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Saturday, May 06, 2006

 

11:54

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I've been too tired to compose a post when I've had time, or too busy catching up with other things when I've not been tired. But there really hasn't been that much going on. I write solutions, I sit in on classes, I attend church and Bible study, and I tutor. The bike ride has gotten easier so that it doesn't wear me out anymore, even in the coming back direction, which is slightly uphill and usually against the wind.

Recently we've been giving placement tests to a group of homeschoolers to assess what classes they'll be ready to take this fall. There's a local "homeschool co-op" group that meets every week and has once-a-week lectures in certain subjects. I helped administer the tests and then graded them; the results were disappointing but predictable. I also got some experience in "education diplomacy," talking with mothers whose children had not passed whichever test they were taking. Not my first taste of it though; I have a few semesters' experience in dealing with college students in the Math 108 course.

Comments:
An interesting thing: taiji seems to strengthen all of the quadriceps evenly. The upshot is that any activity requiring quadricep strength (like biking) does not require any "new" muscular development.
 
That's handy. Oh, I keep forgetting to mention to you that across the street from the bus station I visit on Tuesday mornings, there's a place that teaches various martial arts. I found it amusing that they have "Tai Chi" and "Kickboxing" advertized prominently side by side, since from what you've told me those two have almost nothing in common.
 
:^D Yeah, taiji is all about yielding and neutralizing; using the other person's force against him (or her).

There are harder styles of taiji, but they all have relaxation at the core. Unlike, say, karate or tae kwon do, which are very hard styles. The problem with hard styles is that they apply force. Force makes you vulnerable. They try to minimize that vulnerability, but force is force.
 
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