Beard Trim, Certificates

So I TRIMMED MY BEARD! the other day. It went alright. It certainly looks more intentional now. I feel like my face shrunk, though, and I'm surprised every time I look in the mirror. I'm going to have to reevaluate my self-image while I'm dreaming, too. I'll probably keep dreaming of myself with a big beard, and wake up all confused, like I did when I had a beard, but still dreamed with the clean shaven self-image.

It looks better this way when I'm in my Karate gii, but worse in my street clothes, I think. Because when you're in the martial arts, you want to look rough, but you want it to be a contained, controlled, intentional kind of rough. When you're on the street, you want to be thuggin'.

Haha, I know that's not how I used to talk. Remember, I used to feel guilty about gaining muscle tone because I felt I would intimidate people?

Well, that's not how I intimidate people. It turns out, I made a scary first impression on my Katimavik group, and a few friends from high school enthusiastically agreed with this perception, but it wasn't based on my size.

Apparently, when you first meet me, I'm really quiet, but my eyes are EVERYWHERE, and then I'll laugh, and it will be this coarse, serial killer's laugh, and people just wonder "WHAT IS HE THINKING"?!

Guh... That's too specific to be a universal opinion!

I also asked everyone in my Katima-house if I could be a supervillain. All the males said yes, and all the females said no. Isn't that a.... bad thing? Chicks dig supervillains!!! I asked if I could be a superhero and they said yes. So, that's something, I guess. Some girls swing that way.

Anyway, point is, if I'm intimidating, it's not because I'm a thug, so I can afford to joke a little about it, now.

I'm getting my Karate uniform embroidered to have the logo of my dojo put on it. It used to be a guy's silhouette doing a flying kick in front of a yin-yang, but they changed it so that the yang of the yin-yang is grey. I approve of this decision. I have my high school diploma and five certificates framed in my room, and I was rating each of them based on appearance. I thought my Katimavik one was best, because it had clarity, symbolism, and originality, without being crowded. My yellow belt got second place. It would have gotten first, but the symbol of the silhouette against the black of the yang created a merging effect. There was a bit of a white outline around the silhouette, but still.

Now yin, yang, and silhouette are all clearly defined and contrast each other. Very nice.

Third place went to my Safe Food Handling certificate. That's weird, because it's a kind of relatively unimportant certificate. It probably looks the most regal. It only lost points because it's overly-intricate, which makes it lose it's impact and clarity.

My high school diploma is too simple. I spent like, 14 years getting that diploma! Why is it so boring?!