look ma!

I’m the kodak.com Picture of the Day… which I guess would be more impressive if I didn’t work for them ;-). But it’s a good shoot, take a look:

getting things going

here are some shot’s I’ve taken over the last couple night of us working to start to prepare the new home of Renaissance Martial Arts. As you can see, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Thankfully, a lot of it is being handled by the landlord/professionals.

This is a view of the inside looking toward the entrance. This was taken while the drop ceiling was still up. A half wall will go in by the door and the office and dressing rooms will be located at that end.

This is looking toward the back left corner of the room. When we’re finished most of this area will be matted for grappling classes.

The back right corner. The landlord still has to finish the wall on the right. This will eventually be the main class area. Once the wall is finished then mirrors will be going up on it.

Our resident bruiser, Brian, carefully removing tiles. The masks were just to protect us from the dust and fiberglass insulation.

Pat’s working to take the ceiling down with a rattan staff. How’s that for contemporary use of training?

“We also have men who are willing to die for an idea.” – New York Journalist Katie Roiphe writing about those who laid down their lives over a year ago helping save friends, family, and strangers in New York, Washington D.C. and over Pennsylvania.

thoughts? I’ve got lots of ’em. None that I want to share right now. The cynical ones I don’t want to share out of respect for the dead. The profound ones aren’t that profound. So instead I’ll retread something I included in a post a year ago along with a picture I sketched of a man I saw in Canada, holding an American Flag standing over the QEW.

“There are moments in your life that make you, that set the course of who you’re gonna be. Sometimes they’re little, subtle moments, sometimes they’re not. Bottom line is, even if you see em coming, you’re not ready for the big moments. Nobody asked for their life to change, but it does. So what are we? Helpless puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come, you can’t help that, it’s what you do afterwards that counts. That’s when you find out who you really are.”

Finally, Neil Gaiman, who has become one of my favorite authors over the course of the last year, wrote this short poem (reproduced here without authorization from Marvel Comic’s memorial Heroes… sorry Neil), to commemorate both the dead and the surviors:

The Song of the Lost

I’ll take the touch of his lips, she said

I’ll take the touch of his hair.

But all she has is photograph of an unsuspecting stare;

So she pins it up by the lampposts

And she tells herself he’s lost;

For this is the price of destruction;

— This is the hell of the cost.

We cannot forget our loved ones

We do not forget our friends

Till time itself be over and every friendship ends.

I will always hold on to hope, she says,

And never give in to despair.

But she misses the touch of his lips, his smile,

She misses the smell of his hair.

— Neil Gaiman, 2001

checking in

Joel once told me that even if you just say “I ate a cheese sandwich today”, you should try and blog every day. Umm… I had a Club Sandwich for lunch. Actually I got a lot done today. The weekend was good. Dan kicked all of our butts as usual. Attending one of his seminars is like drinking from a firehose. By the time that he hit on Kali stick work my brain had totally shut off. And that’s never good when you’re working with weapons. But I’m still in one piece, so it’s all good.

We’re starting organizational work on Exact Theatre. Before we start our next production, we’re working to get out house in order. Basically we don’t want to go through what happened with the last play ever again. That’s about it for the moment.