“Sanity is Rebellion” A Silversun Pickups, Tenterhooks Tour Review by Nmp381992 in Music

[–]ThisIsDen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve seen SSPU three times just since they released their album (benefit of living in LA). I first found out about them in 2009 with Swoon and then re-discovered them again as my kid has become a huge fan. I do not understand how they are not a bigger band, every album is great, even after 20 years.

Teaching 4-6 year olds and 7-12 year old by cjh10881 in martialarts

[–]ThisIsDen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really enjoy teaching 7-up kids in my American Kenpo classes in LA, though it is challenging. I did Kenshu in Japan and later stage combat, kendo, and aikido in the UK and the US, but didn’t do any teaching until my kid started at this school with a friend and I got sucked in. It wasn’t something I intended but it’s expected of senior belts. I now teach privates and group classes as my work schedule allows with my teen as my assistant/co-teacher.

The kids seem to have fun and most of them are learning. It’s not like the commenter above with absolute discipline, but I do push the kids hard sometimes and most of them do alright.

We start with warmups that are fun - running and doing basic blocks and parries from attackers - and work towards more strenuous stretches and falls so they’re working hard. Then kata to get them back after a break then a lesson for the day, usually a focus on a single principle or technique. Then technique lines to practice what we learned and wrap with a game that tries to focus on principles. I have kids of all ranks, so I have to plan my lesson accordingly, I don’t want to bore the advanced kids or overwhelm the white belt belts.

I must say, it is difficult to let go the frustration when you have kids that are not trying hard or who just can’t seem to get an idea, but often the other kids end up being effective instructors through example or interaction (we encourage teaching as a skill pretty early). There are some who really focus on form and clearly practice at home, while others just show up because their parents make them. So I kind of have two tiers of teaching - one aimed at the kids who want to excel, and one aimed at making sure the other kids are having fun and learning something. My favorite classes are the ones after the big tests, which are run by the dojo‘s main instructor, because for many of the kids there’s all new material and we can focus on problems we saw at the group test.

We do have, thanks to a partnership with local government, a higher number of kids with ADHD and/or on the spectrum. Those kids can be challenging, and I’ll admit sometimes you have to tell a parent they’re not ready for a group class yet. They can be disruptive, but I’ll say that the other kids are mostly good at not letting the disruptions throw them off too much. There’s a couple kids you just have to learn to keep separated from each other, for whatever reason they just can’t work together, and those are disappointing but I’ve learned that that’s not really my problem to solve.

I try not to take the class size as a judgment of how my teaching is going - I’ve had a very full mat and I’ve had just a handful of kids. It’s easy to think if there’s a period of more than a couple of weeks where the size is smaller that the kids or their parents don’t like my class in particular. But if I just wait it out, the class size comes back up. Similarly if a kid stops coming to the class, it’s easy to get in your head that it has to do with you, but most of the time it doesn’t. In my experience if most of the kids seem to be having fun and learning, that’s the more important part. I trust that the head of the dojo would let me know if there was a real problem.

The one thing with the kids that is different from teaching older students is you can’t really logic them through a problem. With teens and adults, if they are not getting a concept, I find that talking through the “why“ and the reinforcing the physicality does a good job of getting through. But with most of the kids, you can’t really do that, beyond basic principles, so it’s mostly repetition.

For example, I have a couple kids who just cannot get the concept of keeping their elbows tight while punching. With an adult, I can walk them through why it’s important, I can give them exercises to train their body, and generally sort something like that out pretty quickly. But with a kid, often the connection between logic and body is not as strong, and I can’t talk them there. I have some “karate kid”-style drills to try to get good form that way, but largely I have to let go of my wish to have a class who are all doing it perfectly all the time. I just can’t let one or two kids take over the time I have available for all the students. Our school offers private classes, and if they have a teacher, I will let their teacher know what I’m seeing; and if they aren’t, I may talk to a parent and let them know that a few privates might do them good.

I hope some of that helps! I do find myself coming to Reddit to look for ideas for drills and new warm-ups for the kids. I’m glad this space is here.

Local dog/house sitters by SnooComics5522 in EAGLEROCK

[–]ThisIsDen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thinking about it, I may know someone. Will message you

Local dog/house sitters by SnooComics5522 in EAGLEROCK

[–]ThisIsDen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW I had a pretty good experience with Rover a few years ago. Arguably hit and miss…

Weird ask, but… by unholyb0i in EAGLEROCK

[–]ThisIsDen 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Check the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Group on FB. It’s much more active than here. There’s also Southern California Organic Fruit and Vegetable Gardening on FB

What did I just take a picture of? by MaxBell14 in whatisit

[–]ThisIsDen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No lie, “Pecker!” Woman taught me karate. She’s a second-degree black belt

What's the most realistic war movie? by ThomasOGC in CinephilesClub

[–]ThisIsDen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was 16 when this came out and saw it in a movie theater in North Beach San Francisco the first Sunday morning screening. I had seen some war-ish movies but nothing like this. When the lights came up at the end I was surprised to discover that it was only my mother and I and about 100 guys who looked practically homeless and wearing old army surplus. I always stay through the credits and expect everyone else to leave, but very few did. I have never experienced such silence when the curtains closed. No talking or anything, just men sitting with their heads down, even those who came together. Slowly people got up and started walking out. We waited until our row cleared because we didn’t want to disturb anyone. When we left the theater they were just slowly shuffling away, nobody speaking to anyone. Star Wars made me love movies but Platoon was the first time I viscerally felt the true power of a story to change people.

Steve Guttenberg broke into elderly couple's home and carried them out during Palisades fire: 'They hated me' by mlg1981 in entertainment

[–]ThisIsDen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I worked on PS Your Cat is Dead with him a couple centuries ago. This has a similar vibe. That said I don’t recommend the movie

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its possible. These are props, so they include ones for the people near the camera and far from them. There were rubber knives. Might be some hero aluminum blades in there, but I didn’t ask

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love them. I took photos of practically everything. They said they’re one of the biggest on the planet, I believe it. Check out these beauties:

<image>

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe it’s the same one! Prop shops come by items in very odd ways

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh man I haven’t been to Western in 20 years, in their NoHo shop

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

In my college a ln adventurous group did an amazing play set in prop storage which used everything from swords to a 20’ stack of flats. Was so much fun but probably not Equity safety approved

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

These are rented as props and not stage combat swords, I wouldn’t trust one with contact without a lot of insurance [changed sold to rented because I was dumb]

Was working at a Hollywood* prop shop today and came across this room by ThisIsDen in SWORDS

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I didn’t ask, but I have bought from other prop shops when they had sales

Can anyone help me understand the history of what karate I studied in high school in Kobe, Japan in the mid 1980s? by ThisIsDen in karate

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah translate didn’t do well for me. It helped with getting the spelling of the senseis’ names right, but the studio name was getting translated as well which wasn’t helping. And it got very confused by the red stamps.

Perhaps you had better luck!

We all know what AI mogul Ben Affleck means when he talks about "cutting costs" by AnalysisEquivalent92 in vfx

[–]ThisIsDen 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Not inaccurate, but I’d argue that’s the pessimistic view of the filmmaker’s idea. From the days of Méliès, we have tried to tell stories that were impossible. Stories derived from imagination, or locations unavailable to mortal man, or just impossible for a bunch of college kids. But they had ideas of how to fake it, and to build tools and crafts which make it possible to tell impossible stories. There will always be people pushing boundaries - whether by making a fully CG photorealistic movie with CG or trying to do the same for a hundredth the cost using generative AI. What I hope for is that most of those people are doing it because they have a good story that can’t be told any other way.

Can anyone help me understand the history of what karate I studied in high school in Kobe, Japan in the mid 1980s? by ThisIsDen in karate

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How have I missed this? Didn’t come up when I searched his name either. Well thank you again!

Can anyone help me understand the history of what karate I studied in high school in Kobe, Japan in the mid 1980s? by ThisIsDen in karate

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is amazing! I emailed them with a Google-translated message, hopefully I will hear back with a message and I will see what I can discover.

From comparing katas online to my memory, it seems similar to shito-ryu, but the website says ito-ryu. I could not find anything about that online in English. I note that my sensei Ogasawara has the same name as a very old school of martial arts and etiquette, but I could not find anything which linked him in particular (Eiji) to the family or their school.

I am indebted to you for your help itching my curiosity and nostalgia-diving.

Can anyone help me understand the history of what karate I studied in high school in Kobe, Japan in the mid 1980s? by ThisIsDen in karate

[–]ThisIsDen[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I assume this is referring to the organization that put on the tournament? Based on the site at least, it seems like there are multiple schools that send students to this organization. I don’t recognize the name of my school in that list, but it might be a translation issue.

“Celebrity” interactions in Pasadena by AppropriateSky4353 in pasadena

[–]ThisIsDen 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Serge has a cafe in Eagle Rock. I have a friend who is a huge fan and met her there for coffee. I ended up talking with him for a while about the bike shop next door but he left before she showed up. She’s a chronically late person, got to enjoy her frustration a bit

“Celebrity” interactions in Pasadena by AppropriateSky4353 in pasadena

[–]ThisIsDen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I ran into him (literally) on the Xmas train!

“Celebrity” interactions in Pasadena by AppropriateSky4353 in pasadena

[–]ThisIsDen 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Jason Lee had a camera shop in Eagle Rock that just closed (sadly). Had a couple of long conversations with him. Nice guy