• Choosing a Martial Arts School (No Nonsense Self-Defense)
• Choosing a Martial Arts School, pt. 1: Which Martial Art? (jameshom.com) — this is a particularly detailed article in four parts which covers choosing an art, finding schools that teach that art, visiting the schools, and starting training).
• For the Beginner: Some Advice on Choosing a Martial Arts School (FightingArts.com)
• Guide to Selecting a Martial Arts School (North Austin Tae Kwon Do)
• How to Choose a Karate School (Black Belt Mama)
• How to Choose the Right Martial Arts School (USAdojo.com)
• How to Evaluate a School (My Self-Defense Blog)
• Ten Things Not to Ask a Traditional Martial Arts Instructor (Just a Thought)

We’re currently in the middle of ripping out all of the carpet and priming the entire house for repainting. Luckily, most of the work that needs to be done is cosmetic and we saved enough on the purchase price of the house itself that we’ll be able to hire someone to install the bamboo floors we’ve picked out. But meanwhile, there’s a lot of “sweat equity” to be put into it.

I’ve got a few  “before” pictures — photos of the place before we began work. I’ll post some more when we’re finished.

First the livingroom:

The photo doesn’t really give you the full effect of this paint job. The livingroom was blue, the dining room a pale yellow and dark green and the entire front hall was painted the turquoise you see, though in real live it’s much more … um … “vibrant.” I’ll post a picture of it, if I get permission from Romilly of Stitching with a Shimmy, since she’s in it.

This is the stairs. You can see some of the turquoise hall on the left there:

That actually gives you a better idea of the shade of turquoise. What this picture doesn’t show is how completely filthy the whole place was. I don’t think the house’d ever been cleaned since it was made in 2003. The brown shade on the walls and carpet isn’t just a photo artifact.  The walls were caked with grime and the original carpet color was nearly white. It took Dynamo, myself, and a party of willing hands two days to clean everything. We had to wash every wall, faceplate, outlet cover, molding inch … everything in the house.

This is the master bedroom

I don’t yet have photos of the other three bedrooms. I’m going to take care of that tomorrow and I’ll post them. They’re as “colorful” as the downstairs. One’s Pepto-Bismol pink, other green, and the third a dark red, but a different shade from the dark red in this room.

We’ve completely ripped out the carpet and are planning to put down bamboo flooring throughout the entire house except the bathrooms, which we’re going to tile.

On a completely different subject, I received my blue belt last week. I actually had to blink back a couple of tears, since I now have officially caught up with myself. I’d achieved blue belt just before I quit TKD the first time. This puts me a little over halfway to my black belt. I’m not rushing through belts, though since I’m the “baby belt” of our school’s leadership team, I’ve got added incentive to reach it. It’s not unusually for leadership team classes to have me as the only non-black belt in the room.

More updates on the house as they come along .

The leadership team retreat was wonderful. I really got a chance to know more of my fellow White Tigers, which I enjoyed very much (It’s nice now to have names to put to the faces I see in the courtyard between classes). Master Rondy, the school’s owner, paid for all of us to attend the Spring Shakori Hills Music Festival this year. In addition to the wonderful music, they offered movement classes free to all attendees. We got to take and teach some really great classes, including self-defense, t’ai chi, capoeira, qi gong, yoga…. All in all, a really great time that made me not want to come home. If anyone’s interested, you can see the photos on Facebook. I’m the only one not wearing a black belt .

February came and went while this blog was on hiatus, but it marked the first year anniversary of On My Own Two Feet. Hopefully, this was the first of many more years to come.

Below is a countdown of the ten most popular posts on this site. Thanks everyone for making this a great first year!

10.  Weight, Body Image and the Martial Arts
9. An A-to-Z List of Martial Arts Styles: Part 2
8. Female Judo Champion Finally Receives Gold
7. About Martial Artess
6. 15 Must-Read Martial Arts Blogs
5. Legendary Fighting Women: Ng Mui and Yim Wing Chun
4. Do You Need a Black Belt?
3. Fight Like a Grrl: 8 Sites for Female Martial Artists
2. Famous Fighting Females?

And the most popular post in OMOTF’s history so far:

1. Legendary Fighting Women: Mulan

Recently, I was accepted into a program to help budding game designers and writers build a solid, profitable business. This is something I’ve been working towards for many years now and the work is taking up a good portion of my time. In addition to that, Jay and I are house hunting so we can buy are home, so we can get married…Not to mention Dynamo’s school challenges…. Consequently, I’m putting this blog in hiatus until after the first of 2010.

I will get the October contest results posted next Monday (17 November). Thanks to everyone for being so patient and I’ll see you all again in 2010.

1. 15 Must-Read Martial Arts Blogs. A description of my blogroll and why I chose those sites.
2. Famous Fighting Females. Introduction to the irregular series profiling legendary female warriors.
3. Do You Need a Black Belt? Why obtaining a black belt is important, at least to me.
4. Legendary Fighting Women: Mulan. A brief bio of the real legends of Mulan.
5. Fight Like a Grrl: 8 Sites for Female Martial Artists. Just what it says — sites dedicated to women in the martial arts.
6. Legendary Fighting Women: Ng Mui and Yim Wing Chun. Legends about the formation of Wing Chun.
7. Weight, Body Image and the Martial Arts. The interconnectedness of weight and self-esteem.
8. Female Judo Champion Finally Receives Gold. A Judo champion finally has her gold medal reinstated after 50 years.
9. Dynamo’s Challenge: Change, Autism and Martial Arts. A discussion of how martial arts has helped my ADHD and borderline autistic son.
10. Stop Training for Self Defense? Does martial arts really help teach self-defense?

• Uechi-ryū (Japan): Okay, I’ve had to break one of my rules to find a “U” martial art — I had to include karate. Uechi-ryū is a style of karate blended with some of the circular motions from Chinese animal style kung-fu. It focuses on self-defense and inner discipline, rather than on sport competition.
  
• Varma Ati (India): Varma Ati (also called “Varma Kali”) focuses on hitting pressure points on the body, both to hurt and to heal. The idea is to stop an attacker, rather than doing him permanent damage.
  
• Wing Chun (China): Focusing on close combat, Wing Chun emphasises practicality and efficiency of movement. Practitioners aim to use the least amount of force required in any combat situation. Like Aikido, it relies on deflection and counter-attack in a single “step”, rather than separating the block from the counter-attack as “hard” styles tend to do.
  
• Xingyiquan (China): Considered a form of boxing, Xingyiguan is a direct, aggressive style with a focus on bursts of explosive power. It uses five techniques, based on the five elements (earth, metal, water, wood, fire), each it’s own “fist” or way of fighting. It also teaches twelve animal forms — the exact ones taught vary from school to school.
  
• Yaw-Yan (Philippines): Officially established in 1972 by Napoleon A. Fernandez, Yaw-Yan (“Dance of Death”)  focuses on hitting fast and hitting hard. Fighters strike with the hands, elbows, knees, and feet. Though superficially similar to Muay Thai, Yaw-Yan uses a wide variety of kicks, as well as punches and some throws.
  
• Zipota (United States): Developed by a Basque family in Texas, USA, Zipota strongly resembles Savate. There is some debate as to whether or not Zipota is a form of its own, or just another name for Savate — or even if it exists at all! It claims to be more brutal than Savate, making use of grappling and throwing techniques, as well as strikes and kicks.

Other Posts in this Series:

• An A-to-Z List of Martial Arts Styles: Part 1 (A – E)
• An A-to-Z List of Martial Arts Styles: Part 2 (F – J)
• An A-to-Z List of Martial Arts Styles: Part 3 (K – O)
• An A-to-Z List of Martial Arts Styles: Part 4 (P – T)
• An A-to-Z List of Martial Arts Styles: Part 5 (V – Z)

• Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors: An organization for female martial arts instructors.
• National Women’s Martial Arts Federation: A nation-wide organization for female martial artists with an emphasis on self-defense training and certification.
• Pacific Association of Women Martial Artists: Another organization for women in the martial arts. The sponsor an annual training camp for women of various styles to come together and train.
• Tae Kwon Do Woman: Links to stories by and about women in tae kwon do.
• Tuffgrrlz: An information gathering place for female martial artists. Unfortunately, the competitor’s profiles and events list are a couple of years out of date. The site does, however, have a large number of interesting articles on self-defense, MMA, and martial arts in general.
• Women in Martial Arts: One woman’s thoughts about women in the martial arts.
• Women in Mixed Martial Arts: Fighting for Equality: An article which discusses the history of women in MMA and some of the challenges they currently face.
• Women of the Martial Arts: “An area for woman martial artists to discuss the arts and issues as they relate to the female practitioner.” Part of MartialTalk.com.
  

I’m not completely rid of him, since we have a child together and joint legal custody, but Dynamo’s spending less time with his dad (by his own choice) and more time with me and Jay. Jay and I have been dating for slightly over a year now, though we’ve been friends since I first moved to North Carolina in 2003. And now that my divorce is final, I can also share some other news — Jay and I are engaged to be married. We haven’t set a date yet, but it’s not going to be anything fancy. Sometime toward the end of the year, we’re going down to the courthouse and have a justice of the peace do the honors. Neither of us feels the need for a large ceremony. Been there, done that.

So now I find myself single and engaged . My ex and I’ve been separated for three years, so I’m not rushing from one relationship into another. In fact, the main reason Jay and I’ve been dating for only a year is that I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just coming to him off the rebound. He’s everything my ex is not and I wanted to make sure that wasn’t the sole reason I was attracted to him.

It’s odd. Sometimes you can know someone for a while and then suddenly turn around and see them in a whole new light.

I’m sure stress played a major role in this. Tomorrow is my day in divorce court. If all goes well, the judge will sign the papers and I’ll finally be legally free of my ex.

What I find really interesting is how vague, and yet, how narrow Whiskey’s definition of male-centered programming is. As if Real Men™ only like shows with “few female roles, not much concern for relationships, other things women viewers like to see”. I guess men can’t find shows with relationships interesting? I’m also amused by his choices of “male-friendly” and “not-male-friendly” shows. The new Battlestar Galactica is not “male-friendly”, but apparently Beverly Hillbillies is? Oh, and apparently reality shows are female-focused, as are all “edgy” shows. Makes me want to send the guy a tape of Ninja Warrior. Were I male, I think I might be insulted. (Feel free to set me straight, guys. )

And, of course, women wouldn’t possibly be interested in “male-focused” themes. I mean, no one who reads this list would be interested in kick-ass martial arts, right?