Black Belted

Today, my Sensei presented me with my first level black belt in Shotokan. I tested last Sunday and was told I passed, so it wasn't a surprise to me. Still, for the rest of practice, I was a little shocked whenever I caught a glimpse of my own waist, wondering why my belt was so dark against my white gi.

A black belt. That's what it was. No big deal, it's just a different color of my belt, right? I don't feel particularly different. There are still many things to learn, many things to improve about my karate techniques. There are still plenty of years to be training and levels of black to strive for and possibly achieve. How is this belt color change any different than the last time I changed belt colors?

Perhaps it's the expectation that comes with the words 'black belt'. The term assumes mastery in a martial art. The other colors don't have that connotation. The expectation feels a little intimidating. I don't necessarily feel like I've mastered the art. Far from it. But I told myself earlier that now I'm training and studying for real. So far, it's just been a preamble to the real thing. And for some reason, that made me feel better.

I started karate again a little over 6 years ago when I realized that I was horrible at keeping up with a regular workout. The gym membership near work ended up being free money for them because I always came up with an excuse why I didn't/couldn't go to the gym at lunch. Even a semi-regular stint with the rock climbing gym in the evenings didn't take as well as I'd hoped. Exercising at home, in front of some exercise videos ranging from Taebo, belly dancing, Pilates, to hula dancing was even shorter-lived. So I went back to my college roots and looked up the nearest Shotokan dojo near me.

I had good memories of going to karate practice in school. Even through finals, I would make sure to go because it had such a calming effect on me. I started on a random whim when some cute boy asked me to join his karate class. I was thrilled that the Sensei taught karate in terms of forces and vectors and other engineering terms I was learning about during my classes in the day. I had just earned my green belt three years later when my Sensei moved away. Between co-op jobs, graduating and applying to grad school, I never did settle into a new dojo afterwards.

Cut to post grad school when I discovered that the nearest dojo to me was being taught by the Sensei of my college Sensei. I figured that was a good a sign as any that I should start up again. I went to watch a class and I was itching to get up and practice again. So I signed up for a class the very next day.

Since then, I've competed at some local tournaments, attended karate camps, injured my ankle, healed, worn my share of bruises and now I'm a black belt. As a marker on my path, I guess it is a big deal to me, after all. I hope to be practicing karate for many years yet to come.

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Back in the Rice Habit

I come from a culture where rice is the basis of the three squares a day. And by rice, I mean the white, sticky stuff, not any of this fancy wild/brown/yellow and loose alternates. We'd gotten out of making rice at home because I grew to loathe cleaning the rice cooker pan afterwards. It always needed to soak because the rice had crusted and burnt to it. The lid would be covered in white, hard to scrub froth. The pain had not been worth it since I would just get my rice fix when we ate out. It's especially not worth it when an impatient toddler will not wait until I am done with the dishes and will physically try to push me away from the sink so I can play with her.

But we discovered that she's a fan of brown rice. We try to feed her healthier than I feed myself so I looked into what it takes to make brown rice. Apparently, it's more finicky and harder to cook than white rice, which didn't recommend itself to me. Enter Zojirushi

We were at some friends' house for a barbecue where they served up some brown rice. Their daughter is the same age and I figured that if they could manage making the stuff, maybe I could learn some tips and tricks. It was simple enough - she pointed to a squat, bubble-shaped appliance on the table and declared that it was easy to make brown rice with it. The bubble shaped thing was apparently a rice cooker. I had enough time to note the name emblazoned on its side before my daughter decided she wanted to tackle the steps on the deck by herself and I had to go supervise.

Later that week, I went to look up Zojirushi and see what they had to offer. They have a bewildering array of rice cooker choices, boasting bells and whistles I never knew one needed for a simple pot of rice. But they're a Japanese company and they should know about rice and I was determined to wade through the choices to see if they had a rice cooker that would work for us. Of course, they had the simple standard rice cookers I recognized, but what if I actually needed some of those extra features and I never knew it before? Their comparison chart only sort of helped. I zeroed in on the ones that listed brown rice as a menu option. Ooh, the same rice cookers could also do sweet rice. Mango sticky rice, here we come! Oh and there's a timer function so we can have our rice ready at our preset time? Score! And it also does porridge (read: it can do the good oatmeal that takes half an hour)? With a timer so it can start breakfast before we get up on a weekday morning? Score another point! I don't really need my rice cooker to make cake or use it as a slow cooker. I also wasn't sold on induction heating element or the pressurized system, especially as it added another $100-$150 to the cost. So we ended up with the NS-YAC10 model.

I certainly wasn't expecting to spend over $200 for a rice cooker. I'm a victim of my own self-imposed feature creep and besides I put in all that effort to research the cooker and it was recommended by some friends. Darn it, I deserve that rice cooker now! To get back to my roots! And feed my girl some tasty, healthy rice!

The rice hit the pan last week, and I'm still plotting the list of rice/oatmeal we need to try with it. White rice? Delicious, chewy, better than the restaurant rice! Brown rice? Well, it's not my preferred and we ended up eating it the day after because it took about an hour longer than we anticipated. Definitely a candidate for that timer feature. But still tasty and The Girl shoveled it into her face by the handful (to be fair, it's how she eats most things that she's willing to eat). I need to find some sweet rice and then we try the good oatmeal one morning. The best part? It's a breeze to clean.

Our household has joined the 21st century of rice cooking.

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Cat Truths

Found this video that encompasses both Ka's and Zaia's behavior around the computer. Ka takes it one step further and actually chews the cable in two rather than just unplugging it though.

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