Rae Roy

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] We practiced Oku Iai the other day. The seated Oku set. I love both the seated and standing Oku sets because they are the most artistic and free flowing. There's no constant stopping, just beautifully dangerous sword work. Well, if you can do it right. It takes a long time to get there. I know I'm not there yet. So mine still looks pretty jerky because beginners are taught to pause in a lot of places. I sit down differently than in this video because women can grab the left opening on our pants and do a curtsy-like motion instead. I really like that. Indeed, I have other work to do too. My left quad is not as strong as it needs to be in order to sit properly in tatehiza and my right is not strong enough to let me get up quickly enough. There is always something to continue to work on with this art. I see many squats and lunges in my future. And th

As I begin to write my one act play, I'm deliberating where to start it. Do I start like a movie and give a bit of the ordinary world then have something happen that turns the place upside down? Do I have one character come in utterly disturbed and they are the catalyst? I'm leaning with the latter because it means less set changes, but perhaps I could have them witness something from the "window" and then they all react differently to it. I like that idea too. Deciding where to start can be hard as a writer because each decision closes doors. It's important to realize it opens other ones. This forges a path somewhere. Ideally, you should know where you're headed, but sometimes we don't. The important thing is to pick somewhere to start or you'll never write anything. You can always change it later if it isn't working. Many things in life are like that. Life itself even. I'm constantly evaluating where I am and where I'd like to be. It'

It's the first day back to class after reading week. I got a reasonable amount of things done. The break started with a trip to Montreal to spend time with friends and do martial arts. Much sake, conversation, and training was had. I painted a good chunk of my entrance and hall. I intend to try to finish the front door later tonight. My place is a mess from moving things around to paint. Some won't ever go back because I want my place to be nicer. Other things like my skates will go into a bin because I don't need them regularly. I need to figure out what takes gum off a quad wheel before I can close it... My mom had her 75th birthday the day after Family Day. They had a quiet meal at a favourite burger place. Sometimes the simple things are the best things. I got a play review and book review done. I also started another assignment. It's a fun one as I get to watch a movie I like and dissect it. It's lengthy and needed to be started early. I didn't do much else

I haven't forgotten about Frisky Friday. I just haven't felt up to it for quite some time and my life has been very busy between work placement and traveling for martial arts. The world is so reactive right now and it makes me sad. People want to address problems by ignoring the root cause. Again . I don't know how many times they need to see the same thing happen before they realize their emotions are clouding their judgment on what actually works. What I've been saying for days now is the same as what the experts, who have been working to make things better since Columbine, have been saying. And I've seen it in action. There was a kid in my school that made a hit list. Many of the people I know were on it. So many have forgotten this incident for some reason. Or maybe they're just ashamed for making him feel so bad he wanted to kill people. I wasn't on the list because I wasn't mean to him. It really wasn't hard not to be. What happened with it? Wh

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] The martial arts community that I'm part of is truly wonderful. I mean, there are a lot of us in the sword arts that have a different way of looking at the world. Perhaps it is because we practice a more spiritual art than one that is more focused on sport or hurting others. We know sharp swords can cause great harm and I think that makes us think more before we decide to take an action that may be irreversible. We're told to win without ever drawing the sword. That's not to say we're all the same. Some of us are less reactive about the things we see in the news than others. Some are just as prone to reacting from an emotional place no matter how much training they undertake to stay calm in moments of distress. I don't know why that is, but I find it interesting. I'm one of the calm ones. Why? Because the same patterns have continue

In between coats of paint on my walls and trim, I'm watching episodes of The Simpsons from the beginning. I've only ever watched an episode here and there like the one where Lisa is sad and plays blues sax. Lately, I keep seeing memes and such that predicted things would happen the way they are happening and that has me intrigued. The first season has some really dark episodes. I mean, Homer takes off with the intention to kill himself in one of them. But it also has some really touching moments that show tough subjects. In one, Homer smashes Bart's piggy bank in desperation for a beer. Homer realizes he's being a shitty dad. In another, he sells the family TV to get cash for family therapy because he wants them to be more like other families and at the end of that one, he realizes a bigger and better TV is what is best for the family. In other words, they don't need to try to be like other families. I've been reading that it gets bad after the 20th season. I

This weekend I went to Montreal to spend time with friends while practicing martial arts. I struggled a little as the seminar was Muso Shinden Ryu and we practice Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu. Some things are subtly different like how we block when doing Ukenagashi. Ours is more angled and we use the edge rather than the flat part to block with, for example. If you don't know the differences, you may go back to your own dojo and do things incorrectly. Hopefully that doesn't happen to me tomorrow. At the start of the weekend, my energy was all wrong. I felt pretty depleted from school and tired of most things. Especially social media. But also, my surroundings haven't been how I would like them to be and I think that has been disrupting my energy. And it's not just that I need to get rid of more stuff. That's part of it, but I realized that I was surrounded by a wall colour I chose five years ago partly because my ex never let me do such a thing. It was like it was more a

I'm feeling a little burnt out this week. The recommended treatment for that is human connection, according to the internet. It's a good thing next week is reading week and I'm off to hang with friends and engross myself in martial arts. I need a breather. First, I need to see if I have any laundry that needs to be done. I also need to clean out my car, pack, and charge my booster pack. I should also try to get some homework done, but I asked for an extension. It's not something I do ever, but I really need to have a moment. I worked my butt off throughout the strike, but I'm just having trouble this week. Maybe I'll be okay once I get some sleep. And that's how life's river flows today. R~

Love is a complicated thing that often seems as though it should be far simpler. Tonight, I saw a play whose main theme was love. It's called Little Boxes and it's playing at Arts Court as part of The Undercurrents Festival. We were fortunate to see the actors afterwards and learn about the writing of it. For me, it was cathartic. The play features a co-dependent and abusive relationship. I'm glad I read about it before I saw it because there were some parts that hit a little close to home. So why was it cathartic? Well, in my teen years, I was a theatre kid. In fact, I was working as stage crew in my spare time when I wasn't acting or crewing a school production. I even did summer theatre. Then it wasn't long before I stopped doing theatre altogether and busied myself with a boyfriend who later became my husband. Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of my divorce. Sitting in that theatre tonight, I realized just how much I've missed it. I also realized that I&

I've been really frustrated the last few days. What has me frustrated? Just about everything. Music Yesterday, I tried to play a song on guitar along with the music. It was a song we learned when I took guitar lessons. I couldn't do it as I didn't have the right strum pattern for it and it's actually in 3/4 time with the downward strum on the first and third beats, but then the sheets I have often show a chord change on a second beat when there isn't supposed to be strumming! I'm thinking something is messed up there somewhere. So I tried another. That one, our music didn't have the lead in stuff before the chords come in, so I had no idea when I was supposed to play what. I ended up having to go to a super rudimentary song that has two chords and only down strums on each beat in a 4/4 song. At least I was playing along with a song at the speed it's supposed to be played at, but I felt so far from anything that I want to be playing. I want to make an alb

One of the reasons I'm able to get so much done in a week without losing my mind is that I make time for some self-care. If, like me, you're feeling like there is a ton of stuff to manage in your life right now, there are many things you can do for even just 10 minutes that will help you recharge and give you that extra bit you need to tackle it all. Here is a list of 20 healthy ways to cope with stress: 1. Yoga and/or meditation 2. Stress balls 3. Exercise/Working out (running, jogging, tennis, CrossFit, dancing, etc) 4. Martial arts 5. Human Contact (Hugs, Sex) 6. Reading 7. Sipping tea 8. Massage (whether professional or trading with a friend) 9. Laughing and Breathing 10. Knitting 11. Listening to music 12. Church 13. Hanging with a friend 14. Journaling 15. Playing with pets (toddlers can work too) 16. Creating something (painting, writing, carving, sewing, etc) 17. Taking a hot bath 18. A nature walk 19. Having an action plan 20. Getting help from a counselor My top se

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Each person's connection to food is different. I have friends who are vegan because meat makes them ill. I have a lot of friends who are gluten free whether Celiac, IBS, or wheat allergy. Most of my friends can eat whatever they want, but choose to restrict themselves for health reasons or weight-loss. I've been researching Intermittent Fasting for awhile now and I think I'm going to give it a whirl. Not because I feel I need to lose a ton of weight, but because I think it would be beneficial for me for a number of reasons. I'm often too pressed for time in the mornings to eat breakfast and it's really not bad to eat a little less when you have IBS. If you've never heard of Intermittent Fasting before, basically you restrict your eating to part of the day. There are a couple of methods. One of them is where you have an 8 hour period

In the last week I have done the following: Completed and submitted a scene where two people try to convince another of something. Completed and submitted an optional short film pitch to be eligible to pitch it on our trip. Peer reviewed the first act of a classmate's feature film. Had my first fight with my TV partner. We figured it out and we're good. My partner and I completed a 1-pager for our TV show and submitted it. Went to martial arts. Completed a creative approach for placement and submitted it. Met with the comedy group in prep for the show. Completed and submitted my career plan. Went to placement where I worked on a script for described video. Went to rehearsal for the comedy show. Did the comedy show. Wrote the other eight pages for my feature film and submitted it. Completed the synopsis for my one-act play to be submitted today. Began the pitch document for our TV show to be finished today and presented tomorrow. Began the assignm