turtle-to-dragon

[turtle-to-dragon]

Inspirational <3

When I start to feel overwhelmed by how much suffering and wickedness there is, I try to rededicate myself to chivalry. I know it's LARP-adjacent, but it helps me show up for myself and others. If you're feeling lost, please try to create a role that you're excited about playing 😤⚔️

[turtle-to-dragon]

Words to live by

2025

BE A STUDENT OF WHAT YOU ADMIRE

DO IT BADLY RATHER THAN NOT AT ALL

TO DESPAIR IS TO CEDE VICTORY TO THOSE WHO DO NOT DESERVE IT

BROADEN YOUR CULTURAL HORIZONS

REVEL IN THE ANALOGUE

ACTION ABSORBS ANXIETY

GRIEF IS PRODUCTIVE; GUILT IS NOT

[turtle-to-dragon]

Can't say that this surprises me that much...

I am looking forward to reading Tanith Lee's work, especially since I have not yet read or watched the sandman.

Shared here today by Matthew Boroson on Facebook. (ETA: Gaining inspiration from other authors is great. Lifting passages and avoiding giving credit isn’t.)

Tanith Lee was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel, for the second book of the Flat Earth series. She died in 2015. You can buy Tales From the Flat Earth here and here .

[turtle-to-dragon]

Looked at the picture without seeing who posted it, thought "uhh the one on the lower left looks like a sword I know", only to scroll further and realising that I do, indeed, know this sword. And its owner.

Yay ^_^

Have to train inside during the winter months. Occasionally during the summer months as well, as the police can get weird if you run around in a public park and recreate a scene from Highlander

[turtle-to-dragon]

i've been focusing deeply on not giving a shit about what people think. if i notice my thoughts going down that path, then i shut them down. i'm not trying to read anyone's mind. i'm just going to be myself and try my best. if i fuck up, then i fuck up. if i look stupid, then i look stupid. everyone looks stupid, sometimes. it's so much more important to be yourself earnestly and passionately, in all of your stupid glory

[turtle-to-dragon]

Reblogging to manifest more women hitting me with swords this week ^_^

girls with swords are so cool. I hope a woman hits me with a sword today

[turtle-to-dragon]

Looking forward to a hema seminar this weekend where, hopefully, I'll also look like this.

I look like this if any of you fucking care

[turtle-to-dragon]

Training log for 2nd of July 2024

Didn't sleep much last night, had a weird day at work and came home confused and famished. Need to pay better attention to my food and finally get around mealprepping.. not tonight, though.

I did the bare minimum, repeated two forms just before bed. Too sleepy to do anything else.

Here's to hoping that tomorrow will be better.

[turtle-to-dragon]

training log: 1st of July 2024

didn't do everything according to my goals, but I trained for a bit more than one hour, re-learning a bit more than half of the Sword Hand Form. That has got to be my favorite hand form of them all... it just feels like my body was made to perform it, or it was made for my body, or they were made for each other. Curling and expanding, moving around the axis of the spine, alternating height levels for techniques... so beautiful.

I'm very happy that we made video recordings of this form immediately after the seminar where we learned it, and I'm also happy that it's me performing the form on the video. What I'm less happy with is that someone recorded it frontally, which makes it ever so much more difficult to re-learn from this video material as video-me is going towards the camera and learning-me needs to mirror all movements and gets confused with left and right a lot. Ah well. This goes on my list for instructional videos to be made, at a later time.

I did stance training, which went better than expected - I distracted myself with leopard hand techniques, which was a good synergy. Need to look up the finer points and variations of those techniques from my notes, though, I feel like I'm missing something. So far my knee hasn't been complaining, and I think I might find some way of practicing stances tomorrow at work. Should be fine.

I also practiced leopard kicks, though it was very, very difficult for me to slow it down. By the fifth repetition I always speed up. Patience, patience... And more muscles --.--

I didn't do anything with sword, nor any ankle or shoulder rehab exercises, because it's already 23:20 and I should head to bed soon.

But I'm very happy with my progress today ^_^

What's everyone else working on?

[turtle-to-dragon]

a return to goal-setting and logging and blogging

I figured it's time to start using this space more like I did before. A lot has happened in my life since I last posted personal stuff; I've changed my profession, moved back to my hometown, returned to my first and most beloved martial arts school, started Chinese sword training, had a few pleasant encounters with HEMA practicioners, started teaching kung fu again...

I haven't trained as consistently as I'd have liked, and I had some months where I didn't exercise or move or do much of anything, at all. Fortunately, that's behind me now, and I'm back at a state of mind where I feel comfortable setting martial arts related goals again.

Now I know it's important to keep it as specific and measurable and actionable as possible, and I *also* know that it's probably important to not plan too much at once... but ehhhh. I'll just try to be kind to myself and keep the daily actions small and short enough to not overwhelm myself. At the same time I know I need consistency and a plan to achieve those things.

My goals;

(re)learn the Sword Hand Form, so I can perform it fluidly, with intent, in a way that I would be able to teach it to others, by September.

optimize the Leopard Form, so that I can perform it fluidly, with intent and appropriate depth and the character of the animal, by mid August.

get good at deep stances so I can maintain them comfortably for a minute (horse stance, reversed bow stance, empty stance) on each side.

get better with the leopard kick (which is a sneaky one, pretending to go all straight and then at the very last moment turning inward or outward)

get better with the leopard strikes (the circular in the straight, the straight in the circular, as my teacher said)

learn the 3 Principles Sword Form (san cai jian) so that I can perform it correctly, with intent, with body-sword-movement, with a partner, by December.

establish a sword training routine so that it becomes part of my daily life. start with maybe ten minutes a day, keep a checklist with drills to practice nearby, and re-evaluate after two weeks if this actually helps with anything.

pain-free, strong right shoulder, so I can go through 2 x 1.5 hours of sword training or regular kung fu training per week, or so I can get into push-up position, or hold a focus mitt against serious punches and kicks without pain... By stability and mobility exercises on every second day (alternating with leg work)

pain-free, stable left ankle, so I can go through 2 x 1.5 hours of kung fu training on mats per week, including jumping and standing on one leg without falling over or being in pain for days... by stability and mobility exercises on every second day (alternating with shoulder stuff)

improve endurance so I can sprint up one or two flights of stairs without feeling like I might die. I'll probably start with a C25K training program again, and training with stairs would probably help as well. What doesn't help is that I abhor starting this kind of training because it feels so miserable. (That's probably me wanting too much, too soon...)

Yeah. Like I said.. maybe a bit much, but I'll try and figure it out.

.oO(goals for July and beyond...)

Other things, apart from the goals:

On Friday my new sword will be delivered, yay! Getting the shipping notification today made my Monday significantly better. More swords for everyone!

Looking forward to a HEMA introductory workshop on longsword in less than three weeks, with a kung fu sister and two other good friends <3

very much enjoying having a very motivated kung fu sister that matches me in thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm for this art.

My first kung fu teacher and my mom both said that they would like to be present during my next kung fu exam. I don't know yet when that will be, but I feel honored that they want to be there. And it feels kinda fitting, since they were both present at my very first training at this school, 22 years ago. ^_^

After tidying up my room, I now have (hopefully) enough space in my bedroom/living room to practice sword techniques. (Looking at you, ceiling lamp... Stay where you are!)

Okay, that's it for now. Off to actually train now :D

[turtle-to-dragon]

it's not that I need a quiet day or a day off exactly; it's that I need a pocket of time that exists entirely outside of linear time as we know it that would allow me to get things done without time passing in the real world, and frankly, I don't think that's too much to ask.

[turtle-to-dragon]

Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.

[turtle-to-dragon]

Today is a wonderful day to remember that resting, taking care of yourself, and allowing yourself to become re-inspired and re-invigorated, is a vital and necessary part of the creative process!

[turtle-to-dragon]

being alive is great because there are so many different vegetables you can sauté. but then there are also the horrors

[turtle-to-dragon]

"Oh so we should just eat anything we want??"

Well actually YES but also:

Restricting food Does Stuff To Your Brain. "Restricting" doesn't mean stopping when you're full. I feel like this is what gets misunderstood a lot. It means placing rules and limits on food that supercede what your body is signalling that it wants. Let's use cookies as an example. Restricting would be:

- I can only have cookies when I deserve them.

- I can only have cookies when I'm alone.

- I can only have two cookies.

- I can only have low-calorie cookies.

- I can only have cookies on set days, or so-called cheat days.

- I can't have cookies.

- I can't have cookies in the house.

- I'm bad when I eat cookies.

- Cookies are a bad food and I must compensate for having eaten them.

Whether or not you stick to the restrictions you set, your brain is learning to be an anxious mess around cookies. It might want to avoid anywhere that has cookies. It might feel shame for wanting or eating cookies. It might get exhausted from suppressing the craving and decide to binge. It might go into binge mode every time you eat cookies because you've taught your body that This Will Not Be Available Whenever. It might feel ridiculously important to eat all the cookies while you can.

I know we're all so used to constantly talking about food, diets, weight and bodies, and it's completely normalised to look at absolutely everything you eat and assign it the level of guilt you're gonna feel for eating it, and to brag about not eating this and that, and to announce that you know it's a Naughty Indulgence when you eat anything sweet.

But oh my god, it's such a huge weight off your shoulders to just let yourself eat cookies because you wanted cookies and stop when you feel satiated and know that the cookies will be available next time you want cookies because you don't need to earn them in any way. Because a brain that knows it can have cookies whenever it wants cookies, doesn't crave cookies all the time. Nor does it feel any self-loathing when it does crave cookies.

And I just wish everyone a very chill brain and some cookies

[turtle-to-dragon]

[turtle-to-dragon]

As a person who just bought a few more swords for myself and one for my best friend, I feel very validated and encouraged right now. ^_^

I feel that people should perhaps buy more swords, that we should really encourage that as a society