I went to the jiu-jitsu seminar on Saturday and discovered just how rusty I am with most of my techniques. I also discovered, over the next couple of days, how many muscles I'd forgotten I had. I consider myself to be in pretty darn good shape, but obviously the muscles used in falls, rollouts, and general grappling are not ones that I use often because I was (and still am to some degree) so sore in spots it hurt to touch me. Still, I had a good time, and it got me wishing even harder that there was some sort of judo or jiu-jitsu or hapkido type of class in my general area. (The instructor of this seminar, a Master in Gracie Jiu-jitsu, had come down from Birmingham.)

And on the subject of classes and learning in general, I got a call this afternoon telling me that my sign language class, that was supposed to start tomorrow, had been cancelled since only two people had signed up. Major disappointment there. I had really been looking forward to this class. Damn it.

I went shooting on Sunday, and my general lack of practice lately showed. I didn't do terribly well--at least not up to the standards that I've been setting for myself. I'm still hoping to qualify Expert when the time comes (someday!) to qualify. Unfortunately, shooting is a bit of an expensive hobby and I just can't afford to go every weekend like I should. (Or even every other week. I've been going maybe once every three weeks lately.) The range fee itself is pretty cheap--only $6. But even the cheapest ammo for 9mm runs about $8.50 for 50 rounds, and to get any sort of real shooting practice accomplished I feel like I need to shoot at least 150 rounds. So we're talking about $30 minimum every time I go shooting, which can add up fast. And no, I have no desire to start reloading. 9mm is a bitch to reload anyway, from what I hear, plus I'd have to buy all the equipment, learn how to do it, then find time to do it... Nah.

On the plus side, no one qualified to run against the present Sheriff in St. Tammany, which means he doesn't have to run for re-election and is automatically in for another term, which also means that he doesn't have to wait until after the elections are over to make administrative changes, start new projects, etc... Which hopefully means that they might actually hold the Academy for the reserves someday in the semi-near future. It sure would be nice to actually do something. I'm so aggravated about the cancellation of the sign language class! It seems like every time I try to get involved in something where I might actually get out of the house and meet some people, it falls through. It's getting a little frustrating.

And for those various journallers who are intent on massive site redesigns, FYI, I use Netscape 3.0. I'm perfectly happy with 3.0 and see no need to go charging into an upgrade. (I got very tired of upgrading every three months, so I hit a point where I said, "Enough, this works.") But, don't let my luddite nature hold you back from doing way cool nifty shit with your sites. As long as I can read the words of the journal, I'm fine. I don't care about most of the bells and whistles as long as they don't slow down the loading of the page. Personally I try to keep my site as simple and straightforward as possible, partially because I don't feel like learning how to do all the way nifty cool shit, and partially because I know there are other stubborn fools like myself out there who resent being forced to upgrade constantly.

And the obligatory diet/exercise update: I'm definitely losing weight and inches. I'm living on Boost shakes and Nestle's Sweet Success with the occasional "real" meal thrown in. I try not to eat unless I'm hungry, instead of saying, "Oh, it's noon, time for lunch." I think my shinsplints are pretty well gone, so I'm going to try running again in the morning. I bicycled to the gym today, and the weather was perfect for it. Had a pretty good weight workout, though the gym was empty and I didn't have a spotter for my bench presses, so I went much lighter than usual. I think I'll be able to hit my goal of benching 135 by the end of the year. If I continue to have No Life, I'm sure I will. I'm in the gym damn near every day just for something to do that's away from the house.

6-pack abs, here I come.