AP midterm so I’m sure the final will be good. The last thing that I have to worry about is that final. Once I get that done with my school year is so close to over that I don’t even think I will go back to school. Lol. Seriously.

What I Need To Work On

Today at the dojo I got a huge reality check. I may have two weeks until my meeting but there are still some things I need to work on. Harry had Antonio and I practice how we were going to present in front of our committee and man he was not impressed with what we showed him today. I know that I looked a little pathetic. I felt kind of stupid while talking. Even though I know all this stuff it shows that I have been lacking practice. We didn’t have too much time to practice but that’s why this is my senior project because I have to do all the work; in this situation it means I have to make time.

I have to make time to practice my self-defense techniques first. Being that it is one of the only things that I can actually do physically then it is really important to make sure I nail the self-defense techniques. I have five to do and it may seem easy but trust me it’s not. Not only do you have to know what you are doing but the person you are acting with also have to know what you are doing so they can play along. You don’t want to get hit with an elbow at full speed. So I’m going to try to meet up with Joey over the weekend so we can practice. I think I’m going to ask him to come to practice on Saturday so we all can be there at the same time.

That would be easy, asking is the easiest thing of this project but I really didn’t expect it to be so hard. When I say that I mean hard in the since of remembering everything and doing everything the way it needs to be done. I also found out today that I need to add some history of Kyokushin into my presentation. I don’t have to add a lot because I did a research paper but it definitely will make Harry happy and that will help me get his vote so that’s what I’m going to do. Also I noticed that I didn’t think of a couple questions that they may asked me. Questions like: What is a Kata? And why do we do Katas’?

I thought about those questions some and got an answer. Now I have to review that and my self defense things. Once I get those things down packed then I feel like I will be ready to present completely. I know I probably keep saying I’m ready but it’s because I honestly am just ready to be done. Everyday I feel this way. Just want to get this over with, but I need it to be on point, so it’s time to practice.

Thanking Tony

Honestly this senior project would’ve been beyond impossible if I didn’t have the blessings of finding so many people who are willing to work with me. I needed so much help with this project, it makes me feel needy because I have been asking for a lot. Asking for rides to places, needing to loan some money, asking to be welcomed into a new territories, and trying to beg for interviews.

It doesn’t stop there though. I also needed to go to appointments, ask for medications, ask for x rays and MRI’s and even ask for physical therapy and any other thing that I need to help me. I went to the office to get some bus passes for the bus because I was low on money. The thing that I ask for the most is to use the computer lab during the day. I feel like I have used just about every single resource that I have. It’s almost impossible to find another resource that I didn’t come in contact with yet.

So I have a lot of thanks to give to people. I have to thank Mariana for being a really good teacher and guiding me trough the process as effectively as she can without breaking any rules. I have to thank Coretta for talking me into some since after finding out about my condition. Thanks to Harry for teaching me for free, I know the bill would’ve been over hundreds of dollars if I were some stranger. Thanks to Joey for always offering me a ride to my house, and even offering to pick me up from home to go to the gym and dropping me back off home. That’s some good stuff. I thank Kemari and Tahje for being students on my committee and being in school to make me feel like I’m not in school by myself. It’s only right to thank my girlfriend because she has done a good job with dealing with my feelings because my emotions has been wild ever since I started this project. And one of my biggest thanks has to go to Antonio. He did a great deed by allowing his Kata to be recorded so that I can use it for my final meeting. He didn’t have to do anything for me and he isn’t even on my committee so he has nothing to do with how I get my project done but I appreciate his will to help because if I didn’t have him then I don’t even know how I would be able to present a Kata.

I just know that I need to thank everyone who had some part in me finishing this project. It’s not completely over yet but it’s been a long time coming and everyone I named has helped. There are even people that I didn’t name, I hope they don’t mind.

Finished Prezi

Woooh, I’m sooo happy right now. It’s only Wednesday during spring break and I’m already done with my prezi. It wasn’t easy though. I had the prezi website crash on m two times, meaning that it wasn’t till my third time that I got to finish it all the way through. I think that if it wasn’t for the website crashing twice then I would have been done with this prezi Monday night.

Crashing wasn’t the only thing that messed up some of my plans. I also didn’t put as much pictures as I wanted to. I have about 15 pictures downloaded on the prezi but I couldn’t really find good places to put them at. I could’ve just thrown pictures in but I want my presentation to look nice and organized being that it’s going to be my ticket into graduation. Another thing that I’m not able to do is put my video directly into my prezi.

The problem is that prezi only allows you to use up to two gigabytes of data on the website before you have to upgrade and I don’t really have much money to be trying to pay for all that.  The video I want to upload is about 30 minutes long, that includes the workout at the dojo and I have another video that’s about 5 minutes long which is of all the workout stuff that I have done over the year.  So I have a total of 50 slides right now and I’m going to have to stop at about two or three different points to show videos but other than that I should be good.

My theme of the prezi is obstacles. So I chose the three obstacles that were the biggest to me; time-management, difficulty and self-confidence. I have a lot to talk about during my presentation so I feel that I am going to do very well in my final meeting. I really hope that this presentation helps and guides me through success I put as much as I can think of into it. I’m just so ready to present now. I love how my prezi looks. Can’t wait . . .