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Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Caesar: Alea iacta est inquit. - The die has been cast, said Caesar
Suetonius, Vita Divi Iuli
Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
Matthew 6:3
Let's play rock paper scissors. Mail in your answers, and let's see who won.
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
The other day at a formal new year party everyone had to choose small gifts. In Japan if people have to choose about something between themselves they play rock paper scissors. In Japanese it is called jankenpon or jankenpoi or janken. It's used for everything. Who gets to choose the first piece of cake. Or who plays first in a game or a sport. Or who gets to cross a bridge first. Japanese people wonder how people in the west get along without it. Well we have games like odds or evens. Robin Hood and Little John decided who got to cross the bridge first by fighting with quarterstaves. A quarterstaff is a strong stick for fighting similar to a Japanese bo. Apparently boy scouts once learned how to use it! But deciding with janken is less painful.
When I first had to play janken many years ago I did the sign for paper like a karate chop. A tight tegatana or shuto uchi knifehand strike from aikido or karate. My fingers were close together. So people told me I had to relax. That sounded familiar. Everyone who does martial art
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Help! Disaster! Fire and Smoke!
Robin's trod on Batman's cloak.
Torn a rip right up the back…
He'll have to wear his anorak.
Kate Williams, Batman Comes Undone!
At the buffet at the station we can grab a bite to eat;
Because we're going spotting we'll need three Shredded Wheat;
Well, you've got to keep your strength up and keep yourself well fed
When you're spotting with the big boys down at Crewe South Shed.
Dave Roberts, Crewe South Shed
I am a nerd.
Word.
Some have called me
a word nerd.
Geeks are too chic.
You see 'em in the street
Pretending not to be pretty
Charles Linart
I will now start the first Occult Club meeting. But I'm the only member. And I'm also the president.
Fuyuki Hinata, Keroro Gunso
Happy new year to everyone who reads my blog. Best wishes for happiness in your private lives and success in your professional and academic lives. For aikido and budo I wish you a deeper understanding than last year. Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei once told me that the most important thing was never to stand still. Don't get stuck doing things by rote so that you stagnate. Go in a spiral and always upwards. That applies to eveything not just martial arts. For the first post of the new year I want to write about otaku.
I went round a bend in a country road in Hakone near Mount Fuji once and was suddenly hit with the surreal sight of a group of middle-aged Japanese men dressed in fake American police uniforms ri
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01-21-2012 09:53 AM 
