Illness

Hey all (is there anyone out there reading this?)

I have not been feeling all that great for the past month or so. Started with getting what I think was food poisoning in TN June 10th. Man that was bad, lost about 4-5 lbs in a few days. The hard part was getting well enough to get HOME, being sick in a hotel just plain sucks.
After this mess, i have been noticing some pains in the right-side of my back. Its been like a pulled muscle or something, and with all the crap i have moved (office mezzanine) in the past month, it could easily be. I have had 2 more boughs of this stomach bug in the past 3 weeks. The last one was when I was in Houston last week. Again, it sucks being sick out of town, it sucks more when you have to get on a plane and fly back when you feel like curling up in a ball and hiding from the world instead.
My wife and mom pushed me to go get this mess looked at because the pain in my back has been worse all week. The Dr didnt really know what was going on, but wanted me to do the usual test, blood, urine, etc. They found "large blood" (whatever that means) in my urine, and this made them schedule a CT Scan for my kidney tomorrow.

Just HATE being sick, My wife and mom leave for NY with my sisters on friday (while im getting poked and prodded) and hopefully i will be ok next week alone with just my 12 year old. I would hate to wake up needing to go to the hospital or something without anyone there to help.

Anyway, was a little board, have a great one all!
David
Pilsung!

Cho Dan (1st Degree Black Belt)

Wow, how do I even start this one. If you have read any of my other blog posts you know all about the fact I have been taking Tae Kwon Do for over 6 years now. Well, this past weekend I took, and passed my Cho Dan physical testing. I had passed my 200 question written test about a month ago. I have been trying to figure out how to put this achievement into words that could possibly describe what this means to me.

If you want to know the history of how I got involved in TKD please check the post "How TKD has changed me" its all in there.

About 2 years ago a few of the people in my class were getting ready for their Black Belt testing, and they had asked me to help them out and since I had not really been involved with that high of a level I jumped at the idea. Shane and I worked a lot on his testing, with things like knife defenses, armed vs unarmed scenarios and more.

I was at Blue belt I believe at that time, and to be honest I don't think I was ever thinking along the lines that I was headed toward a black belt, it was more just something I was doing each week for my health, to learn how to defend myself, and to give me something in common with my son.

I remember being there for Shane and Dustin's testing and working as Shane's 2nd (being tossed around, beat up, and more) and thinking at that time, "you know, I think I can do all this". There were around 12 people testing, and the test lasted around 7 hrs, it was insane. I just wasn't sure I could do the testing because of all the physical elements involved. I'm not in the best of shape, and my knees are a total disaster.

I tested for my Red Belt in Dec of 2006, and I had hopped to test for my Black Belt in October of 2007, but due to not testing for my Black Stripe till mid summer, and being out of town a ton, it just didn't work out. I have been struggling with this for most of this year, I have wanted to test and it just seemed like every time I went to take my written test, it got bumped or something happened. As it turns out I don't think I was ready for the test till I actually took it. And even then there were things I was not ready for. But as I'm learning that is all part of the system, being prepared for anything. After passing my written test, I had to head out of town for a few weeks, and when I came back it was determined that I would test on April 26th. At the time I left for FL the testing was going to just be me, and this scared the living crap out of me. The idea of a room full of people all watching every move I made and having the testing board solely looking at me and not distracted by anyone else.. wow.. not something I wanted to think about.

I came back and found out that there would be about 12 of us testing, and this was so great, all the pressure was lifted off me, and I felt so much better about things. There would be 5 of us testing for 1st Degree, 6 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd. The best part about this was the idea there would be other, more advanced students there as well, taking even more pressure off me. I began to prepare for the bat/knife defenses, and all the throws, and more. I was headed to the Wednesday night class (a week and 1/2 before testing) and got a call from Miss Kim telling me that our Black Belts would not be in in time for testing. I could choose to continue to test and just receive a blank Black Belt or I could wait for another month and test with the rest of the 1st degree's. I so wanted to test and felt I was as ready as I would ever be, so I told her I would go for it. Back to being the only person testing for 1st Degree put a lot more pressure back on me as here I am with all these upper ranks that are much younger, in better shape, and just plain better at all this than I am, and just me.

The amazing part was (and if you know me this is truly the lord's intervention in my life) I was so calm and at ease. I went to my last class as a non-black belt, this past Friday and it was so awesome, It was like being someone else. Miss Kim had us line up to go thru forms, and the pointed out that the best part of having a candidate for testing in the class was that they had someone (me) to answer all the questions on the forms. Anyone that knows me knows I get nervous and doubt myself a LOT. But this was just NOT the case, she would ask me what the next form was, what it meant, how many moves, etc. and it all just flowed out from me like I had known it my whole life. I was so at peace with all of this, it was an amazing feeling.

I woke up Saturday morning and this feeling was still there, normally I would have been a royal mess, but it was so amazingly cool. It was like knowing that I had already passed my test and all I had to do was show up. I got to testing and was just kind of hanging out before hand, stretching out, getting ready. I went thru my forms and things in my mind, and was really just enjoying the whole process.

Testing began with what I like to call "Master Tim Says" lol. He ran us thru our punches, kicks, and more. We did all the normal punches, kicks, and then moved into the Flying and Jumping kicks (things that normally kill my knees) and since I was only testing for 1st Degree, I didn't have to so as many as the 2nd and 3rd degree's had to. Even though I had to do a few of them he wanted me to try. The only problem I had was after these kicks my legs were having spasms and it was freaking me out a little. I had Alex run to the car and get me some Alive and it worked GREAT! (Product endorsement time?)

We went thru all our forms, and I got quizzed a little on several of them, and had no problems answering. Wasn't nervous at ALL. Again, this was just amazing to me. I think I did pretty well on my forms, but the group as a whole was all over the place. I tried to follow the Sr. Student (Timothy) but everyone else was just all over speed wise. Master Tim was not happy with this, and had us do a few forms over. I was so dang sore when I was done, and hot as crap. Luckily I was able to sit for a little while the rest of the group went thru the forms I didn't have to know (YET). SO I watered-up.. hehe

We moved on to self defense grabs and things. We split up into groups of 2 all over the floor, this was cool because we ALL did things at the same time. Then Master Tim pulled us 2 at a time out to the middle of the room to go thru a few things. Then we moved onto One-Step Sparring. We had to do 1st degree, and more. Back in the groups, we did this for about 5-10 mins. He then pulled us 2 at a time out to do 3 step sparring, (3) punches, punch, kick, punch, then (3) kicks. They all went really well, I loved the Kicks, on the last one I tossed Shane across the room when his foot came up to kick.. hehe Loved it!

Everyone else got to rest a little while I did my 1 on 1 and 2 on 1 sparring. The 1 on 1 went good, the 2 on 1 was not the best. I was exhausted and that floor (the nice spongy one) made moving around a LOT harder. I took a kick to the back of my left leg and it went numb pretty quick. I was stumbling and I think Master Tim saw this and yelled out "only 5 more seconds Mr Roman". That gave me the drive to finish it. After we stopped I realized I had blood all over my uniform. It turns out that Shane ripped his thumbnail about 1/2 off when beating the crap out of me. LOL He streaked blood over all over, it was great, looked like I had been in one heck of a fight.

The bad part was I had to jump right into my Armed defenses. This went pretty well, There were a few times Master Tim had me do things a little different, Love his instruction style, just wish I could do everything he asks the first time.. LOL

The Scenarios did not go so well. Had been told that I needed to have a 1 on 1 unarmed, a 1 on 1 armed and a 2 on 1 armed. When I got up there it turned out (after a lot of confusion) that I needed (3) 2 on 1 Scenarios, one un armed, the other 2 armed. I had been practicing (2) 2 on 1 armed and they went over really well. The last one where I had to describe what I was doing was really funny. After it was over, and I have killed both attackers, Master Tim asked me what I should do next. I told him I'd call the police, he was so great telling me I was making a "Rookie mistake" and that I needed to wipe the blood on one of the bad guys and make sure I wiped off my fingerprints, and put the knife in the hand of the fist guy. This got a big laugh, and made me so much more at ease. The other great line was when I was about to do my Bat Defense and Master Tim told Mr Brim to "Beat him like a baby seal" LOL. Too good.

I got to rest a little while the others did their ground and disadvantaged position one-steps. I needed a rest BAD.

We then moved on to board breaking, this was just awesome. Breaking boards is one of the things my (BIG) Body was designed for. I have the mASS to put into my kicks and power. I had to do a "speed break" which means holding the board in one hand and punching it or hitting it (with your hand) as fast as possible. This broke no problem, it was great. I got to break first, and set the tone. The 2nd Degree's did really well. One girl broke a toe but kept on going and didn't really let anyone else know.

We moved outside to do my (5) Board Break and the 2nd Degree's Concrete break. I got to break my boards first. As you see in the pic that is a LOT of wood. It was strapped to the holder (love that thing its soo cool). I stepped up, measure 2 times, and then SLAMMMMM and went right thru all the boards!

All the 2nd Degree's had to break their concrete and a few of the little kids tried to break a board or two as well. LOVE board breaking!

We moved back into the room, lined back up, to receive our certificates and Belts (I'm the only one that received a belt, since the 2nd degree's had theirs already). I was lowest rank and normally that would have meant I got mine first, but Master Tim made me wait till LAST. As we were waiting for something right before this, he had everyone come to attention, turn and face ME and then he had them take Fighting Stance. So it was me vs 7 2nd and 3rd degree black belts. He goes "Ok Mr Roman, you ready". I said "Yep", and I looked at the guy next to me and I said "I'm throwing you at them.. ". everyone laughed, and he turned us back to face front.

He called me up to the front to receive my belt and certificate. I was so emotional, and was trying not to cry. This has been an amazing journey for me. Master Tim made it 10x worse when he goes "If there ever was a person who personifies the word Perseverance its the man standing in front of me". How do you respond to that without letting lose. I Looked at Miss Kim and she goes "ooooh no you don't, don't make me cry!". He handed me my belt and certificate and then shook my hand, I moved to shake Miss Kim's hand and she goes "no way.. you get a hug!" and she gives me this big hug, and whispers in my ear that she is proud of me. Wow, amazing day. I go thru the testing board. Mr Cabana, Mr Caulfield, then to Miss Heather, she gave me another big hug. I guess I am just a big teddy bear.

I moved back into place and he bowed us out of testing.

Wow.. man.. there is no words that I know of that could describe how I felt and still feel.

I would like to take this time to show the following people how much they mean to me. IN NO PERTICULAR ORDER!!

Mr Brim - Thanks so much for the help as my 3rd for testing, letting me toss you around, and beat you up. Your great! Your testing will come soon I'm sure, and I hope I can return the favor.

Shane - Dude, how do I thank you enough. You came back to class with your dad for the sole purpose of helping me out with testing. You bleed for me, you allowed me to beat you up, over and thru.. LOL You are an amazing guy!

Miss Erica - You kept me going when I thought I should quit. You have trained me longer than anyone, and I owe you so much. You are one tough teacher, and that made me much stronger than ever!

Miss Kim - You have been an amazing teacher, you pushed me and made me stronger than I thought I could be. Your outside is so tough, but its the inside that shines thru!

Heather - You are the best, absolutely they best. You will make the best PO. You have shown me what inner strength is all about. You come to class when you are sick, when you are barely able to move sometimes, and you push thru it. You will make an amazing mom one day. LOVE YA!!

Mr. Aldridge - You have always been the standard by which I measure my forms and one-steps. Your precision is just amazing. Class is just not the same without you and Shane!

Master Tim - I have already told you privately thank you. You are an awesome teacher, the world would be so much better off with more like you. Your amazing ability as well as selflessness make you one of a kind. You saw in me something that I had never seen. THANK YOU!

Nancy (Silver!) - you know you have been my Silver best friend for years. You listen to me bitch and moan (daily) and you have always pushed me to do better. Even when others looked at me like I was strange for taking TKD at my age and size, you never made me feel it was stupid. You were there all the times I needed to study .. PILSUNG!!

Alex - You have grown so much over the past 6 years (1/2 of your life!), you are my heart and my soul. I see in you so much, and have such high hopes for your future. You are my Monkey and I love ya!

Thank you all for letting me share this part of my life with you. Its been a great ride, and the best part is, its just starting!

Testing ... SOON

I took my Black Belt (Written) test about 3 weeks ago, passing it with a 93 1/2 (lol). I was afraid i would be out of town for too long to be able to get ready for the Physical test. I found out 3 weeks ago that I would be testing on the 26th of April. I am really excited about testing, I am REALLY ready for it, this journey has been going on for over 6 years now.
The testing was going to be just me and when i got back from being out of town a few weeks, I found out that there will be a total of 12 people testing. This is really good for me, it takes all the pressure off. Im there to do my best, and I will do my best, and God willing I will be a Cho Dan in less then 3 weeks!!! Explaining what this means to me is next to impossible. See my other post on How TKD has changed me . Its been a long year so far, already have over 40 nights being out of town, and its only 1/3rd of the way thru the year.

I will post when the test is over, im sure ill be flying high for weeks on that one.

Another day

Man this is not a great start to the week.  Got into the office and was told that I needed to move some big desks into the back room, replacing the made-up desk that was there now. What a pain.  It took most of the day to move everything out of the 4 file cabs that were the base for the desk, and then get everything into place.  Put power strips on top of the desk and on the peg-board, added the chargers for the (2) cordless drills, and the screwdriver.  Found out that someone messed up the one cordless screwdriver, jammed a bit into it and it wouldn't come back out.  Just a pain.  The people there are just so thoughtless, no one will take 2 mins to put things back, or clean up, yet it always seems to fall to me to get it done.  Why?  I guess because I'm dumb enough to DO IT.

Got some in's on a few new possible clients, but not a lot if going on web-wise, and it sucks, i need the $$$.  Been working on some widgets / gadgets but nothing i think will make me any $.  Maybe the Netflix Que Reader.  Who knows.

I have to study for my TKD Exam (the written part) its sooo dang hard to learn all these words in Korean, and get them right. I want to be "ready" to take it Friday.  I have to work on this crap, but i just never seem to "Want" to do it.  I have been wanting to move from red to Black for over 14 months now, and it still seems as far away as it did the day i got the red belt.  It just seems like it will never happen.  I dont feel like i know what i need to know.

Anyway, just wanted to post something, its been a while, and im making Alex BLOG each day, so i figured id do the same.  Enjoy!

2007 The Year in Review

Hey there, just thought I would take a minute to cover this crazy year.

If there ever was a year where WORK was the #1 thing going on it was this year.
It was also a year of a lot of changes.

The Front Porch
In 2004 I started playing drums for a small church called "The Front Porch". It was a massive change for me, I had been playing for a very large church in an orchestra, this was a very progressive church with rock-and-roll Christian music. Being able to play and change things on the fly was a lot different for me. This was a blast, it gave me a chance to grow as a drummer forcing me to play music styles i had never tried before. The church was a blast, a wonderful pastor, and a membership that was more like a family then a church. The problem was that we just couldnt seem to get anyone to come and stay. There were a few people who came and joined into the body of the church, but it seemed like we just couldnt make things happen. In early 2007 our pastor Eric told us that the church was going to merge back into Arlington Baptist Church in early May. This was really hard to deal with, it was like losing your family. The band split, we lost one guitar and our bass player. The rest of us merged into the band at ABC. It just wasnt the same. The energy of TFP's services was not there at ABC. After playing at Arlington the rest of 2007, It looks like that will be coming to an end as well. Our Pastor Eric has taken a position at a church in Hickory, and his wife Kresha (who leads the band) will be going with him, and it will no longer be the band that i love. I have to see where this takes me in 2008.


Work, work and MORE work
2007 the year of Overtime and Travel. In 2006 i dont think i traveled more then 2 times in the whole year. 2007 was the EXACT opposite of that. It started in January with me having to travel out to Kentucky to work on a plant i had never been to, in the freezing rain and snow. That trip was a long one, as i also had to drive to SC to work before i got home. But it was only about 1 1/2 weeks. Then we started on the "Evergreen" road. Evergreen is the term our company uses meaning the updating of existing equipment to a newer version. We had numerous jobs this year taking our Solaris product to Windows. Not something any of us at our office had really done much of. Lets see.. Manatee, Sanford, Martin, Ft. Myers, KUA, and more. The last 3 months of 2007 were mainly spent on the road. Starting Oct 20 I headed out to Florida, heading to West Palm beach, then to Orlando, then to Ft. Myers. Working almost every day for this time. I ended up with Pneumonia. What a thing to get when your on the road working 10+ hrs a day. I came home for 8 days at Thanksgiving, took all the meds the Dr.'s gave me and got a good bit better. Then it was back down to Ft. Myers for 2+ weeks, then up to Rome GA for a week. Not getting off the road till the 14th of Dec. The longest time i have ever worked away from home, a total of 7 weeks out of 8. Im glad im done for the year and can spend some time off at home, reconnecting.

Tae Kwon Do
As you have seen in other posts on my blog im taking TKD. I have been for over 5-6 years. In Dec of 2006 I was promoted to Red belt (2nd Gup). I had hopes for 2007 that i would have made Black belt by the end, but just didnt happen. I wasnt promoted to 1st Gup (Red Belt w/black stripe) until later in the summer. There just wasnt enough time for me to learn all that i needed to learn to pass a black belt test. The hope now is to test sometime in Feb '08. I still have a lot to learn, and losing 8 weeks by being out of town working. I never thought I would be working towards a Black belt. Not at my age, and size. TKD has helped me in so many ways, I only wish i would have got into it when i was 10.


Family
Alex is now 12 going on 13, he is a great kid. I just hope he manages to keep the spirit he has and the innocence he has thru 7th grade. The kids are so ruthless to him, every day its "are you gay", "why are you gay" "fag" and worse. All because he is 12 and acts 12, not 22 like these THUGS that are in his grade with him. I only wish i could be there to see what he has to deal with then beat the CRAP out of these little jerks when he walks away. If only he could see that its all temporary, and that he will get past these years. 7th and 8th grade are the worst in the world. Every kid is attacked and made to feel like they are useless and worse. I remember the HELL that was middle school. I didnt think i would live thru it, and i know it changed me and how i looked at the world. I pray he will be able to be the Alex he is now, in 2 years. With the same love of crazy things. I wish he would find a girl he could care for, it would help him thru this crap. Maybe.. lol Girls can be a blessing and a curse.

Overall 2007 was a crazy year. I am not sure i want 08 to be like 07 work was way to crazy and i spent way to much time out of town. I dont know where ill be a year from now, I pray ill be safe, sound and healthy. Hopefully a Black belt, and on my way to 2nd Degree by then. I hope that work calms down a little, and that i can find somewhere to blend into a band at a church ill like. Some place where Alex can be with kids that are good and nice. Only God knows what 2008 will bring, but no matter what it beings we just have to deal with it.

I pray 08 will be a great year for you and yours.