Library, Insects, Christmas, Karate

Yesterday, I went to the library to try out the free Wi-Fi. I forgot to turn the volume off, though, and when I turned on the computer, it blasted the startup noise at max volume! I reflexively shut it off, and then, not knowing how to manipulate the volume without turning it on, had to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to turn it back on and blast the startup noise through the library again. I wound up using express Internet because I didn't want to bear the shame of going to the regular terminals while also having a laptop, so I didn't have enough time to update this blog. I'll go back and try this again, turning the volume off before leaving the apartment.

Jeez, a few days back, Mom caught me having fished out a fruitfly that was drowning, and drying it's wings with my breath. She's never going to live it down. Duncan says that I've taken the saying, "Wouldn't hurt a fly" to new extremes. Apparently both of them feel that fruitflies are less relatable than cockroaches.

We put up our Christmas tree. We use a plastic one, as apartment buildings don't like you to have real ones.

We just recently learned we're going to receive some Christmas gifts, too, from a family member and her church. And some other people also want to give us gifts. We're really feeling the love this year, for some reason.

In other news, my karate rival went up to yellow belt last month. It's awkward, since I've been at this twice as long as him. Also, I think I saw the other two yellow belts when they were on the two week free trial, although I can't confirm it because they graduated from child to adult classes relatively recently, so while we've been in the same school, they've been taking different classes. Anyway, it's evident I'm the slowest learner of all the people I've seen start out, so I'm feeling a little discouraged. I'll be grading for yellow belt next week, however.

I met the legend of my dojo. Actually, it turns out that I'd met him before, and hadn't realized who he was. Everyone's always talking about this guy who grew up training with the head sensei from my dojo, who, with the one exception of our head sensei, only gives about 10% even against the blackbelts during sparring and grappling. I guess he does seem the type. When I first saw him, I thought he was the head sensei of that other dojo that's done training with us before, so I guess that means he carries himself with the authority of a head sensei. It wasn't too illogical of a conclusion to come to, though, as that was the day that the other dojo was supposed to train with us, and he was both unfamiliar and a blackbelt. So my conclusion may have been informational, rather than a matter of presence. He complains about his age, and about being out of shape, like most of the other people, and he doesn't brag about his strength. Everyone else brags about his strength.