podcasting

Volunteering Again

I had a slightly spontaneous (but not entirely unexpected) meeting with Sensei this afternoon. He called around noonish asking for some help with the podcast he wanted to start — mainly, where to start. So, we met at the dojo (a five-minute drive for me), drove over to Starbucks (another five-minute drive or so), and talked about podcasting over coffee. (By the way? If you’re into corporate coffee, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is delish.)

After an hour of discussion, mainly about what podcasts are and how to create them and what we want to do with ours, I went home with his new H2 recorder, a CD of original music, a password or two, and some other vital info.

This is the result.

I spent two hours on the editing and tweaking of the files (which will get progressively easier as I (we) learn the appropriate level settings for the recorder), and I spent considerably longer than that setting up the domain name and the libsyn account.

Now, I know I don’t need anything else on my plate right now, especially since I’m a.) job-hunting and b.) revamping the drum corps website. Oh, yeah, and c.) planning to do NaNoWriMo in a week. But, really, I could streamline this to a one-hour operation after zen on Wednesday nights. Aaron suggested I barter for a discount on my aikido, but Sensei suggested that this could be what I contribute to the sangha (zen community). I don’t want to get sucked into more than I should, but I know that my talents are best used, rather than left to languish. Plus, like I said before, I like to feel… not so much important, but needed, I guess.

We’ll see how this pans out. I want to be helpful, but I know that sometimes that translates to being used, depending on who I’m “helping.” I may have to cut some other projects free soon to make room for this one.

aikido

Aikido for Wednesday 10/24

When I read on the dojo blog that we would be focusing on weapons training leading up to the weapons seminar in mid-November, I thought that maybe this class would be a little less strenuous than the previous week’s keiko. After all, it wouldn’t be an entire hour of standing up and being thrown down. Right?

I had no idea how wrong I was.

We separated into ranks, with the mukyu and some new rokyu perfecting a basic solo exercise while the higher ranks faced off with one another. Basically, we faced the walls, chose a knot in the wood as our opponent, and swung the bokken diagonally up, behind / over our heads, and diagonally down the other side, attacking our chosen knot. Very basic form, just getting used to how the weapon should feel and where the energy should go. It was a very powerful feeling, though, once I got the hang of how low my stance should be, where my weight should stay, how my center was supposed to drive the movement, that sort of thing.

Then the cardio kicked in, along with the arm fatigue. And the wrist funkiness. Holy crow, what a workout. My hand and arms are still weak and shaky (to my embarrassment in Zen practice later).

Then we did the usual throwing and rolling. I actually started being almost comfortable with my lame bastard forward rolls, with the occasional flub. At one point during that exercise, one of last week’s scabbed-over mat burns on the top of my foot started bleeding, and I had to take a breather to hit the first aid kit.

After the rolling, we worked on everybody’s favorite, irimi nage, except this time uke begins with a wrist grab before running around behind nage to (try to) grab his other wrist. Nage then ducks under uke’s arm and performs the irimi nage I know and love.

A note: I love working with Rich-sempai. He’s one of those who is always smiling, always seems to be enjoying himself, but won’t half-ass the technique. If I’m supposed to be moving him and driving him to the floor, he’s not going to just flop down and say I did it right. He’s going to require me to put the energy into the movement and feel how it’s supposed to go. He’s also good at subtly indicating which way the energy should be going, if I’m unsure about a technique. I always learn a lot when I pair up with Rich.

After Sensei told us to switch partners, I had to sit out a round. I was just so exhausted, and my legs were jelly. We wrapped up with a suwari-waza (kneeling) tenshi technique that I didn’t know, and I watched another mukyu work with Amy-sempai’s brother until class was over.

So, in a nutshell, this class kicked my ass in a very serious and cardio-based way.

After keiko was zen practice. In the zendo, I saw that Sensei’s H2 digital recorder had come in, and I casually wandered over to see it. Apparently, my interest in and knowledge of the existence of the device projected my ability to fake my way through operating audio electronics. I’m cool with that; I actually kind of wanted to play with it, anyway. I ended up being the designated recording engineer for the evening, which was fun. I’m curious to see how our first attempt worked, since I didn’t want to sully the earbuds with my personal funk, and I didn’t let Sensei know that I’d figured out how to work the playback feature.

We ended up recording Teisho and our Dharma Discussion afterward. I hope they came out OK. I’m anxious to help them get a podcast going, and to help edit if necessary. I’m all about the new media revolution. I’m also all about feeling important, to be honest, which is kind of contrary to the zen-ness (a.k.a. “Buddha Nature”) I’m trying to discover in myself.

I also discovered something else about myself tonight: when the other party in a conversation is very calm and accepting and doesn’t offer much feedback about what I’m saying, I don’t know how to continue. I’m used to people giving me cues as to what they think about the topic, even if it’s just boredom or disinterest. But this attentive calmness is disconcerting to me. I’m not sure how to react to it, since I do not yet possess this calmness. I’ve never been good at conversation, honestly, but I’ve gotten good at faking it over the years. This reaction of calmness and acceptance is something I haven’t learned how to react to, and it makes me feel all bumbly and teenaged again.

Next week, Sensei will not be at the dojo on Wednesday, so I think I’m going to attend Monday’s keiko instead. Sure, an hour and a half of aikido will well and truly kick my ass, but I think I’d rather attend a class run by Sensei than one of the senior students. No offense, guys.

aikido

Toledo City Paper: Now and Zen

The City Paper has published an article about Sensei in this week’s issue. I knew it was coming, of course, because Ms. Spencer sat in at one of our Zen sessions a couple of weeks ago.

This completely removes any of the anonymity I was trying to maintain about my dojo (for the dojo’s sake, so I don’t reflect poorly on the entire community), but I wanted to share this article with everyone. Not only is it well-written and fairly accurate, but it revealed to me things that I didn’t know about my Sensei.

I wonder if the dojo or the Zen Center will get an influx of students now?

randomness

General Crap

I’m feeling the need to write something, although I don’t really have a topic I want to rant about tonight.

Was pretty productive with the job search today. Applied for three jobs, and have a fourth in the works.

Worked on the redesign of my drum corps’ website. Am satisfied with the first comp for now. Have some feedback from the Executive Director for some tweaks, which I will apply later this week.

Made some banana-coconut (a.k.a. Banana Cream Pie) candles tonight. At this point, I’m trying to whittle down my supply of old, half-used scents so I can justify buying more new ones. Still undecided about the holiday push for candle sales. It would really necessitate a website overhaul to work the way I want.

Am planning to do NaNoWriMo this year, even if I don’t have a job by November. I’ll have to split up my time between writing and job-searching (and working on the corps’ website), but I think I can do it. I’ve never won NaNo before (i.e. written 50,000 words in 30 days), and it’s about time I did. I have a premise and a few characters’ subplots. They’ll all come together at the end of my dystopian future society tale. Somehow.

Trying to get my sleep schedule back on track. Getting up before noon is an accomplishment, as is getting to bed before 2am. I’d sleep ten to twelve hours a night if I let myself, and I really don’t think that’s healthy.

Overall, I’m doing OK. Gained a little weight, am sometimes bored or depressed, but am trying to keep myself upbeat. I can pay bills. I’m relatively healthy. I’ve had a couple job interviews. I’m OK.

jobhunt 1 Comment

Interview Today: Results

Today’s interview — number two since the job hunt began in April — was for a large health care company whose corporate offices are located in downtown Toledo. (Let’s skip the company name and keep Google out of this, yes?) The position in question is in Data Warehousing, which deals with getting data into the warehouse and spitting that data back out in the form of reports.

I arrived a little early, located the building (again — I interviewed here a few years back), and went across the street to spend ten minutes at Promenade Park. Beautiful day, gentle breeze, very calming.

(By the way? On my way up into the parking garage before this, I saw a vanity license plate that made me laugh out loud: PWN3D. I *so* wished I would have had my camera on me.)

Once I went into the building, I was taken upstairs by an HR representative to fill out some standard paperwork: OKs for background checks, stuff like that. Then I was taken upstairs for my interview.

Things that went right:

  • My new interview pantsuit is *killer*. I looked perfectly professional (IMO), and didn’t feel fussy about my clothes or awkward about my bearing.
  • I successfully portrayed my ability to learn on the fly, to keep myself busy and productive, and to try to better myself and my department. A lot of this had to do with my resume, though.
  • I had plenty of relevant questions to ask.

Things that I could have done better:

  • Interview questions for which I was not prepared: “Why do you want to work for our company?” and “What did you like the least about your previous jobs?”
  • OMG I forgot to bring my references! Sheesh. The last time I used my fancy black folder was when I went to the job fair, so it was full to the brim of unstapled two-page resumes. It should have been full of the job description printout, a resume, and my references. No worries, though; I asked the HR rep if I could e-mail them to her later, and she in turn gave me not only her card, but an entire folder with info on benefits.

Overall, the interviewer (my potential supervisor) said he sees potential in me, and that appears to be my strongest quality. I honestly don’t know much about their software, but I know I can learn, and I can bring my design and layout experience to the table when it comes to actual reports.

There would be some awesome benefits to working here. The office has a fantastic view of Promenade Park, right on the river, and three of the building’s five elevators face the river. There would be no worries about having a place to walk during my lunches, either. As for more company-related bennies, I’d be eligible for software training, including Microsoft. They also seem to have a pretty decent health plan, so Aaron and I would need to compare policies and see whether I should spend the money on my own company’s insurance plan. (Insurance is covered in Aaron’s union dues, so the plan would have to kick a lot of ass for me to buy my own.)

I should be hearing back from my interviewer by late this week or early next week to see whether I get a second interview. I’ll keep you all updated!