I don't go to GDC every year just to futz around hunting old books and new games. Well, maybe I do, but another purpose is science --- extracting information about the state of the science of AI and programming from the giant kettle of effort that is the Game Developer's Conference.
There are a lot of big ideas to come out of the conference --- for example, new games require huge quantities of content and thus new methods and tools are needed to help generate that content. Develop Orthogonal, Interoperable Tools is one pattern to deal with this --- build tools whose parts all work with each other cleanly and flexibly so that a small amount of art and content can be composed together rapidly in many combinations to produce a vast number of different results. The Unreal 3 team demonstrated this idea with their game engine, as to a lesser degree the Halo 2 guys did with their AI.
But this pattern goes hand in hand with Reduce The Cycle Time To Zero. I should have already known this --- my co-workers Henry and Emily and my former boss David Cater have been telling me for years that their biggest win was reducing the compile time loop of their development as close to zero as possible, so that they could make a change, instantaneously see the result, and then make the next necessary change as quickly as possible. Reduce Cycle Time To Zero is critical for rapid development of game content --- to be efficient, artists and level designers need to see the results of their work Right Now so they can make changes As Soon As Possible.
This is now writ large in the Unreal 3 engine, which supports dynamic loading of content and dynamic editing of levels in real time. Artists and level designers no longer need recourse to text files; instead you can wander around in the Unreal 3 world and make all your changes in real time. Move a light --- the shadows move real time. Grab a character by the arm --- see him move around like a rag doll. Tweak the parameters of a particle fountain used to generate a special effect --- watch it change in real time, affecting the lights and the players around it. Heck, it's not even just Unreal 3 --- in a recent Game Developer column the author was hacking together his own game by himself and even HE used dynamic content loading.
So. Reduce cycle time. I can do this. What's one of the biggest bottlenecks in my current development environment? Let's see ... the need to write my Blogger blogs online, or to cut and paste out of another text editor. Hm. How can we make that delay go away, so I can blog thoughts as I have them?
Perhaps with an offline blogging client like w.bloggar (or ecto or the client of your choice).
Let's test that theory. Saving and trying to upload NOW.
OK. So it's not perfect --- I found an error and reposted and ended up with two copies of the same blog. But hey --- it's SOMETHING to be able to use a normal-looking text editor and just hit a button to see it fly up to the server.
-the Centaur
I'm blasting through the San Francisco Bay Area for the Game Developers' Conference, my annual pilgrimage to the place where artificial intelligence is really used by people to really make things that people really care about. While out here I've seen a lot of good friends, including Victor and Steve and Neil --- and especially including the Rubrick, one of my Edge buddies from high school and college.
As we were chilling after great dinner at E&O; Trading Company in the City, Derek was horrified to learn that I planned to track down to Menlo Park and hit Kepler's Bookstore and Barrone's coffeehouse. "Dude! Don't go down to the peninsula. Find something new in the city!" And I did --- I took half a day finding bookstores in the City like Stacey's and MacDonalds Books, digging through Rasputin's used record store, and scouring leather shops like Stormy Leather, Mr. S and Madame S looking for new clubwear.
But then it was time to go down to my old haunts ... Menlo Park. Palo Alto. Mountain View. It was too late to scour the Stanford Bookstore, so I hit NOLA's New Orleans restaurant just off University Avenue instead, then trolled up to Megabooks (alas, also just closed) and the mega-Borders (mmm, good philosophy bookness) instead. But this, too, must close.
But not Happy Donuts.
An incredible congregation of donuts, students, and WiFi, Happy Donuts has slowly evolved from a quiet little donut shop (circa 1997 when I lived here) into the premiere place in the Peninsula for late night information exchange. The donuts are good. The Wi-Fi is free. And they're always open --- 24/7. You tell me where the studious (and, from the conversation at the table across from me, some not-so-studious) college kids are.
And here, at last, I begin to catch up on my blog. Even with my camera's power down I can still document the experience because I carry a phone with me. Yes, Mister Christian, it's the 21st century: we may not be on the Moon, but I just took a picture with a dang phone:
If you're too young to have taken apart your parents' AT&T-standard; T phone and then put it back together by hand, you may not understand, but I just took a picture with a handheld phone that looks an awful lot like a Star Trek communicator! Captain Kirk never had it so good!
Mmmm ... rich creamery technology goodness. As Homer Simpson might say: Happy Donuts eases the pain.
-the Centaur
As we were chilling after great dinner at E&O; Trading Company in the City, Derek was horrified to learn that I planned to track down to Menlo Park and hit Kepler's Bookstore and Barrone's coffeehouse. "Dude! Don't go down to the peninsula. Find something new in the city!" And I did --- I took half a day finding bookstores in the City like Stacey's and MacDonalds Books, digging through Rasputin's used record store, and scouring leather shops like Stormy Leather, Mr. S and Madame S looking for new clubwear.
But then it was time to go down to my old haunts ... Menlo Park. Palo Alto. Mountain View. It was too late to scour the Stanford Bookstore, so I hit NOLA's New Orleans restaurant just off University Avenue instead, then trolled up to Megabooks (alas, also just closed) and the mega-Borders (mmm, good philosophy bookness) instead. But this, too, must close.
But not Happy Donuts.
An incredible congregation of donuts, students, and WiFi, Happy Donuts has slowly evolved from a quiet little donut shop (circa 1997 when I lived here) into the premiere place in the Peninsula for late night information exchange. The donuts are good. The Wi-Fi is free. And they're always open --- 24/7. You tell me where the studious (and, from the conversation at the table across from me, some not-so-studious) college kids are.
And here, at last, I begin to catch up on my blog. Even with my camera's power down I can still document the experience because I carry a phone with me. Yes, Mister Christian, it's the 21st century: we may not be on the Moon, but I just took a picture with a dang phone:
If you're too young to have taken apart your parents' AT&T-standard; T phone and then put it back together by hand, you may not understand, but I just took a picture with a handheld phone that looks an awful lot like a Star Trek communicator! Captain Kirk never had it so good!
Mmmm ... rich creamery technology goodness. As Homer Simpson might say: Happy Donuts eases the pain.
-the Centaur
On practically my first night I did something I'll not likely do when on a real Mars mission: stand out in the rain at 3 in the morning holding a flashlight.
The purpose of the MDRS is twofold. First is science: the MDRS station, and the Flashline and upcoming Euromars stations as well, enable us to test our ideas about living and working on Mars. Part of this is "analog science": How to build a habitat. How to staff a habitat. How to do geology in a spacesuit. And another part of this is "real science": Studying supernovas. Studying closed-quarters reaction times. Looking for life on Earth in places similar to that we can look on Mars.
But the second purpose is just as important: culture. We are engaged in an ongoing psychodynamic experiment in which the Mars Society is learning how to staff a Mars habitat. What kinds of people work together well. What kinds of people work together poorly. And, as we found out, how people react to adversity. Now, we didn't encounter any polar bears at MDRS, nor did major chunks of our habitat litho-brake into the ground when their parachute failed. HOWEVER, we've still had our own little adventures.
I already told the story of how we had wrong directions and coordinates for the trip down to MDRS, about how I nearly got the truck bogged in the mud, and how he then took over as an experienced offroad driver to PROFESSIONALLY get the truck bogged in the mud up to its hips.
So we arrived at the station at approximately 7am, about 12 hours late from our original arrival time and 6 hours later than our revised arrival time (prior to finding out we needed to pick up supplies and drop off a generator in SLC before we left). What got left out of that report was that the Engineering Refit Crew was NOT done when we arrived and the Hab was a gianormous mess. I got the feeling that the Mars Society could easily have put TWO refit crews on site for FOUR weeks and still they'd have had plenty of stuff to do for the duration, and after talking to the refit commander, Paul Graham (not THAT Paul Graham, mind you), about what he thought needed to be done to the site, I think my original estimate is conservative.
So two of the refit crew, Paul Graham and Artemis Westenberg, stayed on with us for several days trying to help out with a number of issues. Hugh threw the whole crew, with a few exceptions for Dr. Broering who had to leave early, behind the refit. And on the last day, after a whirlwhind of cleaning, the major issues at the Hab (like having power, drinking water, and the ability to take a dump) were all resolved.
Except ...
On the last night they were scheduled to be there, Paul burned the midnight oil trying to resolve a few outstanding issues. This involved running conduits (smurf pipe), running wire, and working his ass off on the most important part, the water pump. During all of this I followed everyone around with my clipboard and digital camera, basically pretending to be a handheld computer as part of my information system assistant project (when my hands were not needed running the aforementioned smurf pipe). The hardest task was the pump: Paul and Kevin Saka and the rest of the team worked for hours getting it right --- the wiring, the fittings, the remote switch --- and finally they got it.
Except ...
We threw the remote switch at the end of the day, trying to feed enough water into the GreenHab to keep our recycler (and thus our toilet) alive. But no water ran. Paul cursed. It had worked before! And he's not one to leave a task undone. And I'm not one to let someone go out into the night at 3am alone in cougar country, even if he is a 6 foot 4 marine who can take care of himself. So I picked up Little Blue (my giant Brinksman flashlight), grabbed my "Indiana Jones" hat, and headed out into the dark with Paul to fix the water pump.
Which returns us to something you're not likely to do on a real Mars mission: stand out in the rain at 3 in the morning holding a flashlight. On second thought, maybe you ARE likely to do that on a Mars mission, if not in the rain holding a flashlight, but in the sandstorms wearing a spacesuit, helping a friend fix part of the generator or recycler or airplant, doing what you need to do because it HAS to get done or no-one will survive.
But you do it. It gets done. And because you do what needs to be done without hesitation, everyone survives.
Welcome to Mars.
The purpose of the MDRS is twofold. First is science: the MDRS station, and the Flashline and upcoming Euromars stations as well, enable us to test our ideas about living and working on Mars. Part of this is "analog science": How to build a habitat. How to staff a habitat. How to do geology in a spacesuit. And another part of this is "real science": Studying supernovas. Studying closed-quarters reaction times. Looking for life on Earth in places similar to that we can look on Mars.
But the second purpose is just as important: culture. We are engaged in an ongoing psychodynamic experiment in which the Mars Society is learning how to staff a Mars habitat. What kinds of people work together well. What kinds of people work together poorly. And, as we found out, how people react to adversity. Now, we didn't encounter any polar bears at MDRS, nor did major chunks of our habitat litho-brake into the ground when their parachute failed. HOWEVER, we've still had our own little adventures.
I already told the story of how we had wrong directions and coordinates for the trip down to MDRS, about how I nearly got the truck bogged in the mud, and how he then took over as an experienced offroad driver to PROFESSIONALLY get the truck bogged in the mud up to its hips.
So we arrived at the station at approximately 7am, about 12 hours late from our original arrival time and 6 hours later than our revised arrival time (prior to finding out we needed to pick up supplies and drop off a generator in SLC before we left). What got left out of that report was that the Engineering Refit Crew was NOT done when we arrived and the Hab was a gianormous mess. I got the feeling that the Mars Society could easily have put TWO refit crews on site for FOUR weeks and still they'd have had plenty of stuff to do for the duration, and after talking to the refit commander, Paul Graham (not THAT Paul Graham, mind you), about what he thought needed to be done to the site, I think my original estimate is conservative.
So two of the refit crew, Paul Graham and Artemis Westenberg, stayed on with us for several days trying to help out with a number of issues. Hugh threw the whole crew, with a few exceptions for Dr. Broering who had to leave early, behind the refit. And on the last day, after a whirlwhind of cleaning, the major issues at the Hab (like having power, drinking water, and the ability to take a dump) were all resolved.
Except ...
On the last night they were scheduled to be there, Paul burned the midnight oil trying to resolve a few outstanding issues. This involved running conduits (smurf pipe), running wire, and working his ass off on the most important part, the water pump. During all of this I followed everyone around with my clipboard and digital camera, basically pretending to be a handheld computer as part of my information system assistant project (when my hands were not needed running the aforementioned smurf pipe). The hardest task was the pump: Paul and Kevin Saka and the rest of the team worked for hours getting it right --- the wiring, the fittings, the remote switch --- and finally they got it.
Except ...
We threw the remote switch at the end of the day, trying to feed enough water into the GreenHab to keep our recycler (and thus our toilet) alive. But no water ran. Paul cursed. It had worked before! And he's not one to leave a task undone. And I'm not one to let someone go out into the night at 3am alone in cougar country, even if he is a 6 foot 4 marine who can take care of himself. So I picked up Little Blue (my giant Brinksman flashlight), grabbed my "Indiana Jones" hat, and headed out into the dark with Paul to fix the water pump.
Which returns us to something you're not likely to do on a real Mars mission: stand out in the rain at 3 in the morning holding a flashlight. On second thought, maybe you ARE likely to do that on a Mars mission, if not in the rain holding a flashlight, but in the sandstorms wearing a spacesuit, helping a friend fix part of the generator or recycler or airplant, doing what you need to do because it HAS to get done or no-one will survive.
But you do it. It gets done. And because you do what needs to be done without hesitation, everyone survives.
Welcome to Mars.
Juggling the archives, here's our very first shot of our very first EVA, a few days ago when we were still jetlagged and travel tired!
Hugh donned his spacesuit to help out the refit team by taking out the garbage "in sim". More to come...
Hugh donned his spacesuit to help out the refit team by taking out the garbage "in sim". More to come...
So as a blogger I'm supposed to write something neat and witty about commanding my first ATV EVA (six short letters compressing the oxymoronic phrase "all-terrain vehicle extra-vehicular activity"):
Of course, being "commander" basically meant that my job was to keep everyone on the right road so we could hit all the fun spots before we ran out of air:
And now the wit and wisdom of the post-digerati blogosphere should be inserted here. But unfortunately work on a Mars station, shorthanded and overloaded with post-refit cleanup tasks which in turn generate reams of paperwork, has left me --- has left us all --- so tired that I can't even think straight:
We're having to jury-rig components to keep the station's power working since the replacement generator hasn't arrived yet ...
... and don't ask about the war with the Mighty Martian Mouse.
But, on the bright side, I have a beautiful dreamer sending me the staff of life (pound cake) by Earth-Mars express.
So yall have a good night and I'm going to catch some z's.
-Anthony
Of course, being "commander" basically meant that my job was to keep everyone on the right road so we could hit all the fun spots before we ran out of air:
And now the wit and wisdom of the post-digerati blogosphere should be inserted here. But unfortunately work on a Mars station, shorthanded and overloaded with post-refit cleanup tasks which in turn generate reams of paperwork, has left me --- has left us all --- so tired that I can't even think straight:
We're having to jury-rig components to keep the station's power working since the replacement generator hasn't arrived yet ...
... and don't ask about the war with the Mighty Martian Mouse.
But, on the bright side, I have a beautiful dreamer sending me the staff of life (pound cake) by Earth-Mars express.
So yall have a good night and I'm going to catch some z's.
-Anthony
Because of my trip out to the Mars Desert Research Station, my blog will be a bit fractured as I unload stories from both MDRS and prior, whenever I can get online to clear the backlog. Please be patient. Leaving the comforts of civilization was a challenge...
but it certainly has its privileges:
and since some of you have asked about cryptic emails from me I'll update you all shortly with details on the entire analogue Martian lexicon: cougar country, flashlight duty, rocket fuel, the mighty martian mouse, blowing mud, ATV EVAs, and of course, the Martian motto: Whatever It Takes!
Ad ares!
but it certainly has its privileges:
and since some of you have asked about cryptic emails from me I'll update you all shortly with details on the entire analogue Martian lexicon: cougar country, flashlight duty, rocket fuel, the mighty martian mouse, blowing mud, ATV EVAs, and of course, the Martian motto: Whatever It Takes!
Ad ares!
MOVE!
Let me hold the door for you...
But don't move there...
Or there either...
You'll find something.
Let me hold the door for you...
But don't move there...
Or there either...
You'll find something.
I have touched down in Salt Lake City, our stand-in for the Orbiting Mars Way Station that will receive future visitors to the Red Planet. Still don't know if we'll have email, but things are getting closer and closer. Our crew is forming up:
http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs04/crew35/
And we're getting ready to hop in our Mars Orbit-To-Surface transport vehicle (the big old MDRS van) and send our first crew out to the station! More news as it happens.
Ad Ares!
http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs04/crew35/
And we're getting ready to hop in our Mars Orbit-To-Surface transport vehicle (the big old MDRS van) and send our first crew out to the station! More news as it happens.
Ad Ares!
Just so you all know... because I'm late, and because I can't guarantee that I will be able to post while I'm out at the MDRS, I'm going to put up a dual update this week... and also return to posting my own art, now that my arm has healed!
Up today: Clarke and Cleopatra
This one is a dual page spread --- sorry it may be a bit difficult to view, but I've not yet figured out how to take this large format comic (which splashed across two pages) and make it still legible when shrunk.
Up tonight: Amber and Xiao
Back to your normal format.
-Anthony
Up today: Clarke and Cleopatra
This one is a dual page spread --- sorry it may be a bit difficult to view, but I've not yet figured out how to take this large format comic (which splashed across two pages) and make it still legible when shrunk.
Up tonight: Amber and Xiao
Back to your normal format.
-Anthony
Well, it's official: the crew is set and I'm on my way to Mars tomorrow morning! You can check us out starting the 21st of February at: MDRS Daily Field Reports or MDRS Home!
Ad Ares!
Try the Regex Coach --- this looks like a way cool way to figure out the comic-book cusswords that Perl, Awk and their friends use for regular expression matching (finding strings in longer strings).
I particularly like the tool's ability to translate what a regular expression means into human-readable language:
Check it out!
-the Centaur
I particularly like the tool's ability to translate what a regular expression means into human-readable language:
Check it out!
-the Centaur
Good news, everyone. I'm going to Mars!
Or, more accurately, the Mars Desert Research Station sponsored by the Mars Society.
I will be the Crew and Computer Engineer for Crew 35, which will serve from February 19th to March 6th. More news in a bit as soon as the final crew complement has stabilized ...
Ad ares!
-the Centaur
Yea verily, she be frozen in the ice. Arr.
No-one in Atlanta was going much of anywhere
on Saturday ... it was locked down from pretty
much morning to evening under a drizzle of
freezing rain.
So why was it much easier to get work done on
my class outlines on Sunday, when I was free to
indulge in distractions such as going out to
dinner with friends? I'd say I easily got
twice as much done on Sunday than I did on
Saturday, when it was just me, a stack of AI
textbooks, and my word processor.
Perhaps my brain needed more incubating. Or
maybe I work better under pressure. Or maybe,
just maybe, I need a fricking studio instead
of my kitchen table.
-grumble'taur
I had my doctor's appointment and the results were good though discouraging.
My bone is healing perfectly, but slowly. Clinically my arm is healing perfectly
--- scar closed, swelling gone, good range of motion and promising strength ---
but on the x-ray you can clearly see that the bone isn't healed at the site of the
original break. My doc told me that while I could "return to the activities of
daily living", it could be up to two to three months before the bone is healed
to take the weight of handstand or a nengi (taido's spinning floor kick).
The super good news, thank God, is that my arm looks like it will completely
heal, so I don't want to screw that up! I've done some research on my own,
and the doc's projections are right on the money for what other physicians
project for a forearm break. According to my initial surveys if I was on
schedule for a break then around 10 weeks I'd be starting range of motion
therapy and at 12 weeks back to limited strengh training. I'm past 8 weeks,
so if anything I'm progressing ahead of schedule.
While I may talk to my doc about doing an early followup appointment,
realistically I'm not going to be able to go full out for at least a
couple of months. SO ... while I'm having a lot of fun at taido with
nengi and handstands and such, especially with the new ideas for the
upcoming tournament, it looks like I'm going to either have to miss
the tournament entirely or have my slot switched to do a less
intensive technique than throwing my head at the floor, missing,
and catching myself on my hands.
This sucks, but my arm looks like it's going to heal almost
perfectly --- and I plan to Do The Right Thing and keep it that way!
-Anthony
For all the students in my Introdution to Artificial Intelligence
course ... never fear, the coursenotes are coming. Check out the
classes link to see where the notes will be...
right now this is a placeholder, but I've got more content built up
now and will get it up, hopefully, by the end of the day Monday.
-Anthony
course ... never fear, the coursenotes are coming. Check out the
classes link to see where the notes will be...
right now this is a placeholder, but I've got more content built up
now and will get it up, hopefully, by the end of the day Monday.
-Anthony
Since some have asked ... "excellent anatomic reduction" just means "your bone is set well." ;-)
Actually, what it *really* means is that the doctor was able to match the bone ends together and return the bone to its original anatomical shape:
Reduction, Alignment, and Fixation
Now, anatomic reduction is what the doctor achieved while I was on the operating table, even before the plate was screwed in. What the doctor hoped (and got) to see was that the good reduction they achieved in surgery (where all the pieces fit together the way they were originally anatomically aligned) remained in place over the intervening two weeks thanks to the plate-and-screw fixation.
And it did. Yay! No news on when my ACME springloaded metal spike attachment will arrive, though.
-the Centaur
Actually, what it *really* means is that the doctor was able to match the bone ends together and return the bone to its original anatomical shape:
Reduction, Alignment, and Fixation
Now, anatomic reduction is what the doctor achieved while I was on the operating table, even before the plate was screwed in. What the doctor hoped (and got) to see was that the good reduction they achieved in surgery (where all the pieces fit together the way they were originally anatomically aligned) remained in place over the intervening two weeks thanks to the plate-and-screw fixation.
And it did. Yay! No news on when my ACME springloaded metal spike attachment will arrive, though.
-the Centaur
At two weeks, I went back for my follow-up visit. The cast came off, the staples came out, and after an X-Ray, the doctor pronounced that the bone had achieved "excellent anatomic reduction":
Even before I went in, my friends were all commenting that my fingers seemed to be moving better in the cast/sling thing they had me in, as did the physician's assistant when I arrived; however, once the cast came off the doctor positively cooed over the flex in my fingers and the range of rotation. "Look at that rotation right out of the box. Are your nerves OK? Flex your fingers. Ok. That's great. You'll get full function back in that arm." A promising range of motion indeed.
I'll be carrying this charming little comb of metal around in my arm for a while --- and likely carrying a card to get myself through airport security for a while --- but darn, modern medicine is grand.
-the Centaur
Even before I went in, my friends were all commenting that my fingers seemed to be moving better in the cast/sling thing they had me in, as did the physician's assistant when I arrived; however, once the cast came off the doctor positively cooed over the flex in my fingers and the range of rotation. "Look at that rotation right out of the box. Are your nerves OK? Flex your fingers. Ok. That's great. You'll get full function back in that arm." A promising range of motion indeed.
I'll be carrying this charming little comb of metal around in my arm for a while --- and likely carrying a card to get myself through airport security for a while --- but darn, modern medicine is grand.
-the Centaur
Among the many things made difficult by having one's right arm in a sling are a few surprises --- like the inability to apply torque.
I've injured my right wrist before, so I expected it would be difficult to type one handed (especially for a programmer who extensively uses shortcut keys --- try Ctrl-Alt-Shift-O one handed!), or to write one handed (especially bills and checks; they move when you can't hold them down), or to drive one handed (fumble for your right pocket keys, then the ignition, then the seat belt, then the gear shift --- thank God for automatics!) I've had to reduce the number of books I carry to lunch (to my benefit) and obviously heavy lifting is right out.
But it wasn't obvious at all --- perhaps because my previous injury was not so severe --- that I wouldn't be able to *twist* things. When the arm was still
unset for the first three days, even the slightest applied torque was intensely painful. And so I counted it a great victory when, after the bone plate was installed, I was finally able to rip open a pack of Sweet'NLow using something other than my teeth.
However, the problem persists. Opening jars one might expect to be a problem. But being unable to squeeze ice out of ice trays? Unable to fold pants? The problem is worse because I recruit my less deft left hand for everything else ... and thus more frequently drop things, causing my right hand to jerk after whatever I've dropped in an attempt to catch it ... resulting in another painful twinge.
But, it is feeling better --- itchy rather than twingy --- so I'm going to
hope and pray for the best at my doctor's appointment tomorrow!
I've injured my right wrist before, so I expected it would be difficult to type one handed (especially for a programmer who extensively uses shortcut keys --- try Ctrl-Alt-Shift-O one handed!), or to write one handed (especially bills and checks; they move when you can't hold them down), or to drive one handed (fumble for your right pocket keys, then the ignition, then the seat belt, then the gear shift --- thank God for automatics!) I've had to reduce the number of books I carry to lunch (to my benefit) and obviously heavy lifting is right out.
But it wasn't obvious at all --- perhaps because my previous injury was not so severe --- that I wouldn't be able to *twist* things. When the arm was still
unset for the first three days, even the slightest applied torque was intensely painful. And so I counted it a great victory when, after the bone plate was installed, I was finally able to rip open a pack of Sweet'NLow using something other than my teeth.
However, the problem persists. Opening jars one might expect to be a problem. But being unable to squeeze ice out of ice trays? Unable to fold pants? The problem is worse because I recruit my less deft left hand for everything else ... and thus more frequently drop things, causing my right hand to jerk after whatever I've dropped in an attempt to catch it ... resulting in another painful twinge.
But, it is feeling better --- itchy rather than twingy --- so I'm going to
hope and pray for the best at my doctor's appointment tomorrow!
Thanks to the charming folks over at Resurgens Othopaedics and Saint Joseph's Hospital, who graciously squeezed me into the schedule way early Saturday morning, I now have a prototype bionic arm. Well, an adamantium skeleton, anyway. Ok, so it's just a bone plate. But it is still cool:
At this juncture they think I have a stong chance to regain more or less full function. w00+! But it is my typing hand, and typing with the other hand is getting tiring, so I'm going to go ice it, elevate it and get back to the full story in a couple of days.
-Anthony
At this juncture they think I have a stong chance to regain more or less full function. w00+! But it is my typing hand, and typing with the other hand is getting tiring, so I'm going to go ice it, elevate it and get back to the full story in a couple of days.
-Anthony
Ohayoo, taidoka and fanuka! Today's lesson is, "Why to duck rather than block".
I take Taido, a modern martial art focusing on three dimensional movement. One of its most distinctive features is its combination of offense and defense. For example, a key offensive move is is ebigeri, a "shrimp kick" that moves your body out of the line of attack while firing back with a heel kick powered by the change in body axis. A key defense move is half fukuteki, a ducking maneuver which pops you back from an attack but leaves you coiled to deliver an hip-twisting eji zuki punch.
Taido's strategy values this defense-offense synergy over blocks, which waste energy while exposing you to potential injury. Speaking of which...
CRACK! "Hey ... that doesn't feel right..."
SO, the thirtieth anniversary of Taido in the US will be celebrated with an international tournament, and so we at Georgia Tech Taido are preparing now. Tuesday night, in jissen (sparring) practice, I got nailed in the forearm by a supa supa smooth, perfectly timed ebi geri fired off by one of our black belts and yes, indeedy, my arm was broken.
Kudos to our senior brown belt Shelly and her husband Greg for running me to Piedmont Hospital and providing moral support, and double kudos to sensei Corey for both his excellent technique and great sportsmanship --- he checked over my forearm right away, knew all the right questions to ask, and let me recuperate while keeping the class running smoothly until Shelly rolled me out the door. (And mongo kudos to my girlfriend Sandi, who stayed the night to help out even though she'd been up 24 hours straight.)
And as for the break? Big lesson: if you hear a crack, it feels loose or it looks out of shape, ice it and go get it looked at ASAP. Most breaks heal in 2 months or so. Mine is a classic nightstick fracture --- treatable in kids by setting the bone but in adults by implanting a metal plate, which has a seven times higher success rate. Surgery is tomorrow, and it will probably be 3-4 months before I can fully resume all activities.
SO, and while it will take at least that long for me to try backflips again, I think this is a good opportunity to focus on my footwork! (When Corey suggested to us at the beginning of class that our hand movement and foot movement are too closely tied and we need to break that in jissen, I don't think he meant us to take that so literally! ;-)
Now, I had some time to think about this while recuperating, and this is what I came up with (based on my mental reconstruction of what happened; but since it went very fast, YMMV). Much of this may have meaning only to a Taido student, but here goes:
Face cover and stomach cover work.
While I said earlier that "this is why we duck rather than block", that's not quite true --- I was doing an untai no ski and pulled my hand down in just the right timing to protect my torso. (As it was I was lucky; he pulled it just a bit because this was a friendly match, so I was in no real danger; in a more serious fight, that same maneuver would have traded me a broken arm for a more serious broken rib and maybe a knockout). Corey said it best at the beginning of class: keep your hands up and make them purposeful.
Keep watching!
Corey nailed me because he saw what I was going to do, saw the opportunity and took it. I too saw what he was doing and had a millisecond chance to abort and fukuteki ... and with more practice I will. As Chris says, keep looking.
Duck rather than block.
The real problem was that I haven't trained myself to duck rather than just move in wth more forward attacks. As Chad has said, we need to focus on Taido: ducking rather than blocking or jamming. With enough live defense to offense practice I would have seen the "opportunity" to fukuteki away from the ebigeri and just done it ... just like Brian E. showed us last night how practice can help you instinctively recognize the opportunity to nengi under a senjo and just do it (which he did pretty effectively to me last night). This kind of defense to offense fluidity is Taido.
Anyway, enough karate theory. This little break may mean some changes over at fanufiku.com ... I'm now trying to recruit guest artists to fill in the gaps --- contact me at centaur at dresan dot com if you are interested.
More news as it happens.
-Anthony
I take Taido, a modern martial art focusing on three dimensional movement. One of its most distinctive features is its combination of offense and defense. For example, a key offensive move is is ebigeri, a "shrimp kick" that moves your body out of the line of attack while firing back with a heel kick powered by the change in body axis. A key defense move is half fukuteki, a ducking maneuver which pops you back from an attack but leaves you coiled to deliver an hip-twisting eji zuki punch.
Taido's strategy values this defense-offense synergy over blocks, which waste energy while exposing you to potential injury. Speaking of which...
CRACK! "Hey ... that doesn't feel right..."
SO, the thirtieth anniversary of Taido in the US will be celebrated with an international tournament, and so we at Georgia Tech Taido are preparing now. Tuesday night, in jissen (sparring) practice, I got nailed in the forearm by a supa supa smooth, perfectly timed ebi geri fired off by one of our black belts and yes, indeedy, my arm was broken.
Kudos to our senior brown belt Shelly and her husband Greg for running me to Piedmont Hospital and providing moral support, and double kudos to sensei Corey for both his excellent technique and great sportsmanship --- he checked over my forearm right away, knew all the right questions to ask, and let me recuperate while keeping the class running smoothly until Shelly rolled me out the door. (And mongo kudos to my girlfriend Sandi, who stayed the night to help out even though she'd been up 24 hours straight.)
And as for the break? Big lesson: if you hear a crack, it feels loose or it looks out of shape, ice it and go get it looked at ASAP. Most breaks heal in 2 months or so. Mine is a classic nightstick fracture --- treatable in kids by setting the bone but in adults by implanting a metal plate, which has a seven times higher success rate. Surgery is tomorrow, and it will probably be 3-4 months before I can fully resume all activities.
SO, and while it will take at least that long for me to try backflips again, I think this is a good opportunity to focus on my footwork! (When Corey suggested to us at the beginning of class that our hand movement and foot movement are too closely tied and we need to break that in jissen, I don't think he meant us to take that so literally! ;-)
Now, I had some time to think about this while recuperating, and this is what I came up with (based on my mental reconstruction of what happened; but since it went very fast, YMMV). Much of this may have meaning only to a Taido student, but here goes:
Face cover and stomach cover work.
While I said earlier that "this is why we duck rather than block", that's not quite true --- I was doing an untai no ski and pulled my hand down in just the right timing to protect my torso. (As it was I was lucky; he pulled it just a bit because this was a friendly match, so I was in no real danger; in a more serious fight, that same maneuver would have traded me a broken arm for a more serious broken rib and maybe a knockout). Corey said it best at the beginning of class: keep your hands up and make them purposeful.
Keep watching!
Corey nailed me because he saw what I was going to do, saw the opportunity and took it. I too saw what he was doing and had a millisecond chance to abort and fukuteki ... and with more practice I will. As Chris says, keep looking.
Duck rather than block.
The real problem was that I haven't trained myself to duck rather than just move in wth more forward attacks. As Chad has said, we need to focus on Taido: ducking rather than blocking or jamming. With enough live defense to offense practice I would have seen the "opportunity" to fukuteki away from the ebigeri and just done it ... just like Brian E. showed us last night how practice can help you instinctively recognize the opportunity to nengi under a senjo and just do it (which he did pretty effectively to me last night). This kind of defense to offense fluidity is Taido.
Anyway, enough karate theory. This little break may mean some changes over at fanufiku.com ... I'm now trying to recruit guest artists to fill in the gaps --- contact me at centaur at dresan dot com if you are interested.
More news as it happens.
-Anthony