Tonight I hung out in my room mostly, lit some candles, did a few random things, listened to the radio. I really like my room. Very nice, no television tonight. Actually while eating my small dinner of a hot dog (no bun), asparagus, and pickles, I did watch about five minutes of some new sitcom. It was terribly unfunny, and the laugh tracks breezed in and out every few seconds like waves crashing on a beach, sounding unhuman. Few network sitcoms are funny to me after watching stuff like “Mr. Show” or “The Family Guy.” Or maybe I just dislike the standard, boring format and prefer unflinching satire.

Roommate and I finished my DVD rental of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” tonight. I think people unfairly portray Nurse Ratched as the villian in that movie — if you watch it with some empathy for her character, you see that she is pretty much just trying to do her job the best she can in the unenlightened times she’s living in, and she has to put up with a lot of shit. So, I didn’t really see her as evil. I don’t see how she could have behaved much differently, in fact, without losing the control that was needed over her group of eighteen mental patients. I think the sympathy with Nicholson’s character is pretty overstated, in fact. He was kind of a lowlife prick. My favorite character was the Chief. There is my probably unpopular review.

My muscles are still pretty sore from yesterday. I attended Garth’s class with Brian and I think I may have finally gotten the hang of backward rolling. Was accidentally kicked in the head by Nick, but that is actually not one of my sore spots. Got in some good sparring, and worked on the ichimonji, too. Fun.

After class we went out to the movies, taking in a pleasureable flick called “The Rundown.” I don’t really have any complaints about this movie — it was an over-the-top action caper with good performances and direction. It also has monkeys with giant teeth, little Brasilian guys doing capoeira, and a Scotsman in a kilt paying the bagpipes. And Walken.

So tonight is low-key. I mean to go to bed soon and read this book Brian loaned me by Masaaki Hatsumi, the grand master of the Bujinkan. It’s pretty much just a collection of quotes taken from him on various topics.

If you do something and it saves your life, it was good Taijutsu. In a real fight, you aren’t worried about what’s pretty.

That’s what I like about the Bujinkan — there aren’t many rules, just concepts to follow. But as long as you are able to complete the manuever (throw, lock, etc), you have more or less done it correctly.