After some thinking, I noticed that it makes more sense to post events in the order that they happened. This way readers won't get confused when reading down the page, and also won't have to go to the bottom of the post and constantly scroll up.

Also, sorry for not updating for so long. Like I said in an earlier post, I usually sit down with intentions of writing but either get distracted or can't come up with anything to say. So.. without further delay, here's some stuff from the past couple of weeks.

Saturday 2/21
We spent the morning training Taijiquan and reviewing Chinese as usual. However, this Saturday would be a little different. In addition to cleaning the house and cabin, we had an extra task to accomplish. After doing our chores, Patrick and I spent the rest of our afternoon putting together our new ping pong table. It should not have taken so much time, but when we opened up the package, the instruction manual was missing. We had to guess which pieces went where from the pictures on the side of the box. It was an interesting experience, but a fun one as well. Patrick and some stand-up comedy on his iPod, so we put that in and got to work. After a few hours of putting pieces in, taking pieces out, having the table almost fall on top of us, and putting pieces back in, the table was finished. We had a few extra screws and things laying around but they didn't seem useful.. the table was standing and was ready for use. So, after dinner, we started playing.

After a few warm up rounds, we began our first Retreat Center Ping Pong Tournament. It was 6 intense rounds of professional-like table tennis: Tiny orange balls flying in every direction, blurs of paddles being whipped from side to side, and players running around 20 feet away from the table... maybe it wasn't that intense, but it seemed like it (okay, not really). We had a great time though and it was different than our usual Saturday night activities which often include a television, a couch, and various movies.

The standings:
1st - Ricardo (3-0)
2nd - Tom, Patrick, Me (3-2)
3rd - Mike (0-0) ...but I guess he's technically undefeated too.

Tuesday 2/24
We found a dead deer on the side of the mountain path while we were walking down to the creek. It had been covered with twigs and leaves and looked like it's neck had been broken. It's neck/chest area had been chewed open as well as it's behind. Justin came over to take a look and suspects a mountain lion or a group of dogs. We're not really sure. Patrick and Ricardo dragged it off the road, and threw it down the side of the path. Xiao Hu almost got to it and I think he craves some deer meat. Everytime we go down the mountain now, he always tries to be the first one there and also tries to sneak off the road to head back to the body. (There are some pictures.. but I don't think I'll be posting them :P)

Thursday 2/26
One of our media teachers, Rii, came to visit us this weekend. She came to help us with some video projects. When she arrived, we were taking a break from taking pictures for Ricardo and Mike's articles and were down the mountain some admiring the sunny day (one of maybe 5 since Shifu left). We heard her car coming up and stop in front of the house and decided to sneak up the mountain to her.. ninja style. So, we all started climbing up slowly and quietly. We got to the edge of the house and discovered she had gone inside. We took this opportunity to move around the side of the garage and made a single file line next to the doorway and waited for her to come out... The door opened and Ricardo appeared with, "HI!" Some words I can't type (due to the age range of some readers) came out of her mouth before we exchanged greetings :P Afterwards, we went to her car and unloaded the equipment she brought: A camera, a tripod, a box with supplies for lights, and some sandwiches for dinner. Yes, sandwiches for dinner.. and they were so good :)

Friday 2/27
Because Rii was here, we focused mostly on our projects and any other work she had for us. So, after our morning meditation, Qigong, breakfast, and some pushing hands, we got to work. The day consisted of reviewing our project ideas and shooting footage for our videos.

Saturday 2/28
We spent the whole day filming for our Taijiquan applications video, which we hope to put online at some point in the future. We had many shots and had to get creative with some of them... using the truck, my skateboard, and even a wheely chair from inside the house.

After a long day of filming, we were able to relax. Rii put the day's footage onto the computer while dinner was being made, then Justin came over with a movie, which we watched while eating. It was a pretty entertaining movie: Born to Fight.

Sunday 2/29
This Sunday's activities consisted of lots of editing of the footage we had shot and conducting interviews. It was interesting because we were given the opportunity to interview each other this time. Not only were we required to ask questions, but we took turns operating the camera as well. Rii took out the lights and we learned how to set them up, too.

I thought it was nice being able to interview each other and realized that Craig and Rii probably know more about us than we do each other. Some subjects came up that we don't usually talk about and it was interesting to learn more about everyone else and about their thoughts on the program, Shifu, new candidates, and me.

After the interviews, we had dinner. And after dinner was the best part of Sunday. Rii had worked the whole afternoon making some sort of fruit bread thing. I don't know what it was, but it was awesome. I think I ate more than I should have :P

Monday 3/2
Shifu was supposed to come back Monday afternoon. However, the East Coast got a huge snow storm and his flight was canceled. This gave us a chance to go into Garberville because Ricardo and Mike needed to send pictures out for their articles. While we were there, I was able to chat online with one of my high school teachers. He brought up the importance of keeping in touch with people and I noticed I have not really been doing such a good job with that, not even with my parents. I guess I will have to try a bit harder and give it more a little more attention. So.. yes mom, I will try to call home more often.

Tuesday 3/3
Shifu's flight was scheduled to arrive at 3pm, so Ricardo, Mike, and Tom, having some errands to do, left for Eureka almost immediately after Chinese. Shifu called about 10 minutes after they left saying his flight was delayed an hour. Dang. The guys now had an extra hour in town to do anything.. lucky :P Patrick and I stayed at the house to clean up a little more and then work on our video productions.

Everybody arrived around 7:30pm, just in time for dinner. In addition to our normal group, our friend Jeff Baker had come back. Jeff had helped Shifu drive across country last year and was planning on applying for the program before some personal things came up causing him to withdraw. However, now he is back to train and to reapply for next year's group :)

Wednesday 3/4
Nothing too much. Jeff's first day back at training. And.. Shifu says we can go out to see Watchmen this Saturday. Woo :P I think we will be going to Fortuna with Justin in the late afternoon. I am excited (by the way). I just hope it is as good (or almost) as the graphic novel.

Today
A few weeks of trying to fulfill this goal and I finally did it. What was it? For the past month while Shifu was gone, I had been trying to jump over a certain section of the banister. It is about up to my neck/face when standing even with it and I had to jump with my knees to my chest, boost myself with both hands, and get over without making contact with it with my feet. I think I could have done it in a sooner time but we have had a lot of rain recently. Because of this, we couldn't train outside on the banister, with it being too slippery. Also, a few weeks ago, my knee was feeling a little funny so I had to take a break from the jumping exercises. (I did not write about this on purpose because I didn't want my parents to worry.. they tend to do that a lot.) It feels a lot better now and I am doing everything normally again. I feel that after that, the only thing keeping me from doing it was a mental barrier. Every time I approached the banister I had negative thoughts which kept me from bending both legs. It wasn't until yesterday that I began to overcome my fears and only skimmed the top of the wall with my feet, leaving some dirt behind.

During lecture Shifu brought out two of his pistols for us to see. He asked Ricardo to go over safety precautions to holding and handling them. No ammunition inside the magazines (so no need to worry, mom.) Afterwards, we were able to get a feel for them and got to try out how to check them safely.

And.. another comic! Yay.