Sunday was my last Level 4: Advanced Longform improv class.  In the beginning of class we were asked to share with the rest of the class what we thought we needed work on, how much we thought we grew as improvisers during the last two months, and finally the other classmates would then give their feedback on what they thought of you as an improviser. 

I shared with the group that I felt very rusty from having been out of the game for over a year and the first three classes alone were very difficult for me because I was making very rookie mistakes, so it took me awhile to get back into full swing.  I also shared my frustration at not being able to effectively play characters and I needed a lot of work on my physicality and physical activities, especially right at the beginning of class.

The instructor decided that in all the scenes that followed for the remaining of the last class, I had to play characters, and let me tell you, I forced myself to change my physicality and all kinds of wonderful characters came out and I never received so many laughs before and felt so good about my performances.  At the end of class, the instructor told me that for now on I am to only play characters and I completely agree with her…too bad I didn’t realize this sooner.

I know I haven't been blogging as much as I used to, but I plan on getting back into the full swing of things.  Here are some updates:

Improv

As of tomorrow I will have completed Level 4: Advanced Longform from the People Improv Theater (the PIT).  Due to conflicts with school I missed and will be missing the first two of my performances but will thankfully be able to perform in our third class performance.  Depending on my schedule of the summer I will hopefully be able to take the fifth and final level of improv offered at the PIT.

The PIT also offers a vast array of other classes, including sketch comedy and stand up comedy which I plan on taking in the relatively near future.  As for performing arts in general, I will continue taking improv classes at other schools and may get back into scene study classes.  I have no desire to delve back into Meisner or Method acting classes again, I've had my fill thank you very much.

Martial Arts

I had sprained my foot pretty bad a little while back so I have just started easing my way back into jujutsu and tae kwon do classes.  My goal is to reach Green Belt in both, which should be easily accomplished before this year comes to a close.  I had to miss this weekends Jujutsu tournament because of my foot.  It is still not completely a hundred percent so I have to be careful not to reinjure it.

Working Out & Nutrition

I have been very busy recently due to school and work and my working out schedule has not been on spot like I would like it to be.  I need to focus more.  As for Nutrition, it has been a mess.  It has been cheat day friday almost 7 days a week for the last month.  This is due to a combination of me being a dim wit and having free foot shoved in front of my face a bit too often at school.

Flying

I've had absolutely no time to go flying in the last several months, but I will volunteer for either the Coast Guard Auxillery or the Civil Air Patrol as soon as I possibly can.

School

I'm having one of my papers published in the Law Review which I'm very proud of.  Other than that, nothing much to report.

Reading

I've past the 250 book mark.  My goal is 1000 books (god knows I probably own more than that amount), but I'm pushing through and have made pretty reasonable goals for this year at only twenty books (20 fiction and 20 nonfiction).  I'm about half way there for this years mark.

Part 1

Part 2

A week notice really isn’t much time.  This is why a person should live life to its fullest right now and not wait until some future date because that future date may never come.  We do not know how much time we have on this planet and for all we know this is not a dress rehearsal.  I’ve enjoyed my life immensely and if it would end tomorrow I would die knowing I accomplished a lot and had many wonderful experiences, more than many have had and I can honestly say I would die happy.  If I had only a week left I would just enjoy it, doing things I enjoy doing, but any grand accomplishment or adventure generally takes longer than a week to complete and if you haven’t either embarked on such adventures yet or have setup the necessary planning to do so, a week is really not much good for such things.  Live life as though there is no tomorrow and appreciate what you have and the opportunities you have in the here and now

I resumed improv comedy classes at The Peoples Improv Theater.  It has been a year since taking classes.  I completed levels 0 - 3 and have been waiting for a weekend class to pop up since completing level 3. 

This has been the first level 4 on a weekend that has been available.  The class was very fun and I have three performances in April.  I was a little rusty, but hopefully it all comes back to me during the next class or two.

Okay, party may be an exaggeration, but I had my first UFC get together on Saturday.  I ordered UFC 81 and had a couple of friends come over.  It was a pretty fun time.  Schedule permitting, I think I’m going to make it a monthly thing with up to about ten people.  I also have my very own beer pong table which I would like to start putting to use   I have to credit Nick for giving me that idea.  His beer pong tournament a couple of months ago rocked.

I went to a philosophy event in Manhattan last night.  It is an event where anywhere between 60 – 150 people show up to discuss a topic.  That night’s topic was “insanity.”  The whole event lasted for four hours, however I only stayed for the first two.  The first hour was a social hour were you meet new people and just be sociable.  The next three hours are discussion hours in which you divide into groups of about 5 – 8 and are given a series of questions to discuss that have to deal with the main topic (insanity).  After an hour a bell is rung and you form a new group with new people.

I thought it was an awesome experience and I met a lot of cool people.  The questions make you think about things in ways that you perhaps would never have thought about and the responses of the other people in the group were just as interesting.  Some of the questions were:

What is normal?

What are the realities of “insanity,” “mental illness,” “mental disorders”?

What causes insanity?

Can someone be temporarily insane?

I have taken off the soft cast and it doesn’t look good.  The foot is a bit swollen and black and blue in places.  I’ve tried to walk on it and it is an unpleasant experience, especially since the stupid thing just won’t function like a foot is supposed to.  I can hardly curl my toes or move the foot up and down at all, it feels more like dead weight than anything else.  I can kind of wobble a long, but not really.  I’m going to have to miss work tomorrow morning.  This is frustrating.  I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday morning, hopefully that goes well.  I just don’t know how I’m going to be able to get my books and laptop into class tomorrow.  I still haven’t decided if I want to try to wobble or use the crutches, but crutches are a pain also.  I will bring the crutches no matter what though, because I don’t want to screw myself over if it is just too painful at any point to continue and I have no way of moving about at that point.

I sprained my left foot in Tae Kwon Do last night.  It was a sparring class, we were doing drills and I stepped backwards with my left foot and hear snap crackle and pop and then felt a lot of pain.  The x-rays show that nothing was broken, but my Tae Kwon Do instructor things that I probably have tissue and/or ligament damage.  I can move my foot side to side but it doesn’t much more up and down and when I try to curl my toes only my big toe and the toe next to it curl, the other ones won’t move.  I am wearing a soft cast now and am using crutches.  I’m supposed to take the cast off after two days, which will be Sunday night/Monday morning.  Hopefully I can walk on it after because I do not want to have to be on crutches in school, which will just make traveling to class difficult.  I had to skip work today because of this.  I have an appointment with an Orthopedist on Tuesday morning.  Hopefully he says I’m fine, but if there is really bad damage I may not be able to do Tae Kwon Do, Jujutsu, or Ballroom Dancing for several months

In the end though, I’m just glad it wasn’t my right foot, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere.

My first post of 2008

A new year, a new set of goals.  I have learned that law school is very time consuming and my goals for the year need to be adjusted to the demands that law school entails.  Therefore, I have chosen to be quite conservative in this years goals.

So here are the highlights:

1) Improv Comedy

I have not taken an improve comedy class since the end of 2006.  At the Peoples Improv Theater there are five levels of classes, six if you could level 0 (which I did take).  I am up to level 4.  I have been waiting for a weekend class since I do not want to commute to the city in the middle of the week while classes are in session.  Thankfully, a level 4 has finally opened up towards the end of February that will be ever Sunday for two months.  I have already signed up and I am looking forward to getting back into performing arts

2) Jujutsu

I have been looking forward to getting my green belt for over a year now, but I have been sidetracked by law school.  I only have to get my self-defense techniques down and I can test (which has been the case for months now), but I plan on attending class a minimum of once a week and I think that this objective can be accomplished in a few months and definitely by the end of the summer.  So I have no excuses, I should be a green belt sometime this year

3) Tae Kwon Do

It generally takes 3 years to get a black belt in tae kwon do.  At the rate I have been going it is going to take me 6.  My schedule has been a mess.  However, the average belt promotion should take three months, so there is no reason I shouldn't be able to advance at least two belts this year if not more.  So the next belt is orange and the one after that is green.  So like jujutsu, I plan to be at least a green belt in Tae Kwon Do by the end of the year.

4) Reading

I have reduced the number of books to read this year to ten fiction books and ten non-fiction books.  I have already read 3 books and I feel this is a completely reasonable objective.

5) Other

I need to recertify in First Aid and CPR, I will add at least 100 new index cards to my decks, maintain my renters currency and ifc currency for my pilots license.