Which Martial Art?

I am still amused with how uncommitted I can be at times. When I applied to TTU, I was starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and continuing with my running. Given my workload the past term, I had little time or motivation to go grapple. Grappling is very intense, and I, frankly, was too tired or not in the mood after long days teaching. My teaching was too important to me. So the BJJ slid. Still, in spite of this, I continued to jog.

Now, six months after I was finalizing my application, I cannot see committing to BJJ. Not where I currently am psychologically and emotionally. Sure, I'll be happy to go there and learn some of the training techniques, improve my non-existent ground game, and, generally speaking, work out with some tough guys. I am not prepared to do that every time I go to train.

In the mean time, I've learned that one of my colleagues at HSU is opening a Tae Kwan Do school. In addition to competing at world cup level and training with Olympic competitors, he teaches composition. Hmmm. Limb destruction and effective use of quotations in the same three minute span... Of course it makes sense.

In a lot of ways, the actual individual art does not matter that much to me. What matters is the spirit of instruction, the caliber of teaching, the heart of the school, and the efficacy of the art. So, I've shifted yet again. I find it highly entertaining that each time I think I have found what it is I am going to do for the rest of my time things change. Then they change again.

This shifting, being slippery, is how many of our students live in FYC. They do not have a clue what their major will be, and each week it's a radical and new commitment. So, here I am, as a student, experiencing exactly that same kind of shift. This kind of shift, this lack of surety is certainly going to be good for my sense of professional balance and placement!

So, for now, it appears like I'll be studying Tae Kwan Do. But I will continue to run. For the time being, much of my running is dedicated to interval work. It's a good change, but it's exhausting.

Preparing for January

I am still on vacation, and I am attempting to do nothing related to composition, the PhD program, or official identity stuff at all. Hmmm. What is a boy to do?

I have been cleaning and organizing papers and books and cds and dvds the past couple days. It is obvious that I am in love with texts. Media. I love them. But I think the true vehicle of my passion is the photocopy machine. Nearly tied with the Xerox is the laser printer.

As I have cleaned things out, I have found stacks of handouts for my classes, print outs for lesson plans, articles that interested me at some point three years ago, and an endless sheaf of aborted Greg-authored texts. Hoo boy. Someone, please, help me organize my writing!

Perhaps most stunning is that I have been oblivious as to just how reliant, how dependent I am upon the laser printer and Xerox. Honestly, I should construct an altar or pen an ode to their value. Really. I have little idea on how I could have completed my professional identify without either of them. And when I think about my pops typing up his PhD on a MANUAL typewriter with CARBON PAPER, I shudder. Shudder.

So, in the New Year, I promise to be more vocally grateful for digital reproduction devices.

In the mean time, I have used this organizational time to clear shelf space for my PhD work. In order to clean space, that means I must pitch stuff. Pitching stuff means that I must make mental room for doctoral work and toss a bunch of semi-aborted projects which have collected but retain near-dead emotional energy. You know, that short story outline which is gasping for life but will never see the light of day, the seven successful steps for student success book outline that will never get past the write-up, the modestly written guide to effective thrift store shopping that, somehow, could never get past page four. Yeah. All that stuff has to go. Filed, stashed, and cut off.

I cannot speak for others, but I am emotionally involved and connected to my texts. Stacks of old work means stacks of old emo-memories. Instead of letting them go fallow and slowly die, I'm putting them out of their misery. My PhD needs my attention and energy.

It's time to cut bait. Funny thing is this: I feel so much better now that I have done this. And I feel revitalized!

On FaceBook

Yes, I have succumbed. I am now at FaceBook.

Financial Aid

This process has been chock full of interesting bumps. Fortunately, Joyce and the TC&R Posse have been great about getting information or answers back to me super-flash-quick.

Regardless of what the Financial Aid office may say or have posted, 3 PhD credits is full-time attendance. This according to Joyce after multiple queries. Why did I confirm several times? Almost every other piece of information coming from the financial aid office indicates you must have 6 credits. Thus, in money matters, I like to confirm things. I have (hopefully not to the point of being annoying), and it is very clear that there's some confusion in the FA machine. Thus, if you are a newbie in the TC&R program and taking one three credit course, you should get full-time aid.

There is a cap on the total financial aid you will receive for the year. This means that if you take the max in Fall and Spring there will be nothing left for Summer. Apparently, there is some aid available for Summer. It can be taken out of the lump total for the year if you've not maxed your F/S aid, or you can go through another application process for additional funds at higher interest rates. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) The MO for success, as I have understood from several folks, is to save all your extra Fall/Spring Financial Aid coin and apply it to the May and Summer expenses.

Summing it up, this wisdom from Lennie:

Joyce will keep you up to date on when and how to register for May. And just a heads-up for those new to the program. The May Seminar tuition and summer tuition pretty much come due at the same time (or at least within a single month). That means you need to have a larger lump of cash ready to plunk down than you might be used to for a Fall or Spring semester, and to my knowledge there isn't a payment plan option (though I sure wish there were).

More Martial Education Leads

Richard Schmidt of the University of Nebraska

Classical Greek ideal of education

Dr. Julie Brown, professor Emeritus and a past coordinator of the program of instruction of Kendo at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Japanese tradition of bunbu-ryodo (learning the classics (bun) and the practice of martial arts (bu)) are like two wheels of a cart.

Information taken from pages 112-116
The Shambhala Guide to Kendo by Minoru Kiyota. Boston. 2002. Shambhala.

Martial Arts & Liberal Education

Levine, Donald N. "Martial Arts as a Resource for Liberal Education," in Japanese Martial Arts and American sports, 173-87.

Texts on Combat/War which Include Training

Chris Hedges: What Every Person Should Know About WarThin anti-war book with Q&A as primary format.

Jonathan Shay: Achilles in Vietnam (Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character)Subtitle says it all.
Suggested from WPA list.

Jonathan Shay: Odysseus in America (Combat Truma and the Trials of Homecoming)Subtitle says it all
Suggested from WPA list.

E. B. Sledge: With the Old Breed, at Peleliu and OkinawaMemoir/history of a Marine who served in WW2 at Peleliu. Clear writing, graphic description, basics about training/coherence in unit.
Suggested from WPA list.

Acquire Mental Lubricants in Advance

I am in the final stretch, and my brain is hurting. I am sure teaching while doing PhD work is going to be equally or more intense. Thus, I need to make sure that I have a set or three of DVDs and/or books as end-of-term mental lubricants to ease my brain during the stress.

Purchase in advance for sanity.

Comics & Graphic Novels: Primers

To get a foothold on graphic novels/comics:

Scott McCloud’s "Understanding Comics" and other books on comics
Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art"