by Crazy Ivan
I know that as a Myachi Master I don't have all that much clout in world politics, but I'd like to exert what influence I do have with the following proposal.
As you might have gathered, I'm constantly butting up against deadlines this summer. With the long days at Dollywood sucking up the majority of my day, I'm having a lot of trouble getting the blog updated, the trick of the day up, et cetera. I've been trying to keep up, but there's only so much I can do.
So my proposal is that we simply move to a 26 hour day for the next month or so. I figure there's a precedent for it, what with all the goofy weirdness that we do for daylight saving time. We've already decided that congress has the power to manipulate time, so why not just give us a little more day each day?
With that extra two hours I could get all my work done every day and still have time left over to get 6 hours of sleep every night. I recognize the arrogance of wanting to redefine the word "day" for one single person amongst the hundreds of millions in this country, but the way I figure it, everyone else could use a little more day as well. Even if you have nothing on your itinerary beyond sleep and video games, the 26 hour day would at least give you more time for sleep and video games.
So write your congressman, start an online petition, write a letter to the editor or do whatever it is you do when the time comes to change the world. I promise to make it worth your effort if we can spur the government into action.
Should they fail to act, I suppose I'll have to accept the fact that on some days I'll be unable to update the blog. But that seems like an unnecessary sacrifice when we could just add a few hours to each day.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
An Update On The Other Contest
by Crazy Ivan
Just a quickie here before I head off to work. I updated everyone yesterday on the Summer Photo contest, but I still have another contest that's in limbo as well. When this blog first began, I announced a contest for followers. The first 50 followers would be put in a drawing for a Pakisack and one would be randomly selected once we reached that 50 mark.
Well, as many of you have noted, we're over 50 followers now so it's high time for that drawing.
Unfortunately, until I get back to NYC, I'm cut off from my supply of groovy Pakisacks so it'll be the 2nd week of August before I'll have the chance to actually send out the prize. For that reason, I'm going to delay the drawing itself until then.
There are a couple of good reasons. The first is obvious; there's no reason to make the winner suffer through a month of knowing that they won but not having their prize. The other is that I want to extend the eligibility to everyone who signs up to follow the blog between now and then.
See, one of the conditions of this contest is that Myachi employees are not eligible to win. And since at least a few of the 52 current followers are Myachi employees, we don't actually have 50 eligible followers. That doesn't really matter, of course. We could still have the drawing and if I pull Bones or Pinky or someone as the winner, I can simply draw again. That being said, more is better than less.
So look for that drawing on or about August 7th with the prize going out in the days immediately following it. And sorry that I didn't get you this info a bit sooner.
Just a quickie here before I head off to work. I updated everyone yesterday on the Summer Photo contest, but I still have another contest that's in limbo as well. When this blog first began, I announced a contest for followers. The first 50 followers would be put in a drawing for a Pakisack and one would be randomly selected once we reached that 50 mark.
Well, as many of you have noted, we're over 50 followers now so it's high time for that drawing.
Unfortunately, until I get back to NYC, I'm cut off from my supply of groovy Pakisacks so it'll be the 2nd week of August before I'll have the chance to actually send out the prize. For that reason, I'm going to delay the drawing itself until then.
There are a couple of good reasons. The first is obvious; there's no reason to make the winner suffer through a month of knowing that they won but not having their prize. The other is that I want to extend the eligibility to everyone who signs up to follow the blog between now and then.
See, one of the conditions of this contest is that Myachi employees are not eligible to win. And since at least a few of the 52 current followers are Myachi employees, we don't actually have 50 eligible followers. That doesn't really matter, of course. We could still have the drawing and if I pull Bones or Pinky or someone as the winner, I can simply draw again. That being said, more is better than less.
So look for that drawing on or about August 7th with the prize going out in the days immediately following it. And sorry that I didn't get you this info a bit sooner.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Summer Photo Contest Update
by Crazy Ivan
I announced a contest back on the 8th of June that was originally scheduled to end on the 29th. That date came and went with no announcement (for which I sincerely apologize) and now we're more than a week beyond it. I'll admit that I totally dropped the ball on this one, but I haven't forgotten about you entirely.
The fact is that between my email being down and very few entries being posted on Facebook, we didn't have enough entries to make a full blown contest out of it. I've been telling myself for days to write an entry updating everyone on what was going on, but with the mountain of work that faces me every day of the Dollywood assignment, I'm only now getting around to it.
So here's the deal. The contest is still on. I've extended the final date to July 21st so you have a couple of weeks yet to get entries in. So if you want a chance to win a free Myachi, all you need to do is:
And remember, if you submitted a pic to me by email, I didn't get it, so be sure to resubmit it on our FB page!
I announced a contest back on the 8th of June that was originally scheduled to end on the 29th. That date came and went with no announcement (for which I sincerely apologize) and now we're more than a week beyond it. I'll admit that I totally dropped the ball on this one, but I haven't forgotten about you entirely.
The fact is that between my email being down and very few entries being posted on Facebook, we didn't have enough entries to make a full blown contest out of it. I've been telling myself for days to write an entry updating everyone on what was going on, but with the mountain of work that faces me every day of the Dollywood assignment, I'm only now getting around to it.
So here's the deal. The contest is still on. I've extended the final date to July 21st so you have a couple of weeks yet to get entries in. So if you want a chance to win a free Myachi, all you need to do is:
- Snap a pic of yourself or a friend playing Myachi outdoors and
- Post that pic on our Facebook page.
And remember, if you submitted a pic to me by email, I didn't get it, so be sure to resubmit it on our FB page!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
How Bad It's Gotten
by Crazy Ivan
Before I got to Tennessee, I had grand plans for this assignment. I'd just do Dollywood for 12+ hours and then come home, film a trick of the day video, hop on the forum, answer our Facebook messages, answer our Twitter mentions, check our You Tube inbox, edit and upload the trick of the day video, write and adjust the schedule, track and order inventory, input all the paperwork for our sales at Dollywood, write a few entries for the Myachi Blog and then eat some dinner.
The plan seemed perfect, but somehow I forgot that I would also need to sleep at some points as well.
Because of that, the blog has suffered unduly. It and the forum have been the most commonly neglected of my responsibilities, and this entry is meant as both a formal apology and a commitment to redouble my efforts. I knew that the blog would suffer a bit, but I never thought it would get as bad as it's gotten.
Before I left for Tennessee, I was averaging about 18 entries a week, but on some weeks I'd go as high as 21 or 22. That meant I was blogging well over twice a day on average and sometimes I was besting 3 a day. And then I came to Tennessee and right away it dropped to 11 blog entries in a week.
Now to be honest, this is kind of what I expected. I didn't really feel that I'd be able to keep up 2 and 3 entries every day, but I suspected that most days I could at least write something in the morning and something in the evening. Some days I'd be too tired and I'd end up ending the week with about 11 updates.
But then things got worse. I went from a week with 11 blog updates to a week with only 6. That's not even one a day! That means that at least once, I completely neglected the Myachi blog and didn't even bother to hop on and link a cool Myachi related or skill related You-Tube video. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.
And then things hit rock bottom. Last week, I only updated the blog 3 times. Three times in one week. I went from 3 entries in a good day to 3 in a whole week. Pathetic. Unacceptable. That means there were more days last week when I didn't blog than there were days when I did. And I owe our loyal readers way more than that.
Heck, I haven't even given an update on all the contests that are being postponed for the moment. I haven't even announced another contest to follow up the Summer Photo Contest, which itself has been postponed, though I haven't bothered to mention it or give anyone a thorough update on what's going on there. I haven't chosen the winner for the first 50 followers prize and I haven't explained why just yet.
Anyway, if you read this blog regularly, I don't have to tell you that things have gotten bad... you already know that. You're probably getting sick and tired of logging in and seeing the same headline you saw the day before.
Well, I'm here to tell you "no more!" No more shall you be deprived of regular and at the very least daily updates on the Myachi Blog. No more shall you suffer the agony of not reading random stuff I write. No more shall you wonder if I even remember that I announced a contest a couple weeks ago. No more shall your trips to the Myachi Blog be stripped of their meaning by insufficient updates.
As exhibit A that I mean what I say, I offer the fact that it's midnight on Tuesday night and I've already posted more entries this week than I did all of last week. But that's only 4 so it's not much to brag about. But still, it's a start.
But I also know that I can't get very far just by saying "I will work harder". I'm already working almost as hard as I can (I did spend an hour watching a George Carlin bit tonight, so there's room to improve). To keep this blog rolling, I'm going to need your help. I need guest bloggers and reader submitted updates. Write about anything you want, as long as it's related to Myachi or it's something you think would interest the Myachi community.
Unfortunately, I have an e-mail issue at my @myachi address, so I'll have to ask you to send it to crazyivanmyachi@gmail.com instead, or pm it to me on the forum. To get us back to two updates a day, I'll probably be looking for 3 or 4 guest posts a week, so if you like to write, keep them coming!
And remember, I might not use all the entries. Think about it like a creative writing assignment in school. Before I publish something, I have to check it for misspellings, grammatical errors and bits that don't make sense. If I have to spend as much time correcting an entry as I would writing a blog, it doesn't do me much good.
But as long as it meets the high quality standards of the Myachi Blog and is of general interest to the Myachi community, I'd love to publish your work...
...Oh, and I promise to give everyone the full updates on those contest tomorrow.
Before I got to Tennessee, I had grand plans for this assignment. I'd just do Dollywood for 12+ hours and then come home, film a trick of the day video, hop on the forum, answer our Facebook messages, answer our Twitter mentions, check our You Tube inbox, edit and upload the trick of the day video, write and adjust the schedule, track and order inventory, input all the paperwork for our sales at Dollywood, write a few entries for the Myachi Blog and then eat some dinner.
The plan seemed perfect, but somehow I forgot that I would also need to sleep at some points as well.
Because of that, the blog has suffered unduly. It and the forum have been the most commonly neglected of my responsibilities, and this entry is meant as both a formal apology and a commitment to redouble my efforts. I knew that the blog would suffer a bit, but I never thought it would get as bad as it's gotten.
Before I left for Tennessee, I was averaging about 18 entries a week, but on some weeks I'd go as high as 21 or 22. That meant I was blogging well over twice a day on average and sometimes I was besting 3 a day. And then I came to Tennessee and right away it dropped to 11 blog entries in a week.
Now to be honest, this is kind of what I expected. I didn't really feel that I'd be able to keep up 2 and 3 entries every day, but I suspected that most days I could at least write something in the morning and something in the evening. Some days I'd be too tired and I'd end up ending the week with about 11 updates.
But then things got worse. I went from a week with 11 blog updates to a week with only 6. That's not even one a day! That means that at least once, I completely neglected the Myachi blog and didn't even bother to hop on and link a cool Myachi related or skill related You-Tube video. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.
And then things hit rock bottom. Last week, I only updated the blog 3 times. Three times in one week. I went from 3 entries in a good day to 3 in a whole week. Pathetic. Unacceptable. That means there were more days last week when I didn't blog than there were days when I did. And I owe our loyal readers way more than that.
Heck, I haven't even given an update on all the contests that are being postponed for the moment. I haven't even announced another contest to follow up the Summer Photo Contest, which itself has been postponed, though I haven't bothered to mention it or give anyone a thorough update on what's going on there. I haven't chosen the winner for the first 50 followers prize and I haven't explained why just yet.
Anyway, if you read this blog regularly, I don't have to tell you that things have gotten bad... you already know that. You're probably getting sick and tired of logging in and seeing the same headline you saw the day before.
Well, I'm here to tell you "no more!" No more shall you be deprived of regular and at the very least daily updates on the Myachi Blog. No more shall you suffer the agony of not reading random stuff I write. No more shall you wonder if I even remember that I announced a contest a couple weeks ago. No more shall your trips to the Myachi Blog be stripped of their meaning by insufficient updates.
As exhibit A that I mean what I say, I offer the fact that it's midnight on Tuesday night and I've already posted more entries this week than I did all of last week. But that's only 4 so it's not much to brag about. But still, it's a start.
But I also know that I can't get very far just by saying "I will work harder". I'm already working almost as hard as I can (I did spend an hour watching a George Carlin bit tonight, so there's room to improve). To keep this blog rolling, I'm going to need your help. I need guest bloggers and reader submitted updates. Write about anything you want, as long as it's related to Myachi or it's something you think would interest the Myachi community.
Unfortunately, I have an e-mail issue at my @myachi address, so I'll have to ask you to send it to crazyivanmyachi@gmail.com instead, or pm it to me on the forum. To get us back to two updates a day, I'll probably be looking for 3 or 4 guest posts a week, so if you like to write, keep them coming!
And remember, I might not use all the entries. Think about it like a creative writing assignment in school. Before I publish something, I have to check it for misspellings, grammatical errors and bits that don't make sense. If I have to spend as much time correcting an entry as I would writing a blog, it doesn't do me much good.
But as long as it meets the high quality standards of the Myachi Blog and is of general interest to the Myachi community, I'd love to publish your work...
...Oh, and I promise to give everyone the full updates on those contest tomorrow.
Monday, July 4, 2011
A Perk of the Assignment
by Crazy Ivan
One of the many cool things about being stationed in Pigeon Forge over the summer is the fact that Tennessee has some of the coolest firework regulations in the nation. Pretty much anything short of a hand grenade can be legally purchased in a firework store here.
Now, I'm not saying that's a good idea. I've yet to see any statistics on it, but I would imagine states like New York with much tighter regulations probably have a lot fewer firework accidents every year. But I will say that Tennessee is more fun (provided you don't blow your finger off or anything).
So on his way home today, Kore stopped by the firework store. And yes, there are plenty of places dedicated to nothing but selling fireworks year round in Tennessee. They're not even just seasonal places that operate around the 4th of July... these places are open all year.
Anyway, we'd armed Kore with $50 and told him to get a lot of stuff that goes boom. And man did he succeed. He got a couple 16 shot monsters, a score of roman candles, 16 giant-sized bottle rockets, 144 regular size bottle rockets, a couple sleeves of fire crackers, and a twelve pack of what I can only describe as colored mortars.
To top it all off, it rained like crazy out by our cabin tonight so there's no chance of starting any fires (that we don't mean to). We're just waiting for Bamboo and Pinky to make it in so that we can blow stuff up.
I should note that even though I've been known to "play with fire", we're all extremely careful when lighting fireworks. There are some things I goof around with, but explosives aren't among them. We're all looking forward to watching pretty lights in the sky, but taking someone to the emergency room really sucks the fun out of things.
So have a fun and safe fourth of July.
One of the many cool things about being stationed in Pigeon Forge over the summer is the fact that Tennessee has some of the coolest firework regulations in the nation. Pretty much anything short of a hand grenade can be legally purchased in a firework store here.
Now, I'm not saying that's a good idea. I've yet to see any statistics on it, but I would imagine states like New York with much tighter regulations probably have a lot fewer firework accidents every year. But I will say that Tennessee is more fun (provided you don't blow your finger off or anything).
So on his way home today, Kore stopped by the firework store. And yes, there are plenty of places dedicated to nothing but selling fireworks year round in Tennessee. They're not even just seasonal places that operate around the 4th of July... these places are open all year.
Anyway, we'd armed Kore with $50 and told him to get a lot of stuff that goes boom. And man did he succeed. He got a couple 16 shot monsters, a score of roman candles, 16 giant-sized bottle rockets, 144 regular size bottle rockets, a couple sleeves of fire crackers, and a twelve pack of what I can only describe as colored mortars.
To top it all off, it rained like crazy out by our cabin tonight so there's no chance of starting any fires (that we don't mean to). We're just waiting for Bamboo and Pinky to make it in so that we can blow stuff up.
I should note that even though I've been known to "play with fire", we're all extremely careful when lighting fireworks. There are some things I goof around with, but explosives aren't among them. We're all looking forward to watching pretty lights in the sky, but taking someone to the emergency room really sucks the fun out of things.
So have a fun and safe fourth of July.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Myachi Arm Wrestling
by Crazy Ivan
So the other day I'm talking to Rush about my favorite Myachi games and I mentioned Myachi Arm Wrestling. Much to my surprise he just responded with a blank stare and a quick "what's that?"
I thought it odd that I'd never shown the game to him before so we played a quick round. Then it occurred to me that Rush is a regular reader of this blog and if he'd never heard about it, I must have never blogged about it. So last night I went back through the blog and confirmed it. And it surprises me since it's one of my favorite Myachi games.
One reason is that it's so simple to explain. Two competitors face off. They stand so that the outside of their right feet are touching and then place the backs of their right hands together with a Myachi in between. The object is to touch your opponents palm to his or her leg using the strength of your arm. Obviously, they're attempting to do the same to you.
It's a real full arm work out and when you get good at you quickly discover that much of the game is just about redirecting your opponent's energy. To demonstrate the game, I talked Bones into playing a quick round with me while Rush taped it. Seemed like the only real way to explain the game:
Couple of quick notes. If the Myachi falls, the round is over. If it was clearly one players fault, that player loses. If it was a mutual thing, the round is a scratch and you simply play again. If, during a battle, the Myachi gets twisted in such a way that it will be difficult to keep it up, you reset, place the Myachi back where it belongs and start again.
So the other day I'm talking to Rush about my favorite Myachi games and I mentioned Myachi Arm Wrestling. Much to my surprise he just responded with a blank stare and a quick "what's that?"
I thought it odd that I'd never shown the game to him before so we played a quick round. Then it occurred to me that Rush is a regular reader of this blog and if he'd never heard about it, I must have never blogged about it. So last night I went back through the blog and confirmed it. And it surprises me since it's one of my favorite Myachi games.
One reason is that it's so simple to explain. Two competitors face off. They stand so that the outside of their right feet are touching and then place the backs of their right hands together with a Myachi in between. The object is to touch your opponents palm to his or her leg using the strength of your arm. Obviously, they're attempting to do the same to you.
It's a real full arm work out and when you get good at you quickly discover that much of the game is just about redirecting your opponent's energy. To demonstrate the game, I talked Bones into playing a quick round with me while Rush taped it. Seemed like the only real way to explain the game:
Couple of quick notes. If the Myachi falls, the round is over. If it was clearly one players fault, that player loses. If it was a mutual thing, the round is a scratch and you simply play again. If, during a battle, the Myachi gets twisted in such a way that it will be difficult to keep it up, you reset, place the Myachi back where it belongs and start again.
A Role Reversal
by Crazy Ivan
First let me apologize for the long hiatus between blog entries. I suppose I underestimated the toll that this Pigeon Forge assignment would take on my energy and thought I'd be able to do a better job keeping this blog up to date. As it stands, I've gone from blogging two or three times a day to blogging five or six times a week, and I feel that I owe our loyal readers a little more than that.
I'm the late guy in today and I have about 8 minutes before I have to hop in the car and head in, but I did want to take a few seconds to share a really fun moment in my day yesterday.
In places like Dollywood, our sales strategy is pretty simple; get the Myachi in the customers hand. We spend much of our day standing at the fringes of the passing crowd and yelling "You're in! Back of the hand!" before chucking a Myachi at some unsuspecting tourist. Sometimes they catch it and toss it back, sometimes they miss it altogether and take another try and quite often they catch it, look at it and say "what is this thing?"
Myachi Man has aptly described this method as "Myachi Bombs Away" and it's amazingly effective in the right crowd. A bunch of people all out to have fun all day at the amusement park is exactly the right type of crowd for this and it's worked wonders in the past and continues to work well today.
But yesterday I had a cool experience that I've oddly never had before. As I'm standing near the booth and tossing people in, an eight year old kid that I'd played with earlier in the day runs up. He'd already bought a Red Shredder and it was on his hand and in the ready position.
"You're in! Back of the hand!" he calls out as he approaches. I pocket my Hound's Tooth quickly, he tosses me in and I toss his Myachi back. And then he runs off.
I turned to Rush and said, "Bro, I just got tossed in..."
After reading back over that, I suppose it's far more remarkable from the shoes of a Myachi Master, but it was the first time in my 8 years with Myachi that I ever had a kid toss me in a Myachi. It's always the other way around.
Now that I look at it from the other perspective, I can see why our method is so effective. Somebody tossed me a Myachi yesterday that I wasn't expecting and it was the highpoint of my day.
So that's all I have time to write now. I've got to grab Bones and get to work. I promise to write a longer and more relevant blog tonight. It'll have pictures, video and it will introduce you to a Myachi Game that I've never before written about on this blog. Incidentally, it's one of my favorite Myachi games and might be the most martial-arts relevant game that we play.
First let me apologize for the long hiatus between blog entries. I suppose I underestimated the toll that this Pigeon Forge assignment would take on my energy and thought I'd be able to do a better job keeping this blog up to date. As it stands, I've gone from blogging two or three times a day to blogging five or six times a week, and I feel that I owe our loyal readers a little more than that.
I'm the late guy in today and I have about 8 minutes before I have to hop in the car and head in, but I did want to take a few seconds to share a really fun moment in my day yesterday.
In places like Dollywood, our sales strategy is pretty simple; get the Myachi in the customers hand. We spend much of our day standing at the fringes of the passing crowd and yelling "You're in! Back of the hand!" before chucking a Myachi at some unsuspecting tourist. Sometimes they catch it and toss it back, sometimes they miss it altogether and take another try and quite often they catch it, look at it and say "what is this thing?"
Myachi Man has aptly described this method as "Myachi Bombs Away" and it's amazingly effective in the right crowd. A bunch of people all out to have fun all day at the amusement park is exactly the right type of crowd for this and it's worked wonders in the past and continues to work well today.
But yesterday I had a cool experience that I've oddly never had before. As I'm standing near the booth and tossing people in, an eight year old kid that I'd played with earlier in the day runs up. He'd already bought a Red Shredder and it was on his hand and in the ready position.
"You're in! Back of the hand!" he calls out as he approaches. I pocket my Hound's Tooth quickly, he tosses me in and I toss his Myachi back. And then he runs off.
I turned to Rush and said, "Bro, I just got tossed in..."
After reading back over that, I suppose it's far more remarkable from the shoes of a Myachi Master, but it was the first time in my 8 years with Myachi that I ever had a kid toss me in a Myachi. It's always the other way around.
Now that I look at it from the other perspective, I can see why our method is so effective. Somebody tossed me a Myachi yesterday that I wasn't expecting and it was the highpoint of my day.
So that's all I have time to write now. I've got to grab Bones and get to work. I promise to write a longer and more relevant blog tonight. It'll have pictures, video and it will introduce you to a Myachi Game that I've never before written about on this blog. Incidentally, it's one of my favorite Myachi games and might be the most martial-arts relevant game that we play.
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