Why are we giving these people the benefit of the doubt? At least they can occasionally be stopped by world politics.

Finally the apes can get some revenge on the stupid humans.

It decided to be summer today, so I decided to stay home most of the time. I had some intention to go to San Bruno Mountain today, but it was too damn sunny and I'm still tired from aikido camp, after completely running out of steam and bowing to my hurting knees on Thursday. The good news is that, just like last year when my knees felt really unstable and it turned out to be some tense muscles in my back, my knees are again being pulled out of position, this time by tight calves. Eventually all my muscles will stay released and I won't have any of these problems.

I got a chance to talk to Unattainable Aikido Woman some more, which, as always, brings reality to bear on my crush, tempering it nicely. (This is a good thing: I'd much rather know that anything could or couldn't happen, and have gone ahead and found out, than just stay wondering.) I still think she's not terribly interested in me, and really I don't know that we have anything to talk about; but she's generally an incredibly sweet person, and worth having dinner with at least once if I can swing it. I may well be content to admire from afar: it's rare to find someone who so thoroughly knows what she wants to do with her life, and since those things require a complete commitment, pretty much spends every waking hour working toward those goals. It's sort of like in The Princess Bride, when master swordsman Cary Elwes says to master swordsman Mandy Patinkin, "Kill you? Oh, no. I would sooner destroy a stained-glass window than an artist like yourself." I don't think this woman has much room for a nice boy in her life, and I have a respect and admiration for what's she's doing with herself such that, while I'd take the chance if offered, I don't really want to upset the balance.

So, back to my own life. I still have the ever-tantalizing possibility of finding another job; of actually learning blacksmithing; and more concretely, I'm planning to test for 3rd kyu in September. Which means I have a certain amount of training days ahead of me, and a lot of focusing and paying attention to do. And I'm always suspicious, and not a little excited, when my life is this calm.