| 15 mar 01 "you make me com... you make me complete... you make me completely miserable" ha ha. i hope my chiropractor knows what he's doing. it's a strange "science." i told him yesterday that my shoulder was hurting from taiko practice. i was afraid that i had partially dislocated it or torn some cartilage or something. he did some motion range exercises, and exclaimed, "A-HA!" and then he proceeded to wrench my arm in all sorts of uncomfortable and contorted ways. and he used a lot of force, no less. i was pretty scared. finally, he made a noise with his tongue that indicated his satisfaction, and said he was done. i didn't quite know what to say, but i thanked him and went back to work. so the big test was that night... taiko practice! oh, i forgot to mention that taiko means "drum" in japanese. you know, we play with big sticks on big drums. it's a cross between a martial art and a percussion ensemble. but it's much more than that. you have to experience it to begin to understand. yup. anyways, we drilled for 90 minutes STRAIGHT. no stops. no rests. i have never done anything even remotely similar to the bootcamp-type exercise we went through last night. and my shoulder is holding up today. so... is my chiropractor good? or is this some sort of mental anti-psychosomatic thing he's tricked me into? *shrug* ----- shoulders are sexy. i like well-defined shoulders. not that i have them, but if i had to pick two parts of my body to work on first, i would pick my chest and shoulders. no question. have you seen michael johnson's? they're rippled, striated like strips of pure muscle meat. it's so impressive. sad to see him retire this year, though. he was entertaining to watch. i will always remember the way he blew through the record books in his gold shoes at the 200m in atlanta. now there's a guy who deserves to be arrogant. i went to a club a few months ago with a friend of mine, diana, and some of her friends. she was wearing this black dress with straps, so the shoulders were visible. while we were all dancing, her shoulders flexed on and off while she moved her arms. she has got some amazingly well-defined shoulders. not mr. olympian steroid gross ones, but just plain sexy shoulders. i remember coming to the conclusion that volleyball (which she plays) must do some amazing things for that part of the body. speaking of that part of the body, i've been toying with the idea of getting a tattoo on my left shoulder. a tattoo of my last name in chinese. i like "chang." it's comprised of two characters: "bow" on the left, and "long" on the right. long bow. dude. rock. i don't really worry about this particular tattoo falling out of favor with me, because, after all, it's my name! i just worry about pain. and needles. i'm such a wimp when it comes to physical pain. ----- yesterday it occured to me that there are similarities between my taiko endeavors and my journalistic activities. they're both skills that require a sense of expressiveness. and fearlessness. when you hit a taiko, you can't do it half-assed. you have to make a loud sound, and do it proudly and confidently same thing with writing. if i wrote timidly, it would be really boring and lame shit. i am at my best if i do both out loud. without regret or any hindrances. i guess being an engineer is kind of a repressed lifestyle. although i can get pretty silly among my colleagues. they think i'm weird. and spastic. but they ain't seen NOTHING yet, i tell you. my college friends know what kind of interplanetary orbits i can launch myself into. but... yeah. i've mellowed out. but i still want to live life loudly. hence taiko. and now, writing. good day. i'm off to play basketball now. there's yet another activity that's powerful and expressive. but only if you're good, not like me. have you seen that nike ad where NBA all-stars just dribble in all sorts of fancy ways? it's my favorite commercial of 2001 so far. second place belongs to the taco bell steak taco ad with the asian texan-wannabe. |